The Missionary Review of the World — February 1904
ESKIMO ENCAMP~IENT IN
ESKIMO WOMEN OF LABRADUR IN SUNDAY CLOTHES Missionary Review of the World Old Series } FEBRUARY { New Series VOL. XXVII. No.2 XVII. No.2 VOL.
THE NEEDLESS SACRIFICE OF HUMAN LIFE IN MISSION WORK BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF There is not a little fanaticism and folly that goes by the name of piety and consecration. The appalling sacrifice of life and health, on the part of foreign missionaries, strikes us as possibly due in part to imprudence and, in some cases, to wilful disregard of danger-signals, and, therefore, as demanding careful investigation and consideration.
It has been truly said, for example, that Africa is the" burial. ground of missionaries." Probably not less than eight hundred or nine hundred of these valuable workers have been buried in the soil of the Dark Oontinent, and there has been a similar, tho smaller, sacrifice of life in India and Ohina, and in some other missionary lands. Without doubt God may call His servants to labor in countries where the influence of climate and surroundings is hostile to health, but this only creates a demand for greater precaution. There may be a needless sacrifice of life, either from ignorance or wilful violation of the laws of health, which God has impressed upon the human body, a,nd which He has laid down in His Holy Word.
The recent paper of Dr. Jessup in the pages of this REVIEW (November, 1903) has revived and strengthe'1ed.in our minds impressions, long since made, that much of the ill·health and the short career of missionary workers is avoidable, and we h been led to careful study, not only of the human body but of tl- Word of God, to see what light the Scriptures throw upon this whole question.
There are several laws which have to do with health and long life which are laid down plainly in the Scriptures.* In almost all such passages of Scripture the dominant thought is the necessity of a surrendered wm-obedience to authority-whether the authority of God, or the authority deputed by God to parents in the sphere of the family, or to magistrates or rulers in the sphere of the State, or to the anthorjties which He has instituted ana constituted for oversight in the Ohurch. A venerable physician of New York State, who has for *Compare Exodus xv: 20; Proverbs iii: 1-2; Ephesians vi: 1-3: Hebrews xiii: 17; I. Peter jj : 13-14, etc.
many years been in control of a sanitarium, has left it as his testimony that he has never known a case of disease which could not be traced to disobedience of the laws of Almighty God, of children toward parents, or of wives toward husbands, or of citizens toward constituted rulers. This may be regarded as extreme, but it serves at least to show that there is a connection between an obedient heart and a submissive will and the health of the body. Wilfulness begets unrest, and unrest is fatal to any healthy action of the human organism. A disturbed condition of the inner life betrays itself in the respiration, circulation, digestion, and in all nervous functions. Excitement quickens the breathing and the pulse, and causes nervous agitation, all of which are hindrances to assimilation of food, rest at night and calmness by day, and adds an element of unnecessary exhaustion to work which otherwise might be comparatively easy and restful. Hence insanity, which by its very term implies an unhealthy menta.l condition, is almost invariably accompanied by an abnormal wilfulness. Insane people are determined to have their own way, their insanity largely consisting in such determination, amenable to no argument from reason and no persuasion from affection. Hence the question arises whether, if the will be thoroughly surrendered to God, and broken as something laid on the altar of sacrifice to Him, it will ever be so obstinately and abnormally self-assertive in its attitude toward human beings. We can hardly imagine a child whose will has been absolutely given up to God, and has learned to merge itself completely in His good pleasure, ever resisting stubbornly and violently the reasonable commands of parents; nor can we imagine a wife as insanely determined to oppose the will of a reasonable and loving husband if she has ever, to her Oelestial Bridegroom, yielded absolutely her whole being. If there be any forms of insanity that are free from this abnormal wilfulness and unreasonable obstinacy, they must be very few; and the question has therefore arisen more than once whether obedience to God, absolute and implicit, is not, in the majority of cases, a preventive of ill health, and especially of insanity.
A second law of bodily well-being is the Law of Faith, by which is meant trust, both in the power and wisdom of God, and confidence in His fatherly love.* The depth of meaning in the nin~ty-first Psalm probably no reader has yet penetrated; there seems to be some inner chamber of close communion and fellowship with God where the darts of the adversary do not reach, and into which the most of us do not enter-where a thousand fall at our side and ten thousand at our right hand, but calamity does no~ come nigh us. If there be such an inner chamber, it is that whose door is unlocked by implicit, unhesitating faith. "My times are in. Thy hand." Weare accus- • Compare Psalm xxxi: 14-15: Psalm xci: 15-16.
NEEDLESS SACRIFICE OF HUMAN LIFE IN MISSION WORK
tomed to say that men go forth, taking their lives in their own hands, but this is not true of any humble, trusting worker of God. Our times are in God's hands, and when it is so, as John Wesley said, "I am immortal till my work is done."
Nothing can be more reposeful to a true disciple than the conviction that God is taking care of everything that pertains to his life. And, while a rational and intelligent care of health is a positive and imperative duty, we must remember that, with all such care on our own part, our ultimate dependence is both upon His provision and His protection. This conviction, when it lays hold of our deepest nature, both promotes and insures health and long life, so far as it is possible.
Freedom from Anxiety Thi;dly, the Law of Freedom from Anxious Oare is closely allied to the others, already mentioned. * There are few things that so burden and shorten human life as the carrying of care, whatever be the source or cause of anxiety. It is not work but worry that kills. And, if a true epitaph were written for many a Ohristian worker who has died prematurely, it would bear witness that the life was ended by anxiety, not by activity. Oare, anxiety, distress of mind, unsettles the whole man. It prevents, as has been said of disobedience, all normal activity both of bodily organs and mental faculties. It has been found that many of the tumors and cancers which afflict the race may be traceable to inward unrest, domestic discord or business perplexities. It seems as tho even the blood will not properly circulate when care burdens the mind. Oertainly food becomes incapable of digestion, and the stomach, of its assimilating office, under such conditions. Hence, all hurry and flurry-which are connected with "worry" by rhyme of thought as well as of words-tend to shorten as well as burden our human life. God is never in haste; His servants g~nerally are. He kept Mnses waiting forty years, after he thought the time had come, before He permitted him to undertake his great work of leadership, and he kept Paul three years in Arabia before he entered upon his great tours of evangelization. Even Jesus Ohrist Himself was in retiracy thirty years, before He undertook the tliree years of His public ministry. These are all lessons to us on the risk of undue haste. We are not, like Moses, to hurry into even our ordained work for God. Quantity is of no consequence in comparison with quality. Hence, God often keeps us many years in His preparatory school of education and discipline before He permits us to enter upon His work. We, on the other hand, are 'prone to hurry precipitately into activity, as if with an insane impression that God's work can not get along without us; and oftentimes we find that we have come to the work without the fitness for it, and become dis- .. Oompare Isaiah xxvi: 3-4; Philippians iv: 6-7; I. Peter v: 7.
couraged and disheartened. A missionary who recently died in India has written a letter in which she said: "Do not go to any foreign field until you know beyond a doubt that God is Himself sending you to that particular field at that particular time." , A fourth law is the Law of Common Sense-the avoidance of fanat- icism and folly, and the temptation to run to extremes. "Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise; why shouldst thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldst thou die before thy time?" (Ecclesiastes vii: 16, 17).
This is a striking passage of Scripture. Whatever else it means, it meallS that there may be excesses not only in wickedness but in righteousness, and that both kinds of excess are folly. Of excess of wickedness, we need say nothing-it is manifestly suicidal; but that there is danger of being righteous over m'uch few people really think.
'rhey talk about the needs of the" Lord's work," and that familiar phrase degenerates oftentimes into mere cant and rant. Men and women apologize for unreasonable and excessive exertion, and care- lessly sacrifice life and health, as tho they were not intelligent and reasoning beings, for the sake of so-called « service to humanity."
Mr. H. M. Stanley has testified that from half to two-thirds of the lives sacrificed in the Dark Oontlnent are needlessly brought to a close.
He says, for instance, that 'People go to Africa from England, and in a tropical and equatorial climate eat bacon and such like substances which they could use with impunity only in such climates as that of Great Britain; or they risk prostration by a torrid sun by long walks in midday, or make their dwellings or pitch their tents in deadly, malarious districts, and expose themselves before sunrise and after nightfall to these fatal climatic influences, and then their friends wonder that they so soon fall a prey to disease and death. The Liv- ingstone College in London was established by Dr. Harford, with the little magazine that he publishes, called Climate, mainly for the sake of acquainting outgoing missionaries with climatic peculiarities and the laws of health in tropical regions. We believe that a large por- tion of the lives that have been sacrificed might, humanly speaking, have been prolonged, had it not been for gross ignorance of the laws of health or wilful transgression of those laws that were known.
We insist that whenever there is physical weakness that is consti- tutional it should go far to determine the field to which missionaries should go, or whether they should go at all. l'hose who are weak in the pulmonary system should not go where pulmonary diseases are especially prevalent. And so on with regard to other peculiarities: they may become largely signs of the will of God, making other tokens unnecessary. God does not call dumb people to speak, nor deaf peo- ple to hear, nor palsied people to walk. Part of His leading lies in the
physical and mental aptitudes required ~or a particular field of work; and, if any of His servants are engaged in work for which they seem permanently or temporarily disabled, that is all-sufficient reason for cessation from such work-at least, for a time. To prosecute activities which are exhausting and killing is madness, and can not be pleasing to God. It is not needful to be a fool because one is pious, but there is an immense amount of pious fanaticism and foolishness. We have known scores of men and women who have undertaken work for which they had been pronounced absolutely unfit, or to continue in work at a time when they were incapacitated, and we believe that such a course is indirect and virtual suicide, and is, in ordinary cases, without ade- quate apology. Sometimes it even seems to us that such Ohristian workers are guilty of a sort of practical atheism; they seem to think that God will put them iu circumstances where it is ·necessary to do that which is contrary both to common sense and to intelligent con- viction, aU of which is assuming that somehow God has either had no control over circumstances or has in some way lost such control. We- would not have any child of God care for life or health for its own sake; he should count not even his life dear unto himself; but we believe that a true piety demands that every care should be put about hU!llan life and health for the sake of-the Master and of the work in which we are engaged.
We have in mind a dear friend, greatly used of God, who has been multiplying his activities beyond the limit of human strength, and has grown rapidly aged during the ten years past. When once we took occa- sion to remonstrate with him upon his undertaking more work than _ was consistent with his stewardship of his own body, his answer was that he would rather "wear out than rust out," which drew forth a rejoinder that it is never necessary to tear out, which it seemed to us he was doing.
Men and women who have been for years growing in grace, and in knowledge and -experience, have become so enriched, and equipped in such measure for service to God, that one year is often more fruitful in real power than ten years at some previous time of life. Im- pulses become sobered, impetuosity gives place to deliberation, and unwisdom is corrected by further communion with God and with men. God means ordinarily that a life shall so accumulate power as it advances, and become a reservoir filled with knowledge and experience; and it is a pity, to say the least, to make impossible such larger, fuller, wiser, nobler service in maturer life by premature sacrifice of self, not on the divine altar of service to God, but on the human altar of excessive, fanatical, and imprudent exposure. There is need of devout prayer for a new era of greater carefulness and circumspectness even on the 4iart of disciples, that they shall value the opportunities of usefulness 1ll tbis world too highly to run needless risks, and shall consider it a
part of piety to look well after all condition.ll which secure health, prolong life, and fit one to be so strong as to bear the burdens of the weak.
We commend to special study a valuable health primer in the Long Life Series, on Brain-work and Overwork, by George Black, M.B., of Edinburgh. He brings out with unusual clearness and practical power the primary principles of construction and action which govern brain-work, and strongly emphasizes a fact of vital importance-namely, that, when the brain gives way, the fountain of vitality to the whole body runs correspondingly low. It is of the utmost consequence that brain-work shall not be so incessant as to prevent this organ from replacing the process of waste during the night's sleep and the weekly rest of the Lord's day (or of some other day kept as a day of rest when the Lord's day is one or labor), so that construction shall keep pace with destruction. If the outgo is greater than the income, even slight losses ultimately tell in serious results. The brain ueeds but to lack day by day a thousandth part of its normal recuperation to drift toward ultimate bankruptcy. The brain, merely tired, may re-form a million of atoms in a night, but, excessively exhausted, may build only fifty in the required time, and poor in quality as well as deficient in quantity.
Morever, if the brain be normal, it supplies even the diseased organs of the body with recuperative energy. But, if the fountain of energy run dry or low, every other function of the body suffers as well as the brain itself, and because the drain upon this central source of supply is so incessant for vital force to liver and heart and lungs and stomach, the brain itself is slowest to recover from all abnormal conditions.* THE FORCES WHICH ARE MOLDING THE FUTURE OF CHINA BY REV. TIMOTHY RICHARD, D.D., LL.D., SHANGHAI, CHINA For the first time in the history of the world we see the combined forces of Eastern and Western civilization meeting each other in full force, and when we are asked to say what are the forces which are going to mold the future of China we naturally conclude, on mathematical grounds, that it will be the resultant of the present forces in operation. Then what are the chief forces operating on China to-day? The most conspicuous Ohinese ones at present seem to be: I. Multiplication of the species faster than the means of supporting them; in consequence of which four millions die of starvation annually!
i. II. Refusal of all light except reflected light from the distant sages of antiquity; consequently their direct light from moon and stars , See Dr. Black's primer, pp. 51)-52.
FORCES WHlCll ARE MOLDING THE }j'UTURE OF CHINA
very dim, having no rays direct from the great sun of universal modern knowledge; so the people wander in the dark among perilous pits.
III. Arbitrary power of the authorities overriding law or any enlightened principle. 'l'he emperor is looked upon as the only infallible vice-gerent of God on earth, and the magistrates are his vicegerents, whose voice is the voice of God.
IV. Ohinese custom is the standard of morality without any progressive principle to help them, and all the world must follow Ohina or perish. They fought like uncivilized savages. 'rhus the yellow race, Ohina and Japan, has formed an alliance to resist the rising power of the white race, with the purpose of crushing it under foot.
H is true that the Ohinese have high ideals of universal peace to be attained by following the good customs laid down by the sages thousands of years ago. But they forget to make these customs keep pace with the progressive nee Is of man; consequently they have become dead fossils, while the new needs of men are left unprovided for.
Forces from the West To the Ohinese in this pitiable plight comes Western civilivation, and some of their chief factors are the following: I. Unbounded means to preserve people from abject poverty and starvation, if just distribution can be secured. God, when He created this world for man, created the world with infinite treasures and forces which are superhuman, yet to be under the control of His children. With steam and electricity, with modern mining and new industries, with railways and modern conveniences, there open up endless resources for the support of man. In the absence of anything to compete with these, we shall find in a few years the whole land tlooded with these material advantages which will be like a new creation to China. Will present Ohristendom show the way to a just distribution of this property?
II. Light from all quarters of the earth, ancient and modern, with books on the sciences, on government, on education and religion, and laboratories of which the Ohinaman ha-s never dreamed, is pouring in like a flood over China. An intelligent Ohinaman has only to walk through the classrooms and lecture-halls and laboratories cf our universities, and he at once feels that their knowledge is only the groping of children. There can not be any weighing in the balance as to the comparative merits of the two systems of education, for he at once feels that one is like electric light while the other is only a dim tallow-candle light. Hitherto mission boards have been satisfied with starting elementary schools. II they had founded only one grand university instead of the hundreds and hundreds of petty primary schools, Ohina might have been almost won to
Christ by now. Even the translation of Ij, few books, and the starting of a few daily papers with news of the rest of the world, have pro- duced wonders in creating a desire for r8form among millions of the most intelligent. We want more light for the leaders of Christ to save them from the perils of half truths.
III. 'l'he study of sociology is a new world to a Chinaman. In all lands the Western statesman comes with the experience of all lands and of all time to deal with the new problems confronting him. lIe knows the numberless social gatherings which are working out some good for their fellow men. He knows the incalculable benefit derived from the liberty of the press, from getting the views of good and enlightened people made known, from a survey of the growth and improvement of international law. But all these things are danger. ous experiments to the Chinese statesmen who will not tolerate the for- mation of societies, the publishing of any newspaper without the . sanction of the government, who regards mandarin authority like the emperor's authority, and the emperor's authority Divine-not the Pope of Rome, but the Emperor of China as the only representatiue of God on earth! Here is a field where the Chinaman will contest Western civilization at every point, and only after a fierce struggle will he ever yield. China, like Rome, dreads new light. It shatters the theory of finality.
IV. Intercourse with God becomes a new force in the formation of character. While the yellow race alliance is formed with hatred as its chief motive with organizations throughout non-Christian Asia to instil this poison of hatred for the destruction of a race that has some- thing else to guide them than mere blind following of past custom, there are those who have love and good will as the mainspring of their life, and they are organizing themselves into little societies all over China. Besides following the custom of a country which is good so far as it preserves the well-being of the country, ~hey have a Divine model to go by-monotheism versus polytheism-our Father in Heaven, Who is perfect rather than any sages, however good. The highest character must be grafted on the Divine to bring forth immortal fruit. The immanent in China as well as in Asia generally is also divine. – When we use the modern method for the development of material resources of China, when we bring the strong brain of the Chinese to look at things from a universal point of view and with a view to uni- versal good in th'~ individual, in the nation, and in the world as a whole, then shall China be redeemed by the power of an endless life brought to them by the followers of Jesus Christ.
The foreign governments are pressing for political concessions. The foreign merchants are pushing railway, mining, and other con- cessions. The Roman Catholics are urgent in persuading the Chinese that medieval Christianity had reached perfection and finality. Many
OUR OPPORTUNITY IN OHINA
Protestants are equally urgent about the perfection and finality of a Sacred Book more than the mind which was in Ohrist Jesus.
These are the main forces. And the resultant win not be the annihilation of any of these and the supremacy of any single force. Out of all the contrast between East and West and out of the excellencies of each of the forces there will arise a Kingdom of Heaven which the Ohinese sages and the Hebrew prophets outlined, and which Jesus Ohrist came to fulfil. When enlightened Ohristian leaders fully understand the magnitude of the task committed to their care, the gathering up of all truth, Eastern and Western, ancient and modern, and when they are prepared to free themselves from medieval and Reformotion narrowness as well as from Asiatic exclusiveness, and from everything that is temporary or local, it will not be something less than the kingdoms of this world but far greater-worthy of the homage of all rulers, the glory of the whole earth, that will stand out revealed before men as the great resultant-viz., the great work of redemption wrought by God's providence over all mankind.
If we want Ohina delivered from itself and from injuring the world the mission boards should have a few advanced statesmen also on each board; then even the present forces at our disposal could be made to be tenfold more effective! teJzfold more ~tJective!! TENFOLD MORE EFFECTIYE ! I !
OUR OPPORTUNITY IN CHINA BY REV..JAMES SIMESTER, FOOCHOW, CHINA Methodist Episcopal Mission, 1896- Ohina is the center of the world's thought to-day. Oapitalists, merchants, statesmen, and warriors are all looking to that land as being of vital importance to their various interests. Railroads and mining, buying and selling, diplomacy and war-ships seem to· have the right of way just now.
What interest has the Ohristian Ohurch in Ohina, and what should be our attitude at this crucial moment? In addition to the command to go into all the world, the Ohurch has obligations in this land which must be met. True progress results only when Ohrist leads. Ohina may be covered with railroads, honeycombed with mines, the greatest commercial country in the world, with a government as good as any, yet without Ohrist these blessings would prove a CUTse. Twentiethcentury civilization is the result of Ohristianity. To give the results without the cause would be unnatural and, therefore, unprofitable. In advance of Western learning, improvements and inventions, must go the Gospel.
The achievements of Ohristian missions in the past make the obligation still more binding. Experience has shown that the Ohinese
can be saved. One hundred and twenty.five thousand baptized Prot· estant Christians, with as many more probationers or inquirers, attest the success of past efforts. The loyalty of the native Christians dur- ing the Boxer uprising of 1900 attests the thoroughness of the work done. Schools of every grade have been established, and have every- where surpassed the expectations of the most optimistic. Printing- presses are paying their own way, and hospitals are everywhere a wel- comed blessing in a land where disease is common and the art of heal- ing practically unknown.
But every converted Chinese means half a dozen awakened,and every church built means several new fields opened. The schools have awakened a more general and more intense desire for learning, and the presses have created a desire for literature impossible to estimate.
Some Speci~l Opportunities 1. Four hundred and six millions of people open to the Gospel. Ten years ago there were nine hundred walled cities of China the missionary was forbidden to enter, and in five whole provinces missionary work was practically unknown. Now the missionaries have entered every province, and the gates of every walled city swing wide open to the messengers of God.
This vast population is practically a unit. There is no North and South in China, no race problem or intermingling of different nationalities. The Ohinese, whether found in Pekin or Canton, in Kiangsu or Sz-chuan, are fundamentally homogenous. Intellectually and morally the Chinese are the best people in the heathen world. The mis· sionary of the Cross may go anywhere among this people, great in numbers, in attainments, and in possibilities, and deliver his message unopposed.
2. Two hundred and fifty thousand people who might be reached within a year if we had the men to reach them; that is, in every land where missions have be_en established there are those who have given up their faith in heathenism and are open to conviction, but are not yet sufficiently enlightened to accept Christianity. A conservative estimate of this class of men in China is two hundred and fifty thousand.
3. Schools. The desire for Western education is becoming wellnigh universal. The government wants Confucius schools, but the people evidently want Christian schools, for the government schools are poorly attenlled, even tho the students are paid for coming, while the Ohristian schools are crowded to their utmost_ capacity, even tho students have to pay all or part of their expenses. During the past five years more students have been turned away from the Christian colleges in China than have been admitted, and this because of the lack of buildings and teachers. Intermediate schools are many and crowded, but the demand for more is far greater than the possibility
1904J BABISM: A FAILURE
of supply with our present force of workers. Ten thousand day- schools could be opened within a month if we had enough teachers and the money to support them. The Church of Chrjst bas the oppor- tunity of educating the next generation of Chinese. If neglected now the opportunity may never occur again, and the evangelization of China will be incomparably harder.
4. Medical work. China's millions, covered with diseases loath-"
some to the eye and painful to the sense, have begun to realize the efficacy of foreign medicine, and welcome the medical missionary to shop and home.
5. Literature. The desire for literature has grown to such an extent that every Christian press has more work than it can well do, and twice the num ber is needed, or the present plants should be strength- ened and enlarged. • 6. Work among women. While all that precedes refers as well to the work among women as among r,nen) the degraded position of woman in Eastern lands makes the opportunity for her elevation all the more important. Fathers are sending their girls to our Christian schools in large numbers, and the women who go into the homes with the Gospel for women were never so welcome as now.
The greatest field in the world is white to the harvest. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborer's into his harvest," Perhaps he will send you, or will ask you to help him send.
BABISM: A FAILURE-I BY REV. S. G. WILSON, TABRIZ, PERSIA Author of ., Persian Life and Customs"
Babism, or Bahaism, proclaims itself a new revelation, and has been heralded by some as a great reform. What has it revealed either of truth or of law? What has it proposed or accomplishea in the way of reform? An examination of Babism will show that neither as a revelation nor as a reform does it deserve a high place among the world's religions.
Theologically Babism is a chaos of Divine manifestation. It has developed and set forth certain doctrines of Shiahism-as, for example, that of the Imams-as manifestations of the Divine attributes and of the Mehti, and certain tenets of the Ismielis and Sufis as to the incarnation of the Divine Will or Reason. In the course of sixty years !!everal claimants to the rank of manifestations or incarnations of God have risen among them. The original founder, Sayid Ali Mohammed (1844), was for three years only the Bab (or Door) of communication with the absent Imam. He then became the Imam Mehti or the Imam Hussain, then the N1~kta or Point of Divine Unity, the center of the circle of existence. After his martyrdom in Tabriz, his
TilE MISSIONABY REVIEW OF '1'lIE WOBLl>
appointed successor was 8ubh-i-Azal or Hazreti Azal (the Dawn of Eternity, or the Lord, the Eternal). In his day there was a "chaos of Divine manifestations," viz., Hazreti Zahib and Janab-i-Azim and a number of others. Later (1864) Mirza Hussain Ali was" manifested" under the title of Baha-Ullah, the" Splendor of God," and supplanted his half-brother Azal, who has lately died in Cyprus. The rank assigned to Baha is evident from a remark made by one of his friends to me: "He is very God of very God, the everlasting Father." An enemy has said: "Baha is not content with being God, he must needs be a creator of Gods." Since he "ascended"-that is, left his mortal body (1892)–his son Abbas Effendi, not content with being" the Son of God" * and with posing as the Master, Jesus, to Christians, and as the Imam Hussain to Shiah Moslems, is forcing a new schism by int.rodncing a new revelation and announcing" I am the manifestation of God. My paps are full of the milk of Godhead; whoever will, let him come aild suck freely." In these quickly succeeding dispensations, salvation-said to be-is by faith in the manifestation.
We are also asked to believe that the holy angels and prophets have come to earth. One of my acquaintances is the angel Gabriel, another is Abbas. Baha says: "Four pmphets come with me," namely, his sons, of whom Abbas Effendi is Jesus, Mirza Mohammed Ali is Mohammed, and the other two are Abraham and Moses. Alas! that these prophets hate and curse each other. Alas! that" Gabriel" should be cursed tmd persecuted because he refuses to accept the latest emendations to the revelation.
A Kaleidoscope of Revelations Of this new revelation i.t may be said, as Jacob said of his wages, "You have changed them seven times." Not only has the Bab altered his declaration regarding himself, but Subh-i-Azal made further changes. "In the hands of Baha," says Professor Browne, of Cambridge, t "Babism has undergone important modifications, and, indeed, has become almost a new religion." Abbas gives the kaleidoscope another whirl and puts ,many of the books of his father out of sight. For example, take their relation to Shiahism. The Bab in the Beyan declares "the substance of truth 'Was confined'to the 8hiahs." Baha declared that ·the Shiahs were always heretics, but Abbas says the Shiahs were true till they gave the decree for the execution of the Bab; after that they became infidels.
The books of revelation succeed each other so rapidly as to be bewildering. The Beyan and many volumes of the Bab have long since been laid aside. Manuscript copies of it can be procured • See" Sacred Mysteries," p. 74. Chicago, 1902. t Author of "The Episode of the Nab" aud "The New History," and a special authority on Babism. The quotatious of this article aud citatiouB of historical facts are mostly from Professor Browne's translations.
BABISM: A FAILURE ·
only at a high price and in ex- purgated recensions. Baha wrote many books, and a number of them were printed in Bombay.
Now all, except the "Ketab-i- Akdas," are let alone, and their readiug is not specially recom- mended. It is rumored that Abbas is now preparing a new revelation for his followers. This will prob- ably be adapted for exportation into the United States!
The Bahais profess to recei ve the previous Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, and the Koran. They are very familiar with them but use a system of ABBAS EFFENDI , • (Gusn-i-Azam) or Abdul-Baha_ By Persian Bablsts allegorical interpretatIOn whereby he is looked upon as an Incarnation of HUBslan, they can be made to mean any- ::~:~hAmerlcan followers as Christ returned thing. Thus, the day of resur- rection is interpreted as the day in which a founder of a new dispen- sation was manifested. The resurrection of Jesus is called the time when the mission of Mohammed began. The prophecy that Christ will "come in the clouds" is in- terpreted to refer to His human- ity, which conceals His divinity as in a cloud.
What the Bahais believe about the futnre life is a puzzle. I have asked several men who have known the Bahai manifestations. and who have read their revelations, and one said: "In the last analysis they reject the future life." An- other said: "They believe in the transmigration of souls." A fer- vent Bahais of the old school said: " We believe in a future state so unthinkably ecstatic that if its joys were now revealed to men MIRZA MOHAMMED ALI they would commit suicide to (Gusn-I-Akbar), a younger son of Baha U llah, wbo hasten their entrance into it." maintains bla fsther's supremacy The subject remains obscure to European investigators. After twenty years of questioning them, I believe they have no definite teachings on the subject. Some believe
in a future paradise, Qthers in" rijat," Qr return, to. earth as men. Oertain it is, hQwever, that they reject the dQctrine Qf the resurrectiQn Qf the bQdy and Qf the day Qf judgment.
Babism nQt Qnly dQes nQt claim fQr its fQunders the PQwer to. wQrk miracles, but they reject thQse Qf Ohrist and Qf the prQphets. One Qf their preachers strenuQusly argued with me that Ohrist did not give sight to. physical eyes, but simply Qpened the eyes Qf their understanding. He did not raise the dead, but simply" awakened the dormant spiritualities Qf mankind." A sectiQn Qf the Tarikh-i-Jadid is devQted to the denial and refutatiQn of miracles. A blind man in Teheran sent to. Baha, praying that his eyes might be opened. He received answer that it was fQr the glQry Qf GQd that he remain blind. The Bab, at his examinatiQn in Tabriz, was asked to. restore the sick MQhammed Shah to health. He replied: "It is nQt in my PQwer, but I can write two. thQusand verses a day. Who. else can do. that?" Thus he appealed not simply to the quality Qf his PQetry, as did MQhammed, but also to its quantity as a prQof Qf his manifestation. He is said to. have cQmpQsed a million verses, but critics find them faulty in style and grammar, and painfully obscure. In like manner manes, in Qld times, painted pictures in his book, and appealed to. them as a prQQf Qf his inspiratiQn.
Nineteen the Sacred Number This new dispensatiQn makes much Qf the symbQlism Qf numbers, especially Qf the number 19, which is the sum of the numerical value of the letters Qf the Arabic wQrd vahid (unity), and is also. the number Qf letters in " Bism ullah 'ir rahman ir rahim" (In the name Qf God, the cQmpassionate, the merciful). Had the fQunder been content with making a new alphabet of 19 letters, and a new script which nQbody uses, and with chQQsing 19 chief disciples, whom he named by the 19 letters, and with dividing the new revelatiQn into. 19 bOQks Qf 19 chapters each, we shQuld have regarded it all as a harmless fancy; but when he builds the calendar Qn this number, it makes us certain that the GQd Qf Babism is not the GQd Qf Nature. A month Qf 19 days cQrresponds to nQthing in heaven abQve or Qn the earth beneath, and 19 such mQnths still leave fQur Qr five intercalary days to. make up the solar year. Nineteen new names are revealed fQr these days, each being an attribute Qf GQd, the same serving for the months. A sacred cycle is 19 years, after which periQd the furniture Qf every house shQuld be renewed. According to. this rule, I saw a strict Bahai dispose of a carpet softened with age and buy a new Qne with glaring colQrs. The year is made to. begin with the vernal equinQx, in accQrdance witllthe sensible habit of the fire-worshipers, and frQm this date the Bab and Baha bQth fix their manifestations. Lately the number 9 (the sum Qf the letters of Baha) is being treated as mQre sacred than the number 19.
BABISH: A FAILURE 95'
Such are some of the doctrines and peculiar ideas of the Bahais. Where is their superiority over Christianity or Islam? In what are they even original, and where is their utility? The number 19 was already regarded as the number of the Divine Unity by the Persian mystics, and especially by Sheiph Muhiyyu-i-Din, a Sufi teacher of the twelfth century. The Zoroastrians had named the months for the angels. 'rhe titles, "Bab" (Door) and "Baha" (Light)-have been frequently used. Not to speak of Him who said "I am the door" and" I am the light of the world," there are four celebrated Babs of the Imam Mehti in Shiah history, and a pseudo Bab was put to death in the tenth century. The symbolism and incarnations, or manifestations, are nothing new in Persia. They are found among the Ismielis, Assassins, Ali-Allahis, and others. The veiled prophet Mukanna and Bubak and numerous pretenders have declared themselves God. Persia never lacks for an incarnation or two.
One of these, of the Ali-Allahi sect, arrived in Tabriz some years ago, and made an appointment to visit me at three o'clock in the afternoon. My samovar was set to boiling, and I awaited his arrival. But he failed to keep his engagement because the governor-general, the Amir-i-Nizam, heard of his presence in the city, and this God fled, forgetting to send word that he could not fulfil his engagement. The Mutazilites rejected miracles, and some of them taught, as do the Ali- Allahis, the transmigration of souls. In the denial of the resurrection the Bahais have many predecessors. The Persian Mani, the founder of Manicheism, announced his mission at the age of twenty-four, as the Bab did, and on the Festival of Noruzako he invented a new script and named his books after the letters of the alphabet; he also objected to miracles. Thus, Babi ideas have no more a claim to originality than to truth.
Babism's Ritualistic Spirit If we tUrn from doctrines to rites and ceremonies, we do not see any adequate reform of Moslem ceremonial law. The outward forms, such as prayer, fastinf:. pilgrimage, circumcision, etc., were explained allegorically by the Bab, but Baha has laid down a ritual on the same old lines. In most ceremonies there is only a slight modification, bui no essential difference, from Islam. Like other Oriental religions, it prescribes rules and minute regulations, instead of stating principles of worship like Christianity and leaving their application to the believing conscience.
Babism appoints three times a day for prayer with 9 Rakas (sections) instead of the five times a day of Islam with 17 Rakas. There are no public prayers, and no prayers at funerals. In Islam devotion is a strong point, formalism is its weakness. Babism lessens the amount of devotion, without getting rid of the formalism. '1'he Bahais wash the hands only before prayers, not the arms and
feet, as Moslems do. The Moslem rosary has 100 beads, the Bahai only 95 (19 X 5). On rising the Bahai should say "Allaho Abha" (God of lights, the title of Baha) 95 times, hoping to be heard for his vain repetitions. The same words are prescribed to be said on beginning a meal or any business, or as a greeting, just as the Moslem says" Bism 'ullah" (In the name of God), or "Salaam alakum" (Peace be to you). A prayer is also prescribed to be said at the time of washing the hands and face.
As a fast, Babism substitutes the last month of their year, named Ala, of 19 days, for the 30 days of Rainazan. As Christians have carnival week before :tent, following by Easter rejoicings, and Moslems have the Oruj Bayram, so the Bahais have five days of feasting before the fast, and Noruz following. Noruz is consecrated, and its ceremonies prescribed with religious sanctions. The ordinance of fasting says: "Thus ordaineth the Lord of men: abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to sundown." This abstinence includes smoking, as among Moslems. The same exceptions are made as in the Koran-that the traveler, the sick, and pregnant 01' nursing women are excused. The question naturally arises: if obligatory fasting is good, why reduce the time from 30 days to 19; if reform is the watchword, why not have the liberty of the Gospel?
Pilgrimage is retained in this so-called new revelation, and its devotees are encouraged to seek a local sanctuary. Accho (Acre), in Syria, by an undesigned ordering of the Sultan of 'Turkey, becomes the shrine. Here Baha was in exile, and is buried, and his tomb, I understand, is in the custody of Mirza Mohammed Ali, a younger brother and rival of Abbas Effendi. Hence the latter, not to be behind in this, has transferred to Accho, under his own charge, the body of the Bab, which was thrown to the dogs in Tabriz, and afterward carried to Teheran and buried there for more than half a century. Besides Accho and the various mashads or martyr-places, the Bab's house in Shiraz and Baha's in Bagdad, as the places of their manifestations, are held sacred.
Babism and Woman Let us pass to the test question of how Bahaism treats women. It is not gr"eat praise to say that in this there is an advance on Mohammedanism, tho it is far behind Christianity. I have seen no evidence that Babi doctrine teaches communism of wives. Incidents leading to this conclusion may doubtless be credited to the sinners among the Babis. Babism forbids temporary marriage and concubinage and polygamy, which are allowed by Shiahs. It allows bigamy, however.
Baha had two wives at one time, by each of which he had children. When Abbas' mother died, he again joined a "partner" to his remaining wife, thus being a bigamist twice over. The" branches" (broth. ers) who are now quarreling are from. different mothers. Marrhtge
A NEW SECT IN INDIA
among Bahais is on a low Oriental plane. Divorce is allowed at the option of the husband, even for frivolous cames, such as a quarrel. . The parties are recommended not to marry inside of a year, that, if possible, their hearts may be reconciled. The dowry d the divorced wife is a mere pittance of 19 miscals of gold (about $50) in the city, and 19 miscals of silver ($2.00) in villages. If the husband leaves home and neglects to send word or means of support to his wife for one year, she is free to marry another man. Early marriages are discountenanced.
Women are secluded in the harems and from the society of men, as among ordinary Moslems. The historic case of Kurrat-ul-Ayn, of Kasrin, is a solitary exception. She has had no successors. Even she ordinarily delivered her lectures from behind a screen, and only occa- sionally let her veil fall aside in the presence of men when carried away by her enthusiasm. Bahais do not seem to approve of her con- duct. Several Bahai families with whom I am acquainted are allow- ing their daughters to grow up without learning to read, tho the fathers are 'teachers and are educating their sons.
Bahaism, from this view of its doctrines and rites, appears to be simply a Mohammedan sect, with no special superiority to other Mohammedan sects of past ages.
(To be concluded) A NEW SECT IN INDIA BY J. MURRAY MITCHELL, LL.D. Author of "Hinduism, Past and Present"
"Vides t1~mult1tm indies t1tmnltuosius tumultuentem." So said Luther in quaint but vigorous Latinity, when his hot battle with Rome was threatening to become still hotter. Even so may we now say regarding evangelistic work in the mission field of the East.
There is at present a great and growing restlessness among the followers of the chief Oriental religions. Even Buddhism, which seemed until of late quite asleep, is, in Oeylon at least, arming in self-defense. Still more distinctly is Hinduism awaking. We have the Brahmo- Somaj in its various branches and offshoots, and the newer and' more active Arya-Somaj. We have also a new departure in the case of those, not few in number, who seek a purified religion, but who for the most part hold that they·can sit at the feet of Ohrist, drinking in His pre· cious teaching, and yet remain in the Hindu religion. " Oome out, and be ye separate." This is, to a Hindu, perhaps, the most startling of all the Divine commands. Mohammedanism is not less agitated than Hinduism. The Babi sect in Persia is by no means extinct, altho for a time it seemed as if the creed had been quenched in blood.
In Northern India there has sprung up, of late years, a remarkable movement which has gone on steadily extending-at least, in the extreme northwest. In this paper we restrict Qurselves to a. notice of this sect.
The leader is Ghulam Ahmad, chief of the village of Qadian, in the Punjab. He is a man of considerable education, and generally receives the designation of "Mirza." He is about sixty-five years old, but is still full of activity, both bodily and mentally. His family has been noted for its attachment to the British government, and during the mutiny of 1867 his father and elder brother did valuable service in its suppression. The Mirza has been known as a religious teacher for at least twenty years, but of late he has pushed himself forward more energetically than ever.
His surname is Ahmad. This word has the same meaning as Mohammed, and the coincidence has probably had an influence on the Mirza. He calls the sect which he has founded the Ahmadiyyahafter his own name.
Altho Ghulam Ahmad never mentions the name of Mohammed without invoking the blessing of God upon him, yet on very important points he abandons the doctrine oaf the Koran, and in the eyes of a true Moslem is no mo.re than a pestilent heretic. He has had many disputations with mollas and manlavis, and in any Mohammedan state would speedily lose his head. In regard to Christ, he flatly contradicts the Korau in many points. The Koran itself unhappily denies that Christ was crucified, maintaining that he was taken up into heaven without dying; but its language regarding Him is always in the highest degree respectful. Very, very different, in many instances, is that of the Mirza. He denies Christ's power, His wisdom, and even His moral perfection. -His divinity the Mirza passionately rejects. He admits that He was crucified, but maintains that He did not die, but after the crucifixion was restored to life by the use of a wonderful medicine. He says that Christ then traveled to the East, and finally died in Kashmir, where His grave can still be seen! To a Mohammedan, even as to a Christian, all this is gross heresy.
Mohammed said that before the end of the world a truly remarkable prophet called the "Mahdi" would appear, and that finally the Messiah would descend from heaven and come to the help of the Mahdi, overwhelming all opposition. The expectation of the Mahdi's coming is deeply implanted in the Moslem mind, and the great political movements of the world have only increased the hope. We have had already several self-styled Mahdis-the one who perished at Omdurman perhaps the most remarkable, and others are doubtless still to follow. The Mirza maintains that he, and he alane, is the true ¥ahdi; but he adds that he is also the expected Messiah. He does not mean that he is in propria persona the literal Christ, but he affirms that he
is Messiah in the sense that John the Baptist was Elijah-that is, he comes in the spirit and power of Elijah.
But, it will be asked, what proof can the man give in support of his amazing pretensions? He sometimes quotes the Christian Scrip- tures in their support. We shall give no examples. We have no heart to repeat his shocking misrenderings and misunderstandings of sacred texts. But he professes to have various proofs. One of these is his pro- phetic gift. He foretells; he foretells sometimes good and sometimes evil. In many cases he has predicted the early death of individuals obnoxious to him, but as his anticipations have sometimes proved false his ingenuity has been sorely taxed to show how he had mis-· taken the Divine will. He has also predicted blessings as about to descend on the heads of his favorites. In particular, he has foretold the birth of sons; but when daughters came instead, and the disap- pointed father's disgust was great, the Mirza, clever as he is, was per- plexed, and we may suppose that he has now become more chary in his vaticinations.
The Mirza vehemently assails the monogamy which Ohristianity enjoins. He does not seem to be aware that some other systems of belief-Zoroastrianism, for example-restrict a man to one wife. He asserts that the practiso of monogamy is the occasion of many fearful evils, and he points triumphantly to polygamy as practised by Hebrew saints of old. He also dwells with terrible earnestness on the fearful evils which he sees both in the Ohristian and the Moslem communi· ties. In this he would have much sympathy from all true Ohristians, if the condemnation were not made in such tremendously sweeping terms. Thus he dwells on the drunkenness, the gambling, and the uncleanness which exist; and we h:ilve U great thoughts of heart" as we read his burning words. But, with characteristic rashness, he goes on to reason thus: Christ can not be alive, or He would never allow His religion to sink so low. The argUl'll.:mt is naught; but alas! that this man should have been able to employ it!
The Ohrist.ians in the Punjab are discussing the question: Is the Mirza a conscious imposter, or does he really believe in himself? Or is he insane? So far as we can see, he does believe in himself; but no man could speak and act as he does unless he were .partially insane.
Meanwhile, his efforts to propagate his creed are earnest and incessant, He has a press at Qadian, and he publishes in Arabic or English a vast number of books and tracts. Here on our table, ~or example, are a good many numbers of a monthly magazine in English, extending to full forty pages Bvo, which is called the Rem'ew of Religions. ,Hois thirst for notoriety seems insatiable. He is anxious that his claims should be acknowledged in America; and it is said he has challenged, or is about to challenge, Dr. Dowie, of Ohicago, to a discussion. A singular form it would be of the immemorial struggle between East
J,tnd West. Dares would beat Entullus black and blue, and so would Entellus, Dares. 'fhey would demolish each other. So far well; but, on th8 whole, the spectacle would not be edifying; and as Dr. Dowie seems the less mad of the two, he will probably refuse the challenge.
What is to be the final issue of the movement? It has done harm; how long wi1l it continue to do so? Dr. Griswold, of the Forman Oollege, Labore-whose very useful tract lies on our tabie-believes that in all India the followers of the new sect may amount to about ten thousand, illc}uding men, women, and children. The leader him- self would rate tuem at a much higher figure.
The Mirza is about sixty-five years of age. He may live for ten years-perhaplil more, Wben he dies, what then? His claims are at once exploded, his name becomes a byword, and the movement col- lapses. What will becom3 of his followers? Probably some will return to Islam. Dr. Griswold, however, informs us that, among those who were at one time under the Mirza's influence, several have found their way into Ohristianity. That transition will be far more easily made when this extraordinary man is finally dead and gone.
Only one word more. In these perilous times, when false prophets . are so eager in spreading abroad destractive error, what is the duty of the Ohurch of Ohrist? Surely a new departure is needed-fresh energy and effort in proclaiming Ohrist. When, when will the Ohurch lay to heart the great words: "Preach the Gospel to every creature" ?
~ CHURCHWITII A MISSION TO THE NEGLECTED BY J. TAYLOR HAMILTON, D.D., HERRNHUT, GERMANY Member of the Moravian MiSsi,m Board, and author of " A History of Moravian Missions"
When the University t)f 'Prague ranked after Paris, Oxford, and Bologna, then Bohemia and Moravia were lands of larger significance, than now. It was in that era, in 1457, that certain followers of John Hus, weary of the appeal to anns, sought opportunity to live out the principles of their national reformer in the quiet of obscurity, content to ignore the political issues for which their compatriots had been contending. Tho their pious aims involved a practical break with Rome, King Podiebrad was at fiJ;st disposed to toleration, for the land needed rest, and toleration at first suited the crafty primate-elect Rokycana. Thus the Unity of the Brethren was enabled to perfect its organization. In 1467 Stephen, a bishop of the Austrian Waldenses, imp~rted episcopal consecration to certain ministers of the Brethren at the request of their synod, and they steadily gained in numbers through the attractive power of unfeigned piety, simplicity of Scriptural doctrine, and fidelity of discipline.
Prior to this the king and the archbishop had already changed front. Gregory, a nephew of the latter and a leader of the Brethren,
A CHUROH WITH A MISSION TO TIlE NEGLECTED
had been stretched on the rack in Prague. Now arrests became frequent, and conventicles were inhibited. With the closing of their churches, the Brethren betook themselves to the forests-even in the depth of winter, the last man in parties that sought the rendezvous dragging after him a branch to obliterate their footprints in the snow. " Under following sovereigns persecutions were repeatedly inaugurated. The periods of respite were brief. Yet the Brethren persisted-nay, they throve. Men and women of rank became identified with them. Gindely, a Roman Oatholic historian, with reference to this period writes: "The B;ethren hung together like an unbroken chain, from the royal palace to the humblest cottage." Moreover, after the promulgation of the Edict of St. James, in 1508, which aimed at their utter extinction, God interposed so markedly, bringing their foremost persecutors to an untimely and violent end, that the saying arose: "Is anyone weary of life? Let him lay his hand upon- the Picards "-i.e., the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren.
Growth of the Moravian Church Thus originated in what are now Austrian lands an evangelical Ohurch of German and Slavonian stock, whose history was to be broadly comparable to that of the Lollards, the Huguenots, the Wal- / denses, and the Salzburger, tho possessing distinctive features of its own. By the year 1517 it numbered more than four hundred par- ishes, with a membership of from one hundre-d and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand souls. Noble families like those of Kostka, Pernstein, Krajek, Waldstein (Wallenstein), Sternberg, Zerotin~ Bosko- wic, and Kaunitz, took pleasure in placing financial resources at its disposal. The product of its presses testified to the diligence and scholarly ability of its clergy. Of the sixty works of importance pub- lished in &hemia during the years 1500 to 1510, at least fifty were published by the Brethren.
Meanwhile they sought to fraternize with evangelicals everywhere. Waldenses from &andenburg entered into correspondence with their Executive Council, and, subsequently migrating to Moravia, joined them to the number of several hundred. Two of their leaders as dep- uties visited- the Waldenses of Italy and France, at Florence becoming sorrowful witnesses of the martyrdom of Savonarola. An intimate correspondence was afterward maintained with confessors in Italy and , France.
Naturally they followed with keen interest the movement in Wit- tenberg, and welcomed with gladness the light kindled there, and in Strasburg, and in Geneva. Frequent deputations were sent from Bohemia to Luther and Bucer and Calvin lnd their coadjutors. Friendly relations were established. Luther consented to write a Preface for the German translation of their Confession of Faith of 1532,
printed in Wittenberg in 1533, and similarly prepared the Preface for their Confession and Apology, which appeared at Wittenberg in 1538. The Strasburg reformers, Calvin then sojourning in that city, displayed special friendliness to the deputy who visited them in 1540, and on his return to the special sphere of his labors the Genevan embodied in his discipline features which he had admired in that of the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren.
But dark days supervened for this Church, devoid as it was of legal status in the lands of its origin, owing its safety, indeed, largely to the independent jurisdiction enjoyed by its nobles in virtue of tbeir feudal prerogatives. The disastroUliI issue of the Smalcaldic War furnished King Ferdinand I., their bitter enemy, with the pretext he desired. During the war a league had been formed, having in view religious liberty, the rights of the aristocracy, and a diminution of the royal power. The disaster at Miihlberg left these confederates at the mercy of their king. Some were condemned to death, others were stripped of their estates. Leitomischl, the chief seat of the Brethren, and Turnau, Reichenberg, and Brandeis on the Elbe, other important centers of their work, were transferred from the dominion of nobles favorably disposed, and bec.ame property of the crown-to suffer accordingly. A royal edict interdicted the worship of the Brethren. Confiscations, fines, and ill treatment drove Plany into exile, Prussia and Poland in particular being sought by the refugees. By a dastardly treacherous scheme the person of Bishop John Augusta, who stood at the head of the Executive Council of the Brethren, was seized. For sixteen years he languished in prison under particularly cruel treatment, being several times subjected to exquisite torture.
Persecution spread the Church instead of suppressing it. Where the exiles gathered, especially in Poland, new centers of influence arose. Polish magnates, after conversion, extended to them powerful protection. Thus a thirrl province of the Brethren's Church came into existence, and the Brethren became a factor in the religious de· velopment of the Polish kingdom. Here they sought to foster unity among Protestants, and an approach to federation was achieved at the Synod of Sendomir in 1570. With the Reformed they stood jp close fellowship.
Meantime the accession of Maximilian II., in 1564, aroused new hopes in the Bohemian and Moravian branches of the Unitas Fratrum. But his was a vacillating course, and their hopes failed of realization. Yet the Brethren remained steadfast in the fulfilment of their oolling, steadily gaining in numbers a.nd in influence, and in 1593 giving to their country the literary work which constitutes their most enduring memorial-the Kralitz Bible, translated from the original tongues of Holy Writ, and still the standard Bible for Bohemia. Not until the Bohemian Charter was wrested from Rudolph II., in 1609, did their
A CHURCH WITH A MISSION TO THE NEGLECTED
Ohurch obtain a legal status. Bohemia was now overwhelmingly evangelical, not more than one-tenth of the population adhering to the faith and practise of Rome. But the counter-reformation had been set on foot. Jesuit influence was already fermenting. Rudolph's successor, Matthias, was encouraged to ignore the rights of the Evangelicals. He foisted upon the Diet as King of Bohemia his cou.sin, Ferdinand of Styria, who when but twenty years of age had vowed in the Chapel of the Virgin, at Loretto, to extirpate Protestantism throughout his hereditary dominions, and had kept that vow. Repeated violations of the charter followed. Inevitable revolution came to a head with the hurling of Ferdinand's viceroys from the windows of the council-room of the Hradschin at Prague. Then followed the ill-advised election of Frederick of the Palatinat~, Bohemia's" winter king." The awful catastrophe of the Thirty Years' War was precipitated upon the German Empire.
After the defeat of the Evangelicals on the White Mountain, three miles west of Prague, in November, 1620, Bohemia lay at the mercy of :Ferdinand 11., and his mercy was implacable severity itself. A systematic uprooting of Protestantism in Bohemia and Moravia, which has its parallel only in the story of the Huguenots, together with the miseries of the war, reduced the population of Bohemia from about three millionI) to about eight hundred thousand. Moravia suffered similarly. Industry and enterprise were blighted for centuries. The nationallife suffered degeneration. By the operation of the dragonade, confiscation, and banishment, Protestantism seemed to have been -suppressed. When the Treaty of Westphalia made provision for the Evangelicals of the empire in general, Bohemia and Moravia were left unconditionally in the hands of Ferdinand IlL, a man after his father's own heart.
This outcome was a terrible blow to the exiles, who had hoped against hope that some day their fatherland might accord them .a welcome. It almost broke the heart of Amos Oomenius, now their leading bishop. Their chief seat at this time was the town of Lissa, in Poland. Nor was this the end of sorrows. In 1656 Lissa, which had been occupied by the Swedes, was taken and burned by the Polish confederates. After the loss of their ecclesiastical center, the Brethren, even more than other Protestants, were made to feel the heavy hand of General Ozarniecki. Their ministers were subjected to cruel tortures. 'fhousands of their members fled-to Silesia, Saxony, Brandenburg, and Holland. Tho Lissa rose from its ashes, and altho their episcopate was maintained in hope against hope, their Polish and Prussian congregations for the most part gradually lost denominational identity, being merged with those of the Reformed. Only a few survived to the eighteenth century-chiefly in Posen.
However, the counter-reformation had not absolutely eradicated
this church of reformers before the reformation in Bohemia and Moravia. A" hidden seed" survived, consisting of such who cherished the writings of Hus and of Oomenius, and who secretly perpetuated the memory of their fathers by holding conventicles and i-mplanting in their children loyalty to the Bohemian Bible. Their number, like that of the faithful in Israel who refused to bow the knee to Baal, in fact exceeded the common estimate. For when, in 1783, Joseph II. issued his Edict of Toleration, granting religious liberty nnder certain restrictions, one hundred and fifty thousand Bohemians and Moravians came forward, desirous to be known as members of the Unitas Fratrum. These, however, were by special decree excluded from the benefits of ,the edict. Not until 1880 were spiritual sons of Luke, of Prague, and Augusta and Blahoslav and Oomenius granted liberty of worship in Austrian lands.
Meanwhile, in the providence of God, a wonderful provision had been made whereby a remnant of this persecuted Church might fulfil its special calling in a manner serviceable to Ohristendom.
Christian David and Count Zinzendorf During the latter part of the second and early in the third decade of the eighteenth century a powerful revival of religion was experienced by the families of descendants of the Brethren in a group of villages of Moravia known as The Kuhlandel. It was precisely for the "hidden seed" of this portion of Moravia that Oomenius had prepared a catechism, which formed one of his last literary works, in the hope of thereby promoting the fulfilment of his own fervent prayers for the resuscitation of his Ohurch. 'rhe chief human agent in this revival was Ohristian David, a converted Roman Oatholic carpenter, who had found a home in Silesia, but who repeatedly risked imprisonment and worse, in order to minister to his own countrymen in Moravia. Priestly tyranny applied the argument of the dungeon and of fines, but in vain. Yet altho the renewed life was not to be suppressed, it longed for free expression.
At this juncture Christian David met the pious young Oount Zinzendorf, whO', on attaining his majority, with the acquisition of a landed estate in Saxony, desired to effect a work in Upper Lusatia patterned after that of Francke and his associates in Halle. Tnese plans of the young nobleman were, however, providentially diverted. In response to the pleas of the evangelist, he promised a temporary asylum to religious refugees from Moravia. Of this offer the family the Neissers, a party of ten in all, first availed themselves at Whitsuntide, 1722. Fleeing on foot, under yover of night, to elude the vigilance of their oppressors, they reached Saxony in safety. Their new home was reared beside the highway from Lobau to Zittau, when it passed through what was then an unimproved wilderness forming
A CHU.KCH WITH A MISSION TO THE NEGLECTED
part of Zinzendorf's· estate. During the ensuing years several hun- dred of their awakened compatriots joined them, abandoning the comforts of a modest competence and remunerative occupations for conscience'sake. Their incipient town received the name of Herrnhut (The Lord's Watch). Hither many p,arnest men and women were also attracted from various parts of Germany, adherents of various creeds, but alike seekers after righteousness. Meanwhile the pious aims of their patron were thwarted. On the other hand, the responsibility he recognized in relation to his new vassals, and the pain he felt at the disagreements which arose in regard to faith and discipline, by reason of tha diverse elements which met in the population of Herrnhut, led him to resign his office at the court in Dresden that he might devote himself wholly to the spiritual welfare of this people. Removing to Herrnhut during the first half of the year 1727, he devoted his time and energies wholly to this task. By laboring personally with individuals, he induced agreement to rules and regulations for the ordering of religious and municipal life. Much study was given to the Scriptures, especially the First Epistle of St. John. A spirit of fervent intercession characterized the early summer. Honest recognition of spiritual pride and of mutual lack of charity was followed by unfeigned self-humiliation and a drawing together of hearts. These experiences culminated in a gracious revival, whose climax was reached in a celebration of the Lord's Supper at Berthelsdorf on the 13th of August. Thenceforth the people of Hernnhut were a changed people. Descendants of the old Brethren's Church and representatives of other confessions were fused together in one spirit. Personal assurance of acceptance with God, throngh the atoning merits of the Redeemer, wrought a profound conviction in these men and women that their lives should be placed unreservedly at the Lord's disposal to work out His will. Zinzendorf came to realize that his life-work must be identified with them, that essentially the spirit of purposes cherished by him from childhood was meant of God to receive realization through the abandonment of his own plans for activity in conjunction with these people. His recognition of God's leading cost him exile, and involved the subordination of family life and of the private interests of his family, as well as the placing of his property, in addition to his time and talents, at the disposal of the Church.
Reaching Out Into Regions Beyond It was impossible that a city set on a hill, as was Herrnhut, where all phases of life were dominated by a joyous religion.-for cheerful, not ascetic, industry characterized the place-should remain hidden. Affiliations were established with those who longed after a betterment of religious life in various European lands, especially where Pietistic institutions had prepared.the way. Student organizations in personal
touch with Herrnhut, especially at the University of Jena, deepened the significance of the movement set on foot by the flight of the exiles from Moravia. Moravian evangelists were welcomed in various lands, the more so because they aimed at promoting spiritual life without detaching any .from membership in state churches. The work thus inaugurated yet remains an agency for incalculable good. Many more persons are to-day ministered to by the Diaspora missionaries of the Moravion Church on the Continent of Europe than are carried in the lists of its communicant members. Moreover, the reflex influence of this contact with and labor for other divisions of evangelical Christendom has caused the modern development of the Brethren's Unity to differ in various respects from the Unity as it existed before, altho its essential spirit remains very much the same.
With the Danish court, Count Zinzendorf stood in relations of personal intimacy. In the month after the culmination of the revi val at Herrnhut he sent two Brethren to confer with pious members of that court, and on returning they brought with them a manuscript account of Egede's labors in Greenland. Even in his scho~ days Zinzendorf had contemplated the inauguration of missions to the heathen. In February, 1728, a memorable day of prayer was characterized by intercessions for Turkey, Africa, Greenland, and Lapland. Twenty-six unmarried men thereupon made it an object of study how they should prepare for service among the heathen when the Lord's call came. The indication of His will was given in connection with Zinzendorf's visit to Copenhagen in 1731, to be present at the coronation of King Christian VI. Returning with the story of Hans Egede's comparative failure, and presenting the needs of the negro slaves in the West Indies, he powerfully moved the hearts of many in Herrnhut on July 23d. Next day two young men volunteered to go to the negroes, and their example was followed by that of two who volunteered for Greenland. In the event Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann set ont for the West Indies on August 21, 1732, and Matthew and Christian Stach and Christian David left for Greenland on April 10, 1733.
Some Notable Features of Moravian Work Within ten years from the sailing of the pioneers, Moravian missions had been attempted also in Dutch Guiana, Lapland, at the Cape of Good Hope, among the Christian slaves in Algeria, among the Samoyedes of Arctic Russia, and in Ceylon. And in 1735 pioneers were sent to the Indians of North America (Georgia). Not all these missions attained permanent success, but even in these years of experiment several features are exceedingly suggestive.
First, a revival of vitaJ evangelical religion gave birth to the enterprise. The vitally evangelical is evangelistic in virtue of inner neces-
A CHURCH WITH A MISSION TO THE NEGLECTED
sity. With the restoration of the joy of salvation came an irresistible impulse to teach transgressors God's way. Herrnhut numbered about six hundred souls. Many of the people were very poor. The means of communication were meager. Nevertheless, obstacles were surmounteu in God's name, in recognition of the obligation of the Savior's last commandment.
Second, the message they brought was a simple but comprehensive one-redemption through the atoning life and death of Jesus. Philosophizing was avoided. Details of confessional creed were not imposed. The love of God in Ohrist Jesus was magnified, with the MORAVIAN MISSIONARY R . SCHNABEL AND SOME TIBETAN CHRISTIANS A'I' POO IN BASHARK, INDIA completeness of salvation and the obligation of manifesting grateful love to Him through obedience.
Where failure followed, in the third place, it was due rather to the opposition of nominal Christians and obstacles they placed in the way than to the heathen's lack of receptiveness or to the essential impracticability of missions.
Fourth, this was an uprising of ardent young men to meet their recognized obligation. Zinzendorf himself was only 32 years of age when he sent the pioneers; Dober was 26, Nitschmann, 35; Frederick Martin, Dober's successor in St. Thomas, 31; Matthew Stach, the first volunteer for Greenland, was only 20, and his companion, Frederick Bohnisch, 21. Ohristian Henry Rauch, who began the mission among the Mohicans of New York in 1740, was 22. Spangenberg was 34 when he led the colony to Georgia. George Schmidt, the first to carry
the Gospel to the Hottentots, was only 27, tho he had spent six years in an Austrian dungeon for conscience' sake.
Fifth, the majority of the pioneers were luoravians by birth. It was the" witness spirit," brought from lands of martyrdom and persecution, that gave impetus and persistence to the movement. It is .impossible to resist the conviction that God had wonderfully preserved and brought forth a remnant of the old evangelical Ohurch of Reformers before the Reformation, and had then endowed them with renewed life from on high, for the express purpose of recalling Ohristendom to It sense of its obligation to carry out the last command of the Lord Jesus Ohrist. The Moravian Ohurch must be a missionary church. It has no option here, and finds no merit in recognizing the law of its existence.
Indeed, to its missions it owes its perpetuation as a distinct denomination in respect to its outwarq as well as its inner life. The success of its missionaries in the West Indies confronted it with the problem of securing a ministry whose status others would recognize as conferring upon them the right to administer the sacraments to converts and perform other ministerial functions. Herrnhut itself had not yet been wholly separated from the Berthelsdorf parish of the State Ohurch of Saxony, tho its lay elders preached and exhorted and administered discipline. In 1735 the difficulty was obviated by the voluntary transfer of the episcopate of the old Ohurch of the Bohemian Moravian Brethren, which survived in the persons of Daniel Ernest Jablonski, court preacher at Berlin, and Ohristian Sitkovius, of Thorn, Superintendent of the United Reformed and Brethren's congregations in Poland. Jablonski had beeu watching the rise of ·Herrnhut with interest, and for a'number of years had been in personal touch with the Moravians there. Satisfied that they were representatives of what had been best in the old Ohurch, with the consent of Sitkovius he consecrated David Nitschmann, Dober's companion, to be bishop-primarily for the missions. Two years later Zinzendorf-who had already been admitted to Lutheran orders, after advising with the King of Prussia, whose theological examiners closely scrutinized the count's theology, and expressed their approval, and after conferring with Archbishop Potter, of Canterbury, who cordially advised the step-was himself consecrated a second bishop by Jablonski and Nitschmann, with the approval of Sitkovius.
During the fourth and fifth decades of the eighteenth century the Moravian Ohurch, as it came to be popuhirly known and was denominated in the Act of Parliament of 1749, which recognized it as an ancient Protestant and Episcopalian Church, fully established itself in England, Ireland, Wales, and the American colonies, Bethlehem in Pennsylvania becoming the headquarters for the latter. Scotland became a field of operations at a slightly later date. In the colonies
A CHURCH WITH A MISSION TO THE NEGLECTED
prior to 1756 Moravian evangelists effected affiliations with earnest men and women in Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, Maryland, North Oarolina, and Georgia. Indeed, scarcely a colony was overlooked in their itinerations. Yet the establishment of the denomination as such was avoided rather than sought. As on the Oontinent of Europe, so among English- speaking peoples, min- istrations were freely rendered for the pro- motion of spiritual life among existing de- nominations, not for the. spread of a new sect, and in America the conversion of the heathen Indians af- forded peculiar scope for the expenditure of energies. Successfully A MORAVIAN MISSION HOUSE AT RUNGWE, EAST AFRICA inaugurated at ·Sheko- meko, on the confines of New York and Oonnecticut, near the Stissik hills, in 1740, the Indian mission, tho repeatedly thwarted by the oppo- sition of whites, nominally Christians, and tho sadly hampered by the wars of the late colonial period and by the great struggle for Inde- pendence, prospered in Pennsylvania and in Ohio, and demonstrated the capacity of Delawares, Mohicans, and kindred tribes for Ohristian civilization, until in the closing operations of the war the d;portation of the converts from their villages along the Tuscarawas by the British, and the massacre in cold blood of a remnant of the peaceable people of Gnadenhutten by American rangers, in 1782, gave a fatal blow to the undertaking. It survived, indeed, but never regained its former pro- portions, however persistently efforts were renewed at various points.
Meanwhile, Zinzendorf's decree of banishment was revoked in 1747.
In 1755 he returned to Saxony, to make his permanent home at Ber- thelsdorf.Even in the darkest days, when the purposes actuating himself and his brethren had been most completely misunderstood, and in consequence had drawn down upon him and them obloquy and derision and something akin to persecution, he had unfalteringly per- sisted in what he knew to be his calling-the heralding of his Lord's free grace and the efficacy of His all-availing atonement. Repeated failures of plans here and there could not dampen his. zeal, nor that of his Moravian coadjutors-men of indomitable persistence.
He and they suffered providential developments to shape their policy. While a lad at school, in founding his "Order of the Grain
of Mustard Seed," Zinzendorf had covenanted with like-minded comrades in after life to labor for the conversion of the heathen, and espernally in behalf of those for whom no one else cared. Nevertheless, when shaping the missionary policy of his Moravian Brethren, he did not remain blind to the strategic value of gaining a foothold for missions among the more advanced races of heathenism. His acute perception early recognized the desirability of winning China and India and Persia for Christ, and accordingly he made efforts to establish missions in those great realms. Egypt and Turkey attracted him, and more than one negotiation was set on foot in Constantinople, and missionaries went to Egypt. But the fulness of time had not come for those lands. On the contrary, as a rule success attended the inauguration of efforts in behalf of the most degraded and neglected. So it came to pass that when Zinzendorf died, in 1760, successful missions were in operation in Greenland, among the Indians of North America, among the negro slaves of the Danish and English West Indian Islands, along the Rio de Berbice in Guiana, South America, and in various parts of the Dutch colony of Surinam. Schmidt's mission to the Hottentots had been fruitful, but had been prematurely brought to a close by white opposition.
Since Zinzendorf's death the experience of the Moravian Church has intensified this conviction of her specific calling as a missionary Church, to minister to those whom others would otherwise neglect or pass by. Meanwhile it is fully realized that this is not the part of worldly wisdom, and that in various respects, especially in connection with the development of the native church and its achievement of self-support in men and means, this apprehension of a providentially assigned duty involves peculiar difficulties. It imposes a financial burden which would be entirely beyond the strength of the Moravian Church did it stand alone, or did it receive assistance only from those associated with it in the Diaspora circles of the state churches in Europe. It compels members of the Moravian Church to recognize that their missions must remain in the highest sense a work of faith. 'rhat faith God has never put to shame.
Repeatedly heavy deficits have marked the annual closing of accounts, but after a while supplies came in. During the Napoleonic wars the home congregations were sorely impoverished. Then friends in England of every Christian name came forward and voluntarily organized" The London Association in Aid of Moravian Missions," which still maintains its marvelously liberal activity, contributing $475,000 during the ten years preceding 1899. Repeatedly unexpected legacies have been received from friends identified with other households of faith, coupled with conditions like the. following: no contraction, no retrogression, for new work, for the erection of outposts into permanent stations. The very large bequest of the late Mr. J. 'r.
A CHURCH WITH A MISSION TO THE NEGLECTED
Morton, of London, for example, which is now becoming available in annual instalments, was designed for the last named of these purposes.
Up to the year 1900 the Moravian Church· had sent out 2,604 missionaries, male and female, exclusive of a number of men dispatched in connection with the management of trades and industries undertaken for the support of the work. Since the commencement of operations, in 1732, attempts have proven unsuccessful, or after partial success have been suspended in the following fields: Lapland, among the Samoyedes, among the Calmucks, China, Persia, the East Indies, Egypt, Abyssinia, Algiers, and the Guinea coast of Africaalmost all of these suspensions dating back to the eighteenth century. During the summer of 1900, by exceedingly amicable negotiations, the transfer of the Moravian missions in Greenland to the Danish Lutheran Ohurch was effected, in order that thus a homogeneous native Ohristian church might develop the fullest measure of self-support. By a similar process the Moravian Ohqrch had a few years before taken over from the London Missionary Society its enterprise in the German colony of East Oentral Africa.
The Moravian Mission Fields At present the operations of the Moravians are carried on in Labrador, Alaska, among the Indians of North America and the negroes of the West Indies, in Nicaragua (the Moskito Ooast), Demerara, Surinam, Cape Colony, Kaffraria, German East Equatorial Africa, Australia (Victoria and Queensland), and among the TibetaDspeaking peoples of the Western Himalayas. Besides, a Horne for Lepers is maintained near Jerusalem, its management, however, being administered by a Board distinct from that which directs the affairs of the missions. The latest published statistics give the number of missionaries in the field-exclusive of members of the Board, secretaries, financial agents, etc., and those engaged in the Home for Lepers-as 397, with 47 ordained native ministers and assistant ministers. Oommunicant members of the first grade, and not under discipline, number 32,028, the total membership, reckoning in the children of communicants, the adult catechumens, and those temporarily under discipline, is reported as 96,877-and it may be added that the methods of keeping church registers are exact. Attention is everywhere paid to education, 234 day-schools being maintained, with 23,998 scholars in charge of 524 teachers. Sunday-schools are conducted as a matter of course. Normal schools exist in four mission provinces, and theological seminaries are maintained in Antigua and KafIraria.
It is recognized that while the immediate aim of all Gospel preaching is to reach the individual, the ultimate object of the evangeliza-
tion'of the heathen is to so affect the national life that it may come under the sway of Christian faith. Hence the formation of inde- pendent, self-supporting congregations is sought, administering dis- cipline for themselve;, and served by men of the native race. As a step toward this goal, the members are at an early stage urged to assist in the management of the spiritual and temporal affairs of the con- gregations by electing officers from their own number, and are taught to act as elders, teachers, and voluntary evangelists, assistants to the the missionary. In the erectiou of its missions into self-dependent churches, the Moravian Church has to face peculiar difficulties inher- ent in the racial peculiarities of her converts. In some fields she is ministering beside the death-bed of a race slowly tending to extinction. Everywhere the native pastor must prove superior to his moral and mental environment, but must, nevertheless, so identify himself with those to whom he ministers as to remain in the truest sense a man of the people. Even where the requisite moral and mental endowments can be found, it is not surprising if heredity has failed to endow him with precision and system of method so essential for the administra- tive functions of the pastorate and for successful leadership. In the West Indies a measure of success has been attained in this respect. Certain of the native t:"aits of the Kaffirs also hold out prospects of a happy solution of the problem in their land. Yet everywhere patience is demanded on the part of the home Church.
Moravian missionaries are drawn from any of the four provinces of the Moravian Church on the Continent of Europe, in Britain, or in the United States, special training being afforded in the Mission Insti- tute at Niesky in Germany, and in the British and American theolog- ical seminaries of the Church. The call to service in any case comes. from the Mission Board, and the great majority of the men and women in the field are Germans. According to the, stage of development attain'ed, each mission province enjoys greater or less autonomy within the limits of the annual budget. In some instances conferential man- agement, largely representative in character, exists, while elsewhere a superintendent possesses complete executive powers. In every instance, however, the Mission Board reserves the right of the initial call to service, the dismissal from service, the grantiug of furloughs, or of permission to retire on a pension, decision with regard to founding or .abandoning stations, and the prerogatives of a court of appeal.
The Government and Cost of Moravian Missions In its personnel the Mission Board, elected by the General Synod, meeting decennially, and constituted of delegates cho!Jen by each province of the Ohurch, represents the entire Unitas Fratrum, fOI' at least one German, one Englishman, and one American must be nominated by the respective national divisions. The remaining
A CHURCH WITH A MISSION TO THE NEGLECTED
members may be ex-missionaries of any nationality. The General Synod, which carefully reviews the missionary operations of the entire previous decade, receiving a detailed report from the Board, besides formulating general principles and giving specific directions for future guidance, elects an advisory committee of business men to assist the Mission Board in finan- cial administration,· and makes provision for annual audits of accounts. Extraordinary audits and, examination of cash balances and securities also take place from time to time. Furthermore, the Mission Board confers with the executive boards of the four home provinces of the Ohurch, and ob- tains their decision for its guid- ance in affairs of importance.
Thus the administ.ration of the missionsis brought into close touch with the life of the Ohurch as such.
To meet the cost of its under- takings – for salaries, traveling expenses, erection and mainten- ance of buildings, educational BISHOP CHARLES BUCHNER activity, pensions, education of the children of missionaries, the PreSident of the Moravian Mission Board, training of candidates, and ad- BertheJsdorf ministrative expenses, annually amounting to a total of about $422,- lOO-the Board depends on several classes of resources. All mem- bers of the Moravian Ohurch are expected to statedly contribute in proportion to ability; a pledge so to do is embodied in "The Brotherly Agreement," which forms a bond of union linking all the congregations, and assent to which constitutes a condition of reception into fellowship. Many friends beyond the limits of Mora· vian communicant membership annually employ this Ohurch as a channel through which to do their part toward the evangelization of the heathen. Without this aid, rendered liberally and appreciatively, especially in Britain and on the Oontinent of Europe, and measurably also in America, the task undertaken in obedient faith would exceed the powers of this little brigade of the army of the Oross. The inter.
est of certain funded legacies has been designated by benefactors for definite phases ot the work; in other instances the income of funds thus created is wholly at the discretionary disposal of the Board. The annual grants of auxiliary associations constitute a very important proportion of the sources of revenue, associations within; and others
beyond, the pale of the Moravian Church. The denominational auxil- – iary in Britain is especially identified with the support of the mission in Labrador; that in Holland interests itself in the work carried on in Surinam; that in the United States is specially charged with the sup- port of the Eskimo mission in Alaska, and with the missions among the Indians. Reference has already been made to the noble benefi- cence of the London association, constituted of Christians of almost every name. The Australian mission presents the features of a pleas- ing partnership, being Moravian in respect to the workers and Pres- byterian in respect to the defrayal of current expenses. Finally, a considerahle part of the income is derived from the mission fields themselves, and in a threefold manner. As early as possible the con- verts on principle are taught the obligation of systematic support of the Gospel and the privilege of free·will offerings. Hence, on the one hand, church dues are required, and, on the other hand, gifts for the evangelization of "the regions beyond" are encouraged. But, in addition, in certain fields trades and traffic are maintained for the benefit of the missions, and to assist converts by promoting habits of steady industry and by inculcating the dignity of labor. The indus- trial branch of the work is in charge of men who hold no position involving spiritual activity in the primary sense, but who are, never- theless, appointed by the Mission Board, and are understood to have consecrated their business ability to the Lord for the furtherance of His kingdom.
Moravian Missionary Ideal.
We may add in closing: Moravians do not regard their own as the ideal missionary activity. They are not wholly blind to its defects. Some of these defects they seek to rapidly remedy; perhaps certain other defects they are more cautiously trying to remove, believing that – the processes of a constructive reformation necessarily require the element of time. When others laud their missionary zeal a sense of shame can not fail to be induced, for they know how much of the praise is unmerited. Nevertheless, they would be untrue to the Lord Himself if they failed to give Him glory for so marvelously preserv- ing them among the families of God, when they appeared to be near- ing extinction, or if they were blind to that manifestation of His providence which has so unquestionably marked out for them their missionary calling. They have no option but to joyfully heed their Savior's last command, and it must continue to be both their cross and their crown to labor especially in behalf of the neglected. If they ceased to do this, not only wonld they lose their self-respect in accepting aid from others for the discharge of their own special trusts, they would deserve, and must expect, to have their candlestick removed.
SIMILARITY AND CONTRAST-CHINA, JAPAN, KOREA
SIMILARITY AND CONTRAST-CHINA, JAPAN, KOREA BY REV. GEORGE HEBER JONES, SEOUL KOREA Methodist Episcopal Mission, 1887- East Asia present~ to th!) Ohristian Ohurch a mission field second in importance to no other. Ohina, with four hundred and six millions, Japan, with fifty millions, and Korea, with ten millions of people, gt-re us agrand total embracing about one-third of the human race. '1'0 put this fact in another way: every third babe that opens its eyes in this world looks up into the face of a yellow mother and toddles about in a heathen home. Every third grave on earth is dug in yellow soil, while yellow men gather about it to grieve and lament over a soul that has gone out into a future unlit with a single ray of Ohristian light and hope.
This vast field, continental in extent, possesses some things in common. The people are one in race, o.rigin, history, civilization, and religion. In. a large sense the principles underlying the varied conditions confronting Ohristian missions are the same; that is, we find certain prevailing race characteristics, in spite of very pronounced dissimilarity in many things. It is impossible to write accurately the history of anyone of these three empires without frequent reference to the other two. They cherish in common the principle of filial piety as the corner-stone of their civilization. Oonfucins, Gautama, and the nameless myriad priests and priestesses of Shamanite spiritism have been their religious instructors. Throughout this great area the position of woman, reduced to its final analysis, is much the same. The spirit which animates law and custom speaks in the same tone, and the philosophy of life which controls individual conduct is the same. The hopes, fears, Itlld aspirations of the people are projected out in the same general direction morally. The great yellow race is ill with one malady, and it will find recovery through only one remedy -the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, while this is true as a general proposition, at the same time the individuality of the three empires is so pronounced and developed that they stand as distinctly aloof from each other as England, France, and Russia do in Europe. Note the contrast in the respective governments. In Ohina it is patriarchal in form, with the family as the model, and the action of the sovereign in the empire can not be controlled by written laws any more than it would be possible to regulate the authority of a father over his family by a written constitution in that family. Among the people the idea of equality, based on brotherhood and modified by the elements of education and native talent, is held so that the humblest Ohinese boy–:-born, it may be, in a coolie's mud hut, or cradled in a house-boat on the Yang-tse or the Min-may
rise, in spite of these, to be a Minister of State or a Viceroy. This is not true in Korea. While the Ohinese model dominates, the Koreans have added the idea of caste to their governmental system, so that the ruling class and their families enjoy privileges and powers not held by the correspondiug class in Ohina, and which are submissive of the common people's right to life and property. Japan stands to-day in -sharp contrast to the political organization of her neighbors. Her government is a copy of constitutional monarchy as it prevails among white nations, and her people enjoy that peace and security which comes from law equitably administered in the empire.
Another contrast is found in the general spirit of the people. The Ohinese from the dawn of history have been commercial and industrial in their character. They have been manufacturers, to supply the needs of the vast continental hordes under or adjacent to the dynastic rule. .They have been inventors of curious implements and laborsaving devices. They have been traders, carrying out of Ohina its products and returning with the wealth of other peoples. '1.'he cast of mind is commercial. They are a nation of merchants. On the other hand, Japan has ever adored the sword. It is the soul of the Samurai. Their history is a record of battle. The greatest national heroes are Yoritomo, a Japanese Oharlemagne, and Hideyoshi, a Japanese Napoleon, albeit both pansed short or the imperial yellow. The national sports are martial. Modern Japan, in the midst of its abounding and increasing development, preserves the graces, the spirit, and the impulses of Japanese knighthood. They are a nation of warriors. Korea is neither the merchant nor the warrior. Secure in her hills and valleys, just bending her energies sufficiently to produce enough to eat and wear, she has remained a 80rt of recluse. Study and meditation, the poetic frame of mind-these specially charm her. The national ideal is the scholar. The civil or literary nobility take precedence over the military nobles, and both are far above the merchant class. The Koreans are a nation of students. Doubtless when these peoples shall have become welded into one, it will be for Ohina to produce and conserve the vast wealth of the East, ffapan to protect and defend Oriental prestige, and Korea to preserve its literature and literary traditions.
It is to be expected that this diversity will show itself in the history of missionary propaganda in these empires. In Ohina the Ohurch has had to meet the conditions growing out of patriarchal customs complicated with intense materialism. In Japan one of the controlling factors in the situation is that esprit de corps inseparable from militarism. In Korea the prevailing characteristic proves an element of strength in the native Church. Two hundred and :fifty thousand Ohinese converts, under the banner of evangelical Ohristianity, presage the :final conversion of the empire; and if I might assume
THE BIBLE A.ND THE MISSIONA.RY
the role of a prophet, it would be to say that Ohina redeemed will yet lay on the altars of Ohrist the largest offering of material wealth, the most magnificent gift that history will ever know. In Korea the progress of evangelical Ohristianity has been rapid. In fifteen years the Ohurch has grown from a handful of about one hundred souls to a host of thirty thousand converts. Several things have contributed to this more rapid growth in Korea than in the neighboring empires. The successes of Ohrist in Ohina and Japan were not without their effect in establishing the prestige of our religion in the eyes of the Koreans. The Korean Empire is smaller in bulk than either of her neighbors, and has, therefore, gotten in motion Ohristward earlier. There has been an absence of all competition in the way of taking on the outward garb of Western civilization to the exclusion of imbibing its spirit, so that the only thing to challenge attention in Korea has been Ohrist and His Gospel. Ohristianity is the only living thing in sight. In the midst of hopeless despair there has burst into view the star of hope. To the Korean, lost in the cold, dark, arctic night of heathenism, it has come as the dawning day; therefore, he has thronged the doorways of the Ohurch, first single individuals, then in groups, and soon in throngs.
The work already done in Japan is of a lasting character. It possesses length, breadth, and depth, and is at once a presage and a preparation for the final victory. In estimating the movement of Ohristian forces in Japan, the solidarity of the Japanese nation should be reckoned with. The Japanese in great crucial tests like to mo'e as a nation. There is a wonderful power of unanimity among them which puts them into contrast with the Koreans. One of these days Japan, as a nation, will deliberately take the final step Ohristward and accept His truth as her religious faith. Ohina awaits a Ohinese Oonstantine, and when God's purposes shall have ripened He will appear and fill Ohina's laws, institutions, and customs with the spirit of evangelical Ohristianity.
. THE BIBLE AND THE MISSIONARY BY J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Bible is in a strict sense the only universal book in the world; the only ecumenical one of all human history; the only one with a world motif. This statement is formulated on two definitions of the Standard Dictionary-" Ecumenical: of or pertaining to the habitable world; universal." "Motif." subject, theme, dominant idea, or sentiment"; possibly this is included in the secondary definition of motive- " having power to move, tending to move, causing motion." Thus it is a sort of dynamic force operating on all men, in aU the world, con-
taining within itself the power of propulsion over all peoples of all time.
The sublime solitariness of this position may possibly be challenged in favor of the Koran. It would carry us beyond present limits to dispute this here; so with a recognition of it, it must be passed at the present writing. But the genius of the two in the matter of their dissemination to all the inhabitants of the world differs totally in favor of the Bible. At its earliest inception, whether by a miracle of tongues or a miracle of ears, the fundamental conception of the day of Pentecost was that in some way the Gospel was to reach men by translation into their vernacular, and everyone "hear in their own tongue the wonderful works of God." It is the motif of the Bible that within the past century has expanded the translations of the Bible from fifty to four hundred, till all the great languages of the world have the whole Bible, defining "a great language," as Canon Edmonds does, as one spoken by not less than ten millions of people.
In distinction from this, the practical eXI-osition of the Koran for a thousand years has shown that the men who ,have drunk deepest of its spirit hold that its text is untranslatable, and any attempt to put it into writing in any other vernacular is a folly and a crime; its very motif is prohibitive of translations. The primary evidence of its inspiration is that it is written in Arabic of such perfection that no mortal can produce the like. The miracle of the text is the evidence of its divinity-evidence necessarily of no avail to the bulk of man- kind. It also carries with it the assumption that the Koran is the least translatable book in the world, which is the fact, while the Bible is the most translatable book in the wQrld.
The modern movement in India which antagonizes this centuries- old Moslem orthodoxy now demands translations of the Koran as essential to competition with ecumenical Christianity. It is discerned that the Christian concept, that all men must have the most hallowed things out of heaven in ~'the tongue .i.n which they were born," has in it the essential elements of final triumph over all competitors. It is worth emphasizing that the movement toward world translations of the Bible, is an evolution of the book itself.' • It is remarkable that this dynamic force should create literatures in which these translations should find a channel. Considerably more than one-half of the languages into which the Bible has been translated within a century were reduced to writing for the purpose of the translation of this Book into them. Canon Edmonds formu- lated the underlying base and inspiration, the motif, if one may once more style it so, when he wrote: "To give men the message of God on lips touched with a live coal from the altar of God is the first true greeting of the ideal missionary as he lays the foundation of a living Church!' This, he asserts, was the policy of Christianity il'om the
THE BIBLE AND THE MISSIONARY
start. But that is not all of it. "To hand to his people God's written revelation, plain, permanent, perfect, as far as anything partly human can attain to be perfect, is when his work is over, his ideal farewell." That is his way of stating that the foundation of the future Church in every land is the Bible in the vernacular of that land, and the vernacular has been defined to be a language" understood by the women and the children, the old and the ignorant, as well as the young, enterprising men of business."
The indebtedness of science, of philology, of commerce, of governments to the impulse that precipitated these translations is a quite too extended theme, however fascinating, to touch on in this connection. It is far from our heart not to emphasize the work of the great universities and lear;ned societies in tbis linguistic expansion of literature, but for most of what we know of the two thousand or more forms of human speech we are plainly indebted to the missionary impulse. This does not ignore the initial literatures produced by commercial agencies, such as the East India companies; but even there the inspiration of the men who did the stoutest service was evangelistic. Marshman and Morrison were dominated by the missionary idea.
The Bible translations were, with rare exceptions, made by missionaries. It was with them, in most cases, original work. They endured conditions which required the spirit which martyrs exhibit to effect this result. It was not to win money, nor distinction, nor place. At risk of too great length this quotation from Mr. Cust must be suffered: Who were the translators? No university, no State Department, no learned society could have supplied men willing to conduct such operations or capable of doing so. It was not abstract knowled&,e heaped up in the study that was required, bub the gift of conversing wIth and understanding the people; it was not a city of Europe or North America in which such work could be done, but the mission stations in the midst of half-coverted natives; it was not earthly honor or high remunertion that would tempt capable men to dwell in noxious climates, often far from the civilized comforts of the age, but the wondrous desire to save souls, the entire consecration of talents, health, and life to the spiritual welfare of their fellow creatures. • • . The work when done" might be rugged, be unpolished, but it must be intelligible and real."
In many cases they proved their work on the spot; the natives who were to use it stood at the compositor's desk and operated the hand-press to produce it, and native pastors or a native Christian flock put it to practical test on the spot. Some of the best translations are entirely indigenous productions.
There has been scant courtesy shown to popes or parliaments in much of this work. It was simply done, and there was no power that could undo it. A Madagascar king fulminates against it, but it is hidden in caves and survives the king and all his edicts. In Tahiti, in Mexico, in Peru, priests have tried to banish, have burned, and anathematized it, but hid in the hearts of the people they preserved the letter of it at the peril of their lives, till, as Mr. Cust says: "It is
beyond the power of a Coosar or a pope to arrest the magnificent progress of the Bible over the world; they might as well try to stop the sun in midheaven. This unequaled book will roll on in its majesty until earthly tongues cease and language has had its day."
Throughout the thousand-tongued Babel of the earth at this hour, to seven out of every ten persons, the Scriptures in whole or in portions is available in speech which they can articulate and comprehend. The American Bible Society alone, which dates its beginning more than a decade later than the British and Foreign Bible Society, has kept tally on its circulation till it enumerates within a fraction of seventy-one millions of its issues. Half of the intelligent readers of its report would be puzzled to tell the meaning of all of the very language-titles given without delving into those of Oceania and Africa. How many, for instance, are familiar with the terms: "Lettish," "Lithuanian," "Reval Esthonian," " Biscol," or " Arrawak ? "
A remarkable feature of this work of Bible translation is its democracy. It literally expunges race and sex, as well as literary distinction; black or yellow or white, living in hut or palace, with a coat of heraldry or unable to name his grandfather, bond or free, male or female, the one standard to which the person is amenable is the efficiencyof the work done in bringing others into touch with this Book. Mr. Cust renders tribute to the women who have contributed to this great world-work. He says: It is also a subject of fervent rejoicing that women have not been behindhand in this work of love. . . . It has come under my knowledge, and it gladdens my heart to record it, that the Bible societies have instances of the sweet yoke-fellowship of the son and the widowed mother, the father ani the daughter, the husband and the wife, in this most precious consecration of intellectual capacity united with spiritual devotion. Single ladies and widow ladies have not been slack in seeking a blessing by being zealous in this service, and at their death they leave behind something more precious than the garments which Dorcas left behind to her weeping friends, inasmuch as they have helped to clothe the Word of Life in a new vesture of words and sentences which will never wax old, nor require change, nor perish, but will be fresh and profitable to generations still unborn.
Of the uplifting force of these many-tongued Scriptures none but a master may write. They purify the very language which they preserve. They constitute the strongest earthly bond of a brotherhood, the existence of which they irresistably furnish the proof. Stronger than any political or commercial forces to establish a universal fraternity is the giving of this one Book to the whole human race. "So deep a Book, and yet so simple; so human, and yet so Divine; so localized, and yet so world-embracing." It proves, as Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall says, that there is no such diversity of races as prevents a heart- to-heart talk among all peoples and tongues. Its very divinity is proven by the fact that Hindu or Hottentot, Eskimo or Fijian finds here a revelation each of himself to himself, a prophecy written ages
ago of what he would be and think and long for-" tI.e law of his present life, the hope of his future life."
There have been those who questioned the self-interpretive power of the Bible to the human heart. But instances can be multiplied to fill scores of volumes in which the Book, without the aid of any expositor, has proven to be a key fitted to all the wards of the human heart. '{'he late Bishop E.W. Parker, of India,was wont to illustrate this by an instance of a young Mohammedan teacher in a government school of India, who, feeling" out of sorts," said to a fellow Mohammedan teacher: "I wish I had something to door something to read." His Moslem companion said: "Read this; this is the Ohristian's Bible; perhaps this will do you good." That young Mohammedan teacher took the Book and began to read it. He got over his dull feeling, and read all night. The result, Bishop Parker'said, was that" he stands among the leading preachers of the Methodist Ohurch of North India," Numerous cases are recorded where a stray volume found its way into remote regions, or communities, where it was read, and years later a missionary found in the place a quite considerable community who had met regularly to hear it read, and studiously endeavored to govern their lives by its precepts as best they understood them. These cases are not confined to any class or clime.
It was accidentally that Joseph Neesima, in Japan, read in a Chinese Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," which led him to say: "This is the God I must know."
It was an English New Testament, accidentally found floating in the Bay of Nagasaki, that led Wasaka to search for its Ohinese counterpart, and led him to Ohrist and to baptism by Verbeck. This Book has won its way to influence, to recognition, and to power, where prejudice awakened abhorrence to the missionary and the organized forms of the Ohristian Ohurch.
The very literary currents of the world have been reversed in its interest, and largely through the forces which itself created. A hundred years ago the flow of literature was from Ispahan to Oalcutta, now it is from Bombay to Ba.gdad, and the Bible moves along channels itself has dug.
What the Bible is to the missionary and what the missionary has been to the Bible would furnish a theme for a masterful symposium, with contribuj;.ors from pole to pole.
The Protestant Ohristian world will observe with gratitude the one hundredth anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The American and the Scotch younger sisters will clap their hands, but all will recognize what the venerable Dr. Gilman wrote for the Ecumenical Oonference in New York: "THE BIBLE WORK OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY IS BUT A BEGIN- NING. AND IT WOULD BE DISASTROUS TO SUSPEND IT AT THE POINT NOW REACHED. LET THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CARRY IT ON TO PER- FECTION."
THE MISSION STUDY CLASS BY BELLE M. BRAIN, SPRINGFIELD, OHIO There are three ways of diffusing missionary iuformation iu use at the present time-the missionary meeting, the reading circle, and the study class; and the greatest of these is the study class.
The missionary meeting is, and ever will be, the best agency for reaching large numbers and sowing broadcast the seeds of missiouary enthusiasm. But the information presented is, almost of necessity, fragmentary and iucomplete, and so little iu the way of individual effort is called forth that the knowledge gained is likely to be the acquisition of the few who take part rather than of the society as a whole. The reading circle is, in some respects, better than the missionary meeting, but it is defective in that it requires but little exercise of the mental faculties, and fails to stimulate individual research. The knowledge gained is rarely a permanent acquisition; like all desultory reading, it seldom makes a lasting impression on the mind. _The study class stands preeminent in that it requires systematic study on the part of every member of the class. Its great value lies in the fact that it possesses the rare quality of producing missionary leaders. Some one has called it the" best of all manufacturies of missionary workers," and such, indeed, it has proved wherever it has been tried under -favorable circumstances. '1'he quantity of seed sown is not so great as in the missionary meeting, but a larger proportion bears fruit. If a church lacks missionary leaders-and where is the church that does not ?-the best remedy is to organize a study class, not to take the place of the missionary meeting, but to supplement it, very much as classes for Bible study supplement the devotional meeting and the public preaching of the Word.
The Origin of the Mission Study Class The mission study class, in its present form, is of comparatively recent origin. In reaEty, however, it dates back to the students of Andover College, nearly a century ago, who, stimulated by the Haystack Heroes, made the study of missions a prominent feature of their meetings. Their example was followed, to a limited extent, by students in other colleges throughout the century. After the organization of the Intercollegiate Young Men's Christian Association the idea became more prominent, and in the year 1891 an impetus was given to it by the publication of a series of ou tline mission studies in the organ of the association.
The honor of establishing organized work in systematic mission study belongs, however, to the Student Volunteer Movement.. In February, 1893, when the Student Volunteer, the organ of the movement, was first Issued, a series of foreign mission studies was begun, and the formation of classes in every college urged. A year later, the THE MISSION STUDY CLASS outline system having proved unsatisfactory, the use of text-books was adopted, and the office of educational secretary created. Since 1895 this office has been filled with rare ability by the Rev. Harlan P. Beach, formerly a missionary to China. The growth of the work in ten years has been phenomenal. Twenty-six courses of study have been prepared, and missionary libraries, costing tens of thousands of dollars, have been introduced into the colleges. An average of five thousand students a year have been enrolled in study classes, and textbooks have been called for at the rate of ten thousand copies a year. 'rhe result has been not only the volunteering of a considerable number of young men and women, but an increased intelligence in missions on the part of candidates offering themselves to the various Boards.
The great success achieved among the students led to the adoption of systematic mission study by several denominations, the text-books being those of the Student Volunteer Movement, with special denominational features added. Next the women took it up, and at a conference of all the Women's Boards of the United States and Canada, the course for women's societies, known as the" United Study df Missions," was decided upon. The sale of more than fifty thousand copies of the first two text-books of tue series speaks eloquently of the favor with which they have been received. Early in 1902 the Young People's Missionary Movement fell into line, and announced a series of text-books for young people, to be known as the" Forward Mission Study Courses." Stimulated by the Silver Bay Conferences of 1902 and 1903, and pushed by the denominational hoards, the work is growing with great rapidity. During the first year ten thousand young people were enrolled in classes, and within two months of its publication Mr. Beach's biographical text-book on China reached a sale of nearly twenty thousand copies. Such a vast army of students, young people, and women, concentrating time and thought on mission study, certainly argues well for the future. Gratifying reports of increased interest and enlarged giving are already coming in, and should the work continue it will undoubtedly usher in one of the greatest revivals of missionary enthusiasm in the history of the Church.
Steps Preliminary to Organization In organizing a mission study class, especially where such work is attempted for the first time, there are many points which should be thoroughly discussed by the committee in charge before the matter is publicly announced.
Time. Experience proves that it is unwise to combine the study class with any other meeting. Wherever possible, a separate session of from sixty to ninety minutes should be devoted to it, the day and hour to be determined by local conditions. The result will be smaller • THE MISSlOl:lARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD classes, but more efficient work. The sessions should be held weekly until the completion of the course, rather than fortnightly or monthly, as this brings the meetings close enough together to sustain the interest, yet far enough apart to admit of thorough preparation. It will be found easier to secure members for a class that meets once a week for a brief period rather than once a month during a large part of a year.
The separate session, held weekly, tho eminently desirable, is not absolutely essential to success, and no society should give up the idea of organizing a class because ideal conditions can not be secured. The Advance Club of Rockford, Ill., an undenominational association of Christian women, organized for missionary study, has achieved magnificent success with meetings held once a fortnight, and many a woman's society has done good work by devoting six of the regular monthly meetings of the year to the United Study of Missions lessons. Witness also the notable work accomplished by the Baptist Young People's Union through the use of the Conquest Missionary Courses, which provide twelve lessons a year, to be used once a month at the regular meeting of the young people's society. Good work has also been done in a few instances by devoting the church prayer-meeting or the young people's meeting to the work for a period of six or eight consecutive or alternate weeks.
Place. The place of meeting can best be determined by the size and character of the class. For small classes a private house, centrally located, is undou btedly best. For large classes the church is better, especially if a well-lighted, well-ventilated room is available If possible, the class should be seated around tables to facilitate the taking of notes.
Membersltip. If the class is too large, actual study is next to impossible. Experts declare that the enrolment should never exceed ten or twelve, and that if more apply, it is better to start another class. Some of the most successful classes have had from three to five members only. It is well to remember that quality is better than quantity, ana. ~dmit only those who are thoroughly in earnest. It is a fatal mistake to urge anyone to join on the plea that little or no work will be required. In order that the nature of the class and the requirements of membership may be fully understood, some pledge, such as the following, may be used: 1. I will be present at every meeting of the class, unless prevented by unforseen circumstances.
2. I will secure a copy of the text-book to be used. 3. I will endeavor to devote not less than – – minutes to the study of each lesson. 4. I will prepare the special work assigned me to the best of my ability. 5. I will pray daily for the spread of Christ's Kingdom in the earth.
The Leader. One thing essential to successful study-class work is
THE MISSION STUDY CLASS
a competent leader. The necessary qualifications for this all-important office are three: 1. A deep and abiding interest in missions. "Let him who would move and convince other"," says Carlyle," be first moved and convinced himself."
2. Ability to teach, rather than to lecture. The class will profit by the work in direct proportion to their own intellectual effort.
3. Willingness to devote time to the necessary study. An extended knowledge of missionary history and a wide acquaintance with missionary literature are not essential, but a good leader must have a thorough knowledge of the text-book chosen. To give opportunity for thorough preparation, both text-book and leader should be chosen long in advance of the organization of the class.
The question of leadership is often a perplexing one. A common error is that of asking the pastor or some prominent church official who is not specially qualified for the work to undertake it. No matter how broad his previous knowledge of missions, unles the leader has teaching ability and time to master the text-book, the result will be a lamentable failure.
Course of Study. For beginners in systematic mission study a text-book should invariably be used. The lists of questions, references to other literature, and outlines of study which they furnish simplify the work both for teacher and class. With experienced leaders and mature classes, especially those having access to large libraries, a syllabus may be used instead of a text-book. Excellent text-books have been prepared by the Student Volunteers, the Women's United Study Committee, and the Young Ptlople's Forward Mission Study Committee. These treat of great mission fields; great missionaries, periods of missionary history, medical missions, and other phases of missionary work at home and abroad.* With such a wealth of text-books available, many classes will be perplexed to know how to make a wise selection. For those who have never before attempted systematic mission study, a short biographical course, such as Beach's" Knights of the Labarum," or Taylor's" Price of Africa," is by far the best. These are less difficult and take less time than the study of a mission field or a period of missionary history, and require no previous knowledge to make them interesting. Biography is the most fruitful of all missionary literature, and is calculated to develop interest and arouse enthusiasm more quickly than any other form of study.
Organizing the Class Having fully discussed the foregoing points, the next step is to secure members for the class. Perhaps the best way to do this is by * For further information, inquire of the Student Volunteers, 3 West Twenty-ninth Street, New York; Mrs. N. M. Waterberry, Tremont Temple, Boston; and Mr. S. Earle Taylor, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York.
personal invitation to those who give promise of future usefulness.
Another good plan is to devote one session of the young people's society to a mission study rally, the program for which should include: 1. An address on the value of systematic mission study, with special emphl!>sis laid in the fact that such study not only raises those who pursue it to a higher spiritual plane, but also develops them intellectually, and brings them into touch with those lands where the most important political changes of the present day are taking place.
2. A review of the proposed text-book, preferably by the one who is to lead the class.
3. A detailed statement, by the chairman of the committee having the matter in charge, of the plan of study, the time involved, and the work expected of the class.
4. The enrolment of those who are ready to join the class.
The organization of the class should follow at once, and the work be taken up as promptly as possible. In addition to the leader, a secretary will be needed to keep the records of the class, announce the meetings, look up absentees, secure prompt and regular attendance, and increase the efficiency of the class in every way possible.
A class artist to draw maps and prepare charts and diagrams is most useful. Maps are the best of all mediums for fixing missionary information, and are a necessity. Each class should have, not only a large missionary map of the world, such as most of the mission boards have on sale, but also a series of smaller maps of the fields or parts of fields under consideration. Many of the latter can be easily made at home. A blackboard is necessary for diagrams, illustrations, outlines, references, spelling of difficult words a!ld pronunciation of unfamiliar names, and should be freely used both by the leader and the class artist. Large sheets of paper and crayons are better than a blackboard for some purposes. Bound together, they have a permanent value and are useful for reviews.
A class librarian is well-nigh indispensable. The best work can only be accomplished where the members have access to other literature in addition to the text-book. The duties of the librarian should be to secure reference books bearing on the general topic of the textbook, and to keep a' watch out for articles pertinent to the subject in current issues of magazines and papers, both secular and religious. The members should be asked to be on the lookout for photographs, curios, or other objects that would illustrate the lessons and add interest to them.
Order of Exercises The program for the lesson hour will depend largely on the length of the sessions, the experience of the leader, and the ability of the class. The following plan, prepated by Dr. '1.'. H. P. Sailor, Educational Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and
an acknowledged expert in study-class work, is probably the best yet devised: 1. Scriptut'e Reading.-Select a brief passage that brings out some one thought connected with the lesson.
