The Missionary Review of the World — December 1933
1933
THE Looking Backward and Forward Robert E. Speer Publish Glad Tidings——Today Lucy W. Peabody A Voice from a Peruvian Prison John A. Mackay The Cross and the Christian Message w. H. T. Gairdner A Japanese Thief—Saved by Grace H. W. Myers What Theological Schools Contribute to Missions Wm. A. Hill
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I Ge' Vour Chris'mas Cards T , and Scripfure exf Cillendilrs Letters of Soon everybody will be looking for Nettie Fowler McCormick, Christmas cards that convey a Scriptural greeting. and Scripture Text Calendars with wife of Cyrus Hall McCormick. inventor of a message for each day in the new year. Here the reaper, arc desired by her children. is an opportunity to sccure yours freeeithcr for your own use, for gifts, or for re- For this purpose the Nettie Fowler McCor~ sale. Your choice either of an excellent as- ndck Biugtaphical ,ssoLiarion requests thM sortment of sixte;:n Christmas cards in a persons having any of her writings kindly box, or two beautiful Scripture Text Calen- send them to the address below. The famIly dars, for every new subscription you send us. of Nettie Fowler McCormick win be grateful (or co-operation and glad to make appro.. priace payment for such papers. Address Nettie Fowler McCormick Biographical Association, 664 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago The Missionary Review Dates To Remember Christmas Card Box United Missionary Meetings Assortment December 3-4-St. Louis, Mo. December 5-6-Springfield, Ill. Tbis gift box contains six- December 7-8-Indianapolis, Ind. teen beautiful cards. each with December 8-Federal Co unci 1 of a Christmas sentiment artd engraved Bible text and a richly Churches, Executive Committee, lined envelope. Every Scrip- New York. ture-text card you mail carries December 10-12-Washington, D. C. a Christian greeting. The qual- December 13-15-Philadelphia, Pa. ity and variety of botn message January 2, 1934-February 8-Rural and design found in our cards are most attractive. Training for Christian Workers one of the finest art lithograph houses in America. Course. Scarritt College for Chris- tian Workers, Nashville, Tenn. January 3-5-Annual Meeting, For- eign Missions Conference, Garden City, New York. January 9-11-Annual Meeting, Home Missions Council and Council of Women for Home Missions, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, N. Y.
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fine. I am more strongly convinced REVIEW OF THE WORLD than ever that the REVIEW is the most calls you East interesting and valuable missionary of Suez … sail DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor periodical published." THE ROUTE PREFERRED VOL. LVI DEC., 1933 No. 12 DR. ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN, Sec- SINCE 18401 Publication and Business Otnce retary Emeritus, Presbyte1';ff1l. Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. Boa-rtf of Foreign Mi.~R'iolls. Cross Cunard to England. and embark at London in a great Editorial and Executive Otllce * * ;1; ship of this Line that tradition- 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City ally and for nearly a century has Entered as second-class matter at "Last year, for economic reasons, I carried the vanguard of the Post Otllce, Harrisburg, Pa., under asked you to discontinue sending the Church eastward to all the lands Act of March 3, 1879. REVIEW. Now I find that I must have beyond Suez. P & 0 Liners, of it. Every loyal Christian needs the transatlantic size and comfort, 25 cents a oopy-$2.50 a year ammunition to combat the terrible stand for the Progress ofthe West Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. forces sweeping over the world." in scores of tropic ports and teem- Published monthly-All rights re- ing harbours of the Indian Ocean served. Copyrighted 1933 by the LAURA A. BARNUM, New York. and the Pacific. Natives measure time by their swift and sure MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- Personal Items arrival. Low rates and new, fast, LISHING CO., INC. luxurious ships make the voyage Dr. Joseph Wilson Cochran, pastor an exceptional value. BOARD OF DIRECTORS of the American Church in Paris since ROBERT E. SPEER, President 1923, resigned September 24. This PENINSULAR WM. 1. CHAMBERLAlN, Vice-President church is the oldest American institu- AND ORIENTAL AND WALTER MCDOUGALL, Treasurer tion in Europe. DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary BRITISH INDIA STEAM SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT *** NAVIGATION COMPANIES MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD WM. B. LIpPHARD Dr. ,Catherine L. Mabie, for 35 Regular sailings from London, ERIC M. NORTH years an American Baptist medical Gibraltar and Marseilles to India, MILTON T. STAUFFBR missionary in the Congo, has been Ceylon, Burma, Straits Settle- A. L. W ARNSHUIS honored by the Belgian Government ments, China, Japan, Australia, SAMUEL M. ZWBJ4BR with La Croix de Chevalier de l'Or- New Zealand, Egypt, Sudan, dre Royal die Lion. Persian Gulf, East and South Editorial Chat Africa, etc. *** One of the effective ways of spread- Co"!plete information from ing the Glad Tidings, God's message Henry Roe 'Cloud, full – blooded Your LOcal Agent or and its mission of Life, is to give wide American Indian who has been a govreading to THE MISSIONARY REVIEW ernment school inspector in the In- (:(JNARD~LINE OF THE WORLD. It will make a good dian Service, has been appointed Christmas gift to your neighbor, your Superintendent of Haskell Indian In- GENERAL AGENTS pastor, your missionary or other stitute at Lawrence, Kansas. Christian friend. It will come with 25 Broadway New York a monthly message of Glad Tidings *** and will instruct and inspire the readers to take a more active part in Rev, and Mrs. Hugh Taylor and spreading the Gospd of Life. See our Mrs. W. G. McClure of Siam have special offer to send an attractive reached the age of retirement after Christmas card with your gift sub- forty years of service under the Presscription. Now is the time to act. byterianBoard. At the request of their fellow workers they will remain *** for service among the Siamese people.
The value of the REVIEW is shown *** by some of the letters received from readers. Can you help to make the Dr. Niels Neilsen, an American atmagazine still more widely useful? tached to the Danish Missionary So- Here are some recent expressions ciety at Hsiuyen, Manchoukuo, has been released after six months in the "The ten pageS on 'Missionary Re- hands of bandits. actions,' in the July REVIEW, are of very great value to the cause of for- Dr. Nielsen, who was kidnaped eign missions. I thank you most April 11, had been held at several heartily for presenting this impres- brigand hideouts in the almost inacsive testimonr It has greatly en- cessible country north of Hsiuyen. couraged me.' The bandits had demanded $250,000.
BISHOP BENTON T. BADLEY, *** Bombay, India. Mrs. Herbert E. Goodman has re- *** tired from the presidency of the Woman's Baptist Foreign Mission "It is a real pleasure to express my Society after a service of nine years. appreciation of THE REVIEW. I am particularly pleased with the fine con- *** tents, and feel certain that it is greatly promoting the cause of missions. Rev. F. S. Hearndon, missionary I wish its subscription list contained and director of religious education for the name of every pastor and Chris- the government school and community tian worker and I would like to see it at Tuba City, Ariz., retired September in the hands of every church member. 1st, after 40 years in Indian work in If it were more widely read I am sure Arizona. Mr. Hearndon established our mission treasury would not be suf- five Papago Indian churches, personfering as it is from the "depression." ally directing the work of building . chapels, manses and native helpers' REV. F. A. GOETSCH, Board of houses on each of these fields. He served as missionary and supervisor Foreign Missions, Evangelical for the Papagos for 30 years. For Synod of North America. five years he has been missionary to the Navajos.
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DE LA TORRE (SET FREE FROM PlRISON) WITH A GROUP OF FRIEINIDS IN
THE OLD HALL OF THE SPANISH INQUISITroN~NOW THE PER,U'VIAN SENATE OHAM'BER THE OLD AND THE NEW IN PERU (See page 583)
NARY
REVIB ORLD VOLUME LVI AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER TWELVE DECEMBER, 1933 Topies of the Times FOR PEACE ON EARTH-OR WAR? comes from Russia that the Revolutionary War The first Christmas message was one of peace- Council and the Communist Internationale have expressing God's will for harmony between man joined in voicing anew Soviet Russia's plan to and God and between man and man. It-was a promote world revolution. The War Council No. peace made possible through the coming of Jesus 173 calls on the Red Army chiefs to train their Christ into the world. He came to proclaim peace soldiers for war and urges the workers and labor- -a way of peace opened through His death on the ing classes of the world to join ranks with the Cross. This great Christian word, with rich sig- proletariat of the U. S. S. R. Their revolutionary nificance, was commonly used in early salutations propaganda against nationalism, imperialism, capand expressed the purpose and hope of all fol- italism and religion is already being conducted lowers of Christ to promote peace through faith in all lands, including North and South America. and love and by doing the will of God. Posters, textbooks, circulars and newspapers are Look over the world today-torn by war and used to foster the spirit of bitter hatred against selfish strife. How far even professed disciples all classes or governments opposed to the commu- of Christ have departed from His ideal and pro- nist program. gram. Not only are the non-Christian nations The spirit of Anti-christ is the spirit opposed made enemies by military, industrial and social strife but even Christian churches are separated to the program of Christ who set up for His folinto over one hundred and fifty sects, many of lowers, by precept and example, the standard of them widely divided by controversy. love against hatred, sacrifice against selfishness, truth against falsehood, obedience to the will of Jesus Christ had no misconception as to the dif- God as opposed to the way of evil.
ficulties that stood in the way of accomplishing The acceptance of the first Christmas message His mission of peace. He saw that self-seeking, involves the obligation to work for peace based on blind prejudice, false leadership and enmity Christ-like love and harmony with God. There is against the will of God would bring persecution no peace in fellowship with the enemies of Godto His followers, with division, hatred and strife, personal, or ecclesiastical or national. Is it right dividing even families into opposing camps. The to "recognize Russia" in view of her propaganda peace of Christ is not a cheap product of weak for world revolution and her anti-God campaign. submission to superior force; it is not the peace Should Christian leaders recognize Russia or rec- of cowardly compromise or the stagnation of ognize God?
death. He showed that the only true peace comes In the midst of strife and surrounded by ene- from harmony with the will of God. mies the Christian has defensive armor in the Japan, China, Germany, France-any nation or breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvaparty will welcome peace on its own terms. The tion, the girdle of truth, and the shield of faith. results of the World War have proved that peace The only offensive Christian weapon is the sword imposed by force cannot be permanent. A better of the Spirit-the Word of God. It is to be used basis is found in a common loyalty and in har- in love to save others rather than to destroy them. mony of spirit and purpose. The secret is loyalty Among the great modern messengers of peace are to Christ and obedience to the will of God. the missionaries of Christ in every land. Today they are proclaiming and promoting the message While Jesus Christ came to establish peace of the first Christmas-"Glory to God ….. Peace based on righteousness and love, there are forces on earth among men." The good news to be protoday that are promoting hatred and strife. Word [571 ]
claimed to all the world today is the same that University of Rochester, the students of the Diwas proclaimed nineteen hundred years ago- vinity School, and the college women of the city, news that God is love; that Christ Jesus died to heard the messages and shared in forum discusredeem men from sin; that the gift of God is sions. About 400 Protestant ministers were preseternal life through Jesus Christ; that the fol- ent for the three hour round-table Conference on lowers of Christ are messengers of peace; that Monday, under the leadership of Dr. E. Stanley Christians are actuated by brotherly love. The Jones. Eight large denominational luncheons missionary enterprise proclaims good news that were also held-each group facing its own respon- God is today working in all lands, bringing men sibility and challenge. One whole day was given out of darkness into light, out of weakness into to a follow-up conference by a large interdenomistrength, out of selfishness into service, out of national group of church women and the Council death into life. of Church Women filled one of the largest churches for a mass meeting. Church School of- STIRRING FOREIGN MISSION INTEREST ficers and teachers had a special conference on the best methods of missionary education and a pag- The United Foreign Missionary Conferences, eant entitled "The Great Choice" was effectively which have been and are still being held in cities given. of the East and Middle West, have succeeded in a marked degree in arousing the churches to a new "The newspapers published column on column sense of their responsibility and opportunity for of the missionary addresses; while no accurate esgiving Christ and His Gospel of life to the peo- timate can be made of how many thousands "lisples of the non-Christian world. In many of these tened in" or attended the meetings, the ticket plan forty cities visited, large audiences have gathered, adopted insured the attendance of representative missionary addresses have been given in many of groups from more than 100 churches. Only time the Protestant churches, newspapers have dealt will reveal the results attained, but some may be with the subject on their front pages and much immediately tabulated: missionary literature has been distributed. The seed has been scattered; where it has been good 1. This conference revealed the tremendous presentseed, sown in faith and prayer, God will give the day interest in the missionary enterprise of the Christian increase. Church. People are thinking or rethinking 'missions. The amazing response to the invitation to "come and hear" re- One of the most effective campaigns was held futes the statement that "foreign missions are done for." in Rochester, New York (October eighth and ninth). It is described as follows by Dr. Frank 2. The speakers helped to answer many questions con- M. Weston, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the cerning the missionary work of the Church. A prominent Presbytery: lawyer said, "These meetings have done more for the cause of Foreign Missions in Rochester than any similar "Measured in terms of numbers reached, inter- meetings I have ever known." est aroused, and convictions created or confirmed, this conference was signally successful. The 3. It reached the youth of Rochester in an unusual "team" of internationally known missionaries measure. Thousands of high school students, college stu- (including such speakers as Dr. E. Stanley Jones dents (men and women), divinity students, and others and Miss Lillian Pickens of India; Dr. Herman heard Dr. Herman Liu and Miss Yi-Fang Wu (two splen- Liu, Miss Yi-Fang Wu and Bishop Roots of China; did specimens of the fruitage of Foreign Missionary work) and Dr. Charles R. Watson of Cairo, Egypt) and saw in them convincing proof of the worthwhileness would get a hearing anywhere. They had it in of this work. Rochester. The Church Boards also sent outstanding Secretaries – Dr. James H. Franklin 4. Fully 400 ministers were brought under the influ- (Baptist); Dr. F. M. Potter (Reformed); Dr. ence of Dr. E. Stanley Jones. He is unique and irresis- Ernest F. Hall, and Dr. Wm. P. Schell (Presby- tible. His epigrammatic statements linger long in the terian); Dr. J. Roy Strock, and others. More mind-for example-"If Christianity is not universal, it is than sixty addresses were given and more than not true." . . . "When our religion becomes less than 100 congregations were reached (singly or in un- universal, it ceases to be Christian." As a result of his ion services). Two radio stations broadcasted addresses missionary enthusiasm in the lives of many two Sunday morning addresses and a third on will be as certain as the sunrise. His messages ploughed Monday. The largest church auditoriums were deep and made lasting impressions. The church life of packed for the mass meetings and many were the city and community has been deepened and quickened turned away. The assembly periods in the largest and recommitted to the world program of Christ. High Schools were made available to the Committee and thousands of the students heard mis- Rochester has had many similar gatherings. This one sionary addresses. The men and women of the stands out as inspiring and restful and eminently worth while.
• These missionary conferences continue until the fifteenth of December, the final meetings being held in Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Springfield, Illi- nois, Indianapolis, Washington, D. C., and Phil- adelphia.
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
HOW SHALL WE TREAT THE JEWS? Injustice, unequal opportunity and unfriendli- What attitude shall Christians take today to.. ness are unChristian and reveal a lack of enlightward the Jews-the people of the ancient Abra- enment when practiced in any land toward any hamic Covenant? Bitter hostility was for many people. The "German Christian Church," as the years the prevailing treatment they received in Nazi wing of the Protestant Church is called, Europe. Violent persecutions were generally due cannot claim a right to the name Christian if they to prejudice and resentment because their race adopt a platform discriminating against the Jews was accused of responsibility for the death of and opposing Christian work among them on the Christ. But today Jew baiting, massacres and ground that "their conversion to Christ obscures pogroms have generally been discredited and dis- their racial identity." Such racial persecution continued in the face of modern progress. and injustice form a blot on civilization and are a cause of shame to Christianity. Many of the In place of more violent persecution, there has Nationalistic aims of German leaders are comcome the attitude of antagonism, boycott and os- mendable but these are discredited by unfair tracism, such as is seen today in the Hitlerite treatment and by any evidence of prejudice and anti-Semitism. Although Jews in Germany make hatred. up less than one per cent of the 60,000,000 population, the Nazis seem to fear their financial We believe that the key to the Jewish problem, power and leadership, their radicalism, and their in Germany and elsewhere, is the recognition of lack of sympathy with Teutonic ideals.. As a re- Jesus Christ as divine Lord and Saviour of all sult the Jews are being driven out of positions men. Jewish missions-conducted on the Chrisof power in economic, professional and political tian basis of tact, friendliness and loyalty-should life. Some Teutons would like to enslave the be carried on even more earnestly than ever. Hebrews after the manner of ancient Egypt and Faith in Jesus Christ gives to Jews a new underfor similar reasons. This national persecution has standing of God and new light on His own Sacred called forth strong protests from Jews and Chris- Scriptures which Christ came to fulfill; a new hope for this and the life to come in place of tians in Great Britain, America and other lands. present discouragement and darkness; a new fel- Neglect and indifference to the welfare and lowship with other loyal followers of Christ; a destiny of Hebrews is the general attitude of new joy in the experience of spiritual life, a new Gentiles where there is no great Jewish problem. purpose and goal, and assurance of victory in the In North and South America Jews are tolerated, conflict with evil; a new power for service to if not welcomed. They enjoy social, political and man. The result of a change of relationship to economic rights but amalgamation is opposed. Jesus Christ is the transition from death to life They are excluded from many clubs, hotels and -from lack of accord with the universe, with summer resorts, because of certain racial charac- history and with God's program today, to a conteristics and their tendency to clannishness and sciousness of harmony with the eternal Mind aggressiveness. This unfriendly attitude is grad- and Purpose. ually passing way in enlightened circles where The work of missions to Jews has produced the Gentiles recognize the noble contributions remarkable results. Many have the impression Jews have made to political progress, business that Jews cannot or will not become true Chrisdevelopment, scientific advancement, literature tians, and that they profess conversion only for and education. selfish reasons. A knowledge of the facts will Unfortunately comparatively few people any- change this conception. Thousands of J ews-inwhere take the attitude of the early Christians- eluding some of the finest minds and characters recognizing that the Jews are a "Chosen People" of history-have faced persecution and the loss of God, that we owe great debt to them for their of all earthly possessions in order to be true to preservation of the Old Testament, and that their convictions and follow Christ. Many of through them came Christ and the knowledge of these Hebrew Christians are now in Christian His Way of Life. Such an attitude promotes the pulpits and have creditably filled positions in ~ll desire to show the Christ Spirit of love toward walks of life-men like Neanden and Edershelm the Jews and an earnest effort to win them to the historians, Delitsch the Bible Scholar, Adolph Christ as their promised Messiah. Saphir and David Baron the preachers, and The evidence of an anti-Semitic spirit is often Schereschewsky the missionary translator.
so much in evidence that we overlook the fact The cry of "proselytism" is often raised against that many thousands of Christians all over the Christian missions. If by this is meant a change world, including Germany, take this Christlike of association 'or name without an intelligent attitude. Strong protests should be registered change of conviction and nature then all right against any unfair treatment of Jews or Orientals thinking people are opposed to it. But if by or Africans in any land. "proselyting" we mean loving and conscientious
efforts to win others to loyal allegiance to Christ insights? With the Greek and with the Teutonic then no true Christian can do otherwise. Such mind the integration of Christian truth in the conversion means no formal enrolment for selfish spiritual background of the pagan higher life has purposes but a new spiritual birth that brings taken centuries. Will it take hundreds of years a new spiritual experience, a new understanding in the present missionary movement? Do we perof God, a new purpose in life, a new hope and a ceive clearly the grave and complicated problems vital relation to Jesus Christ as living Lord and lying behind this task? The uniqueness of the Saviour. Christian message is definitely challenged today THINKING THEOLOGY AND MISSIONS by the increasing knowledge of the higher life and thought in non-Christian religions, as is seen in Every phase of the missionary enterprise is now under review: the theological basis; the val- such books as Robert Hume's "Treasure House of ues in non-Christian religions; the need of people Religions." How are the unchangeable claims of of other cultures for the Gospel of Christ; the Christ to be reasserted? These and similar imright of the Church at home to "export religion" ; portant questions held these missionary professors the type of missionary ambassadors needed; the alert during these two days of inspiring discus- sions. efficiency of the administration at the "home base"; and the relative responsibilities of the MARTIN LUTHER AND MISSIONS sending churches and those on the mission fields. November tenth marked the four hundred and They are important questions which cannot be fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther, lightly put aside-especially if the Christian the great leader of the Protestant Reformation.
movement is to go forward and if the program of Born in Eisleben, Saxony, in the home of a Christ for blessing to mankind by making dis- humble but pious miner, this child was destined ciples of all nations is to be carried out effectively to change the religious thinking and life of the and promptly. world. On October 31, 1517, when Luther was Fifteen professors from theological seminaries thirty-four years of age, the young priest nailed in America, and Professor Julius Richter of Ber- his ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle lin University, took part in the annual professors' Church of Wittenberg, and so fired a theological conference at the Kennedy School of Missions in shot that is still echoing around the world.
Hartford Theological Seminary October 28 and This anniversary of Luther's birth has been 29. The discussions were vivid, impressive and celebrated in all lands. His Theses, emphasizing fascinating and covered a wide range of topics. the New Testament teachings, led the way for The Laymen's Foreign Missionary Inquiry occu- the spread of evangelical Christianity throughout pied the center of interest, with a discussion as to the world. He and his fellow protestants against whether the doctrinal basis of the first four chap- the erroneous teachings and practices of the ters of "Re-Thinking Missions" is adequate to Papacy, proclaimed salvation by faith in Christ the present emergency and whether the proposed rather than by personal merit through good superboard of foreign missions is at all feasible. works; they offered an open Bible for all to read Next they went on to discuss the deeper question and interpret under the guidance of the Holy of the missionary situation. Even if the national Spirit; they denounced the sale of indulgences churches in the Asiatic and African fields become and the granting of priestly absolution. Luther fully independent is it possible or warrantable to discredited worship before images in the churches; leave in their hands the gigantic tasks to chris- he exalted the living Christ above the Virgin tianize the hundreds of millions of surrounding Mary; he opposed the idea that the priest rather non-Christians. If the continued cooperation of than Christ Himself is the mediator between the the sending churches is indispensable, in what sinner and God and he discredited the claims of way should that cooperation be organized? The the popes – as the vicegerent of the Christ on open doors inviting missionary endeavor in the earth.
nineteenth century in many fields seem to be rap- With Hus, Luther, Mrelanathon, Wyclif and idly closing; what new chances have we for a Calvin came revivals of living Christianity which continued and successful access to the masses in prepared the way for the modern missionary Asia and Africa? The conviction in missionary enterprise. The new reformers launched out into circles is rapidly increasing that we have gener- new ventures of faith and service; the Bible was ally not taken sufficient notice of the ethical and translated and printed in the language of the com- social foundations of the pagan life and as a re- mon people; the priesthood was opened to men sult Christian congregations have too often be- who were normally and legally married; the mod- come foreign Christian colonies without spiritual ern popular educational movement took root; un- relation to their pagan surroundings. How should known worlds were discovered and men, with missionary methods be altered to comply with new larger life and vision, began to consider anew the
command of Christ to "disciple all nations." The Unlike the Foreign Missions appraisal the Lutheran churches alone now include eighty-three Home Missions survey has been carried on by million adherents, and 4,500,000 members in the committees appointed by the Boards. They do not United States. Their missionaries are scattered attempt to revise the doctrinal basis or the evan- all over the world. The Protestant Christian gelistic purpose of Home Missions but only to churches enroll over 200,000,000 members and study the progress made, the needs of the present have 28,000 foreign missionaries at work in non- hour, the methods that have proved most fruitful Christian lands. and the steps that should now be taken to com- As the late Dan Crawford of Central Africa plete the task expeditiously, economically and efremarked: "You can count the apples on a tree fectively. The true aim of Home Missions is to but you cannot count the number of trees that make Christ known so as to extend His supremacy may come from an apple." You can count the and to carry out His program in every phase of babies born into a family but none can measure life and in every part of the land. The end of the influence that may come from one child dedi- the survey and program making should be the cated to God and led by His Spirit. beginning of a new advance to win America for Christ.
A NEW APPRAISAL OF HOME MISSIONS RELIGION AND COMMUNISM IN PERU The work of Home and Foreign Missions, as Today Peru is struggling out of a long period of must be the case with every vital progressive strife and abuse, with the government and the enterprise, is constantly being subjected 'to study public suspicious and much afraid of any intruand revision. As was noted in our November sion from the outside. More remarkable then are REVIEW, the changing conditions in the Church the recent meetings held in Peru by Dr. George P. and in the field require changes in special projects, Howard, who, under the auspices of the Commitin methods and in administration, even though tee on Cooperation in Latin America, is presentthere is no change in the aim or the essential ing in South America the place of the Christian Christian message. message in solving the problems that are stirring As a result of the Church Comity Conference, the Southern Continent. held in Cleveland in January, 1928, the Home Mis- Dr. Brewster, Superintendent of the Methodist sion boards appointed a strong committee on a Episcopal work in Peru. writes that "Dr. How- Five Year Program of Survey and Adjustment. ard's Argentine citizenship and his command of This committee, representing the twenty-six de- the Spanish language opened to him many doors nominations cooperating in the two Home Mis- that would be closed to others. His studies in the sions Councils, undertook to make a nation-wide universities of the United States and his long scientific study of Home missionary fields and years of experience in preaching fit him pre-emimethods of administration. The work of this com- nently for the task to which he had been assigned. mittee has now been completed. A survey has His work was blazing a new trial; opening up a been made of twenty-five states and of many mis- new field of missionary endeavor. sion projects. Last year the Home Missions Con- "In Huancayo he spoke in the theater to everference appointed another special "Committee on increasing audiences until on the last afternoon, Review and Forecast" to make an appraisal of the when he spoke on 'God, The Eternal Anxiety of work of the Five Year Program. This appraisal Men,' the theater was filled to overflowing with committee is composed of eighteen pastors, lay- the leading people of the city. He spoke in the men and women, representing seventeen cooperat- government school to more than five hundred ing denominations. The chairman is Dr. H. W. A. young men and in the Instituto Andino and in the Hanson, a Lutheran, and President of Gettysburg local church he gave addresses which were greatly College. appreciated by large crowds.
The findings of these two committees are being "In Callao he preached in the Methodist Church printed in a volume of some four hundred and on Sunday and the following week gave an ad- fifty pages which is to form the basis of discus- dress each morning in the Callao High School and sion at the annual Home Missions Conference in three public lectures in the Assembly hall of the January. Much valuable data has been collected High School in the evenings. At the close of a and carefully evaluated. While the topics and series of addresses in the church a large number fields surveyed do not coincide with the sugges- signed cards declaring their intention to live the tions contained in our November editorial, they Christian life. The entire church has taken on cover many of the most outstanding features of new life as a result of these meetings.
the accepted field of Home Mission work. The "In Lima, many were wondering what kind of results of the evaluation and the prophetic fore- reception he would get in a city which is not cast will be awaited with great interest. friendly to new ideas. The first lecture at the
Y. M. C. A. was on 'Communism and Christianity.' principles of Christ and the Church, but it is too A large crowd was present for this lecture as the often practiced by church members. How can word 'Communism' is an almost forbidden word anyone be a true follower of Jesus Christ and and the crowd was eager to hear a man who had refuse to recognize the human brotherhood of man courage enough to give a public address on 'Com- and spiritual kinship with all true Christians.
munism.' The other two lectures were more But it is easier to condemn than to correct. Are largely attended than the first and it seemed the British and American Christians without sin in more religious the theme the larger the audience, this respect? Are we all ready to fellowship with and the greater the interest. all Christians in the home and in the Church?
"The Y. M. C. A. was too small to hold the crowd There is no need to advocate or approve of racial so a theater in the very heart of the city was intermarriage or to disregard all cultural and secured for three lectures on the present moral social distinctions. But where is the Christian and spiritual standpoint and one on 'Jesus, Our basis for racial and caste separation in churches Contemporary.' Every seat was taken and people and schools, in Christian work and in personal were standing around the sides and in the aisles fellowship? In Europe and America will Chinese nearly half way to the platform. It was a never- and Indians be welcomed into church membership to-be-forgotten experience as one looked out over and elected to church offices on an equal basis with that audience of diplomats, business men, univer- Anglo-Saxons? How about the Negroes?
sity professors and students, working men, women Theoretically the truth is acknowledged that all of every class of society, who were listening, many are one in Christ. There is no distinction between of them for the first time, right in Roman Catholic male and female, between barbarian and Scythian, Lima, to what was really a good old-fashioned gos- between Jew and Gentile by race, between rich pel sermon put in modern language. They got a and poor, between high and low, between bond vision of Jesus Christ as the manifestation of God, and free-but practically these human distinctions interested in every problem of human welfare, and stand as barriers in the way of Christian fellow- possible as a present day experience in the life of ship and united service. To this day, even among every man." Christians, "man looketh on the outward appear- ance but God looketh on the heart." Among many SHALL CHRISTIANS RECOGNIZE CASTE? professed followers of Jesus Christ are not the We hear much about caste in India and de- gold ring, the goodly apparel, distinguished fore- nounce the Hindu beliefs on which it is based. bears, and high financial standing still recognized We point out the injustice and inhumanity of sep- as credentials for preferment in the Church?
arating men into sealed compartments, denying When will Christians take their Lord and them rights and privileges of life on account of Master seriously? When will we determinedly birth; calling them defiled because of their occu- put into practice His example and teachings?
pation; other classes refusing to mix with "un- "Let nothing be done through faction or vain touchables," regardless of their personal cleanli- glory. . . . .. Let each esteem the other as better ness, education or nobility of character. Mahatma than himself…… Let this mind be in you Gandhi is extolled today for his fight unto the which was also in Christ Jesus …… who humbled death to remove "untouchability in India"; and himself and …… took upon himself the form of yet he still upholds caste as an institution and the a servant. . . . .. Do nothing by partiality . . . . . .
Hindu religion on which it is based. It is gen- Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the erally agreed that it will be impossible to abolish Lord of Glory, with respect of persons. . . . .. If untouchability while caste remains. As long as we have respect of persons we commit sin."
men seek to keep their fellowmen from enjoying Moslems condemn caste and Mahatma Gandhi the equal privileges of their human birthright, be- is leading a reform to remove "untouchability."
cause of differences of race, color, heredity, finan- But the road to secure equal privilege and oppor- cial standing, religion or occupation, so long the tunity, equal justice and standing will be a long spirit of caste and untouchability will continue. one. The caste system should be abolished, not The Hindus are frank in upholding the caste only in India but in America and England. The system and base it on their religious and on so- secret of true humility and impartiality is a re'al- cial and economic needs. At the same time Mos- ization of the fact that all are equally needy in lems, Parsees and Buddhists do not recognize the the sight of almighty God. Who is worthy to look caste system. In China, with as great economic with scorn on a brother? The secret of unity, of needs and as wide a divergence in social life and true Christian fellowship, of true brotherhood, is culture, there are no hard and fast barriers of "the mind of Christ," a consciousness that every caste. In India, however, caste is, in some places, Christian is a bond-servant of Christ and may ex- even carried over into the Christian community. perience fellowship with the Father, with His Son, This spirit is directly opposed to the recognized and with one another.
Back and Looking
* A Recent View of Presbyterian Foreign Missions By ROBERT E. SPEER, New York -"~l For Forty-two Years Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
~======~==================~ FORTY years ago at the General Assembly in women who, without reward, have patiently and Washington I first, as a very young man, had fearlessly followed in the path of duty and have the responsibility of speaking to the General done what they believed to be right and in accord Assembly in connection with the Report of the with the law of the Church; and who are con- Board of Foreign Missions. . . . .. The Foreign scious of no respect in which they have not hon- Mission enterprise was then facing very grave orably represented the character and tradition of problems. We were just on the eve, though no our Church in its missionary enterprise, in loyalty one knew it, of a great financial panic_ The to our Divine Lord and only Saviour and in obe- Church was deeply stirred by controversy and dience to His great commission.
dissension. And yet it had been the best year A Year of Difficulties ever known in the missionary contributions of the Church. For the first time the receipts of the It has been a very difficult year through which Board for the year had exceeded $1,000,000. The God has brought us; the most difficult, I think, Board was none the less in a position of great that I can remember in forty-two years. It has financial insecurity. Its total working capital and been difficult because of heavy losses.- men and endowment funds at that time were only $304,000 women, as noble as have ever served the Chrisand it was attempting to carry an enterprise of tian Church, have finished their course and dropmore than $1,000,000 annually for which it had ped out of the visible ranks. . . . .. Less than half to borrow each year far beyond its available bank- a dozen missionaries remain in active service of ing securities. those who were on our roll when I began my serv- Great as our responsibilities were at that time, ice ….. . they are vastly greater today, thank God. Because of his rich blessing on the work during these It has been a hard year financially_ Only by forty years, the number of our foreign mission- rigid economies and heavy reductions of expendiaries has grown from 600 to nearly 1,500; the ture, both on the foreign field and in the promonational workers, supported by the Board, from tion and administration of the work at home, has 1,460 to over 8,000, with not less than 7,000 em- it been possible to close the year without a far ployed by the churches that have grown out of heavier deficit than the $347,000 which the Board the work of the Board and are now independent. reports to the Assembly. More than $1,000,000 The total number of communicants in the mis- has been cut from our foreign mission expendision churches and in these independent churches tures since the Assembly of 1932, and we are gohas grown from 31,000 to nearly half a million, ing up into the new year with the heaviest curwhile the contributions of these churches and of tailments that have ever been known in our misthe missions, schools and hospitals have grown sionary history. . . . .. If the Church will return from $42,000 to nearly $3,000,000; the Sabbath to the level of giving in 1931-32, which is well school scholars from 29,000 to over 600,000; within its power, all deficiency can be cleared while the precarious financial basis of the Board away, and we can move toward a restoration of in capital funds of $300,000 is replaced now by the work and a courageous acceptance of the imendowment and reserve funds of over $14,000,000. mense opportunities which are open on every And over all is the indisputable seal of the bless- hand. ing of God. This is the account of its stewardship which the Board has to render at the end of these It would not be candid to refrain from speakforty years ….. _ ing of other grave difficulties which the year has I have seen through these years the scrupulous brought. The Report of the Appraisal Commiscare and the unselfish fidelity of the men and sion of the Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry has occasioned the deepest concern, with the pro- posal which it has made, and which it is impos- • From an address given at the General Assembly of the Presby- sible for our Church and its Board to accept, af- terian Church, U. S. A., in Columbus, Ohio, in May, 1933.
[577 ]
fecting, as it seems to us, the entire basis of the manifestation as here now, and ever more and missionary enterprise ….. . more fully revealing itself in the coming of His The fundamental positions on which the mis- Kingdom, as others believe and as I believe, too, sionary work of our Church rests are clear and who can miss the great signs of His working immovable. Methods may change and organiza- throughout the world today under the profound tions and policies are always open to alteration and revolutionary changes that are taking place and improvement, but the fundamental message inside the great religions of the non-Christian of the New Testament and the central principles world?
of the'missionary enterprise are unalterable ….. In the very citadels of the old religions, radical In the matter of evangelism, both by itself and transformations are taking place. Men are tak- in relation to all other forms of work, in the mat- ing over more and more the Christian conception ter of the place of the Church and of prayer and of God, his personality, his immanence, his tran- of the Holy Spirit and of the supernatural nature scendence, his holiness, his love, his revelation in of the Gospel and the forces that are within it, the Bible. More and more across the world men the Board stands squarely on the evangelical con- are recognizing the moral supremacy and author- victions and on the confessional faith of the ity of Christ. More and more, men feel the duty Church ….. . of those great obligations of human sympathy and A Year of Blessing service which, whether they recognize it or not, originated with Christ and live by his Spirit. In Difficult as the past year has been, it has yet China, for example, in the great famine of 1920been a bright and glorious year. 21, the Chinese people themselves gave less than two-thirds of the $37,000,000 spent in famine re- In the first place, only by God's blessing has lief, while eleven years later in the Yangtze flood our foreign missionary work been upheld in the marvelous and miraculous way in which it has relief the Chinese gave more than nineteen-twenbeen sustained. There are those who say that our foreign mission work is distrusted and that tieths of the $73,000,000 which was administered. this accounts for the falling off in contributions. What made this change? Nothing but the seep- How then is it explained that this work has suf- age of the unrecognized influence of Christ into the thought of the nation. fered less proportionately than any of the other And the Christian conception of the place of work of the Church, and has suffered less than woman is year by year permeating the social that of almost any other denomination or mission:- ary agency? ….. . ideals of all the races. Noone can exaggerate the significance in India of the remarkable census We thank God for the courage and faith of the fact of the literacy among Christian women, missionaries who have joyfully met the difficul- twenty times the ratio in the general population; ties of the situation and who are ready to make fifteen times the Moslem ratio; and thirty times any sacrifice that the work may go on. No graver the Hindu ratio. All this does not mean that the wrong could be done than to represent the mis- world is now accepting Christ nor that these resionaries of our Church as evangelically untrust- ligions are moribund; nor does it mean that nonworthy. They are as faithful, true and devoted a Christian religions are to be converted into body as the Church possesses ….. . Christianity. In these religions, as in individual life, there must be, with whatever continuance, It has been a year in which we have rejoiced in that real breach with the past and that supernat- Christ's presence. He has been in our counsels in ural renewal which the New Testament lays down the home Church. We have been conscious of His as indispensable for individuals and for societies. presence day by day in the offices of the Board as These changes that are taking place are not equivwe have sought, turning neither to the left hand alent to this repentance and renewal but they are nor to the right, to work with Him in His right- evidences of deep changes truthwards which we ful place in the midst. Lonely missionaries have are sure are the mighty workings of God, who by known that He was with them. And I do not know many processes is moving toward the accomplishwhat we would have done in many an hour if we could not have laid our problems and perplexities ment of His purpose to make all the kingdoms of at His feet and have asked 'Him to have only His the earth, whether they be kingdoms of governway and His will with us and with all the missionary work of our Church. And to many of us ment or of thought, the kingdoms of his Son Jesus Christ. when the days were darkest there· was comfort and peace in looking up to the heavens whither The Power of God Manifested He ascended and watching and praying for the Toward the goal of Christ's triumph we believe blessed hope of His glorious appearing. that God is working more clearly and directly in Whether we look for that hope of His personal the missionary enterprise than in any other way, coming, as with all my heart I do, or think of His and, humble though they may be, we are con-
1!J33] LOOKING BACK AND LOOKING FORWARD
vinced that the Christian Churches which are ary direction than anything seen hitherto, and has rising throughout the non-Christian world are been characterized by many of the featurescenters of His power and true members of that some unfavorable as well as favorable – which great body of which Christ is the head, in which marked the great religious awakening in Amerthe walls of division are to be broken down and ica generations ago. The notable thing about the those who are far off are to be brought nigh movement in Korea has been the enlistment of through· the blood of Christ…… They are great numbers of the young men and young womsimple, faithful, New Testament groups, very like en. At the large Bible institutes held throughout the early churches of the first century, with very similar weakness and strength. They are Christ's the Mission about 75 % of those present were little flocks. Among these achievements, which seem small but are immeasurably great, we have under twenty-five years of age ….. . rejoiced this past year in the building by the people in Elat, Africa, of their great brick church, Foreign Missions Go On seating 3,200 and costing $20,000, one-half of which was given by the people themselves whose In spite of every difficulty the number of our average monthly income is $1.50. The church foreign missionaries in active service is the same was dedicated, free of debt, on January 1, 1933, as a year ago, every loss having been replaced; and over 12,000 people were present, many of that communicants reported show a continued whom had walked from twenty-five to -one hun- gain in spite of the fact of the large transfers to dred miles to the service. In another field, Fou- the independent national churches; that Church lassi, there is one white minister for a constit- and Sunday school attendance have increased by uency of 10,271 Christians. Alone he has charge thousands; that more pages of the Bible and of six churches, twelve communion centers, and evangelical literature have been printed than the one hundred and twenty-nine evangelistic points. year before; that, thanks to increased self-sup- Last year, in this district alone, there were 1,539 port, the number of national workers has gained; new confessions of faith in Christ as Saviour and and that the contributions for the support of the Lord. Far away in Islampur, India, another work which have been made on the field have far church was dedicated with 2,000 present. By love exceeded the appropriations (for national workand patience the long unyielding opposition of the ers) which have been sent from the Church at community has been worn down and the whole home. town rejoices now in the church as its noblest building. Foreign missions will go on. Their form may change and the methods and processes of evan- Deepest of all the works of God, however, is gelization may alter, but the basis on which the always the transformation wrought by his Spirit true missionary enterprise of the Church rests is in individual lives. Many of the Christians of impregnable. these non-Christian lands are but as little children, immature, as yet, in faith and character, More than eighty years ago the immovable but it is a fair question to ask whether in sacri- grounds of the missionary enterprise were stated fice and devotion and true faith in God and true in the first Manual of the Board by John C. loving of Christ they are not the full peers of our Lowrie: Christians at home. Among them there are giant figures, able, powerful, consecrated. These Chris- 1. The origin of the missionary cause in the eternal love tians stand out more and more as the leaders of and purpose of God. their lands. Only one in a thousand of the population of China is Christian today, but in China's 2. The commandment of our Lord. "Who's Who" one in every six is connected with 3. The example of the primitive Church. the Christian cause. Throughout the mission field, 4. The benevolent nature of the Christian religion. in spite of many adversaries and every difficulty 5. The spiritual condition of man without the Gospel. and hindrance, the number of churches and the 6. The events of providence in our day. number of Christians have grown. The last 7. The seal of the Holy Spirit. census of India reported the continued growth of 8. The certainty of final success. the Christian community, outdistancing all others in its rate of increase and gaining every year on Here we stand on the rock of Christ Jesus, the the total population. one and only foundation, and here we build, and all that is built here is to be indestructible and Both in China and in Chosen there have been universal. . . . .. We welcome all the signs of the evangelistic movements of an exceptional char- times and the evidence of the progress of the acter. In China the revival has been more indig- Church, but our trust is in God and his promises enous and more independent of foreign mission- and his invincible will that his Son is to be Lord of all and that every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth is to bow to Him.
The world-wide work will go on because there is still need for it.
All over the world the hearts of men are dis- contented with the old satisfactions and are open to hear, whether they will accept or reject, the
truth that the Christian Church is to bear. As a spirit of one whose contribution was sent to us South American woman said, rej ecting the past, only a few weeks ago: a woman in Oklahoma "Soy campo libre-I am a free field" ….. . dying of cancer, whose last happiness was to give the ten-dollar gold piece which had been bound Let there be no more delay. Let us not be di- on the wrist of a baby daughter who had died of vided and let us not be diverted, by any voice, smallpox sixteen years before, and who in her from the primary task to which our Lord is call- poverty and pain wished to pass on this sacred ing us and for which the world has waited too gift to the Saviour's cause before she looked upon long. "I am sorry I cannot help you now," said the Saviour's face. Dr. Henke, of Shuntehfu, to an old blind woman whose sight might have been helped in earlier The work will go on and it can be accomplished years. "I cannot help you now; it is too bad that in God's will whenever the Church will accept His you have come so late. Why did you not come will as her own, and in the unity and love of earlier?" And the old woman replied, "Why, Christ make it her meat and drink to obey Him. doctor, I have been here all the time; it is you The noble deliverance, sent out by the Assembly who were late." of 1833, just one hundred years ago, appealed to the whole Church for prayer and obedience: We Can-Will We? The great spiritual object is an union of hearts, and We need not fear that young men and women of unfeigned, ardent, and repeated aspirations, supplicawill not be willing to give their lives. More can- tions, and intercessions at the throne of eternal mercy, didates are available than we can send, and they through the prevalent intercession of the great Mediator are young men and women who believe the Gos- and Advocate of His people there, that the Holy Spirit pel and who want to give their lives to making may come down in a copious effusion of His special, new- Christ known. creating, soul-saving influence, for the conversion of the world to God-for the consolation, encouragement, and It is preposterous to hold that the Church is abundant success of the missionaries who are now in the unable to provide funds. Our people spend their field of labor; for raising up, qualifying, sending forth, full share of the national amusement bill, which and blessing the labors of additional missionaries-a host is more than $1,000,000,000 annually; their full of apostolic, devoted, self-sacrificing men, into aU heathen share of the bill of nearly $2,000,000,000 for lands, …… and generally for a rich divine blessing on all candy and corresponding luxuries; more than the benevolent and Christian associations, plans, and exer- $2,000,000,000 for tobacco, and $12,000,000,000 tions which characterize and are the glory of the day in for automobiles. It is not a question as to whether which we have our lot in life. or not we have the money, even in these times of depression. The issue is purely one of devotion This was the appeal of our fathers to the and sacrifice. What would not happen if through Church three generations ago. It is their appeal the Church generally there might spread the to us, their children's children, now. Into this union of hearts and this consecration of life may the Spirit of God lead us today.
BETTER MEN OR BETTER METHODS By E. M. ROUNDS, Chicago, Illinois We are constantly on a stretch to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the Gospel. This trend has a tendency to sink the man in the plan or organization. Men are God's method. The Church is looking for better meth- ods; God is looking for better men.
What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men and women whom the Holy Spirit can use-men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not anoint plans, but men-men of prayer.
Prayer, as a mere habit, as a performance gone through by routine or in a professional way, is dead. Such praying has no connection with true prayer. We are stressing prayer which sets on fire every high element of the Christian's being-prayer which is born of vital oneness with Christ and the fullnes,s of the Holy Spirit, which springs from deep, overflowing compassion, from solicitude for man's eternal good; a consuming zeal for the glory of God; a thorough conviction as to difficult and delicate work, and of the imperative need of God's mighty power.
It is prayer force which makes saints. Holy characters are formed by the power of real praying. The more there are of true saints, the more there is of praying; the more praying the more true saints.
More time and early hours for prayer will act like magic to revive and invigorate many a spir- itual life. A holy life would not be so rare a thing if our time with God were not so short and hurried.
To pray well requires calmness, time, and deliberation. True praying brings the largest and best results. We cannot do too much of real praying. We must learn anew the worth of prayer, enter anew the school of prayer.
Glad Tidings-Today
-4&( By MRS. HENRY w. PEABODY, Orlando, Florida AMISSIONARY in India has asked some interest- which endeavors to bring "good news from far coun- ing questions regarding the reason for decrease tries." There are thirsty souls in the churches today in missionary giving by the home churches. who need to know this news. Without doubt the financial depression accounts for much of thi,s decrease but another reason is a lack of My recommendation would be that the Foreign Misfaith. We still try to "raise" money instead of bring- sions Conference and the Federation .of Woman's ing it into the treasury in answer to prayer. After Boards of Foreign Missions cooperate in a radio half the report of the Laymen's Foreign Mission Inquiry hour once a week for crisp, effective news items from it is not strange that many have lost faith in some the mission fields – not statistics nor estimates, but missionaries and their methods as set fortli in that brief stories of spiritual victories and thrilling adven- Report. It is in the Word of God that we find au- tures which missionaries can provide. There are thority for the true purpose and plan of the foreign people who can give over the radio the facts from mission enterprise. foreign mission fields in a way that will outdo Lowell Thomas or the gentlemen who advertise "Blue Sunoco" Modern rationalism and materialism have sown seeds and "Pepsodent." There are foreign-born Christian of unbelief and distrust. Many of the colleges and students in America who would be heard with delight. even some theological seminaries in America attack If half the period could be given to stories for boys and the supernatural and teach skepticism. If, a,s some girls, fathers too would listen in even if they fail to apsay, the Bible i,s largely an ancient myth, why trouble preciate high-brow secretaries and mISSIOnaries. to export it as the basis for a universal faith? The National Broadcast will give aid if we can present living material from the African Trail, the Heart of Some question the policies of their mission boards China, the Multitudes of India, the Island World. and demand more spiritual leadership and less expense In every town and city the churches should also rein administration. Others object to the inclusive deem one or two columns each week in the leading method which would unite in the denominational newspapers. Editors will gladly take well-written, boards, both "modernists" and "fundamentalists." interesting news – really more important than "con- They do not belong together in belief or method. tract bridge" or sport news, or society patter. The daily papers do this for the clubs and would respond Another reason for decrease in missionary interest to a strong committee of men and women from the and gifts is, we believe, the removal of initiative and churches who would claim at least an opportunity responsibility from the women of the Church. The once a week for living, vital, spiritual world news and women, through their own societies, gave definitely to adventure furnished by experts. the work on the foreign field for women and children, securing large sums of money through small individual The fact is people do not know – and the missionary gifts. In certain boards, women made their budget in organizations do not tell them – the inspiring, gloterms of work as well as money. Each state took its rious victories. These should be told in the popular share in each field and department of work; medical, vernacular and through general news channels. In educational, or evangelistic. The women were loyal fact, we of the churches are "dumb" in more than one to their mi·ssionaries and their needs and entered sense. People do not want sermons or dogmatic therather unwillingly into the mergers of boards in which ology or denominational propaganda but they would men delight. As a result of these mergers, the gifts listen to vital missionary world news over radio and of women have dropped 50% in some cases. Budgets through the press. are uninteresting and mechanical but can and must be made alive and interesting for women and children. The very first message on the air was from a Heav- Women pray better for missionaries and their work enly announcer who proclaimed, "Good Tidings of than they do for budgets and deficits! Great Joy to All People." Then came that glorious symphony from the Heavenly broadcast: "Glory to Another great reason for a lack of interest and God in the Highest, and on Earth, Peace, Good Will funds is the fact that foreign missions have no ade- Toward Men." If, on Christmas Day, 1933, Christians quate publicity program. They have no "press agent," could renew that Heavenly broadcast to all nations no radio. The greatest adventure in the world, the and in all nations) we might win thousands to a real most splendid heroism and sacrifice, the only success- belief in God's plan for the world, presented through ful internationaJi.sm – the victories of the Cross of His Son Jesus Christ, who came to offer life to those Christ – are not widely published so as to be brought "of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues" generally before the public. We fail to support the – the only universal religion. one magazine. THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, [581 ]
for Present
Universal Bible Sunday December 10, 1933 By the REV. GEORGE WILLIAM BROWN, D.D., I New York Ja..- General Sene/ary, American Bible Society W E THUMB the dictionary in vain these We turn to the pages of the Sacred Scriptures, days to find adjectives capable of describ- describing the leaderless days of Israel following ing adequately the conditions in which we the death of Moses, and we find God in that dark are now living. Our experiences late in 1929 were hour lifting up a new leader and fortifying him referred to as hectic. But as we entered "1930 the with these words: "Be strong and of good cour- assurance came from somewhere that the situa- age; be not afraid, neither be thou discouraged: tion was only temporary. As month after month for the Lord thy God is with thee."
passed and the prosperity "around the corner" We review the life of David so fraught with dan- failed to materialize we spoke of the situation as gers and vicissitudes, oppressed by King Saul and grave. With the complexities introduced by the deserted by his own son, Absolom, and at the end German financial crisis in the summer of 1931 we of it all we read his great testimonial on the cer- became accustomed to referring to the outlook as tainty of God: "He hath made with me an ever- serious. Successively it became unparalled, un- lasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure."
precedented, and ultimately indescribable. Never We read the reflections of that great prophet, were the hymnist's words more appropriate: Isaiah, as he observed dynasties rise and fall and We are living, we are dwelling, as he watched Israel moving toward its nadir: In a grand and awful time. "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew What the remedy for the world's ills is none their strength; they shall mount up with wings will be presumptuous enough to say. Whether it as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and is education, changes in government, revision of they shall walk, and not faint."
international relationships, leveling of tariff walls, We turn to passages of the New Testament fa- codes, or what not, depends upon whom one en- miliarizing ourselves afresh with the harrassed gages in conversation. experiences of St. Paul who knew first hand the The American Bible Society has one conviction discouragement of opposition. Weare heartened on the subject and because of th~t conviction the when we find him writing to the Corinthians: Society is promoting Universal Bible Sunday this "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; year with more than ordinary zeal. The convic- we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, tion is that amid the perplexities in which the but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."
world is moving there may be found in the Scrip- It is the messages and words of our Lord how- tures both principles and a spirit sufficiently il- ever that inspirit us most when we feel oppressed luminative to guide us into a more satisfactory by that darkness with which the depression has order of living. encompassed us: "Fear not, little flock; for it is For the observance of Universal Bible Sunday your Father's good pleasure to give you the King- (Sunday, December 10) the theme suggested is dom"; and again: "Let not your heart be trou- "The Light Shineth in Darkness" (John 1: 5). In bled; believe in God, believe also in me."
the darkness of these days the gracious and ever- Universal Bible Sunday aims at directing the meaningful messages of Holy Scripture shine attention of church-going Christians to the central forth with a peculiarly penetrating brilliance. place which the Scriptures occupy in the Chris- There are rays of light which reflect comfort-for tian faith. Its observance assures Bible lovers the discouraged, for the dismayed, for the weary. that "the light shining in darkness" will lead From the Book there comes illuminating counsel- thoughtful, sincere followers of our Lord to draw to guide youth, to embolden the middle-aged, and upon the resources of Scripture available for the to sustain the elderly. From the chapters of the strengthening of character and for the enriching Bible there streams forth a light challenging the of those personal qualities which make men equal believer to stand steady, to persist, to adventure. to hard days.
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A Voice from a Peruvian
By JOHN A. MACKAY, New York -461 Author of "The Other SPanish Christ"; Secretary of the Board jat- of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
N o LONGER a traveler and an actor, I begin On the eve of the funeral, Lima lived at deadly to recall, spectator-wise, the scenes and im- tension. Something sinister was in the air. From pressions of the past months in South different well-informed circles came the news of America. They come before me more vividly than the fateful event which was in store for the followever, and I set down some of the chief of them, ing day. Mutual friends pled with me to do someallowing reflection to play upon the ever-changing thing if I could. What I did it would not be wise to tell in detail, but following a midnight interscene. view with one of the leading politicians in Peru, a The even tenor of my visit to Lima was broken bitter personal enemy of Haya de la Torre, but a man who had always professed great friendship into by a tragic event. It was an April Sunday for me, a direct appeal was sent to the Peruvian about noon. President Sanchez Cerro -was re- Government by another powerful friend, and as a turning to the palace, after having reviewed a result the tragedy was forestalled. Exceptional body of young recruits who were being drilled to precautions were taken the next day, and the go to war with Colombia. He was leaving the funeral passed off in perfect quiet. Haya de la race course in an open car, when a young man, in Torre was saved. The day following I left for the guise of a biscuit vendor, shot him fatally Chile. from behind. The partisans of the dead President cried for vengeance. They were sure that it was a political murder. The person mainly responsible Why refer to this incident? Because the prinmust surely be the President's chief political op- cipal person involved has a unique significance in ponent, then lying in the penitentiary of Lima, the present-day life of South America. It is no awaiting a trial which was never coming off. exaggeration to say that Haya de la Torre, now Their first thought was to have this man killed in thirty-seven years of age, is the most outstanding prison. Calmer counsels prevailed, but during the and best-known figure of the generation between next few days, the sentiment of the masses was thirty and forty in the whole of Latin America. fanned into flame as thousands filed day by day Shortly after his exile from Peru, in 1923, he in front of the bier of the murdered President. A visited the Soviet Republic. He went to study plot was hatched to allow the mob to get out of communism and was given special facilities to see hand on the day of the funeral and to storm the everything from the Neva to the Volga. When he penitentiary building, with a view to lynching the left Russia, he retained his social radicalism and political prisoner inside. great human passion, but he definitely renounced The Prisoner communism as a solution of the political and social problems of Latin America. He later studied in It happened that the prisoner in question was the London School of Economics and in Ruskin an old and much loved friend of mine. He had College, Oxford. Banished a second time in the been a teacher in our school, the Anglo-Peruvian course of a visit to Central America, he spent some College. Until his exile from Peru he had lived years in Berlin. It was there I saw him last, in in our home. One evening in 1923, during my ab- the winter of 1929. I had scarcely sat down in his sence on a lecture tour in Chile and Argentina, he lodging in Charlottenburg, when he took down left the house with the Yale latch key in his pocket from a shelf a Spanish Bible. It was marked and never returned until he came back from throughout. "Look," he said, "the next book I am Europe eight years later, a candidate for the going to write on South America is to be full of Presidency of the republic. In one of the most quotations from the Bible." I remembered one of remarkable elections in the history of Peru, Haya the first days when we had talked about religion de la Torre almost reached the Presidency, but his as we roved together among the rocks of the Perufailure to get quite there exposed him inevitably vian coast. He and a group of fellow-students to the relentless, classic ire of his opponents. Be- were then giving themselves most self-sacrificingly cause of his alleged connivance in a revolutionary to the education and welfare of the masses among plot, he was imprisoned and his party dissolved his own countrymen. and persecuted.
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"For me to say 'God,' " he said, "is to experience Beyond Gandhi and Lenine a sensation of nausea in my mouth." Listen to this other passage: "Why?" I asked in deep surprise. "Because that name has been associated in my I am not a desperado, and though I feel that I am the victim of many, many mistakes, mostly of them not mine, mind from boyhood with things that are vile and I am not angry nor bitter at anybody. Besides, after I unjust, with attitudes which I feel I must give my know the terrible fate of many of my comrades I am even life to combat." proud of my sufferings for I believe that I get my share In the interval since that time, a profound in the sufferings of all of them. Still, if I did not know change had passed over Haya de la Torre. He that my life is necessary to the Party, I had rather liked had come to realize that religion was basic for to die with them. Only one glory I am envious of: that personal and social life. that our martyrs have got! My greatest ambition is to die as they did and if I did not know that I must still live and From Behind Iron Bars work, guide and teach, I would be just now the unhappiest of men. But, alas, I have to live!
During the first days of this visit to Lima, be- Our Party needs a great leading work yet. We have to fore the storm broke, I was in touch with myoId clean it of passions, ignorance and indiscipline. We have to make of it a collossal spiritual force in which convictions friend through his sister, the only person allowed and faith, reason and emotions, experience and energy, to visit him in his cell. Everywhere I went I science and vision, should be harmoniously combined. I have a tremendous faith in the destiny of our Party. I heard tales of his doings before he went to prison think that it has all the characteristics of a real wonderful and ere the country began to be turned into a movement. Yet, I believe that it shall bring to this counshambles. But the deepest insight into the soul try and to Latin America the solution of many problems of my friend, as he still was, I got from a couple not only economical and political, but moral and spiritual, of precious letters written on rough paper and in for we are not only sentimental and religious as Gandhi a scarcely legible hand, which had escaped the nor only social and economical as Communism. We have vigilance of the prison censor. I have the feeling the best of both sides, and we must value th~ importance that those letters will prove one day to be historic of each, but without losing the fundamental significance of humanity. Upon this great reality we have to build up documents in the spiritual life of Peru, if not of the edifice of the Party, neither as a fortress nor as a the whole continent. Undoubtedly an entirely church, but like a school in which learning and work new note is struck in the political life of South should open the real way of Justice. But my dear friend, America, a deeply ethical and religious note, like for such a work we need great teachers. Teachers like the warble of a skylark above the earth at dawn. soldiers, soldiers like teachers. Apostles of faith alive and strong "unto death," clean minds and clean bodies, unself- The humble recipient of the two missives was the ishness and mental capacity. I know that what I have done wife of a local evangelical pastor, who, because of is only a very little part of what I could do. That is why her faith in Haya de la Torre, carried to him day I must live and be free for. I don't care for political amafter day for several months food to substitute bition in the low sense of the word. If I knew that I could do my work outside politics I would try. But as a matter his prison fare. Let me quote one or two sig- of fact I did it. My work in the Universidad Popular was nificant paragraphs from these letters. Here is a beginning of the task I am devoted to. But I saw that one written in Haya's own English which he used the work was not complete. In countries like ours you rather than Spanish as a means of security: ought to have the political power, otherwise the political power will be always against you. Besides there is magic Many thanks for your message of the other day. I force in power which attracts people towards it, and when know that many good people are with me …… I shall you use that force for the good your task can be better be very grateful indeed for anything you could do for the achieved. All these considerations may help you to know boy who is so faithful to me. As a matter of fact, he is me better. I should not like to be misund~rstood ….. . the only one I trust without doubt. He is clean in body When I think of the exaltation of the name of Haya de la and soul and serves me as a very good comrade. In this Torre I always think of the chief of our Party, a rather place of spies and traitors, in which even jealousy is doing ideal symbol and never of myself. Even to me the name of its part, he is a wonderful exception. On the most tragical Haya de la Torre is something outside my own person. I days, when everybody was coward enough even to smile think of him as of the chief and I think of myself as a to me, he was brave and loyal, and stood by me at any soldier whose only duty is to be ready to every effort and rate. He has won my gratitude and I think I have the sacrifice for the Party to which I belong. I am, conscious duty of doing for him as much as I can. He is not edu- of my defects and limitations and I fight every day against cated at all but exceedingly intelligent. Therefore, I them. I know that I am neither a genius nor a saint and should like to get some books for him but rather elemen- that there are in the Party many men and women who are tary ones. Perhaps some stories like Robinson Crusoe, the superior to me in many ways. But although I know it I life of Jesus and something about Peruvian history and think that the faith that so many people have put upon mathematics …… I believe that you could do a good thing me as a leader may help very much to keep the unity of in sending here some Protestant literature for the convicts. the Party, and to do the great work that everybody in it 1'hey have almost nothing to read and the majority of must do to achieve our aims. So I extrovert my own perthem are very ignorant. Papers like Ri1rUik may be intro- sonality and I put it to the full service of the common duced on Sundays. You would do a lot of good. I would ideal, but never, never as a pedestal for my own vanity. like to have a Bible. I have only with me a New Testa- All this has to be pointed out to you.
ment. I left my Bible among my books and sometimes I I am sorry that I have to write almost in the dark to miss it very much for I am a regular Bible reader and I avoid surprises. You will read all this with a lens, I like to see again many parts I am devoted to. guess. Forgive my poor style and the awful handwriting
A VOICE FROM A PERUVIAN PRISON
for I must be keeping one ;~ye on the paper and the other that the human problem is spiritual, more deeply on the irons (bars) of my cage to avoid any undesirable than it is economic, he set about disciplining himvisitor. self and moralizing the students and workmen A Party of Youth with whom he dealt. An exiled member of the The party to which Haya de la Torre refers in party, a young Peruvian doctor whom I met in his prison .letter is popularly known as the Apra, Santiago in the month of May, told me, "Those that is to say, La Alianza Popular Revolucionaria only have been willing to follow Haya de la Torre Americana, or being translated into English, "The who have not resented his manly rebukes when Popular Revolutionary Alliance of America." It is they did wrong." Human passion, clear thinking, a party of youth, founded by Haya de la Torre, and self-discipline-these are the principles which between the years 1923 and 1931, while he and animate the most representative men and women in the Apra Party.
Sooner or later this party will come into power in Peru. Great was my surprise that many of the most cultured and best men in the community had become members of it. Mistakes have been made and will be made by this party of youth. But that a new portent has appeared on the political hori- zon of Latin America there is not the slightest doubt. Many an age-long tradition, many a cor- rupting practice, and many a sinister foreign in- fluence, will be affected by its advent into power.
One basic plank in the program of the Apra Party is nationalization of the sources of the country'"
wealth. Another is the effective political unity of WHERE HAYA DE LA TORRE WAS IMPRISONED Latin America in self-defense against every type of foreign imperialism. A third is an attack upon other young Peruvians were exiled in different every form of oppression. No political program countries of Europe and America. During my or practice will ever satisfy the Christian convisit to Lima, I was told by a South American dip- lomat, a man who some years ago was Minister of Foreign Affairs in his own country, that in his opinion, the Apra represented the first political party in South American history which was founded upon clear-cut principles, with a full so- cial and economic program. The members of the Apra study the problems of Peru with great real- ism. They realize that no mere politicians with their classic appetites and ambitions, can ever solve the problems of the country or of the con- tinent as a whole. Each political leader must rep- resent an effective human value. He must be a specialist in some branch. He must above every- thing be a good man. For years, little "cells" of Peruvian exiles, scattered through different coun- THE ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE IN LIMA tries, have been accustomed to meet together for sciousness. Yet, no Christian can fail to be interthe study of social, political and ethical problems. ested in the approximate application of the mind The ideal of the party has been that thinking of Christ to human affairs. should be intense and collective. Their leader wanted to be no mere caudillo of the old type, Freedom and Friends that is to say, he had no desire that everything A word in closing about Haya de la Torre's atti- should center in his own person. He wanted great tude toward religion. His love of the Bible is apprinciples to grip the mind of his henchmen. It parent. A photograph upon my desk is symbolic was also his ambition from the first to give them of his sympathy. While I was visiting mission an immaculate example as a man. From the stations in the wilds of Matto Grosso during June moment that he caught the vision of his country's and July, Haya de la Torre was set at liberty. On needs, and of what he felt he was being called in reaching New York I had confirmation of the Providence to do, he began to prepare himself good news and what was my joy to find the photo- morally and physically for his task. Realizing graph here reproduced. MyoId friend, seated in
the midst of a group of dear faces! On his right, casion to some representatives of the Evangelical the noble woman, who at a great personal sacri- m'ovement in Peru that when they came into fice, sent him his daily food during many months power, evangelicals would have special privileges, of his imprisonment. On his left, her husband, an the latter promptly replied that they wanted none, evangelical pastor in Lima, and around them other saying: members of the evangelical community and of the Apra Party. Haya de la Torre belongs to no reli- "We ask for no more than liberty to worship gious denomination, but he gladly calls himself a God according to our conscience and to carryon Christian. Among the members of the evangelical our religious work with utter freedom; and we community he has found many friends and sup- ask that other faiths shall have the same priviporters. They have followed him and believed in lege." him, not for political reasons, but because of what he stands for. That being so, the significance of this picture is not political but spiritual. It is a union of hearts When a group of Apra leaders said on one oc- in a great cause, inspired by the Book of Books, and aimed at the good of men.
"IF" FOR MISSIONARIES* POEMS BY CHRISTIAN LEPERS (With apologies to Rudyard Kipling) Government Hospital,* Oshima, Japan If you can hear God's call when those about you Interpreted by LOIS J. ERICKSON, Takamatsu, Japan Are urging other calls and claims on you; AT EASTER-TIDE If you can trust the Lord when others doubt you, Certain that He will guide in all you do; Lilies abloom, And in my heart no room If you can keep your purpose with clear vision, Except for thoughts of Him who conquered Death. Bear lack of sympathy, yet sympathize Upon this Easter morn, With those who fail to understand your mission, Afresh, oh, all afresh, Glimpsing His world-task through Christ's own His grace in me is born, eyes; And my dumb heart cries out to sing His praise, On this, If you can work in harmony with others, His Day of Days! Yet never lose your own distinctive aim, -Takamoto. Mindful that ever among Christian brothers Methods and plans are often not the same; Star, Shine on the world in its woe; If you can see your cherished plans defeated, Gleam through the dark where I go, And tactfully and bravely hold your peace; Sweet Star of Love! And be undaunted when unfairly treated- -Takamoto. Praying that love and good will may increase; If you can trust to native Christian brethren Whatever I may do, The Church you've built in lands across the sea, Always, always, My thoughts still dwell upon Seeing in them, as growing children, The True God's grace. Promises of the men that are to be; Body and soul If you can lead these eager weak beginners Arising, soar, By patient loving care, by life, by prayer; Knowing those depths of grace Forevermore! For failures and mistakes not judge as sinners, But make their growth in grace your earnest -"Kyogetsu." care; I would not change one little jot If you can share with humblest folk your virtue; Of His dear will for me; If nobler souls are richer for your touch; But in my weakness I would go, If neither slights nor adoration hurt you; Entrusting all my load of woe If "all men count with you, but none too much" ; To Him Who walks with me. If you can fill your most discouraged minute -Kanda Keizo. With sixty seconds' worth of patience true; * There are four hundred patients at this hospital, about eighty Yours is the task with all the challenge in it; You'll be a missionary-through and through. of whom are Christians. One of these patients, Nagata, has pub- lished three books which are widely known among Japanese Chris- * From The Bible for C11dna. tians.
Cross and the Christian Message*
By the Late W. H. TEMPLE GAIRDNER, of Cairo, Egypt f.Jt-.- Formerly Missionary of the Church Missionary Society This matter (i. e., the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus inaugurated and initiated. The Kingdom of God: Christ) has no importance in the Christian religion, which that spiritual regime, dynamic in its wh~le scope, mis~nionthfeaicstm,a nd in itself, a religion for the inculcation of which could only be entered by a new bIrth, and mora lity and ethics, like the Mohammedan was organically related to Himself as Mes.siah- and Jewish religions.-From a Cairo newspaper.
C HR"ISTIANITY is indeed a religion that "anointed King." This at once makes ChrIst not "inCUlcates monotheism, morality and eth- merely a prophet, but a power. ics." Jesus proclaimed one God; set forth a new ethic-a type utterly different from the The cross and death came last (necessarily). Law set forth by the Mohammedan and Jewish There was a gradual leading up to that supreme faiths. Christianity taught a personal and social denouement. These facts do not prove that the morality so high that, though it stands firmly on cross and death of Christ "have no importance." earth, it yet reaches to the heaven of heavens. Merely to put the matter so shows the absurdity But that was not the whole of the work of Jesus, nor the whole of the Good News which He her- of the contention. As well say that the final scene alded. It was not even the most wonderful or in some supreme drama has no importance bemost essential part of what He came to accomplish. If that had been all, it is possible that no cause the preparation for it was veiled, and .beprophet would have followed those of the Old Tes- cause, when it comes, it startles! Even the veIled tament: or if one had to follow, in order to put the finishing touches on "monotheism, morality allusions to the cross in the early stages have a and ethics," he would not have been Jesus Christ. significance which proves the importance of the The real work of Jesus Christ was to introduce into the world-to make available for humanity climax. -a fund of life capable of producing as fruit this There were two reasons why those early stages "morality and ethics" indefinitely, all down the ages until the dawn of eternity. What Jesus did only contain allusions. First, the time had not was' even more wonderful, more precious and come for more than this. The train of events more necessary than what He taught. Thereby which swept on towards the supreme event had the soul is enabled to penetrate to the heart of that "One God" and bring forth the fruit of that not become clearly defined as yet. Jesus knew the "morality and' ethics," a nobler name for which issue and dropped hints,t and His disciples after is-holiness. He had risen from the dead "remembered" that During the first stage of the mission of Jesus, He had spoken thus, and from this w;re able to before it was ripe to disclose the supreme subject gauge the "importance" of that at WhICh He had of the crucifixion and death – in that first stage hinted so gravely and significantly. Jesus did teach monotheism, morality and ethics. But what a monotheism-the revelation of a Fa- The second reason was that His own disciples ther-creator! And what an ethic-the spiritual were not ready for the shock of the heart-shaking, "New Law" of love: and what a morality-the new spiritual ideals of the Sermon on the Mount! stupendous announcement-the announcement of But even in this He was not speaking as a moral a dreadful death by public, criminal execution! philosopher, nor as a theological teacher; not as Such an announcement was psychologically ima social reformer, nor as a warning preacher, no, nor even as a prophet and apostle. He did so as possible until their acquaintance with Him and the One by whom and in whom at the end of trust in Him had reached a very advanced stage. The Master spent a whole year, probably two years, with that little baI.1d of pupils! te,~chi?g the new message of the Kmgdom and Its ethICS and morality," the new message of "mon?theism" and its Fatherhood, but above all teac~llng them to trust Him, teaching them His a~thorlty (M~tt. 7: 29) and His utter trus~worthmess, .te~~hmg them, in one word, "to belIeve upon HIm. At the end of this period He continually tested. those pupils to see whether they had learned thIS ele- time, "The Kingdom of God" was being declared, t E g John 2' 19-"DestrOy this temple and in et h r~e:,erp<elnatysI. III will raise 'It ·;'P." John 3: 14-"As Moses lifted .up th .the • Condensed from the Moslem World. This is a translation .of the Arabic original written by the late Canon W. H. Temple Galrdner wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lI.fted up: -!'ohn 6. 51 in t.he Orient and Occndent. "He being dead yet speaketh."-Editor. -"The bread that I will give is my flesh, which. I WIll gIve for the life of the world." Luke 5: 35-"The days Will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away."
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mentary yet all-important lesson. "Whom think on the Mount; for His task was not merely to ye that I am?" He asked. It was a truly sublime teach, but to inspire, so that they should also live act of faith and personal trust when Peter, thus and act thus, and so accomplish the warfare speaking for himself and his comrades, said "Thou and victory of the Kingdom under His leadership. art the Messiah," that is to say, God's anointed King, the Head of the Kingdom of God in heaven The first impression on the disciples, as on and on earth (Matt. 16: 16): so sublime was it Saul later, and as on anyone of us if we consider that Jesus said that it was by veritable inspira- the violence of the contrast-was of utter contration from God Almighty that Peter had risen to diction, impossibility, unreconcilability of the this height. Mark now what followed. The anx- death of Jesus. Messiah-King …. crucified! How ious moment had been passed: the class had could all that is glorious be made compatible with graduated: their personal faith in the Master all that is shameful: how could essential victory had been vindicated against a whole little world tioin itself to essential defeat? And this first imof men: so they were now in a position to be pression they never got over during His days on initiated into the supreme secret, into the deep, earth-it was too overmastering, too overwhelmthe tragic mystery, which before could only have ing. shocked and paralyzed and scandalized them. And therefore we read immediately following on But the second impression was that which con- Peter's rapturous confession and Jesus' rapturous quered them later, and independently conquered reception of it, "from that time forth began Jesus Saul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, that the to show unto His disciples how that He must go very greatness of the paradox was the measure up to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the of the greatness of its power, that the riddle elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, "a crucified Messiah" was the key to all the ridand be raised again the third day"! dles and all the mysteries of time and eternity. And thus it became to them, as it was in fact, The careful study of these words, their context the central dynamic of the Kingdom of God on and their place in the narrative, do two things; earth. When the Messiah-King was crucified, the first they explain why Jesus' explicit teaching of universe was darkened, the angels hid their faces, His death and resurrection was deferred a little, the powers of heaven held breath: but in the though it was hinted at and foreshadowed long impact, the power was engendered which is before that; and .second, they demonstrate that enough to save a world of men, to restore a unithat teaching was at the very core and center of verse to God. The supreme event in the career His whole message, the very goal to which His of the Supreme Being of the ages could not but whole life and work were tending; it was the have supreme significance and supreme power. secret that was surpassing the scope of human understanding that it could only be confided to Jesus plainly taught all this in a parable which ears prepared for it. It was the pearl so precious He set forth to leaders of the nation just before that its owner could not risk lending it to the their rejection and betrayal of Him. It is one of careless or the unworthy. the deepest and most far-reaching of the parables (Mk. 12: 1-12). lIn this parable the world is The Messiah King likened to land which is being gradually reduced to cultivation: the center of cultivation is a vine- "The Kingdom of God" as preached by Jesus is yard-the Kingdom of God: God is represented an organization with its roots in the unseen world as the owner of the vineyard; He sends slave and with its appearance and action on earth; a after slave (prophets) to the tenants (the Jewish spiritual organization therefore, composed of re- people) who have been working the vineyard, to newed men and women; entered not by the door collect the rent of the place entrusted to them; of physical birth, but by the door of re-birth, spir- they refuse, rejecting one, stoning another, killing itual rebirth; with the Messiah-King as head of a third: slave succeeds slave (note well that each that organization, He being the complete revela- is a "prophet." …. And now the greatest of them tion of unseen Deity. Such was the Kingdom has come and gone ….. "Having therefore one which this Messiah-King came to found on earth, Son, His well-beloved" (Son-not "slave" therein the fullness of time. He came and the King- fore not "prophet"-in a different category altodom was inaugurated-inaugurated with mighty gether) He sent Him. This, in the interpretation, and wonderful signs of power, with marvellous, is none other than the Messiah-King, the head of divine, and new-penetrating teachings, and with the Kingdom of God. The Unseen One had said, the greatest miracle of all, a perfect; holy, human "They will reverence Him!" But no, they killed life (His own), pouring forth into the world a Him too and cast Him out of the vineyard. Oh ceaseless river of love,. and acts of mercy, and ghastly, impossible deed! Must it not either be service of love. He lived the principles which He the end of the Kingdom of God on earth, or must taught His disciples in such words as the Sermon it not prove the occasion for the supremest mani- festation of divine energy? The conclusion of the
THE CROSS AND THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
story tells us which: Jesus drops the allegorical tragedy-always event with significance; nor as form and simply quotes from the Psalms-"The death-tragedy which, by its pang of agony, should stone which the builders rejected has become the bring new life to birth. Glance at some of the headstone of the corner: this is the Lord's doing profound utterances in which He gave this and it is marvellous in our eyes." The reader thought words: doubtless appreciates the crashing force of these "/ am the bread of life. And the bread that / words. The last scene in the tragedy of the vine- will give is my flesh, which / will give for the life yard was not a torn, defiled body lying in the of the world." t dust in the rough ground outside that vineyard. There is to be a laying down of life; a sac- It was a glorified renewal of life and power: the rifice of living flesh; a consequent life-giving to vindication of that Messiah-King. And so we see that .the very violence of the dark riddle paradox a world of men. "a crucified Messiah" (see 1 Cor. 2) carries in Or that word of unplumbed depth and exhaustthe heart of it a very effulgence of light. Defeat on this scale meant victory, final and infinite: ed application, a favorite saying of His, six times divine power, released without limit, eternally recorded in our records on at least four separate occasions: "He that loseth his life shall gain it": available. -First applied to Himself just after He had warned the disciples for the first time of the im- Jesus' early teaching about "The Kingdom of pending martyrdom. God" at once takes you far beyond the position "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground represented by these words. Jesus' claim to be and die it abideth alone, but if lit die it bringeth Messiah-King takes you still fUrther beyond it; forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall and the stupendous claim of "The Messiah-King lose it, and he that loseth his life in this world crucified" takes you immeasurably beyond it. shall keep it unto life eternal.. …. " Jesus had hinted at this tragic climax all along. Once more, a death which should multiply life That stupendous event was, as it were, the dynamo which created and made available a spiritual uncountably manyfold. power that gave to "monotheism" a new signifi- Or again: "/ am the Good Shepherd: the Good cance and transformed "morality and ethics" from a teaching, a theory, a philosophy, into a Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep . …. And / life. It is from this point that we resume. lay down my life for the sheep."
Why comment ?-Except to remind you again that not thus do romancers write, especially if For the Life of the World the event had falsified the anticipation! Or again, "The Son of Man came not to be Twice more in Galilee, ere the Master started on the last long wandering journey that ended in served, but to serve, and to give His life a ran- Jerusalem, did He warn His disciples of what som for many."
was coming.* On one of these occasions He re- Always the same thought, though, as we have seen, the metaphors, vivid as lightning, vary,- minded them of the violent death of John the the shepherd who sacrificed his life-the corn of Baptist, and said that at the same hands at which wheat that was buried beneath the earth-the John suffered should the Head of Humanityt suf- bread that was eaten-the ransom life that was fer also. And on that last journey He returned surrendered: always the same thought-a death, to the theme, time and again. Observe the in- with result of life won for many. imitable irony of one of these warnings: "Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the Finally the series of word-pictures was comday following," i. e., I am safe as long as I am pleted and crowned on the last night of all. At beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem-"For it can- supper, when the eyes of all were fixed on Him, not be that a prophet should perish out of J eru- He caused that heavenly truth which is our theme salem"! We say "inimitable," for we mean that to enter into their minds by eye-gate and not only if a romancer had written up the Gospel in after as formerly by ear-gate; thus :-He took bread days he would not have written thus. No! the and when He had given thanks He broke it and least grain of literary perception assures you that gave it to them saying, "This is my body which this word was really spoken, and was spoken by is given for you" ….. likewise after supper He Jesus. Well then, 0 ye who accept Him at least took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to as a prophet, hear and receive the solemn proph- them saying, "Drink ye all of it, for this is my ecy of that your prophet, that He was on His blood of a new covenant, which is shed for many way to perish in Jerusalem. for the redemption of sins."
But it was not as a mere event that Jesus con- Weare here led into the very heart of the templated that Jerusalem tragedy; nor as mere Prophet-King, and the marvel and mystery of His • Matt. 17: 9-13, 22, 23. :j: Actually these words were spoken before the first clear an- nouncement of His death: but they belong, ;md so to speak attncll t Til Jewish phrase "The SOIl of Man," thell1selye~, to t/Jat Occflsion.
work for mankind. And so now we have heard third day! Death, having done its all, could not the words and seen the pictures and watched the hold the Messiah-King. The physical victory of symbolic act-words, pictures and act full of in- death was therefore nullified by the very defeat finite meaning, the meaning which we know….. of the champion who suffered to the uttermost; With hearts and minds full therewith, let us re- for that defeat was moral and spiritual victory; peat slowly the sentence in the Cairo newspaper and that spiritual victory was forthwith maniwith which we started, that its incredible empti- fested and indicated by the resurrection of Him ness may fully appear:- who conquered and by the glorification of the body in which He had suffered. "On the third "This matter has no importance in the Chris- day He rose again," in the fullness of human tian religion, which is, in fact and in itself, a personality, body, soul and spirit. The Son of religion for the inculcation of monotheism, mo- Man, the representative of humanity on this earth rality, and ethics …… " of ours was made fit, while yet on earth, to pass to the glorified state of the eternal, unseen, spir- Surely "the reader" must see what Christ saw itual world. And after a short space He did -and thus strove to let him see! so pass.
Then comes the event itself-the unutterable But in that interval He had "shown Himself deed-the central event of all history, of all time. alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, Our sole comment upon the narrative of the being seen of them forty days, and speaking of passion and death of Christ will be to point out the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." the proportion it bears to the rest of the narra- And of these things the first and greatest was the tive of the Christian "sira" :-in Matthew one- very theme which we are assured "has no imporsixth, in Mark one-fifth, in Luke one-seventh, in tance in the Christian religion,"-His sufferings John one-third. Such are the proportions given and death. What was the verdict of the triumto the events which occupied as many days as the phant Sufferer upon the significance of those brief rest of the narrative occupied years! Contrast hours? Is it to be supposed that He knew best? this with the space taken by the narratives of the Or he who came six hundred years later? Or death of the great figures of history-an infini- perchance "Readers" in this twentieth century tesimal proportion compared with the rest of the after the event? Did the chief actor pronounce biography-sometimes a single chapter, generally that the event was irrelevant-a mere sadness a paragraph, sometimes only a line or two. Have best forgotten as soon as possible, because past we not in this one fact a sufficient refutation of and traversed and gone; dead, buried and done this false opinion, and a sufficient proof that from with? Hear and judge! the first it was felt and perceived and known that the death of Christ was, on the contrary, aII- On the afternoon of that first day of the week important, all-significant, central, essential? the Risen Christ said to the first two of His dis- ciples with whom He conversed, when He found We have already seen how, before the actual them (not knowing with whom they talked) event, it had so been represented by Jesus Him- dumbfounded, aghast, in despair at the awful self. Suppose now per irnpossibile, that He had debacle of three days before :-"0 fools and slow proved utterly mistaken; that either the event of heart to believe all that the prophets have had failed to eventuate, or having eventuated, shown: had not Messiah to suffer, and so enter had proved without significance, resultless, negli- into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all gible: We put it to all "readers" in the name of the prophets He expounded to them in all the sacred truth, would it have been possible for the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." And recorders to have recorded it at all, or having in the evening, when He went to the whole band, recorded it to record it thus-on this scale and this was still the theme. He said, "Thus it is with this emphasis? Therefore it was recorded written and thus it was necessary for Messiah to with all that wealth of circumstances, that full- suffer and to rise from the dead the third day: ness and yet restraint of feeling, a feeling which and that repentance and remission of sins should would doubtless have been a mere passion of grief be preached in His narne among all nations; and and despair had the tragedy of Calvary been in- ye are witnesses of these things." deed the last scene of the last act, the drop-curtain behind which there is an empty shape-mere "Of these things"-of that death on that Cross darkness, nothingness. of Calvary; the breaking of that body and the shedding of that blood which, as He said on that The Significance of the Event last evening, sanctified the new covenant between God and man, and on the strength of which a But ….. ! This brings us to another division world-wide preaching of repentance and forgiveof our subject; the teaching of the risen, glorified ness was made possible and expressly commanded. Christ Himself concerning the significance of the And that world-wide enterprise, begun by those event.
For as He had promised, He rose again on the
who were "witnesses of these things" is still go- enthusiast headed a fierce reaction that had taken ing, and will go on until the end of this age. place against the new sect. The object was to "Monotheism, ethics, morality"-these existed exterminate it once and for all, while it was still for centuries as the program of the Jewish reli- a small weak weed, and before it had time to gion. If these were really God's only program, grow or spread.
there would never have been a Christianity at all, The most prominent propagator of it seemed to nor a Christ at all. But we see now that what be one Stephen: therefore Stephen was arrested "A Reader" and the many whom he represents and questioned. His reply threw all into such rules out as unimportant, constituted in fact the paroxysms of anger that an explosion took place, whole, specific, entire, intrinsic content of Chris- and a crowd, headed by the witnesses and Saul, tianity! A world-wide "preaching of repentance put Stephen to death by stoning. Saul witnessed and forgiveness of sins in His name" that is, the the last scene. He saw Stephen look steadfastly name of the crucified and glorified Messiah-King. up into heaven, and heard him say these words:- By this the Kingdom of God came with power on "Behold I see the heavens opened arnd the Son of the earth, and a new divine life in that Kingdom Man standing on the right hand of God." Just was made possible for humanity-to all who before his spirit fled, when the stones had beaten should close with God's Christ and receive Him him to his knees, Saul heard him say these last with his whole being, with a passion of gratitude words :-"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"; and and love, that is, in a word, by faith. "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."
God's Message Strange, significant, incredible words – and most relevant to the issue between Saul and the We have heard God's message. We have seen sect, but he had no time to think about them. He the risen Messiah-King giving His commission to proceeded into the task of extirpation. This in- the children of the Kingdom, and we have seen volved a journey to Damascus. Just outside the them setting out on their task. But how far did city, the glorified Jesus appeared to him! He saw they reflect on the message they were given to Him, he heard Him. "Who art thou, Lord?" he announce, and what were the results of their cried as the vision of glory blinded him. "I am reflections. Jesus whom thou persecutest," replied the Voice.
They did reflect, by the aid of the Spirit of Stephen was right then! Jesus, though cruci- Messiah which was in them; and the remainder fied, was Messiah after all! This was the mere of the books of "the New Testament" are the fact: it must be accepted, let the interrogation chronicle and record of these reflections and reve- of its meaning come later. Saul did accept it.
lations of that Spirit. And it will not surprise He became a member of the community that ac- us therefore to discover that the central theme of cepted Jesus of Nazareth as glorified Messiah- all their reflections, and of all these books, is pre- King.
cisely that death and glorification of Messiah and But-why crucified? The astounding, the in- the richness of the significance thereof :-What credible paradox of a "crucified Messiah" still re- was it in God and in the nature of things that mained for explanation. After his baptism Saul called for that death; and why its accomplish- went into the deserts alone, and there for nearly ment released the message of God's forgiveness three years he prayed, thought, reflected, opened unto all mankind. his soul to receive the light of God. The light he Recall the history of Saul of Tarsus. This was did receive is recorded for us in those thirteen a young Jew, wholly devoted to his religion of letters of his which you will find after the "Acts "monotheism, ethics and morality"; dissatisfied of the Apostles." We get there the explanation in soul, nevertheless, though he did not attribute of the inner meaning of the death of Christ.
his dissatisfaction to his religion. This young Have you ever looked at a speck of organic man, lately become a graduate, heard during a matter through a microscope? With the naked period of absence from Jerusalem of the event eye you can just see that something is there; but which we have been considering. To him Calvary structure and details are wanting. You place it was the righteous termination of the career of a under the microscope; you focus bright light on pretender and a blasphemer. Thank God, that it; and a little world of perfect structure is re- brief chapter was closed and would soon be cov- vealed. You take it again, or a portion of it, and ered by the oblivion of time. What was his rage place it under a microscope of greater power; a and indignation, therefore, to hear that the fol- higher index of light is focussed on to it; and lowers of the executed criminal had constituted more and more wonderful details appear. And themselves into a sect which asserted that He rose so on until you· have reached your human limit again! that He was alive, glorified! and that He, of magnifying power, but still the inner content after all that had occurred, was Israel's Messiah- of that speck is continuing to unfold in new and King, He and none but He! Instantly this fiery richer detail; clearly you have not nearly come
to the end of it, though you have come to the end essentially in Him. Therefore in the Crucified of your own power of perceiving. All that you Messiah the perfect holiness and perfect love of discovered and more was in the bare speck from God, united, were shown forth, demonstrated to the first: but it was invisible to your limited the whole world on the stage of place and time.
human vision. The message of this was carried everywhere by Exactly so was it in the case of that event- those who received it. And thus mankind per- the death of Messiah. As soon as it became evi- ceived the extent of its sin and the extent of the dent to some that it was the strangest thing that love of God: the nations perceived it: individuals ever happened, it was submitted to examination perceived it: "I" perceived it. It was "for the by the enhanced light and power of God's Holy world," "for me."
Spirit. Immediately the inner richness and con- Therefore the whole work of the individual tent began to appear, and ever more and more. soul, awakened by that sight of the Crucified Mes- The records of all this you will find in the Bible, siah-King, is to surrender to Him, and, in sur- from Acts to Revelation; but with the highest rendering, to lay hold of Him with every faculty that man was capable of, even with the divine of its being and with the uttermost adoration, help, more and still more remained: behind the gratitude and love. This surrender and laying- finite comprehensible, to be comprehended in this hold (and nothing but this) is faith. And the finite world, lay the infinite, to be comprehended deed of God in Christ is grace.
only in the eternal world. Every soul that lays hold becomes, necessarily, What Saul (who became Paul) and others per- a new creation, for he and his Messiah-King be- ceived who looked at the event of Calvary through come united into one. The old life of sin receives the microscope of the Holy Spirit of God, was a death blow, for by his unity with the crucified something like this: Messiah's death was not for Jesus, he is crucified and his sins judged: and by Himself, but for the world, for men, for the his unity with the glorified Jesus he lives a new human race, for each one, "for me." It was "for life of love and holiness: the life of the King- sin"; for the sin of the world, of men, of the dom of God.
human race, of each one, "of me." The sin of Something like this is what Calvary became this sinful race was the barrier against the com- when the event of Calvary was the object: the ing of the Kingdom of God, the barrier between Spirit of God was the microscope, and the above God and man. It had to be forgiven, that is, is a feeble description of part of the expansion removed, put away, so that the Kingdom of God of that object when looked at under the micro- might come, the Kingdom of righteousness, with scope. Not all will be able to see even all this, nothing between God and man, the King and His but they will have the fact itself, Christ crucified, people, the King Father and His children people. and many will be able to see more than this. But This meant a world-wide preaching of repentance the whole of the event will never be known to and forgiveness. anyone in this life.
But how could this be with sin still unjudged, Nevertheless, whether in this life, or in eter- its true character unrecognized by the human nity, and whether for Paul or for the least per- conscience-the justice of its condemnation and ceptive of Christ-lovers, the fact still is always fate still unrealized? What sort of a forgiveness there, Christ crucified, containing, all the time, all would that be? What sort of Kingdom? What its infinite wealth and treasures of meaning and sort of holiness would be attributed to that God? of power for us.
No! Sin must be judged; its true character rec- The statement in the Cairo newspaper was in- ognized by the human conscience; the justice of finitely wrong in saying that this message "had its condemnation and fate realized. That fate was no importance in the Christian religion." The death-a death of condemnation-a death, there- Christian religion does inculcate a monotheism- fore, of darkness and woe. Man could not bear but what a monotheism is revealed by that micro- that, neither could any such demonstration be scope of God's Spirit I-a unity wherein an Eter- demonstrated in him. nal Father loves an Eternal Son by the Eternal But, the Messiah-King, the perfect representa- Spirit of love and holiness. It does inculcate mo- tive of humanity, in His love for man said, "Let rality and ethics-but what morality and what it be demonstrated in me." And God so loved the ethics I-the eternal morality of the Kingdom of world that He gave Him, to become man, for this God-an ethic fulfilled in that love and holiness, purpose. the dynamic of which is the life of God's and All the love and all the holiness of God were humanity's Messiah-King who was crucified and incarnated in His Messiah-King. Yes, God was -lives again for evermore.
A Japanese Thief-Saved to Serve*
How a New Testament Brought Freedom By the REV. H. W. MYERS, Kobe, Japan A Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South l"".. ASASHIRO MURAMATSU was born in Tokyo, nothing further to do with him. Thus at the age in 1863, in an old Samurai family of the of seventeen he was thrown on his own resources, Tokugawa Clan. His father was a Hata- and went out into the world to make his own way.
moto noble in the service of the Shogun until the The next fourteen years make up a dark period overthrow of the Shogunate and the restoration of in his life. We find him in Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto the Emperor in 1868. That period marked as and Tokyo, with no fixed abode, sleeping in the great a change in Asashiro's r==='===========~ lowest dives, and making hi~ personal life as in the affairs of living as a professional gam- the Empire. He was sent with bIer. Sometimes he would be his mother back to her family able to rent an upstairs room in Shizuoka, and had no further with a companion. When luck relation to his father's family. went against him, he would be- The national school system come a hold-up man, demand- had not been organized, the ing money at the point of his only schools being those taught sword.
by the priests in the Buddhist He was caught by the police, temples, and the "Juku" or convicted, and given a term of private schools where the Chi- eighteen months in prison.
nese and Confucian classics Here he twisted straw rope, were taught by the Shinto made straw sandals, pounded priests. At the age of nine the rice and similar work, clad in boy's relatives sent him to the red cotton uniform of a con- study with the priests of the viet. He learned in prison that Kyuenji Buddhist temple. At there were other ways of mak- thirteen he was sent to the ing a crooked living, not so dan- Juku where he was taught by gerous as highway robbery.
such luscious books as the Four Some of his new prison pals Classics and the Five Kings, were adepts at railway theft, the Juhashiraku, the Shiki and and from them he learned the the Saden – in a word, he superiority of this method to studied Kangaku, or Chinese his old ways. One is less liable classics. Like others of the MR. ASASHIRO MURAMATSU to get caught, and when caught Tokugawa retainers, the family the penalty is much lighter.
planned to make him an official of the new regime. On the completion of his term in prison, one of But even the salutary precepts of the Four these new acquaintances, nicknamed Takoichi, Classics often prove insufficient to tame the hot took him home, and initiated him in the art of blood of youth and unable to compete with the "working the trains." Through him Muramatsu seductions of the world, the flesh and the devil. met all the railway "fraternity."
Some of the boys in this "select boarding school" From the age of twenty-one to thirty-one Mr.
became addicted to sake drinking and to secret Muramatsu made his living as a railway thief. At- nocturnal expeditions. They were caught in time, tired as a well-dressed gentleman he traveled from and young Muramatsu and the whole set were ex- one end of the country to the other, from Sendai pelled from the Juku. His chances for an official to Kyushu. He took nothing but money, and never career were gone, and his relatives would have saved anything. He was caught and imprisoned • From Tlta Japan Christian Qual'terly, nine times, and served terms in all prisons of [ 593 ]
Tokyo, Yokohama, Shizuoka, Gifu, Osaka, and last On September 16, 1895, he walked out of prison of all, in Kobe. In each case he was given a light a free man, and a new chapter opened in his life.
sentence, and was soon at work again on the He was met by a number of his old companions trains. who wished to help him celebrate his release; but His last term in prison began when he was he refused their offers, and went off alone to rent thirty-one. Curiously enough, this time he was a room and look for an honest job. Everywhere arrested only on suspicion. He was kept in a large he applied for work when he told his past history room with twelve other suspects. One of these he was promptly refused. It seemed impossible men wrote to his wife for some papers-shorui– to get work in Kobe, so he decided to try Osaka.
to prove his innocence; but his wife, being an un- But he missed the train he intended to take, and educated woman, thought he wanted shomotsu,- while waiting for the next train, he dropped into some book to read. She went to a secondhand the Tamon Church where a service was going on.
book shop, and found there a good-sized book with Here he heard his first Christian sermon. At the "kana" beside the Chinese characters and several close of the service he was given a copy of the maps in it, all for five sen; so she bought this New church paper called The Morning Light, in which Testament and sent it to her husband. All thir- he read that the pastor was at home to visitors teen of the prisoners agreed that it would bring every Monday. So he gave up his trip to Osaka bad luck for them to read this Yaso book, that and called on Mr. Osada, who received him kindly, told how an innocent man had been crucified, talked and prayed with him, kept him for lunch, when they were trying to prove themselves inno- and suggested that he get work with Mr. Ishii at cent. They quoted the proverb, "Sawaranu Kami the Okayama Orphanage. That night he took the ni tatari nashi," which means "Keep God at a dis- boat for Okayama, met Mr. Ishii, was promised a tance and he will never hurt you." position, and returned to Kobe for the necessary Mr. Muramatsu picked up this book through police permit. This permit was at last given and curiosity and began to read it. He had heard that while waiting to get it, Mr. Muramatsu made his the New Testament was read by good people, and home with Mr. Osada.
that it was called a foundation of Western civiliz- Life in the Okayama Orphanage was a severe ation. He read how "Abraham begat Isaac, and test of any man's religion, as it was a time of Isaac begat Jacob," and that did not seem exactly great difficulty. Like George Muller of Bristol, thrilling. But a little further on in the first chap- Mr. Ishii had adopted the policy of making no ter of Matthew he came to the verse, "He shall appeals for outside financial help, making the in- save his people from their sins," and this verse stitution as far as possible self-supporting. The gripped his attention. In the Lord's Prayer he work was hard, the food was insufficient, and caught at the words, "Our Father." And in the there was no pay for the workers. Mr. Muramat- ninth chapter he read the story of the call of Mat- su's work began at 2 a. m., when he went out to thew, where Jesus said, "I am not :come to call the carry water from the river for the three hundred righteous, but sinners to repentance." He bowed children in the institution. Next he made the fires, his head and asked God to help him. took part in the weaving and other work, then Five days later his prayer was answered when helped in the night-school, which lasted till 9 p. m.
an old man of fifty-six, named Kichibyoei Mataki, All this was a hard life for a young gentleman was brought in on suspicion. He was not a Chris- who had never worked voluntarily in his life.
tian, but had read the Bible and attended church, After six weeks of it he was thoroughly disgusted and Christmas had made up his mind to run away. and knew a good deal about the Gospel. He was Just then he found out that some of the little chilsurprised to see a Testament in such a place, and dren were at work unraveling a knitted garment talked to the men about repentance, the cross, the and were knitting some warm woolen socks as a Christian life and salvation. A week later this Christmas present for him. These children had man was released and sent Mr. Muramatsu a Tes- learned the Christian spirit from Mr. Ishii, and tament. The old man was baptized shortly after, now they taught Mr. Muramatsu the same spirit and until his death remained a warm friend of of love. He gave up all thought of running away, Mr. Muramatsu. A Japanese proverb says, "Read and his entire attitude toward his work changed. a book a hundred times and you will understand its meaning." There was much in the Testament This incident brought up the problem of his life that Mr. Muramatsu could not understand, but he work, and Mr. Ishii offered to introduce him to did understand the meaning of repentance and the some business men but he felt the call of God to grace of God, and was converted through the read- Jead others to salvation in Christ. Mr. Ishii ining of this Testament. He then went to court and troduced him to Mr. Yamamuro of the Salvation made a full confession, and was given a sentence Army, who sent him to the Officers' School to preof six months. pare for work in the army. He finished the pre- scribed course in two months, was graduated as a
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION AND MISSIONS
lieutenant, and was given work for released pris- corned: First, those recommended by the prison oners in Tokyo, where he stayed a year and two authorities; second, those who come asking help months. But he felt hampered by the Salvation in re-establishing themselves in society; third, Army rules, so in December, 1897, he determined those whose friends or relatives ask for such aid. to resign and work independently. Some live in the home as members of the family; some live outside and have Mr. Muramatsu's help In January, 1898, Mr. Osada, Mr. Muramatsu and oversight; others get clothing and traveling and three others met for prayer, and together expenses to their homes in other parts of the counthey started a new work for prisoners, renting a try. Every day is opened with morning prayers house in Arata Cho, not far from the prison. It at 5 a. m. About a hundred and seventy pass was a venture of faith, and it was not easy to through the home in the course of a year. finance the work. A little experience proved that the proximity to the prison was a disadvantage, About one in five of those who are helped makes so in 1900 the location was changed to a good resi- good in his after life. Some of these have attained dential section of the city. positions of honor and usefulness. One incendiary who lived in the home a year and a half is now an A few years later, Judge Tanida, at that time official of high position and good reputation in head of the Prison Bureau in Tokyo, took a great Osaka. Another man who had served eighteen interest in Mr. Muramatsu and his work, and set terms in prison was converted in the home and is about to remove the stain of his police record. now a manufacturer in Kobe employing forty On September 13, 1912, Mr. Muramatsu was in- men. He conducts worship in his shop for his men vited to attend a formal ceremony at the prefec- every day, and is a pillar in his church. tural office and there, in the presence of a number of high officials and friends, a document was read, Today Mr. Muramatsu is recognized by the govstating that in view of his high character and ernment as one of the outstanding social workers eminent services the old police record against him of the country. On various occasions he has been was formally cancelled. He was no longer "under given an imperial decoration, two gold cups, a the law." (What a striking picture of our salva- silver cup, a watch and a medal. At the Naval tion, when all our sins are blotted out through the Review held in Kobe, he was one of the select cross of Jesus Christ!) guests at the imperial banquet. Five years ago he was given a pension of three hundred yen a year, Mr. Muramatsu's Christian home for released to continue till his death. He has become one of prisoners is called the Ai-rin-kwan, or Friendly the most highly honored as well as one of the most Home. It is open to ex-prisoners from anywhere useful citizens of the empire. in Japan, but three classes are especially wel- Christ's Resurrection and Missions* -'~I.1===B=Y_R=E=V=.=W=A=L=T=ER=E=.W=O=O=D=B=U=R=Y===~I~ CHRISTIAN missions were born of the resur- Judaism. After he had risen from the dead his rection. The whole movement sprang up friends were electrified with a glorious motive for in spontaneous obedience to the Great Com- evangelism and missions that they had never felt mission of the risen Lord. God had to use the before. They had a story to tell, the like of which whip of dire persecution to drive Christians to the the world had never heard before. At the risk of ends of the Roman world, but wherever they were their lives continually they told the irrepressible driven the growing joy of their faith in the resur- tale. rection leaped to their lips and brought conviction to their hearers. People have been moved to missionary activity and support by lesser motives. The romance of While the beginnings of Christian missions are missions has lured some, at least temporarily. deeply rooted in the very life, teachings and spirit The adventure of missions has challenged others. of Jesus Christ, Christian missions were not born The dire need of the nations that have not known until the risen Lord commanded "Go!" As long Jesus has moved many tender-hearted people to as Jesus lived Christianity was only a sect of missionary activity, but the abiding, worthy, ade- quate and compelling motive down through the • Reprinted from The WaWhman-Examiner. ages has been obedience to the command of the
risen Lord on the part of those who have known Christian missions. It was the resurrection that the power of His resurrection. made a mighty Gospel preacher of Peter, who be- The essence of the message of Christian mis- fore the resurrection made cowardly denial of his sions is a witness to the resurrection. This was Lord. It was a face-to-face encounter with the certainly true in the beginning. The whole life of risen Lord on his way to Damascus that trans- the Apostolic Church centered about the glorious formed Saul, the arch-persecutor, into Paul, the truth of the resurrection. When Peter stood up apostle to the Gentiles. What a list of obstacles, among the early Christians to suggest a successor hindrances and oppositions combined to thwart to Judas in the apostolic group, the stipulation the first great Christian missionary to the Gentile was that "one must be ordained to be a witness world! Paul, what mighty motive kept you go- with us of His resurrection." In Peter's great ing when friends betrayed you and ignorant sermon on the day of Pentecost, to which three heathen stoned you and left you for dead! Let thousand persons responded, accepting Christian Paul himself answer in the words of his letter to baptism, he bore witness to the fact of the resur- the Philippians: "For Christ Jesus I have suf- rection of Jesus, and bade those familiar with the fered the loss of all things, and do count them but Psalms of David note therein the foreshadowing dung that I may win Christ…… that I may know of this great event. He closed, making the reality him, and the power of his resurrection …… if by of the resurrection the basis of his call to repent- any means I may attain unto the resurrection of ance and baptism. the dead." Here are driving power and motive so As the crowd stood about Peter and John after mighty that no obstacles on earth and no powers the healing of the lame man at the gate which is of hell can stop the man impelled by them.
called Beautiful, as if it were some strange power It was faith in a risen Lord and a "resurrection of theirs that accounted for the miracle, Peter unto damnation" as well as a "resurrection unto protested against such an interpretation; bore life" that drove Judson, Rice and Newell to Bur- witness again, saying, "Ye have killed the prince ma, and held Judson to his task single-handed, of life whom God had raised from the dead ….. . during testing as by fire. It is popular in some And His name through faith in His name hath circles today to despise other-worldliness. But made this man strong." the redemption of this world has always awaited When a little later the preaching of the apostles the leadership of men who have known the reality had stirred all Jerusalem the Sadducees com- of the other world. It still does. There is not plained "that they taught the people, and power enough in this world, nor in all its philos- preached, through Jesus, resurrection from the ophies and ethnic faiths, to redeem it. It takes dead." This is the reason given in the Acts for resurrection power to break the bonds of sin.
their arrest. Before the high priest Peter The unparalleled opportunities of the mission preached the resurrection of Jesus. After their field of today can be met only by believers in the release from imprisonment the apostolic preach- resurrection. The giving both of life and of ing is summed up in the words: "With great money that is now demanded is irrational except power gave the apostles witness to the resurrec- on the hypothesis of the resurrection. The desire tion of the Lord Jesus." to share the nobler things in our Western culture Few of the apostolic missionary messages have with the rich cultures of the East is a small and come down to us, even in fragmentary form. Of impotent motive compared with the dynamic en- none of them have we a fuller report than that of thusiasm of those who know a risen, living Lord Paul's sermon in the Jewish synagogue at Antioch and whose witness cannot be silenced either by the in Pisidia, and his address to the curious on Mars demons of depression or by the dalliance of pros- Hill in Athens. The theme of his sermon to the perity. Resurrection truth is the very life of real Jews of Antioch was the resurrection of Jesus, Christian missions.
and although he was a long while coming to it, in his message on Mars Hill, when he got to the Do you ever think a moment point, it was "Jesus and the resurrection." Again Of the men who light the way before the Roman governor, Felix, he told of talk- For the vessels on the ocean, ing with the risen Lord. Paul's letters to the As they leave their trail of spray In the night; Christians of Corinth certainly preached resur- Of their vigil through the hours rection. To that church, in which there were Dark and light; doubters of this central Christian truth, he said plainly: "If Christ be not risen, then is our Of their hardship and privation In the times of storm and gale, Of the lives that owe them safety, preaching vain, and your faith is also vain ….. . How they never, never fail and ye are yet in your sins." Nor delay?
Only believers in the resurrection make real Surely they deserve remembrance Christian missionaries, or unfailing supporters of When we pray. -B. J. Goldsmith Jones.
Theological Schools
to Missions By the REV. WM. A. HILL, D.D., New York Secretary of Missionary Education, Board of Education of the Northern Baptist Convention THE theological schools ~ave naturally exerted aging. This analysis has been sent to the presi- a large influence on the Christian movement. dents of these sixty-eight institutions, from most In the furtherance of the missionary enter- of whom gracious acknowledgments have been reprise, where else could the churches look for co- ceived. The following questions were submitted operation with more assurance than to our sem- to the schools: inaries? During the past century hundreds of missionaries have gone forth from these institu- 1. Is there a member of the faculty designated as protions to do pioneer work on far frontiers, and yet fessor of missions giving his full time to that departduring the past few decades, the serious question ment? has been asked: Are our theological schools offering their graduates a missionary preparation com- 2. How many members of the faculty are giving part time mensurate with the expansion of the missionary to missions? enterprise? It seems to have been true that Christian denominations, having a great missionary 3. How many courses in missions are offered by the sembackground and purpose, have not made adequate inary? educational provision for the training of tomorrow's leaders in the missionary cause. 4. How many cognate courses, or courses closely related to missions, are offered by the seminary? The Baptist Board of Education, through its Department of Missionary Education, has been 5. Is some work in missions required of all students for studying this question for a number of years. graduation? If not, are any courses in missions re- quired of any group of students? In 1926 a comprehensive survey was made and the findings were sent to the presidents of the- 6. What has been the enrolment this past year in courses ological schools and to especially interested in- in missions? quirers. This survey showed one outstanding fact: that while many courses were provided in 7. How many students are preparing for foreign missionthe history of religions, comparative religions, and ary service? similar subjects, almost no consideration was given to the missionary training of the local 8. How many graduates or former students (1Wt includchurch, and no courses were provided for pastoral ing foreign students) have entered foreign missionleadership along missionary lines. ary service this past five years?
Interviews with theological students resulted in 9. What provision have you for missionaries on furlough? 10. How many students from abroad, in countries usually thought of as foreign mission fields, have been pre- paring for service in their native land? 11. What provision has the library for purchasing new books on missions? 12. What mission periodicals are taken by the library?
The latest catalogs were secured, courses in mis- sions were listed and classified, and the results were studied in the light of the reports received in answer to the questionnaire. Indisputably, the admissions of disappointment, and in some cases present curriculum provision for the study of the serious criticism of curriculum weakness was missionary enterprise has been greatly augmented voiced. Graduates from these schools, after years during the six~year period under discussion. The of active ministry in the churches, have also la- increased number of courses, their strength and mented the lack of preparation offered them as variety, seems to be in keeping with the general they faced the difficult task of building their interest now awakened in the missionary program churches around the missionary purpose of Chris- of the Christian church. tianity. One part of the analysis attempts to show the A distinct change is noted in a recent survey missionary service which is made available to stumade in 1932 by the Baptist Board of Education. dents through missionary periodicals and journals, This survey covered sixty-eight theological sem- and thus indicates the extension of library faciliinaries in the United States, essentially the same ties in missionary literature. The survey also institutions studied in 1926. The results, set forth points out the extent to which students are rein a twenty-seven page analysis, are most encour- quired to take courses in missions for graduation, [597 ]
and what provision is made by the theological sem- periodicals. Many of these periodicals come from inaries for missionaries at home on furlough. foreign lands and thus represent the effort of these The following significant figures show what has schools to bring the students into active touch happened in our theological schools during the six- with mission fields and problems. The total num- year period from 1926 to 1932: ber of magazines subscribed to is 785, and the Summaries average number of missionary magazines and periodicals for each institution is fourteen and a MISSIONARY COURSES IN NINE NORTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS fraction. Seventeen schools report less than five different magazines taken, and the following 1932 Increase 1926 4 100% schools offer the largest facilities: Full-time professors of missions … . 2 Part-time professor of missions … . 2 21 950% Union Theological Seminary ………… :100 magazines Required courses in missions …… . 18 18 Elective courses in missions ……. . 45 156 249% Hartford Seminary ……………….. 74 " Total number courses in missions .. 63 174 176% Courses in pastoral missionary leader- Garrett Biblical Institute …………… 49 41 925% ship …………………….. . 4 Biblical Seminary, New york……….. 42 Students preparing for foreign serv- 136 Divinity School, U. of Chicago. . . . . . . . .. 42 " ice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Drew Theological Seminary …………. 37 "
Southwestern Bapt. Theo. Seminary ….. 25 "
Colgate-Rochester Divinity School ……. 25 "
Total number enrolled in missionary Princeton Seminary, Yale Divinity School, The Union Theological Seminary (Virginia), Moody courses …………………… 327 Bible Institute, and Gordon College of Theology and Missions all report a large list without giving Seven of the nine Baptist seminaries make missions a requirement for all students.
MISSIONARY COURSES IN FIFTy-NINE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS the actual number. OF OTHER DENOMINATIONS The Christian Education Handbook of 1931 1926 1932 Increase gives a total of 9,213 students enrolled in these 68 Full-time professor of missions ….. 22 institutions. The total number of students pre- Part-time professor of missions …. 12 20 paring for foreign service in fifty-eight of these Total number of courses in missions . 225 schools reporting is 551. The enrolment in these Students preparing for foreign serv- 88 633% 371 64% ice. . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 fifty-eight schools is 8,003, and the percentage of Total number enrolled in missionary 1,883 students preparing for foreign service to total courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . enrolment would seem to be 6.9 per cent.
Of the fifty-nine schools other than Baptist, only six do This study furthermore reveals the importance not make missions a requirement. of Christian missions as a subject for platform MISSIONARY COURSES IN SIXTy-EIGHT THEOLOGICAL presentation. Since the courses in missions have SCHOOLS 1932 Increase been greatly increased, it is natural to expect a 1926 greater emphasis upon missionary lectures and 24 addresses. Men of outstanding ability have been Full-time professor of missions ….. 24 invited to present courses and lectures dealing Part-time professor of missions …. 14 109 678% Total number of courses in missions . 288 545 88% Students preparing for foreign serv- 551 with many phases of the world situation. This ice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,210 method tends to make more important the subject of Christian missions in the consideration of the Number enrolled in missionary courses In 1926 we did not record the number of stu- students themselves, and seems to show that mis- dents in seminaries preparing for foreign service, sions has been given its rightful place of primary nor the total number of students enrolled in mis- importance in the programs of these institutions.
sionary courses, but the figures for 1932 showed A study of the subjects presented both in the class 551 students (out of 8,003 students in seminaries room and from the platform shows the tendency reporting) preparing for foreign service, and to recognize missions in its larger connotations of 2,210 enrolled in missionary courses. Thus, racial and international brotherhood and friendli- twenty-five per cent of the students enrolled in ness. A more detailed study of the results of this these courses were preparing for foreign service. survey strengthens the conviction that the study Seven of the nine Baptist seminaries were found of Christian missions is fundamental in our the- to make missions a requirement for all, but the ological schools, and that the whole subject in the remaining two seminaries required missions for future will be approached and understood from a students majoring in the subject. Of the fifty- broad rather (han a sectional point of view, and nine schools other than Northern Baptist, only six from the angle of world interest and need as over of the seminaries did not make missions a require- against local considerations. The larger mission- ment. ary content in the curricula of our theological The library facilities for missionary education schools certainly gives promise of a ministry, in these fifty-four institutions reporting include a better trained in the missionary out-reach of total of 187 different missionary magazines and Christianity.
Education-Old and
By SEYMOUR E. MOON, Kimpese, Congo Beige T WENTY-EIGHT years ago, on my way to to make a signal contribution to African educa- the Congo for the first time, with my mind tion on the West Coast. set on plans for a Central Training School Before the advent of the white man African for teachers and preachers, I could name a dozen education was primitive indeed. Without an al- "peculiarities" of the kind of training the African phabet, of course there were no books, but the should have. But as the years have passed those great book of nature was wide open and a goodly things which I had thought clearly differentiated portion of boys and girls, by the time they Africans from all others have blended into char- reached the ages of fifteen or sixteen, knew the acteristics. I had thought of Hampton and plants, flowers, trees, birds, insects, animals of Tuskegee as offering an ideal of education pe- their locality and could tell the habits and distin- culiarly adapted to the African, be he in America guishing marks of different species. Many knew or on his own soil in Africa, but lo! these two something of the stars and their movements.
schools with scores of others have become models Boys learned to build a house, hunt and fish, trade for all education everywhere in the world. The wisely at markets and would be initiated into one emphasis on "Education for Life," "Manual of the secret societies, and in short would be pre- Training," "Industrial Training," in connection pared for assuming the life of a member of his with such literary training as is possible, con- tribe. Girls were taught to care for their baby sidering the time, money, and intellectual ability brothers and sisters, how to cook the food, how available, is a commonplace in all educational to prepare the soil and plant a garden and prob- work. ably would be initiated into a secret society, often Before I came to the Congo I thought of the with boys, where she learned the life she was to African as "children" grown tall, but I have had live as a prospective mother of children for the to revise that estimate and now must say that tribe. All learned the simple social customs of he is a man, even though he cannot read or write. the family or tribe, respect for elders, obedience When he was a child he thought as a child, spake to clan dictates were strictly enjoined. Punish- as a child, felt as any child of all our race, but ments were meted out for stealing (among the he grew up and put away childish things and be- clan) and for failure to observe the customs and gan to think mature thoughts. That he has not tabu of the family. The Chref's son who was in yet thought our big modern mechanistic, or our line for the chieftaincy was especially taught by scientific thoughts is small wonder. He is how- the Chief all the secrets and customs, especially ever a past master of "Behaviorism" and if he burial customs, with all the unwritten law from cannot yet think our scientific formulres he can decisions of the Chief's court, so that he would learn to handle with great skill our scientific ma- be able to assume the duties of Chief and pass on chines. He is no mean philosopher, at least of the tribal laws. In short, preparation for life was the life he knows; he is an expert psychoanalyst; the ideal of primitive education.
he probably knows the "White Man" better than Education, in so far, was sound; it was the the white man knows himself. No, the African kind of law life, but it was the life the relatives is not simply a child grown tall and his education and Chiefs knew and they know how to pass it must take account of maturity with variability on. Far from the popular idea that African boys much the same as that found in any race with the and girls, like Topsy, "just growed up"; rela- exception of the range of ability commonly recog- tives took them in hand and trained them for the nized as "genius." But here again it should be life they were to live. Any modern effort in the pointed out that owing to the prevalence of education of African youth, in so far as it fails "witchcraft" the geniuses of the race have al- to take into account the important influence of ways been the marked individuals and have been their relatives, elders, including the native Chief, cut off before they could make any great con- is always precarious, for some time during adoltribution to their race. That there have been escence they w~ll step in and insist on their youths great "souls" in Africa is beyond question. What marrying whom they will and of entering into the a tragedy for a struggling race that Dr. Aggrey life of the village.
was cut off by swift disease just as he was ready This explains the success of mission schools [599 ]
where their first pupils were redeemed slaves, or- ly the State has begun to take an active part in phans or children whose parents had definitely education for the Congo natives. In some of the committed them into the control and care of the eastern provinces they have been establishing mission; it explains also the success of training overseers for schools in certain districts and not schools where older men and women have been long ago an inspector of education was appointed chosen, for they have been able to secure the for the Lower Congo region. A beginning has hearty assent of relatives to take up the newer been made in textbooks in French grammar for vocations or else have been strong enough to use in elementary schools. One could wish that break with their people and act independently, all this effort in the direction of more extensive more or less. Even the most independent and training for Congo natives were organized on faithful native helpers of the mission feel they lines more adapted to the special needs of the must maintain a native house in their birth town; African. Educational committees of the various deaths and even illness make a tremendous pull mission societies have worked out a system of on the best of them to leave their work for in- education for Africans in which it is hoped the definite periods. This pull of the native village State, following the recommendations of the La life is especially strong in the women. Zoute Conference, will cooperate.
A New Era First, agricultural education is one of the first needs of the African. The soil is preeminently A new era in education has set In on the Lower the African's easiest available asset. The popular Congo. Parents are bringing their sons and idea that the African can live on roots and fruits daughters to the mission schools and are commit- from the primitive forest should be forgotten; ting them to the discipline and training of such he can exist on roots, to be sure, but if the African schools. They are following them up, and even is to live and take his part in the life of the world in cases where severe discipline is necessary, he must have more of the best tropical food prod- come to the school and administer the punishment ucts. The man, as well as the wife, must be themselves. Parents and elders are recognizing taught to dig deep into the soil. Happily more the value of the white man's education. This gives attention is being given to this simple but char- great assurance that they will support and en- acteristic kind of education for the African. Most courage their sons and daughters to live the new boarding schools require pupils to raise a con- life in their villages. I hope African children siderable share of their own food; training were never left entirely to themselves without schools like Kimpese and others where men and formative influence from relatives who aimed at their wives are brought for training together re- some definite preparation for the life they were quire the family to raise its entire food supply expected to lead, primitive though it was. in gardens furnished by the school. One mission Christian education for the African was barely requires men to plant and properly care for a begun forty years ago. The first Protestant mis- garden before they can join the church. And sionaries arrived in the Congo fifty years ago. The best of all this kind of education is taking hold first decade hardly sufficed to reduce the native and winning native support.
language to writing and for the winning of the Second, handcrafts should have a large place confidence of a few orphans or slave boys and the in every school curriculum for Africa. Many of personal helpers who came to work for the white the native crafts, such as mat making, weaving man for a short period. Each decade since that the grass cloth, pottery, should be encouraged time has seen an ever increasing amount of trans- and reestablished wherever it is being superseded lation work and more and more boys and girls by European products. Other useful handcrafts coming voluntarily to the missions' boarding should be introduced. Industrial education which schools. Boys and, latterly girls, trained at these will help the native to use mechanical power, schools have become teachers in their own vil- especially water power for simple native mills for lages until today there are comparatively few grinding corn, peanuts, etc., and for irrigation villages where there is not some sort of school. seems to me most important.
Most village schools are little better than primary Third, since African youth must be prepared grades where the alphabet is taught, addition and to enter into the tribal life, social education must subtraction are attempted, and writing is learned be given a very prominent place in curricula for by the brighter boys and some of the older men African schools. Missions have well nigh revolu- by the use of the slate pencil or with a sharpened tionized most, if not all, native social customs, stick writing on the ground. About a hundred especially games, dances and nearly everything thousand pupils are now learning to read in the relating to marriage. It could hardly have been heart of Africa in this great territory along the otherwise and missions will have done well if they Great River which Stanley descended after nine replace all these with something better-some- hundred and ninety-nine days of travel. Recent- thing so good that it will divert attention from
AFRICAN EDUCATION-OLD AND NEW
the evils of the old but will inspire the same loyal- tive has all the time in the world. Effort should ties and the same social solidarity. Can such be made to encourage speed in his work by hold- social education be given? Yes, I think it can. ing out before him new studies and new interests.
At any rate I feel sure it must be given. Some- In comprehension I think the Congo native is thing as gripping as any secret society must take well up to the average. The Bible, at present the its place; something that will inspire to as fine one important textbook, is learned very rapidly.
a loyalty as ever was shown to the family or tribe Congo teachers have a rare understanding and must be trained into the novitiates in the Chris- appreciation of Bible characters. These pupils tian society. Cannot the Boy Scout idea be worked which I have tested, and found doing third grade out? Christian fellowship must be worked out work after only fifteen months of boarding school as a native brotherhood if it is to function in the study, pass my Bible test with higher marks than most solid way when the missionary shall of ne- college freshmen. Of one thing we can be reason- cessity turn over more and more of the responsi- ably sure Congo boys and girls can acquire a good bilities for propagating the Gospel to native working knowledge of any subject adapted to his leaders. needs.
Fourth, literary education is all important in Last, but most important of all, is the need of furnishing the African the tools with which to your African for religious training. Any scheme acquaint himself with the best of the past and the of education that neglects this is fatal. "Man is present good that the world is offering. We must incurably religious," is certainly true of the Afri- not spend all our time on the mere mechanics of can. He has a genius for it and he may some reading, writing and arithmetic so as to neglect day make a real contribution to religion especially drawing, music, art and beauty. Three R's one on the side of faith if he can be educated to the must do but one ought not to leave the others un- higher religious ideals of the Gospel. The African done. can teach us much about the meaning of forgive- From a study of Congo children using standard ness-he hardly knows how to hold a grudge.
tests, it was found that boys of an average age of Religion of joy, goodwill, justice, and love is thirteen or fourteen who have had no previous daily manifested by the African. Give him the schooling can do third grade work in reading, best interpretation of the life of the great proph- writing, arithmetic and composition in fifteen ets and of the great Missionary Paul and of months of training in a good boarding school. Christ Himself and the African will grow and All who have had to teach young children main- take up his great burden. I fancy it will not be tain that they progress normally. It is a Congo simply a burden of wood and water but a goodly characteristic to do most things slowly-the na- share of the tasks of the world.
When Alexander Duff, the great Scottish missionary to India, returned to Scotland and made a tour, preaching in the churches, he found that money, although in abundance, was not finding its way into the Lord's treasury. He said: "It is invested in stately mansions, splendid equipages, extrava- gant furniture, costly entertainment, and idle and usele·ss luxuries. The churches are treating the cause of Christ as Dives treated Lazarus." Has not the same condition existed in America in the days of prosperity? Even in thi,s time of depression much is wasted in useless entertainment and luxuries, and in a thousand different extrava- gances. The outstretched hands of the heathen pleading for help are the outstretched hands of our Sav- iour, and shall He walk up and down the aisles of our churches in the attitude of a beggar calling for some of the crumbs of our plenty?
From all countries the Macedonian cry is sounding, "Come over and help us." God has opened fields before us, and if human agencies would but cooperate with divine agencies, many, many souls would be won to Christ.. But professing Christians have been sleeping over their allotted work, and in many places the need remains comparatively untouched. God has sent message after message to arouse us to do something, and to do it now. BlJ,t to the call, "Whom shall I send?" there have been few to respond, "Here am I; send me."
We plead for the money that is spent on needless things. My brethren and sisters, waste not your money in purchasing unnecessary things. You may think these little sums do not amount to much, but many littles will make a great whole. Cut off every extravagant expenditure. Indulge in nothing that is simply for display. Your money means the salvation of souls. Let there be systematic giving on the part of all. Some may be unable to give a large sum, but all can lay aside each week something for the Master. Let the children act their part. Let parents teach their children to save their pennies to give to the Lord. The Gospel ministry is to be supported by self-denial and sacrifice. Through the ,self-denying efforts of God's people others will be brought into the faith, and these in turn will help to increase the offerings made for the carrying forward of the Lord's work.
Wilfred Grenfell in Labrador*
I By the REV. ARTHUR J. BROWN, D.D., LL.D., _.•1fit I New York Secretary Emeritus of the Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
PROBABLY the best known Christian work- denly rose. It seemed to me such a wonderfully coura- ers today are Grenfell, Schweitzer and Kaga- wa. All of them are working in what the geous act-for I knew perfectly what it would mean to him-that I immediately found myself on my feet, average American regards as the far corners of and went out feeling that I had crossed the Rubicon, the earth-Grenfell on the stormy, rock bound and must do something to prove it.
coast of Labrador; Schweitzer among the naked Grenfell at once decided to devote his life to tribesmen in the jungles of Africa; and Kagawa Christian work, and when a call came for a Chris- ?among the slum dwellers of a congested city in tian physician to care for sick and injured fisher- apan. The three men, although differing widely men off the Dogger Banks in the North Sea, he III many respects, are alike in their self-sacrific- volunteered to go. It was a rough experience on ing devotion to Christ and their fellow men. tempestuous waters, but it showed him the dire . Sir Wil~red Grenfell has had so much publicity need of such men, and when, in 1891, he was III the Umted States and Great Britain that his asked if he would undertake similar service life and work have become familiar to English among the fishermen on the Labrador coast, he readers, but the story never loses its charm. He promptly responded.
was born on February 28, 1865, icnlePrgarykmgaante~fntehaer Then began the career which has made him Cheshire, England, the son of a famous, although fame was the last thing that Church of England. He was educated at Marl- the young physician thought of, nor was there borough College, choosing the medical profession any place on earth where it seemed less likely to for his life work, and training for it in the Lon- be achieved. He found rude, lonely, poverty- don Hospital and University. He had no thought mstreidcI.kcealn, fishermen aonr dC ht hr iesitri a nfafmaciliilietsi'es.w iDt heoepu-t educational of speci~l Christian service until, at the age of ly moved, he went vigorously to work. Realizing twenty, III the second year of his medical course the necessity for money, he made trips to the as he says: ' United States, Canada and Great Britain in which Retu~ning from an out-patient case one night, I he presented the urgent need of suitable equipturned mto a large tent erected in a purlieu of Shad- ment, and he formed groups of supporters in the well, the district to which I happened to have been leading cities. Returning to Labrador, he built called. v It proved to be an evangelistic meeting of the then famous Moody and Sankey. It was so new to me hospitals, established schools, inaugurated plans that when a tedious prayer-bore began with a long for social betterment, fed the hungry in times of famine, helped the children, counselled men and oration, I started to leave. Suddenly the leader, who women in their hours of perplexity, comforted the I learned afterwards was D. L. Moody, called out to dying, and in all and through all ministered to the the audience: "Let us sing a hymn while our brother soul as well as to the body; speaking and preachfinishes his prayer." His practicality interested me ing in season and out of season of the Great Phyand I stayed the service out. When I left, it was with sician Jesus Christ.
a determination either to make religion a real effort to He tells the story of his strenuous forty years do as I thought Christ would do in my place as a i!-l the au~obiography which has just been pubdoct~r, or fr::nkly a?an?on it.. That could only have lIshed. FIfteen years ago, he published a smaller one Issue whIle I stIll lIved WIth a mother like mine' for she had always been my ideal of unselfish love: Later, I went down to hear the brothers J. E. and C. T. book, "A Labrador Doctor," in which he gave the Studd .speak at some subsidiary meeting of the Moody main facts up to that time. In the present larger campaIgn. . . . Never shall I forget, at the meeting work, he has incorporated some material from of the Studd brothers, the audience being asked to the former volume, enlarged it, and brought the stand up if they intended to try and follow Christ. narrative down to date. He says that he hesi- It appeared a very ,sensible question to .me, but I was tated to write again, but that he yielded to the importunities of his friends and supporters to amazed how hard I found it to stand up. At last one give a more complete account than the earlier work and to include the more recent develop- ?Oy, ou~ of a hundred or more in sailor rig, from an ments. There is a touch of pathos in Dr. GrenmdustrIal or reformatory ship on the Thames, sud- s • "Forty Years for Labrador," by Sir Wilfred Grenfell. vo.
372 PP. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. $4.00.
[602 ] fell's intimation that the toils and privations of but for their spiritual welfare-a truly Christlike forty years have begun to tell upon his body; ministry of healing and love. "the color of my hair has become that of its winter environment, and for the last four years there The volume, beautifully illustrated and well inhave been increasing signs of wear in the faith- dexed, will interest and delight the author's host ful old pump. . . . We sense the approaching of admirers. Amid the raucous voices of greed shadow of the inevitable last chapter." But his spirit is still buoyant and unconquerable, and his faith in Christ and his fellow men is as strong and serene as ever.
The world's honors have been freely lavished upon the devoted missionary. More than a dozen colleges and universities have showered degrees upon him. Cities have conferred their "freedom." The Royal Geographic Society of Great Britain, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, the National Society of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Medicine of England, the Fellowship of the College of Surgeons of America, and various other scientific organizations have elected him to membership or given him gold medals, and the King of Great Britain has made him a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. Has any other missionary ever re- ceived so many of the world's honors? But he counts highest of all the honor of being an ambassador of Christ to needy men. After every visit to England and the United States, he turns eagerly back to his happy life work among the scattered hamlets of Labrador's rude fisher folk. It is a moving story, told modestly but clearly, abounding in adventure, throbbing with human interest, disclosing the rich values of character and selfishness and jealousy, which are making such a clamor in the world, it is encouraging to think of men like Grenfell and many other mis- sionaries, less widely known but equally worthy, who count not their lives dear unto themselves for the joy of following in the steps of Him who sought to rescue the farthest out and the deepest down.
LABRADOR ORPHANS IN WINTER DRESS IN THE "GOOD OLD (LIQUOR) DAYS"
under the rough exterior of the humble people Here's what the interested parties got: who wrest their scanty living from the wild shores of Labrador and icy waters of the North From a bushel of corn, in the "good old days," the dis- Atlantic. The story is pervaded throughout with tiller got four gallons of whiskey. This retailed at $16.50. sympathetic appreciation of their physical suf- Here's what the others got out of it: ferings and with zeal not only for their material The Farmer got ……………….. $ .25 The United States got ………….. 4.40 The Railroad got …………. . . . . . .. 1.00 The Manufacturer got …………… 3.70 The Drayman got ………………. .15 The Retailer got ……………….. 7.00 The Consumer got …………….. Drunk The Wife got ……………….. Hungry The Children got……………… Ragged Will there be much difference in "these days"?
and Half Truths Ab,out
A Review of the Supplementary Volumes III and VI of the Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry ~w -€IARD M. CLARK, Ph.D., Kob" Japan j!>- T,HESE volumes which relate to Japan reveal to those outside the Christian faith. Any "patron- strikingly little which is new to anyone who izing" attitude toward Japanese Christians, pas- has read "Re-Thinking Missions." Addi- tors, evangelists or churches, must be an echo of tional material is found in the supplementary days long passed. volumes but, good as much of that material is, there does not seem to be much vital relation be- It is unfortunate that both Fact-Finders and tween the facts given and some of the conclusions Appraisers have apparently failed to extricate drawn. themselves from narrow nationalistic conceptions which have no recognized place in this day of These reports contain certain fundamental, international thinking. Both missionaries and although perhaps unavoidable, defects. To state their Japanese colleagues have been disappointed this is not to underestimate the earnest attempt at the Fact-Finders' and Appraisers' apparent of those who conducted the inquiry. They prob- lack of grasp of the international aspect of Chrisably did all that could be expected of a group of tianity as embodied in the foreign missionary busy people who attempted in less than a year (in enterprise. The frequent references to "Japasome cases only a few months), to ascertain all nese" and "foreign" elements in this great proof the important facts regarding a broad field of gram, and the distinctions made in favor of the activities and amid surroundings with which they one or the other of these two divided elements, give were not very familiar. rise to a question as to the presence or absence of an adequate comprehension of the real unity Had these inquirers been able to give several of Christ's followers who labor together in this years to active missionary service in Japan, as a world-wide enterprise. There is no New Eng~ background for their investigations, they would lander or Westerner, American or Japanese; a have gained a more accurate knowledge of facts worker in God's Kingdom on earth should be and would doubtless have reached somewhat dif- chosen for his fitness for the position, not because ferent conclusions. The Director of the Fact of his birthplace. Finding Staff, although at one time resident in Japan, had not been there for the past decade or Dr. Toyohiko Kagawa, often referred to as the two and so was not acquainted with recent leading spokesman of Japan, and sometimes as changes in life and evolving methods. Many the outstanding Christian leader in the world, sidelights reveal attitudes and ideas now long out- criticizes this attitude on the part of the investigrown in Japan. gators as "the retreat from Christian Internation- alism,"* and states that "since this report has for- For example, we find the suggestion that mis- gotten the Cross it still differentiates between sionaries should recognize that Christianity is 'home' and 'foreign' missions." He reminds us only one of a number of religions in Japan. If that "Christ belongs to all nations," and that "we missionaries are not aware of these other reli- who belong to Christ should possess a stronger gions why have they gone to Japan? international spirit, and should give ourselves to the propagation of Christ-Spirit, forgetting the The statemerit is also made that Japanese re- distinction between 'home' and 'foreign.' " sent being "patronized" or referred to as "heathen," and desire rather to be considered as "part- Probably the Fact-Finders did hear some critiners" of the foreign evangelistic agencies. cisms from the lips of "influential Japanese" and "leaders of the Japanese churches," but a few such In the remote past there probably was a tend- expressions cannot be considered representative ency on the part of missionaries to have more or less of a patronizing attitude toward the Japanese • See his criticism of "Re-Thinking Missions" as it appeared in Christians, but no missionary today refers to non- Christians in Japan by the use of any Japanese ~~~~~~ ~~8~.;'R[~a(~~r~be(r~9r~M'~d again in the MISSIONARY word which has not wide acceptance in referring [ 604 ] of any considerable body of thinkers either above diagrams it is difficult for ordinary readers within or without the Christian Church. The at- to comprehend how, from these premises, the titude of Dr. Kagawa is more representative of conclusion can be drawn (page 84 of Volume III) the attitudes of the real leaders. that "in confidential interviews, however, most of There is in these volumes a wealth of statistical the leaders of the Japanese churches declared that material which may be used as a basis for further no more missionaries should be sent for evangel- investigations by those familiar with the details istic work." The number of these confidential of the work. interviews" should have been sufficiently aug- An Appealing Challenge mented to include some who had a wider vision of the unfinished task; some who were experi- Meanwhile we should face seriously some of the mentally cognizant of the facts; men and women appealing challenges presented in the reports. sufficiently Christian in spirit and Pauline in evan- One major challenge may be taken as in illustra- gelistic fervor to be more deeply concerned about tion of others which might be selected. the still untouched rural half of Japan's popula- tion and the still unreached 259 out of every 260 One diagram (Vol. VI, page 17) portrays the of her people. It is not easy to understand how a standing of Christianity in relation to Buddhism few "confidential interviews" could have been acand Sectarian Shinto. This shows that the num- cepted as a basis for the deduction of a conclusion ber of Christian Sunday school teachers is more regarding so astounding a problem. than those of Buddhism, which did not begin to establish Sunday schools until comparatively re- Let us accept the challenge of these facts and, cently. making our own appraisal, draw our own conclu- sions! Let us, in drawing our conclusions, seek The real challenge comes in the lower half of "confidential interviews" with Him who called the diagram which visualizes the almost imper- Paul of old, who has called thousands since, and ceptible place that Christ holds in the Japanese who today is calling many more to march out on Empire. Out of a total of 93,172 religious propa- the 12,000 trails leading to the 12,000 unevangelgation centers only 1,708 are Christian; and ized villages of Japan, with their 40,000,000 waitamong the 250,198 professional religious workers ing souls! only 2,348 are representatives of Christ. This becomes the more amazing when it is observed Rise up 0 men of God! Have done with lesser things; that of 58,686,852 "believers" connected with all Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the of the religions, only a little more than 254,000 King of kings.
are believers in' Christ and these present all Rise up 0 men of God! His kingdom tarries long; branches of Christians, including Roman and Bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of Greek Catholic. At best we can estimate not wrong. more than one Christian amid every 260 people in Japan. Rise up 0 men of God! The Church for you doth wait, Her strength unequal to her task; Rise up and make her great!
A more or less accurate distribution of this in- This still untouched rural half of Japan is not finitesimal number of Christians is portrayed on the only challenge which may be seen by the close page 27 of the same volume. The figures reveal observer of the facts discovered. The field of the percentage of Chr.istians in each Prefecture, education still needs the Christian spirit and the but the size of the rings in the diagram are not Christian message which can not be embodied in related to the size of the map. the government school system. The social impli- cations of the Gospel need a much fuller and a A similar diagram might have been drawn to more varied expression in Japan than they have show another challenging situation in the fact yet received. that even the small Christian population and the few centers of propagation are located largely Lift high the cross of Christ! Tread where His feet have within the cities and great centers, leaving the trod; rural people, fifty per cent of the population, as As brothers of the Son of Man, Rise up 0 men of God!
yet untouched by direct Christian influence. The table on page 28, although it reveals a striking EVERY NATION'S NEED shortage of churches in rural districts, does not present a complete picture in that so large a unit God give us men! A time like this demands as 10,000 population is used as a basis for the Strong minds; great hearts, true faith and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office cannot kill, comparison. Had the unit of 5,000 or less been Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, Men who possess opinions, and a will, chosen the proportion of unchurched units would Men who have honor, men who will not lie, have been still more appalling. Even so, out of a Men who can stand before a demagogue total of 10,002 townships 9,955 are without the And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking, Pure men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog privileges of a Christian church. In public duty and in private thinking.
On the basis of the facts pointed out in the -J. G. HOLLAND.
Henry Grant-A Friend of
His Contribution to Christian Missions ~r– By ROBERT E. SPEER THE death of William Henry Grant in Orange, New spending the summer in the mountains in the Island of Jersey, on November 3d, has taken away one of the Kiushiu. He was an English Baptist layman of ample most devoted and best loved servants of the mission- means, who gave his life to work in Shantung and who ary cause whom our generation has known. One of was one of the most remarkable missionaries of his time. He and Mr. Grant had great community of thought and the most gentle and modest of men, he has been at the spirit, and that visit with him in the little Japanese vilsame time one of the most efficient and creative personali- lage in the mountains is never to be forgotten. ties of our time. There were at that time no railroads in Korea and all He was born in Philadelphia in 1858 and when a boy the means of transportation were crude and primitive. of thirteen sailed from New York around Cape Horn to We made our way from Chemulpo to the Tatong River on California on the famous clipper ship "Captain Burgess." the only vessel flying the Korean flag-a small steamship After his retur!1 in 1872 to Philadelphia he attended the carrying coal and having a constant list, with a Japanese Pennsylvania Military Academy and then the University captain and Korean crew, no edible food and no endurable of Pennsylvania from which he was graduated in 1878. cabin. We were nearly wrecked in fog among the islands For some years he was in business and then made a trip but survived to reach Pyengyang and saw the beginnings of the Christian Church there. Then we walked overland around the world, visiting both the Near and the Far to Seoul and then to Chemulpo, with horses carrying our East, in company with Luther D. Wishard, who was at luggage, and sleeping in the streets of the Korean villages that time active in promoting the work of the Young in the hot summer. Mr. Grant was adaptable to all con- Men's Christian Association in the foreign field. ditions, full of ingenuity and good cheer. He had an amazing memory for past incidents and experiences, which On returning from this trip Mr. Grant turned to dis- enriched his conversation and made him one of the best tinctly Christian service. He was deeply interested in the of traveling companions. newly developing movements among the young people of the churches and soon became attached as an honorary His supreme missionary interest, of course, was China worker to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, for and he loved the country and its people with an absorbing many years acting as the Librarian of the Board, reorgan- love. The only time that I ever saw him angry and inizing and developing the work which was rich in early dignant was at the time of the Treaty of Versailles, when Shantung was not given back unconditionally to China. missionary literature. But he made this simply the base The Chinese returned his love and students of Lingnan of his larger service of missions in promoting missionary were continually coming to see him in New York or weIzeal among the young people and missionary cooperation coming him with deep affection when he met them in among the Foreign Mission Boards of the United States Hawaii or Japan or China. He made several trips in con- nection with the college and each time was greeted as in a and Canada. true sense the chief founder and benefactor of the insti- He was present at the first meeting of the Foreign Mis- tution. Many of the gifts which made its development possible were secured by him and one building given by sions Conference of North America in New York City on Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Schauffier was named, at their insistence, Grant Hall. January 12, 1893, and soon became the secretary. He acted as secretary and treasurer until January 15, 1918, Henry Grant was a great lover of the out-of-doors life. when he was made honorary secretary for the remainder For a long time he was afflicted with hay-fever in the of his life. The Conference owes more to him and to his summer time and was obliged to find regions in which he successor and dear friend, Fennell P. Turner, than to any would have relief. While never physically robust, and obliged always to exercise the greatest care, especially as other men. He was one of the chief executives of the to diet, he traveled everywhere fearlessly and met all Ecumenical Missionary Conference in New York in 1900 conditions and did his work with extraordinary endurance. and of the Edinburgh Conference of 1910. These Confer- He was in character a man of stainless purity, highences owed as much to him for their arrangement as to minded, self-forgetful and generous without limit, delight- ing to give to the full measure of his ability. He was one anyone. of the cleanest-minded men that I have ever known, wholly Mr. Grant had a wealth of friendships among mission- inaccessible to ribaldry or vulgarity-totally unresponsive to anything that was unworthy or low. No one could ever aries all over the world. His judgment of character and have spoken to him otherwise than he would have spoken capacity was unfailing, and he trusted and was trusted by to a woman or an innocent child. Full of humor, of genthe ablest men in Christian missions throughout the world. erosity, of happy regard for others, of shrewd sense and This faculty of discernment and trust early brought him of rare distinctness of personality, he was the best of into contact with some of the strongest missionaries in companions and of friends. He was a Christian man of China, interested in the development of Christian educa- simple and steadfast faith, knowing his Bible thoroughly tion, such as Dr. Mateer in North China and Dr. Happer and living by prayer. For many years he was the center and Dr. Henry in South China. When Dr. Happer made of a little Fellowship Group of a dozen friends who met annually for a quiet day and received from him monthly generous provision in his will for the establishment of a a prayer list in which each friend shared with the others Christian college in Canton, many problems were involved his experiences of life, his grounds for thanksgiving and in the initiation and development of the institution. Mr. his requests for prayer. He was a beautiful and a lovely Grant at an early stage became involved in these and the spirit. All who knew him are immeasurably richer for establishment and development of the institution, first as his life and poorer for his death.
the Canton Christian College and now as Lingnan University, is chiefly due to his wisdom, unselfishness and quiet but unyielding tenacity of purpose. No one will ever know the difficulties which he surmounted' with unfailing wisdom and patience.
Mr. Grant made a number of visits to the mission field. He and I had rare experiences together in 1897, both in China and in Japan, but especially in Korea. In Japan we made a memorable visit to Mr. A. G. Jones, who was [606 ]
'~I====,=""====-~=========~==I~
Effective Ways of Working crested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~'~~===~========–=-==—==—-==—~I~ MERRY CHRISTMAS WITH wee tots would enjoy "The Call eyes because it had been such a A MISSIONARY MESSAGE Drum" ; "The Children of the comfort." The story runs: Chief"; "If I Lived in Africa"; A CHRISTMAS PRAYER "Wee Won g 's Chopsticks" ; The poster advertising the meeting "Kembo, a Little Girl of Africa" ; was a gay sketch of a Christmas tree We open here our treasures and our "Child Neighbors in America"; with the announcement that there gifts; "The Yellow Friendly Book," etc. would be gifts for all present. A beau- Older young people would find tifully decorated little tree stood upon And some of it is gold and some is these fascinating: "Pioneers of the table at the service, and among frankincense and some is myrrh; Goodwill"; "Good News Across the branches was a gift for each per- the Continent" ; "Meet Your son taking part on the program. The For some has come from pl;~nty, some United States" ; "Follow the gifts were stars, candles, stockings, from joy, Leader"; "Builders of a New etc., of bright paper, each containing World" ; "Young America Makes a typewritten slip. As each recipient's And some from deepest sorrow of the Friends" ; "How Far to the name was called, she came forward, Nearest Doctor?" "So This Is received her gift and shared it with a soul. Missions." Don't forget your the audience by reading her slip and pastor as you choose among "The rendering her number on the program. But Thou, God, dost know the gift Never-Fading L i g h t"; "The The first six gifts gave the Scripture is love, Christian Mission in America"; "God's Candlelights" ; "We're lesson as follows: Our pledge of peace, our promise of Craftsmen All"; "The Christ of goodwill. the Christian Fa i t h" (Mac- First Gift: "And the angel said kenzie); "The Finality of Jesus unto them, 'Fear not, for behold I Accept the gifts and all the life we Christ" (Speer); "Out of My bring you good tidings of great joy bring. Life and Thought" (autobiog- which shall be to all people!''' This raphy of Albert Schweitzer) and Christmas gift of joy is for each of us Christmas Gifts a host of others you may select from our Father. Let us take it and from "Our Missionary Book- be happy. (Response from audience Why wait until the last few shelf" in THE REVIEW. If still with bowed heads, "For this gift of days before Christmas and then in doubt, send to your denomina- joy we thank Thee, our Father." plunge into an orgy of gift-buy- tional headquarters for suging – often of things unwanted, gestions as to magazines, pic- Second Gift: "For unto us is born unneeded and of doubtful value tures and attractive missionary this day in the city of David a Saviour, to their recipients? What could books. Put "Christ" back into which is Christ the Lord." (Similar be of greater sentimental or in- "Christmas" this year, as the prayer-response by audience.) trinsic value to Christian friends most important move in banishand relatives than a subscription ing the depression. Third Gift: "Glory to God in the to a missionary magazine or the highest, on earth, peace, goodwill to gift of a choice book? A dear A Good Christmas Program men." For each one of us this Christfriend of the writer – one of mas time our Father has the beautiful world-wide heart and penny- This plan, used by the women gifts of peace and goodwill. (Prayersized pocketbook – makes it her of the First Baptist Church of invariable custom to send the San Diego, California, a few response.) Book of Remembrance (the years ago may easily be adapted Fourth Gift: Mat. 2: 11. The birthday book of missionaries of for children, grown-ups or young her denomination). Each day as people. It evidently carried its Christmas gift that affords us the most the readings were conned their own dynamics, for the reporter joy is the pleasure of giving to our triple reminder was of the donor, said: "One dear little old lady King. (Response.) the Christ she loved' and the mis- who has almost nothing with sionaries carrying the message which to purchase material gifts Fifth Gift: John 3: 16. The paraof that Christ to the uttermost thanked me with tears in her mount gift of eternal life is the one parts. which makes all else worth while. [ 607] (Thanks for eternal life.) Another friend wrote last year: "I subscribed for THE RE- Sixth Gift: This gift which I am VIEW as a Christmas present for to share with you is better than anymy sister – and how our whole thing that gold can purchase, and it is family does enjoy it!" There are for all of us whether of low or of high also the magazines in your own estate. 1 John 4: 7-11. ("For thy gift denomination-junior and senior of love, we thank Thee, our Father.") -and the delightful reading and study books for the current year, Following this were glowing sketches for the folk of all ages. How the of the lives of several missionaries who had conferred priceless gifts not only upon the peoples they ministered to but upon us at the home base- David Brainerd, Livingstone, Paton, Carey – the selection might be op- tional, and either world-wide or of any specific denomination.
Instead of announcing a solo in the usual manner, the music was rolled in
white paper, tied with a red ribbon attached to the branches as had overspread the foreign misand given to the musician from the gifts? The caller or group of sion field, she embodied the faith tree, as a gift that she might share callers brings a fitting devotional in the everlasting promises that with the whole audience. message and words of love and would eventually chase all gloom good cheer. This is Home Mis- Any missionary program may be ar- sion service. away; the second vice-president ranged in the form of Christmas gifts, accepted the blue symbol as insince everything we have is a gift PLANS FOR A NEW YEAR dicating that in her work as sofrom God and should be shared. This cial leader, she would be due to program had not only the charm of It may be a new calendar year chase away gloom and bring novelty but emphasized afresh at the or a new organizational year or Christmas season the fact that the just a fresh, inspirational begin- loveliness into the workaday best gifts are not material and are for ning at any season; but make it lives of the audience; the third everyone. hopeful and courageous. The vice-president, responsible for latest ailment is "depression psy- Bringing Joy to All the World chosis," from which many good the White Cross (mission hos- folk are suffering. We have pital) work, was given the green Each year adds to the number dwelt on retrenchments and as emblematic of the growth of of churches that recognize the losses until the emotional outlook the Kingdom that her practical supreme fitness of translating bids fair to become chronic. The the "Glad Tidings of Great Joy" women's society of the Gran- ministrations would promote, as into a missionary message for ville, Ohio, Baptist church re- she supplemented the missionthe Sunday school, the woman's cently inaugurated a series of aries' gifts of the Leaves of society, the whole congregation. rainbow topics to carry through A symposium was compiled for the entire church year as their Healing to the nations; the Missions by Rev. William B. Lip- "code" to combat the depression treasurer wore the yellow inphard presenting a review of psychology. Taking as their key- signia to typify her custody of Christmas celebrations and fes- note the opening paragraph of tivities on the mission fields of this department in the October the gold which, whether exthe Baptists. Any subject mat- number of THE REVIEW, the de- pressed in money or service, repter gathered from mission board votional leader was introduced resented that which was the correspondence in any denom- as the key-woman, her theme be- most precious gift of the memination will be equally effective. ing, "The Bow of Promise Ap- A few titles from Dr. Lipphard's pears" (Gen. 9: 14, Mat. 24: 35, bership to the Lord; the recordmay be suggestive and give the Ps. 148: 1-6). The Christian op- ing secretary wore the orange flavor of the symposium: timism of her address was not emblem as indicating the words inspired by amiable Pollyan- Christmas Amid Rumors of War naism or prosperity ballyhoo of wisdom, worth and cheer in (Burma); Christmas Tree Among the (of which we have had too which she must gather up and Indians; Christmas Feasts at Banza much), but by confidence in the store away the golden treasures Manteke (Africa); Christmas Jour- everlasting promises expressed brought forth in the 'meetings; neys in Nicaragua; Christmas Con- in God's Word. trasts in Oklahoma; Christmas Gifts the corresponding secretary com- Appreciated, in India; With Christ The rainbow was then pre- pleted the rainbow with the No East Nor West (in China); Christ- sented on three different horimas Everywhere (brief extracts from zons: (1) In the home church, cheery red showing the "rosy correspondence in eight different where a new set of consecrated. hue that must run through all fields) . able officers were about to as~ her correspondence, especially sume their duties in the society. The author adds: Although a strain An installation service was con- with the sick and the shut-ins." of similarity runs through all the ac- ducted. investing these officers The singing of "Showers of counts, since children are children with the colors of the bow, the BIessing" completed this investeverywhere and react in similar enthu- president having pinned on her ment. siastic fashion to the receipt of gifts a very large violet crepe paper and likewise enjoy the same carols, the chrysanthemum wit h Ion g (2) The Home Mission Rainsame Christmas pageantry and the streamers, emblematic of the bow proved to be a colorful eternal story of the Saviour who lay ultra-violet rays that quicken the in a manger in Bethlehem, yet there processes of growth in the same visualization of the splendid new is a uniqueness in each which gives way she must endeavor to study books for use this year, freshness to the narrative as a whole awaken the organization to new the exercise given on page 325 and indicates again how Christmas is 1ife and activity; the first viceuniversal in its appeal and in its heart president, responsible for the of the June REVIEW being used, interest. missionary features, received followed by the singing of "Fling the indigo emblem because, Carrying Christmas to Shut-ins though clouds of the deepest dye Out the Banner" as the Christian flag was borne on the platform, Have you a Courtesy Commit- the impersonators grouping tee, an Extension Department or something of the sort in your themselves around it. church? Why not enliven the (3) The final rainbow was homes of the dear old shut-ins with tiny trees decorated simply that of the Foreign Field where with inexpensive trinkets, powdered snow and candles, mes- clouds have been the darkest but sages of cheer from absent through whose very storms we friends being neatly written and are beginning to glimpse the Bow of Promise, this proving to be an inspirational address on the ways in which difficulties and obstacles on the mission fields may be turned to advantage. At the close, "samples of the rain-
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
bow" were passed out to the for the individual member is that con- often as love and pity and emoaudience in the way of tiny rolls ducted in six sessions, one each week, tions prompt. of inspirationalleafiets tied with members being assigned sections of the prismatic colors. The effect the book to report upon. The leader, (3) The lazy way: To make of the program was optimistic, for the most part, guides discussion, a special effort to earn money constructive and stimulating to introducing something to arouse inter- for benevolent objects by fairs, service, as it was stated that all est and closing with spiritual applica- festivals, etc. which was necessary to realize tion of the day's theme. the rainbow thus exploited was ~4) The self-denying way: To cooperation with God, in earnest (3) The Evening Mixed Class. One lay aside as an offering to God a of the most delightful classes from the definite portion of our gainsfaith. standpoint of fellowship and inspira- one-tenth, one-fifth, one-third or tion had a study of "Roads to the City one-half. This is adapted to all, Suggestions for Pastors of God," in six evening meetings. The rich or poor, and gifts would be class was in lieu of a Church School largely increased if it were gen- The growing tendency toward of Missions and was open to young erally practiced. mission study – either contin- people and adults. Families attended uous or periodical – is one of and in most cases possessed a family (5) The equal way: To give the most hopeful indications of book. The leader brought each eve- to God and the needy just as a revival of interest in the world- ning a well prepared outline of the much as we spend on ourselves, wide spread of the Kingdom. chapter, presenting it in the form of balancing our personal expendi- Since concern for the non-Chris- an informal lecture, which permitted tures by our gifts. tian world is no longer motivated questions, contributions of thought and by emotion, loyalty to Christ may brief guided discussions. In spite of (6) The heroic way: To limit well be linked up with informed extreme cold weather the average at- our own expenditures to a cerintelligence. Grace W. McGav- tendance for six evenings was 51, with tain sum and give away all the ran says in The Reading World: a large per cent of men. rest of our income. "Windows for the soul someone has called books. Where else Monthly Meeting of Prayer ARTHUR T. PIERSON. can one so quickly and easily find transportation to other lands, to Pastors everywhere may well Turning in the Gold. Last other peoples, to other times and consider this action of the Gen- April, the committee on promoeven into the inmost thoughts of eral Assembly of the Presby- tion in the General Assembly of people whose lives if we knew terian Church directing the us- the Presbyterian Church called them might be 'open books' to us. ing of the last mid-week prayer for a "Missionary T rea sur e We widen our sympathies, en- service of each month with the Hunt" to be designated a "goldrich our understanding, reach exception of July and August to gathering campaign" for misout in friendship, bind ourselves present the work at home and sions. Each bit of precious inextricably to a world of living, abroad alternatively. metal or jewelry not in use but aspiring, suffering people like having intrinsic worth was to be ourselves through our reading:' Get acquainted with our Home gathered up and forwarded to Mission city problem …… in the committee for use in raising Three types of mission study, New York; with the missionary an emergency missionary fund. representing the activities of one in our fields abroad; with our Many sacrificial responses were woman-a minister's wife-Mrs. Home Mission problem – an in- reported. A. P. Cameron, of the Memorial tensive study of how in Los Christian Church in Tulsa, Okla- Angeles our church took care of A Fleet of Ships: These may homa, are described in The its share of the unchurched area be used as topics for toasts at a World Call and may well serve of the expanding city; with the missionary banquet. (1) Lord- convert in our fields abroad; ship – a recognition of the auas models: with our rural church problem- thority of Jesus Christ in every an intensive study of the country interest and problem of life. (2) (1) The Continual Study Class. churches in one synod; with the Stewardship – a sense of God's Beginning with October, each Thurs- mission in our fields abroad; ownership of personality and day morning finds this group meeting with our Negro work (intensive possessions. (3) Worship – a at 10 o'clock to study under direction study of one college); with the quiet listening for God's voice; of some capable and prepared leader. Church in our fields abroad; a grateful outpouring of the The group is permanently organized with the relationship between heart to Him; fellowship with and officered. The Christ of the Mount Home Missionary service and his spirit. (4) Partnership – a attracted many visitors, many of the highest patriotism; with the realization that God requires our whom continued to attend. This study, responsibilities of the home cooperation in making the whole while not announced as "mission Church in her fields abroad. world His. (5) Companionship study," was most devotional in char- -a faith that One walks alongacter and effect and contained an abid- Anyone of these subjects side through every happy and ing missionary motive. The method would furnish a good theme for every trying hour of the day. of presentation was that of an in- a dynamic sermon on Sunday. (6) Friendship – a sharing of formal lecture in which the leader life with others, both giving and held up the intent of the author by PROGRAM POINTERS outline, thus getting at the chief point finding riches.* of interest, while the minor things How We Give. (1) The caregrouped themselves as such. less way: To give something to • Leaflet of Baptist Board of Missionary every cause that is presented Cooperation. (2) The Small Afternoon Class. A without inquiring into its merits. type of class that accomplishes 'much (2) The impulsive way: To give from impulse-as much and BULLETIN OF The Council of Women for Home Missions .. ~ –. ANNE SEESHOLTZ, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK I~ Deep peace of the running wave to "The Christ-Child Comes!" shepherds and sheep and often you, the faithful donkey who is to Most of the German families serve the Family in their flight Deep peace of the flowing air to you, begin preparation for the cele- to Egypt. Deep peace of the quiet earth to you, bration of the birth of the Deep peace of the shining stars to you, Christ-Child, four Sundays be- In the stories, Joseph is not Deep peace of the watching shepherds fore Christmas Day. Before the neglected. Rilke, in a poem first Sunday in A d v e n t, fir called "Joseph's Jealousy," has to you, branches are brought from the an angel say to Joseph, Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you. forests. Wreaths are made- large ones for chandeliers in Carpenter -Old Gaelic Rune. home and church, smaller ones Because you make boards, in your for tables, and wee ones to be pride Jesus, born in poverty, sent in greeting to friends. Do you really wish to question workman at Nazareth, Him who modestly out of similar lover of all the children of Old and young sing Christmas wood God, carols through all the days pre- Causes leaves to grow and buds to ceding Christmas. Stories and swell? Teach us to love one another. legends are told in the family groups, usually while the Ad- Weare told that the carpenter Jesus, in whom all the nations vent candles are lit-one during understood. As he lifted his of the earth are one, the first week, two the second, eyes, the angel had vanished. three the third, four the week be- And Joseph pushed slowly his in whom is neither bond fore Christmas; and finally, the thick cap from his head, and nor free, black nor Christmas Day tree is lighted sang praises. white, with many white candles. The Mother Mary and the Babe are Advent Supplication Teach us to love one another. given the central place in stories and in the familiar manger- Father in Heaven, we live in Jesus, friend of the poor, scene showing the Holy Family a time full of unrest and strife. feeder of the hungry, surrounded by angels and the Our homeland lies in bonds, our healer of the sick, church is in danger, anxiety pre- [610 ] vents peace of heart. And so Teach us to love one another. from our souls' depths we yearn for peace, for Thy Kingdom in Jesus, forgiving them that love which Thy holy will governs all much, and Thy ordinances are kept; we yearn for Thy Prince of drawing all men unto Peace who anew reveals to us un- thee, bounded Love, and in whom we can hope with full confidence. calling them that labor Lord, fulfill this our hope! Let and are heavy laden, us not be confounded! Hear us, gentle Lord God. Teach us to love one another. Strengthen Thy church, that Jesus, who camest not to be min- Thy word may be faithfully and istered unto, but to purely proclaimed. Bless the minister, education of youth that the good buds which Thou hast put in who didst talk with the human hearts may open and despised Samaritan bear noble fruits. Make plain and commend the the differences between individ- hated Roman, ual circumstances and callings and build the bridge of love loved by the common peo- from class to class, from heart to ple, heart. Hear us, gentle Lord God.
Teach us to love one another.
Jesus, who hast called us to the fellowship 0 f thy Kingdom, in whom is no respect of persons, who wilt know us by our fruits, Teach us to love one another.
-Source Unknown.
BULLETIN OF THE COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOR HOME MISSIONS
Give wisdom to our magis- for they are truck and tractor Golden Rule Week may be ditrates that they may care to do drivers, mechanics of various rected through any institution or that which serves us best. Give kinds, et cetera; a new self-con- agency in which the donor is in- us that which is necessary for fidence because of the assurance terested. Gifts each year are our daily sustenance so that we of the faith of others in their sent toward maintenance of the through worry about the needs ability to work and to direct the work for the children of Farm of our outward man may not for- work of others. In most of the and Cannery Migrant families, get to care for our eternal hap- places responsible positions, such and also for the Religious Edu- piness. Let each honest under- as foremen, camp managers, et cation Work in government Intaking, each good business enjoy cetera, are being held by Indian dian schools. the fruit of its labor. Hear us, gentle Lord God. young men who in school were Use by Local Societies trained for such work but have And because Christmas Eve never before had a chance to The following suggestions are stands at our door, because show their capabilities. ' made for the consideration of Thine only begotten Son knocks women's societies or committees again at our hearts asking en- Splendid social work is being in churches, clubs, schools or betrance, give us open minds and carried on among the men at nevolent organizations w h i c h hearts so that we and all the may wish to employ The Golden world may be filled with comfort work and the families which Rule Book as a means of securand power, with joy and the often accompany them. All that ing increased support for local hope of Thine eternal Kingdom. relief and welfare work or Hear us, gentle Lord God. goes to make up a well-rounded Church benevolences: Amen. – Translated from the life for individual, family or German. community, is being tried out in (a) An initial source of in- come will be from profits on the Indians in C. C. C. Camps one place or another. sale of The Golden Rule Books to The Joint Indian Committee all their members, who presum- Miss Edith M. Dabb, Chair- ably will value the book highly man of the Committee on Re- has cooperated with the mission- for practical use in their homes. forestation Work of the Joint aries located near the camps and Committee on Indian Work of (b) A second source of inthe Home Missions Councils re- with the Government in the work come may be derived from profports that the Emergency Con- of maintaining the spiritual its on a preliminary church or servation Work on Indian reser- morale of the boys. The requests community Golden Rule economy vations being carried on by the for good reading material for the dinner. United States Indian office is go- camps, and for hymn books and ing forward with much enthu- for portable organs have embar- An appropriate educational siasm. program on the subject of stew- rassed the committee because of ardship and the distinctive work Some of the kinds of work be- its limited financial resources. of the society may be arranged ing done are: fire protection, Since the work continues, sug- at this preliminary Golden Rule trail making, erosion control, ro- gestions for ways of meeting the economy dinner, and a special dent (especially prairie dog), effort made to enroll the entire poisonous plant and insect con- needs will be welcomed by the membership in a covenant to obtrol, work on reservoirs, dams, committee. serve Golden Rule Week as a springs and wells, telephone lines Save-and-Share period in their and fences. The number of men EARN, SAVE AND SHARE employed exceeds 14,000 on 68 homes. reservations. Save to Give (c) A third source of income Give to Save Much besides the earning of to the society may be the gifts by money is being accomplished for By your Thrift give others a Lift its members of the savings rethe Indian people. There is an sulting from the use of The increasing pride and enthusiasm Not less spending, but more in- Golden Rule Book as a practical in being self-supporting; a telligent and unselfish spending guide to economy during Golden chance to make use of that for Rule Week. Although a portion which the schools trained them, INTERNATIONAL GOLDEN RULE of the gifts from Golden Rule WEEK Week may well be used for local unemployment relief or other ap- December 10-17, 1933 proved benevolences, it will be urged that some substantial por- The Save-and-Share Program tion should be made available for those less fortunate and It is proposed that the entire neglected areas, where there are no community chests, no well-to- nation be challenged to a week do neighbors, and where the entire community is so impov- of economy and thrift during erished that one family cannot Golden Rule Week, December 10- help another.
17. Those in more fortunate cir- cumstances will be asked to prac- tice some measure of self-denial in order to share more gener- ously with others who may be suffering for lack of the neces- sities of life. .
Gifts resulting from individ- ual and group use of The Golden Rule Book and the observance of
India's Christians in the Census of 1931* Christian Literates by Age Total Christian Christian Literates 5-20 20 and oveT Population All India ……………………………………. . 6,296,763 511,993 884,338 British India ………………………………… . 3,866,660 246,805 476,825 Ajmer-Merwara ……………………………… . 6,947 1,844 3,160 Andamans and Nicobars ……………………….. . 1,461 520 (all ages) Assam …………………………………….. . 202,586 13,441 26,935 Baluchistan …………………………………. . 8,044 1,140 4,229 Bengal …………………………………….. . 180,299 21,807 46,780 Bihar and Orissa …………………………….. . 341,894 16,379 24,513 Bombay (Including Aden) ……………………… . 317,042 33,107 75,069 C. P. and Berar ……………………………… . 50,584 10,415 16,019 Coorg ……………………………………… . 3,425 270 781 Delhi ………………………………………. . 16,989 1,760 5,593 Madras …………………………………….. . 1,774,276 116,836 205,722 N. W. F. Province ……………………………. . 12,213 2,078 9,966 Punjab …………………………………….. . 414,788 10,842 24,588 United Provinces ………………………… ~ …. . 205,006 16,886 33,740 Indian States ………………………………… . 2,430,103 265,188 407,513 Burma …………………………………….. . 331,106 Civil Condition of Christians by Aget Unmarried, Males ……………………………. . 0-15 15-50 50 and ove~'
Females ………………………….. . 1,242,181 476,651 7,175 Married, Males ………………………………. . 1,172,564 200,453 6,128 983,093 217,545 Females ………………. , …………… . 18,783 1,064,631 96,249 Widowed, Males ……………………………… . 52,495 57,636 50,901 157,747 Females ……………………….. , …. . 615 157,857 1,295 Civil Condition Under 15 Years of Age Among Other Religions UnmaTried Married Widowed All Religions, Males ………………………….. . 63,397,795 5,525,228 136,253 Females ………………………… . 52,493,031 12,253,559 320,326 111,171 Hindus, Males ……………………………….. . 43,599,559 4,288,575 253,036 Females ……… '" ., ….. , ……….. , …. . 36,235,079 9,049,079 1,087,775 21,210 Moslem, Males ………………………………. . 15,643,127 2,876,801 58,777 Females …………………………….. . 12,500,501 83,857 1,816 Tribal, Males ……………………………….. . 1,590,198 161,225 4,928 Females ……………………………… . 1,499,686 24,135 847 Sikhs, Males ………………………………… . 898,505 62,594 794 Females ………………………………. . 720,677 1,785 49 Buddhist, Males ………………………… …… . 88,354 4,414 233 Females ……………………………. . 81,121 20,318 545 46,951 1,263 Others, Males ………………………….. …… . 335,871 Females ……………………………… . 283,403 Population According to Religions % of increase 01'
Per 1,000 decrease since 1921 +++ Hindu ……………………………….. " ………………. 682 10.4 Moslem ………………………………… , ……………… 222 Buddhist …………………… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 13 Tribal-Animist …………………………………………… 24 10.5 Christian ……………………………………………….. 18 ++- 15.3 Others ………… '" …………….. , ……. , " …. , … , . . . . . . . 18 32.5 38 • From the National Christwn Cowlcil Review. t EJ<"tlludes BUrmil.
! Our W Outlook '~I"""'—
orld~wide ~~I~==~==A==Mi=ssio=na=ry=N=ew=spa=pe=r o=f =Cu=rre=nt=Ev=en=ts =====~~~ EUROPE and preaching the Gospel. The penal colonies, one of those little books that you are distributing." An Outstanding Achievement workers meet opposition and in- difference from many but others Here is a bandit with the true The Church of Scotland has are eager for Christian litera- missionary spirit. not had a missionary deficit this ture and recently listeners have year. At a time when British increased and twenty-six openly The Paris Mission Oentennial and American missionary socie- confessed Christ. They testify ties have been struggling with to changed lives, new outlook The Paris Mission this year increasing deficits, the Church and a purpose to serve God and celebrates the centennial of its of Scotland has actually in- their fellow men. Many also missionary work in Basutoland, creased its income by £18,000 testify to physical healing in an- its oldest field. Last year the over the previous year. During swer to prayer. Some were number of baptized rose to 3,000 1932 money was set aside in or- formerly atheists, materialists, over against about 2,000 in other der to reduce the small outstand- communists, or formal Chris- years. More than two thirds of ing debt of the Missionary So- tians without vitality. Many the country is comprised in the ciety.-United Church Review. were converted through the hill country of Malutis, where reading of the Bible for the first the population increases greatly Jews in Portugal time. This work is carried on, every year. Up to the present not only in Paris, but in Brus- the work was conducted entirely The Maranos of Portugal are sels, Sevres, Mendon, Aix-les- by native ordained pastors; but Jews who in the fifteenth cen- Bains, Marseilles, Nice, Lyons the rapid increase of the poputury were forced by the Inquisi- and elsewhere. A paper, The lation has given rise to problems tion into the Church of Rome. Prisiv, and other Christian lit- which now necessitate the plac- They have secretly treasured ing of a European missionary. Jewish traditions, and when they erature are published. were freed by the revolution in Leipzig Mission Anniversary Portugal, missions were sent by "Russian Missionary Service" the Jews of America and Europe On October 5th the Leipzig to recover them to the Jewish "Russian Missionary and Re- Mission observed the fortieth faith. A synagogue was built anniversary of its work in Affor them, and forty thousand lief Service" is a neworganiza- rica, that being the day when turned their backs on Rome but four new missionaries under the refuse to give up their faith in tion under the direction of Rev. guidance of an India missionary the Lord Jesus Christ. They at- of the same society laid the fountend neither church nor syna- 1. V. Neprash, who spent nine dations to the work. The begingogue. Sir Leon Levison says in nings were made at Nkarungo The Hebrew Christian that months of last year working in in the district of Madjame near among the many deputations the Kilimanjaro. The Leipzig which came to him in Jerusalem five countries in Europe. He Mission looks back upon the hiswas one in behalf of these Mara- tory of its African mission with nos, urging the Hebrew Chris- found 80,000 of the former Rus- great gratitude to God, since He tian Alliance to give them in- has blessed the work with notastruction. They said that of the sian intelligentsia in Paris alone, ble success, notwithstanding nine Jewish missionaries sent to great difficulties especially in the convert these Hebrew Catholics and 340,000 in France, also war period and the succeeding to Judaism four became Chris- hard years. tians, and the other five have about 10,000,000 Russians and given up the task.-S. S. Times. Zionist Oongress in Prague Ukrainians in Poland. All of Among Russian Refugees in The eighteenth Zionist Con- France these constitute a large field for gress has been concluded in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The The Russian Refugee Mission missionary effort. The Execu- delegates numbered 316, elected (1 Rue Jaques Offenbach, Paris by over half a million Zionists in XVI), of which Mr. George Ur- tive Committee includes leaders 46 different countries. The openban is superintendent, is doing ing ceremony of the Congress a good work helping the needy from all sections of the United was attended by some 4,000 per- -The Pilot. sons. Present conditions in States.
Missionary Bandit A visiting pastor of the Nismes prison in France writes to the American Bible Society: My attention had been directed to a man, sentenced to penal servitude-a real bandit, from his antecedents- who listened always attentively and composedly, and every Sunday asked. for a New Testament. One day a guard said to me: "You just watch that fellow. He slips secretly into the effects of those that leave for the [ 613]
Germany gave added importance heavy stones on their heads for follow Christ, is alive and well to the proceedings. The Jewish a few coppers each, walking the again, and all the people say, 'Je- situation was dealt with in two 25 miles. sus has healed him.' " addresses, one on "The Position The church is in Gothic style, -Evangelical Christian.
of the Jews in the World" and with two types of stone, red Across the Sahara the other on "The Settlement of brown and gray limestone. A German Jews in Palestine." tower can be seen for miles, and Mr. Dugald Campbell, F.R.G.S., Trenchant indictment was made it will contain a clock and bell. has recently completed his secof Hitler's policy regarding the At the dedication 2,500 people ond great journey as an agent Jews. crowded in to thank God that of Scotland's Bible Society to Much of the time was taken such a house of worship had been circulate Scriptures in African up with a consideration of ways made a reality. and means to secure the opening territories hitherto practically -Congo Mission News. untouched. His journey from of the gates of Palestine to a greater immigration of Jews, A Modern Miracle Kano in Nigeria to Algiers was attended with the greatest danand the consummation of the National Home. Dr. Tom Lambie, a medical ger. Near Tessaoua the carbu- missionary in Abyssinia, tells of retor of his car caught fire, and -Evangelical Christian. the following modern miracle: only after a desperate struggle Achievements in Bulgaria On Sunday, January 22, 1933, was the fire extinguished by throwing on sand. After passing While the American Board is we were visiting the Soddu, Wa- Aderbissinat he ran into a ragwithdrawing its mIsSIOnaries lamo, Mission station in south- ing sandstorm, which was folfrom Bulgaria, work begun has ern Abyssinia, a devil worship- lowed by a cloudburst. Between not been abandoned. The four ing tribe. Our message was outstanding achievements of the from Mark 2: 1-12, the healing that and Tamanrasset he almost work of the Board in Bulgaria despaired of life, and for nine are: of the paralytic who was let days was in the utmost peril. At down through the roof. Empha- sis was placed upon the two mir- one spot he had to jettison much 1. The translation of the Bible into acles. First, the forgiving of the of his goods, including a case of Bulgarian language. man's sins, and second, his heal- Scriptures, the only way of es- 2. The founding of churches and ing from paralysis. Almost at cape from death in the desert. Sunday schools throughout the coun- He has now reached Glasgow, try. once a sad-faced man said: 3. The pUblication of Zornitsa, a and though much shaken by his weekly periodical now in its 52d year, "Does this mean me? My son is hazardous experiences, he hopes at the point of death. Will Jesus the oldest newspaper now published to tell of the wondrous ways in in Bulgaria. raise my son as He did the one which over 30,000 Scriptures you have told us about? I have 4. The founding and development been to all the witch doctors and have been circulated throughout of the Samokov Schools.
This work was initiated in have prayed and sacrificed to the Sahara. devils and he is no better. If I -National Bible Society of 1859. Scotland. bring him to Jesus, will He heal Christians in Nigeria AFRICA him ?" New Church at Bibanga "May I ask you a question in In its fifteen years, Bibanga, reply," while the congregation The Tangales are an unmission of the Congo Protestant waited in dead silence, "If Jesus reached tribe of Nigeria, 1,000 Council, has had five or six heals your son will you and your miles from the coast in West structures for worship, each house turn from these devils and Africa's interior; in the main, larger than the last, but all built follow Jesus with all' your a friendly tribe, 40,000 of them, of mud, grass and sticks. A hearts ?" "I will," was his earn- almost universally unclad. Their great missionary center like this est reply. "You are all witnesses covering, if any, is raw hide and needed a substantial building, an of his words" was said to the green leaves. They have lived inspiration to the natives and an congregation. "Weare," they in complete illiteracy, with no example for other churches. Un- replied. records of their past. The Britder the skilled hands of Rev. "After the close of the meet- ish and Foreign Bible Society Earl S. King and a large group ing Dr. Hooper and Miss Mac- made a beginning in 1917; by of native workers, a beautiful Gregor, our nurse, went to the 1920 the Gospel of Luke was stone church has been erected, home of the boy, and found him, made available in their strange the consummation of years of la- humanly speaking, quite hope- tongue. By degrees ten other bor. It was first necessary to less. Prayer was offered. books of the Bible were prebuild a road over twelve miles "We had to leave for another pared, and by 1930 the whole of steep hills and deep valleys. province but a letter from Miss New Testament was translated. Ten men working from 7 a. m. MacGregor dated January 29th In the two church groups over to 7 p. m., carrying 2,400 pounds was received, saying, 'You will 1,000 persons gather each Sunof rock on pushcarts over these be delighted to hear that the boy day. Each group supports a namiles received about 14 cents who was so ill, and whose father tive leader. There are thirty each per day. Women carried promised if he were healed to "out schools," whose thirty lead-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
ers are self-supporting from WESTERN ASIA women in the afternoon. Night their own farms. All the build- Turkey's Creed schools are also being estabings are erected at the believers' lished in many places.
expense. These Tangale Chris- According to Current History, According to a Turkish peritians have their own Bible every elementary school child odical, the Jumhuriyet, of forty School, with two large rooms, throughout Turkey must recite thousand villages in Turkey only furnished with desks and seats the following creed every mornfor 200 men and 100 women. ing: four thousand have schools. In thirty-six tho usa n d villages -The Bible in the World. I am a Turk, honest and industri- many millions of peasants have ous. My duty is to protect those no means of learning to read Okrika-"Never Changing" weaker than I, to respect my elders, and write.-Congregationalist. Okrika is a little island in the swampy delta of the River to love my country sincerely. My Syria Mission Moves Forward ideal is to raise myself higher and to continue in the path of progress.
Niger, in Africa. On this island I make a gift of my existence to the The ability of Syrian Chrisis a town by the same name, existence of Turkey. tians to keep up payments to Okrika, which means "Never their preachers has been grow- Changing," so called because the Gedik Pasha School Closed ing less and less. Unfortunately, people declared that nothing a low state of spirituality has would ever alter their customs. At the 1933 annual meeting followed. Recently some for- When Archdeacon Crowther, the the Near East Mis s ion the ward steps have been taken. son of the "Black Bishop" so American Board was obliged to Without any suggestion from well known in early missionary end the work of Gedik Pasha the missionaries a small group labor in West Africa, first came School in Stamboul, a work that of Syrian workers asked permisto Okrika, he was warned that has continued for nearly half a sion to solicit gifts from their every stranger who went to the century. Urgent financial strin- own number to help the mission town was killed and eaten. On gency necessitated this step. No keep in operation the schools the very site where once a huge free students were received, but threatened with closing. Anjuju house was the scene of all throughout the school's history, other group among the preachsorts of sacrifice, there now applicants able to pay full price ers in the churches arranged for stands a splendid new church. have been turned away for lack a gathering of their own number of room. Attendance averaged before the meeting of presbytery -Forward. 200 from 1895 until the Great to prepare for it spiritually. War. Through revolutions, Bal- Their main topic was "What African Women's Work kan wars, even through the is the matter with us that our World War, the school kept churches are so spiritually cold?" The Women's Manyano in the right on. They got together on Monday Methodist Church of South Af- and cleared up various misunrica parallels a Woman's Auxil- Technically, the school has derstandings among themselves iary, and to inaugurate any been merged with the one at and the result was a brotherly work without its organized sup- Scutari, and the Gedik Pasha spirit to face serious problems. port is to court failure. It has Sunday school, which has con- A general reduction of 40 per a history of fifty years, and is tinued uninterruptedly for fifty- cent in salaries was accepted found in almost every circuit. one years, is not stopped by this without murmur. It is when a new building must move, being held in the Gedik be erected that the manyano dis- Pasha Church as formerly. -Presbyterian Advance. tinguishes itself. Being fully organized, each community is -Missionary Herald. INDIA AND BURMA given a bag and on a given day the following ritual is observed: Wanted-Education Apparently no country in the the women go outside, then re- world is more interested in low- Plague Increasing enter, headed by the minister's ering its percentage of illiteracy wife, or the most respected mem- than is Turkey. The minister of Plague, bubonic, in places also ber of the church, and as they education is taking measures for pneumonia and smallpox, are on pass the table they place the the education of the peasants the increase in western India. bags on it. Some of the bags and wandering tribes. A spe- In spite of all that the governare closed by having money put cial committee has been ap- ment has done and is doing, on top of them; it may be 2s 6d pointed to propose definite meas- these epidemics are spreading. or :£1, and then the meeting must ures for the villagers. Provi- Villages that have been free give more than :£1 Os 6d, and of- sions have been made according from these plagues for several ten when that is given, someone, to which each village will have a years have become reinfected, or a combination of persons, person to serve as teacher, doc- and people are growing careless will give 30s to keep it closed. tor and leader. There will also because the situation seems And then of course, more than be movable schools, which will" hopeless to them. Medical mis- 30s must be given to open it, stay for four months in each vil- sionaries in this area are fight- lage. They will teach boys in ing a hard battle. and so the fun goes on. -Presbyterian Advance. -Christian Advocate. the morning, and men and
Infant Mortality This British official describes live in huts which can pass for According to the B 0 mba y the future in store for India: heaps of old packing cases and Chronicle, India has the highest "The outlook is gloomy to a de- bamboo crates. In other places, gree not only for the masses of "filth and squalor defy descripdeath rate in the world, with one the people who must face inten- tion." Women are employed as exception – China. Compared sified struggle for bare subsist- well as men, and are equally negwith the leading countries of the ence, but also for the upper lected. Medical relief and eduworld, India has the highest in- classes whose incomes depend on cational opportunities are serifant mortality. Out of every the production of surplus of ously inadequate, with no provithousand children born, 265 die crops and other commodities. If sion at all for welfare work. within their first three years. the entire product of the soil is Read "Mother India" to learn needed to provide for the urgent The committee recommends needs of the culivators, nothing that benevolent missionary bodsome of the reasons: ies be invited and given mone- True Indian Stewardship will be left for the payment of tary help and facility for im- rents or revenue, nothing to ex- proving moral conditions, and During the second week of change for other commodities or for educating and training them July there was held in Ludhiana even for the purchase of rail- and their children.
a five-day school for Lamberd- way tickets, and the whole social -Indian Witness.
art!. Each afternoon for an structure of India must inevi- Religious Population in Burma hour and a half "Christian tably be rudely shaken, if not The following table shows the Stewardship of Money" was completely destroyed." discussed. The teachers had -Agricultural Mission News. religious distribution of the pop- ulation of Burma. The total prepared this subject before the "Three to One" population is 14,647,497, an inopening of the school. After the crease of 11.2 per cent since five groups had studied for a For more than twenty years half-hour period all joined in a "Sam" Bawden has been super- 1921, and is distributed as folconference for one hour. At the close of one of these confer- intendent of the Criminal Settle- lows: ences a village elder offered the ment at Kavali, South India. following prayer: "0 God, shut This notable piece of social and Per 1,000 moral reconstruction has not Buddhists …… 12,348,037 843 Animists ……. 763,243 52 off the American money and Mohammedans .. 570,953 39 then make it possible for the Indian Church to carryon the escaped the blight of depression, Hindus …….. 584,839 40 Christian work, also make it pos- and both its supporters – the sible for us to retain the Ameri- Christians ….. 331,106 23 can missionaries." In another British Government and the conference a village elder re- Baptist Mission-have been com- Others ……… 49,319 3 marked that pastors must have pelled to reduce appropriations. their salaries from one source Mr. Bawden was transferred to There has been a continuous only. On still another occasion Madras to become treasurer of one of the elders made the re- the South India mission and pas- decline in the proportion of quest that such a Stewardship tor of the Vepery Baptist of Money Conference should be Buddhists since 1931, and a corheld in their local circle so that Church. In addition he takes all members of the church may charge of the Madras-Telugu responding increase in the numbe invited and taught. field evangelistic work. Thus three large tasks are assigned to ber of Hindus, Mohammedans -Indian Witness. one man. Mr. Bawden has and Christians. Challenge to Villages trained two native workers who will continue at the Kavali Set- The Christian population is tlement on the reduced budget. made up as follows: -Missions. Per 1,000 Baptists ……… 212,990 643 Roman Catholics .. 89,678 271 Church of England 22,853 70 Presbyterians …. 1,031 3 Methodists ……. 1,982 6 Others ……….. 2,572 7 Among the races of Burma, the animists or spirit worship- Taking India as a whole, ac- Street Sweepers of Calcutta pers have been most receptive to cording to the Director General Christian truth. of Indian Medical Service, only A special committee appointed by the Government to formulate -Burma News.
39 per cent of the people are schemes for improving condi- CHINA well nourished; 41 per cent are tions among the sweepers of Associated College Boards poorly nourished and 20 per Calcutta reports the estimated cent are very badly nourished. number of sweepers as about A new organization, the Asso- The average span of life-now 14,000, of whom 2,000 are ciated Boards for Christian Colfallen from 25 years to 22-is housed in barracks. With a few leges in China, the outgrowth of less than half of what it might exceptions, conditions are said more than a decade of efforts to be. One of every five villages to be deplorable; as an instance, unify the program of Christian has perpetual scarcity or fam- sweepers attached to the Sir universities and colleges, closed ine, and epidemics of cholera, Stuart Hogg Market, at a dis- its first fiscal year in June. The plague and smallpox are com- tance of a few hundred feet from Council of Higher Education, monplace occurrences. the Central Municipal Office, the Permanent Committee for
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
the Coordination and Promo- 1928 and in the later Butterfield Assuming a present church tion of Christian Higher Educa- report. The Council urged each membership of 400,000, there tion in China, and a group of the of its constituent churches to ex- has been a decline of from 50,- larger union and interdenomina- periment in at least one rural 000 to 75,000 in recent years. tional universities were com- community parish, and to help The share of the Church in the bined October 27, 1932, in the its workers to obtain specialized awful vicissitudes of China in Associated Boards. Ten colleges training to enable them to meet recent years admittedly accounts and universities are served; dur- more adequately the demands of in part for the high ratio being the past year they enrolled rural ministry. It also recom- tween losses and gains. Another nearly 4,000 students, about one- mended a "pool" of expert per- recognized factor is the definite fourth being women. Their sonnel for the service of all the anti-Christian movement and a more than 5,000 graduates are rural par ish e s in the area, deliberate attempt to overthrow serving in every province of through the formation of a rural the Church. China, many occupying high po- service union to consist of rep- -Presbyterian Advance.
sitions in state affairs. resentatives of regional rural Shanghai's W. C. T. U. Se.ttlement The executive officers of this service unions and of the more new organization receive, hold important institutions engaged and disburse, keep records, and in the training of rural leaders The only charitable work in carryon all necessary corre- with others chosen at large by China started and maintained by spondence between the home the executive committee of the Chinese women is the Settlement base and the field. They pur- Council. Cepter in Shanghai under the chase supplies, handle transpor- W. C. T. U., of which Mrs. Her- . -Agricultural Mission man C. E. Liu is president. She tation and salaries of Western Notes. writes: staff on furlough, and invest and School Health Exhibit At the beginning of the new year reinvest funds of the several col- there were in Shanghai twenty thouleges. They also enlist interest Crowds totalling 25,000 per- sand flood refugees, camped on the sons attended the first school northern side of the city, among them and support in North America. health education exhibit, held -Missionary Herald. five thousand children. In cooperation with the local government and differ- Christian Higher Education this summer in Shanghai. It ent charity organizations we sent was prepared by 205 schools and workers down there daily to help care The number of students in the for the little ones. Thousands of Christian colleges and universi- was housed in Nantao Christian Institute, a settlement house in a homes have been destroyed by the war, so we opened as a refugee camp ties has risen from 4,7JO in 1931- crowded part of the city. The the Shanghai Woman's Temperance 32 to 5,638 in 1932-33. In spite displays, mostly posters and Hostel in the French Concession for of the necessity of rigid econo- models, manifested great in- this class of young women. Now this mies, the colleges are succeeding genuity on the part of teachers in maintaining themselves, and and pupils. A constant succes- "camp" is constantly in demand, for it sion of plays, motion pictures has become known as one of the safest in some instances continuing to places in China for young women. grow. About 1,000 students, or and stereopticon lectures was Here we find girls who work for difone in five, come from Christian given, either in the auditorium ferent firms, in schools, in private homes. About one-half received or in a large mat-shed erected in homes as tutors and nurses; those their education from Christian the courtyard. The mat-shed who are waiting for jobs; those who middle schools, and nearly one- come from abroad to enter schools; half are professing Christians. theater was always crowded. and broken-hearted young women who The mayor of Shanghai, Wu Teh have been deserted by their husbands.
An analysis by a Chinese news- Chen, opened the exhibit, and In this big family we prohibit drink- Chinese boy scouts kept order. ing, smoking and gambling, and teach paper shows that out of about a them high ideals by lectures, personal -Presbyterian Banner. talks and reading in our little library. thousand names appearing in China's Who's Who, not less Fact Finding -Christian Advocate.
than 175 were those of Chris- Although centuries ago the Moslem Tribe Discovered tians.
-The Church Overseas. Chinese invented census-taking, To the list of strange peoples Strengthening Rural Churches today the population of China is periodically discovered in north- quite as uncertain as the mem- west China is now added an- The National Christian Coun- bership of the Christian Church. other-a Moslem community cil, at its biennial meeting last Estimates run from 350,000,000 from Samarkand, Central Asia, May, reaffirmed its conviction to 500,000,000. If 400,000,00 is which for six centuries has been that one of the most valuable taken as a conservative estimate in the region of Kansu, on the contributions which Christians Protestant church members con- south bank of the Yellow River, can make to China in this period stitute about 0.1 per cent of the west of Lanchow. The people of reconstruction is a thorough- population, and the total Protes- speak Turkish as it was spoken going strengthening of the rural tant community about 0.19 per' when the Turks first crossed work of the churches along the cent. If some 2,489,000 'Catho- from Asia into Europe, and general lines laid down at the lics are added, the total Chris- dress in the costumes of that Jerusalem meeting of the Inter- tian body reaches 0.8 per cent day. They call themselves Sa- national Missionary Council in of the population. lars. Their records have been
brought to light by G. Findlay pIe over the border in the Y!Jn- unsafe for foreigners. The past two Andrews, an American mission- nan Province, China. Finding years have shown wonderful changes ary, who found that prior to the that the Tai people in a large here, so that we have become a model arrival of a "descendant of the area of Yunnan and elsewhere in province in many respects. Chiang Prophet" in Samarkand, the Sa- South China were responsive to Kai Shek paid us a visit this fall, and lars dominated the country. the Gospel a large mass move- on leaving complimented the governor. After his arrival, as they de- ment started among them, Our roads are models for other provclined to accept the moral pre- though wide and vigorous itiner- inces. That does not mean that we cepts of the Koran and followed ation in spite of hardships and are seething with automobile traffic; only its predatory teachings, he privations. A second station was for we have only two or three good commanded them to seek an soon established in Yunnan at roads, simply connecting the main abode elsewhere, and was able Yuankiang, and Dr. and Mrs. cities; but these are fine, and would to make them obey. Parke went to reside there in pass as excellent anywhere. There 1922. In 1923 these two stations has been very little trouble from Com- On the eve of their departure were set up as the Kiulungkiang munists, save on the eastern border, he gave them a copy of the Ko- and Yuankiang Stations of a where they seep in from neighbOring ran, a white camel, a bag tilled new Yunnan Mission of China. provinces. The attitude of the peowith the earth of Samarkand ple toward us as foreigners is very and a cruse of its water. They Dr. and Mrs. Park devoted much better than it was formerly. were to travel toward the rising their energies chiefly to Yuan- In fact, prospects in Hunan are sun. The white camel was to kiang and to the large unevan- bright in every respect, and not least guide them to a place where the gelized regions to the north and as regards our opportunities as workearth and the water were identi- south. They did not merely the ers with Christ. cal with the earth in the bag and work of hospital and dispensary, the water in the cruse. There but engaged in enthusiastic The chief educational center they were to build their homes, evangelism, in the development of southeastern Hunan is Hengand be guided by the passages of schools for boys and girls and chow. carefully marked in the Koran. of young Chinese churches. Their arrival in the Kansu re- JAPAN-CHOSEN gion was near the end of the Dr. Park was not a robust man 14th century. but a brave one. One of the rul- Sunday Schools in Odd Places ing principles of his life was to -New York Times. reach with the Gospel those who A Christian worker at Hako- were not likely to be reached by date superintends seven village A Pioneer Doctor in Yunnan others, and not only to lead them Sunday schools which are to Christ but to make them mis- taught by high school juniors A doctor has unusual opportu- sionaries to their fellow tribes- and seniors. She writes: nities as an evangelist. His care men among the multitudes of for men's bodies opens the door illiterate people held in bondage Every Sunday about one o'clock to minister to their deeper needs. by fear of evil spirits. He took twenty-five Christian schoolgirls sud- But not all doctors enter this his share also in introducing denly changE: into teachers and set off door. Dr. Charles E. Parke, a Christian literature in the Tai in all directions to their tiny buildmedical missionary of Yuan- language. Ready to endure ings. One is in a near-by village kiang, Yunnan, who died in the hardship, and carrying on his where no other service is held, so isolated station in far western medical work in quarters which much out of the world that even China on August 17, was one would be considered impossible lepers live with other folks there. who magnified his office as a by an American doctor, he One school is held in a room used at missionary physician of the longed for more adequate facili- night by a fencing club. The fierce Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. ties and larger opportunity to masks and chicken-breasted protectors minister to the physical and hang all around the walls and the He was born on July 23,1881, spiritual needs of the people. children worship in the middle. One at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. At times he found it difficult to school is in the town fire house-the From boyhood he hoped to be a be patient with what seemed to engine has the front half and the chilmissionary and after study at him the failure of the American dren the back. It must be a strain on Wooster College, the Moody Bi- Church to realize and respond to fifty boys and girls to worship with a ble Institute at Chicago, the Uni- the tremendous appeal of thou- fire engine, but although lions and versity of Pittsburgh and the sands ready to give up their idol lambs have not come to live together Chicago College of Medicine and worship and fear of malevolent this other miracle does happen every Surgery, he was appointed in spirits in response to the re- Sunday. February, 1913, as a medical deeming Gospel of Jesus Christ. missionary to North Siam, where Twice a year all the children big he and his wife rendered devoted Becoming a Model Province enough to travel gather at school and service at Prae until 1920. In have a service. Three weeks ago that year they joined the com- A Presbyterian missionary in there were four hundred of them. pany of ardent pioneers from Siangtan writes: the Siam Mission who had re- -Forward. cently opened a new station at Hunan has long had the reputation Chiengrung among the Tai peo- of being one of the most disturbed Against Alcohol and radical provinces of China, rather Temperance sentiment is mak- ing gains in Japan. The eco- nomic crisis, instead of hinder- ing the work, has rather given it fresh impetus. The National Temperance League which met in Kochi was able to register the affiliation of 3,216 societies. The League decided to organize a woman's section and to endeavor
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK 6H
that each local society have a The sale of Christian literature subject is chosen and studied each women's group. has been greatly increased. week. Some of the subjects are sani- The National League organ- -National Bible Society of tation and health, child care, food, Scotland. clothing and education of children. ized every year a so-called law If they want to learn the alphabet we teach that also. enforcement week, insisting es- Getting Results pecially on the enforcement of Returns on Investment the Jaw which forbids the use of The Korean Methodist Church alcoholic beverages by minors. has published broadcast a list of Jacob Memorial Methodist the districts (26 in number), church in Chinnampo, Korea, -Indian Witness. with the names of the superin- built twenty years ago, is the tendents, and seven tabulated mother church of eight others, Education Promoted items regarding the evangelistic and of four self-supporting cir- work accomplished last year. In cuits. Recently a new parish A wealthy Tokyo broker, re- all but four Districts new groups house, roadway to the church tired from active business for were instituted, 48 in all; 343 and memorial gate have been sixteen years, has made a con- special meetings were held, at dedicated. They were all the tribution of one million yen to- which 9,028 professed conver- gift of Mrs. Chung, 83-year-old ward education in Japan, The sion. Kangsuh District led with Korean woman, who gave 700 fund will be administered by a 833 converts, 650 of whom are yen out of her total wealth of foundation, and will be used to reported as making good. Under 1,000 yen, saying the remainder provide education in colleges and the heading "Backsliders Re- would supply her needs while universities for children of poor claimed," 1,098 are reported. still on earth. parents. A part of the fund will also be used to feed 10,000 -Christian Advocate. undernourished children attend- More Than Alphabet ing the 490 primary schools in Tokyo. Donations of this char- Mrs. Pak Induk writes of her ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC acter are becoming more and work among rural women in the more frequent. Not many years Korea Mission Field. Papuan Leaders Conference ago they were practically unknown. Christian influence is After much prayer, and thinking Mr. Russell W. Abel of Kwato, undoubtedly one contributing how a large number of women and Papua, writes of a Leaders' cause.-Christian Graphic. young girls could be reached, I started Conference at Koeabule, with a "traveling school." I selected a cen- about 180 Christians, prominent New Life in Korea ter with a twenty-mile radius as one in their local communities, pres- working unit, and started schools in ent. They were divided into The National Bible Society of three villages. The procedure is like small groups of about twelve in this: I get acquainted with the lead- Scotland reports a sweeping ing family in that village. We talk each, and led by Kwato Mission revival in Korea. Many churches have enormously increased their about some familiar topics which cre- workers. Both white and Pa- ate a common interest and discover puan workers were kept hard at membership. One church with needs. The object of visiting is to work until late at night-with stimulate their desire for learning a 80 members has advanced to better, happier and richer life than private interviews without num- they now have. We set a time to 250, others from 150 to 250, and meet once a week. ber, and the all-important work others from 250 to 500. Four of prayer. The first great step On the date set from twenty to churches in Pyengyang district fifty women and children get together, was reached when people real- under a tree in late fall or early hired special preachers for one, spring, or in any large house in ized that they were clinging to, two or three months each. Three winter. We start the class by singnew church buildings are being ing. It is the first time in each wom- or hiding behind, the things they were asking God to remove erected and a fourth has greatly an's life that she has tried to sing. from their lives. The Holy She can hardly produce any voice at increased its number of helpers. all, but she gradually learns how to Spirit had many elemental The 41 churches supervised by sing and enjoys it. things to teach that were new to Dr. C. A. Clark with a total bap- Next comes the Bible story. I wish these Papuan Christians, about tismal roll of only about 1,000 you could see their faces glow when love and Christian marriage. are now superintended by five After the conference nearly pastors, five helpers, four Bible I tell them how Jesus frees women. everyone went away with a conwomen, and four preachers. The They ask: "Is that your religion? Is viction of a definite work to do. that why you learned? Do tell us more about Him. From today, we, too, determine to start a new life acmen's Bible Class enrolled 1,300 cording to His teachings." The new obedience had to be in the day time, and from 3,000 translated into daily practice; to 5,000 at night. The city class Then we play games. As with sing- confessions and apologies must for women enrolled 971. The ing, it is the first time for them to be made; past sins must be put learn to play games, since they were married. They run, jump and scream men's Bible Institute enrolled like children when they play games. right; testimonies must be given in the village. The climax 253, and the women's Bible In- Once again they all become children occurred early on the last morn- ing, in the intense calm in which stitute had 168 for a ten week's and forget their sorrows and troubles. session. Through playing games they learn to From farther afield people are work together. day dawns in Papua. All gath- After games, we talk of how to clamoring for workers to come make a home and community a better ered by the water's edge to witand teach them the Way of Life. and happier place. A very practical ness fifty men follow their Sav-
iour to the Cross and to be iden- preme importance to the indi- have united to form the Daily tified with Him in baptism. This vidual and the nation in these Vacation Bible School Council, was followed by an open air critical times. An enrolment of with headquarters at 100 E. communion service, at which 300 church members who will pledge 42d Street, New York. Mr. people were present. a readiness to "Do Their Part" Russell Colgate, closely associ- is recommended. Ten thousand ated with this movement since Bontoc Mission's Church Presbyterian ministers are be- its founding in 1901, is president ing enlisted as leaders in the of this Council. This coopera- Almost thirty years ago crusade. tive plan was decided upon in Bishop Charles Henry Brent the interest of greater unity in and the late Rev. Walter C. Union Considered Again administration and the further Clapp decided upon Bontoc as extension of a foreign program. the station for the pioneer work The Joint Committee on Orthey planned. They went to be ganic Union of the Presbyterian Down in Kentucky companions to people who fled Church in the U. S. A. and the at their approach, a savage, United Presbyterian Church of The whole nation was shocked naked people, feared by all their North America have completed early this year by the tragedy neighbors on the mountain-tops. the formulation of a "Plan of of an aged mother in Kentucky It was then the duty of the Union," which will be distrib- brutally slain by her son. The Bontoc to take the heads of his uted to those interested on, or incident led to the sending of an enemies. So fiercely did they before January 1st. If the 1934 American Sunday School Union wield the head-axe that in this General Assemblies of the two colporteur to investigate condipresent year, nearly two genera- churches vote to submit the tions in that community. His tions later, the people of Sagada Plan to their constituents, the discovery that there had been no and Besao keep off the trails af- votes of said constituents will be religious instruction or Bible ter dark at the seasons when the reported back to the 1935 As- teaching there for a generation, Bontocs used to go raiding for semblies. At the earliest, there- led to an enlistment of the better victims. Even in this Christian fore, the proposed organic union element for the formation of a generation the head hunting in- cannot become effective before Sunday school for Bible study. stinct would not be denied. A 1936. Obviously, the Plan calls Few Bibles were owned, poverty missionary tells of her conster- for some concession on each was great, so the colporteur ofnation at finding a volume of side, but in no particular is there fered a New Testament to all Dore's illustrated "Life of any surrender of anything essen- pupils under twelve, and a Bible Christ" sadly mutilated. Only tial in doctrine, government, dis- to all over twelve, who attended by degrees was the truth cipline or worship. every Sunday for the first quarlearned. The children had cut ter. He found, at the end of the out the heads of all who had any- Newspaper with a Unique quarter, that this offer called thing to do with the crucifixion Record for 20 New Testaments and 50 of their Lord! Bibles. A donation solved his The Christian Observer, Pres- problem and cheered the recipi- In 1908, Rev. Edward A. byterian publication of Louis- ents. The attendance of the Sibley joined Mr. Clapp and ville, Ky., is the only weekly re- Sunday school had risen to over continued until his death in ligious newspaper in the world 100. The superintendent writes 1931. Through their faith and that has completed 120 years of that "we are making up money labor a church has been built up continuous publication. When to build a new church house and and a new building was conse- the nineteenth century began Sunday schooL" The atmoscrated last year. there was not a single religious phere of the place has decidedly paper published in the world. changed. -Spirit of Missions. The writings of Hume, Voltaire, and Thomas Paine were then -Bible Society Record. NORTH AMERICA commonly read. Under such conditions the Christian Ob- Christians and Jews in Spiritual Recovery Crusade server was founded. Some two America score families have been sub- A Spiritual Recovery Crusade scribers during the entire 120 Negotiations for a merger of is being launched throughout the years; forty-five families during the two large interdenomina- United States by the Presbyte- 100 years; while seventy-four tional agencies for the Christian rian General Council. At a Sep- families are on the roll of sub- Approach to the Jews in Amertember conference of committee scribers for seventy-five or more ica are under way. These agenchairmen the mobilization of the years. cies are the North American entire Presbyterian Church for Section of the International a spiritual recovery crusade in – Watchman-Examiner. Committee on the Christian Apthe near future was recom- proach to the Jews and the Joint mended. The intention is to D. V. B. S. Movement United Department of Cooperating urge the conviction that the Boards. These two bodies are spiritual leadership of the The World Association, and aiming at fusion in order to Church, interpreting the pro- the International Association of avoid misunderstanding among gram of Jesus Christ. is of su- the Daily Vacation Bible School
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
supporting agencies and a seem- but very few can add "of the throwing all Latin America into ing duplication of effort, as well World." The Union Church in confusion. as to secure a unified presenta- the Panama Canal Zone is cortion of the work, a unified ap- rectly described by that title. -Christian Advocate. proach to the Jews by Christian Six thousand four hundred and forces of America and united ac- thirty-two ships passed the In Surinam tion by them. This will involve doors of the Union Church in the creation of one central agen- 1929, flying the flags of twenty- A little known, but especially cy where there are now two. one nations. There are four remarkable mission field in The Home Missions Council- civilian communities of Ameri- Dutch G u ian a, is Surinam. including the Council of Women cans in the Canal Zone-Balboa, Here the Moravian missionaries, for Home Missions-and the In- with the government offices; about sixty Germans, are workternational Missionary Council Cristobal, the commercial cen- ing among the most varied races. are concerned in this action. ter; Gatun and Pedro Miguel, The great mass is that of Cre- the settlements by the great oles and the descendants of run- Facing aNew Challenge locks. There are 8,109 Ameri- away Negro slaves, who live in cans among the 24,056 people re- the jungles. Besides these the The Women's Missionary ported in the census. There is a missionaries are serving the Magazine contains a comprehen- congregation of the Union East Indians and Javanese who sive survey of the contributions Church in each community. were brought here for coolie lawhich Protestant missions have bor. Under the economic presmade toward fitting the Ameri- The m a j 0 r denominations sure which for the last ten years can Indian for positions of use- joined' forces with the Canal has been disabling the populaful service, and points out that Zone builders in the Union tion it is no wonder that the the Government's Indian policy Church, and $200,000 have been questions which agitate the rest since 1870 is a "by-product of invested in adequate church of the world are also being dis- Christian missions." These are buildings in Cristobal and Bal- cussed here and,so also red comthe achievements in the past: boa, given by seven denomina- munism is making great strides tional boards and citizens of the among Creoles, East Indians Christian forces have served Zone. The people on the Canal and Javanese. At the same in the building of communities, Zone raise locally all money to time the old forms of heathenin conserving cultural values, in meet current expenses, having a ism are being revived, animism making the Indian literate, in budget of $8,000 at Balboa and is again rampant and morality establishing cooperation with $6,000 at Cristobal. is going to pieces. The churches the Government, in improving in the country however are health, in providing recreation, -Federal Council Bulletin. awake and are pushing their and in reaching the neglected. work. In many instances the They are now venturing into a Cuba's Extravagance and population is even inviting their new field – that of religious Poverty services. teaching in government schools, and are formulating new educa- Out of Cuba's less than Gospel Launch on the tional policies. There are now Paraguay eighty-four government board- 4,000,000 population, over 2,- ing schools for Indian pupils- Paraguay has a popUlation of fifty-one reservation schools, 000,000 are actually on the verge t wen t y – 0 n e nonreservation of starvation. Yet the republic s c h 0 0 Is, twelve sanatorium schools, eighty-two government recently completed a $16,000,- about a million, including civihospitals, and fourteen sana- 000 capitol building. Its presi- lized Spaniards and wandering toriums, all of which are open to dential palace is three times the tribes of Indians. It is a bithe ministration of Christian size of the White House in lingual country, the official lanworkers. Character training Washington, and in recent years guage being Spanish, the naamong pupils of government all the business buildings near- tional tongue being Guarani, schools is practically a new op- by have been razed and a great spoken by Paraguay's original portunity, and one method of meeting it is the provision of tropical park spreading over inhabitants. Since 1921 mis- Christian homes for children at- many acres has been developed sionaries associated with Christending government schools, es- around it. A highway the whole tian Missions in Many Lands pecially those whose homes are length of the island was recently have systematically evangelized distant. completed at a public cost of a stretch of the great Paraguay LATIN AMERICA $100,000,000 and more. The River by means of a motor great mass of the people are il- launch. The vessel carries a World Cross Roads literate. Even twenty years af- rowing boat and small launch on ter the establishment of an edu- deck. It has sleeping accommo- Many churches use the title "Church at the Crossroads," cational system, over half of the dations for eight persons, is lit Cubans can neither read nor by electricity, and the galley is write. Radical, communistic and . fitted up for cooking operations. trade agitators take advantage A number of voyages have been of this situation to stir up hatred made from Asuncion, the capi- and suspicion, and may, conceiv- tal, northward to the city of ably, make Cuba a base for Corumba in Brazil, a distance of
about 850 miles, each voyage re- Commenting on the signifi- Article 3. I BELIEVE that in the fulquiring about twelve months. cance of these figures Dr. Sam- ness of time God fulfilled His prom- Nearly 130 ports are visited, also uel McCrea Cavert says: ise and sent forth His Son, His cattle ranches, farms, sugar eternal Word, Jesus the Messiah, plantations, lumber camps, tan- It is highly significant that in the Who was born by the power of the ning factories, meat packing so-called "era of prosperity," when Holy Spirit, of the Virgin Mary, plants and garrison towns. In the national income was shooting up- who was of the family of David, so these are represented nearly all ward to its highest peak, none of the that in Him the Word was made European races, but with a nat- increased resources flowed into the flesh and dwelt among us full of urally predominating element of channels of Christian service. The grace and truth. Paraguayans and Brazilians. people had more money but appar- Indians roam on the banks or ently the surplus was spent for per- Article 4. I BELIEVE that Jesus the paddle on the wide waters in sonal indulgence and the satisfaction Messiah is in very truth the Shetheir frail dug-out canoes. of material wants. But when the pe- kinah, the brightness of the Fa- riod of the depression came the peo- ther's glory, the very impress of Traveling thus up and down ple stood by the Church with note- His person, that He was made unto the river, the launch brings the worthy loyalty. Hard-pressed though us wisdom from God, and rIghteous- Gospel to the very doors of the they were, they did not-in the ag- ness, and sanctification, and that people; it is literally preached gregate–curtail their gifts to the 'by His Life, Death on the Cross and from "house to house." Many Church as much as their income had glorious Resurrection, He has achundreds of Bibles and Testa- been curtailed. This is most hearten- complished our Reconciliation with ments have been placed in the ing evidence of the hold that the the Father. hands of the people, while thou- Church still has on the hearts of the sands of Gospels have been dis- people. Article 5. I BELIEVE that the Father tributed. These are eagerly sealed all that the Son was, did and received by the people and treas- -Federal Council Report. taught, by raising Him through the ured by many. At last, seed is Holy Spirit from the dead, and that springing up in many places. Sunday School Missions the Risen and Glorified Lord ap- peared to many and communed with MISCELLANEOUS With a force of 139 workers, a them, and then ascended to be our reduction to the level of 12 years Mediator with the Father and to Giving in Prosperity and ago, on a salary scale below that reign with Him One God. Depression of the years before the World Article 6. I BELIEVE that the Holy Total contributions to Protes- War, the work of Sunday school Spirit, the Paraclete Who proceeds tant churches of the United missions has gone forward dur- from the Father and the Son, was States in 1932 were $378,000,000 ing the past year. These mis- sent to be with us, to give us asin round numbers, according to surance of the forgiveness of sin a study made for the conference sionaries have under their care and to lead us unto the fulness of of the promotional executives of 3,064 mission Sunday schools truth and the more abundant life. the principal denominations, held in New York under the with a total enrolment of 133,- Article 7. I BELIEVE that the Holy auspices of the Federal Council 000. A number of these points Spirit, Who beareth witness with of the Churches on September are also preaching stations. our spirits that we are the sons of 27. This was approximately Each Sunday school is located God, will quicken us in the resurforty per cent below contribu- rection when we shall be clothed in tions in 1929, as compared with in a community where there is the body which it shall please the a larger drop of fifty-four per no other religious organization Father to give us. cent in the national income dur- of any denomination. Last suming the same period. The fact that the giving to the churches mer 1,777 vacation Bible schools Article 8. I BELIEVE that the Church had declined less than the in- were conducted through their ef- of the Messiah is the family of God come of the nation during the forts, the highest record ever in heaven and on earth, the sancdepression was interpreted as an reached. tuary of the redeemed in which God exceedingly hopeful sign. The dwells and of which the Messiah 1929 con t rib uti 0 n s to the Hebrew Christian Creed Jesus is the only Head. churches were reported as $581,- 000,000, falling to $378,000,000 The quarterly magazine of Article 9. I BELIEVE that the Old and in 1932. The 1929 national in- New Testaments are the dIvinely come was eighty-five billions; the International Hebrew Christhe 1932 national income was set tian Alliance last January pub- inspired records of God's revelation at forty billions. It is noted lished eleven proposed Articles to Israel and the World and are the that the churches' share in the national income during these only rule of life and faith. years was not quite one per cent. of Faith for the Hebrew Chris- Article 10. I BELIEVE that it is the tian Church. They are: will of God, Who has graciously brought us into the new Covenant Article 1. I BELIEVE in God the Source that we should strive to be His wit- of all being, the Covenant God, the nesses, making the teaching and life Holy One of Israel, our Heavenly Father. of the Messiah our standard and example, till He comes again to reign in power and glory.
Article 2. I BELIEVE that God who spake at sundry times and in divers Article 11. I BELIEVE that the Church manners in time past to the fathers visible maintains unbroken continu- through the prophets promised to ity with the Church in heaven by redeem the world from sin and' partaking of the same blessed death in and through His Anointed, Sacraments of BaptIsm and of Holy Who would be a light to lighten the Communion and by confessing the Gentiles and the glory of His people same Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Israel. One Godhead.
~ .~ _:~I====~~~~~~~=~~===-=.,~
Our Missionary Bookshelf I Recent Books Reviewed for the Readers' Information I ~'~I_ _~~~======================~=I~ The Word of the Cross to Hindus. of despair nor of doubt regard- chur~hes in Japan are worthy of By Edgar W. Thompson, M.A. 800. ing the outcome of the effort to speCIal study, and the autobi- pp. 327. 78. 6d. The Epworth make Christ known as the Light ography of such a leader as Dr. Press, London. of the world. The chapter on Kozaki is of large significance. :'M~~ern Trends Toward Pagan- Mr. Thompson was for 25 Ism uses the term in a popular His activities were varied and years a missionary in India and important. On graduating from sense, since "paganism" is not has now been for 14 years Sec- irreligious, but in so far as it is the Doshisha University, he went retary of the Weslyan Mission- coarsely secular society deserves to Tokyo and organized the first ary Society in London. This the rebuke here administered. Congregational churches in East Japan. He was one of the origibook illustrates the way in which A vigorous chapter deals with such a very thoughtful and de- change and enlargement in the nal organizers of the Young voted I!lan represents the Gospel missionary movement. So vital Men's Christian Association of to IndIa. The first half is an a movement cannot be stagnant. Tokyo and was elected its first "historical inquiry" and the sec- Dr. Franklin quotes with ap- president. At the same time he ond an "interpretation." It is proval the saying: "The Chris- published a monthly magazine another evidence of the illimita- and several weekly Christian ble riches of Christ· others tian statesman of today is the n~~sI?apers. When Joseph Hardy might construe His teaching and one who looks for no stereotyped Nllshlma, first president of the His work with a different pro- program, slavishly copied from Doshisha, died, Dr. Kozaki beportion and emphasis and ap- the past, but who studies the re- came his successor. He was one lationship of the mission enter- of the founders of the Japanese praisal, but this account of the prise to a world which is a very Sunday School Association and mission and the salvation of different world from the one was its president for seventeen Christ is full of freshness and which our fathers and our years, and was Chairman at one true significance. The latter grandfathers knew." This is a time of the National Christian half of the book is a commenda- commonplace to missionary lead- Council of Japan. He was retion of Christ to India in terms ers like Dr. Franklin and can peatedly honored by the Govof India's own consciousness of seem strange or striking only to ernment as a Christian repreneed and as transcending all that new and uniformed missionary sentative. He was invited to atis evil and imperfect in Hindu- students. A considerable bibli- tend an imperial wedding the ism and fulfilling all the true ography closes the book. It is coronation ceremony of the' Emlongings and desires of Indian hearts. It is a very interesting a foremost mission study book peror, at which, with six Budand profitable and worthy book. of the coming year and suggests dhist !lnd Shinto dignitaries, he many lines of thoughtful con- was gIven a gold cup, and was a R. E. s.
The Never Failing Light. By James sideration of the missionary en- guest at the imperial banquet.
H. Franklin. 207 I?P. Cloth $1, pa- terprise. CLELAND B. McAFEE. Dr. Kozaki was involved in oc- wcaistI.hOnaalstcroonntgrowvielrls, ieas'thaoromuganh pMeor,ve6m0 ecnetn, tsN. eMwISYSoIOrkn.ary19E3d3u. cation Reminiscences of Seventy Years an Autobiography of a Japanese Pas- .. The well-known Secretary of the American Baptist Foreign tDo.rD, .,by40t6heppR.evC. hHriisrtoimanichLii tKeroaztaukri~ gomg mdependent, and one of Mission Society has put into six the first of the Japanese pastors vigorous chapters a sincere ef- Society of Japan, Tokyo. $2.00. to accept the theory of evolution fort to "interpret the mind of It is a familiar axiom of mis- and the conclusions of the higher Christ for our modern world sionary policy that the ultimate criticism of the Bible, the advo- with all its confusions and baf- aim of foreign missions is to es-· cacy of which brought him into fling problems." The figure of tablish in each country a nation- conflict with conservative mis- the title is not carefully main- al church that shall be self-sup- sionaries. But his sincerity and tcaai~netdratyherloubgahcoku!t,o but the mind porting, self-governing and self- consecration as well as his abil- it from any propagating. It is equally axio- ity won universal respect and he Pomt m the dlSCussI·on. The rnat·IC that 1·f thOIS aI.m I.S t 0 be winafslueevnetiraylwfhaecrteorreciongnthizeedCahsrIa·sntreatment involves much adverse achI·eved, there must be compe-· tian movement in Japan. analysis of present facts and tent natI·onal Chri.st·Ian Ieader- In this autobiography, wrI·tten conditions but there is no note ShI·p. From t hIS ·V·iewpo.mt, the in 1926 at the age of seventy, Any of the books noted in these columns will [be62s3en]t by the REVIEW publishers on reeel.pt 0f prI.ce.
Dr. Kozaki tells the story of his Protestant Home Missions to Cath- years, but the work itself goes olic Immigrants. By Theodore Abel. back for over a century. At least life and the numerous changes $8.00. Institute of Social and Re- one great denominational board ligious Research, New York. 1933. sent its first home missionary to that he has witnessed, in many work among Roman Catholics in Professor Abel presents a the United States 113 years ago. of which he was an active par- brief study of the work of Prot- estant churches among foreign- We doubt the validity of Mr. ticipant. The volume was pub- language Catholic groups in Abel's conclusion that Protes- America. The study contains no tant missions among Roman lished in the Japanese language "revelations" of hitherto undis- Catholic immigrants have failed of their major objective. It would in April, 1927, and has now been covered facts. It is rather a com- be difficult to find any field of pilation of items with which missionary endeavor where the translated into English by his Protestant workers have long results have been more satisfac- been familiar. Its real contri- tory and gratifying. The churchbrother, NthareiaSkei veKnotzhakCi~llpergoe- bution is the evaluation of this fessor in material by a presumably disin- es are aware that foreign-lan- guage work in the United States Kagoshima. It is an account of terested party. is in process of transition, and great ecclesiastical bodies have a remarkable life. The reader The author undertakes the dif- set up machinery for assisting ficult task of analyzing the mo- churches during this transition will easily see that foreign mis- tives which have dominated period. In most foreign-language Protestant missionary enter- churches, a large proportion of sionaries have to "watch their prises among Roman Catholic immigrant groups, and he ar- the work is now carried on in the step" in dealing with Japanese English language, many such rives at the general conclusion of that type. While many will that Protestant churches set out, churches have already been some fifty years ago, to win merged with English language not concur in some of the opin- Catholic immigrants to Protes- tant Christian faith with the churches. i~ns freely expressed, we recog- idea that something correspond- ing to a "mass" movement would Within a few months it has nIze the fact that Christians in been my privilege to visit some develop. Since such a movement of the foreign-language church- Japan have leaders who stand has not developed he concludes es among Roman Catholic im- migrants in points extending upon their own feet and are de- that these missions have failed in their purpose. Our own judg- from Boston and New York on termined that their churches the East to the Pacific Coast and ment is that Mr. Abel's interpre- the Mexican Border. In practishall be but thoroughly Japanese. tation does not do justice to the cally every case, we found good facts. While the motives that sized congregations, large and ARTHUR J. BROWN. Mr. Abel mentions may have been present at some times or in active Sunday schools and alert Broken Bonds. By K. S. Malden. The some places, and may be in oper- and intelligent and consecrated Society for the Propagation of the ation in certain places even to- Christian pastors. In some cases Gospel, London. 1933. day, yet no one could have sat the buildings available could not through the myriad denomina- contain the people who wished to This history of the slave trade tional and interdenominational attend the services. There was in the West Indies and its aboli- conferences of the past twenty every indication that these tion was compiled by Miss MaI- years dealing with this mission- churches were leading intelliden from records and reports in gent people to a real worship of the archives of the S. P. G. It ary work and receive any such gives full credit to the Society of impression as Mr. Abel has God; that they were training Friends for the general move- gained from his study. There hundreds of boys and girls in the ment for abolition and states have been sharp differences of definitely that while the S. P. G. opinion, but the expectations of Christian Way of Life; that they ~s such took no prominent part promoting a mass movement of were providing interests and so- III the movement, individuals cial activities for young folk who connected with it did. Among Roman Catholics into the Protes- might otherwise have become these is included no less a man tant Church in America has not than Wilberforce himself. It em- played a large part in this work, hoodlums, law-breakers, and phasizes the fact that the Soci- certainly not in the past genera- gangsters, and that they were ety, in the course of its work in tion. The widely extended for- making many other contributhe North American colonies and eign-language work of Protesthe West Indies, prepared the tions to the welfare of the comway for the movement. tant churches among Catholic munities in which they existed. . Th~ book supplies a very elu- groups has grown up largely in These churches should be judged clda~Illg chapter on slavery in respons~ to the moral, spiritual, earlIer days, one on slavery in or SOCIal need of neglected on the basis of their contribution the plantations, one on the S. P. G. and slavery, one on the S. P. groups. Work among these to the lives of the people they are G. and emancipation and then the aftermath and a conclusion. Catholic groups naturally in- serving. One foreign-language The chapters on the spread of slavery are most informing and creased during the past fifty pastor within a period of ten the chapters bearing on the S. P. G. give a splendid review of months recently gave 429 letters the efforts made in the direction of abolition. The value of the book lies in the fact that it presents the result of research in the records of the Society, and gives material that is not easily accessible elsewhere.
C. T. BENZE.
OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
of introduction to persons re- cants). This leaves out most of tional societies, independent misturning to Mexico from his com- Africa, the Moslem World, and sions and union undertakings. munity, yet his institution still has a substantial following. the Islands of the Pacific. There are some eighty Christian The Protestant m iss ion s It is illuminating to study societies working in behalf of a m 0 n g so-called "Catholic" groups in America have won even the incomplete statistics the Jews. thousands of individuals to Jesus Christ. They have helped mil- offered by the report of the Na- This Directory gives the total lions of boys and girls into lives of usefulness. They have made tional Christian Council of population of the world as 1,- the population of jails smaller. They have, in idealistic terms, China. We note, for example, 958,213,801. Of this number the interpreted America to multitudes of bewildered and lonely that in the ten years from 1920 religious affiliations are as folstrangers. They have broken down prejudice between Catholic to 1930 the communicant Protes- lows: and Protestant groups, and they have set in motion spiritual in- tant church membership in- Christians ………… 588,027,965 fluences, the results of which have not yet been tabulated and creased from 243,479 to 289,547 Protestant ………… 132,969,616 which, unless we develop spirit- or nearly twenty per cent. This Eastern Orthodox …. 127,295,825 ual perceptions somewhat more Roman Catholics …… 297,762,524 acute than anything at present growth is in spite of-or because Mohammedans …….. 218,982,875 known, will remain untabulated of-the difficulties due to anti- Jews …………….. 15,029,638 so long as the world shall stand. foreign and anti-Christian agi- Others (Non-Christians) 1,166,173,323 JAY S. STOWELL. tation, internal warfare, com- The largest Protestant group munistic and governmental The Directory of Foreign Missi'ons. changes. The 1930 "Directory is the Lutheran with 62,218,785, Edited by Esther Boorman Strong with the Presbyterians second and A. L. Warnshuis. 8 vo. 278 of Missions" in China shows (16,191,468), Methodists third pp. International Missionary Coun- 765 cities occupied-247 more (15,704,800) and Baptists and cil. New York and London. 1933. than in 1929 and 452 more than in 1928. In 1932 the Church of Episcopalians about equal (11,- The foreign missionary enter- Christ in China (the union of 610,065 and 11,691,364). prise is the greatest business and benevolent enterprise in the sixteen denominations from six Eastern Women Today and Tomorworld-as this Directory will countries) included 821 organ- row. By Ruth Woodsmall. 221 pp. prove. It lists the names, officers, ized Chinese churches and 1,204 addresses, incomes, objects and other preaching places, with 334 $1. The Central Committee on the work of some 250 boards, mis- ordained Chinese pastors, 1088 UCanmitebdridSgteu,dMy aosfs.Fo1r9e3ig3.n Missions. sions and societies engaged in the work of presenting Christ This volume is the Central and His Way of Life to the peoples in non-Christian lands. The evangelistic workers and 120,- Committee's for e i g n mission statistics are very incomplete but the North American socie- 676 members. study book for women for 1933ties spent in this enterprise in India, the Dutch East Indies 34. But this is not a book for 1931 over twenty-seven millions of dollars and British, Euro- and South Africa also offer op- women's missionary societies, pean, Australian and South African societies as much more. portunity for a study of the re- nor alone for women in general, The number of Protestant "native" Christians now enrolled in suIts of Christian missions. but for all who wish to underthese "younger churches" in foreign lands is said to be about But the chief value of the Di- stand the great sociological facts 4,000,000 but this volume gives figures only for Japan (218,- rectory is the up-to-date list of of modern times-the emergence 000); China (500,000, or 289,- 547 communicants); K 0 rea missionary organizations a t of woman throughout the world. (143,912); India (909,804 communicants and 1,761,732 other work for the promotion of evan- The authoress is preeminently Christians); Netherland Indies (437,898); South Africa (497,- gelical Christianity. The organ- qualified for making this survey 542); South America (about 900,000 Protestant communi- izations are listed with names through a long residence, with and addresses of officers, the ob- organizational responsibility, in ject of the society, the annual the Near East and through mem- income, the fields occupied, of- bership on the Commission on ficial periodical, and additional Higher Christian Education in explanatory notes. While not Japan and on the India Fact complete it is the most complete Finding staff of the Laymen's available. Missionary Survey and later as The United States of America one of their appraisers. As a leads with the largest number of result of these first-hand con- denominational societies (114) tacts with the Near and Far and the most cooperating agen- East the treatment is objective, cies and union efforts (47). and yet the factual material is England and America are about constantly interspersed and sup- equal in the undenominational ported with incidents and gleam- missions conducting for e i g n ings from interviews full of hu- work (49 and 51 respectively). man interest.
It is interesting and instructive The first eight chapters deal to note the number of Protestant with the present position of missionary societies in Germany Eastern women, for it is vital (46), in the Netherlands (23) . that all concerned should be and in South Africa (20). The aware of the new interests and mission fields themselves report activities of Eastern women.
a large number of denomina- The reader sees how the range
of these activities is steadily ex- supporters with all the facts. in order to be neighborly, as well tending from personal problems This book ably meets this condi- as for our own future protection, and social reforms to the funda- tion within the compass of its we ought to form bonds of symmental social and scientific prob- pages. lems of national life. DANIEL J. FLEMING. pathetic understanding with the peoples of those republics.
America Revolucionaria. By Samuel Those who read Spanish will The last four chapters deal Guy Inman. 8 vo. 340 pp. $1. Javier with the relationship of Chris- find in the volume an interesting tian missions to the development Morata, Madrid, or Committee on and colorful setting forth of Cooperation in Latin America. New present conditions and their of women in the new day. These York. 1933. chapters maintain a fine balance between appreciation for the Here is a new book, in perfect causes. He who reads it will be great and varied contributions Castilian, from the Executive of missions to Eastern woman- Secretary of the Committee on more knowing in regard to Latin hood in the past and construc- Cooperation in Latin America. tive criticism for the future. Dr. Inman has a long list of America, from a more exact The rapid forward movement of books in English to his credit, an educated minority in each knowledge there will come symcountry of the East necessitates on various phases of life in Latin a reorientation in point of view. America and Inter-America pathy, and from a deeper sym- No longer can the primary em- friendship. This is his second pathy a kindlier understanding. phasis be put on the differences venture in Spanish, both having between the women of the East been issued by publishers in The chapter titles will awaken and the West. Over and over again attention is drawn to the Madrid. interest: Attitude of the Liberal This recent work is a collec- Facing Revolution; Suggested fact that religious work for women cannot meet the present tion of addresses delivered in Roads for a New Order; Causes need or future opportunity with- universities and other cultural out radical adjustment. Educa- centers of Latin America, and of Recent Revolutions in Latin tion must be related more closely admirably sums up present-day with life. The old style "Bible America; In an Airplane Over Women" should be replaced by revolutionary tendencies, also explaining certain causes that the Andes; Modern Hispanic trained I e a d e r s. Devolution lie back of extensive unrest in should be encouraged, permit- the republics to the South. American Society; Some Social ting Eastern women to assume Dr. Inman is at home in any Experiments-Mexico, Uruguay, major responsibilities as rapidly one of the Latin American reas possible. Fundamental values publics, and has many friends Student Movement, Communism, in racial and cultural assets are among all classes of society. He to be recognized. was once introduced to an audi- etc., in South America; The Eco- ence as "a friend to Carranza A large place for the foreign and other bandits," but not all nomic and Spiritual Crisis; The missionary of the future is en- his friends belong to the ban- ditry. A leading Argentine au- New International Wodd; The visioned. But the missionary of thor in a beautiful introduction the future should be fitted by to this volume, has written, "In United States Facing the New training and by personality to every country he has friends, in every home his place at the Order; Three Types of Candicarryon work cooperatively and to call out creative leadership. table." dates in a Revolutionary world The technical qualifications of "A mer i c a Revolucionaria" such women will be higher than -Hoover, Stalin, Gandhi; Enin the era that is closing. There proves that its author has an inwill be much more non-institu- timate and sympathetic under- gineers versus Poets-a study of tional work and more recogni- standing of present-day political Anglo Saxon and Latin Attition of the values inherent in and social conditions in Latin normal friendly, human relation- America, and an affection for our tudes. WEBSTER E. BROWNING. ships. The position is taken that neighbors to the South, as they Child Neighbors in America. By Christianity must base its case, gradually free themselves from Elsie G. Rodgers and Dorothy F. their inheritance of monarchic- McConnell. 120 pp. $1. Friendnot on a destructive, undermin- ecclesiastical government and ship Press, New York. 1933. wrestle with tremendous modern economic and social problems. This is a complete, comprehen- sive and thoroughly practical course of study for use among primary children. Three units of study are introduced-moun- tain children, the second genera- tion of the foreign born (in- cluding the problem of child la- bor), and Negro children. The plan is to present the problems and conditions of these groups and to give practical suggestions for awakening interest and arousing a desire toward friend- liness for these "neighbor" chil- dren. The information about ing attack on other faiths but on The book gives much informa- each group is concise and coma positive emphasis on its own tion which people need to give plete in its characterizations. deep spiritual meaning of the us a clearer understanding of the There is an abundance of malife abundant. problems that vex our friends to terial for the leader to work It has long been the conviction the South of the Rio Grande. with, including source material of the reviewer that in the long Within the twenty republics of for further study. Programs run the best promotional litera- Latin America there is being and activities are suggested for ture for missions will acquaint built up a great population, and each group and period and sev-
eral fascinating stories are re- have made the book more inter- a convert from Islam has to meet. The remarks, therefore, lated for retelling to the chil- esting. are never commonplace but il- luminate the passage in the dren during the study periods. Nevertheless, the story does Gospel by applying it to present- day conditions. The purpose of the course is contain much that is thrilling Jesus said: If anyone would come to create a Christian attitude to- and any contact with such a life after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. ward children of other classes is a tonic. Nancy Judson should What does this mean to me? and it offers wide opportunities inspire her young readers to be Clearly Jesus foresaw public dis- grace and a hard life for those who for instilling this sympathy and "up and doing in this" needy followed Him. A criminal carrying his cross could not also carry his understanding in their hearts world of ours-a world which purse or the honors of this world. Lord, help me to account Thy reand minds. ELSIE LARSON. desperately needs such a strong proach greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. Ann H. Judson – The Missionary faith. FRANCES S. RIGGS. Heroine of Burma. By E. R. Pit- To those who desire to know kin. Pickering and Inglis, London. A Book of Instruction for Cate- how missionaries deal with 1933. chumens: Section I, The Life of Moslem converts, this book sup- the Lord Jesus Christ. By W. H. plies the answer. This is one of a series of mis- T. Gairdner and Constance E. Padsionary biographies written es- wick. 168 pp. S. P. C. K. Lon- SAMUEL M. ZWEMER. pecially· for younger readers. don. 1933. Zanahary in South Madagascar. By Nancy Hazeltine, who became Andrew Burgess. Illus. 12 mo. the wife of Adoniram Judson, is Canon Gairdner left a large 250 pp. Lutheran Board of Fora character to awaken wonder legacy to missionaries among eign Missions. Minneapolis, Minn. and admiration. The J udsons 1933. were pioneer missionaries to Moslems in his published and Burma in days when such an unpublished writings. The pres- Zanahary – Creator – i s the ent volume m 0 s t admirably old Malagasy for God. This volenterprise was a desperate ad- meets the need of a systematic ume describes the island and venture which only the stoutest handbook of lessons for Chris- people of Madagascar and tells of hearts could have endured tian Catechumens in Mohamme- something of their history, betriumphantly. dan lands. Earlier sections have liefs and the Christian mission appeared in Arabic dealing with work of the L. M. S. and Nor- Against hardships due to cli- the Commandments, the Creed, wegian Lutherans. Little is said mate and life lived amid primi- and the Sacraments, and can be of the work of the S. P. G. (Antive people; against persecution obtained through the S. P. C. K. glicians), the Friends or the by a hostile government which The book is admirably suited for French Evangelical Mission. cast her husband in prison and translation into other languages The Norwegian Lutherans engave her no provision or pro- and in its English form is well- tered Madagascar in 1866 and tection; against illness and un- nigh indispensable to all who settled in the South and the believable privation, Nancy Jud- deal with Moslem inquirers. American Lutherans took up son showed a strength of char- Every lesson on the Life of work in 1887. Now the total acter and a loving devotion to number of baptized Christians is Christ has, in addition to the 321,325, of whom the Lutherans her husband and to the cause of Scripture references, comment have 128,325. the Kingdom that makes her one and a special prayer for the use of God's noble women. Her zeal of the pupils. For example, in The story of early Protestant for helping others in the Mas- missions in Madagascar – from ter's name knew no bounds. Lesson XX on the Lord's Prayer 1818-is full of interest. Trad- Though the years brought great we have a pattern prayer given ers declared: "You might as hardships her strong faith in well try to teach the monkeys as Christ brought her through tri- as follows: the Malagasy" but David Jones umphantly. found the people both able and Our Father which art in heaven- eager to learn. He used for Her death came soon after the my Father and the Father of my "slates" pieces of wood, smeared British Army entered Burma little son. with grease and dusted with bringing security and protection ashes; for pencils he used sharpto the missionaries. This of- Hallowed be Thy name-in the life ened sticks. The language was fered an unprecedented oppor- and thought of my child. May he reduced to writing and the first tunity for missionary effort for reverence Thee, keep Thy name portion of the Bible was printed which the Judsons had long holy, and learn to worship Thee on a hand press in 1827. The prayed. with awe and love. period of persecution began in 1831 and missionaries were ban- In this brief account of a re- Thy kingdom come-through the ished in 1835. A period of markable career the author life of my little son may men martyrdom followed for thirty quotes largely from Mrs. Jud- learn to make Thee King.
son's diaries and letters. The Thy will be done, as in heaven so style is somewhat stilted and the on earth-by my little son in all author uses a religous phrase- his thoughts and words, his play ology which needs to be inter- and his work, may Thy will be preted to many modern youth. done as gladly and perfectly as A richer background depicting by Thy holy angels.
Burma and her people would Give us this day our daily bread- grant to my little son bread for body, mind, and spirit, suitable for his age and strength and growth. (Here pray for his teachers who supply bread fOl' his mind.) The authors know from their own experience what difficulties
years until Queen Ranavalona writes is given in direct popular veals the inexhaustible riches died in 1861. More than 10,000 form that makes the book read- found in Jesus Christ. We Christians were sentenced but able and suitable for young peo- know of no more simple, devout, the number of believers multi- ple who may consider devoting helpful and practical exposition plied fivefolt'.!. Now un d e r their lives to missionary work. than these expositions of Dr. French rule and Roman Catholic It is based on the New Testa- Erdman. influence the work is difficult but ment and on history but would continues. Papal missions have be strengthened by more con- Joseph Jackson Fuller. By Robert increased. crete illustrations from mission- Glennie. 64 pp. Paper, 6d. Carey ary experiences. Press. London. 1933. Many thrilling stories are told in this brief history. It is worth The Epistle to the Ephesians. An This booklet is one of the reading. Exposition. By Charles R. Erdman. 12 mo. 130 pp. $1. Westminster Torch Bearer series of biogra- The Ambassador Supreme. By Ed- Press. Philadelphia. 1933. ward D. Grant. Paper. 152 pp. phies. It tells the story of a re- Presbyterian Committee of Publica- Dr. Erdman, the Professor of tion. Richmond, Va. 1933. Practical Theology at Princeton markable Negro who was born Theological Seminary, has al- This is a modern presentation ready given us valuable exposi- in Jamaica, took high rank as a of the missionary enterprise as tions of the Gospels, the Acts seen in the missionary himself. and most of the Epistles. They student in the local schools, gave Humanly speaking, he is the key are clear, scholarly, spiritual and to the situation. If he fails to practical. This Epistle to the his heart to Christ, became a represent Christ the enterprise Ephesians d e a I s particularly fails, the Church contributions with the Church of Christ-its Baptist missionary to the tribes are wasted, the work on the field origin, power, and destiny. It is is fruitless and Christ himself is addressed by the Apostle to the on the West coast of Africa, endisappointed. The author is a Gentiles, the members of the Board Secretary and knows Christian brotherhood, and re- dured many hardships and danwhereof he speaks. What he gers with unflinching fortitude, preached the Gospel of Christ with joyous zeal, inspired with his eloquence great audiences during his furloughs in England, and died December 11, 1908, at the ripe age of eighty-three. It is heartening to read this excel- lent account of a noble life nobly lived. A. J. B.
Help Win the MOSLEM MILLIONS BY CHRISTIAN LIFE AND TESTIMONY The Good News of Christ interpreted to Moslems through the Christian life and literature is winning a hearing for the Gospel in many lands.
Will you help to supply this much needed Christian literature for millions who have never heard this Good News—in Egypt Syria Jrak China Morocco Palestine Persia Java Algiers Turkey India Sumatra Tunis Allbia Malaysia South Africa Send your help to the missionaries in these countries through The American Christian Literature Society for Moslems Cooperating with Interdenominational Committees on the Field.
BOARD OF MANAGERS Willidm I. Chamberlain, Ph.D., President •• Dr. Robert E. Speer, Delavan L Pierson, of New York, Vice-Presidents Mrs. William Bdncroft Hill, Honorary Vice-President Mrs. William Borden Mrs. J. M. Montgomery Wilbert B. Smith Mrs. Finley J. Shepard Mrs. E. E. Olcott, Treas. Rev. Robert W. Sedrle, D.D. Rev. Mills J. Tdylor, D.D. Dr. James Cantine, Cor. Sec. Rev. A. C. Snedd John W. Wood, D.C. L. Rev. Thomas S. Donohugh Dr. John H. Rdven Rev. S. M. Zwemer, D.D., Secretary Gifts may be sent to The Treasurer at 116 East 68th St , New York City. Apply for information to THE MOSLEM WORLD, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York.
Books Obituary Notes
Agricultural Missions: A Study Dr. William Summerill Vanneman, When You Require It Based Upon the Experience of 236 for over forty years a Presbyterian Missionaries and Other Rural medical missionary at Tabriz, Persia, We wish to extend to you an invi- Workers. Arthur L. Carson. 110 died there of pneumonia on October tation to become acquainted with pp. Agricultural Missions. Foun- 29th, at the age of 70. THE EVANGELICAL PRESS of dation. New York. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Dr. Vanneman was in charge of the Analytical Questionnaire for Course Presbyterian Mission city dispensary Thousands of institutions and individ- in Systematic Theology. Lewis at Tabriz where he gave effective uals have accepted a similar invitation, Sperry Chafer. 50 pp. Evangel- service to the city of 200,000 inhabit- and have enjoyed a profitable printing ical Theological College. Dallas. ants, where there are few trained association for years. doctors, and to patients from villages Address on the Song of Solomon. H. and towns that had no physicians. Our specialty is Books, Magazines and A. Ironsides. 137 pp. 50 cents pa- Booklets. We have modern equipment per; $1.00, cloth. Loizeaux Bros. His patients included the beggars to meet all the requirements of your New York. in the street and the wealthiest men particular job. Our service is quick, in the city. The diseases included all careful and courteous. The Church and the Great Tribula- kinds of common ailments as well as tion: What Is the Outlook. Wil- typhoid, measles, whooping cough, Why not allow us to estimate on your liam R. Newell. 32 pp. 20 cents. next printing? You will be delighted Scripture Press. Chicago. scarlet fever, diphtheria and small- with our product, price, and service. pox. The Finality of Jesus for Faith. Alex- The Evangelical Press ander Martin. 217 pp. $2. T. &; Dr. Vanneman was born in Penns T. Clark. Edinburgh. Grove, N. J., on Jan. 5, 1863, was Printers of graduated from the University of Laymen's Foreign Mission Inquiry- Pennsylvania Medical School in 1888, The Missionary Review of the World Home Base and Missionary Person- and was sent out to Persia in 1890 nel-Fact-Finders Reports. Orville by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign PLANT AND MAIN OFFICE: A. Petty, Editor. 199 pp. $1.50. missions. Harpers. New York. Third and Reily Streets Harrisburg, P … *** Life Indeed-The Victorious Life in Kemp was also president of the New Four Aspects. J. Russell Howden. Dr. Inazo Ota Nitobe, a well-known Zealand Baptist Union. He was an 133 pp. 18.· 6d. Pickering & Inglis. Christian Japanese author and states- outstanding Christian evangelist. London. man, died of pneumonia in Victory, Bible teacher, pastor, author and or- British Columbia, on October 15th. ganizer of religious work. His mem- The Original Jesus. Otto Borchert. Dr. Nitobe had undergone an opera- ory will be honored by friends aU over 478 pp. $3.50. Macmillan. New tion soon after attending the Pacific the world. York. Institute of International Relations at Banff, where he was chairman of the '" '" * Review and Reward. Harold P. Japanese delegation. He was for- Barker. 94 pp. Is. Pickering & merly editor of Tke Tokio Nicki Nicki, John White, Methodist missionary Inglis. London. a professor in the Imperial Univer- in Rhodesia for forty years, died re- sity, a member of the Japanese House cently. Like Sir Wilfred Grenfell, in The Story of the Brethren Movement. of Peers and undersecretary general addition to being a missionary, he was T. S. Veitch. 108 pp. Pickering & of the League of Nations. He was dentist, doctor, lawyer and magis- Inglis~ London. an earnest and influential Christian trate. He taught agriculture, brick and a pacifist, much honored and be- making, carpentry. Where only a few Whither Asia-A Study of Three loved. He was born August 3, 1862, mud huts had been, he built up a Lp'lders-Gandhi, Huh Shih, Kaga- in Morioka, the son of one of the school where 400 Christian youths wa. Kenneth Saunders. 220 pp. Samurai, a chancellor of Lord Nambu. are now being trained. $2. Macmillan. New York. Dr. Nitobe was graduated with hon- Dr. John Fra'n" cis* Th'"omson, pioneer Everyday Tales of China. Colored ors from Johns Hopkins University illus. 60 pp. 18. C. M. S. London. in 1886 and in 1890 married an Methodist preacher in the Spanish American, Mary P. Elkinson of Phila- Facets of the Faith. W. Graham delphia. He studied in Germany and language in Argentina, died in Buenos Seroggie. 192 pp. 28. 6d. Picker- upon his return to Japan, was ap- ing & Inglis. London. pointed professor of Political Econo- Aires, February 28th. Dr. Thomson my in Sapporo College. In 1911 he The Inadequacy of Evolution. Chester was the first exchange professor to was a native of England, born in K. Lehman. 255 pp $1.25. Men- lecture in American universities. Last 1843, removed in his boyhood to nonite Pub. House. Scottdale, Pa. year he Teturned to America to at- The Meaning of Right and Wrong. tend the Institute of Politics at Wil- Richard C. Cabot. 460 pp. $3.50 liamstown. He was a loyal Christian Macmillan. New York. and a loyal Japanese but was opposed to Japan's recent military policies. Buenos Aires, where he later organ- ••• ized the first Spanish church in that Rev. Joseph W. Kemp, who suc- ceeded Dr. R. S. MacArthur as pastor city. ••• of the Calvary Church, New York, died in Auckland, New Zealand, on Rev. William Thomas Mitchell,for September 5, at the age of 61. Before 35 years a missionary in India, died coming to New York, Mr. Kemp was in Wooster, Ohio, on May 1. Besides for fourteen years pastor of Char- his widow, he leaves two sons, and a lotte Chapel, Edinburgh, Scotland, daughter, Miss Rachel Mitchell, since during which time the membership of 1928 a missionary nurse at the Pres- the church grew from less than fifty byterian Hospital, Fatehgarh, India. to more than 800. In 1920 he became Mr. Mitchell was born in Hamilton, pastor of the Tabernacle Church, Ohio, was graduated from the College Auckland, and was the organizer and of Wooster in 1893 and from McCor- president of the New Zealand Bible mick Seminary in 1896. He was hon- Training Institute from which hun- orably retired, when he returned to dreds of young men and young wom- America from Mainpuri, C. P., in en have gone into Christian work. Mr. 1931,
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The Finality of Jesus Christ A Commentary Critical and By Robert E. Speer Explanatory on the Whole Bible n. A remarkable presentation of the rea- By Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Long recognized as the standard evangelical FINALITY sons for belief in the final authority of 0/ Jesus Christ. The author has spent work on the entire Bible. "J. F. f!1 B.'s Com- J E S U S forty years in the study of the subject mentary" provides within the compass of a and declares unflinchingly for the abso- single volume a continuous stream of clear, CHRIST lute supremacy of Jesus as the Son of critical. and explanatory comments on every God and Saviour of mankind. verse of the whole Biblical text. 1347 pages. President J. Ross StetJenson (Prince- Regular price, $7.50. I D aVI"st B1"ble D"lct"tonary Special, $3.50 II( ) L I I~ I I 1 'I I f, ton Theological Seminary) says: "The greatest contribution Dr. Speer has made to religious literature. . .. It will have By J. D. Davis, Ph.D., D.D., LL.D.
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The Missionary Review of the World — April 1897
THE BPlBITUAL KOVElUilliTB' 011' THE CENTURY
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
xx. Vot.. No. 4.-0ld Se'I'ies.- APRIL. -VOL. X. No. 4.-New 8eJri68.
THE SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE CENTURY-"THE FAITH-WORK."
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Johannes Evangelista Gossner, born at Hausen, near Augsburg, in 1773, and dying in Berlin in 1858, at the age of 85, has been called "the father of faith-missions." This is a very imperfect term to describe a movement which needs some descriptive, definitive title, as one of the conspicuous developments of the century. With the name of Gossner we must associate the names of August Hermann Franke, of Halle, George Miiller, of Bristol, J. Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, and many others who have, in a peculiar sense, gone into 'York with God under the inspiration of their faith and prayer and with peculiar dependence upon Him.
To some people it seems invidious to talk of "Faith Missions," as though other missions were not carried on upon the principle of faith. Yet, if we are to learn God's lessons from history, we must not be jealous concerning words and names, nor must we be too proud, selfwilled, or sensitive, to admit our errors or our deficiencies. Obviously there are two classes of activities which we find among disciples. In one class the so-called "business" methods and principles lie at the basis. The church, local or general, takes up an enterprise, calls to its aid its strongest and wisest counselors, and forms a Board; then goes about its proposed work on the basis of worldly prudence-it will cost so much to carry it on, and so much must be raised by contribution. Accordingly, the most vigorous appeals are mad(:l for money and for men-the main dependence is upon thorough organization and wise administration. If the funds fail, there must be new appeal. No forward step must be taken without a sufficient guaranty, better * This periodical adopts the Orthography of the following Rnle, recommended by the joint action * of the American Philological Association and the Philological Society of England :–Cbange d or ed 1lnal to when so pronounced, except when the e affects a preceding sound.-l'uBLIsBBll8. still, without the supply of material in advance to assure success. God's blessing is sought, of course, by all true disciples, and no fault can be found with those who carry into the Lord's work the principles that are practically found to assure to worldly enterprises the greatest prosperity and progress. Why, then, it is askt, are not all such church activities scriptural and apostolic? And is it not Pharisaic and pre- tentious to describe other enterprises of disciples as Faith Work, as tho nobody else had any faith.
Let us be humble, and let us be candid. It is possible to do work for God, and yet give undue emphasis to its human side; or rather , give too little emp7tasis to the divine side. We may do really Christian work in the energy of the flesh rather than in the energy of the Spirit; we may practically trust more to human wisdom than to divine direction; we may put prayer behind our activity rather than before it, thus reversing the true order which puts prayer always first, and may depend more on appeals to men than on appeals to God. And if we read God's lesson rightly, here is precisely the providential meaning of these faith movements. They are designed by God to make more vivid and prominent to our faith the Presence and PO?oer of a Prayer-Hearing God-to make more real the actual providential administration of the Lord Jesus in the affairs of His Kingdom, and the actual gracious administration of the Holy Spirit in applying the truth to human souls and enlisting believers in a true cooperation with God and each other. It is a great help to us to get a view of missions, for example, as The Enterprise of God, for which He is supremely responsible; to feel that He alone can select and separate and send forth His chosen laborers; that He alone can open wide and ,effectual doors, and meet and drive back the many adversaries; that :He alone can move the people to give themselves, their sons and daughters, or their money; that He alone can lift them to the high level of prevailing prayer, and stir them to loving, passionate sympathy with lost souls; and that consequently it is of first consequence to keep in living, loving contact with God, that our prayers be not hindered; to nse only scriptural and spiritual methods in appealing to men, or in raising funds; and that there are times and matters in which we may safely, trusting in His leadership, take bold steps in advance, where, at the time, no human guaranty is furnisht for success; as when, at Jesus' command, twelve disciples undertook to feed with five loaves and two fishes five thousand men, beside women and children. Faith counts on God as the Invisible Administrator, who can do things impossible with men, can open doors with a word or a will, thrust forth laborers, put the right man in the right field, supply all the money needful at the moment of need, and, in a word, do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. Faith sees that God is honored by being trusted, that believing is not presuming, that the audacity of faith is sometimes really the humility of dependence and the courage of obedience. , We thank God for the Faith Work, which is one of the great inspi.
rations of our day in service to God and man. We thank Him even for the rebuke it has often administered to our hesitating unbelief, our secular methods, our unscriptural appeals, our dependence on man, our resorts to worldly methods for raising money, our despair in great straits. We thank Him for showing us, by so many examples, that He is more jealous and zealous for His work than any of His work- men; that He holds the keys of the situation, and that the govern- ment is upon His shoulder.
The actual character of the Faith movements of our day can best be understood by examining the men and the methods themselves, and again letting philosophy teach us by examples. No miracles in apos- tolic days were more real as manifestations of the power of a present God than some of these modern triumphs of faith which furnish a supplement to the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The name and form of George Muller always come to the front whenever we refer to faith work. The fifty-seventh report of the New Orphan Houses and his kindred enterprises is now before us, reaching to May 26th, 1896. And it is still a record of blessing received in answer to prayer. Mr. Muller started over sixty years ago, to demon- strate how much might be accomplisht by believing prayer, that the weak faith of disciples might be strengthened. This, as he constantly reiterates~ was his own great desire and design. And what is the result? The various schools, from the beginning, have had over 121,000 pupils, with constant conversions, sometimes over 100 in one school in one year. But only believers are allowed to teach, and only believers who are known as having power in prayer. It is computed that at least 10,000 of these pupils have been led to Christ. During this same period there have been circulated in various parts of the world nearly 2,000,000 copies of the Bible, or portions thereof, and over 108,000,000 of books, pamphlets, and tracts. Missionary oper- ations have been carried on or aided in twenty-five different lands and countries, and hundreds of missionaries aided in their work, through whom tens of thousands of souls have been brought to Christ, and from the one church organized by Mr. Muller in Bristol, sixty brethren and sisters, forty of whom are yet engaged in labor, have gone forth.
All this is beside the orphan work, of which it is recorded that during the thirty years past over 3,000 orphans have been converted while in the institution, beside hundreds who have found Christ after they had left its walls. And the total amount of money disburst for all purposes during these sixty-three years is now upwards of seven millions of dollars. Here is an annual present expenditure for the [April orphan houses alone of £22,000, or about $110,000. And all this money comes, with all other supplies, directly in answer to believing prayer. Beyond the annual report, no statement of the financial con- dition of the institutions is ever made to the public, and even the Report never appeals directly for any aid. For sixty-three years Mr. Muller has never, even in the greatest straits, askt one penny of any human donor, or resorted to any method whatever of obtaining money or other supplies, except believing prayer. Even the helpers, who meet daily for united supplication, are cautioned not to mention, outside, the wants of the orphans, lest it should even seem that they were looking to other aid than the Divine. And yet supplies have never once failed in over sixty years. The first donation Mr. Muller ever received for the orphan work was a shilling. Last year 23,500 pounds! and yet he says he can ask God as confidently for twenty thousand pounds as when he began, for a shilling.
If anyone would like to find the principles of faith work expounded by Mr. MUller himself, let him read those remarkable volumes known as "The Lord's Dealings with George MUller." There he gives six reasons why a new institution was founded by himself and Mr. Craik, instead of working through institutions already founded. Let this faith-worker define his own position. These are briefly his grounds, as he states them, only that we condense them for economy of space.
1. The end which these religious societies propose to themselves, and which is constantly put before their members, is that the whole world will gradually become better, and at last be converted; whereas Scripture teaching is that in the present dispensation, things will not become spiritually better, but rather worse, and that it is not the whole world that will be converted, but only a people gathered out from among the Gentiles for the Lord. As it is unscriptural to expect the conversion of the whole world, we could not propose to ourselves such an end in the service of our Lord.
2. That which is worse, is the connection of those religious societies with the world, which is completely contrary to the Word of God. In temporal things, the children of God need, whilst they remain on earth, to make use of this world; but when the work to be done requires that those who attend to it should be possest of spiritual life, the children of God are bound, by their loyalty to their Lord, entirely to refrain from association with the unregenerate.
3. The means made use of in these religious societies to obtain money for the work of the Lord are also, in other respects, unscriptural; for it is a most common case to ask the unconverted for money, which even Abraham would not have done.
4. It is not a rare thing for even committee members (the individuals who manage the affairs of the societies) to be manifestly unconverted persons, if not open enemies, of the truth; and this is suffered because they are rich or have influence.
5. It is a common thing to endeavor to obtain for patrons or presidents of these societies, and for chairmen at public meetings, persons of rank and wealth to attract the. public. Never once have I known a case of a poor, but very devoted, wise, and experienced servant of Christ being invited to fill the chair at such public meetings.
6. Almost all of these societies contract debts, so that it is a com,. paratively rare case to read a report of any of them without finding that they have expended more than they have received, which is contrary both to the spirit and letter of the New Testament.
7. Mr. Muller, in expounding the principles on which his own work is carried on, emphasizes more fully another law which is not expressly stated hitherto, that God only is acknowledged as the patron of the work, and all appeals for help are to be addrest to Him in believing prayer-that success is to be guaged, not by the amount of money given, etc., but by the Lord's blessing; and that while desirous to avoid needless singularity, the one aim will be to go on simply according to Scripture, without compromising truth.* To one who would study these faith movements, we can safely commend Mr. MUller's own story, which is presented with a minuteness of detail which leaves no particular feature wanting to give insight into both method and motive.
Gossner, the humble pastor of the little Bethlehem church in Berlin, had no thought of being a leader in a new movement, or, above all, a "missionary founder." He simply'walkt, a step at a time, after the Divine leader, venturing to put faith in the words of God, and not discount his promises by unbelief, or by limiting them to the apostolic period, or some remoter time. The story is fascinating in its successive steps, showing how marvelously God leads a willing soul who is courageous enough to follow. Three or four artizans sought him for advice, when they felt the burning fire shut up in their bones, and were weary with forbearing; they felt that they must preach the Gospel in the regions beyond. But when he would not give them aid or approval, they begged, at least, what he could not withhold-a partnership in prayer that God would guide them. He consented, but it was perilous for unbelief, for he found himself praying sympathetically and, at last, fervently, until the symphony of prayer became a sympathy of service. Then he went another step, and began to give them positive help. They came to him when their day's work was over, and Gossner became to them an educator, training them in such. knowledge of the Word of God, and the truth according to godliness, as he found lacking. He had suddenly and unconsciously establisht a training-school.
The Lord's Dealings with George Milller. I. 107-112. Now comes the next step. To encourage men to go forth to the world-field without first running the round' of the regular curriculum of classical and theological.training, was an ecclesiastical heresy which subjected Gossner to a fire of criticism. Yet he was so sure that he had followed, tho at first reluctantly, the leading of God, that the assaults of his accusers only confirmed him in his course. He shut himself in with God for prolonged prayer, and he found the shield of faith still able to quench the fiery darts hurled at him as an innovator, iutroducing customs not lawful for his brethren to receive neither to observe-being Germans. But he could not act independently of the approval of his brethren, without also cutting loose from their pecumary aid. And so Gossner thrust his self-trained workmen forth in sole and simple dependence on God for aU needful 8upplies. We emphasize this, for it was the distinctive characteristic of the Gossner Mission, and it was this which God ordained should be an example to others who should afterward dare to trust God after the. same sort. Gossner remembered our Lord'lI solitary injunction when he showed his disciples the fields that were white for the sickle: "PRAY YE, therefore, the LORD of the Harvest that HE will thrust forth laborers into His harvest," and he remembered the singular illustration of the working of this principle in the Antiochan Church, when the Holy Ghost called by name and sent forth Barnabas and Saul.* This pre- cept and practise were to him sufficient warrant for both looking directly to the Lord for such laborers and for asking for such money, as were needed.
Gossner was already sixty-three years old when he broke off connection with the Berlin Missionary Society, and began to work on independent lines. At that age, when the ninth heptade is complete, few men ever think of becoming pioneers, and rather begin to withdraw from active labors. Yet Gossner was permitted to put into the fold two hundred men and women, and for the outfit and support of this mission band he was simply in partnership with God. And so sacred did he consider this divine partnership, that he regarded it an act of unbelief to ask of men any longer, since he was permitted and authorized to ask of God in faith nothing wavering. Faith made him bold, and as he quaintly phrased it, he counted it his business to be employed in "ringing the prayer-bell rather than the beggar's door-bell." Did God honor the partnership of faith? Let the sufficient witness be the words spoken over Gossner's open grave: "he prayed mission stations into being, and missionaries into faith; he prayed open the hearts of the rich, and gold from the most distant lands"
As Dr. A. J. Gordon says, " Gossner believed in the Holy Ghost, whom he regarded as the administrator of missions. Therefore he .. Acts xiii, 1-5. relied on prayer more than on organization." Having done all in his power, he would sit in his little room and commit the distant work to this Divine Executor, and" beg Him to direct it all and order it after His own will." Instead of an elaborate manual of instructions, this was the simple and stirring commission which he put into the hands of his missionaries: "Believe, hope, love, pray, burn, waken the dead I Hold fast by prayer,. wrestle like JacobI Up, up, my brethrenl Tlte Lord is coming, and to everyone he will say, 'where hast thou left the souls of these heathens'! With the devil.'i" 0, swiftly seek these souls, and enter not w£thout them into the presence of the Lord." * It would be a long chapter that should trace the apostolic succession from this missionary founder and trainer. Louis Harms is one example-in Hermansburgh, daring to undertake missions on a scale unparalleled in history, Think of this pastor, who now almost fifty years ago (1849), inaugurated in his own church-a church of poor farmers, artizans, peasants, and mechanics-a missionary society, which came to have shortly not only its missions and missionaries, but its own ship, its own magazine, its own training college, its own complete equipment'. At the end of thirty one years, Louis Harms had put into the field and kept there, over 350 missionaries, and in ten years more, could praise God for 13,000 converts in the mission churches, while the church at home had grown to unprecedented proportions, and was the largest in the world. Let us look into his simple diary. "I prayed to the Lord Jesus that He would provide the needed sum of –." " Last year, 1857, I needed 1,500 crowns, and the Lord gave me sixty over. This year I needed double, and He has given me double, and one hundred and forty over."
There are other, and more recent enterprises, founded and conducted on the same essential basis as Franke's, Muller's, Gossner's, Harms'-but they must have, if at all, separate treatment. Their one essential principle is that they treat the work as God's, and Him as the responsible founder and administrator, and they lay great stress on two subordinate laws of conduct: First that, as the Scriptures are the express revelation of His will, no methods or measures should be admitted or permitted in His work that are not according to His word; and secondly, that as the throne of grace is the eternal storehouse of supplies, all appeal for help is to be primarily to God; and that all dependence on man for aid, and especially on direct appeal to man, is practically a departure from the simple divinely ordained channel of supplies. Such principles as these, vindicated by such marvellous practical illustrations, demand, and will receive, further expansion in these pages, hereafter.
* " The Holy Spirit in Missions," by Dr. A. J. Gordon, 68, 69.
IDNDUISM AS IT IS
HINDUISM AS IT IS.
BY REV. JACOB CHAMBERLAIN, M. D., D.D., MADANAPALLE, UrDU.
Modern Hinduism, the Hinduism held and practised by the people of India for the last two thousand years, is not at all the religion of the Vedas. That was essentially a pure monotheism.
The Vedas, dating back from near the time of Moses, before all Noachian tradition had vanisht from among men, contain in the main true ideas of God and man, and sin, and sacrifice. They teach of one Supreme Being, the creator, preserver, and governor of all; that he is pure and holy; that man is in a state of sin, not at peace with holy God; that sinful man can have no union with sinless God until and unless sin is in some way expiated. But they fail to show how this expiation is to be accomplisht, and leave the devotee groping in uncertainty and dread.
The Aryans brought these monotheistic Vedas with them when they migrated into North India. But there soon arose another series of religious books, the Upanishads, commentaries on the Vedas, ritu- als, all these books known to the Hindus as "The Shastras." These are theoretically held to be of only secondary authority to the Vedas; but, in reality, it is they, with the still later books, "The Puranas," that teach the religion, and control the lives of the Hindus of the present age. With them first came in the idea of the Hindu Triad, and the host of minor gods; of Nirvana, or final absorption; of caste distinctions and caste observances. Modern polytheism and idolatry; pilgrimages to holy places; desert wanderings and asceticism; phys- ical tortures; infant marriages; virgin widowhood; suttee, or the burning of a widow on the funeral pyre of her departed lord, all crept in under the shadow of these sM,stras and puranas.
Hinduism, since before the time of Christ, holds to the T'l'imu'l'ti, that is, the Hindu Triad-Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.' Brahma being the creator; Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer. Brahmli, their book tells us, committed incest; was guilty of such lustful con- duct that he was curst to the effect that no temple should ever be built in his honor, and no knee should ever bow to him in worship, and to this day, altho India is filled with Hindu temples, there is nowhere one erected to Brahmli, and he has no worshipers.
The Hindus are nearly equally divided between the worshipers of Vishnu, or Vaishnavites, and the worshipers of Siva, or Saivites. One , party, with the trident on their foreheads, painted in two nearly per- pendicular lines of white, converging toward the bridge of the nose, wiph a perpendicular line of red between them, range themselves under Vishnu as the Supreme God. The others, with three horizontal lines of sandal-wood ashes smeared on their foreheads, worship Siva as the Supreme. There is a cordial animosity between these two sects, break~ ing out often into abuse and quarrels.
The wife of Vishnu is Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty and fortune, and their son is Kama, the India Oupid, the god of love. The monkey is sacred to Vishnu. His temples swarm with them, and they are cared for, and bountifully fed as the descendants and present 'representatives of Hanuman, the monkey-god, who assisted Rama, one of Vishnu's incarnations, in recovering his captured wife, Siti, from Ravana, giant king of Oeylon, who had stolen her. All these are devoutly worshipt by theVaishnuvites, or followers of Vishnu.
The wife of Siva is Parvati, and their two sons are Vighneswara or Ganesa, the remover of obstacles, or the god of all new undertakings, and Subhramania, the god of war.
The son Ganesa, is, practically, far more worshipt than the father and mother. He is represented with the head and trunk of an elephant, and pot-bellied. He must be worshipt on the beginuing of any and every new undertaking, and for the removal of all obstacles. His hideous image, chiseled in stone, carved in wood and in ivory, cast in copper or brass, is found everywhere; granite ones by the roadside for convenience, and in temples; wood and metal ones in every Saivite's house.
Inferior to these are multitudes .of deities who are supposed to attend to specific affairs of family life and business undertakings of every kind, as birth, betrothal, marriage, sickness, death, and hosts more of still inferior gods and goddesses, which must be worshipt and propitiated, if the worshiper is to have a quiet and happy life. Indeed, their books teach that there are three hundred and thirty millions of gods, male and female, named and unnamed. Of these the Hindus stand in continual fear, and they must be continually propitiated, by libations, offerings, and sacrifices. The temples, the roadside shrines, the groves, the highways and byways, the market places and bazaars, and the houses, family rooms, bedrooms and kitchens, swarm with idols representing these gods, great and small, reminding them of the acts of worship they must perform.
The character of these multitudinous gods of the Hindus, from Brahml1 down, will not bear inspection. The morals of a people are never higher than those of the gods they worship. This accounts for the lax morality so sadly in evidence among the people of India.
Polygamy is recognized in their system, and practist more or less among all classes of the Hindus. There are no "old bachelors" among them. They believe that their after condition depends somewhat on their having male offspring to perform their Obsequies and subsequent ceremonies. They have a proverb which says, "Get a good wife if you can; if not, get a bad one; marry you must."
If after marriage they have no children, or if they have only girls, it is, according to their teachings, incumbent on them to marry another wife. I have known a Hindu who, with four wives, had only daughters. He married a fifth in hope of having sons.
Hindus often look upon plurality of wives, however, in a somewhat different light. A Hindu gentleman of high position, who had been a patient of mine, came in from his distant home to express his thanks to me for his restored health, and to make me ~ friendly visit. After talking on various matters of interest, he askt me how many wives I had. " Only one, most assuredly," was my reply.
"What, sir," said he, "can a benevolent gentleman like yourself, so continually doing good to all around you, rest satisfied with throw- ing your protecting mantle over only one poor unprotected female?
How can you regard that as doing your full duty towards the weaker sex? "
Boys are regarded by them as a blessing, and girls as a curse.
If a. boy is born they think the deity is pleased and confers ~ favor; if a girl, it is a sign of the divine displeasure. If a birth is announced in a friend's house, ere they send any messages, they must ascertain whether it is a case calling for congratulations, a boy, or for condol- ence, a girl. When our sixth son was born, and we had no daughter, a Hindu Rajah, whose dominions lay not far from my station, an old patient of mine, came in to congratulate me over the birth of "six sons, without a daughter to spoil it all." .
I told him that both his mother and myself were much disap- pointed that it was not a daughter He lookt and spoke as though he considered me daft for having such a wish.
"But, your highness," said I, "where would you and I be were it not for our mothers?"
" Ah, sir," said he, "there are sinners enough in the world so that there will be no lack of women. There is no necessity for the right- eous to have daughters."
The Hindu caste system is nowhere indicated in the Vedas. It arose after the migration of the Aryans into India. Yet there is not a part of their religion which, for these past twenty centuries, has held such an iron grip upon the people. For it is a religious, not a social, distinction. The progenitors of each caste they hold to have been a separate creation on the part of BrahmA; the Brahmans being created from his head; the Kshatriyas, warriors, from his shoulders; the Vai- syas, merchants and artizans, from his loins; the Sudras, farmers, from his thighs, and laborers from his feet. There are subdivisions of these castes covering every trade and profession.
A man is born into a caste; he never can ascend. A merchant's son must be a merchant. The son of one of the blacksmith caste, a blacksmith. It stunts progress. It prevents true brotherly feeling.
Under it a Brahman may rightly say, "stand by thyself, I am holier than thou." Its provisions are cast-iron, and on observing them one's future depends. I have known of a Brahman who died in sight of food placed there for his sustenance, because, forsooth, that food had been cookt by one of lower caste. "Better die," said he, "and gain heaven, than eat that food and live, and lose caste, and lose heaven."
It is one of our greatest obstacles in missionary work. The Brah- mans would rather see a son die than become a Ohristian and disgrace their caste. .
Transmigration of souls is also a doctrine of modern Hinduism nowhere indicated in the Vedas. It teaches that when one dies, his soul will simply enter another body, superior or inferior to his former condition according as to whether merit or demerit has preponderated in this life. Each one hopes that his soul may, in the next birth, be born a Brahman. Each one fears that it may be born in one of lower caste, or as an animal or reptile. They hold that this transmigration will go on until finally they shall, in some way, have acquired so much merit that the soul may be absorbed into that of the Deity, and their individual existence cease. This is the Nirvana, or final absorption, which is the highest state of future bliss to which Hindu- ism points its most zealous devotees.
The stolid indifference with which most Hindus meet death, is explained by this belief, that at death they a!e simply passing one milestone in their almost endless series of existences, and that there is as good a chance in the next birth as in that which they are leaving.
Those who posed as representatives of Hinduism at the "Parlia- ment of Religions," portrayed a kind of ancient Vedic Hinduism, revised to suit their own ideas, and make it palatable to persons of Western culture. Oulling its choicest, and giving a Ohristian coloring to many of its conceptions, they evolved and held up to the admira- tion of their credulous auditors as Hinduism a system as different, nay, far more different from the real Hinduism of India's people since the days of Malachi, than Ohristianity is from Mormonism.
The native newspapers of India sneer at the ntterances of the Ohicago representatives of Hinduism, as ntterly nntrue pictures of Hinduism as it exists. Indeed The Hindu Nation, an orthodox lead- ing Hindu newspaper says: "The pure and undefiled Hinduism which Swami Vivekanana.
preacht has no existence to-day; has had no existence for centuries,'
and The Reis and Rayyet, another representative Hindu paper adds, "In fact abomination worship is the main ingredient of modern Hinduism."
And yet the mass of the Hindus suppose that the Hinduism of to-day has come down to them from the Vedas, for not one man in ten thousand in India really knows what the Vedas teach; most of
'252 ROW THE GOSPEL SPREADS IN BURMA
them are simply satisfied to take their religion as it comes to them from their immediate fathers.
In spite, however, of the trammels of their superstition and the blind teachings of their shastras, many Hindus do have a sense of the burden of sin, and a desire for its expiation, and a longing for conformity to, and communion with, a personal God and Father, and do have an undefined hope of a future world of bliss. This we see indi- -cated in the writings of their sages and poets of all the ages. This we find now and then in the thoughtful Hindus of the present day. This gives us an invaluable leverage in gaining access to their hearts and presenting Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Savior from sin, its pollution, its penalty; as the one who can lift us up to become Sons of God.
HOW THE GOSPEL SPREADS IN BURMA.
BY REV. DAVID GILMORE, RANGOON, BURMA.