2. P'raye'r.-Let the member, who should be notified in advance, seek to be brief but definite.
3. Assignment of the Ne,ct Lesson.-Let the leader state clearly the subject of the next lesson, and the pages of the text-book to be studied. Let him indicate the subjects of most importance, telling upon what to concentrate, and, what to skim or omit. Let him give out questions requiring independent thought. Assignments to individuals (see Nos. 4 and 7) should be made as largely as possible in writing, and given out either before or after the meeting.
4. Review.-Let a member, previously appointed, give in not over three minutes (a) a brief review of the last lesson, mentioning only the points of the greatest importance, together with a conclusion to be drawn from each; or (b) a still more condensed review of the course from the beginning, giving one or two thoughts, rather than facts, connected with the lesson.
5. Personal Imp'ressions.-Let each member mention in a sentence what was personally most impressive in the last lesson.
6. Questions on the Advance Lesson by the Leade'r.-Upon the skill with which this is done success in teaching depends. The assignment at the previous lesson should be closely followed.
7. Pape'rs.-Have two or three (never more) papers or talks by members previously appointed, introduced where most appropriate.
8. Debate.-If it can be ascertained by a show of hands that members have differed in opinion on any point in the lesson, an impromptu debate might be arranged.
9. Closing Imp'ressions.-Let the leader sum up and try to leave a seUse of individual responsibility.
10. Closing Prayer.-A number of sentence prayers may be called for.
A Notable Mission Study Campaign During the winter of 1902-3 the missionary committee of the New York City Christian Endeavor Union carried on a mission study campaign which produced great results, arid is worthy of imitation.
In his annual report of June, 1903, Mr. W. L. Amerman, the efficient chairman of the missionary committee, tells of the work as follows: Last year's successful effort for the "unanimous" reading of several selected missionary books afforded encouragement and preparation for something far more difficult-a campaign for the study of a single book, "The Price of Africa."
To supply the first requisite, teachers or leaders, plans were made immediately after the return of our delegates from the Silver Bay Conference, in August, 1902, which resulted in the formation, in October, of six normal classes, practically one in each district, led by expert teachers. The executive committee of the Union made a liberal appropriation for printed matter and other helps, and for compensating any of these teachers in cases where the use of time was involved w.hich could not otherwise have been available.
An average number of fifty-six students attended each of the eight or more sessions of these normal classes, twenty-five of whom, after J anuary 1st, organized in their own societies a second series of classes, and pursued the same course, enrolling nearly two hundred students, and generating widespread interest. Many details of this campaign, for which we have not space here, may be found in a disseminating article in the June number of the Assembly Herald, published by the Presbyterian Board.
The work of the Sixth District will serve to illustrate that in others, and certainly deserves a special paragraph. 'rhe leader of the normal
class was Miss Miriam L. Taylor, who had formerly been missionary chairman of the district. Six of the nine members of the class later organized circles of their own, teaching the same course, the attendance averaging eight per session. The interest and diligence shown were very gratifying. In two cases these latter students have begun to lead study classes on the same lines, making the third series, popularly known as "the grandchildren." Commencement exercises were held by the normal class with good effect, and another gathering celebrated the completion of the course by the second set of circles. Individual societies report much increased interest in the cause of missions as a result of this work.
Next year's campaign will be upon similar lines. Normal classes may not be required, but two general series of circles will be arranged, one beginning in October and one in January.
Such a mission study campaign could be conducted anywhere.
The work of the Sixth District, as outlined by Mr. Amerman, shows how well the plan can be adapted to small cities as well as large ones.
There are few places where the service of an expert teacher could not be secured to lead a normal class of the representatives of the young young people's societies or the women's societies. These in turn could organize classes in their own churches or societies.
TRAINING-SCHOOLS FOR MISSIONARIES * BY REV. J. W. CONKLIN, NEW YORK Field Secretary for Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America Every young man and woman who is physically fit to be sent to the mission field has, upon a life insurance basis, reason to expect at least twenty-five years of active service. How to make everyone of these years most effective is the problem both for the individual and the society which commissions him. His preparatory work must be done partly at home and partly after his arrival at his station. The whole of his equipment can not be secured before reaching the field. But it is surely advisable to gtlt in the home land as thorough a training as possible in those subjects and methods which are essential to the best work.
Adequate Preparat'ion is a needed watchword in the missionary movement. His easily conceivable that a year of special training may double the missionary's power in everyone of those twenty-five or more years of service; two years may quadruple it. To neglect or belittle this truth is foolish and hurtful. That it has been too lightly esteemed in the past is admitted by those most skilled in the science of missions and most experienced in their operations. Dr. Gustav Warneck said in a communication to the Ecumenical Conference of 1900: What we need beside expert mission directors is, above all, missionaries really capable for their great work. . . . The petition that the Lord of the harvest should send forth laborers into His harvest has also reference to their quality.
* Written for the revised" Encyclopedia of Missions," which is soon to be issued by the Funk & Wagnalls Company.
TRAINING-SCHOOLS FOR MISSIONARIES
If appeal be made to the missionaries now in action most of them will complain that, however much general education they may have received, they laoked training to meet most effectively the conditions existing in their fields of labor.
In order to raise materially the standard of missionary qualifica- tions two things are essential-stimulus and machinery. The former must be furnished mainly by the societies which decide upon the qualifications of candidates. These may, at will, raise the sta,ndard of requirements for obtaining commissions. The latter must consist of schools managed and equipped according to the best science and strength of the Christian Church.
Missionary training-schools are numerous. A comprehepsive list of them may be found in Dr. Dennis' "Oentennial Statistics." * Most of these are of great service to the men and women who seek their aid to qualify for mission work-city, home, or foreign. Do these meet the requirements of the time and the cause ? No invidious distinction shall here be drawn, nor dogmatic opinion expressed. A noted secretary of one of the largest American foreign mission boards writes: " The ideal school that we have in our minds has not as yet been realized. .
We feel the need of some institution that will train our young women and laymen satisfactorily, and also give some opportunities ior finish- ing off young men from the theological schools."
An attempt is here made to indicate what" the ideal school" must give to.those purposing to join the missionary ranks. All will agree with Dr. Warneck when he says: "Spiritual equipment is, of course, the chief consideration." This is a matter that can not readily be included in a scheme of subjects. In· one sense too much emphasis can not be placed upon the preparation of heart; yet this further statement from the same eminent authority is no less weighty: "The experience of more than a hundred years should prevent us from fall- ing into the mistake of thinking that this alone suffices without a thorough training." • Quality of the Preparation. The special training needed by missionaries is indicated by the abnormal conditions of the masses of the people to whom they are sent. Asia and Africa are the great missionary continents; most of the world's people inhabit them. In what respects are the people of these continents abnormal-differing from the masses of Christendom?
(1) They are religiously misguided, debased, and lost. They can not find the way to their Father and their Home; they can not find righteousness.
(2) They are socially dwarfed and demoralized. Tested by their treatment of the weak-women, children, the aged, the sickly-and by • We append some of the more important names from this list, with corrections and addi· tions.-EvI'l'ORS.
their domestic, civic and international relations, they are in or near barbarism.
(3) They are educaUonally illiterate. Leaving out Japan,probably not five per cent. of the population of Asia and Africa can read books. Their science is false, their minds warped.
(4) Medically they are ignorant. .rr'heir treatment of diseases and wounds is distressingly inadequate.
(5) Hygenically they are unsanitary. Oholera, plague, and smallpox run along avenues of uncleanly living.
(6) industrially and economically they are backward. Famine is a common condition. Poverty is the general state, because the land is overpopulated, improved methods and machinery are lacking, and thrift is very feebly possessed.
The true missionary can not help striving to cure all of these abnormal conditions. In his preparation he should take them definitely into account, and fit himself as far as possible to handle them. These conditions indicate generally the following requirements for the missionary candidate. He should have special training in- 1. His own religion and non-Ohristian religions. (1) Oompre_ hensive Bible study, including introduction. (2) The Ohristian system of theology and evidences. (3) History and comparison of religions. Is there any sufficient reason why all women, male physicians and other lay workers should not, as well as ordained men, obtain a clear knowledge of these subjects?
2. Elementary and practical Sociology. A study of the origin ana: growth of society, with its various institutions; of the perversions of marriage, family life, social intercourse, labor conditions, government, etc., and of the remedies for these ills.
3. History of Missions, and the established principles on which they are conducted.
4. Psychology and Pedagogy. Most missionaries teach or supervise schools. Many must train native teachers. There are 100,000 pupils in mission boarding aud training schools, most of whom are preparing to be teachers. They should have the best training. All who deal with the abnormally ignorant classes have special need of acquaintauce with the laws of mind and of teaching. Kindergarten training is most helpful. Rev. J. L. Barton, D.D., Secretary of the American Board, has said: " I heartily believe in a pedagogical course for the most of our missionflries."
5. Elementary medicine, surgery, and nursing. There are special schools for regular physicians and nurses. The missionary trainingschool should give to all other students such training as will fit them to render intelligent" first aid" to the sick or injured.
6. Principles of Hygiene or health lectures. 7. Technical Orafts and Business Methods. Women should learn
domestic economy; men should have training in carpentry, photography, stereopticon management, agriculture (or, at least, gardening), book manufacture, and even in blacksmithing. Both men and women should have drill in bookkeeping and in modern methods of filing correspondence and other documents.
8. Music. 9. Language of the people to be 1'eached. It is not practicable to teach many Oriental vernaculars in the home schools. But such comprehensive. languages as Arabic, Ohinese, Hindustani, and Turkish might be given. As showing that such a scheme is not impracticable, two actual courses are here given-one for men, the other for women: A. The Ohurch Missionary Society Training College at Islington. In addition to a regular university and theological course, instruction is given in- (1) Elementary Medicine and Surgery. (2) Principles and Practice of ~reaching. (3) Vocal Music. (4) Oarpentering, Book-making, Printing. Tinsmithing, and Blacksmithing. (5) The religious systems of the pagan world.
B. The Training Institute for Women of the United Free Ohurch of Scotland, Edinburgh, gives instructions in- (1) The Study of Scripture. (2) Ohristian Doctrine. (3) Introduction to the Bible. (4) The Hindustani Language. (5) Theory of Education, Kindergartening Principles, Nature Studies Class Teaching, and School Visiting. (6) Voice Oulture and Singing. (7) Account Keeping. (8) Drill Exercises.
(9) Nursing. (10) Oare of Health. (11) History of Missions. (12) Non-Ohristian Religions. (13) Sociology from the Missionary Standpoint. (14) Evangelistic Theology.
"Missionaries must be weighed, not merely counted," says Dr. Warneck. "Thorough training" is his prescription for their need. The vital question presses: Have the missionaries in the foreign mission service the weight obtainable through a practicable preparation? The ordained men number more than 6,000. Has the theological school given a training specific enough for their needs? The physicians, men and women, are more than 700. Have they been fitted most effectively to minister to the darkened spirits in the sick bodies? Unordained men, not physicians, to the number of about 3,500 are in
the ranks; unmarried women, an equal number; married women, more than 4,000. How many of these are lamenting the lack of a" thorough training" ? The best preparation is none too good for the missionary; it will not be wasted upon the Master's work for the heathen.
Missionary Training Institutions in America and Great Britain LOCATION DESIGNATION DENOMINATION Canada Toronto……… "" ….. Ewart (Women's) Missionary Training Home.. Canada Presbyterian.
Toronto………………Bible Training School.. …………………… Independent.
Totonto……………… Deaconess' and Missionary TrainingIIome…. Church of England.
. England Burgh……………….. St. Paul's Missionary College …………….. Church of England. Clapham …………….. PreJlaratory Institution ………………….. Church Miss. Society. Great yarmouth……… Deaconess' Missionary Training Home…….. Church of England. London………………. East London Missionary Institute…………. Regions Beyond M. U. London (Leyton) , ……..Livingstone Medical College……………….Independent. London………………. Zenana Medical College………………….. Independent. London (Islington) ……. Church Missionary College ……………….. Church Miss. Society. London (Highbury) …… Highbury 'I.'raining Home for Women ……… Chnrch Miss. SOCiety. London (Bermondsey) … Medical Training Home for Women……….. Chnrch Miss. Society. London………………. Medical Students' Training Home…………. Medical Miss. Associa'n London (Clapham) ……. Friends' Missionary Home ……………….. Friends' Foreign M. A. London (Upton Park) …. RedclyfIe "'omen's Miss. Training House …. Universities' Mission. London (Barking) …….. Training Home …………………………..North Africa Missio n. Warminster…………..St. Boniface Missionary College for Men …… Universities' Mission.
Scotland Edinburgh (39 Cowgate) .. Livingstone Medical Mission College ………. Edinburgh Med. M. S. Edinburgh……………. Woman's Missionary Training' Institute…… Free Ch. of Scotland. Glasgow……………… Bible Training Institute………………….. Independent. Glasgow……………… Med. Training Home for Woinen Missionaries. Independent.
United Statea Atlanta, Ga…………..Stewart Missionary Foundation for Africa (Gammon Theological Seminary)……….Methodist (South).
Berrien Springs, Mich…. Emanuel Missionary College ……………… Industrial Institute. Boston, Mass………….Gordon Missionary' Training School. ……….Independent. Boston, Mass …………Oriental Missions Seminary………………..Independent. Brooklyn, N. Y……….. Union Missionary Training Institute ………. Independent. Chicago, Ill………….. Moody Bible Institute……………………..Independent. Chicago, Ill…………..Training School for City, Home, and Foreign Missions ……………………………… Methodist. Chicago, IlL ………….Missionary Training School. ………………. Baptist. Hartford, Conn………. School of Religious Pedagogy……………..Independent. Hartford, Conn ……….Special Missionary Courses……………….. Hartford Seminary. Herkimer, N. Y ………. Folt's Mission Institute (for Women) ………. Methodist (North). Kansas City, Mo ……… Scarriet Bible and Training SchooL ……….. Methodist (South). Los Angeles, California..Training School for Christian Workers…….. Independent. New York, N. Y ………. Deaconess' Home and Training School.. …… Methodist. New York, N. Y ……… Training School for Deaconesses ………….. Protestant EpiscopaL New York, N. Y………. Bible Teachers' Training School. ………….. Independent. Nyack, N. Y …………. Missionary Institute ……………………… Christian and Mission ary Alliance: Northfield, Mass………. Bible Training School.. …………………… Independent. Philadelphia, Pa………Training School for Christian Work……….. Baptist. San Francisco, Cal…….Missionary Extension School………………Independent. Wooster, Ohio……….. Bible and Missionary Training SchooL …….. Presbyterian. Xenia, Ohio………….. Training School for Christian Workers …..•.Independent.
THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER FOR CHINA
THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER FOR CHINA * BY REV. GRIFFITH JOHN, D.D., HANKOW, CHINA In 1907 the Protestant Churches will celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the sending forth of Robert Morrison, which was the commencement of their mission work in China. Following on the lines on which the Church Missionary Society was guided to prepare for the celebration of its centenary year, the missionaries of China desire to bring before the home churches a three years' enterprise in preparation for the right commemoration of the China missionary centenary. The past history, the present circumstances, and the pressing need of the Church in China forId an imperative call for thanksgiving, confession, and prayer.
A Call to Thank God 1. For the many great and good men God has sent to follow in Morri- son's footsteps. Some of these are with us to this day, others have ceased from their labors, leaving names that will never be forgotten, and enriching the annals of the Church with stories of the faith that removes mountains, of consecrated devotion, and of the love greater than which hath no man-for many of them laid down their lives for the Chinese.
2. For the Church in China-a Church which, when called in the last year of the nineteenth century to drink of her Lord's cup and to be baptized with His baptism, furnished hundreds of her sons and daughters who sealed their witness with their blood, and thousands more who bore "trial of mockings and sc,ourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. . being destitute, afflicted, evil entreated (of whom the world was not worthy) wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes of the earth."
3. For the opening up of the whole of China. Even Hunan and Honan are no longer closed against us. It is now a fact that there is not one of the nineteen hundred odd counties of China and Manchuria from which we are shut out, and before the hundredth year of our work we can say that if the Gospel is not preached to every creature in ChiDa, the reason must be sought outside China.
4. For the opportunities of work, varied in their kind, vast in their extent. Never before have men crowded to hear the Gospel as they are crowding now-in the open air and indoors, in our chapels and in our guest-rooms, we have opportunities to preach Christ such as can scarcely be found outside China. Never before has there been such an eager desire for education as there is now: our schools, both of elementary and of higher grades, are full, and everywhere applicants have to be refused. Never before has there been such a demand for Christian literature as , there is now: our Tract Societies, and all engaged in supplying converts and inquirers with reading material, are doing their utmost, but are not able to overtake the demand; and the demand is certain to increase, for it comes immensely from the largest number of people in the world reading one language.
A Call to Humble Ourselves Before God 1. Because of our shortcomings and mistakes. 2. Because that too many of the members of the Chinese churches are "carnal" and not -" spiritual"; "babes in Christ" and not -" full grown • Condensed from The Christian and Missionary Alliance.
men": through lack of use they have not" their senses exercised to discern good and evil."
3. Because the large increase of wealth in the home churches has not resulted in even a proportionate increase in the contributions to the work of GodJn other lands. Sometimes, indeed, a larger sum devoted to foreign missions proves to be a smaller contribution per member than was given when the church was smaller and poorer.
The Need for Prayer Let us look first at the colonial possessions, which occupy a vast area but are thinly populated. They are included in the fields practically unoccupied, and themselves include Tibet-the one citadel and stronghold of heathenism that still keeps its gates shut and barred against the missionaries of the Cross. We suggest as one definite object of prayer, that during the three years Tibet may be opened to the missionaries that are waiting the Lord's good time, on its eastern and southern and southwestern frontiers. We ask for prayer for these missionaries. We ask for volunteers to join them and their too few fellow workers who are scattered in far distant centers in Mongolia and Turkestan.
Such volunteers must needs be strong in body and stronger in soul, and well able to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
The eighteen provinces are what we mean when we speak of Chinathe real home of China's millions. It is hard to grasp the area that is covered by those eighteen provinces-1,300,OOO square miles; it is harder still to grasp the numbers of the men, women, imd children who live in those provinces-400,OOO.OOO. What is the force which we now have to evangelrze these millions, and how is the force diposed over the whole field of China and Manchuria? From the most recent statistics as given in Beach's Atlas we learn that the force is made up of 2,785 missionaries and 112,808 communicants, of whom 6,388 are picked men and women more closely engaged in the work than their hundred odd thousand fellow workers. Some of the missionaries and some of the converts are to be found in everyone of the provinces both of China and Manchuria. But in the 1,900 odd counties into which the provinces are divided, each with one important town, and a large part of them with more than one, there are but some 400 stations. That is to say, at least four-fifths of the counties of China are almost entirely unprovided with the means of hearing the Gospel.
The Need for Reinforcements 1. Reinforcement of the members. This is at once both the end of our preaching and the start of our reinforcement. We preach that our hearers may believe; when they believe they in turn tell others of the Savior they have found. So that the more believers there are the stronger is our force for evangelizing China. Here, then, lies the first object for prayer: pray for an increased membership.
2. Reinforcement of Chinese workers. We read that before the Savior chose the twelve He spent the whole night in prayer. This teaches us the close connection there must be between reinforcing the workers and prayer. There IS a crying need for more Chinese workers; if we act hurriedly because of the need and select men without waiting to pray, we are in a worse condition than we should be in without workers.
Most earnestly do we ask you to join us in prayer for more Chinese
workers. Pray that God will raise up in the Chinese churches those whose whole hearts shall be aflame with the desire to preach Christ to their fellow countrymen. Continue to bear them up when your first prayer is heard. Whenever you remember us in prayer, remember with us our beloved Chinese colleagues, whose ministry is indispensable.
S. Reinforcement of missionaries. As with Chinese workers, so with missionaries-reinforcement must be preceded by and continued with much prayer. Otherwise we may get additions but not reinforcements. If men be sent whom God has not sent, they can but hinder God's work.
What manner of men are needed as reinforcements? For the old stations, those who can train others; for the newer, those who can lead others; for the unoccupied parts, pioneers who can seek and save others.
Who ·is sufficient for these things? Certainly not the man who has failed at home; neither the man who is confident that he is sufficient o-f himself to succeed abroad. We want men and women strong in faith, strong in hope, and, above all, strong in love-men and women "filled with the Holy Ghost."
For what kind of work are these missionaries wanted? For every good work that the Spirit of God leads us to enter. Some forms of work which are the outcome of the love that God has poured into the hearts of Christians, and which are often met with in the home lands, are almost unknown in China. There is no home for incurables, and only one asylum for the insane; only one school for the deaf and dumb, and only a few schools for the blind, and a few hospitals for lepers in all China. The need of such institutions is great. With what infinite distress must our Lord see any of Risfollowers possessed of wealth and yet having no sense of responsibility for His suffering poor. What a unique opportunity all these institutions present for displaying before the Chinese the symmetry, the fulness, the perfectness of that life which Christ has bestowed upon us in revealing to us the secret of the love of God.
Again in the e4ucational, literary, and medical work we want more men and more institutions. There is not only the actual work in these departments that needs men to do it, there is need to train Chinese in all these branches. For such work the Church should send us the best teachers and the best scholars, the best doctors and the best nurses. Just as no offering is too great for this work so no man is too good for it.
But above and before all we need preachers of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men who will preach it in chapels and guest-rooms and city, and carry it from village to village. Men who will preach it in chapels and guest-rooms, or in the open air. For, ohl the number of sinners in China and the greatness of their sinsl And only Christ can save them from sin. With all prayer and supplication, pray in the spirit that God will send forth men who can say with St. Paul: "Christ sent me to preach the Gospel."
In view of the vastness of the field that lies open before us, and of the immense opportunities for good which China offers the Christian Church-opportunities so many of which have been quite recently open to us, and which were won by the blood of the martyrs of 1900.
Is it possible in three years to double the missionary force? Without prayer it is absolutely impossible-as impossible as the enterprise that Morrison commenced in 1807 would have been. But with prayer the entprprise is as possible and as reasonable as was Morrison's. Lift up your eyes and behold our Risen and Ascending Lord standing at the
right hand .of GDd tD make intercessiDn fDr us. Remember that He hilS entered intD that hDly place as .our FDrerunner, and that we have bDld- ness tD enter with Him and jDin .our prayers tD His. Remember that He has sent anDther Intercess.or tD help .our infirmities whensDever we knDw hDW tD pray as we .ought. Then say, Is what we ask in acc.ordance with GDd's will? We believe it is.
And this is the bDldness that we have t.oward Him, that if we· ask anything accDrding tD His will, He heareth us; and if we knDw that He heareth us whatsDever we ask, we knDw that we have the petitiDns which we have asked .of Him (JDhn v: 14, 15).
INDUSTRIAL MISSIONS IN INDIA * BY REV. EDWARD PEGG "The .only perfectly blameless way .of helping a man is tD put him in a pDsitiDn tD earn an independent livelih.ood fDr himself."-BIRJAMEs LA TOUCHE.
The last few years have been years .of SDre trial fDr India, with its tWD famiIl£s, attended, as all famines are, with the sister evils .of dysentery, chDlera, fever, and .other malign diseases. FDr years the peDple have been living in the very shadDw .of death. In all their dire distress the missiDnaries have ministered tD their temp.oral needs by feedingthefamishing, by healing their diseases, by starting industries and SD finding them wDrk, and by taking intD their variDus .orphanages s.ome thirty thousand destitute .orphans. Here these children are, rescued frDm starv/LtiDn; and nDW the further respDnsibility rests up.on U3 .of training them up nDt .only tD be gDDd Christians, but alSD tD be useful members .of the cDmmunity. Famine has a habit .of cramping the intellect, and we find that in the majDrity .of cases a famine waif is abs.olutely unable tD gD bey.ond the mDst elementary stage .of instructiDn. " What are we tD dD with them when they grDW up ?" is the CDnstant questiDn the missiDnary is asking himself, and the .only satisfactDry sDlutiDn .of the prDblem seems tD lie in industrial training. They must be taught tD wDrk with their hands. Thus it has CDme abDut that the prDblem .of industrial missiDn wDrk is .one ·of the burning questiDns .of the present time in missiDnary circles. The "hDur" has indeed CDme; GDd grant that the "men" may be fDrthcoming t.o.o. The" dull, hard stone" .of many hearts has been melted, and they are ready tD gather rDund the strangers WhD have lifted them .out .of their physical misery, and .one can but pray that the gratitude and cDnfidence which s.o many .of India's peDple have at this time in the Christian missiDnary may becDme faith-however rudimentary'-:"in his LDrd.· We must ever keep befDre us the th.ought that these children are fDrming the fDundatiDn .of many a native Church in India t.o-day; and if the fDundatiDn be nDt well laid, it may cause endless difficulties in the future, and in many cases be the means .of hindering instead .of drawing men tD the feet .of Christ. If these children are nDt trained up tD manual labDr. the majDrity .of them will beCDme mere l.oafers, and .our very purpDse in gathering them in will be defeated, fDr, as Dr. PiersDn says, "GDd wants a clean Church, nDt merely a crowded .one; He weighs, and d.oes nDt .only count."
One .other reas.on why this industrial question has bec.ome s.o pr.omi- * CondellSed from the Church Missionary Intelligencer.
INDUSTRIAL MIHSIONS IN INDIA
nent is because of the great increase in the number of converts of late years. According to the last census report, there are now some 2,600,000 native Christians, the total increase in the decade being about 30 per cent. This increase has brought the missionary face to face with another problem. "No sooner," as Gordon points out, "are communities quickened by the new life in Christ, than a desire at once manifests itself to improve their surroundings, and hepce some industrial training becomes almost a necessity." The influence of Christ not only produces a newness of life in things spiritual, but also in temporal matters, and His Church, if she is to retain her hold upon men in whom this new life is bursting forth in varied directions, must' concern herself not only with their spirituallife, but also with all the conditions and surroundings amid which this spiritual life has to be lived.
In many countries the people among whom the missionary works have only the most elementary ideas of smithing work and carpentry, and hence the missionary is obliged to take up industrial work; but while this is not true of India to-day, yet we are confronted with the everpresent difficulty of caste. Caste is a combination far more potent than any of the most powerful trades' unions, and it exercises the most absolute control over each of its members. To become a Christian often means for a mau loss of work, or, what is almost as bad, loss of a market for his goods. Few can realize the difficulties that often beset the way of one who openly professes Christ in aland like India, so that not only on behalf of all our famine children, but also on behalf of the younger members of our ever-increasing Christian community, we appeal to the members of the home Ohurch for their sympathy and help in this branch of our mission work, which provides employment, often at a very critical time, to the followers of our 'Lord and Savior.
For example, on a young man professing a desire to be a Christian, the missionary must have him for some time under his personal supervision; but if during this time he is doing nothing to earn his own living, the good which ~he personal influence of the missionary might have had is often entirely destroyed by the idle life which the youth has learned to love; if, on the other hand, such a youth be sentto some industrial institution, he is not only under the eye of the missionary, but he is learning habits of industry at the same time. Again, there are many Anglo- Indians who view with grave misappr'ehension the ever-increasing class of educated natives for whom no suitable work can be found, and the missionary is often accused of "spoiling them by education." Perhaps the solution of this difficulty lies in educating our Indian youth less in letters and more in industrial and practical work. Then, thirdly, it helps to take away at least some from the "land," which is a very necessa"y thing to do, for the future prosperity of India depends, to agreat extent, on inducing more or its people to engage in manufacturing pursuits.
There are many other reasons for the urgent necessity of industrial education. There is, for example, the popular contempt for manual labor among not only the educated but even the semi-educated classes. It is quite true that many of the existing methods of doing work in India do not inspire one with a sense of the dignity of manual labor. To see a couple of men loading a barrow with stones, one laying hold of the shovel, the other helping him by pulling at a piece of string attached to the lower part of the handle, does excite ridicule. Neither does the ordinary village artisan strike one as being very workmanlike in his methods.
It is for this reason that we need men, experts in their own line, who, for the love of Christ, will come out and take this work off the hands of the clergy-men who by their skill may be able not only to make our indus- trial concerns pay, but also to raise the standard of the various handi- crafts, and improve generally the methods of the various industries along the lines already existing. If industrial work is necessary, then as Christians we ought to do it as well as possible, and to appeal in Christ's name for the men who are best fitted for this work to "come over and help us."
In India, again, we have gained the experience that industrial train- ing is just what is required to develop the Christian character. Mr.
Smith, of Ahmednager, says: "As dependents, they can rarely develop the higher Christian virtues, and can never become a self-respecting and respected community. There never was a community of people who have mlYre to overcome than the poor Christians of India. Weare bound to give them a helping hand, and the only way to help any man is to help him to help himself."
There are some 457,000 boys and girls receiving literary instruction in mission elementary schools throughout the world, while only 5,000 odd are receiving an industrial training. In India there are but 167 indus- trial schools of all kinds. This shows how great is the need of such schools.
What is Being Done At the last meeting of the United Provinces Conference of Mission- aries, I was requested to visit some of the chief industrial institutions, with a view to picking up any hints which might be useful in the working of our C. M. S. industrial school at Secundra. I visited a good many stations and gleaned much valuable information. There are scattered over India many mission institutions where industrial training is taught. They may roughly be divided into three classes. First, we have a number of stations where the missionary in charge is endeavoring, alongside of all his other multifarious duties, to teach a few of his converts some industry, generally without any idea of financial profit. The industries engaged in are generally carpentry, ele- mentary smithing work, weaving, or lace-making. In some cases con- spicuous success has attended the laborious enterprise of the missionary, but in the majority of cases it seems but a waste of time, talent, and money. One can not help but admire the enthusiasm and the amount of work done by our missionaries in this direction, but an outsider is at once struck with the woful lack of organized effort. From such small concerns the spirit of competition is absent, the apprentice is apt to grow conceited and discontented, believing most assuredly that the missionary is gaining a great deal by his labor, and the missionary himself gradu- ally accumulates a lot of ill-made goods which he vainly endeavors to sell, and in despair he is glad to get rid of them at any price.
The second class of industrial institutions are those where not only a goodly number of apprentices, drawn from the surrounding smaller stations, are being trained, but where also numbers of skilled Christian workers are employed in factories, worked on business principles by business men. Attached to such factories, there are generally hostels where the young unmarried men live, and these are under the control of • some particular missionary, whose duty it is to try, by any and every means, to influence the youths for good. This appeals to most people as
INDUSTRIAL MISSIONS IN INDIA
the ideal plan. For each missionary district or conference to have a central institution, superintended by qualified men, to which each indi- vidual missionary can send those whom he wishes to have trained, is surely better than to expend his own time and labor in doing that which might be so much better done by others more fitted for the purpose. Of the institutions worked on these lines; perhaps those connected with the Basel Mission are the best examples. The mercantile branch pays inter- est on capital, but all profits over and above a certain percentage are used for spiritual purposes. Last year, I was told, they paid to the spiritual work some $50,000. Then mention must be made of the excel- lent Industrial Mission Aid Society. Founded in 1897, it has already earned the gratitude of all missionaries. Its object is "to assist the work of foreign missions by the establishment of industries to be carried on in close connection with ordinary missionary operations, but financially separate." Many a missionary's burden has been lightened since the founding of the I. M. A. S., for not only is it ready to step in and take a "going concern" altogether off the hands of the missionary, but it has established depots, both in Bombay and London, at which goods made at the various mission stations are received for sale. This society has an excellent carpet factory at Ahmednagar, which has met with the warmest approval of Lord NOl'thcote, and we hope it will receive the support it so well deserves, for it is to it that most missionaries must look for help to solve these industrial problems, unless they are able to start factories of their own.
The third class of institutions which have to do with industrial training are the hostels attached to the large railway workshops. In connection with the various railways there are central workshops, into which youths, irrespective of the creeds they profess, are admitted as apprentices, and in some cases Christian hostels have been built in the vicinity of these shops, in which Christian apprentices may live. This plan is an excellent one so long as the lads are really under a good spiritual leader, but unless the head of such an institution is a firm, spiritually minded man, the risk of congregating a number of young fellows together in such a country as India is a grave one. It appears, too, that the native non-Christian foremen often put obstacles in the boys' way of gaining any real knowledge of their trade.
Just as formerly supporters were backward in realizing the importance of "edueation" as a missionary agency, so they do not yet seem to have grasped the necessity of industrial training for our more illiterate converts. Dr. Hall, who lately visited India, says of this work: " All that I have seen commands my full confidence. So far from look~ ing upon industrial missions with distrust, I believe that the introduction of the industrial element into missions is as truly a work of the Holy Spirit as preaching or healing the sick."
The first resolution of the Industrial Committee of the recent Decennial Missionary Conference in Madras urges upon the several mis5lionary boards the necessity of giving such work a recognized,place among their agencies in India, and of affording it adequate support. We look for- • ward earnestly to the day when" industrial" will be as integral a part of the society's work as is its "educational" and "medical" departments.
I would emphasize, then, the need of industrial centers for each conference or district. Not only wonld such institutions save the trme of
individual missionaries, but the training would be of a higher order. If all the energy, time, and money so lavishly expended by individual men could be centralized, the success of our enterprises would be assured.
Having, then, established such central institutions, our next step should be to place them under properly qualified business men-men whose skill will enable them to impart instruction upon lines that are adapted to the circumstances of the people, men who will see that the best way of helping India is not by wholly sweeping away Indian methods, but by improving them.
Again, the standard and quality of our work ought to be of the highest. Many complain of the want of a market for their goods. The fault seems to lie rather in the quality of the things made; for ill-made goods it is not easy to find a market, but for all well-made articles we now have, through the medium of the I. M. A. S., the opportunity of selling them in Bombay or London.
There are, however, two very widespread difficulties. First, the dif- ficultyof insuring that the lads and others will follow in after-life the trade they have been taught. In one industrial school it was found that only nine per cent. were following the handicrafts they had learned in the school. It is evident, too, from the government returns of reforma- tories, etc., that quite a small percentage earn their living by means of the trade learned in youth. I suppose the remedy lies in more care being taken in the choice of trades, especial notice being taken of hereditary callings, and also in exercising more care in the general education of our industrial youths. They should, too, be made to begin to learn their trades much earlier in life; indeed, this must be done, if they are ever to successfully compete with their non-Christian neighbors.
The other difficulty is the alleged tendency of industrial enterprises to deaden the spiritual life of our infant Church. One meets with many who say that they have observed this tendency. Almost everything, of course, depends upon the kind of men at the head of affairs. Many com- plain of the difficulty of running a business on a mercantile as well as a reJigious basis. In the former case the work is of prime importance, while in the latter the worker is first thought of. I suppose the educa- tional missionary might also say the same. Industrial work there must be, and it is incumbent upon us to see that the spiritual life of our indus- trial communities does not suffer.
Surely here lies a call to the business men of our home Church-a call to go out to India and do for the industrial classes what others have done for the educated classes. Are there no business men ready to sac- rifice some of the love and sympathy, which is, alas! too much locked up in all our hearts, for the uplifting of these poor souls who have been given into our charge by Christ Himself ?
Dr. Zwemer well says: "The whole problem of industrial missions, which lies at the back of that other problem of obtaining a self-support- ing native Church, will have to be solved by men of business. The cause of foreign missions needs the help of business men in its administration- .• business men who will give their time and talent to this important work, and make it their business to do the Lord's work in a businesslike way."
NOTE.-An Industrial Missions Association has recently been formed in America through the instrumentality of Mr. W. H. Fry. This has the hearty approval of such men as Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall, Dr. C. C. Creegan, Dr. James S. Dennis, Mr. Robert E. Speer, and-others. A further notice will be found on page 146 of this number of the REVIEW.-EDlTORS.
EDITORIALS
EDITORIALS Higher Education in India cases, their time, talents, and energy to the cause of the Master The Gospel invariably brings a in tbe mission field.
desire for enlightenment. Where This girls' high school in Cal- cutta i,s founded on the Word of Christ is proclaimed and accepted, God, and its hightest and chiefest aim is His glory. From the first there schools, colleges, and univer- Miss Gardner intended to turn the school ultimately into a college as sities spring up. The mind is well. Year by year this purpose was strengtbened as she saw her. awakened, and, if a truly Chris- girls matriculating from the high tian education can not be had, school and joining Bethune College to pursue their studies further, many will go to non-Chril'tian there being no other door open to them. Bethune College is the only schools and graduate with ideas too college for girls in Bengal. It is a government institution, entirely often destructive of their Christian under non-Christian management and influence. By far the majority faith and life. It is for this reason of pupils are non-Christians. To send girls of fifteen or sixteen years that many missionaries are urging of age, before their Christian char- acter has had time to mature, to the necessity of higher education such an institution, is, to say the least, far from conducive to the defor the future leaders of nations velopment of Christian character and spiritnallife. just emerging from heathenism. In connection with this high The Bengali principal of the school, Mrs. Shrome has started a' collegiate class on a small sca.le, Woman's Missionary Union High and they use the same building bo~ for school and college. An School in Calcutta, Mrs. Shrome, is American missionary lives in the school; acts as a mother to the an earnest Chdstian and a rarely girls, and holds daily classes for Bible study. The school has also gifted woman. She has taken her its prayer-meetings, its Christian Endeavor Society, its Young M.A. degree in English and in Women's Christian Association branch. At the last meeting of philosophy in the Calcutta Uni- the Woman's Union Missionary Society Board in New York, it was versity. Of educational work in voted to make of this high school and college for Christian girls a general, Mrs. Shrome writes: memorial to Miss Gardner, and People, both in Great Britain Miss Edith H. May has been apand America, feel, to a great extent, pointed to take up the Calcutta that the only work worth doing in work upon her return to India next heathen lands is that of direct fall. Help is greatly needed to carry evangelization. If one's aim in on this branch of work, which is so imparting education were the fulfiling of an end and not the adoption of a meane, and one of the very best of means toward a desired end, such a view of the work of evangelization would certainly be correct. But, so far as I know, the aim of the Christian educationist is to bring his pupils to the feet of Christ, so to train the young that they may become .. vessels sanctified and, meet for the Master's use." Tbat tbe work of the educationist has born fruit is most empbat~cally emphasized by the converSIOn of hundreds of men in India who to-day are wielding a mighty influence for Christ, and who first learned the truths of Christianity while students in Christian collegejl. Considering the sbort period during which proper attention has been paid to girls, and higher education imparted to them, they have shown their appreciation of advantages received by devoting, in most
necessary in the training of Ohris- Describing Things As They Are tian women to become leaders In our Book Reviews in the Sep- tember (1903) issue we published a both in their own Ohristian com- briefnoticeof "ThingsAsTheyAre," by Miss Amy Wilson Oarmichael, munity and in evangelistic work; and we now wish to add a few words of still more emphatic comandleaders are neededwhen we con- mendation. This book is one which is, we ,think, unequaled in its pecul· sider that there are only 1,000 Eu- iar line. It presents the actual conditions of things in India with· ropean women missionaries to out undue plainness-not to say coarseness-and yet with such skill reach the 100,000,000 women of In- and tact and suggestive reticence that the reader feels that he has a dia. And, as Miss Gardner so often ,deep insight into Indian social life without experiencing any offense said," The women for Christ means to the most delicate sensibilities. It is a book to instruct and arouse India for Christ." In order to missionaries and supporters of mis- sions to pray and to give. There is continue 'the work of the school no false veil drawn over facts, and no false halo put around the work. during the coming year, $2,000 is It will help to send out workers with open eyes and open hearts, to needed at once. But to secure the make others feel the wants and woes which the Gospel alone can relieve future of the school a fund of $50,- or remove. We again urge all dis- ciples to read this book, which 000 is needed. has been pronounced by one critic to be the best missionary book in It may be reme,mbered that this the world.
is the mission to which the edi- Miss Carmichael's book contrasts in one respect with another book retor's daughter, Miss Louise B. Pier- viewed in April last: "By Order of the Prophet." We have' read son, gave her life. * this story with considerable in- terest, but it impresses us as, in No Money for Missions? one or two cases, violating the principles of modesty by intro- A missionary, an esteemed cor- ducing the heroine of the book into situations which are described respondent, writes: so as to offend good taste. These passages prevent this story from I lectured before a Ladies' Mis- having more unqualified praise. sionary Society attached to one of There are many books in which the the wealthiest churches in B— general drift is good, but in which not long since, and while they there is a needless introduction of were conducting the "business" profane or coarse language, or part of the meetiug I estimated the scenes which are in bad ,taste, and worth of the jewelry worn at not which mar any book intended for less than ten thousand dollars. A miscellaneous readers. plea came from a mission church in the West for some money with which to build a little wooden church. After much deliberation, ten dollars was suggested, and after more talk that was etd down to .five dollars! They had asked me to offer a prayer and to close with the Lord's prayer. Each one said " Amen" at the close. They pray- ed "Thy kingdom come," and sub- scribed five dollars toward that work, while at the same time they wore jewelry worth ten thousand dollars! Do you think the Gospel is preached in that church?
At the latest valuation, the Pres- byterian churches of New York Oity alone are estimated to rep- resent a cash value of ten and a half millions of dollm's! and to ''''that material wealth in real estate the present generation has contrib- uted but a very small per cent.
BOOKS FOR THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY THE LIFE OF EDWIN WALJ..ACE PARKER, D.D., more faithfully the Master whom he served, even unto death." These MIssional')' Bishop of Southern As,.., words from the Preface of the book forl;),-one years a missionary in India. are true. The memorial of Horace By J. H. Messmore. With an Introduc- Pitkin was a difficult one to write, tion by Bishop James M. Thoburn. 832 because the material was neither., Pl'. $2.00. New York: Eatou & Mains. large nor, for the most part. of Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye. 1903. unique interest. But the book affords a meeting-place where his This will be a welcome contribu- friends will gather to ~hink again tion to missionary literature to tens of the courageous and consecrated of thousands in India and America. man they loved. The author lias done a fine piece of sensible construction work. He Pitkin was emphatically his was competent for the task. For mother's son. President Eliot over forty years he was associated writes that he retains" only agenwith Bishop Parker in every phase eral impression of his sweet and of work and worship. His pre- sincere character and manner when cision and sympathy with the sub- a boy." His work in academy and ject, as well as his grasp of ques- college and seminary was good, but tions involved in portraying BishoJl not extraordinary. After a year Parker in situ, commend the pro- of immensely influential work duction. It is Bishop Parker, not among our American colleges, he Dr. Messmore, that is outlined. sailed with his wife for China. He reached his field of labor at Pao- It will be many a year yet before tingfu in the spring of 1897, and was the Christian world measures killed by the Boxers in the awful Bishop Parker-the cubits of the summer of 1900. The memorial height, and of the breadth, and of preserves for us, to a remarkable the depth. Plainly, here is a prac- degree, the spirit of the man. Here tical biography within the limits are his breezy characteristic letters of a hand-book of a many-sided, to his chums, with their goodly practical, devout, broad-visioned repertoire of college jokes and "man sent from God." The de- slang. Here are a number of ideal velopment from a Vermont farm missionary letters written to his boy to a bishop, wise in adminis- home church-letters diffuse, detration, at a formative period of scriptive, telling the things that missions in northwest India, the people at home want to know. loving" Great Heart" among all They show Pitkin the worker, missionaries and native Christians, frank, genial, intense, filled with can not be summarized in 300 words ideals, yet practical to his fingerwith the 300 pages of an honest tips. biographer before us cramped to severity to make an etching. We Nothing so perfectly reveals the will return to this at another time. man as his last recorded words, There are ten illustrations, well spoken to his Chinese' helper while the devilish crowd were swooping selected and well executed. ** down upon the mission: " Lao- man, tell the mother of little A MEMORIAL OF HORACE TRACY PITKIN. By Horace to tell Horace that his father's last wish was that when he Robert E. Speer. 12mo. $1.00, net. Flem- is twenty-five years of age he should ing H. Revell Company. 1903. come to China as a missionary."
"This is not simply a story of a life. It is a meeting-place, where many who knew and loved the true man pictured here may gather and compare their recollections, and confirm their purposes to follow
No mere man ever spoke more dians, Porto Ricans, Brazilians, heroic words. The man who, under Japanese, Chinese, Syrian, Per- those circumstances, could say that. ,sians, Africans, Alaskans, etc.
had livedalifewhose~tory is worth There is still room for a book de- writing and worth reading. H. scriptive of children at home and .abroad, with and without Christ.
A FLIGHT FOR LIFE. By James H. Roberts. This would be a great boon to Sun- Illustrated. 12mo, -402 pp. $1.50. The Pilgrim Press, Boston. 1003. day-school workers and leaders of Dr. Roberts fled from China dur- junior missionary societies. * ing the Boxer uprising in 1900, and INDIA'S PROBLEM: KRISHNA OR CHRIST. By was one of ~ party of missionaries J. P. Jones, D.D. Second edition. 8vo, who escaped overland through Si- 374 pp. $1.50, net Fleming H. Revell Co. 1903.
beria. He here tells the story This second edition of a very valu- • graphically. and gives besides It able book contains, besides many large amount of information about corrections to the text, several Mongolia and the Mongols. The valuable statistical tables, religious experiences of the missionaries and missionary. It is an excellent must have been thrilling to them, reference book on all subjects con- and as a record of travel the story nected with the land, peoples, re- is readable, but in no way remark- ligions, missions" etc. * able. The most valuable part of the book is the incidental informa- THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE BOOK. An illustrated Hebrew-Christian quarterly. tion about the country through B. A. M. Schapiro, editor; Robert Cameron, D.D., associate editor. Pp.64. which the party passed. * 260 St. James Place, Brooklyn. New York. $1.00.
CHILD LIFE IN MANY LANDS. Edited by H. This 'magazine has now existed Clay Trumbull, D.D. lllustrated. 12mo. three years, and every number has 215 pp. $1.00, net. Fleming H. Revell contained valuable information Co. 1903. concerning Israel, its Holy Book, and its land. Such a magazine as This series of articles, descriptive this is useful, and deserves the supof child life in various countries, port of the Christian public. To was for the most part contributed the Christian reader it will prove by some twenty-two writers to the helpful and stimulating by making Su.,nday-School Times. They are him better acquainted with the interesting chapters, but disap- Jews and the Bible, while to the pointing from a missionary stand- cultured Jew it may possibly bring point. A splendid opportunity has the truth as it is in Jesus without been missed to give us a vivid picture of child life in heathen lands, and the difference which the Gos- offending him. as do so many of our pel makes in the home and child modern tracts for Jews. An extraining. Dr. Trumbull in his In- cellent facsimile of the scroll of the troduction strikes a key-note which Law in Hebrew is given with each should have been found in all the succeeding chapters. The descrip- subscription. M. '
tions bring us into closer touch with LEAFLETs.-Comparatively few the children of other nations, but realize the wealth of information most of them do not' throw much and interest that there is in the light on their condition from a leaflet literature of the various Christian point of view. Mrs. Bal- missionary societies. They cover lington Booth writes picturesquely a wide range of topics by the best on" Baby Footprints in the Slums," writers, and make excellent reading and there are other chapters on for young peoples' and women's Immigrant Children, American In- missionary meetings.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE AMERICA with appropriate and excellent A Day of The General Com contents. These are the titles of Prayer for mittee of the some of the articles: "A Historical Students World's Stndent Sketch, 1803-1903," "Serampore Christian Federa- and the Pioneers," "From this tion have appointed February 14, Storied Height" (a view of progress 1904, as the Universal Day of made in Burma, Assam, South In- Prayer for Students. All the dia, China, Japan, Africa, Europe, Christian student movements be- and the Philippines, each article by longing to the World's Student a missionary in the country Christian Federation have official- named), "American Reminders of ly endorsed and adopted this day Judson," ., How the Work Grows" for united intercession on behalf of (charts indicating the increase in students. These movements em- missionaries, native workers, brace over 1,600 separate Christian church-members, and contribustudent societies, with a total mem- tions). bership of 89,000 students and pro- It appears that two other names fessors. What a source of spirit· preceded the present one, The Masual blessing and power such a sachusetts Baptist Missionary world-wide concert of prayer . Magazine, 1801-17, and The Amerishouldbe, provided the opportunity can Baptist Magazine and Mission- ary Intelligencer, 1817-36. Curibe wisely improved I . Never has there been a greater ously, the second number appeared need of definite, fervent, believing not uutil May, 1804, or eight prayer for students. The growing months after the fil'st; in 18Q6.-7 numbers of students in the differ· they averaged three annually; in ent countries, the disproportion. 1808-10 they attained to a quarterly ately great influence which they estate. The number for Septemare to wield in after life, the prev- ber, 1809, contained that epochalence and activity in studentcom- making sermon of Rev. Claudius munities of the forces of evil, the Buchanan, "The Star in the East," remarkable success of the Christian which so tremendously stirred the student movements, the opportu- soul of Judson and many more.
nities on every haud for extending American This society sus- the helpful influence of these move- Board tains in Turkey 8 ments, the urgent call of the Medical Work dispensaries and 6 Church for more students to dedi- hospitals; in India cate their lives to the work of and Ceylon, 16 dispensaries and 11 Christ at home and on the mission hospitals; in China, 10 dispensaries fields-all these and other consid- and 7 hospitals; in Africa, 7 dis- erations constitute an irresistible pensaries and 3 hospitals, and in appeal for prayer for students. * Japan 1 dispensary and a mission- ary physician in a Japanese hos- Centennial of The Baptist Mis- pital. This makes a total of 42 dis- a Missionary sionary Magazine pensaries and 28 hospitals in which Magazine celehrates its cen- were treated last year 253,800 tennial in its De- patients. When we bear in mind cember issue, and pre"ents its read- that these patients are under Chris- ers with a number most attractive tian instruction while in the hos- to the eye, as well as overflowing pital, and that few come to get
medicines without carrying away sionaries. The society named has with them a word of Christian just closed its twenty-eighth year truth or a printed page, and when with receipts above $200,000 and we also bear in mind that for the contributions from more churches, first time many of these people ex- Sunday-schools, and individuals perience Christian sympathy and than ever before. Its largest tenderness, we can get some con- 'single gift of the year was $6,000. ception of the wide influence of It has recently sent additional workthis work. Many of these hospitals ers to Japan, China, and the Philand dispensaries are entirely self- ippines, and has a number of men supporting apart from the salaries in preparation to go out next year. of the missionary physicians in charge.-Congregational Work. Presbyterian During the last Mission Work year no less than Departure of A delightful mis- Alliance sionary farewell 5,227 church-mem- bers were reported added to the Missionaries service was held roll. The previous year there November 30th in were 5,241, this being the largest number, with a single exception, connection with' the departure of 7 in any year in the Board's history. missionaries for India, namely, The native membership now stands Mr. and Mrs. Rogers and their 2 at 46,540. In 1833 there were only children, Mr. and Mrs. Eiker, of 7 American missionaries under the Altoona, Pa., and Messrs. Green- Board. Thirty years later there grass, Carver, and Turnbull, late wete but 99 native workers. In students in the Missionary Insti- 1903 there are 781 missionaries, and tute of Nyack. This party will 1,988 native workers. These figform a valuable accession to our ures indicate a steady growth. brethren in that great and needy To-day there are 127 stations, 1,402 field. The Alliance has now nearly outstations, 764 schools, 27,370 80 missionaries in India. The num- pupils in schools, 38,342 Sunday ber may seem great to us, but as scholars, 693 churches, 122 students one of the outgoing missionaries for the ministry, 10 printingremarked, it seems very small to presses, which last year printed them.-Christian and Missionary 107,938,713 pages, and 91 hospitals Alliance. and dispensaries, which treated during the year 290,103 patients. Missionaries The Foreign Chris- for TIbet tian Missionary So- Industrial Steps were taken to Missions win friends for this ciety, which repre- Association mission in America sents the Disciples of Christ, is sending a band of 3 missionaries to at a meeting in the try to gain an entrance into the United Charities' Building, New exclusive land of Tibet-Rev. A. York, on December 8th. Rev. L. Shelton and wife, of Kansas; and Charles Cuthbert Hall, D.D.• was Dr. Susan C. Rijnhart, of Canada. in the chair, and addresses were Some years ago Dr. Rijnhart and made by W. H. Fry, Esq., Dr. C. her husband explored a part of C. Creegan, and others, on the ur- Eastern Tibet, and the husband gent necessity for the systematic lost his life in the undertaking. development of industrial mission This is one of the "closed lands," work on the best possible commerand the Tibetans can only be reach- cial basis. The existing missionary ed by border missions. It is hoped, societies are not constituted for however, that the British expe- this purpose, and it is not desirable dition may open the way for mis-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
that their missionaries should be A Mission A little steam- involved in commercial work of Yacht yacht called the this nature; so that- the Industrial Dedicated Sentinel, under the Missions Association of America auspices of the Pro- is established to give employment testant Episcopal Missionary So- to native Christians seeking to ciety for Seamen, has recently been enter industrial pursuits, and aims dedicated by Bishop Potter. In to become self-supporting on a addition to ministering to the Christian commercial basis. The spiritual welfare of seamen in association has received hearty New York harbor, it will act as a support from secretaries of mission sort of watch-dog, seeking to pre- boards, missionaries, and others in- vent shanghaing, protecting sail- terested in the development of ors also from land-sharks, crimps, strong, self-supporting Christian boarding-house runners, and the communities in India and else- like. It will also aid in bringing where. .. about more farewell religious ser- vices than are now held on ships Hartford One-tenth of the starting out on long voyages.
Seminary graduates of this The boat is attached to the float- and Missions s e min a r y have ing mission at the foot of Pike found their work Street, and will make four trips in foreign lands. A continuous around the harbor each week, dis- course of instruction in foreign tributing tracts and inviting sea- missions has been provided. The men to attend the mission. Itwill library, now numbering over 82,- make special trips on Sunday after- 757 books and 45,977 pamphlets. noons, gathering sailors on boats contains the Augustus C. Thomp- lying along the rivers and in the son collection on foreign missions, bay and bringing them to the mis- which numbers 7,275 volumes. The sion for supper and religious ser- reading-room, with its more than vice afterward. ..
400 periodicals, is supplied with all the leading missionary magazines. Chinese New York's China- Open-Air town is one of the The missionary museum contains Service in worst sections of New York the city. In it is 240 different missionary versions but one church•. a of the Bible. Opportunity is fur- Roman Catholic, but several mis. sions are doing excellent work. nished for the study of various mis- Among them is the New York Foreigners' Mission, with Miss sionary languages. The seminary Helen F. Clark as director. For several Sundays this institution has arranged for a number of lec- has held an open-air service in the heart of Chinatown, and a contures on the different non-Christian servative estimate gives the num- ber of listeners one Sunday as 5,000. religions, to be eventually devel- Not only Chinamen attended, but Jews, Italians, Germans, and Irish oped into a complete course in were present in large numbers, and different speakers at the meeting comparative religion. Some of the used all the languages of these people. The steredpticon was used special lecturers for 1904-1905 will to show pictures of biblic'll scenes; be Rey. G. W. Fiske, of Auburn, Maine, on "Business Methods in Mission Work"; Rev. W. B. For- bush. of Charlestown, Mass., on "Mission Work Among Young People"; Rev. C. J. Ryder, D.D., New York, on "The History and Growth of the American Mission- ary Association," of which he is secretary. ..
and to display the words of hymns. $75. There are about 150 children enrolled, and the daily attendance The meetings are remarkable even is 76.
in this city of big things, and are BrooklYn The Young Men's Y. M. C. A. Christian Associaso successful that it is planned to Jubilee tion of Brooklyn, continue them into the fall, and to N. Y., has recently hold similar gatherings in Mul- celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, and among other things rejoiced berry Park, the breathing spot over the raising of a fund of $425,- 000 for the erection of three new made through the efforts of Jacob buildings and the paying off of mortgages. About" $600,000 more A. Riis from the notorious Mul- is needed. The Association con- ducts work at 12 centers in that berry Bend. * city, including the Navy Yard, and the barns of the leading street-car Presbyterians and.. the Southern company. It has 6 buildings val- Mountaineers.-The Presbyterian ued at $1,000,000, 5,600 members, Church, North, sust,ains evangeliz- 900 of whom-are in the Bible classes. ing work among the mountaineers Mr. George Foster Peabody, who of the South at some 60 points: 6in as a poor boy obtained most of his West Virginia, 9 in Kentucky, 12 education while attending the evein Tennessee, and 32 in North Caro- ning classes of the Association, has lina. The work of teaching is given large sums for the' erection mainly in the hands of devoted of its buildings at Greenpoint, N. and self-denying women. Y., Columbus, Ga., Salt Lake City, and other places. The finest naval A Tuskegee John T. Hollis branch building in the world was Student's writes thus from erected by Miss Helen Gould at the Armstrong, A I a- Brooklyn Navy Yard. Achievement bama: A Christian A unique and prac- The schoolhouse at this place Health Farm tical form of Chris- was burnt down the year before I in Colorado tian work is the came here, so when I came there Association Health was no place in which to teach. I Farm near Denver. It is fighting was determined to begin the school, tuberculosis among the very large however, and so I opened in one of number of young men who go there, and are without home in- the rooms of a dwelling-house in fluence, without the touch of the community. The rapid in- mother's or sister's hand, and of crease in number of students made father's love. The establishment . it necessary to move to an old log of the Denver Association Health Farm marks the latest develop- house, which would have served ment in Young Men's Christian Association work. First suggested for a while had it not been for the by the crying needs of a mliititude fact that cold weather was on, and of young men seeking the Colorado there was no way to heat the house. climate for physical reasons; it was quickly and practically approved I moved into another dwelling- by generous friends, and to-day the house, where I taught until I was farm idea is an accomplished fact. able to build a schoolhouse. There were so many children that the boys had to remain by a fire outside of the house, and come in only to recite their lessons. I did not have money to buy lumber for the school- house, but I gave my note for it, and after the neigl:!bors hanled the lumber, with the assistance of sev- eral of them, I framed the build- ing. One of my more advanced pupils taught the school while the schoolhouse was being built. but I would hear several of the recita- tions each day. I built the stove flues and the blackboards myself, and in this way the whole build- ing, which is 30 x 20 feet, only cost
1904J QBNl!:RAL MISSIONARY INTELL1Gl!:NCB
The patients live in cottage tents, Lutherans, 44 Methodists, 25 Bap- tists, South, 10 Episcopalians, with because they have proven most several smaller missions supplying the residue. desirable for men seeking health. EUR.OPE Twenty to thirty dollars per month GreatBritain The Christian is charged for tent cottage and and the Union for the sev- board for each resident, deter- Opium Traffic erance of the con- nection of the Britmined, as far as possible, according ish Empire with the opium traffic to ability of the resident to pay has issued a letter with a view to arousing public feeling against the for accommodations. Employ- government's connection with the trade. The official returns show ment will not be guaranteed until that during the l.ast four years the opium manufactured by the Indian the physical condition of the appli- government amounted to 29,155,200 pounds-a yearly average of 7,288,- cant is fully understood. Some 800 pounds. About 600,000 ~cres of the best land of India are used for employment can be secured on ad- its cultivation. The letter ex- presses the hope that knowledge of joining nursery and vegetable the facts will lead to a "general determination that a trade so unfarms. * just and dishonorable shall no lon- ger be carried on in the name of Methodists There is an interest- our country." Many leading Free in Hawaii ing condition of Churchmen sign the appeal, as well as the Archbishop of Dublin and things in Hawaii. the Bishops of Durham, Liverpool, The Chinese are excluded, and the and Norwich. fear of overcrowding has practically shut out the Japanese. The British Among the more result is a great scarcity oflaborers, Baptists prominent features particularly farm-hands. The Aggrenive of the work of the farmers have, therefore, invited immigration from Korea. Not Baptist Missionary long ago 80 Koreans shipped on one Society during the past twelve vessel for Hawaii, of whom it was months has been the occupation of found that 31 were Methodists. A two large spheres of work in India. Methodist church was organized on among the aboriginal tribes of shipboard, which had 50 members the Chittagong Hill tracts and the when they landed. After reaching South Lushai country. The num- Hawaii they sent back to Korea for ber of conversions in India has been a pastor. There are now 600 large, and the native churches are Koreans in Hawaii, of whom 300 growing. In Africa the last links are members of the Methodist Epis- of the "complete chain" of miscopal Church. The American sions right across that country Board has decided not to enter it, from west to east are being forged. and the members of their churches The churches in the West India who take letters to Hawaii are ad- Islands, the Bahamas, San Dominvised to unite with the Methodist go, and Trinidad, havenowbecome Church.-Western Christian Advo- entirely independent and self-supcate.
The Gospel This imperial realm in Brazil includes about half of South America, and contains about 18,000,000 inhabitant who are all practically either Catholics or out-and-out heathens. And among this great host only 200 Protestant missionaries are to be found. Of these, 45 are Presbyterians, 45 are German
porting. The Baptist society has evangelical faith; Waldensian also got a new mission steamer, the chapels and schools being over- Endeavorer, on the Kongo. crowded, and everywhere thel e being a hunger for a Gospel of The C. M. S. Simply because of love and grace. In Sicily alone Forward the necessary en- the Waldensian Church has 30 Movement largement of its churches and missions. work, this great Now, as never before, is resting organization is threatened with upon the Waldensian Church the a serious deficit, and, to avoid this, opportunity and responsibility of calls for an increased incom'e of no giving the Gospel to the 33,000,000 of less than $443,500! And not only Italy. This band of Waldensians, calls for it, bllt proposes to secure poor in the world's goods and few it. For this purpose Dr. Herbert in numbers, but giving liberally of Lancaster has been put in charge personal service and material help, of the Home Organization Depart- is looking with prayerful hope to ment -jointly with Canon Flynn. America for a large part of .much Concerning the method of pro- needed pecuniary aid to enable cedure, he says: "I propose, with them to prosecute the great work tbe cordial cooperation of my col- so wonderfully opened up to her. leagues, to collect at least 1,000,000 This is the day of opportunity for shillings before February 29th, and Italy. Everywhere, under the -this can only be done if large num- liberal laws (If the land, there is an bers help. I am issuing three open door for missionary work. * sheets of small receipts. Sheet A contains 100 for one shilling; B, Interest Among The correspondence 20 for one shilling; and C, 60 for ifve Jewish Rabbis with Jewish rabbis, shillings, 20 for three, and 20 for two shillings." to which reference The Waldensian The field which this was made in THE REVIEW for De- Church native martyr of Italy church, "The Israel cember, 1003, as one of the encour- of the Alps," is aging signs of Jewish missions, is called of God to occupy, is one of unique importance. The evangeli- beginning to develop in a remark- zation of Italy means a wonderful able manner. Mr. Gelbert, superblessing to the whole world, because Italy is the stronghold of intendent of the Wanderers' Home the papal hierarchy. America is peculiarly interested in Italy's in Bristol, England, was from the evangelization, because of the -immigrants from that land, 136,000 beginning the assistant of the Rev. coming to us in one year, almost all of them from southern Italy, J. M. Eppstein in editing the periwhere illiteracy, superstition, and lawlessness have been preeminent. odical and is issuing correspond- W.hile all over Italy, Waldensian evangelists are meeting with most ence with Russian rabbis, and since encouraging success, it is in southern Italy, and especially in Sicily, Mr. Eppstein's death he has been in that the greatest results have been achieved; whole communities turn- sole charge. Some time ago he ating away from Romanism to the tended a congress of rabbis at Cra- cow, where he met several of those with whom he had been in corre- spondence. Opportunity came for conversation with 48, and he was * A contribution of $125 will support the whole band of 145 missionary workers for one day. $1,000 will, in many cases, "ecure a hOllse of worship fo'f<-one of the missions. $150 a year will support a student in the Theological Hall in Florence. The salary of a colporteur or evangelist is from $20 to $-30 a month, and of a pastor from $500 to $800 a year. A Bible woman can be supported for $10 a month, and a teacher for from $10*to $20 a month.
GENlilRAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
permitted to preach to them from E. B. Haskell's report of his canvass Matthew v : 3. After his return to of the vilayet of Monastir: Burned England an invitation was received villages, 17; burned houses, 1,700; from one of these rabbis to meet houseless people, 7,330; unarmed himself and 5 others in conference men killed, 87; families injured, during the Zionist Oongress in 1,336; women dishonored, 38; 4 Basel (August, 1903), and he reports churches and 1 monastery torn a profitable time with these and down; 14 churches gutted and de- other delegates at the congress. filed.
One of the numerous questions put A Prayer The Bishop of Gib- for the raltar has authorto the missionary was, "Why did Oppressed ized the use of the not the contemporaries of Jesus following petition recognize His Messiahship?" In in his diocese: answer, Mr. Gelbert simply quoted A PRAYER FOR OUR CHRISTIAN 1. Corinthians i:22-24:-" The Jews BRETHREN IN MACEDONIA require a sign," etc. M. o Almighty God, Who art a most Sunday-schools The Rev. Dr. strong tower to all that put their in Hungar)" Moody writes from trust in Thee, behold, we beseech Budapest: Accord- Thee, the afflictions of our brethren in Macedonia. Delivel' them from ing to statistics just collected by injustice and misrule, and from the Mr. J. Victor, for the Sunday- many other miseries by which they school Union, there are in Hungary are compassed. Heal their divi- 128 Sunday-schools. Of- these, 22 sions. Keep them from the I!Ipirit are in connection with the Re- of revenge, and from whatsoever formed Church, including thl;l Scot- else is contrary to the Christian tish Mission, 8 are in connection name and profession. Especially with the Lutheran Church, 92 are we commend to Thy merciful care in connection with the Baptists, 1 and protection their wives, daughis in connection with the Metho- ters, and' children; preserve them dists, and 5 are without special from cruelty, outrage, and dis- Church. connection. The number honor; comfort the mourners; sucof teachers is 398. The number of cor the widows, ~he orphans, the scholars in attendance varies from homeless: restore plenty, quietabout 4,200 to 4,900. The number ness, and the voice of joy into their of schools into which the group dwellings. In this hour of their system has been introduced is 67, sore need, wrong, and peril, be and the number of groups is 343. Thou their Savior and Mighty De- The number of schools In connec- liverer, because there is none other tion with whieh a teachers' prepa- to succor them but only Thou, 0 ration meeting is held is 50. In 94 God. Give ear, Lord, to the cry of schools the "International Scheme Thy suffering people, and save of Lessons" is used. In 94 schools them for Jesus Christ's sake. the language of instruction is Hun- Amen. garian, in 29 German, in 2 Hungarian anil German, in 4 Slavonian, ASIA and in 1 Rumanian.-Missionary Record of Church of Scotland. Medical Work The medical work Turkish Fiends As a fair specimen in Syria of Dr. Harris in in Macedonia of the widespread Tripoli w.as tempo- butchwy and abuse inflicted by the soldiers of the rarily suspended by"his furlough in Porte, read these items from Rev. the United Sootes. Dr. MaryPier- son Eddy has continued h.er clinics at Junillh and itinerated in the in- terior, being everywhere welcomed boy the people. No more in1!eresting sight can be seen in Syria than the medical camp of this American wo-
man, thronged by men, women, at a bishlik (11 cents) a day, and and children of all ages and sects, most diJ,ys they can not find work and even priests, monks, and nuns, at any price. emirs, and sheikf'!, eager to receive medical and surgical treatment at Emigration is the only relief, her hands.-Assembly Herald. and our churches are losing their best young men and many even of The Gospel In a city known to the pastors. and teachers. In the Touching us, 15 or 20 Moslem Presbyterian church of South Beth- Moslems women, even 50 lehem, Penn., are 55 communi- cants from the village of Amar in upon occasions, as- the Tripoli field, of whom 30 were church-members in Amar and the semble regularly in prayer-meet- remaining 25 were received in South ing. In- another city, ladies of Bethlehem upon profession of faith. high rank, upon whom Ii, life of On an average, one-third of our pleasure palls, read the Ne IV Testa- church-members are abroad, .most ment with joy. Here, a military of them in the United States, and man believes. There, a servant. from the United States comes a A humble man addressing his coun- large part of the income of those trymen says, fearlessly: "Your re- who are left in Syria. ligion is the same heathenism your fathers practised. They worshiped The Gospel The report of the golden idols, you a stone in your in Arabia Arabian Mission pockets (holy earth from a shrine). They prayed to an image, you to a mentions its medi- dead prqphet. This is the last word, 'Come to Jesns, who is called cal work as of primary importance. Christ.' " Only a year ago, at the close of a communion service under The number of patients treated at .Mt. Hermon, a Mohammedan pres- ent quietly begged that he might Bahrein has been 15,400, and 8,003 carry home a bit of the bread. He dared not eat it in the public meet- at Busrah-23,403 in all. To the ing, but he would eat it alone and would believe that the Savior com- Mason Memorial Hospital, at Bah- muned with him. No, Islam is a mighty foe to Christ's Gospel, but rein, a present has been made in it is not impregnable.-Woman's Work for Woman. the form of a windmill, an adjunct Drawbacks to Rev. F. W. March much needed, and which will be Work in S,ma writes in the As- gratefully appreciated. By the sembl]J Herald from the Tripo1i field: missionaries and colporteurs 11 The evils of poverty, oppression, tours have been made, occupying robbery, and bad government are greater and greater every year, es- 224 days, and covering 3,300 miles. pecially in the northern part of our field. A prominent church.mem- The sales of Scriptures amounted ber at Hamath, a successful mer- chant for man¥ years, has given to 4,059 copies, in 17 languages. Of up and moved away because he finds there is no longer any money these, 3,362 were sold to Moham- to be made. Beggars are more numerous than ever. Our pastor medans, or 82 per cent. of the said he could go ont at any time to the market-place and hire 100 men whole number. Steps have been taken to occupy Kuweit,.an im· portall't strategic position near the head df the Persian Gulf.
A Statesman's Sir. W. Mackwol'th Testimony to Young, K.C.S.I., India Missions 1ate Lieutenant- Governor Of the Punjab, recently made the follow- ing statement in St. Michael's Church, Cornhill, London: Possibly you mary have some doubts whether the methods adopted in the mission field are al- together. worthy qf approval, and whether the agents are worthy of trust. Is the money which is con- tributed at home to the mission
GENERAL MISSIONARY
cause being properly applied? Do gates or means of access other the missionaries work on right than by a ladder of six or eight lines? Are they really self-denying steps, which brings one to the top and devoted? Are the results at of the wall, and a good jump is all commensurate with the efforts needed to reach the ground on the made? Is the Kingdom of Christ other side; sometimes, however, a being really promoted by those notched bamboo pole takes the efforts? place of the ladder aforesaid, and then the climb is an impossibility I give you the assurance, from to anyone wearing shoes. One some observation of mission work patient I very much wished to see, in India, that all these questions but found no means of entrance to and many more of a similar char- ber abode, except by the bamboo acter may safely be answered in just descriBed. I was told, howthe affirmative. If the work were ever, I might reach the dwelling by altogether a work of faith, going going through a neighbor's comon underground, but not showing pound, but here again I was foiled itself in the open day, this would by a very deep ditch with steep be no reason for abandoning or con- crumbling sides separating the two demning it. For how many years gardens; into this I declined to after the death of Christ was not scramble. When the sick woman the cause of Christianity in an ap- was told of the difficulty she came parently hopeless minority? Cer- out, and, standing on the edge of tainly much longer than the Gospel her side of the gulf, shouted mit has been preached in India. Yet her symptoms to me on the other it bas triumphed in Europe, and it side, with the result that I was will triumph in Asia. And, able to send her some medicine. triumph or no triumph, woe is to us if we preach not the Gospel! In the hospital at Trevandrum But, as a business man speaking Miss Blandford says there have, to business men, I am prepared to say that the work which has been during the past year, been 62 padone, by missiOllary agency in India exceeds in importance all that has tients, 30 of whom were children. been done (and much has been done) by the British government The out-patients numbered 2,595. in India since its commencement. Hope for It is a sign of the * Hindu Widows times that the num- Work of A recent number of ber of Hindu wid- Healing Under In d i a's Women Diffi~ltie5 and Chi n a's ow marriages in different parts of Daughters, the or- India is increasing by leaps and gan of the C. E. Z. M. S., contains bounds, the brides in most cases an account by Miss Blandford of a being virgin widows. This shows visit paid by her early in the year that the resolutions passed year to a place called Koni, about eighty after year at the different social miles from Trevandrum, where conferences are not meant to be there was no medical practitioner nominal ones, but are intended to of any kind. The people were for be carried out in practise. It is, the most part poor, and many were indeed, gratifying to find that the suffering from malarial fever, de- Hindus are becoming more and bility, and anremia, so with the more alive to the importance of medicine-chest which she had with social reform and the pernicious her, she was able to do something nature of some of the social evils for the relief of those who came to which exist in their midst. We her for treatment. She tells of the are accountable to God for our difficulties sometimes encountered treatment of our womankind, and when visiting or' trying to visit unless we treat them with greater patients in their own homes: consideration God's curse will al- The houses are generally sur- ways'rllst'""on us, and our sufferings rounded by high walls with no will never cease. The prevention of early marriage, the education of
our women, and tb.e remarriage at by setting men free from the torleast of virgin widows, should re- ment of sin and also from the thralceive the first care of all those who dom of sin, by giving knowledge to wish our country well.-New Dis- the ignorant, both women and men, pensation (Brahmo-Somaj). in simple terms that all could un- derstand, Jesus had won for Him- Shoes for In view of the fact self a unique place (may we not say it ?) in human hearts. He is a Mohammedans t hat Mohamme- sea of beauty, a bottomless mine o:e moral and spiritual wealth, a store dans ought to wear of mercy, an ocean of knowledge. If you will cast off all the fetters of only sandals to please the Prophet, superstition, and look upon Jesus with holy and earnest intentness, and that Hindus abominate dead you can not but be fully persuaded to believe in His deity. His whole animal skins, it is interesting to life was actively employed in doing good to others, in bettering the note the growing Indian taste for condition of the world, in making earth as heaven. boots and shoes of foreign make, A notable Brahman scholar of shown by the steady increase in the Dacca is quoted as having expressed imports of these articles year by himself regarding this article in the year. In 1900–1001, the number of following terms: " We did not expairs imported was 709,059; during pect all this from a Brahman high priest who is a bigoted Hindu and the succeeding year the figures rose a recognized preacher of our religto 746,099; while last year they ion. The writer seems to me to be jumped up to 853,358 pairs. * a great lover of Jesus Christ, altho A Hindu's A remarkable arti- he is not a Christian. The article Testimony to cle appeared lately is the first of its kind in this coun- Christ in a Bengali maga- try. I do not know if any Bengali Christian could write a better." zine. The writer The Medicine An old Chinese was a Brahman of extensive repu- Needed for woman once came tation as a scholar and a writer. China into a missionary The subject of the article is " Jesus hospital, saying that she would like to see the doc- Christ of Judea," and from a trans- tor. On his asking what she wishlation of it which appeared in the ed, she replied: "The mayor of August number of the Missionary our town has lately been here with Herald, organ of the Baptist Mis- you. He was a very bad man; used sionary Society, the following quo- to cudgel his children, wasted his tations are made: money at play, and had so foul a The adorable Jesus Christ was mouth that all the waters of the born in the hamlet of Bethlehem, situated in the well-known province world could not have made it clean.
of Palestine. The religion He But since he has been with you preached is what is now called the the tiger is transformed into a Christian religion, and those who lamb, and his wife is full of joy and believe in and obey Jesus are called astonishment. He no longer gives Christians. As we contemplate His unique moral beauty, incom- her an unhandsome word, and they parable wisdom and learning, His live in peace together." "Good marvelous and mighty words, His news," replied the doctor; ," but spotless character, meek and lov- what now do you wish, my good ing spirit, His deeds of mercy and words of love, His mighty miracles woman?" "Well," said the woman, wrought by Divine power, the " you are to tell nobody, but I too heart refuses to admit that this Jesus is a mere man, but feels that He is Divine. By His wonderful works of love wrought for the help and the relief of the poor and needy, by His exquisitely tender sympathy with the afflicted, by the light, moral and spiritual, which He shed,
1904J GlliNlllRA, L MISSIONARY INTElLLIGENCE
have an unhappy mouth. and I am to and fro to evade the writ of afraid my daughters-in-law find it ejectment that was ever ready to none too easy to live with me. be served upon the then 'heirs of Therefore, I have come to beg you the empire, and yet inmates of "Hog Lane," as it was then called to give me some of the medicine by the Chinese. Nowhere else were that has cured our mayor."- they allowed to rest the soles of feet. .A few others had come to Monatsbltltter. t help Morrison and be his residuary Chinese Two recent events legatees, if he ever got anything, Opening but they were not a whit bet,ter off.
in Kayin, among They had everybody against them: Their Eyes the H a k k a s 0 f Chinese mandarins, Chinese schol- southeastern ars, and Chinese common people, China, illustr~te in a forceful way and, worse than that, even their the interest in Western learning own country now looked upon them which is universal throughout as crack-brained enthusiasts. The powerful East India Company. then China. One of these is the opening in existence, scourged them and of a free public reading-room in a persecuted them. Men like Sydney portion of the Confucian Temple, Smith cracked their jokes at the where dailies can be seen from expense of the cobbler Carey in In- dia and the bobbin-boy Morrison Swatow, Hongkong, Shanghai, and" in China. No man of .Macedonia Japan also other periodicals in beckoned the~n to come m, no man .• of the Cornehus type sent for them Chmese, and a few books. The to tell a message from the living room is a city institution, being God. They had converts-s~ only supported by the wharfage rates. after a generation of pioneering.
There are many who are regular Friends in Chjna they had none.
patrons of the place, and keep well Christian One of the most ininformed regarding leading events Japanese t ere s tin g items throughout the world. A recent in China from Japan is the visit of the missionary brought a flood of questions from the Chinese missionary w 0 r k present regarding such matters as now being done by the Japanese Church in China. At Tientsin the Venezuelan trouble. the there is a Japanese colony of up- Panama Canal, etc. The other ward of 1,400 residents. There event is the completion of a hospital are a few Christian Japanese in the by a native society organized for number. They have organized a the purpose, where it is proposed to ,young people's society and a have two resident physicians, with primary school, and have taken other helpers. Doctor Witten- steps to organize a church. This berg, of the Basle Mission in Kayin, church is attached to the Tokyo has been asked to give two fore- Presbytery. The first missionary noons a week .for the treatment of is Mr. Dentaro Maruyama. He is eye and surgical cases. The project to work principally amor.g the is entirely a native one. Chinese, but in connection with the China Only Rev. William Ash- Church. 'l'hey have also decided to Sixty Years send a suitable man as pastor of the more puts the mat- church.-Assembly Herald. Ago ter in this startling way: Shall the Nothing could be Missionaries further from the The missionaries had the promise Withdraw truth than to imagof all China as a portion, and yet, from Japan? ine, because there after trying to edge themselves in for'thirty-five years since Morrison are so many difficame, they were allowed only an old cultie5 in propagating Christianity out-of-the-way lodging in a dirty in Japan by foreigners, suggesting laRe in Canton, and had to dodge
the importance of a large employ- Commons) and the Speaker are ment of well-trained native helpers, that therefore the foreign Christians; one of them was chosen missionaries ought gradually to withdraw. In the present state of by a majority of 5 to 1, and reprethings the missionaries ought not to be recalled, but to be increased, as sents a strongly Buddhist district. has been rightly recognized, especially by American millsionary cir- The Christians are likewise repre-. cles. For a long time to come-for a century, aji least-foreign mission- sented in the navy, where the two aries are indispensable for Japan. It is their business to watch intel- chief men-of-war have Christian ligently over sound doctrine, to see to it that Christianity shall not be captains. Of the great Tokyo too deeply Japanized; that especially it shall not suffer by inter- journals, three are in the hands of mixture with ancestor and emperor worship; that it shall not, Christians as managing editors. through Buddhist influences, acquire a pantheistic imprint, or, The most important Df asylums through Confucian influences, suffer infringement of its purely relig- of various kinds are controlled ious or supernatural character. They must, moreover, for long by Christian directors. – Evange· years to come, remain to give the example of a genuine and holy lisches Mission Magazine. t Christian life in a land where most of the Buddhist priests, even up to The Forward Two years ago there the highest prelates, live in oP!ln Movement was an advance concubinage; where marriage is so in Japan movement, which easily dissoluble; where women is gave promise of still so lightly esteemed; and, finally, they are still indispensable for large results and also new courage the training of the native preachers, to Christian workers in various not only in theology and philoso- parts of the country. The final inphy, but also by giving them an gathering has not been what was example of zealous practical mis- anticipated, and it is a matter of sionary labor.-PAsTOR SCHILLER, much thought and interest why in Zeitschrift fur Missionskunde. more fruit is not manifest. One reason is that many of the inquir- 1" ers had a wrong conception of the Eminent The Christian com- nature of Christianity. While Christians munity in Japan they were quite willing to accept in Japan has already fur- the teachings of Christ intellectu- ally, they were not {'eady to be- nished a Cabinet come as little children and open Minister, two Judges of the Court their hearts to the Divine Spirit to of Correction, two Speakers of the be their sanctifier and guide. Others Lower House, and two or three As- were ready and willing to humbly sistant Secretaries, as well as a follow Christ if only there had been series of members of the adminis- the proper persons to instruct them trative courts, Judges of the Court and help in the new way. of Appeals, etc. In the present Parliament, 13 members (of the It has thus been demonstrated that there is an imperative need in Japan of persons who are fitted to care for inquirers, and direct them in the right course. The Chritltian Church needs not only to be plant- ed, but to be trained and nourished. Efforts are being made in some places to prepare Christian workers who will be able to give the de- sired help. With a supply of efficient leaders, the gathering of converts will be speedy and large.
REV. H. LOOMIS.
GENERAL MISSIONARY
A Conference Unless war between be pursued indefinitely, as the of Missionaries Japan and Russia region is absolutely unoccupied.
in Korea interferes to pre- It is understood that the country vent, there is to be becomes more healthy as one goes a week's conference of missionaries farther inward. The Lutheran in Korea next September (18– movement has the sympathy of 25) to commemorate the begin- the Liberian government, which ning of Protestant missions in will make an annual grant of $50 Korea. In 1884 Dr. H. N. Allen to each new school established.
(now United States Minister) en- The Loss of Not many months tered the land from China, and by a Mission ago, at great cost, his medical skill made a way for Steamer the Presbyterian the foreign teacher of the new doc- Church, Sou t h, trine. The general committee having the conference in charge is now placed the steamer Samuel N. actively engaged in pushing for- Lapsley upon the Upper Kongo for ward the plans for a gathering that the use of the flourishing Luebo shall be helpful both to Korea and mission, and now comes the sad to the wide world of missions. The news that it has capsized, that Mr. conference looks to a gathering not Slaymaker and 23 of the crew were only of all the mission force in drowned, and that Mr. Martin and Korea and many from near-by Mr. Vass had been saved. Of the lands, -but notable speakers and details nothing is known as yet.
workers from abroad have been in- Spirit Rev. W. H. Sand- vited to attend and take pa.rt. His- Worship in ers of Kamundontorical papers are to be presented, West Africa go, writes in the showing the growth of God's King- Missionary Herald: .
dom in Korea, and questions of To the thought of the _Ovimpractical import are to be discussed. The study of God's Word and the bundu, as to ours, the spirits of the culture of the spiritual life are also departed are alive. They, howto receive large attention. Among ewr, think of no supreme power those who have already promised attendance are John R. Mott, Dr. restraining them from participa- J. Ross Stevenson, Dr. Hunter tion in men's affairs. While dimly Corbett, Dr. Sheffield, of Peking, and Albertus Pieters, of Japan. * conscious of such a power, they conceive of Him as far off and in- AFRICA different. They strongly believe Pushing in The Lutheran Gen- that the daily affairs of mankind fromJhe eral Synod's mis- are influenced and shaped by West Coast sion at.Muhlenberg, spirits, and that these are persons West Africa, has who have lived on earth, known at length made an opening into the interior, having completed the them, and are toward themfriendlr arrangement for a school 65 miles or unfriendly. The spirit's attIdistant by paths. It is proposed tude is not supposed to be deterto place a succession of new missionaries at Muhlenberg, to remain mined by disinterested benevothere a year and become acclimated lence. The native line of thought and acquainted with the field, and then go further inland and estab- seems to be this: "Death comes lish new stations. This plan is to not by chance. Apart from the doings· of the living, only a spirit initiates the chain of events result.
ing in death. Disease, accident, madness, or wild beast are but the agencies used by it in accomplish- ing its purpose. It acts because offended. Some just claim is un- settled. Perhaps its will is un- known or ignored. Trouble will not cease until the spirit be satis- fied." Such a spirit, with just claims unmet, is an ocWulu" It
will surely cause trouble or death. cided that the disease is scattered After a long time, when relatives, by a fly called kivu. but no anti- dote has as yet been discovered. or whoever are responsible, have Another commission is said to be given in its rightful dues. it changes in prospect to see what can be done to prevent the spread of this alarmto one of a benevolent disposition. ing plague. Segregation seems im- It is then an ekisi. The akisi are possible, and no relief is in sight. guardians of the community. The The first symptoms of the presence of the disease is headache, with important ones, spirits of chiefs, swelling of the glands of the neck, will seek the welfare of all terri- followed by protracted sleeping on tory over which they ruled. the part of the patient. It runs its course in from six weeks to two England's The report of the years.
Gift to Uganda Railway ISLANDS OF THE SEA Uganda Committee for Modem Manila, in many Manila respects, has a 1902–3 has been is- growing attraction sued, and shows that the earth- for Americans. In it are being worked out a number of interesting works of the line are nearly fin- experiments in trade, government. finance, and education. It is reished, that 27 large viaducts wen sponq.ing in an encouraging degree to American ideas. It is a seat of erected during the year, and that power and influence in all that pertains to our distant possessions. all the bridges and culverts' for a But to Christians its moral and religious improvement is of first distance of 948 miles have been concern, and it is cheering to note progress in this direction. Favorcompleted. The station buildings able reports reach us of religious activity and revival. Before our throughout the line are all finished. government came into control, Roman Catholicism was the sole There are 43 stations, including' religion recognized, and the priest- hood ruled with a high hand and Mombasa, the terminus at the great intolerance. Now a differ- ent state of things is observable, coast; Port Florence, the terminus and it looks al3 if Protestantism would in no very distant day be on the lake; the headquarters, and the dominating force. According to the Madrid El Christiano, there 4 engine-changing s tat ion s. are now 17 Protestant chap3ls in the city and the suburbs against Twenty-two small and worn-out 22 Roman Catholic churches. This locomotives have been retired, and paper also concedes that, from 18 new ones, built in part in the present appearances, the Romish organization will, likely, before United States, have been fitted very long, be' in the minority. We are also assured by it that with automatic brakes. All the Protestant worship is being held passenger coaches and a portion of the freight cars are also supplied with the same brakes.-Zion's Herald.
The Deadly Notwithstanding all Sleeping efforts on the part Sickness of the British au- thorities, there is no abatement in the ravages of the •• sleeping sickness" in Uganda. The disease appeared in Uganda between two and three years ago, probably coming from the Kongo region. It prevails on the islands and shores of Lake Victoria, and inland from these shores fol' a dista.nce of a dozen miles. From the lint outbn!ak no less than 68,000 persons have died, some 10,000 of them within the past five months. A commission sent from England, headed by Colonel Bruce. has de-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
in private dwellings as well as in hammedans, and 533 heathen. It the largest theaters, in which the attendance at times has been as may be affirmed with confidence high as 3,000. that the Christians increase more Death of Rev. R. Wardlaw a Native Thompson reports rapidly than the adherents of the Evangelist the death of Rua- other religions. t toka, who was one of the first band of Hervey Island What the In his address as (Cook Island) native teachers to go to New Guinea for pioneer work in Twentieth chairman of the 1872, and of whom the Rev. R. Lovett, in his history of the London Century May C ongr e ga tional Missionary Society says: "No reader of Mr. Chalmers's thrilling Behold Union of England books needs to be reminded of Ruatoka's wonderful career. No and Wales, Dr. higher praise can be afforded him than that he is probably the noblest Robert F. Horton said: of the long succession of Eastern Polynesian teach«:trs who have done It is calculated that the sporadic such grand service for New efforts of the eighteenth century Guinea." Mr. Thompson said that produced 70,000 converts. War- Ruatoka had maintained an un- neck estimates that as a result of blemished reputation all through the nineteenth century there are his missionary career, and had 11,000,000 Christians won from been held in honor by all the mis- heathendom. If we may work out sion. His death meant the removal it proportion: as 70,000 is to 11,000,- of a great landmark from the mis- 000, so is 11,000,000 to 1,650,000,000; sion. After Mr. Ohalmers was that is the probable population of murdered, one of the first offers the globe in the year 2000 A.D. Yes, received was from Ruatoka- to go all the kingdoms of the earth made and see the people who had killed the kingdom of the Lord and of Tamate and Tomkins and try to His Christ. That is assuredly His do some work in their place. design. In a little island of the Southern Seas there is the grave of MISCELLANEOUS a missionary, and an epitaph: " When he came in 1848 there was Religions of The latest statis- not a Christian; when he left in the World tics, given in the 1872 there was not a single heathen." So it will be said of this island Allgemeine M i 8- planet in the ocean of the universe sions Zeitschrijt, represent that of which was visited by the Divine the 1,544,510,000 inhabitants of the Missionary. "When He came earth, 534,940,OUO are Christians there was not a Christian in it; (Roman, Greek, Oriental, and Prot- when He left it there was not a estant); 10,860,OOC are Israelites, heathen." 175,290,000 are Mohammedans, and 823,420,000 are heathen. Of these The Ideal At the Conference last the Confucionists (if theirs may Missionary of Christian Workbe called a religion) are the most nu- ers in Brummana, merous, having fully 300, 000,000. Of every 1,000 human beings, 346 are Syria, each of the 200 delegates Ohristians; 7 Israelites; 114 Mo- was asked to write on a paper on the "three most important char- acteristics of the ideal mission- ary." The following are some of them: Sound in body and mind. Able to eat all'kinds of food. Prepared to rough it if necessary. A natural gift for languages. Bible study, heart study, language study. A student of the problems of his field. The gift of humor, in being able to laugh at yourself and begin again. Able to preach Christianity and not laugh at the superstitions of the people. Earnestness in prayer and soul winning. An overflowing, spirit·filled life.
[February Believer in the possibilities of human had learned before me, and what was the fact there, that for every nature. dollar you give away to convert the heathen abroad, God gives you Tact. courtesy. and kindness to other mis-. ten dollars' worth of purpose to deal with your heathen at home. sionaries and the people. JACOB A. RIIB. Common sense. The Best " Appeals to give to The ability to set others to work. Missionary missions in general, Interest in everyone he meets. Appeal to missionary socie- ties. 'to the cause,' A warm heart, a hard head, and a thick should be made to mature minds, skin. and made without cant or hypoc- risy. If too great emphasis is Selflessness in accepting the station as· placed upon the fact that it is 'the Lord's work' the logical Christian signed. will be tempted to say 'Then let him do it.' That is not where One who lives up to what he preaches. Christ placed the emphasis. He laid the responsibility on the Of a single purpose. Church. Missions are no more God's work than politics or trade or Baptized with the Holy Spirit. sCience or art. Missions are the work of the Church, and the Church A witness of what God has wrought in him. will be held responsible for results." The truth contained in the above Much in prayer and intercession for others. extract is frequently overlooked by the average church-member and Of unfailing faith. sometimes by the average pastor. Brethren, get into line! Get hold Holds on, tho seeing no fruit. of the rope and pull together.- Messenger and Visitor. Belief in God, that he will have all men to OBITUARY he saved.
Sure of the ultimate triumph of the gospel.
Constrained by the love of Chsist.
Perfectly surrendered to God.
Willing to efface self and exalt Christ.
A Christlike humility.
A bond-servant of Christ.
Emptied of self.
A keen ear to detect God's whisper.
Gentle to all.
Apt to teach.
An unadvertised self-denial.
A firm belief in the people, ever striving to find the angel in the rough block of marble.
A life laid down at the feet of Christ.
A Cbrislike lo"e for souls.
Sanctified common sense.
Able to understand the people and win their confidence.
All things to all men.
Patience.
'Power of living at peace with all men.
A Divine sense of proportion, putting things * Jlrst which are ilrst, How to Every once in a Rev. Dr. Stitt. The Rev. Dr. Will- Believe in while I hear some Missions one growl against of New York iam C. Stitt, Secre- foreign missions, taryof the Ameri- – because the money and the strength can Seamen's Friend Society, who put into them are needed at home. I did it myself when I did not know died in New York last month, was better, God forgive me. I know better now; and I will tell you how for years literary editor of the I found out. I became interested in a strong religious awakening in my New York Evangelist. He was own old city of Copenhagen, and I set about investigating it. It was born in Philadelphia, April 23, then that I learned what others 1833, and was a graduate of Prince- ton University. He had for some years devoted himself to the spirit- ual welfare of the Seamen, and edited the Sailors' Magazine in their interest. *
The Missionary Review of the World — June 1903
Standing- 2 3 4 5 6 7
Seated- 9 10 11 12 13 THE CENTRAL CHINA RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY- CSee palJe 148) 1. Rev. Arthur !lonsey. Lo ndon MIssionary Soclety.-2. Rev. C. G. Sparham. London Missionary Soclety.- 3. Dr. Thomas GillIson. London Missionary Society.-4. l-~c' . A.•J. Macfarlane, London MissiollarySoclety.- 5. Re v. Ing-ald Dae hl en American Norwegian Lutheran Mlssio n.-6. Hev. L. H. Root8, AmerIcan Churc h Misston.- 7. He v. C. V. Allan , Wesleyan Missionary Soctetr.-8. .Mr. A. Mitchel l, National Bible Society of Scotland.-9. Rcv. Gilbert Warre n, W esleyan llissiunur y Soclety.- lO.•Joh n Arc hibald, Nationa l Bi ble Society 0 Scotland .-ll . Dr. GrffHth John, Lond on Missionary Soclcty.-12. Rev. Joseph S. Adams, American BaptiSt Missionary Unio u.-13. Rev. James Jackson, American Church Mission. Missionary Review of the World Old Series I JUNE j New Series VOL. XXVI. No.6 f ! VOL. XVI. No.6 VENEZUELA AND ITS NEEDS BY A NORTH AMERICAN RESIDENT OF CARACAS >I< Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, is six days' r-un from New York, and only forty hours' from the southernmost possession of the United States, and yet few North Americans have any clear idea of this wonderfully rich cOUI~try-" our next-door neighbor."
Caracas is only ten miles in a direct line from the coast, but not a glimpse of the sea does it obtain. At the altitude of three thousand feet, it lies deep in a mountain valley, like a jewel in its casket. The seaport, as all the world has learned since the late sensational blockade, is La Guayra, with a population of fourteen thousand, the majority of whom are servants of a considerable commerce. The export and import trade of Venezuela, including that of Puerto Cabello and Maracaibo, in one of its most prosperous years (1885), amounted to £3,202,171 and £2,496,135, respectively.
The ebb and flow of trade and passenger traffic passes to and fro over a single-track, narrow-guage railroad which, in its tortuous ascent through the valleys and up the most picturesque mountains, makes a journey of twenty-three miles; this road shows itself at every turn and tunnel to be a wonderful triumph of engineering skill, and offers to the traveler a panorama of natural scenery at once charming and sublime. Neither the civilization nor the capital of Venezuela could have produced such a railroad, for neither civilization nor capital thrive in a land whose principal industry is civil war.
An English company constructed and manages this railroad, as well as the artificial breakwater and dock at La GuaYNl, without which the lading and discharge of cargoes would be impossible many days in the year. There are other railroads, owned by English and German companies, which are losing not ouly the interest but the principal of their investment, altho Vpuezuela is naturally one of the richest countries in the world.
La Guayra, while distingu ..,hed as the main port, is no less distin- * We take advantage of the recent lively interest in the Republic of Venezuela to give our readers some first-hand information of the conditions there from the viewpoint of one who has spent twelve years in the northern belt of Sonth American States, including six years in Venezuela'S capital.-EDIToRS_
g uished for the positive unsightliness of its situation, and for its shabby buildings and narrow , hilly streets. Its population is co mposed of many nationalities, in cluding Europeans of all countries, and even Chinese, and Coolies from India. But the main elements are Indian, negro, and mulatto. Th e latter are called "mistos," and present all colors and shades" that hum an flesh is heir to."
Learing La Guayra to swelter in its eternal humidity and heat, the train gradually winds and rises toward the mountain tops of th e interior. Soon we cross a moun tain stream, where women are engaged in wearing out-in the effort to wash out-clothes by beating and rube bing them on great stones in midstream. They then hang them out WASHERWOlIEX AT WORK IN VENEZUELA to dry on barbed-wire fences. The wire has come as a great laborsaver to the men, but they still look upon won.an as the cheapest washing-machine yet imported.
Still higher climbs the train, now losing itself within the deep valley, and now out upon the rugged mountain slopes, or running perilously near the brink of a sheer precipice. Finally we arriv e at the half-way station, calleu "Zigzag," from its sharp corners and great dimen sions. Here the up a1ld down trains pause for a few minutes and pass each other ill opposite directions, but apparen tly ('xactly contrary to their destinations.
At the end of another hour we approach the capital. In the broad valley in which Caracas reposes may ue seen what has been the principal indu stry of this country-the cultivation of the sugar-cane. But not every planter can harvest his crop now, especially during the
VENEZUELA AND ITS NEEDS
A VIEW OF CARACAS, THE CAPITAL OF VENEZUELA The palace may be seen on the extreme left and the cathedral on the right last ten years. The horses alld pack-animals of the "army "-or of the brigands who rove arid rob right and left-are fed on the standing cane, and trample and destroy what is left. But even if the crop is harvested, not all of the cane juice is reduced to sugar. A large proportion is converted into rum. For four cents a man or woman buys rum, or aguanliente (fire-water), enough to drown all sense of hunger and of shame. This is not the least of Venezuela's evils. It makes a besotted peasantry-the ready source from which to gather recruits to carryon unending eivil strife. This internal umest is the great secret of the extinction of the once prosperous business enterprises. The old commercial houses conducted by Venezuelans arc giving way to those of foreign merchants. There is no real youth rising to fill the places of the fathers. Those young in years are already old men in dissipation and disease.
The rail way train has risen at least four thousand feet to the top of the mountain wall which guards the luxuriant plain in which Caracas lies, on the left bank of the winding river GlUlyre. Rich plantations are seen, and kitchen-gardens, mostly kept by foreigners (Canary Islanders and Frenchmen). The royal palm makes a prominent feature in the landscape, which presents all the variety and beauty of mountain and plain, covered as with a mantle of velvet up to the highest peaks.
One thousand feet below us in the valley lies Caracas, the city of troubled colonial history under the Spaniard, and with a history no less stormy, but even more ruinous, during all the ninety years of its
"independencc." Eighty-two out of these ninety years have been diversified by least ninety so-called" revolutions." For twenty years of exceptional material prosperity Caracas and all the country are debtors to Guzman Blanco, who" stole the country rich," but whose corrupt regime left it a legacy of potential, and now of practical, anarchy. But Guzman Blanco regenerated Caracas as to its streets, public buildings, and parks, with their statues, trees, lawns, and parterres of rare flowers.
The general aspect of the city is attractive, save for the bad pavements and inexcusable filth of the streets and areas. The inhabitants are compelled, through their own indolence and the maladministration of the funds, to eat and drink and breathe their full share of microbes; in consequence the mortality is the highest of all the capitals of the world (38 per 1,000). A" carriage and road tax" is duly gathercd for street cleaning, yet not a street is swept or sprinkled, save by a few householders in front of their own doors. The downpours of the rainy season are the only public street-cleaners of the town. The surface is "rolling enough to allow of the flushing and perfect draining of the whole city under good management. 'l'here is not more than one acre of asphalt pavement, tho they have a whole lake of asphalt within easy reach for transportation. Caracas might easily be made a first-class sanatory resort, but it is in reality much more of a hospital. The number of deaths in 1902 was 3,233 out of 85,000 inhabitants, or an excess of ()l8 over the births. This means swift depopulation. This country is very rich in soil and in minerals, yet its inhabitants generally are suffering tlw pangs of hunger.
An Archbishop's View of Moral and Spiritual Conditions All these facts lead us to an inquiry into the social and spiritual conditions of this people. Since a Protestant's views might seem biased, we translate extracts from the Archbishop of Venezuela's " Annual Pastoral to the Clergy." It is, in part, as follows: To the Venerable Metropolitan Chapler, Clergy, and Faithful of the Archdioce8e: Salutations in the Lord Jesus Christ. A new year begins, but never, since our entrance upon independent national life, have we at, the year's threshold found ourselves surrounded by so many tribulations-our republic situated on the very brink of an abyss and ourselves wrapped in the darkness of a sinister future! . • . And Venezuela could have been one of the richest and happiest nations of South America. The Lord has granted us many and great elements of prosperity, together with the ichor of Roman Catholicism, which circulates freely in our homes and people, giving life to their conscience and honor to those virtues which are its most precious fruit. (?) Oh, masters, what have you made of your once willing disciples? All is lost in the stream of our public disorders, and in the depths of errors, destructive of society and religion-errors which have been, and
VENEZUELA AND ITS NEEDS
are now, propagated with diabolical energy, depraving the soul and excluding all thought, save only of things earthly. And here is the result: a nation which already seems ungovernable, a penury which means, in a new sense, horrors and desolation, entire lack of public and private quiet and of security of life in too many cases, while we persist in believing that political changes and revolutions will cure our evils, while we do not consider that moral ruin is now universal in our land, and that the total want of common honesty is what is most in evidence in our poZUical circles.
These so great evils are not of .yesterday; they have gradually been planted and developed during the ninety years of our existence as a republic. . Now, what have been the public sins in which we have obstinately persisted, making truceless war upon Christian doctrine and the sacred and infallible 'Vord of the Gospel?
The bishop then goes into a lame disquisition as to the inadequacy, the utter failure, "of representative government here, especially since the Roman Catholic Church has been deJJrived of its political power. Also, that the family has been desecrated by the adoption of civil marriage, and the consequent destruction of the Church's authority in family life." The bishop forgets that the immorality, as shown by official statistics in Venezuela, is more than equaled iu Rome itself while under the government of the popes themselves. The bishop continues: There has been a propaganda insidiously undermining all respect for aZl authoTity. This it is which explains how the chiefs of a revolution are the objects of popular applause while still in the field of battle, and begin to be detested as soon as they are .seated ,in pOl/x'r as a government.