How does the Gospel 'effect its entrance into a heathen community ? How does a Ohristian church come to be establisht in a heathen -village, where, from the foundation of the world, there has been no Christian church? By suggesting to me the subject which stands at the head of this article, the editor has led me to suppose that an answer to the above questions will not be devoid of interest to all of ihis readers•.
The first step is generally the visitation of the village by a missionary or a native evangelist. Missionaries spend a great part of their time traveling about in their districts, proclaiming the Gospel from village to village. When the missionary with his native helpers enters a village, he is soon surrounded by a little group of villagers, eager to know whence he comes, and on what errand. The satisfaction of their curiosity on this latter point leads naturally to talk about the 'Christian religion; talk provokes discussion; and as the discussion ,grows more animated, the missionary's congregation increases. It -often happens that the missionary and his native companions spend iSeveral hours continuously in preaching and argument about Ohristianity. After spending as much time as seems profitable, the mis- >sionary passes on to the next village. The apparent result of his visit .is, very probably, n£l. But he has left behiud him a few well selected tracts, to deepen and render more enduring any impressions which may have been made by his words; and if he has been heard with 'any attention and interest, his visit is likely to be repeated next year.
After this has gone on for several years, word may reach the missionary that there are those in the village who have decided to embrace Christianity. He is not likely to lose any time in visiting such a village. Inquirers are pointed to Christ; and candidates for church membership are examined and (if the missionary is satisfied of their conversion) baptized. If the number of converts is sufficiently great, they may be organized into a church at once. If not, the organization of a church, and the settlement of a pastor, will follow as soon'as practicable. When the church is once establisht, the responsibility for the further spread of the Gospel in that vicinity is understood to devolve mainly upon it; tho the missionary still stands ready to visit it whenever it needs counselor encouragement.
This is one way in which the Gospel spreads in Burma-perhaps the way in which it oftenest spreads. But there is infinite variety. Inquirers may appear in a village which has never been visited by a. missionary, or even by a native evangelist, but where some native layman has gone to reside, and has been faithful in witnessing for Christ. Or some heathen man who has heard the Gospel elsewhere may have been so interested as to induce some of his friends to go with him to seek the way to Zion's gate.
In working among the Karens, we find events taking a course somewhat different from that outlined above. When the people of a. Karen village have heard of Christianity, and been favorably imprest by what they have heard, they do not at first ask to be received into the Church, as a rule. They generally ask the missionary to send them a school-teacher. The reason why the Karens do this, and the Burmans do not, is because the heathen Burmans have schools 9f a. sort already, the heathen Karens have none.
When a Karen village asks for a school-teacher, the missionary aims to send a consecrated young man there as soon as he can. The people of the village provide a place to hold school in, and do what ' they can toward the support of the teacher. The mission does the rest. The teacher teaches the four R's-reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic,. and religion-to his pupils. But this is not all he does. As he has opportunity, he makes known the truths of the Gospel to the people of the village, and tries to bring them to Christ. In due time it becomes necessary for an ordained minister to visit that village and administer baptism. Scores of Karen churches have had their origin in just such a way as this. The establishment of a Christian school in a heatheu Karen village means the organization of a church later on. In many places, the school is the only way in which a Christian worker could secure a foothold.
An illustration of the usefulness of the school as an evangelistic agency is found in the work of a young Karen man in the Maulmain district. The young man had no unusual ability or education; but he had a. desire to lead souls to Christ. With this end in view, he entered a heathen village and set up a primary school. With this as a. base of operations he labored pn, patiently and quietly, until the vil- lage came over to Christianity. He then left it, to repeat the same work in a second, and subsequently ill a third village.
Besides these small village schools, the large schools of more advanced grade, such as are found in most mission stations, have no small share in the work of spreading the Gospel. All of these schools contain heathen pupils, and every year many of these pupils are led to Christ through the influences brought to bear upon them in the school. The efficiency of the mission-school as a means of evangelization may be seen from the opinion exprest in a letter from a young Karen man. This young man, who had himself been converted in a mission school, was spending a vacation preaching in heathen villages. ,He wrote me that wherever he went he was making great efforts to induce heathen parents to send their children down to the missionschool in his tOWIl. He exprest an opinion that "the best way was to get the children to come down to the school to be converted." This is another method by which the Gospel makes its way into heathen communities. , The work of the medical missionary is second to none as a means of preparing the way of the Gospel. Lovers of missions generally understand how the Gospel is proclaimed in the dispensary and during the professional visit. But at Maulmain there has recently been an interesting development of medical missionary work, under the care of Miss E. E. Mitchell, M.D. Dr. Mitchell secures the houses of grate:(ul heathen patients for the holding of Sunday-schools. Then the young people from the church and school, under the lead of their teachers, go out to these houses on Sunday, gather together the heathen children, and teach them about Jesus and the Bible.
Of late years, much has been done in Burma in the line of holding Sunday-schools for heathen children in private houses, or even in the open air. There have been Sunday-schools in Burma for many years, and there have been heathen children in the Sunday-schools; but during the past three years much more attention has been paid to Sunday-schools for heathen children as distinguisht from those held in connection with churches and mission-schools. This is largely due to the visits which the late Dr. J. L. Phillips paid to Burma as secretary of the India Sunday-school Union.
The distribution of tracts and Scripture portions has always been, in Burma, a favorite way of spreading the Gospel, and a way whose usefulness has been demonstrated again aud again. A fragment of a tract, pickt up by the wayside, was the beginning of a considerable ingathering in one of the snburbs of Rangoon. The man who pickt it up had his curiosity excited by its very incompleteness, and went to the nearest mission-school to learn more about it. Man as he was, he ,sat as an humble disciple at the feet of· Ma Mee, the Burmese head mistress, to learn more of the religion taught by that tract. He was converted himself, and was the means of-leading several of his neigh- bors to Christ. Cases have occurred where men have been baptized whose conversion was due under God to tracts received years before.
One way of spreading the Gospel, which I suppose to be peculiar to Burma, is at what are known as funeral meetings. The Burmese Christians have a custom, borrowed from the Buddhists, of holding meetings for religious discussion at any of their houses where there has recently been a funeral. Heathen neighbors are generally willing to attend such meetings, and can not take umbrage if (in a Christian . house) Christianity comes to the front in the discussion. Through these funeral meetings it is often possible to reach people who would not be willing to attend the services at the meeting-house.
There is one way in which the Gospel has of late years been spread- ing more than was formerly .the case, and in which many of us expect to see great developments in the near future. I refer to the evangeli- zation of heathen Burmans by Christian Karens. The Karen Chris- tians have always shown a praiseworthy zeal in laboring for the uncon- verted of their own race; but until recently they have not felt that they could do much for the Burmans, by whom they were once bitterly· persecuted, and by whom they are sti1llooked down upon. But as the Karens, increasing in education and wealth, are coming to command the respect of the Burmans, they begin to feel a responsibility for the evangelization of the Burmans. This sense of responsibility shows a tendency to grow. Not long ago a Burmese church was organized in a village near Henzada, as a result of the labors of the Karen church in a contiguous village. One by one the Burmans were led to Christ, and baptized into the fellowship of the Karen church, tho they could not understand a word that was said in the meetings of that church. When they were sufficiently numerous, they were dismist to organize a church where they could worship in their own language. Truly not in vain is it written: "By men of strange lips and with another tongue will He speak to this people."
Of course, some of the ways by which the Gospel spreads in Burma are more or less like the ways by which it spreads in America. There, as here, Christian parents try to bring their children up "in the nur- ture and admonition of the Lord," and generally see them come into the membership of the church in due time. In this connection, the influence of the Sunday-school is very powerful. And it will readily be understood that a church once planted in any community consti- tutes a center from which the Gospel spreads. Methods of church- work there are not, and can not be, the same as here. For instance, it is only to a limited extent that the regular church services can be made an evangelistic agency, since the heathen are more averse than the unconverted in America tOllntering a church edifice. Still, in their
PROGRESS IN OEYLON
own way, the churches do grow. Hundreds of converts, some from the heathen, and some from the families of Christians,· are every year received by the native churches, without the intervention of any missionary or of anyone in mission employ.
Mention ought to be made of the large number of native evangelists commissioned and supported by organizations of native Christians. Our native Christians in Burma have societies for the prosecution of both home and foreign missions, and through these societies many native preachers are kept at work. And in the last analysis, the converted native is the best means for spreading the Gospel; and the efficiency of any missionary society will depend largely on the use it makes of this instrumentality. Our American Baptist mission in Burma has always made great use of the native laborer. But we are not content with employing as many native helpers as our meaRS will allow. ' We consider it more important to induce the native churches to support as many native workers as their means will allow, and most important of all, to induce the membership of our churches to do what they can, personally and individually, to make known the Gospel to those that have it not.
PROGRESS IN CEYLON.
BY MARY AND MARGARET W. LEITCH.
Ceylon, the "Pearl on the brow of India," occupies a strategic position both from a political and a missionary point of view. The first missionaries to Ceylon chose it as a point from which to evangelize India. They realized that, if the people on this island could be won, they in turn wonld take a share in the work of winning India for Christ. Their expectations are beginning to be realized, for already scores of the brightest Christian young men of Ceylon can be found in many parts of India, as well as in Burma, Singapore, Penang, the Straits Settlement, and Borneo, doing noble work for Christ. They are employed as helpers by twelve leading missionary societies. Not a few have turned away from government service with its offer of a large salary, prospect of promotion, and retiring pension, and have chosen Christian work with barely a living salary. They have learned that tthere is something better worth living for than merely ma.king money.
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.-Ceylon is a unique educational center. When the first missionaries went to Ceylon, early in this century, they found the great mass of the people sunk in ignorance and superstition. The Buddhist and Hindu priests and a few others could read, but the majority of the people were entirely uneducated. It is probable that there was not then one educated native woman on the island.
When the missionaries began to open schools, the people willingly allowed the boys to attend, but they ridiculed the idea of giving an education to girls, saying, "What would be the use of sending a girl to school? A girl could never learn to read any more than a sheep." On one occasion a missiouary was urging a native gentleman to allow his daughter to attend school. The native pointing at a horse by the roadside, said, "Sir, could that horse learn to read?" The missionary replied in the negative " Well," rejoined the native, "if an intelligent animal like a horse could not learn to read, how do you think a woman could learn?"
This was the low ideal which Hinduism had given of the capacity of women. In a Hindu home a woman is never, as a rule, allowed to eat with her husband. He and the sons eat first, the mother and daughters eat afterwards. The term which even a small boy uses in addressing his mother is a term used for an inferior.
The missionaries labored earnestly for two years before they were able to induce ~ven one girl to attend school. The first who came committed to memory the 240 letters of the Tamil alphabet and began to read. When the people saw that a girl could learn, they were surprised, even pleased. At present, in connection with the five Protestant Missionary Societies at work on the island, there are nearly 50,000 children in mission schools, about one-third of whom are girls. There are not only primary and middle schools in the villages, but Girls' Boarding Schools at the Mission Stations, also Normal Training and Industrial Schools, Colleges, and Theological Schools, for young men. Fully 5,000 young men and women are receiving a higher education under mission auspices. Many of the brightest of these are becoming teachers, evangelists, and Christian workers in Ceylon and India.
SELF-SUPPORT.-The expense of the educational work to the Mission Board is very slight. For example, in the American Board's Mission, only 4 per cent. comes from the home Board, 96 per cent. being secured through fees from pupils, the income from various endowments, and liberal grants from the government, Ceylon being a British Crown Colony.
There are nearly 12,000 Christian communicants in the Protestant churches in Ceylon, and more than twice that number of inquirers and adherents. The majority of the churches are self-supporting, and have native pastors ordained over them; the others are aiming at selfsupport. In the American Board's Mission, only 10 per cent. of the whole expense for church work is met by the home Board, 90 per cent. being raised in Ceylon.
PROPORTIONATE GIVING.-The native Christians also contribute very liberally to the native Bible and Tract Societies, and to their own native missionary societies, in connection with which they are supporting a considerable number of native workers.
In Ceylon~ as in most heathen lands, the majority of the people are poor. The ordinary day-wage of a workingma.n is equal to eight American cents. On this sum a man must support his wife and children, and sometimes one or two aged relatives. The average income of the working people per man, woman, and child, is not more than a cent a day I The majority of these do not have more than one meal of solid food a day, and their expense for luxuries does not exceed per individual more than three-quarters of a cent a month.
Nevertheless the poverty of these poor people abounds to the riches of their liberality. It is a rule among the native Ohristians to give a tenth of their income to Ohrist's work. Those who are in receipt of salaries, give a tenth of their salaries, those who are farmers, give a tenth of their crops, and those who have fruit trees, give the fruit of each tenth tree. 'l'hey have found by experience that nine-tenths with God's blessing goes as far as ten-tenths used to go. The Ohristians are not impoverisht by this giving. The Ohristian commmunity is the most prosperous, the most educated, the most respected community on the island, and presElnts a striking contrast to the heathen com· munity. Altho the native Ohristians begin by giving a tenth, they do not always stop there. That is a standard below which they do not intend to fall. Many of them, especially those who are prosperous, give more than the tenth.
SELF-SACRIFICE.-The principal food of the country is rice and curry. Each morning when a Ohristian woman measures out the rice for the family for the day, so many handfuls for her husband, for each child, and for herself, she takes one handful or more and puts it into a box marked" The Lord's Box," thus diminishing by a little the amount the family would have eaten. This custom is almost universal among the Ohristians. :From time to time, the church treasurer of each church visits all the Ohristian homes, collects the rice from these boxes, sells it, and sends the money to the native missionary society.
A WORTHY EXAMPLE.-The native Ohristians in Oeylon can not enjoy many luxuries. They have no stained-glass windows in their churches, no paid choirs, and no church debts, but they enjoy one magnificent luxury. Many churches, numbering not more than a hundred members, not only support their own native pastor, but support as well, each their own native missionary in some outlying district in which there is no resident foreign missionary. If the weak struggling churches in Oeylon can do this, could not the strong wealthy churches in America each enjoy the luxury of supporting its own foreign missionary, through the channels of its own denominational Board? WORK FOR THE MASsEs.-Not only do the Ohristians of Oeylon give money, they give themselves to Ohrist's work. In connection with most of the churches large Sunday-schools are held on Sunday morn- • ing, when the children of the outlying village-schools are brought together. Nearly all of the church members may be found teaching in these Sunday-schools, after which comes the morning service, when the native pastor gives to his people good plain Gospel food. Then, instead of attending a second service, and getting spiritual dyspepsia by eating too much Gospel food and doing too little Christian work, the native Christians are accustomed to go out into the villages in groups for work among their heathen neighbors.
Early in the afternoon one may see bands of Christian women and girls starting out in different directions, to hold cottage meetings among the women, and Christian men and boys going to villages one or two miles distant to hold village Sunday-schools, or open air preach- ing services. In this way the Gospel is being widely disseminated.
If Christians in America would pursue a similar plan, giving up their Sabbath afternoons or evenings to work among the uuevangelized, one would not much longer hear the old cry, " There are so many heathen at home."
AN EFFECTIVE AGENCY.-A hopeful feature of the work in Ceylon is the medical work. Two medical missions have recently been estab- lisht in the Northern Province,oue for men, the other for women and children. The general medical mission for men is under the care of two fully qualified doctors, Rev. T. B. Scott, M.D., and Mrs. Scott, M.D.
Last year they treated in their hospital and dispensary over 4,800 patients, and the people so fully appreciated this work, that $850 were secnred locally toward its support.
While other missionaries are obliged to seek an audience the medi- cal missionary has this advantage, that his audience comes to him morning by morning. An Evangelistic service is held daily with the dispensary patients and their friends, and in the quiet of the hospital the doctors and their attendants have an unequaled opportunity for personal work.
Eye diseases are common in the country, and as Dr. Scott is a skilled oculist, and has by operations for cataract been successful in restoring sight to persons who had been blind for years, his fame has spread far and wide, and patients have come 200 miles to him for treatment.
Mrs. Scott through her knowledge of medicine, has been able to .
secure an entrance among the Mohammedan women who up to this time have been inaccessible to missionary ladies.
Two medical ladies (Mary H. Irwin, M.D., C.M., and Isabella H.
Curr; L.R.C.S., & P.), have recently gone to Ceylon to take charge of the medical mission for women. The new buildings-a hospital with 40 beds. dispensary, nurse's training home, and mission house, are completed and ready for use. The medical missionaries by their skill- ful and sympathetic treatment will present a striking contrast to the
•• OASTE" IN lNDU
devil dancers and ignorant heathen doctors, of whom there are more than 700 in this province. Another woman's hospital has recently been establisht in Colombo, the capital of the island. The valne of European medical treatment, and the advantage to the native women of the services of a lady doctor, are now so much appreciated by the natives that the entire amount required for the erection of the buildings in Colombo ($15,000) was subscribed in the island; the larger part being given by natives.
A GENERAL Y. M. O. A. SECRETARY.-A new feature of the work in Oeylon is the arrival of a general Y. M. C. A. secretary, Louis Rieb, B.A., (with Mrs. Hieb), under appointment by the International Com- mittee, for the developing of Y. M. C. A. work, and for aggressive evangelistic, temperance, anti-opium, and purity work. Ris first series of meetings was held in the Northern Province, and the following very encouraging letter to the home secretary has just been received.
JAFFNA, Ceylon, Dec. 9, 1896.
My DEAR MR. MORSE:-While awaiting the steamer to take us to Colombo, I thought you would like to learn the result of my visit among the J affna associa- tions. Visited in all nine associations. Establisht two Bible Training Classes and prepared the way for others where they did not exist. At J affna College pre- pared for an organization of a Volunteer Band for Home Missions. The most signal approval of God upon our work was at the Tillipally Training School, where after our general student's meeting, the leader of the Hindu opposition among the students, regarded by the missionary, Rev. T. S. Smith, as an almost hopeless case, came out clearly for Christ. At a special meeting the same evening nine other students took a similar stand. All but one of these came from Sivite homes.
Mr. Smith told me later that four others have also decided for Christ. At Jaffna Col- lege I took the Saturday and Sunday services closing a week of prayer, postponed from November. Saturday morning the very remarkable conversion of a Hindu student occurred, through the efforts made earlier in the week by the students.
On Sunday four other students accepted Christ as their Savior.
Remember me kindly to the brethren at the office, and urge their continuing in prayer for the work here. With very kindest regards, Very sincerely yours, (Signed) LOUIS HIED.
" OASTE" IN INDIA.
:BY W. J. WANLESS, M. D., MIRAJ, INDIA.
Originally caste in India was a social and trades-protection society, to-day it is a synonym for religion (Hinduism) among the vast millions of the Hindu population. Adherence to caste principles is inseparably connected with idolatry. The caste rules are as absurd as the idolatry is revolting; yet these rules form the religion of the vast masses of India. A Hindu may commit the vilest sin, the most atrocious crime, and still retain his caste (or social) position, but let him deign to accept a cup of water from a man of lower caste than himself, and immediately he is ostracized and excommunicated for thus daring to pollute himself. One of the Hindu Pundits who spoke so glibly of Hinduism,- its liberality, etc.,- at "The World's Parliament of Religions," was, on returning to India, made to submit to the disgusting ceremony of swallowing the five products of the cow, and to pay the priest a large sum of money in order that he might be reinstated into caste.
The vast majority of India's millions know next to nothing of philosophical or Vedantic Hinduism. The~r religion is caste. Oaste is their master, and it has bound them in fetters of iron. It is the hideous monster that still holds them within its awful coil. This is "the god of this world" that has blinded their eyes with a desperate and indiscernible blindness. So faithfully do the people accept its teaching and obey its laws, that millions of them would rather lose a hand, an eye, or even life than to break caste and suffer the consequences. It is "the most inexorable system of social tyranny ever inflicted upon the human race," and the Brahmin priesthood are the mainstay of everything that is wicked and tyrannical in it. With its thirty thousand caste sects and intersects its ramifications extend into every phase of Hindu life, and even Mohammedanism is largely contaminated and trammeled by it. There are even castes of scavengers who would not eat each others' food, or reeeive water from each other, lest they be polluted.
Oaste in India is "a huge monster born of the dusk, darkening and polluting every life upon which it falls. It is a gross caricature of the spiritual brotherhood of those who are Ohrist's." Pernicious in principle, and malicious in practise, not only does it prevent the spread of the Gospel, and obstruct every form of educational progress, but it hinders even the exhibition of true charity. Oaste beggars repeatedly refuse cookt food from Ohristians, or castes lower than themselves. Sick people refuse our liquid medicines because of the water added by Ohristian hands, and caste lepers in the government asylums, with sores and rotting limbs, are constantly fearful lest their food and water be inadvertently polluted by the touch of other castes than their own. Food pollution is religious pollution, since it is only by uncontaminated food and external cleansing that the soul is freed from sin. How different the teaching of Jesus! I once sat down upon a large covered box containing the lunches of a number of my workmen. Subsequently the foreman came running after me, and declared that my contact with the box in which their lunches had been placed had polluted them, and that day they cast their food to the dogs, and went without their midday meal.
Caste is the factor that missionaries in India must reckon with more than any other social or religious influences. To be baptized is to break caste. There are thousands who would openly confess Christ, were it not for the fear of the persecution which such an act would bring upon them. Among the educated classes there are hundreds who have lost faith in their own systems, who have forsaken idolatry, and who believe Jesus to be the only Savior of the world, but who fear to confess Him openly. Thank God the fetters are breaking. Many have already suffered the loss of all things for Christ, and bear about on their body the marks of the Lord Jesus; they rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer for His sake. Over all the land we see indioations of the falling fetters. In the large cities and railway towns, the railways, public drinking-fountains, hospitals, schools, and scores of other agencies are being used of God to break down caste prejudice and to open wide the door for the witness for Christ. Multitudes throng the street-cars, railways, hospitals, and schools, where a few years ago l;igid adherence to caste rules made this change in public sentiments'seeming impossibility. Now among all classes we see those, once manacled by caste and enslaved by ignorance and superstition, now professing their freedom in Christ Jesus and pressing their way out of religious bondage, tho their change of faith often involves the bitterest persecution and the severest ostracism from' all that on earth they hold dear. Hundreds more would doubtless confess Christ if they could be sufficiently taught, but where are the workers to teach them? While we withhold the truth which alone can free them, satan, through the 24,000 post-offices and letter-boxes of the land is pouring into the country all manner of literary filth. The writings of Voltaire, Paine, and other infidels, cheap French novels and other vile literature, are not only freely scattered abroad in the great cities, but are translated into the vernaculars of the country to poison the mind and enslave the souls of thousands of those who have heard only enough of Christian truth to create a thirst for the freedom which that truth alone can give them. They have only heard of the truth that will make them free, they do not yet" know" it, and that because we do not send workers to impart the knowledge. Young and aggressive India is cutting loose from her ancient moorings only to drift out into an unknown sea of agnosticism, infidelity, scepticism, and theosophy. Modern science is displacing caste, modern unbelief is replacing it. Oh for ten thousand Christian ministers in our wealthy towns and cities over all this continent, who realized that they were ministers not merely for the living their profession secures, and for the other social emoluments of their office, but, "men whose hearts God had toucht with the prayer passion." Men who believed that " The field is the world, and the world the field," just as much for themselves as for the missionary who goes to the ends of the earth, men who made" their flock their force, not their field," and who realized that the supreme business of the church is the evangelization of
POLYGAMOUS APPLICANTS
the world; then the history of the Church would be changed; these manacled millions would hear fully the preaching of the Gospel and soon shake off their fetters of caste, superstition, and ignorance, and, coming forth into the full light of the Gospel, would believe the truth and the truth would make them free.
POLYGAMOUS APPLICANTS.-III.
WHAT MISSIONARIES THINK SHOULD BE DONE WITH THEM.
BY REV. DANIEL L. GIFFOR!>, SEOUL, KOREA.
REPLIES RECOMMENDING ADMISSION OR FAVORING LENIENCY.
China.-Rev. S. F. Woodin (American Board), Foochow, thus expresses himself in regard to the reception to the church of those who give good evidence of conversion in all other things: (1.) My idea is that he ought not to always be kept outside the church as only a catechumen. (2.) I think that some of those with plural.wives may be admitted to the church. I should think it best to have a longer time of probation as inquirer than required of others who were like them in other religious experiences and evidences. but who had only one wife. (3.) It seems to me that it may be allowed to receive to church membership, after a sufficient probation, those having more than one wife, where the wives were married with the regular marriage rites of full wives, and where they wish to continue as his wives. If those be8ides the first· ife are entirely willing to leave the man, and it is a lawful thing by the laws of the land to so leave the husband, then that would seem a right thing to do. Unless the first wife of her own free will should determine and insist upon leaving the husband, 8he should always be kept as his wife. Where both wives have children, or where the first wife has none and the second wife has children, I do not think that the man should be required to put the second wife away before he can be received to the church. In regard to the man who has a wife, and also has C()nc'UlJi1U8 not taken with the ceremonies of full marriage, I think the wife should always be kept, and the question should be considered whether he should also keep the concubines or not. If they are young and have no children, often they could be put away without difficulty, and the question is whether such should not always be put away. If they have children or are ad'vanced in life it may be best that the husband retain them and still be received to the church. It would need to be decided whether or not he should then take the concubine and with appropriate ceremonies acknowledge her as a wife.
n any wives or concubines are put away by the husband, whether divorced or not, I think he is bound to support them until they remarry, as far as they are not able to support themselves. The children of such would naturally remain with the father, certainly also be supported by him. (4.) In regard to the female applicant for admission to the church who is a second wife or concubine, but whose husband is not willing to put her away, if otherwise worthy of church membership, I think she may well be received to the church. She is in China, and probably in Korea, under the law and control of her husband almost as much 8B a slave is under hiS master. It seems to lme that no fixt rule should be establisht 8B unalterable, but each case should be decided on its own merits according to its own peculiar conditions, and the law and custom of the place and country must always be taken into account.
Rev. H. (J. DeBose (S. Presbyterian), Soochow.
I wish the circular had come to one who knew more about it. That a line must be drawn somewhere is clear, or else the baptism of an African chief with his house (i. e., a dozen wives and their children). would be doing business by the wholesale. . . . The only case in our mission was of a teacher in Hangchow. The brethren put the very easy cross before him of putting away one of his wives. The second one was sold to a widower for $136; the deed was written in the S. P. M. chapel, and the minister was middleman, and received a fee (i. e., it was supposed so). I suppose the candidate for baptism thought the other man was able to pay and he might as well get the money.* . . . I recently baptized a man with theoretically two wives, but thirteen years ago, when he took the second, the first left him, and she has lived in another city with her mother. It can hardly be conceived that in a country where were the descendants of Abraham, Jacob, and David, that there were not polygamists among the 3,000 at Pente· cost. t . . . My own view is that wives with children should not be divorced.
A parental relation has been formed by both parties. But most old Chinese women without children would be willing to be retired on a comfortable pension.
• There are many practical ,ways in each individual case that may be opened. It is well to wait for one, two, or three years, and see how the case turns out. The Lord often gives special light in special cases, It is well to wait on him. . • . The O. T. saints were polygamists. It can hardly be put down as a maZum per 8e as long II.'! we Presbyterians put so much stress on O. T. teachings." In regard to I. Tim. 3 :2, I hardly agree with Dr_ Hodge.t There were covetous, high-tempered men, and moderate drinkers in the early church; but they were not to be preachers; i. e., examples to the flock. If there were no polygamists in the church, why use the words?
Rev. D. E. Hosle (Ohina Inland), Hungtung.
Let me say, first, that, so far as I understand, there are in the Bible two different standards of practise as to marriage, the Old Testament and the New Testament standards. In Exodus 21: 10 we find bigamy recognized (not approved), and regulations are given about it. The wives of Abraham, Jacob, David, and others were lawful, and their children were legitimate; nor do we ever find any reference to them in the New Testament as being otherwise. Now if a plurality of wives was permitted under the Mosaic law, then much more is it lawful in the case of heathen, who have far less light than the people of Israel in Old Testament times. Hence marriages made when the parties were without Gospel light, are legal and binding, and the fact of the parties (one or both) subsequently becoming Christians, does not alter this legality. Of course, in tMfuture, their practise in marrying must be regulated by Christian standards. In Matt. 5 : 31, 32, our Lord quotes from Deut. 24 : 1, and then proceeds to give a different standard; but surely He does not by this mean that all who had before acted *Rev. J. L. Stuart, referring to the same case, says, that the woman had previously been an applicant for baptism; but after her remarriage, "gave U,? all interest in the Gospel." t For the existence of polygamy among the Jews, in the days of the apostles, see Josephus' "Antiquities," p. 524, where in alluding to Herod's plurality of wives, he declares that such was the existing custom.
Vol. III, p. 388. according to Deut. 24 :1, were adulterers and their marriages void? Hence. I reply that a convert must understand, of course, that in future he can not marry again during the life·time of any of his present wives; nor can he hold office as long as he has more than one wife. Receive her, the wife. . . . My opinion on this subject is confined to China and countries where marriage is a bona fide social relation. In Africa, where, practically, the sexual relation is promiscuous, I should think the whole question must be handled differently.
Rev. Stanley P. Smith (Ohina Inland), Lu An.
I am not aware that the C. I. M. has any authoritative rule or practise with reference to plurality of wives. I therefore can only give my opinion. • . . (1.) I do not think a man with plural wives should be kept outside the church as a ,. perpetual catechumen." (2.) I think he should be permitted to put away or divorce no 8ingle one of his wives. (8.) Putting away any wives to my mind is equivalent to adultery, and I would expel a member from my church for so doing; for in doing so he makes the woman (or tantamount to it) commit adultery. (4.) With the female applicant, if fully satisfied with her conversion, I should not hesitate to receive her into church fellowship. These unavoidable evils would only last a generation, for after e.terin~ the Church there could henceforth be no more.
Rev. Wm. Ashmore, Jr., also presenting the views of Rev. Wm. Ashmore, D.D. (American Baptist), Swatow: Such cases as you speak of have not been common with us, and yet they have occurred. I remember hearing my father say of the first one that occurred in connection with this mission, that they compelled the man to put away his second wife, but that he had since felt that it was a mistake. The rejected woman afterwards came to the missionaries saying piteously "What am I to do? He is my husband and the father of my children. What right have you to take him away from me ?" It was a very difficult question to answer. When I came to Swatow, fifteen years ago, there were in the church a man and his wife (second wife, the first wife being still alive). Both man and wife were faithful members, the former till his death, and the woman still. I believe that their case fairly represents the present attitude of this mission on this subject. When the relation has existed before the parties had heard the Gospel, we have not thought that the teaching of the Scripture would require that it be sundered. In fact, it has seemed to us that I Tim. 8: 20 and Tit. 1: 6 strongly indicate that there were such cases in the early church, and that while Paul recognizes such persons as eligible to churchmembership, and already in the church, in some cases, he intends to teach that they are not eligible to the offices of the church. It goos without saying that if a man who is already a member of the church takes a second wife. he thereby subjects himself to church discipline and exclusion.
Rev. H. D. Porter, M.D., D.D. (also stating the view of the late Rev. J. L. Nevius, D.D.) (American Board), P'ang Ohuang.
In our own station we have had one case which settled itself, and another case now on hand which we are dealing with. . . . Let me give first the experience of good Dr. Nevius, whom we all loved and venerated so much. In 1887, Mr. Smith and I visited his field with him. One Saturday we spent part of the day with an old man, who had been a member for some years. He had two wives, both of whom Dr. Nevius had received to the church some years before. Each wife had one or two sons, and these also were church members. It was the judgment of Dr. Nevius that it was wise and best thus to receive them and develop, if possible, a true Christian life in the families. We had communion together. While my mind had been tending in that direction, I was glad to find that so experienced a worker saw the conditions so clearly, and had no hesitancy in receiving the man and his wives. The case in our church was received before we knew that he had two wives. We did not think fit to do other than allow the old status to remain. In the spring of this year a man of considerable means was received on probation. We found that he had two wives, and three sons by each of them, all likely lads under twelve. We shall, no doubt, receive him to membership when the right period of probation has passed. (1.) It does not appear to us best that such a candidate should be kept upon perpetual probation. (2.) There appears to be no just reason why such a candidate, if his faith and knowledge of Christian truth are such as to warrant it, should not be received. The conditions assigned might be made to vary. But I should prefer not to add conditions, considering that the marriages were entered upon without a knowledge of Christian morality. (3.) In case a man had but two wives, our practise would be not to have either put away; were there more than two wives, the problem would take another form. (a) It would seem reasonable and most desirable that the mother of the children should not be put away. (b) In case of putting away one or more, it would be in accord with the same line of reasoning that the man should support the wife or wives sent away. The problem of the children would not come into account if dealt with as our practise illustrates. The father should, under all circumstances, be responsible for all his children. (4.) In the case of a woman, whose husband did not wish to part with her, although I have not known such a case, our practise would be to interfere as little as possible. An attempt to relieve the woman from her claims would be misinterpreted. There would seem to be a natural human law, guiding to a definite practise in such an instance. . . . I understand that the experience of missionaries in India and elsewhere is that it is much the wisest to accept each man and woman, as the Apostle says, " In the calling wherein he was called." If married then, let him abide, even if married to two or more. Death will solve the question more readily than we can. The church, of course, will readily correct any tendency to the repetition of such moral mistakes. The quarrels, which so often arise in families so constituted, show the wisdom, even to the natives, of the single marriage relation.
The position of the late Rev. A. P. Happer, D.D., al~o of Rev. B.
O. Henry, D.D. (N. Presbyterian), Canton, is expressed in a letter from Rev. H. Y. Noyes. "I recollect one case where Dr. Happer received a man with two wives. Dr. Happer advocated strongly the view that these cases might be received. He was the only one of our Mission who did so, since I came to China, till recently, I believe, Dr.
Henry has, to some extent, advocated the same."
Rev. Art1tur H. Smith (American Board), Tientsin, writes that their missiori has never had a definite policy. At a recent mission meeting a committee was appointed, who reported, and their report was adopted and entered on the minutes. The report is, in part, as follows; The marriage relation was contracted while the parties were ignorant of the Gospel and its requirements. In many cases children have been born, and these must be cared for. To require the wives to be put away would cause more or less distress, and frequently be the direct cause of sin, as wen as suffering-remedying the one evil would be productive of greater evils. Your committee believes the ideal course would be for the man to live with the first wife and support the
RESULTS OF mSSION WORK IN INDIA
others in separate quarters. But difficulties will arise in requiring this as the invariable rule, in cases where the first wife has no children, and the other wife or wives have, especially if it be the favorite wife. While, therefore, this appears to be the desirable course to take whenever practicable or possible, and is the one which your committee recommend, we feel that the conditions and circumstances controlling each case must receive careful considerati'ln, and somewhat modify :final action. Your committe therefore recommend that the principle above stated be adhered to as far as possible, and that in special cases, candidates-husbands or wives-may receive baptism in accordance with the spirit of Christian love and wisdom.
Committee-Messrs. Stanley, Renent. and Chapin.
RESULTS OF MISSION WORK IN INDIA.* BY REV. J. H. WYCKOFF.
In estimating the results of mission work in India, it is only fair to take into account other forces than the missionary which are working for good among the people. Chief among these is the British Government, which, in the Providence of God, is establisht in this land. Much as we may regret the apathy and indifference of individual officials to mission work, it is a pleasure to be able to testify that the general influence of the Government of India is on the side of righteousness. My experience among natives of all classes leads me unhesitatingly to affirm that the rulers of India stand, in the eyes of the people, as the embodiment of integrity, justice, and truth. Nor could it be otherwise, when we remember that the Government of India is, to a large extent, the expression and the reflection of the people of England.
Now, here is an essential factor to be noted in measuring the progress of Christianity in India. The higher moral standard that has been adopted by many Hindus, their greater regard for the truth, the increast spirit of manliness and self-respect, their kindlier treatment of women-are not necessarily the result of mission work, but are largely due to the influence, unconscious tho it may be, of the Englishman in India, in whom these characteristics are peculiarly exhibited.
But, important and valuable as these manly virtues are, they do not, by any means, constitute all of our religion, which, along with righteousness, justice, and truth, inculcates love, mercy, and self-sacrifice; and it is of these virtues that the missionary is the chief exponent. As Christ came to help the poor, the unfortunate, and the opprest, SQ the missionary, moved by the example of his Master, comes .. An address delivered at the Kodaikanal Missionary Conference, May 21st,1896. CoudellSt trolll the revort in Tile Cllrutian Pa~rwt (India). . to bring comfort, joy, and hope to the weak and the distrest. No one who contemplates the social syetem of the Hindus, with its awful effects on the people, will deny that there is a crying need for snch philanthropy in India. A system that brands one-fifth of the popula- tion as social outcasts, with all the degradation that the term implies; that condemns thousands of innocent widows to a life of desolation and despair; that practically forbids education to women; that marries children in infancy-surely, the man must be either biast or blind who contends that the Christian missionary has no place in India. Hard, indeed, must be the heart that can see these millions of helpless victims suffer without coming to their relief.
The first result of mission work in India that I shall mention is the amelioration of the condition of these unfortunate classes. Who can witness the splendid educational work done by the missionary, especially for Hindu and Mohammedan women, the large number of orphanages and schools establisht for the poor, the increasing number of women taught in their homes, the medical, industrial, and other work done among the deprest classes, without acknowledging that a new social system is being introduced among the Hindus which is gradually emancipating them from the cruel customs that have so long bound them? One could preseut a long array of statistics to prove this, but instead of dry facts, I wish to give two testimonies from native sources. The first is from the Commissioner of the Census of 1891 for the State of Travancore, Mr. Nagam lyeI', a Brahman gentleman, who, in his report, says: .
"By the unceasing efforts and self-denying labors of the learned body of the Christian missionaries in the country, the large community of native Christians are rapidly advancing in their moral, intellectual, and material condition. They have nearly doubled the number of their literates since 1875. But for them, these humble orders of society will for ever remain unraised. Their material condition, I dare say, will have improved from the increast wages, improved labor market and better laws, but to the Christian miSSIOnary belongs the credit of having gone to their humble dwellings and awakened them to the sense of a better earthly existence. This action of the missionaries was not a mere improvement upon ancient history, a kind of refining and polishing of an existing model, but an entirely origiu!!l idea, conceived and carried out with commendable zeal, and ofttimes in the teeth of opposition and persecution. The heroism of raising the low from the slough of degradation and debasement is an element of civilization unknown to ancient India. The Brahman community of Southern India is not doing to the lower cla!'lles what the casteless Britisher is doing for them. The credit of this philanthropy, of going to the homes of the low, the distrest, and the dirty-putting the shoulder to the wheel of depraved humanity, belongs to the Englishman. I do not think the Brahmans, or even the high-caste non-Brahmans can claim the credit. It is a glory reserved to this century of human pro- gress-the epoch of the happy commingling of the civilization of the West with that of the East." This is from a Brllhman, in a State paper, not submitted, please note, to the English Government, but to a native prince.
The other testimony is with regard to educational work for women, from the correspondent of Hindu, Madura. He says:- "It is now becoming the fashion among our educated people to cry down the work of Christian missionaries, and even to vilify them. But an ounce of solid work is worth a pound of windy oratory. Judged by this principle the Christian missionary must be esteemed to be one of the greatest benefactors of our country. While the educated Indian has not yet got beyond the talking stage in the matter of female education, the Christian missionary has honey-combed the country with girls' schools. He has also recently begun to establish institutions to train women teachers to man-'woman,' should we not say?-these girls' schools. In Madura, for instance, there are half a dozen mission girls' schools, with a training school for school mistresses. But what has the Hindu community to show in return? There is not even a single Hindu girls' school in the whole towu I Would you believe it? Some years ago there was a Hindu girls' school here. But the managers of the institution went up to Government with an abject confession of their inability to keep the school going, and an humiliating prayer to take it under their own management. And what was once the Hindu girls' school is now known as the Government girls' school. What a commentary, this, on our vociferous demands for greater political privileges! "
But, humanitarian and philanthropic efforts are not the chief work of the missionary. We believe that the evils under which India is groaning have their root in wrong belief, and that, if any thorough reform is to be effected, the religious thought of the people must be changed. For not only are Hinduism and Christianity separated as widely as the poles, but Hinduism contradicts the very fundamental laws of natural religion, such as the personality of God, the existence of God separate from his creatures, the freedom of the human will, the trustworthiness of consciousness as to our own personality and the reality of the external world. And the result of such false think- ing is seen in the sad moral and religious condition of the people.
The licentious character of the Hindu gods; the gross idolatry and superstition of the masses; the perverted moral sense of the average Hindu; these are simply the natural outcome of the 'pantheistic thought that lies at the basis of the Hindu religion. God forbid that we should abuse the Hindus, whom we love as our own brothers.
Many of them are better than their religion. Their love for their homes and their friends; their patience and meekness under trial; their courtesy and respect to superiors and strangers; their high intellectual endowments ;-these are in them qualities to be admired; but their religion is their destruction, and until this is changed, there is no hope for the Hindu. Hence we missionaries are here to propa- gate a higher and holier religion, which, as it has done so much for our own land, can do the same for India. And what has been the result of the Rteady preaching of the truth? (Why, a moral and religious revolution is taking place in the thought of the people; the Hindus are awakening from the sleep of ages; caste is relaxing; superstitious customs that have been more powerful than law are disappearing. Ohristian ideas on all subjects are spreading, the native mind is being formed on a new model. Compare the Hinduism that was preacht at the Parliament of Religions and that is being confidently paraded in India to-day, with the Hinduism of one hundred years ago, and note the difference between the two. The fact is, that most of the educated Hindus to-day are not pantheists but theists, believing both in a personal God and in the moral responsibility of the soul to God. This change, "from the mazes of pantheism and polytheism to the love and worship of God as a personal Being, and from the crushing out of the moral instinct to the recognition of it as a sacred faculty to be developt," is an immense step, but it has been taken by many a Hindu. To a superficial observer this may mean little, but to those, who look for Christianity to change the religious thought of the people, it means much. Why, it makes all the difference in the world whether I believe in God as a being with no attributes, and my soul as absolutely helpless in the power of the deeds of a former life; or whether I believe in a personal living Being, with whom my soul can have communion, and to whom I am responsible for all my acts, for this belief must sooner or later tell on my life. No phrases are more in the mouths of Hindus to-day than the "Fatherhood of God" and the "Brotherhood of Man," but where did these conceptions come from but Christianity?
Indeed, the efforts of the Hindu revivalists are more an attempt to read Christ into their sacred books than to gi,e an exposition of the teaching of those books themselves. Even the doctrine of Karma, which the Hindu finds it the hardest to give up, is very different as taught to-day from the fatalistic doctrine of the Puranas.
Aud then see how Christ is extollea. It is true, his Divinity may not be acknowleged, but there has been a wonderful change in the sentiment of the Hindus regarding Him. Listen to two statements from Hindus, the first from a distinguisht professor in Bengal. He says: " Since the time of Chundersen, the feeling towards Christ has entirely changed in Bengal. Formerly people would curse His name, but now tlwre was scarcely a high-class family in Bengal that had not a picture of Christ in their homes. Hindus could not but receive Christ and His Spirit, and that spirit is changing Hinduism. Christian ideas and sentiments pervading the thought of the country."
The other is from an orthodox Hindu paper, and would not have been allowed a few years ago in an organ conducted by Hindus:- " As a Hindu and a Brahman who is deeply imprest with the extraordinary spiritual progress made by the ancient Hindus, I would pay my humble tribute to the helpful, simple, and deeply touching nature of the teaching of the loving and ever lovable Jesus, beautifully illustrated in His crucified life. His short existence on the earth looks like the most condenst epitome of universal love, purity and sacri- fice. To an unbigotted and pious Hindu, the picture of Jesus on the Cross, His drooping head, His parcht lips, His gaping wounds, His uplifted eyes, His serene expression of complete resignation, forgive- ness and love, presents thesublimest and most thrilling object lesson ever o1fered to sinful and su1fering humanity."
But I must pass on to notice the result of mission work in the mat- ter of actual conversions. Fortunately we have a Government Oensus Report, and need not accept the testimony of missionaries on this point. Although the progress of Christianity can not be measured by numbers, yet we have no cause to shrink from comparison of actual results in India with that of any other age. What does the census of If)91 reveal? I give the figures for South India only. The census shows that 865,528 persons were returned as Ohristians, against 699,680 in 1881. (Of these, 565,159 are entered as Roman Oatholics, 300,369 as Protestants.) While the total popUlation increast by 15.28 per cent., the Ohristian popUlation increast by 23.70 per cent. If we take the Protestant community alone, the increase was 34.86 per cent. There was an actual addition of 165,840 Christians during the decade, and if the rate of increase had been the same as that of the total population, we would have had only 109,010. There was, therefore, an increase of 56,838 over and above the normal increase of popUlation. Whence this 56,838? There can be only one reply, viz.: that it is due to con- / versions, and I may remark that it under-states rather than over-states the truth. The past decade was singularly free from any great fam- ines, so that we are not justified in inferring that the larger addition to the Ohristian population consists of famine or rice Ohristians. We may safely take it for granted, therefore, that the Ohristian community is having an addition of 50,000 souls by conversions each ten years. We believe the present decade will show a larger· number. There are more Ohristians to-day in South India alone, than there were in the v Roman Empire at the end of the first century. Two hundred and seventy years after the death of Christ, heathenism was so strong in the Roman Empire as to carryon a bitter persecution under the Em- peror Diocletian. If it took 300 years for the Ohristianity of the early Church to overcome the waning paganism of Europe, are we to be dis- couraged because, in a much less time, a greater paganism than Greece and Rome ever saw, has not been entirely overthrown?
And now I know what will be said to ell this, viz., that most of these converts are from the lowest strata of Hindu society, and their adop- tion of Ohristianity does not count for much. This would be true did they continue the same after conversion as before, but the manner in which low-caste communities in India are being raised by the power of the Gospel is one of the marvels of the times. Glance for a. moment at a few figures from the census. Of the whole popUlation of Hindus, 1 in 57 only are under instruction; of Mohammedans, 1 in 26; but of native Christians, 1 in 15. This applies to all Christians, Catholics as well as Protestants. Did we take the figures for Protestants only, the result would be even more favorable, but we prefer not to separate the two. Out of a total of 2,169 graduates on the rolls of the university, 180 are native Christians. This gives a proportion of 1 to 12, while the proportion of Christians to the whole population is 1 to 40. Out of 49 Masters of Arts, 7 are native Christians. Of 351 Bachelors of Laws, 14 are native Christians,l in 25, and of 79 who have taken the medical degree, 10 are native Christians, 1 in 8. Remarking on the progress of the community in higher education, the late Director of Public Instruction, the lamented Mr. Grigg, said:- "The rapid advance of the native Christians in higher education e., is evidenced by the fact that in four years the proportion under instruction in colleges has risen from 1 in 351 to 1 in 215, i. by 61 per cent."
In his report to Government in 1890, the same officer said: " I have frequently drawn attention to the educational progress of the native Christian community. There can be no question, if this community pursues with steadiness the present policy of its teachers, that, with the immense advan'tages it possesses in the way of educational institutions, in the course of a generation it will have secured a preponderating position in all the great professions, and possibly, too, in the industrial enterprise of the country; in the latter, because no section of the community has entered on the new departure in education with greater earnestness than the native Christians."
The community of native Christians, then, in the matter of educa- tion, is surpast by only one class-the Brahmans-who, as the here- ditary literary class, will naturally retain the lead for some time yet.
But, if we take the subject of female education only, here we find the Christians not only far ahead of the Brahmans, but of every other class, and, if it be true, as is so often stated, that no nation has risen higher than the position it has accorded its women, then the native Christian community has a bright future before it. It will be interesting to hear what the Hind~t, the leading native organ of the Madras Presidency, has to say on this very point. Some time ago the editor said: "The community of n!l,tive Christians has not only secured a conspicuous place in the field of higher education, but in the education of their women, and in availing themselves of the existing means for practical education, they are far ahead of the Brahmans. The native Christians are a very poor community, and it does great credit to them that they so largely take to industrial education. The p,rogress of education among the girls of the native Christian commumty, and the absence of caste restrictions among them, will eventually give them an advantage which no amount of intellectual precocity can compensate the Brahmans for. We recently approved of the statement of a Bombay writer that the social eminence that the Parsees so eminently enjoy at the present moment was due to these two causes, viz.: their women are well educated, and they are bound by no restrictions of caste. These two advantages slowly make themselves felt among our native Ohristian brethren, and it is possible they will soon be the Parsees of Southern India, and that they will furnish the most distinguisht public servants, barristers, merchants, and citizens among the various classes of the native community."
It is worth something in showing the growing iufluence of the com- munity that there is now an Indian Ohristian Association, organized in London and Edinburgh, with vigorous branches in British Guiana and the Island of Trinidad.
But, after all, the great hope of the native Ohristian community is in its spiritual progress. The Ohurch of the Living God has been establisht among its people, and His Spirit is moving in their hearts.
Who can witness the growing membership of this Ohurch, with a native ministry, now numbering 900 in Southern India alone, its advance in Ohristian unity and spiritual power, without feeling that here lie the best and most fruitful results of missionary effort? And as the same Spirit, who has been with the Ohurch down the ages, has promist to be with us in the future, we go on our way full of joy and strength, not doubting that in His own time India shall be given to Ohrist.
FEMALE MISSIONS IN INDIA.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
In the closing decade of last century we find native Hinduism in its normal condition; society was hardly toucht by the influence of Western civilization, British rule, or missionary proselytism. Female infanticide was very common. Here and there were schools for boys, and for them education was highly valued, but nowhere in native society was there a school for girls. Ohild marriage was customary. Perpetual widowhood was enforced, and all widows were regarded as accurst by destiny, a dishonor to their family, and therefore liable to be treated with lifelong insult and repression.*' In some parts, especially in Bengal, the immolation of widows was encouraged as honorable and meritorious, conferring on the widow great honor in this life, and in a future state bliss for thousands of years. t Women everywhere were * Of the 140,500,000 femaJes of India, 22,600,000 were widows, according to the Government Census Report of 1890. Of these widows, 13,878 were under four years of age. The girls between the ages of ten and fourteen were upward of 12,000,000, and of these more than 6,000,000 were married, and 174,500 were widows.
t Suttee seems to have been common in some parts of India from remote times, but It was not until the early part of this century that reliable Information of its extent was collected. It seems to have been more practised in the great districts around Calcutta than anywhere else. In 1815 there were 253 sutteei, in 1816 there were 289, in 1817, 442, i~ 1818, 544, giving an average of more than one a day for these four years. held to be inferior and subordinate to men, intellectually and morally. They were considered to be too weak to be left to themselves. " A woman," declares the great law-giver Menu, "is never fit for indepen- dence." Freedom of action and thought were never willingly accorded to them. To walk abroad or to be seen and converse with men, even in her own house, was considered neither respectable or decorous; and education, even in reading and writing, was considered not only unnecessary, but dangerous, liable to make them vain, and increasing their power for intrigue and acquaintance with bad books.
Such was the status of women all over India when missionaries entered upon their arduous enterprise. The difficulties were enhanced by reason of the fact that the most naturally devout and interesting part of the population was placed beyond their reach. When the missionaries preacht, the men resented the presence of women. If a school was establisht, it was a wonder if half-a-dozen girls, always young and of inferior rank, could be induced to attend; if they prepared books, probably not one woman in 20,000 could read them. Those who could read were mostly courtezans, for public sentiment held that education was only suitable for such.
To overthrow Hinduism, and to change the social customs relating to women, has been the uniform aim of all missionary endeavors. Some forms of effort, now most popular and effective, were not then practicable. Native suspicion of women, and distrust of European motivee, the inveteracy of custom, and the assumed inviolability of Zenana life, were an effectual barrier against all forms of zenana work. There were not even missionary ladies specially sent out, for there were no spheres for their activity. But the missionaries were active in the spheres open to them; they were doing pioneer work, protesting against the evils they could not eradicate,' and ever prepared to ad vance. All that then could be done the missionories' wives and daughters did. They stand first, if not highest, as the benefactors of Indian women, and the pioneers of their emancipation. They sowed in tears the seed, the fruitage of which their sisters now reap the joy.
The first missionaries in South India and in Bengal saw at once the importance of education as a missionary agency, and so they establisht schools. These at first were very elementary and differed from purely native schools, especially in being open to girls and in teaching Christian truth. These early schools labored under great disadvantages. They were attended only by children of the lowest castes, very few girls came, and these attended very irregularly, and left altogether at a very early age.
Subsequently schools for girls only were formed, but it is difficult for persons familiar only with western sentiments and usages, to understand the difficulties confronting the workers, even beyond the middle of this century. The prejudice against female education was intense, tho strongest in the higher castes, who ruled opinion. Schools for boys were everywhere welcomed. Even if they were only vernacular and elementary. Provided they were efficient, an attendance of 50 or 100 scholars was easily obtained, even tho they were on an avowedly Christian basis. On the other hand it was difficult anywhere to establish and maintain a girls' school. To secure an attendance of 25 girls was a great thing; these were usually of low caste, and a woman had to be paid to bring them to school and to take them home; the scholars were usually paid small sums; the merest trifles prevented their attendance, or caused it to cease altogether; and at the age of ten or eleven the child was supposed to be too big to go to school, or was taken away to be married; possibly it was feared that a life of infamy might begin, for which education was supposed to be a preparation.
The crude and imperfect nature of these early schools could lead only to inadequate results, and to bring girls more entirely under Christian and educational influences, boarding schools were establisht for orphans and the children of native Christian parents, as resident, or day scholars.* These schools or asylums offered a wide field for exercise of benevolence, and opportunities for the Christian training of children rescued from heathen surroundings. Christian girls attended as day scholars, or if their parents lived at a distance, as boarders. Formerly in South India, Orissa, and the North West Provinces, large schools were chiefly filled with children of the former class, but gradually, as the number of Christians has greatly increast, the supply of scholars is far more from the latter class. The influence of such schools has not been as great as was anticipated. They have, indeed. aided in making native Christian women the best educated of all the women of India, excepting those of the very small Parsee community; but on the other hand, it is a slow and expensive way of propagating the Gospel; it is apt to encourage native Christians in the idea that everything is to be done for them, and in not a few instances the style of education and of living was too high for the classes to which the children generally belonged, and failed therefore to fit them for future life. Independence of character, energy of will, high moral principle, and capacity for usefulness, have not generally been markt features in the men and women thus brought up.
In the course of time the schools grew in number and influence, and, before the middle of the century, great interest in all the vital questions affecting the position of women began to be freely discust. In the literary and debating societies, in pamphlets, essays, and newspapers, these were questions most considered, and tho the practical … The terrible famines which swept over va.rious parts of India. during the latter half of Ja.st century and the first of this, gave ample opportunity for gathering orphan children under the care of the missionaries with government aid. results were disappointing, they prepared native society to allow if not to welcome practical effort.* The first school for upper-class girls was founded by the zeal and liberality of the Hon. Drinkwater Bethune, in 1849. His high position in the government of India, and his popularity with natives of rank, enabled him to overcome many difficulties, but even he, at much expense, and with every desire to consult native prejudice relating to caste, privacy, and the exclusion of all Christian teaching, could never obtain a large school, or make it really efficient. Nevertheless it gave instruction to about 80 young ladies belonging to some of the most influential families in Calcutta, and prepared the way for analogous movements elsewhere. The best known of these, and the most avowedly Christian, was the High Caste School for girls, establisht in Calcutta by Dr. Duff, about 1857.
The question of family, or zenana, instr1~ction had engaged the attention of a small number of advanced natives and Europeans, but the first definite presentation of the question was made by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Smith, now of Edinburgh, in the Calcutta Missionary Observer for March, 1840. He suggested a practicable and reasonable method of procedure, and sustained it by so many facts and arguments, that a powerful impression was made on all interested in the question. Nevertheless, no well concerted, united action followed for some years. Here and there a native gentleman privately, almost secretly, had his wife instructed, but the great mass of the people were timid, indifferent, or hostile. Missionaries, however zealous, were powerless to act. For them to enter zenanas was out of the question. Nor could their wives without the permission of the elders of the family, who, always being the most ignorant and prejudiced, dreaded Christianity, disliked innovation, and thought female education both unnecessary and dangerous. It was in 1855 that the idea of zenana visitation took practical and permanent form. Rev. John Fordyce adopted the idea of Dr. Smith, and with his aid and that of others, obtained the necessary funds, the services of two or three lady visitors, and access to the families of a small number of native gentlemen. The idea, when once realized, seemed so reasonable that it was soon after adopted by others, firstly, Mrs. Mullens, of the L. M. S., and Mrs. Sale of the B. M. S.; then on a larger and more systematic scale by Miss Briton, from America.
But custom, prejudice, and distrust are so inveterate, that only slowly and cautiously were zenanas opened. But during the past quarter of a century there has been a greater advance' in this direction than in any other, great and varied as moral, social, and religious • Mrs. Wilson, who did more to further education in Bengal than any other person, stated in 1840 that she knew of only about 500 girls under instruction. The popUlation of the Pro-' vince at that time was more than 40,000,000. progress has been in the chief centers of Indian life. For instance, the Protestant Missionary Statistical Tables for all India, first prepared in 1851, make no mention of Zenana visiting. If there was any, it was too restricted to be tabulated. It appears for the first time in the Tables for 1871, when 1,300 houses are stated to be visited, in which were 1,997 pupils, whilst in 1890 the houses had risen to 40,513. This, among a people intensely conservative, and especially distrustful of all change in family life, is clear evidence of the new spirit that has begun to live and move in India.
Zenana visitation has broadened out in many ways. Formerly there was no class of zenana visitors. The missionary's wife, who desired to enter a zenana, was a suppliant, usually an unsuccessful one, or was only allowed to enter under conditions that were often humiliating. Payment for instruction was seldom given. Whatever material was required had to be supplied by the visitor. Ohristian instruction was objected to or reluctantly allowed, and not a few women refused to learn to read, influenced by the widespread superstition that the husband of a wife so taught was likely to die. Now these conditions are reverst. Zenana ladies are in great request. Men wish their families to be instructed. Women are eager to learn. Ohristianity is taught; fees are often paid. And since usually in respectable families there are several ladies, tho monogamy is the rule, there is more than one to be taught, and often many to listen, There has also been a wide extension of work among women outside this most interesting and important field. This will be seen from the following tables, which include all Protestant missionary spheres: 1871 1881 1896 Foreign and European Female Teachers_ _____ 390 479 711 Native Teachers ___ " ___ – ____________ ____ ____ 837 1924 3661 Day Schools___ _____ ____ ____ __ ______ ___ _ ___ 664 1120 1507 Scholars ____________________________________ 24,078 40,897 62,414 It is to the honor of Protestant missionaries that from the beginning they have been the ardent advocates of female education, and their influence in recent years has begun slowly to awaken others to efforts in the same direction. The desire of the government to spread education has not been confined to one sect, tho native prejudice and custom for a long time practically limited it to one; but in 1850 it issued a statement of great importance, requesting the Oouncil of Edncation "henceforward to consider its functions as comprising the superintendence of native female education, and that wherever any disposition was shown by the natives to establish female schools, it was its duty to give them every possible encouragement." This not only gave a great impetus to purely native effort, but was the beginning of much official practical effort; and gradually it has come to have girl's schools of its own under official supervision; to subsidize schools under missionary and purely native control, and to open the highest university degrees to native female students. Its influence has also stirred into activity some who have been slow to move, and, indeed, never moved before in this direction. Not a few native gentlemen now not only have the ladies of their families educated, but are zealous in encour- aging female education in many directions, and among those may be numbered some of the great feudatories of the Empire.
Allusion must here be made to medical uork among women. The conditions under which they live, are reported to be the cause of more delicacy of constitution, ill health, and a higher death-rate than prevails among any Western people. This has given rise to the training of nurses, midwives, and doctors, and to the employment of lady medical missionaries. Their skill is greatly needed and much appreciated. Those who itinerate, are visited by great numbers of the afflicted, and gain an entrance into many zenanas shut against all other foreigners. The great lack of medical skill in native society, led the Oountess of Dufl'erin to inaugurate in 1886 the important fund, which bears her name, "For supplying female medical aid to the women of India." It was greatly needed, has been productive of .great good, and has in its constitution and aims the elements of permanent and widespread usefulness. Intrinsically her design was worthy of all the aid it obtained at once from natives of the highest rank and greatest wealth, which candor compels us to add it would not have obtained, had not the patroness been the wife of the Governor-General.
A development of work of much importance has recently taken place, which is evangelistic rather than educational. India is an empire of villages, not of towns. In the last census returns, 717,549 places are included, but only 2,035 of these are clast as towns, and only 227 of these have a popUlation of 20,000 and upwards. In England, 53 per cent. of the whole population live in towns, but in India, only 4.34 per cent. The missionaries reside generally in the large towns, and tho some of them take preaching journeys thru extensive districts, they come little into contact with the women of the country. Those having any claim to respectability are debarred from hearing a missionary whose services are usually held in the open air. Others are kept at a distance by diffidence or fear, for if any venture near the outside of a crowd, or listen half concealed behind a house, they may be told that being only women, their presence is not welcome. Until recently women have had but the rarest opportunities to become acquainted with Christian truth, and probably not one in ten of all outside the Ohristian fold, have ever had the Gospel adequately put before them. To reach these women, rural missions have been formed both in the north and south, and have met with encouragement and success. The usual plan is for two or more ladies, assisted by native Christian helpers, to reside where the rural population is dense and accessible. Schools are establisht, medical aid is freely given to all comers; intercourse with native women is encouraged, and an object lesson illustrative of Christian life is daily seen. Visits are paid to all the villages around, where in the open space or the native house, by singing hymns, reading, addresses, and conversation, the grand purposes of Christianity are made known.
No work is more Christlike. It requires good health, zeal, courage, tact, patience, love. But with these, it is far more promising than at first might be supposed. Hindus are seldom lacking in courtesy, and to ladies of Western race they are invariably respectful. Usually they accept as a distinction the visits of such to the ladies of their families. To the latter such visits are welcome for diverse reasons. They gratify their curiosity; relieve the monotony of their terribly dull uninteresting lives; gives them some idea of the wonderful, mysterious people of whom they hear so much and know so little. They hear expressions of love, sympathy, and respect, and it may be, gain relief from pain, and hope in sickness. They hear of a God of love and a Savior from sin, and a glorious life after death; and from innate disposition and unfavorable surroundings, probably no women in the world are so prepared to welcome the 'glad tidings of great joy as they.
Thus woman's work for woman has grown. On account of European influence and example, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras have been foremost alike in receiving Western ideas as to the position of woman, and in their willingness to give them practical effect. But there is no important mission station in India that is not an active center for work in behalf of women, as far as circumstances will allow.
But varied and interesting as is the work being done, and remarkable as its extension has been in recent years, it is important to bear in mind that but the mere fringe of this vast sphere has yet been toucht. The popUlation of India, coming under the government census returns for 1891, gives the following result: Total. Males. Females. Learning___________________ 3,191,220 2,997,558 197,662 Literate ____________________ 12,097,530 11,554,035 543,495 IlIiterate ___________________ 246,546,176 118,819,408 127,726,768 TotaL ___ . ____________ 261,838,926 133,371,001 128,467,925 Thus of the whole population dealt with, only 58 persons in every thousand can read and write, or are learning to do so; and of these 58, 53 are males and 5 females; whilst of the latter sex, only 1 in 173 is able to read, or learning to do so. Of the 197,662 females under instruction, 104,157, or more than half, are taught by the missionary societies.
MEDICAL SCHOOL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN IN INDIA
MEDICAL SCHOOL FOR CHRISTIA.N WOMEN IN INDIA.
BY M. ROSE GREENFIELD, LUDHIANA, PUNJAB, INDIA.
The institution of which we write seems to be an instance of God's gracious forethought and provision. Its sphere is North India, embracing a vast territory, including the Punjab, North West Provinces, Bengal, Sind, Rajputana, and many native States. Without any concerted plan on the part of the various missionary societies working in North India, there has been during the last ten or fifteen years a marvellous and rapid development of Zenana Medical Missions, resulting in the opening of a large number of hospitals and dispensaries.
The admission of women to university degrees, the growth of medical schools for women in America, Great Britain, and Europe, together with the remarkable stirring up of students to volunteer for Christ's cause, both in America and Great Britain, have resulted in the sending forth of many fully trained and fully consecrated women to work for the Master among the suffering women of India, China, and Japan. These have found in many places a beginning already made by those, less favored, indeed, in the matter of medical education, but stirred by the terrible suffering around them, to do their best to meet the need, and only too glad to welcome more skilful hands to take up the ministry of healing.
Among other medical stations, we have under the auspices of the C. E. Z. M. Guetta and-Peshawur, on the northern frontier, both occupied by graduates from the London School of Medicine; Batala, Ajnalii, and Deia Ismail Khiin, for all of which the Society is asking for fully qualified women; Narowal, Taran Taran, Sutkin, Hyderabad, and several other places with dispensaries. to some of which small hospitals are attacht. The S. P. F. E. has a doctor in Multan, besides the work in connection with its Zenana mission in Ludhiana. The 1. F. N. S., with its fine hospitals in Benares and Lucknow, and the B. G. M., with its work in Bluivani under Dr. Farrar, and dispensaries in Delhi and Palwal; the S. P. G. with work in DeIhl and Kamal; the American Presbyterian Board, with new hospitals in Allahabad and Ferozepur (the latter built and presented to the Board by Mrs. F. T. Newton) and preparations for building immediately at Amb8.la and Taxrawan ; the Ladies' Board of the Church of Scotland (tho they have but recently broken ground in the Panjab), already with two doctors in the neld ; the American Presbyterians just opening the Good Samaritan Hospital, at Ghelmor, under Dr. Johnson, in addition to the one at Sialkot, under Dr. Platter; the Scotch U. P. Mission to the fore with a doctor at Ajinere. and another lent for a year to help forward the North India Medical School-all these societies, and others that mi~ht be mentioned, pressing forward on similar lines to reach the women of India WIth timely aid in their hour of need, and so bring home to them in a practical way the sympathy of the loving Savior.
When lL is remembered that everyone of these new dispensaries and hospitals needs a staff of from two to a dozen helpers of all grades, nurses, compounders, house-surgeons, etc., it needs no great degree of sagacity or extraordinary forethought to perceive that an institution where such helpers might be trained after a godly manner was an almost imperative necessity; a necessity felt first and most strongly by those on whom fell heavily the responsibilIty of the entire charge of the patients who thronged them.
When, in December, 1893, the first meeting was called by Dr. Edith Brown, of the B. Z. M., to consider the scheme, the members of the Initiatory Committee included, as far as possible, the lady doctors of all the societies working in the Punjab and Northwest Provinces, seven societies being represented; and the committee then appointed to carry the plan into execution comprised members of no less than six differ- ent societies, with power to add to their number. The controlling body, therefore, is essentially catholic and unsectarian, and composed of those who know just the kind of help they need. The constitution provides that any society contributing £50 a year to the general fund of the school shall have a right to a representative on the committee, and becomes, as a matter of fact, a partner in the concern, sharing in the control. Two societies, the Baptist Zenana Mission and the Scotch U. P. Mission, have contributed and have representatives on the committee, and all societies who have any considerable amount of medical work in hand should secure similar representation. The scope of the school is another peculiar feature. The classes are so graded as to cover as far as possible all the varied kinds of helps needed in mission hospitals and dispensaries. The trained mid- wife, the surgical nurse, the compounder, hospital assistant, and we trust, ere long, the assistant surgeon, will all be provided for in the curriculum; and go out at the end of a course of instruction of from two to five years, ready to take up their respective posts. Let it be remembered that thIS is preeminently a missionary insti- tution-that theji1'st aim of its founders is to train those who desire to do Ohristian work, and that the teaching of the word of God occu- pies a place in the front rank of all that is taught within its walls.
This is also a Ohristian Institution, where the children of Ohristian parents, or converts from heathenism, may prepare themselves for – future service unexposed to the contaminating influences of heathen professors, or the corrupting society of heathen fellow-students; free, too, from the subtle skepticism, too often fostered by the religious neu- trality of government institutions, casting a slur on the most precious and vital truths of the Gospel. It is an aggressive Ohristianity that is here represented, and which it is our aim to foster in all the students, so that they may become in truth healers in Ohrist's name of both body and soul. .
Progress has been made during the first eighteen months of the school's existence, which warrants high hopes for the future. The rapidly increasing number of students makes the committee urgently appeal for another permanent member of the staff, besides asking some societies to lend their doctors, for the first year of their residence in the country, so that while learning the language themselves they may give some of the English lectures.
Out of the nineteen or twenty students, five are of European parentage, and six or seven are the daughters of men occupying responsible positions in civil or mission employ. Out of these four are supported by their own parents or friends, and six are on scholarships given either by missions who pledge the holders to serve in the missions after their training, or by the school pledging them to work in some Protestant mission when their training is complete. Four who are in training as nurses are earning their own living by working in the hospital while getting their lectures in the school.
Progress for the future is hoped for on the follwing lines: 1. A large staff of permanent teachers, so that the instruction given both in English and Hindi may be very thorough, that our students may be able to hold their own in competition with those of any existing school.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA
2. Increased hospital accommodation. A.lready there are about 70 beds available in the mission and civil hospitals, but the University of Lahore, required that that number should be increast to 100 before the school can be affiliated to the university. and its students admitted to the government examinations. There is plenty of room to build at once another wing to the present school building. to be occupied temporarily as a hospital and eventually ~o be used as additional students' quarters.
S. Higher standards of preliminary education. The standard of the education of Ohristian girls is being rapidly raised Many take the entrance examination of the Lahore or Calcutta Universities, and some have gone on to the F. A..- This last mentioned degree will hereafter be insisted upon for those taking the five years course for assistant surgeon; and the broader the basis of general education that can be secured the firmer, we are assured, will be the super·structure of that special scientific training that the medical school proposes to give.
Above all, both for teachers and taught, we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that one and all may iucrease with the increase of God, and that this institution may be fruitful to His praise.* FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF INDIA.
BY REV. H. GRAlTON ~UINESS.
1. The nearness of Indir;. From Lond?n to. Bombay, by Brindisi, seems a marvelously short Journey, occupymg lIttle more than a fortnight, broken up into four sections. London to Brindisi, Brindisi to the Suez Oanal, thence to Aden, and thence to Bombay. There is something fresh to be seen every day as far as Aden, and on reaching Bombay you wonder that you have arrived so easily and speedily.
2. Its strangeness. In Asia you seem to enter a new world. The tropical strength of the sun, the dark skins and foreign dress of the people, their languages, shops, trades, houses, and ways, all impress you as utterly different from anything in Europe or America.
3. Its vastness. India is 1900 miles in length, and also in its greatest breadth. It is itself a continent. England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, put together, would scarce make so large a country.
4. Its populousness. There is an overwhelming impression of almost countless multitudes, with needs and destinies as important as our own. One is stirred to compassion, for they are still as sheep without a shepherd. India contains one-fifth of humanity, and the bulk are still utterly unevangelized.
5. Similarity of race. Unlike many others, the people of India belong to the same race as those of England, America, and Europe. Their languages and featnres prove them to belong to the Aryan race. This fact gives a feeling of kinship with the people.
6. Intelligence. 'rhis is true of the people generally, and the Brahmans, who form, the upper class, and the Parsees, are particularly so. No audiences of stndfmts in England and America seem to me brighter or quicker in apprehension than the Hindus I have spoken to here.
7. Gentleness. Hindus exhibit an amount of suavity, docility, and submissiveness never seen in the natives of England and America, with a remarkable absence of strong, self-reliant assertiveness. Their gentleness attracts and awakens sympathy, for it is largely due to pro- longed oppression.
* An American Auxilliary Committee Is much need~d to help in this very useful branch of the Master's work. There are already committees in London and Edinburgh. U anydeelreto ,communicate with Dr. Greenfield we shall be pleased to hear from them. 8. Affection jo'l' children. This is certainly manifest in fathers, and especially mothers, and parental affection is returned. Deep and touching exhibitions of filial love are met with.
9. Oppression of women. They are treated as. beasts of burden. They pass by thousands carrying fuel, fruits. manure, and loads of grass, or other vegetable produce, on their heads. They are mostly short, thin, worn looking, lightly clothed, with bare arms and legs, brown as a berry, walking with short, quick steps, and upright car- riage. In the home the wife is a servant, and little better often than a slave. The treatment of widows is infamous. Woman is crusht here, and knows not how to raise herself out 0f ignorance, oppression, and degradation.
10• .Absence of home l~fe. For the bulk of people the houses and shops are all open to the street. The rooms are rude in construction, often of unpainted boards, without ornament, with scarce any furni- ture, mere eating and sleeping places. The people sit in the streets. Privacy can hardly be said to exist, except in the dwellings of the rich. The effect of this on family life must be tremendous. The inmates swarm like bees in a hive, or ants in an ant-hill. Virtue and morality are thus loosened at their foundations, and independence and self-respect must suffer in proportion.
11. Defective drainage. The sanitation of the towns seems deplorable. The plague, at present desolating Bombay, has its cause in this. It is no easy thing to get three hundred millions of people. who have lived without proper drains, to mend their ways. The country is hot and dry, or the results would be much worse. Still, under Enghsh rule, a better state of things is being brought about.
12. Signs of progress. Magnificent buildings. good shops, railways, post-offices, telegraph-stations, hospitals, libraries, schools, col- leges, abound as evidences of immense progress. English rule in India is rapidly transforming social habits and civilization. The people breathe a free air, live under just laws, are protected from civil wars and cruel massacres, education is spreading, and a new nation is being born. 13. Presence of idolatry. This vast people is wholly given to idol- atry. Temples, small, dark, dirty, ugly, and repulsive stand open everywhere. Vile images of men, monkeys, bulls, and elephants are adored. The mind and conscience of the people are in abject slavery to the vilest superstitions. The darkness of India can be felt. It is a world of moral night. Religion has become animalism. The immoral priest washes his senseless idol, and worships it before your face. The Brahman stands there to argue in his defense. The fakir sits naked in the sun, smeared with ashes, with wild, uncombed locks, like a beast from the woods, and deems himself the most religious of mankind. India worships three hundred millions of divinities. To her,God is everything, and everything is God, and, therefore, everything may be adored.
Snakes and monsters are her special divinities. Her pan-deism is a r pandemonium. The things she sacrifices to idols she sacrifices to devils. 0 for light! light Millions grope at noon, and stumble into perdition without a warning voice. They know not the true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. And we in England and America are content to preach and press the Gospel, time after time, with measureless labor and expense on our home thousands, and leave these mil- lions untaught, unwarned, unshepherded! How is this? Our mis- sionary societies send them a few missionaries, but what are our
TBE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN MADAGASCAR
churches doing? What right have the churches to delegate this tremendous work: of raising up the entire heathen world to a few overburdened societies? Let every church arise and do its share directly for the salvation of mankind, and the problem of the world's evangeli- zation will soon be solved. Let every pastor, every elder, every deacon, every church member, every Sunday-school teacher, every individual Ohristian be taught to feel this 1(Jol'k is mine. I am personally responsible to give the Gospel to some part of this unevangelized world. I have my share to attend to in this sacred business. No other can do my work, or answer for me before the judgment seat of God. Let me do my personal part in the work of saving mankind, or renounce the name of Ohristian.
14. Wide open doors. No door is shut in India. The cities are open, the towns, the villages, the streets, the shops, the zenanas, the halls, the market-places, the whole country and population. You may go where you will, and say what you will, none daring to make you afraid. '1'he people sit by the wayside waiting for you. They wait, with their meek eyes looking out for the advent of the messenger of saving truth. A change has come over their thoughts. They have begun to scorn their priests and suspect their idols. They are willing to hear God's word when it is brought to them. But there are few to bring it. Scarce one Ohristian in a thousand has the heart to help them. Mammon is too mighty for our pity and piety. Our small home interests hide from us the immeasurable interests of a perishing world. The millions of the heathen to most of us are as tho they had no existence whatever. Who shall roll away the dark reproach? Let each one roll it from his own door. Our responsibility is individual. As individuals, let us meet it in all its magnitude.
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN MADAGASOAR.
BY THE REV. H. E. COUSINS, W. A. ANTANANARIVO.
The last Sunday in September, 1895, was memorable in the annals of Madagascar, as the day on which General Duchesne was gradually closing in on the capital. On the following day his victory was complete. The last Sunday in September, 1896, has also been markt by an event of vast importance, influencing the status and prospects of thousands of the inhabitants-viz., the abolition of slavery throughout the land. If September, 1895, heard the death knell of the independence of the Hova government, September, 1896, has heard the JOYous peal of the bells of freedom from the odious system of slavery.
The proclamation was not altogether unexpected. The Resident General, M. Laroche, was known to be strongly in favor of immediate abolition, and the proclamation bears his signature. An instruction from Queen Ranavalomanjaka III. is appended to it, calling upon the people to obey the law.
All sale of slaves and attempts to remove them to a distance with a view to future sales into unsettled parts of the country, are forbidden under severe penalties. Slaves may remain with their present owners, if they choose to do so, but there must be no compulsion. They may retain property acquired by purchase or inheritance, but anything given by their owners will revert to the latter. In cases where the Government shall consider it well to do so, compensation, in the shape. of concessions of land, will be made to owners who have been dispossest of their slaves.
Thus by a stroke of the pen have tens of thousands of Malagasy been at once raised from slavery to the status of free citizens. As a slave woman said to the writer, " All are alike now." France has thus shown how unfair certain suspicions have been. Many said that slav- ery would be allowed to drag on a miserable existence for years under the French flag, and that the Government of the Republic took but a languid interest in the question. It has now been conclusively shown that slavery is intolerable to a liberty-loving people, and that under French laws the distinction between slave and freeman cannot exist.
The British government has not acted in as thorough-going a fashion in the smaller island of Zanzibar, as France has done in this great African island. It was, however, through an Englishman, Sir Robert Farquhar, Governor of Mauritius, that the horrible slave-trade was brought to an end in the reign of King Radama 1. (1820), and the representations of the British government, in 1877, also induced Queen Ranavalomanjaka II. to emancipate all imported African slaves. According to recent official estimates of the population of Antana- narivo, about thirty thousand out of a population of less than forty- five thousand, were slaves. The proportion, however, gradually decreases as we get away from this center of population, and the bulk of the people in the more remote country districts are free. The entire slave population of the island can not be much less than a million.
Slavery is an old institution in Madagascar, reduction to slavery having been in ancient times a common punishment for certain offenses; but the slave popUlation was greatly increast during the long reign of Queen Ranavalona I. (1828-1861), as military expeditions were sent out almost every dry season, and thousands of captives were brought back as booty. On the whole the slaves have not been harshly treated; many of them, indeed, have been almost regarded as members of the family. But cases of cruel treatment were occasion- ally heard of, and even the lives of slaves were at times taken with impunity by their owners.
The acceptance of Christianity has done much in later years to prepare the ways for abolition. The Church recognized no distinction between slaves, and free children and slave children being taught in the same schools. A slave might even become a pastor, or preacher, or deacon, in the church of which his owner was a member. There have been, however, no signs on the part of the Christians of any willingness, or even to consider any method by which slavery mi~ht be gradually extinguisht. Only three or four years ago a miSSIOnary belonging to the Society of Friends was hist in a public meeting of representatives of the churches, because he suggested that Christian people should carefully study the Scriptures and try to ascertain what was taught therein about slavery. Not through any action of the Church of Ohrist then, but from the new political rulers of Madagascar has this decree of emancipation come; and Ohristian people everywhere, and all lovers of freedom, will doubtless hail with gladness this important action on the part of the French Government, and will hope that it may be an indication of the righteous spirit in which France intends to govern her new acquisi- tion in the Indian Ocean.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
The Famine in India. population, 50 per cent. greater than that of the United States, which is al- A good deal of criticism is exprest in ways in a state of semi-starvation, hav- Great Britain against the Viceroy of ing but one meal a day, and forty India for giving out that the. govern- millions of whom always go to bed ment was able to cope with the famine hungry. Dearth under these conditions in that country, at the same time when means death. The viceroy of India missionaries were writing home appeals telegrapht to London that seventy-two for thousands on thousands of starving millions must die, because the price of people, absolutely unrelieved from any maintenance had gone up from one source. And the government of In- cent to three cents a day per capita, dia meanwhile even refused to open a unless gigantic relief measures could fund for contributions for their relief speedily be organized. from outside of India. These criticisms came with better grace from British Ninety per cent. of the people of subjects than if they had originated India are connected with agriculture, elsewhere. It is charged that there has and any limitation there means starvabeen a cruel dereliction of duty some- tion and death. The India government where, and great indignation is exprest instituted measures for artificial water that the cries of distress from India supply that are simply gigantic. It were mufiled by optimistic telegraphic spent fifteen million dollars to condispatches in the daily papers; and this, struct irrigating canals from the Ganges when the death-rate in one district had to distribute water over twelve millions risen for 30 per thousand to 109 per of acres, or one-third of the Northwest thousand, and 90,000 died of starva- provinces and Oudh. It provided watertion in one year. When the pangs of ways for artificial irrigation of more hunger drive people in silent procession, than one-fourth of the twenty millions living skeletons, to find food, dying by cultivated acres of the Punjab. On the way the stronger getting a few other waterways it has spent twenty grains, the feebler perishing, and chil- million dollars to convey water to dren, an intolerable burden, are sold at twenty million other acres in Central from ten to thirty cents a piece, and India and Bengal. A hundred thouwhen at best a heritage of orphaned sand tanks in Southern India, one forty children of tens of thousands must miles in circumference, witness to the remain to the country-this is not" im- precautions against failure of rainfall, pending" famine, – it is grim, gaunt, and the distribution of the precipitaawful famine itself. tion to agriculturists. When the famine was "imminent" and actual, an enor- That the India government has done mous system of public works was proa vast deal is conceded; and it must be jected, and a million people set to work, borne in mind that the viceroy has to at diminisht wages, possibly enough to govern one·fifth of the human family keep most of them alive, but leaving now on the globe, and find time for their families unprovided for, and the breakfast; this, too, in a paternal gov- weaker men to starve. ernment, where the responsibility is unshared and far heavier than in a fully The world can scarcely furnish civilizoo land. another example of such magnificent plans for feeding so many millions of It is the very vastness of the problem people by any despotic government. that paralyzes. At best India has a Besides, it constructeEl a great network of railroads, to carry relief to these dis- The Territory of Magellan.
tricts in the event of famine. REV. J. 111. ALLIS, D.D., SANTIAGO, And yet-and yet, this mighty human CillLE.
providence has been unequal to an emergency covering a far more exten- Some time ago the Chilean govern- sive area than haa ever before been ment erected the Territory of Magellan, blasted with want. The government and put it under territorial jurisdiction.
felt its inadequacy to add to existing A commission was sent several months efforts the organization of a national ago to study the condition of the abo- scheme of benevolent distribution of rigines of that far away region, to ex- help, which would give any promise of amine into the charges that the Indians security from waste and robbery, and were enslaved, and were badly treated.
ultimate pauperization of millions of This commission has lately made its people. report, and the following items have There was but one agency that could been selected by the writer as of general come to its aid, and that but partially- interest: the missionaries. They have proved The Territory of Magellan extends themselves great organizers of relief from Cape "Three Mountains," on the corps, in all past famines, where they peninsula of Taitao, to Cape Horn.
were in any considerable force. They This is the west line. The north line might have saved tens of thousands of reaches the limits of the Argentine Re- lives, had the Lord Mayor's Mansion public, or western Patagonia. The House Fund been opened earlier, and eastern line extends south, and takes in they called to the government aid. a greater part of Terra del Fuego, the Voluntary effort has been a necessity. archipelago of Madre de Dios and of Missionaries have felt the pressure of Cape Horn. This territory covers about famine prices on their own limited 80,000,000 acres. Of this region, one- stipends and appropriations for their fifth is suitable for sheep raising, and regular work. But they have every· . two-fifths for cattle grazing. The reo where courageously wrought to relieve mainder is either mountainous or desert.
those about them. The presence of In this vast region there are only about these gaunt skeletons, the pitiful wail 8,000 civilized inhabitants, and from for bread, the moans of the dying, the 8,000 to 4,000 Indians. These latter helpless children tendered them whom are nomads, having no nxt home.
they dared not accept-all this makes They are divided into four families or a terribly depressing atmosphere in tribes, differing in physical aspect, lan- which to keep life in themselves, and guage, customs, and in grade of civili- yet they have askt-not to be relieved zation.
-but for a few extra dollars to allow These four tribes are called the Pata- them to take a few hundred more gonians, or Tehuelches, Yahagans, orphans by famine. American Chris- Alikulufs, and the Onas. The Pata- tians can not organize relief on a gonians roam over the region called large. scale for the general mass of Chilean Patagonia. There is in this starving people, but they. can send region a reservation of some extent, contributions directly to American mis- designed to induce the Indians [to give sionaries, who will wisely administer up their wandering life, and come to their contributions. There is an open understand and love the idea of owner- road. Any missionary society's treas- ship of property.
urer will forward the money. A draft The Tehuelches live on the shores of on London got at any bank, a postal the many canals to the south of the money order got at our own post- Straits of Magellan, and in their light offices on India, will be available in canoes look for nsh and mollusks, which India.-J. T. G. form their principal food. The Alakalufes are really nomads of qUalities which facilitate their educa- the sea, and pass their life on the straits tion. They seem to be of gentle and and canals, in the region of Smyth's teachable character, and certainly they Chouol and the western part of the have well developt powers of sight Straits of Magellan. and hearing, as is natural to a race which lives by hunting. The Ouas occupy the northern and western coasts of the Island of Terra This is plainly seen at Punta Arenas del Fuego. (Sandy Point), where children of the Onas, from eight to fourteen years of Although the origin of these peoples age, have been placed in families, and is not known, it is supposed that they they have quickly learned the language came from Northern Patagonia, from of the family. They also became very which region they were driven out in soon attacht to the people, and serve as remote times by stronger and more nu- children in the household. merous peoples. Mr. Darwin visited this region with the famous navigator, The same thing has been found true Fitz Roy, in 1830-34. His observations in the Island of Dawson, where the led him to consider these Indians as the " Fathers" of the Order of Saliciauas very lowest in the scale of humanity. have founded and maintain an exten- These Indians seem not to have any sive mission for the instruction of the community ideas, and have made no children of the various tribes mentioned. IWvancement in any knowledge other Among these pupils are many youths than that needed to supply the first ne- from the Oua tribe. l!essity of existence, their food. They bave nothing they ('.an call property Such, in brief, is something of the beyond the skins of the guanaco, with ethnological characteristics of these which they half cover their bodies. tribes, whose very existence has been They do not cultivate the soil. They threatened by the events which have have no interest in the possession of given occasion for the governmental land. They roam over the island hunt- commission of investigation. ing food, and leave no trace of their momentary residence other than the These events have to do with the ocslight excavations in the earth, which cupation of the island of Terra del they made when overtaken by night or Fuego by civilized peoples. A few by some storm. In these places they words on the history of this Island Inay remain a few days looking for food, be in order. and then hastening to other points, according to trails of the guanaco, or di- Since the discovery of the Straits of rected by the mere caprice of the chief Magellan, Terra del Fuego has been left of the tribe. outside of any project for colonization. It was supposed to be a desert, and Naturally their customs are very sim- wholly unfit for any kind of agriculturple; nothing is yet known as to whether allabor. It was wholly unknown that thvy have religious ideas or traditions along its shores, and in the beds of its or not, for their unknown language, not rivers, was to be found that coveted yet mastered by missionaries who have metal which led to the journeys of the attempted to civilize them, presents first conquerors of South America. Beserious difficulties to any investigation. sides, this ignorance of gold deposits, Notwithstanding this hindrance, there and this supposed desert condition, its has lately appeared a basis of hope that climate is harsh and repellant, and its this country-Chilc-InaY do something far away location, at the very ends of fOl' this despised race, and transform the earth, resisted settlement, and inthem into useful citizens. spired a profound aversion of its inhos- pitable interior to those who past its It has been noticed that the children forbidding shores. of the Onas have fair abilities, and have For 300 years the region has been totally untoucht, unless we except the attempt at t:tploration, in 1767, which the evangelization of the Indians. They wholly failed. were provided with abundant material to carryon the work. Nothing has been known of this land during these centuries, except the suf- Unhappily, when they flattered themfering and misery it has contributed to selves that the work was going on well, those brave and hardy navigators, who, there came a new and painful experiduring this period, for various motives, ence to dissipate these illusions. In past through the straits, and have made 1859, when one of the missionaries this remarkable channel a safe and visited the small port of W oollyn, for short passage between the Atlantic and the purpose of holding religious se:– the Pacific Oceans. vices, the missionary, his companions, and the sailors were all killed by the The first attempt to -enter this region natives, without even a hint as to the was made by the distinguisht English reason of the attack. The assassinaphilanthropist, Mr. Allen Gardener, tion only became known by questionwho, taking pity on the miserable con- ing the Indians who came from that dition of the inhabitants, proposed to region. bring to them the benefits of civilization, and teach them the knowledge of This tragic experience was very dis- God, and of Jesus Christ, the Savior cOUl'aging to the remaining missionaries, of all men. He secured, by great effort, and for many years nothing further was the cooperation of Christian people in attempted for the civilization of the in- England, and obtained the means need- habitants of Terra del Fuego. ed to establish an evangelical mission on the Island of Picton, which is on the Finally, in 1872, the Bishop of the east side of Beagle Channel, by which Falkland Islands, whose real diocese is it is separated from Terra del Fuego. all South America, Rev. Dr. Sterling, resolved to renew the work of the la- The plan of Mr. Gardener was to mented Gardener. He establisht a establish missions, in order to evangel- small mission-station on the Island of ize the natives, and also to show them Novarino. Some of the Yahlgan tribe the advantages of civilization. But he responded to the efforts of the missionwas compelled to give up the attempt on aries. that island because of the hostile attitude of the natives. The Indians op- There was establisht another station posed his plans in a thousand ways, on the north shore of Beagle Channel, until he abandoned the place and past at Ushua, where now there is an Arover the channel to the Island of Terra gentine village. del Fuego. There he wandered about several months, until all his supplies The faithfulness and perseverance of were exhausted, and until, by disease the missionaries, particularly of Mr. and hunger, the entire company perisht, Bridges, who was the head of the Ushua as was afterwards made known by the mission, together with eM abundant discovery of the diary of Mr. Gardener supply of needed material granted by by sailors of a ship sent from Monte- the London Missionary Society, made video to assist him. some progress in modifying the charac- ter, and in civilizing the natives living This sad experience made a profound on the shore of Beagle Channel. impression in England, and moved the Evangelical Societies to renew the noble These influences have not, as yet, efforts of Mr. Allen Gardener, who had reacht the Dna tribe, which persistently left in his diary a most fervent prayer holds itself aloof from contact with for the conversion of the Terra del civilization. Fuegans. Apart from all these efforts. civiliza- Missionaries were sent to the Island tion has lately made an entrance from of Malvinas, charged to attempt anew the north, by way of the Straits of Ma- gellan.
In 1883, the Chilian Government, convinced of the advantages of civiliz· adults, thus sent, willingly or unwilling the vast Territory of Magellan, and ingly, to t.heir island, and whose vagain view of the excellent results produced bond habits and previous life make the in Chillan Patagonia, in cattle raising, task of reclaiming them exceedingly invited citizens of Punta Arenas to try difficult. the same experiment in Terra del Fuego. The government conceded to This Roman Catholic establishment the firm of Wehrhahn & Co. the right on Dawson Island was inaugurated for of a vast extension of land, for a long the purpose of instructing the children period, on the condition that they of various tribes of the Territory of should establish stock farms and other 1l'Iagellan. Its founders are willing to improvements, which, after the contract extend its advantages to any Indians should expire, should become the prop- who may be sent to them by the stockerty of the State. men, or by the government.
The government made three other These" Fathers" have erected suitconcessions to other parties. The ex- able buildings for schools, and small tensive nature of the enterprise will ap- cottages for the homes of the children. pear, when it is known that to one com- The cottage homes are under the care pany the government gave 320,000 of the sisters of the order called "Maria acres; to another, 720,000, and to a Auxilladora," or "Mary the Helper." third, 5,000,000 acres. These firms Dawson Island is admirably situated have already begun stock-raising on a for this humanitarian work, and will large scale, and the signs indicate speedy serve to unite and protect what is left and extensive returns for the invest- of the large tribe, which in times long ment. Conditions have been found to gone by occupied this part of South be very favorable to the various depart- America. The situation is midway bements of the business. tween the two great oceans, and just opposite Punta Arenas, the most south- The Indians find that mutton is bet- erly city of the globe. ter than clams, and that sheep skins, with the wool on, make better covering The island contains about 50,000 than they had before, so they are be- acres, and has plains and wooded land, ginning to make reprisals on the flocks. and is suited to the various industries those who live there can carryon. This has bef,'11n a series of conflicts between the stockmen and the Indians. The island has many indentations, or The condition of affairs gave the new- bays, among which is Port Harris, on comers much trouble and expense in whose shores the Roman Catholic miswire fences, and in an increast service sion buildings have been erected. The for protection. climate is quite as favorable as that of Punta Arenas. There have been various accusations against tIle stock·men, as to the way The commission had the opportunity they treated the Indians who have fallen to hear various opinions as to the best into their power, even to the extent of methods of solving the Indian question killing some with refined cruelty. It of this Southern Territory, and how to is to be hoped that the Chilean Govern- save these primitive tribes from the ment will find out the facts. total annihilation which threatens them from contact with civilized people. To The stock-men have seized several handle this matter did not fall within groups of Indians, and have deported the duties of this commission, which them from Terra del Fuego to Dawson was sent merely to make inquiries. It Island, and have put them in charge of falls to the province of the Chilean the SalicCRna "Fathers," who have a Government to adopt, as soon as posmission-station on that Island. sible, methods for the protection and improvement of the native populations The "Fathers" have accepted, with of this new Chilean Territory. pleasure, the serious task of ruling these The Duty and Privilege of Self-support. * ceived; it is necessary for us to show the world that we are capable of doing BY REV. J. M. EUROZA. something for ourselves; that we can sanctify our work with the poverty and The question implied in the subject misery of our brothers and fellow- which has been assigned to me for countrymen, and this is the object that treatment before you, hardly requires is fulfilled by self-support. any prolonged study; but it is always desirable to speak a few words on so This being the object of self· support, important a matter. we can not hesitate to recognize its im- portance. The importance of self-sup- I. Self-support. port can not be too highly appreciated, This term is applied to the provision as it involves the importance of our which our respective churches make, church, whatever it may be. The imof the necessary resources for the pre- portance of self-support will weigh in servation and encouragement of the the Protestant communion in proportion work of evangelization. to the love that it bears to its church. Amongst the resources I refer to, we If we love our church there is no doubt should not only count the cash supplied, that we will desire it to live and to but also everything that directly con- march at the head of every forward tributes to keep the work in full vigor. movement and of every thing meritori- Amongst these we must give first place ous. and we can never satisfy these to a building for the holding of worship, legitimate and holy aspirations of our for the dwelling of pastors, means for hearts, except to the benign influence covering traveling expenses of the of our own work. With very rare exworkers, and also the many different ceptions, everything great and praiseservices that directly favor the evangel- worthy that has been done up to the ical cause. present, is due to the support given to 1. This being self-support, we at once us by our brothers, who constitute the come to the question of its object. different missionary societies. I do not Up to the present day we have been say that what has been done by these receiving the resources necessary for the noble spirits is all that could have been foundation, support, and development done; but I say that it is everything of our respective churches, from those that they could do to assist us in the missionary societies that display such a evangelization of Mexico. The increas- Christian love for the people of all na- ing growth of our churches demands tions, of all races, and of all languages. larger sums for the support of the work This love has not only been shown by as it ought to be carried on; but when the forwarding of funds, but also by the the societies I have mentioned can not valuable help of their lives, activity and do any more it is then that we discover faith as found in their representatives, the importance of self-support. whom we receive as Christian teachers, and who are generally called" Mission- 2. The necessity of establishing it in aries." our churches on a good foundation But it is also necessary for us to show demands our thoughts. a proper understanding of the supreme object of the zeal and sacrifices of our We Mexicans have certain traits that brothers from the United States; it is distinguish us from other men almost necessary that we should demonstrate entirely. Amongst them is that apathy our ability to utililize the object-lesson, with which we view the most important which for so many years we have re- subjects, whether of a moral, social, political, or religious character. Hence * Paper read at the General.Assembly of it is that things which we ought to do with zeal and at once, are done in a Christian Workers, Mexico City, January 28, slow way, and with the least trouble, 1897. Translated from the Spanish for this without abandoning our customary REVIEW. apathy even for the most interesting the desired end; I refer to the provision questions, those things which we ought of the resources necessary for the.mainto do with the greatest solicitude, are tenance and progress of the Bame exactly those which we leave for the churches, with a strictly national charcoming generation, and we thus shut acter. But it is necessary that this ourselves up within a small space, not should be done in a thorough and for want of a horizon, or for want of in- lasting manner, and that when it is telligence, but for want of will and of commenced, it should be carried forinterest. ward, even tho the initiators should die, and until the end of all time. Unfortunately our apathy is not our only defect, and we have another char- Weare agreed as to the necessity of acteristic which is peculiar to ourselves. supporting our churches by indigenous A question arisespf some undertaking; resources, and without appealing to the it does not matter if it is beyond our missionary societies; we are agreed that strength, difficulties never deter us, and we must stimulate our people, so that we commence the undertaking with a together we may freely exercise our zeal that can only be equaled to that will and give everything in our power of giants, but, how Boon does our en- for the support of the church; and thusiasm die out! How quickly does from this moment we express our united that enthusiasm with which we com- opinion, and our individual and colmence to work disappear! How soon lective experience with respect to are we discouraged, and abandon the the absolute absence of any coertion greatest interests to fall into ruin and over ourselves, either direct or indirect. shameful neglect. How many men On the contrary, we enjoy the most have gone down into the Valley of perfect liberty to follow the ideal which Death, without having done anything we may have formed in the fulfillment more than start an enterprise which of our duties, either as members of the they afterwards abandoned! church, school-masters, ministers, or pastors. Hence it is necessary for us to Let us put on one side our IDany dif- reach this conclusion:- ferent characteristics. We :find ourselves face to face with the mistaken II. Our churches are in duty bound impressions that have been formed to provide for their own self-support. throughout the country with respect to the wealth of the evangelical churches, 1. For the sake of their own existand however painful itmay appear, we ence. must, for the sake of truth and justice, con£ess that, even amongst our own God has blest ns in furnishing us the workers (only a few) certain counsels means that our missionary societies are whispered with respect to the fabu- have diSinterestedly supplied with the lous riches of the Protestant missions, object of initiating our countrymen and the result of which must inevitably be ourselves in the knowledge of the lifethe same as that obtained up to the giving doctrine of the Savior; but present, the indifference of the people everything that has been done up to to self-support. The time has arrived, the present, consists in teaching us what not only to raise our voices with the ob- can be realized by the exercise of the ject of putting things where they be- will in the evangelization of the world; long, of reaching a better understand- that which has been effected by the ing, of giving due tribute to the piety poor Christians who are inspired with and devotion of the Christian peoplewho the pure flame of charity and Christian support and help us in implanting true faith and that which we ourselves may Christianity in our country; it is now commence to do on the day when we time for our churches to adopt the feel It love for our church, for >ur methods that will certainly lead us to neighbor, and for our country.
If we can get to love our church as we ought, we will then furnish the means necessary for its existence with- of labor, for that purpose collecting its out any further dependence on the resources which are forwarded to us by own funds; and not only this, but also Christians of all the world. This is far from being pride or a distrust of the power to administer its own matters the well-proved goodness of those Christians, but rather is a proof of the re- without the intervention of any other spect and consideration that we have for our church, for its missionary corporation whatever. The church societies, and for the consideration that we deserve from all honorable people. will then know the state of her assets 2., Besides this, self-support is not and liabilities when treating subjects only necessary for the existence of the church, but also for its better develop- of great interest, and it will come to a ment. decision, not as required by the circum- The area covered by the work of evangelization is growing day by day. stances, but as permitted by the funds. One hundred years ago the missionary movement was hardly commenced, its 4. When we have got this far, when interesting labors were reduced to an almost imperceptible area, but to.day the Mexican church is free and indethere are not sufficient resources to give it the attention it deserves. pendent, 1.t will then receive another Day by day the work has been divine blesb;ng. Being self-sustained, spreading at such a. rate that it will be it will contribute to its own dignity. difficult for our friends from abroad to do more than that which has already At present we have to suffer through been commenced, and hence we have certain errors of our co·workers, the to face the natural logical consequence, representatives of our missionary socithat what we have up to this day reo eties, as regards the selection of the ceived, will probably be the maximum candidates to the ministry; some of of the grants to be received from foreign them, altho late, will find themselves sources, obliged to confess that their trust was abused by men who never ought to If the missionary funds are insuffi- have stept on the honorable platform cient to effect the development of our of the evangelical ministry; but when field of action, it is only fair that we the Mexican church. properly 110 called, should supply from our poverty what· becomes mistress of its own destiny, it ever we can, for the purpose of advanc- will have a pastoral body which would ing the Protestant cause in Mexico. be an' honor to it.self-which will give We should give our assistance to the it grandeur and place it high above all cause of diminishing the ignorance, human affairs. Then the nonentities superstition, and fanaticism which have will continue in their proper places, been and will continue to be the ruin and will have to give way to the men and disgrace of our countrymen and of whose piety, sincerity. learning. talent, our nation. and virtue will constitute the glory of their own church. 3. But in forming our ideas of selfsupport, we must not only look to the III. In treating of this question,I have development of the church, we must spoken of self.support as a "DUTY" also look towards a more elevated end, for the church, but we will now conwhich is the obtaining of its independ- sider it from the point .of view of a ence. privilege, or an opportunity which is furnisht for doing an act, which will be This means to say, giving our church an honor to the church and raise its a life of its own ; an increase in its field standard of piety; and for this we say, that our church has the privilege of contributing to self-support, and hence we can say with certainty that: 1. It contributes to a sacred cause on its own territory.
For a Christian church it is a great and divine privilege to be allowed to do f'omething for the salvation of souls. This salvation is not in the hands of the church to give to anybody it wishes, but the church announces it to men and encourages them to accept it. This is the most sacred cause that can be found in this world. How joyful will that day be when we can carry the news of salvation to our countrymen with our own resources, with a life of our own and with forces that shall be essentially Mexican. 2. Besides this, in those new horizons answer is, yes, they certainly have; that we can see at a distance, we find both the science and the art of music this other privilege: have had a fair share of attention, and commendable progress has been made The Mexican church, being self-sup- in the study from the earlier ages of porting, it will, directly or indirectly, Hindu civilization on down to the contribute to the progress of the mis- present time; treatises on the subject sionary cause throughout the world. have been written, and much time and attention have been given to the study The reason for this is clear. It would and practise of both vocal and instrunaturally receive no more funds from mental music. its prescnt sources. because it already woulll have a life of its own It would And it may be well to state that this is require nothing more from the mission- the one accomplishment upon which the ary funds, and those sums would, there- Hindu prides himself as surpassing his fore, be diverted to carry the blessed seed of the Gospel to other lands, where Western brothers, viz., his knowledge the lIame of God or of Christ has never and practice of music. Of course, we of even yet been pronounced. the Occident are at liberty to have our 3. I see still another privilege that own opinion on the subject, and we would be enjoyed by the church of know very well what the decision of an God in Mexico in the following fact: American, English, French, German, or Italian jury would be, if the music of It would contribute to the elevation the East were put upon its trial with of our country. that of the West. And yet it is not In doing so it would never enter into many years since an orthodox Bindu, any politieal combination, as this is not Sir Mohendeo Tagore, was given the the /!round occupied by the Christian church; the character of politicians degree of Doctor of Music by the Unihas never been one of those assumed versity of London, in recognition of his by the regenerating principles of Chris- great attainments in Hindu music, its tianity. Anybody who has tried to study and practise. More than a censcale the ramparts of power by means tury ago that wonderful scholar, Sir of political intrigues, and by party Tom Jones, took much interest in the combinations in the name of religion, is subject and wrote extensively and apnot a Christian; he is a murper and a preciatively concerning it. calumniator of the Divine Martyr of Calvary. I believe in a free church The system of musical notation in nse within a free State. I believe that both among the Bindus. is claimed to be are, and ought to be, perfectly inde- very old, in fact one of their writers penpent, however that may go against the opinions of others. Nevertheless, I gives its date as "anterior to the combelieve that both ought to contribute to mencement of authentic history," and the elevation of the nation; the govern- produces in proof of its antiquity a facment by means of wise laws and liberal simile of a printed form of notation institutions; the church by instructing originally written in the oldest Sanskrit the popular masses in the knowledge of character, probably antedating the science, and forming the national char- Christian era. A printed copy of this acter in accordance with the purest fac-simile is in possession of the present principles of Christianity. writer.
When the church is self-sustaining it In the original Sanskrit notation Inwill look for its pastors and school- dian music was represented by means of masters amongst the Mexican people; one line, with certain signs and , ymboIs, it will then select those who comply and the initials of the seven notes. with its ideals and satisfy its aspira- Now three lines are used, an innovation tions; then, and only then, will it contri- on the older system, that the three ocbute to the aggrandizement of Mexico. taves may be better represented. It will be remembered that the Greeks Musio and Musioians of India. represented their three octaves by three different letters. While Western na- BY REV. J. W. WAUGH, D.D., tions use a staff of five lines and four spaces, with numerous leger lines, when LUCKNOW, INDIA. needed, the Hindu insists that the The question is often askt, "Have Indian notation, so far as it goes, is all the Hindus-the people of India-lny that is required, pleases its advocates, scientific or practical knowledge of music? Have they made a study of "is simple, convenient, and sufficient music vocal or instrumental?" The for all practical purposes." Their notes, seven in number, answering to our do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, and to our letters c, d, e, f, g, a, b, are the Sanskrit, Devanagri, or Brujali letters ma, la, ga, attackt and sustained with remarkable ya, ra, sa, ni, and these are repeated accuracy and distinctness. I have for the different octaves. The Hindus never heard purely native musicians understand and use the diatonic Bcale, play or sing part-songs, or pieces in and also the chromatic, in fact, their ga- harmony, only the melody was given, mut is very chromatic, they use not half tho singing in unison is sometimes tones only, but quarter tones/ these are by heard. Both Hindus and Moham- Bome authorities called srooties,' others medans of certain castes or classes pay do not accept this as a proper definition, attention to music, sing, play, etc., tho and we will leave the doctors and pro- an orthodox lIlussulman is supposed to fessors to wrangle over their srooties despise music, as a weak, low, and and 1'ayas, unlese some reader wishes to unworthy accomplishment, just as take a hand in the discus"ion, and set painting and sculpture are deemed; all these Orientals right. Certainly in sing- these vanities fall under the ban of the ing and instrumentation they take these iconoclastic teaching of the Koran.
half tones and quarter tones with what Nevertheless many followers of Moham- always seemed to me marvelous exact- med run the risk, and both practise ness. In playing upon the st'far (an and enjoy the delights of music.
instrument answering to our guitar, but The songs of India's millions are not larger and having the strings all wire), of a high order, or have not been, until I have seen the performer hastily move the recent introduction of Christian the frets forward or backward, up or hymns and songs, which are of a more down, in order to get the exact tone- elevated character. Many of the Hindu half-tone or quarter-tone – desired. songs are sung in honor of, or in wor- (These frets are made movable by hav- shiping, their gods. :Many of these ing a belt of catgut or wire run quite gods are of doubtful character, morally, round the stem of the instrument). The and the songs partake of the same sitar was originally made with three nature. Other songs are sung to mark strings or wires, as the name implies, the seasons, the coming of the rains, and is the most popular and widely-used the presence of bird and butterfly, the stringed instrument in India. Unlike sowing of crops, and gathering of har- our guitar, only one of the strings is fin- vest; but as in other lando. Eastern and gered upon the frets, the others are used Western, love songs get the largest as sounders, being swept by the mizrab share of attention, occupy the thoughts or music thimble, as is done in playing and tune the voice to melody. One of the mandolin. Teachers of the sitar the most popular throughout all north- may be found in all the cities aud large ern India is an importation from poetic towns of India, who give lessons at Persia, and known as "Tiiza ba Tiiza, very cheap rates, say from 8 to 10cents now ba now," being the clo.~ing words a lesson of one or two hours each, or 30 of the refrain, "Ever and ever fresh to 40 cents a week. Many play well on and gay," fresh and sweet (speaking of this instrument, and the music. of In- love, of friends, and, I am sorry to say, dian or Persian origin, is interesting, of wine). Here is a translation of a few tho not so emotional or elevating as our lines.
own. The sitar is played either alone Singer, begin your sweetest lay, for instrumental music, or as an ac- Ever and ever fresh and gay companiment to the voice ; it is rather Bring me the joy inspiring wine brassy, or metallic for the ear of one Ever and ever fresh and fine. accustomed to the softer tones of the guitar. Lost in my heart, oh lady fair, Indian singers usually pitch their Lost in your jet black locks of hair, tunes very high, both men and women Heavy with perfume, as is meet, singing almost wholly from the head register, rarely from the lower throat, Ever and ever new and sweet.
and never in my hearing from the Listen, oh breezes! as you move chest regisfer. The singing is often Close by the dwelling of my love, quite artistic from a native standpoint, Softly my words and song repeat, tho the tones are rarely soft and sweet, but shrill, rather than full, round, and Ever and ever new and sweet.
mellow. The highest notes I have The air is a flowing melody, and ever heard taken were by a Hindu when well sung, in the East or in the dancing girl at a religious fair, and her West, accompanied by the sitar or the notes were full and well sustained, the guitar, or mandolin, is not to be de- half-tones and quarter-tones being spised for its Oriental origin.
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
India,* Burma,t Oeylon,t IDnduism,§ Woman's Work for Woman. 'If BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
FAMINE AND PLAGUE IN INDIA. the Christians at home can not afford to support these laborers I " All eyes, and many hearts have been turned toward India by the horror of the India comprises a territory equal to the spectacle presented by hundreds dying whole of Europe, Russia excepted, or daily from famine and pestilence. And about half the era of the United States. yet, what but this has been going on The inhabitants, including Hindus, for thousands of years, and but a hand- Moslems, Parsees, and Christians, numful of Christian people have heard and ber nearly 300,000,000 ; joining hands, heeded their cry. Two thousand die they would stretch three times round daily, inIndia, stricken with the deadly the globe, and are equal in number to plague of sin, which kills the soul as the letters of seventy of our English well as the body, and famishing for Bibles. Christians number about a want of the Bread of Life, which alone million, or the number of letters in the can bring satisfaction and length of single Book of Isaiah. The masses of days. Forty millions lie down hungry people are poor and degraded. The for want of material food every night, average wage of a laborer is not over but two hundred and eighty millions are seven cents a day, and they are impoverhungering for the Heavenly Manna, and isht still more by the demands of their thirsting for the Water of Life. We religious customs and leaders. Twenty have bread enough and to spare, while million widows and forty million zethey perish wi~h hunger, and only a nana prisoners live in India. Few men, handful of weakly.supported mission- and almost no women, are educated. aries are there to distribute to their ne- Only one man in 42 can read and write, cessity; and still we hear the cry" Re- and only one woman in 858. All the trench, close up the schools, send back hospitals and dispensaries do not touch to their heathen homes the Hindu chil- five per cent. of the people, and there is dren, decrease the number of mission- only one physician to three million inaries, and cut down their means of habitants. Their religious system prowork and livelihood-because, forsooth, fessedly teaches salvation by good works, but practically it is damnation • See also pp. 44, 45 (JanUllryl; 143 (Febru- by evil works. They sacrifice to devils, ary); 212 (March); 267, 278, 282, 286, 294 (present. not to God, and sacrifice, too, after the issue). NewBooks: "In the Tiger Jungle," manner of devils. Their gods are Jacob Chamberlain; "Life and Work in monsters of iniquity; their priests teach- India," Robert Stewart; "In India," Wm. ers of licentiousness, and their temples Marchant; "Daily Life in Bengal," Z. F, hot-beds of vice. Many portions of Grlftin. their sacred books are so vile as to be absolutely untranslatable, and their Recent Articles: "The Indian Famine." sacred images and pictures put to shame Miuiona,ry Herald (Jan.); "The Plague in the worst relics of Pompeii and Rome. Indla," Nineteenth Oentury (Feb.) "The devils worshipt by the peo- t See also pp. 46 (JanUllry); 252 (present ple in their heathen state, unlike the indolent deities of Brahminical mytho- *Issue). logy, are supposed to be ever ' g~ing to See p. 256 (present issue). and fro in the earth, and wandermg up I See p. 248, 260 (present issue). and down in it,' seeking for opporturu- Recent Articles: "Reformed Hinduism," ties of inflicting evil. In every under- Homiletic Review (January). taking, in all the changes of life, and "[ See p. 278, 280 (present issue). . New Books: "Women in Missions," E. M. Wherry; "Heroines of the Mission Field," in every season and place, the anger of for this and other crimes. Guilty devils is believed to be impending. castes have been watched and reasoned Every bodily ailment which does not with and punisht, but with little avail. immediately yield to medicine is sup- A change of marriage customs and of posed to be a possession of the devil. caste laws as to intermarriage will alone The fever produced by the bite of a rat effectually prevent female infanticide in is found difficult to cure, and the native the highest castes of Hindus. The doctor tells the names of the five devils Hindus must themselves be the effectthat resist the force of his art. An in- ual reformers. fant cries all night, and a devil is said to be in it. An ill-built house falls Already the influence of Christianity down, and the devil receives the blame. Bullocks take fright at night, and a is being strongly felt. Multitudes are devil is said to have scared them. These instances, which are only a specimen of thronging to God and millions are what constantly occurs, will serve to show how the people are all their life seeking eagerly for escape from the subject to the bondage of superstitious fear. In one hamlet containing only penalty and powers of the sin of which nine houses, thirteen devils are wor- they are fully conscious, and yet they shipt." know of no better way than by fasting, Among other evils which cry out for penance, and bodily torture. What are reform in India are the two great vices -opium traffic and child marriage. Christians in America and England The first evil fostered by a Christian nation, and forced upon a heathen doing to teach them the only Way of nation, is now girdling the world with a band of sorrow. The British govern- Life and Peace? ment provides the land, lends the money to the cultivator, receives and stores In India there is one ordained mis· the whole amount, auctions it off at periodical sales, and puts the profits in sionary for every 300,000 inhabitants; its own treasury. The cultivation of the poppy is so profitable that not suffi- in America there are 500 to the sallle cient cereals are planted to supply food when drought or flood damage the number. But in spite of the paucity of crops. The opium traffic is therefore very largely responsible for the present men and means to carryon this great and awful state of famine in India. growing work, much has been accom- There is no bright side to the picture of the child marriage. The child is plisht. There are now about 300,000 named when about twelve days old, and after the ceremony comes the be- Protestant Christian communicants, trothal. If a child is not betrotht before she is eight, the family is con- and over 1,000,000 adherents. The sidered disgraced. A husband's legal right begins at the time of betrothal, number is increasing daily, but, besides and should he die a few hours after, she is one of the child widows, and this, numerous reforms have been insti· _ belongs to the husband's family. She is a slave, without hope of freedom or tuted, education has been advanced, protection from cruelty. Imagine a child of ten married to a man of sixty and that masterly device of satan to or seventy, whose very presence is loathsome to herI This husband may prevent the spread of Christianity-the be a madman, a leper, or an idiot. caste system-shows signs of decay.
Whenever he chooses to claim the There is a tide in the affairs of India, child-wife there is no eye to pity or law to protect. Is there any form of slavery and the indications are that now is the on the earth equal to it? time to take it at its flood. Either Infanticide is one of the unnatural crimes sanctioned by the Hindu social Christianity or infidelity seems bound system, and against which the British government lias ineffectually waged to win the day. Satan and his emmiscontinual war. The caste and marriage saries never sleep, but Christians often customs of the Hindus are responsible do. Floods of infidel literature are pouring in on the land. The so-called Reformed Sects of Hinduism teach nothing higher than ethical culture- not always ethical,-agnosticism, or in- fidelity. The trumpets of the Lord have been blown seven times around these walls of heathenism-they are tot· tering-if the hosts of the Lord are not there to possess the land, the hosts of satan will be. What an awakening there would be if Christians were only as susceptible to the crying, spiritual needs of their fellow men as they are to their appeals for physical relief.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. pened to have just got control of some llew method of wholesale murder, brave The most colossal event deserving a armies might be annihilated before a foe chronicle is the signing of the treaty pro- not only smaller in numerical force, but viding for general arbitration between mean and contemptible. And about the' United States and Great Britain, the only advantage we can see in much The two men most closely connected of the modern inventions in the way of with this triumph of diplomacy are their annihilating fatality is that they Secretary of State, Olney, and British are making war too perilous for nations Ambassador, Sir Julian Pauncefote. to undertake it. The further consideration of this sub- ject we naturally postpone until it is A new method of arousing and culti- ratified with or without amendments, vating missionary enthusiasm has been by the 'Congress of the United States. undertaken by Rev. Wm. H. Waggoner, But, in advance, we candidly and con- a recent graduate of Yale. Since Jan. 1, fidently put on record our judgment 1896, he has been lecturing on missions. that no event of the century will, While in Yale he studied carefully this if it shall thus emerge from the pre- great world-wide theme, with the help sent controversy concerning its for- of that splendid library of 3,000 vol- 'mal acceptance, with the cordial and umes, which Dr. Geo. E. Day is col- unanimous action of the ratifying lecting on the subject of missions. Mr. bodies, stand out more conspicuously Waggoner is a map-maker, and uses his as a sign' of the ethical and religious art in getting access by eyegate as well advance of the race. No one can esti- as eargate. One of his maps is of mate the possible blessings and benefits India, and covers a surface of 144 of such a compact of peace between the square feet, and is in fifteen colors, two leading Protestant nations of the showing the work of 65 societies in world. Such a step is a stride toward uni- seven departments. The map of China versal peace, and its effect on missions is in 25 colors, and shows the work of may be incalculable. We can not but 2,000 foreign missionaries, The map think that the United States Senate will of the world is 12 feet by 20, and is in not disappoint the expectations of the 15 colors. It shows population, relig- Christian public by failing to give such ious condition, and the location of a treaty its solemn sanction. And when 11,000 missionary workers, and the this is done, it will be next to impossible number of native converts, etc. We for other nations to stand outside of the can safely commend this brother-per- embrace of a compact so eminently wise sonally known to us-to the confidence and philanthropic. War is, in fact, of the churches. He is an enthusiast becoming well-nigh impracticable, if on the great theme of world-wide mis- not impossible, by the very destructive- sions. He may be addrest at Eureka, ness of the new machinery made avail- Ill. able. It is no longer a question of numbers, wealth, valor, or endurance, Others, besides the editor of this as to what party shall win in martial REVIEW, seem to regard the present strife; but a matter of the possession of crisis in missions as quite alarming. A the latest, most effective, and most de- paper lies before us on the "Waterloo structive weapons. To·day, if the fore- in mission work," in which the :Misses most people of the world-foremost Leitch, of Ceylon, plead for the marshal- from every moral and intellectual point ling of every available force into the of view-were to engage with a power field. These earnest workers urge that otherwise insignificant, but which hap- each missionary write to dearest per- Bonal friends at home, moving them to condition of the Hindus. He has occuaccept some definite act or sacrifice, pied a room 14 by 8 feet, with a veranda whereby, a~ least, one hundred others on which his cooking was done. In may be led to feel new interest and food and dress he also sought to get as pledge new gifts. For example, sup- near the people as possible. He meant pose that 500 missionaries of the Amer- the self-abasement to be a means to the ican Board should thus, out of their end of the more successful winning of total groups of home friends, enlist one- the people to Christ. He tried the extenth of them in a new and vigorous periment in three different places, fairly effort in favor of missions, it would be and fully. He now abandons it, assertpractically increasing the number of ing that the ordinary way of missionary active cooperators and givers, and so living is far more successful in winning not only lift present financial burdens, men to Christ. At present many who but prove a permanent increase of both are willing that the missionaries should intelligent interest and self-sacrificing make sacrifices rather than themselves, gifts. The Misses Leitch also press tlle are demanding that they live as the writing of a quarterly letter home, to natives do. Over and over again has keep the home clientele in touch with this been attempted, and owing to the the work, and advocate larger use of inability of Westerners to live in Orienthe printed page Another suggestion tal style, health has given way, or it made is the division of the field, sothat has resulted, as with Mr. Forman, in a each section may be linkt with a group downright failure to achieve the end of of contributors, thus assurin~ with that missions. field a special bond of intellIgent sympathy. The paper is too long for insertion here, but it contains so many practical suggestions that it will undoubtedly be put into a permanent and widely distributed form.
A very manly and cordial letter from M. Pobiedonoszefl' on the Jewish a minister in the South repels the inti- Question. mation that the "caste and race spirit " in the South was adequately exprest by In the Neue Freie Presse, Herr Friedthe "Sheats law," referred to in a recent editorial article. He claims that rich Schiltz publishes an account of ail the feeling generally prevailing toward the colored r~ce is far more generous interview he had with the famous Presand magnanimous and forbearing than Bome have· conceded; and deprecates ident of the Holy Synod in Russia. any intimation to the contrary as calculated to fan the fires of sectional feeling. During the interview, lL Pobiedonos- Weare glad to have so encouraging an estimate of the prevailing sentiment of zeff made the following remarks rethe South tuward the once enslaved blacks and pray for its continuance and specting the Jewish Question :- increase. "When the Jewish Question came to Rev. S. :rtf. Zwemer, of the Arabian the fore among us, I received letters Mission, writes from the Persian gulf, from all parts of the world-from Ger- Island of Bahrein, that the first printed many, France, England, America, and Arabic tract on Arabian soil has been even Australia. l'Iy correspondents issued from their own little hand press, threatened and insulted me. One man, the pioneer Christian press of the pen- giving his name and address, wrote that insula. I should be killed if I did not put a stop to my lust for persecution. I de- The Rev. J. N. Forman, of. the Amer- clare to you now I am not responsible ican Presbyterian Mission in India, has for what has taken place against the been trying to live down to the social Jews in Russia. I have friends among the Jews, and there are many among them who know me intimately, and who are aware of what I tell you. It does not enter my mind to persecute the followers of any religion. What religi- ous and truly believing man could do this? The Jewish Question in Russia is one of the most complicated in the world. It has no religious, but a social and political character. We have taken over the Jewish Question from the Poles as a bad inheritance, as a species of inventory. The Poles not being in of Rev. A. W. Halsey, of the Spring a position to create a civic body, allowed Street Presbyterian Church, New York, the Jews to take their place, but the and Rev. Halsey B. Stevenson, of Wol- aristocracy and the Jews exercised "an cott, N. Y., spoke upon the "Problem unfavorable influence, with tile result of the Country Church." Rev. John that a type of Jews arose which can not R. Davies, D D., of the Fourth Avenue be compared with the Jews in other Presbyterian Church, New York, spoke progressive lands. This led to regret- on "The Biblical Basis of Foreign Mis- able abuses in the country, and in the sions." And the last address, by Rev. towns, to the participation of Jewish George B. Stewart, D.D., of Market students in most disgraceful revolution- Square Presbyterian Church, of Harrisary movements. 1'he State was com- burg, Pa., was on "The Need of Men pelled to take action. What it wisht to in the Home Field." do, namely, to ensure the observance of the law-was similar to that which was During the conference opportunity put into force in free America against was given for questions and discussion, the Chinese. No more. Indeed, still and thus many interesting and importless. A war against a race was far from ant matters were brought out into our wishes. The most respectable and clearer light. The aim of the confer- ence was to touch upon as many as posthe most cultured Jews do well among sible of the great problems in the us, and will always prosper. When the world's evangelization, all of which measures already referred to were taken must be of vital interest to those preagainst the Jews, the late Baron Hirsch paring for the ministry. The results wrote to me: 'I offer Russia fifty mil- were so abundantly satisfactory t.hat it lions for the construction of railways if is hoped similar conferences will be it will abandon its plan for the persecu- held elsewhere. tion of the Jews.' I referred him to the Government, and laid before him Perhaps the Lord will use the followmy idea of the question. I could not have shaken him off, for he continued ing letters to stir up some of his servants the correspondence for a considerable time. One day he declared that he to take up this work. A student in the wisht to give a million for a philanthropic object. I advised him to place University of Maryland addrest a letter that amount at the disposal of the Holy Synod, so that this body might establish to the Foreign Missionary Board of his own church, in behalf of a people in whom he had become much intereeted, schools with the money. This he did. and received the enclosed reply from You see Hirsch was a Jew, who in the one of the secretaries, !ltating that the course of time learnt to know me straitened financial condition of their better, and he certainly did not share exchequer precludes the possibility of the universal prejudice against me in their taking up any new work; and he which there are embodied so many lies now desires to know if there is not and calumnies, so many conscious and some other missionary society with unconscious errors."
A missionary conference was held which he may communicate, with the January 27, 28, by the students of the Theological Seminary at Auburn, N.Y. prospect of succeeding in having some The attendance was large, including many alumni and visiting pastors and one sent to supply this destitution. The friends from the vicinity; and the spirit of thoughtful interest, rising often to circumstances are set forth in the folenthusiasm, will long influence the life lowing personal letter, received by the of the seminary. The keynote was sounded in the Editor: opening address by Dr. Wilton 11erle "Being deeply interested in mission Smith, of New York, who spoke on work in the neglected continent-a field in which I hope some day to labor, I "A Surrendered Life." Rev. William wrote to Dr. Horace M. Lane, at Sao R. Taylor, D.D., of the Brick Church, Paulo, Brazil, last November, and in Rochester, followed upon the "Biblical his reply Dr. Lane mentions that on the Conception of the Christian Church," very day on which he received my letand Rev. C. S. Richardson, D.D" of ter he had been visited by an Indian the First Presbyterian Church, Little chief from the tribe of the Cherentes, who had come to ask for missionaries, Falls, N. Y.,spokeupon "TheMission- teachers, and agricultural implements. ary Pastor." Dr. Lane exprest a wish that I might see my way clear to come and labor .. City Evangelization" was the theme among these people. This I can no~ do, as I have three more years of study America on his heart, and who would (I am attending the University of Mary- go if he were sent. I heard him speak land, Medical Department) before I can once or twice very effectively at misgraduate; but my interest being aroused, sionary meetings, and Rev. Addison Smith, D.D., of the Aisquith Street I lookt up the map and found that this Presbyterian Church, tells me that he Indian chief, in order to get to Sao frequently fills the pulpits of various Paulo, must have traveled a little over churches, and is well spoken of every- one thousand miles, and I rightly con- where. strued that as an evidence of intense earnestness on the part of these people. "My pwn acquaintance with the In order to learn something about their young doctor is but slight, but I am tribal relationship, la.ngua~e, etc., I deeply imprest with the needs of this consulted the Johns Hopkms Univer- people, and hope that you may be able to lIity Library, and finally succeeded in suggest a way by which someone might finding some interesting facts about the be sent to them. people in a report by a British engineer, named Wells, found in the records of " , Shall we who know the blessed truth the Royal Geographical Society for 1876 To them the Bread of Life deny? (Vol. 46). Mr. Wells had a Cherentes And knowing of their piteous state, Indian as a guide, and states that in Still turn a deaf ear to their cry?' 1848 an Italian Jesuit (Fre Rafael) went to live among these people, and "Yours very truly, GEO. R. WITTE, succeeded in getting them to settle down 611 Aisquith Street, Baltimore." at a place now known as Pedro Affon- 80, on the Tocatius River, where they The case being made known to the formed a fiourishing settlement. The Portuguese, hearing of this village, Foreign MiSSionary Board by Mr. Witte, made a descent on them, killed as many as they could, enslaved those who were the following answer was received: unable to fiee, and took possession of the cultivated lands, houses, and cattle. "My Dear Mr. Witte:-Correspond- The Indians, enraged Ilt this conduct of ence with candidates belongs to my the so-called Christian people, mur· department. This is really scarcely dered their priest, and went back into a question of a candidate, but rather their woods and a savage state. the opening of a new mission. I thank you for the pains you have taken to " So far Wells' report, which is all I ascertain the facts, and place them so have been able to find about the people. clearly before us. Were our Board in position to enter new territory, or to "Now, nearly fifty years after, these enlarge its present mission in Brazil, people once more turn towards the light, my judgment is that the claims of the and having found Catholicism wanting, people to whom you refer ought to be send their chief 1,000 miles to a Pro- most carefully considered. As this is testant missionary center. This may not the case, however, I regret to say seem incredible, but in my researches that it will be impossible for the Board about the Indian nations in South to act on your suggestion and carry the America I have found a similar in- Bread of Life to those poor, perishing stance,recorded by no less eminent a per- multitudes. Weare in great straits sonage than the oft'mentioned Sir Robert financially, being unable to carry the Schomburgh (of Venezuelan boundary work in hand because of the great fallfame) who cites an instance of his com· ing off in our receipts. Weare aping to an Indian settlement, where they proaching the close of the present fiscal had erected a school house and dwell- year with the prospect of a very heavy ing for a missionary, in anticipation, debt, which must mean serious curtailand on a rather vague promise that the ment of present work during the next fiscal year: While s:ympathizing with London Missionary Society would send you deeply in your mterest in the in- viting field in Brazil, and regretting them a teacher. that I can not write you more encoura- " Surely God then workt among those gingly, I am, yours sincerely, savages of the primeval forests, as He "JOHN GILLESPIE."
evidently does now among the Che· No one who knows this deToted scc· rentes. retary will doubt the pangs it cost him "Can WE afford to let their request go to write such a letter. And this is but unheeded? As already stated, I am personally not yet able to respond to one example of the critical state of the the call, but I know of a very spiritualminded young Scotch-Presbyterian at foreign missionary work, when such another Baltimore college, who will an opening can not be entered simply graduate next April, and who has South for lack of funds; and when not only of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, a promising field must be left uncared forcibly interpreted the addresses of the for, but from the same lack of funds two last-named speakers. the present work, already in operation, must be curtailed and narrowed down. On Friday morning the Rev. P. R. How must God look upon the position Zavaleta, Presbyterian, presiding, the of His church in these days, stauding "Character of Publications Needed" before a world-wide field, and actually was discust by the Rev. Arcadio surrendering vantage ground already Morales. The chief address of the secured because His people are not suf- morning was by John W. Butler, D.D., ficiently self-sacrificing and loyal to Him to occupy the openings He sets on "Denominational Comity." * before them. To our minds the present crisis is the most alarming that the cen- This paper, which met with general tury has shown. Who will venture to assent, was one of great power, and undertake this new work in the Master's specially adapted to the need of the name? hour. Another paper, on the same subject, by the Rev. Luis G. Prieto, of In the Independent of Feb. 18, is a the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, record of the second general assembly followed; and an animated discussion, of Evangelical workers in !Iexico, was continuing an hour and a half, ensued. held in Trinity M. E. Church, Mexico Two of the most able speeches were City, Jan. 27-31, 1897; 55 missionaries made by the Rev. Pablo Rodriguez, and 150 native workers being present Baptist, and the Rev. Mr. Sein, Friend. and representing 12 missionary societies This eloquent speaker is a grand-nephew and 5 Bible colporteurs. of the Bishop of San Luis Potosi, and, altho a Quaker, is one of the best and Dr_ S. L. Baldwin conveyed the salu- happiest singers in the assembly. tations of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, congratu- There can be no question as to the lating the Assembly that such a gather- earnestness of these workers on this subing was possible in a building which ject. They evidently do not mean to had been occupied by the friars of the get into each others way, but do intend Roman Catholic Church, and that it to recognize each other as workers for was in the hearts of evangelical workers the one Master, and so to plan as to of so many denominations to come to- secure the greatest possible progress for gether, and unitedly plan for the pro- the common cause. gress of Christ's kingdom. He emphasized self-support, and adduced A resolution was adopted unaniexamples from the work in China to mously, on the recommendation of a encourage the workers in this field. committee, consisting of a Congrega- tionalist, a Presbyterian, and a Baptist, Bishop Fitzgerald delivered an able that the missions on the field and the address, expressing his intense satisfac- Boards in the United States be urged tion with this harmonious assembly of to adopt the suggestions contained in Christian workers, declaring his belief Dr. Butler's paper.t in denominationalism, and saying that if he could make this whole body The excellent article on " Taking Methodists by turning his hand, he Strongholds," which appeared in our would not turn it. True unity was March number, should, of course, have best exemplified, in his view, by just been credited to Rev. H. A. Schauffer, such a gathering as this, in which the Superintendent of the work for Slavonic different divisions of the army of Christ popUlations under the Congregational come together for consultation and Home Missionary Society. This was active cooperation. Dr. J. W. Butler, properly accredited in the table of con- tents, but at the head of the article credit was given to Dr. A. F. Schauffer.
*We print this in our next Issue.
t We print in this issse also a paper read on Self-support. See page 286. We have before referred to "My The necrology of the past few months Life and Times." by Cyrus Hamlin. pUblisht by the Congregational Sunday- has important additions. school and Publishing House, Boston and Chicago. We intend in due time Dr. Wm. Kincaid, Secretary of the to give it ample space in these columns. Home Missions (Cong.), died February It bristles with interest. Dr. Hamlin 12th. He was English by birth, but was born in 1811, and went to Constan- American by training, and after a numtinople in 1839. Consequently his life- ber of well-filled pastorates, was Secretime synchronizes with almost the en- taryof the A. B. C. F. M., and aftertire period of organized missions, and ward held the position of Secretary of his sojourn abroad began when the the Home Work. In all positions he world-field was just opening to the acquitted himself as one of God's noblemessenger of the cross. It is not too men. much to say that Dr. Hamlin has been one of the most conspicuous of the Dr. John N. Murdock was well workmen, not only in the Turkish known as Secretary of the A B. M. Empire, but in the world-field. He U., and died the same month at Clifton who reads this book will find in it a Springs. He was 7'7 years old, and for partial history of the whole times in about 30 years was secretarial head of which this man of such positive per- the Baptist Union's foreign work. He sonality and striking peculiarity has was a man of a judicial turn of mind, figured. It is a book of fascinating singularly wise, and prudent. He "reinterest and of foremost importance signed his office six years ago on ac- count of advancing years. He had too, as well. Scotch blood in his veins, and was Methodist by training. He studied law, E. Marlborough & Co., 51 Old Bail- but soon after entering the bar, exey. E. C., London, publish the little changed it for the pUlpit. He became book " Victory "-Reminiscences of a baptist in 1842, and after pastorates Monan M. Apperson (Phillips) of the in Waterville and Albion, N. Y., and Hartford, Conn.. and Boston, Mass., Church of England Zenana Society, in 1863 became Foreign Secretary. His who sailed for China Oct. 16, 1889, and positions on vext and difficult questions, died Nov. 17, 1894, but whose five tho not always approved at the time, years in that field left a lasting impres- commonly found acceptance after the sion on all who knew her. This memoir heat of debate or the crisis of affairs is a sweet, refreshing book-a sort of was past. He was very tenacious of glass revealing her beautiful, medita- his opinions, but calm and deliberate in tive, and holy habits of mind. Aside forming them. Dr. A. J Gordon, long from its miSSionary interest, it is worth associated with him, thought him a its price as a book of suggestions on man of uncommon sagacity and capaholy living. It is seldom one gets hold city for his office, the round peg in the of any volume so full of original, bright round hole. We hope that a fuller flashes of spiritual knowledge and com- memorial of him may appear in these munion with the Lord. We add one pages hereafter. example (p. 149): "A fourth revelation of God in the Bible. A Spirit (John A.cross the sea, the leading Welsh iv 24). Light (1 John i. 5). Love (1 preacher, Dr. Evan Herber Evans, has John iv. 8), and a consuming FIRE lately died. Born in 1836, he was only (Heb. xii. 29). And we dwell with 61 years old. Before he was fairly everlasting burnings (Isa. xxxiii. 14, through with preparatory studies, he 15). If we let the fire consume, that was called to the Tabernacle, Morriston, fire can and will consume. Fire ie the one of the largest fields in Wales. He only means of getting rid of anything, was called to Caruarvonshire in 1865, and here we glory in it, and pitch into and for 28 years was pastor of ~alem of the fire our rubbish, and it is no more Church. Carnarvon; then Principal of seen, but wherever else we put it, it is N. Wales College. Bangor. At the sure to turn up again at the wrong great Cymanfa gatherings, he preacht time. So we can cast the sin, habits, or to the gathered thousands with thrilling encumbrances into the FIRE. and halle- effect. His last great speech in London lujah! 'He shall thoroughly purge.' was at the anniversary of the Colonial burn with unquenchable fire (Matt. iii. J't'lissionary Society. He was in all 12) all thus committed." The short things a mighty man. His large frame narrative delineates a beautiful char- was the fitting tabernacle of a great acter, and shows how courageous a true mind and a great heart. His name wall child of God is among even persecuting a synonym for missionary zeal, and all good teaching and work. and riotous Chinese mobs.
G:mnRAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign leader of men. He was essentially a Periodicals. devout man, whose humility was un- questioned and recognized by all. His BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, self-effacement was such that little was known of him beyond the circle· in MASS. which he moved. The Indian Specta- tor, a non-Christian paper, says of INDIA. him: -It is remarkt in the Harvest Field " Mr. Goreh was very little talkt of that while the lower castes are more during the past decade; nor did he easily won than the higher, they, on care that his good works should be the other hand, " revert to type" known to man. Brahman or Christian, more easily, while in the higher castes he seems to have realized the value of these apostacies are largely barred by self-surrender at a time when the asser- the severe penalties of breaking caste, tion and aggrandizement of self so and the greater difficulty of reinstate- largely occupy the world."-Harvest ment. FWld.
-The learned clergyman, Nehemiah -Rev. Dr. Hooper, in the O. M. In· Wilakantha Sastri Goreh, has lately telligencer, speaking of the late Rev. died, aged 70. He was a Brahman of Nehemiah Goreh, who was formerly the Brahmans, and deeply learned in connected with the C. M. S., but after- the Vedantic philosophy. Having, wards joined an A.nglican Brotherhood, Inllny years ago, begun to study the remarks: "I need not dwell on that Bible, with a view of refuting it, he feature in our departed brother's char- found himself '" apprehended of J eaus acter which endeared him most, and for Christ," and profest his faith at a time which he was most celebrated among . when this, for a Brahman, meant much his Indian fellow-Christians throughout more o! dishonor and loss than it does (at least) North and West India, name- now, tho even yet it is by no means easy. ly, his lwly, 8elf-denYing pie.!y. He was Having thereupon been appointed as essentially a Christian bhakta. What- companion to the Maharajah of Lahore, ever unworthy suspicions and sad re- who was then a Christian, Wilakantha criminations our native brethren may Sastri accompanied him to England, have, from time to time, indulged in and was presented to the Queen and her towards each other, Nehemiah was husband. On his return, in 1864, being never, I believe, the object of any of then over forty, he was ordained by the them. By common cons~nthe stood so Bishop of Calcutta. He subsequently high above the rest of them that, as if joined the Cowley Fathers, and workt he were a visitant from some celestial in various cities. At all these places sphere, no one ever dreamed of attack- his life and work have borne continual ing, or insinuating anything against testimony of his unswerving loyalty to him. Whether he were High or Low his Master. At one time it. was antici- Church, what his particular views were pated that Nehemiah Goreh would on particular points-all this counted have been a leader in the Christian for nothing with his Christian brethren Church in India, but his bent of of his own kith and kin. They saw thought did not qualify him to be a
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
plainly enough CHRIST was in him, and recognized, even here in India, as the with that they were content." one perfect Man. The educated gener- ally claim that they have no contention -The educated young Hindus of with Christ, but only with Christian- Madras have been passing resolutions ity as a system of religion, and with against the lUxury and idleness of the professing Christians. The following, religious houses of that Presidency. from a professedly orthodox paper, They seem to be very much like the would not· have been allowed a few wealthy Benedictine abbeys of the de- years ago in any organ conducted by clining Middle Ages. Their resources Hindus. It provokt but little discusare noticed by the Hindu as enormous, sion, and that only because Christians but this journal thinks they greatly need took notice of it, c.:.i welcomed the diversion into some more beneficent statement:- channel. This complaint is akin to the still more grievous complaints of misap· '" As a Hindu and a Brahman, who propriated temple-funds in South India. is deeply imprest with the extraor- dinary spiritual progress made by the -Sir Charles Elliott, the retiring ancient Hindus and the almost super- Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, has natural wisdom and foresight of our received an address from the mission- Rishis, I would pay my humble tribute aries, testifying to the unequivocally to the helpful, simple, and deeply touch- Christian attitude which he has always ing nature of the loving and ever humble assumed towards Christian interests in Jesus, beautifully illustrated in his India, in which, they signify, he has crucified life. His short existence on been amply sustained by Lady Elliott. the earth looks like a condenst epitome of universal love, purity, and sacrifice. -The report of the American Mara- To us, unbigoted and pious Hindu, the thi Mission (A. B. C. F. M.) gives some picture of Jesus on the cross-his droopdeeply interesting glimpses into the ing head, His parcht lips, His gaping workings of the Gospel in India. Mr. wounds, His up-lifted eyes, His severe E. S. Humewrites: "Forthreemonths expression of complete resignation, for· in the monsoon, during the absence of giveness, and love-presents the sub- Mr. Abbott, the editing of our mission limest and most thrilling object lesson paper, the Dnyananaya, fell to me. At ever offered to sinful and suffering that time I took pains to read the native humanity.''' papers, in order to understand as well as possible the present attitude of the -Mr. Harding says: "I was struck Hindus towards Christianity. I was by the confession of an intelligent Hindu pleased to note the improved tone of who came, with others, one day to our these papers, and the general inter- tent for conversation. I was speaking est in religious matters which the edu- of the great God, whose power and cated men of this country are taking. wisdom and goodness were seen in all They are feeling the influence of our His works about us, and the folly of aggressive and foreign religion on all worshiping the lifeless idols, which sides. The majority still prefers to de- their own hands had made, and he respise Christianity. At the same time plied with much solemnity: 'Sir, we they find it necessary to frequently know these things as well as you do. prove its weaknesses. Each case of But what can we do? Our families are baptism of a prominent person leads to against us, village life is against us, and much discussion, and warnings against our hands are tied I ' " parents allowing their children to fall uJ,lder the influence of the missionaries -Mr. E. Fairbank says: "While at are found in all the papers. Jesus Mahableswar some conversations there Christ is more and more comi~g to be were full of interest to me. One, especially, I should like to report. I
GENEl!.AL mSSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
askt a Brahman, who seemed to be the heathen. And how significant the fact most sincere Hindu I had ever seen, that the heathen Hindus themselves are 'Do you have any real satisfaction in making a new translation of the Bible your religion, i. e., any true peace that with Hindu notes appended, and St. possesses your life ? ' The frankness of Matthew is already publisht 1"-0. M. his reply surprised me. He said: 'No, S. Letter". there is never any such a thing as peace in our religion. I think,' he said, 'that AFRICA. your religion has this excellence above ours that you do have peace, and it's a Mr. H. DIETERLEN, of the Basuto wonderful thing, but we have not got Mission, intimates in the Journal des it.' 'But,' I replied, 'the fact that there Missions, that one of his brethren has is no peace in your religion, and that counted somewhat too low the part there is in Christianity, throws doubt on which conscience, and. somewhat too your religion, does it not? Why don't high the part which dreams have in you become a Christian?' , No,' he Basuto conversions. Says he: "It is answered, 'I long for that peace, but undoubtedly very often dreams which how can I get it? I was born in my are the occasion of these conversions j religion. My religion is for me. You but these dreams, themselves. are were born in your religion. Your reli· neither more nor less than the offspring gion is for you. My ancestors gave me of a conscience troubled by the sense this religion,and how can I change?' of sin. They turn in general on these He was a well educated Brahman." subjects: the view of the sins which one has committed; the gate of heaven -The rapid increase of the Christian shut against man on account of his population of South India, remarks the guilt; the reproaches addrest by God IJanslc Mi8sions B&ad, has compelled a to the impenitent or unforgiven sinner; somewhat forced increase in the number the last judgment, and the condemnaof native pastors. From 50, in 1855, it tion of the wicked. This is enough to has risen to 900 in 1895. The native indicate that a certain feeling of sin has pastors largely feel as if their equality preceded and engendered these dreams, of office was not cordially recognized and is the cause of the conversion of by the missionaries. Others think that which the dream is but the accidental this feeling is by no means so strong as occasion. In fact, without the sense of is sometimes represented. With the sin is there any possibility of a real con· gradual growth of the native church in version, of repentance, of the desire of character, intelligence, and means, these pardon, and of the acceptance of salva.- frictions, of course, will gradually sub· tion by Jesus Christ." side. Danes, Germans, and Americans are less open to such complaints than In mentioning the Trappist establish- Englishmen, whose good qualities, as ment in South Africa, these Trappists none allow more frankly than them- are sometimes described as an "Orde~ selves, are a good deal alloyed with un· of Jesuits." This is impossible. There graciousness of manner. is but one order of Jesuits. There are, indeed, one or two orders, such as the -" Two Brahmans were in a railway Redemptorists, that are greatly infiucarriage, and one of them refused a enced by the Jesuits. But even in this gospel offered by a native preacher. vague sense we do not understand that He 'could not think of buying a Chris· the Trappists can be called "a sort of tian book.' The other exclaimed, 'It's Jesuits." On the other hand, they are a very good book; it's the life of Jesus a reformation, in the direction of rigor, Christ: it is to me as my daily food. of the ancient Benedictine Order. When I miss a day in reading it I count Therefore, they alone (with Bome casual that day as lost.' And that man was a exceptions in other orders), of all the orders founded since 1200, give to the but they are bearable, or surmountable superiors of their houses the ancient in time, or may be mitigated in pasname of Abbot, altho, in their hu· sage. There are those who suffer very mility, we believe that they have no little, and one may hope to fall within mitred abbots. Being, as we under- that category." stand, entirely separate in administration from the Benedictines proper, we Fiendishness, 1. e. active enmity to do not know whether or not they have God, is as yet an exception in mankind. derived from these a tacit opposition to :Most men are carried along by their dethe Jesuits, but they certainly have no sires, of various kinds, without having special connection with the Jesuits. as yet distinctly opposed themselves to God. There are some fearful excep- It appears from what is said in Med- tions, however, such as the Black Mass, ical Mi88ion8 by A. SIMS, M.B., C.M., in Paris, and the Mass of the Red Lamp, that fever on the Kongo, rightly treated, in Geneva, lately described in t.he REis not so much to be dreaded as is com- VIEW. There is a similar direct wormonly supposed. Mr. Sims says: ship of evil, in antagonism to missions, ., Simple intermittent fever is the com- in Kamerun. Guinea, described in the monest on the Kongo, the easiest to Oalwer Monaisbliitter. This consists in treat, and the least harmful in after-ef- the worship of Gin. The worshipers fects. One may have, perhaps, a hun- form an actual church. Candidates are dred in three years and yet do one's obliged to prove that they are of notowork, or fiuish a definite term of ser- riously evil life, and are gin drinkers. vice. No one is exempt from it, and Thereupon they are baptized by immermost new residents have one a month sion. As soon as the neophyte comes on their first residence on the Kongo. out of the water, he receives a glass of It need not in any way be feared, of it- gin, and thenceforward gin is his god. self it is rarely or never fatal, it is dis- He must pledge himself to the drinking agreeable to have, and distresses the of gin, and to a scandalous life. On system, but in a day or two all effects the Sundays they hold meetings, at are gone and work is resumed, some- which they mutually recount their vile times even on day of cure; it must, deeds, and concert new. This associahowever, be carefully treated, in order tion owes its origin on the one hand to to get rid of it immediately, and to the bad example of so many Europeans, avoid its changing its character and and on the other to the circumstance passing into a worse form of fever, and, that some heathens in Edie once took above all, to avoid 8. reduced system part in a Catholic procession, when and shattered health, necessitating a they were afterwards regaled with gin. voyage home. Many have to return These two occasions suggested to some from the tropics merely from neglect- negroes the thought: There are in Euing their fevers, from badly treating rope many and manifold churches; they them, and particularly from bad habits already knew the " Baslers," the" Bapin manner of dressing, sleeping, eating, tists," the" Catholics;" moreover they working, and living. There is not the saw the evil walk of so many Euroshadow of a doubt that with prudence, peans, and therefore said to themselves, knowledge, and the frank acceptance that in Europe there seemed to be a of good advice one may escape much church, whose members, more or less, fever, be encouraged by a fairly pleas- have their belly for their god. Such a· ant first residence in Africa, and look church, they thought, they must have forward to comparative immunity from ill Kamerun also, and accordingly esthis form of fever during a second term. tablisht this diabolical association, to Inconvenience and some suffering are which they give the euphonious name incident and unavoidable on the Kongo, of the" Almeler."
ENGLISH NOTES
English NOWS. tp.e welcome news tbat the Directors have decided to reopen the Kachhwa BY REY. JAMES DOUGLAS, M.A. Miaaion, and to send back Dr. R. J. Ashton as its missionary. This will be THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY. another effort to rouse the people of the district from their indifference. News from the Lower Kongo River.- The work at Mbanza Makuta has suf- China.-The mission at Tienstinis fered lately through the death of the flourishing under the administration of chief of the town. This man, during Dr. G. Smith. "One after another," bis last illness, urged the people not to writes the doctor, "seem to really betolerate the Gospel any longer, declar- lieve in Jesus as their Savior, and to ing that he was bewitcht by one of the make up their mind to follow Him." Christians. Villages under water.-The floods in Accordingly, the people, to a large North China are causing great distress, degree, took fright, and would have no having totally destroyed one of the service in their town. The new chief- finest harvests ever known, and covered tain told the Christians they must either many villages with thick mud up to the give up Christ, or leave the village. eaves of the houses. Many families have campt on the roofs of their dwel- Help came, in answer to prayer, from lings. Where they will find refuge in a quarter where it was not expected. the winter it is impossible to say. Dire The state officer took the matter up, distress reigns thruout the entire Yungand extended protection to the mission, ting-ho district, and the missionary and it is hoped that matters will, before working in this district, Rev. J. Stonelong, be righted. house, will be very glad to receive con- tributions in aid of the poor sufferers. Tidingsfromlndia.-Four girls from the boarding-school at Barisal, have South Sea I8lands.-The Island of lately put on the Lord Jesus Christ in Tauhunu, of the Hervey group, has baptism. One of them only ten years sustained a sad loss in the death of old. Abela, the native teacher. Just before he died, he was heard singing .. Safe in The Annual Bengali Conference, held the arms of Jesue," in his own lanthis year at Kathirn, was more evident- guage. His death is a great loss to the ly filled with the Spirit of God than mission, and his place a hard one to fill. ever has been the case before. The program was made up of prayer- The LoniWn Young Women's Mi88ionmeetings, addresses for Sunday-school art! Band celebrated its first anniversary teachers and workers, Christian fellow- on November 20th, 1896. The meeting ship and revival meetings, and Chris- was markt by enthusiasm throughout. tian Endeavor meetings. All the meetings were well attended, and all who PRESBYTERIAN MISSION IN BWATOW• were present must feel the better for such a season of inspiration. "By means of the work in the hos- pital and otherwise, a public opinion is. .Agra.-The Rev. J. G. Potter has slowly, almost imperceptibly, spreading recently had the pleasure of baptizing among the people that the religion we twelve lepers from the leper asylum, teach is a good and true religion. each giving a confession of faith in Jesus before baptism. Three of the "In one of our congregations, Noi candidates who thus faithfully followed hue ti, a rather serious defection to the their Master had to be conveyed to the Roman Catholics has taken place. One spot, the disease having wrought such or two of the brethren there lookt for ravages, that it was impossible for them a 'backing' from the preacher in a disto walk. pute with a heathen neighbor; a belp which the pastpr very properly refused THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
The Foreign Secretary sends hoine
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
to give. The Roman Catholics are, in mission was born of prayer, nourisht such cases, ready to interfere. Probably by prayer, and still supported, from some six families have joined the Ro- month to month, on:y in answer to man Catholics." earnest prayer."
Dr. Cousland writes concerning the " In some way or other large congregations and small buildings The Lord does provide." in which they assemble. In many places the churches and halls are densely WU1i Ohau: .A prosperOU8 corner of packt, and in two or three towns new the 'lJineyard. – Miss K. B. Stayner has enlarged buildings are being erected. much to encourage her in her work in Many more buildings are needed, for this corner. She writes: "We had nine there are many to hear the glad tidings. baptisms here yesterday, Sept. 14th, five being from Yung.ko·azie, the dis- THE NORTH AFRICAN MISSION. trict for which there was special prayer. Three of the number had only hesrd Since this mission was started in 1881 the Gospel within the last year, and by Mr. George Pearse, it has grown two of these had been opium smokers, and spread through all the States and but were so very clear about the doc- Egypt. It has over eighty workers in trine, and their behavior, by all acthe field, and an income of over £7,000 counts, had been so good since they a year. Several other missions have believed, that we could not but accept also started, and agents and colporteurs them, altho the probation for memberof the Bible Society are actively em- ship is usually longer. ployed. Scriptures have been widely distributed, and some fresh translations " Another of the candidates was an made. Prejudices are, in a measure, giv- old man of seventy-seven, and yet aning way through medical missions and other, an old blind woman, who evinced the general kindness of missionaries, wonderful clearness in her answers. and Moslems have been, in several We thank God for these, and pray that places, soundly converted. Many diffi- they may be much used of Him for His culties are still experienced, but there glory." is an increasing readiness to hear the message of salvation. Over seventy countie,~, south of the Hoang-Ho River, have, as yet, no resi- FREE CHURCH MISSION. dent native or foreign evangelist. An earnest appeal is made for help in this "The largest of F. C. Mission entar- quarter. prlses is that of Madras, to which Dr. William Miller has given 34 years of Great blessing is resting on the work his life. College and school occupy a in Olleh-Kiang. "The number of bapmagnificent range of buildings, forming tisms," says Mr. Rudland, "bids fair three sides of a square. On the fourth to go beyond anything we have yet side, separated by a street, is the board- seen." As many as 365 persons were ing-house for Christian students,and be- baptized during last spring in the T'aihind it, also separated by a street, is the Chau district of Cheh-Kiang, and from boarding-house for Brahmin students. present reports it seems likely that there will be a very large number again in Towards the construction of these autumn. buildings, which form the Christian center of Madras and South India, Dr. Only lately T'ai Chau's first convert :&liller has, himself, contributed no less past away at a ripe age. Mr. Rudland, than £20,000. who misses him sorely, tells that" dur- ing his last illness some of his uncon- Ohina'8 Millions.-The Rev. J. Hud- verted relatives came to condole with son Taylor writes: "The very existence him. This he felt too much for him, of the C. I. M. is a standing testimony, and raising himself up in bed, said to more forcible than words, to God's them: faithfulness in answer to prayer. The " •You came to condole and try and sent, because it has been proved in precomfort me; what have you to give me vious famines they would not touch it, that will comfort me now? The Lord so great would be, their fear of losing Jesus died for me, and I'm now going caste through eating what has been to be for ever with Him. But you are tainted by unholy fingers. left in a wicked world still in your sins, and unless you repent, and believe in -The world is growing smaller. the Lord Jesus, you will die in your With the completion of the Trans Sisins. I have no fear of death; it will berian Railway in 1900, the tour of the only relieve me from pain, and take me world in 30 days will become an accomto eternal happiness.'" Such a testi- plisht fact. The entire fare is calcumony as this they had never seen or lated to be from $250 to $400. Yes, met with, and to some of them he and a recent cable dispatch came from seemed to be wandering, but his sons Burma to the Foreign Secretary of the knew better. Not a doubt seemed to Missionary Union in two hour8. This trouble his last hours. His end was is the quickest service on record bepeace. tween Rangoon and Boston, Less than fifty years ago the quickest communi- THE KINGDOM. cation between missionaries in Burma and their friends in America required -Asia accused Him, Africa bore His four months, &nd often when missioncross, Europe crucified Him, while the aries sailed, it was more than a year Isles of the Sea lookt in awe upon His before news came of their safe arrival. dying agonies.-Rev. J. R. lJavies. Then are our eyes deceiving us when we read that in Kusaie, one of the far- -Count Zinzendorf chose as his mot- off islands of Micronesia, the stations to II That land is henceforth my coun- are connected by telephone '! try which most needs the Gospel." And ever since the Moravian Church, in the -Time was when French was the same spirit, has deliberately chosen the diplomatic language. Now the Chinesemost discouraging fields, the tribes Japanese treaty is in 3 texts, and the whose case was most forlorn and hope- English copy is the official one. less. -In the wars of the present century -It is both interesting and full of alone 30,000,000 of men have been encouragement to notice at how many killed. How small, by comparison, is points the non·Christian religions are in the number of those who fall in the direct opposition to some of the might- ranks of the Great Captain of Salvaiest secular forces at work in the mod- tion, fighting in the noblest of noble ern world. Thus the demand is be- causes 1-Regions Beyond. coming more and more imperative each year that the Moslem pilgrimages to -Did you ever notice how, in that Mecca be prohibited since they so spread wonderful ninety-ninth Psalm, David, contagious diseases and become thus a in the midst of a torrent of praise, menace to Europe. Then in Bombay makes the practical suggestion that they an attempt was made to isolate the bring an offering as they come into His known cases of plague in a hospital, courts? How can we come into His but caste prejudices and the senseless presence, knowing the need of His suspicions of the more ignorant natives world, and withhold what we might prevented this. Still further, in the give 1-Helping Hand. famine districts of India cows are to be had almost for the asking, yet thous- -The Standard has actually heard of ands are starving to death rather than a Chicago Baptist, the head of a great eat this forbidden food. Corn, so mercantile establishment, who began a abundant in this country, can not be month beforehand to plan his business 80 as to be able to attend a conference on systematic beneficence. / or a daughter to Africa, India, China, or Japan. If, in addition, the support of -All things considered, this must be its child can be guaranteed by the considered the most notable benefaction church, it has put itself in the most ever -made. Let other millionaires give vital and helpful relations to foreign good heed. Alfred Nobel, of Stock· mISSIOns. We believe such a connecholm, has willed to the world $10,000,- tion of many individual churches with 000, which vast sum is to be converted individual foreign missionaries would into safe securities and the interest used do much toward imparting concretefor prizes to be annually given to those ness and enthusiasm to the work of who have done most during the yearto discipling the nations.-The Oongregaadvance science or promote the welfare tionalist. of the race, as follows: "One·fifth for the most important discovery in the -It appears that at least in some natural sciences. One-fifth for the cases retrenchment may be a blessing most important discovery or improve- in disguise. For the Baptist Missionary ment in chemistry. One-fifth for the Magazine has this to say: "A number of most important discovery in physiology the missionaries have written, expressor medicine. One-fifth for the most ing their thankfulness that their approexcellent work in literature, and the priations for work have been cut down, remaining fifth part to that person who and that they have been compelled to has labored most effectively for the tell the native Christians that they had uniting of humanity, the disarmament, no funds from America to provide for partial or complete, of standing armies, the support of their churches. There and for the organization and promotion has been brought to light in this most of peace congresses." The prizes are unexpected way a reserve of manliness, to be awarded by the Swedish aca- self-reliance and ability of self-support demies and the Norwegian legislatures, which has surprised the missionaries and are to be given without regard to themselves. In response to appeals to nationality. Every man and woman in provide for that which could not longer the human race may strive for a prize. be supported by American funds, the native Ohristians have in many cases -President Finney tells of a man, a risen nobly to the emergencies of the professing Christian, who on being askt situation. Scores of native churches if he felt that his property and business have voluntarily assumed the supbelonged to God, he being only the port of their pastors and all their manager, replied: "Oh, no, I haven't religious worship, and have developt got so far as that yet." It seemed to unexpected strength in the midst of him almost absurd that such a question the poverty in which most of them should be askt. His thought was that live. The ideal in the establishment of a recognition of the Divine ownership Christianity in any land is self-support – of oneself and one's estate was an ex- and self-reliance; and through the trials perience belonging to a far-advanced which have come upon the Ohristians religious experience to which in the by the financial distress of the Missiondistant future it might or might not be ary Union, this grace of liberality and given him to attain. self-dependence has been developt in many places like shafts of sunlight -What better way of promoting an piercing the heavy clouds of financial interest in foreign missions can be distress." found by an individual church than to contribute one of its members to the -In the annual list of appropriations foreign field? In these days, when so from every mission may be found such many nearer causes side-track the items as these: "Boat-house and boats, foreign missionary movement, there is Ratburee, 120 ticala " (about $43); "Jinnothing so sure to bring it back to its rightful prominence as the gift of a son "kiaM for Bible women's work, Alla- -The Methodists have 51 deaconess habad, 180 rupees" ($54); "Oxen, Main- homes, with nearly 600 deaconesses, of purie, 120 rupees" ($36); "Mule·part whom 100 are trained nurses. During and two horses, Guatemala, 750 pes08" the last four years, over $600,000 have (about $350); "Horses and saddles, been raised for this purpose. These Guerrero, 600 Mexican" (about $360); women serve without salary, and made "Running the Nassau, Africa, $500." over 250, 000 calls, held several thousand – Woman', Workfor Woman. meetings, and cared for over 6,000 sick people. WOMAN'S WORK. -The Methodist Woman'liI Foreign -A remarkable missionary collector, Missionary Society raised $285,770 last Mrs. Mary Amos, died recently in Eng- year. Among the women sustained are land. Of her the London Methodist Re- 22 medical missionaries, who in 14 hos- C()rdi!'1' says: "For nearly forty years pitals and dispensaries ministered to she devoted herself to this wor1,>:, with more than 60,000 of their sex. the result that no less a sum than .£10,- 000 reacht the Wesleyan Missionary -The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society's exchequer. It was made up Society of the Methodist Episcopal very largely of small sums; in fact, it Church, South, received last year $121,- is said that half-a-crown was about the 157. Appropriations were made at the height of her ambition, and she never last annual meeting of $37,960 for refused a copper, were it only a half- China, $14,225 for Brazil, $37,965 for penny. She solicited aid from anyone, Mexico, and $6,150 for the Indian Terirrespective of creed or position, if she ritory. Including the contingent and considered they were able to give a con- other miscellaneous appropriations, the tribution, either large or small. She total amonnt was $93,300. became quite a character in the villages and towns of the North, regularly mak- -Mary Pierson Eddy, who is in Syria ing her appearance for the gifts, and as an American: Presbyterian missionnot only collected from, but dieted ary, has written to friends denying that with. the numerous kind friends whose the Sultan has forbidden women physiinterest she aroused, and whose good cians to attend his subjects. Miss Eddy will she secured in her extensive field is a physician, and says that since she of labor." received from the Imperial Council of Medicine in Constantinople a diploma -Accounts of the present work of authorizing her to practise in all parts Miss Jessie Ackerman, read like a stray of the Turkish Empire she has met no leaf from the history of the Woman's interference. She has 2 Syrian assist- Crusade. Accepting the assistant pas- ants, and says that she has treated many torate of the Fourth Baptist church in cases among the Bedouins. CWcago, she has entered upon her work as an evangelist with that zeal and re- -A woman who knows byexperisolution wWch characterized her labors ence sets forth this in the February sa round the world missionary of the Woman'8 Work for Woman about itiner- W. C. T. U. She has adopted as her ating in Mexico: "We often think that plan of work Saturday night visitation all the Christian graces mentioned by of saloons and dives, and the conduct- Paul, and more too, are needed; but ing of a short service largely of a gospel patience is of special importance. Patemperance nature· in each place were tience, when one gets lost the first day not refused, after which she invites each on the road and instead of 11 A.M. ar- . listener to a service in the church. She rives at 6 P.M., having pickt Ws way is accompanied in these visits by one or down a slippery, rocky hill at a burro's more assistants. snail pace, in a drenching rain storm. Patience to stop first for one thing and then another on the road-to give inllk charge that great corporations are soul- to baby, to re·saddle horses, to rest ani- less is furnisht by the fact that Amer- mals, to re-arrange packs. Patience, can railroad corporations contribute when after traveling all the hot ~orning every year $181,000 to the work of the one inquires at noon for dinner, only to Railroad Young Men's Christian Asso- hear the refrain, No hay nada, NQ hay ciation along the lines of their roads. conque (there is nothing, nothing but tortillas). Patience-when after nu- -The (JlJiri8tian Enrka'1JO'l' New8 re· merous failures, one succeeds in per- ports that the pledges of business men suading a·woman to cook a dinner and in San Francisco toward the expenses then waits one, two, three hours for the of the International Convention to be chicken to be run down, killed, pickt, held there this year exceed anything the COrn ground for tortillas, the wood known in the annals of such convenhunted to make the fire, and finally, for tions, amounting to $17,500, while the dinner to be cookt. Patience – after Golden Gate Union and the Alameda an early start and an all day's travel, to County Union have increast the hold service in the evening when it is amount to $25,000. almost impossible not to fall asleep in the middle of the sermon and then to -The King's Daughters held their •• please play another hymn" after we 11th anniversary not long since, and are done. Endurance must not be lack- were able to report a membership of ing; on rough roads, hard climbs and 400,000 in all parts of the world. as difficult decents, hot dusty roads, muddy and slippery roads, and bridle -The Congregational Chinese Enpaths half closed by overhanging deavorers, of San Francisco, have conthickets. One must be able to put up tributed $17.00 toward the International with any thing: with hard beds or no Convention fund, $80.00 to the Ameribeds; fieas and-worse; sometimes to can Board, and support 6 missionaries sleep out of doors, again in a vacant in China. house, which is quite agreeable if it i8 really vacant; to occupy the same room -The present foreign tour of the with pigs and feel them scratching their president of the United Society of backs on the underside of one's bed in Christian Endeavor will bear fruit in the night, without alarm. many ways at the San Francisco con- vention. Dr. Clark writes that he has YOUNG PEOPLE. secured for use as a gavel at the con- vention the shoemaker's hammer that -The International Committee of the was used by William Carey before he Y. M. C. A. has celebrated its 80th an- went as a missionary to India. Another niversary, and gives this survey of the convention gavel is now being made work accomplisht. The number of as- for him by a Hindu society. sociations has grown to 1,448, and the membership to 268,298. The Associa- -The" tenth legion" was famous in tion owns 815 buildings, valued at $16,- history, but now it is the name of those 759,800, and the annual expenses for Endeavorers who propose to give onelocal work reacht last year $2,296,441. tenth of their income for Christ and the The religious work is well to the front, church. It is a happy title. It will and in 1,070 of the associations there lead young pepple to keep accounts are religious meetings, while in 762 and to set apart a certain portion of there are Bible training classes; 4S their means for beneficence. We may associations are for the Indians, 61 for not believe that a tenth is the only or colored men, 108 for railroad men, and the best rule of giving. but it is vastly 480 for college students. better than impulsive and intermittent generosity. One union in New York -An illustration of the falsity of the has 1,000 members. The only thing required is to be .. willing to avow yourself one whose rule is to give God was taken for the suffering Armenians, the tithe." and great enthusiasm was manifested.
-A well informed writer in Australia -A society in Cleveland, 0., of 83 counts the progress of the Christian members, all having small incomes. Endeavor movement in that Island- fulfilled a pledge to raise by free wlll Continent .. one of the most remark- offerings $500 for foreign missions last able developments in current religious year, without lessening gifts to their life," and believes that ,. there is no own church. They also made more part of the world where it has taken a than 700 visits to the sick and needy, stronger hold, stands on a firmer basis, distributing more than 5,000 pieces of or has better prospects of success." literature, and started a missionary alid The Endeavorers of Australia number reference library of 100 volumes. Two between 50,000 and 60,000, tho the first of the number have gone as missionsociety was formed only seven years aries to Africa. ago, and Australia, tho territorially about as large as the United States. -According to the Hodd, there are does not contain many more people than now in Japan 197 kindergartens, with New York. 390 lady teachers. In the city of Osaka alone there are 41 of these schools. -The Junior socIety in Chihuahua celebrated Christmas by bringing gifts UNITED STATES. to be given to other children poorer than themselves. As all the members -Mr. Pierpont Morgan's gift of of the society are poor, it was touching $1,000,000 to the New York Lying-in. to see the eagerness with which they Hospital, taken together with the nubrought apples, nuts, candies, and even merous gifts to other charities in recent clothing, to be given away. Two very years, amounting altogether to about as poor children brought, untouched, the much more, entitles him to rank among bags of candy that had been given to the most generous of modern philan· them at the Christmas tree. The next thropists. This is another of the bene· morning a number of poor children ficent deeds by which men of wealth were brought to the church, and there prove that the faculties devoted to great received the gifts, and at the same time acquisitions do not necessarily fail to an invitation to the services. serve also the needs of humanity.
-One of the chief obstacles to Chris· -T. J. Morgan, once Indian Comtian Endeavor in India is the separation missioner, and now active in home mis· of the two sexes. There are very, very sions, is of the opinion that the divorce few of even mission schools where boys between religion and morality. tho so and girls study together. Nowhere do painfully common, is no more prevalent they play together, sit together, or among the freedmen than among white walk together. It is most difficult to people of a similar grade of culture. have a society in which males and females cooperate. -One of the newest of American missionary societies is the African In- -At the annual convention of the land MIssion, which. within two years, Endeavor societies connected with the have dispatcht 16 men and women to Foochow Mission, a membership was East Africa, and opened 4 stations, sev· reported of 1,377, as compared, with eral hundred miles towards the interior 7 societies and 291 members, reported from Mombas. The income, so far, at the first annual convention in Shang. has been about $6,000. hai, less than two and a half years ago. At the consecration service 122 persons -Who will not join heartily in con· took part by prayer and testimony in gratulations to our Baptist brethren who have for months been facing the M minutee. A generous collection possibility of being compelled to abandon one or more of their misssions-the lodgings received over $190,000 from Kongo region had been named-but those sheltered; the City Colony, with are now rejoicing in the offer of Mr. its many branches, returned $470,000 Rockefeller to pay $250,000 towards re- toward an expense of $493,000, and the moving the huge debt from both the Farm Colony, in spite of very many home and foreign boards, provided only difficulties, came within $25,000 of that before July 1 the churches contri- meeting its expenditures of $250,000.
bute $230,000. -Dr. Bamado cabled from London -In 1896 it cost the Presbyterian to the British ambassador at Constanti· Missionary Board five per cent. to ad- nople, offering to receive gratuitously minister $777,063. and at once into his houses 1,000 desti- -The Missionary (presbyterian, tute Armenian orphans, and represented South), for February, whether for value to the foreign office his ability to care or variety of contents, illustrations, or for more than that number, if necestypographical excellence. is one of the sary. Some who have been accepted very best that has come to hand. previously were on their way to rural homes in England. -Jan. 14, a council met at Bethany Church, San Francisco, and ordained -The English Church Missionary Mr. Joe Jet, who has been connected Society, whose income is nearly as large with the Chinese work for about 20 as that of all the other Church societies years.' He goes to take charge of the combined, publishes 4 magazines, whose mission work in Southern China, carried combined circulation in 1895, had on by the Christian Chinese of Califor- reacht 2,208,350. The receipts from nia. He is the second Chinese ordained these exceed the cost by nearly $1,000.
by a Congregational council, and Rev. The Friend says: "English Friends Jee Gam, the first, gave the right hand have now active missions in Syria and of fellowship in excellent English. China, as well as in India and Mada- -At the recent twenty-fourth anni- gascar, also in Constantinople, Bulgaversary of the Jerry McAuley Mission, ria, France, Ceylon, and South Africa. in New York, it was reported that the American Friends have missions in attendance during the year was about Palestine, Japan, Alaska, Jamaica, 40,000, and that over 2,000 have been China, and India. A beginning has converted. R. Fulton Cutting present- been made, but the field is the world…
ed the treasurer's report. showing that The Continent.-The position of the the expenses for the year were $5,087, Paris Missionary Society is a very (liffiand that the receipts, mainly gifts and cult one. They recognize very clearly collections, were $5,996. the duty incumbent upon them to do EUROPE. all in their power to conserve and to strengthen mission work in Madagas- Great Britain.-The report of the car. Under the influence of this feel- "Darkest England" scheme for the ing they are sending out French Pro- Salvation Army for the last year shows testant teachers to labor in our Normal that 3,231,917 meals were supplied and School and in the Friends' High 1,339,246 nights' lodging; 2,501 men Schools. They will also send out before were received into the factories, 411 10,ng other educational workers, whose into the first prison home, 11.899 pro- qualifications will enable them to take vided with employment, temporary or a leading placc in the development of the permanent, and 1,535 women and girls educational work. They are, however, received into rescue homes. Altho there a very small body, and the mission'
is no pretense of making the work self- work they already have in hand in Ba- supporting, the shelters for food and sutoland, the Kongo, Senegal, and Tahiti makes very heavy demands upon in which he had appoi~tments to detheir limited means. Consequently they liver his lectures on .. Comparative regard with dismay the responsibilities Religion." In Calcutta, Bombay, and which seem to await them in Madagas- Madras he will deliver 6 lectures on the car.-R. Wardlaw Thompson. following themes: "The World-wide Aspects of Christianity;" .. The.World- -The friends of foreign missions wide Effects of Christianity;" " The among the 80,000 Lutherans in France, Christian Doctrine of God as the Basis who, heretofore, have sent in their con- of a Universal Religion;" "The Un!' tributions to the Paris Missionary So- versal Book;" "The Universal Man ciety, have resolved henceforth to ren- and Savior;" "The Historical Characder pecuniary aid to the missionaries of ter of Christianity as Confirming its the Norwegian Church in Madagascar. Claims to World-wide Authority." In other cities he will give from 1 to 3 -Rev. R. Bahnsen, inspector (direct- lectures. Those who thought of his or) of the Schleswig-Holstein Mission- coming with deep solicitude lest he ary Society, left Brecklum in October should speak too flatteringly of Hindufor India Dn a tour of inspection of his ism, are wholly satisfied with his treat-' fields of labor. The 10 Brecklum mis- ment of the themes he has selected. sionaries are working among the Telugu and Jeypore people on II chief-sta- -Taken all in all, the Lutheran tions, and 11 out-stations, assisted by Church in India embraces 8 to 11 mis- 25 native helpers. sion fields, cultivated by 170 American and European missionaries, 50 native -The Danish Lutheran Missionary pastors, and nearly 1,200 native help- Society, which has its fields of labor in ers and teachers. The fruit of their India and China, has recently had 4 faithful labor consists in more than new missionaries ordained in the 100,000 confirmed members of the cathedral at Ripen, by the venerable Church and more than 7,000 children bishop Dr. Goettsche. The bishop's in the mission schools. own son, who had been an officer in the army before he studied for the ministIy, -It is almost impossible to make was one of the 4. He is going to India, Hindu converts understand that money the other 3 are on their way to China. they receive from the missionaries as a loan must be repaid. For example, a -Fifteen German missionaries soci- large number of native farmers recently eties are taking active part in the work abandoned their village for a place of spreading the Gospel among the some miles distant, and said that they heathen They are supporting about were doing it because the mission- 700 thoroughly trained men, who, as aries had taken their lands away ordained ministers, are preaching the from them. The fact of the case was Word to 300,000 native Christians. that in a time of great distress the The annual expenses amount to $1,250,- missionaries had advanced money to 000. Of these 15 societies, 6 are these farmers, receiving their land as strictly Lutheran, viz., the Leipsic security; and when the farmers became Society, the Berlin, the Gossner, the able to repay the loan they had refused Hermannsberg, the Brecklum, and the to do it, whereupon the missionaries Neudettelsau Society. had simply asserted their rights in a court of law. ASIA. -Rev. J. N. Forman says: You India.-Rev. J. H. Barrows, who is must take the people just as you find now villiting India for the purpose of them, and you will certainly never find delivering lectures on the Haskell Foun- them alike two days in succession! dation, reacht Bombay December 15, One day there are crowds, and the next and we have before u.s a list of 21 cities day you may have "two boys and a 15,467,752, or six per cent. of the caste dog;" one day there is close attention population; second, Kshatriyas, 29,- to the preaching, and the next day 984,282, or twelve per cent.; third, Vasome man has come carrying a new isyas, 12,270,973, or five per cent.; pair of shoes, or a couple of cauliflow· fourth, Sudras, 121,550,368, or fifty per ers, and to the preacher's dismay he cent.; and, fifth, Out-castes, 65,700,758, finds a discussion started as to whether or twenty-seven per cent. So strong the shoes were cheap at eleven annas, or has the caste feeling become amongst the cauliflowers dear at two for a pice; the out-castes of Madras, that they reor perhaps one day the people are quiet sent the opprobrious name of Pariah. but hopelessly stupid, and the next day Out of respect to that feeling, the Masome young upstart persists in asking dras Government has recently past an foolish questions, just when you think order that in all State documents they you have at last made some impressio. be referred to as Panchama, which liton your audience. erally means the fifth caste.-H. F. La- flamme. -During conference a very unique and significant reception was given to China.-There are now upwards of Bishop Thoburn and the members of 1,000 schools of various descriptions for the conference. A. rich and well-known natives in China under foreign instruc- Hindu merchant, Mr. Venkatatchellum, tion or direction. They range from the having become deeply interested in the village day-school up to high-schools work carried on by Methodists among and colleges. Many of these schools the deprest classes in India, has not have been in operation from ten to only helpt the work very liberally in twenty years, so that the number of Madras during the year, but also very youthful Chinese who have been generously gave a banquet in honor brought up under foreign educational of Bishop Thoburn as a token of appre- influence of a Christian character Inay ciation of the work in which he has safely be estimated at considerably over been pre-eminently a leader. A. large 250,000. number of guests were present by invitation, and some excellent addresses -In the day-schools at Chefoo the delivered.-Indian Witne88. number of scholars suddenly increast at the Chinese New Year from 30 to -By a process of degradation, the 4 120, all due to the growing friendliness original castes have been subdivided of the Chinese to the missionary instiand multiplied, so that now, in all In- tutions, and the increasing desire for dia, there must be about 100,000 caste prhnary education. This larger attenddivisions. Revolts against Brahmanic ance is the more remarkable, as aid authority are frequent, and attract dif- hitherto given in books and stationery ferent castes. If they involve nothing has been discontinued. A. prominent but dogma or academic principles, caste Chinese official at Chefoo, secretary to is not affected; if, however, social or- the local governor for over twenty thodoxy is impugned, the adherents years, has recently proposed to furnish have to retire from the fold and form a a house and school-room at $1,000 a new 'community. By a process of (Mexican), to provide for the teaching filtration, the caste feeling has permeat- of 4 pupils. ed even the despised outcaste classes and hill tribes, and a large section of -The increasing demands on the the Mussulman community, until at Presbyterian Mission Press at Shanghai least· 245,000,000 of the 290,000,000 of are one index of an awakening interest India have fallen into caste thraldom. among the Chinese in western litcrature This large number may be roughly di- of a high order. Here is a single invided as follows :-First, Brahmins, stance: One man from the anti-foreIgn and exclusive province of Hunan visited Shanghai during the past year, and as a visible monument of the establish. subscribed for 120 copies of the Re- ment of Christianity. A Presbytery, view of the Times in Chinese. The whose proceedings are conducted in issues from this great press establish- Chinese, whose members are native ment are given in the report just re- elders elected by the congregations ceived as 500,000 copies, and over 46,- composed of groups of members 000,000 of pages for the year under throughout the provinces, and where review. Nearly 30 different Bible the missionaries sit only provisionally as societies and missionary organizations assessoI'f, stands as a formal witness to look to this press for assistance in fur- a living native Church, with a memthering their far-reaching operations. bership already reckoned by thousands. Such are the constantly growing de- A theological class of well-nigh 100 mands upon it as to the quality and members, carrying on studies alongside quantity of its work, that it is under the of evangelistic work in their several necessity of frequently adding the latest districts, and assembling at stated peand best of press appliances from Eu- riods for a short course of lectures and rope, and of increasing its working spiritual conference, stands as the proforce.-Ohurch at Home and Abroad. phecy of an early native pastorate.- Missionary Record. -It is reported, and it is believed by our missionaries in the Province of AFRICA. Shansi, that an American has secured a contract for a railrlJad from the coast -The Kongo railway, which is soon to Tai-yuen-fu, the provincial capital. to sp!.n, with its iron limbs, the cata- The isolation of our missionaries in that ract region of 230 miles, has involved province will be understood by the fact not only an enormous outlay in money, stated by Mr. Atwater, that neither he but a hetacomb of human livgs. No nor Dr. Atwood, tho it is fifteen years one will ever know how many graves years since the latter went to Shansi, has have been necessitated by that stuseen a foreigner at their homes since pendous work, and yet these obstacles they left Tientsin, except their fellow- have never for a moment been deemed missionaries.-Misswnary Herald. insurmountable in face of the end in view. The rocks must be blasted; the -Last summer, when Mrs. lap, the mountains scaled, the valleys exalted, wife of our most highly esteemed Amoy and the ravines bridged over, to make pastor, died, so genuine and widespread the way of civilization plain. Whatwas the appreciation of that exception- ever was involved in the way of sufferally noble woman's character, that sev- ing or of death was not to be taken into eral articles of a most discriminating C()nsideration ; and even if the sum excharacter appeared in the Amoy Church pended were more than a million ster- Montllly, and on the day of her burial ling, this, too, should be gladly subin the lone cemetery on the hillside in scribed for the work in hand. Gigantic the Sio·khe Valley, 30 women, many of outlay is considered advisable for the them with bound feet, and upwards of facilitation of trade and civilization. 200 men, many of whom had walkt Shall it not be equally reasonable when from neighboring villages 8 and 12 expended on the spiritual elevation and miles away, followed in quiet, mourn- eternal salvation of nations which sit ful procession to the place where they in darkness? Are not the souls of men laid her away.–J. G. Fag!]. worth more than the rubber of the forest, or the ivory of the elephant? -In Mukden, the capital of Manchu- Belgian, French, English, and Porturia, a handsome church, with its pagoda- guese traders do not flinch from enlike steeple, the center of a congregation countering the dangers of the Kongo of 800 communicants, with a native climate for the sake of worldly ad· pastor supported by themselves, stands vancement. It w.ere a thousand shames Zambesi did not prove a barrier, and were we to lag behind."-Regions Be- only 15,000 cattle were left out of 200,- yond. 000 in Rhodesia. In Khama's country -J. S. Mills writes from the West 800,000 were destroyed. "So terrible Coast: The number of missionary so- a visitation, extending over so wide an cieties operating in this part of Africa area, is almost unknown in the annals makes it necessary in the near future to of Africa. The grievous murrain that agree upon what places each shall oc- smote the herds of Pharaoh was but B cupy. Itis possible that a meeting for parochial epidemic compared with this this purpose will be held at Freetown. continental disaster." This necessity is so apparent that all our missionaries deem it very desirable that -The 4 principal diamond mines of the gropnd be more extensively ex- Kimberley employ 8,000 persons, of plored, 'so that we might act to the best whom6,5oo are black. From2,000,000 to advantage in the proposed division of 8,000,000 carats of diamonds are turned territory. For this work it was agreed out of the De Beers mines in a single to start from Rotufunk, and travel year, even under restriction to prevent eastward. That the trip might also be overstocking the market. Stones evangelistic, an organ and a magic weighing over an ounce (151.5 carats) lantern, with pictures of the life of are not infrequent in Kimberley. The Christ, were taken along. We started largest found so far in that mine promptly, and marcht beyond Pan- weighed 428~ carats in the rough, and guma, and returned by another route, 228~ after being cut. The largest making a journey of over 400 miles in known diamond, weighing 970 carats, 24 days. This would not be far on a found in the Jagersfontein mine, is now being cut at Amsterdam.
railway, but when measured by foot- -Not long ago the chief Lerotholi, steps it is a long distance. in the Lessouto mission, exprest the -The Presbyterian Church has ac- wish that his tribe should possess ancepted the offer of Miss Margaret Mac- other industrial school, the one which lean, of Glasgow to support a mission to our mission founded at Leloaleng being tpe dwarf peoples of Africa. With Ga- too far from the center of the country boon and Corsico as centers, the Ameri- to supply all needs. It was impossible canPresbyterian missionaries have taken for our society to establish this new the Gospel to the dwarfs among the school; and the time had come when Mabeya tribes. They are planning an the progress of the tribe and its growadvance, and for that purpose have ing appreciation of the benefits of civili- askt for additional workers. This zation demanded that it should make curious fragment of humanity, whom • sacrmces which would not have been Stanley met in his travels, have for askt of it formerly. The chief Lerasome years been laid upon Miss Mac- tholi understood this. He levied a tax lean's heart; she has now given £1,500 on the whole country. In the middle to establish a mission among them, and of last June its produce amounted to promises £500 a year in support of the 75,000 francs. After this he sought work. advice both from the administration -The Review of Reviews mentions and the missionaries, and askt their the rinderpest as one of the strange interest in his enterprise. The final results of Italy's attempt to conquer result, in which we greatly rejoice, Abyssinia. Introduced by plague- was that the direction of the school was stricken cattle, sent to supply the offered to our society, without any Italian army with food, it has steadily share in the expense.-Journal del moved southward, destroying nine- Missions &angeliques.
tenths of the herds of Africa.. The -The circular houses of the Bakwina
April
(Beckuana), built of mud and thatched hand for their churcheB.~he childl'en with grass, are crowded together, each are now taught in Malagasy in tens of one surrounded with a low mud wall thousands by Christian men and women.
or fence. No privacy is possible, and To close these schools and to lay these so the "mahoko," or news of the family, teachers idle is to inaugurate confusion.
easily becomes the property of the com- Besides this, arrangements have been munity. Outside is unspeakable filth, made to send French Protestant teach- squalor, and wretchedness. The" dith- ers as far as the services of such work- otobodu," or dust heaps (sic), represent ers can be obtained. The haste to the accumulated refuse of thirty years make a change seems to be more owing or more. When I go up to church I to Roman Catholic intrigue than to have to climb over two of these "moun- political considerations.
tainous" heaps, and if to the chief's, -The "French Society f9r the three. This last one overtops the sur- Propagation of the French Langiiage in rounding huts. Let the reader imagine the French Colonies," has given $30,000 what this means after a steady rain, to the Jesuits in Madagascar, altho the followed by the heat of a tropical sun. English and Norwegian Protestant No wonder that the mortality among Missionaries had made known their the people to-day, combined as it is willingness to teach French in their with other causes, is so appalling.- schools. The French Lutheran Aid Rev. H01JJard Williams. Society for the Norwegian missions in -The Leipsic Missionary Society is Madagascar,has sent Monsieur Pochard, making an appeal to its friends and of Paris, to Stavanger, to teach French supporters for a special contribution of to the students in the mission college, $7,500 for the establishment of a new and to accompany them later on to mission station on the Meri mountains, Madagascar.
three days' journey west of the KiIi- -A missionary letter describes the manjaro mountains, among the Wara wedding of a native pastor in Ne, tribe, where 6 missionaries are occupy- Guinea. A wreath of artificial flowers ing the stations Mamba, Moshi, and adorned the head of the bride, which Madjame, and are doing pioneer work was further wrapt ardund with yards full of promise for a rich harvest in the upon yards of ribbon of all colors. future. She and her friends were greatly dis- ISLANDS OF THE SEA. turbed because they could not get a piece of mosquito netting for a veil.
-The new policy of "thorough" in Their presents were in cloth, no pres- Madagascar, is being more and more . ent under 8 yards, and for purposes of insisted on. One great reform has, display the cloth was all tied together however, been proclaimed in the abo- at the corners. It amounted to more lition of slavery. Heavy fines and im- than 100 yards and seizing this, the prisonment are to be inflicted on those friends of the couple danced around who violate this law. Freed slaves are the village. Then the bride and groom to keep all the goods they have bought were seated in a garden, wrapt around out of their savings. No war tax is to with these hundred yards of print, and be levied. On the other hand, Mada- six shirts placed on the knees of the gascar has been proclaimed French soil, bridegroom. A hat was placed on the the French language made the obli- ground, and money gifts were next in gatory basis of all school instruction, order. The separate gifts rose as high and the" Romish cult" is especially to as $10, and, as each gift was thrown be insisted on. Protestant missionaries into the hat, a man standing near gave will be more than ever hampered in an unearthly yell and shouted out twice their work, and a time of trial seems I!ot its value.
The Missionary Review of the World — September 1895
llu8BA:SD. (iC)·fU:l'WEEX. BR[DE
A JAPANESE MARRIAGF. CF.RE~IONY.
A WRITING LF.'i'iOl' -NATIVE EDUCATIO N. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIII. No.9.-OldSeries.-SEPTEMBER.-VOL. VIII. No.9.-Ne'/II&riu.
"A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS."* BY THE EDITOR-IN-QHIEF.
History is, to the devout ouscrver, also prophecy. Current events have a predictive value as a hint of coming developments. Our Lord Himself intimates this when He rebukes those who were more careful in watching the weather signals than in observing and interpreting the signs of the times.
Mr. L. D. Wishard, so well known in connection with the international work of the Young Men's Christian Association, has recently launched a new book of modest pretensions upon the world-sea, and it is safe to predict for it no little importance and significance in its mission. It is freighted with instructive lesRons and useful suggestions as to the perplexing problem of a world's evangelization. Its novelty lies not in bringing to us any new facts, but in grouping those facts into such impressive arrangement as compels confidence that they are part of a Divine plan, articulated into a system. Dr. Richard S. Storrs, himself a profound student of missionary problems, in his Introduction confesses that he is " impressed by" Mr. Wishard's " statement of facts, by the conclusions which he draws from such facts, and by the bright and vast outlook into the future which his book suggests."
As Mr. Wishard projects before us a " new programme of missions," we are bound to give it a careful, critical study. Anything that proposes a new solution to the greatest practical problem ever before the Church is entitled to more than a passing glance. Kepler, in his patient application of eighteen hypotheses to the mystery of the planetary motion, and in his rapturous enthusiasm when he found the key that fitted the lock, saying: " 0 almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee !" may well furnish a model for the modern student of missions. What a reward to our patience in working and waiting, in trying method after method, if at last *" A New Programme of Missions," by Luther D. Wishard. New York: F. H. ReTell & Co,
"A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS."
we may discern God's mind and plan, and think God's thought after Him upon the question of a world's evangelization! .
The old "statistical" solution of the missionary problem has been tried and found wanting. No doubt the combined churches of Protestant Christendom could, from 40,000,000 communicants, supply 500,000 mis- sionaries, or one for every 2000 of the unevangelized, and could furnish sinews of war in the shape of $600,000,000 a year for the support of this army of missionaries. But in view of the fact that, with all the tremen- dous facts of human need bzfore the Church of Christ, and all the inspir- ing history of missionary labor and triumph to incite to zeal and sacrifice, we have as yet less than ten thousand foreign missionaries, and less than $14,000,000 a year to apply to the whole work, and even now are hampered by immense debts which threaten the whole work with collapse; we are compelled to abandon the hope of bringing up the Church to the point of supplying fifty times the present working force and forty-three times the present money basis for the work.
Here, then, is Mr. Wishard's proposition: " Convert the colleges offor- eign mission lands into strongholds and distributing centres of Ohristianity; make them academies of the Church militant, to train leaders for the present crusade of evangelization. "
This solution is not a new one, for it has already had practical trial both at home and abroad, as the Oxford Holy Club, the Haystack meeting at Williams College, the Yale revival under President Dwight, and the Intercollegiate Y. M. C. A. have proven. But the scale, on which Mr.
Wishard proposes to have this method put in operation, is new.
It is now nearly twenty years ago that, on the Day of Prayer for Col- leges in 1876, a rain of spiritual refreshing came down on Princeton Col- lege, which became the source of, a new river of spiritual energy, which was parted into two streams : one was thorough organitation of the Christian element in the colleges, and the other was co-operation among the colleges.
Hence the so-called intercollegiate association work, whose sublime aim is to bring out every student fully upon the Lord's side, and then organize a vast student army for work in extending the kingdom. The three methods relied on for reaching these results are Bible study, joint prayer, and per- sonal work for the unsaved.
One inevitable outcome of this movement has been that students have been confronted with the question of missions. It is impossible to study God's Word, draw near to Him in prayer, and come into close touch with needy souls, without having passion for world-wide missions awakened.
And hence the intercollegiate work almost unconsciously took on a mis- sionary department.
Careful research reveals already results at once surprising and stimu- lating. Not only is it found that the Bible has never before been so dili- gently studied, but over 25,000 students have been turned unto the Lord since 1876, and fully three times that number been enrolled in the associa. tion. Thirty-two hundred have been led into the ministry; and within nine years, since 1886, when the Student Volunteer Movement began at Mt. Hermon, Mass., over 700 have gone forth to mission lands.
These student volunteers have adopted as their motto the cry of the new crusade which the writer of this article was strangely led to suggest: " The evangelization of the world in this generation." Five hundred institutions, with over 30,000 students, are already embraced in the intercollegiate system, which now reaches out like a banyan tree, and bends down to take root in new soil. Ten years since it reached the University of Berlin, and has started a new Reformation in Germany.
Six years ago God gave signs that so-called heathen nations were to take part iII the new crusade. In the summer of 188~ the students, meeting at Northfield, Mass., were startled by a cablegram from the Sunrise Kingdom, in which the Christian students of Japan conveyed this sublime message: "MAKE JESUS KING." Great enthusiasm was kindled, and that message, finding its way to Sweden, where it constrained Scandinavian disciples to call a conference of students in 1890, representing Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, became another war cry of the new crusade.
The students of Great Britain and Ireland have likewise united the university forces of their Western island empire, and the missionary volunteers already number hundreds there also, of whom 90 per cent are in the foreign field.
The awakening among Christian converts in the Orient, as in Japan, naturally suggested a new plan for missions. To students in mission lands the work is one of home evangelization. Why not, then, organize in the colleges of lands, yet to us foreign mission fields, a student volunteer movement for home missions! And so, while in the Occident we are raising a foreign contingent, rely on converted young men in the Orient to supply a home contingent, and together push the work of a world's redemption.
The moment that such a plan is, by the very voice of events, suggested, we naturally ask whether any actual work thus far done by such converted young men in heathen lands justifies the hope that they will undertake such home evangelization.
Mr. Wishard has collated a few very convincing illustrations. For example, the Sapporo Band. . When President Clark, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, taught fur one year, and through an interpreter, a class for Bible study in the island of Hokkaido, thirty-two students openly confessed Christ and formed a society of "believers in Jesus." Six years since one fourth of the students in the Hokkaido Agricultural College were professed disciples, and the city of Sapporo was permeated by their Christian influence. It was a letter from this body of students to their fellow-students in the Massachusetts college, upon whose model the Japanese was formed, which first prompted the embracing of students in mission lands in the new movement or crusade started in America.
The Kumamoto Band, in the southern part of the Island Empire, fur. nishes another illustration of God's leading in the same direction. In 1871 an American teacher was put in charge of an institution which Dr. Davis, in his" Life of Neesima," states was founded and supported by professed opponents of Christianity. When the new instructor was hired on a five years' contract, it was not known that he was a Christian believer, and at first he had to proceed cautiously. But eventually the students, in order to be furnished with weapons against Christianity, consented to study the Bible, as did Gilbert West and Lord Lyttleton, for a like purpose, and with similar results. The opposition of unbelief and disbelief was slowly but surely broken down; and it was found by a few of the young men that they and others with them were secretly cherishing belief in Christ, until the avowed believers reached the number of forty! Their avowal brought a baptism of fire. But they endured it. In January, 1876, while the new revival in Princeton was starting the fire in America, they, on Flowery Hill, covenanted with each other and Jesus to be as a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid. Persecution ensued, and the school was disbanded; but thirty of these. converts entered Joseph Neesima's school at Kyoto, and half of them completed in the Poshisha their theological course, and to· day the record of their character and work is written large over the Christianity of Japan.
The Poshisha revival is a still further illustration of the possibilities of student work in the East. Some twelve years since a sceptical spirit prevailed in this college of the Single Aim, as to the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, and there was a demand among the students for some adequate proof of His claims to being more than a vague Divine influence or effiuence. Of course such doubts do not go alone j the inspiration of the Word of God and the vitality of spiritual life were alike in peril.
Now our Lord teaches us in that significant word of His in the Gospel of John (3 : 8) that the Spirit breathes where He will, and, like the wind, can be known only by the sound of His going. Being invisible, He can be traced only by His effects.
Dr. Davis, one of the missionaries who was greatly troubled by this scepticism in the Doshisha, said nothing to the Japanese doubters about his purpose, but boldly threw himself on God, appealing to colleges and theological seminaries in America to offer special prayer for the Holy Spirit to come on Japanese students. Such prayer was offered in January, 1883. There was, however, nothing done in Kyoto which could in any way account for the stupendous events which shortly followed.
One night a spirit of remarkable prayerfulness took sudden possession of a few students, and an almost sleepless night followed. Before day dawned a river of grace was pouring through the Doshisha, and its flood rose until almost if not quite every student was turned to the Lord; and shortly a deputation went to the surrounding churches to carry the sacred waters of salvation. The Spirit had taken His own way of proving his personality and deity. The" Wind" proved its existence by bowing the oaks and cedars before its mighty sweep. No doubts have since prevailed in the Doshisha as to the Spirit of God. In fact, no nation rivals Japan in the keen sense of the Spirit's personality and power, existing among Chris- tian disciples.
Tungchow College, China, and Pasumalai College, Madura, South India, are other illustrations of God's plan for the evangelization of Oriental lands by converted and educated' young men. The former institution, presided over for a quarter century by Dr. Mateer, has sent out over fifty graduates, not one unconverted! and the latter has, during a half century, given over five hundred Christian workers to the field.
Mr. Wishard further calls attention to the startling rapidity with which this Christian movement has pervaded the colleges of the missionary field abroad. Almost simultaneously in Ceylon, China, and Japan there began a manifestation of desire and readiness to co-operate with Occidental stu- dents in the world-wide work.
While in the Presidency of Madras the missionaries were considering how to secure a special worker among the students of the capital, Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, visiting America and being present at the students' summer school at Northfield, in 1889, pleaded for the interposition of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. in the promotion of a movement among the students of India similar to that which he saw at Northfield, and an appeal subsequently came from Madras itself for a young man to be sent by the committee to India to take this work in charge.
This proposal led to Mr. Wishard's four years' tour of investigation. He went to 216 mission stations in twenty different mission lands, and met personally over a thousand missionaries, and many thousand students. He held interviews with merchants, educators, pastors, government officials, everybody who could help him to understand the questions he was studying.
He found the higher educational institutions of foreign lands to contain about five hundred thousand students, less than one tenth of whom are professing disciples. And while education unsettles the old superstitions, if students are not grounded in Christian faith, they drift into materialism, agnosticism, and open infidelity. They cast away their old gods, but get no new God in their place. It is, therefore, now or never for many of them j and it needs not to be argued that no body of men are more likely to reach, touch, move, and mould the students of the East than their fellow-students of the West, who have pursued similar lines of investigation, have felt similar intellectual perplexities, and are at a similar age exposed to similar temptations. From the student body of the Occident we may naturally expect the hand of fraternal sympathy and co-operation to be extended to and warmly grasped by the student body of the Orient. Such is the theory and such are a few of the facts, further reinforced by the following.
Christianity, Mr. Wishard says, is now firmly entrenched in nearly all of the Christian colleges of Japan, China, Burmah, Ceylon, Persia, Turkey, Egypt, as well as some of those in India. As a rule, the majority of such students outside of India are Christian communicants. Christianity has made some progress even in Government institutions not openly under distinctive Christian control. In 1889 one fourteenth of the three thousand students in the seven leading Government colleges of Japan were Christians.
Mr. Wishard, like others, observed a surprising readiness on the part of students in the Sunrise Kingdom to examine the proof as to the deity of Jesus Christ, and to respond to His claims as Lord and Saviour. Several weeks of special meetings at the Doshisha resulted in the baptism of nearly one hundred and fifty students. Similar results followed similar meetings held by Mr. Wishard and Mr. J. T. Swift, at Union College, Tokyo, Kumamoto, Osaka, Kobe, Sendai, etc., as also in the Methodist College, Foo Chow, China, and in India, Ceylon, and Asia Minor. Moreover, these converted students exhibit a remarkable passion for souls and genius for organization. Nearly fifty colleges on the mission fields of the world have already Young Men's Christian Associations, Japan alone having fifteen; and the best-organized association of them all is in Tungchow College, China, where every most approved method of Bible study, personal work, and evangelistic effort is already in active operation. In this last Chinese college a foreign missionary flame has been kindled that leads to the support of a Zulu student in the school at Natal! And the self-sacrifice displayed by these converted Chinese in extending Christianity puts to shame the benevolence of Christian lands.
The pioneer college Young Men's Christian Association in Asia was formed in Jaffna College, Ceylon, in 1884. Those who wish proof both of the evangelistic spirit and organizing facnlty of Asiatic students, should watch these Ceylonese young men, undertaking to evangelIze a neighboring island hitherto without a convert. They visit the island at stated seasons for conversation with every inhabitant. In order to support the work they not only contribute money, but put aside a tithe of their rice supply, which they sell for the benefit of the work; and they cultivate a banana garden, a committee of twelve students being appointed to work an hour each day for three months, drawing water from the wells and filling the trenches. The whole year's work yields but $20, yet how is this small gift magnified and sanctified and glorified by the altar on which it is laid!
India has long been ranked as the Malakoff of missions. Yet even here the approaches of the students from the 'Vest are warmly reciprocated. Mr. Wishard and Mr. McConaughy, who is a Y. M. C. A. secretary in India, issued an appeal to their fellow-students in the great Oriental empire; and Mr. Wishard says: "Never were messengers more warmly received." A large meeting of students assembled in Madras, and the Hindu students joined enthusiastically in " Coronation," and heard with sympathetic interest the words addressed to them. In like manner in Rangoon, Oroomiah, Bitlis, Harpoot, Tarsus, Robert College, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Bulgaria, Chili, South Africa, the response has come to the signals of the Western crusade; and the great army seems already mustering from all lands to undertake the final assault on the citadels of Satan.
The first national conference of Asiatic students convened in Kyoto, in 1889; five hundred men, representing ten Government colleges and twelve Christian colleges, were in attendance. Annual conferences have followed, and now there are two held yearly, the gathering of 1893 being attended by six hundred. India has had since 1891 a national union and annual conventions. During the six years since 1889 eighteen Asiatic conferences have been held, whose three thousand delegates have come from fifty colleges; and during those six years over three hundred students have been added to the army of believers and warriors for Christ.
These are interesting and overwhelming facts. And the question only remains, Does this movement give promise of permanence, or is it an evanescent awakening of enthusiasm ~ Only time can certainly answer this question. But meanwhile signs of permanence must be acknowledged. For instance, the aggressive spirit of evangelism pervading these Oriental student bands, alike exemplified in Japan, China, among Armenians and Tamils. 'Witness also the persistency and energy of the Japanese and Chinese ; the intensity of conviction, which leads to such tenacious holding fast the faith in the face of ostracism, caste prejudice, and open persecution.
Nothing is more shining in its promise than the well-known prayer power, for example, of Japanese converts, who have been known literally to pray all night, having literal confidence in the promise that where two or three gather in the name of Christ, He is in the midst of them. And the high standard of habitual and self-denying giving which prevails among Oriental Christians adds to all the other proofs of lasting qualities in their piety the essential element of self-sacrifice, so lamentably wanting in the Occidental world.
It is not to be wondered at that Dr. McCosh characterized t;he Student Volunteer crusade as the greatest missionary revival since the first century, and that those who have watched this latest development of the Y. M. C. A. should regard it as the Divine outcome of that marvellous uprising of young men which, starting a half century ago, has by its unifying influence upon Christian believers of all denominations been, as Dr. R. D. Hitchcock said, such " a mitigation of the deplorable effects of our too disintegrated Protestantism. "
Mr. Wishard's brief but startling book closes with a threefold appeal: "Pray ye; go ye J' bring ye-a call to supplication, service, sacrifice." Twenty-five men are shortly to be occupying strategic points in the educational centres of the three continents, South America, Africa, Asia. Many more will be needed-are now needed. Here is a work in which all
'l'HE YEAR 1895 IN JAPAN
churches can harmoniously unite, magnifying essentials, minifying nonessentials, joining in a common cause without sacrifice of individual preferences and convictions. Here is a work in which ministers of Christ, unordained lay workers, and business men, can combine their piety, consecrated learning, youthful energy, and dedicated money..
Surely Mr. Wishard's" New Programme of Missions" commends itself for its philosophy, as sensible, spiritual, scriptural; and for its factual showing, as having demonstrated its feasibility and possibility. But, above all, there is in this very remarkable interweaving of providential developments something which looks to us as though the Divine Weaver were sitting at His loom, and with His grand shuttle weaving these strange threads in one pattern; and that our duty is to mark that design and submit ourselves and our sons and our substance to be wrought into the warp and woof of His blessed purpose. Other methods, however promising, have proved unpractical or impracticable. Is God leading us to the master stroke of modern missions, the raising up and enlisting and equipping of a native agency in the educated youug men of the Orient, who shall constitute a special home missionary contingent on foreign missionary fields to carry Christ's banner among their own conntrymen and take possession of these Oriental empires in His name 1 Is it not possible that the last great signal of the Captain of our salvation is now sounding, and that Jericho's walls are about to fall ~ THE YEAR 1895 IN JAPAN.
BY REV. GEORGE WILLIAM KNOX, D.D.
The world has followed the course of events in the far East during the year past with an attention which renders unnecessary any repetition of the story. Last year a postscript was added to our" review" announcing the beginning of the war. A twelvemonth has sufficed for Japan's complete triumph on land and sea, for the couclusion of peace, and the Emperor's triumphant return to Tokyo. One brief year has witnessed the advent of a new power among the nations and a transformation of the situation in the far East.
THE NEW POWER.-For the first time in the modern era a non-Christian nation takes position abreast of the States of Europe and America. At 'last an Oriental people demonstrate their ability to care for themselves and their fitness to be taken seriously.
Europe has looked on Asia as its prey, to be consumed at convenience. Its one safeguard has been the mutual jealousy of the nations-a weak defence, as Tonquin, Siam, and Burmah show. It has been feasible to conquer an empire with a few regiments of trained troops; but a new era begins. One Oriental nation not only defends itself, but makes its infiu-
HALL, DORMITORY OF THE ~mIJI GAKUI~
(The Mciji Gukuin is nn Academy nnd Seminary of the Church of Christ in Japun.) A JAPA~F.SF. l~~.
THE YEAR 1895 IN JAPAN. 64{1
ence felt beyond its bounds. It is courted as an ally and feared as a foe. It has mastered the mechanism of war; its troops can march, shoot, fight; its commissariat is amply supplied; its medical service meets modern scientific requirements; its ordnance is of the latest pattern; everything is foreseen, provided for, and well carried out. The greatest and most complicated of machines subjected to the severest tests works smoothly. Not even Germany in 1870 was more completely ready than Japan in 1894.
THE NEW SITUATION AT ROME.-SO Japan proclaims itself master of its own destiny. Its supremacy at home is complete, assured. No power, no possible combination of powers can conquer the island empire on its own domain. Of all non-Christian States it only exists, not by sufferance, but by its own strength. Without interference it will work out its own salvation or its own ruin. It only, of all, dares claim a career of its own.
The new treaties sign and seal the triumph. Japan resumes all its sovereign rights. Again, it only of non-Christian States has jurisdiction over Christian foreigners within its bounds; it only forms treaties on the basis of absolute equality. The treaties with Great Britain and the United States were negotiated before the war had given its unquestioned proof of Japan's military and naval strength. They are the willing recognition of the nation's progress at home-a progress so great that it shows again that " Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war."
Thus is secured the object so long desired. An element of danger and difficulty is removed. No longer can demagogues use this topic to excite popular discontent and ill-wiil against all foreigners. Missions should gain as Japanese self-respect and laudable ambition are gratified.
With victory, military and diplomatic, comes evidence of a juster estimate of self. The terms imposed on China are themselves proof of the wisdom of the men who rule_ No victor could be more reasonable and self-controlled. And when Russia, Germany, and France interposed to deprive Japan of a portion of the fruits of victory, again the soundest and most far-sighted policy prevailed. The men who lead Japan to-day know at once their power and their limitations. The empire is safe in their hands_ Not less remarkable is the attitude of the nation. The modification of the treaty was a great disappointment, and the interference of the three powers was taken as a national humiliation. But the wisest self-control is everywhere manifest. Self-constituted critics have taken it upon themselves to fear insolence in the day of triumph_ One even thought defeat desirable lest the conceit of the nation become "insufferable." The event has shown how vain was the fear. There is no undue exaltation, but, on the contrary, the people have acquired just views of the progress made, and of the work remaining to be done. Doubtless there is a new self-confidence, a certainty that the career of progress has been no mistake, and that the lessons learned have not been superficial. There is a consciousness of strength, and an attitude born of the knowledge that Japan has merited the recognition so generally given it.
It turns,with earnestness to the works of peace. It knows that even military prowess in our day rests on wealth. It would prove itself also great in agriculture, commerce, and the commonplace business of every day.
The war has united the nation. For a year factional political strife has ceased. All have supported the government. There have been no dissentients. This is the more remarkable, as nowhere has party strife bep-n' more bitter or more unreasoning. Since peace was made there is evidence that the better counsel is to prevail, and that the nation will seek more calmly and unitedly its constitutional development.
THE NEW SITUATION ABRoAD.-Abroad the situation is threatening. Victory may be only a prelude to another and more serious conflict. In Korea Japan has a task of the last importance, but of the gravest difficulty. Japan fought that Korea might be independent; but Korea can be independent only as it is worthy of freedom. It is surrounded with enemies, and must be strong if it is to remain a nation. But it has not an element of strength. It is poor, ignorant, misgoverned, corrupt. The government is a confused centre of discord and intrigue. It needs reformation root and branch, but the very leaders who are pledged to reform and the new regime plot and scheme and seek their personal advantage. Korea needs regeneration. Can Japan give that? And over against Japan stands Russia, hostile, watchful, greedy. England in Egypt had a light task in comparison.
Formosa, too, has difficulties and dangers only less than Korea's. If Japan succeeds, it will prove itself worthy of a place among the very first. It needs the qualities England only has shown. It will be sharply judged, and by critics who will find their own gain in Japanese failures.
In seeking such unmeasnred responsibilities and duties Japan has entered upon a new phase of national being. It will need every power if it is to maintain itself. One doubts, but the history of the twenty years past has been a history of the triumphant silencing of such doubts.
THE CHURCH.-It is not surprising that the gain in converts has been small. Public attention has been fully occupied with other things; yet has there been much progress made.
The Church has proved its loyalty. Strange that it was doubted. But Christianity has been held a foreign religion, something of the ancient prejudice has remained, and the uncompromising teaching of the Bible making Christ Lord has been thought inconsistent with whole-hearted obedience to an earthly sovereign. The war has been more efficient in dispelling this charge than countless books and sermons. Persuaded that the war was" righteous," none has been more self-sacrificing and patriotic than the Christians. They have been wanting in no duty which pertains to good citizenship, and their conduct has been marked and approved in high quarters. So, toe, has the government shown its impartiality. It has been charged with hostility to Christianity, and in isolated instances subordi- nate officials have given occasion for the charge; but during the war the government has directly aided efforts put forth by the Church and the Bible societies. This has been the more noticeable as the war might have served as a pretext for a different attitude; but no pretext was sought, as'none was desired. Prince Komatsu, commander of the Imperial Guard, gave permission to distribute copies of the Bible to all in his command, thanked the workers, and appointed men to assist. Mr. Loomis, of the Bible Society, was given special permission to visit. all garrisons, and the missionaries and Japanese Christians in Hiroshima, the headquarters, had full opportunity for evangelistic work. Finally, two Japanese clergymen were allowed to go to the seat of war on the same terms as the Buddhist priests.
With the national triumph the Church feels an increased responsibility.
It has long talked of foreign missions, now it begins the work. A united effort is making for the evangelization of Korea. As part of this work it should be noted that some of the Korean students recently come to Japan have been sent to the school in Sendai which is maintained by the Re- formed (German) Church in the United States and is under the control of the Rev. M. Oshikawa.
At home more than ever the Church talks of independence. This is peculiarly manifest in the Kumiai churches (Congregational). Two years ago the General Conference decided to admit no church to membership which is aided by the American Board, and this year (the first; week in May) the Conference voted to receive no further subsidy for its horne mis- sionary society. .
Were this action the result of heightened national feeling only, it perhaps need not be regretted. One hesitates about it, and fears it is premature, but in other lines of action such hesitation and doubt have been proved mistaken. Why not in Christian work also? But the doubt is increased as we are told that the action is also from a desire for greater freedom of thought-in fact, of complete emancipation from all creeds.
No matter what a man may think about Christ, no matter what i!'l his belief about God, if only he seek to live the life of our Lord and to extend the kingdom. Some of the leaders, we are told, hold "not Christianity at all, but simply the Confucianism of olden times." And though" most of the pastors and evangelists are within the limits of a reasonable ortho- doxy, yet with almost perfect unanimity they stand for freedom of thought. " That is freedom for men who find" no room at all for an objective revelation," and eliminate from the "definition of God all that we of the West prize in the idea of personality." As neither the funds nor the missionaries of the American Board stand for such " free- dom, " complete independence is declared.
At the same time it must not be forgotten that the Kumiai churches are not the whole of Christianity in Japan, nor its only representatives. The other Protestant bodies stand firmly by the faith once delivered to the saints, and show no desire to widen their boundaries so as to include men who do not hold the common evangelical belief. During the year past the leading men of the Nippon Kirisuto Kyokwai (Presbyterian Reformed) strongly resented a public charge that they are untrue to their creed.
PROSPEOTS AND PROBLEMs.-In State and Church prospects were never fairer, nor problems more perplexing. The State has won victory and complete independence. It has conquered a peace, and the first demand is that the fleet be so increased that it may be invincible in Eastern seas. It commands the future of Korea, and its wisest statesmen are perplexed by the intricate difficulties disclosed. It possesses Formosa, and finds itself heir to many ills. It has shown its equality with the West, and already the politics of Europe influence its destiny. It has accomplished much, only to find itself forced to accomplish more. It has sho.wn its strength, and it has learned its dangers. In aU things it deserves our sympathy and best wishes. If it demonstrate that an Eastern nation may maintain itself, if it stop Occidental spoliation of the Orient, if it teach Europe to respect Asia, if through it the international law of Christendom extend throughout the world, it will have rendered a service to the West not second to its service to the East. Japan is said to desire a strong, self-dependent, progressive Orient, and every Christian must say, Amen.
The Church has never had fairer prospects. It has had official recognition, and that counts for much. It is representative of that spirit of Christ which aU the nation has honored in the work of the Society of the Red Cross. Confucianism in its stronghold has been shown unable to make citizens patriotic or officials honest. The influence of Christendom has been proved more effective in practical humanitarianism in a generation than was the influence of Buddhism in a millennium. The hostility excited by the old treaties against foreigners has been removed by the re- VISIOn. Missionaries can reside and travel without restrictions. The Church responds to its new conditions and undertakes with zeal work at home and abroad.
As the Church thus finds its opportunity, so does it find its difficulties increased. With Japan unevangelized, it must begin work abroad; as it comes on to self-support a minority deny the essential faith; with its increased self.consciousness and strength, it finds the greater difficulty in co-operating with foreign missionaries, and the foreign missionaries may· well question whether their increased facilities are not too late for the most efficient service.
Our prayer is that the Church may accomplish the work whereunto it is called. Our sympathies are all with it. Its triumph will be the vindication of foreign missions. Its success will mean hope and salvation to the lands beyond.
JAPAN'S DEBT TO CHRISTIANITY
JAPAN'S DEBT TO CHRISTIANITY.
BY REV. JAMES I. SEDER, A.M., TOKYO.
At this time of. comparatively slow progress, humanly speaking, of Christianity in Japan, it may be especially fitting to take a brief retrospect over the work which has already been done, and, with ihe gratitude to God, from the success of the past, take courage for the future.
In counting up a few of the mile-posts which Japan has set along the highway of her modern and marvellous progress, I set out with this funda· mental postulate: God is spirit, light, love, life, creator, and cause of all being. The spiritual is the genesis of the material. Spiritual light among men is the genesis of the merely intellectual, both together are the means of originating all that is good in the institutions and conditions of human society. Christianity is the embodiment of the highest spiritual or moral light, the genesis of the highest intellectual enlightenment of the race, a~d thus the source of the highest civilization. Being perfect as a doctrine of light and life, it is not responsible for the evils which attend t.his highest civilization. These result from man's perverted use of this light. If it be remarked, therefore, that some of Japan's progress is due to civilization rather than, or as well as to Christianity or to the work of missionaries, we confidently answer that ours is a Ohristian. civilization, itself the undeniable fruit of Christianity. Japan, too, has been made a partaker of the blessings of Christianity and its civilization, and thus has become infinitely a debtor.
The first doctrine, a tl'l1th fundamental to the whole superstructure of this nation's modern progress, and for which she is indebted to Christianity, is the idea of a personal God, who is at once supreme, absolute, eternal, infinite, self-existent, intelligent, spirit, and the creator of all things. This conception is utterly wanting in the old religions of Japan. At an interview with a leading Buddhist priest of the famous Nikko temples he told us that the universe was not created, but was caused to appear by a god called Bonten. This god sustains no further relation to the world, does not guide and control it, and the tiniest infant may in time also become a god capable of creating worlds. This is nothing more than the old atomic theory that possibly there was a great first cause which caused matter to exist, and out of which the world was evolved. It fails to perceive that the Being who caused matter to exist and made the laws of nature also executes them.
The teaching of the priests generally must, to judge by the results, be as much confused as the ideas of this priest, if not more so. The superintendent of schools of a certain city recently tested the religious knowledge of his pupils. He chose 118 of them, their average age being fourteen. To the question as to what is to be understood by the word" god," 97 of them, or 82 per cent, answered: "Our imperial ancestors and benefactors reverenced by us." These are really without God and without hope in the world; and this is the fruit of the old religions. Ten only replied that God is a spiritual Being outside of mankind, one adding that He is the Creator of the universe. This latter is clearly the result of Christian teaching, the fruit of missionary sermons, prayers, and gifts in the home land and of like efforts here. In God's own time these figures will be reversed.
Christianity has also given to this people the knowledge of the person- ality and immortality of the soul. In theory Buddhism teaches the trans- migration of the soul; but there are multitudes who do not know what " soul" is, nor that there is such an existence. Missionaries often experi- ence great difficulty in getting people to understand and believe that there is a soul. Out of the 118 pupils before named, 62, or over one half, denied the existence of any soul. Fifty-two believed in the existence of the soul, but 25 of these denied its immortality. Thus three fourths do not believe in an immortal soul. Said an intelligent old Samurai to the writer: "Th.ere is no immortal soul. When my body falls into the grave that is the end of me. " So these people think, believe, are I Deduct from the a~ove 118 the number of those who believed in God and those who no doubt had come under the influence of Christian teaching, and the remaining per cent of those who intelligently believe in the existence of the soul is extremely small. And yet it seems not unreasonable to infer that if the parents had any clear conceptions about the matter, the youth must have caught their ideas, so that it is not greatly unfair to apply these proportions also to the adult population. Then, too, the most hopeful thing the common adherents of the old religion have to look forward to is transmigration. The farmer or betto who maltreats his horse in this life becomes a farm-horse with a man's head in the next I Compared with the doctrine of the resurrection what a contrast I Said an old Japanese Christian lady, as she was nearing the end of her life, and after hearing a sermon on the resurrection: "The old people of Japan, for the most part, have nothing to look forward to but to fondle their grandchildren and die. How different with us who are Christians! How glorious and beautiful the new life that will be ours I"
The old religions contain no adequate conception of sin and its heinous- . ness. This is a logical consequence of their lack of the knowledge of a personal God as moral governor, and the soul as a responsible subject. When these religionists see a man who was born blind they ask, as did those of old: "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind~" (John 9 : 2). The evil that man experiences in this world is the effect of misconduct in the former world; and by good conduct a person may again rise to high degrees of virtue, even out of hell itself. That sin is the transgression of a just, perfect, holy law of a perfect moral Being of supreme authority, and that to break this law is infinitely sinful ,and degrading, is something scarcely thought of even among the priests. The worst feature about sin-e.g., lying or stealing-is to be caught at it. Hence the degradation and utterly corrupt moral condition of even the priesthood, so that a few years ago the government found itself constrained to give warning that the priests must reform, or punishment must be meted out to them-something never before known in the history of the nation. And if such is the moral, or rather immoral, condition of the shepherds (as even the Buddhist papers bewailingly ar:;sure us), what must needs be the condition of the flock ~ But even this, though of deep significance, is not yet the worst. Bud- dhism does have some vague conception of sin and its final punishment: Pictures of paradise, of hell, and judgment are on sale, and the representations of the latter are certainly awful enough; but its devotees know nothing of a personal Saviour from sin, of effectual repentance, pardon, peace, and a joyous salvation. Only through the Gospel do they learn the words and power of the song : " I have a Saviour, He's pleading in glory, A dear, loving Saviour, though earth·friends be few. II The priests tells us (and statements in this article are based on conversations with priests and observations of the people rather than on books) that a man may, by reading the Buddhist books, become sufficiently free from evil desires to become a Buddha-i.e., attain to perfect happiness before or at death. But when asked whether anyone, as a matter of fact, did really attain to such a state in this life, he could think of but one living priest who was so far perfected that he was entirely free from the desire to steal and the like. Thus it is evident the prospects, the hope of deliverance from sin, even among the priests, is extremely small. And what, then, of the laity ~ It is only through the Gospel that the dark night of despair has been illuminated and filled with hope. Buddha, or S.akya Muni, did not die for the sins of the people. Christ did, and Christianity offers, in place of the unattainable and scarcely desirable ideal of salvation by works, that by faith-present, positive, perfect, free- Christianity has, moreover, given to Japan the best literature of which the Bible is the foundation-stone. The best of foreign missionary and Japanese talent had been for a long time engaged on the work of translation, and by the best Japanese scholars the Bible in the vernacular is pronounced one of the best translations of any book in the language. The various Bible societies, with t.he co·operation of missionaries and colporteurs, are doing a grand work in spreading the Bible. The Japan Scripture Union proposes as one of its objects, to give every man in the country, who is able to read, an opportunity of possessing the Bible for himself. The Christian Physicians' Society of 70 members proposes distributing the Bible among the 40,000 physicians of the empire and the 1000 new men who annually enter the medical ranks. Until the funds permit giving the whole Bible, the Gospel of Luke will be distribut~d, 'fhil? work has already been begun, and is now being carried on. In creating a Christian literature a colossal work has been done. In books, magazines, papers, tracts, leaflets, the number and influence is almost beyond computation. Of the school-books many contain lessons from the Bible. A Japanese youth who refnsed to listen to stories from the Bible, willingly received them out of the Third Reader. The great non-Christian dailies and weeklies often unawares bring their readers stories, anecdotes, and illustrations Christian in source, sentiment, and tendency. But with this I would not make the impression as though Japanese newspaper literature were morally of a particularly high grade. One daily paper recently contained columns of information day after day concerning the gross immoralities of the" Remmonkyo," a Japanese new religious organization. No respectable and patriotic Japanese would translate it into English because of its vileness.
But Christianity has also come in, and by its varied agencies stirred the stagnant moral life of the nation. Gospel temperance work is carried on with vigor, and the crusade is directed also against the smoking of the " filthy weed," which was introduced into Japan by the Portuguese three centuries ago. Prostitution is licensed by the government, and parents still sell their daughters into these physical and moral death-pits with the sanction of the authorities. But Christianity has uncovered the shame of this inhuman business, and sentiment has been created against it. Women themselves have taken a prominent part in this agitation, notably also the woman's magazine. In some parts of the country these public places of shame have been abolished, and the tide is rising higher.
Lying, too, is considered in a different light than it once was. Christianity is setting forth the high ideal of perfect truthfulness and is pressing its claims. As an instance of far-reaching influence upon the whole national life, which shows that veracity and truth is being songht, it may be mentioned that some of the best scholars of the empire are engaged in sifting the national history and mythology in order to ascertain the facts. Truth is coming to be valued and desired ; and although it still meets with great opposition, it will win its way here as elsewhere. Here is another instance from the humbler walks of commercial life. Said a Buddhist orange merchant to the writer recently while praising his oranges: "I don't lie; I am a Christian." Although at the very moment he spoke his foot slipped from the path of truth, as the idols and shrines in and about the house testified, yet the restraining ideal was present. The more that missionaries and Christians generally speak and live the truth among this people, the more will its power and influence spread.
In religion in general, Christianity is substituting optimism for the former pessimism. The old religious ideal was "to leave the world of suffering" and enter Nirvana, or be absorbed into the universe and prilctical nothingness ; the new is to stay in the world and help reform it. This exceeding pessimism and materialism is justly charged to the old religion. It may be due in a large degree to the ill prospects for the future world as held out by its teachings, and as believed in at least by the common people. But yesterday I studied a pair of Buddhist paintings. The one represented paradise or heaven, with Buddha sitting in a huge lotus flower as his throne, surrounded with the sacred lotus flowers and absorbed in peaceful contemplation. The angels were beings with female faces and upper extremities, and having the wings and tails of peacocks. Similar forms were in a boat on the lotus pond gathering these sacred flowers and presenting them afterward to Buddha. This, with some minor details, was to represent paradise, heaven. It was extremely commonplace at the best, and but little calculated to create any strong desire in anyone to go there. Nearly every detail of the Christian's conception of heaven was conspicuously wanting.
The second was a representation of the final judgment and hell. It was certainly awful enough. Children were there as well as adults. Among many things else was a big brown demon who, amid streams of gore, was extracting the tongues of liars. Then there was also Pin Mountain (a mountain made of pins and needles with the points upward), on which scores of women were suffering and streams of blood were flowing. These were women who had not been as careful in this world as they ought in the use of pins. Such is the pessimism of the old religion as popularly believed. What a contrast between these and Christian ideals! Not that the hell of the Bible is described in any less terrible words and figures, but through the Gospel this present life has become worth living, and our heaven is unspeakably more lovely and worth gaining, and if! accessible not only to priests and their kind, but to all who trust in Christ for salvation.
Christianity has given to Japan an ideal for home life, such as had never been known in this land before-a Christian home. Not that it has changed all or even a very large per cent of Japanese homes as yet. Quite the contrary; but the model is here, criticised by the unthinking few, but admired and desired by the intelligent many. The ideal Christian marriage, the foundation of the Christian home, is based on individual freedom, mutual acquaintauceship, union of hearts in reciprocal love, and respect for mutual rights and obligations. The custom of Japan is that partners for life, or rather for a while, are selected by a "go-between." I say" for a while" advisedly, as one third of the marriage contracts are broken by divorce, to say nothing of other kinds of unfaithfulness. In Christian America, sad to sa], the proportions of divorces to marriages are one to sixteen; but here they are one to three. Christ allows but one reason for divorce-adultery-and that to both man and woman. Confucius, the Chinese sage, after whose ideas the Japanese laws, customs, and practices on this subject are modelled, allows man, and him only, seven grounds for divorce-disobedience, barrenness, lewd conduct, jealousy, leprosy or any other foul and incurable disease, too much talki.ng, and thievishness. Christianity is justified, therefore, in setting up her ideal for Japan's imitation, and it is to the credit of this country that she is accepting the best. Christianity has also set a stake to concubinage, which was introduced into Japan while Confucianism was regnant.
The social status of woman is much improved, and her rights are being recognized more and more by "the lords of creation," by the law, and in the courts. They are, moreover, being admitted to superior educational advantages in the various government and mission girls' schools, and are winning their way to eminence in literature and art, music, poetry, painting, and other vocations. Formerly woman was regarded as so much inferior to man, that by the teachings of Japanese Buddhism she was denied entrance to the higher joys of the future world. Christianity knows no such distinctions, and the work of woman's emancipation in Japan has at least been well begun.
Even for her general educational system and progress Japan is in no small degree indebted to Christianity. Early education was in the hands of Buddhist priests, and the studies were the Slltras. Three centnries ago Confucianism came into power with the rise of the Shogunate, and from that time on, the Confucian and Chinese classics were learned by heart, and instruction was imparted in the national history and literature. Meagre as it was, and excluding women as it did, with the revolution of 1868 the old system of education fell with the Shogunate, and an entirely new start was made. Americans, notably missionaries and mission schools, exerted a strong moulding influence upon the trend of the new Japanese education in its early days. Rev. Dr. Verbeck was the organizer and for some years the head of what is now the Imperial University at Tokyo. He was also for a long time educational adviser to the· government, and thus in a position to exert an influence for immeasurable good in behalf of Japan. The common school system of Japan was modelled after that of America. Dr. McCartee, now over fifty years a missionary in Japan and China, was also a professor in the university for some years.
Nor should the names of Griffis, Janes, President Clark, and others be forgotten in connection with the establishment of the new educational system, all of whom exerted a strong Christian influence and gave it direction and momentum. Should anyone think that Christian ideas have not yet sufficiently penetrated Japan's education, let him ponder what Professor Chamberlain, of the Imperial University, says of this people's original condition: "What is the situation g The nations of the West have, broadly speaking, a common past, a common fund of ideas, from which everything they have and are springs naturally, as a part of a correlated whole-one Roman Empire in the background, one Christian religion at the centre, one gradual emancipation, first from feudalism and next from absolutism, worked out or now in process of being worked out together, one art, one music, one kind of idiom, even though the words expressing it vary from land to land. "Japan stands beyond this pale, because her past has been lived through under conditions altogether different. China is her Greece and Rome. Her language is not Aryan, as even Russia's is. Allusions familiar from one end of Christendom to the other require a whole chapter of com- mentary to make them at all intelligible to a Japanese student, who often has not, even then, any words corresponding to those which it is sought to translate." All this and much more is fact, and in view. of this it may with truth be said that in the educational line a work of magnificent pro- portions has already been accomplished j and through mission schools and other agencies, Christianity is still exerting a widely felt and lasting influ- ence for the highest good, educationally, of the nation.
Under the Tokugawa regime more than five persons were not allowed for any purpose to club together under penalty of law. Associations and societies for mutual aid or for the common weal were impossible. The hand of God was in its overthrow, and since then Christianity has come in and originated a varied and organized charity in Japan, as it does wherever it goes. Orphanages and homes for the needy poor have been established and are receiving constant support, and their number is increasing. The Roman Catholics alone report 17 with 1772 children j then they have a hospital for lepers with 86 inmates, and another for the aged. Protestant missions have 3 hospitals with 760 in-patients treated during the past year. Then there is the Sanitary Society with over 6000 members, the Red Cross Society, under immediate patronage of the Empress, both of them Christian in spirit and purpose; but besides these there are a number of other hospitals, orphanages, relief societies and charitable organizations springing up throughout the land, the legitimate fruit of Christianity and its civilization.
Absolutism, moreover, has had to give way to a constitutional form of government which pledges itself to respect the rights of the governed and promises religious liberty to Japanese subjects, if that liberty be not set aside by the government's interpretation of the twenty-eighth article of the constitution. That reads: "Japanese subjects shall, within limits not prejudicial to peace or order, and not a:ntagonistic to their duties as subjects, enjoy freedom of religious belief." It will be seen, by a careful reading of the article, that there is still considerable room for absolutism to curtail the religious liberty of Japanese subjects by acts of tyranny on the part of heads of departments of government and other officials. In point of fact this tyranny has been, and still is being exercised against Christian soldiers, school-teachers, scholars, and others, and the question may well be asked, " Is Japan dealing fairly g"
And yet the promulgation of the constitution and the institution of a representative legislative assembly, both of which, let it be remembered, are in their origin distinctively Christian, was a magnificent step upward. True, the one is not absolutely perfect, nor the other working t~o smoothly; but that is only repeating the history of representative governmente! in Western lands. Continental European history furnishes ample proof of this.
In this same line other and important reforms, all for the amelioration of the condition of the people, and for their elevation and civilization, have been inaugurated. Local self-government has also been established. The social disabilities of the pariah class, or eta, have been removed, a law passed against nudity in cities, the samurai have been forbidden to wear their barbarous sword, the burden of land-tax lightened by one half per cent, new and more civilized, and it may justly be said Christianized, laws and courts established for the whole country. And all this within a little more than a quarter of a century. Now, many of these are unquestionably permanent Christian institutions, and will remain comparatively unaffected by the ebb and flow of pro or anti-Occidental sentiment. Thus the foundation of a new nation has been laid deep and strong, and it now remains to continue the building.
When the present treaty ports were opened trade was at a very low ebb. Long ages of aristocratic feudalism, with its vexatious and ruinous restrictions, had dwarfed trade, and put it into the hands of a class of traders utterly unsuited to produce a national commercial prosperity. They were of low caste, but of a commercial morality still lower, " tricky rather than clever," and "the largest dealer did not consider it a breach of moral obligation to break a contract which went against his interests even in a trifling sum." The standard of business morality has, however, been greatly improved since their contact with the better business methods and morals of foreigners; and there still is room for improvement ad infinitum.
Commerce rests on intelligence and mutual confidence, on character for honesty and truthfulness. Native businessmen recognize this, and are seeking to establish these. Christianity promotes these. Thus domestic trade has been resurrected, so to speak, and since the opening of the country to Western nations, Japan's domestic and foreign trade has marvellously developed. In 1879 its foreign trade was estimated at only $66,000,000 ; ten years later it had more than doubled, being $136,000,- 000 in 1889 ; and since then it has largely increased, the Trade Report for the past half year indicating a foreign trade of over $210,000,000 annually. About 70 per cent of this is with distant Christian America and England, while her near heathen neighbor, China, had only 11 per cent of the above. These figures and proportions cannot be altogether without significance. Without speaking of the numerous and important industries which have arisen within the last two decades, and without entering the subject farther, it is evident that Christianity has made work and honest trade honorable as well as in many respects profitable in this land.
These are some of the indications that Christianity, in its widest sensQ, iii by no means without influence in this land. Christianity has given
THE OPEN DOOR OF KOltEA. 6&1
Japa.n the highest po!!!!ible religiou!! and ethical ideals a.nd teaching!!, the basis for her highest possible intellectual, moral, and material development; and although internal forces were at work which would have brought about a revolution, even if outside influences had not come in, yet from former revolutions, as compared with this last, it is evident, that the impact of Christianity and its civilization has given to Japan such direction and momentum as have made the Japan we see to-day, and has opened a most brilliant and promising future for the nation. But infinitely more than all that, the Gospel has come and brought eternal life to the shores, the homes and the hearts of Japan, and still proposes to itself the great task of saving this land of the rising sun.
THE OPEN DOOR OF KOREA.
BY C. C. VINTON, M.D., SEOUL, KOREA.
A few remarks upon the advantages enjoyed by a missionary in Korea may be especially welcome just now to those who have been accustomed to think of Korea as the far-off Hermit Kingdom, yesterday guarded at every loophole against the intrusion of a single foreign idea, to-day brought miraculously in contact with the blessings of civilization through the good office of a recently transformed neighbor.
Ten years and some few months have passed since missionaries first gained a foothold in this exclusive land. In that time they have taken many steps toward an understanding of its people, customs, and institutions. One fact, early perceived, and more fully realized with fuller knowledge, is that this spirit of seclusion is not a characteristic of the people themselves, but is part of the subtle scheme by which China has held them for centuries in her toils. As the child shuns the garret because it has been told there are goblins there, so the confiding Korean has learned from generation to generation to dread contact with those outer barbarians whom his kind protector, the Chinaman, told him knew only guile. Once when, three hundred years ago, a horde of such barbarians actually gained an entrance and overran his land, he found it quite as the Chinaman had said. Now it is not my wish here to discuss the premises or to call in question the conclusion itself. I seek only to draw attention to the fact that the Korean, when left to himself, is not by any means an exclusive individual, as his Chinese neighbor s~ems naturally to be; that his dislike of foreigners is based really upon ignorance, and that whatever grounds have been thought to exist for the opposite view may be readily explained by his failure to understand the foreigner and the foreigner's failure to understand him.
Simple and childlike in all but the mark of sin the Evil One has stamped upon him, the native Korean is ready to sit at the feet of whoever will instruct him. At China's feet he has sat thus long because she has con- strained him by force and persuaded him by arts. She has told him that her knowledge, her faith, and her customs arc all·sufficient, and all others false and bad; and he has believed her because he had no means of know- ing otherwise, except to let in the very evils against whose entrance she persistently warned him. So, when at last the foreigner really came with peaceful intent, there were no standards by which to judge him but those China had taught, and by these he proved lamentably deficient. How ignorant, how stupendously ignorant he was I He could not even read. For surely no civilized man would call that reading matter which was not expressed in those grand old Chinese characters, the only perfect language. How comical his dress I How undignified his gait I Both utterly unworthy the bearing of a man of breeding. How debasing his habit of performing tasks fit only for a servant! Witness his tennis-playing. Witness his gardening. Witness the personal dressing of wounds by the foreign surgeon. And, then, how violent the language he used over small things! So often petUlant or even positively angry merely because the horses he had hired for to-day have since been let out to another. And withal how impious! Since evidence can be found neither of reverence for his ancestors, nor for the spirits of his abIding-place, nor for any tangible god. How wanting in good manners, in good looks, in good taste I How incomprehensible in everyone of his traits! Altogether how contemptible a barbarian !
From the Korean stan point, yes. Quite as much as the Korean from ours. How much, there: .re, of mutual concession and adaptation was needful before any common ground of appreciation and sympathy could be reached.
But, as was said, steps have been taken-and not alone upon one side. In these more recent years the missionary has come to be able in some degree to put himself in the place of his neighbor. He understands somewhat better the modes of thought, the ambitions, the various pursuits and employments, the family life, and the superstitions of those around him. If be has not come to feel as they do, he can at least appreciate in many respects their feelings; and, on the other hand, they, if they do not appreciate his, have lost no small measure of their distrust for him. They have gotten to understand how large a measure of humanity is common to mankind, and so have joined in seeking a possible plane of mutual intercourse.
It is due, perhaps, to this gradually changing attitude most of all, that the door has been opened so widely of late to admit the Christian preacher. That such is the case no one doubts who' is cognizant of the facts. The missionaries' ability to present the Gospel acceptably and the native's willingness to receive it have increased manyfold within a few years. Of casual hearers to-day, a larger proportion manifest an interest in sacred trutbs than formerly. Of those in whom a first interest has been awakened, more prove to b~ sincere inquirers. From among inquirers, an increasing number seek admittance to the church. Such a stage exists in the prog- ress of any field toward Christianization. It might be called the stage of mutual confidence. The missionary has learned the character of his hearers and knows how best to direct his shafts. The native has learned the character of his teacher and puts confidence in his sincerity and wisdom.
Korea's door was from the outset said to stand wide open; and it did. From the day when Dr. Allen first opened that door at the point of his lancet, the missionary has gone frcely in and out. He has been forbidden to preach publicly, never privately. He has conducted educational enter- prises, in government employ as well as under the home board. He has freely treated and conversed with patients of high and of low degree alike. He has enjoyed perfect freedom of travel and of quiet intercourse with the people. Many in official circles have listened to the explanation of Chris- tian truth, as well as those of lesser degree ; and many of the people heard gladly, and praised the doctrine, and made little objection and-failed to believe. It was as the seed that fell upon stony places. The door was indeed open, but few regarded him that entered.
The door may be no wider open to-day, but they that are within give better heed. The formal prohibition of public preaching is not removed, but it has long become a dead letter, so that foreign missionaries and . native evangelists discourse freely to few or many by the roadside, in the hostelry, or in established chapels. The schools now number their pupils by scores instead of by singles, and hours of Bible study replace those formerly given of necessity to heathen classics. Patients refuse less often the surgeon's knife, recognizing that Ilis dependence is on God. Where preaching before was barren, inquirers are wont to appear. Scattered liter- ature begins to fructuate in readers seeking further light. A better soil has been reached. Korea not only admits, but welcomes.
This change had been gradually coming about during a period of sev- eral years, when last summer the war cloud burst over Korea. No wonder the poor little nation lost its wits. With impetuous onrush the dreaded Japanese swept over the land, hurling before them the forces of her ancient protector and destroying the illusions of a thousand years. The subsequent political changes, if not many in fact, are significant. A new era has dawned,-the Kaiwha-the era of reform. The former cabinet of Chinese sympathizers has been replaced by one of Japanese proclivities. Europeanized dress, coinage, and police are being introduced. A printed newspaper is issued every two days, and has a fair native circulation. A newly established Department of Education contemplates the inculcation of modern knowledge. Railroads are planned, and a train is in actual oper- ation from Pyeng Yang to the river mouth. At the palace and in all the public offices Sunday is observed as a day of rest. Honest men are being sought to take the responsible office of magistrate in country districts.
The suggestion for these reforms originates with the conqueror. They were upheld at the outset by the strong arm of a military occupation; but they are not repugnant in the main to the nation. They meet with the hearty favor of the Iring, who is really a beneficent sovereign, and who never held with the Chinese party to whom he was obliged to bend. Many of the higher government posts are filled by young men of noble Korean blood who have lived abroad, in several instances for more than a decade. Having experienced the blessings of enlightened government, they have returned to become the standard-bearers of social reform in their native land. Shopkeepers, farmers, and the other substantial classes hail the prospect of an honest collection of taxes and an honest expenditure of government funds. Gradually throughout the first few months of its propagation the Kaiwha has accumulated prestige, until now public opinion is almost unified in its favor. Foreign ideas, foreign dress, foreign implements, foreign laws, foreign observances, foreign learning are everywhere being spoken of as good, the ancient customs of the past as foolish and unprofitable. Rumors of expected fresh innovations fill the air, not only at the seat of government, but in far-off country precincts; and such rumors elicit oftener the approval than the objections of their hearers.
With these social and political changes the new era brings also a changed attitude on the part of the government toward Christianity. Of the new cabinet and their immediate supporters several are professed Christians, members of churches in the foreign cities where they have lived. Many others have experienced the benefits of religious freedom. Both king and queen have heard during the past winter, and willingly, from medical missionaries in attendance upon them, something of the truths of salvation. Officials in high position request, read, and discuss copies of the New Testament and other religious books. In such an atmosphere the law of death to those who profess Christianity is forgotten, and such persecutions as that of the previous spring at Pyeng Yang become impossible.
This interest in Christianity in high qua_ters may be taken as an evidence of that on lower social planes. This spring, as never before, the people flock to hear the preaching of the Gospel. Chapels are crowded. The throng surround windows and doors to the full radius of the speaker's voice. Street preachers draw larger groups than ever before. Hearers at dispensaries give closer attention than nsual. In country districts a. wider circle and a higher social stratum are reached. Men who have hitherto disdained the missionary now seek his attention, and this not by ones and twos, but everywhere in numbers. Men who have lived in open sin come confessing, repenting, and taking up the cross. As an inevitable consequence of this growing interest, sessions and examining bodies find their work growing burdensome. At every communion season there are numerous admissions. Nearly every Sabbath some baptism occurs. The lists of catechumens are full to overflowing. With all due caution as to seriousness and permanency of impression, this steady increase continues.
To the missionary, looking backward, then forward, it s~ems that an era. of unlimited Christian exteneion hae come on Korea, that very period for which he has been longing and praying, for which so many prayers were offered during the month-long visit among us last winter of the saintly Bishop Ninde. Vistas of rapid church growth, of multitudinous con"versions, rise before him, of speedy extension into every province and magistracy and larger town. What is God's wiII? The Christian community in Korea waits to learn it-waits not, but presses onward to preach at His bidding and to see what great things He will do.
The nation is in expectation. They look for the changing of all that is past. They are not more wedded to their old religious ideas than to those of daily social observance. The nation nevcr had a religion-only a superstition. With scholars it is the following of the precepts of Confucius j with the common people the propitiation of local spirits. Shall ever a more favorable season occur for the wide uprooting of these beliefs and the presentation of Christian truth?
What is to hinder? Chiefly the lack of workers. There is already more laid upon those in the field than they are equal for. Enquirers at every hand, new avenues daily opening, country districts one after another giving the invitation to come and preach, here a group of newly born converts in need of careful nurturing, there a slightly stronger community building themselves a church and calling for the meat of the "VOl·d-this is all as we would have it j but the hands that are ready and willing to work are weary, and drop powerless with its magnitude.
Such a crisis in religious things as passed over Japan two decades ago is to-day passing over Korea-a time when work counts double, when the first harvest is ripe and calls for garnering, when the land may be rapidly won or slowly lost-the land spoken of as a whole, as we speak of the Christian nations. As in Japan, through fewness of laborers, are opportunities and advantages to be lost? Or shall the force be so increased and so speedily that Korea shall be won while yet a fair and unbroken jewel for Christ?
The open door does not fail to be seen by those who have lately been pushing it farther open. The Christian churches of Japan have not been slow in organizing to send missionaries across the straits that separate them from Korea. Their coming is looked for and longed for by those already in the field. May Japan crown her labors by proving not only the civilizing, but the Christianizing power of the far East. From her shores yet another body of propagandists have bp,en still qnicker to embark, and are spreading their cult with a zeal not heaven-born. Throughout the southern provinces, under the guidance of a horde of Japanese monks, the revival of Buddhism progresses with a rapidity which indicates a ready acceptance for higher forms of faith. Christian missionaries do not dread them. It is not for their teachings that the heart of the sinner hungers. They preach a dying faith, and its revival can never infuse real vitality. Would that God might see fit to rouse His people to come hither and labor 8S these are doing.
THE MISSIONARY WORK OF THE LORD JESUS. [September _
THE MISSIONARY WORK OF THE LORD JESUS.* A PLEA FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS.
BY W. P. MEARS, M.A., M.D.
As in spiritual, moral, and social life, so also in mission work the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth in Holy Scripture as the Great Example to be followed.
Thus in regard to mission work He says: "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world" (John 20 : 21 j 17 : 18).
In undertaking mission work, therefore, especially to the heathen, it is of first importance to inquire in what way the Lord Jesus carried out the mission on which He was sent, so far as concerned His work as a Man among men.
Limiting the inquiry to the Gospel of St. Matthew, the description of the first missionary journey (Matt. 4) is utilized for the illustration, by various typical examples, of the method Jesus employed in carrying on His mission work, just as the journey itself was used for the preliminary instruction of His disciples.
The Method of Work is set out first in summary. "Jesus went about all Galilee (a) TEACHING in their synagogues, and (b) PREACHING the Gos- pel of the kingdom, and (c) HEALING all manner of sickness and all manner of disease, . . . and they brought unto Him all sick people, that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and (a) those which were possessed with devils, and (f3) those which were lunatic, and (y) those that had the palsy: and He healed them." . Not only are three modes of work mentioned-viz., preaching, teaching, and healing-but also three distinct varieties of healing j for of the" divers diseases and torments" there were three groups-viz. (a) that consisting in the possession by the devil of the soul as well as of the physical organism j (f3) that comprising disorders of the mind; and (y) that constituted by diseases of the body.
The method of work is then described in detail: (a) As to Teaching.-He taught His disciples, in chapter 5, first, what manner of spirit they must have, since "theirs is the kingdom of heaven j" secondly, what kind of work they must do that others might see their" good works," and glorify their Father in heaven j and that they themselves, as children of Him who does good to all alike, might be perfect even as He is perfect. Thirdly, in chapter 6 He taught them that -whether for spirit or for body, for life toward God or life toward man- * This paper is but exteuded extracts from what is perhaps the most superb appeal for med- ical missions to be found in the literature of the subject, and which originally appeared in the (Jhurch Missionary Intelligencer, September and December, 1894. With great reluctance we have been compelled to abridge it, feeling that abridgment approaches mutilation. But we hope our readers may be led to send to Salisbury Square for a copy of the entire addrcRs.-A. T. P. implicit faith in their Heavenly Father for every detail was essential (verses 1-34).
(b) As to Preaehing.-In chapter 7 Jesus turned rather to the mul- titude, for we are told" the people were astonished at His teaching." In so doing He changed the character of His address somewhat, preaching rather than teaching. First, He reproved, invited, and encouraged His hearers (v~rses 1-11). Secondly, He drew from all that He had said the practical application: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Thirdly, He appealed to the people to accept His message- proved true, as it was, by its fruits of good works of love and mercy- and to " beware of false prophets," whose message was in human words and not in God-like deeds. Lastly, He closed with a terrible warning as to the inevitable fate of those who might hear His words, but not do His works.
Through both teaching and preaching the same dominant theme runs -loving faith toward God issuing in loving work toward man.
(c) As to Healing.-While the summary statement indicates how broad is the meaning of the words "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" (4 : 23), the detailed examples in chapter 8 show how wide is the sense of the expression" all sick people" (4 : 24).
These examples are four in number, and cover all classes of men-viz. : The unclean by the Law physically-a Jew, a leper j the unclean by the Law ceremonially-a Gentile, the centurion's servant j the follower of Christ-Peter's wife's mother; the possessed of the devil-many of the people. * " He healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, ' Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses' " (8 : 17).· It was part of the mission of Jesus to share in all the troubles of every man, and to save every man altogether, body and soul, in or from all. So He healed all who came of all sickness, not merely or only as a sign of His M:essiahship, nor merely to draw people to Him, but rather as an integral and essential part of His mission (11 : 5). Jesus identified Himself with those with whom He came into relation, putting Himself in their place, coming down to their level, and drawing them to Him by His deep sympathy with their seemingly small troubles (e.g., in the cases of Bartimoous, the Syro-Phcenician woman, and the hungry.multitude). Does it not seem as if the Holy Spirit at the very outset laid special emphasis on the practical side of the mission of Jesus for the salvation of the whole man-body and soul? Dare we overlook such an Example, so emphasized in a record inspired by God Himself ?
The result of all was that the multitudes so pressed on Jesus that He * Dr. Mears might have added that these four ailments were manifestly typical: Leprosy, of the guilt ohin ; palsy, of the impotence of sin ; fever, of its inflamed lusts; and demoniacal possession, of diabolical control.-EDITOR. was obliged tu go away across the lake. Meanwhile, on the part of the Pharisees and others, jealousy and opposition were steadily on the increase.
Then came the first apparent check. The cure of a demoniac coupled with the judgment of sin (in the case of ihe keepers of the swine) resulted in a request from the people that He "would depart out of their coasts." So ended the first missionary journey.
In His own district He encountered a second apparent check, not for healing the sick and judging sin, as in the last case, but for healing the sick and forgiving sin, in the case of a palsied man. This event, as a lesson to His disciples, preparatory to a more extended missionary journey, gave the key to the view taken by Jesus of His work. Sickness no less than sin was one of those works of the devil which He had come to destroy.
Thus, in the first place, He spoke of an infirm woman as one" whom Satan hath bound." So, too, Peter described Him as " healing all that were oppressed of the devil." So Paul spoke of his own bodily afHiction as " the messenger of Satan;" so in Hebrews it is said, " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also • • . took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death-that is, the devil-and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
In the second place, Jesus here based His action on an argument which, as a syllogism, stands thus: The cure of sickness and the forgiveness of sins are equally the pre- rogative of God; I heal sickness without usurping that prerogative (i.e., committing blasphemy); therefore I forgive sins without blasphemy.
Or, the cure of sickness and the forgiveness of sins are identical in nature; I heal sickness; therefore I can forgive sins.
In a similar way, in the cure of a demoniac, Jesus argued: By the finger of God (or Spirit of God) only can cure be wrought; I cure; therefore I cure by the finger of God (or Spirit of God).
No man, as a mere man, can make the statement in the minor premiss of either apgument. Just as no mere man can forgive sins, so no mere man can cure or heal. A farmer merely sows the seed, but God gives the increase; a doctor merely gives treatment, it is God who cures. A medi- cal man, going in the power of God among the heathen, and showing the practical mercy and love of the Master, would, if but wholly filled with the Spirit, undoubtedly come very near to a modern representative of Jesus as He appeared to the men among whom He lived. • After the record of the two checks, there follow examples of teaching in a centre of opposition-to opponents and questioners-arising out of the preceding cure. Immediately after that cure Jesus, making His healing power a text for His preaching, used a further application of the same argument to confute the objectlOn of the Pharisees that He associated with sinners, and said in effect: "I came not to heal the whole but the sick, the sick in body and the sick in soul, sinners and not righteous men." Then come examples of healing in a centre of opposition. There in His own district He could not openly work because of the unbelief of the people. To the wilfully blind there was no revelation, to the voluntary unbeliever no sign. Still He refused none who came to Him. Hence it happened that in such a district He helped those who needed His help secretly or under pledge of secrecy.
Thus He raised to life the daughter of J aims, one of the class most opposed to Him (the people being excluded) ; He healed the woman with an issue (no one seeing) ; He cured two blind men (" in the house," so that" no man might know it") ; He drove out a devil (presumably in His own home).
Starting again on a second missionary journey, Jesus at first worked alone, "teaching • . • and preaching. . . and healing every sick- ness, . . . "as on His first journey. Healing was part of His work in private as well as in public. So heavy was the work and so great His compassion for the people, that after prayer He appointed the twelve to assist Him.
In this and six other places Jesus is spoken of as being" moved with compassion;" and in every case the objects were persons suffering from some 'purely temporal trouble. In sending out" laborers" He gave them power, while preaching, to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. The arrival of the kingdom was to be shown by the good done by the messengers. The other passages are as follows: The trouble of Bartimreus and his companion; the sorrow of the widow of Nain ; the need of the hungry multitude; the sickness of the multitude and the sickness of the leper; the adversity of the demoniac of Gadara.
Next come the names of the apostles, and then the terms of the commission -viz., " Go . • . preach . •. heal."
Jesus then" departed thence to teach and to preach," and soon came first into contact with the truly good, and then into more violent conflict with the bad. '
First He referred John the Baptist for proof of His Messiahship to His good deeds coupled with His good message, associating together as one heal- ing and preaching. He referred the people, as He had referred John, to His works, saying, "The works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me." Jesus did not in His public work lay weight on His fulfilment of prophecies concerning Himself, nor on the testimony of John the Baptist, but rather on the fact that His works of mercy, humanity, and healing were proofs that He was come from God the Father, and that His message of love and good-will was God-given.
He condemned the cities of Galilee, not for refusing to believe His words, but for refusing, in face of His works, to accept Him as the Mes- senger and Representative of God.
Rapidly the opposition grew. In contending with the Pharisees Jesus first argued that ., mercy is more than sacrifice," and that the satisfaction of even the temporal real need of man must take precedence of the ceremoniallaw, and even of the law of the Sabbath; that the greater law of whole-souled love to God, and of beneficent and philanthropic love to men, fulfilled all the canon of tbe law of Moses.
Jesus next illustrated this by the healing of a man with a withered hand. Nor did He lay the least stress on the miraculous power shown, but compared the bealing of the man simply to the lifting of a sheep out of a pit-to a deed of mercy which, being in man's power to do, ought therefore to be done. In a still more striking case-an infirm woman bent together-Jesus put this view forward very emphatically, saying in effect, " If it would be considered cruel and unmerciful to keep an ox tied up from the watering, would it not be far m01'e cruel, even inhuman, to rifuse to loose this woman, it being in one' 8 power to do so ? OUGHT not; the woman -if only as a deed of common humanity, how much more of God-like love-to be loosed eVen on the Sabbath day?" These passages give us not only the strongest indirect command, but the strongest logical argument for rendering benevolent, and especially medical help to all who need it.
In a rage the Pharisees went out to plot against Him, while He went out to continue His work of mercy among the" great multitudes" who were following Him, for " He healed them all."
The opponents of Jesus seized the occasion of His next recorded deed of healing-of a demoniac-as a pretext for ascribing His good works of mercy and love to the devil. Once more Jesus endeavored to show them how the devil is a destroyer and not a healer. Following up His withdrawal from open teaching and open works, He afterward spoke openly to His disciples only, but taught the people in parahles, because they would not see that He was the Healer not only of the body, but also of the soul, lest they "should be converted and He should heal them." So under a darkening cloud of conspiracy abroad and scandal at home, He brought His second missionary journey to a close in " His own country." It will be noticed that the works of Jesus produced three effects : (a) The people were attracted, andglorified God for what was done. (b) The religious leaders of the people were filled with malice. (c) The governors of the nation were undisturbed, or were rendered tolerantly curious. In His third missionary journey, immediately after the rejection and murder of His great forerunner, Jesus carried out His intention of withdrawal from open teaching and healing, and so ., departed into a desert place apart j" but, followed by the crowd, "was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick," even in His retirement carrying on His work of benevolent love. To get clear of the people and to secure freedom from observation, Jesus dismissed the multitude, sent His disciples over the lake, and followed them Himself. Landing northwest of the lake, still bent on withdrawal, He went toward Phamicia, but was hindered in His progress by His work of healing. As soon as the. inhabitants heard of His landing, "they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased, and besought Him" to heal them. What exact and literal repetitions of this scene occur in the experience of every medical missionary ! It is because Christians, as a rule, pass their lives in Christian lands, and are so accustomed to regard as entirely distinct the organizations for spiritual work and those for so-called philanthropic work, that philanthropy has ceased to be a distinctive sign of Christianity, and that Christians fail to realize the urgency and paramount importance of the close association of Gospel preaching and philanthropic labor, which is the most striking characteristic of the work as missionaries of our Lord and of His apostles; which, too, in the present day is proving to be the great lever by which alone, apparently, the fanaticism of the Mohammedan belt of Central Asia from Turkey to Thibet, and the utterly dead indifferentism of the small world of China, can to any very visible extent be moved.
Jesus passed beyond the Jewish pale and reached" the coasts of Tyre and Sidon," Himself the first to carry the universal Gospel to the Gentiles, by recognizing the faith of the Syro-Phamician woman, and by healing her daughter (15 : 22-28).
Passing thence, to avoid publicity He "went up into a mountain and sat down there." As before, He could not be hid. "Great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them," so that the people " glorified the God of IsraeL" So with the medical missionary of to-day. The sick are brought to him from all parts, and are literally cast down at his feet for him to cure, with the result in many cases. that the patients and their friends have been led to glorify the God who has put such love in the hearts of men, and has given them such means for the carrying of it into effect. All the power to heal, all the medical and surgical knowledge we have, is given directly by God for the use of men through men. Are Christians like their Master when they keep to themselves gifts such as these through which their lives have been so benefited-gifts which the Master used so liberally for all, Gentile and Jew, saint and sinner alike?
Here, as if to drive this lesson right home, Jesus suddenly called His disciples to Him, and said: "I have compassion on the multitude." For what great cause? For nothing more than so ordinary a trouble as a temporary want offood. If so small a bodily want excited the compassion of Jesus, and led to so markedly delibemte an exhibition of it, how can His Church of to-day neglect the great inarticulate wail which hourly rises to heaven from half the population of the whole ,globe, as they vainly cry out in their sickness and miser,!!, theil' helplessness and hopelessness? If help for them does not come from the Church, whence can it come? These signs were quite insufficient for the religious leaders of the people, who wished for Rigns of power rather than of love. So once more refusing any further sign than His Resurrection, "He left them and departed. "
After coming back to His daily life, Jesus, in response to an appeal for mercy and help, incidentally healed the lunatic whom His disciples had failed to cure. On them His Spirit had not yet wholly fallen. So He showed them that to work as He did they needed the qualifications of the successful missionary-aggressive faith j prayer and self-denial (fasting) j self-sacrifice and daily surrender with reference to what He had just previously told them j and confiding trust as children of the King, in their Father in heaven (17 : 20-27).
Steadfastly setting His face for His great trial, Jesus left Galilee and came into Judrea, and healed the great multitudes which followed Him.
When He left Jericho for Jerusalem, with a heart as full as ever of pity for the troubles of men, whether of soul or body, seeing and hearing blind Bartimreus and his companion, He " had compassion on them" and healed them.
Arriving in Jerusalem, there in His Father's house, where He first went about His Father's business, He finished the mi~sionary work which His Father had given Him to do. And how did He finish it 1 "The blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them.' I So ends in this Gospel the record of the missionary work of Jesus among the people.
In an epilogue, as it were, in speaking of the final judgment, the Lord Jesus sets forth that only those shall enter into the kingdom of heaven who have shown that in this present life they have followed in the footsteps of the Master, who" went about doing good" -who in simple faith and for His sake have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, provided for the solitary, clothed the destitute, cared for the sick, and visited those in any bondage.
Christians are in this world as their Master was in this world. It is by seeing their good works-as once they saw those of Jesus-that men are to be led to glorify the Father. As to what those works are, they are an indissoluble combination of verbal testimony to Jesus with such practical work as is to-day only just beginning to receive recognition by Christians generally-the work, namely, of a typical medical missionary. Can this combination be separated without direct challenge of the method of J esns ~ Is it not tautology to talk of missions and medical missions 1 Are those not the same if they resemble those of Jesus and His apostles and disciples 1 It is true that the work of preaching and the work of healing must be generally in different hands. Is not the one kind of work, however, the necessary complement and supplement of the other 1 Are they not the two sides of the same thing-the human and Divine sides of the gospel of goodwill ~ Joined, then, as these are by God, can they be put aiunder by any man without detriment to the work of God ~ II. Possibly it may be thought that the WORK OF THE APOSTLES after the bestowal of the Pentecostal gifts took a special departure in the direc- tion, chiefly, of two of the three methods of work described in the Gospels -viz., those of preaching and teaching; leaving that of healing to occupy a very secondary and temporary position.
A special study, therefore, of the missionary work of the apostles, as recorded in the Acts and as illustrated in the Epistles, becomes of impor- tance, whether as showing the continuity or otherwise of the indirect work of the Lord when He was "working with" the apostles, through His Spirit, with His direct work, while He " went in and out among" them in the flesh; whether as indicating the exactness or otherwise with which the apostles strove to imitate His example in the carrying out of that work.
In one respect the apostles had to commence and carryon their missionary work under conditions different from those obtaining in missionary effort of the present day: 1. They should be ready to carry the Gospel at once into all quarters and to varions nations; 2. They shonld have power to force home its teaching on men's hearts and consciences and to defend its doctrine against the evil ingenuity of men's minds; 3. They shonld be able, in their practice, to recommend its message of mercy by deeds of mercy.
The apostles and their co-workers and immediate snccessors, therefore, were endowed with special" gifts" for these various ends; and for only so long as they were needed until (a) the Church was firmly planted in the various great centres of the world, and (b) placed under the immediate charge of native presbyters and deacons, in whose hands were written narratives of the life of our Lord and epistolary doctrinal instructions from His apostles.
The special gifts were: 1. Of "divers kinds of tongues" and of "interpretation (understanding) of tongues;" 2. Of " the word of wisdom" (prophecy) and of "the word of knowledge" (teaching) ; 3. Of " the working of miracles" and of "gifts of healing. " None of these gifts are specially given now, because no longer necessary. The missionary of to-day has every means of instrqction at his disposal. As to the first, he can obtain a full Bible in every principal language, with grammars and dictionaries and scholars to aid him; and, as to the second, he can stndy it in the light of its own completeness, and of the teaching of a long line of commentators. Thus, by God's help, he can go out fully equipped as a preacher. Ro, too, as to the third, he can learn to wield a power of healing which would have seemed to be an actual" working of miracles" to the people among whom the apostles moved-as it does seem still to be to the heathen of to-day-and can go out fully equipped as a healer. Special gifts are no longer necessary, not only because the Church is firmly established in the world, but also because its members have (so-called) natural means at their disposal, wholly unattainable in the days of the aJlostles. There is no record of the performance of miracles where " na~- ural" means were available. But though special gifts are not now given in the same openly manifest way, the same Power, who gave them, works in the members of the Church still, and for the same ends, and the same spirit which pervaded the work and teaching of the apostles 8hould pervade their teaching and their work. As there is no longer a special gift for the healer, so there are no longer special gifts for the preacher, the teacher, 0]' the evangelist. If it be said that healing as a part of missionary work should not be employed, because there is not now a special gift of healing, will it not follow that teaching and preaching should cease also, since for these equally with healing there are not now special gifts? Preaching and healing constitute the Divine and human sides of the one Gospel message-a message which promises an "adoption, to wit, th~ redemption of our body" following on the reception of "the Spirit of adoption, whereby" our spirit is led to " cry, Abba, Father."
If the passages in the Book of the Acts are taken seriatim in which the work of the various apostles as missionaries is described, their work, as such, will be found to be a direct continuation of the work of the Master.
The apostles glorified Jesus, whose work they were continuing, and made healing of the body a proof of the truth of their message of healing for the soul. This proof they more particularly emphasized before the Sanhcdrim, who "beholding the man which was healed standing with them could say nothing against it." In the first and only recorded general prayer of the Church, there were only two petitions: "Grant unto Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy word, by stretching forth Thine hand to heal." The answer came immediately, for" they spake the word of God with boldness," "and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought, . . . insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, . . . (and) there came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem bringing sick folks, . . . and they were healed everyone." Is not this record identical with that of the work of Jesus-viz., a record of mercy and healing for all, everywhere, in body and soul?
Such work was not restricted to the apostles only. Stephen," full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people." The people "with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, for . . • many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. h Healing and good works seem to have been recognized and essential parts of the work of the missionary, whether he were an apostle, a deacon, or an evangelist, going hand in hand with the preaching of the Gospel, and preceding, accompanying, and following the delivery of its message.
Further on Peter found a man sick of the palsy and healed him, pointing to Jesus as the real Healer. Also he raised Dorcas. He called upon Gentiles to come to Jesus, as to One" anointed with the Holy Ghost, who went about doing g'ood and healing all, . . • for God was with Him. " The healing of the body was to Peter a direct work of God, given as a sign of God's love and pity; as a necessary part of His message of mercy, and as a proof of itR truth. That proof Jesus had elaborated when He showed that healing of the body and healing of the soul were possible to God alone, since the one act was the correlative of the other. The same argument, reversed, is therefore used by Paul when he says: "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." In other words, the giving of life to the soul is a proof that life will be given to the body. The argument holds good either way.
Like Jesus, the apostles cared for every bodily as well as every spiritual need. Saul and Barnabas took a long journey to carry" relief" to the poor brethren in Judrea; and in their journey spoke" boldly in the Lord, which . . . granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. " An example of their method was given at Lystra in the cure of a cripple.
Then comes St. Paul's first recorded address to the heathen: "This man has been healed by God, who has not left Himself without witness, in that He does good, filling our hearts with food and gladness, and enabling us to do these works of mercy." This address is very like a medical missionary's text and sermon.
It is remarkable that. these "miracles and wonders that God had wrought among the heathen by them" formed the sale reply which Paul and Barnabas gave to the Jewish Church, when questioned as to their mission to the Gentiles. That God was willing that the Gentiles should be healed in body was a sufficient proof that He had opened the door of salvation to them.
In hIS second journey Paul cured a demoniac at Philippi. In his third journey" God wrought special miracles by his hands, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them." Paul restored Eutychus; he did not wait until he had finished his address, but he went at once in the middle of his sermon. Just as his Master went on healing to the last, so also did he ; for in the last chapter of the Acts he is described as healing the father of the governor of Melita, and" others also which had diseases in the island. "
In the Acts the means and methods employed are only incidentally touched upon, but quite sufficient is said to show that the apostles continued to work precisely as their Master had done. They made deeds of benevolence by no mians a secondary matte1', but did them so commonly and so constantly as to show that they considered them an essential part of their Gospel work and message.
III. Turning to the Epistles, it must be remembered that they give instruction in the truth to believers, while the Gospels and the Acts record missionary work among unbelievers. Naturally, the doctrine taught is deeper and fuller in the former case than in the latter, but it is the same doctrine. If searched through, there will not be found a single exhortation to Christians generally to evangelize, or a single appeal to them on behalf of the heathen around. Are we therefore to conclude that missions are not in accordance with the teaching of the apostles? Certainly not. For the same reason it cannot be urged that healing or work of benevolence is no part of mission work, more especially since these are several times referred to in the Epistles. In the life of Jesus, in His repeated instructions to His disciples when He sent them out, and in the record of the Acts, the duties of missionaries are plainly and sufficiently indicated. In the Epistles, on the othcr hand, the main objects in view are the building up of believers in the faith, and the giving of directions for the government of the Church. Yet on the question of benevolent work the Epistles are very clear. The practice and example of Peter and of Paul have been already dwelt upon. What say the Epistles to the Hebrews, and those of James and John?
The Epistle to the Hebrews says: "Remember them (the apostles) that had the rule over you, which spake unto you the word of God; and considering the issue of their manner of life (marg.), imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to· day , yea, and for ever. . . . Through Him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make cOllfessl:on to His n«me. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (R. V.). Here the sacrifice of praise in witnessing for God is coupled with a similar sacrifice of praise in doing good to men, the one work being to the writer, apparently, as important as the other for the pleasing of God.
James asks, " What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works g • • • If a brothel' or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food (or be sick or in any other temporal trouble), and one of you say unto them, ' Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled (or cured or relieved) ; , notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit .?" The question at the beginning is repeated at the cnd. The kind of works to be done is indicated intermediately, works obviously similar to those before described in the first chapter as an essential part of " pure religion." St. James also indicates that it is the duty of the presbyters to look after the sick, and to use what means they can use to cure them. In this last-mentioned passage, healing of the body is once more coupled with healing of the soul: " The Lord shall raise him (the sick man) up, and, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
John says: "Whoso hath this world's good (Gr. j3{o~, anything and everything which appertains to living), and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" What language could possibly be stronger? Having this world's good, if money, we must give to the needy; if power to aid, IlS by- lifting- another man's sheep out of a pit, we must give our help j if benefit of medicine for ourselves, we must share it with those who have it not. Otherwise," how dwelleth the love of God in" us ?
With these words before us, and with the example of the apostleseven were we without the record of the Master's life-we should be guilty if we did not regard benevolent, and especially medical work, as an essential and important part of mission work. How much more shall we be guilty with the Master's example-four times repeated-confronting us, and with His injunction upon us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to " go (as tp.e Good Samaritan went) and do likewise" for all others, no matter whom, whether friends or enemies, wherever and whenever we find anyone in any trouble, sickness, or need. In our primary and supreme anxiety for the soul's welfare we arc often, and quite naturally, apt to lose sight of one not nnimportant point in regard to this injunction which the parable of the Good Samaritan brings out. Our Lord did not say that those who passed by the injured man were, for example (and as we might have supposed), a Pharisee and a Sadducee, professors and self·appointed teachers of religion, and His own special opponents in doctrine and practice j but He implied that those who were guilty of neglect were a priest and a Levite, men specially set apart by God for religious work, men with whom Jesus is never reported to have come int~ collision, to whom, on the contrary, He, the Great Fulfiller of the Law, had shown all deferences, as in the instances of His cleansing of lepers. Why did Jesus select these men for unfavorable contrast? Did He not mean to imply that they were wrong in interpreting their position to be one in virtue of which, as special servants of God, they were to be so exclusively occupied with spiritual things as to be warranted in passing by merely temporal sickness and trouble as something to them" on the other side" of the way-the merely human side of the way of our life here-something which did not fall within their proper sphere of duty ~ Did He not mean to show that the cultivation of His spirit of practical benevolence and mercy and healing was specially incumbent upon them as ministers of the sanctuary j and that in the service" of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man"-in which He Himself is the Great Minister-the exercise of that spirit, for His sake, is of primary importance, and" a more excellent way" of service than the' striving for the best gifts, the exercise of the highest powers, or the making of the greatest sacrifices ~ Surely it. was with the teaching of this parable, and with the text upon which our Lord founded it, in his mind and heart, that St. Paul, in writing to the Galatians and through them to Christians of the present age, gave, as the final summing up of his long argument on legal bondage and Christian freedom, this one concluding sentence for Christian practice and life: "For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' "
TIlE BA.SIS A.ND RESULTS OF MEDICAL MISSIONS
THE BASIS AND RESULTS OF MEDICAL MISSIONS.
BY R. H. GRAVES.
Though all humanitarian work may meet with the Divine approval, .the Christian feels much better satisfied when he has a " Thus saith the Lord" as the basis of his action and a Divine command as the great motive to his work. In speaking of medical missions, I wish, therefore, in the first place, to speak of the place of healing in the Divine plan for the redemption of our race.
In creating man, God made him with a soul and a body, and these two have the most intimate relations with each other. Sin in its origin affected and still affects the soul through the body; and body as well as soul suffers from its penalties. In His thoughts of mercy to our race God pities the body as well as t1le soul of man. Both were created by God, both have felt the curse of sin, and both are to share in God's redemption. As the soul infinitely transcends the body in value and duration, of course this is the chief object of God's solicitude, and still the body is not beneath His notice or His care. In the ministry of the Christ on earth He healed the sick as well as preached the Gospel. His tender heart was touched with pity for the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the palsied, the maimed, and the leper. At the grave of Lazarus, while He wept tears of sympathy for the grief of the broken-hearted sisters, we are told that He was" indignant in Himself" as He thought of the havoc which death had made in the fair form of his friend Lazarus. He saw Satan's work in men's maimed bodies, as well as in their ruined souls, and "went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil," thns fulfilling His mission to " destroy the works of the devil."
So in sending forth His followers, the healing' of the body had a place in the thoughts of our Lord as well as the salvation of the sou1. And here let me notice a distinction which is not without significance in showing the place which medical missions should occupy in our scheme for the evangelization of the world. In sending forth the twelve who were His apostJ ~s, those to whom were specially entrusted the continuance of His work and the interests of His kingdom, He says: "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise tile dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons." Their great work was preaching; healing was subsidiary (Matt. 10 : 7, 8). In Luke 10 we have an account of His sending out the seventy. Here the commission is, " Cure the sick, and say to them, The kingdom of God is come nigh to you." Notice the healing of the sick occupies the first place, and the Gospel message is to be announced to them. Here we have the warrant and the work of the medical missionary-as a physician to heal the suffering body, and as a messenger from God to tell his patient of Jesus. Thus we have two classes of laborers sent out by Christ: ordained preachers, who are to preach and found churches, and employ healing as im aid to their great work, and those who are to do the preliminary work of healing, but never to forget the immortal soul while caring for the perishing body.
If we turn to the Book of Acts we find the apostles working on these lines. The first great triumphs of the Gospel under Peter and Paul were accomplished by the preaching of the Word, but in Acts 3 and 5 we see how important a place healing occupied iu the early spread of the Gospel. So Paul mentions " he~ling" among the gifts of the Spirit.
I think we are to learn from this that the llealing of the sick should occupy the first place among the helps to the preaching of the Word. As being the only one mentioned in Scripture, it should take the precedence of schools, orphanages, and other agencies.
As the seventy were to do a preliminary work, so now Wi) find medical work of special service in preparing the way for the fuller preaching of the Gospel and founding of churches among the heathen. In China we find it especially useful in opening new stations, by overcoming the prejudices of the people and showing the benevolent aspect of Christianity in a way that the simplest may understand. We can often rent a house for a dispensary where it is impossible to secure one as a preaching-place. After the people understand our object and hear Christian truth privately their opposition melts away, and they are willing to have public preaching in their midst. Thus medical work serves as an entering wedge for the Gospel.
Having spoken of the Divine warrant for medical missions, let U3 now glance at the human need. In God's Providence the concomitant evils of sin and suffering have afflicted our race in every age and every land. In this same Providence the desire and ability to relieve suffering have accompanied the religion of Jesus. While perhaps one may be justified in saying that in God's mercy suffering is less acute among the ruder tribes, where the ability to remove it is small, and the capacity to suffer has increased with the nervous tension which is the result of civilization, and with the growth of medical skill which is able to relieve it, still the great fact remains that sickness and suffering are universal. As a general thing, heathen people have but little ability to remove or alleviate this suffering. Even in the more enlightened heathen lands, as China and India, men have no real knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Microscopy, which is so important a factor in modern physical science, is entirely unknown. Their religious views or hoary prejudices prevent any minute investigation of the true causes of disease. Their theories are crude and unscientific, and their practice is mere empiricism. In China, as in Europe several centuries ago, the most disgusting and inert substances are prescribed as remedies for disease. One has but to read the Pwan Tsao, the standard dispensatory of China, to see this. In surgery the knowledge of the Chinese is almost nil. The overweening value they ascribe to astrology has dislocated what little practical knowledge they may possess. I have seen the charts of an army doctor, where the wounds are to be treated according to the hour of the day in which they were inflicted rather than the parts injured or the instrument which dld the injury. Female complaints go almost entirely unrelieved, as prejudice prevents their calling in even their own ignorant male doctors, and they have no female physicians, except a few women who deal in what we call" old women's remedies." Hence we see the need for educated and trained physicians, both men and women, from Christian lands.
The tendency of heathenism is to dull and harden the heart; and those who suffer from disease receive very little of that sympathy which we have learned from our Master, and which has become an essential part of our Christian ei vilization. A Red Cross Society has been organized at Tientsin by foreigners, to attend to the Chinese wounded. One writing from there says: "The Chinese indifference to their wounded has been to me the worst feature in this war." The statement is published that the Tao tai, the highest official there, when: appealed to, said: "Vhat do I want with wounded men q The sooner they die the better. China has plenty of men." This heathenish eallousness to human suffering seems strange to our ears, but is perfeetly natural to an officer trained in inflicting the tortures which are so common in Chinese courts. When God " makes men's hearts soft" through sickness and pain, they are often better prepared to appreciate Christian sympathy and to receive the Gospel message of comfort and hope.
That the heathen appreciate the efforts of missionary physicians to relieve their ailments is shown by the multitudes who crowd to the dispensaries and hospitals, especially in India and China. In China we sometimes have an amusing illustration of this, in the way in which native quacks try to palm themselves off as agents of foreign institutions. Some thirty years ago, after my dispensary had been opened for a few years at Shin Hing, a city seventy-five miles from Canton, the following handbill was circulated by a man who claimed to have been sent out by me : GREAT ENGLISH PILLS AND POWDERS FOR CURING DANGEROUS DISEASES.
This panacea is respectfully presented to you. In the early years of the Emperor Tau Kwang's reign we came into possession of a recipe, which was given to the foreigners by the great English sage, Jesus, at His appearance on the earth, and transmitted by them entire and unaltered to our house, where the medicine is now compounded. When this remedy is distributed in any place, the public health of that place will be restored in less than ten days. It is truly as efficacious as if given by the gods. Within the past two or three years the people of all classes, from laborers to gentlemen, have crowded the roads and the ferries in all quarters, pressing forward to our shop to obtain the medicine. They have therefore begged us to take the medicine to all the departments, districts, market towns, fairs, and villages of the land, that we may save men's .lives by its free distribution. These pills can cure cholera. Anyone having pains, cramps, diarrhooa, dysentery, paralysis, or children suffering from fright, may come. Men and women, the old and the young may be cured by a single pill. Swallow it and drink a little rice gruel after it. A.s soon as the pill reaches the stomach the disease will be perfectly cured.
Many have counterfeited these pills, but we have the only genuine article. These men sell their medicine through love of gain, but we do not take a single cash. Signed, Messrs. Ng., Hall of Tranquil Veneration.
P.S.-Sundays and days for seeing patients, as follows: etc.
Some of these quacks put some amusing attempts at English on their posters and handbills. In Canton, on the walls may be seen in large letters, " Dr. – – , Physician to Leprosy-nor Doctors' Fees Discharged," by which is meant "leprosy cured, or the doctor's fee returned." In Macao is a sign, " Ip. healer, can doctor to surgery line, medicine line, • all kinds illness dispensation." Ent enough of this.
H we look at the results of medical missions we will find them most encouraging. They were begun by Dr. Peter Parker, who was sent to Canton by the A. B. C. F. M. in 1835. The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, which has trained so many missionaries for the work in city slums and in foreign lands, was the outcome of lectures delivered by Dr. Parker in Great Britain. The Medical Missionary Society in China has held its fifty-sixth annual meeting, and in 1893 there were 1608 inpatients and 25,542 attendances at the hospital dispensing.room, and 31,637 at the dispensaries in various parts of the country and city, auxiliary to the hospital, making a total of nearly 60,000 patients prescribed for during the year. They report that hundreds have given up idol-worship, and scores have been brought to Christ as the result of Christian teaching here.
The London Missionary Society's physician at Amoy reports that ] 2,000 to 14,000 towns and villages are yearly represented at the hospital, and that, as the result of the cure of one man seventeen years before, no less than seven Christian congregations had been formed with a membership of from 30 to 100 each.
The English Presbyterians at Swatow report that of their 20 country stations, 7 or 8 had their origin through the hospital patients. In 1885 out of an attendance of 5500 patients over 80 publicly declared their faith in Christ and earnestly desired to join the church.
So we might go on with annual attendances of 5000, 10,000, 15,000 at the hospitals and dispensaries connected with various missions in different cities and towns of China.
From Formosa Dr. McKay reports that from the visit of one man to the hospital there exist four congregations of Christians with a membership of 350 souls and double that number of adherents and flourishing schools.
Korea, the country to which the eyes of the world are now directed, was opened to Protestant missionary efforts by means of medical mission work.
H we turn to India, we find 8000,16,000, 40,000, 43,000, and 89,000 given as the annual attendance at various hospitals and dispensaries, and numbers of conversions reported. Medical missionaries have unlocked the doors to the dominions of natil'e princes before closed to Christian evangelization.
In Syria and Persia we read of good results among the Mohammedans through medical mission work. Everywhere God's blessing seems to rest upon this form of Christian effort.
These hospitals and dispensaries are not merely institutions for the relief of present suffering, but they are training schools, where the natil'es are taught W"estern medicine and surgery and sent out among their feHowcountrymen as intelligent, useful practitioners. Thus the benefits go on to future generations.
In all these missionary medical institutions the truths of the Gospel are taught publicly or by-the bedside, and Christian Scriptures and tracts are given to the patients to read and to take to their homes. Thus the good seed of the vYord is cast into soil prepared to receive it by the ministry of suffering and the solace of Christian sympathy. May we not confidently hope that much of it will bring forth fruit unto the glory of God ~ I am glad that you have organized yourselves into a society to help forward the work of medical missions, and trust that your efforts may be crowned with success. Let me remind you that as the great object of medical missions is to employ the healing of the suffering body as a meaus of benefiting the immortal spirit, so the work must be undertaken not from mere humanitarian motives, but in a spirit of prayer that God may use the skill of the physician aR the means of saving the soul of the patient. Only then will the doctor be a missionary-God's messenger to the deathless spirit of man.
There are two theories of medical missionary work: The first divides it into two categories, one medical and philanthropic, aiming to gather kindly disposed crowds; the other, spiritual and missionary, seeking to lead men and women to Christ. According to this theory, medicine is a means to an end, and if the same end could be reached by any other plan, as by doles of bread or cash, it would make no difference to the Church.
The other theory is that a medical missionary is representative of the men sent forth by Christ, with the instruction, "Heal the sick, and say unto them, The kingdom of God has come nigh unto you." They were clothed with miraculous healing power-a power possessed temporarily and intended to magnify their Master's omnipotence, His truth, His compassion, and the fulness of His salvation to soul and body. The IJ}{)dern medical missionary is therefore a man clothed with a healing power-that is the fruit of the presence of the spirit of Christ among men; a power which is one of the marvellous gifts of God, which has been slowly evolved through the centuries till now it is a magnificent inheritance, and in the hand of increasing knowledge moves with surer aim to overthrow disease; a power which is permanently present in the Church, and which is to be possessed in constant union and under the direction of the Spirit for the service and glory of Christ.
According to this theory, medicine is not a means to an end, but is an integral factor. in the work of presenting Christ to the heathen. Along the lines of diligent and patient study the modern Christian enters npon this possession of healing power, and goes forth into heathenism to reveal in deed and in word the Master whom he serves as a mighty and compassionate Saviour, whose salvation embraces soul and body, and who permits His servants to evidence and to seal the power, character, and extent of His lIalvation.-Medical Missions.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMEN'r
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
India's New and Opening Fields. glad ring to his voice: "Thank you for that last word you said on leaving BY J. L. PHILLIPS, M.D., CALCUTTA, the other day. It was just what I FIELD SECRETARY INDIA SUNDAY- needed, and I went away and prayed SCHOOL UNION. for faith and for the blessings I craved It is very cheering indeed to find for our field; and you had not been American and European missionaries gone an hour before a Brahman pundit who are coming to see more in the pos· from that large village yonder, stood on sibilities and the promise of the Chris- this very veranda begging me for a tian Sunday-school as an out-and-out Christian man to teach his pupils the and successful missionary agency than Bible on the Sabbath. I have supplied ever before. In this, as in every other him with a teacher, and hope others department of effort, it is to us accord- will come now with a like request."
ing to our faith. I may illustrate with This is by no means a solitary case. I a case in point, for as a medicaJ. man I think we all are coming to see and seize naturally think more of cases than of our opportunity in the Sunday-school pet theories or stock arguments; and as never before; hence I look for larger I may add that I believe intelligent ingatherings from the non-Christian Christians attach more importance to ranks.
real cases than to finely spun theory, These children of our Sunday-schools be it never so pleasant. It was away are already beginning to be real mis- down in the very south of India that I sionaries of the cross, and are bringing had been at work for several days ad- their friends to Christ. I am constantly dressing men, women and children, hearing of cases where the whole fam- theological students, and Bible women, ily has been brought into the congre- on how to improve and increase the gation and the church through the lov- Sunday-schools, and I was going on to ing labors of a little child. Those another station. On bidding the mis- words of Isaiah's prophecy, "A little sionary good-by, he said something like child shall lead them," are being beau- this: "You must not expect to find tifully illustrated before our eyes in things so far on down here as in Upper these days, and our glad hearts are India; for instance, we've never heard thanking God in the very words of of a Brahman pundit coming to the Jesus when He said: "I thank Thee, mi2sionaries begging for a Christian to o Father, Lord of heaven and earth, come and teach his boys the Bible for that Thou didst hide these things from an hour on the Sabbath. Such cases the wise and understanding, and didst are quite unknown in these parts, but reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, I'm glad you have them in the north." for so it was well· pleasing in Thy Still holding my friend's hand, I was sight."
moved to say: "In all our work it is The rise of intelligent, hence sus- always according to our faith," and to tained enthusiasm among Christian ask him, ,. Have you been praying and workers here in this special effort for looking for this in your field?" After reaching the young with the blessed a few days I was once more his guest Gospel, I count a far greater token of on my way north. Standing on the cheer than mere numerical increase of veranda to welcome me, just where he schools and scholars, for it means a had bid me good-by, and while still large accession to our working force.
holding my hand, he said with such a Teachers are wanted now on every hand. Whereas twenty-five years ago ers, and about one hundred aud ninety- we were seeking the children of these two thousand pupils, of whom the populous lands, now, such are the mar- non-Christians are decidedly in the ma- vels of God's grace, the children are jority. About one third of the pupils seeking us. Had I ten thousand new are girls, a fact for which we have ;rea- and competent teachers to-day I should son to be sincerely thankful. Female have no difficulty whatever-such is the education is making rapid strides in rising demand for Bible instruction these Eastern lands, and the Bible is among all classes-in finding schools doing more for girls than all else com- for them all next Sunday. Our mis- bined. These five thousand Sunday- sionary superintendents on all sides are schools are taught in scores of lan-, crying out for more helpers. This guages, but the following ten are most growing demand is pushing us to more used, perhaps-i.e., Hindi, Bengali, prayer first, in obedience to our Lord's English, Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, express command; but it is pushing us Karen, Kanerese, and Singhalese. But to more preparation as well, for this in scores more of the many tongues of noble work. Normal classes for the this very polyglot place-this broad and older scholars of our classes were un- beautiful field of ours-we should open known five years ago, but may be seen Sunday-schools soon. Few at most of doing grand service now in the way of the youth of the land can be brought training up teachers; and preparation under direct Christian training in any classes for Sunday-scbool teachers are other way than that of the Sundaybecoming quite common now in all school. Our great missionary societies churches throughout this broad field. will never be able to provide secular India's own hearty response to the ris- education for all these millions, but a ing plea of her millions of little ones thoroughly roused Christian Church begins to be heard, and hundreds of may hope, by God's help, to feed all the voluntary teachers, native and foreign, lambs of this great fold in India. The are enlisting in this delightful service. Master's command is urgent: "Give The year 1894 was one of marked ye them to eat." progress. By the organization of the For more than four years the friends Central India Sunday-school Union the in the Straits' Settlements had been work of planning our Sunday-school calling for help. This spring my work campaign for all India was completed. in British India permitted me to visit We are now thoroughly organized for them, and Singapore has organized a aggressive effort throughout India, in- Sunday-scuool union auxiliary to India. cluding Burma and Ceylon. In seven Here the churches are Anglican, Ameriof the ten Auxiliary Sunday-school can Methodist, English Presbyterian, Unions-viz., those of Bengal, Burma, and Plymouth Brethren. The mission- Central India, Ceylon, Northwest Prov- ary work is almost all in the hands of inces, South India, and Central Prov- the lIethodists and Presbyterians. I inces, there has been a decided growth find good schools opened and flourishin the number of schools, teachers, and ing, and a few small Sunday-schools. pupils. In all ten of these auxiliaries The prospects before this branch of our there has been an increase in the num- Sunday-school Union are most cheerber of teachers, which is very cheering. ing. At Penang also missionary work More accurate statistics, I hope, will is well started by the same societies, prove next year that there has been a and I hope another auxiliary Sundaysteady growth in every part of our school union will be organized there. field. The annual report presented to By prudent pushing of practical Sunthe Convention at Calcutta last Decem- day-school methods I hope our present ber gives us about five thousand Sun- statistics may be doubled within a day-schools, about ten thousand teach- twelvemonth. In this crown colony of England's, as in India, special atten- Christian work. It was good to look tion mnst be given to the training of into the animated faces of these men, teachers and to the creation and circu- to hear them sing the praises of our lation of Sunday-school literature. anorable Lord, and to tell them of scores and hundreds more like them, From Singapore to Batavia, the chief whom in seminaries of every church all city of Java, and capital of Dutch East over British India and Ceylon I had Indies, is but five hunded and fifty met face to face during the last four miles, and at the instance of interested years. Here were two men from Dutch friends I have been over there for a New Guinea and some from the west week, with a view to seeing whether coast of Sumatra. Meeting these Chris- Netherlands India would join hands tian Bataks from Sumatra brought to with British India in promoting Sun- mind a veteran missionary's graphic day-schools. My brief visit has been account at a convention several years pleasant and on the whole satisfactory, ago, of how his sailing-ship was once and I hope next spring to have more becalmed off this very coast, and the time for visiting the principal mission- cannibals were rowing out to them ary stations of Dutch India-viz., Java, greedy for capture and carnival, and Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, etc.-and or- how in answer to prayer the gracious ganizing the workers for aggressive breeze sprang up and filled the flapping effort in behalf of the children. On sails and bore them beyond danger and the French mail steamer in which I toward their port in Siam. Now I was went over to .Java were three German told there are no cannibals in Sumatra, missionaries going to New Guinea. It and there are more than a hundred nawas very pleasant meeting them, and tive Batak missionaries publishing the our fellowship was sweet. Their field glorious Gospel of our Lord Christ. is in Northeast New Guinea, in German What a grand field for missionary effort possessions, and although occupied for i~ all this land of Netherlands-India! eight years, the first convert has not I wonder so few men from Holland are been welcomed to the church. The coming to reap those golden harvests. climate there has been found extremely There must be from thirty to forty trying for foreigners, and several of millions living on these islands of the the toilers have died there. In their Asiatic or ~'Ialaysian Archipelago bebehalf, as well as in behalf of all other longing to Holland alone. Surely the distant and lone workers in the great old Dutch Reformed Church, the State fever fields of the Church, I would beg branch of it and the Free together, the special prayers o£ the churches should be doing betler and more for at home. Letters from home reach this immense constituency. Motley German New Guinea but once in two and Prescott and others have told the months. These brethren will have to world how the Christian patriots of the wait weeks in Java for a steamer to Netherlands beat back the invader, take them on to their destination. Ger- flood or foe, and defended their hearthmany has sent out many noble men and stones. Let that spirit of loyalty to women into all these Eastern lands, God and home now show itself in orand some of the hardest and most un- ganized evangelization of these fair promising fields of Asia and Africa fields. Almost five centuries ago Islam have been supplied by her self-sacrific- conquered Java, crushing the old Hindu ing sons and daughters. faith, and to-day her twenty-four mil- lions are chiefly followers of the False The brightest thing I saw in Java Prophet. Now may the Cross conquer was the Theological Seminary at Depok, the crescent, and these millions bow at twenty-one miles from Batavia. There His feet who is Lord over aU blessed were forty-five young fellows from all forevermore. I long to hear the chil- Netherlands-India, Borneo, Celebes, Java, Sumatra, etc., in trainin~ fOl dren's hosannas on all these islands. of the world, but to one that bad turn' The bulk of the present adult popula- ed aside after strange gods, and been tion may die in sin, but if the Church sold into bondage to a heathen people. of Christ does her duty by their chilo He found the same condition we find dren, God's promise to rebellious Israel in the Oriental world to·day-the same will be once more iIIustrated and ful- physical suffering, the same poverty filled, when He said: "YOUR LITTLE and degradation, the same turning to ONES WILT. I BRING IN." magicians and enchantments for relief, the same cruel torture from the un· SINGAPORE, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, skilled and unqualified, would·be heal· April 23, 1895. ers. .. She had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all Medical Work Among the Women and that she had, and was nothing better, Ohildren of the Heathen OOllntries, but rather worse," are the words used to .describe the condition of the one BY MARIA WHITE, M.D., PUNJAB, INDIA. healed by Christ, yet the cruel torture this woman suffered is by no means ex· I present this as a humane institu· pressed in these words, and the more tion, as a means of preaching the Gos- physicians the more cruel her torture. pel to the people. To have a correct idea of the benefits The work of the medical missionary derived from medical help, we must dates from the beginning of Christ's first look at the lives and condition of public ministry, and the fact that the the people. The picture may be a sad healing of physical suffering was to be one, and may cause many to inquire, a proof that Christ was the Divine. Does she mean us to understand this as loving, and compassionate Son of God, stated ? and I will here state that in willing to give Himself that we might this paper I will speak only of things be redeemed from greater suffering which have occurred in my own practhan that of this life, is contained in tice and are literally true, facts that can the answer returned to John the Bap· be attested by all doctors of India, and tist to the question, " Art 'l'hou He who may be known to the mass of the mis· should come, or shall we look for an· sionaries present, yet I can only give other?" "Go tell John the blind see, you a glimpse into the sorrows of the the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb heathen women. Much that my eyes speak, and the poor have the Gospel have looked on is too terrible to describe preached to them." Christ's field of in a public paper. My field for eight ministry was not the same as those of years was in the Punjab, India, but as His followers who are laboring in civ· I returned to America I had the privilized lands to-day – lands moulded ilege of visiting the Malay Peninsula, by the light of the Gospel, till every South China, and Japan, and find in breath we draw tells of the Son of each a corresponding condition, only Righteousness who came with healing varied in accordance with the customs in His wings. As we look over these of their country. Enter with me into fields we find cleanliness and an organ· a native city of India, and look on the ized means of promoting proper sanita- heathen as they appear to open view. tion and to check the spread of disease; The streets are thronged with ox·carts, hospitals, asylums, and homes for the donkeys, dogs, and the multitude of relief of the suffering people, builded people, men, women, and children— by the light which Christ brought into the halt, the blind, the deaf and dumb; the world, are on every side; but what the fever cases, with burning cheek and was the conditio!! of the human family panting breath; small·pox in the stage when He first entered on His public of desquamation, scattering the germs ministry? to all around; leprosy, with the unmis· Christ was a Jew, born a Jew, and came to the then most· civilized nation takable signs of the first stage or per- foot-fall is never hushed to lessen their haps the advanced stage, sitting at the suffering, no anxious mother or sister corners begging, showing hands and ever places a dish before them to tempt feet from which fingers and toes have their appetite, no skilful doctor or nurse dropped; scurvy cases, that dread dis- is called to administer to their wants. ease supposed to develop in persons de- Supposed to be possessed of some evil prived of vegetable diet and dependent spirit, they are objects to be dreaded, on salt meat, developed to the most in- and every possible cruelty must be re- tense form in those who have never sorted to that it may be expelled. seen salt meat or tasted meat of any Placed in the darkest, dirtiest room of kind, victims to a hot climate. and a the house, without light or ventilation, purely vegetable diet; the miserable their bed the most filthy of rags, de- beggar, or perhaps those who are not prived of food and water, often for beggars, but who, like Lazarus, are full days they are forced to inhale the of sores from head to foot, undressed, fumes of charcoal, given off from a uncared·for, and alive with worms. smouldering pot, which is always placed Take a glance down the two sides of by their bed, and are subject to burnthe street and mark the naked infants ing from hot irons and many other on their hard stools, lying in the burn- cruelties to expel this spirit. A few ing sun, left to fret their little lives examples in my experience will illusaway while the mothers are earning the trate their condition. daily pittance. Enter the doors of You will first visit with me the home some of the homes and take a clearer of a Muhammadan Molvi, a teacher of view. Do you find the well-regulated the Muhammadan religion, and one of homes of Christian lands? The hon· the best homes, one where both wife ored father, teaching both by word and and children are loved by the husband example the love and respect due to and father. that mother who has borne all, sacrificed On a bed lies a little child of three, all, suffered all for them; the children unconscious, a true case of infantile clustering around the mother's knee ecampsia (convulsions due to disease of pouring their tales of joy and sorrow the cerebro-spinal system). The father into their ears, or watching with long- and two brothers are seated, nativeing eyes for the return of father? No; fashion, on the bed at her head, the there is nothing in their religion to mother, sister, and two or three female sweeten life or elevate the human fam- friends on the bed at her feet, all so ily. It degrades women with an in- close as to prevent the possibility of finite degradation, dwarfs their intel- air of any kind reaching her: As we lects, so that women of twenty or thirty enter, a barber has jUilt finished shaving are but as children of eight or ten. De- the hair from the head just over the prived of every comfort, regarded as frontal sinus (the place where the brain mere cattle, the property of their hus- can be seen pulsate in an infant's head, band, bought and sold as other mer- and is called by the natives of India chandise, till all the worst passions of "the door to the brain".), and a Muthe human nature are stimulated and hammadan doctor lifts a red-hot piece developed, here envy, jealousy, hate, of iron from the fire and presses it to and revenge run to such an extent, the exposed part, destroying the tissues that I have often been begged and of- to the skull, and to my cry of horror fered money if I would take away the and dismay the father, in an agony of life of some objects of their loathing. sorrow, answers: "Oh, Miss Sahib, Contrast the condition of their sick for many days that door was open, and with those of our Christian homes. an evil spirit entered there and must be The tender hand of love and sympathy destroyed, or our child will die." never cools their fevered brow, thc An old blind woman was left on my veranda. After removing her to the for Vidhata's visit have been made, indoor department of the hospital I food consisting of a coarse graham learned the following: For years she flour and coarser brown sugar, equal had supported her husband by begging. parts, wet and kneaded together to be and this day losing her way, had walk- eaten raw, has been prepared for the ed into an open well. She was taken famished mother, but both mother and out alive, but hopelessly crippled. child are unconscious, and the foreign After having been fined for dirtying doctor is called in to bring them back the well, and beaten by her husband again to life.
for what he called her carelessness, but, Place the medical work at its lowest as she quaintly expressed it, for not standard, only as a humane institution, dying when crippled so as to be no is there any more noble profession than more use, she was left at my door as a that which relieves from physical suf- means of freeing himself from a use- fering the human family? And when less burden. we can enter such homes, rescue the I will take you to but one more helpless infant from such cruel barbari- home, the house of a high caste Hindu. ties, bring the women from their dark A mother and child of six days lie un- and dirty rooms and mud floors to open conscious. The mother has survived courts and bedsteads, give water to the nameless barbarities of the native those perishing from thirst, cool the midwife. and both are now dying of burning brow, sustain and support the hunger and neglect. Every step of weak with nourishing food, teach them her treatment has been laid down in how to care for their little ones and their sacred book. I cannot in this pa- the importance of cleanliness, clear and per describe the cruelties practised cleanse their mass of living disease, and during the hours of her suffering. For bind up the sores of the beggar-are we the first three days she has been <'Ie· not following closely in the footsteps of prived of food and drink, and on the the Divine Master? And when we bring third aHowed only onc grain of rice. them out from their homes, take them Her room has been prepared by placing into hospitals and give them the same her in the darkest and dirtiest of the care and treatment we would give the house, with the most filthy of rags, on a sick in America, are we not filling one mud floor for her bed. A cow's skull of the highest missions in the annals of painted red. an image of Sasthi, the history? But this is a position that can goddess who presides over the destiny be filled by any skilful doctor; the of women and children, made of cow- medical missionaries have a higher aim dung, is placed in a conspicuous posi- than the mere relief of physical suffer- tion. This and the pot of smoulder- ing.
ing charcoal, the only furniture, are They look beyond the body of clay placed there to expel the evil spirits and see in every patient a soul perish- tIovering around. During her three ing, eternally perishing, one for whom weeks of uncleanness neither father, Christ died, and the awful responsibil- mother, hUSband, nor sister can come ity to God for the souls of those who nigh her, leaving her to the care of the have been under our care is ever before barber's wife. Ou the fifth day the us, and this brings us to the most im· filthy clothing is removed and the room portant rart of our subject, medical cleaned, as on the next is to be the work as an evangelistic institution.
worship of Sasthi, and that night Vid- The position the medical work holds hata will write on the child's forehead as a means of promoting the spread of the main events of his life. The day the Gospel and winning souls for Christ has arrived, Sasthi has been wor- can be better illustrated by quoting the shipped. The woman has been given words of a high caste Hindu, when a cold bath, all necessary arrangementll asked as to the progress made in Indil by the Christian religion, and what in God 's Word wIthout some tangible method was most likely to con vert their proof.
people to Christ, answered: "We do not fear the usual method of mission work, such as the school, printing' The Mis~onary Outlook at Foocnow, presses, and bazaar preaching, but we Ohina. do fear your lady zenana·worker, lind we dread your lady doctors; they enter BY REV. J. H. WORLEY, FOOCHOW, our homes, win the hearts of our wom· CHINA.
en, threatening the foundation of our religion. " Another year of blessed fellowship One instance in my experience will with and service for the Master bas show how this method of giving the been granted us. Although at times Gospel had taken hold of the women there has been danger of riots on ac· of Sialkot, Indill. For the first three count of the unsettled state of the coun· or four years I had been accustomed to try caused by the war, we have been close the doors of the dispensary on kept in peace and safety.
Sabbath, that both myself and assistants Now that there seems prospect of might have an opportunity of attending peace the threatened rebellion by the church services, but the women, not vegetarians at Ku·Cheng, about a hun· satisfied with their opportunities duro dred miles from here, has subsided, at ing the week, though the Bible was least for the present. In the beginning taught throughout dispensary hours, it was pretended they were attackIng asked me to hold a special service for the Christians, but this was only a ruse, them on Sabbath morning, and I open· as their real object is to overthrow the ed the doors of the waiting-room, and government, and they are only a part for the last four years have held a of the great secret societies with which chapel service for heathen women, of China is honeycombed. Whenever the whom there were from forty to sixty government is imperilled they always present. After a few days the hus- come forth. The present outbreak was bands, learning they were coming only on account of the Chino·Japanese War.
to study the Bible, Objected, and the ", When the district magistrate under· women begged me to give them one or took to punIsh the leaders he was over· two little powders on Sabbath, only powered and compelled to beg pardon flour, they said, that they might show from the rebels. Several times the day to their husbands and be permitted to was fixed to pillage and burn the city, come. Some had themsel ves attempt. kill the magistrate, and drive out the ed to prepare powders, but the hus· mIssIonaries. When the magistrate bands knew the hospital paper and skil· was ovm'powered the people became ful wrapping. Often in conversation alarmed and began preparations for with women who had received relief, self-defence. The city wall was reo when in answer to their questions of paired, the gates barricaded, and the what brought me to India, I would tell citizens took turns patrolling the streets them the story of the Great Physician, and city wall, and a request was sent they would answer: "Truly your God to Foochow for soldiers, the soldiers at is a good, kind God; none other ever Kucheng having joined the rebels.
sent help to the women. " The medi· Most of the rebels were in the villages.
cal mission is a means of presenting the so the plan was to keep them from con· Gospel to the heathen that they can centrating within the city wall. For feel and appreciate, and speaks of a several days no one was allowed to pass living, loving, and acting God. Their in or out of the city, and nearly all intellects are so dwarfed as to make it business was suspended, and it was difficult to grasp the truth as set forth feared the rebels would lay siege to the city and starve them out; but just as years 1894-95 will be known as the matters were coming to a crisis word birth-time of the new era, the Renais- came that soldiers were coming from sance in China… Now is our greatest J!'oochow, and the rebels surrendered opportunity and responsibility. Will and signed a treaty of peace. How the Christian Church awake to her op- long the treaty will be kept depends portunity and responsibility as China is on how the war terminates. No one awakening to her need? has any confidence in their sincerity. If the war come to a speedy and satis- The past year was the most hopeful factory close, and the government gets in our history. The statistics are very on its feet, they will not dare to make significant, yet they give but a faint disturbance; but if not, then we may idea of the work done and good accom- expect serious trouble in this quarter, plished; increase over the preceding and perhaps all over the empire. year: Members, 616; inquirers, 1662; day-schools, 35; day-scholars, 358; As the schools were all broken up Sabbath-schools, 39 ; and scholars, 1545. and the scholars sent home, the lady The number of Scriptures, books, and missionaries have come to Foochow, tracts sold was several times greater but the gentlemen still remain to look than last year. Two years ago on the after the work.· The missionaries de- Foochow District we had 5 day-schools serve great credit for their patience and with about 100 pupils; last year, 15 fortitude during those trying days and day·schools with about 300 pupils, but nights. this year we have 110 schools and over 2500 boys studying Christian books. Weare now waiting anxiously to Every school is a regular preaching- know the terms of peace. It is rumored place, where nearly every Sabbath and that several of the European Powers several times during the week the Gos- wlll not allow Japan's claim. We only pel is preached to the parents and hope that nothing will be done by them friends of the pupils. Most of these to hinder Japan from completing the schools have been opened by request good work already begun. If she is from the people, and there still remain left alone she will effect such material places where we have been invited, but changes that many of the greatest ob- cannot enter for want of men and stacles to Christianity will be forever means. Only two days ago a man swept away. Crush Chinese egotism came nearly twenty miles to get me to and conservatism, and with them will go to his village of several thousand be buried superstition, and a wide door inhabitants to preach and establish a opened for the Gospel such as the world Christian school. Similar requests come has never witnessed. Before China is every few days, and, oh how hard it is redeemed these changes must be effect- to turn them away with the cold an- ed, and if Japan, as she seems to be, is swer that we have no money. or there the instrument to accomplish it, we bid is no one to teach you I Yet our won- her God-speed. During the last twelve- der-working God is raising up helpers month she has gotten the work well beyond our highest expectations. Many under way, and we hope that nothing more literary men than formerly are will be allowed to cut it short. being saved who, with minds already trained, soon develop into excellent Whatever the terms of peace, we are workers, either as teachers or preach- confident a brighter day awaits China, ers. Were it not for these men we and the spread of the Gospel will be ac- could not enter half the open doors. celerated manifold. The conversion On the other hand, many friends are of China is the greatest undertaking being raised up in America and else- which has engaged the Christian where who are furnishing the money Church, and the success of the enter- over and above the missionary society's , prise hinges on the next few years. This is II crisis, a turning-point. The appropriations to carryon this marvel- Chinese college and the theological semi- lous work. It is the Lord's doings, nary, who visit the day·schools and and is marvellous in our eyes! To His preach Sundays, we are reaching tens name be all the praise ! of thousands, and God is blessing our Barriers are melting away like frost efforts. This is only one district, and before the morning sun. One of our does not take account of the woman's Bible-women was abused and her dress work of our Church and the" other two torn off for preaching in.a certain town missions operating here.
last year. Now we have a prosperous I can give you only a few of the en- school there and regular preaching. couraging facts which cheer us from A formal and most polite request came day to day and give us hope for the from the village elders. Not long ago future.
the native pastor on an adjoining cir- Nothing is more encouraging than cuit and I visited this town, and for the growing desire on the part of our two hours preached to several hundred native preachers and members for a most attentive hearers. We could es- richer experience. The great awaken- tablish several more schools there if we ing probably had its origin in the hearts had the means. The ringleader and of the members. Revival meetings sevcral others who insulted the Bible- where men and women are convicted woman are now inquirers. and gloriously saved are more and more At another place, where there is a common. Inclosed is a native artist's large public building erected to enter- crude drawing of a great tent meeting tain the viceroy when he passes through held last fall, also a short description the town, the village elders sent an in- of it. Such meetings produce a pro- vitation with their cards for me to ap- found impression. I personally know point a certain Christian man whom of many who date their determination they knew, to teach a Christian school to be Christians from this meeting. The for them. Already several influential two on the rostrum are meant for Bish- families have given up their idols and op Ninde and J. H. Worley, the former joined the church on probation. preaching and the latter translating.
At the beginning of the present Chi- M. E. MI~SION, FOOCHOW, CHINA.
nese year (in February) I appointed a student to act as pastor-teacher at a place where a student had been sta- tioned during last summer vacation. Ohristian Unity in West Ohina. Not long ago I spent a night there; and for more than two hours we preach- " With this I send you a poster used ed to a crowded house of eager listen- by the several missions at Chungking.
ers, and eighteen persons publicly gave The title of this tract is "The Great up their idols and joined the church. Doctrine for the Salvation of the Over twenty had previously joined. A World. .. On the margin are the names man gives his house free for church of the four missions laboring in Chung- and school. I came from that place king, Methodist Episcopal, China In- laden with old, abandoned idols, and as land, Friends, and London Missionary I write my desk and floor are covered, Society, with the places where their notwithstanding I am constantly send- chapels, hospitals, etc., are. These ing them to America: one of my col- posters are stuck in every part of the porteurs came in only a few moments city by the Christians connected with ago bringing three, their owners hav- the several missions. I write of this to ing recently been saved. show how practically we on the field Thus with 25 pastors, 10 colporteurs, labor together; but this is not all.
110 day-school teachers, and about 60 Regular monthly assemblies are held teachers ~nd students from the Anglo- by the native Christia.ns together with the missionaries for the deepening of ince is to be held at Chentu, the capi· the spiritual life and for fellowship and tal, and all are looking forward expectprayer. Such meetings are useful in ing a time of great profit spiritually, helping to emphasize the idea of unity. and by the discussion of our common Always Olle will hear the natives in problems we shall be brought yet closer their conversation with the heathen em· together, becoming more truly a unit. phasize the fact of the unity of the different missions, and yet they are H. OLIN CADY. strongly attached to the missions where M. E. MISSION, OHENTU SZ'CHUAN, they were converted. At Chinese New via HANKOW." Years, when there is more of leisure among the natives, the native Chris- Death of J. L. Phillips, M.D. tians form in small bands, irrespective of the missions to which they belong, We bad just returned to the printer and with the missionaries post these the proof sheets of the article" India's tracts, distribute others, hold meetings New and Opening Fields," when the in all the principal streets during the following note was received from Rev. day, and at evening come together at Dr. T.•T. Scott, of India, at present one of the missions each in turn for temporarily at Delaware, O. He writes prayer and testimony and to listen to under date July 15th: the unfolding of some teaching pertaining to the Christian life; thus a My DEAR GRACEY: Kindly mention week is spent. These meetings year as an item of missionary news that Dr. by year prove of greater interest and Phillips, of India, is dead. No particu. power. The Christian Church, as dis· lars; as I got the news from the Suntinguished from heathenism and Ro- day·school secretaries at London, and manism, is in the minds and thoughts they had got it by wire. You may reof heathen and Christians a unit: but call that he was General Secretary of such a spirit in the native church would the India Sunday·School Mission, supnever have been developed if the mis- ported under appointment of the Lonsionaries had not recognized each other don Sunday-School Union, by the chilas fellow·soldiers. There is a decided dren of the International Bible Readers' brotherly feeling among all the mis· Union. He was doing a grand work in sions and missionaries. For the main- inspiring enthusiasm in Sunday·school taining of the unity and the minister- work in India. He had travelled thouing to the spiritual growth of the mis- sands of miles annually, and lived to sionaries a regular Thursday evening see all India, Burmah, and Ceylon overmeeting for prayer, testimony, and mu- laid with Sunday·school auxiliaries, thus tual instruction is held. These meet· binding this vast extent of Eastern counings are led in turn by the different try into one organization. He was a missionaries, and have been a great aid fine leader and most effective platform to holy living: some of the meetings speaker, ready in utterance, magnetic have been seasons of wonderful bless· in touch, and full of tact in managing ing when the Holy Spirit seemed poured an audience. He had eminent qualifiout on all present. These meetings cations as a leader in Sunday·school afford an opportunity for the mission· work, being a great lover of children. aries and their families to meet socially He never forgot their names, and was and so become closely united. always sending them charming little messages in his letters to their elders. What is true of Chungking is true in A grand missionary leader has dropped spirit of all Sz'chuan, and especially from the roll in India, and his place will of the cities where several missions lao be hard to till. bor together. Next January a confer· ence of all the missionaries of the prov-
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. pmRSON.
Japan,* Korea,t Medioal Missions,t Ohinese and Japanese in the United States.§ JAPAN. The aborigines of Japan, the Ainu, The Sunrise Kingdom has passed live in the island of Yezo, or Hokkaido, through the period of dawning great· and number about 17,000 against 350,- ness, and to·day shines forth brilliantly 000 Japanese on the same island. The as the foremost nation of the Orient, and Church Missionary Society started work one of the great nations of the world. among the Ainu in 1878; the first con- The Mikad'l, claiming direct descent vert was baptized in 1885, and there is through 122 Mikado ancestors-nine of now a church membership of nearly whom have been women; the first em· 200. The language has been reduced peror, Jimnu, having founded the em- to writing, and parts of the Bible and pire 660B.c.-has forsaken the traditions other books have been translated. The and customs of his ancestors in all things Ainu are small in stature and much save religion, and now seeks by every given to drunkenness and attendant means in his power to make Dai Nippon vices; they live in wretched little huts, a thoroughly civilized country. It is de- and the women are much oppressed.
voutly hoped and confidently believed Three schools and a hospital are doing that he will soon find that this is impossi- much to elevate them mentally and mor- ble without making it at the same time ally, and relieve them physically. The Eta is another ancient but dea thoroughly Christianized country.
Although there are over 3000 islands graded race of Japan, who live in many belonging to the empire, only five of small villages on the main island. They them (including Formosa) have any are ignorant and immoral, and difficult considerable size or support a large of access; but efforts are being made to population. The area of the empire is reach them by the Society for the Propa- now about 170,000 square miles, and gation of the Gospel and others. Japan the popUlation nearly 42,000,000. The has no State religion; but Shintoism, Japanese have never been conquered by having 10 sects, is considered the most an outside nation, and have had but one patriotic, and had, in 1887, 192,359 tem- civil war, which occurred in the last cen- ples. Buddhism is largely followed, tury. and has 12 sects and 40 creeds, with 71,991 temples. Many of the priests are * See pp. 18 (January), 127 (Febrnary), 221 ignorant and immoral, and the Govern- (March), 289 (April), 342 (May), 445 (June), 582 ment has recently passed a resolution (August), 648,653 (present issue)… The Mikado's that they should be better educated. Empire," W. E. Griffis; "Japan," David :Murray. Ph.D.; "The Religions of Japau," W. E. The common people of Japan are full Griffis; "Life and Letters of J. H. Neesima," of superstitions, and have peopled the A. S. Hardy; "Story of Neesima," J. D. Davis; earth, air, and water with imps who "Japanese Girls and Women," Alice M. Bacon; cause the thunder, wind, earthquakes, .. An American Missionary in Japan," M. L. and storms. As a nation the Japanese Gordon; ,. Prince Siddartha, the Japanese Buddha," J. L. Atkinson; "The Ainu of Ja- are very ceremonious and polite, though pan," John Batchelor. not always acting in accord with West- ern ideas. Mrs. F. S. Curtis, of Yama- t See pp. 15, 62 (January), 290 (April), 450, 458 quchi, writes an interesting account of a Japanese dinner party, of which we (June), 661 (present issue). .. Korea, the Her· mit Nation," and" Korea, Without and With· in," W. E. Griffis; "Korea, from its Capital,"
George W. Gilmore. give extracts as illustrating some of the :I: See pp. 208 (March), 666, 678, 686 (present social customs : Issue). "Medical Missions," John Lowe; .. Murdered Millions," George Dowkontt. "The Japanese Christians make their § .. The Chinese in America," Bishop Burt. annual social an aU<day affair, lasting from ten A.M. to five P.M•. At the last sauce, puts it on the rice, and takes up one about seventy people came to the a mouthful of the rice, fish, etc., all tohouse, and I kept passing wafers and gether. The rice bowl is held in the tea in tiny Japanese cups until dinner. hand and brought even with the lips The house was bright with flowers ; the while the rice is pushed into the mouth chrysanthemums and roses were from by the chop-sticks, which can be done our own garden. lllustrated books and very daintily. Soup and all liquids are photographs were on the tables.. with sipped from the bowIs with a sound like maps and fresh Japanese newspapers, drawing the breath through the teeth. and were enjoyed until dinner time. This sound is much heard; in sipping At about noon we went to our school next tea, and even in making polite observadoor, which is arranged in eight class- tions or returning thanks, it is usual and rooms, with muvable partitions, Japan- polite.
ese fashion; the partitions were re- "After dinner, most of the people moved and left a long room, where the wrapped up the bean paste and lotus in little dinner-trays were set out with the paper on which they were laid and everything on but the soup. The guests put them in their flowing sleeves, as is were seated in a row around the wall customary. (Alway8 take home what and in a double row, back to back, in you can't or don't eat, for it would be the centre, so that the rows faced each r'ude to leave it.) The guests then scat- other. It would never do to put them tered about and took part in games in- in two rows all around the room, for doors and out; there was singing in one would be sitting in front of the other. Japanese and English, after which all .. A regular Japanese meal was served gathered together for games with for- -,-soup, fish and vegetables, rice, cold feits, as they always do, with great mer- stew (of potatoes, meat, chestnuts and riment. The pastor, for his forfeit, had carrots, all cut up in mouthfuls), raw to sing and dance a sword dance with a fish sliced thin, with Japanese turnips ruler for a sword. It is a stately affair, and radishes shaved into small strings, and he did it well; he used to be a warand boiled yellow chrysanthemums- rior in the time of the revolution. About these last three were eaten with soy five o'clock they all dispersed to their sauce, and were what we liked the best of homes." all. They were laid on a long strip of pine, as thin as paper and doubled over; Educational work is one of the most the soy was in a tiny cup in the centre, and the other things in bowls. Wafers successful and interesting departments and some sliced orange (sliced skin and of missions in Japan. Doshisha Uni- all), and slabs of sweet bean paste (very versity, at Kioto, founded by Joseph good if well made), and boiled lotus-root cut in strips were on pieces of paper laid Hardy Neesima, has now graduated on the mats in front of the trays. nearly 300 young men, among whom " When all were seated, some of the are many pastors and Christian workschool girls brought in the little covered ers, 130 being from the theological delacquered bowls of hot soup. When all were served, Mr. Curtis asked the partment. Over 2000 have attended pastor to pray, and afterward, bowing without graduation; and last year there to the guests, said, ' This is exception- were in attendance 556 men and women.
ally poor food ; but please to eat.' All, The education of women is rapidly bebowing in return, said, ' It is an honorable feast.' We then all removed the coming a recognized feature in all covers from the soup and took up our schools, and the governmental Minister chop-sticks and fell to. The rice is of Education has recommended higher boiled very dry, and is so sticky that education: of women in all departments. one can soon learn to pick up little or much and carry it to the mouth. The A" ragged school" has been started by fish s~up was very nice, and must be the Friends this year at Sapporo. " It eaten with the chop-sticks.. Three girls is attended twice a week by from 25 to were kneeling on each side, holding 70 boys and girls ranging from six to trays and waiting to refill the emptied rice bowls, which they did repeatedly. sixteen years old. Many come regu- After all· were satisfied with rice, the larly, rain or snow, when the red lantea cups were refilled time and again. tern hangs at the door. They make ex- When eating the raw fish, one takes a cellent progress in their studies and in nice thin piece between the chop-sticks (which are both held in one hand), takes their habits, and were it not for lack of up a little of the turnip radish with it, funds to keep the school open regularly, dips them into the little cups of soy much more might be accomplished." A. wonderful work has been going on bath for a moral address, after w•hich a among the Japanese prisoners. Sunday·school is held, attendance at which is optional. In one prison, in "Convicts whose sentences range which Christian instruction was begun from twelve years to life service have latest, where there are 1506 prisoners, 510 been sent for some fourteen years past are studying the Bible and 148 pray daily to the wilds of Hokkaido (Yezo) to pre- and follow a course of daily Bible readpare the war for settlers. There are ing. While there is no chance during four great prISons, and a fifth is soon to prison life for a public confession of be opened. A few years ago these pris. Christ, the radical change wrou~ht in ons were entirely independent of each the character of some of the men IS such o~er, and the Government was lax. as greatly to impress those who have Two years ago they were all put under witnessed it. Many of the prisoners are one superintendent-a man feared and an example to believers. So few of the liked by the prisoners, and thoroughly prisoners have yet been released, that respected by everybody. His insight public attention has not been attracted convinced him that the principles of to them yet" (Mi8sionary Herald). Christianity are what are needed for the instruction of prisoners. When he be- The Greek Church has a membership came general superintendent he intro· of 21,239, and the Roman Catholics duced a Christian teacher into each claim 46,682 adherents. The following prison. There are many inquirers about are the statistics compiled by Rev. H. Christianity in each prison. The pris· Loomis for 1894 ; oners are obliged to assemble every Sab· .S j. , 2 iI . ~a:i ~I ~~.b~{)?-1- § ~~ a~l . =:g ~I Missionaries. S ~~~~ ..0~…. ~~a"d=~:'l.~ Q~)~~ '0~S50o.. S~~1;2 'W -; 'dd r~ggI >gj. Q~ 0~ Q) ..= p.: : ; 1'r~ao .~>~- "<"l)..~. +0::'l"'E'":o~t"- a '" NAME OF MISSION. .S::l 1-.4~'- • §'" "0.~d~ "<I~'"r0:<,.0I":~ «1 1=I"d p..Q ~Q)'o::tI o:l Cj.oj • Q) ~…. !:: ci. 0 ,,:@;j:S0,,» II S ~~I ~ ~~ ~E i ~ ~ ~i ~~ ~ ~ gt ~~~~ ~ >< ~PE-< illoo~ . . . . P-r-e-sb-y-t-er-ia-n-C-'h"'.o"'f-U–"-~S"""",.=-(-1-18-59, 20 20 59 10) 20 .. -'-"-'I~ E-< E-<ZPO Reformed Ch. in America 118591 10 8 27 'I 115 …….. .. 20 3 17 …… . U. Presb. Ch. of Scotland 1874 2 .. 3 1 ~8.2. 72 1,123 ii',126c 41 75 113 24,697:20 The Ch.ofChristinJapan …. 1 140 .. …. …… .. .. .. …… .. Reformed Ch. in U. S… '11879 5 2 11 1 I 14 .. …. …… 29 .. .. …… ..
Presb.Ch.in the U.S. (So.) 1885 10 8 24 6 Women's U.M.S., U.S.A. 1871 4 4 1 .. .. …. …… .. ……. . Cumberland Presb. Ch.. 1877 4 7 15 3 J 12 .. …. .. 2.. ii r American Lutheran Miss. l 1892 2 3 12 11 f!"c 22 io 2 … 2i:40 33 200 1,684 20 39 3,101.74 Amer. Prot. Epis. Ch. (a) 1859 14 9 77 …. 40 9 /41 29 17 7 84 .2.,.4.0.6…5.8 ….21'S 8,201 I .. Chnrch Missionary Soc.. 1869' 25 30 13 30 ..
Nippon Sei Kokuwai. … I …. Soc. for Prop. of the Gos. {l1873, 12 10 28 5 10 11 … . 1,260 11 9 12 Wyckliffe Coli. M. (Can.) 18881 3 1 7 111 2 1 6 44 4 36.69 English Ch. In Canada.. 18921 2 1 5 4 3 24 76.08 68 2 1 3 Amer. Baptist Miss. Union 1860 14 16 44 9 79 19 184 1,597 12 6 37 1,373.09 Disciples of Christ .•.•…. 1883 6 6 18 1 9 3 55 286 2 5 3 75.00 Christian Ch. of America.. 1887 2 1 4 1 24 4 21 225 5 2 11 538.48 BKuamplt-isatiSC'htsh.eAr.nBC.Co.nFv.eMn.t(iobn~ 1889 3 6 24 l' 9 38 4 21.88 18691 26 31 83 12 170 7( 670 11,079 65 42 97 23,204.18 AmericanMeth.Epis.Ch.(a 1873 19 23 58 10 67 55 424 4.006 61 41 18 8,357.00 Canadian Methodist Ch.(a 1873 6 15 27 7 23 1£ 116 1,981 2 16 19 4,562.37 Evan~. Assoc. of N. Amer. 1876 5 10 2 10 13 95 705 10 13 16 1,052.26 Methodist Protestant Ch… 1880 4 2 10 3 15 4 32 312 4 3 13 347.89 Amer. Meth. Epis. Ch. (So.) 1886 15 3 31 9 32 10 83 532 14 15 1,567.6*3 ScandinavianJapanAII'nce 1891 3 7 12 12 29 24 84 2 7 Gen.Evang.Pr.(Ger.·Swiss) 1885 2 3 1 2 1 6 208 6 2 2 50.00 …..* Society of Friends, U. S. A. 1885 2 2 5 1 2 . . 23 61 . . . . 6 50.00 Inter. Missionary Alliance. 1891 3 1 , , 1 … . Unitarian ……….. .. … 1889 1 .. 1 1 5 2 .. .. i7 2 ii Universalist …………… 1890 3 5 1 7 3 25 149 11 2 6 128.26 Independent.. .. .. .. .. …. …. 3 3 7 2 . . 4 13 to72 4 1 t550.00 Tot. of Prot. Miss., 1894….. 226 210 625 134 750:1:364 3,422 39,240 353 258 536 72,217.72 (a) Statistics to June 30, 1894. * (0) To December 31, 1893. (c) Including 1,474 classed al * No Report. .. children. " t Approximate. 78 Self·supporting. • The Fukuin Domeikwai, or Gospel manly spirit. Their main objection to Alliance of Japan, representing the Christianity is that it is joreign, and Protestant churches of all denomina- when they accept it they want to make tions, recently met with 140 delegates it distinctly Japanese. Such elements and appointed a committee to consider in the national character are likely to work in Japan's new territory. Besides produce stability in the future Church.
the missionary societies, many other Nevertheless, this spirit of independence organizations are at work separately or may lead to grave mistakes on the part with the societies. The Y. M. C. A. is of those who are still babes in Christ.
doing 8 very Important work, and the The danger is greatly increased when Y. P. S. C. E. has a very large mem- it is remembered that among the mis- bership; the W. C. T. U. and missions sionaries are Unitarians, and that among to police, postmen, soldiers, prisoners, European books produced in Japan a railway men and others are doing ag- large proportion are infidel or semi-infi- gressive work. del literature.
Dr. Joseph Cook mentions among the There are 123 towns in Japan, each with a population of 10,000 to 1,000,000, reasons for encouragement in Japan : but the missionary force is as yet dis- tributed in only 40 of them. There are "1. Her island position, making her besides 4512 towns, with populations the England of the Pacific and her peo- from 1000 to 10,000. About 25,000,000 ple a nation of sailors, brave and dar- live in still smaller Villages. mg. 2. The Japanese are patriotic, and obey their federal leaders. 3. Japan The great need for Japan at present has marvellous power of assimilation. is united prayer for the missionaries and They copy the West, but their importa· converts already in the field. tions are digested, and their scholarship becomes Oriental as well as Occi- KOREA. dental. 4. The Japanese obey superiors and make good soldiers and sailors. The " Hermit Nation," or " Land of The reverence for those in high place Morning Calm," has an area of 82,000 has a Divine basis. The transfer of square miles and a population of about their reverence for authority to Christ 11,000,000, among whom labor 40 Protwould make them eminent Christians. estant and 20 Roman Catholic missiona- 5. The Japanese have a fine physical ries. The first missionaries were the and mental organism. Jesuits, who entered in the seventeenth century, but suffered much persecution " Japan is also confronted with dan- from 1840-66. Evangelical work was gers. The people also have faults we begun by Rev. John Ross, of ~Ian hope will be overcome, among which churia, who translated the New Testaare conceit, caste, and false faith. As ment for Korea. The first evangelical the foremost nation of the Orient the mission was founded in 1884 by the Japanese have much ground for con- American. Presbyterian Church (North), ceIt. They are still in danger from the door having been opened through caste. The old families may arise to the medical work of Dr. Allen. Besides claim the advantages which have come this society, which has now 28 missiona· to-the nation. Divisions are possible by ries (including 8 ordained and 4 mediwhich late gains may be lost. Except cal) and 209 communicants, in five stathe country become Christian there is imminent danger from agnosticism and false faith which would handicap the national advance. Japan needs to copy the vital faith and not the doubt of the West. Neesima's last word was: 'Free schools and Christian churches will make my nation great and noble. ' "
tions, the Canadian and Australian and The great danger for Christianity in United States Southern Presbyterians, Japan is connected with characteristics the Methodist Episcopal (North) and the of the people which are noble and fine. Society for the Propagation of the Gos- They love their country; they are of a pel are at work.
EDITORIAl, DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. ern society, it will not be because energy. patience, and prayer have not combined Of course the event of the month of in the effort. July was the gathering of the 50,000 Christian Endeavorers in Boston. from The convention may be thus summed the 10th to the 15th. 'fhey had a right royal welcome, and left a fine up: impression on the whole, though there was no little criticism on the sight- There were 250 delegates from 22 seeing which occupied too much time on countries, who spoke in 250 pulpits and the Sabbath. The peril of this noble halls. Westminster Abbey gave resociety will be twofold: first, pride of served seats to the leaders of the differnumbers; and secondly, conformity to the ent countries, and a temperance sermon world. If they can escape these two was preached by the Bishop of Dover, risks, which numerical prosperity and in Which he welcomed the delegates, enthusiastic popularity inevitably in- and said the temperance cause was sacur, and can develop a thoroughly mis- cred, and was made light of only by the sionary spirit and a systematic giving, ignorant or thoughtless. It is probably and keep out of politics, no one but God the first time that a woman's organizacan foresee the future of this organiza- tion has ever been recognized in the tion, whose unparalleled growth is like most historic of the English cathedrals, that of a mushroom, and which is now about to call a world-wide convention There was an excursion to Windsor of Y. P. S. C. E. at Washington in Castle, a garden party given to 1000 1896. White Ribbon women by Lady Henry Somerset at the Priory, Reigate, etc. Meanwhile, a convention, not less significant in its way, had been meeting in The annual addresses of the two presithe world's metropolis in June. The dents and the resolutions adopted by the Wo?'ld's Women's Christian Temperance two great conventions, the" World's" Union celebrated its third biennial con- and the" B. W. T. A.," cover every vention by meetings in Queen's Hall on phase of that modern movement by Wednesday and Thursday, June 19th which Christianity is being applied to and 20th, Miss Frances Willard giving the customs of society and the laws of her masterly presidential address, whose the land. The Polyglot Petition will be scope was well-nigh universal, covering presented to the British Government, the problems of poverty and misery, of and afterward conveyed to the various temperance and purity, of color lines governments of the world. This will take a year or more, after which the petition will probably be placed in the archives of the British Museum.
and prison reforms, etc.
The Polyglot Petition by Women di- The Island of Formosa, about the rected against the Drink Traffic was fes- middle of May, was threateneo. with tooned about the Albert Hall on Thurs- anarchy, by the resistance of the peo- day evening, covering the whole fa<;ade ple to the recent terms of the treaty of the balcony and box sections-thir- with Japan. Chinese soldiers besieged teen immense rolls of paper pasted on the governor's castle; a young Chinese linen, containing over 7,000,000 signa- literatus named Chu was reported to be tures in over 50 languages, and repre- elected king, and to have repudiated senting all countries, the whole petition Chinese rule, and to be prepared to re- being occupied with this monster remon- sist annexation by the Japanese. Riots strance against the demon of the cup. were said to be of daily occurrence, and It these godly women do not succeed that Hakka had proclaimed himself in abolishing this greatest evil of mod- king of the northern part of the island. and many had joined his standard. The has long been a vexed question, and is Chinese and Japanese were in control not easily settled. Rev. Dr. A.shmore, of affairs at last accounts. of Swatow, has recited a "heart-rend- ing case," as he calls it : Reports from Chins indicate a con· A convert applied for baptism who siderable excitement in the Celestial bad two wives. He was told that he Empire, and repeated attacks on for- must put one of them away. The eign mission premises. The Canadian question arose, which one? and the an- Mission hospital, dispensary, and chapel swer was, the one married last. But at Chung Kung are said to be looted the first wife had no children, and the and burned, and eleven places of wor- second wife had several. On hearing ship, both Romanist and Protestant, what the decision was, the discarded were destroyed. The reports are some- wife went to Dr. Ashmore and put her what sensational, and perhaps lack con- case before him in this wise: firmation up to date of this writing. "But, teacher, he is my husband, But it is said that heavy ransoms have and I am his wife. You say that he been exacted as the price of personal ought not to have taken me; but he safety; that missionaries and their fami- did take me before he knew of your lies have been compelled to find hiding new religion. He is the father of my places in dirty holes and lofts from the children. I have a right to look to him mob; and that though the soldiers' bar- for companionship and for protection. racks are within five miles, no assistance You make my children illegitimate. has been rendered, and protection rude- You should not do that; you have no ly refused. right to injure my children in that way.
You have no right to put me in the posi- Correspondents have called attention tion of a disreputable woman, for he to what had not escaped us, that in the lawfully married me according to the July REVIEW there appear contradic- usage of China. I had a husband; now tory statements as to the issues of Sun- I havc no husband. I had a home; day newspapers in Japan (pp. 517 and now I have no home. If I go and 558). There is a conflict of authorities, marry another man I shall break the and we have written to Japan to find law. I had one to whom I could go as out the exact facts. This REVIEW is the father of my children; now I can divided into departments under separate go to my children's father no longer, members of the editorial staff, and such nor may I dare to speak to him." conflicting statements cannot always be avoided, as each editor in charge has Dr. Ashmore added that this led to his own sources of information. But his" studying anew the New Testament we seek, when such contradictions ap- teaching on the subject;" and the late pear, to reconcile them or correct mis- Dr. Happer said that, under like cirleading statements. cumstances, "after a long study of the subject," he "would not have inflicted such a trial upon that poor woman as Secretary Merriam, of the A. B. M. U., to deprive her of her husband, her home, calls our attention to a misleading para- and her children in the name of the graph on page 595 of the August num- merciful Redeemer, whose Gospel is ber. In the published report of proceed- best portrayed by His own words, ings we read: "A present attempt to 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and estdblish such a union of treasurie8 would are heavy laden, and I will give you work confusion and not harmony," etc. rest.' "
(see p. 5).
This matter of how to deal with The action of the committee appointpolygamy, in case of heathen converts, ed to report to the next Assembly on this matter will be awaited with inter· .~ est. The question is not an easy one to of the tree, on the south shore cf Lake settle. There may be reasons such as Bangweolo, under which lies buried led that wise legislator, Moses, to deal the heart of Dr. Livingstone.
as he did with the matter of divorce.
But it is obvious that all polygamy vio- The statement in the June number lates the normal order; "from the be- that Dr. Cochran, of Persia, is dead was ginning it was not so." a mistake. It should read, the wife of Dr. Cochran. Thtl item was taken from Ed ward Evans writes from the Mis- another journal, in which the mistake sionary Home and Agency, Shanghai, was made.
China, as to the form in which money should be brought or sent from the In view of the famous so·called States, that a banker'8 draft on London " quadrilateral" basis of Church unity, is the most valuable and available form. it may be well to give it a permanent Gold has to be exchanged into currency, record.
post-office orders have to go through an The four principles of Church unity exchange, etc. An American banker's proposed by the bishops of the Prot- draft at from sixty to ninety days aftej' estant Episcopal Church at Chicago date saves interest on the time occupied in 1886, and amended by the Lambeth in travel, and is practically a demand , Conference of 1888, are as follows: draft when it gets round to London. 1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as containing all The Cross Bearers' Missionary Read- things necessary to salvation and as be- ing Circle continues to grow, and its ing the rule and u.Itimate standard of programme for 1895-96 is as follows: faith.
" Lives of Henry Martyn and J. H. Nee- 2. The Apostles' Creed, as the bap- sima;" "Chinese Characteristics," by tismal symbol, and the Nicene Creed A. H. Smith; "New Acts of the Apos- as the sufficient statement of the Chris- tles" and MISSIONARY REVIEW by the tian faith.
Editor. The membership fee is but a 3. The two sacraments ordained by half dollar a year, and Rev. M. L. Gray, Christ Himself-baptism and the supper St. Louis, Mo., is the President. of the Lord–ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution and The rumored death of explorer E. J. of the elements ordained by Him.
Glave, on the Congo, in Africa, isdoubJy 4. The historic episcopate, locally sad news in view of the youth of the adapted in the methods of its administra- brave Englishman. He was but seven- tion to the varying needs of the nations teen years old when he followed Stanley and peoples called of God into the unity in his expedition into that unknown re- of His Church.
gion for the first time ; and yet he soon became a trusted lieutenant, and was A well-known missionary writes: left in command of the camp at Luko- "In the April REVIEW was a letter lela. Despite his many African and from the German missionary, Mr. K6zle, Alaskan explorations since then, he had of Persia, regarding Mohammedan only celebrated the thirty-second anni- work. This account, as published in versaryof his birthday a little while be- Germany, fell under the eye of the Per- fore he set out upon this last trip to in- sian Minister at Berlin, who called the vestigate the African slave trade. It Persian Government's attention to it.
would be a fitting grave for him to be The withdrawal of the missionaries was buried in the Congo Free State, which demanded inside of ten days. The Ger- he helped to establish; and it is a curi- man Minister made objections (?) and ous coincidence that almost the last act the time was extended to thirty days.
of his life was the finding and marking Meanwhile Rev. lHr. Kozle died of typhoid-fever, and his associate, Dr. velop the missionary life in the Church."
Zerweek, with his bride, have left Per- It is called" The Missionary Pastor,"
sia. The ground of expulsion is that and is by Rev. James Edward AdamB, they came to work among Jews, but and has very helpful charts prepared by began to evangelize :Mohammedans." Robert J. Kellogg. It discusses mis- sionary methods, meetings, classes, Among new books calling for our books, and charts. It is little more reviewing, we mention con amore the than an outline, and is so designerl.
memoirs of Mrs. William Booth, "110- But jf any pastor cannot find here ther of the Salvation Army." They enough helpful hints to keep him busy, are in two bulky volumes, edited by and enough ~hintful helps to aid him in her son·in-law, Booth-Tucker, and are developing missionary interest, we are a perfect thesaurus of riches. We in- much mistaken.
tend to give these volumes a very large space hereafter in a more formal reo "Modern Missions in the East," by view of contents. Meanwhile, let it be the lamented Edward A. Lawrence, said that this biography will take rank D.D_, is from Harper Brothers' press.
alongside of the" Life of O. G. Fin· Though so recently issued, this book ney," and Hodder's "Life of Shaftes- has already taken its place by general bury," for cosmopolitan interest and consent in the foremost rank of the litera- pregnant suggestion. Everybody who ture of missions. First given in the cares for a high-toned character and a form of lectures at Andover, New world-wide service should read this Haven, and Beloit, before students, it is book. Its cost is $3.50 per set, post- the record of twenty months spent in a paid, and the publisher is Revell & Co., missionary world journey for the spe- New York. cific end of a personal acquaintance By the same publishers appears W. E. with the mission field at large. It is not Cousins' brief but valuable" Madagas- too much to say that it is a unique and car of To-day." This also will have remarkable volume. It is full of infor- more extended notice hereafter. We mation, carefully collated facts, inspir- have all learned that the story of the ing suggestion, and withal a devout Hovas is among the most thrilling in and loving spirit that rises above all nar- missions; and Mr. Cousins, himself row denominationalism, and sees good magna pars re!'um, here tells the story. everywhere, but not without impartial Read it, ye who love God's work, and perception of all defects.
lend it to others. The closing chapter, on the spiritual Revell also sends out Sir William expansioll of Christendom politically, Muir's book, " Mahomet and Islam," at industrially, intellectually, morally, $1, half the price of the former issue. spiritually, is a fair specimen of the 'rhose who know of the distinguished whole work; and while we may not author will understand his competency agree with every sentiment expressed to write of his theme. And this ques- in these three hundred and thirty pages, tion of the creseent and the power of we regard this as one of the most prince- the green banner of the prophet is one ly of modern contributions to missions, of the burning questions ot the day. and it is the more lamentable that so gifted a pen will write for us no more.
F. H. Revell Company are just pub- lishing a new book which seems to us Rev. Samuel H. Anderson, of Paris, decidedly an advance upon two thirds after two years' perseverance, has got- of the existing missionary literature in ten ready a most interesting" Histoire de its compactness, brevity, pertinency, Jesus, " a " history of the life of the Son and general availability for the supreme of Man, in all the words of the four Gos- purpose which it announces-to "de- pels, and the very words of His contem· poraries." He was led to this attempt have from that time been used as by intense pity for the masses of French chapels. In one of these we now have a native church of 126 members, and people, who do not know the thrilling the old man who gave us the building details of the acts and teachings of the is still the leading spirit in the work.
Lord Jesus. Multitudes of anti-clericals The work in the other temple has not in France regard the Gospel as a " cleri- been so prosperous, but there are now 14 members and several inquirers. cal" book, and so will have nothing to "In 1874 two more stations were do with it; and many who will not read opened, these in two cities about 80 an "Evangile" will read a " Histoire." miles apart; and that year 14 were bap- The four narratives are here combined tized. In 1875 another country station in one, so that the reader has a continu- was opened, a branch from the tirst temple, the native Christians providing ous story. Possibly some whom the the building, the mission providing the Lord has blessed may be glad to aid evangelist. Here we now have a mem- bership of 39. Pastor Anderson in the circulation of this valuable message of life, and will "Another need was apparent-viz., the need of having books in Romanized send him help at 37 Avenue de la Grande colloquial for our illiterate Christians.
Armee, Paris. He is known to us to A beginning was made by transferring the Ningpo primer into this dialect. be a most worthy man and self-sacritic· Then the New Testament was begun and completed in 1881, printed on the i~g minister. premises by men who had never done — A correspondent calls in question such work before. It has been in con- tinual use ever since. some statements in " Notes on Africa" published in the May REVIEW. He " I shall not soon forget the delight which the first sheet produced when says they" do not agree with the state- my wife took it to her women's class.
ment of Rev. Henry Richards, of Banza She had no sooner begun to read Matt. 2 than she was interrupted by them say- Manteke, who says he never saw or ing, 'These are our words; we can heard of a cannibal, and does not be- understand them!' and they wanted lieve there are any in Africa," etc. To copies at once. Other books followed, which we only reply that Jamieson, of such as 'Peep of Day;' the Book of Jonah, printed last year; the Psalms, Stanley's rear guard, was severely'cen- just finished.
sured for drawing and sending home " Up to 1890 the average increase pictures of a cannibal feast which he was about 14. During that year the witnessed.-D. L. -Po number baptized was doubled, and our little chapels began to be crowded.
Reaping time was clearly at hand; but W. D. Rudland, of the C. I. );I., we were not prepared for such an in· writes of the rise and progress of mis- crease as we have since had.
sion work in Tai·chow : " In 1891 another station was opened .. Tai-chow is a prefectural city in in a large market town, where we al- southeast Chekiang, famous for little ready had several native Christians. A else but robbers and opium; looked considerable amount of opposition was upon as the despised Nazareth of China. manifested by some of the leading man The populaion is about 120,000, mostly of the place, and one house had to be agricultural folk, with few shops and given up. But we soon found another no manufactories of any note. 1 came which was larger, and so reaped an adhere in 1870. The station bad been vantage. Now the Christians have so opened about three years, and two men grown in lAumbers as to be able to had been baptized. One of them is still lease an a<!!foining house at a cost of living, and his eldest son is one of our $50, all native contributions. There is most valued native evangelists. now a church of 78 members and near· " The country was very unsettled, on ly 100 inquirers. In another station the account of the recent Tientsin massacr(', native Christians opened an out·station and the prospect was not encouraging. in a village about four miles distant, But in May, 1871, two more were bap- paying the rent and doing the preach. tized. one of whom still lives, and is an ing themselves. evangelist. In 1873 six persons were ,. The year 1892 was one of organiza- baptized, In two villages, 40 miles tion and consolidation more than of ex- apart, idol temples were given to us, tension. But the number of inquh-ers the owners having been converted, and increased so much that the number bap· tized was 141-nearly three, times the and continued by Miss Cooke, proves number of any previous year. During itself an invaluable help to Chinese misthe last week of prayer we asked the sions by training up a body of Christian Lord for 500 souls during this year. We Chinese women, able to do good work, have already baptized 181, and still have either as teachers and Bible women, or about 400 inquirers. as wives and mothers of Christian fami· lies. Two years after Miss Grant's " Of our 13 stations, nine have been school was commenced she had the joy provided with preaching places by the' of seeing three of her pupils baptized natives themselves; three of them were into tLe Church of Christ. At that once idol temples." time the Chinese were greatly opposed to Christianity, and Miss Grant was A year ago Miss Rosamond Anne often in actual danger of her life. Dur- Webb, Secretary of the Society for ing the ten years of her stay in Singa- Promoting Female Education in the pore, however, a great change was East, wrote a letter, which simple press- wrought, and when :Miss Cooke arrived, ure of other matter has hitherto crowd- in the year 1853, all these difficulties had been removed, and she found not only ed out. She says: a peaceful and secure home established, "That society has been at work for but also a staff of native girls fitted to be teachers, and many houses open to fifty years in Singapore; the school, be visited. Three girls were baptized the Chinese girls' school (boarding), the Sunday after Miss Grant's deparand one or two other ones (day) have ture, and the work went fOIward rapidbeen nurseries for heaven. The Lord ly in Miss Cooke's hands. Making use has richly blessed the work. Many of of her native girls as interpreters, she the native young women educated there commenced Bible readings in some of are active Christian workers, and others the houses, and many women came to have gone forth as missionaries to for- these meetings. Noticing that men eign lands. By this post I send two would often stand outside listening to numbers of the society's little magazine, the Gospel, Miss Cooke was stirred to the Female Missionary Intelligencer, consider what could be done for the which give information on the subject -the article in that for February being men. just a reprint from the Malaysia Mes- The London Missionary Society, sage. Yet the Rev. W. J. Oldham, in his article on 'Malaysia' in the MIS- which for many years had flourishing SIONARY REVIEW (May, 1894), com- missions in Malaysia, had removed their pletely ignores this work, although he last man to China about seven years bewas appointed to Singapore some nine fore Miss Cooke's arrival, and the work years ago, and it is hardly within the among the Chinese had entirely ceased, range of possibility that he should have although Mr. Keasbel'ry was still carryknown nothing about it. Justice to the ing on his work among the Malays, and, devoted laborers in that island, to whom to some extent, among the Malaythe Lord has given many souls for their speaking Chinese. The entire field, hire, compels me to draw attention to therefore. was unoccupied. neither the this omission." Church of England nor the Presbyterian The information she refers to is as Church making allY attempt to reach the Chinese. Accordingly Miss Cooke follows: began to teach two men in her school- " The Society for Promoting Female room, with the assistance of a Christian Chinaman, the men walking twelve Education in the East was not estab- miles there and back every Sunday. lished until 1834, but, previously to that The number soon increased to twelve time, Miss Newell (subsequently Mrs. men, and the Church of England Chap- Gutzliff) had begun work in Malacca. lain, the Rev. W. Humphrey, becom- She was succeeded by Miss WaUace, to ing interested in the movement, advised whom the first grant ever made by this Miss Cooke to fit up a small bungalow society, a sum of £50, was allotted; and in her compound (originally built for a in 1835 the committee sent lIiss Thorn- billiard.room) as a chapel. Services ton, a missionary of their o~n, to assist were held regularly, and the con~rega her. After eleven years of labor, Miss tion soon increased to seventy or eIghty. Thornton returned home, and the com- The simplest Church prayers were semittee gave up Malacca as one of their lected, and were read by the interpreter, who was required to prepare his notes stations. for the sermon in English, so that Miss "Later. a school for Chinese girls Cooke might know what he was preach- ing. These services were continued was opened at Singapore, and as China was at that time closed to mission work, thus until the chaplain persuaded his a most important outpost was thus gained. for, through Singapore, China could be reached. To this day the school then commenced by Miss Grant, I
EDITORIAL
English congregation to employ cate· the Indian school at Carlisle, Pa. This chists, after which Miss Cooke gladly order has an advantage in missionary relinquished this branch of her work work. It is not only work for young that it might be carried on by other Indian women, but it brings them into hands. In like manner, the Scotch its membership and gives them an op- Church was stirred up to undertake portunity to work with others for the work of a similar kind. same cause. Other circles correspond " In the mean while, the work of the with these, and so keep in touch with Chinese Girls' School was progressing, the work done by each in its respective and waifs and strays and various cases field. 'The work.' says Miss Shafner of distress were frequently brought to (matron of the school), ' has a peculiar the school by the police and others. At charm for these Indian girls. The sim- one time six young women were brought plicity of its obligation, the modesty of to the school from China; two of these its purpose, its creed that it is better to became Christians, of whom one died be than to do, all find a ready response after twelve years of bright Christian in the timid but honest nature of our life, and the other remains a consistent Indian sisters.' The meetings are con- Christian. ducted by the leaders, all of whom are " In the year 1860 six little children of the school facultY', assisted by the who had been bought in China by president of each CIrcle, who are all some Malay sailors were taken from pupils. The weekly meetings are held them by the police and brought to Miss every Wednesday evening for prayer Cooke's school, grew up, and became and Bible study, and letters from out- true Christians,* and they are now the side circles are read, and other neces- wives of Chinese (clergymen, or) catc- sary reports are presented. Sunday chists belonging to the Church Mission- afternoon the circles unite for prayer ary Society. One of these five workers and Bible reading. There is corredied of cholera in 1873. One of the spondence with absent members who girls who was in the school in Miss have returned to their homes in the Grant's time is now the wife of a mis- West, and letters are also written to sionary to the Chinese in Melbourne. other girls to encourage their effort for " Another girl married a Chinese shop- good. Last year they made three quilts keeper in Batavia fourteen years ago, and sent to a hospital in Sendai, Japan. and her consistent life has been such as They pay one share of $50 for a bed in to cause others to bring their daughters, the New York Hospital for Women and begging that they might be educated Children. Fifty yards of flannel and here. One native catechist, sent to a $20 in money were contributed to sup- peculiarly difficult and arduous Chinese- ply clothes for Indian children in South speaking station, where he met with Dakota. Twenty-five dollars are annu- continual opposition, said he could ally sent to purchase Christmas gifts hardly have stood his ground without for Indian children in the West. A the support and courage and sympathy pulpit Bible worth $18 was given to of his Christian wife, who had 'been a mission; Gospel song books were trained as a pupil in the Chinese Girls' bought and presented to the Y. M. C. A.
School. of the school. They have raised funds " Such have been a few of the wonder- to help a Sabbath-school in Japan.
ful influences for good which have gone Thirty pin-cushions have been made forth from a school which has never and sent to hospitals in Philadelphia been able to boast of more than about and Indianapolis. In valid rolling chairs forty pupils, but where the great aim and other helpful things have been given of the teachers has always been to bring to the hospital of the school.
the pupils to a saving knowledge of "The ways in which the money is .Tesus, and early to instil into their hearts earned are many. Fancy articles made that simple piety for which so many of by the circles are sold at the annual fair; them have been conspicuous in after some of the girls earn money during life. " their summer vacation, and others while at the school. At the State conven- tions of the Y. M. C. A. the association As to the Indian Circle of King's of the school is always represented; Daughters, Miss Luzena Chouteau the Indian delegation is always asked to writes from Chicago : speak, and they always respond. It is "Interesting branches of the King's hoped that these organizations may not Daughters are found in the four circles at only be the means of giving an oppor- tunity to the white people to help the * One died soon after her arrival, from the Indians, but will unite them in each other in this one great efrort to better elfects of the 'cruel treatment [she had received on board ship. mankind."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTEI.LIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extraots and Translations from Foreign ceeds village, surrounded by bamboo Periodicals. groves, their darker green picturesquely contrasting with the brighter green of BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, the rice fields. Thr~ugh the latter wind MASS. the silver threads of canals and irrigat- ing ditches. In the background rise CmNA AND JAPAN. the mountains in terraces of increasing height as they recede, until in the far -Missionary KUNZE, in the Missions- distance they lose themselves in the F'1'6und, gives some pleasing descrip- vaporous blue. The fresh green of the tions of landscapes iuthe province of growing fields is everywhere the foun- Canton. "The region through which dation of natural beauty in China." the East River pursues its course is, as almost everywhere in the Canton prov- -" English people are beginning to ince, mountainous. One mountain val- understand how the absence of interley follows another. The mountains communications makes the parts of are often bald. or only overgrown with China which are distant from the seat dwarf fir trees. Yet there are here and of war quite safe for missionary work. there romantic forest ravines out of Dr. Griffith Jobn, writing from a place which, it is true, an idol temple usually some days' journey further inland than rises, thus lowering our delight of the Hankow, says that the people' appear natural beauties around. Behind the to take as little interest in Peking and ranges of hills which line the banks of Canton as they do in Canada and the river rise higher and yet higher Wales. ' He has been making a most mountains, over which, on the north, successful tour in places where no Eurorises still higher Mount Lofen. This pean missionary, but only catechists, is more than 4000 feet high, and is cov- have hitherto labored. At Pah-tzeered with various Buddhist monasteries. Nau, Tien-Men, Tsau-shih, and Mau- It is said that among the monks are kia-po the mandarins were friendly, the many people of rank. The story goes opposition was silenced, and many conamong the people that mandarins, who verts were baptized. At the last·named had reason to fear deposition or con- town the ancestral hall was cleared and demnation to death, have feigned them- used for service. Out of 200 candidates selves dead, had themselves borne into for baptism, 66 were baptized, coming the mortuary hall, have there escaped from 14 villages. There are candidates from their coffins, and joined the monks for baptism in 12 more villages. This of Mount Lofen. In this way they part of the Hupeh Province is therefore saved their lives and saved their wealth very hopefuL" – Ohurch Missiona;ry Into their families, which, in the event of telligencer. their execution, would have escheated to the State." -" By the time this issue comes be- fore our readers, the Japanese occupa- -The station at Tshu-thong-au is tion of Formosa will have begun. There thus described: .. A beautiful chapel will almost certainly be some initial was built there, together with a helper's difficulties with the Chinese city popudwelling, and dedicated on Palm Sun- lations, and a firm hand may be required day, 1890. From the neighboring hill to insure the establishment of the new you have a splendid view over the whole regime. But if Japan continues to show valley. The region is very populous the skill and determination and adminisand wonderfully beautiful; village suc-
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
trative power which have been so mani- years fallen. The idea, it seems, pre- fest during the war, it will not be long vails, even in our great missionary so- before she is able to inaugurate a new cieties, that medical missionaries are era in the island by developing its re- not needed any longer for .Japan. 'In sources and improving the condition of Japan,' I am told, ' there is such progress its people. One thing will be looked that we do not now think it needful to for with eager interest. How will the send medical missionaries tbere.' Com- new government bear itself toward the ing from Japan as I do, it is news to me two Protestant missions which now pos- that its people do not need this agency.
sess a network of some 80 stations over Many skilled physicians there are in Ja- the island? We have the expectation pan, it is true, but these are not available -perhaps we are too sanguine-that for the poor any more than your leading she will not interfere with the mission consultants and skilled private practi.
work already existing, but will rather tioners are within the reach of the poor rejoice in its presence as a factor in the of your cities. Hospitals there are in interests of peace and civilization; and Japan, duly officered and appointed, that she will put no hindrance in the but among a thousand beds in these efforts to spread the Word of God still hospitals you would scarcely perhaps further. Japan has yet to find a relig- find a hundred apportioned to the poor- ion for herself in room of the old faiths est of the people. I only wish that from which she is now casting herself those in this country who are blind on loose; and it may be that in facing the this subject could know Japan as it is, problem of the government of a great and could have their eyes opened.
Chinese popUlation, she has to learn .. But now for a few words about the some lessons concerning the ultimate Bibles which you have, as an associa- principles of righteous rule which may tion, helped me to distribute among the lead her to consider more carefnlly the Japanese doctors. There are, as I have claims of Christian truth."-Medical said, many doctors in Japan-about 42,- Missions. 000 altogether. I myself have personal acquaintance with from 500 to 1000 of -At the annual meeting of the Medi- them, and I have found them always cal Missionary Association, held in Lon- most cordial and kind. The ready ac· don, May 2d, Dr. Whitney, of Tokyo, cess one has had to them one's self sug- Japan, said: gested the thought of seeking access among them for one's Bible as well ; "I stand here to represent Japan, that country in which so many are now and the naval and military surgeons interested; and also to represent the who were actively engaged in the war work of the distribution of the Bible to were our first care. .
the Japanese medical men. With this "To 160 naval, and to nearly 1000 work the lIedical Missionary Associa- military doctors, we have accordingly tion of London has been closely identi- lately sent a Testament and a book of fied, sending me at different times con· Psalms bound up together and printed siderable gifts from medical men and in the Japanese tongue. [Here Dr.
other of its constitnents-gifts which Whitney produced a small, nicely have very materially helped forward bound, tempting-looking volume from the distribution. his pocket.] Within we placed an in- "Since the opening of the country scription stating that the book was a thirty or forty years ago, medical mis- gift from medical men in America and sion work has been carried on in Tokyo, England who, knowing for themselves Kobe, Osaka, Niigata, and in many the value of its contents, were desirous other places. But I want to correct a that their brethren in Japan should also very erroneous notion into which I find find them to be spirit and life. Many that people in England have of late acknowledgments have reached me, and
GENERAL MisSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [Septemb&r
parts of some of these you too may care lied medical missionaries in China, the to hear: • We thank you very much for better; but everyone from England your precious presents and for your should know at least something about kind writings. ' • There shall be no medicine, for whether he happens to greater happiness to me than if I get the know anything or not, medical work he truth for the grace of God's.' 'Cer- will have to do I" tainly I will read it with attention, and hope that I may not make your kindness It appears that even personal experivain.' 'Your work in distributing ence cannot rid some of the Chinese of Bibles among the doctors is doing much their fixed persuasion of the evil pracgood.' Here is one letter superscribed tices of the foreign doctors. Dr. Rigg without 'To my beloved teacher.' It says: " A little old woman came to me is, you see, rather of the lengthy order. one day who did not present a very [Here Dr. Whitney unrolled a letter pleasing appearance. Her eye was Which had rather the appearance of a swollen up. I wondered whether her parliamentary petition, trailing from the eyeball was injured, and did what I rail of the platform to the floor and could temporarily pending a fuller exalong for a length altogether of perhaps amination. Meanwhile my wife gave ten to twelve feet.] Time is so nearly her a cup of tea and some bread and up that I will not tell you all the'thanks butter, all of which she disposed of. that this letter expresses. " -ilfedicaZ though she had never seen bread and MisBion8. butter before, or had milk and sugar in her tea. The visit over, she went away -Japanese doctors are real physi- and told her neighbors, 'They gave cians; but, as we know, Chinese doc- me medicine at the dispensary to make tors are for the most part mere quack- my head dizzy, and then the foreign salvers. On the same occasion Dr. teacher took my eye out.' The next Rigg, C. M. S. missionary in Fuh-kien, day she came back to us, this time with remarked: "We have been told this her brother, a barber, who was greatly afternoon that medical missionaries are enraged with us for having excised his wanted for Japan-and that although sister's eye. The swelling having by there are 42,000 doctors in the country. this time somewhat abated, I was able And I can assure you that they are to open the eyelid and show the brother wanted in China, though there are that the eye was there all right enough, plenty of doctors there too. I am sure whereupon the old lady went back to I may say, indeed, that there are many her neighbors and informed them, • My more than 42,000 doctors in China; but brother went with me to the foreign I may add that for the whole lot of teacher and threatened him, and frightthem I would give-well, not much ened him so much that he put my eye more than twopence! Two helpers at back again.''' We see that this woman our hospital, the cook and another man, would be able to confirm the stories thought once upon a time that it would about the missionaries from her own exbe a fine thing to go into the medical perience, as according to her it was only line for themselves. So they left us, the valor of her brother that saved her bought some spectacles, and set up in eye from being used for the unhallowed business. In due course of time they dtsigns of the foreigners. quarrelled, and the partnership was dissolved. But this is a fair specimen of " A gong sounds at six, and patients the way in which many and many a throng to the dispensary, each of them Chinaman enters the medical profes- carrying a little bowl. This is for their sion. The fact that these men know so physiC. We have to take care only to little makes anybody who comes from give them a dose at a time, or they England useful. The more fully quali. would drink it all up at once. They are excellent takers of medicine. Cas- tor-oil is swallowed to the_last drop
1895.J EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONfl
without a wry face, and pills they will It poor heathen soul at this mission from eat if you do not look after them. the slavery of sin and death. There is Among the crowd as the morning went a knock at the door. The black sexton on, you may see a well-dressed student enters. "Morena 0 t8osicle!" .. Rure, dressing some loathsome ulcer. Three MO'l'ena 0 t80sicle /" are the mutual greetor four years ago this student shrank ings. sensitively from everything that was repulsive; but one day he chanced to read The same salutations greeted the misabout our Lord's washing His disci- sionary as he soon appeared in his vestples' feet, and from that day no service ments in the joyful· assembly_ The haa been too mean for him to perform whole congregation, men and women, for anyone of the patients. The ulcer young and old, were present. cases he has made his special charge; s:) much so that I have to take him off They came from a distance to a joythem at times and give them to a junior ful Easter festival. They were all neatstuden.t, for he is now one of our seniors. ly dressed, with joy visible in their There are as good Christians among my faces. No word was spo!o:en, but all students as there are in this hall. It is eyes were turned toward the reddening well worth all the trouble it has given horizon. Soon the Easter sun loorps me to have had the joy of training such forth which once before showed the men. It is well worth your while, any risen Lord. The Easter tones of the of you Christian parents who may be bell sounded now from the church here, to train up your children to such tower. The procession formed, the two work-to set medical missions before missionaries with the native helpers and your boys and girls, and to put them in teachers in advance, followed by the the way of preparing for the service. congregation. They go to the cemetery We must have missionary parents if we near the church to celebrate Easter at are to hope to have missionary chil- the graves of the departed. They stop dren." at the hill which holds the grave of the missionary Kobolde, who had been be- Ea.ster Oelebration in Africa. loved and had died young. The tolling or'the bell ceased. After a short prayer At two o'clock in the morning, as a jubilant hymn of praise breaks forth light began to dawn upon the quiet re- in this home of the dead in honor of gion, there was also an awakening tq Him who took away the sting of death life in the vicinity of the German mis- and brought immortality to light. sion in South Africa. Here and there black forms appeared between the fields There were also many Hollanders and corn gardens, singly or in small (Dutch peasants from the neighborhood) groups, on their way to the mission. present. The miSSionary therefore read Near the tower of the little church the the Easter Gospel in Dutch and made a. guests assembled. "Morena 0 tsosicle /" short address in the same;Ianguage. The (" The Lord is risen I") the tones of the festival sermon then followed from the bell proclaimed to the new-comers. other missionary in Sessutho (a native "Ru'l'e, Morena 0 t80sicle /" (" He is language), to which the white listeners truly risen I' ') was their answer. The also gave attention. The service was missionary stood at the window of his closed with hymns and prayer, a beaustudy and looked out into the dawning tiful, fitting Divine service. It showed Easter morning full of thanks and that this congregation, which once conpraise to Him who here again in Afrk-a sisted of heathens who had no hope, had shown Himself a risen and living now was composed of happy Easter Saviour, and who had also saved many Christians by the grace of God, for whom also the light of eternal life beamed across the dark portals of the grave.-li'rorn the Lutheran Kirchen- f'l'eund.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
English Notes. throughout Tinnevelly, and aggressive and earnest efforts are being made in BY JAMES DOUGLAS. many quarters, a root of bitterness has Ohu'l'ol. Missionary Society.-Not only sprung up, owing to the order of the the friends of this society, but of evan- diocesans that caste titles should be gelical missions generally, will be in- omitted in the pUblication of the banns clined to view as an augury for good of marriage. The result has shown the proclamation of a British protec- how deep-seated is the spirit of caste torate over the States intervening be- among those who as Christians should tween Uganda and the East Coast. have given it up altogether. Still all Though the Uganda :Mission has been are not tainted. A band exists of men in no way dependent on man's arrange- full of faith, of prayer, and of the Holy ments, yet it does seem as if, in the Ghost.
overruling providence of God, the way London Missionary Society.-The bearof the Gospel was being further pre- ing of the French invasion of Madagaspared through the introduction of set- car on evangelical missions has been tled government into the heart of Afri- seriously complicated by the Lenten ca, and the decision arrived at by Her pastoral of the Roman Catholic Arch- Majesty's Government to make the bishop of Paris, who speaks of the railway to Uganda. It is hoped that French expedition as a crusade on bethe pax Britannica, like the pax Roo half of Catholicism. This sentiment is mana of old, may greatly facilitate the re-echoed by the other bishops of France, progress of the Gospel as the means of and coupled with the stronglyanti-Britearth's regeneration. ish feeling which finds utterance among Oentral Asia.-Dr. Neve's recent arti- the French Colonial party, seems to cle on Central Asia as a further field point to anxious days in the future.
for occupancy has already borne fruit Lifu, New Oaledonia.-A wondrous both as regards offers of personal ser- work of grace has recently taken place vice and of substantial contributions. on this island. the like of which had As the editor of the Missionary Intelli- never been seen on the island before. gencer points out, every region beyond The results appear to have far exceeded that is entered, every fresh enlargement faith and expectation. "I confess," of the missionary field to lands still writes Mr. James Hadfield, " that when more remote, reacts fa vorably on the I started these revival services one chief other spheres which are already before idea in my mind was that I should be the churches. The new does not preju- furnishing the pastors with a weapon dice the old, but strengthens the organic which might be of value to them in the development of the whole network of future, when they had learned to use it agency. with effect; but a stronger hand than ours has used the weapon and left us Negro Mis3ionarie8.-The Bishop of all, teachers and people alike, under a Sierra Leone, believing that the Church profound sense of God's willingness to in West Africa would be much helped help us, and of the ease with which He if negro missionaries from across the works," As a result of these services, Atlantic could be procured, has gone to conducted throughout the island by the West Indies to see who among the four of the native pastors, no less than colored Christians are willing to offer 564 natives have decided for Christ, and themselves for this work.
South India.-It is reported that while the whole island has been roused to re- the congregations at the Palamcottale newed faith and zeal. One of the pas- Tamil Church are as large as ever, tors described the movement as a true numbering over 1200, and while bap- "Penetekosa," and records that while tisms are almost daily taking place working in a remote district a somewhat
ENGLISII NOTES
severe hUlTicane came on, but the peo· as much ehristian &1 many IIlf our home pIe would not allow of the meetings villages. There !tre few houses where being interfered with, earnestly protest- family worship is not observed. Let ing that it was no hurrieane, bjt sim- people try to realize what that means, ply the rushing of a mighty wind to ac- and they will rejoice and give God company the descent of the Spirit. In thanks as I did and do."
some of the villages there is scarce one Dr. .iJjJleck Scott.-The Blantyre Misleft who is not either a church-member sion of the Church of Scotland has sufor a candidate for admission. fered a grievous loss in the death of Dr.
Hankow, Ohina.-Dr. Griffith John W. A. Scott, at the early age of thirty- writes concerning the new leper home three. His words at starting for the at Hiau Kaw, and the prospects gener- Dark Continent were, "What a glori- ally in that neighborhood: "It is now ous thing to help to save Africa 1" In about twenty years since we began labor he was unsparing of himself, and work in that district. From the begin- though his time on furlough was long ning we have been greatly encouraged overdue, he refused to leave till a suc- by evident tokens of God's favor. But cessor would come to take his place and never have we seen so much to inspire his work. His career is brief but in- us with confidence as now. The whole spiring ; and the mantle of such a man district is being leavened with Christian cannot fall to the ground.
truth, and everywhere an interest in the Baptist Missionary Society.-Great truth is being awakened in the minds of grief is felt at the early and lamented men. .. We want more men. When death of Sidney Roberts Webb, M.D., shall we have them !" of the Congo, after a short two years of Prayer of a Hunan 0 hristian. -" 0 missionary service. Skilful in the sci- Lord, Thou knowest that Hunan means ence of medicine, he had an earnest south of the Lake, and Hupeh north of evangelical spirit, and was especially • the Lake; the Lake is Tung Ting. successful in attracting the Congo boys Thou knowest, Lord, that there are to his person and touching their hearts more people in these two provinces than by his appeals. The letter of his young there are fish in the Lake, and Thou wife, narrating the circumstances of his hast sent us to be fishers of men. In last illness and departure and burial at many places the Gospel net has not sea, is unspeakably touching. One who been let down, and there is no means of well knew him writes: "Sidney Webb catching the fish, nor is there any fish- died as he lived; and he has carried erman. We pray Thee, Lord, to grant with him the character and capacity that in every place there may be a Gos- formed by the experience and discipline pel net and skilful fishermen. " of earth,"
Presbyterian Ohurch of England.- Wesleyan Mi8sionary Society.-The Writing of a visit paid to the mission "'Wesleyan Missionary Notices" constations in Formosa, the Rev. John tinue still to be occupied with addresses Watson, M.A., says: "The brethren in given at the annual meetings by breth- Formosa have been unduly depressed ren from the foreign fields_ There is an by the relapses of which they have told unmistakable ring of faith in their utus among the Christian aborigines. I terances generally, while the results, as spent a few days at Awgulan, in the summarized, show in several cases gratinorth of our district, which is virtually fying progress. Educational agencies a Christian village. The people are all are carefully fostered, and evangelistic aborigines, or Sek Hoan. They speak efforts unfiaggingly sustained. Speaktheir native dialect, and also Chinese. ing of the Galle district of Ceylon, the Some twenty-five years ago they first Rev. Robert Tebb says, "Of the 500 heard the Gospel. Now the village is members there, many of them are work-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
in~ for Christ, and are endurin~ for ·~The la.te Rev. E. A.. Lawrence lays Him in a way to be compared with that down this dictum, which is eminently of the noblest members at home. . . . Christian: .. Every church should work Then in the educational work we are out in. a mission, and every mission very thankful indeed that we have some should work out into t1 church. " 6000 childl'en in the day schools and Sabbath-schools." The testimony of -The Spirit of Mission8 is privileged the Rev. W. Arthur Cornaley. of Wu- to be able to state a fact which unforchang, Ohina, is no less valuable: "Dur- tunately is notable because so unusual: ing the nine years I have been out there "For a long time we have received the membership of the district has al- from the same anonymous contributor a most exactly doubled. Among those regular weekly gift of $5 for missions. 650 members there are more than double We recognize it by the address on the the number of workers there were in envelope_ It shows a constant thought those earlier days. We know our num- for missions which is very gratifying." bers now. They have been tested by the riots. Not one left us under the -Bishop Potter, of New York City, stress of that persecution and excite- takes a "vacation" by going into the ment. The living influence of some 650 heart of the crowded tenement district Christians must be enormous." of the East Side, and individually tak- ing part in the mission work among the THE KINGDOM. poor. His object is twofold. First, he wants to learn for himself the character -Paul is the prince of missionaries, and requirements of that particular misand Chapter viii. of Second Corinthians sion field. Secondly, he desires, by peris the most stirriug passage relating to sonal direction of the mission, to exthe missionary spirit that his pen ever emplify his idea of the cathedral, produced. If the Christian Church were which is, that it should be a church for only to learn those twenty-four verses all classes of the people, a free church, by heart, the world's redemption would for the poor as well as for the rich. be nigh, even at the doors. The place of beginning should be at the fifth -Truly, the Scudders rank high verse, which tells how the saints of among royal families, for they have MacedOnia first gave their own selvll8 to supplied 30 missionaries to the foreign the Lord. field, and have given 529 years of toil for the salvation of India. -" Do the next thing." That may be nothing but to stand still and see the -As the New York Sun reminds us : salvation of the Lord. Thank God, His " Two centuries elapsed after the disfaithfulness and power are not dependent covery of America by Columbus before upon our faith! Our faith may fail us, Europe began to turn America to much but if we obey simply, humbly, in the account, but a single century after Ausdark, God's light and power and salva- tralia drew the world's notice saw the tion will be clearly manifested at last. full flower of civilization there. The After all, we shall find that obedience is most of Africa is the discovery of the but faith with folded wings. As Bishop past half century, and yet we know far Thoburn puts it, " God's promises are more of that great continent in all its His commands." If we cannot always aspects to-day than was known of Amerreceive the Divine message with the ica three hundred years after Columbuoyancy and cheerfulness of faith, we bus had discovered it." can receive it with the determination and the faithfulness of obedience.-Ind- -After a meeting of Babus in Bow ian Witnes8. Bazar, Calcutta, the Rev. J. F. Hewitt was questioned by a man who was on the border-line between theosophy and Hinduism. An inquisitive crowd quickly iathered, questions and answers de· which art in Heaven, above .!.mericlI I veloped into a rather lengthy discus· Hallowed be Thy name, in Am8rica. sion, which was cut short in a very Thy kingdom come, in America. Thy pleasant way. ~Ir. Hewitt writes: "A will be done, in America, as it is in negro, a pure African, thrust his way heaven. Give us this day our daily through the crowd, and, taking the bread, in America; and forgive us our Babu by the arm, besought him most debts as we forgive our debtors, in earnestly to accept the Lord Jesus as America." his Saviour. Then he told them that he was once a heathen, but a black -The Church of Rome is in princi· bishop named Crowther came to his pIe about as tolerant as a Bengal tiger. country and told them sweet words When the tiger is in his cage he submits about the Lord Jesus, which he had be· to various circumstances which he does lieved, and by which he had become a not tolerate when free to follow his own Christian. It was a sight which I shall wishes. In the freedom of the jungle . not readily forget. It did one good to we see exactly what the nature of the bear a black, rough·lookingnegro plead· animal is. And if we would know ex- – ing earnestly in broken English with actly the principles of the Church of this educated, intellectual Babu, and ex· Rome and her theories concerning the horting him to accept Christ." -Ohurch religious rights of those who are not in Missionary Intelligencer. her own communion, we should study her procedure in those countries where -Two replies come to the time·worn she is virtually at liberty to carry out and slanderous allegation that only dead her own ideas.-Indian Witne88. Indians are good. First, the tables are fairly turned upon us whites when the -For a long period, the Dutch au· Indian preachers very earnesly assure thorities in Sumatra tried to win the . their hearers that there are good white Mohammedan population by excessive people, as Miss Collins declares they do. deference and even by special privi- And then in Boston the other day Lone leges. They thought to awaken the Wolf confessed, "that is true; but gratitude of the Moslems and gain their how? I am a dead Indian, because the adherence by spending lavishly on their fire of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus temples and religious arrangements; Christ has killed the Indian that was in the ruined mosque of Atschie, in Suo me." matra, was splendidly rebuilt at the cost of the Government, and the Dutch -It appears that something besides rulers went so far as to regard the work climate is concerned in making of West of missions as PCllitically dangerous. Africa a graveyard for missionaries. They even believed that the Mohamme· One who bas suffered there writes: dan insurrection in Borneo in 1859 was " It is said, 'So many die. ' And why provoked by the missionaries. But late· do they die? Simply because the nig. ly a change has taken place, and three gardly giving of Christian people com· years ago it was emphatically declared, pels them to do and risk what no hu· in an assembly of men thoroughly ac· man being can endure in any climate. quainted with the circumstances of the One man was left with work that at Dutch colonies, that missions were a home would employ ten, and then, if great help to the Government, and the Lord doesn't work a miracle to keep should be furthered in every possible him alive, it is attributed to 'the dread· way.-Evangelische8 ]tIi88'ionsmagazin. ful African climate.' " WOMAN'S WORK.
-This revision of the Lord's Prayer -It is said that the W. C. T. U. is has been made for those who do not be· the first women's organization to receive lieve in foreign missions: "Our Father official recognition in Westminster Abbey. At the late World's Convention ate course in medicine, and then return some of the most notable sessions were to Liberia, able to do better work in the held in the abbey, and the Bishop of line of medicine. I look forward to a Dover preached a sermon there eulogiz- long life to do good and help build up ing the organization. Surely the world Africa."
moves-even that part oj' it encompassed -Thirty-five deaconesses have gone within the British Isles. out from the Chicago Training School -A young English woman, a physi- this year into active work. They are cian, was l'ecentlyescorted from India distributed as follows: Chicago, 9; to Afghanistan by a special embassy Lake Bluff Orphanage, 4; Milwaukee, from the Ameer, and her ministrations 3; Fall River, 2; Minneapolis, 2; made an impression so favorable that Omaha, 2; Africa, 2; Peoria, Freeport, she accompanied the Buite of the St. Louis, Grand Rapids, La Crosse, Ameer's son to London. Providence, Eureka Springs, Des Moines, undenominational work in -This is written concerning woman's Chicago, each 1. Two others are can- day at the recent meeting of the Inter- didates for foreign work in India or national Missionary Union: "The most China.
interesting feature perhaps of the exer- -Two Chinese girls from Kiukiang, cises was Mrs. White's presentation to China, stood the highest in the recent the audience of three silver-haired ladies junior examinations of the medical dewith this record: Mrs. E. C. Scudder, partment of the University of Michigan. 21 years in India; Mrs. Henry Blodget, They came to America three years ago 40 years in China; Mrs. J. C. Hepburn, at the solicitation of Miss Howe, a mis- 50 years in China and Japan. The lat- sionary from Ann Arbor, hardly knowter, with half a century of good works ing a word of English, and graduate upon her, sat a queen among us. Full next year to return to China as medical of dignity, her narrative flashed with missionaries. quiet humor that brought out in happy relief the earnestness of her life. " -Miss Hu King Eng,M.D., who is -Miss Georgia L. Patton, M.D., born soon to return to China well equipped a slave, tells us this about herself: " I as a missionary of the Woman's Forworked on the farm until I was seven- eign Missionary Society. was baptized teen years old. My mother died when in China in her infancy by Rev. S. L. I was sixteen. I have attended Central Baldwin, D.D., Recording Secretary of Tennessee College since 1882. I have our missionary society. She is the been able to be in college only a few granddaughter of one of our earliest months each year, being compelled to converts in China.-Zion's Herald.
stay out and work to pay my expenses. -One of the most successful of girls'
I have paid my way and supported my- boarding·schools in the foreign field is self mostly by teaching district schools. Beirut Female Seminary, which has In 1890 I complcted the scnior normal been for many years a most valuable course, and in February, 1893, complet- part of the missionary work in Syria.
ed the three years' course in medicine. Other schools have been added to this I go to Liberia for the good I want to beginning and have had a great effect, do for others, to relieve the suffering, even upon the Mohammedan communi- and to assist in radiating the light of ties. One day-school, taught in Beirut Christianity and civilization to other by Miss Taylor, a Scotch woman, has parts of Africa. I expect to both prac- in it about 40 Mohammedan girls of the tise medicine and to teach school in better class. In self-defence, the Mo- Liberia. After two years I hope to re- hammedans started a girls' school of turn to this country, take a postgradu- their own, but it waS not successful. GENERAL MISSIONARY IN'rELI.IGENCE.
YOUNG PEOPLE. topics were considered: "An Efficient Missionary Committee, " " The Mission- -Again has the Christian Endeavor ary Meeting" and .. Systematic Givmovement astonished all Christendom ing." There was a large attendance of by the hosts it brought together at the those interested in home and foreign recent Boston convention. The names missions. of 56,435 delegates were registered, and 10,000 more are reckoned to have been -A novel method of awakening zeal present as visitors; and the spiritual and prayer in behalf of missionary work quality of that notable week's gathering has been adopted by one Christian Enfairly matched its prodigious propor- deavor Society, which has undertaken tions. The growth of the last year the support of a native preacher in the amounted to 7750 societies, making a Madura Mission, costing, above what total of 41,229, with 2,473,740 members. the people themselves raise, $40 a year.
In the sessions the place of honor among This makes 11 cents a day. A card is topics was accorded to good citizenship prepared for each day of the year, and and missions. More than $10 each had the member of the society taking that been raised by 5557 societies for the card pays the 11 cents and promises to spread of the Gospel among the nations, pray especially for that helper on that and it is estimated that the total of mis- particular day. Thus alms and prayers sionary offerings reached $425,000. The go together.
Friends reported that their Endeavorers -A call has been issued for the first sustain 15 missionaries wholly or in national convention of Young Lutherpart. Well might the Boston Adver- ans, to be held in Pittsburg, October tiser exclaim: .. What other human 30th and 31st. The object of the conconcern, belief, hope or ambition is vention will be" to promote Christian there, be it politics, business, pleasure, fraternity among all Lutherans in the knowledge, or sport, that could bring to United States, to organize a national asthis New England shore in midsummer, sociation, and to quicken practical from every State and Territory and Christian activities." province of North America, and from Australia and from Great Britain, and -One of the most interesting of the from ' the land of the midnight sun,' a missionary societies in mission fields is representative convention of 50,000 dele- the Missionary Children's Missionary gates ?" Association in Western Turkey. Its members are the sons and daughters of -The Chicago Tribune sent a staff of missionaries; its headquarters are in reporters and artists to Boston to " cov- Constantinople, and it has local societies er" the Christian Endeavor Convention; with suggestive names, such as " The the work was admirably done, and the Fishers of the Bosphorus," " Marsovan Tribune deserves the thanks of all Gleaners," " Mountain Jewel Seekers, " Christian people. in all the 7 stations of the mission. The -The Baptist rally was an amaze· local societies hold monthly meetings, ment to many. Where did all these and the annual meeting occurs in con- Baptists come from? was a general nection with that of the mission. For question. The session was full of in- a time the association supported an Ind- terest. Professor Vedder presided, and ian girl at Hampton Institute, and later greeted his fellow Endeavorers to " the the funds-about $50 a year-have been largest Baptist meeting ever held, not appropriated for schools in China and only in Boston, but in the world." Ceylon.
-The Brooklyn Christian Endeavor UNITED STATES.
Union has held a conference of mission- -The census report covering the ary committees, and the following statistics of churches has just been issued. It is a work of more than SOO Talladega must be a healthy spot for pages, with colored maps. The total of humanity, both black and white. communicants of all denominations is 20,612,806, who belong to 165,177 or- -This is a brief abstract of the hisganizations or congregations. These tory of another institution in the same congregations have 142,521 edifices, State: "Fourteen years ago Booker T. which have sittings for 43,564,863 per- Washington was still at Hampton, and sons. The value of all church property lmd not even heard of Tuskegee. He used exclusively for purposes of worship reached here in June, 1881, and all there is $679,630,139. There are 111,036regu- then was of the school was on paper. lar ministers, not including lay preach- It has closed its fourteenth year with an ers. There are 5 bodies which have enrollment of 809 students-150 in the more than 1,000,000 communicants and model school, and 66 teachers and super- 10 more than 500,000. intendents. The school owns about 2000 acres of land and has over 40 build- -The Ohicago T1·ibu.ne says that the ings either completed or going up. It total donations by gift and will in this rents 15 cottages off from the school country since January 1st. counting iIr grounds, and about 10 of the teachers dividual sums exceeding $1000, are as live in homes of their own. At least 25 follows: January, $1,698,900; Febru- industries have been carried on during ary, $1,873;300; March, $736,550; the year, covering almost every kind of April, $1,311.100; May, $4,239,300; pursuit necessary to the support of June (to date), $575,600. Total, $10,- more than 1000 people. In all of these 434,150. Of this amount colleges and operations $73,348 have been expended, universities have received $4,075,750; about one fifth of which has gone into hospitals, $1,593,000; churches, $789,- permanent plant, the balance to current , 000; and libraries, $208,000, or nearly expenses. Out of the above sum the two thirds of the total. The remainder, students received a benefit of $41,000, $3,768,400, has been distributed among which they paid in labor at an average museums, art galleries and various of 5 cents per hour toward their exclasses of charity: penses. "
-President De Forest is at the head -Rev. Dr. E. W. Gilman, one of the of a missionary institution in Alabama, secretaries of the Bible Society, has jnst and has lately informed the Ohristian been informed by its agent in Peru that public as to what it is not. Here fol- a number of Bibles consigned to him lows one paragraph from several: some time ago have been admitted " Talladega College is not a factory for through the custom house at Oallao. the making of dudes and dudesses. This result follows about eighteen Next to wickedness nothing is more months of persevering effort and litigapersecuted here than affectation, con- tion occasioned by the influence of the ceit, and finical foolishness. The long Roman Oatholic Ohurch officials, who trail is stepped on ; the stove-pipe hat tried every means to keep the agent, gets its banging; and the gold-headed Rev. A. M. Milne, from obtaining the cane, if it appeared at all, would be Bibles for circulation. made a stick for the owner's back. Neither display in dress nor the spread- -The July issue of Gospel in .All eagle in oratory command a premium ; Lands has an admirable article on « How while hard-handed industry and pains- to Run a Ohinese Sunday-School," by taking economy are advocated and de- Rev. F. J. Masters, of San Francisco. veloped. Pretence, display, and shams It ought to be reprinted in tract form, of all kinds are here persistently dis- and be in the hands of every teacher of couraged. They do not thrive in this Ohinese, whether West or East. particular latitude and longitude." –New York City continues to be GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
blessed with evangelizers of an heroic churches. The Spanish are cared for and energetic mould. Missionary Park- in New Mexico and in Brooklyn; the hurst has found a wortby coadjutor in French in New Hampshire, Indiana, Theodore Roosevelt, albeit the latter be- Chicago, and Philadelphia; the Bohe· longs away down in the secular police mians in Cleveland and Baltimore; the department. Note well these excerpts Portuguese in New Bedford, etc.
from one of his discourses : -Rev. A. Ben Oliel, of Jerusalem, " We suffer from over-legislation and has been baptized in the Jordan, has joined the Baptist Church, and already from lax administration of legislation." is stirring up his new-found brethren to " The American people will not ulti· plant a mission in the Holy City.
mately sanction the systematic violation -The Missionary Board of the Cumof law." berland Presbyterian Church is no long- er to wait for missionary candidates to " I had to choose between closing all apply for appointment, but is to search the saloons and violating my oath of out in the churches suitable men and office. I chose to close the saloons." women,and then proceed to "call" them (Hear!) to the work. And why not 2 " I would rather see this administration turned out for enforcing laws than see it succeed by violating them."
(Hear! hear!) , -A deputation from the American "I am an executive, not a legisla- Board to Japan, consisting of Secretary Barton, Mr. W. P. Ellison, of the Prutive officer. I indulge in no theorizing dential Committee, Dr. A. H. Bradabout the performance of duty." (..:1 ford, of Montclair, N. J., and Dr. J. G. Daniel I) Johnson, of the New England Church, Chicago, has been charged with an ex- Why, he could not have enunciated ceedingly important mission_ Japan's doctrine more orthodox or pungent an growing spirit of independence has put he were duly ordained by PreSbytery, bishop, or the Pope himself !
-Hillsdale College, Michigan (Free the missions there in a critIcal condition.
Baptist), has always been characterized Evidently leading strings will not be by a missionary spirit. As early as 1856 tolerated much longer by the saints 2 of its students went as missionaries in the Land of the Rising Sun; and it to the West Indies. Frequent visits bids fair to be a most difficult question from returned missionaries and the pres· to settle, just where and how to endeavor ence of students preparing for mission- to assist them with counsel and with ary work, especially the graduation of funds, and when to withhold influence, 4 of Dr. Jeremiah Phillips's daughters, leaving them to follow their own con· who entered the India field, has left the victions.
college in touch with mission interests. EUROPE. Of the stlldents, 28 have gone to the for- eign field-l to Africa, 3 to Jamaica, 2 Great Britain. – Well does tbe Evan- to China, and 22 to India, and 14 have gelical Ohurchman remind us that not all ,been home missionaries, with work titled personages are as a matter of course chiefly among tbe colored people of spiritual nobodies: .. It may be news Cairo and Harper's Ferry. to some on our democratic continent that in the great religious meetings held -In the aggregate a vast amount of during M.ay and June in London many labor has been expended in this country members of the House of Lords take a upon the foreign-born. The Method- prominent part. Scarcely a day passes ists, for example, minister to the Chi- without a peer baving taken part in a nese in New York, as well as to them meeting at Exeter Hall. Lord Bennet, and the Japanese on the Pacific Coast. son of tbe Earl of Tankerville, has been In Utah light gleams forth from 20 out on a preaching tour among the villages in the neighborhood of Chilling- -Shades of Sydney Smith and all ham Castle, the family seat in North- other mockers at missions! Read this umberland, and Lord Overtoun has been from the Reporter: co It is perhaps not conducting a number of services in too much to say that never since Sir Glasgow, and has presented a site valued James Stephens's article on the Clap- at £16,000 to the Y. M. C. A. of that hamites has the Bible Society attained city. All the members of the upper such literary recognition as it receives house are not followers of the turf and in the recent number of the Q:uarterly the prize-ring. A very large number Review. In many ways the notice is of them take a deep interest in all Chris- even more satisfactory than Sir James's, tian undertakings. for he only brought in our work be· cause it w~,s the pet scheme of the men -Dr. Pentecost is trying to mend he was dealing with. The Qnarterly things at the Marylebone Church. He Reviewer, on the other hand, starts is not satisfied with the weekly offer- with the work; to him the men are ing. He says that about 600 pennies what they should be, God's instruments, are deposited in the collection baskets by whom the work comes to pass. So every Sunday, and fears these coins may the Annual Report for 1894, and the represent the gratitude of 600 'people. co Gospel in Many Tongues," appear for And assuming that one person puts in the first time in that numbered list, at several pennies, he makes the sugges- the head of the Review, which many tion that it would be a .good plan for books have desired to enter into and those who give as much as threepence have not been able. We cannot do to take those three penny pieces on the more than urge our readers to look it Saturday and exchange them for a through, and our deputations to make threepenny bit, claiming that this opera- use of it, for it catches our society's tion " would be more honoring to God," operations from the true standpoint of and would be co a step in the evolution historical continuity, and confesses that of beneficence"-from copper to silver. 'in this work every gift is sanctified, -John Bull at the best is far removed and no pains are superfluous.' "
from sinlessness, or even saintliness; but well does the Indian Witnes8 enter -Dawn in India thus sums up the this protest; "Professor Thoumaian work of the Christian Literature So- and the Rev. A. W. Prautch are ad- ciety: "Fifteen hundred separate pub- dressing joint meetings in England on lications have been issued in 18 different , The Iniquities of Turkish Rule in Ar- languages of India, and of these more menia and the Iniquities of British Rule than 20,000,000 of copies have been in India.' The Anti-Opium Society in sold. Thirty-two missionary societies England deserves to fail if it permits its regularly take advantage of our books agents to do their work in such a ques- both for evangelistic work and for the tionable manner. What confidence can use of the converts. More than 1000 the public place in the reliability of men Christian teachers have been trained in who put England's treatment of India our institutions, most of whom are now alongside of Turkey's treatment of Ar- teaching in village schools, employed menia? Professor Thoumaian can by missionaries. There cannot have plead ignorance of India in extenuation been fewer than from 50,000 to 60,000 of his course; but a missionary who under their influence. In some cases knows India, and who reads the English churches have been formed and the papers on the Armenian atrocities, has teachers turned into evangelists and no excuse for libelling a government pastors, and 71 pupils are under train- that immeasurably surpasses all others ing in the institutions at Ahmednagar.
in just and generous treatment of sub· In Bengal 8000 children attend the cir- ject races." cle schools, and more than 40,000 chilo dren have passed through these schools. been sent out from Sweden, who are in The 15,000,000 of readers who have connection with the International Alli- come from government and mission ance of New York, and are supported schools loudly call for pure and Chris- by that association.-London Ohri8tian.
tian literature. This is the most urgent need of India. We have created the ASIA.
appetite, and if we do not provide wholesome food, the devil through his India.-Mount Maru, writes the F.ev.
agents in England and India will tempt T. Williams, of Rewarri, is, of all the them, and with the grapes of Sodom and sacred mountains of the Hindus, the the clusters of Gomorrah." most sacred. Its height, according to the Puranas, is 672,000 miles, or be- The Continent.-According to Evan- tween twice and three times the dis- , gelical Ohristendom, the Roman Catholic tance of the moon from the earth! Mr. Church in France, in providing schools Williams has lately been in the region of for the education of children free from the supposed site of this mountain, and governmeut control, in ten years has has been able, by geographical demonspent more than 30,000,000 francs. In stration as to the position of rivers and Paris there are more thau 200 such other mountains, to show the impossischools, with 76,000 scholars, and in the bilities implied in the myth. whole of France 1200 monasteries and nunneries, containing 30,000 men and – " It is the custom generally among 130,000 women. As home missionaries the Singhalese," writes the Rev. R. T.
there are 8500 priests, 33,600 nuns, and Dowbiggin, of Cotta, Ceylon, "to re- 3600 friars. ceive a dowry with the bride, and this -From the twenty· fourth annual reo varies from 50 rupees to 20,000 rupees, port of the Evangelical Church of Italy according to circumstances. A. dowerit appears that in connection with this less girl has not much chance nowadays body there are 26 churches and 35 sta- of getting married. However, there are tions, with 132 places visited regularly. exceptions. A young Christian man The ordained ministers number 21 ; evan. fell in love with a very poor fatherless gelists, 10 ; colporteurs, 8. There are girl, who at the time was also a Budteachers and Bible-women, Sunday- dhist. He wished to marry her, but schools, and associations for young peo- would not do so until she became a. ple. The communicants number 1697, Christian. He put her under the care and the adherents 6315. of a catechist and his wife, who taught her, and he paid for her board and lodg- -In 1887 the Swedish Mission in ing. After a few months she was bap- China was formed, and it has now in tized, and a month later married, the China 21 missionaries. This mission is bridegroom paying for her wedding atassociated with the C. I. M. In 1890 tire. The bridegroom wished to be the Holiness Union began work in married in our church, but in order to China. This mission. which has about do so had to travel a distance of eleven 10 missionaries, is also connected with miles in bullock carts, which took four the C. I. M. The same year the Swed- or five hours each way. ish l'Iissionary Union and the Swedish Baptist Mission took up work in China. -F. Becker Shawe, lately returned These societies have 20 workers in from Leh, on the borders of Thibet, China, but they are not connected with tells this about one of the" religious"
the C. I. M. In 1891, 50 Swedes were institutions of that country: "These sent out from America, who are sup· prayer mills contain a few written repe- ported from small Scandinavian congre- titions of some Buddhist pray,:, proba- gations in that land, and are also con- bly the six-syllabled formula, 'Om nected with the C. I. M., while 45 have mani padme hum.' Each twirl of the machine is supposed to multiply the -Miss Alice Ford thus describes in prayers placed within it, and so in- Helping Hand a jungle chapel in Bur- crease a store of good works for the wor- msh : "Some of you would have hesi- shipper in view of the future transmi- tated at the steps-two long bamboo grations of his soul. If he is wealthy poles side by side, with notches for foot- and can set up a big prayer mill to hold, and nothing to hang &n by, and contain thousands of prayers, and to be the doorway on a level with your kept in rotation by wind or water, then heads. By a helping hand above and he is supposed to be laying up a store encouragement from below, we man- of merit very rapidly. If you introduce aged to scramble up to the fioor, which steam' power into Thibet to·morrow, presented almost as many terrors as the probably the first use made of it would stairs. It was of the same kind of bam- be to turn a praying wheel. There are boo poles in splints, and where their huge cylinders in some of the monas· smooth curved sides were uppermost, teries with a million of prayers inside you stepped as if on ice. Being loosely them. One turn of these praying ma- laid down, they are apt to spread sud- chines is, however, too expensive for' den1y and let the unwary foot through.
the poor layman; he must content him- The cracks Were convenient at luncheon self with slower methods of amassing time, however, when we repacked the good works, such as twirling his own baskets, and there' were plenty of gaunt prayer mill, and purchasing little flags dogs underneath to dispose of all we or flat stones on which the lamas have threw down, to say nothing of the inscribed the sacred formula. There is chubby urchins, who are just as fond of quite an avenue of mani walls on the morsels of cake as home urchins are.
way up from the Indus to Leh. The There was matting stuck between poles flags will be placed in trees or on high but half way up the sides, so the Euro- places to flutter in the breeze. The in· pean part of the congregation spread scribed stones will be laid upon a umbrellas, and sat cross-legged on the mani, or long wall loosely built by mats, as did the native part of it. "
thousands of similar stones." -Bangkok was occupied as early as -In Dingah, Punjab, the missiona- 1840. Two tracts of land have been series of the Church of Scotland have met cured, the larger one for the church, with much opposition from the Hindus building for the press, and houses for (Sikhs). But one of the most prominent the three families. The purchase money of the adversaries had just been won for the smaller tract was given by the over in a remarkable way. He asked Siamese. For the first time the entire for a private interview with the mis- Bible in Siamese is ready for use. Sinsionary, who expected a fierce expres- gle portions are also bound. All the sion of hostility, and was immensely binding is done by native workmen. surprised when the man pulled out a The missionary medical work plays a New Testament an!! said: "Sahib, I strong part in Christianizing Siam. have read this book, and I find it to be Nearly 3000 in·patients have been treatpure and holy_ Up to ten days ago I ed. There are 13 schools and 307 scholwas a bitter opponent of yours. I gave ars, with 555 in Sunday-schools. There a public lecture against you and against are 7 churches, with a mission force of your work. Then I resolved that I 45. This includes 8 missionary wives, would expose your book. So I began lady missionaries, medical missionaries. to read it in order to pick faults in it ; native helpers and teachers. Siam has but, do you know, as I read I was contributed $2121, and its mission press drawn to it. My heart was captivated, has printed 4,600,000 pages.
alld now I cannot oppose you. I know China.-In Woman's Work/or Wom- God's light is in that book." an we read: "One of our inland missionaries went to the coaRt and • enjoyed of the country. The Buddhists are said shopping.' It had been four years since to threaten retaliation by a process simshe had been inside a store to make a ilar to excommunication. purchase. Her journey of 800 miles, taken in a mule litter with two children, -Rev. J. D. Davis has this to say had required 25 days on the road. This about Doshisha University. in whose is one of the superficial differences be- founding the remarkable life of Joseph tween life in China and in the United Neesima found its culmination: .. It States." has sent out over 400 graduates from its collegiate department, most of whom as -In Fatshan, China, the missionary Christian workers are helping to lift up doctor was stoned at first. Then they Japan; it has graduated more than 150 brought him hunchbacks, and chal- from its theological department, and lenged him to heal them. Happily they they are scattered up and down through brought a man who had lost his nose the land preaching the Gospel; it has sixteen years before. The doctor put a sent out several classes from its Girls' new nose on him, and the fellow bought School, and these young women are, as a looking·glass and became a mission- wives of pastors and of others, or as ary. He brought in a blind beggar, teachers in Christian girls' schools estaband his cataract was removed by the lished by the Japanese, exerting a surgeon's knife. Still the authorities mighty influence to regenerate Japan; were hostile until an explosion mutilat- it has sent out classes of trained nurses, ed 13 unfortunates. They were about who are to day found in the hospitals to drop these all into the river, as the of the army and among the sick in other kindest way to end their sufferings, places wearing the badge of the Red when they concluded to call in Dr. Cross and preaching the Gospel by their Wenyon. He saved 10 of them. Now words and by their works ; it has sent he is no longer" the foreign devil," but out more than 2000 undergraduates, the "angelic healer from beyond the many of whom are earnest Christian seas."-North and West. workers. "
-It is reported that a petition has -The Chicago Record has a special been sent to Pekin from South China correspondent in Japan, who makes the praying the Emperor to introduce con- following statements: "The number of stitutional reforms, to remove incapable converts to Christianity among the officials, to abolish the queue and foot- higher classes and the educated men of binding, and to allow freedom of speech Japan is comparatively small, but nearand of the press. If to any extent this ly everyone will acknowledge that the represents the feelings of a large mass influence of the missionaries upon civil of the population, it is a significant fact affairs and the progress of the country that such a petition, advocating West- has been immeasurable. One of the ern reforms, should be presented. common sayings is that the only exports from the United States to Japan are Japan.-The banishment of Buddhist kerosene oil and missionaries. Compriests from Formosa by the Emperor menting upon this the other day, an of Japan is a fact significant of the eminent statesman of this country, himprogress of the Sunrise Kingdom tow- self an unbeliever, remarked, 'Yes; ard religious freedom. The reason for both have brought Us light-light for their ejection is that so many spies were the eyes and light for the soul.' The caught posing as priests, and the pleas- progress of Christianity in Japan has ing consideration is that the Emperor been greater than in Ilny other country. does not fear to proceed to enforcement Church spires may be seen over the of a just precautionary measure against roofs of every city, and through the a cabal hitherto powerful in the affairs schools the greatest good ·has been and from Cape Colony, whose advent neceswill be done. A child who is trained sitated a partial dispersion of the Rietin the truths of the Bible seldom fails fontein Settlement. Locusts, drought, to follow its teachings in after life, and famine have also proved factors untowto close the missionary schools of Japan ard to the development of the nine would be to deprive the Christian faith Namaqua stations. Their progress of the fountain that feeds it here. It nevertheless, especially in the south, would be better to take the preachers has excited the warm appreciation of away and leave the teachers here, espe- Major Leutwein, though a weak spot is cially those who manage the kindergar- revealed in the inefficiency of the mistens and the primary and the normal sion schools, which, unlike those of schools. The portrait of the Emperor Cape Colony, are as yet uncountenanced hangs in every schoolhouse, and the by State grants. In Hereroland, the dechildren are required to bow before it spised Bergdamras, in contrast to the as they enter and leave the building. dominant race, have evinced a wider Patriotism is taught in every possible and more deeply rooted desire for the form and on every possible occasion." truth, displaying proclivities better cal- culated than those of the restless Here- AFRICA. ros for the formation of settled com· munities. In Ovampo, which since -The Brussels treaty nominally pro- 1870 has been worked by Finnish mistects the Congo Free State from the sionaries, the two Rhenish stations share liquor traffic; but actually it does noth- with them all the difficulties incidental ing. The traders are greedy to get to a hostile and irresponsible heathen gain in, a term of three years. They environment.-Church Intelligencer. patrol the front of factories, with a glass in one hand and a bottle in an- -Rev. A. B. Fisher, of Uganda, other. Workmen are compelled to writes to the London Chri8tian: "The take part of their wages in whiskey. native Christians are doing grand work. But notwithstanding this, the sales of In fact, what could we do without liquor are only one third as great as them? Praise God for the numbers of they were five years ago. The coast whole-he•. ~~ed, out-and-out helpers that traders are being Christianized. When we have here. I believe there are they are converted, these negroes will numbers of young men coming on, 1)f not touch intoxicants. The trader whom you in England have never heard, wanted to forbid the Presbyterian who will eclipse in preaching power and Church at Batanga from excommuni- general information all the older men, cating members who sold rum. who are much slower to learn. By far the ablest man here is Thomas Sem- -The recent disturbances in German fuma, one of the lay readers. He is the South Africa have naturally carried most fearless Gospel preacher that ever with' them disadvantage to the opera- I heard, and his sermons are of no mean tions of the Rhenish Missionary Society, order. Mackay bought this man's life whose sphere of influence coincides with for two tusks of ivory when a boy that of the Protectorate. The mission, Christian. I am convinced that God's which for five decades has worked in Word will win the day here. Oh! that Great Namaqua and Damara lands, and the Holy Ghost would touch the hearts since 1891 in Ovampo, has fully shared of those having means to send us Bibles the difficulties, social and political, in- so long as there is a man, woman, or duced by the last ten years' agitation child without one. Bibles are silent between the Nama Hottentots and the missionaries. If, therefore, Christian Hereros. In Narnaqualand the situa· people in England cannot come them. tion has been intensified by trekkers aelves, let them send us Bibles."
The Missionary Review of the World — August 1895
DAl'GHTER OF A NEW HEBRIDES CHIEF. A CHRISTIAX TEACHER READIXG THE BIBLE
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIII. No. S.-Old &rie8.-AUGUST.-VOL. VIII. No. S.-Net.O &rie8.
AN APOCALYPTIC CRISIS IN PAPAL HISTORY.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
The most careful students of the history of that mysterious politico- ecclesiastical power, the papacy, have been compelled to identify it with the apocalyptic mystery of the woman whom John saw sitting upon a scar- let beast,and borne by it-the woman drunken with the blood of the saintE and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and declared to be id~ntical with a certain great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth, and which is somehow connected with seven mountains or hills (Rev. 17 : 18).
One may w.ell hesitate to interpret symbols found in the Apocalyp~e, that most brilliantly Oriental of all the poems of the Scriptures, save where, as in this case, God has hung a key close by the lock. We know f~om the Word itself that the woman is supported by the beast-the world power-and that she is the same as a great city which is identified with rule over earthly kings, and has seven hills within its compass. If that woman be not the papal church, supported by the temporal sovereignty, so long controlling even earthly empires, and finding its seai. and centre in . Rome, the seven-hilled city, then we may as well give up all attempts to read history in the light of· prophecy. There is so remarkable a cOnsensus of the most devout commentators and students of God's word that it becomes almost a safe guide to interpretation : that the harlot, as in at least fifty cases elsewhere in the Word of God, describes an apostate or unfaithful body of professed believers, whose doctrine is corrupted and whose practice is perverted. Again, Rome, the new Babylon, is on a river, as were Nineveh and Babylon; and rivers are symbols of commerce, and so of temporal prosperity and a flood of aHluence. Again, there is agreement that this liarlot is a world city, distinguished from the beast or world. power•. The beast is clad with scarlet-colored trappings, which appear to have embroidered upon them certain names full of blasphemy or irreverent assumption, as when men claim Divine honors. The woman's methods are seductive; with an artful policy she seduces nations into obedience, and politi~!ol 4~fQ:rmitiC[l!:l and enormities result. The abominations of the
AN APOCALYPTIC CRISIS IN PAPAL 'HISTORY
earih-unbelief, superstition, sensuaIi1.y. and idolatry-are somehow espe- cially associated with this world city. The shedding of the blood of the witnessing saints is laid to her charge j and one has but to read the story of the Inquisition and the Vaudois Church to understand this. At least 30,000 martyrs belong to Spanish historyalone! A Christian Church, calling herself" mother of all churches, " has poured out and drunk saints' blood as though it were wine. As to the seven mountains, who does not know that Rome is urbs septicalis? If the inspired writer purposely avoided naming the city in order not to provoke heathen hostility, and yet wished to indicate the city to any attentive reader, how could he do it more clearly ~ The Palatine, Quirinal, Aventine, Cllllian, Viminal, Esquiline, and Janiculan hills constitute the sevenfold key to this description. It would seem that, as the writer intimates, the mind which hath wisdom may easily discern beneath "all this metaphor the Divine meaning.
Now, it is also a very remarkable fact that in the Apocalypse a certain marked period of prophetic time is represented under three forms: "Forty and two months" (13. : 5 j 11 : 2) j " twelve hundred and sixty days." as in 11 : 3 and 12 : 6," and a time, times and half a time"-i.e., three and, a half years, as in 12 : 14 j Dan. 7 : 25 j 12 : 7. If we seek a meaning, it cannot be overlooked that each of these terms is the exact equivalent of the other. Three and a half years are forty and two months j and these, at thirty days each-the even month of prophecy-contain 1260 days. , We see no reason for not accepting this as a literal period at the close of the age, and for ourselves so hold it ; yet, as hundreds of prophecies have a double meaning-a larger and less literal and a narrower and ~ore exact-we see no reason why this period may not, as most commentators believe, represent first a period of twelve hundred and sixty years, during which the antichristian systems of the beast and false prophet continue in full sway. Such a period, whether it be reckoned in years or days, repre- sents both in Daniel and the Apocalypse the time during which the world power dominates and the earthly king9.oms usurp the authority properly belonging to the heavenly.
Now, here again some very startling facts confront the devout student who compares prophecy and history, and, without any disposition to sub- stitute ingenuity for ingenuousness, or read into either Scripture or history any biassed interpretation, we cannot close our eyes to a marvellous coin- cidence and correspondence.
The papal power is peculiar in its claim upon temporal sovereignty. With the Roman Catholic faith as a religious creed or polity we are not now concerned, but only with an ecclesiastico-political power known as papal -in other words, with a church borne on the back of a world kingdom. Thl( first great epoch of the papacy extends from the rise of the papal system until the year 720, when Boniface boldly in Germany preached obedience to the Roman bishop. When the Pope's pretensions began to be acknowl- edged is a question now hard to settle. Judging from the sixth canon of the Council of Nice, 325 A.D., no Divine prerogative was then allowed to Rome not conceded also to Alexandria and Antioch. In the fourth century, toward its close, we see Rome coming into a sort of spiritual dictatorship ; when advice and assistance were asked, the replies, at first mild and moderate, soon bec~me arbitrary and mandatory, and this led to concessions and silbmissions from smaller and weaker bodies j and so, by the middle of the fifth century, the sceptre of authority begins to be more boldly claimed by Rome. Leo I., surnamed the Great (440-467), a man of commanding genius an~ eloquence, secured from the Emperor Valentinian III. a law which he is believed himself to have framed, declaring the primacy of the Roman see. Yet even then the Council of Chalcedon in 451 gave the see of Constantinople a second rank, admitting Rome's superiority only because the city on the Tiber was more ancient than that on the Bosphorus: In 484 Felix III. calls himself the Vicar of St. Peter. Gelasius, who succeeded him eight years later, asserted the supremacy of the pontifical over the imperial powers, although a period of great humiliation followed; but Gregory the Great, at the close of the sixth century, had, more than any previous Pope, advanced Rome's ecclesiastical authority.
Yet even this great Pope, whose character ranked so deservedly high, had a controversy with John the Faster, Fatriarch of Constantinople, because he assumed the title of fficumenical, which Gregory interpreted as meaning thereby universal bishop, pronouncing that a " proud and foolish word," and its assumption an imitation of the devil, which proves that Gregory set up no claim to be sole and supreme bishop and head of the Church of Christ. But it was during this time that the ground of Rome's priority and authority was shifted from mere antiquity to the succession from Peter the apostle.
But the decisive point from 'which Rome's temporal sovereignty is to be traced belongs to the days of Gregory's successor, Boniface III., who persuaded that blood-stained monster Phocas, in the year 606 or 607, to issue an edict conferring on him the title of universal bishop. And as Canon Pennington well says, "this concession must be regarded as a landmark in the history of the papacy and as constituting the foundation of its spiritual supremacy." Thus, at the very time when the false prophet was preparing in the cave of Hera his religious " compound of lust, cruelty, and fatalism," the papacy was taking its seat on the beast of the world power and deriving its own authority and power from that beast.
If Phocas thus represents the imperial power whose decree first establish· ed the papacy and laid the way for its world kingdom, we have the terminus a quo, the starting point, and the four years between 606 and 610, the date of his death, seem peculiarly significant. If also the 1260 days be typical of as many years of supremacy, we may expect some peculiar culmination, perhaps catastrophe, at the end ofthis term, from 1866-70, in papal lands, and especially in connection with Rome, the very seat of this world empire: It is to be counted one of the most startling coincidences' of all 'history that precisely such culmination aud catastrophe did occur from 1866-70. Let us, however, first go back a little in the history. In 1846, twenty years before the 1260 years expired, an event occurred that Wl!oS most significant. On June 16th Cardinal Ferretti succeeded Gregory XVI., nnder title of Pius IX. The history of that pontificate is so remark- able that it has been considered worthy of a special record. It was a period ,of revolution. Less than two years after Pius IX assumed the tiara, Count Rossi was murdered and the Pope was fleeing to Gaeta (November 24th, 1848), and a republic was established at Rome under Joseph Mazzini. The French undertook an expedition to Rome to restore the exiled Pope, and after their repulse, under Garibaldi, at length com- pelled the city to surrender, July 3d, 1849, and, under protection of Louis Napoleon,-Pius IX. returned to the Vatican, April, 1850. 'He came back , an absolutist of the worst stamp, prepared for the most aggressive meas- ures and the most arrogant assumptions. He coolly. divided Protestant Britain into Roman Catholic dioceses, gave new life to the Jesuit order, granted indulgences to earthly saints, and canonized saints in heaven. The most astounding of all his acts was the summoning of the Vatican Council on December 10th, 1854, that proclaimed the dogma of the" im- maculate conception." The Virgin Mary's claim to worship was thus rein- forced by affirming that she was not born in sin, needed no mediator, and could therefore be safely associated with Divine honors. This has been justly called the " most violent strain of papal prerogative to be found in the annals of the papacy." For the first time, and with unbounded arro- gance, a Pope added on his own responsibility a,n article of faith which no one could reject without forfeiture of salvation; for Pius IX. called together his bishops not to decree this dogma, hut to promulgate it! Of conrse the implication was that the Pop~ himself was infallible.
Then followed during those memorable years the Austrian invasion of 1859, WIth Louis Napoleon's victory at Magenta and Solferino.. Victor Emmanuel comes to the front, and Count Cavour, and in 1861 the Italian Parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel King of free and united Italy. In 1866 he became responsible for the integrity of the Pope's dominions, and the French forces withdrew. Again for a time the French troops occupied Rome, and under shelter of their presence Pius IX. called another Vatican Council on December 8th, 1869. A thousand ecclesiastics in august procession and gorgeous apparel moved up the nave of St. Peter's, with a disgraceful disregard of order and decorum that would have dishon- ored a political caucus; by Jesuitical intrigue and violent measures, on July 18th, 1870, the Roman pontiff was declared possessed of infallibility, and thus the summit of papal arrogance and blasphemy was reached, for there was one who sat' in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. At the time when this result was reached, a thunderstorm was roll- ing over the Vatican as though Heaven itself were remonstrating against
A CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND CONGREGATION
NEW HEBRIDES WOMEN MAKING BASKETS AND SLEEPING MATS FROM SPLIT PANDANUS LEAVES.
YII!8l0NABY WOU IN TRlII mnr ~
the impious assumption of Divine attributes by mortal man. Surely if ever a time had come when we might expect God to say in unmistakable language, as to Belshazzar, "Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting! God hath numbered and finished thy kingdom. Thy kingdo~ is divided and given to others," this was the time.
Let the heedless reader of history note that this was the very year when the 1260 years were complete, from the death of Phocas. And on the very next day, July 19th, 1870, within twenty-jour hours, the Franco- Prussian War was declared. Louis Napoleon, the Pope's protector, being overwhelmed with a defeat, was compelled to withdraw his troops from the Eternal City; and before this memorable year had fled, on September 20th, 1870, the troops of the King of Italy took possession of Rome, and the Pope became prisoner in the Vatican, his temporal sovereignty gone. The 1260 years were just expired. The longest pontificate of history be~ held the shattering of the tempo~al sceptre! Pius IX. had dec~eedthe immaculate conception, exalted the papal supremacy, and declared himself infallible. He had declared temporal sovereignty indispensable to the support of his spiritual sceptre. Yet God chose his own pontificate as the time of the loss of the temporal power, never, as we believe, to be regained. Since then in France clericalism has been declared the foe of the nation, and the papal yoke is broken, as also in Austria and Germany and Central America. With the assertion of infallibility comes the end of papal dominion and usurpation.
Among the abominations traceable to papal Rome are the doctrine of justification by meritorious good works, penance, and purgatory, masse/il for the dead and intercession of saints, the worship of the host and of the Virgin Mary, immaculate conception" and papal infallibility. God seems to have decreed that with the daring assumptions impl~ed in the last two, His forbearance should cease and swift judgment descend. Well may men stand in awe as they behold such signal catastrophes in history!
MISSIONARY WORK IN THE NEW HEBRIlJES.
BY REV. J. H. LAURIE, I;).D., ANEITTUK, NEW HEBRIDES.
The Presbyterian churches in Canada, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand made themselves responsible for a very difficult task when they undertook to evangelize the New Hebrides group.
From north to south the thirty islands extend over a sea space of about 350 miles, and, instead of having one common language, as in Eastern Polynesia, there are at least twenty languages spoken by the New I{ebridean natives-truly a " Babel" of tongues. Even in that limited area the idolatrous and heathen customs are distinctly different on the northern and southern ends of the group. In the north, hundreds of hideous carved
MISSIONARY WORK IN T1IB NEW HEBRIDES. [AIi~t
idols, standing from four to ten feet high, are to be seen, while in the south the superstitious savages are content with. rude water-worn stones of all shapes and sizes.
Some thousands of years ago the many languages might have been called dialects, but at the present day the only affinity that can be seen is in a few root words, such as the words for " earth," " water," "house," etc., in various forms, running through a few of the languages as at present spoken.
Even the structure of these languages, the one from the other, are distinctly different, so that each new missionary opening a new station has as a rule been obliged to begin exactly where Drs. Geddie, Inglis, and Paton began, getting from the lips of the heathen people among whom they settled, by many comical pointings and signs, as best they could the nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc., until by painstaking labor, aided by their very isolation from civilized surroundings, the Word of God has, to a greater or less extent, been translated into seventeen of these New Hebridean languages.
The real beginning of this great work was the settlement on Aneityum of native teachers from Samoa j but to the Rev.•Tohn Geddie, the Nova Scotian missionary, belongs the credit of having first reduced the langual;e of Aneityum to a written form, the Gospel according to St. Mark, which he translated, being the first complete book published in any language in the western Pacific. The missionaries have all along endeavored to utilize the services of their most intelligent converts as teachers of their brethren. As soon as the back of heathenism was broken on Aneityum Dr. Geddie took charge of the printing-press, while Dr. Inglis established an institution for the training of native teachellB.
Many of these Aneityum helpers sacrificed their lives while assisting to carry the gospel of peace to their heathen brethren on their own and other islands. Now, from many islands in the centre of the group, which were in the densest heathen darkness twenty years ago, numbers of Christian teachers have gone and are now helping to evangelize the more recently occupied islands farther north. In this aggressive work the reverend Messrs. Milne, Mackenzie, Macdonald, Robertson, and others have done noble service in training converts and ~ollowing the example set by the founders of the mission, enlisting their sympathies in foreign service, besides keeping up a necessary staff of village teachers on their own respec· tive islands.
The native teachers at present employed number about 180, mostly married men. These are under the superintendence of 18 resident missionaries, who each work from given centr~s, endeavoring to influence the whole surrounding region by the aid of these willing helpers.
The mission has now reached a stage when a fu/rther development is necessary. The United Synod last year (1894) decided to establish a native teachers' training institution for the group, the students to be drawn from
1895·1
all,the islands, and the instruction to be given in' English, the ultimate ob- ject being to raise an intelligent and educated staff of native pastors and te~chers to occupy outlying stations which can be visited periodically by the missionary superintendent.
The Rev. I. Annand, M.A., South Santo (of the Canadian Church), was appointed principal, to be aided by a lay teacher, who will also help in giv- ing the native students an industrial training. This further effort to establish a native Christian church on a firm basis in the New Hebrides is worthy the fullest support of all the Presbyterian churches interested in the mission.
Many remarkable men have been raised up on all the Christianized islands, and interesting details of these could be given by their respective mISSIOnaries. The force of character manifested by early converts is always striking; it has cost such men something to give up their plurality of wil'es, their enmities, and their unrevenged insults. After enjoying the peace and happiness which the hearty acceptance of the Saviour brings, such men can fully appreciate the light and abhor the darkness in a way that can hardly be understood by their children, who are now having the benefit of an early Christian education, and home example of Bible-reading and prayer.
A few notes of one of the most remarkable of our native teachers on Aneityum, who passed away some time ago, may be interesting; it will also give an idea of the kind of fruit that is being gathered in this far-off portion of the great vineyard. Waihit was the first native convert in Western Polynesia, who left his own island to become a foreign teacher; after a few years' training he went to Futuna, where he suffered many privations that he would never have been called upon to do had he remained at home; but the first step having once been taken, he never even dreamed of turning back or withdrawing his hand from the plough of Christian service until his loving Master saw fit to call him up higher.
, As a savage ,Vaihit was a cruel man, and all the more does the change illustrate the wonderful grace of God. He was believed to be in league with the spirit of Natmas, who controlled the sea-he was supposed to have the power to raise a storm or proclaim a calm. When the fish-trap or the drag-net was used, he was always consulted, and certain leaves that had touched his sacred stone were attached to the trap or the net, so that fish which were caught were accredited to his goodness.
On one occasion a tabu had been set on the fishing ground, so that when the fish came to feed on the coral reef at full tide there might be a great haul for a prospective feast. A poor woman recovering from sickness had gone to seek some shellfish; this act was observed, and, highly incensed that his authority should be set aside by a woman, he with a heavy hard wood club broke the arm that broke his law. Truly the tend~r mercies of the wicked are cruel indeed !
At first Waihit did all he could to annoy the missionary, and stole
August
whatever he could lay hands on. European stores could not be obtailled oftener than once a year in those days; the. flour was going down in the cask, and the baked bread was mysteriously disappearing, so it became imperative that the thief should be detected.
The expedient employed was to sift some coral lime into an empty flour cask and put a few grains of tartar emetic into the next loaf that was baked. The story soon got abroad about the man Wanbeka who had helped himself to the lime, and a messenger with a pitiful look was sent to say that Waihit was vomiting violently. Dr. Geddie visited his friend as quickly as possible; the sickness was soon allayed; the cause, was scarcely referred to, but Waihit became a humbler man afterward, and more honest than he had ever been in his life before.
In conversation one day I asked Waihit what was the first thing that turned him toward God. His reply was that one day he was seen by Dr. Geddie lying on the path drunk with intoxicating liquor that he had got from a white trader. Dr. Geddie met Thetu, Waihit's wife, and told her that her husband was lying on the path like a pig. " That comparison," said he to me, "with an animal that wallows in the mire, was the means of leading me to seek forgiveness from the God whom the missionary had been telling us about." When the change of heart really came, " old things passed away and all things became new" in a true sense.
The various efforts made to evangelize the island were by this time causing a commotion. The women wore a grass girdle, but the men were content with a bark belt and a few leaves in addition to a coat of red ochre and cocoanut oil.
The missionary had said that the natives should get loin cloths from the traders in return for their produce and labor, instead of the continual supply of beads, powder, and tobacco. When this good advice became known it was construed into an order to stop the tobacco supply, which angered the heathen very much.
A general meeting was called; hundreds of volatile savages were there ready for anything. Dr. Geddie wished to attend the meeting on their own ground; but Waihit said, " No! these men wish to raise a quarrel with you, and evil will come of it. You will stay in the house and pray, while I go and meet them and defend' the worship.' The four young men whom·you have taught to read the catechism will go with me."
Thus that small band of babes in Christ, whom we can count on the fingerS of one hand, went fearlessly to face another Amalek and his people.
They carried their banner, which was a small eight-page catechism of Christian doctrine. As soon as this Joshua and his four followers appeared on the scene, the heathen orators began their speeches, and in the usual manner, with violent gesticulations, they charged the missionary with all the evils under the sun, especially the displeasure of the" Natmases," or spirit gods, whom they continually propitiated to avert calamity, disease, and death.
THE MISSION HOCSE. ANEITT)1
2. MOCRNERS AT A NATIVE FCNERAL. 3. NATIVE HCTS IX THE NEW HEBRIDES.
MISSIONARY WORlt IN THE NEW
When the orators sat down exhausted, Waihit was asked what he had to say for the missionary. His youthful companions whispered that they could not open their lips to speak before all the old men. " You have got the Intas Ahothaing" (literally "The Question Book"), "ask me the questions, and I will give the answers before all the people." '
Then these five Christian soldiers stood up and the best reader began: " How many gods are there 1"
Waihit answered in a loud voice, "One only."
" Who is the true God 1"
" Jehovah, He is the true God, and beside Him there is none else."
" What is God 1"
" God is a spirit. He has not got a body like us."
" Does God see us or not 1"
, , Yes, God sees everyone of us."
" Does God hear our words 1"
" Yes, God hears every word we utter."
" Does God know our thoughts 1"
" Yes, God knows all our thoughts."
When they had got thus far, question and answer before the great crowd who had been amazed at the calm composure of W aihit and his com- panions, instead of an excited reply, Tikau, the leading opponent, a fierce- looking man, highly decorated with red paint, shouldered his war club and said to his followers, " Who can answer these words ~ Let us be going j"
and in shorter time than it takes to tell the agile savages were following the leader, everyone to his own home. The faintest rays of gospel light had penetrated these five minds. Yet their simple faith was rewarded in a marvellous manner j it had been given them, according to promise, in that same hour what they should speak-for it was the spirit of their Father who spoke in them.
A favorable impression had been made j a certain awe had been in- stilled into their ignorant minds. As soon as suitable converts had been instructed at the mission station they were sent to the out-districts, and then could have been seen daily what would have gladdened the hearts of all supporters of foreign missions-children, parents, and grandparents sitting side by side learning to read portions of the Word of God in a lan- guage that for the first time had been reduced to writing.
As Waihit's knowledge of the Bible increased he became an excellent preacher, after having served as a teacher on Futuna for a number of years j he returned to his own islimd and was ordained an elder of the Church- the permanent church building having been erected on his own plot of ground, which he gave to the missionary for that purpose. In latter years, although his eyes grew dim, he never failed to take his due share in con- ducting the Sabbath services. When his turn came one of the younger office bearers would read the chapter while the vigorous old man delivered'
the address. On communion Sabbaths it was his special delight to sit on the pulpit steps, so as to be as near the feet of the missionary as possible ; and the crown of blessing, had he been spared to see it, is that his eldest son was last Sabbath taking my place at the central church while I was preaching at a branch station.
Nasauwai, another teacher, was Waihit's bosom companion in the days of heathenism; they had accompanied each other in their tribal raids. Nasauwai cut off his long corded hair, which was the badge of heathenism, whenVaihit became a Christian, and at his suggestion attended the missionary school. After Waihit's death Nasauwai became so depressed in spirit that, eleven months afterward, he too died. He had been an excellent helper in all mission work, and was ever ready to contribute largely with sugar-cane and other native foods to feed the people who came from a distance when mission buildings were being rethatched or repaired.
As long as health continued he was never absent from Sabbath and week-day services. He had a special gift in prayer; and often I felt what a blessing it would be to many a country minister in civilized lands if more ordinary working laymen could express themselves as freely at the weekday prayer-meeting as this convert from heathenism. ·When nearing his end, Nasauwai told me that his heart was at peace witn God because he was" leaning upon Jesus," which is a literal translation of the phrase he used. After a little conversation I prayed, sang" Rock of Ages," and bade my friend good-bye. On the Sabbath morning during divine worship this good old elder died, his only attendant was his faithful wife Nlipia.
When Nasauwai felt his strength ebbing away he asked his wife to read to him a portion of Scripture. She opened her Bible and read in the native language, "Let not your heart be troubled," etc. (John 14). He thanked her, and after a little while turned round and said, " Have you got another portion for me 1" She then searched out and read, "There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God" (Heb. 4 : 9). Getting stilI weaker, he asked for yet another portion" as a pillow" for a dying man. Then the good woman turned to Psalm 116 : 15 and read, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
" That will do," said he ; and this ripe Christian feebly commended himself to God in prayer, and shortly afterward passed away, a redeemed soul.
This woman had a colored skin and frizzly hair, yet was not she truly a ministering angel to her husband in his hour of need g The apt portions of Scripture she selected may be explained from the fact that she is a Christian convert of thirty-two years' standing, and her whole library consists of the hymn collection, the Catechism, the "Pilgrim's Progress," and the Holy Bible.
Had it not been for the prevalence of Christian sentiment, the law of the island would have condemned this woman to"death when her husband died. It would then have been the duty of her son to have strangled his
THE OBLIGATION OF TJIB CHURCH TO IlVANGBLIZK TJIB WOltLn. 3'71
own mother; so that husband and wife might accompany each .other to " Uma-atmas," or the land of spirits.
Who can describe all the untold blessings which the teaching of Jesns has brought to women and girls in every land where Christianity prevails?
Since the advent of the Gospel cannihalism, infanticide, widow strangling, and tribal war has ceased, and a felt sense of peace and security has been bronght to many poor heathen natives in the South Sea Islands, who formerly had no hope, neither had they any idea of the loving character of the true God.
THE PERPETUAL OBLIGATION RESTING ON THE CHURCH TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD. * BY THE RIGHT REV. G. E. MOULE, BISHOP IN MID-CHINA.
If this subject is not, for all Christians, in the nature of a truism, I confess it seems to me, in a meeting of evangelical churchmen, an all but self-evident proposition. To deserve the denomination of evangelical, not assumed by our great forerunners, but assigned to them by their critics, more. was needed than those critics credited them with, to pronounce accurately a doctrinal shibboleth, or to observe a certain rule of demonstrative unworldliness. It im.plied that the evangelical churchman made much of the duty and the privilege of evangelizing his fellow-men; that he was an earnest, however imperfect, imitator of St. Paul, who regarded the "preaching of the Gospel" as his apostolic function, distinctivelyand pre-eminently. A real evangelical can, therefore, hardly need to be told of the perpetual obligation of the Church, and the individual churchman as far as lies in him, to preach Christ to the nations that know Him not, and so cannot call on the Name of the Lord through Him. My brethren know what their own salvation cost their Lord, they know what it has been worth to themselves, and they cannot but feel that though, like St. Paul, "free from all men," His love has" enslaved them to all that they might win the more," "that they might by all means save some."
Such thoughts, I confess, which occurred to me only after I had -accepted the chairman's invitation to take part in to-day's discussion, made me doubt whether anything I could put on paper would in any degree be worthy of the attention of this meeting. I bethink me, however, that from an old missionary you will not ask for an "Essay on the Philosophy of Missions," however truly so called. You will be rather disposed to accept it if 1 can lay before you, frankly and simply, some of the considerations which constrained me, an evangelical churchman, as I venture, • A Paper read at the Islington Clerical Meeting, January 15th, 18115, aud reprinted from the (/kUTch Mis8Wna1"'l/ Intelltgencer. however unworthily, to write myself, to offer myself long ago as a missionary to China j, which still keep me, and will, I think, keep me a missionary to the last. I have known, among my fellow-laborers, admirable and devoted men who had a confessed preference for foreign travel, foreign residence, and work in a foreign field. It was the very reverse with me. The whole thing was distasteful j expatriation, foreign travel, all were against the grain j and the country toward which my thoughts were directed was exactly the one which, in my ignorance, appeared the least interesting, the least attractive of all the missionary regions. I say this because it has always seemed to justify the conviction that my experience was a fair test of t.he st.rength of the scriptural motive to missionary enterprise, acting on a nature without enthusiasm and the reverse of enterprising. It was not through any real or imagined personal revelation, or conscious spiritual impulse either, that I was led to offer my services j but that I saw; as an inference from New Testament principles, "necessity laid on" the Church to undertake the evangelizing of the nations, and, in my special circumstances, on me to quit country and kindred, and betake me to a land, as it proved, of which I knew nothing at all except its place on the map. Where did I find these principles 1 The texts are familiar to every Christian j but since it has been thought right to place the Church's missionary obligation on the programme of this clerical 'meeting, I shall be pardoned for adducing some of them, and reminding you of the conclusions, however obvious, to be drawn, and which I in fact drew from them more than forty years ago. _ I do not go to the Old Testament-not because the missionary motive is not there, but becausQ the New Testament supplies it so abundantly, and because the two Testaments are in such close and obvious connection, as on other subjects so also on this.
First, then, there is the prediction spoken on Mount Olivet of the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the alwv (age), recorded in its fullest detail by St. Matthew, in whose chapter 24 : 14 we read, " And this Gospel of the kingdom must first be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." The phrase " preach for a witl).ess" is, 1 suppose, equivalent to the word "testify," used once and again by St. Paul in his charge to the Ephesian presbyters at Miletus (Acts 20 : 21)-" testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ j" and (v. 24), "the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify," to preach as a convincing, saving testimony, "the Gospel of the grace of God." A little earlier than that scene on the Mount of Olives, though the narrative is given in a later chapter, occurred, the supper at Bethany, where the Lord, in His justification of Mary's devotion, anticipates the certain accomplishment of the prediction just quoted (St. Matt. 26 : 13), "Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, there shall also this, which this woman hath done, be spoken of for a memorial of her." In harmony with the prediction and the anticipation comes a little later (St. Matt. 28 : 19, 20) the solemn injunction of the Lord, not long before His Ascension : "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 commanded -you; and, 10, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This injunction-St. Matthew is explicit on the subject-was uttered on a Galilean mountain, we know not how many days after the Resurrection. St. Luke, in his Gospel, gives us the report of another and earlier interview with the eleven, not in Galilee, but, as it seems, in the upper chamber on the evening of the Resurreetion. The injunction is just as explicit, though in another form (St. Luke 24 : 46-49 : "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead on -the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things . . . but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." [St. Mark's account (16 : 14-18) seems to be meant to describe the same occasion.] If we understand rightly the notes of time, the whole interval of the forty days must be inserted between verses 49 and 50-i.e.• between the promise of "power from on high," and the walk to Bethany, to witness the Ascension and receive the parting benediction with its resulting joy. It is in his later and fuller narrative of the Ascension (Acts 1 : 7 sqq.) that St. Luke records a repetition of the evangelical commission, as _well as of the words of promise spoken at the earlier date in the upper room: "Ye shall receive power . . . and ye shall be My witnesses • . . unto the uttermost part of the earth."
Thus we havoC three occasions on which the injunction to preach the Gospel and testify of their Master was laid by Him on His servants; in the upper room on the evening of the Resurrection, on the hill in Galilee probably after the first octave of the great day, and on the Ascension day on the Mount of Olives. In one particular the three events are exactly in accord. The charge of the risen Lord is addressed, on each of the three occasions, and according to each evangelist, to "the eleven disciples," " to the eleven as they sat at meat," or in the Acts, "the apostles whom He had chosen." There is nothing to show that any other Christian, male or female, was present on either occasion. What are we to infer from this 1 Was the charge addressed personally to those eleven men, so that when the last survivor left the scene the obligation to evangelize ceased and came to an end 1 Or was it on the apostolic order, the clergy of the Church, that the command was laid, so that laymen and women were and are exempt from all obligation to give freely the inestimable bounty they, no less than the clergy, have so freely received 1 It is clear at any rate that such was not the view of the early Church, apostolic or sub-apostolic. Else we had never heard of the evangelical work of Stephen and Philip, or of the domestic ministry of Aquila and Priscilla, among the honored laborers of the inspired narrative. No, rather is it not clear that the eleven were convened and were addressed, not personally as eleven believing and ordained men, but as the whole Church by representation, as first recipients of a charge to be regarded as the" deposit" of that holy Catholic Church which is " built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets," a charge to be transmitted laterally to each convert of their age and time, and then, by a true apostolic succession-I mean no slur whatever on the historical succession of the clergy–to every generation of Christians to the end of time ~ The obligation to evangelize the world is proved, I should think, sufficiently from the synoptic evangelists. But, in his own characteristic form, St. John's record of his Master's words corroborates it emphatically. Thus, in the pastoral allegory of chapter 10 we read (v. 16), "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring C"a"EtVa f'E del dyayElv). And there shall be one flock under one Shepherd." And that He would accomplish this in-bringing not without His Church's aid is intimated in the discourse of the Paschal evening (e.g., St. John 16 : 8 sq., compared with 15: 26, 27), "When" the Comforter "is come He shall convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." "When the Comforter is come, He shall bear witness of Me, and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with Me from the beginning." If I do not detain you longer within the limits of the writings of the evangelists it is not, you know well, that their evidence respecting the expressed will of their Master, or their understanding of it, has been exhausted. The three great parables of common life-the Sower, the Fisherman, and the Shepherd-might each have been adduced as illustrating, in that special didactic form which is inseparable from our idea of our Lord as teacher, His purpose concerning the waste places of the world-field,. the wandering tribes of the gentile-ocean, the sheep strayed from the ideal fold which should have enclosed and protected all the human family. The field everywhere is to be tilled and sown, the nets flung into all waters and the good fish gathered into vessels, and the lost sheep are to be sought and saved.
Thus far we have been listening wholly to our Master's words. It is His anticipation, His injunction, His allegorical forecast of the future, as reported from His own lips by the evangelists, of which I have been reminding you.
Now, for a few moments, recollect how that typical convert and typical apostle of Christ and missionary of the Church, St. Paul, apprehended the duty to. be inferred from the Gospel record, and not less from the prophetic word of the Old Covenant. Reference to one context must suffice. I quote from the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. ,( The Scripture saith j whosoever believeth on Him shall not be- ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the
THE OBLIliATIOl'! OF THE ClIUROiI TO EVANGBLIZE.THE WORLD. M5
Greek, . . . for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed W and 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~" The purpose of our Lord that Gentile and Hebrew, on terms of perfect equality, should be partakers of His salvation j that salvation should be gained through the hearing of faith j that there should be men to carry the tidings, and that these should have the mission of the Holy Spirit, ordinarily by the ministry of His Church, were for St. Paul obvious conclusions from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, corroborated no doubt by the evangelical tradition, if not the earlier Gospels, and no less by his own experience as a convert, an inspired volunteer, and finally an ordained missionary of the Church. Following out the argument in the eleventh chapter, which was proceeding in the tenth, we find him anticipating, before the consnmmation of the evangelical purpose, a wide, if not an universal conversion of the Gentiles. " Blindness in part is happened unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentile be come in," until (docs he not mean ~) the" teaching of the nations" has had its due development and accomplishment in a large ingathering of heirs of Abraham by faith, created out of the stones of the Gentile wilderness, "and so," in this way, " all Israel shall be saved. "
I have now brought together scriptural warrant, more than sufficient,· in a meeting of members of our evangelical Church, especially among men who feel constrained to emphasize her evangelical character, to make plain the obligation laid upon the Church of our Lord to evangelize the world. Is that obligation perpetual? Is it binding, so far as we can gather, to the end of time? Or is there any reason to think that it has ceased or will cease at any term before the end 1 To see the apathy with which some churchmen who agree with us in their views of doctrine, and are not ashamed to be known as evangelicals, nevertheless regard the missionary enterprises of the Church, one would think there must be some reason to conclude that toe obligation was temporary, and had ceased at some date. in the past. I have sometimes thought, though never, it is true, met with a case, that such lukewarm friends might have fixed on the ruin of Jerusalem, and the close of the Mosaic dispensation, as the poi~t of limitation. Our Lord's prediction, already quoted, was, "This Gospel of the kingdom must first be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations j and then shall the end come." St. Paul, writing to the Colossians about the year 63 A.D., after, say, a quarter of a century of missionary activity on the part of himself and his brethren, apostolic and unofficial, uses remarkable language concerning the propagation of the Gospel so far accomplished (Col. 1 : 6). "It," he says, "is come to you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it does also in you j" and, stronger still (v. 23), it "was preached unto every creature which is under heaven. " Our Lord's prediction and His servant's record
M6 THE OBLIGATIOH OJ' THE CH1JBCJH TO lI:vAHGlIILIZill TBJII 'WQBLJ
of fact are couched in nearly identical language. "The world," and the phrase " under heaven," may be interpreted-we have a similar usage in Chinese-as the world of the empire, under the Roman heaven-i.e., Southern Europe, Northern Mrica, and Western Asia. Within those limits we have St. Paul's unexceptionable evidence, the world had been evangelized within, say, forty years after Pentecost. And again in correspondence with our Lord's prediction, in seven years more came the fall of Jerusalem, which marked the" end of the world," the f1VVTEI..Eta TOV alwvos, a signal for the exultation of believers, not at the ruin of the Mosaic Church, but at the final enfranchisement of the Church of the New Covenant.
I have ventured the supposition that the indifference to missionary enterprise on the part of some of our brethren is justified to their own ~on8Ciences by the plea, grounded on what has just been adduced from St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, that our Lord's command to the Church was not of perpetual obligation, but ceased and determined with the fall of Jerusalem. I need hardly refute the imaginary argument. Amid the perplexities of prophetic interpretation nothing seems more certain than the principle o~ successive and enlarging fulfilments of the great predictions of the kingdom. A nearer and a remoter (J1JVTEA€ta, with corresponding periods of preparation shorter and longer, can be distinguished in the context of St. Matthew from which I have drawn my principal quotations. The two " ends," the corresponding twofold 7TapOVf1ta, had led to confusion in the minds of some of thc early Christians, notably the Thessalonians. They had heard of an end and an advent to take place during the 'lifetime of the contemporaries of Jesus Christ, and had concluded that this meant the final Advent, the return in the guise of the Ascension. St. Paul, in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, took pains to correct this; not denying the near approach of an end, with its vengeance and its emancipation, but explaining the interval predestined to allow for the manifestation and development of the man of sin before the great and final judgment. The same twofold teleology can, I think, be seen in the Apocalypse, in which the work of universal evangelization is foreshadowed at a period long subsequent to the end of the Mosaic Church, and the evangelization of the Roman world attested by St. Paul. This is a point, however, which time forbids me to discuss in detail, and which will not need discussion in this assembly, in which there is nobody who does not accept the nineteenth verse of St,. Matt. 28 as the" general order" of the Captain of the Lord's host in the warfare of these Christian centuries, to run until the end, or until it is superseded by some other and equally explicit injunction of the same Divine authority.
So far as Holy Scripture is concerned, I have alleged enough, certainly as much as I have time to allege, in order to establish "the perpetual obligation laid upon the Chureh to evangelize the nations. " A secondary, but not unimportant, corroboration of our argument may be drawn from the hiRtorical phenomena of the successive centuries, and notably of this almost completed century, both within the visible Church and without it.
1. Within the visible Church the most conspicuous phenomenon of the century is the development of the missionary spirit to such an extent tllat it has extorted a degree of respectful attention even from the reluctant pen of the public press. No doubt a certain interest in the spread of the Gospel existed within the Church in the previous centuries. The annals of the S.P.C.K. and of the S.P.G. prove that. But the interest taken by churchmen was on the smallest possible scale, and that of the Nonconformist bodies practically nil, down to the last years of the eighteenth century. Then, as one of the results of the evangelical revival, good men in troublous times laid the modest foundations of the now influential, if still inadeql1ate, organizations-to name some of the best known-of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the missionary societies of the Methodist, Baptist, and independent bodies, and our own honored Church Missionary Society. At whose prompting, and under whose influence, did these great agencies come into being ~ The names of certain founders, supporters, patrons of the societies are known and revered. But a glance at the documents of the time, lately summarized for us with so much skiII and pains, will compel you reverently to conclude that "not by might, nor power, but by the Spirit of God" these agencies, for the extension of the frontiers of the Redeemer's kingdom, were started and have been sustained. Recollect what the century has been. The infidel and lawless principles that found vent in the French Revolution were nol, yet exorcised in its early years. England was again and again in imminent peril, hardly less from disaffection at home than from the hostile attempts of foreign powers. Men's hearts-the very men who were laying the first stones of our missionary enterprise-failed them again and again, for "looking after those things that" seemed from moment to moment to be " coming on" their beloved land. Look through Richard Cecil's sermons or Robert Hall's, and you will feel, I think, that it must have been a very real afflatus that roused and nerved our great forerunners in the Church and the societies, to find heart and leisure so to "look on the things" of Africans, Hindus, Chinese, and the rest, when they knew not how long their beloved England would stand still unconquered, unenslaved, girt with her silver sea.
And what have been the succeeding decades ~ A few words may help to recall their characteristics, and to enhance the grace which sustained the missionary spirit throughout. In domestic politics, the great Reform Bill, Chartism, the Corn Law agitation, factory reforms and their occasion, the Irish question in its unremitting importunity from O'Conllflil to the present moment; one common element conspicuous through all, the steady advance of the democratic principle. In the Church, that religious movement which some have treated as a second spiritual revival, but which signalized itself by the early secession of its great leader to Rome, a step in which he has been imitated by a deplorable number of followers, cleri- cal and lay; side by side with this movement, the introduction of conti- nental principles of biblical criticism and exegesis, with the spread of infidelity disguised as agnosticism; while dissent all the while,-becoming more and more political, has worked for the disestablishment of the Church; and Rome, by open assault or by sap and mine, has labored before all things at the reconquest of England. In foreign politics, the Eastern question with its Crimean War, two Chinese wars, the terrible Mutiny and its momentous sequel, the American War of Secession, and the great wars which have resulted in the reconstruction of the map of Europe, not one of them all unattended with hazard and anxiety for our England. No matter where you look, or whether you think of the commencements or the maintenance and extension of the missionary enterprises, what can you do but confess with Jacob, " Surely the Lord is in this." All honor to Thomas Scott, to the second Henry Venn, to the devoted and able men who stood with them, as well as to those on whom their mantle and their office have devolved in turn ; but the work-they were quite sure of it and avowed it repeatedly-was not theirs but the Lord's, who set in motion, and has kept advancing, the great, the often hopelessseeming, undertaking of evangelizing the heathen and Mohammedan nations. The men I have named promoted the Church Missionary Society; but my contention is illustrated everywhere in the religious world, from the marvellous renewal of youth in the venerable societies of the Church, to the only too numerous organizations of each smallest sect, and of the non-denominational coteries.
I may not detain you with statistical evidence. It is hardly necessary, but it is full of interest, whether you look at financial progress or at the .extent and variety of home organization, or at the number of missionary volunteers, and particularly of such as spend their own money, as well as their lives, in the service of the Church on this behalf. What can all this development mean but the presence of our Lord with His Church, compelling His people, in this selfish and preoccupied age, to recognize our obligation to persevere in the great task until it is accomplished in the world-wide "teaching of the nations," the evangelization of the world 1 2. There is just one more argument of the same kind which I would suggest before I have done. I find it in the opening of the gates of the nations to the approach of the Christian messenger. When Mr. Venn became Secretary of the Church Missionary Society what were the practicable fields for our work 1 New Zealand had been added to Sierra Leone, and also the West Indies and portions of Norihwest America. India, too, was open after a fashion ; but missionaries there were viewed with disfavor, and converts were subject to serious social disabilities. China, Japa.n, Korea, and almost the whole of Mrica were closed, were in large measure unknown. Nay, this was still the case when I received the missionary call. China by that time had, indeed, been compelled to admit us at five of her seaports ; but beyond their immediate precincts her 300,000,000 were as inaccessible to the Gospel as eyer. Meantime, Japan and Korea stood still with gates fast closed. It was in the year in which I reached China that Japan was induced to relax her exclusiveness in some degree. In 1861, when I paid my first and only visit to Japan, there were still but very few resident missionaries, not a single English missionary among them; and there was no perceptible omen of the extraordinaryadaptation of European ideas and material civilization which has transformed Japan. It was still some years before Korea was unlocked. Thus; within not quite forty years, in India, the way has been widened and levelled, notably by the revolution that succeeded the Mutiny, and by the influence of the many distinguished Christians who have adorned the civil and military services, by whose agency that revolution has been carried out; while in China, Korea, Japan, and in Africa, an addition of perhaps 600,000,000 has been made to the human souls who are now accessible to the message of Christ's salvation. Is all this chance, is it a freak of destiny, or is it rather our Lord in His providence confirming His ancient injunction to the Church to go and teach all nations?
I have endeavored to illustrate my appointed theme from Holy Scripture, and, more briefly, from considerations based on recent phenomena, religious and secular. I ventured to speak of the scriptural witness to the missionary obligation of the Church, as tested in my own case, when my aversion for all the conditions of missionary life was overborne, and I was constrained to offer myself to the Lord and His Church for foreign service. I did not mean that the argument from Scripture operated, directly and without a medium, on my conscience. My father and mother, convinced themselves, had accustomed us their children to think of the missionary duty of the Church as an axiom, and to expect that our Lord might honor their house by calling for volunteers among us. We learnt that as an elementary Christian principle, before ever Christ had been revealed with power to any of us. When at length I saw Him, "telling me all that ever I did," and then by degrees relieving the terrors of conviction by holding out the hope of pardon through His blood, it was not long before the reviving soul asked itself, "How can I thank Him f' "Can He possibly make use of me 1" So it came to pass that I cast myself at His feet, ready for whatever He would have me to do. His claim, once recognized, has never been questioned since. For nearly ten years, however, He postponed the requisition, and set me meantime taska at home; till, I confess it, I began to cherish the hope that home, England, might, after all, be my lifelong scene of service. But the pillar moved at last, and He helped me to follow it to China. The obligation on the Church is clear and cogent. The obligation on the individual Christian, to " offer and present" himself a living sacrifice, in unreserved devotion to his Lord, is equally clear. But the field of service at home
5eO LA MISSION DTT1E1tIEUltE, FRANCE
or abroad, and all the details of duty, are for Him to dictate, " the latchet of whose shoes we are not worthy to stoop down and unloose." He will dictate in His own language to the soul whom He has once made " willing to do His will." May I close with this testimony to His faithfulness in this as in all other things, proved to me in a lifelong experience ~ LA MISSION INTERIEURE, FRANCE.
BY J. MURRAY MITCHELL, LL.D., NICE, FRANCE.
The Mission Interieure is an association for the evangelization of the French people. It was founded twenty-three years ago, when France had pallsed through a time of war and bloodshed, by a few Christians who were fully persuaded that the only real means of healing and comforting the suffering people was the making known to them a Redeemer's love. The best way to do this seemed to them to secure the co-operation of Christians in all parts of the country. The aim of the association, which is undenominational and helps all Protestant churches alike, is to arouse in church-members a sense of· their personal responsibility regarding the Lord's work, and to stir them up to assist as far as in them lies the pastor and evangelist. To this end agents are employed who visit the congregations throughout the country, and by means of revival meetings, friendly gatherings, etc., seek to form in these groupes of Christians, who unite together with a view of engaging in work for Christ. Last July there were 152 such groupe&. There is a yearly General Assembly, to which these should each send representatives, when all questions regarding the work are examined and settled. Then there is the Central Committee, also the district and the local committees. The headquarters are at Marseilles.
The agents, after forming the g1'oupes, visit them at intervals, seeking to infuse new life into them, encouraging, directing, etc. They also help in any work carried on by them, and hold evangelistic meetings.
These visits are much appreciated, as the numerous letters of thanks addressed by pastors and others to the Society testify. When the isolated position of many of the congregations in which these groupes are formed is considered, it may easily be understood how these occasional visits serve to encourage and I'ltimulate the members. One pastor writes saying, that after the agent's visit, the number of his hearers was doubled on the following evening, without any special effort whatever being made. He says: "He did us all good. "
The agent in his last monthly letter tells of large meetings in which views from the life of Christ were exhibited. Rain, cold, and the counter attraction of a special performance at the theatre did not prevent the people from coming. "Jesus Ghrist," says the agent, "a remporte la lJictoire /" Interesting meetings on a new plan with a view of attracting infidels, socialists, etc., were carried on in a theatre this summer. The subjects of the addresses, such as " God, Have You Seen Him~" "No God, No Master," were announced by 150 bills which were pasted on the walls of the town, and by the distribution of 10,000 handbills. Fully from 500 to 600 people were present on each of the five evenings, all classes and all conditions being represented. Professors, journalists, workmen, and ladies elbowed each other; a general and his aide·de-camp attended most of the meetings. More than half the throng probably had never heard the Gospel preached before. The addresses could not have been listened to with more attention had they been given in a church. Afterward some said, " We do not share your faith, but we are glad to hear such things j" and on the last evening several thanked one of the workers for the five good evenings they had passed.
The last evening was not looked forward to without some fear, as liberty had been granted to any opponents to bring forward their arguments. But God, to whom all the enterprise had been committed, disappointed all fears. Mter the address on "All Religions are Good," which was loudly applauded, not one voice was raised in opposition.
A groupe has been formed in one place among soldiers with cheering results.
The forming of Young Women's Christian Associations, prayer-meetings among ladies, weekly meetings for mutual edification, the conversion of several hesitating ones, are named as being some of the fruits of the agent's visits.
A chief feature of the Society's work is the publishing of a paper, the Relevement, up to 15,500 copies monthly. It is sold at a loss (5 centimes) to further the circulation. Many members of the various groupes make the distribution of this paper a special work; and many are the testimonies received as to the good done by it, in opening and preparing people's minds to receive the Gospel. Several conversions, too, have been traced to the reading of it. One worker tells of the great assistance he received from this paper when called to labor under the Societe Evangelique, of Geneva, in a department of the Basses Alpes, where fanaticism and infidelity reigned, and there was not a single pastor. He felt very isolated, but the Relevement, he says, "was just what I needed," and 500 to 600 was the number sold or distributed monthly. One gentleman said to him: "Since your last visit we have lost a dear child, and we should not have known what to do had it not been for your paper, which was so well fitted to console Uil."
The mission is carried on at small expense, but each month of course a certain sum is needed for the publishing and carriage of the two monthly papers, as also for the agents' salltries and expenses (700 francs per month for the former, 2000 every quarter for the latter). Only two agents can as yet be employed, and one of these has been laid aside for a long
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE WORK IN JAPAN
time owing to an accident. Many more are really necessary to do the work thoroughly, the visits pa.id to the groupes at present being possible only at rare intervals.
The mission is conducted on the "faith principle." It employs no collectors and has no collections, only making its work known to the public by the agents' addresses and a little monthly paper bearing the Association's name, Mission Interieure. A branch of this mission, following a different manner of working, has left this principle, and sends out agents for collecting purposes to England, etc. This is known as Branche de la Mission Interieure, but it is quite distinct from the Mission Interieure itself.
Some months ago the directors of the Society were anxious in regard to their funds, but in the report just issued (December, 1894) they mention, with devout thankfulness, that all their fears have been disappointed. Friends in various parts of France have generously come to their aid, and the Society is burdened with no debt.
As has been mentioned, 152 groupes have been already formed among the 800 Protestant churches of France. To stir up the members composing these congregations to realize their duty, and to stir up all who are the redeemed of Jesus Christ to consider that there are but twelve hours in the day, when "~he night cometh, and no man can work," so that they may be up and doing without delay-this is the object of the Society, as expressed by a devoted agent, appealing for further aid after giving some experiences of his work.
The Central Committee is composed of pastors belonging to various churches. M. Ie pasteur Houtet, 7 Rue Dragon, Marseilles, is President; M. Ie pasteur Lenoir, director of the McAll Mission, is Vice-President; M. Ie pasteur F. Roux is travelling agent.
* THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE WORK IN J APAN.
BY REV. J. P. MOORE, D.D., SENDAI, JAPAN.
In speaking of the present condition of the work, the first question that naturally arises is, Is there an improvement upon the past, say the past year or two 1 And if so, in what respect 1 The general opinion of the missionaries already referred to, and that of some native workers with whom I have spoken on the subject, is that there is a decided improve- • I feel less hesitancy In giving expression to the views contained in thl.i article, since they are not simply nor principally my own views, as having grown out of my own experiences and observations in the part of the country which is principally the field of operations of the mission to which I beloug. The statements here made are in a large part a summary of the views and opinions of a number of the most experienced and prominent missionaries in all parts of Japan, with whom I have been In correspondence, and an expression of whose views I have thus been enabled to obtain on the subject of "The Present Condition of the Work In Japan." ment as compared with only the last year, and my own opinion fully coincides with theirs.
This improvement has reference, first, to the external circumstances or conditions-the setting, so to speak, of the work. The last year, especially the last six months, have witnessed a more friendly feeling toward the workers and their work, on the part of the Japanese public. The attitude of non-Christians seems to be less hostile than before, and in the War Department, which used to be regarded as the least friendly among all the departments of the government, there seems to be an entire change, as judging from the encouragement and favor that is accorded to Christian workers among the soldiers.
" A more receptive attitude on the part of those outside." "The outside opposition is not so waspish, and the numher who listen to the truth has increased." "The people are more willing to listen, and have greater interest in investigating the trnth." Such are the expressions from the lips of some of the most experienced and successful men laboring in all parts of the empire.
As an evidence of this more friendly feeling and greater confidence, reference must especially be made to the work done in behalf of the soldiers in hospitals and barracks, and that not alone with .the full consent of the officials in charge, but with their encouragement and approval as well. The work done at Hiroshima in the interest of the sick and wounded in the hospitals, and those in the barracks awaiting transportation to the front; the permission granted the Rev. H. Loomis, agent of the American Bible Society, by the War Department, to distribute Bibles to the officers and men in all the different barracks of Japan; and more recently the permission received· from the authorities to send Christian chaplains to the front, is a thing so surprising and remarkable, that it may be said to form an epoch in the history of missions in Japan.
It is a known fact that previous to the war Christian soldiers had rather a hard time of it; that they were hindered from attending to the performance of their religious duties ; not allowed, in some cases at least, to read the Bible and religious books in their quarters, and were considerably persecuted. But now this intense prejudice has given way so far that workers, both native and foreign, are encouraged to furnish Christian literature, and to teach the religion of Christ openly to the rank and file of the army. Why this so great a change of sentiment q Due, it is said, to the admirable conduct of the Christian soldiers both in the army and navy. Their moral conduct, their faithfulness, their fearlessness in battle is marked, and has won for them and their religion the good-will of their superiors.
The Rev. M. Oshikawa, of Sendai, on a visit to a neighboring province, addressed an audience composed entirely of officials, educators, and other prominent and representative men on the subject of Christian education. More recently the same gentleman, as the President of the Kaigwai Kyoiku-kwai, a society organized by native Christians for the purpose of engaging in educational work in Korea, addressed a large audience of representative men of the city of Sendai, including the governor and vicegovernor, on the importance of the society's work; and in this work he and the society of which he is the honored president receive the earnest support of not only the local officials, but of ministers of State a,; well.
This improvement has reference, second, to a healthier condition and a more earnest and settled spirit on the part of the churches themselves. This comes very prominently to view in the correspondence already referred to. From all over the country-from the Hokkaido in the north, and from Kiushu in the extreme south-comes the cheering news that the churches are better organized for work, are in a better spiritual condition, that there are clearer conceptions of the Christian life, that the faith of preachers and people iR more intelligent and stable. And this, in spite of the fact that the wave of rationalism which swept over the country several years ago, and which carried several well-known native pastors into the unorthodox camp, has not yet fully snbsided, but is still exercising its baneful influence over the minds of many young men who come within the sphere of the influence of several prominent Christian leaders who are known to hold and to preach rationalistic doctrines.
The present political situation seems to have itR good influence upon the Christians. They regard the present as a very important time to engage in more aggressive work. They seem to be imbued with the idea that the set time to favor Japan has come, and to be moved with a desire to do their utmost to make the most of the present circumstances for the furtherance of the Redeemer's kingdom in Japan; and this to me is one of the most hopeful features of the work at the present time. As the secretary of our Mission Evangelistic Committee, I read and tabulate the monthly reports sent in by some sixteen evangelists and pastors working in twenty-two different places, in five of the provinces of the empire. At the beginning of the year, in connection with the usual reports, they expressed an opinion as to the present situation, the importance of the times, and the necessity and the duty of earnest work during the year before us.
They were of one mind in saying that the present is the most important time, because of the ontward conditions at hand; and many of them seem to have caught something of the same spirit that is shown by the civil and military authorities in the prosecution of the present war. May we not confidently expect and believe that this spirit of earnestness, if continued, as we pray it will, on the part of the Japanese pastors and workers of all grades, will result in great advancement along the whole line of the work, and will usher in a new and better era of Christian work in this island empire of Japan ~ In the next place, then, what are the assignable reasons for this favorable change, both in the external circumstances and the improved spiritual condition of the churches 1 Of course the war between China and Japan, the growth of the national prestige, because of the splendid successes of the Japanese forces on land and sea, together with the revision of the treaties, is, for the most part, the reason of the more favorable external conditions. By the treaties, as recently revised between Japan and several of the leading nations of the West, Japan is admitted into the family of civilized nations, thereby realizing her long-entertained ambition, and receiving the just recognition to her rightful position among the nations of the earth. The Japanese are putting forth their best efforts in the present war to conduct it on the principles of humanity, and according to the rules and usages of civilized warfare, and that this effort is seen and appreciated by the outside world makes them feel more kindly toward outsiders, and then also toward that which they represent; for with the masses Christianity is associated with the people of the West, and anything that conciliates them toward Western people conciliates them measurably towarrl our religion.
In connection with the war it is in place to speak of the Red Cross Society. This association is not only doing, directly, a good work in helping to alleviate suffering and aiding distress among the sick and wounded, but, indirectly, by recommending our religion to the people. The immense popularity of this association, the fact that it is generally acknowledged to be of Christian origin, that anumber of the foreign missionaries are active in it, has served, as I believe, to remove some of the prejudice with which we have to contend.
In accordance as the scales of prejudice are falling from off the eyes of men, will they be enabled to see the good there is in Christianity in its influence upon the individual, national, and social life of the people. It seems as if that time has come-that it is beginning to be understood that a man can be a true Christian and at the same time a true Japanese. If this latter fact is once thoroughly established, one of the strongest arguments now used against Christianity by its enemies will have been removed.
It is true that Christianity has been for some time if not the only, at least by far the greatest power working for righteousness in Japan. Christian ideas, Christian principles are affecting life from centre to circumference, yet the people hitherto have been unwilling to acknowledge it. But the growing and accumulated influence of the religion of Christ is such that it becomes harder to cover over this truth, to bury it under prejudice, or to smother it by opposition.
The Christians of Japan stand identified with the burning questions of the day. In relief and charity work they are often the leaders. In earthquake disasters, in the hospitals among the sick and wounded, and by the bedside of the dying they show the kindly helping hand. They have founded orphan asylums; they organize charity and benevolent schemes by which to succor the poor and the needy, to relieve the sick and the
MISSIONARY THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS IN INDIA
infirm; and in this way they are teaching, by example, that Christianity is a saving, helping religion, and all these things are gaining for it its just recognition.
What, then, is the outlook 1 On this there is a variety of opinion. Some are looking forward to great gains in the near future, others have no ground for such hope. It is believed that some time will be required to recover from the serious setback the work has received during the last five years. It is also known that the opposition of the Buddhist has never been more determined than it is now-that there is an immense amount of indifference in regard to religion in general, and the Christian in particular; so that the idea once entertained that Japan will be born a Christian nation in a few years is pretty generally abandoned.
But that the outlook is hopeful, more so than for the last three or four years, is generally acknowledged, since all the facts in the case go to show it. This should greatly encourage the workers on the field, leading them to still greater effort, and stimulate the churches of the West to meet all demands of men and money required by the present improved condition of Christian work in Japan.
MISSIONARY THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS IN INDIA.
BY REV. T. J. SCOTT, D.D., BAREILLY, INDIA.
At the great decennial missionary conference held in Bombay in December, 1892, the education of the native ministry was a burning question. The heads of a number of theological schools were present.. These held a special meeting and planned to get more completely in touch by correspondence and interchange of reports. This plan brought together the material from which this paper is made up, with a view to let the friends of missions in India see what is being done for the training of an indigenous ministry for India. We all feel that such a ministry alone under God can evangelize the country.
There are twenty-eight theological schools in the Protestant mission of India, of various grades. The oldest of these was planned fifty years ago, but most of them are but more recently organized. Some of them attempt a very thorough course of study, while some are more elementary in character. The number of students in all is not large, being only about three hundred and fifty by the latest figures. American missions take the lead in this work, in keeping with the fact that America is the land of theological seminaries. In the main, the traditional three years' course of study is adhered to. Great stress is bid on the study of the Bible, with the study of the Hebrew and Greek text in some schools. As these institutions are in the midst of a people whom the missions are seeking to evangelize, naturally enough work and study are well combined, and the students have constant practical training in evangelistic work. As might be expected, much less is made of the polemics of the West, where for centuries bitter wars of theology were waged. Here in India the conflict is with Hinduism and Islam, and with certain new sects and reforms that have sprung up among these seeking to head' off Christianity from the conquest of the country. Of course in maintaining the commonly received orthodoxy of the West, the so-called heresies are noticed, that our people may not fall into them, but it seems quite certain that we will not have to fight over many of those battles here. Our conflict is with other faiths. All seem to recognize the importance of keeping close to the Bible as the great text·book of theology. In order to guard the best interpretation of the book, it is felt that the foreign missionary must for some time be largely entrusted with the teaching of the seminary. The native mind is acute, and in time fine teachers will be raised up, but for a while there may be some danger from the bias of Eastern systems. When the native mind is thoronghly indoctrinated, less of the work of these seminaries will depend on foreigners. Meantime it is felt by many that we must be on our guard, as intimated, about importing theological disquisitions that in other days shook the Christendom of the West.
A peculiarity of these seminaries is the association with them, sometimes, of the normal school. Almost all missions make use of secular education as an aid to their work. In this they repeat the practice of the monks and evangelists who Christianized Europe. The secular teacher can be a lay evangelist, and is often a pastor teacher. In associating the normal school with the seminary the teachers catch something of the spirit of the preachers. They can study methods of work in the same classes; the normal class can be used for brightening up some preachers in secular studies, and in some cases is the preparatory school for the seminary.
Another peculiarity of these seminaries is the large proportion c', married men in them. The natives of the country marry early, and hence if they get a theological education at all, accommodation must be given to them as married men. This brings women within reach of the seminary, and in some institutions they are found pursuing the same course with their husbands; in others they have their own normal or biblical course to fit them to be co-workers with their husbands. Thus the fact of the students being married gives enlarged opportunity of training workers for the field. The importance of women in the work is very great. Women only can reach women in a country with such a social organization as most parts of India present. Many women are secluded from public life, and can only be reached in the seclusion of home and by women. The trained wife-evangelist is thus the needed complement of her husband. In one seminary at least the kindergarten is an appendage of the theological seminary, since it is attached to the women's school. The women cannot leave their little children at home while they are at their books, but they can be taken care of in the kindergarten of a side room, and the future
TWO FRENCH ANARCHISTS AND THE GOSPEL
professors and clergymen and their wives are thus early started on their career at the same institution with their parents.
Something is made of singing and music in all these seminaries. An attempt is made to utilIze native airs, and to make use of the comnion musical instruments of the country. In no country is the power of song felt more than in India. Singing is a common accompaniment of preaching in the bazar and village. A good collection of hymns may now be found in many Indian languages, and a part of the seminary training is drill in the use of these.
All mission boards should see to it that the most possible be made of their schools for training native pastors and evangelists. The great human need is endowment. Most of these schools are struggling along with almost no endowment, if any at all. A very few of them have perhaps fifty or sixty thousand dollars invested in aid of the work, and yet princely sums are being lavished on such schools in America. It seems so hard to arrest the attention of our noble givers to anything on the opposite side of the globe. The flag indexing the benevolence of the giver must float in sight of himself and friends, and yet Jesus and the angels can see it in the opposite hemisphere. We do not need great sums. A $50,000 gift would put many of these schools on their feet for a noble career, and this small sum might be given by many who are looking about for an object.
One special need of a fund in the Indian schools of the prophets is in aid of students. In most cases on entering such a school the student has left any means of support he had. As a convert, perhaps he has lost his all, and becomes dependent while pursuing his studies. As this is a country of very early marriages, in many cases he is a married man, and this makes the problem off supporting himself during his course of study more difficult. Hence in these schools, scholarships are given that would seem very small in America. The student will be content, as single or married, on from two to four dollars a month. The great revival of this age is said to be a revival of giving. If a small end of the wave, flowing to India, would strike these twenty-eight theological seminaries, it would give an impetus to the evangelization of the country possible in no other way.
TWO FRENOH ANAROHISTS AND THE GOSPEL.
BY PROFESSOR J. L. BERTRAND, PARIS, FRANCE.
Some time ago, when I was giving a religious lecture in the south of France, a man exclaimed, "Lecturer, you do not believe what you say, for you know that the Ohurch is the mother of iniquities, and religion the art of making fools of ourselves." Ten people shouted back, " Tricot, va a la lutte /" (" Tricot, to the struggle !") Three or four years later I received a letter, signed Tricot. The writer related that he was formerly the editor of The Struggle (La Lutte). At once I remembered the man and the newspaper. Tricot was the most violent writer and lecturer that we were afflicted with. Once, on the tombs of the victims of a mine, near St. Etienne, he advised all workpeople to gather during night, in order to burn all the houses of the rich and to murder their proprietors. For that he was condemned to two years' imprisonment, after which he edited another paper called The International -more violent still than The Struggle.
One day a compagnon said to him, "Tricot, if we had men as devoted as the disciples of that. man, Jesus Christ, they would go throughout France, preach our Gospel to workpeople, and, ten years after, the whole nation would be converted to what we prudently call' Revolutionary Socialism,' though we mean the overthrow of society. But the disciples of Christ have for their motto, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' while ours is 'Charity begins and ends at home;' with such a principle we cannot succeed. " " But," shouted Tricot, "that is not my principle, and I will prove it."
The next day he bought an old omnibus, an old horse, put his wife and children in the omnibus, left his paper and his town. He had resolved to go throughout the whole of France, lecturing from place to place, and selling revolutionary pamphlets.
At St. Jean-du-Gard he received a letter from a lady, saying, "M" Tricot, I want very much to see you to-morrow; meanwhile read first this letter, and then this extraordinary pamphlet, called' The Sermon on the Mount. ' I also am a socialist. I also deplore the sight of Lazarus by the side of the cruel rich man-the poor never thinking of justice, but hating the rich and coveting their riches. Believe me, you will not conciliate the two parties, nor subvert the rich with powder, dynamite, or knife, but with love for the rich, and for the poor. Our motto ought to be that of the author of the ' Sermon on the Mount,' Love thy neighbor as thyself."
Tricot read her letter and was astounded, for that lady knew more than himself about socialism. Then he read the famous pamphlet. At every verse he stopped to say, " Whoever wrote such glorious sentences? I never read anything as sublime as that. . . ."
His reading was interrupted by the visit of a compagnon who said, " Ah ! Tricot, I am in great trouble, and I come for advice. My daughter is ready to pass her examination at the Medical Faculty, but I must pay the 200 francs, and I cannot find them." "Why!" replied Tricot, "you a socialist, and you cannot find 200 francs among all your compagnons! Go to Cette, speak to the Municipal Counsellors, who are all socialists, and they will lend you 400 francs if you like."
The man returned to say: "'Would you believe that I saw every counsellor, and that everyone and all sent me away as a beggar who could never pay them back? Their principle is: 'Charity begins and ends at home.'" "So," replied Tricot, "you and I have learned what our compafl1Wns are. Did you n!>t tell me that you were born a Protestant 1" "Yes, but that means nothing, for I am an atheist." "Never mind, go and see your pastor." "My pastor! but I hate him, and my wife insulted him last week." "So much the better. I have been told that your pastor reads at church a part of this 'The Sermon on the Mount. ' If he really reads it and believes what he reads, go to him and he will help you in spite of you and your wife. . . . No, no, that is not the spirit of 'The Sermon on the Mount;' he will help you more surely because you hate him and because your wife insulted him. He belongs to a very peculiar branch of socialists."
The man went to Pastor Benoist, of Cette, who ran to the Dean of the Faculty to tell him. "That father is certainly the worst French Protestant and the worst of our citizens; his wife is certainly worse than her husband. But they have a daughter; you, I, and my good people must save her, because her parents are too bad for her."
When Tricot heard that the money was found, and that the girl had pa3Sed successfully, he read again and again the pamphlet, "Sermon on the Mount," and at last shouted, " No, the author of that book is not a man, He must be God Himself! I believe in the author of 'The Sermon on the Mount.' Christ of Calvary, I have been told that Thou art the Author, I believe in Thee."
The next day Tricot burned all his brochures on soci~lism and anarchy, bought a great many copies of the new pamphlet, " Sermon on the Mount," and said, "Wife, I mean hereafter to lecture on that book only. Let us travel as before."
Tricot is now an agent of the Societe E'lJangelique de Geneve. A contributor to the Re1Iue des J)eux J.l£ondes and I crossed the flower market of the Madeleine, Paris, when we met the wife of a pastor whose daughter was dying of consumption. Hoping that a bouquet of white lilac would please the girl, I bought one and gave it to the mother. A workman very neatly dressed crossed the Boulevard and said: "If you please, M. Bertrand, allow me to bring the bouquet to the lady'S house." Thinking that he was a porter, I did not answer. My friend said to me : " Observe that he call!! you by your name. " I turned and asked the man how he knew me. " You remember," said he, "your giving lectures at the Salle Ornano. At that time I was the greatest drunkard of that district and an incorrigible gambler. One cold evening, being penniless, I strolled along the Boulevard, when I heard people singing in the hall. I tried to see through the curtains, when a neighbor said: 'Halloo, Jacques! what are you doing hero l' • Nothing j I am penniless, and cannot go to the bar l' Esperance. Is thil! place a dancing-room l' 'No, it is a salle de conftrences.' , Conferences! What is that? ' , Come in, and you will know.' " I went in to hear you speak on the joys of the family. After fifteen minutes I had enough of you, and went away murmuring: 'That speaker is evidently an old priest or an old bachelor i he never had a wife or children. Well, I know the joys of the family better than he does. I take daily one single meal with my worst half, leave immediately after, return as late as I can, leave in the morning as early as I can, and we find plenty of time for quarrelling. She unceasingly complains that I do not give her money for the children j so much the worse for her and the children. She pretends that I drink and gamble too much j so much the better for me. I patch .my clothes, and wash my linen when I can and as I can, because she refuses to help me as long as I do nothing for her. I am the poorest of all poor, with only one shirt j and when I wash it, with no shirt. I cut the top of my socks, sewed them on the top of my boots, to make my compauions believe that I wear socks, but I have indeed no socks. When I leave the house the policeman threatens me because my boys are mischievous. Well, I suppose that is because they receive more boxes on the ear than pieces of bread-these are the joys of the family, and the beauty of present society.'
" A fortnight after, penniless again, I met on the same boulevard my neighbor, who said: 'Why did you leave the conference so quickly ~ , , Because I could no longer listen to the trash of that old priest.' 'He is not a priest, but a layman.' , Well, he has no wife and children, or he would not be as ignorant as he is.' 'He has a wife and children.' , Never mind, he knows nothing about the joys of the family.' ' Well, what can you do this cold evening ~ Come in again, warm yourself, do not listen to the speaker, and when the meeting is over, we will go home together.'
" I went in and you spoke on the workman. 'Workmen,' you said, , my father had one hundred of you. I was somewhat educated on your knees, and therefore I know you. If you belong to such a class of workmen, you gain so much a day, you spend so much for your breakfast, so much for your lunch and dinner, so much a day for your room.' When I heard you say that I murmured, 'That fellow is not a priest, but he is a Jesuit, for he knows everything we do.' But you went on : 'Now, my friends, subtract what you spend from what you gain, and do not tell me, because I know it, what you do with the rest. You go to l' Esperance to drink and drink, gamble and gamble. I cannot convert you j God alone can do it. Every Saturday evening you go to your boss for your weekly pay, which you honestly deserve. I have been working a whole year for you, and this evening I ask you to pay me in this way. To-morrow evening, ati l'Esperance, look not in the first glass, for there may be nothing, but in your last glass, and you will be quite surprised to see your health and the health of your family, on which I spoke three weeks ago j your happiness and the happiness of your family, on which I spoke two weeks ago. Then look at the bottom of the glass, and you will see your soul and the souls of your dear ones swimming and swimming toward eternal damnation, on which I spoke last week. I have served you faithfully for a whole year j if you do not pay me in that easy way, then I will think that each of you is far more unjust than anyone of your bosses.' . . . When I heard this I got up, and with rage slammed violently the door, shouting, 'That speaker is a horrid man!' On my way I said to myself, 'Who is he 1 Who are those 400 fools who patiently listen to him ~ What is his aim ~ What does he mean when he says, " Workmen, show me a workman who reads the Gospel with his wife and children 365 times « year, and I promise you to bring here a happy family?" The Gospel is probably a book. Why should I read it 365 times, and not 368 or 350 times? Read it with my wife 365 times j • • • surely that would be no joy for me.'
" However, when I reached my miserable home I said: 'Wife, you must come and hear that man.' 'What man ~' 'A priest without a cassock.' ' My poor drunkard!' said my wife, and left me.
"On the next day I went to l'Esperance, drank, gambled, and lost. I was going to take my last glass, when I remembered your words. , Ah !' said I, 'there is the famous last glass. Oh, ho ! it contains a great many things. My health, the health of my bad wife and of my bad children, my happiness and their happiness, my soul and their souls. . . . What is a soul? Have I a soul ~ I am surely not superstitious, for I am a free-thinker, an atheist, a socialist j ••• no, I am an anarchist, and ready to blowout the brains of my boss, if I ever meet him away from a policeman or a witness. However, that glass contains too many things. I cannot drink. '
" On the next day I said, 'That horrid man made me lose a glass of wine j if I go to the bar this morning I am sure to lose another. It is better to wait.' On the third day God laid hold of me. He placed the glass on my way, on my tools, on my table-everywhere. The Saturday evening came, and not knowing what to do with my money, I said, ' Wife, here is money for you and your children. '
" My wife, who had anxiously followed the struggle during the week, came close to me with tears in her eyes and exclaimed, ' I want to see your priest without a cassock and hear his conference.' We went to hear your address on ' Christ, the Friend of the Workman.' Since then you have left, but we go every week to the same hall to hear Pastor Bersier.
" Now, if you want to have a proof of the Gospel's power, and if you pass one evening in such a street and before such a number, come up, and you will see two nicely furnished rooms, while formerly all had gone to bombard house j you will see the father, the mother and children round a table, they read the Gospel together 365 times a year. Those children receive now more" pieces of bread than boxes on the ears. That wife is the very best of all French wives j she does everything possible to please me. I do no longer patch my clothes, I have socks and even gloves, and in spite of all those expenses we have some money at the savings-bank.
" If I could deliver lectures or sermons, I would go from factory to
GLEANINGS FROM THE EAl'TIST ANNIVlIIllISARIES
factory and prove to workmen that the Gospel is not only the guide to heaven, but also to happiness and prosperity in this world, because it is the most practical of all books on social economy. Rich and poor, will you have a good wife, good children, good neighbors 1 read the Gospel with them 365 times a year. Will you have a peaceful, prosperous, and glorious France? give the Gospel to every Frenchman, the Gospel to every French family, the Gospel to every French priest, and let them read it 365 times a year."-Missions of the World.
GLEANINGS FROM THE BAPTIST ANNIVERSARIES.
THE EIGHTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WOMAN'S BAP'1'IST HOME MIS- SION SOCIETY constituted the prelude to the anniversaries of the great mis- sionary and publication societies of the Baptist Church, held in Saratoga, N. Y., May 27th to June 1st, 1895.
THE HEATHEN AT HOME was the theme of an address by Mrs. Wil- liam M. Isaacs, of New York. After eulogizing woman in all ages, she said: " Christian women in the close of the nineteenth century occupy a posi- tion unique and unparalleled in history. Noble women have lived in all ages. Patriotism and martyrdom have not been confined to the stronger and sterner sex. It is the divine right of women to train children, to de- velop the first appearing thought in the human mind. Among the dangers which menace our country are the Sunday newspaper, pernicious literature, the unspeakable abominations placed on the stage, and none more alarming than the great influx of immigration. In 1894 there landed in America 25,513 immigrants who could neither read nor write. Many are totally unfit to become citizens of this country, and a ready imagination could easily picture their future."
Mrs. Crouse discussed in her annual address, THE AVOCATION AND THE POSITION OF WOMAN. She traced the gradual emancipation of woman until four ways of livelihood were open to her-housework, dressmaking, school-teaching, and marriage. She told of the prejudice that had to be dispelled before women were allowed to teach school. We hear a great deal about the coming woman, the advanced woman, and the new woman. But God has ordained for woman the higher and more ennobling duties of motherhood and the household, and her highest attainment comes in this manner. The Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society is now of age, and has never found it necessary to contract a dollar of debt.
The following are the nationalities among whom work is being carried on, and the number of missionaries maintained for each by the Woman's Board: Americans, white (frontier), 11; Asiatics (Chinese), 4; Germans, 18; Jew, 1 ; Danes and, Norwegians, Swedes, 15; Indian and Oklahoma Territories, 13 ; Mexicans, 7 ; Negroes, 42 ; detailed for special service, 3, Total, 114. Eighty-first Anniversary of the Missionary Union. -President Augustus H. Strong made the annual address from Psalm 90 : 10 : " The days of our years are threescore years and ten."
The greater part of Dr. Strong's address was upon the Holy Spirit as the one and only power in missions. He said: "The Holy Spirit is a person, not a thing. He is coequal with the Father and the Son. In the Holy Spirit we have the Divine and incarnate Christ. Christ could not have been in two places at once. He could not have spoken to Paul at Galilee and John in Jerusalem, but through the Holy Spirit He is enabled to be present with the little band of worshippers at Swatow and at the saIlle time be in Saratoga..
" The Boly Spirit should be recognized as a leavening power in society. There are times when great public questions are settled, when slaves are freed, when there is a mighty revival of religion. In these instances the Holy Spirit reveals His power. The ordinary methods of the Holy Spirit are quiet, but it is capable of exerting tremendous power, as at Pentecost. There are times when the air is so still that we almost forget its existence, yet it has the power to prostrate buildings, lofty trees and carry them miles. Is not the Holy Spirit for missions ~ He is God Himself €llgaged in the mighty work. It is the power whereby prayers made in this country produce an effect in China. To seek for results in missions, without regard to the Holy Spirit, is not a due recognition of the source of power."
The annual report of the society, a document of 228 pages, was generally distributed, and may be had on application.
During the year there were received, from all sources, $661,255.68, decreasing the debt of $200,000 of the year before by $13,e39.08. Remaining debt, April 1st, 1895, ~189,956.82.
The following are the statistics of the Missionary Union: Br d Sunday· . MI3eIONS TO THE HEATHEN. Preachers Churches. l'naPl819z4e Members. School Contrlbu· . Scholars. tions.
—-,—————– ———– Bnrma…………………….. . 632 613 2,318 33,636 10,391 $40,675.28 A!sam……………………… . 2,3'%7 1,058.33 Telugu…. "" …………….. .. 34 35 523 3,721 : China …………………….. . 266 82 938 56,683 5,398 2,291.91 523 333.20 ~~~…..•:…………. …::::::::::.:::: 57 23 105 1,391 549.02 35 19 179 1,633 1,870 29 421 15 271 1,287 771.80 Total. ………………… , . • 1,053 787 4,334 98,851 20,931 $45,679.54 EUROPE.i.N MISSION:S.
:.'::: ':. :.::::: :::::::::: Sweden……………………. . 645 552 2,595 37,601 40,353 $109,156.58 t.~:~:. 2,596 29,42'Z I 21,524 102,510.72 300 149 1,200 17,041 3,958 17,690.20 90 Finland …………………… . 67 152 I ~:~~~ 1,329 251 10 21 280 3,303 .. ·ii,2·17·.OO ::::::::. ::: :::: :::::: Denmark……………………. 1 70 25 378 1,961 …. ·:i,27ii.52 '%7 1,900 ~::c~::::: 16 . .. Spain …………………….. . 30 19 5 90 858 II 6 Mi!sions to nominally Chril!tian 866 7,457 92,647 71,395 $243,853.02 lands ••••••• , …. •••• •••• ••• •• • 1,167 Grand total…. …….. •. •. . . 2,220 1,653 11,791 190,998 92,326 $289,523.56 The report of the committee on the relations of the women's societies to the Missionary Union strongly urging the unification of the missionary work of the societies, with one treasury and one treasurer, and the apportionment of money by joint sessions of the Board of Managers of each society was unanimously adopted.
Rev. Thomas Moody, missionary from the Congo, spoke on THE WORK IN AFRICA. He is located 850 miles inland on the south bank of the Congo, 40 miles south of the equator. The people in the central part of the continent are brighter, perhaps, than the negroes of this country. One million lives are lost every year by the slave trade. All Stanley and Livingstone have said might be magnified thrice, and then it would not be half so bad as it really is. Four fifths of the people are slaves. There is no such thing as family life among those people. Missionaries are few j and if there was one station in every district twice as large as Rhode Island, 3000 more mission stations would be needed in Africa.
Rev. G. N. Thomssen, calling himself a German-American-Hindu, of Telugu, India, spoke on WORK IN INDIA, saying that he loved America better than Germany, but he loved India more than Germany or America. He thanked God that he was called when a boy to do mission work, and marvelled that so many could stay in this country when there are countless thousands in India who had never heard of Christ. He had seen the great work in Telugu, something similar to that Andrew and Nathaniel had seen. When his work was begun, Mr. Thomssen said it seemed as if Satan were determined to unJo it. He had learned to believe in a personal God, but he thought that in India there was a personal devil also. There were great heathen revivals, and the natives would ask scornfully, "Where is your God 1 See, there is but a handful of you Christians, while thous811ds come to worship the village god.' , Englishmen seeking fortunes in that far land asked the missionaries, " What do you come here for 1 We leave our bones on the plains for the filthy lucre, but you have no business here." Mr. Thomssen said that he had been asked the question, " When will India be a Christian land 1" He could see progress now in all directions, ILnd believed that before a great while'lndia would be converted.
Rev. Donald D. MacLaurin, of Michigan, spoke on a. MILITANT CHURCH.
" If we believe the Bible, there is penitence and pardon for every soul in this world. We also believe it is the duty of the Church to send the Gos- pel into the world. It is not an incidental, but a paramount, characteristic mission to give the Gospel of the Son of God to every son of earth. The Church is an army whose duty it is to reduce every rebellious province on the globe to its rightful obedience. The Church is militant. Look at our marching orders: 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to . every creature.' The good soldier always accepts his position without question. We see the signals of heaven telling us what heaven expects in this day of unparalleled opportunity. Now almost the whole world is open to the soldiers of Jesus. Do we appreciate our opportunity 1 Paul did in his day, for he said, 'I am a debtor to the Greek and the barbarian.' These comprised the whole known world at that time, and Paul was a whole missionary society in himself.
"There are fields to be won. 'fhe heathen world, with its one thousand millions of human beings who have never heard that Jesus died for them and rose again from the dead. In India alone there are 280,000,000 who have never heard of Christ. There is also a great defect or lack of training of missionary ministers at the present day. Pastors and people did not pray for missions as they should. How many times are we in agony for missions 1"
The report of the committee on SELF-SUPPORT ON FOREIGN FIELDS emphasized the necessity for the exercise of great economy, and offered a number of recommendations: "First, the true aim in foreign mission work is the planting of native churches, and they that. will be self-supporting and reproductive; second, there should be a modification of excessive and sentimental pity when contemplating the hardship that natives must undergo to contribute to missions. Proportionate giving should be urged; third, native churches should be plain in architecture and cheaply constructed; fourth, the congregation should choose the pastor rather than the missionary, as the source of support should be the source of authority; fifth, the practice of some churches sending money to support native preachers should be discouraged, as this designation hampers the work of the executive committee, which should have all the money to spend for the furtherance of the general work; sixth, some form of industrial education should be maintained in connection with the mission."
In an address on WORK IN JAPAN, Rev. L. Halsey said he was the foreign pastor of the Japanese Baptist Church. While 40,000,000 Japanese· worship idols, many do not. The worship of the Mikado is a severe hindrance to the cause of Christianity. Confucian teachings were also brought into the country. It is now brought into disrepute, as are all things Chinese. Japan needs our sympathy in her intellectual and spiritual progress. Rev. Father Sutherland, of Burma, has put his life, his wife, and family into the missionary work. He said: " Buddhism cannot be conquered in a few years; but we are going to conquer it. The Burman will eventually become converted to Christianity. The Burmans are generally dignified and distant, and our mode of preaching is like Christ's-from street to street, from crowd to crowd. "
Rev. M. C. Mason spoke on MISSIONS IN ASSAM, saying: " The people in Assam are the most vigorons, intelligent, and manly in all Asia. Assam is the gateway to Thibet on the north, China on the east, and Bengal on the south and west. The Asamese are the most ready to receive the Gospel of any people on the face of the earth. The people associate with their sickness or sorrow some sin that they have committed. Children were, not long since, offered as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Since the English took possession of the country the practice of human sncrifice has been abolished, but missionaries are often approached by natives to intercede with the British authorities that a child might be sacrificed for some real or imaginary cause, so that the Great Spirit would be appeased.
" The religions of the country are principally Hindu, Mohammedan, spirit worship (Hill tribes), Buddhist, and Christian. The Christians in 1891 were numbered at 16,844 j Hindus, 2,997,072; Mohammedans, 1,483,974. As a mission ground Assam is most strategic. It lies Iiku an arm of a countrv stretched out into the midst of heathen nations. It is where India, Thihet, China, and Burma dovetail into one. It is the most natural gateway to the great region of Central Asia. Within close range of civilization and extensive railways building and under British protection, it is like a fortress from which to push forth the forces of the Lord. The missionaries do not ask a cent for a minister as a minister j not a cent to build places of worship, and never have. Money only is wanted for sala. ries and expenses of native preachers who are sent out to distant fields to preach until they can make it self-supporting. The expense of the mis. sionary work in Assam has cost less than in any ol;her field in the work. "
The American Baptist Home Mission Society antedates the birth of almost all of its members. The receipts for the first year were $6586.
For the past year the total receipts were $515,446.96. During the first year the number of teachers and missionaries employed was 50. Last year the number was llID. This alone indicates the progress of the society.
The annual report of the Executive Board states that the work of the society embraces: (1) The prosecution of Western missions; (2) evan· gelization of the various foreign population of this country j (3) missionary work among the negroes of the South; (4) missionary work among the North American Indians; (5) missionary work in the republic of Mexico; (6) educational work for the negroes; (7) erection of meeting-houses.
Rev. Dr. Grenell, of Detroit, said, in speaking on How TO DEVELOP THE LIBERALITY OF THE PEOPLE: "The most important factor in the problem is the pastor himself. The pastor must have heart-convictions of interest in missions. If a church fails for one year to contribute to the mission society, it is evident the pas· tor has not a heart interest in missions. If he had he certainly would have contributed himself. Had he done so others would have joined him.
" The pastor must instruct his people in the Scripture teaching in reo gard to this duty. Affecting incidents, pathetic appeals may be used, but cannot be relied upon to secure the measure of duty of the people in regard to their duty to a lost world. The radical teachings of the Word of God shnuld be made familiar to all in order to secure obedience to this word in their beneficence.
" There should also be systematic laying aside· and distribution of the good things which God may give us. There should be more system in religion as well as more religion: in business."
Mr. -Waterman well described a GOOD HELPER OF THE PASTOR: 1. He must be desirous of pleasing his Master in His service. 2. Like a good soldier, should desire to serve wherever and whenever necessary, even in the front ranks. 3. The results of such helpers, with wise leaders, could scarcely be computed.
Field Secretary Rev. Dr. H. L. Morehouse made an address on A STUDY IN CHRISTIAN BENEVOLENCE, saying: " Pitifully small amounts per capita are contributed by Baptists in fourteen States. The average for five years was as follows: New Hamp~hire, 23! cents; Vermont, 14t cents; Massachusetts, 37 cents; Connecticnt., 23 cents; New York, 24 cents; New Jersey, 20~ cents; Pennsylvania, less than 18 cents; Ohio, 12t cents; Michigan, 10 cents; Illinois, 10 cents; Indiana, 5 cents; West Virginia, 3t cents; Rhode Island, 36 cents. " These are facts that we must facc, and which ought to make us ashamed of ourselves when we do face them. With an average of 50 cents per member the society could do a noble work, and with an average of $1 per member could do a magnificent work. The society, however, could not be expected to make bricks without straw. "
CITY MISSIONs.-The proportion of Baptists to the population in cities ranged from 1 in 25 in Providence to 1 in 270 in San Francisco.
Rev. Dr. W. C. P. Rhoades, of New York, said there was a limit to the growth of agricultural districts, but no limit, apparently, to the growth of cities. The cities control the country, and the question for Christians is how to control the cities. They are the workshops of the country, and where the workshops are the workers are. There also should the Christian workshops be located. The rate of increase of church-members falls far below the increase in the population.
Eighty per cent of the population in New York City is of foreign extraction. There are the German, the Italian, and the Irish quarters, and there seems to be a disposition to crowd out the Americans. Three fourths of the popUlation of New York City live in 37,000 of its tenement-houses. The average to each house in New York City is 16, while in London it is but 9. It is a vital question-how to heal these sores in the cities, how to conduct evangelical work in the slums. The more appalling the vice the deeper the degradation, the more heroic is the call for Christianity. It is not a question of creed. The slums won't listen to denominationalism. An Episcopal clergyman, who had come over from the other side, said to a brother who had a little floating Bethel and was doing missionary work among the seamen of New York, "Is your church a High or Low Church~" The brother said: "It depends on the tide." There 1s more difficult mission work in the big cities than in many foreign countries.
THE WORK OF THE LOCAL CHURCH IN CITY MISSIONS was the topic of an address by Rev. Johnston Myers, of Cincinnati, O.
Some reforms were suggested; first, in the architecture of churches, so that the entrance to the prayer-meeting-room and the pastor's study would be readily accessible to the timid in search of Christ. There should be a reform in the ministry, too, if this question is to be solved. The theological seminaries are educating men more for suburban than for downtown districts. Methods and rules are powerless and conventional customs of clergymen are not efficacious, and must be cast aside in order to cope with this question. Jesus Christ never placed a premium on monotony and stupidity. Paul, if he were on earth to-day, would be called a sensational preacher and be criticised by the newspapers.
Dr. H. L. Wayland reported a resolution respecting THE LORD'S DAY: " Whereas, It is widely reported through the public journals that in some portions of the United States professing Christians, who have conscientiously observed the seventh day of the week as a day of religious rest and worship, and who have, hereafter on the first day of the week conscientiously engaged in labor which in no wise disturbed those desiring to observe the first day, have, for this act, been arrested, fined, imprisoned, and sent to the chain gang, therefore, " Resolved, That, assuming these facts to be as reported, we earnestly and solemnly protest against this violation of the right of religious liberty, a right for the defence of which our forefathers have suffered imprisonment, the spoiling of their goods, stripes, exile, and death itself."
The greatest obstacle to overcome in converting the POLES AND ITALIANS is the Roman Church. These people chng to the Catholic religion, they know not why, and the less they know about it the more tenaciously they cling to it. The more ignorant they are, the more difficult it is to approach them. Poles are in Western cities and Italians are in Eastern cities. They colonize, have their own stores, papers, physicians, priests, and almost everything.
Rev. N. F. Roberts spoke on WHAT SHAW UNIVERSITY HAS DONE FOR THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH.
It was founded by the late lamented Dr. H. M. Tupper twenty-four years ago. For many years the average enrollment has been 341. Five graduates have been elected as principals of State normal schools, 24 are teachers in colleges and high schools, 13 are principals of academies. Last year, in North Carolina, 18 counties out of 36 reported that they had Sunday-schools containing 31,393 pupils. Shaw University students have imbibed a missionary spirit which they have carried wherever they have gone. They have also done a great deal for temperance. A few years ago in the South it was common even for the deacons to get drunk, but now a man is not received into the Church if he uses strong drink. Shaw has laid the foundation of medical and professional schools. One of her physicians treated 2500 different patients in a year. Industrial training has been kept constantly in' view, which is necessary among the colored people. Some of the pupils have erected neat houses of worship with their own hands. Pulpits are now closed against those so-called ministers who oppose anything for the uplifting of the colored race. It has been a power in changing the feeling against the education of the colored people.
THE EVANGELIZATION OF MEXICO was the subject of an able address by Rev. H. L. Morehouse, D.D., Field Secretary, who said: "Mexico is entering upon a new era. Old things are passing away. The old order is changing for the new. When political independence was secured, religions questions overshadowed all others. Early in the century the fight began. It was that of human progress against the medireval hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Prelates and hosts of religion conspired against the coming of the republic, but the republic was victorious, and for seventy years Rome has been its implacable enemy. The people, upon acquiring their independence, stripped the Church of its power, and thus ended the vision of papal power on this continent. Millions of dollars of church revenue were cut off, convents were abolished, and there is not a hooded nun in Mexico. The ploughshare of public opinion was run through the largest monastery in the City of Mexico. Mexico has emerged from medireval gloom into the sunlight of the nineteenth century despite the fact that the tethered Roman tiger still growls. Rome robbed Mexico of its intellectual birthright as Spain robbed it of its treasures. Since the dawn of the republic the schoolmaster has been abroad in the land. In the early part of the centurJ there were but three newspapers in the land j now there are 328. Now is the time to present the pure Gospel to the anxious, inquiring, and reading Mexicans. They now read what they please despite papal interdiction. The day of Mexico's complete emancipation is drawing nigh-not her constitutional emancipation, but her spiritual emancipation. This is the hour of the missionary's opportunity. Upon this country has devolved the evangelization of Mexico. This society needs twentyfive missionaries next year and ll. girl's school, an academic school, and a theological seminary for the training of native missionaries.
Rev. Dr. J. B. Hawthorne, of Atlanta, Ga., President of the Home Mission Board of the Baptist Southern Convention, spok-e on CO-OPERA.- TION WITH THE SOUTH.
Over one half of the Baptists on this planet were in the territory of the Baptist Southern Convention. In some districts nothing but a Baptist could be found with a search warrant. A member of the Georgia Legislature, when asked the geological formation in his county, replied that it was mainly Baptist. Above and below the sod the Baptists are very numerous, The joining of forces for the amelioration of the colored people is sure to have a powerful effect, besides the promotion of a fraternal feeling. The society South seeks co-operation with the society North in the religious improvement of the colored people. They must be prevented from relapsing into barbarism. If they become barbarians, the people will be compelled to resort to barbarous means to protect themselves. Dr. Harthorne spoke of the high regard the negro preachers were held in by their people. Their word was infallible in more things than one. Hence t.he great necessity to train these preachers. Many of them in their pulpit gave way to vehement outbursts of mere animal emotions. John Jasper's sermon, " The Sun Do Move," is a marvel of exegetical and homiletical h:uth compared to the sermons of many of the native preachers. With the' co-operation of the two societies he predieted great results in the cause of Jesus Christ.
CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONS
The work of the Baptist Publication Society may be summarized as follows: For Year 1894-95. From Beginning.
Nnmber of missionaries and workers ……………….. .. 85 3,393 21,656 281,075 li~fe~ ~~a"::rt!~~·::::::::::::::::::::::::.::::::::::::::::·· 471,253 8,935,170 35,172 965,086 Books sold ……………………………………. . 6,594 151,442 Books given awa.f………………………………… . 486,153 43,060,743 Pages of tracts distributed.. •.. .. . .. .. .. . . . . … ….. .. .. 16,014 866,015 Hermons and addresses ……………………………. .. 4,684 119,460 Prayer-meetings beld ………………………………. . 41,679 1,287,167 Families visited…………………………………… . 24,997 Persons baptized…………………………………. .. 648 Churches constituted…………….. _ …. ……….. . 62 1,14';" Sunday-schools organized …………………………. . 244 10,162 Jr,stitutes held and addressed …… _.. .. .. . . . … .. . .. .. 007 6,705 Sunday-schools aided by donations of Scriptures, books, 500 6,241 periodicals, etc ……. …… .., ……………..••…. Sunda.y-schools, pastors and ministerial students aided with 233 6,597 grants for their libraries…………………………. .
CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONS.
BY REV. JAMES H. ROSS, ROXBURY, MASS.
The Congregational Home Missionary Society held its sixty-ninth annual meeting in Saratoga June 4th-6th. Five of the six Congregational missionary societies are devoted to home missions. Three of them, the Sunday.school and Publishing Society, the Educational Society, and the Church Building Society, met with the Home Missionary Society, technicaUy so caUed. The absentee society, the American Missionary Association, will meet by itself in Detroit next October. The Home Missionary Rociety has 4104 mission stations. Like most missionary societies at the present time, at home and abroad, it is heavily in debt, yet hopeful that the better times and special efforts will relieve the existing burden of $132,000.
Rev. Secretary Coit, of Boston, reported indications that the movement from the country hill towns in Massachusetts, which has been at work now for decades, depopulating them for the benefit of the cities and the West, has reached its climax.
There are of these country towns not a few where the population has begun to increase again. although not at a very rapid rate. The rapid increase of the electric railroad system will tend to help this return to the country. The State before long will be not only gridironed, it will be checkerboarded by the electric roads. And when the remote farmer has such facilities for reaching the centre as a railroad before his very door will furnish, there will be less and less forsaking the farm by the younger people and a more ready return to it as years advance.
The fact reappeared that the majority of gifts and givers are centralized in New England. The West is yet to be developed in t!J.e lbe of systematic beneficence.
Tourists who visit cities and towns near the coast of California, between Santa Barbara and San Diego, are disposed to regard Southern California as well evangelized. But there are two Southern Californias. The smaller and more populous Southern California, with which they become acquainted, situated between the mountains and the sea j the larger, six times larger, but less populous Southern California, lying north and east of the mountains. The former illustrates most wonderfully the value of home mission work put forth in large measure at the right time, immediately upon the rapid movement of immigration hitherward, planting the Church at the very outset of the new settlements along the coast j the latter illustrates as remarkably the woeful r~sults of the neglect of gospel ministration. The former has crowded churches, revivals of religion, in some placeR a church-membership equal to one third of the population, and a prevailing Christian public sentiment. The latter has crowded saloons, in some places as many as one to every fifty inhabitants, churches generally thinly attended, if they exist at all, and vice Haunting itself without restraint in open day.
Mrs. Joseph Cook read a paper entitled " A Woman's Club of National Interest." It might well have been entitled" A Woman's Club of International Interest." It referred to the Woman's Missionary Society, whether devoted to home or foreign missions. It showed that these societies are pioneer organizations, not only up to date in their spirit and methods, but antedating the various women's clubs that receive most attention from the press and the public. They afford just as good opportunities for study of the highest themes as any other clubs, themes of international statesmanship, such as the Japan-Chinese war, and themes of profound significance and learning, such as comparative religions and comparative philology. The points made by Mrs. Cook should be food for reHection, while the " new woman" is a phrase and a fad, and as long as the daily press fails to discover that, multitudes of women repudiate with scorn that they are interested only in fashions and small talk.
Rev. William Ewing called attention to .a census recently taken in New York, showing that in the district bounded by Fifth, Canal, Essex, and Mercer streets, having nclarly 95,000 residents, there are 7 churches and 563 liquor saloons, or 1 church to 80 saloons and nearly 14,000 people.
" In many places where labor troubles have prevailed, the Gospel as preached by Congregational home missionaries has been wonderfully successful in allaying animosities and saying to the turhulent elements of society, ' Peace, be still.' From the mining regions of Indiana the superintendent reported that ' the outrages upon law, order, and decency were only in those Tegions where the work of the mission had not yet extended. '
" The most distinct and notable increase during the year has been Oklahoma, the number of whose churches has risen from 48 to more than 70."
Rev. Watson L. Phillips, D.D., of New Haven, said that there are classes in our population whose needs are peremptory and cannot be disre- garded. "There is (1) the vicious and criminal class, who live by charity and pilfering, and constitute the dangerous, combustible element at the bottom of society. (2) The second class is composed of that great multi- tude to be found in every large community, sober, industrious, working hard for low wages, filling the tenement-houses, the hall bedrooms and back attic chambers of cheap boarding-houses." Rev. Superintendent W. S. Bell, of Montana, described an eighty-mile drive through a series of valleys running down from the snowy mountains, on the border of Wyoming, to the great Yellowstone valley, through which the Northern Pacific Railroad runs for several hundred miles in its stretch across the continent.
" Three years ago this whole region, about equal in area to the State of Rhode Island, was in the hands of the Crow Indians To-day, after ample provision has been made for the red man, thousands of acres remain for the use of the white settler. Already many of them are occupied. Hum- ble log cabins can be seen in every direction, and the upturned soil tells of the coming crop.
" These settlers are, for the most part, either cowboys with or without families, who, after years of wandering, have determined to enter upon a more settled hfe ; or miners, who, by the depression of the mining indus- tries, have been driven from the various camps of the State. In either case they are those who have for years been beyond the reach of religious privileges, or who have failed to avail themselves of such as were at hand. One woman in my congregation said it was the first sermon she had heard for twenty years, throwing in the remark that she 'didn't know what all the preachers had been about that they hadn't looked her up before. ' Several others testified to the fact that they had not attended a religious service before for from five to ten years. With one exception, all of the churches so situated that they can reach out toward this unoccupied field are Congregational churches. Each year a larger appropriation has been needed to meet the imperative demands of new work. From all parts of the State, from small towns, from country neighborhoods, and from mining campS, comes the cry for religious services. On every hand the testimony is heard even from men of the world. Things are not as they used to be. There is a better 'observance of Sunday, there is more of a sentiment in favor of church-going. Vice is less open and bold."
Rev. Joseph B. Clark, D.D., of New York, formerly Secretary of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society, in Boston, said: "The Congregational churches of America represent at least $700,- 000,000, and add to that sum every year, over and above all expense of living and all gifts of benevolence, about $20,000,000. A clear income of $20,000,000 a year above expenses is not a condition of poverty that should make timid its pressing the home missionary appeal. Yet the homeland societies were able last year, by every art of statement and appeal, to draw scarcely more than $1,000,000 for the redemption of America. Field secretaries and the secretary of woman's department during the past twelve months have carried appeal into 20 different States, making 1060 home missionary addresses in the presence of 244,000 hearers. The mass of non-giving churches numbering a year ago 2000 has been reduced to 1837. The Congregational churches do not yet appreciate the home missionary crisis. Congregational giving is at fault. Last year $750,000, or one third of all the reported gifts of Congregational churches, was for objects outside of the regular denominational channels. Foreign missions received one sixth of the whole; home missions did a little better, securing about one fifth, while the' other' objects of every sort and kind took the lion's share of one third. It is the violation of common sense when Congregational churches give 70 cents per member for foreign missions, $1.07 per member for home missions, and $1.40 cents per member for odds and ends."
tNTERNA~IONAL P:B:l'ARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. ;r. T. GIaCEY, D.D.
International Missionary Union. Miss N. J. Dean (Persia); 1880, Rev. W. C. Dodd and Mrs. W. C. Dodd TWEI,FTH ANNUAL SESSION. (Laos); 1876-90, Mrs. Rev. A. Dowsley (China); 1888-!J4, Rev. J. B. Dunlap The International Missionary Union and Mrs. J. B. Dunlap (Siam); 1871-77, held its twelfth annual meeting at Clif- MissC. P. Dwight (Turkey) ; 1876, Rev. ton Springs, N. Y., June 12th-19th; C. S. Eby, D.D. (j"apan); 1887-89, Rev. being the sixth session held at this place, W. P. F. Ferguson (Mexico) ; 1887, Miss under the generous invitation of Dr. M. Estelle Files (Burma); 1881, Miss and Mrs. Henry Foster, who hospitably Estelle Fletcher (Micronesia) ; 1853-55, entertained for eight days nearly all of Mrs. O. M. Ford (Africa); 1888, Rev. the missionaries in attendance. J. M. Foster and Mrs. J. M. Foster (China); 1880, Miss Elsie M. Garretson The missionaries participating were (China); 1875, Rev. Lorin Samuel Gates as follows, the dates preceding the name (India); 1886, Rev. Frank P. Gilman indicating the year of entering the for- and Mrs. Frank. P. Gilman (China); eign field, and the year of discontinu- 1890, Rev. George A. Godduhn (Afriance thereon; where no second date ap- ca) ; 1861-68, Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D., pears, they are still in the service, ex- and Mrs. J. T. Gracey (India); 1889, pecting to return to the work abroad at Miss Isabella M. Hargrave (Japan); the earliest opportunity: 1884, Miss Emily L. Harvey (India); 1867, Rev. H. C. Hazen-1884, Mrs. 1889, Rev. George D. Adamson (Afri- H. C. Hazen (India); 1872, Miss Ariena ca); 1850, Rev. William Ashmore, D.D. S. Henderson (Brazil); 1840, J. C. Hep. -1872, Mrs. William Ashmore (China) ; bum, M.D., and Mrs. J. C. Hepburn 1858–80, Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D. (China and Japan); 1880, Miss Janet H. (China); 1885-94, Rev. J. L. Barton, Houston (Mexico); 1873, Rev. S. W. D.D. (Turkey); 1879-81, Rev. W. H. Howland, D.D., and Mrs. S. W. How- Belden and Mrs. W.. H. Belden (Bul- land (Ceylon); 1890, Rev. F. E. Jeffery garia); 1849-61, Rev. Jacob Best (Afri- and Mrs. F. E. Jeffery (IndJa); 1855, ca); – – Mrs. Birdsell (China); 1853, Rev. H. H. Jessup, D.D., and Mrs. Rev. Henry Blodget, D.D., and Mrs. H. H. Jessup (Syria); 1884. Miss Carrie Henry Blodget (China) ; 1886-87, Mrs. 1. Jewell (China); 1885, Miss Theresa J. G. A. Bond (Malaysia); 1889, Rev. Kyle (India); 1860. Rev. Benjamin Lar- James Cantine (Arabia); 1890-92, rabee, D.D. (Persia); 1887, Charles J. Rev. W. A. Carrington (Brazil); 1886, Laffin, M.D. (Africa); 1885, Mrs. T. A. Rev. F. A. Cassidy, M.A., and Mrs. Large (Japan); 1888, Miss Alice Little F ..A. Cassidy (Japan); 1893, Miss M. 1. (Micronesia); 1874, Mrs. Robert W. Casterton (China); 1889, Miss Ella R Logan (Micronesia); 1888, Rev. Will· Church, (Japan); 1869, Mrs. .E. W. iam McClure, M.D., and Mrs. William Clark (Assam) ; 1859, Rev. J. F. Clarke, McClure (China) ; 1887, Rev. .E. W. Me- D.D.-1893i Miss Lizzie Clarke (Bul- Dowell and Mrs. E. W. McDowell (Turgaria); 1893, Rev. James Craighead and key) ; 1889, Miss Margaret I. McIntosh ?tIrs. James Craighead (Assam); 1876, (China); 1895, Miss Laura Mellen (Afri- Rev. S. P. Craver, D.D. (Mexico); ca); 1885, Rev. C. P. W. Merritt, M.D., 1881-85, Mr. Samuel Cross (Siam); and Mrs. C. P. W. Merritt (China); 1871-80, Rev. E. Cunningham and Mrs. 1890, Rev. Thomas Moody (Africa); E. Cunningham (India) ; 1878–79, Rev. 1887-92, Miss F. Kate Morgan (Japan); C. W. Cushing, D.D. (Italy); 1869-70, Rev. J. A. Davis, D.D. (China) ; 1883, Mrs. J. D. Davis (Japan); 1868-93, 1879, Miss Maria Morgan (Persia); 1888, 2 ; Ceylon, 2; China, 81; Greece, 1; Rev. Robert Morrison (India); 1891, Hawaii, 1; India, 28; Italy, 1 ; Japan, Miss Effie Murray (Ohina); 1869, Mrs. 15; Laos, 2 ; Malaysia, 1; Mexico, 6; M. J. Noyes (India) ; 1886, Miss Maria Micronesia, 4; Persia, 5; Siam, 4; G. Nutting (Turkey); 1890, Rev. Otis Syria, 2; Turkey, 8. Total fields, 133. C. Olds (Mexico); 1877-83, Rt. Rev. C. C. Penick, D.D.-1882-83, Mrs. By Board8,' American Board, 38; C. C. Penick (Africa); 1888, Miss Sarah Baptist, 16; Methodist-Canada, 6, Peters (China); 1878-80, Miss Mary United States, 24 = 30 ; Presbyterian- Priest (Japan); 1872-93, Mrs. A. E. Canada, 4, United States (North), 26, Randolph (China and Japan); 1889, (South), 5 = 35; Friends, 1 ; Hawaiian Mrs. E. G. Ritchie (China); 1877, Mrs. Evangelical, 1; Church of Scotland, Grace L. Roberts (China); 1884, Rev. 1 ; Protestant Episcopal, 2 j Reformed Noble L. Rockey (India); 1878,..92, (Dutch), 9. Total,133. Rev. T. R. Sampson, D.D. (Greece); 1862, Rev. T. J. Scott, D.D. (India) ; At the RecognitiO'h Meeting of Wed- 1855-76, Rev. E. C. Scudder, D.D., M.D. nesday evening, 80 missionaries respond. -1855, Mrs. E. C. Scudder-1890-94, ed to the roll-call, which was increased Mr. Henry J. Scudder-1890, Miss Ida to 120 the nex:t morning, and later, to Sophia Scudder-1861, Rev. John Scud- the number shown above. A large der, M.D., and Mrs. John Scudder- number of notable missionary workers 1883, Miss Mary K. Seudder (India); was present. The devotional hour from 1881, Mrs. F. M. Simpson (Hawaii); nine to ten o'clock each morning was 1891, Miss Jennie V. Smith (Burma) ; specially emphasized by petition for a – – Rev. J. Frazer Smith, M.D. (Chi~ baptism of the Holy Spirit for service, na); – – Rev. Jacob Speicher (China) ; special prayers for native Christians 1881-89, Rev. :rtf. Luther Stimson and exposed to persecution, and mission- Mrs. M. Luther Stimson (China); 1889, aries known to be in peril. Numer- Miss Cora A. Stone (Japan) ; 1887, Miss ous instances of cruel and unjust treat· Lucy W. Sullivan (India); 1854,..64, ment were detailed in many coun- Rev. R. Telford (Siam) ; 1868-73, Rev. tries, C. C. Thayer, M.D., and Mrs. C. C. Thayer (Turkey); 1869-72, Miss Mary One of the earliest topics discussed A. Thompson (China); 1881, Rev. related to the use the missionary should George N. Thomssen and Mrs. George seek to make of the protection by his N. Thomssen (India); – – Rev. Mil- civil government. ton S. Vail and Mrs. Milton S. Vail (Japan) ; 1876-92, Mrs. Loretta C. Van Rev. Dr. William Ashmore said: .. It Hook(Persia); 1859,Rev.J. W. Waugh, is the right of an American missionary D.D.-1871, Mrs. J. W. Waugh (India) ; to claim the protection of his Govern- 1884, Miss Jennie E. Wayte (India); ment. An opinion. has obtained that 1880-91, Mrs. Wellington J. White when an American becomes a missionary (China); 1871-81, Rev. Joel T. Whit· he ought no longer to claim protection ney (Micronesia); 1848-·57, Rev. J. K. from his Government." Against this Wight (China); 1880, Rev. S. G. Wil- the view of the Apostle Paul was adson (Persia); 1883-88, Rev. W. E. Wit- vanced. He endured persecution at all ter, M.D. (Assam) ; 1838-86, Rev. G. W. times and in all places. At the same time Wood, D.D. (Turkey); 1886, Rev. A. C. he never failed to claim his rights as a Wright and Mrs. A. C. Wright (Mexico) Roman citizen. .. We never ask for government help in any way in the The summary of this list shows the propagation of our fltith; on the conattendance. trary, we utterly refuse and repudiate it. But when we go abroad we are By Fields,' Africa, 9 ; Arabia, 1 ; As· American citizens still. We claim we sam, 4 i Brazil, 2; Bulgaria, 4 ; Burma, are in a lawful and honorable pursuit in preaching the Gospel, and so long as we are, we claim our rights simply as American citizens, the same as do mer· tors. He gave a number of instances of chants, sailors, and other classes. " men who seemed very unpromising, Dr. Henry Jessup, of Syria, said: who had been trained and developed , .. American citizens occupy a vantage into men of ability, able to lead and ground In Turkey from the fact that direct the native church. They must the United States Government has no have the best of training, because they political interest or intrigue there. The have to meet and contend with a SUbtle six European powers, England, France, philosophy. an old literature, and super- Germany, Russia, Austria and Italy, stitions hoary with age_ They needed to are the powers of the political treaties be thoroughly grounded in the Chris- with Turkey, and their subjects are rEl" tian life, taught a theology grounded on garded as haying political designs in the Bible, and made to understand the empire. In 1842 Commodore Por- practical Christianity. The theologi- ter took the grouud in Constantinople cal school which he represented, con· that American missionaries in Turkey nected with the Methodist Episcopal had no rights of protection. The United Church, was founded in 1872 and had States Secretary of State rebuked the sent out 536 native pastors. Even the commodore, and laid down the princi- women had also received training on ple that an A.merlcan citizen everywhere the same lines, and 192 had received in- and always will be protected by the struction and gone out as Bible readers United States Government in alllegiti- and teachers.
mate occupations. United States ships Rev. F. A. Cassidy, of Japan, spoke of war have been sent to Turkish ports of the Missionary in the Native Church, at the request of the United States Min- saying, among other things, there was ister to protect American interest!; but plenty of material in Japan for the min- the missionary did not ask it, nor did istry, but the missionary in Japan as an the missionaries ask arllled intervention educationalist, is indispensable and will in A.byssinia, nor in Uganda. With re- be for some time.
gard to the United States' protection A discussion was opened by Rev.
to naturalized foreigners, our Govern- C. W. Dodd, of Laos, on the subject of ment has no treaty of naturalization Mission Oversight and Individual Free- with the Turkish Government, and all dom in Mission Work. Rev. J. B.
Turkish subjects naturalized in the Dunlap, of Siam; Dr. J. Hepburn, of United States at once become Turkish Japan, and Rev. J. T. Whitney, of Mi- subjects again on entering Turkey." cronesia, took part. Dr. S. P. Craven, Dr. Scott, of India, said that the of Mexico, wanted some information in missionary has the same rights of civil regard to the relation of the missionary protection as anyone else. In India no and the native pastor and church, say- convert is supposed to lose his rights by ing that this matter had given the mis- changing his religion. sionaries some concern in Mexico, and 'fhe Need and Means of Securing an he desired to kuow if such was the case Efficient Native Ministry was presented in other mission&. Dr. Hepburn said by Dr. T. J. Scott, for thirty-five years that in Japan the natives felt able to in India. Dr. Scott has had large ex- take entire charge of their work, and perience, having been the president of thought they could do without the super- the theological Beminary in BareilIy, In- vision of the missionary! Dr. Ashmore dia, for many years. He said it waB then made an address on the subject as fundamental to the success of all mis- related to China, saying they encour- sionary work to have a trained natiye aged the Chinese pastors to push out and ministry. Foreigners cannot evangel- become independent as soon as they ize a country; it must be done by the were able.
natives. They must be trained for pas- Rev. J. W. Waugh, D.D., for thirty- tors. The priests of India are not pas- five years in IndJa, spoke on The Inliuence and Power of Music in Missionary turies the Nestorians sent out great men Work. He referred to the fact that the as missionaries, but afterward became world uses music to influence the mind corrupt, lind they are now low, degrad- and heart. Music is utilized in the ba- ed, and ignorant. They have their zaars to draw a crowd, that the Gospel Scriptures in manuscript, but their may be preached to them. The natives priests are unable to read them. Sixty do not know very much about foreign yeaTS ago work was commenced among music, and prefer to sing their own na- these Bedouin Arabs and Koords, by tive airs instead of translations of our Drs. Perkins lind Grant. They have hymns. All their music is in a minor now six organized churches, and a num- key. All missionaries ara beginning to ber of preaching stations, with twenty recognize the great evangelistic power or thirty village schools. Rev. James of sacred song. The people in the rural Cantina, of Arabia, followed, and his districts of India sing these native Chris· theme created great interest, as very tian songs in the evenings, after their litUe is known of that far-away barren day's work is done. Dr. Waugh and unevangelized land, the home of Mo- his wife, son, and daughter, sang sev- hammed, the false prophet. There are eral of these Hindustani hymns illus- only four mission stations on the four trating his remarks. thousand miles of coast, and no mis- Bishop Penick, of the Protestant sionary in the whole interior. It has Episcopal Church, referred to African been entirely neglected until recent music, and said he never heard in Afri- years. Formerly Arabia had a great ca anything like the music on the plan. caravan trade; but since commerce left tations in the South. A.ll African music, the land, and chose the sea, the entire was an imitation of Bounds in nature. country has suffered and become in II Dr. Jessup, of Syria, said the Arab sense deserted. The country is low.
race had no conception of harmony. hot, rainless, and almost barren of trees He told of organizing a singing school or vegetation. The Arabian mission.
when he first went to the mission field as represented by Mr. Cantine, was or- and of the difficulties encountered, but ganized in America in 1889. Three said there had been great improvement, coast stations have been entered-viz.• and the music in many of their churches Busiah, Bahrein, and Muscat. In the lat- was very good. He sang an Arabic song. ter city a Bible·and·book-store has been One hour of one of the mornings was opened, and villages in the surround- devoted to the discussion of Industrial ing country visited. Some etfort was schools in mission fields. Mr. Henry made to start schools, but the Govern- J. Scudder told of one in connection ment interfered with all educational with the Reformed Church in India work. Rev. S. G. Wilson, of Tabriz.
that had been a great success, the pupils spoke of the great Improvement in being compelled to study part of the day many things during the forty-seven and devote the other part to learning years' reign of the present Shah. There some useful branch of industry. Such was oppression still, but many things schools have been tried in some fields had been changed. The Jews have been and had been failures. What is suc- and are still oppressed; but the Govern- cessful in one mission may not be in an- ment issued an order saying, " Let any other. Africa needs something differ- Jew be a Christian, or any Christian a ent from India. Jew without molestation." In 1880 MOHAMMEDAN LANDS. two native Christians visited England in order to bring before the Govern- Rev. E. W. McDowell was for eight ment the condition of native Christians.
years in Mosul, on the Tigris River. The Government is capricious, and He spoke chiefly of the Nestorians, re- sometimes suddenly shuts up churches viewing their history, In the early cen- and school-houses without any explanation. Mr. Wilson gave several instances Christian thought. Dr. J. W. Waugh of severe persecution by the officials of compared the present condition of India native Christians, and told of one case with what it was thirty-three years ago, which resulted in the death of one of when he entered the country.. It was a their most prominent native preachers. mistaken policy to begin with the high- Dr. Jessup, of Syria, said the Turk- est classes. The poor have the Gospel ish Empire was shrinking in dimen- preached to them. He gave examples sions constantly. . The Mohammedan of caste being broken down by Chris- religion was a religion of works, it has tianity. Every method known in mis- nothing to do with moral character sionary warfare is used.
whatever. A Mohammedan may say Miss T. Kyle spoke of village work his prayers, or make a pilgrimage to in North India, giving a description of Mecca., then do what he pleases without a native village, pastor's home, and the restraint. He graphically described way people live and support them- these pilgrimages to Mecca, the filthy selves; Mrs. Clark spoke of Assam as habits of pilgrims, the great cause of being a road to 'fhibet, and of the great outbursts of cholera during these pil- success among the aborigines, the Kohls, grimages, and stated that in 1893, 50,000 and of the early work of herself and died of that disease. He exhibited a husband. Dr. E. Witter referred to curious certificate, a little over a yard work among the hill tribes; Rev. W. C.
in length, covered with extracts from Dodd told of the Laos people in Upper the Koran, and illustrated. It is a cer- Siam, of the remoteness of the field, the tificate given in l'Iecca to all pilgrims few laborers, the people, deadly climate, as a passport to Paradise. It was given religion, and demon worshippers. The to a friend of the doctor's who had mission was organized over forty years given medical help to a pilgrim. He ago, and does not need money as much stated that there were 100,000,000 of as it does laborers.
Mohammedans under Christian rule, Rev. S. L. Howland, principal of the and the Queen of England rules over Jaffna College, in Ceylon. said that there many more than the Sultan of Turkey. is scarcely a person in Jaffna who had The American colleges were doing a not a knowledge of Christ; the mission great work in educating the young work there is largely self-supporting, men. These are located at Beirut, Ain- the missionary board now giving very tab, Harpoot, Marsovan, and Constan- little toward the work. Dr. John Scud- tinople. There are 26 Protestant female der took for his theme, Are Missions a seminaries, with 2000 young women Failure? There were signs all over the under Christian training, and 75,000 vast country of India where he had children studying the Bible. The print- labored of the power of the Gospel ele- ing-housesin Constantinople and Beirut vating the people. IIinduism was or- are great lights in a dark land. The ganized in its opposition to Christianity, Bible is printed in eleven different lan- and in all his thirty years' experience guages. and the Arabic Bible is sent out he had never known such opposition as over large parts of the Mohammedan in the past few years, and he took it as an world. Dr. Jessup by request gave the encouraging sign. Hindus have their Muezzin, or call to prayer. which is own tract societies, reform movements, heard from the mosque five times a day. such as those to prevent infant mar- SOUTHEASTERN ASIA. riages, societies to encourage widows to remarry giving a bonus to everyone Rev. R. Morrison, of t.he Punjab, who will marry a widow, and they util- spoke on the movement among the ize the press and send out their missiona- lower classes. He said the country ries to teach Hinduism. A native prince moves in masses. Caste is found only issued a proclamation that no girl in his in India, and it must be saturated with territory should be married under sixteen. He was asked if he didn't get Congo. Rev. G. A. Goddhun, of Badiscouraged, but said such a word tanga, spoke of the needs of educawas not in the missionaries' vocabulary. tional work and a trained native mInis- Discouragement came when he could try, while Dr. C. Lafflin emphasized not supply help to those who wanted the power of medical ministration in it, and he had to tell them to go back winning the people. Rev. G. D. Adamto their idols. He was discouraged by son, who has been on the Kussie, one the apathy of the Church at home, and of the tributaries of the Congo, told of not by his work. the habits and customs of the natives. Bishop Penick, now advocating the CHINA, AFRICA., MEXICO, BRAZIL, ETC. work of the Protestant Episcopal Church among the colored people, made Rev. Dr. S. L. Baldwin spoke on the an address, which was replete with Chino·Japanese War. He did not be- bold pictures of coincidences which lieve there was any great necessity for marked the singular providential movethe war. The Chinese are not cowards ments for the advancement of the interin war. "Why have they met with ests of the African race, 'all of which such disasters?" was asked. " Be- mark the fact that God has some great cause the Chinese were unprepared and purpose to work out for and through her offinials corrupt. The Chinese Em- the African peoples. pire is not and will not be destroyed and is not going to be disintegrated. A whole session was devoted to mis- China will take a new course, and will sions in the Roman and Greek-Cr.urch be reedy to be taught by foreigners. Lands, Mexico, Bulgaria, Brazil, etc. There is a strong movement toward Western civilization. That was a sig- SOME SPECIAL TOPICS. nificp.nt fact, the presentation of the Scriptures to the Empress dowager. Rev. Dr. Blodget, of China, read a Christianity and Western life will and paper on How Shall They be Sent? must come to China." He referred to the young men and wom- en of the Student Volunteer Movement, Dr. Ashmore followed, and said: saying many were now ready, and more " The missionary progress in China was were preparing, and it was a question by stages, bordered every time by war. whether existing boards could send After the opium war five ports were them, or whether other measures should opened and missionaries entered; the be devised. The whole subject of the opening of other ports followed, and economical administration of missions now there are seventeen hundred mis- was considered. He proposed that sionaries. The war is a blow to Chinese young men and women should tender official corruption and to Chinese edu- their services to the boards under pledge cation, and to the whole system of Con- of ten years' service as unmarried misfucianism." Dr. Ashmore spoke for sionaries, favoring thus Dr. Cust's sugsome time and was roundly applauded. gestion of the establishment of mission- It was probably one of the most com- ary " brotherhoods." The paper coverprehensive accounts of the war and its ed, besides, the sending out of married possible results ever given to an Ameri- and unmarried missionaries, the style of can audience. living on the field, the economizing in Tarious ways to help the various boards One evening session was devoted to to carryon and extend their work. A the consideration of work in Africa. vigorous and spicy debate followed the Thomas Moody, for some years on the reading of this paper. In this connec- Congo, made the opening address. He tion there were many touching incidents delineated the low state of morality brought out of self-sacrifice on the part among the people and the wonderful success of mission work. There are ot the workers, of how they had suffernow 150 missionaries working On the ed, health had been impaired, ILnd even death had followed, because missiona- with the outside world only as the misries tried to live too economically in sion steamer visits the island once a year. climates where they should have every protection and comfort in order to do Mrs. Hepburn gave some reministheir work successfully. The best cences of her early life and connection economy was to take good care of mis- with missionary work in Japan, and sionaries. The discussion almost snowed her house-keeping experiences. Miss under Dr. Blodget's proposal of pledg- Scudder, of the Arcot Mission, India, ing too years of unmarried service. But located at Vellore, told of work among he was not disconcerted. He did nut the zenanas. Mrs. Large, connected expect it would meet with favor, but with the Methodist Church of Canada, anticipated confidently that ten years made a brief address on her school work. hence it would be commonly adopted. A few years ago Mrs. Large's husband was murdered by the Japanese, and to WOMAN'S WORK. this day the police have no clue of the perpetrators of the deed. They entered The session devoted to Woman's the house, it was supposed, for robbery. Work presented a panorama of the She has 11eroically carried on her work. various mission fields of the world. Fifteen women took part, and spoke Mrs. Richie, of Tungchow, told of briefly and comprehensively of their her connection with the college In that various forms of work. There were station, she also carrying on work that three women on the platform whose ag- she took up after her husband's death. gregate time of service reached one Every student who had gone out from hundred and twenty-five years-Mrs. the school was a Chriiltian. Mrs. Mc- Hepburn, of China and Japan; Mrs. Clure, of Honan, said she was the only Scudder, of Southern India, and Mrs. white woman in the province, and was Blodget, of China. located three hundred miles from a post- office. Scarcely a Chinese woman in Miss Houston, who had worked on the province could read. the Mexican border for fourteen years, told of the influences that led her to be Mrs. McDowell, of Turkey; Mrs. Dr. a missionary. Mrs. Logan, :who had Ashmore, of China; Miss Smith, of Burbeen connected with the work in the l!la; Miss Van Hook, of Tabriz, Per- Caroline Islands, stirred everyone by sia; Mrs. Jessup, of Syria, and Mrs. her story. She had been on the island Clark, of Assam, also took part. of Ponape when the work had been interrupted by Spanish occupancy. The MORAVIAN MISSIONS. work west of Ponape was begun aud carried on for years by converted na- A paper on Moravian Missions was tives, supervised by American missiona- read by Mrs. W. H. Belden, formerly ries. They practically reduced the lan- of Bulgaria. She said ; guage to writing, which was revised by Mr. Logan, who translated the New " The Moravian Church is, above all Testament into the language. The churches, a missionary church. Its polwork spread until it reached the lagoon icy is and always has been to go to the of Ruk, where there is a population of very lowest of the heathen, and to diffi- 12,000 to 15,000 people. In 1834 Mr. cult and dangerous fields where no one and Mrs. Logan were sent there. They else goes. So unworldly and unobtrufound the people fierce, sa"Vage, and sive is this church, so pure and simple treacherous. There was no law and no its doctrines and life, that from a worldregard for rights of property or, indeed, ly view it seems an unimportant deof human life. Mr. Logan lived only nomination. It has stood for one hunthree years, and Mrs. Logan has carried dred and sixty-three years an example on the work since, having no connection and inspiration to all Christendom. The home of the Moravians was mostly in Moravia and Bohemia. They were the followers of John Huss, who suffered martyrdom in' 1415. They formed of the Oroomiah College, supervisor of themselves into an association called all church interests, and devoted much the Unitas Fratrum (United Brethren). time to itinerating among the rugged a name they still retain. They received mountains of Koordistan.
the rite of episcopal ordination from the Dr. Nathan Sites, of the Methodist last remaining of the Waldensian bish- Episcopal Ohurch in Foochow, China, ops, Stephen, who also suffered mar· died in February. He had been a mis- tyrdom. This makes them the oldest sionary there for thirty-four years.
Episcopal Church in existence, the his· Miss Jewell ilpoke of his life and tri- tory of the Waldensiane showing an un· umphant death. Reference was also interrupted line of episcopacy connected made to the death of Rev. Mr. Good, with that of apostolic time.. Their of Africa, and to that of Rev. Lewis Bod- great leader was Zinzendorf, a man of well, who was chaplain of the sanita- royal blood and incomparable piety." rium for twenty-five years. Mr. Bod- Mrs. Belden gave a graphic descrip- well was not a member of the Union, tion of a visit she made some years ago but closely identified with it. Suitable to Herrnhut, the headquarters of their resolutions of condolence were passed.
church and missionary board. This old historic town is about tifty miles from CoMMUNICATIONS. Dresden, and is built upon land donated to the church by Zinzendorf. There The members of this Union who are are no paupers and no millionaires on their fields constitute an Outlook among the MoravianB. Before they ar· Committee to report annually on events rive at that place they leave the church. occurring in the parts of the world The ancestors of the Vanderbilts were where they may be. Many such com- Moravian!. The number of missiona· munications were received. Dr. J. L.
ries at present is 2500, or about 1 out of Phillips reported on the Sunday-school every 50 of it! members at home and on work of India. Miss Rice, of Oroo- the foreign field. One little community miah; Mr. Ford, of Syria; Mr. Kilbon, of. 418 souls has 21 of its sons and of Zululand, and many others sent im- daughters in foreign mission work. portant communications. Rev. F. Cole, of Bitlis, Turkey, wrote of the unset- MEMORIAL SERVICES. tled condition of affairs, and stated that the missionaries were in receipt of their Three members of the Union had died letters which at one time were inter- within the year-Dr. A. P. Happer, of cepted, but newspapers were considered China; nr. J. H. Shedd, of Persia. and dangerous, and were still not allowed.
Dr. Nathan Sites. Dr. Hepburn pre- He referred to the death of Mr. Knapp, sented the paper relating to Dr. Hap· for many years a missionary of the per. American Board, and said that he was Dr. Happer organized the first Pres- so popular and had such an influence byterian Church in China, and during that 2000 people attended his funeral, a visit home raised some $50.000 tow- and three heathen priests asked to take ard establishing a college for young part in the services. While the people men in the city of Canton. but did not do not always accept Christianity, yet ljve to see the work accomplished. Dr. this shows the infiuence and power of Labaree read a paper concerning the the life of a good man among tbem.
recent death of Dr. J. H. Shedd, for A communication was read from Rev.
thirty-five years a missionary in Persia. H. M. Woods, of China, accompani6'J Such was his devotion, his learning, his with a petition which the missionaries .oversight of the work. that he was called of aU denominations have sent to the by the natives "Priest·Bishop-Patri- United States Government regarding the arch." He was a great leader, President rights of missionaries in the interior of China. It is asked that the Missionary RESOLUTIONS. Union adopt a resolution approving the petition, and urging the President and Armenia and the massacre of Arme- Senate to come to the relief of mis· sionaries in the interior. It calls atten- nians came in for a full share of consid· tion to the ill-defined and unsatisfactory status of the rights of missionaries eration. In extent Armenia was stated under the treaties now existing between the United States Government and to be a country as large as New Eng- China. For twenty-five years missionaries have settled in the interior, and land. It includes the upper Euphrates now hundreds of Americans are there, holding property amounting to several and the Tigris. There are 5,000,000 hundreds of thousands of dollars. While they believe they have a clear, construc- people-1,500,000 are Armenian Christive right to residence in the interior, the treaties do not, as they should, tians. They are among Mohammedans, guarantee them this right in explicit terms; and they desire that a clear itate- ruled by them and hated by them. ment of the rights of missionaries to reside in the interior be inserted in the Massacres have been many. In 1822 on treaty, believing it would do much toward putting an end to litigation and the island of Seio 23,000 men, women. riots, and secure full protection for United States citizens. and children were slain, and 17,000 of They request also that the Chinese them sold into slavery. The mas- Government be asked to suppress certain widely circulated books, which if sacres of 1860 in Syria and Damascus not regularly authorized by Government are published by high officials, are remembered; also in 1876 in Bul· and have among the people the weight and authority of Government publica- garia. The worst one was in August, tions, and which contain foul calumnies against foreigners and Christianity. 1894, and the particulars of it are too These books inflame the mind, and to such publications are largely due the horrible to print. Unless European riots which endanger the lives and property of American citizens. Also to re- powers combine to act, the Christians lieve the oppressive condition requiring missionaries to hold property only in Turkey will be put to the sword. in the name of the native church, for this puts the property of the United There must be a reform government, or States citizens completely at the mercy of Chinese officials, which can be con- death awaIts all. Terror reigns among fiscated at any time. This petition has already been signed by 164 representa- Armenians, Syrians, and Nestorians. tives of all denominations of the Christian Church in Amedca from 28 differ- The Union took action upon sevent States. The paper and petition was referred to a committee of three, with eral important matters, notably the fol- Dr. Gracey as chairman, with power to represent the Union during the year in lowing on the Armenian question: this matter. " Whereas, The official reports of the joint European commIssion on Armenia and the correspondence of the secular and religious press, have confirmed the reports of the massacre of thousands of Armenian Christians in the Sassoun province In August and September, 1894; and " Whereas. The six Christian powers of Europe, signatories of the treaty of Berlin which gua.ranteed the protection of the Armenian people from oppres- sion and outrage, are to a great extent responsible for the present state of things in Armenia ; and " WherelM, The British Government, from the fact that it has four times saved the Turkish Government from destruction, occupies a position of promi- nent responsibility and influence for the future of the Ottoman Empire and peo- ple ; therefore, "Re8olved, That we, more than one hundred Christian missionaries of all branches of the Church, and from vari- ous parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, North and South America, and the Islands of the Sea, are moved to extend our sympathies to the sufferers from the dreadful events in Sassoun, and would call upon our brethren and sisters of the Christian Church in Great Britain to unite in prayer to God and in petition Christian Temperance Union is that of to Her Majesty's Government that such Khama, chief of the Bechuanaland. measures may be taken at the present The .Aborigines' Friend is a journal of ~risis as will secure the peace, prosper· the transactions of the Aborigines' Pro- Ity, and protection of the Armenians tection Society, and we note with anxand their Christian subjects of the Sul- iety the report in a recent number of tan of Turkey in the future."
The Union also passed another reso- that magazine, that the Chartered Com- lution uttering its emphatic protest pany favors such interference with the against the introduction of rum into present arrangement for the prohibition Africa and of opium into China from na- of all strong drinks in Khama's coun- tions claiming to be Christian. For try as will enable the English and others some time past there has been a great traveIling there to gratify their tastes agitation in India of the opium ques- in this respect. The highway from tion, and a committee was appointed to that country to l1atabeleland passes report to Parliament concerning the through Bechuanaland. A line of rail- whole question of its use. That com- way thither is now being built, but the mittee reported upholding it, and this road is at present traversed by the help has called forth the condemnation of all of cattle-wagons or horses. Meanwhile Christian people. The Union, in the the travellers, road·makers, and others resolutions adopted, say, "The circum· employed on the route want to be sup- stances of a glossing report being made plied with liquor. It is apparently for to the English Parliament calls only for their convenience that canteens and more vigor in this protest. The pro· " hotels" are proposed. But all experi· prietles of law and equity justify a ence shows that wherever canteens and challenge of witnesses in cases when the like are set up it is impossible to rethe testifiers themselveS" are known to strict the use of them to those for be dependent on the opium traffic to whom they were ostensibly designed. maintain their exchequer, and their This is the statement of the LJ.borigines' salaries are more or less an outcome of Friend. Six years ago Khama wrote opium proceeds, Ilnd when they are the British authorities: possibly amassing riches out of opium " It is not the same thing to offer my sales. The Chinese people themselves country to Her Majesty to be occupied have not been fairly and fully heard on by the English settlers, as it is to allow the subject. The missionaries maintain men so worthless and unscrupulous as the hope that there wi1l be instituted an – – and – – to come outside of all extended, systematic and exhaustive in· governments and flood my country with quiry that will end in setting the undis- their drink, after all the long struggle I made against it, withstanding my guised truth before the world." people at the risk of my life, and just Woman in Missions-papers and ad- as they have themselves come to see dresses presented at the Woman's Con- how great a salvation my drink laws gress of Missions at Chicago: 1893, have proved to be. It were better for compiled by Rev. Dr. Wherry, Secre· me that I should lose my country than taryof the World's Congress of mis· that it should be flooded with drink.
sions, published by the American Tract To fight against drink is to fight against Society, 10 East Twenty.third Street, demons, and not against men. I dread New York-is a valuable contribution the white man's drink more than the to current missionary literature. assegais of the Matabele, which kills men's bodies; but drink puts devils Kkama and l)rr:nk.-There is some- into men and destroys both their souIs thing pathetic in the fact that one of and bodies forever. Its wounds never the most honored names of the Poly- heal. I pray your honor never to ask glot Petition of the World's Woman's me to open even a little door to drink. "
l"mLD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
I1I.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
llY D. L. PIERSON.
PAPAL EUROPE AND THE PAPACY.* who piously recite it, should open the eyes of some blinded men and women Missions to Roman Catholic countries to the real aims of the popish propado not receive from many the sympathy ganda. The reunion of Christendom and support which they deserve. Those means to the Pope and his emissaries who are familiar only with Romanism absorption into the Romlsh Church, as it appears on the surface in Prot- nothing more and nothing less. estant countries like England and America fail to appreciate the great Romanism is an enemy to purity, necd for giving to papal lands the pure since the priest, however carnal, is the Gospel. What unopposed Romanism people's guide and example, and by his will do for a people may be seen by the power to sell indulgences and forgive ignorance, degradation, and political sins puts a premium upon evil doing. and moral impotence which exists in Fra Paolo Sarpi, the greatest of the countries where the priest has been the Venetians of the sixteenth century, dictator to tlle popular conscience, as in early took the stand that he held Spain, Mexico, and South America. through life, that confession is unscrip- Some of these countries are iust now tural and demoralizing to confessor and throwing oft' the papal yoke: but the confessed. Like Count Cambello, the question which confronts the Church is present leader of the Catholic Reform whether they will take instead the yoke movement in Italy, Fra Paolo would of infidelity and difference, or that of never accept a license to hear confes- Christ. sions and risk becoming an accomplice with his penitents in their sin, ae is the That the majority of Roman Catho- case with so many priests at the preslics need to be converted as truly as any ent day. He directed those who came unsaved Boul is never doubted by those to him to confess to God. CeUbacy in who are familiar with Roman!sm as it the priesthood has ever been a promoter is seen in papal lands, where the of laxity of morals. A Catholic priest, "works of the fiesh" (Gal. 5 : 19) en- writing in the London Daily CMonicle, tirely crowd out the "fru!t of the in regard to a rumored relaxation of the Spirit ;" where forms are observed, but discipline of celibacy, says: the Spirit is absent, and the priests set an example of almost unrestrained ".If there were any evidence that a parlicentiousness; where the Bible is a ticle of itnruEthurlaoypeunwdoeur ltdhejruummpofr~r50jo00y0. closed and forbidden book, since igno- priests rance of its teachings is the great safeguard of the Romish Church. The Celibacy of the clergy has always been Pope's encyclical letter on the" Study of the Scriptures" is said to be unheard to some extent a sham, and its profesof by the masses in papal lands. sion a hypocrisy. It has caused almost The Pope's letter to the English people, recently published with the copy of all the defections that have taken place the prayer to the Virgin Mary, and the from among the clergy, and has depromise of 300 days' indulgence to all prived the Church of some of her most * See pp. 20, 27 (January), 179, 213 (March), brilliant and devoted ministers. To say 427, 434 (June). 523 (July), 561, 580, 588 (August). Literature: "The Bible In Spaiu," Barrow; that the Catholic priest renounces the "The Awakening of Italy and the Crises of best of good things for the love of Christ Rome," J. A. Wylie, LL.D.; "The White Fields Is mere fiction. Two out of every three of France," Andrew Bonar. of us, to put the matter mildly, do so in order to get a living. The modU8 oper- andi Is this: A certain number of boys of ten or twelve, mostly of artisan par- entage, are picked up by the clergy and sent to a preparatory school. There, and afterward at a higher school, they receive a fairly liberal education, to- gether with a religious and theological training. They are taught to look upon indulgences, 1095; use of beads in wor- every act or word, or even momentary ship, 1090; the sacrifice of the mass thought which may lead in the direc 1100; the confessional box, 1215; pur: tion of marriage as a mortal sin. So gatory, 1439; worship of Mary, 1563 ; continuously is this doctrine dinned into their ears that probably 90 per cent at seven sacraments, 1547; creed of Pope t~e tl~e of their ordination actually be- Pius IV., 1564; immaculate conception, lIeve It, and the other 10 per cent im- 1854; papal infallibility, 1870.
agine they do. In two or three years Roman Catholics n1u53m,0b0e0r,0a0b0ouatr2e20!~- 000,000, of whom there comes a rude awakening. What can the poor men do? Their education unfits them for any other walk in life. Europe, 9,000,000 in Asia and Malaysia, A priest may do many things and be 1,150,000 in Africa, 56,000,000 In North forgiven; but let him honestly marry, and South America, and 850,000 in Aus- and the Church does her best! to exe- crate him. She will not, under any cir- tralasia and Polynesia.
cumstances, give him leave to withdraw A glance at the conditions of the peo- into lay communion and marry. Stay ple and progress of the work in some of he must, and be asapvrieedstifhheeshcaalnl '~oitf he the European countries may show the ceases to live as be saved if the Church can help it. So a need for laborers and the encourage- good many go in despair-more than ments there presented.