• . These idea,s and doctrines (republican) have passed into the blood A MIXTURE OF VENEZUELAN NATIVES AND THEIR HOMES
as tendencies of "second nature," and have involved us in this frightful confusion. 'Vho can paint the moving picture which Venezuela has presented during this series of revolutions-rather, fratricidal wars- which have wrought our ruin? In their train have followed assassinations, incendiarism, robbery, and pillage; the profanation of temples, the ruin of homes, the annihilation of agriculture, the vanishing of entire towns, the death of all industries, unbridled immorality, and this increment of the public debt, which has come to cast us into a conflict of international proportions, as at this present time.
'Vho, then, can sound the depths of Venezuela's sin? How does it cry to heaven? So much innocent blood poured out, so many victims sac- rificed in vain! Upward of forty thousand men slain within the past four years! . So many homes filled with mourning, so many families extinguished or subjected to dishonor; in a word, so many enormous wrongs and atrocities and outrages! 'Ve are sharers in the sin, and must all share in the punishment.
Then here follows the portrayal of the present sad state of a degenerate society. The bishop himself paints it so that he can not say to any enemy of his country: "Thou didst it." After stating the patent fact, that the educational system for the people lies in ruins, he proceeds truly to set forth the ruin of the family as follows: Here is a statement which will surprise many: "The family is d'isappearing fr'om Venezuela." Yet the statement is as exact as it is sad. To prove it we have only to note how the unclean plague of concubinage propagates itself, with the shameful result-according to statistics of the several parishes-of seventy to eighty per cent. of the whole number of births illegitimate. At present Christian marriage has hardly any honor, save in a few larger cities of the land. For the most part common life is uncleanness, dishonor, excess. Homes founded upon immorality are incompetent to constitute the Christian family, train the good citizen, the man of honest labor, and the son who can be affected by the sorrows' of his country.
Hence those main bases of society-religion, authority, educatiop, and the family-have suffered the rudest assaults, have been shaken even to their fall. Not so great is the international conflict now upon us, as is the struggle with these evils within our home land.
The foregoing formal statements are no exaggerated pictures of our affrighted fancy, nor are they due to our ecclesiastic zeal, for they arc only too real to us all. We speak to you the truth, oh, venerable clergy and beloved compatriots, however bitter it may be, and whatever sadness it may cause you. May it please God that this sorrow be the way to hearty repentance and worthy acts of penance!
Indeed, u'hal must be done in view of so many calamities? • Exactly for this purpose are we addressing to you this most important invitation-you, who constitute a portion of the Roman Catholic Church which is committed to my charge: it is needful to make every sacrifice required by this work, and sacrifice alone makes it possible. Hence we have to endure the evils with noble hearts, bearing them as a just chastisement, in order, in this only way of salvation, to secure the benefits which the Lord wiII grant us on that happy morrow if we have known how to appropriate and obey the lesson now given.
VENEZUELA AND ITS NEEDS
We do not doubt the result of the present negotiations, which will be obtained through the patriotic exertions of our country's chief. But when this adjustment with the outer world is effected, what a task of reorganization remains on our hands!-a task which, if we do not accomplish within the respite which the Lord grants in His inexhaustible goodness, we shall, indeed, be left without hope.
Therefore, in order to implore the Divine compassion in these fateful circumstances, werecommend anew the nocturnal allOTClfcions of the Most Holy Sacrament in the houses of worship-or, at least, on one night in each house-on account of these distressful circumstances. And we dispose that during this afflictive visitation there be said in all the temples A MARKET SCENE IN CARACAS of the archdiocese one mass in JJl'ayer to the Blessed Virg·in at her altar, at a fixed hour on every Saturday, with an invitation to the faithful to attend and pray the holy rosary during the mass, the altar [of Mary] to be properly illuminated [costly wax candles]. ,Ye have great faUh in this continual in vocation of the Most Holy Virgin! Let it ever he remembered that the remedy of our gre'tt ills will not result from some few days' prayer, but that our supplication must be fervent and prolonged, accompanied with good works fo 1IIove the heart of onr Lord.
Given, signed and sealed, at the Archepiscopal Palace in Caracas, on Decemher :n, 1902.
JUAN B. CASTRO (acting fOl' Archbishop).
By cOlllmand of the Most Rev. Lord Vicar-General and Governor of the Archdiocese of Venezuela.
R. M. CAHFLLERO, Secretary.
Pathetic. indeed, is the impotent remedy proposed by the first pastor of the Venezuelan Chnrch to obviate the deep-seated evils of It is lalul! Crosses, candles, altars, awl prayers to the wafer and to
Mary, and good works! Pathetic, indeed, If only the bishop can be sincere in his advice, but awful in the irony of its mocking impotence and imposture if the prelate is only making capital out of the penury, ignorance, and passions of the people, not "for the greater glory of God," but for the greater power of the imposture. We leave him to the Judge of all the earth.
But what must be the feeling and purpose of the Christians of N~rth Ameriea in regard to these terrible and true revelations? They should awaken to their unique privilege and almost exclusive responsibility as to these many sheep without a shepherd. The English and A PROTESTANT MISSION SCHOOL IN CARACAS eontinental chnrehes are more than busy with the wants of Asia and Africa. The Church of the United States needs not to wait fOJ'the eumbersome aetion of any Monroe doetrine in order to intervene in the spiritual life of South Ameriea. The glorious imperialism of our Lord has long, long ago given us the dear eommand, the swift impulse of His own dynamie "Go!" At the same time the very wants of this people cry to heaven, and from heaven to those whose souls are lighted not with candles and altar gewgaws, altar boys with swinging censers, and Latin-droning priests, bu t " with wisdom from on high." Yes, this people are in darkness, and shall we "the Lamp of Life deny"? Let it not be forgotten that Venezuela, with all its imported appliances of civilization, is more than heathen: not more than one-third of the population can read, not one in a thousand has a copy of the Scriptures, and many villages have no priest and no teacher. All hands, even boys of ten years, not yet able to handle a gun, are taught to fight, at least, with machete awl revolver, while war really never ceases. The present internal troubles are more intense and more
AMONG THE LEPERS OF SURINAM
hopeless than any of the past. Romanism has had a free hand for three hundred years to prove what it can do, and it has only ruined one of the fairest lands beneath the sun.
Venezuela has given religious freedom without qualification. Now is the time when the Northern Church should feel, by all she has received of the Lord, that she is the debtor to those who still sit in darkness at her very door. Shall we do less than put the Word of Life in the hands of everyone who can read in this country? Let us no longer be deceived. South America is more heathen than Christian. It is harder to make one convert to Jesus there than to make many in the heart of Africa, where hundreds of thousands of copies of the Word are eagerly sought and bought by those recently pagan blacks. But Venezula is very near, her can is close to our ear, and her hand already grasps ours. Is the Lord no longer with us? Is the Spirit powerless.9 Is there lack of money? Are there no young men and women in the North? Are there no eyes that look upward and onward to the great day of the Lord, when all men and women of this generation shan stand before the glorious Son of Man, and shall face the millions already here and the many to come, and shall hear Him say: "Inasmuch as ye did it not unto these neglected ones of my brethren, ye dill it not unto ~le " ?
AMONG THE LEPERS OF SURINAM BY REV. H. T. WEISS, SURINAM, SOUTH AMERICA Missionary of the Moravian Church There have been many dissertations concerning leprosy, its manifestations, and its contagiousness. 'l'hese have appeared not only in scientific and Ohristian magazines, but in sensational newspaper articles as wel1. How comes it, theu, that so many Christians remain indifferent to the work among the lepers? I hear various replies to this question: « The progressive spirit of our centnry does not willingly occupy itself with hopeless matters, and labor among the lepers is only a grave-digger's work," says one.
"Let brotherly help be stretched out to those who may yet be saved," says another. "The isolation of the infected, the erection of asylums, and the care of their unhappy inmates are matters that belong to the colonial government, not to the Christian Church."
An enthusiastic friend of missions adds: "Missionary work is conquest of the world, extension of the Kingdom of God; but these leper asylums, these fields of the dead, do not come into the category of missionary labor."
Friends, is this true? Is it really true? If, as some hold, we are doing a "grave-digger's work," I know, nevertheless, that nowhere is
MISSIOXARIES ON THE PIAZZA OF THE MISSION HOUSE IN SURINAM missionary labor more in place than among these u nfortnnates. Even over the graveyard oE the ~ivillg, where the tribe of the outcasts is wasting away, God's snn of grace shines down, illumining, warming, reviving! Verily, far from hopeless is the labor among the lepers!
Come with me into the land of everlasting summer. From Paramaribo, the capital of Dutch Guiana, not far from where the Surinam River flows sluggishly into the ocean, we steam np the river with the rising tide. After a three hours' jonrney we reach Groot Chatillon, a peninsula formed by the sudden bend of the river. Two little villages lie before us in the brightness of the morning snn. They are guarded and defended by the gigantic trees of the primeval wood which engirdles these dwelling-places of the lepers.
The sound of the tolling of bells tells us that the angel of death has compassionately borne away one more of the cross-bearers, and that his companions in snffering are bearing his body to rest on the borders of the ancient forest. No one weeps for him,11o one wisht's him back into this life.
Our steamer touches at the shore, and there on the bank we see the mission house built for the missionary and two deaconesses. With its two stories resting on piles, and with its broad front piazza, it has an air of friendly welcome.
Here we find immediate opportunity to meet some friends of the lepers. There is Pastor Zaalberg, of the Lutheran Church in Paramaribo, and beside him Pastor Begeman, of the Reformed Church. Both are directors of the Protestant Union in Behalf of Lepers in the Colony of Surinam. Beside ""Father" Zaalberg-, as the lepers call him, sits Sister Biirkner, wife of a missionary merchant in Paramaribo. Until recently she labored among the lepers as "Dea-
19031 AMONG THE LEPEnS OF SUnINAM
coness Sister Elizabeth." Altho she did not yield to the entreaties of her patients to give up her betrothed and remain deaconess, yet she still feels her old attachment to them. The busy matron, Sister Weiss, no sooner notices the new arrivals than she at once hastens forward and invites you to stop at the mission house, and not to return to the city until day after to-morrow.
Now let me call your attention to some special points of interest. The large village on the right of the canal is the government asylum, where such lepers are received as are picked up by the police in the streets of Paramaribo. Coolies, Chinese, mulattoes, negroes, and Europeans, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred in number, are here detained in compulsory isolation. They are guarded by policemen with loaded revolvers, ready to prevent any attempt to escape. The physician who is appointed for the mission asylum is at the same time physician and director of the government asylum. In two long rows, on opposite sides of a road, shaded with almond trees, are one-story log houses. Those on the right are for the single patie~ts and those on the left for the married. The entrance to the asylum is the police station, the farther bounds are the cemetery and the primeval forests.
The asylum grounds also contain a Rom!l.n Catholic church, 3 Buddhist temple, and a Protestant church, while the dwellings, offices, the kitchen, bakery, etc., as well as the house of the Roman priest and the mission house, are in froll t. On the left side of the canal lies Bethesda, which was built in 1898 by the Protestant Lnion.
'The lepers' asylum at' Batavia, on the Coppename River, in the A GENERAL VIEW OF nm LEPER ASYLUM Bethesda, erected In 1899 by the Protestant Society for the Cure of Lepers
west of the colony, about forty-two miles from Paramaribo, had proved in every way inadequate. After prolonged debates in the Colonial Council (1892-1896), it was decided to remove the asylum to another place, and Bishop Wiilfing, the spiritual head of the Roman Catholics, made an apparently very magnanimous proposal. The papal church was willing to care for all the lepers, 'In condition of receiving a yearly appropriation of 35,000 florins ($14,000) out of the public purse. To the inquiry as to whether Protestant clergy would be allowed to enter the asylum, or to hold services there, a negative answer was given. Thereupon the representatives of the Moravian mission (which numbers thirty thousand members in Dutch Guiana) and of the Lutheran and Reformed churches addressed a petition to the Queen Regent of the Netherlands. In consequence, the proposed grant was not approved by her Majesty, but instead the colonial government was directed to establish an asylum at Groot Chatillon, where freedom of conscience and worship were guaranteed to the lepers.
The asylum was transferred from Batavia in 1897. In the same year the Protestant committee met, and was incorporated in 1898. 'rhe superintendent of the Moravian mission is at the same time presiden~ of the Union; the other members are the Lutheran and Reformed pastors, and a certain number chosen by the parish councils. This corporation forms the directing Board.
How the Work was Started The first act of the Union was to build a church on the asylum grounds, in order to bring the blessings of Christianity within reach of the forty or fifty Protestant lepers there. This little church was completed in 1898, and was consecrated by Bi~op Buchner, missionary director at Berthelsdorf, Germany. A missionary of the Moravian Church is now in charge of this congregation, and is supported by the mission.
The second act of the Union was to build a mission house. Finally they established an asylum of their own, and in 1899 they received the first patient and the first deaconess, Pauline Perchner. The missionary in the government a&lylum was appointed director of the Protestant asylum, and as the number of lepers applying for admission steadily grew, a second deaconess was called out of the" Unitas Fratrum" to Bethesda the same year. The support of the deaconesses was assumed by the Moravian mission, while the Lutheran and Reformed churches promised to help toward the enlargement and improvement of the asylum.
Bethesda seeks to provide a home for the homeless, and receives only such lepers as leave Paramaribo of their .own free will. We aim to guide to heaven all lepers, without distinction of position or profession, preaching the simple message of the Savior, who came to seek and to save the lost. This Christian asylum stands high above the
courtesy of·'Tlte C.~rtdian Endeavor ll'orld
MISS STERN, MR. AND MRS. WEISS, AND SOME OF THE LEPERS AT GROOT CHATILLON, SURINAM
dogmas of any particular Church, and is acceptable to the Luther::tn as well as to the Reformed, to the Baptist as well as to the Presbyterian.
Bethesda, however, aims also to care for those who are outside of the Protestant Church without fanatical zeal; but in loving loyalty to Christ and mankind the servants of Bethesda, male and female, preach the Gospel of God's love.
The nine pretty little houses, surrounded by flower-beds, stand in two parallel rows. At a right angle to these stands the so-called "Sisters' house," the home of the deaconesses. One field-bed, two chairs, one cupboard (containing medicines), one wash-stand, and one disinfecting machine com- prise the furniture. At night the Sisters' house serves as a sentry-box. If anyone of the THE HOUSE OF THE SISTERS patients is near to death, the Sisters do not retnrn in the evening into the mission house, but remain ill the asylum, always ready to help the patient. My friend, knowest thou what it means to care for lepers, to bind up putriiying wounds and rotting limbs?
Hast thou ever reflected what it is to keep watch at night in the gloomy forest by the bedside of a dying leper?
Honor to onr Protestant Sisters! Glory to our Almighty God, whose power is also mighty in the Sisters! Sister Pauline Perchner, the first deaconess, who carne in lSClO, returned to Paramaribo a year hter mortally sick, and died a few days later. Sister Philippina Stuhlfauth and Sister Martha Stern, a member of the Society of Christian Endeavor, are now serving the lepers with devoted affection.
Our Bethesda Patients Bethesda at present has the care of fourteen lepers-ten grown men, two women, and two children. I can not introduce you to each one personally, and will therefore only make you acquainted with a few.
First I present to you onr fourteen-year-old Louisa Renz. She has been a leper since she was two years old. The doll she holds in her arms was a present of a "Friend of Bethesda" in Holland. When Mrs. Weiss brought the doll. carefully packed in a pasteboard box, the child burst into exclamations of joy. "Wan popiki! wan popiki!" (A doll! a doll I), she exclaimed, again and again. "Laesae hem gi mi-hesi! hesi!" (Open it for me-quick! quick I). She was trembling from head to foot in her excitement, and when the box had been opened she could not get hold of the doll quick enough. Looking it over on every side,
AMONG THE LEPERS OF SURINAM
she cried: " A can sliebi!" (She can sleep I), and added, in the Surinam negro jargon, "It is a good lady who sends me thc doll." Thereupon she went from house·to house to show each of her fellow sufferers her new treasure, calling out to everybody, "A can sliebi! a can sliebi I"~ But Louisa, it is true, often gives us much solicitude. Like all chil- dren, she has her days of pronounced naughtiness, and we entreat you to think of her, too, when you pray! We recently received a letter from her, of which the following' is a translation: BETHESDA, November 27, 1902.
Dear Mr. and JYIrs. Wwiss: I am your loving Louisa, who is at Bethesda. It is very agreeable to me to write you a letter. I think much of you. Long already I would write a letter to you, but I waited the birthday of Mrs. Veisa to c:m- gratulate her at the same tiree. My text for your birthday is the follow- ing: "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you."
Now I will tell you how I am. Vith the Lord's will, I am quite well.
But I want to confess that I do not behave quite good, but I hope to become better; for when you and Mr. Weiss come back, I have become a good girl.
I hope that you and Mr. Veiss are quite well. The Lord bless you, dear Mr. and Mrs. Weiss.
I remain your dear LOUISA.
Nor will I forget thee, my Harry de Castillo, a Jew. I see him now before me, his pitious form crouching on a chair, with the Bible before him. In January of last year he called me to him and said: I hold my aged father and my brothers and sisters very dear. For years they tended me in their own house in Paramaribo, and when they could do this no longer, they sent me into the Roman Catholic Lepers' Home in town. How gladly would Thave stayed there, near my kindred! But the Roman priests made life a burden to me, so that I came to hate the Christian religion.
At last my father listened to my entreaties, and brought me to a negro woman who lived near Para- maribo. The woman received the money ·they gave her, but let me lie in my filth. Vhen Bethesda LOUISA RENz. A NEGRO LEPER was established, they brought me here. Two years ago I thought I was going to die, and for four weeks the Sisters waited at my bedside day and night. Here in Bethesda I have felt myself at ease. Never have they forced me to go to church, as
the Catholic priests did, and never have they spoken contemptuously of Judaism. The deaconesses have always been good and friendly to me. Never have they complained, never been impatient..
Then I have thought to myself: Vho gives the Sisters the power to be always good to us, and I asked the Sisters, and they told me that Jesus helps them. Then I also prayed to Jesus. At first I was afraid to utter His name, for you know that I am a Jew. But now I do this too, and I not only confess Him with my mouth, but I also believe in Him with my whole heart. I beg you, therefore, to give me the Ohristian baptism.
I instructed Harry in the Christian doctrines, but I was not at liberty to baptize him. "My son was born a Jew, and Jew shall he die," wrote the father. "Yon may confirm him, and admit him to the communion, but baptized the boy shall not be." I comforted him with the thought that the Savior, who had received the penitent thief into Paradise unbaptized, would not leave His Harry behind.
His days were numbered. Decay made more and more rapid progre~s. His fingers rotted off and gangrene set in, and on May 31st he peacefully fell asleep.
It is usually a dismal sum of pains and misery that is heaped up in these two asylums. When I have been returning from my daily round through Bethesda and the government asylum, the qnestion has often come to my mind: "Is it really true that God is love?" Is it a matter of wonder that so many lepers rebel against God, and meet, with a bitter 'laugh, the assurance that God counts them dear?
But away with the questions of doubt! In spite of them, many of the lepers have assured me that by the cross which has been laid upon them they have found happiness and peace. During my two years work among the lepers I have been allowed to look on the face of many a dying leper, and the three brief words still hold true: GOD IS LOVE.
MARTYRS IN GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Martyrs have their place in God's plan of redemption. There is a remarkable interweaving of historic tragedies and disasters into that plan, showing that" precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
In the eighteen years between 1871 and 1889 seven prominent missionaries and advocates of missions fell asleep. Bishop Patteson in 1871, David Livingstone in 1873, Johann L. Krapf in 1881, Bishop Steere in 1882, Robort Moffatt in 1883, Chinese Gordon in 1885, and James Hannington in 1889. Livingstone and Krapf were singularly alike in character and career; in both the same faith, heroism, constancy, and simplicity of aim. If Livingstone was "the mis-
11)03] MARTYRS IN GOO'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION
sionary general and explorer," Krapf was "the leader in the recovery of the Lost Continent," whose pioneering inspired the later travels of the illustrious seven, of whom Livingstone was the greatest. Both died on their knees, Krapf in retirement at Kornthal, Livingstone in the grass hut at !lala.
Livingstone's career of forty years seemed like a partial defpat and failure as to the purpose he set out to accomplish. He who declared "the end of the geographical feat" to be "but the beginning of the true enterprise" never himself reached the goal that was his acknowl- edged starting-point. His last message to humanity, graven on the slab in Westminster, reads like a despairing cry: " All I can add in my solitude is, May Heaven's rich blessing come down on everyone, American, English, Turk, who will help to heal this open sore of the world! "
Susi and Chuma and Jacob Wainwright had first buried his heart at Ilala before they bore his body on that nine months' march to the coast; and God purposed that the pulsations of that buried heart should not cease until Livingstone's unfulfilled prayer is answered, and the open sore of the world healed. He ordained that his death should accomplish what his life had not-as the grain of wheat, falling into the ground and dying, brings forth much fruit.
Three weeks after Livingstone's funeral, at the Church Missionary Society anniversary, the keynote was Africa's claim on the Gospel, as emphasized by his death. Mr. Gordon Calthorp preached before a congregation, actually seated over the new-made grave of Livingstone, from the striking narrative of the dead body that revived when it touched the bones of Elisha. "Let us be quickened into fresh life by contact with the bones of Livingstone, and let thousands of Africans, through the influence of his death, be revived and stand up on their feet." Such were his words, and strangely they were fulfilled.
A score of forward movements are directly traceable to the discovery of that kneeling body at Ilala-and the end is no.t yet.
First of all, Livingstone's fellow countrymen took up his dead heart, and flung it forward, like the heart of Bruce, into the battle with the foes of human liberty and salvation, themselves, like Douglass, to "follow it or die." The Free Church founded Livingstonia Mission on Lake Nyassa, and the Established Church, Blantyre-so called from his birthplace. The former has branched out northward and westward, in the latter the noblest church edifice on the Dark Continent has been built by converted Africans, and' the British protectorate sways in Nyassaland more than half a million square miles, where once festered the open sore of the world.
In the same year of Livingstone's burial the Dowager Countess of Aberdeen founded in Zululand the J. H. Gordon Memorial Mission, in memory of her son; Edward Steere was consecrated bishop for the
Universities' Mission, and Stanley began his second great tour which opened up the vast Kongo basin, never-before trodden by white man's feet, for a chain of missions. These eleven years, thronged with great events-Stunley's visit to Uganda, with the memorable appeal published in the London Daily Telegraph / the consequent planting of the Victoria Nyanza Mission; the navigation of I__uke Tanganyika in 18,/'6; Stanley's emergence from the mouth of the Kongo ill 1887; the new commission from King Leopold, and his return to the Kongo in 187'!) ; the establishment of stations on the lower river and at Stanley Pool; and the organization of the Kongo Free State in 1885.
Meanwhile, Hobert Arthington's gift of £5,000 had prompted the London Missionary Society to project its Tanganyika mission in 1878, tho, like many another African mission, it cost at its outset two valuable lives-those of Thomson (the leader) and Mullens (the mission seCl·etary). The same year the Baptist mission and the Livillgstone I nland Mission were begun, and later on the Kongo Bulolo Mission.
Livingstone's heart had been buried but five weeks when another great step was taken to heal that" open sore." The Mom bassa Free Territory was meant for a refuge, within which he who steppcu should become a free man. David Livingstone's death started anew the movement against the traffic in slares, and leu to the measures which brought about the treaty with the Silltan of Zanzibar, which closeu the slave-market there, and part of the ground it stood on, bought for the 1:;" ni versities' Mission at the time, holds to-day the Zanzibar Cathedral, the communion-table standing on the very site of the old Whipping-post.
The following year, 1874, " Chinese Gordon" went to Kartum to wrestle with the African slave-trade, and did a six years' work that surpassed any other ever done by an Englishman in the same space of time, and his tragic death ultimately led to a project for a new mission at Khartum, yet, we hope, to be carried out. In 1879 the devot'ed Coillard, the Frenchman, laid the plans which linked him to the Barotsi Valley, and the American Board resolved to enter Africa near Benguela.
John Williams of Erromanga On the shores of Erromanga another martyr of Jesus fell in 183!:i, under the clubs of natives, who mistook tbeir best friend for a foe.
John Williams, at the king's invitation, had made his center at Raiatea, Christianizing and civilizing that island, and thence moving out in every direction. Seven years after he sailed from London, he, with six native teachers, had founded a mission on Raratonga, and Gospel light rapidly pervaded tbe whole Hervey group. He taught the people to frame a new civil code, reduced the language to writing, translated the New Testament, set up schools, and prepared text-books -in short, erected a Christian state.
MARTYRS IN GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION
In his home-made vessel, the .Messenger ~f Peace, he cruised for four years, exploring and evangelizing. In twenty months the fero- cious Samoan wolves became lambs, built chapels, and begged for more teachers. Worn out with seventeen years' untiring toil, he took a vacation of four years in England, but while there publishing a Raratongan New Testament and his" Narrative," which the bishop of Ripon called "the twenty-ninth chapter of the Acts," raising $20,000 for a new missionary ship, and preparing plans for schools and colleges in the South Seas. Then, in 1838, he again set sail, with ten recruits, and, while approaching Erromanga to plant a new mission, met his violent death. .
Ont of his twenty-three years of service only seventeen had actually been spent among the islands. Yet within that time he had visited all the groups and nearly all the islands in each group. over a space covering forty degrees of longitude and almost half as many of latitude, embracing four and a half million square miles. Wherever he went he left behind churches and schools, the Lord's Supper instead of cannibal feasts, the worship of God in place of pagan orgies, and honsehold Bibles and family altars instead of habitations of cruelty.
If life is measured by deeds, he lived a century.
John Williams' story so resembles that of Patteson, who, thirty- three years later, met death at Nikapu, that one narrative almost suffices for both. The crew of a vessel, landing at Erromanga, had robbed the island of sandalwood and outraged the natives; and the revenge, meant for such foes, fell unawares upon a friend, who counted not hie life dear if he might save them. Even so, Coleridge Patteson found the slave-trade, carried on under the J]ame of "con- tract labor," complicating and often frustrating his work. "Snatch- snatch" vessels sometimes carried an effigy missionary as a decoy, and" kill-kill" vessels, as the natives named them, in order to push a tortoise-shell trade, aided savage islanders in making decorative col- lections of skulls. The natives, dreading kidnappers, first deceived the trusting bishop, offering to paddle him ashore in their own canoe, and then set the boat adrift with his dead body in it. The people of Nikapu, like the Erromangans, found out their mistake, and set up a memorial cross close by the shore, with its pathetic tribute to "the missionary bishop."
In 1889, at the half century of his martyrdom, a monument was dedicated to him at Erromanga, the corner-stone being laid by a son of the savage whose club dealt the fatal blow, another son being also engaged in preaching the Gospel for whose sake Williams died.
We see isolated events, but we forget they are links in a chain; but it is safe to say that not one event, however sad, escapes God's wise plan. They are but dark threads in His loom necessary to the perfection of the pattern, and only to be understood when the fabric is finally unrolled.
THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETY IN FOREIGN LANDS BY REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D., BOSTON, MASS. Founder and President of the United Society of Christian Endeavor The growth of the Christian Endeavor movement in foreign lands within the last two years has been far greater than ever before, tho it first crossed the ocean from America many years ago. Ollly fOllr years after the establishment of the first society (1885), one missionary carried the organization to China, another to India, and still another to the Sandwich Islands. In all these lands the society has flourished ever since, and thus its cosmopolitan character was demonstrated at the outset, and its adaptability to diverse conditions in divers lands was made plain-in fact, one of the most interesting features of the movement has been its adaptability to widely separate lands and to widely different circumstances. Its simple rules of confession and service, its fidelity to its own Church, and its fellowship with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ a;'e no sooner fully understood than they are adopted. The society seems to be "true to name;" as t1le horticulturist would say, and to bring forth the same kind of fruit in many lands.
I have attended Christian Endeavor conventions not only in every State ill America and every province of Canada, in many sections of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and in every State but one of the new commonwealth of Australia, but in the Bhils of Bengal, among the Fuchauese and the Pekinese, in the brilliant cities of the New Japan, and among the Kraals of South Africa, in oppressed Armenia and free Scandinavia, among the polite and stately Spaniarrls and the freedom-loving Bulgarians, but everywhere I have found the same great topics discussed, the same evangelical principles insisted on, evangelism alld the missionary spirit incited, and the same sources of strength discovered.
The covenant pledge, voluntarily assumed by each active young Christian to strengthen and brace his soul in the performance of his religious duties; the consecration meeting, with its monthly review of the past and its forward look toward the future; the eomplete system of committees, which give every active member something to do appropriate to his years and his powers-all these features are as esselltial among the Boer prison camps of St. Helena and Geylon, and on the Valdez glacier of Alaska, as in any conference in New York or Massachusetts.
It is natural that the society should have grown most rapidly in countries that are nearest akin to America,~here it found its earliest home. So we are not surprised to find in Great Britain that there are nearly ten thousand societies with something like half a million
THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETY IN FOREIGN LANDS
of members, tho not all of them are recorded in the British Union, and that in Australia and South Africa, the other sections of the great English.speaking federation, the society is equally strong.
The growth of the movement ill Great Britain has been strangely at variance with the early predictions which I heard when first I went there, some fifteen years ago, at the invitation of English friends to speak about the Christian Endeavor Society at the May mretings. It was a "Yankee notion." It was an "American idea." "It was not adapted to the religious soil of the Old World." " The young people would never take the pledge," etc. Now I find nowhere such enthu- siastic Christian Endeavor conventions or more overwhelming audi- ences than in Great. Britain. The conventions rival ours in size and e:lcel them in enthusiasm-or, at least, in demonstrativeness. London, with its seven hundred societies, is the first Christian Endeavor city in the world. These societies are divided iuto nineteen local unions, each of which seeks to do some genuine practical work for its own section of the world's metropolis.
In Yorkshire and Lancashire, also, the society is particularly strong, while Scotland claims five hundred societies and Ireland a very strong contingent in the nor~hern cOUlltries. The Presbyterians lead in the United States, liut the Baptists are slightly in the lead in Great Britain, with the Congregationalists a close second, while in the Primitive Methodist, MetilOdists of the New Connection, and in other bodies the society is very strong. Of late a Christian Endeavor move- ment has begun in the Church of England which is gaining consider- able headway. .
On the Continent of Europe On the Continent of Europe the society is of more recent growth, but its work is no less promising. Germany was Olle of the first coun- tries to take hold of the movement in good earnest. Tho it is less than ten years since the first society was started there, it has now spread into all parts of the kaiser's domains, and "The Fatherland" is divided into six Christian Endeavor districts, each oI!e of which holds a helpful convention every year. 'l'wo secretaries give their time to the work, an abundant literature is printed, and an able monthly paper, Dz'e Jugendltilfe, is published. The conventions have given much attention to the deepening of the spiritual life, and are centers of real devotional power.
Spain, perhaps, should be mentioned next to Germany, for tho the Protestant population is small, and the opportunities for the growth of such an organization limited, it found its first foothold on the Continent in that country. It had for its sponsors Rev. and Mrs. W.
II. Gulick (and it conld have no better godparents), who introduced it into their admirable International Institute for Girls. For many years now almost every girl who has gone out from that famous
school has been an earnest Endeavorer, and these students have planted the society in every part of Spain where they have gone to teach or carryon evangelistic work.
When I went to Madrid last June, to attend the sedond Spanish National Christian Endeavor Convention, I found a large and intelligent company of delegates from all parts of the peninsula. The four Protestant churches of Madrid, including the Episcopal cathedral, were thrown wide open to the convention, and sessions were held in them all alternately. It was declared by experienced missionaries to have been the most important interdenominational gathering ever held in Spain. Instead of finding any hostility to America or Ame~i cans on account of the late" unpleasantness," as might have been expected, I found the utmost heartiness of welcome, and a disposition on the part of many to congratulate themselves that they had shifted some of their colonial responsibilities from their shoulders to our own.
Another part of the Iberian peninsula should not be forgotten. Little Portugal, too, has its Christian Endeavor contingent. When I reached Lisbon, after leaving the convention at Madrid, I was surprised to see a company of nearly a hundred in the station, whom I supposed at first had come to meet some member of the royal family or some dignitary of the government. What was my surprise to find that they had come to meet a very humble American, and they voiced their greeting by singing some Portuguese words of welcome to an old American war tune, and the station rang with "Tramp! tramp! tramp! the boys are marching."
I found that they desired to tell me that the boys of Portugal were marching to join the ranks of Christian Endeavor.
France should not be overlooked, for here, too, we find that Christian Endeavor is making good progress. The National Christian Endeavor Union for France has only recently been formed, but before this there were more than a dozen societies in Paris and many in other sections. The best news in connection with them has been that the formation of almost every society has been attended by a revival of religion and by conversion to Christ. The society in the American Church in tIle Rue de Berri, under the pastorate of the beloved Dr. Thurber, has long been a power among the young American Christians who flit through Paris. The society in the English Wesleyan Church on the Rue de Roquepine has done an equally good work.
In Scandinavia the largest number of Endeavorers are found in Sweden, where there are about one hundred societies, mostly in the Baptist churches. Some of them are very large and active, and with their great chornses and earnest evangelistic efforts largely assist their pastors in carrying on the soul-winning Sunday evening services. The society has made a good beginning in Finland, and some of the
THE cHiu8TIAN ENDt<:AVOR SOCtETY .IN FOREIGN LAND!;! 42S
literature of the movement has been translated into the Finnish tongue.
Ohristian Endeavo·r has not yet spread throughout Switzerland to any large extent, but in beau tiful Geneva are seven good sodeties, which maintain a vigorous local union and publish an interesting little paper in the .French language. Italy is one of the latest additions to the· Christian Endeavor family, for within less than a year th~ United Society of Ohristian Endeavor for Italy was formed, with a Walden· TilE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETY AT MARSOVAN, TURKEY sian pastor for president, another for general secretary, a 8cotch pastor (the honored Dr. Gray, of the Presbyterian Church of Home) for treasurer, and two other denominations represented on the executive committee. At the time of the great British convention held at Manchester last Whitsun tide a telegram was handed me, and from it I read to the co nvention, "They of Italy salute you!" This was signed by the officers of the newly organized national union, and the message was of course received with great applause by the enthusiastic Bri tishers.
Work has also been begun in Bohemia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Macedonia, as well as in Holland, and a fe w soc ieties are found in foreign churches of Russia, notably a most useful one in the British- American Church of St. Petersburg.
In Asia and in Africa When we get beyond the cOllnncs of Europe we still find oorselves in territory wh ere Christian Endeavor is not a stranger. 'furkey has many bands of earnest YOllUg Christians working along the same familial' lilles, tho many of theIII do 1I0t call themselves" societies,"
TllEl 1II1SSl0NARYREVIEW OF THE WORLD
A. TA.MIL CHRISTIAN ENDElVOR SOCIETY IN SOUTH INDIA because of the silly suspicions of the Porte, who is afraid of all organizations. 'rhey are not eyen allowed to wear the little badge worn by their comrades in all parts of the world. NeYertheless, they are doing their part in the evangelization of the sultan's empire. From Persia we hear that the societies have recently increased eightfold, having grown from three to twenty-five. In Syria there is a bright point of Christian Endeavor activity in Beirut, in connection with the Presbyterian mission, and another in Palestine.
In Egypt the United Presbyterians have established the movement in several of their missions, and the passing traveler will find in Cairo a company of white as well as Arabian Endeavorers, and an earnest and helpful meeting lJeld almost under the sbadow of tbe Spbinx.
Continuing our journey through the Suez Canal and the long Red Sea, we crOSS the Indian Ocean, to Le welcomed and garlanded by the Bombay Endeavorers, a welcome which will extend all the way across India to Calcutta, and down to t.he very southernmost end of the peninsula at Tuticorin. To be sure, the societies are not fonnd in equal numbers all over Inodia, but there is scarcely a large section where they are not established. There are strong centers of the work in the Marathi find Madura missions of the American Board, the Presbyterian missions of the Punjab, and the West Coast, among the English Baptists of Bengal, the American Baptists of the Telugu country, and the Areot Mission of the Reformed Church. Among the Disciples, Friends, Canadian Presbyterians, London Missions, and the Church Missionary Societyo. and the American Metbodists t11ere are alsa Cbristian "Endeavor societies. One of the largest societies in the world is in the First Church of Ahmednagar. It consists of six hundred and seventynine members and meets in nine sections.
THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR SOCIETY IN FOREIGN LANDS
The Christian Endeavor conventions in India are unique and memorable to anyone who has ever attended them: The bright banners, the peculiar music, the garlands with which they hang the necks of visitors, the attar of roses with which they rub your hand, the rose water with which you are sprinkled, all of these outward tokens combine in one hearty tropical welcome never to be forgotten. And yet· these conventions are full of genuine intellectual and spiritual value. I never attended a more interesting one than in the remote rice-fields of Eastern Bengal, in the field of William Carey the third, a greatgrandson of the famons pioneer missionary, who is an ardent and enthusiastic Endeavorer. At these conventions in Madura a thousand delegates have sometimes marched in procession, with banners and fifes and drums, greatly to the astonishment of their non-Christian neighbors, who have been impressed at least with the numerical strength of Christianity. Rev. F. S. Hatch, the Christian Endeavor Secretary for India, a former Massachusetts pastor, has done an admirable work for the past two years, and he reports almost innnmerable openings for the society still to be filled.
In China the society has flourished most largely in the south, where it was introduced seventeen years ago by Rev. George H. Hubbard, a young missionary, when he first went to Fuchau. Where it has been known the longest it has grown to the largest proportions. It has spread not only into all the stations of the American Board in the Fukien province, but into the Church Missionary Society's st~tions, where it has equally warm friends. More than one thousand two hundred Christian Chinamen attended the All-China Christian Endeavor Convention three years ago, and a more earnest, consecrated body I never saw, or one that gave larger promise for the future of their empire.
A GROUP OF cHINESE ENDEAVORItRS BEFORE THE BOXER OUTBREAK
Other centers for the Christian Endeavor movement in China are the Ningpo, Canton, and Hangchow Missions of the Presbyterians, and the North China Mission of the American Board, while scattered all over China are other societies that, according to the reports of missionaries of all denominations, are doing a most valuable work.
Christian Endeavor in Chin.a, as weH as in Turkey, has its roll of martyrs. In Peking one society of forty-five members lost no less than twenty-three in the Boxer uprising. In Paoting-fn were other Chinese martyrs, while Mr. Pitkin, Miss Morrill, and Miss Gould, of this mission, three of China's noblest heroes who gave their lives for their Lord, were particnlarly active in this canse. Dr. Ament, of A JA.PANE.SE CHRTSTIAN ENDEAVOR CONVENTION Peking, is the President of the North China Christian Endeavor Union, Rev. George II. Hubbard of the All-China Union, and Rev. George W. Hinman has jllstbeen appointed general secretary, to give his whole time to the work.
In Japan the society has not made the headway that it has in some other missionary lands; but there are over a hundred societies, and the number is constantly growing. Rev. James II. Pettee, D.D., of Okayama, has done very much for this cause, but he has been ably seconded by many native pastors as well as by some of his colleagues. A Christian Endeavor paper is published both in Japanese and English, and the national union employs a native secretary.
Interesting features of this work have developed in the islands of the sea. It has, for instance, greatly blessed the Malua Training College of Samoa, and hundreds of Endeavorers have gone out from it to preach the Gospel. Some have taken their lives in their hand,
SOUTH AFRICA
and have never come back from the cannibal islands to which they went in Christ's name.
In Jamaica the society has greatly flourished, and it has long been a powerful evangelistic agency, and in Mexico and South America there are many local organizations which are doing excellent work.
In all the Boer prison camps of St. Helena, Berm.uda. and Ceylon were flourishing Christian Endeavor societies, aggregating thousands of members, who held their weekly meetings, met together in convention, and helped to keep alive in these brave hearts their religious zeal while they were in prison. The last thing that the prisoners of war of St. Helena did, the night before they sailed for home, was to form a Transvaal Christian Endeavor Union for the purpose of establishing, if possible, a Christian Endeavor society in every Dutch church in South Africa, and two hundred of these former prisoners are now in training for mission work among the native races of Africa.
Space fails me to go into further particulars concerning God's wonderful dealings with this society the world around. His use of it silences all human boastings and congratulations, and we can only say, with rejoicing," It is not of man but of God." There is no doubt that it has been a great unifying as well as evangelistic force in these lands, and wherever the denominations have allowed it to exist, it has brought Christians of many creeds together, and has domonstrated to the world the deep, inherent unity of Ohristian hearts.
SOUTH AFRICA A BURDEN. A VISION. AND A DUTY BY REV. CHARLES NEWTON RANSOM Missionary American Board, Natal, South Africa, 1890- How can one interpret the rapiilly succeeding terrors and judgments of the last few years in Armenia, Cuba, China, Africa? In South Africa it has seemed as if all the plagues of ancient Egypt had been let loose anew in the last decade. Year after year swarms of locusts have devastated the land, virulent diseases have struck the cattle (and the cattle are practically the gods of the natives as well as one of the principal means of South African transportation), horse sickness has prevailed on a large scale, and in addition to local and perennial pests there have been special visitations with tides of typhoid, drouth, and local famine, touches even of the terrible bnbonic plague, while above all have rolled the thunder-clouds of war. One war broke the power of the fierce Matebele, then followed the Mashona campaign; away in the north of thc Transvaal came the brief and bitter contest of Boers and natives; the Portuguese entered n pon a complete SUbjugation of the tribes in their sphere of influence, and after some fighting, Gungunyana, the last perhaps of the great Zulu
chiefs, demonized by the black man's lusts and the white man's rum, and deserted by his own people, was captured and banished; Pondoland was in upheavel; and, to cap all, came the terrible conflict between Boers and Britains, brother races, which made the whole land tremble and almost" staggered humanity."
An observer of the times, unless Ii delirious devotee of commercial idolatry or a volatile Athenian, living by new and transient excitations of the nerves, is overwhelmed with these crushing calamities and exposed to the danger of doubt or despair. But there is an ancient tower where one may climb and get snch a vision as will help him bear the burden, if, indeed, it does not touch, as it may touch, the springs of a sublime activity. It is the tower of Habakkuk. Habakkuk was burdened with the terrors of his time. He longed for a revival of Jehovah's work. 'There is given him a wonderful vision of God's glorious coming. But what preceded this marvelous manifestation? Pestilence, fiery bolts, a shaking earth. All nature is moved and the wicked threshed in the fiery indignation of the God of righteou sness.
But what was the purpose of the coming? Salt'ation, victory, in which connection occurs the pregnant expression "with His anointed One." This vision lifts the prophet from the depths to the heights, from famine and drouth and war to fulness of joy, from paralysis of action to the exultant spring f)f the hind along the highway of celestial crags. Let this vision enable us to interpret the present, bear it, and fulfil our duty to the Savior, the" Anointed One," in His victorious march upon Africa. Lpt the Anglo-Saxon Zebuluns and Naphtalis jeopardize their lives unto the death upon the high places of this field. 'The political bugle blew a blast in 1884, and to-day more than nine-tenths of the mighty African continent has been parceled out among the European powers. The commercial trumpet of gold sounded feebly in 1886, yet a city (Johannesburg) of nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants sprang up in the wilderness as if by magic, so prompt are the children of this world to see and seize their opportunity. The missionary horn has been sounding the calls for over a century; great things have been done, but nothing proportionate to the wealth, knowledge, and power of the Ohristian Ohurch to whom the calls have come.
Just here let there be a word of encouragement for those who burn to do something. but who seem powerless to help. The busy, burdened wife of an earnest pastor, a woman of rare gifts of mind and heart, had a deep spiritual experience, a realization of Galatians ii: 20. She prayed for a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit on South Africa, and while praying received positive assurance f!'Om her Heavenly Father that He would do this very thing. Part of the answer came within a year. A man past sixty years of age, with heavy responsibilities at-
home, heard God calling him to go to South Africa. Like Abraham, he obeyed. With no knowledge of the field, no training of the schools, no society to back him, no acquaintance with the South African lan- guage, he went. Past master in the arts of faith, of wrestling in prayer, of constant Bible study, of love for the lost, he became God's instrument in one of the most reIllarkable revivals in Natal, and, despite the limitations of poverty a.nd pressing care, is on his third campaign in that far-away land. Are these examples not such as to encourage eager souls, and to stir great churches and great Boards into efficient intercession and aggressive campaigns?
We have spoken of the political and commercial bugles and the consequences. Are we thoroughly alive to God's purpose working behind these schemes? Man is indeed after the land and the gold, but God is after a golden Kingdom of men, and can nlRke the greed as well as the wrath of man to praise Him and forward the work which He has proposed in infinite love. Take another look at the city of gold-Johannesburg! Even before the war nearly eighty thousand natives were gathered there, coming from Cape Colony, Natal, Basutoland, and the Boer republics, from Namaqualand in the west and Tongaland, Swazieland, and the Portuguese possessions in the east, from beyond the Zambezi even to the great lake districts. And we have not mentioned the representatives from Ohina, Syria, Russia, and almost every European Stale. What an incomparable opportunity for evangelization at a minimum of expenditure as to men, money, and time! In this way hundreds of tribes and remote districts, which would not ' be reached for twenty years otherwise, might be leavened by the Gospel. ·From the district between Delagoa Bay and Zululand about seventyfive thousand natives went to work for a longer or shorter period in Johannesburg. This district was without missionaries or mission agents, but some of these people were so moved by limited contact with the small mission of the American Board in Johannesburg that they returned with the message and love of the Gospel to their homes, and one of the noble leaders of the Mission Romande (French-Swiss) at Delagoa Bay testified to us that one could not travel now in that district half a day's journey without coming upon a little building erected to the worship of Jehovah.
Away back in the wilds of the Umzimkulu River, Natal, I visited a wonderful little Ohristian community among the heathen. They had a chapel, regular services, a school, even a good-sized bell, which had. been carried on men's shoulders eighty miles to reach that wild district. Who started this work and sustained it? No white missionary, but a young man converted from heathenism in Durban, and trained for a time in its church and evening school. Some of the darkest dens of heathenism have similarly obtaineo_ the first glimpses of the dawn.
Having seen the meaninog of the signs of the time, and had a r glimpse of the Savior and the field .He is opening, what do we s~e as our immediate duty Is it not, nrstly, to equip the strategic centers like Johannesburg, Durban, Delagoa Bay, Beira, Gwelo, etc., and reinforce the work begun, so as to adequately grapple with the mammoth task of reaching the thousands in the city and following up the work in the homes and tribes temporarily represented in these centers? Is it not, secondly, to strengthen and enlarge the missions at work in the field, especially those which, having done a grand pioneer work, and in some cases reached the high tide of a self-supporting native church, must still train leaders for the struggle to establish poor homes, good schools, and spiritual churches? This means that the struggling institu tions, theological schools, ind ustrial and boarding schools, should be at once endowed, or otherwise enabled to do the work for which all the preparatory stage of trial and hardship was designed. Is it not, thirdly, througb these agencies and a distinct forward movement to lay upon the native churches their responsibility for the evangelization of Afriea, and with tbem to exploit and occupy new fields? Is it not, fourthly (in the climax of duty), and firstly (in point of time). and continuously, to importune the Lord for the filling of the HoI: Spirit, the filling of the Church at home and abroad, and the thrusting out of chosing workers for this great harvest-field?
Modern commerce and civilization are leaping ahead. The consular reports assert that the most remarkable trade struggle of modern times is on in South Africa. The export houses of Europe and America have been preparing for three years for the coming battle of commerce. In mining machinery, in the next five years, there will probably be an outly of $145,990,000. One hundred thousand homes must be reconstructed. The tide of emigration is rolling in. In the eleven months, ending November 30, 1902,42,729 entered the country, an increase of 16,288 over the year 1901. Plans are maturing to spend $50,000,000· in railroad enterprises, $15,000,000 on harbors, $5,000,000 for public works, $25,000,000 in the Transvaal, and a proportionate amount in the Orange River Colony. New discoveries are frequently reported, such as oil in Cape Colony, anC} in Gazaland a quartz reef showing" visible" very rich; New syndicates are springing up in British, German, and Portuguese possessions.
'rhese spendid forces might be made engines of the Kingdom of God, but they will not be if the Church sleeps. This modern growth is full of gl'eed, of covetousness, and covetousness, " which is idolatry," may be more fatal to the Christianization of Africa than war, famine, and pestilence. A business manager in Durban declared that a heathen hoy from the interior was ruined morally in less than a year by the demoralizing contact with town life. It is an alarming sign of the times. What is done must be done quickly. MUSIC IN THE MISSIONARY MEETING BY BELLE llL BRAIN, SPRINGFIELD, OHIO.
Music is an important factor in the missionary meeting. So great is the power of sacred song to "help the human heart to love, to dare, and to aspire," that many a soul has beell led to yield itself to God and obey his call to higher service through the singing of a hymn.
Two such instances bave come within my personal knowledge. One was that of a young man w110 possessed a fine bass voice and was a member of the quartet choir in a prominent city church. He had long been a confessed follower of Christ, but was just beginning to see the beauty and privilege of a life of service, when one evening the pastor announced, in closing, a well-known missionary hymn. As the young man sang the stirring words he heard God's voice calling him to the mission field. Intensely moved, he went at once to the home of a trusted friend for advice. Obeying the call involved the giving up of certain bright business prospeets, ana probably the breaking of a tender tie, yet that night, ere he slept, the yOllng singer made the resolve, " God permitting, I will be a foreign missionary," and shortly after enrolled himself among the Student Volunteers.
The other instance was that of an earnest Christian girl who felt that God was calling her to the mission field, but was quite unwilling to go. A sore struggle had been going on in her heart for months, when one daT at a young people's meeting at a snmmer assembly the hymn, "I Sllrrender," was announced. Unwilling to sing with her lips words that her heart was refusing to utter, she kept silent and did not join in the singing. At the close of the meeting she crept away in an agony of sonl, once more to lay the matter before God in prayer. Ere long the victory came, and with it came the peace of God. With a joy that had long been a stranger to her soul, her heart echoed and reechoed the refrain, "I surrender, I surrender, I surrender all! "
Music, however, is not always effective in the missionary meeting. Too often the service of song, tho fairly good from a lllusical standpoint, is lacking in spiritual power. This is largely due to the fact that so little attention is paid to the words. " .Music is wings, and the words are the body," says Dr. A. F. Schauffier. "As wings without a body are of no use, so music that does not help the words is of no avail from a spiritual standpoint."
The thoughtless singing of a hymn must really be a serious offense in the sight of God. I have never forgotten the exhortation of a good old Presbyterian pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio, who, after announcing It hymn expressing deep consecration and loyal love to Christ, said to the congregation: "Now, l::Y dear people, I beg of you, do not sing any lies to the Lord l!tis morning!"
The contrast between the sentiments of a hymn and the conduct of the singers is sometimes painfully apparent. One of Dr. John Hall's favorite stories was of a pious Scotchman who lustily sang the words: Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all- and as he sung fumbled in his pocket to find the smallest coin he had for the contribu tioll box.
Another serious hindrance to the spiritual power of music is the use of inappropriate selections. Elaborate anthems rendered largely for the gratification of the musical faculty, and not in a true spirit of worship to God, are out of place in missionary meetings. So also is secular music of any kind. The practise of having secular solos in the hope of attracting those not interested in missions is deplorable. No matter how beautiful and pleasing such music may be, it has no place on the missionary program.
Some Practical Suggestions Every missionary organization should have a committee to take charge of the music and see that it is made an attractive feature of each meeting. An accompanist should also be appointed, and either a precentor or choir to lead the singing, but it is well to remember that the power of sacred song is immeasurably increased when" the hands that toul')h the organ keys and the voices that lead in singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs are at the disposal of the Holy Ghost and usable as His instruments."
While it is well, occasionally, to arrange for appropriate solos and duets, music in the missionary meetings should largely consist of congregational singing. The method of conducting it, however, may frequently be varied.
Stenciling the words of special hymns on large sheets' of paper or muslin, and singing from them instead of from books, is an excellent plan which concentrates the attention and produces fine results.
– Responsive singing, rightly conducted, can be made very effective. In hymns such as "The Light of the World" and "What a Wonderful Savior! " where two lines of each stanza are alike, one division of the society may sing the first and' third lines and the other respond with the second and fourth, all uniting in the chorus. In such hymns as "Revive Us Again" and "Bringing in the Sheaves," where the repetition occurs in the chorus, the entire society may sing the stanzas and the two divisions alternate in the lines of the chorus. "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night" should al~ays be sung antiphonally, either by a choir and the society, or by two divisions of the society.
Reading the words of a hymn instead of singing them is helpful occasionally. It may be done either responsively or in Ulllson, and is especially to be recommended where the number present is too small, or the voices not strong enough for good congregational singing.
Professor Amos R. Wells makes the following suggestion, which is well worth adopting: Choose a missionary hymn that shall be sung at all the missionary meetings for the year-not some flippant song, but some grand old hymn of the faith. It should be committed to memory, and at the beginning of every missionary meeting the entire company should rise and sing it with fervor.
Making slight changes in familiar hymns to adapt them to special occasions may sometimes be done with good effect. The hymn "Christ for the World We Sing" lends itself nicely to this method; for example, in a meeting on Japan, the name of the country may be substituted for the words" the world": Christ for Japan we sing, Japan to Christ we bring.
For a home missionary meeting the words "our land" may be used, and for world-wide missions each stanza might be sung in a different way-I. Christ for the world; 2. Ohrist for our land; 3.
Ohrist for our state; 4. Ohrist for our homes.
At one of the sessions of Woman's Day at the Ecumenical Oonfer- ence a very effective change was made in the third stanza of Heber's famous hymn: Can I whose soul is lighted With wisdom from on high, Can I to men benighted The lamp of life deny?
Connecting hymns with the Scripture passages which inspired them calls attention to the words and deeply impresses their lessons.
Thus: "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun" should be used in connec- tion with Psalm lxxii; " Joy to the World " with Psalm xcviii; "Hark!
the Voice of Jesns Calling" with Isaiah vi: 8, and "Ye Ohristian Heralds, Go, Proclaim" with Mark xvi: 15.
Native airs from missionary lands sung by persons dressed in native costume affords a pleasing innovation. Such music rarely has a spiritual value, but, like pictures and cnrios, it serves a noble pur- pose in creating interest in foreign peoples and foreign lands.
Missionary Stories of the Hymns Hymns associated with great missionaries and famous native COIlverts, or connected with notable events in missionary history, are appropriate for use in the missionary meeting. An entire evening may be profitably devoted to a missionary song service, in which such hymns are sung and their stories told.
" Prom Greenland's Icy Mountains," the greatest of all missionary hymns, was written by Reginald Heber, the young rector of Hodnet, who afterward became the beloved Bishop of Oalcutta. During the
week preceding Whitsunday, in 1819, he went to Wrexham to assist his father-in-law, Dean Shirley, with the services. A royal mandate had been issued calling for a missionary collection at the morning service, and on Saturday afternoon, in the presence of a few friends in the rectory parlor, Dr. Shirley requested his son-in-law to write a hymn for the occasion. 'rhe young rector, whose heart had been deeply stirred by the story of Henry Martyn's life, complied at once. Retiring to a window of the room he wrote out the first three stanzas of the hymn that has made his name immortal, and, returning, read it to his companions. One change only was made, and that a slight one-the word "heathen" being substituted for "savage" in the second verse. Dr. Shirley was abundantly satisfied, but young Heber declared it incomplete, and, withdrawing again for a few moments, wrote out the matchless lines of the concluding verse. 'The following extract from Heber's journal, written on his voyage to India in 1823, adds much to the interest of the second verse: Tho we were now too far off to catch the odors of the land, yet it is, we are assured, perfectly true that such odors are perceptible to a very considerable distance. In the Straits of MaJacca a smell like that of a hawthorne hedge is commonly experienced, and from Ceylon, at thirty or forty miles, under certain circumstances, a yet more agreeable scent is inhaled.
"Tell It Out Among the Heathen," Miss Ilavergal's stirring hymn, was written one Sunday morning in Wales, while the church bells were ringing. Being too iII to attend the service, she poured forth the longing of her heart in verse. Dr. Duffield calls attention to the fact that both the words of the hymn and the tune written for it by Mr. Sankey suggest the chiming of the bells.
" Christ for the World We Sing" was inspired by the motto of the Ohio State Young Men's Christian Association convention, held in Cleveland in 1869. The words of this motto, "Christ for the World, and the 'Vorld for Christ," wrought in evergreen over the platform, so deeply impressed the Rev. Samuel Walcott, D.D., that at the close of one of the evening sessions, while walking home alone through the streets, he "put together" the foul' stanzas of this favorite hymn.
"A Mighty Fortress is Our God," the grand old hero-psalm of Luther, was sung as a parting hymn by the first band of missionaries sent forth by Pastor Harms in 1853. At a great farewell service held in the old church at Hermannsberg, the departing missionaries-sixteen in number, and all men-stood up at the close of the sermon and sang the words so dear to every German heart. "There was something noble," says Dr. Stevenson, "in those humble men setting their faces toward the savages in Africa, and flinging back such lofty music out of brave, composed hearts."
"All Hail the Power of J esus' Name! " conceded by all to be the most inspiring hymn in the language, was used as the opening number of the Ecumenical Conference held in New York in 1900. Few who were present will ever forget the inspiring moment when the vast audience arose, and with glad, exultant voices poured forth this triumphant pean of praise. A touching incident, showing the power of the hymn, comes to us from India. One day, on the streets of a village, a missionary came in contact with a man who ,belonged to a fierce and warlike mountain tribe to whom, as yet, the Gospel had never been preached. Determined to "carry Jesus to them," at great personal risk he started for their country, taking, among other things, his violin, After a two days' journey he reached his destination, only to find himself surrounded by hpstile savages, who pointed their spears at ,his heart. Death seemed imminent, bnt taking out his violin he began to sing and play the first verse of " All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name!" Finding himself unharmed, he sang on and on until at length he dared to open his eyes. Great was his amazement to find the spears dropped and the people ready to welcome him. Their savage hearts had been conquered by a hymn.
"Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me," the hymn so dear to every Ohristian heart, is especially significant throughout the Orient, where the fol- lowers of Buddha and the devotees of Hinduism are willing to per- form any task, no matter how difficult or how repulsive, in the hope of escaping the pain and sorrow of countless reincarnations. Mrs. Bainbridge tells of a woman who, in order to mak,e merit, dug with her own hands a well twenty-five feet deep and from ten to fifteen feet across. Not until long after completing this difficult task did she learn of free salvation through Ohrist. She was an old woman eighty years old when Mrs. Bainbridge saw her, but she was able to stretch forth the poor old crippled hands that had performed such incredible labor in an endeavor to obtain salvation, and sing with her visitor: Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling, "Jesus, and Shall it Ever Ee," the hymn written by Joseph Grigg when but ten years old, was sung at the baptism of Krishna Pal, the first Hindu convert who had the faith and courage to endure the odium of a public confession of Ohrist. This notable baptism took place at Serampore on the last Lord's day of the year 1800, the hymn being sung just before Oarey "desecrated the Ganges" by leading down into one of its tributaries two candidates for immersion, his son Felix and Krishna Pal.
"I'm Not Ashamed to Own My Lord" was used by Mackay, of Formosa, to strengthen the faith of A Hoa, his first convert, who had become his efficient helper, but was early learning that the path of – service is sometimes strewn with thorns. When Dr. Mackay was preaching for the first time in Kelung, a heathen city in North For- mosa, he was surrounded by a mob of angry idolators, among the_~
some of A Hoa's old associates, whose hatred for the missionary was only exceeded by their contempt for his convert. What followed can best be told in Dr. Mackay's own words: I turned to A Boa and asked him to address the people. It was a moment of testing. _Never before had he spoken for Christ in the [ublic street, and it was only a few months since he himself first heard the Gospel. As he heard the vile and scornful words of his old comrades, he was silent and hung down his head. Immediately I rl'ad the first verse of a hymn, and we sang it together. It was the old Scotch paraphrase that has so often put iron into the blood and courage into the hearts of trembling saints: I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, Or to defend His cause; nlaintain the glory of His cross, And honor all His laws.
It was enough. A Boa raised his head, and never again was he "ashamed." Looking out over the angry mob, he addressed them in the calm, clear tones of a man who believes and is not afraid.
«0 God of Bethel, by Whose Hand," was David Livingstone's favorite hymn. It greatly cheered him during privations and suffer- ings of his long journeys through Africa, and it was sung at the great service in Westminster Abbey, when, on April 18, 1874, his body was finally laid away to rest. "0 '!:'hou From Whom All Goodness Flows" was a source of much comfort to Henry Martyn when reviled and persecuted for the sake of Christ on the mission field. After a prolonged and wearisome discussion with a Mohammedan concerning the doc~ trine of the divinity of Christ, he wrote in his diary, under date of August 23, 1811: It is this doctrine which exposes me to the contempt of the learned Mohammedans. Their sneers are more difficult to bear than the brickbats which the boys sometimes throw at me; however, both are an honor of which I am not worthy. How many times a day have I occasion to repeat the words: If, on my face, for Thy dear name, Shame aud reproaches be, All hail reproach, and welcome shame, If Thou remember me.
On June 12, 1812, so the diary says, the scene was repeated, and again the saintly missionary found comfort in his favorite hymn.
"In the Secret of His Presence," " 0 Thon My Soul, Forget No More," "Take My Heart for Thine, Jehovah," and"Awak'd by Sinai's Awful Sound," four devout hymns that have proved most useful to the Church, are worthy of special note, because they are the work of Christian converts in mission lands. The first was composed by Ellen Lakshmi Goreh, a high-caste Hindu girl, born in Benares in 1853, who after her conversion developed rapidly in the Christian lifE, and became a missionary to her people; tb-e second, by Krishna Pal, Carey's first convert, who became an earnest Christian and an eloquent preacher; the third, by the native pastor of the Ampamarianan (" Rock of Hurling") Church, in Madagascar, who wrote it in prison· shortly before his death; the fourth, by Samson Occom, a famous Indian pre~cher of New England.
BEGINNING WORK IN CENTRAL AFRlCA 43'/'
BEGINNING WORK IN CENTRAL AFRICA BY REV. DEWITT C. SNYDER, M.D., BROOKLYN, NEW YORK Our long journey of ten thousand miles was ended. The last ves- tige of civilization had disappeared, and we stood in the midst of the heathen people of Africa. We had come to this country to teach the teeming hordes of Africa's ignorant and degraded children the blessed truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A vast field of virgin soil lay before us. Here we would- not build on any other man's foun·dation. There were no pre conceived systems of theology to combat with, and no tearing down of false structures, philosophies, like Buddhism, before laying a foundation.
We located our station just outside of the village of Kasenga, and about a mile from the Lulula .
River. The village consisted of two long streets, along which the houses had been put up in every conceivable way, at various angles, and very few in line. Here and there in the cen ter of the streets were open sheds, where the " council" met for their palavers.
Under the trees, in out of the way places, were small houses devoted DR. AND MRS. SNYD1!.R to special fetishes, while here and there were sheds containing looms for weaving cloth, or smithies for making spears, hoes, arrows, and other articles of iron.
Our first visit to this village of one thousand souls was filled to overflowing with incidents of the deepest interest. There were two sets of human curios on exhibition. The natives, with their strange dress and stranger ways on the one side, and ourselves on the other.
We were bent on seeing all we could, and their eyes stood out like saucers! It is a question as to which party was the most interested.
A crowd quickly surrounded us. Babies were held high in air that they might see the wonderful white people, and the mothers them- selves were filled with wonder at the women j~ our party who had so many clothes on. Again and again the question was asked, " Are they really women like us?" Children peeped at us from between the legs of the men, or climbed up on top of the goat-houses to gaze at us in awe.
As we passed along there came to us from all sides the salutation, " Muoya!" (I…ife I). From the gray-haired chief of the village down to the babe who lisped it at its mother's breast came this mystic word. How strange it sounded to us who had come so far to proclaim life to them. Here was a whole village full of people whom we knew to be in a dying state, and yet on all sides we heard them proclaiming, "Life!" " Life!" From recognizing it as a salutation it soon came to our hearts as a pathetic appeal for that of which they really knew so little. This dead and dying people were calling out of their darkness for life! But how to convey to their minds the fact that we had come to proclaim Jesus as the supreme life-giver was not so easy. We could not speak in their language. nor did they understand a word of English.
Our first year was spent mainly in building suitable houses, learning the language, and in becoming acquainted with the people. The first house we occupied was a one-story three-room building erected .on the ground, without any boards or planks between us and the earth. The walls were of clay, the roof was thatched with grass. 'rhe ceilings of the rooms were made of unbleached muslin, aud the windows were mere holes cut in the clay walls and covered with the same material. During the rainy season we were often awakened during the night by water dripping down on our faces, and compelling us to arise and move the bed-not once or twice, but many times. The last resort was to raise our umbrellas and pray for the day.
The extreme heat of the tropics made it necessary to have the cook-house d.etached from the main building. No modern range with all improvements graced the interior, but a clay stove, modeled by the missionary's own hands, served the purpose. A bright-faced, blackeyed boy, about ten years old, Katalai by name, was 0111' first cook. His dress was merely a narrow piece of native cloth around his loins. No hat adorned his head, and he knew nothing at all about shoes. He was not as immaculately clean as we desired, and was a great trial to us until he had learned the free use of water and soap.
We had brought with us from America a cooked ham sealed up in tin, and onr mouths watered as we anticipated discussing it at a noon dinner. One day Katalai was instructed to open the tin and prepare the ham. Very carefully he opened the tin, and very nicely he cooked it. After cutting the bread he took the knife and deliberately wiped one side of the blade across his bare right leg, and then performed the same trick with the other side on his left leg. He then proceeded to slice the ham! It was all done before, in our astonishment, we could frame words of protest. The ham did not appeal to our appetites as strongly as it had just previous to this knife-cleaning process.
When Katalai was asked, "Is the water in the kettle hot?" he always took the kettle in his hand and poured some of the water on his bare foot to find out. One day in going to the cook-house to see
n~GrNNtNG W6ttR' tN CENTltAL APltrCA
A MARKET DAY ON THE UPPER KONGO why the dinner was not served we found him taking a bath in the pot in which he cooked the potatoes. But Katalai improved in time, and before his death he became an honored member of the Church.
All our drinking-water had to be brought from a spring a mile and a half from the station, and our washing-water was brought from the river a mile away. The native women did our washing for us under a shed near the house, but as we had no irons we had the clothes neatly folded, and took turns sitting on them to smooth out the wrinkles. 'fhere were other wrinkles that "sitting" on did not smooth out, but of them we wiII speak later on.
Some of Their Religiou, Ideas Our main object was, of course, the conversion of these heathenand this weighed so heavily on our minds "that the care we were giving to personal matters worried us, and we redoubled our energies to find out whether or not they had any religion. If it be tme that there is no people without some system of religion, then fetishism must be considered a religion. But fetishism is not a religion in the true sense of the word, for in it there is no worship and but little true faith; it is rather a "dark agnosticism full of fear, helpless and hopeless." Altho bowed down in the chains of ignorance alld superstition, the people of Africa are not wholly disbelievers or deniers of a Supreme Being. Every tribe has the name of God, but other than the mere name there is very little indication of allY knowledge of a diety.
In order to ascertain whether our people had any notion whatever
of a God, I entered into conversation with one of the most intelligent of the natives.
"Who made the house you are living in r" I asked.
"Why," he answered, "I made it, of course." "Yes; and who made your spear P" " Kasonga" (a blacksmith chief), he replied. "And the cloth you wear, who made it?" "A friend of mine whose name is Mudimba." "Very well, then; but who made these beautiful big palm trees, and the woods with their vines and flowers, and the animals, and the men? What is his name? " "Oh," he said, "Njambi made all those." In the lower Kongo region the word for God is "Nzambi," or "Nyambi," evidently of the same root as "Njambi." With another large tribe near us we ·find the words "Fide Makulu," meaning an old person with the strong idea of "ancient of days." * It is genf'r- ally conceded by Biblical students that, with the exception of the word" Jehovah," the name of the Supreme Being appears usu,ally to carry with it the idea of power, so that it is not at all unlikely that Mr. Bentley's idea is the correct one.
In the country aronnd our mission, growing alone ana widely separated from each other, are a few lordly palms, differing greatly from the more common oil-giving palm, which always grows in groves. To this palm they give the name "dibu di Njambi." Among the cowrie shells used as money is sometimes found a small, beautifully striped shell, somewhat similar in shape to the cowrie; it is highly prized, and is named the "Njambi" shell. Often, when interesting .and amazing the natives with some chemical experiment, I have heard the word" Njambi" spoken in a low, awesome tone. Evidently the word" Njambi" corresponds to our word God, but the poor native knows nothing at all of a kind, forgiving Father. They know of "Njambi" merely as a power greater than any other known among them. To this power they ascribe no attributes; indeed, tlley look upon it more as a power that has been than as one continually exercising its influence in their lives.
As to a hereafter, they have most curious ideas. They do not believe in the resurrection of the body, but believe that the spirit, after leaving the body, goes to some far-away place to which they give the name "Mputu." As thcy speak of the white men among them as " Mputu " people without thinking of them as embodied spirits, it is evident that the word "Mputu" means merely" unknown country." They also believe that many of these spirits return to earth and me again in the * Mr. Bently, in his exceedingly interesting book" Pioneering on the Congo," remarks that H. Nzambi' and its cognates are l~ke' Nzamba,' the elephant, and there may lie an idea of greatness in the root." Among our people the word for'" elephant" is '" Kanlba, " showing here also a likeness to" Njambi."-DE W. C. S,
BEGINNING WORJ( IN CENTRAL AFRICA
form of animals, usually the leopard (metempsychosis), or in the body of a human being (transmigration).
The Bakuha, living north of our station, had forbidden the paths to all strangers. For a while it seemed as if we could never reach them to establish a mission among them. One of our missionaries, the Rev.
W. H. Sheppard, F.R.G.S., had learned much of their language from the Bakuba traders who passed through our station on their way to the trading-houses along the river. He made an attempt to reach the capital where the king (Lukenga) lived, but he found the paths closed. At last, how- ever, word reached the king of this mysterious man who could speak his language and was of the same color ·as his people.
Immediately he conceived the idea that Sheppard was the em- bodiment of the spirit of his son who had died many years ago, and thus Sheppard was admitted and treated with gl'eat honor. A FE"rISH OF THE KONGO NATIVES He was the first foreigner to enter into the Bakuba country, tho the traders had tried very often to accomplish the same feat. Thus it was through this belief in th e transmigration of souls that the Gospel entered into the great Bakuba country.
They believe that the woods are full of spirit.s-real people, tho invisable to them-evidently the embodiment of their own evil thoughts. It is believed that these evil spirits are continually seeking to injure them, and that all sickness and death, and trouble of all kinds, are due to the malign influence exerted by these spirits; hence the necessity for fetishes,* or" buanga." A fetish may consist of just one simple thing, as a bone or a bead or a crooked stick, or it may be an accumulation of things in a gourd or a bag made from native cloth, or it may be a very fancifully carved image of a man or an animal. This thing, or the accumulation of things, is potent only after having been made so by the witch-doctor. The witch-doctor goes through a remarkable series of performances before the fetish is perfect. There are low-murmured formulas while he gazes on the " The word" fetish "is from the Portug uese verb l eitif;<> (to charm). A charm seems necessary to their superstitious minds as a protec tion against the workings of these evil spirits. There do not seem to be any good spirits. Immunity from evil is accounted for by the strength of the fetishes they have, or through the temporary cessation of the spiritR' per- nicious work. .
object lying before him on a mat; then he grasps it in his hands, and after chewing a bit of kola-nut, spits the chewed pieces all over the object; then he covers it with powdered cam wood mixed with oil, and lastly dips it in the blood of a chicken. During the whole process his bod V writhes as if he were in agony, an.d his face is distorted with most diabolical expressions. These fetishes are of various values, and are used not only to ward off evil spirits, but also to bring luck to the possessor.
We have found but few traditions among them, and tho there is plenty of proof of their having come from a higher state of civiliza- tion down to the very low level on which they now live, allmemol'Y of better times is as a long-forgotten dream. Two instances of folk-lore we mention here as being the most interesting of all we have heard: A long time ago our king grew sick of a desire to know what there was above us in the" sky country." So he called together all his people and told them of his desire, and commanded them to meet together again in two moons, prepared to solve this problem. At the end of that time all the chiefs with a11 the people reassembled at the place appointed, a large plain, each chief bringing with him a long bamboo pole and a quantity of native rope. A hole was dug, and one of the poles firmly planted in the ground. Around this pole as many as possible of the people gathered.. Those nearest, the pole grasped it firmly, while others braced the people who held the pole. Then two of the chiefs climbed up to the top, carrying with them another length of bamboo, to be tied to the end of the one planted into the ground. Other chiefs were to continue this plan, and in this way they hoped to ascend to the" sky country." But, alas! the whole thing toppled over, killing· many, and the plan was dropped.
The other legend is: Many, many years ago there suddenly appeared in the sky a man with bright raiment, who cried out in tones loud enough to be heard by all the people in all the country around: "Muoya ! muoya ! muoya!" (Life! life! life!) But the people, with one accord, answered: 'i Ve do not accept!" And then the man disappeared. In a few days he returned in the sky, and this time called out: "Lufua! lufua! lufua!" (Death! deat.h! death I). And all the people answered, "Tuwatubush" (we accept), and so death came into the world.
On this triangular foundation (resting, of course, on the true Foundation) the missionaries have sought to build. First, the woru "Njambi," meaning an unknown God, was used to teach them of the true God. Second, their tradition of the king, and his uesire to know of the" sky country," opened the way to tell them of heaven, anu to show them that no man had ascended up on high to bring knowledge of that place, bu t that Jesus the Son of God had come to reveal it. And, third, from their tradition of life and death we showed them that an opportunity still remained of choosing life through Jesus Christ, who now offered it to them.
THE! PROVINCE! OF GARHWAL, INDIA
THE PROVINCE OF GARHWAL, INDIA BY REV. JOSEPH H. GILL, PAORI, GARHWAL, INDIA Missionary Methodist Episcopal Church, 1872- The geographical position of Garhwal makes it one of the most distant fields, besides being the most difficult to reach on the globe. It is a part of the Himalayas, and contains the sources of the Jamna and Ganges rivers. It is a land of mountains so closely packed together that where valleys would be expected only ravines are found, with hardly a spot wide enough to deserve the name of valley. To this the only exception is the little spot on which Srinagar is built. In 1894 the falling of a mountain side dammed the Gohna River, and the accumulated water, nine hundred feet deep and five miles long, made the Gohna Lake, which finally destroyed the dam in a single night and the accumulated water burst suddenly into the upper Ganges, overflowing its banks and carrying away with it the habitations of thousands of people. Life was saved, however, because the people had timely warning, for civil engineers and telegraph stations lined the route. In this flood the town of Srinagar was washed away, and with it mission property worth five thousand rupees. Said property has never been replaced.
Many of the villages of Garhwal are perched on the hillsides like birds' nests-hard to reach. Terraced fields which are constantly falling and constantly being repaired furnish the only ground. for the liLtle farms where, amid rocks and stones, the people try to raise food for themselves. Grazing-ground for cattle is found in plenty outside of and above the cultivated land, for there is considerable forest scattered over the hills.
The district is from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles from north to south, and about one-fourth tha.t distance in width from east to west. If the territory of the llative Rajah of Tihree be added, then the width will be donbled. The entire number of inhabitants is about three-quarters of a million.
It was in the year A,D. 1815 that the British ousted the Naipaleese and took possession. At that time chaos reigned as far as government was concerned, for the Gurkhas entrusted the collection of revenue to their soldiers, and they stopped at nothing, butchering the people when it suited them or selling them into slavery. But now all that is changed. A single English magistrate rules with peace and justice, and great content prevails. If there be an exception to this "content," it is because of want of appreciation of civilization and civilized methods. For instance, forests are protected from destruction because of the well-known connection between its foliage and the rainfall. But the villager, who had license in old times to hew and cut when and where and how he liked, finds it difficult to put up with
present restraint. The deputy commissioner, for that is the English magistrate's title, has many native assistants. Post-offices and telegraph offices have been established, an the land has be.en accurately surveyed and mapped, every cultivator's revenue tax has been fixed. This is done anew once in a generation. Police stations have been established, and life is about as safe in this distant territory as in many a civilized city of Christendoj11. In the ravines small turbine watermills are fonnd, where grain is made into flour. Those who live hI' from the streams still use the hand-mills, everywhere common in the East. Fi~h abound in the streams and are eaten by the people. Pheasants and wild fowl1ive in the jungles. Deer of small size, wild pigs, bears, and leopards are still to be met with. The "meeting" with the latter is not always pleasant for the travder. Snakes are feareu, for they are not few; several times the writer has killed a cobra. Oxen are only used to draw the ·plow. There are no wheeled vehicles,' for the roads are too steep and too narrow. We pray for cart roads as well as for salvation. Cows give milk, and they are worshiped. Bufl'alos are domesticated for milk anu for use i21 the plow. Goats and sheep are used for food.
The hills vary in height; they are a few hundred feet when they first leave the plaim, but as one advances into the interior they rise to 3,000, 5,000, 8,000, 10,000, and finally to over 22,000 feet above sealevel. Here are the eternal snows. Two passes permit adventurers to cross into Tibet (the Mana and the Niti passes), but they are so difficult of access that few attempt the journey except the Bhotias, a mixed people who are themselves partly of Tibetan blood.
All along the banks of the Ganges temples and shrines' are met. Wherever a confluence of two streams takes place it is called Priyag, and is supposed to be a place of special sanctity. lienee the names of many little villages: Deo-priyag, Rudrpriyag, Nandpriyag, and others. Two of India's most famous shrines are situated in Garhwal-namely, Kidarnath and Badrinath. To these come men and women pilgrims from all over India-princes and peasants to the number of fifty thousand to seventy-five thousand annually. These pilgrims find hill traveling new and difficult and dangerous. They are well fleeced by people who are shopkeepers, coolies, and men of priestly class, who make a living by "taking the stranger in." In very ancient times schools of learning existed Ilear Joshimath in Garhwal, and the best Sanscrit and the purest was here spoken. But this is all changed now. Ignorance prevails. What little knowledge there may be comes from three sources-indigenous schools, government schools. and mission schools. Some few well-to-do people 11ire a priest or teacher to give instruction to the children of their own famil!: This makes the indigenous school. The teacher is fed with the family, and receives a trifle in cash besides. Then the government maintains some fifty or
THE PROVINCE OF GARHWAL, INDIA
sixty primary schools, where the people's vernacular is taught. The mission school, until lately, was the only one in which English is taught.
A girls' school has been established and is now cared for by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was named by the ladies of the Philadelphia branch in honor of the lady who did most to build it up "The Mary Ensign Gill Memorial School." It is equipped with excellent dormitories and class-rooms and chapel, beside having a modern dwelling-house of approved pattern for the young ladies in charge, together with ample fields and forest to furnish outdoor exercise for the pupils. The pupils are all Christian boarders or orphans, and number some seventy at the time.
The boys' missio'n school at Patui has existed for about thirty-six years. It is appreciated by the better classes of people all over the district. They send their sons gladly, intrusting them to the care and supervision of the missionary in charge. Dormitories are provided for them near the missionary's house.
To-day many young men look on this school as their alma mater while they fill places of importance and renumeration. They are found in the following departments: medical, educational, law, civil engineering, and clerks in the courts and in the treasury. A few are in the police and in the military. Some have become preachers of the Gospel. An effort is made, at present, to maintain ten classes in this school, thus making it a high-school in grade, but funds are sadly lacking to continue this good work. It seems to the writer as if there never existed in any mission field on earth a more favorable oppor- tunity to influence and affect the education of an entire district, the children of over half a million people. Natives not wholly friendly to Christianity and others who are favorable to the mission have of themselves raised a sum equal to $2,000 or $3,000, in hopes that the interest will provide a sum sufficient to keep up perpetually a school of high grade. The small rate of interest they receive will not admit of the realization of their object.. The mission itself is sadly hindered by lack of funds. No other missionary society occupies this field.
The Methodist Episcopal Mission has the responsibility as well as the honor of the enterprise resting solely on its shoulders. It seems to the writer that there has seldom been in any land a gre.ater opportunity to do permanent good to a neglected and needy population in an out- of-the-way district. Rev. James·H. Messmore, D.D., at present living in Pauri, himself teaches in it four honrs daily. His wife, in addition to other duties, teaches one hour daily.
Rev. T. J. Scott, D.D., of Bareilly, who visited Garhwal, writes me, dated July 1, 1902: "I have been much interested in the matter of Qur getting control of the principal education in Garhwal. . If
the scheme becomes a success this will be a noble work, and may be worth a hundred years 'of mission work."
Many of the temples in Garhwal are endowed, and a host of idola- trous priests grow fat on the spoils gained from pious pilgrims. The pandas or temple runners-missionaries of idolatry-make tours over India. They district the whole land among themselves, and when thus divided all the profits from a particular territory is the due of a particular family of priests. There are about three hundred and fifty families at Kedarnath thus supported. There are almost no. Moham- medans in Garhwal. There are a few rich Jains. There are some Bho- tias near the snows-a class of people of mixed race and partly Tib- .etan in blood. The bulk of the population may be described as belonging to three large classes-namely, Domes, Kassias, and Hindus. 'fhe Domes are the abofogines. They are stigmatized as outcasts, but in reality they are the ancient owners of the soil, and with the other aborogines of India are probably of Scythian origin. Many of them are black. By occnpation they are artisans and menials. It is a serious drawback to civilization that important tradesmen, carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, stone-masons, and tailors should be classed as outcasts. 'rhus a skilled workman is degraded, while a hod-carrier is his superior. All castes are compelled to leave their homes to carry the goods of passing travelers. For this service they are paid about one cent per mile, and they must go one march (or twelve miles), w~ich is one day's journey. My remedy for this grievance is cart roads, without which civilization can never come. With cart roads beasts of burden can be made to do what men and women do now so unwillingly. The Domes are without temples and religious books of their own. God they call" Niramkar," a word which has the beautiful meaning or "the one without form." If it means spirit there could hardly have been a better definition. They worship spirits or demons. In these days they are learning much from Hinduism, but as a class they are more hopeful subjects of missionary effort than any other, and from them, for the most part, have come the eight hundred Christians now enrolled.
The Kassias are a race which at some remote time entered these hills ar.d spread themselves all over them from beyond the Indian boundary westward to the extreme east. They subjugated the Domes and held sway till the arrival of the Hindus, when they in turn were conquered. The Kassias have no claim to the sacred thread worn by Hindus. They have no separate religious books. A process of transition in their condition has been going on for a long time. They stilI control a few temples, but for the most part they accept Brahmans as their priests, and a few, by gold, have purchased the right to wear the sacred thread. They claim the Hindu title of rajput, but orthodox rajputs do not acknowledge them as brethren. All classes in Garhwal
burn their dead. If near a branch of the Ganges the corpse is carried there, otherwise it is cremated in a forest. All the people believe in sin and its punishment hereafter, but they have hazy notions of what sin consists of. 'fhis could hardly be otherwise where the ten com- mandments are unknown. The people readily assent to the ten com- mandments excepting the second. All their teaching has made them idolaters. When Christianized they expose the evils of idolatry and denounce the system with all the vehemence that old Christians do.
Polyandry exists in a part of native Garhwal. Polygamy is common, but not universal. Women are purchased for wives. Government tolerates it as a mode of marriage, yet no magistrate would entertain a snit for money which had been paid for a woman. In such cases, which are not infrequent, the suit is always for jewelry given to the parties sued. The cost of a wife varies with her caste or family, and ranges from sixty to a thousand rupees. A few people are found who have broken away from this custom. One of the reforms now needed is that of the destruction of this custom as was that of suttee. The evils that come from it are many. There are men still found who hold to the theory that purchase, in these cases, gives right to punish with death the woman who is disagreeable to her husband. 'fhere is many an instance of crooked meallS used in order to raise the sum needed to buy a wife. The writer knew a man who, while he lived, kept earning and paying on a debt owed for the purchase of his olVn mother.
The food of the people is black, unleavened bread, made from a millet, or millet grass, called mandawa. It is not unlike mustard-seed in appearance. Prince's feather seed, also a species of Hungarian grass called jangora, are used for food. These, with rice, barley, and buckwheat, are the principal grains. Potatoes were introdu.ced by the English, and they flourish well. 'fhere are no better raised anywhere. Cows being objects of worship, beef is never eaten. The flesh of sheep and goats is relished. Low caste people keep pigs and barn fowls, but they are abhorred by people of caste.
Of wild flowers, which are plenty, might be named dandelion, fouro'clock, oleander, morning-glory, and many beautiful orchids and begonias, ferns of a multitude of kinds, lilies, and wild roses. The yucca, or Spanish bayonet, is common. There are many species of cactus. Of flowering shrubs, the rhod04endl'on is everywhere, and in spring its blossoms adorn the hills. Of fmits there might be named oranges, lemons, quinces, peaches, apricots. Apples and pears have been introduced, and are flourishing. Berries of several kinds are wild and plenty. Walnuts and hazelnuts grow to perfection. There is good soil for raising all the vegetables known and used in Europe and America. The resident, whether magistrate or missionary, imports seeds, and furnishes his table with cabbage, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, beans, peas, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and, indeed, every article needed by the cook. There is one thing scarce in Garhwal, and that is the society of your own kindred. Except the magistrate, who seldom stays at his headquarters, but keeps touring over his district, no European society is to be found outside of Lansdown Cantonment, thirty miles away. I would speak of the mission work, hut this article is already too long to do so now.
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE FOR CHINA * During the year 1902 the Central China Religions Tract Society issued the enormous number of 1,700,000 volumes. With the exception of special gifts to advanced students at the triennial examina-' tions at several provincial capitals, these books were all sold.
• The circulation is mainly in China itself, where the society lends invaluable aid to the missions by providing the needed books and Gospel tracts for evangelistic and pastoral work. Wherever Chinese are found in Asia, America, and the British colonies, supplies of these books are sent. As most of these books are sold under cost price, the ratio of success produces corresponding deficit. We regret to see the society is a thousand taels in debt this year. At a recent meeting of the society, the president, Dr. John, remarked: To my mind, the distribution of books at the triennial examination at Changsha, Hunan, was the great event of the year. The thought that tens of thousands of Christian books are now in the hands of the scholars of Hunan ought to fill our hearts with profoundest gratitude. I know enough of the scholars of Hunan to be assured that these books wiII be read and discussed. Let us earnestly pray that many among them may find in the readingof these books that knowledge of God in Christ which they so much need. Ten or twelve years ago Chou Han;our arch enemy, was a man of tremendous influence in Hunan, especially in Changsha. The valley of the Yangtse was flooded with the anti-foreign and anti-Christian literature -the filthiest and most maglignant literature the world has ever known. At that time no foreigner could show his head in Hunan. But look at the wonderful changes Which have taken place during this short period I That infamous press was suppressed, and Chou Han was put in prison. Hunan is being rapidly c().vered with mission stations, and the very city from which that unspeakable filth was poured forth has been flooded with Christian literature. I have spoken of the immensity of our circulation. During the twenty-seven years of its existence our society has issued 18,767,558 tracts in various forms, but it also covers an immense area. Our tracts find their way into every part of the empire, and even to the "regions beyond." I find that even the officials are beginning to read them. Of late I have come into close contact with a good many officials, both in Hupeh and Hunan, and with hardly an exception I have found them friendly, and 'ready to listen to anything I may say about Christianity and its claims. Among the officials I have come across there are not a few who have been reading our Scriptures and tracts. There was a time when an official would condescend to look at a book of this description, but that day is gone. What clothes this tract work with deepest interest, to my mind, is its relation to the momentous work of building up a Ohristian Church in Ohina. I believe that, apart from the Christian Church, there is no hope for China. I have no idea of uplifting this people except through the Church and in connection with the Ohurch. A friend of mine was traveling in the north. He came across the principal of one of the colleges recently established there, and asked him what was the main aim of the institution. "To make the Chinese strong," was the reply-not a bad aim, if you begin at the right end. Now the first aim of * See frontispiece.
THE STORY OF A CHINESE LEPER
the Ohurch is to make the Ohinese good, and through making them good to make them s1:;1>ong. Strength without goodness is destructive. Goon making them strong without making them good, and within twenty years the "Yellow Peril" will be more than a dream. Thank God for the Ohurch in Ohina! The Ohurch of three hundred members which I found on my arrival has grown to a Ohurch of one hundred thousand communicants at least, with two or three hunrlred thousand adherents besides. Ere long these hundreds of thousands will become a million, and the million will become ten millions, and so on with accelerated speed till the Ohristian Ohurch will be a mighty factor among the forces which shape the national life, and the principles of the Ohristian faith shall dominate the land. Now, the main reason why I feel so deep an interest in this tract work is that I see in it a powerful instrument with which to build up the Ohurch of God in Ohina. I love the wOl'k, because its direct aim is to make known the way -{)f salvation, to lead men to God through Jesus Ohrist, to deli vel' men from sin, and to lift them into a life of holiness. I love it because of the glorious fruits it has borne in the past, and of the still more glorious fruits it is destined to bear in the future. In the Ohurch of the future these religious tract societies will not be forgotten. They will be looked upon as among the most potent agencies employed by the Ohurch to l"hase out the darkness of the land and bring in the Kingdom of our God.
There is no better way of making China "strong" and "good" than by strengthening this society, which is greatly in need of funds, and all who have the true interest of men at heart may unite with our missionary brethren in pushing this work.* THE STORY OF A CHINESE LEPER BY REV. JOSEPH S. ADAMS, HkN" YANG, CHINA Missionary of the American Baptist lIlissionary Union, 1875- In the busy Tsa~-hu-men (grass-lake gate) of the city of Wu-chang there sat a young man begging. Few, indeed, were the words of pity he heard, and fewer still the coins upon his mat. He held up a wasted hand, and cried, " Ma lung!" (A leper!) The surging, busy throng heeded him not.
Wong Keh-shang could not go to Jesus for help, for he knew Him not; but Jesus Himself, in the person of a missionary, with something of the Master's spirit, stood before him.
" Are you a leper?" " Alas! alas! I am." "Can't you cure yourself?" " I! Cure myself? No. The more I do the worse I become." "True! You are quite helpless." "Yes. No one cares, and no one knows. I have no friends. I am hUllgry, no one feeds. I am sad, the people only laugh."
* Contributions may be sent to the editor of this REVIEW, or to Rev. Griffith John, D.D., London Missionary Society, Hanko', or to the General Secretary, Rev. J osep> S. Adams, American Baptist Missionary Union, Hangang, Hankow, Central China.
" Some One cares." " Who is He ? " " Let me tell you," And, sitting down, the man of God told the leper of One who cares, of the deeper leprosy of sin, the great sacrifice of love, the cleansing fountain for sin and uncleanness. lIo! fastid- ious religionist. You are wont to preach only to the elite in England and America, come and hear this man preach to a leper. Yes, bring – your Florida water along. This leper is offensive, I know-almost as offensive as human pride is to the spirit of God. Hush! now, listen. " Does Jesus care?" " J eEns loves you." "Will He bless me ?" " Only trust Him." " Where can I find Him?" "Come, I'll show you." " Come! Where? I have to beg." "Jesus will provide. Come with me." Then that awkward, fanatical missionary with the gray beard (we know his name and so does his Master) actually TOOK THAT LEPER TO HIS OWN HOUSE! And why not? A leper's soul is worth saving. If our eyes were open we should see angels going in and out of that room where the leper and the saint are kneeling.. If our ears were not so dulled with earth sounds, we should hear the angels singing over a soul born again. The glory of God is here. In a little school-room on the city wall sits the leper, Wong Keh- shang. His leprous hand is wrapped in a white bandage. A Christian physician has eased the pain if he can not cure the disease. The day is hot, the flies are buzzing about, the houses below are quivering with heat, the schoolboys drone over their books. Wong has had his head shaved, he is dressed in a clean white summer gown, and he looks con- tented and happy. He is teaching the little mission school, and daily tells the story of his own conversion, and urges the children to faith in Christ. Nor was the story told in vain. The scene changes. In far away Shensi province there is a little I mission graveyard. A group of sorrowful missionaries stand around an open grave. Chinese converts are there weeping quietly with real sorrow. Wong Keh-shang has done his work. Leper as he was, with increasing pain and weakness he accompanied a band of pioneer missionaries to the far interior, praying only to be allowed to testify of the love of the Lord of Salvation, Jesus Christ. Then the leprosy did its fatal work, and he in heavenly glory beheld the Savior 4' who CARED" for him. "AND HE WAS CLEAN."
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death; neither sorrow, nul' crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
CANNIBAL .CHRISTENDOM IN WEST AFRICA
CANNIBAL CHRISTENDOM IN WEST AFRICA * What is a cannibal? A man who eats men. But there are worse cannibals than those who dine off the human corpse. There are nations that dine off other nations-eating them up none the less ruthlessly altho they do not pass their carcasses through the stew-pot. Take, for instance, the inoffensive and multitudinous native tribes whom the Spaniards found in the West Indies. Before Columbus landed in the 'Vestern hemisphere there wer~ millions of them. A hundred years later the place that knew them knew them no more. The Spaniards had eaten them up as effectively as if they had been savage carnivores which had preyed upon their flesh. In this sense it is difficult to deny that Christendom has been cannibal in Western Africa. The European, and especially the Englishman, for centuries battened upon the flesh and blood of the negro. And as was and is the wont of our dear countl'Y- men, we said solemn grace before beginning OUI' cannibal repast. Sir John Hawkins' pious letter, in which he describes how he gave glory to God for the success with which he had started the slave-trade in West Africa, was characteristic of the race. It reads like a grim satire in the light of subsequent developments that the first Briti~h slaver, which Sir John Hawkins took out under royal patronage to begin the regular slaNetrade between the West Coast of Africa and the West Indies, was named Jesus. Queen Elizabeth took part in the enterprise. That most Christian Sovereign and Defender of the Faith not only equipped the Jesus, but put one hundred British Christian soldiers on board to provide for contingencies. The slave-trade continued to be one of the greatest of British interests down to the beginning of the nineteenth century. When the French were declaring the rights of man with revolutionary fervor, the English had one hundred and ninety-two vessels, chiefly hailing from London, Bristol, and Lancaster, constantly engaged in the slave-trade, with a carrying capacity of forty-seven thousand one hundred and forty-six negroes. As many as from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thollsand negroes were carried across the Atlantic in a twelvemonth. To secure this annual holocaust, at least ten times as many other negroes were killed in the slave raids. Of those who were transported across the Atlantic, fifty pel' cent. died before they could be set to work. The luckless captives died like flies. Eight hundred thousand had been poured into Jamaica in one hundred and thirty years, and at the end of th:1t time only three hundred and forty thousand were to be found in the island. Christendom dined off West Africans. British Christian merchants accumulated fortunes by their systematic massacre of the negro. Between the days of Hawkins and those of Wilberforce three millions at least of West Africans had been carried dead or alive to the Western hemisphere. As ten times that number perished in their capture, Christendom may be said to have gorged itself with the flesh and blood of thirty millions of the African brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. What a cannibal repast I That this was abominably wicked is now admitted by everyone. But it will be said that is a matter of "has been." We have repented of our sins in sackcloth and ashes, and are now bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. Are we? That is the qustion. No doubt we have desisted from the old slave-trade, and have evun waxed zealous, even to slaying, * Condensed from the Review of Reviews, London.
against tholie who would not promptly follow our example. But have we altogether reformed our ways? Is the old horrible instinct of cannibalism quite extinct? With these two books of MI'. Morel and MI'. Fox- Bourne before us, we are not so sure that we can answer that question in the affirmative.* In the Kongo. at least, Christendom seems to be still hard at work draining the life-blood of the unfortunate African.
On the West Coast The popular idea that the British government is a kind of beneficent terrestrial providence in Western Africa, Christianizing, civilizing, and humanizing the natives, is not borne out by the evidence adduced by Mr. Morel. He may be biased in favor of the natives, but what he has to say does not redound to our credit. We begin to understond the bitterness of the demand from Johannesburg of "less crown and more colony," when we read of the way in which ~rown colony government is worked in West Africa. It is somewhat startling to hear that there is more representation and less despotism in the French and German colonies than in those under the Union Jack. The merchants, who are the men who made British vVest Africa a possibility, are never consulted. "I can not find that the Colonial Office," says MI'. Morel, "has on any single occasion, in a matter of importance, consented to adopt the views of the men who, as subsequent events have manifestly proved, saw clearer than the permanent officials, and whose advice, if taken, would have avoided tbe perpetration of serious mistakes." As the result of this ignoring of the advice of the unfortunate British Uitlanders of West Africa, we have bloody wars, heavy expenditure, and the irretrievable ruin of great territories.
The government is in the hands of officials who have not even sufficient common sense to take the most elementary precautions against dirt-engendered disease. Major Ronald Ross, to whom the Nobel prize for preeminent service in the cause of preventive medicine has beell awarded this year, draws up a scathing indictment of the scandalous neglect of the simplest sanitary measures by the ('olonial office satraps, whose word is law on the West Coast. H.e says: It is the duty of the government to see that the principal settlements are kept scrupulously clean and drained; to construct and publish proper statistics of sickness and mortality among the Europeans; to appoint whole-time health officers; to enforce sanitary laws; and to encourage the building of good houses and the establishment of dairies, settlement farms, gymkanas, and other institutions or trades which are likely to conduce to the comfort and health of the colonists. Thus government has a great deal to do. It has oaly begun as yet.
Indeed. it has hardly begun. Nor is it only in sanitary affairs their ne.;rlect is criminal. Mr. Morel thus summarizes the needs of British West Africa at the present time: (1) A council or advisory board in which the merchant element shall be widely represented; (2) Tight control over the military element, fewer punitive expeditions, and more tact and patience in dealing with native races, the officials whose administration is virgin of wars to be 100ked upon as deserving of prior promotion;. (3) Economy in administration; (4) Thorough financial overhaul; (5) Elimination of the crown agents; (6) Open tenders for all public works; (7) Sanitation; (8) Scientific study of the native people, laws. and languages; (9) Scientific study of the native products and improvement of the native industries; (10) Maintenance and . " Affairs of West Africa." F. D. Morel. (Heinemann,) 380 pp. Net,l)l" "Civilization in Congoland." H. R. Fox-Bourne. (P. S. King & Son.) 311 pp. Net, 108. 6d
CANNIBAL CHRISTENDOM IN WEST AFRICA
not murder of native institutions; upholding and strengthening of the power of the chiefs; non-interference with domestic slavery in the pro- tectorates; preservation of native land-tenure; (11) A civil service on the lines of the Indian civil service; (12) A civilian governor-general.
The central pivot of his argument for a "ane native policy in West Africa is (1) maintenance of native land-tenure-that is to say, of the right of the native to his lund and thefruiis thereof; that is, insistence upon the fact that the native is a human being, and has the rights of a human being, not only from the humanitarian point of view, but from the point of viewof elementary statesmanship. No European race can colonize West Africa. (2) Free unrestricted commercial intercourse as between the white man and black, on a basis of demand and supply, and market prices. (3) Elimination of commercial monopoly or territorial monopoly of any kind, which, by converting the native into a landless serf for the benefit of European speculatorl:l on the Continental bourses, is runhing the whole edifice of European effort.
All this, it will be said, and rightly said, may indicate stupidity and inefficiency and general incapacity, but it does not amount to canni- balism. For cannibalism proper we must go further south. It is in Kongoland that we are confronted with horrors which recall the worst days of the slave-trade.
On the Kongo Mr. Fox-Bourne's book is sickening reading. Its proper title is, "The Cannibal State on the Kongo." Its contents, taken together with those in which Mr. Morel attacks the system of chartered monopolies, are enough to make one despair of humanity. Sir H. Gilzean Reid and Mr. Demetrius Boulger would have us believe that King Leopold has converted the Kongo valley into a terrestrial paradise. Mr. Morel and Mr. Fox-Bourne maintain that he has converted it into a hell; and aft'll'
making all allowances, it is difficult to resist the conviction that they have proved their case.
Amid the conflict of testimony certain facts stand out quite clearly. The fact is that the Kongo State was brought into being expressively for the avowed objects of (1) opening up Central Africa to free trade for all European nations; and (2) for' civilizing and improving the condition of the natives. The second fact, about which there is no dispute, is that the Kongo State has established a system of exclusive monopolies which have brought enormous profits to capitalists. It is further alleged, but this is not undisputed, that these profits have been made, for the most part, by a 'system of orgaflized cannibalism the like of which exists nowhere else in the world.
It is hardly necessary to advance testimony in support of the force of these facts. It will suffice to quote, not the sanctimonious protesta- tions of King Leopold, but the emphatic declaration of Prince Bismarck when, in 1885, he brought the Berlin (K~ngo) Conference to a close by summing up the resolutions of the powers there represented in the fol- lowing explicit terms: "The resolutions that we are on the point of sanctioning," he said, "secure to the commerce of all nations free access to the center of the African Continent. The guarantees which will be provided for freedom of trade in the Kongo Basin are of a nature to offer to the commerce and the industry of all nations the conditions most favorable to their development and security. By another series of regulations you have shown your solicitude for the moral and material well-being of the native popu-
lation, and there is ground for hoping that these principles, adopted in wise moderation, will bear fruit and help to introduce to them the bene- mfiHtsOOo. f civilization."-Parliamentary Papers., Africa, No. 4 (1885), pp.
The way in which the expressed will of Europe was set at defiance was by the invention of the theory that everything worth having in the Kongo State was the private property of the State. Monopolies were then granted to joint stock companies which earned their dividends by the free use of the chicotte and the cannibal.
The chicotte is the instrument of torture used to persuade the miser- able native that it is to his interest to work for the white man. The cannibal is the agent employed to punish the unfortunate native when he revolts against the chicotte.