Catholics dream of-and a good many Italy.-This country, whose commis· stay in despair, and make the best of a very bad job." sian entrusted with the selection of pri- Romanism is a foe to the intellectual mary school text-books not many years progress of the masses, for she has found ago decided to exclude every book in by experience that their intellectual which appeared the name of God, is training tends to emancipate them from now raising up statesmen who are acservile obedience to the dictates of the knowledging His power. The Minister priests. Eight papal countries, with a of Finance, in view of the depression in population 91 per cent Catholic, show business, exclaims, "May God protect an illiteracy of 60 per cent. Liberty of Italy!" and the Prime Minister says conscienee is denied, or when per- that they only are good citizens upon mitted, it is only as the" lesser of two whose banner is inscribed "Dio, Re, evils," of which the greater is the op- patria" (" God, the king, the fatherpression and suppression of Romanism land"), a sentiment echoed by King by a Protestant majority, and when Humbert himself. A distinguished able to do so, Rome would abolish the member of the Chamber of Deputies lesser evil by establishing herself in speaks of the Papal Church as " a rotthose "rights she possesses by Divine ten bough upon the tree of Christian- ity." Another says: "The Church of and historic right. ,,* The Papal Church was not always so Rome seems to be the antithesis of the encumbered with forms and so filled Gospel of Christ." Even though these with error, although she claims to have men know not God, this is at least a been always the same. The Christian step in advance of the atheism which Irishman enumerates its successive steps they have for many years openly proin error and assumption in the follow- fessed. ing order and at the following times: Invocation of the saints, 375 A.D. ; the The Church of Rome, in spite of a service in Latin, 600; papal supremacy, seeming change of attitude, stilI keeps 606 ; images and relics, 787; baptism the Bible as far as possible from the of bells, 965; canonization of saints people. The Bible societies, however, 993; the celibacy of the priesthood: are doing a grand work in putting the Word within the reach of young and 1000 ; transubstantiation, 1000 ; sale of old. The mission of Pastor Cav. Capellini • See Father Baumgartuer in the" Kirchenlexicon," edited by Professor Franz Kaulen, Bonn, to soldiers in Rome has now been in Germany. existence for twenty·two years. The Military Church began its life amid con- walls, but you cannot take from us the flicts with priests and Jesuitism; and precious truths we have learned within although the Church of Rome has never them I" During the winter both serceased its persecution, and just now is vices and schools have been carried on making every cffort to draw away con- in one of the peasant's cottages, in a verts by opposition services and to other- small low room altogether insufficient, wise hinder the work, yet every year and for the children unwholesome, with greater progress has been made. the variation of an occasional meeting in In Rome there are SO cardinals, 35 the open air under the chestnut-trees.* bishops, 1369 priests, 2832 monks, and 2215 nuns, and yet in the same city live The Waldensian Church, of historic 190,000 people (adults) who can neither note, numbering over 20,000, and formread nor write. ing the bulk of Italian Protestants, reports as one result of its mission An example of the opposition of the work, 44 churches, 63 stations, 43 or- Church of Rome to the Protestant move- dained pastors, 6 evangelists, 76 other ment is the case of the little Alpine vil- helpers, 5018 communicants, and 55,194 lage of Montorfano, near the Lake Mag- adherents. This church has recently giore, whose inhabitants some five years passed through a remarkable spiritual ago left the Church of Rome and formed revival, and almost daily meetings have themselves into an evangelical commu- been held with undoubted manifestanity. In their secession, they brought tions of the power of the Holy Spirit. with them the ancient church of the hamlet, removing from it images, con- The Evangelical Church in Italy refessionals, and other symbols of the ports 26 churches, 35 stations, 132 placeil worship they had abandoned, and adapt- visited regularly, 21 ordained and 10 uning it to the aimpler and purer services ordained preachers, over 50 other reguof their new faith. This was done in lar helpers, 1697 communicants, and the full conviction of their right thus to 6315 adherents. Work has been cardispose of the building, and with the ried on amid much opposition from the sanction of the local civil authorities. Church of Rome and in the face of seri- In fact, for nearly four years their use ous difficulties arising from hard times, of the church for evangelical worship emigration, and the prevalent indifferremained undisturbed. But rather more ence, superstition, and infidelity. than twelve months ago the bishop of the diocese interposed. and brought the Statistics of Protestant churches in case before the civil courts. The supe- France report Protestant houses of worrior tribunal restored the edifice to the ship in 781 localities, 887 Reformed Church of Rome, thus depriving the pastors in charge of congregations, and little community both of house of pray- 12 Reformed chaplains in the army. The er and of school·rooms. This issue, Lutheran clergy number only 90, the though grievous and disappointing. has Free Evangelical Church has 47, and not shaken in the least the steadfastness the other Protestant denominations have of the ¥ontorfano Evangelicals. Not a 72. There are also 5 Bible societies, 19 member has left the church, not a child Protestant societies for home missions, has been withdrawn from the school. 6 for foreign missions, 44 orphans' The effect has rather been that of puri· homes, 47 refugee houses, 60 hospitals fying and strengthening their faith in and 118 Protestant periodicals. Christ, by eliminating from it all nonessentials. The sentiments of all were The McAll Mission continues to do a well expressed by one of their leaders, noble work in its 129 halls in 73 cities who, when the priest was carrying off and townships. The work takes the the keys of the church, exclaimed, form of evangelistic meetings in mis- " Yes, you may take from us the four sion rooms, on the street and public and * Contributions toward the erection of a sim- ple building for their needs may be sent to Hen- ry J. Piggott, 28 Via delle Coppelle, Rome, Italy. private hOUlles, from road wagons, and overcome. One ex-priest is now sup- on the Mission Boat; singing and stere- porting himself as a day laborer until opticon lectures are useful auxilia- he can secure better employment.
ries, and dispensaries and industrial Since its establishment the Bible 80- schools do an important work ; special ciety has circulated over 12,000,000 of meetings for the blind, the chimney French Scriptures in whole or part, and sweepers, the cabmen, soldiers and fish- there are constantly accumulating evi- ermen, for mothers, children, young dences that the liberal sowing of the men and young women, also form good seed has been by no means in vain.
branches of the work, and the training The minds of the common people of classes for converts are no less impor- France are open to the Gospel in a won- tant and interesting. derful way. They will listen to any The Salvation Army is engaged in a presentation of it, no matter how un- very active and successful work. At usual; in fact, every form of presenta- Rouen one evening over 100 people tion of the Gospel is unusual to nine- testified to blessings received, causing teen twentieths of these people. The restitution of goods, preventing murder opportunity for evangelistic work is and suicide, and bringing infidels of abundant; with God's blessing only twenty years' standing to Christ. men and money are needed to bring Hitherto no missionary movement has about wonderful results.
affected the universities of the Conti- In Spain there are working 14 Prot- nent, and the societies have been com- estant societies, 20 male and 29 female pelled almost entirely to educate their missionaries, 41 Spanish pastors, and 37 own missionaries. For three years a evangelists. There are 3600 communi- quiet Christian work has been going on cants. The Reformed Church of Spain among the 15,000 students of Paris. A arose in 1881, and consisted of 15 con- society of about 200 has been formed gregations and 3000 members. There for Protestant students which Pastor are said to be in Spain and Portugal to- Monnier superintends and conducts. gether over 50 Protestant congregations Not a few of the men have been quick- and 10,000 adherents. Roman Catho- ened. The Volunteer Movement in lics are more intolerant here than any- Britain and America have been brought where else in Europe, and hinder the to their attention, and at the first meet- work by threats, false accusations, ing at which the "declaration card" bribes, and every form of persecution.
was used, nine men put down their The people are often friendly, but fear names. Most of these had been pre- the priests. Spain needs the Gospel paring for the foreign field, but the even more than a revival of commerce.
nucleus has been formed; the volun- An extremely interesting but quiet teers have begun to work, and there are work has been going on among the Ro- strong hopes that there will be some manists in Ireland, carried on by stu- considerable increase in Paris, and an dents from Harley House, London. The extension into other colleges in France work has been against many obstacles and Switzerland. and amid many dangers, but there have An interesting work among the 50,000 been glorious results.
French priests has been going on under The report of last year's operations Professor Bertrand, of Paris. Many of the Irish Evangelization Society tells priests are ignorant and many have lost a tale of devoted effort. accompanied confidence in the ceremonies which they by much encouragement. During the mechanically perform. Numbers of past year 2375 meetings were held at these have become Protestants and 146 places. Two movable buildings and workers among their brethren. Their many tents are used ; churches, school- training unfits them for other life, and houses, and barns are employed where their prejudices are hard for them to possible.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. Among other questions brought be· fore the General Assembly at Pittsburg Startling reports were current about in :May was that of " polygamous con- June 9th of the massacre of English, verts." The channel through which French, and American missionaries at the matter again found entrance to the Chengfu, and stating that the whole body was a memorial from the Synod of province of Canton was in a state of India, asking the Assembly to leave the anarchy. Subsequent tidings, however, adjustment of questions growing out of show that all missionaries are safe, and this abnormal relation to the Synod, and that it is the mission property that is de- adding that in the almost unanimous stroyed. It is attributed to a riotous judgment of the missionaries on the resistance to Roman Catholic move· ground, ,. converts who have more than ments, which makes no discrimination one wife, together with their entire between them and Protestants. One of families, should be baptized" in certain the Chinese missionaries says that, for circumstances. Dr. Robert Morrison, instance, these Romanists sometimes of Saharanpur, India, argued that the excite the people to violence by using recognition of polygamous marriages yeUow tiles for their buildings, which by the Church in India was absolutely even a Mandarin would not presume to necessary. ITe explained that the first do, etc. wife in India was usually a child-wife and a childless wife, and that if the rule The disclosures of the" sweat shop" were applied, a convert would have to investigation have been absolutely ap- put away the second wife, who was the palling. The law forbidding the em- wife of his heart and the mother of his ployment of children under fourteen children. Under such a rule the chilyears of age is trampled under foot; dren would be cut off from the control notaries and corrupt justices conspire and support of the father, and the to make even the system of certification mother driven to a life of shame. He meant to prevent this null and void; pleaded that the way to protest against women are compelled to work nineteen polygamy was to keep the mother and hours a day to earn thirty cents ; and children under the influence of the the choice of many is between slow Church. starvation and the sale of personal chastity. It is time another Shaftesbury The following letter will be read with arose to become the champion of Ameri- peculiar interest. It is from :Mr. Doncan as well as English operatives. ald Fraser, of Scotland, one of the ex- ecutives of the Student Volunteer Mip· The Mandalay Baptist Mission OltapeZ is to be the memorial of Adoniram Jud· sionary Union : son's centenary-the hundredth anni· versary of the birth of this most illus- LONDON E. C., March 22, 1895. trious missionary, one of six greatest DEAlt DR.' PIERSON: The British men on the field since Paul. The estimated cost was $10,000, of which one Student Volunteer Missionary Union fifth was to be raised in Burma. One Christian native widow gave 3000 ru- have resolved to hold a great inter· pees, and another proposed to give the bell. No man was ever more a martyr national conference at Liverpool from in spirit or left a deeper impress on the native mind and heart. January 1st-5th, 1896. The purpose of the conference is to rally the volun- teers. to rouse the colleges, and to awaken the churches. . Never since we began has the ·mlS- siont1l"Y movement been spreading with greater rapidity than now; and !hat, not through stirring, exciting meetmgs, but through the visibly quickened reo ligious feeling of the students. We Assembly at Pittsburgh, in undertaking seem to stand to·dayon the threshold of a great movement toward Christ-a to raise a" reunion" fund of $1,000,000, deeper and wider movement than has may not only relieve the present distress, yet been seen in the British colleges. but secure a positive advance. Thir- Therefore we feel assured that never teen young men and 10 young women has the student world been more ripe for such a great movement as must reo wait, to be sent to the field. Posts will suit from this conference. We have remain vacant and advantages already now more than 850 volunteer!! in our secured be abandoned unless this action colleges. A most healthy percentage of April 4th is reversed. of these are sailing for the foreign field.
Now the Volnnteer Union is spreading into the continental universities, and we The South American Evangelical are being brought into close touch with Mission has been organized for the negthe students there. lected continent; evangelical and inter- At Liverpool all denominations are combining to make the conference a denominational in character, and essen- migb.ty success. We want to sound tially on the basis of the China Inland there a loud clear call to the Church to Mission-a work: of faith and prayer, to step out on a Bwift, forward march. I write, therefore, on behalf of the execu- be supported by free·will offerings. tive of the Student Volunteer Move- Its headquarters are in Toronto, and ment Union to extend to you II mOBt Rev. T. B. Hyde ill chairman of the hearty invitation to come across and help council, and Rev. J. McP. Scott, secreus in our enterprise by taking a promlnent part in our conference. tary and treasurer. If the eight.page folder sent out as its initial document is If there is anything we can do to make our invitation more tempting- any sign of the future work of this new any further British, arrangements- organization, it Is safe to predict for it please mention them. We long to have you come into closer relationship with an energetic service to missions. This our British volunteers. Your books little circular is packed full of informa- and the REVIEW have been large con- tion, and hal two excellent maps withal. tributors to the present advance. It would be well for our readers to send I am sure this request will have your prayerful consideration. Our daily pray- for copies and help on such a noble ers will follow it across the seas, and we pioneer work for the millions of un- shall earnestly wait to hear what God evangelized souls south of the equator. directs.
Yours very sincerely, The Central Soudan Mission has been organized, with Hermann G. Harris, at DONALD FRAilER.
This letter is given to the public, not- Tripoli, as its director, and the support withstanding its somewhat personal of a council of six and six referees have character and the invitation extended organized a ?tome department under to the editor to take part in the confer- supervision of Dr. and Mrs. Fallon, ence, becanse it concerns all who love late of Nyassaland. The purpose of the cause of God; and the editor solicits this forward movement Is fourfoldmuch prayer on behalf of this great viz. : movement, now becoming more and more conepicuous, and for himself, that 1. Circulation of information as to he may be divinely guided as to the per- the mission. sonal invitation herein conveyed. 2. Formation of local helpers' unions, for prayer 8S to the field, the laborers, and the funds.
With no little sorrow we read of the 3. To secure and assure fit candidates action taken by the Presbyterian Board, for the work.
April 4th, cutting down appropriations 4. To take charge of secretarial and for 1895-96, from $1,015,000 to $900,. financial work in connection with the 000, involving, of course, disastrous cur- mission.
tailment and retrenchment. We de· Many eyes are now directed toward voutly hope the recent action of the the speedy occupation of this neglected territory; and it is particularly notice· which placed Dr. Miller in his high able that the importance of consecration position should reconsider his appoint- on the part of candidates and believing ment. prayer on the part of supporters is more than ever emphasized. According to the Standard, he de- clares Hinduism to be the divinely or- The International Geographical Con· dained channel for emphasizing the gress, soon to meet in London, will have "omnipenetrativeness of God" and to construct a new map of Africa. The "the solidarity of man," language Dark Continent, large as it is, has ade- which Spinoza might have used as quate maps for only one tenth of its vast well as Dr. MiIIer. As to the attitude territory. Changes take place so rapid- of the lecturer toward Christ and the ly that maps of yesterday are obsolete Christian faith, there i~ not one word as to-day. The new frontiers of Britain to His divinity, atoning work, or effialone measure nearly ten thousand miles cacy as a Saviour of sinners; and the in length. The recent annexations Christian system is held up as one full make the speedy settling of vexed fron- of error and evil, "Every section of tier questions on a scientific and fixed Christendom believing in the corrupbasis absolutely necessary. Italy has tion of all sections except itself." already changed the map of East Africa by her advance to Kassala, and French Of course the inference is that Hininfluence has been extending itself tow- dus have a sphere within Hinduism for ard the head-waters of the Nile, and the development of these grand concepboth in the Soudan and on the Gold tions of "omnipenetratlveness" and Coast seems now in the ascendant. The •• solidarity," and if so missions become Germans have begun surveys for their an intrusive and impertinent meddling railway from German East Africa to proselytism. Lake Tanganyi~a and the Victoria Nyanza. International disputes are in- It remains to be seen what Dr. Miller evitable without an accurate and accept- has to say to the Standard's criticism. ed map which shall define the limits of territory. " Good line fence8 make peace- Missionaries' Sons. ful neighbor&." Rev. Sereno E. Bishop, himself the In the Indian Standard of April, 1895, son of a missionary, and knowing whereis a severe arraignment of Principal of he writes, hilS, in The Independent, Miller's lecture on " The Place of Hin- made a noble defence of the sons of duism in the Story of the World." This missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands, lecture was given before a large audi- in answer to certain calumnious assaults ence of graduates and students of the recently made. He says: Madras Christian College, and is printed in the college magazine. .. There are in those islands 55 sons of missionary fathers; 27 of them live The editorial comments on this lec- in Honolulu, 44 are members of the ture are evidently reluctaut, but se- Congregational Church in good standverely condemnatory. The indictment ing, and 81 prominently active. Not against Dr. ?tliller is threefold: first, one of the 55 has been arrested for crime on the ground of a pantheistic tendency; or been a slave to any form of vice. second, a Unitarian liberalism; third, Nineteen have been graduated from the inferential bearing on the Hindus American colleges, and several from and their duty. law and medical schools, and all have received at least high-school education. We have not seen the lecture; but if Twenty-one are under fifty years of the criticisms of the editor are well age, 20 between flftyand sixty, and 14 founded, it is time that the Church over sixty years of age. Of these, 6 are missionaries or ministers, 8 are on sugar plantations, 8 aTe cattle ~ ranchers or farmers, 3 are merchants, 3 are physi- cianll, 3 are practising lawyers, etc. Fifteen are in the Government service, from preSident, chief justice, down to department clerks. A few are wealthy but generous; 30 enjoy a comfortable Nowhere isedncation more sought than income, depending upon their own in China. The Government is to some exertions. Only 6 are in straitened cir- extent founded on it. There is a Chicumstances, but of highly reputable nese imperial college at Peking, the character. Can 55 men be found among Tung-Zoen, presided over by our distheir detractors whose record can favor- tinguished fellow-citizen, Dr. W. A. P. ably compare with theirs? To their Martin; also a university conducted by fathers and these sons are the Hawaiian the Methodist Mission. There are also Islands indebted for their educated and many foreign orphan asylums in vari- Christian condition In liberality_ and ous cities, which take care of thousands Christian activity the Central Union of waifs. Church of Honolulu, with its 500 members, sets an example worthy of being " The missionaries translate into Chifollowed by churches in this country. nese many scientific and philosophical The amount they do for their own and works. A former missionary, Dr. Adother islands of the Pacific is truly won- kins, translated a whole series of school derful. Many of these sons left the readers. Reflect that all their benefacislands for work in the United States, tions come to the Chinese without much, of which the late General Armstrong, if any, cost to them. Where charges of Hampton, Va., was a worthy sam- are made they are exceedingly small, ple. To the missionaries and their sons made only when they are necessary to is the honor of making, in spite of the prevent a rush, which in this vast popuopposition of the native rulers, a Chris- lation would overwhelm any institution. tian country out of the former degraded There are various anti·opium hospitals, and wretched condition." where the victims of this vice are cured. There are industrial schools and work- Minister Denby, who represents the shops.
United States in China, has given " This is a very brief and incomplete summary of what missionaries are doing many testimonies to the character and for the Chinese. Protestant and Catho- lics from nearly every country under work of the Christian missionaries in the the sun are engaged in this work, and, in my opinion, they do nothing but good. Middle Kingdom. His latest despatch There are supposed to be 40,000 Prot- estant converts now in China, and at to the Department of State, at Wash- least 500,000 Catholic converts. There are many native Christian churches. ington, May 16th, may well be put The converts seem to be as devout as people of any other race. alongside of the open assaults or covert " As far as my knowledge extends, I attacks of enemies of the Lord's work, can and do say that the missionaries in China are self-sacrificing; that their or hypercritics who would see only flaws lives are pure; that they are devoted to their work; that their influence is beneand spots even in the sun. ficial to the natives; that the arts and sciences and civilization are greatly Mr_ Denby says in substance: spread by their efforts ; that many use- ful Western books are translated by " No one can controvert the fact that them into Chinese; that they are the the Chinese are enormously benefited leaders in all charitable work, giving by the labors of the missionaries. For- largely themselves and personally diseign hospitals are a gre!lt boon to the bursing the funds with which they are sick. China. before the advent of the intrusted; that they do make converts, foreigner, did not know what surgery and such converts are mentally benewas; now there are more than twenty fited by conversion." charity hospitals. presided over by men of as great ability as can be found else- Detractors and depreciators of miswhere in thc world; Dr. Kerr's, at Canton, is one of the great institutions of sions might do well to scan the follow_ the kind In the world. The Viceroy Li Hung Chang has for years maintained ing summary of the work of William at Tien-Tsln, at his own expense. a foreign hospital. In education, the move- Carey: ment is immense. There are schools and colleges all over China taught by The first complete or partial translathe missionaries. I havc been present tions of the Bible printed in 40 lanoften at the exhibitions given by those guages and dialects of India, China, schools. They showed progress in a Central Asia and neighboring lands at great degree. The educated Chinaman a cost of $80,143; the first work and who speaks English becomes a new man. A long time before the present war the Emperor was studying English, and, it is said, was fast acquiring the language. vernacular newspaper In Bengalee-the tened for slaughter. So little did they language of 70,000,000 of human be· understand the charity and compassion ings; the first printing press on an or· which the Gospel of Christ teaches. gani1.ed scale, paper-mill and steam en· This reminds us of one of the experigine seen in India; the first Christian ences of John Williams in the South primary school In North India; the first Seas, when the Christian party, being efforts to educate native girls and wom· victors, set a feast and fed all the capen; the first college to train native min- tives taken in war, which so melted isters and Christianize educated Hindus; their foes that for sheer emotion they the first Hindu Protestant convert, could not eat, and actually knelt at the Krishna Chundra Pal, baptized In 1800 ; tables and SUbmitted to the God of their the first medical mission, of which that captors I convert was to some extent the fruit; the establishment and maintenance of at Rev. Dr. Henry Martyn Scudder, so least 80 separate larga mission stations, well known for his work in India, and besides Judson's great work in Burma, afterward in Brooklyn and in Chicago, which resulted in the foundation of the died,June4th, at Winchester, Mass.,and American Baptist Miseionary Society; leaves behind him a record of great serthe first private garden and society for vice in manifold forms. He was one of the improvement of native and Euro- the brightest, keenest men ever on the pean agriculture and horticulture in missionary field. Even the acute, ag- India; the first savings bank in India; tute Brahmans found their match in the the first translations into English of the ready wit and fertile resource of this great Sanskrit epics, the Ramayan and missionary. Indeed, he had himself Mahribarat, and the first translation of much of the best traits and characterthe Bible into Sanskrit, both being means istic subtlety of the Hindu mind. To of bringing the learned classes of India the last he continued the warm friend and the Gospel into sympathetic accord. and powerful advocate of missions. He The indirect results of the work of belonged to a family, of remarkable char- Carey or his beloved associates can best acters and careers, whose names will not be expressed as the PrOlparatio EDan- soon be forgotten. We hope a biogragelica, which 50 years only after Carey's phy of Dr. Scudder will bc given to the death has increased the Protestant native world. If the material! exist for an Church of India to a community of half autobiography-that is, as Dr. Holmes a million of souls, who have more or- used to say, what a biography ought dained pastors of their own than foreign to be. missionaries, and who increase at the rate of 86 per cent every decade. Mrs. Wllliam Thaw, of Pittsburgh, forwards a copy of the " Constitution As an exchange remarks, May 8th of the Westminster Society," which it ought to be a red-letter day in Japan. is proposed to make the basis of an The sun rose on Perry's fleet anchored organization in various churches. in Mississippi Bay on that morning in 1858. In 1857 our envoy, Townsend "The object of this society shall be Harris (aided by his Dutch secretary, to train the young members of the secured by the Rev. Dr. De Witt), con- Church in the history, doctrines, and cluded treaty negotiations in Yedo on customs of the Presbyterian Church. to that day. Thirty-eight years after- the end that the kingdom of the Reward, on the same date, Premier Ito, deemer may be advanced through the at Cheefoo, in China, ratified the treaty upbuilding of believers and the develof peace which adds Formosa to the opment of a true missionary spirit." island chain of Japan, which now stretches from Arctic to tropic regions. It embraces a missionary and relig- ious committee, whose work is the When a company of wounded Chi- study of missionary methods; the diffunese soldiers were taken to the Red sion, by obtaining subscriptions or Cross Hospital at Tokyo, were taken care of there, laid on soft beds and provided with good food, they were astonished, and feared they were being fatotherwise, of missionary literature. and the never-to·be-omltted cup of hot They shall secure from the various tea, which with biscuit. sugar, and but· boards such pamphlets as describe the ter. we had brought with us. After our work of the Church, both at home and abroad, and shall cultivate such a hammocks were hung and things made spirit as will lead them, if need be, to go snug for the night, came a meeting in into the work itself. They shall, with the co·operation and counsel of the pas- the church, which was packed, then tor, have charge of the weekly prayermeeting of the society, choosing the the natives had supper, sang hymns, leaders and subjects. This committee and chatted till eleven o'clock, then shall, with the pastor, arrange for meetings to be held for special instruc- evening prayers in the different camps, tion, by the pastor or some member of the session, in the doctrines and gov· and by daylight we were up, had a cup ernment of the Presbyterian Church. of tea, took a photograph of the group, and were off again. and so on each day till we got home. Chrissie walked 175 miles and I, 195, as I wanted to visit some inland villages, and she remained with the teacher's wife. My daughter is the first white woman who ever walked round Erromanga, and perhaps the only one who will ever attempt it, Rev. H. A. Robertson, of Erromanga, where John Williams was cruelly for it is a great undertaking for any clubbed to death, writes of his recent woman. Next year, if spared. I intrip around Erromanga, where he has been as a missionary of the Canadian tend to take two months over it, and Presbyterians for twenty years: thus be arblheatvoeenxoawmi3n7e carefully every school. teachers on full pay. The Canadian Church provides for 30 of them. The teachers them- October 10, 1894. selves provide for 2, both last year and this year, and the remaining /) I have Chrissie and r accompanied by a settled onfaith. An Erromangan never band of young men as carriers and a betrays teeling, and in twenty·two number of chiefs, elders, teachers, etc., have just completed a thorough visita- years, except in their prayers, they have never expressed any word about our tion of every district round this large work for them, but their changed life island. We walked every inch of the rwsaeyttleexdcseipxt when carried over rivers. and the glorious vlctorv over heathen· teachers, examined several l~m, rendering life and property safe all over Erromanga, these are our reo schools, gave short addresses, taught ward, and above all God's precious new hymns, gave out books, had talks presence and blessing. Mrs. Robertson with leading men, roughly surveyed has much improved in health since June; the country, and completed the cen~us. until then she spent most of her time There are only 1745 natives on the Isl- in bed, but now is up all day, able to and, 897 males and 848 females. This time I took no notice of the natives who attend to many household duties.
have gone in labor v_els, for they are as good as dead. I know exactly by name 1800 souls, and have visited them The Man of the Book.
in their own villages. Our following, When, in 1853, a rebellion broke out during the three weeks of our journey, in the region around Amoy, and all Eu- ropeans were in danger of their lives, was never fewer than fifty, and some· and when no other European would venture out among the rebels, William times it ran up to three hundred, and C. Burns was free to go where he liked. .. That's the man of the Book," they one day there were three hund1'ed and would say; "he must not be touched. " The Lord was with him, because he so .fifty. What a grand sight it was to lIlagnified His word, and the freedom look back as we journeyed over the he enjoyed was itself a convincing testi· winding path I Women in their bri~ht mony to his character as a disciple. Birmingham prints, men in their shIrts What says the first Psalm of him whose delight and meditation centre upon the and trousers, and some· with their Lava· law of the Lord? .. Whatsoever he doeth lava of calico round their loins, and the 8halt prosper /"
boys and girls with bright flowers in their black hair, and all carrying some- thing. When we came to the teacher's house and church, where we were to sleep, his people met to shake hands with the missionary and his daughter, and then with all the people I Then came the opening out of our clothing, etc., and later a supper of native pud- ding, baked fowls, drinking cocoanuts, Those who bury the Lord's money in them I And an old negro, who was an stocks and real estate and various officer in a church of colored people in worldly luxuries would do well to read Princeton, N. J., once prefaced the colwhat John Wesley said at the close of lection with a few words to the people, life, after having served God and the in which he remarked that he had no- Church between sixty and seventy ticed a good deal of " bowin' to de plate, years: "I am pained for you who are but dat bowln' to de plate would not fill rich in this world. Do you give all you de plate ," can? (Nay; may I not do what I will with my own?' you reply. Here lies Didn't Believ8 Ie.-Bishop Whipple, of your mistake. It is not your own. It Minnesota, says that the Dakota Indcannot be, unless you are lord of heaven ians once held a war dance near a misand earth. Who gave you this addi· sion house. He went to Wabasha, the tion to your fortune? Do not you chief, and said: "Wabasha, you asked know that God intrusted you with that me for a missionary and teacher. I money for His work?· • But I must gave them to you. 1 visit you, and the provide for my children.' Certainly. first sight is this brutal scalp dance. I But how? By making them rich? knew the Chippeway whom your young Then you will probably ruin them. men have murdered. His wife is crying • What shall I do, then ?' Lord, speak for her husband; his children are asking to their hearts, else I speak in vain. for their father. Wabasha, the Great Leave them enough to live on, not in Spirit hears His children cry. He is idleness, but honest industry. And if angry. Borne day he will ask Wabasha, you have no children, upon what prin' , Where is your red brother? '" The ciple can you leave a groat behind more old chief smiled, drew his pipe from his than enough to bury you? What does mouth, and said: "White man go to it signify whether you leave £10,000 or war with his own brother in the same ten thousand boots and shoes? Haste I country; kill more men than Wabasha haste I Send all you have before you can count in all his life. Great Spirit go to the better world." smiles; says, 'Good white man I He has My Book. I love him very much. The Rev. F. B. Meyer, of London, I have a good place for him by and by.' tells of one whose income is $10,000 per The Indian is a wild man. He has no annum, who lives on $1000 and gives Great Spirit Book. He kills one man, the remaining $9000 to the cause of for- has a scalp dance. Great Spirit is mad, eign missions; another, whose income and says, 'Bad Indian I I put him in a is $10,000, who lives on $1200 and gives bad place by and by.' Wabasha don't away the remainder. A governess who believe it I"-New York Tribune. earns $500 gives $250. Another, who has a comfortable competence, remains Noone can read Mrs. William Booth's in business, all the profits of which he life, published by Revell, without wishgives. This is truly laying up treasure ing it were not spread through two in heaven, and although their earthly great volumes. octavo, with 700 pages wealth may not amount too much, they each. Nor can one read the thrilling shall be rich as princes when they have story of the" Mother of the Salvation gone to the " great beyond." Army" without being reminded of the well-known and heroic woman who was Any interest in missions that is no called to account for her evangelistic deep enough to incite to and inspire giv- activity in the Baptist field in Burma. ing is spurious. We have heard of an .. Were you ever ordained to preach ?.. old lady who would not give any money, asked the committee. .. No; but I but who always went to missionary was foreordained to preach the Gospel meetings to "give her eountenance" to to the unsaved," was the answer.
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONAlID.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign -" Notwithstanding' wars and ru· Periodicals. mors of wars,' all the religious work of the Malagasy Christians is, as yet, car- BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, ried on without any interruption. Very hearty and earnest services were held at MASS. the end and beginning of the year, and stirring addresses given both by mis- LONDON MIsSIONARY SOCIETY. sionaries and native pastors. It is very touching to hear the prayers offered by -Lord Plunkett, Archbishop of Dub· the Malagasy, not only for themselves lin, at a centenary meeting of the Dub- and for God's protection against their lin auxiliary of the London lIisslonary enemies, but also for the French ; even Society. remarked: "I dare say that the escort which left soon after the spe- we shall all agree in this, that if any- cial commissioners' departure were spe· where there is to be found a meeting. cially remembered in a way that I fear place where members of different de· many English Christians would hardly nominations may find a standing ground have done. Defective as Malagasy together it is on the platform of the Christianity is in many ways, the peo- mission field. I remember having had ple here have certainly learned some of a conversation with a Presbyterian the essential lessons of the Gospel; and clergyman in the north of Ireland. He the absence of revengeful feeling, not· wall a Protestant of a pronounced type withstanding the many provocations -an out·and-out Protestant, and no they have received, is certainly very mistake-and yet that clergyman told marked. Yet for all that it seems cer- me that, when amid the darkness of tain that the best people will rally round heathendom in some far· off land, he their queen and fight to the last if the met with a Roman Catholic missionary interior is invaded. " serving in all sincerity and singleness of mind, and with much self·sacrifice, -The Rev. W. E. Cousins says in to promote the kingdom of Christ The (Jhronicle, speaking of Madagas- along the lines dictated to him by the car: "Of the 1300 native congrega- Church of Rome; that he, this clergy- tions under our care not less than 8U3 man of whom I speak, this Protestant are in the central province of Imerina. clergyman, this out·and·out Protes· Here our work was begun three quar- tant clergyman, yet felt himself drawn ters of a century ago (1820); and here, to his Roman Catholic brother by ties as the result of long-continued and well· of common sympathy such as he had sustained labors, the majority of our never felt toward him had he come churches are to be found. in contact with him under other cir- cumstances here at home; and if this " Our work in Madagascar is essen- be the case as regards our relationship tially the care and guidance of con- to a church between which and our own verts. Indeed. from the reopening of there are divergencies of such vital and the mission in 1862 we have always tremendous import, should it not be the worked mainly among a professedly case among those who, as I have more Christian people. In developing and than once made bold to say from this guiding the existing congregations we platform, have among them many dif· have, indeed, been the means of attract- ferences which I do not desire to min- ing and winning thousands of heathens ; but the organized churches have themof imize, yet, as I believ"', are agreed in selves been the -great attra8tive force.
.all the real essentials the Christian Faith?"
EXTRACTS ANl) TRANSLA'J'JONS
Only indirectly have the missionaries Sunday in the' great Hova city;' and in Imerina had to deal with the heathen in this general observance of the day of as such. But they have, nevertheless, rest we have a clear indication of the had the happiness year by year of sec· hold the Christian religion has taken on ing how God uses His churches as a the people. true missionary agency for spreading the light, and for drawing men away .. If we enter with these church-going from the superstition and impurity of crowds we shall usually find good con- .heathenism. The organized churches gregations met for worship. The men are still the great instruments for ex- will all be seated on one side and the tending Christ's kingdom; and all that women on the other. This is the unitends to strengthen and develop church versal practice in Madagascar ; and it life hastens on the day when the whole has arisen, I think, not from any rule of Madagascar will be indeed a Chris- laid down by missionaries, but from natian land; and, on the other hand, all tive feelings of propriety. that tends to break up or to hinder their work seems to us calculated to re- "The visitor will soon find that the tard, at least for the present, the exten- Malagasy are a music-loving race. Much sion of Christ's kingdom in the island. of the singing is really excellent. The voices are musical and the parts are well "Christian churches are to·day one sustained, though the style of tunes of the most prominent and easily r~cog most popular, many of them of native nized forces in the land. Religion no composition, does not always commend longer hides its head in the depths of itself to our taste. The singers occupy the forest or in the caves of the earth, a prominent position near the pulpit, but buildings set apart for worship and and a,re considered by themsel ves and schools erect their heads boldly in the others as very important functionaries. most conspicuous positions. In and Occasionally they cause trouble, as I around A.ntananarivo this fact forces it- understand singers have been known to self upon the notice of a traveller. The do in more advanced communities. four stone memorial churches of our Some time since I met a native pastor own society, the cathedral of St. Law- from the country, and on my asking rence-belonging to the Anglican Mis- him about tbe progress of the congresion-and the great Roman Catholic gation in his village, he said: • Oh, we cathedral are one and all well-built and are doing well now. Those singers imposing structures. These and other cause us no more trouble; we punished public edifices in the capital tell their them for their insubordination by mak- own tale, which is also confirmed by ing them stand with heavy stones upon the districts around. Anyone standing their heads '-Dante's purgatorial pun- on the higher parts of the city may ishment for the crime of avarice_ count well·built village chapels by the dozen. Indeed, almost every village .. Malagasy congregations, and espearound A.ntananarivo has its Protestant cially Antananarivo congregations, are piace of worship. generally well behaved, and the people listen with attention and interest to the "These' houses of prayer,' as they sermons either of missionaries or of their are called by the natives, are on the own native ministers. Public speaking whole well attended. The Hovas are a is an art in which many excel, and the religious people. The Sunday morning man who has the gift of uttering apt is ushered in by the church-going bell, and well-chosen words exercises great and the streets of the capital are crowd· influence for good. ed before and after service time by hun- dreds of neatly dressed worshippers. .. The strength of our Protestant ser· Even casual visitors are struck with the vices is the supreme place which is air Qf order and quiet that reigns on given to the reading and explanation of God's Word. Bible-teaching has al- ways held a prominent place in our work, and the open Bible is the glory day would be the usual wages of II labor- of our churches. Protracted labor has ing man, it is a fact full of encourage- been expended on producing a stand· ment that no less a sum than £7336 was ard translation-Protestant missionaries raised in 1894 for church purposes. _ • _ of all the societies having, under the "'I'he missionary spirit is certainly superintendence of the British and For· growing, . . . and many among the eign Bible Society, spent eleven years Hova Christians are deeply in earnest in on this important work. The 2000 Prot- the attempt to win the whole of Mada- estant churches now existing in the gascar for Christ. . • • island have as their most cherished pos· " The coming war may, it is feared, session, as their perennial fountain of check much of this growing activity for healthful teaching, and as their shield a time. Disorganization and confusion against all the wiles of error, this care- may be caused in many districts if the fully considered ver5ion of the Holy French persist in their attempt to obtain Scriptures. by force what they have not been able " Much activity is manifested by the to gain by milder measures. But I do various congregations, and a healthy not for a moment believe that these Prot- interest in church affairs exists among estant churches of Madagascar will be the people. A very strong democratic turned away from the faith they have spirit prevails, and anyone from within accepted. The conservatism of the peo- or from without, missionary or native, ple, which sometimes proves a hindrance attempting to 'dictate to the Church' to the plans of an earnest and enthusi- (mandidll Jia,ngOnana) soon finds he has astic missionary, will in this matter be to reckon with a spirit of sturdy inde- a strength to the churches. But above pendence. all else the knowledge of Holy Scrip- "Great interest is taken in the dis- ture possessed by the people, the way cussion of church business; but I no- in which the Bible has rooted itself in tice that nothing draws so many as the their reverence and love will now prove knowledge that some personal matter their safeguard. Roman Catholic mis- will come up, pos5ibly some case of dis- sionaries have nothing to offer that cipline. I have known very happy and would take the place of the free, healthy helpful church meetings in Madagas- church life they now enjoy. and of the car; but I have also been present at supreme place the Bible has taken in some in which party feeling ran high, all their services and in the develop.
and the feelings and tongues of the ment of their religious life. We may people were both unduly excited. A be prepared to hear of changes in Mada- year or two since I attended a meet- gascar, perhaps even of temporary, ing in a country church where some retrogression, of work interrupted, of difficulty had arisen about the choice of schools broken up, of churches discour- II pastor, and I found the village almost aged. The war may cause many evils in a state of riot, bludgeons and long such as these; but looking at the char- knives having been brought bV some as acter of the people, at the way they aids toward the settlement of a question have borne severe trials in the past, at that had evidently caused strong party the condition and work of the churches feeling. Happily the discussion of the to·day, and, above all, looking upward matter in question was postponed aine to Him who is the Guide and Defender die. of His people, we cannot, I think, in- " A growing spirit of liberality is no- clude among the evils to be feared ticeable among our people. Remem- any large measure of departure from bering tbat a dollar means to an ordi- the simple, Bible-nourished Christian nary Malagasy about as much as a sov- faith which has now for so many ereign does to the average Englishman. years existed among the Malagasy peo- and that threepence or. fourpence per ple."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
AFRICA. Therefore, although these missiona· ries are not ejected as Protestants, but _H Sharp as a knife, but kind as a as foreIgners, the practical result is mother," was the witness borne by the likely to be the same as if they were. people of the Pokomo )lission, in East Africa, when they heard that the found- -" The bishopric of Nyas8aland, va- er of the mission, Ferdinand Wurtz, cated by Bishop Hornby, has been ac- had just died at Marseilles. cepted by Archdeacon Chauncey Ma- ples, who has been laboring in the .. The attitude adopted by France in Universities' Mission for. fifteen years its positions toward Protestant mis- or more. His name is familiar to all sions"-more properly toward English, friends of that mission. It is dltlicult American, and German mlssions-H sup- to think of any IUan whose qualifica- plies the Allgemeine Missions Zeit8chrifl tions for the post are 80 obvious."- with a mournful vaticination anent the Ohurch Missionary IntelUgencer. prospects of West African evangeliza- tion. The republfc, unhappily for Prot- -Herr SEEGER, in the OaZwer Mia· estant effort, has received the lion's 8ionsblatt, remarks that we all our Iives share in the partition of West Africa, a have been receiving moral and spiritual share emphasized by the latest Anglo- truth by pailfuls, and are disposed to French delimitation of the Sierra Leone pour it out upon the heathen by pailfrontiers, in which Sierra Leone sacri- fuls, unmindful of the fact that we fices its political ambition to the secu- spill the· most of it, that they are only rity of its exi~ting commercial interests. capable of receiving it by drops. We Taking as West Africa the coast from ought to learn, he says, that in this mat- Senegambia to Angola, with an indefinite ter less IUay be more. interior boundary, we find, according to the Evangelische Mission, that the Ro- -It is frequently said that no living man Catholic power has, in proportion man can read Eliot's Indian Bible. to its extent of coast line, largely ex- This, however, is an error. We have ceeded the Protestant during the last been informed by J. Hammond Trumten years. The religious attitude of bull, Esq., the. eminent Algonquin schol- -France is, therefore, the more unwel- ar, that he finds Eliot's Bible, from the come, especially as not being seriously greater familiarity of its dialect, a good shared by Portugal, Spain, or Belgium_ stepping-stone to remoter forms of the In Fernando Po the Primitive Metho· Algonquin speech. dists continue their labors·; in Angola the American workers remain apparent- -Dr. F. M. ZAHN remarks, in the ly unmolested; in the Congo Free Allgemeine Mi8siona Zeit8Ch1-ijt, that it State, theoretically interkonfeBBional, might almost seem as if" a spirit from though practically under Roman Catho- the Lord" had gone out, portraying lic control, Protestant missions are yet Africa in such alluring colors to the tolerated, whatever uncertainty, born Christian nations that, in spite of themof p088ible economic changes, may lie selves, they have to strive for its approaround their future. But from the priation. H We Germans, none too well French spheres of influence foreign supplied with earthly wealth, find our- workers, on various trivial pretexts, are selves laying out marks by the hundred being steadily ejected. True, the Paris thousand on the sandy stretches of Evangelical Mission has hitherto been Southwest Africa, and millions yearly permitted to offer substitutes, yet a on the savannas of East Africa. The larger contribution than that available Belgian king is possessed with a costly from the 650,000 Protestants of France fancy which drives him to the laying is requisite for the needs of its colonial out of enormous sums on the Congo empire."-Ohurch Mi88'i.onary Intelli- Free State. He has already spent some $5,000,000 on it, and still goes on spendgencer. ing, although it brings in yearly $400,-
ENGLISH
000 less than it cost. Belgium itself, a few more days' work like this" Is a which has finally taken the State off the natural wish on his part.
hands of the king, seems to be equally CTtina.-The Rev. Jonathan Lees, of profuse with its money. France, too, Tientsin, has received a most pathetie out of her great wealth, easily spares letter, signed by representatives of the 30,000,000 francs to free Africa from churches in the Leusan district. II They the tyrant of Dahomey, and grants 65,- themselves likened it to the cry from 000,000 franc.s for the unhappy end of Macedonia in St. Paul's vlsion-a cry subduing the Hovas." And lives are for teachers and guidance. Would that spent as unhesitatingly as treasure. we could do tenfold more than they -It appears that Father Vaughan, ask! Alas! we cannot do that. Yet the brother of Cardinal Vaughan, is the whole country thereabouts has been much disturbed, as well he may be, open to us for years, and any worthy that atheistic France is likely to over- effort might have won thousands for master Christian Madagascar. The Christ. But what are the two or three . Hova Government is Protestant, it is men we could send them in view of true; but this eminent priest justlyac- their dense Ignorance and many needs? counts this religious difference, impor- Oh, that God would raise up some na- tant as he would doubtless esteem it in tive apostles! While we are very slowitself, as a small thing compared with ly training the few preachers, the peothe difference between a thoroughly ple are dying without hope." "Here. " Christian government and a thoroughly he concludes, "is something for our infidel government, such as he says the English friends to pray about."
French would infallibly establish. He Hong Kong Medical Mia8ion.-Much· sees the heroism of a Christian Judith satisfaction is expressed at the prospect in the queen, who, in her own chapel, of the return of Mr. J. C. Thomson, exhorts her subjects not to despair of M.D., to resume the superintendence of Divine help against this mighty foe. the medical mission of Hong Kong. Where the right is, it is easy to see. Mr. Thomson is a native of Lockerbie, The Jesuit.Cauneque, as we have seen, Scotland, and at a valedictory service himself a Frenchman, pronounces the held there recently he urged his townspretentions of France unwarranted. men to consider whether the time had not come for them to fall into line with the forward movement in missions that English Notes. is now belp.g proclaimed by nearly all BY JAMES DOUGLAS. the great societies. Men talked of ex- pecting great things of God. God ex- New Guinea.-TheRev. W. G. Lawes pected great things of men. The failreports' the baptism and reception into ure is that we are so slow to :work out the Church of 68 candidates, many of what God works in. whom are old scholars, who for a time had left the mission-the fruit from old The Bt01"1J of My Oon'lJM'BWn.-From a sowing. He describes them as •• ear- lengthened statement of the story of his nest and sincere" and as II coming from conversion, supplied by Atul K. Nag, all parts of the three villages of Port who says, II I was born of Hindu par- Moresby." ents, and I am a Bengali by race," we Mr. Dauncey has also an encouraging make the following significant extract: experience to relate. Speaking of a II I did not become a Christian for any recent visit to Klvorl, he says, II The worldly gain-not to obtain a situation, two New Guinea teachers are working for I was already an independent man; well and eeeing the result of their not that I might marry an English or labors." After examination, Mr. Daun- an accomplished wife. for I had already ooy baptized 34 adults. II I would like a wife who came out with me. thinking
GENERAL IDSSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
it tit to Ca.st in her lot with me, a.lthough is now at Wei-hai-wei, keeping a'food she was not then a Christian; not for shop and evangelizing; some soldiers the sake of English food, for as yet I have been his trophies there. have not been able to take flesh, having a natural aversion to It (not that I have We8leyan Mi8,iona1'1J Societll.-The any prejudice against it), and I still live General Committee have agreed to the upon a genuine native diet. I mention immediateoccnpation of Buluwayo, Mr. these things, not to make a parade of Eva commencing work there pending them, but to show such of my readers the arrival in the country of bIr. Shimas may ascribe all sorts of unkind and min and the new missionary. evil motives to one who wishes to come out and become a Christian, that it is Oape Hayti, Hayti.-A new chapel the love of Christ alone which con- has been erected at a cost of $7400. strains him to follow Christ." Only a debt of $800 remains. "Best of all," writes Mr. Picot, " the new chapel, Mongolia.-Much interest attaches to which seats 820 persons, is full of worthe testimony of the Rev. W. E. Mac· shippers, and already we have had sevfarlane, with respect to the undying in- eral conversions to God in it. The old fluence of that devoted servant Gil- chapel is now used as our day school." mour, in the unpromising field of Mongolia. Mr. Macfarlane, fresh from that "Kwang Tung ,. or, Five Years in land, speaks of Gilmour as having, by &uth Ohina. "-This is an interesting his self·denying labors, paved the way work by the Rev. John A. TurntJr, who for other missionaries. He points out spent fi ve years as one of the Wesleyan that while formidable obstacles to tho missionaries in South China. Since reception of Christian truth exist there, 1842 the number of Protestant commufrom the stolid indifference of the Mon- nicants has risen from the unit 6 to gols and the immense number and power 40,000. Despite all discouragements, of the Lamas, yet the laborers in that Mr. Turner holds that we have" as sterile soil looked forward confidently to much reason to believe in the final conthe dawn of a brighter day for Mongols version of the great Chinese Empire to and Chinese alike. Christianity as any missionaries in any non-Christian country ever had."
Ohri8tians at Wei-hai·wei.-It is in_ Baptist Mi88i~na1'1J Sodetll-Makunda teresting to find that in this fortitied Das, of Orissa.-The Rev. Thomas quarter, recently captured by the Japan- Bailey, of Cuttack, Orissa, reports the ese, a little work for Christ has been death of Makunda Das, to whom he proceeding. The evangelist there was pays an affectionate tribute. Makunda formerly a dominie, having reached that Das occupies a foremost place as a writer appointment through having proved his of beautiful hymns, and probably as unfitness for anything else-a method long as the Oriya language continues, now obsolete in the West. When serv- his hymns alone will cause his name to ing as a schoolmaster in Ning-hai; he be gratefully remembered. His conwas spoken to by a Christian Chinaman tributions to Christian literature have about Jesus, but, by way of answer, also been widely read and have done said he wanted no foreign religion. immense service. This especially ap- "But Jesus can save you from your plies to a non·controversial tract ensins t" The idea took hold on him, titled" What is Christianity t" the oband thinking a Saviour from sin might ject being to furnish an exposition of have something to offer him, he took a Ohristian doctrine and practice. As a New Testament home and read it far preacher Makunda Das had a profusion into the night. It brought him to Christ, of tropes and tigures. His language and since his conversion he has been was glowing rhetoric. With him it trying to lead others to the Lord. He was natural to be ornate, and, we may add, intense. He could not stoop to and an impression is taken on thin, note interruptions or objections at the damp paper. This paper, officially time, but moved on swiftly in his course signed, is his passport. like a ship with full canvas under a stiff breeze. In December last he -Dr. Bonar, the author of many preached, for the last time, a spfrited hymns, dreamed that the angels took sermon on the nature of true conver- his zeal and weighed it, and told him sion, "For this my son was dead and that it was excellent, for it w~ighed exis alive again." After serving weH his actly 100, which was all that could be generation he has departed in the sixty- asked. He was greatly gratified at Ihe seventh year of his age. result. Next they.wished to analyze it. They put it in a crucible and tested it THE KINGDOM. in various ways, with this result: 14 parts were selfishness, 15 parts secta- -" What shaH I do for Christ?" rianism, 22 ambition, 23 love to man, asked a young disciple of Bishop Sel- and 26 love to God. He awoke humwyn. .. Go where He is not, and take bled, and determined on a new conse- Him with you," was the venerable cration. bishop's reply. -Some years ago a missionary in -The day is long past when any ex- Bunnah came to a village where the rats cept the ignorant and prejudiced speak had destroyed the rice crop. A deacon of foreign missions with a sneer. The of the church brought him a large century now drawing to a close has no offering to help carry the Gospel to the prouder laurel than that which it wears Karens in a remote region. The mis· as distinctively the century of mission- sionary. seeing the destitution in the ary effort and progress recorded in the village, objected to taking the money ; evangelization of the world.-Harper'8 but the deacon said, "Take it ; we can Bazar. live on rats, but the Karens can't get along without the Gospel." – Two Bavarian missionaries belonging to the station at Killalpaninna, in -Hundreds of young men annually Central Australia, were sitting chatting leave our shores as cadets. 'All their with the Christianized aborigines after friends rejoice when they think of them the midday meal, when the conversation bearing the commissions of our queen. turned on their state before their con- When any dangerous expedition is version, and it was asked if any of planned by government. more volunthem had ever committed a murder. It teel'S apply than are necessary to man turned out that out of the nine who it. On the proposal to send a band of were present only one had never killed brave men in search of Sir John Frank:- a man, and that only becaus~ he was lin, a full complement for the ships too cowardly; but he had helped at the could have been procured of officers murders of others. alone, without any common sailors. And what thousands rushed to Califor- -Did he say it? Or, what is far nia, from different parts of America, on more to the purpose, is the aHegation the discovery of gold I How many true? John Wanamaker is reported husbands left their wives and families I to have remarked: "It is the hardest How many Christian men tore themthing in the world to find a clean, selves away from all home endearments strong. healthy, earnest, upright young to suffer and toil and perish by cold man." and starvation on the overland route I How many sank from fever and ex- -The lines of no two human hands haustion on the banks of the Sacraare exactly alike. When a traveHer in mento I Yet no word of sacrifices there. China desires a passport. the palm of And why should we so regard aU we the hand is covered with fine oil paint, give and do for the Well-beloved of our vine name, while in portions of India souls? Our talk of sacrifices is ungen- the translators are as sorely ~ut to it to erous and heathenish.–David Liming. decide whether to choose taalia or salus stone. in the Urdu speech as the equivalent for our term trinity. -It is figured out that the Christian churches of America give on the aver- -The Deutsche Kirdtenuitu'fI{j, of age one sixty-fourth of their ordained Berlin, has computed, on the basis of men to foreign missionary work; that the latest scientific and statistical sources it takes 7862 church-members to sup- accessible, a table showing the distribuport one foreign missionary, and that tion of the human family according to the average giving per member is but rellgion. The population of the earth 40 cents. is as follows : -An extra cent a dai from each one Europe … , …………………… ·881,200,000 of 15,500,000 Protestant Evangelical Africa………………………… 127,000,000 church-members in the United States Asia…………………………… 864,000,000 would add $56,575,000 a year to the Australia……. …. …. ……….. 4,730,000 Lord's treasury. Only an extra cent a America… .. .. .. .. …… ………. 1S3,670,00!l day is required. The First Church at Newton Centre, Mass., has an Extra- Total ……………………. 1,500,000,000 Cent-a-Day Band, which has raised on the average $359.20 every year for the The leading religions are represented last five years, in all $1796, of which it by the following figures : has given one half to the American Board and one half to the several home Protestant ChristIans…………… jl()(),000,000 missionary societies. Roman Catholic Christians……… 195,000,000 Greek Catholic Christians. •. . •• . . . . 105,000,000 -The Synod of Missouri has agreed to send to the foreign field five of the Total Christians…… ………. 500,000,000 young men who had offered themselves to the Board, and whom it was unable Jews ………………. , …. .. .. .. 8,000,000 to send on account of lack of funds. A Mohammedans….. …………… 180,000,000telegram to the Assembly on the last Heathens……….. …. ……….. 812,000,000 day of its session from the synod announced that $3500 was pledged, and Total non-Christians ………… 1,000,000,000 that it would be made $5000. WOMAN'S WORK. -We are wont to pity the poor missionaries for their trials and hardships, -" Twenty-five years ago," says Dr. while we envy the secretaries because of Booth, "permission was asked to put the ease and honors which fall to their something in the report on foreign mislot; but Dr. Jessup, having been a mis- sions concerning the women, and I was sionary in Syria during ali his life, and told that I might say a word with refhaving acted as secretary for six months, erence to employing them as medical claims'to be ready to endure the hardest missionaries.' , trials of the foreign position rather than the nervous strain and excitement of the -In Regions Beyond for April there secretary's chair. is a statement to this effect: "The women of Great Britain and Ireland -Ignorance and superstition, original are sending to their sex, by means of 12 sin and total depravity do not constitute different organizations, 770 European the source of all missionary trouble. women, of whom 38 are medical work- By no means; for in China Christian ers, 20 being fully qualified doctors. scholars find it Impossible to agree upon These reach 20 different countries, emthe best word to use to express the DI- ploy about 2000 native helpers, and manage 900 schools, in which branch· of their work 64,400 are brought under _ Christian teaching, while it is impossi- ble to reckon the thousands of lives they daily touch and infiuence in their evan- gelistic zenana and medical work." J , -Rev. A. C. Good writes this of the sex throughout the entire denomination, lot of women among the Bule of West but rather, for the must part, only such Africa: "Although the garden may be as dwell within certain subdivisions of a mile from town, no effort is ever made the Union. Thus, within the Presby- to improve the road, which often passes terian Church are found no less than 7 through swamps, along the bed of woman's boards.
streams, or over fallen logs and brush. -The Presbyterian women sustain in Over this road she must carry a big Alaska 8 schools with 37 teachers; basket of firewood, day after day, as among the Indians. 24 schools with 140 she returns from her work. Later, she teachers, and reaching no less than 31 must add to this load the daily supply tribes; among the Mexicans. 27, with of food for the family and guests. 57 teachers; Mormons, 30, with 84 Then a big jar of water must be teachers; mountain whites, 25, with 77 brought from the stream." teachers: a total of 114 schools and 395 -The Baptist women. are able to teachers.
make this report: .. Work Is carried on UNITED STATES. ~ 114 missionaries, 63 of whom are representatives of our own society, and -According to Mr. Mulhall, this is 51 other missionaries of the Union, 142 the most favored of nations. Thus, the Bible women, 539 native teachers. Our United States possesses .. almost as appropriations have aided 434 schools much energy as Great Britain, Ger- with 10,238 pupils, reporting 611 bap- many, and France combined." "An tisms." ordinary farm hand in the United States -Two hundred pulpits in London on raises as much grain as 3 in England, 4 a recent Sunday were occupied by rep- in France, 5 in Germany, or 6 in Ausresentative women, drawn to the great tria." .. Our annual expenditure for metropolis by the International Conven- schools is 3 times that of Great Britain, tion of the Woman's Christian Temper- 5 times that of France, and 6 times that ance Union. Ignored by most of the of Germany." .. No nation ever before London journals, this assembly, never- possessed 41,000,000 instructed cititheless, was one of fa:.reaching signifi- zens. " He estimates that in 1890 our cance and intense interest. Australia, wealth was $65,037,000,000, or an aver- America, India, and Continental Eu- age of $1039 to each inhabitant.
rope were fully represented. -The last annual volume of Apple- -At the recent anniversary of the ton'a EncllcZopaJdia supplies a list of gifts London Missionary Society, speaking of what her sex had done in co-opera- and bequests in the United States extion, Mrs. Matheson stated that "65 women are actively engaged: in India, clusive of " the ordinary denominational 33; China, 21 ; Madagascar, 6; South Africa, 1, and the South Seas, 4. besides contributions for educational and beneva large staff of Bible-women. She also mentioned that the gifts from native olent purposes, and State and munici- Christians in China reached a larger total than was received by any other society, pal appropriatibns to public and sectaand then asked, in comparison with that fact, where were the self·sacrifice, ear- rian institutions." It includes those for public purposes, such as schools, academies, hospitals, homes, libraries, etc. In 1894 the amount bestowed was $32,000,000; in 1893 it was $29,000,000.
This great sum includes only· gifts and bequests of $5000 and upward. '
nest pleading, and sacrifice of the -The Epworth Herald takes note that churches at home 1" " within a few weeks" some 15 colleges, -For some reason our Christian wom- from living donors, have received gifts en do not unite in missionary societies, varying in size from $20,000 to $1,800,- each one of which shall represent the 000, and aggregating nearly $3,000,000. -The Baptist Home Missionary So- and 37 building and loan associations ciety, which ended its year with a debt are also conducted by them." of over $100,000, has met with unexpected relief. At the anniversary at -Rev. J. P. Williamson writes, in a Saratoga it was announced tlIat since late Norllt and Weat, of "Our Twenthe books of the former year were tieth Church Among the Sioux Ind· closed, a legacy from the Cook estate ians," which is located in the Lake had been received, a legacy of $10,000 Trayerse region. Some 200 copper-. from the Stearns estate, and one from colored saints were present at the orthe Sampson estate amounting to ganization, and among the" exercises" $87,000. was a feast, at which 4 fat beeves con- stituted the piUe de r~si8tance. Five -The Springfield Republican indi- members joined by letter, and 10 on cates the extent to which New England confession. is being transformed by the following fact: "The increase in foreign popula- -The General Assembly of the Prestion in the small New England towns byterian Church voted to make an effort is instanced in Hinsdale, N. H., where to raise $1,000,000 as a quarter-centu,ry the census of school children recently memorial of the union of Old School completed shows a total of 185 of and New School, the first contributions American and 186 of foreign parentage. to which shall be used to wipeout the Nearly two thirds of the children of debts on all the boards. It was recomforeign parentage are of French de- mended that the beginning of the effort scent." be made in connection with July 4th memories, and a committee of 30 was -Presbyterian home missionaries appointed to have in charge and to push the movement to success. preach the Goapel in about 30 lan- -The total contributions to the guages and dialects ; and 227 of those benevolent agencies of the Presbyterian Church for the last twenty-five years, as of the Congregational Home Missionary reported ill thE! minutes of the General Assembly, were as follows: Society employ tongues other than the Home Missions ••••….•…….•..••. $15,320,520 English. . Foreign Missions ……… , . . .. .. . . .. 13,526,844 Education. … . . . . …. . . .. . . .. …. .. . 4,424,054 -Rev. E. P. Cowan, of the Presby- Publication and S. S. Work… ,. ….. 1,538,836 terian Board, states these encouraging Church Erection………………… 2,618,723 facts concerning the Freedmen: •• There Relief………………………….. 5,207,155 are among them 25,000 public-school Freedmen…… ….. .•. ••••…•…… 1,953,960 teachers, 57 college presidents, 500 theo- Aid for Colleges…………….. …. 1,813,5.';8 logical graduates in the ministry, and sustentation.. .. ……………….. 902,776 2500 other men who have studied for one or two years in theological semina- Total. …………………….. $47,306,426 ries and are now preaching; 400 physicians practising, one of them editing a In addition to the contributions to the medical and surgical journal; 300 law- boards, the churches gave the sum of yers, graduates of law schools; 65 $24,280,002 to miscellaneous benevodentists and 65 pharmacists. There are lence, and $192,044,780 to congrega- 200 newspapers and 4 magazines edited tional support; a grand total for all by colored men. In 1892 the colored contributions of $263,631,208, or an people contributed $300,000 for educa- average of $10,500,000 per annum. tion, and paid taxes on property valued at $274,000,000; 100 books on poetry, -Within twenty-five years the Ameribiography, religion; science, and gen- can Board has established 11 colleges eral literature have been written by col- (3 of them for women) in foreign lands, ored men; esssys, poems, and other and 7 theological seminaries. articles have been published in the lead- Ing magazines of the country ; 4 banks
-At the end of the fifth week after 170 congregations in embryo, with al- Easter, Lenten offerings had been re- most 20,000 members. H While the ceived by the Episcopal mission board average increase for the last fourteen from 1958 Sunday-schools, and amount- years has been 682, last year shows the ed to $46.188, an average of $23.58 from memorable figure 777."
each school. During the corresponding -The Free Church of Scotland has term in 1894, $31,033 was received sent forth 28 medical missionaries with from 1508 Sunday-schools, an average a full British qualification, of whom 5 of $20.57 from each. are women, aDd supports 2 native mis- -Bishop Thoburn, with 7 or 8 others sionaries, at Madras and Thana, making fresh from heathen soil, Is to conduct 30 medical missionaries in all. Besides a missionary campaign of six months' these, at Blythswood and other stations, continuance, and in eager quest of mis- chiefly in Africa, simple medical cases sionary funds. Alas! that 80 much are attended to by the missionaries and vigor must needs be expended upou the their wives. About 120.000 cases, surgi- saints at home to rouse them to do their cal and medical, were treated by 17 of duty. the missionaries who have reported, be- EUROPE. sides the large number of women dealt with by the surgeons and physicians of Great Britain.-Accordlng to Rev. their own sex at Madras and Nagpoor, J. M. Eppstein, there are no less than and the many relieved unprofessionally. 160 Israelites in holy orders in the At least 150,000 men, women, and chil- Church of England, who have either dren, sufferers of all Asiatic and Afribeen converted or else are the sons of can races and creeds, annually receive pa!ents who have been converted. healing and sympathy, and have the love of Jesus Christ preached and read -The China Inland )Iission was to them in our Church's dispensaries founded in 1865 by Rev. J. Hudson and hospitals, in zenanas, and in the Taylor, and as to character, is evangeli- tented camp.-Free Ohureh Monthly.
cal, interdenominational, and interna- The Continent.-A Protestant mistional. Upon its staff are 634 foreign sionary at Oporto writes that Roman missionaries, including associates, and Catholic parents are constantly apply- 366 native helpers. The stations num- ing to him to take charge of the educaber 112, with 108 out-stations, and are tion of their children, assuring him they located in 14 provinces. Over 4500 would rather let the children run in the members are in fellowship with 134 Of- streets than hand them over to the ganized churches. Jesuits. In Roman Catholic countries -The Presbyterian Church of Eng- the people know exactly what the land has 50 stations in Amoy. 29 at priests are about, and that whatever Swatow, and 36 in Formosa, with others schools exist are simply maintained for also in Hak-ka and Singapore, with a extending the dominion of the Church total Christian native membership of and undermining the liberties of· the 7780. There are 56 European agents people. The Roman Church is, in the on its staff, 22 of whom are women, in judgment of those who know It best, addition to the wives of missionaries; . H a great conspiracy against the liberties and the native evangelists number 117. of mankind. "-Indian Witne88. The total income for last year was returned at £19,629 ($98,145). -The report of the Rhenish Mission- ary Society has just been published.
-The United Presbyterian Church of This society employs 100 European Scotland reports 150 trained agents in missionaries in its various stations in the foreign field, with about 750 native Africa, New Guinea, the East Indies, helpers; 116 full congregations and and China. The greatest ingatherings
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
have been in Sumatra, where a Chris- ment there are 38 freshmen, 18 sophotian community of 30,000 Battas has mores, 6 juniors, and 2 seniors; in the been formed in 13 years. New tribes medical department 17 pursue the course of heathen are constantly asking for of pharmacy, 21 are in the first year of teachers' and preachers, and 60 youug the regular course, 15 in the second, 10 natives are studying for the work of in the third, and 8 in the fourth. evangelists. -:Mrs. Cochran, of Oroomiah. relates -The Basle Missionary Society has this strange incident: .. Last Sunday published some encouraging statistics was a day we shall not soon forget. of its operations in India, China, the About a week before, a brother of the Cameroons, and the Gold Coast. In the Nestorian Patriarch was brought to the last-named field the Gospel has become hospital sick. He died on Saturday a mighty power, the number of Chris- morning. The news spread rapidly, tians (13,036) having doubled during and people began to gather. Word was the last decade. In India the mission brought me that about 60 people were has 28 stations, with 11,903 converts; gathered and coffee was needed. It is in China the converts number 4071, and the custom to serve Turkish coffee to in the Cameroons, 1103, making a total all who call at such. times. Soon the of 30,200 Christians under pastoral care. number increased to 100, then to 200. People were seated In rooms in the col- -Twelve months hence it will be lege, and my cook made coffee and the nine hundred years since Iceland was medical students served it. Many of evangelized by Scandinavian misslona· these callers came to our house, to the ries. In 1530 the Reformed faith was Anglican Mission, the old Nestorian introduced, and to-day the popUlation bishops, etc., to consult about the place of 75,000 are Protestants. The Pope of burial. The friends all wished it to had the satisfaction, last Easter, of send- be the old Nestorian Church in the city, ing 2 Roman Catholic missionaries from but it is the law that no dead body shall Copenhagen to say mass, a service that be taken in at a city gate, so they had has not been performed in the Island to decide on another church in a village. for three hundred and sixty-five years. Meanwhile dinner had been prepared The only Roman Catholic family in the for all these guests, in charge of one of island is that of the French consular our hospital men. Four sheep, I think, agent, who resides at Reikjavik.- were used, and 125 pounds of rice. L'Egliae Ohretienne. About 800 partook."
ASIA. India.-The American Baptist Telu· gu Mission records 881 baptisms in 1894, Islam.-A special collection for the and has a membership now of 53,502, debt that oppresses the Presbyterian with 8048 Christian pupils in the schools Church, and hinders it in its work of and 54561n Sunday-schools. The medi· foreign missions, was taken in the little cal work is increasing, with 8204 new native church in Tripoli, Syria, at the patients treated during the year. Rev.. preparatory service before their com- A. C. Fuller, of this mission, writes: munion in March. It amounted to 1219 .. I find my people have heard and been piastres. That sum is equivalent to baptized, but are almost wholly unabout $50, and was probably contribut. taught, so this fs to be my greatest work ed by less than 50 donors. as soon as I can get at it. The starving sheep and lambs must be given the nec- -The annual catalogue of the Syrian essary spiritual food before we try to Protestant College at Beirut shows the reach out after others, though of course total number of students to be 262, of the gathering in of great numbers is a whom 127 are in the preparatory, 64 in great joy to the miSSionary. I mention the collegiate, and 71 in the medical department. In the collegiate depart· this so that you may know my inten- ant in South India than in any other tion, as it is not 80 strictly in the line of part of the country. Ii: recent expres- evangelizing as the work of a mission· sion of this feeling is found in an appli- ary is ordinarily, nor as I had hoped it cation presented to the agent of the would be; but those who now call South Indian Railway asking that sepa· themselves Christians must be built up rate carriage accommodation be made in the faith, and thus those coming after for high-caste Hindus. The directors will better know what Christianity is." will probably refer the matter to their -The Lutherans and the Baptists successors for consideration about the middle of the twentieth century.-Indcome into near contact in some of the ian Witness. parts of the Telugu mission field north and northwest of Ongole, and confusion – Woman'8 Workfor Woman tells of a and interference have taken place, with successful battle against caste recently charges of violations of comity. The fought in the high·school at Kolhapur; matter has now been amicably settled The son of a government schoolmaster by mutual agreement not to use certain (of the shoemaker caste) was admitted.
terms in speaking of their missions; The students came in a body demand- not to receive each other's members and ing his expulsion. If the principal'
mission workers without the consent of would not expel him, the boy must be the mission to which they belong; not put into a separate room. "No?"
to receive excommunicated members Then the matting must be cut between and dismissed workers without such him and the other caste boys. "No?"
consent; and not to undertake to ex- Then he must sit on the floor. A sepa- clude each other from any particular rate chair was given him. Still he field where either may be working. touched the matting, and they would -Some people think of India as a have to bathe twice every day. Then very rich country, and forget entirely parents came in deputations to remon- that in that Tery country about 2.000,- strate, but the school was declared to 000 die yearly of hunger or of utterly be Christian and " public." A dozen bad food. It is a rich country ; but the boys left as a consequence, none of wealth is in few hands, and much is them from the higher classes. Most of , uselessly buried in the temples. This the teachers resigned, and 50 students is very striking in Malabar, where 81 were bound to leave. But it blew over ; per cent of the population are small every teacher asked to come back, and farmers, under' extortionate landlords, one boy was the total loss.
and under the oppressive taxes of the -When Dr. Duff began work in Cal- Government, which fall so heavily on cutta he found that a cow had more land and salt. And what makes this rights and higher rank than a woman, poverty ever increasing is the excessive and he said that to try to educate wom- over-population of the country. In en in India was as vain as to attempt to Ponani the population is at the rate of .. scale a wall 500 yards high." To- 450 to the square mile. day in the province of Bengal alone -Of 955,000 low castes in the Bam. 100,000 women and girls are under In- struction, and India's most gifted daughbay presidency, only 6000 can read. A ters are laying hold of the treasures of the higher education. Zenana doors school has been opened for children of have been unlocked by the gentle haild of Christian womanhood, and a transthis class, in a cow shed, and into this a formation is already accomplished which centuries of merely human wis- Christian master went, occupying one dom and power could not even have half the space, the other half being par- titioned off by cocoanut leaves for cows and buffaloes. • -Caste feeling is much more Intoler. begun.-Dr. A. To Pieraon. China.-Dr. Henry Blodgett, a re- forces in molding the religious phases turned missionary from China, says the ofa Korean's character are the sysanti-foreign sentiment in Peking is very tem of ancestor worship, which enmuch exaggerated; that the Chinese are shrines filial piety as the chief duty restrained by the emperor's proclama- of man, and side by side with it a systion, which is tacked up in all missionary tem of spirit worship known as Sham· churches, and has completely quieted manlsm; which conceives of supernatuall manifestations against foreigners. Li ral beings only as hobgoblins and capri. Hung Chang is in favor of Western cious demons. The announcement that world civilization, and favors educating there is an obligation on man that is Chinese in arts and sciences abroad. He superior even to filial piety, a virtue believes in everything Western except which embraces it, comes to a Korean religionc lie attributes Chinese defeat with a shock, while the appeal to the to a supercilious disregard of the ad- supernatural and spiritual meets with vance of the world in warfare. He no response. He will early throwaway sends his children to the school of Rev. the absurd fetiches which adorn his Charles Harney, an American mission- home, but he finds himself for a time ary, for English branches. Li Hung unable to rise to the spiritual concep. Chang's liberalization is only his belief tions· which are the very essenc~ of in the fact that in the arts and sciences Christianity. Having overcome these the rest of the world long ago passed opposing forces, which are inherent in China. There are in Peking three Con- his nature and training, the Korean gregational churches, three Methodist, Christian must encounter violent oppo· three Presbyterian, 'one Alliance, and sition from his kindred as well as opsix English Protestant. To these the probrium and scorn from friends. emperor has extended protection, main- Moreover, the dignity of labor is a ly because he feels friendly to them, as Christian and not a Korean Idea, and it they educate the people. is difficult, indeed, for a member of this race who is con.templating a profession -The Presbyterian hospitals in Pekin of Christianity to regard as brothers and and Canton in 1893 treated 57,541 cases. equals those whom he had previously How much that means of Christ-like considered far below him in the social work, and who can estimate the reo scale. Another difficulty growing out suIts! of the industrial conditions concerns the keeping oce day in seven. These are Korea.-The KOTilan Repositorv states severe tests to try the Korean Christhat at a public meeting of the Korean tian's motives and the strength of his Religious Society nearly $400 were con- resolve, but there is little doubt of the tributed by the people of Seoul. The sincerity and constancy of one who has Korean Christians gave 55,000 cash surmounted such obstacles.- Congrega· (about $110) as their first o1fering. tionaZi8t. Well done! AFRICA. – From the same source comes this -A new map of this continent will strange intelligence: .. Since the ap- probably soon be made in London under the direction of the International Geo· pointment of the new ministry, on the graphical Society, which soon meets in tbat city. The cost of such a map is so recommendation of the Prime Minister, large that it will prolJably-be borne by the European powers interested. The the Government offices are closed from new frontiers of the British possessions in Africa measure more than 10,000 Saturday afternoon till Monday morn- miles.
ing, and the king does not hold court on Sunday. .
-In a recent number of the KOTila1/, Repositorv appears an interesting article on the obstacles encountered by Koreans in becoming Christians. The chief
GENERAL MISSIOlUBY
-The British Government, after a Lakes Company quickly carried him to year or two of hesitation, has .11nally the mouth of the Zambesi."
decided to raise Uganda and the region lying between Victoria Nyanza and the -To' the same paper F. W. Crossly East Coast to the estate of a protee· writes: "Johannesburg is now a city torate, has voted a snug sum for the of first importance in South Africa, situ· maintenance of order, and in due season ated among the gold fields, and with a • rapidly growing population of. say. is likely to construct a railroad. .from 60.000 to 80,000. Mr. Dudley -England has lately annexed the Kidd and Mr. Frank Huskisson went small strip of territory in South Africa to labor there about a year and a half that separates Swaziland from Amaton- ago. They commenced under many galand. It will be seen, by a glance at severe trials, and are prominent in faiththe map, that this shuts out the Trans, fully preaching the Word. God has vaal from the sea, and encloses it within owned their labors, and the hall they either British or Portuguese territory have occupied is now much too small. on every side. The Boers are deter- About £2500 is required to build a mined to fight England on this issue, larger one, about £1200 being in hand. and the President of the Transvaal Re· Rev. Andrew Murray is president of public has called into the field an army the South African General Mission, with of 20,000 men. His attitude is taken which they are working.
too late. The Transvaal has ceased to -In MiBBionsof the World, Rev. Henry be Dutch. Its foreign residents greatly Rowley, formerly of the Universities' outnumber the Boers. Its gold fields Mission to Central Africa, sets forth have attracted thousands of aliens who these several and su1llcient reasons for cannot now be expelled. Johannes· the utter failure of Portuguese missions burg is to all intents and purposes an in Africa after a continuance of three English city. It is a question of only hundred years: "1. The reckless and a few years when the Boers will either VI' holesale administration of baptism. 2. be assimilated or find a home elsewhere. Unholy accommodation of Christian -Zion's Herald. truth and observances to heathenish superstitions and customs. 3. The neg- -The London Ohristian states that lect of education for the young. 4. The F. S. Arnot has returned from Africa. attempts to prop up waning influence " Last year he journeyed to Garenganze by a pretended exercise of miracles. 5. by the East African Lakes route, taking The cruel punishments inl1icted for the supplies to Messrs. Thompson and slightest deviation from the prescribed Crawford and their fellow·laborers, rules of the Church. 6. The connec- now on the western shores of Lake tion with the slave trade, illustrated by Moero. He hoped to be able to settle the marble chair to be seen until lately again in Africa. After, however, hav- on the pier at Loanda, from which the ing written to Mrs. Arnot telling her to bishop used to give his blessing to the make arrangements to join him, he be· slave ships. In the old kingdom of came so seriously ill that those with him Congo the entire population was Chris- quickly realized the fact that he could tian, in the Roman sense, in the sixnot live many mOllths in Africa. They teenth century. The capital still bears consequently persuaded him to leave the name of San Salvador, but Chris- for England, which he did as soon as tianity has disappeared." .
he had recovered su1llclently to travel.
Another severe attack of fever prostrat- ISLANDS OF THE SEA. ed him near the south of Lake Tan ganyika, but after reaching Lake Ny- -Last November 21st, the birthday assa, the steamer of the East African of the Queen of Madagascar, the first
HISSIONARY I:NTELLrGJl)~CE. [August
pocket edition of the revised 'Malagasy fields in the Dutch East Indies. But it Bible was issued. The books are in appeared to be our duty first of all to clear type, neatly bound, and sold below spread the Gospel in those districts cost at one shilling, so as to be within where Islam has not yet gained possesthe reach of most. This pocket Bible sion, arid where the people are much is esteemed a great boon, and when the easier to win. In the course of the last consignment reached Antananarivo ten years, however, an alteration has there was a great rush to secure copies. taken place; gradually and almost un- In a few days every copy was sold, and con.sciously we have been forced to the people were crying out for more. work among the Mohammedans them- selves. This is especially the case in -The first translation of the Scrip- Sumatra. We have two stations there tures in the Malayan language was where our missionaries have to do exmade by John Van Hasel, a director of clusively with BaUas who have been the East India Company. When he converted to Islamism. In many other had completed a version of the Gospel stations the missionaries have a great according to St. lIatthew, he delivered deal of work among Mohammedans. the manuscript to Peter de Carpentier, And the conclusion which has been the chief director of the company, and reached is that these people are very far therefore this honor belongs to the from being as inaccessible as has been Dutch. The kingdom of Menangha- hitherto supposed. More than 1000 bon, in the central region of Sumatra, Mohammedans have joined our Chrisappears to have been the original coun- tian communities during the last ten try of the Malays, but impelled proba- years." bly by a love of adventure, they possessed themselves at a very early period -Rev. H. A. Robertson writes: of time of the Malayan peninsula. Ma- "One fact which must rejoice every layan is a branch of the ancient and one is this, that I now have 40 teachers widely extended language of which at work on Erromanga. Of that numfragments are to· be found in many of ber, our church in Canada supports 30_ the Islands of the Pacific. The Poly- These 30 teachers themselves support 2 nesian language, ranging from the others, and 8 besides these 32 have been South Sea islands to the East, as far as settled on faith. But as we live in a Madagascar in the West, bears in the practical world, and they must have Malay tongue the same proportion as something to eat, I am going to ask a Anglo-Saxon does in English, and words few friends anywhere and everywhere borrowed from Sanscrit and Arabic oc- to help us pay these 8 men and their cupy in it the same relative position as wives, as they are thus far with~ut any words derived from Greek and Latin guaranteed salary. The sum total of do in our own language.-General C. W. £40, I feel bound in honor to give the 8 DARLI:NG, in OhriBtian Intelligeneer. of them as coworkers with us, for they are as able and useful as any of the -In two recent numbers of the .. Re- other 32, who are on a salary of £5 ports of the Rhenish Missionary So· each. " He has this to say of their ciety," Dr. Schreiber discusses the arduous service: "In this work may prospects of missions among Moham- be mentioned visiting and nursing the 1i:J.edans, and maintains that they are sick and dying, going on foot, 5, 10, 20, nowhere so hopeful as in the East In- 30 and 40 miles, as the case.may be, to dies, and in Dutch East India most the missionary, for counsel, medicine, hopeful of all. .. For mOre than thirty and nourishing Euro!,ean food for these ; years our society has expended at least carrying all that stutt back; and, if need half its force in the effort to combat the be, repeating again and again the same extension of Islam in our three mission joumey for thll same objects…
The Missionary Review of the World — April 1895
ADONIRAM JUDI!ION GOBDON, D.D
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
V~L. XVIII. No. 4.-0ld Series.-APRIL.-VoL. VIII. No. '.-Hem Series.
REV. ADONIRAM JUDSON GORDON, D.D.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
While life lasts, delicacy, if not propriety, restrains the tribute to exalted worth. Love keeps her costliest ointment for the burial, and then breaks her alabaster flask. The tongue is no longer sealed with the seal of silence.
When, at midnight of Friday, February 1st, Dr. Gordon's spirit left his body, one of the greatest and best men of this generation went up higher. It was, like the death of Spurgeon, three years before, the uprooting of one of Lebanon's giant cedars, and the vacant place is correspondingly vast, which such uprooting leaves behind. Fifty ordinary men might have been withdrawn without occasioning such widespread sense of irreparable loss.
Dr. Gordon was, in an exalted sense, a great man. His intellect was of no common order. He had genius, the creative faculty, as well as tal-' ant, the administrative; capable of origination as well as organization. He had the versatility which would have won distinction in other spheres beside the ministry. Had he been a judge', he would have rivalled Sir Matthew Hale for judicial equity and probity;, had he been a trained musician, he might have given to the world oratorios like those of Handel and Haydn; had he indulged his passion for poetry, he might have left epics as well as lyrics behind him, worthy to stand beside Milton's. He could have ruled an empire with the ability of a Cresar, the dignity of a Charlemagne, the urbanity of an Alfred. Only those who knew him best would be able to confirm this judgment, for but few read the man and recognized his real greatness. He was habitually retiring and reticent, and revealed his inmost self only to a few with whom he deeply sympathized, and who held fast the great truths which were to him the cardinal points in his spiritual horizon. Only such were competent to measure him.
He was greatest in his humility. Human standards reckon growth by progress from infancy toward manhood; but, in God's eyes, the truest advance il!l found in a perpetual return toward childhood j we "'Te to. become ae little children. As J. Hudson Taylor says, " God's man moves toward the cradle; it is the little ones that get the Divine fondling and are carried in the Father's arms."
Coleridge sagaciously hints that the highest accompaniment of genius, in the moral sphere, is the carrying forward of the feelings of childhood and youth into the period of manhood and age. Dr. Gordon, beyond almost any man I ever knew, while he put away childish things, kept the child-like traits to the last-nay, grew in childlikeness, so that, when most a man, he was also most a cllild. His whole life and speech'; his habitual temper and disposition, incarnated the filial spirit; he practised the presence of God, as Isaac Taylor would have phrased it, and his eyes were unto the Father, daily waiting for guidance. He haa little need of bit or bridle to bring him to yielding submission: God's glances were all the reins he required.
Certain it is that he was "great in the eyes of the Lord." lIe had the higher genius of go~dness. Such generosity and gentleness, such unconscious unselfishness, such suavity and courtesy, such humaneness and tenderness, are seldom combined in any man. And yet his goodness was never to the abatement of firmness in maintaining principle. His uprightness was inflexible, and, when need arose, intrepid. Here again he was like the late pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in London-that modern Joshua, whose hand could carry the grapes of Eshcol with a touch so dainty and delicate as not to disturb their bloom; yet which same hand could, when occasion demanded, seize the sword of the Lord and utterly destroy the Anakim from before Him.
Vhoever knew Dr. Gordon to shrink when conscience commanded him to testify I And yet he was so gentle and genial, even in witnessing to unpopular truth, that one of his opponents confessed that he would rather hear Dr. Gordon speak what was not according to his mind than to hear any other man discourse what he liked aud agreed with.
He died at fifty-eight, like Spurgeon before him; but he was not cut off in the midst of his days, if such a phrase implies any disastrous failure of incompleteness. It grows upon us that his character and life had rounded out into singularly symmetrical and spherical perfection.
In the beauty of his Christian character, culture, conduct, nothing seems wanting. He had grown to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Even Patience, 1hat last and ripest of graces, had her perfect work. The whole communion of believers can, perhaps, present no one man more mature in godliness and usefulness. He was a ripe fruit, which God simply reaclled down and plucked, as though He would have a closer taste of it at His own banquet board above. There was such a heavenly light on his face that it seemed like a transfiguration begun; and as we beheld llim sitting on the platform at his late twenty-fifth anniversary, one verse came irresistibly to mind: "And all they that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel." .
Dr. Gordon was, first of all, the preacher And teacher, and here he was at his best. His pulpit was his throne. He was one of God's modern seers-essentially a prophet in his insight if not his foresight. He magni- fied his office, and he sanctified it. How reverently he handled the Word of God! To him the Scriptures were the infallible, inspired Divine Oracles.
Other truth he believed because he understood it ; God's truth he under- stood because he believed it. Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowl- edge. He long since sought absolutely to yield himself to the Holy Spirit, and his eyes were anointed with God's own eye salve, that he might see, and his ears, that he might hear; then, what he saw and heard he testified.
The only time I ever saw him betray impatience was when he referred to the audacious irreverence of so-called "higher criticism." To him the point of view from which many modern scholars approach the Word of God is one which disqualifies for a true insight into its hidden mysteries.
They assume the power of mere intellect and learning to discern spiritual things; they assume the absence of the supernatural element, and so do not recognize it. Their theory is essentially a Procrustean bed, and the Scriptures must be made to fit the theory. He could not calmly regard such profanation; it stirred him to indignation.
His preaching was as far as possible from any mere oratorical perform- ance. He had the graces of the finished speaker, but they were all invested with the higher grace of God's ambassador. He taught with authority, but it was with a derived and deputed authority. Among all the renowned speakers at the Northfield Conference, he was facile princeps; and the ad- dress he gave there last summer, on the Holy Spirit, has been pronounced by competent judges the most complete ever given, even from that platform of great teachers. There was this supreme charm in his utterances, that, while those who are less taught of the Spirit seek to defend the inspiration and inerrancy of the Word of God, he so exhibited its wonders, so led the way into its mysteries, so unfolded its hidden riches, and showed such articulated and organic unity in all its parts and members, that doubt was disarmed; and the hearer felt shocked that even scholarly" criticism"
should presume to usc the scientific scalpel upon a body of truth instinct with the living Spirit of God!
Dr. Gordon's literary work had reached singular completeness. The three latest. products of his pen in a remarkable way carry his literary structure to a cl'owning point. First, his" Coronation Hymnal"-mark the uuique title-as though it at once set the crown on his life work, and marked the hour of his own coronation. Second, his new book, "The Ministry of the Spirit," issued on the day of his death, which, more than any other, expresses his characteristic insight into the truth which God gave him to discern and develop. He was to his generation what Luther was to his- a restorer of paths to dwell in ; he brought up from out of the debris of ages the apostolic doctrine of the Holy Spirit's personality, deity, and actual presidence in the assembly of saints, ,and gave it increasing emphasis, for a decade of years. And, third, his spiritual autobiography, just completed, or lacking only its last chapter, which another's loving hand will supply, as the closing chapter of Deuteronomy was added by another pen than that of Moses.
His work at the Clarendon Street Church, in Boston, which extended over a full quarter century, marks his greatest achievement, for there he proved the practicability of his apostolic theory, by reducing it to practice. He built up what is probably the most apostolic church in this country, because characterized by the closest approximation to primitive worship, doctrine, spirit and life. Its central charm, that in which it stands absolutely unique, is not apparent to the common eye-the administration of the Holy Spirit. For a score of years he patiently sought to impress upon his people such vital truths as these : that the Spirit of God has come down to find His seat or "see" in the body of Christ, where, invisibly indwelling, He is ready practically to oversee and overrule all holy activities j that, so far as disciples enthrone the world in His temple, they dethrone the Holy Ghost j but, so far as He is recognized and realized as present and presiding, He actually administers all church affairs, inspiring prayers and praises, preaching and teaching through human lips, leading in the choice of officers, thrusting forth laborers into God's harvest-field, prompting to self-sacrificing giving and whole-hearted serving, and qualifying for varied forms of service by His own enduement. He taught, moreover, that such a heavenly ministry demands spiritual co-operation; that, to introduce or allow worldly men to hold office, or secular methods to usurp those which are scriptural and spiritual, implies an affront to the Spirit of God and hinders His operations, who will not force Himself upon His people. The consequence of such teaching, so persistent ana persevering, is that there has been a gradual elimination of secular maxims, measures, entertainments and methods of management, until this church stands the purest model known to me of an apostolic community. The sittings are free, all income being from voluntary offerings j nothing but simple Gospel teaching is sanctioned ; there is congregational praise led by one of the most devout choirs in the world, which, instead of being a burden on church finances, holds its own prayer-meetings and supports its own missionary j and the whole church is a radiating centre of holy activity in missions among the outcast, * the intemperate, the Chinese and the Jews, and in far-off lands.
This church-life is Dr. Gordon's most complete biblical monument, his permanent living epistle. Here the golden pen of action, held in the firm hand of an inspired purpose, has written out history in sentences which are living deeds, read and known of all men. And the great problem now .. Those who desire to study more minutely the methods pursued in the Clarendou street church under Dr. Gordon's ministry, will1lnd a special paper on this subject prepared by me, and published in THE HOMILETIC REVIEW, October, 1890. before this church-which may God help them to work out to His praise! -is to prove that, in the absence of the beloved pastor, the Holy Spirit still has there His seat, and will demonstrate His presence by the uninter- rupted work He administers. We shall be greatly disappointed and sur- prised, should there be found there any disposition to say, " I am of Gor- don" rather than" I am of Christ." This church is not a mere sheaf of which the late pastor was the bond, and which, now that· the bond has broken, must fall apart. We have confidence that the work Dr. Gordon left behind him will in the noblest sense both survive and follow him, and that no part of it which ought to outlive his personal presence will either decay or decline.
Let those who would rear above such a man the broken column of an unfinished life work, note how God permitted him to tarry until, like Moses, he had led the people of God to the borders of their inheritance ; till he had written his" Psalm of Life" in the" Coronation Hymnal;" till he had shown them the Divine pillar of cloud and fire in the Spirit's leadership, and until he had finished his Pentateuch, leaving only the last chapter to be added. He had written nine books, yet they fall naturally into five classes. " The Ministry 01 Healing" stands alone. " The Twofold Life," " In Christ," " Grace and Glory," and" Ecce Venit," belong together, for they exhibit Christ's work in us and for us, here and hereafter; "The Holy Spirit in Missions" and" The Ministry of the Spirit" form a pair, and his "Hymnal" and "Spiritual Biography" complete the fivefold group.
To his beloved wife he imparted his impression that his work was drawing to a close. He even said to her that if it should be so he would have four hymns sung: "The sands of time are sinking," " My Jesus, I love Thee," " Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well," and "Abide with me." To one, who was to him what Luke was to Paul, "the beloved physician," and who asked for a message, he gave one word-" VICTORY."
There is an advantage in a man's departing in the midst of his prime, when in every respect at his best. We remember men as they are when they leave us; our latest impressions are our lasting impressions. When a man dies in the glory of his complete manhood we have him forevermore with us as he was when he departed, and his influence survives him as it was at its summit of power. When men grow old, feeble, decrepit, and the mind and memory decay, and they verge on imbecility, their influence often declines; they not infrequently commit serious mistakes, which mar the impression of their lives. Dr. Gordon will be remembered as the fullstatured man, whose power was full-orbed, and whose sunset was without a cloud. He is forever beyond the possibility of marring his own life work even by imprudence or incaution, and no one else can impair its symmetry. When his character and career reached their nearest approximation to the ideal, God suddenly crystallized the vision into permanence, and so it will forever stand for men to eontemplate and imitate. I C:ln think of but one man to be compared wi1.h Dr. Gordon for this peculiar type of aLtainments or achievements-Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who, beyond the seas, built up, like him, a Baptist church with singular loyalty to the same apostolic ideas and ideals j who edited, like him, a monthly magazine, The Sword und Trowel, and was, like him, an author of varied and versatile genius j and died at the same age-fifty-eight-and within twentyfour hours of the same day of tho month-Spurgeon dying on January 31st, at five minutes of twelve P.M. (1892) ; Gordon, just as the first day of February, 1895, passed into the second, at five minutes past twelve P.M., and both of pneumonia, after a week of delirious illness.
Of Dr. Gordon's contributions to both the literature and the work of missions, no reader of the REVIEW needs to be informed. For years he has been our associate editor, invaluable in counsel and co-operation. His work in forwarding world-wide evangelization deserves and will hereafter receive separate treatment. Suffice it now to say that, without ever having personally visited heathen and pagan lands, he thoroughly informed himself as to the progress of missions. His best" prayer-book on missions" was" the map of the world," which he kept constantly before him; and with the command of Christ as continually in mind, and the spirit of missions in his heart, he could not live without obedience to the Lord's last words. His will was pliant before conviction and affection, both of which were absorbed in a strong, calm, but resistless current of passion for souls. He could no more limit his Christian activities to Boston or the United States than the sun could forbid his rays to go beyond Mercury or Mars. Any less field than the world was too small for such a man. Samuel J. Mills said he felt, with the Mississippi Valley before him, "pent up as in a pin-hole," becanse his heart yearned over the thousand millions of unsaved souls outside its limits. And so Dr. Gordon's heart refused to be satisfied with any travail for souls that would not satisfy his royal Master and Lord.
As we look back over such a life, it seems so apostolic that it links the first century with our own. It is no extravagant encomium to say that there was, in the passionate ardor and fervor of this man of God, that. which reminded of Paul j there was, in his calm discretion and uprightness, that which suggested James; and no one could observe his deep insight into the mysteries of the truth and his absolute devotion to the person of Christ, without thinking of John. Some disciples pos!!ess the active temperament, and abound in energy j others, the reflective habit, and, like deep and still waters, mirror heaven j but Adoniram J. Gordon united in himself both the active and the reflective. While he led the way in aggressive witness and work and war in behalf of truth and evangelism, he so sedulously cultivated the devotional spirit that his daily life was a secret chamber where he communed with God, and whence he came radiant with the glory of the Holy Presence.
THE APOSTLE
THE APOSTLE COLUMBA.
BY REV. A. J. GORDON, D.D.
It is remarkable in what obscure places the seed is often sown which feeds distant generations. Bethlehem Ephrata was but little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of her came He who was to rule ·Israel. And in no less an humble and obscure place did he labor and pray who is, in some sense, the parent of Teutonic Christianity, the only type of Ch~istian belief and life in modern times which is in any respect worthy to be called Christian. A,. bit of land amid the lashing waters of the Irish Sea-a basalt reminiscence of awful geological disturbance-a dank, stern islet shrouded in IIebridean mists, and yet the home of a saint of Hebraic earnestness, of a ruler whose sceptre was religion, and whose kingdom was the rough hearts of whole septs of barbarians, of a prophet who, with his Keltic contemporaries, laid deep foundations for the blessing of mankind in the succeeding thirteen hundred years.
Of all places, how was it that Iona should have been chosen as the fulcrum for Columba's activities ~ 'Vhat site more bleak, more forbidding, more isolated ~ The story is interesting. Somebody has called attention to the fact that every Irishman who has distinguished himself has done so either on the battle-field or in the courts of law. Columba was no exception. His unregenerate days were spent in foray and feud. The saint was, in the first instance, a red-handed kern, and it may have been penitential and remorseful reminiscence which made 1his lonely spot so congenial to him; but the immediate impulse to settlement there came from his legal entanglements ; for the record is that before his migration from Ireland to Iona, the future saint-his soldier life being abandoned for that of a priest-became involved in a lawsuit with his bishop. The Irish fighting instinct was not yet crowded out of the converted soul. Yet the cause of the trouble was so manifestly the bishop's unreasonableness, that we cannot refrain from giving Columba our sympathies, or from palliating his offence in deviating from the apostolic injunction with which the sixth of Corinthians opens. It seems that Columba, with unwearied enthusiasm, had thrown himself into the task of copying large portions of the Bible verbatim et literatim from the precious episcopal manuscripts. When the work was completed the bishop claimed the copy as a sort of propertyplagiarism. This led to litigation, and the judge (an original Dogberry) decided in the bishop's favor, on the ground that he who owned the cow owned her calf. Thereup~n Columba determined to shake the dust of the homeland from his feet. With a few followers he embarked in a boat of hides, and coasting along the stormy shores of the Scotch islands, landed finally upon Iona, there to begin h~s noble career of evangelization.
Not a very remarkable incident this, taken by itself. As if, for example, a chieftain of the Shire Highlands should become enraged with his tribal suzerain, and retire sulkily to some island in Nyassa Lake. Re- member, however, that events are only truly great or insignificant in their final result; and then recall how far-reaching the influence of Iona and of similar Scoto-Irish communities became. Its domestic mission was that of those who are called the children of God. Columba became a sort of court of arbitrament with final powers, to all the rude tribesmen of Northern Ireland and Britain; and who can measure the blessing which the faithful performance of such a function meant among these barbarous peoples 1 As a foreign missionary his influence has not ceased yet. To him we owe it, in the first instance, that the nation of Livingstone, of 11offat, of Mackay, and of John Paton is what it is. The Erromangians, the Tannese, the Kaffirs, the strangers scattered throughout U nyoro and Uganda and Formosa and Hunan, and every spot which Scotch missionary feet have trod, are to him, at the last, debtor.
How beneficent, how apostolic that Irish missionary movement in the dim twilight of the medireval era! Everyone who has read Schaffie's "Ekkehard" knows how much Switzerland Owes to it. Reichenau and St. Gallen are names redolent with the memories of the distant island. That Scandanavia felt the impulse is clearly seen from the fact that when Magnus, the free-booting king of Norway, swept over the British isles, Iona was the single place which he refused to injure. Northumbria, Germany, even distant Iceland are all under deepest obligations to Columba and to his successors at Iona. Alas that the nation which was a source of blessing to others should have so fallen herself! Alas that the word Ireland should awake, in modern' minas, the miserable associations which group themselves around rack-rent and moonlighting, Tammany Hall and' the Clan-na-Gael! Alas that the candlestick should be removed from the land of Patricius and Columba, and that their home should have become the nesting-place of oppression, of ignorance, and of priestcraft! 0 that the former things might come back! "God save Ireland !"
The following- notes on Iona and Columba are taken from the writer's journal of a visit to the spot six years ago. They are published in the hope that a new interest may be awakened in this father of missions and in the land which cradled him, and in his countrymen, whether in Europe, Australasia, or in America, who under false teaching have drifted so far from the New Testament faith in which he labored.
The day of our pilgrimage to this historic spot will ever stand as a marked day in our calendar. Was it the strange fascination of saint legends and hoary antiquities that drew us with such strong attraction to thi8 rock island of the Hebrides 1 Not altogether. Saint Columba, who lived and labored here thirteen hundred years ago, is called a monk indeed; and the stone ruins which mark his home are called a monastery ; and all this is sufficient to have incited a recent pilgrimage of Roman Catholics to this spot, and an earnest effort by means of masses and
VIEW OF CATHEDRAL AND RUINS OF CHAPTER HOUSE AND
CONVENTUAL STRGCTURES. (From S. W.) CATHEDRAL OR CHURCH OF ST. MARY'S, IONA. (~"rolll S. E.)
THE APOSTLE COLUMBA•
• canonization to hallow it as a popish shrine. The real fact seems to be, however, that Columba was a Protestant, a thousand years hefore the Reformation ; and that in his little sea-girt kingdom he kept the primitive faith in comparative purity, while in its earlier habitats it was sinking into hopeless corruption.
As to his vocation, he seems to have been a missionary more than a monk, and his so-called monastery a seminary for training his disciples in the Scriptures and in Divine communion, to fit them to be his co-laborers in the great work of carrying Christianity into Britain. Let us think of Iona, therefore, as a fortress of the ancient faith, a stronghold of primi- tive Christianity, from which the spiritual conquest of our Saxon ancestors was undertaken and carried on by the sturdiest band of warriors that ever " subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions."
In spite of its rocky solitude, there is a singular charm in the natural aspects of the place ; companion islands stud the horizon in every direc- tion, their rock-caverns affording shelter to myriads of white-winged birds; the peculiar velvety green verdure, which the moist climate nour- ishes, transforming stormy islands into emerald gems; and encircling all, an atmosphere so capricious that it alternately veils and unveils the land- scape with clond and sunshine, giving constant variety to the scene. In- deed, as the Duke of Argyle has said: "There are not many places in the world where those three voices~ the sky, the sea, the mountains, can be heard sounding in finer harmony than round Columba's Isle."
Yonder within near sight lies Staffa, with its wonderful Fingal's Cave.
The tourist who has visited cathedral after cathedral on the Continent, and has become satiated with the voluble discourse of verger and guide, can here gaze in silence upon one of God's cathedrals built without sound of hammer or saw, but far surpassing all others in grandeur; for" there is nothing like this great hall of columns standing round their ocean tioor, and sending forth in ceaseless reverberations the solemn music of its waves." Let a party sing "Old Hundred" as we did, beneath these arches of stone, and as its strains thunder and echo through the " long drawn aisle," let them tell us if they ever heard such majestic music before.
In Iona, however, there reigns an impressive silence, broken only occa- sionally by the lowing of herds and the sounds of sluggish life which issue from a few low cottages by the shore. We wander among the ruins of the little cathedral, believing or disbelieving the legend that here is the stone pillow on which the head of Columba rested at night, and here the grave in which his body was laid at his death. We enter the ruined chapel, made sacred as the scene of fervent and prevailing prayer, and the monas- tery where the Scriptures were profoundly studied and patiently tran- scribed ; but it is not the stones of the arches or the timeworn carvings which most strongly hold our attention. It is of Columbll. and the Culdees that we are thinking; of the life they lived, and the work they wrought, aud of the debt we owe them in common with all English-speaking Christians, as the planters of the Gospel among our forefathers, and of their brave resistance of such as strove to supplant that Gospel by papal counterfeits and corruptions. "7e will not, however, yield to the romancing to which the antiquity of the place tempts us, but rather we will seek to learn the profitable lessons which are to be gathered from the career of a great missionary who chose this as the centre of his operations.
1. The foundation principle of the Gospel which he sought to propagate was sound-justification by faith. We have called him a Protestant before the Reformation. A saying which passed current in his order, and which has come down to us, is, ., Not that the believer lives by righteousness, but the righteous by believing." How much this sounds like Luther's ,. Weare not saved by good works, but being saved by faith we do good works" !
2. Whatever of monasticism marked his order, it was intended as a means to a higher end. He cultivated solitude only for the sake of ser· vice; he was a monk only that he might be a greater missionary. "Farewell, Arran of my heart. Paradise is within thee. The garden of God is within sound of thy bells." So he is reported to have exclaimed on leaving an earlier retreat to become Abbot of lona. But of that selfish asceticism which seeks an ideal Paradise Regained in the ecstatic visions of angelic apparitions in the cloister, while leaving the real Paradise Lost -a condemned and perishing world-to take care of itself, he knew nothing. Perhaps we have something to learn of Columba at this point, if we would be better missionaries. The command to tarry precedes the command to go; a retreat into God should prepare an advance upon the heathen. "As the Father hath sent Me into the world," says Christ to His messengers. But before we can successfully carry out this commission, we must make real that other word of His, " Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world." And withdrawal from this present age, and entering into profound communion with the Lord by prayer and meditation, are the essential conditions of such realization.
3. Columba deeply reverenced and profoundly studied the Holy Scriptures. Who can tell how largely the deep root and tenacious hold which Christianity gained in Scotland may have been due to this characteristic of the earliest missionary to her shores ~ If we would have an established church in the truest sense, we must have a church rooted and grounded in the Word. Columba may be said to be the former of that Scottish Christianity of which Knox in later times was the rpformer. And in no land, we believe, has the religion of Christ borne such a biblical stamp and expressed its worship and its confessions in such scriptural forms as in that country which was the principal mission-field of the lonan saint.
4. All traditions agree in ascribing to Columba a spirit of extraordinary prayerfulness. So much did he depend on communion with God, that, even when laboring among the heathen, who mocked his devotion and disturbed it by violent interruptions, he would never intermit his worship, hut always succeeded in establishing a closet in the midst of his enemies. "It seems," says Dr. Smith, in his" Gaelic Antiquities," "to have been his invariable rule not to undertake any work nor engage in any business without having first invoked God. If about to officiate -in any ministerial duty, he would first implore the Divine presence and aid to enable him to discharge it properly. If he himself or any of his friends were to go anywhither, by land or by sea, their first care was to implore God to be propitious, and their last words at parting were solemn prayer and benediction. If he administered medicines for the cure of any diseases, he accompanied them with prayer to God who healeth. If he administered even counselor advice, he would attend it with a prayer to Him who disposeth the heart to listen, often accompanying that prayer with fasting. In seasons of danger and alarm, whether public or private, he always hltd recourse to prayer as the most effectual way to prevent, or cure, or bear every evil to which man is subject."
What wonder that, with such a spirit, he should have earned the ban of papal malediction ~ Instead of penance he preached repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. In a time when the blasphemous pretentions of the papacy were attaining shape and form, his little community ordained and sent forth missionaries, as though in utter ignorance of the theory of apostolic succession and bishop's ordination. On account of these and many other distinctively primitive doctrines, this community was long under the suspicion of Roman Catholic authorities. Bede lamented " their perversity and blindness." St. Bernard denounced them as a " stubborn, stiff-necked, and ungovernable generation;" which ban we must count their highest benediction, considering the grounds on which it rested.
Beautiful and full of patriar('~al grandeur were the circumstances of his death, as the ancient tradition has handed them down to us.
" In the sacred volume this day is called' Sabbath,' which means rest, and truly to-day is to me a Sabbath, for of this my toilsome life this day shall be the last; on it after my vexatious labors I shall keep Sabbath; this night of the day of the Lord I shall go the way of my fathers." So he spake to Dermid, his faithful disciple. Midnight of that day in June found him worshipping in the church; there the sleep of death fell upon him, and when they had sought him, found him and lifted him up, his face, as the beams of their lighted candles fell upon it, shone like the face of an angel. And so they buried him amid great lamentation.
"Sublime recluse" he has been called; we prefer to name him the master missionary of those whom God used in early days to subdue kingdoms for His Son.
[NoTE.-The correction of this proof was one of the last acts of our lamented co-editor.-A. T. P.]
ANDREW P. RAPPER, M.D., D.D., I.L.D
ANDREW P. HAPPER, M.D., D.D., LL.D.
BY PRESIDENT SYLVESTER F. SCOVEL, WOOSTER, OHIO.
This missionary century has produced no more thoroughly missionary man than Dr. Happer, and few have been so long, and not many so prominently, identified with its missionary spirit and movement. In most things the full and rounded life just closed may be called a typical missionary life. As such I believe it will pass into the history of the kingdom, which is the true history of the world.
It was certainly so in its early consecration and Christian training. A statement preserved in his own handwriting runs thus: "I was born in Washington County, Pa., in the bounds of Mingo congregation, on October 20th, 1818. I was early dedicated to the ministry by a pious mother. I was sent to the Preparatory Department of Jefferson Uollege when eleven years of age. I was carefully cared for by friends in the advanced classes from the first day of my arrival. During a revival in the college in December, 1830, I was received into the communion of the church at Canonsburgh by t.he Rev. Matthew Brown, D.D., when a little past twelve years of age. I was a reader of missionary biography and literature. In my fourteenth year I formed the purpose of being a missionary, and resolved to study medicine as well as theology to fit myself for the work. All my plans in life were made subservient to this purpose. As I was too young to be a member of the missionary association known in different colleges as the Brotherhood (indeed, I did not then know of its existence), my only confidante, was an elder sister. There are three grandchildren of that sister in the mission field now." Is it not typical? Here are the home, the school, and the church combining to set an ingenuous youth of the same age as the Boy-Christ in the temple about the same " Father's business. " Here is the best product of a region and of ancestors of a noble religious type, growing, by the help of the mother (who pondered these things in her heart), the sister, the men in the Christian college (the true annex to the Christiau home), "in stature and in wisdom and in favor with God and man." Moved from within, by steady choice of the world as his field, he found every gracious influence he needed, and appears to have been untouched by any malign one. What an example for our young volunteers of to-day, and what an encouragement for Christian homes!
And the next stage shows only the normal succession to the first. " After my graduation I taught four years. I entered the Western Theological Seminary in November, 1840. I then chose India as the field of my prospective labors. I made its history, geography, philosophy, government, and mythology the subject of careful study during leisure time. In the summer of 1840 I commenced my medical studies, and in October, 1842, I went to Philadelphia to attend medical lectures." Graduated at eighteen (1836), the four years of teaching took him to twenty-two; the two years of theology (with medical reading) occupied him until twenty- four; and the fuller course in the medical college brought him at twenty- six to professional graduation in March (1844), and to missionary ordination in April. Beginning early did not mean imma~urity and. haste for him, even when there were so few willing to enter the white harvest field.
The definite purpose of complete equipment held him fast. Another type to be remembered.
And yet this purpose did not render the future missionary either con- ceited or inaccessible to advice, as witness this further paragraph: "The Rev. Drs. Swift, Elliott, and McGill were my special friends and coun- sellors. During April, 1843, I visited Princeton Seminary and made the acquaintance of Messrs. Culbertson, Loomis, Brown, and Lloyd, who were under appointment to go to China; and in Philadelphia I made the acquaintance of Dr. B. McCartee, who was going to China. During the meeting of the General Assembly in May, 1843, the Hon. Walter Lowrie suggested to me that the Board wished me to arrange so as to go to China with those who were under appointment for that field." Reluctantly the matter was submitted for counsel to the advisers before mentioned, and their advice decided for China. Then followed immediate readjustment of studies. "In Philadelphia I enjoyed the privilege of the Franklin Library, and immediately commenced to read the history of China and to study its geography, philosophy, and religions as a relaxation from medi- cal lectures, quizzes, and studies." It was evidently a larger purpose to be useful that could so easily substitute one line of culture for another, and it was determination of a high order whIch could turn to the study of the new land with a breadth and thoroughness which gave tone to his whole work there. Nor could the yet youthful missionary enthusiast help endeavoring to kindle the fire in other souls. "During the winter of 1843-44 I often made addresses on China as a field of missions, with a map of China suspended before the audience, which, so far as I know, was the first use of maps in connection with missionary addresses. "
Now begins the steadfast service of half a century-1844 to 1894.
" I sailed for China on June 22d, having graduated in medicine in the previous March at Pennsylvania University. As I was a medical missionary and there was no other medical man not located, I was assigned to the Canton station, though my own preference for the station and for my own location was for Shanghai. Subsequently alone and senior mem- ber of the mission at Canton, it became my duty, contrary to my expecta- tions, to mark out the lines on which missionary work would be pursued.
Influences not subject to my control led me to engage in educational work.
In an exigency of the mission, in order to maintain my residence among the people, I commenced medical work, and I was thus engaged in all three departments of mission work-preaching, educaiionaI, medical. I itinerated all about Canton with Dr. Ball when it was considered not safe to go into the country. " Was there ever a clearer case of God's willingness to use the sanctified common-sense of thorough preparation ~ And was ever courage more needed or more rewarded ~ That was no light matter to go out on the good ship Gahota for a passage of one hundred and twenty days. Only five ports were open, and Hong Kong had just been ceded to England in 1841. Everything was to be shaped, even if not to be planted. The hatred to foreigners was intense. Those willing to rent to the missionaries were imprisoned for it in every case, and one such inhabitant died in prison. A mob was raised to exterminate all foreigners, Dr. Happer has told us, when one of them happened to knock over a fruit-basket which stood in a gateway. A little improvement came with the treaty of 1847, but as England would not consent to use force to open the city gates as promised, they remained closed until 1856. No wonder there were years of waiting for first converts. They were able to keep possession of any rented quarters only by stratagem. The case of the Arrow in 1856 brought such riots that all missionary labor was suspended at Canton, and the workers retired to Macao till order could be restored. In 1858 the American treaty protected the Chinese converts, and surpassed, in that, the provisions of the British treaty. From this time on property could be rented or purchased. Other cities were opened. The good conduct of the missionaries had been reported to the central government in answer to a series of inquiries. Facilities for them (it is worth remembering) were first tendered to our ambassador (Hon. W. B. Reed). Though he could not accept the proposal limited to one class, he would not conceal a fact so favorable to the missionaries. Dr. Happer received independent confirmation of this fact from Bishop Boone, and mentions it in the pages of a very brief " Retrospect," printed but not published in 1884, after forty years of service. Just at that time serious complications were arising, and yet the clear testimony was given that" none of the converts had been known to deny their faith even when cast into prison. "
The courage necessary for persistent service sustained this noble man under varied labors and contrary winds of influence. It enabled him to bear the severities of the climate and the severe test of failing health. With serious disease of the heaIt he journeyed once, alone, from China to the United States.
The waiting and the working brought the blessing at last. " It was only after ten years of the most assiduous labor that I was permitted to welcome the first convert, and during those ten years of clearing the ground and of seed·sowing, I felt no more discouragement than I did during a subsequent period of ten years, during which there was a continuous revival, and I was permitted to receive forty persons into the church each successive year" (Anniversary Sermon, p. 26). "As soon as we had any room Mrs. Happer commenced a girls' boarding.school. The work was enlarged on several liues. Dr. Kerr was sent, at my request, to relieve me of the medical work. Miss Noyes enlarged the work for the girls. Mr. Preston and Mr. Condit continued the itinerating, and I continued the pl'eaching and the educational work. Some fille hundred converts were received into the first church while under my charge, and some fifty of the pupils of the training school became assistants in various capacities as preachers, teachers, colporteurs, etc., while under my care. Some of them went to California, the Hawaiian Islands, and Australia. Two were ordained as evangelists, and three others were licensed."
This would seem to be enough for even a largely planned life, but there is more. Side by side with the engrossing work, and off the field as well as on it, Dr. Happel' has kept up a remarkable literary efficiency. He never wrote without some specific end in view, and always with the real logic and eloquence of facts. He was careful of authorities and painstaking in examining them. Some of the earlier studies in Chinese literature are of permanent value, and the range of subjects is large. We regret they cannot be mentioned here in detail.
But it was for China that his pen and thought were most busied. He began the stndy of that marvellous country and its massive population and its venerable institutions before he had seen either. He began to write about these things toward the latter part of his work, and after his return from the field he maintained the keenest interel:tt in and watchfulness for China's good. It is to be desired that in some form his views and experiences may be given to the Christian public. They must be omitted here.
Passing on from this we are arrested by another marked feature in Dr. Happer's life work. He believed not only in the educational side of mission work, but had special convictions concerning tbe place of the higher education as a factor in winning the world to the great Teacher. It has been seen how early his own attention was turned toward this work as indispensable in preparing a native ministry for China; and he had a high conception of the function of the Christian college in the civilized countries as imperatively demanded for the raising up of ministers and missionaries. A child of such an institution in the very origin of his spiritual experience and missionary purposes, he could never feel that any other purpose should supersede this for a Christian college, nor could he understand anything of the feeling that marks this end as relatively inferior. His interest and conviction were both expressed in moving pleas for his Alma Mater (Washington and Jefferson), and in connection with all that he said and did after his removal to the seat of the University of Wooster. His early work in this department was fruitful. "The students of this training school were all converted under my own ministry except a very few. Some fifty were connected afterward with the mission as Christian workers in various capacities." And this though the boys were required b~fol'e they left home to promise not to become Christians, and forced at each return home to worship the ancestral tablets to show that the promise had been kept. He had been effectively aiding in the work of developing a medical missionary college during the last year of his life by correspondence and personal effort. He could not but deplore the fact that while so much help was afforded those who would enter mission work in other directions, almost nothing had been done to aid in the necessarily expensive medical training now so much needed. He wrote with a heroic tone against the idea that self-sacrifice kept young men out of missions and the ministry, and was only anxious to facilitate their way through difficulties for which they were not responsible by pleading for the Christian colleges at home and abroad. To the latter he had given most earnest efforts. About $120,000 had been secured in payments and pledges for the endowment of such an institution, which, for evident reasons, he thought should be situated not in the district in which he had labored, but in Northern China. To this, it is proper to say, his will intended that the accumulated result of a life-time of economy and wise use of originally small sums should be dedicated. It is to be hoped that his wishes may yet be carried out as to location, endowment, and the predominance of English as the language of instruction. And as he expected the final influences of his life to be concentrated in this direction, it was most eminently fitting that the subject should be chosen for the discourse delivered in April, 1894, on the occasion of the celebration by the Presbytery of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination as a missionary. That address was published by the Presbytery (Pittsburgh), accompanied with a brief biographical statement and a photograph. A large edition was circulated, and it is soon to appear as one of the permanent documents of the Presbyterian Board of Aid for Colleges.
But let no one suppose that even this marked estimate of one agency led Dr. Happer to be ignorant of or out of sympathy with any other. On the contrary, that which finally impresses itself upon us is that he was pre-eminently a "fellow-worker unto the kingdom of God." Nothing that promised to glorify Christ and save men was foreign to him. For evangelistic work at home and abroad, on frontier and in city depths, among our home-born and among all the scattered and exceptional populations, he has expressed the profoundest interest. Nothing elicited warmer commendation than the enterprise into which the Young Men's Christian Association has grown-the sending of secretaries for work among the young men of the East, who are, just as they emerge from heathenism, in such special peril. No participator in the great Detroit Convention of the Volunteers enjoyed it more keenly or understood its significance more thoroughly. He loved loyally his own denomination, but nothing fettered his affection for the Church universal or his intelligent enthusiasm for the Church militant. His constant reading and questioning were concerning the things of the kingdom. Missionary literature of more than one epoch he haa at command. He was an ardent patriot and had clear convictions as to governmental policies, internal and international, yet he was profoundly convinced of the true brotherhood of man, and knew better what it meant than thousands who use the phrase ignorantly and selfishly. The kingdom of God was not only real to him, but the greatest and all-embrac- ingreality. The future consummation was certain. All the work in the hot sun was nothing but a condition. The fewness of the laborers and the vastness of the harvest were burned in upon his soul. He thought of all young lives given to this service as reaching man's highest possibilities.
He was willing to take any place and any reward, though entering early and working late. Everything that touched the kingdom anywhere touched him.
Physically he was tall, straight as an arrow, and, when in health, moved quickly. His eye was especially bright, his face expressive, and his manners courteous enough to be called courtly. I never heard him say a bitter word of anybody. Charity and not criticism was the law of his lips. He was quiet and self-contained, yet responding most readily in conversation. He rather sought than gave advice. Modestly estimating the worth of his own work, he never paraded either attainments or honore, while yet sensitive to genuine appreciation. He was dowered with in- domitable perseverance, and could carry forward a life purpose as silently as a deep river would flow. He loved books much, but men more and the kingdom most. He had the deepest sense of the merit and worth of his fellow-workers, and delighted in honoring them in every way possible.
He was hopeful, pre-eminently, because he belie·ed so profoundly. To the last day of his life this was evident. I cannot forget the glow with which he expressed the conviction that all was going well in the world despite all appearances to the contrary. His confidence was invincible, and certainly none knew the difficulties better than he. He was devoted to prayer. Almost every article closed with a call to prayer. His last look on retiring for the last time rested on the" Cycle" of prayer. The last publication to which he called my special attention was that number of the Student Volunteer which was wholly given up to prayer. The last book he was reading was Dr. Piersoll's "New Acts of the Apostles," and his paper-knife laid in the chapter on prayer.
Dr. Happer's life was long. He died on October 27th (1894), having lived one week of his seventy-seventh year. Yet he never seemed con- scious of being a member of a past generation. The work was so much to him that the" sunset hours" were felt to be the right ones for special diligence. There was just a gradual deepening in the intensity of the desire to be useful. He was nearly a complete exception to the general rule. Whittier wrote to Holmes: "The bright, beautiful ones who began life with us have all passed into the great shadows of silence."
And Holmes answered to Whittier: "You and I are no longer on a raft, but on a spar. At our age we must live chiefly in the past.
We are lonely, very lonely, these last years." But loneliness I never saw in Dr. Happer's life or heard from his lips. The glow of something more than life's sunset was visible in his remarkable activity. It was the Christian's sure hope for himself and for the race that not only gave him something more inspiring than Whittier's" calm trust in the eternal goodness, " but made the knowledge that he could still be useful a complete deliverance from a life in the past. Glorious result!
Dr. Happer did not seem to have a cloud of disappointed ambition or a murmur of discontent as to the ratio of progress in the great work. Around him gathered appreciative friends, and during this year his third degree was granted by the University beside which he lived. Influence through the press and speech continued to the last. There were plans to meet and mould successive classes of young people, of whom there was good reason to hope many would enter the mission field and of whom some 'would go to China. He was permitted to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination. One of his sons (Mr. Andrew Happer, Jr.) was at home from civil service in China to pay affectionate attention du:ring the last months and days. And death itself, it was so ordered by God's good providence, came quietly and with the least possible suffering. It was as Whittier wrote (in 1869) : " I will not teach, in mournful speech, That joys are brief and hopes are lies; To life well spent, its sun's descent Is cloudless as its morning sides."
And it was true as Holmes wrote (in 1881) : "The dismantling of the human organism is a gentle process more obvious to those who look on than to those who are the subject of it."
Taking his life as a whole, the epitaph the poet already quoted wrote for Samuel E. Sewall (1884) may be applied: " Noiseless as light that melts the darkness is, Be wrought as duty led and honor bid; No trumpet heralds victories like his, The unselfish worker in his work is hid."
Dr. Happer loved nature. He chose the site for his new home because it opened upon scenery like that specially associated with his youth, and now, by his own direction, he lies with his forefathers amid the scenes of his youth, the impression of which he had borne with him over all seas and through the long years. The picture will never fade out of the minds of some-this venerable servant of God and friend of man, seated in his study surrounded by mission books and by the brilliant colored Chinese inscriptions which adorned the walls. His identification with that land continued unbroken. The estimate of him there, on the part of the Church general, was expressed in the resolution passed by the four hundred and thirty missionaries present at the great Conference of Shanghai in 1890. At an earlier visit to this country the following testimonial was numerously and representatively signed: "The undersigned foreign residents of Canton, irrespective of creed or nationality, desire to unite with your friends and colaborers in Pekin, Shanghai, Canton, and other cities of China, in hearty congratulations that you have been permitted to enjoy so long a career of usefulness and honor, with its arduous duties and great responsibilities, on a field of missionary labor demanding unflinching fidelity and steadfast devotion to a sacred trust, blended with judicious action and exemplary life." The Daily Press, of Canton, at the same time said: "He is, we believe, the only Protestant missionary who has remained at his post for the long period of forty years. His sympathies have always been ardently enlisted in his work. He will be missed in Canton and China." We may add that his death will be a great loss to China in the United States. He knew the past of missions and of diplomacy. He had received the highest marks of respect and confidence there. He had the ear of the people here. Close touch was maintained with the best sources of information. He was always ready to correspond privately or write publicly as to what needed to be known or done with regard to China or the Chinese in our own land. He had the wisdom of long experience and the courage of conviction.
Dr. Happer's place in missionary biography will be a marked one. He entered China just after the earliest pioneers. His work admirably supplemented theirs, and enlarged it and made it bear permanent fruit in all departments. He aided to give standing to all missionaries and all their work by his unblemished life and intelligent service of nearly half a century, and by close intercourse with high officials. He took up the questions of his time with profound study. He helped to interest thou. sands incidentally and directly in the work for the vast Empire of the East.
In closing wc may recur to thc intimation made at the opening. This is a typical missionary life. Its ultimate origin was in the heart life of a covenanting mother. Its conscious origin was in a choice as early as it was intelligent and firm. Its proportions were indicated by the thoroughness of the preparation determined upon and actually realized. It exhibits a remarkable combination of initiative and submission to sound advice. No opportunity came amiss, whether in preaching or printing or practising. the medical art, or teaching or planning or research or diplomacy. Some. thing creditable was done wherever there was occasion to do anything. Closest intercourse with the best side of the great nation he learned to respect and to admire in some things never blinded him to its lost condition or to the necessity of the stricter Christian casuistry in guiding the lives of the converts amid their perplexities. This life was helped in saving men by keeping in touch with everything which could be counted an important factor in their earthly lives. Seeking first the kingdom, knowledge of all was sought which could either help or hinder it. This whole life was marked by intense devotion, steady persistence, unflinching courage in all dangers, invincible hopefulness under all delays, and the patience which marks the perfect man. The motive of this life was love
HINDU REFORMERS OF TIDS CENTURY
of men, the sustaining power in it was the whole Word of God, and prayer was ever, through wrestling with God, the renewal of its vigor. Its activity was incessant, and continued by the willing spirit to the last possibilities of the failing flesh. Never content with what could be accomplished alone, this life was characterized by a generous enthusiasm for co-operation with every agency that could serve or save mankind, and ever deeply concerned for the number and character and quality of those who were to come after and press on the work to its certain and glorious consummation.
And now what an appeal for enlistment sounds out of this missionary life so typical in its duration and breadth, its intensity and efficiency! Can anything be too good for foreign missions ~ Can any career go beyond the possibilities of missions in offering to our Christian youth (young women as well as young men) the noblest possible opportunities for the employment of the rarest endowments most carefully cultivated ~ Joseph Cook has said: "There is a best way to live, and it is best to live the best way." In the light of missionary biography, the best way seems to be the missionary way. Who will be " baptized for the dead" 1 HINDU REFORMERS OF THIS CENTURY.
BY J. E. TUPP.
Hinduism is often spoken of as one of the most conservative forces of the world, and in some respects it may be considered to be so. But the Hindu religion of to-day is not the religion of two thousand years ago. Excrescences of all kinds, the natural growth of many centuries of ignorance and superstition, have accrued to it, and it has been the aim of all reformcrs to remove these excrescences and to restore Hinduism to an older and purer form. Many such reformers there have been. Through all history a constant succession of them is seen, but only in a few cases has their influence extended beyond the people and race of their own time. In this century three prominent men have arisen, who have endeavored to lead their countrymen back from idolatry and polytheism to the theism which they profess to find in the Upanishads and Vedas, the early and sacred books of their religion. Many have hoped that Hinduism, assailed by them from within and by Christianity from without, was about to enter on a brighter day and a purer faith. These hopes have not been fulfilled.
Ram Mohun Roy, the earliest of the three reformers, of whom we wish to give a short account, was born at the close of the last century in Burdwan, a district of Bengal, of rich and high-caste parents. As with many other reformers, his more iconoclastic opinions disappeared with his youth, and the temperate zeal of his mature age brought him fewer converts than the fiery zeal of his earlier years promised. While still very young, he published, with the aid of the press established by the Serampore missionaries, a protest against idolatry, thereby raising against himself such a storm of indignation that he was obliged to leave his father's house and for some years to become a wanderer. During this time he was, however, supplied with sufficient funds to enable him to travel about the country, making religion, practical and theoretical, the object of his study and research. He penetrated as far as Thibet, attracted thither by the fame of the Buddhist religion j but after a time he was compelled to leave the country, having there also condemned the mass of fable and idolatry which had grown round what he had expected to find the pure theistic religion originally established by Buddha. In his twenty-first year he returned to his father's house j but the idolatrous practices of his countrymen again compelled him to break silence, and again he had to leave his home, and this time he made his way to Calcutta. For some years he appears to have remained there mastering the languages–Hebrew, Sanscrit, Arabic, and Greek-which would enable him to study the holy books of the great religions, Jewish, Hindu, Mohammedan, or Christian, in their original dress. He had thus access to all sources of human knowledge, and was well fitted to arrive at conclusions to which intellect alone was guide.
The opinions he formed were such as have appeared very attractive to many minds. In the sacred books and in the minds of men he thought he saw everywhere implanted a belief in one great Supreme Being, the Arbiter of the destinies and lives of men during their passage through this world, their Judge in the world to come. The fatherhood of God, the brother hood of man-two prominent dogmas–he thought he found imbedded in all religions j the love and veneration due to the first aud the duties to the latter everywhere inculcated. Caste he denounced as anti-social j idolatry as degrading to the worshipper and insulting to the Ruler of the world. He preached pure theism as a basis on which all the religions of the world might be re-established, and all nations united in concord and peace. It is both strange and interesting to see, from the East as from the West, this idea arise as the great hope of the future, given out by those who believe in the power, the benignity, and the love of the great Ruler of the universe, but who are unable to receive the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Inspired by the hope that these doctrines had only to be preached and to be made known to ensure their universal adoption, Ram Mohun Roy, in 1830, established an association, since known as the Brahmo Sabha (the Society of Brahm, the Supreme Being). The idea attracted many, though there were few declared adherents. A house was bought in Calcutta, a small endowment was raised, and regular services were established. But now it was evident that the founder was no long~r the root and branch reformer he had been in his earlier years. Caste was recognized, though formerly so strongly condemned j the Scriptures read were confined to the holy books of the Hindus, and were expounded by learned Brahmans. The life and character of Christ, though often spoken of before in terms of the greatest love and reverence, were never referred to in thc services. In everything it was evident that the adaptation of Hinduism to what was deemed an enlightened time, not its radical reform, was the object aimed at. Instead, however, of remaining in Calcutta to watch over the interests of the young society, Ram Mohun Roy, within a year of its foundation, left the country for England. There he received great attention and notice; but he was chiefly, as was perhaps natural, attracted by the Unitarians, so much so, indeed, that at this time he might almost be considered one of their number. He continued his religious studies, and published a book in which he spoke of Jesus as " the Founder of truth and of true religion," and of His precepts as "the sole guide to peace and happiness." But though he called himself" a follower of Christ," who is " the spiritual Lord and King of Jews and Gentiles, " he refused, when dying shortly afterward in Bristol, to be baptized, and gave special instructions that he should not be buried as a Christian, lest the interests of his heirs should be prejudiced. His visit to England was in itself a violation of caste ; but from his time to our own Christian baptism has been the one final breaking of caste rules, from which no recession is possible.
The early death of its founder was an irreparable loss to the little society in Calcutta. It lingered on for some years without much life or influence, known only to a narrow and ever-narrowing circle, until new impulse and life were given to it by the rise of another reformer, a man of much the same stamp and spirit as its original founder.
Babu Debendro Nath Tagore was born in Calcutta in 1818, the son of millionaire parents, and was, in his early youth, surrounded by all the sensual indulgences which especially beset such a family in an Eastern city. The account of his awakening to serious things-an account given in words which would seem appropriate to some medireval mystic-may be best given in his own language: "From my sixteenth to my twentieth year I was intoxicated with the pleasures of the flesh, regardless of spiritual interests, and dead to c.ooscience and to God. Once, on the occasion of a domestic calamity, as I lay drooping and wailing in a retired spot, the God of glory suddenly revealed Himself in my heart, and so entirely charmed me and sweetened my heart and soul that for a time I continued ravished, quite immersed in a flood of light. The world outside and the world within both seemed bathed in a sweet and serene stream of celestial effulgence. What was it but the light of truth, the water of baptism, the message of salvation ! Was it a vision that so charmed me 1 No! The living presence of the living God, who could doubt 1" But this season of ecstasy was followed by a long period of struggle, and it was not till he reached the twenty-fifth year of his life that he felt his "inferior propensities curbed," " the wild fury of passion abated," "conscience reinstated in its exalted place," "the world shorn of its attractions," and" God made his only comfort and delight. "
The zeal of the young and eager enthusiast soon attracted notice, and a circle gathered around him. His wealth was of the greatest help in enabling him to erect a school, to found a press, and to start a periodical. The new society attached itself to the old and now languishing one established by Ram Mohun Roy, and. branches' were established. Its object was, as his had been, to revert to the pure theistic doctrine of their forefathers; to encourage a knowledge of the natural sciences, astronomy, and natural history, believing that increase in such knowledge could only add to the glory of God; to lead lives of holiness and self-dedication to good works. Authority for this faith they believed to be enshrined in their sacred books. Nath Tagore not only set himself to the study of Sanscrit, in order to have access to the original writings, but he deputed four pandits to visit Benares to procure and to investigate there the earlier Vedas.
The result of their labor was disappointing, as, indeed, might have been anticipated by anyone acquainted with the works, of English Sanscrit scholars. Though pure theism might be inferred from some parts of the Vedas, yet their teaching was so contradictory, and in some places so unmistakably pantheistic, that they could no longer be considered the source of fundamental truth. A new covenant was therefore drawn up, by which all the members of the association bound themselves to worship no created being, but only the supreme Brahm, the Maker of all.
But though the authority of the Vedas had thus been radely shaken, they still retained the first place in the worship and in the services of the Brahmo Sabha, or Somaj. The Christian Scriptures were acknowledged to be entirely theistic, but were not allowed to supplant the national writings.
In 1858 the Brahmo Somaj entered on the most vigorous portion of its existence by the accession to its numbers of Babu Keshab Chandra Sen, a man well fitted by character, learning, and position to be a leader to his countrymen. Hope ran high, not only in India, but in England and other countries where he was known, that here at last was the man who would lead his countrymen to Christ. These hopes have· not been fulfilled.
Babu Keshab Chandra Sen, a member of a distinguished family, was born in Calcutta in 1838, and was brought up in the special worship of the Vishnu. But the education he received in the English college, though not directly Christian, proved, as it so often does, destructive to the Hindu faith. In the light of Western knowledge, founded on facts and on history, the old legends concerning the gods of the Hindu Pantheon seemed ridiculous, and the rites by which they 'were worshipped debasing. For some time he remained in religious apathy, believing all religions to be equally unfounded; but at last he felt that in this state of mind no happiness could be obtained, and he sought refuge in prayer. He has himself told us how, at this time, he was helped neither by book nor by any man, but by the voice of God speaking directly to his soul. His experiences even more than those of his predecessors seem like those of the Christian convert.
It was not nntil this time that the Babu heard of the Brahmo Somaj, so quiet and unaggressive had it become. A tract that came his way made him acquainted with it, and he immediately sought an interview with Rajendra Isath Tagore, aud soon joined his association, which now took to itself the high-sounding title of " the Church of India."
Though at this time still very young, the Babu's influence soon became paramount. For the first time the little society was roused into missionaryactivity. Even Nath Tagore, still the nominal head, was so moved by the younger and more ardent reformer, that he gave up his Brahmanical thread, and removed the family idol. Every effort was made to quicken the life of the association, to rouse them to a purer worship and more active philanthropic life. The Babu himself gave up his appointment in the Bank of Bengal in order to become the minister of the community, and to devote his whole time to its service. Like his predecessors, he had prepared himself for this position by devoting much time to the study of all religions, and to the onslaught that had been made on them j and, like them, while he spoke of the Christian Scriptures with the highest reverence and praise, the traditions of his race and his feelings as a patriot still tempted him to give the Vedas the first place among the religious writings of the world.
For some years the two leaders worked together with as much harmony as could be expected from two men who, though one in aim, were very different in temperament j but at last dissensions arose, and the younger and more advanced section of the community broke off, under Babu Keshab Chandra Sen's leadership, and formed a more democratic society of their own, under the title of " the Progressive Somaj."
As with the older societies, they proposed to find the foundations for their beliefs in the sacred books of the world, and more especially in their own j but the Babu has put it on record more than once that, in his opinion, the highest authority of all was to be found, not in these books, bUl in the direct voice of God to the human soul. In contradiction to his frequently declared disbelief in supernatural revelation, he maintained that at different times God had raised up for Himself prophets, to whom He had, in a more special and intimate way, revealed Himself and His will. In this category he placed the prophets of the Old Testament, Christ and Mohammed, and in more or less express terms he claimed himself to be the prophet raised up in these last times.
Of the extreme eclecticism of his views, the following extract from a contribution to the Theistic Quarterly in 1880 will be the best exponent: " To me the Bible is a blessed home, to which I often like to retire after my refreshing devotions, and I read and meditate over the Old Testament and the New. From such perusal I derive much help, much sympathy and much comfort, much profound response to what I treasure as the most sacred treasure of my being. The Bible is the Word of Life indeed. It seems as if the Bible was written for me especially. In the Shastras of my own country, III the Upanishads, the Bhagvat Gita (the Divine Song), I feel as if I am breathing my own natural atmosphere. It is to me an- other home, replete with clear and hallowed associations of national an- tiquity, full of the fragrance of a piety as original as it is true and congenial to me. It is as impossible for me to cease to be Hindu in spirit and aspiration as it is impossible for me to change my skin. The Upanishads and the Bhagvat furnish the staple food of my being. I may as soon cease to contemplate on them as lose my spiritual existence. Buddhism is to me also divine. The discipline and ordinances of Sakya Siddartha have a strange authority and attraction for my nature. In meditativeness, in self-congeniality, in peacefulness, in mental illumination and internal peace, Gautama is my ideal, and from Buddhism I sincerely declare I derive spiritual help which no other religion can afford me. With some of the sentiments of Hafiz, Sheikh Sadi, and Moulana Roum I-have come in contact; and what is there to equal their beauty, their depth, their tenderness, their intoxicated spirituality ~ Therefore, I say, my glorious religion has opened out to me the Scriptures and the spiritual treasures of all nations."
The great aim of the Brahmoists from the first had been the unification of all religions, but few could subscribe to such a confession as the above.
As time went on there were again disagreements in the society, largely caused by the extravagant claims and autocratic behavior of the leader. In 1878 a definite split occurred, the immediate occasion being the marriage of Babu Keshab Chandra Sen's daughter to the Raja of Kuoh Behar. Both bride and bridegroom were under the marriageable age, and child marriage was one of the customs of his country which the Babu had most strongly opposed, while the rites by which the marriage was celebrated were such as seemed idolatrous to many Brahmoists. Again a band of seceders formed a new church, believing themselves to be returning to the faith and aspirations of the parent society.
The Babu still led the older association, but in time his pretensions alienated many from him. In imitation of the Church of England, he issued a creed of thirty-nine articles, and in extravagant words he proclaimed his new dispensation.
" All other dispensations," he wrote, " are harmonized and unified in the synthetic unity of the new dispensation. A whole hos/' of churches art:. resolved into a scientific unity. In the midst of the multiplicity of dispensations in the world there is undoubtedly a concealed unity, and it is of the highest importance to us all that we should discover it with tlie light of logic and of science. " Hi issued a proclamation to " All my soldiers in India." "Ye are my soldiers, my covenanted soldiers. Ye are ' bound to fight valiantly and faithfully under my banner, and no other shall ye serve."- Such language did him at the time much harm ; but after his death, which occurred soon afterward, the extravagances of his later years were forgotten and the great services of his earlier ones only remembered. No successor has been allowed to enter his pulpit, and his memory is still fondly cherished by many. In his later years some enthusiastic followers worshipped him as if he were a god, and these honors were accepted by him.
One other band of reformers must be briefy mentioned. It is that which is now known under the name of the Arya Somaj, and was founded in the middle of the century by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a Mahratta Pandit. Like the other reformers of whom we ha.ve written, Dayananda was in early youth repelled and disgusted by the idolatrous rites of Hinduism. Like them, he set himself to travel and to a study of the other religions of the world. He became a convert to pure theism, for which he thought he found sanction in the Vedas. He proclaimed their authority as entirely contradictory to the Hindu practice of his time. But, unlike the other leaders, he refused to acknowledge the sanctity of the ancient books of the other religions of the world, and a determined opposition to Christianity and a desire if possible to suppress it, even by law, in India became in time one of the most marked aims of this society. This aggressiveness has been in some ways an advantage to it, and of all the sects of reformed Hinduism, it has no'w the largest number of adherents. It has given itself up largely to fostering education, and ha~ branches in many parts of India and one in London.
Notwithstanding the high character and elevated moral aims of the Brahmoist leaders, the movement cannot be considered to have had a success at all commensurate with its early history and expectations. It has, indeed, been a half-way house for some who, in the light of modern education, can no longer believe in the grosser superstitions of Hinduism, but are still unable to accept the Christian Gospel. Its negative creed, without anything 9f that" super-rational" element (as Mr. Benjamin Kidd calls it in his lately published and much-talked-of book), has been unable to affect changes in the life or to keep the active devotion of its professed adherents. At the last census its numbers were found to be below five thousand, and these were divided into three different and sometimes hostile parties. Not only have the hopes of its own party been dashed to the ground, but the hopes also of the Christian world. The reformers had been hailed as men likely to lead their countrymen from idolatry through theism to the bright light of the Gospel. Something they have done, and their influence has probably been of wider extent than their numbers would indicate; but we have again seen that more vivifying influences than purely intellectual ones must be at the bottom of any great religious movement. The love of Christ constraining the hea~t of man is the only lever that will
FACTS AND FIGURES FROM BRITISH INDIA
be found sufficient to raise the people of India from superstition and heathenism to the worship of the one living God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
FACTS AND FIGURES FROM BRITISH INDIA. * BY PROFESSOR GEORGE H. SCHODDE, PR.D., COLUMBUS, O.
The English Government has published in a volume of 299 pages the tabulated results of its last census of India, the most extensive that was ever undertaken, upon which more than a million dollars were expended. A census of the entire Roman Empire would have been a small affair in comparison with that of British India, which contains fully 287,000,000 human beings, or the fifth part of the human family. It is a territory in which the population each year increases on the average 2,700,000, and the collector of statistics returning in a decade will find an increase of 27,900,000, a popUlation almost as great as the entire kingdom of Prussia contains. The number of children under five years of age is 45,000,000, almost equal to the population of the whole German Empire. In India there are no fewer than 22,600,000 widows, of whom 250,000 are not yet fourteen years of age.
Some of the figures and data of these census statistics are very instructive. British India is no industrial country; 171,700,000 of the inhabitants devote themselves to agriculture. The era of large centres of population has not yet reached India. Only 27,200,000 Jive in cities, and these do not increase at a greater ratio than the population as such. The census reports only 28 cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants, the total population of these being 6,173,000. In all India there is not a single city with a population of a million. Bombay, with its suburbs, is the largest, but has only 821,764 people.
European ideas but slowly permeate these masses. It is naturally impossible to compel the Indians to marry widows, but the law has prevented their being burned alive. It is a doubtful specimen of human feeling to permit lepers,1)f whom there are 126,000, to marry. But the law has certainly did the correct thing prohibiting their being buried alive, as was done before. In 1891-92 there were 655,500,000 letters, papers, and packages sent through the mails in India. Railroads have now been built over 27,077 kilometres (nearly 17,000 miles), but even this means of intercourse has not been able to break down the caste spirit, although 126,600,000 passengers were carried in 1890• • Digest largely from an article by Director Zahn, In the .AUge1Mine Mi8BiorI8. ZeU8ehrift, No.7, h. a. _nd what a Babylonish confusion of tongues exists in polyglot India! The most widely spread is the Hindustani, yet this is spoken only by 85,600,000 of the population, or only about 29 per cent of the entire people. The census reports no fewer than 117 different languages in the country. Of these, however, there are 5 Indian, 8 Asiatic, and 23 European tongues, which are together spoken only by 5601 people j 17 other languages constitute the means of communication for contingents of from 1000 to 10,000 ; 22 per cent of 10,000 to 100,000, and 22 more are used by fewer than a million people. Yet there are more than 20 languages in British India, each spoken by more than a million people. The least of this class is the Pashtu, with 1,080,931. Next to the Hindustani comes the Bengali, with 41,300,000 to use it. Five other languages, "among them the Telugu and the Tamil, are each spoken by more than 10,000,000.
These languages are anything but closely related, and by no means belong to the same family of tongues. The census divides the 117 languages in question into 17 groups or families. Of these the most important is the Aryan or Indo-European, spoken by 195,400,000 Indians, while the next numerically is the Dravidic, including 14 languages spoken by 52,900,000.
In educational matters excellent progress has been made. It is less than half a century since the government determined to take this matter into its own hands. The census makes a distinction between public institutions of learning, which are supported entirely by the State; aided institutions, supported in part from the State treasury, and unaided private institutions. The middle class has decreased in the last ten years; the first and third class have increased. About two thirds of the pupils attend the private schools and one third the public. The schools of the second and third class each number about 60,000 j the public State schools, 21,235. Of these 142,038 schools in India, 139 have university courses, 154 are seminaries or normal colleges for teachers, 10,496 are secondary or advanced schools, 130,874 are elementary schools. The elementary schools report 3,284,751 pupils j the secondary, 548,036, and the seminaries and universities, 21,632 students. The number of natives who secure academic degrees is comparatively small. Five universities have the right to examine for degrees, and these have an established reputation for refusing degrees to any and every unworthy candidate. In the last five years 81,086 applied for admission to final examinations, but only 26,940 were passed. Of course the masses in India as such are not yet educated. The great majority of the natives are still analphabets. An examination of the report shows that of every 100 East Indians, 94.7 cannot read nor write, this percentage being unequally divided between men and women j but of 100 men nearly 10 per cent can read and write; but of 1000 Indian women only 4 have this accomplishment.
The religious census is probably the most interesting in these instructive tablets of figures and facts. Here is the result: 1. Hindus (Brahmans)………….•..•… 207,731,727 2. Mohammedans …….••••……..••… 57,321,164 3. Aborigines (Animists) …………. , … . 9,280,467 4. Buddhists..••.•….•……….•…… 7,131,361 5. Christians •••••••….•.••••………. 2,284,380 6. Sikhs..•.•.•.•.•..•……….•.•…•• 1,907,833 7. Parsees …•….••••…….•……..• 89,904 8. Jews..••….••…•…•…….•.•….. 17,194 9. Unclassified ……………………. . 42,763 TotaL …• " .•••.•…….•…•..•. 285,806,793 The Christians are scattered all over India, but constitute different percentages of the population in different localities, varying from 7 in every 100,000 in the Panjab, to tIle Presidency of Madras with 2 out of 1000 ; in fact, about three fourths of all the Indian Christians live here. The Christians of India are not all the fruit of mission toil. Fully 35,645 European, 36,082 Eurasian, and 200,000 Syrian Christians are not converts of this work. Of the remaining 2,012,197, the Roman Catholics can claim 1,243,529 adherents. It is interesting, in this connection, that the official census for the first time gives us reliable data on the Roman Catholic work in India. The reports of the Missiones Gatholica! concerning the propaganda have all along been inaccurate and exaggerated. Of the Protestants, 371,692 are found in the Presidency of Madras, while 102,367 are found in Bengal and 96,226 in Burma. There are 592,612 native Protestant Christians in India. divided among the denominations as follows: Church of England ..•••…•.•••.••……• , … 164,028 Presbyterian ………•.•.•.•………..•…. 30,915 Protestants ……….•.•••…•.•………… 49,223 Lutherans …•………•.•..••……••…..• 64,243 Baptists•..•….••••….••••…• ' ..•.•••…. 186,487 Met.hodists ………….•………•••…..••• 13,412 Others …………….•………….••..•.. 84,305 Total. …•……………. , ….•….• 592,613 Just who are meant by " Protestants" and" Others" in the tables does not appear. The growth of Protestantism is seen in the following: 1861 there were 198,087 Protestants, 1871" "286,987 " an increa8e of 88,890, or 44.9% 1881" "492,883 " " " "205,895" 41. 7% 1891" "592,612 " " " " 99,730 "20.2% Dr. F. M. Zahn, who is a well-known German authority on mission subjects, in discussing these statistics, draws attention to the fact that there is a heavy decrease in percen'.;age during the last decade compared with the figures of preceding decades, but inclines tq the belief that there must have been some error in making the summary, either in the last report or in the data for earlier years, and thinks that the matter cannot be definitely decided until the statistics for 1900 will be on hand. Should, however, all the figures as given be entirely correct, then the ratio of increase is smaller in India now than formerly. Zahn thinks, too, that the objection urged to Christian work, that while the increase in population in India is each year 2,700,000, the entire number of Christians is only 2,200,000, and that consequently the absolute increase in population is greater than the entire Christian community, is not to be regarded as discouraging, because similar objections could have been made in the early days of Christianity, when the apostolic Church went out conquering and to conquer. The question is whether the leaven of Christianity is at work in India, and this is th~ase beyond a doubt. At any rate, the Protestant Church there increased at a greater ratio than the population of the empire. During the period in which statistics are at hand, the population has increased 10.9 per cent, while Protestantism has increased 20.2 per cent. This increase is, however, disproportionally distributed. In Bengal the increase of population stands to the increase in Protestantism in the proportion of 7.3 per cent to 22.4 per cent; in Madras, 15.9 to 24 per cent; in the Central Provinces, 12 to 58 per cent; in the Northwestern Provinces, 6.2 to 271 per cent. In Bombay the data are even more favorable to Protestantism.
These last figures go to show that when Christian communities once begin to grow they increase in per cent more rapidly when in the hundreds and thousands than they do when in the tens and hundreds of thousands. Again, these statistics show that the general rapid development of Protestantism in India is not only the direct result of mission work. Without doubt the marriages of Protestants, because contracted on a higher moral plane, are more fruitful than the heathen marriages. While a general comparison in this matter is not possible, such comparisons can be made in some special cases. The Basel Mission congregations in India during the decade of 1882-91, in a community of 7557 souls, report an absolute increase of 1875 souls by births, or 24.8 per cent, while the general increase in Gentile India has been only 10.9 per cent. A further increase of 6 per cent the Basel missions secured during this period from without, making a total of 30.8 per cent. Deducting losses of all kinds, these mission congregations during the past decade grew through natural increase by 24.8 per cent, and a further 20.5 per cent through additions from without. If other Protestant missions can leport the same experience, it is safe to pronounce the development of Protestant missions in India as healthy and safe, and the prospects for Gospel conquests more than fair.
Dr. Cust does not pass so hopeful and favorable a judgment on mission work in India. In a recent article he criticises Protestant missionaries, and compares them unfavorably with Paul and Columbanus and Bonifacius, as also with modern Roman Catholic missionaries, and, in fact, even with
THE LONDON MISSION IN TRAVANCORE
the propaganda workers of the Hindus and Mohammedans. In this regard he seems to like the view which the German traveller Weismann expressed some years ago of the missionaries he met in Africa, who claimed that the Protestant missionaries worked on the principle of ora et labora, while their • Roman Catholic competitors inverted this order and attended to the labora before the ora-i. e., sought first to civilize and only then to Christianize the natives. Cust's leading criticism is that the Protestant missionaries of India do not exhibit to the native the living example of " the most ex- cellent gift of self-sacrifice. " Dr. Cust also fears that if once the protect- ing arms of the British Government are withdrawn from India, the whole fabric of Protestant churchdom in that country will crumble to the ground, the reason being that it has not been established on an independent, self- sustaining apostolic basis.
Zahn, in answer, very properly draws attention to Cust's inability to prophesy or predict in this matter, owing to his strong convictions that the mission churches should be under native government and authorities exclu- sively. Recently he protested loud and long in the Times against the ap- pointment of a European bishop for Africa. Zahn thinks that possibly Cust's ideas could be applied to the churches in Africa, and that these could stand on their own feet and become indepQndent of European con- trol, but that the time to establish this principle in India has not yet arrived.
THE LONDON MISSION IN TRAVANCORE.
BY THE LATE REV. SAMUEL MATEER.
The Western Coast was the first part of India where Europeans landed and opened direct intercourse with the people, thus commencing a new era in the history of mankind. As Columbus first lighted upon the Bahamas in his search for India four hundred years ago, so, about the same time, Vasco da Gama was blown to the West Coast of India, under the rule of the Zamorin, of Calicut, which became the subject of the npble epic poem in Portuguese called the Lusiad. South of Calicut lies the native State of Travancore.
The shores of Travancore are covered with the feathery cocoanut-palm, in its gardens are cultivated numerous fruit-trees, bananas, coffee, tea, and fragrant spices, while the valleys and' lowlands are irrigated and green with rice, producing a golden harvest twiee a year. Inland, the country is well called Malayala-hill and dale-while in the background rise the lofty range of the Western Ghauts, with grand precipices, beautiful waterfalls, primeval forests, and scenery of romantic beauty. The torrid heat of the East Coast is not so often experienced, but there is no winter to relieve the pressure on the European constitution. Travancore must be studied as ethnologically a distinct and very peculiar district of India. There are no child-marriages among the Malayalis, but females have considerable liberty of choice when arrived at maturity. Numbers of celibate Brahman women will be found there, because only one son in each Malabar Brahman family is allowed to marry, in order. that the ancestral estate may not be diminished by subdivision. Among Malayalis no woman ever can be a widow, because she never is truly a wife. The system is one of concubinage, in consequence of which the mother's brother is the guardian of her children, the paternal relationship being of no account in the eye of the law. Malabar law is, therefore, curiously opposed to ordinary Hindu law.
Among the two and a half millions of people in Travancore we find a marvellous variety of race and religion. The ancient colony of Jews numbers (including those of Cochin) about 1400. We have 150,000 Mohammedan traders, fishermen, and agriculturists, for the most part ignorant of their own religion, bigoted, and superstitious. All along the seashore are seen the churches of the Roman Catholic fishermen, with others inland, for 180,000 of that sect; while over North Travancore are the venerable churches of the Syrian Christians, with their ancient hierarchy and elaborate ritual, followed by 250,000 of that faith. Altogether no less than half a million, or one fifth of the whole population, are already nominally Christian,. constituting that country the most Christian country in India.
Among the Hindu population there are no less than 420 distinct castes, most of whom cannot eat together, and none can intermarry. In their secluded groves and villas dwell the high Malayali Brahmans, before whom the king himself must bow. Around the sacred temples dwell the numerous servants who attend the shrine. In lowly huts among the palm groves live the tribes who climb these trees for their produce, on which they live. On the sands of the seashore dwell the laborious fishermen, in the rice swamps the toiling slave castes (now nominally freed), and in the hills the wild men of the woods, while in the towns are found, besides artisans of various trades, the gentry, the magistrates, lawyers, teachers, and other professional men. The strata and gradations of population are many, and their diverse manners and usages would form the study of a lifetime.
This interesting little country was formerly the scene of cruel oppression and Oriental misgovernment. Being quite a corner of India, shut off and hemmed in by the great mouutain wall on one Flide and the Indian Ocean on the other, modern advance had not reached it, irritating and depressing taxes and benevolences were levied, criminals were tortured and torn asunder. Impalement was the punishment for the murder of the sacred cow; internal conflicts were frequent, and two thirds of the Hindu population were regardetl as low and polluting in caste, to whom, therefore, the rights of citizenship were denied, clothing above. the waist disallowed, and their property and lives were at the mercy of the higher classes.
The government of Travancore under its native maharaja or king is purely Hindu, the country having been too far from the seat of Mohammedan rule to be conquered by them. Hinduism has, therefore, been conserved in its primitive purity and power. The country is regarded as dedicated'to the god Patmanabhan, or Vishnu, represented by the Brahmanical priesthood. The iron shackles of caste have been closely maintained. Demon worship, serpent worship, ancestor worship, sorcery, and the darkest and most terrifying superstitions multiplied the sorrows of those who had turned away from the light of the God of heaven presented by the Jews and early Syrian Christians, and who" did not like to retain God in their knowledge."
In this populous and diversified field our fathers and predecessors labored, for it they prayed earnestly and gave liberally, especially sixty years ago, when multitudes came over to Christianity, destroyed their devil temples, and ranged themselves under the banner of the cross. Our missionary predecessors, whose names are little known now in Britain, but are recorded on high, did a noble work in the conflict with the powers of darkness and evil, and in toiling to teach and discipline and organize the rising native church. The missionaries were foremost in pleading for needed social and political reforms, and thus greatly benefited the country, and now gratitude for British justice and freedom and religious privileges fills the hearts of many. We are known there as the friends of the poor, yet not enemies to any; only opposed to priestcraft, injustice, and oppression.
The beginning of the mission was small and unpromising. A single missionary, a German, humble but learned, laborious, and self-denying, entered the country single-handed, in spite of the frowns of the native government and the opposition of the Brahmans. During his period Ringeltaube brought hundreds to Christ, and afterward was succeeded by others, under whom many thousands were instructed. Now we have a great mission, our joy and rejoicing in the Lord, well conducted on a scriptural basis, fairly equipped for past needs, and now receiving considerable reinforcements, while a great step in advance is being taken by strengthening present stations, opening a new one in the north, and raising the seminary to the grade of a college affiliated to the Madras University.
The success achieved in Travancore has been fully commensurate with the means used, and quite repays the devoted efforts and loving gifts and earnest prayers expended upon it. From a memorandum of the statistics of 1880, compared with those of 1890, furnished to the Census Commissioner, we find that there has been growth during those ten years in every item of missionary work. There has been a steady increase of native agency, preaching and educational, male and female; an increase of the total number of professing Christians and baptized communicants j an increase in the number of boys and girls attending school, and in the contributions of native Christians toward the work of God among themselves, with a view ultimately to self-support and self-propagation.
While the total population of Travancore has increased during the past decade from 2,400,000 to two and a half millions, a ratio of 6.4 per cent, the number of Christians in the London Mission has grown from 41,347 to 49,260, equal to over 19 per cent-just three times the natural increase of the population. And we can see the progressive improvement of each generation under Christian education and discipline and pastoral care, though we also see and acknowledge that there are still many unconverted hearers who are Christians only in name and profession. In our Sonth Travancore Mission we have now 299 congregations comprising 50,637 native Christians, and 16,393 children, over half of whom are the children of heathen parents, but also taught to love the Lord and read His word and sing and pray, and promising, most of them, to become Christians as they grow up.
And still cheering tidings continue to reach us from Travancore, notwithstanding the death of several valued laborers, such as the ingathering of a hundred and ten persous in four months in a village near Trevandrun, among whom were nine devil-dancers and priests, one of whom had been for fifty years a most bigoted heathen. Indeed, the number of devildancers converted this year in our various districts is very remarkable. We have also heard of the destruction of two demon temples and the capture of several images of Kali, queen of the demons, of the progress of native pastorates, the baptism of several lepers, some of the wild Hillmen learning to read, and asking for teachers and schools, and classes for medical stuuents and for Bible women progressing. Several persons of good caste and education are inquiring, and hundreds of caste women under instruction in our zenana mission.
Could our readers witness the results already achieved in Travancore, they would realize more fully the importance of the work that has been accomplished. Could you see something of our congregations of people, once devil-worshippers trembling before malignant spirits and seeking demoniac possession and familiar intercourse with the powers of hell, now clothed and in their right minds, heartily singing the praises of our blessed Saviour and humbly bowing in prayer before Him, then contributing to His cause their little coins and garden produce ; could you see some of those dear children in our schools and hear them read the Gospels and sing their sweet lyrics ; could you be present at the weekly report meetings of our preachers and teachers with the missionary for counsel, instruction and prayer-men who a hundred years ago would have been leaders in devil-dancing, sorcery, and mischief, as now they are in godliness and work for the Master, your hearts would be cheered and invigorated for further effort, and you would join as never before in the song of praise to Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. In fact, Christianity is becoming a power in Travancore. As already mentioned, Christians all told number half a million, a fifth of the population of the State, and fully equal in number to the Sudras, who regard themselves as the Malayalis, and are the rulers and landowners, the magistrates, police, and military of the kingdom.
And not only in Travancore, but throughout South India native Christians are coming to the front in education, law, and medicine. Their children are attending schools in larger proportion than any other class, taking part in government service, and beginning even to beat the Brahmans in university examinations, who have for three thousand years been the brain and the men of leading in India. Native Christians are likely, according to a recent report of the Director of Public Instruction in Madras, " in the course of a generation to secure a preponderating position in all the great professions, and possibly, too, in the industrial enterprise of India."
I have sometimes pointed out to respectable Hindus, as a secondary argument, that if they do not embrace Christianity and place themselves in the front of that forward movement, while such numbers of the poorer classes are coming under instruction and rapidly rising, they will ultimately become the despised heathen and virtual low castes, while the Christians shall be in the truest and most real sense the " high caste" people of India. The balance of power will, in time, with the progress of enlightenment alter from the haughty and oppressive Brahmans, relying on their traditional prestige alone, to the middle class Sudras, the present bone and sinew of the country as regards property and general influence, and from the Sudras power must inevitably come in time to the native Christians, if they will be faithful to the principles of God's Word and commandments, taught them by the missionaries. God is forming a new nation in India. Already signs are visible of the revolt of the Sudras tlgainst Brahmanical ascendency in many ways. In Travancore they begin to protest against the corrupt favoritism and costly gifts bestowed upon the priestly Brahmans in the Land of Charity. In 1892 the maharajah was weighed with his sword and shield and royal ornaments against his full weight in pure gold, and of this sum half was bestowed on the officiating priests and half on the Tamil and Malayalam Brahmans, and nothing for the Sudras!
But the more successful our work becomes, the more it needs in men and means and united effort. We must care for our present converts and congregations and schools, else they will retrograde or even die out. The convert churches, like our own children, must be fed and nourished till they arrive at some maturity of growth, as some have already done. We need still to labor on for the conversion of all classes in Travancore. As yet the high castes have not been brought in in any considerable numbers. The barbarous laws obstructive of Christian progress that still obtain call for reform, and the family relationship must be purified, which only
THE CONDITION OF PARIAH ., OUTCASTS" IN INDIA
Christianity can effectually accomplish. We need prayer and more indio vidual dealing with souls for the spiritual conversion of mere nominal Christians, and a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit to fit them to evangelize other parts of India. A forward movement is needed in Travancore as well as in England.
We want more native teachers for Pulayars, Kuravars, and other humble castes that are appealing for instruction for themselves and their children. I have for years been obliged to caution our catechists against extensions which we had not means to maintain. With a sufficient staff of teachers we could at once bring under instruction many thousands of the poorer classes in Travancore. We want some help toward church buildings required not for individual congregations, but for special united meetings. We are opening a new station intermediate between Trevandun and Quilon with two missionaries, for whom a staff of helpers and suitable buildings will be required. Magnificent opportunities for usefulness present themselves, of which we should eagerly avail ourselves.
We who labor in the foreign field have no doubt as to the ultimate result. Victory is assured to us by the Divine promise, and we are on the winning side, for God is with us. Any day we may see, after all the preparatory work that has been done, greater results than the Christian Church has ever witnessed before-the ingathering of a glorious harvest, a new Pentecost, a nation born in a day.
I have seen in one of the Hindu temples a beautiful life-size piece of sculpture representing the god Krishna treading on the head of a great serpent, while he securely grasps the body and tail of the reptile in his hands. They tell us of a black serpent whose infectious breath poisoned the river Jumna, so that cattle and men died as soon as they drank of the waters. Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, appeared for their rescue, combated with the serpent, which twisted its mighty folds round his body, but he seized it, trampled upon its head, and danced in triumph over its mangled body. Here is a reminiscence of the old promise, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," and an unconscious prophecy of the glorious time coming, when Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, shall triumph over Satan, and abolish his dominion and works and worship and rescue the nations so long enthralled by his mighty power and poisoned by his deadly venom.
THE CONDITION OF PARIAH "OUTCASTS" IN INDIA.
BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, DARWEN, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND.
Abject poverty holds millions of natives in its withering grip throughout the Indian Empire. It is impossible to find another country on the face of the globe where so many are in bondage to want or endure continually such terrible misery. While the patience of these hapless myriads is characteristic, the time is overdue for efforts of a more decisive nature to effect some amelioration of their lot. Strange as it appears, even Hindus themselves of very enlightened type have scarcely grappled with the physical misfortunes of their fellow-countrymen. Of that large body of India's own children who have figured as educationists, reformers, statesmen, and patriots, not one has stood above the evils of caste system or devoted adequate attention to the miseries of the despised and wretched beings known as the "outcasts" of India. The pariah in India is the pitiful counterpart of the four-footed animal pariah-the dog, with which every traveller is familiar on Eastern shores.
Numerous causes of a general and specific nature haTe intensified the degradation of vast numbers of India's population and relegated them to shameful wrongs and disabilities. Of these the most potent is the unfeeling system of caste. Suffering humanity presents its worst disclosures among natives at the lowest point in the social scale, for whom the members of caste, with rarest exceptions, have neither regard nor mercy. On this question Christian missionaries are in strong unanimity. A trustworthy agent of the London Missionary Society at Salem, in Southern India, has lately rebuked the leaders of the National Congress, who, in denouncing the unwillingness of the government to grant a wider franchise, are themselves equally exposed to the charge of refusing corresponding privileges to their humbler fellow-countrymen, which all classes share in virtue of a common nationality. " England," he says, "may have given a tardy recognition to the demand for political enfranchisement, but India still withholds social enfranchisement from thousands of her own sons." In illustration of this it is related that a public well was sunk in a garden belonging to a certain union. The well was approached through a narrow gate, and over this was affixed a signboard with the inscription: "Pariahs are not allowed to enter this enclosure, or to draw water from this well." On account of such privations the Hindu pariah has a claim upon the sympathetic ear of the world of brotherhood hardly surpassed by any other being on earth. Ill-treated perpetually, he is an exile in his own land, and, of him, it has been pathetically said that he is in reality an " out-caste," living outside village bounds, existing on the verge of starvation, and often disputing his food with the dog and carrion bird. The pariahs are practically slaves, whose afflictions cry for the swift help of mankind, and the coming of the time when there shall be " -no more crippled, nor weak, nor bent; No more painful, nor impotent."
The multitudes in this travail reach amazing figures. They were returned from the Madras Presidency alone in 1882 at 4,439,253, or over 15 per cent of the population. Throughout Southern India in particular such unfortunates are exposed to a heartrending struggle for existence. Lack of water is a dreaded spectre. The sun, especially in the summer season, dries up the streams and tanks, when these children of the soil are scorched and shrivelled. To satisfy the cravings of nature, tens of thousands of them have to drink water from dirty, stagnant pools, gener- ally at great distances from their miserable bamboo huts, or go without it altogether. Little can it be wondered that their dwellings are beds of cholera, dysentery, and fever, and should a slight water famine fall upon them, they are said to die off like flies. What tragedy this implies may be gleaned from returns during the span of the last generation. As against the. thirteen famines which happened in India between 1802 and 1854, when 5,000,000 perished, there befell the people, between 1860 and 1879, w.hen railways and irrigation works were supposed to do away with the perils of famine, no less than sixteen, in which 12,000,000 natives died of starvation, a large proportion of them belonging to outcast tribes and communities. These appalling figures lend urgent emphasis to the noble words which Mountstuart Elphinstone addressed to posterity regard- ing India: "It is not enough to give new laws or even good courts; you must take the people along with you, and give them a share in your feel- ings, which can only be done by sharing theirs." In the present age, which assuredly is being swayed by the most intelligent and widespread humanitarian movement that the world has ever seen, it is not improbable that the pangs of India's needier millions may be relieved by the outflow- ing of more brotherly compassion.
Acknowledging heartily the endeavors of the English Government to elevate the social status of the Hindus, these, it must be observed, have not materially affected the non-caste populations. Through a variety of circumstances the latter have not come within the scope of the justice and liberality of the British raj, and consequently they require exceptional protection and assistance. Even the charitable exertions which radiate from the mission centres merely touch the fringe of this national misfor- tune and evil.
From another source reformation must gradually proceed. By the most competent authorities on Indian life it is allowed that the prevalence of caste is answerable for the bulk of the wretchedness and cruelty, and on its relaxation depends the happiness of multitudes. Whatever 'govern- ment and Christian institutions may accomplish, the barriers will in a great measure stand, unless the caste orders are convinced that no moral pollution is incurred by the ministry of pity to the meanest of their fellow- creatures. It is along this path that missionary teaching is being incul- cated, not without some encouragement of the breaking of a glorious dawn: " From whose broad doorways seems to shine An effluence Divine."
Notwithstanding the occasional plea that the discipline of caste has certain moral and social advantages, Protestant missionaries glory in preaching a Christ who is equally the foundation and crown of the whole
1891S.] FAMILY LIFE IN INDIA
race, in relation to whom" there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." From that Oriental empire, with its solitary missionary sower for every 500,000 natives, rises a yearning cry inviting the witnesses of a fruitful faith to herald a humane and spiritual righteousness, by which the "Eye of Asia" shall yet become a jewel of light in the kingdom of Christ.
FAMILY LIFE IN INDIA.
BY ALBERT NORTON, B.D., MACEDON, N. Y.
Family life is not the same among all the Hindu castes, nor is it the same in the same caste through all the varied provinces and districts in India. As Max Muller says, "A sentence beginning with' The people of India,' or even with 'All the Brahmans,' or 'All the Buddhists,' is followed almost invariably with something wrong j as there is a greater difference between a Hindustani, a Bengali, and a Dravidian than' between an Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Russian, yet all are classed as Hindus."
Tn regard to the ill-treatment of Hindu women, as a general thing, judging from my experience in Western and Central India from 1872-89, I feel that it has been much exaggerated in missionary addresses and litera- ture-no doubt unintentionally. During those years spent in Berar and Western Central Provinces we did not find the women of the low castes nor of the middle castes, like the Kunbis (farmers), to be imprisoned in their zenanas j but, as far as we could discern, they seemed to lead a very freeand-easy life, and to have it no harder than their husbands.
For some years my wife and self, with our five boys, lived at Bhaisdehi, a Hindu town of about three thousand population. We were the first persons of European descent to live within thirty miles of that town. The town and surrounding country had never been under Mohammedan influence nor very strong Brahman control. There were two leading families: one belonged to the Kshattriyas, the military caste (and this family were descended from the native general who had defended Fort Gawilghar against the Duke of Wellington in 1803), and the other family (its leading member claiming the title of " prince") belonged to the farmer caste. While the women of these two families and a few others were kept in seclusion, the great majority, like the wives of farmers, goldsmiths, and merchants, were not. When I quoted the statement from the MISSIONARY REVIEW, "At the head is, not the husband and father, but the wife and mother, to whom are subordinate all within the house," my older boys, remembering our intimate life and close association with the Kunbi families at Bhaisdehi, at once said, "That is the way it was in the part of India where we lived."
Afterward, when our home was in a wild region on a mountain plateau, where we had built a house partly for health, a Kunbi family, which we had known for years, during a seyere storm stopped with us in our house for two days, eating and sleeping there. There were the husband and wife, their two boys, about twelve or fourteen years old, and the two girlwives, a little younger than the boys. Our impression was that the little girls were very fond of their mother-in-law, and that she was as kind and gentle to them as though they had been her own daughters; and we felt thankful that a Hindu family could be as happy and comfortable as they seemed to us to be, though it was contrary to the tradition of the missionary story-books of the cruelty of the Hindu mother. to her daughters-inlaw. There are many good things in the prevalent customs and laws of the Hindus, like their abstinence from intoxicating drink, their hospitality to kindred, and their kindness to strangers. Of conrse there is a dark side to Hindu life. On this we have the testimony of Hindu women of high caste, like Ramabai, of Poona, and Sundarbai Powar, of Bombay; and their witness as to women's condition in the Hindu home is of more value than all the papers read at Chicago on the subject at the Parliament in 1893.
Yet the conviction has been growing upon me that harm has been done to the missionary cause by exaggerations as to the immoralities of the natives of India. The statements of Dubois, James Mill, and other writers in wholesale denunciation of a large empire of people, about whom they actually knew but little, have received too much credence by missionary speakers and writers.
I have no doubt that the idolatries and superstitions of Hindnism cause great suffering and harm to both men and women, and the only way to remedy it is to bring in the light of the Gospel to banish the darkness of heathenism. At an inland town like Bhaisdehi, almost wholly cut off from the influence of ungodly Europeans, the influence of earnest Christian teaching is soon felt on the Hindu community in raising it to a higher and better moral level, though there be but few converts; so that such a place would cease to be a fair representative of average Hinduism.
Dr. J. Murray Mitchell says: "Hinduism, confirred to India, is professed by over 200,000,000. For the most, the wildest Polytheismreckoning gods and goddesses by hundreds of millions. Among educated men, it becomes Pantheism, acknowledging only one being in the universe-spirit: the world around having no existence. Only say-believing it-' Aham Brahma,' 'I am God,' and you have attained the height of wisdom.
"Hindu caste is a stupendous system, affecting one's whole life. Violate any of these rules, and you are expelled from society ; father and mother cast you off; you suffer social death.
"Suttee, self·murder under the wheels of Jagannath, and infanticide have been suppressed by the British Government; but the general heartless treatment of widows and of the lower castes, child marriages, and many similar things survive, inwoven with the whole framework of Hindu society and thought."
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GBAOEY, D.D.
Higher Educa.tion on the Mission Field. nati ve converts has been gathered in, then in that station the great work of the mis· BY REV. W. M. HAYES, TUNG CHOW COL· sionary is to make of them .. Iiving epis- tles known and read of all men. .. This LEGE. NORTH CHINA. was the plan of the most successful mis- sionary the world has ever seen, for un- During the past twenty years there less those already received walk' as has been in many parts of the world a " children of the light" and lead better rapid development of educational work lives than the heathen around them, fur- as a mIssIOnary agency. As a result. ther preaching is well· nigh foolishness. we now have a reaction. Many, view- ing the expenditure, are beginning to This pastoral care can seldom be suffi· question the wisdom of such a course, ciently provided by the foreign mission- and ask. " Why this waste of the oint· ary himself. The experience of almost ment? Would it not be better to employ everyone has been that stations spring these men and use this money in direct uP. not where he chooses. but where evangelistic work 1" the Spirit listeth; and so, without any design on the part of the missionary, ex- There is no question but such a course cept that of going wherever men seem would yield larger immediate results. most inclined to believe, he finds the lit- The different mission boards would be tle bands of converts widely scattered. able to extend their agencies over a The result is, he cannot visit these sta- larger territory, and temporarily we tions more than once every two or three should probably have a larger number months. Some of the hardest working of native Christians. Unless, however, and most successful missionaries in proper pastoral care and religious in- Shantung find that once in six months struction is made possible, this growth is all that they can do. Even if the for- will not continue. Not only will the eign missionary could instruct each lives of the converts. as is too frequent- flock every Sabbath, provision must be ly the case, fail to commend Christian- made some time for a native pastorate. . ity to their heathen neighbors, but the The Church does not propose and defections in their own number will be should not be expected to keep up an most disheartening. It is not strange apostolic succession of missionaries in that it should be so. To expect a native any field. To educate a native ministry church, composed of untaught converts, is the one feasible method of providing to grow spiritually, to take an active in- instruction for the native Church, and, terest in the advance of the Redeemer's without controversy, it is the only pas- kingdom, and that without anyone torate which the native Church can capable of ministering to them in the afford . Word of God, is to expect of these .. babes in Christ" what the Church at In regard to the education needed, home does not expect of her members. many reason that the most intelligent of the converts, if given the elements of Remember that the great majority of a theological course, are as pastors suffi- our converts are still in the wilderness, cient for the present need. But if such only a few removes as yet from the dark men-and their usefulness in many ways Egypt of heathenism; that, owing to is not denied-are sufficient for the pas- human inability to always separate the toral care and instruction of the Chris· true from the false, there is with them tians, much less Is It necessary to give the a" mixed multitude," and the necessity missionary himself a college and semiof continual pastoral oversight becomes at once evident. After a small band of nary education before sending him out These are in the China field at least to instruct the heathen. This experi- the main objects of higher education ment, as well as that of taking young as a missionary agency. That once men and giving them a fair collegiate in a while a graduate engages in and theological education, have both some different employment is no obbeen tried, and there is no question but jection. It is not to be expected that the latter, all in all, are by far the more every man is adapted for one of these efficient men. forms of work. We must not be dis- couraged even if a man now and then Higher education on the mission field fails us. Even such a personality as is designed not only to furnish pastors Paul's could not prevent some of his for the native churches, but teachers helpers going back to the world. We also for the elementary schools. The cannot, even at the risk of a failure now almost universal adoption of this agency and then, allow anti-Christian schools is a sufficient proof of the efficiency of to furnish all the educated men. these primary schools; but here, too, higher education must precede the low- To give a good education in mission er, for the reason that we must have the high schools and colleges is necessary, teacher before we can have the school. not only to train men, but also to at- The teacher in such cases is not only tract men of good ability into the serexpected to teach, but also to be a lead- vice of the Church. It is often urged er, in the station, to conduct the Sab- that a mission school should confine itbath services, to preach to the people self chiefiy to religious instruction; but who may drop in, and to defend Chris- even in a Christian land it iEl obvious tianity before the heathen literati. In that very few young men of talent such cases the keener the scythe the would be attracted to a school whose better it will cut; in other words, if curriculum consisted mainly of the these men are carefully selected, the "Peep of Day," .. Pilgrim's Progmore thorough their education, the ress," etc., gradually advancing to the more efficient they will be. more difficult moral and theological treatises. Much less may we expect The medical work is also one of the such a school to attract talented young main indirect missionary agencies of the men belonging to heathen or non-Protpresent time; yet, to make it of lasting estant families. benefit, it should accomplish more than the mere breaking down of prejudice. In the case of some of our most use- It should be self·propagating. A dis· ful men Christianity was not that for pensary with from eight to ten thou- which they first came to us, but none sand patients a year can accomplish have graduated without voluntarily much among the more thoughtful na- first becoming Christians. The aim of tives as long as the succession of medi- the mission school is both to attract and cal missionaries is kept up. That, to train men. While religious instructhough, is not and cannot always be tion rightfully claims an important done; too often the dispensary has been place, yet we must also remember that closed because the" beloved physician" knowledge is power, and that a disciis called elsewhere. The higher educa- plined mind is one end of education_ tion, by providing young men ready At the same time, its instructors, while trained for a medical course, tends to teaching science, should teach God in obviate this difficulty, and the medical that science. Geology can be taught missionary who gives his time to their so as to impress its students with His training, while he may not for the present far-reaChing plans for human comfort; make such voluminous reports of work astronomy with the vastness of His done, is doing both as a Christian and a thoughts; physics so as to show the philanthropist a work of a far more wonderful powers with which He has abiding character. endued matter powers which are continually showing new capabilities of cation on the mission field is that men ministering to human wants. If, in are needed " who shall be able to teach teaching these and other science, we others also," who as evangelists, pasfail-as sometimes we sadly do-to in- tors, and teachers can feed the Church fuse a sense of reverence, of humility, of God, for it is as true now as it was in of gratitude, of adoration to Him who the days of Peter, the unlearned as well is God over all, the fault is ours and not as the unstable" do wrest the Scripthat of higher education per 8e. tures to their own destruction."
How extensive the curIiculum of a Present Sta.tus of Instruction on Mismission college may be is often a vexed sions in Theological Seminaries. question. Unless the funds are specially contributed for that purpose, I BY REV. JAMES EDWARD ADAMS, TRAVdo not think that they should be used in teaching anything except that which ELLING SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN has a direct bearing on evangelistic work. To give students, e.g., a course INTER-SEMINARY MISSIONARY ALLIin civil or electrical engineering, while good in itself, can hardly be claimed to ANCE, CHICAGO, ILL. be the intent of the original donors of those funds, and honesty requires ac- In the fall of 1894 the American Incordance with that intent. The lim- ter-Seminary Missionary Alliance unitations of the curriculum are found in dertook to gather precise statistics the fact that these funds were contribut- from the theological seminaries of our ed for the evangelization, not civiliza- country concerning specific, systematic tion of the world.. The latter will fol- instruction in them upon the evangelislow as a result without our direct effort. tic mission of the Church in the world. This investigation covered 51 of our Time fails me to speak of the diffi- leading schools. In as many cases as culties of such work-the disposition so possible the data were collected not often shown by the students to pay for only from the authorities, but also just as little as possible, their unendur- from student sources in order that the able conceit, and in some cases their un- information might cover both points of willingness to serve the Church which view. Personal visits were made to 11 has educated them unless they receive seminaries, and the subject studied in remuneration equal to what they could its local bearings. As a result, it was command elsewhere. We must remem- found that of the 51 seminaries, (1) none ber, though, that college students in had individual chairs on missions; (2) 6 Christian lands are not noted for mod- had the subject as an officially recogesty, nor do seminary students always nized integral part of a chair; (3) 34 pay their own way as far as possible. reported the subject as unofficially in- We are sometimes_ cast down to the cluded in the general instruction of depths because a young man, after some other chair, as of Church History. being educated, is not willing to endure Practical Theology, etc.; and (4) out hardness as a good soldier, and neither of 34 catalogues examined, 18 made no is every man here who has been educat- mention of the subject in their printed ed by the Church. These are difficul- course of study ; one reported an opties, however, to be overcome, not to tional course of several terms in the be excused by comparison, nor to be specific history of missions; and sevregarded as unsurmountable. The final eral had special endowed lecture courses end of mission effort-a self-taught and for the occasional treatment of missionself-sustaining native Church-will not ary themes. Under class (2), of the six, be reached if we draw back because of three either never have had, or have a few lions in the way. not now the missionary part of the chair in actual operation; in the re- The great imperative reason for edu- maining three the average amount of time actually given to the subject is thirty-sil: hOllIS for the,seminary course. 19 could not tell where Duff labored; Under class (3), 12 state that they refer and 16 were unable to tell in what to what is given of the history of mis- country Carey worked. No comment sions in the general instruction in is necessary concerning the need of Church History; 19 reported having missionary instruction. it included in Practical Theology, and the average amount of time given to Not only has the specific discipline the subject was only eight lecture pe- been of such a character as not to equip riods for the course. Out of the eleven the pastor to train his church, but that institutions visited, in six where the it has also failed to lead the students to instruction took this form, it was the face the question of personal service in almost unanimous opinion among the the mission field, the following statisstudents that as a disciplinary training tics amply prove: 43 of these seminaconcerning the missionary character ries In the last three years have gradand work of the Church, calculated to uated 4452 students. Of these 107, or affect the students' future ministry, its slightly over 2 per cent, have gone to value was very small. Men in the the foreign field. Investigation was senior classes confidently affirmed that made personally in eight of these instithere had been nothing on the subject tutions where 652 had been graduated, of missions in the course, until their and 43 had gone to the foreign field in attention was called to what work was the three years; and it was found that done in this department. The actual 32 of these had the purpose of becomstatus of comprehensive, scientific dis- ing foreign missionaries before entercipline on the subject of missions is Ing the seminary. Of the 11 who dewell illustrated by the following case. cided to become foreign missionaries One of the large seminaries of the coun- after entering, nine were from a single try is recognized as a strong missionary seminary. In the other seven instituseminary in its church. The church is tions, graduating in this time 488 stuone which prides itself upon the thor- dents, but two arrived at their decision ough training of its ministry. Scarcely to be missionaries while in the semiany place could be found more suited nary, or four tenths of 1 per cent of to a favorable test. Iu this seminary those who graduated. 48 of the senior class were canvassed upon the following questions: It is only just to say that in most of these institutions the true place of mis· " 1. In what foreign fields is our sions is recognized. All the outside inchurch at work ?" fluences available are converged upon the students. Outside speakers, re- "2. Where did Robert Morrison turned missionaries, and Board Secrework, and what was the character of taries, are brought in and heartily welhis great work on the field 1" comed. Professors often turn aside from the regular instruction of their "3. Where did Alexander Duff work, department to draw from it lessons in and what was the character of his great missionary service. Missionary movework on the field f' ments among the students are endorsed and encouraged. Yet even this may "4. Where did William Carey work, have a vicious tendency, so far as solvand what was his great work on the ing the problem of the Church is confield 1" cerned, when it is made the principal factor in the seminary's missionary Of the 48, 28 failed on all the four training. From its character as an questions; 34 failed on the fields of the outside or incidental influence it unconchurch; 45 failed on Morrison; 46 sciously confirms the student in the thought that missions is no essential failed on Duff; and 38 failed on Carey. part of his ministerial training.
One man who canvassed 23 of his classmates kept an account of separate parts of the same question. Of those 23, 20 could not tell where Morrison labored; Grant that it is impossible to state Church strong in the Lord, we give the fairly the actual condition of mission- candidates three years of hard disci- ary instruction in the individual semi- pline in dogmatics. In order certainly nary in the form of bare statistics; to have a ministry able to defend the grant that all such statistics must be faith, and so a Church able to render a taken with a measure of allowance; reason for its hope, we train them in grant all that can reasonably be asked, Apologetics. In order certainly to and what do we still find? Simply have a ministry able to sound the depths this, that in the vast majority of the of Holy Writ, and so a Church anchor- training schools of the ministry, there ed in the Word, the students are drilled is in actual operation very little definite, through the entire course in Hebrew systematic, comprehensive training and Greek. Is the certain accomplish- concerning the essential missionary ment of the e8sential end for which the character and work of the Church in Church of Christ exists on earth of such the world; such specific training as minor importance that the training of shall be calculated to most certainly her ~ministry to that end can be safely beget in the mass of the ministry the left to influences brought in from out- conviction and the equipment necessary side the seminary or to incidental infer- to actualize this character in the ences drawn from the instruetion with- Church's life. in?
It will be borne in mind that this in- Even as we recognize in other depart- vestigation has been pursued in abso- ments that convictions of such a char- lutely no spirit ot antagonism to the acter as to have abiding power in the training schools of the ministry. This life of the ministry, and to certainly is simply a problem which confronts work their way out through the rela- the Church. It involves all equally as tions of the ministry into the life of the students of the things of Christ. It is Church, must be given a foundation of not that the training of the schools is systematized knowledge, so must we inefficient. They have been developed also recognize it in this department.
and are conducted by the best minds of Never will the purpose for which the the Church. It is that in this vital Church was founded be realized in her point their training is insufficient_ It life until her ministry is specifically does not suffice as the actual conditions trained to this end.
in the Church and ministry, existing Any fair consideration of what Is suf- under the present training, demonstrate. ficient and practicable must keep in The point of weakness has been this: view three postulates which relate to we have recognized the giving of the the practical conditions of seminary Gospel to the world as the essential end life: 1. The financial question is prob- of the Church; we have recognized ably the most grave of any which the the necessity of a ministry, with deep majority of seminaries have to meet.
convictions on this subject; but we In many seminaries this would be felt have expected these convictions to be to be the principal obstacle. 2. The begotten by outside and incidental in- amount of time at the command of the fluences. We have largely depended student is not unlimited. The average upon the student himself, inferentially, theological student is pressed for time.
to collect from the various other de- S. The material for study upon which partments of his instruction the mate- the instruction in such a department rial necessary to his equipment along should be based is In some important this line. What would we have lines sadly deficient. Text-book liter- thought of a seminary which pursued ature upon the philosophy of missions this policy along other fundamental is scarce.
lines? In order certainly to have a Nevertheless, God does not put a ministry sound in the faith, and so a primary obligation upon His Church and ministry and accompany it with own station, the prevalence of murder impossible conditions. Freely granting and the laxity of family ties. He then the limiting conditions, it is quite pos- discussed the difficulties which the missible to arrange a course calculated to sionaries encounter in preserving their accomplish the desired end. health, in erecting suitable buildings, learning the language, and preaching Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance. the Gosp~l to the natives. Mr. Moody has spent four years on the Upper Con- EIGHTH ANNUAL DISTRICT CONVEN- go, and his experience, though limited, was valuable in giving a plain, unvar- 't'ION. nished description of the practical diffi- culties and the every-day happenings of BY H. B. RATHBONE, COLGATE ;UNIVER- missionary life. Interesting questions were evoked by the address concerning SITY. the mortality among missionaries, the visible results of their work, and the Notwithstanding the exceedingly un- outlook for the future. pleasant weather, the eighth annual district convention of the Inter-Semi- Mr. A. Faduma, a native of West nary Missionary Alliance with the Col- Africa and now a student in Yale gate University at Hamilton, N. Y., Divinity School, followed Mr. Moody February 7th-10th, passed off with with one of the best papers of the conmuch profit to all that were able to at- vention. His subject was Of Industrial tend its meetings. Many of the speak- Missions in Africa." After speaking ers and delegates from a distance were of the present enthusiasm for the ele· blockaded on their way to the conven· vation of Africa, Mr. Faduma said the tion by the blizzard which visited the songs of the past were on .. Arms and country just at the time of the meet- the Man." Physical prowess was the ings; consequently much of the pro- inspiration of poets. Over the Contigramme had to be revised, and the nent of Africa the Arab wandered singdelegates were deprived of the pleasure ing "Ivory and Slaves;" then civilized of listening to many whom they had nations of Europe sang along her sbores expected to hear. " Cotton and Slaves." The age of war i3 now followed by that of peace. It is The opening session of the convention not Homer nor Virgil, but Christ, who was held in the Baptist Church, Thurs- il:! the inspiration of the times. Indus· day evening, February 7th. Mr. L. C. trial missions were prophesied by Isaiah H. Biggs, of Hamilton Theological when he said, "Jehovah shall arbitrate Seminary, presided. After a short among the nations, and shall rebuke praise service the Rev. C. S. Savage, many people; and they shall beat their pastor of the Baptist Church, offered swords into ploughshares and their prayer, and Dr. S. Burnham welcomed spears into scythes; nation shall not the delegates to Colgate University. lift up sword against nation, neither Rev. J. Pierson, pastor of the Congre- shall they learn war any more." Our gational Church, spoke words of wel- song to-day is, " Christ, Tools, and the come on behalf of the village. Man. " As soon as a man becomes a complete master of tools he is no longer Dr. Harper, President of Chicago a savage, but a civilized creature. A University, was announced as the civilizatiou with Christ is the highest speaker of the evening. The subject, form of life which can be taught to .. What are the Problems of the Day, men. I feel confident in the assertion and How Shall we Regard Them 1" was founded upon observation, that a man treated in a most scholarly manner. without the knowledge of tools is an abnormal man; and if he is a Christian, The Rev. Thomas Moody, from the Upper Congo, addressed the meeting of Friday morning on " Mission Work in Equatorial Africa." He spoke of the social conditions which exist at his an abnormal Christian. All attempts tools, and the man. It is Christ im- to present Christ to the heathen with- pressing Himself upon the civilized out sufficient emphasis on this l)oint man, ennobling his character, widening will be fruitless. The saved man of his horizon of life, and so transforming Africa must be thoroughly saved. We him that he shall beat bis sword into must not forget that man is a complex: ploughshares and spears into scythes.
being. He is not merely physical, nor On Friday afternoon, after a brief is he merely spiritual. The wonderful service of song, Mr. James Simister, of insight of Christ when He was on the Drew Seminary, read an able paper on earth led Him to be a physician both "The Negro in America, and his Re- to the bodies and souls of men. We ligious Condition," in which be traced approve of medical and industrial mis- the marvellous advancement of the ne- sions in heathen lands, because they gro and emphasized the imperious need contribute to the upbuilding of Christ's of education. Mr. McLellan, of Ham- kingdom. The great prophet and her- ilton Seminary, read a paper by Mr.
ald of industrial missions was Isaiah. Sly, of Rochester, on Alexander Mac- With prophetic vision he foretold the kay. An abstract follows: cessation of war and the conversion of The history of the Uganda Mission in warlike implements to agriculture. Equatorial Africa is one of the most Such a mission we advocate in foreign fascinating stories of modern missions.
fields to-day. But there are other rea- It cannot be understood apart from an sons why industrial missions in Africa acquaintance with the life and labors of should be fostered. They are necessary its pioneer missionary, Alexander M.
(1) for the development of the native, Mackay. " No man is born into the (2) for the self-support of the missions, world," says Lowell, "whose work is (3) for the self-respect of the native, and not born with him." How true this (4) to cure parasitism. was of Mackay is evident; for surely But who is to be the leader in this in- the same Divine wisdom which raised dustrial mission? who the director and up William Carey, the cobbler, in Eng- instructor? Here we meet with two land, and sent him to India; which difficulties: (1) with the missionary, prepared Adoniram Judson, the stu- (2) with the funds. It is not possible for dent, in America, and sent him to Bur- every missionary to be a mechanic. To ma; and which trained Robert Morri- obviate this difficulty it is best to sup- son, the clerk, in Scotland, and sent ply each mission with a missionary me- him to China, also prepared Mackay, chanic, a practical man of affairs with the student and engineer of Scotland a hundred hands, who can teach ordi- and Germany, to be the pioneer mis- nary trades while the missionary is de- sionary to Equatorial Africa. The voted to purely evangelistic work. In speaker then traced the unmistakable the working of an industrial mission, evidences of a Divine plan by showing agriculture must take the first place. how Uganda was prepared, by the ex- The native must be taught improved plorations of Stanley, for the coming methods. There should be introduc- of Mackay; and how at the same time tion of new seeds and kitchen garden- God was preparing Mackay, in a strange ing, the vegetables and meat of the way, for his labors in Uganda. The whole region should be raised by the life of the heroic missionary wa.s then natives. What Africa needs is a Chris- presented by showing (1) the prepara- tianity which will respond to the yearn- tion which Mackay received for his ings of her spiritual and physical life, mission; (2) his actual labors in Ugan- not antagonizing the two natures, but da; (3) his character and in1luence.
bringing both in complete harmony Friday evening was devoted to an ad- with the law of Christ. It is a rounded dress on "Mohammedanism and MIs- Christianity she needs. It is Christ, sions to Mohllmmedans," by Dr. H. H. Jessup, of Beirut, Syria. Dr. Jessup over far more Moslems than the SUltan. presented his subject with the freedom If Mohammedans were united, they of one who has enjoyed a long experi- would be such a tremendous menace to ence among Moslems; his address was civilization that all Europe would forlistened to with marked interest. After get its petty quarrels and unite against discussing, with the aid of a large map, them. But the sword has fallen forthe countries which are now the strong- ever from the hand of Islam. Dr. Jesholds of Islam, the speaker called atten- sup then described the annual pilgrimtion to the growth of the :Mohammedan age to :tvIecca. In 1893, 100,000 pilreligion, which, although not arising grims went to Mecca, 50,000 of whom for nearly seven hundred years after died from cholera on the journey. The Christ, now claims 200,000,000 adhe- immense trenches dug to receive the rents. In discussing the character of offal of countless sacrifices of sheep Mahomet, Dr. Jessup expressed the were filled instead with the dead bodies opinion that if the prophet had been of the worshippers. The saying pre· brought into contact with an able ortho- vails, " If a man goes to Mecca once, dox Christian before entering upon his all right; if he goes twice, keep an eye career, he would have preached a pure on him ; if three times, have nothing Christianity. The form of Christianity to do with him." He is then so holy which he saw was of a grossly pervert- as to become dangero~s, for a pilgrim. ed type. In discussing the Koran, Dr. age to Mecca will atone for innumer- Jessup reminded his hearers that it was able sins. Missionary work among the spoiled in translation, and read choice llos1ems is necessarily slow, but full of passages in the original Arabic in order promise. They have a tremendous to show the beantyof the rhythm. At- conviction of the sovereignty of God, tention was called to some of the curi- and feel the necessity of forgiveness for ous blunders in the sacred book-viz., sin. in the confusion of Miriam, sister of The session of Saturday morning Moses, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, opened with Mr. H. F. Swartz, of Hartand in uniting into one story Saul, ford Seminary, in the chair. Mr. W. Gideon, and David. The scholarly B. Steele, of Hamilton Seminary, gave Moslems have high esteem for the Bi- a review of the life of Dr. Paton, after ble, according to Dr. .Jessup. The which Mr. Shobaz, also of the Hamilcommon people, however, abhor Chris- ton School, spoke briefly of his own tians as dogs and infidels. If we take country of Persia, and the progress of the Koran from the Moslem, we must missionary effort among his people. give him the Bible; for it is a danger- Dr. H. H. Jessup then responded to ous thing to rob a man of his faith and questions concerning work in Syria, not give him something better in its and gave an enjoyable and profitable place. In describing the present state talk. Mr. H. F. Swartz discussed the of Islam, the speaker referred to the University Se.ttlement in the place of great college at Cairo, where 12,000 :A-Ir. R. A. Ashworth, of Union Semistudents are engaged in study. The nary, who was snow-bound. malediction they are taught to repeat at Dr. Halsey Moor, District Secretary stated intervals aglJ-inst the infidels is of the American Baptist Home Mission like spreading gunpowder through all SOCiety, delivered his illustrated lecture the Moslem world. In 1860, Chris- on home mission work on Saturday tians to the number of 12,000 were kill- evening. He brought out some exceeded in Syria during an outburst of fanati- ingly significant facts concerning the cism. The Mohammedan world is now work with which he is connected, and hopelessly divided; more than one half gave his hearers a better knowledge of of its people are paying tribute to Chris- the home mission field than they had tian rulers. The English Queen rules had previously. Sunday furnished II oontinual feast 2. An open door confronting the Church of good things. Dr. Thomas Marshall led the devotional meeting at 10 o'clock in every quarter of the globe. 3. An in the Baptist Church, and preached in the Congregational Church at 10.30. army of laborers such as has never Mr. Simister supplied the Methodist Church, and Dr. W. N. Clarke, of Ham- been seen before, bestirring itself for ilton Theological Seminary. preached the morning sermon before the Alliance the conquest of the world for Christ. from 1 John 2 : 6. C This is the Lord's doing, and it is mar- Missionary service, he said, is simply Christian being and action. Fields are vellous in our eyes.' alike in their deepest requirement. We all have the same call and must all have " The Master urges the obligationthe same life, whether we are foreign the duty-the privilege. It is He that missionaries or home Christians, great or small. Thus we are one, and our assigns to every man the sphere of his power lies in our dwelling deep in labor. It is He' that has said: C The Christ, and showing forth the fruit of His grace in walking as He walked. field is the world,' • God so loved the May our communing together in this meeting strengthen our Christian desire world,' , I am the light of the world,' for this chief good, and help us with one heart to seek it for ourselves, • Go ye into all the world,' • Ye shall be At 3 o'clock a prayer-meeting, espe- witnesses unto Me, unto the uttermost cially for members of the Alliance and for students, was held in the Baptist part of the earth.' To go or to send Church. The meeting was conducted by the President of the Alliance, Mr. is clearly the solemn obligation-the H. F. Swartz, of Hartford Theological Seminary. Dr. Marshall addressed the bounden duty-the inestimable privimeeting for a few moments, emphasizing the need of a thorough preparation lege of every follower of Jesus Christ. for missionary work. At the close a short meeting of the members of the A groaning world waits for the coming Alliance was held. of the messenger. It is Christ who The closing service of the Alliance was held Sunday evening, when the commands us, saying, ' Go ye into the Rev. C. S. Savage introduced Dr. Marshall, Field Secretary of the Presbyte- world and preach the Gospel to every rian Board of Foreign Missions. Dr. Marshall's subject was" The Triumphs creature.' The appeal is to every child of Modern Missions," and he spoke, in part, as follows: "The conquest of of God in this Christian land. Will modern missions, during the last hundred years, forms the brightest page in you go 1 If you cannot go, will you the history of the Christian Church. C Conquering and to conquer' is the send 1" motto emblazoned on its banner. Some of the triumphs that modern missions Notes from Japan. may justly claim, for the strengthening of our faith, we may with joy recount. -Rev. David S. Spencer, of Nagoya, A century of missions and we behold: Japan, writes: 1. Every opposing barrier swept away. " The war has generally had a bad effect. upon the direct work of the churches in Japan. So much attention has been given to war preparations and supplies, that no time remained for work for the souls of men at home. But along some lines more Christian work has been done during the last six months than in any six months since Christianity came to these shores. No man can measure the good results of the work of the Red Cross SOciety. That organization has opened the eyes of many to the strong points of Chris- tian teaching in its practical bearing among men. The official classes are now everywhere inclined to encourage Christian teaching. Prince Komatsu, cousin of the Emperor, and command- er of the Imperial Guards, numbering 10,000, has given permission to distrib- ute copies of the Word of God to all under his command, and went so far as to encourage the project by thanking the workers, and by appointing men to assist in the work of distribution. Per- mission to distribute in the whole navy was voluntarily given. The distribution is permitted in all the garrisons fitorsupspolmieetd,hinagt learsetliainblepart,in threegdaerdmandto and prisons in Japan, and 14,000 copies Korea, a Jand that suffers more than its have been distributed in Hiroshima proper share of misrepresentation. Its alone, while thousands of others have publication was suspended, but it now been put into the hands of the men in appears, from the wide demand for other garrisons. The work has but back numbers, that it was fitted to do just begun. There must be grand re- an important work. sults following this work.” Its publication was resumed January, —Miss E. A. Preston, of the Canada 1895. The conflict between Japan and Methodist Church, writing from her China has brought Korea very promi- station, Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan, Jan- nently before the world, and it is dis- uary 30th, 1895, says: covered that here is a nation of 15,000,- 000 people distinct in language, tradi- ‘*My home, Kofu, is about 90 miles tions, and physique from their neigh- from Tokyo. It takes us about two days bors east and west; a people whose to get here, as the road is mountainous customs and manners are strikingly unique, whose mythology and folklore aWnde cfaonra magkoeod tphaert diosftatnhcee wtaoy Toa kcyloimb.in teem with matter interesting to the eth- shorter time by means of the Fuji nologist, whose language affords the River, a swiff mountain torrent that philologist a key to some of the most carries us over a distance of 45 miles in vexed questions in regard to the disper- seven hours’ time. This city, Kofu, sion of the Turanian peoples. is the capital of the province of Yamanashi, and is surrounded on every side Civilization has taken Japan and is by mountains. Our Church—Canada trying to make Korea a stepping-stone Methodist—is the only Protestant one to the Continent. The world demands at work inthis province. The Japanese information as to what is going on along pastors and evangelists are carrying on the skirmish line of enlightenment in the East. To-day Korea is that line. the work vigorously, but there are no foreign male missionaries of our society In the first place, the magazine deals here. In our woman’s work we have a with the actual facts of to-day. It disgirls’ school with between 80 and 40 cusses social, commercial, religious, popupils; meetings held in different litical, and general topics of the hour. places throughout the province, and 7 Tt contains articles on the history and Sunday-schools in operation in the city development of the nation, the material of Kofu itself, besides helping in the being taken from the best native hischurch Sunday-school. My associate tories, presenting for the first time the eaingdnermsysienlfthearpelacteh.e oTnlhyereEinsgalisFhrenfcorh- history of Korea from indigenous Catholic priest, I believe, living in the sources. The topography and geogcity, but we never see him, raphy of the peninsula, the theory of the government, the officiary, the ad- “The war still progresses, and the ministration of justice, the penal code, Japanese are intensely interested in it. Jand tenure, will be discussed. The They are unanimous in their desire to religions and _ superstitions of the peopush it through to a successful conclu- ple, demonolatry, witchcraft, myths, sion. The Christians think it will help legends, folklore, the rise and fall of their cause in Japan. They consider Baurcdhdehoilsomg,y minonguemneernatls. anTdhe ruliansn,guaagned that the Japanese are exemplifying the —its affinities—com parative studies, the spirit of Christianity in the assistance evolution of the alphabet, Sanscrit inbeing given to Korea, and that it will tfhleuenccoeusr,t etcg.azettFerewqiullentbe egxitvreanc,ts anfdroma open the hearts of the people to the re- calender of news from the eight provception of Christian truth. The people iqnuceersi.es, Spcaocrerewsiplolndbeencrees,ervsedympofosr inuomtess,, are at one in this war ; they are intensel. weather statistics, deaths, births, marpatriotic. The soldiers have been well riages, and the like, Religious intellidisciplined, and they have the country gence will receive special attention, and behind them to stimulate them to high- missionary items of general interest est endeavor, and so they ought to suc- will be frequently inserted. ceed. As a sheer act of kindness, Rev. J. T. “* To-day is a holiday to celebrate the Gracey, 177 Pearl Street, Rochester, death of the Emperor’s father, All N. Y., will receive subscriptions, acthe government schools take the day as companied by the cash, on behalf of a holiday.’’ Rev. H. G. Appenzeller, the editor-in- Echnigelfi,shSeopule,riodKiocraela. or Tphaipser is puthbelisohneldy “The Korean Repository.” in Korea, In 1892 a magazine was published in Seoul, called The Korean Repository. It was a step in the right direction, for
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. PIEBBON.
India,* Bnrma,t Oeylod-Hinduism.§ INDIA. stand and largely to speak English num- ber about 3,000,000. India is a world in itself, comprising many countries, races, languages, and Over half the popUlation is engaged religions. Although including Burma in agriculture; other occupations,largeand Ceylon, the empire has only half the area of the United States, exclusive ly followed, being * general labor and of Alaska, but has a population nearly five times as great. British India is earth work; preparation of food, made up of 17 provinces with an area drink, and stimulants; household serof 964,992 square miles, and a popula- vice; manufacture of textile fabtion of 221,172,952; native States num- rics ; professions; administration; comber 13, with an area of 595,167 square merce; work in wood, cane, and matmiles and a popUlation of 66,050,479, ting; transportation; work in metals, making a total area of 1,560,160 square etc. ; care of cattle; light, firing, etc. ; miles and a total popUlation of 287,223,- leather, etc. ; glass, pottery, etc. ; and 431, the latter showing a net increase of di8Teputable, 1,563,000. 27,821,420 in the last ten years. Twelve languages are spoken in India and 117 India is the hotbed of religions. dialects. Hindustani is the language 9f The table on following page, from the 85,000,000; Bengali of 41,000,000; "Statesman's Year Book," gives the Marathl, Telugu, Pajabi, Tamil, Guje- numbers of adherents and the distriburati, and Uriya of 8,000,000 to 17,000,- tion by provinces of the more numer- 000; making in all eight languages ous sects according to the census of 1891. spoken by 201,000,000, and into these and other tongues the Bible has been Protestant communicants number translated. Those natives able to under- about 250,000; adherents, 700,000. The study of the religions of the East !-iter.: • See also pp. 4 (January), 142 (February), 203 reveals a vast difference both in princi- ple and practice. The precepts, how- (March), 267, 271, 276, 279 (present issue~. ever good, have failed to effect much change in the lives of the people. The ature: "India: Country, People, and MISSIOns, moral and intellectual condition of the masses is extremely low, even the re- Dr. Gracey; "India and Malaysia," J. M. Tho- ligious ceremonies often including namebum, D.D.; "The Indian Empire," W. W. less abominations. Like the Pharisees, Hunter; "Every-day Life in India," Rev. A. even the better educated Brahmans em- D. Rowe; "Children of India," "Once Hindu phasize the letter of their law and obnow Christian," J. Mnrray Mitchell, LL.D.; serve useless forms and ceremonies, " The Conversion of India," "Life of William while the weightier matters are utterly Carey" and" Life of Alexander Duff," George neglected. The slaughter-houses of Smith, LL.D.; "Indian Missionary Manual," Chicago called out a fierce denuncia- John Murdock. tion from a representative Hindu at the Parliament of Religions, who declared t See also p. 30 (January). "Four Years In that India did not want a Christianity Upper Burma," W. R. Winston; "The Bur- which tolerated such atrocities. man: His Life and Notions," Shway Yeo; "Life of Adoniram Judson," Edward Judson; " Yes, alas I" it has been well re- plied, "but then, per contra, while the *•. Adoniram Judson," Julia H. Johnston. Hindu is shocked at the killing of a cow See also p. 30 (January). "Two Happy for food, and the Buddhist carefully Years in Ceylon," Miss C.'F. Gordon Cumming; "Some Years in Ceylon," Mary and Margaret * Named in order of nnmbers engaged in them Leitch. -~,ooo,ooo to 1,500,000. § See also p. 260 (present issue). "Brahmanism and Hinduism," Sir Monier Williams; " Hindnism: Past and Present," Rev. J. Mur- ray Mitchel~ LL.D. Preaidencie., Provinces, and Hindus. Sikh!!. States.
————– — — — —— Ajmere………………. …… 437,988 tif 'm 213 26,939 1'974:.67917~ 1.9..8 74,265 ~A:•~•la~m::.:.:.:.:..:.:…..:……..:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:……::. 42~,:9~97;,~0~7f2 83 l1~,:3:6g8 ~13,,4g83~,:9~7i4 ~~=y~:::::::::::::::::::::::: 21,414701,.959717 3,196142 5.5.5…20.9. 6,888,067958 76,77946 6,329503,,093915 Central Provinces· •….. , … … 10,489,620 178 49,212 325 781 309,479 34,715578,,582405 23~97 ~~~!~;:.'. :.':. ::'.::: :::: ::::: :::. 40,951,803 128 27,413154 1,036 342 2,47152,,866654 10,237,700 11,348 84,803 1,494 412 6,589,183 N. W. P.·………………….. 1,870,481 45,683 6,236 39 12,915,643 Punjab·………….. ………. 11,699 1,129 Quetta, etc.. ….. ………….. 9,483 3 ' i:200 1.058 11 ,368 Andaman. …. ……………… 10,315,249 395 27,845 8.206 3,980 HaidarabAd …. ……………. 2,137,568 4,637 5O,33'~ 1 1,138,666 Baroda…………………….. 4.639,127 5 35 188,740 My.ore…….. ……………… 691,800 11 13,278 9 252,973 Ka.bmir .. .. … ……………. 10,192,829 29 593 29 ,608 238 1,793.710 RAjputana.. ….. ……………. 7,735,246 11,399 417,618 837 991,351 Central India……………….. 1,855 1.116 89,984 2 568,640 Shan States…….. ……… … 1,825 175 196 609 Total. …………………. ·1207,73l,7271.!i07-;saa 1.4t6,638 7,181,361 89,004 57,321,iM Presidencies, Provinces, and States. Christian.. Jews. Animistic. Others. Total.
~::::::',::…•:::'.:::'.:::..•…:….:: ':.:::::: 2,683 71 009;765 2 542,358 16,844 5 25 5,476,833 ':::::::.':::::::::::::::. ::::.:::: ~:~t.al.•::.:::::::::::::: .::: .::::::::. :::::. 192,484 1,447 2,753,061 74,643,366 1,359 137.108 11,430 2,897,491 ~~~:y,.: 2 311.259 5 26.960,421 170,009 13,547 168,449 27 7,605,560 120,768 351 49 Central Provinces· ………………….. . 13,308 176 2,081,721 10 12,944,805 Coorg……………………………. .. 3,392 472,808 i4',536 173,055 Madra.· ………… , …………………. . 1,580,179 1;309 39331 062 N. W. P.· ………………………….. . Punjab· …………………………… , 58,518 60 25 47;697:576 53.909 30 25,130,127 ~~~~~a';;:.":::: .":::.:.":::."." ::::."::."::.": .".".: 3,008 33 27,270 483 23 4 Haidariibad…………………………. .. 24 1 15,609 20,429 29,130 · …. 2 Baroda……………………………. . 646 26 29,654 11,537.040 36 2,415,396 Mysore………………………………. . 38,135 1 4,943,604 Kashmir…………………………… .. 21 2,543,952 Rijputiina…………………………. . 218 16,615 12,016,102 Central India………………………… . 1,855 15 4ii:078 2 5.999 7'~ 1,916,209 10,318,812 – – – – – – – – – – Shan States ……………………….. .. 154 2,992 1 ——— Total… ….. …………………… 2,234,380 17,194 9,280,467 42,762 287,2'23,431 • Inclrding Native State•.
avoids killing any animal, neither finds sentative of this horrible, obscene, and special occasion for concern in the death filthy religion is invited to Christian of a man. India in the past has been America to lecture us on the evil8 of one vast slaughter.house of humanity canned meat! Why could he not find under the sanctions of Hinduism. :Men time to answer Mrs, Palmer'S question have been fayedalive, mangled under on What has Hinduism done for womthe wheels of idol cars, drowned in the en 1" Ganges, • the sacred river.' Women have been cursed, crushed, burned on Even the Hindus themselves are befuneral piles, and subjected to every ginning to realize the inadequacy of form of shame. Even to-day harlots their religion to transform the heart and form a part of the sacred service of life. Reforms have been numerous the Hindu temples." .. And," as an among the educated Brahmans, who, indignant sister exclaims, .. the repre- while not willing to accept Christian- ity, have still been seeking for light and life. Not a few adherents of Hindu- missionary effort. There are at pres- ism acknowledge that it is tottering and ent In India no fewer than 65 Protes- is doomed to fall. tant missionary societies directing the The editor of the Madras vernacular work of 936 ordained missiouaries- newspaper, himself" an astute, staunch, viz., 16 Presbyterian societies, with 149 an orthodox Brahman of a renowned laborers; 13 Baptist societies, with 129 priestly family," takes this gloomy view missionaries; 9 societies of the Estab- of the situation: "We entertain no lished Church of England, with 203 mis- more any hope for that religion which sionaries; 7 Lutheran associations, with we consider dearer to us than our 125 men and women ; 4 Methodist so- life. Hinduism is now on its death·bed, cieties, with 110 Gospel ambassadors; and, unfortunately, there is no drug 2 Congregationalist associations, with which can be safely administered into 76 missionaries; 1 Unitas Fratrum and it for its recovery. There are native 1 Quaker society, with 16 in their em· Christians nowadays who have declared ploy; as also 7 independent societies, a terrible crusade against the entire together with 5 women's associations.
fabric of Hinduism, and many men of Of these societies 26 are English, 8 splendid education are also coming forth Scotch, 1 Irish, 7 German, 1 Swiss, 3 even from our own community, who Danish, 1 Swedish, and 18 American have already expressed a desire to ac- (including 2 Canadian); 46 societies cept Christianity; and should these are largely evangelistic in their meth· gentlemen really become first Christians ods, 7 are literature and Bible societies, and then its preachers they will give 4 are medical, and 8 are educational.
the last death·blow to mother Hindu· There are, in addition, 21 societies with ism, because these men are such as will headquarters in India, 2 in Bnrma, and never turn their backs from the plough 1 in Ceylon.
after having been once wedded to it. The published statistics of the Born· Every moment our dear mother (Hindu- bay Conference, covering the entire ism) is expected to breathe her last. evangelical mission work of all societies This terrible crusade is now carried on in India, exclusive of Burma and Cey· by native Christians with a tenacity of lon, in the year 1893, are as follows: purpose and a devotion which in them- Foreign and Eurasian oruained mis- selves defy failure." sionaries, 857; foreign and Eurasian The chief non-Christian reform move· lay preachers, 118; foreign and Eura· ments, the Bramo·Somaj and the Arya· sian teachers, 75; lady missionaries, Somaj, number about 5,400 and 40,000 711; total of foreign and Eurasian respectively. agents, 17Gl; ordained native preach· Protestant mission work began in ers, 797; native lay preachers, 3491; India in 1705,* when two Danes, Bar- native female evangelists, 8278; total tholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plut- of native agents, 7566; total of foreign schau, were sent out to Tanquebar in and native missionary laborers, 9327; South India. congregations, 4863; communicants, It was not until the end of the last 182,722; evangelical native Christians, century that any persistent and perma· 559,661; zenanas visited, 40,513; ze· nent work was done toward evangeliz. nana pupils, 32,659; theological and ing India; and not until 1830 did the training schools, 81 ; pupils in the same, English Parliament legalize Protest ant 1584; mission schools of all societies, * In 1642 the Reformed Church of Holland 6737; pupils in the same, 238.171 ; for· eign medical missionaries, 97; native had been declared the established religioll of the medical missionaries, 168; hospitals and Dlltch colony in Indi", bllt this was a political, dispensaries, 166. not a splritllal movement, and left no lasting re- A comparative view of the present SUltB. results with the state of things forty 2. Mu?'der of Ohildren. years ago is as follows : By dedication to the Ganges, to be AGENTS AND CONVERTS. 1851. 1891. devoured by crocodiles.
Foreign* ordained .•…….••.. 339 857 By Rajpoot infanticide, west of In- Native ordained ……..••..•.. 21 dia; Punjab, east of India. Foreign-Jay…………….. . 797 3. Human SaIYl'ijice8. 118 Native-Jay……………. . 493 3,491 Temple sacrifices. Foreign-female …………. . By wild tribes-Meriahs of the Native-female ..•…•.•..•••. 711 Khonds. 4. Suicide. 3,278 Crushing by idol cars. Devotees drowning themselves in MEDICAL MISSIONARIES. rivers. Devotees casting themselves from Europeau and Eurasiau ..••… 97 precipices. Native . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • • . . . . . 168 Leaping into wells-widows. Hospitals and dispensaries…. By Traga (threatening to kill or actu- 166 ally killing a relative at the door of a debtor who will not pay, or at the door CONVERTS. of a person from whom something is desired). Communicants…. •••… .•. … 14,661 182,722 Native Christians…………. 91,091 559,661 5. Voluntarl/ Torment. To these must be added : By hook-swinging. 33,037 By thigh.piercing. Burma-Communicants ….. 89,l80 By ton~ue-extraction. Native Christians .. 8,182 By fallIng on knives. By austerities. Ceylon-Communicants …. ~,442 Native Christiaus .. 6. In'l!Oluntary Torment. 223,941 Total communicants ..••.. 671,285 Barbarous executions. Total native Christians…. Mutilation of criminals. Extraction of evidence by torment. • Foreign includes also Eurasian. Bloody and injurious ordeals. Cutting off the noses of women. There is one foreign ordained missionary to 325,000 people. If each male 7. Sla1!6'I'l/. and female missionary had a parish of Hereditary predial slavery. 50,000, 200,000,000 would be untouch- Domestic slavery. ed. Nepaul and Bhutan and the coun- Importation of slaves from Africa. tries bordering on Iudia (except Siam) are still unoccupied. S. Extortions.
The work in India takes the follow- By Dharana (killing one's self at the ing general forms: 1. Among the masses door of one who will not grant one's (preaching in halls, streets, houses, and request). at festivals). 2. Among young men (educational and special addresses). 3. B.v Traga. Among women (zenanas and special 9. Religious Intolerance. meetings). 4. Among children (day schools and Sunday-schools). 5. Among Prevention of propagation of Christhe sick (hospitals, dispensaries, and ze- tianity. nanas). 6. Christian literature (Bibles, tracts, books, papers, reading-rooms). Calling upon the Christian soldiers to 7. Among native Christians (preaching, fire salutes at heathen festivals, etc. pastoral work, etc., Y. ::'II. C. A. training mission agents). Saluting gods on official papers. Managing affairs of idol temples. The reforms in India during the past century, due wholly to Christian influ- 10. Support of Oaste by Law. ence, are thus enumerated by Rev. John Exclusion of low castes from offices. Wilson (see" I,ife of John Wilson," by Exemption of high castes from ap- George Smith, LL.D., page 352) : 1. Murder of Parent8. pearing to give evidence. Disparagement of low caste. By suttee. By exposure on the banks of rivers. But there is still much, much to be By burial alive. done; 22,000,000 widows in India arc doomed to a life of misery; 40,000,000 women are imprisoned in zenanas; thousands of girl children are yearly killed in infancy; SOO die hourly with- out Christ, and 285,000,000 are living without Him. From the temple of Ju~annath are sent out annually to pro- clRlm the name and glory of that god ten times as many monks as thele are ordained missionaries in India.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. truths of the Word of God and work of Christ, sought to build up a church The one leading occurrence of the on apostolic principles, and led in evanmonth of February, not only to this gelism; both were editors and authors, REvmw, with its editors and readers, and did grand service with the pen; but to the whole circle of evangelical botli originated training schools for believers, will be the death of Adoni- evangelists and Christian workers, etc. ram Judson Gordon, of Boston, Mass. The comparison might be carried much further were it needful or helpful; and At 3 o'clock on the morning of Feb- we venture to add that, if Spurgeon ruary 2d a telegraphic message was were the best-loved man in Britain, brought to the door of the editor-in- Gordon was the best-loved man in chief, with this brief announcement: America.
" Dr. Gordon passed away at twelve- We reluctantly arrest the pen in porfive, this morning. traying his beautiful character, because already a large space has been assigned " ERNEST GORDON." to his memorial; but we can never hope to supply his place. Such a man That message of nine words meant, has no successor. When God made to the writer of these lines, the depar- A. J. Gordon, He broke the mOUld. ture of one of the dearest of friends and the most sympathetic and helpful The Japanese-Chinese war still goes of co-workers-a man who seemed as forward, and victory still attends the part of himself. It meant to the Clar- sunrise kingdom. The Wei· Hai-Wei endon Street Church of Boston the loss island forts and defences have surrenof a pastor who for twenty-five years dered-a serious blow to China on achad been a servant of servants to his count of the strategic importance of this brethren, while the master of all by post. conceded supremacy in holiness, faith, and consecration. But, far beyond any It would seem that Pekin is destined narrow limits of personal friendship, to be occupied by Japanese forces. Yet church pastorate, or denominational Japan claims readiness to concludo the connection, Dr. Gordon was a universal struggle at any time when Proper and benefactor. No man of his generation honorable terms of peace can be arhas had more to do with the spiritual ranged. education of the Church in the direction of holding fast the faithful Word, Pastor Archibald G. Brown and his pushing the lines of aggressive mis- great work in London was the sul!ject sions, and enthroning the Holy Spirit of a sketch in the Maroh REVIEW. It in His true seat in the Church. should be added. to make the story of this consecrated life the more complete, In the previous issue, Charles H. that, at the late twenty-eighth anniver- Spl1rgeon and his world-wide work sary, a third daughter of this devoted confronted the reader as he opened pastor presented herself to follow her these pages. This month Adoniram J. sisters to the great Flowery Land as a Gordon fills the leading place-a re- missionary. Nellie and Gracie having markable coincidence. These two meu already gone forth on the same mission. died, each at the same age,their Ii ves ruu- Lucy goes with her husband, Dr. James ning strangely parallel in many things. H. Bennett, under the London Mission- Both were Baptists and both leaders ary Society. Secretary R. Wardlaw in their denomination on different sides of the Atlantic. Both were great preachers, emphasized the foundation Thompson stated that Dr. Bennett, its convener and two ex-conveners, by who is a fully qualified physician and its order." surgeon, goes to succeed the lamented Kenneth Mackenzie and Frederick Rob- The committee's letter reads as folerts at Tientsin. Thus a pastor who is lows: perhaps doing more than any other one man in London for home evangeliza- .. DEAR DR. PATON: Since your retion rears up daughters to become. for- turn from Great Britain and America, eign miRSionaries. we have learned with much regret that you have been the subject of grievous To those who feel interested to know misrepresentations concerning your poof Pastor Brown's methods, we may sition and mission in these countries as give the following account of his an- the representative of the Foreign Misnual thank-offering day, when, accord- sion Committee of the Victorian Church. ing to his custom for many years, he We are more pained on your account, sat in his church office to receive free- because we should have thought that will offerings, from morning to night. your good name and the world-wide fame of your untiring and self-denying By 7 A.M, offerers were waiting, one labors In the cause of missions would of the first having walked from Isling- have been sufficieL.t protection against ton. Throughout the day they contin- any such slanders as have been issued. ued coming in a steady stream. Four Under these circumstances, we desire, crowded prayer-meetings were .held on behalf of the Forei&,n Mission Comduring the day. At the close, ~!:e mittee, to express our smcere sympathy amount raised was: In bank-notes, with you, and to assure all concerned £20; in checks, £105 11s.; in postal that you have the perfect confidence of orders, £3 Us.; in sovereigns, £155; our Committee, and also of our Church, in half sovereigns, £64; in five-shilling as was shown by the enthusiasm of pieces, £7 lOs.; in four-shilling pieces, your reception at our General Assem- £1 168.; in half-crowns, £37 lOs.; in bly last month, aud by the satisfaction florins, £27 18s.; in shillings, £17 lOs.; expressed on all hands over the report in sixpences, £3 198. 6d.; in three pen- you presented of your tour in Great nies and coppers, 128_ 2d.; the total Britain, Canada, and America.. •. being thus £445 Os. Sd. The committee has unanimously ap- proved of the scheme, and so had our Dr. John G. Paton, one of our edi- General Assembly. In this connection, torial correspondents, has been the sub- it may be stated that our Assembly has ject of vile slanders, originated, it is simply proceeded on lines laid down believed, by a pretended agent of Dr. some ten years ago, when you were Paton, who was exposed by the minis- commissioned to visit Great Britain for ters of Buffalo and put in jail for get- the purpose of raising funds to build a ting money under false pretences. vessel, and your success then has been followed DOW by the raising, through We think best to let Dr. Paton give you, of sufficient money for the vessel's his own answer, hoping that for once maintenance, a result which has given truth may overtake a lie. satisfaction to all and called forth an expression of gratitude from our Assem- He writes: bly. We, therefore, hope that you will not be disturbed by the misrepresenta- .. A paragraph has been printed head- tions that we have alluded to, and our ed, 'Dr. Paton's Phantom Ship-Dr. fervent prayer is that you may be long Paton Condemned by His Own Church spared, in the providence of God, to -~Iissionaries Need to be Looked continue in the service of our Church, Aft.}r,' etc. I thought best to make no where, it is almost needless to say, you reply till I had laid it before the Com- are honored and beloved by all. mittee of Foreign :Missions of my own Victoriau Church. I now send you a .. On behalf of the Foreign Mission copy of a letter sent to me by our For- Committee, we are, with kindest reeign Mission Committee, and signed by gards, yours faithfully, " JOHN GmsoN, Convener. " ANDHEW HARDIE, ex-Convener. " M. MACDONALD, ex-COnVenC1'."
The following paragraph from Dr.
Paton's letter will be of interest to all : " You will be glad to hear that from my recent tour in America, Canada, and Great Britain, I was used of God so to draw forth the liberality of His people that He enabled me to hand over nials from many who are better qualito our church and mission nearly £26,- fied ~o judge." And we have only to 000 on my return, including £2000 to say that never, knowingly, are these keep the new mission ship, and '£1000 pages anowed to be the vehicle of any subscribed yearly by Christian friends unjust or partial statements. We welto help keep her. And instead of get- come any light. ting a commission on all I raised, as stated in a Buffalo newspaper, I Rev. Robert Howie, of Glasgl)w, has never expected, would not have taken, published a statistical work in which and never got a cent from it or by it. he presents some startling figures and But I have had the joy of so working reaches some still more startling confor Jesus, my church and mission, and clusions. He shows, between 1876 and of getting the sympathy and prayers 1891, an increase of popUlation in Scot· and help of very many of His dear ser· land of 13t per cent, and an increase in vants in all branches of the Church, to whom I feel forever grateful, and wish they may all ever enjoy every bless- ing. "
The letter was written by the doctor the number of the three great Presbyon board of a steamer bound for Tas- terian churches of nearly 20 per cent, mania, where he was to work four or yet during the same time a decrease of five weeks in the interest of the mission, 34 per cent in church attendance, and and then was to start for the New Heb- states that even in "Auld Scotland" rides. the average of church-goers is but 192 to 1000 of the inhabitants.
.A personaZ friend, Lord R – – , writes He also shows that during the last from Biarritz that" many, the major- three years there has been a most Zaity of Christians in India, entirely deny mentablefaUing off in giving. For exmany of the statements in the January ample, in 1891 the Established Church REVIEW article on India, and resent the gave, per member, 14s. 5d.; the Free comments on the employes of the gov- Church, 48s. 1d., and the United Presernment as a most slanderous pervCi'- byterian Church, 418. 6d. During the sion of truth." ne adds that Mr. A. last three years a notable change is ob- Dyer has made charges he could not servable, so that now, "as a rule, the Bnbstantiate and would not withdraw, richest districts give the least." One but has been obliged to contradict at of the wealthiest presbyteries gives only least one statement, etc. 48. 6d. per member, and another only 38. 3d.! And he accounts for all this We have only to say that the state- decline in church attendance and benevments in the January REVIEW were net olent giving by the insidious spread of the editor's, but appeared under the the Rationalistic doctrines of the Highauthority of Rev. W. B. Boggs, D.D., er Criticism, robbing the Word of God of the Telugu Mission, who, after long of its former hold on the popular mind residence in India, is supposed to know and heart, and so weakening the entire more even than an English lord not grasp of evangelical truth and holy moresident. Still, we gladly give the other tives. Here is something to be considside full benefit of any contradiction. ered at least! For ourselves, we know more than one government official that represents the highest type of moral and Christian B~'ble conferences for the advance of character. But we had supposed that biblical study, spiritual life, and Chris- the statements so often made-and un- tian evangelism are multiplying, and contradicted-in Exeter Hall and else- we rejoice in this fact. Rev. George where, represented too much truth to C. Needham and his fellow-helpers, be denied. Lord R– says that the Rev. W. J. Erdman, Rev. D. M.
"opinions expressed in Dr. Boggs's Stearns, Rev. James M. Gray, Rev.
article have called forth indignant de- Drs. Dixon, Gregg, Sabine, Professor Stifler, etc., are doing most efficient ser- The death of the beloved Maria A. vice. The voice of Dr. A. J. Gordon West, in London, June 28th, 1894, will be sadly missed, than whom no should some time since have been noteacher of our day was more widely ac- ticed here, as also of Rev. Samuel ceptable and useful. It is very remark- Mateer, of Travancore, an article from able that wherever the Word of God is whose pen appears in this issue. devoutly studied the spirit of missions is invariably quickened. Pastors could Miss Evelyn Russell (sister of Grace dono better than have one of Mr. Need- Russell, of Oroomiah, Persia), married ham's three days' conferences in their fonr years ago to Mr. Cruikshank, a churches for quickening of spiritual missionary under the Christian Alliance, power. He may be addressed at East had entered with him upon their new Northfield, Mass. field. Two little ones had been born to these parents; and, while the mother Two young missionaries, braving the lay ill, the father, who had gone to the weather, sailed for Europe on the Cir- country for his health, returned and ca88ia last month, to labor in a section suddenly died. He was buried in the of the Dark Continent as yet practi- little English burying-ground on Mount cally unvisited by foreign missionaries. Zion. The English and American flags The men are D. M. Reoch, until re- were at half-mast in Jerusalem. The cently a student in the Union Theo- Rev. Edwin Wallace, the American logical Seminary, and Sidney V. Whitte- Consul, held a short service in the more, a son of Mrs. L. M. Whittemore, home of Mr. Cruikshank, and the Rev. founder of the Door of Hope, an insti- A. 1-1. Kelbe. of the London Jewish Sotution for women. lIlr. Reoch had ciety, committed the body to the grave. been employed in a commercial newspaper office in this city. He had a The sudden death of Mrs. Benjamin good business position, but two years Douglass, of Santa Ba.rbara, the forago he was led to give it up in a resolve mer President of the Board of the to devote the remainder of his life to Northwest, has brought great sorrow to missionary work in a foreign field. the friends of missions in the North- west and Pacific Coast. Her work Our obituary notices for this month among the Chinese in Santa Barbara must include Rev. Stanley K. Phraner will long be remembered. Upon her (youngest son of Rev. Wilson Phraner, arrival in California, she at once identi- D.D., who was for many years Pres- fied herself with the Occidental Board, byterian pastor at Sing Sing, N. Y.); and was one of its officers when she he died at Singapore, China, December was called higher. She was one of the 15th, 1894. This beloved son was born ablest and most devoted of all the misin 1860; was graduated from Prince- sionary-spirited women of this country, ton Seminary in 1887, ordained in 1890, and II sister-in-law of Mt·s. Z. Chandler, and went to Siam, 1891, to labor in of Detroit, the widow of the former Cheung l:lai, Laos Country, Northern senator from Michigan and Cabinet Siam. He was so deeply interested in officer. his work, that, although for some time in ill health, he kept at his post until Another sudden death, that of the beordered home by his physician. He loved Rev. W. Gibson, of Paris, France, was on his way with his family, and has much embarrassed the work he so had reached Singapore, when death much loved, for his own personal efforts overtook him-a very sad blow to the raised annually some $5000. Just as the affiicted family and his venerable and mission was entering upon an enlarged beloved father. work this amount is thus cut off from its available funds. Are not some of The American Baptist Missionary the Lord's stewards ready to be " bap- Union began the present financial year tized tor the dead," and step into the with a debt 0/$203,595.88-an appalling breach and supply this need? Will not deficit, due, not to extravagance or missuch communicate with James H. Rigg, management, but to the unprecedented Treasurer, Wesleyan Mission House, financial distress of the previous twelve Bishopsgate Street Within, London, months. Retrenchment became neces- E. C., England? sary; the expenses for the current year were cut down promptly to the extent The Chinese Government paid £1000 of more than $100,000 I It was not to the father of the Rev. James Wylie, possible to do more, for even this most the Scotch missionary, murdered by seriously cripples missionary enterprise, Chinese soldiers near the Liaoyang Mis- and entails severe self-denial on a band sion early in the war. The father has of devoted missionaries. The approdevoted the money to the erection of a priations for the present year, even after chapel and hospital at Liaoyang in this heavy curtailment, are $474,551.55, memory of his son. The olood of this making, with the debt, a total of $678,- latest martyr thus becomes the seed of 147.43 for the year. And yet the rea new mission for healing body and ceipts, up to January 1st, 1895, were soul. only $162,653.09, leaving $515,494.34 to be made up before March 31st I The McAll Mission continues its great work in France, notwithstanding Surely the Church needs a new conits founder's death. It aims to bring secration, when economy begins at the France back to the pure Gospel, and house of God I Easter flowers in one God's blessing still rests upon it. Dur- city alone cost $500,000 in one year I ing the past year it received $80,820 for And yet we must cut down missionary the prosecution of its work. $26,730 of appropriations and abandon advanced which came from the United Kingdom, posts of aggressive enterprise because and $31,780 from the United States. of pressure in the money market I Twenty cities enjoy its evangelistic agencies. Only more funds are needed There is certainly money enough in to plant its missions in every city and the country. Last year five persons town in the French Republic; and this who died in Britain each left more is the very land of the massacre of the than one million pounds sterling, and Huguenots in 1572 ! one hundred and thirty-four left thirty- five millions. Surely sucb estates Mrs. Safah 11. Wood, of New York, might well bear an increased taxation. again sends five dollars for the Students' It was to lighten the burden on the Review Fund. poor and place more on the rich that Sir William Harcourt graduated the A donation of £4 sterling is just reo death duties last year. Think of the ceived from Mr. Thomas Greenwood awful account some stewards of God and his son, Pastor B. .T. Greenwood, must have to render! of London, to apply on the same fund. From these donors, known to the editor R. SaiIlens writes from Paris: as persons of surpassing worth, a gift is •• The Revue de8 Deux-Mondes, the leaddoubly welcome, for we are assured it ing French monthly review, contains in has been consecrated by prayer and its January number a paper from its sanctified by the altar on which it is laid. editor, M. Brunetiere, a distinguished Would to God many more might hear historian, writer, and academician, the call of God in this direction I which is no less than a manifesto show- ing the present tendencies of the leaders of French thought at this time. M. Brunetiere has seen the Pope, and takes occasion of that visit te:. speak of the mutual relations of modern society and round number of two hundred million Romanism. He shows; 1. That sciencA has failed in regenerating society; it copies. The two societies, founded one has not done what it was hoped it might in 1804 and the other in 1816, have an do-viz., furnish a new basis for social average age of eighty-four years, and and individual morality, apart from re- their aggregate receipts from the beginligion. 2. That religion IS necessary, and of all religions, Christianity is the ning are computed to be $84,000,000. only possible one. 3 That Catholicism The average age of the two above- is far more suitable than Protestantism mentioned societies, with the London to the needs of modern society, because Religious Tract Society and the Ameriit is less gloomy, does not give such a tragical view of sin, does not make per- can Tract Society, is eighty-three years, IJOnal salvation the one thing necessary, and within the century their united re- is more social by its system of indul- ceipts have amounted to $140,000,000. gences, which allows the saints to pay for the wicked, thus establishing a strong current of charity throughout The Arabian Mission of the Reformed the world I Church in America is one of the most " Notice that hitherto the Re'lY!le des promIsmg. By the sale of Bibles, it Deux-Mondes has been on the side of makes the Bible itself a missionary in free thought, and that M. Brunetiere, even while he writes thus, rejects all Arabia. To the Arabs not only the the dogmas of Christianity. His ac- Old Testament, with its records of Abraceptation of Catholicism as the religion of the times is merely on the ground of ham, Moses, and Ishmael, is particularly expediency, and for want of something interesting, but the New Testament is better. In other words, the need of a acknowledged as God's book. How moral power is felt, and Catholicism is encouraging, therefore, is the fact of • chosen because it requires less sacrifice of self. But what will this movement continually increasing Bible sales? lead us to' I doubt not, to hard and They are all sold rather than given perilous times for the French evangeli- away. These sales have nearly doubled cal Ohristians !" in the past twelve months, being for the Palestine &pZoration is going for- previous year 1055, and for the year ward. New excavations are soon to be just closed 2023. At Bahrein a :Mosmade. The Sultan has granted a fir- lem came one moonlight evening and man to the Palestine Exploration So- said: "The old man" (myself) .. feels ciety, of London, giving permission to the sting of death is sin, and then I dig around the walls, outside, exclud. bought this book, and now I believe ing only Moslem burying.grounds and that Jesus is the Son of God." Medicertain holy places. The work is to cal missionary work is also accomplishbe under the directIon of Frederick ing much in exposing and displacing Bliss, a young American archreologist. the barbarous cruelties inflicted to cure Shafts will be sunk on the hill of Ophel, diseases, such as burning holes in the the site of the royal gardens and the body to let the disease out, branding tombs of the kings. It is hoped that with red·hot bars, chopping off woundthe old wall around the southern brow ed limbs and sealing them with boiling of Zion may be exposed to view. The tar. The medical missionary who imperial firman grants a two years' brings relief from disease and infirmity privilege, time enough to make the old thus points souls to the Good Physician.
city of Solomon and the Jebusites yield up some of its treasures and long·hidden London journals of February 5th secrets. published a dispatch from Constantino- ple saying that anti·Christian outrages On the 1st of October last the joint of the Armenia type are being com- circulation of volumes of the Bible by mitted in Sidon, Beyrout, and Damas- the British and Foreign and the Ameri- cus, Syria. The Christian inhabitants can Bible Societies had jnst passed the of Damascus declare t11at they apprehend a repetition of the massacre of discharged after trial, Patton had in· 1860, when thousands of Christians curred Gray's enmity, and Gray is said were murdered. to have hypnotized McDonald, and while the latter was in that condition Dr. Henry S. Lunn, preaching in compelled him to commit the murder I Boston lately, said, in answer to Vire- No researches into the mystery of hypo kananda: " An idea prevails that idol- notism have ever proven that such in· atry is not to-day the evil and horrible thing that it was when the apostles ex- fluence can be obtained over another posed it; that the • Ethiopian has party agaimt his own will. Otherwise changed his skin and the leopard his what becomes of moral responsibility?
spots.' Idolatry- in India to-day, as elsewhere in hIstory, tends to deterio- rate and not to evolve the higher ideals The editor some time ago received a of duty and religion. The philosophy of India has ceased letter from a theological student asking certain questions which, for the sake of to have any practical effects on the life of its people. It is a remarkable fact similar inquiries, it may be well to anthat when R. Rao, the prime-minister of 8wer in this more general way. The the Maharajah Holkar, a famous student of the Hindu Scripture, had been writer says: challenged to support his statements "Is there not some way to get men as to certain things being found in the to devote part of their lives, if not Hindu Vedas, he produced in reply all, to the work of missions? I know what was avowedly a Hindu catechism, that men ought to be consecrated and but was really composed verbatim from so filled with the life of Christ that extracts of the Shorter Catechism of the they would go even to death, but as a Presbyterian Church. matter of fact, many are not. Mean- " The Hindu religion is but the deifi- while, that mighty army in foreign cation of lust and other evil passions. lands never ceases its march to the Krishna, the great Hindu god, is shown grave. Why not follow the military in its scriptures to be a perjurer, a thief, plan of a limited enlistment? What and a murderer. army would have full ranks that would "Such is the obscene character of take none who did not enlist for life? the pictures and carvings in the temples Why not start a movement to secure and on the idol cars, that an act of the men for missions, say for eight or twelve Indian Legislature in 1856 against ob- years? In such a way we would secure scene pictures had especially to exempt the best, most buoyant, and most enfrom its operation' all pictures, draw- thusiastic part of their Ii ves for work ings, or carvings in the temples, or on which needs just sucb elements, and the idol cars: " when the limited term was up many He concluded by picturing the worn· would see that their best way was to en of India in a miserable condition, in continue as they had begun, and would contrast of the glowing picture drawn stay in the foreign field. Or, if they be Virekananda. returned home, they would at least be fitted to begin in this country a more Advices from:Washington declare thoroughly missionary and evangelistic that Great Britain surrenders all claims ministry, broadened and deepened and informed as to the needs of the Lord's to the strip of the coast of Nicaragua work, having lost their denominational over which it has exercised a protecto- prejudices and having a more catholic rate. The news is both surprising and spirit. "
gratifying, and all this is without com- This is the substance of the letter. In pulsion I reply we would say that this plan would involve, even if it were otherwise feasi· Hypnotism and Crime. -The recent ble, the necessity of learning the lan- sentence of Judge Burnett, condemning guage of a foreign people and of adjust- to death Anderson Gray for the killing ing one's self to other conditions and of Thomas Patton, marks a new era in needs, only for a limited and brief period.
criminal history. Thomas McDonald, Again, it would remove a man from his while under the alleged hypnotic influ- field when he was just beginning to be ence of Gray, did the killing, but was thoroughly fltted for usefulness. But the fundamental difficulty we have not -on gloves, necktio, canes, and ribyet touched. God wants, especially in bons. Candy, soda, table delicacies, the foreign field, consecrated men, and etc., might have been added. In five any such reservation would interfere years our band has raised $1796, of with consecration. It would leave men which we have given $898 to the Ameri· to enter upon the most self-denying work can Board C. F. M., and the Bame in the world without the spirit of self- amount in the aggregate to the various denial; to go in a half-hearted way to Congregational societies working in the undertake what demands a whole-heart- United States. Many other bands have ed self-dedication. In our opinion, it been formed since ours started, and have would be far better that we have fewer rendered substantial aid to both branches men, but those whose hearts are thor- of the missionary work. oughly in the work. I have pondered this plan for years, TM London Standard says: "The and believe that no valid objection can Turkish Ministry of Pnblic Works has be brought against it; but there are determined upon the reconstruction of many considerations in its favor. It is the ancient water conduits of Jerusa- simple; within the means of almost lem, dating from the age of King everybody; does not interfere with Solomon. By this means it would be other ways of giving; is marvellously possible to convey 2500 cubic metres efficacious. of water daily to the Holy City. Of this it is proposed to give 1000 metres Consider what the magnificent result away free of charge to the poor of Jeru· would be if all the Christians of this salem, the distribution to take place at land actually and continually gave each the Mosque of Omar, the Holy Sepul- an extra cent a day for missions. Fifchre, and other places frequented by teen million members of Protestant pilgrims. evangelical churches in the United States, each giving one extra cent a day The new conduits are to be joined to for missions, would add yearly to the the ancient aqueducts of Arob, and are Lord's treasuries $54,750,000 I The to be carried through a tunnel 3570 amount now contrihuted to all missionmetres in length. The total outlay in ary societies in the United States for connection with these works is estimat· both home and foreign work, not ined at 2,000,000 francs." cluding domestic and local, being about $10,000,000 a year. The Extra-Oent-a-Day Band for Mis- Should you think that your people sions. are giving well already, and will not want to give more, still will you not BY SAMUEL F. WILKINS, NEWTON CEN- place the plan before them in its sim· plicity, with its tremendous possibili- TRE, MASS. ties, and let them say whether they will not, for Christ's sake and the world's, Will you not, pastor or layman, or- adopt it? ganize an Extra·Cent-a.Day Band in your church, it none now exists, or join If, on presentation, your people do one, if there is such a band to which you not favor it, will you not yet show do not belong? In every church there them the binding and blessed obligation must be at least one man or woman able that rests upon all Christians to carry and willing to do the necessary work, the Gospel to the whole creation, and which is not great. Propose it at the that by coming into this movement they missionary concert, and start a band, can help easily and mightily? however small the beginning. If Christians can be brought to realize The band of the First Church of New- the dreadful darkness and degradation ton, Newton Centre, Mass., was formed of a thousand million fellow-beings; if late in 1889. Not wishing to interfere they can be shown t':tat the Lord's comwith other ways of giving, we asked for only a cent a day extra, and sug· gested ways of saving that small amount mand, clear, unqualified, imperative, r have heard that my sisrer's baby has to preach the Gospel to every creature died from opium given by its Hindu nurse. English children suffer fr(!)m is for them " if they can be led to consid- this poison, given by native nurses. er that for almost nineteen hundred The high-caste women of India are years Christ hall waited for the accom- prisoners in the zenanas. Sometimes plishment of His great commission; if their husbands kill them if they have even been seen by another man. But then they can be made to comprehend when they heard of anti-opium meetings the vast results to be attained by the their interest was so intense that they Extra·Cent-a-Day Band system, it seems crowded to them without fear. They to me they cannot fail to adopt the plan. say, 'If the English want money let them come into our houses and take all Then the question of money supply will our goods, and we will work; let them be answered, the treasuries of the mis- take the skin off our bodies to make sionary societies will be abundantly them shoes- but spare us the opium supplied, and tens of thousands of new curse. But if they will sell opium, let them kill the wives and children of the workers can go forth to tell the story of opium-smokers. '
the Redeemer. " The Tim.e8 has said that the drug is The need of extra help was probably harmless, and that it is good for fever. Did you ever see hundreds perish from never so urgent as now. Several of our a harmless thing? In India we never great missionary societies are burdened use opium for fever.
with debt. New work is almost impos- "The opium den is large, dark, sible and old-established work is hin- filthy; 20, 40, 100, 200 men, and some- times women, are there, wallowing like dered or even abandoned. pigs in mire ; no earthly power can res- Would that every Christian might be cue them; they are going to hell.
inspired to give according to this sim- When I spoke to them, several smok- ple system, by which this time of dis- ers said, ' Woe to us; the English peo- ple have brought this on us.' To protressing need can be changed at once mote the sale they will drng tea and into an era of plenty! coffee with opium, to produce the desire Do not, reader, merely think about for it. You drink it a few times, and this plan, waiting for another to act, you want that tea or coffee, not know- ing why, but in a little while you are but put it into operation immediately. an opium eater or smoker. These opium Glorious is the privilege allotted to us dens are really Government hells. You to be workers with God! splendid is hear that there are 11,000 licenses; but the opportunity that lies at our hands to each license allows for 10, 20, or 30 shops. While millions are perishing, publish at home and afar the tidings of for your gain, God says your gold and salvation! Be it our ambition to hasten your silver are cankered, and shall eat on the day when the Saviour's edict your flesh as it were fire. " It is not good for India. The opium shall have had its complete fulfilment. smoker disgraces his family and de- NOTE.-Mr. Wilkins will be glad to grades himself; and starvation, want, and misery reign. Few in India can correspond with any who wish to form bands. He will supply E. C. D. B. en- write, yet last year We sent petitions with 54,000 signatures against this cruel velopes free of cost. and destructi ve trade. I come from heathen Indian women to implore Chris- The Anti-Opium War. tian England to put an end to it. We want opium to be sold, as in England, only for medicine, and its sale restricted Miss Soonderbhai Power, of Ir:dia, as any other poison. Last year I spoke thus pleads before the citizens of Eng- in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and I went home and told my people, ' Now land in behalf of her native land: you will have justice.' But it is the « I want to see my India free from same as ever. So I have come back this opium curse; for in India opium again. This battle is God's, and if you is sold openly. The sale of arsenic to Christian people all join together in poison rats is guarded and restricted, prayer and work, the battle will be but a child of eight can buy 360 grains won, and India will be freed from this of opium. Since I returned to England dreadful blight."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTEI,LIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign Provinces, and his upbringing has been Periodicals. in the centre of Moh!!mmedan learning BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, and polish at Delhi. A most interest- MASS. ing life his has been. Reared in the INDIA. strictest sect of Mohammedanism all his life long, he has been zealous for the -Dr. H. Martyn Clark, in the Ohurch faith, and, as touching the law, blame- Missionary InteUigencer, states that a less. A true seeker after God, the time translation of the Koran has appeared came when the husks of Mohammedan- in simple idiomatic Urdu. "That is a ism could no longer satisfy the hunger blow under which Islam will reel for of the soul. He wandered far and wide many a day. Its safety hitherto has to the holy and learned of Islam, seek- been that its' holy' book was shrouded ing rest and finding none. At last he in unapproachable Arabic, or in cum- determined to leave 'the land of the brous, ambiguous translations. This enemy' (dar u~ harb-i.e., a land where literal, faithful rendering has produced other than Mohammedan rule obtains), dire consternation. The Moulvie says, and to seek' the land of peace' (dar u~ 'I am now old and gray-haired. I aman), where, under a Mohammedan thought I knew the Koran, but I never government, the virtues of Islam might knew the iniquity of it as I do now.' .. be found in full flower. Beyond the What folly in the mawkish optimism British border there are here and there of our day, to treat every religion as colonies of fanatics, whose declared good in its measure, as if there could purpose it is to ' war against the infidel.'
be no such thing as a cancerous growth They are all that remains of the Waha- in religion I Islam appears to be one bis, and are recruited still from the of these, and Mormonism another, and ranks of religious enthusiasts and po- far more virulent. Why are we not litical malcontents in British India.
told that the craving for dirt and for They lose no opportunity of stirring up yet viler things which we sometimes strife, and have had a long finger in meet with is good, since it is a form of most of our border troubles. The Ak- the fundamental and God-given appe- hund left all behind him, and set for- tite for food? A healthy appetite and ward to join these zealots; but it was a wholesome supply are the two points not to be-God's purposes for him were that determine the answer to both ques· fast approaching maturity. While he tions. waited his opportunity in the frontier ~peaking of the first recent convert, town of Peshawur, an emissary of the Dr. Clark adds: "The next to come Mirza met him. He learnt that a great forward was a Mohammedan gentleman prophet had risen in Islam, that Christ of education, position, and good fam- the Blessed had come the second time.
ily. A trusted friend and apostle of He abandoned his journey, went to the Mirza" (who is the head of a spe- Qadian, and became the Mirza's dis- cial Moslem sect), "he had been his ciple. He was trusted with much spe- ambassador to Zanzibar. He was one cial work, and had the honor of being of the embassy to me to settle the rules the leader in the public prayers in the of the Controversy, and was the secre· Mirza's mosque. At the Controversy taryin behalf of the Mohammedans his belief in Mohammed was consider- while it lasted. The Akhund Sahib, ably shaken. Months after he wrote to as he is termed, belongs to Buneyr, in me from Meerut. It was the cry of a Afghanistan, beyond the British border. despairing, perishing soul. He detailed His father settled in the Northwest his wonderful life's history, the unrest
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
and sorrow of his heart, and said, 'If otherwise known as " the Swami Vive- you ha ve any really strengthening pre- kananda," before the so-called Parlia- Bcriptilm for the soul in your armenta· ment of Religions at Chicago: .. Allow rium, let me have it in the name of me to call you, brethren, by that sweet God. ' I cannot relate here the subse- name, heirs of immortal blis8; yea, the quent steps by which he was led to the Hindus refuse to call you sinners. Ye feet of the Saviour, in whom he now are the children of God, the sharers of rejoices with exceeding joy. His bap- immortal bliss. Ye, divinities on earth, tism, together with his daughter, was sinners? It is a sin to call a man so.
a wonderful occasion. A short sketch It is a standing libel on human nature.
of his life, well worthy of translation Come up, choirs, and shake off the de- into English, has been scattered fa.r a.nd lusion that you are sheep-you are souls wide, and from all sides come letters immortal, spirits free and blest and of grateful thanks, telling us it is ' just eternal. Ye are not matter, ye are not the thing' for Mohammedans. It is bodies. Matter Is your servant, not silently doing a great work. The poor you the servants of matter."
Mirza burst forth into torrents of im- On this the Harvest Field remarks: potent abuse, and found in this baptism .. This passage"-we have given only another proof of his own Messiahship- the conclusion-" reflects perfectly the for was not this Judas Iscariot? This sadness of tone which characterizes the blasphemy did not, however, deceive Upanishads. The Hindus of former even Mohammedans, who have not been days yearned for release from the mis- slow to point out that the second time ery of life. It also represents the uni- Christ comes to triumph, not to be be- versal belief that the only release was trayed. by the loss of life itself. Misery was " It was a very bitter blow; but the the result of the soul being in fetters to unkindest cut of all came a fortnight the body. The wail was not about the ago, when the Mirza's own brother-in- burden of sin, but the burden of exist- law, his near relative and trusted pri- ence. The Christian notion of sin was vate secretary, was admitted by bap- practically unknown. There is really tism into the Church visible. A bright no place for sin in Pantheism. Imag- young fellow, very highly connected, ine a Christian preacher saying to his his, too, is a history worth hearing. I hearera, 'Ye, divinities on earth, sin- shall here only note that all through ners? It is a sin to call you so. • The the Controversy he was the trusted Hindus can find no place in their ser- confidental agent of the Mirza, who, to vice for the Litany of the English use the Oriental metaphor, 'sat in his Church or the Penitential Psalms. The lap. ' Our friend the Akhund has been members of the Brahmo-Somaj ac- privileged already to lead four people knowledge that they have derived their to Christ. The :Mirza'a brother-in-law sense of sin from Christian teaching.
is a fruit of his labor." They certainly could not have got it -The Mohammedans, about one fifth from Hinduism. According to the of the total popUlation of India, are, as Swami, the soul Is already perfectly might be supposed, very unequally dis- blessed, but it fails to recognize that it tributed in the various provinces. In is so. the Punjab, nearest to the place of first entrance, there are 11,000,000 Moslems, "Does the Swami really thinK that 9,000,000 Hindus. In Bengal, 74,000,- he will thus commend his teaching to 000 Hindus, 20,000,000 Moslems; and men who have learnt the Christian docso in varying proportions. trine of sin, and whose consciences tell them that they are sinners? He might as well go to a convict prison and tell -The Harveat Fi'eU quotes this from the inmates it is a sin to call them crimi- the address of Babu N. N. Butta, B.A., nals."
· 306 GENERAL MISSIONARl INTELLIGENCE
TlIE LEVANT. current Moslem assumption that our Scriptures are essentially corrupted has -Dr. Masterman writes of a visit to no support in the Koran. It will also, Samarin, in Galilee: "The situation of of course, bave to yield to the scientific this quickly rising Jewillh town is mag· demonstration of fact. But 'as the nlficent, the finest site I know of in Koran is so easily demonstrable to be, Palestine, embracing views of the sea, not casually and occasionally, but forest, mountain, and plain. The well- throughout, in statements and implicabuilt houses, solid streets and roads, tions, in tone and temper, and fundamen. public gardens and miles of vineyards tal doctrines concerning God and man, on all sides. present a scene unlike any- absolutely irreconcilable with the New thing else here. The Jews seem to be Testament, therefore tile unquestioning industrious and happy. Much of the recognition of inspiration wbich the actual labor is performed by the fel- Koran requires for the New Testament lahin under Jewish supervision. Euro· must, however slowly, be working pean ploughs and carts are used exten- against the authority of the Koran sively. Splendid roads, which would itself. be a credit to any European country, are being rapidly pushed from the col. Herr Kozle gives the royal firman of ony toward Haifa, on one side, and 1831, acknowledging the receipt of Nazareth on the other. The main Henry Martyn's translation of the New street of Samarin is fully a mile long, Testament. It expresses very lumiwith comfortable houses and small side nously the attitude which a Moslem is streets on each side. At the centre of obliged by his religion to assume towthe town there fs a fine large synagogue. ard the Scrir-tures, and it will be ob- Water is laid on to the streets and served tbat it makes no use of the sub· houses, being pumped up the hill by a terfuge of alleged corruption of the steam-pump. Smaller colonies are t.ext. It is as follows: springing up, under the protection of the great one, in the districts aro-md." " In the name of God, the All-glori· -MedicaZ Missions. ous! It is our exalted will that our dear friend, the Right Honorable Sir -Pastor Christian K5zle, missionary Gore Ousley, Envoy Extraordinary of among the Mohammedans in Persia, His Majesty the King of Great Britain, has a very interesting communication should be apprised that we have duly in Nachrichten a'US dem Morgenlande, received the book of tbe Gospels ren- Heft 5, 1894. He justly remarks that dered into tbe Persian tongue by Henry our current assumption that the Mo- Martyn, of blessed memory. We bold hammedans are intractable to Christian worthy of our higb appreciation this missions is not true, but it is true that work, presented to us in the name of we have been intractable to our duty the learned, worthy, and enlightened toward them in this respect. Society of the Christians, united for tbe purpose of diffusing the Divine As Pastor Kozle remarks, it is a great books of the teacher Jesus, to whose advantage to us in dealing with Mo- name, as to those of all prophets, be hammedanism not only tbat it acknow l- ascribed honor and blessing I For edges that Jesus is the Messiah, and is many years, indeed, the four Gospels sinless (indeed, extending sinlessness to of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John his mother, in early anticipation of the have been known in Persia, but now Immaculate Conception), but tbat it the whole New Testament is translated, recognizea-in fact, enjoins the duty of an event which must be a great satisreading the Scriptures. As Sir Will· faction to our exalted soul. By the iam :Muir, we believe It is, remarks, the grace of God, the All-merciful, we will commit to those of our servants, to
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
whom access is granted near our 'per- Velsen, of Urma, Westphalia (who had son, the function of reading the afore- arrived with us the day before), and 1- said writings before us from beginning sang the hymn, • Ein' feste Burg ist to end, that we may hear their observa- unser Gott.' It made a great impres- tions thereupon. Express to the mem- sion on all, although they only under- bers of the above-mentioned enlightened stood it as translated. Then we consid- society our deserved thanks. ered with one another the glorious "Given in Rebialaril, in the year of promise of the prophet Isaiah, its par- the Hegira 1229 (A.D. 1831). tial fulfilment, which we behold even "FETH ALI SHAH KAJAR." to-day, and the glorious hope, which Of course this is merely the language the words of Philippians offered us for of form, but it is a regal acknowledg- all, and therefore for the Moslem.
ment of an admitted Moslem duty, and After a prayer we took leave. It was therefore can always be used to advan- an hour of deep refreshment. Our tage in Persia. Mohammedan friends bade us a most Herr Kozle haB entered into very in- cordial farewelI, saying that they were teresting relations with two brothers, not yet so far advanced as we, but they descendants of the prophet, Mirza Ha- would pray that tuey might be, and bib Allah and Mirza Abdul Vauuf. that we must pray with them, and re- The former was an intimate friend of main their brethren and friends. Mirza the martyr Mirza Ibrahim. He avowed Habib Allah also made me a present of that he, too, was inwardly a believer a Mohammedan rosary, having, accord- (and his br.)ther seems to think with ing to the 99 attributes of Allah, 99 him), but confessed that he had not had beads, by which the Moslem direct their the strength to become a martyr. But devotions. The beads were baked of for his wife and children, he said, he holy earth, from the grave of Hassan would gladly flee to Europe and profess and Hussein. at Kerbela on the Eu- his laith. He declared that God had phrates. But I was much more de- heard his ardent prayer in bringing lighted with his photograph, which he Christian missionaries to him, and ear- gave me with a French inscription, as nestly entreated that they would settle follows: • &rviteur d6 JeauS-Okri8t, in Chof. ITe brought a number of his Mirza, Haln7J Allah. Moll, amour 8'etend a friends who, like himself, were longing '/)OUR tOU8 en J08U8·0ltriBt. Que la for something more soul-satisfying than grace d6 Dieu Boit avec tom qui g,Vment the externalism and fatalism, the cruelty nOtre Seigneur JbiuB-Olwi8t en purete.'
and sensualism of Islam, and who had That is, 'The servant of Jesus Christ, found it in the Gospel. Mirza Habib Allah. My love extends Pastor K5z1e adds: "On April 15th to you all, who are in Jesus Christ.
-it was a Sunday, according tu the The grace of God be with all them that Christian calendar – we assembled love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.'
around us for the last time our Moham- This is a beautiful testimony, well wor- medan friends, who had become to us thy of being communicated to Chris- veritable brethren in Christ. The next tians everywhere, inciting them to sus- day we were meaning to leave Ohoi. tain with their prayers this man, thus How should we take leave of them? struggling to carry through the convic- We thought it would be the most ex- tion of his faith."
cellent way, if we once more seated We are not aware whether a lineal ourselves around God's Word, and took descendant of Mohammed has ever leave with this. We chose Isa. 45: 21- gone so far before toward an open con- 24 out of the Old and Phil. 2 : 9-11 out fession of Christ. As Dr. A. J. Gordon of the New Testament. At the begin- has shown, the hour has plainly struck ningwethree-Dr. Zerweck, Pastor von to remember Raymond Lull.
GENERAL MISSIONAUY INTELLIGENCE
English Notas. we judge it well that Mr. Waterhouse BY JAMES DOUGLAS. should tell the story in his own words: "My father received in Tasmania a WealeyanMis8ionary Society.-Owing letter from his old friend, Theophilus to the financial crisis, October 5th was Lessey, informing him of the miserable set apart, by the request of the Home cry of ' Stop the missionary supplies.'
Committee, to be observed as au Inter- It almost broke his heart. It was not cession Day at home and abroad. From for himself he feIt so deeply. but for all parts of the mission field tidings those under his charge, faithful men of have come as to the way the day was God, who, with their wives, had en- spent. In most places collections were tered the mission field for life, and made and offerings received in behalf whom it was now proposed to leave of the deficit; while in various places penniless 18,000 miles or more from the day was followed up by a series of home. As I have said, it nearly broke services having in view the conversion his heart, and I have no doubt that his of sinners and the increase of spiritual- effort to sustain the cause in Van Die- ity among the members. men's Land brought him to a prema- Some of the reports from distant ture grave. When on his death-bed I lands are especially cheering. This was at his side. He appeared to have applies to all districts in Ceylon, where ceased to breathe, and the doctor said, out of their great poverty the people , He is gone,' when I took him by the brought willingly from their tiny store shoulder and said, 'Father, speak.' to the common fund. In Hassan, ]''l:y- lIe rose in his bed, stared liS if on va- sore, India, the large sum of 120 rs. cancy, looking in the middle of the was forthcoming-a wonderful response room with glassy eyes, and exclaimed, if the smallness and meagre resOUrces 'Wesley, Clarke, Smith. Missiona- of the church in question be consid- ries I Missionaries!! Missionaries!!!'
ered. Writing from Hassan, Mysore, He then sank down on his bed, breathed the Rev. H. Gulliford says: "We are two or three times, and the vital spark delighted to think there is a prospect of had fled. . ., I enclose you a check growing prosperity in every depart- for £25, with my sainted father's ap- ment of the Methodist Church. . • . peal on his death-bed, 'Missionaries I If we could multiply our Christian in- Missionaries !! Missionaries!!!'"
fluences a hundredfold, there would be a vast turning to God. As it is, we are Presbyterian Olturch of England.- afraid to begin any new work, lest we The Swatow Council is clear as to the desirability of planting a missionary at should have to abandon it again." Sua·buc, a large port half-way between In Freetown, Sierra Leone, a day of Swatow and Hong Kong, but for want fervent prayer was spent, interspersed of funds the project lies in abeyance. with appropriate addresses, and the free- " Weare afraid," writes Mr. Maclagan, will offerings of our people amounted in the name of the Swatow Council, to £10. The largest amount received " that at home it may not sometimes be from the foreign field came from La- realized how much even the ground gos, West Africa, where the people's nearest us is unoccupied. Within a gifts reached the agr;regate sum: of day's journey from Swatow there are £107 Sa. 5d. Altogether Intercession numerous large towns and villages as Day seems to have been well spent, yet untouched. It is with reluctance and to have been fraught with much spiritual stimulus. The most effective that we leave these unvisited, to spend part of the record is contained in the a fortnight in mere travelling for a letter received from Mr. John T. Wa- month or six weeks' hurried visit of the terhouse with an accompanying check. southwest stations."
The circumstances are so unique, that Kaisua lsland.-Recently the reaping
ENGLISH NOTES
of the firstfruits of the Swatow Mission face to face with them; and in addi- in Kaisu& Island was recorded. Since tion as a man to whom prayer is as the then two more adults have been bap- breath of life. He is known as a scru- tized. pulous man, simple, prayerful, and Ohi'M8e HOBtility and How to Meet It. willing to do the right thing, although -As a means of obviating native hos- it may bring him any amount of riditility, Mr. Gardner recommends the cule.
adoption, as far as possible, of their She-K'I-Tien, Ho-Nan.-Some inter- ideas in things non-essential. For ex- esting " Tokens for Good" are supplied ample, he would have native styles of by Miss Leggat, who now occupies the arch'tecture used in the erection of mis- field where Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Hud- sionary bUildings. He mentions that son Taylor used to labor. One case the new college in the Hak-ka centre cited concerns an old woman on whose was built a year or two ago on this plan heart the Gospel speedily laid hold.
with the happiest results. The public Coming in one Sunday from her coun- opposition raised entirely subsided, and try home, Reven li distant, she opened now there is no dissenting voice. The out her little napkin, in which her din- principle cited has a place in the social ner was wrapped, and exultingly pro- customl$ of the people also. To sample duced her kitchen god. When tearing the meaning, the case is told of a vil- it down from off her wall, her son and lage headman in the Hak·ka region daughter-in-law said, "What are you who became a Christian. His father doing? You are leaving the house dying, it fell to him in the natural or- without a god." She replied, "This, der to perform the funeral rites. His does tMs reckon as a god? I spurn it ; Christian conscience would not allow Jesus is my Saviour," and down the of any complicity with ceremonies that paper came before they could interfere.
were mixed up with the worship of On being asked by Miss Leggat if she idols. Thus far it behooved him to was not frightened to burn it-" Fright- " watch and keep his garments. " But ened 1" she replied. "No, I have while he could not be a party to the Jesus now." And so by the applica- cost incurred in idolatrous rites, he felt tion of a match the thing was very Boon that he ought to bear all the larger reduced to ashes. The refrain of the share in the purely civil and necessary old lady's life now is, " Jesus loves me, part of the funeral expenses. In this this I know," and " I am weak, but He way, without surrender of principle, is strong."
the name "Christian" is freed, in the THE KINGDOM. public view, from the charge of shab- biness. "The offence of the cross will -What a commentary upon Chrisnot indeed cease; yet we may reason- tianity is found in the fact that a young ably avoid needless offence." Jewess, 'who had embraced it, has ex- A Ohinese Pastor.-Pastor Hsi has pressed a desire to •• read church hissent a characteristic epistle to the father tory to find out how and when Chrisof one of the China Inland Mission mis- tians came to be so dif!erent from sionaries, in which, among other things, Christ."
he figures as one instructed from above -A recent editorial in the Foreign to dispense medicines for the body as Mi88irmary (Lutheran, General Council) well as salutary counsel for the soul. is entitled "Congregational Selfish- In his own land, among the band of ness, " and has these for the opening disciples, he is recognized as a man of sentences: "Our attention has recently wonderful power in 'casting out devils, been called to the fact that there are the devils themselves recognizing him members of our congregations who will as God's servant the moment he comes give willingly, and even liberally, for
GENERAL HISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
the current expenses and the enlarge- If you go alone to a man, you will get ment and improvement of the church something. If you take another person property of the congregation with with you, you will get more. If you which they arc connected, who will do take three with you, you will gilt the little or nothing for the work of the whole amount you ask for.''' Such church outside of and beyond their is human nature, and only similar own congregational limits. Their will- methods will do the work of raising ingness and liberality in this respect money for missions.
both begin and end at home. That others have not the Gospel, and, as a -How persistent are the, heresy and'
consequence, are perishing in their sins superstition that Christendom is being and helplessness, would seem to be a seriou&ly robbed ):;y silly enthusiasts for matter of small concern to these mem- the sake of evangelizing the far-off and bers with this narrow, limited view of good-for-nothing Hindus, Chinese, Jap- the work of the church." anese, etc_ The Ohurc7t Missionary In- teUigencer devotes fourteen precious -The American Board Almanac pages to an article on "The Alleged quotes the 'following: "A man who Drain of Men to the Fordgn Field,"
does not give definitely, and who does and easily shows that no such" drain"
not set down in his account-book ex- exists. The amount of toil bestowed actly what he does gi'le, is apt to think upon heathen lands is inexcusably small that he is always giving_ There is no as compared with work at home, and falsehood larger and deeper than this especially when we consider that fully in practical life_ If you will put down three fourths of the earth's popUlation just what you give'to charitable' pur- is yet wholly unevangelized. Let this poses, you will be surprised at the end single specimen fact suffice: While 17 of the year how little you have given; of the neediest wards of New York City yet you may have the feeling that you have a population of about 443,000 and have been always parting with your 111 churches and chapels, there are 8 money in response to benevolent ap- provinces in China whose 75,000,000 peals. .. In other words, stop not short have only 57 missionaries.
of the" cold facts" in the case. Fig- ures do not lie ; wherefore, be not de- -How solemn are these words pen- ceived, brethren. ned by Rev. Dr. De Forest for the In- dependent, and in explanation of the re- -General Horace Porter, speaking of cent falling off of conversions in Japan: the way in which he raised the $400,- "The unwise and, in some cases, un- 000 needed to complete the monument just criticism of missionaries; the dis- to General Grant, said: "It is a great covery of gross immoralities and the mistake to suppose that, on such an occa- social and political corruption that ex- sion, people are crowding around, try- ists in all the great centres of Christen- ing to force their money into your dom ; the seeming political injustice of hands. The money is .there, but you the West toward the weaker nations of have to go for it. I found there were the East; the knowledge slowly gained 128 trades in New York, represented that Christ's Church is almost hope- each by its separate board_ I worked lessly divided, and that Japan has been through these boards, and went from used as a kind of dumping-ground for one board to another, organizing com- missionaries of every sect; the conse- mittees in each one, in all more than quent incompetence, mistakes, and 3000 committees. Then I instructed waste of forces in the missionary body the committee in regard to getting -these are, in the main, the causes that money. I said to them, 'If you write stand across the path of the past and to a man you will not get anything. future success of missions." -The Canada Presbyterian is in a total capital invested in railroads In the sore quandary. The missionary treas- United States in 1893 was $10,500,000.- ury is empty, but half a score of would- 000. The railroad employes number be missionaries are urging, "Here are 823,700. Considerably more than one we, send us." Shall they be dispatched half (7185) of all the steamers, and more at once and the churches be called upon than one quarter (4475) of all the sail- to supply the means required, or be ing-vesselS in the world, fly the British bidden to wait ,until the money is in flag. Next in importance in steam-ves- hand? How sad that such a question sels comes Germany, with 912; the should ever be possible; and, oh, for United States, with 610 ; then France, heavenly wisdom to decide just when with 555; Norway, 554; Sweden. 535 ; hesitation is unbelief and disobedience, Spain, 392; Rnssia, 248; Denmark, and when faith lapses into presumption 253; Italy, 214, etc.
and folly I -The Church of Scotland has a mis- sionary debt of £2506, but 5 of its Afri- -Can it be that the day is really ap- can missionaries have just Bent each proaching when the nations will learn one month's salary to aid in its extincwar no more? In 1890 our Congress tion; and, moreover, 42 native Chrisadopted a resolution recommending the tian workers at Blantyre and 20 Domas! President to invite negotiations with boys have dODe the same thing. The foreign countries with a view to arrang- " self-denial" donation of these last ing treaties of arbitration. In 1893 the alone amounts to nearly £4. British House of Commons unanimous· ly adopted a resolution referring to this -Mr. James Croil has a book entitled action, and recommending co-operation "The Noble Army of Martyrs, and with the United States in this matter. Roll of Protestant Missionary Martyrs' It is said that a motion is soon to be in- from A.D. 1661 to 1891." The" roll" troduced into the Senate instructing the contains 130 names, and does not in- President to endeavor to negotiate an clude the native workers or converts, Arbitration Treaty for twenty-five nor in the case of Cawnpore Mrs. Hayyears, and that Mr. Cremer, M.P., is cock, the missionary's mother who now in this country as the bearer of a shared his death, nor the sister of the letter from 354 members of the House Rev. M. I. Jennings, and the Misses of Commons to the individual members Thompson at Delhi. of Congress, requesting them to .sup- port this motion. -Dr. Pauline Root, of the Madura -And commerce is a great peace- Mission, has had 20,000 patients, with maker and help to the spread of the nearly 5000 surgical operations. They Gospel. The Brooklyn Eagle gives came from 216 Villages. Dr. Mary these figures: The total number of Niles, of the Canton MissioD, has had steamers of 100 tons and upward com- 5000 patients, with 600 surgical operaprising the fleet of the world is 12,907, tions.
with a gross tonnage of 16,066,202. -There are some large congregations The total number of sailing-vessels of in heathen lands. In the city of Para- 100 tons and upward is 17,814, with a maribo, Dutch Guiana, there is a Prot- net tonnage of 8,503,294, making a to- estant church with an attendance of tal of both steam and sail, 30,721, with 8000, of whom 3500 are communicants.
a tonnage of 24,569,486. The value of The great cathedral at Uganda, Central this sea-going tonnage is estimated in Africa, holds 5000, and is 1illed. A IOund numbers at $2,000,000,000, and correspondent from Aintab, Central.
the number of men employed is in the Turkey, states that one church there is Ileighborhood of 650,000. As a matter crowded with an audience of 2000, and of comparison it may be stated that the in the same city is another church with a Sunday-school of 15,060.-Pittsburgh I have been present since reaching Ohl'i&tian Advocate. Chou-ping. "
-Yet again does David with his harp -Dr. Ida E. Richardson, of Phila exorcise the evil spirit. For:" Sigau- delphia, in an interview recently, at- Fu, a notoriously hostile city, was ' cap- tributed her professional success largely tured' by the late Mr. Holman. Suc- to this fundamental rule of Christian cessful in renting a house, he shortly conduct: "Every patient, in hospital found himself the object of the rage or private practice, has been treated as of· the populace, who, gathering some I would like to be treated were I the 2000 strong, proceeded to eject the patient." What is this but the Golden 'foreign devil.' A good musician, he Rule and the heavenly spirit of misstood for three hours in the doorway sions? with his guitar, playing and singing to the peoplc in Swedish (his native lan- -The Woman's Home Missionary guage), English, and Chinese. The Society of the 1r!ethodist Episcopal crowd grew tired, and left him for that Church has 16 industrial schools and day. On several occasions subsequent- homes,' established in various localities ly this was repeated. Finally he was iu the South, 18 among Indians, Morpermitted to remain, and Sigan-Fu was mons, and New Mexicans, aJ;ld 20 in the ~pened to the Gospel." cities, including Deaconess Homes.
-An excellent little book of nearly -The twenty-fifth annual report of 90 pages bas been written by Rev. A. the Methodist Woman's Foreign Mis- C. Chute, of Halifax, and is published sionary Society is a model with its by the Baptist Book and Tract Society maps, statistical tables (which are of the same city, upon the life of John usually so conspicuously lacking in Thomas, physician, and first Baptist such publications), and whatsoever else missionary to Bengal. The supreme is needed by the seeker after informaservice of this man lies in the fact that tion. In particular, the maps go far to he led Carey to his magnificent work illustrate and illuminate. Nor is there in India, while but for him the peerless any patent on this style of a report. modern apostle would have buried him· Verbum 8ap. StU for life in far-off, tiny Tahiti (Otaheite). -In several important particulars the thirteenth annual report of the WOMAN'S WORK. Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada, approaches -Miss Aldridge, of Chou-ping, China the same high standard. The mission- (English Baptist), writes: "Last week aries number 32, and are to be found I attended a baptism service, when 14 in China and Japan, as well as among women and 18 men were baptized. It the Indians, French, and Chinese of the must mean something for the poor Dominion.· The receipts last year were women; and, although they have to $34,837, derived from 571 auxiliaries wait about eighteen months on appro with 13,645 members, and 273 circles bation, I am afraid they know compar- and bands with 6424 members. atively little even then. It is very difficult for them to stand in the water with -The women of the Methodist Epistheir little feet. Mrs. Drake baptized copal Church, South, support 35 misthem. and they all went to the women's sionaries in China, Mexico, and Brazil. rooms at her house afterward, and then The society through which they work the men who had been baptized met at has 1834 auxiliaries with 37,330 memthe chapel, where an address was given bers, and 2312 young people's and juand II. communion service held. This venile societies with 26,545 members; is the second baptism service at which a total of 67,595 members. -.Tanuary 21st the Woman's Board -Seven languages are regularly of Foreign Missions of the Reformed heard in the meetings of Chicago Chris- (Dutch) Church celebrated its twentieth tian Endeavor societies-"Welsh, Nor- birthday. To each one who attended wegian, Swedish, Dutch, German, Bo- an opportunity was given to place an hemian, and Chinese.
offering in the floral ship, Lux Mundi, and $1500 "was the freight which it -What can be more beautiful and floated into a safe harbor." During becoming than the movement which the first year the amount raised was has been started by the Endeavor So- $2891. This has gradually increased, ciety of the Clarendon Street Baptist and in 1894 the sum raised was $27,727. Church, Boston. Honoring the mem- -The boarding-school building at ory of their beloved pastor so recently Jackson, Miss., known as Mary Holmes deceased, whose love for missions was Seminary, and designed for the educa- consuming, and though already suption of colored girls, under the care of porting two of their number in China the Presbyterian Freedman's Board, at a cost of $600, they undertook to was totally destroyed by fire on Jan- raise $200 as a memorial fund (but over uary 31st. The building with its fur- $400 was soon pledged), and propose to nishing, and subsequent additions and all the Baptist young people of the improvements, cost a little less than United States to join them in paying $27,000, and was insured for $15,000. the debt of the Baptist Missionary The Board appeals for immediate help Union, which amounts to $200,000. toward rebuilding. How easHy this could be done if all would bear a hand I And what a YOUNG PEOPLE. blessed consummation it would be if the translation of Dr. Gordon should -Says the Young Men'8 Era: "Al- lead to a great revival of misdionary together the best of the Indian national zeal I conventions was the third and latest -Rev. E. B. Stiles makes this claim held at Madras, December 27th-Blst, for the Free Baptists in the Morning 1894. Twenty-four associations were Star: "So far as I know, the first misrepresented by 54 voting delegates, be- sionary to be sent by young people's sides 21 honorary delegates who at- societies as such was sent by our young tended most of the sessions. Burmllh, people in 1888. To Miss Perkins be- Ceylon, and 4 unorganized places in longs the honor of proposing it; to India sent representatves, so that the loyal Free Baptist young people betotal number attending was 75, of longs the honor of carrying out the whom 27 were European and Eurasian proposal. Quick came the responses, and 48 were natives of India." led by the Endeavor Society of Dan- -The Young Women's Christian ville, N. H.; and in a few months from Association is becoming an important the first suggestion your missionaries factor of Christian activity and progress were on their way to India, going as in India. In Calcutta a fine building the representatives of a few isolated has been secured for an institute, and societies without any central organiza- also a house for a home. Extraordi· tion. Loyally did they rally to the nary opportunities are opening up support of him whom they called' our among the Eurasians and English- missionary.' I think that the treas- speaking girls. Two young English urer's books will show that more than women, who have had considerable ex- enough was raised during the five years perience in association work at home, that I was in India, to pay all expenses. "
have recently decided to give them- He laments, however, that their zeal selves to this service in India. has since grown cold in some measure. 314 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [April -In Life and Light Miss S. Louise Forest, $100,000: Knox College, $100,- Day has it that there are more than 000; Chicago Theological Seminary, 100 Endeavor societies connected with $50,000; Presbyterian Seminary, $50,- Congregational mission schools and 000; Presbyterian Hospital, $60,000; churches: 29 in Japan, 6 in China, 13 Young Men's Christian Association, in India, 4 in Africa, 15 in Turkey, 1 in $30,000; Women's Board of Foreign Spain, 7 in Mexico, and 4 in the Sand- Missioll9, $20,000; Yankton College, wich Islands, etc. $50,000; Whitman College, $50,000, and other deserving institutions to the -An Epworth League in Minneapo- extent of $400,000 more. And the best lis, Minn., is able to give a good ac- of it is that in each case he stirred up count of its stewardship during 1894. the friends of the institution to raise a This is a partial and condensed state- sum two or three times as great as he ment from the department of mercy himself gave. and help: $53.51 expended for fuel; clothing, and groceries, and to defray -Not all millionaires are selfish and funeral exp"enses of a little child; abun- sordid, as witness how the Medical dance of grocery supplies given by in- School of Columbia College has redividual members, impossible to esti- ceived $350,000 from Messrs. Cornelius, mate; 38 yards of material purchased William K., Frederick W., and George and given to the poor; 30 meals and W. Vanderbilt, of New York City, to many delicacies, such as lemons, or- be used in constructing two new buildanges, and jellies carried to the sick ings for the school's hospital, to be a and poor; 20 bouquets carried to those memorial of William H. Vanderbilt. shut in from church privileges; 435 Mrs. W. D. Sloane, who was a Vanderarticles{)f clothing distributed, 100 sent bilt, has given $200,000 for the erection to the Hinckley sufferers; dishes and of an enlargement of the Sloane Mabedding provided, and children fitted ternity Hospital. out with clothing; 14 pairs of shoes, -Vermont, the mother of States, ac- 1 pair of rubber boots, 3 pairs of new cording to the census has a native pop- ulation of 249,590, and besides has 172,- mittens, several good overcoats, com- 769 sons and daughters resident in other fortables, and ladies' jackets to Asbury States of the Union; and it is mainly Hospital; 4 pairs of pillow-cases (new), because of this astounding depletion 8 bundles of old linen, 1 pair new by emigration that some regions within sheets, 23 new towels, 15 cans of fruit, her bounds have lost their former spir- 2 dozen oranges, and groceries to the itual estate, and that Roman Catholics amount of $5; 977 calls made on the now outnumber Congregationalists sick, poor, and aged. more than two to one.
UNITED STATES. -The Southern Presbyterian Insti- tute for the Training of Colored Min- -Let Dr. Parkhurst beware, or he isters, now called Stillman Institute, will attain to the highest rank among opened in 1877, has had under instruchome missionaries, though the iniquity tion 168 students, of whom 109 have which he is called to fight to the death been Presbyterians, 45 Methodists, and is as far removed from whatsoever is 14 Baptists. Thirty-six Presbyterians Christian and truly civilized as any the have been graduated, an average of 2 a heralds of the cross are likely to find year, "while the Methodists and Bapon pagan soil. tists got a good salting with Calvinism that may keep them safe." The Com- -And Dr. D. K. Pearsonshas justly mittee of Colored Evangelism is aiding earned the title of the benefactor of 66 churches, with 130 elders, 83 deacolleges. What a fine list of benefactlons: Beloit College, $100,000; Lake cons, and 1500 members. Use is made, Army, 1-a total of 62. To this numin establishing ·new churches, of evan- ber might be added the Salt Lake Bible gelistic work, of which nearly all the Society, the Salt Lake Sunday-school colored ministers do some. Besides Association, the Salt Lake Deaconess this work in the home field, arrange- Board, the Utah Union, the Woman's ments have been made for the instruc- Christian Temperance Union, the tion of men under appointment to go to Young Men's Christian Association, and Africa as missionaries. the Ladies' Auxiliary, the combined Christian Endeavor Societies, and the -A special train with 450 negroes combined Epworth Leagues, a total of aboard arrived at New Orleans the 9, which make a grand total of 71 reother day, from Atlanta, destined for ligious bodies in this city-a most excel- Mexico. The exodus is under the con- lent showing.-Salt Lake T1ibune. trolof the Mexican Colonization Society, which, it is said, has made con- -The Methodist CQinese Mission, of tracts with thousands of freedmen in San Francisco, has just" lost" 3 most Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, to useful converts, who have returned to settle them on lands in the northern China to bear the Gospel to their kinsstates, near the Rio Grande. This folk. One of them, Rev. Lee Chin, land will be sold to them on long time, says the California OMistian Advocate, and at very low prices. Another and " was converted twenty years ago, has a larger party is expected soon, and it been preaching the Gospel eight years is thought that if these two parties are at Sacramento and other places, and pleased with what they find, there will was admitted as a preacher on trial at be a weekly train of negroes to Mexico. last year's Conference. An ex.cellent Christian woman offered to send him -Captain R. H. Pratt's fifteenth an- out and support him. The offer was nual report of the Carlisle Indian school accepted, and he leaves the limited field shows a successful year, with advances here to itinerate among the towns and in all departments. There were 493 villages of that part of the Kwangtung boys and 328 girls. The present num- province that is the home of 9 out of ber of pupils is 602, of which 358 are 10 of the Chinese in America." boys and 244 girls. The new pupils number 152, and 215 have been return- -The Southern Methodist Review of ed to agencies. Forty-four tribes are Missions for February fills its opening now represented at the school, the prin- pages with the life story of " Uncle cipal ones being Oneida, 74; Sioux, Larry," of the Virginia Rosebuds. His 62; Chippewa, 58; Apache, 57; Sen- real name is John B. Laurens, who saw eca, 42; Cherokee, 33; Assiniboine, hard service both in the Mexican War 31; Pigean, 23; Pueblo, 24; Nez and in the Rebellion. It was in his Perces, 21; Osage, 20; Ottawa, 20; heart to be a preacher, but after years Tuscarora. 19; Crow, 17; Shawnee, of trial it became evident that bodily 12; and Winnebago, 11. infirmity made this impossible. By a strange providence, in 1878 he drifted -Surely Salt Lake ought to be indeed into the office of the Richmond Ohristhe" city of saints," since a "careful tian Advocate. and to the head of " Our count of religious bodies having regular Little People" department, with his places of worship shows the following business to stir up the children (Rosefigures: Baptist,4; Catholic,2; Christian, buds) to organize and give to missions. 1 ; Congregational, 3 ; Episcopal, 4 ; He- So earnest and discreet did he prove brew,1; Josephite,l; Church of Jesus that when he died last year there were Christ of Latter Day Saints, 27; Lu- 450 societies with 30,000 members, and theran, 4; Methodist, 7 ; Presbyterian, receipts which some years rose above 4; Scandinavian Free Mission, 1; Scientists, 1; Unitarian, 1.; Salvation $4000, and had amounted in all to '47.- 297. Surely, for a hopeless invalid this Dutch Scriptures to Cape Town, of was efficient service. Spanish and Portuguese to Rio de Janeiro, and of others to Auckland and -The enterprising A88embly Herald Singapore. is 'able to publish to its readers: "The weight of our February edition is be· -These statistics, prepared for Temtween 7 and 8 tons, and if stretched perance Sunday by the Nonconformist out in a single, continuous sheet would churches in England, indicate the status reach almost from New York to Phila- of this great reform. The WesleylUl delphia. Nearly aU of these 125,000 Methodists have 435,141 juvenile and papers are sent out in separate wrap- 68,798 adult members in: their temperpers, every wrapper being hand ad- ance societies; the Baptist Total Abdressed." stinence Association has 1419 names of minisj;ers on its roll, and reports that -Writing from Constantinople un- 203 out of 221 students in the Baptist der date of November 19th, Rev. Dr. College are known to be abstainers; EUas Riggs says: .. To-day is the the Congregational Association claims eighty-fourth anniversary of my birth- 2160 out of 2718 ministers in England day, and I have entered upon the sixty- and Wales as abstainers, and 373 out of third year of my missionary life, hav- 400 students in the British theological ing sailed from Boston for Greece in colleges, While most of the Congrega~ October, 1832." This venerable and be- tional ministers in Scotland and Ireland loved missionary is still engaged, heart are also abstainers. The Methodist and soul, in the work to which he gave Free Churches have more than 800 temhiIUSelf more than threescore years ago, perance societies, with a known memo and he writes in a clear, strong hand: bership of 83,668 ; and the other Meth- .. I have had my trials, but I can say odist bodies and the Society of Friends that Divine goodness and mercy have are practically all abstainers. followed me all the' days of my life hitherto, and I am sure will follow me -Not less than 202 medical missionthrough the remainder of my days."- aries are in the foreign field who hold Mi88ionary Herald. British diplomas and degrees, though what are these to the 26,000 physicians -When, on January 9th, at New to be found in the United Kingdom! Rochelle, N. Y., Mrs. Mary R. Schauf. Edinburgh sent 45; Glasgow, 27; Lonfier departed this life, another soul emi· don, 12; Dublin, 9; Aberdeen, 7; etc. nent for devoted service entered into Of these healers 29 represent the Church the reward in store for such in the life !Iissionary Society, 28 the Scottish Free to come. She went out to Turkey in Church, 19 the London Missionary So- 1827, the first unmarried woman to sail ciety, 14 the United Presbyterians, 12 from this land on such an errand. In the English Presbyterians, 10 the China 1834 she was married, and remained in Inland Mission, 9 the Church of Scotthe field until 1877, dwelling at Bebek, land, 9 the Propagation Society (S. P. on the Bosphorus. G.), etc.
EUROPE. -The ahurch Missionary Intelligen- cer, the organ of the Church Missionary Great Britain. – The British and Society, in referring to the centenary Foreign Bible Society has recently sent of the London Missionary Society, pays out over 2000 Sinhalese Bibles and 4100 this generous tribute: .. No society has Gospels for the Colombo Auxiliary. had greater men, or been permitted to These books were printed from plates do a grander work. First in the South made by the photographic process. Seas, first in China, first in Madagas- Other large shipments have recently car, first in New Guinea, with such been made of Kafir, Buto, Chuana, and names on its roll as John Williams, Gospel. And hence we are not sur· Morrison, Moffat, Livingstone, Ellis, prised to learn that the "Executive Mullens, Gilmour-not to speak of liv- Committee has published a memoran· ing men-and with by far the largest dum recognizing the free right of lay- total number of adherents among all men to engage in evangelistic work missionary societies; it deserves to be among the heathen, the instruction of honored, indeed. Although the society Christians in Bible classes and the like, is by its constitution undenominational, and school work, medical work, and it is practically supported almost ex- literary work of various kinds, such as clusively by one section of English is generally recognized as within the Nonconformity-the Congregationalist. province of laymen, without first secur- Relatively to numbers, influence, and ing formal episcopal authorization.
wealth, they put us Churchmen to There are, however, other fanctions for shame. We wish the society very the exercise of which it would be prop- heartily God-speed in its almost world- er to have a special arrangement with wide work." the bishop of the diocese. They are -The flrst missionary party was sent the habitual conduct of public worship out by the London Society, August in settled congregations where there is 10th, 1796. bound for Tahiti, and con- no resident ordained pastor, and preach- sisted of 30 persons. A" miscellane- ing to such congregations, and the minous selection" truly, for only 4 of the istering from time to time by Europeans, 30 were ministers, 6 were carpenters, on the invitation of the ministers, to 2 shoemakers, 2 bricklayers, 2 tailors, congregations having ordained minis- 2 smiths, 2 weavers, a hatter, a shop- ters in charge. While the committee is keeper, cotton manufacturer, cabinet- willing to arrange with the bishops maker, draper, harness-maker, tin- concerning these matters, it distinctly work~r, cooper, and butcher. Only 6 stipulates that it in no sense surrenders were married, and there were 3 chil- , the inherent right and duty of Chrisdren. tian men to use all and every means of winning souls to Christ.' It con- -The Church Society gives these ceives that' in the mission field no legal eignificant figures to set forth the disqualification exists to prevent laygrowth of seven years: Then 247 or- men from performing even the official dained missionaries, now 344; then 40 functions above referred to without laymen, now 82 ; then 22 women, now episcopal authorization.' Nothing in 193. Total:· then 309, now 619. That the memorandum is to be interpreted is, the Whole staff has doubled since • as infringing upon 'the reasonable lib- 1887. Besides that, there were then erty of the society's lay missionaries to 4 honorary missionaries, now 70, self- do so, either in cases of emergency or supporting, and 80 supported by special even in ordinary cases, in the earlier contributions, When particular mis- stages of missionary work.' " sions are viewed, the retrospect is even more striking. Thus West Africa had The Continent.-Hungary is rejoicthen 11, now 43; East Africa, then 26, ing over great advances made toward now 58; Mohammedan lands, Egypt, religious freedom. Within two years, Palestine, and Persia, then 17, now under the lead of Premier Wekerle, 63 ; India, then 133, now 222; China, three bills have become laws which esthell. 17, now 63; Japan, then 14, now tablish civil marriage, regulate the reo 53. ligion of the offspring of mixed mar- -This, the largest society in the riages, and provide for the civil regis- world, is nothing if not evangelical, tration of births, marriages, and deaths.
and fully determined to defend against And it looks as though the Emperor every foe its sacred rights under the would find no rest until he gives his sanction to a bill establishing freedom " 2. Jewish teachers giving Hebrew of worship for Protestants, Jews, and lessons in such schools. all. " 3. Jewish womcn attending moth- -But in Bohemia there is a step ers' meetings. backward toward the Dark Ages. The Free Reformed Church has for "4. Jewish women going out withsome years enjoyed a limited toleration out white sheets or izara over them, -" house worship with invited guests." and married women omitting to wear But now there is a different interpreta- the regulation wig." tion of the privileges of this religious body. All guests, even special friends -Since the return of Dr. Mackinnon of the members, and members of other to Damascus in April, 1893, until the evangelical 'denominations, must be middle of JUl!-e, 1894, upward of 3140 strictly excluded. For not enforcing out-patients were treated at the disthis rule to the very letter, one preach- pensary, besides close on 500 in Bludan er has been imprisoned, and afterward (the mountain station of the mission). fined. A second preacher has been Allowing Iln average of 3 visits for each fined twice by the same official. At of these, a total of upward of 10,900 Husinetz, Southern Bohemia, Paul sick folk were seen and treated during Zelinka, the Free Church preacher, this period. Of these 39 per cent were and the members there, are persecuted Moslems, 37 per cent Greeks, 10 per by bigoted officials. Prayer .and Bible cent Greek Catholics, 6 per cent Protstudy are dangerous and criminal. estants, etc. In addition, upward of 200 surgical operations were performed ASIA. during the same period, and about 40 in-patients resided for a longer or short- er time in the dispensary premises.
Islam.-It is enough to exhaust the -The report of the British Syrian faith and patience of the saintliest the Schools shows that £4330 was received way the Grand Turk and his under- in England toward their support during officials have of procrastinating and the year ending last midsummer. The contriving hindrances to block all prog- fees and other contributions received ress. The tale is amazing which Rev. on the spot, more particularly at Damas- H. O. Dwight tells in the Independent, cus, raised the total income to £5202. of how in 1880 a lot was purchased in The mission has 3 male and 20 female Constantinople for a church, and in European workers at Beirut, Damascus, spite of most persistent efforts fifteen and Hasbeiya, Lebanon, Baalbec, Tyre, years have passed, and no permit has and among the Bedouin. These are been gi ven to build. And this though assisted by 95 teachers. There are 20 the old chapel long since became unin· schools, with an aggregate attendance habitable, and last July by the earth- of 2809 scholars, 5 preaching stations, quake the congregation was driven with an average of 217, and 1341 pafrom hired premises and "turned into tients in the :Medical:Mission. the street." -Well may the Gleaner (Church :Mis- -According to the Church of Scot- sionary Society) exclaim: "Surely one land Mi88ion Record, this is the Hebrew of the most notable facts in modern of it in Beirut: "On Saturday, De- missionary history is this, that last Aucember 8th, an anathema extraordinary gust 30 missionarie8 (belonging to vawas ordered to be read in the various rious missions) met at Hebron-of all synagogues, cursing with curses posi- places in the world, except :Mecca, pertive and negative all Jews found gUilty haps the most jealously guarded by of the following misdemeanors: the :Mohammedans-and held a kind of convention, for prayer and study of the " 1. Parents sending their children to Word of God. The possibility of such the Scotch Mission schools., a thing is probably one fruit of the -Though himself by no means a Mildmay Medical Mission there. Miss Christian, the late Maharajah of Mysore Hester Campbell writes: "Truly He was no foe to the Gospel, and was a who stood at Abram's tent-door long ruler truly enlightened and of a benevo· ago in Mamre's Plain was very present lent heart. Educated under English with us, and more than one has gone influence, he was a firm friend to the away to Jerusalem, or Beirut, or Cairo, paramount powcr. He was also a stead- to thank God for that week at Hebroll." fast friend to reform of many kinds, only a few months ago greatly limiting India.-The Rev. J. TrailI, of Jey- the practice of child-marriage. pore, has this to say of the" holy" men he saw at the Pushkar mela: "It is a China.-Who does not sorrow with holy place and a holy time, and all the the Celestial Empirc in her humiliation, holy men have come in from far and so abject and utter? Somc 300,000,000 near. Let me tell you these men are bursting with conceit, beaten time after the embodiment of sanctity. They are time, on both land and sea, by a puny so pure that the touch of even the Eu· nation of only 40,000,000 I And yet ropean_would defile them. They have China has only herself to thank. Nor forsaken the world for religion. They can the remote outcome of these months have clothed themselves with ashes. of chagrin and shame be other than They subject themselves to terrible beneficial. The Great Wall of exclu- penances. I saw a man there on a bed siveness will tumble at many points, of spikes; men hanging by the heels to and many a highway will be opened for a tree; a man buried up to the neck; the entrance of Christian forces. a man sitting between five fires before the blazing sun; a man lacerating him- -Rev. B. Baring-Gould has returned self till the blood gushed out; a man from a journey around the world, and holding up a right hand till it dried after abundant opportunities to inform up. And all to gain salvation." himself, declares: "In no part of India or Japan have I ever seen anything at -Rev. W. D. Hankinson writes as all to compare with the aggressiveness follows to Mr. Baynes, of the English of these [Chinese] native Christians. Baptist Society, concerning Buddhism Inquirers are being brought in by the in Ceylon: "This priest is one of the Bcore every week by the converts them- 9950 at present in the island. Each selves. Individual Christians, in one wears a long yellow robe, and possesses case a medical man, in another a pedan alms-bowl in which he receives his dler, in another a blacksmith, have been food. From house to house he moves, recently the means of evangelizing a and silently takes his stand before each, village, or villages, or in one case and with his alms-bowl in front of him, twenty-eight village8, in which 126 inwaits for a small gift of rice or plan- quirers are now waiting to be taught. tains, etc. The giver often does obei- In the districts I have visited, thousance to the priest, and in the case of sands of women are willing to be evanone sect the priest pronounces a bless- gelized, and hundreds of female cateing before departing. Priests of the chumens are waiting to be taught, and other sects depart in silence. No priest can only be taught by their own sex." must take a meal after twelve o'clock noon. When my friend called in to see -The Foochow Conference (Meth· me the other day, one of his attendants odist Episcopal) reports these encourseveral times tested the hour by the aging figures: Members, 4225; probalength of his shadow, lest the priest tioners, 5227 ; baptized children, 1973 ; should be too la*e to partake of his adherents, 7221 ; Sunday.school scholbreakfast. " ars, 5901 ; collected for missionary so- ciety, $405; for self-support, $2314. Of the principal items the increase for the year is as follows: Members, 539 ; avers, " whether on ordinary occasions, probationers, 1722; adherents, 3642; fair days, riots, or war times, deserves Sunday·school scholars, 1285; self-sup- to be mentioned in the same week with as port, $480. The 68 ordained and 125 Hiroshima to orderly conduct."- unordained preachers, together with l'1w Pacific.
the members, probationers, adherents. -Nobody has written more thorand baptized children show a ·total of oughly and impressively of what the 27,509. future probably has in store' for this Korea.-EvidentIy this peninsula, . empire than Rev. J. T. Yokoi, of which was innocently the casus belli be- Tokyo, in a recent issue of the Congre- tween China and Japan, can never gationalist. And his conclusion is for again be considered to be but an out- substance, that while we cannot reason- lying dependency of the Son of Heaven. ably expect Japan ever to adopt the Concerning the outlook for this land, peculiar type of Christianity borne by Rev. Henry Loomis writes: "One any church or nation of the Occident, thing has especially impressed me, and it is yet scarcely possible that she will that is that one of the best statesmen in stop short of possessing the essentials Japan, Count Inouye, has been sent to of Christian civilization.
Korea to assist in inaugurating the new order of things, and has taken as his as- AFRICA. sociates two Christian men, Count Hirosawa and Saito Shinchiro. This means -South Africa includes all :of that that henceforth the religion of Jcsus portion of the continent which lies to Christ is not only to be tolerated but the south of the Zambesi, a territory held in esteem by those in power." with an area of 1,250,000 square miles. Referring to one of the Korean leadeIs On the whole, the soil is fertile, and the who visited the United ·States and be- climate such that white men endure it came a member of the Reformed without much ril!k to health.
Church, he says: "I was pleased to -At Lovedale the attendance last hear him avow his Christian principles, year was 725, of whom all but 33 were and he expressed a very warm interest native Africans, and these pupils paid in the missionaries and their work. He last year for tuition, etc., the snug sum regards Americans as brothers." of £1885 ($9425).
Japan.-In the city of Tokyo there -The Rev. Dr. Steele has printed a are 120 newspapers and magazines. short journal of a ten days' mission The Asabi Shimbun, or Morning News, tour in Angoniland. He visited 19 vilhas a circulation of 100,000 daily, and lages, held 20 meetings, dispensed medithe paper of the same name in Osaka cine to 320 patients, extracted 20 teeth, of 130,000 copies. But with this circu- and preached to over 2000 people. lation they may well rebuke Christian There are no inns, rest-houses, nor shops America; for there are no Sunday pa- in Angoniland. The mission caravan pers in Japan. included 11 carriers-tent, 2 men; bed, 1 man; bedstead, 1 ; magic-lantern, 2 ; -Rev. Mr. Pettee, writing after a medicine chest, 1 ; 2 baskets with food visit to Hiroshima, which has become, and cooking gear, leathern bucket and for the time, the royal residence and basin, 2 men; box with books and the real capital of the nation, speaks of clothing, 1; chair and folding table, the good order which everywhere pre- 1 man. In addition, Dr. Steele took vails. This city has an ordinary popu- with him a native evangelist and 3 boys. lation of 88,000, increased now by 40,000 The cost of the tour amounted to £1 48. more drawn thIther by the exigencies Od.-Free Church Monthly. of the war. Yet no American city, he
The Missionary Review of the World — December 1894
THE PARLIA.MENT OF RELIGIONS
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVII. No. 12.-0Id Serie8.-DECEMBER.-VoL. VII. No. 12.-.tIew &ria.
THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS: A REVIEW.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
A famous American orator used to say that he had " but little foresight, but plenty of hindsight," the latter being found very trustworthy.
More than a year ago the Parliament of Religions took its place in history. Then, in common with many, we felt compelled to testify against the whole scheme, convinced that, at the very basis of it, there lay a blundel'; and that, without impugning the motives of its originators and abettors, its final outcome must be evil rather than good. Before dismissing the matter, we cast a backward glance for a true review j and, instead of intruding merely our own judgment, let others also be heard from this forum of enlightened public opinion as to this attempted amalgamation of the one and only true faith and saving Gospel with the imperfect, iniquitous, idolatrous systems of so-called" religion."
1. Perhaps the Parliament of Religions was a mistake, first of all, in its inadequate presentation and rep1'esenta.tion of Christianity.
Some, who were promoters of the scheme, have since confessed disappointment and even chagrin that the true faith was feebly advocated, or appeared to disadvantage, while, on the other hand, heathenism and various systems of error are jubilant over their success.
There was a natural reason for the disadvantage at which Christianity was placed. The advocates of these foreign faiths were speaking to audiences in which were few who were competent to answer them, and where no reply or rejoinder was allowable. They were skilful masters of the art of presenting the best phases of their systems, and the only way to expose sophistry, fallacy, or even falsehood, was to have had the other side shown by equally competent parties. Ruch a course alone was fair to the hearers. Suppose, for example, the committee had provided two men equally able to present Buddhism; one, if they pleased, its high priest, the other, one of its most intelligent, fair-minded opponents. What if Sir Monier Williams could have set forth the radical defects of Buddhism, and so offset the fascinating but falsifying glamour of its advocacy! or if, after one third. of the human race had been claimed for its adherents, Dr. Happer had exposed the shallow claim by his masterly proof that Mohammedanism, Confucianism, and Christianity each far outnumbers Buddha's followers! Under plea of permitting no disputation, what assaults on Christianity, what erroneous statements went unchallenged!
No wonder the veteran missionary at Swatow remO:lstrates when three or four thousand American" Christians" shout themselves hoarse as bold flings are made at " Christian nations, " unanswered; and American-supposably " Christian"-women, wild with delight, scramble over chairs and benches to get near Dr. Barrows's" right reverend" Shinto, who had been throwing mud at Christianity, and were, some of them, kissed by him !- a thing considered indecent where the "right reverend" exercises his priestly functions !
That sophistical Hindu" monk," Vivekananda, among other applauded statements, said at Chicago : " You come with the Bible in one hand and with the conqueror's sword in the other. You, with your religion of yesterday, to us who were taught thousands of years ago precepts as noble and lives as holy as your Christ's. You trample on us, and treat us like the dust beneath your feet. You degrade our people with drink, you insult our women. You scorn our religion, in many points like yours, only better because more humane. And then you wonder why Christianity makes such slow progress in India. I tell you it is because yon are not like your Christ, whom we could honor and reverence. Do you think if you came to our doors like Him, meek and lowly, with a message of love, living and working and suffering for others as He did, we should turn a deaf ear ~ Oh, no! We should receive Him and listen to Him as we have done to our own inspired teachers."
As the M.adras Mail remarked, these statements are only a mere echo of the usual cheap tirade against Christianity heard in India from the lips of every university undergraduate, at every street preaching, in every lecture-room, and sometimes read in the columns of the native journals; but whose absurdity is patent even to every right-thinking Hindu, and therefore regarded as claptrap by the better portion of the educated classes.
If it were worth while to prick the bubble of this sophomoric bombast, we could easily expose the fact that there is nothing in it. It is easy to say, " You come with the Bible in one hand and the conqueror's sword in the other." Who! How many who heard or who will read these words ever were in India, ever handled a sword, or had any part in India's conquest? Hundreds of thousands of Christians do not believe in a sword, and condemn utterly British rule in India, especially as represented by the East India Company!
'I Your religion of yesterday!" as though the basis of our whole Christianity were not found in the promise of a redemptive seed, made in Eden; and as though its ethical basis were not as old as the Decalogue, as anClient as the Rig Veda. How about. the " insult" to " our women"! As the Madras Mail again well says: " ,Ye cannot say either that there is much propriety or good taste in this taunt coming from a Hindu religionist of any school. The tu quoque argument would suggest rather a' crushing reply. Who have done most for the emancipation of Indian women from the disabilities under which they have labored for centuries-these Western religionists whom it pleases Vivekananda and his friends to taunt, or Brahmins and ascetics of different schools ~ Who has ended sutteeism and infanticide ~ Through whose influence are widow remarriages made possible in India ~ Where did the agitation against monstrous alliances between old debauchees of sixty and little Hindu girls of six originate ~ Who is it that lovingly give of their substance in order to send the sweet ameliorations of woman's woe into IndiaJ;l. homes ~"
II. This Parliament of Religions was a mistake, in the false impression, left on hundreds who attended it.
Two classes of people were there : one composed of representatives of the various un-Christian and anti-Christian systems j and the other, a mis. cellaneous audtence mostly of nominal Christians. Upon both classes alike must have been made impressions lamentably erroneous and misleading.
·What more mischievous result could there be than that which was in a measure inseparable from the very fact of the Parliament-an apparent levelling of all faiths to a common plane ~ Who can doubt that such an im.,pression was produced who reads the reports and representations made by certain delegates, on their return to their own peoples ~ If American Christians would see themselves as they are reflected in the mirror of this Parliament, they would best read, for example, The Pioneer, published in India, where}n one Mervin-Marie Snell writes: " America if! starving for spiritual nourishment. In spite of the ignorance and provincialism of its upper classes, and the savagery of its lower, there are many souls everywhere throughout its great popUlation who are thirsting for higher things-a thirst which Hinduism and Yivekananda are going to assuage."
In the Chicago Herald appeared the comments of a Buddhist priest who attended the Congress and construed it into a confession and concessimi of the failure of Christianity, and the desire of its followers for a more satisfactory faith. He says: "There is no better place in the world to propagate the teachings of Buddhism than in America. Christianity is merely an adornment of society in America. It js deeply believed in by very few. The great majority of Christians drink and commit various gross sins, and live very dissolute lives, although it is a very common belief and serves as a social adornment. Its lack of power proves its weakness."
One of the Buddhists of Japan, reporting to a public meeting held in Yokohama on his return, said : " During the meetings one very wealthy man from New York became a convert to Buddhism, and was initiated into its rites. He is a man of great influence, and his conversion may be said to mean more than the conversion of ten thousand ordinary men; and so we may say that we made ten thousand converts."
'Who this very influential convert is we know not; but it is very plain how these delegates construed the presence and reception of every form of religion as not only an acknowledgment of its truthfulness, but a tribute to its worth. So as to the papacy. Cardinal Gibbons affirms that the fact of his being asked to make the opening prayer was" not only a high compli- ment, but a circumstance of the deepest significance, a virtual acknowledg- ment that the Catholic Church is the rightful and supreme exponent and teacher of Christian truth."
In the Japan Weekly Mail appeared Mr. Nakanishi Gyuro's reflections upon the " Influence of the VorId's Religious Congress." Ve have seen nothing that more clearly shows the mischievous influence of this Parlia- ment. He says: " Far-sighted men from ancient times have longed for and looked for the day when all forms of religion should be united under the name Religion, and thus bring in peace for all mankind. This longing has at last begun its realization in the World's Congress of Religions. . .. The increase of free thought has compelled religious believers to see that .all religions contain more or less truth, and that the comparative study of religions should be advanced. lIence the VorId's Congress. The results for Buddhism and Christianity have been the discovery that at their source all religions are one. As far as Buddhism is concerned there are these cheering facts. Hitherto, as studied in the West, Buddhism has been much distorted. The works of Oldenburg, Burnouf, Max Miiller, and Rhys Davies treat only of the Hinayana, or Southern Buddhism. But in the Chicago Conference the Mahayana, or Northern Buddhism, was first explained to the world. It must haye broken down many prejudices. The people of the ,Vest learned that Buddhism is not necessarily pessimism, atheism, mere philosophical speculation, or an obstacle to progress. It became also clear there that Buddhism may contain all other religions; that its profound theories do not conflict with science and philosophy. Yet, while at Chicago there was no fault found with Buddhist principles, many practical defects in the working of the faith were pointed out. This may be because, in the past, religious influences in Japan, in China, and in other Buddhist countries were not favorable. The trouble rests with faithless priests, not with the religion's principles. In the great Congress there was sympathy for the Eastern religion, and eyen some antagonism to Christianity. Mr. Joseph Cook failed in his attempted opposition to the East. This failure arose from the fact that the audiences were largely composed of free· minded men, and that Christians made assaults upon the Eastern faiths. Indeed, Christianity gained little and lost much in the World's Congress. On the religious world generally the effects of the Congress were as follows: It manifested the power of religion to the non-religious. It opened ways of intercommunication between ail religions. It showed to the world much religious worth hitherto unknown in civilized lands. It was instmmental in breaking through the obstinate isolation of sects. It pointed out the religious tendency of the nineteenth century. It took away from proud Christianity its religious sovereignty, compelling Christianity to share this sovereignty with others. It laid the foundations for a future religious unity. It disclosed ,the fact that peace and progress rest with religion. It gave a great impetus to the science of comparative religion.
"The Shinshiu agents at Chicago distributed, of five different tracts and volumes respecting their faith, over thirty thousand volumes."
If such false impressions were produced on delegates from heathen and Mohammedan lands, on the other hand what disastrously false conceptions of the actual condition of the heathen world were created and fostered in the minds of auditors generally !
J. Hudson Taylor says: " The Buddhist women may, if they live 1500 virtuous lives, be born again a little boy and then have a chance of entering one of the nine heavens. There are eighteen hells, and to them the women, according to the Asiatic teaching, are consigned."
The Truth, published at St. Louis, says: " The Rev. James Johnston has convicted Professor Max Muller of the grossest dishonesty in editing' The Sacred Books of the East.' He charges and proves that the professor has omitted large portions without the slightest intimation that these had been left ont, and, therefore, making a totally false impression as to the character of these books. 'When challenged, the professor frankly admitted that he had left out portions for the very sufficient reasons that if he had translated them, as they exist in the originals, he would have been persecuted for publishing obscene literature. Yet these are the books lauded to the skies at the Parliament of Religions amid the clapping of white-handed American women.
"The light of the Gospel shames into decency even when it does not convert. ' Inventions,' • science,' , philanthropy,' of which infidels talk so much, why are they not found to any extent worth mentioning except in Christian lands 1 By a riverside in China there used to be this sign: , Don't drown girls here.' Not till the Light of the world shone there did the government for the first time forbid the murder of girls uuder penalty."
Habitations of cruelty are found even in the land of the Vedas. Think of the child marriages and cldld widowhood in India. The results of these customs are appalling ani! incredible. There were, according to the census of 1881, 20,930,626 widows, of whom 78,976 were under nine years of age, 207,388 under fourteen years, and 382,730 unde.r nineteen years f'
Over twenty millions of widows-more than the entire female population of the United States above three years of age !
Ramabai herself writes as follows: " Throughout India widowhood is regarded as the punishment for horrible crimes committed by the woman in her former existence. . .. If the widow be a mother of sons she is not usually so pitiable an object; but the widow-mother of girls is treated indifferently, and sometimes with special hatred. But upon the child-widow in au especial manner fall the abuse and hatred of the community as the greatest criminal upon whom Heaven's judgment has been pronounced. A Hindu woman thinks it worse than death to lose her beautiful hair. Among the Brahmins of the Deccan the h€'ads of all widows mu:"t be shaved regularly every fortnight. The widow must wear a single coarse garment, and eat only one meal a day, and never take part in the family feasts. The relations and neighbors of her husband call her bad names, and curse her as the cause of his death. She is always looked upon with suspicion, lest she may some time bring disgrace upon the family by some improper act. She is closely confined to the house -forbidden even to associate with female friends. • . . Her life, destitute of the least literary knowledge, void of all hope, empty of every pleasure and social advantage, becomes intolerable-a curse to herself and to society at large."
Rev. W. R. Boggs, D.D., after fifteen years among the Telugus, comments on the show of heathenism at Chicago : " Men have set before themselves an ideal heathen religion that never existed. There ought to have been a fuller exhibition of Hinduism at Chicago. There should have been a Temple of Kali, with a statue of the goddess adorned with a necklace of skulls. There should have been an idol car such as exists iu every village of Burma, covered with obscene figures. There should have been' holy men,' unwashed, filthy, almost naked, and grossly immoral. There should have been dancing girls, by caste and profession and practice, prostitutes. These are parts of Hinduism. Talk about comparative religion is nonsense. As well talk of comparative deities or comparative universes."
III. This Parliament of Religions was a mistake, in establishing a bad precedent. Already it has instituted a new order, and we are likely to have a series' of such parliaments, as a new fcature of the world's evolution toward a perfect state, or, as a quaint missionary insists on spelling it, devil-apement. At Long Beach, in August last, a parliament was held on a small scale, every day being given to the presentation of some of the world's religions, addresses being made by very " distinguished clergymen. "
The original parliament had scarcely adjourned when the air was full of the rumors of the new religious brotherhood, whose platform was to be broad enough for Christians, Hebrews, Agnostics, Confucians, and Pagans to stand 'in loving fellowship ; and the " Christians" were to include Universalists and Unitarians, all sects and no sects, Hicksite Quakers, Swedenborgians, and disciples of Ethical Culture !
The Associated Press announced: " The system of organization has already been formulated, and the plan on which it will be promulgated is broad enough to include every member of the Parliament of Religions. To its fellowship all who desire to promote love, righteousness, and truth in the world will be invited. A number of liberal Chicago preachers have taken an active interest in the work of founding the new church, and it is a matter of but a short time before it will be an established institution. It will be without a creed. The constitution upon which the organization will be built will say that religion is natural, progress a necessity j true religion a matter of life, not doctrine ; of character, not creed. To promote such a religion, to help progress and to benefit the world will be the objectS' of the new organization." Protop Chunder Mozoomder, leader of the Brahmo-Somaj, proposes a permanent council, one half sitting in India and the other in Europe ; and a new periodical to represent the views of all denominations of the world.
Bishop Newman calls for two Parliaments of Religion in the year 1900, to usher in the twentieth century, one of which is to be composed of representatives of all religions known to man.
" They shall not come as eulogists of founder, or creed, or ceremony, but to ascertain two things: What we have in common in faith and prac- tice, and wherein we differ, and whether such differences can be adjusted. It would be a question worthy of such a Parliament of the World to con- sider whether there is a place in the Christian Pantheon for the Brahman, the Buddhist, the Parsi, the Confucianist, and the Mohammedan."
The example thus set in America is contagious. In Japan, in 1895, in connection with the eleventh centenary of the elevation of Kyoto to the rank of a royal residence, there is to be a Parliament of Religions in which every religious community in the island empire, includ~ng all Christian de- nominations, is invited to participate. Services will be held all day long, and interpreters provided for those who need them. It will be " religion in a show-case."
IV. This Parliament of Religions was a mistake in exalting some parNes into an undue, undese!ved prominence, and in actually helping to propagate false faiths.
Reputation and notoriety widely differ, though often confused. This gathering at the Western metropolis lifted to a false level not a few who at home enjoyed no such distinction. Ve are told of certain visitors from India who were" lionized" at Chicago; the term is, unfortllnately, too suggestive of a much inferior beast that, according to the fable, strutted about in the disguise of a lion's skin. A true lion never needs lionizing.
The Ohristian Patriot, of Madras, states that, save two or three, none of the representatives of India who took part are "e'en known by name to their countrymen; and yet they have been treated as the highest representatives of Hindu thought, and every sentence uttered, whether containing sense or not, seems to have been received with vociferous applause. "
This is the first time we hear of Swami Vivekananda, who, on rising to speak, addressed those before him as " Sisters and brothers of America," and gave himself out as belonging to "the most ancient order of monks the world has ever seen." ,This impostor, who posed as a teacher and exemplar of morals, far outshining Christian ethics, is thus referred to by the Indian Review of Calcutta: " Swami Vivekananda alias Baboo Norendra Nath Dutta, B.A. Until we had heard from Chicago, we were not aware that we had such a genius among us in Calcutta as it now seems we have. It only proves the words of Jesus, 'A prophet is not without honor save in his own country.' More than this, evidence of the truth of Christianity we have in our Swami. What he taught as Hinduism, and what gave power and influence to his words, was the large admixture of Christian truth which he received as a student in one of the Christian missionary colleges of Calcutta; and truth too which is the very opposite of the error which is the foundation stone of the Hinduism wllich he professed to teach-viz., the brotherhood of man, and the lordship of God over the conscience. The caste system of Hinduism antagonizes both, and persecntes, as far as the Christian government permits, any who choose to act under the influence of either. A man who chooses to eat with a brother man, or to obey his enlightcned conscience in the matter of religious duty, and is baptized, will, by Hinduism, all over India, be persecuted to the death of his soul and body; and yet this Baboo goes across seas and continents to tell the Parliament of Religions that Hindus do not persecute, and that Hindus love all men as brethren. "
This Parliament of Religions thus built a basis for a propaganda offoreign faiths. It gave both occasion and encouragement for the propagation of false systems not only in heathen territory, but in Christian lands.
Nor was the opportunity lost. The doors of the Parliament had scarcely shut before a "high-caste Brahman" was giving lectures in various cities, comparing Christianity and Brahmanism, to the disparagement of the former and the glorification of the latter. Meanwhile the newspapers, chronically eager for a sensation, gave these lectures a notice exceeded in prominence only by sporting news; perhaps because they ranked them with other contests, in which the main object is to defeat an antagonist at all hazards and by any means, fair or foul. The result was notoriety for men who otherwise had stayed in the obscurity they desen-ed. More than this, not everyone who heard this Brahman was fitted to expose his sophistries and falsehoods; and some who were, felt unwilling to give him the indirect advertisement of a public rejoinder. He could have been triumphantly refuted at every point, as is proven by the fact that in one city alone four missionaries, long residents in India, gave counter testimony which utterly contradicted and demolished his misrepresentations. But the evil was donp. already, and truth never overtakes swift· footed error. The lecturer had got his" fifty cents a head," and gone. This man, and not a few like him, availed themselves of an enthnsiastic reception at Chicago, as a general letter of introduction and commendation to the American public, with full license to abuAe missionaries and asperse the faith they preach! One of these lecturers, already referred to as leader of the Brahmo·Somaj, who claims to reprp.sent " Indian theists," it is now proposed to place in the unique position of a missionary ill his own land, contributions to be annually sent from this country for his support and the supply of publications to be used in spreading his doctrines !
Mohammedanism also undertook, shortly after the Parliament, to propagate its tenets. A Mr. Nabakoff, in New York, proposed to describe the progress of Islamism in the United States before a mixed audience of Persians and Turks, Englishmen and Americans. He did not say much about the spread of the Moslem faith, however; he rather used the opportunity to assault the faith of Christ. He wrested Bishop Potter's word as to the strength and superiority of Mohammedanism into an argl'lment in its behalf, and that brought a rejoinder frol11 the audience that there would be more converts from the false prophet to Christ but for the death penalty attached to such conversion.
V. This Parliament of Religions was a mistake, in 8ub8tituting laxity for liberality. Charity is not tolerance of error.
'Ve have heard of a certain man who described the change in his condition after conversion by saying, "Before that I loved the devil and hated the Lord j now I love them both." Is it no misconception of the love which is the royal law, if we construe it as implying indifference to fundamental distinctions? Does charity preside in a conclave where the religion of Christ sits without protest on equal terms with many whose tenets and practices can be traced only to the de"il whom they worship ~ It is all well enough to talk in vague encomium about the" light of Asia j" but the fact still remains that, notwithstanding, dense darkness covers the lands where it sh~nes. Bishop Brooks, the broad churchman, greatly disappointed some of his" liberal" friends who expected him to deal very reverently with the ancient Oriental forms of faith and worship, when his " L~tters of Travel" unveiled the enormity and deformity of heathenism, the debasing superstition and repulsive obscenity gilded over by religious names and wurshipyed in religious fanes. Even in the holy city, Benares, he stumbled at every step on a temple with a hideous idol, and ignorance muttering prayers to Vishnu or Siy.
Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop writes: " "We are getting into a sort of milk-and-water "iew of heathenism j not of African heathenism alone, but of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Mohammedanism also. Missionaries come home, and they refrain from shocking audiences by recitals of the awful sins of the heathen and Moslem world. ,Vhen travelling in Asia it struck me very much how little we heard, how little we knew as to how sin is enthroned and deified and worshipped. There is sin and shame everywhere. Mohammedanism is corrupt to the very corp.. It is astonishing to find that there is Rcarcely a single thing that makes for righteousness in the life of the unchristianized nations. There is no public opinion interpenetrated by Christianity which condemns sin or wrong. There is an infinite degradation of both women and men. The whole continent of Asia is corrupt. It is the scene of barbarities, tortures, brutal punishments, oppression, and official corruption. There are no sanctities of home, only a fearful looking for in the future of fiery indignation from some quarter, they know not what j a dread of everlasting rebirths into forms of obnoxious reptiles or insects, or of tortures which are infinite, and which are depicted in pictures of fiendish ingenuity."
VI. The crowning mistake of this Parliament of Religions was the fatal blunder of at least implying that salvation is not in Christ alone. And in so far, the Parliament WitS and still is the foe of Christian missions, and has already doue measureless harm.
The Christian faith was there held up as one-albeit the best-among many religions. No doubt God" has in every nation tb.ose who work righteousness and are accepted with Him j" put it docs not follow that this is in consequence of the false faiths prevailing among those nations j it is, rather, in spite of them. If God is no respecter of persons, He is quite as little a respecter of the so-called religions of the Moslem, heathen, and pagan world.
Such parliaments will never turn men from errors and idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven j they will, rather, entrap victims of superstition in a false security, and lull them to sleep on the brink of ruin. What would Peter, John, Paul have said had they seen disciples in their day fraternizing, as co-religionists, with the hes.then peoples against whom they testified, and degrading the God and Father of our LordJesus Christ to the level of Brahma and Buddha, Zoroaster and Confucius, and the mystic nonsense of theosophy !
We greatly mistake if the ultimate effect of this Parliament be not to make the followers of other systems arrogant and boastful, and raise new walls of adamant between Christian missionaries and those whom they seek to convert. While American" Christians" (~) are proposing to furnish means for the propagation of the Brahmo.Somaj, one of the teachers of this faith defines it as" Unitarianism plus spirituality," a definition which implies a thrust at Unitarianism as so deficient in the spiritual element as to need an imported article from India to supply the lack! This is but one sample of the assumption and impertinence manifested by a sect abroad toward the very parties who at that moment extend the hand of fraternity. There is an acceptance of the proffered hand from before, and at the same moment a kick from behind !
Dr. Ashmore, of China, writing on "The Aftermath of the Parliament," says that " these Hindu pundits, Mohammedan apostles, Buddhist priests, and Shinto" right reverends," as Dr. Barrows calls them, have come back to flaunt their garlands in the faces of Christian converts and boast of the triumph they achieved at the expense of missionary teachers."
If this Parliament was a normal development, what room is there for any aggressive missions in the lands whence these delegates come g At that gathering Christianity was seen apparently courting other forms of faith, as though needing somewhat to supplement and complement its own deficiencies. With what grace or even decency can such Christianity now turn about and push a vigorous campaign of conquest in the territory where such other faiths hold the fort !
Mrs. Besant, herself a devotee of esoteric Buddhism, boasts of the success of Hindu philosophy and theosophy: "We have for years sent hosts of missionaries· with millions of money to convert the Hindus, with very little success. Now they send over a few men at slight expense, and have converted everybody" !
The Indian Standard calls the Parliament of Religions" a colossal mistake," and remarks that the incidental good which may come from it will be far IDore than offset by positive and serious injuries. And it adds : " Weare filled with mortification when we hear of the applause that greeted the empty platitudes with which skilful pleaders covered the wea~ ness of their themes, and when we learn that the most popular speaker of the Parliament was the man whose shameless mendacity is shown up in the article elsewhere quoted from a Chicago newspaper. Saddest of all is the placid credulity with which even presumably wise men accept the statement that all religions hold in common at least the two great truths of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Will some one please tell us where they are to be found in the religions of India except as borrowed from Christianity 1"
There must be some reason for the vigorous protests which we have received in personal letters from leading missionaries of the world.
One, a veteran whose name and fame are world-wide, wrote, immediately after the first editorial article on the Parliament appeared in these pages: " I thank you for your article on the Parliament of Religions. It expresses exactly my views. It is timely, and you have done the work well. I never had the least sympathy with that Parliament, and consider it a mischief in every point of view. I should deem any participation on my part in such a parliament as treason to Jesus Christ, and would rather be burned at the stake a thousand times than be guilty of it."
Another foreign missionary writes, thanking the editor for the plain testimony against the Parliament, and says: " The position taken will be criticised as narrow and exclusive, thereby turning the attention of Christian people from the measureless mischief which the Parliament has already done to the cause of Christ. . ., Missionaries, I have been told frequently, are too much prejudiced against non-Christian religions, and their opinions on this subject do not count for much (so it is supposed by the promoters of the Parliament) ; and this is why many of them have remained silent. Besides, those who promoted the movement were not disposed to listen to any advice from the missionaries. Had they done so, the Parliament would never have taken place, or would, at least, have assumed a very different character. Now that the experiment has been tried, it is no longer possible to deny the great injury done both at home and abroad. And it might be well once more to hear from the missionaries, who, I think with few exceptions, will be found to endorse every word that you have written."
Few missionaries have deserved a higher rank, both for intelligence and charity, than Dr. William Ashmore; yet no man has written more vigorously in remonstrance against the Parliament. He regards it as having surrounded these representatives of foreign faiths with a halo of glory never investing them in their own lands. This veteran in the Chinese field deserves to be heard; and his words vindicate those who have conscientiously opposed this Parliament and any reproduction of it. He boldly says that at Chicago was figuratively repeated the offence of Baal-Peor : " Ministers of the faith of God's elect flirted with the daughters of Moab. Israel danced with Baal. If this had been because that historic head of a pagan system had uttered some sentiment in unison with the great essel'l.tials of our faith, or had spoken some of those ' inexpressible longings' for a deliverer, of which we read so much and neal' so little, an excuse might be made; but no, it was when he railed out his accusations which reflected on Christians and their work of missions. That intensifies the shame.
•, You at home will have vour ill harvest out of this-briers and thorns and thistles. Worst of all, the thorns and thistles will trouble most those who had nothing to do with the affair. But it is certain, further, that there will be an ill harvest out here. These men, so lauded in Chicago, are the resolute and persistent enemies of the salvation we preach. They, and the men of this class, stand between us and the millions and millions of votaries who follow them. They organize and mobilize resistance to the truth as it is in Jesus ; they baffie us by their schemes; they ridicule us in their speeches. Nor is this because they do not know; they do know what we preach, and they hate it accordingly.
"The Buddhist hates the idea that a man can be saved only by the merit of Christ; he scouts the idea of a living God. The Hindu hates and scorns the brotherhood of disciples in Christ Jesus; he hates with a bitter hatred any challenge of his lordly self-sufficiency. Now the men who come back from Chicago will have a wonderful story to tell of their reception. It will be exaggerated immensely in the repetition. They will tell what the newspapers said; they will tell how they were applauded; they will tell how the crowd almost fought to get near them to touch the hem of their garments; they will tell how their high-priests were saluted by the highest titles in vogue among Christians at home ; how the spirit of Buddha was represented as hovering over the place equally with the Spirit of Christ, and how they themselves, one and all, Buddhists, Hindus, Mohammedans, agnostics alike, were hailed as envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipoteutiary in the kingdom of God. All this will be told and magrnfied, until it will appear that a multitude of the American people are ready for Buddhism, and that American missionaries have sadly misrepresented the land they came from. To these stories hundreds of thousands of Buddhist priests in India, Ceylon, Burma, Siam, China, Japan, and Thibet wiII become the absorbed listeners. For years to come it will be slowly percolating through the three or four hundred millions who are under the influence of Buddhism, and working mischief which the good Christian men who got up that kind of a Parliament of Religions could never have foreseen.
"And now one thing is certain. Missionaries out here must gird themselves for a fresh struggle. The Chicago Parliament will render it necessary. Heathenism gets an occasional bolstering up from the West. Sir Edwin Arnold, Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, and various others have done a little. But the stimulus they have given will be as nothing compared with that which the Buddhist priesthood will derive from the work of Dr. Barrows, Mr. Bonney and their' advisories.'
" In Japan the effect will be seen first and strongest of all. There are eighty thousand priests there-so it is said-and they are on the alert. They have been in a panic of late, but they have been rallying their forces. Now a high-priest comes back to them laden with honors received from a land that sends out missionaries; aye, and honors bestowed by Christian preachers-headlights in Zion. Let the missionaries abate their claims. The men who went abroad as representatives of the Buddhist and Shinto faiths in Japan have been hailed as ' ministers plenipotentiary of the kingdom of God.'
" 'Ye deny it. We deny it utterly. They are not' envoys extraordinary and minister!! plenipotentiary of the kingdom of God' at all. Who made them such? Where and what are their credentials? We challenge their friends to the proof. None of all the great missionary body ever laid claim to, or would accept, such an arrogant designation. Not even the mighty Paul would tal!{ that way. An' ambassador for Christ,' he did once call himself-and only once-but an ' envoy extraordinary and a minister plenipotentiary'-never!
"If these Buddhist and Shinto priests, who were panegyrized and canonized in Chicago under Dr. Barrows' supervision, are ministers plenipotentiary of the kingdom of God, then so are the hundreds of thousands of priests, monks, bonzes, and fakirs behind them whom they represented. Ministers of the kingdom of God, forsooth! Say that to a missionary who has lived among these priests, and who knows their ways, their manners of doctrine, their idleness, their pride, their hypocrisy, their falsehoods, their blasphemous acceptance of personal worship and their dissolute habits of life! Those old questions of the Apostle Paul are not yet superseded. 'Ve quote them again. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear: 'vVhat fdlowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ~ What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Chi"ist with Belial 1 What part hath he that believeth with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols g' The apostle varies the qucstion under five different forms. He is in earnest in what he says."
In The Independent was published a letter from Rev. J. L. Dearing, a Baptist missionary in Japan, which sho's one instalment of the cvil results of the Parliament. It should be put on record : " The Buddhist representatives froUl Japan in attendance at the Parliament of Religions have returned, and their reports show what effect the great convention really had upon the representatives of the various religions there assembled, and also what the second·hand effect is upon the people who listen to the reports brought back. Soon after the return of the Buddhist orators and representative men a public meeting was called under the auspices of the Buddhist Young Men's Association in Yokohama, an organization copied after the Young Men's Christian Association. Some seven hundred people were gathered in one of the largest theatres in town, and from ten o'clock in the morning till about seyeu at night continuous addresses were given by olle after another, re(;ounting the reception they had received and the impression the mectings had made upon them.
" The two chief speakers were Bourin Yatsubuchi and Shaku Soyen. The former is a priebt of Kamakura, and a graduate of the college of which Mr. Fukuzawa is the head in Tokyo, a man well versed in modern learning and a scholar of no mean ability. He was one of the speakers at the Parliament in Chicago. Shaku Soycn, abo one of the speakers at Chicago, is a great scholar, and is regarded as the most talented priest in Kiushiu. Some eight others occupi~d some time in giving tlJeir impressions. Among the statements that were made by the priests were the following: " '''Yhen we received the invitation to attend the Parliament of Religions our Buddhist organizations would not /:leud us as representatives of the sect. The great majority believed that it was a shrewd move on the part of Christians to get us there and then hold us up to ridicule or try to convert us. V{e accordingly went as individuals. But it was a wonderful sllrprise which awaited us. Our ideas were all mistaken. The Parliament was called because the Yestern nations have come to realize the weakness and folly of Christianity, and they really wished to hear from us of our
BABISM
religion, and to learn what the best religion is. The meetings showed the great superiority of Buddhism over Christianity, and the mere fact of call. ing the meetings showed that the Americans and other Western peoples had lost their faith in Christianity and were ready to accept the teachings of our superior religion. '
.. These remarks and more like them were received with great applause by the enthusiastic audience. They will be thoroughly believed by the masses of the people, for whose benefi~ meetings are to be held here and there throughout Japan to spread these interesting reports. The educated classes, as a rule, know too much to believe such statements, but the effect upon the lower classeR will be to strengthen the power of Buddhism and to neutralize the influence of missionaries and native Christians.
"Said an earnest, intelligent young Japanese Christian man: 'How could American Christians make so great a mistake as to hold such a meeting and injure Christianity as the influence of those meetings will do in Japan 1'"
" 'Vith charity toward all and malice toward none," we now dismiss the Parliament of Religions from these pages, praying God that such a gathering may never again give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme!
BABISM-ITS DOCTRINES AND RELATION TO MISSION WORK.
BY REV. J. H. SHEDD, D.D., OROOMIAH, PERSIA.
In the Parliament of Religions Mormonism was not represented. In ihe opinion· of some it should have been, for it purports to be a message from God and it has many myriads of followers. The same is true of Babism, the new religion of Persia. It is a product of the present century j it claims to be a new revelation j it has its own literature and martyrs and enthusiastic propagandIsts and many myriad!! of believers. If one is to judge between the. coarse deceptions of Joe Smith and the gentle character of the founder of Babism, the palm must be given to the latter. The latest expounder of this faith is Edward Granville Browne, of Cambridge University. He is in sympathy with Persian life and modes of thought, and has a most amiable feeling toward the Babis. He spent a year in Persia, living mostly among them, and visited Beha in Acre, and has given us a full explanation of their books and spirit. See his ' , Year among the Persians" and" Traveller's Narrative to Illustrate the Episode of the Bab j" also the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1889 and 1892. A good review of these works is given in the New York Independent, May 17th, 1894.
It is not my purpose to reproduce the history here, except in outline sufficient to give the reader a basis for understanding the doctrines and bearings of this new faith.
The two personages upon whom the faith is founded are Mirza Ali Mohammed, born 1820, died 1850, the Bab ; and Mirza Hussein Ali, born 1817, died i892, called Beha.
The series of causes leading to this movement must be sought in the Persian form of Islam. Persia is the land of the twelve Imams, Ali and eleven of his descendants. They are supposed to poss~ss a peculiar Divine ingredient in their creation, the nur or light from the Divine essence. The yearly passion play keeps alive the love of Imam Hussein. The twelfth Imam, called the Mahdi, or guide, is believed to have disappeared and to live in concealment, one day to come forth with a splendor and power that shall dazzle and subdue the world. The longing expectation of the Persians is the reappearance of the Mahdi. The shrines of several of the Imams are at Kerbela, near Bagdad, and there is the central school of the Sheah sect. Every age new expounders of the Imamat aris~ with new theories, and often with the wildest vagaries. Sheikh Akhmed was one who taught early in the present century. He was a genius in speculation, and gave name to the sect called Sheikhis. His doctrine was that if we could but discover the key we should find all knowledge locked up in the Koran. To discover the inner meaning of the Koran he applied cabalistic methods to the Arabic letters. He exalted Ali to a place of worship and as God's agent in the creation of the heavens and the earth. He was sure that the Imams visited him in his dreams and gave him special communications of their will, and he hinted that the Mahdi would soon return. When he died in 1826 his pupil, Hadji Seyyed Kazim, received his mantle, and raised a more intense expectation of the speedy appearance of the Mahdi. Among those who attended his lectures and drank deepest of his teaching was Mirza Ali Mohammed, the Bab. In the Sheikhi teaching Mr. Browne notes three points: "Extreme veneration for the Itrams, who are regarded as incarnate attributes of God j the belief in spiritual communication with them and instruction from them j and the denial of a material resurrection in the sense held by Mohammedan theologians." Here was in part the germ from which the Bab developed his system. Another germ was the ever-recurring pantheistic longings of the Persian poets, especially in the Mesnevi. The fatalism of the Koran is but a form of pantheism, for God is the sole agent in both the good and the evil in the world. The mysticism of Persian poets charms the meditative mind to accept and enjoy the conception it presents of God, as essentially and ineffably pure, holy, and beautiful, and to long for absorption as waves on the surface of being into the ocean that is God.
The following is an outline of the careers of the Bab and of Beha : October 9th, 1820, born at Shiraz, Ali Mohammed. In his boyhood he was amiable and given to thought. 1837 was sent to Bushire to conduct his father's mercantile business. Sooh after made a pilgrimage to Mecca and thence to the shrines near Bagdad. Here he became the disciple of Hadji Seyyed Kazim. 1843 died Hadji Seyyed Kazim. The question arose who among his pupils should be his successor. Some foilowed Karim Khan, of Kirman, who still is the head of the Sheikhis and bitter enemy of the Babis. Ali Mohammed returned to Shiraz and made another pilgrimage to Arabia. He wrote a treatise on pilgrimages.
May 23d, 1844, at Shiraz, he announced himself as the successor of his teacher, and as, moreover, the Bab or gate to the true knowledge of God. About this time he compiled two works in Arabic expounding his doctrine; won his first disciples from among his fellow-pupils of Seyyed Kazim, and sent them to propagate his doctrines.
September,1845. By this time the Mohammedan clergy were alarmed at the spread of the new sect and secured his arrest.
1846. A plague broke out in Shiraz, and in the confusion the Bab escaped to Ispahan and was well received by the governor there.
1847. This governor died, and his successor arrested the Bab and sent him to Teheran. Near Teheran a number of believers came out to moet him. Among them was Mirza Hussein Ali, then aged thirty, afterward called Beha.
The king, Mohammed Shah, fearing to keep the Bab among his disciples, sent him to the remote castle of Maku, near Mount Ararat, where he remained in prison till near the time of his death.
October 5th, 1848. Mohammed Shah died and was succeeded by the present king, Nasuru Deen Shah. Formidable insurrections of Babis arose in Mazanderan, at Yezd, Niriz, and Zengan. Thousands of the Babis died fighting with reckless daring, especially in Zengan, where they defied the power of the Shah for several months. Meanwhile, the Bab in his imprisonment composed his voluminous works.
1850. The government at Teheran determined to strike terror into the ranks of the Babis by putting to death their head. He was removed for a time to Chara, a castle near Salmas and Oroomiah, thence was taken via Oroomiah to Tabreez.
July 15th, 1850. The Bab was executed iu Tabreez. He and one of his disciples were suspended by ropes, and a file of Christian soldiers of Oroomiah fired a volley. When the smoke cleared away the dead body of the disciple was there, but the Bab was gone. The bullets had cut the rope and freed him. If he had cast himself on the people and appealed to his escape as miraculous, the sympathy was so great that probably he would have been saved by the people; but he fled into a guard house, was soon discovered, and at the second volley he died.
Mirza Yahya, under the title of SuM i Ezel (morning of eternity), became the Bab's successor. He is younger half-brother of Beha, and still lives in exile in Cyprus.
1852. Three Babis attempt to assassinate the Shah. This results in more severe persecution. The leading believers are put to death or widely scattered. The poeteSlii and heroine, Kurratu l'Ain, is among the martyrs. Mirza Hussein Ali narrowly escapes the same fate. 1852-62. The chiefs reside in Bagdad. 8ubh i Ezel is the recognized head, but his hrother (Beha) takes the most prominent part in the organization and conduct of affairs. He wrote the" Ikan," an apology of the bew faith, which is regarded as very able and convincing.
1863. The Turkish Government at the request of the Persians removed the Babis from Bagdad to Constantinople and thence to Adrianople.
1865. Mirza Hussein Ali announced himself to be the one predicted by the Bab. He takes the title Beha Ulla'~ (glory or brightness of God). He calls upon his brother, Subh i Ezel, to accept his claim, and a very bitter feud breaks out between the two factions called Ezelis and Behais. Two of the former and one of the latter were killed.
1867. The Turks decided to separate the two factions. The Ezelis were removed to Cyprus, the Behais to Acre, in Syria.
1867-92. Beha resides at Acre in a palace surrounded by orange gardens and provided with every luxury by his followers and visited by them. His epistles and messengers visit every part of Persia and Asia Minor.
May 16th, 1892. Beha passes away and is succeeded by one of his sons.
THE BOOKS AND DOCTRINES OF THE BABlS.
The genesis of the Bab's teaching we have already discovered in what he learned of the Sheikhi doctors mentioned above, and from the mystic poets. The gross corruptions and cruelty of the Sheah or Persian established religion furnished the occasion and prepared the soil for the attempted reform.
The writings of the Bab are said to number more than a hundred treatises, including many thousand stanzas of poetry.
The books that specially claim attention are : 1. " Ziyaret Name," written before he claimed to be the Bab. It gives instruction as to the mode of worship at the shrines. Besides this it is the expression of an ardent enthusiast who pours out his longings for the Imam Mahdi. "Where are the days of your empire that I may struggle for you 1 Where are the days of your glory that I may obtain the blessing of seeing your face? "Where are the days of your kingdom that I may take revenge for you on your enemies 1 'Where are the days of your manifestation that I may be free from all except thee (absorbed in thee) 1" etc. The young man soon believes that he has the special favor and fellowship of the Imams. 2. A commentary or treatise on the Sura of the Koran called Joseph, written in Shiraz. In this Ali Mohammed declares himself to be inspired, to be the Bab. He does not renounce Islam, but claims that a true knowledge of Islam must come through the Bab. He says that God has placed within his grasp the kingdoms of heaven and earth. He presents himself as a prophet, and appeals to the book he is writing as proof of prophetic inspiration, that he is able to write hour after hour, composing the most exalted verses by the thousand and on the most exalted themes, the Divine being and attributes. He also directs his followers to rules of life very different from Moslem practice. Divorce and smoking are forbidden. The food of Jews and Christians is counted pure, etc.
3. "The Beyan" or" Exposition," written in Maku. It is the ultimate doctrine of the Bab. His title now is Nulchta U'la, first point, or Nulclda i Beyan, point of revelation or exposition. A positive system of doctrine and precept is set forth. The doctrine of God is explained at length. The essence of God has existed from all eternity in unapproachable glory and purity. No one has known it as it should be known. No one has praised it as it should be praised. From it has preceded creation, which has no beginning and shall have no end that we can express. Eternal in duration the creation is subordinate in causation, is the emanation of the Divine essence. As the Divine essence is beyond our knowledge, the primal 'will has incarnated itself from time to time to suit the understanding of mankind. These incarnations are the prophets, an unknown number in the past, as there will be in the future. That primal will spoke through other prophets in the past and speaks now through the Nukhta-i.e., the Bab, and will speak again through "him whom God shall manifest." The primal will is like the sun, which rises and sets, but is in reality the same sun, not a different sun to-day from the sun of yesterday. So each prophet is a new day or manifestation, the same essence, t.he undivided unit of being. The evidence of a prophet is not miracles so much as the efficiency of his words. " When God wishes to create anything He says ' Be,' and it is. The word of a prophet has the same quality: what he says comes to pass. Mohammed said, ' Make a pilgrimage to Mecca,' and each year brings thousands flocking thither. He said, 'Fast in Ramazan,' and millions obey him year by year. The word of the Nukhta is as powerful to change and construction as the word of Mohammed."
The doctrine that no revelation is final is strongly enforced. One great mistake of Christians and :10slems, it is alleged, has been this, that there is no more to follow. Each prophet is fitted to reveal the primal will for a time, to be followed by another with a fuller utterance. In the childhood of the race all truth was taught by parables and figures. Good is shown to be pleasant and evil, bitter in their results by comparisons. Good men after death are to enter beautiful gardens with all possible delights. The wicked are to enter the torments of consuming fire. But the world has now reached a stage when the true meaning of paradise and hell can be disclosed. Paradise is the JOY of belief in the manifestation of God and attaining the perfection of one's being. The perfection of a thing is its paradise. Hell is unbelief and the state of imperfection which it imposes.
The doctrine as to the future life is obscure and transcendental. The worship of God is to be freed from all nope of reward. Perfection will . follow, but how this perfection is reached, whether by stages of trans- migration or by absorption in the pnmal good or in some other way, is not made plain. It is certain that the Bab and his followers had no fear of death. They went to martyrdom singing and exulting, but it is hard to see what it was sustained them in such trials. It was allegiance to the Bab, but just what hopes did he offer them that gave them exultation in death? It was not the hope of the Christian martyr nor the paradise of Islam, but rather a pantheistic disregard of life. In the Beyan the prophecy is prevalent of another to follow the Bab, called" Him whom God shall manifest." The ordinances and precepts of the new faith all have reference to this coming personage, and prayers are offered that he may not suffer as the Bab suffered. There is a humility and self-renunciation displayed which reminds one of John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ. The whole round of religious duties is changed to suit a new calendar. A cabalistic power is given to the Arabic letters somewhat after the teach- ing of Sheikh Akhmed. The chapters of the Beyan are in groups of 19, and this is made the sacred number. Alif stands for one. The Arabic name for one is Vahid. The numerical values of the letters in Vahid make the sum 19, and several other formulas are worked out to the same result. The number 1 denotes the uncreated and unknowable essence of God, and this 1 added to the sum of the letters of Hayz (the living) gives the sacred number 19. Multiply 19 by 19 and 361 is the result, which again equals the Arabic formula for all things plus the initial one. The Bab is the point, the initial one, and 18 of his followers are made apostles to complete the sacred number. The year has 19 months of 19 days each, with four days thrown in, just before the vernal equinox, as feast days. Chronology and religion are readjusted on this plan. There is the strongest assurance given of the ultimate triumph of the new faith. The empires of the future are to be Babi. Church and State are combined, and there is no place for unbelievers, but they are not placed under the hard condition imposed by Islam upon subject races. The cen- tral provinces, of the Utopia that floated before the Bab's mind, are in Persia, and each province is given a peculiar place and name. It is a scheme that might satisfy the aspirations of socialism. There is a com- munity of brotherly love; dignity combined with courtesy; leisure with labor; the cultivation of all useful arts and the prohibition of all that is useless; elevation of woman; general elementary education; provision for the poor; strict prohibition of mendicancy and tramps; children to be treated with gentleness, animals with kindness ; no persecution for conscience' sake. Such are the leading features of the Beyan. 4. Another work is ascribed to the Bab called the" Seven Proofs," afterward enlarged by Beha and called " Ikan," or Assurance. It is the only book of the Babis which they have printed. The copies are brought from India not for public sale, but kept in the hands of leading men to be given to inquirers as may be safe for a proscribed religion. Mr. Browne has given the line of argument as follows. After stating the doctrines of God as to His essence, of His creation, and of the prophets or manifestations of the primal will, a passage is quoted from the Koran in which Mohammed says: "As to the prophets, I (am they) "-that is, Mohammed was the same in essence as the preceding incarnations of the primal will.
" In each manifestation word was given of the following one. The Jews were told to expect a Messiah, but when He came as Jesus they rejected Him, because they had imagined His coming in a different way. So the followers of Christ were told to expect His return; yet when He returned as Mohammed they failed to recognize Him, and are to this day expecting ilis coming. So the Mohammedans are expecting the coming of Imam Mahdi, yet when he hos come they refuse to recognize him, because the manner of his coming d~es not correspond with their own vain imaginings of how he ought to come."
Then he says to the Moslems: "You blame the Jews because they did not accept Christ as the promised Messiah. You also condemn the Christians because they did not recognize Mohammed as the promise9. comforter or paraclete, although Christ had clearly said, ' One shall come after Me whose name is Akhmed.' * The prodigies expected at the return of the promised one are explained figuratively. By the sun, for example, is meant the primal will manifesting itself in the prophet of the age; by the moon and stars are meant his companions and the teachers of his religion. The end of the world is the end of the manifestation, when the cycle is completed, and the sun shall be darkened and the stars shall fall from heaven-that is, the last manifestation is abrogated, the last sacred book is closed, the priests or muJIahs who expounded this book fall from their high place, because the new revelation is given. This is the meaning of the verse in the Koran, ' When the EUn shall be folded up and the stars shall fall,' and of similar passages.
" Now the Moslems blame the Jews and Christians, yet act in precisely the same way themselves, urging as a reason for not accepting the new manifestation that the expected signs of the Imam's coming have not appeared. "
Then folIows an argument to prove that the claims of the Bab are as strong as those of Mohammed as to style of composition and power and excellence of doctrine. The line of reasoning is very strong and convincing in the view of the Babis, and its cogency is felt by the Moslems. F'ew of the latter are ready to meet a Babi missionary in fair discussion. '1'he same line of argument adopted is used in dealing with Jews, Christians, or Zoroastrians. The new faith is broad enough to include Zoroaster among the prophets, for his words were words of power to his followers.
• These words are based on the promise of Christ as to the Comforter, the Pa1'aciete. For this word the Moslems would substitute PerlJclutos, which corre.ponds in mcanina with …khmed or Mohammed. (Praised, lauded.) After the death of the Bab in 1850 there are no extant writings of importance, till 1865 the announcement of Beha was made claiming to be the one whom God shall manifest. lIe had expanded the "Seven Proofs" into the" Ikan" before this, but there is no positive proof of it. After this he became a very voluminous writer of epistles to his followers in Persia. He became in their eyes, and claimed to be, the incarnation of the Deity, the Lord of the attributes or centre of the revelation of the Divine essence, perfect in humanity, the One whom God shall manifest, Christ and the Paraclete returned, God the Father in short, the fulness of God manifest in the flesh. He also identified himself with previous prophets, especially with the Bab, that he himself suffered in Tabreez, and his spirit returned to the supreme associate.
Besides these epistles to his followers he addressed to kings and rulers various documents. His appeal to the Shah of Persia in behalf of toleration for his followers is a well-reasoned and cogent plea. He sent letters to the Grand Vizier of the Sultan, to the Pope, to Napoleon III., to the Emperor of Russia, and to Queen Victoria. For some reason he was displeased with the Emperor of Germany, and ventured to predict that dire calamities will fall upon the capital beyond the Rhine.
The only systematic work is called" The Most Holy Tablet." This prescribes more fully the rules for the new religion, but adds no new doctrine to the system of the Bab. The times of prayer and of fasts and feasts are given, places of worship are to have no images or pictures, the dead are to be buried with much ceremonial pomp, pilgrimages are few, very elaborate rules for inheritance are laid down, slavery forbidden, the civilization of the Vest enjoined in many particulars, the kings of the earth are exhorted. The claim is made that the treatise is not one of scientific production, it is beyond the power of science, the revelation of God Himself, and, hence, above all criticism.
For one whose pretensions are so superlative, the performance is very meagre. There is no transcendent excellence apparent to mark the advance of revelation. Possibly if the Son of God had not appeared in Jesus Christ, and become the Alpha and Omega of human hopes and salvation, such a system might become another" Light of Asia j" but since Christ has come, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, there can be no comparison between Babism and Christianity.
It remains to inquire what is the relation of Babism to the missionary work.
When tbe Bab passed through Oroomiah in 1850 on his way to his execution, the missionaries watched the excitement with great interest. The crowds of people were ready to receive him as the long-expected Imam, even the water in which he bathed was regarded as holy water. Since then the missionaries have ever had a strong desire to utilize the movement, but have found the Babis so satisfied or mystified with their own fanciful viewR, and so urgent in their argument for a fuller revelation to suit the present age, that they felt no need of Christ. Our colporteurs have kept in touch with the different sects in all parts of the country and reported the Babis. The congenial field for Babism is not among the rough Turkish race of the north and west of Persia, but among the gentler Persian race of the south and east. The missionaries come from Ispahan and beyond. Two of them have been at Oroomiah for several weeks previous to this date. They have great assurance, and are ready to discuss with Jews, Christians, and Moslems, always with great caution lest they be betrayed to their enemies. Their arguments are from the Pentateuch, and especially from Daniel and Revelation for Jews and Christians, and from the Koran for Moslems. The Jews are not always proof against the infection. Some are said to believe, others are turned away from the trne teachings of the Scriptures. In other places, especially in the darker regions where our colporteurs seldom penetrate, the Jews are much affected. Last year two of the colporteurs wrote from such places: "We must hasten to enlighten these Jews, or they will all fall in the snare." Babism offers the Jew a system non.persecuting, suiting his unitarian view of God, and nearer his hopes of an earthly Messiah and kingdom than Christianity. The Christian faith alone has the resources to meet the sophistries of the Babis. The argument of the Moslem is the sword, not reasoning from the Koran and traditions. I have heard of no case of a Christian's conversion to Babism or of a Babis conversion to Christianity. Is it because the chasm between the two faiths is impassible, or because the affinities have not yet been fully established? What shall be the attitude we take? Shall we consider the new creed, now accepted by many thousands of Persians, as for us or against us in the conflict with Islam?
On the favorable side we may mention· : 1. It is a most radical reform that revolutionizes the established reJigion of Persia, and thus breaks down the barriers of intolerance and comes into sympathy with Christianity. 2. In practical duties, compared with Islam, it has a very liberal aspect. It is a protest against the hard legalism and Pharisaism of the mullahs. It exposes their intolerance and corruptions and scandalous vices, and teaches sincerity and gentleness, and thus is breaking down the civil and social system of the prevailing faith, and in so far is an ally of Christianity. 3. The adherents of the Bab claim a friendship and kinship with Christianson these common grounds. The following extract from Mr. Browne's record expresses this feeling in stronger terms, perhaps, than usual. " Yes," said the Babi, " we are much nearer to you in sympathy than the Mohammedans. To them you are unclean and accursed ; if they associate with you it is only by overcoming their religious prejudices. But we are taught to regard all good men as clean and pure whatever their religion. Wlth you Christians especially we have sympathy. Has it not struck you how similar were the life and death of our founder (whom we indeed believe to have been Christ Himself returned to earth) and the Founder of your faith? Both were wise even in their childhood, beyond the comprehension of those around them; both were pure and blameless in their lives; both at last were done to death by a fanatical priesthood and a government alarmed at the love and devotion which they inspired in their disciples. " ~his is very fairly spoken, but one is at a loss to know how far such language comes from the hope of winning converts. Mr. Browne is one much in love with Oriental mysticism, and one whom the Babis hoped to win over to their belief.
Beyond the points just mentioned I cannot see that Christians and Babis can have much in common.
THE UNFAVORABLE RELATIONS TO MISSION WORK.
1. The movement arose entirely outside of Christian influences. It is an outgrowth of Persian Mohammedanism, of the sect of the Sheikhis without a single doctrine derived from the New Testament. The face of Babism is not toward Christianity, but toward the pantheism of the East. It turns away from the God of Islam, who is an absolute monarch far removed from man and his needs. The Bah brings God near, but not through Christ by way of reconciliation, not by regarding God as a loving Father, who through the Son and Spirit is bringing us into fellowship with Himself. The Bab brings God near by pantheism. The universal spirit is manifested in all men. By self-renunciation and abstraction a man may escape the illusion of plurality and attain to the unity and blessedness of true being and say, " I am God." Christ said this, and so the Bab and Beha and so may others yet to come. This misty pantheism is harder for the missionary to deal with than the fatalistic unitarian conception of God presented by Islam.
2. The doctrine of manifestations renders the Babis insensible to Christian influence. They accept Christ most fully, and no one can go beyond them in praise of His Divine natnre; but His mission has ended. The inconsistency of applying the same prediction to the Holy Spirit, to Mohammed, and to Beha is overcome by saying that the signs apply equally to all successive manifestations. The argument from the unapproachable personality of Christ is met by the statement that Beha is also a man of perfection, and that Christ showed indications of His weakness in His outcry in Gethsemane and on the cross. The cross of Christ is made of none effect. The phenomenon of the Bab and Beha eclipses the Sun of Righteousness.
This doctrine, taken with the fact that a new faith has a charm which for the time satisfies the religious need, renders the Babis difficult to reach. Through the darkness of pantheism they cannot see the need of a Saviour. The Moslems often feel a need and confess that their system has proved a failure, but the Babis are in the zeal and assurance of a new religion. They study the New Testament not as disciples to learn, but as partisans
EVANGELIZATION OF THE JEW
to discover what will fortify their theory. All previous Scriptures are valuable to them only in so far as they testify to the new faith.
3. Their basis of morals is quite as far from our faith, perhaps farther removed than the doctrine of Islam. It has been truly said of Islam: ":Mohammedan law is based on the theory that right and wrong depend on legal enactment. Moral acts have no inherent moral character. An act is right because God has commanded it, and wrong because He has forbidden it. God may abrogate or change His laws so that what was wrong may become right. So it is impossible to discuss the moral character of the prophet, because it is sufficient answer to any criticism to say that God commanded or expressly permitted those acts which in other men would be wrong. Thus God's moral nature is not known. There is no comprehension that God is a moral being doing what is right because it is right, that He could not be just and justify the sinner without an atonement made by the incarnation, sufferings, and death of Christ. Sin is not rcgarded as itself corruption, nor is there any need of regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Spirit before the soul can know the joy of the beatific vision." This statement applies with increased emphasis to the Babis. There is no clear distinction between good and evil, no perception of sin, they wander in the fog.
4. The Eabist freedom runs to license, and hence as a reform leaves men worse rather than better. Mr. Browne found himself in the meshes of the opium habit in Kirman by yielding too freely to the influence of his Babi fricnds. The poetess J(urratu Ain praises opium, though Beha afterward forbid it. There is undoubtedly a generous fellowship in the Babi community, but there is no moral principle. Their missionaries have a doubtful reputation morally. There are no high and strong characters developed to lead the world in true reform, no high motives to virtue are developed. The seeds of its own destruction are in the system, and the best arguments against this as other errors will soon be its fruits.
THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE JEW.
DY J. E. MATHIESON, ESQ., LONDON, ENGLAND.
By this we do not mean the conversion of the whole nation, as predicted by St. Paul (Rom. 11 : 26, 27), "So all Israel shall be saved; even as it is written. there shall come out of Zion the Deiiverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; and this is My covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins." 'When a people's sins are all taken away they are turned from ungodliness; then, and then only, can we speak of their conversion nationally—an experience as yet unrecorded, whether among Jews or Gentiles. But in the Jewish era and in this Gospel age alike there has been and there is "a remnant, according to the election of grace" ~Rom. 11 : 5) ; in Elijah's day only seven thousand out. of the whole of the tea-tl'ibed ki!1gdom ; for as St. Paul, in Rom. 9 : 27, tells us, quoting from Isa. 10 : 22, "If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved." An interesting study will he found in collating all the passages which refer to the Jewish rem- nant. And here will it be out of place to emphasize -the elective character of this dispensation, whether as affecting Jews or Gentiles? The above- quoted texts seem conclusive as regards the Jew, while Acts 15 : l4-18 gives us similar teaching as to what we are to expect in this present age and. in the age to come-in this age, a gathering out of a minority to the name of Christ; in the age to come, universal blessing: "Symeon hath rehearsed how first God did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After these things I will return, aud I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will set it up : that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord, who maketh these things known from the beginning of the world." Until David's earthly kingdom and throne are again set up in the person of Jesus Christ as King in Jerusalem we need not expect a period of universal blessing for this world, of complete ingathering to the name of Jesus Christ. The same order is observed in Ps. 2 : 6, 8 ; it is not until God shall have fulfilled His promise: "Yet have I set My king upon My holy hill of Zion," that He will fulfil the supplementary promise, "Ask of Me, and I will give the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." l~evelation and history are at one in their seals set to this development of God's purpose; sah-ation secured "in this age to some Jews, some Gentiles; in the age to come, to all the Jews, all the Gentiles." And since God has "made these things known from the beginning of the world," we can only account for the ignorance of His great plan for Jew and Gentile by the woful neglect of the" prophetic word" by the majority of our teachers, notwithstanding the warning of St. Peter (2 Pet. 1 : 19), "Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts."
But our suggested topic confines us for the present to " the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and how best to reach them with the message of salvation. I have no commission to enumerate the Gospel triumphs won ovcr Jewish hearts, whether at Pentecost, when the whole saved company appear to have been Jews, nor during the personal experience of the apostles, whose mission was somewhat exclusively limited to their countrymen and largely confined to their own land; and it is ever to be remembered that even St. Paul invariably sought out the Jews in all places whither he went, eyen though" apostle of the Gentiles." I have no materials at command that would enable me to recount the story of Jewish conversions in alI the intervening, even in the darkest ages. But considering the comparatively smaU numbers of the scattered nation during long ages of oppression, it appears more than probable that as large a percentage of conversions was secured, when effort was scripturally put forth, among Jews as among other peoples. If we could tabulate-and no man and no church is able to tabulate the numbers of the saved in our own day; but if we might judge by the very large number of ministers of the Gospel of J ewish birth and upbringing who occupy pastoral charges to· day in this and other Protestant lands-we might fairly conclude that the Jewish mission is as productive of true conversion as are any other missions in Christendom Or heathendom.
But with alI the gracious proofs of blessed success in the Jewish mission to-day, these do not satisfy the longings of those who count the Jews "beloved for their fathers' sake," and who deem it a high privilege and a first claim to seek to offer them the Gospel which we have received instrumentalIy through their Scriptures, and substitutionally through their kinsman, our adorable Saviour Jesus Christ. Any suggestions which can claim the Word of God as their guiding principle, even from one who has no experience in this most difficult of missions, may be helpful to those who have the arduous work in hand or in prospect.
It is to be borne in mind that the Jews are-in contrast to the Church of God-an earthly people with a great earthly history ; that their history has for ages been suspeuded; that they possess meanwhile a vast possession of " great and precious promises" of earthly restoration and blessing, including the promised personal reign of Jesus Christ as their King on " the throne of His father David" (Luke 1 : 31,32 ; Zeph. 3 : 14, 15), and full possession of the land promised to Abraham. The Church, gathered out from among Jews and Gentiles, is a heavenly people-even now" in heavenly places" (Eph. 1 : 3; 2 :6)-without the promise of even a rood of land in the coming earthly dominion of Christ; He is never called their King, though they yield to Him the allegiance and· homage of their hearts; He is their Head, and they are one with Him; they are to " judgc the world" (1 Cor. 6 : 2) ; to " judge angels" (1 Cor. 6 : 3) ; to " reign with Christ" (2 Tim. 2: 12; Rev. 1 :6; 20: 4, 6) ; and this holds good of converted Jews equally with converted Gentiles. A believing Jew in conversion relinquishes his share, I take it, in mere earthly blessing promised to the nation, because he is raised to the higher sphere and placed, as it were, upon the throne with His Redeemer, and needs not to crave the inferior though undoubtedly grand position of his Jewish brethreu in the millennial age, when Christ shall rule not only over a reunited and restored kingdom of the chosen race, but shall also be "King over all the earth" (Zech. 14 : 9). Notwithstanding this abandonment of mere Jewish privilege and promise, it appears to me that the missionary to the Jews should give due prominence to every consideration likely to weigh with Jewish hearts in endeavoring to lead the individual Jew to Christ, and that while proclaiming clearly and fully the Gospel of the grace of God, there should also be preached to him the Gospel of the kingdom. It may' be that in past days nE.'glect of this lastnamed" good news" may have hindered the acceptance of God's offer of mercy, which is for" the Jew first, and also for the Gentile." Silence concerning the glorious future of their people, in frequent reference to the unfulfilled promises of restoration and the future advent of their reigning Messiah, an ignoring of the dispensational differences between the Jew and the Greek, and a disallowing of the vast advantages accruing to Israel through the special favor of God-these and other things may have greatly barred the way to the entrance of the truth concerning the rejected, crucified, risen and ascended Saviour. How readily we Gentile believers, in our pride of place and privilege, forget what the apostle of the Gentiles takes occasion to emphasize: "What advantage, then, hath the Jew 1" Much every way. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God: "Whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises j whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ a~ concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen" (Rom. 3 : 1, 2 j 9 : 4, 5). Yes, we need to keep before the Jew the Gospel of the kiugdom as well as the Gospel of the grace of God if we are to convince him that we fully comprehend all that belongs to his greatly favored and fearfully chastised people; and the assurance that we admit all that His prophets have spoken, not only of " the sufferings of Christ," but also of " the glory that should follow" (1 Pet. 1 : 2), will the better dispose him to give heed to the message of salvation. For in the conversion of a Jew there is certainly something differ~nt from, or at least something beyond, that which takes place when a Gentile is converted j in both there is the acceptance of the finished work of Jesus Christ, and the yielding of the heart to Him j but the Jew realizes, as we Gentiles cannot do, that this Saviour of the world, this Redeemer of mankind, has a special relationship to himself. Is there not with the Jew an added thrill of joy and a keener throb of sympathy in remembering that the once crucified and now glorificd Lord is of near earthly kinship, and that at Ris coming again He will once more gather into one natron in the beloved land the whole of the unrepentant, because unbelieving, people j and that then (not till then) God, according to His promise, " will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of JerusaJem the spirit of grace and of supplication j and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced" (Zech. 12: 10)? St. Paul claimed to be "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews" (Phil. 3 : 5) j but on occasion he could claim his privileges as a citizen in the Gentile empire under whose rule he was born (Acts 22 : 25-28) ; so, conversely, when a modern Jew accepts the heavenly citizenship (Phil. 3 : 20) he is not, he cannot be, forgetful of his illustrious pedigree and the still more illustrious future of his nation. We seem to possess, indeed, a two-edged sword in pressing upon the Jews the claims of Jesus of Nazareth ; not only may we offer Him to their acceptance as " the Saviour of all men, specially of thcm that belicve" (1 Tim. 4 : 10), but we can press upon them" all that the prophets have spoken: ought not the Christ to suffer and to enter into His glory 1" (Luke 24 : 25, 26.) Again, may I diverge from my special topic in order to suggest whether, in missions to the thousand millions of heathen and Mohammedan peoples of our age, a proclamation of the Gospel of th: kingdom might not effectivcly be linked with the Gospel of the grace of God 1 Vhat good news, what heart rest, what joyful hope to the toiling millions in the vast heathen empires of Asia, in blood-stained Africa, yea, also in lands nearer home, that the emperors, kings, and kinglets of this sin-stricken and devil-oppressed earth are to give place-and we believe soon-to the one Lord, the Prince of Peace, the King of Righteousness (Ps. 72, et passim)! Would not a loud, united cr" re-echo throughout the world. "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly 1"
In missioning the Jews, appeals to Holy Scripture must necessarily, in the first instance, be limited to the Old Testament records, wherein may be found sufficient authority for pleading the Trinity of God, the Divine sonship of the promised Messiah, the prefigurement of His atoning and substitutionary work ere He comes to reign. It has well been remarked that a mere comma, dividing a sentence of prophetic Scripture, may represent long centuries of postponement; thus our Saviour Himself, in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4: 18, 19), "rightly dividing the Word of truth," claimed to be then and there enacting in grace the first part of the prophecy in 18a. 61 : 1, 2, leaving to its future fulfilment, at His coming again for judgment, the second part of that prophecy; and the comma in that particular prophecy represents at least eighteen hundred and sixty years, for He has not yet come for judgment. And in like manner we can point out to our Jewish brethren the frequent close proximity of the predicted " sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow" on the prophetic page; and appeal to them on the ground of their belief in a future gloriously reigning King, to the necessary first fulfilment of predictions relating to His incarnation, sufferings, and death in the past; for example, in Isa. 9 we have Christ's first and second comings distinctly set forth in close conjunction in verses 6 and 7 ; in Isa. 11, the first coming in verse 1, the second coming in verses 4-12 ; in the familiar 1sa. 53, the coming to suffer in verses 2-10 ; the coming for joyful reign in verses 11 and 12. It is, we believe, strictly accurate to say that, while a multitude of passages refer solely to the coming glory of Christ, no passage refers to the first coming 1.0 suffer which is not immediately accompanied by promise concerning the glory that is yet to be revealed. What a striking parallel there is between the religious people of our Lord's time and the worldly Church of the present day! The former rejected IIim when He came in. lowliness, deferring His reign; to the latter the :Master might well say, as St. Paul did tot.he Corinthian Church (1 Cor. 4 : S), "Already ye are filled, already ye are become rich, ye have reigned without us ;" and to the majority in the professing Church His coming would be a terror and a surprise.
In regard to the best method for prosecuting the mission to Israel, I know of none that can be an improvement upon our Lord's, who" called unto Him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two" (Mark 6 : 7), an example which seems to have been followed by the apostles and their companions as recorded in the Acts. The itinerant mission is our model if we seek to be guided by Him who is " the power of God Il11d the wisdom of God." Mission stations, with costly buildings and a staff of local missionaries, are hindering as much as they are furthering the spread of the Gospel, whether among Jews or Gentiles; resources and energies are expended upon a few centres, while the vast regions beyond remain unevangelized. A mission station is apt to become quite stationary, or, in plain' English, to come to a standstill. It is not denied that stationary missions have produced some blessed results; we can, for instance, recall with thankfulness that the Free Church of Scotland's mission in Buda- Pesth in the last generation gave us Adolph Saphir, and at Breslau, in the present generation, gave us Hermann Warsawiak; but we long to see scores of such Jewish witnesses called forth. Rabbi Lichtenstein and Joseph Rabinowitz were led to Christ through the written Word illuminated to them by the Holy Ghost without missionary intervention. Adolph * Saphir, himself the fruit of the Jewish mission on the Continent, and therefore unlikely to be prejudiced against it, remarked once to the writer: " The Jewish mission in Europe is neither to the Jew nor yet to the Gentile, but to the gentility." I think it cannot be denied that the work of my dear friend, Rev. John Wilkinson, in pnrsuing the itinerant mission, with liberal free distribution of the New Testament in Hebrew, is working on the best possible lines; while hilS voice is powerfully raised in recalling the Church of Christ to her duty toward God's everlasting nation. Oh that a multitude of other grateful Christian hearts might be imbued with the spirit of the Evangelical prophet, " For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth a~ brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth" (Isa. 62 : 1) !
• On bearing of the conversion of Saphir'e father ..nd the other members of that family, tbe late Dr. Andrew Bonar, 00 noted for hi. quaint use of Holy Scripture, said thi. beginning of ble.sings In the Buda-Pesth mission beautifully fulfilled the prophecy in Isa. 54 : 2: .. Behold, I wI! lay tbe foundations with sapphire••"
THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN
THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN.
BY DR. A. J. GORDON.
The occasion for writing the following article is this: At a recent summer convention a young lady missionary had been appointed to give an account of her work at one of the public sessions. The scruples of certain of the delegates against a woman's addressing a mixed assembly were found to be so strong, however, that the lady was withdrawn from the programme, and further public par· ticipation in the conference confined to its male constituency.
The conscientious regard thus displayed for Paul's alleged injunction of silence in the church on the part of women, deserves our highest respect. But with a considerable knowledge of the nature and extent of woman's work on the missionary field, the writer has long believed that it is exceedingly important that that work, as now carried on, should either be justified from Scripture, or, if that were impossible, that it be so modified as to bring it into harmony with the exact requirements of the Word of God. For while it is true that many Christians believe that women are enjoined from publicly preaching the Gospel, either at home or abroad, it is certainly true that scores of missionary women are at present doing this very thing. They are telling out the good news of salvation to heathen men and women publicly and from house to house, to little groups gathered by the wayside. or to larger groups assembled in the zayats. It is not affirmed that a majority of women missionaries are engaged in this kind of work. but that scores are doing it, and doing it with the approval of the boards under which they are serving. If anyone should raise the technical objection that because of its Informal and colloquial character this is not preaching. we are ready to affirm that it comes much nearer the preaching enjoined in the great commission than does the reading of a theological disquisition from the pulpit on Sunday morning, or the discussion of some ethical or sociological question before a popular audience on Sunday evening.
But the purpose of this article is not to condemn the ministry of missionary women described above, or to suggest its modification, but rather to justify and vindicate both its propriety and authority by a critical examination of Scripture on the question at issue.
In order to a right understanding of this subject, it is necessary for us to be reminded that we are living in the dispensation of the Spirit-a dispensation, which differs most radically from that of the law which preceded it. As the day of Pentecost ushered in this new economy, so the prophecy of Joel, which Peter rehearsed on that day, outlined its great characteristic features. Let us briefly consider this prophecy : 17 And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams : 18 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in thoee days Will I pour forth of my Spirit: and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will shew wonders in the heaven above, And signs on the earth beneath ; Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the day of the Lord come, That great and notable day: 21 And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2: 17-24, R. V.) It will be observed that four classes are here named as being bronght into equal privileges under the outpoured Spirit: 1. Jew and Gentile: "All flesh" seems to be equivalent to " every one who" or " whosoever," named in the twenty-first verse. Paul expounds this phrase to mean both Jew and Gentile (Rom. 10 : 13) : "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. . .• For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
2. Male and female: "And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." 3. Old and young: " Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." 4. Bondmen and bondmaidens (vide R. V. margin): "And on my ser- vants and on my handmaidens in those days will I pour forth of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy."
Now, evidently these several classes are not mentioned without a definite intention and significance j for Paul, in referring back to the great baptism through which the Church of the New Covenant was ushered in, says: "For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free" (1 Cor. 12 : 13, R. V.). Here he enumerates two classes named in Joel's prophecy j and in another passage he mentions three: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ; there can be neither Jew nor Greek; there can be neither bond nor free; there can be no male and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3: 28, R. V.).
We often hear this phrase, "neither male nor female," quoted as though it were a rhetorical figure j but we insist that the inference i.s just, that if the Gentile came into vastly higher privileges under grace than under the law, so did the woman j for both are spoken of in the same cate- gory. Here, then, we take our starting-point for the discussion. This prophecy of Joel, realized at Pentecost, is the Magna Charta of the Christian Church. It gives to woman a status in the Spirit hitherto unknown. And, as in civil legislation, no law can be enacted which conflicts with the constitution, so in Scripture we shall expect to find no text which denies to woman her divinely appointed rights in the New Dispensation.
" Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." Here iii woman's equal warrant with man's for telling out the Gospel of the grace of God. So it seems, at least, for this word" prophesy" in the New Testament "signifies not merely to foretell future events, but to commnnicate religious truth in general under a Divine inspiration" (vi'Ze Hackett on " Acts," p. 49), and the spirit of prophecy was henceforth to rest, not upon the favored few, but upon the many, without regard to race, or age, or sex. All that we can gather from the New Testament use of this word leads us to believe that it embraces that faithful witnessing for Christ, that fervent telling out of the Gospel under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, which was found in the early Church, and is found just as truly among the faithful to-day.
Some, indeed, foreseeing whither such an admission might lead, have insisted on limiting the word " prophesy" to its highest meaning-that of inspired prediction or miraculous revelation-and have then affirmed that the age of miracles having ceased, therefore Joel's prophecy cannot be cited as authority for women's public witnessing for Christ to-day.
This method of reasoning has been repeatedly resorted to in similar exigencies of interpretation, but it has not proved satisfactory. When William Carey put his finger on the words, ., Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," and asked if this command were not still binding on the Church, he was answered by his brethren: "No! The great commission was accompanied by the miraculous gift of tongues; this miracle has ceased in the Church, and therefore we cannot hope to succeed in such an enterprise unless God shall send another Pentecost. " But Carey maintained that the power of the Spirit could be still depended on, as iu the beginning, for carrying out the grcat commission; and a centuryof missions has vindicated the correctness of his judgment. ·When, within a few years, some thoughtful Christians have asked whether the promise, " The prayer of faith shall save the sick," is not still in force, the theologians have replied: "No; this refers to miraculous healing; and the age of miracles ended with the apostles." And now it is said that " prophecy" also belongs in the same catalogue of miraculous gifts which passed away with the apostles. It is certainly incumbent upon those who advocate this view to bring forward some evidence of its correctness from Scripture, which, after repeated challenges, they have failed to do, and must fail to do. Our greatest objection to the theory is, that it fails to make due recognition of the Holy Spirit's perpetual presence in the Church-a presence which implies the equal perpetuity of His gifts and endowments.
If, now, we turn to the history of the primitive Church, we find the practice corresponding to the prophecy. In the instance of Philip's househol~, we read: "Now this man had four daughters which did prophesy" (Acts 21 : 9) ; and in connection with the Church in Corinth we read: " Every woman praying and prophesying with her head unveiled" (1 Cor. 11 : 5) j which passage we shall consider further on, only rejoicing as we pass that" praying" has not yet, like its yoke-fellow, ,. prophesying," been remanded exclusively to the apostolic age.
Having touched thus briefly on the positiv<. side of this question, we now proceed to consider the alleged prohibition of women's participation in the public meetings of the Church, found in the writings of Paul.
We shall examine,_ first, the crucial text contained in 1 Tim. 2 : 8-11 : 8 I desire therefore that men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands with- 9 out wrath and doubting. In like manner that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair 10 and gold or pearls or costly raiment; but (wbich becometh women professing 11 godliness) through good works. Let a woman learn in quietness with all sub- jection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness, etc. (R. V.) This passage has generally been regarded as perhaps the strongest and most decisive, for the silence of women in the Church. It would be very startling, therefore, were it shown that it really contains an exhortation to the orderly and decorous participation of women in public prayer. Yet such is the conclusion of some of the best exegetes.
By general consent the force of B ovAo}laz, " I will," is carried over from the eighth verse into the ninth: "I will that women" (vide Alford). And what is it that the apostle will have women do ~ The words, "in like manner," furnish a very suggestive hint toward one answer, and a very suggestive hindrance to another and common answer. Is it meant that he would have the men pray in every place, and the women, " in like manner," to be silent? But where would be the similarity of conduct in the two instances ~ Or does the intended likeness lie between the men's" lifting up holy hands," and the women's adorning themselves in modest apparel ~ So unlikely is either one of these conclusions from the apostle's language, that, as Alford concedes, "Chrysostom and most commentators supply 7tP0(JcvXcIJf)az, 'to pray,' in order to complete the sense." If they are right in so construing the passage-and we belieye the OOIJaVToo., " in like manner," compels them to this course-then the meaning is unquestionable. "I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, etc. In like manner I will that women pray in modest apparel, etc. " In one of the most incisive and clearly reasoned pieces of exegesis with which we are acquainted, Wiesinger, the eminent commentator, thus interprets the passage, and, as it seems to us, clearly justifies his conclusions, We have not space to transfer his argument to these pages, but we may, in a few words, give a summary of it, mostly in his own language. He says: "1. In the words ' in every place' it is chiefly to be observed that it is public prayer and not secret prayer that is spoken of.
"2. The 7tP0(fcvXc(Jf)az, 'to pray,' is to be supplied in verse 9, and to be connected with 'in modest apparel j ' so that this special injunction as to the conduct of women in prayer corresponds to that given to the men in the words 'lifting up holy hands.' This verse, then, from the beginning, refers to prayer; and what is said of the women in verses 9 and 10 is to he understood as referring primarily to public prayer. "3. The transition in verse 11 from yoyai"a~ to YVy~ shows that the apostle now passes on to something new-viz., the relation of the married woman to her husband. She is to be in quietness rather than drawing attention to herself by public appearance; to learn rather than to teach; to be in subjection rather than in authority."
In a word, our commentator finds no evidence from this passage that women were forbidden to pray in the public assemblies of the Church; though reasoning back from the twelfth verse to those before, he considers that they may have been enjoined from public teaching. The latter question we shall consider further on.
The interpretation just given has strong presumption in its favor, from the likeness of the passage to another which we now consider: " Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth 5 his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonoreth her head. (1 Cor. 11 : 4, 5.) By common consent the reference is here to public worship; and the decorous manner of taking part therein is pointed out first for the man and then for the woman. "Every woman praying or prophesying." Bengel's terse comment: " Therefore women were not excluded from these duties," is natural and reasonable. It is quite incredible, on the contrary, that'the apostle should give himself the trouble to prune a custom which he desired to uproot, or that he should spend his breath in condemning a forbidden method of doing a forbidden thing. This passage is strikingly like the one just considered, in that the proper order of doing having been prescribed, first for the man, and then for the woman, it is impossible to conclude that the thing to be done is then enjoined only upon the one party, and forbidden to the other. If the" in like manner" has proved such a barrier to commentators against finding an injunction for the silence of women in 1 Tim. 3 : 9, the unlike manner pointed out in this passage is not less difficult to be surmounted by those who hold that women are forbidden to participate in public worship. As the first passage has been shown to give sanction to woman's praying in public, this one points not less strongly to her habit of both praying an::! prophesying in public.
We turn now to the only remaining passage which has been urged as decisive for the silence of women-viz., 1 Cor. 14 : 34, 35 : 34 Let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto 35 them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. And if they 'Would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church.
Here, again, the conduct of women in the church should be studied in relation to that of men if we would rightly understand the apostle's teaching. Let us observe, then, that the injunction to silence is three times served in this chapter by the use of the same Greek word, (J'zyarw, twice on men and once on women, and that in every case the silence commanded is conditional, not absolute. " Let him keep silence in the church" (verse 28), it is said to one speak- ing with tongues, but on the condition that" there be no interpreter." " Let the first keep silence" (verse 30), it is said of the prophets, "speaking by two or three j" but it is on condition that" a revelation be made to another sitting by."
"Let the women keep silence in the church," it is said again, but it is evidently on condition of their interrupting the service with questions, since it is added, " for it is not permitted them to speak, • . . and if they would learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home." This last clause takes the injunction clearly out of all reference to praying or prophesying, and shows-what the whole chapter indicates-that the apostle is here dealing with the various forms of disorder and confusion in the church j not that he is repressing the decorous exercise of spiritual gifts, either by men or by women. If he were forbidding women to.pray or to prophesy in public, as some argue, what could be more irrelevant or meaningless than his direction concerning the case: "If they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home" ~ In fine, we may reasonably insist that this text, as well as the others discussed above, be considered in the light of the entire New Testament teaching-the teaching of prophecy, the teaching of practice, and the teaching of contemporary history-if we would find the true meaning.
Dr. Jacob, in his admirable work, ., The Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament," considering the question after this broad method, thus candidly and, as it seems to us, justly, sums up the whole question: " A dne consideration of this ministry of gifts in the earliest days of Christianity-those times of high and sanctified spiritual freedom-both shows and justifies the custom of the public ministration of women at that time in the Church. The very ground and title of this ministry being the acknowledged possession of some gift, and such gifts being bestowed on women as well as men, the former as well as the latter were allowed to use them in Christian assemblies. This seems to me quite evident from Paul'8 word8 in 1 Oor. 11 : 5, whm'e he 8trongly condemns the pmctiee of women praying 01' prophesying with the head unveiled, without expressing the least objection to this public ministration on their part, but only finding fault with what was considered an unseemly attire for wmnen thus publicly engaged. The injunction contained in the same epistle (1 Cor. 14 : 34), ' Let your women keep silence,' etc., refers, as the context shows, not to prophesying or praying in the congregation, but to making remarks and"asking questions about the words of others."
On the whole, we may conclude, without over-confidence, that there is no Scripture which prohibits women from praying or prophesying in the public assemblies of the Church j that, on the contrary, they seem to be exhorted to the first exercise by the word of the apostle (1 Tim. 2 : 9) j while for prophesying they have the threefold warrant of inspired prediction (Acts 2 : 17), of primitive practice (Acts 21 : 9), and of apostolic provision (1 Cor. 11 : 4).* .. Tho following note, which we transcribe from Meyer's Commentary, seems to be a fair and well· balanced relUme of the C8.'!e: "This paBs~e (1 Tim. 2: 8-11) does not distinctly forbid ..pou<vx£u8a.
(to pray) to women; It only distinctly forbids ~.aa.UK<," (to teach) on their part. There is the same As to the question of teaching, a difficulty arises which it is not easy to solve. If the apostle, in his words to Timothy, absolutely forbids a woman to teach and expound 8piritual truth, then the remarkable instance of a woman doing this very thing at once occurs to the mind (Acts 18 : 26)-an instance of private teaching possibly, but endorsed and made conspicuously public by its insertion in the New Testament.
In view of this example, some have held that the statement in 1 Tim. 2 : 9, with the entire paragraph to which it belongs, refers to the married woman's domestic relations, and not to her public relations; to her subjection to the teaching of her husband as against her dogmatic lording it over him. This is the view of Canon Garratt, in his excellent observations on the "Ministry of Women." Admit, however, that the prohibition is against public teaching; what may it mean ~ To teach and to govern are the special fnnctions of the presbyter. The teacher and the pastor, named in the gifts to the Church (Eph. 4 : 11), Alford considers to be the same ; and the pastor is generally regarded as identical with the bishop. Now there is no instance in the New Testament of a woman being set over a church as bishop and teacher. The lack of such example would lead us to refrain from ordaining a 'Yoman as pastor of a Christian congregation. But if the Lord has fixed this limitation, we beheve it to ·be grounded, not on her less favored position in the privileges of grace, but in the impediments to snch service existing in natnre itself.
It may be said against the conclusion which we have reached concerning the position of women, that the plain reading of the New Testament makes a different impression on the mind. That may be so on two grounds : first, on that of traditional bias; and second, on that of unfair translation. Concerning the latter point, it would seem as though the translators of our common version wrought, at every point where this question occurs, under the shadow of Paul's imperative, " Let your women keep silence in the churches."
Let us take two illustrations from names found in that constellation of Christian women mentioned in Rom. 16 : " I commend unto you Phcebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrere." So, according to the King James version, writes Paul. But the same word oufJ£oro~, here translated" servant," is rendered" minister" when applied to Paul and Apollos (1 Cor. 3 : 5), and" deacon" when used of other male officers of the Church (1 Tim. 3 : 10,12,13). Why discriminate against Phcebe simply because she is a woman ~ The word" servant" is correct for the general unofficial use of the term, as in Matt. 22 : 11 ; but if Phcebe were really a functiona.ryof the Church, as we have a right to conclude, let her have the honor to which apparent contradiction between 1 Cor. 14 : 34, 35 and 1 Cor. 11 : 5, 13. While in the former passage AaAE'V (to speak) is forbidden to women, in the latter 7rP0.,.Evx.E.,.9aL (to pray) and even "po1>~T<v"v (to prophesy) are prcsnpposed as things done by women, and the apostle does not forbid it. The solntion is that Paul wishes everything in the Church to be done decently and in order, while, on the other hand,' he holds by thG principle, ' Qnencb not the Spirit. ' " she is entitled. If" Phrebe, a minister of the Church at Cenchrere," sounds too bold, let the word be transliterated, and read, "Phrebe, a dea- con"-a deacon, too, without the insipid termination" ess," of which there is no more need than that we should say" teacheress' , or " doctress. " This emendation " deaconess" has timidly crept into the margin of the Revised Version, thus adding prejudice to slight by the association which this name has with High Church sisterhoods and orders. It is wonderful how much there is in a name! ., Phrebe, a servant," might suggest to an ordinary reader nothing more than the modern church drudge, who prepares sand- wiches and coffee for an ecclesiastical sociable. To Canon Garratt, with his genial and enlightened view of woman's position in apostolic times, " Phrebe, a deacon," suggests a useful 00-1aborer of Paul, "travelling about on missionary and other labors of love."
Again, we read in the same chapter of Romans, " Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus. " Notice the order here; the woman's name put first, as elsewhere (Acts 18 : 18; 2 Tim. 4 : 19). But when we turn to that very suggestive passage in Acts 18 : 26 we find the order reversed, and the man's name put first: "Whom, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him and expounded unto him the way of the Lord more perfectly." ,Yet this is conceded to be wrong, according to the best manuscripts. Evidently to some transcriber or critic the startling question presented itself: "Did not Paul say, ' I suffer not a woman to teach, nor tt) usurp authority over the man' ~ but here a woman is actually taking the lead as theological teacher to Apollos, an eminent minister of the Gospel, and so far setting up her authority as to tell him that he is not thoroughly qualified for his work! This will never do j if the woman cannot be silent, she must at least be thrust into the background." And so the order is changed, and the man's name has stood first for generations of readers. The Revised Version has rectified the error, and the woman's name now leads.
But how natural IS this story, and how perfectly accordant with subsequent Christian history ! We can readily imagine that, after listening to this Alexandrian orator, Priscilla would say to her husband: "Yes, he is 610quent and mighty in the Scriptures j but do you not see that he lacks the secret of power~" And so they took him and instructed him concerning the baptism of the Holy Ghost, with the result that he who before had been mighty in the Scriptures, now" mightily convinced the Jews." How often has this scene heen reproduced; as, e.g., in the instance of Catherine of Siena instructing the corrupt clergy of her day in the things of the Spirit till they exclaimed III wonder, " Never man spake like this woman j" of Madame Guyon, who by her teaching made new men of scores of accomplished but unspiritual preachers of her time j of the humble woman of whom the evangelist Moody tells, who, on hearing some of his early sermons, admonished him of his need of the secret of power, and brought hiw under uu'speakable obligation by teaching him of the ilame. It is evi. dent that the Holy Spirit made this woman Priscilla a teacher of teachers, and that her theological chair has had many worthy incumbents through the subsequent Christian ages.
To follow still further the list of women workers mentioned in Rom. 16, we read: "Salute Tryphama and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute Persis the beloved, which labored much in the Lord" (verse 12). What was the work in the .Lord which these so worthily wrought ~ Put with this quotation another: "Help those women which labored with me in the Gospel" (Phil. 4 : 3). Did they" labor in the Gospel" with the one restriction that they should not preach the Gospel ~ Did they" labor in the Lord" under sacred bonds to give no public witness for the Lord? " Ah ! but there is that word of Paul to Timothy, ' Let the women learn in silence,''' says the plaintiff. No! It is not there. Here again we complain of an invidious translation. Rightly the Revised Version gives it: "Let a woman learn in quietness" (~(j"vxia), an admonition not at all inconsistent with decorous praying and witnessing in the Christian assembly. When men are admonished, the King James translators give the right rendering to the same word: "That with quietness they work and eat their own bread" (1 Thess. 3 : 12), an injunction which no reader would construe to mean that they should refrain from speaking during their labor and their eating.
As a woman is named among the deacons in this chapter, so it is more than probable that one is mentioned among the apostles. "Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles" (v. 7). Is Junia a feminine name? So it has been commonly held. But the EV 'rOth (t7fQt17'lJAoth, with which it stands connected, has led some to conclude that it is J unias, the name of a man. This is not impossible. Yet Chrysostom, who, as a Greek Father, ought to be taken as a high authority, makes this frank and unequivocal comment on the passage: "How g1·eat is the devotion of this woman, that she should be counted worthy of the name of an apostle I"
These are illustrations which might be considerably enlarged, of the shadow which Paul's supposed law of silence for women has cast upon the work of the early translators-a shadow which was even thrown back into the Old Testament, so that we read in the Common Version: "The Lord gave the word; great was the company of those that published it" (Ps. 68 : 11) ; while the Revised correctly gives it: "The Lord giveth the word; the women that publish the tidings are a great host. "
Whether we are right or wrong in our general conclusions, there are some very interesting lessons suggested by this subject: Especially, the value of experience as an interpreter of Scripture. The final exegesis is not always to be found in the lexicon and grammar. The Spirit is in the Word; and the Spirit is also in the Church, the body of regenerate and sanctified believers. To follow the voice of the Church apart from that of the written Word has never proved safe • but, on the other hand, it may be that we need to be admonished not to ignore the teaching of the deepest spiritual life of the Church in forming our conclusions concerning the meaning of Scripture. It cannot be denied that in every great spiritnal awakening in the history of Protestantism the impulse for Christian women to pray and witness for Christ in the public assembly has been found irrepressible. It was so in the beginriings of the Society of Friends. It was so in the great evangelical revival associated with the names of vVesley and Whitfield. It has been so in that powerful renaissance of primitive Methodism known as the Salvation Army. It has been increasingly so in this era of modern missions and modern evangelism in which we are living. Observing this fact, and observing also the great blessing which has attended the ministry pf consecrated women in heralding the Gospel, many thoughtful men have been led to examine the Word of God anew, to learn if it be really so that the Scriptures silence the testimony which the Spirit so signally blesses. To many it has been both a relief and a surprise to discover how little authority there is in the Word for repressing the witness of women in the public assembly, or for forbidding her to herald the Gospel to the unsaved. If this he so, it may be well for the plaintiffs in this ease to beware lest, in silencing the voice of consecrated women, they may be resisting the Holy Ghost. The conjunction of these two admonitions of the apostle is significant: "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesying" (1 Thess. 5 : 19).
The famous Edward Irving speaks thus pointedly on this subject: "Who am I that I should despise the gift of God, because it is in a woman, whom the Holy Ghost despiseth not ~ . . . That women hav(> with men an equal distribution of spiritual gifts is not only manifest from the fact (Acts 2 ; 18 : 26 ; 21 : 9; 1 Cor. 11 : 3, etc.), but from the very words of the prophecy of Joel itself, which may well rebuke those vain and thoughtless people who make light of the Lord's work, because it appeareth among women. 1 wish men would them3elves be subject to the Word 0/ God, before they lord it so over women's equal rights in tAe great outpouring 0/ the Spirit" (Works, v. 555).
As is demanded, we have preferred to forego all appeals to reason and sentiment in settling the question, and to rest it solely on a literal interpretation of Scripture. Yet we cannot refrain from questioning whether the spiritual intuition of the Church has not been far in advance of its exegesis in dealing with this subject. We will not refer to the usage prevailing in many of our most spiritual and evangelical churches, but will cite some conspicuous public instances.
Annie Taylor's missionary tour into Thibet has been the subject of world-wide comment. And now she is returning to that vast and perilous field with a considerable company of missionary recruits, both men and women, herself the leader of the expedition. In this enterprise of carrying the Gospel into the regions beyond, and preaching Christ to all classes, she is as full a missionary as was Paul, or Columba, or Boniface. Yet in all the comments of the religious press we have never once heard the question raised as to whether, in thus acting, she were not stepping out of woman's sphere as defined in Scripture.
When before the Exeter Hall Missionary Conference in 1888, Secretary Murdock described the work of Mrs. Ingalls, of Burmah, declaring that, though not assuming ecclesiastical functions, yet by force of character on the one hand, and by the exigencies of the field on the other, she had come to be a virtual bishop over nearly a score of churches, training the native ministry in theology and homiletics, guiding the churches in the selection of pastors, and superintending the discipline of the congregations, the story evokcd only applause, without a murmur of dissent from the distinguished body of missionary leaders who heard it.
When at that same conference, the representative of the Karen Mission having failed, it was asked whether there were any missionary present who could speak for that remarkable work, the reply was, " Only one, and she is a woman." She was unhesitatingly accepted as the speaker; and though at first demurring, she finally consented, and had the honor of addressing perhaps the most august array of missionary leaders which has convened in this century. The clear and distinct tones in which Mrs. Armstrong told her story did not suggest" silence i" but the modesty and reserve of her bearing completely answered to the Scripture requirement of " quietness." And though she had among her auditors missionary secretaries, Episcopal bishops, Oxford professors, and Edinburgh theologians, not the slightest indication of objection to her service was anywhere visible.
We vividly remember, in the early days of woman's work in the foreign field, how that brilliant missionary to China, Miss Adele Fielde, was recalled by her board because of the repeated complaints of the senior missionaries that in her work she was transcending her sphere as a woman. " It is reported that you have taken upon you to preach," was the charge read by the chairman; "is it so f' She replied by describing the vastness and destitution of her field-village after village, hamlet after hamlet, yet unreached by the Gospel-and then how, with a native woman, she had gone into the surrounding country, gathered groups of men, women, and children-whoever would come-and told out the story of the cross to them. "If this is preaching, I plead guilty to the charge," she said. " And have you ever been ordained to preach f' asked her examiner. "No," she replied, with great dignity and emphasis-" no; but I believe I have been foreordained." 0 woman! you have answered discreetly; and if any shall ask for your foreordination credentials, put your finger on the words of the prophet: "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy," and the whole Church will vote to send you back unhampered to your work, as happily the Board did in this instance.
How slow are we to understand what is written! Simon Peter, who on the Day of Pentecost had rehearsed the great prophecy of the new dispensation, and announced that its fulfilment had begun, was yet so holden
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS
of tradition that it took a special vision of the sheet descending from heaven to convince him that in the body of Christ" there can be neither Jew nor Gentile." And it has required another vision of a multitude of missionary women, let down by the Holy Spirit among the heathen, and publishing the Gospel to every tribe and kindred and people, to convince us that in that same body" there can be no male nor female." It is evident, however, that this extraordinary spectacle of ministering women has brought doubts to some conservative men as to " whereunto this thing may grow." Yet as believers in the sure word of prophecy, all has happened exactly according to the foreordained pattern, from the opening chapter of the new dispensation, when in the upper room" these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren," to the closing chapter, now fulfilling, when" the women that publish the tidings are a great host."
The new economy is not as the old; and the defendants in this case need not appeal to the examples of Miriam, and Deborah, and Huldah, and Anna the prophetess. These were exceptional instances under the old dispensation ; but she that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than they. And let the theologians who have recently written so dogmatically upon this subject consider whether it may not be possible that in this matter they are still under the law and not under grace; and whether, in sight of the promised land of world-wide evangelization, they may not hear the voice of God saying: "Mo¥es, my servant, is dead; now, therefore, arise and go over this Jordan."
EDUCATION AND MISSIONS. * BY REV. WILLIAM MILLER, MADRAS, INDIA.
On missionary education, as on all other subjects, men have a right to their own methods of arguing. Most of your readers will see that to represent those who are engaged in Christian education as holding that " the heathen must go through some proprodeutic dispensation of civilization to prepare them for the Gospel" is merely to travesty the principles on which Indian missions have for a long time past given to educational work a certain small proportion of their energies. The case is different when Dr. Gordon makes statements which are opposed to facts. I select two examples with which I am personally concerned.
Mr. Phillips, of Madras, is quoted as saying that there is organized opposition to Christianity, resulting" from the efforts of the Hindu graduates of our universities." This is treated as if it were equivalent to another * Suggested by an article on" Education and Missions, " by Dr. Gordon, republished from the R:lIVIEwin the Inaian Evangelical Review.-W. M. Rtatement by Mr. Powell, of Narasaranapettah, to the effect that "the strongest organized opposition we have to encounter comes from Brahmans who are being, or who have bcen, educated in our Christian high schools and colleges." These two statements are widely different. The great bulk of univerRity graduates have not been educated in Christian colleges. The supposed facts which are asserted by Mr. Powell and relied on by Dr. Gordon are the following two: "While preaching at Madras, one evening in November, 1889, I was interrupted by a band of students from the Christian college of that city, WllO flung quotations from Bradlaugh and other infidels into my face, to the effect t,hat Christianity is a fraud, and Christians deceivers. After striving in vain to persuade them to desist, I was obliged to call in the police to prevent their breaking up the meeting." Again: "Not long ago six graduates of the Christian college at Madras, on receiving their degrees and taking leave of the principal, made public exhibition of their contempt of Christianity by tearing up their New Testaments and trampling them under their feet."
With regard to these statements, I remark (1) that, to the best of my belief, they are untrue even in a literal sense; and (2) that even if they had been literally true, the way in which they are stateu would still leave an absolutely false impression.
Permit me a few words under these two heads: 1. I am the principal of the college in question, yet this is the firRt time that I have heard of either of the two occurrences said to have taken place a good many years ago. No doubt students or schoolboys may have made disturbance at a meeting without its corning to my notice; and I should be going beyond what I have authority for if I were positively to affirm that nothing like the first of the two things mentioned has ever taken place. I have no doubt that Mr. Powell's meeting was disturbed.. I have no doubt that the disturbers told him that they belonged to the Christian college, and I have no doubt that he was ready to believe them when they said so. It does not, however, necessarily follow that the disturbers actually were students of this college. Those who made a disturbance of the kind would bfl not very unlikely to add, as they would suppose, to the annoyance of the speaker, by declaring that they belonged to the Christian college. However, I do not say that no boys connected with the college could possibly have been concerned in such a matter as Mr. Powell describes. It would be wonderful if some among a thousand schoolboys did not break out sometimes into mischief; and I do not say that all even of the students of the college proper are everything that they ought to be. Only I think it strange that if the disturbance were so typical as is insinuated, I should not be hearing of such occurrences continual, instead of this being the first time that I have heard of even one. I think it strange, too, if the occurrence were so scandalous as is implied, that Mr. Powell should not have brought it to my notice when it happened. Nothing ever happened in my presence, or within my knowledge, which gives even a shadow of a foundation for Mr. Powell's second statement. The story seems to be unadulter- ated fiction. I do not suppose that Mr. Powell invented it. Doubtless he has heard it and readily believed it j but so far as my knowledge goes, the statement which I have quoted is, even in the direct and literal sense, a falsehood.
2. But it is still more important to point out that even if these two statements were as accurate in a literal sense as I believe them to be inac- curate, they are, nevertheless, so used in the article before me as to leave an absolutely false impression. The impression which it is intended to leave is that vulgar hatred and contempt for Christianity and a desire to join in organized opposition to it is characteristic of the students of this college. Everyone who has ever come in contact with the young men of Madras knows how false this impression would be and how different the .spirit that prevails in the college is. It is true that our Hindu students do not implicitly accept all we teach them. Some of them object, and are ready to argue in support of their objections. Some of them cling to old Hindu views, and defend such views heartily. Some take up the position of sceptics or agnostics, and point out, with greater or less earnestness, the difficulties in the way of accepting Christianity. Too many of them also, in the mean time, " care for none of these things," though many also are seeking along various lines for truth and spiritual strength. Absurdly misleading as are the particular allegations which have been made, anyone that likes is welcome to the admission that reluctance to accept Christian thought, and still more to accept the practical results of Christian thought, shows itself in many of the students, and that avowed opposition to it is by no means unknown among them. To some of us it seems that a fermentation of mind like this is part of the Divine way of guiding India. But to say that the general feeling of the students is such as would induce them, " when taking leave of the principal, to make public exhibitions of their contempt of Christianity by tearing up their New Testaments and trampling them under their feet," is a baseless and disgraceful calumny. Even if it could be shown, as it cannot be shown, that anything of the kind has ever happened-even if six, yes, or sixty, of our eighteen hundred students and scholars had misbehaved in the way described-it would prove absolutely nothing against the value of the work which the college does. It is a plain, literal, undeniable fact that in the inner circle of our Master's followers, among those whom He chose to teach others-not merely among those who received instruction from Him-there was one who betrayed Him, and who, after the betrayal, went and hanged himself. We should, nevertheless, know what to think of any man who should tell the sad story in such a way as to leave the impression that the effect of our Lord's influence was to produce suicides and traitors.
Thus, while I believe that both the allegations I have referred to are nntrue even in the literal sense, I am certain that if they were M-ue in the letter they would still be absolutely false in spirit.
l'IWSPECTS OF CIVILIZATION IN THE UPPER NILE VALLEY
PROSPECTS OF CIVILIZATION IN THE UPPER NILE VALLEY.
BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, DARWEN, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND.
The opening up of the central regions of Africa in the great watershed of the Nile Valley for the benefit of trade and the advance of civilization is a fascinating phase of the African question of the time. It is unlikely that the present disastrous state of affairs there can be indefinitely allowed, though in certain quarters a let-alone policy is advocated regarding the destinies of the Soudan. Good the day when the Soudanese portion of the Dark Continent is made subject to the enlightened control of some European nation, and the immediate banishment of that terrible scourge, Khalifa Abdullah, from whose tyranny his professed followers would gladly be emancipated. Since the Mahdi's insurrection in 1883-84 a dark pall has hung over the Soudan. 'fhat unfortunate event coincided with the Egyptian Government abandoning the Soudan territories, and the withdrawal of its influence from the Nile basin. No civilizing power has succeeded it, and tile Soudan has continued in the hands of Abdullah, the Mahdi's infuriate successor.
For these regions the demand of the hour is the shattering of a barbarous usurpation, the reopening of areas excluded from cultivation and shut to commerce, the inauguration of centres of authority, protection of native races desirous of friendly intercourse, and training in the rudiments of Christian obligation. Such are the outstanding needs which claim the attention of the servants of humanity in all lands. By the establishment of safe voyaging on the upper White Nile south of Khartoum, in contact with the far equatorial provinces, a channel of communication would be secured with the " Soudan, II which has a land surface nearly equal to that of India, embracing a million and a half square miles, peopled by races eleven millions in number, of wide diversities in character, physiognomy, tribal difIerenc.es and speech, who, more or less, are familiar with the Rausa language. Especially in Kordofan, Darfur, and the States adjoining Lake Chad have the natives" those civilized wants which create and foster trade."
To bring the Nile Valley waterway into touch with the ocean highway, it is proposed to make Berber a grand depot for the interior, and to establish between that town lying on the Nile a railway connection some 260 miles long, terminating at Suakim, on the Red Sea coast. Ten days are now required to cross the desert from Berber to Suakim, whereas by rail it might be traversed in as many hours. This projected outlet for commerce has splendid advantages over the one from Berber to distant Egypt-a circuitous route known as the" Korosko Abu Hamed" transit. Goods on this route are first carried from Alexandria 360 miles by rail to Assiout, then 312 miles by boat to Assouan, again by rail round the first cataract, and afterward by boat to Korosko, a distance of 112 miles; thence loaded on camels and sent by road to Berber, some 410 miles, making a total journey of 1200 miles, including four transshipments. Against this the Berber-Suakim route was infinitely shorter, and had the boon of a number of wells, to which others might soon be added. The land between these two points, permanently occupied by Arab carriers and containing much picturesque scenery, gradually rose from the coast until, at a distance of £0 miles, it reached an elevation of 2800 feet, after which there was a gentle slope to the Nile at Berber. Colonel Watson, a former friend and coadju- tor of Gordon's on the White Nile, estimates the cost of the railway con- struction at £4000 per mile, or an outlay in all of £1,000,000 sterling.
The sheiks and their tribesmen have begged for this improved means of communication, which would form the direct solitary entrance into the heart of trading Africa, and develop commerce with the Nile Valley by leaps and bounds. This would inevitably be followed by launching steam- ers on the Nile at the end of the railway, and thus easily allow the .Nyanza lakes to be reached in the same number of days as it now requires months.
Southward of Berber a wonderful panorama of the equatorial Nile dis- tricts is unfolded. Access to this is offered by a remarkable course of waterways in contrast to the Nile north of Berber as far as the frontier of Egypt, which is unsuited for navigation by the recurrence of rapids and cataracts. The latter were, of course, acknowledged to be of golden value to Egypt, inasmuch as they held back the Nile waters from flowing too rapidly into Egypt, and making possible the capacious Barrage reservoir in Lower Egypt. And, by the way, this may be the precursor of water storage operations planned for the upper portions of the Nile Valley, by which may be gained an accretion of fertile land of the amount of £30,000,000 sterling, and an increased fiscal revenue of some £4,000,000 or £5,000,000 annually-a piece of engineering possibly involving the sub- merging of the Philre Temple, "the pearl of Egypt." .
To the south of Berber the stretch of water passage is unbroken.
Already from Khartoum southward of Berber, the entire course of the White Nile for 900 miles to Lado has been surveyed, the objective of that reach of navigation implying that trading vessels would eventually tap up- ward of 3000 miles of navigable waters, including the Nile feeders of the Blue Nile winding through the magnificent uplands of Abyssinia, of which the late Sir Samuel Baker gave such charming pictures in "The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia," a book of perennial interest. It has been well said that Abyssinia" has only a back door to the Red Sea-a mountain wall of almost impracticable height-and that the front door for her varied products and those of all the vast interior region of the Nile Soudan is the Nile basin, whose one practicable outlet is at Suakim," while on either bank of the White Nile all the way up to Lado, and west of these along many river courses, hundreds of miles in length, of the rich Bahr-el-Ghazal countries to the Congo watershed, huge expanses of soil yield incalculable quantities of tropical growth. Above Lado, of which Emin Pasha and Dr. Schweinfurth furnished vidid descriptions, there is like wealth and fertility until the uplands of Unyoro and Uganda are met with in the vicinity of the Albert Nyanza and Victoria Nyanza, making the Nile River one of unsurpassable advantage in promoting commercial expansion. In the direction of the Upper Nile Valley, abutting on the Bahr-el-Ghazal eastward, France is advancing to further her dream of creating a vast Afri- can empire, with the Nile as its eastern boundary. Two expeditions are pushing their columns as far to the east as possible, and have made '. Baghirmi and Wadai French spheres of influence. On the other hand, the British are moving northward from Uganda and have broken the power of the notorious slaver Kabba Rega, of Unyoro, and planted the flag of British protection at Wadelai, on the Upper Nile, 40 miles north of the Albert Nyanza, once a fortified station of Emin Pasha's, and at one time his principal residence.
Not a few of the tribes in the Nile Soudan are the finest of African race!!, especially the Soudanese, Ethiopians, Bedouins, Nuboo, and Ber- berines. In hearty terms Ohrwalder speaks of the Dar Nubas of Kordofan, who have retained their independence within striking distance of the dervish hordes of Abdullah at Omdurman. Vould that this were the lot of others! Since the downfall of Khartoum several of the best Arab tribes have been decimated, while periodical attacks are made on quiet cultivators and traders, accompanied by deeds of terrible outrage. It is stated, that seven tenths of the population of the whole Soudan are slaves, numbers of whom are in the hands of the savage Baggaras raiders, everywhere dread- ed and hated. Moving swiftly from place to place, and living on little, these cause insccurity and terror among the peaceful Soudanese. Erelong probably the brutal Baggaras, the so-called rulers of the country, will be scattered, as they are neither well armed, organized, nor numerous compara- tively, the majority being only slightly attached to the Khalifa personally. Unless the races in the East Central Soudan are to be cut off from the face of civilization, the hour is ripening for the leading nations of Europe and the people of America to consider whether they have not a measure of responsibility for the sake of practically defenceless millions whose social, moral, and spiritual emancipation lies in abeyance.
The day of missions amid the lands of the Nile belongs to the future. In the remote interior the only civilizing light was extinguished by the fall of the Roman Catholic Austrian mission at EI Obeid in 1883, after a brief existence. The American mission of the United Presbyterians remains the one m&ssenger of peace travelling firmly southward. Established 40 years ago, it has reached Assouan, near the first cataract, 400 miles up the Nile. Of its splendid misE'ionary and educational services, Dr. Van Dyke, a recent observer, speaks in eloquent appreciation. In southern Abyssinia and Gallaland the English Methodist Free Church has stations, and the Swedish Mission in the north of Abyssinia, the labors of Drs. Stern ltnd J. M. Flad among the Falashas being most fruitful. Northward, again, the North Africa Mission, the Church Missionary Society, and the hopeful Central Soudan Mission are severally opening the wells and fountains of living waters for the Arabs, native Egyptians, and negroes, in countries and States having a Nileward outlook across the depths of the burning Soudan.
1894.J INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Literature of Missionary Lecture- " Foreign Missions, " by Augustus C.
ships. Thompson, also author of "Moravian * ,. THE NEW ACTS OF THE APOSTLES." Missions," treats the modern mission in relation to the pastorate in prayer and [J. T. G.) in conference. This volume consists The introduction of lectureships into of ten lectures deli vered in the Harteducational institutions has proven to ford Theological Seminary, under the be the establishment of a new literary provision for .. not less than ten nor force. They emphasize the subject more than fifteen" lectures annually, under consideration, secure its perma- under the provision for a .. foreign misnent consideration, and introduce and sionary lectureship" of that institution. endo1'8e the lecturer. It is well that It discusses the Minister's Sphere, the the friends of missions should have in Missionary Obligation, Ministerial Prayseveral instances founded such lecture- er and Mission~, Missionary Concerts, ships for the presentation of the mod- Prayer for Missions Answered, and ern missionary movement with its allied nearly fifty pages on Missionary Contopics. There lie on OUI table at this ference. moment a number of most valuable .. Oriental Religions and Christianvolumes, the product of such founda- ity," by Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, is an- other of these goodly volumes, grown tions or of similar provision. The first lectureship on missions in out of a similar missionary lectureship, America was provided for by the Hon. this being the course of lectures deliv- Nathan F. Graves, an elder in the Re- ered on the Ely Foundation before the formed Church, Syracuse, N. Y., in students of Union Theological Semi- 1888. The first course under this pro- nary, New York, 1891. Dr. Ellinwood vision was of composite authorship, discusses the Need of Understanding being delivered by missionaries of sev- the False Religions, the Methods of the eral countries and Dr. Ellinwood; the Early Christian Church in dealing with second was by Rev. Dr. John Hall; Heathenism, the Successive Developthe third, by Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, ments of Hinduism, contrasts the published as .. The Divine Enterprise of Bhagavad Gita and the New Testa- Missions ;" the fourth, by Rev. Dr. A. J. ment, Buddhism and Christianity, Mu- Gordon, now obtainable in the volume hammadanism, Primitive Monotheism "The Holy Spirit in Missions;" the Tributes of Heathen Systems to Chris: fifth course was by Dr. George Smith, tian Doctrine, Ethical Tendencies of of Edinburgh, expanded into the valu- Ancient Pllilosophies, and the Divine able volume" The Conversion of India Supremacy of the Christian Faith. from the Time of Pantrenus to the .. Foreign Missions after a Century,"
Present Time." These were all deliv. by Rev. James S. Dennis, D.D., is yet ered in the Theological Seminary of another valuable contribution to the misthe Reformed Church, New Bruns- sionary discussion, the result of a pro- wick. N. J. vision of a newly established t:itudents'
Lectureship on Missions in Princeton Seminary, being the first course deliv- …. The New Acts of the Apostles; or, the cred under this direction. Dr. Dennis Marvels of Modern Missions, " by Arthur T. Pier- treatA the Present-day Tl'lessage, Meanson. Introduction by Rev. Dr. Andrew Thum- ing, Conflicts, Problems, Controversies son, Edinburgh. With Map of Prevailing Relig- with Opposing Religions, and a Sumions. Linen, richly colored, and in pocket. New mary of the Present-day Success. York: The Baker &: Taylor Compa::ty, 1894. "Sketches of Mexico in Pl.'ehistor- Bnddhism, subsequently expanded into ie, Primitive, Colonial, and Modern a volume of 563 octavo pages. Times," by Rev. John W. Butler, D.D., is the outcome of the second course of The fourth lecturer was the Editorlectures, delivered at Syracuse Univer- in-Cbief of this REVIEW, the contents sity on the Missionary Lectureship of whose lectures are before us in " The Foundation provided by lIon. Nathan New Acts of the Apostles," a volume F. Graves, who previously established of 450 pages, accompanied by a map on the New Brunswick Lectureship. linen showing in rich coloring the pres- ent prevailing religions of the world in .. The New Acts of the Apostles; their proportionate geographical extenor, the Marvels of Modern Missions," sion. Tbis map has entirely new feaby Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D., is tures, and represents great cost. tbe latest publication resulting from a missionary lectureship. These lectures Dr. Pierson treats the age of missionwere delivered upon tbe Foundation of aryactivity commencing with William the Duff Missionary Lectureship in Carey as an illustration of the continu- Scotland, February and March, 1893. ity of the "Acts of the Apostles," This lectureship was founded by Will- noting comparisons and contrasts in the iam Pirie Duff, son of the late Dr. following particulars: The new Pente- Alexander Duff, in conformity with costs; the new opening doors; the sendthe request of Dr. Duff himself to his ing forth of the agents; voices and visson as his heir. The course is a quad- ions; converts and martyrs; signs and rennial one, tbe incumbency of the wonders; hopes and incentives. He chair devolving on one person for four takes exception to the teaching that at years. The design is to secure the de- Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured livery of at least six lectures on some out" once for all," and that hence one subject "within the range of foreign should not pray for the "outpouring missions and cognate subjects," as a of the Spirit." lIe points out the exe· suitable memorial of Dr. Duff. The getical difficulties of that interpretation. incumbent is allowed the entire first The careful distinction of the Gospel year for preparation, but in the second writers in the use of the word .. fulyear he must deliver the course of lec- filled" is accentuated. Peter does not tures in Edinburgh and Glasgow on suc- say Joel's prophecy was" fulfilled," cessive Sunday evenings, and redeliver but that "this is that which was them elsewhere as the trustees of the spoken" ; only the sample, the first obfund may direct. ject-Iessou of what Joel foretold; it was notJ ull-filled, though it was initiated. Rev. Tbomas Smitb, D.D., Professor of Evangelistic Theology, who had been A sharp distinction is observed in the associated with Dr. Duff in mission use of prepositions. "In" and" withwork in Bengal and in Edinburgh for in" represent permanent work which forty years, delivered seven lectures in the lloly Spirit does in changing the 1880 on "Medireval Missions." The nature and character, while" on" and second incumbent was Rev. William " upon" express that endowment or en- Fleming Stevenson, D.D., Convener of duement whicb is not permanent, but the Foreign Mission Committee of the is for the period of such service. His- Irish Presbyterian Church, who chose torically speaking, Pentecost was not as his theme" The Dawn of the Mod- the last but the first outpouring, reern Mission," but owing to enfeebled peated in kind in Samaria under Philip, health, never delivered but four of the and at Cesarea under Peter. The variproposed course. ation of the expression of these " out· pourings" may be great through the The third distinguished lecturer cho- ages, but tbey are similar in kind and sen was Sir Monier Monier-Williams, result. God's providence may bestow who delivered eighteen lectures on the" gift of tongues, " just as definitely and more permanently than occurred "The New Lessons" are the old ones at Jerusalem, through the increased fa· repeated. The new apostles have not cilities for the acquisition of a polyglot more been recognized in their genera· equipment for service. Grammars and tion than were those of eighteen cen· lexicons may be the symbol of this en- turies since. "Carey bore the sneers duement as "cloven tongues," at the of . unhallowed wit; Stoddard was beginning., The increased facilities for charged with throwing away his flne acquiring languages, our author says, culture amid Persian wilds, as Living- "belong to the Theology of Inven- stone was with wasting great powers tions." The New Times and Seasons, amid African forests. . • ." To many New Open Doors, and the New Era all this is sheer waste; but" history reconclude the discussion of "New Links verses many of our verdicts, and the of Mission History," which constitutes judgment-seat of Christ will reverse Part 1. of this volume. Part II. is the many more." We pass over Part ilL, "New Apostolic Succession." As in "New Visions and Voices." With the apostolic days, so now, the Holy Part IV. our author sets a pace which Ghost calls and "separates" His ser· keeps the reader aware of responsive vants for His special work. "We can· rhythmic heart-throbs to the close of not raise up workmen. We do not the volume. The new converts and know God's chosen men and women." martyrs, the miracle of individual con· The study of missionary biography reo version, and the transformation of com· veals a true apostolic succession. The munities, are all stirring. By the time new pioneers presented are: Raimun· " Rapidity of ResUlts" comes to be dis· dus Lullius, of whom a masterly pen· cussed, the chariot axle is aflame with picture is given; Francis Xavier; John the heat kindled by the revolution of Eliot; BaronlJustinian: Ernst von Welz, its wheels. pioneer to Dutch Guiana; Ziegenbalg. We cannot pursue the outline to the Hans Egede, of Greenland, Zinzen· end, as we had purposed. Dr. Pierson's dorf the Moravian, William Carey, Rob· friends will, we think, reckon this the ert Morrison, Judson, Captain Gard· ablest of his works on missions. We ner, John Williams, Louis Harms, and have written thus at length concerning Alexander Duff-each of these is it, to emphasize afresh the value of the sketched graphically and with power. missionary lectureship as the means of Of Carey he says: securing valuable accessions to the lit- erature of missions. We shall come to "From shoe-shop at IIackleton to anticipate year by year these matnre pulpit and chair at Serampore, he was discussions. the same tireless plodder. Up to 1832 he had issued more than two hundred This "New Acts of the Apostles" thousand Bibles, wholly or in part, and communicates so much of its own fire in forty dialects, beside other printed and fervor to the reader, that if one matter, including valuable grammars wished to criticise it he might better do and dictionaries of Bengali, Mahratta, it before he begins to read the book, Sanskrit, etc. For twenty-nine years else even Priam would let fall his dart. he was Oriental Professor at Fort Will- The fulness of missionary statements iam College in Calcutta. His force lay of fact will render this a resource for in character. What he wrought as a all missionary workers. missionary pioneer must find its main explanation in what he was, as a man Dr. Pierson has always the power to of men, a man of God. Not what one call with clarion note. Take a single seems, but what one is, fixes the limit illustration: of power ; the level beyond which the stream never rises is the character which " During the last hundred years, since is its source and its spring."_ Carey led the way, a series of provi- dential interpositions and gracious mani- festations that deserve to rank with miracles kave set up@n mission work ail! New signs and wonders, until the sanction and seal of God. Colossal even unbelievers confess the wOIk to be obstacles have been removed, long· of God ! New hopes and incentives, locked gates been burst, and grand tri- if, indeed, any be needful to inspire to umphs won. Why do we hesitate? ever-increasing fidelity, or possible to Let the hosts of the Lord rally to the enhance the grandeur of e:x:isting moonset. The great Leader of the host tives ! even now sounds His imperial clarion along the whole line of hattle. Let us .. But all this depends on the maniobey the signal, boldly pierce the very fested presence of the Redeemer, in the centre of the enemy's forces, turn their power of the Holy Spirit, whose holy staggering wings, and in the confidence ministries made luminious with glory of faith move forward, a united army, the Acts of the Apostles." in one overwhelming charge." The First Woma.n Reoognised all a. Medi- Our author holds the view that" the cal Graduate by the Turkish Governkingdom must first be preached in all the world for a witness unto all na- men~ and her Work. tions; and then shall the end come." Other interpretations are possible, and The remarkable, even epochal occurthis theory elaborated would not com- rence of the recognition by the Turkmand the assent of multitudes of Chris- ish authorities of Miss Mary Pierson tians. These need take no e:x:ception, Eddy, M.D., as a physician, justifies, however, to the merely incidental ref- we think, our public use of the followerence to the subject in this volume. ing somewhat personal communication The author is no idle dreamer, and he from her. [J. T. G.] is right when he says: "The present crisis of missions should compel us to "I received, last February, your letforget all lesser interests and issues, ter asking me for information regarding and hasten to bear the good news unto my stay in Constantinople, and the reearth's very ends. Laborers should be ceipt of the first permit to practise multiplied, gifts increased, and with a medicine ever granted to a woman in new energy born in us of the Holy the Turkish Empire. I have delayed Spirit, this great enterprise of the ages compliance with your request until should be undertaken." every step was fully completed. It was only last mail that Minister Ter- He concludes thus: ". The New rell and Consul-General Short sent me Acts of the Apostles' is, like the old, the last diploma, and presented their an unfinished book. Other chapters congratulations upon my complete sucwait to be written. What shall they cess . record t God graut that the unwritten history of the years before us may em- .. My arrival in Constantinople from brace far greater marvels than have New York was on August 4th, 1893. ever been witnessed! New Pentecosts August 6th I presented to the Hon. with floods of blessings, until, as Mal- A. W. Terrell, United States Minister achi says, there be • none left to pour to the Sublime Porte, a letter of intro· out!' New apostles, until God's cho- duction from the Secretary of State. sen heralds leave no regions beyond From that date up to the present time unpenetrated, and no creature un- Minister Terrell and his first dragoman, reached! New visions aud voices, un- Mr. A. A. Garguilo, have been unweartil every Divine lesson is lcarned, and ied in their labors on my behalf. Dethe whole Church is in living accord terred by no obstacles, hopeful amid with the Master! New converts and seeming insuperable difficulties, they martyrs, until the Saviour's soul has achieved the impossible, and the newsfound its full satisfaction for its trav- papers of Germany, Austria, France, and England recordell the result of the first dragoman of the United States their patient perseverance. Consulate General, who aided me in " I need not recount in detail the steps preparation of petition, attendance, and that were taken; a simple enumeration examination at Imperial School of must Buffice. Medicine, brought the diploma to the "1. My six diplomas in pharmacy, Consulate General. Consul·General medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, etc., Luther Short transmitted it to the Lega- were presenteu to the Sultan. tion just exactly one year after my ar- "2. The repeal of the Turkish law for- rival in Constantinople. This diploma bidding women to practise medicine in from a woman's college bears now the the empire was authorized by the Im- following official recognition and vise: perial Council of State. " , Vu par Ie Conseil des alfaires medi- " 3. A new vizierial decree was pro- cales civiles de l'Empire Ottoman, mulgated, allowing all duly qualified Ie 13 Juillet, 1310-1894. women to enjoy the same rights upon Constantinople, Pour Ie Conseil the same terms hitherto allowed to men Ecole Imperiale de Medicine only. II Zoeros.' "4. Two weeks later, my diplomas (Seal of Faculty and Council.) having been returned to me by the Grand Vizier, I presented them before "Congratulations have poured in the Imperial Council of Medicine, and upon me from every quarter of the the usual petition to be allowed a ' col- globe. It is impossible to write to each loquium I examination was countersign- in response a personal letter, 80 I send ed "Granted" by the director, and I out every two or three months a circular then met the Council and answered the letter written on Edison's mimeograph.
customary questions as to nationality, The first told of the discouragements age, etc. of the situation at Constantinople three " 5. Examination passed in seven months after my arrival there; the sec- branches of medicine and surgery. ond, of the results achieved up to the " 6. The regular permit was issued by date of my leaving Constantinople for the Imperial Council of Medicine after Syria; the third, of my arrival and I had taken the required oath to serve welcome in Syria, the six months grant- the subjects of the empire without re- ed me by the Presbyterian Mission for gard to rank, sex, or creed to the best a survey of the field, and my two pre- of my ability, subject to the laws of liminary tours to Zahleh, Baalbek, Da- the empire in which I resided, and loy- mascus, Safed, Tiberias, Nazareth, alty to His Imperial Majesty Abdul Haifa, Acre, Tyre, and Sidon. The Hamid II. This permit allows me per- last letter dealt with the first organized fect freedom to practise 'throughout work among the villages, and since the whole extent of the Turkish Em- then I have been doing missionary pire.' medical work at Jezzeen. Here the "7. The diploma received by me from bell of the cburch was taken down and the Women's Medical College of the thrown over the waterfall below the New York Infirmary was retained at town; the teacher was repeatedly the Imperial School of Medicine from stoned when he appeared in the streets.
November 13th, 1893, till July 13th, No one would bring them water nor 1894. Then Minister Terrell had a give them the usual salutations. They special interview with the Sultan, who were able to buy meat, but found one completed his former kindness byorder- by one that the scholars left the school, ing that my diploma should at once be and only two families stood firm as returned with the customary vise. The their friends. I was repeatedly urged Grand Chamberlain, lIunir Pacha, at- not to expose myself to the intense ha- tended to the matter. Mr. Dimitriades, tred of the inhabitants, and told that successful clinics and missionary work and his cousin were with us. The Sabwere impossible. Even the morning bath previous Mr. and Mrs. Soutar, of I started everyone seemed to regret my Tiberias, and Mr. and Mrs. Ashenhurst, final decision. For the first time I car- of the United Presbyterian Mission of ried no revolver, and had only a lad as Egypt. They gave us most interesting my escort. The Syrian preacher and accounts of their work done on the Nile his family gave me a most hearty wel- boat, the Isis. They have gone this come. I took the abandoned school- week to Jerusalem. house and church as my basis of labors. I began very quietly to work, my as- "You have asked me to tell you my sistant and I quickly walking through plan of work. After visiting the varithe streets every morning from the ous existing centres of stationary medipreacher's house to the Dispensary cal work in Syria and Palestine, I have unattended. I had two lads also to decided that my work must lie in the gIve out numbers and help in dispens- direction of itinerant missionary mediing. Every afternoon I rode with the cal work among the towns and villages_ preacher to one of the neighboring villages, and every evening but one we "1. Experience has taught me that had a praise-service at our house. The a residence of from two to three weeks numbers increased so rapidly that I in each place is necessary to obtain best finally had to work from 7.30 A.M. till results in the medical line, and to have 6 P.M., exclusive of lunch time. I had time to visit the surrounding vilthe pleasure of welcoming among my lages. patients the wife of the man who took down and broke our bell, as well as " 2. To emphasize our principle of others who were our bitterest enemies. self· support, no work is done gratui- What a priceless privilege to thus reo tously. A fixed scale of prices at the tUfn good for evil, and heap coals of fire clinic, ranging from six to twenty-three on their heads! I trust this brief visit cents, keeps away all who do not really will be the first of many I shall make need medical aid, and the poor can alin that place, and that a pure Chris- ways find some one willing to lend them tianity may manifest itself to Christ's the small sum needed. glory and the shame of our persecutors. "3. Medicines hitherto having been Once when returning from one of our given me from America in tablet form visits to a neighboring village a shower largely, I can carry with me ample supof small stones were directed at the plies_ Those who are able pay full preacher, and I came in for the major price. According to the ability of the share; this was the day after my ar- patients I charge, but in only five cases rival. The days before I left everyone have I given medicine free. Eye-drops in the streets rose up to greet the are three cents; oiIitments, four; and preacher and myself, and great sorrow mixtures, six cents for twelve doses, was manifested at our departure. My lowest charges. assistant, one of the lads and myself pitched one night at Mukhtara, and "4. I try to hold some personal conspent three days afterward in Ain Ze- versation with each one of my patients, halta, where I had a most delightful as many come from· distant villages series of meetings with the people. whom I may never meet again. Every Sabbath after we had a Bible class of evening the persons in the place where fifty-five women, nearly every onc able we are staying are invited to come and to read. Since then I have been two spend the evening with us and attend weeks in BIudan, the summer home of our praise-service. our friends the Damascus missionaries. Last Sabbath Mr. Scudder, of India, "5. To allow needed seasons for rest, I keep the dispensary work in a sepa- rate building from either the tent or house I am residing in. Those who wish to consult me at my residence pay my full fee, and all those desirous of religious conversation can always have portion of them armed with repeating access to me. rifles. Thousands stand ready to vol- unteer. She has been rapidly adding " 6. In each place I make visits to sur- to the size and efficiency of her navy, rounding towns and villages with the and the Japanese are trained to manage teacher or preacher stationed in that and command all these. locality, choosing the places from which my patients have mainly come. " Third. Intense patriotism-' Japan for the Japanese,' has been the cry for " My plans for the future are not yet the past several years. Sectional and completed. I am most anxious to be- party strife is lost sight of when the gin work in the great city of Aleppo, nation's honor is at stake. Her tierce, but the winter will soon be here. I deep-seated jealousy of China feeds this am to spend the two months, Decem- fiame. There are newspapers in abunber and January, in Sidon, studying dance to arouse the people by reports Turkish and doing medical work in the from the seat of war, and by illustracity and its environs." tions also, all of which serve to keep alive their interest in what has taken BEYROUT, SYRIA, September 16th, place at the front. 1894. H On the other hand, in her favor are Japan and Ohina. in the Present Chlsis- the weaknesses of China. China is a huge empire. The provinces of China a Oontrast. proper are as large as the Uni ted States, and the whole empire nearly twice that BY REV. J. M. FOSTER, SWATOW, CHINA. size: The entire population would make six nations like our own, with Mr. Foster, recently from Swatow, some to spare. Means of communicaconsents to our use of the following tion between different parts of the emnotes of what he recently said in part, pire are very limited. Railroads have in an interview on affairs in the East, been practically a failure, and there are which bid fair to occupy public atten- but a few lines now running. Teletion for some time yet. [J. T. G.] graphs only connect the principal points. "After proving her superiority to the Chinese forces in Korea, Japan is "Second. There is no bright, quick, apparently striking at Peking, to at- responsive feeling of patriotism. Intempt a conquest of China herself, a deed, the ablest men of the nation chafe nation ten times her own size. That under the yoke of a Tartar dynasty, and she may succeed, at least if the conflict they are wretchedly misgoverned. Lobe short and sharp, notwithstanding the cal jealousies abound-for example, disparity of numbers, there are reasons the jealousy between Chang-Cbih-Tung, to believe. Viceroy of liu-Peh and Hu-Nan, him- self a Hu-Nan man, and Li-Hung-Chang, " Firat. Japan is small, compact, and Viceroy of La-Ll, Commander-in-Chief well connected by telegraph and rail- of the Army and Navy, who is a naroad, hence the nation can act as a tive of Ang-Hoy, which has cropped unit. out anew siuce this war began. Jeal- ousies, too, between men in the same "&cond. Japan has been awake for province. Men of Swatow are almost the past few decades, and has absorbed as jealous of men from Canton, their all she could of Western railroad, tele- own provincial capital less than 200 graph, electrical, and other inventions, miles away, as they are of foreigners. and everything in the line of appliances I have known men living on the north and munitions of war. She also has side of Swatow Bay refuse to help a men educated in all the learning of the dying man because he belonged to the West. She has plants for supplying herself with implements of war, such as a rifle copied from the French, but called a Japanese rifle. She can put 820,000 men into the field, a large prodistrict on the south side of the bay. of possibly a hundred and twenty-five China is thus disintegrated. " men on board ship. When the examin- ing officer was about to visit him, he " Third. Although China has been to would gather in a lot of coolies or farmsome extent equipping her army with ers, put regimental jackets upon them. modern weapons, and has purchased and have them drawn up in line for the many ships of war, their value is largely inspector's benefit. The higher official neutralized by the corruption of Chi- would see the number of officials to be nese officials. Reports have recently the same as the number on the pay-role, reached us of funds for the purchase make his bow. and depart in state. of army supplies being misused by the higher officials. This is but a single " Behind the scenes there was a transinstance of what has been going on for fer of ten or twenty thousand tales years. In Shanghai in 1890, examining (ounces of silver), as the case might dethe works of the Kiang Nan Arsenal, mand. Too many such payments where is situated a splendid plant for the would absorb all the margin, hence the making of large and small arms, also a resignation. Work of this kind has yard for building vessels of war. we been sapping the strength of the Chiheard Dr. John Fryer, translator to the nese Army and Navy. Now the test Chinese Government, a gentleman thor- has come, she is 'weighed in the baloughly versed in all Chinese affairs, ances and found wanting.' state that if the works wer$l managed properly excellent equipments could be " This cursory view of the situation turned out at a very low price; but shows Bome of the reasons why Japan. they were managed in the interest of although so much smaller, may be sucofficials and their relatives. If a man cessful against her huge rival. wishes to get employment for son, nephew, uncle, or any distant relative, " What she will do with China should he goes to the Chinese officer in charge she capture Peking is still a great and and asks if he could give this man a difficult question; and what would be place. The officer asks in turn if the the future of China should she be diapplicant can use tools or can he ' file' ? vided among the great European pow- The reply would be, ' Oh. yes, he can ers, as Russian papers have suggested use a file.' Whereupon he is taken to and others have surmised might hap· the shop, given a piece of iron and a pen, no one can prophesy. She can file, and after making a few moves with hardly be worse governed than she has the file he would be written down as a been for the past century." machinist, and his name placed on the pay-role. Consequently the works are Another Word on the Eastern Oompliwretchedly inefficient and expensive. oations. "At the same time, taking a trip down the coast to Ningpo, passing by Not all the persons whose views we the Woo·Sung forts, we sighted several solicited on the affairs in Eastern Asia of the Chinese ships of war at anchor. as related to missions responded in time A young man. one of the passengers, for our November number, but as the referred to the recent resignation of one interest will probably continue for of the Chinese naval commanders. who some time, we venture to present me voluntarily gave up his post because it informally expressed views of two more cost too much to bribe officials. of the many who have responded to our inqUIrIes. Rev. Arthur H. Smitb, " Their mode of operation was as fol- American Board, North China, says: lows: The chief's pay-role contains a thousand names, and the money for "What do I think of the Corean these men could be paid to the officer War? Nothing that is of any interest in charge. He would maintain a force to anyone who wants to know' facts,' which are hard to get. Nobody in this country can comprehend the situation because of the anomalous position of sense. Exterritoriality is a festering Corea. How can a country be bound thorn. IlaJret lateri lethalis MUndo.
to Japan, 'tributary' (in fact as well as But if the Japanese should prove vic· in form) to China, and at the same time torious in getting Corea away from so independent as to have ministers of China, it looks as if Japan would be its own to foreign lands? I believe it absolutely insufferable. Our mission- is an unprecedented state of things. al'ies have walked by faith in that em- No doubt Japan would be a reforming pire for years. I fear there is danger power in Corea, while China will not; that they would be obliged to leave alto· but the action of Japan has been such gether, if the Japanese national spirit is as to alienate the sympathies of her unchecked.
well-wishers. The war was perfectly "In China the immediate effect of needless, and was due mainly to a de- the war is bad. The Manchurian mis- termination to have 11 valve for the en- sions of the English Presbyterians and ergy which would else cause a domes· other churches. so hopeful and 80 suc- tic explosion. There is no comparison cessful, will be trampled under foot of between the outfit of the Japanese aud swine; but whatever the result, I have that of the Chinese. It now looks as if faith to believe that the position of mis- the navy of the latter is badly crippled; sionaries will ultimately be more secure but unless, the Japanese contrive to than before, as it was after the French make a bold stroke, such as the capture war with China ten years ago. Mid- of Moukden, it is hard to see how they sions in China have a deep root and can defeat China. spreading branches. I am confident "If there must be war, I. for one, that the Lord will protect them. All am glad to have China bumbled, espe· American Christians ought to pray for cially by the' nation of dwarfs' which those missions most earnestly. and end she despises. The result could scarcely with the prayer, 'Give peace in our fail to be a vast impUlse to those real time, 0 Lord.' ..
and interior reforms which China has for twenty·Iive years clearly perceived the need of. She has been saying: Rev. Franklin Ohlinger, for twenty 'When I have a convenient season.' years missionary of the Methodist Epis· Well beaten in this war. reforms in sev- copal Church in China and in Corea, in eral directions would appear to be in· an interview said that at the last depar- evitable. ture of the mails from Corea it was Raid "But if China needs defeating. Ja- that the Methodist hospital was filled pan. in my opinion. needs it much with the wounded from the Palace bat- more. It is almost impossible for au tle. Either the report that the palace outsider to conceive the condition of had been taken without resistance was th.ings in that empire. Our own not untrue. or the Japanese had used their excepted, there probably never was weapons wantonly.
such a self-conceited nation as Japan. " There is little doubt but that only Of course her development is remark· in so far as they realize that the eye of able. wonderful. unexampled, aud all the Christian world is upon them, can that; but it lacks balance. and is full they be restrained from indulging in of peril. Thc last vessel from Japan the heathen cruelties for which the brings word of a Japanese steamer, Asiatic has ever had an unenviable rep· which in broad daylight ran full tilt utation. A small percentage of their against the huge breakwater in Yoko- commanding officers have been edu- hama Harbor. It suggests the method cated in Christian countries, and a adopted in navigating the empire. smaller percentage still openly admit Western nations are largely to blame. that they have ever come under Chris- The treaties were impositions iu every tian inliuences. Railroads and celluloid collars do not c6nvert a people. The thirty miles. This kindness undoubt- Japanese public baths, their social life, edly saved his life, as the Chinese soland their utter disregard for the dic- diers were unsparing and indiscrimitates of common decency very forcibly nate in their cruelties." impress upon us the facts that education is not Christianity. Hence, while In speaking of the feeling of the Cowe find that the sympathies of most reans, Dr. Ohlinger said that the whole Europeans and Americans in Corea are country along the line of march of the with the Japanese, in Japan itself, Chinese army had been laid waste from where they are better known, our peo- Eui·Ju to Ping-Yang, and though the ple are either rigidly neutral, or have Coreans fear the Chinese, they cling to II leaning toward the Chinese in the them and hate them. The idea of a present conflict. The Englishman nat- change to be brought about by the urally and always sides with the Chi- Japanese fills them with something nese so long as his commerce does not akin to terror. Y~t the latter try every suffer. way to win them, even ,by distribution of money among the poor. "When the war broke out aU foreigners withdrew their deposits from "It might almost be said that for the Japanese National Bank in Seoul. three hundred years no law suit has This bank had been a great boon to the taken place between a Jap and a Colegations and misliions for nearly ten rean. No inquiry into any case of years, and had been conducted with trouble was tolerated. The Corean marked ability and courtesy. The de- was punished by his government, and posits were refunded in paper yen, and there it ended. Well may the Japs try these rapidly fell 30 per cent below the in every possible way to win them. silver yen in Corea. The silver yen is The inj ustice and oppression of three only worth 50 cents in the currency of centuries is not soon forgotten. Corea the United States. The difference be- has been poor ever since Japan robbed tween paper legal tender and silver in her three hundred years ago. It would Japan, however, is only 2 per cent. be only common honesty if Japan were Our missions consequently send their now to demand $10,000,000 indemnity paper yen to Japan and import silver in from China and pay it all over to poor order to avoid, in part, the 30 per cent little Corea, and then go home and loss. The recent Japanese victories, think over her history. The Christian however, may have produced a change world would look after the indepenin this particular." dence of the peninsula."
"Rev. S. A. Moffitt, of the Presbyte- Fleming H. Revell Company, of New rian Mission, remained in Ping-Yang York, have added another to their esuntil it was occupied by the Chinese timable missionary biographical series, army. The native Christians had " Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, urged him to leave. Finally when the Scholar and Evangelist," by Arthur Chinese set a price upon every Japan- Montefiore ; with illustrations. Bishop ese head his situation became critical Heber's is one of the" names the world in the extreme. He might be mistaken will not willingly let die." for a Jap by the ignorant Chinese rabble, or looked upon as a spy. He It is said that the new Anglo-BeJgian dressed in Corean clothes and remained treaty gives Great Britain control over indoors until he could send word to the mid-Africa to such an extent that it has Chinese telegraph agent who went with now become possible to march a regihim to the Chinese general's office. ment from Alexandria to Cape Town The general quietly heard the case, and without departing from under the Britthen sent an escort of one hundred and ish flag I forty men with him for a distance of
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Syria,* Egypt,t Jewe,t Educational Work.§ Mission Work in Egypt. cally speaking there is none older. Tracing back the history of her civili- BY REV. CHAUNCEY MURCH, LUXOR, zation, we lose ourselves in the mists of antiquity, and yet we have failed in our EGYPT. investigations to reach a point in the history of her people when they were The northern ·shore of a great conti· being trained for that civilization which nent is washed by a large salt sea; into has proven such a mystery to the peothat sea a mighty river pours its waters; ple of our age. We know nothing of that sea recedes to the north; the old the Egyptians When their civilization bed of the sea becomes a vast wilder- was in its infancy. Going back as far ness, a barren desert; the river in its as we can follow them, we find their rush toward the sea cuts a channel civilization to have been full-fledged. through the rocky surface of the des- The monuments that most excite our ert; for a distance of six hundred miles wonder and our admiration we find to of its course this wonderful river has have been those .that were constructed by its action on the solid limestone of at the earliest date; and these, too, havthe desert, cut out a valley with high, ing been more substantially constructed precipitous mountains on each side than many of their later monuments these mountains being from 300 to 2000 they will continue to excite the wonde; feet in height, the valley having an aver- and the admiration of the generations age width of seven miles; at the lower that come after us long after many of extremity of this valley an extensive their wonders of a later date have delta, measuring about one hundred passed away_ and thirty miles on each of its three sides, has been thrown out into the sea. The more intelligent among the priest- That continent is Africa; that sea, the hood of the ancient inhabitants of the Mediterranean; that desert, the Great iand must have had a very creditable Sahara; that river, the mysterious conception of monotheistic doctrines, as Nile; that valley and delta, the land certain of their writings still extant very of Egypt. Far more truly than he conclusively demonstrate. They wrote understood, Herodotus wrote, "Egypt most sublimely of many of the attributes is the gift of the Nile." Facts justify that can belong only to Him who is God the statement that Eilpt is a veritable alone, and besides whom there is none creation of the Nile. But for the Nile other. Yet while theoretically they Egypt would to-day be Sahara too_ The were most sublime in their cpnceptions river has made the land, and by its an- of divinity, yet in practice perhaps they nual inundation the land is kept in a have never been surpassed by any other condition that makes it suitable for cul- people in respect to their polytheistic tivation and for habitation. beliefs and observances. Not only did the people of Egypt worship the sun Egypt presents to us the very oldest and the other heavenly bodies; not only of civilizations. The changes described did they worship the river, which they above took place at such a time as to considered a source of life, and to which make that country one of the youngest all the life of the Nile Valley was ingeologically considered, while histori- debted for its preservation; but, at some time or other, and in some part of • See pp. 55 (Jannary), 157 (Febrnary), 237 the country or other, we may say with- (March), 697 (September), 942 (present issue). out exaggeration almost every known member of both the animal and vege- .*t See also p. 924 (present issne). See pp. 11 (January), 518 (July), 904 (present I ••ue).
SSee pp. 270,274 (April), 432 (June), 523 (July), ~, 621 (August), 921 (present Issue). table kingdoms had been included in guage of his people, the Greeks, the the category of the gods. largest foreign colony in Egypt. In so doing he was unconsciously making an Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. important preparation for the events From his day to ours the neck of her which our God was about to bring to people has been under the yoke of the pass. Soon the era of modern Chrisoppressor. Verily she has become the tianity dawned upon them. Christ basest of kingdoms, and many a sure came. He passed His life of poverty word of prophecy in regard to her has and humility in Palestine. Rome perbeen fulfilled to the very letter. Since mitted, sanctioned, authorized His cruel the days of Alexander no really native death on the cross ; yet, strange to say, prince has ever sat upon her throne, Rome, proud mistress of the world, imand often within that time has she been perial Rome, three short centuries later under the rule of a race of slaves. Per- came and bowed in humble submission haps history has no other record of a at the feet of Him whom she had crucination's for 80 long a period having had fied. Constantine, Emperor of Rome, to bear with such a system of organized professed his faith in Christ. Theooppression. A noted ruler of modern times is said to have declared that " a dosius r., Emperor of Rome, by royal woollen garment and an ardeb (five bushels) of beans is enough for the edict proclaimed in the year 369 A.D., peasant-the rest is mine." This senti- made Christianity the religion of the ment he had indeed endeavored to carry land of Egypt. Gods long worshipped out during his reign, and in the declara- were thrown out of the temples, and, tion there was simply a quaint assertion shattered by the fall, they were never of what had been the facts in the con- able to rise again. To worship the gods dition of the people through long ages that so long had been revered and feared past. was now a crime, punishable by the laws of the State. Some of the successors of Alexander the Great were very enlightened rulers. The early Christianity of Egypt was The court of the Ptolemies became the largely of a. Greek type. Christian most important centre of learning and priests, who were Greeks by birth and philosophy in the world. Ptolemy sympathy, were largely instrumental in Philadelphus established that wonder- moulding the Christianity of Egypt. ful Alexandrian library whose wanton The simple truths of Christianity could destruction by the ignorant and fanati- not easily ha.ve been expressed in the cal lYluslim the world still mourns. ordinary language of the ancient Egyp- The same kiug founded the celebrated tians. The very genius of that lanmuseum of ancient Alexandria. Vast guage was to an extent far greater than sums of money were expended in filling we can now understand so intimately the library with manuscripts and the connected with the idolatrous system of museum with treasures. Under the the people that it was impossible to give same king the celebrated Septuagint them Christianity without introducing version of the Hebrew Scriptures was certain forms of expression that never translated by seventy of the wisest men before had been used by them, and at that all the resources of wealth and the same time it was equaIly necessary power could command. The Jewish that many forms of expression of a Captivity caused a considerable immi- purely idolatrous character should be gration of Jews into Egypt. So large forever abandoned. Especially was it and so influential became the Jewish found that it would be a difficult mat- ter to make use of the Egyptian form colony in the times of the Ptolemies, that of writing to express Christian thought. this king found it profitable in the inter- The characters used in writing the hieroests of leaming to have the sacred writ- glyphics were largely the pictures of ings of the Jews translated into the Ian· the insects, reptiles, animals, plants, and trees which were worshipped by the Christian population has been decreas· Egyptians as gods. Christian priests ing in nnmber, while the shackles of found it would be difficult, yea. even ignorance ha ve been binding down blasphemous, impossible to express those who remain in a bondage more Christian truth by means of these idola- and yet more oppressive. Arabic, the trous symbols. Christian truth could language of the Mohammedan world, not be conveyed in writing by Egyptian little by little drove out of use the Cophieroglyphics, so they were abandoned. tic, the language of Christian Egypt. Greek Christian priests introduced the The struggle was a long and hard one, use of the letters of the Greek alphabet and after the old language had gone as for representing the sounds of the Egyp- the language of their commerce and of tian language in so far liS they were able their social life, they still held to it as to adapt them to this purpose. The let- the language of their religion, the lanters of the Greek Illnguage not being guage given them by God as their mesufficient in number to represent all the dium of communication with Him. Egyptian sounds, six letters were adapt- Ignorance of the language which they ed from a form of Egyptian writing- considered as the only acceptable methese six letters having nothing in their dium of conveying their hearts' longappearance suggestive of the former ings to God has engrossed them in a idolatry of the people-and thus we most hopeless state of ignorance as reo have the Coptic language of to-day, gards Divine truth. Missionaries found the language of Christian Egypt, the but one in five of the men able to read, ancient Egyptian in a slightly modified and of women practically not one. form; the language that was univer- Ignorant priests conducted religious sally used by the inhabitants of the land services in the Coptic language, while for three centuries; the language to both priests and people were not able which Egypt's small remnant of native to understand the exercises in which Christians has held as their sacred lan- they were engaged. Priestcraft took a guage, their holy heritage; the lan- firm, bold stand against all reform and guage without the use of which these progress. Religious teachers may be native Christians would consider it al- grossly ignorant, yet they are never most sacrilegious to engage in worship void of sufficient cunning to persuade to God. themselves that their hopeo! gain, their prestige and their authority, all depend Next came the ~lohammedan inva- on their success in keeping the people sion, in the year 630 A.D. The treachery ignorant. For some time missionaries of a Christian ruler gave easy entrance were not able to organize regular work. to the invader; the light that was went The only hope of success lay in such out in darkness; a bright day of oppor- efforts as they could succeed in carrytunity for poor Egypt went out in ing out in personal association with indigloom. The population of the coun· viduals. Next came the persecution and try at that time must have been some- the anathematization of those who were thing over five millions. Many at once favorably inclined to what was called became followers of the false prophet of the new, or sometimes the American re- Islam rather through the force of cir- ligion. Little by little the work took cumstances, the dread of persecution, shape. Small companies of enlightened and the hope of temporal advantages. believers, were gathered together, the A remnant of Egypt's Christians has, work of Bible distribution began, and through all the ages that have succeeded, the education of the children of the enpersistently refused to be won over to lightened was undertaken. the prevailing belief either through the torments of persecution or prospects of Persecuted and driven out of the old temporal preferment. Year by year Church, and with no hope of the reforthrough all these centuries the native mation of the Coptic Church, there was nothing could be done but to organize the year. There are now 157 stations on a new church tor the enlightened few the list of Presbytery and 99 other who were willing to so far forsake the places where services are conducted; 20 traditions of the elders and the writings congregations have their regularly or- of the fathers as to acknowledge the dained and installed pastors. Foreign Word of God as a supreme and alI·suffi- missionaries, licentiates, and evangel- cient rule of faith and guidance for ists, with what assistance pastors are man. Thus was organized what for able to give from their regular duties, years has been known among the peo- carryon the work in the other stations.
ple of the land as the Protestant Church. The native Church has a membership For a time fierce were the persecutions of 4095; there are 107 Sabbath-schools, that were waged against those who with 3119 pupils, and an extensive work dared to identify themselves with ear· is also carried on among the women in nest Christian work. The country, their homes, 1320 women thus receiv- destitute of other methods of comfort- ing instruction. This work is carried able travel, had its long stretch of river, on at an outlay of $37,000 from those with the two long strips of cultivable of the people of the country who par- land, the one on one side, the other on ticipate in the work.
the other side of the river, and thus it In the work as it is now flourishing, was easy for the missionary to visit the and as it is extending from year to year, villages by going up and down the river we are satisfied we have an earnest in a boat. School after school has been and a pledge of future blessing. The • organized, preaching stations have been Church in the prosecution of this work established, and regularly organized has good reason to expect the fulfilment congregations are now .being ministered of prophecy, and to in many cases by pastors that have " They who are princes great shall then been raised up from among the people Come ont of Egypt lands.
themselves. Persecution in the earlier And Ethiopia to God stages of the work often succeeded in Shall soon stretch forth her handl."
tearing the work to its very founda- " In that day shan Israel be the third tions. The foes of the persecuted were with Egypt and with Assyria, even a numerous and powerful. . This has to a blessing in the midst of the land.
large extent completely changed. The Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, friends of the persecuted are now numer- saying, Blessed be Egypt, My people, ous, and often those who give them and Assyria, the work of My hands, succor are more powerful than their and Israel, Mine inheritance."
enemies. New villages are often opened to the infiuence of the Gospel through "The Statistical Notes on Japan," the efforts of native workers alone. etc., in the July issue, page 695, must Often the occupations, the trade, or the have been inadvertently taken from commercial interests of the people take some erroneous statistics. The quadthem into new and unoccupied fields, rilateral that would embrace the Mikaand going in the interests of a livelihood, do's realm is there represented as one an opportunity of carrying on a work which would measure 8700 by 1840 for the Master is found. miles. covering 16,000,000 square miles_ Mr. William E. Blackstone calls atten- The report of the work for 1893, lately tion to a similar error in the Missionpublished by the: United Presbyterian ary EncycloplJ3dia, i., page 482, where Board, shows 121 schools in operation, the longitude is stated as from 1220 45' with 7654 pupils in,attendance ; 14,309 to 1560 32' E. -i.e., 330 47', which at 60 volumes of the Scriptures, entire or in miles to the degree is 2027 miles, or at parts, and 6169 volumes of other books 69, is 2328_ The diagonal distance of of a religious character, to say nothing the quadrilateral would be, as Mr. of the many volumes of educational Blackstone says, about 3000 statute books, were put into circulalion during miles, and this would cover the entire chaiu of islands from the extremes of the Kuriles, north, to the Madjicosimah.
south.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The" American Board" held its an- transfer of the Nestorian Mission was nual meeting in October at Madison, in question, a single vote turned the scale, the chairman of the Prudential Wis. The Rev. N. G. Clark, D.D., Committee (Charles Stoddard) saying retired from the Foreign Secretaryship he could not vote away his brother's and presented a paper entitled "A grave. The members of the Syrian Retrospect of Twenty-nine Years of Mission, though mostly Presbyterians, were very loath to leave the old Board. Service." The results of the work Five years later Dr. Oalhoun, long during the twenty-nine years under re- known in the East as the 'Saint of view may be summed up briefly as fol- Mount Lebanon,' as he came forward on the platform of the Board at Chicago, lows: stirred all hearts by the words, ' I am In the missions of this Board, the getting to be an old man ; I am losing number of regular preaching places my memory; I cannot remember that have increased from 236 to 1429; of I do not belong to the American missionaries, from 221 to 571 ; of native Board.' " laborers of different grades, from 629 to About one thousand delegates were 2870; the number received into church present at Madison. fellowship on confession of their faith, The report of the treasurer shows exfrom 418 in 1865 to 3055 this year, and penditures, $733,051, of which $678,168 the total church·membership from 4968 was for cost of missions. The indebtto 40,871. This increase is due largely edness has increased to $116,237. Exto the various agencies of the Woman's penditures, beyond cost of missions, Boards, the Christian training of our are: Salaries and expenses of secrehigher institutions of learning, and to taries and of missionaries visiting a better trained and more numerous na- churches, $14,897; publications, $10,- tive agency. In the educational depart- 566; administration, $29,418.44. ment the number of high schools and The itemized cost of missions is: colleges for both sexes has increased West Central Africa, $11,661; East more than ninefold (15 to 144), and the Central Africa, $8435; Zulu, $27,827 ; number of pupils from 422 to 7841, European Turkey, $31,951; West Turmore than eighteenfold ; while the total key, $97,605; Central Turkey, $31,- number under instruction has increased 474; Eastern Turkey, $54,908; Mavafrom 8817 to 50,406. thi, $54,121; Mak'ua, $54,202; Cey- lon, $18,752; Foochow, $17,542; South In his address Dr. Clark recalled the China, $6116; North China, $70,344; withdrawal of the Presbyterian con- Shansi, $13,652 ; Japan, $93,888 ; Sandstituency in the Board which occurred wich Islands, $5377; Micronesia, $28,.
in the year 1870, and the passing over 496; Mexico, $17,506; Spain, $12,585; Austria, $11,717. to them of some of the missions. He The receipts during the year were: says: Donations, $483,108; legacies, $183,- "This withdrawal naturally result- 768; from the legacy of Asa Otis, $30,- ed from the union of the two branches 952; interest on general permanent of the Presbyterian Church, and was fund, $i303; total, $705,132.
made without any loss of good feel- The annual survey reports marked ing and with the fullest confidence progress at nearly every point with a that it would promote a larger interest and grander work in the cause of for- steady growth, but lack of adequate eign missions. This confidence has means to improve the opportunities. been justified by the event. In the division of the field, the Syrian, the Nes- Peculiar difficulties encountered in Ja- torian, and the Gaboon missions, to- pan, but 670 new members added to the gether with several among the North churches. Rev. Judson Smith, D.D., American Indians, were transferred to says of the work in China: the Presbyterian Board. It was no easy matter for those who had labored "While at the present moment we together so long and so happily to part cannot avoid anxieties as to the personal company. The names of some of the safety of our missionaries and the secumissionaries connected with these mis- rity of the institutions they have estabsions were very dear to the entire con- lished, we may look with all confidence stituency of the Board. When the beyond these prese,nt tumults to a great and decisive advantage soon to be real- dom, owe service there, and win their ized in our Christian work in behalf highest place as they worship at the of this empire." foot of the cross." He recognized the need of thorough intellectual prepara- The summary for 1894 shows the tion for foreign missionar;v work, and number of missions among unevangel- the fact that the great missionaries of ized nations to be 20; stations, 100; the past have been men of intellectual out-stations, 107; places for stated power, as Irenrous, St. Patrick, St. Copreaching, 1429; average congrega- lumba, Boniface. Carey, Judson, Mortions, 69,115: American laborers em- rison. "Every missionary must masployed, 571: native laborers, 2870; ter a foreign language so as to make it total, 3441 ; number of churches, 421 ; the medium of thought and familiar church·members, 40,187; added dur- speech; he must bear his part in transing the year, 3055. The whole num- lating the Bible into the vernacular of ber under instruction in the educational the land: he must organize branches, department is 50,406; native contribu- and conduct the institutions of educa· tions of money amount to $89,145. tion : he must study and master great problems. A full college course for Forty·four new missionaries have all, and a theological course also for orbeen sent to the field during the year, dained men, constitute the normal prepof whom 13 were men, including 3phy- aration for missionary work. True missicians and 1 printer, 11 the wives of sionary economy requires that only missionaries, and 20 single lallies, in- those who are well equipped be sent to cluding 1 physician. Twenty-three the field." missionaries home on furlough have returned to their fields. Dr. Henry H. Jessup, of Beirut, gave A rule has been adopted, giving fe· the record of the achievements of the male delegates equal voice and vote with the men on questions touching mission in Syria, which were the organ- their own work. izing of the first Evangelical cburch As to the financial difficulties, the since the days of the apostles, tbe 8etgradual exhaustion of the large legacies on the one hand, and the natural ex- ting up of the first printing-presses in pansion of work on the other, have not been offset by sufficiently increased the Turkish Empire, and the founding number of donors and amount of donations. Either the Board must retrench of the first day and boarding schools or secure larger gifts. for boys and girls and the first college Dr. Judson Smith presented a paper on "Intellectual Preparation for the in the empire. Here occurred the first Ministry." He made these three points: 1. That education and culture correct translation of the Word of God are necessary in any important work. 2. The foreign missionary work de- in the Arabic language, the introducmands the most thorough intellectual and religious training. 3. The foreign tion of the steam printing-press, petromissionary must be a general and a leader in the work to which he is called. leum, and the machinery for saving lao He said: "Education and culture bor on farm and in factory. Two of are essential to power in any undertaking. Other things being equal, we the missionaries of the American Board know that of two meu, the one of the most thorough mental training will were the first educated physicians to serve us the best and serve us longest. All knowledge and science and every carry the healing of modern science to human power belong to Christ's king- the East. Two of the missionaries re- ceived imperial decorations for medical service in time of the pestilence. Two were pioneers in exploration and dis- covery of ancient cities and ruins in Palestine-Dr. W. M. Thompson and Eli Smith. Dr. Jessup pointed with great satisfaction to the marvellous work which had been done among the women of Syria in their education and Christian training for the home and the school.
The great audiences were likewise addressed by President Angell, of Michigan University, Rev. Washington Gladden, Dr. Forest and Dr. J. G. was presented to Dr. Spurgeon, which, Davis, of Japan, Rev. John Holland with characteri8tic unselfishness, he and Dr. Bissell, of ~Iexico, Dr. Burn· handed back to the donors to be applied ham, of St. Louis, Dr. Clapp. of China, to enlarged facilities for church work. Dr. E. M. Pease, of Micronesia, Rev. E. S. Hume, of India, Dr. Cyrus Ham- It is quite ob.ious that the Interna· lin, founder of Robert College, Con· tional Missionary Alliance, whose headstantinople, and by D. L. Moody. quarters are in New York City, is an institution which compels recognition No death which has recently occurred as one used very largely of God. Rev. among foreign missionaries will touch A. B. Simpson's peculiar views on Dimore chords of interest than that of vine healing and some other kindred Rev. Dr. A. P. Happer, the veteran of subjects have caused him to be looked China, which occurred in Wooster, 0., on with some suspicion, and the Chris- October 27th. He went to the ~Iiddle tian public at large have kept aloof Kingdom in 1844, and returned only from him and his work. Yet despite a short time since, having spent nearly these discouragements, his work has half a century in preaching, ministering gone forward and continually grown, to the sick, translating and editing, and until, beside the Gospel Tabernacle, founding a Christian college at Canton. with its unceasing round of evangelistic He was always heard with great inter- services and its educational enterprise est when he spoke on missions, and was for training mission workers for home deemed an authority on China. Further and foreign fields, the Missionary Allinotice of him will appear hereafter. ance has developed into one of the most prominent of agencies for a world's In October last Dr. James A. Spur- evangelization. Between October 1st geon celebrated his twenty-fifth anni· and 15th this Alliance observed its sixth versary as pastor of the chapel at West annual convention. Daily the Taber· Croydon, London, where, in addition nacle, 692 Eighth Avenue, was fllled, to his grand work as the associate of and on the two Sabbaths, October 7th the lamented Charles H. Spurgeon, his and 14th, the American Theatre was brother, he has built up one of the fin- thronged. The teaching was of a high est, most cultured, and most enterprising order as to insight into Bible truth and congregations in England. Dr. Spur- spiritual life, and the giving was excepgeon's career has been that of a many- tionally generous, and marvellously sided man, with a sympathetic and help- manifested the Holy Spirit's power. ful attitude and activity toward every On one evening, at the Tabernacle, form of philanthropic and missionary over thirty watches were given, with work, and it is to be hoped that some piles of jewelry and ornaments, and in memorial of the celebration may be a most unostentatious manner. On the given to the public in a printed form. latter Sabbath, the great day of the Mr. G. Holden Pike has issued a" life" feast, Dr. Simpson preached on the of this distinguished man in time to •• Man of Macedonia," and the response mark the anniversary with its impress; was remarkable; between $50,000 and and the reader of that fascinating biog- $60,000 was pledged, and mostly in raphy will form some idea how a man small sums and by people of no wealth. may, while pastor of a large and influ- The entire assembly rose and, with upential church, preside over various be- lifted hand, covenanted with God to nevolent and educational institutions, undertake to increase their present staff help to build chapels and organize con- of 230 to 300 missionaries in the field gregations, and stimulate every mis- before the fiscal year closes, and to raise sionary work at home and abroad. $200,000, an increase of our $70,000 on last year's collections. A purse of over one thousand pounds
IDSSIONAltY DlTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONAliD.
Extraots a.nd Transla.tions from Foreign scholars in the schools. The China P eriodioa.ls. Mission of the United Presbyterians is in Manchuria, Moukden and Tiavyang BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, being the principal stations. Medical work is made very prominent, for 4 out MASS. of the 11 missionaries are doctors. It was Dr. Greig, of this mission, who UNITED KINGDOM. was so ill·treated during the riots some time ago. The converts in full com- -The United Presbyterians of Scot- munion number 1872. Besides the land are not a very numerous body, for above, the United Presbyterian Church they have only 572 congregations with supports 2 missionaries at Tokyo, where 187,075 members; and the total income the church·members are returned as of the denomiIiation was £372,259 in 898; and, curiously enough, pays the 1892. The figures will enable us to salary of Dr. Laws, the great Free judge of the extent of their foreign mis- Church missionary of Bandawe, Lake sionary labors. The income of this de- Nyassa. The summary of the United partment of the Church's work was Presbyterian missionary statistics gives £35,850, of which all but a few hun- 63 ordained Europeans, 20 ordained nadred was expended. In Jamaica and tives, 10 medical missionaries, 28 zenana Trinidad there are 55 United Presbyte- ladies; 9 European and 123 native evanrian congregations, with upward of gelists and catechists; 385 native teach- 10,000 members, whose contributions ers, and 134 native helpers; 98 princifor all purposes fell only a little short pal, and 173 out·stations; 17,414 comof a pound a head. The other mission- municants; and 17,695 scholars. IUY work of the United Presbyterian Church is carried on in Old Calabar, AFRICA. Kaffraria, Rajputana, China, and Japan. We may quote some of the princi- -" Christian missions are often repal statistics. In Old Calabar they have proached as being costly, which is not 8 ordained Europeans and 2 natives, always their fault. Here, now. is a 2 medical missionaries, 8 other Euro- point of comparison between the cost pean and 21 native agents, 435 members of missions and of civilization in Afriin full communion, and 1037 scholars. cs. The first section of the railway In Kaffraria there is no medical work, which is to connect the port of Matadi, and the other Europeans are not quite in the estuary of the Congo, with Stanso numerous as in Old Calabar, hut the ley Pool, where the river becomes navistaff of native helpers is much larger. gable, has just been inaugurated. It is The members number 3056 ; the candi- twenty-four miles in length; the whole dates, 887; the scholars, 2100. The line will be one hundred and eleven foreign mission secretary visited this miles long. The first twenty·four miles, mission field last year, and reported in said to be the hardest part of the line, warm terms on the Christian character have cost the life of about three thouof the converts and the readiness of the sand blacks enlisted with more or less people to receive the Gospel. good will of their own; the outlay has reached a million or twelve hundred In Rajputana the centres are Beawar, thousand dollars at the least estimate– Nuseerabad, Asherpura, Ajmere, Tod- doubtless much more. Setting aside gurh, Deoli, Jeypore, Oodeypore, UI- the money, it remains true that the war, Jocthpore, and Kotah. Medical building of this railroad kills the black work is carried on by three qualifieu missionaries. In all these stations there are but 506 members. There are 5413
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
for the profit of the white, while the " , Because he won't baptize us.' missionaries expose and often sacrifice " , Do you know the catechism and their lives to raise and save the Afri- the prayers? ' can."-ProfesRor F. H. KRUGER, in " , Yes, all. He has baptized one and Journal des .Missions. leaves two; he baptizes one and leaves three. And this is how he al ways does. -" The Missions Oatllolique.9 of Feb- Are we not worth as much as the ruary 23d publishes a letter of l:Igr. LE others? Have we not souls to be saved Roy, Vicar Apostolic of the two Guineas, as well as they? Are not-' containing some intere3ting points of " , Is this true? Father Lejeune, they information gathered in the basin of the wish to be baptized? They are suffi- Ogue, the very same in which the dele- ciently taught? ' gates of the Paris Sodete des Missions " , Assuredly ; but they are the sec- Evangeliques have fixed themselves. ond, third, fourth, and fifth wives of As many of our readers are interested the same husband. I baptize one whom in the work of the latter, they will the husband picks out as his wife, not thank us for communicating some pas- to be sent away; what to do with the sages from the letter of the Roman prel- others, I am sure I don't know.' " Whereupon the women took up the ate. cry again: " As to the dispositions of the native " 'Pray, can we run off by main force? Are we not just like slaves, population toward Christianity, Mgr. like beasts? Where shall we go? What Le Roy speaks as follows: escape is there? Where shall we hide? And if we would Ii ve alone, will they " 'What to say to you of this mis- not fetch us back, tied hands and feet, sion? Much good has been done here; with the stick coming down on our much more good remains to do. Here back? ' we have no Mussulmans, and all the "Our Protestant missionaries will country is under a vague Christian in- naturally encounter the same obstacle, fluence, eminently favorable to mis- for doubtless they will not seek to elude sionary work. Baptism, for instance, it by imitating some other Protestant around some of our stations is quite the societies which tolerate polygamous style, and as the name of kajiri (infidel) unions in the Church, provided they in certain regions more or less Moham- were formed before conversion."-Re· medan. so here the name of pagan is con- vue des Missions Oontemporaines. sidered as a frightful insult. People want to be baptized here just as these -Mgr. LE Roy thinks, like Mgr. below them want to be circumcised. HIRSCH, in direct opposition to some They insist on receiving a Christian Protestant journalists, that the Protname as these an Arab name. Unhap- estant missionaries are essentially aided pily bapti·sm is not all ; and we often by their Bible and tract societies, and find it hard to grant it to all those that urges that the propaganda should imiseek it.' tate them. The Revue inquires whether this is one of the signs of that" new "As in other parts, the great hin· spirit" which has been recently noted drance to the real conversion of the na- by high authority as spreading in the tive is polygamy. Mgr. Le Roy, speak- Church of Rome. And indeed, as vering of this, relates a scene sufficiently nacular mass books which were burned comical, occurring at Lamberene, which in the seventeenth century are now enis also a Protestant station. The fe- couraged, 110 it will doubtless be with male population came one fine morning, vernacular Bibles. In the last century in a tumultuous crowd, to the residence the Spanish Church was on the point of of the bishop: publishing a vernacular Bible when the " 'We come to complain of Father Lejeune,' cried one of them; 'you must remove him from us.'
" , Why ?' I asked.
GENEltAJ, MISSIONARY IN'l'EJ.LIGENCE
French Revolution frightened her out THE MOSQUITO STATE. of her wits for the time being. Mgr. Le Roy urges that the Scriptures, as -The Mi&<io7uJ Blatt der BrUderge- with us, should be published in cheap meine for October has the following re- forms. marks: -On the Gold Coast various persons " According to information received have lately joined the Christians (not as through a letter from Bluefields, the communicants, but as adherents) to save fate of the little Mosquito State may be themselves from being accused of witch- regarded a8 sealed, and once more a craft, a suspicion from whieh no hea- free, independent little Indian people, then is safe. It is an accepted belief in its major part of Protestant faith, as that Christianity" extinguishes witch- having been,. against its own clearly ex- craft." A Christian is, therefore, as pressed will, finally incorporated with such, exempt from the deadly poison the Catholic neighbor State of Nica- ordeal. ragua, although the treaty of Managua between England and Nicaragua guar- -The two highest chiefs in the king- anteed the independence and freedom dom of Kjibi, one being also a high. of Mosquit.ia, and only conceded to priest, have surrendered their honors Nicaragua the right of a clearly deter- and become Christians. Their king is mined snzerainty over it. hostile to tbe Gospel, which explains their resignation. They distinguished .. In this breach of treaty Nicaragua themselves at their baptismal examina- appears to have been successful by the tion above all the catechumens by their support of the United States. On the knowledge of the Gospel. The king's one hand, Americans in Mosquito. sister, who has been a persecutor of the land, disdaining to be governed by Ind- Christians, having found no good of the ians and negroes, appear to have seidols in her long illness, now comes to cretly plotted with Nicaragua for the the Christian meetings. overthrow of the tribal government; and the United States, jealous of Eng. -" They have been going through lish influence, and guided by the MOlltroublous times at Mukimbungu lately. roe doctrine, or rather by its later ex- In the working of the Congo Free State tension, ' America for the Americans,' the official agents and the tribes do not has carried through the design, bearing always see eye to eyc; and one of the in mind how undesirable for them it latter, rescnting the action of the Bel- was to have English influence strong in gian official, rose and murdered him a conntry so near the projected Nica· and other white men. Having done this ragua Canal. England, of course, will they sought to make the rising univer- not come into collision with America sal throughout the district, threatening over the fate of th·3 Mosquito Indians. to burn the villages of those who would not join them. Here was a test for the .. Yet we bear in mind that plans black Christians, but they stood it foundcd to the honor of the kingdom of nobly. Doth in the neighborhood. of our God have another origin and nal<Iukimbungu and of Luku!1ga the ture, snd pursue other aims than those Christians resolutely refused either to of the civil fahrics of time. The two desert the missionaries or to j::>in the in- do not stand or fall together. And, surgents. This action saved many valu- thanks to the wise tact of our brethren, able lives, and is a striking answer, who, though sincerely subject to the Mrs. Walfridsson says, to the taunts of former government, have, out of princithose who say that Christianity is snper- ple, held entirely aloof from all political fluous on the Congo, and that the State schemings, our mission has not given methods of civilization are the only the new authorities the slightest ground fruit-bearing ones, "-.M"~dica;& Missions. of complaint. In the quiet conscious- ness of this, in confidence of the defence of our Lord, and in view of the re· sponsibilities resting upon the mission, Lord for any form of service is a mis- which still subsist, and indeed have of sionary, and that the number of mis- late gratifyingly broadened out in the sionaries, therefore, is exactly equal to interior, our messengers have continued the number of disciples.
unmoved at their difficult post in Blue- -A missionary now in India reports fields. That Nicaragua, however, will that her going was largely the result of at present bring our work in the whole joining a prayer union to intercede for land to a sudden end, though possible, more laborers to be sent. As she prayed seems hardly probable. Indeed, sim- it seemed " so mean to ask for others to ple prudence would counsel greater de- go and not face the question, Can I liberateness. Moreover, ~he Missionary go myself 1" Board of the Unitas Fratrum has done what lay in human power by interced- -This is how Rev. H. H. Jessup ing with the German, the American, "happened" to go to Syria:" The and the English governments in be- thought had never entered my mind; half of our mission and its property. but when I went on to Boston to see the Whether, however, future develop- Prudential Committee of the American ments under the new government might Board. Dr. Anderson placed an envelnot involve a gradual repression of our ope in my hand and said: • Go into that work is another question; and we free- room and consider this for half an hour.' ly allow that in this respect we are not It was a plea for reinforcement from wit~out anxiety. The behavior of the the Syrian Mission. When he asked, Nicaraguans at Bluefields during the • Will you go?' I said, • Yes.' I thought last months may well explain and jus- it was the voice of God, and still believe tify such anxiety. Yet this anxiety we that it was." would ever roll afresh in believing prayer on our faithful God and Lord, -And this statement of ex-Secretary who is enthroned above all, and Who N. G. Clark tells how the Japan Mission knows that in yonder land alone more " happened" to be formed: .. An Amthan fifty-five hundred Christian souls herst student on a vacation tramp came would fain hear the message of eternal to the house of the foreign secretary for life from the lips of our missionaries, a night, and in the morning, after leadnot to speak of the numerous throngs ing at family prayers with great simwho, yet unbaptized, nevertheless long- plicity and earnestness, he took the hand ingly crave, under the guidance of our of the secretary in both his, saying, brethren, to be also led as children to • You must send missionaries to my the Heavenly Father. Our God helps country.' He would take no denia1. in His own way, in a wondrous way, in As when, six years later, he stood before other ways than those which appear ob- the American Board at Rutland pleadvious to us. So will He ·also do in the ing for a Christian college for Japan, case before us. Therefore let us pray and saying, • I will not sit down until without ceasing 1"' you promise,' so now to every plea that the Board had already more work than it could well carryon came the same THE KINGDOM. response: • You must send missionaries -Rev. J. J. Summerbell, in a recent to my country.' Such was the birth of Independent, has an exceedingly stimu- the Japan Mission."
lating article entitled" First, Missiona- -Dr. A. J. Gordon tells how it .. !:.ap- ries," which is based upon a revised pens" that the Clarendon Street Baptist I.Ind literal version of Paul's words: Church, Boston. gave last year $20,000 .. And God hath set some in the Church, to foreign missions, while its own ex- first apostles." He emphasizes, among penses were less than $10,000. ":My other things, the Gospel couception that wav has been to make collections for whoever is .. sent" or " called" by the foreign missions lind home missions every Sunday morning in the year, and from a wealthy Hindu friend who to keep the subject constantly before spoke to her of the great improvement the people. Then in April we make a in her health resulting from a brief stay special collection, which is a1ways pre- at a distant sanitarium. "Will you ceded by a week of daily prayer, in not go again?" he asked. "Oh, no,"
which we meet together at eight o'clock she replied, "it costs too much."
in the morning to pray for the one thing " But," said he, "what is cost if it that the people may have their hearts spares your life for five or six years to drawn out to give for the work of evan- work here and do good as you do 1"
gelizing the world. I preach on the After a while he suggeeted, "When Sunday before the collection is to be you want to go again, you let me know taken, and then put the responsibility of what it will cost and I will give you giving upon the people, refraining from the amount." At the close of the call all special solicitation or urging." And and when entering his carriage this so no wonder it comes to pass that only same Hindu remarked to the husband seven State8 exceed this church in their of the woman: " Remember and send gifts to the Missionary Union, and the to me if your wife needs to go to the amount is nearly one fourth of all the sanitarium. I can give money for such gifts that come from the entire State of an object."
Massachusetts! -Well may the Nashville Chri8tian -Amos Lawrence adopted this motto Advocate lament that while" the Mora- and squared his practice to it to the vians support one foreign missionary to amount of $700,000: "He is not rich every 66 of their members at home,"
who lays up much, but he who lays out and while a single church in Toledo, 0., much." And, verily, to layout lav- supports 5 in the home and foreign ishly for God in this liCe is to lay up fields, "it now takes 12,000 Southern abundant treasure in the life to come. Methodists to keep one missionary at -Alas for the pinching poverty to work. They are staggering under this be found under the sun 1 President burden." Eliot tells of a man living near Boston who was asked to give money to Har- -Li Hung Chang, the greatest of vard College, who received the sugges- Chinamen, declared to John Russell tion kindly, promised to confer with his Young, "If the missionaries ever come wife and report, and after a few days into the Chinese heart, the physicians did report as follows: " We have talked will open the door."
-When Captain Cook, on his voyage over the question, and hli.ve been all among the Pacific Islands, wrote of a over our accounts. We want to give, suggested attempt to establish a mission but actually filild that we must deny thereabouts, that" it is very unlikely ourselves. Our accounts show that we that any measure of this kind would be are spending every year $70,000, and seriously thought of, as it can serve our income is equal to just about $70,- neither the purpose of public ambition 000. I am very sorry that I have not nor private avarice, and without such a cent to give." And another poor inducement I may pronounce that it man has been heard of who, when asked will never be undertaken," he little to make a subscription to a certain knew the Christian spirit which would cause, answered with great seriousness, animate Williams and Patteson and Pa- "I am sorry that I cannot. I have ton and Snow and Sturges and Doane $500,000 in Suffolk Bank, and it isn't and Logan, not to mention others among drawing me a cent of interest." the living."-Mis8ionary Herald.
-And, per contra, let us take note -Let us fervently pray to be delivhow it looks sometimes to a " heathen." ered from the damnable heresies of A missionary woman received a call such "Christian" officials. For, in a memorandum by the Resident at Perak pore, and the Hawaiian Islands. She we find him saying, " Morality is de- has been a guest in 2000 homes, has- pendent on the influences of climate, re- been entertained in palaces, slept in an- ligious belief, education, and the feel- cient tombs, lived through the jungle ing of society. All these conditions fever, and, as she expresses it, tied the differ in diffelent parts of the world. white ribbon of the W. C. T. U. twice • •. The members of the Perak State around the globe.
Council, who cannot be said to have -Miss Ackerman says of work in any personal interest in the matter, and Japan: "The unions established by are wholly uninfluenced by any outside Mrs. Leavitt are prospering. Two opinion, consider that it is their duty to thousand pamphlets describing the work protect the prostitutes irrespective of had been scattered to open my way. At their religion, nationality, or the nature Tokyo we had a ten days' mission, reof their calling, which. indeed, sup- sulting in a temperance society of 700 plies a public want." Happily for the native men, since increased to 2000, and Malay States, with his moral code the an addition of 200 members to the Colonial Office did not agree, and his W. C. T. U. already formed there. The system was abolished. Japanese women have a temperance -How steadily in the foreign field periodical in the vernacular, a dress-rethe work advances from the homoge- form society, and a union for the higher neous to the heterogeneous, from the education of women. An electric cur~ simple to the complex! ]j'rom schools ,rent of human love and effort. inauguand hospitals, from teaching of trades rated by the American W. C. T. U. and women's peculiar kinds of service, only fifteen years before, had girdled etc., we must needs go further now the world, and here in the antipodes and introduce the kindergarten and the was inspiring and guiding the hitherto social settlement. comparatively objectless lives of our sisters in Japan." -" While teaching arithmetic to six bright Korean boys, I learned that -America supplies the first world's among them they had seven chogeries secretary of Young Women's Christian (jackets). I asked, ' If one of you has Associations. The incumbent of that two chogeries, how many are there for position is Miss Annie M. Reynolds, of the other five?' All subtracted boys North Haven, Conn., a Wellesley gradfrom chogeries like little Americans. uate, a special student at Yale, an ac- After an explanation I wrote chogeries complished linguist, and an active workon the blackboard; then with my chalk er in various philanthropies. Her headunder the seven, asked, ' What shall I quarters will be in London, but her put under these chogeries?' The duties will require extensive travel on quick, eager, and confident reply was, the Continent. Her first official work , Paji ' (trousers}." was in connection with the August con- ference of Young Women's Christian WOMAN'S WORK. Associations in Neufchatel, Switzer- – Miss Jessie Ackerman, an " around- land.-Harpe1"s Bazar.
the-world" missionary of the Women's -After all, is not this world, so full Christian Temperance Union, has leach- of evil, really growing better? As an ed Chicago, after a trip of 150,000 miles, item of evidence, when before was it which, she claims. is the longest jour- ever true that three women who are ney ever made by a woman. She has among the most exalted for station and been abroad for seven years, and her influence, the Empresses of Germany and work has carried her through China, of Japan, and the Empress Dowager of Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, China (whose name is Tsi·Thsi), were South Africa, Madagascar, Java, Singa- also among the most eminent for abnn· dance of benevolent deeds, if not for among the pioneer missionaries to lIi- piety as well? Of one we read: "The craneaia, and they afterward labored Empress of Japan was personally en- for a time in Spain, then in Italy, and gaged daily with her court ladies in for thirteen years in China and Japan.
making bandages, lint, etc., for the The Mi8Siona1'Y Herald says of her: wounded Chinese soldiers as well as "There are few who have labored in Japanese in the recent great battles of so many islands and continents of the Ping-Yang and Yalu. The Japanese world, and few who have left a better are proud of her activity in the Red record of devoted service."
Cross work, and they may weJl be." YOUNG PEOPLE_ -The only wonderis that it does not oftener come to pass that under the ter- -Dr. Eastman gives the following rible and ceaseless strain of toil in pagan information concerning the Y. M. C. A.
lands the reason for the time becomes work among the Indians: There are 35 unsettled, the judgment sadly errs, and associations; 3 of these are at schools the conscience lapses into a morbid outside the reservations, 2 in Canada, state. Therefore not blame but sympa- and the rest on the reservations, most thy is to be bestowed upon that Ameri· of them being in Nebraska and tile two can missionary in India who, a few Dakotas. The average membership is months since, when worn out with bur- about 25; the largest being at Cherry den·bearing. was caught with the guile· Creek, Cheyenne River Agency, S. D., of the Jesuits and suffered herself to be which contains about 100 young men.
initiated into the Roman Church. And Some of these Indians ride fifteen of it is pleasant to know that with rest and twenty miles on a pony's back, winter returning bodily vigor her eyes were or summer, wet or dry, in order to at- fully opened to see her astounding error, tend a prayer-meeting.
and of her own motion she has returned -The Y. W. C. A. of Chicago has to the Lutheran fold. asked its friends to help it put up a new building. A seven-story building -The career of the Presbyterian is to take the place of the present strucwomen's organization for the further- ture. It will be completely equipped ance of home missions spans the period with all modern conveniences, and will 1878-94, and this statement will help still preserve the characteristics of a to indicate the growth of the society: well-ordered home. The association .. Fifteen years ago the entire receipts now has 4 boarding-houses in different were less than is now received in any sections .of the city, and besides its one month, thirteen years ago they " home" work it maintains an employwere less lor the year by $2000 than ment bureau, and performs other serthe amount received the last day of our vice in behalf of young women. last fiscal year, and nine years ago the total was less by $4000 than was re- -The Christian Endeavor Missionary ceived in the one month of March, 189t Extension courses of lectures, under the efficient and enthusiastic lead of -The Methodist women are study- S. L. Mershon, is quite certain to take ing the lives of such missionary hero- rank among the very foremost agencies ines as Mary Whately, Eliza Agnew, for kindling a fervid and enduring zeal Charlotte M. Tucker, Mrs. Krapf, etc., for world-wide missions. A Sunday's and so would stimUlate their own souls missionary rally is to be held in each to greater zeal.
-Mrs. Luther Gulick, who passed one of all the large cities of the Union, from death unto life in Japan June with scores and scores of addresses_ 14th, was a worthy member of the fa- During the week the neighboring towns mous family so abundant in missionary will be visited and stirred in the same labors. She and her husband were fashion, and then month after month throughout the winter and spring four Course (C. C. C.) looking to a four or five other addresses will be given to years' systematic study of the Bible, the same audiences upon the world's and of Christian missions as well. redemption through the Gospel. The There is a Missionary Conquest Course campaign, or holy crusade, contem- with regular" conquest meetings." plates from 40,000 to 60,000 such gath- erings to diffuse information, and so to -Nor are the Free Baptists inactive, touch the heart and conscience of mul- since they are urging on to good works titudes. their United Society of Free Baptist Young People. -According to the Golden Rule, there is a Presbyterian Endeavor society in UNITED STATES. New York whose active membership includes 24 young men and 28 young -On September 13th, at Cherry women. Not half a dozen of these Creek, S. D., fully 1000 Sioux gathhave an income which admits their giv- ered for a Christian conference, of ing as much as one tenth without econ- whom 250 were delegates. A village omy and self·denial. Notwithstand- of tepees had sprung up of a sudden ing, of these 56 members, 4 graduate for their accommodation, while several members being included in the follow- beeves and several hundred ducks and ing figures, 55 give the tithe, and some- prairie chickens, a barrel of pork, 40 times much more than the tithe. The pounds of coffee and tea, with vegetaremaining 6, while not yet able to do bles by the wagon-load, were ready for this, are regular systematic givers. consuIIlption. Thirteen agencies were Last year's gifts amounted to the mag- represented, and three days were spent nificent total of $859. In addition, the in worship and discussion of weighty idea of proportionate gi ving is fre- themes. The Congregational Associquently agitated. ation and the Dakota Presbytery held their sessions, likewise the native mis- -The First Presbyterian Society of sionary society, the Y. M. C. A., and Monmouth, Ill., is paying $75 a year the Y. P. S. C. E. No less than 30 toward the support of Rev. J. Hyde, churches were represented, with over in India, and has given $32 for home 1900 members and 19 Indian pastors. mISSIOns. The Juniors pay $50 for These red men had raised $1610 for Mr. Hyde, and have sent $21 to the IIlissionary uses, to which sum the home mission board. women had added $800. Well, weIll It looks as though the Gospel i8the -Thanksgiving Day is likely to wit- power of God. ness stirring scenes, when of 800,000 Leagners everyone is called on by -The Synodical Conference (Luthername to present his half dollar for mis~ an) employs 9 missionaries among the sions or give a reason for his failure. colored people, and 5 teachers. They have 10 churches, 4 school-houses, -Dr. Parker, President, and Rev. 1 parsonage, and 1 cemetery. There H. C. Stuntz, Secretary, of the League are 1100 members, the average attendin India and Malaysia, have sent a cir- ance at Divine service is 800, in their cular letter to all the leagues in those Sunday-schools are over 1000 pupils, countries, urging them to plan for a and in their parochial schools 700. grand missionary day celebration and Three colored yonths are preparing for a collection. the ministry in the seminary at Spring- field, Ill. The average expenditure -A missionary in India will be sup- for these missions is $900 per month. ported by a league at Bath, N. Y. -The iriends of the American Mis- -The Baptist young people have sionary Association have occasion to retheir Union (B. Y. P. U.), and this is engaged upon a Christian Culture joice in the fact that Mr. Lopp is to re- Average congregations…… . 69,1'51 turn to Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, and reopen the mission which was Ordained missionaries (15 phyclosed last year after the muruer of Mr. Thornton. It will be remembered that sicians) ……… , ……. '" 184 of the three men connected with the horrible deed, two were at once arrested Physicians (besides 9 women).. 13 by the natives and shot. The third, Titalk, who was the leader, escaped for Other male assistants …….. . 6 the time. :Mr. Lopp thus descrihes his death: "After the Bea;r had left for Women (wives, 185; unmarthe south, Titalk came back to the cape, and his uncle, Te·ed-Ioo-na led ried, 183}…………….. . 368 him up on the hill-side near the grave of Mr. Thornton, and asked him how Whole number of laborers sent. 571 he should put him to death-strangle him, stab him, or shoot him. The boy Native pastors ………….. . 241 preferled to be shot; so he commanded him to hold his head down and then Native preacliers and catechists. 508 shot him." Native school·teachers……. . 1,533 Other native laborers …….. . 568 Total of native laborers …. . 2,870 Total of Americans and na- tives……………….. . 3,441 Churches. .., …………… . 421 Church-members…………. , 40,187 Added during the year……. . 3,055 Whole number from the first .. 128,648 -The sixty-sixth annual report of Theological seminaries and 16 the American Seamen's Friend Society classes ………………. . 230 contains a good record of much valll- 65 able labor performed in the Master's Pupils………………… . 4,227 name for the spiritually destitllte. Its Colleges and high schools…. . 63 representatives are found in 13 foreign Pupils in the above ……••. , countries, liS well as in di vers impor- Boarding-schools for girls ….• 3,394 tant ports on the Atlantic and Pacific Pupils in boarding-schools for 1,026 coasts. The number of new libraries 39,366 sent out is 10,052, while the reship- girls…………………. . ments are enough to make a total of CommOll schools………… . 50,406 21,518 libraries, with 520,860 volumes. Pupils in common schools…. . The income was $23,907 last year. Whole number under instruc- tion…•. , … , . __ ……… , Native contributions… , …… $89,145 -The annual meeting of the Ameri- -The Friends, who hitherto have can Board, held at Madison, Wis., Oc- done all their missionary work without tober 10th-13th, while not remarkable any single central agency, but each in any feature, was yet a continual Yearly Meeting operating indepenfeast of good things. The debt of dently, have recently completed an or- $116,238 was emharrassing and de- ganization whose name is the American pressing, and had led to damaging re- Friends' Board of Foreign Missions, trenchment: war and persecution had with Ellen C. Wright, of the Wilmingwrought serious harm, but in spite of ton Yearly Meeting, as secretary and all the spiritual results were at a maxi- treasurer. Enlarged interest and aemum. New missionaries had been sent tivity can scarcely fail to follow. out to the number of 44, of whom 13 were men. The Word had been preach- -The United Presbyterians devote ed in 26 languages. This table will themselves wholly to two fields. which supply a summary of facts: they work with great thoroughness and efficiency, the Nile Valley and the Missions. . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . .. 20 Sialkote Mission in Northwest India Stations …… _. .. . . .. . . . . . . . 100 upon the borders of Cashmere. The Out-stations… ………. ….. 1,107 districts occupied number 18, with 288 Places for stated preaching…. 1,429 stations. The ordained missionaries number 26; the married women 24 and $174.242; from juvenile offerings, the unmarried 17 ; ordained natives 34, $25,667; from legacies, $14,114; from licentiates and students 31, and other the Indian Department (grant for Ind- w;)rkers 482-a total of 537 n:.tives ian scbools and institutes), $14,035; and 70 Americans. In the 43 churches from miscellaneous sources and sun- are 11,055 members, and in the day dries, $6094; making the total income schools 13,514 boys and girls. The ad- $234,153. The total expenditure was ditions to the churches by profession $242,955, which leaves a deficit of were 651 last year, the native contribu- $8801. The report of the Domestic tions for church work were $13,149 and Foreign Missionary Society for (only $400 from India), and for all pur- 1893 shows an income of $42,858.
poses, $36,849.
:- -The Churchman rejoices with EUROPE.
somewhat of trembling over these Great Britain.-The seventy-fifth an- "hopeful signs" in the Church of nual report of the British and Foreign Rome in this land; "the formation Sailors' I::lociety says: "For the benefit and rapid growth" of the Young Men's of seamen this society unites in various Institute, with general purposes and ways, 97 ports, and in these ports there methods at least somewhat kindred to are 100 stations, 85 institutes, rests, those of theY. M. C. A.; "the wide- bethels, reading-rooms. and homes, spread adoption of the Sunday-school while for work afloat there are 3 floatsystem, bearing a close resemblance in ing bethels, 3 steam launches, 28 sail all its features" to the Protestant insti- and row boats, 150 workers, including tution of the same name; "the sum- mISSIonaries. colporteurs, matrons, mer school so recently approved and Christian boatmen, and helpers." Its adopted by priests and bishops; and income last year, including balance " the use of a tongue ' understanded of brought forward, amounted to £22,318_ the people' in the public worship," to- Three new sailors' institutes, at Falgether " with the moral certainty that mouth, St. Petersburg, and Dover, are sooner or later" the ecclesiastical au- now in progress. thorities will yield to " the growing demand for congregational singing." -Since the beginning of the Univer- sities' Mission over 20 Cambridge men -Archbishop Ireland is constrained have joined the movement, including to admit in the North American Review. Bishops Mackenzie and Smythies; of and he pronounces it a "lamentable" these 5 have died at their posts in Afri- fact, that at least the time has been ca, and now the staff of Cambridge when saloon-keepers" sought to guide men is 7. Oxford has sent some 36 the people in religious affairs. They into the field, among them Bishops were officials in church societies, mar- Tozer and Hornby; of these 13 are still shals in church processions, chairmen wOIking, and 10 have died in the field.
in church meetings. They contributed Durham has sent 2 men; London, 3 ; liberally-as a matter of business-to Edinburgh, 1, and Dublin, 1. church works, and paid rent for prominent pews." And hence it was that -Bishop Stuart, accompanied by his he and such as Bishop Watterson were daughter and an Irish lady, has recompelled to cry out, and resort to cently sailed as missionary to the Modrastic methods for ending the shame hammedans of East Persia, whose lanand curse. guage he already speaks. Having been forty-four years a missionary, the last -This is the report for the past year seventeen years holding his office in of the Missionary Society of the Meth- New Zealand, he now sees the churches odist Church in Canada. The receipts gathered among the Maories able to from SUbscriptions and collections were maintain the faith and, throwing up his bishopric, goes forth once more dition to the expenditure will be per- with his pioneer staff. luanent."
-Within a few weeks the Church The Continent.-Though its founder Missionary Society took leave of 90 out· has gone to his rest and reward, the going heralds of the cross bound for McAl! Mission continues its most effecvarious distant parts, and earlier in the tive eirorts to bring France back to a year 40 others had sailed. And the In- pure faith. The total income was telligencel' solemnly and vigorously pro- $80,820 (£16,164), of which $26,730 tests that this notable proceeding was came from. the United Kingdom, and altogether rational and Christian, since $31,780 from. the United States. Work the demand for reinforcements was im- was done in some 20 cities, including perative, and in spite of " agricultural Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Nantes, Nice, distress, commercial depression, and a etc., and also in Corsica and Algeria. hundred other causes of falling off in The mission boat, Bon MessagM" was funds. " The Lord's people can, and kept busy moving on errands of mercy the Lord's people must, rise to the and grace. height of the momentous occasion. -According to an item in the Inde- -The London Society's Juhn Will- pendent, the Reformed Church of iams has reached her destination under France has 533 congregations, 638 pasthe Southern Cross, and has begun her tors paid by the State, 56 other pastors, voyages among the islands of the South and a population numbering 540,483. Seas. Her Captain Turpie has been The Lutheran Church of France has 62 connected with the predecessors of this pastors paid by the State and a memfine ship for thirty-eight years. bership of 77,533. Of othH Protes- tants, including those of Algeria, there This society publishes a table which are not far from 20,000. shows that of every pound sterling bestowed for its work only two shillings -The sixty-ninth report of the Soare expended in the collection of funds, ciete des Missions Evangeliques tells of administration, and pUblications, while mis&ion work in 6 fields. Its principal the entire remainder is employed in mission field is among the LessOlltos of direct service of the missions. South Africa, where there is a native church, numbering 8907 communicants, -The Scottish United Presbyterians grouped around 11 principal stations, have a "forward movement" on hand. at which 24 European agents are labor- The matter is laid upon their con- ing. There is also in Africa the Zamsciences in this fashion: "The de- besi Mission, at the head of which is mands of the work in our various fields 11. Coillard, with 4 other European are growing much more rapidly than agents. On the Congo the society has the contributions of the Church. We within the last two years taken 2 stahave made a new departure in Old Cala- tions from the Presbyterian Church of bar, in the establishment of a training America, and supports 4 agents. Aninstitution, which will involve a con- other little band of 5 is at work in Senesiderable additional expenditure; while gal. The other 2 fields are in the Pathe needs of KaffIaria, India, and China cific. In 1863, in consequence of the have been compelling us to strengthen French annexation of Tahiti, the soour missionary staff in these fields, ciety took the work which had been with the view of occupying the ground carried on there by the London Misthat has, by the very success of our sionary Society; and, in 1891, for a efforts in the past, been opened up be- similvr reason, the work in the Loyalty fore us. Altogether, we estimate that Islands. In the latter field there is we shall have an expenditure during only 1 missionary, but in Tahiti there this year exceeding that of last year by are 9 European agents, while in the £4000, and it is expected that this ad- 23 parishes are 17 native pastors, with Zulus, where are 23 missionaries, with 2053 communicants. The total income 67 native helpers, at 24 stations, and was £15,563. There are 11 students where there is a Christian community in the mission house preparing for for- of 2521 ; the Betschllanas, with 27 mis- eign service. sionaries and 161 native helpers, at 24 -The Free Church Monthly for Oc- stations, having a Christian community tober has an article by Rev. John Jame- of 19.258 ; and the 'l'elugus in India, son, of Madrid, speaking at length, and where 10 missionaries, with 63 native in the highest terms, of the American helpers, occupy 9 stations, and the Board's Protestant High School for Christian community numbers 1796. Girls in San Sebastian, and carried on Last year there were 2624 baptisms, by 11rs. and MI'. W. H. Gulick. This and the native contributions amounted is the conclusion: "Their institution is to £1064. The total income was £12,- one of the best means of promoting the 044. There are 21 candidates in trainevangelization of Spain, and so giving ing in the mission-house.
to that country means for regeneration ASIA. and progress The training of the mothers of the coming generation and Islam.-In Aleppo dwell about 150,- of those who shall train them is one of 000 people, and this is the third city in the noblest efforts we can put forth or popUlation in the Turkish Empire, encourage. The work of the Gulicks coming after Constantinople and Dais eminently worthy of all the encour- mascus. More than four fifths of the agement we can give them." people are Moslems. The Christian -The report for last year of the popUlation comprises 10 different sects, work of the Evangelical Church of the largest of which is the Papal Greek. Italy mentions two cvents which are There are a number of large churches full of encouragement to Italian Prot- and convents, and many schools.
estants. The municipality of Rome -Two years ago the Scotch Presby- has accepted the gift of a bust of Alex- terians got permission to build a church ander Gavazzi, and has decided to place in Damascus. At once the Mohamme- it on the Janiculan Hill among the de- <!ans built a mosque and trespassed on fenders of Rome. Thus one of the Presbyterian ground. No complaint fathers of the Evangelical Church, five was made. Then the Moslems com- years after his death, is to be honored plained that the church was in their by the erection of a public monument way. It was ordered removed. But in a Roman Catholic city. Hardly less when the Sultan learned the facts, he astonishing is the erection in Florence. let the Scotchmen stay. Thus it ap- through the influence of a committee pears that His Majesty is not altogether of eminent citizens, of a statue to Pietro lacking in a sense of justice. But Carnesecchi, one of the sixteenth cen- surely he has much to learn concerning tury reformers who was burned by the the celestial quality of mercy; for not Inquisition. so very long ago when a thousand na- -The Hermannsburg Mission has tives refused to pay their taxes he orgiven up its work in Australia and New dered that their right arms should be Zealand, and some stations in South broken, and it was done.
Africa. These withdrawals were the -The Lutherans of Germany have result of the unhappy division which become deeply interested in the relig- had taken place at home, some of the ious condition of Persia, and have reo missionaries adhering to the section cently sent ont an exploring party to which refused to co-operate with any decide upon some proper field where but high Lutherans. The 3 fields in they shall locate a mission station in which the work is carried on are the that kingdom, h&ving special reference to the Jews and Kurds. These visit- tion seriously if I survived my father, ing clergymen have shown themselves for I had a great desire not to cause a very friendly to the Presbyterian mis- shock to him." W,hat led him to a sionaries, who, on their part, have thorough consideration of the claims of manifested a hearty interest in the new Christianity was the visit of Mrs. An- work. nie Besant to Jndia, and the reading of India.-A cruel custom has long pre- the speeches of Swami Vivekananda at vailed among the Rajput princes. the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. When a girl is once married she has After he had thoroughly studied the had to become dead to her parents, subject he became convinced of .. the never being allowed to return on a visit hollowness of their assertions," and to her childhood's home. On the re- then turned to a study of the truths of cent occasion of the marriage of Raja Christianity, with the result that he has Ram Singh's daughter at Jamma, this come unqualifiedly to accept Christ.
custom, by consultation among the -Christians in India are sad over the chiefs, has been disallowed, and the new death of Mrs. Satthianadhan, who has bride is to be at liberty to visit her rela- been eminent as a Christian writer and tives after marriage.-Bombay Guar- author. Besides contributing manyex- dian. cellent articles to native journals and -In India it is a punishable offence magazines, she wrote "Saguna," and before the law to interfere with the re- .. Kamala," novels of native Christian ligion of the minor, so it is not oiten life. The first has been translated into wise io baptize boys under eighteen. German, Danish, Tamil, and Telugu. Sometimes when a boy is evidently She was the daughttr of the Rev. Hari older, a native physician will give a Punt Khisty, one of the first Brahmin certificate that he is younger, and his converts of the American Mission; was parents get him and shut him up. educated under European teachers at Bombay and at the Madras Medical Col- -A missionary writing about the lege, but was largely self·taught. Her many secret believers, half-believers, intention to become a physician was or inquirers, to be met with in and changed by her marriage to Samuel about Agra, proponnds the startling, Satthianadhan, now Professor of Logic though probable theory that" Nicode- and Moral Philosophy in the Presimus has an enormous family in the dency College. She died in her thirty- Northwest Provinces." Nor are they second year. The record of her career confined to those parts. Doubtless the illustrates the value of Christian miswhole peninsula holds them in equal sions. numbers, with hosts also in China, Ja- pan, and in Mohammedan realms. -The Bombay' Gazette has the fol- -The Ohri8tian Patriot published at lowing: .. At four o'clock, on the after- Madras, under date of August 23d, con- noon of July 5th, Bala Saheb, Chief of tains an account of the conversion of Miraj, opened the doors of the new Mr. Ramanujam Chetty, M.A., B.L. American Presbyterian mission hospital He is a graduate of the University of in Miraj. The building is in every way Madras, and a trained lawyer. He was an ornament to the city and State in born in a family of affluent circum- which it is erected. It is commodious, stances. and graduated without having well ventilated, and well lighted. In become a Christian, although he was the male and female medical wards, interested in the study of Christian male and female surgical wards, eye books. He says: "Till recently, al- ward, and male and female private though I had the highest reverence for wards, space for sixty in-patients is pro- Christ, yet I was not a believer in His vided. Operatir..g-Iooms, offices, class- divinity. I thought of facing the ques- room, laboratory, linen and bath-rooms are also furnished. Mr. John H. Con. lie down or stand up, but apparently verse, of Philadelphia, generously pro· perfectly happy, and always ready to vided the funds for the erection of the have a bit of gossip."
hospital, out-door dispensary, physi- -A. recent Chinese writer says that cian's bungalow, and adjoining out· the average wages of workingmen in buildings. The cost was Rs. 45,000. that country is 20 cents a day, and that Balli. Saheb also unveiled the marble half of this is enough to support a famtablet recording the loving gift of the ily of 5 after Chine~e fashion. In cities Christian philanthropist to distant and carpenters and masons get 30 cents a foreign land and people." day without food; servants, $6 a month -Mrs. Elwell writes from Moulmein, without food; farm hands, $17.50 a Burma: "It grieves me that many of year without food; clerks and account- the people at home do not look upon ants, $10 to $30 per month without school work as evangelistic. If they food. A soldier's pay is $5 a month could just come here and be a part of with board, but half of that is paid in it for a few years, they would under· rice. In some of the cities common la- stlfnd that the moulding and training borers will work for 6 cents a day.
of Christian character cannot be done -Rev. George B. Smyth tells a anywhere so well as in school. The stran!1,'e story of Chinese timidity and station school is the centre and soul of suspicion: "About 25 foreigners resithe entire work of the station. Our dent at Foochow-some of them misjungle schools in the Christian villages sionaries, some merchants, some conare self·supporting, except as they are ~uls-have summer cottages on a mounhelped by government." tain about nine miles distant from the -Our Chinese college at Singapore city. Thither they go in summer with has won the Queen's scholarship, worth their families to escape the terrible heat $1000 a year for four years, besides the of the plain. Heretofore onr presence prestige and influence which it gives there has attracted no extraordinaryat- to the school.-Northwestern Ohristian tention, but a few days ago we found Advocate. ourselves the objects of attention uni- China.-" It is no uncommon sight to versal, for we were charged with havmeet a priest in China going about beg. ing taken several large cannon up the ging, with four or five long skewers mountain, from the summit of which run through his forearm, and little rib- we intended firing down upon the city. bons hanging therefrom. Two I have So widespread and intense did this be· met had long iron rods running through lief become that the authorities, to sattheir cheeks, and they had made oath isfy the people, were compelled to send to remove them only when they had an official to investigate. And what a coIIected a certain sum of money suffi. trifling thing this whole report came cient to repair their temples. One has from! An English merchant one day had the iron rod through his face for sent a piano up to his cottage. It was over four months, living the While on put into a large box and carried by a soup and tea only. Another way of number of coolies. In answer to quesraising money is for a priest to take his tions by some of the people in the vilseat in a little brick sentry-box, and let lages through which they passed one of himself be walled in, leaving only a the carrier~, in a spirit of mischief, said small window through which he can see that there was a cannon in the box with and pull a rope by which a big bell is which the foreigners were going to blow sounded and the attention of passers-by the city to pieces!"
attracted. Here he will sit for months. -While the Siamese have made the I have known one to remain in his box white elephant their national emblem, for nearly a year without being able to the Korean soldiers have on their battIe-flag a winged tiger, spitting fire, chism. The pupils establish themselves holding the lightning in his claws. in the interior of the country, where " The.Koreans hunt the tigers one half they found new centres of propaganda. the year, and the tigers hunt the Ko- According to the latest report addressed reans during the other half," so say the to the Saint·Synode at St. Petersburg, Chinese. In Japan a nurse who wants there were at the end of 1892, 219 reto make the children" mind," fright- ligious communities established in difens them by telling them they will be ferent localities. The nnmber of the sent over to the" land of tigers," and faithful was then 20,325, that of the that bad boys and girls who are dis- preachers 128, and that of the music patched thither are clawed into ribbons professors 12. During the same year 'and chewed up to nothing. 952 Japanese were baptized, and from 4000 to 5000 during the year 1893. All Japan.-Miss Riddell, a missionary the members of the mission, priests, in Kumamoto. says that when the Bud- deacons, catechists, and preachers, are dhist priest, Yatsubuchi Banryo, was Japanese, except 3 who came from Russent as a representative to the Parlia- sia. There are at Tokyo a school of ment of Religions, Buddhist believers catechism, a theological seminary with were asked to defray his expenses. He 53 pupils, a school of music, and a received subscriptions amounting to girls' college with 76 pupils. There $80,000 that he might put in a worthy are schools also at Hakodate and Osaka. appearance, a sum representing the ex- A bureau is established at Tokyo, with pense of 130 missionaries for a year. 8 Japanese who work incessantly trans- lating Rnssian ecclesiastical books. -TM Japan Mail reports the substance of an address made by Doki -A public farewell was given Rev. Horyu Shi, a Buddhist priest, sent to and Mrs. H. S. De Forest, missionaries the Parliament of Religions at Chicago of the American Board, on the eve of as a representative of the Shingon sect. their departure from Japan. Among After the close of the Parliament he the addresses was one by the editor of travelled widely through Europe and a large daily in Northern Japan, who India, and on reaching home was wel- said: "The message I beg you to bear comed by a meeting of 200 prie!lts and to the people of America is this: Chrisother adherents. Among other remark- tian missionaries have now been workable things Mr. Doki stated that he ing here a full generation. There are was told that the Buddhists in the vicin- hundreds of men and women who have ity of Boston now numbered over 20,- brought half a million dollars annually 000 ! Affirming that Christianity is here to establish Christian schools and now declining in England, France, and churches. And how much have they Germany, he declared that, "side by accomplished? Really, when we see side with this gradual decay of Chris· that they have gained only a few tens tianity Buddhism is steadily gaining of thousands of converts, we can only ground, and there are many indications be sorry for them, and mnst call their that it is going to replace Christianity. work a failure. And yet, look all over The people of Europe are indeed eager Japan. Our 40,000,000 to day have a for the coming of priests." Well, higher standard of morality than we well! well!! have ever known. There is not a boy or girl throughout the empire that has -The work of Russian missionaries not heard of the one-man, one-woman in this land was begun not a long while doctrine. Our ideas of loyalty and obeago, and its rapid progress is due mainly dience are higher than ever. And to the efforts of Bishop Nicolas. This when we inquire the canse of this great prelate has founded schools for boys moral advance, we can find it in nothand for girls, theological colleges and ing else than the religion of Jesus." schools of ecclesiastical music and cate- AFRICA. with beads of all colors. With this -" Tunis is the largest city in North glittering head-gear and with brass and Africa after Alexandria. Its popula. beads hung over the whole body, they tion approaches 200,000, of which nearly make an appearance altogether unique a half are Arabs, and 40,000 Jews. To in this world. "
one whose travels have been confined – The Bulletin Missionaire has a let- to Christendom, the scenes presented in ter from Dr. Liengme, of the Romande this semi·Oriental city are novel and Mission in Southeast Africa, in which striking. The Arab in his turban and he states that Gungunyana's people are graceful burnouse; the Arab woman not free from the charge of cannibal- with her person euveloped in a white ism. "Lately 10,000 men and between robe, and, instead of a face, a sort of 2000 and 3000 women and children in hideous black mask with two holes for strange costumes went through the the eyes; the Jew wearing a fez, and royal dance in the king's presence. It his obese wife' lifting her horn on high' is the custom, on the last day for a arrayed in the most frightful unfemi- young boy and girl to be killed. At nine dress that human skill ever de- night near sunset a young • beef' Is vised-with numerous others in various brought by the people of the king's styles of European costume." So says household into a tightly closed kraal.
a' writer in the Bible Society Reporter. An eager fight is begun between them -Concerning the Bule people of and the animal, which they must with- West Africa, we are told: "Both men out any weapon, simply by their and women take great pains with their strength of arm, harass, throw down, hair, doing it up in the strangest and disembowel, and kill, pushing it with dirtiest way conceivable. A common savage cries. When they have destyle is to build it, with the aid of spatched the animal, they bring wrapstrips of bamboo, into three hard ridges ped in reeds the bodies of the two chi!- several inches high, running from the dren who have been sacrificed. The front to the back of the head. Each flesh of the victims is mingled with ridge is mounted with a close row of that of the animal. Thcn all the young common white shirt buttons. Some- boys are seized and brought, willingly times a card coutaining as many as six or by force, into the kraal. Some of dozen is sewed on above each ear. The them escape, unwilling to eat human ridges of hair do not always run fore flesh; others eagerly accept the invitaand aft. They are often in circles built tion. "
up like a story cake, and iced with but- -At the same time with the news of tons. Sometimes a kind of splash- the annexation of Pondoland to Cape board is built out behind, running from Colony, comes the tidings of the con- ear to ear, to hold more buttons. The version of the prime minister, Philip hair once arranged remains undisturbed Charles. He had returned home from for several months. It forms a con- a beer orgy, and in the following sleep venient place for wiping their hands or he was terrified by a vision of the last knives. After dressing it, grease is judgment. Falling on his knees, he smeared over, which in the sun melts begged for grace, and a voice bade him into the hair, some of it usually passing go to the mbsionaries' house. There through and running down the back. he was guided to the Lord Jesus, and The women, moreover, wear a strip of found forgiveness and peace. The re- monkey.skinor goat-skin an inch wide, ality of his conversion was shown by trimmed with buttons, of course, across the destruction of his numerous beer- the middle of the forehead. And be- pots and by the giving up of all his sides all this they have bangs all around wives except one. When the King of the head consisting of loose hair strung Pondoland heard of this he said: " Up to this time I have not believed in the and a cotton blanket and 2t yards calico existence of God. But after this conversion I must admit that there is one." with food Cor three months' work. We have tried to introduce the same scale -In the cemetery at Springfield. here; but boys come seeking work, Mass., there may now be seen a plain engage for three or four months, make marble shaft over the grave of Rev. the fairest promises ab~ut working well, Aldin Grout. A most interesting fact being obedient, accepting the pay due connected with this is that it was erect- to them cheerfully without asking for ed by gifts from South Africa, where anything in addition, etc., but after a Mr. Grout labored for thirty-six years. week or ten days tliey are tired, want It is a custom among the Zulus, when blankets, shirts, calico, beads, brass, a friend leaves them not to return, to wire and other things, and because we present him with" grave money," to cannot give them create a great row, be used in procuring a suitable burial. which they will continue for two or When Mr. and Mrs. Grout returned three days almost incessantly, during from Natal in 1870 such a gift was which time they will pour out volumes made to them by the Zulus of umvoti, of the vilest insolence and utter the and was sufficient to meet the funeral most diabolical threats. One lot of expenses, and also to erect his monu- boys went further than threaten, they ment. entered my wagon, broke the lock of one of my trunks, and were helping -This cheering news comes from themselves to its contents, when we Blantyre: .. The native church has with the help of two men from another sprung up very rapidly. In 1887, 3 tribe stopped them. They acted like were haptized, in 1888 and 1589 6, in demons, and both Mr. Buckenham and 1890 a large number, and at intervals I received blows from their sjamboks. there have been groups of catechumens. We could not and did not yield to their There have been in all 199 baptisms, demands." and there are 151 native communicants. Quite lately the roll of the catechumens' – In the Rapport du ConBeil de la jJ;Iisclass suddenly increased to 70. The Bien Romande. recently presented to villages round about have been stirred; the Synod of the Free Evangelical sevelal of the old headmen and women Church of the Canton de Vaud, Switcome, and the promise of a widespread zerland, are found some details of the work seems to be near realization. work of that mission, which is in Baptism was administered on Whitsun- Southeast A frica. Beginning in the Transvaal in the year 1875, it has now day to SO of the catechumens. Almost 6 stations, with 13 out-stations. Two of the stations are at Valdezia and Elim all of them have been under Instruction in the Transvaal, where there are 377 for over five months. Since then 12 of adults connected with the churches. the most promising have been selected Three stations are on the shores of Delato be deacons, and are now under train· goa Bay, at Lorenzo Marquez, Rikatla, ing for the office." and Antioka. with 919 communicants and catechumens; and the sixth station -Rev. Arthur Baldwin writes from is at Shilouvane, in the Bokaha coun- Mushukulumbweland, the new station try, where there are 32 members. About of the Primitive Methodists: "We 2000 persons are "under the influence have great trouble about working boys. of the Gospel." There are now 7 na- It is a rule on the Zambesi, as almost tive teachers and 14 native evangelists, everywhere in South Africa, to engage who aid the 18 Swiss missionaries. boys by the month. The. French mis- Eight of these latter are ordai~ed men, sionaries have all along paid the same with their wives, !Iud two are lady rate of wages for raw boys as was paid teachers.
by M. Westbeach the trader-viz., 2t yards of calico and food for one month,
The Missionary Review of the World — November 1894
CAREY, AS PROFESSOR IN FORT WILLIAM COLLEGE
ATTENDED BY HIS PUNDIT.
(From the original painting in Regent's Park Bapt. College, London. A rare picture and best likeness extant.) MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVII. No.11.-0ld8erie8.-NOVEMBER.-VoL. VII. No. H.-New 8erie8.
THE HOMES OF CAREY.-II.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
SERAMPORE was the last of Carey's earthly homes, and is still fragrant with his footsteps and memory. There he and his co-workers constituted a Christian community very nearly resembling that of which we read in the Acts of the Apostles, and more recently illustrated in the Unitas Fratrum of the Moravians at Herrnhut.
In Ward's journal, January 18th, 1800, we read: "This week we have adopted a set of rules for the government of the family. All preach and pray in turn j one superintends the affairs of the family for a month and then another. Saturday evening is devoted to adjusting differences and pledging ourselves to love one another. One of our reso- lutions is that no one of us do engage in private trade, but that all be done for the benefit of the mission." .
About seven months later a further and fuller entry reveals not only the happy working of this brotherhood, but a few more details of method.
Six o'clock was the rising hour j eight, the hour for family worship and breakfast. They were then printing three half-sheets of 2000 each a week. At twelve noon they met for luncheon, and dined at three. After dinner there was a brief conference, when each contributed some thought on a text or a question of spiritual life. At seven tea was served. There was Bengali preaching once or twice a week, an experience meeting on Thursday evening, and on the first Monday of each month there was a meeting two hours before breakfast to pray for the salvation of Bengal heathen. At night prayer was united for the universal spread of the Gospel. Unanimity and brotherly love prevailed. We give these minute features because every little circumstance pertaining to this Serampore brotherhood is significant.
Five years later that famous" agreement" was formed which was to be read publicly at every station at their three annual meetings-namely, on the first Lord's Days in January, May, and October. That document, already published in full on pages 748-750 of the October issue of 1892 is worthy
THE HOMES OF CA.REY
of study. We question whether outside of the Acts of the Apostles any document can be found· that sounds more like an inspired covenant. It might have been composed by Paul and Peter, James and John, for their own guidance in the first missions of all Church history. It is marked by seven marvellous features : Faith in God, love for the Gospel, passion for the souls of men, a prayerful spirit, a cheerful self-denial, entire devotion to their work, and a singular spirituality of aim. It might well be printed and circulated for universal use in all mission stations of the world.
The home of Carey at Serampore was early made blest by three great events : The baptism of Krishnu Chundra Pal, the first convert; the publication of the first New Testament in Bengali; and the appointment of Carey to the professorship in Fort William College.
That first convert was, like his new·found Master, a carpenter. Mr. Thomas had set his dislocated arm and found him already burdened with sin; and he had pointed him to the only Saviour. Not only he but his family also declared in favor of the Gospel. A few weeks later an event was recorded whose influence on the whole future of India no words could express. Krishnu and Gokool, another convert, the two being of different castes, broke through the iron barriers, and partook of a meal in common and with Europeans. So important was this act, that, like a " love feast," it was preceded by prayer. Thomas and Carey, after seven years in India, thus beheld the first signs of a coming triumph, and exclaimed, as though in the inspired parallels of a prophetic psalm : " The door of faith is opened to the gentiles I Who shall shut it ?
The chain of caste is broken! Who shall mend it ?"
No sooner did the rumors spread that the institution of caste had thus been invaded, than among the natives excitement and disturbance arose. A crowd of more than two thousand gathered, who cursed the daring violators of ancient customs, and dragged them before a Danish magistrate, who, however, commended instead of condemning them. Krishnu was then indicted as violator of a marriage contract between his daughter and a man to whom she was betrothed, but again the charge was squashed, on the ground that the consent of the girl had never been given to the contract; and so the wrath of man was made to praise God, for two new les- -"Ons were taught the Hindus: First, that caste could be broken with impunity ; and, second, that women, and even girls, had some rights touching marriage which man is bound to respect.
Krishnu's baptism took place on the last Sabbath of the year 1800 together with that of Felix Carey-the first convert and the eldest son of Carey going together to the river. Many Europeans, Hindus, and even Mohammedans were present, as also the governor of the district. Felix was baptized after the English formula, and Krishnu after the Bengali. In
18M.] Tim HOMJlS OF
the afte1'lloon the Lora'!!I Supper was for the first time cerebrated in Bengali. What It Lord'!!I Day that was for India!
The !!light must have been a spectacle to angel8 88 well a8 men, and the Lord had planned the whole occasion in His wisdom as a typical event, forecasting things to come. It was worth waiting seven years to gather in one such ear from this harvest field. It must be remembered that Krishnu's baptism was a formal and solemn renunciation of all idols.
That first convert was the author of the communion hymn, with whose English version we are so familiar : .c 0, thou my soul, forget no more The Friend, who all thy misery bore ; Let every idol be forgot, But, 0 my soul, forget Him not."
The publication of the first Bengali Testament was an event scarcely less momentous. Carey had gone to India impressed with the conviction that no work was more important as a handmaid to the preaching of the Gospel than the translation of that Gospel into the native tongues of India.
We often forget as we speak of missionaries that the printed Bible is the greatest missionary in the world, and that the Bible Society is the greatest of missionary societies. The Bible never dies or grows old or feeble j it is as young after thousands of years as ever j never is prostrated by disease, never acts indiscreetly or proves unequal to the strain of work, never dabbles in politics, or enters into unhappy marital alliances, or commits any other of the thousand mistakes of fallible mortals.
As early &s 1796 Carey had put on record his belief that the translation of the Scripture8 i8 one of the grandest aids to missions, and his opinion is 8ingularly verified in the fact that no missions have ever been permanently useful and successful unles8 the Bible ha8 thus been given to the people. If there be any 8ervice singularly rendered to the Oriental peoples by Carey which makes hi!! work unique, it i8 his remarkable success in bringing the vernacular Bible into contact with one sixth of the world's population. When on February 7th, 1801, the New Testament appeared in the Bengali dialect, a special meeting for thanksgiving was held, and that day stand!! out and apart &8 memorable, &8 when Dr. Hepburn presented the Japane8e with the Scripture8 in their own tongue. This was but the beginning, however, of Carey's work a8 a translator.
Within two month8 of landing he had begun on Genesi8, and soon was doing a chapter a day. A8 he translated he read what he had written, to hundreds of the native8, to find how far it wa8 intelligible and accurate. His greatest difficulty was the incapacity of the language to t3Yp1"6SS spiritual ideas, but the plodder again triumphed. Before the close of 1795 he began hi8 great grammar and dictionary. By the middle of 1796 he had almost completed the Pentateuch and the New Testament. By March, 1797, the New Testament was ready for final revision, and published in
HOMES OF CAREY
1801. In 1309 the Bengali version was completed. This was but the beginning rather than the end, and however much he owed to the help of his colleagues in the mission, it still remains true that the Bengali, Hindostani, and Sanscrit he translated with his own hand. In 1825 he stated that the New Testament would shortly appear in thirty-four languages, and the Old Testament in eight (beside versions in three varieties of the Hindostani New Testament), and of these he had translated several and superintended an !
In 1812 fire ravaged the mission press, destroyed fonts of type, valuable manuscripts, thirty pagM of the Bengal Dictionary, and all the materials gathered for years for the dictionary of all languages derived from the Sansclit. The total loss was $50,000, yet God so interposed that the friends at home in fifty days made up the whole loss so tar as money could repair it.
At the time ~ Carey's death the Scriptures entire or in part had been 't8suedinjorty languages or dialects, and within nine years nearly 100,000 volumes, including 31,000,000 pages, had passed through the mission press. No wonder that in 1875 Dr. Wenger said: "It passes my comprehension how Dr. Carey was able to accomplish one fourth of his translations. " It still remains a mystery how one man could have done such a work, and he an apostate from the awl !
The third conspicuous event referred to is Carey's appointment to a government professorship.
This naturally followed upon his pioneer work as a translator, for the new Bengali Testament pointed to the man who had in so short It time done so great a work as the fit candidate for such an appointment. At first Carey feared that such a chair in the college might collide with his work as a missionary, but that apprehension was removed; and, in fact, it was as a missionary that he was appointed. For thirty years Carey held his chair in Fort William College.
He began teaching Bengali, afterward Sanscrit and Mahratta; and when he rose from teacher to professor of the three languages, and his income was some $4500, he unselfishly reserved for his own use less than a thirtieth part of this sum, turning all the rest into the mission treasury, an example of self-sacrifice that reminds us of John Wesley.
What a hold Mr. Carey had on both his colleagues and pupils may be inferred from his appointment, four years later, as the Moderator in the Annual Disputation, when he was selected also to give the address to the viceroy. In that address he referred to his vocation as a missionary and to his desire for the evangelization of the natives. Lord Wellesleyexpressed himself as greatly pleased with the address, of which he " would not have had one word altered;" and added, as to Carey's expressions of regard, " I esteem such a testimony from such a man a greater honor than the applause of courts and parliaments!" And yet this was the man who twenty years before had been a cobbler at Hackleton, unknown to the world.
MEMORIAL CHAPEL, HACKLETON, ENGL,Um
CHAPEL, PARK ST., NOTTINGHAM, ENG. (Where Carey, May 31, 1792, preached the sermon on Isaiah LIV: 2, 3, which led to the organization of the Baptist Missionary Society, at Kettering, in October following.)
THE HOllIES OF OARBY
The necessity for brevity, as well as the purpose of these papers on the Homes of Carey, leads to the passing over of the incidents of the Serampore experience, such as the mutiny of 1806 and the complications to which it led. Suffice to say that, in this crisis, when missionary work was threatened with curtailment and suppression, Carey acted with mingled courage and caution. Enemies of missions were active, and a prohibition was actually issued by the governor-general against the services held in Calcutta, and an order for the removal of the mission press; but in answer to prayer God wrought deliverance.
Then, in 1813, came the debate in England over the renewal of the East India Company's charter, in which Mr. Marsh made himself so infamous Bnd Wilberforce and Wellesley made themselves so famous. Mr. Marsh set Carey and his" fellow-apostates of the loom and anvil and awl" in the pillory, as " renegades from the lowest handicrafts" and" tub preachers" I The struggle issued, however, in the restriction of the company's power and the enlargement of the missionaries' freedom.
The whole story of Carey's residence and experience in Serampore is a romance of reality. It bears and invites closest examination, but our space forbids. But it must be noted how CALCUTTA became in a sense another of Carey's homes. The importance of a place of worship and Gospel teaching in that city led to the building of a chapel in Lal Bazaar, wh~ch was opened on New Year's Day, 1809; and as Carey's duties as professor took him regularly to Calcutta, he took a prominent part in the services; and so this marvellous " plodder" filled up all his time with a variety and multiplicity of duties seldom equalled by the most industrious men. To all his other work his passion for souls led him to add itinerating preaching tours.
Near the end of 1807 his wife died. She had been a great source of trial, both by her physical and mental ailments, but her husband showed his tender heart and noble spirit in the patient and considerate manner in which he bore his depressing burdens. For twelve years her condition was distressing, yet he did his work with an insane woman in the next room.
The next year Mr. Carey married his second wife, Miss Rumohr, who proved as great a help as his first wife had been a hindrance. When after thirteen years of married life she also was removed by death, he bore testimony that during all this time their conjugal happiness had been as great as was ever enjoyed by mortals. She was sympathetic, educated, consecrated, and most helpful to him in his work as a translator, habitually comparing the English, German, French, and Italian versions, and persistently working at any difficulty until it was removed. Only eternity can tell how much Carey's ultimate triumphs as translator were owing 1;,<> her help, whose kingdom came not with observation.
We must pass by all that the cobbler of Paulerspury wrought as a general benefactor of mankind. The first great reform that he sought to effect was the abolition of child sacrifices at the Gunga Saugor anniversaries. At this spot, where the Ganges meets the sea, sacrifices were held to be specially meritorious, and so thoroughly hAve these practices been discontinued that a native Hindu lately in this country has had the effron- tery to deny that they ever existed.
The Suttee immolation of widows likewise owes its abolition in great part to Carey. He sought to arouse the British conscience on the sub- ject. It was found that 400 cases took place' within 30 miles' radius of Calcutta j and at last Governor Bentinck decreed the entire cessation of this abomination, and when the Brahmins insisted that their consciences taught them that widows should so burn on their husbands' pyre, his calm response was: "Follow your conscience, but an Englishman's conscience teaches him that everyone of you that abets. such a crime should pay the death penalty." When the proclamation was issued Carey received a requisition to translate it into the vernacular, and the. order reached him on Saturday afternoon. He felt the matter to be so urgent that all other duties were laid aside, and before the Sabbat4 dosed. the proclamation was ready for circulation. The benevolent institution for instruction of Eurasian children, the leper hospital, the first vernacular newspaper-these are some of the blessings directly traceable to William Carey.
His services to science as a botanist and naturalist remind us of David Livingstone, whom in many respects he closely resembled. He acquainted himself with geology, agriculture, horticulture. The Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India owed itll origin to him, as also the Serampore College, which under his presidency took root in the soil of Iudia.
Over forty years William Carey made his home in the land of the Vedas, and this long stay was unbroken by any visit to England. During his last days he received many notable visitors, and none of them had a more vital connection with his life and labors than Alexander Duff, who became in a very important sense his successor. Dr. Culross tells the pathetic story of the recall of Duff, as he was leaving Carey's room on one of the last, if not the last of these visits, and how Carey said: "Mr. Duff, you have been speaking about Dr. Carey. When I am gone say nothing more about Dr. Carey, but about Dr. Carey's Saviour."
And so in June, 1834, sixty years ago, in his seventy-third year, this prince of missionaries to the Hindus, and one of the six greatest missionaries since Paul, left the land of the Ganges for the LAlm OF GLORY, the last, the _best of Oarey'8 home8.
We close these imperfect notes upon the life of this remarkable man by a quotation from Robert Hall, who, fifteen years after Carey's departure for India, succeeded him in the Harvey Lane Chapel at Leicellter.
Robert Hall referred to William Carey all that " extraordinary man, who, from the lowest poverty and obicurity, without assistance, rose by dint of unrelenting industry to the higheit honors of literature, became one of the first of Orientalists, the first of missionaries, and the instrument of diffusing more religious knowledge among h~ contemporariei than has
CAREY'S HOUSE AT LEICESTER. THE PULPIT IN HARVEY LANE CHAPEL
(In the cen!er.) (Memorial 'rable! (0 Caley, Uobert Hall, etc.)
A GENERAL VIEW OF ECUADOR
fallen to the lot of any individual since the Reformation-a man who united with the most profound and varied attainments the fervor of an evangelist, the piety of a saint, and the simplicity of a child."
A GENERAL VIEW OF ECUADOR.
BY ALEXANDER McLEAN, LATE CONSUL OF THE UNITED STATES AT GUAYAQUIL.
Ecuador, as its name indicates, is an equatorial country. The observatory in Quito, its capital, is exactly on the line, and has an elevation of over 9500 feet. To most of us, Ecuador is a small tinted spot on the western side of the map of South America, profusely ornamented with feathery markings supposed to represent mountains. There are many mountains there; but the markings on the maps indicate neither their size nor position.
The most westerly point of Ecuador and of South America is Cape San Lorenzo. It is 80.55° west, Greenwich time. This is the meridian that marks the boundary line between Ohio and Pennsylvania. The boundary line between Brazil and Ecuador is 68° west, or on the meridian of Bangor, Maine. The width of Ecuador is, therefore, about equal to the distance between New York and Chicago. Its coast line on the Pacific is about the same length as between New York and Charleston, S. C. The area of Ecuador is about 218,000 square miles. This ~bout equals the New England and Middle States and Ohio.
There are nine States or provinces in Ecuador, each with a governor and a separate legal existence. The form of government is said to have been copied from the United States, but it is a poor copy. The defeated party in a presidential election usually appeals to the sword. When they are successful there is a revolution ; when they are not it is simply a rebellion.
The country is transversed in a generally north-and-south direction by the Andes and the Cordilleras. Between the two main ranges lies a hilly plain called the inter-Andean plateau. East and west of the giant ranges there are other mountains, which gradually give way to plains on the east along the Amazon, and on the west to the Pacific Ocean.
The country has the greatest diversity of climate, ranging from the heat of a tropical swamp to the bleak cold far above the line of vegetation. Every vegetable product may be found by ascending the mountains, from the rank growth on the sea-shore to the stunted pines neal' the ice line. Every shade of humidity may be found as a constant in some part, from the rainless plains on the Peruvian line to the daily showers on the north. The rainy season moves up and down the coast over 16" of latitude. When it is farthest north the southern line of rain is at. Esmeraldas, in the northern part of Ecuador. When the rain belt is farthest south its northern bo~dary is at . Esmeraldas, hence its rains. The trade winds, in passing from the south Atlantic, yield up the last drop of water in crossing the Andes. The icy crown being fed by this moistnre, forIllB glaciers that move down the mountains and feed the streams. Many of the snowy crowns rise from 1000 to 7000 feet above the line of vegetation, and the constant accretion from snow and rain as the winds sweep over these mountains below the dew point maintains an endless supply of water in the streams. These streams become rivers. In Chili and Peru there is no western current such as blows from the Pacific across Colombia and Ecuador. The Andes cut off their clouds and rain from the east winds, and consequently in those countries there is no rain. In Ecuador one end of the country has six months' rain, while the other end has a dry season, and vice versa. A section of the country would show two immense ridges averaging 12,000 feet in elevation, with the inter-Andean plateau averaging about 9000 feet, and two sections sloping to the Pacific on the west and to the Amazon valley on the east. The eastern section is the largest. It is inhabited by Indians still uncivilized, who have their own language and are practically unknown to white men or their commerce. The western section is the smallest and most important. The littoral contains three States, known as the maritime provinces. These are Esmeraldas, Manibi, and Guayas. The States east of them are very mountainous, the towns in them having an elevation from 8000 to nearly 10,000 feet.
Thus we have a country containing mountains that may be measured in miles instead of feet, the largest of rivers, vegetation irrigated by neverfailing rivers and fecundated by a vertical sun, producing results unequalled since the coal period-a country with.. diversity of contour and beauty of landscape second. to none. It is not strange that Baron von Humboldt and other savants ha.ve gone there in search of scientific facts, nor that Church, the painter, went. there to catch the. coloring for his sunset in the tropics.
rr:he inter-Andean plateau is the wheat belt. Its elevation is equal to the 40° that separate us from the equator. Apples, peaches, strawberries, and most of the fruits that are familiar here grow there in abundance. Viewed from the mountains, its tilled fields recall Central New York. It was the home department, the District of Columbia of the Inca Government, the civilization that preceded tho Spanish conquest. It was one of the sections that was visited by priestly vandalism. Its records and build- ings were destroyed. Here and there remains of Indian labor still exist, and in some things it shows that they had advanced {arther than their conquerors have done to this day. They had good roads; and the only road in the country to-day is one built by the Indians, which can be followed from Quito to La Paz, a distance of more than 1500 miles. The Indian cement in which the paving stones were laid has outlasted the stone.
The mountains are massed in central ECUlldor as they are nowhere else. From many of them thirty tall peaks can be seen in a single glance. Only two of them are known outside of the c.ountry-Cotopaxi and Chim.- borazo. Cotopaxi is a volcano. It IS 19,500 feet high. lis snow crown is 4400 feet high, and above that the rocky mouth of the crater lies bare. '1Jhe crater is 1500 feet deep, and the smoke is visible at a great distance. A few years ago, during a period of activity, Captain Murdoch, of the steamer Oasma, passed through a shower of its ashes a hundred miles at sea, and the fine dust fell on my piazza in Guayaquil. Chimborazo is visible from Guayaquil in clear weather, and is always a surprising sight, especially when the sun has dropped below the horizon, and its rays still toueh snowy Chimborazo with a rosy glow. Sangay, a mountain south of Chimborazo, has flowed ever since the Spaniards landed. Its faint boom at intervals of ten minutes can be heard in Guayaquil during the stillness of the night, though it is nearly a hnndred miles away. Pichincha, north of Cotopaxi, with Quito resting on its shoulder, is a triple-headed extinct volcano nearly 15,000 feet high. The average elevation of Quito is about 9500 feet. From its streets eight snow-capped mountains can be seen. The streets are paved, but hilly, and the city is picturesque. Streams run through the city, supplying an abundance of melted ice water from the glacial mountain tops. There are a great many churches, convents, and monasteries. It is said to have more priests in comparison to population than any other city in the world.
From the mountain section numerous rivers reach the coast, each with branches like trees. The towns are all on waterways, and so are the dwellings. In the interior most of the travelling and visiting is done in canoes. Roadways are supGrfluous in the maritime provinces. The principal river is the Guayas, and the principal city is Guayaquil on its banks, sixty miles from the sea. It is as much the front door of the nation as New York is of the United States, though there are numerous small seaports. Where the muddy waters of this big river rush past the city it is a mile wide, seven fathoms deep, with a tidal rise of fourteen feet and a current that runs seven miles an hour. The entrance to the river is a broad gulf dotted with islands and bordered with swamps. Here Nature hides her fevers, as she does her wounds, with new creations of beauty. The sea- ' weary traveller sees bright patches of greensward inlaid in black.green frames of dense mangel trees, fringed with graceful palms and undulant bamboos. Confluent rivers open up new reaches for the vision into the ,bosom of virgin forests, and the houses of rancheros and haciendados give 'glimpses of anew, strange life.
When the eye begins to weary of the leafy panorama, a turn in the 'river reveals the city. If seen first in the evening, the effect is charming. The river front is a broad street, with a league of white buildings which ,appear to be a succession of arches. The street is abundantly illuminated with gas and electric light, and having houses on one side only, and no Ipiers to impede the view from the river,. a visitor is very favorably impressed.
Experience and familiarity destroy much of the favorable impression. The city is o"er a league in length and more than a mile wide. It has a river on tlie front and a broad estuary behind it. The citizens are mainly native creoles. The business and government are carried on by them. They are descendants of Spaniards and natives. They are white, with varying shades. The working population is pure Indian. There are a few colored people and a few Zambos, a mixture of Indian and Ethiopian. There are fewer foreigners in Guayaquil than in any of the other large ~ities of South America. In the whore country there are not a dozen Americans. The creoles are mteIligent, and sharp commercial people. They are a small minority of the total population. In the absence of an actual census only approximate tota1s can be given. It is believed that there are 100,000 white or nearly white natives, three times as many halfbr~eds, and about 800,000 Indians.
The educated white men are merely nommal Roman Catholics. The half-breeds are more ignorant than the whites, and their bigoted zeal is proportionately greater. The Indians are practically without religion, though they conform to'a limited extent to Catholic forms where they live in towns. The tribes living in the eastern end of the country are indescribably uncivilized. A tribe living on the west coast, occupying the Cayapa valley, a territory about the size and shape of the State of Delaware, have never been conquered by the Spaniards, and refuse to recognize any government. They will not allow white people to settle in their territory.
The country is sparsely settled, and the churches are all in the towns. Roman Catholicism is the State religion ; none other is allowed. Heretics visit the country at their own risk. They are only tolerated. So far as I know there has only been one attempt made to establish a mission in the country. In 1878 Bishop Williams, a Methodist missionary who has a theory, paid a visit to Guayaquil. He resolved to send a missionary there. His plan was to send a minister to open a school. The children were to receive primary instruction in English; their parents were to pay for the service, and thus a self-supporting station was to be established. About a year later Rev. Mr. Price arrived in Guayaquil. He was provided with a boxful of primary school books. He could not speak Spanish. The laws of the country did not authorize the importation of heretical books. He had trouble. and delay in getting his books out of the custom house. Before he got them he contracted the fever peculiar to the coast, and narrowly escaped with his life. His errand was not popular. There were no English-speaking children in the city except my own, and I did not need a missionary.
Some years ago an attempt was made to pass a freedom· of-worship bill, but it failed by three votes, although a strong pressure was brought to bear on Congress through the Foreign Department. One of the lawmakers who voted against the bill said" he was in favor of it, but did not think the country was ripe for it. An ignorant' and bigoted people and priesthood would create trouble. If foreigners were allowed to enter they would build churches, and the rabble would destroy them and probably kill some of the worshippers. This would embroil the nation with nations more powerful. We recognize the fact that we would be better off if we had a good many Americans here, because of their energy and enterprise; but we have those that are here, and we must do the best we can with them. "
The educated minority would gladly get rid of the priests; and on one occasion, in Guayaquil, the Jesuits were forced to leave the country. There is no public record of the number of priests, though every priest is on the national pay-roll. Each province has a bishop with an ecclesiastical staff, and there is one archbishop. A tax of 10 per cent is collected on all agricultural produce for the bishops, and an added 7 per cent for rectors. The curates are paid $75 a month. In Guayaquil there are said to be about 200 priests, ranging from the well-to-do to the barefooted mendicants. The mendicants go through the market, and if the hucksters do not see them coming the best fruits and vegetables go into the basket, and the unfortunate venders have to be content with a scant blessing.
Services begin in the churches at three o'clock in the morning. Each church has a chime of bells. Each bell has a separate rope and ringer. The object of each ringer is to make as much noise as possible. They run up and down the scale with a rhythmic clangor. There is not a bell in the city that is not cracked except the clock tower bells on the cathedral and market.
In providing for their wants the priests charge for every servic~. Mass for the dear departed is too dear for the lower classes, and a mass is frequently split up as the lottery prizes are. If a man or woman cannot afford a whole mass he can get half of it, or any lesser percentage, if he can find others willing to subscribe. Then the mass is said for Tom, Dick, and Harry, and-others. The others can fill in the blanks. The churches have no pews. The women go to church accompanied by a servant. The latter carries a priedieu, and the worshipper kneels on it. The men, generally few in number and more interested in the worshippers than in the service, stand during the mass.
The Sundays are holidays. Cockpits are owned by the city; and I have seen priests in uniform-they all wear uniforms-hetting in the ring. The theatres are open on Sunday evening. The hull ring in Guayaquil was open on Sunday afternoons until recently, when the growth of the city made the land more valuable for building purposes. The devout worshippers rose in time to take in early mass, in order to have morning, afternoon, and evening free for pleasure.
The funerals are a large source of priestly revenue, and they form an interesting spectacle. They are always held at night. When the family can afford it, the priest, with assistants and attendants, marches at the head of the procession. When thE: priests have an out-of-doors function, they march in the uniform worn at the altar. A canopy is carried over them, and a guard of soldiers with fixed bayonets march on each side of them. The mourners carry lanterns with candles in them. The extent of the grief is supposed to be shown by the number of mourners. Indians carry the lanterns, and receive fifty cents apiece. The cross-bearer is preceded by a man ringing a bell. Every house must show a burning candle or lamp as the funeral procession passes: The church orchestra marches behind the priest, playing a dirge. The poor people who cannot afford a priest or an orchestra hire handorgans, and sometimes the music is set for dancing. By playing slowly it has a sufficiently doleful sound. One man carries the organ on his back, and another, who walks behind, turns the crank. They never keep step, and frequently the man behind loses his grip on the handle. This adds to the funereal character of the music.