First as to the chicotte: "The 'chicotte' of raw hippo hide, especially a new one, trimmed like a corkscrew, with edges like knife-blades, and as hard as wood," Glave explained, in terms all the more notable because his own views as to coporal punishment can not be regarded as over lenient, "is a terrible weapon, and a few blows bring blood; not more than twenty-five blows should be given unless the offense is very serious. Tho we persuade our- selves that the Afl'iean's skin is very tough, t needs an extraordinary constitution to withstand the terrible punishment of one hundred blows; generally the victim is in a state of insensibility after twenty-five or thirty blows. At the first blow he yells abominably, then he quiets down, and is a mere groaning, quivering body till the operation is over, when the culprit stumbles away, often with gashes which will endure a lifetime. It is bad enough the flogging of men, but far ·worse is this punishment when inflicted on women and children. Small boys of ten 01· twelve, with excitable, hot-tempered masters, are often most harshly treated."-Mc. E. J. GLAVE, an Englishman, in Century Magazine, vol. Iv., pp. 701-3.
The reason why the chicotte was used was to compel the natives to labor for the benefit of the Belgian exploiteurs. The chicotte, however, is only brought into requisition after the natives have been broken in.
The process of breaking them in is more summary, and involves the employment of the soldier. Before explaining the modus operandi it may be well to state how the Belgians obtain the force necessary to enable them to eat up whole popUlations. 1<'or in the Kongo State in 1902 the total number of white men of all nationalities was only 2,346. Of these 1,465 were Belgians, who held almost all the important military and civil positions. As the native popUlation of Kongoland numbers some twenty or thirty millions, it is curious to discover how such a handFul of whites can reduce the black millions to virtual slavery. The trick is not very difficult. A white officer with a few armed men at his back summons the chiefs in a district to a palavar. Each chief is asked, in return for so many pocket, handkerchiefs, to furnish a certain number of slaves. If he agrees, the slaves of the black chief become the slaves of the white officer, who sub.
jects them to military discipline, arms them with rifles, and uses them to punish any chief who is slow in supplying his quantum of slaves.
Refusal to furnish the stipulated contingent is treated as an act of war.
The villages of the recalcitrants are burnt down, their stores looted, their gardens destroyed, and the natives themselves shot down until they have had enough of it and submit to escape extermination. Their submission is accepted on conditio~ they supply double the contingent of lilaves first asked for. The slaves thus handed over are first called
LiMres, then put in irons until their bondage can be riveted with military discipline in the nearest camp.
As every district officer receives £2 head money for every slave thus enrolled in the force publique, the State found little difficulty in organ- izing a standing army of slaves, nominally' free, but absolutely at the disposal of the State, which now numbers 15,000 men. To a.native African this force pubUque is the irresistible power which renders impos- sible any resistance to the Belgian vampire which is draining the life- blood of Kongoland.
Having obtained thisforce publique, and supplemented it by enrolling thousands of cannibal tribes as an irregular native militia, the State and the monopolist companies are ready for action. What takes place hab been minutely described by many witnesses, among whom Mr. Sjoblom, a Swedish missionary, is one of the best. When the apparatus of coercion is ready for action, the natives are summoned to the headquarters and ordered to bring in a certain minimum quantity of indiarubber every Sunday. If they refuse, some of them are shot to encourage the others, and the rest are driven into the bush to collect the rubber. If they do not return, or if the tale of rubber baskets falls short, war is declared. Says Mr. Sjoblom: The soldiers are sent in different directions. The people in the towns are attacked, and when they are running away into the forest, and try to hide themselves and save their lives, they are found out by the soldiers. Then their gardens of rice are destroyed, and their supplies taken. Their plantains are cut down while they are young and not in fruit, and often their huts are burnt, and, of course, everything of value is taken. Within my own knowledge forty-five villages were altogether burnt down.- Civilisation in Congoland, p. 211.
Where the natives submit in despair, every male native is driven into the marshes every morlling by savages armed with rifles, who are est::cblished as absolute despots in the town. If any native man stays behind he is shot at sight. During the day the sentinel does as he pleases with the women and the property of the poor wretches who are toiling to collect the rubber. If at the week end the full quantity of rubber is not forthcoming, the defaulters are in some cases chicotted, in others they are killed, and their right hands are hacked off, smoke dried, and sent down with the rubber baskets to explain why the weekly output was short. "We counted," said Mr. Sjoblom on one occasion, " eighteen right hands smoked, and from the size of the hands we could judge that they belonged to. men, women, and children." On another occasion, one hundred and sixty hands were brought in. Sometimes the hands were hewn from living bodies. At Lake Matumba, in 1895, says Mr. Sjoblom- the natives could not get far enough for their india-rubber. Two or three days after a fight a dead mother was found, with two of her children. The mother was shot, and the right hand was taken off. On one side was the elder child, also shot, and the right hand also taken off. On the other side was the younger child, with the right hand cut off; but the child still living was resting against the dead mother's breast. This dark picture was seen by four other missionaries. I myself saw the child. The natives had begun to cut off the left hand, but, seeing their mistake, they left it, and cut off the right hand instead.-Ib., p. 215.
Mr. Moray, a former agent of the Societe Anversoise, thus describes another typical scene of the civilizing methods of the Kongo State: We were a party of thirty under Van Eycken, who sent us into a vil-
lage to ascertain if the natives were collecting rubber, and, if not, to murder all-men, women, and children. We found the natives sittin"g peaceably. We asked what they were doing. They were unable to reply; thereupon we fell upon them and killed them all without mercy. An hour later we were joined by Van Eycken, and told him what we had done. He answered: "It is well, but you have not done enough."
Thereupon he ordered us to cut off the heads of the men and hang them on the village palisades, also-aftet' unmentionable mutilations-to hang the women and children on the palisades in the form of a cross.
This horrible picture of civilization in Kongoland would not be complete without some reference to the veritable cannibalism which the Kongo State is spreading all over the country which the king was to reclaim for civilization and humanity. The camp followers and friendlies, the irregular levies, who are armed and employed by the State to supplement the force publique, have introduced cannibalism into regions where it was before unknown. "Races who until lately do not seem to have been cannibals have learned to eat human flesh." Cannibalism in W est Africa is no mere ceremonial. It is part of the recognized commissariat of the Kongo forces. Dr. Hinde, in his book on "The Fall of the Kongo Arabs," states that, after the burning down" of the town of Nyangwe in 1893, everyone of the. cannibals had at least one body to eat. All the meat was cooked and smoke-dried, and formed provisions for the whole of his force and for all the camp-followers for many days afterward. . .
In the night following a battle or the storming of a town these human wolves disposed of the whole of the dead, leaving nothing even for the jackals, and thus saved us, no doubt, from many an epidemic.-The Fall of the Congo Arabs, pp. 156-7.
After this description of Christian cannibalism by proxy, it is hardly necessary to fill in pitiful details of the cruel slavery enforced upon old women and women with children, beaten and ill-used by their savage guards, under the eyes of white officers.
What is the result? Mr. Grogan-by no means a sentimentalist, but an Englishman with small patience for Exeter Hall-traveled through Kongoland in 1899. He writes: And I saw myself that a country apparently well populated and responsive to just treatment in Lugard's time is now practically a howl- ing wilderness; the scattered inhabitants, living almost without cultiva- tion in the marshes, thickets, and reeds, madly fleeing even from their own shadows. Chaos, hopeless, abysmal chaos, from Mweru to the Nile; in the south, tales of cruelty of undoubted veracity, but which I could not repeat without actual investigation on the spot; on Tanganyika, absolute impotence, revolted Askaris ranging at their own sweet will; on Kivu, a hideous wave of cannibalism ranging unchecked through the land; while in the north, the very white men who should be keeping peace where chaos now reigns supreme, are spending thousands in making of peace a chaos of their own. I have no hesitation in condemning the whole State as a vampire growth, intended to suck the country dry, and to provide a happy hunting-ground for a pack of unprincipled outcasts and untutored scoundrels. The few sound men in the country are power- less to stem the tide of oppression.-The Cape to Cairo, pp. 227. "
Mr. Fox-Bourne, in summing up his terrible indictment, declares that" the old forms of slavery have been succeeded or supplemented by new, more"grinding and hateful to the victims, and for the satisfaction of white instead of black oppression."
Mr. Morel's summing up is as follows: This accursed domaine pl+ve, and all the evils it has brought with it,
A PLEA FOR THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES IN WEST CElINA
can not last forever. Like all such" Negations of God" it will perish. But what will remain behind for Europe, when the Kongo State has passed away, to deal with? A vast region, peopled by fierce Bantu races, with an undying hatred of the white planted in their breasts; a great army of cannibal levies, drilled in the science of forest warfare, perfected in the usage of modern weapons of destruction-savages whose one lesson learned from contact with European" civilization" has been improvement in the art of killing their neighbors-disciplined in the science of slaughter; eager to seize upon the first opportunity which presents itself of turning their weapons against their temporary masters.- West African Problems, p. 351.
What must be done? Mr. Fox-Bourne says: "It is for the othersig- natories to the Berlin and Brussels General Acts to decide whether they are willing that the systematic and deliberate perversion of policy they so strongly insisted upon in 1884, and again in 1889, shall be further devel- oped and rendered permanent."
Sir H. Gilzean Reid informs us that the highest legal authorities have been instructed to bring the question between the KoiJgo State and its assailants to the test of ., that highest of all tribunals-a British court of justice." I am very glad to hear it.
A PLEA FOR THE ABORIGINAL TRIBES IN WEST CHINA* BY REV. WILLIAM KNIPE, NGAN HIEN, SZ-CHUAN, CHINA )1issionary of the Church ,Missionary Society of London, 1891- It is now five years since we were brought into contact with the aboriginal tribes on the border of Sz-Chuan through Mrs. Bishop's journey among them, and yet nothing has been done to reach them with the Gospel. . . . The needs of the Chinese, Tibetans, and Man-tse are in progressive ratio, and our ability to meet their needs is in inverse ratio.
As to the Chinese, we occnpy eight out of twenty cities for whose evan- gelization we are responsible, but we have besides one hundred villages or more, each large enough to claim almost the whole devotion of one man.
To meet the need., of the Chinese, we have the whole Bible translated in both Wen-Ii and Mandarin, and at least two versions are striving for widest circulation, colporteurs being sent to every city and large market town to sell the Word of God. Besides the Bible, we have also hundreds of tracts and booklets on Christian doctrine puhlished at prices within reach of the poorest, and sheet tracts are distributed, broadcast some- times, from every mission station.
. 'Vhut of the Tibetans? It may not be generally known that many tribes of Tibetans inhabit the mountainous districts in Western Sz- Chuan, and that tho Tibet is closed, yet these tribes can be reached from the Chinese frontier towns. Some missionaries in Kan-suh Province have been working among Tibetans for the last ten or twelve years. In Sz-Chuan the Roman Catholics have had a mission station at Ta-chien-Iu for many years, and have endeavored to get into Tibet that way, and have sllffered severely through the opposition of the Lamas. In 1892 Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Polhill-Turner left Kan-suh and came to work among the Tibetans in Sz-Chuan, taking up their residen~e at Song-pan.
They had not been there more than three months when they were driven * Condensed from the Church Missionary Intelligencer
forth by a riot, and nearly paid for their devotion with their lives. In February of 1893, Song-pan was reopened, and was held by members of the Church Missionary Society, but as the work began to open up among the Chinese, the work at Song-pan was given up, and for two or three years no missionary was located there.
Tibetans come and go, sin, suffer, and die, without a witness for Christ to point them to the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, and to tell them of the place which He has gone to prepare for all who turn from idols to serve the Living and True God. A few copies of the Gospels, translated by the Moravians and printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society, have been put into their hands; but these local dialects differ from the classical Tibetan of Lhassa, and another version is needed.
The Man-tse tribes, who are probably the aborigines of this part of the country, are still more neglected than the Tibetans. Until I went with Mrs. Bishop, no missionary had been in their territory; no one knew exactly where or how they lived. We saw them at Song-pan and or. the way thither, and could easily distinguish them from the Chinese on the one hand and the Tibetans on the other. The Chinese called them "Man-tse," or Barbarians, while the Tibetans were called" Si-fan" (pro- nounced "She-fan "). We learned the names of a few of their tribes, such as "So-mo," where a queen was reported to be reigning; "Heh-shui," or "Black Water," from the name of the tributary which joins the Min River above Mao-cheo; and "Bo-Io-tse," who inhabit a district west or southwest of Song-pan. Their religion is Buddhism of Tibetan type. They use the prayer-wheel, prayer-flags are in evidence, and "prayer- mounds" of stones, sometimes crowned with a pole to show that prayer has been answered. One of the best rooms in every house is a shrine of the gods, and one of the sons in each family is a lama, and he sits before the shrine nearly all day reading the Buddhist Scriptures in Tibetan character. They follow Tibetan funeral customs, and would seem to have been converted to Buddhism by Tibetan missionaries But they do not understand the Tibetan language. The women enjoy their freedom like Tibetan women, but I fear that liberty degenerates into license, and that there is a great deal of immorality among them. The Chinese, whose virtue is in word more than in deed, call them" dogs," which has this idea of immorality behind it.
I have no means of estimating the numbers of the Man-tse peoples.
Their villages generally are situated high up on the mountain-sides, and, we traveled along the valley, following the river. Mrs. Bishop says twenty thousand for the four tribes under the Tu-tse of Somo. Last year our West China sub-committee deputed me to visit the Chinese border towns, Song-pan, Mao-cheo, and Li-fan, to see what openings there might be for work among the Man-tse tribes, that I might have a definite plan to lay before the parent committee. Ve were not able to go beyond Mao-cheo, and after staying a few days there, living in an inn and preaching to the Chinese on the streets, we set out to return. Eight years ago Mr. Horsburgh attempted to settle in a house at Mao- cbeo, but the officials would not allow him to do so. A second attempt was also successfully frustrated. Since those days the prosperity of the city has declined. Mao-cheo is a double city, the outer or southern part showing traces of former Man-tse occupation. The northern half, which is surrounded by a wall in good preservation, is of Chinese origin, and contains the Yamen and other public buildings.
Mao-cheo isa strategic point for reaching the Man-tse. Theycome into the city daily with loads of firewood, which they have cut on the moun- tains and go about the streets seeking to dispose of it. Many of them speak a little commercial Chinese. and from them the first beginningS! of the Man-tse dialects would be learned. While living in Mao-cheo we should be under so-called Chinese protection, and it would be impossihle for the officials to stir up the Man-tse against us, as they would assuredly do if we attempted to go and live in a Man-tse village. But when once we had gained the confidence of the Man-tse, and· bad learned the language sufficiently, it would be quite possible to take long itinerations among them, moving on from village to village, in order Do reach those people in the highlands, few of whom ever visit the Chinese border cities.
19031] EDITORIALS
EDITORIALS The Peril of Great Gifts givers. It puts great enterprises The Outlook, in an editor"'),l on in the position of beneficiaries if not the gifts of millionaires, has been dependencies. It embarrasses freethe prompter of no little discussion dom of movement and opinion. It in the religious press as to the ex- leaves the great majority to feel pediency of great institutions' ac- eased when they ought to feel burceptance of large gifts, especially dened and constrained to bear from a certain class of donors, their full share of the load. It rewhose wealth is the harvest of un- strains boards and committees from righteous seed-sowing and oppres- acting according to their own consion of the poor, or unjust com- science and conviction, and tempts bination and competition. great causes to bow to dictation or The matter needs more than a cater to expressions of opinion passing comment or a mere tran- which may easily become dictasient glance. For ourselves we torial. have long been deeply convinced that colossal gifts, even from clean- But, above all, when gifts are handed donors who are yet living, tainted by wrong or even questionare attended with no small disad- able methods of making money, to vantage' and peril. They put a accept them is not far from encourgreat public institution under em- aging the methods of lawless brigbarrassing obligations, and often, ands of five centuries ago, who first if not uniformly, imply certain robbed rich travelers and perhaps direct or indirect concessions to the murdered them, and then with part opinion and preference of the of their ill-gotten gains built chapgivers. els and monasteries as a salve to We remember a case well known conscience and a substitute for conto us personally where a college fession and restitution! We were professorship was founded by a gift told recently of a case in which no of money, on condition that a cer- propel' council could be summoned tain man should fill a chair. He to bring a rich offender to justice, was known at the time to be a because he had laid all the neighsemi-infidel in opinion, but the gift boring churches under obligation was accepted and he with it. We by his benevolence (?) in helping have watched the downward course their depleted treasuries! of that institution ever since. From a deeply evangelical and religious There is a fundamental principle, spirit it has from that day steadily laid down in the Word of God, pardeclined. There have been in as ticularly in Psalm L, and II. Cor. many years a score of resignations, viii, ix, and which in these columns in other institutions. by instructors has been steadfastly emphasized, whose teaching has been in conflict that God will not 1'eceive gifts with the preferences or prejudices which are not consecrated. The or public life of wealthy endowers. Church may, and may even Il-sk It seems to us that it is not God's for them and welcome them-valplan that any great work, educa- uing them for their amounts-but tional, philanthropic, or mission- God scorns the offering of any man ary, shall be unduly indebted to a who puts out his money to usury few rich givers. It is bad for the or takes reward against the innowork, the workers, and even the cent; or who despises and" hates instruction and casts His words be- hind him." In His eyes a gift is
reckoned according to its quality, "ever safely feed the lamp of truth not quantity. The money a man or knowledge, or sanctify or really handles gets character from the vitalize any great endeavor." In man, and reciprocally the man's few things, if any, does the Church character is largely molded by the need to learn the yet unlearned money he handles and the methods lesson more than in the matter of wherehy it i3 gotten. Judao;' gains Divine stewardship. It is in the from betrayal were well invested multiplication of cells or coils, not in a potter's field, a place to bury the enlargement of single cells, putrifying carcases. They would that increase of electric energy is have contaminated the Lord's secured. And it is in the multiplitreasury. How would they sound cation of individual givers, who in God's ears as they chinked contribute often out of the" abunagainst the widows' mites? Not dance of poverty" that a true agonly colleges but churches may and gregate of benevolence and benefido suffer in moral quality and for- cence is to be obtained. feit the capacity for moral leadership when any gift is accepted A Noble Work in Surinam which directly or indirectly blinds the eyes as a brihe to the judgment, We present this month an article seals the lips as a fetter upon free on "Work for the Lepers of Surispeech, or impairs honest action as a compromise with the conscience. nam," South America. Only those God's plan, as set forth in n. who have seen these pitiable suffer- ers and outcasts can form anyade- Cor. viii. ix, for the" equality" in giving which makes it both the quate idea of their condition and duty and privilege of all, according their need for the Christlike ministo ability, systematic, regular, ha- trations of the missionaries. Surely bitual, self-denying, cheerful, can not be improved on. It makes one we who have been so blessed with continuous and abundant stream of supply, blessing alike givers and the comforts of homes and friends receivers, pleasing God. promoting every grace and· furthering every in Christian lands should at least good work. and makes a healthy body of Christ, in which every hold up the hands of these devoted member contributes to the welfare of the whole, while promoting his and self-sacrificing workers, who own in a normal and natural way. The era of colossal gifts from a few seek t<:> lessen the sufferings of those whose gigantic fortunes make all self-denial practically impossible, whose bodies are rotting away and can not be the era of the best and to save the souls as precious in the purest church life or social life. Vast fortunes with their inevitable sight of God as our own. This plutocracy will never hring a social work is remarkably blessed in millenium. There is a despotism of wealth that may be as tyranni- spiritual results. The lepers have cal and destructive of popular well- little to attract them to the things being as any sultanate of the" unspeakable Turk." As Mr. E. D. of this world, and, therefore, the Mead, of Boston, well sa¥s, no more readily give heed to those money from tainted sources can who bring them the good news of a Savior's love. Gifts to help for- ward this good work may be sent to us or to any of the following parties: Rev. C. Goedel, Mary Drexel Home, Phila.
Mr. R. Dan Wolterbeck, 3 Ann Street, N. Y.
Rev. E. Dahlmann, 71 Locust St., Buffalo.
Mr. Pigott, British Cousul, Paramaribo.
Miss M. Basett, Highfield, Reeding, Eng.
T. N. Van der Stok, 65 Renoster, The Hague.
Rev. H. Kluge, Hiesky, N. Garlitz, Germany.
H. T. Frueauff, 12 Church St., Bethlehem, Pa. *
EDITORIALS
British Abuses in West Africa That is one reason, says Mr. Ir- Mr. Stephen Gwynn, in the Fort- vine, why Islam has spread so rapnightly Review (March, 1003), severely criticises the Crown Colony idly; but not the only reason, nor management of British West Africa. He maintains that there is a yet by any means the main reason. state of perpetual unrest, war succeeding war, and that, too, not in He quotes again from the same recent acquisitions, but in the oldest possessions. He contends that author (page 271): these wars are needless, and that, while justifying interference with Altho the Mohammedans force their relig- South African affairs on ground of zeal against the slave traffic, Brit- ion on those whom they conquer, yet they ain is making the black man's lot 'Yorse rather than better. He have other methods, and the faith is widely thinks the French have outstripped the English in the art of governing preached by earnest missionaries. There are the colonies. France has so govern'ed that there have been no many points in the Mohammedan doctrine rebellions to suppress. In French Guinea a hut tax was raised with- which appeal to the pagan African far more out friction; in Sierra Leone and Ashanti, Britain has laid :1 huge readily than does Christianity. Slavery and burden of debt on the colony, and swept away everything indigenous. polygamy, both natural to aU Africans, is Slavery, Mr. Gwynn affirms, has reappeared under a new guise and permitted by Mohammedanism, but forbidname-forced labor. den by the Christians. Missionaries and Moslems in Africa As to the statement tha.t mission- We have received the following aries of the Cross teach complex communication from Mr. James doctrines imposed on the simplicity Irvine, of Birkenhead, England. of the Gospel of Christ, I may speak with some authority, for I It is in reply to Lord A vebury's have traveled many times all along the West Coast of Africa, and have statement that" Mohammedanism visited nearly all the mission staspreads over the whole country tions. As far as my experience while Christianity makes practi- goes, I know no mission, whether cally no headway," and to his sug- Presbyterian, Episcopalian, or gestion that the cause is "the com- Methodist, where the simple teachplex doctrines which theologians ing of Christ dying for the sins of have imposed on the simple and the whole world and eternal salbeautiful teachings of Christ." Mr. vation obtained through faith in Irvine calls attention to the words Him is overlaid by "complex of Colonel Mockler-Ferryman, on doctrines. " page 149 of his "British Nigeria": Next-May I very briefly chal- The revolt became aD invasion in the name lenge the statement that "Chrisof leligion, and as prosperous a Jehad as Ma- tianity practically makes no hommedan ever preached, From east to west., way?" from north to south, this mighty wave of conversion swept over the land, carrying aU Mr. Herbert Samuel, M.P., (in before it; resistance was in vain-Islam or the Westminstep Gazette), in his slavery was the only alternative to those of account of a recent tour through the pagans who escaped the sword. Uganda, tells of 26,000 haptized na- tives of the Protestant faith, and the Roman Catholics also with a large following. He tells also of industrial schools of every descrip- tion, of hospitals, and of a C. ]1. S. Cathedral all but completed to seat 3,000 to 4,000 people.
That is the work of only a few years, and does not look as if Chris- tianity were "making no way"; while if we turn to Africa apart from Uganda we find that a con- servative estimate places the native Protestant adherents at 1,000,000, and wherever we turn on the face of the earth we have the same re- sults and the same prospects.
No-Christianity does make way, and the despairing admission of Julian the Apostate is yearly re- ceiving new proof: "l'he GaIlilean has conquered."
BOOKS FOR THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY CIVILIZATION IN CONGOLANn. A Story of This is the book the missionaries International Wrongdoing. By H. R. on the Kongo have longed and Fox-Bourne. 8vo. lOs. 6d., net. P. S. 'prayed for. No greater obstacle King & Son, London. 1903. has been placed in the path of mis- sion work in Kongo than the dia- It is the testimony of history bolical treatment of the poor unthat at the time of greatest human protected native by the Belgian need the right man arises to meet people. If this book proves the the need. Mr. Fox-Bourne's book means of liberating the Kongo comes at aU opportune moment, people from the slavery of the king, and it should be read by every then it will accomplish one of the thinking man and woman. Mis- grandest works of the century. sionaries have written about the "Curse of the Belgians in Africa." DE w. C. s. Travelers and explorers have told in lectures and books of the wrongs THE RoMAN CATHOLIC CHuRCH IN ITALY. By done to the natives by the people Rev. Dr. Alexander Robertson. 6s. over whom the King of the Bel- Morgan & Scott, London. 1902. gians rules, but. never before bas the tale been told so minutely, with This is a classic on the subject, such perfect consecutiveness and but it is a terrible arraignment of with such charming simplicity. the papacy. Each chapter is a volume of revelation as to corrup- The reading of the book im- tion, bribery, superstition, formalpresses one with the thought of the ism, immorality, and general downbuilding of It great structure. The ward tendencies. At the same foundation is carefully laid by a time the book is dispassionate and history of the "white man's ac- calm; a large number of the witquaintance with Congoland" up to nesses marshaled in it are native the time that the King of the Bel- Italians, some of them prominent gians turned his covetous eyes on in the Church or State. Sig. G. Africa. Then follows the project ZanardeIIi writes, acknowledging of the king, hidden behind a hypo- the gift of a copy: critical show of philanthropy, to add Central Africa to his domains. Tbe subjects you treat of in these splendid volumes demonstrate how great is the true With a steady accumulation of affection which you have for Italy-for its fact upon fact. the author piles up future, its greatness, and its liberation from an unshakable structure, the crush- the domination of the Vatican. It is a thing ing weight of which is tremendous. extremely gratifying to ItalY that so many It ought to arouse Europe and chosen minds and hearts in foreign lands America to immediate action! The bear toward her a love sO warm and so aim of the author is to show to the etllcacious. To this love wbich you cherish world the effect of Belgian misrule for my country lowe tbe gift of your -to bring to light the atrocious scholarly books, which I prize very highly; deeds, the fiendish cruelty, the un- and that on Sarpi has for me, a citizen of paralleled inhumanity of King Brescia. a special interest, as that city gave Leopold II. in his treatment of the to the great Venetian his nlOst eminent dis- African. ciple. Fulgenzio Micanzio.
Mr. Fox-Bourne clearly shows There are twelve chapters. The that the responsibility of all this subjects may give a hint of the commisrule rests solely on the shoul- prehensiveness of the contents: ders of this king, who to-day stands "An Historic Retrospect," "The as a moral leper among the crown- Pope," "The Prie::,t," "The ed heads of Europe. Church," "Confession," "Monasti- cism," "Saints' Days and Sun- day," "The Bible," "Mariolatry,"
BOuR;! I!'Oft THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
"Olerical Education." The pages They received a cold reception from which treat of The 8ainto Bambino-La Santa Bottega and the the United States officials, and had confessional are enough to justify all the antagonism against papacy it not been for the help of Miss found in Protestant writings, and should awaken a new crusade Miner and other friends would have against theS'~ terrible evils. Ve hope to give this book a more con- been sent back to their own counspicuous treatment hereafter. try. The author's royalty will be WrTII THE ARABS IN TE:-:T AND Tow:-/,. By A. Forder. Marshall Brothers, London. devoted to the college expenses of 1902. the two young men, since the This book is introduced by Dr. Selah Merrill, United States Oonsul United States laws will not permit at Jerusalem, who witnesses to the author as a "tireless, faithful, and them to seek any remunerative devoted Ohristian worker," "fearless" and of ,. indefatigable zeal," employment here. Of the two who "enjoys pioneer and missionary work better than any other heroes, the first came from a humman he has ever seen." ble home and the second from the This high encomium seems justified by the narrative. Mr. Forder aristocracy. Both had thrilling went into the Dark Oontinent of Arabia as Livingstone into the and tragic experiences, and both other Dark Oontinent of Africa, and with a similar self-forgetful- desire to return to their cOllntry ness. Some parts of the book read like a romance. His escapes are better equipped to help in the resometimes marvelouR, and his voluntary exposures apostolic. The construction of the Empire of book is beautifully illustrated and tha illustrations are rare and of a Ohina. It is hoped that they will high order. Mr. Forder's endeavors have not yet been rewarded be greatly used in bringing the with very abundant success, but we look to the future to secure a Kingdom of God in the hearts of lftrger reward for all these selfdenials. The book is interesting their fellow countrymen. Their and will repay reading, tho it is not in all respects a model of style. life story will be especially inter- Mr. FordeI' is now seeking to build up a sort of mission home in Jeru- esting to young people. * salem, on an independent basis. MIS"JON METHODS IN MANCHURIA. By John Two HEROES OF CATHAY. An Autobiograph Ross, D.D. 12mo, 251 pp. $1.00, net. and a Sketch. By Luella Miner. Illus· Fleming H. Revell Co. 1903. trated. 12mo, 288 pp. $1.25. Fleming H. Revell Co. 1903. Dr. Ross is an authority on Man- Miss Miner here tells the story of churia, where he has labored for two Ohinese, FayOhi Yo and Kung Hsiang Hsi, who, after passing over a quarter of a century. In through the Boxer persecution, that time 30,000 of the people have came to America for an education. become confessing Ohristians, and t3n times that number have learned something of Ohrist. The methods of work here have been, in some respects, unique, and much may be learned from a careful study of th~m. One has greater respect for missionaries and greater hope for the speedy evangelization of Ohina after reading this account. It is a good companion volume to Dr.
Gibson's book, and is of especial value to missionaries, officers, and missionary candidates. * SEA-GIRT YF.ZO. By John Batchelor. IIlus trated. 8vo, 120 pp. Church Missional'J Society, London. 1902.
Here are very picturesque and vivid glimpses of missionary work in the northern island of Japan. The book is written for young people, but that will not hinder
their elders' enjoyment of it. Dr. sionaries from foreign government Batchelor writes in a striking way officials, Chinese officials, native of the island and people, the work Christians, and others. It is an and the harvest. Those who read interesting and powerful array of his descriptions of the transforma- evidence. * tions which the Gospel is working THE SAILORS' MAGAZINE. 1902. American Seaman's Friend Society, New York. in these people can scarcely fail to The bound volume of this interagree with him that the age of esting magazine is full of informamiracles is not yet past. " tion and encouragement. The so- How MISSIONS PAY. By John Laughlin, D.D. ciety of which it is the organ has 12mo, 37 pp. 35c. Cumherland Press, Nashville, Tenn. 19~. missions in 36 ports in North and Dr. McLaughlin here gives us a South America, Europe, and Asia, brief study in the triumphs of and is doing a splendid work. This Christianity in foreign fields. It volume contains sailors' yarns, is a useful little book to furnish views of life in foreign ports, snap- material for answers to objections shots at sailors aboard and ashore, of crit~cs and non-missionary descriptions of Christian work church members. It is full of facts among them, and stories of conver- in regard to the returns from mis- sions. * sion work in character, national NEW BOOKS growth, education, science and dis- CIVILIZATION IN CONGOLAND. By H. R. Fox- Bourne. 8vo, 311 pp. lOs. 6d. P. S. King covery, commerce and general & Son, London. 1903.
progress. " WINTER INDIA. By Eliza R. Scidmore. illus- trated. Bvo, 400 pp. $2.00. Century Co., THEa~J'~Wg.ekeAW.lt:1fd::r.n Ifl~s~~:~el New York. 1903.
12mo, 96 pp. Is. Marshall Brothers, Lon- V,GNETTES OF KASHMIR". Illustrated. 12m", don. 1903. 90 pp. Is. Church of England Z. M. S., London. 1903. This story of Church of England THINGS As THEY ARE. Missionary Work in Zenana Mission Work in Ceylon South India. By Amy Wilson Carmichael. Illustrated. 319 pp. 68. Morgan & Scott, deals particularly with the Gam- London. 1903.
bola Village Mission and the Clar- PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INTlIA, BURMA, AND ence School in Kandy. It gives CEYLON. Pamphlet. TEN YEARS IN BURMA. By Juliu> Smith. many interesting glimpses of the $1.00. Eaton & Mains, New York. 1903. methods and results of these two PROVERBS AND SAYISGS FROM THE CHINESE. prosperous missions. " By Arthur H. Smith. 8vo,304 pp. $2.00. PROTESTANTISM IN THE PHILIPPINES. By Presbyterian Press, Shanghai. 1902. George F. Pentecost, D.D. Pamphlet. American Bible Society. 1903. THE EDUCATIONAL CONQUEST OF THE FAR This is a strong, outspoken state- EAST. By Robert E. Lewis. Illustrated 12mo, 248 pp. $1.00, net. Fleming H. ment of the present religious con- Revell Co. l00S. FIRE ANn SWORD IN SHANS!. By E. H. Ed· ditions in the Philippine Islands. wards. Illustrated. 12mo, 325 pp. $1.50, Dr. Pentecost denounces the god- net. Fleming H. Revell Co. J9(lH.
less lives of many Aml0ricans, and THE LIGHT OF CHINA. Translation of the Tao Tah King of Lastze, By I. W. Heyshows clearly the failure of Roman- singer. 12mo, 165 pp. Research Publish· ing Co., Philadelphia. 1903. ism to meet the needs of the IN THE ISLES OF THE SEA. Fifty Years in people. " Melanesia. By Francis Awdry . 58. Ben- rose t Sons, London. 1903. Is THERE ANYTHING IN IT? Some After· Crisis Vindications. By Gilbert McIn- THE TURK AND HIS LOST PROVINCES. By tosh. Paper. 80 pp. American Mission William E. Curtis. Illustrated. 8vo, Press, Shanghai; Morgan & Scott, Loll- 396 pp. $2.00, net. Fleming H. Revell don. Co. 1903.
This is a sequel to "The Chinese DI<VELOPMENT OF MUSLIM THEOLOGY, JURIS- Crisis and Christian Missionaries." Pn.UDENC)!;~ AND CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY.
In brief space the author takes up ~ha~~:~~~il!e~:~~~~aI1903~vo. 386 pp.
the evidence for missions and mis- HISTORY OF PORTO RICO. By R. A. Van Middeldyke. 8vo, 318 pp. $1.25, net. D. Appleton & Co. 190.3.'
TRE DOUKHOBORS. By Joseph Elkington. Illustrated. 12mo, 336 pp. $2.00. Ferris & Leach, Philadelphia. 1903.
THE NEGRO ARTISAN. Reports of a Social Study Edited by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois. 8vo, 192 pp. Paper, 5Oc. Atlanta University Press. 190"2.
1903J GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE AMERICA The purpose of these conferences What One The First Presby- Church is Doing terian Church in is to bring together the strongest for Missions Wichita, Kansas, workers from the Sunday-schools about which an article appeared hi our August (1902) and Young People's Societies of all number, supports 24 workers in the field. The pastor, Dr. C. E. Bradt, denominations for a week or more estimates that each Presbyterian church member is responsible for of prayer and conference concernpreaching the Gospel to 150 heathen, and that his own church is con- ing methods of missionary work fronted by the problem of evangelizing 160,000. A missionary from among young people. The confer- China presented the needs of his field, and the church promptlyas- ences are intended as councils of sumed his salary, later providing that of his wife, of a medical mis- war for the organization of a more sionary, and a lady evangelist-all coworkers. Individual members comprehensive mlsswnary camundertook the support of native workers graduated from thll Nor- paign among young people, and as mal School on the same field. The needs of home missions are met in training – schools for the better a similar way. What blessings would follow, both to the home and equipment of leaders in the camthe foreign field, if other churches by the score, and hundred, and paign. Further information conthousand, would follow this· splendid example. cerning both conferences ll!ay be Summer A number of con- had upon application to Charles V. Missionary ferences on foreign Conferences missions will be Vickrey, 156 Fifth Avenue, New held this summer in York City. various places in America. Among the most important is that of the In addition to these conferences, Leaders of the Young People,which meets at Silver Bay, Lake George, foreign and home missions have a July 21-31. It will pay well any young leaders in Christian work to prominent place at the various attend this conference. gatherings at Northfield. Geneva The Lookout Mountain Missionary Conference for leaders of mis- Lake, Ashville, Asbury Park, and sionary work in Sunday-schools and Young People's Societies of the elsewhere. ' Southern States will be held on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, A Missionary During recent years July 1-8. 'I'his will be similar in Deputation it has been increasits plan and program to the conference for Northern leaders held at Goes to Africa ingly felt that sec- Silver Bay: retaries sitting in their offices at home were not pos- sessed of sufficient breadth of view to enable them wisely to handle divers questions continually aris- ing at the ends of the earth, and hence ought in some way to be- hold the situation with their own eyes. Therefore, deputation work is on the increase. Within a few years the American Board has dis- patched its representatives both to China and to India, and now Rev. E. E. Strong, the editorial secre- tary, and Rev. Sydney Strong, of Oak Park, Illinois, are on their way to South Africa, to be absent some six months, in the endeavor to set- tle several difficult problems con- nected with the Zulu mission.
While there visits will be made to certain English, Scotch, and French stations.
New President Daniel Coit Gilman, a cost, and we earnestly hope that of the LL.D., has recently the result of this widespread testi- mony may be the quickening of Bible Society been elected Presi- many souls. Contributions can be dent of the Ameri- sent to Hugh R. Monro, treasurer, can Bible Society. Dr. Gilman's 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. residence is in Baltimore, and Booker T. In a resent adhe is the president of the new Car- Washington dress, Booker T. negie Institution in vVashington. and the Negroes Washington sage- He is everywhere known as a lyaffirmed: man of character and learning. The time has come when a group of representative Southern white Born in Norwich, Conn., in 1831, men, Northern white men, and negroes should meet and consider he was graduated from Yale in with the greatest calmness and business sagacity the condition of 1852, pursuing his studies further- the Afro-American. In all other questions where division occurs in the University of Berlin. He this is the inethod of settlement we use. Why not in this? The age has been successively Professor at for settling great questions, either social or national, with the shot- Yale, President of the University gun, the torch, or by lynchings, has passed. An appeal to such methods of California, and then the first is unworthy of either race. I may be in doubt about some things con- Presid@nt of the Johns Hopkins nected with our future. but of one thing I feel perfectly sure, and University, at Baltimore, from 1875 that is that ignorance and race- hatred are no solution of any probto 1901. For ten years past he has lem on earth.
been President of the American Every friend of the negro rejoices Oriental Society, a body of scholars at the gift of $600,000 from Mr. Carnegie for the Tuskegee endowdevoted to the study of everything ment fund. Let none suppose, pertaining to the Orient. He has however, that this will support the been a vice-president of the Ameri- work. There will still be needed can Bible Society since 1896, and over $100,000 each year for the run- a manager, for many years, of the ning expenses of this splendid in- stitution. Maryland Bible Society, one of the Grover At a recent meetoldest auxiliaries. Cleveland and ing in New York Advertising the A somewhat novel the Negro City, held in the in- Gospel in method of evangeli- Street-cars zation has recently Question terest of the Tuske- heen adopted in gee Normal and In- New York. A contract has been dustrial Institute, our ex-President made for three months, at $100 a month, with one of the large ad- spoke as follows upon one of our vertising companies to display cards containing Scripture texts most serious national problems: on elevated trains. Scripture texts are printed on white cards in two I have come here as the sincere colors, proclaiming the Gospel of friend of the negro, and I should salvation by faith in Christ-such be very sorry to suppose that my texts as John iii: 16, John v: 24, good and regular standing in such Hebrews vii: 25, etc. These mes- company needed support at this sages from the Bible will probably late day either from certificate or be read by from 50,000 to 100,000 confession of faith. Inasmuch, persons each day. Multitudes who however, as there may be differride on these trains daily will perhaps unconsciously commit the passages to memory. No other means probably would bring the Gospel before so many at so slight
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
ences of thought and sentiment upon farms, and about haH as among those who profess to be many, through the winter, attend public bchools with white children. friends of the negro, I desire to de- They are requiretl to save half of clare myself as belonging to the their earnings, and whenever the amount reaches $20 it is put at in- Booker Washington-Tuskegee sec- terest. The following is one of the tion of the organization. I believe pledges taken : that the dayt:;; of Uncle Tom's cabin I will bathe regularly, write my are past. I believe that neither the hOn;le letter every month, do all I decree that made the sla"7'es free, can to please my employer, and make the best use I can of every nor the enactment that suddenly chance given me. invested them with the rights of citizenship, any more purged them A Jewish The American Mis- Mission to sion to the Jews, of their racial and slavery-bred im- Change Its of which Herman perfections and deficiencies than it Name Warzawiak is the changed the color of their skin. missionary; has I believe our fellow countrymen in changed its Dame and location to the Southern and late slave-hold- "The Anglo-American Board of ing states, t:;;urrounded by about Missions to the Jews," 424 Grand nine-tenths, or nearly 8,000,000 of Street, New York. William C. Conant is secretary. this entire negro population, and who regard their material pros- Cuba as a Except in Havana, Mission Field where a ProteJtant perity, their peace, and even the safety of their civilization, inter- church was formed several ) ears ago, mission work in woven with the negro problem are this island has had its beginnings entitled to our utmost considera- within three years, but has already spread into each one of the 6 provtion and sympathetic fellowship. inces. The following figures, com- I can not, however, keep out of piled a few months ago by a resi- dent missionary, give Some idea of my mind the thought that with all what is being done: we of the North may do, the realization of Our hopes for the negro Number of societies………….. 12 Churches and preaching stations 92 must, after all, mainly depend- Pastors and teachers.. . . . . . . . . . . 137 except so far as it rests with the Church edifices .. _. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Church membership …………. 2,400 negroes themselves-upon the sen- Candidates for membershIp….. 551 timent and conduct of the leading Candidates for the ministry… . . 17 Sabbath~schoo]s.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ';'2 and responsible white men of the Pupils ………. __ ……………. 3,450 South, and upon the maintenance Chnrch schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Pupils ………………………. 1,880 of a kindly and helpful feeling on their part toward those in their .. On the Roof Un d e r this title of South ·Rev. T. B. Wood midst who so much need their aid America" has an article in and encouragement. are c e n t issue of Col. Pratt's L. A. Maynard tells World- Wide Missions, with these among the opening sentences: Work for the in the Presbyterian January, 1902, found me in Quito, Indian Journal of a three- the capital of Ecuador. December brought me to La Paz, Bolivia. days' visit to Car- lisle, Pa., and to Col. Pratt's Indian School, commenced twenty-three years ago, with only his wife as assistant, and with 82 young Sioux for pupils, fresh from the reserva- tion. Amidst all manner of diffi- culties this heroic soul has held on, until now thll number is over 1,000, coming in all from some 70 tribes (including not a few from Alaska), and 4,500 have graduated. Study has not been their only business, but every SUmmer, in order that they make the acquaintance of American home life, and learn to work, 800 or more go out to live
These are the two loftiest seats of Kansas City, .Mo. One of these is government on earth, the former being of the altitude of {J,300 feet, out in a country district of the and the latter 12,300 feet. From mounUdns,llmid the down-trodden La Paz I gazed southward, toward descendents of the ancient Incas, the Argentine boundary, and from the serfs of the land. In Guaya- Quito I looked northward, toward quil a few converts have been bapthe Caribbean coast, and I prayed tized, while in other parts there with greater faith than ever for are individuals who have given more laborers and ampler resources promise of receiving the Word to be sent into this vast and lofty mixed with faith. field. Lima district is the largest in area and thE:. highest in altitude EUROPE of all the districts of our Church, destined to be a culmination of A An international American Methodism, in the center of the Western hemisphere. Alas Salvation Army university for the that it is now the most neglected part of the" neglected continent." ff University" study of social I left Quito to hurry to Confer- science, from which ence at Santiago, Chile, a distance of 2,300 miles as the condor flies- tl ousands of Salvation Army workfarther than from London to Jerusalem, or from Gibraltar to St. ers could be sent out every Yellr, Petersburg, or from CeyJ.:m to Afghanistan, or from Havana to Hud- skilled in every method of rescuing son Bay-a journey of three weeks by stage, muleback, railway, and human beings from destitution and steamship. crime, is proposed by General The Gospel God has blessed Booth. The university would have in Ecuador Ecuador wi th rulers headquarters in London and New who seem to be de- York, and branches in Austral ia, – termined to maintain religious Canada, Germany, and France. liberty in fact as well as in theory; The task of raising the submerged, The Minister of War has willingly says the general, "lies beyond the granted the Protestant mission- power of governments and organaries permission to labor without ized churches, and it should not hindrance among the soldiers in depend much longer on the accithe barracks and in the military dent of individual experience, but hospitals. The same privilege is should be carried on by trained extended to them for work in the men and women selected for intelprisons by the Minister of the In- ligence and devotion. Thirty-seven terior and Police. This official has years of world-wide work have also given special orders that the shown what the Salvation Army public authorities are to maintain can do, but we must now put resorder at, Protestant meetings, and cue work on an enduring basis. to see that the evangelists are re- Our officers must be as skilled in spected, and that freedom and the science of saving men as the safety in their work is guaranteed officers of regular armies are in to them. That this is something destroying men." more than mere writing is attested A Trust The village comby the fact that in Guayaquil for Social munity built up by Betterment Richard and George regular street meetings are held in Cadburg, at Bourna prominent place, and good atten- ville, near Birmingham, consists of 400 acres, and contains many cottion is given to the missionaries. tages for the employees, now num- bering nearly 2,000. The lowest Five points in this interesting rental of these cottages is $1.50 a week, for which the tenant gets republic are occupied by workers of the Gospel Missionary Union, of
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
three bedrooms, a kitchen, a parlor, west," 20 would not be too many and a third room down-stairs, and for Manitoba alone. At Entebbe, a bath. The houses are in the best in Uganda, the government headsanitary condition, and a large quarters of that interesting coungarden goes with each house. The try, an English community is askvillage is laid out very attractively ing for the ministrations of the with its winding streets, its trees, Gospel so freely given to the and its open spaces. There is a natives. An adequate stipend is large recreation-ground, swimming- offered, yet no one has yet been pools, a dining-room for the girls, attracted to this important sphere, a boys' club, light and well- now reached so easily, and within ventilated workrooms. A block of touch of the most fascinating mis- beautiful cottages forming a quad- sion work in the world. Bishop rangle, beautifully kept up with Tucker writes to our society urging turf and flowers, has been set aside us to find and send a man. At for homes of the old or semi-depend- Cochin, a seaport in South India, ent. They are called" Houses of an English community has waited Rest." Each home consists of three for four years without any regullLr rooms, and may be occupied by means of grace. Here the reany old lady who can pay, either muneration offered is ampler, and herself or through relatives, five- Bishop Hodges presses that there pence a week. There is also a con- may be no further delay. valescent home. Every summer thousands of children from the Anti-Clerical The separation of tenements of Birmingham are Campaign Church and State, turned loose on the farms and in France says the Paris cormeadows for a day's fresh air and respondent of the pure food. The slum workers of the Salvation Army in London also London Times, has become one of who are Worn out with their labors the great questions of the day in are entertained during the summer France. Both sides are closing in one of the houses set aside for their use. their ranks, and it is generally rec- The Crying Greater Britain Mes- ognized that a grave crisis is im- Need of senger gives this .minent. Premier Combes has been Missionaries touching call fot· authorized to explain to the Vat- self-denying work- ican that it will be difficult to opers in a fragment of the vast world field: pose the separation of Church and Every number of our little maga- State unless the bishops abandon zine contains illustrations of spiritual destitution, of white paganism, their resistance to the law. At the and of brave men struggling to minister to districts as large as present juncture the conflict be- English counties. Canada and Australia need almost every clergy- tween Church and State in France man who can be got to go. South Africa is crying out for men; and presents a certain resemblance to so it is with well· high everyoutlying part of our empire. Mani- the military operations of the cotoba alone, the Archbishop of Rupertsland informs us, needs from operating powers in China-that is 12 to 20 men this year; and con- to say, there is a great deal of sidering the vast inrush of new settlers into the "Great North- miscellaneous fighting, but no war. In spite, however, of the apparent hesitation of the combatants to come to close quarters, it is im- possible to regard this condition of affairs as normal, or to doubt that it will have serious consequences.
The question is what those conse- quences will be, and which side will prove victorious in the strug- gle that in the last resort must be decided by the majority of the French electors.
The Gould The twenty-seventh ality. The Mormons are a danger Home and annual report of the to the mpral and political welfare School in Go u I d Memorial of a nation, but we believe in fight- ing them with spiritual and legal Rome Home and Indus- weapons. trial School in Rome The Gospel It is not widely shows 31 boys, seven to nineteen in Bulgaria known thatanative years, in the care of the institution. These boys are engaged in elemen- Bulgarian evangel- tary school work, and as carpen- ical society exists for the spread of ters, gardeners, locksmiths, plumb- the Gospel among the inhabitants ers, printers, shoemakers,· tailors, of the Balkan peninsula. Founded upholsterers, watchmakers, wood- in 1875 in that most revolutionary carvers, etc. The Gould Home is period of the history of the counregarded primarily as an American try, it has bravely carried on the institution because it was founded work under manifold difficulties. in 1871 by Emily Bliss Gould, One of the best results of its early daughter of Dr. James C. Bliss, of struggles is the Protestant church New York, and wife of Dr. James of Sofia, now almost self-support- B. Gould, for many years physi- ing. The country is now feeling cian to the American Embassy in the movement of mind which is Rome. sweeping over Europe, and from many towns and villages come re- The school was founded for the quests for a preacher. Where work purpose of rescuing destitute chil- has been carried on during past dren of Italy, and giving them years large numbers are confessing an elementary and industrial edu- Christ openly and searching the cation, so as to fit them for the Scriptures daily. work of caring for themselvesand incidently becoming respecta- The Finnish The only Protestant ble and useful citizens, either in their own country or abroad; as Missionary missionary society many Italians now find their way to America, it is of unusual import- Society in Russia, the Finance to see that the educational influences brought to bear should nish, has been greathave some claim to our confidence and sympathy. ly revived within the last three The home on Via Magenta, Rome, years. From 200 to 300 young men has been maintained since 1875 by voluntary contributions as an and many women have offered evangelical non-sectarian school. rurther information may be ob- their services. For this reason, tained from Mrs. A. R. Smith, 66 West Thirty-eighth Skeet, New and on account of the growing in- York. fluence of Russia in China, the so- Mormons The kaiser has re- Expelled from quested Mol' m 0 n ciety has resolved on establishing Germany missionaries to a mission there. As is known, it withdraw from the already has a mission in Southempire. We can not say that this step is in harmony with religious west Africa. In September, 1901, toleration, unless the ground be taken that they inculcate immor- there was held at Reval what is probably the first course of lectures on missions that has ever been held in Russia.-Miss'ions-Blatt (Mora- vian).
Killing The czar's edict does the Jews not seem to have in Russia had any very mark- ed effect in promot- ing religious toleration in Russia.
1903J GENERAL MlsSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
Agitators and demagogues have came out of their houses. The streets were been at work arousing the peasants piled up with the debris, and they presented against the Jews, and the storm a horrible appearance. The big Jewish hos- broke in Kishineff, Southeastern pital is filled with dead and wounded. Some Russia, on April 20th, at the close bodies are mutilated beyond identification. of the Easter celebratIon. It is said From a distance there could be heard heart- that 75 Jews were killed and 275 rending groans and pitiable wailings of widwounded. The following, M-om the ows and orphans. The misery of the Jews is St. Petersburg Vuedemosti (April indescribable. There is an actual famine. 24th), is an answer to the Rus- The prices of all living commodities have sian official denial of the anti-Jew- gone up. Relief is being organized. ish riots in Kishineff. The Vuedenwsti is subjected to a strict The Bible for Mr. Bergmann, a censorship, and therefore the ac- Russian Jews well-known Jewish count must be read in the light of what thli government permitted to missionary, writes be published before it decided that to a London contemporary: "I no riot had taken place: have, at the earnest request of sev- eral Jewish friends, and after much In Kishineff all was quiet until Easter Sun- prayer, commenced a second transday, when at noon the crowd on the Chuplin- lation of the Old Testament in ansky Place, where amusement and other other Yiddish dialect,. so that in booths had been erected, became excited. these two dialects all Yiddish- Sevenl Jews, who came to watch the Chris- speaking Jews in all parts of their tians enjoying themselves, were attacked. dispersion will be able to read and They ran away. The cry" Kill the Jews!·' understand their own Scriptures. was raised, and the mob, which swelled in- The hunger for the Word among stantly, followed in hot pursuit, particularly the Jews is everywhere increasing, through Alexandrowsky Street to the new and doors are being everywhere bazaar, where a fearful riot took place. opened for its circulation. The Emperor of Russia has given me It is impossible to account the amount of permission to circulate the Scripgoods destroyed in a few hours. The hur- tures among the millions of Jews rahs of the rioters and the pitiful cries of the who reside in that vast empire. victims filled the air. Wherever a Jew was Let us give to God's ancient people met he was savagely beaten into insensibil- their own Scriptures in a dialect ity. . . . they can understand, and thereby point them to the Lamb of God. At nightfall quiet was restored, at least in the center of the city, and it was presumed The The situation in that the disturbance was at an end. Police, troops, and mounted gendarmes patroled the Macedonian Macedonia is not restreets, but the real assault began on Monday morning, when, armed with axes and Situation assuring. The procrowbars, the mob set upon its work of destruction, damaging the best houses and posed reform measshops, eothing themselves in pillaged clothing, and carrying away huge bundles of loot. ures appear to have excited rather The mob ignored tbe orders of the patrols than quieted the people, for the variand the poliee to disperse, and continued to rob, destroy, and kill. Every Jewish house- ous revolutionary committees wish hold was broken into, and the unfortunate Jews in their terror endeavored to hide in for no reforms that leave Turkey in cellars and under roofs. The mob entered the synagogues, desecrated them, destroyed control in Macedonia. These comthe biggest house of worship, and defiled the scrolls of the law. mittees have headquarters in Bul- The conduct of intelligent Greek Christians garia, and are supposed to receive was disgraceful: They made no attempt to check the rioting. They simply walked .mcouragement from Russia, and around enjoying the frightful "sport". possibly Austria. The Albanians On Tuesday, the third day, when it became known that the troops had received orders to recognize no government as friendshoot, the rioting ceased. The Jews then ly, but are especially hostile to Tur- key, under whose suzerainty they live.
The questions at issue in no way
involve the missionaries, and no mission field. and its beneficial hostility toward them has been effect on the whole mission work manifested. Only the American can not be estimated in dollars and Board is laboring in the section of cents." Among other things, a country now especially disturbed. building for orphans is to be The work is going on in all the erected, and an orphan department European Turkey missions with maintained, with a maximum of but little hindrance, altho the con- 20 boys. Instruction is to be given ditions make it hard for many of in various forms of manual toil. the Christians, and the suspense as to the future creates great un- Who Will Rev. J. C. Lawson rest. In case of necessity the mis- Supply This and wife, formerly of sionaries can easily withdraw. Christians should pray for the com- Need? the Methodistmission ing of God's Kingdom among these of Aligarh, India, oppressed people. who have recently withdrawn from ASIA that mission to carryon an inde- pendent work for the training of America's Gift Robert College, of children, are worthy of the sympa- to Turkey Con s tan t inople, thy and support of Christians at was founded in 1863 home. They are carrying on their work in faith and love, and with by Mr. Christopher R. Robert, of a view to the industrial develop- New York, and Dr. Cyrus Hamlin. ment of the orphans in their charge. This institution has had 414 grad- They have recently removed to uates and 2,000 more who have been Pilibhit, U. P. India, and are there in attendance an average of three seeking to train the children to folyears each. The number of stu- low Jesus Christ and to prepare to dents is now 308, and the buildings earn their own living. The work are so crowded that enlargement is is conducted on strictly Christian necessary. The trustees are plan- business principles. The mission ning for additional buildings, new is now called "The Industrial and courses of study, and an increase Evangelical Mission." There are of $250,000 in the endowment. Rev. now 100 b,oys in the school. A very George Washburn, D.D., is presi- pressing need-in addition to supdent. port-is for a traction engine and saw-mill to enable them to conduct An Industrial The Assembly Her- their wood-work department. The Mission in Syria ald (Presbyterian) price asked is $1,500, and con- tributions may be sent to the tells of "the largest 'industrial plant under the care of EDITORS. the Board at Sidon. The industrial department of the Gerard Institute Mass In 1892 the Decenat Sidon was established in 1895, the initial expenditure being $15,- Movements nial Missionary 000. Early the present year Mrs. George Wood, one of the generous Approved Conference for Indonors to the institute, supplemented her previous gifts by what· dia, which met in Dr. Brown calls a 'splendidly munificent proposal,' which is equiva- Bombay, and was made up of delelent to turning over to the Board the use of about $70,000. It will gates from all the Protestant mismake the industrial work at Sidon one of the most complet.e on any sionary bodies, condemned the "Mass Movement," as it was called, inaugurated by our Method- ist missionaries among the low- caste people of India. Bishop Thoburn made a vigorous defense of the policy, notwithstanding the
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
strong current which was against including both men and women, him. He conceded that in some had walked long distances in order places the policy had failed, but always because proper care was to be present. Hundreds had come not given to converts after bap· from places ten or twelve miles distism. He declared that not in a tanto At one meeting I had the single instance had there been fail" ure where converts had been care- privilege of baptizing no less than fully instructed and cared for. He 834 persons. It was an occasion of recalled an instance where twenty- extraordinary interest. The servfour years previously he had administered the Lord's Supper to a ice was abridged as much as posgroup of low-caste people, nearly sible. All questions were addressed all of whom were converted thieves, and he was greatly depressed; but to the entire body, and the answer, he had lived to see the second in every case, was given by all at generation of those people, and no one remembered that they had once. When, however, the utmost once been thieves; they had" out- curtailment of ceremony had been grown both their character and made, the entire service being abridged as much as possible, it still required a full hour to perform the simple act of baptism. The missionaries regretted that some hundreds of the candidates had been kept away from the place of meet- ing on account of the presence of the plague which. in a very malig- nant form, was prevalent through- out the entire region.
their reputation." Another ten years passed, and the Decennial Encouraging Fro m v a rio u s Conference met in Madras. Dur- Signs Among sources comes evi- ing the decade the whole mission- Moslems dence that the ary body having changed its atti- hearts of many Mo- tude, the Conference gave the policy hammedans in India are turn- hearty approval. ing with .love and worship to the Lord Jesus. They are more Ble$Sing Bishop Thoburn, . ready to hear the Gospel than in Rajputana just returned from in former years. They speak of India, spen t the last the Lord Jesus in a way to show three weeks prior to leaving that that deep down in their hearts is a country in a visit to Rajputana and feeling that He is far more than a Gujerat. He says: prophet. The old controversial In all the forty-four years which have paRsed since I hecame a mis- spirit,' so bitter anf! so unpromissionary i had never witnessed such ing, seems to be dying out in the scenes as met me on this tour. In hearts of many of them. Notmany every place a large number of con- months ago a Christian missionary verts had heen collected for baptism, and the meetings held were of was invited to speak to a large the most interesting character. I body of Mohammedan students, was amazed and wonderfully in· and more than one of them opened terested to witness the change his heart after the lecture, and which had taken place in the orphans, both hoys and girls, who spoke in a way that sent the had been collected in the famine of preacher on his way rejoicing. Dr. two years ago. Some of these are Charles Cuthbert Hall was invited now youths of from sixteen to eigh- to address the students of the Moteen years of age, and not a few give promise of great usefulness. hammedan College at Aligarh. All All of these had been baptized be- these things, added to conversa- fore, and the candidates brought tions the past week with intelli- forward at our meetings were, with gent Mohammedans whose hearts very few exceptions, people from seemed touched by the Spirit of God, and whose attitude to the the villages in the vicinity of the places where the meetings were held. All Came on foot, and many, Lord Jesus is more than that of
reverence for Him as It prophet, yet assured, and it is even feared are signs of a movement we do well that she may endeavor to rule to note and prepare to meet. We Mongolia. Her attitude causes can not recommend too st,rongly misgivings, particularly in com- the distribution by the thousand of mercial and political circles, be- the tracts prepared by Dr. Wherry cause of her desire to control the and Dr. Rouse.-MAKHZAN-I-MASI- railroads and ports, and to refuse KI quoted in Bombay Guardian. commercial rights to other nations; The Task of Rev. Henry Fair- but there is also a religious and One Missionary bank, who is tak- missionary aspect to the question. Russia is not a friend to liberty, ing Dr. Ballantine's and while nominally she does not place at Rahuri, India, writes that interfere with religion in her colohis parish has over 2.000 Christian3 nies, there is great danger that she who are connected with 10 organ- would hamper the work of foreign ized churches. He has also 22 missionaries. Scotch and Irish schools to look after, in which there Presbyterians have a strong work are more than 800 children study- in Manchuria. ing. Work is carried on in 19 out- stations, and there are 57 trained Affairs The situation in native Christian pastors, preach- in China China is substan- ers, and teachers. The parish tially this: A rebel- covers an area of not less than 2,500 liar. of great dimensions, directed square miles of densely populated against the central government, territory. Mr. Fairbank says; exists in the southern province of The people are exceedingly friend- Kwang-si, and is slowly increasing ly to the missionary and his mes- in volume; but the Inissionary sage, and are more eager to listen to preaching than ever before. All work in South China scarcely feels classes are ready to hear the Gospel it, and that in Central and North- message. If there were men enough ern China is not affected in the to preach and money enough to least. A remnant of the old Boxer sustain them, the entire country army of 1900 still exists in the inte- rior pl'ovince of Sz-chuan, under would constitute a ready and even eager congregation.
How One The Rev. James the lead of Prince Tuan and Gen- Mission Has Duthie, of Nager- eral Tung Fa Hsiang; but it is not coil, South India, growing in numbers, its move- Grown writes that about. ments are uncertain, and it seems forty years ago, when he joined to be looking out rather for its own the mission, there was not a single safety than for aggressive action. So far the authorities at Peking Indian pastor. Now there are 350, seem determined to keep the peace in the ordination of 35 of whom he and put down all anti-foreign movehad assisted. Then there were 800 ments, and missionary workis gocommunicants; now, 8,000; then, ing on without let or hindrance. 2,500 baptized adherents; now, 30,- 000. Then, 15,000 Indian Christians; Gen. Chaffee It is difficult to benow, 63,000. Last year the num- and Missions lieve that a sensible ber of cases treated in connection with the Travancore medical mis- in China man could make so sion was upward of 100,000. silly an utterance as the reporters put into the mouth Russia and The final outcome of this soldier the other day.
Manchuria of the evident pur- These are the words attributed to pose of Russia to him: keep control of Manchuria is not The missionaries are all in earnest
GENERAL Jl{I~SIONARY lNTELLlGElNC:El
and hopeful, but the results of their policy appears to be that of sitting work are not proportionate to the at the feet of the Japanese. Stu- great labor of love. They have dents are sent to Japan in great done all that is possible, but the numbers, and Japanese are em- burden is too much for them. I ployed to turn into Chinese, some talked to many of the better class of the books which they have bor- wIllIe in China. These included rowed from the West. This looks officials. I must say that I did not like a short road to renovation, but meet a single in1;elligent Chinaman the Imperial Government is not who expressed a desire to embrace sufficiently fixed in its policy to the Christian religion. The masses insure success. That this century are against the Christian religion. will see a new China I have no Forty or fifty missionaries in that doubt, nor do I doubt that Chris- great country can not do much. tianity will come as a renovating factor. Yet I am not sure that the Had he never heard that there new era so ar·dently hoped for will not he preceded by a period of de- are 3,000 missionaries at work in cay and disintegration.
China, and that into the churches Self-Support "I have profound in Arnoy faith in our Chinese more than 100,000 have been gath- Christians," says ered? the Rev. J. Macgowan, of Amoy, " for I know they are easily stirred One Missionary L. W. Pierce, writ- when some case that affects the in- terests of Christ's Kingdom is con- to 400,000 ing in the Porei,gn cerned. . . . All the churches in my disi1'ict are self-supporting this Mission Journal year. Thank God for that! I feel there are large resources among (Southern Baptist), says: our churches that we have not yet touched. The Chinese are a money- "Some have said our mission fields loving people-almost as much so are now well manned, but I can as the English I-but when their never say so so long as any mission hearts are t,ouched they can be as station in a heathen land like lavish as tho money had no hold China, in a city of 400,000 people, upon them whatsoever." has only one missionary." Think of this, one missionary preacher in a Many Converts There has been a city of 400,000, and a large number in Canton large ingathering in the country around to reach also. in the Canton mis- In Richmond there are probably 150 preachers, white and colored. sion of the Presbyterian Church Taking Richmond, Atlanta, Memphis, Little Rock, and Dallas, there (North). The past year was the are likely 600 preachers, and yet greatest in the history of the misthese places together contain only sion, for the additions on examinaabout the same population as the tion were 747. During this period one city referred to in China. Here six chapels have been rebuilt (the there are thousands of Christian new chapels are in all respects betmen and women, who can teach ter than those destroyed), and the and help on the work; there com- following new buildings erected: paratively none. Is that place A Hospital for Women and Chil- " well.manned " ? dren, the Women's Medical College, the Nurses' Training-school, a fine Dr. Martin Dr. W. A. P. Mar- chapel for lepers near Canton, and missionary homes at Lien Chow on China tin, formerly Presi- and Yeung Kong. Dr. Beattie and Mr. Fulton report 197 baptisms for dent of the Imperial University of China, who was in the siege of Peking, has come to the conclusion that he alight to consecrate his remaining days to the revision of his Chinese books.
He writes in a new edition of his " Cycle of Cathay" : Educational reform in China is much talked about, but very slow in taking shape. The prevailing
the first quarter of the new year. labor, and the result is be4'ore U8- This is the largest number ever re- in this magnificent volume-printceived in one quarter, but the best ed in Japan on behalf of the Ameriof all was that at every out-station can Bible Society. .there were so many applicants, and not a candidate had an "axe to America Korea is now lookgrind." Among those baptized was a graduate of the first degree, a Making Idols ing to the United very able and sincere man; several for Korea States for her idols. other scholars, besides farmers and A representative 0f some bright and well-to-do business men. a wholesale firm in Senul, Korea, has arrived in this country, accord- Bishop The translation of ing to the s1;atement of The Liter- ary Digest, to contract for idols to be used in the heathen temples Schereschewsky's the Bible into of his country and in China. An American firm has been bidding Translation of Chinese, on which for ~his custom, and has at last re- ceived it. It will be rather puzzling the Bible Bishop Schere- to the American missionaries to explain how their country is manu- schewsky has been engaged for ten years, has been completed. The bishop unites in facturing and selling idols for heathen worship. But then there himself a profound acquaintance are men who will do anything for with Hebrew and a thorough knowledge of classical Chinese. money.
Born of Jewish parents and edu- AFRICA catEd for the office of rabbi, he read Another British officials in Advance in Africa appear to be Hebrew from his childhood. and busy day and night Africa acquired an uncommon familiarity with the literature of the Old Tes- bringing order out of confusion in all the "spheres of tament. He became converted to influence" committed to their care, Christianity, and pursued a course their last, but not least, achieveof study in a theological seminary, ment being the capture of Kano, in and became proficient in Greek.
He then offered himself for a mis- Northern Nigeria., far, far from the coast. This is an ancient and fasionary to China, and there ac- quired a knowledge of Chinese by mous city, the center of trade for a vast region, and trade especially in a prolonged residence at the capi- slaves, with Arabs as the principal tal. "Vith other missionaries he translated the New Testament into actors. No doubt all the appli- ances of Christhn civilization will Mandarin, and later the Old Testa- ment into the same dialect. soon make their advent, the proc- lamation of the Gospel among the But his desire was to give the Chinese a version of the Scriptm'es rest. Nor would it be in the least strange if within a decade or two in the written language of the here would be found a seeond Uganda for the triumphs of the whole empire. Smitten with a fever, he lost the use of hands and feet, and was compelled to resign Cross.
his bishopric. The disease had, however, left his mind unimpaired, A New Sultan A b doe I-A z i z, the for Morocco progressive young and he resolved to devote his re- Sultan of Morocco, maining years to the work of trans- is said to have given place to his brother, Mulai Mohammed. The lating the Bible into the classic former sulton, like the young Em- language of China. Over ten years were thus passed in unremitting
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
peror of China, was favorable to as to which I can not be silent is that everywhere I have found the foreigners, and this seems to have Word of God, In the parliament it is the Gospel which makes the compassed· his downfall. The laws; in society it is the Gospel which inspires a beneficence which tribesmen, who are fanatics in we here have never even imagined; it is the Gospel which renders the their devotion to Islam and want people intelligent by their schools, and which gives to the nations se- to have nothing to do with .. the curity and happiness. The mission- aries told me so-to-day I have seen cursed Giaour," have been giving it. Barotsi, let us come out of our darkness, of our former heathenism! him much trouble, and are even now Come to listen to the instructions of my missionaries, come on the under arms. SOIDe months ago a Sunday; send your children to the school in order that we also may number of American and English be men.-·Journal des Missions.
missionaries were located in the An Opportunity The situation in Ni- interior, but when the disturbances in Nigeria geria is critical. Sir Frederick Lugard in Morocco became serious they has destroyed the power of the were reported to have left for the Emil' of Sokoto, and opened up a coast. For a time there was consid- country containing, it is estimated, erable anxiety for them. 'Vhether 25,000,000 to the influences of civili- zation, Already the' cable des- they, will now be allowed to return patches say that a thorough propa- can not be answered at present. ganda has been planed to send Lewanika's Lewanika, King of Roman Catholic priests into all parts of this country. The British Return the Barotsis on the government's policy regarding this Zambesi, where the protectorate is to encourage indus- French missionaries teach, went to trial and other education. Grants England to the coronation, and on will be given to Mohammedan or his return addressed his subjects. Roman Catholic institutions just The description of the scene by M. as freely as to Protestant; and, CoilIard is as follows: th~efore, those first in the field Lewanika, a little nervous, rose, will have a great advantage in ascended the platform, and with a strong voice said that he was bound, every way. before the nation, to thank the mis- The Church Missionary Society sionaries publicly for all the good which they have done and are still of England has a slnall party of doing in his country. He spoke in sober terms, but none the less in workers in the land, and the Africa terms of eulogy. He naturally Industrial Mission also has a party eluded the direct questions, but to hear him one would never have of missionaries now ready to start, been able to believe that this man is not yet a Christian. "I have," but what are twelve or fifteen missaid he, among other things, "two words to say. Here is the first: sionarie3 alnong these millions? Praise God, bless Him! You rejoice to see me returned, and you Surely there is need of immediate say, without doubt, that if my voyage has succeeded, thanks are and earnest prayer that the Lord due to the colonel who attended of the harvest thrust forth laborme, and to your aged missionary who prepared my way. That is ers into this open door. true, very true; but, above all, it is God, yea, it is He who has guided The Ethiopian This movement is me, who has guarded me, who has Church in causing trouble in raised me up these friends, and who brings me back into the midst South Africa connection wit h of you I say, then: Bless God! every mission in For the second word, I say: The South Africa. The Ethiopian Gospel, it is all. 'Ve have seen many things, one more marvelous than anot.her; we can not say anything of them here. But one thing
Church is an ecclesiastical move- of the warship treated Mr. Stimson ment, with a strong political ele- very insolently, and charged him ment in it, promoted and fostered with the same fault. This accusa- by the African Methodist Episco- tion we know to be absolutely pal Church of the United States. without foundation. The Board The root idea is that the Church enjoins on all its missionaries the shall be purely native, manned, strictest loyalty to the government managed, and maintained by na- under which they work and the tives without any European inter- inculcation of loyalty on all their ference. The idea is not surpris- pupils. For special reasons these ing, nor wholly to be condemned, instructions have been recently but it has, unfortunately, meant repeated with great explicitness to the interference with other mis- the laborers in Micronesia. The sions, and has received with open Board has never known of any arms many who have been under violation of these instructions, and ecclesiastical discipline, or have fully believes the present charges been discredited for some reason against Mr. Stimson and against by the various missions and de- his pupils to be a mere pretext for nominations, and men whose per- interference with the missionary sonal ambition has not been satis- work. This wanton act is a viola- fied by the position accorded to tion of the pledges which the Ger- them. In the native territories man government gave, to recof"- this Ethiopian Church is at present nize and protect this American adopting the dangerous policy of missionary work in the Caroline approaching the chiefs from the and Marshall Islands, when the side on which they are most sus- German jurisdiction in those islands ceptible-namely, that of their love was recognized by our government. of autocratic power and position, An appeal has been made to the and it sets before them the vision State Department to make inquiry of a state church belonging to the into this matter, and to secure tribe, and in which the chief shall needed correction. be the practical pope. Burning Bibles Much indignation ISLANDS OF THE SEA in Fiji has been felt in Australia because The Germans We have recently and Missions received very start- of the recent burning of Bibles be- in Micronesia ling and seriouR longing to Protestant Christians in Rewa district, Fiji Islands. It was tidings from Micro- instigated by Roman Catholics, nesia, which show that the Ger- and was accompanied by the defecmans, as well as the Spaniards, are tion of a number of Fijians toRohinderers of mISSIOnary work. manism. The New Testaments Rev. M. L. Stimson, writing under were a recent translation, and be· date of February 16th, reports that longed to a tribe who, under the on September 26, 1902, the captain coercion of their chief, Namosi, of a German warship touched at perverted from the Wesleyan Ruk, arrested the entire gradu- Methodist Church to Roman Catholating class in the training-school ICIsm. They were openly burned under his care, and carried them by Sisters of Mercy, under the inaway to Ponape, where, at the time structions of Father Rongier. Carof his writing, they wl're said still dinal Moran first said that the to be in confinement. They are Testaments were burned because charged with preaching against the the natives used them all idols. German government. The captain
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
Later he declared that the re- Methodists in The Methodists of ports of the Bible burning were New Guinea Australasia carry false. on mission work A communication from the Rev. not only in India ane China, but H. H. Nolan, at the head of the also in various islands, like Fiji, Methodist work in Fiji, gives reason New Ireland, New Caledonia, and to believe that the movement to- New Guinea. Of the work in the ward Rome is almost entirely polit- . region last named a recent article ical. The chief was in favor of fed- says: erating with New Zealand; this by Some idea may be formed of the other chiefs was regarded as dis- progress made in this district durloyal. His Methodist native teacher ing the eleven years of its existence reported to the British authorities by a consideration of the fact that some facts concerning the chief's the last returns show that there are family; the chief thereupon con- 525 full members, and 15,502 attendcluded that the Church and the ants on public worship in a mis- British government were persecut- sion which was first established in ing him, and he promptly emigrated to the ChurclLof Rome. the year 1891. This affords abun- dant proof of the devoted service A National A strong move- rendered by our agents there, and Church for ment is taking New Zealand place in far away of the fact that the Gospel of Christ New Zealand, rep- is still" the power of God unto salresenting the majority of the peo- vation to everyone that believeth." ple in the colony, for the union of The circuit reports contain most all religious bodies under the name of the National Church of New interestsng accounts of the desire Zealand. The Presbyterian Church of the people for teachers, causing of New Ze~land has taken definite action by approaching the Congre- them in some instances to allot gational Union. The Congrega- ground, and to erect a house in the tional Union received the proposal hope of so securing an appointwith the utmost favor, and ap- ment; of the work of the mission- ary sisters; the labors of the mis- sionary among the miners and people of 'Voodlark Island (Murua); the disastrous hurricane and droul!ht; t.he deaths of several na- tive teachers, and the l"l"3.nd work for the children of the Dobu Orphanage, and on each station by schools and training homes.
pointed a committee to meet and co- MiSCELLANEOUS operate with the Presbyterian com- "My Cannibal None but a Christ- mittee and with the Methodist com- Friends " like soul and a hero mittee should it be set up. With could use the one or two exceptions the speeches phrase. But it. is found in a letter made were strongly in favor of of Chalmers', the martyr of New union, the motion itself being car- Guinea, just brought to light, in ried unanimously by the mem bel's which he refers to his purpose to of the council standing on their visit those whom he calls "my feet and singing the Doxology with cannibal friends in the Namau dis- great enthusiasm. The next step trict." He says: "The Akerave na- seems likely to be taken by the co- tives of that district killed 11 Mai- operative action of the Methodhit puanB lately, and left nothing but Conference-which at last advices, their bones. We must get among March 7th, was sitting' in Christ- them as soon as possible." There church ready to enter upon discus- are those whose first thought, in sion of the Presbyterian overture, view of the savage nature of these and evidently with a very general cannibals, would have been to get impulse to meet it half way. well away from them. The Chris-
tian zeal of Chalmers led him to He who has not been deceived by exactly the opposite conclusion. women, who may be compared to Men so wicked and cruel must be malignant friends. Who are fetreached as soon as possible. ters to men ?-'Vomen. What is that which can not be trusted ?-A Why Not Endow In America, an woman. What poison is that which Missionary end 0 w men t of appears like nectar ?-A woman." Colleges? $1,000,000 is re- garded as small An Arab proverb says: "The threshold of the door weeps forty for a college or university, and days when a girl is born."-Monthly many institutions with a much Notices (English Wesleyan). larger endowment than that are pleading for more money. In some OBITUARY institutions in this country $100.000 is hardly regarded as sufficient for Dr. Schreiber, Rev. Aug. Schreithe endowment of a single profes- of ber, D.D., the sorship. Among our mission col- widely known and leges there are several in which the Barmen greatly . beloved total expenses, as far as funds from America are concerned, would be director of the Rhenish Missionary met at the present rate of expendi- Society, fell asleep, after a short ture with the annual income to be illness, on March 2~d, at the age of derived from less than $100,000. sixty-three. After completing his $1,600,000 judiciously distributed theological course in Germany, among them would sufficiently endow, for the present, all of our 16 England. and Scotland, he offered collegiate institutions, and provide himself for service in connection for a few essential buildings, and we do not anticipate that this en- with the Rhenish society. He was dowment will ever need to be ordained in 1865, and in the followgreatly increased. ing year proceeded to Sumatra, ac- REV. J. L. BARTON. companied by his wife. Stationed Roman Catholic The Roman Catho- at Prausorat, he was surrounded Missions lic missions of East- by a Mohammedan population, and ern Asia-that is, the work was a difficult one; but Japan, Korea, Manchuria, South his labors were crowned with large China, Tonquin, Annam, India, success. He started a seminary for Malacca-are conducted by 35 bishops, aided by 1,117 foreign mis- catechists, began the translation of sionaries and 2,428 native helpers. the Scriptures for the Battas, and Their converts of all ages number 1,254,066. They have 4,783 churches for years he presided over the work and chapels, 41 theological semina- of the society in Sumatra. ries, with L,133 students, and 2,910 primary schools and orphanages. In 1873 he was obliged to return to the Fatherland, on account of Islllm and Mohammedans the ill-health of his wife. Thence- Woman hardly allow that forth the Mission House at Barmen women have souls. was the scene of his labors; and Here is an extract from one of their his intimate knowledge of Sumatra catechisms: "What is the chief gate of hell ?-A woman. "Vhat and its people proved of special bewitches like wine ?-A woman. service in tke development of work Who is the wisest of the wise?- in connection with that important portion of the society's field.
In the larger councils of the for- eign mission cause Dr. Schreiber was a familiar figure. He was a speaker at the London conferences in 1878 and 1&18, and in the New York Ecumenical Conference in 1900. Dr. Schreiber was an acknowl- edged authority on foreign mission- ary matters-whether principles or polity, fields or metnods. His many gifts and graces were sup- ported by good health and a mar- velous memory, so that he was largely consulted by inquirers re- garding world-wide evangelistic enterprise.-The Christi4n.
The Missionary Review of the World — December 1898
F . Dl< P . CASTELLS AND ms ATTENDANT IN
PHILIPPINES. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOL. XXI. No.12.-0ldSerie8.-DECEMBER-VoL. XI. No.12.-NewSerUs.
THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATIONAL, MISSIONS.
BY REV. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D., LL.D.,t LANDOUR, NORTH INDIA.
In discussing the general question of EDUUATlONAL MISSIONS, two or three points need to be emphasized at the beginning. First, let it be understood, that it is not a question as to whether we may hope that men may sometimes be saved by education instead of by the Gospel. I have never heard of any missionary who held such a view. Nor can we admit that the question is fairly put, as sometimes it is, whether we shall give our strength to education or to preaching the Gospel. As Christians, loyal to the teaching of Jesus Christ, and ill the light of the clear evidence of history, we can not admit that secular education has in it any saving power. For saving men there is no alternative to the Gospel. Education is by no means even a security against immorality.
Again, the question is not whether it is necessary to educate men in order to predispose and enable them to accept the Gospel. The teaching of holy Scripture, and the experience of centuries, alike show plainly that it is never necessary to educate men in order that they may become Christians. Intellectual culture is JlO necessary preliminary to saving faith; it may even prove a hindrance. 'rhere is nothing in secular education, as snch, which tends to make tllen love and trust God, believe in His Son, and break the power of iud welling sin. The uttermost result of mere secular education is culture, and the power * This periodical adopts the Orthography of the following Hule, 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 l:lOUlIU.-PUBLISHERS.
t I first entered India in 1865 with a strong prepossession against educational mission work, such as is very common among those just entering the mission field, as also with many excellent friends of missions at home. It was thus somewhat of a trial, when immediately on arrival at my station I was put in charge of one of our Anglo-vernacular high schools; but I nevertheless felt that my brethren were only reasonable when the"- urged that I should at least try to learn something of this work by personal experience, before making up my mind finally on this subject. For a year or two I remained in this position, after which I was relieved for other work~ and have never since been in such a position. The result, however, of many years of experience in India, has been considerably to modify what I now regard as the rather extreme position which I was at first inclined to take. I propose in the present article to set forth the view which I take at present.-S. H. K.
THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATIONAL MISSIONS
which culture often giv3S; but culture is quite another thing from holiness, and has no necess::ry connection with it. There may be much of either where there is none of the other.
Furthermore, the answer to the question as to the duty of educa- tional mission work does not, as some seem to think, logically depend upon the view one may take of the purpose of this dispensation, one way or the other.* Surely that question does not affect the duty of carrying the Gospel as speedily as possible to all nations. Missionaries engaged in educational work, who hold that the purpose of missions is elective, are as earnestly desirous, as any who differ with them, that as soon as possible Christ shall be preacht to all peoples. All heartily agree that this is the will of God, and that, however the kingdom of God is to come on earth, it will in no case come until this is accom- plisht.
But it must be admitted that in every land we are to bring the Gospel, not merely to some classes, but to all classes; and that it shall be presented to men of every class so as hest to gain access to their hearts and understandings. If, then, there be in any land individuals or classes who utterly refuse to listen to the Gospel as preacht in. the street or market, or to allow the missionary to enter their houses, but who will send their children to mission schools to be taught secular learning, while not forbidding us to give therewith also the Gospel, is it not dear that if we are to become" all things to all men, that we may by all means save some," we are bound to use such means as shall give ns access to them: In the nse of the phrase" preaching the Gospel for a witness" no little loose thinking is often concealed. A witness is only a witness when understood by the hearer. I believe that in the majority of cases in nOll-Christian lands, such" witness" as is required of us, is not borne in any true sellse by simply passing through a village of ignorant heathen and reciting John iii: 16, or some similar declaratioll of the Gospel. The words have in(leed struck the outward ear; but in India, as in many other nOll-Christian lands, the minds of the masses are so completely prepossest by erroneous ideas, that the very words we use in announcing the Gospel have to the people a meaning * Many believe that it is the plan of God to fulfil to the uttermost all the predictions con- cerning the kingdom of God on earth, simply and only by the means amI instrumentalities, evangelistic and providential, which are now in operation: and regard this so-called -, conversion of the world" as the object of this dispensation. There are others, a smaller. tho of late years rapidly increasing number, who believe that the earthly triumph of God's kingdom, which all ngree in expecting, is not to be attained, according to God's plan, in this present dispensation: but will be ushered in. by the return and glorious personal appearing of the Lord J eRUS Christ. Such believe that the purpose of this present dispensation is strictly elective: and that God is at present visiting the Gentiles only that He may" take out of them a people for His name," Acts xv : 14: and that when throughout the world such a testimony shall be given to the Gospel as shall accomplish this, then" the end" of this present age shall come, Matt. xxiv: 14. Now, very strangely, it seems to be imagined by many, who, like the writer, take this latter view of th" divine plan, that if all this be granted, then the case is at once settled against educational missions.-S. H. K. so totally different from the one we attach to them, that no little patient explanation of the Gospel day after day is needed, to enable a man to grasp the real meaning of the words he has heard.
N ow if, through the influence of a false philos(i)phy, or of books mistakenly regarded as of Divine authority, the very words we use in preaching have'come to a sense utterly foreign to the Gospel, and errors regarded as axiomatic truth debar access to the mind; and if, as is eminently the case in India, such erroneous ideas may be corrected, through secnlar teaching received iu onr schools and colleges, who shall say that it is inconsistent with the mission of the evangelist to give such teaching? How can it be rightly maintained that the educational mission which seeks by secular education to accomplish this, is at variance with the Biblical conception of" preaching the Gospel for a witness to all nations?" Such missions in many instances may rather be essential to any true" witness."
ACCE::3S TO CULTURED CLASSES.
We are now prepared to ask whether educational missions are justifiable, in fact as well as in theory. We llIay distinguish between such mission work as merely aims at giving an elementary education, sufficient to enable one to read God's IVord, and such other educational work as aims at giving a high-class general education. As regards the former, there can hardly be allY serious difference of opUllon. Whenever adequate provision is 1l0t otherwise made for teaching a people to read, it is evidently the duty of the missionary to provide so far as possible means whereby men shall be taught to read the Word of God.
As to the duty of a missiou to undertake higher education, the case seems to lie thus: If ill any laud through existing social and political conditions, it is found impracticable to reach men with the Gospel by public preaching or by honse to house visitation, while by means of such Anglo-vernacular schools and colleges as most lIIissions maintain in India, Syria, and elsewhere, the missionary can without hindrance bring the Gospel to bear daily on multitudes of the people, especially the young, who otherwise would not hear it, then it seems clear that he ought to do it. Even if, as in India, the masses can be reacht by street and bazaar preaching there yet remain important classes who can uot be so reacht, but who can be reacht through high-class schools and collegcs, then common sellse would seem to teach that such institutions we onght to have. It was this consideration that led Dr. Duff and other fathers of our India missions to establish the schools and colleges which are to-day such a prominent featnre of mission work in India. During the past half cenLury the Gospel has by this means been expounded to hundreds of thousands who, but for these institutions, would never have had any intelligent notion of the Gospel. This fact clearly justifies the establishment and maintenance of this department of missionary labor.
It is true that the higher classes of India, who will not listen to the street preacher, have latterly become accessible in other ways, as by public lectures and by house to house visitation. The good work of this kind done hen' by President Seeley, Dr. Pentecost, and Dr. Barrows, is familiar to all who are interested in India missions. It is possible that, in view of this, it might now be expedient to devote a smaller proportion of labor and money to higher education in India, but it must· not be forgotten that this present accessibility is due largely to the influence of the educational work of this generation. In Lahore, for instance, where I have repeatedly been delighted by the close and intelligent attention of so many edncated native gentlemen, I should certainly never have had such large or such intelligent audiences, except for the forty years which the late Rev. Chas. W. Forman, D.D., gave to the Anglo-vernacular educational work in that city. Rev. Dr. McKichan of the Scotch Establisht Church Mission, Principal of Wilson College, Bombay, has recently written in a letter much to the same effect: So great do I feel the opportunity of proclaiming the Gospel of Christ to these students, that I long for the multiplication of such institutions throughout India, and mourn the want of them in important centers, such as Poona, where missionaries find extreme difficulty in getting into touch with the real centers of Hindu life and influence, just for want of a missionary institution as a basis from which to operate. In Bombay, Wilson College forms a center for evangelistic work amongst the educated classes, and anyone who desires to reach these classes is more likely to draw an audience in the Wilson College than in any other place in Bombay.
Our mission is to bring the Gospel not only to the millions of the rude and ignorant, but to the much smaller number of the educated classes.* I am therefore convinced that ill most of our missions there is clearly a place of the highest order for educational mission work. as essential to the thorough evangelization of the people.
ANTI-CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.
In the India of to-day, the need for such institutions as a necessary part of the missionary propaganda, is the more emphasized by the fact that in a high and incrt3asing degree, the influential classes are coming more and more under the illfluence of the English language and literature, and in particular with all that is most Antichristian in our modern scientific and philosophical literature. Such names as Huxley, Spencer, and others are as familiar to the educated * But this number in India is rapidly increasing. In colleges giving the B. A. degree there are now about 30,000 students; and in the two highest classes of the high schools, about 70,000 more. The number taking the B. A. degree in the decade ending 1891, was more than three times the number of these in the previous decade. See India Evangelical Review, Jan. 1897, p. 304. classes in India, as in America; and probably the greater number of those who have become more or less acquainted with English, have come to believe that these men have finally settled the question against Christianity and the supernatural, and they share the opinion of too many superficial skeptics at home that modern science is essentially and inevitably Antichristian. Confronting such a state of mind in a large section of society in this or any other non-Christian land, can we say that we ought to ignore it, and content ourselves with a work purely and exclusively "evangelistic" in the narrow sense of that often grievous~y misused word? Shall we pursue our work in precisely the same way as if no such state of things existed?
Moreover, the Antichristian spirit of modern India is using high Anglo-vernacular education for its own ends, and is establishing large high-class schools and colleges on an avowedly Antichristian Lasis.
COLLEGE OF THE ARYA SOMAJ, LAHORE, INDIA.
An illustration is the Mohammedan College ill Aligarh, N. W. Provinces, founded by that eminent Mohammedan gentleman, lately deceast, Sir Syad Ahmad. Anothcr example is the large college of the Arya Somaj, in Lahore. This has 410 students, the largest number of any college in Lahore, and prepares men to pass B. A. and other examinations of the Punjab University. The avowed aim of the institution is to promote the philosophical and religious principles inculcated by the late Pundit Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Somaj. 'ro this end, in addition to the stndies required to pass the various examinations of the university, all students must devote three, and Sanskrit students four, periods a week to the study of the Arya doctrines. Than the Arya Somaj, Christianity has no more deadly enemy in India. In its active and unceasing hostility to all missionary effort, it can only be compared with Islam. The question then returns to us-should we allow men who graduate from such colleges to remain under the impression that to the Antichristian argument drawn from modern science and philosophy, evangelical Christians have no answer to give, and that science has vanquisht Christianity? Ought we not ilL the persons of living teachers and preachers of the IVord rather to show that, so far from being destructive of faith in the Gospel, it is qnite possible for an edncated man to accept honestly all that is accepted by the concensus of scholars as settled fact in science, and yet believe none the less firmly that J esns Christ rose from the dead the third day, according to onr Gospel, and therewith all the other great truths as to man's ruin, and redemption, which Christ and His apostles so indubitably taught?
Finally, as to India and other mission-fields, where, as the fruit of missionary work, there are millions of Christian converts, it should be rememberetl that, inasmuch as the Christian community is as yet comparatively poor and weak, we are bound to see to it that Christin.n young men from our native churches have the opportunity of getting a high education of a distinctively Christian type; and that they be not driven to attend either the government institutions, where all religious inflnence is excluded, 91' such avowedly Antichristian institutions as those above mentioned. If such young men are rapidly becoming an important factor in our Christian communities, mission high schools and colleges become an imperative necessity. And if maintained for them, surely we should be only too glad to welcome to them young men who may not be Christians.
THE AUI OF EDt:CATlONAI, MISSWlS.
It may remain an open question as to what proportion of the missionary effort the Church should spend in this kind of work in allY particular country; but it seems perfectly clear that there is a place for such work in India, China, and the Turkish Empire, not in place of evangelistic labor, but to make possible such labor among the educated classes. 'This being granted, the question arises as to the princi pIes on which mission schools and colleges should be conducted. The answer is simple. All such institutions should be conducted with the conversion of the students as the ultimate aim. No doubt such institutions may and do serve an important pnrpose apart from actual conversions in preparing the way for and making possible direct efforts to bring Illen to Christ. The missionary may well comfort himself with this thought, if direct fruit in conversions be few; but he will not do well to rest satisfied with this prpparatory work. IVe should let it be known that while we labor for the intellectual and moral advancement of the fltudents and for their temporal success, yet that is not the chief end for which we are working; but that, above all else, we desire to lead them to a true faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ as the only Savior of lost men. Some will reproach ns with aiming at "proselytising," but in that reproach we may well glory, if only it be understood that we seek to bring men not merely to an intellectual and nominal acceptance of Christ, exprest, perhaps, in baptism, but to a living and transforming faith in Christ.
From this it follows that in every mission-school or college the Bible will be taught, as in point of fact it is. To this will be added, as the attainments of the students may warrant, the study of evidences of Christianity. Furthermore, the missionary teacher will bring before his students those arguments for the truth of Christian theism, and of the Christian revelation in particular, which may be suggested in any course of scientific and hi~torical and philosophical stndies.
KIPLOY::'IEXT OF XOX-CHIUSTLX TEACHERS.
Here emerges the often-discust qnestion of the propriety of employ- ing non-Christian t'eachers in mission schools. It goes witholl t saying that if it be possiblc to man a school or college throughout with Christian teachers, this is by all means the most desirable. But even ill India, where more aJ vance has probably been made than in any otber mission-field, this is qnite impossible. ,Vhat, then, is uur duty? I should answer, first, that, in any case, the Bible or any work in exposition of the Christian religion, should be taught by Christians only. It Joes not, however, seem lIecessary that where Christians can not be obtained, non-Christians shoulJ be excluJeJ from teaching purely secular branches. It is true that such teaehers will not be able to make use of any of these secular studies for an apologetic purpose, but this lack can well be snpplemented by the lllissionary principal and his associated Christian teachers. Tho we may regret the necessit.y which compels us to employ a l3rahmin 01' a :Iohammedall to teach language or science, yet it seems that this is a less edl than would be the alternative-necessary in India at least-of closing nearly all our mission-schools and colleges.
Again, granting that it is right for missionaries to give more or less of their time to secular education, the question arises as to what branches of secular knowledge should ,,0 selected as most likely to prove helpful to their aim and hopc. Certai II branches of study will at once occur to everyone as of especial valne in this connection. Such, for instance, is history, which presents snch overwhelruing and incontrovertible evidence of the power of Christianity, even whell very imperfectly and partially received, to elevate the moral standard and to purify the family, social, and political life of a nation. For those sufficiently advanced one may also emphasize, in this connection, the value of philosophy and of mental and moral science. In many mission-fields, behind the false thinking and consequent wrong acting in matters of religion, lies a false philosophy-in India, usually palltheistic-on which is based a no less false psychology and a pernicious system of ethics. To the false we must oppose the true.
In these days it seems also especially desirable that science should he taught in mission-schools and colleges to all sufficientlyadyanced. So confidently is it asserted by a certain class of educated men, that a sincere acceptance of the discoveries of modern science is wholly in·· compatible with faith in Christianity, and so widely is this view ac- cepted by the educated in a land like India, that it becomes of great importance that the young· men should be made to understand how utterly mistaken is this common notion. They need to know that, as the late George Romanes has said, the great advance of scientific knowledge in our day has done far more for Christianity than against it. III his" Thoughts on Religion," edited by Canon Forge, astron- omy, chemistry, electrical science, geology, biology, and even mathe- matics, when studied with the eye on the mathematics of nature, all bear consentient testimony to the falsehood alike of pantheism and materialism, and point unmistakably to the existence of a Supreme Being, who is not merely the material ground of being, not merely a vague impersonal" Power that makes for righteousness," but a God who is living and personal, the Creator and Lord of all. Christian teachers need to press these things on the educated men of non- Christian lands, and to let them clearly understand that these and other sublime and momentous inferences from the phenomena of the universe, have been regarded as inevitable by a large number of the greatest scientific men of our day. They ought to know that such men as Clerk l1axwoll, Lord Kelvin, Balfour Stewart, Young, Seochi, MiYart, and many of their peers have not been ashamed to express this conviction. Too many seem to think that Professor Huxley and Herbert Spencer have finally closed the question as against Christianity. They ought to know that these men hold no brief to speak for the great body of scientists as to the relation of scientific discovory to Christian faith. In the hand of an earnest missionary there is no department of knowledge from which more or less rich tribute may not be brought to Christ.
It is unfortunate, however, that in India the educational missionary does not find himself at liberty to exercise an unrestricted _choice as to the subjects he will teach, or the text· books he will nse. The curriculum is necessarily fixt by the requirements of the great universities. The chief aim of the young Hindu or Mohammedan in entering an Anglo-yernacular high-school or college is to gain a certificate or diploma as having past such and such a university examination. He knows that if he apply for a situation, this is the first thing that will be askt of him; and that if he were to attend any institution which ignored in its schedule, t~le conrses of study prescribed by the universities, then, however proficient he might be in many things, he would have very little chance of obtaining any lucrative position. Still this, perhaps, does not matter so much as might appear at first sight; for the missionary who is in earnest can make all things more or less perfectly serve his purpose. It is indeed possibl,e that the university authorities may prescribe as subjects for examination, text-books which are directly hostile to Christianity. An illustration of this occurred only within the past two or three years, when Huxley's" Lay Sermons" was assigned as one of the books to be studied by candidates for university degrees in the Northwest Provinces. The matter was, however, soon brought to the notice of the propel' authorities by the missionary body, andche textbook was changed. I believe that, in like circumstances, this would generally be done. In North India, we have an association of missionaries of all denominations for the very purpose of guarding missionary work in its relation to government and university authority.
RELATION TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS AND AUTHORITIES.
It must be admitted that, in India, in the relation of our schools and colleges to govel'llment and university authorities, there is some danger that the missionary character of the school or college shall fall into the background. The danger arises largely from the fact that the requirements for the various university degrees demand the hardest work from the student. In the government schools and colleges, the whole time is given to the subjects prescribed by authority, while this can not be done in mission-schools if they are to maintain their missionary character. A certain proportion of time and labor must be given to the Bible, and perhaps other subjects, in addition to the regular curriculum. Naturally, most students are more or less jealous of time so taken from that which might be given to the studies prescribed for degrees.
Besides this, most missionary schools and colleges in India receive pecuniary grants-in-aid from the government. The continuance and amount of such a grant, depends on the success of its students in passing the prescribed university examinations. The missionary is therefore under strong pressure on all sides, to make the utmost of the secular-as contrasted with the religious-side of his teaching. He may not yield to this pressure, but I think no one could wholly escape it. It will doubtless be suggested that, in that case, it were best to give up the government grants. But judging from past experience and the present outlook, the means furnisht from home for foreign missionary work, would never allow this, as the declinature of the government grant would involve the closing of most mission-schools and colleges in Iudia. There is no reason to believe that the boards at home could possibly make good the amount of these pecuniary grants, in case they were given up. But even tho by not drawing Dl.lFF MISSION COLLEGE , CALCUTTA, IJUU..
pecuniary aid from govern men t, we should escape the !H'cs8ure from t he governm ent inspector, we should still be nuder pressnre from the young men whom we wish to draw as students. Other things being equal, these will go where there seems to be the best chance of obtaining the coveted nni-ersity degree. j nd if we increase the proportion of time given to distinctly religions teach in g, presnmably we shall not be able to pass so many studen ts in the annualnniversity examinations, and young men will conclu de that they would better go elsewhere.
THE BIBLE ANl> CHRISTIAN TEACHINC.
The difficulty, in fact, seems to Le one from which we can not escape in the present condit.ion of things in Indi a. 'fhat it is not insuperable is plain from the general experience of ~lallY mission high schools and colleges in India. Thus we read in the last r&port of the Bengal Mission of th e Free Ch urch of Scotland: The foundation of the religious and moral training given to their students in the Duff College and High School, is the r egular Bible lesson. This is g iven by the B engali Christian t eachers in the school classes a nd by the missionaries in the college classes and the two highest school classes. A ttention is m a inly given to the life and work of Christ as presented in the four Gospels, and to the effects of that life and work as presen ted in the Acts of the Apostles a nd in the writings of the Apostle to the Gentiles. The best papers written in competition for the Miller Scripture prize, showed very careful and thoughful study of the Bible. At the same time we strive to have all our teaching pervaded by the spirit of Christ, and much is done to keep the claims of Christia nity to the front; as by putting Ohristian litel'ature in the h a nds of our students, byencouraging their attenda nce a t the Beadon Square open-air services, a nd the services at the Y. M. C. A., and above all by private personal intercourse with individual inquirers.
The latest report (to the government as granting aid) of the Madras Christian College, of which the Rev. Wm. Miller, D. D., LL.D., for many years has been the honored principal, contains an address deliv- ered at the prize distribution in March, 1897, by His Excellency the Governor of .Madras, in which he refers in terms of commendation to the fact that for the sixty-one years of its existence this college has been faithful to the Christian principles on which it was founded. The nobility of the aims of the founders of the college is d~scribed in the language of their recently publisht historical sketch: In all its changes and in all its growth it has been faithful to the principles on which it was founded, in 1837. Now, as then, it aims at preparing for the glad recognition by India, of the way in which the God of all the earth is leading mankind to Him. Now, as then, it gives the foremost place to the study of the facts, and the inculcation of the principles in which Divine love toward man is shown. Now, as then, what it most desires is to make education an instrument for opening men's minds to moral and spiritual and Christian truths, and thereby to take a IlUmble but useful part in the mighty work which Christ began and which His body, the Universal Church, is bound by every means within her power to further.
After reading the above, the government addeu with manifest approbation: These aims are reiterated by the present council in the closing words of last year's report. The influence which the Christian College has exercised and exercises over the life and conduct of the people of Madras is strong and wide-spreading.
In Wilson College (Bombay), of the Establisht Church of Scotland, we find the same policy steadily pursued. Principal McKichan says, in reply to a letter from me asking for precise facts: The Christian public needs to have the fad continually presented that the teaching of the Bible forms a prominent part of each day's work, in every class. The first college hour is devoted to religious instruction, the Bible being the text-book. On Sunday evenings in the college hall we have a religious service with a lecture or address to the students. This meeting is well attended, and the attendance MADRAS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. was never steadier or more encouraging than during these seasons of plague visitation.