It is useless to speak of the character of the priests. There are some good ones. They have charge of all the schools, and in two of the cities they have hospitals. At Quito there is a school of science conducted by Jesuits, and it is fairly well managed. In Guayaquil there are two large· schools, one called the boys' college, the other for girls. The education imparted is superficial, and more time is spent in learning the saints' calendar and Church history than in acquiring useful knowledge. The white people are given to hospitality, and their manners in public are perfect.
The Indians are stupid and degraded; the stolidity of their ignorance is beyond comprehension~ It is a disgrace to the Spaniards and their descendants that the Indiaus grow worse instead of better; that, with centuries of history behind them, their conquerors have accomplished nothing for the unfortunate aborigines. Not only have the Indians been neglected by the Roman Catholics, but the negroes have been allowed to return to the condition they lived in before they were removed from Africa. After emancipation many years ago negroes flocked to the rivers Santiago, Mimbi, Cachati, and Bogota, and formed villages, aJld to the number of 2000 live as savages. Playa de Oro, one of these negro settlements, showil a nude population, ignorant and bestial, a disgrace to the nation.
In Guayaquil and the larger towns the men wear light clothing made in Parisian styles. The women wear trailing dresses and French shoes, but no hats. The mantilla serves in place of bonnets. The Indians are fully attired with trousers and a hat. A poncho is added in cool weather. The Meztizos-descendants of whites and Indians-are the artisans. There are scarcely any manufacturers. The carpenters, masons, painters, and paper-hangers are all of the mixed race. The absence of wheeled vehicles make public porters a necessity, and they are all Indians. They carry their burdens mainly on their heads. Every white person has a retinue of servants-a Plan to do errands, a cook, a washerwoman, a house servant, and their retainers constitute the retinue. The cook has no stove. There are no chimneys in the country. The kitchen fire is made in a box filled with sand. The cooking utensils are made of earthenware, and the fire is fed with charcoal. Several children, usually the cook's family, are required to fan the fire. Ladies do not go to grocery stores or the market; these errands are attended to by the errand man. He is given a daily allowance, and spends as little of it as possible. That makes a constant feud between him and the cook. The utter lack of cleanliness keeps white people out of the kitchens, and the service is wor.se than can be imagined. Living for white people is expensive, while for the Indians $3 a week suffices for a family.
The houses in the maritime provinces are built with heavy hewn timber frames. The walls are made of macerated bamboo covered with adobe, and papered inside and out. The lower story is smaller than the upper story, the piazzas projecting over the sidewalks to the line of the curbstones. The white people live in the upper stories; the lower stories are used by Indians and negroes, or for stores and storage rooms. The stores are small and well filled, but each store requires one or more storage rooms. There are no glass windows. The store fronts are all doors, and when they are open the entire interior is on exhibition.
'rhe heavy timbers of the buildings are required to support the weight of tile roofs and to steady the houses in earthquakes. In the colder mountain sections the walls are lower on account of more frequent earthquakes, and are built of stone, adobe, brick, or mortar and broken stone. The broken stone and mortar make the best wall for earthquakes. Th~ mortar and stone are moulded in layers in situ, and when they harden the wall may crack in all directions, but the broken stone dovetails the cracked wall together, and it will not fall.
From the isthmus down to the southern end of Chili is 4867 miles. Only the 417 miles occupied by Ecuador is closed to missionary effort. That will be closed so long as heretics are at best only tolerated, not allowed. There are 4450 miles open to the missionaries; but there are no missionaries for the 9pening. Out of a total of more than sixty seaports on that coast, only five have missionaries.
South America extends from 15° north of the equator to 55° south of it, and has every kind of climate and country that we have from the West Indies to Labrador; every degree of intelligence in its population, from bright, keen business men and diplomats, to the hopeless Indian in his unspeakable wretchedness. It has well-built, beautiful cities with large populations, like Buenos Ayres, that is drawing near to a million souls; Lima, which approximates Boston, and a number of cities over the hundred thousand line, besides thousands of smaller cities, towns, and villages. It offers every age and condition of mankind for missionary work, and every kind of climate. .But somehow there are not many takers for the offer&!. Well has this been termed the NEGLECTED CONTINENT.
THE PROSPECT
THE PROSPECT.
BY CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
Is it certain that Christianity will always continue to prevail, or even to exist in England. and America, active as it now is in and from these countries 9 Why should it be certain ~ The Church is not more firmly established among us than she was for generations in North Africa, from which, nevertheless, she has been swept out, almost to the last shred, for some eleven hundred years. Mormonism, uniting a vileness far exceeding that of Islam to an organization compared with which that of Rome, so much dreaded by us, is loose and flaccid, and filled with immitigable malignity toward Christianity, already prevails in one great mountain commonwealth, and holds the balance of power in several others, showing no signs of decline, however much it may yield for the moment to invinci- ,ble necessity, as to the practice of its social tenets. As much more dan- gerous than Mormonism as an impalpable malaria is more dangerous than an armed host, the subtle poison of necromancy fills our whole atmosphere. We do not mean the mere opinion that the departed sometimes manifest themselves to the living, which of course has no doctrinal significance, but the belief that truth and duty are to be henceforth discovered by magical consultations ot the dead. This system detrudes Christ from His unique- ness of place in the universe, blots the Creator out of view behind a murky , cloud of wavering ghosts, is found to unhinge all the principles of right and wrong, to profane and dissolve the sanctities of home, to give sensual passion the sanction of an imagined command from above, and parts the life of its victims between a fatuous confidence and a ghastly fear. We plume ourselves on our enlightenment above our ancestors, yet the only difference between us and them is, that they believed in sorcery and utterly abhorred it, while we believe in sorcery and toy with it, and compliment it, and even sometimes (happily as yet but seldom) invite the pontiffs of its dark rites into our own pulpits.
As to Christ in public life, we have ceased to expect, a few States excepted, any mention of Him even in religious pl'oclamations, except in the date, from which we should be ready any day to see His name thrust out. Now it is either true that all authority is committed to Him in heaven and earth, or it is false. If it is false, why do we any longer call Him our Lord! If it is true, why do we consent to have Christian men in public trust unchristianized in their public acts 1 It is well to shrink from being persecutors, but it is unmanliness and cowardice to allow others to persecute us out of the public and private expression of our public and private faith. Better that these pagan proclamations should cease than that they should be afraid to return to the time when they witnessed that they were addressed to a Christian people.
Of course the hereditary enemies of the Christ of God are not slow to find their acconnt in all thi!!. They are helped in this by th~ senseless divisions of Christians, who to gain a point against one another are not ashamed to call in the help of the common foe. We have seen lately, quoted with evident glee in a Christian journal, a sneering declaration from a Jewish journal, referring to the proposal that the projected Cathedral of St. John the Divine shall serve also as a national mausoleum. The Jewish writer mockingly says that the American people are not likely to be found on intimate terms with St. John the Divine. Now, seeing that the American people, as a whole, are as yet; at least, a Christian people, as the Supreme Court has of late emphatically affirmed, this taunt on the part of the Jewish hater of the sublime apostle would be an intolerable insolence, were it not for his evident hope that the identification of the nation with Christ may yet be undermined and exploded. Viewed in that light, we cannot fairly call it anything more than a legitimate manoouvre of war.
This writer says that Jonathan is too genuine a man to be a saint, or, it seems, to have anything to do with saints. The evident, and evidently intended implication, is, that the apostles were not genuine men. The apostles are now exalted above the scourgings of the Sanhedrim, but the true inheritance of mocking hate has not departed from the sons of the Sanhedrim.
A Jewish lady, also quoted, with somewhat effusive appreciation, in a Christian journal, gives a really noble description of our Lord's life on its human side, but with an evidently settled determination to ignore the absolute incompatibility of this admiration with the continued rejection of His unmistakable claims to spiritual supremacy, as well over His brethren of Israel as over the world. Christianity, she declares, has no power of compelling Jewish conviction. The Inquisition, she says, could never make them Christians, and all the mild but zealous efforts of Presbyterianism have failed to secure a single honest convert. If she had consulted Mr. Henry C. Lea, she would have been reminded that the Inquisition never undertook to make the Jews Christians. It exercised jurisdiction (apart from cases of insult offered to Christianity) only over those who had already accepted baptism. Accordingly, as Mr. Lea shows, conversions from Judaism were at a stay between the setting up of the Inquisition and the banishment of the Jews from Spain. However, passing over this, and coming to the present, we see that this lady describes the one hundred thousand free accessions of Jews to Christianity within this century as having all been feigned. According to her, such men as Neander, Caspari, the elder Delitzsch family, Rabbinowitz, Rabbi Frye, Bishop Alexander, Bishop Gobat, and a thousand others like them, have all been hypocrites alike! Purity of life, long and unpretending labors, and that unfailing benignity which is the surest sign of sincerity, all go for naught with her. She cannot possibly know the heart, but having, by a sheer exercise of proud resentfulness of will, set it down as an axiom that no Jew can honestly become a Christian, the most luminous demonstrations of character no longer signify anything to her. Of courSE this assumption of hers is reflected upon all the past, for if the Jews of the first century could honeatly own Jesus for the Messiah, it is plain that those of the nineteenth century can.
" He that despiseth you, despiseth Me." Christ, through all the ages, has awed and daunted men. Therefore they have been wont to express boundless admiration of Him, and have contented themselves with con- temning those who believe on Him. This attempt to worship the Foun- tain and abhor the stream is curiously illustrated in a heathen oracle given, I believe, in the third century. Some pagans who were disquieted by the rapid advance of the Church asked of some shrine-perhaps Delphi itself -what they were to think of this new sect. The answer was to this effect: "The foolish people are hopeless of cure, but that pious soul is exalted to heaven." All such attempts, continually renewed, have every time hopelessly broken down. Christ's claims of spiritual supremacy are too indissolubly combined with every word and deed of His to be detached. We must either own Him for the Head of Israel and of man, or say frankly that He deserved His doom by an insane and impious arrogance. Far more logical and far more permanently sincere than thesc attempts at an impossible division was the frank brutality of that Jewish convention held in Paris some years ago, which was described as greeting with storms of applauding laughter every repeated reference of the scoffing president to "the Christ whom you have crucified." Here, still more than in honeyed words through which the underlying hatred and contempt will still exude, is to be found the really animating instinct of the Judaism of to-day.
We are very much disquieted over the Jesuits. We have good reason. They are only some twenty-five thousand avowed members, but their de- voted adherents are innumerable. "Their mission," says the Catholic priest and philosopher Gioberti, " is to diminish the amount of intelligence in the world," and faithfully have they discharged it. They repress intel- ligence where they can, and where they cannot they try to dwarf and dis- tort it. They wisely allow such a proportion of wisdom and spiritual inde- '" pendence even within their own order as to put a fair face on matters, but never forget their essential aim. Now, there /lre said to be twelve million Jews in the world, rather than seven. The vi"st bulk of them, we have good reason to believe, are simply desirous to earn an honest living, or to practise their religion without standing in anybody's way. Many of them are illustrious members of Christian States with whose faith they have not one thought of tampering. But seeing the uncommonly high percentage of mental ability and keen activity of character found among them, as well as of high culture, and the length of life belonging to them as a people, and assuming that there are five hundred thousand Jews in the world whom the inevitable inferences of their religious position, and the ages of cruelty which they have suffered during the barbarous times and among the barbarous races of Christendom, have kindled into invincible hatred, surely this half a million may well be expected, in annihilating effectiveness, to leave the Jesuits far out of sight. The Jesuits, indeed, first began to be the objects of dread and dislike when, about 1580 or 1590, their ranks were largely filled up with Spanish Jews. Wherever the Jews can obtain influence in Freemasonry, thElyare expected as of course (and they seldom disappoint the expectation) to turn it to ends of deadly animosity against the Church. On the Continent generally, but especially in Germany, they have long been wont to direct the press, which, as is known, they largely control, into bitter hostility toward every form of earnest Christian activity, especially toward missions. Their increasing control of the land gives them increasing rights of patronage over the parochial clergy, which they are not slow to use for the same end. Their increasing control over press and purse in this country is proceeding with no slack pace.
By the stealthy action of a heterodox council, the whole Church once, !lays Jerome, " suddenly woke up and found itself Arian." But let us not imagine that the world will ever suddenly wake up and find itself Christian. Weare not told that wilen Satan discovers that his time is short he becomes meek, but that he " hath great wrath." The Church, until these our Ameri.can days of rosewater and self-lauding optimism, has always believed that the victory would not come without a counter-incarnation of the devil; and in what race may we better hold it likely to come about than in that mighty and central people of mankind, which has been honored to receive the incarnation of God ~ It is promised that the gates of Hades shall not prevail against the Church; but neither could they prevail against her Lord, yet for a little while they swallowed Him up. There is therefore nothing in this promise to assure us that what the fathers succeeded in accomplishing against the Head, the sons may not succeed in accomplishing for a little while against the body. Infernal skill, availing itself of the contingencies waiting at every turn in a time when the very foundations of the world seem to be out of course, may, as in narrower ranges they often have done before, effect sudden reversals and overturnings of the most disastrous completeness. They will not be lasting, but they may be tremendous while they last. In spite of all our busy zeal, it is true that, in face of the sly encroachments of Antichrist, the note of a large part of our somewhat too dapper and smirking Christianity is, as an honored friend has said, " utter nervelessness. "
,.ur" And when those things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
PRESENT ASPEOTS OF MISSIONARY WORK IN TURKEY
PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE MISSIONARY WORK IN TURKEY.
BY A RETURNED MISSIONARY.
There are two points of view from which the m"lssionary problem in Turkey may be regarded. From one, we regard simply the actors as solely responsible for their acts and ready to justify them; from the other point we try to detect the many forces that often lie out of sight, which inspire the actors, and are often as efficient as they are obscure, and to most persons entirely unknown.
From the first point of view, the Turkish Government has entirely changed its policy toward American missions. In former times persecution came from Armenians or Catholics, who regarded their interests as compromised by our work. The Turkish Government regarded all Christian sects as equally ghiaouT8, and entitled to the same treatment. A Sheikh-ul-Islam gave this decision in a " fetva" as the dictum of the law.
Furthermore, in the beginning the Muzlims were inclined to friendly decisions in favor of Protestants, because of their rejection of picture and saint-worship, which is an abomination to the true Muzlim. This would still be the natural inclination of every Turk but for other influences.
A few years ago-perhaps six or eight, varying in different placesthere began to be manifested a spirit of repression toward our Protestant schools, churches, colporteurs, and every branch of our work. There have been exceptions to this conrse. Wherever there has been a governor of common sense and a spirit of justice-and there have always been such here and there-the old way of ey'ual justice has had its course. But repression has steadily gained, and it weighs heavily upon every department of Christian activity; and this spirit of repression has grown into a policy of very active opposition. Schools have been closed, churches have been shut, and colporteurs arrested, all on flimsy pretexts which only served to show the animus of the reaction ; and yet Turkey claims to be a civilized State!
In this process of annihilating missions, Turkey ignores the pledges she has given to Europe. In the celebrated royal rescript called the Hatti- Scherif of Gulhane, and in the still more celebrated Hatti-Humaiyoun of the Peace of Paris, the Sultan expressed to Europe the principles which were to guide his administration of government. These have been and are uniformly disregarded and trampled upon; and yet Turkey claims to be a civilized State!
The testimony and the oaths of Christian snbhcts are not allowed in the courts of justice (1) j and yet Turkey claims a civilization superior to any Christian State !
The governm~nt condones household slavery and polygamy and the manufacture and sale of eunuchs. The highest officers of state are part and parcel of this infamy; and yet they proudly claim that the Ottoman Government is an example of freedom and liberality to all the governments of Europe.
The Turkish Government crushes the schools of its Armenian subjects and forbids their emigrating to more enlightened countries, thus reducing them at once to ignorance and slavery. If a young man escapes and obtains a foreign education and citizenship and returns, his passport is his condemnation. He is imprisoned, beaten, his property confiscated, and he dies in utter wretchedness. As bribery universally governs the admin- istration of law, and as law is often the caprice of the judge, efforts on behalf of the wretched are of little use, unless backed by power. But the government coolly claims a place among the ciVilized nations of the earth!
For some strange political purpose this seems to be accorded.
In this effort to efface American missions there is a gross violation .of treaty rights. American citizens are to have all the rights, immunities, and privileges of the most favored nation. Have any Catholic missions been disturbed ~ Are the schools of the Jesuits closed, 'or in any way embarrassed ~ Are their books seized and confiscated Y Do Frenchmen have books of science, law, medicine, history, in the French language, seized at the port of entry, on their way to some Jesuit college, and never returned 1 American missionaries suffer these things, and any mild re- monstrance of our Government is treated with great politeness and absolute neglect.
The promise of indemnity for property destroyed is very easily and ,readily made, and very seldom fulfiJIed. The Turkish Government makes sport of these promises. As they mean nothing and cost nothing, they are the cheapest way of settling a difficulty; and they encourage the out- rages which may be the secret object of the government.
In these strained and unhappy conditions the missionary work pursues its way with all patience and hope and trust in God. In some places there are manifested more earnest effort and real progress. Some of the smaller and feebler churches, weighted down with destructive taxes, often gathered without giving any receipt, so as to be exacted a second time, thus driving the people to the famine point, have been almost blotted out.
They are unable to support even a teacher, and the missionary funds are so crippled that such places must be abandoned. In a few cases the enemy is accomplishing his purpose of effacement. In other places the work grows strol!g by trial. It is the old contest between " the gates of hell" and the kingdom of Christ. .
A very unfortunate influence, having no connection with the missionary work and utterly abhorred by it, has come in to embarrass it, and in some places to produce great evils. It is the revolutionary plot of the IIuntcha- gists. This absurd and wicked movement has its centre at Athens, and its branches i~ London, Paris, and Worcester, Mass. Its object is to establish secrGt revolutionary and insurrectionary coteries all over tme em- pire, wherever there is an Armenian population, large or small. They' profess to be secretly providing arms and ammunition, so that when oppor- tunity shall favor an effective blow may be struck. The leaders of this plot collect large sums of money from the poor Armenian laborers in this and other countries, and make them believe that it is all spent for arms and transportation. The Turkish Government is aware of all this, and it is not probable that a single rifle or a package of ammunition has belen introduced into the country. The contributors are, however, made to believe that every dollar goes right home in so much rifle or powder.
There are about 2,500,000 Armenians in the empire. They are all scattered in small bodies over the empire; they are entirely unarmed; they are unused to arms j they are a peaceable, industrious people j they could nowhere assemble an armed force j the roads are all in the hands of the Turks j they are all armed and used to war. The first attempt at a rising would be wiped out in blood. The more intelligent complotters admit this, but reply, The Turks, when thus excited, will commit such bloody outrages upon innocent, unarmed men and women and children, that Russia, in the name of humanity and with the approbation of the whole world, will march in and establish justice. So these complotters, by their own confession, do intend to excite the Turks to such a slaughter of the innocent Armenian people-among them their own fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters-as shall strike with horror the civilized world, and call the armies of Russia into Asia Minor. Was ever a plot so insane and wicked ~ But the Turkish Government is fully aware of the whole foolish scheme. In case of the least sign of a revolutionary movement, those en- gaged in it will be very summarily dealt with, and many of the innocent will suffer with the guilty, b~t any general mob vengeance will be sup- pressed with an iron handhy the government. '
The complotters have used every means which craft and malice can invent to involve the American missionaries and the Protestant Armenians in this revolutionary scheme. For a time they succeeded in making tho Turks believe in their guilt. It is now, however, generally understood that all such schemes are abhorrent to the missionaries and to the Gospel of Christ. Then they, the complotters, turn and accuse the missionaries of being friends of Turkish oppression and hostile to the Armenians.
If now we seek, from onr second point of view, the underlying reasons of this ihange, they are not difficult to find. They do not lie upon the surf~ce, and they are generally overlooked. Those who regard Turkey as an entirely independent empire, having its own inherent policy and carry- ing it out, 80S France or Russia does, fail to apprehend the condition of things. The Ottoman Empire exists by the jealousies of Europe. Its diplomats study the contending or the co-operating forces of the great powers, and shape their own course accordingly. They do ~t consider themselves able to oppose the united demands of such powers as France and Russia unless they can bring in other powers able to cope with them.
That the Turkish Government is pursqing a particular course is no proof that it does so of its own motion or choice. It goes whither it is driven; and the present Sultan shows great skill and sagacity in playing off the designs of one power against those of another, so that they cancel each other, and he remains free and undisturbed.
With regard to Protestant missions in Turkey, it need hardly be said that the Catholic missions have from the beginning been their most vigor- ous opponents. The Catholic missions were old and well endowed and numerous when Protestant missions entered the empire.
France, whatever government she has had, and whatever religious or irreligious policy she may have had at home, has always powerfully sup- ported Catholic missions abroad. Her patronage has been open and pro- nounced. The Ottoman Government would never dare to show hostility to Catholic missions or a Catholic missionary. But Russia has a far greater influence in Turkey than France has. She is the patron and de- fender of the Greek Church in Turkey. She abhors the entrance of Prot- estantism into the empire. Her ambassador, M. de Boutineff, declared to our missionary, Dr. Schauffier, that" the Czar would never allow Prot- estantism to set its foot in Turkey.". The teacher Mesrobe was condemned to Siberia by the Czar Nicholas for the crime of co-operation with mission- aries. Nicholas incited Sultan Mahmoud, in 1839, to expel the missionaries from Turkey, as he, the Czar, had expelled all English missionaries from Russia. The SuIta'n's death and the consequent changes spoiled the game.
Th~ next move, under the instigation of the Czar, was through the ,Catholicos of Etchmiadzin, who induced the Armenian Patriarch, in 1846, to utter the great anathema against the Protestant Armenians. The Czar hoped by this to efface Protestantism. It led, on the contrary, to its legalization in the empire.
The Crimean War was hastened, in 1853-55, not merely to get Constantinople, b~t to destroy the hated faith which so much annoyed and alarmed Nicholas. Has Russia of late grown liberal and tolerant? Is she not still persecuting the Stundists, the Menonites, and the German Protestants with relentless rigor ~ Is it the united influence of France and Russia that has turned the Ottoman Government against missions? There is the power that lies back of all the injustice, hostility, and outrages of the few past years.
The infamous Huntchagist revolutionary movement is purely a Russian invention. It is similar to movements among the Bulgarians in 1877 ; not that any Russian will acknowledge this. The same plots that he supports with money and secret agents he often denounces publicly: It is weakness to be deceived by her deceptions.
The aspects are cloudy, and there is no prophetic spirit to reveal to us the future ; but we believe in Him, and we trust in Him, who is " Head over all things unto the Church," and who will put all things under His feet. The resources of Divine Providence in baffiing the plans of Russia are not exhausted.
TBlI: INDIANS IN THE trNITBD !TATB8
THE INDIANS IN THE UNITED STATES.
EXTRACTS FROM THE" MONATSBLATTBR FUR OFFENTLICHE MISSIONSSTUNDBN"
FOR MARCH, 1891, TRANSLATED BY JULIA H. STRONG.
A nation may be in such a position that another nation is intrusted to it. Weare speaking now of America, and of the poor redskins in the United States, who are expressly acknowledged t;y the American Govern- ment as its prote.q~8 and foster-children, but are repealedly treated with anything but a shepherd's faithfulness and a rather's love. We will not rehearse the sins of the earliest 1mmigrants in this direction, especially in the beginning of the format.ion of the American States. It must be ad- mitted, however, that not much could be done for the Indians by these first immigrants, even with the best inclination. They had so much to do for themselves with the cultivation of the soil, the laying out of the settle- ments, the clearing of forests, and tllen, as the emigrations from Europe became all the time larger and more various, so much, too, with the regu- lation of their civil and State relations, that, on the whole, they must have been glad if the Indians only left them in peace. True, had the settlers been nothing but Eliots, Penns, and Zeisbergers, then indeed all would have gone otherwise. But they were not exactly ; and then comes the consideration that formerly the Indians had still room enough to rove in the mighty forests and on the gigantic prairies of their old home, and to lead according to ancestral custom the wild, free life of the warrior, hunter, and sluggard. How hard it was, then, to reach them with school, sermon, agriculture, and civilization!
Everything has changed since then. There are now no longer little groups of settlers who are surrounded and endangered by numerous Indian ,bands, but, on the contrary, small groups of Indians who are hemmed in ,and pressed on all sides by the whites. Already utter want and the lack of former occupation point them to agriculture, to cattle raising, to the learning of trades, and to a civilized life altogether. Naturally it would be much easier to instruct and educate them than ever before.
Officials are constantly changing in America, according as, at the Presi- dential election, the one or the other of the political parties has conquered. Under President Grant, only such persons were appointed as Government agents on all the Indian reservations where missions exist, as were proposed by the respective missionary societies. But since 1880 this excellent arrangement has been set aside; and so every few years new persons come to these important positions-persons who wish and do just the opposite to that which their predecessors strove after; yes, persons who generally think only of themselves, not of their wards, the Indians.
All this has lately come again clearly to light through the recent Indian insurrection, which raged in December, 1890, and January, 1891, and came within a hair's breadth of becoming a great general Indian war. The Americans themselves do not conceal the fact that their officials bear the principal blame. Thus writes, for instance, the New York Journal of Oommerce: " The situation is a grave one. . .• It seems finally positive that the red man must be exterminated, as he will by no means adapt himself to civ- ilization. As for the rest, the palefaces are greatly to blame in the sup- pression of the Indians. Our Indian policy is truly not suited to fit the poor savages for useful members of human society. The officers who are intrusted with the oversight of the Indians and the management of the agencies are in most cases quite incapable, and many times dishonest also, while they sell for their own profit a great part of the provisions, articles . of clothing, etc., intrusted to them for their proteges. These officers let the poor redskins with their families starve and freeze, * and treat them brutally besides. After all, it is not surprising that the free sons of the desert become rebellious occasionally under such circumstances. Instead of disarming the Indians, letting them have ample maintenance, and edu- cating them for agriculture or other employments, the poor people are fur- nished with good weapons, munition, and horses, nominally so that they may gain their livelihood by hunting buffaloes, which have long been ex- terminated, however, while they are left otherwise to be hungry and to freeze-a peculiar method on the part of our Government of ~aring for those placed under its protection, the descendants of the original possessors of this country!"
But indeed the Americans are not alone to blame. Even this last uprising, with the disturbances which preceded it, is explained substan- tially by the deep-rooted heathen superstition of the Indians and by the ab- solutely wicked resistance of many to the Gospel and civilization. The soul of the insurrection was the now fallen Sioux chief, Sitting Bull, who in 1881, when also taken prisoner as the leader, had sworn vengeance on all whites, and defiantly proclaimed his lasting opposition to all at- tempts of the Government for the spiritual uplifting of his tribe. But was he not then a great chief, who was cheated by the whites out of his power and his rights ¥ No, on the whole he was no chief in the true sense of the word, but only a leader of so-called medicine-men or sorcerers, and that he had so great influence over not only the Sioux, but other tribes formerly living not exactly in friendship with them (Arapahoes, Apaches, etc.), is accounted for by the fact that many were afraid of the mysterious supernatural powers which superstition ascribed to him. And he was not the only medicine-man who, as the peculiar representative and champion of the old Indian heathenism, called the companions of his faith and nation to battle against the palefaces. For instance, we hear of one, Short • This statement Is somewhat overdrawn. But this is true, that the Government appropriated for the year 1889-90 full 8150,000 less for the support of the Sioux Indians than in the previous year; and this even after new treaties had been concluded with them, and the representatives of the Government had promised:that the previous supplies of provisions, etc., should not be cnrtaiJed J Bull, who is reported to have repea.tedly performed with his followers the so-called spirit or dream dance since last summer. At these dances there are purely heathenish proceedings. F4'st a tall tree is brought to the place designated by the medicine-man, and newly planted there. Then the chiefs of the tribes taking part (Sioux, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Crows), splendidly adorned with finery and paint, seat themselves under this tree, while the rest of the Indians, from about five hundred to one thousand in number, begin to revolve around them swiftly iu a circle. Mter some time they become dizzy. Then they turn about and whirl again in the opposite direction, and this continues, alternating to the right and left, until they are no longer able. At intervals the c~l1 resounds, " The buffaloes are coming back j the buffaloes are coming back!" Each dancer is armed with four weapons consisting of leather thongs, with stones twisted into them, and with these he beats himself about the head from time to time to hasten the beginning of the longed-for stupefaction. With the same aim they knock their heads against the ground, or against each other. Now begins in certain ones that swoon during which the spirits, and through them the Great Spirit, communicate to them revelations of all sorts. They fall to the ground, and remain lying until consciousness returns. The dances of last fall and winter almost gave rise to hopes in regard to a curious mingling of heathen and Christian ideas. The seers stated that the Son of God had appeared to them and revealed that He would soon appear as their avenger and helper in need; then the earth would tremble, out of two high mountains great streams of lDud and earth would pour themselves out with fearful uproar to bury the whites, together with their streets and cities, which disfigure and pollute the earth, as well as all the redskins who imitate the palefaces; then the forest would grow again, buffaloes, antelopes, and deer return, the whole country resume its original aspect and be given back to the genuine Indians as their inalienable possession. The faithful children of the Great Spirit ought, therefore, to be only fearless and not yiel<i to the whites in anything j when the Messiah came, he would richly reward them.
" Sometimes it happens that one lies several days in the trance, and the longer time this is the case the greater weight is laid on his prophecies. Sometimes those returning to consciousness believe they have been turned into animals, and conduct themselves correspondingly ; indeed, even the others treat them as that which they pretend to be, and one is said to have been killed as a buffalo and eaten!" (Allgemeine Zeitung, 1890, No. 353.) Bishop Hare, one of the warmest friends of the Indians, and one best acquainted with them, sees in this whole movement a desperate effort of heathenism to regain its authority, made doubtful through. the Gospel. " In South Dakota," says he, "the work of schools and missions has made great progress, and the whole Indian district is sown over with chapels and school-houses. Civilization was continually spreading; and this has provoked the heathen party. Compressed on one side by the advancing whites, belabored on the other by those of their own race progress~vely disposed, they seem like hunted deer, and what many missionaries lIave expected for some time has happened : heathenism b.as come to new life, and even civilized Indians have been carried away by the national and patriotic element in this movement. Many, however, are by no means pleased with the affair, and unless some unseen chance happens, this whole Messiah craze will soon have evaporated like so much other fanaticism. "
Meanwhile the insurrection has been quelled by force of arms. A quantity of soldiers, also six Christian Indians, who did police duty for the Government, a Catholic missionary, and some other whites have thereby lost their lives. The number of insurgents who were killed is not inconsiderable. But the dreadful Indian war, which many feared, has not made its appearance ; and this is owing, above all, to the mission-so experts assure us. The really Christian Indians under regular religious training have kept quite aloof from the whole uprising, as well as from that fanatical hope of a Messiah. How different the result might have been if the Gospel had not already taken so deep root among the Sioux! And we in Europe sometimes underrate the results of the mission to the Indians. The Protestant Episcopal Church alone counts among the Sioux 9 native pastors with 40 helpers, and 1700 adult church-members, who in the last year alone contributed $3000 for the purposes of the Church and mission; and the Congregationalists have similar numbers (6 churches), and the Presbyterians (15 churches with native pastors and 1100 communicants). The churches of the last two denominations have even established a Dakota Home Missionary Society, which about two years ago numbered 913 members and raised $908, which deserves all recognition, especially when one thinks that full half of this sum was earned through the diligent sewing of the women and girls, and that here are no large gifts and legacies from wealthy friends of missions.
In all there may be among the 250,000 Indians of the United States 60,000* members of evangelical churches. It may indeed be said, that is not much-at all events, not much in proportion to the effort expended and the monstrous sums of money which have already been applied to the conversion of the Indians. That is true, It costs, foolishly speaking, $1000 on an average to " convert" an Indian; but how much does it cost to kill an Indian ~ That is much dearer still ! We are almost afraid to speak it out, but it has been estimated that every Indian who was killed in war cost the Government $1,000,000 ! and when one hears that just in • According to The Gospel in all LandI of 1887, In December, 1886, there were, "not Including the tlve wholly civUlzed tribes, 80,544 evangelical church·members, 14,550 men 8Ild 15,994 women, with 155 church bllildings." These tlve" civilized tribes" are the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, together 64,000 souls, all settled in the Indian Territory, and all summed np as the" Union Agency." "These are increasini. and are almost all OhriltiaM. (Near them live about 15,000 almost whollY heathen Indians.") the years 1872-82 $223,000,000 were expended for Indian wars and all kinds of measures connected with them, one may well believe that computation in a certain sense corresponds with the truth. Even the last little winter campaign against Sitting Bull and his confederates cost several millions.
Yet since Grant's administration the Indian policy has taken a decidedly friendly and benevolent turn. Every year the Department of the Interior, under the superintendence of the President, gives out through a special Indian Commissioner and his sixty agents the great sum of from five to seven million dollars to supply the Indians with food, clothing, household utensils, farming implements, medicines, physicians, and 8chools. An extraordinary amount is done for the last-named object-partly through the support of mission schools, partly because the Government itself establishes schools and pays teachers. The sums which have been granted for this have steadily increased from 1877-87 (in 1877 it was $20,000, while in 1887, $1,211,415); the year 1888 showed a slight fall ($1,179,916), but 1889 brought a significant rise, and for the year 1891 full $1,842,770 was granted. * True, in this matter of Government schools great mistakes have been made, so that the cause of missions has not been furthered by them, but in a measure hindered. For instance, so excessive emphasis has been laid on English, that the Indian children, it is said, could not get religious instruction at school in their native tongue. But that became better lately since Dr. Daniel Dorchester became the Inspector of Government Schools and General Morgan the Indian Commissioner. Moreover, there is an Indian Rights Association and a Society for the Protection of the Indians, which last seeks to accomplish that the redskins may continue to keep their old division into tribes. their common ownership of land, and their old languages-there are counted more than fifty Indian lan- guages, with two hundred dialects. t Many missionary societies wish the same; but in general now the public opinion, and quite decidedly the Government's policy, is that the Indians should simply be made American citizens, and no longer occupy any separate position in social and judicial relations. They still possess in their one hundred and thirty-three reservations about one fortieth of the whole surface of the United States, but it is mostly unfruitful, and also poor in game. In late years laws have been made according to which the land shall be no more a communistic possession of the tribes ~s such, but shall be divided among individual families, but it must remain entailed for twenty-five years, because it otherwise would pass over too soon into the hands of the whites (the so-called Dawes Bill of 1887). According to the agents' reports, 75,000 Indians are ripe for this change.
• Translator's note: PM Review Of Reviews gives the appropriation for education of the Indians for 1892 lIB $2,300,000. t According to a statement of the Indian Bureau, there are 65 languages which are said to be aa dUferent from one another lIB Hebrew and Chinese, and again each of these has several dialectssometimes up to 2O-which are related to each other somewhat as Italian and French are, or as Ger· man and Dutch. With this agrees another statement, according to which there Were in the year 1885, of those who could speak English to some extent, 28,000; of those who could read either English or Indian or both, 20,500, and of those who wore the European dress, 66,000. The number of children in the Government schools had risen in 1890 to 16,000 (including an average daily attendance of 12,000). If it goes on so, and the Government should really reach its aim, there would be at length no " American Indians," but only "Indian Americans," just as there are Irish, English, German, and other" Americans."
Whether this is perhaps the only possible solution of the Indian ques- tion, or only another form of the extermination of the Indians, we will not inquire into here. We have already gone" altogether too far in the prov- ince of politics and large numbers. Now we will make a visit to an Indian reservation in Dakota in the company of a young missionary teacher. We are standing before a block-house whose front has a door in the middle and a window on each side of it. -We knock at the door. A loud, " Ho I" sounds from within, and we enter. Chairs are not at hand, and, after the hand-shaking is over we take our place on the seat of honor- i.e., on a wooden chest standing against the wall. The master of the house smokes a long pipe, and near him sits his wife, idle, too, while another inmate of the house is baking bread and her husband splitting wood. This last is a Christian, but the smoker is an inveterate heathen. The baking excites our attention : a dough is prepared of meal and water, which is rolled out and then cut in cakes half an inch thick, so large that they quite cover the bottom of the pan which stands on the sooty hearth, half filled with steaming fat. The cook lays the cake in the pan, turns it until it is browned on both sides, and then takes it out. It looks quite inviting, and might well arouse our appetite if the surroundings were less repulsive; but the board with the dough stands on the floor, and there, too, lie the dogs aU about the fireplace, while the frying-pan is put down on the bed, the original color of whose coverings is no longer distinguish- able for downright dirt.
But we must not lose too much time in looking around: Three little girls are waiting for the instruction we are to impart to them. The matter in hand is the Dakota ABC. According to the Government order, it is true, no more Dakota can be taught in the schools, but they cannot forbid us from going from house to house and teaching the little ones in their ,mother-tongue. Now the lesson is over, and we read a passage from the Bible j if one of the women is able, she must also read a few verses j then we conclude with prayer.
And now on to another house. A man is standing before the door unloading firewood. He speaks pleasantly to us. Then we knock, and we hear an English " Come in. " We enter and find the marr's daughter, her husband, and a young male relative. The Jast two seem perfectly Qaptivated by the old delusion that work is a disgrace-at least for the man. They are doing nothing. However, the young wife il!l busy sewing gay beads on to moccasins, and has begun to learn to read, and it is now our task to hear her reading-lesson. They are all heathen still.
But our next aim is a Christian home. How different an atmosphere meets us here, although it~ too, is only a r,ude blockhouse, in which stove, table, cupboard, water-cask and beds stand close together! The grand* mother is ironing clothes. The mother needs all her energies to keep the numerous troop of children in order. One of the larger boys is bringing in wood; but at our entrance all becomes still. A Dakota Bible is taken from the shelf, and we and the young housewife read a verse in turn. The grandmother says the prayer.
And now we must begin the return journey to the mission station. We see children sliding down-hill, some on mere boards, others on little sleds that they have made themselves. They call out a cheery greeting to us, and for a long time we hear their merry laughter. * But what is this firelight that flashes in the fast increasing darkness 1 We draw nearer and perceive two old heathen women, who have been collecting brushwood, and are turning something back and forth over the flames. "What are you cooking there~" "A dog which we have killed." "What are you going to do with it~" "Why, eat it, of course!" "Dog-meat tastes good, then 1" "Certainly." "But not so good as beef, though~" " Oh, much better!" "Better than pork, too ~" " Yes, indeed!" "Do you go to church sometimes ~" "No." "Well, ~ome then next Sunday." An indifferent" perhaps" is the only slightly hopeful answer.
So much from the mission teacher. With the incessantly progressive settlement of white heathen, the Indians come more and more under influences which they are unable to withstand. Many reservations already are surrounded by towns quickly springing up, which, with their liquor-shops and their population, often consisting only of unruly menfolk, furnish a constant danger for the redskins of both sexes. True, there exist strict laws against the sale of firewater to the Indians ; but they are evaded. Then, too, there are not wanting whites who render assistance to heathenism, and take an impious delight in destroying the fruits of missionary labor. Moanya time a young Indian has been well educated at Carlisle or one of the other excellent institutions of learning, and has returned full of good resolutions, but has been ridiculed at home to such a degree by the old heathen and these godless whites, intimidated and tormented with all sorts of temptations, that finally there is a great fall. If such young people wish to work diligently, • The question has been raised whether Indian children really laugh. A lady teacher tell. the following in answer to this qnestion: Once a icholar had placed a frog in the drawer of the teacher's desk-just as European children sometimes playa roguiih trick on their teachers-but the laughing did not come till <Q'ter SChool. When anyone laughs aloud hefore others, it Is said, "That's the wlI¥ the whites do J" Indian diCorum torbid81t ' some one says: "The (iovernment is pledged to look out for our support, there's no working here." If they want to keep to their good Christian customs, reading books, writing letters, etc., then they are told: "Educa- tion is only for the whites; how ridiculous when an Indian wants to ape the paleface!!! I" or, "Do not trust the whites, they want to take away our old customs, so that we shall be no longer Indians, and then they will not need to keep the old treaties I" Sometimes a white man arranges an Indian dance, and offers some youth who has had a Christian education a complete costume for the dance, a horse, and who knows what besides, if he will only take part in it; and so many a one discards the European dress and shares in the barbaric war-dance, if it be only to show that he is not effeminate or estranged from his tribal companions I But if this happens once, then all is-lost.
But indeed the Spirit of God can work wonders. There is, for example, a former hero of the Sioux tribe, the celebrated Anawagmanei.e., he who rides ahead at a gallop. He had attained so great eminence through his fierceness and bravery, that, according to the custom of the Dakotas, he enjoyed the so-called heroes' freedom-i.e., he could do what he liked without being punished for it, or even called to account. Who would have thought that such a one would have been converted 1 But 10, the unexpected happened. About the year 1841 he was baptized by Missionary Riggs as the first full-blooded Indian from the Sioux tribe, and named Simon. There was an end of the wild warrior's life. He dressed as a European, planted potatoes, and sowed wheat. 'The consequence was that young and old pointed at him with their fingers as a man who had made a woman of himself; but Simon did not let himself be disturbed thereby. He remained a quiet and industrious Christian; but there came another enemy, brandy, which was brought to his neighborhood by whites greedy of gain. Simon became a drinker, and only after ye~rs of vicious life he returned repentant and really reformed to the congregation of Christians. But his shame was so great, that only after long persuasion on the part of the missionary did he venture to ask formally to be received again. That was thirty-five years ago; and now for a long time he has been one of the most estimable officers of the church, and for more than twenty years an acknowledged preacher. When the Sioux in 1862 were preparing for bloodshed, and it came to war, among the chiefs at the camp-fire he always spoke for peace, or at least for the humane treatment of the enemy; indeed, he saved the lives of some whites with danger to his own. When the venerable old man was present some years ago in the character of delegate to the great Presbyterian General Assembly, he was received with enthusiasm, and lionized.
Of those five Indians who were killed by the insurgents in December, 1890, as faithful servants of the Government, one, Little Eagle by name, was a wild heathen until he came under the influence of the mission, and then through the happy death of his little son was led to the Saviour. From
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S REDEMPTION
that death-bed was written from Grand River, Dakota: "Harry Little Eagle has died like a hero, after suffering unspeakably for four months without his faith ever wavering. As long as he was not too weak, he prayed and sang continually, and bore witness for his Master. When he could speak again on the evening before his end, he thought God had given him his voice again, so that he 'might speak to the people,' and this he did. 'I am going home,' he said j 'God will give me there a greater work than here. Do not weep j you must compose yourselves, and then let my message reach all.' Then he prayed: '0 Father, save a great work for me with Thee. I have lived but a short time and not known Thee loug, and I have suffered much. So I have not been able to do anything for Thee. Grant me, therefore, that I may do something for Thee above. I would like to become a fellow-worker with Thee.' Then he continued: 'Tell Winona that she is strong, tell her to go after the lost, some will believe and be saved j tell her not to be tired of working for the people.' To the question whether he were not afraid of the dark waters through which he must soon pass, he replied: 'Oh, no, only home soon! that is my desire,' and to his father he said: 'God will send you a comforter. I will help prepare the places for you and mother, and the brothers and sisters. I will wait for you.' "
That was in December, 1885. Little Eagle, who had already known about Christianity, was deeply moved, and III the following January he came out before his Indian companions with a decided testimony. When he died he was a deacon in a Congregational church.
So the Lord has His own also among the Indians. In fine, many of them are nearer the kingdom of God than we think. A Chrischona brother, who is a preacher in Texas, and also works among the Indians, wrote once: "I must say that the heathen Indians are readier to accept the Gospel than many Germans."
Yes, truly the first become last and the last first in the kingdom of God. May the Lord help us all to keep what we have-keep, but not keep back for ourselves, but give out further. This is the true purpose of missions.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S REDEMPTION.-II.
BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, OBERLIN, O.
What has thus far been suggested concerning the mission of such signal Importance to the heathen world, and to which the English-speaking people are called, has related to the original endowments bestowed, to the long course of preparatory traming, and the final sending forth into all lands under the impulse to trade, to colonize, and through statecraft and war to take possession in foreign parts. And all this was evidently meant, though not of men, to be but a stepping-stone to the more rapid and more efl'ectual extension of the kingdom of heaven to the ends of the earth. Thus much accomplished in providential ways most remarkable, at once as never before, as well as with a significance and imperativeness such as never before could be so well appreciated, the Divine "GQ ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" sounded out in Anglo-Saxon ears. It was just a hundred years ago, when the infant American Repub. lie was beginning to cast off its swaddling-clothes, when England was entering the vacant areas lying under the Southern Cross, was sending her pioneers to occupy the southern tip of the African Continent, and making ready to marshal her forces to reduce the Hindu and Mohammedan to her sway-it )Vas in that hour that, after having burned for years in the breast of an Anglo-Saxon" cobbler," the sublime and inspiring idea of world. wide missions began to find potent expression in deeds. When Carey founded his Baptist Society, modern evangelization, in the sense of a movement possessed of propagating pow.er, had its birth and entered upon its blessed and glorious course. In his person was raised up the chiefest apostle since Paul; for he was an originator and founder whose work led directly to results more momentous, more varied, and wrought out in a vaster theatre than those of perhaps any other man. At least the life and deeds of no other have been felt so widely and so profoundly in so brief a time. When forty years later he was called to his reward, the flame of missionary zeal which he had kindled had spread to every Protestant denomination, in Britain not only, but upon the Continent and across the Atlantic.
Not only are modern missions, in the sense defined above, under God of English origin, they have ever since remained and are found to-day in English hands-that is, the bulk of the money is derived from this source, and the bulk of the men and women engaged are of the extantrepresentatives of the conquerors who landed on Thanet about the middle of the fifth century; and this not by any means wholly because Britons and Americans together so far surpass all. other Protestants combined in both numbers and wealth. The average of intelligence is higher, of spirituality, and of generous and fervid missionary zeal; and even more, as a result of the abundant civil and religious liberty enjoyed the individual fills a far broader and loftier sphere. It is granted fully and heartily, with rejoicing and thanksgiving, that with only individual cases of consecration and devotion in mind, and of shining gifts laid upon the altar, there is no difference in favor of the Anglo-Saxon. Names not a few of immortals that are Dutch, German, and Scandinavian, spring easily to the lips, and some of them rank among the most eminent. There were as great missionaries before Carey was born as have appeared since he died; and yet more, at various points no church in Christendom has ever approached the Moravian in measureless love for the most degraded and loathsome of mankind. The only claim is that to English-speaking people has been committed by far the larger portion of the herculean task of discipling all nations. That thiS fact may the more forcibly appear, let us take up in order the great mission fields, meantime making no invidious comparison between brethren of different speech and ecclesiastical name or custom, and glad exceedingly to find that in so many cases without jealousy, or evil feeling of any kind, they dwell lovingly side by side, each only provoking the other to good works. • Let us glance first at India, one of the greatest of mission fields, a8 well as the first to be entered. The Danish Lutherans were the pioneers for the Gospel, and the consciences of King Frederick and his chaplain were pricked because for a century Tranquebar had been in possession, and hitherto no herald of glad tidings had been sent thither. The British churches, too, were lax exceedingly in proclaiming the word of life in a region where their traders had been gathering riches during almost two hundred years. Evangelizing solicitude and zeal in behalf of the Hindus were born in the breasts of certain Christian servants of the East India Company, whose daily lives were in close connection 'with the abomina- tions of idolatry. Among these was John Thomas, and he it was who turned the thought and conviction of Carey away from the South Seas and fixed them from henceforth upon the masses of Bengal and the Decc~n.
From that day to this, just in proportion as British dominion was enlarged and the relations between the ruling and the subject population became more intimate, British gifts of money have increased, and the number of men and women engaged in teIling the saving story of the Cross. In keeping with the highest spiritual fitness of things, India has been regarded as the portion of the world especially assigned to the Christians of the United Kingdom, and a due percentage of prayer and toil have there been bestowed. Next, to this vast and needy field, came Judson, Newell, and their company from America, and led hither largely by the presence of their brethren from the mother country. Since by Act of Parliament in 1833 free course has been given to missionaries, with full legal protection, one denomination after another has sent forward its representatives until almost all .are found bearing a part. The German Lutherans, too, have shown their sympathy by nobly coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty,; but of the 808 ordained missionaries, all but 141 are con- nected with either British or American societies, and a much larger pro- portion .of ordained natives and lay preachers; of the communicants 146,863 out of 171,070, of native Christians 470,727 out of 533,565, and 99,598 out of 102,013 pupils in the schools." Of the 65 societies engaged, all but.9 are in Anglo-Saxon hands.
Of all mission fields Africa with its 12,000,000 square miles is the largest, as ,t is also by far the neediest and most difficult. The first to take Christ-like pity upon these millions of hapless creatures were the Moravians, who dispatched Schmidt "to tell the joyful news of salvation some twenty-five years before the birth of Carey, and the next to follow was the London Society, which sent Vanderkemp in 1799, with the English Wesleyans not many years behind. For more than half a century the .pestilential and deadly West Coast, a stretch of some 4000 miles, was the chief scene of missionary toil. Naturally, evangelizing zeal went hand in hand with the anti.slaveryagitation. While American Christians bestowed especial attention upon Liheria, a government set up and fostered by American influence, British Christians expended their consecrated energies rather upon Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, where British civil authority was paramount. When Livingstone crossed to the north of the Zambesi, and sent out his trumpet call to his countrymen, in the great Redeemer's name, to take possession of the region of the Great Lakes, they responded with enthusiasm, and have held it without rivals ever since, except that of late two German societies have entered German East Africa. American missionaries are in a large majority upon the Congo, which Stanley, the American, had opened to the knowledge of the civilized world. The Paris Society witnesses for Jesus among the Barotse and in French Congo, while one German society maintains a staff of heroes and heroines ready to die if need be in the German Cameroons, and five in the neighborhood of their cousins, the Dutch Boers, of South Mrica. In Egypt and the Barbary States almost to a man the missionaries are Anglo-Sa~ons. Of the 47 organizations at work in Africa, 18 are American, 14 are British, and 14 are Continental.
The realms of Islam are left to be redeemed almost entirely thus far by English-speaking peoples. In Palestine there is co-operation from various other sources, but in Syria the bulk, both of seed-sowing and reaping, is done by the Presbyterians of the United States, who are also well-nigh alone in Western Persia, while the Congregationalists have the sole stewardship of Eastern, Central, Western, and. European Turkey. The Church Society and various others are doing what they can in the dominions of the Shah and Arabia, as well as watching and waiting for a door of entrance into Afghanistan.
The East Indies are mainly under the sway of the Netherlands, and next to nothing has been accomplished for the Gospel except by the Dutch and their German kindred. More than once Anglo-Saxons have endeavored to bear their share of the burden of seeking to save the lost, but have always met with a jealous fear, and hindrances from the authorities so many as to be practically prohibitory. Excepting the work of the Propagation Society in Northern Borneo, all souls rescued from the dominion of Satan in the large residue of that island, in Java, Sumatra, Celebes, King William's Land, in New Guinea, etc., are trophies belonging to the Netherlands Society, the Rhenish Society, and other Reformed and Lutheran bodies.
The West Indies were entered first by the Moravians in days remote when the degraded African slave found few to have compassion, nor have they ever ceased here to toil and suffer for the sake of Christ's little ones. At various times in various islands, American Christians have labored, and yet, since British rule has been so prevalent, as from no other source British money and men have wrought for salvation, the Establishment, Baptists, Wesleyans, Presbyterians and others, uniting heartily to undo so far as possible the unspeakable damage to minds and souls by centuries of slavery.
Crossing now to the neighboring continent, we cnter a mission field which, with an exception or two, is purely American. It is as though in the realm of religion also, by common consent on both sides of the Atlantic, the" Monroe Doctrine" was considered to be in binding force, and "IT so all European c1mrches must stand aloof, not meddling in New orld matters. Here. too, as so often elsewhere; the fact of neighborhood and pllysical contact, of intimate political relations and resemblances, play an important part. Our form of government is republican, and gaining the impulse from us, from our southern border to Cape Horn not a crowned head is to be found. They envy our freedom, our intelligence, our general prosperity and happiness. Perhaps overabundantly and unwisely, they have copied our institutions. For mutual advantage between them and us important commercial compacts have recently been made; but whatever the cause, the striking phenomenon is evident to all eyes, that the religious forces for the redemption of Spanish America are destined to go forth from the United States. Even British Christians are careful not to poach upon our preserves. The exception hinted at is this. The Moravians early established a mission in British Guiana, and for more than a century and a half, in spite of terrible drawbacks, have held on until their adherents are numbered by tens of thousands. The next missionary attempt was made under the sublime faith and persistence of Allen Gardiner, and at two or three points near the southern extremity of the Continent is still maintained by the South American Missionary Society, which is in English hands. The same organization and a few others are doing something for the benefit of Englishmen resident in various cities, and the British and Foreign Bible Society is present and active here and there through its books and colporteurs; but otherwise in all the various States the toilers are all Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, etc., from the northern half of the hemisphere, with the American Bible Society as easily first for importance.
Efforts for the Christianization of the American Indians, though early taken up by the Moravians and still carried on in the West aud in Alaska, are nevertheless assigned for substance wholly to the great missionary race under view; and somewhat curiously, by national boundary Jines they are divided into two portions. While Canadian societies are zealously endeavoring to plant the institutions of the Gospel among the aborigines of the Dominion, the more numerous section, whose homes are within the limits of the Union, are spiritually cared for by the citizens thereof.
Our next-door neighbor over sea to the west is Japan, which also constitutes, as it should, a field for evangelization well-nigh exclusively American; for when that empire was sealed against communication with the entire world outside, circumstances compelled our Commodore Perry by a threatening show of force t6 secnre the opening of its gates to com- merce, to Occidental ideas and institutions, with Christianity among the rest. Among the 31 organizations engaged in the evangelization of these islands, only 7 are non-American, and 2 of these are Canadian, while only 2 are other than Anglo-Saxon. , As for China, so ponderous and with area so extensive, the London Society was the first to lay siege, with Morrison as its imperturbable and indomitable agent. When cannon were found necessary to break down the obstacles which barred the entrance, it fell to the lot of Britain to supply the powder and gunners (alas! and for shame! that opium held so prominent a place in the business), and again later, though then with other European nations at her back. Since the interior has thus been made accessible, Christians from both sides of the Atlantic have been pres8ing in and pushing here and there, until almost all the nineteen prov- inces hold at least a few messengers of mercy and grace from heaven. At the Shanghai Conference held in 1890 reports were given of the work of 41 societies, of which 20 were British, 17 were American, and only 4 were Continental. With a division !Similarly made, the force of foreign agents was 724,513, and 59 ; the native helpers, 872,771, and 86; and the com- mnnicants, 21,068, 13,572, and 2647. Evidently the Anglo-Saxon is especially called to go np against this great Goliath of heathenism.
A closing glance is now turned toward such o£ the Islands of the Sea as have not already passed under view. Taking the impulse from the dis- coverieJ of Captain Cook, the London Society led in the grand campaign against idolatry and barbarism in the South Pacific, and soon through the Word and the Spirit wrought wonders of righteousness in Tahiti and Samoa; the Wesleyans came after to Tonga, from whence the flame of revival leaped over into Fiji to consume everywhere loathsome iniquity, and to shed far abroad the light of life. In the Hawaiian lsl/mds and in Micronesia salvation came to thousands under the labors of godly men sent forth by the American Board; the Church Society and the "W~esleyans addressed themselves to the evangelization of New Zealand; the Presby- terians of Scotland, Nova Scotia, and Australia laid siege to the New Hebrides; in Madagascar, after long years of sharpest persecution, the London Society, the English Friends, and the Norwegian Lutherans shared in a glorious and blessed Pentecost through which tens of thou- sands were brought into the kingdom of heaveil. Therefore also, aside from Malaysia, the islands were gh'en to Anglo-Saxon disciples to be won for Jesus and eternal glory.
Two suggestions among others force themselves upon the mind after even such a brief and partial review as the one just given; and first, how evident and how impressive in history is the hand of God! "A mighty maze, b~t not without a plan. " There is no drifting, and no accident. There is no adequate scheming either on the part of the most gifted and mighty men; but, above all and in all, though intimately connected and blended with a thousand other things, in spite of many tremendous opposing forces, the irresistible fiat of the Most High, His design so vast and sublime, moves forward down the ages and among the nations. The lost world's redemption from night to day, from sin to holiness, from death to life, has been decreed and is well under way. It is for this that states and empires have been exalted and cast down; for this, though all unwittingly, have kings ruled, and statesmen plied their craft, and armies joined in bloody strife; for this have the earth's circumference been explored, and the secrets hidden in the recesses of boundless continents and oceans; for this, too, have modern science and mechanical skill brought forth their stunning marvels. The world is to be evangelized! For eighteen centuries the Anglo-Saxon was under Divine tuition, in preparation for the performance of his peerless part in preaching the everlasting Gospel unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people; and behold, at the end of the nineteenth the call has been heard, the mission has been accepted, and a great army of Englishspeaking men and women are scattered everywhere abroad, with ardent love and zeal fulfilling their lofty commission !
And, in particular, for every true disciple of Christ in America and Great Britain, what solemnity, what inspiration, are in the thought! Who are we that we should be thus ordained, and set apart, and inducted into an office of such infinite moment to the uncounted millions of humanity ~ If we are unfaithful and derelict, for the vast majority there is no hope. Alas for the frequent shortcomings and transgressions of the past j indifference or prejudice, instead of passionate, self-sacrificing love; thronging to distant regions, seeking riches and dominion rather than lost souls; not to evangelize so much as to enslave and debauch; carrying less the Gospel of salvation than strong drink and the deadly vices of civilization; and multitudes of God's people even yet heedless and callous in this stupendous matter, if not also unbelieving and scornful; giving pennies where much gold and silver are at hand, and most sorely needed; sending scores into the world-field to sow and gather, when the urgent demand is for toilers by the ten thousand !
Nevertheless, the gates of entrance into the whole wide world stand open most invitingly. " Come over and help us!" is the universal and piteous cry. The outlook is encouraging in the extreme; for the time that has elapsed and the number of the toilers engaged, the harvest of the century is amazingly large. At no point has defeat befallen the Lord's host, but everywhere victory has crowned the standards of the cross. It is now well established that neither error, nor ignorance, nor superstition, nor the grossest degradation of savagery can stand before the onset of the Gospel of the Son of God, when uttered from anointed lips, when the efflorescence of a loving heart and of a life hid with Christ in God. So, as the second
1894.J OBS'fACLES TO MISSlON"'BY SUCCESS IN
century of modern missions is about to dawn, in tones more imperative and more thrilling than ever before, the heavenly call sounds out: Lo, I am with you! Inti) all the world! To every creature !
OBSTACLES TO MISSIONARY SUCCESS IN KOREA.
BY C. C. VINTON, M.D., SEOUL, KOREA.
It is easy to attribute to Satan any failure of the Gospel message to convert those to whom it is made known. No simpler explanation can be found of the indifference of a whole people than to say that they are the servants of the devil, and that he refuses to give them up. And yet these statements, accurate as they may be, furnish no explanation apart from an analysis of the methods the great tyrant employs to retain his supremacy. Such an investigation, in its general features, I am about to undertake for the Korean field.
Before entering upon an enumeration of obstacles which exist, it may be well to name such as are not encountered by Christian workers here. Thus. it is known to some that there has been no sparing in this conflict of that great spiritnal weaponl prayer. I am thinkmg now not so much of the missionaries here as of those who hold the ropes at home. There are church households and home altars from which unceasingly the prayer of faith goes up that God will save Korea. There is an old blind woman, unlettered, infirm, almost bedridden, who sits lonely day by day at the hearth of her humble home, patiently enduring physical pain, knitting the weary hours away, repeating again and again to herself in the beautiful language of Luther the words of the Book she knows so well, and praying many a prayer for the salvation of Korea. There is a mother and grandmother of missionaries, now past her fourscore years and ten, long herself a noted foreign missionary, the honored friend of missionaries in many lands, whose intercession for Korea- is surely not unavailing. There are men of business and of means whose special gifts for Korea are the accompaniment of many prayers on her behalf. There are boys and girls in. their early teens and younger who send out the message, ' , We are praying for you and for Korea." In daily effort, in discouragements, in successeR, the mIssionary is conscious of these prayers and of their answer. Securely, wonderfully they bear him up. Their authors, equally with himself, are accomplishing the evangelization of Korea, and without them a chief obstacle would still lie in his path.
Again, the inhabitants of Korea are not ignorant savages. On the contrary, they share equally with the Chinese the benefits of the oldest in existence of the world's civilizations, and they are quick to acquire man~ of the arts of our own progressive system. True, the fashion of their clothing has not cbanged for either sex in centuries j yet they accuse us, perhaps not incorrectly, of immodesty in ·dress; and they are quite as far removed as ourselves from the traditional garb of aborigines. Unacquainted though they are with the intricate devices of foreign trade and banking, they have serviceable equivalents for not a few of them. Their trade guilds are as highly organized as those of Antwerp or London, proportionately as wealthy, as absolute each in its own sphere. Labor here is more highly "organized" than in Europe or America, the strike as potent an evil, the " walking delegate" no less active. Benefit organizations, burial societies, loan and co-operative associations, exist in manifold forms. Korea has no men of science, no sciences; but she adopted many centuries ago the literature of China, and throughout her borders letters are the patent of respectability. In every audience the missionary gathers there are sure to be some to whom both tjinsa and enmoun are familiar. He has no difficulty, therefore, in securing readers for the books he brings forward. Even the coolie is not unlikely to display the accomplishment, and in many households the girls as well as the boys are taught to read. So that our educational work would be unjustified were it not for the need of building up a generation from childhood in the broad training of Christian enlightenment.
We have still another advantage in the fact that there is no State religion. All classes are ardent devotees of ancestral worship, and profess to be ruled by the precepts of Confucius; but these at the utmost constitute a selfish superstition and not a system of religion. The queen and many of her ladies, as well as not a few officials and commoners, contribute large sums to maintain the Buddhist shrines and monasteries that abound. A propaganda of reformed Buddhism from Japan has lately been begun in the southern provinces. Shintoism exists. And among the higher nobility and in other ranks Roman Catholicism claims a powerful fonowing. These facts go to show how far from an attitude of persecution is that of the present regime toward invading faiths, and how far from imposing a standard of belief upon its subjects.
The most formidable obstacle at present standing in the way of missionaries to Korea is the want of the Scriptures in the vernacular.
To him who would preach Jesus there is seldom difficulty to obtain hearers. He has but to go out upon the highway and ask a question or offer a book to any passer. Street preaching, though nominally prohibited by government, has met no interference for years. But with most in a given audience curiosity is and remains the only ground of interest. As a rule, the remarks of the erowd relate only to the dress and peculiarities of the speaker. Those who ask questions regarding the subject of discourse soon turn away and apparently dismiss it from their thoughts forever. Here and there, however, some listener goes so far as to buy a book, to accept the loan of one, or to promise to call at the missionary's house. The infrequency with which such promises are fulfilled indicates how much of our effort must be looked on as sowing for a long-distant harvest time. Among tIle books most constantly circulated are several catechisms, epitomes of Christian teaching in thc form of question and answer j Griffith .Tohn's "Exhortation to Repentance j" Milne's "The Two Friends," and certain others, favorites wherevcr known. These are all summaries more or less simple of the essential truths of salvation, and are for the most part translations of tracts long popular in China. Excellent in themselves, it is futile to expect that anyone or even all ot them together can compare in convincing power with the Holy ·Word of God itself.
It is, furthermore, indispensable to the upbuildmg of converts that t.hey should enjoy the privilege of studying directly the teachings of Christ and of the apostles as recorded in the New Testament. To scholars, it is true, the entire Bible is available in the Chinese character, as tra·nsl-ated by the missionaries in China. But not nearly all the inhabitants of Korea belong to the class known as scholars, and but a very.small proportion of those who have gone through years of drilling under the parrot-like method of Oriental instruction, and have learned to call off the characters in a singsong tone of voice, can read them understandingly. Moreover, with rare exceptions, women are wholly excluded by their ignorance from the benefits of a Chinese text, while facility in reading the enmoun, or native character, is readily acquired by natives in a few weeks' time.
About the period when the first Protestant missionaries entered Korea, Rev. John Ross, of Manchuria, issued a translatiou of the New Testament effected by Koreans who had crossed the border, and had studied the tenets of Christianity under him. This consisted largely of a transliteration of Chinese words into the enmoun character, and contains, besides, so mauy purely northern expressions, as to be almost unintelligible to those in other regions. In fact, it seems to strike the ordinary Korean much as does a sentence in Highland Scotch or in the Yorkshire dialect upon the ear of an American newspaper reader. While it has indisputably been the means of making conversions, it is so far from the ideal as to be practically ignored by local workers.
So it resulted that five years ago a committee was formed, somewhat after the manner in which the same task was undertaken in China, for the purpose of providing a serviceable translation of the Scripture!::. It is not to be laid to their charge that they have as yet effected nothing of permanent value. The difficulties prove almost insuperable. Compared with the other languages of the East, Korean is asserted by all who have more than a superficial knowledge of it to excel in perplexities. The question of terms is not easily resolved. And second to none other is that of employing a vocabulary of simple Korean words. As in India, Syria, and elsewhere, our teachers are necessarily taken from among those literati to whom pedantry is a second nature, and in whose eyes words are the more admirable according as their etymology is more recondite. Under the guidance of such men it is difficult to approach the noble simplicity of scriptural diction j and the failure of much of the translation work that has hitherto been attempted in Korea ·lS due to such anmfusion of 'Chinese terms as renders it comparable to the Latinized phraseology of a scientific treatise when contrasted with the pure Anglo-Saxon of Addison. For such reasons as these the efforts of the committee to provide a translation of the Bible have been uniformly unsuccessful. And among the portions of Scripture that have been rendered into Korean in one quarter and another, none has yet reached the plane of ready comprehension by the ordinary native mind.
A tentative text of Mark and of Luke have for some years been sparingly circnlated, but both are far from satisfactory. And beyond these the only means the Korean Christian or inquirer has of reading the Word of God is to seek it in a foreign tongne.
Deprived thus of the power to place the inspired Word in the hands of the people, shall we wonder that the missionary still looks to the future for the harvest of souls that forms the inevitable sequel to such abundant prayer for Korea?
Closely connected with the fact that our assistants are nearly all from a class that holds itself above the people is the further fact that, almost without exception, they try to keep the plane of our work also above that of the people. In this they adhere to the characteristic idea of their nationalism. Perhaps I ought to say lack of nationalism. For, in all that is highest of a nation's individual life-in literature, in religion, in philosophy, in government, in arts and sciences, and in all the essentials of her social system-Korea has alwaYR chosen to sit at the feet of China. In this she has been both gainer and loser. While in all these departments she has received the best China had to give, yet she has completely stultified her own national development. To the missionary this imports chiefly that he finds none of those elements of manliness which are both the effect and the ground of Christian training.
Among the social institutions she shares with her patron is a modifie<l feudalism, a system whereby the toiler and the trader are adjudged unworthy to share the higher privileges of the aristocracies. These aristocracies are two in Korea-an aristocracy of rank and an aristocracy of learning. It is to the latter that our language helpers necessarily belong. And being the first to receive Christianity from us, they seem to share a not unnatural inclination to retain its benefits within their own caste. This inclination is manifest in the dominant influence they exercise oyer the literature we prepare, an influence by which tracts and treatises so often take on the obscure phraseology of a semi-Chinese vocabulary instead of the plainness and simplicity of speech we had intended. In conveying the verbal message by public preaching and private explanation there has too often lurked behind their words the subtle implication that the Church was an intellectual community, whose teachings were above the grasp of common people, and that such were unwelcome there. This is becoming less and less the case. The Church has enlar~ed her bounds. Those who f@r a time monopolized her privileges have been mote rightly taught by the Holy Spirit. Yet enough of the clique spirit remains among competent personal helpers to form even now a serious obstacle to the progress of Gospel work.
The attitude of the ordinary Korean mind toward religious questions is not one of vacancy. If the nation has no religion, at least it has a legion of superstitions. Every locality, mountain, river, plain, tree, rock, is peopled with spirits, whose influence extends to crops, traffic, birth, death, marriage, and all the other events of life for whoever comes within their proximity. To their devotees no act of importance can be undertaken til they have been cOllSulted, and calamiues, being their complaint of negleet, are to be retrieved by offerings to them. Although some of the better class profess to be uninfluenced by these beliefs and dreads, their emancipation is but partial. Spirit worship enters as a prominent factor into the daily life of every native of the land.
But aside from these local and general superstitious, the people, both high and low, are bound by the thraldom of a far more oppressive system of spiritism. Among the oftenest quoted and the most commendable of t.he precepts of Confucius are those which inculcate a reverential regard for the memory of one's progenitors. In course of time the observance of these precepts has degenerated into a system of absolute idolatry, wherein a man may receive but slight consideration during life, may be starved and abused and ignored by a degenerate offspring, but nevertheless at death becomes deified into an object of the highest veneration, and thereafter is worshipped at stated times in the form of an ancestral tablet both at the domestic shrine and at the grave. So exacting are the demands of this cult, that the living often forego the absolute necessaries of life, even running deeply in debt in order that their ancestors may appear to suffer no neglect. To this practice all social relations for the living are subordinate. And so all-pervasive are its obligations, that he who ignores them is speedily visited with the extreme of social ostracism. Not only is he cut off from the amenities of friendly intercourse, but he can find no employer, no employment from others ; none will buy from or sell to him ; he is cut off from the use of the village well; his animals are stolen or killed; the officials exact from him an undue proportion of the communal taxes, and in a thousand other ways he becomes the object of petty persecution. Because of his supposed unfilial conduct he is likely to suffer repeated beatings at the hands of the other members of his own family, his entire possessions to be confiscated by them, and, proving obdurate, he may be expelled from the clan or even slain. Nearly all these persecutions have been borne by converts to Christianity, and the dread of them is a powerful restraint upon many who would otherwise seek baptism.
Its slavery to ancestral worship is the great curse of this people. Around it as a national principle they rally as do Americans about that of personal liberty. But, in contrast to the latter, it is an essentially selfish principle; an adherenee to it has completely ohviated the possibility to its citizens of individual action. As members of the family clan all live and die, and only such as break away from social ties are able to enter into the freedom of Christian privilege.
In some quarters an obstacle to the reception of truth lies in the peryerted teachings of Roman Catholicism, which has long had a firm footing in Korea. It is said to number at present about thirty thousand converts in the several provinces. It is not to be supposed that many of these have received any spiritual training. They form, to all intents, simply an extensive organization whose members fmpport one another in forcing others to yield to them in temporal affairs. They have such a bad name among other classes that not a few refuse Protestant books until assured that they have nothing to do with Catholicism.
Another group of obstacles exists in the social· customs of Korea. Family life is thoroughly patriarchal. Marriage is almost obligatory; the unmarried state a shame to either sex. Male children are esteemed because they perpetuate the ancestral line and maintain ancestral worship. Female children at marriage are transferred to the family of their husbands, and therefore are lightly esteemed by their parents; while the wife who brings forth only daughters is likely to find herself soon replaced in her spouse's affection. Young people take no part in the choice of their partners. Women of the better classes rarely leave thcir homes. Those seen upon the streets all belong to the lower orders. The wife is never looked upon as a companion by hoI' helpmeet, and, if she belong to a respectable class, pal!lses her life in the seclusion of the women's quarters.
Such conditions inevitably preclnde the possibility of home life as we enjoy it. The domestic circle is to the Korean an incomprehensible phrase. The Christian household is an innovation which revolutionizes the very basis of society. This is inevitable. Weare often told that missionaries must not interfere with social customs, but only preach Christianity. Yet Christian homes are a prime essential of the ChriEtian Church, and the Christian home involves much at direct variance with Korean views. It is therefore incumbent upon the Christian teacher to inculcate the abandonment to some extent of native usages and their substitution by those founded on Christian precepts.
Rather an after-problem than an obstacle to conversion is the question of self-support by converts. The time has passed when all can find employment among foreigners. It has not yet ceased to be the case that nearly all baptized in the capital make early application for positions as personal teachers, and this mainly for the reason that it is impossible for them to continue in their old pursuits and still practise Christian morality. But even here not a few are developing a self-reliance in these matters that bids fair in time to produce a self-supporting Chnrch.
Another phase of the work problem, however, is qnite as important, though less puzzling. Labor is boked on as degrading in Korea. There
A REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF. MORALITY VS. CHRIS'l'IANITY
is consequently a large class whose claim to be "gentlemen" interferes with any pursuit which might afford a livelihood in the absence of inherited wealth. But Korean custom recognizes a hospitality so wide that whoever establishes himself in the guest-room must be supplied with food, fire, even clothing, until such time as he chooses to depart. Now the infusion of grace to withstand such customs is a labor the Holy Spirit alone can accomplish. But they place the missionary in many a position of doubt, and they make it more difficult than we are apt to appreciate for converts either to accept or to maintain the labor standard established by Scripture.
Other obstacles might be named, but these suffice. Korea is still within the grasp of the arch· enemy, and he is even now tightening his grip upon her. Yet with greater certainty she is being prayed away from him j and what I have written may serve some as an indication upon what lines prayer is most specifically needed.
A REMARKABLE EXAMPLE OF MORALITY VB. CHRISTIANITY.
Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy was a public-spirited Parsee merchant of Bombay, a man of fine business ability and great will force, who died April 14th, 1859, aged seventy-six, worth $4,000,000. In 1822, at forty years of age, he gave proof of a remarkable munificence, releasing debtors from jail by assuming their debts, and for thirty-six years his beneficence never slackened. He gave over $1,500,000 away in promiscuous charity, utterly indifferent to class or creed j and, in honor of his patriotism and munificence, he was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1842 and presented with a gold medal bearing her image set in diamonds in 1843. The hospital at Bombay bears his name, a monument to his noble charity j the Grant medical college was endowed by him, which furnishes India with skilled medical practitioners. He established at Bombay an asylum for the education and support of poor Parsee children. No man ever contributed more to the prosperity of the Presidency of Bombay j and Lord Elphinstone, the governor, said that besides the great works which endear his name to future generations, his private-almost secret-charities divided the weekly bread to thousands of his fellow-creatures. His wealth was gotten by sagacity, industry, and integrity, and giveu with wisdom, discrimination, and sense. And yet Jejeebhoy for three quarters of a century confronted the Christian religion as he beheld it in the East Indies, and persistently and obstinately clung to the superstitions in which he had been born and nurtured.
He died as he had lived, a Parsee, a Persian fire-worshipper j he adhered to the Zend-Avesta and rejected the Bible, and day after day did just what Alexander the Great did before him-went down to the sea beach and bowed in worship before the rising suu. With all his noble, patriotic, humane, and philanthropic impulses he was born and bred an idolater, and
WOMAN'S WOHK IN AMERICAN MISSIONS
his morality throughout had a pagan type and spirit. His liberality of creed was nothing more than the toleration of indifferentism; his charity was the indiscriminate generosity of a lavish disposition; his religion was a mechanical and blind allegiance to the tradition and superstition of his race. But, far as his morality was from even the pretence of piety, it was jnst as good a substitute for Christianity as that of any man who, like him, confronts and rejects the claims of Christ. The prospects of salvation of snch as Jejeebhoy, trained in paganism and imperfectly acquainted with Christianity, are nevertheless to be preferred to those of the most enlightened moralist who, in a Christian land, under the noontide blaze of a Christian civilization, born and bred in such an atmosphere, lives and dies in neglect of Christ! Depend upon it, that is a spurious morality which does not prepare the heart for the cordial reception of Christ when the soul becomes intelligently conscious of His character and claims !
Pygmalion was a celebrated statuary of Cyprus, of whom it was told in mythology that into a beautiful ivory statue which he had made the gods breathed a soul. 'We may have the form of godliness, but, however externally attractive, it lacks the power; cold as marble, lifeless as ivory, it lacks a soul! Oh, for some servant of God mighty in prayer to stand, like the prophet of the iron harp, over this valley of dry bones and pray with prevailing power, " Come from the four winds, 0 breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live." Then, when men have felt the renewing Spirit of God, when they have thrilled with the consciousness of that true love toward God and goodness which is the inspiration and vitalization of all highest morality, they see that all other morality is but the form, the skeleton of godliness, needing to be clothed as with sinew and muscle and cuticle, needing to be pervaded with the life blood of God, needing to be inspired with the breath from His nostrils; then, instead of lying dead and listless in the valley of indecision, irresponsive to the claims of a pure and perfect sovereign, and indifferent to the dying love of the ineffable Son of God, these dead forms shall become living men, standing erect in a holy uprightness, and moving responsive to the call of the Divine Captain as a part of the triumphant army of the living God!
WOMAN'S WORK IN AMERICAN MISSIONS.
BY MRS. ETHAN CURTIS.
One of the greatest gifts granted to huma:n nature is the gift of teach. ing. Christ left few sermons. but He taught daily for three years. Teaching is peculiarly woman's gift. It is not the college, but the mother, that makes the man. Macaulay claims, not Cambridge, but that most motherly of matrons, sweet Hannah More, as his inspirer in literature. Who made the Wesleys-Oxford or that magnificent mother ~ Much of our American missionary work must be done by women. To do nothing but preach to a degraded people is to sow seed on stony ground. The first work is to prepare the soil. This is the teacher's task. Preaching may lead to the conversion of souls. but only teaching will permanently uplift humanity. This is teaching: to arouse the young, to guide the old, to sweeten home and to soften hatred, to direct love aright, to add truth to truth. until shrunken souls shall -expand, enlarge, grow-grow in the gTaces of gentleness and ,gentility, grow in the love of right and righteousness, grow into the grandeur of God and Christ. The Mormon work is largely that of women teachers-. Through them those girls are learning the nobility of true womanliness; those boys, the sanctity of womanhood. The curse of our country once was slavery; the corruption of our country to-day is Mormonism. Every sin against God demands a ransom, as the sin against heaven demanded a Redeemer. Our best and bravest died for slavery. Mormonism, that sin against women and home, demands not deaths, but lives.
We women at home are in fault. We pay a pittance or nothing to this cause, and then think that our duty is done. This is a 'work for country and for Christ. Have we patriotism? Have we religion ~ Then let us open our purses wide enough to take love in and give money out. Shall we not have our share in the redemption of the Mormon cities of our land 1 •The degradation of woman, the degeneracy of man, the captivity of the chlId-these are some of the evils of Mormonism. Would we be saviours ~ Then let us do this work-do it g~nerously and gladly.
A second work, peculiarly' woman's, is the training of the black and benighted children that slavery has made, our inheritance. They do not specially need preachers. The gifts of fervor, of faith, of fluent speech was theirs, even in their days of doom ; it is still theirs in their days of deliverance. But these people need training, they need watchful care, they need schools. There is an old, old debt to this kidnapped and con- quered race. What an awful debt has America! Those centuries of un- requited toil! This can only be paid for in labors of love. Other mis- sionary work may be a duty; this is a debt.
All over this continent there once roamed another race; bred to the forest, the brutality of the beast became their symbol of manhood; re- venge was justice j might was right; cruelty was their crecd. Yet these men had souls. Once the image of God had borne its impress on their hearts. Often they heard the speech of the mighty God spoken by the " awe-inspiring tongue of nature." These rhythmic words they have left lisping 0' er our land, from States and territories and cities, from rivers and lakes and cataract, from lofty mountains and lowly vales, until American geography becomes a new revelation-the revelation of the red man's search after God, the revelation of the Indian's soul, a soul born in beauty, but lost in brutishness. What are we doing for the Indians? They are the nation's wards. Once four of these braves walked from the wintry snows of Oregon to the summery settlement at St. Louis, asking for" the white man's book of heaven." What a longing for immortality! This race has loves' as well as revenges. Eternity is theirs as well as ours. We have almost swept them from this land. Shall we likewise sweep them from the heavens overhead? No j let us care for the fragment that re- mains-care for them as Christians should care for souls.
In the very heart of our rich Eastern mountains dwells" the American highlander," or " poor white. " 'Ve leave them there almost without free schools, but not without strong drinks. They are Americans of sturdy European ancestry. They know not God and fear not man. Poverty has pressed upon them ; ignorance has weighted their souls j yet their home is in the richest region of our Eastern States. Ignorance, combined with wealth, is the most dangerous dynamite that humanity can furnish. Their morality is not our morality. Shall we allow these, our own race, to rest in fifteenth-century darkness, while we are basking in nineteenth-century light? They have physical prowess and mental shrewdness, but they lack moral training. They need Christian teaching. They have furnished us with brave generals and brilliant statesmen. They may yet furnish to America that monstrosity of genius-brilliant intellects with bad breeding, aspiring brains and degraded souls. Christian patriotism calls for teachers to implant truth, honor, uprightness, to carry Christ into these homes. This is duty to the future. Free schools would be a farce among this free and fearless people. They need Christ wrought into their lives. They need the highest law, God, to guide them into the lesser laws of truth. They need us, our prayers, our purses, and our women, to teach them to walk in the ways of the Lord, to live Christ.
One step from these and we reach our own class aud kind-the home missionary churches and Sunday-schools. These people are taught a knowledge of books in our public schools; but they need preachers and pastors. They are scattered all over these States, in city and in country, in the deserted East and the growing West. They are of two classes-our native-born Americans and the foreign immigrants. America is to-day the chosen land .. of earth; it is the chosen of the European capitalist; it is the chosen of the downtrodden and the oppressed of all nations j above all, it is the chosen of God. Here every religion that offends not against moral law, which has become State law, has a right to an existence. Europe, Asia, and Africa are coming to us in larger numbers than we are caring for religiously. More than half a million yearly of the neglected children of European nations seek our shores through the gates at Castle Garden. In a generation they will be Americanized. Shall we not also Christianize them? Their children may be our rulers; and those who cannot rule from the President's chair may rule in a more absolute way from the polls. In one sense, Europe sends us of her best blood-the healthy, wholesome, peasant races, as no deformed person, no debased nor diseased being, no pauper, no criminal has a right, by law, to land from the steerage on our shores. It is something to have a vigorous physical basis for Christian work. Our government furnishes them with public schools; we are to furnish them with churches and Sabbath-schools. If we leave them in the slums of our cities, they will sink to lower depths of degradation than the poverty of Europe provided for them. Dare we give them Bibleless schools and no Christian culture? I,et us give them our Sabbath, our church, our socialism (the brotherhood of Christ).
Then there are our old churches, once the perennial springs that fed our cities, but now almost deserted and neglected. In them are souls whose eternity is a sacred matter. Children are growing up in these communities that should be gained for Christ. There is the West, growing in all worldly ways. Should we not help them to grow into Christ, the Redeemer? Besides all this are the new churches of our cities. Other missionary work may be a gift-this is an investment. God might have done all this work by His omnipotence, but He has chosen us to be His messengers. Let us show proper gratitude for the privilege by faithfully performing the duty given to us.
The finest history of the last fifteen years ends with these words on America: "She has tamed the savage continent, peopled the solitude, gathered wealth untold, waxed potent, imposing, redoubtable; and now it remains for her to prove, if she can, that the rule of the masses is consistent with the highest growth of the individual; that demo~racy can give the world a civilization as mature and pregnant, ideas as energetic and vitalizing, and types of manhood as lofty and strong as any of the systems which it boasts to supplant." America can do this and more. But the Church must bc her right hand, and that hand must be welcome with gifts to all who seek her shelter, to the oppressed of the Old 'Vorld, to the neglected of this new land. America must first of all do the missionary work that lies within her own domain.
INTERNATIONAL DEPAR'l'MENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The War and Missions in China. toriallty." This can, however, be only accomplished by conceding "mixed BY REV. S. L. GRACEY, D.D., LATE UNITED residence" and the rights of all nation- STATES CONSUL, FOOCHOW, CHINA. als in all parts of the empire. Under existing circumstances these privileges You ask: What are Japan's motives· would have to be granted to the Chinese, in precipitating the present Waf with as well as to other peoples; but the Ohina! Japanese are very much afraid of giv- It is not easy to answer this beyond ing them these privileges, as they are what is already widely recognized. A altogether too close to them geographi- few things may be said, howe~er, on cally, and they would soon be overrun the ultimate aim of Japan, though how by the undesirable coolie class. This fa! European nations may interfere no fear has long stood in the way of prog- one can say. ress in this movement. Now, if she 1. Japan cares a little about Korean can humiliate Ohina, Japan might re independence and autonomy, and fuse her great neighbor the pri vileges would gladly help the little" Hermit she would accord to Western nations; Nation" to shake off her strong Ohinese and with Ohina suing for peace, Japan neighbor, who has always regarded her, conld dictate her own terms of treaty as she still does, as a dependency, reVISIon. This is a large element in which relation Korea recognizes, at Japan's action. Japan is intent upon least to a degree which leads her still entering the great family of nations on to pay tribute to Ohina. terms of equality. This appears in the 2. Japan's internal dissensions have utterances of her statesmen and t.he lead- been growing more and more serious; ers in her liberalist papers. If she can and the Sat·clw government has thought show herself competent in bearing arms, it well to consolidate the nation by a she can make the nations respect her; foreign war. hence she sends her invitation to the S. The Japanese probably hope to United States and other governments, humiliate Ohina and to gain possession asking that they send a competent mili- of Bome of her" buffer" territory. This tary representative to accompany her might be Korea, if Japan succeeds in army and see how sbe conducts her moving her army on to the Ohinese warfare. She is parading before the capital before the rivers and harbors nations to demonstrate that she is freeze up in November. If she is not wortbyand well qualified to enter the successful in this, she doubtless will great confederation of States on the transfer the seat of war to the south, same footing as others.
and be heard flom at Formosa, toward It is well known that there is a strong which she has long cast covetous eyes. conservative element in Japan bitterly 4. But the more direct, though appar- opposed to granting foreigners rights of ently remote, moti ve iniluencing Japan's residence and the transaction of busi- actions at this timc is the ~ining of ness, in all parts of the empire; but prestige with Western nations in the on no other terms can she secure the consideration of Japan's demands for abolishment of ext.ra.territoriality. I new treaties, and to secure thege privi- have no doubt Ohina would gladly close leges without making concessiOilS to the W!lr without any further struggle, Ohlna, which Japan may feel forced to and grant (if she could save her face) make to others. Japal'l)g desirolls of all that Japan lIas claimed up to tllis securing the abolition of" extra· terri- time in Korea; but to that Japan would not, probably, listen. She will insist battle cries of the rebellion were sound· that China now accept the arbitrament ed in the phraseology of the old He· of arms, and if she can defeat Japanese brew Scriptures, so they prefer to be· aggression, she may yet be able to dic- lieve that the adoption of foreign retate her terms of peace; but this is ligions means the adoption of foreign doubtful. Japan is much better pre· poUtj,cs. Many of their leaders know pared for war than is China, and has that England subdued and controls long been prepating for this struggle. India, and then Burma, and has been Supplies of all kinds have been stored moving in a mysterious way toward at convenient places in readiness for her Thibet. They know of Russia's trans· army; maps and surveys have been continental railroad now being built, made, and bridges' prepared exactly and have heard rumors of encroach· adapted to her present work. ment of that great power on her north· ern boundary and Korea. They see The condition of affairs is now such France allowed by the great powers to that Western nations may at any day steal about one·third of poor, little, become involved in the struggle. If weak Siam, and know that she is schem· Japan should attempt to seize Korea ing for territory on the western border· and make it a dependency, she must lands of China. They are aware of the reckon on Russian interference. Other efforts of Western nations to portion out nations would also be concemed, to the continent of Africa among themsuch an extent, at least, as to protest by selves; and it is not surprising if, with armed intervention. Russia only waits some concern, if not alarm, they become a favorable opportunity and excuse for suspicious of those countries, and ask proceeding to secure for herself a har· what are the intentions of these same bor or harbors on the Pacific coast is powers regarding the Middle Kingdom. open all the year round, as Vladi vostock An attack on foreigners is liable to occur is virtually closed for four months of at any point at any time, instigated by the year. This may prove her oppor· the literati, who find ready tools in the tunity to annex some of the territory of " bullies" and" roughs" in almost any Korea, which would supply splendid locality. These latter can easily inflame harbors, such as Fusan and .Port Laza· the people against Christians by circureff. lating handbills and posters of the most ridiculous, but inflammatory character. Again you ask: What will be the The people generally are so ignorant 'fY"obable effect upon miBmOna1'Y operationa and superstitious that they readilyac. in Ohina'! cept and credit thelle stories; there is always plenty of material to excite to From my acquaintance with the Chi· deeds of violence and looting with the nese thought concerning foreign mis· prospect of booty. This with the almost sionaries, I am led to fear serious em- certain immunity from punishment by barrassment to such work. This is lax or indifferent officials where foreign based upon the fact that all foreigners, missionaries are concerned supply conand especially all foreign missionaries ditions for riot and violence which are in that country, are suspects. The igno- always present. With a foreign invader rance and deliberate misconception of on her soil the people will be more than the purpose of the foreigner in China is ever antagonistic. If Japan is successsomething phenomenal among nations. ful and a rebellion should also be in· The most common delusion of the peo- augurated b.v the Kolao Hui and other ple is that all foreigners are there with Chinese organizations against the prespolitical designs, looking to the acquisi. ent dynasty, no one can predict the tion of Chinese territory. The fact that changes that may occur in the next few the Taiping rebellion was led by men months. who claimed to be Christians may account for this in part. The Tartar rulers and litcrati remember that the Christ and the War in the Ea.st. Cross nurses at once. The Christians BY REV. J. H. DE FOREST, D.D., AUBURN- feel that the eyes of the whole nation DALE, MASS. are on them; and if they go through [Dr. De Forest, after twenty years service In this time, showing their loyalty by thefr Japan, in connection with the American Board, havl1lg recently returned to this conntry, kindly sacrifices, it ought to end forever the answers for us four qnestions concerning affairs in Eastern Asia.-J. T. G.] baseless charges against them.
2. What wilt be the effect of the war on OhriBtian work there' .
1. What i8 the 8pirit of the JapaneIle Mr. Kozaki, President of the Doshisha Okristiam in f!iew of the war' Universitr. writes me: .. I believe we You may have heard that Christian- shall suffer somewhat in our work for a ity, which makes Christ more than fa- while; but I hope in the end it will ther and mother, and puts His authority prove a blessing to our work and to our above that of all others, has often been country. I believe the present war will charged with a tendency to foster a bring our nation up to the front of the spirit of disrespect toward parents and civilized world, and may possibly en- of disloyalty to the Emperor. Indeed, able us to take our place among the the prevailing thought among armyoffi- great powers, and so our responsibility cers Is that Christianity is haldly con- in the future will be much greater."
sistent with loyalty. Christian leaders Also a letter from one of the gradu- have splendidly replied to these charges ates of that institution says: "My heart in their publications and on the plat- is burning now with my most sacred form. And now that war is declared, and Divine desire of doing s~mething the Christians are as sure as Buddhists for the good of my dear land. My de.- and Confucianists and §!J!ntoists are termination is to die in the line of duty that Japan was forced to this extreme rather than live in safety away from step by the long-contiuued double deal- that line. Let us hope the war will lead ing of China in Korea. They believe to a second awakening-a spiritual this is a thoroughly righteou8 war, and awakening of the whole nation."
in some cities they gather every morn- And yet direct Christian wOlk can- ing at five o'clock to pray to the God not fail to be checked. The necessities of Justice to guide Japan to victory and of life have already greatly increased in to make her helpful in giving light to price, and it will be very hard for self- oppressed Korea. The last Tl!e Ohris- snpporting churches to carry them- tian says that such men as Mr. Honda, selves. Most unfortunately at this time, the ablest of Methodist orators, and our Board is heavily in debt, and has al- President of the Methodist College in ready cut down grants for direct evan- Tokyo, Mr. Miyagawa, the leading pas- gelistic work, and apparently will have tor of the Osaka churches, Mr. Ibuka, to cut down even more in the coming one of the strongest of Presbyterian year. It will require extreme self-de- leaders, and others are addressing most nial on the part of the native Christians enthusiastic audiences, who can hardly and of the missionaries to save the work be kept in order over the words gi sen, a!ready in hand in its entirety; and I righteous war, A private letter tells earnestly hope the Christians of the how Mrs. Joseph Neesima, with the old United States, in spite of wide financial Samurai spirit with which she went into distress here, will do all they can for the battle of Wakamatsu, has gone to their missions in Japan.
Hiroshima in charge of nursing work S. What do foreigner8 out there think there, and how the Doshisha Nurses' of tltis war 1 School offered ten Christian nurses. There are foreigners and foreigners All were refused at first, but after- in the East. As a rule, we may say ward the governor of Kyoto accept- that the majority of foreigners in the ed four of them to go with the Red open ports of Japan are generally opposed to the government, and are often all Asia in the path of progress, and cruelly unjust in their judgments of the always standing ready to encourage natives. At this critical time, when the them in trying to recover their real inwhole nation is all aflame over the war, dependence as a nation by revised some English papers are found publish- treaties that acknowledge her judicial ing the statement that the Japanese are and tariff autonomy. extremely conceited, and they hope they will not get the victory, as it would 4. What toil/, the war accomplish for set them up so higb that there would Korea and China' be no getting along with them. No Japanese editor's life would be safe an It will give the nation of twelve millhour were he to publish such things; ions a chance to become an independent yet there are foreigners who take ad- State. If this fail, she will probably vantage of their consular jurisdiction to come under some kind of protection print such hostile sentiments on Japan- from progressive Japan instead of reese soil I No wonder the Japanese hate maining under the reactionary and with perfect hatred the exterritoriality stultifying policy of China. that has limited her title to an independent State. But the greatest blessing to be looked for will probably go to China. Aggres- But there are other foreigners who sive war from her little neighbor will believe that aliens in a country at war awaken her to a recognition of modern should be gentlemanly, and should thought and modern methods of intersympathize as far as possible with the national intercourse. It will force her people and the government, or else to a stronger internal policy, so that should have the good taste to keep still. there can be a well-organized national 'rhey dislike exceedingly to see any un- army in the place of ner almost worth· generous advantage taken of their ex- less provincial" braves," and so there tra-territorial position to defame the can be railroads, telegraphs, and postal people. systems worthy of a great power-a necessity to the existence of a central Then, there Is the large missionary government. This war will do much body of five hundred men and women to compel China to have an educational in Japan situated far more favorably system that shall break down the superthan those in China, who are already stitions and shall open up the resources being driven from their places in the in- of the empire. And all this will begin terior, having their chapels and homes to break the force of that unfortunate destroyed, and in some instances being anti-foreign sentiment that exists all murdered by mobs of excited Chinese. through the land. God hasten the day I do not know positively how all our when China shall move forward ! brethren in Japan feel about the war, but so far as I do know they either be- Korea. and Early Missionary Work. lieve that though there was hardly provocation enough to justify war, there DY REV. G. II. APPENZELLER, D.D., is more of right on the side of the Japanese, or they feel with the Japanese SEOUL, KOREA. that the war was inevitable, and was forced by the way in which China re- Korea is the peninsula in the eastern peatedly used Korea to insult Japanese part of Asia prOjecting down from Manofficials there, and to drive the Japan- churia and lying between Japan and ese from the peninsula. I often think China. It contains with the ten thouthat a part of God's plan for us mis- sand islands over which the king claims sionaries is to use us as a body of for- to rule one hundred thousand square eigners, always showing sympathy with miles. The population is estimated the intense desire of a Japanese to lead from twel ve to sixteen millions. These, like those of ancient Gaul, are divided into three classes: first and highest is the Yang ban-gentleman, aristocrat, official. He makes pretensions to knowI· from Nagasaki, Japan, Bnd on the 23d edge of the Chinese character, and de- arrived at Chemulpo. He at once pro- spises manual labor. The second is the ceeded overland, a distance of twenty- (Jhougin, or middle class, composed five miles, to Seoul, where he was weI· mostly of third·rate officials, clerks, comed by General Foote at the United merchants, and artisans. The third States Legation. He began his work of grade is formed of the farmer and coolie exploring the country. After forward- class down to the butcher, who stands ing to a prominent member of the Ko- lowest in the social scale. Woman is rean Government a letter indicating his held to be inferior to man, as she is in object and proposed plans of work, he all Asiatic countries. She is the mother was notified by him to a personal inter- of her husband's children. As a child view, during which he was informed she must be obedient to her father; as that his letter had been submitted to a wife to her husband; and as a widow the king, and that he cordially approved to the oldest son. of it. . In communicating this decision The country, which, because of its of the king, the officer said that while mountainous character, has been likened there existed strong opposition to that to a sea in a storm, is rich in mineral form of Christianity, which in former resources, well watered, and the valleys years had occasioned serious trouble in fertile. The climate is hot in the soutb, Korea, the Government had no objec· while in the north snow lies on the tion to Protestantism and would not ground from three to four months in the place any obstacle in the way of Prot- year. Seoul, the capital of the coun· estant missionaries. As far as the writer try, is a walled city with a population knows, the Methodist Episcopal Church of 150,000 inside the wall, and an equal was the first to be recognized by the population in the suburbs. The royal Korean Government as a helper in the palace is in the northern part of the career of reformed progress on which city. The king is an absolute monarch. she had cnlisted. We may say here He is assisted by three ministers and the that our mission has up to this time re- presidents of eight departments of State ceived the support of the Korean Gov- -Finance, Rites and Ceremonies. War, ernment to the extent of not placing Public Works, Punishment, Registra- obstacles in the way, though the Gov- tion, Home and Foreign Offices-the ernment has at times restricted, with last two having been added since Korea professed friendly interest, the move- has had relations with foreign nations. ments of the mission.
The country is divided into eight proV'- The relations between China and Ko- inces, presided over by governors; and rea have been intimate, if not at all into 364 districts, presided over by mag- times pleasantly so, for centuries. The istrates. annual embassy from Seoul bearing Korea has entered the family of na- tribute still makes its long and winding tions. She made her first treaty with way over the thousand miles between the United States in 1882; Great Brit- Seoul and Peking. It always had its ain, Germany, Russia, and France fol- full quota of merchants and adventurers lowing a few years. later in the order in addition to those directly connected named. The Royal College was found- with the mission. Many of them came ed in 1886_ in contact with foreign missionaries in The Rev. R. S. Maclay, D.D., veter- Moukden, Peking, and Tientsin. They 'an missionary of the Methodist Episco- heard the truth, received Christian pal Church of China and Japan, was books, and when stranded, as in some .the pioneer in missbn work in Korea. cases they were, received help. In t~ He was the first Christian missionary to way the Rev. John Ross, of Moukden, enter the open door in the Hermit Na· came into contact with many Koreans.
tion. On June 19th, 1884, he sailed He was so impressed with the J)ecessity of doing something to brin~ the Gospel American Minister in Seoul stating that to them that he employed several Ko- since our departure from the capital he reans, two of whom afterward became had received from the Korean Foreign members of our Church, to translate Office, by order of his majesty the king, the New Testament into their own a dispatch stating that it is well known tongue. lIe succeeded in translating to the Korean Government that Amerithe whole of the New Testament, and cans residing in Korea are engaged in thousands of copies, mostly of the Gos- different ways in disseminating the docpels, have b3en distributed among the trines of the Christian religion; citing people. Korea had been entered from the fact that it is objectionable to the China, and not a few in the northwest- Government, not authorized by the ern province of Ping-an had some knowl- treaty, and demanding that it shall edge of the Christian religion. cease. His aid as the Minister of the United States was invoked to this end, Our missio.naries in Seoul heard soon and it became his duty to request that after their arrival of the work done we would refrain from teachiug the from Ohina. Reports came of men who Christian religiou and administering the wanted instruction and baptism. These rites and ordinances to the Korean peobecame louder and louder, but it was ple. This was a temporary obstacle to not untn the spring of 1887 that a visit our work. The meetings in the capital could be matle to those regions beyond. were suspended and the men travelling In April and May of this year the writer in the country returned home. Their undertook this journey of nearly two prompt acquiescence had a very good hundred miles to Pyeng Yang It was effect upon the Government and enmost intelesting-the first ever, under- abled them after the lapse ot a few taken by a missionary in that directian monthll to reopen their work. -and was productive of good. Fifty miles from Seoul is Sungto, capital of A Word from the Front. the country during the last dynasty. This is a city of 75,000, situated in the BY REV. DAVID S. SPENCER, NAGOYA, midst of ginseng farms. Ginseng is famous in China for its medicinal quali- JAPAN. ties, and large quantities are sent there annually, the revenue of which is said You want to know how thiugs appear to amount to $200,000. Thence the to us here at the opening of the war beroute layover rough mountains through tween China and Japan, lind what we the magistracies of Kim Chun, Pycng are doing. Stating the matter as briefly San. SeHung, Pong San, Hwonl" Chow, as I can, the pre"ent conditions are as and Choung Hwoa, all important cen- follows: Cbina has disregarded the extres, where Christian work can and press stipUlations of her treaties with ought to be inaugurated. Japan, and has so managed to control things in Korea-virtually exercising After journeying two weeks we ar- suzerainty over her, and securing from rived at Pyeng Yang, a thousand years her tribute-that Japan has at last reago the capital of Korea-the city belled against this in defence of what founded by Ki Tya, the founder of she considers her national safety. She Korean civilization-situated on the asks China to do the right thing, and west ~ide of the beautiful Ta Tong China replies w.ith contempt. She asks River, and famolls for having murdered China to join her in reforming the govthe crew of and burning the General ernment in Korea, so as to secure the Sherman. It is now the capital of Ping- rights of her citizens residing there and an-Do, and is a busy, bustling town of the safety of the oppressed classes in 75,000 people. Here we found a dozen Korea, and China refuses, at the same or more meu interested in the new faith. time landing troops in Korea, contrary to treaty stipulations. Japan Itt once We, however, received word from the puts several thousand troops into th41 agreed at all, the people being deterfield-that is. into Korea-and does it mined to oppose everything pro'posed with so much of ease and rapidity as to by the Government; but nOW all other completely dumbfound old China and considerations are laid aside, and all Korea as well. This was done to pro- parties, without respect to political tect her nationals residing in that land. color, unite for the defeat of China and Both nations seut gunboats; and the the glory of their Japan_ News now J apauese, finding China unwilling to co- comes to hand that China is determined operate with her in the political refor- to fight to the bitter end-though just mation of KOl'ea-ascheme upon which how much dependence may be placed Japan embarked in 1873-resolves to upon this'statement is not clear-and undertake the task alone, and begins to that an army is marching down from treat directly with the Korean Govern- the North on Korea to meet the Japanment. When that government is about ese. On the other band, the talk of the ready to agree to the terms of Japan Japanese is an army to march againSt and reform her system, relieve the op- Peking 'Diu, Tientsin, and the war cloud pressed, and protect the subjects of darkens. 'fhe fighting thus far has other nations, China interfered, and the been on Korean soil and waters, but Koreans were unable to carry out the there is probability that it cannot be agreement with Japan on account of confined there. In Japan all is excitethe pressure brought to bear by China. ment. Flushed with victory at the Japan then stormed and took the Ko- start, the people see nothing but vicrean palace; and the king at once issued tory sitting upon their banners, and not a proclamation declaring the indepen- to meet with signal defeat might welldence of Korea, deposing five promi: nigh spoil them for further reasoning. nent officials who were opposed to re- Large numbers of horses are being purform, and submitting to the plans pro- chased, raw recruits are being drilled, posed by Japan. This was on July transport ships are busy putting men on 23d. On the 25th three Japanese men- the field of action, and the whole looks of-war were met in Korean waters by warlike indeed. What may be the outthree Chinese men-of-war and a trans- come no one knows. It will surely inport ship, lind the Chinese ships, ac- terfere with mission work in three councording to the most reliable reports yet tries, and may involve other nations in to hand, fired on the Japanese ships the horrors of war. We are trying to under a flag of truce. This opened the steady the Church through this trial, battle, and the transport-an English and earnestly ask the prayers of our ship called the Kowslting, with 1500 men home friends to unite with ours, that out -was sunk, one Chinese man-of-war of all this may result a broader way for was taken, and the others put to fiight the Gospel of His Son. much injured. An engagement on land followed-probably on the 29th and The Asiatio War-Our Exchanges. 30th-and in this the Japanese, according to reports, were completely success- The historic causes of the present ful. When the fact of these collisions became known, Japan at once declared war in Asia have been so repeatedly and war against China. This was on August 1st; but it happens that on the clearly put in the secular press that it very same day China declared war against Japan. So we are now in the does not seem worth while to traverse throes of war. The Japanese are milch excited over the matter, and the nation them here. Added to the purely hisis now a unit. For a long time the Government and the people have not toric features is th&' statement of Mr.
C. Meriwether, in the Re'Diew of Re- views, that the thriving trade which bas sprung up of late years between Japan and Korea gives Japan a very practical He interest in the peninsul&. says: " Privileges have been granted, depots or not, we cannot say ; it is teared by established, and warehouses built. The those who have Korea's best interests at foreign commerce of Korea passes large- heart that the deadening, corrupting inly through the hands of the Japanese. fluences of China will be greater than Her motive for interfering in the com- ever over both officials and people in plications of Korea is neither senti- that little kingdom." He further says mental nor philanthropic, but merely that Korea, being the vassal of Chins, seI1ish. " explaius China's policy, but acknowl- edges that China is handicapped by the Japan urges other motives, such as loss of some of her most eminent statesthat no great power like Russia should men who had had years of European be allowed to get hold of Korea; that experience. Marquis Tseng, who had Japan is playing the part toward Korea eight years of service in Europe, died that America did to Japan herself in forc- just after retuJDing to China four years ing her out of her seclusion; and that, ago. His successor died a year later, having opened the land, she ought to and now the ex-Minister to Great Britpatronize it still farther, chaperoning ain, France, and Italy, Haueh Fuit into independent existence. ch'eng, has just died. This deprives China of able and modernized leaders, It now appears that Japan, besides which she sorely needs at this juncture. furnishing herself with modern armaments, has for some years past carefully The Ollureh Jruaionarg Intelligencer, matured the detail of her present cam- the able organ of. the Church of Eng. paign. The country is said to have land Missionary Society, acknowledges been carefully surveyed and the depth it is difficult to foresee at present how and breadth of rivers measured; and the war will affect Christian missions. the 8pectatQr'8 correspondent affirms As to those in Korea, it says they are in that .. pontoon trains made accurately too early a stage for there to be much to measure have been lying in the Jap- danger to the converts, and the misanese arsenals ready for tJansport when sionaries will be sufficiently safeguardthe moment of action should arrive." ed by their respective consuls. "After It was thus that within a week " troops, the war is over," it adds, " Korea is alarms, stores, alubuIances, equipment, most certain to be more accessible to and even charcoal, firewood, and water" Ohristian effort than has been hitherto were landed in Korea. the case." It does not forget that Ko- rea is ouly the battle-ground of Japan The Ohinese Recorder says: "What- and China. "How will the conflict ever the result of these movements may affect missionary operations in these be, we hope they will tend to the up- two empires 1" he asks. "Will the lifting and development of Korea." It nationsl pride of Japan be eventually quotes a Korean correspondent of the humbled, and greater freedom be ob- North Ohina Daily New8, who asks: tained tor the spread of the Gospel, or .. Is it strange that the people should will their spirit of independence be inrise in sheer despair to free themselves tensified t In China much depends from a set of men whose only aim is to upon Li Hung Chang. That great vicefatten themselves ou the blood of the roy is a friend of progress and of Westpoor; whose sole business is to torture, ern ideas. Failure would discredit him, banish, and kill anyone who dares to and perhaps bring a reactionary party differ from them; whose whole policy into power; signal success, on the other is to be an abject slave to a foreign hand, might lead the Chinese to take up power that they may be an absolute a haughty foreign attitude. Doubtless power at home 1" The editor of the whatever the event, the flercenesa of Recorder thinks it diftlcuIt to understand man shall turn to God's praise." Japan's attitude, but says: "Should Japan fail in this endeavor [to aid Ko· The Presbyterian Church of England rean reformation], whether it is Wna fide I ltlonthlll Meuenger, after treating the was ready to send a dozen of ,its memsubject of the war in general, acknowl- bers to the front. He thinks, .. with edging the difficulty of saying just what the entire nation on ,fire with zeal about the real cause of it all is except that the war, it will be exceedingly difficult Korea, being subject to the suzerainty to stimulate any lively interest in of China, and Japan having the right Church and evangelistic work. The to march troops into the peninsula to pro- educational work of the various mistect Japanese residents, of whom there sions will also be likely to suffer in the are many especially in Seoul, difficulty same way and for the same reasons." was certain to arise sooner or later, says, "Our concern in this place, with this William Elliot Griffis, D.D., author useless war, centres round its probable of " Korea the Hermit Nation, ,. writing effect on missions." The editor thinks in the Oltristian Intelligencer, says: the actual outbreak of war has intensi- "The issue of the conflict, I am infied the anti-foreign and anti-missionary clined to helieve, will be the indepenfeeling which had been before exhibit- dence of Korea, and the influencing of ing itself in the peninsula. After men- China, through the leaven of Western tioning the riots at Tung-kun and Shek- civilization introduced by the Japanese, lung, a native Christian having been to an extent unsuspected by the ultrakilled at the latter place and the Pres· Confucianists. Furthermore, I cannot byterian church destroyed, he says, but believe that ultimately the Gospel H Nor will the war do anything but will have freer course in all Chinese hinder missionary progress in Japan and Asia when the war clouds shall have China. The war fever in Japan is un- blown away." favorable to the spread of the Gospel." He thinks the disfavor into which Li a T Ite li.ristian (London) says: .. The Hung Chang has fallen a serious detriment and serious peril to all missionary war between China and Japan is a strikwork. His downfall would mean the ing example of the fallacy of the sayfall of a "great protector of mission ing, ' If you would have peace, prepare work all over China." . for war.' These two countries have been emulating European nations in The Missionary Record of the Church building fleets and arming soldiers, and of Scotland says: .. The Hermit King- now are unable to keep from employing dom has only recently been opened up them against each other. Like children to trade and taken possession of by mis- with a new toy, they cannot refrain sions, arid the people of Korea have not from using them to see how they work. proved easy soil for the sowing of the Experience is showing them some Gospel seed." It thinks one result is dreadful results-civilization delayed, certain: that the public attention will debt incurred, bitterness and anger crebe directed for some time to come to ated, social confusion and poverty those regions of the East. though it is spread through the country, the mind impossible to forecast the" course or and ambition of the people turned to the period of these hostilities." unfruitful objects, in addition to the sacrifice of thousands of lives. In the Rev. J. L. Atkinson, writing in Tlte presence of such a calamity as this war, Independent, says the calling away of which will retard Eastern development Christian workers and givers will in- for many a year, we can only comfort evitably embarrass and retard the prog- ourselves with the thought that God's ress of all Christian work. In Kobe, as kingdom, like leaven, is working bein other cities, a committee of three pas- hind and in spite of all the mistakes and tors has been elected by the Christians sins of men." It refers to the fatal in· of the several denominations to raise juries received by Rev. James A. Wylie, funds for the Japanese Red Cross So- Pre~byterian missionary at Lill.O Yang lHety. The. Doshisha Nurses' School from Chinese soldiers marching to Ko· rea, attributable to the jealousy wldo. makes Chinese think Christians have the post of chief priest of a temple oniy instigated the Japanese to this war, and to graduates of such schools as the to expect other like calamities to follow. Government may appoint. He recog· nizes, however, that Japan has now no Japanese Notions of Religious Liberty. State religion, hence he is bothered about what religions ahould be studied One cannot faU to be interested in the in this college. He is, however, clear great undercurrents of thought in a that the only creeds to· be included should be Buddhism and Shintoism. country like Japan at a time when all This he thinks clear, from the fact that thought is cast up for remOUlding. The the Government has a Bureau for the Control of Temples and Shrines in the arguments concerning religious liberty, Home Department. Christianity has in some cases, are uni9,ue. For in- not yet been publicly acknowledged, stance, a Shintoist, wrIting against and is only tolerated. He is confident that this question of religions will in Christianity, claims that it does not the course of a few years come up become within the definition of religions fore the Imperial Diet. to be tolerated under Article Twentyeight of the National Constitution de- But the chaotic condition of the Jap· fining religious freedom. He says the anese mind on the subject of religion very foundations of society in Europe is something to wonder at. Rev. H. and in Japan are based on quite differ- Loomis, writing in the Japan Evangel- ist, reports a movement to found a new ent principles. In the West a State, he religion based on the teaching of the says, is composed of peoples descended Japanese cult which holds to the Divine from different ancestors, and hence the origin of the Mikado, and the superiornecessity of separating the temporal ity of the Japanese people, which is to be an eclectic of Buddhism, Shintoism, from the spiritual power and to accord and all other religions-to be superior perfect freedom of religious belief. But to anything in the world. Mr. Loomis the condition in Japan is quite unlike reports a determined Buddhist opposi- tion to the growth of Christianity. this. Japanese are of common ancestry, and the teachings of imperial ances· "New Aots of the Apostles." tors constitute their religion, and upon these is based the National Constitution. Too late for the mention in this num- He declares it to be a mistake to inter- ber that it deserves, comes what will pret the Constitution as ll11owin~ free- readily be conceded to be the ablest dom to religious beliefs which Will not work that has yet come from the pen acknowledge this .. precious national of Dr. A. T. Pierson, editor·in·chief of this REVIEW. The title is .. The New institution." Japan can "concede no Acts of the Apostles; or, the Marvels necessity of religious freedom in the of Modern Missions." It contains the sense in which the Western nations use series of lectures delivered in Edinburgh the idea." The Religious WorZd (Shnk and elsewhere in Scotland on the foun- Yoki) is a magazine started early in dation of the" Duff Missionary Lecture- ship." TheMail and EaJpreu says it is 189<1 with the object of attacking all re- " not surprising that these stirring lecligions. From a different standpoint of tures by Dr. Pierson before large audi- ences in Scotland, while he was occupythe Shintoist it reaches the same con- ing temporarily Mr. Spurgeon's pulpit clusion. It declares that "religious in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Lonliberty is very important; but as Chris· don, have been received with marked tianity influences men to turn against favor at home and abroad." The pocket the principles on which the National map showing the religious condition of Constitution is based, freedom of faith the world is a fine specimen of cartogwith respect to the Christian religion raphy, and prepared at great expense of . ougM to be prohibited." . money and labor. New York: The Baker & Taylor Company. Mr. Inouye Enryo, a graduate of philosophy from the Imperial University, who subsequently travelled in America and Europe, is vouched for by the Japan Daily Maz7. as" now one of the foremost thinkers among the Buddhists of Japan." This gentleman has been proposing methods for the improvement of Japanese priests in " knowledge and morals," in which he thinks them just now sadly deficient. He proposes the founding of a union college in the 1m· perial University with Government, the college itself to be under the immediate supervision of the Educational Department of Government, which shall grant
FIELD OF ~ONTHLY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
South America,* Home Missions,t Young People's World THE NEGLECTED CONTINBNT. set sentinels and slept with our weapons South America has an area of about at hand. When measuring. if we saw 7,000,000 square miles, or nearly twice that of Europe; its population is, smoke we fell back on our main body, however, only 35,000,000, or less than that of the British Isles. The con- and any signs of Indians made us adtinent is divided into ten republics and British, Dutch, and French Guianas. vance with redoubled caution. In the Of this political division only British and Dutch Guianas can be called toldo (Indian village) of the chief, near Christian. Into the remaining countries the crOS8 has been carried, but the the Montelindo River, our horses disap- Gospel message is practically unknown. The people are in almost pagan dark- peared, and while a portion of our party ness; and though the governments are one by one breaking away from the sought them, the remainder, who were papal yoke, the priests still have great power over the masses. in camp, were surprised by a company The number of Protestant missiona- of naked Indians, painted and adorned ries (men and women) laboring in South America is 330, representing 17 mission- with feathers, who certainly had no ary societies, and reporting about 20,000 communicants. Ecuador and Bolivia peaceable or friendly intentions. Tohave as yet no Protestant missionaries; Peru and Venezuela have but one each. day this spirit of hostility has entirely There are still at least 30,000,000 people in t:!outh America as yet untouched by disappeared. I made my present sur· missionary effort. vey with Indian assistance and have not The Public Land Surveyor of the republic of Paraguay, in a letter to the carried a single firearm. At night we President of the Republic, says; "I am surprised at the security and tranquil- slept tranquilly at whatever spot our lity with which we can now travel in the interior, thanks to the effective measures labor for the day had ceased, no watch' taken by the missionaries of the South American Missionary Society to Chris- being set, and several times in the vicintianize the savage Gran Chaco Indians. The last time I traversed the same ity of strange Indians whom we met on ground, five years ago, Hook with me fifteen selected men, aU armed with Rem- the road. We sought the villagell in· ington rifles and revolvers, and I never allowed anyone to go alone to seek water stead of avoiding them as formerly." or to explore our road. At night we The surveyor concludes by commend· *We regret that the main article on this subject haa for some reason failed to reach us in ing specially a "fair, delicate, and time for publlcatiou. (See" The Neglected Continentt published by F. H. Revell Co., young English lady, who, in connec- New YorK.) See rueo pp. 208 (March), 302 (April), 593 (August), 807 (present Issue), tion with others, has for some time been *t See pp. 74 (January), 844 (present i8sne). fearlessly visiting these savages. giving See pp. 38, 71 (January), 649 (September). them her medical and surgical skill, in- structing them in civilization, and teach· ing them from the sacred words of the Bible how to live; with the sole desire and hope of lifting them from the sor- row and degradation of heathenism into the happy and pure life of Christian- ity. "
South Ameri,an Oannibala.-In Gui- ana and on the Orinoco we still find Caribbeans, who have the distinction of ha ving furnished the name for the terri- ble custom of eating human flesh. Can- nibal comes from Oaribs oOr aOniabrii8b,alt.ehs~ corruptions of Galibu or name of the inhabitants of the Antilles when Columbus arrived there. On the upper Amazon, between this river and the borders of Bolivia, live the Tupis Guaraniens, who manifest a liking for human flesh. Cannibals are common in Australia; the Papuans, Kanakiens, and Battakiens being the most distinguished. Cannibalism is, however, considered the main trait of the New Hebrides. There are more human flesh·eaters in Africa This is only a fraction of the strictly t1la.n anvwhere else. bome missionary work done by this de- Cannibalism is not a sign of a low nomination. In addition to this. $314.- state of civilization. for many cannibal 531 were contributed for colleges and races stand higher in culture than those ministerial education last yt'ar; for the who abhor the custom. Many canni- freedmen, Indians, and Chinese. through bals live in regions full of ordinary the American Missionary Association. food, but they prefer human flesh as a $157,989; for church building. $102,- delicacy, the men forbidding their wives 069; for Sunday-schools. $63:890; by and slaves to eat it. In northern Aus- legacies (to be divided among f>lwh of tralia it seems that the dead are eaten. the societies named above), $678095 ; Herodotus tells us that it was the cus- miscellaneous, $749,541 : making a totul tom In India for the young to kill the of $2,644.939. old and eat them. to insure their future The PreSbyterian Churcb, North. salvation; and we are told that the old contributed in 1893 for home missions folks desired to be killed before they "proper," $977,823; for collc/les and grew too old and less appetizing.-Lit- ministerial education. $292,810; for tll'Mg Digest. church building, $172,732; for Sun- day-schools. $131,325; for the freed- STA.TISTICAL NOTES ON HOME MISSIONS. men. $105,743 ; and miscellaneous, $1,- It is neither reasonable nor righteous 025.695: a total of $2.706,128. to put much emphasis upon the distinc- 'l'he Methodist Episcopal Church. tion between home missions and foreign North, contributed last year for r1omesmissions, as though the two phrases tic missions $691,188; the Presbyterian stood for realms separate and distinct. Church. South, $410.214; the Disci- They overlap at various points, and oc- ples, $425,000 i and the Protestant Epis· cupy much common ground, especially copal Church nearly as much. The in America. to which hosts are flocking total for these six denominations is at every year from well·nigh every land least $7.250,000. Various other deunder the sun, and within whose limits nominations have given well according are gathered millions of Romanists and to their numbers and wealth, and alfreedmen, and a vast mixed multitude most all have made some offerings for of Jews, Mexicans. and Mormons, Ind- the furtherance of the Gospel upon the ians, Chinese, and Japanese. We must frontier and elsewhere. Probably $8,- save America and save Christendom in 000.000 would be a conservative figure order to save the world. It is fitting, for last year's contributions to home therelore, that a magazine whose chief missions from the churches of the United office is to urge forward evangelizing States. An army of not less than 10,000 work abroad should call frequent at- missionaries was sustained (wives not tention to the progress of the kingdom included), who held regular services in not less than 15,000 localities. at home. Something of the magnitude of the It would by no means be straining a task providentialll thrust upon the point to include in our survey the l~rge churches of the Umted States, and some- donations made to the Tract SocIety, thing of the zeal with which it has been the Sunday-School Union. and the varitaken in hand, will appear by taking ous denominational publishing houses, note of the following figures. First let whose books and papers make so might- us ~1ance at the doings of a single or- ily for Christian intelligence and for gamzation. the American (now the Con- righteousness. The numerous hospitals gregational) Home Missionary Society. and asylums, and forms of relief for the Its annual income is about $700,000, and bodies, minds. and souls of men, are not the total receipts since its formation in to be excluded from the catalogue of 1826 are upward of $16.000,000. Last things done to strengthen and enlarge year its more than 2000 missionaries the kingdom of heaven at home. And were scattered over 47 States and terri- finally. at least a fraction-one fourth tories, and ministered to 3930 churches or one third-of what is denominated and congregations. By 218 of these "home expenses" in connection with the Gospel was preached in foreign sustaining the means of grace is postongues: 97 in Swedish and Norwegian, se;osed of a direct missionary value. 54 in German,23 in Bohemian,16 in Six years ago Dr. Dorchester gave to French, 8 in Polish, and not omitting the Christian public some carefully pre- Danes, Welsh, Italians, Spaniards, pared statistics relating to Christian Finns, Armenians. and Jews. The con- beneficence. Taking these and bringversions reported were 10.798; 119 inl" them down to date, we learn that churches were organized. and 81 houses within seventy-five years not less than of worship were built. Sunday-schools $130.000,000 have been contributed in were supplied for 164,000 scholars. this country for 1I0Jrm missions.
EDITORIAL
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The editor lately enclosed a check for· barityand cruelty, as the result of LIle $15, in payment to a missionary con- existing war fever. Rev. James Wylie, tributor for ail article. He was sur- a Scotch Presbyterian missionary, died prised, and gratified to receive a letter from injuries which he recel"ed at the retuming the check, and adding: .. It hands of Chinese soldiers at Liso-Yang, is a pleasure to me to tramfer thiB north of New Chwang, as they were amount to 1/our fund for Bending the RE- marching to Korea.
VIEW gratuitously to missionaries and other, who may be unable to pay for it. .. Chinese Characteristics," by Arthur I uteem the REVIEW as an indispensable II. Smith, who was for over twenty help to 6'IJe'I1I Btudent of mission8. So years a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M.
rapid and marceUouB ha'D6 become the ad- in China, has just been issued in a sec- t1ances of our Lord'Bkingdom in all partB ond edition, revised and superbly illus· of the earth that only through BUM a me- trated, by F. H; Revell Company.
dium a. thi8 enterprising periodical can Some years ago, when the fi~t edition anyone k$eppace with the 1l7lCOUragement8 of this remarkable book fell under our and opportunities of modern miBsions." eyes, it was at once seen to be one of We acknowledge this amonl!t with the few books which combine rare in- deep appreciation. But it missionaries sight into facts with clear and forcible can and will do such noble deeds, forms of statement. A reading of the .. Where are tlt8 nine 1" present edition confirms and emphasizes all previous impressions. The tiUes of The present Chinese-Korean-Japanese the chapters hint the unusual graphic war engages the thoughts of all friends power of the author. He treats of the of missions, who naturally watch with Chineee Disregard of Time and of Ac- profoundest interest the development of curacy, the Talent for Misunderstand- this struggle for supremacy in the ing and for Indirection, Flexible Inflexi- Orient. China moves like an unwieldy bility and Intellectual Turbidity, Ab- elephant, while Japan rather resembles sence of Nerves and of Public Spirit, of a sword-fish, darting here and there Sympathy and of Sincerity, Indifference with celerity and sagacity, and dealing to Comfort and Convenience, Contempt deadly blows. The battle of Ping Yang for Foreigners, Social Typhoons, Mu- seems to have been one of the few awful tual Suspicion, etc.; and the quaint, disasters of modern warfare, and inflict- paradoxical, problematical suggestions ed a tremendous defeat on the Celes- conveyed in these headings are the key iials. Foreigners in China are becom- to the startling antitheses, humorous ing alarmed for their own sa.fety in such portraitures, acute observation and Inar- a Ievolutionary state of affairs; and vellous sagacity of which every chapter there are signs of a wider complication is a thesa.urus. The book is most de- in the political world. Russia and Eng- lightful reading, and will be found most land. Germany and France, and even fascinating. It is a mirror of Chinese other nations may be involved unless characteristics, as its name indicates.
pacific relations are soon established. Within its pages we have found a vol- Meanwhile, prayer to the God of na- ume of aphorisms and sa.ge sayings sel- tions-is the one remedy. Let us hope dom embraced in such a book. It bris- and pray that the end may be a wider tles with points, like a porcupine. The and more effectual door to all these na- Confucian theory of morals is, .. The tions now in the crisis of conflict. prince is the dish: the people the One of the devoted missionaries in water." .. The Chinese Government is a China.has fallen a victim to Chinese bar· cube; when it capsizes it simply falls on some other face, and is the same as it al· Pastor Archibald Brown, of London, ways has been." "The Chinese display found his friends rallying very heartily the 'force of conservative inertia.'" at the late celebration of his fiftieth " Every Chinese village is built on the birthday. There must have been near plan of a city without any plan." two thousand people at the garden " They reduce poverty to a)cience, " etc. party held in the afternoon in the These are some of the thousand brill· grounds of Harley House. Pastor iant and forcible ways of "putting Thomas Spurgeon, Dr. Lorimer, of things," which show the author to be a Boston, and others delivered hearty ad· master of the art. This book will have dresses there and at the evening meet· a wide sale, and deserves it. It is a pic- ing in the East London Tabernacle. ture gallery. Its words are outlines Ths "old paths" are by this grand and colors both; and its pictures are man preferred before all modern im· framed beside, set in every way fitting provements. Mrs. Brown suffers from forms. a protracted illness, but the pastor is to be congratulated that, with.two daugh- The death of the Rev. Adolphe C. ters already in the mission field, he is Mabille, missionary at Morija, Basuto- shortly expecting to bid farewell to anland, who entered into rest on Sunday, other, who is also going to " the regions May 20th, 1894, in his fifty-eighth year, beyond." We hope soon to have an should have had ampler notice. For article more fully setting forth the some time Mr. Mabille had been suffer- twenty-eight -years' work of this noble ing, overworked and utterly exhausted ; missionary-spirited London pastor. but the news of his death came as an unexpected shock. The loss to South The following, from an English fur- Africa, not to speak of Basutoland, is unspeakable, and cannot be calmly esti- niture dealer's catalogue, is significantmated yet. Those who best knew him say that, as 8 spiritual force, there was ly suggesti ve : no superior to Mr. Mabille south of the Zambesi. "Absolute simplicity and abo No. 685D. solute solidity of character, French fineness of nature and long experience, The" Christian" easy-chair, a burning zeal for souls and restrained shape much liked, s~uffed and sobriety of statement, perfect knowledge of the Basuto character and lan- fiuished, wry 80ft. £1 15s. guage, were among the elements that gave Mr. Mabille his position of influ- Hon. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of ence and eminence, a position he was State, who has returned lately from an entirely unconscious of and never arro- extended tour in the East, during which gated to himself. But if he was uncon- he visited many missionary stations, and scious of it, others were not. And to had much sympathetic intercourse with all this is to be added the sense of per- missionaries, had an interview with the sonal loss, which his colleagues will feel secretaries of the various mission boards hardly more acutely than those who at the Methodist Mission rooms, New have met Mr. Mabille beyond his own York City, on August 8th. He spoke mission. The unspeakable bereavement in most glowing terms of the work in in his own home, and to that lonely soul progress in India, China, and Japan, who holds God's outpost in the distant and urged the churches to awake to its Barotse valley, and who was more than importance. He regards missionaries brother to the dead, is for prayer and safe as at ordinary times, notwithstandnot for print." ing the war.
During the meeting of the Interna- tional Missionary Union, at Clifton Springs, N. Y., Mr. and Mrs. Osborn gave an outline of the course of train- ing at the Brooklyn Union ItIissionary Training Institute; and in reply to tor, India, recently opened to Christian questions, Mrs. Osborn made some very workers.
sagacious remarks. For example: " Miss H. P. Almey. besides having 1. Better judgment of the fitness of charge of a girls' school, was intrusted cBndidates for mission work can be with the biblical instruction of native formed by living with them than by any preachers and Bible women in the Tel- ugu field. number of recommendations. 2. Well-rounded character is in de· " A young woman in Japan, besides mand; and a training school furnishe3 teaching in a schoo~ has a class of Buda good oppJrtunity for correcting in dhist priests in Bible study.
otherwise good characters grave faults, " Another, iu Hayti, has established which would otherwise be exhibited to two Protestant girls' schools; and the the heathen. resident Wesleyan missionary begs for S. Biblical and medical instruction is more worker~ of her stamp. given, the latter being found especially " Of the fifteen who have gone to Af- valuable for pioneer workers. rica, one is a preacher in Zululand, two 4. Training in industries is under· bave died, and all but one of the re- taken, to help candidates to become gen- mainder are working there among sav· erally helpful in the mission home and age tribes. Some noble young women field. have stood alone for years on their sta- 5. Candidates are helped toward ac- tions, among cannibals, holding up the quaintance with the people to whom light of life. Nearly all of these work- they are to go, studying their history, ers have their church and school in their language, habits of thought, customs, houses; some have formed outside churches of scores of members cona.nd rules of etiquette. This Brooklyn Institute is in its tenth verted from the raw heathen.
year, and glancing at some of the "Miss Annie Whitfield, of great results, Mrs. Osborn said: "The first promise, a worker in Africa seven missionary sent in 1886 at the call years, is now principal of Monrovia of Bishop Thoburn, aftor engaging Seminary.
in English work among the seamen "Rose A. Bower, M.D., ha3 !!pent in Calcutta, evenings, and acting dur- several years in Africa, and sails in a in~ the day as foreman in a mission few weeks for BaUundu. prInting house, was Bent to Amusol. " Mr. A. L. Buckwalter, a carpenter Here he has gathered and organized a by trade, has built one seminary, re- native church, superintended the build- pabed others, and bOllses, etc., and has ing of a leper asylum, and is to build been appointed by Bishop Taylor as his immediately a church for the lepers and financial agent in Liberia. Aftf;lr men- a home for their untainted children, tioning his general ability, he says of also a boarding-Bchool for girls and an- him, 'Noone can get upa quarrel with other for boys. As he is the contractor, this holy carpenter.'
it saves a great deal to the mission. He "Mr. William Swope, at Irangila, preaches in Hindustani and Bengali, and on the Congo, has secured self·support. expects to learn Santhltli. His young Nothing has been received at his station men students, after their daily Bible for a year but what the mission there lesson, go in bands into tile surround· has paid for. This superintendent ing villages to preach. Mr. Handley writes that he 'is delighted with his Bird is in Coimbatore, India, where he success on all lines. ' has two boarding and two day schools " Tbirty.seven have gone to Japan, in his own' compound' or yard, which China. Assam, Burman, India, Africa, he superintends by the aid of his wife, Bulgaria, Hayti. and Mexico.
and gives J:3ible lessons in schools of " The demand for these trained workother societies besides evangelizing, va- ers has been much greater than the supcations, over a large tract. ply."
"Miss Helen F. Dawlly, of blessed The institute has twelve superior memory, founded an Anglo-Indian or· teachers, who give their services. This phanage, which, previous to her death, enables the superintendent to offer bibli- she bequeathed to the M. E. Church. cal, ethical, theological, musical, linguis- Rev. J. E. Robinson, her presiding tic, and meliical courses for II. very small elder, said. 'She was one of India's sum-$125 will pay a studtmt's full rarest missionaries. If the institution charges; but worthy applicants who are had never sent bnt Miss Dawlly, it has needy are received for $50 per year. the paid for itself.' necessary balance being met by volun- "Miss Hattie Kemper is at the head tary contributions; in extreme cases a of the Christian Girls' School at Morada- year's instruction can be had for even bad, India. Dr. Batstone and wife are $25. The founders have given their pioneer missionaries in the state of Bus- services in founding and superintending this institution; but there is a limit and Fuhkien,30,ooo. There are al80 to what one individual can do. Those in Koko·nor and the southern part of who wish fuller information may apply IIi in all at least 300,000. This is, of to Mrs. L. D. Osborn.13l Waverly Ave- course, a very general estimate, as the nue, Brooklyn, N. Y. count is by the. thousand, and, in most cases, by the ten thousand. It makes the whole number about 20,000.000.' ' .. As Dr. Happer says in his letter, From Canton, China, May 31st, Henry and says very truly, and his rernsrk ap- V. Noyes writes: plies to his own estimate as well as the .. In the May number of the REVIEW estimates of others, • There is no reli- Dr. Happer refers to a paper of mine able census of the population, and therepublished in the Cltinese Recorder, and fore any statement of the number is only to point out what he styles an' error ' – an estiinate.' " thILt I give the number of Mohammedans in China as 20,000,000. "My article expressed no opinion A Woman's Congress of Missions was whatever of my own; did not eveu held in San Francisco, April 26th, 27th, hazard a conjecture. I simply gave and 28th, 1894, under the auspices of the estimates of the two following very the Woman's Mission Boards of eight high authorities: different denominations of the State.
"1. The late S. Wells Williams, The committee who arranged all of the LL.D., author of 'The Middle King- work was composed of delegates from dom,' and for more than forty years both home an.d foreign societies, includresident in China. His rare knowledge ing city mission and the reformatory of China and its people. and his pains- work of the Salvation Army. Three taking care to be rigidly accurate in all meetings each day for three days were that he published, are too well known held in one of the largest churches, and to need remark. were well attended. The subjects of .. 2. P. Dabry De Thiersant, who in the first morning's papers were con· 1878 published in Paris a work., in cerning .. The Individual;" .. The two volumes, on • Mohammedanism in City." The topics being: .. A Mind to China,' incomparably the most exhaus· Work;" .. City Missions;" "Kindertive treatise on the subJect that I have garten;" .. Deaconess Work;" .. The met with during a residence of twenty- Problem of the City." eight years in the country. P.M. topics were concerning" The .. He had exceptional opportunities of State;" .. The Nation." SUbjects, obtaining information, havmg been con- .. Our Land for Christ;" .. The Chapel sul-general and charge d'affaires from Car;" .. The Indian;" .. The Freed· France to China. He tells us that his man;" .. Japanese;" .. Chinese." published work is the result of fifteen The second day's topics took in .. The years of patient research, assisted by World," and embraced Asia, France, many mandarins and Mussulman priests. isles of the sea, Jews, liquor traffic and .. The estimates of both these authors missions, the written Word. need of miswere published several years after the sions. medical missions, yesterday and crushing out of that >Mohammedan re- to·day of missions, etc. bellion, to which Dr. Happer refers as One afternoon was given up to misso destructive of life. sionaries and converts in native coS- tumes from Siam, India, France, China, .. I now quote from my article: … In regard to the present strength Japan. of the Mussulmans in China, Dr. Will- ThA second evenin.r was conducted iams says that north of the Yang·tsze by Young Peoples' -societies. King's River there are at least 10,000,000. Daughters, Christian Endeavorers, Boys' " • P. Dabry De Thiersant more par· Brigades, etc. ticularly gives statistics as follows ror Many committee meetin~s were held the whole of China and its outlying ae· from week to week preceding the Conpendencies] : Kansuh, 8,350.000; Shen· gress. Preliminary meetings were held si; 6,500,000; Yunnan, 3,500,000 to in several towns, and they were full of 4,000,000-thi8 includes the savage enthusiasm, as were several of the meettribes who dwell on the frontiers of ings held in the city preparatory to the Burmah; Shansi and South Mongolia, Congress itself. 50,000; Chihll, 250,000; Shantung, 200,000; Hunan and Hupeh, 50,000; Kiangsi, 4.000; Kiangsu and Nganwui, Mr. E. F. Williams writes from Can- 150,000; Kwangtung, 21,000 ;.Kwang. si, 15,000 ; Kweichau, 40,000; Szchuen, ton, May 11th, as to the Central China 40,000; Honan, l?00,000; Chenkiang Convention of the DIsciples: ,. The work of our society in China is ness as a good soldier. Another brother of comparatively recent date. The re- was beaten at the door of the magis· ports made at the late annual meeting trate's yamen and robbed of his clothes, show, however, a very encouraging yet rejoiced that he was counted worthy progress. We have 22 missionaries dis· to suffer shame for the Christ's sake. tributed at Shangbai, Nankin, Wuhu, it is most cheering to be able to record Chu-cheo, and LUh-hoh. There are also such instances of devotion to the faith. six out·stations, and much itineration is "Much time was given during the done through large districts otherwise convention to the discussion of the so· unevangelized. At Nankin is a boys' cial, political, and industrial relatiolll! boarding-school with 30 pupils; ground of the Chinese Christian. Heatheni!lm has been purcbased for a similar school Is so interwoven with the every-day life for girls. There is also a large hospital of the Chinaman that It is very difficult accommodating 100 patients, and two to sar how far a Christian is permitted dispensaries in connection with it; and to jom with his relatives and friends in last year there were 8479 visits made family and social gatherings, at wedfor medical attention. The number of dings and funerals, and on other cerein·patients was 355. Conversions were monial and festive occasions. It was reported from all the stations. One of felt, however, that the Church should the most interesting cases occurred on provide some snbstitutes for the heathen the island of Tsung-ming. An 01:1 man festivals, which relieve the monotony of of seventy-three years, for fifty years the year for the ordinary Chinaman. A high.priest and leader of a vegetarian recommendation to this effect was adopt· sect, and who had gathered a following ed. In this connection the old question of 160 disciples, abandoned his lucra- of ancestral worship came under retive post that he might find in Christ view, for it is a lJOCial as well as a. the peace which he craved. Although religious institution. The majority he had, according to popular belief, ac- thought that so far as it is an exprescumulated a vast amount of merit, he sion of tender reverence for the memo became alarmed at the prospect of death. oryof the dead, it should be encouraged When he heard that a chapel had been -i.e., that without prostrations or offeropened at Tsung.·ming he travelled two ings the graves mi~ht be visited and reo days' journey to hear the Gospel, and paired, and that rehgious services mi~ht on reaching the place fell upon his be held at the time of the Ts'lng-mlDg knees, asking for instruction. festival, which occurs nearly at the "One of the most fiourishin~ out- same date as our own Easter, and that stations is in the Chu cheo dIstrict, thus the heathen festival might be transwhere a little village called Ytl-ho.tsz formed as Easter was in England.
has almost entirely abandoned idola- "Missionaries are dceply Interested try. The native Christians there have in the relief of the working classes of bought a piece of ground, and, with China and the general improvement of aid from other OhinelJlJ Christians, have the industrial situation, but they are built a little chapel. It is a mud hut more particularly concerned to provide with a thatched roof, but answers its employment for those who by becoming purpose. A 'prophet's chamber' is Christians are deprived of their former also provided for the missionary on his means of support. Such are idol·mak· weekly visits. Though all these Chris- ers. manufacturers of incense and fire- tians are poor, they did a great deal of crackers, Buddhist and Taoist monks, charitable work during the year among fortune·tellers and geomancers. and all their destitute neighbors. The faith of who have been disowned by their famisome of the recent converts at Nankin lies or expelled from the various me· has been very sorely tried by severe chanics' guilds because they cannot persecution. One woman, threatened recognize the patron idol. It was with death if she should become a thoueht that many simple industries not Christian, did not fear, nevertheless, to reqUIring a large outlay of capital could own her Lord; and though her hus- be introduced from abroad with profit band has pursued her with brutal and to the people generally and to the bene- relentless cruelty, she still holds fast fit of the unemployed Chri~tians. Such her faith and hope, and rejoices in tribu- a plan would greatly relieve the mislation also. One brother was dragged sionary, who cannot refuse help to a. into the street by a rope fastened to his needy brother, and who yet shrinks neck, and, after being beaten, was from placing any more native Christhreatened with death if he did not leave tians in the service of foreigners. The the city within three days. His rela- Chinese brethren took an active part In tivea, however, were ke}Jt from execut- these discussions, and showcd their sym· ing tWs threat by the interference of the pathy with the last· named project in a o1icials ; and the old man endures hard· very practical way."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELI,IGENCE. ,[November
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED llY BEV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign undoubtedly the missionary SCHWARZ.
Periodicals. He stands out as 1 model for all mis· BY REV. C. C. S'rARBUCK, ANDOVER, sionaries. In him we find conjoined all these qualities which a missionary MASS. can any way desire-living faith, spir- INDIA. itual energy associated with childlike -The Indian Witnes8 holds that mis- humility, dignity of demeanor, vigor- . sionaries coming out in later ages ought ous health, great skill in the acquisition not to suppose thE'Y cannot learn new of foreign tongues, an irresistible elo· languages, at least if they have been quence."
used to it. It instances Miss Tucker, -" The offer of five lakhs of rupees of the Punjab, who, at sixty, has for a public library and hall in Bom· learned Urdu, has successfully passed bay, made by a Parsee lady, is pro· a difficult examination in it, and now phetic of the day when the in:fluence of speaks it :fluently and writes it readily. Indian ladies of rank and wealth and -The Moravian brethren have as yet education shall be felt in Indian society few converts in their Thibet mission; in some degree, at least as is the case in but the uneasiness which the Lamas Christian countries. Indian history and other Buddhists begin to show furnishes numerous proofs of the force over against the Gospel is a negative and capacity of Indian women, and sign of interest which has its encour· those who have had opportunity of inagements. It shows that the message timate acquaintance with Indian ladies is taking hold of them in spite of them- of the better class in our own times give selves. Thibetan Buddhism is triply emphatic testimony to the intellectual inaccessible, for it is organized as no· force and strong purpose of Indian where else. The Lamas have no God, women. Indeed, there are many rea· but their compact bOdy has made itself sons for believing that the moral and a god to the people, and therefore has intellectual force of the two sexes is not, like even Brahmanism, a Divine less evenly balanced in India than in power above itself by which it may be Europe or America; and when Indian judged. It awes the people by 1 con- women come out of their seclusion and stant and omnipresent incarnation. of get Into touch with the world's progthe only God known to it, the only God ress, they will exhibit a virility of whom it supposes able to guard it character that will contrast rather sharpagainst the throngs of demons before ly with the effeminacy of the average whom it trembles. Indian as we know him."-Indian Wit.
neS8.
-The Moravian Mission, it must be -The Parseesof Persian descent and remembered, though Tibetan, is within Zoroastrian religion concede to the fethe jurisdiction of India, and therefore male sex a social dignity not unlike that at liberty to work. which they enjoy in Christendom.
-It is well, ever and anon, to refresh -" The question often occurs: our memory, in India, of those "re- Should we, as missionaries, introduce, formers before the Reformation," the 'inculcate, and accentuate our Western missionaries who preceded Carey. Of denominational or sectarian differences Schwarz, the MacedQnier remarks: "The among this people ? Of course we must brightest star that has ever shone in the give to our students some ideas of missionary firmament of Tranquebar is church government; and it is natural
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLA'fIONI!
that we should emphasize the excellence affording thus a mystic reference to the of that of our own adoption or heritage. Trinity. Such a division required Beven Still I apprehend that there are few dan- for the second table. This was found gers to which at least a certain class of by separating "Thou shalt not covet our missionary brethren are liable (anu thy neighbor'S wife," as occurring in through them their divinity schools) Deuteronomy, from the inferior objects than that of unduly enlarging upon and of desire, a division supported by the magnifying the importance of eccles!· repetition of the verb belore these last.
asticalforms and symbols."-Rev. J. P. The unequalled authority of St. Au- JONES, in Harve8t Field. gustine gave to this division of the becalogue an undisputed precedence -In the Harve8t Field (Madras) the in the Western Church until the Ref- Rev. S. Paul, C. M. S., speaking of the ormation, even over Jerome, who, old Tranquebar Lutheran Mi!!sion, of agreeing with the-Eastern Church, pre- Schwarz and others, says: "The mis- fers the division of Philo, JosephUS, and sionaries of that period copied to some Origen, which is the oldest of the three.
extent the methods of the Romish priests Of course, the division had nothing to who had preceded them. The mission- do with image worship, which did not ary policy of that period is thus ex- prevail in Augustine's time. At the pressed by the Rev. W. Taylor in his Reformation the Lutherans adhered to • Memoir of the First Centenary of the traditional Western enumeration, the Earliest Protestant Missions at while the Reformed reverted to the IIadras ': • Not many years ago, in elder Philonian division, which has al· catechizing some very aged people, I ways prevailed in the Greek Church.
observed them repeat the command- As the short popular catechisms of the ments on the Romish model, wholly Roman Catholics and Lutherans only leaving out the second, and dividing give the first sentence in each of the the tenth into two. They told me that two longer commandments, it results this was the old ·fashion ; but the new from this that what we call the second fashion was to introduce the second and commandment does not appear, which keep the tenth entire. . .' I wonder has led to the erroneous and calum- at the good missionaries being subser- nious charge that the omission is to vient to Roman Catholic prejudices cover up image worship, and that the around them.''' We take the liberty tenth commandment has been arbi- to wonder, in our turn, that Mr. Tay- trarily dissected to make up the num- lor should have written about a Lu. ber. The Lutherans, though they allow theran mission in entire ignorance of of images in their churches, venerate the fact that the division of the Deca- them no more than ourselves; and both logue with which he finds fault is just they and the Catholics endeavor to have as much the I~utheran as the Roman the young people go on to study the Catholic. Before the year 400 the West- larger catechisms, in which the Deca- ern Church, supported by some Jewish logue appears in full. Mr. Taylor's traditions, had become inclined to fuse elder parishioners, therefore, as he ought in one What we call the first and second to have known, were simply dividing commandments [differing from various the Decalogue as Martin Luther did, rabbis only in including also the clause and as Lutheranism, prevailingly at .. I am the Lord thy God," which the least, does to this day. The· novelty Jews in question detached, except that lay in their having finally accepted our these rabbis gave the clause" I am the English and Reformed enumeration.
Lord thy God" as the" first word," and, AFRICA. therefore, did not divide the tenth as the first .. word"]. This gave the com- -The bishop of the Unitas Fra..trum, mandments of the first table as three, who has been visiting South Africa.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
writes of the communion on the even- -iI. Junod, of the French-Swiss ing bef{)re Good Fdday at Elim very Mission in S0I1I.11 Africa, writes: .. Our near the southern point of Africa: Christmas festi val was truly blessed ; " There was assembled in the church a we have had eleven baptisms, and the communicant company of some three confessions of sin of each of these neo- hundred and fifty persons, neatly at- phytes were very clear, sometimes al- tired, chiefly in white. Powerfully most exaggerated; one needed to have swelled up the mebdy of our well- not over-delicate ears to hear these known communion hymns, translated elderly women detail their former aber- from German into the language of Hol- rations. You cannot doubt, when they land. These colored people, despised acquaint you with their pagan habits.
even to this day, on whose necks many tbat their entrance into the Church has whites would be glad to see the -yoke of changed their lite completely. The slavery reimposed, in whom they refuse moral transformation induced by the to allow any capacity of independent G03pel is verily miraculous. Theft, thought or action-to see these colored falsehood, adultery, and contentiousness people here as equal associates at the are the four great sins of which they table of the Lord, and to discern in their accuse themselves, and which have midst the blessing of Christian fellow- largely vanished from their moral life.
ship, as well as in the congregations at But the enormity of their past faults home, what a revelation of the glorious hides from the eyes of most the remain- grace of God r On such occasions we ing sins of the heart, and the great ma- are overcome by a sense of fervent jority of our Christians are not hard to thanksgiving toward the Lord of the persuade that they are now free from heathen, who has so richly blessed and sin just because sin to tbem has such a yet blesses the work of missions. And gross pagan sense. This innocent self· even though this work in great part satisfaction must not be confounded consists in a steadily intensifying con- with pride or culpable self-flattery. It test against sin, yet this contest is no is an effect of ignorance; but it is only fruitless one, but one to which the too natural to our sable Christians, and strength of God assures the victory." I strive hard against it, being persuaded -M. Coillard remarked that l'[ackay, that the inward condition of spiritual in describing Uganda and litesa, paints, development is self-distrust, as well as without knowing it, the Barotsis, and trust in Christ. I endeavor. therefore, paints witb the hand of a master the to transform this naYve satisfaction with portrait of the Barotsi king, Lewanika : themsel ves into a more enlightened faith .. The same duplicity, the same degra- in the power of the Holy Ghost. What dation, the same unspeakable corrup- a delicate task to guide tbesc infantine tion, the same tyranny and pusillanim- souls of young and old I but itisin fulity, the same contradictions of char- filling it that we become conscious of the acter, the same medley of good and grandeur of our ministry, which is to evil, the same contempt of human life, guide immortal sonls to truth and holiand I may add emphatically the same ness. " – Bulletin Mi8sionnaire.
inf!(!Curity of persons and goods. Ba- -The Evangelisch- LutherniscllB8 Mi8- rotsiland is a little Uganda. Our ex- sionsblatt gives a very engaging descrip- periences, it is true, pale by the side of tion of the great East African moun- those of the heroes of Uganda. We tain Kilimandjaro: "Beginning from have not yet been adjudged worthy of beneath, where the mountain.slope the martyr's crown; nevertheless, we softly rises out of the desert plain, the have suffered. The very existence of tropical forest zone formed of mimosas, the mission has hung but by a thread. then up to two-thirds of the range, Nevertheless, the thread has been in the around its whole southern and eastern hand of God."-Journal dl!8 Mis8ion8. declivity, the so-called zone of culture.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Here wc cross into the inhabited and mood in which the worker must stand well·tilled Djrt.qga district. The disin· before his work. Now I can only sar tegrated lava soil, richly watered by that the journey I have taken has done countless brooks that run d.own from me t1ti8 service: that, on the one hand, the mountain and are utili7.ed by the it has cured me of false idealism, afford- keen-witted inhabitants for irrigation, ing me an inside view of the often a,p- gives to these declivities an astonishing palling reality; but that, on the other fertility. The sedulously cultivated hand, it has none the less awakened in fields teem with maize, beans, bananas, me a deeply rooted and unconquerabJe while tobacco and sugar-cane are also idealism of a higher kind, an enthusi- largely cultivated. The chocolate- asm no more to be quelled, for the mis- brown Djagga negroes dwell close to- sionary work by giving me to see, as gether in hive-shaped huts. We find something beyond doubt, something to here chiefly distinct, well-fenced court- be grasped with the hand, this one yards, yet there are also some villages. thing. Here you have to do with a A.ccordingly, excepting a somewhat ex- work of God, which, with irresistible tensive uninhabited gap on the northern inner energy, welcomes seemingly in- edge, the whole foot of the mountain surmountable hindrances."-Bishop C.
bears the aspect of a huge, thoroughly BUCHNER (lIoravian), in Allegefl1;eirw cultivated garden, interrnpted here and MiB8ions-zeitschrift.
there by moist, green meadows and at- -Bishop Buchner says that the Engtractive copses." lish in South A.frica are just lords; but that they know perfectly well where This favored region has drawn to it their interests are crossed by their care various tribes, out of whose intermixture of the people, and are careful to stop have been developed "the Djaggas, a there. They discourage all national handsome and intelligent race. They feeling in the Caffres, all teaching in have also a greater measure of energy the vernacular, all respect of the people and courage than the negroes in the for the authority of their chiefs. They plain. Already, in a good many skir- do not like to have the Caffres taught mishes with our countrymen, they have farther than just so far as will leave shown themselves no despicable foes, them still good laborers for the whites. so that Major von Wissmann, after an They are still to be instruments, though expedition against one of their chiefs, no longer slaves. They carefully guard was obliged to own that they were the against the possibility of their coming best fighters he had met with in Af- rica. " to be of any public account. This Eng- _" I must acknowledge that before lish policy, however, even so, is too con- my journey to South Africa I enter· siderate of the good of the blacks to tained various erroneous views far from please the Dutch Boers. Among these agreeing with actual conditions cou- the Bond, guided by a highly capable cerning the work in the heathen world, leader, Dr. Hofmeycr, is now really in views which I may summarily describe control. Its motto is not " Africa for as the issue of that false idealism which the Africans," but" Airica for the Afri- has more or less controlled the greater canders"-that is, for the African-born part of our missionary literature even whites. They appear to aim at ulti- to this day. To be healed of this costs mate independence of England, and at something. Many a missionary who, the reduction of the Caffres into abso- during the healing process, has for a lute dependence, virtual slavery. Prac- while sunk into pessimistic dejection, tically they regard the blacks as not can tell a tale ot this And yct the heal- human beings, but a mere bastard off- ing is needful; indeed, its result for spring of the devil, and therefore resent, the patient himself is highly satisfac- all serious endesvors of the missionaries tory, for Bober and yet entlmsiastic is the as much as Las Casas shows that thc
GENERAJ. MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
Spaniards of his day resented the efforts give me drink. How He loves me! I of the Dominican and Franciscan mis- could not do without my Savionr." sionaries, whose work they interrupted and broke up in every vexatious and -Mr. G. McConnell, who has been hateful way. visiting the villages around Ho-tsin, Shansi, tells of the bold stand of a con- Of the 1,150,237 colored Oapelanders, vert named Nei, who, when urged to only 392.362 are Ohristian; 757,875 reo go and burn incense at the family grave, main openly heathen. Of the Chris- refused, saying that he now believed in tians, all but 17,275 are Protestants. Jesus, and could not worship his anc~s tors anymore. For this he was dragged The bishop describes the rich abun- out of his house and beaten along the dance of religious life, and notes as the village street until some one interposed two great goals of present effort, its and released him. He is very happy development into completer ethical through it aU; is constantly singing form, and its actuation into greater in- "Onward Go," and is very anxions to dependence of personal action. This learn more of the truth. Other two applies more particularly to the mixed, brothers named" Tuau," one a teacher Dutch-speaking population of the West. and the other a tradesman, have also destroyed their idols and seem really English Notes. desirous of following the Lord.
BY JAMES DOUGLAS. -Mr. Easton, Superintendent of the province of Shensi, writes: " Roughly (Jhina'8 Milliona.-In an article on speaking, there are about seventy new ,Shantung, North China, Mr. Alexan- believers attending worship and desir- der Armstrong, ,F.R.G.S., writes en- ing instruction in nine or ten places. couragingly. Beginning work in 1879, God is working, and we need believing. the China Inland Mission has gone lyand earnestly to follow up the work." steadily fo~ward. Many souls have been saved, and great and growing blessing Ohurch Missionary Society.-In an has been given to all the work, which is article in the Ohurch M'Uisionary Intel- taken as a prophecy and a promise of Ugencer Bishop Copplestone deals with what that same Gospel may reasonably the Neo-Buddhist movement and Bud- be expected. in the fulness of time, to dhism generally in Ceylon. 'The former accomplish for all China. he regards as an anti-Christian mission organized by Western scepticism, root- -Mrs. C. H. Polhill-Tumer deals ed in pride and difficult to approach; with the certainty and uncertainty at- the latter as demon-ridden-a world taching to the sowing of the Word, and haunted and beset by the supernatural, points the moral that He would have us breaking an atmosphere heavy with fears and suspicions. In connection .. Undepressed by seeming failure, with Buddhism as in vogue, Karma is Unelated by success." beside the mark, and Nirvana is not in the calculation. Merit and demerit are This counsel is illustrated by the con- shadowy matters compared with the version of an aged and bed·ridden Chi- pressing and urgent realities over which nese woman, whose case seemed all but the demon and the sorcerer preside. 'hopeless. Yet how quickly did this This system has gi ven shelter to the parched branch bear buds, blossoms, basest superstition, while failing to and almonds I .. My Saviour I my Sa- teach-Jr, rather, by its endless births viour I He has been talking to me and without personal continuity, undermin- telling me how He loves me, and died ing-the idea of moral responsibility. for me on the cross; He is always with me, beside me here; and He is so good. -Bishop OIuwole gives an account I tell Him when I am in pain, and He of his first confirmation tour in West eases me; I tell Him when I am thirsty, and immediately He sends some one to
ENGLISH
Africa, which, while bringing him into About thirty or forty miles from Pahline with the difficulty of the work, en- tsze-naw, in the King-shan district, there ables him to appreciate the blessing is a group of twenty or thirty villages; which thus ftLr has rested upon it. In and scattered over these there are about by far the greater number of the sta- one hundred candidates for baptism, tions the good work is steadily gaining and among these there are fifty or sixty ground. The station at Ikija-once the whom Mr. Hiung regards as perfectly scene of the faithful labors of the late satisfactory. As this result has been Rev. Charles GoUmer-is a prominent secured by no direct agency, and is a exception. There a total collapse is clear case of the indirect effect of misthreatened. At Ake eighty-two candi- sions, the finger of God is the more dates were confirmed. A membcr of clearly seen. Dr. John has already bap· this Church, Jacob ~'adipe, subsequent- tized a candidate from these villages ly preached before the bishop in Igbore who came to Hankow for that purpose; church. "I sat," writes the bishop "in and from him, as well as from Mr. amazement under the sermon of this Hiung, he learns that their houses are heaven·taught man. There was no perfectly clcar of every trace of idoladoubt that he constantly fed on God's try, that they are meeting regularly for Word, and that the Spirit opened his worship, and that a Christian school understanding that he might under- has been opened among them. He stand the Scriptures. He certainly hopes, with Mr. Bonsey, to visit the spoke as one mighty in the Scriptures, place erelong and give shape to the and as one conscious of a special mes- movement. sage. " Among other news of interest Dr. -A Brahmin Sadhu and his wife John reports tIle baptism of six adults have been baptized by the Rev. W. at Hankow, one of whom is a B.A. in McLean, of Agra, and received into the Confuciitn school, who became a church fellowship. His name is Yu- convinced and confirmed Christian simhanna Atama Gir. When quite a young ply throngh reading missionary books. men he had deep religious convictions, "He has," says this missionary, "an and it was to find peace for his soul he exceedingly good knowledge of the joined the ascetic Badhus. Their filthy truth as it is in Jesus; reads everylives horrified him at last, and he fied thing he can get hold of missionary from them in dismay. Seven years ago literature, and masters everything. May he had a copy of John's Gospel given God keep him from falling and make him, and after reading a few chapters, him a blessing to His people." felt he had at last found the Word of God. Longing for more of the Scrip. -Work is recommenced in Mongolia, tures, he' received a year after Luke's the station at T'a Tzu Kon having been Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. reopened by the Rev. J. Parker and his He next longed to meet and talk to wife. Some thirty-three persons have some Christian teacher; and in the vil- gi ven in their names as inquirers, but lages outside Agra at length met Mr. of these only one is a Mongol. Mr. McLean. He soon found the pearl of Parker is sanguine. He says: ., There great price, and has gladly given up all are many encouraging signs. I almost to follow Jesus. dare to hope that the harvest of dear Gilmour's sowing is close at hand; but LondiJn Mi88ionary Society.-Dr. Grif- out here one has not to be too jubilant, fith John, of Hankow, China, sends but quietly hopeful and thankful. I this month most encouraging news of have more faith than ever that we shall the progress of the work in King-shan, reach the Mongols; and I am praying a district adjoining Tien-men. Mr. earnestly that the one Mongol inquirer Hiung, a natiye helper, is his informer. we have may be sincere and fully re- ceive the salvation which is of God."
MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [~()vember
In addition to the above, the Rev. demned their sin. There are maDY to- W. E. Macfarlane writes from" The day who keep money for themselves Palace of Truth," a Mongolian viIlage, which ought to go to foreign missions, as to mission work and prospects among saying very piously, "corban," which the Mongols. His reception at times by interpretation is, "'l'here are plenty was worse than chilling, amounting to of heathen at home." – Repo-rt of Fureign acts of overt hostility. Gratified to find Mission Oommittee, Synod of Indiana. in those Mongolian parts a few specimens of genuine Chinese Christianity -A member of the Southern General which won his respect, he also fonnd Assembly, speaking of the disproporthe Chinese more amenable than the tionate amount of time con~umed on a Mongols to Christian appeal. From the judicial case, remarked that fifty years Chinese 'he had a few inquirers, but of missions were worth a cycle of eccleonly one from the Mongols, and this a sitistical hw.-The Mi8sionary. case of poor promise. "The Chinaman," he says, "is far more roady to -The leaders of the Univerzlties' accept the truth than his more timid Mission once thought the only way to and ignorant brother the Mongol." make the people receive the Gospel was And again he says, "In fear of their to preach sermons and to be perpetually prince, and in the grip of a vast and arguing. The history of the mission powerful religious system, enslaved by has led them to belie'l'e not so mucu in superstition and corrupted by vice, the talking as in being and living. They outlook for the Mongols is anything but wonld win the tribes by being Chrishopeful." tians in the midst of beathendom.-.Re- port for 1893. THE KINGDOM. -Let those wh1' :lenominate the -" Every Quaker," said George Fox, world's conversion a wild scheme re- " ought to light up the country for ten member who devised it_ Let those who miles around him." Nor is the obliga- look upon missionaries as enthusiasts tion by any means confined to the Re- reflect whose command has made them ligious Society of Friends. such. Let those who believe the na· tions can never be evangelized consider -At the Louisiana Baptist Conven- whose power and veracity their incretion there were congratulations over the dulity sets at defiance.-.David Abed. fact that the white Baptists of the State had increased beyond the 30,000 mark. -" The greatest movement of the One good brother arose and said: " Yes, twentieth century will not be a commerbrethren, we are very many, but not very cial one, nor yet a military one, but the much." nations of the West will invade the East with great armies of Ohristian missiona- -The great commission, " Go preach ries, backed up by the wealth of Christhe Gospel to every creature," is also a tendom. We must arouse ourselves to flreat permission. meet them."-Buddhist Magazine of Japan. -The scriptural mode of contributing to the Lord is jid'st to give our8elves, -Dr. Talmage says of his motive in as the Macedonians did. Having given taking his trip around the world: "I ourselves, it will be easy to give the waut to see what Christianity has acsmaller things, such as sil ver and gold. complished; I want to see how the mis- sionaries have been lied about as living -In the time of Christ some kept in luxury and idleness; I want to know money for their own use which ought whether the heathen religions are really to have been given to the support of an as tolerable and as commendable as they aged father, calling it " corban." They were represented by their adherents in did it religiously, too, and felt justified in their selt-deception. But Ghrist COD- the J"arlh,meut of Religions; I want to see whether Mohammedanism and Bud- figures for China: 100 missionary phy- dhism would be good things for trans- sicians for 300,000,000 people, against plantation to America, as ha~ agai n been over 118,000 physicians to the 65,000,000 argued; I want to hear th" Brahmins of our Americau population. pray." -The American Board has issued a -Rev. H. G. Rice has been telling, pamphlet, prepared by Rev. E. K. in the Herald and Presbyter, how the Alden, which contains testimonies from " foreign fever" (alas I that the gracious 14 representative physicians, connected epidemic so seldom befalls) struck the with missionary work in different parts Crawfordsville, Ind., Presbytery some of the world, presenting their views of years since; is still raging, and has car- the importance of medical work as a ried off divers noble men and women part of missionary service. It is many who were ripe for the translation, but a day since so much of so great value could not well be spared. Strange on this great theme has been packed to say, this "complaint" has passed within so small a space. through various forms or phases, such ,as the Persian fever, the India fever, WOMAN'S WORK. and others like the Siam, Africa, Mex- ico, and Chili. So far Dr. Koch and -Nancy Jones was born a slave, re- the scientists have not discovered the ceived her education at the Le Moyne bacillus which is at the root of the mat- Institute, Memphis, Tenn., and Fisk ter, though already 33 "victims" can University. Nashville; eight years ago be counted. Well, blessed are all these she went out alone to Africa as a mis- departed ones. sionaryof Ule American Board to join Rev. B. F. Ousley and wife, also col- -Bishop Caldwell, after forty-two ored, and has been a teacher of the na- years of mission work in the Madras tives ever since. When, last year, the Presidency, gave this testimony in mission was moved from the East Coast, 1879: "I have had some experience iu 300 miles back to Mt. Selinda, she made the work of conversion myself, and the toilsome journey on foot. The ,;tfishave tried iu succession every variety sionary Herald for July has a letter from of method. Let me mention, then, the her pen. remarkable fact that during the whole of this long period, not one educated -Miss Dhaubal Fardoujee Banajee, high-caste Hindu, so far as I am aware, an eighteen-year-old Bombay girl, has has been converted to Christianity in succeeded in getting one of her pictures connection with any mission or church, hung in the Paris Salon. She won some except through the Christian education prizes in India from the Bombay Art received in mission schools. Such con- Society, and decided that she would verts may not be very numerous. and I rather be an independent person, accordregret that they are not, b'ut they are all ing to Western standards, than to marry that are. " And Rev. W. R. Manl,Y has and live in the Indian fashion. She is recently written several most excellent the first Indian woman to go to Europe articles in The Standard, Chicago, on to study art. Who can tell what a fact the g.reat value of such schools in India, like this means for India? And then even for non·Christian pupils. there is Cornelia Sorabji, who at eight- een was a professor in Bombay Univer- -Dr. Happer says that the number sity, and since has been a distinguished of medical missionaries at work in the student in Oxford University, taking a heathen world has been increased dur- course in law. ing the last forty-five years tenfold, and that without any special efforts. The -The October-December Mission proportion of such missionaries to the Studies, published quarterly by the home supply is, however, shown by the women of the Lutheran Church, Gen- eral Synod, in speaking of " what some women h&ve done," recalls how Mrs. Stew&rt a legacy of $111,500, from Va~ Arsdale and Mrs. Romeyn, of New other women legacies amounting to Brunswick, N. J., befriended two Jap- $41,673, and in contributions, $11,504. anese students, and how another elect lady on Andover Hill took Joseph Nee- YOUNG PEOPLE. sima to her home and heart, and so wrought mightily for the evangeliza- –The Young Men's Era has been per· tion of Japan. forming a good service by publishing from the pen of L. L. Doggett, of Ber· -Wellington Seminary, South Afri- lin, a history of work for young men in ca, a sort of Mount Holyoke, is for Germany, and another without name white girls, daughters of colonists, mis- relating to the beginning and growth sionaries, and others_ It began with 40 of the Y. M. C. A. in Holland. pupils, and there are now 4 similar in. stitutions with 750 pupils; 500 gradu- -Among the colleges which sustain ates are teaching in di lferent parts of missionaries in the foreign field these South Ardca, and 25 are doing definite may be named ,: Ann Arbor, Amherst, missionary work among the natives_ A Brown, Cornell, Oberlin, Wellesley, and Woman's Huguenot Missionary Society, 9 Presbyterian colleges and seminaries. established soon after the seminary was started, has now grown into a Missi,)ll- -Secretary Baer, in his annual reary Union for South Africa. The edu- port, termed the more than 2,000,000 cational work receives the strong en- Endeavorers in the world, " Ilnthusiasts, dorsement of the English, Dutch, a 'd Christian enthusiasts," and explained by French colonists, and grows in impor- first giving Oscar Wilde's definition of a tance as South Africa bids fair to be· cynic: " A man who knows the price come the strategic point for the en- of everything, but the worth of nothlightenment of the whole continent. ing," and followed by an Englishman's definition of an enthusiast: "the op- -Rev_ Robert Hume, setting forth in posite of the cynic, and hence must be Heathen Woman's Friend the gain for defined as one who knows the worth of Hindu women in twenty-five years, something, and the price of nothing." specifies these particulars: in education, occupation, influence, control of -This comes from the Presbyterian Ilelf, and spiritual life. missionary headquarters: " Our Chris- tian Endeavor societies have taken hold -The Methodist Church has 445 dea- of the foreign work with great zeal, and conesses employed in Christ-like service, they are actually supporting 80 foreign and divided by countries as follows: missionaries through this board. It is In America, in 29 homes, 307 ; in Ger- noticeable that in the year ending April many and Switzerland, 106; in India, 30th that branch of giving was the only in 6 homes, 18, and outside of homes, one which had an increase over the pre- 12; in China, 2. The property owned ceding year. for their uses is valued at $804,908. The number of religious calls made last -It will be remembered that a littla year was 122,534. more than a year ago news came from Madagascar, where up to that time no – The women of the Methodist Endeavor societies were known, that Church, South, have 37 missionaries 32 had been quietly formed. Secretary among the Indians, in Mexico, Brazil, Baer has just received another letter and China: 48 teachers and helpers; from Rev. W. E. Cousins, of the Lon- 55 native teachers; 52 boarding and don Missionary Society, who reports a day-schools, with 2793 pupils, and up- growth from 32 to 91 societies, with a ward of 600 women under instruction. membership of 3377.-Golden Rule.
-The Presbyterian Board of Home -During the past year the net gain Missions received last year from Mrs. in the Epworth League has been 4000 chapters, making the present tota-l sovan, Brusa, etc. Donativns were re- 16,000, including the 3000 chapters of ported during the year of $62.48 to be the Junior League. A feature of the divided between the Okayama OrphaJl- work is the es~ablishment of orphan- age in Japau, a school in Nanking, ages.' The league in Chicago supports China, Rnder the care of a daughter of the Children's Rome of that city. one of the Turkey missionarie.s, and tlre -The leagll.e of Scovill Avenue New West Education Commission in Church, Cleveland, 0., reports: Fami- this country.
lies visited, 1198; 197 baskets of provi- UNITED STATES. sions, 8 bags. of flour, 450 pounds of meat, 288 garments, 2 comfortables, 5 -" The time would fail me to tell pairs of shoes given to needy persons; of" all tlle good and beautiful things 4 sick persons supplied with medicine, done nowadays for the pODr, the unfor- and a doctor sent to 1 ; 6 tons of coal, tunate, and the afflicted. But by these besides helping a number of families eloquent names a part will be suggest- pay their rent, and rendering financial ed: Nathan Strauss's milk and bread assistance to a number of others; a and coal depots ; the Tribune Fresh Air wagon load of provisions sent to the Fund; the Outlook's Working Girls'
Deaconness Home on Thanksgiving Vacation Fund; the various fruit and Day with $3 in money; 3 plants and flower missions; the Boston Floating 53 bouquets sent to the sick, and 187 Hospital; the barge of St. John's Guild, persons who are aged, sick, Of infirm which last year took 44,750 weak and visited, etc. ailing women and Children down New -The United Presbyterian Institute York Bay; the Sanitarium Association recently held heartily resolved as fol- of Philadelphia, which ministers annulows: "That we recommend a larger ally to 100,000 children; the Ohicago acquaintance with missions by a more Daily News' institution for sick babies diligent and systematic study of mis- in Lincoln Park, etc.
sionary literature relating to the work -According to the government re- both at home and abroad, in our own port of immigration, these were the communion and in the world at large. additions to our popUlation received Aside from the reports in our own from foreign countries during last year Church papers, we suggest the MIS- and the year before. The reckoning is SIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD as the from June 30tlr : 1894. 1893. most helpful current literature on mili- 37,504 59.627 sions, and express the hope that every Austria-Hungary………….. . 5,576 8,751 local society will take and circulate Denmark…………………. . 3,645. 5,343 Frauce ………………….. .
among its members one or more copies. Germany……………..•…. 59,829 96.313 We further recommend that all our so- Italy…………………….. . 43,959 72,403 cieties or unions make the subject of Netherlands ……….. . 2,882 8,114 missions one of more earnest and con- Poland….. … …. . ……. . 1,552 13,659 RUBsia, except Poland……..• , 37,572 43,657 secutive prayer, and that they keep mis- Swedenand Norway. ,..•…… 27,337 53,872 sion work before their members as a Switzerlaud•••••.•… , …….. . 3,445 5,252 personal duty." England and Wales••••••..••• 30,537 47,387 Scotland••.•…………••….. 7,235 12,144 -The Missionary Children's Mission- Ireland………………….. . 33,867 49,165 ary Society, organized by the children All other countries………… . 16,965 22,229 of the missionaries of the Americ!n Total…….. …..•..••.. ..•. 311,404 497,986 Board in Turkey, recently held its six- -According to a Birmingham, Ala., teenth annual meeting at Constantino- despatch, the International Migration ple, when 23 members were present. Society has made a contract with anAf- Reports were read from the different so- rican steamship company for the trans- cieties all over the field-Cresarea, Mar- portation of 5000 colonists annually to Liberia. The first steamer was to leave 13 under appointment. The number of Philadelphia early in October, and touch native helpers is 135, of whom 45 are the coast as far as New Orleans, and ministers and 53 teachers. The total from there go to Liberia, touching at number of communicants added by bap- Havana. tism was 560. Three missionaries are -Dr. Sheldon Jackson not only sup"ported by individuals, 37 by single pushes the various kinds of missionary churches, 9 by groups of churches or toil with all his might in Alaska, but societies, 2 by Ladies' Presbyterial makes substantial progress in improv- unions, and 2 by Presbyteries. An ing the material condition of the nations elder in Asheville, N. C., has recently by supplying reindeer by the score and assumed the entire support of Rev. hundred. W. H. Sheppard, the first colored South- ern Presbyterian missionary to Central -A recent London Ohristian gives a Africa. portrait and biographical sketch of Dr. Ge.orge D. Dowkontt, of New· 'York, -The Reformed (Dutch) Church has who is editor of the Medical Missionary missions in China, India. and Japan, Record, and is tugging with a resolution and this year adds an Arabian mission, which cannot fail.to secureftinds for a which a few years since was started by fully equipped medical missionary col· the Rev. Messrs. Zwemer and Cantine lege, where men and women can be upon the Tigris. Notwithstanding the tIained for the ministry of healing. financial pressure, the Board received $106,571, an average of $1.05 per mem- -At the various conventions of the ber. It has 16 stations, 209 out· stations, Missionary Alliance held during the 26 missionaries, men, 25 married women sun;tmer, at least 300 persons offered missionaries and 17 unmarried, 38 nathemselves for service, and the gifts and ti ve ordained ministers, 376 other native pledges reached an aggregate of $70,000. helpers, 6226 communicants, of whom Rev. A. B. Simpson's sermon on the 508 were received in 1893, 1'9,970 pa- Macedonian Cry, at Old Orchard, 1I'lass., tients treated in its hospitals. etc. was followed by a " collection" of $40,- 000. From one man came one fourth -The corner-stone of the new nationof that sum. al headquarters for the Salvation Army has been laid on Fourteenth Street, be- -For the missions of the Episcopal tween Sixth and Seventh avenues, New Church up to the middle of July the York City. On the second floor will be treasurer received from 2216 Sunday- a large auditorium seating 3000 people. schools a little more than $56,000 on A huge iron emblem of the Army will account of the Lenten offering. surmount the building, which will be -Dr. John F. Goucher is said to be ready, it is expected, for occnpancy by the most liberal supporter of ioreign January 1st, 1895. The whole cost is missions in the Methodist Church. His expected to amount to about $350,000, wife and he support 173 foreign schools, land included.
at a yearly expense of $12,975. -Yet again doth Mohammed go to -The annual report of the foreign the mountain which will not go to him; missions of the Southern Presbyterian for we learn, from North and West, that Church shows that the total receipts the" leading Roman Catholic Church were $143,774, a gain of $9874 over the of Minneapolis has a Bible class of 60 previous year. Of this $8388 was a members, which has been in existence special contribution from the children over a year. The class handle their own for the Congo boat. Work is carried Bibles [Hail. horrors, Hail I], and de- . on in Africa (Congo), Brazil, China, cide what part of it they will study Cuba, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Mex- under Father Keene's leadership. They ico. There are 130 missionaries, besides are also preparing a Roman Catholic hymnal. The son· of a St. Paul elder and women in Cairo, Alexandria, and has the work in charge. It will be in along the Nile.
English, of course, and will develop -This is a fragment of the record congregational singing. 'It is a con- made by the Student Volunteer Miscession to the people ; they were bound sionary Union: "Two years and a few to have it,' is the explanation," months old, it has 690 members in vari- ous colleges, and 85 in missionary insti.
EUROPE. tutes, 75 already in the field, and 75 per Great Britain.-A party of 109 boys cent of its in· college members are prefrom Dr. Barnardo's homes, being the paring to follilw. Its travelling secre· third similar party for the current year, tary has visited 80 colleges, held 143 left Euston in August for Liverpool en meetings for students, of whom he has route to Can"da, where they are to be been brought into touch with 17,800, placed out partly on the industrial farm his journeys totalling to 14,700 miles. of 10,000 aeresin Manitoba in connec- Miss Hodges, the travelling secretary to tion with the homes, and partly in situa- the ladies' colleges, has also done good tions with farmers throughout Ontario. work, visiting 31 colleges, 20 schools, Including these, the institutions have holding 20 meetings, and l'eaehing 2000 now sen! out to the colonies 7029 boys students. " and girls, all of them tested and trained and of approved character for honesty, -The Scottish Free Church reports decency, and industry. Of these less for 1893 missions in India, Kaffraria, than 2 per cent have failed to conduct Natal, Livingstonia, New Hebrides, themselves satisfactorily beyond tr l Syria, and South Arabia, with 239 staseas. tions ; 60 ordained Europeans, 13 or· dained natives, 11 licensed natives, 650 native teachers, and a total of 1108 -Mr. F. S. Arnot has sailed once Christian agents; 44 organized churches more for Africa. Various things con- with 7727 communicants, 6300 baptized curred to make him feel that his pres- adherents, and 295 admittted on profes· ence was required. Messrs. D. Craw- sion last year ; 387 schools of all grades ford and Thompson must speedily be re- with 23,839 scholars; and received on lieved. Besides, he hopes to mark out the field from government grants (£15,- a new and shorter route from the East 392), school fees by natives (£19,950), Coast to Garenganze. His friends, on and contributions, a total of £39,249.
account of his health, sought to dis- The Continent.-A Paris corresponsuade him from returning, but he felt dent of E1langelical Ohristendom writes: that he was called to go and that "In France scarcely 5,000,000 out of prompt action was urgently called for. the 40,000,000 reputed Roman Catholics -The friends of the late Miss C. 11. may be said to be worthy of the name; .Tucker (A. L. O. E.) propose a most the rest are non·church-goers, unbeliev- fitting memorial in the shape of a fund ers, atheists, and anarchists."
of £500 to be expended by the Christian -There are in Spain representatives Literature Society in republishing her 87 works for Indian readers, and trans- of 14 Protestant churches and societies, lating them into a much larger number and they report 20 foreign male and 29 of languages of India. foreign female missionaries, 41 Spanish pastors, 37 evangelists, 3600 communi~ -The Religious Tract Society has cants. The American Board and the issued the" Life and Work of Mary American Baptist Missionary Union are Louisa Whately, who for thirty-three the only American societies at work.
years (1856-89) gave herself with won· The others are from England, Scotland, derful devotion and energy to edttca- Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Swe- tional and evangelistic toil for children den, and Holland. -Says Professor G. H, Schodde : " As from Kaiserswerth, was recently openat present constituted, there are no ed. The old hospital, inaugurated by fewer than 46 different State churches Dr. Theo. Fliedner in 1851, is no longer in the 26 States composing the German adequate; the hew establishment, con- Empire. Though States have been con- structed according to the fullest requiresolUated in recent years, churches have ments of modern hygiene, provides ac- commodation for 60 inmates. The not been. ot these 24 are Lutheran, Pasha of Jerusalem was among the distinguished personages who attended 10 are Reformed, 7 are a union of these the opening. two, and 4 are cor;LQo'erate. There is no bond of union save in the Eisenach -Is fuel really so alarmingly scarce 'Conference, which meets once in two in Syria that the Catholic bishop must years, and has no legal or executive needs order the Arabic version of lfr. powers. The State Church of PI ussia Spurgeon's sermons to be employed as holds about two thirds of all the Ger- food for flame? If so, lie should be inman Protestants, " formed that we have excellent coal enough and to spare. -Rev. David Baron writes of a recent tourfor Bible distribution: "From -The Sultan of Turkey is setting an Budapest I went, accompanied by Rabbi example which ought to shame many oj' Lichtenstein, by Danube steamer, all us, since he is sending out Mohammethe way to Orsova. The five days on dan missionaries to Africa at his own board, going and returning, was one expense, for the avowed purpose of of the most interesting experiences in checking the Christian advance in that my life. A large proportion of the pas- continent. Evidently he does not think sengers were Jews, and we stopped at the missions to Africa have been fail- 42 stations in Hungary and Servia. We ures. spoke and reasoned with different groups from morning to night, and -Some of the friends of the late after lying down in our berths we Theodore Child have raised over $700 would hear them discussing among to be used for a memorial. It has been themselves what we had been saying sent to the American Presbyterian misabout Christ. Again and again every- sion in Tabriz, Persia, where Mr. Child body in the large saloon, Jews and Gen- was cared for during his illness with the tiles of all classes, were around us for cholera. Probably it will be used tf) hours, eagerly listening or discussing establish a hospital-room or bed, to lie with us the claims of Jesus. We took known by his name. with us a supply of New Testaments in Hebrew, German, and Hungarian, but -Rev. H. CarIess, accompanied by a our stock in the last two languages was medical student, left J uHa at the beginexhausted long before we returned to ning of May on an itinerating tour. Budapest. " They visited Kashan, Sultanabad, Buru- jird, and NejifiLdild. At the last-named -When the trans-Siberian railroad is place 52 Mohammedans and Babis atcompleted it is said that a tour of the tended the l::lunday-morning service. world can be made in forty days. Altogether the tour lasted forty-two days. ASIA. India.-Indians are spoken of as Islam.-In Jerusalem, the "Holy though because all are alike Indians, City," there are said to be 135 places therefore all are Iudiaus and alike. But where liquor is sold I the Spaniard in character, history, lan- guage, religion, does not differ from the -The new hospital at Jerusalem, Englishman, or the SCDtchman from the founded by the German Evangelical native of Naples more than the Marathi Church, and carried on by dea(lonesses from the Bengali, the Ooriya from the Hindustani, or the Madrasi from the their lips, or lick the ftngers, lips, or Sikh.-Sir AuckZand OoZvin. bowl.
-The English flag in India has gi ven "- Well does Mr. Powers reply to Mr.
Christianity its first chance to meet Gandhi: "No one who has lived in an Islam on fairly equal terms. Were the .Asiatic community and observed the same freedom granted in Turkey the treatment of women and otheI domestic conflict hetween the two systems would animals, whether kept for breeding or soon be quite as earnest as it is in the industrial purposes, will be imposed on Punjab.-lndian Witness. for a moment by the implication that -In 1892, 2963 persons were killed the Hindus abstain from flesh from moby wild animals, and 19,025 died from tives of humanity. • .. Their averthe bite of poisonous serpents. The sion to killing cows is pure superstigovernment paid 107,974 rupees for tion. • .. Now, if abstaining from the destruction of 15,988 wild ani- meat fosters the belief that there is a mals, and 9741 rupees for the destruc- god under a cowhide, it is the duty of tion of 84,789 snakes, and 81,668 cattle missionaries to eat meat three times a were killed by the wild animals and the day, if thereby they may help to consnakes.-Dnyanodaya. vince the dupes of Brahmin superstition that beef is diet and not deity." -Mr. H. J. Scudder, of the .Arcot high school, speaks of the Palar .Ani- -It is said that an elephant has been cut, a large dam of solid masonry, a taught to "take up the collection" in mile long and some 8 feet high, built some ,of the Hin~u temples. He goes across the Palar or Milk River, to direct around with a basket extended from the water into half a dozen or more his trunk.
channels for irrigation purposes. The -It appears that we must not forget water thus saved is stored in over 50 that, as a miss10nary writes, " the wom- huge reservoirs, from which it is drawn en of India are not all shut up in ze- as occasion. demands. Mr. Scudder nanas, and unapproachable to men; by justly adds that" the fact that thou- far the large majority in Central India sands of lives have been saved and thou- are free to move about and hear what- sands are yearly helped by this project, ever is going on. Only the few, and is but one of the many lasting testimo- these of the wealthier classes, are shut nies to the benefit of English rule in up in zenanas. To be sure, the women India." are not as easily reached as the men; -For twenty-three hundred years they do not stand as far forward in the the Buddhist priests of Ceylon have crowd, nor are they so ready to ask quesmet once a fortnight for solemn confes- tions; but, nevertheless, round their sion of their sins. Kneeling in the doorways, on the verandas of their chapter-house in pairs, each on a little houses, and on the outskirts of the mat of brown paper, they tell their crowd, many hear just as eagerly and faults to one another in a low voice. to just as much advantage."
Seated then in two long rows, the senior – .Another beheld this strange specta- priest at the head, the rest kneel down, cle: "It was one morning, and within bow to him, and ask him to absolve the temple of the sun god in Hazari- them from their sins. He does so, and ba)!;h. I was passing along the road, .they in turn absolve him. This form and had just reached a large tank, where is repeated very tediously for each people bathe themselves and wash their priest present. .Among the 227 rules in clothes, when I heard the voice of a man regard to which they must make con- singing in the adjoining temple. We ap- fession are many important matters, and proached and entered the door. There, also many trifles, as that in eating they lying on the ground before his idol god, .should not put out their tongues, smack banging his head on the floor, was a man. He was singing most earnestly, was Miss Dr. Halverson, who has since and his voice was not nnmusical. Pres- endured the fury of a mob.
ently he rose, and standing on one leg -Abont August 17th Rev. James before the idol, began to 8prinkle it Wylie. of the United Presbyterian.Miswith water. After this he rapidly sion in Manchuria, without the least walked round the outside of the temple provocation, was assaulted by Chinese singing ar the time, and then again re- soldiers, was kicked, beaten with clubs, turned to his position before the idol. and hacked with knives, so that he died Shortly after this he raised from the soon after, the officers meantime merely ground a little brass lota in which were looking on. curds, and left to offer these curds in another temple to ::IIahadeva or Shiva. – Whatever else may result from the This was part of his morning's work be- lamentable war in Korea, it cannot but fore going to the Kacherri, where he is further the progress of Christianity and employed as a Government clerk." Western civilization in each one of the three countries immediately concerned. China.-When a medical missionary in Southern China went tirst to his sta- -Dr. Corbett, of Ohefoo, writes: tion, and began his works of healing, " Lost Sabbath evening 40 persons rehe was called "the foreign devil:' mained to an after meet,ing, saying that Now he is known as "the angelic heal- they had resolved to accept Jesus as er from beyond t he seas." their Saviour and hereafter live Chris- tian lives. Since January 6th, 46 have -Several Chinese temples have a bell been added to our church on profession at the entrance, so that each uevotee of faith. Lately, on a journey in the as he passes in may announce his arrival interior, a widow of eighty-two asked to the deity. A good idea, certainly. £;)r baptism, together with a son aged fifty-eight and another forty. A man -When babies in China are a month aged seventy-nine also asked to be bapold they have their first birthday party. tized. Their heads are shaved, and they are dressed in no end of clothing, just the s!lme shape as grown-up people's, con- -On last Ohristmas Day Rev. Mr.
sisting of trousers and jacket, and a cap Lam, a Southern Presbyterian mission- which so completely covers them that ary of Chening Chow, returneu from you can only see part of a tiny face. 51 days' itinerating in the country. About four o'clock the guests arrive. puring that time he had travelled over All are supposed to give a present-a 400 miles, walking 330 ; visited all the toy, clothing, or a piece of silver large cities and dozens of villages, wrapped in red paper. When any of preaching, selling books and medicine our Christians ]111ve a "party" of this to the sick. He was assisted by 5 nakind they invite the missionaries, and tive helpers, 4 preachers, and 1 doctor. we have to eat all kinds of funny things, They thoroughly canvassed his parish, such as birds'-nest soup, whIch is very which consists of 15 counties and 5,000,- good, sharks' tins, and eggs that have 000 people. They were everywhere been buried for year3 and have turned kindly received and well treated. In black, using, of course, not knives many places much interest was maniand forks, but chopsticks.-Oh~1dren'8 fested. The district of the other mis- World. sionary, 1'[r. McLaughlin, is still larger, and equally open to the Gospel. There -Lilian F. Reeves has been writing 6re no other Protestant missionaries. for the Paciflc some most entertaining letters full of ineidents which occurred Japan.-The mother-in law of the to her and other women while on a mis- Mikado was recently ill, and though sionary tour in the interior 225 miles up IlBving 423 physicians in attendance, river from Canton. One of the party she recovercd. A Buddhist priest said that the cause of her illness was the iu- jority in favor of the- following resolu- troduction of railways I tlons: 1. It is a virtuous custom of -The old nobility of Japan is called Japanese women from olden times to the Samurai, of which there are about remain at home and to apply themselves 200.000 members. The order is gov- to their domestic duties. Should they erned by 60 dukcs, and each family has be employed in the government service a coat-of-arms which belougs to it and the consequence would be the neglect which no one else can use. The lead- of domestic affairs, and a possible dis· ing priuciple of t11e Samurai is patriot- turbance of family relationship. 2. ism to the death. Women are by nature passionate and difficult of control. 3. Women, being -Japanese patriotism is marked. It devoid of the power of judgment, are is said that all news of victory over the… unsuited for postal affairs, which re- Chinese sets the population wild with quire knowledge of an abstract and inenthusiasm. The supply of volunteers ductive character. 4, 'While it is of for war service exceeds the demand. primary importance in postal affairs to Japanese professional wre3tlers, of strictly observe.. secrecy, the want of whom there are many, have offered caution in women entirely incapacitates their services to be formed into an or- them from undertaking this responsiganization of "strong men," and a bility.-John L. Dem'ing, Yokohama. Japauese newspaper "estimates that Nishinoumi, the champion, would be a AFRICA. match for nine and two thirds China- men." -In Tunis, Sidi Ahmed, a recent con- -Patriotism ranks high among the vert from Mohammedanism, after envirtues, but even patriotism may be in during much persecution, was arrested excess, or may degenerate into an in- on baseless charges of such insanity as sane and criminal passion. As witness made it unsafe for him to go at large, the action of the Tokyo Presbytery in and was held for two days; but then the recently deposing from the ministry French authorities. finding he was of a Rev. Mr. Tamura, a gifted, consecrated sound mind and had done nothing in man, and only because he wrote" The the least culpable, secured his release.
Japanese Bride," published by the Har- -Not long since Mr. T. E. Alvarez, pers, which sets forth some of the ideas of the Church l'[issionary Society, ac- and customs of his countrymen that are companied the Governor of Sierra Leone, by no means what they ought to be. by the latter's invitation, on a tour to The truth of what he said is not called Fahba, a town some 200 miles In the in question, but it was unpardonable interior. Five hundred out of the 600 disloyalty to tell it to the world. What miles covered on this journey were made the Christian .. world" thinks of this on foot.
absurd ebullition of unrighteous wrath -According to Belgian statistics, is seen in these phrases which are ap- there were imported into Congo State plied thereto: "Ecclesiastical proceed- last year 18 cannon, 71)44 rifles, 1,119,- ing;" an " ecclesiastical earthquake ;" 898 cartridges, 3,553,470 caps, and the "ecclesiastical guillotine, " etc. 1,783,710 litres<about 445,927 gallons) of Well might the missionaries protest. brandy. It is much to be feared that -A recent debate at the Postal and life-giving forceR were not sent in either Telegraph School shows very fairly the quantity or quality at all to match the present status of woman in Japan. The deadly weapons and deadly drinks.
subject of debate was the question as -The Bakalanga live in constant fear to the employment of women in the of witches. One day a poor cripple, post-offices and telegraph offices. The came to the missionaries and asked for result of the debute was a strong ma- work. But what could they give him to do, for both his hands were cut off? and the others in couples to the Sese His wish to be herdman was granted. Islands. He was once healthy and strong. One day a man came to him, asking assist- .ISLANDS OF THE SEA. ance in getting a girl for a wife. He refused. A short time after the other -One contrast between now and fifty man died, and the witch doctors ac· years ago, when it was decided to un- cused the now cripple of having caused dertake mission work, is the decrease in his death. A relation of the dead man the population of the New Hebrides. went and cut off the young man's ears, When the Geddies landed on Aneityum nose, and upper lip. His head looks in 1848, the population was about 4000, now almost like the skull of a dead per- and Rev. John Inglis estimated that it son. must have .been at one time 10,000 or more. In 1880 it was reduced to 1200, -A careful estimate, based on all and in 1893 to 710. availahle sources of information, brings out the total weight of diamonds ex- -The Christian world will not forget ported from South Africa down to the Dr. Paton as he returns to the New end of 1892 at 50,000 carats, or some- Hebrides, the scene of his remarkable thing over 10 tons I The value of this toils and triumphs. Not many mis- mass of gems would be, roughly, about sionaries have been permitted to bestow $350,000,000. If heaped together, they such large measures of blessing both would form a pyramid 6 feet high on a in the field and also upon the churches base of 9 feet square. of America and Great Britain.
-Mrs. French·Sheldon, who a year -We need not be at all surprised to or two since pushed her way far toward learn that, excited by a political trouble the interior of the Dark Continent, and in Fiji, at the instigation of their chiefs, who says she "hates the word mis- some of the natives have returned to sions," is to found a state about 600 their old-time devil worship, or " Luve miles north of Zanzibar, and on either Ni Wai," as a way out of the difficulty, side of the Juba River for some 450 the pretender saying he had received miles Inland. She has heard from 3000 revelations from tIle old gods of Fiji. Americans who are anxious to go, and During the revolt they raided several thinks that $50,000 will suffice for lay- towns, massacring people and mutilat- ing foundations. Some time next year ing and eating the dead, after the cus- the pioneers will be on their journey. tom of fifty years ago. This was the first act of general cannibalism since 1876. -The Bishop of Nyassaland told an interviewer that of 9 missionaries who -In view of the large number of sailed with him in February, 1893, 4 Japanese at the Hawaiian Islands, and have died and 2 have been invalided. also of the long acquaintance of Rev. O. H. Gulick and wife with the native -Dr. Laws says: "On the shores of Hawaiian people, it has been deemed Lake Nyassa, a few years ago the habi- advisable -that, though still connected – tation of cruelty, there are now Chris- with the Japan Mission, they should re- tian schools with 150 teachers and 7000 main on Hawaii. In a recent letter scholars. " from Honolulu, Mr. Gulick says: "We have now 9 Japanese preachers and -In response to an appeal put forth evangelists, very valuable men, labor· during Lent at Mengo, Uganda, by the ing for their countrymen in these missionaries, 25 men and youths offered islands, the most of them supported by . themselves for evangelistic work, and plantation funds for the benefit of the 13 of the number were solemnly dis- laborers. Of these 9 men, 4 are on Ha- missed by the congregation at Easter, 3 waii, 1 on Maui, 2 on Kauai, and 2 on going to one of the Bavuma Islands, Oahu."
The Missionary Review of the World — May 1894
KINDNESS OF "THR CU"GRCH AT HOllE AND ABROAD."
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVII. No. 5.-0ld &rieB.–MAY.–VOL. VII.' No. 5.-New SerIu.
THE TRUE CHARM AND POWER OF MISSIONS.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEl!'.
That which constitutes the value 'and virtue of incense is an invisible, impalpable, and subtle principle, called perfume or odor. A similar charm, supposed to invest acceptable offerings, gave them the name of "sweet savor offerings," and caused such expressions as the "savor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God," to be applied to unselfish service.
Comparison of many passages of Scripture will show that the essence of this acceptable savor is found in unselfishness, self-oblivion, or self loss. The savor of selfishness is offensive to God; and just as certain pungent, aromatic odors were supposed to overcome or annul the offensive smell of burning victims, the odor of a spirit that renounces all self-gain in an absorbing passion for His glory is represented as neutralizing what is distasteful to God, and so becomes the secret of all acceptable, sweet savor offerings.
Here lies, perhaps, the grandest of all arguments for missions-that they both demand and develop the highest self-oblivion. It is a peculiar mark of the incapacity of a worldly mind to appreciate spiritual truth and motive, that the very objections raised to missions, that commercially and selfishly they" do not pay," are in God's eyes the reasons for them. They make no appeal to the carnal, and hence evoke the nobler and more godlike principles within us.
The hope which inspires missionary effort is not the hope of seeing adequate results, such as in the material harvest of human enterprise justifies the sowing; God sometimes grants abundant returns, but not always, nor to the actual individual who has put forth the greatest measure of effort. The supreme hope of the true missionary is that he may witness for Christ to the unsaved so faithfully and fully that his Master at His coming may approve him with His own '~ Well done."
The hope thus set before us is so much above the sphere of time and
THE TRUE CHARM AND POWER OF MISSIONS
sense that it weans us from the world. It tends to make disciples unselfish and spiritual; to loosen the tie by which carnal objects are held, and make all else seem small in comparison with things to come. How can he who consistently studies for his Lord's approval lay up treasure here or plan for an easy life of selfishness? While preparing his soft nest the midnight cry may be heard. If the end of all things is at hand, what have we to do with treasures or pleasures, possessions or pursuits, which Christ's coming could interrupt, condemn, or bring to naught 1 If, step by step, human enterprise, worldly civilization, scholarly cultUl'e, or even churchly progress, can bring on the latter-day glory, we may have a pretext for building as though all we build were to last at least a thousand years ; but if all these things are to be dissolved and our best work brought speedily to the fiery ordeal, if only the gracious fruits of the spirit in our walking and working with God are to survive those trial fires, if all superficial success is then to appear as failure, let us spend our force and faculty upon what cannot be turned to ashes. And because, when this aim to be f.ound approved of the Lord at His coming really dominates the soul, we become uncarnaJ, unworldly, unselfish, it proves and approves itself as an aim inspired of God.
Here, then, is another vital link between spiritual life and the work of soul-saving. No form of service demands, for thorough doing, m'ore unworldly, unselfish devotion than missions. Much so-called "Christian work" is leavened with self-love, and may be prosecuted in the energy of the flesh, and perhaps its real inoontive may be found in the very worldly hope of rich returns and prompt payments in temporal advantage. The railway magnate may give large sums to build schools and churches in new settlements along the lines, and do it on commercial principles; for the church and school form a nucleus for population, and population means travel and transportation, and so revenue to the railway and larger dividends to stockholders. Much that we call "benevolence" is to God's eyes the cloak hiding the shrewd, calculating Shylock who has an eye to business.
The fact is itself an argument and an appeal that, so soon as the Lord's coming ceased to be felt to be imminent, and was projected indefinitely into the distance, the remarkable evangelism of primitive days which fed on this truth, declined and decayed, and has never been revived. It is but the few who flame with zeal for missions; the great body of professed disciples treat the work with apathetic indifference, or contend that it " does not pay!"
Cut to the core of this apathy, and you find simple selfishness. This carrying the Gospel to those in the far-off regions beyond is a work which in its very nature forbids us to expect any returns. These distant, destitute souls cannot recompense us ; we must wait for our recompense at the resurrection of the just, and at no point this side! The most frantic appeals for the perishing millions along the Congo, beneath the shadows of the Himalayas, or in the valleys of Korea, will be unheard and unheeded by those whose hearts are so electro-plated with greed that they have the ring of metal, and answer only to the touch of money. Of course missions do not pay, if "pay" means compensation to avarice, appetite, ambition, or any form of temporal self-interest and self-emolument. Missions are not a mint to coin sovereigns. Missions at home no doubt" pay." To evangelize London's millions applies healing salve to festering ulcers upon the body politic; to raise the condition of any great city guards the safety of our homes, life, liberty, property, temporal peace and prosperity, and pulls up anarchy by the roots. To evangelize the most remote districts of America's" great West" likewise" pays;" the returns are sure, though the harvest may take longer to ripen. Men who care nothing for the cross promote facilities for normal growth and healthy development in the remotest members because it helps the commonwealth; and it needs little thought to see that a thorn in the farthest extremities of the body inflicts such a pang on the whole body that the whole body stoops and bends, bringing every other member into service to pluck it out. And, therefore, city missions and all home work within our own borders appeal, more or less, to commercial enterprise and selfish instincts.
But mark the difference! A plea for South Sea cannibals or African Hottentots; for the half-idiotic Cretins of the Alps or half-brutal Maoris of New Zealand; for the stupid Esquimaux, or the stupefied opium smokers of China; for the chattering human baboons of Patagonia or the aboriginal barbarians of Australia; for the far:off Coreans or the exclusive Lama, worshippers of Thibet-an appeal for money and men to help uplift and save these needy souls has no hold or grip on selfish and unsanctified human nature. To give money for such a purpose is putting it into a bag with holes, never to see it again or any good from it. So, at least, say worldly-minded disciples.
We join no issue here. Missions to the heathen seldom do show adequate results in one generation. It is doubtful whether God means they shall. He puts before us this work as the most unselfish in which we can engage, and nearest in motive and spirit to that which brought our Redeemer to this earth. The spirit of missions is the Spirit of Christ because its essence is unselfishness; it gives to those from whom we cannot hope to receive, and bids to the feast those who cannot bid us again. Whoever by prevailing prayers, consecrated gifts, or personal work sets up the banner of the cross upon Satan's citadel, amid Brahmans and Bu:ddhists, Confucianists and" confusionists," Mohammedans and Jews, Parsees and Papists, fetish-worshippers and devil-worshippers, must, first of all, have the mind of Christ far enough to be emptied of self. He must humble himself and be obedient unto death; the carnal must die if the spiritual is to live,; the miser expires when the missionary is born; he who would save others, himself he cannot save.
It is utterly vain to try to prove to a selfish soul that it pays to give money, children, one's self, to bear the good news to the superstitious, degraded, half-imbecile pagan. Dr. Thomas Laurie's five hundred pages may. blaze with tributes to what missions have done for science-for geography, geology, meteorology, archreology, philology, ethnography; for natural, social, medical, and political science; for literature and culture, mechanic -arts and fine arts, history and poetry, commerce and common schools; nevertheless the more light you pour upon the selfish eye the more it contracts j and the carnal mind does not see that missions to the heathen are the most economical and practical investment for gold or lifeblood. To those who look from no loftier level than this world affords, it is worse than waste for heroic men and seraphic women to sacrifice themselves in such fashion, daring climate, disease, want, and even human brutes, to do their worst. Though a sweet savor of spikenard thus spreads amid the rank and rotten growths of paganism, yet the fair flask of costly alabaster is broken. Henry Martyn was a mistaken martyr. William Carey would better have stayed in Britain. Adoniram Jndson not only threw away in Burma his own precious life, but withdrew from civilization to a premature death three of the noblest women ever nurtured in refined society. Think of Harriet Newell dying on the Isle of France at twentyone, and Mrs. Grant in Persia at twenty-five j of John Williams beaten to death and eaten by Erromangan cannibals; of bishops Patteson and Hannington brutally assassinated; of Samuel J. Mills expiring on the sea in the service of Africa at thirty-five, and Nott broken like a reed in the first year of acclimation; of Levi Parsons' death at Alexandria, within two years, and Pliny Fisk wasting in Syria his splendid scholarship and wealth of languages, and, in two years more, following Parsons; of the young and brilliant astronomer Stoddard star-gazing in Persia, when he might have been the rival of La Place and Le Verrier r What if Morrison did give the Bible to China and Hepburn, t<1 Japan; if Livingstone did explore Africa, and Duff create high schools in India; if Peter Parker did push medical missions into China, and Clough gather the largest church in the world at Ongole ; if Eliza Agnew did become the mother of a thousand daughters at Oodooville, and Fidelia Fiske, at Ooroomiah; if Hogg and Lansing did make the Nile Valley bloom with plants of righteousness, and Cyrus Wheeler dot the Euphrates' banks with self-supporting churches; if William Duncan did bujld a Metlakahtla out of red Indians and Mason and Boardman organize the wild Karens into five hundred self.supporting parishes; if Mackay did celebrate his twelfth anniversary at Formosa with his twelve hundred converts, and Paton found Aniwa in barbarism, and in three years and a half left it a Christian island; what if the missionaries themselves, after a long period of trial, both of their powers and patience, cannot be drawn by any bait or driven by any terror from the work they love r To the worldly disciple the mission field is simply a necropolis, one vast sepulchre of blighted lives and buried hopes. The dust of nearly a thousand missionary martyn! enriches the soil of India alone. Hundreds have died on Africa's pestilential coast in process of acclimation. In the South Seas hundreds of saintly souls have given their bodies to be burned in cannibal ovens. " To what purpose is this waste 1"
Vainly does the selfishness that clutches the bag of temporal advantage wait for an answer. John may read the mystery ~here Judas cannot. The disciple who is not too far below the level of his Master finds enough explanation in his Master's example of uncompensated love and sacrifice. He remembers that it was One who at thirty-three laid down His life a sacrifice, who said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." These are what the Iron Duke called our" marching orders" j and if we fall in the unequal contest, we may at least have written above us a tribute like the famous inscription by which Simonides honored the Spartans who fell at Thermopylre : "Go, stranger, and declare to the Lacedremonians that we died here in obedience to their divine laws."
Because the blessed hope of our Lord's return has so refining an influence on character it is very mould and matrix of missions. Its whole tendency is to make us unselfish, to relax our grasp upon material treasures and carnal pleasures j to fashion us " not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life." It makes all time seem short and the whole' world seem small j' dwarfs the present age. into insignificance and lifts the peaks of the age to come into loftier ~ltitudes, on a nearer horizon, in a clearer view. It so magnifies the approval of the coming Lord as to make present compensation for .service and sacrifice appear trifling.
In the seven Epistles to the Churches, which open the Apocalypse, our Lord uses His advent as a perpetual admonition and inspiration. The Ephesians could well bear, have patience and not faint j the Smyrnese endure the ten days of tribulation j the Pergamoans hold fast His name and not deny the faith j the Thyatirans resist Jezebel's seductions j the Sardians keep up their watch and keep their garments white j the Philadelphians keep the word of His patience, and the Laodiceans, from lukewarmness wax ardent and fervent, for the Lord's coming was always at hand, when all trials would cease and all triumphs be complete.
Mr. Moody well says, "When this truth really takes hold of a man the world loses its grip on him. Gas stocks and water stocks, and stocks in banks and railroads are of very much less consequence to him now. His heart is free when he looks for the blessed appearing and kingdom of the Lord." Our brother hits the nail on the head with the blows of his simple Saxon hammer. Worldwide missions meet in worldly minds two fatal objections: the world is too wide and self is too narrow. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness, of riches, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, choke all growth in the grace of selfoblivion. Work is waste unless it pays in current coin. Charity is mistaken sentiment unless it "begins at home" and stays there. Fields
JAINISM
near by sown with corn and cotton yield better, surer, quicker crops than fields far off, where Gospel seed brings such slow, slim, uncertain har· vests. Marble mansions on the stately avenues of a metropolis are better investments than mission churches, schools, and hospitals, that are chronic beggars, always in a strait betwixt two-whether to give up the ghost themselves or make others give them more money. Strange indeed that even selfish eyes cannot see that it is a living, growing boy that wears out his trousers and outgrows his jacket, and that it is a prosperous work which needs more room and more help! Strange indeed that we have not learned nature's own lesson that it is the most precious seed that takes the best soil, the most costly culture, and the longest season to bring to harvest.
JAINISM.
BY REV. JOHN ROBSON, D.D.
The seventh century before the Christian era seems to have been one of religious ferment, development, and change in India. .The Aryas, who had entered the land from the northwest, had established themselves as the dominant race, and looked down on the original inhabitants as socially and religiously inferior. The nature worship, which they had originally held in common with their kinsmen of Greece and Rome, and w-hich, in the worship of Varuna, * had attained the highest theological and ethical conception attained by any natural religion, had become miserably debased. A system of ritualism and magic had killed out the simple worship that had been paid of old. Those who guided it-the Brahmans or praying ones-had usurped the rights of worship which had originally belonged to all, claimed to be themselves gods, and therefore a race by themselves superior to all other men. This claim they had strengthened by giving religious sanction to divisions of classes inferior to them. Next to them came the Kshatriyas, the royal or warrior caste ; after them the Vaisyas, the mercantile and agricultural caste. These were the twice-born or superior castes, while underneath them the once-born Sudras wereslumped together as a fourth caste. Thus society had come to be divided into four castes, and observance of caste law had been elevated above observance of the moral law.
While this priestly and social tyranny was being developed, philosophic thought was being developed also, and it was seeking to explain the origin and nature of the universe and the condition and destiny of man. The tendency of thought was pantheistic, though it had not assumed so decided a bent as in modern Hinduism. The doctrine of transmigration of souls had established itself as the best solution of the inequalities of human life.
* God of heaven (ovp"….). Karma, or the power in the acts of one birth to determine the condition of future births, was coming to be looked on as the supreme power in life; and deliverance from these repeated births was coming to be looked on as the great aim of human effort. How to attain this was thc problem that was exercising the religious thought of the time. The Brahmans taught that it was to be attained by sacrifice, and by worshipping them and the gods ; but others taught that it was to be attained by right life, anti specially by renouncing thc world and living lives of thc severest absti. nence and self-denial.
Among those who helpcd to give practical definiteness to tllis teaching was Piirswaniith, king of Aswasena. According to tradition, he had lived about two hundred years before the time of which we are writing. He gave up his kingdom, lived a hermit life in the desert or in mountain caves, and took the name of Jina, or conquerer-i.e., conqueror of worldly lusts and ambitions. Large numbers followed him, and were hence called * J ainas or J ains. Much is not known of his teaching. It was from Mahavlra, who lived two hundred years later, in the seventh century B.C., that the religion took its definite form. He was of the same royal house as Parswaniith, and became a follower of his; but in one respect he went beyond his master. Parswanath had carried his asceticism so far as to have no covering but a piece of white cloth; Mahavira carried his to the point of dispensing with all covering whatever. He did not, however, carry all his coreligionists with him in this new departure. Hence two sects sprang up among them, the Swetambaras, or "clothed in white,"
and the Digambaras, or " clothed in space. "t In the form which Jainism finally assumed these two are considered the last of a series of twenty-four saints, or Jinas, who have at various times appeared on earth. The name usually given to them is Tirthankara. With the exception of the two last they seem to be mythical, though in the myths regarding the first of them, Rikhal Deva, there seem some traces of historical truth.
We shall understand the teaching of Jainism better if we compare it with that of Buddhism, which arose about the same time. According to the dates now generally received, Gautama, from whom Buddhism sprang, was a younger contemporary of Mahavrra. The Jains claim that he reo ceived his teaching from their sage, but of that there is no evidence. It is much more likely that they both worked independently on the thoughts that were then exercising men's minds. What they have in common is the ideas of the age and the instincts of human commience. In working these out they are wide as the poles asunder. At the same time it is not • In Sanskrit the modification of the original vowel in a holy being's name by "a" indicates a follower or worshipper. Thus we have l'ai.hnava, a worshipper of Vishna,. Saiva, a worshipper of Siva,. Bauddha, a follower of Buddha: and Jaina, a follower of Jina.
t This theoretical asceticism is not now, as far as I have been able to observe, carried ont by even the religio1}S men of the sect. impossible that Buddha may have reeeived an impulse from the older Jainism that had come from Parswanath. According to tradition, the incident that finally decided his eourse of action was the sight of an ascetic who had conquered the desires of the world and lived in holy meditation.
It is interesting to notice that all these reformers were of the royal, not of the Brahmanieal caste. It seems as though the old warlike spirit were ehafing at the dominance which the latter had attained in religion, and were determined to break its yoke. It is to be noticed that the hatred of the Brahmans is much more strongly and spitefully expressed in the early Jain than in the early Buddhist books, and this seems another indication of an earlier origin. * To institute a full comparison between the two sys&ms would swell this paper beyond all reasonable dimensions. We shall, therefore, confine ourselvelil to a few leading points. Both systems are atheistic in the sense of not admitting any deity above the general system of the universe. Buddhism in its first teaching carried this principle consistently out by making no provision for worship, while J ainism, as we shall see, made such a provision in its very inception.
The final goal of man Buddhism teaches to be annihilation j J ainism, a state of stable ineffable bliss. The Buddhist conception of Nirvana was not originally either annihilation or a state of absorption into the soul of the universe, but a state of deliverance from all desires leading to extinction of being. It has latterly come to mean rather a final state of existence, free from all disturbing influence and free from the conception of some of the earlier Jain books.
It is in the teaching with regard to the attainment of this end, however, that the similarities and divergences of the two systems are most marked. Both teach that it is to be obtained through the observance of the moral code, and this code is given in a negative and positive form.
The negative code of the two systems present little difference. J ainism forbids, first, killing j second, falsehood j third, stealing j fourth, adultery j fifth, worldly-mindedness.
Buddhism forbids, first, killing j second, stealing j third, adultery j fourth, falsehood j fifth, the use of strong drink.
It will be observed that the only important difference is in the fifth command. J ainism seems to take in the Rweep of the tenth command of the Mosaic decalogue j Buddhism seems to have the limit of a religious order rather than of a religion. But we must remember that this part of Buddha's law was only for the laity. It was a step to the higher law, designed specially for those who renounced the world and entered the priesth(»d-as all could who wished-through which alone Nirvana was to be attained.
* so in Europe the :61'st symptom 'of the reform movement was the bitter attacks on the Roman Catholic priests. On the positive side- Jainism enjoins, first, mercy to all animated beings j second, almsgiving; third, venerating the sages (tirthankaras) while living, and wor. shipping their images when dead; fourth, confession of faults j fifth, religious fasting. Buddhism enjoins, first, charity; second, purity; third, patience j fourth, courage j fifth, contemplation j sixth, science. On this side it will at once be seen what a great moral superiority belongs to Buddhism. The first of its commands includes the two first of the Jain table. On all the rest Jainism is silent, and their place is taken by certain rules for religious practices. These last have practically found a place in later Bllddhism, but it has a far broader ethical basis than Jainism, and is calculated to build up a far finer moral character. Having a moral basis, and throwing the celibate open to all ey'ually, Buddhism has thus emancipated itself from caste and local restriction and attained the elements of universality. Jainism, on the other hand, by making the reverencing and worshipping of the tirthankaras a term of its moral law, has limited itself to a narrow sect. It teaches, in fact~ that only those saints and their worshippers who happened to be on earih at the time of their final incarnation have entered the beatific state. The Kalpa Sutra, in giving the narrative of the various tirthankaras, is careful to state the number that entered hliss along with each by virtue of his merits. Thus, according to Jainism, the only hope for final salvation is being again on earth when the next tirthankara shall appear, and worshipping him so as to share his beatitude. It is thUs not surprising that, while .r Buddhism has come to be a world religion, ainism has continued to be one of the narrowest sects of India. But it is this very narrowness which has enabled it to maintain itself in India, while Buddhism has been expelled from that land. Hinduism found in the latter a rival which could not exist alongside of it, which must either expel it or be expelled. Therefore, when thoroughly aroused, it expelled it from the" land of the Aryas." It found Jainism a sect which could exist alongside of it or within it without causing it much danger, and so had no difficulty in tolerating it. Thus it is that Jainism is now the only survival of what we may call the Buddhism movement once so powerful in India, and by its environment it has come to be little more than the name of a caste of Hindus. It is confined, in fact, to some of the Vaisyu, or mercantile castes-Seths, or bankers and wholesale merchants, and Baniyas, or shopkeepers-who represent more than any other the religious vis inertia! of India.
The Jains at present number a little over one million four hundred thousand. They are found chiefly in Rajputana, Guzerat, and Western India. They are mostly enterprising men of business, and a great part of the wealth of the commnnity is in their hands. In some of the native States they have obtained considerable political power through their wealth. In Udaipur, the oldest and most honorable of the Hindu States, the office of prime minister is hereditary in one of their families. Generally under English rule they have a security and prosperity greater than they ever enjoyed before. The English Government tends to protect commerce and to enforce bargains and sales. The mercantile community take advantage of this, drive hard bargains with the agriculturists, an9- so are getting a great part of the land under their power. The English rule is therefore popular with them, but by the Rajputs-the warrior caste, the modern Kshatriyas-and others it is sneered at as a" baniya-raj," a shopkeeper's rule.
If we turn' to the development of religion among them, we see all the corruptions which human nature would naturally bring into Ruch a system as I have sketched above. They adhere strictly to certain minor moralities and neglect the weightier matters of the law. The solitary moral precept in their positive code illustrates the whole spirit of their religion, and, in fact, gives it its distinctive, outward character among the various religions of India. It enjoins mercy to all animated beings. Animated beings include insects as well as men j and in the eye of a Jain the life of a flea is as sacred as the life of a man, and its destruction as great a sin. Some of their sophistical devices to get quit of vermin are rather amusing, but hardly bear repetition. One great act of religious merit is to feed ants and such like. A single handful of rice wiII thus supply the daily wants of hundreds of lives, whereas if given to a man it would not supply a single meal for a single life. Then mercy is restricted to not taking life by violence j it does not require avoiding giving it pain. A Jain has no scruple in mercilessly overloading his bullock 01' his horse and urging it with goad or whip till it falls down from fatigue. When it is too old to be serviceable it is a sin, against the law of mercy, to put it out of pain by shooting it, but it is no want of mercy to withhold its food till it dies, when the owner will weep over its fate. Mercy, too, does not forbid leaving a fellow-being to perish if you do him no positive injury. Almsgiving is, of course, commanded, but that means giving to religious mendicants or devotees. That is an act of religious merit, but to give to a starving, low-caste man is a stupid waste of substance.
With regard to truthfulness, the Jains are much the same as the average Hindu. Lying is considered an essential for the trader, and he will bring any amount of lying to the striking of a bargain j* but when it is struck he wiII loyally adhere to it, and will not falsify his ledger. Their ideas of chastity are also those of the Hindus j but it says a great deal for their regard for women that they are the only caste in Rajputana in which the females are in excess of the males. t • When the English officer in charge of the native state of A1wur during the minority of the late ruler was carrying out some improvements, he directed a row of pipal trees to be planted in a new bazar. Now the pipal tree is considered an abode of the gods, and no Hindu dare tellHes under its shade. At once all the baniyas in the bazar rOBe in rebellion and insisted on the pipal trees bein!( taken away. " How can we trade, " they said, " if we are not allowed to lie 1"
t Among the Hindns and Mohammedans the males were about 12 per cent in excess of the females at last census. Among the Jains the females were 2kl per cent in excess of the males. The need for worship among the Jains finds satisfaction chiefly in the worship of the tirthankaras or of their religious guides. Pilgrimages to the shrines of the former are one of the principal religious acts. This would seem, indeed, to be the foundation of their systcm. Tirthankara means "author of a firth," or place of pilgrimage. It is true the J ains say that their tirth is a moral tirth. None the less are the shrines sacred to the various tirthankaras visited by numbers of pilgrims. That especially of Rikhab Dev, the first of the tirthankaras, in the midst of the wild hill country of the Bhils to the south of Udaipur, draws annually thousands of pilgrims from all parts of India.
There are two classes of priests among the Jains, the Dhundhias and the Jatis. The former, who include females as well as males, are wandering ascetics. They have not much learning; they maintain their sanctity by their great care not to destroy insect life. They have always a cloth over their mouth, lest any insect may be drawn in by the inhaling of the breath. They carry a broom to sweep the ground before they sit down, lest they should crush any animal. As may be supposed, their company is more sought by insects than by men, but they are considered very holy.
The Jatis are somewhat superior to these. They have each their temple and parish, and must be instructed in the Jain holy books. They are celibates, and maintain their order by adoption. They adopt sons from all castes, mostly from Rajputs and Brahmans. I have not met any that were originally J ains. They are supposed to carry out in their own persons the requirements of Jainism, while the laity worship them and bring them gifts, that they may benefit from their merit. The first native of India that I was privileged to receive into the Christian Church belonged to this class. He was originally a Rajput, had been sold by his parents to a Jati in a time of famine, had been educated by him as a disciple, and at his death inherited his money and the diocese in which he was the spiritual head. He had' been trained up to all the tricks of the priesthood, and gave me an insight into some of them, It is one of the rules of Jati life to drink only water that has been boiled, so as to avoid destroying insect life; but they may not boil it themselves or order it to be boiled, as that would be committing the same sin. So when he went to one of his villages he went to the first Jain house, and asked if they had any boiled water. If they had not, he went on to the others; and if he failed to get it anywhere, he came back to the first house. They would by that time have it boiled and cooled and ready for drinking. He had not told them to boil it, but they understood quite well what was expected. They, of course, incurred the sin of destroying the life in the water, but that did not matter for them, as they were laity. Their priest was preserved from sin, and they benefited from his merit.
Certain fasts are enjoined on the Jains, but these, too, are observed by proxy, the Jati fasting while his flock worship him and bring him gifts.
MALAYStA
The fast is observed in public, the Jati sitting on an elevated daiS in presence of his worshippers, so that there may be no doubt as to the reality of the fast, and giving additional potency to the function by reading aloud the sacred books. But a cloth must be over the mouth to prevent insects entering, and this cloth can be conveniently arranged to hang down over the knees while sitting. Under it a good dish of provisions can be concealed, which may be slipped into the mouth without the worshipper's notice. My informant told me that such a fast had been the occasion of a bitter quarrel with a brother J ati. They had agreed that they would each take a certain amount of confectionery during the fast. He found the amount agreed on rather too little, and was faint at the end; when he discovered that his companion had taken double the quantity, and came through the fast quite fresh. This he considered a breach of faith, which made him break with him altogether.
In the midst of all this his conscience was working. He found nothing in the Jain faith to satisfy his religious craving; he felt that the whole system of the priesthood was one of fraud and a hypocrisy. Often when the multitude was worshipping him he felt so wretched that he wished he were a dog, and was sometimes tempted to commit suicide. He sought a satisfaction for his cravings in one of the secret sects of Hinduism, but its moral character disgusted him. He came to hear of Jesus Christ, found in Him all that he wanted, and ended his days a zealous teacher of His faith.
He has had few followers as yet either from among the priesthood or the laity. Christian missions have hitherto made little impression on the J ains; but the moral and religious needs of human nature exist within them, and if Jesus Christ be faithfully preached to them, they will come at last to recognize Him as the only one who can satisfy them, the Holy One who can give salvation to all who believe in Him in every age.
MALAYSIA.
BY REV. W. F. OLDHAM, PITTSBURG, PA.
To the southeast of Asia, stretching from Siam to Australia and from the Indian Ocean to New Guinea, is a vast archipelago, presenting a most inviting study to the geographer and ethnologist and of increasing interest to the Christian missionary. Here are found such considerable islands as Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Gilolo, and continental Borneo.
Through this archipelago runs a line of fire. Up through Sumatra, running the length of the island, throngh Java, Borneo, the Celebes, the Philippines, and then on east through New Guinea and north through Japan. Along this line is a spine of volcanic peaks rising to great heights and liable at any time to active eruptions. On both sides of tuis line of fire the land is wonderfully productive, and large crops are raised of such rich tropical products as pepper, nutmegs, sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, gutta-percha, etc.
As a whole, the islands are exceedingly fertile and beautiful with a gorgeous beauty unknown outside the mid-tropics. The waters amid which they sit are mostly shallow, and the deep-green tints of the shallow ocean, the perennial verdure of the islands, the opaline tints on the lofty mountain-tops, and the glowing azure of the ofttimes cloudless sky present to the eye of the admiring traveller such a scheme of color as the earth can scarcely duplicate.
On these islands lives an estimated population of thirty-six millions of people. These are for the most part of two races, the Malay and the Papuan. The former, an Indo-Chinese, differentiated from the parent stock by centuries of residence in their island homes. In some respects inferior to their continental progenitors, in others they are superior. In the main truthful, brave, kind to their families, capable of friendship, though subject to terrific gusts of passion, and, when aroused, unreasonable and obstinate, the Malay race, in all its subdivisions, ought certainly attract more general attention from the Christian churches of England and America. A wave of Islamic conquest has swept over these islands during many centuries, and the large bulk of the Malay races own fealty to the Arabian prophet. The chief propagators of Islam have been the Arab traders, who, by marrying with the Malay chiefs' daughtexs and by superior commercial sagacity, obtain ascendancy in Malay communities. The Dutch officials, too, who rule the more populous islands of Malaysia, have too often been the friends and helpers of the Moslem propaganda. As it was in British India years ago, so it has been till recently in the Dutch East Indies. Godless men in the military and civil employ of the Government, disliking the Christian missionary's standard of morals, and preferring the looseness of Mohammedanism, have covertly, if not openly, thrown their influence on the side of the false prophet. As yet, however, of large sections of the Malay peoples it may be said they are but veneered with Mohammedanism. The old nature worship is yet strong with them; and I have seen in parts of Java, nominally Moslem women carrying offerings of flowers just as their heathen ancestors did. There has, however, of late years been a yery large increase in the number of Malay pilgrims to Mecca. The steamboat companies advertise widely, and the honor put upon the returned pilgrim or " Hadji" is such as to induce thousands to brave the perils and discomforts of the journey. The effect of this pilgrimage is, in the main, to deepen Moslem fervor. The pilgrims have suffered for their faith, and it becomes of larger worth. Their devotion brings them great honor in their own community, which is further reason why they should be devout. The Dutch Government begins to perceive that the deepening hold of Mohammedanis~ is likely to breed mischief. Whatever else the "Hadji" mayor may not learn on his pilgrimage, he does learn to hate the "Kafir," the unbelieving dog of a Christian. In the recent past a more active interest has been shown by Government officials at large in ihe efforts of the Christian mis:;:ionaries, while some of them, earnest, godly men themselves, are of great assistance to the Christian cause. The other race found in the archipelago is the "Papuan," from the Malay " papuwah-frizzled," referring to their" mop heads. " These are ocean negritoes, and differ markedly from the Malay in physical and mental characteristics. Physically the Papuan is not equal in prowess to the Malay, who has invariably driven him from the coast and the rivet banks to the interior high lands. Yet the Papuan is taller and more comely, and will ultimately probably leave the Malay behind, for he has more vital energy. Papuan slaves are often men of ability, and are pro. moted to high office. They have greater feeling for art than the Malays, and decorate their canoes, their houses, pots and pans, etc., with elaborate carvings in admirable taste. They have, unfortunately, a decided taste for human flesh j but from this they are being rapidly reclaimed, and they have the great excellence of being almost incapable of untruthfulness. Among these native peoples scattered all through the islands, and destined ultimately to greatly influence the archipelago, are thousands of Chinese. As a miner, as a cultivator, above all, as a petty tradesman, the almond-eyed stranger appears everywhere, and wherever he comes he easily secures a footing, and because of his superior industry and intelligence forges to the front. Any plan of evangelization of these islands which overlooks the Chinaman will be at fault. Law-abiding, orderloving, intelligent, the Chinese settlements throughout the archipelago should be seized as outposts in any wide scheme of Christian conquest.
The Dutch Government politically controls by far the largest part of the archipelago j and Dutch missions are, as we would expect, the most numerous and widely spread among the islands. The Church in Holland, however, has never risen to the height of the magnificent opportunity that God has laid at her doors. Indeed, God-given opportunities always far outrun the readiness of the Christian Church to use them j and the Dutch have been quite as responsive to the needs of the Indies as the British have been to those of the greater India they govern. The principal societies at work are: 1. The Netherlands Missionary Society, which began early in the century through its representatives Messrs. Kam, Buckner, and Supper. Kam, who first settled in Amboyna, was a notable man, and after valuable and heroic service he died in 1833. This society's usefulness lIas been much crippled by its defection from the evangelical faith. Rationalism, however it may commend itself to some of the scholars of the Church in Christian lands, never fails to throttle earnest mission enterprise. Happily a better state of things begins to appear j and men who are not Rcoffers at the "blood-theology" of evangelical Christians are putting new vigor into the society's missions. They number eighteen missionaries, with ten times as many native helpers, and twenty thousand converts. Next in numbers and importance among Dutch missions is : 2. The Dutch Reformed Missionary Society, which now numbers some six thousand converts. The notable thing about this mission is that it has gained its great conquests in the province of Djokjakarta, which was closed against missionaries. An elect lady, Mrs. Phillips, the wife of an official, converted, I was told, by reading an extract from one of Mr. Moody's addresses, threw herself into personal work for Christ among the natives around her j God blessed her testimony, and the result has been a great awakening and ingathering. Some of the dear brethren scarcely enjoy this attestation of the Holy Spirit to woman's effectiveness as a preacher j nevertheless, the Church in this unofficially evangelized province is the green spot in all Java.
3. The Dutch Missionary Society, with seven missionaries and some native helpers, is faithfully working among the Soudanese. Add to these several smaller societies. such as the Ermolo Missionary Society, the Java Comite, etc., and you have the entire force of Dutch missions at work in Malaysia. The show~ng is not reassuring. Vast populations are practically unreached. The activity of the Christian Church is far behind the Moslem propaganda, and Mohammedanism is fastening itself more deeply every year upon the people. The Dutch churches are doing what they can, but infected in part by rationalism, the wave of missionary enthusiasm does not rise very high j and though the Government in these later years is more sympathetic and helpful, there is loud and urgent call for other Christian bodies to go to the help of our Dutch brethren against Islam and nature worship in these populous islands.
Answering in part to this call, there are at work in the Netherlands Indies: l. The Rhenish Missionary Society, of Germany, with missionaries in Borneo (South), Sumatra, and Nias. The missions in the latter two islands are yery successful. Especially among the Battaks, old-time can· nibals, docs the Vord of God prevail.
2. The British Foreign and Bible Society. No words of mine can too highly praise the yigor and thoroughness with which this society, under the efficient direction of Mr. John Haffenden, is sowing these islands with God's Vord. Great revivals will surely come in the future, judging from the eagerness of the people to buy" gospels" and" portions" which, published in cheap and very portable form, tell in their own tongues to the various peoples of the archipelago the "wonderful things of God." The entire archipelago is traversed by these indefatigable colporteurs. Even into the Philippine Islands one of them penetrated, only to be driven away by the intolerant and unspeakably corrupt and evil liviI1g Spaniard Romish priests.
In North Borneo is Sarawak, the romantic kingdom of Rajah Brooke. Here is a splendid mission of the English Episcopal Church, led by the scholarly Bishop Hose. This mission, however, is confined to the Dyaks and Chinese, the king fearing trouble from the Malays should Christ be preached to them-an unworthy fear, from which may timo and the providence of God deliver all concerned! This English mission is found operating also in Labuan and in the Straits Settlements, which is an English colony.
Of all the missions in Malaysia the most successful seems to have been that conducted in the North Celebes region, where tens of thousands of islanders, before they were captured by the Mohammedan faith, came en masse into the Christian camp. They seem to have been received and baptized j but these tender though honest babes in the faith were not sufficiently carefully trained in the new faith, and seem to have taken on only such a veneer of Christianity as many of the Javanese have of Mohammedanism. Left to walk by themselves before they were able, many of them have lapsed. Some have gone to Islam j many live a low type of semi-Christian life. The Roman Catholics, ever on the alert to enter into other people's labors, have begun an active mission. The Netherlands Missionary Society is now endeavoring to repair the waste places. The Government, too, is growing helpful and sympathetic j but a great deal of work must be done over again before Minnehassa, the " pearl of missions," recovers the lustre of its early Christian days.
The American churches have done but little for Malaysia. India on the one side, and Japan r.,nd China on the other, have presented such populous continental areas that hitherto the efforts of American Christians have been but sparsely directed to this southeastern Asiatic archipelago.
While waiting for China to open, the American Board seems to have supported a few mission stations, but on the opening of the treaty ports in China these were abandoned, and the missionaries proceeded to China. Two young men, Henry Lyman and Munson, were sent to the Battaks of Sumatra. These pioneers were killed and eaten by the cannibal savages, and the project was abandoned. It is cheering to know that these same Battaks, since approached from the south by German missionaries, have largely yielded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The comparative spiritual destitution of this section of Asia was so impressed upon one of the churches of America-the Methodist Episcopal (North)-that in 1885 Bishop Hurst, then visiting India, appointed tM writer of this article missionary to Singapore. A mission on a selfsupporting basis was begun among the English-speaking people of Singapore, an island of great strategic and commercial importance. This island commands the Malacca Straits, and is the commercial entrepot of Southeastern Asia. It is one of the commercial navels of the world and floats the British flag. Its polyglot population of Malays, Tamils, Chinese, and Europeans is in close touch with all the surrounding islands, with China, with India, and with Europe. In the beautiful harbor of Singapore ride the ships of all the sea-going nations of the world. Chinese junks and Malay dhows jostle the ocean racers of England and France and Germany. A free port, knowing nothing of customs duties except on a very few articles, here come large cargoes of tobacco, hides, rice, tea, tin, rattan, coffee, india-rubber, and sugar. Commercial activity in foreign ports is usually accompanied by two things, moral laxity and mental alertness. The morals of Singapore are not high. The readiness of its people to receive new ideas is far beyond that usual in the East.
The American Methodist Mission, beginning work among the English.. speaking, founded a self-supporting English-speaking church. This church has never received a penny of support from without. Beginning with seventeen members, it now numbers over one hundred, and has given over a dozen mission workers to the varied enterprises that now cluster around it.
Parallel with the work in English has grown up a mission to the " Baba," or straits-born Chinese. These enlightened and progressive Chinamen, British subjects, seeing that the American missionary really desired to serve them, rallied around him, and were at the expense of providing for him school·houses and furniture at an expense of over $12,000. The English Governor, Sir Cecil Smith, of that class of enlightened rulers who have made the English name famous through Asia, quickly perceived the usefulness of the American educational missionary project ; and a large "Anglo-Chinese" school, numbering' from four to five hundred scholars, entirely self-supporting, is now located at Singapore. Another similar institution is fast growing up in Penang ; and through the prestige and kindly feeling generated by the schools our evangelistic missionaries are finding free access to the peoples around them. A medical mission, a Malay press, an orphanage, a Tamil church and school, and constant itinerant preaching among the Malays are all forms of activity in which the American missionaries are now engaged.
It would greatly help in the extension of God's kingdom among these most interesting races if some other branch of American Christians-say the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) or any other-would select some part of Sumatra, or, with the consent of the Dutch missionaries, some part of Java, or the Celebes, or East Borneo as a mission centre, and from there, in consultation with the Dutch and American brethren already on the field, project a wider and more insistent evangelism among these islanders. They will otherwise year by year be more firmly intrenched in Mohammedanism, with its inordinate conceit and intolerant and fierce bigotry. If anywhere in the mission world the King's business calls for haste it is in the fair and beautiful islands of Malaysia.
A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCE IN JAMAICA AND OLD QALABAR
A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCE IN JAMAICA AND OLD CALABAR.* BY REV. J. J. FULLER.
This is a jubilee meeting. Fifty years of Christian efforts; fifty years of Christian prayer; fifty years of Christian missions ; and fifty years of contact with young hearts and young minds-these have matured your insti- tution and kept it up until the present day. 'When I was told that this was your Jubilee, my mind went back to the fact that you and those that have gone before have had a hand in bringing about some of the great changes that have taken place in the countries of the world. Among the many nations and peoples with whom you have had to do or whom you have helped, . my nation and people, and my own native country, and Africa itself, have borne some of your good wishes, have seen some of your kindness, and have had some of your earnest prayer for the spread of the kingdom of Jesus Christ among them.
Fifty years shows a great difference in ~y own country, which is one of the British possessions in the West Indies-the island of Jamaica. Fifty years ago that land had, comparatively speaking, an unlettered people, just emerged, as it were, from the bondage of slavery. It was only then that schools were thrown open and that the children of the col- ored people of my home were permitted to take the Bible in their hands. It was not until slavery had been abolished that we were permitted to wor- I!hip God freely. Before then our fathers had to worship God in the dark night. They had to hide themselves in caves. They had to meet their missionaries on the banks of the rivers. They had to hide themselves in all sorts of corners in order to worship God. But by the efforts of mis- sions, and by your sending missionaries to heathen countries to preach the Gospel, you have not only benefited the peoples to whom you sent the Gos- pel, but the blessing has rebounded with tenfold force, and benefited Great Britain herself; because it was not until you sent missionaries that the awful deeds and cruelties of slavery were brought before the English pub- lic. And no sooner did England know what slavery meant and what sor- rows it caused, the families it scattered, the homes it broke up, and the way in which men were degraded and brutalized by it, than she at once put her shoulders to the wheel, and so the curse was removed from off the British standard.
I believe that it was in the year 1834 that Great Britain paid twenty millions of money for the abolition of slavery. The day when that Act was passed in England, the day on which it had the signature of the sovereign, • This remarkable address was delivered at the IlCtieth anniversary of St. Panl's Missionary 8oclety, In connection with the mercantile honse ofHltcheock, Williams & Co., London, England, January, 1893. Mr. Fnller is a native of .Jamaica, W. I., and was born in slavery, and has spent the latter part of hie liCe in Old aalabar. Bnt he wlll tell his own story.-ED. that very day I-then a boy-was one of those that were set at liberty. I was eight years old when England passed the Emancipation Act. I was there. I remember being carried by my mother to the office, so that my name might be registered. But it was in the year 1838 that the great day came j and I shall never forget it. Our parents had to serve a longer time than we did. It was only children of a certain age that were set at liberty when the Emancipation Act was passed in 1834. In the year 1838, on the 31st day of July, our missionaries-among them William Knibb and James Philippo-gathered the fathers and mothers together j and they thought that, if England had done such a great thing for us, we ought to give slavery a very respectable burial j and so we did. We had a firstrate mahogany coffin made j and, as some of our fathers were carpenters and cabinet-makers, they put all the polish they possibly could upon that coffin. It looked very respectable. And they had not only that, but a splendid grave, fit for a gentleman to lie in. We had all the implements of slavery-the whip, the torture iron, the branding iron, the handcuffs, a piece of the treadmill, the coarse frock, the coarse shirt, and the great hat (all things which were used ill slavery)-put into that coffin and screwed down as close as possible. At about half.past eleven o'clock, on the night of July 31st, there were fourteen thousand people and five thousand children gathered, and I was one of them. I remember that, as soon as the half hour came, the appointed signal was given all through the island, so that at that hour, I believe, every colored man that was to be found on the island of Jamaica was on his knees! And, as the clock began to strike the hour of twelve, William Knibb stood over the grave, and, at every stroke of the clock that sounded out the hour, he cried, " The monster is dying / The monster is dying / The monster is dying /" and when the clock struck the last stroke of the twelve, he cried, "THE MONSTER IS DEAD! BURY HIM!" We lowered that coffin into the grave, and that mass of human beings rose on their feet and sang the doxology : " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow."
And I can remember looking into my mother's face and seeing tears rolling down her eyes, while I, as a child, looked up and thought what a happy time it must be. As soon as they had sat down, all of us children rose on our feet, and we sang a piece that had been taught us j and that piece was: .. Send the glad tidings over the sea, The chain is broke, the slave is free; Britannia's justice, wealth and might Have gained the negro's long-lost right."
We sang that song j and I rememher our marching, five hundred of us, to the Governor's house, where Sir Lionel Smith read the proclamation of freedom to all.
Now, it is more than fifty years ago since that happened j but, within that time, during the fifty years that have just passed, let me say that God in His own way has given testimony to the truth of His promise, that where the Gospel goes that Gospel will prove the power of God to salvation. We turn to our own country of Jamaica to-day, and we find that, within this half century, God has not only removed the curse of slavery, but we have become a Christian people with Christian institutions. Folly, superstition, idolatry, and witchcraft, in which our fathers believed, have all passed away j and to-day there is not to be found upon the whole island of Jamaica, taking all the different denominations that are therein, a single missionary church-all have become self-supporting and independent of missionary societies.
One could scarcely expect such a great change j but not only have we become a Christian nation, independent of missionaries societies, but we have been taught by the missionaries who came to our country that freely we have received and freely we ought to give. So, on the island of Jamaica to-day, we have an independent Baptist Missionary Society of our own not at all connected with the society in England, and which sends ilie Gospel to the heathen afar off. This is the result of one half century.
It was supposed, you know, that the black man had not got any brains. They say that our heads are too thick. Phrenologists have looked at our heads and said that there are too many bones there j but missionaries that have gone to our country have felt that it is a very good thing that we have had a thick head, because, if we had not-if we had your soft head -all the brains would go! You know, when you get to our country, the first thing that you want is a " helmet. " God has put our helmet on without giving us the trouble of making one. But our missionaries have found out that the black man lacks only opportunity and privileges. If you give him them, God can develop that man as well as any other.
Our missionaries, I say, have tried it. In the island of Jamaica to-day we have about two hundred and seventy Baptist churches. The Presbyterians have got their churches j the Church of England have got theirs j the Wesleyans have got theirs. Some of the two hundred and seventy Baptist churches seat two thousand people j and seventy of those churches are ministered to by young men, well qualified in our colleges, and who are now preaching the Gospel side by side with their European brethren. So much, friends, for the success of the Gospel in our land. Then we have Suuday-schools, high schools, grammar schools, and colleges of all the different universities. God has honored the men who went to our land and preached the Gospel, and given them encouragement by showing them that Africa, with all her supposed degradation and all her real degradation, is capable of receiving the Gospel j and if we give it to the Africans, He who said, "Go into all the world," has promised that He will be with His disciples.
I just say so much with regard to my own country j but I have myself been engaged in mission work for forty-five years. Some people say, " You do not look that yourself'" but I have had forty-five years' experience in a savage country. When the Baptist Missionary Society started their mission on the West Coast of Africa, my father was one of the first who went out to carry the Gospel to the land of our forefathers. Soon after he left I felt a determination also to join the mission and go out to Africa; and, in the year 1845, I landed on the 'West Coast of Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea and in the Bight of Biafra. When we landed there was no Bible, no written language. None of the people had ever heard the name of Jesus Christ. The natives there were all savages, naked, degraded, and depraved. Everything that repelled the eye and sickened the heart presented itself before us as we landed. We saw human sacrifices. People say that the Africans are cruel. I have not read of any heathen countries where cruelty does not exist; but it is what they are taught. In Africa, when we got there, we found that the people believed in some future. What that future is they knew nothing of. Because of this belief not a king died but so many men and so many women were put into the grave with him. There was not anyone that died in that country without somebody being accused of being responsible for it, and they administered to the person poison for witchcraft. There was not an infant child whose mother died but the child was put alive into the coffin with its dead mother and buried. In one part of the country there was not a twin child born but the poor mother of the twins was flogged to death, and the children were put to death immediately, because the witch doctors said that they were cursed. The people believed this; and they had carried on such horrid customs for centuries. When we got there we found that this was the condition of the people. They were running about perfectly naked. They were without hope and without God in the world. Within a short period of the missions having been established among them the people had their language put into a written form, and they had the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, translated by Alfred Saker and by the Presbyterian missionaries. To-day we have men that have been trained there preaching the Gospel among their own people. We have churches formed, and we have schools that have been established. The people are being taught to read and write.
I remember the scene when we landed in Africa. I had scarcely been there a month before one of the kings of Calabar died. A horrid sight was brought before us in the many people that were put into his grave with him. The grandson of that king that died soon after we landed in Africa, is to-day one of the elders of a Presbyterian church; and if you go into his house you will find that every morning the open Bible is on his table aud he is conducting family worship. The old custom of burying the living with the dead is wiped out and gone. I remember going into t.he Cameroons, and after I had opened my window in the morning, looking across the river, I saw many canoes with people dressed up in all their war dresses, and their .spears and swords were brandished in the sun. They had their war caps upon their heads. I took my glass and looked, and I found that the decoration on the bows of all those canoes was nothing else but human heads. I went up to the chief and said to him, " What do you do this for 1" He looked at me very much astonished that I should ask him such a question. He said, "What 1" Pointing across the river, I said, "Look yonder." "Why 1" he said. " What about that 1" I said, "why do you do such cruel things 1 It is not right. " He said, "You people come into this country, and you live here, and you say that you are good people-and that is true enough-but do you tell me that, when I die, my sons arc to put me into an empty grave alone, and nobody with me 1" When I told him" Yes," he looked at me and said, "You are a fool." Then all his sons came up directly and said, " What is the matter, father 1" And he told them. He said, "This man, who has como to live in this country, says that when i die you boys will put me into an empty grave, alone, with "no one with me." And they looked at me and grinned their savage grin; and they turned away and said, " Father, do not believe him. He is a fool and he is' a foreigner. What does he know 1 Let him alone." I stand here to tell you that that same chief lived on until the old custom of burying people with the dead was completely abolished. In his town, about fifty yards from his own house, stood a little chapel, and the preacher in that chapel was none other than one of his sons, who was preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If God, in such a short time, can produce such a change, surely prayers for missions and for the extension of Christ's kingdom in the world have a proof that they are being answered by God, when we think of the present condition of the people, and think of what was their former condition, when we saw them in their degradation as naked savages. The other day I had a letter from the church in the Cameroons to say that they had built a chapel for themselves that will seat one thousand people, and that the membership of that one church had grown to seven hundred; that the people had collected for themselves among themselves no less than £999, and had established fifteen different stations in different parts of tho country since I left, in order to spread the Gospel among their own neighbors. I say that Africa, with all her degradation, and with all her ignorance, desires to have the Gospel; and if it is given to the people, they, of themselves, in their own country, will spread that Gospel if they only know and hear the truth preached to them. I believe that the time will come, and that the time is not far off, when Africa, with all her degradation and darkness, will rise. We remember. that fifty years ago, up the Congo River, no one had ever heard the Gospel, and we looked upon it as a hard soil to work; but to-day the Scripture is being translated into their own tongue, their young men are being taught to read the Bible, Christian churches are being formed, and some of the cruelties that the missionaries met when they landed first in the Congo are gradually being removed; so that the time will yet come when we shall see a great change in the work of God among the people in Africa. I remember standing at my door and seeing one of the chiefs coming across. As he was coming I looked at him. He was a great man, a man of position in his country; but the only covering that he had was the fibres of the plantain tree combed out and a great cap on his head with parrots' feathers. He had a great bullock horn across his breast, and he walked as stately as ever. Several of the princes were following him behind, all of them being dressed in the same way. I called to this man as he passed my door. I said, " Mikani," and he looked round, but he would not answer. I called again, but he wonld not answer. I called a third time, llnd one of his followers turn~d upon me and said, "What do you want?" "Why," I said, "I only want to speak to him. I want to ask him a question." The man said, "He will not answer you." "Why? What have I done?" He replied, " Why, the man has just been into his superstitions, and he has sworn that for nine days he will not speak to anybody except by signs. At the end of nine days he will go back to the place where he came from, and after that he will converse as of old." I thought it was of no use to trouble him any more, and I let him go. After the nine days were over I went .to his house. I saw him sitting at the door; and just as I got to his house I saw this bullock's horn that he had across his breast hanging across the threshold of his door. I looked at it, and then I looked at him and said, "Do you mean to tell me that. a big man like you, in such a position as you are, believes in such a foolish thing as that?" The man was rather insulted. "'Vhat do you mean?" he said. "Why," I said, " look at that thing. Do you mean to say that that thing has any power in it ?" I said, " Let me take my penknife and open it, and I will show you what is in it. " There was nothing in it but some red clay, parrots' feathers, dogs' teeth, pieces of the skins of animals, some of his own hair, and a little bit of his own toenail. I said, " I know what is in it. Do you mean to tell me that you believe in that stuff ?" He answered, " Believe it ? Yes. " He said, " If I have that thing hanging at my door no witch will dare to come into my house. If she comes, before she crosses the threshold of my door she will be dead." I said, "You do not believe that rubbish, do you ?" " -Well," he said, " I do. And that is why you missionaries all die. You come into this country, and the witches know that you have not anything to keep off the witchcraft, so they kill you ; but they will not come near me, because they know that I have got something to stop them. " Well, I made it my business to visit that man day after day and try to convince him, but it was no good. I could not do anything. Six months after that I was sitting in my little study room, and I heard the drum that tells of death. And I knew what it waS. When a chief dies the sound of that drum tells the tale, and the missionary has to be immediately on the move. I took my hat directly and started up and got to the chief's place. I said, " Mikani, who is dead?" He hung his head down for a minute, and then he said, " One of those princes that were with me on that day." "Why,"
THE REV. JOHN L. NEVIUS, D.D
I said, "you told me that the man that had got that thing would nbt die. Did not that prince wear one of these horns ?', " Yes." "Did he not have a cap~" "Yes. " "Did he not have that same horn~" " Yes." "Then, how is it," I said, "that he is dead?" And the poor fellow hung his head down for a moment. Then, lifting up his head, he looked full into my face for a few moments, and he was silent. Last of all I saw him stretch his hand, and he took hold of the horn as it hung across the door, and removed it from its place, and flung it across the road, and he said, " I will try yours." Where is he to-day, friends? Go to the Cameroons, and you will see a native minister there preaching the Gospel; but on the right hand of that native preacher, who is preaching the Gospel, sits a gray-headed man, and the very look of that man's face tells us of his inward happiness. That is the same man. He has tried and found that there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ. He is the head deacon of the church, and the membership is now about seven hundred. There is a congregation of perhaps a thousand gathering together there now. I remember that upon my landing in 1845 these people were rank savages and brutal in every act, and not only so, but they were naked savages; and to-day we see them clothed and in their right mind, and thc congregation with their dark faces and their bright eyes are worshipping the same Saviour that we love ; and when I see this I know that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will win its way wherever it goes.
Thus, friends, I think I have told you enough to Rhow you that your prayers have been answered and your efforts been accepted of God. I will only ask you to pray more and do as much as you can for Africa, for she has still got her millions that need the Gospel to-day.
THE REV. JOHN L. NEVIUS, D.D.
BY REV. GILBERT REID, WARSAW, N. Y.
On the death of the well-known and revered missionary, Dr. John L. Nevius, it may be profitable for his fellow-workers to pause for a moment and recount briefly the work which he has done. The worth of his work demands more than a passing reference. Though only in his sixty-seventh year, he was numbered among the veterans for the unusual amount of his mIssiOnary experience. He was drawing nigh to the round number of forty years in the missionary service, when he bowed his head as he sat talking in his study at his home in Chefoo, and yielded up his spirit to God who gave it. A gentle passing away, like a calm breath of a summer's breeze-a falling asleep.
Dr. Nevius is first to be remembered for his work in a literarY line.
DR. NEVIl:S ON A CHINESE ,"VHEELBARROW BEFORE HIS RESIDENCE AT CHEFOO. CHINA."
ltl94.) THE REV. Jo.HN L. NEVIUS, D.D
One o.f the mo.st po.pnlar and co.ncisely co.mprehensive boo.ks o.n China was o.ne which he wro.te early in his career, called" China and the Chinese," first published by the Harpers, and no.w issued by the Presbyterian Board o.f Publicatio.n. In Chinese the leading treatise o.n theology was prepared when he was a yo.ung missio.nary at Ningpo., and lacked o.nly the latter topics of systematic theo.lo.gy-a deficiency which he hoped to meet befo.re he clo.sed his labo.rs. Ano.ther bo.o.k in Chinese o.n "Entrance to. Truth" has been used fo.r many years no.t o.nly by o.ur o.wn Presbyterian Missio.n, but also. by the missio.uaries o.f o.ther societies, in the initiative rudimentary stages of Christian instructio.n. A very valuable pamphlet in English o.n " Metho.ds o.f Missio.n W o.rk" has been carefully studied fo.r its fairminded and bro.ad-minded investigatio.ns, based o.n tho.ro.ugh experience: Already we understand that parts o.f this are to. be reissued by the Bo.ard o.f Fo.reign Missio.ns as a guide, o.r at least a suggestio.n, to. o.ther fields o.f o.ur Church. One o.f the last results o.f his study was a bo.o.k o.n " Demo.niacal Po.ssessio.n," which, we understand, will so.o.n be published j and which, we kno.w, will present the mo.st co.mplete and careful examinatio.n o.f this very difficult pro.blem. Other literary effo.rts attest his ability j and we o.nly regret that he cDuld no.t live to. co.mplete the wo.rk, so dear to. his heart, o.f aiding in the revisio.n o.f the Mandarin version o.f the Scriptures. No. sentence o.f his, either in Chinese o.r English, was penned witho.ut tho.ught, and every tho.ught was actuated by a stro.ng desire to. be fair and .true.
Seco.ndly, let us no.tice his wo.rk as a Christian instructo.r. This he was rather than an educatio.nalist. The Bible was his text-bo.o.k, and no.ne o.f his teaching was secular. If he taught theo.lo.gy-and as such he was witho.ut a peer-it was always a biblical theo.lo.gy. Bo.th in the Ningpo. and Shantung missiDns he was frequently appo.inted to. train men fo.r the ministry j and many o.f o.ur best native pasto.rs rejo.ice to. call him "teacher." When in late years he fo.und himself surro.unded by a gro.wing evangelistic wo.rk, he set apart the summer and winter mo.nths to. special instructio.n, either o.f leading inquirers o.r o.f his cho.sen classleaders. I remember, during my first summer in China, as a guest at his ho.me, the large"number o.f callers fro.m amo.ng the fo.reign residents, so.me o.f who.m were" men Df the wo.rld," who. came to. see his class, and went away to. praise it and so. co.mmend the who.le missio.nary undertaking. This teaching idea he carried into. all o.f his evangelistic effo.rts, and every statio.n o.f Christian co.mmunicants and inquirers was a Sunday-scho.o.l, with every o.ne a teacher and every o.ne a scholar. He emphasized the wo.rds in the – Master's final co.mmissio.n, " teaching them Christ." This idea, clear and simple tho.ugh it be, has been made such by Dr. Nevius more than by any Dther man.
In connectio.n with this we no.te no.w his evangelistic wo.rk. By the pro.vidence o.f Go.d he wa.s led into a section o.f the co.untry fruitful o.f conversio.ns, nearly a week's jo.urney fro.m his ho.me at Chefo.o.. Hence his evangelism took the form of " country itinerations." During this period he was generally absent from home half of the year, more often in the spring and autumn months, but twice, at least, during the cold winter days, stopping at chilly Chinese inns, or riding from station to station of poor country Christians with the thermometer near to zero. It is impossible to outline this work, so carefully unfolded in his " Methods of Mission Work." Its chief feature was the effort to utilize every native, and then establish a church without the support of foreign funds. It was selfdevelopment and self-support, but always under the guidance of the Spirit, and by a study of the Bible. That work was practically transferred to others prior to his last return to the United States, and is now managed by native pastors or other of our missionaries, centred at the station of Wei-hien. Dr. Nevius built on no other man's foundation; and the foundation which he laid was strong and " in Jesus Christ."
One of the openings to this evangelistic work came through the relief rendered in the famine of 1879 and 1880. Not that those relieved became the inquirers, but that such a display of benevolence commended the Christianity which taught it, and broke down centuries of prejudice. In this famine-relief work Dr. Nevius was especially successful in the system adopted, and one which has guided others in similar work during later years. It was a system of common sense, kind to the needy, but guarding against tricks, deception, and confusion. Dr. Nevius was an exegete and a theologian. He was also level-headed, a man of affairs.
In this same practical line was his work of introducing foreign fruits into China. Agriculture was his recreation, but as such it was far other than mere playing. The result indicated the care, the wisdom, the patience, and the toil. Many a person has gone to view his garden in Chefoo who never cared for any other kind of missionary undertaking. In fact, this often annoyed and chagrined him, to have persons ignore all his efforts in evangelistic instruction, and compliment him as a fruit-raiser and horticulturist. Nevetheless, it shows that every faculty and knowledge can be made useful in the missionary work, not only as an amusement to one's self, but a benefit to others.
We will only notice one other feature of his work-viz., his success as an adviser and missionary speaker. We refer especially to his efforts in this country. Very few have excelled him in influendng young men to become missionaries; but never with the assertion, that it was another man's duty to be a foreign missionary. Anyone who desires to appreciate his candor, his breadth, his fairness, his judiciousness, should read his article in the MISSION ARY REVIEW of May, 1893. on " The Student V01unteel' Movement." We quote only one sentence: "I have been in the United States on furlough three times, and paid many visits to theological semin~ries, with a view to gaining recruits for foreign missions, but have never dared to use the least. pressure in urging a student to be a missionary. " As one who was led through him, first to think of the claims of
AFTER TWENTY YEARS. :J47
foreign missions, and then to decide to go as a missionary to China, I can testify 1.0 the truthfulness of this attitude of his. How helpful were his conferences with the students! How sympathetic his suggestions to the perplexed mind! And this same quality remained with him iu China, where all missionaries were glad to consult ]lim. If he had only been stronger physically, no better man could have been found to take the place of Dr. Arthur Mitchell as Secretary of the Board. But, alas! both of them are gone; and all through life we shall miss them, rejoicing only because we are not of those" who have no hope," trying to reverence their names by following more their fine Christian spirit.
AFTER TWENTY YEARS. * THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN 1873, 1883, 1893.
A few notes on the advances made in the last twenty years by the Church Missionary Society may be helpful to friends of missions in every land.
First, as to the number of missionaries. The subjoined table is indeed most significant : 1iJuropean M!'ssi07laries on the Roll: 1873. 1883. 1893.
Clergymen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 203 222 329 Laymen ……………………… 15 34 71 Women ……………………… 11 15 134 Total. ….. , ….. 229 271 534 Even excluding the women, the number has nearly doubled; t and it will be observed that while the increase in the first decade was only 19 clergymen and 19 laymen, the increase in the second decade was 107 clergy- men and 37 laymen. The proportion of university men has also greatly increased. In 1873 they numbered 44 ; in 1883, 65 ; and in 1893, 158.- The number of missionaries reported in May, 1873, as added to the roll in the preceding twelve months, was seven; in 1883, twenty-one; in 1893, eighty-nine. The 1873 Report mentions" 1 graduate from Cambridge accepted during the year;" the 1883 Report mentions 3 graduates accepted; the 1893 Report, 16 graduates.
The native clergy and teachers appear in the statistical tables as follows: 1873. 1883. 1893. Native clergy……………•….. 143 240 284 2,582 4,042 " lay teachers……..•••..•• 1,830 493 892 " female teachers ……….. . 375 Total………….. 2,348 3,315 5,218 * Reprinted from a Church Misslouary Society tract.
t The figures are for May last. The autumn reinforcements have made further large addltious. It will be seen that the increase in the native clergy has been slow of late. This is mainly due to the large number of deaths in the last decade ; but it is. true that the nnmerous ordinations in West Africa and South India in the former decade find no parallel in the latter. But the lay and female teachers have multiplied rapidly; and this little table will show some of our missionary brethren who have fancied that native agency was being neglected in favor of European agency, how little foundation there is for their fears.
The distribution of missionaries at the three periods is very interesting. In the following table we omit women, because we could not estimate the growth in the Indian staff without including the C. E. Z. M. S. aud I. F. N. S. : Distribution of .Hissionaries–Men only-Ordained and Unordained.
1873. 1883. 1893.
West Africa….. __ . …………… 17 10 18 East Africa………………. _… 1 22 37 Palestine, Persia, Egypt, etc.. . . . . . 9 14 23 North India (including Punjab and Sindh)…………………. 66 73 116 Western India………… ……. 12 10 13 South India…………………. 44 28 45 Ceylon………………………. 12 19 20 Mauritius, etc……………….. 6 4 5 China……………………….. 18 24 44 Japan… …………………… 2 9 24 New Zealand…………………. 17 18 15 Northwest America ………….. ,. 12 18 29 North Pacific………………… 2 7 11 TotaL ……………… 218 256 400 Of course the increase is most marked in those missions which were in their infancy in 1873, such as East Africa, Persia, Japan, and North Pacific. Putting them asidc, we find that of the older missions, West Africa and South India, though they have more men than ten years ago, have only returned to where they stood twenty years ago; that Western India, Mauritius, and New Zealand are about the same; and that the real increase has been in North India, Ceylon, China, and Northwest America.
At first sight one would expect that the doubling of the missionary staff would mean a doubling of the expenditure. But this is not the case. We should be very glad if it were. The amount expended per missionary means, a great deal more than the amount each missionary costs. The more efficient a missionary is the more will his work develop on all sides, and the more will money be needed. It is so at home. An active clergyman spends more in his parish than an inert one, because he does more. So in the mission field : the higher the expenditure per head rises, the better. But the reason why ithas not yet so risen in the C. M. S. missions is that the increase in the staff has been so recent and so rapid. Many of the missionaries are still in the language-learning stage, and cost little more than their small personal allowances. As they grow in efficiency the work will cost more, for it will mean native evangelists and Bible-women, schools, rest-houses for itinerating, medical appliances, and a host of other things.
There are, however, two other reasons why the total expenditure has not grown so fast as the staff. First, a good many of the recent additions are at their own charges. We have now 15 men and 53 women who are honorary, and 5 men and 9 women who are partly so, without counting those who are specially supported by individual friends of the society. Secondly, an increase in women costs less than an increase in men. A single woman's allowances are less than those of a single man, and less than half those of a married man.
Still the increase in the expenditure is large. The average of the four years preceding 1873 was £155,644. '" The average of the four years preceding 1883 was £202,200. The average of the four years preceding 1893 was £244,844. These figures include expenditure on special funds. The corresponding amount for last year, ending March 31st, 1893, reckoned in the same way, was £255,917. For the current year it is estimated to be £265,759, including only those special funds which directly aid the General Fund, such as the Extension Fund, the Mid-China Fund, etc. And the estimates lately passed for the year commencing next April amount, after allowing for considerable probable savings in various directions, to £274,955. , Thus we are spending now over £100,000 a year more than we spent twenty years ago. This is the kind of fact that makes one wonder. No one at that time, nor for years after, could have anticipated it. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
Let us next look at the reports, and try and realize a little of the progress in the field in the twenty years.
Take India first. We do not expect to find in old and well-organized missions the startling progress displayed in newer fields. Yet the development of the India work in the twenty years is in many ways striking. In 1873 French had lately started the Lahore divinity school, the first of its kind in the country. Now we have divinity schools also at Calcutta, Allahabad, Poona, and Madras, besides the simpler institutions for training native agents in the southern missions which existed before. In 1873 the society's attention had not been specially drawn to the non-Aryan Hill tribes, although the Santal Mission was already bearing promising fruit. That mission has since been largely developed, and the Gond and Bheel missions have been established and converts been gathered in.
But the Punjab shows the most remarkable growth. In 1873 the society had only one medical missionary-in the Punjab or anywhere else- * Multiply these amounts br five to a.certain the llumber of dollars. indeed, not one when the Report was issued, for Dr. ElmsIie was dead and his successor had not yet gone out. Now the Punjab has 10 medical missionaries. In 1873 the staff for Amritsar consisted of 2 men, the Revs.
R. Clark and a. Hoernle, and Mr. Bateman alone was beginning to itinerate in the district. Now, for the same area of work, there are 15 men; and still more remarkable is the extension of woman's work under the C. E. Z. M. S. That society has now 33 ladies within that area, the oldest of whom had only just gone out in 1873, besides 9 single ladies connected with C. M. S. and all the wives. Batala, Tarn Taran, Ajnala, Jandiala, Fathgar, Narowal, Bahrwal, Clarkabad are all new names within the same district-i.e., the great plains surrounding Amritsar. The two great girls' boarding.schools at Amritsar, the boys' boarding-school at Batala, the splendid book-shop at Lahore-the two latter the result of Mr. Baring's liberality-are among the more conspicuous developments. Another generous benefactor, George Maxwell Gordon, had in 1873 but recently joined the Punjab Mission; and now, we have not only the bright memory of his example, but the Lahore divinity college chapel and the missions at Pind Dadan Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan as the fruit of his munificence ; while, partly owing to his inspiration, Sukkur and even far-off Quetta have been occupied.
South India does not show such developments as these, because it was more fully worked then; but 1873 was the year which saw the native Church in the C. M. S. district.s of Tinnevelly fairly started in selfadministration under Dr. (afterward Bishop) Sargent; and the Telugu Mission has spread in all directions since that year.
Five new dioceses have been established in India in the twenty years; and of the 7 bishops who have been consecrated for them, 4 have been C. M. S. missionaries-viz., French, Speechly, Hodges, Clifford, without counting Sargent, who was an assist.ant-bishop without a diocese.
We never rest our case upon statistical returns of converts and adherents, for they so inadequately represent the real progress achieved; but the fact that the native Christians connected with C. M. S. have risen 70 per cent in the twenty years-viz., from 69,000 to 117,000-is a fact whose significance is indisputable; while the native agents of all kinds have almost doubled in number, from 1600 to 3060.
Next look at China. In South China, in 1873, C. M. S. had 3 missionaries-viz., 1 at Hon Kong and 2 at Fuh·chow ; and there was 1 F. E. S. lady at each of those two cities. Now, several brethren, and sisters too, live in the interior of Fuh-Kien; widespread itineration has been organized in Kwan-tung; and Pakhoi has been occupied in a corner of China untouched by any other mission. C. M. S. has 20 men and 8 women on the South China staff, including 4 medical men; and the splendid band of 28 C. E. Z. M. S. women has developed the Fuh-Kien Mission in a wonderful way, not only since 1873, but since 1883. In 1873 C. M. S. had 26 native age~ts in South China, and less than 300 Christians. Now the agents are 268 and the Christian adherents over 10,000. Mid China does not show a growth equal to this j still, Mr. Hoare's college at Ningpo, Dr. Main's great mission hospital at Hang-chow, and the village work in the Chu-ki and Tai-chow districts are extensions worth notice j in addition to which there is Mr. Horsburgh's Interior Evangelistic Mission in the distant province of Sz-chuen. The development of woman's work also must not be omitted. In 1873, and again in 1883, C. M. S. had one single lady in Mid China j now it has 20. Again, up to just before 1873, China had had but one English Bishop. The consecration of a C. M. S. missionary, Bishop Russell, to the newly formed quasi-diocese of what was then called North China, is an item in the 1873 Report j and since then another C. M. S. man, Bishop Moule, has succeeded him in that portion of his sphere now called Mid China, while a third C. M. S. man, Bishop Burdon, presides over the southern diocese of Victoria, Hong Kong.
Pass over to Northwest America. In 1873 the consecration of Bishop Horden had just marked the first step in that development of the Church which has now carved eight dioceses out of the vast mother diocese of Rupert's Land; and a large part of this work has been distinctly the work of C. M. S., which almost entirely supports 4 of them and helps 3 others. The society's expenditure in those great territories has risen from £6000 to £16,000 ; and it is emphatically true of the many tribes and languages comprised in them-from the Crees and the Sioux right away to the Tukudh and the Eskimo-that " People and realms of every tongue Dwell on His love with sweetest song."
And this is without passing the Rocky Mountains. Cross them, and we come to a mission which then consisted of only Metlakahtla and Kincolith, but which since then has sent the Gospel to tribe after tribe of the interior, has established itself in the islands, has brought into the Christian Church the fiercest of all the races of that coast-the Hydahs of Queen Charlotte's Island-and now, despite many trials, presents, under Bishop Ridley'S wise and devoted leadership, a bright spectacle to all who love true and pure missionary work.
Weare now among the younger missions; and what shall we say of Japan ~ In 1873 the first English missionary in that wonderful land had just come home sick, and the second was alone at Nagasaki. It was in the Report of that year that the sudden burst of new civilization in Japan was recorded. The public edicts against Christianity which had adorned the Government notice·boards for two hundred and fifty years had just been withdrawn; and the expansion of the C. M. S. Mission from one man to five was resolved on. In 1883 the 5 men had increased to 9 men and a woman (as usual, not counting wives) ; and there were 350 converts. Ten years more and the staff had become 24 men and 19 single women; 7 Japanese had been ordained (in the C. M. S. ~Hssion alone, besides others) ; and the Christian adherents are 2450. Moreover, they have combined with the Christians attached to other Anglican missions, and have formed a real native Church with its own canons, etc. j and its total membership exceeds 4000. It was- in 1883 that the archbishop selected a C. M. S. missionary (Poole, of South India) to be the first English bishop in Japan; and in 1893 his successor, Bishop E. Bickersteth, has arranged for the appointment of two additional bishops, specially for portions of the C. M. S. field, and nominated by C. M. S.
Pass from the most radical and forward of non-Christian countries to the most conservative and stationary, and view the Mohammedan lands of the East. Persia, in 1873, was not recognized as a C. M. S. mission field at all j and although Dr. Bruce had been there three or four years, his name stiII remained on the Indian list. Not ti1l1876 was the Persia Mission formally adopted. The year 1883 saw an extension of its work in the occupation of Baghdad j and 1893.sees fresh and important plans formed for further development. Egypt is very far from being a stationary country since the British occupation; but that occupation began in the year reviewed in the 1883 Report, and it was in that very year that the new "Egypt Mission" first appeared on the society's list. Palestine, too, though stationary enough so far as its Moslem rulers are concerned, is now yielding to the forward movements of the day; and nowhere does a C. M. S. mission show more marked development than in that sacred land. In 1873 only Jerusalem and Nazareth were occupied by 2 ordained and 2 lay missionaries. Two years later, Bishop Gobat handed over to the society his stations and work; other extensions have followed; Jaffa, Gaza, Ramallah, Salt, Nablus, Acca, and Haifa were successively occupied; and now the 4 men have become 13 men and 22 single women. All our missions in Mohammedan lands received an impetus from the Mohammedan Conference arranged by General Lake at the C. M. House in 1875. They are striking examples of the society's new development in woman's work. No less than 30 ladies are now employed in them, whereas even in 1883 there was not one. So also with medical work. In 1873 there was no C. M. S. medical missionary in those countries; in 1883 only 1 ; in 1893, 4, and 2 more going out.
And what shall we say of Africa ~ Of West Africa we need not speak. Our recent extensions are not much more than revivals of developments begun at different times in past years, but checked by various difficulties. But East Africa is the most signal instance of unlooked-for progress in the whole period. In 1873 John Rebmann was alone, old and blind, at Rabai. There he was found by Sir Bartle Frere, who, on his return to England, came to C. M. S. in June of that year and urged the establishment of a freed slave settlement, to found which Mr. Salter Price went out in the foUowing year. But 1873 is still more memorable as the date of Livingstone's death, which instantly roused both England
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER CONVENTION A.T DETROIT
and Scotland, and led to many African expeditions, both missionary and otherwise. Then, in 1875, came Mr. Stanley's challenge to Christendom to send a mission to Uganda. What need we say more ?-except that the one C. M. S. missionary of 1873 has multiplied to fifty in 1893.
Mter such a retrospect, the question is, .Are we to stand still! Surely the Divine Word to us is, Go forward,. and the promise, Oertainly I will be with thee.
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER CONVENTION AT DETROIT.
BY D. L. PIERSON.
It is significant that the largest and most representative Student Convention ever held should be also the missionary gathering having the largest number of accredited delegates that ever met in America, or perhaps in the world. Ten years ago such a convention would not have been possible, but now by the Spirit working through men thoroughly on fire with missionary zeal, and by the organization of Volunteers, the flame has spread with marvellous rapidity all over our land, and one of the results is seen in this recent convention.
The history of the movement is too well known to need repetition here. The organization has outlived much unfavorable criticism, survived many perils, overcome many difficulties and much opposition, and continues to increase in numbers and effectiveness. And now, in its eighth year, this is probably the most effective agency for spreading, fostering, and utilizing the missionary spirit that anywhere exists.
The first Volunteer Convention met in Cleveland in 1891, and was one of extraordinary practical and spiritual power. It marked a crisis in the history of the" New Crusade." Before that time the mistakes natural to youth characterized the movement, and even friends regarded it with suspIClOn. Since then, however, its policy has been developed and the organization perfected, so that the Detroit Convention stands unique among missionary gatherings, and indicates a firmly established and undeniably successful enterprise. It was attended by more than double the number of students, from twice as many educational institutions, as at Cleveland. Conceive of twelve hundred young men and women, from nearly three hundred institutions of learning in the United States and Canada, representing the flower of our land, coming together for the purpose of considering the great question of the speedy evangelization of the world, and prayerfully to seek light as to their place in this great work, and preparation for it j and with them, to impart inspiration and guidance, gathered also the leaders of missionary enterprise from all· over the world, including fifty representatives of various missionary agencies, fifty returned foreign missionaries from almost every heathen, papal, and Moslem land, and many other missionary speakers and Christian workers-conceive of all these conditions, and a slight estimate may be formed of the forces pres- ent to make this convention a power in the heart and life of each delegate. Among the principal speakers were Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, Drs. Arthur T. Pierson and A. J. Gordon, Miss Geraldine Guinness, R. E. Speer, L. D. 'Wishard, and Dr. Judson Smith, besides mauy others, representing all varieties of experience and degrees of enthusiasm, from various lands and different departments of the work at home and abroad.