I can also testify from personal knowledge to the place which the Bible and Christian teaching occupies in the Forman Christian College ill Lahore. In the prospectus for this year, we fIud such a full course of Biblical and religious instruction covering the whole four years'
course, as I am sure is not approacht in any college in the United States.
THE COST OF EDUCATIONAL MISSIONS.
Much has been made of the costliness of educational missions, as contrasted with itinerant and evangelistic work. That these institu- tions cost very considerable sums, no one will deny. But they are not nearly as expensive as those of the same grade at home. More- over, it must not be forgotten that, ill lndia at least, a large part of the expense is met by income, not from the home church, but from government grants, the fees of students, and the contributions of Christian friends in India. Here are the figures drawn from the reports for 1887, of three of the leading mission colleges in India: In Duff Mission College and the attacht high ~chool of Calcutta, which together have 919 students, of the total expenditure, the students contributed in fees in 1897, Rs. 22, 7fY7. * Rs. 6,000 more were given as a grantin-aid from the government, making in all Rs. 28,707 derived from India. With this ~um were met all the expenses of t.he school for teachers drawn from India, and all other local expenditures, as well as the salary of one of the six missionary teachers from Scotland. The total expense, therefore, to the Free Church of Scotland, was represented by the salaries of five professors.
The Christian Mission College and attacht High School of the same church, in Madras, is a much larger institution, having at present 1,589 students, of whom 141 are Christians. The Annual Report of the College gives the total expense for the preceding year, as Rs. 133,403. Of this total amount however, only Rs. 25,525 (about $9,(00) came out of the treasury of the church at home. The remainder, Rs. 105,778, was met by the fees of the students, amounting to Rs. 69,195, by a grant-in-aid from government of Rs. 28,185, and other miscellaneous local sources. t In the Punjab, the chief mission colleges are St. Stephen's College (Anglican) at Delhi, and the Forman College of the Presbyterian Mission in Lahore. In the latter, according to the last Report to the General Assembly (1897) the number of students was 299, of whom 37 were Christians. The tuition fees received amounted to Rs. 15,275. These, together with the government grant and other local sources of income, sufficed to meet all the expenses of the college for Indian teachers, taxes, etc., and in addition, Rs. 7000 of the Rs. 17,000 paid by the Board at home to the missionaries engaged in the college; leaving only Rs. 10,000 (about $3,330) of the total expense to be met by funds drawn from the home church.
It may. be added that in the various Anglo-vernacular high schools of this same" Lodhiana Mission," between 3000 and 4000 boys and young men were receiving a Christian education, and the treasurer of the mission informs me that the education of these costs the board at home only about Rs. 4,200 per annum, i. e., less than forty-four cents a year per * There are about 3 rupees in $1.00.
t It will be of interest to add, that the very extensive b·.lildings of this mission college as shown in the accompanying photograph, which cost, I was told in Madras, several hundred thousand rupees, were erected wholly at the personal expense of the missionary principal, the Rev. Dr.lIfiller, who has thus given not only his personal service, but his fortune to the missionary work. scholar. But at least a haJf of this, taking into account the amount of time spent by the missionaries and Christian teachers in instructing the students in Christian truth, was expended, not in secular teaching but in the direct teaching of the Gospel; so that the total expense to the American Presbyterian Church of the secular teaching given, is less than two cents a month per scholar!
In estimating the significance of these figures, it ought to be noted that although in each of the instances given, the whole salary of the foreign missionaries engaged in this work has been charged against the schools or colleges, there is probably not one of these educational missionaries who is not doing other missionary work- evangclistic or literary-quite distinct from his educational work.
The late Rev. Dr. Chas. W. Forman, to whose life;long devotion the Forman Christian College owes so much, was accustomed after the FORMAN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, LAHORE, INOlA.
day's teaching was done, to go out almost daily into the bazaar to preach to the motley crowds that he would meet there. Rev. Dr. Mc- Kichan, principal of Wilson College, Bombay, in addition to his onerous duties in the college, is engaged in the retranslation of the Bible into Mll.ruthi. Such illustrations might ·oe multiplied indefinitely. Hence in fairness one should not charge all the salaries of theRe missionaries as a part of the expense of educational work.
In a word, then, I believe that the common argument against the maintenance of such institutions, on the ground of their great relative expensiveness to the mission treasuries, has been prest by many much more than the facts will warrant. From the considerations and various facts presented, I therefore conclude, quite contrary to my own early impressions, that there is a distinct place for high-class schools and colleges in India, and I doubt not in many other mission fields. RELATIVE IMPOHTANCE OF EDUCATIONAL WOHK.
The question still remains, however, as to the proportion of her strength in men and means, which the Church should devote to this as compared with other forms of work. I readily place in the foreground as regards importance, the general preaching of the Gospel, whether in the bazaar or by house to house visitation, to the great mass of the population who, through poverty or indifference, remain outside our schools. The relative importance of evangelistic work in the villages has become much greater in late years than it was thirty years ago, when I first entered the mission neld, because of the extem,ive movement toward Christianity among certam low caste village populations of a large part of North India. When God sets before us an open door, we are bound to enter, and in the light of this new providence, we must shape our policy. If it has really come to this, the decreast contributions at home, therefore, and the consequent severe" cuts" on our mission expenditures almost seem to show, that the Church, alas! is not willing to give as formerly to foreign missions, so that we must cut off some part of our work; then, much as I should regret the necessity, I think that retrenchment should sooner fall on our high schools and colleges than on the extension of the village work. But ought the Church to force us to consider such au alternative?
But whether or not any limitation of our educational work be necessary or expedient,* it would be nothing less than suicidal for any missiou in India to make any such sweeping reduction in the matter of the higher education, as should in effect debar a large part of our Christian young men from obtaining a high education conducted upon distinctively Christian lines. It would be 'a grievous wrong, and disastrous to the young Church of India if, by a general abolition of our Anglo-vernacular educational institutions, we should drive such Christian young men as desire a high education into institutions in which there is no religious element, or where the whole atmosphere is necessarily Antichristian.
RESUI.TS IN CONVERSIONS.
As to the immediate results in conversions by means of educational • Formerly the government of India, needing to raise up a large army of competent employ"es, greatly favored and fostered Anglo-vernacular education. But of late years the supply has so outrun demand that no small part of those otherwise qualified fail to obtain the coveted positions, and doubtless feel themselves grievously wronged. These young men do not realize that, as a rule, the native of India has not yet shown that he can be trusted in places of high responsibility, as can the average Englishman. The natural result is that a large and, I fear increasing, number of the educated young men of India are not in heart very loyal to the government. In consequence the government seems inclined, by severer educational tests and stricter conditions of grants-in-aid, to put some check on this over·supply. It seems to me an open question, whether the political situation does not call on missionaries also to put some limitation on our own work in English education, either by increasing the fees required or by decreasing the number of higher institutions. The only answer of any weight which I have heard to this suggestion is that those who come out of our missionschools and colleges are at least likely to be more loyal to government than those who come out of native or government institutions.-S. H. K. mISSIOns, as compared with other forms of mission work, it must be admitted that if this be the only question to be considered in judging the cxpediellcy of any typc of mission work, then educational work must go. There is no doubt that of the million or so of Protestant Christian converts ill India, the great majority have Ilot been the . immediate product of our high-class educational work. But I, for one, utterly delly the justice of the test. Very sad and mischievous is this craze of our day for statistics, which shall tabulate" tangible results," and which leads those who are affected by it to disparage both men and metllO(ls if they can not exhibit a large roll of converts. But this argument from the fewness of baptisms proves too much. Thus judged, other work, too, will have to go. Bible translation, such as that in which I have been engaged for the past five years; explora- tion, like that of Livingstone; alld zenana work, can not usually show immediate and large results ill the conversion of men and women. Must they, therefore, be abandoned? '1'0 such a question only one answer will be given. Why thcu should any insist upon judging the value of educational missions solely by a test which will not be allowed against other forms of mission labor?
The truth is, that llot it word in the New Testament warrants llS in judging any Christian's work, or any type of work, by this sole test of visible, immediate rcsult in the conversion of men. Not this, but faithfulness to the "Master ill making known His Gospel in any of such various ways as His provi<1cllce may illdicate–this is the test by which men and methods will be judged at the last day. We shall, therefore, <10 wisely to judge these in this way now. 'l'his generation needs much to be reminded that" one soweth, another rcapeth," as our Lord reminded His disciples. The history of the Church is one eloquent and instructive exposition of that text. Liyingstone had no long roll of converts before he died; yet what life in modern times has been more fruitful in bringing about the turning of 11l1l1dredR of thousands to the LoI'll? So the faithful translator spending days and years over grammars awl (lictionaries and in <1iscussions of words and idioms, doubtless has not often seen in his lifetime llluch fruit of his labor in conversion of men. Yet, where had been onr millions of converts in all non-Christian lands but for the work of such? Is it not just and right that educational work should be judged in the same way? And may wenot, according to God's Woru, confidently anticipate that the missionary traveler, translator, grammarian, and others, to whom is not gi ven the joy and cncouragemcnt of seeing many actually saved by their own immediate labors, may yet in the last day apply to themselves the promise to restore Israel: " Then shalt thou say in thy heart, Who hath begotten these, seeing that I have been solitary and wandering to and fro-and who hath brought up these? .Behold, I was left alone; these where were they?" (Is. xlix: 21.) BENEFITS OF :EDUCATIONAL WORK.
In a word then, we decline the proposed test as settling anything.
Judging by all history, missionary educational work, through its steady presentation of the Gospel and the illumination of all secular wisdom with the light of God's lo,e in Ohrist Jesus, is sure to be the ultimate occasion of the ingathering of multitudes into the Ohurch of Ohrist.
Nor must it be forgotten that, other things being equal, the converts we are granted as the immediate result of our missionary educational work, as educated men, are likely in the end to signify far more for the building up of the Ohurch of Ohrist in power, than the conversion of a far larger number of the illiterate. God forbid that we should lightly reckon the salvation of even the most ignorant, or that wc should seem to disparage the power of the Holy Spirit to use, as instru- ments, the most unfit and unlikely to promote the growth of the Ohurch. It is never to be forgotten that the apostles themselves seem mostly to have been men of presumably a very moderate education; and the Lord used publicans and fishermen wonderfully in establish- ing His Ohurch. But let us not, on the other hand, forget for a mo- ment that for the widest, grandest work of all, and to reach the largest number in all ages, the I~ord called out an educated man from the.
school of Gamaliel, and made him the Apostle of the Gentiles, and through his epistles, the chief instructor of the Ohurch ill the mystery of Christ for all the Ohristian age.
Mr. John R. Mott, after his recent visit to India, gave his impres- sions in the following weighty words: We confess that we started on this tour somewhat disposed to look upon educational mission work as less important than directly evangelistic work. A careful study of the subject in four or five mission countries has led us to attach the greatest possible importance to educational missions. No country has done more to deepen this conviction than India. Without doubt, educational missions have opened a larger number of doors for the preaching of the Gospel than any otheragency. They have furnisht the most distinguisht and able converts. They have done more than all else combined to undermine heathen superstitions and false systems of belief. They are to-day the chief, if not the only, force to counteract the influence of the secular character and tendency of the government institutions of learning. In the interest of the ultimate success of the missionary enterprise we believe that educational missions would be abundantly justified, if they were doing nothing but teach science, history, philosophy, ethics, and political economy in their right relation to Christ. Sir Charles Aitchison,* in urging the Church to promote educational missions, reveals the real significance of the whole subject: "Now if ever is the Church's opportunity. If the breach that has been made is filled up-if, in place of Hinduism, we have Agnosticism, or even a positive but unchristian theistic belief, with which physical science is not necessarily in antagonism-the Christian Church will have to do all the sapping and mining over again; while instead of the crumbling old fortresses of heathenism, we shall have in front of us strong fortifications, held and defended with weapons of precision forged in our own arsenals…. Nothing imprest us more than the mighty influence of such institutions as the Duff College, the Forman Christian College, the Lucknow Christian College for Women, and the MaCras Christian Col- .. ;Ll}te lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, now retired.
THE EDUCATED CLASSES OF INDIA
lege." Institutions like these should be multiplied, and the amount of money expended upon them greatly increast. Occasionally we still hear persons interested primarily in direct evangelistic work speak disparagingly of educational missions. As well might the life-saving service disparage the lighthouses. * CQ)UTY IN EDUCATIONAL WORK.
In closing, a word may bfl in place on the question of inter-denominational comity in educational work. It is matter for regret that there has not been of late year~ that jealous regard to this principle in India, as respects other classes of mission work, that was happily the custom in my early years in India. I am glad to say, however, that in educational missions, the principle has thus far been regarded in a most gratifying degree. Common sense should suggest that where any Christian denomination is sustaining a high-class school or college in any city or large town, for another denomination to erect another similar institution beside it, would be an inexcusable waste, both of men and of money. Not only so, but it seems to me that in view of the claims of other forms of work, it is not wise to start such higher educational institutions in too close proximity to one another even in the same province. It is to be hoped that the wise policy which has thus far generally prevailed among the various missions in India, engaged in educational work, may on lIO account be abandoned. Surely, there is no sufficient reason why various bodies of essentially identical articles of faith and practise. should each maintain a staff of missionaries to train men for evangelists. So more and more it is coming to pass that the different Presbyterian bodies in North India, especially missionaries of the Canadian Presbyterians, and the U. P. Church of Scotland, Rajputana, are sending their young men to the American Presbyterian mission in Saharanpnr for theological training. Despite any .difficulties of detail, the present writer strongly believes that snch union should in this case, and others, take a more formal shape than hitherto, in contribution of teachers and of money from the different bodies interested) as also in the representation of each or the board of directors.
THE EDUCATED CLASSES OF INDIA.
BY ROBERT P. WILDER, M.A., KOLHAPUR, INDIA.
1. THEIR NmIBER.-There are in India 30,000 students in colleges which grant the B.A. or some professional degree, and 70,000 more in the two upper classes in the high schools. The number is steadily and rapidly increasing, as is seen from the following figures: 1873-1883 1881-1891 Passed the Entrancl1 Examinations.. .. … 23,472 41,467 Graduated as Bachelors of Arts………. 2,391 7,159 *Indian Evangelical Review, Jan. 1897, article'" Dominant Impressions of India." It is estimated that there are at least 3,000,000 of English speaking natives in India.
II. 'rHEIR LocATIoN.-India has five universities. The largest is in the capital of the empire. There are 24 colleges and 74 high schools in the city of Calcutta. Madras comes next, then Bombay, Lahore, and Allahabad. In addition to these university centers there are many cities containing educational institutions, such as Delhi, Agra, Lucknow, Poona, Nagpur, Bangalore, etc III. THEIR INFLUENCE UPON THE NATIONAL LIFE.-We doubt if in any other country in the world the educated classes wield a mightier influence over the masses than in India.
(1) The majority belong to the higher castes, and these would be influential even if illiterate.
In South India out of a total of 3,366 in arts colleges, 2,325 are Brahmins. Out of 667 graduates in law, 495 are Brahmins. In professional colleges out of 98i students, 680 are Brahmins. There are four times as many Brahmins as non-Brahmin graduates from the Madras Univerity, tho the Brahmin population is not one-fifth of the non-Brahmin population.
(2) These Brahmin students are taught western science and philosophy. lIence they exert a powerflll influence upon the masses, of whom only one in nineteen can read or write. Thus these men possess the aristocracy of birth and the aristocracy of learning. 'I'hey occupy government positions. They know the language and literature of England's rulcrs. They are the recognized leaders. If these men are '['heists, Illtuitionists, Transcendentalists, Agnostics, and Theosophists, what can we expect of their followers?
MORAL AND ltELIGIOUS CONDITION.
IV. In considering the subject of the moral and religious condition of educated men in India our thoughts shall center upon the II;ndus, since only seven per cent. of the students in colleges are Mohammedanso In the Punjab, however, Mohammedans have advanced in education more rapidly than IIindus. A Brahmin educator dwelt in glowing terms upon the rapid progress of education. In 1852 there was but one school in his city of 44,000 in11alJitants. There are now several high-schools and a college in the city, also hundreds of schools in that district. After congratulating him upon the intellectual progress of his people, I askt about the moral condition of the educated youth. With downcast face he replied: "Sad, very sad. '['hey have lost faith ill Hinduism, and they have lost respect for their parents and teachers." Last year there appeared in the Indian jJ1irror a series of articles in which the students of India were eompared with those of Great Britain. The following passage- will show what a Hindu thinks npon this subject: Undisciplined, pert, given to levity and ribald conversation, irreverent, irrepressible, self-assertive, our present-day students are certainly not what they should be, nor are they the future hopes of our country. Honest folks positively dread to send their boys to public schools for fear of the contamination, physical and moral, to which the lads will be exposed. . .• The blame for what we see should be laid to the account less of the students than of their parents or preceptors. . .. Passing an university examination seems to be the aim and end of all our regard for our boys. . .. It is the" healthy home influences, and the education he has received in the public schools and colleges, that has built up the Englishman's proud and uncompromising character. From early youth he has been taught to believe in the national religion, in the greatness of his country, in its laws and institutions, but, above all, he has been taught to believe in his own capacity for infinite development~ Dr. Martin, officiating director of public instruction, speaks of the lack of discipline among the pupils in some schools and colleges, and adds that "The real remedy is to be sought for in some kind of moral or religious instruction." The lieutenant governor is" inclined to agree with Dr. Martin that, if any system of moral instruction could be devised which would be acceptable to the native community, the effect would be beneficial to the rising generation of students."
Religiously the educated classes fall into three broad divisions. l. The majority are ind"ifferent to religion. Prof. S. Satthianadhan, M.A., LL.B., says: The one sole ambition of an educated Hindu is "to get on" in life by securing the best-paid government post within his reach. As a consequence we have a great deal of apathy and indifference characterizing the educated classes. . .. There would be greater hope for Christianity in India, if there was more downright, honest opposition to Christianity from the educated classes.
This indifference is due to distl'llst of all the religions because they have learned to distrust Hinduism, or to ignorance of the Christian faith, or to lack of time for investigating the claims of the various religions. Many are at heart far away from the faith of their fathers, yet they cling to Hinduism as a 80eial system even tho religiously it has no command over their reason or eonseience. These are adrift Oll the sea of Agnosticism.
2. '1'hose who are hostile to ChriiStianity.-'1'his hostility is due in many cases to a false patriotism, in others to pride. It is humiliating to abandon so ancient a religion for one that they regard as modern, and which they regard as the religion of their conquerors. '1'hese men try to lead India back to tho Vedie faith. We find them attempting to start a medical school according to the old Hindu Vaidya Shastras, and to give medieal degrees such as Vaidya and Vaidya Raj. They try to foster a superstitious regard for the old Indian Rishis, and are zealous in upholding Hindu festivals. They also defend idolatry. An honorable LL.B. of the university of Bo~bay, recently publisht the following in It leading paper: We are not one of those who view image worship as a gross superstition, and who want to sweep off idolatry from this country..•. Idolatry is the principal form of worship which can be followed by the generality of the people, and it is simple madness to say that there is something immoral or absurd in worshiping an image of clay.
These men oppose not only religious reform, they are equally bitter against social reform. Their opposition is due in many cases to partial or distorted views of Christianity. In government, Hindu and Mohammedan colleges they have no opportunity to learn what Christianity really is, and the lives of most Europeans do not commend the Gospel to them. The opposition is also due to the impetus given recently in western lands to the study of Hinduism. They interpret this to imply that European savants believe in the religious excellence of the Hindu Shastras.
3. The seekers after truth. This is the smallest class. These men are musing over their own needs and India's degradation. Some try pilgrimage and penance. Some seek satisfaction from Vedic and philosophic literature. Some join the reform movements such as the Brahmo Somaj and the Prathana Somaj. They advocate social as well as religious reform. At the National Social Conference in Calcutta one said, "The Shastras were very good ill their way, bu t they were now in the nineteenth century, and as the age had changed, they should keep pace with the times." Another remarkt, "They mnst rise above prejudice, and cast aside fetters placed on them by the Brahmin legislators of old." They protest against Hindu marriage scandals and priestly chicanery. One writes, "What is the standard of character one expects in a priest? None, absolutely none. So far from the priests having to mend our lives, we have to mend them first or to end them." One of this class had thrown away his sacred thread and wa.nderell without a religion for four years. When I first knew him he was living with a Brahrno, but he gave up the Brahmo Somaj, 3.nd was drifting, drifting away from Hinduism and Brahmoism, but he was willing to read the Bible and attend church. Many of these seekers would finu the Savior if the truth were presented to them fully, constantly, and in the power of the Spirit. But, unfortunately, there are as yet very few Christian evangelists devoting their entire time to this class. The teaching they receive in government and Hindu colleges, and the books they read in the bazaars and in the louging honses, shake their faith and sear their consciences. Since they know English all the infidel and immoral literature of Europe and America is accessible to them. Some of these seekers place Christ on the same platform as Krishna. Others regard Jesus as superior to all teachers and incarnations, but not as divine. Some are convinced of His divinity. Of these a number vani8h through fear of consequences, since they know that a public confession of Christ by baptism JIleans loss of position, property, and relatives. Some are baptized, In Southern India the Christians are one in forty of the total popu- lation, but one out of every twelve graduates from the University of Madras is a Christian. In the Bombay Presidency there are twenty-one colleges and professional schools. Of these only one is under Protestant Christian control. Of the 186 professors in these institutions, only fortyfour are Christians. A yet more significant fact is that of the 3,189 students, only thirty-five are Protestant Christians. In nineteen of these institutions there is no Christian work done. One of the two remaining is Homan Catholic. In seventy-six high schools of the Presidency there are 6,394 scholars in the two upper classes. Of these only eighty-five are Christians, Other parts of India are also very needy.
India's students present a magnificent field for Christian wotkers who have tact, time, and spiritual power for grappling with their difficulties.
CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG THE STUDENTS.
V. Much is done for the students and educated men of India by the teachers in mission schools and colleges. On every day, or on every other day, a period of time is set apart by each mission college for Bible instruction. In addition, lectures are delivered in college halls and other buildings at stated intervals. From GOO to 1,000 non- Christian students attend the Gospel meetings held every week in the Calcutta College Young Men's Christian Association building. Similar work is carried on in connection with the Young Men's Christian Association in Madras, Bombay, Lahore, etc. In Poona we began our work by hiring a large natiye theater in the heart of the city. The opening address was on "Sin," another of the series was on "God," another on the "Atonement," another on "Vedantism and Christianity," and another on "Christian Work in American." The average attendance at these meetings was about 400. At the close of the series we distribntKl cards, and on each card was our address and the hours when we would see these students for pri yate interviews. '['he address giyen was that of a Brahmin Wada in the heart of the Brahmin quarter of the city. Here we rented three rooms, one large one for Bible-class work, and two small ones for personal interviews. The students came in such large numbers that we organized a Bible class, which has been continued with more or less regnlarity for two years and nine months, and the average attendance has been between 30 and fiO. After the first baptism we were driven out of this Brahmin Wada, qecause the man baptized was a relative of the owner of the building, but the Lord led us to better rooms ncar by, and here the work has been going on tho every effort has been made to stop it by discnssions, boycotts, stoning, and attempts to set onr hall 011 fire.
Occasionally we have gone back to the native theater, our object being to reach a larger number and to draw new men into our Bible class. Thus far we have had no outf'ide attractions for the men, such as lectures on secular subjects, reading-rooms, or social entertainments. Our thought has been that if men will come in good num bel's to hear the simple story of the Gospel, why should we spend our time and strength on other matters. 'rhe Gospel has thus far drawn them, and we believe it will continue to draw them without any other inducement. 'IVe have fonnd music a great help. We selected sixteen of the best hymns, anrl printed them on a four page hymn sheet, and while singing these hymns the students have followed the words on the sheets which we distribnted among them. OIle means of securing a good audience is to issue tickets of admission, allowing none to come except those who possess the tickets. It is wonderful what a rnsh there is for these tickets. Sometimes we have reserved seats for the city fathers, and thus have been able to call on them when we present the admission cards to them. On one occasion a principal of a high school askt for 2::; tickets for his masters and te.achers. It is our custom to open our meetings with prayer, whether they be in the hall or in the theater.
~~. The pen is a mighty instrument in evangelizing educated men, and literature of a right kind is a powerful agency. 'IVe have distributed quite a number of pamphlets and tracts among these men. Our university graduates with literary gifts can do much for Indian students by preparing Christian books for them.
3. Educated men can be reacht in their homes or in student messes. In fact, if a man gains the cOllfidence of the students, they will invite him to their homes or boanling honses.
4. In my jlldgment the most important method of all for reaching students is by means of primte interviews in tlie hOllle (!f the evangel- ist. There are several advantages in this method. In the first place, qniet. In the Hindu horne, or ill the mess, it is almost impossible to have an uninterrupted interview. In the second place, in one's home one has no fear of spies. In the third place, in one's own house helps are near at hand, hooks of reference are within reach to meet any inquiries or difficulties.
A few words as to what we think is required of the worker.
(1) Accessibility. If a student goes two or three times to the worker's house and finds him absent, he may never come again.
(2) Time. It takes time to deal with these men, for personal interviews can not be rusht through.
(3) Sympathy. It is all important that a man be won and held. Formality, impatience, irritability, ridicule, or unfairness in argument are most disastrous in effect. 'J know an intelligent and opep-hearted student who said that he was lost by some m.issionaries because of their unfairness in argument.
(4) Knowledge not only of Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Brahminism and modern unbelief, but also, and I may say chiefly, knowle:1ge of the Bible.
(5) The power of the Spirit. Jn speaking of a missionary a Brahmin student said, "He has got something, I see it fa his face. I am willing to become a stone if I can get that." If we are fully saved, men will find that out. A present salvation appeals to them, salvation from the power of sin as well as from its penalty.
CHRISTIAN MisSIONS IN THE HOLY LAND
The success of such work depends chiefly upon prayer. Often before our Sunday evening meeting several of us unitedly waited on God for His blessing, and Thursday evening of each week there was a prayer-meeting in our house to pray especially for the student work.
We have had in Poona several days of prayer under the auspices of the Poona Missionary Oonference, and on these occasions the work among students has been specially remembered.
VI. HELPERS.-It is very difficult to carryon snch a work alone.
Mr. Moorhead has been associated with me, giving his whole time to the work. lIe helpt not only in taking the Bible-class occasionally, but also in the personal interviews. Other missionaries frequently came to the hall to speak to the men individually and collectively. Some of the most earnest native Ohristians haye helpt u~ as ushers in the large theater meetings, and as doorkeepers in onr student hall; also by giving publicly their own testimony as to the saving power of Ohrist, and by engaging in personal work.
I shall close this statement by giving the words of a veteran worker, the Rev. J. J. Lucas, D.D., who has labored in India about thirty years, and has been engaged in educational work in the northwest provinces. He says: I would like to see a man assigned for special work to every large college in India. He should have had I~xperience of work of this kind at horne, and his fitness tested before going out. He should work the first year in the field in association with some one who has had experience. Part of his time the first year should be given to the study of one of the vernaculars-the one spoken by the students among whom he is to labor. He should have a reading room, lecture hall, and office convenient to the students. The influence of such a man would soon be felt. Not only would the college feel the influence of his presence, bnt, I believe, every part of our mission work wonld feel it and wonld be blest by it. I am sure the missionaries in India would welcome snch men.
CUHISTIAK MISSIONS IN TILE HOLY LANn.*-I.
BY HEV••1. };LDElt CFMMIKG, JUl.
We have seen in Palestine four departments of mission work which are quite distinct, but each of them of much irn portancc.
1. Worl.: among the 1l1o~lellls is even more difficult here than else- where. It is barely pract.icable in the face of the fanaticism which . prevails. The stern opposition of the Turkish authorities is added to the ignorant and unreasoning intolerance of the people. Most Mus- sulmans hate all men of other religious creeds, alllI would sweep them from the face of the earth if they could and dared. Un t there is here and there an opportunity for work among their children, which is not without fruit. There is a remarkable work in Beirut which is quite *Extracts from lettp;rs written from Damascus and Messina, February and lIarch, 1898. exceptional in its character and influence. I refer to the large school conducted by Miss Taylor, whose work among the women and girls is not only tolerated, but is almost welcomed. The girls all seem most happy in their attractive home; and we learn that any contemplated interference is at once waived aside with the remark, "It is only Miss Taylor." Where lies the charm? Not certainly in too feeble a management, or too indefinite a stand. Her work among Moslems is an oasis, for which many give thanks.
Are there not cases and times, in which men seem so long to have resisted the grace of God, that they have become hardened, and the opportunity to accept is withdrawn? In the Apostolic days Paul testified that it was needful that the Word should first be preacht to the Jews; but, he 'added: "Seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, 10, we turn to the Gentiles." (Acts xiii: 46.) In some cases, this point seems to have been reacht in Moslem districts. Missionaries should not always go on, breaking their hearts over hopeless work, but neither are they hastily to judge it hopeless. Many Moslems here read the Bible in secret; many listen willingly to the proclamation of the Gospel. God will guide in every case.
2. The UJork among the Eastern churches aptly illustrates these general remarks. Some missionaries told us that their present missions took form on the discovery that Moslems had made themselves inaccessible, so that they had turned to the Armenian churches, the Greek Ohurch, the Syrian Oatholics, and others more accessible. The spiritual condition was of these Ilative churches, then very low, and the missionaries sought to teach them a deeper life of devotion than they had hitherto known. After all, it was not very different from the "Keswick work," which is so much in evidence now. For a time their efforts were not very well received. There was much misunderstanding, and not a little jealousy, so that, 40 years ago, the patriarch of the Armenian churches puLlicly denounced, from the altar in Oonstantinople, the efforts of the American Board of Foreign Missions to bring light and blessing to Asia :lVIinor. The friction continued, more or less, till the recent massacres, which have done much to bring together in sympathy the helpers and the helpt. The troubles of the last few years showed the Armenians who were their friends. And already a spirit of inquiry and earnestness is now manifest and fruitful. The schools are well attended, the churches filled with most patient and attentive hearers, and interest in spiritual things is much more deep than for mallY years. Including the Bulgarian branch, about 16,000 children are at the schools ill Asia Minor and about 12,000 church members are enrolled. Ther':) are over 1';'0 American missionaries in the field.
Still more remarkable is the college work done by the American missions, aiming at higher education and the training of native min- isters. In Syria, missions have a vast network of schools, with no fewer than 15,000 pupils. The Syrian Protestant Oollege is a wonder- ful institution to find so far from home. It is not unlike a Scotch university, with a large staff of professors, some of whom have names known in more than one hemisphere, and all are men of high culture and much vigor. The mission, under the guidance of the Dr. H. H. Jessup, has a large printing press work, which turned out over 23,000,000 pages in the year 1890. The iJessup family, consisting of two brothers, with many members of the second generation, seems the backbone of American mission work in a large district extending from Beirut to Sidon. One pleasing feature is the union of the Ohurch of Scotland with the American mission in their work. Mr. Mackie, who is evidently highly respected in the community, acts as preacher and pastor of the mission, and superintends the school work of the Scotch Mission to the Jews. The venerable Dr. Orawford and the Rev. J. Phillips, of the Irish Presbyterian Mission in Damascus, have under their care 417 schools and a large congregation of Arabicspeaking Ohristians.
3. jJ{edical Missions. This work appeals to a wider constituency than any of those already described, and has no doubt been adopted in many cases as a solution for the difficulties encouutered. It is but justice to add· that no other mission has surpast this in the personnel, and the vigor of the agents employed. The Ohurch of Scotland Hospital in Smyrna carries on a vigorous work, which may soon be extended to other places. Dr. MacKinnon and the Edinburgh Medical Mission has just succeeded in building a new hospital at Damascus as a jubilee memorial. It is much larger than the hospital in Smyrna, and has many modern improvements. Under the splendid management of its present head it may be expected to be of the greatest benefit to all Christian work in this district. May it be the place of healing for many" sick people taken with divers diseases and torments," and may it be blest to the spiritual cure of many" who are possest of devils."
4. Jewish Work.-There is a large Jewish population at all three stations that we have visited-Smyrna, Beirut, and Damascus. "Touching" other nationalities at a hundred points, they are still" separate" from all. They live in their own "quarters," walk their own way, and have little or no domestic intercourse with any outside of their own people. One of the most remarkable sights of our tour was a visit to a court in Smyrna, in which 200 Jewish families live. Here we were surrounded by a crowd of women and lads eager to get books and Testaments from the missionary who accompanied us. Most interesting, too, are the Jewish schools both for girls and boys, large m number, apparently well taught, and attended not only by children, but in some cases by full-grown men. 'l'hc chief characteristic which I noticed among the Jews was their lack of spirit. The prolonged persecutions to which they have been subjected have broken their spirit, not, alas! before God, but before man. One of them said: "I wish but I have not courage." The schools have a wonderful effect on the Jewish children. Their lives arc macle happier, and their hearts toucht by human love, so that they come to have deeper thonghts of God and gratitude to the Lord Jesus. ]n Damascus, they' are watcht with lynx cY,es by the Jewish community, and when old enough, are often removed to their own .Tewish schools, with the hope of undoing the work of the missionaries. This work is not hopeless; it is not even depressing. There is much in it to cheer and not a little to make the heart glad, bu t it requires faith and prayer at every step, and a constant remembrance of the promises to them who love the people of Israel. In Damascus the Jewish commllnity is divided into Pharisees and Sadducees as in olden times. The older men are ritualists, but the younger men are full of skepticism. The hope of the one is in being the sons of Abraham, the others are not sllre that there is any ground for either hope or fear.
]1.
The number of Jews ill Jerusalem is a matter on ,,,hich there has been much di versi ty of statement. The estimate has ranged from about 10,000 to nearly 80,000. Rev. Joseph Jamal, of the London Jews' Society, who, as a native of Jerusalem, has every opportnnity to know the facts, gave me the result of a careflll inquiry macle last year by the Rev. A Kelk, the leading representative of the same society in Jerusalem. There are two causes which have led t.o the different estimates. One is the confusion between the Jews who are living within the wallR of the city, and those without. The latter are again divisible into those in the immediate neighborhood, commonly known as the" Colonies," and those much further off, at Jaffa, Carmel, and elsewhere, known as the "Agricultural Colonies." 'fhese last are not to be reckoned as belonging to Jerusalem. The other cause for uncertainty as to nllmbers is that the totals have been concealed by the Jews themselves since they are subject to a heavy personal tax. The statement furnisht to me gives as the number within the walls of Jerusalem 23,363. There are, besid es, 30 " Colonies" in the immediate neighborhood (at ~iloam, near the DarnascllR gate, the Montetlore settlement, etc.). SOllie of these colonies (!ontain only 30 or 40 Jews, while others nUlllber 3,000 alHl under. III all there are 24,419 Jews in the colonies near Jerusalem, so that within and without the walls, there were last year 4'1,782 Jews. 'l'hese receive, according to their need, what is called the "Halooka," contributions to which are made by Jews in various parts of the world. A large number spend all of their time in the study of the sacred books; and are supported entirely by the" Halooka," or by their own private means.* Most of the general business in Jerusalem is done by Jews, or is at least divided between them and the Germans.
)IISSION WORK AMONG JERUSALEM JEWS.
As to the state and prospect of missions to the Jews in and near the Holy Oity. As might be expected, the Jews are nowhere more fanatical or exclusive than in Jerusalem. They, or their fathers, have gone there from religious motives, and they are distrest and indignant at the state of the land and their own position in it. They band themselves together to pray for the intervention of the God of Abraham; and it is only natural that they should be sensible to the fact that much of their income is from Jewish sources, and depends on their faithful adherence to their national creed and worship. Not only so, but they have become well known to each other and to their leaders; the eye of suspicion is on everyone who is known to have dealings with Ohristians; and strong steps are taken to prevent any from apostatizing.
Under tllese circumstances there are two main channels open to missionary work. One is among them through medical aid in dispensary and hospital. This method is now prominent throughout Syria. It received a few months ago a serious blow in Jerusalem, through the death in a hospital of a Jewess, whose body was refused burial by the rabbi, because she died under Christian care. 'rhere was great excitement, and the new hospital is at present without inmates. This hostile attitude, however, will probably not long continue, and patients will come whether Jew or Gentile.
The other open channel is i5chools for the young. These are largely attended and give a singular impression of happiness among the children, much more than schools elsewhere. Excellent relations exist also between the teachers and the parents of thc pupils. The Ohristian work done in this way is indirect, and it is slow in sho,,:ing results; but the missionaries do not seem disheartened; and hope that they are on the verge of times of blessiug. It is a sign of the influence of this work, that not long ago, the rabbis of Jerusalem found it necessary to issue a clterem or formal warning and curse against classes for Ohristian inquiry attended by young Jewish men who have been finding their way to missionaries. I was personally much cheered· by a visit paid me by a young Jew who had elsewhere been baptized by Jewish missionaries of my own church. He had been converted after his baptism, and, returning to Jerusalem in great joy and pcace, had found there his father and uncle who were zealous for the faith • For further particulars on this interesting subject, I must refer to an interesting pamphlet on" The Condition and Prospects of the Jewish Population in Palestine," printed by Spottiswoode & Co., London, by Dr. Masterman, late of Jerusalem and now of Damascus; and to a year-book pubJisht in Jerusalem (in unpointed Hebrew) by J. Lung. of their forefathers. They first sought hard to pervert the young man; but when they could not do that, they disowned him. Meantime he supports himself by honest labor, and visited me to inquire how he might live nearer to the Lord.
It is not easy to make any true estimate of the position with regard to the Moslems. Many things combine to make it probable that they look with considerable uneasiness to the future. 'Traditions are afloat among them which partially reach the ears of the Christians. They hold Jerusalem and the Holy Land with a tenacity strengthened by the joint incentive of fanaticism and fear. '1'hey hold the Jews in an iron grip; but it is the grip of the man who holds a wild beast, the grip approaching the courage of despair.
I was told that one of the chief ecclesiastical authorities of Islam was askt why the Golden Gate had been so long walled up. He replied that it was their tradition that if that gate were opened a prince of Israel would enter in triumph and capture the city. He was ignorant of the fact that one of the Hebrew prophets had foretold something of the same sort, and when shown the passage III Ezekiel (xliv: 23) no words could express his astonishment.* THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY LAND.
1. On coming into Palestine I was prepared for a conflict within on coming to know what seemed in S0j11e respects to be "Christ after the flesh." To have the habits of one's life regarding Christ as the unseen, risen, and glorified One, suddenly modified, and the humanity of the Lord forced into an undue alld almost painful prominence, seemed to me something that might strain one's faith, and lower, rather than raise, one's thought and heart. That was avoided by an unexpected experience. Everywhere one went about looking for sOrlie one who might at least touch a chord of dim resemblance. Was he like that? It was perfectly vain. Here, even less than at home, could we find such chords touched upon. 'rhe mystery of the Incarnate Redeemer seemed deeper, as we lookt upon His people and His land. Not at Bethlehem, not at Bethany-nowhere was there any one nearer to His likeness than at home. Faith escaped the expected conflict because of the" flesh" nothing could be seen.
2. But this very fact made one's first feeling largely one of disappointment. Jerusalem at first seemed so small. That impression was corrected, however, when we rode around it, on the other side of the valley of Hinnom and on through the valley of Jehoshaphat, and found it larger than we had supposed. But the dirt, and the intricacy of its streets; the noise and crowding of its motley inhabitants-and * Speaking of lIlohammedan traditions and fears, it is surely not inappropriate to remind the reader that "the times of the Gentiles" during which Jerusalem is to be trodden under foot are to extend 1260 years (Rev. xi: 2,3), and that the domination began when the city was taken by the Saracens in A. D. 638. The years of prophecy should therefore run out at the close of the present year.-J. E. C.
EDUCATIONAL MISSION WORK IN PERSIA
surely was there never such a blending of nations and costumes as here; the falsity and impossibility of many of its alleged holy places; the absurdity of many of its traditions; the tawdry tinsel decorations of its holy shrines; the bad taste and incongruous self-assertions of its new buildings-all these do their utmost to disillusion the least sensitive. All the nations, save the English and American, are guilty in this last respect; but the Russians are the greatest sinners of all. The new hospice and other buildings in the northwest; the church on the slope of Olivet in the cemetery; and the tower which disfigures the top of the mount, are the most offensive structures ever placed on holy ground. They are, however, only too well seconded by such awful work in stone, as the Rothschild colony on the west side of Hinnom. It is sadly true that ecclesiastical tradition on the one hand, and national pretense and blundering on the other, have done their best to destroy Jerusalem. More than Roman or Saracen or Orusader did, these have done. Yet they conld not sncceed, because Jerusalem is imperishable and still survives.
3. Yet, casting such things aside, there is enough eltle to stir the soul. In the temple area, center of all, is the rock on which David erected his altar, on which Araunah had his threshing floor; there is the cave beneath in which the father and sons found shelter from the destroyer; the rock, perhaps, Oll which Isaac was bound in the land of Moriah. Just outside 01' the Damascus gate, to the north of the city, is a green hill, which presents to the south its rocky edge, in which two caverns in the limestone still give a vivid appearance of a skull. It is, very many believe, the hill of Golgotha where "they crucified Him." Beneath, close beside the hill, is a garden, and the lone chill sepulcher. Never again can I think of the Oross without seeing the picture which our Lord saw from it. Never can I think of the resurrection morning, without there rising before me the picture of that quiet sepulcher, empty. I have seen the place "where they laid Him." "He is not there. He is risen as He said," and yonder, not far off, is the mount on which" His feet shall stand in that day. 0, Jerusalem, Jerusalem!"
EDUOA'l'IONAL MISSION WOHK IN PEHSIA.
BY ROBERT E. SPEER, NEW YORK. Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.
There is no system of popular education in Persia. The public school is unknown. Outside of Tabriz and Teheran the only teacher is the Moslem ecclesiastic, the limitations of whose knowledge make the instruction which he is capable of giving most meager all(~ pitiable. Of history, of even the simplest elements of science, of mathematics, he knows nothing, and attempts to teach nothing. Yet all the education which a Persian receives, unless he goes to the shah's colleges in Teheran or Tabriz, or enters one of the so-called religious colleges, he gets in a village school taught in the street, or ill a court, or in the masjid, or mosque, by a mollah, whose curriculum includes the Persian alphabet, the rudiments of arithmetic, a parrotlikc knowledge of the Arabic Koran. No attempt is maue to teach writing or reading, save the Persian alphabet. Some have maintained that not less than seven-eighths of the population are illiterate. For the girls there are no schools at all; while of the results of the boys' education, Dr. Wills says: "The repeating from memory of a few prayers and passages from the Koran, with some verses of poetry, is all that remains to a villager generally of his education." Therc are no higher or grammar schools. The ecclesiastical colleges to be found iu the larger cities, are frequented ill the main by prospective mollahs, who study there the Koran, Persian literature, anu the nonsense of Eastern philosophy.
A few Persian young men have been sent to Europe for their education, and some of them are among the most capable men of to-day, but the experiment has ended sadly with many others. The onl~· serious attempt at higher eUlIcatioll in the country has been made in the shah's college at Teheran, the Tabriz school being largely discredited. '1'he college has military, medical, and language departments, and another called" science and art," but the departments overlap, and the physical laboratory is a curiosity room, of which no use is made. There are many pieces of apparatus, such as arc found in the laboratory of a village highschool at horne, mixt up with odds and ends, including a set of artificial limbs and bandages, which the late shah considerately took off the hands of an adventurer, who had brought them to Teheran, while on the most conspicuous place on the walls hung a missionary map of thc world, issued by the American Board in ] 846, with Mark xvi: 15 printed above it ill large letters. The annual cost of the college is 24,000 tomans. The director of the college told me that the new shah intended to establish several similar institutions in other parts of the country. While neither the discipline nor the modes of instruction in the shah's college are ideal, there is a real opportunity given to any Persian boy whu may be admitted to learn several modern languages, and to get a general smattering of knowledge. Armenian, Nestorial~, or Jewish boys have no such government assistance. They must depend upon the sacrifices of their own people or the mission schools.
The aim of the mission schools is to raise up Christian leaders. It is no part of their plan to give a general education for education's sake; but in attempting to train men for Christian leadership, they have provided for the limited numbers they are able to take, the only thor- oughly effective agencies, and the only schools of any kind for girls save among the Armenians. Mission policy assigns to educational work a limited field, but within this field it aims to make it as Christian and as thorongh as it can be made.
Of the schools of the Church Missionary Society in Julia, near Isfahan, in the south of Persia, I can llot speak, nor of the Roman Catholic schools in Teheran and Salmas. The Homan Catholic missionaries are very secretive. Protestant missionaries are sometimes blamed for not giving the Homan missions due credit for their work, and for withholding Christian fellowship from the Catholic missionaries, but they do not deserve such reproach. It is the Catholics who hold aloof, and are suspicious, hiding their work and plans. Of these the Protestants make no concealment. I visited the Catholic missionaries in Teheran, bnt the>y refnsed to give any information, or to let me see their school, and denouneed as their enemies the American missionaries, who had always maintained a kindly attitude. In Oroomiah they were socially very pleasant, on aecount of their obligations to Dr. Coehran, but were searcely more communicative. The Archbishop of Canterbury's mission to the Nestorialls maintains two schools in Oroomiah-one for boys, the other for girls-both of them conducted in accordance with the high Angliean ideas of the mission.
In each of the fOllr stations of the American Presbyterian Mission are two schools, the oldest of whieh are Fiske Seminary and the Oroomiah College, among the Nestorians. For more than a generation these two institutiolls have been pouring out regenerative influenees amollg the Kestorians. The people themselves have come to speak of those village8 as " dark villages," where their power has not been felt, and of others as "light villages." In the early days of the mission the purpose was to get two men from each village and stamp them for Christ. While in the Fiske Seminary, as it is now called, after Fidelia Fiske, thnt remarkable woman was content with nothing leSS than the absolute transformation of the charaeters which came under her influence. It was not so much large numbers that were sought. '1'he aim was for quality, intensity, enduring influence. One hundred and twenty-two men were graduated from the eollege prior to 18'10, of whom 80 gave all their time to Christ's service. Since 18'18, when the college was reorganized, there have been 110 graduates, of whom 44 also took a theological eonrse, and 12 a medical. The average eost of the edueation of the students in the shah's college last year was abont 100 tomans ($100). In the Oroomiah College the annual cost for board was 9 tomans, and for instruction 10 tomans, the pupils in the main paying for their own board. In Fiske Semina.ry the co.st for board was less than four tomans and for instruction one. Among the Armenians of Tabriz and the province of Azerbijan, of which it is the capital, the mission has two schools, with aims similar to those of the schools among the Nestorians; but the Armenians wish education as a preparation for business, not for Christian service, and the commercial and political drift of the people is so strong that Christ's interests take with them now a secondary place. In Tabriz the Armenians have some well-equipt schools of their own. One of their merchants gave recently a magnificent building for the Arme- nians in one quarter of the city, but there is nothing evangelical in these schools. Armenians, Europeanized in Russia, were in charge, and the spirit of secularism was contracting. From the mission schools in Tabriz and Teheran, the centers of greatest life among the Armenians in Northern Persia, all the influences for the gracious enlightenment of the people must come, and are coming. The activity and movement in the Gregorian Church is itself, as the acting bishop of Tabriz frankly admitted, largely due to the incitement of the evangelical mission work. I met in Teheran the graduates of the boys' school there. They were all young men, ambitious, active, teachers, merchants, bankers, doctors, supervisors, emancipated from their old superstitions and with evangelical sympathies. .
The missionaries have not yentured to open any schools for Mohammedans. In Tabriz and Oroomiah the fanaticism of the peo- ple is so great that no Mohammedans attend the schools opened there for Armenians and Nestorians. In Teheran and Hamadan, however, many Moslem children attend. The missionaries in the capital hesitated at first to take them, but the president of the late shah's council, the Amill-i-dowlph, requested it in writing, and now two- fifths of the boys and one-sixth of the girls are Mohammedans.
Nasr-i-din Shah himself, visited the schools several years before his death, to show the favor in which he held them. '1'he girls' school especially interested him. After going over it thoroughly he was taken to the dining-room and kitchen. He had made no comment as yet, but then he lookt about him admiringly, and simply exclaimed: "Clean, clean!" In Persia at last he had seen two un-Persian things, a just conception of woman and cleanliness. It was only of the latter that he spoke. Perhaps he did not see the former at all.
THE JEWS AND FIRE-WORSHIPERS.
The Jews and the Gnebres, or fire-worshipers, constitute an insignificant part of the population, but they, too, are reacht. One~fifth of the boys in the Teheran school belong to these classes, while 60 of the 85 boys in the Hamadan school are Jews. 'fhere are about 20,000 .rews in Persia, and they seem more accessible to the Gospel than the Jews of Palestine, or than Jews at home. Many of them have already received it. They are eager often for training, usually with the purpose of using it to become doctors. In parts of the land most of the physicians are Jews. But some seek to serve their Savior. I shall never forget a talk with omi of them one soft moonlight night, under the poplar trees in Teheran, the dainty light gleaming on the snows of Mount Demavend. He was a Jewish boy, and he lived in a little room by the sch001, where he cookt his own food. Milk and bread he ate for breakfast, tea and cheese and sometimes something cookt for supper. He said he was lonely, and that he had to pray much-especially for the Christians in America-rising at halfpast four in the morning for it, and he said also that his secret was that he wanted to preach Christ. " It is the best work ill the world," he added. "' Christ gave all. He ought to have all. We must all die, let be by sword, by gun, by water. Why not liYe aBel die for Christ? I hope, by grace of God, to be His servant and give all of life to Him." Child of a lonely race, preparing in loneliness for what will be a lonely life in this Moslem land! When will his people find their national life again in finding in Jesus their Messiah?
'1'he Armenian community in IIamadan has been less contaminated by the worldly influences which are robbing the Armenians elsewhere of more of their most attractive and noble qualities, and the Faith Hubbard school for girls ill the midst of them has been given an unlimited field among their girls and women. The Armenian women are very attractive. Many of the foreign residents in Bagdad have found them so, and taken wives from among them. They possess the capacities of the Armenian men, and are free from some of their faults. '1'hey are right who advocate strong efforts to save the nation from secularism and cynicism through its women.
In addition to these schools of higher grade under constant missionary supervision, the village school has been fostered in Persia, especially among the Nestorians. In the local school of the mollah, boys are taught narrowness and bigotry and little else. Whenever possible "illage boys who will come, especially in Christian or semi- Christian communities, ought to be taught something else. In his authoritative l)ut overgrown book Oil Persia, Mr. Curzon, the present British under secretary for foreign affairs, says that if he were to undertake the reformation of Persia, he would ]Jot incorporate a new company in London, but would organize a coup d'etat ill the village schools. 'fhe trouble is, however, that the government could not supply teachers if it wisht to establish good village schools. The problem is in the hands of the missionaries, so fill' as it is in the hands of any, and they do not conceive it to be their duty to establish and maintain a public-school system in Persif),. '['he schools they establish have a twofold purpose. Where the children are from Christian homes, they secure to the next generation of the native church the elements of a simple education. They constitute, where the children
EXPELLED FROM THE PHILIPPINES
are from unevangelical or heathen homes, an evangelizing agency, giving to the children a knowledge of the Gospel, and gaining an opening and a foothold for the native evangelist or the itinerating mIssIOnary. Where this purpose can be carried out in neither aspect, wise missionary policy declines to establish a school. The only extensive development of a village-school system has been among the Nestorians in the Oroomiah plain and adjacent regions. In this field, the average number of schools maintained per year for the first decade of the work (1837-1847) was 24, with 530 pupils; for the se,"ond decade (1847-1857),50 schools, with 948 pupils; for the third decade (ltl57- 1867), 51 schools, with 1,096 pupils; for the fourth decade (1867- 1877),58 schools, with 1,024 pupils; for the fifth decade (1877-1887), 8 t schools, with 1,833 pupils. For the year 1896 there were 117 schools, with 1,564 boys and 846 girls-·2,410 pupils in all.
This educational work strongly affects the imagination. To see hundreds, exactly 3,241 boys and girls, young men and women, in the schools I have mentioned, with several hundreds more in other village schools; to learn of the possibilities of life before them as illustrated in the lives of those already trained and sent out; to hear girls fresh from dark homes singing in queerly accented English, " Lord, ve come; Lord, ve come in our childhood's early morning j" or Moslem boys, just learning to read the Gospel of John, say, with the strong emphasis on the last word which characterizes the first attempt to read, " In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God," make a deep impression on anyone who is at all sensible to impres. SIOn.
EXPELLED FROM 'rHE PHILIPPINES.
F. DE P. CASTELLS. Formerly Agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society in the Philippines.
Early in 1881, and soon after my conversion, I read an article in a Spanish Protestant paper describing the spiritual condition of these islands. The writer, Sefior Alonso Lallave, was then unknown to me, but his words kindled in my heart a longing to go there, tho then it appeared to be a forlorn hope. Three years afterward I entered Dr. Guinness's London Institu te with a view to qualify for foreign mission work, and the idea of my going to the Philippines still held me fast. My time of preparation was almost up, and I had not applied anywhere for engagement; but one day intelligence came that the British and Foreign Bible Society needed a man-a Spaniard-ror • the very sphere in which I yearned to labor. I wrote immediately, and was accepted. Sefior Lallave, who had unwittingly led me to this, offered himself also with a like result, and the Society resolved that we should go together. This man, as I soon discovered, was most admirably fitted for the work. He was an ex-friar of the Dominican Order of Preachers, and had spent twelve years as a parish priest in the Philippines, in which capacity he had mastered the Pangasinan dialect. His conversion dated from 1867. A person in Spain had sent him some religious tracts by mail which convinced him of the errors of his church. Being a conscientious man, he did not try to stifle his new convictions but communicated them to others, where- upon he was denounced to his superiors, was arrested, degraded and thrown into a conventual dungeon in Manila. Then some old friend pleaded in his behalf, and he was sent under guard that he might be tried afresh by an ecclesiastical court in Spain. When the vessel was in Singapore, however, he managed to slip into a boat and gain the shore, where he at once became a free man. Soon afterwards news reached him at that port that Spain had become a republic and liberty of conscience had been proclaimed for the first time in iis long history. Overjoyed at the report he went home, where he had the pleasure of meeting those brave pioneers of the Gospel, Rial, Alhama, Cabrera, and others, most excellent men, whose hearts had been tempered in the fire of persecution and exile, and he soon was appointed minister of a church in Seville. 'Twenty years were passed in this work, and during this time, far from forgetting the scene of his former labors, he translated nearly the whole of the New Testament into Pangasinan.
After we were engaged by tho Bible Society, Sefior Lallave proceeded to Madrid to see his version of the Scriptures through the press, and I went to Malaysia, where, hy working among Malays, I was able to perfect myself in this language, and to acquire some most valuable experience. At length my companion came, and together we sailed for Manila, where we were landed on March ;Wth, 1889. Here we saw a purely Levitical city, of narrow and crooked streets, full of friars and nuns, of churches and conYents, of crosses and shrines. Processions were held frequently, when a 11umber of men carried some large wooden images about the town 011 lifters, the priests coming behind in magnificent golden robes, then a band playing, then the crowd with lighted tapers in their hands, reciting some sort of prayers, and then a strong military escort. We had barely arrived when we witnessed one such proeessioll, and the program said that it was in honor of "St. Joseph, the Chaste Husband of the Mother of God!" And as it filed through the streets, the forts were thunderillg a royal salute; and a thousand rockets were flying across the sky. If there is a place where the papal church finds herself at. home, it is in Manila-in the Philippines. In the morning it is the church bells that wake the people from their beds, and the peal of these goes on through the livelong day. The city has close on 300,000 inhabitants, three-fourths of them living in houses made of ((ttap, or palm leaves. The ordinary means of conveyanee used by the natives throughout the Philippines is It cart drawn by sluggish carabaos, or buffaloes. In 1889 the Manila-Dagupan Rail- road , the only one t here is, was in course of construction, and I h ad the pleasure of a short ri de on t he first locomotive ever landed there.
Once in ~la j' uila, we t ook up I our quarters at a hotel, and were surprised to learn that our comin g had been fore- stalled by the local press, par- t icularly by the clerical 0 r g a 11 , which inserted a paragraph that Legan thu s: SO~IE'I'HING A USUAL MODE OF CONVEYA:;OC li: IN T HE PHILI PPINES . TDf E LY.-The 226th article of the P enal Code in force in these islands r ead s thus: "Whosoever shall perform publicly any acts of propaganda, preaching or other ceremonies, contrary to those of the of:licial religion, will incur t h e pena lty of correct ional imprisonment, etc."
We very soon made fri ends among the nati ves, aud Illy kllowledge of Malay made the acquisitioll of Tagalog comparatively easy. We felt somewh at llampered, but we resolved to apply at Ollce for permission both to in troduce and to circulate t he Scriptures, whi ch we did. U nfortunately just then I fell ill, what my sickness was, I ll ever founel out. All I kll OWis that I had some suspicious symptoms and that I had been given up for dead. A kind English physician, who was staying at the hotel, took care of me and said that I recovered because of my youth. I was scarce well again, whell my companion sickened in the same mysterious way and, after twelve days of carcful n nrsin g by myself, died. Many people felt sure that he was poisoned. " This is the way the friars have always managed t o dispo~e of our benefact ors!" mallY of the natives exclaimed. The discovery which I made about t hat time, that the man who waited 011 ns at the hotel was a detective in disguise and a disreputable man, also made me suspi cions. Several times the friars had come beggillg fo ], admittance to th e sick room, but the patiellt obj ected to snch visitors and I resisted them. Once in his delirium, the sick man said: "Why (]on't they stand off and let me see H im ?" He seemed to think of the friars standillg between himself and God, and hence hi s protest. But whell he died, the question was: Where call we bury him? The proprietor of the hotel urged me to remove t he corpse at once, an d the authorities declared that 110 heretic could be buri ed in th c city cemetery, as that was holy soil. After much trOll ble, however, the British consul kindly allow ed me to bury him in the ground appropriated for non-Catholic foreigners, and so, despite a heavy downpour of raill, the corpse was removed that same evening, to be buried 011 the following day in the presence of several friends. '1'he idea of an ex-monk dying unreconciled with the church created a profound sensation, as the comments of the press testified.
'l'he events just described had produced in me a sense of desolation and danger, but now again I urged my request for permission to work openly. '1'he censors, who were either friars or bigoted laymen, demanded samples of my books, and I complied. 'rhey then promist a reply within a wec·k. At the end of that week I received nothing save a rellewal of their promise, which in like fashion was renewed many times over, with the idea, it would seem, of using np time, and of tiring me out without any formal answer on their part. Far from allowing this to interfere with my duty, however, I all along endeavored to do with my might" whatsoever my han<l fOlllld to do." For not only did I hold weekly services in English at the homes of prominent foreigners, bn t I occasionally held them in Spanish, and in the homes uf natives, and imported some Spanish Bibles and some Pangasinan Gospels by mail for several who professed to accept the truth. There being 110 version of the Scriptures in Tagalog, I made some manllscript copies of fragments rendered by myself, and these I gave away privately. I append one of them, John iii: 16, that it may give an idea what the language is like: Pagkat pinakasinta nang Dios ang sangdaigdig na pinagbigyan sa Anac niang bugting upang anglahat nang sumasampalataya sa Kaniya ay houag mapacasama bagkus magkamit nang buhay na walang hangan.
In Pangasinan the same text reads thus: Ontan so panangaroy Dios ed mundo nia, ta initdan toy Anac ton bogton, piano ganagana ya manisia ed sicato, ag inatcy, no ag macaala na vilay ya andi angaan.
As the censors lleclined to give me a reply in black and white, I had now determined to petition the captain-general, who was no other than the now famous General ,,-eyler. Again, however, the adversary frustrated my plans. Humors were set afloat which represented me as the head of a conspiracy, and in conseqnence I was arrested and imprisoned, The charge was easily disproved, but on the third day of being in prison, the judge informed me that I was accused of a new crime, that of "propagating doctrines contrary to the official religion," and that he would let me out on $;')00 bail, I being still unller police surveillance. '1'he prosecution dragged its weary conrse for three full months, during which time I liyed at the hotel, honored with a police guard at my door; ultimately I was acquitted, the evidence being llcclarcd insufficient. But simultaneously with this, and without my knowledge, I had also been prosccuted " administratively" for being a "pernicious person," which llleant that, guilty or irlllocen t, they intended to expel me from the country. And, having known this, I called on the civil governor, who happened to be a Cuban, and effccted a compromise, I leaving tho islands by the first steamer, and he sheh'ing the prosccution. On the 23d of December, therefore, I was saying' "good bye!" to Manila from on board a vessel, pained by my failure, 11l1t yet believing that I would, as I still pray I may, see the Philippines brought under the influence of the Gospel of Christ. Some weeks after my departure I learned that the supreme court had refusc(1 to indorse my acquittal, and had ordered a new trial, with what results I can not say.
MISSION.RY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
n.-MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT.
GOSPEL WORK FOR ISRAEL.
BY PROFESSOR GEORG];] H. SCHODDE, PH. D., COLUMBUS, O.
In the l'athanael, Nos. 1 and 2, of Vol. xiii, the bi-monthly publisht in the interests of the evangelization of Israel, by Professor Strack, of the University of Berlin, there is found, from the pen of Pastor de Ie Roi, easily the leading living authority on this subject, an excellent and accu- rate report of what has been done during the past two years for the Gospel cause among the" lost sheep of the house of Israel." We condense the leading data in the following: 1. Gre2ct Britain, with its London Society and 171 workers, easily leads in this department of mission activity. It labors largely among the constantly increasing hosts of Israelites in England. There are 16,000 Jewish children in the public schools of London, and 80,000 Jews in the city, where there are 40 synagogues. In the parliament there are 8 Jews, and in the army 60 Jewish officers. In the ranks of the English clergy there are no fewer than 200 Jewish proselytes. During the past two years the London Society has erected a new building and improved the old, devoted especially to providing for the wants of converts. Since the establishment of the Palestine House, in 1831, no fewer than 70 missionaries and evangelists have gone out of this house. The mission schools have had 1,300 pupils, of whom 80 and more are engaged in Gospel work. A recently establisht "Labor Home" gives converts an opportunity to earn a living. The society labors largely in the East End of the city.
The Abrahamic Society, closely allied in work with the London, recently celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. The Ladies' Union for Israel, establisht in 1893, now numbers 700 members. Even a children's society, called Beehive, has been organized, reporting now a membership of 3,000, with an organ entitled Jew'ish j"Iission Advocate, and an income of £250. These societies also confine their work almost exclusively to England.
The British Society, in commemoration of its fiftieth anniversary, publisht a memorial, entitled" Memoir of Gospel Triumph among the Jews," giving full account of its work. Its organ is The Jewish Herald. The annual income is between £7,000 and £8,000. In connection with it there has been organized a Hebrew Christian Union, to aid converts. The Mildmay Mission of John Wilkinson, in the twenty years of its activity, reports 140 baptisms. The chief work of this society is the distribution of Hebrew New Testaments. In 1895 it disposed of 117,000 copies, of which 76,000 found their way to America. The total number distributed to date is over one million copies. The society publishes a jargon sheet, entitled Dihrc Hizomim. The City Mission Society of London has nine of its men at work among the Jews of that metropolis. The Barbican Mission is also very active, while the Parochial Mission has establisht a medical mission for the Hebrews, and publishes a paper called Church and Synagogue. The East London Society, in the 18 years of its existence, has baptized 500 Jews. The Jewish Christian Testimony Mission has opened a mission house in London, and has decided to aid the work of the Jewish reformer Lichtenstein, in Hungary, and Rabinowitz, in Russia. The list of the Hebrew Christian Prayer Union of London reports a membership of 1,195. This body has an organ in the Friends of Israel.
GOSPEL WORK FOR ISRAEL
The Philo-Judroan Society confines its activity to Jewish women, and can look back to a work of 68 years.
In Scotland the state church takes care of the work among the Israelities in this country. Its headquarters are in Glasgow. The socie- ties under the auspices of the Free Kirk, the United Presbyterians, and the Irish Presbyterians, labor among this people in foreign lands. A number of women recently ef'Ected a central society, called The Wo- men's JC1c-ish Mission Association.
II. In Germany there are a number of Jewish mission societies, and Germany is also the seat of the activity of quite a number of non-German societies. The chief German organization of this kind is the Central Society of Leipzig, the life and soul of which for a generation and more, was the lamented Delitzsch. His periodical Saat auf Hoffnung, is still the leading scientific journal in the whole domain of this literature. His successor at the university, Professor Buhl, is one of the editors. The Berlin Society for 1895 reported 16 baptisms. An Institutum for the study of Jewish literature and Jewish mission problems is maintained by Pro- fessor Strack, of the Berlin University, and this institution has sent out a number of laborers to the Jews of Eastern Europe. Unfortunately the other Instituta of this kind, of which about ten were organized in 1883 and later, have been discontinued. The Swiss Society of the Friends of Israel has its men in Strasburg. A separate society was lately organized in Geneva, with a special organ entitled Le Boir Israelite. In Italy only the London Society is represented. The French Society, headed hy the well-known scholar, Pastor Kriiger, confines its work to Paris, where non- French societies are also represented. The Jews of Holland are quite orthodox, and the Netherland Union for Israel has three men at work among them, while the London and other English societies have also sent their missionaries. Le Ladder Israel seeks to interest children in this cause, and the society called "Excelsior" consists chiefly of young men and women. In Denmark only one Jewish missionary is at work, and he is a convert. In the three Scandinavian countries there are strong societies for this species of GORpel work, who all labor abroad. Rather strangely the Protestant churches in the Austro-Hungarian empire have no Jewish mission of their own, altho, next to Russia, it has the largest Jewish contingent among the nations of Europe. And with the exception of Russia there is no country that reports so large a numher of converts to Christianity from Israel as does this. All the work is done hy foreign societies. In Vienna the average number of Jewish baptisms per year is 400; in 1895 the convert number was 435 who joined the Catholic, and 70 who joined the Lutheran Church. In all the large populated centers of this empire the work is going on quite vigorously in varions ways and methods. In Rumania the London Society has been successfully active for years, with fully a dozen stations. Naturally the great mission field of this kind is Russia, with its millions of conservative and Talmudic Jews. The Russian Church resorts to methods that are often not defensible to gain converts from the Jews, and of the 8,597 Jews baptized by Russian popes between 1870 and 1887 probably not a few were practically compulsory. Yet Protestant societies also report large gains from this source. The London Society's missionary, Dr. Ellis, baptized 302 Jews in 5 years in ,Varsaw. The work of the Jewish-Christian Rabinowitz, so auspiciously begun a decade ago, is not so promising at present, largely on account of the peculiarities of the leader. In Turkey the var-
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
ious societies have found a promising field, three of their associations working in Constantinople, where one man alone in the last two years baptized 43. In Jerusalem, Damascus, and other cities of Asiatic Turkey, especially in Palestine, the work is vigorously pusht with varied success. The medical missions are in most cases the most successful. Even the Jews of distant Persia, East India, Tunis, Algiers, Australia, and other distant lands are not forgotten, altho the laborers are few. Abyssinia with its hundreds of thousands of Falasha, or black Jews, is still closed to Christian mission enterprise. In America work of this kind is done by a large number of societies and various denominations, especially in the large cities of New York and Chicago, and fully a dozen of journals in the interests of the C/Luse are issued. In British America considerable activity has also been exhibited.
The article in question, covering 35 pages, closes with these words: "Our survey has shown rich evangelical mission activity among the Jews. There is, indeed, room for criticism in regard to certain active details; but so much is certain, that not since the days of the apostles has there been such zeal shown for the salvation of Israel as there is exhibited in our own times."
~-~——– CHRISTIAN AND POLITICAL FORCES IN SYRIA.* BY PROF. SAMUEL rYES CURTISS, D.D.
1. The possession of Syria and Palestine by peaceable means still engages at least two great powers,France and Russia, and is the dream of the Jewish party known as the Zionists. The hope which animates the Zionists is partly religious and partly political. Indeed, it is along the line of Old Testament teaching and Old Testament prophecy as interpreted by opprest Judaism. But France and Russia seem to use religion for political ends. Do the Maronites need a church which the natives can not provide? French gold flows freely into the country. The most commanding sites in Lebanon and other parts of Syria and Palestine are crowned by Maronite or French Catholic institutions. Education, whether collegiate or primary, following in the wake of Protestant institutions, and seeking to displace them, furnishes free instruction and free text-books. Other inducements are held out when necessary. A Eoumptuous press, which has every appliance for printing and binding,attempts to eclipse the American press by its beautiful typographical productions, while a line of classical Arabic literature, rejected by the American press because contrary to the spirit of Christianity, is freely issued by the Jesuit press. No foreign people are nearer the ideals and desires of non-Mohammedans of Northern Syria than the French. But this work of subsidization leaves the people where they are, and simply strengthens in them the terrible vices of cupidity and cringing dependence.
What means the Russian occupation of the country, from one end to the other, by hospices, open to pilgrims and travelers during a brief season of the year for a nominal sum? What is the meaning of Greek schools, where instruction is given in Russian, and the subsidization of the Greek Church,if not in the line of political aims of Russia in Syria and the Holy Land? Neither France nor Russia, whether working directly through the emissaries of the Greek or Latin churches, or through the • Condenst from The Indep€ndent,
CHRISTIAN AND POLITICAL FORCES IN SYRIA
native churches, is quickening the moral sense of the people or placing before them higher ideals. Corrupt forms of Christian faith have a tremendous hold on the Syrians, because they appeal constantly to their self-interest, and are in harmony with the most ancient Semitic ideas still regnant to-day.
A nominal Christian commits a murder, or is guilty of some other gross crime. His religious connection makes him in all respects the member of a clan. Abhorrence of his act and a desire for righteous retribution has no place among his coreligionists, or fellow-clansmen. Here is one belonging to the same party in trouble. The powerful ecclesiastical machinery, which has the ear of the pasha, is invoked, and the guilty man goes free. What has the Protestant to expect who leaves anyone of the non-evangelical bodies at the bidding of con!'lcience? Simply that if he has a case at law, tho clearly in the right, he must fail to secure justice for lack of proper influence, and must suffer the loss of civil rights. Now, when money and political influence, the most potent factors in the Orient, are at the command of the Latin, the Greek, and the Maronite churches, is it any wonder that the progress of Protestantism is slow, especially when we consider that these non-evangelical Christian religions have vastly greater numbers, and almost unlimited financial resources? "Vhat can Protestantism do? It represents no political aspirations, either American or English. It has limited resources. It is working directly counter to the low moral ideals of centuries. Through the regenerating power of the Gospel it is seeking, not to win a country for an English-speaking people, but to make men, women, and children new creatures in Christ.
II. It is safe to say that in no foreign country, nor in any mission field, are there abler, wiser, or more consecrated Christian workers than in Syria and Palestine. The two main evangelical forces in this country belong to the Church of England and to the Presbyterian order. The evangelical character of the work done by our English brothers and sisters is indicated by the prominence which they give to regeneration, and the characteristics which we expect to find in living Christians. The Presbyterian Mission has had a noble history, altho its work rests on essentially Congregational foundations, laid by the American Board more than seventy-five years ago.
All classes in Syria and Palestine are now reacht by the Gospel, altho details may not be given. If it were not for the loss of civil rights and the great dangers sometimes incurred, the profession of evangelical Christianity would be by hundreds, rather than by units as at present. Even among the Jews a solid work is being done. There are many genuine converts, known to those who have lived in the country for years. The means used in the evangelization of Syria and Palestine by different societies and enterprises are: evangelistic, publishing, educational, medical, and industrial.
1. Syria and Palestine present a particularly difficult field for evangelistic work. Street preaching is prohibited by law, and as halls and theaters can not be secured for the purpose, the missionary is much hampered in evangelistic efforts. But nevertheles>l there is a feeling that more should be attempted on evangelistic lines. The development of self-supporting churches has been rendered impossible thus far by the feeling of dependence natural to the people, and fostered by non-evangelical Christian sects. The American Presbyterians, with Beirut as a
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
center, report 2,390 church members, only one self-supporting church, and that is now seeking aid in America. Self-support must come from the development of a consecrated, gifted, native ministry directlyresponsible to the churches and supported by them. The Church of England, whose bishop resides in Jerusalem, has about 1,000 members. Besides, there are the Irish Presbyterian Church, with headquarters at Damascus, with 160 members; the Free Church of Scotland, 54 members; the Friends, 36 members, and the Lutherans in Beirut, 150 members, making a total of 4,700 native Protestant church members in Syria and Palestine.
2. The edncational work, from the necessities of the case, has received the most emphasis of any department. The British Syrian Mission, composed of ladies who are members of the Church of England, is doing a wonderful work through its fifty-two schools, and 3,9!7 scholars from ninety communities. The training of the mind is made subsidiary to the formation of Christ in the heart. The children, through their hymns and Bible stories, become effective missionaries. One can but admire the strength of character, the love and devotion manifested by cur English sisters in this work. The Presbyterian Board has 6,391 scholars in its schools of all grades; the Church Missionary Society, 3,000; the Friends of Brummana, 1,005; the Irish Presbyterian Church, 900; the Free Church of Scotland, 420; Church of Scotland Mission to the Jews, 350; Lutherans, 260. There are also independent schools, sustained by voluntar:; contributions and by teachers living in whole or in part on their own means. Among these is Miss Jessie Taylor'S orphanage for Moslem and Druse girls at Beirut, with an attendance of 186; the Tabitha Mission at Jaffa, with 210 scholars; the Female Education Society, with 62 scholar~, making in all 16,521. At the same time remember there are many scholars not here enumerated.
3. The work of the American press is conspicuously evangelical. Through its publication of the Arabic Bible, in whole and in part, and its issue of tracts and religious books in Arabic, it is a powerful auxiliary, not only for all evangelical Christians, laboring in Syria and Palestine, but also wherever the Arabic language is spoken.
4. lJledical m.issions, so greatly in favor in these more recent years, form an important part of the work represented by the different societies at the conference. The staff of physicians and surgeons at the Syrian Protestant College is famous for some of its me~nbers throughout Syria. It is said that when one of them was dangerously ill prayer was offered for him not only in Protestant but also in other churches of Beirut and in the mosques. There are medical missions in connection with all the larger missions in this country. Hundreds of communities are reacht, ami tens of thousands of patients are treated annually.
5. Industrial mission schools are ably represented by Dr. Ford, of Sidon. His school teaches masonry, carpentry, shoemaking, and tailoring. An agricultural department is to be added. It has proved to be very nearly self-supporting. It is found that such training tends to remove some of the greatest obstacles in native character with which missionaries have to contend. There can be no doubt that industrial training will soon win a permanent place among the missionary societies. A most beneficent branch of missionary work to be started by Dr. Theophilus Waldemeier, famous as one of the fifteen captives who cost the British Government in the war with Abyssinia for their release fifteen million pounds. He is soon to establish homes for the insane, who are bound in chains to rocks and put in caves.
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF JEWS IN RUSSIA
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF JEWS IN RUSSIA. * 1. The number of the Jewish race in Russia must amount to considerably over five millions. That figure is the computation for the Jewish residents in the Pale of Settlement, t and as there are large numbers of Jews privileged-or condemned, as in the case of Siberian exiles-to reside outside the pale, there are in all probability at least five and threequarter millions, at a low estimate, in the' Russian Empire.
2. Jews in Russia do not possess equal rights with other subjects. Tho Russia is made up of a variety of races, in which the Slav element is sometimes inconsiderable, yet all possess equal civil rights, provided they are members of the Greek Church, that being the state church. The special disabilities under which the Jew suffers are not, however, placed upon him because of his religion, tho many Jews so represent it. They are placed upon him in order to handicap his superior intelligence over the Russian peasant. The synagogue is as much tolerated as is the Roman Catholic Church-the clergy of which likewise suffer certain disabilities.
It is true that if a Jew is baptized into the Greek Church he attains every right of a Russian citizen, but this does not prove that persecution of the Jew is on nlig·ious grounds. He is then regarded as a true Russian, and no longer willing t.o use his brains, as one of a foreign race, to exploit the native.
Whether Russia's policy in dealing with her Jewish subjects is far-sighted or not; whether her use of her church as a nationalizing element is opposed to the spirit of Christianity or not, no one can gainsay the fact that her position is both patriotic and intelligible. A foreign race within her borders is so far superior to the natives, both in mind and habits, that unless hindered, it would in time absorb all property and leave the native none. Therefore she places special restrictions upon this particular race, over and above those restrictions which attach to all non-orthodox communities. This, then, is the ground of Russia's policy toward the Jew.
3. Vhat are these disabilities? Briefly and generally they are as follows: Jews may not leave the Pale of Settlement unless they are merchants of the first guild (a privilege involving taxes of about £100 a year), graduates of universities or higher educational institutions, soldiers who served under Nicholas 1., chemists, surgeons, and midwives. Jews may not reside within fifty versts of the frontier, unless resident or possessing property there before 1858; they may not reside on open land outside the cities and market towns. Jews, however, who were resident in villages before the" May Laws" of 1882, may remain there, but are prohibited by another law of 1887 from removal to another village. Restrictions are placed 0 n their ownership of land, and only this year (but strictly for patriotic reasons) the spirit trade was taken out of their hands, and made a government monopoly. Limitations are also made in regard to the proportion of Jewish youths and girls in colleges and universities.
A milder 7'egime has set in under the new czar. Not much has * Condenst f.rom an article by Samuel Wilkinson in The Friend of L.rael.
t The Pale of Settlement consists of 25 provinces (26 including Courland, where, however, no new settlers are permitted), on the western frontier of Russia, 10 of them forming the kingdom of Poland.
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
directly been done to remove existing restrictions (tho the manifesto granting free pardon to escaped conscripts boded well) ; but there are cer· tain indications which all point toward a less vigorous enforcement of the laws militating against the Jews. Exactly what influence wealthy Jews have used with the Russian government in this direction I cannot say, but altogether, apart from such influence, Nicholas II. has his hand firm on the rudder, and has his people's good at heart. The tide has set in in favor of more liberty for Germans, Poles, and, I believe, Jews also, even tho local outbreaks of hostility may still from time to time occur.
4. There is an incalculable amount of abject poverty in the towns of the Pale of Settlement; Inoreover the black hue of the country (when not covered with snow), the absence of small cottage gardens, trim hedges, and neat country roads, give a joyless, depressing aspect to the landscape, which harmonizes with the aspect of the Jews themselves, who wearily stand or tramp about with characteristically careworn faces. For all that, it is a fact that moderate and even considerable wealth is often concealed b,ehind these poverty-stricken exteriors. Not all Russian Jews either, have the pallid, cadaverous, sunken cheeks of the pious Chasid.- many are fine types of healthy manhood, body lithe, cheek ruddy, and eye sparkling.
5. Family home-life and general morals suffer from two causes: firstly from the subtleties of the Rabbinic and Talmudic theology, which is sometimes little less than a school of deceit-how to keep the law while breaking it, how to sin with a good conscience; such seems to be its teaching, and some of the most outwardly observant of synagogue ritual are the most lax in honesty and morality. The second cause is from the so-called" emancipation" of certain Jews from religious restrictions, when they become mere selfish, godless worldlings.
All Jewish sects in Russia may be said to accept the Talmud with the exception of the Karaites. * The Chasidim are a numerous sect founded about 1740 by one Israel Baal Schem, a Jew of Podolia, who claimed implicit submission as the representative of God upon earth. This sect submit themselves to their priesthood, the Zadd'ikhim, and regard them as inspired. One such Zaddik I visit~d in Bjalestok. To some extent they reverence the Talmud, but their basis of faith is the Book of ZohaT. t In the northern part of the Pale the orthodox Jews seem more intelligent, tho very fanatical, and if in the southern provinces there is greater ignorance, there is no less fanaticism. Darkness, gross darkness, reigns. There is "a zeal for God but not according to knowledge." ,. From the sole of the foot unto the head there is no soundness in it," and yet in the darkness-religious, moral, social-there are true-hearted souls.
II. There is some Gospel work among the Jews of Russia, with many hopeful signs of God's Spirit stirring the dry bones here and there as an incentive to sueh effort, but there is room enough in this dark, dark field for a hundred times more. Doors are open already and are opening wider every year.
*The Karaites are a small sect chiefly resident in the Crimea, claiming great antiquity.
But it is believed they date only from 750 A. D. They utterly reject the Talmud and all Rabbinical traditions, and adhere only to the Old Testament. Hence their name, which means Textuaiists.
t The book" Zohar" professes to have been written in the first century, but has been proved by its contents to belong to the thirteenth century, at which time it first made its appearance.-Enc. Rrit.
1898.J THE PRESENT CONDITION OF JEWS IN RUSSIA
(1.) Bible Distribution by Colporteur"s Sales is not a specIal effort to reach the Jews, tho they are not excluded. As there are comparatively few Jews in Finland or the divi'lions of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Khar- koff, Rostoff on the Don, the valley of the Volga, and Siberia, we may omit references to these places, and yet even in these districts Jews become purchasers of the 'Vord of God. At the North, the Bible Society has two workers in 'Vitebskand Wilna, two in the neighborhood of Riga, one in Courland, two in Dorpat, and three in Minsk. In Minsk about 16,000 Scriptures were disposed of in 1896. In the same year, in the Odessa division, about 53,000 books were distributed, viz., in Bessarabia, the Crimea, Kherson, and Podolia. Jews would also profit more or less by the society's circulation of Scriptures in Tiflis, in Transcaucasia, and especially in 'Varsaw. In Russian Poland copias of the Scriptures in Jewish languages were eagerly purchast by the Jews. The work among the Jews is often a difficult one, but in spite of many hindrances, nearly 22,600 Hebrew and Biglot versions were circulated. (2.) llfissiona'ry TVork ,in Stations.-The London Jews Society has long enjoyed a special permission to carryon mission work among the Jews in Warsaw. There is also a depot, but its returns of sales and gifts of Scriptures are small. The British Jews Society has now two missions in Russia, both in splendid centers. Dr. Frohwein conducts a dispensary in Wilna, and Rev. George Friedman labors in Kovno. The Lutheran Church has pastors in 'Vilna, 'Varsaw, and Kischenew who are friends of Israel. They also maintain a home for Jewish girls in St. Petersburs-.
In 'Varsaw Brother Rosenzweig works on the lines of the American "Hope of Israel ~Iission." He endeavors to be a Jew to the Jews and a Christian to the Christians, and without question gains access to many orthodox houses, llnopen to an ordinary missionary. Joseph Rabinowitz belongs to no society or church but the church of Christ. His work amongst his people in Russia is unique. The service in Somerville Hall, Kischenew, has something of synagogue ritual in it, but a very full Gospel in the preaching. His name is widely known in Russia, and his writings are extensively read. (3.) The Circulation of 21fissiunary Literature in Russia forms part of missionary work. Of the three Jargon or Yiddish Mission periodicals, Berith Am ( "Covenant of the People"), edited by Professor Dalman of Leipzig, Tigvvath Israel ( "Hope of Israel"), edited by Pastor Gaebelein, of New York, and Dibre Hayomim ("'Vords of the Days "), edited by Rev. Henry Goodman of the Mildway Jewish :1ission, a large propor- tion are sent to Russia for circulation and through various agenicies find willing readers. (4.) Free New Testament Dist1"ibui'ion, coupled with missionary work in depots, and itinerations, has been prosecuted most vigorously and extensively by the Mildmay Jewish Mission. Russian law, although it does not permit mission work pure and simple, sanctions the free distribution of God's Word, and also freedom to explain the nature of,the contents of the book. Over 200,000 Testaments and portions have been circulated in Russia during these twelve years. The depots at'present in use as centers for periodical itinerations are Warsaw, Odessa, Minsk, and Berditschew. Itinerations are the only possible practical way of evangelizing the Jewish field, and New Testament distribution, wisely carried out, must produce permanent and ble~-;' results. In hundreds of villages, where one never can hope to locate missionaries, the little Book is read. Many are indifferent, some violently hostile, some forgetful, but nevertheless there are the ones and twos who prize it, and to whom it becomes the source of life eternal.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
IlL-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
War Measures and Missionary Meas- rich nation. That it should be able ures. to place four hundred millions of its bonds (ten-twenty's) at three per BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D. D. cent., and a hundred millions on temporary certificates, is still more There is something pitiful in the emphatic as to our wealth; but cond:tion of the treasuries of the that when it called for the two-hunmissionary societies lookt at in the dred-million dollar loan, seven light of the financial status of this times that much money was subcountry, as exhibited in the war scribed, one's eyes stand wide open with Spain. The Methodist Epis- with wonder. Fourtb:m hundred copal, Presbyterian, Congrega- millions of dollars, lying loose tional, Baptist, and other mission- enough to be tendered to the govary organizations, have been teas- ernment on call, takes one's breath. ing their constituents up to the heroism (!) of paying debts aggre- 'Ve are told that there are many gating perhaps less than two mil- comparisons of our country which lion dollars, while the war expenses must be made, not with any other leapt at once from nothing to one one country, but with all the "rest million and a quarter of dollars a of mankind." 'Ve are laught at day, and in a few weeks appropria- across the ocean for saying of so tions of three hundred and sixty- many things in America, that they one million dollars were made, or are the "greatest in all the world." thirty times as much as Great Brit- 'Ve are not content to measure ourain and America contribute in a selves with anyone country, but whole year for the evangelization with all countries combined. We of the world outside their own have half as many miles of railway boundaries. The sort of civilizing as all the "rest of the world." We agency which cost that much for transported on these railways in the elevation of a population nu- 1892 one and a half times as much merically less than is contained in freight as all the rest of the railthe city of New York, would stand roads of "the world" put together in poor contrast with results of the did. Our steam marine registers fifteen millions a year of all the one-third of the entire steam regisforeign missionary societies of ter "of the world." In l896 we Christendom. raised more than one-fourth of the entire cereal crops "of the world." But that is llot chiefly what we 'Ve have more than one-half of the desire to point out just now. It is, telegraph wires "of the world." rather, the financial ability of the Our postal system carries a little population of this country, as con- less than one-third of all letters sent trasted with the paltry contribu- by post in "all the world;" our tions to the betterment of the thou- mechanical appliances comprise sand millions of people "outside more than one-fourth of the methe bulwarks " of Christian civiliza- chanical equipment of "the entire tion. That the government should world." John Shafroth, in a conbe able to issue a two-hundred-mil- tention in the House of Representalion dollar war loan in a time of tives in May last, in his address war, at the lowest rate of interest dealing with these facts, said the at which any nation ever did such people of the United States, in rea thing, indicates that this is a very spect to their resources and capacity Again, much has been said of the of performance, can no longer be Aladdin's lamp, which enables us, compared with any other single all at once, to put two-hundred nation; the comparision must be thousand equipt soldiers on the made with the entire" rest of the field, double our fleet, strengthen world." He was arguing to show fortifications, mine harbors, buy that the United States is, in fact, a ships, and much else. But what if world-power, and as sueh must some paltry tithe of such skill in have a world policy. combination and energetic concen- tration could be manifest in the Now, what we want to ask is, if churches of the land for the worldsix or seven millions of dollars an- kingdom of Jesus Christ? nually contributed to the progress of Protestant Christianity through ,Ve might remind ourselves of the missionary societies, looks in the fact that struck all Europe as the least as if we had a "world- much as anything else about our policy" in this direction. If, as war phenomena-that American Mr. Shafroth asserts, we constitute soldiers exhibited ability to take one-twentieth of the population of " the initiative." It was the" cour- "the globe," and own one-fifth of age which forgot all rules of milithe capital of "all the world," have tary practisf', and by its sheer irrewe any decent conception what we sistibleness, "that accomplisht the ought to be doing for a thousand impossible at San Juan and EI millions of "other folk," who are Caney. It was "the men behind not so much as nominal Christians, the guns," which made the world yea, who have never heard wheth- wonder and admire. Is there not er there be a Savior of the race? as much" moral fiber and personal courage" in the ranks of the Church The assistant secretary of the to carry every San Juan and EI treasury before the Social Science (Janey of heathenism? ,ViIl the Association said in August last, "A Church try what the government rich treasury and a potential ability of the United States tried-raise to add almost without limit to its and send forth its men, and riches, must have played a great fling them on the opposing forceR, part in robbing men and comman- with the simple "Go in," with ders [Spanish] of courage and hope, which Grant commissioned Sherand must have been important ele- man? Over-much prudence may ments contributing to the down- become prudery. ,Vill we raise the fall of Spanish power, and hringing money and commission the men, Spain to sue for peace." and push them to the front to •• find a way or Inake one ?" Again we ask, if the riches of this American nation were in any It may be all true that Chrisdecent proportion concentrated on tianity gets on, on a powder-cart, the evangelization,or even the civil- but the sober thought of mankind ization or the thousand millions of at the end of this century is exthe ,. rest of the world" which are prest by the government 11fesheathen or semi-civilized, what senger, the official press-organ of would be the moral effect of that the Russian Government, to wit: fact alone on those same thousand "The theory of war is a false and millions of people, when they be- lamentable theoI'y, which civilizacame aware of the fact ? Would it tion begins to identify with the denot be an "important element" struction of mankind." And yet contributing to the downfall of bar- the world treats as it might a fake, barism and the false faiths of "the the serious proposal of the Russian whole world?" government for a conference on ties would be glad tu enroll women armaments. Russia herself has an in at least equal numbers with army on a peace-footing of a mil- missionary men, to put heathen lion men. It is said it could mobil- on a peace-footing through Jesus ize more than two millions, and has Christ. Every Englishman pays a reserve of seven millions to aug- three dollars annually for the ment it to nine millions! The Mes- army, exclusive of the navy; every senger above quoted, says there are German the same. If every Meth- five-and-a-quarter millions of men odist in the United States would under arms in the world at the pres- contribute that much to missions ent moment, and possible reserves it would equal the entire annual to make over forty-four millions. income of all foreign missionary All this, to police the nations called organizations of Christendom. But Christian, to enable them to cut suppose now we are hearing so each other's throats; a force of much about Anglo-American al- which, it is said, "were these sold- liance that the one-hundred and iers entrusted with the task of an- twenty-millions of that alliance, nihilating mankind, thirty-two would give a hundredth part of that persons would fall to the lot of sum per capita to evangelize the each of them." Vhat would be the world through Protestant and result if the churches had on the Roman Catholic missions together, field, or in reserve at homp., an ag- it would make a splendid advance gressive force a thousandth part on what they are giving. as numerous as this army force? Is it overmuch to give one mission- Surely it is time Protestant ary to save life for every thousand Christendom organized a "Warsoldiers commissioned to take life? Board," to comprehend the data of Weare inspirited by a few thou- all the fields and forces and resoursand volunteers willing to take the ces, and to layout some great plan, mission field, but Russia alone col- other than the" go-as-you-please" lects every year over 280,000 young way of occupying fields and scatmen as recruits from all parts of tering forces which up-to-date that gigantic empire, to keep her marks missionary nlOvements of army on a pussible war-footing! the world. The nineteenth century The vast armies of the greater na- has mustered battalions and regitions of Europe are estimated to be rnents, and squads, and turned maintained at an annual cost of a them out in an indiscriminate thousand millions of dollars, irre- scramble, the twentieth century spective of the fleets which compose ought to see them organized as an the navies of Europe, and we affect army. suspicion when Russia mildly suggests that some measure of disarma- Ve now stand perplext how to ment is desirable! Vouldn't all the move men to the front, the probforeign missionary societies of lem chiefly thrust on us by the stu- Europe rejoice if one fiftieth part dent volunteer movement. The of this cost of maintaining police proposition tu send all approved of the world were afforded them to applicants forward, made by Dr. create conditions of peace, which Leonard, Secretary of the Methowould render so large a part of dist Episcopal Missionary Society, army and navy needless? has elicited a lively discussion and a symposium filling twenty pages These men are young, vigorous, double-column and fine print in the the flower uf the physical manhood November number of the" Gospel of Europe. The missionary socie- in All Lands" (Eaton & Mains,New York), well worthy the earnest study of all persons interested in nently only since November, 1895, . mission work. when Rev. S. A. Moffett and Dr. J. Hunter Wells located here, while As a symptom, these discussions in May, 1896, Rev. Graham Lee and are hopeful. We are rounding out family arrived from Seoul. In the the year 1898 with this number of same spring Dr. Douglass Follwill, the REVIEW. The churches as a of the Methodist mission, the others whole take an optimistic view of mentioned being all Presbyterians, the situation which confronts arrived, followed a little later by them. We share in that hopeful- Rev. 'V. A. Noble and family. In ness; no word of an optimistic na- this way the two stations continued ture have we ever spoken or writ- for a year, until now the Presbyte- ten that we wish to recall. rians have been reenforced, while our Methodist brethren are strug- But we are appalled with the op- gling along with more work than portunities which confront Chris- they can possibly attend to. The tendom at the door of the twentieth history of the establishment of century; yet not at the problems work here, and of its remarkable themselves, but at the overtower- growth, is in print in various jour- ing ill-acquaintance and sluggish nals and pamphlets. Of Dr. and indifference of Christendom itself Mrs. Underwood's visit some ten to its obligations, its environment, years ago; of Rev. .Mr. Appenzel- and its resources at this crucial ler's at the same time; of the won- hour. The nation is said to have derful work of Dr. Hall, deceased, just discovered itself. Bishop whose deeds for Christ are recorded Fowler, of the Methodist Church, in a volume edited by his wife, and told the British 'Vesleyan Confer- of the conscientious self-denying ence the other day, that Spain put labors of Rev. Mr. Moffett, those dynamite under our prow, and who run may read. blew us into the air, "and we came down everywhere. " Is there noth- This paper is intended for a brief ing short of the dynamite of Prov- review of the main features of the idence to make the Christian work here in Pyengyang as it now churches "come down everywhere? " That single torpedo appears. In the two years of perunder the Maine blew in our faces ten millions of Filippinos. The pro- manent occupancy, tho much of pulsive force that may be needful the planting work, notably that by to awake us to a world-policy of Dr. Hall, and ~he itinerating by Evangelism, we may await-but Messrs. Moffett and Lee, was not without some apprehension, if done before the number of we fail to appreciate our privileges church adherents had grown and adjust ourselves to our duty. from less than one hundred to more than three thousand, Missions in Pyengyang, Korea. and the number of churches, or meeting places, from three or four J. HUNTER WELLS, to about one hundred. This in- cludes both stations. This growth Missionary effort which records has been the result solely of the active work of only two years' dura- power of the Holy Spirit acting tion, can not. be expected to show through thDse brought to the Truth, very large results in any respect, who, as soon as they saw it, went and that view which takes cogniz- and told. their brethren. Some very ance of numbers only, is the interesting and edifying examples most erroneous of all. Pyengyang, of missionary labors by natives, Korea, has been occupied perma· who have traveled from town to town, teaching and preaching the sume the importance or lead that Good Tidings, without money and it did when the country was opened without price, and without sugges- to the Gospel at the point of the tion except what they found in the lancet, but the direct and indirect Scriptures, could be cited. This results of the Word preacht to phase and feature of the work is these 17,000 differen t persons can not deserving of special mention, for as be truly estimated, or overestima- a consequence, in all this section, ted. A surgical feature of interest, under both stations, there are but from my hospital, is the scores of two Koreans who receive money blind restored to sight by the operfrom America toward their salaries ations of iridectomy, and the reas helpers, while none of the lead- moval of cataract. Something ers in the scattered hundred over a hundred such operations churches,receive any pay not pro- have been performed. vided by the natives. When it is known that the average wages The feature of self-support alhere are but four dollars, gold, ready mentioned is illustrated by per month, and that for gentle- the fact that for the Christmas celemen who serve us as teachers, it bration one of the churches in will be seen that to provide all these town contributed 30 dollars, silver, places, and to build churches and to buy Christian books to be preschools, as has been done by adher- sented to unbelievers who would ents of both stations, requires con- accept them [and those who distributions from the native Chris- tributed them after the service had tians here, far larger, in proportion, to climb on a house and hand the than the church people of America books down one by one, the demand give to their own work there. was so great]; and to present each of the thirty odd prisoners in the The work here in all lines has jails and dungeons of the city with been one of very small beginnings, some money and a book-this by and there was much sowing on what permission of the governor; of seemed to be rocky ground, long the giving, not long ago, of 100 before the reaping of the last two silver dollars toward a church years commenced. There has been building; of the request by a conno sudden spurt, but steady ad- gregation, under charge of Dr. vance all along the line, tho the Underwood, for a missionary to lack of workers has prevented any come to them, they agreeing to special attention to anything but furnish a house and many of the evangelistic and medical work. In necessities of life; and of this same the latter department there has congregation glvmg some 100 been something over 17,000 patients dollars, silver, to India during seen in the two dispensaries and famine time, 50 dollars, for the small hospital, during the past two same purpose, having been sent by years. This, with the population the Christians here. All these of the city only about some 40,000 things occurred without suggestion people, with the surrounding re- or help from the missionaries. gions, tributary, having only about 500,000, if that many, shows a re- Another remarkable feature of markable attendance to this form the native Christians here is the of Christian beneficence and effort childlike faith and simplicity with for Christ. The evangelistic spirit which they accept and practise the is so prominent, and propagation of truth of the Scriptures. the Gospel so easy, that dispensary and hospital work does not as- Numerous instances of their at- tempts to cast out what they thought were devils or demons, by prayer, and in other cases by its outward and inward features. prayer and fasting, are of record. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, who .Many of the cases were benefited saW it two years ago, characterized and tho never traced or investi- it as the most wonderful she had gated, but what could be easily ever seen in connection with the diagnosed and classified, yet in no Gospel. Mr. W. Henry Grant and instance have the people been dis- Mr. R. E. Speer have been here and couraged in their methods, for who can speak for themselves. It is the knows, but that after all, they may Lord's work and He has blest it. not be nearer the true way than It is only in its beginning, and its we think? successful issue will require the prayers of God-fearing men and The unity of the two Christian women, for not only the Koreans stations here, the plainly prevalent come out of darkness, but for spirit of Christ which, seen of all strength from on nigh for the Iuen, animates the members of each missionaries here who' have to station toward one another especi- shepherd this flock, and it is for this ally, and of the very evident one- purpose, mainly, that this letter is ness of purpose of the two stations, written. is a feature whose influence and weight in shouldering this work CENTRAL CHINA CHRISTIAN must not be left out of considera- MISSION.-Rev. W. P. Bentley, tion. "The priest, like people," writing from Shanghai, China, was quoted in one of our meetings says: "The tenth annual meeting of during the week of prayer, for on the Central China Christian Misthat truth hangs many future con- sion was held in Nankin, May 11 to sequences. 18, 1898. The work is carried on under the auspices of the Foreign An external feature worth men- Christian Missionary Society of tioning, is the flying of the Korean Cincinnati, 0., U.S.A. Theforeign flag from many of the churches workers number twenty-five. The and from scores of Korean houses native staff about the same. The on Sundays. Thisis merely one of stations occupied are Nankin, their own doings, and is not uni- Vrehn. Chu-ch,lO, Lin-cheo-fu, and versal, but holds pretty well here Shanghai. Three sets of meetings in Pyengyang. The Korean flag were held; one for the natives, one is rarely raised on any other oc- for both natives and foreigners, casion. and one for foreigners only. All were gotten through within the Since the time mentioned in the same week. It was noted that in first part of this letter, the Presby- the mixt meetings the natives deterian station here has been reen- ferred a good deal to foreigners, forced by Rev. N. C. Whittmore, but in their own meetings they who arrived about a year ago, and gave evidence of the power and lately by Rev. MI'. and Mrs. Baird, judgmpnt to manage their own experienced missionaries trans- affairs. ferred from another part of Korea, and Rev. Wm. B. Hunt, and Miss " The past year's experience con- Margaret Best. Dr. Mrs. Hall, to firms the belief that the Chinese whom Pycngyang is no new field, Ohristians are liberal. They give will soon join the Methodists, while most liberally to work which they Dr. Miss Fish will come up from feel is their own, and their contri- Seoul just as soon as house-room butions increase in proportion as can be provided for her. This com- they are thrown upon their own repletes the brief review, with the ,personnel of the work in some of sources. The spirit and practise of tion to them, thert they have been laboring under the idea that these self-support are growing in the are outside matters. They have mlSSIOn. A very interesting exam- not exerted their influence for good, and any ill feeling existing pIe occurs in a new station-Lin- among the pecple against Christ- ians has easily led to trouble. cheo-fer. It is not strange, then, that mis- "The members here have all been sionary troubles are occurring more and more often. The high received within a few months, and authorities of all the provinces are have been told that they must be now specially commanded that, whenever missionary cases occur, absolutely self-supporting from the they must particularly instruct the start-altho they are very poor local officers to act in good earnest to give proper protection; and and number only about a dozen. whenever missionaries wish to call They already conduct their own upon the local officials, these must not of their own free will and accord services. They are allowed tempor- cut off, or decline to have commun- arily to meet in the mission (rented) ication with them. Such inter- course will lead to mutual trust, premises, but are making arrange- good faith, and confidence. The native Christians will then not ments to build for themselves-if cause trouble, and the people will only a hut-to start with. If this be admonisht that they must not for trifling reasons create disturb- instance prove a success, it will be a ances. In the event of a sudden uprising among the people, if the valuable lesson to all China. officials of the place deal with the "Every station reported many matter on an impartial and equita- ble basis, it will not be a matter of conversions, and an increast Inem- difficulty to prevent a calamity be- fore it has actually broken out. bership. In fact, the past year was The Tartar generals, viceroys, the most successful in the history and governors, therefore, must strenuously instruct the officers of the mission-about fifteen years. " under their respective jurisdictions, that as occasion arises they are to Decree of Emperor of China. satisfactorily and carefully devise PUBLISHT IN THE OFFICIAL PE- a plan of action in the premises.