The method pursued in the convention was probably the only one feasi- ble for the presentation of the many phases and spheres of work under consideration. The mornings were given to the consideration of the organi- zation and its methods and the preparation of the volunteer, the afternoons to simultaneous sectional meetings for the discussion of different forms of mission work in various fields; and the evenings to the claims of mis- sions and the spiritual conditions of success. It being impracticable to give in these pages more than a brief and general glance, the reader must be referred for details to the printed verbatim report which ·is soon to be published.
One prominent characteristic of the convention was the spirit offervent prayer which pervaded the proceedings. Prayer opened, closed, and per- meated all the discussions and transactions, consequently it was an in- tensely spiritual convention, and the work of the Holy Spirit in separating and preparing His workmen was, of all things, made most emphatic. An- other featnre, closely allied to this, was the fact that Jesus Christ was ex- alted as Lord and Saviour. In His name were the delegates welcomed, and in His name urged to go forward conquering and to conquer, preach- ing His death and resurrection, living His life, and abiding in Him. Be- cause Christ was the unifying principle which made all hearts one, perfect harmony pre,-ailed throughout, although representatives from nearly forty denominations and missionary agencies, and missionaries young and old, and each having strong personality, were brought together on one common platform. Not a note of discord was heard from beginning to end. It was a magnificent demonstration of the true basis of Christian union, the living unity found in love and allegiance to one Lord, and in the contem- plation of the great work He has commanded.
THE PURPOSE AND WORK OF THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT was clearly defined and forcibly presented in a number of brief addresses, which served to remove the prejudice of ignorance, restore confidence, and commend the principles of the movement to the minds of all interested. The watch-cry of the Volunteers, "The evangelization of the world in this generation," the command of Christ, "Go make disciples of all the nations," and the mot- to of Neesima, " Let us advance upon our knees," were hung up in large letters before the assembly, servlDg to impress the eyes of those present as they have already moved the hearts of all Volunteers, expressing their desire, aim, and spirit.
The purpose of the movement, as stated by Mr. Mott in his masterly report of the Executive Committee, is to lead students to a thorough con- sideration of the claims of foreign missions upon them, to foster this pur- pose, to unite Volunteers in an aggressive movement, to maintain an intel- ligent interest at home, but especially to secure a sufficient number of qualified men and women for the work of evangelization of the world in this generation. The declaration card, reading, "It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary," forms a simple basis for membership and organization. One of the perils of the movement has come from the misuse and misinterpretation of this card. It is not a pledge, but the statement of a purpose toward the accomplishment of which men study and work, looking for God's continned guidance, and only changing their purpose as they more clearly see His will. Without this "declaration" there coulq be no firm basis for the movement. It leads to a definite decision, helps men to remain firm, and enables them to do more for missions during their preparation. Results show that a definite and early decision is best.
The work of the movement has been carried on in the educational schools of the United States and Canada by means of travelling and corresponding secretaries, etc.
Mr. D. W. Lyon gave as reasons why bands should be formed in every institution: (1) To give mutual stimulus to members; (2) to gather information j (3) to discuss reasons for going j (4) to secure power in united prayer. The bands also form a basis for enlisting new men, and hold ,important relations to the college, the movement, and the churches.
The results are seen (1) in the fact that the movement has now 32,000 members in 477 different institutions of the United States and Canada. It has also extended to Great Britain, where there are 700 Volunteers, and to Scandinavia and elsewhere. (2) In all of these places it has exerted a marked/influence in increasing the knowledge of missions, reacting beneficially upon other departments of religious study and work, and increasing the spirit of consecration. (3) It has been the means of increasing the number of those expecting to go abroad. (4) It has doubled contributions to missions in colleges and seminaries in the last three years. As a practical result 686 Volunteers are already in the field, and of the British V01unteers at least 90 per cent have sailed immediately on completing their course of study. More missionaries have sailed from America in the past two and one half years than in the preceding five and one half.
Among the points of policy emphasized by the Executive Committee were (1) efforts to establish the movement in new sections and among new classes of institutions, especially in young women's colleges; (2) more thorough supervision of work already begun; (3) more earnest, prayerful pressing of the claims of the unevangelized upon fellow-students j* (4) a more comprehensive course of study outlined; (5) increase in contributions; (6) keeping in closer touch with Volunteers already on the field, and (7) most of all, absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit for light and life.
The PREPARATION OF VOLUNTEERS was ably discussed and much valuable advice given. Dr. Judson Smith, of the American Board, emphasized thorough intellectual furnishing as essential to any great work. Education gives breadth and ability to use one's powcrs, training every faculty to its true end. The call for cultured as well as consecrated intellects is urgent. The missionaries must be able to master the language, to study the people among whom they labor, to organize churches and train native ministers and teachers, to give instruction in schools, colleges, and seminaries, and to translate the Bible and create a literature. All this demands mental training. Volunteers should not delay, nor unduly hasten to enter the field. Time to prepare is implied in the call. God wants our best. Dr. Geo. W. Knox added that a man who shirks work may be called to cobble shoes in the United States, but he is not called to cobble them in China, and that while God nses among the heathen the" foolishness of preaching," we are nowhere told to give them the preaching of foolish. ness.
The practical preparation was outlined by Rev. H. P. Beach, of Springfield, Mass. The Volunteer is to be " all things to all men." He advised him among other things (1) to become acquainted with the officers, polity and policy of his board; (2) to study his chosen field as to its strategic points, the climate, people, religions, the work accomplished, and the successes and failures as pictured in missionary biographies; (3) to know some· thing about keeping accounts, practical work of gardening. carpentry, etc.; (4,) to study the 1aws of health, dentistry, preparation of the dead for burial etc.; (5) to be able to use the camera, printing-press, and magic lantern, and know how to start industrial, normal, and kindergarten schools; (6) to study to be an organizer and pastor, but, above all, to be skilled in personal work. This last point was frequently urged by the missionariesthat the most effective way of winning souls is hand-to.hand, heart-toheart work, and they added that men should begin at home and not wait to reach the foreign field.
The spiritual preparation for the work was powerfully presented by J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission. He urged the students not to be dependent for a blessing upon any human agency, bnt to seek the filling which will surely be followed by an overflowing. To know God we must know His Word. Mr. Taylor testified that he had never put his trust in God's word and met with a disappointment. We must seek to be * Keith-Falconer said when about· to start for Arabia: "While vast continents are shrouded in almost ntter darkness, and hundreds of millions sn1!'er the horrors of heathenism and of Islam, the burden of proof lies upon you to .how that the circumstances In which God has placed you were meant by Him to keep you out of the foreign field." such men as God can use. Take time for communion with God. Do not wait till your concert is over before you tune the instruments. There was never but one life of perfect development-that of Christ, from the cradle to the cross j but all true Christian life now develops backward: it begins at the cross and moves toward the cradle, growing toward childlike trust, docility, and humility. Be insulated from the world if you would receive and retain God's electrifying power. One can- not go to a heathen land without growing either in grace or sinfulness. " Satan may hedge us about, but he can't roof us over"-cannot pre- vent our looking up. If any cloud comes between us and God, it is our own fault. No one need go to foreign lands to preach theism, ethics, or philosophy-these are already well developed-but we must go to preach Christ and Him crucified, and this we can do only after a personal knowl- edge of the glorified Son of God in our hearts j we must be able to give a reason for the faith that is in us deeper than any from apologetics j it must be from experience. Such were some of the golden thoughts expressed.
The PHASES OF WORK were discussed in sectional meetings by those who have had varied experience in many different lands. The evangelistic work was presented by H. N. Frost, of the China Inland Mission, Rev. Spencer "Walton, of South Africa, Rev. Gilbert Reid, of China, Rev. F. G. Co·an, of Persia, and others. To do this effectively the missionary should be " boiling over with the Spirit, and steeped in the Word." The best evangelists are those most filled with the love of Christ. This is far more necessary than a theological training. The most important work of the missionary is the training of native agents, and they make the best evangelists. For this work there should be a close spiritual contact between the native and the missionary, that the former may receive help in his difficulties and learn to know God's Word and be brought nearer to Him. In most countries itinerating can be done only part of the year. It is a method especially adapted to reach the lower classes and those occupying country districts. The missionary spirit of the past was marked by large expectancy, mobility of station, and absence of anxiety, and these should always mark the work of an evangelist. The true policy is to strike the great centres, and from there reach the outlying districts. Christ exemplified what a true Christian should be-a light-bearer, a life-giver, and an expression of Divine love. His law was diffusion, not concentration.
Educational work was treated of by Rev. Robert A. Hume and Dr. Boggs, of India, Dr. Wainwright, of Japan, Dr. Dennis, of Syria, and othcrs. The one end with all missionaries is to establish the Gospel in heathen hearts. Educational work is but one means to this end. Its object is to impart spiritual life and powe1·. Educational influence extends throughout the life of the pupil, it gives an opportuni~y for appeal to a bigoted and conservative community, forms a basis for occupation, makes a centre for Christian teaching, awakens interest in parents, and quickens a desire for better things in the heart of the pupil. It is a method for the rescue of the children from their degraded homes, and gives them intellectual and religious training. It also reveals the capacity of the pupil for other work, and develops the powers for distinctive service as missionary agents. It gives an opportunity for hand-to-hand contact with pupils regularly, as is impossible even in home work. A diseased and stunted mind is as much an object of sympathy as a diseased and stunted body. Objections to educational work come from the conviction of some that but few workers come from the schools. This is doubtless often due to the fact that the evangelizing idca is not kcpt foremost, and because, as is to be deplored, non-Christian and even heathen professors are in some instances employed in Christian schools. It was, however, stated that in some schools in China education draws men into the ministry, and in the American Board schools at least conversions are more numerous in proportion to the number who come in contact with the message in this way than through any other methods. Besides this, educational work improves the capacity of heathen languages to express God's truth, and it nproots heathen ideas and implants new ones. The problems of the work assume very different aspects in different countries, and the work meets with various successes according to the field, the methods, and the agents.
Medical work was discussed by J. Hndson Taylor, Dr. Dowkontt, and Rev. W. R. Lambuth. The great need for more physicians, both men and women, was shown from the vast populations, destitution of medical aid, prevalence of disease, and barbarous methods of treatment of the ill and the injured. Medical missions are also the great entering wedge of the Gospel in many places. They break down prejudice, and present Christianity in a concrete form. Dr. Dowkontt said: "Christ commands it, sympathy demands it, wisdom dictates it, and experience endorses it. " There is a special need of women physicians with hearts of love to minister to their wretched, degraded, and secluded sisters of China and India.
The WORK ON VARIOUS FIELDS was considered in simultaneous meetings. China was found to be pre-eminent in the mind of most of those present. About twenty missionaries were present from this field, and over half of those present, expecting to go out this year, expressed a wish or design to go there. The claims of this great land were presented by J. Hudson Taylor, Miss Geraldine Guinness, and others. While the population of the Chinese Empire is nearly seven times that of the United States, the number of Christian workers is only one ninetieth of those in this country. Fifty years ago the prayer was that God would open the doors; now it is that He will send more laborers. There are seventy aboriginal tribes who do not speak Chinese; the languages of only three of them have been reduced to writing. There is not one missionary for every five hundred towns in North and 'Western China. The number of opium smokers is variously estimated as from 2,000,000 to 20,000,000. The women especially call for the Gospel. According to Chinese superstitions eighteen hells are open to receive them, but it is only by living five hundred virtuous lives that one of them may be born as a little boy, and after many more trials be enabled t() reach the lowest of the nine heavens. As reasons for going to China Miss Guinness stated (1) that 1,000,000 die each month without God; (2) that 400,000,000 are living without Him, with no peace for the present or hope for the future, and (3) that Christ wants His disciples to take His place there as witnesses. When Christianized, China will be a great -evangelizing agency; the native convert makes a natural evangelist. There is great need for literary men and women to reach the 2,000,000 of the literary class and to educate the common people. The Chinese have a great desire to be educated by Vestern men, and much encouragement is given by those in authority. Vork is carried on by social intercourse among the higher classes and by street preaching, tract distribution, and personal work among other classes. The greatest obstacle is the prevailing superstition, but seed has been scattered in chapel, school, hospital, street, and home, and much has fallen ou good ground. There are now 50,000 converts and 150,000 adherents, with 550 churches, of which over 100 are self·supporting. The language has been greatly enriched in power to express Christian truth, and the number of missionaries has tripled in the last fifteen years. Past achievements are the guarantee for future success.
Missions in the Levant were discussed by Rev. G. A. Ford, of Syria., Rev. F. G. Coan, of Persia, Mr. Sampson, of Greece, and others. Dr. Dennis emphasized the past and present strategic importance of these lands. (1) They represent 100,000,000 souls who need to be won back to the true faith. (2) Moslems have always recognized and despised an apostate church-Jesus must be made beautiful in their eyes. (3) Capture Turkey and you capture the head of Islam. (4) Languages offer a great v(lhicle for the truth. Arabic alone reaches 40,000,000. (5) The Levant is the training ground for missionaries for the whole of the Orient. The political situation in Turkcy is the great obstacle to mission work. The population is heterogeneous and the government alien. Persecution of Christians is prevalent, partly because a change of religion means alienation from the State. The great need is for men of intellectual and spiritual power together with tact and breadth. There is a spirit of nnrest under the ecclesiastical yoke. In Persia, at least, work among the Mohammedans has met with some success. Five hundred villages were reached there last year, and many hundreds of Mohammedans are seeking Christ. Educational work, especially that among the women, is very important and effectual in Syria.
Japan was represented by George V. Knox, D.D., and others. There is a need for men trained in special lines for Japan; not conspicuous leaders or men with preconceived ideas of methods or sceptically inclined -men with ability to do both educational and evangelistic work. An exact knowledge of the language and people, their religious philosophy and characteristics is important. Trained natives are efficient, and must be allowed to lead when qualified. Woman's work is especially important for teaching and visiting in the homes. Women of Japan are very conservative, but the girls are impressible. The present crisis in Japan is due to two political factions-one seeking to make the Emperor responsible to the Diet, and the other desiring to keep the present constitution. The former faction has advocated treaty enforcement, compelling foreigners to reside only in treaty ports, as a means of bringing about treaty revision in favor of new tariff laws. At present the Liberal party (not advocating the enforcement of the treaty) is in the ascendancy.
Korea, as was stated by Rev. F. Ohlinger, is a land practically without a religion. In India religion rages like a fever, in China it is multiplied a~d is a problem of domestic economy, in Japan it is a fad, while in Korea it is an accident and has a holiday. There are only seven temples worthy the name in the country. Itinerating may be carried on nine months of the year.
The need of missions in Papal lanis is unquestioned. Papers were read on this subject by Rev. H. M. Lane, Rev. J. M. Lander, of Brazil, and others. Brazil is to-day about what it was in 1610, when the Jesuits sought to convert the people simply in order to control them. The priests are leaders in everything except morality, in which they and the people are shockingly deficient. Republicanism is the result of thirty years' teaching by missionaries, and its overthrow would mean the demolition of much of their work. The chief difficulties are found in ignorance, unconsciousness of sin, indifference, and dislike to change on the part of the people. Eighty-seven per cent of them can neither read nor write. The Bible has been a closed book to them. They are, as a rule, tender-hearted and bright, but weak, lazy, and untruthful, while the intelligent class are cynical and sceptical or agnostic. The hope of Brazil lies in the interior. Woman's work in the homes is to be emphasized, and there is great need of literary men to create and translate a literature. The best preparation for success among them is a study of the Roman Catholic Church.
Africa calls for evangelists, industrial laborers, and physicians. All the continent is under European control except Morocco. The chief difficulties arise from Moslem and papal influence, and the liquor and slave traffic. Forty-eight out of the two hundred Volunteers present at this conference expressed an intention to labor in the Dark Continent.
India was the subject of discussions led by Rev. Robert A. Hume, Dr. W. B. Boggs, Rev. R. Thackwell, Dr. A. T. Rose, of Burma, and others. The statement made at the Parliament of Religions, that the motto in which the Buddhist glories is, " The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man," was pronounced a prodigious mockery. Caste is the greatest enemy of brotherhood, and there is a marked tendency toward scepticism and a turning to the study of the early religions of the country. The best native workers are .from the depressed classes. India's greatest need is for zenana workers and medical missionaries, men and women. Twenty-five denominational conferences were held, also one of college professors for the purpose of discussing the question how to increase the missionary interests and assist the Volunteers in their several institutions. Sixty professors came together from forty colleges.
The EDUCATIONAL" EXHIBIT was prepared by J. E. Adams, of the Executive CommIttee, and was a very complete collection of maps, charts, books, periodicals, and tracts from this and other lands, and arranged topically as to fields, religions, phases of the work, and missionary societies.
Space forbids us to touch, in this paper, upon any of the admirable addresses delivered in the eveni~g sessions of the convention.
The final meeting was a fitting conclusion to a great convention. The question was, What would these twelve hundred Volunteers carry back to the two hundred thousand students whom they represented ~ The points emphasized as the substance of the teachings of the convention were to study, work, pray, give, and begin now. Fifty-two Volunteers declared their intention to enter the foreign field this year, going to China, Africa, India, Japan, Mexico, South America, Turkey, Siam, Korea, Alaska, and Jamaica. Some of the reasons for going were: "Because I can't stay away;" "Because God wants me there;" "Because more are ready to take my place here than there;" "Because I have given my life to Christ to be used where there is the greatest need;" "That I may not build on another man's foundation ;" " Because the need is greater than in my own State (Texas)." A cablegram was read from Messrs. Wilder and White, former secretaries of the Student Volunteers and now in India : "India needs to.day one thousand spirit-filled Volunteers."
Thus the Convention eame to a close-a great convention in numbers, speakers, interest, spirituality, impressiveness, and, we believe, in results. There may have been some mistakes; if so they were few and scarcely noticeable. Dr. Knox, of Japan, justly mentions one or two possible criticisms. "Only China of the great mission fields was fully brought to the attention of the hearers in addresses at the general meetings. The presence of J. Hudson Taylor and Miss Guinness no doubt largely accounts for this. Also there was not a clear and full presentation of the difficulties of the work. One fears great disappointment for many a Volunteer when he comes to learn that, after all, the chief obstacles to evangelization of the world in our generation are not numerical, but intellectual, moral, and spiritual." But the results of the convention must be far-reaching, lasting, and beneficial to the progress of missions, the student world, the Volunteer Movement, and the individuals who attended. At the farewell meeting thirty-one stated that they had come to a decision to enter the mission field, during the Convention. Doubtless there are many other resultR not so tangible, but quite as lasting and important. The Convention has had the effect of increasing general confidence in the Movement, and of creating a larger sympathy with it in the hearts of those in charge of missionary interests at home and abroad. There was a definiteness of purpose and a union of
'rtm BABIS OF PERSIA
hearts in loving allegiance to our Lord and Saviour which increased the spirit of prayer and consecration. There was nothing of fanaticism, no overheated excitement or undue, crude zeal, but deep sanctified earnestness considering questions of the greatest importance. The combination of intellect and spirituality, of experience and energy was calculated to insure the best results. All points to the fact that the missionary spirit is not dying out, but is widening and deepening, and is bringing more men and women face to face with their responsibility for serving their" own generation by the war of God."
THE BABIS OF PERSIA.
BY PROFJ:SSOR M. Y. DE GOEZE.
May 16th, 1892, was a day of much sorrow to many thousands of men in Persia. On that day " God, who had become man in the person of Behfw'allah, left his human body and returned to heaven, but not before he had exhorted the true believers to prepare themselves for a better life, by doing everything in their power to ennoble their fellow-men and make them happy." BeM is the Christ of the Babis, the new sect who believe that their religion is to supplant all others, and who, while they do not deny that Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed were great prophets, yet maintain that God has inaugurated a new era with the advent of Ali Mohammed and BeMo'allah. The Babis have their origin in the Persian belief that a new Imam would arise to bring peace to men. In the first half of the present century, a young Persian named Ali Mohammed became impressed with the idea that he was a second John the Baptist. He taught that another, stronger than he, would follow him; and his disciple, Beha, claimed that honor after Ali's death. The new sect has experienced all the horrors of martyrdom in a degree scarcely less violent than the early persecutions against the Christians; and they deserved it just as little. The Bayan, the Babis' Bible, does not interfere with any government; but it attacks beliefs held by all other religions. The Bayan says that there is no hell after death, but that unbelief is hell, and belief, Paradise. The Bayan also says that the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran all had a mission to perform; but, now, human intellect is able to receive a better religion. The ritualism of the Mohammedans has been largely changed. The kibla, or direction in which to turn during prayer, is abolished. A fast is, however, ordered in the last month of the year, exempting only travellers, children, and pregnant women.
One of the most notable reforms of the Babis is the higher status they confer on women. Their women may take part in festivities, and appear in public without their veils. Brotherly love, courtesy to inferiors, and charity, are insisted upon. Begging is strongly prohibited. The Babis hope for the inauguration of the millennium. But while the Western Utopians hope to attain this object through the State, the Bab looks to religious means. The Bayan is also very inimical to an ignorant, superstitious, and overbearing priesthood. Auricular confession is an abomination to the Bab, slavery is against God's will. Outward distinction in dress is not admissible. The most radical dogma of the Bayan is: " We know nothing whatever of our state after death, God alone knows it."- ])e Gids, Amsterdam.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II."-:INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED DY BEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
How Pagan Rome Became Ohristian. gan and Christian Rome," * which casts Dr. George Smith, in his lectures at a great deal of light oil. the miSSionary * Rutgers College, just published, says: processes by which ancient Romc be- " The greatest event in the history of came Christian Rome. the world is the conversion to Christ of First of all, this volume casts new the Roman Empire. The revolution light on the order in which the influoccupied three centuries till it was com- ences of missionary effort affected sopleted – externally by the coup d' etat ciety. It has long been the custom to of Constantine; internally by the Nicene content oursel ves in foreign missionary work with beginning with the lower theology." Baumgarten says the history of the classes, and some people have come to world he.s had its foundations for the think that Christianity furnishes forces last eighteen hundred years on the Acts which must always make the" pot boil of the Apostles. The brief essay which from the bottom. .. We do not underbears the record of their " Acts" has rate this uplifting and humanizing been studied as affording models and power of the religion of Jesus on the precedents for missionary work. But lowly. Nor does Lanciani. He says, it is necessary to get all the incidental "That is certainly a noble picture information possible throwing light on which represents the new faith as the development of the Christian his- searching among the haunts of poverty tory and civilization, of which that and slavery, seeking to inspire faith, book furnishes the germ. Nor is it hope and charity in their occupants; always good to stick too closely to prece- to transform them from things into dents, even when they are apostolic. human beings; to make them believe It is sometimes better to strike out for in the happiness of a future life; to ourselves in a way indicated by our alleviate their present sufferings; to own environment. Macaulay said, redeem their children from shame and H The time has come to pay a decent, servitude; to proclaim them equal to honorable, and manly respect to our their masters." forefathers; not by doing as they did ·But it is doubtful if we have not under other circumstances, but by doing eliminated factors in the original exas they would have done under our cir- ample, which would suggest that from cumstances." It is possible, as we the start Christianity, in any land, think, to over·imitate apostolic pattern might expect to affect all orders of the in some things; and all the more cau- people simultaneously. Without negtion should be exercised because of the lecting the illiterate and humble, may difficulty of finding out just what apos- not missionaries expect to strike at the brain of heathendom first as well as tolic example was. This line of reflection is intensified by last? the flood of new commentary that We have all along known, from the comes with every day from all depart. persons named in Paul's epistles, what ments of human investigation. A prom- Lanciani states, that the" Gospel found inent illustration of it is before us in its way to the mansions of the masters' Rudolfo Lanciani's newest work, "Pa- nay, even to the palace of the Cresars. ,: But we come to find that the" discov- * "The Conversion of India from Pantamus eries lately made on this subject are to the Present Time, A.D. 193-1898." By George Smith, C.I.E., LL.D. New York, Chicago, and • "Pagan and Chri8tian Rome." By Rudolfo Toronto: Fleming B. Revell Company. A Lauclani. Boston and New York: Bonghton, notice of this book will appear hereafter, MUllin & Company, 1893. Profusely illustrated. startling, and constitute a new chapter been associated with perverted notions in the history of imperial Rome." We concerning religion, and others which find evidence of prominent persons con- have been associated at least with reo nected with important families of Rome ligious customs not involving error. It concerning which ecclesiastical records is widely known that at least one very have been silent. Relatives of the Fla. learned and devoted missionary in CI~ina vian emperors, not mentioned by any is of opinion that ancestor worship ecclesiastical writers, are among the may be elevated to teach the immortalconverts to Christianity named in the ity of the soul and preserved as deepenrecords of the Roman historians and ing the honor which the Bible says biographers, notably Flavius Clemens, should be paid to parents. and, thus Petronilla, and two Domitillre. The stripped of its idolatrous features. becase of Acilii Glabriones is mentioned come an ally of Christian morals. In by Suetonius and Tacitus, who say he the transformation of pagan into Chriswas a convert to Christ. That he was tian Rome it seeme that the Church acnot an indifferent person would appear cepted existing lites and customs when from the facts of his career. His fam- not offensive to her principles and moralily attained celebrity as early as B.C. ity. It was the custom, for instance. 191, when AcHius Glabrio conquered to keep the standard weights and measthe }Iacedonians at the battle of Ther- ures in the Roman temples. This inmopylre. When Pertinax was elected stitution of the ponderaria migrated emperor, he declared in the Senate that from the temple to the Church when the Acili Glabriones were" the noblest the temples were closed. A.D. 393. race in. the world." Manius Acilius, Thus, too, the custom of having baths who was consul with Trajan A.D. 91, in connection with the temples was was put to death by Domitian in 95 carried over to the churches. Senators for being a Christian. The names of and municipal magistrates administered many others, the flower of the Ro- justice in the classic Roman Curia, and man nobility, were found to have in 1130-85 they did the same in the been Christians. We have known churches. that heathenism, when pressed, seeks compromise with Christianity. Tiberius There were other customs and sym· sent a message to the Senate. asking bolic features which we would certainly that Christ bc included among the class among doubtful expedients for gods; and Lampridins says in his day imitation in foreign fields. Would we it is now come to be believed that the convert Orpheus wat.ching his flock into temples dedicated by Hadrian in every the Good Shepherd; or represent on the city to the ., unknown God" were de- church pavement, as Pius IX. did. voted to Christ; and that he was pre· Galenus and Hippokrates compounding vented from declaring them to be to medicines at Sienna ; or place Hercules Christ lest "the other temples might in ivory, as in St. Peter's; or set up be deserted and the entire population images of the sibyls, as the early Church turn Christian." All this goes to prove did, because of the popular notion that the influence which Christianity at an they had prophesied the coming of early date exercised over ruling and in- Christ? To us these have been trans· fluential classes of the Roman world; formed into mere mythical art or poetry, and it began to exercise this influence owing to the distance of the removal; at the beginning of its career, and main- and we ourselves in a poetic and artistic tained it steadily till its CUlmination way preserve customs and practices under Constantine. which are a survi val of classic idolatry.. There are customs which have outlived Another important question in mis- the suppression of pag!ln institutions. sionary circles is how far to conserve Italians still call Pentectlst Pasqua rosa, local and national customs which have and the Pope blesses the" golden rose" on Quadragesima Sunday; and in the is little doubt that we can turn into sixth century the Slavs celebrated Pen- tecost with the half-pagan and half-bar- new channels much that is national or barous rousalia. All these are easily traceable to the feast called Rosaria, racial; and we will have enough re- which the ancients celebrated at the sepulchres. There were, therefore, cus- form work to do when we confine our- toms and practices of the classical age so deep rooted that even after sixteen selves to essentials. The missionaries centuries they are noticeable in our modern Christian civilization. in India are making much of already- There is the other lesson of warning established usage in popular assemblies and failure. It has been said that ancient Rome had two populations of and holidays, wresting them out of the equal size, one alive and one of marble. The Roman Church did not abandon hands of the opposition and turning this custom of erecting statues; and hence we have them in so many Roman them to Christian ends. A.t any rate, Catholic churches to-day, with all the ex votos to which the ancient heathen whatever view we adopt there is much had grown accustomed. food for thought in the facts set forth Much else that was objectionable and that remains till now of saint wor_ by L'anciani as to the mild, impercep· ship is distinctly a survival of heathendom. We may well take warning lest tible changes wrought in three centuries the heathen shall make a large impression ou the new Church which we are which made Rome Christian instead of developing from their midst. pagan, or-shall we say it ?-has left But the marvel of the transformation remains as au encouragement amid all it half pagan till now. J. T. G. difficulties of our time. The Gospel that could couquer Rome can conquer Symposium.-J apan. any heathendom the world has seeu or will see. "Rome," according t::> an old REV. H. LOOMIS, ¥OKOHAMA.-The saying, .• contained as many churches condition of things in Japan is not as as there are days in the year," which bright as hitherto. The anti foreign Lanciani says was entirely too modest, agitation resulted in the dissolution of as there were certainly not less than a the Diet by the emperor; and it rethousand. A.nd these were transform- mains to be seen whether the country ed temples. "The experience gained will sustain the Government or not. through twenty-five years of active eKploration in ancient Rome, both above But we are not discouraged; and and below ground," says our author. some departments of the work are quite "enables me to state that every pagan hopeful. We are sure that this state of building which was capable of giving affairs will not be permaner:t, and that shelter to a congregation was trans- God will bless the labors of His servants formed, at one time or another, into a here in the future as He has in the past. church or chapel." REv. JAMES I.SEDER, TOKYo.-Chris- It is a practical question how far we tian work is being vigorously pushed shall conserve customs of the heathen forward. The work of the churches in society out of which we bring the new and about Tokyo, while encountering native Christian Church. With which considerable opposition and difficulties, of them can we make friends? There is nevertheless prospering moderately. From many points the Christian papers bring good tidings of renewed zeal and activity in the churches. Prayer-meet. ings are being more generally attended than for some time back. In most churches united and protracted efforts are being put forth by way ot revival meetings. Nor are these labors in vain in the Lord. One pastor writes of 22 probationers just received. Another reports 7 just baptized. Similar reports come from a number of other places. Only yesterday a missionary returned ferously cried out that, "It is against from a tour in Chiba ken, and tells the the Japanese Constitution and law to writer that he had just p1'eached in a preach Christianity." This caused a Buddhiat temple which is now without f~u:(luS uproar, and presently a 11uma priest. The idols were still in their 1(. f men, whose appearance was by accustomed place, but the people said 0). ~eans assuring, were making their the temple had been built for the wor- way through the crowd toward the ship of God; and as the Christian preachers. Being repeatedly urged by preachers said they would preach about the native pastor to follow him to the the true and living God, they should upper rooms of the house for safety, be heard. Afterward the people could they both made good their escape withchoose whom they would thereafter out injury. Threats of killing continued worship, God or Buddha. A goodly for some little time; but finally the disnumber attended and very respectfully turbers left, the meeting having been listened to the glorious Gospel. May completely broken up. Another misthe Spirit lead them to a right choice I sionary had an experience very similar Now and again we read of a new church only a short time ago, the persecutors. or chapel erected and dedicated to the saying they would not leave the place service of God. Sunday-school work as long as the" foreign enemy remained also is looking more and more hopeful, in the house." with increased attendance and interest_ Nor is the opposition confined to mis- A spirit of greater earnestness seems sionaries alone. Japanese are almost to be spreading among the churches. equally subject to them. In another But on the other side there is also a paper my eye just falls on the followspirit of greater opposition arising ing: "The Doshisha College had a among the Buddhists. Most likely they public meeting at the Gionza in Kyoto, would make no outcry nor bestir them- at which over 2000 persons attended. 'selves were not Christianity making de- After the meeting was closed at 9 A.M., cided inroads upon the religious terri- Otsuka Eitaro, a first-year student, was tory once all their own. InChiba ken a attacked by four men as he was going Swedish missionary, we hear, recently out. They inflicted slight wounds on ,uffered personal violence and inj ury his head, and fled when his companions at their hands. At another place the came to his assistance. The police Japanese pastor had given public notice have caught one of them, who is a Budof a Christian meeting for the evening, dhist priest. " and that a foreign missionary would speak. About 700 people gathered. In Tottori ken a native Christian Stirred up by priests, they began to preacher recently stirred up the people throw stones and other dangerous mis- considerably by declaring that "the siles, and would not allow the meeting will of God is above the law of. any to be held. The police appeared pow- earthly monarch." The incensed citi· erless. 'rhey advised the preacher to zens have appealed to the police. They dismiss the meeting; and as there seemed regard the Emperor of Japan as the no other way out, it was reluctantly "son of heaven;" hence to have done. uttered the foregoing sentence was greatly disrespectful if not disloyal to Less than a week ago & missionary the ruler of this land. For this very went out to Tanashi, a small town some reason the photograph of the emperor 25 miles from Tokyo, to fill a series of is nowhere on sale in the capital, as it appointments. An evening service had is regarded as wo sacred for publi<: been announced by the Japanese helper, gaze. Nor is this view held only by and he also spoke firilt. For about half the so·called lower classes; but to this an hour the large assembly' listened day it obtains among wealthy and eduquietly, until some Buddhist priest voci- cated people, being held either in sin. cere faith in the old superstitions or in understood Hotoke to mean Buddhism; insincerity. Missionaries cannot be too 7 boys attached the word to no reality ; careful how they speak even to Japanese 4 thought it meant the soul of man, Christians on the subject of their em- while 7 could make no reply.
peror. Still the truth may and must " .As to the third question, 25 believed be told, but always in love and to save. that man's soul lives after death, 81 be- Japan has made immense progress in lieved that death ends all, and 12 could.
matters of education during the past not answer. In answer to the fourth three decades. And yet the present question, 24 boys and 3 girls declared ignorance and indifference of the people, their belief in the existence of a soul, 5 so far as religious knowledge is con- of them basing their belief upon per- cerned, is a factor which enters very sonal experiences; but 48 boys and 14 largely into the causes retarding Chris- girls denied the existence of any souL tian progress in this land. The follow- Twenty-five others believed in the ex- ing from a recent paper gives some idea istence of a soul, but not in its immor- of the religious ideas of the children tality_ "
here: :M:ost interesting and important prac- "Mr. Togi, once an officer of the tical conclusions can be drawn from the Department of Education, now Super- above answers. It will be seen that intendent of the Higher School in Akita, nearly all these boys and girls still re- Il.ttempted to ascertain the religious gard their" imperial ancestors" as the ideas of the children of his school by a object of their worship and highest practical experiment. He chose 118 reverence. The large majority do not pupils, 19 of whom were girls, and the believe hi immortality, which has only average age of all about 14 years. To been brought to light through the Gos- these he propounded the following pel. Over half even deny the very ex- four questions: 1. What is Kami istence of the soul. The teachings of (God)? 2. What is Hotoke (a name giv- Buddhism are extremely vague. Most en to Buddha)? 3. What becomes of children (and adults may logically be man after death? 4. Is there a soul ? included) have little conception of a If so, what kind of a thing is it? future life or of future rewards and These questions awakened much seri- punishments for moral conduct in the ous thought; and he tabulates their present life. With such conceptions answers as follows: To the first ques- of liCe and its moral obligations in the tion, 82 boys and 15 girls replied, • By minds of the people, we can only won- Kami is meant our imperial ancestors der that the moral condition is no worse and benefactors reverenced by us.' Six than it really is. It will, moreover, be boys and 3 girls replied, • Kami is a seen that the work is still immeasurably spiritual Being outside of mankind; , great and the field "white unto the 1 girl, a Roman Catholic, added that harvest. " Christianity is here to stay 'He is the Creator of the universe.' and to conquer, and is gloriously march- One boy said that Kami meant • gohei ' ing forward ; but there are still " re- (a kind of paper cut in narrow strips gions beyond." May past success and and hung in temples to represent the Spirit and command of Christ arouse Kami). Three boys replied that there the Church to still greater achievements, is no Kami, while 8 gave unsatisfactory greater faith, greater self-sacrifice and answers. To the second question, 55 persevering prayer I boys and 16 girls replied, • All deceased persons are Hotoke.' Eleven boys and REv. DAVID S. SPENCER, NAGOYA.
1 girl said that by Hotoke they under- It is exceedingly interesting to note stood Shaka, Amida, and other virtuous the comments of the Buddhist press of sages who have influenced the spirits Japan since the conclusion of the of men. Seventeen boys and 1 girl World's Congress of Religions at Chicago. and in view of the rise of the reached its culmination. The movemixed residence question. ment toward Europeanization is sure to start again. With tha~, Christianity Buddhism is much divided. Some is again to go forward. We must be sects are at war within themselves, and on the alert. The nineteenth century others are at war with each other. They is going; what awaits us as the twentiare more completely divided and more eth opens ?" hostile to each other than is the Christian Church, in spite of their occasional The same magazine, in another slurs at Christianity because of its article, confesses that mixed residence numerous sects. They are clearly con- is sure to come. Scholars advise it, scious that the Buddhist forces are not business men need it. The only hope prepared to contend successfully with for Buddhism in such an event lies in Christianity, and various efforts at re- keeping aloof from politics and gi ving form appear. As these expressions of special attention to religious growth. Buddhist opinions to Buddhists must be or interest to all who are watching re- 2. The Dento speaks more hopefully ligious movements in Japan, I quote for Buddhism: "Many fear that with from some of these magazines as trans- mixed residence Buddhism will go unlated into the columns of the Japan der. But truth is conqueror at last. If Mail, making occasional comment: Christianity is truth it will conquer. The truth, however, is not in Chris- 1. The Bukkyo, an independent maga- tianity. Science shows that. Experience zine, has a leading article on "The makes that clear. Yet Christian meth- Necessary Work of Buddhists. " "The ods, some say, make Christianity forcountry is now afflicted with crime and midable, and the foreign religion is procalamities. Buddhists therefore should tected by foreign governments. But if be up and doing to help and to cure. our hundreds of thousands of priests are But more than this. Speculative Bud- faithful, what can the foreign preachers dhism, which has for a long time been in do? And the fOrty millions of the Japthe ascendant, must give way to prac- anese people are practically our defendtical forces. Christianity is beset on ers. The treaties must be revised_ all sides; Buddhism has the popular Let mixed residence come." Yes, we heart. Let it avail itself of this advan- reply, let it come. And with it must tage. Growing before all eyes is the come greatly increased advantages for question of mixed residence. [Allow- Christian work. While Buddhism is ing foreigners to reside in the interior well intrenched in some sections and by of the country. whereas up to this time no means dead, it will be found that it they have been compelled to reside only has already lost its power over the in the foreign concessions connected great masses of the forty millions of with the open ports, unless employed the Japanese, especially over the whole by Japanese.-D. S. S.] That is full younger class. Let the reader note also of momentous consequences. Mixed the coloring of nationalism in the above residence must come, sooner or later. quotation. Now, in our strength, is the time to prepare for this event. When foreigners S. The Nonin Shimpo is not so confiare admitted into all parts of the coun- dent of results as other representatives try. the ministers of Christianity will of the popular faith. It speculates enter with them and work freely. We upon the fate of Buddhism after the should be prepared to meet them. A incoming of foreigners after this mood : Christian reaction is sure to come. The "The first elIect will be Christian agformer extreme Europeanization of the gressiveness. The Japanese are povpeople has been checked. Conservatism erty-stricken as regards religious ideas. has been revived. But the endeavor Nine tenths of the people do not know to preserve national peculiarities has what Buddhism is. [And this after Japan has had about thirteen centuries' experience of Buddhism.-D. S. S.] because of personal immorality, etc.
At the beginning, with mixed residence The world moves I foreigners will prevail over WI. Bud- EVANGELUITIO WORK. dhism will decay and disappear. Of course con1lict is not desirable, but it REV. T. P. POATE, JAPAN.-I landed seems to be inevitable. Christian evan- in Japan in the fall of 1870. At that gelization means poison to the nation. time the work was carried on under Remember the ruin of Poland and of great disadvantages. The drag·net of Hawaii through Christian peoples." the Gospel could not be used; it was 4. The Kokkyo finds much fault with , fishing with the rod and line. But the recent Buddhistic methods. "Ancient period of sowing was now well.nigh ,customs have too much weight with done, and God drew near to His Church Buddhist associations. The habitual in blessing. It was, as is already reading of the ritual and Buddhistic known, during the week of prayer in Scriptures at religious gatherings wea- 1870 that this blessing came. The quick- ries the people. Popular addresses ened ear of faith heard the tinklings of should be substituted. Biographies the golden bells of the great High Priest of Buddha and of the founders of the who dwells unseen, yet not unknown, sects should be presented at the meet- within the veil. Over the meetings in ings. If the people will not come to the oHis sevenfold might brooded the won- temples, gather them if possible into drous Paraclete, and from rent hearts private houses and teach them there." came "that unimaginable groan, the It will be seen that this is simply im. birth.pang of souls born into the king- itating Christian methods. And they dom of light, that yearning known to go farther than this in some sections, all the people of God which finds its establishing Sunday·schools, gathering utterance in the cry, 'Lord, save souls, and teaching the young, and the poor or I die I '" Then the Spirit of God in night schools, organizing Young moved upon the hearts of the heathen Men's Christian Associations with Chris· who were present. and one after an- tianity left out. have popular preaching other confessed Christ. Yet more, for services, and take up a collection, as if the first time in the history of the em- they were really Methodists. This im. pire Japanese knelt in prayer to God itating process has been going on for that He would pour out on them and sometime. their race the Holy Ghost. These 5. The Daido Shimpo enters a strong meetings were carried on for several complaint that" the Buddhists always weeks, and out of them grew the First lag behind in social progress, when they Church of Yokohama, now numbering should be the leaders. A national reo about 800 members.
action is coming. Back of the present From this time the work grew apace.
anti·foreign nationalistic mood a great It was founded on and nourished by pro·foreign feeling is developing. Bud· the Word of God. In accordance with dhists should get their power well in the universal rule of Protestant mis- hand, because national secularization is sionaries, the Scriptures were translated near. " into Japanese. Two translations (in The prophecy of a retum of the pro- some respects 8. regrettable thing) were foreign feeling is not without founda· made-the one a Baptist;the other by a tion. committee. Each had its work. The It only remains to note the organiza- Baptist translation reached a class of tion, in one of the prefectures, of a large people unable to read the mixed charac- association for the purification of the ter of the committee's version, while priesthood. One of the recent acts of this was well suited to the wants of the this association was to decide that 220 great middle and upper classes. Out priests were unworthy of their position of the press poured in ever.increasing volume a stream of Christian literature God, and went north on January 10th, which was carried everywhere by col· 1880. A little church was soon gath· porteurs. The branches of the true ered, and as we lookeu on the blank, Vine shot forth and filled the land, and desolate heathenism of the place our the tender grapes gave a good smell. hearts were led out In prayer to God And the Lord of the vineyard sent forth for a hundred souls. That prayer has more laborers. I had been engaged in been answered well-nigh threefold. Our educational work for a number of Methodist brethren came in, and then years, in the employ of the imperial my dear brother Rev. E. Rothesay Mil· Government, when in 1875 I was led ler ; and though this be literally Rock into direct work for the Lord. The Province (Iwate ken), the power of the claims of that work grew more and more Spirit is making it into a fruitful field.
pressing, and at length, in 1879, I sev· In the spring of that same year I bap- ered my connection with the Govern· tized a man named Seino Tomonoshin ment and gave myself wholly to the at a place called Farukawa. He had preaching of the Word in connection been a hard drinker, a great sinner, but with the American Baptist Missionary on him came the Spirit of God, con- Union. vincing him of sin. He dared not sleep Shortly after there came a call from at night, fearing that he might wake up Morioka, a city 325 miles northeast of . in torment. The message of God's love, Tokyo. At that time the provinces of the of sin laid upon Jesus, of the blood that northeast were in almost utter darkness; cIeanseth from sin, came to him, and he no Protestant missionary was to be received it as a little child. His wife found in all that district, yet a certain saw the change in her husband, and she work had been done by members of the too believed. He wrote to me in Yoko· Greek Church. Among those brought hamil., and asked me to stop in Sendai, to Christ by their means was a young on my next trip, and baptize her. 150 man named KUdo. He was not, how· anxious was he that I should not fail ever, satisfied with this form of Chris· that he even telegraphed to me. Now, tianity. Though the Greek Church Sendai is the largest city of the north.
gives the Bible to its members and I had not thought it possible to open recommends them to study it, still work there, but God opened a wide and prayer for the dead, the invocation of effectual door. When I reached Sendai the saints, and a mass of superstitions Brother Seino at once sought me out; too numerous to mention disfigure the and I shall never forget how the tears faith. He came to Yokohama to study, came from his eyes and the joy that and there met with some of ollr believ· shone in his face. His wife was bap- ers, who taught him the way of God tized, and in the fall another church more perfectly. He learned with joy was organized in Sendai. The work that he needed not the intercession of grew rapidly, and I am afraid that I got the saints nor of the Virgin Mary, but proud. I said to myself, I shall have could come to God through the one the first self·supporting Baptist church; :Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus. Fail· and then there came trouble, division ing health compelled him to return and strife; and how sad that is! It home. He was attacked by consump· seemed as if all was going to pieces: tion and did not live many months, but but then I learned what the Puritans he tol:1 his friends of what he had called" the soul.fattening blessing of learned, and the result was, repeated fasting." We fasted and prayed, and letters to Dr. Brown asking for a teach· the Lord lifted upon us the light of His cr. Till my appointment there had countenance.
been no one to send, for the mission I went one day down to the river practically consisted of two ladies and rather sad at heart, and as I passed by Dr. Brown. I hailed the call as from a Shinto temple I noticed that some "matruri" or festival was going on. five ports were opened to foreign trade The priest was praying, and I caught in China, and nearly that time since ac- what sounded like my name. In J ap- tive Protestant missionary wl)rk was anese my name is Pato. I thought begun in the land. But the widespread that I must be mistaken, but on draw- riots throughout the empire during the ing nearer heard it again. Out rang in last year makes it necessary to consider sonorous tones, " Ama terasu no mi kami whether mission methods do not tequire yo, negawaku wa mi tsurugi wo motte fresh adaptation.
kam Eikokujui Poto to ni mono wo ha- " The genius of the Chinese people is rai tamaije;" which, being interpreted, pre-eminently to listen to their rulers, is, " 0 Goddess that dost illuminate the who are expected to take paternal in- heavens, with thine august sword drive terest in everything that pertains to their out that Englishman Poate. " You smile, welfare. If the rulers oppose Chris- and so did I; for my heart was glad. tianity. suspicions abound on every For whenever Satan rages God is side; if they approve, then all classes work.ing, and I knew of a surety that are stimulated to friendship and inquiry.
Emanuel, the Golden Prince, would " One immense hindrance to mission- come, riding in His chariots of salva- ary work in China is the hostile attitude tion, to the aid of His Church. I re- of the mandarins, the gentry and the turned to Yokohama. and one day a educated classes. For millenniums the telegram came from the church: Chinese have been taught to consider "Go Sei Rei. go kouri ni natta" (" On themselves vastly superior to every na- us hath the Holy Spirit descended"). tion under the sun; and as their educa- And when I visited that church next I tional curriculum to this day is still un- fonnd that it was even so. T hey had changed,there is springing up annually a waited on God in prayer, and lie had fresh crop of scholars in absolute igno- heard them. The spirit of envy and rance of the outside world, and with the hate had been cast out, and in its stead same intense pride and prejudice as of reigned the spirit of peace and love and old. For, centuries, too, the Chinese of a sound mind. Government has systematically opposed all intercourse with foreigners to the ut- most of their power, as they regard it Ohristian Work Among the Higher full of peril. OIasses of Ohins. ., Again, for many years, owing to the Twenty-nine missionaries in China, Taiping rebels having taken up a Chris- representing as many societies, sent out, tian name, the authorities of China in the form of a circular, some time since looked on Christian literature as only an Appeal for the Society for the Diffu- fit for wicked rebels, and therefore bc- sion of Christian Knowledge among the came still more hostile. In the course Chinese as an especial agency for reach· of years this feeling showed itself in all ing the higher classes in that country. the Government dispatches of manda- This society sustains two monthly mag- rins, high and low, where the vilest ru- azines in Chinese, one religious and one mors against Christians, however false general. Missionaries from different and malicious, were duly recorded, sel- parts of the empire contribute to the dom inquiring into their origin, their columns of these, and they are, together truth or their falsehood. Lately these an- with other literature, distributed from ti-foreign and anti-Christian references the civil service examination centres were collected from Government dis- and from other centres, to the number of patches and standard works-into which ten in each province. This committee they had also crept-and republished make the following, among other im- in a cheap form; and new publications,'
portant statements: based on these supposed facts, were ,," It is now exactly fifty years since issued to stir up the whole land against Christianity: thinking thereby to benefit "Meanwhile the natural increase of .the popUlation of China is at the rate their country. Such was the main and of about three millions annually. As scarcely any improved methods arc yet immediate cause of the riots, which last- introduced for the support of these Im- mense numbers, and as the Chinese ed, with some intervals. for more than a have not discovered how to produce means of support faster than the natural year. increase of popUlation, as Christian na- tions have done, they must either perish "During all this time it was useless or become every day more wretchedly poor even than they now are, and this for missionaries to approach the higher dire poverty leads to corruption and crime. In fact, the unemployed abound classes, so they have labored patiently throughout the land, to be swept away in periodic famines, while the vast naton among those that would hear them- ural resources of China remain unde- veloped. We must strive for the estabmostly the poor-and we are glad to lishment of righteousness and salvation in the land. Few of the Chinese know record 40,000 communicants among how this can be accomplished; but God has given us that. knowledge. We these. Had the higher classes been as must help them."
accessible, enlightened, and friendly as From the report just at hand we gather information to the effect that they are in Japan and in other mission they have established depots in Peking, Moukden, Tientsin, Shensi, Nanking, fields, we might reasonably expect pro- and Chefoo. They arranged last year to present to all the great mandarins of portionately a far greater number of the empire a copy of Dr. Faber's ~Teat work on" Civilization," in five Chmese Christians in China than there is, and volumes. They sent 60,000 copies of their pUblications to the ten maritime we should not have had the riots, which provinces. Not all of these were sold. The Chinese are poor, though many are have so greatly imperilled the mission rich. The poor have to pay 36 per cent to pawn-shops, and sometimes 100 per cause and excited fresh opposition where cent, to tide them over temporary dUn- culties. Thousands upon thousands colit had almost died away. lect in mat sheds at every great city H One great lesson of the riots is, that in the winter, in order to attend the free soup.kitchens,and this only means prac· the reformation of one class in a nation tically slow starvation. China thus caunot go on peaceably without simul- presents an amount of suffering which taneous enlightenment of the other class- far surpasses that of any other country. es, otherwise it must inevitably end in Most of this might be easily removed. persecution. riots, or revolution. There- It is the object of this ChristIan Knowlfore something must be done to prevent edge Society to try to help the Chinese further collision and disaster besides ap· to such knowledge as will result in the pealing to force. improved condition of the country. For wantof political insight, China has " True, the most prejudiced are more lost within thirty·five years, in northopposed to us than ever because of our east Manchuria, a country as large as increasing numbers, but many of the France; and in the south she has lost highest authorities are compelled to in- Burmah, and in Annam tributary States quire carefully into the matter, and larger than France. For lack of comthere is au increasing number growing mercial knowledge she has £80,000,000 friendly and anxious to know the whole less foreign trade than India, and even truth about our work. The emperor little Japan has trebled her foreign trade, and the highest authorities are begin- while China has only dOUbled hers. ning to learn that these anti·Christian rumors are false, and that Christians are The Secretary, Rev. Timothy Richgood people whose object is to benefit ards, Shanghai, will gladly furnish in· China and not to stir up rebellion aud formation on t.he prospects and plans strife. The edict and proclamations of this admirable organization. If it which have recently made their appear- shall accomplish a tithe as much as the ance are very satisfactory; though is- similar society has in India. it will be a sued under foreign pressure, they are great blessing. all valnable documents and point ill the right direction.
" The empire being at peace. foreigners are engaged to write books for them on all subjects. Its leading men are studying many questions of reform, and among these religion. It seems hardly possible to overestimate the stupendous importance of the present opportunity, when a fourth of the human race is compelled to meditate a change in its religious policy, with all that that involves! The hand of God is in the matter, showing clearly that past labor has not been in vain.
i894.j
IlI.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Siam and Laos, Malaysia," Unoccupied Fields,t Buddhism.:f: . MISSION WORK AMONG THE LAO!!. not to be intimidated by his bonds. , Most of the obstacles since then have BY REV. DANIElL McGILVARY, D.D. been some petty annoyances to be ex· pected, and such as hav.e acted as a Chieng Mai, Lampoon, Lakawn, Praa, wholesome tonic. Nan, Chieng Hai, and Chieng Saan are the capitals of provinces of the same For long years only two ordained name in the north of the Kingdom of missionaries were in the field. In 1883 Siam, to which they are tributary. Rev. Dr. Peoples and others arrived, They occupy the valleys and plateaus followed ne:l!;t year by Rev. Chalmers of the upper tributaries of the Maa Martin. Since then the growth of the Nam, separated from the lower plain church has been remarkable for its by mountains and rapids. They are steady uniformity. For three years the governed by a line of native rulers who yearly accessions to the communion of receive their appointment and their in· the church was about ninety. For the signia of office from Bangkok. last seven successive years the acces- sions have been 110, 129, 180, 190, 241, Having first obtained consent of the 299, and 303 for 1893. Our present viceroy, permission to establish a mis· adult membership is 1586,. total bap. sion station in Chieng Mai was granted tized 2707. The mother church at by the Siamese Government, and the Chieng Mai has sent out eight colonies, mission was formally opened by the and still has an adult membership of writer and his family April 3d. 1867, 719, and Dr. Dennis in his latest work M.r. Wilson and family following in makes the Presbytery of North Laos 1868. The warm reception that the the banner presbytery in the General missionaries received from all classes, Assembly. Probably a greater promi. the baptism of the first convert, the nence has been given to the evangelistic bright prospects of the mission so soon work than in most missions, and in clouded by the changed attitude of the .this we have largely used the native viceroy and the martyrdom of Noi talent available. From the beginning Sunyah and Nan Chai, the tragic death of the mission the preaching and pas· of the viceroy soon after, the kindness toral work have been magnified. For of his successor, the present viceroy, a long time this was from necessity. counteracted by the hostile acts of his Our small force precluded some depart· brother, the second in command, lead· ments of mission work. What was be· ing to the appeal to Bangkok and the gun from necessity has been continued Royal Proclamation of Religious Toler· from conviction and experience of its ation from the young king in 1878, are success. We have endeavored to reach matters of history and need not be reo the present generation first; and no peated. The death of the brother soon subject has such constraining power after was another of the many Provi· over men who are conscious of their dential interpositions in behalf of the guilt and sin as the Cross of Christ. mission. The only case of persecution The Laos readily admit that there is no since then was the imprisonment for provision for pardon in Buddhism. eight months of a valued assistant un· "I would embrace any religion that der false charges, but really on account offers pardon for sin," said an officer of his religion. From his prison cell from ChiengToong. met on a late tour. he wrote consoling letters to his family From the first, too, it was evident * See pp. 332 and 884 (present. issue). that a large field for medical work was opened. The ordained ministers stood t See p. 877 (present issue). :I: See pp. 326 and 367 (present issue).
FIELD OF MON'l'HI,Y SURVEY
lI,ghast at the demand for foreign medi- Rev: Nan Tah. He is one of the most cine which they had created, but could learned men in Buddhistic literature, not supply. A missionary station is which gives him great influence among not complete without a physician. The hil:l people. In manner and tact he is healing of the body and the remedy for all that could be desired, instant in seathe soul, as in the Saviour's ministry, son and out of season, and is himself a have acted and reacted on each other. bright example of the power of the They are the counterpart and comple- Gospel which he preaches. ment of each other. When there is no physician the miuister has to become a Besides him the annual report for the quack and treat cases for which he is closing year mentions about thirty nanot qualified. When this work is turned tive ruling elders who have devoted over to an accomplished physician he much time to evangelistic work during can devote his energies to his own spe- the year. The report adds, " They go cial work. The consecrated physician before, we follow and reap the harcan easily combine the preaching of the vest." Besides the influence of these, Gospel with. the medical work. The the church is growing by the vitality in reverse is not always possible. Among its native members. Most of the male the IJaos the medical missionary has an members lead in public prayer, and ideal field for influence. The evangel- mauy of the women in their own prayeristic and the medical work combined meetings. Family prayer is generally have laid the broad foundation for all observed, and they do not hesitate to our other work, and given the solid urge the subject of religion on their basis on which it stands. In the pio- people. In all of the sub-stations naneer work in the broad field already tives lead the Sabbath worship. An opened and opening in the east and the officer from Lakawn, sixty-five miles to north, we must look to the consecrated the southeast, became a Christian-a physician to be preacher and healer. church was soon organized, and a call With his medicine and surgical case and made for a mission station, to which his Bible, he is welcome alike to the resi- Dr. and Mrs. Peoples and others since dences of chiefs and governors and to responded. When the station in Lamthe homes of the poor. The extent of poon was opened, one hundred and its inflnence may he seen by a single twenty members were already waiting statement. Dr. McKean, medical mis- to be dismissed to the church then orsionary in Chieng Mai, reports five thou- ganized. The churches in Chieng Saan sand cases treated last year at the sta- aud Chieng IIai and Papow and Chieng tion, and three thousand vaccinations, Dow, all in distant provinces, have thus bringing eight thousand souls un- grown up under native labor, with only der the direct influence of the Gospel. an annual visit from the missionary. In a tour of Iive months last year the They have called in vain for the settlewriter distributed cighty.eight ounces ment of a missionary. of quinine gratuitously, or otherwise, giving us a welcome in some places With the evangelistic and medical where the people would have been in- work as a basis, as soon as we had force different. We would emphasize the to open schools, Christian parents were fact that just now THREE MEDICAL MIS- waiting to put their children in them. SIONARIES are NEEDED for our IMME- The Girls' Boarding School was the DIATE WORK. Shall this appeal be first. It has had a succession of faithmade in vain? ful teachers. Under its present princi- pal, Miss Griffin, assisted by Miss Allie Special mention should be made of McGilvary, it has completed a prORperthe influence of our native Christians ous year. The Boys' Boarding School in advancing the work. First among was commenced later by Mr. Coilins, these is our native ordained minister, who is now assisted by Miss C. H. Mc- GUvary. One hundred and fifteen pupils were enrolled during the year. One of whom, a son-in·law of Nan Intab, of the most encouraging features of the first convert, was ordained. these schools Is that all the girls and nearly all the boys come from Ohris- To all of these schools we look for a tian families-not to learn English, generation of better educated Ohriswhich is not taught, bnt to receive a tians, and, above all, for a strong force Christian education. Most of the pu- of Christian ministers and workers to pils are either communicants or non- evangelize their own and neighboring communing members on entering, and tribes. The first duty of the foreign the communion roll is constantly en- missionary is to lay the foundations, larged from these schools, t~oenty-tl.ree translate t,he Scriptures, and give a having been added during the fall term. Christian litcrature, then to train work- The influence of the pupils reacts on ers and act as bishops in superintending the families and villages from which and directing the work. they come. A prosperous school at Lakawn, under Miss Fleeson and Mr. Our Sahbath-schools have one feature 'l'aylor, was commenced soon after the worthy of universal adoption. They station was established, and now a boys' embrace the old and the young, men school is in operation under Mr. Taylor, and women; in other words, the church who also superintends the Industrial and congregation studying the Scrip- School, leaving Dr. Peoples frec for tures. evangelistic work and the medical work in the absence of Dr. Briggs. Even A font of Laos type prepared by Dr. Utc last station at Lampoon has a good Peoples is a success, and the press in beginning in school work. Chieng l1ai under Mr. Collins is send- ing forth the printed Word of Gi>d. Last "nd not least, before we were The Gospel of Matthew revised, and ready for it, the evangelistic work had Acts translated, by Rev. E. B. McGilfurnished pupils for the Theological vary, have been published, and the Training School. Rev. Nan Tah was Gospel of John is now ready for the prepared for the ministry by the mem- press, while Mr. Wilson has translated bers of the Chieng Mai station in the in- the Psalms. The whole of the Scriptervals of other duties. A strong need tures are accessible to those who read had long been felt for an organized ef- Siamese, as most of Ollr Christians do. fort, and in Mr. Dodd, since joined by Mr. Irwin, the right men were found. Hitherto we have referred to the work Our ruling elders and others, who have in the Siamo-Laos States in the north of proved themselves efficient workers, Siam, which gave it the title of Nortlt have been encouraged to enter the Train- Laos Mission. Rccent explorations in ing School. It ha!! one feature of a the regions north of the Kingdom of model theological school. The teach- Siam have shown tbat the title NORTH ing is practical and biblical as well as Laos Mission is a misnomer. The easttheoretical, the Bible being the princi- ern and northeastern portion of British pal text-book. A portion of each day Burma and a large number of districts is devoted to evangelistic work, and on and towns subject to Yunnan, China, Sabbath the pnpils are sent out two by are inhabited by the Kerns and Lus, two, and the first school hour in the two large and numerous branches of week is devoted to hearing a report of the Laos family, who might be called their work, with criticisms and practical the Burmo and Chino-Laos. This is suggestions from teachers and feIIow- doubtless the original home of the pupils. Ttoenty-five were enrolled last whole Siamese and Laos family. These year, and at the last meeting of pres- tribes have retained more of their origbytery in December jive of the pupils inal characteristics, while the Siamese were licensed to preach the Gospel, one have developed a type of civilization of their own. A tour was taken the first flve months of 1893 by the Rev. Robert Irwin and thc writer, passing through the provinces of British Blll'Dla to the baptism of twenty·two, the first of the Sip Song Panna, a confederation of Lu Moosur race who had embraced the States under the jurisdiction of China. Gospel, was a red·letter dsy in my life. We visited about seventeen districts and Ch Boo Kaw, the first Moosur convert, towns, in all of which the Kern and Lu has since gone to his rest, exhorting his dialects of the Laos are spoken, and the people with his last breath to embrace written character is the same as that the Gospel. Besides the Moosurs, there used in our mission. The extent of the are the Kooies, the Kaws, the Maaos, race to the north, the large area in the Yows, the Ka Hoks, the Ka Lohs, which the Laos language is spoken, and the Lanteens, the Tai Luangs, the Ka the openness of the field were a revela- Moos, and Lemates and other tribes. tion to us. A missionary had never Like the Karens of Burma, but few of been in the region before, and the name these Hill tribes are Buddhists, and we of Christ was unknown. It is stating have reason to believe that many of the fact mildly when we say that we them are waiting for the Gospel. None were well received throughout the of them have written languages, and as whole region. We had a most cordial yet we have had to preach to them welcome from both rulers and people. through an interpreter in the Laos lan- guage, which most of the men under· The length of the tour precluded a stand but imperfectly. Their contiglong stay in each place, but we had uity to China has introduced the opium everywhere eager listeners to the Gos- vice among them, but they are hospitapel mesaage. Chieng Hoong, in north ble and industrious, and those not adlatitude 22°, the chief city of the Sip dicted to the use of opium are, for Song Punna, was the limit of the tour heathen tribes, moral. to the north. This confederation formerly paid tribute to Burma and China, The Presbyterian Mission of Siam and but the present Chow Fa of Chieng Laos together embrace the whole coun- Hoong was placed in authority by Yun- try from the Gulf of Siam to China, nan. The Laos race extended much and the Laos race alone must comprise further north and also east and west of three or four millions of people. How Chieng Hoong. There we crossed the shall that whole region be evangelized? Cambodia River and visited a number We need only the men and the means of towns to the east and south, and re- to occupy the whole field. crossed it at Chieng Lap. In two of the towns which we visited we were At the meeting of the Presbytery of invited to hold worship in the residence North Laos in 1892 a call was made for of the Chow Fa, where we found largv eighteen workers, not including those and attentive audiences. It was sad to needed for Nan and the Laos provinces leave so many places where they were and Hill tribes north of the Siamese disappointed at our short stay, and boundary. The Wood River Church, urged us to come again. Nebraska, has sent usfi'D6 workers, now on their way. Of these Mr. and Mrs. The length of this article, already too Shields will join Dr. and Mrs. Briggs long, allows the mention of only one at Praa, the new station opened by the other important fact. The whole re- famine. The other three, Rev. J. L. gion abounds in numerous Hill tribes Thomas, M.D., and wife, and Miss inhabiting the mountains on both sides Hatch,· and also Miss Wilson, go to of the Cambodia and its tributaries. Lakawn, and Mr. and Mrs. Phraner We have an interesting work already are waiting to establish a station in begun among the Yahoos or Moosurs. Chieng Hai when a physlcian can be Two of the most interesting months of obtained. my thirty.six years of mission life were spent in viaiting on foot the MQOSurs on MO'l'e than eighteen are still needed, of. the hills west of Chlt,ng Hai; and the whom at least three should be physi- cians, to occupy Rahang, a large town on the Southern Laos border and Nan all the men of His time and all other on the east, and the Burmo-Laos and times.
Chino-Laos and the Hill tribes in the Was Buddha His name?
north. For speedy and large returns No. It is the name of a state of for labor and means expended, it is mind.
doubtful whether a more promising Its signification ?
field is anywhere open to the Church. Illuminated ; or He who has perfect, We most earnestly request the prayers wisdom.
of the Church for laborers and success Did Buddha discover the cause of in giving them the Gospel. We would human misery ?
sound the Macedonian cry, " Come over At last He discovered it. As the and help us." Who will hear in it a light of the rising sun scatters the call, "The Lord hath need of thine" ? shades of night and reveals everything " The Lord hath need of THEE" ? to view, so the light of knowledge rose in His mind, and He saw clearly the Siam and Laos. Area 250,000 square causes of human suffering and the miles; population about 6,000,000, con- means of escaping them. sisting of one third Siamese, one third Laosians, and the remainder Chinese Did He have to make great efforts to and Malays. The prevailing religion is attain this knowledge? Buddhism. The Presbyterians (North) •have in the Laos country 10 ordained, 5 Yes; He had to conquer all the de- medical, 6 lady missionaries, and 1 or- fects, the desires, and the appetites dainednative; 8 churches and 1600 com- which deprive us of the sight of the municants ; and in the Siam Mission, 7 truth. ordained, 2 medical, 4 lady missionaries, and 1 native evangelist; 7 churches and What is the light which can disperse 330 communicants. The American Bap- our ignorance and drive away all tist Missionary Union also has a work troubles? in Bangkok chietly for the Chinese. The knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, as Buddha r:aIls them.
What are those truths? (1) That misery always accompanies existence; (2) that all modes of exist- ence result from passion or desire; (3) Unoccupied Pield8 will be the subject that there is no escape from existence of a paper in our June and July issues. except by destruction of desire; (4) the means of obtaining the destruction of desire.
Buddhi8m has been said to be the re- When we are in possession of the Four ligion of one third of the human race. Noble Truths, at what do we arrive?
Probably not over 100,000,000, how- At Nirvana.
ever, are in reality Buddhists. What is Nirvana?
The state of perfect repose, the ab- sence of desire, of illusion, of pain, the The following are some extracts from complete annulment of everything a Buddhist catechism: which constitutes physical man. Before What is a Buddhist? attaining Nirvana, man can be inces-'
He is one who professes to be a fol- santly born again; when he has attained lower of Our Lord Buddha. it he cannot be born again.
Was Buddha a God?
No. Buddhism aims at the destruction of Was He a man? sin as a disea.se and the practical ea;tinc- In form He was a man; but internally tion of the soul; Christianity compasses He was not like other men-that is, in the destruction of the disease and the mental and moral order He surpa~e~ 8alvation of the soul.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
What shall atone for sina of omis8'ion the population; and therefore any stateon the part of editors and compositors! ment of the number is only an CIItimate. In the February issue of this REVIEW, Rev. H. V. Noyes in 1889 published a page 136, second column, third para· paper in the Oltinese Recorder, January graph, the somewhat astounding state- and February numbers, on .. Mohamment is made, that" of the nineteen medans in China." He gives the numprovinces of China proper, only Hunan ber as 20,000,000. Two thirds of these and Kwang·se have permanent mission were stated to be in the Northwest and stations." One little word-" no"-be- Southwest Provinces. The number ing omitted before the words .. mission stated to be in these two provinces is stations" turns the sentence completely greater than the wltole popUlation of the round. It should have read, "Only provinces. After the protracted war Hunan and Kwang-se have no perma- that was there to suppress a Mohammenent mission stations." The next sen- dan rebellion, more than half of the poptence, which gives the needy popula. ulation were found to have perished durtion of these two provinces, shows that ing the twenty years of war. I think the previous sentence must be wrong; 15,000,00() a large estimate for the present but we confess the blunder without Mohammedan population in China. The being able to account for its escaping Chinese are Oonfuciani8t8 as a nation. three proof-readers! Canton, Swatow, When these false religions are vaunted Amoy, Tamsui and Taiwanfol) in For· by anti-Christians, I do not like to see mosa, Foo Chow, Shanghai, Hankow, any undue credit given to them." Ningpo, Cheefoo, Tientsin, Pekin, etc., are well-known permanent mission sta- The MiBBiona7'1J Herald hints that a tions. movement is on foot among Christian Endeavor Societies to hold missionary Dr. Happer, the veteran missionary extension courses, following the lines from China, kindly calls attention to a that IlSve been followed to eKtend the few points in which there is a difference advantages of the universities to the of opinion; also a few typographical public. Study and investigation of the errors in the February REVIEW. As claims of foreign missions, under God's we care for accuracy far more than our blessing, cannot fail to be of vast beneown" consistency," we give Dr. Hap- fit, commensurate to the importance of per's letter: the topic. We have often thought that a plan not unlike that of the" uni- .. On page 136 and second column, versity extension" courses might be second line, the number of missionaries pursued with immense profit. Courses is stated to be 500 instead of 1500. [Dr. of lectures by the prominent authorities Gilbert Reid, in" Peeps into China," on missions might be arranged in varipage 188, gives 490 male missionaries. ous accessible centres. There is no Manifestly an error, as the China Inland reason why such men as Drs. Ellin- Mission alone has 600.-ED.] These I wood, Clark, Baldwin, McCabe, Gorregard as mistakes of the printer. Let don, Mudge, Gracey; Bishops Baldwin me call your attention to two items of and Nicholson; returned missionaries, errors on points that are of special in- such as Drs. Dennis, Happer, Mackay, terest now-viz., as to the number of KnOK, Butler, Boggs, and others tempo- Mohammedans and Buddhists in China. rarily or permanently at home again- You state, on page 136, first column, in a word, every man and woman who the number of the former to be 30,000,- is competent to speak in behalf of mis- 000. This, I think, is too .large an estimate. There is no reliable census of 8ioll&-~hould not be heard, and in cir· dental expenses, the pastors using their cumstances the most favorable. A sin· own discretion in regard to an offering gle address at a distance involves poor Sabbath morning in their own churche9 economy of time; but a series of ad· for their own denominational boards. dresses at contiguous points, and arrang· ed foi at successive times, might bring The Hermit Nation-Thibet. untofd good at a very slight cost of money or energy. Why not have a On Tuesday afternoon, January 7th, bureau of missionary lectures? Not a 1890, during the Week of Prayer, I money·making scheme, but a provision made an address at Mildmay, in Lonfor extending the blessing of informa· don, on "Prayer as a Power in the tion suffused with spiritual power! Opening of Nations to the Gospel." I gave several illustrations, from Turkey. Apropos of this matter, we have be· Siam, Sandwich Islands, etc. I felt fore us a program of the Missionary moved to say to that very devout band Institute in connection with the Illinois of disciples there gathered, that it was Christian Endeavor Union. It may my conviction that there should be help others to give the following items definite, united, believing supplication of information: for the immediate opening of T hibet to the messengers of Christ: whereupon RULES OF THE EXTENSION COURSE. there was a season of prayer for this par· ticular object, and prayer of unusual 1. An application to the Christian power and earnestness. Endeavor State Superintendent of Mis· sions, signed by the presidents of all I have naturally watched with very Christian Endeavor societies in the special interest the subsequent developtown, with the approval of their pas· ments in Thibet. And now not only do tors, and a pledge of the active super- we find that that heroic woman, MIss vision of the course by the Endeavor Annie Taylor, has been penetrating the societies. Thibetan frontier~ from Sikkim, daring poison and assassination, but actually 2. Arrangements for a mass meeting reaching to within three days' journey of the evangelical churches each night of Lassa, the capital, and claiming for selected for the addresses. Sunday God every foot of ground her feet trod evenings are preferred, if possible. on! And now a Thibetan pioneer mis- sion is organized. Miss Taylor appears 3. Missionary sermons to be preached in Britain to secure a dozen men to go by the evangelical pastors each Sunday out to Darjeeling, India, and master the morning prior to the mass meetings. strange speech of the Lama worship· pers, so as to be ready to enter when 4. Arrangements for a Union confer· the two-leaved gates open. ence and prayer service for missionary workers on the afternoons prior to the Just now another link in the chain is mass meetings. supplied. God seems to be using the same means to open Thibet that He 5. Assurance of the active co-opera· used at Philippi's jail to open the door tion. of the missionary societies in the into Europe-the earthquake I We local churches. quote a recent account : 6. Payment of the travelling expenses, "The calamity which has befallen and free entertainment of the speakers. Thibet would seem to afford the oppor- tllnity which Christians have long 7. Ample notice through the local waited for. For years that country press both before and after the meet- haq been most jealously guarded against ings. the intrusion of even transient visit- ors. Only at long intervals, ann after 8. An invitation to all Christian En- great efforts, have travellers succeeded deavor Missionary societies and churches in the district to· send delegates to the meetings.
9. No collection to be made at the mass meetings, except for actual inci· in even passing through the country; Christian truth. FQr despite the pOltie and it has been utterly out of the ques- fancy which invests non·Christian re- ligious systems with an aureole of sanction to establish any missionary enter- tityand beauty, they have been weighed prise in it, though there have been prep- and found wanting in power to meet the deepest wants of mankind. Whatarations made to avail of the least ever their rightful place may have been opening. under Providence in the education of humanity; whatever the virtues they " Now comes the news that a great are calculated to promote among peoples earthquake has destroyed several Bud- in a certain stage of mental'or material dhist monasteries, causing large loss of development; however beautiful the theory, or elevated the ethics, which life, and the Grand Lama himself ap- some of them embody or enjoin-we cannot accept them as a substitute for pears to have perished in the catastro- Christianity or withhold its higher ligh~ from those who sit beneath their phe. This last occurrence can hardly shadow." fail to shake rudely the system of pure There is much curiosity felt to know Buddhism existing in Thibet, and to who the author of this article is.
prepare the way for the preaching of the Gospel.
.. The missiouaries who have long hovered upon the southwestern boun- dary of the country will hardly fail to avail themselves of such a providential opening. For this familiarity with the geography and local peCUliarities of the situation- in Thibet are essenthtl pre- requisites to a successful prosecution of the work, and we expect to hear that it has been entered upon at the earliest moment."
A late number of the London Quar- The monetary crisis imperils all misterly Review pays a remarkably generous sion work. The Presbyterian Board but just tribute to the work of foreign was threatened in March with a debt of missions. The anonymous writer claims $150,000. The Church Missionary Sothat philology, geography and ethnog- ciety was $175,000 behind. Mildmay raphy, comparative religion and cog- and the Y. M. C. A. of London each nate sciences have all been greatly in- $25,000 in debt. debted to those who have gone to bear the Gospel into the depths of continents That was a most notable conversion hitherto untrodden by Europeans, or to the ranks of the Salvation Army in into territories where death threatens the case of Prince Galitzin, of Russia. the intruder. After cordially conced- On a recent tour round the world in ing the material advantages of mission- the interests of the Imperial Geographary work, the writer adds: "It is too ical Society of St. Petersburg, he was late to speak of efforts as futile or fanatic in Washington in October, 1893, and which have literally girdled the globe there he attended a Salvation Army with a chain of missionary stations, and meeting; he was much impressed, and, those who now speak scornfully of mis- returning another evening, became It. sions are simply men behind their age." convert, and has since consecrated him- Then the grand opportunities for world- self and his life to the work of the wide missionary work are emphasized, Army. He prcposes to carryon Salvaand these remarkable words are added: tion Army work in Siberia, and has ., The heathen oracles are dumb, their gone to London to consult with Gentemples are decaying, their philosophies eral Booth with respect to his plans. are undermined, their creeds are honey- He is tall and stately, forty-five years com bed with distrust under the advance old, with refined features and expresof Western civilization, and the one sive eyes. He says, "I have given up supreme question is Whether their place my life to God and the Salvation Army. is to be filled by the adoption of an ag- I am so thankful that I have at last nostic morality or by the acceptance of found a use for myself and my income." Robert Louis Stevenson, writing from On the other hand, the editor has a the South Seas, says that he was preju- letter from a correspondent who in· diced against missions, but that his quires whether the REVIEW is only a prejudices have been annihilated. Pre8byterian organ! And he says that " Those who deblatterate against mis- a Wesleyan friend of his complains sions have only one thing to do, to come that "there is nothing in the REVIEW and see them on the spot." No fair- about the Methodists and their work."
minded man can see for himself the To show how groundless this com- work of the missionaries in foreign plaint is and how ignorantly it is made, lands and not come to the same conclu- we call attention to a letter of our val· sion. uable Methodi8t associate editor, Rev.
J. T. Gracey, D.D., to whom the com- Rev. Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, in a letter plaint was submitted. His reply may to the New York Wo1'ld, nailed to the at least serve to show what a Methodist doorpost the lies of a certain Dr. Ruel thinks of the undenominational charac- B. Karib, concerning the cost and char- ter of the REVIEW. He says: acter of Presbyterian missions in Per- " I have heard no intimation till now sia. He triumphantly exposes these as of any lack in the pan·denominational flagrant falsehoods, and reveals the character of the REVIEW. Methodists whole animus of their author, remind- certainly have no right to complain, ing us of the famous retort: "The nor have I ever had a hint that they allegation8 are fal8e, and the alligator did. I do recall no article ever sent by know8 it." He also says that other in- a Methodist that has not appeared in dependent testimony shows him a fraud. full, while many other contributions A native Persian, licentiate of Pittsburg have not been used on account of length Presbytery, present at the ministerial or for other reasons. Rev. Dr. S. L. gathering where Dr. Karib was "investi- Baldwin and Rev. Dr. Sutherland, gated," testified that for gross immoral- both secretaries of Methodist boards, ity he was driven out of Persia.- And furnished articles last year. Bishop so another assault on missions is traced Thoburn, of India, was a contributor; to an infernal source. so was Dr. C. W. Drees, Superintendent of Methodist Missions in South America. Mr. W. ~ Sherman, of Washington, Dr. O. W. Oushing reviewed Dr. But- Ind., sends to the 'Volunteer fund the ler's book on Mexico, both author and generous sum of $26.10, and accompa- reviewer being Methodists. Rev. O. P. nies it with a letter, in which he says, Hurd and Rev. H. C. Stuntz, both of .. My heart has been greatly gladdened India, are Methodists. My own brother, by the perusal of the January number a Methodist preacher, Consul at Fooof the REVIEW. Your bold and cour_ chow, China, and Mrs. Gracey furnished ageous words against the popular in- articles. The index of authors in the last iquities of these perilous times and in two volumes shows about one eighth behalf of the coming kingdom are es· Methodists. The April number, 1892, pecially exhilarating. I am exceed- International Department, was wholly ingly eager to have this thoroughly by Methodists and about Methodist misevangelical journal in thehands of many sions. Mr. HeU Ohatelain, one of our of the Lord's poor saints. Accordingly most learned contributors, was for a time I send you a draft on New York for connected with Bishop Taylor's West the volunteer fund." Our brother has African work, and Miss L. M. Latimer, our thanks for the donation, but even with Methodist work in Mexico. Rev. more for his helpful words of encour· James Mudge, D.D., served the same agement. This REVIEW aims to be denomination in India for ten years. absolutely faithful to the truth and the Hev. David S. Spencer, of Japan, Rev. kingdom of our Lord. J. E. Robinson, of India, both preRid. ing elders, have contributed to the last two volumes, 8S has Dr. Masters, of San Francisco, and Mr. Meakin, of the famed Budgett Methodist family of Wesleyans in England. Rev. John R. Hykes, Methodist missionary in Central China, now Bible Society's agent at Shanghai, furnished a ten-page article. I have not in this enumeration gone outside of the past two volumes. nor bought a large tract of land of the SuI· exhausted even these, nor referred to tan, near the Jordan, and intends to my own contributions and editorials. found there a large Jewish colony. Life and property in that region have Methodist missions have been kept as been more secure for the last fifteen years owing to the military station eswell to the front as Methodist authors tablished there by the government, elected in their contributions. If these which has also built a bridge over the Jordan to facilitate communication behave not been made strongly denomi·. tween Jerusalem and the valleys beyond the river, Whence the Holy City obtains national, it is doubtless because of t.he most of its cereals.
undenominational character of the mag- A curious relic of British mission azine. But this holds of other authors work exists in Russia, near Patigorsk, as well. Baptists (North, South, Cana- and within sight of the range of the Caucasus – viz., the little colony of dian), Reformed (Dutch), American Karras, an old mission station of the Free Church cf Scotland. At present Board, and other denominations are it is chiefly inhabited by Germans, and freely represented in our pages, not ex- the church services are held in that lanceptionally, but continually. And the guage. There are, however, still left a few children of the mission converts smaller societies have not been neg- who can speak English. Among the lected, nor have "independent" mis- community are persons of Circassian and Tartar blood, whose fathers were sionaries or societies, such as the China the fruit of the old mission. This col- Inland. In whatever else the REVIEW ony is independent of all ecclesiastical superiors, and is ruled in aocordance has succeeded or failed, it certainly has with the ordinances of the Free Church maintained its claim to be ecumenical of Scotland. The mission was origiin its character ; and it has reason to be nally commenced in the reign of Alexgrateful that not only so many denom- ander I., and suppressed in that of his inations have furnished its contributors, successor Nicholas. but also that theso repres~nt so many missionary sooieties in all parts of Amedoa, and several in Europe, while every section of the missionary world has taken part in the authorshIp of its pages. I am not writing a prospectus, but reviewing un fait accompli.
"Meeting, as I do, annually a hundred missionaries a year for a week at the Jnternattonal Missionary Union, f;:om all parts of the world and of all sooieties, and in constant correspondenco with missionaries of all shades of opinion to the ends of the earth, I think I have never heard from anyone of them a tint or suggestion that the REVIEW was not broadly charitable and fair. Whatever critioisms come do not touch the question of denominationalism."
For those who oare for a mathemati- The girls' seminary at Wellington, oal estimate, the following may be in- Capo Colony, has a faculty of twenty teresting : instructors, and numbers on its alumnre more than a thousand descendants of The late Rev. R. Steel, D.D., of Syd- English, Dutch, and French settlers. ney, New South Wales, estimates that, This school was founded some twenty in one hundred years, at a cost of $10,- years ago, is entirely self-supporting, 000,000, some threo hundred and fifty and its pupils have competed successislands have been evangelized, with fully at Cape Town in the university five. hundred thousand now in the and government examinations. Miss churches. This would be at the rate Abby Ferguson is the principal, and it of five thousand convertR a year, and at may be questioned whether a.ny one an expenditure of only $20 for eaoh agency is doing more for Africa's evansoul redeemed. gelization and enlightenment. The graduates of the school are scattered all A report is abroad that Baron Ed- ·over Africa south of the Soudan, as mond de Rothschild, whose presence at wives of missionaries, ministers, or Constantinople has been of material ad- merchants, or themselves teachers of vantage to his colonies in Palestine, has schools. We have always felt the warmest in- ly waited for. This story of faith, prayterest in the great work of the Euphrates er, heroic devotion, suff&ing almost to College at Harpoot, in Turkey in Asia, martyrdom with abounding joy in God, which has exercised so beneficent an in- is just what is needed for this degenerfiuence. ate day. It sounds like the Acts of the Apostles. We propose to make extracts Its field is all of Northeastern Turkey and further references to its contents in Asia to the Persian border and the from time to time. Meanwhile, let southeastern part of Russia; the terri- every man and woman who would. tory in which it is the only higher in- know more of a life hid in God and reetitution of learning, covering 200,000 vealing His power read these pages. square miles, with a population of T.b.ey will be read with tears of joy. 5,000,000, about one fourth of whom are Armenians. Of books which deserve mention, we call especial attention to Murdered Mill· The college seeks to give a compre- iIJ'TUJ, a very condensed and comprehenhensive, practical, Christian education sive plea for medical missions by George to its pupils, and to introduce the Gospel D. Dowkontt, M.D., of New York into the old Armenian Church, which is City. Within sev~nty-six pages here arousing to the importance of an edu- are compressed facts which might be cated and morally upright clergy. spread over volumes. Dr. Cuyler's keen pen furnishes a striking introduc- Rev. J. L. Barton, for eight years a tion. Dr. Dowkontt wastes no time in missionary in Turkey, now succeeds apologies, but enters in. media8 res. He Rev. C. H. Wheeler, D.O., as president. shows that the atrocious and absurd and cruel system of native medical treat- The McAll mission work in America ment in Africa, China, India, Siam, etc., has suffered a very great loss in the is virtual murder, and demands on death of Mrs. Frances Lea Chamber- every humane and Christian principle lain, who for so many years has been our prompt interposition. He shows intimately connected with this work. also the connection of medical work She died on February 16th, in Califor- with missions, and how it is the key to nia, where she had gone with her hus- many a difficult position. E'DfII'1Ibody band in pursuit of health. She was a ought to have this little book, published woman of remarkable character. Her at the office of the Medical Miasionary executive ability, wedded to a feminine Rewrd. 118 East Forty-fifth Street, sympathy and a fervent spirituality, New York. made a rare combination of gifts and graces. Her holy enthusiasm and con- The managing editor acknowledges secration had been the motive power of $5 "from a friend" in Chelsea, Mass.• the machinery of the auxiliary of which which will be devoted as desired, to the she was president; and when she was help of one who is seeking to enter the withdrawn, it seemed as though no one mission field. could take her place. Her husband has furnished a beautiful tribute to her, The Sabbath-school army in the in the shape of an account of her last United States claim 12,000,000 children, hours, and which appears in the McAll and half that number in Great Britain, Rewrd. She died beautifully, as she studying the same Bible lessons. In had lived. India, China, and even in Egypt, are fonnd 2,000,000 more who read the same Part 1. of The Story of the Ohina In- Bible verses weekly. land Missiun, by Miss M. Geraldine Guinness, and an introduction by J. Hudson Taylor, hJ!.S been issued by ~Iorgan & Scott,London ; and Part II. will be eager-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLJGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONAlID.
Extraots and Translations from Foreign and teachings, but a confession of Periodioals. Christ the Saviour. The man confesses concerning himself that he is a sinner, BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, who feels hill need of a Redeemer; con- MASS. cerning Jesus Christ, that He is the only, all·sufficient Saviour, to whom one NETHERLAl!oo1)S INDIA. commits himself and trusts Him, whom one will serve, Him alone, Him en- -We in Christendom have become so tirely, through a life according to His very wise in the laws of nature that we Gospel. Missions do not aim, may not do not seem to have very much more aim, at the propagation of any particuse for the God of nature. Our God is ular church doctrines, but at the imvery apt to be either a helpless essence plantation in the convert's hearts.of an residing in things, with no power of act- active Christianity brought by Jesus ing with personal energy upon them, or and kept alive by Him."-Maededeelinelse a deistic mechanic who has framed Den '/Jan weDe bret NederlandBche Zendelthe world and stares at it from outside, inggenoot8chap (Reports from the Netherletting it go as it may after being once lands Missionary Association). wound up. But outside of our overdone wisdom, the Father is still wont to " The Bible at the Batavia Exhibition. reward the simplicity of faith with the -After a postponement of twelve days, fruits of faith. Herr CHRISTIANSEN, to prove the truth of the peculiar Indoof Sumatra, writes: "The Lord does Dutch proverb, 'Hast u lang eaam' not leave Himself without witness [Make haste slowly], the Exhibition was among our Christians, of which I could opened on August 12th at 11 A.M. by adduce various examples. One Sunday His Excellency, the Governor·General of I had preached upon James 5 : 14–16. Netherlands India, amid the pomp and Without any solicitation of mille the vanities that generally attend such occa· elders, the same evening, proceeded to sions. the home of a Christian child that was sick unto death. in order to bring the "The day was observed as a Bank message heard into practical applica- Holiday in the majority of the business tion. They moved the parents to con- houses, and everyone took the opporfess their sins, and prayed with them tunity to make the day as jovial as posfor the recovery of their child; and be- sible; but neither on this day nor since hold, in half an hour it was well. Nor have I noticed one man the worse for is this the only case among us, though drink, nor in any way behaving himit is the most striking. in which the self unseemly. The native industry prayer of faith has saved the sick after sheds, well filled with interesting modhope had expired."- Berichte der Rhein· els of their many ingenious inventions iachen MiaBionB- GeaelZschaft. -houses, tools, weapons, cooking uten- sils, clothing, etc.-form an attractive -" Missions form churches formed and interesting resort for foreigners; out of hc;iathens and Mohammedans. and the contents of the foreign indus- Whoever abaudons the heathen worship try sheds are inspected with wonder by received from his fathers, or turns away the natives and Chinese. from the false prophet, is received on confession into the Christian fellowship. " An interesting collection of the Holy Where missions are well understood and Scriptures, in more than forty languages intelligently guided this is no confession and dialects, testifies to the extensive of articles of belief or of distinctive ideas and most important work of the Brit-
EXTltACTS AND T:RANSLATIONB
ish and Foreign Bible Society in emanci- endeavors to argue away the truth of pating the souls of the enthralled mill- the divinity of Christ; the Bengalee ions 1ri these regions. It is the most approaches with bows and flattering important exhibit in the foreign indus· unction offered in broken Englis!J., in- try shed for the welfare of India's mill· spects the Bengalee Gospels, and quietly ions, and yet the most despised and sar- laying them aside, passes on with the castically criticised. promise to return another day; the Baba·Chinaman inspects, questions, " Situated in the midst of a sea of in- beats down the price, reads a chapter toxicating drinks, and facing the central or two, and out of 'kasihan' (compas- open space used as a drinking saloon, the sion) for the seller purchases one or two Bible stand is ' a light in a dark place.' copies; the Chinese immigrant (sin- On one side, facing the drink exhibits, keh) smiles and chatters, and if you are two cases filled with open Bibles in happen to mention the name of' Yaso' different languages, and in the centre a (Jesus), tells you that you speak Chinese missionary map of Netherlands India, very well, waves his hands in the air, with the stations or depots of the Brit· and again smiling, moves on clumsily ; ish and Foreign Bible Society marked the Frenchman. with his pseudo polite- with arrows; above this map, in letters ness, defends himself behind the pale six inches long, is the text, < The Word of Rome ; the psalm-loving Dutchman of the Lord endureth forever,' and un- seeks a psalm-book; the member of the derneath the map the text, ' Wine is a new school (Moderns) seeks the Old mocker, strong drink is raging; and Testament only; the unbeliever dis- , whosoever is deceived thereby is not parages the utility of Bible dissemina- wise,' both texts being in the Dutch tion, and obnoxiously cursing and jeer- language. Fronting the drinking saloon ing, orders a 'bittertje' (gin and bit- are two large book-cases, also filled up ters) from one of the waiters in the with open Bibles; and between these is drinking saloon opposite. a board twelve feet by fi ve covered with the Dutch national colors-orange, red, "Many other nationalities visit. the white and blue-and with the name of Bible stand, and it would tire the reader the society printed consecutively upon to relate all that happens from day to these colors in Dutch, English, German, day. About 30,000 tracts and booklets and French. In front of these are three have been given away at the Bible stand; tables cove:red with open Bibles in many and it is sad that no efforts are made languages, from among which ten to by the Dutch Chris~ians to reach the thirty Bibles, New Testaments, and thousands who attend this show. I can- portions are sold to different individuals not find a single person who is willing every day except Sundays. to help me distribute tracts; the gen- eral opinion that dominates the Chris- "It is very interesting to notice the tiana here is that it injures the European different characters that pass by, and pre8tige. This semi-Christianity has a to hear their peculiar remarks. The chilling influence upon the lives of the calm, grave, business-like Armenian unconverted thousands of Batavia, and comes and asks for the New Ararat consequently empty chairs are conspic- Armenian Bible, and handles every uous in the churches, and the Sunday portion of the Holy Scriptures with is the great feast day of the week and is great reverence; the superstitious, fanat- desecrated by 'corso-carnivals,' horse- ical Mohammedan, with his troubled races, horse and other cattle shows at the features, spits upon the ground, and Exhibition. etc. I do not wish to phari- will not touch the Book of the' Kafirs ; , saically judge our Dutch friends, but I the indifferent, joke-loving, superficial wish the readers of these lines to pray native makes the unanswerable defence, for' Java's million8.' "-A. W. HURST when asked to buy, 'Tidak ada duwit ' Bo:a.ur, in the J£alagBia J£688a(J6 (M. E.). (I have no money) ; the sarcastic Arab
&ENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
-What cowards European officials adulterated Christianity; nay, that in in the East Indies, British or Dutch, are the papacy we cannot fail to recognize apt to be when it comes to honoring a sort of anti-Christianity; that the their Christian profession in the face of modern Catholic missionary work espagans or Moslems I They are thus pecially presents itself as an antagonist earning the contempt of their subjects, of the pure Gospel, and that it is a duty who cannot understand how a man can to assume toward it not merely a defenprofess a religion and yet be ashamed sive but an aggressive attitude. The of it. The MaanillJericltt of the Nether- discussion of this question was of such lands Missionary Society, giving ac- a temper as might well have afforded count of Brother Wijngaarden's baptism the Catholics an example. 'l'here was of his first converts at Deli, remarks: nothing apparent like blind hostility or " To' Brother Wijngaarden's regret, the bitter hate, but a zealous endeavor to Controller, who was his guest. left Deli distinguish even in aduZterated Christhe day before the baptism, in order not tianity the Christianity. and in proselyto set an offieial stamp on the proceed- tizing energy the element of missionary ings by his presence. And yet by his zeal. At the same time it was clearly withdrawal he led the Battaks to sup- recognized that a friendship with Rome pose that something was going on which is impossible; that every compliance is he would Hever not see)' (1 use the interpreted as weakness, and every con- Dutch word here identical with our cession is sure to be abused. Accordfamiliar English word.) "Repeatedly ingly this was the conclusion: (1) public officers, higher and lower, have There must be no refusal to Catholic very cheerfully consented to be pres- missionaries. even when making aggresent at Mohammedan ceremonies! How sions upon a Protestant fiold, of the love much more rapid would be the advance due to all lllen; (2) but all intimacy of Christianity in our East Indies if- with them should be avoided; (3) not a while doing all honor to the religious foot of land should voluntarily be reneutrality which the State must of linquished to tbem; (4) but all permitcourse observe-the European officials ted means should be used to check their were at liberty to exhibit their personal advance; (5) and where possible the sympathy and were not ashamed of ground should be preoccupied. On the their Christian profession." whole, it is clear that here so much, not to say everything depends upon the THm CONTINENT. circumstances and the persons, that the truly evangelical missionary will ;not -At the Bremen Missionary Confer- bind himself to certain inflexible rules, ence, among other points, it was also but in each particular case will solicit discussed What attitude is to be as- wisdom and guidance from above_ sumed toward Roman Catholic mission- Would God we might do all this so aries. The excellent Cal~oer MonatBhliit- completely as to give every singleter remarks: .. There, also, there are minded, even if not every zealous two opposing views. The one begins Roman Catholic the impression that with this position: The Catholics, too, fundamentally there is a more genuinely are Christians; their baptism is recog- Christian and apostolic course of connized by us also; we cannot but rejoice duct pursued in the evangelical misover every heathen who becomes a Cath- sions than in his own !" olic; there are among the Catholic missionaries many sincere and self-sacrific- -The &enska Mi8siomfih'bundet (Swcing men. The conclusion is that we dish Missionary Union), the organ of should assume toward them as friendly the Waldenstrilmian free churches, has and respectful an attitude as possible. 43 missionary agents, almost double The other view emphasizes the position that of 1888. The income for 1892 was that the Roman Church presents an $82,000. The three stations on the
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Congo have increased to five, with sev· are carried on. Let the Congo sweep eral out-stations. "The stations are away one life after the other, the ranks equipped with a number of stone build- are ever filled afresh-nay, more workers ings; transportation is arranged for; offer than can be used. Multiplied as the training of the natives, younger and are the exertions and privations involved elder, to work has been taken in hand; in the calling, they do not deter; the schools are provided for both sexes, number of the missionaries keeps growchildren and adults. There are 193 ing. Although the missionaries of the school- children, 78 church – members. China Mission, the Holiness League, About a dozen native helpers are labor- and the Alliance Mission are sent out ing; an evangeliot training school has without any assurance of a fixed supbeen established in Diadia. which also port, receiving only so much as suffices gi ves them more general instruction of for the simplest necessities. yet one misa simple character. God's word is zeal· sionary–Carlson, of the Holiness League ously proclaimed at the principal and -whose heart has been pierced by the out·stations as well as in the neighbor. wretched lot of outcast Chinese, out of ing Villages. Translations are proceed. this saves enough to maintain an asying, and a native paper is issued."- lum, into which he transports them on Pastor BERLIN, in Allgemeim Mi88ions· his back. There is here a wealth of con- Zeitachrift· fidence and joy of faith which may well put many to shame. Obedience to the -The Union has also missions in Lord's will even to death, heedfulness Algiers, the Ural :Mountains, Caucasia. of the Lord's intimations and directions China, and is about establishing one in in great things and small. burning zeal Cashgar. It has abandoned its Persian for the salvation of souls, life in and mission, and has transferred that in from the Word of God, unwearied con- Alaska to American Swedes. The two tinuance in prayer and intercession- Swedish missionaries murdered in China here is the strength of these men and were of this society. women. They direct their eyes even to the ends of the earth; no work is too -The Swedish :Mission in China, great for them; no difficulty holds founded in 1887 by Eric Folke, has ad- them back; no danger intimidates vanced rapidly, favored by the peculiar them. Though a good dem of enthuinterest felt in Sweden for China. Its siastic extravagance may be interminincome in 1888 was $1392 ; in 1892 it gled with all this, there is yet abunwas $5832. It works in close union dance of holy fire glowing here ; and, with the China Inland Mission. therefore, we may well confide that these labors and sacrifices will also bring gain -Herr Berlin, after subjecting the for the kingdom of God. In missions, various Free Church missionary move- too, it is seen that God can overrule t.he ments of Sweden, with their slight errors of men, and turn into bl8ssing measure of organization at home and for the world what has been done for abroad and their comparative neglect of he ho nor of His name." preparation, to a temperate but searching criticism, nevertheless adds: "One English Notes. thing must not be overlooked in these forms of missionary activity. :Much as BY JAMES DOUGLAS, BRIXTON, LONDON. there is in them at variance with the plan of missions as hitherto developed (Jentral London Mission.-It is with among Germanic Christians [a term in- special pleasure we record the advance cluding Germans, Dutch, Scandinavi- of this enterprising mission which has ans, and Anglo-Saxons], yet it must be as its object the occupation of the Cenacknowledged with what personal de- tral Soudan. Three of the missionaries votion and enthusiasm, with what zeal are left at Gabes, where a new training and heroism of self-sacrifice these labors
MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
):lome has been opened, while six others united because equally baptized in the occupy the training home in Tripoli. .. One Spirit." What led to more than Mr. Hermann Harris, the Moses of the one fervent expression of thanksgiving expedition, left Gabes on January 17th was the cheering fact that from ¥ay for Kano, taking with him Mr. Dick. 1st, 1894, the residence of British sub- This journey is immense, and involves jects will be permitted at Yatung, in the passage across the Desert of Sahara Thibet, in accordance with the commer- to the populous negro kingdom of cial treaty newly passed between the Sokoto. Another detachment of this British-Indian Government and that mission contemplates reaching the cen· country, so long closed against the tre of the Soudan by way of the Niger. foreigner. The public meeting on the Mr. Holt has made the proposition, and evening of the same day was of a most two young men have offered to accom- enthusiastic description. Exeter Hall, pany him. The cost of carrying this if not packed, was almost filled. Miss scheme into effect is estimated at £400. Taylor gave a lengthened account of The intention is to start by way of the Lord's dealings with her, and ex- Lagos, and to pass through Ibadan, plained how the land of Thibet had been Oyo, !lorin, and Rabba, and thus to laid as a heavy burden from the Lord reach Sokoto, the largest of the negro on her heart. The meeting, While kingdoms of the Central Soudan. This deeply touched by the narrative of her mission is closely connected with the adventures in Thibet and the degree to Pentecostal League under the leadership which the element of personal danger of Mr. Reader Harris, the headquarters entered into it, were even more affected of which are Speke Hall, Battersea, by the honoring testimony which she London, S. W. I may add that the bore to the Lord's presence with her Pentecostal League is interdenomina- through all. No danger, or suffering, tional in its spirit and aim. or privation could even for the moment damp her joy or break her peace. In Persia.-It is reported that the work- Thibet, amid the absence of every outers among the Moslems in Persia are ward cOllfort, she carried heaven in her being much cheered; that the young own heart. Christians are showing increased zeal for the spread 0 f the Gospel, while the num- Five of the band-two from Scotland, ber of Mohammedan inquirers in regu- two from England, and one from Norlar attendance at the Persian services on way-gave brief, earnest testimonies, Sundays is sufficient to afford the mis- after which the whole band united in sionaries great thankfulness. singing" Anywhere with Jesus." Be- fore the meeting closed Pontso gave an The Thibetan Pioneer MilJJlion.-This address in the Thibetan tongue, which missionary bark may be said to have Miss Taylor interpreted. been formally launched on Friday, February 16th, 1894. In the afternoon North Africa Mi88ion.-This mission a gathering for prayer was held in the has wonderfully developed and sprcad smaller room of Exeter Hall, which was within a brief space, and much precious largely attended. All the members of seed has been sown for which only a the Thibetan band were there, along small return is apparent as yet. " Bewith Miss Annie R. Taylor and her fore the first missionaries landed in Al- Thibetan attendant Pontso. James giers in 1881 there were no Protestant Mathieson, Esq., presided, and Dr. missionaries or Bible agents to the Mo- Maxwell, a missionary veteran, said a hammedans or heathen from Egypt to few words of stimulating address. The the Atlantic, and from the Meditermeeting, however, mainly consisted of ranean to the Senegal, Lower Niger, a continuous stream of intercession, in and Congo, a district more than one .which brethren and sisters equally hundred times larger than England. Now there are nearly eighty missionaries of the North Africa Mission, besides suffice, though he had but a moderate several who have been initiated by it, force at his disposal, to check the horand who are working independently; rible operations of those slave raiders and several more sent out by societies who had desolated the heart of Central stirred up by hearing of North Africa's Africa during past ages. In the second needs and God's blessing on this mis- place, the possession of Uganda meant sion. Altogether, counting the agents the opening out of the Eastern Soudan. and colporteurs of the Bible Society, Bishop Tucker contested the idea that there are over 100 laborers for God, the Soudan could be penetrated from where, in 1881, there was not one among Suakim from the north-the true door the Moslems. ·The Gospel of John has was, in his view, through Uganda, and been translated into Kabyle, and the it was by this passage that the eighty Gospel of :M:atthew into Riffian by the millions of people living there would Bible Society ; other portions are trans- be reached, civilized, and brought unlated into Kabyle and are being print- der the influence of Christianity. ed. " Large tracts of country, however, in North Africa are still unevangelized_ Bulgaria. -While Bulgaria cannot be The vast Salwra, which has a few scat- described as an unoccupied field, its tered millions of Berber and Arab in- spiritual condition, according to Basil habitants, has no missionary. Egypt Keuseff, a native, now in missionary itself has 540 towns, with a population training in England, is deplorable. He of f~om 2000 to 40,000 each, without describes the Greek Church in Bulgaria any regular Gospel agency. "All that as "dead and indifferent ;" the clergy has been done is as nothing to what re- as "ignorant and immoral;" the inmains to be done before the peoples of telligent class as " sceptics and infidels." North Africa are evangelized." Mr. Keuseff recognizes the work done by American brethren in spreading Mr. Edward H. Glenny, the honor- Gospel truth among the people, and the able secretary of the above mission, has service rendered by the British and recently returned from a tour in Moroc- Foreign Bible Society's translation of co. He says, "The impression formed the Scriptures and by that society's colon my mind by visiting the cities and porteurs. But he feels that the great towns of El Koar, Fez, Mequinez, need demands an accession of help, and Larache, and Arzilla, and by travers- would be glad to hear from anyone ing 300 or 400 miles of country in North who would be willing to join him in Morocco, was to deepen my feeling of evangelizing that land. "The language the utter hopelessness in which the fol- of Bulgaria is phonetic and easy to lowers of the false prophet are sunk; a learn. The climate is one of the healthihopelessness which enters into every de- est in Europe." Besides, there is ., ampartment of life-religious, political, ple scope for all kinds of evangelistic and social; and yet when we compare work." Mr. Keuseff's address is Cliff our experiences with a few years ago, College, Curbar, Sheffield, England. how thankful we ought to be that the country is as open to the Gospel as it Priestly defectionfrom Rome in France. now is I" -We are somewhat startled to learn that at the present time there are, in all Bi8hop Tucker on Uganda.-In the parts of France, priests who have lost course of a recent address on Uganda, all confidence in the papacy, and desire delivered in Durham, Bishop Tucker, to step out into Gospel light and liberin regretting the death of Sir Gerald ty. Professor L. J. Bertrand, who is Portal, spoke of some of the resultant now staying at 21 Upper Woburn Place, advantages of Great Britain's possession London, W. C., is the director of a of Uganda. First of all, it meant free- work the object of which is to extend dom for the slave. The presence of a to all French priests wishing to leave British representative in Uganda would Rome a helping hand. Mr. Bertrand will never ask the Emperor of all the says, " There is at the present time a Russias where it may set its foot." great movement among the priests of France; and I have lettcrs from all -The latest and best estimates put parts, and even from Rome. jesuitically down the population of the world as defying me to gi ve names and addresses. 1,479,700,000. Of this horde 826,000,000 All the same, well-known priests, first live in Asia, 357,000,000 in Europe, canons, abbots, proCessors, and semina- 164,000,000 in Africa, and 122,000.000 in rists write to me, ,. Go on with your North and South America. In the face work. You have chosen the best way of these large figures, the population of for a religious reform, which we all the United States does not seem so imwant iu France. Put fire to the very mense after all. nest. As soon as you succeed you will seA that if we love and adore Christ we -Of the 1,480,000,000 of the earth's hate the Gltu1·c!t. But what can we do? inhabitants, the Emperor of China holds We know nothing of the world; we sway over 400,000,000; the Queen of are fit for nothing in the world; and England rules or protects 380,000,000 ; the Concordat says explicitly that a the Czar of Russia is dictator to 115,- Reman priest cannot be a Protestant 000.000; Francc, in the republic, dc· pastor without his B.A. degree and pendencies and sphercs of influence, four years at the Protestant theological has 70,000,000 subjects; the Emperor seminary! • .. Thousands of French of Germany, 55,000,000; the Sultan Roman priests would leave their Church of Turkey, 40,000,000; the Emperor to-morrow if they were not to be obliged of Japan, 40,000,000; and the King of to beg for their daily bread." With Spain, 27,000,000-two' thirds of the respect to Mr. Bertrand's work, known population of the globe under the govas the (]J}uvre des Pr6t1'es Gonvertis, it ernment of 5 rulers. should be noted that it does not exist for the benefit of unfrocked or disgraced -A Kentuckian who visited Korea priests, but for the guidance and help presented to the king a bottle of whiskey of such as, through compulsion of en- as a sample of the chief product of his lightened conviction, wish to leave the native State. Christian people in Ken- Church of Rome. tucky have since sent to the king a beautiful copy of the Bible to show that THE KINGDOM. the State has something better.
-" The universe is not quite com- -A miserly man, who insi~ted that plete without my work well done." he was a proportionate giver, explained later that he gave in proportion to the – The times are hard, but heathenism amount of religion he possessed. is harder. -General Sickels, speaking of the -Baptist tobacco costs more than disposition to denounce rich men as if Baptist missions.-The Kingdom. they were public enemies, says, "No- where in all the world have men of -Once upon a time, when at Con_ wealth done so much for religion, edustantinople, the Russian Minister Bou- cation, philanthropy, and patriotism tineff remarked with majesty, "Imight as in the United States." as well tell you now, Mr. Schauffier, that the Emperor, my master, will never -Upon the fly-leaf of a Bible was allow Protestantism to set its foot in written the following words: "Lay Turkey," he received this fully ade- any burden upon me, only sustain me ; quate reply, "Your excellency, the send me anywhere, only go with me ; kingdom of Christ, who is ~y Master, sever any tie but that one which binds me to Thy service and to Thy heart. "
– William Dulles, Jr., treasurer of the Presbyterian Board, printed this apt sentiment from Dr. Livingstone on manner, and general appearance were a financial statement recently sent out: true gentlemen." •• I will place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in rela- -The native account of the last martion to the kingdom of Christ. If any- tyrdom in Madagascar concludes with thing I have will advance the interests these touching words: "Then they of that kingdom, it shall be gi ven, or prayed, '0 Lord, receive our spirits, kept, as by giving or keeping it I shall for Thy love to us hath caused this to most promote the glory of Him to whom come to us ; and lay not this sin to their lowe all my hopes, both for time and charge.' Thus prayed they as long as eternity. May grace be given me to they had any life, and then they diedadhere to this." softly, gently; and there was at the time a rainbow in the heavens, which -In 1881 Dr. Southon, of Scotland, seemed to touch the place of the burnwas sent to Ujiji, Africa. On his way ing." there he passed through Urambo. The king sent for him, and showing a large -Dr, Hamlin, the veteran miBBionary, tumor on his arm, which, by pressing said recently, .. You take a poor, mil>- upon an important nerve, had caused erable beggar, as I have known some him much pain, asked, " Can you do instances-a beggar who has become anything for this?" The doctor re- converted, and apply to him that iron plied, "Yes, I can take it all away." system of tithing which the OrientsI "But will it not hurt a great deal 1" wol'ld loves and always has loved, perasked the king. "No," replied the haps always will love, and make that doctor, "I shall put you to sleep, and beggar, as the one condition of enjoywhen you awake all will be done." ing the privileges of the Gospel, give " Do it at once, then; I have not slept one tenth of what he begs, and as much for a long while." Afterward the king more as you can make him give, and in said, .. You must not leave us ever. a short time he will not be a beggar; Here is land, here is wood, here is every- in a short time he will support himself, thing, only do not leave us." and be in circumstances comparatively comfortable." -Rev. A. J. Wookey, of the London Missionary Society, in making the jour- -The Egyptian washes before he ney to his field at Lake Ngami, Central prays-he washes his feet, even; and Africa, tells how at one camping place every holy place has a provision of " a poor little old fellow turned up at water for the purpose. He washes his the wagon from the forest, from whence hands and his teeth before and after he he had heard the whips. One of his eats. So particular is he in this matter, ears had been cut off close to his head that when he cannot get waler for his by the Batauana. I gave him a bit of ablutions the sand of the desert is held meat of a koodoo which had been killed to be sanctified for the pmpose. The yesterday. He did not roast it as usual ordinary Egyptian child is not allowed at the fire, and when asked why, he said to pray or eat without first dabbling its that his wife was in the forest, and he hands in water. Yet it is allowed to would eat it with her in the evening. live for months without having its head His little woman, he called her. It and face, or its body generally, once did one good to find such thoughtful well washed with soap and water. love even in a poor waif of humanity such as he. " WOMAN'S WORK.
-" The intelligence and refinement of -Helping Hand gives this as an exthe Fijians surprised me," said a recent ample of the inhumanity of heathenism: traveller. "I saw men who in spirit, "Better raise her or not? What do you think?" The questioner was a Chinese farmer: we had been preach- own suffering and healing they got in· ing in his village, and he followed us struction, intnition, insight, inspira- away from the crowd to make this 1m- tion. It made them ministers. "
portant query. Farmers at home are -At least in some respects Africa sometimes in doubt in regard to animals would appear to be the paradise for a trifle deformed whether or not to raise women missionaries. For" nothing is them; but did you ever know a farmer feared from them, and they are allowed in America to go about asking advice to go in and out at their pleasure. Their on a point like this? "I have a female presence more than once has spared child and she has six toes on a foot; valuable lives to the Congo work. The many of the neighbors tell me I better missionaries in Africa count the work not raise her; her feet can never be of one woman worth that of twelve made to ·look well. What do you men, since they can go anywhere, even say?" The" neighbors" were many among the fiercest tribes. Their moof them Buddhists, who were earning tives are never questioned, and they are merit by vegetarianism, thus not caus· listened to with the greatest respect." ing the death of any animal; but their merciful creed had not included girl -Woman has a large sphere In China babies in the list of animals to be as well, for" It may be truthfully said, spared. I noticed a simIlar contrast a in general terms, that the salvation of few days ago. The body of an infant the women in all Oriental countries de·· floated by the boat, and some of the pends on the women of Christian lands. men thought it a huge joke, poked it This arises from the peculiar ideas of with a bamboo pole, and indulged in propriety and modesty prevalent, which heart-sickening merriment. forbid women holding any social inter- course with men who are not members -Mrs. Ballington Booth makes this of their own immediate families. Our declaration concerning the" slum bri- people, accustomed to free American gade" of the Salvation Army: ., These usages, do not realize how strict these girls do not go down among the poor ideas are. On one occasion Dr. Woods, for a few weeks or simply to study of Tsing Kiangpu, was called in a case them. They go for life. They ostra- of extreme need to see a woman with cize themselves from society. They disease of the feet. The first visit he scrub floors, they mind the children, paid, in order that he might make an they wash the dead, they go where the intelligent diagnosis, he was allowed police dare not go except in squads. to see his patient, feel her pulse, and The power of a great supernatural love, ask questions in the presence of the which God has planted in their hearts, family; but on his second visit what sustains them." was his surprise and amusement to see -" With Him the twelve and certain a foot thrust through a doorway, with women which had been healed of evil a curtain hanging down in front."
spirits and infirmities, . • • which min- -Mrs. Elizabeth W. Andrew and Dr.
istered to Him of their substance." Kate Bushnell have again sailed for "Healed to minister I These women India, Burmsh, China, and Japan, being had known they were sick, and came sent out by the Women's Christian with their record of suffering to Him. Temperance Union "to form local They knew they were sinners, and that unions, to strengthen and develop those no sanitary report on the state of their already existing, to set forth the plans hearts could fully describe the deep and purposes of the work by schools of and long-seated evil. They went to methods wherever opportunity offers, Him and were healed of evil spirits and and to preach the unsearchable riches infirmities. A wide area is covered by of Christ to the untaught and the un- that word • infirmities.' Through their saved." This statement appears in a recent drance, for the Moslems fail to dis- paper by Mrs. Kennedy, of the Presby- tinguish between our Christianity and terian Woman's Board, upon woman's theirs."
mission-" Go Tell": .. More than one -Twenty-five years ago the 'women half of the active laborers in the field of the Methodist Church organized for' are women; the exact figures being 214 world-wide work, raising only $4547 ministers; male lay missionaries, 42; during the first twelve months. Ten total, 256; women, 367. These last years later the income had climbed to are found on every field, dismayed by . $66,844; ten years later still to $225,- no danger, deterred by no hardship, 000, and last year to $277,304. The braving the rigors of northern winters totalfortwenty-five years is $3,139,757. or the baleful heat of torrid summers. So, why should not they celebrate, re- They have gone into homes and been joice, thank God, take courage, and welcomed where the feet of Christians push on with tenfold greater zeal? had never before been allowed to enter.
They are crowding to the front in rapidly increasing numbers. What, OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.
think you, is the significance of the fact that of the 56 new missionaries sent to -It would be difficult to find so much the field last year, 16 were wives of Christian common sense packed into so missionaries, and 21 single women? brief a space as is contained in an ad- Surely the' Go tell' of the risen Saviour dress upon ., Necessary Practical Trainis bearing rich fruit in this our day and ing," given at the Detroit Student Vol- unteers Convention by Rev. H. P. generation. " Beach, of the Springfield, Mass., School -The Ladies' Kaffrarian Society is for Christian Workers. Would that an independent ally of the Scottish Free every young man and woman propos- Church foreign mission enterprise in ing to enter the foreign field might read South Africa. It has made the girls andheed I and young women of Kaffraria its special care, and has now 170 receiving -One department of the Epworth Christian training in its school at Em- League has a beautiful name, that of gwali. The society has also provided . " Mercy and help." What it stands for an assistant for Mrs. Forsyth at Upper is set forth by one chapter which " dur- ing the last year made 258 calls upon Xolobe. the sick, aged, and needy. A sewing -Miss Ella O. Kyle, missionary in society was formed, and garments were Egypt, recently received $500 from a made for a family of motherless chil- wealthy lady friend whom she met in dren, and also clothing for a child wishthis country last year, and will use the ing to attend Sunday-school. Watchers money in the mission school, where it were furnished for the sIck. An old will greatly assist the work.-Xenia lady who had no means of support was Gazette. aided by having her house rent paid, -The English Church Society has in eatables carried' to her, and her chores Palestine alone, and not including mis- done. A. pound social, in connection sionaries' wives, 21 women engaged in with Christian Endeavor, was given, its work. All these" encounter special the proceeds for the benefit of the poor."
difficulties, owing to the watchfulness -Hon. Chauncey M. Depew thus and suspicion of the Turkish officials ; tersely defines the functions of two) and the deeply interesting letters which Christian associations: "The Young reach us from time to time are mani- Men's Christian Association is the re- festly safer in manuscript than in type. cruiting station of the churches. The The condition of the women in the Society of Christian Endeavor-doing Eastern churches is also a terrible hin- the work in the interior 'of the church -is the citadel of the Christian camp and for that of 3 orphans in a Chrilltian inside the lines." school in China.
-Flower committees are good al- ways; but during these hard times jIotl'r UNITED STATES. committees are even better_ -The gifts of Endeavor societies to -Captain R. H. Pratt ranks with the the American Board and the Woman's late General Armstrong among the Board during 1893 amounted to $13,535. foremost friends and benefactors of the American Indian, and his Carlisle -The society of the church at Ocon- school, with its more than 600 Indian to, Wis_, has agreed to give at least $100 boys and girls, gathered from 56 tribes, for missions during the present year_ is no mean rival of Hampton. The in- Miss Reinhardt went out from this society to Mosul, Turkey, a few months dustrial feature holds a prominent place ago_ in the course of training ; the discipline -The Presbyterian Young People's partakes of a military character, and Society of Grand Island, Neb_, has the boys are dressed in cadet uniform. pledged $25 for the support of Miss Besides, good homes are found for them Julia Hatch, who went from this church in the region, chiefly upon the farms, to Siam_ The Juniors have also pledged where both sexes can learn English and $10. be taught to work. Last year 376 boys and 245 girls were out, and requests -The Young Ladies'Mission Band came in for twice the number. of Portland, Me., celebrated its decennial February 14th. Its membership is -Say not the negro is lacking in over 300, making it the largest junior intelligence, whcn, at the recent conferauxiliary in connection with th'l Wom- ence at Tuskegee, this declaration was an's Board. The band raised last year adopted: ., We believe education, prop- $601. a gain of nearly $100 over any erty, and practical religion will eventprevious year. During its brief hIs- ually give us every right and privilege tory 3 members have entered the ser- enjoyed by other citizens, and therefore vice of the Woman's Board, 2 (Mary that our interests can best be served by Morrill and Anna Gould) as missionaries bending all our energies to securing to North China, and Alice Kyle as a them rather than by dwelling on the member of the staff of workers at the past or' by fault-finding and complainrooms in Boston. ing. We desire to make the Tuskegee Negro Conference a gauge of our prog- -At Birmingham, England, a num- ress from year to year in these things ber of factory girls (members of the in the Black. Belt." Girls' Letter Guild) recently gave .a tea to 250 poor children, many of whom -The Germans in New York City were shoeless and stockingless. number 583,000; in Chicago, 406,000; in Philadelphia, 188,000 ; in St. Louis, -The Belfast, Ireland, Young Wom- 167,000; in Milwaukee, 135,000; in en's Christian Association Institute re- Cincinnati, 120,000 ; and in Cleveland, cently held its annual meeting, and a 103,000_ The total number of foreignmissionary statement was made; the born Germans in the United States is present position of affairs being 4 mem- 9,250,000.
bers in the foreign field-in China, India -Does Rome really want the whole and Africa-4 engaged in home mission earth and all that is therein? It looks work, 5 in training, and 1 in treaty_ that way; and this is a specimen of Over £215 was raised last year by the her greed: Forty-five of the 61 alder- members (58 of whom hold self-denial men in the Chicago City Council are boxes) which was sent direct for the Roman Catholics, as are also 90 per cent support of missionaries and candidates, of the police force; 80 per cent of the fire department; 67 per cent of the Ing Society within the last forty-two teachers in the public schools, while 80 years has ~ded in 49 States and Terriper cent of the pupils are Protestants. tories 2445 churches, and the amount expended is $1,892,918. For 429 par- -In Mr. Moody's Bible Institute, sonages the amount is $151,563. Chicago, the students enrolled in 1893 were: Women, 195; men, 381; tran- -St. Bartholomew's Church, New sients, 85. Denominations represented: York City, of which Dr. D. H. Greer is Women, 10; men, 35. Thirty-one rector, started a mission that proved to States of the United States, Canada, be successful, and Mr. Cornelius Van- Turkey, India. Japan, Scotland, Ire- derbilt bought thrce lots for $75,000 at land. England, Germany, Sweden, 205-209 East Forty-second Street, on Switzerland, Denmark, Russia, Persia, which a building was erected by his Norway, Bohemia, West Indies, South mother, Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt, Africa, Hawaii, and New Zealand were at a cost of $225,000. Then Mr. Vanrepresented. 'fhe previous work of the derbilt presented a $10,000 pipe organ, attendants was: Pastorate, 24; evan- and the past year built on a lot directly gelistic, 13; licensed local preachers, east, that has been purchased and will exhorters, etc., 13; singers, 4; Young be added. In the basement are a res- Men's Christian Association secretaries, taurant, eight bath-tubs, andalaundry. 20 ; home and city missions, 11 ; foreign On the first floor a rescue mission hall missionary, 1 ; secular occupations, 111. holds over 1000 people under the direc- tion of Colonel H. H. Hadley. There -The New York Society for the Pre- is a medical clinic in connection with vention of Cruelty to Children cele- the parish house, a savings bank, boys' brated recently its anniversary. In his club, girls' club, carpenter shop in the annual report, President Gerry says: basement, cooking school, kindergarten, " Nineteen years have elapsed since the gymnasium, type-writing school, dressrescue of Mary Ellen from her cruel making school, and 3 Bible schools, stepmother caused the interference of 1 Bible club, and a summer garden on that great friend of humanity, Henry the roof of the building for amusement. Bergh, in behalf of an ill-treated little So here is a literal bee-hive containing girl. At his instance sprang up this about 5000 persons. institution. Not only was its influence felt in the Empire State, but east, south -The lIethodist Episcopal Church and west similar societies were formed, reports 221 male missionaries in the until to-day there is an unbroken chain foreign field, 205 assistant missionaries extending across this continent in every (of these 196 being wives of missiondirection, from ocean to ocean." Dur- aries), and 153 women sent and susing the years of its existence the society tained by the Woman's Board. The has investigated complaints involving distinct missions number 24, and 7 of the care and custody of 233,000 chil- them in Protestant Europe. The churchdren, over 27,000 convictions have been members are 69,887, and the probationers secured, and 40,660 children have been 49,400. Of these thousands India suprescued and relieved. plies 17,135 full members and 33,343 probationers; China, 6021 and 4684 ; -The Southern Baptist Convention South America. 1464 and 1158; and is embarrassed by an overabundance of Mexico, 1721 and 1364. Nearly 35,000 applicants for missionary work, and church-members are in Germany and says: "Our committee on new mis- Scandinavjan countries. sionaries has recommended 10 as suitable and worthy to be sent. The num- EUROPE. ber of those who apply is great. We ha'DIJ ceased to count them. " Great Britain.-The London Tele- graph. gives the amounts which have -The Congregational Church Buildbeen left by will to religious and Chltr. Huahine, Raiatea. and the neighboring itable purposes for six years. In 1888, islands, to the Paris Missions Evange- 1889 and 1890 these amounts aggregated liques. The latter now announce that about $5,000,000. In 1891, $6,000" the L. M. S. has made them a free gift 000; 1892 fell below the other years, of all the mission property on those reporting only $4,000,000 ; but in 1893 islands, charging only a small sum for the amount rose to $7,000,000. some furniture, which was the private property of their missionaries. – The National Bible Society employs 110 colporteurs in Japan in the sale of -Dr. McAll, who died in May last, the Scriptures. was the founder, and for many years pastor of London Road Chapel; and -The Shipwrecked Mariners' Society the members felt that a memorial of maintains 1000 stations, relieves annu- some description ought to be placed in ally about 10,000 sailors, fishermen and the chapel. Accordingly a committee their dependants, and since its organiza- was appointed, subscriptions were intion fifty-five years ago has given aid vited, and the sum of about £40 was to nearly 460,000 persons. During the soon collected. It was decided that the terrible gales of a few months since 143 memorial should take the form of a tabvessels, 911 men, and 993 widows and let. This is now in place, and on the orphans were helped at a cost of about centre panel is cut and gilded the in- £4000. scription: "To the honored memory of Robert Whitaker McAll, D.D., -During the year 1893 the S. P. G. F.L.S., first pastor of this church, board of examiners accepted the offers founder, and for twenty-one years diof 5 clergymen and 23 laymen for mis- rector of the Evangelical Mission in sion service. Of these, 13 were from Frauce, created by the French Govern- St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, ment Chevalier of tp-e Legion of Honor. 6 from Cambridge, 4 from Oxford, and Born 1821, died 1893. Co-worker 1 each from Trinity College, Dublin, and with God." the theological colleges at Dorchester, Salisbury, Warminster, and Lincoln. The Continent.-According to re- In addition to clergy accepted at home, cent statistics, the Roman Catholic 70 clergy, including 16 natives, were Church in Belgium has 229 cloisters placed on the list of the S. P. G. abroad; with 4775 monks, and 1546 nunneries 31 were added in Africa, 10 of whom with more than 25,000 sisters. In 1866. were natives. there were 178 cloisters with 2991 monks, and in 1880, 213 cloisters with 4120 -During the year 1893,63 new mis- monks. The number of nunneries in sionaries reached Shanghai, in connec- 1880 was 134:6 with 21,600 inmates; in tion with the China Inland Mission. 1866 it was 1144 with 15,000 nuns. The There arc others on the way, bringing rapid increase down to 1880 is largely the number up to 86, and at least 100 owing to the fact that the members of young men evangelists are still needed. the orders expelled from Germany went to Belgium, whence many returned to -The London City :Mission employs Germany since 1878. With these 30,000 482 missionaries, who visit systemati- monks and nuns, and a host of priests, cally all the year round among the poor etc., besides, this tiny corner of Europe and outcast. Last year 3,667,680 visits ought to blossom with piety and all man· were paid. The work is undenomina- ner of good works. tional. More than 500,000 men are regularly visited by the agents of this mis- -The Evangelical Society of Berne, sion. Switzerland, has just held its annual meeting. From the reports it appears -Some years ago the London Soci- that a good work is being done by a ety, on account of the vicious med- band of 27 ministers and evangelists, dling of the French Government, was obliged to make over its missions in who go about through the hills and with it is found nowadays the centre of mountains carrying the Gospel to those disturbance and peril as touching British who cannot go to church to hear. tule. For ten years a National Congress Eighty-five Young Men's Christian has met annually to discuss (for speech Associations and 80 Young Women's is free in the great peninsula) and to Christian Associations have been started formulate demands. The ·cost of the by the society, and a large number of standing army is much too great, the young men are being trained as evan· number of Indians in high civil offices gelists. is much too small, and proVincial coun- cils ought to be in which natives shall -The feeble Presbyterian churches have greater prominence, etc. And all in Spain were largely supported by a this desire and determination come as Mrs. Peddie, a Scotchwoman who has the fruit of the education in Western recently died. Speaking of what Prot- ideas bestowed by the British rulers. estantism owes to the discovery of the New World, somebody pertinently sug- -In Madras Presidency about 1000 gests: "Spain has been neglected by separate works came forth from the tourists and missionary societies. It press last year, in more than 20 lanwill not do to forget the debt we owe to guages. For the whole of India the Columbus and the land which sent him number was 7125. Of thesc 1580 were forth. The daughter-land and Church upon religious themes, 989 related to should not decline to share her purer language, 928 to poetry, 336 to science, faith and higher prosperity with the 252 to medicine, 225 to law, 203 to phifoster-mother. losophy, and 172 to history and biog. raphy. It should, however, be added -Hall Caine, in the Pall Man Maga- that a vast majority of these publications zine, says Russia's reasons for expelling consist of but a few pages, and are of the Jews are, first, religious; second, trifling value, if not really worse than national; and thirdly, and almostexc1u- worthless. sively, economic; for: 1. He is a voluntary alien-a Jew, not a Russian- -By the death of John Elphinston, separating himself by dress and custom of the Bombay Civil Service, for years from the people among whom he lives. Collector and magistrate of the Ahmad· 2. His personal character is revolting. nagar district, and of Sir Henry Ram- He is dirty, heartless and impure. 3. say, during forty-four years Commis- His religious character is hypocritical. sioner of Kumaon, in North India. we He uses his religion to hoodwink his are reminded of how much Christianity God and to deceive his sovereign. 4. owes to the lives and deeds of hundreds He is grossly ignorant and fanatical, and thousands of the representatives of and has resisted and misused all efforts the paramount government. Both were to educate him. 5. He is a bad soldier. devoted friends and most liberal sup- He fiees from military service. He joins porters of missions, the latter in partichimself to the Nihilists and other ene- ular being the real founder of work in mies of the government. 6. Above all, Almora, as well as for years by far the he is an immoral trader, a cheat, a base largest giver. usurer, a friend of the drink traffic, and he has one morale for his dealings with -Rev. D. S. Rivington tells how in, his Jewish brethren and another for his a remote village of Bombay he found in. dealings with Christians. a temple of Vishnu the tomb of a man who had died ten years previously, and ASIA. on the tomb, as an object oj worship, a large copy of the Bible in Canarese. A India.-Among both Hindus and Mo- stranger theological medley could not hammedans agitation for" home rule" well be conceived-a Christian tomb and is steadily increasing, and in connection a Bible enshrined in a Hindu temple, guarded by an image of Vishnu, and reopening and anniversary of the Tamil slong with the idol receiving the wor- church."
ship of Hindus I The Hindu has gen- -The Church Missionary Society erally so much religious sentiment that has 4 mission circles in South Indiahe is able to dispense with logic and viz., Madras, Ootacamund, Tinnevelly, consistency of faith as well.-Indian allU Telugu country; and these are Witnes8. looked after by 105 European and na- -An Indian magazine states that at tive clergymen. The number of Chris- Dewali, in the Punjab, gambling is re- tians who have been brought into the garded by the Hindus as a" religious fold is 58,000; and there are besides duty," and has been enjoined upon these over 8000 under instruction pre· them by the priests from time imme- paratory to baptism. The society has morial as a theological dogma, the idea in its schools over 22,000 children. The being that the souls of those who do not financial return shows that the native indulge in " jooa" will enter the bodies congregations gave during the year of donkeys. In the Occident the idea Rs. 38,000 to meet their congregational is mostly reversed; but to avoid calam- expenses, and for different religious and ity in the East "the simple-minded charitable objects.
Hindu, the few educated ones excluded, -Eighteen years ago there were but tries to play the destructive game as 2 Bible-women in the Neyoor District, much as possible, so that by accumulat- South Travancore. Later on a few ing the whole benefit derived from such Christian women would go out on Sun- playing he may be able to get rid of the days in couples to the nearer villages, donkey life in the world to come." fearing the scoffs and ridicule they knew -The Independent observes: "The they would meet with. Now there are banner Conference of the Methodist 25 who go forth Bingly day by day, and Episcopal Church in the number of are not only welcomed in the villages, SUll(tay-schools is not in the East. the but regret is expressed if for any reason West, or the South-not in this country they are kept away. Fourteen addiat all. It is the North India Confer- tional villages have been visited during ence. Those who think the Gospel has the past year, making a total of 61, and made little progress in India need to still the cry is, .. Come and teach us." rub their eyes and wake up to the In one house a mother and two daughfacts." The number of Sunday-schools ters said they had quite given up the in this Conference iii 518 ; of Christian worship of idols. In another, an old scholars, 9408; of non-Christian schol- woman, kissing the hand of the visitor ars, 11,921 ; or a total of 21,329. and looking earnestly into her face, re- peated with great fervor, "Jesns God, -The London Society has a woman my life, save me a poor sinner !"
.. who almost rivals the late Mrs. Doro- -This is the showing of the London thea Baker in the length of her service. Rociety for Travancore, from a com- Mrs. Addis and her husband founded parison of 1892 with 1893: Agency: the Coimbatore Mission in 1830. They Increase of 55 native agents, from 750 labored together till 1861, and then re- to 805. Evangelistic and pastoral de- tired to the hills, where he died in 1871. partment : Increase of 642 baptized, Since then she has sold over £10,000 from 23,654 to 24,296 ; increase of 2510 worth of goods sent from England to in entire Christian community, from aid various missions, and has collected 50,637 to 53,147 ; increase of 264 church- more than £1000 for the Bible Society. members, from 6466 to 6730. Educa- Last year, although she had reached the tional department: Increase of 49 great age of eighty-five years, she trav· schools, from 363 to 412; increase of elled down to Coimbatore to attend the 790 boys, from 12,209 to 12,999 i increase of 368 girls, from 4184 to 4552. memory of her father and of his father. Contributions of native Christians: It is a valuable lesson to the Chinese to Increase of Ra. 597, contributions, from tell them that all those buildings are Rs. 18,832 to Rs. 19,429. Medical mis- erected in memory of parents. They sion: Increase of 7031 cases, from 26,- seem to think that foreigners are de void 194 to 33,225. Press: Increase of 1075 of all tilial feelings because they do not pages printed, from 3,307,236 to 3,308,- worship at the graves. 311.
China.-Dr. Ashmore believes that AFRICA . .. the evangelization of the Chinese is more important than that of any other -A Baptist toiler on the Congo race; for as far as all human standards writes thus of trials endured: .. The are concerned they are so far beyond missionaries' houses at this place are any other heathen nation that there is poor, but better ones are in process of no comparison to be made… erection. My own little abode was 20 X 14, with mud walls and a thatched roof -The following proclamation was of grass. Even tlJis was not excluissued aWhile ago in the province of sively my own, for besides my two girls, Honan, China: .. Should anyone be- who lived with me, there were lizards. come bewitched by the foreign doc- centipedes, and other small creatures. trine8, and not be willing to sacrifice One Sunday morning, as I was dresseither to Confucius or to the spirits of ing, a snake fell from the roof down his ancestors, he must be severely dealt beside me, but no -harm was done." with by his clan. His name must be But she heeds not such trifles, for erased from the family regis.ter, and his " this is the scene where the Gospel of whole family driven from the province… our Lord Jesus Christ has triumphed, and in hundreds of huts, which are not -Rev. Arnold Foster recently found worthy of the name of homes, women, the following prayer po~ted on a house strong men, and children are rejoicing in Wuchang: "A young man named in Christ. The 24 schools and 5 churches Cheng Yu, living inside the Gate of Mil- are centres of light to the heathen, 10, itary Conquest, reverently implores the 15, 20, and 30 miles around in different God of Thunder to display his awful directions. Native evangelists and teachmajesty and to forgive the writer's sins ers are constantly winning souls, and of ignorance and to enlighten him as to often we have marvelled at their zeal, what they are ; he will then gladly obey courage, and fearlessness in the midst his parents and elders, and will be very of God's enemies, who persecute them careful of all kinds of grain. He now and plot against their lives." puts out this promise to reform. Will benevolent and right-minded people, -Out of 40 men and women sent to as they pass by, read this confession as Africa by the International Missionary a means to restoring the writer to health ? Alliance during the last flve years, 11 He offers his grateful thanks to all who have died. The tirst year of residence do so. .. It seems that this young man is most fatal. had some affection of the eyes which he believed was caused by some sin on his -Bishop Taylor has 43 white missionpart. He confesses he does not know aries at his .. self-supporting" stations what is the god of thunder whom he in Angola and the Congo Free State, toblindly adores. gether with quite a force of native evan- gelists and teachers. Twelve died at -When Mr. Whiteweight, of the their posts last year. English Baptist Mission, was home last year, he received about $16,000 from a -Lovedale Institution has an attend- Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, for school ance of '782 pupils of all grades. These building, chapel, etc. It was given in represent almost a score of tribes, and not a few come from regions hundreds .. large population roundabout makes it of miles away. This seat of learning a very favorable centre for missionary has a KafIir church, with 800 members, work.
whose pastor, Rev. Pambani J. Mzim- ba, " is a splendid specimen of what the THE ISLaNDS OF THE SEA. grace of God can achieve in the Afri- can race. " The congregation is almost -The Hon. C. R. Bishop has deeded entirely self-supporting, and out of its to the Kamehameha school in Honolulu poverty has undertaken to build a $10,- all his property on the island of Molokai. 000 house of worship, has raised $3000 The property includes 90,000 acres of from the field, and seeks the rest in land, stocked with cattle, horses and Scotland from friends of the Free sheep.. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop had pre- Church. viously given munificently to this insti- -The Rev. J. D. Hepburn, of the tution.
London Society, who died on the last -Not all of the heroes and heroines day of last year of malarial fever, was are of European stock. Mrs. L. Kaaiathe apostle of Khama's people, the wahia, the wife of Rev. S. Kauwealoha, Bamangwato. From 1870 till 1890 he both of them native Hawaiians, went labored uninterruptedly at Shoshong, with her husband in 1843 to the Marand when Khama moved his capital to quesas Islands as missionary under the Palapye, he went also, but retired, bro- Hawaiian Board to those cannibal ken down in health, in 1892. Not only islands, where she remained for forty was the conversion of the tribe largely years without ever returning to her nadue, under God, to him, but the new tive land. Part of the time she lived mission to Lake Ngami.owed its origin almost alone, separated from other misto his enterprise. sionary families. Her hands and her -The waters of Lake Nyassa are heart were occupied with labors for the ploughed by no less than 7 steamers, natives, by whom she was greatly honsome engaged in traffic, but mainly en- ored and loved.
gaged in the service of the King, carry- -In Fiji there is a circuit which has ing glad tidings to the benighted. 16 ministers, 310 local preachers, and -From OentraZ Africa we learn that upward of 7000 members, with 27,000 Baron Von Soden, the new Governor· adherents. Of the ministers, all but General of German East Africa, has one are natives, and the single European decreed •• that all missionary societies is quasi bishop of the populous diocese.
settled within the territories under Ger- New Hebrides.-Rev. J. W. Macken- man protection, without distinction of zie writes from Efate : •• Sabbath before nationality, shall enjoy exemption from last was a grand day here. 'l'he sacra- import duty and from the excise of con- ment of the Lord's Supper was dis- sumption for an amount not exceeding pensed, and 18 church-members sat £120 per annum. " down for the first time. The whole -The Universities Mission has opened number of communicants present was a new station in the Yao country, in 150.
P~rtuguese territory, at II place called -The West Indies include many Unangu, some 50 miles east of Lake islands under British, Dutch,and French Nyassa, and about 200 north of Blan- rule, and the republic of Hayti. The tyre. It is quite a large town, set on a total area is about 100,000 square miles, hill, with thousands of houses, many and the population 5,500,000, while 16 of them large and well built. The sta- societies are at- work with over 120 or- tion is expected, from its situation, to dained missionaries and 500 native help- prove exceptionally healthy, while the ers. The communicants number 75,000.
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1892
THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING cmNA FOR CHRIST
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XV. No. 2.-0ld Serics.–FEBRUARY.–VoL. V. No.2.-New Serie&.
THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING CHINA FOB. CHRIST.
BY REV. JOHN R. HYKES, KIUKIANG, CHINA.
1. China is to-day the great mission field of the world• .Whether we consider the extent and resources of her territory, the number of her population, her antiquity, or the character and possibilities of her people, she is unquestionably the greatest and most important field for misl!ionary operations on the planet.
1. Size.-In the Chinese Empire we have one of the largest domains ever swayed by a single power in any age or any part of the world. Ac- cording to the most careful estimate it comprises a continuous area of more than five and a quarter million square miles. It is one half larger than the United States with Alaska thrown in. It forms one third of the entire Continent of Asia-one tenth of the habitable globe. In extent it is equal to a Europe and a half. Next to Russia it is the largest empire that has ever existed.
2. Resources.-In this vast territory the greatest mineral and metallic wealth of the world is stored, and it is practically untouched.' Gold and silver are abundant; the diamond, ruby, sapphire, topaz, garnet, agate, and other precious stones are known and used ; tin, zinc, lead, nickel, and all the common metals exist in vast stores. Coal and copper are found in every province, and it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that there is enough coal in China to supply the world for the next twenty centuries. In the Central Provinces men dig a shaft a hundred feet deep, carry the coal up the incline in baskets strapped to their backs-fifty and sixty pounds at a time-and call the proces!! mining ! Water is baled out by buckets handed from one. level to another, or it is pumped to the surface by a series of rude bamboo pumps, and when these primitive methods fail . to keep the mine from becoming flooded, it is abandoned and a new shaft sunk. Yet so abundant is the supply that immense quantities of coal are mined in this rude and laborious way.
The agricultural wealth of China is proverbial. In many parts of Far Cathay it is only necessary to " tickle the soil with a hoe and it willlaug-h ~ 11l~rve(j~." The great plaill~ 1l/l <jqltivated like gardl:qs (indeed1 th; Chinese are rather gardeners than farmers), hills are terraced to their summits, and in the Central and Southern Provinces the soil will produce three crops a year. In many parts of the Empire one acre of land is sufficient to support a family, and the happy possessor of five acres is in affluent circumstances. Judged by her resources, China is pre-eminently a great country.
3. Population.-The population of China is, beyond all question, enormous, " constituting by far the greatest assemblage of human beings, using one speech, ever congregated under one monarch." According to the lowest estimate the population of China is one fourth of the human race, six times as many people as there are in the entire United States- 350,000,000 souls, men with moral accountability, intellectual activity, and immortal destiny. It is a number inconceivable in its vastness, so great that it staggers the imagination. Think of it Christian men and women!
4. Antiquity.-China is unique in her antiquity. Her authentic history dates back more than 4000 years-303 years subsequent to the deluge, 47 years before the death of Noah. If you were to undertake to write the history of China you would have to take the tenth chapter of Genesis for thc first chapter of your history of the wonderful sons of Ham. It is a nation hoary with antiquity and marvellous in its preservation. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, all the great nations of antiquity, arose, flourished, entered the charnel-house of departed empires and there mouldered into almost utter forgetfulness, and China alone remains of them all; and from present indications she is destined to go on down through the centuries. Why this marvellous preservation?
II. The greatest problem before the Church of Christ to-day is the conversion of China. . It is an extremely difficult task. No one who has lived and worked among the Chinese would minimize it; and yet there are some people who would have us believe that the evangelization of the Chinese is an unnecessary and presumptuous task. They say: " The Chinese are good enough ;" "They are vastly superior in civilization and morality to many other heathen nations;" "Let them alone. Keep your meddlesome and fanatical missionaries at home and give them work among the slums of New York;" "They are perhaps better off in their beliefs than we are in ours. ' , Let us see.
1. Moral conditiQn.-What is the moral condition of the Chinese people q It is most accurately described by St. Paul in that wonderful first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. That terrible description of human depravity is no libel upon human nature. The black picture is not overdrawn. It is true to the life. Heathen character is no better to-day than it was in the time of St. Paul. It is worse, for there is no such things as stand-still in vice. In the mission with which I am connected, it was necessary a few years ago to tear down one of the mission houses, and it was erected on a different site at an additional expense, because the occupants could look down upon the Chinese courtyards below, and seo enacted before their very eyes some of the vilest crimes enumerated in tho first chapter of Romans. Dr. S. Wells Williams says: "They are vile and polluted in a shocking degree; their conversation is full of filthy expressions, and their lives of impure acts. By pictures, songs, and aphrodisiacs they excite their sensuality, and, as the apostle says, e receive in themselves that recompense of their error which is meet.'
Female infanticide, in some parts openly confessed, and divested of all disgrace and penalties everywhere; the dreadful prevalence of all the vices charged by the Apostle Paul upon the a:ncient heathen world; the alarming extent of the use of opium ; the universal practice of lying and dishonest dealings; the unblushing lewdness of old and young; harsh cruelty toward prisoners by officers, and tyranny over slaves by masters-all form a full, unchecked torrent of human depravity, and prove the existence of a kind and degree of moral degradation, of which an excessive statement can scarcely be made, or an adequate conception hardly be formed."
And yet. there are people who say the Chinese do not need Christianity!
2. What have existing religions done for them ?-There are in China throe sects or systems of belief which have moulded the religious faith of the Empire. They are Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
(1) CONFUCIANIsM.-Confucianism, or the Church of the Learned, is the State religion of China. It takes its name from the great eage, but it dates away back to the early dawn of Chinese history. Confucius was, as he himself says, merely a reviver of the usages of the ancient kings, a transmitter of the doctrines of the ancient sages. He was a 1·eviver and transmitter-an editor rather than an author. Confucianism cannot prop- erly be termed a religion (indeed, there is no generic word fol' religion in . the Chinese language), ·but it is rather a system of ethics and political economy. An eminent authority says: "The State religion can no more be called the religion of the Chinese than the teachings of Socrates could be termed the faith of the Greeks." It is silent on the great questions of human origin and human destiny, and it teaches nothing of the relation of man to a higher Power. "I know not life, how can I know death! " was the unsatisfactory answer the sage gave to the disciple who ventured to ask about death; and when asked in his last illness to whom he would 8acrifice, he said he had already worshipped.
Ancestral worship is the keystone of the Confucian arch. This is a most ancient cult, dating back at least to the time of Shun (B.C. 2250), and the sages are responsible for perpetuating it. One writer say!!!, they " have bound upon the millions of China a most degrading slavery-the slavery of the living to the dead." The worship of ancestors is the stronghold of Confucianism. This is the real religion of the Chinese j and the hardest thing for a convert to Christianity to give up is his ancestral tablet. These little boards, containing the legend of the two ancestors, of which there are perhaps seventy millions in the Empire, are" more potent for evil than all the idols in the land."
Confucianism contains many beautiful sentiments, as: "O,'erflow with love to all;" "Do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto you j" "I love life and I love righteousnet!s, but I love righteousness more than life j" it is a splendid system of ethics, but it contains no hope, for ordinary mortals either in life or in death. It has been a conserving intellectual force, it has inculcated and enforced filial piety, it has kept alive a belief in the futllte life, it has exerted an immense influence for good, yet after forty centuries of trial it has failed to elevate thtl nation morally and spiritually.
(2) BUDDHISM.-Buddhism was introduced from India about the year A.D. 67. According to the Chinese historians the Emperor Ming Ti, in consequence of a dream in which he beheld " an image of gigantic proportions, resplendent as gold, " sent an embassy to the West which returned with teachers of the Indian faith. The remarkable saying of Confucius, "The people of the West have sages (or a sage)," doubtless influenced the emperor's vision j and it would be interesting to know just how far it wat! excited by tidings of the advent and death of Jesus Christ.
No religion could have been propagated in any country under more favorable circumstances than the new faith in China. Introduced under imperial patronage, supplying a felt want upon the part of the people in its tenets respecting a future state and the nature of the gods, it gradually worked its way into popular favor. Emperors became the patrons of the new faith, and more than one occupant of the Dragon Throne entered the monastic order. One emperor gave nearly 4000 ounces of gold to have the sacred hooks transcribed in characters of that precious metal; another contributed 300 tons of copper to be cast into images, and only 200 years ago the renowned Kang-hsi gave the yellow porcelain tiles which cover the temples on the sacred island of Pootoo. And yet after more than 1800 years of trial, under circumstances most favorable, Buddhism has failed to elevate the Chinese to a higher life aud nobler purpose.
(3) TAOIsM.-Taoism, or the sect of the Rationalists, is a native faith dating back to the sixth century before the Christian era. It is not a religion. The philosopher Laotsz had no intention of founding a religion. It is a school of philosophy, an abstruse system of metaphysics, but it has few, if any, of the essential elements of a religious faith. The ancient Taoists were alchemists. They" sought to transmute the baser metals into gold," and professed to have diRcoyered the philosopher's stone. They discourse wisely upon the" Pill of Immortality"-a " golden elixir" which confers immortality and insures a place among the genii. The priests of to-day pander to and traffic in the superstitions of the people. They live upon the credulity of their fellow-men. A large part of their businQsll it:l tQ lU!'tlufa«tul'e and. lIell «barms to w(lrq ott all 50rts of m!1!die5 and evil influences. Some years ago there was in Southern China w:hat is known as the "Queue-Cutting Mania." Men in the fields, boys on the streets had their queues cut off, but how or by whom none could tell. Cattle pasturing in the fields lost their tails, fowls had their tail and wing- feathers mysteriously clipped. There was intense excitement throughout the Empire. In the city of Kiukiang, where I was living, two men were beheaded on a charge of cutting off queues by magic !
The priests of Tao rose to the occasion and devised a charm, which, braided in the queue, would protect that ornamental appendage from the "magic scissors" which were flying through the air. It was a great harvest for them. The head of the Taoist religion-the Pope of Tao- the" Heavenly Teacher" Chang, whom I once saw in his palace at the Dragon and Tiger Mountain, is the great wizard of China, and his charms are eagerly sought by the people. Taoism is a failure as a religion. There i~ nothing in it to comfort or elevate mankind, and the Chinese are no better for its twenty centuries' influence upon them. What China needs above everything else is the religion of Jesus Christ. It is her only hope.
There are persons who would have us believe that the conversion of China is an impossible task-that missions are a failure and should be abandoned. They argue very wisely that Christianity is not adapted to the Chinese mind, that there is something peculiar in the Mongolian ca~t of mind (the result, possibly, of his environment for the past forty centuries) which makes it utterly impossible for the religion of Jesus Christ to reach him. "The Chinaman," they affirm, " cannot be converted." If this is true the Church should know it j common honesty would demand that the missionaries admit it. If we are engaged in a hopeless warfare in the Chinese Empire the' sooner the Church recalls its forces from the field the better.
Let us look at the sources of information. These are, first, "Globetrotters;" second, naval men on the Asiatic Station.
We see two classes of travellers in the East. One, and, unhappily, much the larger class, go around the world to " see the sights" and have a good time generally. They do not stop long enough in any country to form an intelligent opinion of the people or their customs. They get their information from boon companions on the steamers and at the ports, who do not Rpeak the language of the people, have little sympathy with anything that is good, and who consequently are always ready to decry missionary work. They see nothing of missionary work for themselves. They get their information at second-hand from persons who evolve it from their own inner consciousness, and then they set themselves up a8 authorities in everything pertaining to the Chinese and pose as critics of missions! I mt't a specimen of this class when I was returning to China eleven years ago. In the same car in which we were crossing the continent we had as tra~'elling companion an elderly and intelligent man, Judge – – , several young ladies, evidently in his charge, and a youth who entertained the company with marvellous accounts of a recent trip to China. He told them all that he had seen in the far East, and, for their entertainment, a great many more things which he had not seen. After a while the judge asked him about Christian missions. Bc went glibly over the stock criticisms of missionaries, and pronounced them first-class frauds and their work an utter and hopeless failure. The judge said very emphatically: "I have been an ardent admirer of foreign missions. I have always given liberally to their support, but I have given the last cent I shall ever contribute to this cause." The next morning the judge, the youth, and myself met in the smoking-room. I told him how happy I was to meet a man who had been in China, and asked him in what part of China he had been. " Hong- Kong," he replied. "How long?" "Six weeks." "Did you visit Canton ~" " No." "Did you call at Shanghai?" " No." "Are you acquainted with any of the missionaries in Hong-Kong?" " No." " Did you see anything of the work of the Basel Mission in that place ?" " No." "Heard nothing of their schools and orphanages?" " No." " Ever been to a chapel~" "No." "Ever seen the outside of a missionary's house~" "No." "Well, you are a fine fellow to set yourself up as a critic of missions. You have never been to China at all, only to the Briti!lh colony of Hong-Kong, have never seen a missionary, a missionary's home or chapel, and yet you pose as an authority on Chinese mISSIons. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." And to his credit, I think he was j for the young ladies could not get him to say a single word about China from that time until we reached San Francisco. These are the men who know all about missions.
The other class of travellers is interested in everything that is good. They take nothing at second-hand which they can possibly get direct. They visit the missionaries in their homes, attend services in their ch3pels, and visit their schools and hospitals. A part of their business is to study this great problem of missions. It is a suggestive fact that these persons who know about missions from personal observation and. study are their most enthusiastic supporters. I met a man at Northfield last summer, who some years ago visited most of the mission fields of the world. He spent several days at Kiukiang, where I was then laboring. He was all on fire with enthusiasm for missions. He told me that since their return from abroad he had made missionary addresses in 1100 churches and his wife in 1500. Whose testimony is to be received?
It is a very unpleasant and delicate task to refer to the other critics of missions-viz., the naval men. I would be sorry indeed to think that they are all Lieutenant Woods or Captain Marthons. No man is more highly respected by the missionary body in China than Commander Barker of thll United States steamship Marion. He studied missions in every port he visited and wrote to the home papers commending the work. It is, however, an exception for an officer from a man-of-war to visit a mission chapel. Not long since the~e was a letter published from Captain Marthon, of the United States steamship Palos, in which he says that he has yet to see the first Chinese Christian. This letter was written from the city where I labored for eighteen years, and immediately after the Palos returned to Kiukiang with the victims of the Wusueh massacre. The writer must have known that the three children of the Wesleyan Mission at that place were rescued from the burning mission house, in the face of an infuriated mob, by native Christians, at the risk of their lives; that one of them when pressing through the mob with the four-months'-old infant of my friend Mr. Boden, and finding that he could not possibly save its life, tossed it over the heads of the rioters to a native Christian woman, who two hours later restored it to its mother. No Christians in China! There were Christian heroes all around, but he was too blind or too prejudiced to see. The Chinese can be converted, and a man must be incapable of finding anything if he cannot find Christians in China.
It is a common, flippant remark that more die in China every year than are converted in a century. This is not true; although it is not always easy to answer the sneers of the godless, who too often" salt their wit in the brine of our tearA." The work goes on; and it will go on, until" the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ. "
III. The conversion of China is unquestionably the most important work of the Church in this age.
This iA not so much on account of the greatness of the country and the vastness of the population as on account of the future of the Mongoliall. race. The" Chinese Question" is destined to become one of the difficult problems for this or the next generation to solve. He has emigrated to all contiguous countri~s, Japau, Siam, the Straits; he has crossed over to Canada, Mexico, the West Indies; he has settled in the Sandwich Islands, Australia, and the United States, and from present indications he is destined to overrun the world.
He is creating a general feeling of uneasiness wherever he has gone j and that not so much on account of his bad qualities as his good. Many of the objections urged again~t the Chinaman in this Christian, libertyloving country and the last decade of this marvellous nineteenth century, are trifling and childish in the extreme. The truth of the matter is, the Mongolian has by his patient industry, temperate habits, and careful economy become a successful competitor of the intemperate, extravagant, and too often vicious laborers from other lands.
John Chinaman has become the agony of colonial and American statesmen. The Australians are more anxious to get rid of him than of their pestifer~us rabhits. The United States feel that the safety and perpetuity of this Great Republip. and its magnificent institutions depend upon the exclusion of the Mongolian ! We can assimilate anything else-the Italians, Hungarians, Catholic Irish-but somehow we can't quite digest the Chinaman; and so we pass iniquitous Exclusion acts which wili put our children and grandchildren to the blush. They are a disgrace to the 'honor of our country, blots upon our national escutcheon, relics of barbarism only fit to be classed in the same category with burning witches in New England. The quicker they are repealed the better.
John is irrepressible; he is like Banquo's ghost, he won't down. Why 1 1. God has some great destiny for the Chinese race. 'I'hey have not been preserved so marvellously as a nation 4000 years for nothing. God does not work in that way. There is no waste of force or material in God's economy j and so the preservation of the Chinese down through the ages has been a conservation of a mighty force to be used by God in the consummation of His plans for the race. Neither is it for nothing that beneath the broad domain of China the mineral wealth of the world is stored.
2. The Chinese are capable of great things. They are slow, solid, aggressive, a people that will abide. They are patient, economical, filial, aDd they are pre-eminently a determined people. Some years ago China was devastated by a terrible rebellion. The southern half of the Empire was wrested from the Imperial sway and in the hands of the Taipings. The Mohammedans in the Northwest took advantage of this state of affairs and rebelled. "Aided by the reckless and seditious of all clans they drove out the governmental minions" and China lost Turkestan. At the same time Russia seized Kuldja. In a moment of weakness the Czar promised China that he would restore Kuldja as soon as China should reassert her authority in those regions and reconquer Turkestan. The attempt to restore prestige in a territory where every hand was turned against her seemed indeed hopeless. Her resources were exhausted, treasury aepleted, foreigners were within her gates, the distance to be traversed was immense, and no one dreamed she conld succeed. The Emperor sent for Tso Tsung Tang, one of his ablest generals, and asked him if he could reconquer Turkestan. Tso replied that he could. " But," said the Emperor, "have you considered that your operations will be so far removed from your base that the mules will eat up all the provision!! before they reach your army ~ Have you thought of that~" "I have," answered the redoubtable warrior, " and I have my remedy. We will push forward as far as we can as soldiers, and when our supplies are becoming exhausted we will squat as farmers and till the ground as many years as are necessary to raise supplies. We will repeat the operation as many times as are necessary, and Turkestan will be restored to your Majesty's sway." And they did it! I have intense admiration for such dogged, persistent determination -a determination to succeed in a well-nigh impossible undertaking if it took five years or fifty years for its accomplishment. Dr. S. Wells Williams says: "The history of the advance of this' agricultural army' would, if thoroughly known, constitute one of the most remarkable military achievements in the annals of any modern country." 3. They are a "brainy" race. There is no question that the Chinese are the most intellectual of all the Asiatics. They are the bankers and the wholesale merchants of the East. Some twelve years ago when General Grant returned from his tour of the world, he said that in his travels he had met three great men, three men who towered head and shoulders above all others, "with whom there were none to compare." One of the pre- eminently great men was Gladstone, England's great statesman; another was Germany's great warrior, Bismarck; and the third of these incompar- ably great men was Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of Chili and Prime Minister of China. A Ohinaman! There is to-day no man better versed in state- craft, there is no more shr~wd diplomat than Li Hung Chang.
4. The Chinese are a nation of students. In what other country in the world will you find 25,000 students competing in one examination-hall for literary honors ~ Last month iu the city of Nanking there were between 29,000 and 30,000 students attendiug the triennial examinations. Men will attend the examinations year after year until they are bowed and decrepit with age in the hope of obtaining the coveted prize. It is not an unusual thing for men of seventy-five and eighty years to be found at the;r place in the hall. So anxious are they to obtain an education, that a man who is too poor to buy oil will steal his neighbor's light through a knot- hole in order that he may study.
Is there no destiny for such a people ~ 5. China is arousing herself. Some people have an idea that China is dead. She is not dead, or if she is, I;he is a very lively corpse. She is not asleep, she is shaking off the lethargy of the centuries and arousing herself as a mighty giant for a coming struggle. She has a magnificent fleet of merchant steamers, large dockyards, arsenals, and a complete net- . work of telegraphs over the entire Empire. She has, it is true, but a few hundred miles of railroads, but railroads are coming and they will be built with native material and Chinese labor. 6. China is destined to become one of the great factors in the .future development of the world. I do not agree with Lord W olseley that she . is to become the great military power of the future, conquering Russia and India, and crossing swords with England and the United States. This seems to me extravagant; but if Genghis Khan in the beginning of the thirteenth century swept with his Mongol horde from the mouth of the Amoor to the sources of the Danube, what might not an awakened, civil- ized China do with a possible forty millions of soldiers ~ For the above reasons I repeat: The evangelization of China is the most important work of the Church of Christ in this age. Christianizing China is the only solution of the" Chinese Question." Exclusion Acts will not do it. This great problem is thrusting itself upon us. What are we going to do about it ~ We cannot ignore it-we dare not if we could. We cannot keep them out. We close the front door, but the back door is wide open, and it would take a much larger army than we have to efficiently guard it. Besides, the" Son of Heaven's" claim to universlll empire is a factor which has not been sufficiently con- sidered. The time will come when the Chinese will try to make it good.
Self-preservation demands the evangelization of the Chinese. China is destined to become either a conservator or a menace to Christendom. Which it shall be depends largely upon the missionary effort of this century. When the time comes, as it inevitably will, when an outlet must be found for the swarming millions of this land, and when they may try to make good their claim to universal empire, it will be well for us if she is a Christian land.
IV. Reasons for hopefulness. I see strong reasons for belieVing in the speedy evangelization of the land of Sinim. 1. The opening of the country. Only a little more than 300 years ago Francis Xavier, the noted Catholic missionary, stood bp.fore the walls of the Middle Kingdom vainly seeking admittance. It seemed to the devoted Jesuit that it was surrounded by a wall of exclusion as high as heaven and as hard as adamant, and he called out in the agony of his soul, " 0 rock, rock 1 when wilt thou open to my Master I" Humanly speaking, there was little prospect of ever penetrating this wall of exclusion, yet three centuries has seen it broken down, removed, entirely swept away. The mi!l8ionary to-day has access to the entire eighteen provinces of the Empire. 2. There is better feeling upon the part of the people. I make this statement with a full knowledge of the recent disturbances in China. Were there not better feeling there would have been fifty Tientsin massacres since last May. The!e troubles in China have been greatly misunderstood in this country. They are not "Anti-Missionary" riots, but an insurrectionary movement upon the part of :it treasonable secret society. The Emperor's edict is an inspiration to all who believe in the providential ordering of events. It is a distinct recognition of Christianity, and assures protection to missionaries and native converts. 3. Increased wiIlingness to hear the Gospel. There has been a notable change in this respect in recent years. There is no trouble to get large, . attentive audiences to listen to the preaching of the Gospel. 4. Success.-Twenty-five years ago there were less than 500 converts in the whole Empire. Thirteen years ago there were 13,000 communicants; now there are 40,000. In 1878, 13,000 native Christians contributed $9000 to the support of the Gospel. Last year the 40,000 converts gave $40,000 ; and the beginning of modern missions dates from the opening of the country in 1860. Besides, it must be remembered that success in missions cannot be computed by arithmetic. You cannot count heads and say this represents the results of missionary enterprise. There is an unknown quantity to be taken into consideration. You cannot measure in a table of statistics the breaking down of prejudice, the removing of
A MEMORABLE MORAVIAN ANNtV'ERSARY
opposition, the dissemination of Christian truth. In 18'15 another missionary and myself were mobbed in a certain district, barely escaping with our lives. There was no more turbulent district in all China. In 1889 I travelled through the same country with my wife and children, and did not hear a single disrespectful word in a ten-days' journey. Can such a change be measured by statistics ~ 5. A remarkable door has been opened to the dominant class. A few years ago the Emperor introduced Western science into the competitive examinations. The result is an increasing demand for this knowledge which can only be got in mission schools. It has been sneeringly said, "Mi8sionaries only get the scum." They generally get just about what they fish for; and if in future they only get the scum in China it will be their own fault.
6. Increasing momentum of truth. Truth, eternal, irresistible, unconquerable truth, is moving forward with increasing momentum in these laLter days of the nineteenth century. The Lord may seem slow in the accomplishment of His purposes, but He is not slow as some men count slackness. He will make short work in these last days.
I see no reason why China may not be CODverted in the next fifty years, if the Church awakens to a full sense of her duty and responsibility. We are on the verge of a mighty outpouring of God's Spirit upon the Land of Sinim. Why does it not come ~ Because we have not prayed for China as we ought. The great need of China is not more men, or llJore money, but united, earnest, agonizing praytlr for a copious outpouring of God's Spirit. Oh that Christian men and women would agonize in prayer for the salvation of this the greatest of all heathen nations!
A MEMORABLE MORAVIAN ANNIVERSARY.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
The Unitas Fratrum, the Moravian Brotherhood, may well provoke to emulation all other bodies of Christian disciples, for their consecrated zeal in the work of missions.
The whole Church is a missionary body. No board, society, or committee shoulders the responsibility and monopolizes the privilege of procuring laborers and providing for them. The entire Brotherhood is engaged in the work, and there is no thought of doing it by proxy. The Mastership of Christ is a practical article of their creed, and the last command and commission of the Master is not forgotten by the disciple. Rev. Archibald J. Brown, of London, tells how his daughter was led to give her life to Inland China. She said: "I have long known Jesus as my Redeemer and Friend, but when I fell down before Him and acknowledged Him as my Jfaster, Ho said to me, 'Am I then your, Master ~ Then go thou to China.''' Thll Moravians regard as impertinent &nd irrelevant such questions as these: Do foreign missions pay 1 Are they expedient 1 Will they be successful ~ for the Master has left His marching orders, and that settles all controversy. .
Obedience to this Master is the principle of the whole body of the United Brethren, prompt and implicit compliance with His will as expressed in the voice of His Word and the vote of His Church. Count Zinzendorf said to a Moravian believer, "Will you go to Greenland~" "Yes." " When 1" "To-morrow I" What readiness to obey, what immediate obedience to the heavenly vision! And think of a whole Church trained from infancy to this sense of individual duty and promptnpss of obedience!
The "regions beyond" represent the preferred sphere of Moravian mISSIOns. Not where Christ has been named, not building on another man's foundation; but they would help fulfil that prophecy, .. To whom He was not spoken of, they shall see: And they that have not heard shall understand."
Mary Lyon used to say to her pupil-daughters, " If you would heroically serve Christ and humanity, seek not easy fields of labor, but go where no one else will go I" And just that the United Brethren do. No field so far off, so difficult, so inaccessible, so walled in with adamant, so shut in with gates of steel; no people so repulsive and so hostile or oruel, that to that field and people their missionaries will not go. It may be the stupid, stolid Esquimaux, the slaves of the West Indies, the blear-eyed cretins of the Alps, the disgusting lepers of Africa, the cannibals of the South Seas -but anywhere and everywhere they rejoice to go and plant the cross. And the fact of greater distance, degradation, destitution, depravity, constitutes with them only a mightier appeal and argument for going where the neglect iR apt to be the greater because of such repellent features. They have learned that it is not charity, but selfishness, that" begins at home," and stays there; and, like Redslob and Marx who, during the past year, passed from Leh, the mountain outpost of Little Thibet, up to their glorious reward, the most self-sacrificing post of duty is the sentinelbox for this vanguard of the Church's army!
This noble Unitas Fratrum cultivate heroism. We have often feared that in these days the heroic spirit is fast being eliminated from modern mISSIonS. One argument often urged upon young people for devoting themselves to the foreign field is, that they will find little self-denial in such a course, since in most countries the highest civilization has found its way, and thej will find the comforts and conveniences and even luxuries of their homes still available. To our mind this is the worst sort of appeal -it is addressed to se1fishness, and leaves out the very heroi!.lm of sacrifice. A people that, in their very Litany, insert the petition, " From the unhappy desire of becoming great, good Lord deliver us I" is not very likely to court worldly comforts, honors, dignities and indulgences. And where the law and even love of self-abnegation for Christ are at the bottom of all missionary endeavor, we may well feel no surprise to find that b,y far the largest proportion of laborers in proportion to their numbers, and by far the largest average of gifts in proportion to their means, this little Moravian Church offers to the Lord's work. It is from Benjamin that the leader comes who stands above all the rest from his shoulders upward.
The Moravian Church is not only least among the tribes, but poorest. Yet out of their poverty have abounded the riches of their liberality. They put to shame the richer bodies of disciples and tempt us to t>elieve that riches bring the Laodicean spirit with them. and are a curse instead of a blessing, judged by their fruits in church life. Certainly the United Brethren are a standing testimony that small numbers and little money cannot prevent consuming zeal for missions and burning passion for souls, when in all the work the chosen formula and motto is "IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN."
This paper was begun, however, with a purpose of glVlng som'.l brief account of the Third Jubilee of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospe'! among the Heathen, which anniversary was lleld in the Moravian chapel, Fetter Lane, London, on Thursday, November 19th, 1891, at 6.30 P.M.
At this One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary it was the privilege of the editor-in-chief of this REVIEW to be present and deliver an address. The place was interesting, an oid-fashioned oblong building, hidden behind other structures, and approached through a long hallway-a building perhaps forty by sixty feet, with heavy, stately galleries, and plain board pews, and a high semicircular pulpit of evident antiquity, where Wesley and Baxter and Bradford have more than once preached the old Gospel.
The programme was interesting, announcing that "The Brethren's Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel was founded in 1741, with a view to entertain and assist Moravian missionaries passing through London to their various mission fields. It was reorganized in 1768 in order to establish the mission in Labrador. By God's goodness in protecting the ships used in this service, and in blessing the trade carried on with the natives to help iu supporting this mission, it has almost entirely been maintained by S. F. G. to the present day. The Society also endeavors to spread missionary information by publishing the quarterly' Periodical Accounts,' and in other ways contributes to the extension of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." Hymns composed by James Montgomery, himself a member of the S. F. G., for the centenary in 1841, and by Harvey, Spangenberg Doddridge, James Hutton, firEt President of the S. F. G., as well as by Ellis and others for the present occasion, were embraced in the programme and sung. After an appropriate Scripture reading from Romans 1 and 10 by Pastor Hasse, who presided, and ~he openiD~ pra~er was ofiered, Rev. B. Latrobe, Secretary, presented warm salutations by letter from the Unity Elders' Conference at Berthels- dorf, an apostolic greeting signed by James Connor; then from Bethlehem, Pa., U. S. A., the headquarters 0: the American province, salutation!! on the sesquicentennial; from Labrador'R largest congregation, at Okak, and the Missionary Conference at Hebron, Hopedale, etc., and from Bishops A. C. Ha!.'se and Joseph Latrobe and Brother J. England, etc.
Pastor Hasse, who gracefully presided, made the usual "chairman's address." He dwelt on the modern aspect of the Society's work, as confined chiefly to Labrador. This field is its special feature, but though primarily restricted to this land of eternal snows, equally sympathizes with all missions. Mr. Hasse touched briefly but effectively on the moral and economic features of the Labrador field, vindicating missions to a people who were a century and a half ago without light or help, and are still a classic and standing example and representative of the charter right of the Gospel: "The poor shall hAve the Gospel preached to them." A situa- tion radically worse, and a type of humanity more degraded, could not elsewhere be found when missions were begun in Lahrador and Greenland. And these facts emphasized the duty of bearing to these remote shores the tidings of salvation.
As to the economic side, Mr. Hasse explained the office of the S. F. G. as a training society. The Esquimaux must primarily be fed, clothed, and sheltered if they are to live. It is desirable not to make them paupers, however; and hence they must be taught to give an equivalent in the produce of the country. The summer trade is a revel; the winter is a time of starvation ; and as the starving time covers eight or nine months, extinction would result unless trade were carried on, and it is important that such trade be in hands that will conduct it on Christian principles and so elevate and improve as well as preserve the Esquimaux race. Mr. Hasse canvassed the common objections to such mission work and appealed to the future for its vindication, remarking that the' full recognition of its value might come, perhaps, only after another hundred years had swept away. By that time, it is believed, a new people, a mixed race, may have grown up, a Christian people, stronger, more intelligent, more capable, an . Esquimo-Enropean race, to take their full place among the family of nations.
Mr. Hasse explained the nature of the Society, as first a training society, and secondly as furthering on their journey brethren who pass throngh London en route to mis!lion fields. It is a committee deputed by the whole Church, a delegation; "in our estimate," said he, " the whole body is a missionary society, and the S. F. G. is made up of officers whose position specially qualifies them as leaders; but the army is the Church itself. "
Bishop Taylor followed with some historical statements, calling attention to the pictures hung on the walls and pillars-pictures. of Bishop Stevens, the Waldensian, the first converts in Greenland, George Schmidt teaching the HottentDts, Schmidt and Nitschmann in prisDn, etc. He also. traced the SDciety's name tD3 JDhn 6: 7, 8 (Greek), and explained its dDuble purpDse, first to. suppDrt the GDspel in LabradDr, and secDndly to. further the GDspel by helping Dn their jDurney after a gDdly sort, brethren who. fDr Christ's namesake went fDrth, taking nDthing frDm the Gentile un- believers.
Then Mr. LatrDbe rehearsed the sto.ry Df the Harmony and its recent visit to. the coast statiDns Df the nDrth. Ten vessels have been emplDyed in cDnveying LabradDr missiDnaries, and the present ship is the fDurth bearing this sacred name. She has retul'ned frDm her thirty-first vDyage, but this is the Dne hundred and twenty-secDnd made to. these shDres by the MDravian vessels. He mentiDned the singular PrDvidence that has watched Dver these vessels, and said: "As the SDciety meets fDr its annual thanksgiving service, cDmbined this year with its third Jubilee, precisely the same language as was used at the Centenary will review an added fifty years o.f these special mercies: 'During this IDng periDd no. fatal accident has been permitted to. befall this favDred bark, Dr thDse whDm she was cDnveying acrDSS the bDisterDus and Dften ice-bDund deep, and alDng a CDast bristling with rDcks and abDunding with peculiar perils; nDr has the cDmmunicatiDn between the missio.naries and their brethren in EurDpe been in a single instance interrupted.' Partial failures have been experienced. In 1816, the Jemima landed the needed sto.res at Okak and Nain, but was cDmpelled to. leave HDpedale unvisited. The mDst seriDus failure was in 1853, when DUt o.f four statiDns the third Harmony was o.nly able to. reach HDpedale, the mDst sDuthern. In bDth instances persistent gales drDve the ship DUt to. sea. The extraDrdinary perils Df ice and war and Df the numerDUS rDcks alDng that still unsurveyed CDast have never been suffered to. cut o.ff the communicatio.n with the missio.n statiDns.
" The develDpment Df the missio.n and o.f the trade, which partly sup- Po.rts it, made it necessary in 1870 fDr the So.ciety to. purchase a secDnd vessel. The Oordelia was run do.wn by a steamer Dff the NDre in 1881. No. lives were lo.st in this, the mDst seriDus disaster in the one hundred and twenty years during which S. F. G. has been a shipowning firm."
Mr. Latrobe repDrted the deaths of valued native helpers, like the faithful Abraham Df Nain, and Hulda eightY-Dne years DId, and the aged Martha; at HDpedale, BDaz and his sister Bertha, wife Df JDshua, nDW tDD crippled to. be Df use. The epidemic influenza at HDpedale has taken nDt a few valued church-members away. The evangelistic tDurs by sledge were referred to., cDntinued for three weeks, with no. sleeping places at times but snDw.hnts ; the grammar Df the Esquimaux language, a wDrk Df twenty years by Dr. BDurquin, and which has been received with great thanks, was cordially mentiDned; and the Esquimaux tDngue was cDmpared to. a pDlar bear gnashing its teeth within the bars Df its cage, against the man who. wDuld seek to. bring and confine it within the rules of grammatical o.rder and regularity. Various remarks followed as to the trials of the native Christians, the long winter, the failure of autumn fisheries and sealing, and consequent lack of stores, the absence of reindeer Ilear the stations, and the good help of God at all the mission centres waR gratefully recorded.
About forty missionaries ar~ on the list, and the people may be regarded as almost altogether Christian. I n fifteen years they have contributed to outside and mission purposes out of their poverty, about £210 sterling, or upward of $1000.
Rev. W. Fuller Gooch gave a brief address, in which he referred to the eminently biblical lines on which the whole mission work of the Moravians is carried forward, as shown even in the fondness for scriptural names- Nain, Hebron, Ramah, etc.; and remarked that the mastership of Jesus was recognized even by the captain of the Harmony, who regarded himself as under orders from the Higher Captain.
After a few remarks by Rev. A. Kleinschmidt, who represented the Holland Society, the" Zeist," W. V. Drury, M.D., spoke for the London Association in aid of Moravian Missions, which for seventy years has contributed in all a quarter of a mmion of pounds sterling. It shows the confidence felt in the work of the United Brethren, that this Association, composed of all denominations, has for so long given such assistance to this small and comparatively poor body of disciples in carrying on their self-denying work. This Lovefeast, at Fetter Lane, fittingly came to a close in the Doxology, which as a unique specimen of the simple Moravian liturgy we append to this paper. Such a doxology is itself a constant reminder of the privileges and obligations of Christ's redeemed people to spread the good tidings of the Gospel; and is a noble conclusion to the brief and beautiful form of public prayer which is full of petitions for a lost world and for the Church in its missionary capacity.
DOXOLOGY.
[Italics represent the response of the congregation.] Unto the Lamb that was slain, (Rev. 5: 12.) And hath redeemed us out of all nations of the earth j (Rev. 5; 9.) Unto the Lord who purchased our souls f6r Himself ; (Acts 20 : 28.) Unto that Friend who loved us-and washed us from our sins in His own blood; (Rev. 1 : 5.) Who died f6r us once, (Rom. 6: 10, 11, 12; 2 Cor. 5: 15.) That we might die unto sin j (1 Peter 2 : 24.) Who r6se for us, That we also might rise j (1 Cor. 15.) Who ascended for us into heaven, To prepare a place for us j (John 14: 2, 3.) CHOIR. And to whom are subjected the angels, and powers, and dominions (1 Peter ;3 ; 22.) To Him be ~lory at all times,
HOW THE GOSPEL SPREADS IN CillNA
In the chu1'clt that waiteth for Him-and in that which is around Him, CHOIR. From everlasting to everlasting :- Amen. MINISTER. Little children, abide in Him; that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. (1 John 2: 28.) In none but Him alone I trust for ever, In Him, my Saviour.
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee ; The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee j The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace: IN THE NAME OF JESUS: AMEN. LONDON, November 20th, 1891.
HOW THE GOSPEL SPREADS IN CHINA.
BY REV. JOHN ROSS, MOUKDEN, NORTH CHINA.
Six years ago a young Bannerman of Chinese ancestry joined our then small church in Moukden. His father was a native doctor, who from a sense of sinfulness was deeply interested in the more earnest Buddhist sects. He had been a listener during th,e angry discussions raging against Christian doctrines when they were first introduced here. As a result he cut himself off from every form of idolatry. He had never spoken to either the foreign missionary or the native evangelist, but on his death- bed he recommended his two sons, and especially this younger one, to carefully examine Christianity for themselves, and not allow themselves to be carried away with the all but universal execration to which Christianity was then held up_ Young Jang was also a man with a sensitive conscience, and he, too, was anxious to rid his soul of sin. This, combined with his father's dying advice, led him to the chapel, where he became an inquirer as eager as he was intelligent. Being a fair scholar he soon became acquainted with the leading truths of Christianity and was baptized.
His new faith not only removed the former trouble of his soul, but filled him with a joy which nothing worldly could bestow. The fire so burned within that he gave up the situation he held, and went to the city immediately north of Moukden to impart his newly-fonnd treasure to his elder brother, a doctor in this city of Tieling.
The first news we had of the journey was when, on his return, with a face shining with joy, he informed us that his brother was a believer, and that he, his whole family, and a few intimate friends who had heard and become believers, were all applicants for baptism. My young colleague, Mr. Webater, had by this time come to Moukden, and it was deemed advisable that he should go north to investigate the facts of the story. R·, 800n returned and joyfully confirmed the statement of young Jang. On account of our strict rule for probation of intending members, no one was then haptized; but on a subsequent visit Mr. Webster baptized nine individuals, and took steps to open a station there. Two senior members, one, a convert of the late Mr. Burns, from Peking, and the other a Moukden man, were sent to initiate work in this apparently hopeful station.
Mr. Webster having accompanied me on the journey to the Corean valleys, already referred to in the REVIEW, suggested on our return jOlll'Iley, that instead of going back directly to Moukden, we should make a detour and see how it fared with the young station in Tieling. When we arrived at an inn on the outskirts of the city we were informed that the chapel had been attacked by a mob and wrecked. Desiring to know what amount of truth there was in the statement, we rode in to the chapel, but found no one there. We discovered that one of the two men in charge had fled, and the other was living in a neighboring house ae the chapel was uninhabitable. This man had already stood painfully severe persecutions. We found that the chapel door had been broken open, the windows smashed to pieces, and every perishable article of furniture completely destroyed. The streets were placarded with prominent "postE'fS" containing the wildest accusations and vituperations against the foreigners who had dared to intrude into the city. It transpired that the principal authors of this excitement and the chief leaders in the riot, were men from the magistrnte's office, which was bound, when necessary, to take steps to keep the peace. Therefore we inferred that the rcal cause of the outbreak was our old acquaintance, which for years had been our chief foe in Moukden-viz., the belief that we were there as political agents to crpaie a party which would be traitorous to China and friendly to foreign powers.
To do something to remove this evil prejudice we had the boards block. ing up the broken wiudow taken down, and we stood on the ledge exposed to the street. In a few seconds the street, which ordinarily is a busy one, was so crowded that there was no passage for man or beast. A dense mass of well-dressed men, mostly young, stood fronting us as closely packed as they could stand, filling the breadth of the wide street and stretching away to right and left. From the window-ledge, which was about three feet high, we could see and be seen by all the crowd. There we preached to the people for about an hour, always keeping in view, but never even inferentially' referring to the cause of the general excitemel)t. We preached the doctrine of Jesus, the Saviour from all sin and for all men. without distinction of nationality or condition. As both caution and explanation were essential to our position, and especially to our cause, we had to enter into minute details regarding the vital doctrines of Christianity, on account of which WP, had come to their "honorable" country. We were impressed with the death-like lltillness of the crowd. As far as indications of life were concerned they might as well have been cut out of stone. Every eye was unfalteringly bent on the two foreigners; not a head, not even a lip, as far as we could see, moved in that crowd while we remained face to face.
At length we descended from our pedestal, and gently wriggling our way through the crowd, we reached the two men who were holding our ponies. But as soon as we mounted and got just clear of the crowd, the unusual silence was broken by loud laughter, bitter mockery and reviling language, and by what was still more disagreeable, a shower of eithcr small pieces of brick, or of earth which, by the keen frost, were like so many stones. Our ponies soon trotted us beyond the reach of the missiles; but we had to go through a mile of street lined on both sides with shops which seemed crowded with human beings, who greeted us as we passed with mocking laughter, shouts of angry defiance, or revilings of the grossest kind. We were not much affected by this kind of thing which " breaks no bones," and soon we found ourselves in our inn, somewhat fatigued with the nervous excitement rather than by the labors of the day.
The young doctor had been boycotted and left some time before for his native viIlage.
Exactly two and a half years after that visit of ours, during which we were so unceremoniously treated, Mr. Webster stayed in the same inn, and walked that mile of street between it and the chapel. As usual, at most of the shop-doors stood some of the men in charge of the shop. Many of these men bowed to him as he passed, with a smile of recognition, inquired after his own welfare and that of his family left behind in Moukden. He entered the compound of the small chapel, where he was met and joyfully welcomed by a considerable band of men who had meantime become members.
Next day he dispensed the communion to a congregation of fifty baptized men and women. The" bread" was handed round in a plate, which he used for his food on the road, and the wine was drunk out of his breakfast-cup, as the most respectable vessel available. "But," as he stated in a letter written at the time, " the Holy Spirit of God was there." The emotion was profound. Men and women as they thus for the first time touched and tasted the tangible tokens of their Redeemer's dying love, did so with bursting sobs and with tears flowing down their cheeks. Those only who know the stolid nature of the Chinese, and their remarkable powers of self-control, can alone fully appreciate the significance of such uncontrollable emotion.
Two years later I was there dispensing the communion to a company of about double the number, and one which would have been much larger could all the members in the outlying villages connected with Tieling have been present. The members have had to take a second and larger chapel, but this was Sl) full that a number of men had to stand during the entire service, though these were then mostly applicants for baptism. On a subsequent visit a couple of months later there were twenty-seven persons baptized. press of time prevented ~e then from going to the villages where a number of women believers, unable from household cares, to go to the city, are awaiting baptism. Every year sees a larger number than the preceding enter the Church, and every year sees an enlarged number of villages taken possession of by one or more of the disciples of Jesus. One vil!age, about seven miles from Tieling in a beautiful valley, is wholly Christian, its inhabitants being all either baptized or applicants for baptism.
Instead of the former vituperation, the foreigner is now saluted by the more respectable citizens with kindliness, the magistrate is well disposed, all the lower officials are glad to be on friendly terms with the evangelist and the deacons of the church; and there is not only no avowed hostility of any kind against those who have become members, or obstacles placed in the way of those desiring to become Christians, but the " whole city speaks we]) of Christianity."
No Christian man will be at a loss to set down all those changed condi· tions to the power of Him who works through the preaching of the Word; but He who is the Almighty, and who does what Be wills, has willed to do thIS kmd of work only in conneetion with human agency. He gives the increase, He demands that Paul plant the seed. Whose eloquence wa.'! employed, whose lives were influential as the immediate came in producing this wonderful change-amouuting to a contrast–between our fir8t visit and my last· 1 The change has not been effected thr01}gh the preaching of the foreigner, nor solely by his life. As the work was begun by that youth scarcely SIX years ago, so has it been carried on all but exclusively by his countrymen who were or have become believers, and latterly by himself, who is now-and appropriately-the trained evangelist in charge of the station.
" He who runs can read" the lessons of stimulus, lessons of faith. lessons of caution, lessons of fear and of joy, which the above very brief narrative, which could be repeated of other places not a few, presents to all sections of the Christian Church doing work for the Master among the Chinese. And in connection with this story may I be allowed humbly to rebuke the unbelief of many in our home churches, and among many of our leading clergy 1 They tell us our duty is to preach, but not to expect conversions. I would never have myself come to China did I not believe it my duty to expect hearers of the Gospel to be born again. I have expected, always, undoubtingly expected, conversions. At this moment I expect more than ever before, and I know I shall not be disappointed, for " faithful is He that hath promised." Christians in Christian lands expect conversions! There is something, whatever it be, radically wrong jf there be no conversions under the proclamation of the message of God to man. Expect conversions. Pray for them earnestly, but pray in faith, believing that ye shall have what ye ask; if not, your prayers are in vain. Act for them solemnly, and act with wisdom to take away those things which hinder the conversion of hearers. "Open thy mouth," open it wide, :;u~q see if God, the ~aithfl,ll and the trte~ will not,fill it.
FORmIGN INFLUENCE IN CHINA
FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN CHINA.
BY REV. A. P. PARKER, SHANGHAI, CHINA.
Very few people in Western countries have any adequate idea of this great Chinese Empire, of its size, the character of its people, the strength and extent of its civilization. To many, as Professor Max Muller says, the Chinaman is a joke. To others he is uncivilized or only half civilized, and but little removed from the Hottentot or the American Indian. A dozen years ago, the Supreme Court of California, in its zeal to bring a law to bear against the Chinese, held that" the term Indian included the Chinese or Mongolian race." "It thus upheld a wrong," says Dr.
S. Wells Williams, " while it enunciated a misconception. It placed the subjects of the oldest government now existing, upon a parity with a race that has never risen above tribal relations. It included under one term a people whose literature dates its beginning before the Psalms or Exodus, and containing authors whose words have influenced more human beings than any other writings, with men whose highest attainments in writing have been a few jlictures and tokens drawn on a buffalo robe. It equalized all the qualities of industry, prudence. skill, learning, invention, and whatever gives security to life and property among men, with the instincts al!d habits of a hunter and a nomad. It stigmatized a people which has taught us how to make porcelain, silk, and gunpowder, given us the compass, and shown us the use of tea, by classing them with a race which has despised labor, has had no arts, schools, or trade, and in the midst of the Californians themselves is content to dig roots for a living." So long as these wholly unjust and inadequate conceptions prevail, so long will the people and country be treated with contempt on the one hand, while, on the other hand, the Church will fail to compre- hend the vastness of the work of evangelization to be done here and the immense outlay of men and money and prayer that are necessary to accomplish it.
China is a great country, great in size, great in history, great in civiliza- tion. Extending over 71 degrees of longitude and 34 parallels of latitude, it covered, in 1840, an area of 5,300,000 square miles, a territory a third larger than the Continent of Europe, and nearly half as large again as the United States, which covers nearly 3,700,000 square miles, including Alaska. This vast area has been reduced, during the last fifty years, by about a half a million square miles, ceded to Russia and England. Reach- ing from the frozen snows of Siberia on the north, to the tropical regions of the eighteenth parallel of north latitude on the south, China affords as great a variety of climate and production as any other country in the world. Vast mountain chains, wide and fertile plains and valleys, numer- ous lakes and great river systems, are some of its physical features. It contains a population, according to Dr. S. Wells Williams, the best authority on Chinese subjects, of 380,000,000, in the eighteen provinces, and 23,000,000 in Manchuria and the colonial possessions, or a total of 403,000,000. It yields every kind of mineral, vegetable, and animal production necessary for the sustenance of its teeming population and for the development of the arts of civilized lifc-a country complete in itself.
It is the oldest country in exi~tence that has a history, covering a period of more than 4600 years without a break in its continuity. Contemporaneous with Egypt, and Nineveh, and Babylon, it has outlived them all. While these mighty empires have sunken in oblivion and heaps of rubbish mark the forgotten scenes of their power and grandeur, China has continued on her way, and is to-day one of the great,nations of the earth, whose powerful influence on the destiny of the human race it is impossible to forecast. One of the oldest books in the world, outside of the Hebrew Scriptures, is the Shu King, one of the Chinese classics, which contains a record of events that occurred in this country B.C. 2300. The dim dawn of Chinese history reaches back to 2800 B.C., or, according to Dr. Hales's chronology, 350 years after the flood, and more than 1600 years after the creation of man. The period of authentic history may, according to the most reliable evidence, be placed at about B.C. 2300, in the reigns of Yao and Shun. Everything in this country is old. Centuries are but as years and years are but as days in the history of China, as compared with the mushroom growths of America and modern Europe.
Possessed of a knowledge of letters, architecture, agriculture, and civil government, two thousand years before our era, Chinese civilization was old when Greece and Rome were young, and ten centuries ago China was the most civilized nation in the world. At that time, and subsequently, reports of the wealth and power and Oriental splendor of the Chinese Empire created as much wonderment in Europe as the Chinese of the present day experience when they hear of the power and grandeur of Western nations. Without discussing in this connection the elements of Chinese civilization, we may note the fact that it has wrought out one stupendous result that may well challenge our admiration and invite our studious attention. It has kept nnder one government, under one homogeneous set of civil institutions, the greatest mass of human beings that has ever existed under one government in any age of the world. In view of this fact we might well inquire what are the elements of its strength that have served to accomplish such a result. Geographical isolation, filial piety, industry, innate strength of character, all these have been offered in explanation of this wonderful phenomenon. Perhaps they have all combined, under the over-ruling providence of God, to produce a result that is the marvel of the foreign student of the. history and institutions of this country.
But while this is a highly civilized nation, perhaps as highly civilized as any heathen nation has ever been in the history of the world, yet it is 1I nation of idolaters, sunken in gross and degrading superstitions. Reaching its highest point of development a thousand years ago, it has been on the down grade ever since in all the elements of mental and moral progress, with only occasional periods of temporary recovery. A discussion of the moral and spiritual condition of the Chinese, which I may take up in a future paper, would show that with the multiplication of idols there has come a decrease of moral force, and the .gathering gloom of superstition has so darkened the minds of the people as to practically arrest their progress in material, mental, and moral improvement. The facts that lie on the very surface of their past history and present condition indicate that they have, somewhere in the past, reached a stage of arrested development, and idolatry and superstition are largely the cause of it.
We cannot doubt that it is in the purpose of God that this nation is now being brought into close and vital contact with the great Christian civilization of the West, in order to arouse her from her mental slumber and moral deadness and start her again on the path of progress. It becomes us, therefore, to inquire what are the influences that are being brought to bear upon this great mass of civilized heathenism, how far the people are yielding to those influences, and what is the outlook for the future.
China's relations with foreign countries have been more or less desultory until within the last fifty years. Geographically isolated from the rest of the world, so that she was very difficult of access before the age of steam, she has been left alone, largely, to work out her own destiny, almost wholly uninfluenced by any other than inferior peoples. " But to-day she stands face to face," in the language of one of her most eminent statesmen, "with a condition of things unprecedented in the history of the country. It is the decree of Heaven and we cannot close our doors and refuse to receive foreigners or fold our hands and have nothing to do with them. "
There is reliable evidence that the Chinese had trade relations with the Roman Empire' as early as A.D. 150, but the long and perilous journey to China uver the mountains and high table-lands of Central Asia made the trade uncertain and fragmentary. In the latter half of the ninth century the Arabs carried on trade with the Chinese by means of junks, crossing the Indian Ocean, passing through the Straits of Malacca, and on up the eastern coast of China as far as Hangchow. The visit of Marco Polo to China in the thirteenth century, his long residence here, and the accounts he gave of his observations and experiences, on his return, brought the great Mongol Empire vividly to the attention of Western Europe. One result of this was the sending of Roman Catholic missionaries to China to convert the heathen to the Christian faith. Great success, apparently, attended the labors of these missionaries, but their work was destroyed with the overthrow of the Mongol Dynasty.
In the early part of the sixteenth century Portugal and Holland sought to open up trade relations with the country by sea, and succeeded to some extent in accomplishing their object. It is noteworthy that up to the advent of the Dutch and Portuguese and Spanish traders the country was practically open to foreign trade j but the conquest of Malacca by the Dutch, and of the Philippines by the Spanish, and the taking forcible possession of the region now known as Mac.ao by the Portuguese, together with the buccaneering exploits of the traders from these countries along the coast of China, excited the suspicions of the Chinese, and the country was subsequently closed to foreign trade, except at the port of Canton. British trade with China commencing in the middle of the seventeenth century, and resulting in the Opium War of 1842 and the opening of China to foreign residents, though beginning later than that -of any other nation, has exerted a greater influence on the country than all the other nations of the West combined. Without, however, going into the details of the earlier attempts of the nations of Europe to open up diplomatic and commercial relatious with the Chinese, suffice it to say that it is only within the past fifty years, or, more strictly speaking, within the past thirty years, that the country has been really open to foreign intercourse. The Opium War of 1842, at the conclusion of which Christian England forced heathen China to pay $11,000,000 for the opium which British merchants had smuggled into the country, and which the Chinese Government had seized and destroyed, and also $10,000,000 for war expenses, while it was an act of the grossest injustice, yet in the wonderful providence of God it resulted in a great blessing, not only to China but to the civilized world, in that it opened China to foreign intercourse and to the introduction of Christian missions into the country.
By the Treaty of Nanking, entered into at the close of that war, five ports were opened along the coast of China where foreigners were to be allowed to reside on Chinese soil. Before the opening of these five ports -Canton, Foochow, Ningpo, Shanghai, and Tientsin-and since the closing of the country against the Dutch and Portuguese traders and the expulsion of the Jesuit missionaries, no foreigner had been allowed to reside on Chinese soil, except within the narrow limits of the little compound known as the .. Factories" on the bank of the river at Canton. But now by the terms of this treaty, foreigners, whether missionaries, merchlnts, or government officials, were allowed the right of residence within the borders of the Celestial Kingdom, subject, indeed, still to their own laws, but guaranteed protection to life and property by the Chinese Government. This is not the place to discuss the subject, but a review of foreign intercourse with China shows that at no time, particularly within the last three hundred years, since foreigners have sought to open up trade relations with the Chinese, would it have been safe to have allowed unrestricted intercourse with the peoples of the West. The flagitious conduct of many of the traders that have come to these shores, and the intriguing schemes of the Jesuits for political power and interference with the civil authority, have been entirely sufficient grounds for the fear and suspicion of foreigners entertained by the Chinese, and show only too clearly that had the foreigners been allowed free access to the country, in all probability the government would have crumbled to pieces and the country would have been divided up between the three or four most powerful nations of Europe, especially as it was the general belief in Catholic countries that all pagan lands belonged to the Pope and he could give them to whomsoever he pleased.
At the conclusion of the war between China and the Allies, England and France, an additional number of pClrts were opened to foreigners for residence, and again, in 1876, at the conclusion of the negotiations consequent on the murder of Margary, an English commissioner, by the Chinese in Southwest China, still another number was added to the list of treaty ports, so that now there are twenty-one places on the coast of China and up the Yangtse River where foreigners are allowed to reside, own property, and carryon trade with the Chinese. Originally missionaries were restricted to these treaty ports, but they have long ago overleaped these bounds, and are now to be found in every part of this vast Empire carrying on their work.
In the resistle!!s march of events of this wonderful nineteenth century, the mighty momentum of Christian civilization has struck this country, startling the Chinese out of their mental and moral lethargy, and while they have striven, blindly and foolishly at times, to rcsist the invasion of foreigners and foreign innovations, they have latterly begun to accept the situation and try to adapt themselves to a condition of things that they have found it impossible to avoid, and are, in a word, yielding to the pressure of foreign influence that has been brought to bear upon them with ever-increasing force.
The pressure of foreign influence has been delivered upon the Chinese along three general lines-viz., political, commercial, and missionary. The governments of the West have been urging upon the Chinese the necessity of receiving ministers, consuls, and government agents at Peking and the treaty ports, and of sending similar government agents abroad to the treaty powers, thus entering into the comity of nations, adopting the great principles of international law, and reaping the immense advantages growing out of intercourse with various countries of the world.
Merchants have brought innumerable cargoes of the products of field and factory, of mine and machine, to this country, urging upon the Chinese the advantages of purchasing these goods and of selling to the foreigners their productions, such as silk, tea, porcelain, etc. The merchants have brought here specimens or models or descriptions of nearly all of the principal inventions of the great West, the steam-engine, the steamship, the railroad, the telegraph, the telephone, the dynamo, the printing press, mining machinery, etc., :lnd have urged upon the Chinese the necessity of employing these wonderful machines to develop the resources of the country and become great and powerful among the nations of the world. Missionaries have been pressing into the country proclaiming hope for lost men through the Gospel of the Son of God; showing the folly and sin of idolatry; urging the p,eople to forsake their idols and tum to the living God; establishing churches, schools, and hospitals; translating into the Chinese language, religious, educational, and general literature, sC8ttering miIlions of pages annually of Bibles and Christian books over the land, and bringing to the knowledge of the people the wonderful discoveries in religion, science, and general knowledge that to-day constitute the precious heritage of Christian nations. It has required steady pressure and persistent effort to do this work. The Chinese are full of suspicion as to our purpose in coming here. They are ready to attribute to us every motive but the right one. It has been exceedingly difficult, in many towns in the interior, to rent houses, or purchase land on which to erect mission buildings. A fear is entertained by some of the Chinese that when a piece of land is bought by a missionary it thereby becomes a bit of foreign territory. The missionaries are accused of the vilest crimes in the calendar; of kidnapping women and children j of gouging out the eyes of children with which to make medicine to Bend to foreign countries; of being spies in the employ of foreign governments seeking to gain a foothold in the country in order to its ultimate conquest; of trying by the dissemination of strange and pernicious doctrines, to break down all the sanctions of morality and destroy the foundations of social and civil order, etc.
But notwithstanding the difficulties in the way, notwithstanding the fear, the suspicion, the self· conceit and the inertia, the pressure of foreign influence has been l!teady, continuous, and increasing, and we see the result to-day in the movement that is manifest on every hand. The Chinese are yielding to the pressure, slowly, it is true, but nevertheles~ surely. Many whose information is more or less superficial, think: that the Chinese are so proud and self-conceited, so bound to their ancient traditions and averse to anything new as to be altogether impervious to any influence coming from other countries; or else that they are so stolid and sordid, flO gross and material, so sunken in superstition and intellectual stagnation, as to be utterly incapable of being raised to the high plain of thought and spiritual conception contemplated in our Christian civilization. But a nearer view of the history of the Chinese, a closer acquaintance with their national life and character, would serve to dissipate many of these false notions, and give a clearer idea of the nature of those influences that are needed to hring about that improvement which every well-wisher of the race so ardently desires to see.
When we consider the, to the Chinese, long and glorious history of China in the past; the volume and range of her literature, which represents the gathered treasures of forty centuries j the long roll of illustrious sages, statesmen, military heroes, scholars, poets, and philosophers, that adorns the pages of her history; her long-established institutions and the practical outcome of these in good government and social order; we cannot wonder that she is somewhat slow to yield to those influences which come to her from outside nations, whose boasted superiority is bat a growth of yesterday, and the conduct of wh~se people in this country has, in hundreds of instances, flagrantly violated those high moral teachings claimed to be contained in the holy books of the Christians.
But a few facts, out of many here briefly stated, will suffice to show that the Chinese are yielding to the pressure that is being brought to bear upon them, and are moving as fast, perhaps, as it is safe for them to move. Much more rapid movement would bring with it the danger of social and civil upheaval and disintegration. The people must be gradually prepared for the changes before these can with safety be brought about.
In the first place they are yielding along the line of political pressure. Minister, consuls, and other government agents have been received at Peking and the treaty ports from the various treaty powers j Chinese ministers and consuls have been sent abroad to the various governments of Europe and America; in the early part of the present year the Emperor granted an audience to the foreign ministers resident at Peking, and hereafter a similar audience is to be granted to all the ministers of the treaty powers. And to-day these various treaty powers, instead of being looked upon as tributary countries, stand recognized by the Chinese as independent sovereign powers and are treated with on terms of equality and respect. Wheaton's and Brul).tscheIIi's treatises on International Law have been translated into Chinese by Dr. Martin and others, and the leading Chinese government officials have read them and can quote tbe principles of international law as readily as anyone; as, for instance, in the case of the discrimination against the Chinese as compared to other nations, shown by the action of the United States Congress in arbitrarily restricting Chinese immigration, either with or without negotiation with the Chinese Government.
Again, tbe Cbinese are yielding along the line of commercial influence. An immense trade bas grown up with foreign countries. Millions of dollars' worth of goods are brougbt here annually from all tbe countries of the world, principally, of conrse, from Europe and America. The Chinese know a good thing when tbey see it. They know the value of a dollar as well as any people in the world, and when they Bee the abundance, the excellence, tbe cheapness, of the goods tbat are brought to them from foreign countries, they buy them readily and in great quantities. National prejudice, self-conceit, suspicion, and distrust, all' go down in one common ruin before the mighty force of the desire for material gain. The products of the looms of Manchester and Massachusetts are displacing the coarser and more costly native hand-made fabrics; kerosene is superseding the vegetable tallow dips and rushligbts ; Yankee clocks and watches are taking the place of the native sun-dial and the incense time-stick; while California flour and foreign groceries and hardware in great variety are coming in to supply the wants that the native products fail to meet. A fleet of some twenty steamers, owned by the Chine8e Government, and commandp-d by European officers, does a large part of the carrying trade along her fifteen hundred miles of coast line j a short hne of railroad, eighty miles in length, was built in 1888, in North China, from Tientsin to the Kaiping coal mines, and recently steps have been taken to extend this road to the northeastern boundary of the Empire at Shanhaikwan ; two years ago the Emperor issued a decree in which he said that railroads were necessary in order to develop the strength and resources of a country, and ordered the construction of a line of railroad from Peking right down through the centre of the country -to Hankow on the Yangtse River. This road has not been built, owing to the bitter opposition of the members of what may be called the Conservative party among the Emperor's advisers, who have succeeded in staving off the work of construction for the time being. But it is the general belief, both of Chinese and foreigners, that this road will be built before very long. The tele~ graph was introduced in 1881, consequent on the fear of a war with Russia, and it has been gradually extended to every part of the Empire, and has been an important means of strengthening the power of the central government over the provincial governors and viceroys. Mining machinery has been introduced for mining coal, iron, gold, silver, copper, etc.; last year a mint was established in Canton, the machinery of which was purchased in Europe, and already silver dollars and small coin, the product of the mint, are being put into circulation j and as the result of the wars between China and foreign nations, several large arsenals and navy-yards have been established where arms, ammunition, and gunboats are being manufactured after the most approyed European models.
The yielding of the Chinese along the line of missionary pressure is very marked and very encouraging. About fourteen hundred Protestant missionaries, to say nothing of the numerous Roman Catholic missionaries, are established in various parts of the Empire, not only at the open ports, but also away in the interior, in Northern, Western, and Southwestern China, gathering churches, carrying on school and hospital work, and going everywhere preaching the Word by the living voice and the printed page. The various Protestant churches number some forty thousand Christians, which with the baptized children, the candidates for church-membership, and the nominal believers, make up a Christian community of not far short of one hundred and fifty thousand. Three thousand native assistants, preachers, exhorters, licentiates, colporteurs, and Bible-wo~en are helping in the great work of making known the Gospel to their fellow-countrymen; more than fi;e hundred churches have been organized, about one ,fifth of which are self-supporting; there are about seventeen thousand pupils in the various mission schools; three hundred and fifty thousand patients were treated in 1889 in more than one hundred hospitals and dispensaries; and six hundred and sixty-six thousand Scripture portions-that is, whole Bibles, Testaments, Gospels, etc., were sown broadcast over the land. But besides these figures there are numerous indications that the power of the Gospel is being felt in this country, which cannot be tabulated. The pure life, the fervent devotion, the patience under persecution, the triumphant death, of the native Christians prove the genuineness of the work of grace in their hearts. A great change has taken place in many of the older mission centres in the sentiments of the masses of the people toward the missionaries. Instead of being called" foreign devil," we are more frequently greeted with" Mr. Foreigner;" the pcople listen longer and more attentively to the preaching in thc chapels; they are bolder to come to our hospitals for medical treatment and surgical operations; parents are more ready to send thcir children to our pchools, and the people buy and read our books more readily. All these and many other facts, which there is not space to detail here, show that the Chinese are yielding to the pressure. The Gospel is the power of God to the salvation of this people. One other fact ought to be stated in this connection, a great improvement is going on in the educational system of the country, as the combined result of foreign influence. In 1887 Western science and mathematics were, by Imperial decree, introduced into the government examinations ; government schools have been established, with foreign professors, for teaching these subjects and the principal languages of Europe; the government has established a translation department in which foreigners acquainted with the Chinese language are employed to translate works on history, science, mathematics, military tactics, naval architecture, etc., from English and other languages into Chinese; and these translations are being published and disseminated far and wide throughout the country.
The future is full of hope. The tremor of new movements is in the air. We who are here and have a finger upon the pulse of the country, can feel the throb of the new life that is being poured into its arteries. Those are most hopeful who have been longest here and know most of the people, of the difficulties in the way, as well as of the forces that are needed to overcome them. Revolutions never go backward. Progress will be onward and upward. The recent anti-foreign riots along the valley of the Yangtse River will give a temporary check to missionary work, but this check will only be temporary. Foreign influence will be strengthened, ultimately, as the result of these riots, and especially will Christian missions receive a great forward impetus by them. We are already reaping some advantage from these riots. The decree of the Emperor, issued on account of the disturbances, places us in a stronger position than we have ever occupied in the history of mission work in China.
Thus every difficulty will be but the stepping-stone to higher achievement. The work of awakening and improvement is bound to go on Machinery will be introduced and produced in ever-increasing quantities j the material resources of the country will be developed; mines will be opened for coal, iron, copper, silver, gold; improved methods of agricult~re will benefit the farmer; railroads aud steamers will afford raJ;lid cOIll-
THE GREAT MISSIONARY UPRISING
munication and vastly increase trade and production ; the great changes that are even now taking place in the educational system of the country will improve the character while they extend the benefits of education; the newspaper" the telegraph, the telephone, will, as they are already doing, spread general intelligence among the people; while above all, and better than all, the Gospel of the Son of God will go on with ever-increasing power from the vantage ground already gained, until this shall become a Christian nation and the last stronghold of Satan will be captured.
But the Church must rally to the work with her men, her money, and her prayers. We mUl!t haye enough men to do the work. Four hundred millions of people cannot be evangelized by fourteen hundred missionaries. One missionary to fifty thousand people would require eight thousand missionaries for China.
[NOTE.-A copy of the above paper was sent to the Southern Methodist Quarterly Review also; but was intended for insertion in both Reviews. -ED.] THE GREAT MISSIONARY UPRISING.
BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, BELLEVUE, O.
In Great Britain as the centre, and intimately connected with the organization of the London Missionary Society in 1795, but powerfully affecting also all the Protestant churches of the Continent, and of the United States as well, for years William Carey had stood almost alone in English-speaking Christendom. a voice crying in the wilderness. His heart was well-nigh the only one all aflame for the conversion of the world. Even when the Baptist Society had been formed and Carey had sailed for India, the interest was confined to the Baptist churches of Britain, neither numerous, nor strong, nor held in much repute, and only to a very limited extent even in their membership. Hence, after the long and dreary night, it was but the rising of the day-star that appeared, at most but the day-dawn, or the first blossom of the spring. The glorious sun, the lovely season of buds and flowers, had not yet made its advent.
But under the guidance and inspiration of the Divine Spirit, various cooperating causes had long been preparing the way for a majestic and widespread onward movement in behalf of missions. For fifty years the Wes- 1eyan revival had been turning the religious world upside down and had been kindling on every hand boundless love and zeal, desire and devotion. As far back as 1744 had been originated in Scotland a plan, which was soon adopted by many churches, both in the Old World and the New, for the frequent and regular observance of a day of "extraordinary prayer" for the descent of the Spirit and the spread of the kingdom throughout the whole world; and of late such gatllerings had become much more com- won. In addition, the unexampled missionary activity of the entire Mora,- vian Church ever since 1732, and the self-denying apostolic labors of such as Ziegenbalg and Schwartz in Tranquebar, beginning in 1705, as well as of Brainerd and Edwards (1741-58) among the American Indians, had sup- plied noble examples. Then finally, helping in the same direction, came Carey's great sermon, the sublime act of faith performed at Kettering, and his setting forth for the ends of the earth.
" The first two English missionaries to India seemed, to those who sent them forth, to have disappeared forever. For fourteen months no tidings of their welfare reached the poor praying people of the midlands, who had been emboldened to begin the enterprise." But at last, July 29th, 1794, letters arrived for Ryland, of Bristol, who read them and sent at once for Dr. Bogue, of Gosport, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Mr. Stephen to rejOice with him. First, they all gave thanks, and prayed for a blessing upon the Baptist Society, and then the two latter called upon Mr. Hey, a leading minister, and it was determined to begin at once to agitate for the organization of a simila: society. though with a much broader ecclesiastical basis. Suiting the action to the word, Dr. Bogue prepared an article which appeared in September, in the Evangelical Magazine, addressed to "Evangelical dissenters who practice infant baptism," urging all such to bestir themselves; arguing that the time to begin was fully come; ex- pressing the conviction that many would be found willing and eager to assist if only a few would step forth t6 lead, and that funds sufficient could be gathered to support at le!lst twenty or thirty missionaries. Such in God's hands was" the little fire" which kindled" how great a matter !"
The effect of this clarion call was immediate and profound. The next month it was further stated in the same periodical that, if a society should be formed upon a large scale and upon a basis so broad as to unite Chris- tians " without respect to different denominations, or repulsive distinctions arising from points in dispute between Calvinists and Arminians," one man stood pledged for £100 and another for £500 to equip the first six volun- teers for a mission to the South Seas. Some weeks later appeared the suggestion o,·er the signatures of eighteen Independent, seven Presbyterian, three Wesleyan, and three Episcopal ministers, for a meeting for consulta- tion, urging that in the mean time local and district gatherings be held to stir interest, collect funds, and choose delegates. In July, 1795, another article reached the public from the glowing pen of "T. R." (Raweis, a Church of England clergyman, whose influence through all the years next ensuing was unequalled in raising enthusiasm to the sticking point), " showing the very probable success of a proper mission to the South Seas," giving a long and glowing and inten~ely rose-colored setting forth of the situation in those remote parts, proving conclusively the islands to be a very terrestrial paradise, and the people the loving and lovable inno- cent children of nature. ~ Thus, at length, all things being read)", September, 21st, the mo- mentous meetings began in London. At the very outset subscriptions were made by the country ministers amounting to £750. Many encouraging letters from all parts of the island were read j it was announced that several men were ready to offer themselves, and the vote was unanimous to organ- ize at once. This" fundamental principle" was adopted: "The design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of church order and government (about which there may be differ- ence of opinion among serious persons), but the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to the heathen j and it shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the minds of the persons whom God may call into the fellowship of His Son from among them to assume for themsel ves such form-of church gov- ernment as to them shall appear most agreeable to the Word of God." For three full days the gatherings continued, with two sermons each day upon pertinent themes from eminent divines, and to audiences" immensely great." It seemed like a new Pentecost" with Christians of all denomi- nations for the first time in the same place, using the same hymns and prayers, and feeling themselves to be one." Two hundred ministers sat together in the galleries j and Dr. Bogue said : " We are called together for the funeral of bigotry j and I hope it will be buried so deep as never to rise again." Vhereat" the whole vast body could scarce refrain from one general shout of joy. . . Such a scene was never, perhaps, before beheld in our world j and it was a foretaste of heaven. • . . We shall account it through eternity a distinguished favor, the highest honor, that we appeared here and gave in our names among the founders of the society. This will be ever remembered by us as the era of Christian benevolence. "
The flame thus kindled in the metropolis quickly spread throughout all Britain j and, of course, it followed at once that money in abundance began to flow in from all quarters. One church in Southampton subscribed £270, and from Market Harborough came £83 Is. 7d. with this word: " No event in life has given me more pleasure than this glorious attempt to send forth the Gospel." The children in a boarding-school, unasked, gave £1 98. 6d. Scotland too was aroused. Missionary societies were formed in Edinburgh and Glasgow, ani before many months had passed nearly £12,000 had been forwarded to the London treasury. Earnest souls upon the Continent dispatched their contributions, amounting erelong to upward of £1500 j so that by the end of October, the directors had £3000 in hand, which, three months later, had more than doubled, and in June, 1796, they could report the receipts at £10,000. Missionaries, too, had offered themselves in encouraging numbers. By midsummer it was decided to purchase a ship and found missions in Otaheite, the Friendly and Pelew Islands, and the Marquesas, with projects looking toward Madagascar, the West Indies, and the north shore of the Caspian, so great was their faith, and so enlarged were their ideas and longings. And thus early the prophetic hope was expressed that this uprising for the world's redemption" will spread to every Christian bosom, to the Dutch, German, American, and all Protestant churches, till the whole professing world shall burn with fervent love, and lab'or to sprelld in every heathen land the sweet savor of the Redeemer's name."
Accordingly, the Duff was purchased at a cost of £4875, and furnished for her long voyage at an additional expense of more than £7000, several years' supplies for the missionaries included. A profit of £5000 was expected from freight to be brought upon the homeward trip. A call was made, and nobly responded to, for books, tools, cooking utensils, instruments, seeds and other supplies; and one poor man expended £2 28. upon six spades, nine' hammers, and four thousand 6d and 10d nails. July 2Rth, 1796, the twenty-nine chosen were solemnly set apart-six of them married, with two childIen, only four of them ordained, one a physician, and the others artisans. Thousands joined in the novel and most impressh'e service, and no less than ten clergymen-Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Independent, Seceder, and Methodist-sharing in the exercises, "showing that affection is increasing between ministers of different denominations, who, previous to this institution, had neither fellowship nor intercourse." In reference to the religious situation it was written soon after: "In no instance in the limits of our recollection has such a ~pirit of prayer and supplication been poured out upon the churches, or such general approbation been discovered. The greatest kindness has been displayed in all departments of the Government. Neither the Council Board nor the Custom House would accept fees." Wednesday, August 10th, at five A.M., the Duff' dropped down from B1ackall to Gravesend, a vast multitude beholding, and came to anchor at t!pithead the Tuesday following. The East India convoy having already sailed, she was compelled (since the French wars were raging) to wait six weeks, at Portsmouth, for the Adamant, a fifty-two gun ship. September 22d found her at St. Helen's. The following day her anchors were finally hoisted and her sails spread for the Antipodes. Thus the great undertaking, followed in Carey's path, three years and a half later than he, and yet-in some respects at least-even outdoing that immortal founder and pioneer. It was now that one moralized with altogether pardonable exaltation of feeling: ., It is highly probable that since the Lord and the apostles, the bosom of the deep has never been graced with such a vessel," or one" in which so many thou~ands of Christians embarked their hopes and followed with their prayers."
What remarkable and rapid growth may be discerned during the period under view! How different all this, for magnitude of operations and for eclat, from the deed of those twelve obscure NorthaUJptonshire Baptist ministers, and their subscription of £13 28. 6d., over whose utter inadequacy and insignificance Rev. Sydney Smith half a generation later could make exceeding merry! For nearly two years, until May, 1798, not a word was heard from Captain 'Wilson and the tremendous ventures made by faith. Leaving the Duff t.o battle for weeks with fearful storms off Cape Horn, and then, baffled, to beat her way past the Cape of Good Hope through 262 0 of longitude, let us glance at certain step8 .:,f progress meantime taken at home. Measures were immediately "et on foot to start a mission in the Foulah country, some 250 miles from Sierra Leone, for which GlaRgow and Edinburgh offered two men each, and the London So- ciety was to add the same number. Plans were also soon laid for a mission to the Cape. In January, 1797, it could be affirmed: "Christians in every corner of the land are meeting in a regnlar manner, and pouring out their souls for God's blessing on the world." And again: "The efforts most successfully made to introduce the Gospel to the South Seas have had a most powerful tendency to unite the devoted servants of Christ of every denomination in the bonds of brotherly love, and to awaken zeal to help the perishin!! multitudes in our own country, and 'also the Jews." ~onth by month came tidings of both local and district movements to raise missionary funds, and to multiply toilerfl at many points in the foreign field, and in every destitute region at home. For this purpose scores of organizations were formE'd in every denomination. In America similar interest prevailed; in Ma8~achusetts and Connecticut, at New York, Philadelphia, and othE'r parts of the country. .Nor waR the enterprise Jess upon the Continent; in Germany, Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland associations were also formed. With all these societies, as well as with various individuals, the directors of the London Society opened correspondence for mutual instruction and encouragement. Von Schirnding, a German nobleman, was delighted to hear of the evangelizing projects Oll foot j for years he had been cheriRhing similar schemes. and aided liberally with money and men. Vanderkemp, in Holland, a famed scholar and soldier, and aforetime a pronounced sceptic, offered himself as a messenger of glad tidings to the heathen, and proceeded at once to organize the Netherlands Missionary Society. Inspiring letters came from BasIc, which since 1771 had been the seat of a widespread movement" to maintain evangelical doctrine and piety." Certain devout German brethren sent their congratulations in this fashion: "It is like the dawn promising a beautiful day after the dark night. It is the beginning of a ne,w epoch for the kingdom of God on earth. Your undertaking and its success fills our hearts with joy and our eyes with tears. The history of Great Britain is sanctified by this unparalleled mission. What harmony among different perRu!lsions! You call on the wise and good of every nation to take interest in the work and bear a part. Such a call was never heard of before. It was reserved for the close of the eighteenth century to be distinguished by it." So it was that the tide of zeal rose and spread.
It was not until May, 1798, that, in a letter from Captain Wilson; written at Canton six months before, the first tidings came from the great missionary venture in the South Seas; and in July following the Puff lay at anchor in the Downs. And now came the climax of exultation and buoyant hope. "Never, perhaps, was an undertaking more completely accomplished. Fifty-one thousand miles have been traversed without the least material loss vr damage. The winds eonE'pired to waft them safely and swiftly to their desired haven. Everywhere they were reeeived by the natives with reverence and delight. All are settled in the islands they preferred, and apparentl.y in the greatest safety. At Otaheite, a most fertile district was bestowed upon them, and a commodious building." Dr. Haweis did not fail to surpass the most fervid and fanciful in his setting forth of the past, present, and future of the mission, in a public address to Captain Wilson.
But the directors well understood that something besides pooans of gladness were in order, and therefore, immediately after a day of thanksgiving had been devoutly obsHved, they met to plan both how to maintain communieations with the brethren already sent forth, and also to found other mISSIOns. Their faith hesitated not to survey a field as broad as this: " Hindustan, the Sandwich Islands, and other groups in the Pacific; the Creek Indians, Canada, the Bermudas, and any West India islands, and any coasts of America or Asia." And presently they notify the churches: "We must have an enlarged supply of money and men. We expect a body of German missionaries, anu we plan to engage a great company and teach them both theological knowledge and also occupations adapted to the islands. " But just now all their energies were bent upon preparing for a Recond voyage of the Duff, with Captain Robson in command. On N 0vembcr 13th, forty-six were in readiness (nineteen single men and ten married, with seven children), and were set apart to their sacred task. On the 20th, the Duff dropped down the Thames and ten days later weighed anchor. December 8th found her with seventy ships at Spithead, where she layover two Sundays on account of fogs; on the 21st a southwest wind was so fierce that the fleet put into Portland Roads, and a day or two later was off under convoy of the frigate Amphion. In the same company sailed the Hillsborough, bearing some hundreds of convicts bound for Botany Bay I and also Dr. Vanderkemp and three companions-Kircherer, Edmonds, and Edwards-en route to found a mission in Cape Colony.
Hitherto, for five years, the tide of good feeling and expectation of large results had heen steadily rising and swelling with scarce a refluent wave. Not a threatening storm-cloud had croRsed the 5ky. But, of course, such conditions could not always continue. This is not God's way with His kingdom. As might have been expected, and as was every way best, a series of trials and tests now ensued in the shape of serious reverses and failures apparently disastrous, coming from yarious quarters, of divers kinds, and in quick succession. The current emotion contained much unhealthy excitement; zeal was ardent, but was not all according to knowledge, and many of the expectations fondly cherished were unreasonable because without groulld. The millennium had not yet dawned, and the victory was not to be won without a fight long and most arduous. It had already been noticed, and with deep anxiety, that scar0ely a minister, and none of note and influence, had of fered himself to go wherever the Lord, through the Society, should send him. 'L'hey who came forward were laymen from the common walks of life, of humble gifts and attainments. Even these had not been sifted with sufficient care, and quite a number proved incompetent, and some even morally unworthy. First, trouble broke out in the company which had been sent to the Foulah country. They separated, some died, and war breaking out among the savages, others left, and so the mission came to grief. Next, early in August, 1799, the directors were stunned by the intelligence that the Duff had been captured by a French privateer in Feb- ruary, when off Rio Janeiro, and had been taken to Montevideo and sold as a prize. The missionaries would be sent home, but the mere money loss was £10,000. On the heels of these evil tidings came the further calamitous news from Otaheite that most of the missionaries left there, their lives in deadly peril, had fled the island, and, by a chance vessel, had transferred themselves to Port Jackson, in New South Wales. Likewise at Tongabatoo calamity had befallen, for some had died, some had fallen into lewdness with the natives and been cut off from fellowship, and civil ~ar had broken out, in which the brethren had been robbed and then expelled. Only from Vanderkemp came words of cheer. He could write that he had made a beginning, and that a " singular interest" had appeared. The" Spirit had begun a good work in some of the most abo ject and uncultured of the race." But there was no flinching or turning back in consequence; without a moment's hesitation, either on the part of the directors or the Christian public, the task was resolutely taken up, both of repairing the damage and of sending reinforcements to the Sout h Seas and to South Africa. By May, 1800, a contingent of sixteen men had been dispatched.
For lack of space I can follow no further the thrilling story of the London Society, wh08e beginnings were so glorious, as well as of such moment both to Christendom and to the whole heathen world. It was not long after the hopes of so many of the earnest-hearted had been so rudely hurled from the zenith to the nadir, that theY'began again slowly and steadily to rise.. One by one the various denominations which had been in hearty co-operation began to withdraw, and, as perhaps was wisest, to set up societies for themselves-the Episcopalians in 1799 leading the way, and finally the Independents were left practically alone. The South Sea~ proved to be no 8inless, stormless Eden, and their inhabitants to be of a piece with savages elsewhere. Many reverses were yet in store, and long waiting for the first-fruits was required. But island after island, continent after continent was occupied for the Magter, and by such heroes of faith as Ellis, Livingstone. Moffat, Milne, Morrison, Medhurst, Vanderkemp, and John Williams the martyr of Erromanga. Early in the century, India, China, and the West Indies were entered-Madagascar (a shining marvel
AN EVANGELISTIC 'l'otrn !N .tAPAN
among missions) in 1818, and others subsequently. As late as 1810 the income was but $5298 ; in 1856 it had risen only to $8233.; but in 1890 was upward of $600,000, with one sixth of the amount derived from the mission stations. The four ordained and one medical missionary of 1795 have increased to 159, with 1202 ordained native pastors. Thongh various missions have become self· sustaining, or have been turned over to other societies, almost 70,000 members are found in the churches and 110,000 pupils in the schools. No m.ortal can say how many organizations, both in the Old World and the New, owe their origin directly or indirectly to that great missionary uprising in the last decade of the eighteenth century, of which the London Society was both the effect and the cause.
.AN EVANGELISTIO TOUR IN JAPAN.
BY REV. FREDERICK s. CURTIS, HIROSHIMA, JAP.A.N.
Early in June, 1891, in company with a Japanese brother, I left Hiroshima for a two weeks' trip among the villages in the vicinity. The first village, two hours' ride by jinricksha from Hiroshima, is Kabe, where we opened the work a few weeks ago. After weeks of effort we were at length able to secure a small house here, which will serve as a preaching place for a time. Immediately after our first meeting, Buddhist lecturers were summoned, who were expected by their harangue to nip Christianity in the bud. But though much opposition has been raised, the handful of Christians remain steadfast, and a few inquirers regularly attend the meetings. We stopped at Kabe for an hour and talked with the leading Christian there, who was formerly an elder in one of the Tokyo churches. As we were about to leave, he desired that we should have a brief prayer together, and prayed for the blessing of God upon this evangelistic tour. It was with overflowing heart that I followed him in prayer. I am rejoiced that the Japanese brethren are so ready for prayer at all times. I am rejoiced, too, that through the example of a brother missionary I came to see the importance of learning to prllY, even before learning to preach or to converse, in Japanese. There are few rarer pleasures than this, to unite one's heart in supplication to our common Lord with those who have been rescued from the darkness of heathenism.
A few miles beyond Kabe we overtook two others travelling toward the same destination. One of these proved to be a man who had come to my house a few weeks before to inquire about'Christianity. As we journeyed together we talked further of the way of salvation. The other travellera member of one of the Osaka churches-with his friend, came to our hotel in the Qvening, when we talked and prayed together before going to the theatre meeting. In the theatre a few small lamps suspended here and there, and a candle placed on the speaker's table, with now and then the glare of a match used in lighting the pipe of a hearer, supplied all the illumination. Since the building was about as large, and resembled in other respects a faif-sized barn, one may weJl imagine that it was far from being well lighted. Here some 250 people assembled, and, seated on the hard floors covered with coarse matting, listened with the utmost quiet and attention. We returned to our hotel rejoicing in the blessing of God, for we had heard that Yoshida was a hard place, and had gone to the theatre prepared for a noisy time-opposition from the Buddhists. However, next day pushing on to Miyoshi, a place of about 20,000 people, and in the evening holding another meeting with about the same attendance as at YoshIda, we found here the opposition we had expected at the former place. In these large meetings the Japanese usually speak first; otherwise some of the people go away after they have seen and heard the foreigner, who is still an object of curiosity in the country.
OUf speeches were frequently iuterrupted by cries in English of " No, no!" or in Japanese, " The Jesus religion won't do," or " Cast this foreign religion out of our country!" Also by various quotations from the sages, with other remarks mnde to cause a laugh.
The next day at our hotel we talked with quite a number of inquirers, and held a meeting with some of these and the two or three Christians we had found. I spoke especially of the Scripture proof of the immortality of the soul and of the divinity of Christ. Later, when the question of the use of "sake" (Japanese wine) and tobacco, came up for discussion, I explained the principle upon which we must judge; that since our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, in God's sight all is sin that injures the body. I felt much blessed in thus speaking, also in prayer. Before the theatre meeting of the second evening in Miyoshi, we took the precaution to provide a larger number of lamps, that the Buddhist priests and young men who were inclined to make a disturbance might not do so unobserved. While waiting for the people to assemble (a thing often done in Japan) I sat near the front of the platform and chatted with the boys about America, in which they seemed greatly interested.
I followed the Japanese speaker with a short sermon, and we were about to dismiss the meeting, which had been a noisy one, but when I saw that the majority of the 500 seemed disinclined to go, I determined to make a venture, so I told them that the whole meeting thus far having been much shorter than nsual, if they so desired I would speak again. To my surprise the entire audience sat down and called for the speech. After I had been speaking for a few minutes, or, rather, reading (for thus far I have been obliged to read the greater part of my sermons), it came over me with great power that I mnst speak, so I cast myself on the Lord and spoke as the Spirit directed. In one of these extemporaneous parts, desiring to illustrate the heinousness' of the sin of rejecting Christ I told the andience that the sin of the Japanese policeman who near Kyoto recently attempted to kill the Prince Imperial of Russia, was not nearly so great as that of rejecting the Prince of Life. As I thus spoke there was the great- est attentiun, and I trust also some impression was made. Though I had been working at the language for three years, and recently had spohn quite often, I had not felt at all sure that the masses understood me ; but now becoming fully convinced of this, and being so filled with joy that the audience had asked me to speak the second time, I could scarcely slee"p. At the close of the service the Christjans and a number of inquirer!! accompanied us to our rooms, and as usual remained till midnight talking of the things of the Kingdom. Among these inquirers the most interesting case was that of a young Buddhist priest named Chiba, who at the age of eleven took up his calling at the instance of his father and elder brother; but some time since in Kyoto, having come into posse~sion of a Bible, and learning something about Chris!ianity, he had come to us to learn more. In reply to my question as to the object of his search, he said that since he heard of Christ he could not be satisfied with Buddhism.
This young man is now twenty years of age, and next year is entitled to take charge of a temple. That he will not do this we fully believe.
The following morning we retraced our steps, and stopping to preach at Kabe, chiefly to the handful of Christians there, I returned to Hiroshima that night.
The following day, with the same Japanese brother, after teaching the teachers' meeting, we took the steamer for I wakuni. That evening at Shimminato, the seaport of Iwakuni, we hired the lower floor of a hotel .. and advertised a lecture on Christianity. In this rough place some 150 people crowded into the room and listened attentively. Going on to Iwakuni I preached to the Christians about finding Jesus in the Scriptures, and in the afternoon had a long converl3ation with some of the brethren in regard to persecution. Even in Japan persecution is no small matter. In the experience of many of the Japanese Christians a man's foes are they of his own household. In the early evening I called to see one of the officials who, with his wife, is searching the Scriptures. They seemed delighted to see me, and it was a matter of great regret that I had so few minutes with them. I urged them to make a practical test of every new truth they found, prayed with them, and went on to Imadzu "illage to hold a preaching service. In the meeting-place some 200 people gathered. Heretofore I had always read at least the greater part of my sermon; but here, for the first time, with the Japanese New Testament and a brief outline, I spoke extemporaneously; and, though conscious of some grammatical errors, I felt much blessed in thns speaking. The following day returning overland, and remaining over the next night at y'okkaichi, I had the privilege of speakiug at the first Christiau meeting ever held there. About 500 crowded into the single room and overflowed. In the midst of my sermon some one cried out, "God made the body but not the soul." I replied that we were not there to argue that point; but to tell them what Christianity taught. The Japanese speaker who followed
ONE OF THE FAITHFUL IN THE LAND
me told the audience that he would answer any questions III regard to Christianity.
There was a little hesitation; but finally some one said, " Is Buddha the savioar of Mida~" (Amida). He meant to say," Is Buddha the sa.·iour of men ?" At this the audience laughed heartily.
. The speaker replied, "I suppose you meant to say men instead of Mida ;" and went on to give a brief history of Buddha, showing him to be but a man, and therefore unable to save the soul.
Going on to Takewara, we held a large meeting. My subject was "Sin"-something very difficult for the Japanese mind to comprehend. In fact, as has so often been said, there is no word in the Japanese lan- guage to adequately express the Bible term sin. Before I preached, thrce boys delivered addresses on Christianity. The precocity of Young Japan may be fairly illustrated by the fact that these boys, aged eleven and twelve years, had chosen their themes' and prepared their addresses with but little help from others. These addresses, though short-·about three to five minutes each-werp. really very good, and delivered with absolute composure. Is it any wonder that the Japanese nation thinks it can do anything?
The subjects treated were: "The one true God," " All the blessings of mankind come from God," and" Pride makes men blind."
The following day, with the Japanese preacher located at Takewara, I .. went to a place called Mitsu, which being off the main road, it is probable that no foreign face had el'er been seen there before. Accordingly the people flocked to see me, gathering in front of the hotel and at the theatre. In this place we had two direct answers to prayer-in regard to the renting of the theatre and the attention of the people. The next day (Sunday) I spent in Takewara, and admitted to the communion two in addition to seven received early in the year.
On Monday I returned to Hiroshima, during the two weeks having held 15 meetings, with an aggregate attendance of 2500 people. In all prob- ability the majority of these had never heard of Christ before. I thank God for this privilege of preaching the Gospel where Christ had not been named.
July 10, 1891.
ONE OF THE FAITHFUL IN THE LAND.
BY C. J. vas KAMP, CANTON, CHINA.
On September 29th, 1891, our beloved pastor, Wong Kong Fuk died. He was one of the few faithful in the land; a man full of energy aM talent, who truly loved his Saviour, and labored in the service of the Mas- ter with his whole heart. He accomflished great things in his missionary station at Fayen, forty miles north of Canton, and many heathen were . converted through him. In the first years of my sojourn here I was permitted to make a few tours with him into the villages of the district of Fayen so as to preach the Gospel to the heathen. I see him yet, sitting in the tents of the Chinese, the gracious smile on his lips, surrounded by his eager listeners, to whom he is showing the nothingness of idolatry and the riches of the Saviour's love. How eloquent were his words! How well he knew how to captivate his hearers by new illustrations and skilful reasoning! How the Christians loved and honored him! With what a great respect the heathen regarded him! He brought Christ's name into his missionary station. One seldom heard a reviling word in the places where he preached. Thus the soil was prepared for the Gospel; ahd we may hope that many more in that field will find their eternal and full salvation.
A few days ago, as I was travelling toward Fayen with four students of our theological seminary, to conduct the funeral service of Wong Kong Fuk, I stopped at the large village of Thaiwuschak. Here, forty-three years ago, Wong Kong Fuk was born, and here he died. Here he also heard from the mouth of the Rev. Hauspach the words of l!fe which have been dear to him since his conversion as a stronghold in life and in death.
The narrow streets of the village, with the huts of limestone, were almost deserted. Only a few half-naked children play at the pond by the bamboo grove. I enter the open square with my companion, the student Khyamfuk.
Two high, red-painted poles point out to me the ancestral hall. A few Christians who are standing there hurry toward me, and, bowed and silent, extend to me their hand, and lead me into a hut where they offer me a cup of tea. Meanwhile the brethren, who have gathered from the most distant villages to the burial, come to greet me. A deep sorrow rests upon the men because of the death of their beloved spiritual leader.
" We are assembled to the funeral service," says Tschin. I put on my gown, tak~ the Bible and the Chinese hymn-book and stepped out into the open square in front of the ancestry hall. It was yet early in the day ; the sun had not yet sent down her beams in full force. There stood the coffin, covered with a blue bier-cloth, on which were embroidered Chinese char- acters. Dear disciples of the Saviour had sent it to their brethren in China as a greeting of the Risen One who also shall resurrect His own. There are also the large banners with the promises of comfort out of the Word of God concerning victory over death and immortal life in Christ. Com- pared with the heathen" Firlefanz," with which the heathen are buried, how delightful to eye and heart stand these banners with their beautiful Chinese characters. '
Several months before, when we buried a Christian in Canton, several scholars carried this banner through the city. They attracted the attention of the people, and many stood staring. "They appear as though they would like to march out to war," said a farmer, who had earnestly studied the text, and to whom the words, "I live, and ye shall live also," " The wages of sin is death," " Christ is the life, death is gain," and other words,
'rilE CALL TO pnAYElt
were a riddle to him. "They appear to be actors," said a second. A reader of books declared, "They are Christians," "adherents to the Jesus-religion." "So they are Jesus-people!" said the others, gazed once more upon the wonderful banner, and went their way.
Eight musicians were present, and with their funeral melodies accom- , panied the dead to his grave. These were engaged by the heathen elders of the village to render final honors to their dead.
We began by singing a song of life and resurrection. A large crowd surround the coffin. The immediate relatives of Wong Kong Fuk wear straw garments. a wreath of straw in their hair, and in their hands they carry a short bamboo rod, bowed and crooked; according to custom they thus escort their dead. A blue ribbon-the emblem of mourning-is braided in the queue just as we wear a band of crape about the arm or hat. The Christians wear white garments and caps, and they are a large number who have confessed the name of Christ in Fayen. Many of the heathen stand in the rear j for all knew and loved the Shepherd Wong. I made a short address based on Rev. 14 : 13 : "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." There was much weeping among the people, and tears fell from the eyes of many of the heathen. The Chinese know so well how to control their emotions j but here was refiected in their tears the love they felt for the dead. Tschin spoke after me, and mentioned his dying words: " Willingly I depart, for God will care for mine. Do you faith- full y carryon the work." The assistant, H yn, then offered prayer, after which I advanced to the coffin and pronounced a bJessing Over the remains.
The service made a deep impression on the heathen. How different this sorrow blessed of God from the cry and tumult of a hpathen burial, which only reveals fear and confusion before the King of Terror! The coffin was lifted, and the long procession started. The shrill tones of the bamboo fiutel' mingled with the clanging of the gongs. The Chinese music seemed to me a distressing discord, but I was obliged to endure it in silence. .
On the hill opposite the village is the grave in which we laid the body, and beyond lies the land where the light wrestles with the black darkness of heathenism. God grant His Word power and a triumphant ·ictory !
[Tran8lated from the German by M. M. Minnassian, A.B.] THE CALL TO PRAYER.
[EDITORIAL, A. T. P.] The editor feels the profoundest respect and reverence for that foremost of all missionary organizations, the Church Missionary Society, and a1though it is somewhat Jate to refer to this, its day of intercession for foreign missions in 1890 furnishes an example for all of us to follow.
The m'e of St. Andrew's Day, November 29th, and the week which it introduced, were made a period of special prayer for missions, and the prayer of Asa was adopted as a fit motto. We venture at this late day to make quotations from the re~arkable circular issued by this grand society in connection with this movement : " Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power. Help us, 0 Lord our God j for we rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude. 0 Lord, Thou art our God j let not man prevail against Thee. "
"This prayer of Asa, when going forth agamst overwhelming odds, may well stand out prominently in the minds of all who are taking an intelligent and prayerful interest in the carrying out of the Master's great missionary commission, as they thankf.lily approach the observance of the Day of Intercession, and realize that a great coneert of prayer will be ascending at that time, not simply from the world -wide Anglican communion, but also from almost all Protestant Christian communities, who find in the active work of proclaiming Christ's salvation a common interest, and at the throne of grace a common platform where all can unite, and thus co-operate in one common object."
" Asa's prayer is very apposite to the present position and opportunities. Fresh fields for conquest opening on all sides; 'many adversaries' more. busy and persistent than ever; only too successful attacks of the great enemy on infant Christian communities; his devices manifest in complications and difficulties even among brethren, overwheliiting demands which the very success of the work and growth of interest in it impose, requiring prayerful patience and earnest deliberation j these are some of the marked features of the time, calling for a large exhibition of the spirit breathed in Asa's prayer as he faced the great emergency with " The Cry of Faith, ' Help us, 0 Lord our God. ' " The Repose of Faith, , 'Ve rest on Thee.' " The Energy of Faith, ' In Thy name we go.' " " The remarkable appeal, signed by several prominent friends of the society, who met last July in private conference at Keswick, calling on the committee to organize' an advance on a large scale, under the directing hand of God,' is based on a review of the' needs of the heathen, and of the marvellous openings which God is providing at this time.' There are indeed marvellous openings. Africa is becoming accessible in all directions. Let special prayer be made for the Nyanza party uuder Bishop Tucker; for the Upper Niger and Soudan Mission, where an attempt is being made, fraught with promise, and with early tokens of the good hand of the Lord upon the workers, to penetrate the Central Soudan. The Imperial British East Africa Company is opening the direct route from Mombasa to the Nyanza, known as Bishop Hannington'tl route, and are cordially inviting the society to avail itself of the opelJings. China is an open field to all who will venture in. Calls reach the committee to man vigorously the frontier stations of the Punjab and Sindh Mission, so as to be in readiness as Central Asia opens its doors for the evangelist. In countries already occupied, the opportunities for evangelization demand large reinforcements; and prayer should earnestly be made that the native Christian communities in these countries may themselves be privileged to supply in large measure . the missionarieR needed in order that their own countrymen may be evan- gelized. The very magnitude of the work opening up might well appall, but for all which is implied in t.he liberty to cry, ' Help us, 0 Lord our God.' "
" A favorable symptom, as evidencing the reality of the work and the impression that is being produced by it, may be found in the increasing hostility manifested to the spread of the Gospel. In many of the older misaions of the society tho missionary may truly say, ' A great door and effectual is opened, and there are many adversaries.' This is especially noticeable in many parts of India, particularly at present among the Mo- hammedans in the Punjab, who have taken vigorous steps to stop the work carried on among their women by the Zenana missionary ladies. But the saIne spirit is apparent elsewhere, and is developing markedly in Japan and in Bagdad after the baptism of a Mohammedan convert; while political opposition is hindering the work in Palestine. Prayer is especially needed for the guidance of the missionaries by the holy Spirit, that they may act with judgment as well as with zeal j and for all inquirers after truth, and for those who are convinced of the truth, that they may be enabled to withstand the fiery ordeal of persecution, and to come out boldly to confess the faith of Christ crucified, even though it be unto death."
" The marked growth of interest in the cause among Christians at home, while full of encouragement, and a:/l.,ding ground for devout thanksgiving, brings with it special dangers and difficulties, and may well demand a large share in the prayers of God's people. The number of home workers, or professing workers, is largely increasing. This is evidenced by the increase, both in the number ,of unions of various kinds, and by the increase of their members. The Gleaners' Union, every member of which is pledged to do something for the cause, now numbers 28,000 enrolled members. If all are doing each what he or she can in the name of the Lord, and relying on the Holy Spirit's enabling grace, what may not be effected? Prayer with reference to all these tokens of growing interest is suggested in a twofold direction : " (a) That there may be no disposition to trust in mere numbers, remembering Asa's prayer: 'It is nothing with Thee to help, whethp.r with many or with them that have no power. '
" (b) That God the Holy Spirit may sift the workers, and bring to the front those whom He is calling aud equipping for the work. Of Gideon's army of 32,000 there were left but 300, the faithful few by whom the Lord would save Israel and deliver the enemy into their hands."
" Quality, rather than quantity, is needed. Let earnest supplication be made that a vast number of volunteers both from England and from every congregation in the mission field may be raised up duly qualified, and may abide the Lord's test. "
"The present position, difficulties, and opportunities of the society may well cause all who realize what is the present demand. in the Church of Christ to cry, ' Who is sufficient for these things?' 'Our sufficiency is of God. ' Let this period of intercession send His people to their knees with the cry of faith, 'Help us, 0 Lord our God j , and bring to each one the Repose of Faith which a realized dependence on Him must bring, • We rest on Thee j' and send us forth with the Energy of Faith, th<1t rests not, to stop and weigh the difficulties of the situation, but boldly takes as its watchword' In Thy name we go.' What encouragements may be drawn from the experience of the past j what incentives from the bright outlook of the future I"
" And in adopting Asa's prllyer, what reason there is to add his son Jehoshaphat's method, who, in similar straits to those of his father, followed his example of prayer. 'Oh, our God, we have no might, neither know we what to do j but our eyes are upon Thee; , and then, going in the name of the Lord, and when he had taken counsel with the people, , appointed them that should sing unto the Lord and praise the beauty of holiness' as they went before the army, and sang, 'Give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever.' "
"Compassed with the Song of Praise the Lord's army shall go forth , steadfast, unmovable,' always abounding in the work of the Lord."
" Let earnest prayer be made that. all who engage in any department of this great work may indeed, filled with the Energy of Faith by the Divine Spirit, go in the name of the Lord-in that all-victorious name to which every knee shall bow, and through which God giveth the victory. The work is not man's but God's j the object is not of human will, but of Divine purpose, for His glory in the conversion of souls and the building up of His Church. The issue must be sure, for the appeal. be. the ad versary who he may, is conclusive, , Let not man prevail against Thee.' "
A little lad who had become interested in gathering money to send the Gospel to the heathen, hit upon this happy device. He rummaged in the garret and found an old-fashioned powder-horn. which he decided to make into a missionary box. His older brother Raid he might have the horn, but wondered what he was going to do with it. The large end of the horn had a wooden bottom, and Eddie scraped it smooth, and asked his brother if he would cut some letters on it. " Yes," said his brother, and Eddie gave him these words: " Once I was the horn of an ox, Now I am a missionary box.·'
Eddie inked the letters, and then as he showed his box to his friends they were all so pleased with his ingenuity that they all put something into it, and he became a large contributor.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. CO. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
CHINA.
-The Rev. Timothy Richard, in the May Missionary Herald of the English BaptiRts, says, writing from Tientsin: "From a political point of view, China has had a sad year. The population of China increases at the rate of/our million8 a year-forty millions (as much as all the Germans) every ten years. Without new means of support, this increase of population means the increased poverty of the existing inhabitants. As these arc already as poor as they can be and live, every increase means death. This is literally true. Under various names-droughts, floods, etc.-about twenty millions must have perished from starvation during the last dozen years. This year, in the province where Peking and Tientsin are situated, we have great floods such as they have not experienced here since the memory of the oldest living, and a few millions are expected to die before next year's wheat harvest. The saddest thing about all this poverty and starvation is that not one in a thousand of the Mandarins either knows the cause or the remedy. Such as did know, like the Marquis Tseng, who had been Minister to England, and his uncle the Viceroy of Nankin, and especially the Emperor's father (the Seventh Prince) have suddenly been cut off by denth. Now, alas! few of the remaining Manllarins know how to save their country."
-There having been a renewal of disgraceful calumnies again~t the Christian missions, especially the Roman Catholic, the Shanghai Conference has appointed seven to publish a refutation of them.
-Dr. Russell Watson, English Baptist medical missionary at Tsing Chu Fu, reports their having trp.ated over 12,000 cases during the year.
-China'8.JIillion8 for May announces the arrival, and gives portraits of 35 Scandinavian missionaries (17 male, 18 female) who arrived at Shanghai in February from America, and the names of 8 gentlemen and 7 ladies who arrived in March. "Part of the coming thousand." Sixteen of the Scandinavian brethren from America (C. 1. M.) had left Shanghai for Shan-se, under Messrs. D. Lawson and Peat. where Mr. Russell would snperintend their studies, locating them in little parties in small places within easy reach of Hiao-'i.
-The Rev. W. S. Swanson, formerly missionary at Amoy, said, at the anniversary of the London Missionary Society: "In 1800 of east longitude it does not seem to matter whether you are an Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Congregationalist. You are face to face with the great work of Christ, and your confession of faith may be summed up in this: that all men are sinners, and Jesus Christ, God's only Son, is able to save to the uttermost. That is a working creed. "
Mr. Swanson added that" there were five hundred millions of Chinese in the world. The Chinaman was an individual with some backbone in him; but the Chinese woman had several backbones in her. If they could get the women of China to become Christians they had solved the question. "
-The Roman Catho;ic mission in South Shartung, under BiRhop Anzer, has exchanged the French protectorate for the German. The Catholics in China seem to have a great many diplomatic difficulties which, as the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift suggests, can hardly be very advantageous to Christianity. "The less inclined missionari~s are to invoke diplomatic intervention, the mme rarely the strong arm of a Western power interposes in their affairs, the better. The broken reeds of Egypt have always shown themselves to be an ominous support." The same hishop (we think it was) probably accomplished more for the Gospel when he sold his house and offered his jewelled mitre for sale to find bread for the famishing.
-We know that " Christianity has materially modified the languages of the West, and that it is modifying, and will still further modify, the language of China. We know that Chinel:le is not so inflexible as the scholars of China believe it to be. If it were so, the Chinese could never possess anything but a stunted and attenuated Christianity, for at the present moment it has no fit terminology in which to express properly many of the grandest and most important thoughts that God has given to us through the Gospel of His Son. But all modifications of language must be within certain limits, and, moreover, they must be a gradual growth. "-Chinese Recorder.
– The Chinese Churchman (cited in the Spirit of Missions) remarks that for the first time, in Government proclamations, Christianity has been raised above the category of " Little Teaehings;" and for the first time our Lord Jesus Christ has been given a higher place t:18n Mohammed.
-The New York Recorder (iikewise quoted in the Spirit of Mi88ions) says, with reference to recent troubles: "The American Govemment should not be precipitate in dealing with China in taking' joint action' with other Powers, in any policy that looks like what the London Times advises as ' severe measures.' Joint action, and especially under the lead of France, as is proposed, would be a surrender of whatever little influence we possess in that empire. It would be the furtherance of European Bmbitions in China, which would do no good either to our commerce or national prestige."
-The London MiRsionary Society has reconstituted its Board of Directors on a more thoroughly representative basis, tal_ng precautions against giving London too large a proportion, and making arrangements for a more frequent attendance of the directors from the provinces. In view, also, of the danger that the society may become merely Congregationalist, they have invited each of the three Preshyterian churches of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of Ireland to nomi.nate a director.
-George Miiller, in his address on Faith, at Basel, reported in the Neukirchene1' Heidenbote, takes pains to correct an opinion which many may have derived from his course. He says: "To make known the pecuniary wants of benevol(nt enterprises to their friends is something which I do not regard as unscriptural. Still less do I regard it as a sin. But I have refrained from it for this reason-naulely, because through my pastoral activity and my wide correspondence, I had learned, that of nothing is the Church of God so in need as of a greater faith. Many things were needed, but nothing, nothing, nothing so sorely as an iMrease of faith. And therefore it appeared to me, if I could carryon the work of the Lord without appealing to anyone except God for help, that would be a proof that even in the nineteenth century the living God is still here, that even, although the prophets have fallen asleep, yet the God of the prophets lives, and that the Lord and Master of the apostles yet Jives."
-" Certain languages are mighty conquerors. They almost divide the world between them, while others are fast dying out. The whole Bible has been provided in all the great conquering tongues. "-Ohurch Missionary lntelligencer.
-Northern Africa ~ays: "In those churches where there is good teaching as well as good working, we generally find good candidates and the most liberal givers. Of the twelve it is said that He ordained them that they should be with Him. They were then prepared not only by his teaching, but by watching how He Himself worked. We feel the need of just these two things in candidates-they need good teaching and they alRO need to be shown how to work by Rome one able to work efficiently. In our evangelistic missions there may have been great blessing by preaching some truths that had been much neglected, but tllere has also been a danger of neglecting and even despising dry theology, which is now producing a shallow type of Christian. Might not a good deal that is now left to colleges" (i.e., seminaries) " be done in the churches l May God help us to maintain the balance of truth, and in cvery way so to teach and labor that a generation of sturdy and consecrated men, full of faith and the Holy Ghost, may be prepared for the foreign and home fields. "
N01·thern Africa, speaking of its work among the Arabs, says: "The Church seems, like Hagar of old, to have left Ishmael to die, but the God of Abraham has not forgotten the prayer offered more than three thousand years ago by him whom He deigned to call his friend, 'Oh that Ishmacl might live before Thee,' a prayer that is to be answered not only in respect to the lad, but also his descendants."
– " Modern missions have been long favored to carryon their work in all quietness. Their voice has not been heard in the street. For decadeR the world scarcely took note of them, unless, indeed, to mock at them. This place under the cross has been both a defence and a blessing. Yet even this beautiful time of youth had its drawbacks. Doubtless it involved a certain narrowness-flight of the world, as they say now. Yet of this they have no great occasion to be ashamed j it is a reproach which they share with the apostolic age. But with all their imperfections they laid hold of the mission work in its innermost essence, extended the Kingdom after the manner of the Kingdom, saved souls, laid the One Foundation Jesus Christ, wrought from below up, and went from small things to larger.
"This time of stillness and neglect on the part of the world is now gone by for missions. Doubtless there is here anadvance ; the child has become a ma,n, who takes a place in the world's history. The world, therefore, naturally finds now occasion to define its position as to missions. Missions must be carried on ; that is now agreed. But the world is not at all pleased with the way they are carried on. It seeks to influence them, to give them a totally new direction, to alter them fundamentally, and 80 to trouble them in their very end."-Dr. VYARNECK.
-Men would have missions, remarks Dr. Warneck, leave the apostolic for the mediooval method. That explains why, especially in Germany, Rome and her methods are coming to be so vehemently admired, and the patient humbleness of evangelical missions misliked, as by the world" thc folly of the cross" has ever been. But the end of missions, as given by Christ, is as fixed as the methods of missions are left by Him flexible. Jesus is not only the origin, He is the prototype of the work. As Luke says, He began to do and teach, and after Pentecost He proceeded to do and teach through His messengers. The work which is a continuance of His is the work of Christian missions; no other is. Forgiveness of sins and eternalli{e are what He came to bring; that must be, fundamentaily, what they go to offer. " The foreign mission work differs from the pastoral work in this, and this alone; it is a new "message. This involves many differences in form, but none in substance. The salvation of souls is the central work at home and abroad. The degeneration of the work of" Christ's menssengers begins when, either here or there, this is thrust out of the centre.
-The Indian Watchman, of Bombay, and the Kaukab i Hind plead for a larger incorporation of Eurasian Christians in mission work. Their mixed blood makes them natural mediators between Europe and Asia.
-The LeipRic Missionary Society is entering on thc second half-centuryof the renewed Lutheran Tamil Mission in the Madras Presidency. This mission is hot one of the most showy ones, but its work seems to be marked by a decided measure of what the Germans call Gediegenheit-i.e., well-compacted solidity and scripturalness.
-Awake, the little magazine for children published by the Church Missionary Society, in a very animated description of India, quotes thc remark of a great French writer: "Hinduism is, perhaps, the only system of belief that is worse than having no religion at all. "
-Dr. Hooper, in the Ohurch Missionary Intelligencer for March, 1891, remarks that while Christianity has shown an extraordinary power in leavening other religions whose basis remained irreconcilable with it, Islam, equally theistic, has had no leavening power at all. Sikhism has been greatly modified externally by it, but internally remains as intensely pantheistic as any other form of Hinduism.
Arya Samaj. which is rather waxing, while Brahmo Samaj is rather waning, is, unlike the latter, cold in its theism, unfriendly to British rule, and hostile to Christianity, to which the Brahmo Samaj, as a body, has always been cordial. But the extrav!lgant misinterpretation of the Rig Veda on which Arya Bamaj rests contains, remarks Dr. Hooper, the certainty of its ultimate break-up. Meanwhile .Arya Samaj does not hesitate to revile Christianity, and our Lord Himself, in the most scurrilous way, and is meeting with a good deal of present success, especially by its appeal to national feeling.
-The Evangelisch-Lutherisches Missionsblatt says, what in our smiling, we might say smirking age, we seem desperately determined to forget. "We know from the Lord's parables of the fourfold field, of the tares among the wheat, of the broad and narrow way, that He has never expected the conversion of all men. Where He and His messengers sow the good seed, there the enemy follows on the traces, sowing the evil seed. Alongside of the mission of Christ there goes through all peoples and ages a mission of the devil, which is quite as successful, nay, outwardly seems often iar more successful than the mission of Christ." It if! not every place of which Christ says: " I have much people in this city.o, It surely should be enough for the messenger of salvation, as the Missions- " blatt says, to know that God's ,Vord will infallibly accomplish "that whereto He sent it."
-Alfred S. Dyer, in National Righteousness, writing of "The Great Plague of Asia," says: "He is no friend of God or humanity who attempts to underrate the gravity of the opium scourge, which is not now confined to China alone. India, Burmah, Ceylon, arid other parts of Asia are involved. In and from every British port, from Bombay to Shanghai, the plague is spreading." The curse. therefore, which India, under British compulsion, has sent out to China, appears to be returning to plague herself.
-The Monthly says: "A grave discouragement to Christian workers in Palestine is, that it has attracted and is attracting to itself many spiritual eccentrics who surround earnest Christianity with disastrous, and sometimes with ridiculous associations. The Holy Land has a strange mystic charm for many sorts of romantic souls, from Lady Hester Stanhope to Israel Pick and the American Adventists."
-IIenri Draussin, in L'Eglise Libre, referring to the pompous and almost impiously sycophantic reception given to the Protestant queen of Madagascar, at the opening of the Roman Catholic cathedral in Antananarivo, says: "At the risk of being stigmatized as hopelessly English, we avow that this sort of politico-religious manamvring, this shrewd medley of mass and flattery, this accommodation of the anathemas of Catholic dogmas against heresy to the interested designs of a propaganda which is bent at all costs on winning over a crowned head, seem to us of ill augury. " Especially does M. Draussin censure the complaisance of the national agents toward designs so unfriendly to freedom and to a free Gos'pel.
-Le National, in its frantic hatred of the Protestant friends, French and English, of Hova rights against French aggressions, is not ashamed to renew the charge againilt the Rev. Mr. Shaw of having poisoned the wine of the French soldiers in Madagascar! The slander is too idiotic to deserve any worse epithet. It blames their admiral for not· having shot him on the spot. We owe the sight of both the above quotations to the kindness of the Maison de.~ Missions in Paris.
-The Calwer Monatsblatter for March, 1891, consists of an article on our Indians, which for thoroughness, compactness, lucidity, and fairnes~ equals anythin£!: we have seen on the subject. It would be worth circulating in English among ourselves.
-Considering the curious attempts making now to bring about· a nondescript amalgam of Christianity and Buddhism, the following brief antithesis, quoted from the Literary World by the Christian, is worth considering. However widely concrete Christianity may have diverged from this type, even for long ages, the Son of man has always been at hand to bring it back. "It does not seek to trample under foot the natural emotions and desires of man j it does not seek to withdraw him from the world in which he has been placed. It does not disparage either the dignity or the beauty of life."
Those high-bred circles which have at length discovered that culture alone does not bring blessedness, may have Buddha and Schopenhauer, or they may have Christ. But assuredly they cannot have both. It is not strange, therefore, that the" sympathy of religions," which has been lately set forth ill Japan, is said to be inclined to leave Christ altogether out of mention.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Japan Earthquake, lihood, the interruption of business, the general alarm of an earth-wave which [EDITOBIAL.-J. T. G.] produced a variety of phenomena over twenty thousand square miles or more The calamity that has befallen Japan of territory, all make an extraordinary is more than a national misfortune. In phase o( the world's history. these days when all the world is thrown into such near neighborhood, one mem- Japan has done nobly for the instant ber does not suffer, but all suffer. A relief of the sufferers. The Emperor and half million of houseless, homeless, Empress gave at once $20,000 to the redazed, bereft people, stripped of their lief corps. Nobles, lords, foreign resiproperty, with business interrupted and dents, and natives generally came to temporarily at least, destroyed, appeal the aid of the bewildered people, but to the universal heart of the civilized the whole is not equal to the necessities world. The Johnstown flood disaster of the case. Nor will the demand for met with sympathetic expression from aid be met for many a day to come. It large parts of the world. The Chris- is not too late, even after these lines tians of Japan took up a collection and shall be read, for contributions to be of forwarded it, through the Japanese value. We make no appeal for moneys Methodist missionary at San Francisco, to be added to any specific fund. Any for the Johnstown sufferers. But of the treasurers of the great missionary neither the Johnstown flood nor the societies will, we are sure, gladly be the Chicago fire are to bj! compared with custodians of money for the relief fund the reach of the wretchedness of this in general, for native Christians in parseismic disturbance of nearly all the ticular, or for reparation of losl! to prop- Island Empire. The hundreds of shocks erty. They will faithfully carry out left the people too much 'llarmed to re- any instructions of the donors so far as enter the houses which were left stand- lies within their power. We say this ing, and drove them to sleeping in the without having a word of consultation open air in the cold nights. The with them, and without knowing what American Charge d'Affaires at Tokyo, measures, if any, they will take officially anu Admiral Belknap, of the United in the case. But if any persons prefer to States Navy, in charge of the Asiatic send their contributions through secular Station at Yokohama, unite in an appeal channels, they can do 80 directly to Adto th'l. people of the United States to miral Belknap, at Tokyo, for the send relief. Ninety thousand houses ., Earthquake Relief Fund." It will destroyed, perhaps thirty thousand be well that whatever is done be done more badly damaged, eight or ten thou- at once. sand persons killed, carrying grief into the hearts of tens of thousand more, So far as we are able to recall at presand ten thousand badly-injured people ent, the missions at Nagoya and vicinto be cared for, make such conditions ity-the centre of the devastated disas should send a thrill through Christen- trict-are those of the Methodist Episdom, and at once meet with a hearty copal Church, the Presbyterian Church response in practical sympathy. No South, the Methodist Protestant Church, battle-field could furnish such heart- and a lady missionary of the Cumberrending sce.nes as have been witnessed land Presbyterian Church. The Southin connection with this disaster. The ern Presbyterians are also at Kochi. subsidence of the land, the destruction The only one of the foreign missionaries who sustained injuries, so far as we have of factories, removing .the means of live- ~earned! was the Rev. Mr. Van Dyke. of the Methodist Protestant Mission. Rev. eased, the clean and the unclean, the Mr. Miyama, of the }Iethodist Episco- patients who refrain from crossing jt pal Mission, and his wife were also in- and the ministering Christians who freejured. He has been a very active ly cross over to the lepers for their conworker among the Chinese in California stant labors of love to souls and bodies. and the Sandwich Islands. A Japanese At the left of this wooden railinK are pastor of the Presbyterian Chu.rch South the quarters of the nursing staff, also was instantly killed. There are many the workroom, kitchens, bakery, etc. Christians among the sufferers. To the right of it are the quarters of the lepers. The women live all together in The Leper Hospital of the Moravian a suite of large rooms; and two or three Ohuroh at Jerusalem, men generally occupy one ohamber. These apartments need to be light and REV. J. TAYLOR HAMILTON, SECRE1'ARY airy, owing to the nature of the disease, MORAVIAN BOARD, BETHLEHEM, PA. which becomes more and more offensive to sight and smell. They might seem A traveller in Palestine, when jour- bare to a European, but are fairly furneying to· day from Bethlehem to Jeru- nished for Orientals, especially of the salem, will very probably notice a large, class from which the patients are mainsubstantially·b~ilt modern edifice as he ly drawn." nears the Holy City. It is a stately structure for Palestine-in part two, To the story of this hospital I invite and in part three stories high as it rises your attention for a brief while. A above the Vale of Rephaim_ Over the peculiar interest attaches to it from its main entrance he will perceive, carved being the only institution of the kind in in large Roman letters, the words, aU the land in which our Lord, when Gn ., Jesus Hilfe," .. The Help of Jesus." earth, cl<lBnsed lepers among thobe Stimulated by curiosity, he may pass whom His word of power savingly through the open gate of the garden and healed of their diseases. ascend the steps to the front door. There is, indeed, another shelter for He will meet with a cordial welcome these poor outcasts; but the very confrom a German missionary, who will trast it offers to the home in which gladly make him acquainted with the Christian sympathy seeks to relieve misinstitution over which he presides-that ery and anticipate the wants of the is, on the supposition that the stranger's body, ,and at the same time breathe oourage is equal to the ordeal; for this hope into the despondent !!Ioul, argues is the Moravian Leper Hospital, just forcibly for the need of just such an inoutside Jerusalem. stitution Sf! the" Jesus Hilfe."
He will find that it is a quadrangular Eight years after our home had begun building "surrounding a large oourt- its work of mercy, a oertain Pasha gave yard, in the middle of which is a huge orders for the erection of a building for cistern. This cistern may well be large, the reception of lepers at the oost of the for in this land there is no rain for half State. It is not far from the village of the year, and wat~r is a main neoessity Siloam, and is" a low building of only for such an institution. Everything in one story, lit up by five windows which and around the house and in the yard serve for as many rooms. Eight lepers is scrupulously clean." He will notice are supposed to occupy each of thes(', especially the wooden railings that run and thoy are small for the purpose. right across the middle, dividing the The roof of each room is vaulted; in court as well as the passages. "True, the walls are niches; the floor is formetl the gates stand open, and, indeed, are of a stone pavement. On this floor low never closed; yet there it is, the bar- pillars ar" erected which are bollow in· lier between the health! and tJ~e (lis. side, and serve the double purpose of store-~laces for the fruits ~athered b! the lepers, and also to mark out the " On the other hand, a peculiar char. space appropriated to each patient. acteristic of the disease, as it now oc· Nothing buL an old thin straw mat is curs, is the insensibility of the skin, exspread on the hard, cold stones. Here tending inward so far that the knots the poor creatures lie in a room dimly which form under the surface could be lighted by only one window, and in an cut out without the patient feeling any atmosphere rendered pestilential by the pain. Of this feature there is no men· breath of many diseased persons. As tion in Leviticus. Lastly, the leprosy soon as the sun is up, life begins to stir of the present day seems absolutely in these five apartments, and whoever incurable by any medical art, while the of the inmates has still the power of law of the old covenant makes proyi. movement leaves the house. Those sions for cases of healing. who are unable to walk are obliged to remain indoors, and are left without " We cannot but conclude, therefore, any help or care, for no one has either that leprosy has changed its character time or inclination to tend the suffering in the course of centuries. It has be. or comfort the dying. Thl! most that come more ineradicable and more de· can be expected to be done by those structive. Observation of individual who leave the house in search of what cases bears this out. Careful treatment may be obtained by begging, is that and constant cleansing of the sores at they divide a piece of bread with some the very beginning of the disease will more unfortunate companion, and place check its course for years, while neglect, a jug of water by his side." Thus one especially if united to insufficient diet, after another gradually succumbs to the will quickly aggravate its destruative awful disease, and with severe strug- character. The above-mentioned knots gles and great pain closes hopelessly a under the skin begin to suppurate and life from which hope had long since fled. turn into deep and spreading sores, de. stroying the flesh until the bones are Leprosy still remains one of the most laid bare." loathsome and awful visitations that can well befall a human being. Of the form Whether or not leprosy, as it exists of the malady to be met with in the to-day, is infectious, is, I believe, some_ Orient, Dr. Einszler, the honorary phy- what of an open question. Certain it sician of our hospital at Jerusalem, is, that of the Moravians who at dif. writes as follows: ferent times to the number of about 25 have ministered to the wants of lepe,ril, "Neither the description of leprosy in connection with leper homes, not given in Leviticus 13, nor the signs there one has contracted the malady. Never. given to the priest for the discernment theless, it needs a most devoted spirit of the disease at all agree WIth the symp. to care for lepers in every stage of toms of leprosy as now existing. The the loathsome disease. Think what it , plague in the skin of the flesh' is not means to spend day after day in contact now 'in sight deeper' than the skin with such woe; to witness the intense surrounding it, nor does the hair on the sufferings and hear the moans of those diseased part turn white. On the con· victims for whom the diseas'l is reach· trary, it remains unchanged in color at ing a vital part ; to breathe the air made first, but after a time it becomes brittle offensive by the eftluvium of leprosy, and falls off, as the skin loses vitality and wash and bandage the sores repeat. and the roots of the hair die. In the edly; to know that the most which can Old Testament the expression repeated- be done is to mitigate the awful suffer· ly occurs, 'a leper white as snow,' ings and for awhile postpone the end, That evidently implied that the skin of happy even in the being able, by Gurjun the person so atRicted appeared remark. and Chaulmoggra oils, to afford some ably white, which, however, is not the temporary relief. And with it all, the stupefying dulness of intellect induce:::' case in leprosy of the present day. by the physical conditions not seldom reached America 10 sisters in Germany' proves a hindrance tothe reception of the and 2 in England '6xpressed their willhigher consolation. So atvarious points ingness to go. the ministering Christian is baffied. As the work of the hospital widened, Though the Moravian 'Church was its noble foundress began to perceive active among lepers in Cape Colony that its steady maintenance would from 1822 to 1867, the present under- greatly tax her ability, and that it was taking dates only from the last of those desirable to provide for its permanent years. Two years prior to this-viz., in continuance. Hence, on January 1st, 1865, the compassion of a German Baron 1881, she made it over altogether to the and Baroness was excited by the miser Mission Board of the Moravian Church. able plight of the lepers whom they ob- The local committee, with Mr. Frutiger, served when on a visit to Jerusalem. a German banker in Jerusalem as treas- On their return home they determined urer, still continued to "have the immeto do what lay in their power toward diate oversight. The prElsent building, the founding of a home for the outcasts. erected on a new site at a cost of about The Baroness von Keffenbrinck-Asche- $20,000, was opened on April 24th, 1887. raden especially interested herself, and The missionary now in charge is the Rev. devoted her energies to the carrying out Carl Schubert, who was installed only of their design, so that she rather than last Easter, having shortly before graduher husband has been regarded as the ated from the Moravian Training School founder of the noble charity. A com- for Missionaries in Germany. Bis exmittee for the more immediate supel·in- cellent predecessor, the Rev. Fritz tendence was formed in Jerusalem, con- Mueller, had served seven years; but sisting of Bishop Gobat, the German the health of his wife had become very consul, the pastor of the Evangelical precarious. German congregation in Jerusalem, and two others. A suitable plot of ground Varying slightly from time to time, was bought outside the Jaffa Gate, and the number of inmates at the close of the Moravian Church furnished the mis- last year was 18-10 males and 8 females, sionaries, the Rev. F. Tappe and wife, 9 Moslems and 9 Christians. Their ages who had previously served for thirteen varied from 19 to 71. One had been a years ill Labrador. The Home was con- patient for 17 years, but most of them secrated on Ascension Day, May 30th, for less than 3 years. 1867. So deep, however, did the Mohammedans' distrust and hate of Chris- It may be asked what are the results tians prove, added to the dislike of any- of all this Christian effort, aside from the thing that resembled restraint and the alleviation of physical suffering and deprivation of the old privilege of beg- want? ging, that not one leper would at first avail himself of its advantages. But Besides making use of opportunities gradually prejudices were overcome, so that present themselves in private conthat by the end of the first year there versation, the missionary conducts rewere 12 patients. In due time two ligious services daily in the chapel of nurses from Germany came to the as- the hospital, and twice a week an Ara· sistance of the manager and his wife, bic catechist, Daughan by name, renders who have besides the help of a man-ser- valuable assistance. And their efforts vant. But there have very naturally have not been in vain. been times of great perplexity. In 1887, for instance, the staff of nurses com- The Rev. Dr. Rondthaler, of Salem, pletely broke down. A call for volun- North Carolina, who visited the hospital teers was issued by the Mission Board several times during a stay in Jerusalem of the Moravian Church, and before it two years ago, said that two thinglil im- pressed him greatly : 1. That the patients of the house are very grateful and as cheerful as possible under the circumstances. 2. That many of them have a hope shown us hitherto. We have found & home in your benevolent hospital, in and an expectation beyond this life, so which we are well cared for.
saddened and darkened for them. Of a You already know what v.e have to go through. God the Highest has visited farewell service which he conducted he us with t.his painful disease. The bur- den which He has thus laid upon us is writes: "How they listened as I read great and heavy, and at times scarcely to be borne. Sometimes we toss about 1 John 1, and went on to tell in simplest on onr beds with inexpressible aches and pains such as human understanding language of the love and sympathy of can scarcely comprehend. But we are comforted, and bear our misery with the Saviour, and how it is expressed in patience, for our kind reception into your hospital has shown us that we are the kindness of His people to them. not forsaken by God the Highest. Here you not only care for us, but have sent Some are still Mohammedans; but.these us such dear house-parents, who do in- deed thoroughly take a parent's place children of Ishmael shared in the audio toward us, and day by day point us to Him who said: "Come unto Me, all ye ble 'Yes, Yes,' which often showed that that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That affords us they understood." comfort and confidence in the hope that the dear Saviour will once grant us rest The Rev. S. J. Blum, of Philadelphia after this pitiful life, for we also shall have a place in His kingdom. Our who visited the hospital last year, was hearts, honored friends, are full of joy and delight that God still loves us very much struck with the absence of though the world hates and despises us. Yes, we are glad that when our all cries for " bakshish" on the part of Saviour was on earth He always pitied and healed the sick. Those who thought the inmates of the home whom he met they had no need of a physician kept away from Him_ We know, indeed, in the garden of the institution and in that we are sinners, and, therefore, we need a Saviour who will make us free their rooms. He regarded it as a very from sin, and that Saviour is Jesus.
marked evidence of the change in char- And now we beg you to intercede for us that God will grant us grace and paacter ths.t hs.d come over them, for else- tience in our sufferings as long as we continue in this world, and above alJ. where lepers were most importnnate. that He will give us everlasting life. Do help us. Pray fervently that we Had I time I might adduce a number may not perish in our great sufferings.
of happy death-beds that have cheered With heartfelt greetings ft·om all, SALIER. the missionaries during their years of labor. Last year, for example, a young man of twenty, named Beschara, was released from his life of sufferings, re- peating the twenty-third Psalm as the farewell confession of his faith. And others like him have died in confident expectation of that life where leprosy will be unknown.