KING GAZETTE, JULY 14, 1898. As to the cases still remaining unsettled, let such action he taken The propagation of the Christian religion, as practist in foreign as is necessary to bring them to a countries, is provided for by treaty settlement without loss of time and stipUlations. We have repeatedly as in future will prevent missionary issued our instructions to the vice- troubles again occurring. roys and governors of the various provinces to see that satisfactory Should there be any lack of enerprotection is accorded to mission- gy shown in taking precautionary aries, in the hope that the people and the Christians may live peace- measures to prevent trouble, the ably together. delinquent officials will be severely punisht in accordance with the new But during the present year, the rules framed and submitted to us missionary case at Chiang Pei Ting in Szechuan, and the cases at other by the yamen of foreign affairs. places have not, as yet, been settled. In the province of K wang The Tartar generals,viceroys, and Si, at Yung An Chou, another case governors, also, will not be allowed of murder of native Christians has in such cases to shift the responsioccurred. At Shashih, in Hupeh, bility imposed on them upon any a case has also occurred in which one else. foreigners are involved. In a word, the local authorities have We will administer and uphold not been able to show their respect- the law in the discharge of our ful indebtedness to us and carry duty, and let it not be said by the out the specific injunctions which we have solemnly enjoined upon officials that they were not duly them; and whenever cases have cautioned beforehand. arisen involving Christians and non-Christians, if they have not This decree is promulgated for peen, careless and s-iven no I1tten- the information of the public. Such an order as the above was transportation of goods, money, never before promulgated by any or mail through a carrier system emperor of China. It emphasizes which has grown up through ,hun- the treaty provisions, and com- dreds of years among the "hongs," mands officials to afford protection the great merca;ntile firms in all to missionaries, and to give audi- parts of China. This system is ence to them by which they will be safe, but not "speedy," unless able to make direct representations through special inducement. It is of difficulties in their work. Per- a purely voluntary business, and is haps its greatest force is in the conducted in a way that must com- prestige it give,; missionaries. Ro- mand the patronage of the public man Catholic missionaries may or perish. If it is not satisfactory abuse the privilege; it is to be hoped it is less remunerative. The rates Protestant missionaries will be ex- on mail matter vary with the distremely judicious in the use of it. tance to be covered, just as our ex- -[J. T. G.] press charges do. The system of carriers, whether of men as run- Difficulties of the Imperial Postal ners, or boats, or whatever else, has been slowly built up, until it is Reform in China. a greatly ramifying, completely organized, and well operated sys- The news from China indicates tem of carriage. that the Progressives have been turned down by the dowager em- If the government undertakes to press. The cable itemizes the back- establish an imperial postal system, set threatened to tho imperial pos- it is somewhat parallel to the Unital system, which was imtugurated ted States government undertakover a year ago, after painstaking ing to establish a national" express preparations through a long series company." It would conflict with of months. It can scarcely be a the operations of the existing cormatter of surprise that formidable porations, and would certainly antagonism should be developt to provoke opposition. Now, in China, the reform. Letus seeif we can make these "express companies" have clear just where the shoe pinches. been built up through centuries, and have vested interests which China has not been without a far- they will stoutly defend in such reaching and reliable postal service ways as are open to them. for strictly imperial communication with every part of the empire; It so happens that all these postal but to that the public was in no " hongs " in China are in the hands way admitted. It was for gazet- of natives of one city, Ninpo, in ting officials in every part of the the province of Chekiang, and" no country on government matters. native of any other part of China, has the slightest chance of being There was no pm;tal service for admitted to the guild," says the the people of a national, or even United States consul at Chinkiang. provincial kind that was connected with the government. Perhaps This "hong" postal system is what was can best be illustr:ated thus in the hands of a close corporby our own express companies. ation which has in it, as Consul These have provision for carrying J ones says, "vested interest which mail matter, letters, papers, books, has }i,een built up through generaand it sometimes occurs that better tions of hard labor, and they naturservice is had than is furnisht by ally resent the establishment of any the postal authorities. Much like service which threatens to deprive this express business is a system of them of their business." The g~vernment, unfortunately, er we studied questions of farestablisht postal rates which were reaching prop~rtions. With what in excess of those of the "expretls companies," the "hongs." The patience he dealt with details, and customers of the" hongs," with the ultra-conservative instincts of the their relation to questions of policy Chinese, regarded the new departure with the utmost suspicion, and progress none could know but when it was inaugurated, Feb. :l, 1897. If they can nut be conciliated those who watcht him closely and they become a ubiquitous power to stir up preJuUlce against the toiled with him. We write fervidgovernment scheme, and even to overturn the administration. ly, for our admiration of him grew Death of Rev. S. W. Duncan, D. D. to affection for him. The Baptist Rev. Samuel Duncan, D.D., For- Union, its missions, his entire comeign Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Missionary munion, will feel that something Union, died Oct. 29, at midnight, in Brookline, Mass. This will be akin to calamity has struck them the occasion of great sorrow far beyond his society and his commu- in his "taking off." The Missionnion. He could not be cribbed and confined by any denominational ary Officers' Conference will sorely boundaries. His ra4iant face was a benediction in itself; his broad miss him. The world is the poorer brain obliged his dealing with broad questions in a broad way, and his without him. The Baptist Standdeep devotement of all he had to devote to God and men, made him ard, Chicago, says: "The death of a tower of strength. As missionary secretary he was an Atlas with Dr. Duncan comes as a severe blow the world on his shoulders-a world already on his heart. He had cour- to the denomination and especially age born of conviction and consecration; his charity could not be to the Missionary Union. Called fenced in. He was a natural leader, and a logical one; no official posi- from the pastorate because of hiE tion was necessary to make him n force; any epaulets he wore were splendid fitness for the position of honored in his wearing them. He was a master; a living contradic- foreigh secretary of our great fortion of the suggestion that breadth and thoroughness do not go togeth- eign missionary organization, hc er in the same person. It might be said of him, as was said of another, brought to his work the energy, thc " n'ilLil quod incepU non perfeeil." knowledge, the executive ability, The writer knew him by association as a neighbor city pastor, and the abounding conviction of the in important conferences on great missionary problems when togeth- dignity and value of the foreign mission enterprise, that stampt him at once as an almost ideal man for the position. His grasp of the missionary situation, which grew with each of the six years of his service, was exemplified in the masterly reports which he was ac- customed to submit to the Mission- ary Union at its annual meetings.
That of last spring, which surveyed our Asiatic mission fields, was a veritable missionary state paper.
In order to perfect his information upon certain matters pertaining to these mission stations, he started upon his trip around the world, whence he returned only to lay down his work." J. T. G.
The American Missionary As- sociation at its meeting in Concord, N. H., Octoher 26, passed the fol- lowing resolution: "'Ve believe that no solution of the Indian prob- lem can be reacht until the present tribal system be unrecognized, fol.' plowing and sowing the fields government reservations be abol- belonging to the monasteries, and isht, and the present appropria- thus provided them with bl.'ead for tions fol.' the material SUppOl.'t of the year to come. the Indian be discontinued. Recog- nizing that our government bears a " The Al.'menian Protestants have friendly attitllde toward these re- just celebrated the semi-jubilee of forms, we would l.'ecommend both the coming of the American mis- that a committee be appointed to sionaries to Van, as the Armenians visit the president of the United of Aintab recently celebrated the States, secl.'etary of the interior, jubilee of the evangelical work in and others who may have pal.'t in that city. One of the Armenians the administl.'ation, to ul.'ge imme- of Aintab writes us to say that the diate action, that the policy now missionaries have brought great theoretically held by the govern- matel.'ial blessings to the province, ment shall be put into execution." for, first, on the occasion of the great famine, then on the occasion Relief Work in Armenia. * of the cholera, and, finally, dur- ing the recent business and other The following translation of an distresses, they have given prompt editorial in an Armenian news- aid to the destitute, the sick, paper of Oonstantinople is of and the sufferers. Now they special interest as indicating the are very nicely caring for 300 view taken of the work of Ameri- orphans of both sexes, whom they can missionaries by the Gregorian regularly send to the Gregorian Armenian community: church. The churches of Van also have had new life given them "Under date of Feb. 20 they through the presence of the Arwl.'ite to us fl.'om Varr that the mis- menian orphans, who are under sionaries there have impartially the care of the missionaries, and and wisely distributed the relief who come to church respectably sent for the destitute. The distri- drest, and together with the chilbution of oxen was no less helpful dren of the Greg0rian school sing to the people than that of the the sweet chants of the church. woolen and cotton clothing. To The children are able to join in the thirteen missionaries were given 42 singing, because they practise the oxen; to individuals, 91 oxen; to singing of the chants in the orphan- 122 villagers, 1,091 oxen; in all, age. Occasionally, also, the chil- 1,224. With these oxen was also dren are sent to church for confesgiven seed, and so it became possi- sion and communion. ble to plow and sow a good many fields. "Under date of Feb. 8 they also write to us from Van that lately "It was touching to see with the Latin fathers began to diswhat kissing and caressing the vil- tribute relief to all those who would lagers l.'eceived the oxen given accept the Oatholic religion. In a them; and no wondel.' the villagers few days they had in hand a few wel.'e glad, for by the help of these hundl.'ed converts. The work is animals the fields given over for a still going on, but not with its time to bal.'renness will once more original al.'dor. We should be glad become productive. The monks if anyone of the Dominicans or supplicated blessings on the donors Jesuits would give us infol.'mation who had supplied them the means on this subject. We hope that our correspondent has been mistaken • The Independent, April 21, 1898. in his information."
93tl FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
IV. -FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Syria and Palestine,* The Jew8,t Educational Missions.t BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
Judaism and Ohristianity.§ ors." The Written 'Vord was al- most entirely a Jewish production; ,V. BY REV. T. GIDNEY, If.A., and it tells us, in type and in his- tory, how the Incarnate Word In many respects the Jewish race came from heaven to earth to seek is the most remarkable of all the and to save the lost, and was born races of the earth. With the pos- one of their own race. &ible exception of the Chinese, the Jews are the oldest people in the The Jews may be traced hack to world. What a marvelous history Ahraham, who was the founder of they possess! a history written in their race and nation. A.s a race, advance in their prophetical books. and as a body of religionists, the And what a religion they had-so Jews have thus lasted some 3800 strange, so full, so typical in its years-as a nation their end came numerous rites-that, had it not at the destruction of Jerusalem by been a preparation for the religion Hadrian, 135 A.D., when Jerusalem that was, in the fulness of time, to was finally trodden down of the grow out of it as a flower from its Gentiles, and the Jews led away bud, it would have heen meaning- captive into all nations (St. Luke less, irrational, and burdensome. xxvi: 24). We can not rightly speak The Jews were the chosen race of the Jews of to-day as a "nafrom whom the Christ, the Redeemer of the 'VorId, the Seed of tion": i. e., a race of people inthe Woman, was to come, and thus the channel of communication of habiting a certain territory, and Divine grace to mankind at large. united by cOJ,pmon political institu- Christians are verily their "debt- tions. The Jews have no country, no king, parliament or other form • See also pp. 141 (Jan.), 535 (July); 903, 920 of government, no laws, no policy (present issue). of their own. (Hos. iii : 4.) They' are scattered throughout the world, NEW BOOKS: "Jerusalem the Holy,"' Edwin citizens of every country under S. Wallace; .• Through Egypt to Palestine," heaven. They are an international Lee S. Smith. race, but not a nation. There can be no douht that they are aspiring to RECENT ARTICLES: "'Vomen in Palestine," a national life once more. Coloniza- Biblical World (Feb); "Jewish Colonies in tion schemes for Palestine, "Zion- Palestine," Contemporary Review (May); ism," and such like movements are 4, Christian Educa.tion in Syria," Indepe1wnt straws indicating the way the wind (Aug. 25); "Returnof the Jews to Palestine," is blowing. Nineteenth Century (Sept.). The kistory of the Jews since thl.l t See also pp. 620, 622 (Aug.); 918, 923 dispersion is somewhat difficult to. follow, seeing that it is wrapt (PNe:;n~~~~~); .. History of the People of up in the history of the many Israel" Carl H. Co rnhi l l; .. Miss i~o.,n..s to th~ nations amongst whom they have Jews , and" Sites and Sc enes," T. Gid- sojourned. In order to acquaint ourselves with their history we ney; "The Hope of Israel," F. H. Wood. must study the history of the RECENT ARTICLES: •. The Jewess as She worId at large. Thus, the Jews of Was and Is" Ladies' Home Journal (Janu· Poland, which is the home of the wandering race to-day, are as disary); '" Modern Judaism" and H Jewish °910nization," Meno'rah (December '9'1); ~. Zwnism," North American Re"iew (August). Also (Monthly) The Scattered Natlo.., The Hope of Israel Jewish Missionary Intelligence, Jewish MissiJnary Herald, Jewish E"a, The Friend of Israel, Trusting and Toiling, The Peculiar People.
t See also pp. 52 (Jan.); 265 (April); 881, 897, 909 (present issue). RECENT ARTICLES: H Education in Hawaii."
Educational Review, (January); .. Missionary Educational Work," Church at Hom€ and Abroad (September).
§ Condenst from The Student Volunteer (British). March 1898. tinct from the Poles as the Jews been doomed; ever since the dewere from the Babylonians during struction of Jerusalem, which was the end of the Jewish dispensation, the Babylonian captivity. Oil and they have absolutely ceast. Mosa- ism is extinct, and also the old water will not mix, neither can nor Jewish religion, never again to be will the Jews be fused into the na- revived. Synagogue ritual is very different from that of the temple. tions of the earth. (Num. xxiii: Fasting and prayer have super- seded burnt-offerings. One of their 9.) In Egypt, in the wilderness, in prayers on a fast-day runs: Canaan, in Babylon, and during o Lord, may the diminution of my blood their long-continued and present and fat by fasting to-day be acceptable as if dispersion, every city where Jews the sacrifice had been slain on the altar. have congregated has had its There is no Passover Iamb killed; Ghetto, or Jewish quarter-either a shank-bone of mutton, placed on the table, has taken its place. Their because the Jews would not min- own law, which they read, tells them that without shedding of gle with their Gentile neighbors, blood is no remission (Heb. ix : 22 or because their neighbors would and Lev. xvii: 11), and yet they. have no blood wherewith to appear not permit them to do so. 'The in the presence of their God! Chris- Jews are as distinct a people to- tians have a temple: a house of God, not made with hands; eternal day as when they came out of in the heavens. We have a High Priest, Who, when He had offered Egypt. Anti-Semitism is as rife Himself a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, ascended into the now as it was in Persia in the days courts of heaven; but the Jews have no temple, no priest, no sacriof Ahasuerus. The Jews are an fice_ They are without the esindestructible race. As Dean Mil- sential means of drawing nigh unto God in His own appointed way, man eloquently said: seeing that they reject His Son Jesus Christ. * The Jews are as Perpetually plundered, yet a I way s dead spiritually as they are nawealthy; massacred by thousands, yet tionally. springmg up again from their undying stock; the Jews appear at all times, and in The number of the Jews is about all regions; their perplexity, their national ten millions, of whom about eight immortality, is at once the most curious millions are in Europe; the rest in problem to the political inquirer, to the re- Asia, Africa, America, and Ausligious man *a subject of profound and awful tralia. Of the European Jews, adlniration. Russia, Austria, and Germany (i. e., ancient Poland), account for 7,000,- This continued existence of the 000. Old Poland is thus the Jewish Egypt of to-day. Russia has four Jews, notwithstanding the efforts and a half millions of these Jews, and is one of the very few Eurowhich have been made to exter- perm Stutes which have not yet emancipated them. Therefore, as minate them, is a mighty proof of the Russian Empire contains half the truth of the Bible.t And thus * John xiv: 6,40; viii. 24.
our debt to the Jews is intensified. Very different indeed is the re- ligion Df the Jews of to-day from Old Testament Judaism as sketcht in Leviticus. That Book and its multifarious religious rites and ceremonies are as dead a letter to Jews as they are to Christians. They cal'. not observe them if they would, they would not if they could. The first covenant waxt old and decayed, and vanisht away forever, to make roonl for the new and better covenant (Heb.
viii: 13). Ever since that great day when the veil of the temple was rent in twain, sacrifices have * History of the Jews, Book xviii: vql. iLl p.3t 9D8e. nt. … an d I s. x I'" I: 1" II. XXVlll., H the number of Jews in the world, the eighth century. "Karaite" is from a Hebrew word meaning it is evident that the Israelites who "Scripturist." They adhere prin- cipally to the Pentateuch, and re- enjoy rights of citizenship are still ject the Talmud. They are the "Protestants" of Judaism. They in a minority. But, owing to the number about 3000, principally found in the Crimea, but a few also anti-Semitic policy pursued in that in Russia and Syria.
country, an exodus is now going There are also to be found Jews on. In Europe to-day the Jews' who are such by rel'igion, tho not languages are J udreo-German (Yid- by descent: namely, the Black dish) and Judreo-Spanish. Jews Jews in Cochin (China) and on who speak the former are called the Malabar coast of India; the Ashkenazim, from Germany {"Ash- Beni-Israel in Bombay; and the kenaz," Genesis x: 3), the latter, Loango, or negro Jews, in Africa.
Sephardim, from " Sepharad" The Falashas of Abyssinia are (Obadiah 20), supposed to be Spain. supposed to be descended from im- They are principally found in Hol- migrants posterior to the time of land, Spain, Turkey, Palestine, Solomon, Jewish authorities main- and North Africa. They are the tain that the Falashas are Jews by "aristocracy" of the Jews. The faith only; they also hold that the Jews in Palestine and Syria speak Karaites are not of Jewish but of Arabic, and those in Persia either Tartar origin.
Persian or Judreo-Persian. Hebrew BOOKS OF REFERENCE.
is the language of their devotional "The History of the Jews," by Dean Mil- man (3 vols.). London: John Murray, 1866. books, tho not understood by the Indispensable to any serious study.
generality of Jews. "History of the Jewish Nation," by the Rev. Alfred Edersheim, D.D., revised by the The Jews are divided into four Rev. H. A. White. London: Longmans & Co.,1896. Important, learned, and valuable. sects: Orthodox, Reformed, Chas- Exile to the Fall of the Roman Empire.
sidim, and Karaites. "The History of the Jews," by the Rev. H. C. Adams. Religious Tract Society, 1887- The Orthodox (Talmudists or war with Rome to the present time. Rabbinists) are found principally in Poland, and in the East gener- " Israel and the Gentiles," by Dr. Isaac da ally. Most of the Jews in London Costa. London: Nisbet & Co., 1850. Comare Orthodox. They believe b the pletehistory of the Jews from the Exodus. Old Testament and also in the Talmud, in the coming of the Mes- "The History of the Jews," by Professor siah, and in the return to their own H. Graetz (English translation, 5 vols). Lonland. They correspond to the Phari- don: David Nutt, 1892. Best history from a sees of old. Jewish point of view.
The Reformed Jews are found in "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," by Europe (except old Poland) and Israel Abrahams. London: Macmillan &, America. They answer to the Co., 1896. Social and synagogallife, etc. Sadducees, and reject not merely the Talmud, but also the inspira- "The Jews, or Prediction and Fulfilment;' tion of the Old Testament. They by S. H. Kellogg, D.D. London: Nisbet & have given up the hope of a Mes- Co.,1887. Embraces the whole Jewish quessiah and the return to Palestine. tion, and ought to be carefully studied.
The Chassidim are a large but "Israel Among the Nations," by Anatole decreasing sect in Russia, Rou- Leroy-Beaulieu (English translation). Lonmania, Galicia, and Hungary. They don: Heinemann, 1895. A valuable book, are really a branch of the Orthodox from a Christian point of view. Jews, and attach much significance to the study of the Cabbala. This "The Jews in Ancient, Medieval and Modsect was founded as late as 1730, by ern Times," by James K. Hosmer. London: Rabbi Israel Baal Shem, who was Fisher Unwin. 1886. called Zadik (righteous) and pretended that the Messiah would "The Life and Times of Jesus the Mescome out of his family. siah," by Alfred Edersheim. D.D. London: Longmans & Co., 1894. A splendid book. The Karaites are supposed to have been founded by Anan-ben- ""The Works of Josephus," conlprising the David, of Basra, near Bagdad, in Antiquities and the Wars of the Jews. In· dispensable. Whiston's edition.
"The Home and the Synagogues of the Modern Jews" (The Religious Tract Society) is the best book we know on the subject.
"Sketches of Judaism and the Jews," by the Rev. Dr. McCaul. London: wert- heim, 1838: and his" Old Paths." Mackintosh, 1868, are learned and invaluable aids.
"The Jewish Religion." by M. Friedlander. London: Kegan, Paul & Co., 1891. Reliable and full, by a Jew.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
V.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The Maroh of Events. form in the corrupt system of gov- ernment would be of great /!,dvan- A few weeks ago the" Awaken- tage to missionaries as well as to ing of China" was one of the-chief the Chinese. Freedom of speech subjects of internatiol:'.al and mis- and the introduction of western sionary interest. To-day the indi- civilization would aid in the preach- cations are that China has settled ing of the Gospel, but would like- back into her old lethargic condi- wise bring a greater influx of tion as far as her progress in west- infIdelity and the vices of the west. ern learning and scientific progress Superstition, vice, and bigotry offer is concerned. Altho many rumQrs great obstacles to Christianity, but have been rife as to the death of primitive civilization, when accom- the emperor, K wang Hsu, the pros- panied by intelligence, industry, pect of his reinstatement at Eng- and honesty, is rather a help than land's demand, the appointment of a hindrance to its progress. The a new emperor by the dowager em- crisis of the country is acute; parpress, etc., etc., there seems to be tition seems imminent at times, 110 certain knowledge as to the con- but may never come. The people dition of the emperor's health or generally are not patriotic and care the immediate outcome of the crisis only to serve their own selfish ends. in Peking. One thing, however, is Flood, famine, plague, and riot are certain, namely, that the reform also adding to the troubles which movement in China along the line vex this land. of western ideas, has had a set-back and the time for the emergellce of What is needed now in China is the "Flowery Kingdom" from a a man with brains, tact, honor, and state of semi-barbarism has not yet will-power, who shall take control arrived. Doubtless, the reforms of affairs, save the country from its proposed by the emperor and his enemies at home and abroad, and advisers were too radical to suit lead in the much-needed reforms. the taste of the majority of his sub- There seems, however, to be no such jects and an attempt to enforce man available. them might have incited further rebellion. The empress dowager, "Te know not what the end may who is now in her sixty-fourth year, be, but firmly believe that God is a woman of strong character, tho rules and will shape the events of evidently unscrupulous. She b this vast empire for the progress of probably more in favor of reform the Kingdom. than she is given credit for, but is opposed to radical and immediate The advance of England in the changes in the corrupt political Nile Valley threatened even as serisystem in vogue and to the opening ous complications with France as of the country to the wholesale did the conflict of interests with adoption of western ideas. It may Russia in China. The dispute be that she fears her inability to will, however, probably be amicaenforce reforms at present. bly settled. The capture of Khar- tum has opened up the Nile Valley The effect of this crisis upon mis- and establisht a Christian power sion ">'Grk it i"s impossible clearly in the heart of Eastern Sudan. to foresee since it can not be told The Sirdar, Sir Herbert Kitchener, what a day will bring forth. Re- is said to have suggested a memo- rial to General Gordon in the form of a native technical college and medical school at Khartum. The In the United States, the Indians Church Missionary Society stands have been attracting attention. A ready to establish a medical mis- small uprising of Pillager Indians sion there as soon as permission is in Minnesota was caused by the granted. This would be a still rascality of political agents and by greater boon to the Sudanese than "firewater" sold to them by the the college. Christianity is a more white man. Many believe that sure forerunner of civilization than it might have been quelled by civilization is of Christianity. Two Christian conference without the ladies have already promist $1,500 use of troops and the shedding of a year toward a medical mission, blood. The Kingdom, a paper puband Douglas M. Thornton, Dr. lisht near Leech Lake, Minn., sug- Harper, of Cairo, and Rev. Dr. gests that if John G. Paton, single- Sterling, of Gaza, have been selec- handed, could work such marvelted as the pioneer missionaries. ous transformation in bloodthirsty savages of the New Hebrides solely The pilgrimage of the German by the power of love, there ought emperor to Jerusalem has been to be moral power enough in Chrisbrilliant in the extreme from a tian America to convert the remworldly standpoint, but has done nants of the American aborigines. much to deplete the Turkish treas- Indian wars have cost the United ury. The emperor has doubtless States over $110,000,000 since 1831, political aims aud intends to make and thousands of lives have been the sultan pay dearly for the" hon- sacrificed. We venture to say that or." A member of the " Young if half this sum had been spent on Turkey" party justly criticises Christianizing them the results this visit on the ground that while would be very different. starvation stares numberless subjects of the Porte in the face, mil- The Mohawk Indian Conference lions of dollars will be uselessly (Oct. 14) adopted a platform that squandered by their ruler and his recognizes the reforms adopted by Christian guest. If the emperor's the government in the reservation heart is susceptible to pity, his pil- system, giving of rations and ingrimage might have a different crease of educational facilities for outcome if it were taken incog. men and women. Nevertheless, under the guidance of sorne of the the Indian problem is still far from missionaries who have riskt their solved. More care is needed in lives in the sf'rvice of Armenia. the appointment of suitable men as Indian agents and inspectors and Mohammedan and Turkish su- superintendents of Indian schools. premacy is over in Crete. Disor- The platform closes with an appeal ders have been quieted and the to the people of the United States "powers" have at last shown to demand that the Indian "bureau some use for their existence. There be taken out of politics and that is one less scene of disorder on the the work of the bureau be entrusted planet. Turkish troops have been to experts until its work be accomsent home, and Prince George of plisht and that it then be dissolved. Greece will be governor until some There is especial need of reform scheme of autonomy is introduced. with a view to the expediting the This step in advance shows what allotment of the land in severalty, might be done for the rescue of and the rendering of Indians every- Armenia. where accountable to the courts with a right of appeal to the same. One of the unique conventions of fit is to be secured. Already Dr. A. October was a meeting of Christian J. Diaz has returned to his native Indians held in South Dakota,com- land and several missionary socieposed of the Congregational and ties are awaiting the proper time Presbyterian churches among the to come for taking up work there. Dakota Indians. The leaders in church work gather in this annual Mormonism is another imporconvention to compare methods tant subject in American politics and receive inspiration. Among and religion. Mormon missionthe subjects this year were: "What aries are preaching throughout the Indian Customs Hinder the Prog- East, and are so successfully hoodress of Religion?" "The Relation winking many people that not only of Education and Christianity;" are they securing converts in " The Reason for the Falling Away Brooklyn and other cities, but even from Religion of the Citizen Indi- Christian ministers look upon them ans;" "The Sanitation of Dwell- as merely a political sect who have ing-Houses ;" "The Effect of a discarded polygamy, and with it all Single or Mixt Diet;" "When is that is immoral and un-Christian in War Justifiable?" This conven- their svstem. One New York paper tion of over one thousand Indians refused to publish an accurate and is one of the brighter signs in the judicious reply to an interview upoutlook for the solution of the In- holding Mormonism, on the ground dian question. that it would engender discussion! It is time that Christians in the The territorial expansion of the East awoke to the true character United States will not be far ahead and purposes of Mormonism. To of the missionary expansion of the this end they would do well to subchurches. Already Puerto Rico has scribe to The K-ins1nan, publisht been occupied (Oct. 18) and plans in Salt Lake City. ",Ve hope to have been m~de and steps taken have some thorough articles on the for needed sanitary and education- subject of the" DoctrineE and Pracal improvements in the island. -tises of Mormonisnl," in an early Dr. H. K. Carroll went thither, at issue of the REVIEW. the request of the government, to inquire into the moral and relig- A warm advocate or' both Home ious conditions. It is hoped and ex- and Foreign Missions has recently pected that able and earnest mis- past away, in the late John Hall, sionaries will not be long in begin· D.D., pastor of the Fifth Avenue ning to preach there the Gospel Presbyterian Church, New York, of Christ-not of envy and strife, and president of the Presbyterian but of love and peace. board of Home Missions. Dr. Hall died on September 17th, at the age The Cuban question has been of 69. He has 'long been in touch practically settled with Spain, and with many forms of mission work, it is expected that the United States and his church has given largely to will control the island from the be- the work at home and abroad. ginning of 1899. Already many reforms have been instituted in It is with true sympathy and Santiago by the able administration sorrow that we record the death on of General Leonard Wood. But October 18th, of Rev. Peter J. religious and moral reform must Zwemer, who went out six years accompany political and education- ago, to preach Christ to the negal I1dvance, if any permanent benelected peninsula of Arabia. His un- servants~the English Christians seem to tiring and self-sacrificing labors in have a dreamy belief that we have a succesthat trying climate of the Persian sion of such men-men strong in ability and Gulf sapt his vitality and his fur- strong in faith-to-day also. ~We have not; lough came too late for earthly rest at least I am not familiar with their names. and recuperatjon. He arrived in John Bright said a quarter of a century ago: New York shortly before his broth- " It is not to be believed that India is always er, Rev. S. ]I. Zwemer, returned to to continue to be a fat pasturage for young his field. He was obliged to go im- Englishmen," but that is the belief permediately to the hospital where a sistently acted upon, to the exclusion of few weeks later he went to his rest equally able or abler men of Indian birth. and his reward. Arabia, as well as his family and friends, will deep- India, an English weekly, representing ly feel his loss. the views of Sir Wm. Wedderburn and the II. ten righteous men" in our parliament, British Rule in India. urges upon us the danger of neglecting Indian questions, and of losing the control of these One of our English correspondents, questions, through the pressure of other im- James E. Mathieson, Esq., of Lon- portant business, or the unwillingness of the don, takes strong exception to Dr. Home Indian office to interfere with the au- Kellogg's article, quoted in our Di- thorities in India. If this neglect is congest Department for April, on the tinued, we may ere long look for a tremend- "Ruin of India under British ous explosion in India, or God's righteous Rule." Mr. Mathieson strongly judgments for our accurst opium crime and believes that the British race is in the oppression of India, and for the emascugreat danger of a decline and fall, lation of China through that vice. brought about by effeminacy produced by the spread of luxury, and In this connection it is idle to point to by the judgment of God for op- certain improvements in the social conditions pressions of peoples brought under of India, which have been brought about dur- British rule. He says: ing the period of English rule. People will not discriminate between two things abso- As a wise governor-general of India early lutely different, the British people at large, in this century said, "It must always be a represented by the rulers of the nation for grave question whether a people would not the time being actuated by motives of on the whole prefer to be ill-governed by worldly expediency and selfishness, and the those of its own race than well-governed by much smaller body of the true Christian those of another." community, whose hearts are touched by Divine grace to try and remedy the wrongs In a proclamation made by our queen after of India and other peoples, and to bring to the mutiny, in 1858, was contained a solemn them the Gospel. To the latter, and not to promise that natives of India would in future the former, we owe the abolition of the burnhave a large share in the offices then held ing of widows. infanticide of female children, almost exclusively by natives of this coun- murder by the thugs, the juggernaut festival, try. This promise has been shamefully and cruelties, etc., etc. Who commenced broken. A government, such as our Indian the system of education? Was it the Indian government. which can persist in poisoning government? No; it was the missionaries China and the East with opium, solely for who showed the way in this great reform revenue, is capable of any enormity, and its also. All reforms in India (as too much also capabilities in that direction have been over at home), have been forced upon an unwilling and over again demonstrated in its shameful government in the interests of the peoply by and dishonest dealings with the native prin- men whom they hate, and usually despise. ces, e.g., the rulers of Oude, and more recently with the heir to the Punjab. A book, As regards the oppressive taxation, land whose publication our queen herself author- tax raised upon the people again and again, ized, "Sir John Login and Duleep Singh," salt tax, which makes this indespensable gives us a picture of shameless rapacity, commodity twice or thrice as dear as at the which does not stand alone in Indian gov- beginning of the century. See what is said ernment annals. And because there was in India for April 1st. raised up in India earlier in this century a group of noble soldiers and civil What brought about the American revo- lution? The attempt to impose a tax upon the American colonies. Would Britain dare to-day to exact a tribute from Canada or Cape Colony or the Australasian colonies? She knows better than that. But poor India, gagged and dumb, has to contribute to the spending money of men in Great Britain the stupendous annual subsidy of twentymillions sterling.
REVIEWS OF MISSIONARY BOOKS
VI.-REVIEWS OF MISSIONARY BOOKS.
Israel. schools and orphanages, thus getting hold of the children. Their mission is to establish JERUSALEM, THE HOLY. By Edwin Sherman Roman Christianity and their methods are Wallace. Bvo,360pp. Illustrated. Flem- very effective. ing H. Revell Co., New York, Chicago, and Toronto. The Armenian and other Oriental churches are for the most part poor and not progress- This brief history of ancient and ive. modern Jerusalem by the recent United States consul for Palestine The Church Missionary Society carries on is an exceedingly attractive and work among the people of the city and vicin- interesting book. Mr. Vallace ity. It has abont 20 workers, has a boys' writes from the sympathetic stand- boarding-school with 70 boys, conducts a day- point of a Christian, and with the school, and has gathered about 130 native advantage of five years' residence Christians. in Jerusalem. While the history is much condenst, and many details of The London Jews' Society has a boys' interest are necessarily omitted, the school, a girls' school, and a house of industry narrative and description is full of for manual training. interest, and gives an exceptionally accurate and complete idea of the There is a German Evangelical community city and its surroundings, past and numbering about 200, with orphanage and present. The chapter on the Jews hospitals. (Their church has just been dediin the modern Jerusalem throws cated by Emperor William). much light on their condition, character, and customs, the coloni- The Moravians have a lepers' hospital west zation and nationalistic movements of the city. and the Christian missions among them. One-half of the 85,000 Jews American missions are those of the Chrisin Palestine live in Jerusalem. tian Alliance, which has three lady mission- Christians ill .Terusalem number aries and three or four independent workers 8,630, most of whom are Greek among the Jews. orthodox (4,OOO),and Roman Catholics (3,200). Protestants number Mr. 'Vallace concludes by point- 500, and Armenians 600, the re- ing out the fulfilments of prophecy mainder being Coptic, Greek Cath- that have taken place and are takolic, Abyssinian and Syrian Chris- ing place in .Terusalem, and affirms tians. Vhile justly criticising his conviction that the Jews will those who come to .Terusalem to be the chief inhabitants of Palesproclaim their peculiar religious tine in the future. yagaries, and affirming it as his conviction that" Jerusalem is over- Fifteen photographic reproducmissiona:-ied," Mr. Wallace speaks tions and four maps illustrate the cordially of the Protestant mis- book. A general index would add sionary work there and testifies to its value, tho this lack is supto the Christlike lives of the mis- plied in part by full chapter" consionaries. The following facts are tents. " gathered from the chapter on "The Christians in Jerusalem: " THE MESSIAH AND HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL. By A. C. Gaebelein. 16mo, 64 pp. (paper). Hope The Greek Orthodox Church have several of Israel Mission, New York. monasteries and convents, a girls' and a boys' school, and a hospital. Their aim is to Rus- In this suggestive and compresianize rather than to Christianize the people. hensive little pamphlet the superin- tendent of the Hope of Israel Mis- The Latin Churc4 works chiefly through sion discusses, especially for .T ewish readers, the relation of Jesus to Is- rael, as disclosed in Old Testament prophecy and in New Testament history. In the statistics of the Jewish population of the world, Mr. Gaellelein estimates the num- ber at 12,428,500, one-half of whom reside in Russia, Austria, and the neighboring districts. He also gives some interesting Palestinian away with the necessity of any ex- statistics, and closes with a brief tended use of the imagination. statement of the principles of the Hope of Israel movement. Books Received.
SITES AND SCENES. By Rev. W. T. Gidney, M. MISSIONS ANn POLITICS IN ASIA. By Robert A. 12mo,200 pp. (paper). London So- E. Speer. 12mo, 271 pp. $1.00. Fleming ciety for Promoting of Chnistianity H. Revell Co. amongst the Jews. DOWN ON THE HILLS OF T'ANG: Missions in The assistant secretary of the China. By Rev. H. P. Beech. 12mo, 181 London Jews' Society, from whom pp. Map and statistics. $1.00. Student we quote an article in our" Field Volunteer Movement, N. Y. of Survey," has issued two booklets or handbooks of great inter'lst and THE LAND OF THE LAMAS, or the 0'8cning of value for reference. "Mission to Tibet to the Gospel. By Rev. . W. Le Jews," contains "reasons, facts, Lacheur. 8vo, 63 pp. lllustrated. 25 and figures" of live interest. cents (paper). Christian Alliance Pub- " Sites and Scenes," Part I., "A lishing Co., Nyack, N. Y. Description of Missions to Jews in Eastern Lands," is a comprehen- THE ILLUMINATED BIBLE, Teachers' Edition. sive tho necessarily limited sketch Illustrated. 8vo. The American Bible of the London Society's Oriental House, New York. missions, Abyssinia, Galilee, and Northern Palestine, Persia, Damas- ONE HUNDRED YEARS; A Short History of the cus and Syria, Smyrna and Anbo- Church Missionary Society. By Eugene lia, Arabia, with bibliography. Stock. ltmo, 188 pp. One shilling net. These handbooks contain much in- Church Missionary Society, London. teresting and valuable material on the subject of Gospel work for JOHN G. PATON'S Al'TOBIOGRAPHY. Edited by Israel. his brother. Vol Ill. Illustrated. 12mo, 99 pp. Fleming H. Revell Co. 5Oc. SHEPHERDLESS SHEEP is a booklet publisht by the London Prayer Union for Israel. GEORGE MULLER, The Modern Apostle of This is a short but strong plea for the Faith. By F. G. Warne. 12mo, 278 pp. chosen but apostate race. Illustrated. $1 00. The same.
INDIA, THE HORROR STRICKEN EMPIRE. By GOD'S METHODS W,TH MAN. By Rev. G. George Lambert. 8vo,480pp. Illustrated. Campbell Morgan. Chart. 12mo, 188 pp. $1.50. Mennonite Publishing Co., Elk- $1.00. The same. hart, Indiana. WHEREIN? Malachi's Message to the Men of There are thousands of children To-day. By Rev. G. Campbell Morgan. in India left destitute and orphans 12mo. 75 cents. The same. through the ravages of famine and plague. Mr. Lambert's book is PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY IN THE AN~ publisht with a view to giving a vivid picture of the horrors attend- CIENT WORLD. A study in the History of ing famine, plague, and earthquake Moral Development. By R. M. Wenley. in the years 1896–97, and to create 12mo, 194 pp. 75 cents. The same. substantial interest in the survivol's. DIVINE PENOLOGY. By Rev. L. B. Hartman, The proceeds from the sale of the D.D. 12mo, 306 pp. $1 25. The same. book will be used in Christian relief work, thus purchasers will become MISSIONARY METHODS FOR MISSIONARY COMcontributors. While evidently hastily prepared and not issued in first- MITTEES. By David Park. lUmo, 76 pp. class style, this book gives the Charts. 50 cents. The same. only full and vivid description of these disasters. The five hundred THE FIRST HUNDREn YEARS 0" MODERN MISillustrations from photographs do SIONS. By James S. Ross. D.D. 8vo. 93 pp. (paper). William Briggs, Toronto. A HOLY GHO"T CHURCH. By Archibald G. Brown. A. B. Campbell. Edinburgh, Scot- land. MANILA AND THE PHILIPPINES. By Mar- g-heritt A. Hamm. 8vo, 218 pp. 50 cent•. (paper). F. Tennyson Neely, New York. IMPERIAL AMERICA: The Policy of Colonial Expansion. By Wm. C. Levere. 8vo, 128 pp. 25 cents (paper). Forbes & Co., Chicago. MILLENNIAL DAWN, IV., The Day of Ven.
~'£'.:'~at~~m~~:~~ ~fble 5~~.i'~~a~~a~~g: ety, Alleghany, Fa. THE "IENANA, V. 1898. Zenana Bible and Medi- cal Mission. London.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF OUR WAR WITH SPAIN. By John R. Musick. Illustrated. 8vo, 224 pp. (paper). 25c. J. S. Ogilvie, New York. How THE LORD BUILT THE CHAPEL. By Rev. Dwig-ht Goddard and Frances Goddard, M. D. 8vo, 42 pp. (paper). Methodist lUissioo Press, Fuchau, China.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
VII.- GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extracts and Translations From Foreign Rochester past out of use ages Periodicals. ago. Indeed, many highly edu- cated Roman Catholic clergymen BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK. imagine it to have been invented by Lawrence Sterne. We are· We have just received a proof of assured, however, by R. C. pro- fessors of theology, that there is the difficulty of establishing a no reason to dispute its genuine- ness. Indeed, it appears that the negative. Some time back we de- original is still kept at Rochester.
clared that a certain form of impre- This imprecatory form of the pontifical, detacht as it is from cation, given as from the Roman the Greater Excommunication, and buried under an office only apperpontifical, was undoubtedly genu- taining to nuns, is probably un- known to the priesthood at large, ine, but was not in the pontifical, if it isnow used at all. There it is, however, and Messrs. Engall and for that we had ourselves carefully Neil have laid us under lasting obligation by their pains to correct examined every page of the three our very sincere but seriousmistake in denying it. great volumes of this, and were CHINA. able to testify positively that it -The Allgemeine Missions-Zeitwas not in it. We have found, schrift for May, 1898, rectifies vari- ous earnest misapprehensions about however, that our attention had China. Thus, altho the Chinese (originally from the Caspian) occuunconsciously flagged, precisely pied the present China ages before Christ, assimilating the native where it should have been alert. tribes, who, like themselves, were Mongolians, yet it was not until We have been advised by T. H. about 220 B. C. that the various Chinese kingdoms were finaIly ab- Engall, Esq., of Churchfield Road, sorbed by a central state, which has given to the whole empire the Acton, W., England, and nev. name of "The Middle Kingdom."
James Neil, M.A., of 4 Talbot Pond, It is a great error to suppose there is one spoken Chinese lan- Highgate, that. if we would re- guage. All the vernaculars of the vast nation are of one stock, not examine the Paris edition of 1852, speaking of the Tartars, Tibetans, hill tribes, etc. So are all the verwe should find the curse on page naculars of Germany, Scandinavia, and England of one stock'. Philo- 561, § 25, vol. I., applied, how- 10gicaIly they are one Teutonic language, but practicaIly they ever, not to ordinary offenders, are various tongues. So also in nor to heretics, but to abductors of nuns. This offense surprises even the Roman pontifical out of the studied moderation of language which it uses in the Greater Ex- communication itself.
Mr. Engall calls attention to the fact that the form of the curse which is usuaIly given omits the clause "Let these various maledic- tions come upon him, body and soul, night and day, in time and eternity, unless he shall have made good his offenses and come to amendment. Amen, Amen." The imprecation is essentially mitigated by this expression of hope for re- pentance, yet it remains savagely medieval. .
The protracted series of impreca- tions ascribed to Ernulphus of
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
China. Even in the same province of Christians took place. In this there are sometimes two vernacu- century Catholic missions have re- lars. The linguistic unity of the vived, but are so entangled-in nation lies in the written language, China even more than elsewhere- which represents not sounds, but with a French protectorate, the ideas. Imagine the Arabic figures arrogant bearing induced by the increast to many thousands, and consciousness of enjoying this applied to all sorts of things besides powerful patronage has brought number, being equally intelligible great odium on Christian missions (tho with vast labor) to Germans, in China. As Hudson Taylor says, Italians, Danes, and Russians, each let Protestants beware of too much retaining their own spoken tongue, imitation of this example. and we shall have some conception of Chinese. -The present number of Chinese Catholics is computed at 581,775. -India is emphatically the land of villages. In China villages are -Commercial and colonial policy, numerous and important, but China says the Zeitschri/t, at once opens is eminently the land of cities. It the way to missions and hinders has 17,000 cities. their advance. The notorious opium war admitted Protestant missions, -" The Chinese are by birth Con- and has always branded them with fucians; in life, Taoists; at death, dishonor. Buddhists." It is hard to tell where one religion ends and an- -Bishop Anzer, of the Catholic other begins. In reality, Confucian- mission in Shantung, has, accordism is most deeply intertwined ing to the German foreign miniswith the essential religion of China, ter, unequivocally declared that which is ancestor-worship a good Germany must occupy Kiaotschun, deal intermingled with nature- if the Catholic mission is to conworship. tinue. " But," pertinently asks the Zeitschri/t, "is a mission that -James Parton has declared that exists under the egis of a foreign in Thomas Jefferson's mind relig- protectorate, a mission according ion was not a conviction or an to the mind of Jesus Christ? " agony, but a supreme etiquette. This is an admirable description of -Some one has described the Chinese religion. As Confucius missionary work in China as a himself intimates, to believe it is work in a land of common schools. wholly unnecessary; to practise it How whimsical I Government does is indispensable. It was only Chris- not support schools, nor require tianity on one side and the bar- schooling of its subjects. It instibarians on the other that saved the tutes examinations, and admits no Roman Empire from being cere- one to office that has not a degree, monialized into a second China. and has of late years establisht a few professional schools. This is -Under the Emperor Keurghi nearly or quite all that it does for (1662-1723) Catholicism came very education. Out of 20 men, on an near being acknowledged as a average only one can read; of 1,000 fourth religio licita. But the papal women, only one. Even then decisions against ancestor-worship, twelve years' schooling has been and other accommodations to known to leave a man capable of heathenism, called out violent per- making out only about half the secutions. Streams of martyr-blood characters of a hospital ca.rd hung were shed, but also large defections at the foot of his bed. -Sir George Baden-Powell, M.P., Tayumemavur. It is a genuine in a speech reported in the C. M. faith, more helpful, more spiritual, Intelligencer, expresses a confident and truer than the vague speculabelief that the great Christian tion of the Vedanta, and is pecutruths proclaimed through a num- liarly 'ramil in its concepticll and ber: of centuries by the Nestorian expression, and the verses describmissionaries have entered more ing it are treasured by the Tamil deeply into Chinese philosophy people to this day. Even now some than is thought, and await their of Manikka Vasaka's hymns are time of revival in their proper form. sung in the daily ritual of Saiva It must be remembered that there temples, and nowhere else can a were once Nestorian churches clearer view of the hopes and fears throughout the whole empire, and of the Tamil race be found than in lasting for some eight centuries. his poems."
INDIA. THE KINGDOM.
The Harvest Field, speaking of -AFTER THESE THINGS I SAW, an edition of the religious poems of a Tamil Hindu, remarks: "Those AND BEHOLD, A GREAT MULTITUDE, who are acquainted with Tamil literature know that the Psalms of WHICH NO MAN COULD NUMBER, Manikka Vasaka hold a very high place among the classics of the OUT OF EVERY NATION, AND OF language. Dr. G. U. Pope thinks that it is certain that he was the ALL TRIBES AND PEOPLES AND great reviver of Saiva worship in the south of India about the ninth TONGUES, STANDING BEFORE THE century, A. D., who spent his life as an 'utterly self-renouncing ascetic THRONE AND BEFORE THE LAMB, Saiva mendicant.' In the wellprinted volume before us the whole ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES AND of the poet's writings, together with word for word renderings into PALMS IN THEIR HANDS. Rev. ordinary prose Tamil, are given. vii :9. This assistance to the student is very necessary, as the musical This most thrilling passage Presverses of the great Tamil singers ident Charles Cuthbert Hall termS, are very difficult, and even with the "The Beatific Vision of an Evanaid of the 'construe' many points gelized 'Vorld," or, "the vision of are obscure. Some of the poems an ecumenical Inultitude," and contain denunciations of the Bud- adds: "I like that far-reaching dhists, but the most beautiful are word, ecumenical. It means 'out those where the 'devotion,' which of the whole inhabited world.''' characterizes other Tamil poets like Tayumanavar and Pattanattu -They tell us that at Manila and PilleiyaJ', is allowed its full scope Santiago it was "the man behind in fervent praise of the grace of the gun" who did the business. In God. Manikka Vasaka was a a recent address before the Ameri- Saiva Siddheurte, and his faith in can Society for the Advancement God was almost faith in a personal of Science, President Eliot said: God, comparable to the intense de- "'Vhen it comes to the pinch the votion to the Mouna Guru, which source of victory is in the personal illumi.nates the elaborate verses of initiative of each individual com- mander and private soldier and sailor. When all preparation is made, when all appliances have been perfected and brought to- gether, in the particular thicket and mined strait in which the work of the moment is to be done, it is the perceptive power and moral resolution of the individual whkh command success." Apply this Van Dyck, who had studied Arabic priuciple, which is so inspiriugly, for 17 years, becoming a very prince but also so solemnly true, to mis- among modern scholars, and he sion work and to all kinds of reli- completed the New Testament in gious activity, and what is the COD- 1860, and the Old Testament in clusion? 1865. As a result the Beirut Arabic Bible has been pronounced to be -The Congregationalist says: "the best version of the Bible in "It is stated on good authority existence." In other words, that that the late Mr. Bayard seldom one translation was the fruit of wrote a letter without attaching to more than a half-century of toil. it a quotation of a distinctively spiritual character, or else inclosing -A strong argument in favor of a leaflet that would carry some con- Industrial Missions is advanced by solation or inspiration to the per- a writer, who refers to the slow son addrest. If we could gather methods of native Indian weaving, up the total of these messages they and says: "The introduction of would constitute a series of services modern appliances to spin and to the world not unworthy to rank weave this cloth opens an unlimited with the dead statesman's best pub- field for mission industrial enterlic achievements. How refreshing prise, which would make mission it is when a man, in the midst of work self-supportiug and be an inmany cares and obligations, does calculable benefit to the people. not neglect those quiet, unnoticed This is not an untried experiment. ways of sweetening life for others. The Basel mission in India has had spinning and weaving factories for -When shall we attain to some- years, and conducted them with thing like fitness and proportion in practical German thoroughness, bestowing our beneficence, that is, having skilled laymen in charge. give most where the need is great- They have won a high reputation est? Last year, through the British all over India. These industrial and Foreign Bible Society, Russia factories are not only self-supportreceived less than 600,000 copies of ing, but support the entire eduthe Scriptures for a popUlation of cational work of the mission." 130,000,000; India, with a population of 280,000,000, slightly over -This is how it looks as scanned 500,000; China 560,000 for its 380,- through Scotch spectacles: "One of 000,000 people; while in England the most promising outcomes of alone, to a population of 30,000,000, the recent Spanish-American war probably over 1,200,000 copies were is the resolution of the missionary supplied. societies to enter at once into the islands from which they have -Every year the Scriptures in 85 hitherto been excluded. They are languages go out from the Bible not, however, going to rush into House in Singapore to all Malaysia. these new fields in a tumultuous and disorderly way. Seven missionary -Dr. Eli Smith, after 18 years of boards have been conferring tostudy of the Arabic, Hebrew, and gether with a view to harmonious Syriac, and a mastery of the Greek, action; and we have reason to hope and a full knowledge. of modern for a good time to Cuba, Puerto colloquial Arabic, began in 1848 the Rico, aud the Philippine Islands. translation of the Bible into the The only missionary society in the Arabic, and labored steadily for 8 United States which has declined years. On his death in January, to consult with the others as to 1857, the work was taken up by Dr. joint procedure has been that of ing up a self-reliant, self-propagatthe Protestant Episcopal Church." ing Christianity from the first -Free Church Monthly. would be very great."
-Concerning the same great MEDICAL MISSIONS. matter, the Indian Witness makes this most pertinent and sage sug- -The London Lancet has reacht gestion: "Preparations are being this conclusion: "We can imagine made by various missionary organi- no career more lofty or honorable zations to commence operations than that of a well-informed, capa- in the Philippine Islands at the ble, and courageous medical mis- earliest safe and convenient mo- sionary. A few hundreds of 'such ment. ",Ve venture to express men in the next half century would the hope that in so doing the mis- powerfully affect the history of takes made by all missions in China, India, and Africa. If men India will be avoided. Ought it not of commerce could give as good an to be a cardinal principle from the account of their work in these very first that whatever mission lands as men of medicine, the evan- work is done in the Philippines gelization of the world would be should resolutely aim to be on a hastened." self-supporting basis? Is it not worth while to work this experi- -Archdeacon Wolfe, who has had ment for all it is worth in a field experience of missionary methods new to Protestant missionary in China for a generation, says: effort? When one sits down in "I have no hesitation in affirming sober thought to consider the that if the C. M. S. had had a condition of affairs in India, it medical mission in this city (Fuis utterly discouraging to find that chau) during the last thirty-seven after a century of evangelical mis- years, we would have at the present sionary work there is not a solitary moment ten or twenty times the self – governing, self – sustaini~g number of converts to Christianity native mission, conference, or com- that we have at present." munity, in the whole land, and the prospe~t of having one in the near -To illustrate the comparative future is by no means as bright as need of medical missions in China, one could wish. Missions abso- the Inland l1ission publishes a black lutely must learn not to be so de- chart containing 4,000 white spots, pendent as they are upon foreign to represent the number of qualisubsidies. We should like to know fied and registered medical men to if the system workt for some time every 2,500,000 of the population of in China by the late Dr. Nevius has the British Isles. In order to reprejustified itself. His plan was to sent the proportion in China we have no paid native workers of any should have to blacken all the spots kind, but to get all the work done except one. As one is to 4,000, so under his supervision by such is the supply of surgical and medivoluntary labor as the Christians cal skill in China to the supply in themselves could give. It would Great Britain. be a great advantage if the missions about to be planted in the -A physician of Reading, Pa., Philippines could agree to work on Dr. Isaac C. Detweiler, has just some such basis as this. Even finished a decade, during which he tho the work should progress has given every dollar received slowiy for a time, the gain of build- from his practise to religious and philanthropic causes. For thirty- six years he gave a tithe of his in- come. Ten years ago, the Lord having prospered him, he decided body which manages all its affairs, to give all his income. His last by electing with practically no opcontribution was $225, with which position Miss Margaret J. Evans, to buy New Testaments to be dis- of Carliton College, Minnesota, tributed among the soldiers in she having been nominated by the Cuba and Puerto Rico. Association of that State. Surely, an honor to her well-deserved, but -These figures represent the even a greater honor to the Board. growth of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission for ten years: -On the banks of the W olta the missionary sphere is extending 1887 1897 from year to year. Our friends In·patients ………………. . 110 1,430 there count 178 baptisms. One of Out-patients ……………. .. 2,417 15,526 the most touching and typical con- Atte;]ded at homes……….. . 122 279 fessions was that of a poor woman recently baptized. "If I had known Total………….. 2,649 17,235 that I was loved," she said, "I should long ago have entered the Attendances at dispensaries.. 5,691 58,212 church. I have only really begun Doctor's visits… .. . . . .. .. . . … 1,326 to live since I became a Christian." 59,538 -Le JJfissionnaire. Total…… . . . . . … 5,691 -In these days of heroes and -Dr. Mary Eddy writes: "Ihave heroines near at home, it is well to returned two days since from a remember those abroad. Among long tour, nearly four months, as I such, according to the North China left Beirut February 16. Five Daily News, is Mrs. B. C. Patterweeks were spent in Cresarea son, M.D., of the Southern Pres- Philippi, visiting camps of Bedouin byterian Mission at Hsu-Chien, Arabs and villages on Mount Her- North Kiang-su. Although 80 mon. Here I treated 1,562 patients. miles from any other foreign Moving northward I journeyed woman, and with her infant exwith muleteers 35 days, visit- posed daily to the famine fever, ing the plain of Code Syria, while her husband was away help- Baalbec, then crossing Anti Leb- ing the starving, she has during anon to Nebk and still northward nine months had 8,000 patients the Syriac towns of Hafor, Suddad under treatment, and expected to im Doolab, Zeydan to Hamath. remain at her post during the Here we were fairly overrun with heated term, ministering to the patients. Large and small, rich sick and suffering.-Independent. and poor, everyone suffered with some form of eye trouble. ,Ve re- ·-A missionary writes from turned by Hums, thence to Riblah, China: "One Sunday morning our then up to Lake Yemmouni, where Presbyterian neighbor, Mr. Lowrie, we visited camps of goatherds far preacht for us on • The Great up on the mountains. Never have Teacher.' He contrasted Christ, we found such ready listeners. In who was the first man to teach a each place they implored eii to re- woman, with their own Confucius main longer and teach them, as and Buddha, who ignored and dewell as minister to their diseased spised her. Nor shall I forget the bodies." gladness and interest exprest by the women in our noon meeting as WOMEN'S WORK. they talkt over the sermon. 'Be· cause Christ's teachers have come -vVhen will these" perilous in- to us, it makes being a woman novations" come to an end! The ancient and conservative American Board has recently admitted a woman to the august corporate mean more,' said one. A single sociated with the Scottish Free illustration of the teaching in the Church, 59 with C. M. S., 47 with Chinese classics will say volumes the English Baptists, 41 with S. P. for the condition of women where G., etc. the leaven of Christianity has not been felt. Mencius is conversing -The number of women recently with his pupil, who asks, 'If a gone or ready to go to the foreign woman should fall into the water field under the care of the Church and the only way of rescuing her of England Zenana Society is 36, was to extend his hand, should he just half of whom are new missionattempt to save her or let her per- aries. Tho 72 stations appeal for ish?' 'Better to let her drown, ' re- reenforcements only 18 can be sent turned the philosopher, 'than to for lack of funds. contaminate your hand by her touch.' " YOUNG PEOPLE.
-Miss Macdonnell, the matron -The statistical returns relating of the Neyoor, India, Hospital, to Great Britain presented at the writes: "At present one of our recent International Y. M. C. A. nurses has been living for two Conference at Basel show considerweeks right in the home of a able development. At the World's wealthy Hindu family. Think Conferl;lnce in London in 1894 the what that means-one of our low- number of British centers of work caste Christian women sleeping (including auxiliaries) was 843, and eating with these high-caste while the membership was 87,464. women, reading her Bible aloud, At Basle 1,418 centers were resinging hymns, etc. Why, not ported, with a membership of 104,- many years ago, this same woman 160. In the English Unions (Engwould have had to get off the road land, Ireland, and Wales) the value while the other one past." of Association buildings has in- creast from £397,695 in 1894, to -A quiet, unassuming woman £460,027 in 1898. The Scottish Ascame into our office a short time sociations have also made great ago, and presented two crisp one- progress in this respect; thirty-one hundred dollar bills, and said that now occupying their own premises, she wisht this money to be applied the approximate value of which is on the payment of the debt of the £75,000. The English report stated Missionary Society. She did not that" at no period in the history desire that her name be publisht. of the Association have the gov- When a wish was exprest to know erning bodies manifested a more who she was, for private and per- loyal adherence to the fundamental sonal gratification, she declined to principles of the Union than is give her name or residence, and shown at the present time."-The said that the money could be Chri8tian. credited to "C. S."-World-wide Mis8ion8. -It was reported at a recent con- ference of the secretaries of the -The British and Foreign Bible Young Men's Christian Associa- Society employes 504 Bible-women, tion that, for the collegiate worl-: who reach, on an average, 31,000 there are 10 secretaries, devoting homes every week. Of these 452 their full time or a greater part of are at work in India, 13 in Syria, it. The railroad department has and 18 in Egypt. The largest num- increast its force from 3 to 6 secreber, 76, are in cooperation with the taries, and as a toh'n of their in- Wesleyan missionaries,·71 are as- terest in the work the corporations appropriated $150,000 for sustaining been added to the 2 flourishing it last year. Especial interest was English-speaking societies. manifested in the work of the Army and Navy Christian Com- -The Christian Endeavorers of mission, which is now to be incor- the Reformed Church in America porated as a permanent part of the have contributed money through International Committee's work, the regular denominational chan- nels, to erect 12 mission churches. 'V. and its superintendent, Mr. B.
Millar, is to go to England to make -The following outline of work special study of the work among done by a Durban, Natal, Christian the soldiers in the British Army. Endeavor society, looks like busi- The cost for 1898 will be about $80,- ness: open-air meeting every Sun- 000 for the general work and not day, a visit to the hospital with less than $70,000 for army and navy flowers and texts, meetings in the work. More than 20 Y. M. C. A. prison regularly, help in the South building enterprises are under way. Africa General Mission meetings -"It is not easy nowadays," re- at Town Hall Gardens, visits to marks the Indian Y. M. C. A. na- sailors, offering for support of national organ, "to get beyond the tive missionary in Pinetown.
influence of the world-wide brother- -Dr. Hartupee and his wife have hood of the Young Men's Christian just sent to the trustees of the Association. Even among the ad- Ohio Wesleyan University the venturous gold miners of the Klon- deed to a.piece of real estate worth dike, the only two American mis- $12,000, with the single condition sionaries who succeeded in forcing that it shall be used for the home their way thither during the past of the children of missionaries winter, despite almost insuperable while they are securing an educa- difficulties, found an association tion at the university. The house already establisht, with a reading- is a beautiful modern structure room kept open constantly, and erected a few years ago, and will meetings maintained among the be called "The Rachel Hartupee multitude of young men, who have Missionary Home. "
gone there greedy of gain and are subjected to sore temptations." UNITED STATES.
-It is stated that the Christian -At the recent annual meeting Endeavor movement is advancing of the American Board, held at at the rate of one society every Grand Rapids, Mich., it was rehour, or 800 members per day. ported that last year was the most prosperous one in its history; that -The reported contributions of is, there were more accessions to Sunday schools and Endeavor socie- the churches, more students in the ties to the American Board show a educational institutions, and larger gain for the past eleven months of contributions from the native $3,219 over the contributions for Christians, 47,000 of them having the same period of 1897. given toward the support of the Gospel not less than $118,753. Sec- -Christian Endeavor is keeping retary Barton estimates that, pace with General Kitchener in the judged by the rate paid for labor Sudan. A soldier Endeavorer from in foreign countries and by the Cairo, who was assigned to hospi- purchasing power of the money, tal work at Darmales Camp, has this contribution is equivalent to organized a society. In Cairo an more than. $1,000,000 in America. Arabic-speaking society of 20 has This summary supplies the essen- New York, in October, within the tial facts disclosed: space of fifty-seven (57) minutes and eighteen (18) seconds $96,824 Missions…………………………. 20 were subscribed for the work, and enough more later in the same day Stations.. …. .. . .. …. ….. .. . .. ……. 101 to raise the amount to $113,000, al- most twice as nluch as was secured Out-stations……….. …………… 1,271 at a similar gathering a year ago.
Places for stated preaching………. 1,617 -The annexation of the Ha- waiian Islands raises the question Ordained missionaries (17 being phy- of the ecclesiastical relations of the Episcopal Church there. Hitherto sicians)………………………… 169 the work of the Ohurch of England in those islands has been under the Physicians not ordained (besides 10 general superintendence of the Society for the Propagation of the women)………………………… 11 Gospel, and the Bishop of Hono- lulu, who has spiritual jurisdic- Other male assistants. . .. .. . .. .. . .. .. . 4 tion, was appointed by the bishop of Oanterbury nnder the general Women (wives 168, unmarried 173)… 341 supervision of the society.
Total laborers sent from this country 531 -The American Bible Society has met with a serious loss in the Native pastors.. .. …. ……. . … …… 220 death of Albert S. Hunt, D.D., for 20 years a corresponding secretary. Native preachers and catechists…… 477 Dr. Hunt represented the Metho- dist Episcopal Church among the Native school-teachers…………… 1,713 executive officers, and was widely known throughout the country and Bible women…………………….. 260 universally beloved. His death was quite sudden from pneumonia, Other native laborers……… …….. 307 resulting from exposure to a severe storm,and leaves Dr. Gilman, senior Total native laborers…………….. 2,977 secretary, alone in the office.
Total American and native laborers.. 3,508 -Most of the missionary pion- eers have past away. Two, how- Churches………………………… 465 ever, are still living. Elias Riggs, D.D., of the American Board, who Church members………………… 47,122 went to Turkey in 1832, is still in active service in Constantinople. Added during the year… .. . … . … . .. 4,602 John B. Adger, D.D., who went out under the same board to Whole number from the first ……… 143,392 Smyrna in 1833, is now living in Charleston, S. C. In the same Sunday-school scholars.. .. … ……. 59,701 year John C. Lowrie, D.D., of the Presbyterian Board, still living, Theological Seminary and classes…. 18 went to India.
Students for the ministry…. .. . .. .. .. 316 -The Chicago Hull House has now 21 ttfternoon clubs for chil- Boarding and high schools. . . . . . . . . . . . 113 dren, 518 evening clubs for both children and adults, 28 regular Pupils (males 3,459). ………………. 7,029 classes, a children's choral society Common schools………. ………… 1,139 Pupils in common schools………… 46,963 Whole number under instruction….. 56,625 Native contributions ………………$118,753 -In fifty years the work of the Presbyterian Church has grown from 10 missions to 24, the stations from 19 to 108; ordained missionaries, 30 to 208; laymen, 10 to 51; married women, 29 to 204; unmarried, 2 to 164; ordained natives, 0 to 165 and 239 licentiates; native helpers, 7 to 1,335; communicants, 41 to 30,453; scholars, 513 to 30,- 460; receipts of the board, $77,751 to $841,553.
-The recent General Oonference of the Methodist Episcopal Ohurch, :3outh, wisely ordered that a missionary institute, or mass meeting, should be held once a year on each district. The presiding elder is charged with the work of superintending this institute. He is also required to preach at least one missionary sermon a year in each pastoral charge in his district.
-At a meeting of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, held in of nearly four hundred members, a ing for ten years at Singapore for kindergarten of 60 pupils, and a an opportunity of entrance. As large day-nursery. regards native languages, the so- ciety has nearly the whole New -The trustees of the John F. Testament in Pangasinan, and the Slater fund have arranged. with Gospel of St. Luke in Tagalog has Booker T. Washington and Mrs. been just printed." Washington to devote as much time during the next two years as -The English Church Army they can spare from Tuskegee to added 80 trained men and women holding meetings in the cities of to its staff last year, which now the Southern States. The purpose numbers 316 parochial evangelists, is to increase the interest of the 120 van evangelists and colporteurs, negroes in their own moral, phy- 65 social officers, 154 mission nurses sical, and industrial conditions. and rescue and slum workers, 77 Four groups of such meetings were associate evangelists; 48 vans were held during the first two weeks of conducted and 2,400 seven-day mis- September, with others following. sions. The gross income was $470,- As a specimen of the counsel the 000 last year. freedmen are likely to receive the foIIowingmay be read: "Ourraceis -The Universities' Mission to in too big a hurry. The preachers Central Africa carries on mission want the title of D.D. before they work scattered over some 250,000 know divinity. Almost every square miles. In the homes, graduate in the English course schools, and workshops there are must be addrest as 'professor.' over 3,000 children. The communi- We want a biography before we cants at Easter, 1897, were 1,722, have lived. Some want to take and the adult adherents of the mis- Latin and Greek who do not know sion over 6,600. The work is estabthe personal pronoun in English, lisht in 4 principal centers, in Zanzisome want llostoffices who do not bar, Usambara, Rovuma, and know how many stamped envel- Nyassa. On Lake Nyassa, which opes to give for eleven cents. Go was until last year a large slaveto the farm; stick to the farm. yielding region, the mission main- We do not want to govern the tains a church steamer. The workcountry until we learn to govern ers now number 187, including 2 the home." bishops, 26 English and 11 African clergy, and 29 women. EUROPE. -One of the greatest of Protes- Great Britain.-The British and tant missionary societies is that of Foreign Bible Society employs 724 the Wesleyan Methodists. From colporteurs in 23 different coun- the report submitted at the recent tries; in China, 200, who disposed conference, we learn that it has 363 of 477,236 volumes during 1897; principal stations, with 2,355 Russia, 67 with 200,850 copies; preaching places; that it has a staff India, 132, and 120,457 volumes. of 345 missionaries, assisted by This society has long been watch- 2,993 schoolmasters and other paid ing for an opportunity to carry the agents; and that during last year Word into the Philippines. "A it sent out 16 missionaries to India consignment of Spanish Scriptures and China, 11 to Africa, and 3 to has been sent to Hong Kong. the West Indies. Its income, too, Thousands of Spanish and Pan- is growing, being £5,600 above what gasinan Scriptures have been wait- it was two years ago. The num- ber of members in the foreign field is 44,640, with 23,544 others on 8,000,000 negro descendants of the trial. former slaves in North America, 7,000,000 are Protestants and only -The Zambesi Industrial Mis- 200,000 Catholics. In the Cape sion was formed six years ago for Colony the Evangelical missions work in East Africa, and, tho con- report 530,000 adherents, and the sidered by many to be a mere ex- Catholics only 3,000. Protestant periment, the following statement missions aim at making Christian of work accomplisht is sent forth: believers out of heathen people, "Spiritual, educational, and indus- training for secular work and intrial work is be'ing carried on at 10 dustries being the task of the state. centers, supervised by some 30 Eu- Protestant missions look first and ropean missionaries. The acreage above all things to the needs of the planted with coffee is about 750, of soul. Protestant missionaries have which460will yield acropduring the translated the Bible or portions of present season of from 35 to 40 tons. it into about 70 African languages At the various stations there are and dialects, and have thus made 115 head of cattle, 165 goats, and 55 tiiese literary tongues. Some 750,- sheep. In connection with the 000 Africans are in Protestant mission there are 11 schools, at churches, and 140,000 children in which, during the past year, there Protestant schools." were 926 boys and girls enrolleJ, with an average attendance of 673. -The continued falling off of Seven European teachers and BO Peter's Pence, on which Rome so native teachers are engaged in much depends for aggression, calls these schools. A training institute, out this utterance from Vice-Genfor the teaching of such handicrafts eral Schmitz, who has the matter as carpentry and blacksmithing has of collecting in charge: "The quesbeen built at Ntonda. There are tion of Peter's Pence has indeed two hospitals. During the months become a Catholic calamity, and is of March and April the patients a burning one. There can be no treated in connection with these doubt that the collections have were over 2,800, of whom 110 were greatly fallen off. The Holy Fathin-patients. " er needs for general expenses in the administration of the church, – The Continent. The Basel an annual income of 7,000,000 Missionary Society is one of the francs. Of this 3,000,000 are assured oldest and strongest of the German from a source which I will not menorganizations, dating as it does tion. Four millions ($800,000) must from 1815, and having an income of be obtained through Peter's Pence over $250,000; 147 European men from the Catholics of the whole and women in Africa, India, and world. Until two years ago the China; 18,903 communicants, and collections exceeded this amount, 17,285 In its schools. The native and the Holy Father was able to Christians (adherents) number 36,- give assistance to various objects. 315. But for two years the collections have no longer reacht 4,000,000 -Herr A. Merensky, of the Ber- francs, and have, indeed, scarcely lin Missionary Society, thus com- amounted to 2,500,000. If this state pares, or contrasts the missions of of things continues, the Holy Fath.,. Roman Catholics and Protestants: er, with the obligations upon him, "In spite of the solid unity of the will come into an extreme and most Catholic Church, their progress in precarious position. It is a condimissions does not compare with that of the Protestants. Of the tion of the greatest seriousness for is lined with a double row of ma– the church, and may become full jestic trees." The Indian Witness of danger." seems to indorse this statement, tho stating that it may be "a little -No wonder that Spain is poor. too eulogistic." She supports from her treasury 117,000 monks, nuns, and other per- -We complain at 80, wilt at90, sons under religious vows-nearly and read of the thermometer at 100 five times as many as the former to 105 degrees and deaths from sun- standing army of the United stroke. It may help us to sym- States.-Congregationalist. pathize with our missionaries to remember that they have not even ASIA. the comparatively bracing atmos- phere of 100 degrees in which to Syria.-The Russians are active carryon their taxing, wearing in Syria. In Tripoli they have 300 work of overcoming the awful boys in their school, and in the inertia of heathenism. Dr. Mar- Meena they have a girls' school with garet O'Hara, writing in April 3 Russian women, 2 native teachers, from the 'Voman's Hospital, In- and 240 pupils. They are also occu- dore, says: "The thermometer pying the Greek villages in the stood yesterday at 164 degrees in interior of the Tripoli field, being the sun at four o'clock in the after- determined to resist both Protes- noon, so you can understand how tant and Roman Catholic propa- necessary it is to get the work done gandism. "We can not hear," says before the heat of the day." Dr. H. H. J essup~ "that they have a firman or a permit for a single -Bishop Thoburn says: L Re- school. American schools seem to membering, as I do, the discour- be the only ones requiring 'per- agements of my earlier years, mits,' and they will soon be elimi- times when we did not find a hun- nated as a factor in the tribulations dred applicants for baptism in all of the Turk." our Indian field in the course of a year, these days seem to be golden -"Nowhere have I seen a band in their promise, and I can hardly of purer, simpler, more sweet, or refrain from crying to the Church more believing workers than those at home in sheer desperation for whom we have been privileged to help." meet with in Syria and Palestine. In grace and readiness and wis- -In the Central Provinces an dom, in much that elevates and invitation has been extended to strengthens the character and life, Bishop Thoburn by a German mis- I am persuaded that they are sur- sionary to occupy a field near his past by no body of missionaries station, where large numbers of anywhere."-J. ELDER CUMMING. the village population are disposed to accept Christian instruction. India.-" The finest bicycle path in the world is probably the Grand -In Bareilly District (Methodist Trunk road of India, extending Episcopal) there are 14,000 Chris- 'from Lahore to Calcutta, 1,200 tians and 20 pastors are entirely supmiles. It is level, and there is not ported by the people. The Ajmere a mile in the whole distance where Industrial School has 35 boys who even a lady would have to dis- are learning to weave cloth and mount. It is built of kunker, simi- blankets, to make date matting, lar to concrete, is without dust, baskets, rope, and reed chairs. and for nearly its whole distance ,-An important step has been of the present leaders· of new taken by the Church Mission- thought in China's new experience ary Society. That is the calling of intellectual life, have gained into existence of a special order of their knowledge from Christian missionaries to deal with what has sources, and have been directly or been called "the toughest problem indirectly under the influence of the Christian Church is called on to Christian teachers or writers." face "-namely, the assailing suc- cessfully of Mohammedanism. The -In Fuchau the Roman Catho- Rev. A. E. Johnston, now of Ben- lics have an orphanage in which ares, is to be set apart to start the 1,000 children have a home, and500 mission, and an appeal is being more who are too young have been made to others to join him. ·With placed in families to be cared for. 57,000,000 of Moslems in India, Great Britain has a rare opportun- -A missionary gives an exity and a "Serious responsibility pre- ample of what he calls Chinese sented to it. Apropos of all this, humanity. When passing along a the following statement made by street of a city he came upon a The Indian Standard. will be read crowd and found that a man about with satisfaction: "It has been fifty years of age had fallen in the remarkt lately, that a movement street to die-no uncommon occurseems to be going on among Mo- rence there. The crowd stood hammedans in India. There are around the poor man, shouting and signs of a stirring among those cursing, when one person called very dry bones. In Poona, several out, "Haul the fellow into the young Mohammedans of culture gutter and do not let him die in the have been approaching various of middle of the street, blocking up the missionaries to inquire about the way!" The missionary was the truth. Some of these attend a obliged to pass on, but returning Sunday Bible-class in connection an hour later, he found the man with the Presbyterian Church."- in the gutter dead, a fan over his Free Church Monthly. faee, and two candles burning at his feet, with the design of lighting China.-Hon. Charles Denby, for the soul-whither they did not four years, minister to China, has know. There the body lay until just returned, and in conversation night, and the people past by said: "An Englishman of note de- unaffected by the sorrowful sight. clared that missions were a failure. -Missionm·y Herald. I replied that he knew nothing about it until he had seen what -The Christian religion will they had accomplisht. Go to the some time make the Chinese one Methodist church in Peking on of the greatest people on the earth. Sunday-a church built to hold This is the belief of Rev. O. Eo 2,000, and see 1,000 or more chil- Goddard, who adds: "Faith in dren taken from the streets and Christ is the panacea for all their distributed into little groups, learn- mortal ills. They have never had ing a Sunday-school lesson from human sacrifices in their religious converts and missionaries." ceremonies, nor have they deified vice as other heathen nations have -Writing in a recent article of done. If their industry and econthe effort to influence the intellect- omy could be sanctified by divine ual and social life of China, Dr. B. C. grace, and the hope of eternal life Henry mentions this hopeful aspect madtl to throb within their breasts, of the matter: "Many, if not most Christendom could point with pride to the grandest achievement in hu- attention to medicine than Korea.
man history." For centuries the peninsula was the -An inhabitant of Laulung came fruitful source whence, on the one to ask the Basel missionary, Mor- hand, Japan came for medical genroth, to help him in a lawsuit. knowledge and China for drugs. The missionary refused, accom- Christ and Christianity in the charpanying his refusal with the gift of acter of a physician has special atsome religious writings. These tractions to the Koreans. There is were read by the Chinaman, and he a great demand for Bibles, and the became interested in Christianity, church papers are well subscribed and, wishing to know more of it, he to by the natives.-The Korean began regularly to frequent the Repository.
nearest Christian church, that of -A few months ago it was an- Hocshuha. It was five hours' walk, nounced that Messrs. Moffett and but he did it without complaint or Lee, of the Presbyterian mission, fatigue. In the meantime his law- had baptized 177 adults in the prov- suit was finished, and he won it. ince of which Pyengyang is the The use which he made of his vic- chief city. And now news comes tory was to go to the very mission- that on a second journey in the ary who had refused to assist him in same region these missionaries his litigation, and to offer him the have baptized 133 more, and that free use of his house to lodge a cate- there are 1,000 in the catechumen chist there and two colporteurs of classes.
the Bible Society.-Le Mission- -In a report to the Department naire. of State on the educational facili- Korea.-It is safe to say that the ties of Korea, Consul General Hor- Christian Church in Korea has ace N. Allen says: "The mission doubled its members in the past of the American Methodist Church year. There are now, in round maintains a flourishing school, numbers, 5,000 Protestants and 25,- originally started in 1886 under the 000 Catholics. The homes of the name of Pai Chai, 'Hall for Rear- Christians are clean, the people who ing Useful Men,' a name ~onferred inhabit them happy; wife-beating, by his Majesty. The Korean gova universal practise in Korea, has ernment places a certain number been banished. In one of the in- of pupils in the school, paying $1 terior cities the Christians have, silver a month for each, and also without foreign help, built a pays for a native teacher for each school to accommodate 100 boys. 50 pupils. In 1895 there were 50 Two thousand years ago, to the scholars, now there are 103, and last sick, the blind, the lame, the lepers, year there were 176. Japanese and the suffering of every kind, there Chinese children are admitted to was no touch like that of Jesus of the school, which has 2 foreign Nazareth. It will be an underesti- teachers, 4 native assistants; and 3 mate to say that 25,000 Koreans instructors in Chinese. The boys found relief from disease and suffer- are uniformed, and the poorer ones ing in Christian hospitals of Christ are taught trades in the mission in this country in 1897. Christian printing and bookbinding estabmedicine appeals probably in a lishment. The course is three years, special manner to the Koreans, be- followed by a regular college course cause of a national weakness for when desired."
medicine in theory and practise. Japan. – Seventeen daily and No country of Asia has paid more weekly papers are publisht in Japan in the English language, and by the Board in 6 localities in more than 100 on the Asiatic conti- Japan proper and 2 in Formosa. nent, while in all these countries Three places have become selfthere is only 1 German paper. supporting during the year, and there have been 32 baptisms in the -The late president of the lower aided churches. A large number house of parliament, just before of inquirers are also reported. leaving his official residence, in- Forty-eight out of a possible 68 vited his Christian friends to meet churches contribute for the support there for prayer and thankgiving. of this vigorous home missionary About 40 persons were present, in- work, and of the remaining 20 cluding a number of members of churches nearly all are directly the parliament. The president, in dependent upon the missions. the course of his remarks, said: " The fact that I have not, as I be- AFRICA. lieve, brought discredit upon myself nor disgrace upon the office -The conflict of the Nile is an during my short term of service is important one for Christian civilientirely due to the help which God zation. It has crusht a power has given me. On taking my seat which made commerce in that rein the house it has been my daily gion impossible. The gateway to custom before beginning the busi- Northern Africa is now open. The ness of the day to offer up a silent traffic in slaves is about to be prayer to God for help, and to ask stayed. A vast and fertile coun- His blessing upon myself and upon try is open to progressive enterthe assembly." prise. War is again God's thun- derstorm which clears the atmos- -A Yokohama weekly paper phere of the infection of paganism. says: "The Salvation Army has From this time there will pour into workt a great change for the better the Dark Continent a stream of in Yokohama, in the district form- civilizing influences, for Africa is erly known as 'Bloodtown,' the destined in the next hundred years paradise of loafers and loose char- to make a greater advance than acters. With gentle, but firm, in- any country under the sun. As a defatigable hands, the good men step toward redemption, well may and good women of the Army British Christians respond with enhave reclaimed one poor waif after thusiasm to the call of General the other, with but little outside Kitchener to subscribe $300,000 to assistance, and to-day the moral establish at Khartoum, in memory tone of 'Bloodtown,' through their of Gen. Gordon, a college and untiring efforts, has been so much medical school, where the sons of improved, that there is no longer sheiks may receive an education any justification for the term." which should qualify them to hold government positions. —:The Board of Home Missions of the Church of Christ (Presbyterian) -The Field of the Dead, as the makes a good showing in its fourth annual report, recently publisht. Gold Coast Mission might formerly Contributions for the year amounted to 2,891 yen, of which only have been called, is now becoming 435 yen is credited to foreigners (the yen equals fifty cents). Col- the most fertile and the most enlections for the three previolJ!! years were 562, 1,469, and 1,909 yen, couraging of all the missions of respectively. Work is sl.lstained Basel Society. In the dis- trict of Chi, Christianity has really become a power which has to he reckoned with, and in the territory of Akropong alone its adherents Lord Salisbury has now appointed form nearly a seventh of the whole Drs. Christopher, Stevens, and population, more than 4,000 souls Daniels as commissioners for this out of 30,000. In Akem there will purpose. After preliminary studies . soon be hardly a village where in Rome and India, the commissome Christians are not to be met sioners are to meet at Blantyre.- with. Here and there the heathen Free. Church 1l1"onthly. themselves help the converts in building chapels and houses for the -During a remarkable meeting teachers. ., One great enemy at Ekwendeni a collection no less which hinders conversions is remarkable was taken, amounting brandy. In some negro villages to about $30. The Livingstonia every second house is a depot for paper thus describes it: "The colthe sale of liquor. On the coast lection-a very varied one-conyou can get it almost for nothing, sisted of money, .£1 8s.; 11 often much more easily than good knives; 14 earthenware pots; 16 drinking water. But let us add baskets; 1 mat; 67 fowls; 2 sheep; for the honor of the authorities 2 goats; 105Th. beans; 97Th. flour; that the taxes on the sale of brandy 233m. maize; 34Th. potatoes; 62Th. have been increast in proportions pumpkins, and 3Th. 6 oz. of beads. sufficient to reduce the traffic vel''! The money does not include the considerably.-Le Missionnaire. European contributions, which amounted to .£2 18s. Od. The total -The lJIissions Magazin gives value of the collection, European the statistics of the Kongo Free and native, according to native State as 114 stations, 684 officials, prices, is .£6 Is. 5d." 223 missionaries, 1,474 whites; 882 being Belgians, 125 Englishmen, 91 -Mr. Coillard, Missionary of the Portuguese, 87 Italians, 71 Swedes, Paris Society among the Barotsi, 61 Americans, 40 French, 37 Dutch, now in Great Britain endeavoring 21 Germans, 20 Danes. to raise £8,000 for the relief of that organization, says: "Many have -The scourge of tropical Africa been the afflictions of the mission for Europeans is notably the mys- -the climate, the cattle plague (in terious "black-water" fever. Of a neighboring territory 800,000 head late the mortality from this cause of cattle died within a few weeks), haii become appalling in Central and difficulties of transport and Africa, and on behalf of the mis- finance. Nevertheless, the work sionary and mercantile interests in has gone vigorously forward. A that district the facts were sub- Bible-class for native young men mitted to Lord Salisbury, and a has resulted in eight becoming conference was afterward held at evangelists." He tells of the king the foreign office between the adjourning from the seat of justice under – secretary in charge of to read the Bible to his chief men. African affairs and representatives of these interests. The British -Bishop Tucker writes from Medical Association was invited at Uganda: "Since I came out six its recent meeting in Edinburgh to months ago, I have walkt more consider the situation, and they than 1,000 miles, and confirmed unanimously past a resolution more than 1,000 candidates. The urging the appointment of an country is now fairly quiet." adequate number of experts to investigate the whole subject. In -A French missionary in Madaaccordance with that resolution gascar tells of a little native church which has remained faithful amidst all the· changes consequent upon the war, and yet has no pastor, the evangelist in charge being only a woman.
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 — January 1888
PROSPECTUS OF THE REVIEW FOR 1888
JOINT EDITORS: J. M. SHERWOOD, A. T. PIERSON, NEW YORK. PHILADELPHIA.
VOL. XI. No. 1.—Old Series.—JANUARY, 1888.—VOL. I. No. 1.—New Series.
TEN years ago the Rev. Royal G. Wilder, who had spent 30 years in missionary work in India, unable longer to continue in that field, established this REVIEW at Princeton, N. J., on an independent basis, and has conducted it until now with remarkable energy and ability and won for it a very high character in all missionary circles. Failing health constrained him a few months since (he has since been called to his rest) to relinquish, with great reluctance but entire acquiescence in God's will, the further conduct of it; and at his earnest request Rev. A. T. Pierson and Rev. J. M. Sherwood consented to assume the editorship and regular issue of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, beginning with January, 1888. In accepting the sacred trust, we realize the responsibility connected with it, and are anxious not only to carry on the work, so happily begun, but to enlarge the scope of the magazine, and broaden the field of its influence. Hence we propose at the start greatly to enlarge it, making it a monthly of 80 pages, give it a fine mechanical appearance, enlarge its scope, increase its literary and intellectual attractions, and bring it into harmonious relations with all the great missionary agents and movements of the age-in a word, to make it THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD in fact 'as well as in name-a Review truly Representative of the Spirit, Policy and Work of Modern Missions in their Unity, Entirety, and Universality.
THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD will embrace the following departments and features : I. LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. We shall studiously aim to give to the REVIEW a high literary and intellectual character, putting it in this respect on a par with our best Quarterlies and Literary Monthlies. The Missionary literature of the world is already rich in materials, and is rapidly increasing in breadth and in the power of inspiration and instruction. The annals of the past, and all new materials in this department, will be laid under generous contribution to impart value and interest to the pages of the magazine. The ablest pens available, and from all parts of the wide field, will be enlisted in this service. Essays, addresses, biographies, missionary sermons, travels, discoveries, missionary life, and discussions of the vital themes and questions relating to the policies and methods,
which will arise from time to time in the broad field of the world's missions, will combine to inform, interest and inspire the friends of the cause.
A sharp eye will also be kept on the current issues of the press, at home and abroad, and whatever appears in books and periodicals of special interest to missionary readers will be brought to the attention of our patrons. Each month will present a resume of current discussion and press contributions to the Literature of the missionary work.
II. MISSIONARY ORGANIZATIONS. As far as space will permit, a detailed account will be given in each number of some specific part of the general field and of the particular societies operating on it, so arranged and apportioned as that the entire missionary field of the world shall be embraced in our report of each year, and due attention given to all important missionary organizations and agencies known to exist. Thus a bird's eye view of the universal life and operations of the grand missionary cause will be given in each volume. It will be a yearly Epitome of the History of Modern Missions.
III. CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. The editors will put themselves en rapport with all the chief Missionary Societies, Missions, and workers in all lands; they will establish Editorial Correspondents in every part of the field, so as to insure the latest and most reliable intelligence from every available quarter, and co-operate with the friends of missions everywhere in pushing the Missionary Cause to the front, and in imparting increased power and efficiency to the vast machinery of missions. They will strive to make THE MISSIONARY REVIEW a focal light and guide to "the whole sacramental host of God's elect." moving in concert for the subjugation of the world to Christ.
IV. PROGRESS AND FRUITS OF MISSIONARY WORK. This department will contain a comprehensive account of the leading missionary events of the month, embracing the receipts, disbursements and operations of the various societies; items of special interest from the various fields; facts, statements, experiences and appeals bearing direct on the missionary cause, and whatever else will be of special interest to all engaged in the work. This will furnish a practical Summary of what has been attempted and accomplished during each month throughout the entire field of operations.
v. STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS This department will be emphasized and made of the utmost interest and value to the friends of missions everywhere, and especially to pastors and those who conduct the Monthly Concert. It will be a unique and leading feature of the REVIEW. No pains or reasonable expense will be spared to obtain the fullest, and latest, and most reliable figures and statistics of the world's entire missionary operations, both in the Home and Foreign fields, and so to classify, arrange and tabulate them as to make them of the highest practical value. The labor in this department will be immense, but the result will be worth more than the price of a year's subscription to every pastor, every public library, every missionary society, and every intelligent friend of the cause of Missions. We mean to make the REVIEW an authority on this subject.
VI. THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS will be under the special charge of Dr. Pierson, who, in addition to being the pastor of a large and efficient church, possesses special qualifications for this service. His best endeavors will be put forth to make this important service increasingly attractive and profitable, and to suggest topics and methods in aid of pastors and others in the conduct of it that will make the REVIEW an indispensable aid to them, and to every church which observes the «Monthly Concert of Prayer for Missions."
VII. INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT. This will be under the editorial charge of Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D., of the « International Missionary Union," who will be able to make it highly conducive to the general purpose and scope of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VIII. EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS of special interest to missionary circles. These will be brief, condensed, and on a great variety of topics, which we have not space to discuss at length and yet shall wish to express an opinion upon.
If this ideal of the editors can be realized-and we believe it can be -THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, with God's blessing- for whose glory this work is undertaken by them-may become a great power for good. World-wide in its field and scope; independent of local and ecclesiastical boundaries and prejudices; fearless and independent in its expression of opinion and in its advocacy of methods and policies; consulting the highest interest of the Cause in its widest relations; having an eye on the entire field, and lending a helping hand wherever needed; and presenting a current history of that work, which is «the glory of the age," in all its departments and agencies and results, it must possess an interest and a value far above that of any other missionary magazine of the world.
We congratulate the friends of missions that we have been able to secure as Publishers of this Review, Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, 18 and 20 Astor Place, New York, by whom it will hereafter be published.
This enterprising House is too well known in the book world, and in religious circles, to need any introduction or indorsement from us.
We expect to issue the January number at an early date, and succeeding numbers on or before the middle of each month in advance, to be in ample time for the Missionary Ooncert.
NEW YORK, OCTOBER, 1887.
J. M. SHERWOOD.
A. T. PIERSON.
SALUTATORY
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
SALUTATORY.
[EDITORIAL.] CICERO says that the orator, in the exordium of his address, should establish between himself and his hearers a mutual understanding, and get with them upon a common ground.
The same law applies to the editor and author. It is highly important, that, at the very outset, the writer and reader should understand each other; and therefore we give these opening pages of this Review to a word of salutation and explanation addressed to all our readers.
Led, as we believe, by the Providence of God, we undertake to carry on a good work which originated ten years ago in the mind and heart of a beloved returned missionary from India, *and which has, by his hand, amid much physical suffering, been carried to its present stage of growth and success. God's workmen are constantly changing but His work goes on. We have yielded to what seemed a providential pressure thrusting us unexpectedly into the gap left by the necessary retirement of the previous editor from the control of the Review, and we shall seek to perpetuate and perfect what was originally designed and has been so far, and so well, developed under his care.
It does not always follow that even a good work needs to be carried on : sometimes it reaches completion, and addition is superfluous. In this case we conceive that to discontinue this Review would be disaster. So far is it from a finished structure, that thus far only the cornerstone has been laid and the foundation built; the scaffolding is not yet ready to be removed, and we are beginning a new story with such modifications as the building demands as it advances.
There is now room for more of the literary, the æsthetic, the intellectual; a demand, as circulation increases and a firm financial basis is secured, for the best labor properly compensated. We have no less aim than to make this Review the commanding Missionary Magazine of the World, sparing neither labor nor money to make it one of the foremost agencies for the evangelization of the world and the information, organization and co-operation of disciples in the direction of world-wide missions.
That such a Review is needed, we should be ashamed to argue. There are two great, potent factors which must enter into the solution of the problem of missions-the tongue and pen. The printing-press multiplies them both a thousandfold. It gives volume and compass to the voice, like the trumpet of a Titan, and it scatters the products of the pen, as though it had at command the hundred-handed giants that helped the Titans. Great is the power of type and of printers' ink! Surely we should leave out a whole division in mustering our forces, if, in going forth to a world's conquest for Christ, we should neglect the printed page.
Facts are the fingers of God. There is no logic like the logic of events; no demonstration like the demonstration of the Spirit. Apathy, and even antipathy, toward the work of missions, are turned into positive and powerful sympathy, when a true disciple learns how mightily God has wrought and is working with the little missionary band. Men, like James Hannington, who once were indifferent to foreign missions because they were ignorant of them, have, like the martyr bishop of Africa, found that a simple knowledge of the wonderful work of God's Providence and Spirit, even among the most depraved and degraded tribes, has lit a flame in their souls that could neither be quenched nor confined; a flame that has grown into a fire, a conflagration-consum- ing selfishness and worldliness; displacing the carnal lusts-appetite, avarice and ambition, by a divine ardor and fervor, passion for souls, and zeal for the glory of God.
To put such facts before the reader, in the most truthful and telling form, comprehensively and attractively, is one of the foremost objects of this Review. We shall aim to exhibit the miracles of missions, which are at once signs of Christ's messiahship, manifestations of the Power of God, wonders of the Spirit, and works possible only to Deity.
To secure a proper and perpetual stream of such information, we shall seek to secure a large number of tributaries. First, we shall, as fast as we are able, select a large and competent corps of editorial correspondents, who shall sustain a close relation to the Review, and by whose contributions these columns will be enriched. Next, we purpose to find at least one commanding personality in every great missionary territory, and especially at great strategic centers, who shall be as a living link between the Review and the various fields of Christian effort. Furthermore, we hope to secure able contributions from men and women of learning, piety and consecrated spirit, whose opinions compel respect, whose statements are accurate and authoritative, and whose suggestions are sagacious and practical.
The need of such a Review of missions is pressing. The demand is immediate and imperative. With all the existing channels for conveyance of information and the exchange of views, there is yet a wide gap to be filled. The work of missions is world-wide, and we need a missionary Review of the World; the need of man is universal, and so must be our survey; the whole church is called to this grand crusade, and the Review must be unsectarian and undenominational, gathering the whole army, with all its tribal standards, closely about the Tabernacle and Ark of God; the Christian nations are all united in the work, and hence the Review will be international; and as even the best methods are liable to be defective, and custom is often, as Cyprian says, only the" Antiquity of Error," a true Review will be critical though not controversial, and will aim, not only at a wide view, but at a close, careful, candid review.
The time is now especially ripe for such an undenominational, international, independent missionary organ, as a means of expression and impression, communication and co-operation, education and evangelization. Missions are comparatively modern. The Church slept for more than a thousand years; then slowly awoke to the sense of a world's destitution and her own obligation. Let us remember that it yet lacks five years of a full century since in Widow Wallis' humble cottage at Kettering, that first Missionary Society was organized in England, that was the pioneer of the whole host now numbering over one hundred organizations. And already, and within the lifetime of some veterans still living, the network of missions has overspread the globe. Surely it is time that in this special department there should be abundant and adequate agencies to put and keep before the reading public the entire progress and prospects of the grand campaign which is now conducted by all Christendom against the strongholds of the Pagan, Moslem and Papal world!
Such is our word of Salutation. The primary object of this Review is not money-making, but the informing of disciples, and the quickening of our whole church-life, the promotion of an intelligent interest in the work of missions everywhere and the inspiring of an unreserved personal consecration to the work. We desire the fullest support of a large constituency of readers, in what we undertake as an unselfish labor of love for the sake of Christ and His Church. As the circulation of the Review increases and its income allows, more and more will be expended upon the periodical itself, that we may give back to the reader and subscriber the largest returns for his investment; and it is our fond hope that by the abundant blessing of God upon our labor, direct and indirect results may follow, on the largest scale, in furthering and hastening a world's evangelization.
Gladstone says that eloquence in the orator is "receiving from the audience in a vapor what he pours back upon them in a flood. " We shall depend largely upon our readers for the inspiration in our work; and we hope that whatever is received from the subscribers to this Review by way of its support, they may find comes back to them in abundance; that, like the water poured on the roots of the cocoanut tree, which returns in the sweet milk of the cocoanut itself that falls from the top, there may be not only an equivalent rendered but something sweeter and richer by way of recompense.
IN MEMORIAM: REV. ROYAL GOULD WILDER
IN MEMORIAM: REV. ROYAL GOULD WILDER.
Born Oct. 27, 1816, Bridport, Vt. Died Oct. 10, 1887, New York City.
THIS heroic man, the originator and for ten years the editor of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, closed a life of service and suffering by a blessed entrance into glory, on the very day on which, to his successors in the editorial work, the REVIEW was formally transferred. He only tarried long enough to see the transfer completed and to bestow his blessing on the new administration, and then took his departure for the better country.
It is no mere tribute to a predecessor, however, that impels us to erect to him, in this first number of the new series, a memorial tablet. Though his kingdom came not with observation, and no trumpet was sounded before him, the veteran who, having passed his allotted three score and ten, has been honorably retired from earthly service and gloriously promoted to a heavenly sphere, was no common man. His name belongs high up on the roll of missionary heroes, among the "King's mighty men" and valiant ones, and we gladly open our series of missionary biographies with a pen profile of Royal Gould Wilder.
Few there be that find their way to their sphere of service through such a strait and narrow path. His was no "royal road to learning." He was one of twelve children, and the family knew what it was to struggle against poverty. The father's name was Abel, and he was born in Maine, near Portland, and by trade a ship-carpenter, but was also a shoemaker and farmer, ready to turn his hand to any employment to get bread for his wife and children, but unable to provide luxuries-even those of an education. His mother, Hannah Payne, descended from Robert Treat Paine, was of a high family and of rare ability. Her father was a school teacher until he was sixty, and she grew up amid education and refinement. Shortly after marriage she with her husband removed to Vermont, and during the year in which Royal was born there was a great revival, and his father and mother joined the church that same year. Afterward they moved again to Franklin County, New York, then regarded as somewhat "far west." It is certain that the family endured great hardships and were very poor for a long period of years-during the entire boyhood of Royal. In course of time the natural increase in the value of property, hundreds of acres of which were cleared by his father and brothers, bettered their circumstances, and to-day the three brothers and three sisters who survive him are living in comfortable homes, showing those elements of character which insure worldly success.
Royal went to district school in winter, and was the first to enter an "academy," as he was the only one to enter a college. With a keen relish for reading, before he was ten years old he devoured every religious book that came in his way, and even the papers of whatever date. His father's library was very small, but what it contained was not trash, and the young lad grew strong on such books as the "Pilgrim's Progress" and the "Saint's Rest."
When he determined to seek an education, his father could give him no help. His time and a cow composed the curious capital which was Royal's only dependence; and in the academy at Malone it was the beef from that cow that kept him at school the first term. Many a time he cut in one day two cords of wood, to relieve his father's financial distress or his own.
His first money he earned by selling melons at Malone, and the half dollar he got he kept his hand on, even in his pocket as he ran home, till a stumble compelled him suddenly to withdraw his hand, and away went the precious coin down a hole. Royal was not a boy to give up easily, and down he went on hands and knees, and dug away till he recovered his lost half-dollar. The incident was typical and prophetical of his future; only what he digged for was not silver or gold.
At thirteen years, began his religious life as an intelligent, conscious experience. He had been brought up to pray, and on one occasion, at least, had found the value of prayer. Going through the woods to find his brothers, and carry them dinner, he got lost and wandered about dazed and bewildered, coming back continually upon his old track. Then he knelt down and prayed for guidance; rose and determined to trust in God and go straightforward, following one direction; presently he emerged from the thicket, coming out into the very field where his brothers were at work. Here was another typical and prophetical incident. He got into many a tangled thicket afterward; but never did he forget Him who had led him out into light and safety, and in answer to prayer he was guided in every new experience of darkness and danger into a larger liberty and success.
Though he first consciously found Christ as a Saviour in time of revival, his religious life was singularly free from emotionalism. He had no sudden transitions nor violent revulsions of feeling. Mainly through an awakened conscience, a calm but quick sense of duty, and the study of the Word of God, he came to accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord. At that time his sister Hannah joined the Baptists, as that sect prevailed in the neighborhood where the family lived; but he preferred the Presbyterian fold, and at sixteen united with Dr. Parmelee's church at Malone. Never but once had he uttered an oath, and he never forgot it. His religious frame though always calm, was never cold; he was moved more by love and less by fear, more by deliberate judgment and choice than by sudden impulse or glowing enthusiasm. He knew he must found his whole Christian hopes upon the new nature regenerate in Christ; and believing that God had wrought in him the new creation, he enjoyed a quiet assurance seldom disturbed by doubts.
He studied by night by the light of pine knots, and worked by day to get the pine knots for his fire and the books for his study, until he entered Middlebury College in his twentieth year.
When he left home, his capital in life was less than ten dollars, most of which he had saved, and a dollar of which his mother gave him the morning he left home for college. He walked the entire distance, working his way over the lake by helping in the loading and unloading of the boat, and going barefoot part of the way to save his shoes. The same habits of frugality and economy and bodily exertion followed him through life.
From first to last he was a patient plodder. So desirous was he of a training for a useful life that he was willing to work from five o'clock in the morning till breakfast, and from noon till school again opened; that he might pay his board, cutting hay in summer, and splitting wood in winter, to earn the right to be a full-grown and well-equipped man. In college it was the hand on the axe-handle and the bell-rope that helped him through. When he was graduated in 1839 he had worked his passage; but he had won deserved honors, for, with his classmate, Foote, he stood-they two at the head of the class, and, strangely enough, they two had been born on the same day.
When he turned from the flattering prospects of a high position at home to spend his life among the pagans of Asia, he left a path that might have led him where one of his schoolmates, Mr. Wheeler, afterward came-to the Vice-Presidency of the nation. Foote, his twin honor-man, said to him: "Wilder, why bury yourself among the heathen?" Mr. Wilder was singularly attached to Mr. Foote, and for years they corresponded. Foote rose rapidly in his profession; very successful as a lawyer, he amassed wealth, and married a woman of unusual beauty. But death, in the midst of his prosperity, smote wife and daughter, and poor Foote blew out his own brains!
Mr. Wilder taught in Mississippi and Vermont; and then went to Andover for a theological course. There he found a missionary band, like the famous "Haystack band" of Williams, with the same constitution and covenant. Only twelve belonged to it, and even the professors seemed to feel little interest in it, but Royal Wilder became a member, heard Dr. Grant of Persia and Dr. Scudder of India, and others, speak on the great needs of a lost world, and so the missionary was preparing and maturing for his work. Here he had his first and last period of doubts about the Divinity of Christ. They were incident to the transition period when the mind was budding into full independence. Henceforth he was to feel too much of the Divine life of Christ in himself and see too much of the Divine power of Christ in others, to doubt that He was the Son of God. He was graduated from Andover in 1845. At the last, R. S. Storrs, Jr., was his classmate-and when he with five others of his class became missionaries, they all went to India, leaving Storrs to remain behind and become the Corinthian column of the Congregational Church in this country, while they departed for the regions beyond.
His missionary life was the final flowering of a gradual growth. No sooner did he believe himself to be a disciple than, like Dr. Duff, he began to feel the value of other souls and a yearning to save them. The idea of a mission to the heathen world was slowly and steadily taking form within him; first consciously turned toward the lost in other lands by reading Jonathan Edwards on Redemption, the story of "Henry and his Bearer" especially interested him in India.
During his college days Mr. Wilder became acquainted with a family living near West Rutland Village, Vt. In this family he found deep piety and a love for missions. The aged grandfather said, he thought he had not missed reading a page of The Missionary Herald for twenty years.
At the time of the departure of missionaries for the Sandwich Islands a collector visited this home to solicit funds. The devoted mother gave something, but her sad countenance that day showed her deep disappointment that the gift was not larger. As she gathered, with her nine children, for family prayers, she asked God to accept of one or more of her children for missionary work. A daughter in that group says of this incident-"that prayer struck me." This daughter was the one chosen to help cheer Mr. Wilder in his great work. For some five years the two were many a time alone at communion services. She shared with him the anxiety of the first months at Kolapoor when almost in despair of striking rock for the foundation of his church. She suffered with him the violence of the people who one night hurled a large stone through the window pane across the cradle of their little girl. She was his companion in such experiences as meeting a snake in the parlor, finding a scorpion on her son's coat, seeing a panther while on her morning walk, living for weeks in the mountains without seeing a white face. But she had also the joy of starting the first girls' school in a kingdom where not a respectable woman or girl could read, and of welcoming to the communion table, as the first native convert in Kolapoor, a woman.
Mr. Wilder's intention was to go to the Walled Kingdom. But Dr. Anderson, then Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M., wanted him for Ahmednuggur. The greater need was to Mr. Wilder always the louder voice, and so he went to India. From the day of his connection with the Andover Band he had no hesitation in promptly, cheerfully following the leading of God.
When his vessel was ready to sail, he departed from Malone, and his departure was the means of a revival in which many were added to the Church. His father rejoiced to give up his son to such a great work as was before him. His mother, to whom he had been particularly devoted, and for whose sake he had walked from Middlebury to Malone to spend vacations, was dead.
The vessel rounded the Cape of Good Hope and consumed 121 days in the passage to Bombay. Mr. Wilder had given three months, at Newark, Delaware, to the study of Mahratta, and, after another three months in India, Mr. Ballantine, being called away, asked him to preach. The invitation was a joke, but Mr. Wilder actually accepted it and did preach. The native Christians were astonished and said, "We prayed for him."
In Ahmednuggur Mr. Wilder spent six years. The day he reached there, he found a seminary with from fifty to eighty boys. Very soon after his arrival, this seminary was put under his care by a vote of the mission. Within a year there were six city schools, and, within three years, twenty more village schools. Fees had been given to induce attendance; he did away with fees, and had a larger and better school.
He went to Kolapoor in 1852. This city was especially holy in Brahmin eyes, and never had been contaminated by the presence of missionaries. The day he got there the leading Brahmins petitioned for his banishment. But, undismayed, he got a foothold and worked five years for his first convert. His school was the entering wedge of all his success. At the time of his coming he found in Kolapoor 44,000 inhabitants, and only one school, in a back street, with twelve boys in it. When he left, a college building, at Government expense, costing $200,000, had been built, and «Father Wilder" was asked to make the address at the opening. He was too busy to comply, but his associate, Mr. Seiler, made the address, and took as his theme, "The Evidences of Christianity."
The cholera drove him from India in 1857, and by a remarkable Providence, he sailed the very day after the breaking out of the great mutiny of the Punjaub. Some of his nearest European neighbors were killed in that massacre.
To this period belongs his well-known disagreement with the American Board. He was an ardent advocate of schools and edncation, and next to actual conversion he placed the education of the Hindoos. He zealously urged the hiring of pundits and native teachers where Christian teachers could not be obtained, and refused to curtail his schools and school-work because he could not get just such teachers as he wished. This got him into a difficulty with Dr. Anderson, and resulted in the abandonment of his mission and his dismissal from the Board. Backed by his Presbytery and friends in this country, he returned to India in 1861, and went back to conduct his work on an independent basis. For twelve years he labored, supported by no Board or Society. However low the funds ebbed, he would never give up. At one time, in distress for means to carry on his work, he and his devoted wife covenanted to commit all to God anew in prayer; and the next morning's mail brought eleven hundred rupees from an unknown donor in Calcutta; and to this day the source of that benefaction is a secret. The mission received cordial support from Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay; Col. Phayre, Robert Arthington of Leeds, and others. But it was sustained wholly by voluntary gifts. These years of simple trust, leaning on God, were the happiest years of Mr. Wilder's life, and became the basis for his subsequent and enthusiastic .advocacy of the voluntary principle in missions.
In this enterprise he was largely aided by the English, because they thoroughly respected him, and also by the natives themselves. Sir Bartle Frere and other prominent Indo-Europeans have said that Royal G. Wilder did more for the present system of national education in India than any other man. From 1861 to 1869 he was a constant contributor to the Bombay Times and Gazette on that subject, and wrote the editorials for the former paper relating to educational matters. He was prominent in memorializing Parliament and inducing the Indian government to establish the present system of national education. The money obtained from his contributions to the Indian press aided, in no small measure, in the support of the mission that he conducted for so many years at Kolapoor.
At the date of suspension of schools by Dr. Anderson, Mr. Wilder's scholars numbered some 500 boys and 100 girls. He writes of this: "Our deepest conviction from all past experience assures us that the loss of these schools involves the sacrifice of our most effective agency for prosecuting our missionary labors. If our Deputation could exchange places and labor with us for a twelvemonth, we cannot, for a moment, doubt that they would advocate these schools with all the persistency and authority with which they now oppose them. Our friends in India have manifested a very kind interest in these schools from the first, and it may gratify them to know that their generous contributions have wholly supported them. Not a farthing of their expense has come from the home funds of the Board, since their origin." Before Mr. Wilder came home in 1857 the schools were reopened. While at home the mission was abandoned. His appeal, published at the time, gives the reason for his returning as an independent missionary. Upon reaching India he found that his beautiful church, the only one among 252 heathen temples, had been sold and turned into a Mohammedan mosque.* He was remarkably helped in getting the site for his second church. He closed the year 1863-the second after his return as an independent missionary-with a native church of eight communicants and four baptized children.
In 1855 an intelligent man visited him from the Putwardhun States, and showed so much interest in the truth, that he gave him a Bible, hymn-book, catechism and the creed. He returned to his country and was lost sight of for nine years. In a report of 1864 Mr. Wilder writes: "On our recent tour he was the first man to visit us at Sanglee, brought all the books carefully preserved, and read and repeated from memory portions of Scripture, the creed, a tract of eight pages, and the entire cathecism of forty pages; avowing his faith in the truths and doctrines thus learned."
After building a home and church Mr. Wilder devoted himself with renewed energy to village work. The report of 1872 speaks of the interference of the S. P. G. His characteristic firmness was shown in this experience. This was a sore trial to him, and in the Appendix to the Report of 1871, his reasons are fully stated for his course.
Mr. Wilder was very anxious to stimulate in native Christians a desire to work for souls, not because paid for doing so but from love to Christ. In 1873 he writes: "Only four of all our converts receive any support from the mission, and these, small monthly sums of Rs. 8, 7, 5 and 3 as Christian teachers. "
The property of the Kolapoor Mission he gave in 1871 to the Presbyterian Board, and in 1875 left the field of his labor, partly from considerations of health, and partly to educate Robert and Grace in this country. The time between his sailing for India and his resignation from the Board covered a period of nearly thirty-two years.
During those thirty years he had preached in more than 3,000 cities, towns and villages, had scattered over 3,000,000 pages of tracts, had gathered in schools over 3,300 pupils, 300 of whom were girls. In a parish of 4,000,000 of people he and his wife were the only persons to take care of their souls. Beside all this work he had been on committee for translation and revision of the Bible; and was one of the committee in the Mahratta language, spoken by 16,000,000 people. Up to the time he left India he had already written and published commentaries on three gospels, and had edited and translated many books.
His hand was not forgetful of its cunning, even as his tongue did not cleave to the roof of his mouth. Every nail in the roof of his church building at Kolapoor he drove with his own hammer, and when the houses went up to shelter converts' families he led in the work. In the early years of the mission, he wrote many articles for the press, chiefly on educational subjects; and it is said by those in high official position, that his anonymous letters in The Times of India influenced Parliament in adopting measures for the education of the masses. He was offered a very influential position in the educational department.
His whole policy in India was to watch for the opportunities to plant and support indigenous primary schools. He cared for no high colleges. His ruling passion was to lift up the masses. He graduated salaries of teachers according to the number and progress of their pupils, thus indirectly striking a blow at caste by setting a premium on numbers and proficiency, without reference to the class from which pupils came. He encouraged only a moderate allowance to helpers, on the ground that natives could not support men who received large salaries. Like Wheeler on the Euphrates, he felt that by the tithe system ten believers might support a teacher or preacher who was willing to live on their level as to expense.
Whereas when he first went to Kolapoor there was not in the kingdom one respectable woman who could write or read, only recently they have sent to this country for a governess to go to the palace itself.
Of incidents, this one may illustrate the power of direct prayer. One day he had preached in some eight villages. Disputations and popular indifference had made him feel discouraged, and thus wearied he sat under a tree to rest. While here a coolie came from his home, bringing provisions, bread, etc., and also the overland mail. The mail was the most welcome. Among other letters was one from a dear friend in Philadelphia. It contained words of warm sympathy and encouragement, and more than all, this assurance: "Brother Wilder, we are praying for you by name every Wednesday evening." The effect of this letter and the blessing which came with it were immediate. He rose from under that "juniper tree" with fresh realization of nearness to God. He walked two miles to a large town. He went, as was his custom, directly to the Pahtil-the head man of the town. He was in his court-room, surrounded by some fifty clerks, but received him in a polite, cordial way, and upon learning his errand ordered all the clerks to drop their work and listen. After Mr. Wilder had talked about an hour they urged him to continue, and before he closed those learned men were wiping the tears from their eyes. This is one of the choicest experiences in his life, showing the power of the simple story of Christ's love. No wonder he believed in special objects for prayer and gifts. His convictions of Missionary methods, both at home and on the field, seem to have been rooted into his very nature by deep personal experience. This was so of his conviction that native churches should have native pastors; that native churches should be self-supporting; that native Christians should be trained to responsibility, and taught to keep on a level with their neighbors, that they might win them, and show them that they had not become Christians to better their temporal condition. The prayer-meetings were largely reporters' meetings. From the Christians were expected accounts of services, interviews, discussions, etc. Sometimes he would call on them by name for their report of the week. These reports suggested very definite subjects for prayer. This was true also of the women's prayer-meetings conducted by Mrs. Wilder. Praying in meeting was a part of their Christian life.
Mr. Wilder was, so far as known, but once in peril of his life. On the outskirts of a village a mob gathered around him, and demanded money. Though mou:p.ted on his horse, the leader of the gang had hold of the bridle; so, for a few minutes, the missionary seemed completely in the power of the fierce men. With seeming Cf'mposure he entered into a conversation with them. Their interest increased; he held their attention until he noticed the grasp on the bridle gradually loosening. Watching a favorable moment he spurred his horse and with a boun~ was out of their reach.
On his return, in 1875, he himself crossed the Continent and left his luggage and property to come by sea. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, his goods were lost in the vessel's wreck. But among those lost effects was his whole manuscript on the Kolapoor kingdom, with full diary of his missionary work.
During later years his home has been in Princeton. There his parlor has been the Sabbath afternoon gathering place for the students, and the training school for missions.
In 1877, he started THE MISSIONARY REVIEW. The readers of that Review will not need to be reminded of the causes which led to its establishment. Even before he went to the General Assembly and presented his vigorous, incisive criticisms of the methods and expenditures of the Presbyterian Board, he felt there was need of a periodical that would review missions from a point of prospect more elevated than any denominational one, and the REVIEW became the channel for the expression of his personal convictions founded on a long and large experience, and a means of presenting the status of all missions of all denominations throughout all heathendom and nominal Christendom.
He yearned to return and die in India, and nothing held him back but his waning strength and the REVIEW. But so soon as he felt that the REVIEW was provided for, he determined, notwithstanding his keen bodily suffering, to sail for Kolapoor. "My whole soul," he said, "would leap, could I go back. Could I not place twenty missionaries there at once?" That humble Presbyterian Church at Kolapoor was very dear to him, for in its construction his own hands as well as heart were engaged for months. When the church first built by him, was sold to the Mohammedans, and a mosque built on the old site, it is characteristic of his quiet persistence to have bought ground and placed the new church as near as he possibly could to the site of the old one, and his efforts to obtain that site make a very interesting story in themselves.
To the last his heart went out to Kolapoor, and he charged his son Robert to settle about fifty miles from there, in a district peculiarly destitute, where, when he once told the story of the cross, the people with weeping followed him quite a distance, yearning to hear more.
His dying eyes were fixed on Jesus. When the death of his daughter, in 1861, was referred to, and he was asked: "Do you expect to meet her in heaven?" he said, "Yes; but it is my Saviour about whom I think most."
In looking over Mr. Wilder's life, we are impressed with the singular appropriateness of the motto he chose for the REVIEW: "Nil desperandum, Christo sub duce," as applied to his experience.
As a young man, he was extremely retiring and bashful and painfully sensitive; and at times he has, to very intimate friends, expressed his amazement that God had used him, and accomplished through such material His work. It seemed almost incongruous to him that one so timid and shrinking should be thrust into such severe fighting in the forefront of battle.
Of the tender side of his nature few can form a true estimate. These things do not appear in any public reports.
His life closed very beautifully and appropriately when his work was done. The last Saturday, Oct. 8, he sent proof to the printers to complete the closing number of the last volume of his REVIEW, and on the very day when the final arrangements were completed for its transfer to other hands, "he was not: for God took him."
MISSIONARY PROBLEMS IN INDIA
MISSIONARY PROBLEMS IN INDIA. [EDITORIAL.-J. M. s.] IN the Andover Review for September, the Rev. Edward A. Lawrence gives an elaborate and valuable article on this subject, the gist of which we condense and reproduce, for the benefit of our readers. Written by one on the ground, and in an intelligent, and impartial spirit, his views and statements are entitled to respectful consideration. The "Problems" he considers have a world-wide interest and application, and to solve them for India, is, in effect, to solve them for the whole missionary world.
The Problems here discussed are I. Mission Oo-operation; II. What shall be the Treatment of Oonverted Polygamists? III. Who shall be Employed as Teachers in Mission Schools? IV. Instantaneous Baptism.
I.-MISSION CO-OPERATION. The organized union of different mission societies, which happily exists in Japan, and in Amoy, China, has not yet extended to India. Still there is no division or bitterness of feeling. In the main, the field of the several societies is well defined and generally respected. 'fhe Irish Presbyterians occupy Rajputana, the American Methodists, Oudh and Rohilcund; the American Presbyterians labor in the Punjab side by side, and on friendly terms with the Church Missionary Society; while the American United Presbyterians, alike in Egypt and the Punjab north of the Lahore, are fortunate in being almost without competitors. In the south, the Lutheran Missionary Society in Trevancore, and the Church Missionary Society in Tinnevelly, amiably divide the end of the Oape. The bounds of the Madura Mission of the American Board have been settled by agreement with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, dividing the field between them. In Madras, Oalcutta, and Bombay, and in a few other places, there are Monthly Mission Oonfederacies, where members of most of the missions gather for paternal intercourse and discussion. While the general Mission Conferences, like that of the Punjab, or of the whole country, held decennially-the last at Calcutta, 1883-have gone far to prove to the heathen world that Protestants are really united in spirit and aim.
The Presbyterian family take the lead in the movement for organic union. For years past, the Dutch Reformed, the American, Scotch and Irish Presbyterians, have met in a general alliance, seeking to accomplish in India what has been done in Japan. At their last meeting in Bombay, committees were appointed to press forward the work of union, and it was decided to establish a periodical for that purpose.
The evils of sectarianism are nowhere so serious as in great heathen cities, where missions compete, and sometimes conflict, one with another. The natives fancy the divisions greater than they are, and the converts sigh for a national church, and complain of the burdens imposed by reason of differences.
The City Evangelization problem, which astounds and confounds the Church at home, is pressing heavily on the Church in heathen cities. Says Mr. Lawrence: "It is difficult and painful to express my disappointment with most features of mission operations in the Presidency cities of India. The educational work, indeed, is excellent; in some cases, unequalled. The Christian College in Madras, at the head of which is Dr. Miller of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, may well rank as the best institution of learning in India. But other forms of work languish. Not only that: in many cases the fat school-kine have swallowed up the lean evangelistic kine, and there is an actual famine of God's preached Word for the heathen. One great reason for this neglect of important branches of work, one explanation of the weakness or restlessness of the native churches in these cities, and of the fact that in the three where so many societies concentrate there is but one native church which is strictly self-supporting-the Congregational Church in Bombay-is to be found in the rivalries and confusions of sectarianism.
In Calcutta, matters are still worse. The Bengali Christians have able and fluent leaders among them, some of whom show their sincerity by great labors and self-denial. Several are successful lawyers or government officials, who devote their spare time to gospel work, or even take charge of some church. One of these laymen has just been ordained to the preaching office by the Presbytery of the Scotch Free Church Mission."
But the question of lay baptism is exciting earnest attention. A test case has been brought for trial before the Presbytery of the Free Church of Scotland, but not yet decided. Even such men as Ram Chandra Bose, well known in this country, favor lay administration of the sacraments.
"It is plain that some change in these city missions is needed before these great centres will become centres of Christianity. It is equally plain that we cannot expect to stereotype and perpetuate in the Eastern church the divisions which mark the Western church. The selfish desire of any mission board to keep its work intact and not to be swallowed up in a great union movement should be rebuked by Christians of every denomination, and the dangers of disorder and license should be checked by earnest sympathy with the aspirations of the native Christians on one side, and by earnest co-operation between all mission bodies on the other."
II.-THE TREATMENT OF CONVERTED POLYGAMISTS.
To us in the home field, this question seems very simple, but in India, and on other mission fields, it is a complicated and knotty problem.
"The opinion of missionaries on this subject is much divided, and the matter has been discussed at various conferences. An excellent statement of both sides of the question is made in the 'Indian Evangelical Review' of April, 1886, by Rev. J. J. Lucas, who has taken pains to inform himself of the opinions of many leading missionaries. My own impression, formed from conversation with a large number is, that a majority of the missionaries in India, especially of those longest in the field, would decline to advise a man to dismiss one of two wives, and that many of them would baptize him, in that state, while protesting against polygamy as unchristian. The Madura Mission not long ago decided to baptize converted polygamists who had acted in ignorance of Christian ideas, in cases where there was no way of separation without injustice. Of this decision the American Board has expressed its disapproval. But Mr. Jones, of that mission, avows the belief that the policy of refusing baptism to such candidates must in time be reversed."
To over sixty representatives of different missions, Mr. Lucas sent the following question: "Would you, under any circumstances, baptize a convert with more than one wife, allowing him to retain his wives ?" And an affirmative answer was received from the great majority.
Yet, Mr. Lucas himself opposes baptism in such a case, because of the apparent sanction given to polygamy, the temptation laid in the way of inquirers, the formation of two classes of Christians within the church, and the injury done to the church itself. Yet he would not ask the husband to put away either wife, but he would say, "Wait. Your first outward step towards Christ must not be marred by a cruel wrong and flagrant injustice. Wait, holding fast your faith, and time will bring a change." And still he admits that the majority of missionaries, if left free to act, would go further than this, though leaving much to be determined by the circumstances of each case. Mr. Lawrence was assured by old missionaries, that their opinions in this regard had been changed by long experience on the field.
III.-WHO SHALL BE EMPLOYED AS TEACHERS IN MISSION SCHOOLS.
Great trouble and perplexity are experienced in this matter. Hindus are hostile to the work of missions, actively so less perhaps than formerly, but have still to be carefully watched. Mr. Lawrence relates his experience in addressing a school of boys and girls in Bombay. He was obliged to use a Hindu teacher as interpreter. He spoke of the evils of idolatry, of the position of women, and of what each member of the school should do in opposing these evils. To his surprise he afterward found that the interpreter had added his own comments: to his words about idolatry he had added the remark that these were the sentiments of the speaker, not his own. The teacher had to interpose and say emphatically that they were the sentiments of the mission, and should be those of the scholars.
"It is supposed that a Hindu or a Mohammedan, secretly, perhaps, inclined to Christianity, will not do much harm while teaching mathematics or the languages from text-books chosen by the mission. It frequently happens, indeed, that the heathen teacher is himself converted while connected with the school. A Mohammedan boy in a school in Bombay came recently under the favorable notice of a government inspector, who, in commending him, expressed his purpose to find a place for him to teach. The boy left the school and was not seen there again. On being questioned as to the cause of his leaving, he said that he was afraid he should be made a teacher, and if he became a teacher, that meant becoming a Christian. But it is gratifying to find that the number of Christian teachers is constantly increasing, while that of non-Christian is constantly decreasing. In 1871, of 4,201 native male teachers in the mission schools, 2,206 were Hindus or Mohammedans. In 1887, of 5,943, but 2,462 were non-Christians. A much greater reduction may be expected during the present decade."
If only Christian teachers are employed, many schools must close, and the instruction given in others be far less efficient than now. The aim therefore is to secure at least a Christian head master or mistress, and Christians for religious instruction, while other positions are filled with Christian teachers as fast as practicable.
But for the present, Hindu teachers in part are inevitable. None desire more than the missionaries themselves to supersede them entirely, and none will so rejoice when a sufficiency of competent Christian teachers can be had. And to this end, says Mr. Lawrence: "Nothing can serve better than the Normal schools in charge of the Society for Vernacular Christian Education. In its excellent institutions which I visited in Dindigul, in South India, and in Ahmednagar, in West India, it receives to be trained as teachers Christian young men sent by any mission. And to the missions of the American Board it has furnished many of the best teachers in their employ. One of the greatest needs of India is devoted, well-trained Christian teachers, and anything which can increased their number is worthy of all the aid that can be given."
IV. INSTANTANEOUS BAPTISM.
This question has assumed prominence and importance largely by the remarkable conversions attending the preaching of Rev. Mr. Knowles, an English missionary, and his colleagues of the North India M. E. Conference, at the Hindu festivals. Mr. Knowles holds some peculiar views as to the gift of the Holy Spirit, on condition of faith, which leads him to press an immediate decision upon his hearers at these great religious gatherings of the Hindus. All who come forward and publicly declare their belief in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, he will baptize at once, taking their names and homes, and seeking to follow up the work thus begun. Hence the number of baptisms made of those who up to that hour were Hindus in full caste relations, is very large.
The same question is pressed in the Punjab, where the American United Presbyterian Mission has been very successful. Whole villages have come to Christ, and called for immediate baptism, and the United Presbyterian missionaries have granted it, with full admission to the church. The Methodists defer such admission, and the Church Missionary Society prefers, as a rule, not to grant immediate baptism.
There are serious objections against this policy. Many hearing the gospel for the first time get no just idea of its requirements. Their conversion to Christianity is liable to be so only in name and form. The danger is of getting into the mission churches a mass of Hinduism in reality, under the outward rites of Christianity, to say nothing of the scandal which their relapse into their old faith would bring upon the Christian life and faith. The evils of such a hasty admission into the church-membership without due consideration and teaching, are serious and damaging, even in Christian lands, and where public sentiment is comparatively strong and on the right side. What must they be in heathen lands, and even in India, where the church is feeble, and public sentiment for the most part hostile?
"In reply, it is urged that Christ has made distinct promises to those who are not ashamed to confess Him; that when this is done publicly, and with public explanation of the preacher, the church may claim the fulfillment of the promise. It is true, moreover, that Hindus universally attach great importance to Christian baptism, regarding it as a decisive act, which involves the breaking of caste and excommunication. If anyone goes so far as to take this step, so important in his own eyes, why should he not be baptized, followed up, instructed, and, at the proper time, received into the church? And is not this the way, after all, in which the bulk of the people of India are to be brought to Christ-not by preliminary education, which can reach but a few at a time, and may draw men away from Christ instead of towards Him, but by conversion, with instantaneous baptism to seal the act, followed by subsequent training in Christ? If the conversion of Indians occurs by masses, instead of as individuals, must it not be in some such manner, the old barriers giving way suddenly, and great bodies of the people becoming disciples of Christ while ignorant of Him except as their Saviour?"
There is great force and pertinence in these questions. Experience must, in the main, settle the matter in India, and in other mission fields. It is admitted, by the best informed, that very many of the Hindus acknowledge the truth of Christianity, and are looking for a widespread movement among their people. Immense and rapid changes are the order of Providence all over the Heathen, Pagan and Mohammedan world. It seems morally certain that only by some grand mass rising can India ever be brought to Christ. "For, of the majority of Hindus, even more than of other peoples, it is true that, like Wadsworth's clouds, 'they must move all together, if they move at all.' "
We have thus condensed and given the substance of this valuable article, largely in the words of its author. In reviewing it we are impressed with the fact that the Problems which press on the mission church in India, press also, with more or less modification, on the Christian church of America, and of other Christian lands. It is our firm conviction that the great lesson of the day of Pentecost has yet to be learned by the modern Church of Christ. While that glorious manifestation of Divine power was largely supernatural, yet there was a general expectation on the part of the mass of disciples-there was united, continuous, and importunate prayer on the part of the infant church, and a believing waiting for the fulfillment of the Master's promise given on the eve of his departure. Hence it was no surprise. They were "endued with power from on high" in answer to prayer, and thereby fitted for the emergency and the work it laid upon them. And they did not hesitate, in reliance on Christ's promise, to baptize on the same day the thousands of professed converts, though among them were some of the very murderers of our Lord.
And what did the disciples do when driven from Jerusalem and scattered abroad, but go straight into the great cities of the Roman world—into the very centres of idolatry, and heathen superstition, and philosophy, and corruption, and wickedness-and boldly plant in the midst of them the banner of the cross, and preach "Jesus and the Resurrection," to Gentile and Jew, to philosophers and peasants, to the high and the low, and straightway gather converts into Christian churches, and push on from city to city, and from province to province, till they entered Rome itself, and even invaded "Cæsar's household." Their simple reliance was "the gospel of the grace of God," which they carried in their hearts, and preached in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power, confident that Christ would verify his ascension promise, and that the Cross in the hands of the Eternal Spirit was, of itself, without circumlocution, or previous training, or litany, or visible machinery, able to convert the soul to Jesus Christ. It was the policy of faith-the policy of simple trust in God and the power of the gospel-and it wrought wonders. It went everywhere, "conquering and to conquer." And the nearer the church of our day, both at home and in the missionary work abroad, approaches this apostolic method, the more will God honor and bless her instrumentality. In no other way-on no other principle-can the mountains of unbelief and difficulty be removed; the infinite masses of vice, ignorance, irreligion, and
BIOGRAPHY OF MOFFAT
indifference, which now lie and fester in the great cities of the world, be reached and penetrated by the light and influence of the gospel, and the world of guilt, ungodliness, hostility, infidelity and agnostic materialism, be shaken, upheaved, cleaved assunder, and the Son of Righteousness find entrance. If this world shall ever be won to Christ, it will be by Pentecostal seasons of power and ingathering; by tidal waves of grace that shall sweep the earth from pole to pole, by sudden simultaneous movements and forces in the moral and spiritual world, that shall be irresistible and general in their majestic sweep, challenging the faith of the Church, overawing a guilty world, and "converting a nation in a day," in fulfillment of prophetic promise.
BIOGRAPHY OF MOFFAT.
The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat, by their son, John S. Moffat. With Portraits and Illustrations. New edition with Preface and Supplementary Chapter. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 8 vo, pp. 484.
[EDITORIAL.-J. M. S.] THE name of Robert Moffat has been dear to us ever since we read his thrilling "Southern Africa," more than forty years ago. The leading facts of his life have long been familiar to missionary readers; but in this Life we have the outlines fitly filled up by the hand of filial love. The picture, as now completed, only enhances our estimate of the man and of the importance and enduring value of his work.
Dr. Wm. M. Taylor, in his brief Preface to this new edition, which has just issued from the press of the Armstrongs, well says: "The name of Robert Moffat deserves a high place on the honor roll of modern missionaries. It is not so well known, indeed, as that of his son-in-law, David Livingstone, but it may well be held in reputation as that of the pioneer, without whose labors those of Livingstone and others would have been far otherwise than they were. When he went to South Africa in 1817, he found tribes of idolaters and savages, constantly at war with each other and with the white men, utterly ignorant and degraded. When he left it in 1870, churches had been called into existence, a permanent body of native pastors had been reared from among the Bechwanas, and the whole region had become largely civilized and Christianized."
On the day after his funeral, which occurred in August, 1883, the following leader appeared in the London Times, which is so remarkable, coming from such a source, that we venture to reproduce the substance of it. It is not always that the secular press bestows such just, discriminating, and lofty praise on our heroic missionaries and their achievements.
"Dr. Robert Moffat, who was yesterday laid in the grave, has left an abiding name as a pioneer of modern missionary work in South Africa. He was born in 1795, a year memorable as that of the foundation of the London Missionary Society, and in 1816 he entered on his career as one of the Society's missionaries. His first purpose was to proceed to the South Seas, but his final choice was the vast and yet unexplored field of the central region of South Africa. His chief work was among the Bechwanas. His picture of what they were when he first knew them would hardly now be recognized, so entirely have they changed under the new influences which Moffat was among the first to bring to bear on them. He found them mere savages, idol-worshipers, constantly at war among themselves and with their neighbors, ignorant of the arts of agriculture, and in the utterly degraded state for which we must seek a counterpart now in the more distant tribes whom the message of civilization has not yet reached. It was Moffat's mission to civilize as well as instruct, to free those with whom he was brought in contact from the curse under which they seemed to lie, to raise them to a higher life, and so to fit them to become recipients of the sacred message of good tidings which it was his main ultimate purpose to announce. His success within the limited field to which he confined himself-a field which has been now far overpassed by the subsequent labors of other devoted men, most notably by those of his own son-in-law, David Livingstone—was very marked. His first care was to make himself thoroughly master of the language of those to whom he was sent. For fifty years, he has declared, he had been accustomed to speak the Bechwana tongue; he reduced it to written characters, and, as an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, translated the Scriptures into it. The Bechwanas, under Moffat's guidance, became new men. Mission work grew and spread among them; what Moffat had begun to do was taken up by other hands; a permanent body of native pastors was created from among the Bechwanas themselves, and the whole region was raised out of the savage state in which Moffat had found it, and became in no small degree civilized as well as Christianized. To effect this, and to make it possible for others to effect it, was the chief business of Moffat's working life. He went out to South Africa in 1816. He left it finally in 1870. During that long interval the dark continent was attacked and explored in all directions. Scientific travelers and missionary travelers were busy pushing their way into regions to which Moffat never penetrated. It is Moffat's honor to have been the first in the field, to have laid, as it were, the stepping-stones by which his successors have been able to outstrip him; to have borne the burden and heat of the day in early missionary work, and at once to have given an example of devotion to his noble cause and to have furnished proof that the ground was not barren, and that even in South Africa the good seed might be trusted to spring up and to bring forth abundant fruit.
"It is the fashion in some quarters to scoff at missionaries, to receive their reports with incredulity, to look at them at best as no more than harmless enthusiasts, proper subjects for pity, if not for ridicule. The records of missionary work in South Africa must be a blank page to those by whom such ideas are entertained. We owe it to our missionaries that the whole region has been opened up. Apart from their special service as preachers, they have done important work as pioneers of civilization, as geographers, as contributors to philological research. Of those who have taken part in this, Moffat's name is not the best known. Moffat, it may be said, has labored, and other men have entered into his labor. Livingstone has come after him, and has gone beyond him, and has linked his memory for ever with the records of the South African Church. Speke and Stanley have become household names where Moffat has been unknown or has been forgotten. In his own simple words, it never occurred to him, while working among the Bechwanas, that he should obtain the applause of men. His one care was for those among whom he had cast his lot. He was an enthusiast, of course-a man would be worth little for missionary enterprise if he were not this at all events. But he was an enthusiast with a clear sense of the right means to employ for the accomplishment of his unselfish task. He had a message to deliver of love and of peace, and he must prepare men to receive it by instructing them in the arts of peace. The progress of South Africa has been mainly due to men of Moffat's stamp. In him, as in David Livingstone, it is hard to say which character has predominated, that of the missionary proper, or that of the teacher and guide. Certain it is that apart from the special stimulus they felt as proclaimers of the gospel message, they would never have thrown themselves as they did into the work to which their lives were consecrated. It was by no zeal for the spread of civilization on its own account that they passed weary years laboring and teaching among savage tribes, amid dangers of every kind, amid privations of which they themselves made light, but which only a sense of their high spiritual mission could have prompted them to face and undergo. One part of Moffat's work has been to prepare the way for others. He has given, so far, what promises to be a lasting stimulus. It is another question whether his own work will endure. . . . It is the missionary alone who seeks nothing for himself. He has chosen an unselfish life. If honor comes to him, it is by no choice of his own, but as the unsought tribute which others, as it were, force upon him. Robert Moffat has died in the fullness both of years and of honors. His work has been to lay the foundation of the Church in the central regions of South Africa. As far as his influence and that of his coadjutors and successors has extended, it has brought with it unmixed good. His name will be remembered while the South African Church endures, and his example will remain with us as a stimulus to others and as an abiding proof of what a Christian missionary can be and can do."
How this life work was performed; what a world of difficulty and opposition he encountered; with what tireless and persistent energy he wrought for more than half a century; amid what perils, hardships, discouragements and heroic endurances he stood at his post, this intensely interesting volume sets forth, modestly and lovingly, in fuller detail. Mrs. Moffat shared in her husband's work, and spirit, and missionary career. "Both," says Dr. Taylor, "were of such stuff as heroes are made of, and their names are worthy of a place in the peerage of faith, beside those which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews has ennobled by his praise."
Robert Moffat was the child of poor, hard-working, and pious parents in Scotland, to whom he owed much of his shrewd sense, industry, frugality and ability to turn his hands to anything. He learned to be a gardener, but at 16 left home for a situation in Cheshire, where he speedily attracted the notice and sympathy of his employers. He was soon after converted and joined the Wesleyan Methodists, and quickly thereafter resolved to be a missionary. But parents, employers, and others, tried to dissuade him from his purpose. But he persevered at the cost of his place, but soon found employment with a Mr. Smith, a Scotchman of Covenanting descent, who entered heartily into young Moffat's plans. So likewise did their daughter Mary, some months Moffat's senior. She had been carefully and religiously brought up and schooled at the Moravian Seminary at Fairfield, whose traditions are so full of missionary romance. Here she spent some happy years, and had engaged in home-mission work. She was strongly drawn to Moffat, as he to her; and both earnestly devoted themselves to work among the heathen. This union of heart and work at home was subsequently renewed in Africa, where, for a long and eventful period they worked together as husband and wife.
As the biographer says, Moffat did not become a great missionary by virtue of his collegiate opportunities. He valued learning highly, but he had no chance to become a great scholar. But he had a knack of seizing what was essential to him, and a gift for forgetting what was useless or secondary. His studies, in face of the greatest difficulties, completed, he was accepted by the London Missionary Society, and would have been designated for the South Pacific with the venerated Williams, had it not been for his youth-he was only twenty years of age. Says the biographer: "During the discussions in the Missionary Committee as to how the present band of men was to be distributed, it had been first proposed that Williams and Moffat should both go to Polynesia; but this was overruled at the suggestion of Dr. Waugh, who deemed that 'thae twa lads were ower young to gang thegither;' so they were separated. On these small links hang our lives."
Moffat was not long in South Africa before he gave proof that years are not the only gauge of wisdom and self-reliance and tact in management. His first difficulty arose from the caprice of the Governor, who refused, on account of disturbances, to allow the party to proceed beyond the limits of Cape Colony. Moffat at once set himself to learning Dutch, that he might the more efficiently do his work when he did reach Namaqualand. At last the Governor gave his consent; and for more than a year in Namaqualand, and for more than five-and-forty in Bechwanaland, his life was one ceaseless labor and difficulty and danger, fearlessly faced. He was builder, blacksmith, carpenter, thatcher, ditcher-for he dug canal after canal to bring water to his garden and field-gardener and dairyman by turns-and everything to which he set his hand he did well-even down to darning and sewing, which he was thankful that his mother had taught him how to do.
His life at the Oape, and in Namaqualand, however, was but a preparation; his real work began at Kuruman, where he was assisted by his wife (Miss Mary Smith having joined him at Cape Colony, where they were married), whose noble character and remarkable gifts are brought out in the volume by means of her letters. She was helper, inspirer, and a strong supporter.
Soon after their settlement at Kuruman, Mrs. Moffat writes to her parents: " At present Moffat is applying himself with all diligence to the language, as the particular object of his destination here. He finds immense difficulties from the barrenness of the language and imperfect interpreters, but he is naturally too persevering soon to lose courage. This is his sole motive for undertaking a journey at present, in order to become familiar with it by being for a time out of the habit of speaking Dutch with our own people here.
I think it will also be of advantage to me in that respect; having so much to employ my time with at home I have little chance of learning much of it. You beg of us to pay particular attention to the instruction of the rising generation, but alas, we have no opportunities of doing this: the people instead of desiring that their children should be instructed, are afraid of their becoming 'Dutchmen,' so tenacious are they of their old customs and habits, and if a boy and a girl venture to come they are soon laughed out of it. Perhaps if we gave them a meal of meat every day or a few beads, we might have the place crowded-but on no other condition. Oh! how we were affected on reading an account of Madagascar, when we thought of the difference between that people and this; they so desirous and these such despisers of instruction. As to some of these people having correct notions of God and of heaven, death and hell, as has been asserted, you must not believe it; for daily conversations convince us that the wisest of them have most corrupt notions on these subjects. We are astonished at their dreadful stupidity about these things. My beloved parents, we have much need of your sympathy and prayers, and those of all other Christians. Could we but see the smallest fruit we could rejoice amidst the privations and toil which we bear; but as it is, our hands do often hang down."
Their faith was put to a very severe test. They toiled for years without any visible fruit. But though disappointed, neither were disheartened.
" 'Mary,' he said one day to his wife, 'this is hard work.' 'It is hard work, my love,' she replied; 'but take courage, our lives shall be given us for a prey!' 'But think, my dear,' he replied, 'how long we have been preaching to this people, and no fruits yet appear.' Mrs. Moffat rejoined in this manner: 'The gospel has not yet been preached to them in their own tongue wherein they were born. They have heard it only through interpreters, and interpreters who have themselves no just understanding, no real love of the truth. We must not expect the blessing till you be able from your own lips and in their own language to bring it through their ears into their hearts.' 'From that hour,' said Mr. Moffat, in relating the conversation, 'I gave myself with untiring diligence to the acquisition of the language.'''
At the close of the year 1822 Moffat wrote his brother: "I shall now give some particulars of our present situation. The most important is the cause of Christ. Alas! we still hang our harp on the willows, and mourn over the destiny of thousands hastening with heedless but impetuous strides to the regions of woe. They turn a deaf ear to the voice of love, and treat with scorn the glorious doctrines of redemption. This often causes our hearts to languish, while our eyes fail with looking upward.
"It is, however, pleasing to reflect that affairs in general wear a more hopeful aspect than when we came here. Several instances have proved the people determined to relinquish the barbarous system of commandoes for stealing cattle. They have also dispensed with a rainmaker this season. We rejoice in this, because his services and presence must ever form a strong barrier to the spread of the gospel. "We prayed and hoped that a good season would thoroughly convince them that the power of giving rain belonged only to God, but He whose footsteps are in the sea has been pleased to order it otherwise. The season has been so dry as to destroy their corn, except a little which happened to be sown on ground a little marshy. Nothing, however, has been said as to the cause of the drought. We continue on friendly terms with them, though we have also much to suffer, especially from thieves, who pester us on all sides."
God chose his own methods of bringing his servant into favor with this people and giving him a powerful influence in their affairs. The Niantatees, a terrible horde of marauders, came pouring down upon the western Bechwanas, who, if driven back, would have no option but to perish in the foodless and waterless wastes of the Kalahari. The people were panic-stricken. The dreaded enemy drew nearer every day. And still nothing definite was known of their purpose or strength. Moffat, choosing a few companions, plunged into the wilderness, and after perils innumerable (seeing nine lions in one day) accomplished his purpose and hastened back and warned the people, and roused them to action, and gave such advice, and exercised such strategy and commanding ability as resulted in saving the people from destruction. His forethought, coolness, courage, and sagacity excited the admiration even of these savages, and led the grateful people almost to worship him.
From this time on the mission brightened and the influence of the Moffats widened and deepened. Mrs. Moffat writes home to her father about this time: "To hear of the steady and growing piety of these sable children of Adam, together with the increase of Divine knowledge in the minds of others, must be reviving to the hearts of all who love the cause, but especially to such as are so nearly connected with this mission as yourself. Our gracious God has been very condescending to spare the lives of His unworthy servants to witness some fruits of missionary labor-a felicity we frequently despaired of enjoying in this lower world, where crosses and disappointments seemed to form so large a proportion in our cup. We now often wish you could be with us, to witness for yourself what we see. . . . The converts are going on well, and though the general commotion in the minds of the people has in a great measure subsided, we have solid reason to believe that there are many persons who are the subjects of an abiding conviction of their position as sinners before God, and are in the constant and diligent use of the means of grace, which we doubt not will be effectual through the Spirit in leading them to the Saviour of sinners. The Spirit of God has commenced His operations, and surely He will go on."
We have not space to follow Moffat through the long and fruitful years of his toil and sacrifice among this people, nor to describe his manifold labors in the wide field of Southern Africa exploration, civilization and Christianization; nor his intercourse with and influence on the career of David Livingstone, who married his daughter Mary; nor yet his great work in the matter of Bible translation and the circulation of the Scriptures as agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, laying the foundation of a Bechwana literature; nor his visit to England in 1838, and the wonderful interest he awakened in his native land; nor of his return to Africa and subsequent career there, till in a ripe old age, he returned to his native shores in 1870, and until the day of his death, worked on unceasingly in behalf of the cause to which his life had been devoted.
A single parting glimpse we give the reader.
"On Sunday, the twentieth of March, 1870, Robert Moffat preached for the last time in the Kuruman church. In all that great congregation there were few of his own contemporaries. The older people were for the most part children at the time when they had first seen the missionaries. With a pathetic grace peculiarly his own, he pleaded with those who still remained unbelieving amid the gospel privileges they had now enjoyed so many years. With a fatherly benediction he commended to the grace of God those who had been to him a joy and crown. It was an impressive close to an impressive career. Many years must pass before that service can be forgotten in Bechwanaland."
We note a single trait of Moffat's character. He was not a man of one idea; was not wedded to a system or preconceived methods, but studied to adapt himself to the existing condition of things. While he insisted that no civilizing processes were of any effect without conversion, he despised no means of gaining influence in order to lead the heathen to better modes of living, to improved methods of agricul- ture, and to thrift and settled habits.
" He was first a missionary; but he was also a great' captain of industry,' a man who, if he had devoted himself to any form of worldly enterprise, would probably have made a colossal fortune. He could govern men. He knew how to attach them to him, and could gauge their capacity with the eye of a master. He could direct each to the exact task suited to him, and, what is more, keep him heartily at it. Impulse and will went together, and he seldom missed his aim. A mere stripling of twenty-one, he tamed the redoubtable Africaner, and made him a humble follower and helper; he subdued Moselikatze, the warlike Matebele, and made him feel that the missionary was essential to him. His simple manhood and fearlessness, with great natural tact and independence, enabled him always to appeal to that side of their nature which was most open to him. And he could wait. It has been well said that the courage necessary to face indefinite perils, such as those to which Moffat was constantly exposed-especially in the first portion of his career-is greater than that which supports the soldier in the midst of excitement of battle. What a probation was that of the long years in the dry and waterless Kuruman, without the token of a single impression being made on any human creature! Shamelessly the people stole; neither grain could grow to ripeness, nor cattle or sheep be left in the fold, or a tool allowed to lie where a bit of work was being done, or a canal made, without the risk of the water being diverted before it reached the mission station. Many a time on returning from their out-door labors, or from a service, they found a stone in the pot instead of the meat they had left to cook. But all undismayed, Robert Moffat and his heroic wife toiled on, assured that their reward would come."* And come it did. He lived to see great changes wrought in South Africa and to lay the foundations of the South African Church with his own hands. The progress of South Africa has been mainly due to Moffat and men of his stamp. In him, as in Livingstone, it is hard to say which character has predominated, that of the missionary proper, or that of the teacher and guide. His mission largely was to prepare the way for others. He has given a great and apparently lasting stimulus, and laid Africa and the whole missionary world under great obligations.
On one point we think Mr. Moffat's testimony bearing on the policy of missions is entitled to serious consideration. We quote from an admirable paper in the Leisure Hour for November, 1883: "Much might be added in illustration of Dr. Moffat's extreme versatilIty in acquiring every industry or art which the exigencies of the place might demand of him. His treatment of the bodily ailments of the natives who came to him was almost prophetic of the medical missionaries, of whom so much has happily been heard in later days. Enough, perhaps, has been said to indicate the manifold resource and adaptiveness which helped to establish the memorable mission to Bechwanaland.
" The question of the bearing of civilization in such circumstances upon the work of evangelization is a weighty one, and the testimony of such a veteran missionary as Dr. Moffat would not fail to be of the greatest value. It is one, also, on which he has spoken with no uncertain sound, for the facts were pressed upon him at an early period of his work among the Becnwanas. After twenty-six years of missionary work he writes: 'Much has been. said about civilizing savages before attempting to evangelize them. This is a theory which has obtained an extensive prevalence among the wise men of this world, but we have never yet seen a practical demonstration of its truth. We, ourselves, are convinced that evangelization must precede civilization. It is very easy in a country of high refinement to speculate on what might be done among rude and savage men, but the Christian missionary, the only experimentalist, has invariably found that to make the fruit good the tree must first be made good. Nothing less than the power of Divine grace can reform the hearts of savages, after which the mind is susceptible of those instructions which teach them to adol'n the gospel they profess."–Leisure Hour.
"One of the great attractions of this biography is, that it faithfully presents Mrs. Moffat alongside her husband-a heroine in every sense of the word. There was no work in which she did not share-no enterprise or adventure however perilous-in which she did not take her part. For years she made it her work to accompany him in the wagon, when he meant to be absent for more than a couple of days, for the double purpose of insuring that he should have ordinary comforts (which in bachelorhood in Namaqualand he had been apt to overlook), and that she should learn what she could of everything. Moffat had laid it down as the result of his three-year-long single-life experience that, 'A missionary without a wife in South Africa was like a boat with only one oar. A good missionary's wife can be as useful as her husband in the Lord's vineyard.' She over and over again undertook journeys to the Cape without Moffat (whom she would not permit, for her sake, to leave his work for a moment), and with faithful Bechwanas and Hottentots only for attendants, who never failed her. She combined missionary help with attention to family matters, and conveyed back printing materials or other goods, which were needed and waited for. Once, when she was ordered to the coast for her health, she persisted in going alone.
Unfortunately this time they found the Orange River in flood, and could not get across. For a whole month in ill-health she had to wait on the bank in the hot weather. But she never got disconsolate or even depressed, and her power of taking the best and most hopeful view of things amounted almost to an art. This is how she tells of her suffering: " 'I was in company with Mr. Hume, who rendered me every possible assistance, but my health being in such a delicate state, I could not but suffer much from the extreme heat and exposed situation, and was severely tried. Frequently were we tantalized with the prospect of being able to ride through "to-morrow," but as sure as to-morrow came the river rose again, till all hope was gone, and we came at last to the conclusion to cross on a raft. . . . There were eighteen wagons altogether, and with hard labor we got everything over that dreadful river in less than three days without a single accident. How much have we to be thankful for! And it was gratifying to find that, for all I had endured, I was no worse, but rather better. Perhaps being obliged to take it easily was in my favor.'
"This so entirely expresses the character of the woman as she appears to us throughout these pages-patient, courageous, equal to any emergency, gifted with power of command such as few men have, and yet tender and true to every claim of womanhood-that we can only praise her sufficiently by saying that she rose to the same heights of unconscious heroism as her husband. To read of her must prove an inspiration in many a home."*
THE CHRISTIAN AND NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
THE CHRISTIAN AND NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS. SIR MONIER-WILLIAMS, Professor of Sanskrit in Oxford University, is universally recognized as an authority in all questions relating to the literature and faiths of the Orient. At the late anniversary of the Church Misssionary Society in London, he delivered an address which is so remarkable, that notwithstanding its appearance in other forms, we desire to give extracts from it a permanent place in this REVIEW. He says: "An old friend, a valued missionary of this society, founder of the James Long Lectures on the Non-Christian Religions, said to me a few days before his death: 'You are to speak at the anniversary of the Church Missionary Society; urge upon our missionaries the importance of studying the non- Christian religious systems.' Unusual facilities for this study are now at our disposal; for in this Jubilee year of the Queen, the University of Oxford has completed the publication of about thirty stately volumes of the socalled Sacred Books of the East, comprising the Veda, the Zend-Avesta of the Zoroastrians, the Confucian Texts, the Buddhist Tripitaka, and the Muhammadan Kuran-all translated by well-known translators. Our mIssionaries are already convinced of the necessity of studying these works, and of making themselves conversant with the false creeds they have to fight. How could an army of invaders have any chance of success in an enemy's country without a knowledge of the position and strength of its fortress, and without knowing how to turn the batteries they may capture against the foe? Instead of dwelling on so manifest a duty, I venture a few words of warning as to the subtle danger that lurks beneath the duty.
"In my youth I had been accustomed to hear all non-Christian religions described as 'inventions of the devil.' And when I began investigating Hinduism and Buddhism, some well-meaning Christian friends expressed their surprise that I should waste my time by grubbing in the dirty gutters of heathendom. After a little examination, I found many beautiful gems glittering there; nay, I met with bright coruscations of true light flashing here and there amid the surrounding darkness. Now, fairness in fightmg one's opponents is ingrained in every Englishman'S nature, and, as I prosecuted my researches into these non-Christian systems, I began to foster a fancy that they had been unjustly treated. I began to observe and trace out curious coincidences and comparisons with our own Sacred Book of the East. I began, in short, to be a believer in what is called the evolution and growth of religious thought. 'These imperfect systems,' I said to myself, 'are clearly steps in the development of man's religious instincts and aspirations-interesting efforts of the human mind struggling upwards towards Christianity. Nay, it is probable that they were all intended to lead up to the one true religion, and that Christianity is, after all, merely the climax, the complement, the fulfillment of them all.'
"Now there is unquestionably a delightful fascination about such a theory, and, what is more, there are really elements of truth in it. But I am glad of the opportunity of stating publicly that I am persuaded I was misled by its attractiveness, and that its main idea is quite erroneous. The charm and danger of it, I think, lie in its apparent liberality, breadth of view, and toleration. In The Times of last October 14, you will find recorded a remarkable conversation between a Lama priest and a Christian traveler, in the course of which the Lama says that 'Christians describe their religion as the best of all religions; whereas, among the nine rules of conduct for the Buddhist, there is one that directs him never either to think or to say that his own religion is the best, considering that sincere men of other religions are deeply attached to them.' Now to express sympathy with this kind of liberality is sure to win applause among a certain class of thinkers in these days of universal toleration and religious free trade. We must not forget, too, that our Bible tells us that God has not left himself without witness, and that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. Yet I contend, notwithstanding, that flabby, jelly-fish kind of tolerance is utterly incompatible with the nerve, fibre, and backbone that ought to characterize a manly Christian. A Christian's character ought to be exactly what the Christian's Bible intends it to be. Take that Sacred Book of ours; handle reverently the whole volume; search it through and through, from the first chapter to the last, and mark well the spirit that pervades the whole. You will find no limpness, no flabbiness about its utterances. Even skeptics who dispute Its divinity are ready to admit that it is a thoroughly manly book. Vigor and manhood breathe in every page. It is downward and straightforward, bold and fearless, rigid and uncompromising. It tells you and me to be either hot or cold. If God be god, serve him. If Baal be God, serve him. We cannot serve both. We cannot love both. Only one name is given among men whereby we may be saved. No other name, no other Saviour, more suited to India, to Persia, to China, to Arabia, is ever mentioned-is ever hinted at.
"What! says the enthusiastic student of the science of religion, do you seriously mean to sweep away as so much worthless waste paper all these thirty stately volumes of Sacred Books of the East just published by the University of Oxford? "No-not at all-nothing of the kind. On the contrary, we welcome these books. We ask every missionary to study their contents and thankfully lay hold of whatsoever things are true and of good report in them. But we warn him that there can be no greater mistake than to force these non-Christian bibles into conformity with some scientific theory of development, and then point to the Christian's Holy Bible as the crowning product of religious evolution. So far from this, these non-Christian bibles are all developments in the wrong direction. They all begin with some flashes of true light and end in utter darkness. Pile them, if you will, on the left side of your study table, but place your own Holy Bible on the right side-all by itself-aU alone-and with a wide gap between.
"And now, I crave permission at least to give two good reasons for ventur- ing to contravene, in so plain-spoken a manner, the favorite philosophy of the day. Listen to me, ye youthful students of the so-called Sacred Books of the East, search them through and through, and tell me, do they affirm of Vyasa, of Zoroaster, of Confucius, of Buddha, of Mohammed, what our Bible affirms of the Founder of Christianity-that He, a sinless Man, was made Sin! Not merely that he is the eradicator of sin, but that He, the sinless Son of man, was himself made sin. Vyasa and the other founders of Hinduism enjoined severe penances, endless lustral washings, incessant purifications, infinite repetitions of prayer, painful pilgrimages, arduous ritual, and sacrificial observances, all with the one idea of getting rid of sin. AU their books say so. But do they say that the very men who exhausted every invention for the eradication of sin were themselves sinless men made sin. Zoroaster, too, and Confucius, and Buddha, and Mohammed, one and all, bade men strain every nerve to get rid of sin, or at least of the misery of sin, but do their sacred books say that they themselves were sinless men made sin! I do not presume, as a layman, to interpret the apparently contradic. tory proposition put forth in our Bible that a sinless Man was made Sin. All I now contend for is that it stands alone; that it is wholly unparalleled; that it is not to be matched by the shade of a shadow of a similar declaration in any other book claiming to be the exponent of the doctrine of any other religion in the world.
" Once again, ye youthful students of the so-called Sacred Books of the East, search them through and through, and tell me, do they affirm of Vyasa, of Zoroaster, of Confucius, of Buddha, of Mohammed, what our Bible affirms of the Founder of Christianity-that He, a dead and buried Man, was made Life? not merely that he is the Giver of life, but that he, the dead and buried Man, is Life. 'I am the Life.' 'When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear.' 'He that hath the Son, hath Life.' Let me remind you, too, that the blood is the Life, and that our Sacred Book adds this matchless, this unparalleled, this astounding assertion: 'Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.' Again, I say, I am not now presuming to interpret so marvelous, so stupendous a statement. All I contend for is that it is absolutely unique; and I defy you to produce the shade of the shadow of a similar declaration in any other sacred book of the world. And bear in mind that these two matchless, these two unparalleled declarations, are closely, are intimately, are indissolubly connected with the great central facts and doctrines of our religion: the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ. Vyasa, Zoroaster, Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, are all dead and buried; and mark this-their flesh is dissolved; their bones have crumbled into dust; their bodies are extinct. Even their followers admit this. Christianity alone commemorates the passing into the heavens of its divine Founder, not merely in the spirit, but in the body, and 'with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature,' to be the eternal source of life and holiness to his people.
"The two unparalleled declarations quoted by me from our Holy Bible make a gulf between it and the so-called Sacred Books of the East which sever the one from the other utterly, hopelessly, and forever-not a mere rift which may be easily closed up, not a mere rift across which the Christian and the non-Christian may shake hands and interchange similar ideas in regard to essential truths, but a veritable gulf which cannot be bridged over by any science of religious thought; yes, a bridgeless chasm which no theory of evolution can ever span. Go forth, then, ye missionaries, in your Master's name; go forth into all the world, and, after studying all its false religions and philosophies, go forth and fearlessly proclaim to suffering humanity the plain, the unchangeable, the eternal facts of the gospel-nay, I might al- most say, the stubborn, the unyielding, the inexorable facts of the gospel. Dare to be downright with all the uncompromising courage of your own Bible, while with it your watchwords are love, joy, peace, reconciliation. Be fair, be charitable, be Christ-like, but let there be no mistake. Let it be made absolutely clear that Christianity can not, must not, be watered down to suit the palate of either Hindu, Parsee, Confucianist, Buddhist, or Mo. hammedan, and that whosoever wishes to pass from the false religion to the true can never hope to do so by the rickety planks of compromise, or by help of faltering hands held out by half-hearted Christians. He must leap the gulf in faith, and the living Christ will spread his everlasting arms be- neath and land him safely on the Eternal Rock."
To this remarkable testimony, we add that of Professor Max Müller, who, in addressing the British and Foreign Bible Society, said: "In the discharge of my duties for forty years, as Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Oxford, I have devoted as much time as any man living to the study of the Sacred Books of the East, and I have found the one key-note -the one diapason, so to speak-of all these so-called sacred books, whether it be the Veda of the Brahmans, the Puranas of Siva and Vishnu, the Koran of the Mohammedans, the Zend-Avesta of the Parsees, the Tripitaka of the Buddhists-the one refrain through all-salvation by works. They all say that salvation must be purchased, must be bought with a price ; and that the sole price, the sole purchase-money, must be our own works and deservings. Our own holy Bible, our sacred Book of the East, is from beginning to end a protest against this doctrine. Good works are, indeed, enjoined upon us in that sacred Book of the East far more strongly than in any other sacred book of the East; but they are only the outcome of a grateful heart -they are only a thank-offering, the fruits of our faith. They are never the ransom-money of the true disciples of Christ. Let us not shut our eyes to what is excellent and true and of good report in these sacred books, but let us teach Hindoos, Buddhists, Mohammedans, that there is only one sacred Book of the East that can be their mainstay in that awful hour when they pass all alone into the unseen world. It is the sacred Book which contains that faithful saying, worthy to be received of all men, women and children, and not merely of us Christians-that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. [EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] "Let the dead bury their dead! Follow thou ME.
Go thou and preach the kingdom of God." -Matt. viii: 21, 22; Luke ix: 60.
WORDS of deep meaning are those words, "life" and "death." The difference between them is the difference between holiness and sin; the distance between them is the distance between Heaven and Hell.
We are in a world of Death. It is full of the dead-those who have neither spiritual vitality nor sensibility; who lack all true spiritual life and all proper sense of the powers of the world to come.
God made man, like an ideal house, in successive stories. On the earthward side, the body, identified with matter; next above it, the intellectual, affectional and moral nature, higher up and nearer God; then above all, and crowning all, that which constituted the very "image of God," -the spiritual nature, the oratory and observatory, nearest to Heaven.
The fall of man shattered the whole house, but it left the upper story in absolute ruin. The spiritual image of God was effaced, while the whole man was defaced. That observatory that looked out upon the celestial scenery, became at best "a death chamber." The noblest, highest, divinest affections, affinities, and capacities of man were left in a state of decay; and so this world became the abode of the dead.
Yes; and the dead are burying the dead. All human history, without God, is one long burial. What is burial? It is the magnifying of the material and mortal; it is lavishing care and cost upon the body, when the invisible spirit has departed, and putting it out of sight and contact of the living. So are the ways of the world. That unseen reality and personality which we call soul, is habitually neglected, while lavish attention is given to the body; and selfishness, that it may revel in ease and indulgence, seeks to bury out of sight and touch of the living, the want and woe, sorrow and suffering of humanity.
The sayings of our Lord, which introduce these paragraphs, are far more comprehensive than may at first appear. Christ is not denying to a son the privilege of fulfilling the last sad offices of filial love to a deceased father. A soul has reached the crisis of history and destiny, and stands trembling and wavering upon the verge of a decision upon which hang eternal issues. To go just now, even to a father's funeral, with its elaborate ceremonial and tedious period of formal mourning, would prove a diversion that might prevent conversion, dissipating serious impressions and convictions. What if that son, drawn back into worldly associations, should lose all interest in things divine; and going to bury his father, should end in being buried himself ! But let us mark the grandeur of the scope of those two words of command: "Follow thou me !" "Go thou and preach the kingdom of God!"
Christ is the Lord of life. He came to give life and to give it more abundantly-not to bury but to revive; not to commit to the sepulchre but to call the dead from their tombs. "Follow thou Me !"
and so get life; then, "Go thou and preach the kingdom of God," and so give life.
We have intelligently chosen these words as the motto of this MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD. Taking the two accounts as presenting the whole incident in its spherical completeness, we find here the entire duty of every human being, comprehensively expressed: first to be a follower of Christ, and then a preacher of Christ; receiving life from the dead, to go forth bearing the potent message of salvation, and so imparting life to the dead.
Our Lord thus sounds, in these sayings of His, the silver trumpet of evangelization, and down through the aisles of the ages, with growing clearness, rings the clarion peal. It is time that it had reached and rallied the whole church of God to the universal assembling of the Lord's hosts, and the universal onset of the army against the foe.
Evangelization is the one word that deserves to be emblazoned on the banners of the believing host. The one immediate, imperative duty of every follower is to become a "herald." To bring this gospel of life into contact with every living, human soul in the shortest possible time and the best possible way-that is evangelization.
The scheme is so grandly colossal that it fills the whole word of God, and reaches round the whole world of the dead. Like the wheel of Ezekiel's vision, it is so high that it is dreadful. Its rim rests upon the earth, but reaches to heaven.
God's gigantic plan of evangelization embraces the whole family of man. That family consists at this time of fifteen hundred millions of souls now living upon earth. More than one-half of this vast number have never yet had a copy of the Word, heard the sound of the good tidings, or even seen the face of a missionary. There are some thirty millions of evangelical Christians within the territory of a nominal Christendom; and the problem is how to bring those thirty millions into contact with the seven hundred and fifty millions who have not the gospel within the space of a generation's lifetime!
How can it be done? That is the absorbing question. We should utterly despair of doing it but for one fact: The Captain of our salvation has commanded it, and the existence of the order is the warrant for obedience, and the assurance of success. Let the whole church but take the attitude of obedience, and we should see wonders of achievement that would astonish us.
It is, nevertheless, very plain that the methods now employed by the church of God are inadequate to this great work. All Christendom sends to the foreign field to-day less than seven thousand workmen, of whom more than half are unordained laymen and women. The native Christian churches contribute some thirty-three thousand more, of whom nine-tenths are laymen. We have, therefore, a total of forty thousand Christian disciples scattered among the millions of Pagan, Papal, and Moslem communities. Were these evenly and equally distributed, it would still give every worker, male or female, native and foreign, ordained and unordained, a parish of 18,750 souls to reach with the gospel in the space of about thirty years, the lifetime of a generation.
"What are these among so many?" And with all the obstacles of foreign language and hoary superstitions to surmount before there could be even an approach or access to them. Our missionary workers-nay, even our missionary stations-are like stars set in the centres of vast vacancies. And, therefore, it is that with over 100 missionary organizations belting the globe, the unevangelized population of the world grows faster than the church; population strides more rapidly than evangelization can keep up with it; and there is to-day a larger number of unsaved souls on earth than during any previous decade of years.
Where lies the core of this difficulty? We have forsaken the standard set up for us by our Lord and adopted by the primitive church. To every human being our Lord's double message is "Follow me, and preach me." The command is representative. The only qualification necessary for preaching the kingdom is to be a subject in it; and every follower of Christ must be a fisher of men.
This is the doctrine of the New Testament, and this was the practice of the New Testament church. Our Lord laid down the law of evangelization: ALL ARE TO GO, AND TO GO TO ALL. The occasion on which, upon that Galilean mountain, He said: "Go make disciples of all nations," was, without doubt, the occasion on which he "was seen of above five hundred brethren at once," commissioning all disciples to make disciples.
And they accepted the commission. The persecution that followed Stephen's martyrdom scattered the disciples abroad, and they went everywhere, preaching the word.* Observe!-not the apostles, for they are expressly excepted, as remaining at Jerusalem. Philip, though only a deacon, not only evangelized but baptized. The careful reader of the" Acts of the Apostles" finds there the acts of a great many beside the Apostles. He finds there a vital truth of Scripture side by side with a vital fact of history. The obvious intent of our Lord was that every follower should be also a witness, warrior, worker, winner of souls. The so-called "ministry" properly exists in the interests of law and order, sound doctrine and safe polity; but does not properly exist as a clerical caste, drawing a line of division between the followers of Christ in the matter of work for souls. Neither the world nor the church can afford to confine or entrust this work of evangelization to a class. The world needs all disciples as heralds, if all men are to hear the gospel; and the church needs all her members to be workers if she is to fulfil her great commission, or even escape the dry rot of indolence and inaction. Growth there must be where life is, and action there must be where growth is. What we do not use we lose. Current alone keeps the stream from stagnating and freezing.
Go thou, whoever thou art, if thou followest the Lord, and preach the kingdom of God. This is a universal duty, an individual responsibility. It is not necessary to change our sphere, but only to pervade our sphere with a new spirit of life. "In whatsoever calling he is found, let every man therein abide with God."* Let him use the shoemaker's shop, the carpenter's bench, the merchant's desk, the artist's studio, the market stall, the senator's chair, the kitchen or nursery, the throne or palace, as the pulpit from which to preach Jesus. If, like Wesley and Whitefield, Moody and McAll, you can reach the multitudes with your voice, thank God for the privilege. But if not, perhaps, like John Pounds of Portsmouth, you can win the confidence of street gamins by a hot roast potato, or, like Maria Millis in the humble nursery, teach infant lips to pray, and sow in a child's heart the seeds of a mighty passion for souls that shall yet sway, with resistless persuasion, the Lords and Commons in Parliament! These opening words of salutation from the editors to the reader, are not the result of any sudden, transient outburst of feeling. Here are crystallized the solemn convictions reached or wrought by a quarter of a century of study and thought upon this great theme. Before the church stands a great problem, for which the Scriptures furnish the only practical, possible solution. The whole church must accept the duty of telling the old, old story. Each of us is his brother's keeper. Every hearer must become a herald. This is the theory of evangelization in a nutshell; and we have only to put this principle into practice, and the wisdom of our Lord's words will be demonstrated; we may thus bring the gospel to the ears of every living member of our ruined race before the bells of God's great clock of the ages shall ring in the natal hour of a new century.
"Go THOU, AND PREACH THE KINGDOM OF GOD."
A VIOLENT thunder storm once preserved the town of Basle from the shells of the Russians and Hungarians, who were besieging the place. The pious people, in gratitude, founded a training-school for Christian Missionaries. This was the origin of the Basle Missionary Society, which has sent out over five hundred devoted men to the heathen.
*1 Cor. vii.
MISSION WORK IN PAPAL EUROPE
MISSION WORK IN PAPAL EUROPE.
By WILLIAM CLARK, D.D., FLORENCE, ITALY.
[Dr. Clark has a right to speak on the subject which he here briefly intro- duces to the notice of our readers. During the past twenty-five years he has resided in Papal Europe and made its institutions, especially those of an educational character, a matter of special study. The female college which he has established at Florence is an important mission agency and deserves the sympathy and aid of American Christians, and especially of the friends of female Christian education. Previous to this-from 1850 to 1860-he was in the service of the A. B. C. F. M. in Turkey, having charge of the Bebek Theological Seminary, out of which grew Robert College.-EDs.) THE moral and spiritual transformation of Central and Southern Europe must be done for women and by women. Establishing evangeli- cal schools of higher female education is the great mission agency to be employed, and the agency the most successful of all others. It is not by any denominational propaganda arrayed against Popery, or by Protestant Mission Boards of England and the United States sending their forces into these countries with their agencies of sect. I have been intimately conversant with mission work in foreign and Papal lands for nearly forty years, and, with all my experience and observation during this long period, I am fully convinced that true and successful mission work can never be accomplished, especially in Papal Europe, by a strictly denominational agency. I speak what I know when I say that the greatest obstacle to the work of a true religious reform in Papal Europe for the last twenty-five years has been the introduction of different religious denominations, and the sectarian spirit that has characterized them. To do true Christian work in Europe, churches must leave sect at home, and carry alone the essentials of Christian salvation and Christian character.
In 1866, Hon. George P. Marsh, our honored Minister in Italy for thirty years, wrote me thus: "Garibaldi is right in saying that Italy must owe her salvation to her women. No country has produced, and none now produces, nobler women than this, and there never was a crisis when such could render greater service to the cause of humanity and truth than now." The union and independence of Italy, that have taken place since that time, have proved a powerful incentive in ennobling and quickening the life of woman. Nowhere is the regeneration of Italy more marked than in Italian female life. They now ask earnestly for a new and improved system of higher female education. They wish schools and colleges for women similar to those in America. Our system of higher female education has been made known in all these countries by the Expositions at Vienna and Paris. My classmate, Hon. John D. Philbrick of Boston, our Educational Commissioner at those expositions, made such a beautiful exhibit of our female schools and colleges as to make our system of female culture so popular that it is everywhere desired in all these countries, and desired as a system to take the place of the Convent system, with which from year to year they are more and more dissatisfied.
Establishing evangelical schools of higher female education would be setting up a great agency that would be attended with immense results, an agency having no sectarian taint to poison it, and most cordially welcomed by the people. In Italy, for instance, this agency affords us a rare opportunity of doing a most noble work for Italian young women of the higher classes, in bringing a high and ennobling religious influence, as well as a high culture among those who really have the destinies of their country in their hands.
The great obstacle to the regeneration of Italy, is woman. Educate woman, and bring her under a true religious influence, and Italy will quickly become a truly enlightened and a truly evangelized country. And this work is feasible, if means and lady teachers can be obtained among Christians of America. The present is a time so favorable for instituting a great enterprise and an undenominational mission agency, that I cannot but urge it upon the attention of Christian women in America. I have heard many Italians express deep regret that, in all Catholic Europe, there was not one superior college where they might send their daughters for a higher culture. Is not this fact a sad one, especially when we consider how much high Christian culture there is among the women of America and England? Is it true that this culture is really Christian and benevolent in its character? Why, then, are not greater efforts made to extend it among other nations? Establish, for instance, schools in Italy bearing the stamp of our culture and our religion. This would be the noblest possible way of doing mission work. It is not enough that we boast of our higher female education at home; we must consecrate it to the good of other nations.
We want $10,000 to make a college, already established in Florence, Italy, an agency of great good to all the Papal States of Europe. Similar schools we wish to establish in all the principal cities of Italy, Austria, France and Spain; and such schools will bring these countries into the kingdom of Christ. To the importance of this work we have the testimony and endorsement of the best men of all Christian nations. Lord Shaftsbury, J. B. Braithwaite of England, Sir William Muir, Prof. Calderwood of Scotland, Mark Hopkins, Dr. Roswell D. Hitchcock, Mrs. ex-President Garfield, and many others in our own land-all these speak of this agency as mission work of the highest importance.
Many years ago Mrs. Emma Willard, of Troy Female Seminary, gave $3,000 to establish a school for young women in Greece. This school, nobly sustained by Mr. and Mrs. Hill, has educated more than 20,000 Greek young women.
BRIEF NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER
BRIEF NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.
James Hannington. By F. C. Dawson, M. A. A. D. F. Randolph & Co., N. Y.
This is a graphic story of the life and work of the first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa. It has already gone through six editions in England, 'and two here. It is a thrilling narrative. There are many incidents of great interest in the volume; but the central figure is the manly, unselfish, heroic Hannington, whose martyrdom so shocked the Christian world. The reading of the book has suggested so many useful and instructive thoughts that it is the purpose of the editors to give hereafter a special article on the subject of this memoir.
The Cross and the Dragon. Rev. B. C. Henry of Canton. A. D. F. Randolph & Co.
Few books of 500 pages contain more interesting and useful matter. Mr. Henry is an acute observer. He has eyes and ears and knows how to use them: and he has the rare quality of being able, both by his tongue and pen, to reproduce in vivid, graphic style, those matters which are most apt to enchain the attention of the hearer or reader. This book will be one of the standard books on Missions.
Siam, or The Heart of Farther India. By Mary L. Cort. Published by Randolph.
This book, in size and style, corresponds to The Cross and the Dragon, and is not unlike it in value and power to interest and instruct. Few people know what a unique country and people are presented in this book, about which so little has been known until of late. The supreme king, Chulalangkorn, is a wise, intelligent, charitable monarch: like his father before him a patron of art, science and literature. In this empire all practical hindrances seem removed to missionary work. There have been no marked results which can be expressed in figures and statistics, but the gospel seems to be slowly but surely preparing for a great conquest. We advise everybody to read Miss Cort's book.
The Dragon, Image, and Demon: or, the Three Religions of China, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Iaoism, giving an account of the Mythology, Idolatry, and Demonolatry of the Chinese. By Rev. Hampden C. DuBose, fourteen years a missionary at Loochow. New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 12mo, pp. 468. 1887.
We give the full title of this book as explanatory of its contents. The work is profusely illustrated, and is gotten up in gorgeous yet appropriate style. Written by one who knows whereof he writes; who is familiar, from study and observation on the ground, with the system of religion and philosophy which he describes; and who has taken pains to gather information on a great variety of points little understood by the Christian world, it will prove a valuable addition to our missionary literature. The work is of interest to the general reader, as well as in all missionary circles. Even the London Saturday Review says of it: "It is a book likely to be widely read. Of the author's minute description of popular and household deities, and the mass of legend connected with them, the book and its curious illustrations can alone speak. Mr. DuBose has much to say that is fresh and suggestive, and he says it with force and conviction."
The Crisis of Missions: or, The Voice out of the Cloud. By Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D. New York: Robert Carter & Brothers. 12 mo, pp. 370.
Like all their issues, the publishers have given this little book an attractive dress, befitting the character of the work. It is a marvelous book, in its power to inform, impress, and electrify the reader. The grouping of inspiring facts; the rapid action of the discussion; the intense glow of missionary feeling; and the irresistible array of motives and argume~ts and
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK
Providential movements, all conspire to challenge the reader's attention, thrill his soul, and cause him to hear "the voice out of the cloud," as he never heard it before. If our beloved associate had not written the book, I should use still stronger language. I am not surprised that the reading public are showing their appreciation of it by exhausting six editions of it in one year!
Woman and the Gospel in Persia. By Rev. Thomas Laurie, D. D. Adoniram Judson. By Julia H. Johnston.
The Woman's Presbyterian Board of Missions of the Northwest, located at Chicago, is publishing a series of brief works entitled" Missionary Annals." The first in the series was a Memoir of Robert Moffat. The two, whose titles are given above, form Nos. 2 and 3. Others are in preparation. They are neatly produced, and sold at a small price, only 30 cents in cloth. .
The plan is an excellent one. Its execution will greatly widen the circle of missionary readers and create a demand for larger works. The materials for the sketch of Dr. Judson were drawn from Dr. Wayland's memoir of him, from Dr. EdwardJudson's "Life" of his father, and from "The History of Baptist Missions." "Woman and the Gospel in Persia," is an abridgment of "Woman and her Saviour in Persia," by Dr. Laurie, and was generously prepared by him and presented to the Board which publishes it.
n.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
THE seventh annual meeting of the Board was held at Springfield, Mass., Oct. 5-8, 1887. It was a remarkable assemblage, both as to number and character—one hundred and sixty-five corporate members and over 800 ministers. The discussion of two reports from the Prudential Committee was long and earnest, and resulted in an overwhelming vote sustaining the policy of the Board. Still it was not unanimous, and the outcome of the trouble it is impossible to predict.
The editor of The Independent, who was present, gives the following as the substance of the action of the Board:
"1. That the Board, acting through its Prudential Committee, will hereafter as heretofore assume and exercise the right to judge and determine upon the qualifications of all persons applying to it for appointment and support as foreign missionaries. 2. That, in the judgment of the Board, the Word of God teaches that the moral conduct of men in this life, whether living and dying in heathen or Christian lands, is determinative of their condition and destiny in the life to come, and hence that this Word excludes the hypothesis that any persons who in this life have failed to secure the great salvation through Christ will, after death, have another probation in which salvation will be offered to them, and by them may be obtained. 3. That all persons applying to the Board for appointment and support as foreign missionaries, if holding as a positive faith or a probable hypothesis the doctrine of a second probation or that of this life continued into the next life, are to be regarded as not possessing the proper qualifications for such appointment and support, since, in either case, their position is contrary to the Word of God, and is calculated in its natural effects to impair the power of that Word over human hearts."
The report of the year's missionary operations was highly encouraging, and the several papers submitted by the Secretaries, particularly "The Appeal of the Hour," by Secretary Smith, and "The Message and Messenger," by Secretary Clark, were inspiring in the highest degree. We regret that our space will allow but a bird's-eye view of the year's results.
RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES.
From churches, individual donors, and Sunday-schools, $218,427.58. From the four Woman's Boards, $148,530.82 (from Woman's Board of Missions, $89,304.60; from Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior, $55,248.12; from the Woman's Board of Missions for the Pacific, $3,678.10; from the Woman's Board of Missions for the Pacific Isles, $300); a total of donations of $366,958.40. From legacies, $98,414.59, and from the income of the permanent funds, $11,071.28; making the total receipts from these sources, $476,444.27.
From the Swett bequest, set apart to meet special calls for a brief period of years in the evangelistic and educational departments of our missionary work abroad, $154,319.96 has been appropriated for the purposes named, including, for Japan, $43,745, and for China, $34,762.83.
From the Otis bequest, set apart for new missions, $48,808.31 has been devoted to work in West Central and East Central Africa, in Shanse, in Northern Japan, and in Northern Mexico.
These amounts, added to receipts from ordinary sources, with balance in the treasury at the beginning of the year, $1,381.49, make the total $680,954.03. The expenditures of the year amounted to $679,376.90, leaving a balance in the treasury of $1,577.13.
GENERAL SUMMARY. 1886-87.
| Item |
Number |
| Number of Missions |
22 |
| Number of Stations |
89 |
| Number of Out-Stations |
891 |
| Number of Ordained Missionaries (11 being Physicians) |
168 |
| Number of Physicians not Ordained, 8 men and 4 women |
12 |
| Number of other Male Assistants |
10 |
| Number of Women (wives 164; unmarried, besides Physicians, 107) |
271 |
| Whole number of laborers sent from this country |
461 |
| Number of Native Pastors |
155 |
| Number of Native Preachers and Catechists |
393 |
| Number of Native School-teachers |
1,164 |
| Number of other Native Helpers |
325—2,037 |
| Whole number of laborers connected with the Missions |
2,498 |
| Pages printed, as nearly as can be learned |
18,650,000 |
| Number of Churches |
325 |
| Number of Church Members |
28,042 |
| Added during the year |
2,906 |
| Whole number from the first, as nearly as can be learned |
101,089 |
| Number of High Schools, Theological Seminaries, and Station Classes |
55 |
| Number of Pupils in the above |
3,623 |
| Number of Boarding Schools for Girls |
41 |
| Number of Pupils in Boarding Schools for Girls |
2,318 |
| Number of Common Schools |
878 |
| Number of Pupils in Common Schools |
34,417 |
| Whole number under instruction |
41,151 |
CONCLUSION.
Such is the brief record of that great work which the Board sustains in twenty-two missions among unevangelized people in all parts of the earth. In almost 1,000 populous centres a force of 2,500 laborers, foreign and native, is preaching the gospel in twenty-five different languages, and conducting a great evangelistic and educational work. Fifteen new churches have been organized, and out of a total membership of 28,000, nearly 3,000 have made profession of faith this year. In ninety-six high schools and colleges 6,000 picked youths of both sexes are in training to reinforce the native agency, besides 34,000 pupils under Christian instruction and influence in common schools. And above all, the Christian character of the native converts is assuming greater depth and earnestness, and their share in evangelistic work is steadily increasing in value as well as in amount.
THE FIRST MONTH.—The financial beginning of the new year is favorable, the receipts being more than double those of the first month of the preceding year; amounting to $30,668.57, of which over $22,000 is from donations.
American Baptist Union.
THIS Union represents some 600,000 or 700,000 Baptists in the Northern and Western States, and is the second oldest foreign missionary society in the country. Its 73d annual meeting was held in Minneapolis, Minn., May 27-28. We give an abstract of its annual report.
Its first field was Burmah, where it has planted a vigorous and self-supporting Christianity, which, with its admirable system of schools and its missionary spirit, is making constant inroads on heathenism. Since Upper Burmah was opened to the world by the overthrow of King Thebaw, the Union has been sending missionaries into that kingdom. It has also a strong mission in India, among the Telugus, thousands of whom were gathered in during the remarkable awakening in South India some years ago. Besides these missions the Union has others in Assam and Siam, China, Japan, Africa (in Liberia and on the Congo), and in Europe.
The European missions are in Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, and Greece, where their membership foots up more than the Asiatic and African missions. In Sweden and Germany the work may be said to have passed the missionary stage. There are regular churches, ordained ministers, and associations of churches and ministers. In Sweden alone there are 460 churches, a gain of 26 the past year, 483 preachers, and 31,064 members. In Germany there are more members (33,451), but fewer churches and ministers. The latter number 450, of whom 300 are unordained, and the churches count up to 168 only. The work of the year was very successful, if we may judge from the fact that there were 3,473 baptisms in Sweden, and 2,530 in Germany. An effort is being made to reach the Finns, of whom there are about two millions, who are said to be in a state of dense spiritual darkness. They seem anxious to know the truth and be saved. The amount of contributions in Sweden last year was $79,187.
Germany received $5,628 from the Union, raising among its own churches $98,900. The German Baptist Union, consisting of 13 associations, embraces missions in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Russia, Roumania, Bulgaria, Denmark, and Africa. The mission was begun by Johan Gerhard Oncken, a German who married and settled in England and became an Independent. Traveling in Lower Saxony, as an agent of a Bible and a tract society, he organized a Baptist church in that kingdom and became its pastor. This was in 1834. Next year he was appointed missionary of what is now the American Baptist Missionary Union, and he went all over Germany and Denmark preaching and baptizing. From this beginning have sprung all the churches and missions in connection with the German Baptist Union. There is an association in Austria embracing 5 churches, 62 stations, and 930 members; one among the Poles, with 8 churches, 52 stations, and 2,624 members; two in Russia, with a total of 18 churches, 183 stations, and 5,026 members; one on the Baltic with 4 churches, 9 stations, and 1,206 members; one in Denmark, with 22 churches, 101 stations, and 2,181 members; and one in South Africa, with 3 churches, 16 stations, and 676 members. Of the 58,108 members which are returned from the Asiatic and African missions 26,574 are in Burmah and Siam, showing an increase for the year of over 700. A special difficulty in the work in Burmah is the fact of the division of the population in language and race characteristics, requiring distinct missions to the Burmans, the Karens, the Shans, the Kachins, and the Chins. And these separate missions are to be found in the same territory, in the same towns and cities. In Henthada, for example, there is a Burman, a Karen, and a Chin department; and the Karens are sometimes divided into the Red-Karen, Bghai-Karen, and Paku-Karen departments, and there are still other varieties of Karens. The majority of the members in Burmah are Karens, who are an inferior people and were formerly slaves to the Burmans. The total of baptisms in Burmah last year was 1,794. The appropriations from the Union aggregated about $100,000, to which the mission added about $35,000 for churches, schools, and general benevolence. The missionary force is 107, and the number of ordained and unordained ministers 513. Of the 510 churches, 310 are self-supporting. In the 7 stations in Assam are 1,922 members, gathered in 30 churches, of which four are self-sustaining. The field in India is among the Telugus. This was for many years a fruitless mission, but it now reports more members than the Burmah mission, and was the most fruitful mission last year in the list of the Union, returning 1,000 of the 1,668 net gain of all the missions.
The mission in China reports 1,516 members in 18 churches, of which 4 are self-supporting. There are 519 members in Japan, with 13 churches, only one of which pays its own expenses.
The African mission is yet in its infancy. A few years ago the mission received the Congo mission from the Livingstone Inland Mission, an undenominational organization, which had its headquarters in Cardiff, Wales. There are now seven stations on the Congo, one being at Stanley Pool and one at the equator, above the Pool.
The following is a summary of results for the seventy-three years of the Union's operations:
| Members in its mission fields |
125,530 |
| Number of churches |
1,265 |
| Number of preachers |
1,730 |
| Baptisms last year |
9,342 |
| Income of the Union the past year from all sources |
$406,639 |
The American Missionary Association
HELD its 41st Annual Meeting in Portland, Me., Oct. 25-27, 1887. Items from its Annual Report: The receipts of the year cover all the expenses of the year, wipe out the debt of $5,000 with which the year began, and leave $2,193.80 with which to start out on the coming year.
EDUCATIONAL WORK IN THE SOUTH.
Total number of schools planted in the Southern States is fifty-four. Six of these are chartered institutions, fairly entitled to the rank of Colleges. Sixteen are Normal and Training Schools. Thirty-two are common schools, scattered throughout nine different States. In these schools are 246 instructors and 8,616 pupils.
CHURCH WORK.
| Number of Churches |
127 |
| Number of Missionaries |
103 |
| Number of Church members |
7,896 |
| Added during the year |
1,197 |
| Scholars in our Sunday-schools |
15,109 |
These statistics show a substantial gain over last year. Seven new churches were organized.
There has been during the year a quiet Christian work throughout the South, which has borne gratifying fruits, over 1,000 having confessed Christ for the first time. The Sunday-school enrollment has increased by nearly 2,000. They contributed this year for benevolence, outside of their own work, $2,322.51, and for their own church purposes, $16,014.50, making a grand total of $18,337.01. This was an increase over the previous year of $610.96 in their benevolences, and $3,075.61 in the total. This is an average contribution of $2.32 per member for every man, woman and child in these churches.
INDIAN WORK, chiefly in Nebraska and Dakota. The following is the summary:
| Churches |
5 |
| Church members |
370 |
| Added during the year |
43 |
| Schools |
18 |
| Pupils in Schools |
608 |
| Missionaries and Teachers |
61 |
CHINESE WORK.
| Missions |
17 |
| Missionaries |
28 |
| Pupils enrolled |
1,044 |
| Hopeful conversions |
150 |
| Given up to idolatry |
211 |
RECEIPTS.
| From Churches, Sabbath-schools, Missionary Societies and individuals |
$189,483.39 |
| Estates and Legacies |
52,266.73 |
| Income, Sundry Funds |
10,561.07 |
| Tuition and Public Funds |
28,964.81 |
| Rents |
478.10 |
| United States Government for Education of Indians |
17,357.21 |
| Slater Fund, paid to Institutions |
7,650.00 |
| Total |
$306,761.31 |
The total disbursements for the year have been $298,783.80, a decrease in the expenditures of last year of $13,467.
Foreign Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
FROM 52d Annual Report, closing Sept 1st, we glean the following facts and figures:
In Japan the advance is rapid. In Africa, notwithstanding the political disturbance at the lower end of the Missionary Jurisdiction of Cape Palmas, the workers are brave and true and the work is being systematically prosecuted; not only in the localities with which the Church has been familiar for years, but also in the regions beyond. In China, the evangelistic work, largely conducted by the native clergy, as well as the parochial work among the converts, and that of the day and boarding-schools and St. John's College, and the medical mission, each has its own story to tell of diligence and encouragement, notwithstanding the publications during the year which have given the impression that the work in China is suffering. Bishop Holly makes his own report of the labors of himself and of his little band of clergy in Haiti. It is a story of energetic labor amid discouraging conditions and with limited resources. All of these statements will be fully borne out by the particulars that will be submitted. Still the call is for more workers. The fields are indeed white unto the harvest. We thank God that the whole Church is praying, in the Litany, that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into his harvest.
Analysis of Receipts for Foreign Missions in the Last Ten Years.
| Year |
Whole No. of Parishes* |
No. of Parishes Contributing to For. Mis. |
Receipts from Contributions |
Receipts from Legacies |
Total (Appropriations) |
Receipts from Contributions (Specials) |
Receipts from Legacies (Specials) |
Total (Specials) |
Gross receipts for the year |
| 1877-8 |
2,900 |
1,170 |
$91,539 67 |
$17,974 98 |
$109,514 65 |
$24,456 92 |
$6,000 00 |
$30,456 92 |
$139,971 57 |
| 1878-9 |
2,900 |
1,163 |
95,846 02 |
16,709 86 |
112,555 88 |
35,771 96 |
275 00 |
36,046 96 |
148,602 84 |
| 1879-80 |
2,900 |
1,217 |
†117,042 45 |
27,458 33 |
144,500 78 |
17,583 47 |
— |
17,583 47 |
162,084 25 |
| 1880-1 |
3,000 |
1,230 |
‡136,993 18 |
22,977 06 |
159,970 24 |
25,788 05 |
— |
25,788 05 |
185,758 29 |
| 1881-2 |
3,000 |
1,487 |
128,945 80 |
31,168 41 |
160,114 21 |
13,233 84 |
500 00 |
13,733 84 |
173,848 05 |
| 1882-3 |
3,000 |
1,375 |
§116,772 63 |
28,230 82 |
145,003 45 |
13,927 05 |
— |
13,927 05 |
158,930 50 |
| 1883-4 |
3,000 |
1,389 |
111,299 20 |
9,638 70 |
120,937 90 |
7,843 68 |
6,200 00 |
14,043 68 |
134,981 58 |
| 1884-5 |
3,000 |
1,412 |
103,223 31 |
76,087 47 |
179,310 78 |
17,017 16 |
2,000 00 |
19,017 16 |
198,327 94 |
| 1885-6 |
3,450 |
1,996 |
137,982 82 |
12,929 30 |
150,912 12 |
14,355 58 |
100,400 00 |
114,755 58 |
265,667 70 |
| 1886-7 |
3,450 |
1,814 |
126,410 74 |
6,926 42 |
133,327 16 |
21,781 79 |
— |
21,781 79 |
155,108 95 |
*From Church Almanac. †Including $4,250, specifically contributed toward paying off the Mexican Loan. ‡Including a single gift of $13,200, and also $2,000 for Mexican Loan. §Including $2,481.50 for Mexican Loan.
This table shows the exact resources for Foreign Missions of the Board of Managers since its organization in 1877. During the decade there have been but three years in which the contributions for the general work have exceeded those of the past year, and in two instances that excess is accounted for in the table. At the same time the amount received from legacies available for the work of the Society in Foreign Lands is much less than in any other of the ten years named.
The total receipts of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society for the year were $402,440.52, a decrease of $1,732.45 from previous year. The receipts for Domestic Missions were $219,439.33.
Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.
ABSTRACT of the 50th annual report presented to the General Assembly at its meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, May, 1887.
No less than eight of the missionaries of the Board have died during the year, while seven ordained and three medical missionaries, and six lady teachers, have permanently withdrawn during the same time. To strengthen the posts weakened by this depletion, the Board has sent out during the year seven ordained missionaries, of whom six were married, eight medical missionaries, of whom two were ladies, and eleven unmarried ladies.
Work has been prosecuted among 11 tribes of American Indians, and the Chinese and Japanese in the United States; in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil and Chili; in Africa, among the inhabitants of Liberia, and those of the Gaboon and Corisco region; and in Asia in important centers of influence in India, Siam, China, Japan, Korea, Persia, and Syria. In addition to this the Board has rendered substantial assistance to the evangelical work in Papal Europe through approved societies on the Continent. There have been in commission during the year, 173 ordained missionaries, 30 laymen, mostly physicians, and 296 ladies. Besides these, the missionary force includes 134 native ordained ministers, and 154 licentiates, which, with 756 Bible readers, catechists, etc., makes a total force in the employ of the Board during the year of 1,543. Three hundred and ten organized churches are on the roll, with 21,420 communicants, of whom 2,791 were added during the year. These churches report contributions to the amount of $28,552. The aggregate attendance on schools of all grades was 23,329.
In the various fields occupied by the Board there has been much to encourage, and yet not a little to perplex and disturb. In some of the missions, the Holy Spirit has so sealed the truth upon the hearts and consciences of the people that precious ingatherings have been witnessed, and the joy of harvest experienced. In others it has been a time mainly of diligent sowing and patient waiting. When the deep poverty of many of those gathered out of heathenism is remembered, the contributions of native Christians for the support of the Gospel during the year indicate high attainment in the grace of Christian beneficence. In some parts of the field a noteworthy advance has been made in the measure of government favor accorded to our missionaries, as in China, Japan and Siam, showing that the mission work is commending itself to those in high position, and that the door of access to the nations is constantly widening. On the other hand, the restrictions of the French government, in the territory occupied by the Gaboon and Corisco Mission have become so severe, as virtually to tie the hands of our missionaries, and to drive them from the field. After repeated efforts to secure some modification of the restrictions imposed, the Board has felt constrained, at the urgent request of the brethren on the field, to take measures to transfer that mission to another evangelical body, should the way be clear, and secure a foothold, if possible, within German territory.
RECEIPTS FOR THE YEAR.
| From Churches and Sabbath-schools |
$360,231.51 |
| Woman's Boards |
248,649.59 |
| Individual and miscellaneous sources |
72,006.65 |
| Legacies |
103,269.84 |
| Total |
$784,157.59 |
| Expenditures of the Board |
$722,494.90 |
| Add the debt of last year |
57,853.28 |
|
$780,348.18 |
| Leaving a balance in treasury of |
$3,809.41 |
This shows an increase last year of $55,618.14, although $34,696.39 was a special gift for the debt in the previous year's receipts.
The Assembly resolved to aim at the raising of $1,000,000 for the current year for foreign missions.
EXPENDITURES AND STATISTICS OF THE MISSIONS.
For missions among 11 tribes of Indians, with which are connected 15 American and 13 Indian preachers, 2 Indian licentiate preachers, 3 American laymen and 35 women, 15 native assistants, 1,741 communicants, and 13 schools, with 422 scholars, of whom 194 are in boarding-schools—$28,839.79.
For missions to the Chinese in this country, with stations in New York, San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles and other places, in connection with which are 4 ministers, 8 female teachers (unsalaried teachers not enumerated), 7 native assistants, 286 communicants, and 17 schools, with 779 scholars, not including pupils in Sabbath-school—$17,909.57.
For mission in Japan, at 4 stations and several outstations, with 12 American and 11 native ministers, 15 licentiate preachers, 2 American laymen and 31 women, 2,178 communicants, and 11 schools, connected with which are 1,184 scholars, of whom 200 are in boarding-schools—$63,166.27.
For 3 missions in China, with 13 stations and over 150 outstations, 36 ordained Americans and 15 ordained natives, 35 licentiate preachers, 8 American laymen and 49 women, 144 native assistants, 4,306 communicants, and 94 schools, with 1,983 scholars, of whom 572 are in boarding-schools—$102,626.57.
For mission in Korea, with 1 American minister, 2 American laymen and 3 women—$8,868.63.
For 2 missions in Siam and Laos, at 4 stations and 14 outstations, 11 American ministers, 4 native licentiate preachers, 3 American laymen and 17 women, 23 native assistants, 676 communicants, and 14 schools, with 380 scholars, of whom 112 are in boarding-schools—$37,928.20.
For 3 missions in India, at 25 stations, 13 outstations, with 35 American and 19 native ministers, 31 licentiate preachers, 2 American laymen and 57 women, 216 native assistants, 1,033 communicants, and 9,671 scholars—$113,317.21.
For 2 missions in Persia, with 5 stations and about 100 outstations, 10 American and 32 native ministers, 35 licentiate preachers, 5 American laymen and 30 women, 120 native assistants, 2,052 communicants, 115 schools, with 2,731 scholars, of whom 230 are in boarding-schools—$61,430.83.
For mission in Syria, at 5 stations and 86 outstations, connected with which are 13 American and 4 native ministers, 32 licentiate preachers, 1 American layman and 23 women, 143 native assistants, 1,440 communicants, 119 schools, with 5,172 scholars, 270 of whom are in boarding-schools—$55,248.22.
For mission in Liberia, Africa, 7 stations, 3 American and 3 native ministers, 1 American layman, 1 woman, 1 native assistant, 284 communicants, 5 schools, and 157 scholars, of whom 88 are in boarding-schools—$3,669.17.
For Gaboon and Corisco Mission, at 6 stations and several outstations, with 5 ordained American and 3 ordained native ministers, 2 licentiates, 1 American lay missionary and 9 women, 14 native assistants, 688 communicants—$20,216.79.
For missions in Brazil, at 9 stations and several outstations, with 10 American and 6 native ministers, 2 licentiates, 1 male and 12 female missionaries, 29 native assistants, 1,895 communicants, 21 schools, with 518 scholars, of whom 42 are in boarding-school—$50,640.59.
For mission in Chili, at 3 stations, 8 ministers, 1 native minister, 4 native licentiates, 6 female teachers, 11 native assistants, 449 communicants, and 3 schools, with 260 scholars, of whom 27 are in boarding-school—$23,089.59.
For mission in U. S. of Colombia, at 1 station, with 2 American ministers, 3 female missionaries, 5 native assistants, 66 communicants, and 1 school, with 50 scholars, of whom 10 are in boarding-school—$5,798.99.
For mission in Guatemala, at 1 station, 2 female missionaries, 12 communicants, and 1 school, with 26 scholars—$4,536.72.
For mission in Mexico, with 6 stations, and about 100 outstations, 8 American and 27 native ministers, 21 licentiates, 12 female missionaries, 29 native assistants, 4,314 communicants, and 20 schools, with 620 (partial report) scholars, of whom 51 are in boarding-schools—$80,597.82.
For missions in European Papal countries—France, Belgium, Italy, etc.—$4,354.70.
For Home Expenses—printing, salaries, miscellaneous—$36,727.93.
| Total receipts |
$784,157.59 |
| Total payments (including debt of $57,853.28) |
780,348.18 |
| Balance, April 30, 1887 |
$3,809.41 |
Financial Exhibit of All the Boards of Presbyterian Church, 1886-87.
| Board |
Balance, 1886 |
Debt, 1886 |
Receipts |
Expenditures |
Balance, 1887 |
Debt, 1887 |
| 1. Home Missions |
— |
— |
*$640,258.03 |
$604,937.02 |
— |
$21,687.77 |
| Sustentation |
$8,180.45 |
— |
13,198.00 |
16,423.60 |
$4,954.85 |
— |
| 2. Foreign Missions |
— |
57,853.28 |
784,157.59 |
780,348.18 |
3,809.41 |
— |
| 3. Education |
— |
2,600.92 |
67,149.59 |
84,657.10 |
— |
14,906.59 |
| 4. Sabbath-school Work |
— |
24,511.42 |
49,751.29 |
50,175.36 |
— |
24,935.49 |
| 5. Church Erection—a. Churches |
18,794.73 |
— |
84,080.14 |
97,343.79 |
15,837.36 |
— |
| b. Manses |
26,297.00 |
— |
1,022.46 |
10,737.34 |
9,767.12 |
— |
| 6. Relief |
5,685.92 |
— |
142,009.10 |
120,619.23 |
— |
21,389.87 |
| 7. Freedmen |
— |
6,200.81 |
115,203.83 |
123,134.26 |
— |
14,131.24 |
| 8. Aid for Colleges |
— |
— |
53,279.66 |
53,279.66 |
— |
— |
| Totals |
$58,958.10 |
$134,800.93 |
$1,950,109.69 |
$1,941,655.64 |
$33,868.74 |
$97,050.96 |
*Includes $13,368.28 for investment.
United Presbyterian Church.
Abstract from the 28th Annual Report, presented May 26, 1887.
The Board report a year of unusual interest. "Every department of the work has shown the signal presence and favor of God." In the Indian mission, 1,934 professed Christ. The native church increased from 2,176 members in 1885 to 4,019 at the close of 1886. A marked advance was made also in Egypt. At home additional interest has been shown. Women's Missionary Societies increased from 501 to 593; members from 13,585 to 15,004; and contributions to foreign missions from $10,765 to $13,803.
MISSIONS.
There are two—one in the Punjab, or northwestern Province of India, and the other in the Delta and valley of the Nile in Egypt. In the former, the mission embraces the eight districts, Sialkot, Zafarwal, East and West Gujranwala, Jhelum, Gurdaspur, Pasrur and Pathankot with their several hundred villages. The latter has the districts of Alexandria, Cairo, Mansoora, the Fayoom, Lower, Middle and Upper Thebaid, and is in as many as possible of the 12,293 town and villages that are in them and the country at large.
GENERAL SUMMARY.
Missions 2, Stations 121, Foreign Missionaries 16, married women 16, single 20, Physicians 2. Total foreign laborers 54. Native ordained ministers 20, licentiates 9, other workers 346. Total native workers 375. Total of all laborers 429. Churches 31, Average Sabbath attendance 7,759. Communicants 6,161. Increase during the year (India 2,030, Egypt 311) 2,341. Baptisms 2,881. Sabbath-schools 138. Sabbath-school scholars 5,625. Other schools 192. Scholars in them 9,219. Contributions for church purposes $5,587. Appraised value of mission property $325,701.
RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES. The receipts for the year were:
| Source |
1886 |
1887 |
| To balance brought forward |
— |
$400.00 |
| Presbyteries |
$43,342.46 |
48,339.56 |
| Sabbath Schools |
5,706.28 |
8,536.89 |
| Ladies' Societies |
6,796.19 |
8,803.48 |
| Individuals |
9,801.64 |
5,002.07 |
| Women's Auxiliary Bds. |
— |
1,626.76 |
| Interest |
884.43 |
1,994.99 |
| Bequests |
18,705.54 |
8,737.92 |
| Gibson Trust Fund |
716.23 |
902.13 |
| Total |
85,952.77 |
84,343.80 |
The Expenditures for the year were for the Egyptian Mission $37,620.45, for India $30,351.04, for sending out, returning, and new missionaries $4,325.60, for salaries and children of missionaries at home $5,056.02, for other necessary home expenses $1,899.07, for payment of debt to Quarter Centennial fund $5,091.62, and for payment of debt to Egyptian mission $3,248.70, making a total of $87,592.50. The contributions of the church were less by $3,648.70 than the expenditures.
CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
III.-CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
ONE of our esteemed editorial correspondents, Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D., writes us in the following inspiring words:
A World's Missionary Council.
THE MISSIONARY REVIEW will, if God prosper the enterprise, fulfilling the hopes and prayers of its conductors, become in some sort a realization of a certain broad and beneficent idea lately breathed in a published volume. One of the editors of this REVIEW, in a book entitled "The Crisis of Missions," proposes in the serene boldness of faith, the plan of holding an Œcumenical Council of a new order, a Pan-Christian Conference in behalf of Missions in every part of the world. A "World's Missionary Council," he calls it.
The idea is inspiring. There is a tonic audacity in it. It has the spirit of the beginning of the era of modern missions. It might have been William Carey's proposal. Its motto well might read, "Expect great things from God."
THE MISSIONARY REVIEW is already in purpose something like a fulfillment of such a noble dream. It offers to be a council in perpetual session, to consult for the spread of the Gospel throughout the whole earth. It will do what it can to bring about, in God's good time, the actual convening of Christendom in a council to concert measures for the speedy evangelization of the world. The reflex influence upon present Christendom of an effort to make itself commensurate with mankind would be such a strengthening of the things among us at home that remain, and that, without such a forthputting like this of power to save, are themselves ready to faint—such a strengthening, we say, as would mark an historic epoch in the advance of Christianity comparable to that of the Protestant Reformation—comparable, but, perhaps, superior.
May that God who has promised His Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession, graciously accept each successive number of this REVIEW as one more prayer of His expecting Church,
THY KINGDOM COME!
China Inland Mission.
Letter from J. Hudson Taylor, our London Editorial Correspondent:
LONDON, Nov. 1st, 1887.
DEAR DR. PIERSON:
May I, for Mr. Radcliffe, as well as myself, reply to your kind letters about Editorial Correspondents? We are both so circumstanced that, while we should be very willing to be occasional correspondents, we could not undertake to write at regular intervals, or to any large extent. For myself, I must also add that perhaps half my time is spent in China and half in England.
We are both in hearty sympathy with you, and would gladly do anything in our power to help you. May the Lord make the REVIEW more than ever a blessing and a success.
Yours, faithfully,
J. HUDSON TAYLOR.
One of our editorial correspondents, Dr. H. H. Jessup, of Syria, writes a private letter, but it is of such public interest that we venture to print it. It was in acknowledgment of a copy of the little book on missions recently sent by the author to his old friend in Syria.—A. T. P.
BEIRUT, SYRIA, May 9, 1887.
MY DEAR BROTHER PIERSON:
I have just received a copy of your excellent book, "The Crisis of Missions," with your card, and write to tell you how highly I value the book.
Your preliminary word, that "the spirit of Christ is the spirit of Missions," is the keynote to the whole book, and should be the keynote of the life of every Christian disciple. One of the problems which I cannot solve, and which I shall be anxious to have solved when I reach the kingdom of glory, is this: "How will those Christians who say that they do not believe in missions explain their position to the glorified Redeemer?"
There can be no question as to your position on this great subject. I trust every young man and woman in our colleges and seminaries will be enabled in some way to read this stirring volume. But perhaps I was hasty in writing that sentence. For supposing that they should read it, and be stirred and thrilled by it as I have been, and hundreds of them should be led to say, "Lord, here am I; send me." "Churches of Christ, here we are; send us:" and all this in addition to the 1,500 mentioned by Dr. McCosh in his letter who have already decided to go, what would be the effect on the churches? Of one thing I am sure, and that is, that while a few "Thomas" churches might doubt and even despair, the great body of Christ's own children everywhere would be set on fire with the conviction that now is the Crisis; that God hath verily spoken to his people; that the silver trumpet has sounded the note of advance; that the church must either rise to the duty of the hour, or be swept aside, and another church be raised up to do the work.
I have just had under my roof that devoted man of God, Major General Haig, long in India, and now from England, who has just journeyed all around the west, south and east coast of Arabia, looking for openings for planting Missionary and Bible Stations; and his reports which are appearing in the Church Missionary Intelligencer are like the journals of an apostle.
The fact is that the last bolts and bars with which Satan clinched the gates of heathen empires centuries ago are dropping to the ground, and the rusty hinges are creaking open while the imprisoned nations stand wondering and waiting for the liberty of Christ.
Let us continue, my dear brother, to lift up our voices and call on our brethren and sisters everywhere to go forward.
I was greatly moved, when a lad, by reading Dr. Enoch Pond's "World's Salvation." But the facts and figures of that book, as I recall them, were far less stirring than those of your little volume. The darkness and the want then existed and were well described, but the open doors were few, and the actual call for men quite limited. But now the 1,500 candidates preparing to go could find work ready to their hands in Japan, or in Interior Africa.
The church's ear seems to be heavy and the church's hand to be shortened, while the Lord is calling louder and louder, and His mighty providence is moving on.
For years I have been waiting to hear Brother Moody's voice on this great subject of Foreign Missions, and now that he has thrown his heart and help and voice into the work, the Lord has granted a rich blessing. Your plan of apportioning out the unevangelized world among the Christian churches is a grand one. See how the nations of Europe are cutting and carving the continent of Africa for their own commercial objects! It is time that the whole world were thus taken possession of for Jesus our King.
We are working on quietly here in Syria. Our last annual report shows a greater advance than in any previous year, in additions to the church and in all other departments of our work.
Yours, affectionately,
HENRY HARRIS JESSUP.
Japan.
Rev. James H. Ballagh writes:
YOKOHAMA, May 4, 1887.
REV. DR. PIERSON:
Dear Brother—Knowing well your interest in mission work in general, and also something of your interest in particular in Japan, through your acquaintance with native brethren, now members of your church or residents of your city, I take the liberty to present the claims of an interesting field of work for assistance. It is to ask aid for help in erecting a church building at Tokosuka, the naval station in this part of Japan, and where most of their ship-building is carried on. There are extensive dry docks and works there, several marine hospitals, a fleet of vessels, and a considerable body of marines, besides a very live and enterprising population. Iniquity is also very active. The brothels are large, and thronged at night like a fair—the veritable Vanity Fair of "Pilgrim's Progress." To the outside world it is interesting as being a most beautiful land-locked harbor in an inner bay of Yedo bay, near Perry and Webster islands.
At this place the French Romanists had a fine chapel when they commenced work at the navy yard, but it has been sold for old lumber on their loss of influence in Japan. There is now an active Protestant Church of our United Church of Christ in Japan with 76 members. It is only of two or three years' growth. The work was commenced mostly under Dr. Saiki's influence, and, though himself a Congregationalist, he threw his influence in favor of a Presbyterian Church being established here. The Church meets in greatly straitened quarters at present. As the town is small, lots expensive, and few houses to let, the Church desires to build a suitable chapel. One thousand dollars will secure land and erect a modest building. $500 we hope to be able to raise here, and they would like an equal amount in gold from America. Their pastor, the Rev. Ito Tokichi, is an indefatigable worker and an excellent Christian man. The membership is largely doctors—naval physicians—and their families.
Hoping that some practical manifestation of the hearty interest which American Christians take in the establishment of Christ's cause in Japan may result from this appeal,
I am sincerely yours in Christ,
JAMES H. BALLAGH.
Revised Edition of Dr. Judson's Burmese Bible.
The following extract from a recent private letter of the Rev. Dr. Jameson, Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to his seminary classmate, Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D., will be read with interest. The date is Rangoon, Aug. 31, 1887:
"I am here for two weeks on the proofs, for I have agreed to give half my time to watching the new edition of Dr. Judson's Burman Bible through the press. I read each form seven times. Once correcting copy, and three times for typographical and other errors—besides verifying corrections. Of course I have good native help. But they need me as much as I need them. When I go back to my own district, I take my work along. For example, on that jungle trip, I corrected eight pages of the quarto for copy. After the Bible was printed, Dr. Judson made many changes in spelling, and the spelling of the Bible must be corrected from the dictionary. The whole must also be newly punctuated, and Dr. Judson's own corrections of the text must be made. When I am away, I leave the work in the hands of the Burman proof-readers, who do their best, and these forms I read only five times. But no form is put to press except when I am here. I will send you the next form with an English word in it, that will tell you where we are. When you receive it, you may comfort yourself with the thought that we are through that Book [Deuteronomy], probably."
India.
Communication from Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M.D., Madanapelle, India, one of our editorial correspondents:
A Brahmin on the Bible.
In 1870, after three years of baffled effort, a lot was obtained in the bazaar street of the native town of Madanapalle, Madras Presidency, India, and a free reading room was erected and opened by the missionary in charge, Rev. J. Chamberlain, M.D., of the Arcot Mission of the Reformed Church of America. It was designed to obtain a hold of the educated young men of the place. Well-stocked with newspapers, periodicals and books, and with copies of the Bible in seven different languages on the tables, and with Scriptures, tracts, Christian books and school books for sale, it was thrown open for their use on every week-day and evening, with the exception that on Wednesday evenings there was to be a Biblical lecture, which all were invited to attend.
On each lecture evening a parable, a miracle, a biography, a prophecy, a sermon on Christ, a historical account—as of the creation, deluge, Joseph in Egypt, the exodus, etc.—was taken up and illustrated. While it was endeavored to make the lectures attractive as a literary treat, the bearing of each subject on the gospel of Jesus Christ and His salvation was never lost sight of.
From the beginning the room was always crowded on these occasions by intelligent heathen. At the close of one of these Bible lectures by Dr. Chamberlain, a Brahmin—one of the best educated in the place, not a convert—arose and asked permission to say a few words. In a neat address he urged upon his fellow-citizens the importance of availing themselves of the advantages offered for their intellectual and moral advancement, and in conclusion gave the following remarkable testimony to the Christian Scriptures:
"Behold that mango tree on yonder roadside! Its fruit is approaching to ripeness. Bears it that fruit for itself or its own profit? From the moment the first ripe fruits turn their yellow sides towards the morning sun until the last mango is pelted off, it is assailed with showers of sticks and stones from boys and men, and every passer-by, until it stands bereft of leaves, with branches knocked off, bleeding from many a broken twig; and piles of stones underneath, and clubs and sticks lodged in its boughs, are the only trophies of its joyous crop of fruit. Is it discouraged? Does it cease to bear fruit? Does it say, 'If I am barren no one will pelt me, and I shall live in peace?' Not at all. The next season the budding leaves, the beauteous flowers, the tender fruit again appear. Again it is pelted, and broken, and wounded, but goes on bearing, and children's children pelt its branches and enjoy its fruit.
"That is a type of these missionaries. I have watched them well, and have seen what they are. What do they come to this country for? What tempts them to leave their parents, friends and country, and come to this, to them an unhealthy climate? Is it for gain or for profit that they come? Some of us country clerks in Government offices receive more salary than they. Is it for an easy life? See how they work, and then tell me. No; they seek, like the mango tree, to bear fruit for the benefit of others; and this, too, though treated with contumely and abuse from those they are benefiting.
"Now look at this missionary! He came here a few years ago, leaving all, and seeking only our good! He was met with cold looks and suspicious glances, and was shunned, avoided and maligned. He sought to talk with us of what he told us was the matter of most importance in heaven or earth, and we would not listen. But he was not discouraged. He started a dispensary, and we said, 'Let the Pariahs take his medicines, we won't;' but in the times of our sickness and distress and fear, we had to go to him, and he heard us. We complained if he walked through our Brahmin streets; but ere long, when our wives and daughters were in sickness and anguish, we went and begged him to come, even into our inner apartments; and he came, and our wives and daughters now smile upon us in health. Has he made any money by it? Even the cost of the medicines has not been returned to him.
"And now, in spite of our opposition, he has bought this site, and built this beautiful room, and furnished it with the choicest of lore in many languages, and put in it newspapers and periodicals, which were inaccessible to us before, but which help us now to keep up with the world around us, and understand passing events; and he has placed here tables to write on, and chairs to sit on, and lamps for us to read and write by in the evening; and what does he get for all this? Does he make money by this free reading-room? Why, we don't even pay for the lamp-oil consumed by night as we read.
"Now, what is it makes him do all this for us? It is his Bible. I have looked into it a good deal at one time and another, in the different languages I chanced to know. It is just the same in all languages. The Bible—there is nothing to compare with it in all our sacred books for goodness and purity and holiness and love, and for motives of action.
"Where did the English-speaking people get all their intelligence, and energy, and cleverness, and power? It is their Bible that gives it to them. And now they bring it to us and say, 'This is what raised us; take it and raise yourselves.' They do not force it upon us, as the Mohammedans did with their Koran, but they bring it in love, and translate it into our languages, and lay it before us, and say, 'Look at it; read it; examine it, and see if it is not good.' Of one thing I am convinced: do what we will, oppose it as we may, it is the Christians' Bible that will, sooner or later, work the regeneration of this land."
Death of Rev. E. P. Swift.
Rev. G. W. Scott, of the Reformed Presbyterian Mission, India, writes Sept. 17, 1887:
The Rev. Elisha P. Swift died at his residence, Gujranwala, North India, Aug. 16th, 1887. His health began to fail about a year ago, when he had a fall while out in the district. Still he kept on with his duties, whether the weather was hot or cold, wet or dry, realizing that he was approaching the gates of death, preaching as a dying man to dying men. He was taken sick while in the district looking after the Christians he had baptized with his own hands, who were scattered through the towns and villages of western Gujranwala, many hundreds in number; for in some months he baptized as many as three or four hundred persons. His co-laborer, the Rev. J. P. McKee, was with him to the last. About a month before his death he was confined to his house with carbuncles, caused by diabetes, which caused him great pain. Yet he bore all with Christian patience, knowing that the Hand which afflicts is able to heal. His death was a peaceful and quiet one, surrounded by his wife and children, whom he leaves to mourn his loss. His funeral procession was a very large one, attended by several hundreds of people—the majority being from the Hindu and Mohammedan classes. These people, while opposed to Christianity, had learned to love the "man of God," and followed his remains to his last resting place, which is in the Church of England graveyard, close to the city of Gujranwala.
Africa.—Nothing was known of the interior of the Dark Continent until within a few years; now Africa is girdled with Christian missions. Between thirty and forty societies are working there. On the eastern coast the English penetrated to the great lakes, walking over the burning sands a thousand miles on foot, to plant the standard of the Cross. On the Congo River the Baptists of our own country have recently taken charge of the missions founded by Mr. Guinness, and their work is to be pushed into the interior—into the centre of cannibalism. Truly "Ethiopia is stretching out her hands unto God." The island of Madagascar, on the eastern coast of Africa, has been so largely Christianized that the natives of late gave some ten millions of dollars to Christian missions and evangelistic work.
To-day thirty-four missionary societies are at work in Africa, and all its 200,000,000 souls are practically within the reach of Christian missions; thirty-three societies have begun work in China, and all its 350,000,000 souls may be visited with the message of the gospel; more than fifty societies have entered India, and the light is dawning upon its 250,000,000; Turkey and Persia and Japan are filling with mission churches and mission schools; practically, the whole world is open, and the grandest day of opportunity for the kingdom of God that the earth has ever seen has fully dawned. If the cry of the lost nations reached the ear of those young men at Andover, with whom our work began, and would not let them rest, how that selfsame cry, to-day repeated from every people and land, and grown more articulate, must thrill the very heart of Christendom, and command instant and glowing response!—Judson Smith, D.D.
India.—The Church Missionary Intelligencer shows how the British Government and the East India Company were shamed out of their base patronage to Indian idolatry. Sir Peregrine Maitland accepted from the East India Company the office of Commander-in-Chief of the Madras army, and a seat in the Council—an office worth $50,000 a year—only on the condition that he should not be required to have any official connection with the idolatry of the country. He knew how the company had catered to the heathen ceremonies of India, even making large grants for their support. A few days after his arrival in Madras he received from the company's office in London a document sanctioning the appointment and payment of dancing girls in a certain Hindu temple, to which he was expected to affix his signature. He resolved to throw up his lucrative appointment and return to England rather than put his hand to any such scheme. The company declined to excuse Sir Peregrine, and, although comparatively poor, he sacrificed his $50,000 and returned to England. The annual festival of the goddess Yayagathal, the protectress of a part of Madras, was approaching; and the annual ceremony of marrying the East India Company to the image of this goddess was to be performed with great pomp. The goddess was borne in procession around the "black town," and then brought to government headquarters; a high official of the company came out, with a handsome cashmere shawl as a bridal present to the idol, and an ornament to be put around the bride's neck, the latter being used in native marriages in place of a ring, while repeating the words, "With this I thee wed," etc. The East India Company and the idol Yayagathal were thus pronounced husband and wife. Two missionaries in Madras united to caricature the scene. One wrote a minute description, the other with graphic pencil made a telling sketch of the nuptial scene. These were sent home. Bishop Blomfield carried them to the House of Lords, held them up to view, and declared that if the connection between the East India Company and the idol system of India was not abolished, he would send the letter and the cartoon broadcast throughout the land. This was sufficient. The absurdity and degradation were potent. Probably a petition signed by all the missionaries in India would scarcely have been so effective.—The Church.
There were in British India, according to the census of 1881, no less than 207,388 widows under fourteen years of age, and 78,976 of these were under nine. They can no longer legally be burned, but their earthly sufferings are worse than burning. Their widowhood is viewed by all Hindus as the punishment for horrible crimes committed in some previous existence. They are closely confined to the house; forbidden all companionship; confined to one meal a day, which they eat in solitude; obliged to conceal themselves in the morning, lest the sight of them bring bad fortune on the beholder; cursed, abhorred, suspected of every crime—and all this for life. Yet the doom of these innocent children is only the door-mat theory brought to its completeness. Because there is no one man living who has the right to tread them under his feet, they are trodden under feet of all.—Harper's Bazar.
There are in India 135,000 lepers—men, women and children—victims of the most terrible disease known to humanity. This society seeks to proclaim to them the blessed gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, as far as possible, to relieve their dreadful sufferings, and provide for their simple wants.—Mission to Lepers in India.
At Lucknow, where so many were murdered during the Sepoy rebellion 30 years ago, 2,000 children, nearly all of Hindu Mohammedan parentage, recently marched in a Sunday-school procession. Two men in Dr. Chamberlain's hospital, on leaving for home asked for copies of the Testament read and explained to them while there. Being told that they could not read it, they replied, "When a peddler or tax-man comes around we'll make him read before we buy anything or pay our taxes." Four years after this, Dr. Chamberlain visiting a town some miles away, these men brought their whole village to him to be baptized.—The editor of The Star of India writes to The Independent: "There are no less than 36 missionary societies represented in India, besides ten or more private missions. The English Baptists were the first to enter this field (passing by the early Danish Missionary Society which sent the first Protestant missionaries to India in 1705), and the Disciples of Christ, whose mission dates from 1883, the last. All branches of the Church are represented. Europe and America, Great Britain, the Continent, the United States and Canada—all are here, laboring hand in hand for the uplifting of India. According to the statistical summary for 1885 there were 137,504 communicants representing the fruits of these missions."—In the Imperial Gazetteer of India, Dr. Hunter, Director-General of Statistics to the Government, says Christianity is now the faith of over two millions of the Indian population—a number twelve times as large as that of those who follow the teachings of Buddha. Whereas in 1830 there were only 27,000 native Protestants in all India, Ceylon and Burmah, in 1871 there were 318,363. The Government expends £170,000 per annum in supplying the spiritual wants of the troops and civil service.
Madura. There is worshiped by the natives a deity whose name means "Prince of Darkness." "They sacrifice to devils." The name of the village is "Temple Village," but it is a heathen temple. The ideas of these heathen, and even their language, are degraded by association with idolatry. (Compare "Hawaiian Islands," by Anderson, p. 291.) By religion they understand idol worship. When you tell them of Jesus living and dying 1800 years ago, they say their gods are 18,000,000 years old. When, on outbreak of war, the native disciples heard of the Missionary Board as straitened, they gave their jewels; one man gave a silver chain, worth half a year's savings, and children brought their toe rings and earrings and gave them to the mission treasury.
Revival in the Punjab. A remarkable work of grace is progressing in the English Church mission in Punjab, chiefly in and about Amritsar. Several prominent men, as well as people of low caste, have been reached. About 150 low-caste converts were baptized the previous year, but now the work seems much more extensive. Nothing like it in vigor and growth had ever been seen before in that region. The ingathering of low-caste people is affecting the Hindus, Sikhs, and the Mohammedans, and several of these higher classes have been reached. The missionary at Amritsar writes of the remarkable interest manifested in the simple story of the gospel: "Our compound resounds from morning to night with voices repeating to each other the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Creed, with bhajhans and bits of the Gospels." Much of this is the result of medical missions.
Japan.—English Books in Japan. The great spread of instruction in the English language in Japan has led to a great demand for English books. Over 85,000 English books of all classes were imported last year, as against 40,000 in 1885. The import of American books increased from 59,000 in 1885 to 119,000 in 1886. Sir F. R. Plunkett, British Consul at Tokio, remarks upon this: "An argument against a large import of educational works has hitherto existed in the fact that foreigners have no claim to the protection of the Japanese copyright, and any work that gained extensive popularity was sure to be pirated by Japanese publishers, and cheap editions of it issued that could be profitably sold at far less cost than the imported originals. This difficulty has been and can be got over by the co-operation of Japanese booksellers, and in this way not only is the benefit of copyright obtained, but the books are sold at lower prices than were formerly obtained for them by European booksellers in Japan." A large demand during the year for printing paper is traced principally to the publication of numerous translations of English works on law, political economy, history, and other educational subjects.—London Globe.
Japanese on Hawaii. The number of Japanese who have emigrated to Hawaii within two years is 2,859. Only about 100 of them have returned to Japan, and about the same number have died.
Greek and Roman Catholic Missions. The following statements respecting these missions are by Rev. J. Hartzler: "Bishop Nicolai furnished the statistics of the Greek Mission in Japan for 1886, as follows: Bishops, 1; foreign priests, 3; native priests, 11; deacons, 2; theological students, 104; whole number of native members, including baptized infants, 22,546. The Roman Catholic Mission in Japan reports: Bishops, 2; missionaries (all French), 59; native priests, 3; churches and chapels, 100; theological seminaries, 2; theological students, 72; catechists, 284; schools and orphan asylums, 69; pupils in the same, 3,340; total native membership, 32,294."
The Bible. The Bible is to-day translated, either wholly or in part, into 287 languages and dialects, including all that are widely spoken; so that the message of salvation from the printed page may reach nine-tenths of the entire population of the globe. The adherents of the religion of Jesus Christ to-day outnumber the followers of any other faith in the world. Christian missions number more than 2,000,000 adherents on heathen soil, and at the present rate of increase will include 20,000,000 before this century closes. Obstacles are not all overcome; the hardships and perils and heroisms of the work are not all past; Christian faith still finds itself often tried and courage is put well to the test, and checks and defeats enough attend the work to prove that the evil spirits of hate and murder are not yet exorcised: that still "through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God."—Judson Smith, D.D.
Increase of Protestantism. So extensive have been the defections from the established Greek Church in Southern Russia that the Holy Synod have appointed a commission to investigate the matter. This commission has now reported, acknowledging that these defections are great, and accusing their own clergy for their failure to discharge their clerical functions. The remedy for what they deplore seems to them to be greater zeal in attendance upon church services, more preaching, and more attention to church music. This report is substantial evidence of the power of Protestantism; and even the effort to withstand this new movement is very likely to help forward a needed reformation in the Greek Church.
Spiritual Progress in Persia.—The Church at Home and Abroad has an intensely interesting report of what has occurred in Persia within the last two years. This was the field of the old Nestorian Mission of the American Board, and is very dear to us still. A year ago it was reported that a larger number had been received to the church within the twelve months than during any former year. During the last winter more converts were won than in any of the first twenty-five years of the mission, though that period was marked by some memorable revivals. In Western Persia there are now 1,932 church members, in place of 713 fifteen years ago. During the revival which followed the Week of Prayer, the number of inquirers was over five hundred. This revival was conducted wholly by native pastors. Of the seventy-nine students in the college at Ooroomiah, seventy are followers of Christ. The western mission has ninety-four village schools, with over two hundred scholars. Dr. Labaree reports that the Moslems of Persia are more accessible than those of any other land. They are receiving large editions of the Bible, and those who have accepted Christianity, though a small company, have shown remarkable steadfastness and zeal.
An Egyptian papyrus, forty-two feet long and containing all the chapters of the "Book of the Dead," has been received and unrolled at the Sage Library, in New Brunswick, N. J. It was secured for the library by Rev. Dr. Lansing, a well-known missionary in Egypt. Experts pronounce it to have been written nearly 3,000 years ago.
The Bible in the Last Fifty Years.—The last anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society falling in the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria's reign, the speakers naturally reviewed the progress of the Bible cause during the last half century, and made some striking comparisons. The Earl of Harrowby, President of the Society, said:
"Fifty years ago our receipts were £100,000; now they are nearly £225,000. Fifty years ago the Auxiliary Societies amounted at home to 2,370; now they are over 5,300. Abroad you had 260 auxiliaries and branches fifty years ago; now 1,500. Fifty years ago the annual issue of the Bible and portions of it from this Society was 600,000; now it is about 4,000,000. The cheapest copy of the book, half a century back, was issued at about two shillings; now the price is sixpence. The cheapest Testament then was tenpence; the cheapest now is Lord Shaftesbury's, and the price is a penny. And that is not done by any grinding of the people who produce these works. One of the first questions I asked when I had the honor of being called to occupy this chair was, how were the workpeople treated who manufactured the cheap Bibles; and by the testimony, not only of ourselves but of the outside press, I have assured myself that there is neither overwork nor underpay. Fifty years ago the Scriptures were circulated in 136 languages; now they are circulated in 280. Fifty years ago fourteen fresh languages of Europe had been honored by Bible publication. Now the Bible has been published in twelve fresh languages in Central Asia and Siberia, twelve in India, fourteen in China and Mongolia, nineteen in the Pacific, thirty in Africa and thirty in America. In this fiftieth year of the Queen's reign there is only one great language which has not a complete translation of the Scriptures, namely, the Japanese language."
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
IV. INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE "INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION."
FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION.
The International Missionary Union is an organization composed of returned missionaries of all Evangelical churches, whether at home temporarily or permanently. It seeks to promote mutual sympathy and co-operation of missionaries in their work, and holds annual meetings for the discussion of important questions connected with the work and the diffusion of missionary intelligence. The fourth annual meeting was held Aug. 10-17, at Thousand Island Park, the entire body of missionaries being entertained without cost by the Thousand Island Park Association. The forenoons were devoted to business, covering discussion of methods and recommendation of measures calculated to increase missionary efficiency. The afternoons consisted largely of presentation of incidents, statistics and facts bearing on specific topics of missionary interest, while the evenings were given to more formal platform addresses.
The "Seventy" missionaries present were as follows:
From India: Miss Dr. M. A. Anderson, Congregational Church; Rev. and Mrs. Chandler, Congregational; Miss M. J. Frith, Canada Baptist; Miss E. Gibson, Methodist Episcopal; Dr. and Mrs. J. T. Gracey, Methodist Episcopal; Rev. A. Hazen, Congregational; Rev. G. J. Martz, Evangelical Lutheran; Mrs. Rev. G. H. McGrew, Methodist Episcopal; Rev. James Mudge, Methodist Episcopal; Mrs. Stella Nichols, Evangelical Lutheran; Rev. C. W. Park, Congregational; Rev. Dr. J. L. Phillips, Free-will Baptist; Rev. D. W. Thomas, Methodist Episcopal.
From Turkey: Rev. Dr. H. M. Barnum, Congregational; Rev. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, Congregational; Rev. L. O. Lee, Congregational; Rev. and Mrs. J. G. Leonard, Congregational.
From Bulgaria: Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Belden, Presbyterian; Rev. and Mrs. D. C. Challis, Methodist Episcopal.
From China: Mrs. Mary D. Culbertson, Presbyterian; Rev. J. G. Fagg, Reformed; Rev. Benj. Helm, Southern Presbyterian; Rev. and Mrs. Spencer Lewis, Methodist Episcopal; Rev. John Murray, Presbyterian; Rev. Dr. Speer, Presbyterian; Rev. and Mrs. C. A. Stanley, Congregational; Rev. and Mrs. J. L. Stuart, Southern Presbyterian.
From Assam: Rev. M. B. Comfort, Baptist; Rev. T. J. Stoddart, Baptist.
From Italy: Rev. Dr. Cushing, Methodist Episcopal.
From Jamaica: Rev. Dr. Douglass, Canada Methodist.
From Japan: Rev. and Mrs. W. C. Davidson, Methodist Episcopal; Miss Julia Gulick, Congregational; Rev. Dr. D. McDonald, Canada Methodist; Rev. and Mrs. J. M. McCauley, Presbyterian; Rev. J. H. Pettee.
From Siam: Rev. Dr. Wm. Dean, Baptist; Rev. and Mrs. Dr. S. R. House, Presbyterian; Rev. and Mrs. Lisle, Baptist; Rev. Dr. S. Mattoon, Presbyterian; Rev. J. Wilson, Presbyterian.
From Germany: Bishop and Mrs. J. F. Hurst, Methodist Episcopal.
From Mexico: Miss L. M. Latimer, Methodist Episcopal.
From Burmah: Rev. and Mrs. C. A. Nichols, Baptist.
From Ceylon: Rev. and Mrs. T. S. Smith, Congregational.
Missionaries to North American Indians: Rev. and Mrs. Egerton R. Young, Canada Methodist; Rev. and Mrs. Dr. Geo. Young, Canada Methodist; Rev. and Mrs. E. Arnold, Methodist Episcopal.
Persons under appointment to foreign fields: Rev. H. F. Laflamme, Canada Baptist, India; Rev. J. F. Smith, Canada Presbyterian, China; Rev. J. P. McNaughton, Canada Presbyterian, Turkey; Miss Dr. May Carlton and Miss E. J. Hinckle, both to be sent to China this autumn under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Thirteen mission countries were thus represented, besides which one native of Armenia, one of Japan, and a Karen took part in the exercises. Missionaries from Saskatchewan and Ceylon clasped hands in the fellowship of a common cause. Veteran and volunteer inspired, either the other. The utterances of Dr. Dean were rendered weighty by the fifty-three years of self-sacrifice and toil behind them. His address on "The Translation of the Scriptures into Chinese," will be found on another page in this Department.
Dr. Leonard had preached in Tarsus, Iconium and Cappadocia. Miss Gulick of Japan was born of missionary parents in Honolulu. Mrs. McGrew of India was born on mission soil in Buenos Ayres. Rev. Dr. Phillips and Rev. Mr. Smith of Ceylon claimed India as their native land, being of the second generation of missionaries.
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, after more than forty years of missionary service, and with the weight of seventy years upon him, intellectually demonstrated that his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated. He was appointed by the A. B. C. F. M. to Constantinople in 1837, and was the father of Robert College. The manner in which he secured for the erection of this College the most desirable of all the sites commanding the view of the Bosphorus, makes a story of thrilling interest, and gives him the highest rank for diplomacy. For seven years he held on to a pledge of Ali Pasha, who, under the influence of a protest from the French Ambassador, crowded on by the head of the Jesuits, and a like protest from the Ambassador of Russia, goaded on by the Patriarch of the Greek Church, was openly declaring that it was not possible for the pledge to be redeemed; because the property was so related to that of these powers, that the college could not be erected on that commanding site. But notwithstanding all this, he held his position, until at the end of seven years he received a note from Ali Pasha saying, "You may begin the erection of your college as soon as you please." He had outdone the diplomacy of the head of the Jesuits and the French Ambassador, as well as of the Greek Patriarch and the Ambassador of Russia, and had secured from the Sultan himself by Imperial Volition a permit to build the college. This was infallible, and neither Ali Pasha nor any one else would dare call it in question. But this was not all. An order was given to allow all the material brought from England and France to enter duty free.
Here were men and women who had hazarded their lives for the Lord Jesus. The "beloved physician," Dr. S. M. House, had been gored by an elephant; Jonathan Wilson, a pioneer to the Laos mission, was imperilled, when his converts were slain by royal order. The younger brother and sister Lewis, of far Western China, had faced the fury of a Chinese mob that plundered and destroyed their chapel and their home, compelling them and their colleagues to set off in native boats on a 1,500 mile journey down the great Yang-tse-kiang to the sea. Here were those whose hearts had been kept from fear when 2,000 in a day were dying of cholera in the capital city of Siam, where they lived; men who had given bread to the famishing thousands in North China, saving many lives at the risk of their own; those who had ministered to the lepers and outcasts of India. Some had lived with the savage Santals in their jungle homes, and with the red men of our continent in their wigwams. Others, on their mission-preaching tours, had traveled in wheelbarrows, in sledges drawn by dogs, in palankeens, in jinrikshas, in birch-bark canoes, on elephants, on camels, and hundreds of miles on snow-shoes. One member had been speared by Malay pirates, and another, like Paul, had been shipwrecked and cast ashore on an island in the Mediterranean Sea. But whatever else had been their experiences or deliverances, all could speak of the blessedness of the Master's service, and of souls once without God and without hope turned from darkness to light and rejoicing in the Saviour they had found.
THE THEMES DISCUSSED.
"The place of higher education in mission work" was presented by Rev. Mr. Smith of Ceylon, who gave an interesting account of the development of the educational work of the American Board in that island. The prevailing view seemed to be that when there appeared to be a general desire among people for higher education the missionary should endeavor to meet it with Christian schools, where English should be taught, if desired. Astonishing statements were made of the eagerness among many to learn English. On "The voluntary desire of the heathen for the Gospel," and "Remarkable instances of Divine grace, as manifested in the lives of converts from heathenism," there were narrated incidents drawn from personal experience and observation of so valuable a nature, it is a pity they could not have been preserved in a permanent form. So great was the interest in some of these topics that the discussions were prolonged several hours. Even then not a tithe of the important questions was so much as touched upon. Bro. Davidson, of Japan, gave a vivid sketch of the wonderful revival which recently swept over that empire. He hoped that in fifteen years Japan will be Christian. Turkey, partially dismembered, was served one evening. Dr. Barnum, speaking of eastern Turkey, said that there was the cradle of the race. "The cradle does not need rocking, for the people are all asleep." "We jog the cradle now and then, and the occupants are beginning to open their eyes and yawn." Bro. Challis, of the Methodist mission in Bulgaria, told something of the outlook in that country. He compared the people, with their liberty-loving spirit, to Americans, and expressed firm faith that, in spite of the designs of Russia, God would overrule to give them independence and freedom.
One evening was given to addresses by missionary ladies on different phases of woman's work, and a special woman's meeting was held one afternoon. On Sabbath morning the large tabernacle was filled, when Bishop Hurst preached an excellent and inspiring sermon from "Whoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed," etc. The "mountain" was heathendom, and "whoever" was the Church, which should remove it by the power of faith. The theme was "God's day our day for the salvation of the world." The audience numbered over three thousand. The bishop also delivered, one afternoon, his excellent lecture on "Protestantism in Mexico." At the children's meeting on Sabbath afternoon there were several short and spicy talks and an exhibition of curiosities, singing in a dozen or more languages, and presentation of natives of foreign mission fields who were in attendance.
TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES INTO CHINESE.
BY REV. WILLIAM DEAN, D.D.
THE entire Bible was first translated into Chinese at Serampore by Joshua Marshman, D.D., in 1807-8, with the aid of Joannes Lassar, an Armenian, born at Macao, who was a good Chinese scholar. Dr. Marshman went out to India under the patronage of the Baptist Missionary Society of England. He was born in Wiltshire 1768, sailed for India 1799, and died at Serampore 1837, at the age of 69, having had 38 years for missionary work.
A similar translation of the entire Scriptures was made at Macao and Canton by Robert Morrison, D.D., who went to China in 1807, under the patronage of the London Missionary Society, and died at Canton 1834, at the age of 52, having 27 years of mission work in China. In addition to the Scriptures, the Chinese dictionary of Kang Hi was translated into English by him, in six quarto volumes—a great and important work, to aid subsequent missionaries in the acquisition of the Chinese language.
In Morrison's version of the Scriptures, William Milne, D.D., translated the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and Job.
Dr. Milne was born in Scotland, 1785, went to China in 1813, under the patronage of the London Missionary Society, and died 1822, at the age of 37, after nine years in the China Mission. During these few years he acquired a good knowledge of the language, had the superintendency of the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, performed an important part in the translation of the Scriptures, and prepared some of the best Christian tracts we have in Chinese.
He is the man who (before the committee), when asked if he would be willing to go out as an assistant to the mission, replied, "I would be willing to be a hewer of wood or a drawer of water to help to build the Lord's house;" and perhaps no man ever did so much in so short a time for the Chinese mission as William Milne, the little Scotchman.
Another translation of the Scriptures into Chinese was made by Walter H. Medhurst, D.D., and his associates, which was called the Shang Ti mission. Dr. Medhurst went out as a missionary printer, under the London Mission Society, and became a prominent preacher and writer in Chinese. He was born in London, 1796, went out, in 1816, worked efficiently 40 years for the Chinese in Batavia and China, and died on landing in England, 1856, aged 61 years.
Another version was made by Charles Gutzlaff, D.D., born at Pyritz, in Prussian Pomerania, 1803, went out under the appointment of the Netherlands Missionary Society in 1826, landed at Batavia, visited Rhio, Singapore, Siam, and finally became Chinese Secretary to the English Government of Hong Kong, where he died in 1851, at the age of 48 years.
He was a man of portly form, quick motion, rapid speech, possessed a practical knowledge of various European languages, and a ready use of the Chinese colloquial and written language for missionary work and political purposes. His hasty action was not always promotive of the nicest accuracy, and his multitudinous labors did not allow of the most finished completeness in all.
Another version of the entire Scriptures in Chinese was made by Elijah C. Bridgman, D.D., Walter M. Lowrie and M. S. Culbertson, completed at Shanghai, which uses the term Shin for rendering the words Elohim and Theos. This, in most cases, has been a distinguishing mark between the versions made by the English and American missionaries. The former mostly use Shang Ti and the latter use Shin as the term for God.
Dr. Bridgman was born in Belchertown, Mass., 1801, and went out under the American Board to China, 1830; he died at Shanghai in 1861, aged 60 years; 31 years were spent in China, and he was the first representative of the A. B. C. F. M. Society in their mission to China, and to the end was a faithful and honored missionary. Dr. Culbertson went to China in 1844, finished the translation of that version, and died the day before they commenced printing it. He went up suddenly like Elijah in the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. One of his associates reported his departure by saying, "A translator translated." Josiah Goddard made an excellent translation of the New Testament in Chinese—some think the best extant—with some portions of the Old Testament also. His mission work began with the Chinese in Siam, and ended at Ningpo, China. Dr. Goddard was born at Wendell, Mass., 1813, graduated, the first in his class, at Brown University in 1835, graduated at Newton in 1838, sailed for the East the same year under the patronage of the American Baptist Board, spent a year at Singapore in the study of Chinese, landed at Bankok in 1840, removed to Ningpo in 1848, where he died in 1854, at the age of 41, after 16 years of efficient missionary service, in translating the Scriptures and preaching the gospel to the Chinese. Some may have labored longer to do less work. Men's lives are measured, not by the years they live, but by the work they do.
William Dean published two editions of the New Testament and one edition of the Pentateuch in Chinese, with a commentary on Matthew and Mark, Genesis and Exodus. Dr. Dean was born at Eaton, N. Y., in 1807, sailed for China in 1834, labored for the Chinese in Siam till 1842, when he removed to Hong Kong; returned to Bankok in 1864, and ended his missionary work in 1887, at the age of 80. He was 50 years in the service.
In 1843 a Convention of missionaries assembled at Hong Kong, to consult with reference to a new translation of the Scriptures in Chinese. There were present Medhurst, Dyer, and Stronach, of the London Society; Bridgman, Ball and Bonney, of the American Board; Dean, Shuck and Roberts, of the American Baptist Board; Bishop Boone, of the Episcopal Mission, with others, who spent days of prayerful endeavor to harmonize on some general plan of Scripture translation.
First there was a want of agreement on the proposition to make the Textus Receptus the model of a new version. Some thought we should make the original Hebrew and Greek the standard for a new translation in Chinese. Then came up a question regarding the rendering of the terms θεος, επισκοπος, βαπτισμα, on which there was a want of harmony of sentiment, so that it proved necessary to divide the Convention into classes, or for each one to go on in his own way, and look to God for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead him to understand the meaning of the original text, and call in the help of native scholars to aid him to express it in idiomatic Chinese. In this way a number of versions, in a variety of style, have been prepared, and some portions of the Scripture have been made to harmonize with the Mandarin and the colloquial of the local dialects, and some have been Romanized, or the sounds expressed in Roman letters as used in English words, and the Chinese women taught to read them easier than to learn to read the complicated and multitudinous characters of the Chinese written language. One objection to this mode of learning to read is found in the fact, that learning to read Chinese in this way would limit the reader to one dialect or province, whereas learning to read in the Chinese way, prepares one to read in Chinese in every province, or wherever the Chinese language is written, as in Cochin China, Japan, and all over the world, where you find a Chinaman who can read his own language; the form and signification of the written character is the same, however the spoken dialect may differ.
In preparing the various translations of Scripture into Chinese, other persons, whose names are not mentioned above, have rendered important aid. Such men as J. R. Morrison, Chinese Secretary to the English Commissioner and the Government of Hong Kong; G. T. Lay, Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and various other missionaries, such as David Abeel, James Legge, Walter Lowrie, George Smith Bishop of Victoria, and, indeed, all missionaries to the Chinese, may have contributed, in some measure, to aid in giving the written word of God to the people for whom they labored orally, and all translators have depended upon Chinese scholars for the idiom and style of the language by which the idea is expressed.
LIQUOR ON THE CONGO.
AMONGST the resolutions of the Missionary Union none deserves more persistent and prominent advocacy than that relating to the International sanction of the introduction of Rum into the Congo Free State. The extension of European Colonial possessions and protectorates in Africa means a fearful extension of the use of intoxicants in the Dark Continent. We are assured, besides, that the article furnished for the Congo is a specially vile compound prepared for that market. A representative committee of missionary societies laboring in Africa have published a pamphlet entitled "The Liquor Traffic and Native Races," to be had of the secretaries of these societies. The Bishop of London presided over a meeting in London last spring which condemned the traffic and the government protection it has received. A meeting of members of the House of Commons, held to consider the subject, resulted in the expression of their readiness to aid in suppressing this trade and of the sanction the governments give it. Public meetings have been held in Manchester and Cambridge with like result. Bishops and Archbishops, and leading men like Canon Farrar, have entered the arena to oppose this great evil, which blasts the progress of civilization and missions, and hinders the elevation of the people. Archbishop Johnson, a Negro of Lagos, west coast of Africa, and member of the Legislative Council, is appealing to Africans to circulate petitions all along the coast, and the king of Belgium, with other prominent persons, encourages this West African remonstrance to the trade. It is high time the voice of the people of America was heard on this subject. The missionary societies might very properly take the initiative in a public meeting in Boston or New York. A remonstrance should be sent to our own government, that it may feel the force of public sentiment in the case. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishop of London, have addressed the following letter to the Bishops of the British Colonies and dependencies:
"My Lord: The attention of the Church has been recently drawn to the widespread and still growing evils caused by the introduction of intoxicating liquors among the native races in the colonies and dependencies of the British Empire, and in other countries to which British trade has access. Part of the mischief is certainly due to other traders than the British, but British trade, as exceeding in volume that of many other countries put together, is mainly responsible. This mischief cannot be measured by what we witness among our own countrymen. The intemperance is far greater; the evils consequent on intemperance are far worse. Uncivilized people are weaker to resist, and are utterly unable to control temptations of this kind. The accounts given of the numbers that perish from this cause and of the misery and degradation of those who survive are painful in the extreme. And besides the grievous wrong thus inflicted on the native races, reproach has been brought on the name of Christ. The English missionary who preaches the gospel, and the English merchant who brings the fatal temptation, are inevitably associated in the minds of the heathen people, and by many not only associated, but identified. It is asserted by travelers of repute that in many parts of the world the moral character of the natives gains more by the preaching of Mohammedanism than by the preaching of the gospel, for the former tends to make them sober.
"The evils of intemperance in the British islands have, as you are well aware, long engaged the attention of the Church at home. The report of the Lower House of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury in 1869, and that of the Province of York in 1873, in each of which a large mass of evidence from every class of society was got together, had a painful effect on the public mind at the time, and they have served as trustworthy manuals on the subject ever since. The formation of the Church of England Temperance Society has organized and concentrated the efforts of those Churchmen who have been deeply impressed with the necessity of combating intemperance, and that society is daily growing in numbers and in influence. Owing to these and similar endeavors made by both Churchmen and Nonconformists, drunkenness has been and is still being diminished in these islands, and there is every reason to believe that before long public opinion will demand of the Legislature that steps should be taken to remove, wholly or partially, the temptations which now make it so difficult for weak men to lead sober lives.
"It is not for us nor for the bishops at home to suggest to your lordship or your clergy the best means for dealing with similar evils in our colonies and dependencies, and in the heathen countries in your own parts of the world. But we have felt it our duty to bring to your notice the painful accounts that have reached us, and to assure you of our warmest and most earnest sympathy with any efforts that you may see fit to make to deal with the serious difficulty. You may have the means of influencing your Legislature; you may do much to form public opinion; you can at least make it plain to all men that the Church is not, and never can be, indifferent to this great sin. In whatever you may be able to do in this matter you may be assured that the Bishops at home are supporting your action with their earnest prayers, and, where co-operation is found possible, with their most hearty co-operation."—EDWARD CANTAUR, W. EBOR, F. LONDIN.
A GENERAL MISSIONARY CONFERENCE IN LONDON IN 1888.
IN October, 1878, a General Conference on Foreign Missions was held in London. Upwards of 150 members represented nearly 40 distinct missions. Six American missionary societies were represented in the number. Much information was elicited, and considerable missionary stimulus was given.
Arrangements have been begun for the holding of another such conference in London, in 1888. Forty European Missionary Agencies are represented in the call, and the American societies are to be invited to send delegates. The Committee say that they "are most solemnly impressed with the conviction that there has never been a time, since the days of the apostles, when it was of more urgent importance than it is now, that all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity should labor 'in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace,' in order that 'the gospel of the kingdom of God' may be carried out into all the world and preached 'unto every creature.' They, therefore, entreat that earnest and continued prayer may be offered unto God by His people, that it may please Him in all things to direct their efforts, as a Committee, on behalf of the proposed Conference, and eventually to grant such an outpouring of His Holy Spirit upon its meetings, that His cause shall mightily prosper, and His name be exceedingly glorified in the ingathering of great multitudes in every part of the earth, into the kingdom of His dear Son Jesus Christ."
The Committee have classified the ends aimed at under three heads, viz.:
1st. To turn to account the experience of the past for the improvement of the methods of Missionary enterprise in the foreign field.
2d. To utilize acquired experience for the improvement of the methods for the home management of Foreign Missions.
3d. To seek the more entire consecration of the Church of God, in all its members, to the great work committed to it by the Lord.
The following Topics have been suggested for consideration, subject to modification:
I. MODES OF OPERATION IN THE FOREIGN FIELD.
1st. Self-Support and Self-Government in Native Churches.
2d. How to Educate Native Evangelists and Pastors, and to stimulate the higher life and enthusiasm of converts for the conversion of the heathen.
3d. How to adapt Missionary methods to the different states of Civilization or Barbarism among heathen nations: (a) Education. (b) Woman's Work. (c) Medical Missions, etc.
4th. How to adapt Missionary methods to the different forms of Religion among non-Christian peoples; especially those having sacred books.
5th. The providing of Christian literature for Converts in all parts of the Mission Field.
6th. The proper treatment of such questions as Polygamy, Slavery, Caste, the Marriage of Infants and of Widows, etc.
II. METHODS OF MANAGEMENT AT HOME.
1st. Comity of Missions, or their relation to one another and to their respective spheres of labor; and the apportioning unoccupied fields to different Societies.
2d. The Choice and Training of Missionaries with reference to different spheres of labor.
3d. The nature and extent of the Control to be exercised over Missions by Committees or Churches at home.
4th. Support of Missions, and Finance.
III. THE MUTUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND MISSIONS.
1st. The reflex influence of Foreign Missions on Home Evangelization and Church life.
2d. The duty of Christians, in their personal and collective capacity, to obey the Lord's command to "make disciples of all nations."
IV. A POPULAR SURVEY OF THE RESULTS OF MODERN MISSIONS AND OF THE GREAT WORK WHICH REMAINS TO BE DONE IN "THE DARK PLACES OF THE EARTH."
V. THE CONSECRATION OF COMMERCE.
The Rev. James Johnston, F.S.S., has been appointed Organizing Secretary of this Conference, and has, by request of the Committee, come to the United States to secure, if possible, a good representation of the American Societies at the Conference. Dr. Johnston needs no introduction to the American churches. He was appointed to draw up the report of the Imperial Commission on Education in India, and is the author of important pamphlets, amongst which is that entitled "A Century of Protestant Missions, and the Increase of the Heathen during the Hundred Years," which has already run through an edition of several thousands. Mr. Johnston can be addressed care of Dr. Gilman, Bible House, New York.
Amongst the subjects discussed was "Methods of arousing interest in Missions among Home Churches." Rev. W. H. Belden opened this discussion with a valuable paper on "Simultaneous Missionary Meetings," and Dr. Spear spoke on "The Consecration of Wealth."
The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:
President, Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D., Buffalo, N. Y. Vice-Presidents: Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D.D. Secretary, Rev. C. W. Park, Birmingham, Conn. Treasurer, Rev. W. H. Belden, Bridgeton, N. J. Executive Committee: Rev. J. L. Phillips, M.D., Howard, R. I., Rev. E. R. Young, Rev. J. Mudge, Rev. M. B. Comfort, Rev. B. Helm, Rev. H. N. Cobb, D.D., Miss C. H. Daniels, M.D.
The following Resolutions were adopted during the session:
THE STUDENT MISSIONARY MOVEMENT:—Having learned that large numbers of students in the higher institutions of learning in this country and Canada are proposing to devote themselves to the Foreign Missionary work in obedience to the Saviour's last command, we wish to express our gratitude to God for this new proof of His own determination to secure the speedy coming of His kingdom among the nations.
And furthermore we wish to express the profound conviction which we have, that this uprising of laborers greatly emphasizes the responsibility of the churches at home; that it calls upon all who love the Lord to give these candidates for service a large place in their sympathies and prayers; and also to devise liberal things by their contributions, not merely for the support of a large number of new missionaries, but for greatly enlarging the sphere of missionary labor, and for speedily carrying the gospel to every creature. "How shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?"
QUEEN VICTORIA'S JUBILEE—Resolved: That the International Missionary Union of different evangelical denominations do offer on this Jubilee year our sincere and hearty congratulations to Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and Empress of India, on the signal prosperity, extension and glory of her reign. Some of our members saw her ascend her throne, and we would most gratefully acknowledge the great kindness and protection which we have enjoyed from officers of Her Majesty's government in America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the islands of the ocean, where we have been called to preach the gospel of Christ. And we do supplicate Almighty God to continue the bestowal of His distinguished mercies upon Her Majesty, Her Royal family, and Her wide extended domain. May grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ be and abide upon Her Majesty forevermore. Amen.
BIBLE TRANSLATION—Resolved: That this Union, having heard from Bishop Hurst of the most interesting races of Indians in Mexico now numbering eight millions, who are an honest, independent race, friendly to Protestantism, and yet who have no translation of God's word, do hereby overture the American Bible Society to take such steps as will lead to the translation and publication of the word of God in the leading dialect of this most interesting race; and that our Secretary forward a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of said Society.
ON DR. TOURJEE'S OFFER—Resolved: That the International Missionary Union, having heard of the kind offer of Dr. Tourjee, of the New England Conservatory of Music, to furnish free instruction in music to missionary candidates, and believing that both vocal and instrumental music constitute an important auxiliary in all our work among the heathen, cordially recommend to such candidates the special training of the ear and voice with a view to acquiring and improving whatever of native melody they may find in their several fields.
ON LIQUOR ON THE CONGO—Resolved: That as missionaries of the various denominations in the International Missionary Union, we protest against the wicked and disastrous policy of allowing the introduction of intoxicating liquors into the free Congo State, and that we suggest to the secretaries of all missionary societies to exert their combined influence to induce the governing powers to change their policy to one of prohibition.
ON THE OUTLOOK ABROAD—Resolved: That the members of the International Missionary Union returning to their respective fields abroad be constituted an Outlook Committee, and requested to report to the Union, through the officers, movements of promise, signals of danger to missionary interests, and tokens of cheer in foreign lands, thereby increasing the efficiency of this Union and strengthening the bond that binds us together as one in the work and hopes of the Gospel.
PROGRESS AND RESULTS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
V.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS-MONTHLY BULLETIN.
IT is a sign of great good that not one man has yet been asked by the editors to accept a close relation to this REVIEW as editorial correspondent who has not cordially responded in the affirmative. Already we have secured Dr. J. T. Gracey, Dr. Josiah Strong, Rev. D. L. Leonard, Rev. A. P. Happer, D.D., of China; Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D.; Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M.D., and Rev. John Forman, of India; Rev. and Prof. Geo. Wm. Knox, of Japan; Rev. Geo. W. Chamberlain, of Brazil; Rev. J. Hudson Taylor and Mr. Reginald Radcliffe, of China Inland Mission, and Rev. H. H. Jessup, D.D., of Syria. We expect to enlarge this list until we shall have at least one competent correspondent in every great missionary land in the world.
The Eighth Annual Convention of the Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance was held in Alexandria, Va., Oct. 27-30, 1887, and addressed by Rev. J. E. Grammer, D.D., and Rev. F. M. Ellis, D.D., of Baltimore; Rev. Jos. Packard, D.D., of the Theological Seminary; Rev. R. A. Goodwin of Petersburg, Va.; Rev. Wm. E. Griffis, D.D., of Boston; Rev. H. A. Nelson, D.D., and Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D., of Philadelphia, and Rev. G. W. Chamberlain of Brazil. Papers of a high order of excellence were also read by Messrs. T. J. Villiers of Rochester, E. R. Chadwick of Bates Seminary, Isaac I. Gorby of Union, Benson Sewall of Bangor, Robert I. Fleming of Garrett, D. A. Murray of Princeton. So earnest, prayerful and consecrated a body of young men is not often brought together. We look for great results.
AFRICA.
—Cairo. The University of El Azhar. Dr. E. W. Blyden differs from Gen. Haig, in thinking the Mohammedans very active in propagation of Islamism among the Nigritian and Soudanic tribes.
—Madagascar. In the capital, Antananarivo, the Protestant school has 2,387 pupils. . . . The Queen recently attended the opening services of two Christian churches at Ambokimanaga. In fourteen years 700 Protestant chapels have been built in Madagascar, making the number now 1,200. There are 8,000 Protestant communicants, and all the churches are self-supporting. In the Protestant school at Antananarivo 2,387 children are in attendance.
The statement made in the Roman Catholic Review that the German government would allow but one missionary society (the R. Cath.) in its East African territory cannot be correct. From three societies seven missionaries have already gone to Zanzibar.
—Soudan. Emin Pasha pleads for British sway over the equatorial provinces of the Soudan. The missionaries unite in the plea. It is thought it would be a death-blow to the slave trade. Stanley's force found E. Pasha on the south shore of Albert Nyanza, and in health.
—Congo Baptist Missions. Rev. T. J. Comber, the courageous, untiring pioneer, so useful and so beloved, who was penetrating toward the interior, died on board the "Lulu Bohlen," while anchored off the Loango.
An Evangelical German East African Missionary Society has just been formed in Berlin, "to preach the German evangelical faith, and prepare the way for the introduction of German civilization into East Africa, where this year only Englishmen and Frenchmen have been at work." Whether the primary object is the advancement of Christianity or of German civilization does not yet appear.
—Professor Stewart, of Liberia, says it is estimated that for every missionary that goes to Africa 70,000 gallons of liquor are sent to that country. Who shall estimate the wretchedness and degradation of an African heathen under the power of rum and tobacco? And what a greed for blood the liquor dealers must have who, not content with killing 70,000 human beings in this country, extend their work of destruction across the sea!—Cent. Presbyterian.
CHINA.
—Nankin. The North China News states that a benevolent gentleman in the United States has subscribed $300,000 for the establishment of a university at Nankin. It is hoped that the amount will be increased by contributions to $500,000. Several missionaries are interested in the undertaking, which promises to be of great advantage to China, and incidentally to the cause of missions in that empire.
—Dr. Happer returns to China, having secured $100,000 for his Christian college, and $5,000 more toward endowment. He finds it hard, however, to get the money subscribed fast enough to go on with the buildings.
—Dr. Williams, after thirty-two years in China, thinks that half a century more of Christian missions will evangelize and even Christianize the Empire. Mr. Burlingame testifies that intelligent men of China put no faith in popular religions; and Dr. Bartlett adds that "this Gibraltar of Pagandom may become its Waterloo."
—A Christian missionary, on entering a new field in China, was kindly received by the Mandarin, who promised to do all in his power to help him. "I have not heard your doctrine," said he, "but I have seen it. I have a servant who was a perfect devil, but since he received your doctrine he is another man, and I can now trust him."
—The New Version of the New Testament prepared by Rev. Griffith Jone, of Hankow, is said to be superior to any other, and it is confidently expected that it will be adopted as a basis of a union version for all China. Such a book will be in a language spoken and understood by three hundred millions of people. Unlike India, China has really but one language, and if once the Bible were satisfactorily translated into that language the result may be something such as the world has never before witnessed. The book has worked wonders before. It will doubtless work wonders again.
—Tientsin. Mrs. Bryson says: "Some little time ago we commenced a special service for women at three o'clock on Sunday afternoons in the rooms used as a class-room for Mrs. King's medical school in Tientsin. We are getting regularly from twenty to thirty women and a large number of girls. The service takes the shape of a Sunday-school, our older and more intelligent members teaching the others. The women seem to be much interested in the service, and I trust that God's blessing will rest upon it."
—The Spirit of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church for October states that "the Chinese Governor of the large island of Formosa, in starting a College, has chosen a missionary to inaugurate and organize the institution. Such a step would have been regarded as a miracle one generation ago."
—"The North China Herald" of Sept. 10 publishes in a letter from Tientsin, where the great statesman of China, Li Hung-chang, has his official residence, the following statement, viz.: "A letter was recently addressed to Mr. Smithers, the American Consul of this place, requesting that he should see H. E. Li Hung-chang in regard to the location of the College which Dr. Happer is laboring to establish at Nankin, and requests His Excellency to memorialize the throne on the subject, giving all the particulars, that the future institution might also have imperial cognizance. As the Chinese are always partial to knowledge and learning, the Viceroy readily assented to the proposal. But he requested that, as the institution was to be founded at Nankin, the parties should address a written petition to the Viceroy at Nankin on the subject, and also present a copy to him, after which they would jointly memorialize the Emperor on the subject."
—In Canton, with its 1,500,000 inhabitants, are now opened fifteen Christian chapels, where the missionaries and the native ministers preach the gospel not on the Sabbath day only, but daily, and from two to four hours each day, to audiences varying from fifty to several hundred. After the sermon, Chinese evangelists continue the services. Free conversations and discussions follow; rooms are at hand for private conferences, and Christian books and tracts are kept in readiness and disposed of in large numbers. The preaching halls are thronged during the hottest months—July, August and September—and from noon until three o'clock—the hottest part of the day. Tens of thousands of visitors to the city have heard the gospel in these chapels and have carried it hundreds of miles into the interior. The missionary encounters these in the most remote places on his inland tours, and sometimes listens with surprise while they repeat the substance of the discourses which they have heard. The dialect used by most of the missionaries, in preaching, is the Pun-ti, or pure Cantonese, by which they have access to twenty millions of people.
FRANCE, in order simply to be prepared to cope with other nations, has within five years built 45,000 school-houses, at a cost of $80,000,000! What might not Christian America and England accomplish for missions, if the opportunity were appreciated! It is said that if a rod 71 inches long represents the income of the Presbyterian Church, one inch would stand for their gifts!
—McAll Mission in Paris. The attendance at the services has increased largely during the past year, although the number of stations remains the same. The McAll Mission Record says: "The missionary schooner 'Annie' having again been placed at the disposal of the Mission, a very interesting campaign was organized on the coasts of Brittany. Of this work Mr. McAll writes in a private letter: 'Brittany, so long supposed to be completely enthralled by Popish teachings, is now evidently open for the proclamation of the Gospel, and the people—a race much resembling the Welsh in many things, as well as origin—are kindly disposed. To them the message of divine love comes as a new and strange discovery, in contrast with the almost idolatrous ritual to which alone they have been accustomed.'"
JAPAN.
—Rev. George Wm. Knox, of Tokio, writes: "In the Tokio First Presbytery, the additions on profession of faith were more than 240 during the six months previous to April 1, an increase of 15 per cent. In the Tokio Second Presbytery over a hundred adults had been baptized. He himself took a trip of 250 miles to the north. At Sendai, the most influential city in the north, the Miyagi Presbytery was organized with five churches. Large meetings were held in the theatre, and most attentive and respectful congregations were present. Similar meetings were held for lectures at three other towns en route, and in all much interest was manifested. Opposition seems to have died away, and the best part of the people unite in saying that Christianity is a necessity for the further development of Japan."
—Tadmor in the Desert, or Palmyra, City of Palms, is a beautiful type of the Church of God among the gentiles, a historic parable of foreign missions. A great stretch of wilderness lay between Jerusalem and Babylon, arid, barren, without rest or food. King Solomon, Prince of Peace, had the pure water from the springs on the high hills conducted along the plains, and made "rivers in the desert," a very Elim for palm trees and springs of water, and called it "the City of Palms." It was a new Jerusalem transported into the wilderness, and making it blossom as a rose, providing a rest and a refreshment for the hungry, thirsty, weary pilgrim. What a figure of what the true Prince of Peace is doing to-day in the wilds of pagan lands!—bringing the streams from celestial springs to turn the deserts of sin into the Palmyra of Pilgrims.
—London Missionary Society. In fifty years the communicants in the missions have increased from 6,615 to 70,561, and the native preachers from 451 to 7,168.
—The Moravians have an important mission on the Moskito Coast, Central America, among a mixed population of Indians, Creoles and Spaniards. Begun in 1849, down to 1881 it had been quite successful, there being at the beginning of that year about a thousand communicants. A great awakening occurred, and all classes were most deeply moved. Bands of Indians at work in the forest, away from the mission stations, were seized by an overpowering conviction of sin, children at the stations knelt and prayed for forgiveness, and an almost universal awakening followed. It seemed to come spontaneously; it continued without special effort of the missionaries, and there was great excitement, which the missionaries labored to subdue as much as possible. The result of the revival was the adding of 1,500 or more to the list of communicants. Tested by time, conversions proved genuine; few have fallen away. A spirit of consecration possesses the older members, and the field of mission work is greatly extended. The natives no longer say that God does not love the poor Indian as he loves the white man, but rejoice in the revival as a special manifestation of God's grace toward them. Not a few heathen and dissolute characters were thoroughly converted and reformed.—Independent.
—The statistics of Presbyterian missions from the report of 1886 show the total number of communicants in the mission churches to be 20,294. This shows a gain during the last decade of nearly 136½ per cent.
—Some statistics appear in a recent issue of the Siglo XIX, of the City of Mexico, which will surprise many who regard an acquaintance with the Spanish language as merely an accomplishment. That it is of great use is proved by the tables submitted and the growth of our commercial relations with Mexico and South America. English is found to be spoken by 87,000,000 of people throughout the world; Spanish by 63,690,000; German by 53,000,000, and French by 43,000,000. Thus Spanish is second in importance, as a commercial language, being the only means of communication with a large percentage of the population of the earth. We must, however, take into account the fact that a larger part of them are of inferior importance to the bulk of the population of the United States, and of the other countries; yet it still holds that a vast extent of territory exists in which nothing but Spanish is spoken.
MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
VI.-MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
VI.-MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
THE following letter is from Dr. James L. Phillips, Chaplain State Institutions, Howard, R. I., a medical missionary "from Midnapore, Bengal, India, now at home on furlough, but earnestly hoping to return to his work abroad, in which it has pleased God to grant him 17 years, and very happy years, too."
REV. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.:
Dear Brother—I learn that you are to take up and carry on Mr. Wilder's Missionary Review, and I am delighted to know this. From the first number I've read it eagerly, and have done what I could to introduce it to friends in Europe and India. I most earnestly hope that by God's blessing upon your labors it may continue to hold its high place as a thoroughly independent, undenominational, faithful and fearless review of all missionary enterprises, home and foreign. So far as I know, it stands without a peer, in its own special province, in Christendom.
I should like to know the plans for the future conduct of the REVIEW, with a view to getting our pastors to subscribe. Some of our people have been taking it from the first, but hundreds more ought to.
Could you devote space in THE REVIEW to the Monthly Concert of Prayer for Missions, which has fallen into sad neglect during these 20 years? I am continually hearing of Congregational and Presbyterian churches—the two churches that observed it most faithfully years ago, when I was a student in this country—that do not even have the Missionary Concert. In this State the Baptists are keeping it up, I think, better than any other church.
My proposition is: Let THE MISSIONARY REVIEW consult with The Gospel in All Lands, and draw up a Programme for the Missionary Concerts of 1888, so that our pastors may have ample time to read up and be ready. As dear Dr. Duff used to say, "the hitch is with the pastors." What an added power we should gain in all our missionary work, at home and abroad, could we establish, and faithfully sustain, in our American churches such a grand CONCERT OF PRAYER, by taking up each month the same general topic, and instructing, interesting and inspiring our congregations with it! I cannot doubt that British Christians would join us in this good movement, for they have held up the monthly concert better than we have in America. Could we not have something like the International Sunday-school lesson—the same verses of Scripture studied in many lands and languages? For months these and kindred thoughts have been revolving in my mind; and the reading of such books as your noble "Crisis of Missions" only adds fuel to the fire already kindled. If there be a work in which sect-lines must more and more disappear, it is this great work of the world's evangelization. Christians must come into close fellowship with Christ, be more loyal to His government by keeping His great and last commission, before the "greater things" he spoke of can appear. Believe me, my dear sir,
Yours, with high esteem and very sincerely,
JAS. L. PHILLIPS.
This letter was followed by another from the editor of Gospel in All Lands:
NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 1887.
My Dear Dr. Pierson—I have just learned that you will have charge of the Monthly Concert Department of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW. I have been arranging the topics for the Monthly Concerts for 1888 to be treated in Missionary World and Gospel in All Lands, and a letter from Dr. J. L. Phillips urges me to see if Gospel in All Lands and MISSIONARY REVIEW cannot agree on topics for next year. I propose those on the enclosed paper. Several are the same as those adopted by the Presbyterians North and South.
EUGENE R. SMITH.
1888.
January—The World.
February—China.
March—Mexico, Central America.
April—India.
May—Burmah, Siam and Laos.
June—Africa.
July—Islands of the Sea, North American Indians, Chinese and Japanese in America, etc.
August—Italy and Papal Europe.
September—Japan and Korea.
October—Turkey and Persia.
November—South America.
December—Syria.
[The above arrangement will be adopted.—EDITORS.]
THE WORLD FIELD.
IN looking at the great field of missions, we are first of all overwhelmed with its vastness. We talk of continents as covered with the death shade, but how vague are the terms we use.
Let us take Connecticut as the unit of measurement, with its area of 4,700 square miles. It is contained in Dakota 47 times, and Japan is about as large as Dakota. And now we begin to get some definite conception of the Island Empire of the Rising Sun that is just now attracting the attention of the world by changes so radical and revolutionary that the like have never before been seen.
But Japan, large as it is, is very small in comparison with other heathen and pagan lands. Japan could be contained in India 10 times, and even India could be contained nearly three times in China; or, to be more accurate, you might carve out of China two empires like India, and have left enough to make seven more like Japan, or three hundred and thirty like Connecticut. And yet out of Africa you might construct China and two Indias besides!
Next we are impressed with the vastness of the vacancies where as yet no gospel light has shone. Great districts that are themselves empires have never yet been approached by the heralds of the Cross. When Samuel Hebich reached Calicut in 1834, the whole coast from Bombay to Cochin was as yet unoccupied, and looking inland, Bangalore, Bellary, Belgaum were the nearest stations, each between one and two hundred miles distant. When Robert Moffat landed in Africa, in 1817, the greater part of that Continent's interior had never been trodden by a white man's foot. And even as lately as Stanley's passage across the continent, ten years ago this summer, he came out at Banana, at the Congo's mouth, having, since he left Zanzibar, seven thousand miles distant, seen no man who had ever heard the gospel! About the same time two missionaries of the China Inland mission went from Bahmo in Upper Burmah to Chun-King, in China, one thousand miles, without finding one gospel station.
A third thing that impresses us is the wonder-working of God in connection with the history of modern missions. The days of supernatural signs in the church were the days during which the church was one great evangelistic body. When evangelism began to decline, the dark ages came rapidly on; and only since evangelical faith was revived and the church reformed, and so prepared again to take up the work of world-wide missions, have the days of manifest supernatural influence returned. We do not hesitate to say that the history of modern missions is a history of modern miracles—manifest workings of divine power, as convincing in their way and as peculiarly adapted to the present age as any miracles wrought in the days of the apostles. Single men, like Robert Moffat in Africa, Robert Morrison in China, John Williams in the South Seas, Wm. Johnson in Sierra Leone, Zeisberger and Duncan among the Indians, have been permitted to see results that as plainly show the hand of God as when the paralytic took up his bed and walked, or Lazarus came forth in grave-clothes.
A fourth impression is made upon us by the long study of missions, viz., that if a man or woman wants to make the capital of life yield the largest interest, here is an investment worthy the full engrossment of all the aims and powers of manhood and womanhood. To some, a life given to Christ in the great field of foreign missions means a life buried, wasted, thrown away. And it is so, if the standards of the world as to money-making, selfish indulgence, aspiring ambition and worldly emolument are to be taken as the measure of success or failure. But if a higher point of view is once got and held from which to survey life, it is not so.
Follow Moffat in his fifty years of consecrated toil, the apostle of Africa. Not only did he lead the way as an explorer, even for the heroic Livingstone, but he translated the Bible into the Bechuana tongue, dialects of which, varying but little, are spoken over almost the whole of the Dark Continent south of the equator! We have no proof that to any person it was ever given to render into Saxon the whole of the Scriptures. Bede was engaged on "John" when he died; Wickliffe and Coverdale had helpers. But Robert Moffat was permitted to translate the whole word of God into the pagan tongue of South Africa—an achievement which, had he done no other service, puts him among the most distinguished of the world's benefactors.
But Moffat is but one among a host of men and women whose lives have shaped the destiny of whole continents. The quiet work of the preachers and teachers at Beirut is permeating not only Syria but the whole Arabic-speaking world. Bishop Taylor in Africa, leaning only on God, going almost single-handed among the most barbarous tribes, and making the very chiefs tributary to his mission work; Dr. Clough among the Teloogoos, baptizing ten thousand in less than two months, and breaking down caste in his noble schools; Royal G. Wilder, "burying himself" among the heathen, that in thirty years he might preach in 3,000 villages and cities, scatter three million pages of tracts and gather 3,300 boys and girls into Christian schools—these are examples of "wasted life." If so, let our lives be wasted. Such a buried life becomes the seed of a harvest that neither time can measure nor man estimate.
II. SUGGESTIVE PARAGRAPHS.
The first Protestant sermon preached west of the Mississippi was preached by Samuel J. Mills, the father of the American Board. Desiring to get out of this "pinhole," he went abroad. He had before said: "I cannot suffer my influence to be limited by Atlantic, Mississippi, great lakes, or gulf."
Miss Tucker (A. L. O. E.) went to India as a missionary, leaving the field of authorship for the comparatively obscure field of mission work. Judge Tucker, of Futtepoor, was her brother. He served long in India, giving to missions $200 per month. To those who remonstrated as to his liberality, he replied: "Here are 86,000,000 adult population; 5,000 die daily; every day's delay means 5,000 souls!" At the entrance to the station he had four stone tablets erected. On two, the Ten Commandments; on two, John iii: 14-18. After the duties of his office were fulfilled, he preached Jesus. "If every hair were a life," said he, "I would give them all to Him." He fell in 1857, at the hands of the mutineers. On his sitting-room walls were inscribed: "Fear God," "Love your enemies," "Prepare for death."
The gospel is still foolishness to the Greek. He mistakes the twilight of the morning for the twilight of the evening; what light he sees in the gospel he thinks is the last lingering, fading ray of a declining day, instead of the precursor of a splendid noon.
Post-mortem Gifts. "Father was wont, at this season of the year, to look with great anticipation to the great missionary anniversaries. I desire to act as his steward and pay in his behalf his ordinary annual contribution, which I enclose."
"W. E. D."
"SACRIFICE IS GOLD IN HEAVEN."
Bishop William Taylor: "I feel such a yearning in my soul to help the Lord Jesus to convert this world, that I would gladly be multiplied into a thousand workmen, and then live a thousand years to help on this work."
John Wesley loved to scatter every penny above his scanty necessary outlay. In 1782, his income was £361 19s. (about $1,820); of this he spent for clothing some $30, and gave away the entire remainder with his own hands. His book steward the same year, by his directions, gave away $1,185 more. At the end of his days Wesley wrote: "For upwards of 86 years I have kept my accounts exactly. I will not attempt it any longer, being satisfied with the continual conviction that I save all I can and give all I can—that is, all I have. I never put sixpence out at interest since I was born; nor had I ever a hundred pounds together, my own, since I came into this world." He regarded riches as a "necessary evil," a "serious danger."
A very fine article on Foreign Missions may be found in "Appleton's Encyclopedia," from the pen of an eminent writer.
There is needed a far larger recognition on the part of Christians of the duty of a personal instead of a proxy evangelization. "You see the day is past when the Church could say, 'Silver and gold have I none,'" said Innocent IV. complacently to St. Thomas of Aquinum, as he pointed to the masses of treasure which were being carried into the Vatican. "Yes, holy father," was the saint's reply, "and the day is also past when she could say to the paralytic, 'Take up thy bed and walk.'" It is not simply gathered treasure, whether of gold, or of social position, or of culture, which can make the Church able for her duty, disarm distrust of her among all classes, and fill her with power for the compelling of the millennium. It is scattered treasure which will do it. It is as each one of her members does and keeps doing his share and hers of the priestly ministry of personal interest and invitation. Why should you be willing to sit in one corner of your empty pew on Sunday? Why should you not be restless until even from the highways and hedges you have compelled them to come in—shown by divine deed that God's house is for all, and at least done your share toward the disarming of any possible distrust?—Dr. Wayland Hoyt.
It is never safe to make an exception a rule of conduct. One of the best illustrations of this fact was given by the Rev. Dr. Lorimer, during the Minneapolis meetings, in a little dialogue, which, if not veritable, is certainly suggestive. Talking with a man who had professed to be converted, a minister said: "Have you joined the church?" "No; the dying thief did not join the church, and he went to heaven." "Have you talked to your neighbors?" "No; the dying thief did not talk to his neighbors, and he went to heaven." "Have you given anything to missions?" "No; the dying thief never gave anything, and he went to heaven." "Well, my friend, it seems to me the difference is that he was a dying thief, and you are a living thief."
France: The Paris City Mission, started at the time of the Exhibition in 1878, in 1880 fairly commenced work with a staff of three missionaries, subsequently increased to 13. Latterly, funds have failed, and the number has been reduced to six. The income has ranged at different times from $3,200 to $3,600. One-third of this money is raised by pastors and congregations in connection with which the missionaries labor; the rest by private subscription.
India: Bengal.—Ten native young men have responded to the call for missionaries to preach to the Bengali coolies in Fiji.
Ahmednuggur.—It is said that the A. B. C. F. M. is going to establish there a college to train young men in English.
Japan: The first Japanese missionary student to the Basle Mission is Geusi-Igutsi, who was instructed and baptized (John) in China. The missionaries who have had opportunities of closely observing him have great confidence in him.
Korea: There is a call for a woman to work among the native women, and the government will encourage schools, though open preaching of the gospel is yet somewhat restricted.
North American Indians: At the late Indian Conference at Mohawk Lake, it was said that the effect of the recent orders of the Indian Bureau forbidding the use of any other language but English in the native schools would close some twelve to twenty Dakota schools where native teachers are at work. Another order stops the government boarding-school children from coming to Sunday-school! What do such orders mean?
Palestine: The opposition of the Turkish Government to the Mission Schools in Palestine, so far as the education in them of Mohammedan children is concerned, has culminated in an order from Constantinople forbidding the attendance of Moslems altogether; and one father has been thrown into prison for sending his child to a Mission School.
Persia: Persia has had a remarkable spiritual awakening, beginning with the Week of Prayer. The revival extends to several villages. Many lukewarm Christians were greatly revived, and sinners of all grades, young and old, converted. Places of worship have been found too small to accommodate the crowds. Mr. Labaree, of Oroomiah, reported the work still progressing and spreading. In several towns there are from twenty to forty, and even sixty inquirers.
Scotland: Free Church of Scotland sends out 109 missionary workers, of whom 30 are laymen and 30 women.
Syria: Beirut.—Two young men, members of the Senior class in the college, offer themselves to African missions. Dr. Jessup commends them highly. They have taken all the deprivations and difficulties into account, and make no stipulation as to the nature of their work or the amount of their pay. Their familiarity with Arabic would be of great help.
Thibet: The United Brethren have recently established a station at Leh, the chief town of Ladak, or Middle Thibet, a province of Cashmere. Many persons who at Kyelang have been brought to the knowledge of the truth have returned to Leh. Permission to reside there was given to these missionaries by the maharajah, at the request of the Marquis of Ripon. The town is situated in a fine, open valley, surrounded by lofty mountains, and is close upon 11,300 feet above the level of the sea. The winter has been spent here by Mr. and Mrs. Redslob and their family, who, by reason of the climate of this elevated station, have had much sympathy with the ice-bound missionaries of Labrador and Greenland.
III.—MISSIONARY TEXTS AND THEMES.
The field is the world.—Matt. xiii: 38.
1. World-wide extent, and the period, all time.
2. Two kinds of seed, the word and the children of the kingdom.
3. The harvest is to be sure and abundant.—Is. lv: 13.
4. The results will be rapid and marvellous.—Amos ix: 13.
5. All mainly depends on prayer.—Matt. ix: 38.
"Missions, Past and Prospective." In the "Bampton Lectures" by Anthony Grant, 1843, the following is the outline of the argument:
1. The adequacy and tendency of the gospel to gain universal sway. Its adaptation to mankind at large is contrasted with other religions, as adapted to a limited area; there is not one so much better than others as to pay to attempt to propagate it extensively; and when this is done it is only as a defensive measure to prevent decline.
2. The Universality of the Message and tendency to unity. He well says that "The gospel is not to be in all places at all times, nor in all places at one time; but in some place at all times and in all places at some time."
3. Christianity is not a spiritual influence on the soul of man, solely; but rather a spiritual and visible institution in which souls are gathered unto the Lord and nourished unto eternal life. Body, soul and spirit benefited. The gospel is communicated through external and visible system, which is threefold, viz.: 1. The conveyance of spiritual blessings. 2. The education of man as a social being. 3. The perpetuating and propagating of truth.
The New Testament contemplates both voluntary and commissioned agents for preaching, combining the authoritative teaching of the Church with that of the written Word of God.
Preaching, teaching, living, are to go together: Non magna loquimur, sed vivimus.
"There is no question as to whether or not missions are binding upon Christians. Missionary effort is not a matter of choice but of obligation. Indeed, it is as much an obligation as baptism or the Lord's Supper. Christ gave very few detailed instructions for the guidance of his Church. He left her policy to be shaped by the Holy Spirit. But one definite injunction He did give, and that his last as the risen Saviour: "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This is not merely a commission for baptism. It is the outline of a policy—the missionary policy of the Church. It presents to us a command, a duty, a statement of the principal object of the Church's existence; with the encouraging promise, in view of the immense obligation, of power commensurate with the task—"Lo, I am with you alway." Missions are not optional. "Make disciples of all nations," is as binding as "This do in remembrance of me."
The Chinese are proverbially dull when first reached by the story of the gospel. Yet one woman in Shanse, though a cripple, came a long distance for a second visit to the missionary, and when asked what she remembered from the previous Sunday's talk, replied: "I am old, and my head is thick, and I have no memory. I only remember two things: That God is my Father in heaven, and that his Son Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins."
STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS
VII.-STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.
British Contributions to Missions in 1885. Rev. W. H. Scott Robertson has summarized and analyzed them as follows: Grand total, including dividends, interest and rents, $7,936,870, an advance over 1884 of $71,990. He includes Roman Catholic contributions, $33,440. It appears from his tables that the Christian world raises over $11,000,000 a year for Protestant Missions, while Romish Foreign Missions receive but $1,325,850, little over one-eighth of that sum. (Missionary Review, Feb., 1887.)
—While the Church of England in 25 years has spent on Foreign Missions $50,000,000, seven times that amount has been spent on Home enlargements, improvements, etc. From a careful examination of the statistics of Christian Missions, the Quarterly Review states that during eight years the ordained missionaries from Protestant Christendom have increased fifty per cent., and the total income seventy per cent.
—Foreign Missions in 1885-1886, as reported in Wilder's Statistical Tables:
| No. of Societies |
102 |
| European Ministers |
40,371 |
| American " |
83,420 |
| Total |
123,791 |
| Year's gain |
1,703 |
| Home Communicants (Europe) |
16,934,077 |
| " (Am.) |
11,856,134 |
| Total |
28,790,211 |
| Year's gain |
53,564 |
| Year's growth in Communicants |
386,958 |
| Less than last year by |
51,772 |
| Foreign Miss. Income |
$10,297,238 |
| Year's loss |
74,463 |
| Whole cost of administration |
830,000 |
| Year's increase |
21,355 |
| Per cent. of income |
8.78 |
| Increase in percentage |
.98 |
| Workers from Christendom (ordained) |
3,035 |
| Year's gain |
60 |
| Workers (laymen) |
1,167 |
| Increase |
435 |
| Workers (women) |
2,444 |
| Increase |
24 |
| Total workers from Christendom |
6,647 |
| Native workers (ordained) |
3,307 |
| " (not ordained) |
30,293 |
| Year's increase of native workers |
1,890 |
| Total No. of workers |
40,246 |
| Native communicants |
950,162 |
| Year's increase |
148,134 |
| Per cent. of increase |
18.74 |
These tables, of course, only approximate the truth. But some things in them are noteworthy. 1. The year's growth in communicants at home was nearly 52,000 less than the previous years (1884-5), and only 1.35 per cent.; abroad it was nearly 150,000, and nearly 19 per cent.
2. The total of workers has risen from 37,837 to 40,246, but still all Christendom sends but 6,647, while the native churches provide 33,600, five times as many. Christendom sends one out of every 4,332 members to the field; the native churches give one out of every 28! At that rate Christendom would have to-day one million workers in the foreign field, or one to every 850 of the unevangelical population of the globe!
—"The Independent" takes note that Dr. Daniel Dorchester has just made a fresh study of statistics, which are not specially flattering:
The total yearly receipts from all our American Home and Foreign Missionary Societies in 1850 were $1,232,123; in 1860, $2,525,549; in 1870, $4,225,952; in 1880, $5,939,845. Since 1880 the average amount has been about $7,000,000 yearly. The increase has thus been large, being four-fold for Foreign Missions and six-fold for Home Missions in the thirty years from 1850 to 1880.
But when we come to count the members of the Protestant churches we have a different story. The number of church members are given by Dr. Dorchester as having been 3,529,988 in 1850; 5,240,554 in 1860; 6,673,396 in 1870, and 10,065,963 in 1880. Now, assuming these figures to be correct, we have 35 cents per member given in 1850 for Home and Foreign Missions, 48 cents in 1860, 63 cents in 1870, and 59½ cents in 1880. In the last period there has been a falling off, and there has been no adequate increase since 1860. It must be that there is an immense number of church members reported who give absolutely nothing for missions; and it must be that the interest of those who do give is much less than it should be. An average of less than sixty cents in a year is vastly less than what ought to be given.
But when we come to the property test, the case is still worse. Supposing the church members to have just an average amount of the wealth of the country (we do not doubt they have more), in 1850 they gave to missions one and one-tenth mills to each dollar of their property; in 1860 this sum was reduced to nine-tenths of a mill; in 1870 to eight-tenths, and in 1880 to six and a half tenths of a mill. Thus we see that while the total gifts have increased five times, the amount given by each converted dollar has been reduced nearly one-half. This is very far from a creditable showing, and proves that not near as much sacrifice is made for the cause of missions as forty years ago.
The one great duty of the Church is to convert the world to Jesus Christ. Are the effort and the self-denial adequate which give sixty cents a member per year, and two-thirds of one-tenth of one per cent. of property?
—Foreign Missionary Organizations raised last year in the United States $3,898,944. The total gain in communicants was 22,069.—Wilder's Tables.
—Since the Methodist Board of Church Extension began its work, in the year 1865, it has helped to build 5,805 churches. It has collected and disbursed nearly $3,000,000.
—Presbyterian Growth. From the narrative of the state of religion to the last Assembly we learn that the additions to the membership during the year were over 52,000 on examination and 29,000 on certificate—the most fruitful year in the Church's history. The Boards received $1,915,987. Foreign Missions had the largest receipts ever known in the history of the Church, $784,157.59. Of this the Women's Boards contributed $248,649.50. The growth of the contributions of the latter is a remarkable exhibit of what can be done by "organizing the littles." In 1871 they reported $7,000. This amount has gone up by the following strides during subsequent years: $27,000, $64,000, $87,000, $96,000, $115,000, $124,000, $136,000, $170,000, $176,000, $178,000, $193,000, $204,000, $224,000, $248,000.
—Moravians have a noble missionary record. During the last century 25,000 of them have been sent to "the regions beyond," while $300,000 have been expended yearly, and nine vessels been kept busy in the interests of missions. This small band of disciples may well put us all to the blush by their sanctified liberality and self-consecration.
—Roman Catholics in China.—The Chinese Recorder gathers from a table of statistics of Roman Catholic missions the following facts: "There are in the various provinces of China 483,403 Catholic Christians, 471 European missionaries, 281 native priests, 2,429 churches and chapels, 1,779 colleges and schools, with 25,219 scholars, and 33 seminaries and 654 seminarists. In Corea, Japan, Manchuria, Mongolia and Thibet there are 130 European and 15 native priests, 227 churches and chapels, and 77,254 Catholic Christians. In the Indo-China peninsula there are 694,286 Catholics, and in India 1,185,538 Catholics. The grand total for these Asiatic countries is 2,440,486 Catholics, 2,639 missionaries and native priests, 7,293 churches and chapels, 4,469 colleges and schools, with 112,359 scholars, and 76 seminaries, with 2,746 seminarists. These countries are divided into 67 vicariates apostolic and 4 prefectures apostolic. Six of these vicariates are worked by the Jesuits. Most of them, however, are under the charge of missionaries of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris and the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Milan."
—There are 40,000 Wild Indian Children in this country. Of this number, all told, there are but 12,000 gathered in the Government and Mission schools, leaving 28,000 children to whom no school opens its door, and to whom no Christian missionary comes. There are at least sixty whole tribes upon whose darkness no ray of Gospel light has ever fallen, as pagan and as savage as were their ancestors when the first white man landed upon these shores!
—Perhaps the power of God has been manifest in the islands of the Pacific more than in any other part of the world. In the Sandwich Islands one pastor baptized 12,000 converts in 45 years. In the group of islands called the Philippine, the Society, the Friendly and the Caroline, the natives were savages and cannibals of the worst type; but they have exchanged their savage life for the life inspired by the gospel of Christ; and in those groups of islands there are nearly 200,000 native Christians. In the Fiji Islands, also formerly a centre of cannibalism, out of a population of 120,000 all but one-seventh are said to be attending the Wesleyan meetings, and the most of the remainder belong to other meetings; so that church-going there is quite universal.
—The Salvation Army, entering India five years ago, has now 120 English and 80 native missionaries.
—The Imperial Academy of Sciences has recently completed the publication of a translation of the New Testament into the language of the Calmucks. This, it is said, is the first attempt to make known to the Calmucks the text of the Christian Gospels. The initiative is due to the British Bible Society, by which the work of translation was confided to Prof. Pozneieff, of the Chair of Mongol and Calmuck Literature in the University of St. Petersburg. Two hundred copies have been sent to Astrachan and sold to the converted Calmucks of that province. The rest have been sent abroad for distribution in Asia by European missionaries.—St. Petersburg Dispatch to the London Times.
—The Australian Church, under the direction of the Bishop of Sydney, has resolved upon the establishment of missions in the English portions of New Guinea, which portion is about equal in size to the whole of Great Britain. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has appropriated £5,000 to aid the work.
—The "Ragged Sunday-schools" in London have 40,000 scholars and 4,000 teachers. Its president was the late and honored Lord Shaftesbury. His son succeeds him in the work. The income of the society, consisting wholly of voluntary contributions, amounts to $80,000 per annum.
—There are 400 Mormon bishops in Utah, 2,423 priests, 2,947 teachers, and 6,854 deacons. Salt Lake City is divided into wards of eight or nine blocks each, and a bishop is put in charge of each ward. Under him are two teachers, whose business is to learn the employment and income of every resident of the ward and report the same to the bishop. Then the bishop collects the tenth of each man's income and turns it in to the church authorities. The Mormons are as adept as the Roman Catholics in getting their hands into the pockets of believers.
—Two hundred and fifty millions of women depend for the Gospel upon the women of the Protestant Churches of America. Nine-tenths of the contributions to foreign missions are given by one-tenth of the church membership, while only one-half of the membership give anything. The average amount per member is fifty cents per annum—only the seventh part of a cent per day for the conversion of a thousand millions of people. An average of five cents a week from every member of the Protestant churches of the United States would bring into the treasury during a single year $16,500,000. Ninety-eight per cent. of the Church's contributions for religious purposes is spent at home, while only two per cent. is applied to the foreign mission field. There are 75,000 ministers in the United States, or one to about every 600 persons, while only one is allotted to half a million in heathen lands. There are 1,500 counties in China without a single missionary.
—There are about 600 native newspapers in India, all of which, with the exception of about half a dozen, are bitterly opposed to Christianity. Societies are now being organized for the dissemination of the skeptical writings of England and America. An important society is in operation from Lahore, as a centre, while another has its headquarters in Benares. The pictures of the gods best known to the Hindu pantheon are even lithographed in Germany and England and sold in Calcutta! Native rajahs interest themselves in circulating Hindu tracts, and have adopted shrewd methods to carry on their work. The Rev. Mr. Craven says he knows of one rajah alone who is printing at his own expense 2,000,000 of Hindu tracts, and intends to distribute them at the large fairs of North India. The missionaries, however, keep close watch over these antagonistic forces. They too are enlarging their operations rapidly. But the churches and societies which they represent should adopt far more liberal measures to furnish the millions of natives to whom they are sent with sound Christian literature. The passion for reading has struck every part of India. The people will have books and newspapers. It is for the western Christian world to say what their fibre shall be.—Dr. Hurst, in Harper's Magazine.
—The Chinese Recorder gives the following statistics of Christian missions in China to Dec. 1, 1886:
| Number of societies |
37 |
| Total number of missionaries |
919 |
| Men |
446 |
| Wives |
316 |
| Single ladies |
157 |
| China inland mission (men) |
92 |
| Various Presbyterian societies (men) |
93 |
| Methodist societies |
70 |
| Congregationalist societies |
53 |
| Episcopalian societies |
39 |
| Americans |
164 |
| English |
230 |
| Other nationalities |
52 |
Of the single ladies nearly half are American. Others are not named.
—The China Inland Mission has 43 married and 129 unmarried missionaries. Including wives and 117 native workers, the entire force numbers over 300. They are asking for 100 more for this year. Their operations have been continued for years, and the hundred new men are called for by way of celebrating the majority of the society.
—The Japan Mission of the Presbyterian Board are asking for ten new men instead of a hundred, and the question is whether the Presbyterian Church is able and willing to grant their request. What will the synods, the presbyteries and the churches say to their petition?
—The Chinese Governor of the large island of Formosa in starting a college has chosen a missionary to inaugurate and organize the institution. Such a step would have been regarded as a miracle one generation ago.
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
VIII.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
A WORD TO OUR PATRONS.
Enterprises are nowadays so commonly started with supreme reference to pecuniary returns that it seems like an affectation of unselfishness to claim any other and higher motive in the wide circulation of this REVIEW. Nevertheless, the editors are conscious of no ulterior end but the arousing of the Church of God to a more vigorous prosecution of the missionary campaign. And in our effort we desire the warm, sympathetic co-operation of all our subscribers. We undertake the work with a deep persuasion that it is God's work laid upon us, and we care for no reward beyond the consciousness of His approval. We mean to make this REVIEW indispensable, if we can, to all who love the cause of Christ, and especially to all who wish to know the needs of a world-wide field and the progress of the Kingdom,
We wish to establish between the Church at home and the workers and warriors on the outposts a line of communication, which shall also be a line of supplies; to create and foster a living bond of active and intelligent sympathy; to know what is doing and needs to be done—what needs are met and what lack is felt; to mark progress and trace causes of defeat, to canvass methods and criticise defects, to prevent waste and relieve friction, to promote co-operation and allay antagonism, to stimulate giving and especially self-giving—such are some of the many glorious results we aim to further. The wider the circulation of the REVIEW the more rapid and widespread the success of our measures.
We want those whom God has blessed with means and a generous heart to put at our disposal a Fund for gratuitous distribution to those who cannot afford to pay for the REVIEW. For example, in this country and in England, there are some three thousand young men and women who have signified their desire and intent to go to the foreign field when their studies are completed, if the way shall open. Many of them are poor and self-dependent. Can any man or woman make a nobler appropriation than to put at our disposal such sum of money as may enable us to send the REVIEW to such young persons free for one year?
While at Rochester, two young persons came to one of the editors, who made an address there on Nov. 15, and said: "I have just read your book, 'The Crisis of Missions;' it has decided me to give myself to the foreign field." A similar scene occurred at Buffalo, next day, and at Alexandria, Va., a few weeks before. If some man or woman who cannot go himself, or herself, can, by the free distribution of such a missionary organ as this, make missionaries, what offering can be more acceptable to God? We are willing to be custodians of such benevolence and see that it is made just as powerful as it can be in furthering the work. And if there be any who cannot give, will they not at least pray that our work may prove to the churches the world over even a greater blessing than our hearts could dare to anticipate?
The fund is already started by a gift of $100 from the editors and $100 from the publishers, and a considerable addition will be made from arrears of subscriptions on THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, all of which Mr. Wilder put at the disposition of the editors. We want to raise $5,000 for this purpose.—P.
The recent meeting of the American Board at Springfield, Mass., was in many respects the most eventful one since its organization. It was generally felt that the meeting would be a battle-ground between the new theology, with its post-mortem probation, and the older, more conservative, and, we hesitate not to say, more Scriptural and evangelical position held by the Reformed churches for centuries. Happily, as we think, the issue of the battle was on the side of the old and not the new theology. The landmarks which the fathers set up will not be removed, and Dr. Storrs' manly and Christian letter, accepting the presidency of the Board—a letter too long to be reproduced in these columns—covers, to our view, the whole case.
In this letter of acceptance, he expresses the opinion that the question of the "new theology" is, for the present, practically settled, so far as the Board is concerned; and adds that a withholding of funds from the treasury, "if that should unhappily come to pass," would not change the convictions on which the decision was based. He frankly gives as his belief that it would be unsafe to allow the same latitude of opinion in the missionary field which local churches here occasionally allow, whether properly or not, to those who transiently minister to them. There is a loyal and royal ring in words like these: "This society exists for a purpose wide as the world, solemn as the Cross, connected with eternal issues. It is always responsible to the Lord of the Gospel for what its messengers proclaim in His name."
Dr. Noble of Chicago one year ago expressed on this subject, comprehensively and briefly, the practical bearings of the whole question. He said, in effect, that there are two ways which we may pursue: we may either spend our time and energy speculating as to whether mankind will have probation after death, or we may give ourselves to the endeavor to secure their acceptance of this great salvation in the present probation before death. "As for myself," he added, "I propose to give all my thought and powers to securing for men a present salvation." To all of which let all the people say Amen!—P.
In New Jersey, the week between November 13 and November 20 was kept as one of simultaneous meetings in the interests of Foreign Missions. The whole work was in the hands of five members of Synod, Rev. Dr. Augustus Brodhead, of Bridgeton, being Chairman. He lived long enough to make the arrangements and was then called up higher.
All-day conventions were arranged for in every one of the 219 towns in the State where there was a Presbyterian church. The convention was not held on the same day in every place, but some time within the week. Fifty-eight places were designated as centres, provided with special speakers at the evening meeting. The plan of the conventions was uniform: A morning prayer-meeting, followed by an open meeting for familiar conference as to the mission field, its work and workers; in the afternoon, separate meetings of ladies', young people's and Sunday-school societies and bands, and in the evening the main meeting, with at least two specially prepared addresses.
To our minds, this simultaneous meeting is one of the grandest plans ever adopted to arouse, concentrate and vitalize the interest in the great foreign Mission work. We hope to see the day when, throughout the whole land, simultaneous meetings shall be held, and, like the three annual feasts of the Jews, all the tribes go up to take part, bring offerings and carry back a new inspiration and blessing. The movement is timely, popular, grand, effective, and promises results far beyond our present calculation.—P.
MRS. WILDER, widow of the late editor of The Missionary Review, and Grace E. Wilder, the daughter, sailed for Kolapoor, Western India, on the 26th of Nov., under the auspices of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Miss Grace was born there, and the mother spent thirty years of her life there in missionary work in connection with her devoted husband. She had a school of 300 girls, at one time, and gave Christian education to a large number of the native women of India, who regard her in the light of a mother. Denied the privilege of going back to her work, after twelve years' absence, in company with her venerated husband, she, after his death, begged to be allowed to go back with her daughter and resume active work there, as a Bible reader, on her own charges. Her first love is still fresh and strong, and poor India, for whom she and her life companion sacrificed so much, is dearer to her than her native land, and even the sons whom she leaves behind. The daughter inherits a full measure of her parents' spirit, and, having rendered her father important help on The Missionary Review, and received rare training for the work, consecrates her life to the same blessed service. And one son, now in Union Seminary, New York, who has gone among our colleges lately and helped to kindle the missionary spirit among the students, will follow his aged mother and youthful sister as soon as his studies are completed.
What heroism have we here! The timid maiden and the solitary, aged widow, parting with children dear, the comforts of a good home and the dust of her loved one, and braving the winter storms of ocean, embarks joyfully for her long voyage, to carry once more the message of redeeming love to her sisters in India, and with trembling voice to repeat to the children the sacred lessons she taught in early life to their mothers!
The God of the widow and the Father of the fatherless preserve and speed them on their glorious mission and spare them to sow the seed of an abundant harvest! Just before his death the husband and father said to the writer: "I consider it a privilege and a joy inexpressibly great to have been permitted to spend forty-two years of my life in the service of Christian missions, and my one desire to-day is, now that you have kindly relieved me of this Review, to be spared to go back to India and lay my worn-out body to rest among the people there, whom I love. Yes, I would gladly start, even if sure I should not live to get there and my body find a grave in the deep."—S.
"THE day is breaking,
We are living, we are dwelling
In a grand and awful time!
In an age on ages telling;
To be living is sublime.
Hark! the waking up of nations—
Gog and Magog to the fray!
Hark! What soundeth? 'Tis creation's
Groaning for its latter day."
Yes, the time is hastening. God is rolling on the ages with awful sweep and force. He is crowding a whole century of opportunities into a day. He is bringing the world together, so that the Church may compass it, know it, traverse it, a hundred-fold quicker and better than in former generations. Competent engineering authorities assure us that in five years we shall be able to go round the world in forty days; and go in all the comfort and with all the security of our modern civilization! And are not such facts the voice of God, speaking out of the cloud to His people to go forward?—S.
WE beg our friends and patrons to be a little lenient in their judgment of this our first number. The call to the editors was sudden and unexpected. It found them both full of work, and yet they dared not decline what seemed a call of Providence. We have done what we could, at short notice, and with the material and help we could command; and yet we have not realized our ideal. We hope to improve as we get familiar with the work and gather in a vaster and more select amount of material. We expect also to enlist competent pens to aid us in the Literary department, ensuring greater variety and ability. We have also arranged for assistance in Statistical matters, and fuller information from our Editorial Correspondents. The editors are mainly responsible for this initial number.—S.
As it is pleasant to know whose thoughts one is reading, the following rule will be adopted: All editorials will have the initial of the writer. The names of other writers will be given in connection with their contributions. To Parts I., V. and VIII. both editors will contribute. Dr. Pierson will conduct Part VI., while his associate will be responsible for Parts II., III. and VII.
Through an oversight, Dr. Pierson was not credited, as he should have been, for Mr. Wilder's Biography, on pp. 7-16. An excellent likeness of Mr. Wilder will be found in the number.—S.