True, here as elsewhere, there have been some keen disappointments for the Christian workers in oharge. Yet on the whole they have felt themselves re- paid for their self-sacrifice. .
The following letter of thanks, com- posed by Salieh, one of the patients at the tim e of the consecration of the pres- ent building, and signed by all his com- panions, is s.n evidence that some of the poor unfortunates deeply appreciate what is done for them in the name of Christ: DEAR FRIENDS: We who have to bear Then follow the names of all the pain our bodies the wounds, and pains, tients. and whatsoever troubles this leprosy brings ~i/;h it, send you our heartfelt Thus charity that never faileth, by thanks for all the kindness. you have the grace of God implants in the hearts of these benighted outcasts a deep calm and a mo~t Christian resignation, pre. lepers, if the judgment of the medical paring them for the day of heavenly officer of the principal one of these in- health. firmaries is to be relied on. It is fair to emphasize that both these are esti· mates. No census has been taken, nor Leprosy in a. South Amerioan State, probably could be taken owing to the There is ever a melancholy interest in secrecy observed by the victims of the the subject which Dr. Taylor treats in disease and their friends, though there his article on the ., Leper Hospital at seems to be much less dread of the dis- Jerusalem ;" but the time has come for ease here among the popUlation in gen· something more that a morbid sympathy eral than in any other land of which we with lepers. The impression that lep know. The most notable thing about rosy is an exceptional and limited form the consul's report is that regarding the of human misery has perhaps caused the climatic effect on the disease of a local- modern scientist and humanitarian to ity some 1400 feet above the sea with a neglect such investigation into it as they temperature of about 82t0 in the district are accustomed to make into the more of Tocaima, about three days' journey widespread forms of human ill. But from Bogota, where there ~8 a leper asy·, the time has come for special inquiry lum at a place called Agua de Dios. It into unusual, and, as is supposed, infre. was discovered a hundred years ago that quent maladies. Pasteur, for instance, this climate arrested the progress of the is doing this for the malady arising from disease, so that lepers who remained rabies. We learn that there is a com- here rarely if ever died of leprosy, but of mission of specialists appointed for some other cause. There are sulphur England and India to inquire scientifi· springs in the locality, but the lepers cally into leprosy. But that is not broad do not use them. Other people resort enough. It looks as if such a commis- there, and quite a population has grown sion ought to be international. Certain- up about the lazaretto, and the people ly facts which may be said to have been mingle freely and without let with the recently brought to public notice, if lepers. The lepers do not now consti- indeed that is not a rhetorical state- tute more than one third of the resident ment of the extent to which they are population. The healthy people of the yet made known, about the United States locality intermarry with the lepers. The of Colombia, in relation to the preva- marriage does not result unfavorably to lence of leprosy, would suggest that a the healthy party to it; but the children great deal of important knowledge might born in this wedlock generally develop be gathered in that quarter. the disease in a few years, even little The British Consul at Bogota is author. children of four and five years being ity for most startling statements as to victims of it. On the other hand, the the extent and spread of leprosy in that case is given of a leper who bad been State. It appears to have been slowly nearly forty years in this locality who spreading for about two hundred and had passed through several stages of fHty years in that region, though in the the disease, but for the last eighteen last twenty years it cannot be said to years had had no pain or inconvenience have extended slowly, but very rapidly. from it. The mortality of the lepers, A medical review is published in Bogota, however, is far above the average of the the editor of which is recognized as a other people living there. They usually well·known physician, and he makes die of dysentery, fevers, and pulmonary the statement that of the one million complaints, The astounding thing ahout population of Santander and Boyaca, all this is the lack of restraint on the one tenth-which would be a hundred population with a view to limiting it.
thousand-are lepers. The lazarettos of If, >as the Consul says, the people believe ~l;lese districts contain thirty thousand it is both contagious and hereditary, and if from the introduction of a single case scared, haunted, held fast, the African's into Antioquia thirty years ago there can life begins and ends in fear. The chill be now counted eight hundred, what- of fear strikes it at birth and leaves it ever are the authoritiE's about that they only at death. Want, pale daughter of do not set up some kind of hygienic murder, aids to enlarge the depopulated regulations of it? If they are not finan· areas ; the knife of the cannibal threatcially able to isolate the lepers, they can ens them all-unhappy knife, the last have help from the outside world on the weapon of African atrocities! . . • simple ground of ordinary humanity, Sisters of America, shall your souls and and that not of the picture pocket-hand- ours keep silent? In the presence of kerchief sort either. It is not a case so this despair shall we look on with inmuch of sympathy as of decent humani- difference? Have our hearts nothing to tarianism of the common-sense order. ask, our energies nothing to do at a mo- We are near enough neighbors to Co- ment when great work should begin? .. lombia to take a lesson or two from her All Europe is stirred. . .. The past notebook on the subject of national of America gives assurance that it will carelessness on this matter of disease not be distanced by Europe in this great importations and inoculation, and near humanitarian movement. • .' Amerienough, too, to respond to a missionary ca, who sends her missionaries to equacall for aid in carrying the load of a torial lands, will not be indifferent to smitten population in districts where the efforts of the Old WorId, the lands one in ten of the people are suffering of their ancestors, whose conscience is the worst of human maladies. now aroused and whose valor is united for the suppression of the slave trade in J. T. G. Africa.
"An Appeal to the Women of "Sisters of America, your sisters in America." Europe rely on your i.lelp. Christian women of America, the hope of the dis- THE COUNTESS OF GASPARIN. tressed in Africa is in you."
'Ne have received the" appeal" sent The Men Who Ma~e Islam, out by the Countess of Gasparin to the women of America, on the subject of Whoever stops with the life of Muham- African slavery, in connection with the mad and the Quran will not come into a Brussels Treaty; but our space forbids knowledge of Islam, for the Quran alone using it all. We make from it the fol is to no Moslem the sole rule of life; lowing selections, translated perhaps, a and though the Sunni sect may spit little freely : upon the grave of the Khalifs Abu Bekr and Omar, yet without these men Islam "American sisters! Slavery is not would not have survived the death of dead. Nor have its abominations oeased Muhammad. To know Islam one must to dishonor the earth, nor its murders know the immediate successors of Muto stain it with blood. Extinct, is it? No! a thousand times No ! . .. Daugh- hammad-each at once king and pope ters of the continent of light, give it your pity." (Here follow descriptions – who carved out of the broken pieces of the horrors of the slave caravan.) of empire which Muhammad left strewn over Arabia, a strong State, and out of "Slaves of the Arab brigands, the his most casual utterance a canon for African people, small and great, are the the consciences of millions yet unborn. slaves of fear; the slaves of ferocious More splendid illustrations of bold, hatred, man against man, tribe against prompt decision in court or camp, one tribe. Slaves of bestiality, of falsehood, will look far afield to find than are reand of wicked spirit.s led about by storms corded of the four great khalifs, .the and hid in the forests. Slaves of the only" successors" of Muhammad. The devil, the monarch of the dark continent, very peril '-_ the first hour after Mu- that Muhammad could not die. When hammad's death only afforded such men the rumor spread that the great man opportunity to snatch triumph from was no more, the wildest excitement wild and hopeless disorder and over- swept the town, and the crowd that hanging ruin. gathered at the mosque was dazed as with delirium. c. Among them Omar The biographies of Muhammad are arose, and in a wild and excited strain past count. There are as rich resources declaimed that the prophet was not for the reproduction of every detail of dead, but in a trance, from which he his life as of any man that ever inhabit- would soon arise and root out the hypoed the earth. But for what followed crites from the land." Abu Bekr, who Muhammad ?-for knowledge of the men had been for an hour away from the who carved Islam out of the material prophet on a visit to his sick mother, which Muhammad left to them we have came hurrying back to the mosque; to resort to much painful picking in crossing the court he had stopped to dust-bins and out-of-the- way annals. kiss the prophet's face: "Sweet wert Few men are furnished for excursio"ns thou in life," he said, .c and sweet thou of this sort_ The learning, the literary art in death." Finding Omar still qualities, as well as the moral qualities haranguing the people when he reached for original researches of this kind are the mosque, he put him aside with the rare. It is with a sense of obligation memorable words: .. Whoso worshippeth which the literary and religious world Mahomet, let him know that Mahomet is should acknowledge, that we turned dead; but whoso worshippeth God, let him into and have come out of, Sir William know that God liveth and dieth not. " Omar Muir's latest studies into the fragments was speechless .. My limbs trembled, of scattered Arabian lore, which he andIknewoia certaintythatMuhammad prosecuted to furnish to the world a was dead," he would Ray in after years. portraiture of the great khalifs (Sir William persists in the old Romanizing The citizens of Medina had instantly .. caliph") of Islam; or, rather, to be assembled to select a successor to Mumore exact, to give us a noble volume of hammad, and the report of their gather. some six hundred pages, entitled ., The ing was made known at the mosque. It was a critical moment. The mantle of Caliphate :1ts Rise, Decline, and Fall. "* the prophet must fall on one and one only. The sovereigntyoflslam demand- One will search far for more graphic, ed an undivided khalifate. The die bold, and comprehensive historical must be cast and must be cast at once. grouping than is instanced in the first The men of Medina demanded that he few paragraphs describing the death of should be of themselves, for their good Muhammad, and the selection on the swords had saved Islam. spot of his immediate successor. •• Every word wnich ye men of Medina Muhammad died a little after midday have uttered in your own praise is true," in the midsummer of 632 A.D. It is said Abu Bekr, .c and more than true; doubtful if the devoted followers of the but in noble birth and influence th!l prophet had allowed themselves to con- Coraish are paramount, and to none but template the event of his death; and, them will Alabia yield obedience." like Napoleon, he seems never to have " Then," said the men of Medina, .. let thought of what would become of his there be one chief among you, and one faith or his kingdom when it should from among us." .. Away with you," fall into o~her hands. Some of his more said Omar; "two cannot stand todevoted adherents seem to have dreamed gether." The heat of the altercation was great when Abu Bekr arose. .. Ye * .. The Caliphate: its Rise, Decline, and FaIl.,. see these two," said he, pointing to Omar and Abu Obeida, .. choose ye now From Original Sources, by Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., LL.D., D:C.L. The Religious Tract Society, London. Fleming H. ReveIJ Co., New York and Chicago, sole agents. which of them ye will, and flalute him this book of Mr. Muir's wholesome if as your chief." .. Nay," answered not palatable reading. -J. T. G. these men both at once, ,. t/Wu hast already, at thl! prophet's bidding, led the The Situation in China. prayers, and art our chief. Stretch forth thine hand." He did so, and they We wrote in the November, 1891, REstruck their hands on his, as is the Arab VIEW of "Some of the Causes of the Discustom, in token of allegiance. The turbanoe in China." We have little need men of Medina did likewise, and the to modify the statements there made. supreme power passed without let or But new factors have come into the hindranoe into the hands of Abu Bekr. problem. The" Eastern Question" has become" The Far Eastern Question." It was to no bed of roses that Abu Europe is "fencing" on the Northern Bekr had been elevated. It took a year border of China from Manchuria to the of hard fighting to reolaim the penin- corner-post of India Eussia and China, sula alone. at Pamir. The European nations are not so busy settling treaty matters with There was nothing effeminate about China as they are in playing a larger ~ha men that made Islam. Sir William game for supremacy in Asia. Hence ':links Khalid. the dashing general who the gunboat masquerade in Chinese '''ands in the foreground of these early waters is all that we seem likely to have :r 11 de days of Islam, an extraordinary just at present, while the several Eurown.rrior. "His conduot on the battle- pean powers are coquetting with China fidds whioh deoided the fate of the Per- instead of bullying her. Great Britain, sian Empire, and of the Byzantine rule who was just now trying to determine in Syria, ranks him a; one of the great- with what sauce to begin to serve Prince est generals of the world." But those Chung, has gone to hold a love-feast were rough men made for war, heedless with him in the Imperial Yemen. The of spilled blood; and Khalid, "the London Daily Telegraph found out that Sword of the Lord," as they surnamed it was manifestly the policy of England him, could wed the widow of one enemy .. to be on the friendliest terms with on the field still sodden with his own China, the 'vast realm of the oentre,' soldiers' blood, and later marry another which by the foroe of dominating cirwidow of Ibn Noweira, whose blood was cumstanoes has beoome our [England's] yet fresh upon the spot where by his natural ally in Asia, the interests of both own order he had been slain. But all empires being menaced by the same this study is not mere ourious delving potential foes;" The Speaker gave vent into antiquarian bone beds. It is by re- to the sentiment that it "is of muoh search such as this that we learn what more importanoe to make use of her blam is, what inherently and essentially limits it as a civilization. The [China1against Russia than to trouble dead hand of the prophet stretched out to be taken by the caliphs of four dynas- ourselves about missionaries . . . who ties, reached still further by the par- have no business to go where they are alyzing hands of the four Imams, and likely to be killed." The Western Daily sterility must reign wherever the soep- Press came to see that bullets and bayotre of the Moslem reaches. There is nets were of doubtful utility, because here no germ of popular institutions. " China may be a valuable ally for Eng- Erery year the politioal ascendenoy of land if Russia should ever overstep the Islam gives increasing evidenoe of being bounds of prudence in furtherance of doomed. There has been no progress, her designs in India." The Globe, the there can be no change. Islam stands- Saturday Review, and other leading still. Innovation is worse than a mis- papers write in the same strain. China take. Canon Taylor and his brood of is as muoh afraid of Russia as she is of second·hand critics of Islam will find anything else, and muoh more so when a.ny internal troubles of her own create she will gain the utmost possible for her an occasion for intermeddling with her own and other missionaries; for, with- affairs. Besides, if she can set these out being over· scrupulous about the European powers watching each other spiritual side of their work, she has long they will be the less troublesome to her ago reckoned the missionary as one of for the immediate present. the great factors in her colonial policy But that is not all the change that as well as in every non-Christian land.
has developed. It seems as if there Gltimately all that Great Britain gains were a division of policy among the by courting in North China will be made Chinese rioters themselves. Hunan has to inure to the advantage of the mis- had but one policy. As late as Sep- sionary. But if she and others should tember a conclave of Hunan leaders was utterly fail to protect the missionaries, held at Woochang. They passed a reso· it is not to be forgotten that the Roman lution to drive out all foreigners from Catholics stayed there two hundred the three provinces, Hunan, Hupeh, and years without any treaty; and Protestant Kiangsi. That may be called the Hunan missionaries may find greater defence programme. But if the information is from the fine diplomacy of Divine Provi- reliable, there is a Chinkiang section dence than from all earthly potentates.
which have a different view. These pro- Jesus Ohrist is not dead, and He will overturn and overturn "till His kingpose to lower the tea duties and favor dom comes."-J. T. G.
foreign trade, to employ foreigners ex.
tensively in the army and navy and cus- -Sad news comes from the Rev. Mr. toms. They would build railroads and Annand, in the New Hebrides. The apportion the land tax justly. Some of death of a child of Rev. Mr. and Mrs. them would employ foreign help in in- Lawrie, of the Scotch Free Mission, so augurating successful rebellion. These seriously affected the mind of Mrs. Laware not anti.Christian, nor anti.foreign, rie as to result in insanity. The wife nor anti-progressive, but are against the of Rev. Mr. Leggatt, of the Victoria present Government. church, hung herself in a fit of tem- porary insanity. A young Englishman We have traversed this mainly to show -Mr. Sawer-who had just married a that a good deal of the case has passed lady who went out to become his wife, beyond the provinco of a missionary re- was killed by bushmen, who sent a bulview. For those,who prize military and let through his heart, and killed and naval defence for missions, the imme. feasted on the bodies of two natives diate results of the political jugglery is who were with him. Mr. Sawer's renot altogether satisfactory. The Wuhu mains were brought to Tangoa by Mr. riots occurred last May, but six months Annand. He had been married but two days, and great sympathy is expressed for his young widow.
went by and nothing was done ; Wusueh -The Ohurch M"Ulsionary lntelligencer saw two wretches punished who proba. bestows high praise on the" Cycloptedia bly were not near the place at the time; of Missions," published by Funk & but no dignitary was degraded. The VIagnalls. It says: " This is far and Ichang riots occurred right under the away the most important work on misnose of the imperial representatives of sions yet published. . .. The amount the port, and the rioters were them- of information packed into the closely selves government troops. The brigadier·general stood by and saw the Oatho- printed 2700 pages is enormous ; and lie nuns driven to a horrible death, 'and one is staggered to think of the labor did not turn a hand to pre.ent the out- that must have been involved in its rage. Dr. Greig was tert'ibly maltreated production. It is worthy of AmeriIJa. in Shantung by officials and soldiers. In England we have nothing at all like We have no great grief over the diplo- it." It remarks on what is not in it, matic situation. If Great Britain be- but adds: .. We are afraid these criticomes an ally of China, sooner or later cisms will detract somewhat from our praise of the work; but W(l do praise it, nevertheless, most warmly." Men will feel, it says. that they can no more dis- pense with it than they can with Smith' 8 ,. Dictionary of the Bible."
1892.J EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
IlI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
What is the Next Step? cree, we know, t,ook less than ten months to run from the palace at There has been during the past ten Shushan to the limits of the Persian years a widespread echoing of the cru- Empire. Here is a world about twentysade cry: "Let us in our generation five thousand miles in circumference, carry the Gospel around the world!" inhabited by about one thousand mill- It has been discussed in pulpit and ions of people, yet unreached with the press, at home and on the foreign field. Gospel. Christianity holds the strategic Animated and inspired by this motto, centres. Even Africa is girdled and the missionaries in far-off lands have penetrated by missionary bands ; Asia met to consider what ean be done; is occupied, from Turkey to Japan; have held great conventions like that South America is imperfectly supplied at Shanghai last year; have issued their with Christian missionaries, but two of loud calls for" a thousand more work- the greatest of Christian nations occupy ers" at once to enter the field, etc. The the territory north of the Gulf of Mexi- China Inland Mission, Church Mission- co; we have a band of six thousand ary Society, London Missionary Society, missionaries, of six: times as many na- English Baptist Society, etc., have all tive evangelists and teachers scattered appealed for more men and women and over the pagan and heathen world. In money, with a view to the immediate the Protestant churches of Christenoccupation of the fields as yet unsup- dom, exclusive of the Greek and Latin plied, and the vastly increased occu- communions, and Oriental churches, we pancyof fields in which at present there have over forty millions of professed is an insufficiency of laborers. What is disciples who have thousands of millions the next step? of dollars at their command. All the appliances of the nineteenth century are I think we need first of all to realize in their hands, for they represent the that the evangelization of the world in this intelligence, enterprise, and enlightened generation is not a mere wild dream, but force of the world. Who can tell how may be made a fact if the Church of rapidly the Gospel message might be God will have it so, and use the means diffused over the habitable globe if all God has given her. Great things may this available material could be utilized? be done in a very short time if there be a determination to do them. and a After twenty-~ve years of constant proper energy, promptness, and co- study of this subject, and conference operation in action. When the English and correspondence with hundreds of Government wished to take the census students of missions and missionary of India, February 26th, 1891, it was all workers, I am more and more satisfied done in six hours when the appointed that if the Church would but imitate the time came. Arrangements were so com- laudable .. push" and .. dash" of the plete that at the set hour, from aU quar- men of this generation, the children of ters, the agents of the Government light would flood the world with the moved forward within their limited ter- Gospel in as little time as Ahasuerus ritory, and the proper inquiries were disperscd his royal decree from the made and answered and the records BosphoruR to the Indus. Will anyone made. tell us why not?
We have often called attention to the .. Where the word of a King is, thelre energy and celerity with which, in the is power." .. And the King's busines!! days of Ahasuerus, three times the en- requireth haste." These two texts tire empire, that reached from the ought to be our motto and our warrant Golden Horn to the Ganges, was reached for doing this work now and for the with a royal decree; alld the third de- whole world. Back of the Kiug's word lies the authority and the assurance of among people of all classes and denomi- Divine co-operation; the very fact of its being the King's business is the all-suill- nations: cient warrant for haste. Nineteen centuries have sped by, and the King's DEAR BRETHREN : "Elect according to business remains undone; the power the foreknowledge of God the Father, back of the King's word has never yet through sanctification of the Spirit, been fairly tested and proven. Oh, that unto obedience and sprinkling of the the children of God in our generation blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you would at least honestly undertake to see and peace be multiplied." that the Gospel is borne to " every creature" in "all nations" before the gen- Not being" ashamed of the Gospel of eration passes to the great account that Christ," when brought into comparison fix.es eternal destiny! with all the heathen religions of the world, and believing that Gospel to be To my mind, one step that can be the "power of God unto salvation to taken at once toward this world-wide everyone that believeth," we desire to evangelization is to gather for prayerfUl call your attention again to the last conference, at an early date, the leaders commandment of our risen and ascendof modern missions. Perhaps the first ed Lord; " All power is given unto Me conference might be comparatively a in heaven and in earth. Go ye, thereprivate one, in the parlor of some de- fore, and teach all nations, baptizing voted servant of Christ. Why not call them in the name of the Father, and of together such men as Dr. A. J. Gordon, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teach- Dr. C. C. McCabe, Dr. Arthur Mitchell, ing them to observe all things whatso- Dr. Judson Smith, D. L. Moody, Bishop ever I have commanded you; and, 10, I Ninde, Bishop W. R. Nicholson, the am with you always, even unto the end Bishop of Huron, Ontario,J. Hudson of the world. Amen." Taylor, F. B. Meyer, Robert E. Speer, etc., and prayerfully consult as to the In order, therefore, to aid all our wider measures necessary to be insti- churches and Missionary Boards in tuted in order to secure larger results? carrying out this Great Commission, an There are men on both sides of the sea, enterprise has been inaugurated called and women too, who, after a godly sort, the" Cross-bearers' Missionary Reading have been studying this question, upon Circle, .. a course of systematic reading whose minds it has been a burden for and study on the subject of Missions, years, and who have been praying over embracing a period of three years. This it. Some of them we have mentioned movement has been before the churches because we know they are alive with in- about a year, and has received the en telligent zeal for a world's evangeliza- dorsement of many leading men in tion. We yearn to see some such meet- many lands. ing called, where at least united prayer may be offered for the speedy inaugura- The Board of Directors, therefore, tion of that new effort-shall we not say make the following appeal to faithful new era ?-of world·wide missions. Christians in all lands : The Crossbearers' Missionary Read- liirst. For one hundred thousand read- 109 Circle is a growing institution, and ers and students in the" Crossbearers' has undoubtedly a future of usefulness. Missionary Reading Circle," before the end of the nineteenth century. The following is an appeal recently sent out by them "To Faithful Chris- Second. For contributions from those tians in all Lands," with a view to who love the cause of Missions, for the ,"wakening greater interest in Ilissions purpose of establishing this Missionary Reading Circle upon a firm financial basis.
Third. For the hearty co operation of the Christian Ministry in this work throughout the world.
Fourth. To the American and English religious press for the publication of this appeal.
Fifth. That all who desire information concerning the" Crossbearers' MiHsion- ary Reading Circle" should address Pro- fessor Charles R. Foster, A.M., Fayette, Mo., U. S. A.
NOTlll.-The course()£ reading for this year is as follows : 1. "Life of William Carey," seventy-five cents; 2. ,. The Comin~ Kingdom," Jtev. W, W, Wld<lworth, $1 ; 3. .. Life of James Hanning. in London for preparation; meeting in ton, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Af. their rooms for apportionments; cor· rica," Re". E. C. Dawson, M.A., $1; 4. respondenc,e with a few eminent socie- ,. The Great Value and Success of For· ties abroad for work among the actual eign Missions," Rev. John Liggins, heathen.
seventy.five cents; 5. The MISSIONARY The work of divisJon should be ac- complished with urgent prayer and dis- REVIEW, Funk & Wagnalls, per year, patch. I deem it the first and best $1.50 ; 6. Initiation fee, per year, fifty thing to do and be done in Christ's cents. Kingdom. We append a portion of a letter This matter requires no ponderous recently received from the originator of organization, but plain and lucid statethe readulg.circle idea as applied to mis. ments, loving, intelligent minds and sionary literature: hearts. BAREILLY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, BAREILLY, N. W. P., INDIA, Provision were easily made to wel- Aug. 24, 1891. come all workers in the unoccupied dis- DEAR BROTHER: I have received your C. M. R. C. handbook, and am rejoiced tricts of great areas; thus there would beyond measure that your project has taken such good shape. Something be ample room for all existing and aris· like this has been a dream of my heart for years. You have fully taken it up, ing workers, and the very fact of the and it remains for you to fully demon· strate its practicability. I pray that division and nominal assignment being God may help you; for I think there is great power in the idea. It will in· made, and being known widely in all augurate a new erafor missions.. the evangelical Christian communities, You will require tact and push to make a first-class success of it. Nov- would probably increase and arouse to elty may wear off. Pastors may be in. different. Even missionary secretaries effective endeavor for realization. may not see much in it; but you must push right on till the ball is rolling Our Duty in Danger. welL God will help you. Interetlt will grow. Leading men will see and be- The following is a letter sent out by come convinced. J. Hudson Taylor, to the missionaries I hope your movement may send a deputation to the next annual session of the China Inland Mission, in regard of the International Missionary Union, and urge this matter on them. That is to the recent troubles in China: a place in which to .. strike the centre." You will most of you have heard of May I ask the prayers of your Circle the time of excitement through which for the great work going on in this mis· many stations in the Yang.tse valley sion in North India. We are baptizing have passed. -old and young-more than a thousand souls a month. It is hoped that the danger is now passing away, though some fear that Yours, In His Name, one of the secret societies may yet cause T. J. ScoTT. further trouble. The present time seems, therefore, opportune for consid. An Organized Effort. ering the course that we as missionaries should adopt in times of excitement and The subject of" evangelizing the world danger, and several have said that they thought it would be helpful if I gave in this generation" is more and more be- you my thoughts on the subject.
ginning to occupy the minds of men. First, then, let me remind you of the importance in this day of the command This is shown by the following sugges· not to speak evil of dignities, but, on the contrary, to pray for those in autions from Mr. Robert Arthington, of thority. The rulers of this land have often a difficult path : it is not easy for Leeds: them to take our part against their own To partition the world for evangelistic people, and we do well to ~ray that they purposes would seem quite easy and may have courage and WIsdom to act withQut m~terial expense: by interviews firmly and justly; such prayers should be public as well as private. Much may depend on their finding that Christianity promotes loyalty to tl;u~ powers that be, and the giving of honor that," Sufficient is His arm alone and to those to whom it is due. our defence is sure."
Then we do well to recognize that we What a loss it would be if any of them are not here as representatives of West- should t.hink that we relied more upon ern Powers, and that our duties do not a gunboat or a band of soldiers than correspond with theirs. We are here upon the living God! Years of teach- as witnesses and representatives of the ing would not impress them as our con- Lord Jesus Christ. •• As my Father hath duct at such times may do. Moreover, sent Me, even so send I you." Once their sympathy will be drawn out for us disciples mistakenly would have called when they see us willing to suffer for down fire from heaven to avenge the the Gospel, as they so often have to do_ Master Himself; but He rebuked them A time of danger is a grand opportunity and said: " Ye know Dot what manner of being an object-lesson to the native of spirit ye are of, for the Son of man is Ohristians.
not come to destroy men's lives, but to III. The moral effect of our action save them." And again, when the sol_ upon the heathen will, to a considerable diers would arrest our Lord, one of His extent, be the same as upon the con- disciples drew his sword in His defence, verts. A calm and confident demeanor but our Saviour said: ., Put up again will go far to disarm suspicion. The thy sword into his place; for all they people will not be slow to observe t.hat that take the sword shall perish with we are not afraid, and to conclude that the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot we have no reason to be. But if we flee, now pray to my Father, and He shall they are sure to conclude that we are presently give me more than twelve guilty of some of the charges brought legions of angels?" We may safely against us, and will be emboldened to conclude that our use of any weapon of attack and loot or destroy our premises.
defence, whereby another might be in- Even a dog will run after you if you run jured, would misrepresent our Master, away from him!
whose own distinct command to His _ Some of the older members of our disciples was: "Resist not evil, but mission have passed through more seri- whosoever shall smite thee on thy right ous times of excitement than the pres- cheek, turn to him the other also." ent. We have never at snch times re- If, then, it would not be consistent tired from a station; and though hold- for us to use weapons for our own de· ing the fort, has not always secured ns fence, it may be asked, Should we not against a riot, it has often done so, and leave our stations for such places as are, has proved abundantly fruitful in or can be, defended by the officers of strengthening the faith of our native our respective governments? It seems converts.
to me that there are several important An objection may arise in some minds reasons against taking this course, un- that we are directed, if persecuted in less absolutely compelled to do so. one city, to flee to another; to which I. We are in our stations at God's we would reply that we are not told to command, and as His ambassadors, and flee through fear of possible persecution.
therefore have both promise of, and If the Lord suffers us to be driven away, claim to, His protection. We have as St. Paul so frequently was, the re- many of us gone to places far removed sponsibility will then rest with Him; from foreign protection on this very and He will surely work out His own ground. Our risen Saviour has told us purposes through the trial. But let us that all power has been committed unto not retire ourselves from fear of loss or Him; and that, because this is so, we danger; and so doing perhaps leave our are to go everywhere, reckoning His un- Master's sheep just when they most need failing presence better defence than that the shepherd's presence and care.
which the arm of flesh can provide. We conclude, then, that the right We have a rIIre opportunity in times of course, and the best policy alike, is to danger of proving His promises for our- remain at our posts, whenever this is selves, and before our converts. possible. We may well rejoice that it is II. We are continually encouraging so, and that duty does not require the our converts to brave persecution and suspension of our work, for life is short, to snfferloss for Christ's sake, and they and daily the people are dying without are very apt to think that it is easy for God.
us to speak in this way, seeing that, as To us all is given the dignity of be- far as they can tell, we are well-to.do ing ambassadors for the King of kings; and exposed to no danger or loss. When and all His power is at all times behind then we are in danger they will mark us. We may therefore boldly say, very closely our conduct, and judge for "The Lord is on my side; I will not thexnselvEls how far we really beliElve fear. What can man do unto me I"
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Ohina, Eto. is destroyed, and hundreds of them are fugitives from mob violence. It is too CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE CONVERTS. often forgotten that persecution is the normal condition of the Chinese con- One of the most marked signs of the verts to Christianity. We hear of these times is the altered tone of the secular persecutions only whl'n they touch the press toward missions. A noteworthy foreign missionaries; of the daily and illustration is the championship of the sporadic outbreaks against the native modern mission by the London Times. Christians we hear nothing, for it only The great "Thunderer," eminently concerns the Chinese themselves. To since the death of Bishop HRnnington, support the hatred and social ostracism, has lost no prominent opportunity to with which, as the writer admits, the say a strong word for missions and their converts are regarded, there must be results in Africa and Asia. Its leader genuine, energetic conviction. The'tens some while since. on the" unique and of thousands of converts scattered all extraordinary interest" of the recent over China, with their numbers daily India census, showing the strength and increasing, could not, indeed, be mainculture of the native Christian com- tained for a week from the missionary munity in India. is a masterly presenta. funds sent from abroad, even if these tion of some of the salient points of wer€! devoted to no other purpose. The that new factor in Christian statistical fact appears to be that these converts economy, stout enough in its pleading contribute liberally, and in some cases to have been delivered at an Exeter Hall wholly mo.inta,in their own native pas· missionary anniversary. It is with tors and places of worship." great pleasure that we turn to its editorial rejoinder to a correspondent in THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT IN NORTH CHINA. its columns, who signs himself ,. A Chinese," who raises the question whether One cannot but ask whether the the great Christian governments will churches in Christendom are awake to find it worth their while to defend the the fact that "this Chinese Empire may missionaries in China, when they come see a great uprising one day, and that to know that their converts are from the in the near future. for which these lower orders of society only, and arc led churches are in nowise prepared. We to em brace the Christian relIgion from have seen the mighty movements in the low motive of pecuniary compensa- Indio., the great turning to the Lord in tion for their allegiance. The Times Ongole, and the equally sweeping reanswers with the following knock-down vival in the lYlethodist missions of sort of logic: "If the Christian converts North India, and we have stood bewilare the needy and the viciolls, and iftheir dered before' them. The truth is, as motives are wholly those of gain, why Bishop Thoburn says, the people must should it be necessary to persecute them learn to familiarize themselves with the so cruelly, in order to drive them from idea that God intends to save the world; a faith which means nothing but a lit- and if there is a shred of truth in that tle money to them. The descriptions statement, we must prepare our minds lately published in the East of the per- for the contemplation of victories on a secutions of the little Christian com- scale far transcending the little work of munities in Szechuan and Yunnan, dur- to day. "If this world," he says, "is ing the past two years, are heart-rend- to be saved, there must come a time ing. Men, women, and children are when the heathen shall be gathered in murdered by Bcores, their little property by the hundred thousand-by the million." We have somehow at last got a about five hundred inquirers in his field.
glint that this sort of thing may occur which did not cover IDore than about in India; bnt as to China, we have sup one fourth their mission territory. This posed we must wait for generations yet is a fact that Dr. Nevius, with his great before this mighty mass of deliberative cautiousness, says he has not made pub- people can be expected to move, save in lic lest he might seem to be inflating the slow and tedious way with which the prospects. Dr. Nevius is confident we have already grown familiar. that the number of applicants for bap- It seems as if God were about rebuk- tism is understated at fifteen hundred.
ing that sort of timid faith, or, perhaps, But our eye is not merely on that fif- shaming it into bolder belief. Bishop teen hundred. They will not be bap- Goodsell, of the Methodist Episcopal tized without another fifteen hundred Church, just having returned from an standing behind them, waiting their official visit to the missions in China, turn. Any such facts as these mean says boldly that the MethodiGt brethren a movement and mean a movement there have baptized hundreds, and might in which God is. Dr. Nevius speaks have baptized thousands, as the breth- cautiously; and so we may pause to ren have done in India, only that they ask if the present disturbed state of thought it wiser to keep them longer the country, and especially of the North under instruction before baptism, of China, where we read of sanguinary Whether they are pursuing the batter battles just now, in which opposition to course may be questioned; each mis- all foreigners and their religion is one sion must be the judge of its own duty, of the points of contention, will serious- The fact remains that here'is the indica- ly arrest this movement and blot half tion of what may come any day in this of these inquirers off the evangelist's great empire. The English Baptists of "little book." PersonalIy we do not North China are meeting with like en- expect any such results. The Chinese couragement. Applicants al'e standing have known all along that there was at their doors begging for baptillm. The nothing in the foreign treaties of worth Presbyterians in Shantung face a similar to them. They have not been unfaruil- problem. They are going cautiously, iar with persecution, They can furnish and yet the pressure is on t~em. Last a martyr roli,. challenging comparison year's raport showed that they had with other parts of the mission field.
yielded so far as to admit some five hun- We know those who have illustrated dred converts to baptism. But that did this already; and the Chinese Chris- not show the wonderful work of the tians are not given to" backsliding."
Lord, for that was the report for the They have not had easy conditions on current year; and just after that, most which to make their trial trip. It has of the missionaries started out on mis- nowhere put them on a bed of roses to sionary tours, during which large num- accept the Christian faith.
bers were baptized, so the whole num- But it is not that we are concerned ber baptized in twelve months WdS over about just now. Here is the intimation one thousand. Besides these, there -more than that, the prophecy-of were not less than fifteen hundred more what God may do in pouring out His on the rolls of the missionaries as in- Spirit on China. There is already a quirers, or candidates for baptism, many mighty turning to the Lord; and it has of whom would have been baptized had occurred without a great leader, But not the brethren extended their term of let some Chinese Luther appear; let probation quite recently. This is not some Mongolian Wesley send out a all; the eminent missionary, Dr. Nevius, trumpet call; let some mighty leader tells us that he reoently reoeived from a arise like those with which the history native evangelist a "little book" con- of God's great doings has familiarized taining the names and residences of us elsewhere, and tbill revivAl in the North may sweep like the Tartar hordes in a Christian home; with the issues down on the rest of China. The Chi. of the press in every province, ex.
nese characteristics cannot be pleaded cepting not even Hunan, and every.
as against this, for this people is the where more or less knowledge of the mightiest homogeneous mass of human. Christian faith-in the fllce of all this, ity on t.ho globe, and they are not unac· it is not only the triumph of faith, customed at times to being swayed en but the dictate of reason, that in China bloc by great impulses. we should "attempt great things for It may be a chimera of the imagina· God, and expect great things of God. "
tion that a European writer suggests that a Chinese general may arise, who, THE MISSIONARY IN CHINA.
flushed with successful revolt against The London Times, in the article we the Manchu dynasty, shall sweep the have already alluded to, in reply to the French into the sea at Tonquin, break criticisms of .. A Chinese" in its col.
Russia in Asia in two, or lead a half· umns, says the writer is evidently in disciplined horde into Burma and In. ignorance of what the missionaries have dill. ; but we are, in China, dealing with done for China, and advises him to con~ a people whose history records great re· suit a catalogne of their pUblications in ligious movements. The people that Shanghai and elsewhere, which, the edi~ could furnish a leader competent to tor says, will show him that, ,. whatever overthrow Confucianism after it had knowledge of any of the sciences, arts, been established in the land for six cen· or history of the West his countrymen turies, burn its sacred books, put to possess, they owe wholly to missiona.
death all who were supposed to have ries." Then occurs the most emphatic any special knowledge of it, and tram. statement, which we choose to italicize, pie it under foot for two whole centu· that" the only real interpreter oj the thaught ries ; the people that could import a and progress of the West to the millions of foreign religion like Buddhism, and in China is the mi.~sionary; and when we one year take to its bosom three thou. remember that European knowledge of sand of its priests to teach the " doc· China is derived almost wholly from the trine;" the peopl<l who could raise a works of missionaries, we may fairly Peter the Hermit like 'rai Ping Hung, say that these men stand as interpreters to rally a crude, motley mass of half.in. between the East and the West." Refer.
formed people, who, baptizing each ring to the charitable work of missiona- other in the name of the Trinity, should ries, the editor says China "had no rush forward in a " Christian" insurrec· efficient hospitals or medical attendance tion with a religious.enthusiasm that in. until the missionaries established them; creased their bravery in battle, and and, in truth, she has no c:'ther now; trained them to self.denying discipline and when her great men, such as Li till they gave the Tartar dynasty the Hung Chang and Prince Chung, are in rudest shock it has as yet experienced- serious danger, they have to go to the such a people must not be counted as despised missionary doctor for that effi.
unsusceptible of great religious impres. cient aid which no Chinaman can give sions and wide.reaching display of re· them."
ligious energy. The Chinese nation may That is not the testimony of a mis· yet take up the religion of the Bible, and sionary magazine, it is the utterance of sweep half of Asia with it. In the face a seclllar journal whose judgments are of the seed that has been sown by mis. supposed to be impartial and weighty.
sionaries and native teachers, and iso· We could fill pages with similar testi.
lated Christians, who are scattered along mony from missionary sources. Rev.
the entire coast, till, journeying its Timothy Richard, in the Chinese Re· length, a traveller may sleep every night corder, for November, makes many sim. ilar assertions. His illustrations are THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF CHINA. much of the same sort, such as that the scientific, industrial, political, and It seems as if we would never have historical books, as well as those on mathematics now in use in China, are done vying with each other in our attranslations made by the missionaries ; and the reverse is true; most of the tempts to show how important a factor translations of Chinese literature into Western languages has been done by China is in the work of this world's mISSIonaries. The mines, steamboats, and railways of China were projected evangelization. We strain after imagery by men trained in the mission schools. The !lducational mission to America and comparisons that shall enable us to was led by a Chinese Christian. The medical schools and high schools in the make real to ourselves what this great interior, in which modern education is had, are illmost wholly those established empire is. From a great collection of by missionaries, and these missionaries are the advocates of reform which will, pamphlets before us, kindly furnished Mr. Richards says, bring an annual in- Come of $1,000,000,000 to China. U8 by the principal societies for this We are very strongly tempted, while study, we select two illustrations. Here writing of this theme, to quote wholesale from a little tract, " The Missionary In- is the last Annual Report of the Amerivasion of China," of the Congregational Honse, by Dr. Henry D. Porter, can Baptist Union, "hich puts the case of North China, other illustrations in point. He says the missionary be- thus: comes the necessary creator of a new secular literature. The first missio!lary "In the past. other Asiatic nations from America gave the Chinese a history have attracted the attention of the civilof the United States and a version of ized world in a greater degree than the Bible. Weber's" Universal His- China, owing to special and temporary tory" was translated by a missionary. causes; but as the whole of the East is Mr. J. Freyer has prepared fifty or sixty becoming better known, and the real standard text·books on various subjects character of its various peoples more of Western science. Dr. Martin's work correctly understood, it is acknowledged on physics is the .special source of in- that China dominates the East, and the formation relied on by Chinese officials, conversion of China means the triumph as well as his three great treatises on of Ohristianity in Asia. The reason for international law. Kerr, Osgood, Dud- this lies not onlv in the immense size of ~eon, and others have published valu- the country and the almost inconceivable works on Western medical science. able multitude of the people. in the The natives have some appreciation of strength of their intellectual and moral this sort of thing, for one hundred and character, and in their indefatigable intwenty literary graduates appended their dustry, but also in the fact that they are names to the request that Dr. Happer making a peaceful invasion of all the would establish his college at Canton, other countries of Asia, and by their rather than at some other point of in- superior ability and industry capturing fiuence. The son of a viceroy, who the commercial and industrial activities learned to read through the New Testa- of those countries from the nerveless ment, thumbs a dictionary made by a hands of the natives. The business of millsionary. Siam is almost wholly in the hands of the Chinese. The sllmt! is largely true of the Straits Settlements and adjacent islands, and they are becoming increas- ingly influential every year in Burma, India, and even in Japan. It is saying very little to observe that the evan- gelization of the Chinese is more im- portant than that of any other race. "
Rev. Dr. Judson Smith, in a stirring pamphlet entitled" Our Missionary Op- portunity in China," has the following: ., The Chinese are at once the oldest, the most numerous, the most exclusive,. the least understood people on the face of the earth. The interval between the thoughts, the traditions, the tastes, the aspirations of this people and those which make up our inner life is nearly as great as can well be conceived. Here in the centre of the Oriental world, fac- ing the sea along a coaa~ of above three thousand miles, in a territory, the natu- churches, as to their rites, teaching, ral Beat of empire, which exceeds the and books. Let the Emperor then send whole continent of Europe in extent and forth his royal decree explaining the constitutes one tenth of the habitable teachings and meaning of the missionaglobe, amid natural conditions of cli- ries through all the eighteen provinces, mate and soil which have made inter- and cause this imperial decree to be encourse with the rest of the world need- graved on stones and placed throughout less, and which have sustained a teem- the provinces in every yamen, college, ing population for a pel'iod far outrun- private school, public hall, in every vilning the entire history of the longest lage, market town, and city, and in lived states of ancient or modern times every great ancestral hall. .. Weare -here this nation has dwelt since quite sure we would like to Bee the Abraham went out from Ur of the Chal- throne thus doing a good missionary turn; but the force of the preacher's dees, and here it abides to·day with un- logic is rather irresistible to the Chinese failing numbers and unbroken strength. It il:l the only spectacle of tho kind which history presents or the world has ever seen."
-There is plenty of uneasiness in taxpayer when he says it would be China; but Dr. Legge says that fifty much more economical for thc Govern- years ago one of the common sayings he ment than to continue to pay so much learned in China was this : "However out of the public treasury for destroyed the empire be disordered and convulsed, missionary buildings and other indem- the Changs and the K'ungs have no oc- nity, for which really the people have to casion to be troubled." He says that he pay in the form of taxes. He assumes then understood that the K'ungs were tllat the foreigners cannot be driven the descendants of Confucius entitled away, for" when stopped one step, they " Dukes," and were endowed with ex- have always gone beyond and taken .tensive estates; but it was a consid- two," so they might as well provide for erable time before he came to understand their remaini~g in some more economi- that the Changs were the Popes of Tao- cal way to the country.
ism. The headship of 1'aoism has been -We are, from various sources in in the Chang family since the ~rst cen- China, hearing of the excellence of a tury of our era, with the exception of book published at Shanghai, of which one interruption. The spirit of the first our bright and brainy friend, Rev. Ar- Pope is supposed to have transmigrated thur H. Smith, of P'ang Chuang, Shanfrom one chief to another down to the tung, is the author, entitled, .. Characpresent time. For now, close on to teristics of the Chinese." We had the nine centuries, these popes have had pleasure of reading some advance sheets large landed estates about the Lunghu of the book, and appl'eciate the high Mountains as an endowment. Weare praise it is receiving. Some American all the while thinking of Confucianism publisher should by all means bring out as the religion of the State in China; an edition of it. It is not a passing but we forget that the temples of all the book, but will be among the standard State gods are in the hands of Taoist literature of the world on China and the ministers. Chinese. Whoever knows the author -A native Chinese preacher has made will be ready to believe in advance that a proposal which the Chinese Recorder there cannot be a dull line in the volume.
translates. It is that •• all the ministers -The Presbyterian Mission at Canof the Western nations at Peking unite ton has resolved, if the way shall open in requesting the Emperor of China to for it, to erect a memorial chapel to send one of the most intimate, greatest, Rev. Wellington J. White,. at Sanui, and most faithful officers in person to the and to develop work around It as a cen- Western portions of China, to examine tre ; they will accept gifts from friends fully the Roman Catholic and Protestant toward the memorial, that thUH, Brother White being dead, may yet I!peak, -The Chinese clearly distinguish Bl. All along the coast the missions have read, between the spirituality and been scarcely at all disturbed. All this worth of the Romanist and Protestant may seem a Chinese puzzle, but the Chi. forms of Christianity. Dr. Stuart says nese are always a puzzle to foreigners. no Protestant chapel was disturbed at Iehang, nor in other cities where the The Chinese Recorder says: ,. Some Protestants had been long enough for things are clear to the understanding of the people to become familiar with every intelligent and candid observer: them. Rev. Mr. Cockburn, of the (1) Preparation 'for the destruction of Scotch Mission at rchang, writes to foreign property had been going on for Dr. McMurtrie: " The American Episco- years under the observation of officials, pal Mission in a native house within the without any serious attempt on their city, the Roman Catholic Mission within part to stop it ; (2) the movement is not the city, also in II native house, and the distinctively anti-missionary; (3) , Chi- Church of Scotland Mission Station out- na exclusively for the Chinese' is the side the North Gate, are all of them safe. idea-official or otherwise, or both ; (4) No protection was given, but everything the Imperial Missionary Decree seemed was as quiet as on ordinary occasions. If to indicate a change of policy at Pekin; Christianity be offensi ve to the Chinese, but the fact appears' that the edict aDd and mission work felt to be a grievance, its publication in the Gazette were ob. it is passing strange that the very centres tained with great difficulty,' and to all of proselytizing should not have a single appearance it has failed to command stone cast at them. What happened at the influence we had a right to expect Ichang should convince all parties that from a document of the kind, bearing it is not this or that individual class of the seal of higbest authority. It is Europeans that is aimed at, but all J!Ju.ro· more than probable that tho issue of the peans, without dis/inction of nationality or hour for us who are in China will be in. occupation." The Roman Catholics are definitely postponed through a combinamore obnoxious because of their large tion of 'circumstances fortunate for the ownership of tracts of land and exten- Government, and as the due reward of sive trade, combined· with their often a finesse that has often proved more incautious. if not questionable, ways of than a match for Western diplomacy." securing childr~n for their schools and orphanages, and the secrecy with which The Recorder also gives the transla. they conduct both trade and schools, tion of a Hunan manifesto: '" With one and also in the very objectionable way heart we offer up our lives … ' they say. in which they meddle with Government The principal points of agreement are in their own interests, than because of the ostracism of individuals and famitheir religion itself. Riots or no riots, lies 'bewitched by the spies' of the the fact is, the work even in the dis- Christian religion ; the expulsion of susturbed centres was only interrupted for picious travellers within the borders of two or three weeks in the latter part of Hunan; the offer of money, war mate- May and early June. Schools, chapels, rial, and troops to carry out any comand even street chapels, and hospitals mand the Emperor might make for the have been opened, and surgical opera. chastisement and extermination of fortions performed as usual. Only in one eign powers showing practical animosity feature does the work vary from ante- against Hunan; also the non-burning riot days-that of the extension into of churches and chapels, because of dan. new stations in the Yangtse valley. The ger to adjoining native houses; all such Roman Catholic missions in North China buildings should rather be handed over are reported to have suffered locally, to the authorities to be sold for the but the work of the American Board in benefit of the revenues." North China has not been interrupted.
….. ~
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. i51
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by .Rev. D. L. Leonard, Bellevue, O.
-Scarcely a lie can be named, among America in zeal and liberal giving in all the hundreds afloat concerning mis. behalf of world·wide missions, though sions, more utterly without foundation, to them belongs the honor of being but,. nevertheless, frequently repeated pioneers in the work, and from first to and widely believed, than this; that last they have supplied perhaps tbeir every dollar sent to the heathen costs full proportion of men at once gifted, the sender another dollar. Among consecrated, and successful in reach. others, Chaplain McCabe, on several ing the hearts of the heathen. Ger. occasions, has undertaken to capture man societies number 16, of which 9 and slay this rascally offender, but he (Basle, Berlin, BrecklulD, Gossner's, still lives. The real facts in the case as Hermannsburg, Leipsic, the Moravian, to the economy of administration on the North German, and Rhenish) may be part of our missionary societieEl appear called the prinoipal ones, and 7 le811er in these statements, which, though re- and newer ones, and who8e accessible lating to but four, will stand for all. In statistics are but fragmentary. Tbe ago the Methodist Church (North), of every gregate of ordained missionaries is about dollar received, upward of .95 go direct 525, with 108 ordained natives, and a to the missions, and but .0066 are total working force of 5213. The com. ., sunk" in office expenses, such as sala· municants number not far from 100,000, ries of secretaries, clerks, etc. The the schools 950, and the pupils 50,000. Amet'ican Board sends to the heathen The annual income from all sources is .9225 out of every dollar paid into the nearly $950,000, of which sum about treasury, the Missionary Society of the $200,000 are derived from the mission Reformed (Dutcb) Church .948 of every fields. dollar contributed, and the Presbyterian Board (North) .955 of every dollar. Thus, -The Basle Society had its remotest tell it all abroad tbat it costs fi ve cents beginnings as far back as 1780, founded on an aVbrage to sl'nd a dollar to the a school for the training of missionaries ends of the earth. in 1816, and sent out its first men in 1821. It is undenominational, and reo -For several months the New York ceives support from Protestant churches Independent has been supplying its read· of almost every name in Central Eu. ers, in most liberal monthly instal· rope. Missions are sustained in China, ments, with the freshest intelligence India, and West Africa (Oameroons and from all lands. And among these ap. the Gold Coast). In 1890 the income peared a quasi-supplement of 13 pages, was $230,047; the missionaries num· wbich set forth the home missionary bered 133, with 92 women and 738 na· doings of the various denominations of tive helpers in addition; the communi. the United States. At least 23 of these cants were 11,584, and the school cbil· were reported; or, counting all subdi· dren 10,500. The home training-scbool visions of such as the Methodists, Bap. has an attendance of 80 to 100. Varitists, Presbyterians, etc., tbe number ous industrial and commercial institu· was about 50. A statistical summary tions are sustained in the mission fields, was appended, from which it appears whose aggregate income amount;; to that $5,818,000 was the not insignificant nearly $50,000, and from which a hand· sum expended in 1890-91. some profit is each year derived.
-The Protestant Christians of Ger. -The Berlin Society (for the Promo. many can scarcely claim equality with tion of Evangelical Missions among the their brethren in Great Britain and Heathen) was organized in 1824, and at first undertook only to raise funds and native helpers. The income in 1890 supply men for other societies, in 1829 was $19,400. opened a seminary, and sent out its first representatives in 1834. The course of -The Rhenish Society is located at study extends over five years, and the Barmen, was formed in 1828, though funds are gathered by means of auxiliary the influences from which it sprung societies, of which there are upward of began to operate more than 30 years be- 300 scattered throughout Germany. fore. Its efforts are bestowed upon The income was $79,637 in 1890. In South Africa, the Dutch East Indies its Chinese and South African missions (Borneo, Sumatra, etc.), and China. (Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, Orange With an income amounting in 1890 to Free State, etc.) are 54 ordained and 8 $111,414 ($17,698 from the field), it BUS, l1nordained miss~onaries and 11 artisans, tains 83 ordained and 4 unordained mis. with 430 native helpers. The number sionaries, 13 ordain~d natives, and 558 of. baptized persons is 22,349, of com- other helpers. In the 170 churches are municants 10,892, and in the schools 11,556 communicants, and in the 350 3966. schools are about 6000 pupils.
-The Leipsic Society dates from -Hermannsburg Society was organ- 1836, was founded at Dresden, but after ized by Pastor Harms in 1849, was sus· -about ten years-was removed to the tained by the gifts of the poor, and its city to which it owes its name. In missionaries received none of the culspirit and methods it is Lutheran, and ture of the schools. South Africa and was designed to comprise and express South India are the fields upon which the missionary zeal of that church in the bulk of self-denial and humble zeal Germany, Scandinavia, etc. Its prin- have been bestowed. The churches cipal field is South India, in the Tran. gathered number 53, with 26,940 com· quebar region, the old-time seut of the municants ; and the schools 60, with Danish Halle Mission of Ziegenbalg and 4000 pupils. The 58 ordained and 4 Schwartz. The income in 1890 was unordained missionaries are assisted by $81,090, and $2600 from the mission 240 natives. In 1890 the income reached field. With this sum 25 ordained and 2 $51,792, and the native contributions unordained ·missionaries are sustained, $15,179. as well as 17 ornained natives, and 453 other helpers. In the 148 churches are -On June 11th, 1890, the Norwegian 6911 communicants, and in the 183 Evangelical Lutheran China Mission schools 4753 pupils. Society of America was organizt'd, and soon dispatched its first representatives -The North German Society is Ioeat. -3 men-to China, sending after them ed in Bremen, was organized in 1836 also in 1891 a reinforcement sufficient from various smaller bodies (" unions") to raise the number to 12, including 4 which for years had been in existence; children. Hankow is the seat of the the next year an institute was started at mission. Hamburg, aml the first men were sent forth in 1842. The only field occupied -Over 16,000 Indians are now citi· at present is in West Africa, upon the zens of the United States. During Gold Coast, where, from the first almost the year patents to land have been until now, untold sufferings and dis· issued to 2104 persons; 2830 patents couragements, especially from sickness are ordered, 1520 are approved, and and wars, have been heroically endured. other allotments are in progress. The At the 3 stations are found 442 com· amount of acreage in the 138 reserva· municants, 14 schools with 353 scholars, tions in 1890 was 104,314,349 acres. 9 ordained and 4 unordained missiona· That has been reduced some twenty ries, 1 ordlloiued native, and 26 other million acres. The appropriations for educational work the past year were $2,216,650, or an increase of 20 per 51,410. This is, for both membership cent; for contract schools. $601,000. and families, an increase of about 17 The total enrolment is 17,926-1549 per cent. But the statistics of foreign more than last year; and 100 indi- missions show that in every single par- viduals are in public schools paying $10 ticular this rate of progress has been far per quarter. -yes, many times, outstripped. This table tells the story : -The Foreign Christian (Disciple) Missionary Society lllet for its annual 1881 1891 Iner'se Perc't. meeting at Alleghany City, Pa., Octo ber 20th. The report presented by the Stations…………. 9 15 6 66 Secretary, the Rev. A. McLean, D.D., Out Stations.. ……. 109 166 57 52 was heard with much iuterest as indi- Missionaries . … , . . . . 15 27 12 80 cating good pr0gress in every part of the field. In China the number of Lady" …….. 18 38 20 111 members has increased from 16 to 41, Natlvepastors…… 14 33 19 135 in Japan from 179 to 245, in India from Other helpers, male.. 118 218 100 84 40 to 50, in Turkey from 664 to 691, in U female. 12 63 51 425 Denmark from 131 to 141. The Sabbath- U school scholars number in China 226, in Japan 136, in India 567, in Turkey Chnrches …. …… 35 53 18 51 600. At the two dispensaries in Nan- Communicants…… 2357 5214 2857 121 king, China, 2936 new cases and 6276 Academies. ….. .. 4 14 10 250 old cases have been treated. The expenditures for the year were $71,004. Pupils in Academies. 129 604 475 868 The total receipts from churches, Sun- Day Schools……… 49 119 70 143 day·schools, Endeavor Societies and in- Day Scholars .. …. 1866 4074 2208 118 dividuals were $59,365. The bequests Theological Students. 13 43 30 231 showed a marked falling off, only $1000 Contribntions of Na· having been received as against $12,000 last year. The donations, however, tive Chnrches ..•.. $2372 $7648 $4916 179 showed an increase of $7259. -The gross income of the Missionary -The general statistics of the Evan- Society of the Methodist Church in gelical Association for 1891 show 26 con- Canada for the last year was $143,000. ferences, 2062 churches, and 150,234 members. There are 1227 itinerant -The growth of the work of the Brit· preachers and 619 local preachers; 2535 ish and Foreign Bible Society in 40 Sunday-schools, with 177,639 scholars. years has been remarkable and in every. The collections for the missionary so- direction. In 1851 the year's issues ciety were $134,443. These statistics were 1,137,617 copies; in 1891 the year's show an increase over last year of 19 total is 3,926,535 copies. 'rhe receipts churches, nearly 2000 church members, for 1851 amount to £128,023 2s. 8d.; and over 1000 Sabbath-school scholars. in 1891 they were £285,437 48. 10d. The Of the conferences three artl in foreign expenditure bears much the same prolands, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. portion: for 1851 it was £103,543 lOs. 10d. ; for 1891. £231,583 16s. 9d. The number of versions was then 148 ; now there are 292. There were in 1851 7 foreign agents, and 2 subsidized for oc- casional servIce; in 1891 there were 27 agents in various foreign countries. There were but 5 district secretaries, with 3 local agents ; there are now 13, with 4 recognized assistants. The local societies in affiliation were than 3809 ; now they are nearly double that num· ber, being 7178.
-Thesn figures relating to the growth -There are about 3,200,000 Presbyof a decade in the Reformeil (Dutch) terians in Scotland. There are 1650 Church cannot but be full of cheer to all places of worship in connection with who examine them. The increase in the Church of Scotland, and 1575 in membership has been but 13, 732-from connection with the Free and United 80,591 in 1881 to 94323, according to Presbyterian Church-in all 3225, or the latest figures-while its families more than 1 church for each 1000 of the have increased but 7452-from 43,958 to population. -The Primitive Methodists of Eng. 11,019 ; and Protestants, 124,,623. The land report 192,652 church members, Dutch Missionary Society occupies this 104,3 ministers, 16,256 local preachers. field.
The missionary society has an income -In 25 years the Leipsic (Lutheran) of £11,099, and an expenditure of £10,. Mission in South India has increased 4,77, Aside from this there was tho from 12 to 27 stations, from 262 to 613 special income of tbe African fund, village~, from 18 to 28 missionaries, amounting to £3313. with an expendi. from G to 17 native pastors, from 75 to turo of £2263, The work of tho society 183 schools, from 94, to 311 teachers, and is carried on entirely in Africa in tho from 1687 to 4753 scholars. Kaifraria mission at Aliwal, North. An increase of 150 members was reported. – The census of the important Basle The Zambesi mission had entailod con· West African Mission, made up to Janu.
siderable cost and some reverses have ary 1st, 1891, gives the following reo had to be encountered; but tho party suits: On the Gold Coast the number sent out by the Board have crossed tho of baptized amounted to 964,7, the in.
rivor and aro now engaged in real mis. crease for the year being 738 ; in the new sionary work. field of Kamerun the baptized number -In 1890 tho Ohurch Missionary So. 256, an incr6ase of 97.
ciety accepted 80 candidates. 31 being clergymen, of whom 24, were graduates; 30 were women, and 19 were laymen. British Foreign Missions. By Rev, Jail. Within 5 years the society has sent out Johnston, Bolton, England.
130 university men, 66 of them gradu. The Niger Mission.-·Though the ates of Cambridge. Church Missionary Society is sending out a deputation to West Africa to ar. -In 1890-91 the· China Inland Mis· range matters on a more satisfactory sion could report 407 baptisms, and the basis, information has just been rec6ived addition of 66 new workers and 19 as· in England from Lagos, through a pri. vate channel, that the native churches sociates, n coming from England, 15 have resolved to secede and to work on independent lines. Unless Bishop from America, 12 from Australia, 9 from Crowther is willing to postpone this Sweden,4 from Norway, 3 from Ger· many, and 1 originally from Holland. The number of communicants is 3000.
-Of the 285,000,000 in India it is course in order to discuss tbe situa. reckoned that only about 11,000,000 can tion with the English deputation, the read. The census of schools registered new arrangement will be in force on by Government (only about half of all, January 1st next. Who the delegates but the most effective half) is, for 1888- from England will be has not yet been 89, in the three presidencies: Madras, published. Much patience and guid. schools, 18,931 ; scholars, 552.152 ; but ance are required in the development a year later. 20,512 and 600,551 respec· of this important field, which is des. tiveJy; Bengal, schools, 64,,628 and tined to become a centre of missionary scholars. 1,4,82.150; but 66,285 and influence.
1,4,91,923 in 1890-91 ; Bombay, in tbe The London Missionary Society's former year: scbools, 17,732 and schol. Report.-There comes to hand the reo ars, 582,853; and in the latter year, port of tbis Rociety, showing that the schools: 11,716 (1) and scholars, 591,627. total income last year was £121,4,55; of -In the Minahassa, the Christianized this £76,313 was subscribed at home, district of Celebes, and upon the north. exclusive of special funds, dividends, ern end of the island, the statistics of and legacies. The native congregations population for 1889 were: Catholics, raised £22,500. On its foreign church 3896; Mohammedans, 5784; heathen, roll the society has 68,000 members, and another 250,000 adherents, with some been called a "black grant" of £2500 1200 native missionaries. There are has been made; and for a period of five about 200 English missionarieB, includ- years the society has ~'mewed its grant ing 37 ladies; and as the centenary of of £500 per annum to the Archbishop'S the society two years hence is approach- Mission to the Assyrian Christians. It ing, a call for" 100 more" missionaries will be sincerely hoped that the grounds is being made, with every promise, from for the recent complaints of the Amerithe appearance of the first-fruits, of a can Presbyterian missionaries respectgoodly harvest of laborers, accompanied ing the attitude of the representatives by B generous liberality. The Chronicle, of this mission may be wholly removed which the Rev. George Cousins edits at an early date. The society has also with sterling ability, will next year be promoted medical mission work by its considerably enlarged, have more illus- grants on behalf of the medical and surtrations, and contain a series of articles gical training of women. covering a wider area of topics than has latterly been possible. Progress in Nyassaland.-Veryen- couraging accounts are told of the phys' Contributions to Church of Eng- ical and civilizing development of the land Missions by the Society for Pro- region about Lake Nyassa. The white moting Christian Knowledge.-At one influence is united, native tribes are at time and lI.nother the society has helped peace, and have confidence in the white in the endowment of 44 colonial and man. Vice·consuls are being appointed, missionary bishoprics, and, this last while" customs," police, and postal matyear its grants for church operations ters are in process of establishment. abroad have been made on a liberal For the fertile land there is quite a rush scale. It has promised a grant of £5000 among the traders and others, and agri. toward providing Tinnevelly with its cultural prospects are cheering. It is own bishop, reviTed a lapsed grant of now proved, after fifteen years of ex- £500 toward the endowment of the perience, that Europeans caD. live in bishopric of St. John's, Kaffraria, and comparati ve health on the uplands in has voted £750 toward the additional Central Africa. Dr. Kerr Cross, who endowment of the see of Mauritius. In returned this year with his bride-a aid of the initial expenses of the New daughter of the late Dr. Turner, the Guinea Mission H has made a grant of famous South' Sea missionary, whose £500, and placed £1000 at the disposal death occurred this last summer-says of the Bishop of Mashonaland toward that one can sail from England up the the expenses of his new diocese. For Zambesi and Shire to the foot of the the dioceses of Colombo, Athabasca, Murchison Cataracts. He believes that and Mackenzie River the eum of £1500 Africa can only be developed by Afrihas bE-en voted to meet sums otherwise cans, and hence it is the duty of the raised, and, in assisting the building of planter to persuade the natives to labor, churches, chapels, and mission rooms build, and live on his or their own and stations in foreign lands as much as plantations. In this direction the civ- £10,615 has been voted to upward of ilizatory part of the missionaries' task 130 cases. These buildings range in at Blantyre and Bandawe has been most size from log churches to cathedrals, successful, to which Mr. Joseph Thomand the grants cover all parts of the son, who has just returned from Lake world as widely apart as the back settle- Bangweolo, pays a glowing compliment. ments of Northwest Canada, the islands Missionary friends in Scotland are eagerof the Pacific, the palm.set plains of lyanticipating the arrival of Dr, Laws Southern India, and the wide stretching this year. veldt of South Africa. To help in the training of a native ininistry, what has Welsh Calvinistic Methodist For- eign Missions.-Two missions are supported by this branch of the Church- member which they contribllte to the one on the Khasia Hills, in India, and bep.eficent work of the Church. the other in Britanny, the former being established 50 years ago. The native -The Northern Presbyterian Church churches number 80, with a membership has 4 presbyteries in the synod of the of 6190, including communicants, pro· Indian Territory–in the Choctaw, bationers, and children, while the total Chickasaw and Creek nations-includnumber of those who frequented the ing 62 churches and 1823 members. services and had renounced heathenism None of the churches have ministers, was 8900. The total income of the mis- but they are served by home missionasionary society amounted last year to ries and stated supplies. The Southern £7952 from collections, donations, and Presbyterian Church has 1 presbytery other sources. For the mission jubilee in' the Territory, with 13 churches and fund a sum of £25,000 had already come 637 members. The Spencer Academy, in to hand, and not improbably before the connection with this preshytery, is an Bubscription list was closed, the figure important element of its work. of £35,000 would be contributed. -The American Board has put up Miscellaneous. – There is slight $1,000,000 as its goal in annual receipts doubt that the Baptist Centenary for foreign missions. It hopes to reach Fund will reach £100,000, toward which this mark by constant advances, and as a large proportion is announced. Some the missionary impulse grows stronger handsome gifts have been recently made in the Congregational churches. The by the leading Baptists of Lancashire. Methodists have fixed their high.water The autumnal Baptist gatherings in Manchester in October were fully availed mmiasrskioants$, 1~2n5d0't0h0e0yfowrilhlomreeacahnditf.oreTighne of by the missionary wing, and a pro. nounced impetus given to the claims Presbyterian Ohurch has proposed of foreign missions. The Society of $1,000,000 for foreign missions as its Friends, it is reported, is beginning to aim. It is creeping up slowly to that plant itself in the East, particularly in point, having contributed over $900,000 Philippopolis and Constantinople, the last year. ground for a new meeting-house having just been purchased in the first.named -The schools sustained by the vari· place. ous American missionary societies con- tain almost 175,000 pupils, and the Monthly Bulletin. 12,000 Protestant mission schools are training to Christian intelligence an ag- United States.-The Methodists are gregate of not much less than 600,000 jubilant over the fact that their mis- children and youth. sionary society is free from debt for the first time in twenty·five years. Greal, Britain.-By way of inaugurat- ing the effort which has been resolved -The Methodists in San Francisco upon to raise $500,000 as a special fund have had, for five years, a Japanese Mis- to celebrate the centenary of the Eng. sion, an outgrowth of their Chinese lish Baptist Missionary Society, the Mission in the same city. There were treasurer of the society, Mr. W. R. 175 Japanese members a year ago, and Rickett, of London, has just intimated their church is known among themselves his intention to give $25,000. as the Take-a-seat church. -At the recent meeting of the Con. -The Dakota (Indian) Presbytery far gregational Union of England and Wales, exceeds the others of the Synod of Professor Armitage spoke on The For- South Dakota in the average per church ward Movement in Foreign Missions. He called upon his hearers to face cer· tain facts with contrition and sorrow. In 1841 English Congregationalists had 192 missionaries in the field, and in -Two educated negro women at 18lH only 197. He said: "For 50 years Vasten have begun to issue the first we have locked up our hearts in aliena- newspaper in the Congo Free State. It tion of sympathy-not entire alienation, aims to .. enlighten the souls of the but surely a very deep and real aliena· black-skinned. " tion. But a change has come. The Lord has opened the windows of heaven, -The Central Soudan has at last been and now we are discussing the enthusi- penetrated by two English missionaries. astic proposal to send 100 men and Messrs. Harris and White have gone to women into the field." found a mission at Lake Tchad. On their journey, which they made on foot, -Former students of Mansfield Col- they were hospitably entertained by the ege, Oxford, now on the mission field Arabs, being greatly assisted by Mr_ are never allowed to feel that they are White's violin, to the accompaniment forgotten by their alma mater. Each of which he sang the Gospel tunes. term the college appoints a correspond- The valley in which lies Lake Tchad is ing secretary whose duty it is to write east of the Niger valley, and has never to each of the brethren abroad, tell him before been visited by a missionary. of the latest college news, inform him as to the new men who have come, as -The Muhlenberg Mission of the to the old ones who have gone, and en- Lutheran General Synod in Africa pays deavor to make him feel, though far a large proportion of its expenses by away, that he is still a member of the the sale of coffee, which it raises on its college fold, that those with whom he own plantation in Liberia. once studied are men that live in living affection with him and love to hear of Pacific Islands.-Miss Charlotte M. his weal. The absent one in turn Yonge, the writer, recently subscribed writes to the college and keeps it fully $10,000 for building a missionary colinformed of his trials, success, needs, lege at Auckland, New Zealand. and thus feeds the flame of missionary enthusiasm within scholastic walls. -The Presbyterians of Australia and Tasmania are planning to establish a -Two hundred and twelve thousand mission among the aborigines of North copies of the New Testament in Hebrew Queensland. have been distributed among Jews in all parts of the world by the Mildmay -The miSSIOns Qf the American Mission to the Jews. Board in the Pacific Islands are thus described: .. The institute in the -The Irish Presbyterian Church has Hawaiian Islands for the training of always given effective support to :its a native educated ministry is commend- Foreign Missions· Committee. It is now ed for larger support. At Ponape the trying a new experiment with regard to work has been interfered with by Span- – its agents Up to the present its male ish persecution. The summary of the missionaries in India have all been or- work of the Board is as follows: Five dained university men, and their allow. hundred and thirty-eight missionaries, ance has been about £350 per annum. 2648 native preachers and teachers, 410 An influential section of the general as- churches, 38,226 communicants, andl sembly has lately organized the , ••Tun- schools of various grades with 46,403 gle Tribes Missions," the agents of pupils, are the salient and expressive which are to he earnest, well-educated figures. " laymen, with allowances not exceeding one-third those of the present ordained -The Free Church of Scotland. with mISSIOnaries. They propose to begin 335,000 members, raised last year, from their work among the Bhils, and the all Bouwes, a total missionary revenue first laY' a!1ent p.as aJready sailed. for the evangelization of the world out- !!ide the United Kingdom of £113,431. 16s. 3d. ($567,155). Its native com· ing the more popular language of the municants in aU foreign fields aggregate two. The spirit of missions, at home 6620. It supports 51 ordainedmissiona- and abroad, manifestly perva.ded the ries, 8 medical missionaries, and 23 pro. body. Two students came back who fessors and teachers. had been at work on distant fields, one -Next to the Moravians the United in AbYRsinia and the other in America. Presbyterians of Scotland are the mis- Their ordination diffused a glow of missionary church, Their 570 churches, sionary enthusiasm among the pastors with 185,000 members, contributed and elders, and reports from forty-four $400,000 last year, and the gain of mission stations in Italy quickened the converts was 600 during the year. evangelistic fervor. A Scotchman who was present at the Synod has written -In an interesting paper in a recent home that" almost every family among number of The Church of Scotland Home the Waldensians has furnished minis- and Foreign Mission Record, Rev. Dr. ters, missionaries, and evangelists, and Mackinnon, of Heidelberg, calls atten- the supply is only restrained by finantion to the thoroughness with which cial difficulties. Were the gifts for the German missionaries are trained for evangelization of Italy doubled or their work. Their systematic method trebJed, there could be no difficulty is said to be remarkable indeed in com- in finding a corresponding supply of.
parison with the lax preparatory train- able and godly Vaudois to do the work.' , ing in some other countries largely en- The progress of the Church of the Vaugaged in missionary effort. After satis- dois, in Italy, is slow, but it is steady, factory proof of their fitness for the life, and the Church is in no mood to retreat the candidates in Germany are admitted from the old contest with Rome.
to attend the Mission House one even- South America.-Rev. J. MIlton ing in the week for a year. They are Greene, of Mexico, is translating into then entered upon the books of the pre- Spanish, to publish in his paper, El paratory school for two years for in- Faro. Dr. J. H. Barrows's book, "The struction in Latin, etc. After this they Gospels are True Histories." have a. course of instruction of a theo- logical nature, including the study of -The Methodist missions in South the Bible in the original tongue, and a America propose to prepare for the Co· few sessions of medical training in the lumbian Exposition an exhibit showing hospital. The years thus spent are use· the progress and results of their work ful in developing in the future mission- on that continent.
ary many qualities which are of the ut- -Dr. J. M. Allis, of the Chilian Mis· most value in the mission field. The sian, says that " if Balmaceda had been result is that men are sent out who are trained under biblical influence, and if in every way worthy of their work, and his proud nature had been disciplined who undertake it thoroughly equipped by Gospel instruction and Christian for the Master's senice. teaching, there is not the slightest ques- tion that his history and the history of ltaly.-The Waldensian Synod was Chili would have been decidedly differ. held last month. Professor Geymonat ent." was Moderator. He presides so well that he is re elected from year to year.
The Waldensians have a fine" Synod- -The Salvation Army has secured a house," erected a few years ago as a strong foothold in Buenos Ayres. Dur- memorial of the "glorious return" of ing the financial troubles it was able to the Vaudois. It was noticed that in the help thousands of men thrown out of Synod the speakers are apt to glide away work to food and shelter. It has a from the use of the French into the thriving farm colony, and is training Italian tongue, which is rapidly becom- Spanish.speaking cadets. -The Synod of Brazil recently hand- reach up to and beyond the average of ed over to Episcopal missionaries in Rio Christian giving of Chinese Christians.
Grande a church with forty members, a The most recent figures for Swatow, day school, and a fund for erecting an supplied by Mr. Maclagan, of our mis- edifice; and did it gladly, willingly, sion there, are 1543 members, who duro and in the spirit of comityand·economy ing the year have contributed $1925.
which Secretary Clark, at Pittsfield, said 'I'he Formosan churches do quite as was so necessary. well; and in Amoy the annual contribu- -Mission work in Brazil by the Pres· tion of the church members is at the byterian Church (North) has been car· rate of more than $2 per head. Chinese ried on principally in the southern por- liberality will always seem to those who tion of. t.he country. But there is a know the Chinese money-making and great field in the north. The southern money-saving propensities, one of the Presbyterians have long been active most convincing proofs of the reality of there. The vast field lying between the Chinese Christianity."
San Francisco River and the Amazon is -Dr. Griffith John, the veteran miscomparatively little known to the Chris- sionary to China, is full of jubilation at tian world. Pernambuco is the chief the recent imperial edict opening the centre of this region, a city of 120,000 province ot Hunan to Christian teachinhabitants; in commercial importance ing. He says that its people are brave, one of the first in the republic. It' is manly, and straightforward, occupying the centre of the great sugar tr~de of the very highest positions as civil and Brazil. and the port of three States- military officers. They are proud, ex· Rio Grande do Norte, Parahyba, and elusive, and anti-foreign to a degree Alagoas. Three railroads in operation extraordinary even in China. But now unite there, connecting the city with that the door is opened they will be acthe northern, central, and southern cessible, and when once converts are parts of the State. Mission work is won and a footing gained there the adbeing prosecuted here with vigor and vance will be rapid.
success. -There is an apparentlywell-ground- ed expectation that the cultivated classes -The natural result of the growth of of Japan are only waiting for the con- Protestantism in Brazil is an urgent, an sent of the Mikado to embrace Protestant irrepressible demand for more ed ncation Christianity in a body. The Deshisha, -higher education. Under ordinary founded by a Japanese boy, converted circumstances the absence of such a de- by rpading a single leaf of the New Tesmand would argue the failure of the tament and educated in Phillips' Acadwork. By God's providence a new emy, Amherst, and Andover Seminary, order of things has been set up in Bra- has more students than all three of the zil, for which the ProtAst.ant ferment is institutions named. in some measure responsible. This in- tensifies the urgency of the demand. India.-A Moravian missionary named Letzen, with his wife, certainly ought China.-The Presbyterian missiona- to be written with those who love their ries in Manchuria have encouraged the fellow· men. }'or thirty years he has native Christians to form a native pres- been preaching and working at a stabytery.
-The Presbyteriom, Messenger, organ tion in the Thibetan mountains, with- of the English Presbyterian Church, out the sight of a European face, and says: ,. Without entering on any jeal- with the post-office fourteen days' dis- ous comparisons, it is permissible to re- tant, separated from them by the high joice in the fact that the members of passes of the Himalayas and dangerous our own churches in China and Formosa streams. -A native Christian, to the saliMfac- work upon it. The brickmakers and tion of the bar, the bench, and the pub- bricklayers, the painters and carpenters lic, has just been appointed Adminis- wele natives trained in the mission; trator-General of Madras, India ; and a and the hewers of wood and drawers of native Ch.ristian girl··-a graduate of one of the Christian colleges-has been ap- water were the very men who a few pointed to the charge of the post.office years before had sought to destroy the at Mandapasali. work. On May 10th the work was com- -The Gospel of Matthew, now being pleted and the church dedicated. It printed at Bangkok by the American will seat in the nltv!) and transept 200 Presbyterian Mission press, is the first move toward giving the Bible to the people with eltse, and 400 could be oro- Laos in their own language. This is vided for without passing the chancel. printed i)1 Siamese letters, but it is The wi.J.dowB are mostly memorial winhoped in the near future to give the same in the Laos letters also. dows of stained glass, and most of the fittings have been presented, including -A •• prayer-meeting" attended by handsome lamps, draperies, a bell and Hindu students of the several colleges chairs, communion table and readingin Lahore, India, is held in Mission College boarding-house every Sabbath after- desk. noon. This is in no sense a Christian prayer-meeting, and with it the college -An English Baptist m1ss10naryauthorities have nothing whatever to lir. Stapleton-writing of the ferocity do. The Mohammedan community, of the Bimgala tr1bes on the Upper too, is similarly affected.. A recent organizatiou, caJled the" Young Men's Congo, among whom he and his associ- Mohammedan Association," the secre- ates are attempting missionary work, tary of which is a graduate of a COllege, reports a .:£!gut between two villages, in announces as its object the spiritual and which thi/women took part, after which mor!>l welfare of the young men of the community. "Divine service" is regu- the victors danced in high glee, and larly conducted in four or five different brought in the bodies of those they had halls of that city; and the newspapers tell us of the" impressive sermons" and slain, presenting a sight so sickening the" earnest prayers" offered on such that it was difficult for the missionaries occasions. to eat or to sleep. The conquerors 4frica.-A very practical demonstra- cooked the bodies of their victims; and tion of the progress of missions is gi ven in the view published in various Eng- two days aft€r a lad walked into the mislish journals of the Scotch Presbyterian sion statio'l carrying on a plant.ain leaf Church, recently completed at Blantyre some of the flesh that had been roasted. in East Central Africa. The mission established seventeen years ago has passed Mr. Stapleton says: through every stage of discouragement and prosperity. At one time the fierco ., One of the men killed at Mampoko tribal antagonism threatened to extin. was a slave of the chief. He had worked guish it; but though the whole surround- for us some three months, and but the ing country was raided, the mission and I>vening before was engaged on the sta· the mission people were respected. In tion. In the morning he is killed, and 1888 the foundations of the new church in an hour or two tossed into a grave wefe laid, and !lince the!). !Ill have been at , unwept, unhonored, and unsung.' The people wanted to eat him, and would have none so, but his master refused to cut off his head, a necessary preliminary to the feast. Another man comes to the fight in full vigor; in twelve hours h1s bodv is cooked and eaten; while to burn alive a poor, sick, deserted woman is regarded as a huge joke. Yet usually these Bangalas are merry, manly fel- lows, very friendly in conversation, and quite demonstrative in their affection; but when the 1118t of blood is upon them deeds which fill us with horror are the merest incidents of the fight to them. "
The Missionary Review of the World — September 1891
THE YEAR 1890 IN JAPAN
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIV. No.9.-OldSeries.–SEPTEMBER.–VoL.IV. No.9.-NewSeries.
THE YEAR 1890 IN JAPAN.
BY REV. PROFESSOR GEORGE WM. KNOX, D. D., TOKYO, JAPAN.
The foreca!l.t of 1889 was fulfilled in 1890. The year was full of difficnlty, and in empire and Church the cheerful confidence of the past gave way to uneasy anticipations and fears.
THE SUFFERING PEOPLE.
A short harvest in 1889 sent the price of rice up so high that thousands could not buy it. The multitude who ever Jive near the starvation liue became wholly dependent. Had benefactions not been large and constant they would have died from the lack of food. In the spring and summer the suffering was at its height, the abundant harvests of the autumn first giving permanent relief. During the summer cholera carried off tens of thousands, and late in the autumn the influenza paid a second and virulent visit that was fatal to very many.
Business suffered in sympathy with the general distress. The poverty of the people interfered with the usual course of trade; and a number of circumstances, which need not be repeated here, combined to render business unprofitable; failures were very many. But for the most part the distress, both physical and financial, was endured in silence. These Orientals have not yet learned our Western fashion of loud wailing over the misfortunes which they accept as a part of nature. Does our thought of the Heavenly Father, in whose hands are the issues of life, render us less patient than these who know no such all-loving guide and God?
THE STRUGGLING POLITICIANS.
Politics occupied a new place of importance in the popular esteem. The struggles which had been obscure and underground came out into the light of day as the elections for the first members of the Diet drew near. But no great issue divided the nation, and the contests were between factions and individuals. No faction or individual obtained a decisive majority of the whole number of members, though the" Liberals" constitute the largest group. When the Diet met in the autumn, only one thing was settled beyond doubt-the Lower House of the Diet was not friendly to the present Ministry or to the system which that Ministry represents. It was clear that a struggle for power. involving fundamental constitutional questions, would ensue. The leaders on both sides deprecated such a struggle, but they have proved unable to prevent it. The weeks passed have been tempestuous. The Diet has won some victories on minor points; but the most Radical section has forced the fighting on the budget, demanding such reductions that the Ministry declares itself wholly unable to comply. The Moderates seek only such economy in administration as may reasonably he agreed to. The Radicals want the fundamental political problem solved at once j the Moderates seek a compromise that shall permit a gradual and peaceful emergence from the difficulties that everyone admits. There is no party which advocates the Government outright, or def4ilnds the present system. As in so many other questions, all are progressive, the dispute being as to the pace. And all well-wishers to Japan must Jeilire the defeat of the Radicals, since their victory will result in the sharpest crisis the empire has k~wn in years. Unfortunately they control the Lower House by a decisive majority.
THE MEDDLING YOUTH.
The oddest feature, and the most inexplicable, of the situation, is the fashion in which young men of no apparent claim to influence or position constitute themselves the guardians of the empire's honor. As in years past such men have assassinated ministers of State, so now they band themselves together that they may coerce the Diet. Their influence is Radical, and they have repeatedly attacked members not of their way of thinking, and their threats of vengeance are constant. Some of them have been banished from the city; but the strangest element in the situation is the comparative immunity from punishment which they enjoy. Some influence seems to protect them, and accordingly reports are not wanting that they are in the pay of various influential personages. Until Japan learns in private and in public, in the family, the school, and the State, to discipline and restrain the youth who now grow rank, we cannot expect a peaceful and orderly development.
THE FOREIGN TREATIES.
The parliamentary struggle has diverted attention somewhat from the question of treaty revision, but indications in plenty show that the subject is not out of mind. And t-he popular demand rises with each delay. The foreign powers missed their opportunity when, years ago, Count Inoue was ready to grant all that reasonable men had any right or wish to demand. But the foreign powers could not agree among themselves or with him. Now popular sentiment must be taken into Rerious account. No minister would dare make a treaty which public sentiment disapproved. His life would not be safe for an hour. And public sentiment is not more reasonable in Japan than elsewhere. Since in the past the representatives of the powers have been unable to agree with the most reasonable and fair-minded Japanese ministers of State, there is small chance that now they will listen to the people. In the past Japan has been in the right j but it is a question whether the popular demands do not put it in the wrong. This much is sure-so long as the treaties are unrevised, so long will the anti-foreign agitation continue, so long will it be impossible that foreigners in any calling shall regain their former position. At the same time every new demand makes foreign compliance more difficult, so difficult, indeed, that revision would seem to be indefinitely postponed.
THE YEAR'S MISSIONARY WORK.
All of the facts related above have affected injuriously the work of foreign missionaries. The hard times have reduced gifts to the Church and hindered its extension. The political struggles have diverted the public mind, the meddlesome young men have given some of their attention to missionaries and to foreigners, and the question of treaty revision has so affected society in general that even the Church has participated to some extent in the anti-foreign spirit. The table of statistics just published shows the effect of these and other causes. The entire net gain of the whole Protestant body in Japan for the year is 1199, a gain smaller than single missions have repeatedly reported in the past. The table is not wholly trustworthy, it is true, 111 spite of every endeavor to make it 80 j but I do not know that the errors are greater than in other years. The Methodist Episcopal Church reports a decrease of 198 in the total membership, and the Congregationalists a loss of 169. The latter is in spite of the facts that they report 1615 baptisms for the same period. It can be accounted for only on the supposition that the reports for the two years have been made up from different data. The Church of Christ (Presbyterian) I·eports 1280 baptisms and a net increase of 517, the losses being through disaffection caused by the Plymouth Brethren, and, to a much larger extent, the revision of congregational rolls. The Nippon Sei Kokwai (Episcopalian) shows the largest net gain, 578 j but the figures are only approximate, and appear not to allow for the losses so noticeable in the other reports. The Canadian Methodists are the only others who show a gain of more than one hundred.
The contributions show a gratifying increase, the total being, en 69,3.24.95, a gain of 15,821.22. (The en is equivalent to the silver dollar.) Most of this increase is to be credited to the Congregational churches, though the Methodists and Episcopalians also report an increase.
Most of the other columns show a decrease, and some hardly show the full extent of the losses. Especially has the year been full of discouragement to those engaged in the higher schools. The mission schools were never so well prepared for large and successful work, and were never before so little esteemed. Some of the boarding-schools have lost half their pupils, and the losses continue. A strong national feeling is asserting itself. It insists upon a training that shall be more distinctively Japanese in management, methous, and subjects. It strongly objects to institutions that seem to subject Rtudents to the control of foreigners. The change of sentiment on this subject within the past two years amounts to a revolution. It is to be hoped that a reaction will before long restore the schools to their old position. Shonld such prove not to be the case· the question of the discontinuance of some of the schools must be seriously faced.
THE MISSIONS AND THE MISSIONARIES.
One mISSlOn has been added during the year-the Universalist. The Unitarian Mission also gives its report. The entire missionary force is 577, including the wives. This is an increase of 50 men and women. The force is distributed in 29 societies.
I would again venture the opinion that our prescnt missionary methods are in the extreme wasteful of money and life. Rightly distributed and massed, one half the present force could accomplish all, and more than is now done. Instead of so much earnest appeal for men and money I propose a year of appeal for the better use of the forces we have. UntiI something is done to combine the Protestant forces the waste must continue. Is confederation in the great work of evangelizing the world still impossible ¥ Can we expect thinking men to continue and increase their gifts if the half goes to waste 1 Doubtless the case is not so pressing in other lands; but, for the things I see and know, my language is none too strong.
Nor can I fail to say that the time is not auspicious for an increase of missionaries, apart from the great waste resulting from divergent plans and aims. It is not impossible that in certain parts of the field the missionary adds little to the effectiveness of the work. The complaint is heard, e.g., that schools have too many missionarws in their faculties, and the popular demand for addresses and sermons from foreigners has greatly fallen off. The way iR not so open, nor the invitation so pressing, as a few years ago. It may be only a passing wave of sentiment, but while it lasts we may well give the precedence to calls from other fields, as they, in the past, have given way to us.
And yet the time is by no means past for foreign missionaries in Japan. In some parts of the empire, in the interior provinces and in the south and west, they can still repeat the triumphs of the days gone by. They are still welcomed, and their leadership is ardently desired. They can still, even in Tokyo, find work of the last importance in educating a Japanese ministry, and in the preparation of a theological literature. And wherever there are earnest, spiritually minded men, their influence must be felt. But beyond all this the missionary organization is still necessary. The Church and the work would suffer were it withdrawn. The missionaries supply the unmoved framework, the inner form little influenced by superficial change, that is essential to the strength and permanence of the Church as an organism. Premature withdrawal would subject it to a strain we may well wish for a while postponed. Such function may be far from the ideal entertained by the missionary of his own position; it is certainly less imposing than the missionary position in most lands; but if thus service is rendered to the Master, we shall be content.
TIm THEOLOGICAL UNREST.
Japan participates in all the movements of our age. No wall or tariff shnts the empire out from frecst communication with the world, and the ideas which agitate thinking rilen find ready entrance here. For years the leaders of the Japanese Church have followed with intense interest the course of theological thought. They read freely both sides. Papers, reviews, and books are in dcmand in proportion as they reflect the current intellectual life. Not the wisdom of ourfathers, but such as our age can furnish, they desire. Coufucianism has satisfied their longings for an ironbound conservatism. They are proportionatcly eager for progressive thought. Disposition and public sentiment combine to urge in one direction, and there is no opposing power that shall attempt to hold them back. If the intelligent, influential young men are to be orthodox Christians, it will be because orthodoxy makes the strongest appeal to mind and heart. The newest and extreme thought is not left to the printed page, it has its living representatives. The German Evangelic Mission is led by men of solid learning and strong ethical and spiritual powers. They are naturalists in their exposition of the Bible, denying all miraculous elements. '1'hey reject the Divinity of Christ, His miracles and His resurrection. Yet, with what seems to an American a peculiarly German inconsistency, they declare that their one desire is that Christ may be accepted by the Japanese, and in walk and conversation they breathe the spirit of the Master. They give in lectures and printed articles a wide circulation to the advanced views of the German schools, ancl their words are eagerly read and heard by the young men of our churches. The Universalists and the Unitarians, from different points of view, are in sympathy with the Germans, and the three bodies form one party of considerable strength and influence. Some of the ordained ministers of other bodies have returned from the United States more or less in sympathy with the cruder forms of the new theology.
This condition of things fills some of the conservatives with alarm. But I deprecate the views they insert in American periodicals. Weare not in a panic at all. We welcome and rejoice in this full and free and fair discussion. When did the truth ever ask more than a fair field and no favor ~ It is a strange novelty that we who profess to hold the truth should seek to hide timidly behind traditional defences. If the truth cannot protect itself-but who would thus doubt His power who is the Truth ~ If some of our opinions cannot stand, is not the truth better than our opinions, howefer venerable 1 For our part, we do not fear the result. We do not for a moment doubt the final triumph, nor can we believe that the Church has been mistaken all along in accepting Christ as Son of God, and the Bible as supreme in doctrine and life.
THE SYNOD OF THE NIPPON KIRISUTO KYOKWAI.
The most significant event of the year in matters ecclesiastical was the meeting of the Synod of the Nippon Kirisuto Kyokwai (the Japanese Church of Christ, with which are connected the Presbyterian and RflfOimed mis- sions). This Church has long been considering the revision of its constitu. tion. In 1877, when the present organization was effected, the Church yielded to the earnest desire of the missionaries, and adopted unabridi!ed and unamended a Form of Government, Book of Discipline, and Confession of Faith, imported from the United States. The Confessions-there were two of them-had not even been translated, but were adopted purely on faith. They were adoptcd, but thcy have never been the true Confessions of the Church's faith. Years ago a committee was appointed for their revision, but its labors were interrupted by the negotiations for union with the Congregationalists. After those negotiations were broken off a nf>W committee on revision was given df'fi~ite instrnctions. The committee rcported in the early summer and Synod met iu December to discuss the report.
Synod was a thoroughly representative body, most of the leading men being present. Foreigners were in a small minority, and from the start the Japanese took the lead. The result is their work, and this it is which renders the meeting so significant. We have a fair test of the true faith and spirit of the Church, and not a mere reflection of foreign missionary sentiment.
The Japanese Christians think for themselves, that is the most evident comment. They are almost morbidly avcrse to leading-strings-especially now are they eager to show their intellectual independence. Any attempt to coerce them will result in disaster. At the Rame time they will listen to advice and reason.
The Church is soundly evangelical. It stauds firmly by the great essentials of the faith. It is not infected with Unitarian or Rationalistic virus. No one expressed himself as other than in entire sympathy with the truth once delivered to the saints.
But the Church inRists that there shall be widest liberty in non-e8sentials. It is eager to reje,ct the systems of theologians. It would embrace all who truly accept our Lord and Saviour. In its brief creed it desired to embody these two aims, and to show itself thoroughly evangelical and yet so free that none may be excludEd who do not deny the faith. It would have no imported Confession. It asserted at onpe its indifference to thc strifes and shibb(lleths of Westem lands, and its desire to hear testimony against the errors that threaten in Japan. Whatever may be onr opinion as to the snccess of the endea'or, or as to the sufficiency of the Confession as finally adopted, there is no doubt about the sincere purpose of the Church. Nor need there be question that this purpose in the main was right.
The Church has a strong missionary spirit. The debate on the Confession was dominated by the desire to make it an effective missionary document. The Christians never forget their position in the midst of a non- Christian people, nor their duty as witnesses for Christ, however much their labors fall short of their admitted obligations.
The Church accepts gladly the Presbyterian polity as a form of organization, but it rejects all exclusive claims even for its own forms, and occupies theoretically no position that may hinder union with other bodies. A strong desire for the organic union of Christians of every name was manifest throughout, though there is no immediate prospect that such desires may be realized.
TIlE HOPEFUL OUTLOOK.
It is not to be denied that the year has left a feeling of uncertainty and fear in the minds of many. Some ev{;n look forward to indescribable dis-" aster; but a calm review of all the facts warrants us in saying that the out- look is full of hope.
Even with so strong an anti-foreign spirit as the last year has shown, our Japanese Christians have held their own. Thirteen were elected to the Diet. One of them was chosen President of the Diet, and a second, permanent Chairman of the Committee of the Whole. These two posts were most keenly sought, and their occupants are very prominent and important in the public's thought. Christianity has further shown its wide influence by the long-continued agitation against licensed prostitution, an agitation that has enlisted a large share of popular approval and sympathy. It is no small triumph that Christianity so soon manifests itself as a moral force in the national life, and that it is so secure in its place that its profession is no hindrance to high political advancement.
The fact that the Church contains so many men of prominence, so many men second to none in their wide influence, is high encouragement, although, as a natural consequence, the foreign missionary is thereby remanded to a somewhat secondary place. As the Church thus reckons judges, professors, members of the Diet, prominent journalists, and high officials among its active members, we cannot expect the same position we should occupy in lands where the converts are for the most part from the lower walks of life. But we must be narrow indeed if this success becomes a source of discouragement. Let us thank God and take courage.
Though the year has been a trying one to forcigners, still has the Church remained remarkably friendly. There have been sharp criticisms of lIlen and methods, it is true; but we should hesitate to demand submissive silence from our friends. And it is not to be forgotten that the prevalent hostility to foreign institutions of every kind, and the association of the Church with missionaries in the popular mind, has been the cause of denial;
OR. GRIFFIS ON JAPAN
that the Church and foreigners are identical-a denial that has sometimes been more emphatic than agreeable in expression.
The theological nnrest, too, gives rise to hope. One minister joined the Unitarians, bnt he carried no one with him, and there is no disposition to follow his example. Already there are signs that the Radical flood has Ilassed its height and begnn to recede. We shall hear less of it in the years to come. It is not to be overlooked that the Unitarian Mission has a new leader of a spirit very different from the former " ambassador, " whose hostility to orthodoxy and to other missions is rep~aced by friendli- ness and a desire for such co-operation as is practicable. . The Plymonth Brethren, too, have about exhausted their capabilities for mischief, and almost cease from troubling the congregations. Some of the keenest of the Japanese ministers feel that the tide now sets with us.
There is no falling off in the numbers of young men who press into the Christian ministry. And for the theological department of the Meiji • Gakuin I may say that our junior class is not only the largest but the best that has entered the school. There is no better test of the true condition of the Church.
The difficulties have culminated in Tokyo. In the provinces the state of things has been by no means so trying. In a letter just received, a mis- sionary of much experience and sound judgment writes: "The condition of affairs in Central and Western Japan was never more promising. Con- verts are not gained so rapidly, perhaps, as in some years gone by, but the churches were never in so good condition before." That testimony can be duplicated by many witnesses in widely separated fields. And even in Tokyo onr most intelligent pastors say they find no widespread opposition to Christianity, nor any cause for real discouragement.
Surely God has done great things for Japan, and His Church may trust Him for the days to come. lIe does not leave us without evidence of His presence and blessing. Through His grace the Church shall go forward, that it may be Hi~ witness and the preacher of His Gospel to all the inhab- itants of the land.
MEIJI GAKUIN, TOKYO, February 12, 1891.
DR. GRIFFIS ON JAPAN.
BY THE EDITOR-iN-CHIEF.
Dr. Griffis has recently published an article on the Constitution of Japan which deserves wider circulation. He refers to the meeting of the Imperiltl Diet, which entered upon the work of sharing with the Mikado the government of the forty millions of Japanese, and remarks that on July 1st, 1890, the national election took place and proved to be quiet and decorous. The privilege of voting for members of the House of Representatives was restricted to certain taxpayers, so that the electorate probably did not number more than one million yoters. Bya decree dated July 10th, the administration of the two houses was organized by the appointment of a Chief Secretary, ten assistants, two probationers, and twenty subordinatcs for each branch of the Diet, and the proccedings were opened by the emperor in person.
Mutsuhito, the one hundred and twenty-third Mikado, was born, by a strange coincidence, on the very day that Commodore M. C. Perry stood on the deck of the Mississippi ready to sail for Japan. 'Vonderful changes have taken place within these thirty-nine years, and Dr. Griffis asks what grounds have we for believing in the solidity and permanence of representative political institutions in such a nation.
The story of the Japanese begins with the foundation of the empire, B. c. 660, which is in many other respects a very marked era in the annals of the human race. Their actual hIstory begins very nearly a thousand years after. The dual system of government, under the Mikado at one end of the empire and the Tycoon at the other, lasted until 1868, when the Tycoon gave way to the Mikado. Japan has always suffered from having no external foe or force to compel national cohesion, and society was split up into eight or more grades from gods to pariahs, and the country itself into three hundred feudal clans. Historical research and the fear of subjection by foreign nations begat that new thing in Japan, public opinion, and to save the unity of Japan from divisions such a& were seen in India, the dual system of government fell at the dictation of public opinion. The American Naval Expedition of 1853 simply brought the crisis. The Tycoon, hitherto despotic, felt compelled to ask the opinion of the clans as to wtat should be the answer to Commodore Perry, and the first informal Parliament was summoned.
The events from 1853 to 1890 simply record the march of public opmlOn. Dualism first went. down and feudalism followed. Provision was made for a permanent national parliament, and the leaders of the revolution constrained the Mikado, then but sixteen years old, to swear that he would call a deliberate assembly and submit to it affairs of State. This charter oath of five articles forms the basis of the new Japan. The way was accordingly prepared for the complete separation of the executive, legislative, and judicial functions, and in 1878 provision was made for the education of the people in their new political duties.
After much popular agitation in behalf of a national parliament, on October 12th, 1880, the Mikado signed the decree promising to limit the imperial prerogative, and call a parliament to meet in 1890. The constitutions of various other governments were carefully examined, and on February 11th, 1889, on the anniversary of the ascent of the throne, B.C. 660, by the first Mikado, Jimmu Tenno, this grand document was published, the magna charta of Japanese liberties.
The constitution consists of Rcven chapters with seventy-six articles, which treat of the Emperor, his subjects, the Diet, mini8ters of State, the Privy Council, etc. The upper house, or House of Peers, is a mixed body. Members of the Imperial family, princes, and marquises sit for lif",. Counts, viscounts, and barons are elected for seven years. Certain men notable for ability and learning have a life term. There is also a provision for commoners to be elected to this house, which thus involves representation from the three estates of the realm.
The constitution approaches closely the model of Germany and Great Britain. Most important are the thirty-two articles of Chapter II., which grant and define the rights and duties of the subjects. Hitherto the masses had politically been ciphers, bound to obey, pay taxes, and hold their tongues. Now the status of every subject is fixed by law, and by law his rights are guarded. Modern Japanese law is based Oil the code of France. The judiciary conllists of local courts, district courts, court of appeal, and a supreme court, and judges are appointed for life..
Western nations look with intensest interest to the unfolding of Japan's future.
JAPAN AND THli: BIBLE.
Twenty years ago the people of Japan had never seen any part of the Scriptures in their own tongue, and placards prohibiting Christianity were displayed on the corners of the streets.
In 1872, aided by a grant from the American Bible Society, Dr. Hepburn's version of Mark and John wall printed in Yokohama, and a committee was formed for translating the Bible.
' The. first edition of the New Testament appeared in 1880, and the entire Bible in 1888. From 1874 until now the American Bible Society has circulated in Japan more than 550,000 volumes of the Scriptures; and there are now more than 250 churches with over 30,000 members.
In view of the many agencies employed, it is gratifying to have so competent an observer as Dr. Hepburn ascribe one half of all the results of Christian missions in Japan to the work of the Bible societies.
Similar work is being done in connection wi.th the labors of American mi2sionaries in various parts of the world, and a secretary of one of our largest missionary boards has recently said : "I know of no single agency which can for a moment begin to compare with that of the Bible Society in giving permanency to Ollr missionary work in every field. I find myself depending upon its work more and more as I come to appreciate more fully what its volume is and what its significance is."
Of the publication of the complete Bible in Japanese, Dr. Griffis further says: "An able English editor declared that the publication of the Bible in Japanese was 'like building a railway through the national intellect.' This was perhaps the proper metaphor to employ in this industrial age, when civilization moves on rails and wires. To ono not hlind to the !esthetics, or deaf to the harmonies, of a noble work of letters, the human mastery over difficulties suggests rather the slow building of a glorious cathedral. The Bible in Japanese as we have it to-day-despite our thrills of joy and pride that it is mainly the work of American missionaries-is not a finished product. It is, however, so substantially near the ideal that it must be the basis of all future enterprise. Even its very shortcomings, felt most keenly by the master·builders of this stately edifice of language, point in the direction of final triumph.
" When in Tokio on the 3d of February, 1888, the veteran translator, Dr. J. C. Hepburn, suiting the action to the word, took the Old Testament in one hand and the New Testament in the other, and reverently laying them down-a complete Bible-sa~d : 'In the name of the whole body of Protestant missionaries in Japan, and of the whole Church of Christ in America and England, I make it a loving present to the Japanese nation,' the audience, made up of Christians from three continents, was deeply moved at the simple and touching ceremony. It was less like capping the obelisk at Washington with its polished aluminum finial than it was setting the headstone upon a glorious cathedral. In that completed work of pen and type, as in the splendors of some saintly minster, were embodied the hopes and aspirations of a nation awakening to new life, the prayers and sufferings of martyrs slain for Christ's sake, the toil and tears, the patience and hope of noble missionaries, the triumph of success after many failures. Of one of the first translators who delved for the foundations, laid the first courses of the edifice, and even saw its fair walls arise, it may be said with truth that he rests from his labors, but his works do follow him. The labor is over; the work remains. As I hold in my hand the comely duodecimo volume, which moves the scale at twenty·one ounces avoirdupois, I think of the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which it suggests.
" In the presence of the mountain of to-day it is well to remember the plain. Before our shoutings of' grace, grace unto it,' and praises richly deserved to consecrated workmen, let us look back at the toils of the masterbuilder!!.
" There is a pathos, and there are streaks of humor, in the evolution of this, the fittest expres~ion of the Word in Japanese, which is sure to be a survival of the first order. The naturalists who follow Darwin or Wallace may not be able, owing to ' the imperfection of the geological record '-or otherwise-to furnish at call the 'transitional forms ;' but in the processional movement toward a perfect Bible, even our slender Japanese library holds some interesting and grotesque 'missing links.' True, we have searched the story of Roman Christianity in Japan from 1539 to 1637, and find no translated Scriptp.re; nor does Mr. Satow in his' Jesuit Mission Press in Japan,' though he has ransacked all Japan and the libraries of Papal Europe. Have we not, however, the amazing and amusing first attempts of Dr. Bettleheim in Loo Chooan 1 Do we not possess that wonderful translation of Matthew, by an immersionist, in which we read of 'John the Soaker, preaching the Gospel of sqaking unto salvation;' , Whoever believeth and is soaked shall be saved,' etc.? It is 'soak,' , soaker,' '!loaking,' 'soaked,' to the end of the book, when hitashi, meaning to steep, macerate, moi&ten, is used to translate tho C; reek variants of a certain much·discussed word. VVould that we had what we know existed, the versions of ' the books of Genesis and Matthew, and the Gospel and Epistles of John,' made in China by Dr. S. Wells Williams, and the work of Dr. Gutzlaff; hath of whom learned the language from castaway Japanese sailors. It would touch heart and imagination deeply to look upon the translations made from the Dutch Bible by native interpreters for themselves or others! It was for reading these that men, groping after God, seeking Christ when there were none to lead them, suffered imprisonment, torture, aud bloody death. How thrilling also are the stories of the power of the Bible in Chinese, bought from junk-captains or Chinese tradcrs at Nagasaki, over such men as the father of l'tev. J. T. 1se, who started the first- Japanese students to the United States, and Joseph Ne~sima, of whom we all know! Mr. 1se's father was assassinated in Kioto in 1869, because he was a Bible student, and was suspected of being a Christian, as he indeed potentially was. In 1888, his son, pastor of a Christian church in Tokio, the new capital of the new nation, made the principal Japanese address at the completion of the Bible in his own and his father's tongue.
"The writer, in 1870, saw the chips in the workshop, the dust and debris of foundation laying. lIo hoard the groaning of the missionaries concerning the difficulties and hardships, the gloom of the situation, the refractory and unspiritual nature of tho vernacular, etc. Yot already Dr. Hepburn had made a beginning, and tho writer, on disappearing from civilization into the interior, in February, ] 871, took with him to Fukui a manuscript copy of the four Gospels, of which he made good use, in a Bible class which he began in h.is house, with some of the students. Stopping for a day at the sunny home of onr veteran, Rev. Dr. D. C. Greene, he found him already expert in nirely discriminating Japanese equivalents for the crystal-clear terms in the Greek New Testament. It afterward be· came Dr. Greene's pleasure to translate four of the New Testament books, to do years of work in revision, and with Rev. Dr. L. H. Gulick to superintend the printing, and to read all the proofs of the entire Japanese Bible.
" It was not till 1872 that a convention of missionaries formed definite plans for translating the New Testament. After several years of labor, in which Dr. Hepburn and Rev. Messrs. S. R. Brown and D. C. Greene were the chief, though by no means the only workers, the Scriptures of the New Covenant were issued, and at once widely read by the Japanese. Far more than is the custom in American churches, the Japanese bring their Bibles to church with them, and follow the minister in his reading.
"From the first the native brethren, with characteristic and laudable ambition, desired to take part in the work of rendering the word of God into their mother tongne, despite their lack of acquaintance with the original texts. Six years of training, however, and daily intellectual and spiritual contact with the missionaries during the prpparation of the New Testament, gave to several elect native scholars a wonderful grasp of the general subject, as well as mastery of the problems of translation. The men of God from America and Great Blitain enjoyed the reciprocal and inestimable benefit of these native scholals, such as Rev. Messrs. T. Matsuyama, Uyemura, and Ibuka, and of the brilliant and versatile man of letters, Takaha~hi Goro. From the very first day until the last, Mr. T. Matsuyama wrought with fervor and untiring patience, and· it is the testimony of a missionary of nearly twenty years' experience in Japan that' the influence of this native scholar is seen in almost every sentence of the translation.' Mr. T. Matsuyama, who is now pastor of the Hei-an Church in Kioto, is one of the most learned and painstaking students of the old Japanese literature. His acknowledged excellence as a scholar not only shows what kind of material and personnel the missionaries have been enabled in God's providence to utilize, but makes both ridiculous and contemptible some recent criticisms, spoken even in Tremont Temple, upon the work of our missionaries in Japan.
"Plans for translating the Old Testament were not made until 18'76, nor perfected until 1882. Portions were printed at intervals between 1882 and 188'7 ; but the difficulties were great, and the failur~s were many. Delay in this case proved neither dangerous nor fatal, but eminently advantageous; for it secured uniformity of style. In this one respect, the Japanese Bible excels even the English, and can safely be ranked among the most successful missionary translations of the world. Pmctically the same men, with many assistants, performed the whole work from Genesis to Revelation. In the gracious providence of God, Drs. Hepburn and Verbeck, Rev. F. K. Fyson, T. Matsuyama, Takahashi Goro, Rev. D. C. Greene, and Rev. David Thompson, were spared to see the completion of the work. The Rev. S. R. Brown was unable to witness on earth the crown of his hopes, for he died in 1880. The translation, first in separate portions, and then in its complete form, was printed at the expense of the American, the British and Foreign, and the Scotch Bible Societies, all of which had also made generous contributions for the snonort of the translators, and the expenscll incident to their work.
"The style of the version is as loyally close to pure Japanese as the form of the book language will allow. Indeed, it is the very simplest form of the book language. In it special prominence is given to the pure native element, as against the Chinese-Japanese so fashionable during the last half century or more. It is the style best adapted to liturgical use, and its fitness is generally recognized. Indeed, in his grammar of the written language, Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, of the Imperial University of Tokio, and perhaps the highest living authority in Japanese literature, quotes from this version in illustration of points in Japanese idiom, thus acknowledging it in some sense as an authority as to idiomatic usage. The gem of the Old Testament work, as all acknowledge, is Dr. Verbeck's rendering of the Psalms. To this labor of love-one of the most scholarly pieces of work in the Japanese language-he devoted much time during a
BUDDillSM: AND CHRISTIANITY
period of seven years in .constant association with natives who were acute, learned, and devout.
" It is not too much to hopc thlt this version of the Bible may do for the Japanese mother-tongue what the English Bible has done for our own noble language and literature. Competent native observers declare that it has already exerted a noticeable effect upon the development of Japanese literature. How comforting and full of reward it must be to the translators, who have toilcd long on certain passages, to hear them quoted by the eloquent native preachers in impassioned discourse that sways the lives and eternal destinies of thousands !
" In briefly outlining the history of this noble monument of scholarship and consecration, the writer trusts that his brethren, Thompson, Davidllon, :Maclay, Cochran, Piper, '''right, Waddell, Goble, Knecker, Shaw, Blanchet, and others, who have borne a noble share in the grand work of giving the Bible to this nation of nearly forty million souls, will forgive the shortcomings of this article, limited as it is in space. In due time, the Japanese Christians, becoming masters of the Semitic and Greek tongues, will erect on the foundations laid by the missionaries a still more stately edifice of sacred scholarship to enshrine that word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Yet the writer is presumptuous enough to hazard the prophecy that even future generations of native Bible translators will no more be able to ignore Hepburn, Verbeck, and Matsuyama than were the English revisers of 1611 or 1881-85 able to forget Tyndale.-Congregationalist.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
BY REV. E. SNODGRASS, TOKYO, JAPAN.
The Buddhists of Japan, especially the well-informed Buddhists, are by no means ignorant of the scientific references in the Bible ; and, more than this, they were not ignorant of Sir Edwin Arnold's attitude toward Christianity, the deadly antagonist of their withering faith. This being well known on both sides, it was not surprising that Sir Edwin, in his addre~ses in Japan, should say that man is made" not of clay or dust, as is ignorantly said, but of carbon, lime, etc." And, moreover, it was not surprIsing that Sir Edwin experienced the unpleas~nt necessity of having to refuse "numerous influential invitations to address the Buddhists of Japan." Dr. Ellinwood's reference to the fact that Christian phrases and conceptions were read into Buddhism by the author of "The Light of Asia" is parallel to the fact of the same author's attempt to harmonize Buddhism with modern science in a lecture which he delivered here before the Japanese Educational Society the third Sunday in December, 1889. "The Sun Goddess is tempted from her cave by Ii mirror. This is more scientific and less mythical than the legend of a Hebrew chieftain commanding the snn to stand till he could finish a bloody battle. The now to us incognizable sounds, colors, and distances are the Maya of Buddhism. Darwinian evolution is the lJharma and Karma. " 'With these revelations before us, why has it not occurred to some one to start the cry 10at modern science is plagiarized Buddhism 1 But what is the worth of such an unfounded claim that Christianity has borrowed from Buddhism 1 Nothing. I, for one, feel grateful to Dr. Ellinwood for the excellent store of facts given in his article in the February REVIEW. I wish to simply emphasize some of them.
1. The very I!tarting-points of the two religions are antagonistic, and hence oppose the idea that the superior could have copied from the inferior. Ask an educated Japanese to-day, " Has Buddhism a god f' The answer comes, "None other than the man himself." Buddhism is now thoroughly atheistic, though it may not always have been so. The most reliable history we have of Buddha sets him forth as a reformer. His early teachers were two Brahman ascetics. At first Buddhism may have held an idea of a supreme being, a Brahma j for in the oldest writings it is often mentioned that the supreme Brahma influenced Buddha. This may have been the foundation for the divinity which was afterward bestowed upon Buddha.
In regard, again, to a supreme being, Dr. Oldenberg* reasons that the Indian Brahman worked out a supreme being from the inner consciousness -the ego, the Atman. Separating the Atman from the individual, a new being is found which converges back into Brahma, the one and supreme being. Mr. Collinsf would reverse the above and say that the Hindu had gradually dropped the supreme from his faith, and in Buddhism the Atman, the ego, the human mind, is the only god j and this the remaining vestige " of a once purer faith and a truer worship. "
2. An argument often used here by Japanese evangelists is that Buddha worked no miracles. This is another vital difference iuimical to the life of Buddhism.
3. The most serious obstacle probably in the way of the theory of Christianity copying from Buddhism is the date of the Buddhist scriptures. According to the Ceylon books (Buddhism still survives in Ceylon), Gautama Buddha was born 623 B. c. It is not certain that he was not born later. Job probably lived 1500 years before Buddha. Moses lived 1000 before Buddha. Daniel was contemporary with Buddha. This was the time of the captivity, when the Jews were scattered throughout the East, probablyeyen as far as to China j we know that Jews were in China, but at so early a date that we know not when.
As far as we know, Buddha wrote nothing. The claim for the earliest written Buddhist scriptures is about the beginning of the Christian era, or later. Before this date we have all the Old Testament books. We must not forget how the great Babylonian and Syrian kingdoms intellectually • Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 23, et. seq. t Buddhism in Relation to Christianity. linked Judea with the East. We remember some time ago the bronze gates of Shalmaneser the Second were discovered at Balawat. The date is when Jonah visited Nineveh. Upon this monument are shown Jewish sacrifices. It is claimed by some that the Jews in great numbers after the seventy years' captivity emigrated toward the East. I do not know how much truth is in such a claim j but the fact of the Jews being early in China would lend some weight. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that Jewish influence went into the East.
4. What is the state of the claim that Buddhism came West? It is easier rather to prove that Christianity extended East early enough to influence the composers of the Buddhist scriptures. There is no historical evidence that Buddhism came West before the third century A. D. Clement of Alexandria speaks of some who follow Boutha. He derived his information probably from his teacher, Pantamus j and the latter gained his information from Megasthenes, who in India wrote his Indica about 300 B.C. Between Clement and Megasthenes there is no reliable evidence that Buddhism exerted any influence westward.
5. But what abont Christian influence eastward? Cosmas Indicopleutes found Christians in Ceylon in the sixth century. There are still probably 250,000 Christians on the coast of Malabar. Near Madras is an ancient cross with Pahiavi inscription. It belongs probably to not later than the seventh century. There are other inscriptions. The most reasonable explanation of these inscriptions is the early connection between the Indian Christians and Edessa. One of those Pahlavi inscriptions reads: " Who believes in the Messiah, and God above, and in the Holy Ghost, is redeemed through the grace of Him who bore the cross." Pantamns found a Hebrew Gospel of Matthew in India in the second century. A bishop, " Metropolitan of Persia and the Great Indi," was at the council of Nicrea in 325 A.D.
6. Whether or not at first it was the genius of Buddhism to borrow, it is certainly its genius now in Japan. Externally it is becoming a parasite of Christianity. Besides adopting other Christian methods of propagation, it is plagiarizing Christian names. For instance, instead of using the word temple as the designation for their religious houses, they say church now. On the road from Tokyo to Yokohama was a temple to which was attached a school for children. Recently the temple and school were burned. The man who kept the school made an ingenious appeal to foreigners here for help for the poor school which was attached to the church. No doubt many subscribed, thinking that the church was a Christian house of worship. The story of the god Krishna is manifestly taken from Christianity.
7. It is said that asceticism came from Buddhism, and through the Essenes ; that John the Baptist was a half Buddhist j that he was a Gnostic, which has the same meaning as Buddhist. * " Bunsen's Angel-Messiah. Asceticism was practised in the time of Job, 1500 years before Buddha j and the doctrines of the Essenes connect them more with Greece and Persia than with India. The real marks of Buddhism, the Karma, are not found in the Essenic doctrine.
S. What are the false parallels resorted to to establish claims of Bud- dhistic priority ~ That Buddha was born of a virgin j that there is a close con- nection between Maya, the name of his mother, and Mary j that Buddha's birth was attended by miracles j that he taught the doctrine of " vicarious suffering j" that Buddha was born on December 25th; that prophecies were made of the coming Messiah. These and many other claims are made for which no reliable proof can bc produced, as that he was miraculously conceived, presented in the temple, tempted by Mitra.
9. From the earliest Buddhist writings we learn a simple story of his life. He was the son of Suddhodana, a king residing at Kapilabatthu. He married, but at twenty-nine years of age left his home and became an ascetic, with two Brahmans as his teachers. Dissatisfied here, he went to Uruvela, near Patna, where he spent seven years in discipline and study. It is said that he det.ermined to be a " follower of the Buddhas [sages] of bygone ages." In this we find nothing very remarkable.
But when we turn to what are true parallels, we find something remarkable. The Hindu temple is on the same plan as the Jewish temple-two rooms, an inner and outer one j priests, altars, sacrifices, propitiations, oblations, sacred feasts, sacrificial fire, etc. Whence came all these things 1 Mr. Collins claims that they came from the divine revelation of God made to man long before the dispersion. They are vestiges of the true and primitive revelation to man, carried both into the East and vVest. The Western worship was reformed by Moses.
Again, when we look into the two moral codes we find much similarity, which confirms a primitive revelation. The ten prel!epts of Buddhism are remarkable. The reader can note for himself their similarity to the Ten Commandments. The last six are uttered against the prevailing sins of * Buddha's day. It is discouraging to reflect that these rules have been so utterly abandoned by Buddhists in Japan to-day. Buddhism teaches that freedom from suffering comes by righteousness.
This presupposes a deliverer j and this idea must have come from some primitive revelation. But in emphasizing the precept the revelator has been forgotten. This revelator was surely the one true God. While Buddhism is now atheistic, and the doctrine of the Nirvana annihilation, in the be- • 1. The taking of life. 2. Stealing. 3. Adnltery and sexual interconrse. 4. Lying. 5. The nse of intoxicating drinks. 6. The eating of food after midday. 7. The attendance npon dancing, singing, music, and masks. B. The adorning of the hody with flowers, and the use of perfnmes and ungnents. 9. The nse of high or honorable seats or couches.
10. The receiving of gold or silver. ginning this was not so. A dialogue in a passage of the earliest writings represents the present doctrine of annihilation as unorthodox. Sariputta says: "Thus then, friend Yamah, even here in this world the Perfect One is not to be apprehended by thee in truth. Hast thou, therefore, a right to speak, saying, ' I understand the doctrine taught by the Exalted One to he this: that a monk who is free from sin, when his body dissolves is subject to annihilation; that he passes away; that he does not exist beyond death'~" Yamaka replies: "Such, indeed, was hitherto, friend Sariputta, the heretical view which I ignorantly entertained. But now, when I hear the venerable Sariputta expound the doctrine, the heretical view has lost its hold of me, alJd I have learned the doctrine. "
'Vhen the past course of all religions shall have been traced, the investigator will probably arrive at the primitive av.d divine revelation recorded in the Book of God.
BUDDHISM AND ROMANISM.
BY REV. GEORGE L. MASON.
The author of the chart, the" Twin Monuments," which appeared in the June issue, did not seek its publication in this REVIEW, and d028 not know how a copy of it came into the hands of Dr. Sherwood ; but he now begs to add a word of explanation.
A cartoon teaches only in broad outline. It deals with gpneral truths rat.her than details. It depicts a system or a tendency rather than individuals. The picture in question judges no man, but describes systems. That it is fairly accurate and just the following considerations may show.
By Buddhism is meant not the teaching of Gautama or the early Buddhists, but the developed form of doctrine and worship as it now exists practically in eastern Asia, and especially as seen in Thibet, at least since the fourteenth century. Its resemblance to the papal system has been noted by Nevius, Gilmour, Du Boge, and other Protestant missionary authors; and with such candor by the Roman Catholic traveller, Abbe Hue, that his book was placed on the" Index" of writings to be expurgated, as is stated by Max Muller in his "Chips." Professor Monier Williams, who has finely drawn the contrasts between Buddhism and Christianity, says, "Koeppen, Rhys Davids, and other writers have well shown thnt the Buddhism of Thibet, with its pope-like grand Lilmas, its cardinals and abbots, monks and mendicant friars, nuns and novices, canonized saints and angelic hosts, temples and costly shrines, monasteries and mummeries, images and pictures, altars and relics, robes and mitres, rosaries and consecrated water, litanies and chants, processions and pilgrimages, confessions and penances, bell-ringing and incense, is, in everything except doctrine, almost a counterpart of the Romish system." The most of thes() features exist in China proper, as well as in Thibet i and to the list might be added self-torture, vigils, compulsory fasts, charms to prevent accident, wayside shrines, dependence on State endowment, alleged miracles, indulgences, prayers to the dead, and worship in a dead language.
Further, is there not some resemblance in doctrine also, at least in its practical working 1 1. Theology. By this is meant here the teaching as to the objects of worship. In books the Roman Catholic Chinese are taught the truth concerning the Creator; but this teaching is invariably joined with many commands to worship men, so that man practically holds the place of God, as in Buddhism. Perhaps the most popular god in China is Kwan-yin, a female form of Buddha, often represented as a fair woman holding a child. Certainly the most devout worship of the native Catholics is given to Mary. That this is idolatrous has been clearly shown by Dr. Blodget in the Chinese Recorder. The cult of Joseph, "patron saint of China," is growing. The natives are taught to bow to the images and pray to the spirits of deceased Jesuit missionaries. Even the living 1ishops assume the title " A god (or spirit) by imperial decree."
It is not true that God alone is worshipped and all the rest only reverenced ; for the distinction between latreia, hyperdoulia, and doulia, which Catholics like to insist on, is very rarely made in their Chinese books, one word being commonly used for all degrees of worship.
2. 'Phe .Doctrine of Redemption. Sin against God, requiring His forgiveness, of course is not known to Buddhism. But the necllssary misery of life may be more or less, according to one's evil or good deeds. Here comes in the value of merit, stored up on one's own account or transferred to another's credit on payment of money. The rich often hire women to recite rosaries and monks to say masses, the merit of which accrues to those who pay the money, or to the deceased whom they designate. This is the precise principle of papal masses for the dead.
In theory both religions emphasize asceticism, especially celibacy, as the path of highest virtue. Destroy desire, reduce life to its lowest terms. In practice the "religious" of each are very comfortable livers. The monks may even be drunkards, or opium smokers, or dissolute, and still retain good standing. Immorality does not involve excommunication, but only removal to some other field.
3. Eschatology. The Buddhist heaven is a later addition to the popular belief. But the interest of the people centres far more in the dreadful physical pains of hell, which are represented by images in the temples; and most of all in the state of the departed souls who are awaiting re-birth in the endless round of transmigration. Chinese Buddhist monks get immense sums for masses for the relief of these souls, just as the Catholic priests everywhere become very rich by the pretended release of souls from purgatory. Indulgences reduce the pains of the good Catholic, according to the amount of money paid. And millions of Buddhists toil up to famous moun. tain shrines and buy of the monks stamped cellificates wl,ich have a cash value of thousands of dollars when presented at the bank-in purgatory.
4. Doctrine of the Clturclt. No higher authority can be named than T. W. Rhys Davids, who says, in the Encyclopcedia Britannica: "In Thibet especially the development in doctrine was followed by a development in ecclesiastical government which runs so remarkably parallel with the development of the Romish hierarchy as to awaken an interest which could scarcely otherwise be found in the senseless and fatal corruptions which have oVE'rwhelmed the ancient Bnddhist beliefs." In China the ecclesiastical resE'mblance is l~ss than in Thibet. The Buddhist monks, with vows of celibacy and poverty, though lIot of obedience, are more like the begging friars than like the regular Catholic pliests. Yet in each case superhuman sanctity and merit nre supposed to reside in the person, robes, and office, and espeCially in the ceremonies performed; and such belief is enforced by pious frauds and lying wonders. In both Romanism and Buddhism, not the whole company of believers, but the clergy alone are the Church, holding all property and privileges, and so recognized by civil law.
5. The Doctrine of Public Worship. The ritual resemblances have been sufficiently indicated in the sentence quoted above from Sir Monier Williams.
6. Ethical Teaching. Here there is both likeness and contrast. Both systems condemn murder, stealing, lying, adultery, covetousness; but Buddhism is without any authorized system of casuistry by which, when desired, these offences may be regarded as very light and venial faults or eveu as virtues. That this is true of Romanism, and that a lax Jesuit morality has during the present century repeatedly received the highest official approval of the Catholic Church, no one will dispute who has studied in the impartial Encyclopcedia B1·itannica the articles" Probabilism" and "Liguori." One example is enough to quote here-the four sentences which any priest may suggest to an unfaithful wife, with any or all of which she may deceive her husband, without harming her own conscience. Buddhist ethics are defective; but Roman Catholic ethics, a strange mixture of truth and error, can hardly be described in terms too severe.
With these resemblances in doctrine, do papal and pagan systems tend to produce the same practical results 1 Again let Rhys Davids answer, "That the resemblance is not in externals only is shown by the present state of Thibet-the oppression of all thought, the idleness and corruption of the monks, the despotism of the government, and the poverty and beggary of the people." Buddhism in temperate Mongolia or torrid Siam, and Romanism in Canada or Mexico, in Ireland or Ecuador, are fairly judged by their fruits. Widely varying environments of race and climate do not prevent a marked sameness in moral re.'Ults. It would have been quite as pertinent to picture an Italian wedged under the column of Romanism as an Irishman.
EDUCATION AND EVANGELISM
I might give from various parts of China ana .Tapan such testimony as this in a letter from an experienced English missionary, " It is well known that the Roman Catholic people are not a whit better than outsiders. Some smoke opium, many gamble; they are not a bit better in morals than the heathen. Their Sabbath consists of mass soon after daybreak, after which they work as on other days. The priests arc ever ready to assist in lawsuits; in this and in financial aid lies the secret of what success they have."
The apparent ruling motive with the leaders of each system is love of gain. "No money, no worship" is as true in Buddhism as " no money, no sacraments" is in Romanism. The revenue of great estates does not satisfy. By systematic begging, by sale of masses, and by taxation or through political influence vast sums arc got from the public, and no account is given of how they arc spent.
In conclusion, no friend of missions can afford to neglect the study of this chapter in comparative religion. One of the best-known American missionaries, with a very successful experience of thirty years in China, said to me last year. in substance, "During the next fifty years our struggle will be not so much with Asiatic idolatry as with Romanism. "
EDUCATION AND EVANGELISM.
THE FREE CHURCH MISSIONS IN INDIA.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
It is known how predominently Scottish Presbyterianism in India, especially as represented by the Free Church of Scotland, has devoted itself to education, particularly to the higher education. It would be impossible that Presbyterianism could neglect this and, above all, that Scottish Preshyterianism could. That remarkable intellectual strength of the North British race, which before the Reformation led the French nobility to en· deavor always to secure Scottish tutors for their sons if they could, makes it impossihle that it should ever content itself with missions that are not deeply interwoven with knowledge of the world as it is-in other words, with the higher education. This was first brought more distinctly to our knowledge in this country when Dr. Duff made his great "iisit to us in 1853. Those of us who have had the privilege of being helped onward all our lives in our interest for missions by his wonderful eloquence can never have had any douht that the deepest and most central interest for the evangelization of India glowed ill the mind of the man who, with a far-sighted regard to the future, was content for awhile to forego the repute of large immediate fluccesses in order that in Christian education he might lay" the foundations of many generations. "
To this policy of a firm and large prosecution of the higher education, the Free Church of Scotland declares itsclf immovably resolved to adhere, as providentially determined for it from the beginning, as hallowed by the memories of Duff and his a!lsociates, as crowned with many noble results, and as peculiarly agreeable to the Scottish genius. And of the many eminent gentlemen, clergymen and laymen, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists and others, who have been consulted whether by the Established or by the Free Church, the great majority, as already shown in the REVIEW, heartily concur with the judgment of the Scottish churches themselves.
Nevertheless, the question has lately been moved in the Free Church at home, whether this prol'identially designated work of the higher education may not have been pursued with a disproportionate zeal, and whether the evangelistic side of missions, towards which the educational work ought always to tend, and from which it ought to be reinforced, may not have been unduly depressed. Accordingly, the Free Church of Scotland has sent out to India the Rev. Professor Lindsay, D.D., and the Rev. J. Fairley Daly, B.D., as a deputation to examine thoroughly every branch of the missions of the Chnrch in India, and to report accordingly. We wish to note the general results of their investigation.
The deputies begin with a cordial testimony to the work. "They have seen mission work growing and spreading out in every direction, a native church taking visible extent and increasing, devoting itself in some cases to hearty evangelistic work, and they have rejoiced to observe the beginnings of self-support. E"erywhere they have seen their missionaries enjoying the respect and confidence of the people among whom they are laboring, and their unselfish and devoted work appreciated by the most eminent and thoughtful members of the European and native official class." They say also: "Our mission work has vastly iucreased within the last forty years, and on one side has necessarily come in contact with the educational policy of the Indian Government. Our missionaries in the old days were accustomed to combine the evangelistic and the educational sides of our mission in a manner not possible now, owing to the pressure of the Government University and upper school systems, which has compelled them to concentrate their attention on the educational side, and to give an amount of time and strength to prepare their students for examinations which was not required in the earlier days. In former times one man could attend equally well to both sides of the work, but this is impossible now. We need one set of men to take the educational, and another to take the evangelistic side. " The Church years ago perceived this, and "during Colonel Young's Convenership much was done to increase the evangelistic side of the mission, and two resolutions of Committee attest the fact that the committee have had it in mind to cnrl, the educational Ride until the evangelistic bas been bronght into line with it." The deputation declares its sugge~ tions to be mainly in the line of this already determined policy of the Church. The deputation says: "We have been greatly impressed with the vast- ness of the missionary enterprise of our church in India, with the high po- sition almost universally accorded to our missionaries among their brethren of other missions, and with their devotion to the work given them to do by the Church." The Free Church, indeed, has in India not one miflsion, but four mission~, scattered over an area of 543,000 square miles~ and among a population of 12;,000,000. In Bengal, its centre, Calcutta, has a population of 872,000, commanding a population of 70,000,000, and a region of 193,000 square miles, almost as large as France. The South India Mission is centred in Madras, with 406,000 inhabitants, commanding a district of 141,000 square miles, with a population of 31,000,000. In the west the mission is centered in the twin capitals of Bombay and Poona, having a population respectively of 774,000 and 129,000, and commanding a region of 124,000 square miles, more than all Great Britain and Ireland, and a population of 16,500,000.' The Central India Mission, of Nagpur, and two outlying missions in Hyderabad and the Derar, make out the whole.
But this "astness of operation, while stimulating the imagination and increasing interest at home, has made it impossible to combine the work of the four: missions. There has been no esprit de corps. Help' given to one has done nothing for the others. They are in exact contrast to the concentrated and wonderfully successful work of the American Presby"' terian Mission of Lodiana, to say nothing of the Methodist Episcopal Mission around Bareilly, or the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission on the Khasi hills. The early Scottish missionaries, being bitterly opposed by· the authorities, were glad to find lodgments where they could. Later missionaries, since the tide of feeling has turned, have been at leisure to choose their strategic points in view of effectiveness and concentration. The deputies, however, after fuJI reflection, by no means advise withdrawal from any of the present centres. But they earnestly advise that new centres bo not opened, but men and money be given for the consolidation and development of the work at the centres already occupied.
The deputation regards the Free Church work as wisely cootred, like that of most of the missions, in great cities, but it finds less laudable that, beyond all others, it has been concentrated on them. Village and district work has not been neglected, but it has been too much subordinated, and wherever retrenchment was necessary it has usually been the country work that has suffered. The deputation expresses admiration of the self-denial which has led to the preference of the much harder work among" the large restless masses" of the great cities, but expresses a decided doubt whether this has always been guided by wisdom. At Bhandara, in Santalia, and at Chingleput (near Madras) the combination of country and city work has given a peculiar heartiness to the missions, which earnestly commends it to the forces at all the great city centres.
India, the deputation remark, is a mere geographical expression, co"- ering a perfect chaos of races, languages, creeds, social conditions, and degrees of civilization. No generalizations, therefore, can be ventured on without the most careful delimitation of meaning and application. And these varieties may be again included, though very inexactly, in three or four great categories. vVe must first set aside 50,000,000 Mohammedans, and six or seven millions of nondescript sects. Caste Hinduism, numbering perhaps 125,000,000, rests on a ba!;is of depressed castes, estimated at from forty to sixty millions. These again are surrounded by a ring of aboriginal tribes, which have no relation whatever to Hinduism. Of these, such as the Ghonds, the Santals, the Khasis, there are probably more than twenty millions. The Free Church l1as mainly worked within caste Hinduism. Those missions which have secured large numbers of converts have mainly labored among the depressed castes and the aboriginal tribes. These more numerous converts, a matter of great rejoicing in themselves, have as yet had little influence on Hindu society at large. Caste Hinduism has yielded few converts, but these few commonly men of great influence.
The main difference between high caste and deprflssed caste, or out-caste Hinduism is not so much religious as social. Hinduism, though having a curious pantheism as a common basis, has developed into the most widely divergent and, indeed, largely antagonistic variety of creeds. But the true castes put the caste above the family. The depressed castes put the family above the caste. Therefore, let a high-caste man be converted, and he is simply thrown out, and the wall closes up smooth behind him. But if an out-caste is brought in, he often brings in his family, and from that conversions not infrequently go on extending far out into the whole kindred community. Dr. Sheshadri's success in the Deccan, remark the deputies, is largely owing to this use which he knows how to make of the family as an indirect agency for propagating the Gospel. But within true Hinduism also, the deputies observe, family feeling (which in India is always intrinsically strong) 80emB to be asserting itself with growing strength against caste influences, and seems likely to become, as in thc lower strata, an important missionary agency.
As to the great qnestion of education versus direct evangelism, the deputies acknowledge that this problem, like all Indian problems, is exceedingly intricate. But they lay their general impressions before the Foreign Missions Committee.
Education, remarks the deputation, as a missionary agency may be regarded as a mcans chiefly of edification or chiefly of conversion-that is, it may chiefly be directed upon the successive generations of a Chris· tianized community, or upon the children of parents who are still heathen. The Scottish work has mainly occupied itself with the latter, and has too much neglected the former. It has done better by tIle daughters of Christians than by their sons. " It is certain tllat our Church, with all its educational work, does not use education as a means of upbuilding and consolidating our native Christian community in a way that many other missions do, an<l has undoubtedly mffered in eonsequel'ce." " To begin with, we must lay it down as a principle that the one ab- sorhing aim in all real mission work is to bring onr fellow-men to know Jesus Christ to be their Saviour, and to profess their faith in Him in bap- tism. . . . Therefore, in discussing the mission value of educational mis- sions, we must put aside all arguments drawn from the spread of humanitarian and civilizing idea~. These are welcome accompaniments, but, after all, the question is, Is all this educational work calculated to draw men to faith in .Tesus as their Saviour, and to a profession of that faith in baptism r'
As to this, the deputation remarks, the higher education must be given an important place among missionary agencies, if caste Hinduism is to be made an object of missionary effort. It is too much to say that only through this can high-caste or true-caste Hinduism (the Hinduism of Brahmans, Vaisyas, and Sudras) be wrought ul:>0n. But that great missionary authority, Bishop Caldwell, admits that, while few converts have come from caste Hinduism, these few have come from educational missions. And in the higher schools of the Free Church the overwhelming majority of the students (at Madras 83 per cent) are from high-caste Hinduism, although of late, especially in Bombay, there is an increasing proportion of Mohammedans.
Preparation is important in all missions, but supremely important among easte Hindus. The one unpardonable sin in Hinduism is that a man should act for himself. The caste is everything, the individual nothing, except within the caste. But for this very reason, when the leavening forces of Christian missions, one of the most potent of which is the higher education, have reached a certain point of advancement, the very disposition of castes to go or stay as a whole, is likely, as it now works against conversions, at some point in the future to work the other way. And although the deputies do nut say so, we suppose that what would be true of a whole caste might be sooner true of any large local section of a caste. Indeed, we judge that many, even of the true castes, are locally circumscribed.
Caste Hinduism is, in fact, seriously alarmed. The disintegrating infiuences of general British infiuence are great. But these are, above all, concentrated and brought to a determinate issue by missionary agencies, above all by Christian colleges, high schools, and zenana missions. That caste Hinduism feels itself gradually being undermined is generally allowed. It is comparatively indifferent as t.o whether the depressed castes and the aboriginal tribes are Christianized or not. But the manner in which it is bracing itself up now againRt Christian effort, founding Hindu high schoolR, denouncing zenana missions, forming Hindu tract societies of a singular virulence, and (like Julian befofll it) endeavoring to meet the Church at this point and that by heathen counterparts of herself, shows the seriousness of its alarm. This is not groundless, for it is common enough for caste Hindus to be found canvassing the possibilities of a general move- !TIent from Hinduism over to Christianity. The converts made by the high schools, though few, are precious. In themselves they are no more precious than other Rouls.. But they have far-reaching influence. "One of our educational converts," say the dep- uties, "has converted twelve hundred Mang j another has organized a splendid system of girls' schools at Mhdras, and has been able, by quiet, continuous work, to provide Christian schoolmistresses for every class; a third is a Jeading pleader in Calcutta, and the foremost Christian orator in Bengal-perhaps in India."
Nevertheless, direct conversions are no longer, as in the days of Dr. Duff, a frequent result of the higher education. Why!
(l) Formerly the only alternatives were gross Hinduism, with all its crudities and abominations, or Christianity. Rut there are now all manner of half-way houses, such as Brahmo Somaj. Prarthana Somaj, Arya Somaj, attempts to graft Christian morals on a Hindu stem. The same commixture of Christianity with all forms of heathenism and heathen philosophy, which in thc Roman Empire so long made head against the simple acceptance of the Gospel, is witnessed now in India. Hinduism is endeavoring, by all manner of concessions and accommodations and self-transmutations, to stave off the hour of the inevitable acknowledgment, "Thou hast conquered, 0 Galilean 1" And, as Principal Miller suggests, it may be with the Hindus, as to Hinduism, "a necessary part of the divine training that they shonld discover its futilities for themselves." Meanwhile, conversions from caste Hinduism are largely at a stay.
(2) The development of the government system of education makes necessary such a development in educational missions as, indeed, leaH'S unimpaired the attention to Bible study which, unless it be in Calcutta, is pursued thoroughly, and with genuine interest, by the non-Christian pupils, but largely takes away fro:o the educational missionaries their old times of leisure for quiet personal talks with the students.
(3) If the government standard is not to be maintained in the missionary schools, the government subventions would collapse in proportion to the resulting shrinkage in the number of pupils-a reduction of means that cannot be confronted without ample deliberation as to all that it involves.
" If our educational agency is to produce its full results it must be supplemented by an evangelistic agency working side by side, and in visible connection with it. Weare afraid that we must confess that our Church has not thoroughly faced this evangelistic work, and it must be prepared to face it and go through with it before the full fruits of her educational work can be gathered in." The deputies insist that every college centre ought to be also an evangelistic centre, and that although there should be an evangelistic missionary, who should act as a superintendent, having subordinate to him a whole force of vernacular workers, of various degrees of cultivation, yet neither side of the work can dispense with the presence in the evangelistic branch of it, in greater or less measure, of the educational missionaries. While fully maintaining the permanent importance of the high school., and colleges of the Church, the deputies declare: " We have no hesitation in saying that our Church is spending an amount upon the higher education which is out of all proportion to its present resources." In Calcutta they think that the college of the Established Church of Scotland ought to suffice for both, and that the cost of four of the high schools ought to be trans- ferred to the evangelistic side. How many high schools there are we are not quite sure, as the accounts of the four missions are given with tru~ British exhaustivtlness and confusedness, but we believe we have hunted out ten. This would be a reduction, indeed, in the second grade of in- ~truction. Poona has ceased to be an educational mission, and they recommend that it be kept up as an evangelistic mission, especially as its excellent climate makes it a good foothold from which to resume the long-abandoned work on the Konkan, or table-land abutting on the eastern wall of the "Vestern Ghauts.
The deputation is also dccidedly of opinion that the Church has far too many non-Christian teachers in her schools. The public service i~ much more remunerative-gives assured position, good social prestige, and a retiring pension. Bnt the deputies remark that those missions which arfl careful to provide boarding-schools for Christian boys as well as girls, are much less embarrassed to find Christian teachers.
They lament also that the educational missionaries, absorbed as they are in their English teaching, have no time to master the vernaculars, and therefore are at arm's length from all except the educated natives of European culture. Instead of gidng, like the American Board, two years to learn a native language, the Free Church seems to give no time at all. And Indian languages, say the missionaries, are not to be mastered by the way.
The deputies have also had occasion to consider the question of cheap miSSIOns. They designate as the type of such the China Inland Mission, where remuneration is small, but the European are twice as numerous as the native workers. On the other hand, in the Church of Scotland Mission at Darjeeling or Kalimpong, the missionary is paid a comparatively high salary, but is at the head of twenty or thirty evangelists. He thus " co,'ers a larger extent of ground, does more thorough work, and gets into closer connection with the people than a number of Europeans, who have no staff of native evangelists, can possibly do. He and his native evangelists cost the Church at home a great deal less money and do a great deal better work than a number of Europeans paid at a much lower rate could do." They therefore do not advise a reduction of salaries, nor a depression of the powerful evangelizing influence of the Christian family by tho employment of many unmarried men. At the same time, they admonish Scottish Christians of means, that in India there is a glorious opportunity for them to serve Christ at their own charges. They wish to know why women should volunteer in this way and men not.
They think, now that the government is doing so much for the WEldica,l, relief of the people that medical missions ought only to be maintained where they are distinctly needed, in the remoter districts, and that they should be made distinctly and effectively evangelistic, or given up as not within the range of the Church's work:.
The Madras Mission is much the most effective of the four educational missions of the Free Church, and its Christian college is pre-eminent in India, and at the same time the evangelistic work is much the best developed there. Yet there also the Scotchmen know but little of the Tamil.
The Santalia Mission is entirely different, being among an aboriginal tribe, and not differing particularly from other evangelistic missions of this kind.
This report has been submitted to tho judgment of the missionaries themselves, who have oriticised it with great pungenoy. They differ from it, however, rather in relative emphasis than in substance. They think that the deputies have kept the opponents of the educational work too much in view, and have been needlessly, and somewhat humiliatingly, deprecatory in their tone over against them. They think that they have made it appear too much as if the fornI of the Scottish work was determined by early obstacles to other forms of work, whereas it was laid out from the beginning with full consciousness of a providential call, and has been (however restricted here and there by obstacles) steadily followed up ever since in the same consciousness, having been largely normative for other missions. They think, moreover, that government pressure has much less to do with the rise of the educational standard than the healthy pressure of a growing public demand.
The missionaries themselves dosire, and have long urged, a large extension of evangelistio work. But they hold it agreeable to the providential vocation of the Free Church that this should be mainly not.in regions where caste Hinduism is weak, but in those where it is strong, and where, oonsequently, the number of conversions, even under the most faithful and immediate evangelistio effort, is likely for a long time to come to be comparatively small. In other words, they hold that while some missions have been well guided to work along the lines of least resistance, the Soottish missions have been speoifically called to work along lines of greater resistance. And undoubtedly the Soottish character shows at its best in continuous stress of effort against formidable difficulties.
The Rev. A. Andrew, of the valuable evangelistic station Chingleput, Madras Presidency, which the deputies have peouliarly commended, bears witness to the report as of exceedingly great value, but decidedly disagrees with it in one point-namely, in its apparent assnmption that the higher education only can reach oaste Hinduism. He points out that Bishop Caldwell does not say that the few caste converts have been the fruit of the higher schoo);., hut have been the fruit of mission schools. The higher education can reach bnt a fraction of the higher oaste~, and primary educa- "tion is an indispensable adjunct of evangelization among all the castes /lnr!
A PLEA FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS
ttibes. "In our Chingleput Mission we preach to thousands of Brahmans and other high castes as regularly and faithfully as to the low castes, and await the outpouring of God's Spirit on our labors. The testimony we give to the power of Christian truth in our rural mission is just as valuable as that given in mission colleges. The American Arcot Mission and other rural missions conduct the work, so far as I know, on the same lines." Mr. Andrew, therefore, thinks that the indefinitely large development of evangelistic work in the country districts (a work which has been starved in the past) is the next forward step lying before the Free Church of Scotland.
The Santal missionaries make one mihl criticism-namely, that the conversion of the aLorigines and of the out-castes is by no means so ineffective on caste Hinduism as the deputies seem to think. And, indeed, it is hard to see how the proudest castes could very long resist the influence of fifty or sixty millions of the humbler classes, if these were regenerated and elevated by Christianity. Hindu religion and Hindu language have both been influenced through and through by the aborigines when in a lower grade, and why not when they begin to ascend ~ But, after all abatements of criticism, it is evident that the general judgment, in India and in Scotland, is expressed by A. H. L. Fraser, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Servicc, who declares his" respect and admiration for the great pains, thc unwearying labor, the candid investigation that must have combined to produce, after so short a pcriod, so elear and generally accurate a view of the subject-matter of that report."
The Foreign Missions Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, having maturely weighed both the report and the criticisms passed upon it, has taken action substantially in agreement with its recommendations, and, in particular, has decided" still to limit to the present amount the resources spent on the educational institutions, and to devote to the evangelistic side whatever increase lllay be received and any saving that lDay be e:ffected with educational work, without detriment to its efficiency."
In other words, the Future is still to be kept steadily in view, but the Present ig no longer to be so much overlooked as in the past.
A PLEA FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS.
BY CLARENCE THWING, M.D.
The work of missionary physicians in foreign lands has been growing very rapidly of late. Introduced about fifty years ago as an adjunct to the preaching of the Gospel, it has by steady strides come to be in Ulany places the most successful pioneer work of missiuns. At the present time there are about three hundred medical missionaries, while twenty-eight years ago there were less than a score, and ten years later not more than forty * in all lands. Nearly every well-equipped mission now has one or more physicians constantly engaged in medical work; and not a few ordained clergymen have also a medical education and give a part of their time to attending the sick and digpensing medicines, particularly in their travels from one station to another.
The reasons for the rapid development of this branch of missionary enterprise and its present recognition as a prime factor in mission work are few but forcible. Iu accounting for thc success already attained by medical missions, we shall necessarily state the reasons for a still greater enlargement of the work and for the more hearty support of this very important department of onr Christian propaganda.
First, we IIave in the Scripture'S a divine warrant for medical as well as spiritual work in evangelistic operations. This is found in the example of both our Lord and His disciples. Jesus, the" Great Physician," cared for the body as well as the soul. Many instances are recorded of His healing the sick and arresting disease. His ministry'was spent in " preaching the Gm;pel and healing all manner of sickness" (Matt. 4 : 23). Moreover, He commissioned Hi,; twelve disciples and" other serenty also" both to "preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick" (Luke 9 : 1, 2, e ; 10 : 1, 8, 9). Thus the three orders of the first Christian ministry were aU engaged in a medical mission. In the third order, corresponding somewhat to our lay evangelists, the medical work was given the precedence, although joined with preaching (Luke 10 : 9), just as in the labors of the missionary physicians of to-day.
If anything further than the example of our Saviour were needed to show the divine sanction of healing as well as preaching by missionaries, we have, with the final command of Christ-" Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature"-the prophecy and promise of witnessing signs, among which is this: "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16 : 15-18).
Since, then, the wisdom and providence of God thougilt it well, for the glory of His name and the spread of His kingdom, that the preaching of spiritual truth should be accompanied by a ministry of physical benefits and the relief of bodily needli, should we not also unite these ministrations ~ The history of missions shows that where such union of effort exists we have far greater snceess than any achieved by preaching alone.
Second, the instincts of humanity and Christian fraternity move us to send the benefits of medical science with those of the Christian religion to our brethren in foreign lands. The science of medicine has made such advances in Western nations during the last century that we do not realize that in many of the most thickly populated Eastern countries there is almost no medical science, and those who profess to practise the art of healing are ignorant of the very principles of medicine, and are often mountebanks * Vide" Dr. Christlieb ell :MedIcal Missions~' in MISSIO~ARY REVIEW, August, 188l. and conjurers. The methods of treating injuries and disease are often barbarous in the extreme; and when sickness is not allowed to take its course by neglect, the suffering is sadly aggravated by careless or improper attentions, if not by positive cruelty. The reports frequently sent to us by those in mission fields concerning the destitution, ignorance, and suffering of thousands who are without proper medical treatment and often with no treatment at ali, should touch our hearts and lead to greater generosity (even to the point of sacrifice, which is seldom reached) in the matter of sending the help and helpers, the medicines and men that we can so easily spare in our own enlightened larrd.
It is well, in tbis connection, to recall the story of the" Good Samaritan," and our Lord's commendation of his neighborly and humane action in giving medical aid to the stranger of a different country and religious belief, whom he found in distress. The precept following this parable is one we should apply to ourselves: "Go, and do thou likewise" (Lukc 10 : 37). The Scriptures also teach us that ministry of whatever kind to our needy fellows is regarded in God's sight as service rendered directly to Him: "Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me" (Matt. 25 : 40). But if we had not this promised recognition of our Lord, the promptings of humanity and natural sympathy ought to impel u~ to offer to the sick and suffering, wherever found, a balm and cordial for the body as well as the soul.
The unselfishness and true friendliness shown in giving such succor and relief appeal most forcibly to the hearts of many whom we could not otherwise reach. They respond to our humanity when not to our piety. By exhibiting in a practical, helpful way our brotherly feeling for them, we secure an answering affection and respect which efforts at proselyting alone would never meet. Convinced of the generous regard of brother men, they are prepared to know and love the" friend that sticketh closer than a brother. "
Third, as an evidence of Christianity and an example of Christian beneficence, medical missions deserve a foremost place in our scheme of evangelization, and should be undertaken in all lands where suffering or diseased bodies are found with unsaved or misguided souls. Our religion should be shown to be a practical one-not simply a matter of faith, but also of good works. VV-e need to teach not only the doctrines of truth, but also the virtues of holiness. It must be explained that belief in a divine Saviour and acceptance of personal salvation are not all of Christianity ; that our religion is not for individual benefit alone; but that" faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone," and that" by works is faith made perfect" (James 2 : 17, 22). This is a lesson we have not well learned ourselves, and we cannot properly 'teach it unless our example is in harmony with our precept. There is no better way of teaching to the heathen the Christian charity that "seeketh not her own" than by practising it, and we cannot bettcr instruct them in Christian b~neficence than by a living exhibition of it. No morc convincing proof of the divine origin and truth of our rehgion can be given to unbelievers than the benevolent instituticn·; which it has established everywhere. The actual demonstration of whllt Christianity seeks to do and does for the temporal and material welfare of mankind is a potent argument in favor of its introduction. What benefit will be more readily sought than relief from bodily pain? AnJ what more welcome than freedom from exhausting disease ~ A tree that will bear such fruit will find grateful soil for its transplanting.
Experience has proved the efficacy of medical work in the spread of missions. It has placed thousands of people who were (or might otherwise have been) enemies of the missionaries under obligations to them which are long remembered, and whieh are often the motives for friendly assistance and the saving of life and property in times of peril. Many instances might be given to illustrate the friendly feelings awakened and antagonisms conquered by the quiet, generous, self-sacrificing labors of medical missionaries, but ~pace will not permit them to be quoted here.
Fourth, as the direct pioneer of the Gospel aud one of the most efficient aids to the Christian preacher, the medical missionary deserves our earnest sympathy and support. The efforts for bodily relief are undertaken as preparatory for and subsidiary to the higher work of saving the soul. A service to the physical man having been rendered, the spiritual wants are described and the source of divine help pointed out. The specific for spiritual maladies is prescribed with the remedies for physical ills. Patients are taught that their eternal interests are greater than the temporal, and they are directed to the" Great Physician," who will cleanse them from the leprosy of sin, open their eyes to the knowledge of the truth, save them from the pains of future punishment, and redeem their souls from eternal death. While failure may attend the most intelligent and faithful efforts of the human helper, and bodily ailments may be incurable by medical science, yet the assurance is given that, " He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Reb. 7 : 25), and "The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither Ris ear heavy, that it cannot hear" (Isa. 59 : 1). Many thousands every year CQme to the mission hospitals and dispensaries, and many ~ore are treated by the medical missionary in his country tours, who would not in any other way be brought in contact with Christian teachers, and to all alike are presented the story of the cross and message of salvation. The time and labors given for physical relief are well spent, though they be in some cases futile in recovering bodily health, provided they are the means of bringing darkened minds into the light of truth and of securing the gift of eternal life to souls which would otherwise be lost.
Admitting the value and duty of medical missions, there remains the question, Row may the cause be advanced and its usefulness multiplied 1 First-to answer briefly-by larger financial support for the work already undertaken and in operation. Second, by increasing the circulation of missionary intelligence, and awakening further interest in the subject. Third, by more frequent and earnest prayer, both individual and united. Fourth, by educating Christian young men and women to recognize the claims of the work upon them and the opportunity and privilege of engaging in it. Fifth, by giving a thorough training, both medical and spiritual, theoretical and practical, to those who offer themselves for service and those who intend to do so but arc yet employed in preparatory study. * There are not wanting many encouragements in the prosecution of medical missions, and the outlook is a hopeful one ; but there is room for all to help. The present is a time of particular nflcessity ; the fields are" white already to harvest," and" the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few j pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers" (Luke 10 : 2). The difficulty now is not so much to find consecrated laborers as to secure the means to " send forth" those who are ready to go. Let us all have a part in answering our own prayers.
In closing, it is fitting to repeat the words of a veteran missionary physician, Dr. J. G. Kerr, of Canton, China, who writes: "Itis no doubt a source of gratification to all missionaries-it is certainly so to us, who are among the older medical missionaries-to see the churches at home awaking to the great importance of medical missions, not only as a means of relieving suffering and saving human life, but of aiding in the evangelization of heathen lands, and we hail the addition of so many noble young men and women to this department of mission work as evidence that Christianity, with its blessings, is being offered to those nations which hitherto have not enjoyed them, in the manner best calculated to secure their acceptance "
We gladly welcome from that Prince of Missionary Biographers, George Smith, LL.D., of Edinburgh, Scotland, the following paper on " The Free Church of Scotland's Twenty-Seven Medical Missionaries-Men and Women." – [EnIToR. ] DR. DAVID H. P.A'fERSON'S EARLY WORK IN MADRAS.
Dr. Smith says: More than a generation ago, or in the year 1856, the Free Church of Scotland unitcd with the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society in sending out to Madras Dr. D. H. Patcrson, F.R.C.S.E. From the Medical Mission House, he was enabled, during sixteen years of incessant toil, to spread the rays of Gospel light and healing all around. He tended the souls and bodies of some 43,000 poor natives every year. He sent forth twelve educated nativcs, from all missions, to be medical missionaries in their own districts. His wife and he won an entrance into * This latter work has been undertaken iu a limited way by the International Medical Missionary Society of New York, of which Dr. George D. Dowkontt is the Superintendent. By means of a Training Institution (at 118 E. 45th Street) and several city mission dispensaries, students are educate1 in practical evangelical work as well as equipped with m~dical experience before going to tbe field. The society is doing a good work; it is carried on faithfully and economically, and deserves hearty support. native households from which all but the physician was excluded. He died of abundant labors in 1871. Himself son of Dr. Chalmers's" Missionary of Kilmany," he has given his eldest son, Dr. Alexander Paterson, to the Church's medical work in the Keith-Falconer Mission III South Arabia. Dr. D. H. Paterson was succeeded by Dr. William Elder, and he, for a time, by one of the native medical missionaries, Rev. T. K. Itty. The Free Church of Scotland purchased all the buildings, added to them, and made the mission its own. Now it has come to be worked by the first woman medical missionary sent out by the Ladies' Society, Dr. Matilda Macphail. She is likely to be joined by Dr. Janet Hunter, of the same Society; that, the two helping each other in the missionary work, the mission may go on in full strength, notwithstanding occasional sickness and furlough. This Tamil Medical Mission has borne rich spiritual fruit in the two native congregations of Rayapooram, the busy railway suburb which is its centre, one Tamil and one Eurasian.
DR. DUFF'S EARLIER WORK IN BENGAL. WORK IN CHINA.
The founding of this cnterprise in 1855 was not the first attempt of our missionaries to use the Lord's method of healing as a door into His kingdom. Twenty years before that, in 1834, Dr. Alexander Duff induced government to give his ablest students-Brahmans, till conTersion-the full medical training which has ever since sent a large nnmber of our best native Christians into the Indian Medical Service as army and civil surgeons and medical professors. The story of the first efforts to get Brahmans t6 dissect the human body, as told in our first missionary's" Life," reads like a romance (vol. i., chap. 8). That was the beginning of medical missions in India, just fifty-five years ago. Here, in this as in all missionary methods, Dr. Carey had been first-his colleague, Dr. Thomas, having in 1790, when surgeon in an East Iudiaman, begun to heal the sick as well as to preach to the sinful Bengalees. But that was long a solitary case. In 1740 the Moravians had sent five medical men to Persia, but unsuccessfully. In 1798 Dr. Vanderkemp, a physician, was a missionary in South Africa. With their more free medical system the Americans of the United States took up the policy, but by 1849 there were only twelve medical missionaries in all the non-Christian world, chiefly in China and Syria. Now there are four hundred, and every year sees an addition to the number. China, however, has the distinction of being the earliest scene of medical mission work, steadily developed. Dr. T. R. Colledge, when in Macao as an East India Company's surgeon, in 1827 began those Christ like labors among the poor, and especially the blind, which Chinnery has immortalized in a famous picture. The Rev. Dr. P. Parker, who had done medical mission work in Singapore in 1831), and in Canton, was the first to give an impetus to the whole· Evangelical Church in this matter, when his visit to Edinburgh resulted in the godly and skilled physicianA there establishing its MedicalMissionary Society. Now, besides that valuable agency, under Rev. J. Lowe, F.RC.S.E., for training medical missionaries side by side with the university and medical schools, there are three other training institutions-Dr. J. L. Maxwell's, 104 Petherton Road, London, N.; Dr. G. D. Dowkontt's, 118 East Forty-fifth Street, New York; and Rev. Dr. Valentine's, Agra.
WOMEN BECOME QUALIFIED MEDICAL MISSIONARIES.
This third step was the greatest. Long opposed by the teaching and licensing bodies in the United Kingdom, Christian women, yearning to relieve the misery, spiritual and bodily, of the millions of their sisters in the East, by teaching them of Christ the Healer, were dtiven to America or Switzerland for training. Of the women missionaries sent out by America, no nobler has lived and died for the women and children of India than Mary Seelye, M.D. She worked alone in the vast population of Calcutta, and the gigantic work killed her in the midst of her success. The same fate befell other solitary and unaided workers-establishing the lesson that it is more true of womeu than of men, and more true of medical than of other missionaries, that they must go forth at least two and two.
In the year 1860 Mrs. George Smith began to reside in the famous Bengal town of Serampore. Soon the jealously-guarded homes (zenanas) of the best Hindu families were open to her, and, aided by the municipality and the Baptist missionaries, she opened girls' schools for the poorer families. What she took up as a work of Christian vernacular education, sad experience led her to develop into a medical mission also to women, so far as that was possible without a fully qualified co-worker. What she witnessed, and often in vain tried to relieve, can be told only to women, but our Ladies' Society published these sentences from her pen on her return to Scotland : " The women of Great Britain would stare if they saw what we have seen. A woman of gentle birth kept apart with her new-born infant for a whole month, in a small chamber, with only a grating for a window, and , laid on a damp floor-a small fire in one corner, and no chimney !
,"A lady doctor, who was alone in her mission, felt it almost impossible to attend native women at the birth of their children, from the repulsive practices which prevail. . •. A son was born in a zenana to which I had access, and as it was a first-born, one would suppose that as much honor as possible: would be done the poor mother, who was only fourteen years of age. But she was kept apart in the damp little room, laid on the floor, and she and her babe were looked at only through the grating. Even her husband dare not touch her, nor his son j anyone so touching them would at once become impure.
" Need the people of this country wonder at the importunity of those who know that these thingl!! are-at their anxiety that teachers should be sent out to clear the minds of our poor Eastern sisters from the misti of prejudice and heathenism 1"
The writer gave up her little leisure to plead for the 127,000,000 of women in India that they might have Christian physicians of their own sex. She, bfling dead, yet speaketh. Great has been the progress since 1860, and even since 1876 when these words first appeared. In a paper on" Women's Work in the Mission Field,." read at the London Missionary Conference in 1888, Miss A. Marston, M.D., of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, made the following statement: "Of the sixty female practitioners on the English medical register, ten have given themselves to the work of foreign missions." That is only the beginning. Already the number is increased, and soon will be doubled.
THE QUEEN-EMPRESS AND THE MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN'S ASSOCIATION.
Because there were none to attend a Hindu woman in sickness save immoral native quacks, the Maharani of Panna, still the great diamondbearing state of Ceutral India, contracted a long and painful disease. An Englishwoman, a medical missionary, was the means of curing her, and when going home on, furlough took a ilhort letter from this Hindu feudatory queen to the Queen-Empress Victoria, petitioning Her Majesty to provide a remedy. Dr. Murdoch thus tells the story: "The letter was put into a small gold locket, which the lady was to wear round her neck till she gave it into the hands of the queen. An interview was granted, and the tender heart of Her Majesty was touched_ She sent a kind reply to the Maharani, and Lord Dufferin could say at a public meeting in Calcutta, ' In endeavoring to launch a scheme for the improvement of the medical treatment of the women of India, we are fulfilling the special injunction of Her Majesty the Queen. Lady Dufferin's first work was a careful survey of the field and consideration of plans. In August 1885 an association was formed to promote the following objects: 1. Medical tuition. 2. Medical relief. 3. The supply of trained female nurses. "
Lady Aitchison, after whom the Women's Hospital in Lahore is named, and others, took up the scheme in' each of the Provinces of India. The Marchioness of Lansdowne is now at its head. All classes of the natives have subscribed a sum, which is invested to the equivalent of £55,000.
"Five lady doctors and a nurse have been obtained from England. About two hundred young women are being educated in the medical colleges of India, a number of them maintained by the branches of the Association. There are twelve female hospitals and fifteen dispensaries more or less aided. Classes have been formed for the training of female nurses.
" One rule of the Association has been qtxestioned by some. Religious neutrality is to be observed by its agents. It was felt that the work: wa, of such magnitude that it could be carried out effectually only by the cooperation of native princes. Municipalitiq,s include Hindus and Muhammadans. Government officers would also feel unwilling to connect themselves with a missionary agency. One result is that large donations havc been made by non-Christians. The Hindu high priest of Tripati, a large temple near Madras, has offered two scholarships for hospital assistants, two gold medals, two scholarships for female nurses, beside other help.
" Indirectly, Christian Missions are benefited. Indian women, at present, trust mainly to charms and other superstitious ceremonies for the cure of disease. Successful treatment by medicine alone will help to dissipate such belief.
" The Christian Vernacular Education Society is co-operating as far as possible in the work which Lady Dufferin 80 zealously commenced. Its , Ranitary Primer,' with a few omissions, has been adopted by the Association as the most suitahle for diffusing an elementary knowledge of t.he laws of health. The Society has also published simple treatises on Childbirth, the Health of Children, and Sanitary Reform, which are having an encouraging circulation. "
RAPID EXTENSION OF MEDICAL MISSIONS BY THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
The necessity is the greater that the Church of Christ, as such, should do its duty. In 1855 we began with Dr. David H. Paterson at Madras; in 1891 we find that the one medical missionary has increased to twentyseven. Our medically qualified mi8sionaries are: Rev. William M. Alexander, B.Sc., M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Bombay, India; Rey. William Carslaw, M.D., Glasgow, Syria; Rev. J. Kerr Cross, M.B., GM., Gla8gow, Livingstonia, Central·Africa; Rev. James Dalzell, B.D., M.B., C.M., Natal, South Africa; Rev. J. A. Dyf'r, L.Re.p., and S. Edinburgh, Santalia, India; W. A. Elmslie, M. B., C. M., AlJerdeen,
PAUL THE MISSIONARY
Living8tonia, Central Africa; Wiliiam Gunn, LR. C.P., and S. .n:dinburgh, Futuna, New Hebrides; Rev. R. Eannington, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Constantinople ; l~ev. George Hem'y, M.A., M.B., C.M., Aberdeen, Livingstonia, Central Africa; J. B. Henderson, M.B., C.M., Madras, India; Rev. R. Laws, M.A., M.D., Aherdeen, F.R.G.S., Livingstonia, Central Africa; Adolf Lippner, M.D., Buda-Pest, Europe; Alexander Paterson, M.B., C.M., Edinburgh, Keith-Falconer Mission, South Arabia; Rev. Alexander Robertson, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Nagpoor, Central India; Rev. J. Sandilands, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Bandhara, Central India; Rev. J. Stewart, M.D., C.M., Glasgow, F.R.G.S., Lovedale, Souih Africa; D. W. Torrance, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Tiberias, Palestine j W. Walker, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Conjevaram, South India.
WOMEN.
Janet Hunter, M.D., Brussels, L.R.C.P. and S., Glasgow, to be appointed to Madras; Matilda Macphail, L.R.C. P. and S., Glasgow, Madras, South India; Agnes E. Henderson, M.D.
StUdying for Full Qualification.
Ladv from India, in Edinburgh and Leith; two other ladies.
NATIVES OF INDIA.
Not yet Qualified in British Sense.
Lazarus Abraham, Tanna, India: Rev. T. K. Itty, Madras, India j J. Nanji Kotak, L.M. and S., of Grant College, Bombay, India; T. Khisti, Bombay, India; James M. Macphail, M.A., Glasgow, Santalia, India; Dugald Revie, Glasgow, probably Livingstonia, Central Africa; A. G. Mowat, M.B., C.M., Glasgow j Dr. Fotheringham, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Livingstonia; Rev. G. Steele, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Livingstonia.
The Church has enjoyed the services of the late Dr. Robson in Calcutta, of Dr. Young in Bombay, of Dr. Cowen in South Arabia, of Dr. Weir in South Africa, of Miss Waterston, M.D., in Central and South Africa, and others. It has gladly sent not a few of its best sons to the missions of the Church Missionary Society, like the lamented Elmslie in Kashmir, and John Smith, Lake Nyanza; of the Presbyterian Church of England in China; of the United Presbyterian Church in Manchuria, and of the London Missionary Society in several lands.
For every living, and therefore missionary church, rejoices to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, in proof of His power to utter the sweetest words ever heard by man, Thy sins be forgiven thee, ~dded, Arise and walle.
PAUL THE MISSIONARY.
BY REV. JOHN ROSS, MOOKDEN, MANCHURIA.
It is a cause for thankfulness that the church atmosphere is resounding with theories as to the best modes of evangelizing the world, for this indicates on the part. of the Church of Christ an acknowledged sense of responsibility. But it seems to me strange that in the world-wide proclamation of some popular theones, the missionary chapters of the New Testament appeal as if expurgated from the Bibles of many who have at heart the in- terests of the kingdom. -Where the influence and lives of the workers ana the spiritual well being of untold multitudes are at stake, it is surely a paramount duty to investigate, ~o understand and, as far as practicable aud wise, to imitate the example of those who initiated the work of evangelizingthe world. It is my desire in this paper to briefly examine, for the consideration of all earnest Christian people, the missionary career of the Apostle Paul. This task is the less difficult because the history of his career, as far as it was under the guidance of his own free will and judgment, is contained in nine chapters of the Acts, beginning with the 18th and concluding in the 21st.
Persecution drove from Jerusalem many Christians, who fled as far as Phenice in the north and Cyprus in the south. Preaching where they went, many of them made a favorable impression not upon Jews only, but upon Gentiles also. Some believers were originally from Antioch, and on their compulsory return spoke to Jew and Gentile of the way of life. The wonderful results stupefied the Church which had remained in Jerusalem, and Barnabas, as a well-tried Hellenist, was sent to examine and report. Learning what kind of men they were who became believers, and what sort of men opposed the movement, he went to Tarsus to find out and bring with him, as best adapted for the work, his former friend Saul, who was apparently living in retirement. How long the two men preached in Antioch we know not, but the time was long enough to prove their incomparable superiority to all the other preachers. This pre-eminence was the reason why they were selected (Acts 13) as the first Apostles to go to the " regions beyond."
Through Seleucia and Cyprus, where the Gospel had been already proclaimed, they simply passed on, and called a halt only when they got to Antioch, in Pisidia. Long and plainly did Paul speak in this place, reasoning with the people and fully expounding to them the truth. So great was the concourse of people to hear him on the following Sabbath that envious Jews drove him out of the city.
Driven from Antioch, the preachers made their way to Iconium, where they remained a considerable time preaching and explaining, till they were compelled to abandon the city. At Lystra they created a great sensation, which ended in Paul being left for dead from stoning by the enraged citizens. Having recovered, he retraced his steps, strengthening the hearts and more fully enlightening·the understanding of the believers.
After the question of circumcision, which threatened to create a rupture in the church, was settled in a common-sense manner by mutual concession, Paul and Barnabas separated over a dispute regarding a third colleague. Each took the man of his own choice, and Paul went through Syria, passing, as formerly, through the places where the Gospel had been preached, by the way strengthening and instruct.ing the believers, so that these ~ight be the better able to push forward the work in their own neighbor- hood. He rested only when he crossed over into Europe and arrived in Philippi, whither the Gospel had not yet penetrated. There he sought out those anxious to lead a better life, and continued his public preaching till serious maltreatment threatened his life.
From Thessalonica the animosity of the Jews compelled him to a speedy Hight. The people in Berea were more liberal and ready to listen to Paul's arguments. But jealous orthodoxy pursued and drove him away. Thence he went to Athens, where he encountered the Greek philosophers, whose contemptuous treatment sent him on to Cormth, where he remained for a lengthened period. A tumult there made him again a wanderer. Passing through Ephesus at that time, he returned to it and baptized twelve believ. ers. For three months he continned arguing from tho Scriptures that Jesns was the· Messiah, till orthodoxy closed the synagogue ngainst him. But a school was thrown open to him, where he daily discour"iJd for so long a time that all the people in the city knew somewhat of the doctrine and its preachers. After a brief absence, though anxious to go to Jerusalem and Rome, he went back to Ephesus, where a great uproar terminated his stay. Still eager to ilIlpart some further instruction, Ilnd because from his urgency, to depart for .Terusalem he was unable to go in person, he sent for the elders to confer with them at the port of Miletns. In this last discourse he informed them that he had declared to them the" whole counsel of God," which in modern language means that he had passed them through a theological course.
After his hurried journey to Jerusalem, he was no longer a free agent, but went where his soldier-keepers led him. Though his subsequent history is, therefore, a magnificent example of enthusiastic preaching ~f the Gospel in the most trying circumstances, it does not, beyond his epistles, show us the principles of action and the methods of work which his unfettered will would have suggested. "Ve have enough, however, in this summary to learn (1) the kind of agent, (2) the form of itineracy, and (3) the style of preaching which were considered the best, and which turned out the most successful in Apostolic times.
1. The agent was the man already proved to be the best in the Church -the best spiritually, intellectually, lind educationally. This" best" man did not go of his own accord. He was called to the work and" sent" by the Church. Now, the work of preaching the Gospel in China is more difficult than any the Apostle Panl had to undertake. He had learned Hebrew at his mother's knee. In the celebrated Rchools of Tarsus, with their famous stoics, he hau become familiar with Greek thought, literature, and language. And he whose father was a Roman citizen, and who lived in a Roman settlement, could not well have been ignorant of Latin. Whatever, therefore, the meaning of the gift of tongues, it did not signify in Paul's case the miraculous possession of a llitherto unknown· Janguage ; for from Arabia in the east to Rome in the west Paul did not preach in any place where some one of these three languages was not well and generally understood. He did not require to spend weary months in learning a new language before communicating Christian truth to a strange people, though his reception at Athens proved his Greek pronunciation not unimpeachable. He was not compelled to wade through a ponderous and foreign literature, nor patiently to wait to learn the manners and opinions of a people in order to ascertain their special mental and spiritual views. His early education and his knowledge of those languages enabled him at once to address an audience as if they had been old acquaintances. Let the Church learn the lesson proclaimed by this trumpet voice. God demands your best, as He did of the Jews. The beast with a flaw was not to be offered on the altar. The man with a blemish was not to become a priest.
2. The itineracy of Paul differed toto cwlo from the itineracy now recommended by many good people. Paul" itinerated" through all the places where the Gospel was known. But in places where the Gospel had not been preached he remained for days, weeks, months, and even years, till he was driven away by attempts on his life. To impart a knowledge of what Paul considered essential truth required not a few lessons, but the preaching and teaching of years. The lesson from this characteristic of Paul should be seriously pondered both by missionaries and all interested in mission work, and especially in China, which presents a field far more difficult than any in which Paul labored. A racing over the ground and a few addresses in a place which is then abandoned, is a mere waste of men, of labor, and of time. You must" teach" the people to " know," or your labor is in vain. Captain Bobadil's plan will convert China after it has destroyed the nrmies of France. Itineracy in a Christian country, where even unbelievers are theoretically well acquainted with Christian truth, is one thing; in China, where its elements are unknown, quite a different thing.
3. Paul had no particular form of sermon. He had no tricks of speech or manner, no craving for popularity. He first of all learned the mental and spiritual condition of his hearers, and adapted what he had to say to their knowledge and wants.· This is what he signified when he wrote of " taking people by guile." It is unnecessary to dwell upon the versatility of his mind, as shown in the manner in which he addressed his varied audiences, whether Jews or Greeks, soldiers or philosophers, an angry mob or a proud king. But in all we have evidence of remarkable human wisdom fired by the enthusiasm begotten of the Spirit of God. He reasoned, declaimed, recited historical facts, quoted from authors, and adopted every plan to further the end in view. His logical powers were employed in argument, his whole soul poured forth in appeal. He combined the art of the rhetorician with the reasoning of the logician. Thus he was able to make himself" all things to all men j" whence his unexampled success.
As to the matter of his discourses, he was not content with merely proclaiming that Jesus was the Saviour. He explained the terms he employed.
18911 THE RECENT AUDIENCE WITH THE EMPEROR OF CHINA
He spoke of the nature of sin and of holiness. He declared man's duty to man and his relationship to God, what man should be and do in this life, and what he may hope to possess in the life to come.
The success of Paul was not in the least degree dependent on the few cases of healing recorded of him; his miracles brought him into trouble. Nor yet was it by the plan of planting schools and colleges. But it was by the earnest, continuous, intelligent, and intelligible preaching of the sound system of truth embraced in Christ's Gospel. And if the facts of the modern mission field were properly understood, the lesson would be learned that, however excellent are subsidiary aids for levelling down the thick wall of prejudice which raises its proud head high against the Gospel in China, nothing can possibly gain that people for Christ but the plan of Paul. How can they believe if they do not understand? How can they understand if they do not hear intelligently? How can they hear intelligently if the preacher is without understanding? And how can they have preachers of understanding if the chUl'ches fail to send them? "I speak as to wise men i judge ye."
THE RECENT AUDIENCE WITH THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.
BY BOUDINOT C. ATTERBURY, M.D., PEKING, CHINA.
A most interesting episode took place in connection with the foreign relations of China on March 5th, this year. It was the interview granted by the" Son of Heaven" to the foreign ministers living in Peking, and repre· senting their various countries. For years past this question of the right personally to present credentials to the Emperor has been the subject of great discussion between the legations and the foreign office. In 1874 Tung Chih, the uncle of the present ruler, after much pressure was brought to bear, granted an audience. Since then, however, the questIOn, although agitated, has never been seriously insisted upon until the present young ruler him8elf took control of the government. Unexpectedly to many, three months ago an Imperial edict was issued stating that the Emperor was willing to receIve the ministers and charges d'affaires. No matter what may have been the reasons for this step on the part of the Chinese Government-reasons perhaps chiefly political, in order to cultivate more close relations with other governments one thing is certain, that the express wish of the Emperor himself was also It powerful factor in bringing about the wished-for event. Those living outside of China can scarcely realize how many were the preliminaries which had to be arranged before the interview could take place. Long conferences were held between the legations and the Chinese ministers. On the one side were a set of men anxious to sUl'round their ruler with all the ceremonies which they consider to be his due as the representative of heaven upon earth j on the other hand were the foreigners, willing to accord any etiquette customary at a European court, but determined not to do anything implying in any sense that their countries were in vassalage to China. The principal difficulties were the right' of separate audience and the place of meeting. Mutual concessions smoothed over these points, the former being granted by the Chinese, and the foreigners waiving their preferences in the latter. The place agreed upon was the" Hall of Shining Purple," where the usual receptions are accorded to the tributary States, sucb as Mongolia and Corea, with the understanding that on future occasions another place within the palace grounds must be prepared. The ministers with their suites started about 10 A.M. All the foreigners, thirty-one in number, sat in green sedan chairs, each carried by four men. Passing through the" Gate of Flowing Prosperity," they arrived at the point where the officials of the foreign office stood ready to receive. Descending from their chairs they entered, through long lines of soldiers, a temple, where some time was 8pent in chatting and eating various delicacies. Then the entire party advanced to the HaH of Audience. It is a picturesque building, with yellow tiles and painted in many colors. Three flights of steps lead up to a terrace in front of the hall doors. The central set are reserved for his Majesty; others use those on the sides. On the terrace were four tents comfOltably furnished with stoves and carpets. When the summons into the Imperial presence came, each minister, with accompanying interpreter, was conducted by two officials to a point where two columns, the" Dragon PilIars," marked a distance of about six feet from the raised platform on which the Emperor was sitting. First the German Minister was received; then follow('d the representatives of America, England, Japan, Italy, and the Netherlands. The large room presented an imposing spectacle, being lined with military officers. Back of the Emperor, who was sitting cross-legged on the dais raised about three feet, were some dark stone tablets carved with Manchu and Chinese inscriptions. In front was a small table, and at the side a naked sword on a stand. On the way to the" Dragon Pillars" each minister made the obeisance given at any court to the Sovereign. He then read an address which was rendered into Chinese by the interpreter and handed to Prince Chung, who, on his knees, translated it into Manchu. The Emperor responded in turn. The minister than advanced to the platform with his letter of credence, which was received by Prince Chung, who, with a low bow, laid it on the table. According to custom, the Prince should have knelt when presenting the letter. This, however, the foreigners would not allow, since, for the moment he represented them, thus kneeling would imply a concession of inferiority. Afterward a general reception was beld, and the entire company, with their secretaries, were presented. The German Minister, as doyen of the corps diplomatique, read an address; the Emperor replied in Manchu, which was turned into Chinese by Prince Chung, the head of the Foreign Office. A grand banquet the following ,jay ended the audience. Of course, the Emperor was the central figure.
ENCOURAGEMENTS IN THE WORK OF' MISSIONS
He has an intelligent face and large dark eyes. lIe looks even younger than he is-eighteen years old. His physique is not strong, but his bearing is manly and self-posse!sed. His dress was a purple robe embroidered with gold dragons. He wore a large official felt hat, on the top of which was a plain red button. All hope that the outcome of this interview will be a still greatcr desire on the part of the Chinese to break down the isolation with which they have snrrounded themselves.
ENCOlTRAGEMENTS IN THE WORK OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. A. A. PFANSTIEHL, ST. JOSEPH, MO.
One of the questions that is asked in regard to the work of foreign missions is, Does it pay? It has been figured out by those who look upon this work from a political-economy point of view that it costs about $1000 to make a single convert in heathendom, and that at the present rate of progress it will take two hundred thousand years to convert the world! In view of this they ask, Is it worth while to spend so many millions of dollars, to expend so much valuable energy-for it is admitted that the missionaries are among our most energetic Christian workers; were they not so, they would never go into the arduous work in foreign fields-when, after all, so comparatively little is accomplished? But look at this a moment. This calculation would perhaps be legitimate and correct were each convert a dead one; but as it is, he is a living influence, he has in him leavening power, so that he sets work of conversion in motion in remarkable ratio. Max Miiller well says: "An intellectual harvest must not be calculated by adding simply grain to grain, but by counting each grain as a living seed, that will bring forth fruit a hundred an(l a thousand-fold." Therefore, however comparatively little seems to be done in the vast fields of heathendom, yet when we take this work, representing hundreds of thousands of adult converts who, together with their families, form Christian communities scattered over nearly every portion of the heathen world, it represents a power that is incalculable, a power in itself capable of marvel- lous work for God, without help from abroad. * But now add to this power the additional force given to it with increasing intensity every year by the Christian world at large, will it take two hundred thousand years to evangelize the world 1 Missionary efforts and * As a matter of fact, to prove this take these figures of but one mission field: Burmah gave in 1880 to the Baptist Union $31,616.14, while Massachusetts gave the same year but little more-viz., $41,312.72, and New York gave only $38,469.78. "Japan," it is said, " is alive, energetic, eager-a nation with a destiny; and a Church of Christ in Japau would be throughout all EMtern Asia an ally that would be invaluable." And this is what Max Miiller says about India: "If we think of the future of India and of the influence which that country has always exercised on the EMt, the movement of religious reform which is now going on appe(lrs to my mind the most momentous in this momentous century." expenditures do pay! and there is nothing discouraging in the calculation, even though it be that it takes $1000 to make a single convert in heathen- dom. On the contrary, there is every encouragement possible to continue the work and make it more and more agressive. 'Tis this that I desire to press briefly from 1. What has been done in the past, and 2. What it is the declared purpose of God to do in the spread of Christ's kingdom.
Considering the extent, the power, the influence of Christianity to-day, and then looking back 1800 years, when it began with a mere handful of people, working against opposition that came from principalities and powers, the strong forces of Rome, the prejudice, the enmity of the carnal mind, and the deadly hatred of the Jews, have we occasion to be discouraged~ ay, must we not greatly be encouraged when the kingdom of Christ has now grown to be in the ascendancy 1 But look especially at the mission work of the last one hundred years! What giant strides have been made during these years! And these are but the first slow steppings of the Church, that will, if indications for the future mean anything, continue to advance rapidly. For 'tis but a short time since the vast openings for work have been presented to the Church-openings that were closed to the Christian world until these latter years-commercial openings, and facilities for work afforded by discoveries of religious books of the heathen, enabling missionaries to work intelligently among the people. " We have now be- fore us the canonical books of Buddhism j the Zend Avesta of Zoroaster is no longer a sealed book j and the hymns of the Rig Veda have revealed a state of religion anterior to the first beginnings of that mythology which in Homer and Hesiod stand before us as mouldering ruin. The soil of Mesopotamia has given back the very images once worshipped by the most powerful of the Semitic tribes, and the cuneiform inscriptions of Babylon and Nineveh have disclosed the very prayers addressed to Baal or Misroch. "
Hence, by the providence of God, we are led into the very citadel of the power of those whom we desire to win, and we know intelligently how to lay the siege. Discouragement ~ Nay, nay, for this advantage has already been so helpful that victory is in sight, if the Christian church will only vigorously press the siege for the next few years! '
But another encouragement. Max Muller, a few years ago, wrote about the dying and death of what he calls the nondescript heathen religions.
These, such as Zoroastrianism, etc., that he puts down as 8.7 per cent of the number of the population of the world, have ceased to struggle, and all we need do is to apply the strong battery of God's" truth as it is in Jesus"
to them, and they will live ancw with redeemed, everlasting life. Brahman- ism, too, one of the two living Aryan religions, is existing in a living death, and " for gaining an idea of the issue of the great religious struggle of the future, that religion, too, is dead aud gone." And Buddhism-what about it 1 Many of the readers may remember a significant paper that was sent, in 1887, to the Presbyterian churches of the Unitcd States, signed by all the Presbyterian ministers in Japan-31 in number-wherein we find this language: "Buddhism is condemned already. That is the common position assumed by the press. And what the press encourages the government allows. . . . The tone of Buddhism is a tone of defeat; Christianity is confident of victory." And this is confirmed by the quotation from one of the tracts published in India, given in the March, 1891, number of this REVIEW, which says, in order to call the heathen religionists to vigorous action against the progress of Christianity: "Missionaries have cast their nets over our children by teaching them in their schools, and they have already made thousands of Christians, and are continuing to do so. . . . Do you not know that the number of Christians is increasing, and the number of Hindu religionists decreasing cvery day?" The enemy himself here is the judge.
This much encouragement from the past. Now what, from a consideration of what we know, is the purpose of Almighty God in regard to the leaven of Christianity introduced in the world? It is His purpose that the .. whole lump" SHALL be leavened. And can anything thwart that purpose 1 Chri~tian churches and individuals need not lend their help with II discouraged feeling; they need not with a shrug of the shoulder look at this work of evangelizing the world.
To this appeal of Mr. Pfanstiehl, the editor cannot forbear to add that the only real discouragement in the work of missions is the slowness and sluggishness of the church to fall into line with the command and the lead- ership of our Royal Captain. Open doors stand before us on every side.
In the most difficult of all mission fields, India, the most abundant harvests since Pentecost have been reaped and continue to be reaped in the Tin- nevelly and Telugu districts. The church has numerical force and finan- cial resource sufficient without a doubt to bear the Gospelmess:tge to every soul before the century ends. The only real lack is the lack of the spirit of mis.~ions. In the Apocalypse there is a significant succession in the messages to the churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea. To Philadelphia the key-note is encouragement-" Behold, I have set before thee an open door." To Laodicea, which immediately follows, the key-note is warning-" Because thou art lukewarm . • • I will spew thee out of my month." Both these messages may be applied to the Church of our day. We are Philadelphians for opportunity and Laodiceans for lukewarmness. And if the church of this generation does not arouse herself to new consecration and enter God's open doors, it is to be feared that He will cast away such II faithless church, and out of its remnant construct a more loyal people.
Bishop H. T. Bachman, of the Moravian Church. is at present engaged in an official visitation of the Moravian Alaskan missions. He will have to travel from the Kuskokwim to Meshagak, some 200 miles, overland in pioneer !ltyle. It was two summers ago that the wife of Bishop Bachman went to Alaska to nurse the sick missionary's wife, Mrs. Kilbuck.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
-The Rev. J. Johnstone Irving, in the Voice from Ituly, says, what anyone moderately familiar with Roman Catholic affairs knows to be perfectly true: " Within the unity of the Roman Church there are divisions and differences as numerous and embittered as those found in Protestantism." It is, therefore, quite to the point when he adds: "I am not prepared to admit that a house divided against itself is in a more satisfactory condition than a number of neighboring houses whose social relationships are not all that might be desired." Indeed, as the clergy are so inordinately powerful among the Roman Catholics, theological acrimony is more apt with them to verge toward malignity than in Protestantism, which, comparatively speaking, is a religion of the laity. Unhappily, among the Roman Catholics the only class that has perhaps even more influence than the clergy-namely, the lay zealots, seem to be the most uncharitable of all toward their fellow-Catholics whom they suspect of liberalism.
-The Ohristian says, most appreciatinglyand justly: "The Friend of Missions, published in England, and the Friends' Missionary Advocate of America, are full of interesting information of Friends' work in India, China, Japan, Madagascar, Syria, Palestine, Constantinople, Mexico, Philippopolis, Alaska, and among the North American Indians, thus indicating that the spirit of ' early days' has returned to the Society of Friends. As a basis and incentive to foreign work home missions are growing and increasing in nearly or quite all the yearly meetings in the world. The needs of men socially, morally, and spiritually are pressing the hearts of Friends, and under the Divine impulse lives and money are being surrendered to the service of humanity and the glory of Him' who is the Head of all things' to His people. The Friends have a great and increasing place to fill, and are needed among the churches and in the world. Happily they are in some measure realizing their responsibility, and trying to obey Him who has given them their name if they keep His commandments: Their mission is that of living and teaching spiritual and vital Christianity as 3 commonwealth of believers. . .. Among them there is no ' layman.' "
-Notwithstanding the revival of a very vexatious law in restriction of church building in the kingdom of Travancore, in southwestern India, the Chronicle for April bears witness to the cordiality of the Maharajah, and remarks that miRsionaries have probably more freedom there than they would have in British India.
-The Moslems must be hard pushed to find their prophet foretold in the Gospels. One in India assured Mr. Greaves triumphantly that he had found Mohammed's advent clea.rly announced by our Lord. Being asked where, he produced John 14 : 30, "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me." Mr. Greaves quietly remarked that he had no objection to the application.
-Missionary Gehring, of the Leipsic Society, remarks, apropos of an unexpected though brief attack of lIeasickness, that it did him the' good of ridding him of the disagreeable advances of the American ap<J!!tate, Colonel Olcott, " who in India makes it his business to flatter the heathen by disgusting eulogies on their reli~don. " This may not be very urbane, but the free expression of moral disgust toward "the enemies of the crOSH of Christ," whether their name is Olcott, Ingergoll, Bradlaugh, or BeS1lnt, is sometimes better than the smirking complaisance with which contemporary Christianity is somewhat too deeply infected.
-Here is part of a hymn addressed by hundreds of thousands to the cruel goddess Kali, in deprecation of a law which simply protects the persons of child-wives until they are twelve years old. We remember Kali, with her pendant necklace of skulls, and her blood-dripping tongue thrust out to her waist. Such a hymn wcll becomes her. "In great distress at thy door we have come, mother, source of all good. Horrified, that is why we raise this cry, 0 mother! queen of the universe. What to say ~ We are about to be undone, mother, by the word of some outcastes. Intending to do an act of kindness, the government is destroying our religion. Our hearts shudder through fear," etc.
-NachTichten aus dem Morgenlande, speaking of the needs of the Protestants of Bethlehem for church and school, says, "If the wise men from the East brought aforetime to Bethlehem the most precious gifts of their native land, would that the wise men from the vVest would also lay down there their art and their gifts of beauty at the feet of the infant Christ!" If Protestantism will not take its place and see to it that it finds a worthy representation in Palestine, by the side of the splendid outlays of the Roman Catholic and of the Russian Church, it mnst accept the consequences.
-It is known that the London missionarie3 in Madagascar have labored principally among the ruling and central race of the Hovas and the neighboring tribe of the Betsileos. The Norwegian missionaries, it appears, are also actively at work among Betsimarakas of the southeast, and the fierce Sakalavas of the west.
-The atrocions massacre of men, women, and children by a Hova governor in Madagascar (followed, it appears, by his own ex.eeution) has, remarks the Ohronicle, left a sad blot on the good name of the Christian queen. The general horror aroused by this act of her deputy, it is to be hoped, will recall her government from that retrogression into the old barbarons ways of which there have been signs lately. Her husband, tlw prime-minister, knew the governor to be an unworthy character, yet allowed favoritism to carry the day in his appointment.
-Mr. Barnett, of Jaffa. writing in Service/or the King, says: "It is very significant that while from various causes the Jews lire beginning to awaken to the fact that their future destiny is bound up with this land, the 'l'urks and Arabs seem to be nnder a presentiment that their time here is short. I am told by several friends who have great experience in this country that some of the natives are very negligent in the cultivation of their fields and gardens, and the reason they give when asked is, ' What's the good, the Jews will soon have it.' "
-Mr. Van Tassel, who devotes himself to the evangelization of the Bedouins, shows that, as with most remote tribes, accnrate knowledge not only monilies, but often almost revolutionizes previous ideas. He says, "The Bedouin Arabs are usually given a very unenvi.able character, and are looked upon as being most desperate men, thieves, murderers, and almost everything else that is bad; but that is almost entirely wrong. The Arab seldom takes life, unless it is in battle or eelf-defence. There is a standing law in the desert that in case a man is killed his death must be avenged by the members of his tribe. It is not necessary that the murderer himself be put to death, but anyone of his tribe who may happen to fall into their hands. Owing to this custom they are very careful about the shedding of blood.
" There are, of course, some thieves found in the desert, but not all the Arabs are such by.any means, and those who are so are despised by the others, and well puuished when caught."
Mr. Van Tassel remarks that the Bedouins, at least those of the north, have a very slight tincture indeed of Mohammedanism. Their feelings of natural religion are strong, and they are exceedingly fond of having the Scriptures of either Testament read to them. Of course, in the Oriental allusions of the Bible they are perfectly at home.
The North Arabia Mission is a branch of the North African Mission.
– " The missionary work of a church is both fruit and measure of its inner spiritual life. "-De Heidenbode (Rotterdam).
-The Free Church of Scotland Monthly. referring to Cardinal Lavigerie's far-reaching missionary plans, remarks, "Whatever may be said about the Papacy, it is showing at present a i'pirit of enterprise which we cannot but admire. The zeal it is manifesting ought to act as a stimulus to our Protestant sO<.:ieties to devise larger and, if we may say so, more adventurous schemes for the conversion of the nations."
-The Ghu1·ch Missionary lntelligencer for April, 1891, very justly refers to the American Board as " one of the best-managed societies in the world," and supports by its high authority its own preference of special contributions for objects designated by the Society, rather than for the somewhat narrowing and capricious designation of special objects by individual donors.
-The printing of the whole Bible in the language of the Sunda Islands (Dutch Ea"t Indies) is now complete, as appears by the Or.qaan of the Netherlands Missionary Society. Between 300 and 400 person~ have been engaged upon it.
– " The business instinct is indispensablj"l for the conduct of a missionary society; but it is not sufficient, it is even injurious, if it is not founded in piety and joined with a real zeal for the cause of the Gospel." -Journal des Mislions.
THE UNITED KINGDOM.
-The English Baptist Missionary Society, whose cen enary occurs in 1892, intends to endeavor to raise a Special Centenary Fund of £100,000, and to seek also to increase the annual income of the society to £100,000.
-The Ohurch Missionary Gleaner for April says: "The approaclling census again suggests a comparison of past and present. When the last eensus was taken in 1881, the society was working under a resolution, solemnly arrived at on account of financial pressure, to send out only five new missionaries each year for three years; but we were rejoicing that special gifts had enabled the committee to send out twenty instead of five. It is a fact like this which we have gleaned from the report of that year that makes one realize just a little of what God has done for us in the past ten years. Three times twenty is not considered a large number now. "
-This is a most racy bit from a tract, Do Not Say, published by the Church Missionary Society. The author is the Rev. J. Heywood Horsburgh, C. M. S. missionary in mid-China: "Imagine our sending to the heathen just one man more than we could spare, so that for one parish we could not find a rector! 'Vhat an outcry there would be! Why, even those who take the most thorough interest in foreign missions would be afraid we were' really going a little too far.' Yes, though that clergyman had left but five hundred, nominal Christians already (many of them true Christians?, and gone to a parish of a thousand thousand, all heathen, and. he the on y worker aILong them all, it would still be thought a dreadful thing for this English parish to be without a clergyman, albeit there were a dozen other churches half empty in that very place, and perhaps an excellent chapel on the other side of the road. When shall we wake up and understand that' taking an interest in foreign missions' really ought to mean something more than giving the heathen a few fragments, after spreading a most bountiful table for ourselves ?"
-The Reaper says that the flaw in Mr. Stead's sanguine and well-meant endeavors to bring about a social revolution has been pointed out very clearly by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford : "It seems to me we differ because we begin from different ends. You begin with the creature and his miseries and wants. We begin with the Creator and His plan or system of redemption and salvation." There is no use in trying to conciliate the Christian view of benevolence with the anti-Christian. The two may coincide materially in a thousand points, but their formative principles are irreconcilably antagonistic.
-The Christian says that Dr. Marshall Lang recently startled the Glasgow Established Presbytery by quoting the remark of a local historian, that" the public houslils in the' second city in the empire' were beating the churches," and that "one public house in a populous locality was capable of undoing the work of ten churches."
– " Let us not think less of what Christ has done on the cross by His death, but let us think more of His resurrection and what He is doing now. "-Rev. EDWARD BALMFORD, in The Christian.
– " Foreign missionary is an unfortunate term. To the Lord Jesus up there in heaven there is no home mission and no foreign mission. He sees at once on both sides of the wall of China, and to Him it is all one field and one work; and slowly we are beginning to see through His eyes and to find out that work at home and work abroad are not, so to speak, two things, but one; that this we ought to do, and not to leave the other undone; ano. that what we call foreign mission work is not a thing to be done by and by, when we get a lot of other things done, but that it ought to be going on all the time."-J. CAMPBELL WHITE, Esq., Convener of the Livingstonia Mission Committee.
-Medical Missions at Home and Abroad (cited in the Free Church Monthly) shows that of 13~ medical missionaries holding British degrees or diplomas, the Free Church of Scotland has 24; the Church Missionary Society, 21 ; the London Missionary Society and the English Presbyterian Church, 13 each j the United Presbyterian Church, 11. There are 13 ladies.
The largest proportion among all the missionaries belonO's to the English Presbyterian Church. 0 . • -Medical Missions at Home and Abroad, rejoicing in the great victory won in the House of Commons over the defenders of the opium traffic, says: "A few days ago an Indian general said, in my hearing, that the opium traffic is a heritage from Warren Hastings. He was right; and I would add that there is nothing in our Anglo-Indian history in which the strong, determined, but godless spirit of that remarkable man has seemed so to persist and to be incarnated as in the long, sad story of our opium traffic with China."
-The Accounts of the Schemes and the Lists of Collections, Contributions, and Legacies of the Church of Scotland for the year ending December 31st, 1890, as prepared by the auditor, are given in the May Record. The total income shows an increase of £18,812 14s. 9d., or 12t per cent over the previous year,. being in all £170,282 5s. 5d. Legacies alone are increased by £6643 16s. 5d. Foreign missions show an increase of £3049 15$. 2d. ; home missions of £2475 19s. 10d. ; the Small Livings Fund of £3316 6s. 9d.
-Arrangements have been made for the fusion of the two English Baptist missionary societies. The common management ill to be conducted according to the plan of the larger society-that of the Particular Baptists. It appears, then, that Calvinism and Arminianisffi are recognized in England as having ceased to be a dividing force among the Baptists. The qUElstion of strict or open communion has long been an open one in both the Baptist bodies. "The Particular Baptist Missionary Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen" was formed in 1792, and " The General Baptist Missionary Society" in 1816. The Orissa Mission, Bengal, in which our own Free Baptist brethren concur, will doubtless continue to be supplied with General Baptist missionaries.
-The Special Centenary Fund of £100,000 which it is proposed to raise will be devoted to seven objects, the first being the extinctit,n of the debt, the seventh the construction of a new Upper Congo steamer, estimated at £5000.
-It seems strange, but Northern Bengal, where Dr. Carey first preached the Gospel, has to-day no missionary provision (at least no Protestant missionary provision) for its 9,000,000 inhabitants.
-The debt of £10,561 88. lId. incurred by the English Baptist Missionary Society during the year is owing to a falling off in legacies. General contributions have been £42,257 28. over against £42,072 188. 7d. for last year.
-The Ch"istian states that many of the working classes in England have'lately joined the Society of Friends.
-,-" There are 400 workers in the Irish Home Mission connected with the Society of Friends, and Sunday-school work is progressing in their hands."- The Ohristian. .
1891]. INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. 1. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Low Pressure Belt of Morality as Marked by the Marriage Law in India. [J. T. G.l It is very difficult for persons living sion among tolerably decent people and remote from India to realize the condi. even among low and lustful classes.
tion of society which has grown up there These memorialists specially empha- in the course of oenturies through un- size that all this is covered by the sanc- challenged customs in Ule matter of mar- tity of British law in the Indian Empire, riage. Even those long resident in the which permits marriage to be consum.
midst of the social order know but little mated in childhood, and even covers about it. The introduction of Western homicide in the marital relation, which physicians, especially of lady doctors, to under other circumstances would be practise in the homes of the people, has criminally punished. They say, " The resulted in the disclosure of a state of system panders to sensuality, lowers things at which even much of heathen the standard of health and morals, de- sentiment revolts. There lies before us grades the race, and tends to perpetuate the Memorial to His Excellency, the itself and all its attendant evils to all Viceroy and Governor-General of India, future generations."
presented by sundry lady physicians, They, with thousands of others, peti- which enumerates instances of cruelty tioned the great British vice-regal au- and. unnatural crimes occurring to their thority and his counsellors in the Ind- notice in the order of their own profes- ian Government to advance the age of sional duties, which, though couched in consent to fourteen years. And yet, professional phraseology, we cannot de- with all these facts before them, the scribe, much less translate into the limit of twelve years was all that this vernacular of ordinary literature. When great government felt it dare ordain. It young girls of seven, eight, and ten years is not our intent now to show that they of age are visited by physicians who ought to or could have gone further.
find their bodies crushed out of shape, Too many factors enter into this case to their flesh hanging in shreds, or now reach a summary conclusion. It is not crippled and crawling to the hospital for that we write. Our purpose is on hands and knees unable to stand rather to call attention to the debasing erect, others partially paralyzed, others influence of the heathen religions, which dying after days of agony, all because showed itself in the tremendous resist- of premature admission to the marital ance developed by the very fact that relation, sanctioned by the laws as well child-marriage was to be called in ques- as the customs, and largely by the sen- tion by the government at all, and the timent of the land, one can read a com- threatened outbreak of violence because mentary on " the habitations of cruelty" the council and viceroy did enact that quite beyond any strain his indignation twelve years should be the legal mini- will bear. Mrs. Nancy Monelle Man. mum of marriageable age. A corre- sell, M.A., M.D., and her associate spondent some while since thus de- lady doctors deserve unstinted com- scribed for us a specimen of this popu- mendation for the moral courage, which lar resistance : led them to the distasteful task of mak- "On Sunday, March 15th, a mass.meeting known to the Indian Government, ing of over 80,000 Hindus was held at that which they could testify to, as in- Kali Ghat-one of the Calcutta suburbs stances of such debasement as makes –to pray to the Goddess Kali and seone desire to find refuge in some theory cure her aid against the pending Bill of demoniacal possession, as a cover for raising the marriageable age of Indian lustful cruelty which passes comprehen- girls from 10 to 12 years. Two hundred native priests had been engaged for the occasion, and were observed preaching so that all unea.siness may cease, Her furiously in various directions among name is Nectar. Drink it, and your the crowds. Processions were formed hearts shall be cool, all your grief shall and marched up to Kali's shrine, shout. cease, desires be fulfilled, and all dan. ing as they went along, 'Hari bole!' ger averted. That is why we all, with 'Save us, Kali, from all interference hands uplifted say, save us, oh! kindly with our religion! ' Some of the more mother. Keep us at thy feet, oh! fanatical had come up from Calcutta on mother of the universe. Who else is their hands and knees; others had there but thee to protect that priceless measured the entire distance by pros. treasure, our national religion, which trating themselves continuously and we are about to lose by the King's mancrawling on their stomachs. A strong date. Help us, oh ! goddess, and for thy body of police kept order; there was help we are taking thy name to.dllY. much subdued excitement. One fanatic To ruin us the cruel law is about to he placed his head on the altar at which passed_ Stop this, oh ! mother, and let many hundreds of lambs and goats had us be happy, who are rich in religion, been sacrificed to Kali, and demanded by singing thy name. When Srimunto the officiating priest to sever his head, was in danger, thou didst take him up as 'he would die for his country.' in thy lap. Thou didst give protection The priest declined, and the man, ris· to Kalkatu at thy feet, source of all good. ing up, was heard to say that the' law We are thy children too; why shall we unfortunately prevented his setting suffer then, oh ! mother Kali P" them all a good example.' While the bulk of the crowd was composed of We are not presenting all this ail news. ignorant persons, there were lots of lawyers, pleaders, merchants, bankers, lt will,not be such to a great number of schoolmasters, and other heads of the people. Poor India !" our readers, yet to others it will be more We had from several sources accounts or less so. We present it as a conten.
of the 80ngs composed for and sung on tion. We want to thrust home the the occasion by theatrical companies. whole facts on that not insignifica;:;t The Statesman gave a rough translation company of excellent people who can see no difference between ., our heathen of one of these, as follows: at home" and the heathen society of a .. FOR THE PROTECTION OF RELIGION. great people; a patient, ingenious, in. .. Sankirtan of Kali at Kalighat. dustrious, intellectual, and in many reo .. In great distresR at thy door we have come, mother, source of all good. spects not an unlovely people, who have Horrified, that is why we raise this cry, oh ! mother, queen of the universe. been systematically debased and im- What to say? We are about to be undone, mother, by the words of some out- bruted through the most sacred avenues castes. Intending to do an act of kind. ness, the Government is destroying our to the human soul; and who, we may even religion. Our hearts shudder through fear. Oh! goddess, save us from this believe, are sincere when they say, that great danger into which we have fallen. We, sons of Hindu families, who have the removal of child-marriage will result hitherto forgotten thee, are now crying to thee for help, as your children, and in a more debasing condition of society pray take us up in thy lap. Protect the modesty of our domestic maidens, thou than has been depicted, or rather hintwho savest people from shame. Kings make laws to make their subjects happy, ed at by the petitioners above quoted, but this law will oppress the poor and helpless. Make this clear to Govern. and by thousands of others who know ment, and say, , Don't make this law.' FOl"give us, oh ! goddess. Make Govern- of similar brutality and bestial outrage ment to understand a.nd to put an eml to all this confusion and disOl·der." under cover of marriage rights. Take " • Sankirtan' sung by the Burra Bazar them at their own rating, and what Sadharan Rori SaMa. must be the sentiment. what are the re- .. Let U8 all to-day sing hymns to g()odess Kali. Let U8 sing in her name, straints on society of the religions they cling to, if there is a worse state, .. a lower depth" imaginable, in conse- quence of shifting the protection of law for girl wifehood from ton to twelve years? It is an open confession that reo ligion, as they understand it has fur- nished no moral restraint against lust, against debauchery, against lechery and .cruelty. And the worst of it all is that those who know them best do not esti- beginning with Alexander III., the Czar mate the moral power of their so-called of Russia, and so on down to Bulgaria religions any higher than they do them- and Greece, to obtain at an early date selves. an international, conference "to con· sider the condition of the Israelites and It is in our heart to make another their claim to Palestine as their ancient plea, and that for sympathy and more home," etc. [J. T. G.] prayer for those sensitive and saintly souls who have to go down into such a Dr. Hamlin said: "The Christian moral maelstrom for years, to try to re- benevolence of this petition is beyond lieve this moral (or rather immoral) con- criticism. The sufferings of the Jews in dition, and, if pity can go farther, then Russia and other parts of Europe defor those parents who for the love of mand the sympathy as they excite the their Divine Lord have to try to rear horror and detestation of all Christians their children in the midst of such un- the world over. But it would be well measured and unmitigated miasma of for the petitiollers to consider the folimmorality. And yet why our cry for lowing points: pity? They seek none of it. All they are asking 01. the Christians of the "1. Have not the Jews forfeited all homeland is help to stay there and to do rightful claim to Palestine? They were the Christly work they have undertaken given over to the Romans because they -and in which they are succeeding– were rebels against Jehovah and His even if it be only to lie down as these anointed. noble lady-doctors at the foot of the throne of power, and cry for relief for " 2. The right of property has limitathe heathen even against themselves; or tions of time and circumstances. After to create a sentiment, as all missionaries eighteen centuries of dispossession and have been aiding to do, which will en- foreign residence no claim can be alable the political powers who care to do lowed in earthly courts. so, to protect young maidens from brutal marital relations till they are at least "3. The people that now inhabit Paltwelve (!) years of age. estine are the rightful owners of the soil. Their ancestors had held it for many Dr, Cyrus Hamlin on Restoring Pales- centuries before the Mayflower cast its tine to the Jews. anchor on 'the wild New England shore.' What would the President pro· The symposium at the Annual Meet- pose to Europe to do with them? They ing of the International Missionary are Arabs, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Union on the several points of special Syrians, and of some ten or twel ve interest in the Jewish discussions of the other nationalities. Destroy them? times, which was conducted by Dr. Drive them out? Whither? Kellogg, of Toronto, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, and Mr. William E. Blackstone, Super- "4. The Jews are not agriculturists. intendent of the Chicago Hebrew Mis- They generally hate the employment, sion, was one of great interest and abil- and the colonies established there have ity. We had hoped to be able to give a still to be aided. synopsis of the subject by each speaker prepared by themselves. We are fortu- " 5. The Jews have shown no general nate in having the points of Dr. Ham- desire to return to Palestine. The few lin's paper thus kindly furnished by who have gone have been induced to go him for our use. by offer of aid.
The paper was occasioned by a peti- " There is a small number who fancy tion numerously signed to " The Presi- that Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, the tem. dent and Mr. Blaine" to use their influ- pIe restored, the altar of sacrifice rekin. ence with the governments of Europe, dIed, the Jewish state exalted above all nations, and its enemies destroyed. But this is to be done by Almighty power, and the President and Mr. Blaine would cut a small figure by their interference. "6. • The Sacred Places' and other Government provoke such a humiliation possessions of the Oriental and Latin before all Europe? The explanations churches will be an awkward thing to which would be made would go for nothmanage in the 'return.' They would ing. The worst construction possible be an offence to the Jew; but for a Jew would be put upon every fact. So long to touch them would fire tJ:.e heart of the as our Government, especially our Sen_ Latin and the Greek churches to a white ate and House of Representatives, are heat. under the control of saloons and saloon- iets, so long as alcohol is king, we had "7. But, above all, the petitioners better not champion any cause of humanwould plunge the President right into ity in Europe. the middle of the Oriental Question. This was expanded to considerable " The one insuperable obstacle to any length, and the impossibility of our in- general return of the Jews to Palestine terference made very clear. is the Jews themselves. An awful cloud is over the land. 'His blood be upon ., 8. Is it probable that Europe would us and upon our children.' It must be be pleased with such a movement on the purified of Christianity before the Israelpart of our Government? 'rhe powers ite can look upon it but with abhorhave generally accepted the Monroe Doc- rence. As mendicants, as 'assisted trine. But that forbids our appearing emigranti '-always a worthless set-or in their affairs just as much as it ex- escaping from the inhumanity and savcludes them from ours. agery of Russia, a few tens of thousands may return. But they will be a sorry ,. 9. As precedents sanctioning the lot, and will ' suck the milk of the genreturn of the Jews to Palestine under tiles' for a living. European dictation, the example of Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, etc., under " , When the veil shall be taken away,' the dictation of the Berlin Congress, is and they shall become the glad and renot well taken. By the Berlin Congress joicing disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, autonomy was conferred to a greater or their own Messiah, and when they shall less extent upon those peoples in their see in Him the glorious fulfilment of ancestral homes. No man was deprived all their prophecies, there may spring of an acre of land. If Moslems wished up in many hearts a new love for Jeruto emigrate, as many foolishly did, they salem. Their flowing thither at their were allowed their own time and way of own expense would be a spontaneous doing it. In the • return' one people is and natural immigration that would acto be driven out and another brought in. commodate itself to circumstances. If It would be a very bloody and expensive only two or three millions should return affair all round, and the driven out and in this way they would soon possess the the brought in would alike perish. land, and there would be no question of oppression or of protection. Then all "10. Is our country specially fitted nations would hail their return, and the by her history for this proposed media- Church of Christ would see in it the tion? The outrages that have been dawn of the millennial day." committed in the United States upon the colored people in the Southern States, The Need of Speoial Preparation for Forand upon the Indians and the Chinese, eign Servioe. the murders, the expulsions from their native soil. the destruction of property, REV. A.. P. HAPPER, D.D., CANTON, CHINA. the slaughter of men, women, and children, the fiendish mobs, the rapes, the The General Missionary Conference thefts by Government agents, the' Cen- of China. in May, 1890, sent forth the tury of Dishonor' would all be brought call for 1000 missionaries for China up against us, and would make the persecution of the Jews in Russia appear in comparison a slight affair. Should our within five years. Within ten months he was a layman and an engineer, had after the issue of that appeal 127 mis- no special preparation to be a missionsionaries had arrived in China for one ary; and as he was so successful and mission, working in China, and 50 have uSPful as a missionary, it is supposed he arrived for all other societies. The is a proof that no special preparation is statement has been made in the news- necessary in order to be useful. The papers that when this appeal was pub- facts, on the contrary, in regard to Mr. lished in Australia, hundreds of young Mackay, are just the opposite of what is people offered themselves for this ser- supposed in regard to him. He had vice. The statement is also published very special preparation and experience in that the number of names given in to Christian work before he went abroad, the secretaries of the volunteer move- which led those who were acquainted ment in America is over 6000 ; and that with him to give the very highest testimore than 300 of those who had given monials of his preparation and qualifica. in their names have gone to foreign tion to be a missionary to teach and lands. preach the Gospel, in addition to being a capable engineer. Mr. Mackay had All the friends of missions will rejoice been brought up in his father's house, in these evidences of an extendinj:( in- who is an eminent Presbyterian ministerest in the cause of missions to hea- ter in Scotland, with special care and then lands among the young members under his own instruction. He had the of Christian churches in the home lands. best advantages of education in mathe- matics, the classics, and applied sci- But while rejoicing in this extending ences in the high schools and universiinterest in missions to the non-Christian ties of Scotland. He engaged in Chrislands, and in the increasing numbers of tian work in the original ragged schools those who are offering to go, I wish to of Rev. Dr. Guthrie and the Sabbathdirect attention to the great importance school of Rev. Dr. Horatius Bonar, in of thorough preparation for the work by Edinburgh. These educational and rethose who are sent abroad as missiona- ligious advantages were enlarged and ries. There is great danger that in the extended by a two years' residence and warmth of Christian sympathy for the practice in Germany, where he acquired perishing, and on account of the consid. a knowledge of the German language. eration that the people in heathen lands When he was appointed to go to Africa are ignorant, many will think that no he improved every hour of his time be_ special preparation is needed by those tween the time of his appointment and who go to teach them. It is evident his departure in getting some knowledge that many think that personal piety of different practical arts from compeand love to the Saviour and to the soulll tent professors and teachers, as those of of men are the only essential requisites for photography, printing cotton, and glass those who go as missionaries. This is manufacture, and the details of teacha very great mistake, and it is one which ing and training teachers. So that the will bring great injury to the cause of pre-eminent success and usefulness of Christian missions unless measures are Mr. :Mackay during the fourteen years taken to prevent its being carried into of his labors in Africa. which led Mr. practice. H. M. Stanley to speak of him as second to Livingstone, were the proper result I would call attention to the words of and outcome of the thorough and manithe lamented Mackay of Uganda, in his fold preparation which he had made last appeal for twenty men to come to during his youth and early manhood. Africa. His words are these: "You When, therefore, he speaks to the " sons sons of England, here is a field for your of England" and asks them" to bring energies. Bring with you your highest their highest education and greatest taleducation and your gre.atest talents; you will find scope for the exercise of them all. ' , Many suppose that Mr. Mackay, because ents, and assures them "they would widely ramified service as was necessary find scope for the exercise of them all, he in the details of government over such was only asserting what he knew to be numerous population, we must inquh-e a fact in his own experience. He only how these able and qualified men were asks for what all experience has proved obtained. They did not come by haphazt,o be necessary to success-viz., com- ard. The East India Company were petent natural gifts, with the necessary wise in their generation in some things. acquired knowledge and training. He The covenanted civil servants were aphimself is one of the most illustrious pointed under the system of open comexamples of the truth of this statement. petition. Thus the picked youth of the land are selected. The company estab- As the missionary work enlarges and lished a special college for their instrucexpands, the necessity that properly tion. Their college at Haileybury, in qualified men be serlt forth is more and Hertfordshire, had the ablest professors more emphasized. It should be spe- in the country in their several departcially urged upon all concerned in send- ments. The 'names of Henry Melvill, ing forth missionaries that they also James A. Jeremie, Richard Jones, Wilhave special care as to the quality of liam Empson, H. H. Wilson, Monier those they send forth. A few able and Williams, and Major J. W. J. Ouseley are well_qualified men will, with God's found among those of the professors. blessing, accomplish more than treble Selected young men from Rugby, Eton, the number of feeble and insufficiently and other distinguished schools and the qualified men. In confirmation of this, universities went there for two years' let all study the apostolic history. Paul, special instruction in the languages, the apostle of the gentiles, was a man of laws, customs, administration, etc., of great talents; he had the advantage of India, by these specially qualified teachthe best education at the celebrated ers. Is it any matter of wonder or suruniversity at Tarsus, and of the best prise that with such means such able Jewish masters in Jerusalem. He has and competent men were provided for left his impress on Christianity greater every department of the service, and in than that of the whole of the other numbers adequate to the needs of the apostles. two hundred millions of people? Is it strange that such men as Lord John There are two results of human efforts Lawrence, Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Wiland labors that are marvels in their sev- liam Muir, Lieutenant-Governor James eral ways. One of them is the estab- Thomason, Edward Thornton, Sir Roblishment of the British rule in India, ert Montgomery, Donald Macleod, and the administration of the govern- George Edmonstone, Sir Bartle Frere, ment over such a numerous population and many others, literally too numerous to with such success. The other is the mention, were raised up to meet every German war against France in 1870. emergency, and to illustrate the energy But their wonderful results have not and efficiency of the Anglo-Saxon race? come by chance nor without the use of The training, the capability of the the appropriate means. As we study men, and the opportunity have produced the history of the establishment of Brit- such an administration of the Governish rule in India, the names of many dis- ment as has not been seen before in the tinguished names come in review be- history of the world. fore us. In the review of these names the conviction is forced upon us that the Europe was astonished at the results leaders in the successive decades of of the German War of 1870. But when this work were the picked men of the the facts are known, those results were public life of Great Britain. But if we the natural and sure results of the antewould fully understand how it was that cedent training of the officers of the Gerthere were a sufficient number of young man army. These officers had been men for every department of such a trained in the work to be done. Every Tarsus, after his conversion, was told strategic point in the French territory by Ananias of Damascus that " he was had been examined and marked out; a chosen vessel to bear the name of every difficulty and impediment had Jesus among the gentiles,' , he wpnt into been made known; the nature and char- Arabia to commune with the Lord; and acter of the country to be marched over it was three years before he entered fully had been mapped out; so that the lead- upon his glorious ministry. These ers of the invading armies knew what three years were the time of the special they had to do, what difficulties they preparation of the great apostle of the would meet, and, were trained to carry gentiles, though he, previous to his call, out the campaign as they had been in- had the benefit of the instruction in the structed ; and the proper and expected Roman university at Tarsus, and of the results all followed in their natural order. most learned Jewish teachers in Jeru- These results, however, were greatly to salem. How different is the course purthe astonishment of those who knew not sued in these latter days in sending of the thorough preparation which ,had forth many to the laborious and rebeen made by the German officers. sponsible duties of the Christian mis- sionary without any preparation or In the history of the world no such training! wonderful enterprise has been planned as that which has been committed to With the diffusion of Western knowlthe Christian Church-i.e., to convert edge and science, and of the agnostic this world to Christ, to extend this and infidel views of Western sceptics glorious Gospel of the blessed God till among the peoples of India, China, and the kingdoms of this world have become Japan, the importance and necessity of the kingdoms of the Lord and His the missionaries being more thoroughly Christ. prepared are strongly increased. They have now to meet not only the difficul- For its accomplishment it presupposes ties and hindrances of the native idolathe Divine aid of the great Captain of tries and errors, but also, in many cases, our salvation. When He gave the com- the objections and scoffs of Western inmission" to preach the Gospel to every fidels and atheists. Those who go forth creature," He prefaced it with the so readily without any really careful glorious assurance" all power is given preparation show how imperfect is their unto Me in heaven and in earth; go ye, conception of the work to be done, and therefore, and teach all nations, baptiz- give evidence of their own want of ing them in the name of the Father, and qualification and preparation to perof the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; and form it. lo! I am with you alway unto the end of the world." But the presence and It becomes the missionary societies power of our gracious Lord does not do and the committees having in charge the away with the necessity of providing examination and reception of candiand using the necessary and appropriate dates for missionary appointment to be instrumentality. The Saviour Himself especially careful in the reception of all spent three years in instructing His applicants, and to seek those of high apostles before He sent them forth on and suitable qualification and adequate their high mission. When the disciples preparation for the great and laborious filled the place of Judas, who had fallen calling. from that ministry, they placed in nomination two of "these men who A Word About the Student Volunteers. have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among usu_ In the minds of a great many people so careful were they to secure one who there is a marked incongruity between was thoroughly instructed and prepared the statement of the Student Volunteer for the solemn vocation. When Saul of Movement that some six thousand per- sons are enrolled by themselves as pledged from foreign service, and the to us all the more important that they unmet demand of so many societies for gat thoroughly prepared, because from men and women. All oC the societies them must come so much that certainly are not without candidates enough to cannot be looked for from the large supply their needs, but some say they number of persons who are nowencourare in vain calling for missionaries. aged to enter foreign service with very meagre intellectual furnishing. We do Several things ought to be borne in not enter upon the discussion to what mind. For instance, a great proportion extent unlettered and inexperienced, of this volunteer corps are not yet and. perhaps, even, untried persons through their collegiate and seminary should be encouraged to go abroad. studies. Certainly there is little dis· There is some difference of opinion on position on the part of experienced ad· that subject. There may be uses for a ministrators of missions to rush men greater number of men than mill be and women into the field with partial found ready trained or than the institupreparation, if they can remain to com· tions can furnish. Of that we are not plete their studies. Dr. Happer raises writing. But facts patent justify us in a note of warning on this sllbject in the raising the question as to tho pressure article we now present from his pen. that should be put on these in the He is entitled to speak on this subject. schools to hurry into the service. The He was of the original first company of Scandinavians have been rallied of late Presbyterian missionaries sent to China, both in Norway and Sweden and in and that was as long ago as 1844. It America by an earnest and probably WaB ten years from the time he formed well· meaning brother, to offer for the the purpose, God willing, to be a mis. foreign service. Some fifty or more sionary till he went abroad. During his have been recruited from Brooklyn, New college course his reading was connect· York, lind Chicago, and over a hundred ed with his purpose, and all his plans fmm Scandinavians in various quarters were subordinated to it. And yet, firm· of the world have gone to China alone, ly holding his purpose, he taught four and mainly are connected with a single years after graduation, then spent four mission- the churches at their startingyears in professional studies-medicirie place, we are informed, pledging them and theology-for the work, and in the fifty cents a day for their support, all of study of the history, geography, phi. course being unmarried. We are not losophy, and other features of China; prepared to say whether there is here a and medicine, teaching, and preaching movement which demands special guidhave been the lines on which he has ance by those experienced in missions, done such grand work these forty.seven but we do think that this emphasizes the years in that great empire. We could need of thorough preparation on the furnish instances enough to fill many part of the recruits which are to come page·s to show the great work accom- from these volunteer stUdents, and that plished by men and women who have the churches should not demand that developed a sturdy purpose through great numbers of them hasten away just similar years of steady subordination of now, but should rather advise their cauall aims to the one work of preparation tious preparation for wise leadership for a great life service. It is from this than press them too speedily into the corps of trained men and women repre- great responsibilities which await them. sented by the student volunteers that We say all this in the face of the fact we are to look for persistent patient that China calls for 1000 missionaries in leaders. Hence we suggest that too five years, and that they are not forthmuch pressure be not put on these coming in proportionate numbers. It pledged persons in our schools of learn- is true that some 175 have gone to China ing to hllsten unduly to the great fields since the appeal was iBllued, but of these which call so loudly for them. It seems 125 have gone to the Inlanu Mission, way to advertise so indiscriminately the leaving only about 50 among all the fact that 6000 persons are" waiting to other societies; and that would scarce· be sent," and much else of like phrase ly more than keep up the numerical that is not in accordance with the standard as it was. But let us not be facts. The great bulk of them are not disappointed if many of these student ret>dy to go ; but the fact that God has volunteers never go abroad. We are moved to create 80 missionary interest in quite confident that a very large propor- the hearts and minds of so many young tion of those enrolled by the excellent persons among those pursning their brethren who have charge of this stu- studies deserves very thoughtful and dent movement will never reach the prayerful consideration and devout field. They are not in position to form thanksgiving as well, while the" pledge"
a final judgment now in their school- should be made the" outward sign of days, and there has been no concurrent an inward grace" rather than an oath, judgment solicited from any boards or which it is not.-J. T. G.
churches as to the adaptation of these persons severally. Then they may be Men Needed in North Ohina. adapted to work which may not at the time when they offer themselves need Rev. C. A. Stanley writes to us from reinforcement, or the speciu.l church to Tientsin, North China: which they belong may not want men, "Our annual meeting has recently and they may not care to leave their de- been held here. At all our seven sta- nominational relations even if some tions there has been progress. Over other board would be willing to take 200 have been added to our churches those not of their own part of the fold. It during the last mission year in full will thus happen that a number of those membership. But our working force, honestly intending to be faithful to their both foreign and native, is not equal to pledge may not find the way open to the work in hand; and on all sides them. Then some of them will be there are doors of opportunity wide adapted to the demands of their own open, into which it is impossible for us societies at a time when the funds of to enter. There are several scores of the societies will not enable them to vlllages around Tientsin, in very few of send them. There are many good and which the Gospel has ever been able persons found in the churches be- preached, which, through the distribu- sides those just out of school, and some tion of relief to the sufferers from last volunteers may not be called by the so- year's flood during the winter, are cieties because such other persons are peculiarly prepared to listen to the at their command equally or better pre- Gospel message. Raving been appoint.
pared or more suitable. Thus from a ed to direct this distribution, and the great variety of causes there may be a work having been mainly done by mis.
great disparity between the total num- sionaries, it has associated itself in the ber of volunteers and the part who reach minds of the people with missionary the field. Thus not all the demand for operations. Thus they are ready to reo foreign service will be met from these ceive us and listen to our message.
ranks. Let this grand impulse of the Books were left in these villages when young people have time to find its provi. relief was given, and were there labor.
dential meaning and method. We see ers, native or foreign, to go and work many points at which these very capa- amc.ng them in the Master's name, I ble and devout young people of the Stu- have no doubt but that many would be dent Movement need wise guidance; brought to a knowledge of the truth. I but there is also need for wise conduct hope to be able, with my small force of on the part of the churches in relation workers, to do something in the fall and to them. It is, perhaps, not the best winter; but triple the force at my command would scarcely reach this imme- reache'! you of the riots of Wuhu and {liate need, not to speak of what is and Nanking. The animosity of the rioters would open beyond from this. Relief seemed to be directed chiefly against the was given in about 70 viJIages to about Roman Catholics. Demand was made 70,000 persons-not the entire popula- for the release of the children of the Lion by any means-the most distant Roman Catholic orphanage. At Wuhu one being some 12 miles. The city and all foreigners fled for their lives, and suburbs contain 600,000 souls. Similar their buildings were looted and prop- opportunities are present at all our sta- erty stolen or destroyed. At Nanking tions and with all the missionary socie- the Methodist property was looted and ties laboring in North China. And now destroyed, as well as that belonging to and again a devoted laborer is called to the Roman Catholics. No lives were his reward, largely because of overwork, lost. There seems to be general un- because the churches have not met the easiness all up the Yangtsi River. I demand, and he has had to attempt more judge the excitement to be largely politi- than he could do, and succumbed to the cal, aimed against the authorities and strain. The L. M. S. has just lost such rulers, and intended to make them un- a man in Mr. Gilmour, down from Mon- popular and to secure their removal. golia to attend tb e annual meeting of his It seems to have been instigated by society held here. He was sick twel ve some' secret society' men and literati, days, and had not physical strength to which abound in great numbers in the rally when the crisis came. And there Yangtsi Valley. They would like to stir is no one on the ground who can take up a rebellion if possible. Several of up his work, even at the expense of the rioters have been beheaded, and the some other phwe and work. This is local authorities have already begun to not a lone case-they are many." rebuild the premises, and will make restitution for damage done. We have The Riots in Ohina. no fear of trouble here; and yet I do not know that any place in China was We have long known that the great regarded as more secure for foreigners Chinese Empire had a dispensation of than Nanking. It was a great surprise " politics," as well as occidental nations, to have this outbreak there." and not unlike our own. They have the " ins" and the" outs,' , and it has been But it will go hard with the anti·forplain for a few years past that the eIgn party if they cannot find a better " outs" would make all the capital pos- way to manage their internal politics sible against the administration on their than by the murder of such missionaries conduct toward foreigners. The pres- as Mr. Argent, a lay missionary of the ent " Government," as they would say Joyful News Mission, for whose death in Europe-that is, the present prime there is no doubt the" secret societies" minister and his party-are strongly in are responsible. Those societies are not favor of advancement along Western good instruments for anti-administra- tion politicians in China, as they are as little controllable by the Celestial em· peror as the Mafia are by King Hum- bert. But the martyrdom of missiona- ries will only the more show the Church the way to the thorough evangelization of that great people.-J. T. G.
lines; but there are eminent and able statesmen who lead the anti-foreign feel- -We received some suggestions from ing. They may stir up the people even India some while since which indicated to a gigantic rebellion against General that Pundita Ramabai was restricted Li and his party. From private but very responsible sources our advices con- in even the mild religious teaching she firm the general statements as to the thought wise to introduce into the outbreaks in China. One correspondent school at Poona by representatives of writes from Foochow under date of June the American administrators of the 9th: funds raised for her use. We hope there is no ground for this thought. "You will have heard before this Ramabai knows how far to go to keep faith with the people of her own nation in the matter of religious neutrality; and nobody supposed that she would school, it is not fair to ask them to do receive any direction from American more now while it is so hard for them to management in simple and fundamental carryon the schools under their own religious matters. If she finds her way control. to have prayers or the reading of the Bible in her school, and can carry it -Miss Adaline D. M. H. Kelsey, with her Hindu constituency, surely no M.D., of Yokohama, writes to us as fol- Christian (?) hand would obstruct her. lows: If such should be the case, her American society would soon have no funds "It has been thought that the need to administer, and her executive com· of missionary physicians is not so urgent mittee would become executors of the in Japan as it is in other non-Christian school. Weare glad to see that the lands. This opinion is so widespread Harvest Field, the Wesleyan missionary it would be well to have it understood magazine for India, one of the ablest of in what respect the statement is true, our exchanges, .gives in a late issue the and in what other respect it is not true. chief place to some interesting articles on the wives and widows of India, in- " There is a medical department concluding a visit to Pundita Ramabai's nected with the Imperial University Home at Poona by the Rev. D. A. in Tokyo where advanced medical in. Rees ; and the history of the widow re- struction is given; an M.D. qualified to marriage movement in Bombay. With make a diagnosis and write a medical regard to the results of Pundita Rama- prescription can be found in every large bai's work we just quote one paragraph from the story of the interview. On city of the empire. being asked, "Are you satisfied with " It is also a fact that the Imperial the results so far?"' the Pundita replied, " I should have rejoiced to see larger University and normal schools of Japan results, but considering the difficulties, send out highly educated men and wom· I feel I have much cause for thankful- en capable to teach. Why, then, do we ness. Take that one fact-out of these send missionaries there to erect costly thirty widows I have the assurance from buildings and organize schools toleducate their own lips thai, their coming here has the children? Is it because we want to 8aved nearly TWENTY of them from SUICIDE, give them a secular education? If that STARVATION, OR A LIFE OF SHAME. This is our chief object, many givers to the fact alone is an abundant reward for all cause have been decei ved. But that has our toil and expense."-J. T. G. not been our avowed object. Our real aim and chief desire has been to get hold -Miss Susan A. Searle says of the of the people to influence and lead them American Board Girls' Boarding School to Christ by exemplifying His love to at Kobe, Japan: them in our own lives of self-denying labors of love for them. And do we send " During the last year and a half there physicians merely to heal the sick? Is have been urgent calls from the Japan- not the higher objQct the real answer ese themselves for such lengthening and here also? If there is not so much broadening of the courses of study in medical work to be done as in China and the school as shall make it, in fact, a India, more time and strength can be college. Having come at a time when given to the higher work of teaching the Japanese were especially impatient Christ's love and mission to souls that of anything like foreign control in are starving for the Bread of Life. To church or school matters. the request do this work the M.D. must of necessity seemed significant of their confidence be a real missionary as well as a physi. in the management of the Board. To ciano There is plenty of this combined accede to this request, and at the same work to do in Japan. 'fhe number of time carry out long-cherished plans for Christians among the Japanese physi. the school, it is necessary to have, for cians is so small that, in an extensive buildings and other equipments, a much acquaintance with them throughout the larger sum of money than the annual empire, only four are known to be appropriation from the Board. The Christians. Two of the four are women, Japanese Christians are supporting educated in mission schools, and studied nobly several Christian schools, which are becoming to a greater extent every mAdicine in America. These two are year feeders of the Kobe school. They doing a good work for their countryare already heavily burdened; and women in making greater revelations to though in past years they have given them than they themselves can at. pres. generously toward buildings for the ent know. There is such a difference between working for money or fame and working for love.
"There are two Japanese girls now in this country fitting themselves to return as Christian healers. More are needed,"
'EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Student's Summer School a.t North· all about $5000 and upward raised for field. Bishop Thoburn's missions in two years.
The sixth of these remarkable gather. The movement was quite spontaneous ings has been held. They began in and, of course, quite free from all con- June. 1886, at Mount Hermon, and this, siderations of denominationalism. Not which was held from June 27th to July a few have found fault because for two 8th, was regarded by many as exceeding successive years the missions of the in interest as well as numbers any Methodist Church in India have had so preceding convention. About five liberal a support, while the boards of the hundred students were enrolled. Mr. Baptist, Congregational, and Presby- Moody, of course, presided, as he is the terian churches are struggling to keep main attraction, and daily services were out of debt. But the simple fact is, held, at whioh Bible studies were con- there was little or no thought of the fact ducted and addresses of various sorts that Bishop Thoburn is a Methodist occupied attention. The main purpose bishop. His plan struck the conference of these conferences is known to be the as apostolic and feasible and as accom- consecration of these young men to lives plishing more for the money than any of higher service. The controlling other that has been proposed, and the thought in Mr. Moody's mindwas a bap- response was very hearty and im- tism of the Holy Spirit. Much time was pulsively generous: perhaps it erred ( given to missionary meetings. "Round on the side of catholicity and generos· Top" has already come to be, like the ity. There may be a doubt whether it " Hay Stack" at Williamstown, connect. is expedient in a conference composed ed inseparably with missionary consecra· of all evangelical denominations to take, tion. Here, at twilight every evening, especially for two successive years, an the young men meet to consider the offering so large as this for the mission question of individual obligation to the work of anyone church. It is liable to world·wide field. Here the call for new be misunder,;tood and to occasion hos- volunteers was daily sounded, and the tile criticism. Bishop Thoburn's meth- claims of a dying world were weighed. ods have not the entire support even of We doubt not thatfrom that sacred spot his own Methodist brethren. No little many young men will date the begin- doubt has been expressed in our own ning of a new era in their lives. hearing as to the thoroughness and per- The missionary fires burned brightly manence of the work, and the expediency in more than one general meeting. Last of hiring such laborers, even at so low year Bishop J. M. Thoburn, of India, a cost. But the action taken was in told of his work and of the plan he is both years a simple outburst of genuine pursuing of employing native evange- missionary enthusiasm, and there was a lists, at an average cost of $30 a year, to noble impetuosity and liberality about proclaim among their fellow-country- it, peculiar to young men. It is not men the good tidings. The scheme im. open to the same criticism as a deliber- pressed the audience as so simple, eco- ate and previously planned course of nomical, and sensible that on the spot, action.
by Mr. Moody's enthusiastic leadership, This gathering was representative.
the pledges were made for support of It contained young men from all quar.
100 such evangelists. This year a re- ters. Not only were Great Britain, port was, made of the work done by Canada, the United States, represented, these hundred workers during the year, but China, Japan, Australia, Persia, and at once enough more was pledged Scandinavia, Germany, France, etc.
to support seventy-five such evangelists Indeed, it may be doubted whether for the current year. This will mnke in 'in any similar IIssembly so many various peoples and tongues have ever been "Our Oonntry." represented by Christian disciples. A new edition of Dr. Josiah Strong'8 They were like the Pentecostal assembly remarkable book is issued by our very " from every nation under he_en, " and enterprising friends, the Baker & Taylor every man might hear "in his own Co., 742 Broadway, New York. The tongue tho wonderful works of God." new edition, revised so as to embrace Too great care cannot be taken by the latest information of the census of those who have these gatherings in 1890, is greatly increased in value; and charge as to those who, on such a plat- the little book, already the most helpful form, present the truth. We feel con- contribution to home mission litera- strained emphatically to dissent from ture ever given to the American public, some teaching which we have heard, or has doubled its practical worth as a book known to be allowed, in such gatherings. of reference.
There is a special tendency in these Of this work of Dr. Strong we can days to depreciate the importance of say nothing too laudatory. It is muUum sound doctrine. Christianity is em- in parvo. But fifteen chapters long, con- phasized as a life, and often the doctrinal tained in 267 pages duodecimo, and side is treated as of little consequence. about 100,000 words, there is an amount H has been free. uently said that if one of information and inspiration which accepts Christ as his personal Saviour many ordinary volumes would not BUp- it matters little what he believes or ply. The words are picked and packed; doubts; that the creed is of small the illustrations are forcible and sim- moment if the heart is anchored to pie; the statements are lucid and Christ. Such teaching is perilous, es- vivid; the argument is terse and telling.
pecially before young men. Paul says, It is plain that the book is the product of 0' Hold fast the form of sound words with all time previous. It took many years faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." to prepare the hand and brain of its dis- There is no power in error to develop a tinguished author to give such a prod- beautiful life, and if there is any beauty uct to the public. And all this can in the life of a sceptic it is in spite of be had for 30 cents in paper and 60 his error, and in consequence of the cents in cloth! It has made a sensa- truth, mixed with error. Christianity is tion like" Uncle 'fum's Cabin."
both doctrine and deportment, belief and life. It is quite too fashionable in these Dr. George Smith, the missionary days to apologize for loose notions of biographer, who is also Foreign Secre- inspiration, atonement, the divinity of tary of the Missionary Board of the Christ, the work of the Spirit, and a Free Church of Scotland, writes from future state of reward and punishment, Edinburgh, June 3d, 1891 : on the ground that if one is sincere it My DEAR DR. PIERSON: Should I live matters little what he believes We to write Henry Martin, an even more protest in the name of all that is good important life has got to be writtenthat the highest Christian life, and es- that of Charles Grant, who inspired pecially the largest service in saving Wilberforce and Carey, and was himself souls, is inseparably connected with led to Christ by Schwartz. His grand- doctrinal soundness. A missionary son, the present Sir Charles Grant, has must believe the truth if he is to be an the necessary papers, which are in beaueffective and successful worker for God. tiful order, for myoid friend, John We regal'd the growing laxity in doc. Marshman, had them, and died before trine, and especially the prevailing dis- he could write the book. Meanwhile, position to tolerate all forms of unsound to test the matter, I will have, in an opinion, as tending to undermine the early number of Good Words, a con- whole structure of missions, both at densed sketch of the greatest Scotsman, home and abroad. next to Duff, who ever went to lorlia. Use my name as you kindly propose, respondents the lady workers in Madrid (Mrs. Fenn), San Sebastian, Puerto Sta if it will be of any service, on your list lIIaria, Figueras, Seville (Mrs. Barosso), Pradijon and Santander, to whom their of editorial correspondents. members may apply.
Do not overtax your strength. I From Manoh, SaJijah, Sierra Leone, W. Africa, April 27th, 1891, we have the began life in India at twenty, and have following: worked hard-sometimes too hard in I have to thank you for the MISSION- ARY REVIEW, which is so free from a Bengal, so as to suffer. But work just up party spirit, so full of fervor that we who are out in the mission field cannot to the limit of strength is as healthy and but feel how little we are doing to what we ought. May the Great Head of the delightful as work even a little beyond Church enable us faithfully to battle with the heathenism of the pagan and strength is perilous, and bad economy, the easily satisfied conscience of the converts, who seem to have grasped the and truly sinful. Gladstone is a noble truth of their redemption and justifica- tion, but seem to forget they have daily example of a hard worker just up to the to overcome and grow in grace. We who have had the blessed Gospel in our limit, who has feared God and done His country for generations cannot possibly tell what these poor children have to service as no other statesman in history overcome.
has done it, I think. He is a friend of I am the only foreign representative of the Episcopal Church here. Our missions, as I know from personal in. mission is situated at the most northern point of the republic of Liberia. Our tercourse with him. My book on " A work is entirely among the heathen. The Board appropriates support for 125 Modern Apostle" has just gone to a sec- children, 85 of whom are under my es- pecial care. There are two student ond edition. Yours truly, teachers to assist. I am hoping to wel- come a teacher from Sierra Leone soon• G. SMITH. Many of our girls are growing into wom- anhood, and it is a cause for devout God may move some generous souls to thankfulness that we have been able to respond to this appeal; but the editor keep them so long under the sound of owes it to himself to say that no funds the Gospel. Twenty-eight of them are have been yet entrusted to his care for regular communicants. Of course all any such purposes: their own mending, making, washing, ironing, and domestic work is done by DEAR DR. PIERSON: Confident of your them. The little boys work in the coffee interest and sympathy in the work of farm of an afternoon, as also do the the Student Volunteer Movement for senior department or elder boys, who Foreign Missions, I am writing you to are under the superintendence of Mr. say that we are in financial straits. To Jones. He also is a son of a convert, be more definite, we are in immediate and will be ordained next Christmas. and pressing need of $1500 for current He is very ambitious to establish workexpenses. shops, where they can be taught differ· I have been thinking that you might be inclined to turn over to our use some of the funds entrusted to your care for •, foreign missionary" purposes.
Whether or not you are led to send money, I venture to ask you to join with me in prayer that the Lord will send the money for His own work. I ask you because I know you believe in prayer, and because it is laid upon my heart distinctly that I shall see this money in view.
Yours very heartily, MAX WOOD MOORHEAD, Chairman Finance Committee. June 23d, 1891.
Rev. J. E. B. Meakin desires us to add to the statistics of the work in Spain that the London Y. M. C. A. has for corent trades -it is so necessary to train we had lengthened conversations on the their muscles as well as intellect out great subject of missions.
here. He published, many years ago, a In 1858 I was under the auspices of " Missiunary Atlas," accompanied with the C. M. S., London, and remained in most valuable explanations and histori- Sierra Leone for seventeen years. cal notices. As all the letter-press was The ages of the children vary from in Danish, the circulation of the work two to eighteen years. Our little ones was necessarily limited. He hoped an give us much pleasure, but we need edition might be published in English, more help. So much has to be left un· but, for reasons mentioned by the dean, done for lack of strength and time. the idea was not carried out.
M. It. BRIERLEY. Dr. Grundemann is another most dili.
gent and laborious student of mission From Forsyth, Georgia, Mr. J. C. history. He also published an atlas of Davidson writes: great value, which, in the rapid advance "Your statistician gave' the M. E. of missions, is now necessarily some- Church, Soutb, an incorrect report what out of date.
under the head of ' Foreign Missionary It is high time that we had a work Societies,' page 476, in June number of carefully representing the mission field REVIEW. as it now is. The two gentlemen I have "I send you the statistics of that named are ready to unite in preparing church's missions : it if they can be freed from pecuniary "Missionaries: Total maleH, 142; responsibility in connection with the wives of missionaries, 39 ; totalfemales, large undertaking.
30 ; total, 211. (From Woman's Mission In my conversations with Dean Vahl it Advocate, June, 1891.) Native laborers, was quite understood that the work 262 ; other helpers, 17; members, 14,. should be in English. Both Dr. Grun- 702 ; probationers, 291 ; total, 14,993; demann and he are acquainted with that churches, 184. language.
" These figures I take from the report You will see that the dean hopes that of the Board of Missions, 1891." the missionary societies may patronize These letters, from Dr. Murray Mitch. the undertaking. I trust that the pub. ell and Dean Vahl, are of great interest. lication of his letter may bring this im- Dean Vahl's "Atlas" is the best we portant matter under the notice of the have ever seen. societies in America and Europe, and of the public generally. It will be lament- EDINBURGH, May 22, 1891. able if, when two men so admirably DEAR FRIEND : The letter I enclose is qualified for the work as Dean Vahl and from Dean (Provost) Vahl, of N. Ulster, Dr. Grundemann are prepared to under- Denmark. take it, their proposal should not meet I doubt whether any living man is with a hearty response.
better acquainted with the history and If the missionary societies should not bibliography of missions than my much- see their way to help as Dean Vahl pro- esteemed friend, Dean Yah!. Every. poses, is there no large.minded, large- thing he has written regarding missions hearted friend or friends of missions -and he has written mueh-is brimful who will render the needful aid in this of accurate and interesting information. important undertaking?
After attending the late Evangelical I hope you can kindly insert Dean Alliance Congress at Florence, to the Vahl's letter in the MIsSIONARY REVIEW, work of which he made a very valuable and so draw attention to the subject.
contribution, in which he compared the I remain, dear Dr. Pierson, Protestant missions of 1845 and 1890, Ever very faithfully yours, he dE-all paid me a visit in Nice ; and J. MURRAY MITCHELL. Dean Vahl's letter follows: to.do people, and such a book would April 18, 1891. be too dear for them.
DEAR DR. MURRAY MITCHELL: 1. AA It could be done almost in the same you know, we have sometimes spoken way in which, a year ago, we started a with one another as to getting my missionary review in I::lcandinavia. If " Missionary Atlas" translated and pub- twenty of the great missionary societies lished in English. You have asked me in Great Britain and America would give to explain myself more explicitly about £50 each toward the publication of such this matter. As you know, the Re- a work, we should havo £1000 (and, if ligious Tract Society of London had necessary, perhaps twenty smaller socie. thought thereabout, and an agreement ties would give £25 each) ; thus, I think, was made; but the matter dropped, and a very large part of the expenses could I do not like to press it forward. Some of be paid. I think it would take three or the secretaries of the missionary socie- four years of our time to make the work ties have said that all that was in my book as complete as it ought to be. But a was quite correct, but they wished that complete budget of the expenses can I had dwelt more on the work of their on a later day be produced. I find that special societies. Had I done that, the Dr. Grundemann is willing to work on book would have been twice or thrice as such a plan. large, for all other societies must have been treated in the same way. Perhaps every society could open a subscription at net price, whereby it There have also been negotiations might be possible for numbers of them about a German edition, but they have come to nothing. The book has been to get the atlas at a reduced rate. You praised by German critics like Dr. War- may use what you will of this letter, neck, Dr. Grundemann, and Rev. G. and I should be glad if this plan were Kurze, as the most complete book on settled in one'way or another. this subject found in any literature. Yours very sincerely. 2. You know that Dr. Grundemann about twenty years ago published a (Signed) J. VAHL. " Missionary Atlas," the best ever published. Now it is a little out of date, and This REVIEW would gladly assume one a new edition should be brought out. subscription of £50 sterling ($250) to But it has been impossible to find a pub- insure the succes~ of Dean Vahl's plan. lisher. Some will say there is no need of Who will join us? Let the parties resuch an atlas, as the different societies sponding send names and amounts to can each publish an atlas of its own. the editor.-A, T. P. Quite true; but it would be only, or mostly, of their own missions; to buy One of our correspondents sends the them all would be very expensive; and following" unillersal prayer of all who besides, the outlook of the whole world read aright the signs of the times" : would be wanting. (TUNE, America.) Some time ago Dr. Grundemann wrote to me, proposing that we should " God save our fellow.men, work together; he would draw the Save them from every sinmaps, and I should give the letter-press Make them thine own. in the same way as I have done it in From heaven, Thy dwelling-place, my own .. Missionary Atlas." Such a Look on our helpless race. thing would be of very great importance Save them through Jesus' gracB, for students of mission· history. But Thou Holy One. how can it be done? No publisher in Germany would care to undertake it, " 0, Thou impartial Friend, nor, perhaps, any in England or Ameri- On Thee their hopes dependca. I fear it would not pay. The stu· Thou bidd'st them come. dents of missions are generally not well- May thousands turn to Thee, Thy true disciples be, And ever dwell with Thee In Thy blest home.
" Bless all who own Thy Word, O'Thou, our only Lord, , Thy will be done.' Bid all o~r strifes to cease, Let Christian love increase, Give us Thine own sweet peace Oh, make us one. "
Yours faithfully, W. K. AZBILL, Special Agent F. C. M.S. ,Indianapolis, May27th,1891.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
JAPAN. oppressive and offensive ever since their adoption in 1858. The mihtary commander of the Japan- ese forces, when he saw the walls of the One of these exempts foreigners from fort crumbling beneath him, under the being amenable in Japanese courts. fire of Commodore Perry's guns, while Whatever offence a man from the West he paced to and fro, swore by all the may commit, he cannot be brought be- gods of Japan that he would find out fore a Japanese tribunal. He is only how it was done. The whole nation amenable in the consular courts of his presently thereafter resolved to find out own nation in Japan. The Japanese how Europe and America did everything recognized that this discriminated else. A people, whose written history against their equality among nations; reaches back in uninterrupted tale to but the foreigner urged against them the time of Nebuchadnezzar, was revolu- that they acknowledged standards of tionized in government, in commerce, offence, and "cruel and unusual punin its army and navy, in material and ishments" to which foreigners must not social science, in its very dress and be subjected. They said they must wait manners in a few months; and witbin until the Japanese civilization became a third of a century they underwent modernized in these particulars. Japan maze changes than they bad previously now comes forward to say that she has done since the time of Crcesus. The met the conditions and adjusted her result was a New Japan. Newspapers, jurisprudence and procedures so that a postal and telegraph system extending there is no longer any reason for this from end to end of the empire, and al- humiliating discrimination against her. most everything elsE! that entered into She demands the revision of this part of tbe externals of Western civilization the treaty. Many foreigners in the were adopted. great cities of Japan, however, still lire not willing to be subjected to Japanese The Christian missionary was ad- authority, and stoutly oppose this remitted as a part of this new regime. vision, and the result naturally is an The foreign schoolmaster, too, was in anti-foreign feeling among the Japandemand. Foreign literature was im- ese. ported until it flooded tbe land. But now-and suddenly in the estimation of A much more practical question than SOIDe people-aU this iii reversing. We, this of political dignity, however, is anhowever, can scarcely see it that way. other feature of the old treaty, which It rather seems to us that Japan is pro- dictates the amount of revenue that gressing straight along the same path Japan shall receive from imposts on she entered thirty-five years ago. She foreign importations. The Westernnacan recognize the standard of political tions set their own rate of customs for self-respect of the West as well as she Japanese goods entering their councan Western forms of dress ; and she tries, and then obliged Japan to take has never adopted any ideal of political what they chose to give her for their eJwellence that would lessen her inde- own products taken into her ports. And pendenue and equality among the na- this was fixed at the uniform rate of five tions. per cent. This was destructive of her national dignity in a still greater de- She was humiliated by the Western gree, and pushed her to the very verge powers and made to accept a treaty of bankruptcy. Our view is that in reagainst particulars of which she all the sisting these unjust obstructions Japan while most vigorously protested. 'l'wo did not start on any reactionary path. special features of the treaty have been way. She only still further demanded Church of Japan came to feel they must to be allowed to do as Western nations have something simpler, and concluddo. This agitation and resistance to ed that they knew how to state their Japanese demands only called the more faith for their own people much better attention to the fact that Western na· than the missionaries had done; anci tions hold to national pride and inde. hence the intensity of their resistance pendence, and developed a high spirit to any foreign aid in drawing up the of patriotism. Japan must do the preamble to the Apostles' Creed. '1'h6 same, they argue. She must love her preamble was, however, orthodox own and respect her national habits throughout; and in this respect does and life. This may be called reaction, great credit to the apprehension of the but is it not relll progress? Imitation Japanese Church of the fundamental is peculiarly active among primitive teachings of their missionaries. Some peoples. Asiatics from the Bosphorus very able missionaries think that the to the Yellow Sea are expert imitators. di"position to independent church ac- But Japan discovers that the strength tion has elements of good in it. They of the West is in its power to originate say it will shift the burden of responsiand appropriate without imitating. She bilityon to the Japanese native leaders, will do that way too. She will have and they will strengthen under it. everything now original. This may be There are some perils, doubtless. Some only a new phase of Japanese imitation, of the Japanese think they do not need and may not prove her strength. It has any more missionaries from abroad. exhibited some ridiculous instances. They feel the Japanese to be capable to One of the most curious was in the sixth develop and lead their own churches; meeting of the synod of the Japanese· but they, perhaps, never needed able Presbyterian Church, when they thought missionary guidance more than now. they must adopt an original creed ob. They have not measured the forces that jecting to all those of the other nations. are arrayed against them. Darwinism The committee nearly gave up in despair flourishes in Japan. Japanese flock to when the Apostle's Creed was objected Germany as well as to the divinity to as foreign. Finally one of their own schools of America. French Romanists, number went to his honse and drew Greek Catholics from Russia, Unitaup a creed, which being presented and rians, Universalists, infidels, and heterobjected to as foreign also, assured them odox forms of the Christian teaching of that np to a half hoUl' before its pres- every shade are present among them_ entation no foreigner had so much as They never needed the earnest prayers seen or known of it, and it was then and wise counsel, as well as financial only that they adopted it as a preamble resources of the West, more than they do at this hour. But they will have to the Apostles' Creed. It is true there strong leaders, or none, from afar.
wa!! other reason for this particular nov. IOREA. elty. The Prcsbyterians of Japan had combined that they might present fewer For four hundred years Korea was divisions of the Protestant Church to isolated from the rest of the world, exconfuse the Japanese mind. They cept as hostilities· now and again broke agreed in 1877 to the organization of the monotony. It is a small country the United Church of Christ in Japan about double the size of Ohio, with a out of the Presbyterians of America population variously estimated, but (North), the Reformed, and the United which we may put down at 12,000,000. Presbyterians of Scotland. They recog- It has a coast line of 1800 miles, though nized the symbols of the Westminster the tongue of land is only about 400 Confession of Faith. the Canons of thfl miles long; numbers among its mineral Synod of Dort, the Heidelberg and the products coal, iron, lead, tin, silver, and Shorter Catechisms, and the infant gold. It pays tribute to China and fields for trading purposes. On the Japan, but beyond that is not controlled seaboard modern missionary influences by them. Its' existing records reach flowed to Korea from Japan. The back for 3.0.0.0 years. Its trustworthy Methodists and Presbyterians began history begins about A.D. 2.0.0. In 1876 missionary work in Seoul in 1884. A the present progressive king entered great int erest was felt in this movement, into treaty relations with Japan, open- because this " hermit nation" was one ing to them three Korean ports. In of the only two countries that remained 1882 the United States made a treaty positively shut from missionary influ- with Korea, and in 1883 first sent a min· ences. Now all doors are open except ister to its court. The land is owned into Thibet. Korea may prove to open by the people, and held for them by the a pathway for Christian forces into king, and rented to the people, which Manchuria. takes the place of all other taxes. The capital, Seoul, contains about 35.0.0 MEDICAL MISSIJNS. hou~es and a population of from 15.0,.0.0.0 or 2.0.0,.0.0.0. In religion Korea has fol- Outside of Christian countries nearly lowed China and Japan from an original all disease is esteemed to be of supernature worship to the adoption of Bud- natural origin. The belief. in diseasedhism, Confucianism, and Romanism. spirits is found from the Eskimo to the Of late years there has exhibited a strong Patagonian; in Oentral, Western, East. tendency to emphasize the primitive ern, and Southern Africa; in Borneo, Australia, the Indian Archipelago, nature-worship. * among the Malagasy, and if! well· nigh world. wide, and has existed through Christianity was introduced into uncounted centuries. The treatment of Korea through some Jesuit books from disease is in consonance with the theory Peking in 1777. The first Korean con- of its origin. Even where the rude vert was baptized in 1783. The new medical notions of Greece, Egypt, and faith spread rapidly; but here, as else- Arabia have migrated, there is ever where, Jesuit political intrigue led to found the superstitious treatment of revolt against them, and sixty years of disease. Medicine and religion go topersecution followed, in which thou- gether in the thought of the non·Chrissands of Korean converts died within tian man. He is quite ready to receive this century with the names of Jesus them together from the Christian misand Mary on their lips. Other thou- sionary! "The recovery from disease sands apostatized; but some estimate is the kindliest exhibition of Divine that there are still thousands of secret power; and the Christian medical misdisciples of Christ in the land. sionary occupies a lofty vantage ground in his work." A missionary of the Netherlands Society reached Korea in 1832 and reo The results of medical missions mained one month, distributing tracts abundantly sustain these statements of and religious books. The missionaries what might be expected of them. Of of the Preshyterian Church of Ireland, the twenty stations in the region of the living in China on the borders of Korea, English Presbyterian Hospital at Swaexerted the first of the more modern tow, China, seven or eight are said to Protestant influences in Korea through owe their origin to hospital patients. Koreans that came over to their mission In the hospital of the London Mission- ary Society at Amoy it is said twelve to • Rev. J. Ross some while since gave It list in fourteen thousand towns are yearly the Chinese Recorder of over twenty gods which represented. Intelligent natives from are popnlarly worshipped in Korea; gods of the all parts of China going to Canton visit road, gods of the monntains, who protect from the hospital and dispensary there, it is tigers; gods of the rain and of war, gods of the said, as one of the great sights of the kitchen, the Virgin Mary, and Ancestral Tablets are enumerated. city. Twenty thousand patipnts a yEar, harm should befall either houses or peo· pie. SODle of whom have come hundreds of .. And so it came to pass, So grateful miles to it, are treated at this hospital, was Abdullah for services rendered by the doctor that he contrived to restrain and hundreds of them have been led by the ferocity of his men for the whole seven weeks during which the siege it to give up idol worship. All these lasted and firing was kept up. Not a missionary, not one of the five hundred institutions illustrate the power of native Christians who took refuge with medical missions to lessen the anti.for. the missionaries, was touched. Their goods and their cattle, too, were in eign feeling, to diminish the power of safety in the mission buildings. Even the five Christian villages outside the superstition, and to exhibit the un- town were, for Dr. Cochrane's sake, left unmolested. This is all the more reo selfish character of the Christian reo markable when we consider the natural disposition of the Kurd, the fanatic fnry ligion. Medical missions have opened to which he is roused by his religion-=- eminently a religion of the sword-and the way into many countries where the annoyance felt by Abdullah at the long reHistllnce of the Persians. prejudice otherwise shut out all Chris· tianity. It was so in Jeypore, India, ., I found that wherever I went in Koordistan Dr. Cochrane's fame and and in Korea. name had 8pread everywhere. I was asked aftpr his health and whether I The story is the same in every land had seen him," etc.
whither the medical mis,;ionary goes as There is a small pamphlet published to the effects in winning the people. by the Missionary Echo Publishing Dr. Scranton, of the Methodist Mission Company, Toronto, Canada, to be had of Seoul, Korea, says: by mail for six cents, entitled" Medical "Our patients, as well as stUdents, Missions: Facts and Testimonies to their come to us from all parts of the realm. The 'patients many times come with Value and Success," compiled by W. J. more faith in a cure than our diplomas will warrant us in promising or at· Wanless, M.D., which is brimful of tempting. We have thus far been per. mitted to influence hundreds of Koreans most interesting statements about medi. toward a belief and reliance in what foreigners can do and teach. and have cal missions at Canton, Amoy, Swatow, reliAved much suffering. Sometimes our simplest operations are not much Bangchow, Tientsin, Hankow, Fot. short of miracles in their eyes, and our renown and welcome are increasing shan, Chefoo, Pang.Chuang, Foochow, daily. One of Ollr first steps is to make the country glad we came, and make Hainan, and other parts of China; in them put reliance in what we can teach. This is fast being accomplished in all Mongolia, Formosa, Korea, Siam, Ara. departments … bia, Persia, Syria, Africa, Madagascar, Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, author of •, Unbeaten Tracks in ,Japan" and other and other countries.
volumes about her wide wanderings over Rev. J. H. Corbett, of Shantung.
the world, in addressing an English China, says there would be a mighty audience recently, said she was an en· upheaval in China if into every district thusiast on the subject of medical mis. of the empire a Christian physician and sions. She told the well·known instance a trained preacher were sent two and of the effects of Dr. Cochrane's medical two. .. Missionaries who have some work in Persia. An English exchange knowledge of medicine may do good,"
thus reports the story as she told it, saysJ. Hudson Taylor, ., and win golden and testified to it : opinions while on journeys," But Dr.
,. On one occasion the chief of the Edward Chester well says, "The medi- Kurds-Sheik Abdullah–sent for Dr. Cochrane, and told him that he was cal work in missions is nothing save as about to make war upon the town, but that if he would indicate the exact posi. it helps to show to the heathen that the tion of the mission buildings, and warn the missionaries to keep within their Divine Christ is the centre, the soul, shelter, he would guarantee that no the life of Christianity, and that we are His disciples and followers."
America has not failed to see the value of medical'm:ssions for women by duly proof of their discipleship in holy livqualified women doctors. There are ing and moral reform, rather than in said to be 109 medical missionaries in formulating theories or musing specula. China, of whom 38 are women; and of tion. Already the earnest efforts to these women physicians 36 are from secure sexual purity, Christian mar- AmeriCl~. Medical missions have been riage, sound Bible instruction, purificabegun in all but four of the provinces of tion of the home, temperanoe, and hon- China. The work of American medical oring the Lord's Day, show the lines of lady physicians in India has been the activity and victory. Without undermeans of leading to a national move- valuing science or philosophy, our bement for sending women physicians to lief is that the American missionary to that country. We refer to the Lady Japan or the native preacher needs, first Dufferin Movement. This had its in- of all, to be a consecrated Christian and spiration in the medical mission work a minister of the pure Gospel of Jesus of the American lady doctors. But of Christ. the manifold and direct and indirect favorable results to evangelization from -It is cheering to report that the mismedical missions we cannot even fur- sionary societies are not yet so much ther hint. No department of mission- embarrassed by the uncertain monetary ary service will probably require greater condition as was at one time feared. expansion in the near future, nor yield Since the adjournment of Congress the more satisfactory results, provided the price of silver has been falling, and it is professional work be not allowed to ab- not now greatly in excess of what it was sorb the evangelistic accompaniment. last year at this time. So the oost of exchange is not likely to be so heavy the -Dr. William Ellis Griffis quotes and last six months of 1891 as it was the writes in the Presbyterian Review of To- first six months. ronto as follows: The prudential committee of the "Basil Hall Chamberlain, in his American Board, in view of the ad- 'Things Japanese.' says: 'Our … proph- vance of nearly $70,000 in this year's ecy is that the Christians of Japan will be contributions, has gladdened the hearts occupied with questions of morals and of the workers abroad by making practice-the temperance question, for $15,000 additional appropriatIOns to instance, and Sunday observance-· fields whence there has been an urgent rather than with subtle doctrinal theo- call for help. Six times this sum <'ould ries, the Japanese mind being too essen- easily be disposed of in extra gifts to tially unspeculative for the fine distinc- missions which have been terribly tion of the theologians to have any scrimped. charm for it, much less for it to seek to split new hairs for itself. The failure of -The Presbyterians of Canada did Buddhist metaphysical abstractions to better for home missions than for foreign take any hold of the national sympa- missions in the year recently closed, thies is a finger-post in history point- giving to the former $111,988, and to ing to what may be expected in the the latter $87,185. The great advance, future.' they say, has been made by the Women's Foreign Society. Beginning 14 years "This testimony, by a veteran and ago, they have brought up their income expert, will be concurred ie, I think, by from nothing to $34,629, and are every those who know the Japanese best. A year advancing in the vigor and success few of the Japanese 'will seek after wis- of their efforts. dom ' of the Greek sort. The majority of the forty millions need the Gospel, -The American Bible Society holds while of the 30,820 enrolled Protestant in trust the sum of $373,796.56. The Churoh Blembers the majority will give income is to be used for general benevo- lent and missionary purposes.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard. Bellevue, O.
-How lavishly money is expended to India. The Bible Society has six auxgratify the lusts of the flesh! "The iliaries. From the Calcutta centre alone, annual beer product of the world is the circulation in 1890 was over 100,000 about 17,700,000,000 quarts, of which copies, and this was 27,000 less than the United States produces 3,200,000,- those issued, by the latest return, from 000." Madras. Lahore follows with about 47,000. Bombay reports some 40,000 -At a horse race, held in the vicinity for 1889, and Bangalore, 14,000. of New York City, the" book-makers" received the snug sum of $180,000. And -According to Russian sources, the lo! the Baptist Missionary Union closed total population of Russia is 103,912,- the year with a debt of $61,593, the 642. Of these, 75,541,644 are adherents Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions of the Orthodox Church. Of the others with a debt of $90,102, the English Bap- 11,000,000 are Pascolnites or "Sectatist Society with a debt of $52,500, the rians" -i.e., Stundites, etc. ; 7,6106,796 English Wesleyan Missionary Society are Roman Catholics; 5,104,200 are with a debt of $96,885, and the British Protestants (nearly all Lutherans); and Foreign Bible Society now has a 2,620,000 are Jews; and 2,000,000 are debt of nearly $100,000. Mohammedans and heathens.
-Why all this "waste" upon mis- -The principal missionary work in sions? is often the cry, though the savor Palestine is done by the English Church long since became decidedly ancient Missionary Society, which has a Euroand fishlike. But, if waste it were, how pean force conllisting of 9 ordained, 3 trifling by the side of the waste of war! lay, and 7 female missionaries. The According to the estimates of French native clergy number 8, with a total of 72 and German statisticians, 2,250,000 men lay helpers. The stations are Jerusalem, have perished in the wars of the last 30 Jaffa, Gaza, Nablous, Nazareth, and one years, while the money cost has been east of the Jordan. The number of bap- $13,000,000,000. The Crimean War cost tized is 1428, of whom 455 are com- nmnicants. A little over 2000 pupils of $2,000,000,000; the War the Rebel- are in the schools. The Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews lion, $5,100,000,000 to the North and also has stations at Jerusalem, Jaffa, half as much more to the South, etc. The and Safed, with a force of 4 ordained $12,000,000 a year expended for the con- missionaries and several assistants, version of the heathen is paltry by com- about 20 of whom are Christian Israelparison, but a bagatelle. Or, if set be- ites. side the amount that annually goes for liquors and tobacco! Not one tenth as -According to tables very carefully much has been given during the cen- compiled by Professor Dr. V. Juratury to Christianize the Zulus as was scheck, and corrected by Lic. Dr. G. paid to conquer them in the single cam· Dalman, the Jewish population of the paign of 1879-80. The expedition of globe is 7,404,250, divided among the Commodore Wilkes to the Pacific called continents as follows: Europe, 6,301,- for as great an outlay as the evangeliza- 550; Africa, 507,500; Asia, 294,000; tion of the Hawaiian Islands from 1819 and America, 285,200. Unfortunately until to-day. for them, more than half (3,236,000) re- side in European Russia, 1,005,000 in -There is nothing more significant Austria, 641000 in Hungary, 579,000 in than the steady and increasing diffusion of the Scriptures among the people of Germany, 400,000 in Roumania, 200,000 average of nearly $2 per member. The each in AbYRsinia and Morocco; but report speaks hopefully of the condition 195,000 in Turkey in Asia (Palestine in- of the evangelical work in Italy. cluded), and 230,000 in the United Statl"S. -According to the Annuario J!Jvan. gelico for 1891. the total number of Prot- -The National Bible Society of Scot- estant pastors, evangelists, and teachers land in 1890 soM outside of the empire engaged in Gospel work in Italy is 553. 36,796 Bibles, 108,115 testaments, and The Protestant churches and preaching 282,758 portions; in the colonies, 17,054 places in all number 479. The majority Bibles, 10,188 testaments, and 3f)34 por- of these are found in the larger cities, tions; at home, 118,919 Bibles, 70,919 Bologna having 6, Florenco 14, Genoa testaments, and 24,734 portions. Total, 12, Livorno 7, Messina 4, Milan 8, 172,769 Bibles, 189,222 testaments, and Naples 12, Palermo 5, Pisa 4, Rome 20, 311,026 portions. Total sales and gifts, San Remo 7, Turin 8, Venice 7. These 673,017. Total income, £35,5211s. 10d. Protestants are distributed among quite a number of denominations. The Wal- -The International Medical Mission· densians number 13,691 in the historic ary Socie•.y, whose work is to educate valleys, and 4428 in the so-called" Mis- physicians for the foreign field, has sionary Districts;" the .. ChristilID celebrated its tenth anniversary. The Church" (dei Prabelli) do not give exact income for last year was $9,976.50, statistics, but they number only a few and the number of students under its thousand. The Free Church reports a care was 52, of whom 9 were women, membership of 2350; the Wesleyan and they came from 7 denominations and Methodists of 1336; the EpiRcopal 17 countries. The United States led Methodists of 763 ; the Baptists of 885 ; with 19 students, alid Canada followed the" Catholic Church of Italy" (found- . with 7, and England 5, etc. The Bap- ed in 1886) has 119 communicants. In tists had 14 students; the Presbyterians, addition to these a number of inde- 13 ; Congregationalists, 8 ; Methodists, pendent but 8maller bodies are laboring 7, etc. for the evangelization of Italy.
-The British m:issionary societies, -The Board of Foreign Missions Qf according to Medical MUlsions at Home the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Gen- and Abroad, have 139 physicians engaged eral Synod, in its biennial report, shows in missionary work, 13 of whom are receipts for the two years $97,544 ; ex- ladies. Of the whole number, the Free penses, $100,128, though a balance on Church of Scotland has 34 ; the Church hand of $15,101 prevented any actual Missionary Society, 21; the London Mis- deficit appearing at the close of the cur- sionary Society and the English Presby- rent year. The Sunday-schools report. terian Church have each 13; the United ed collections of $6075, besides con- Presbyterians, 11, and 25 societies have tributing $5070 for the support of stu_ less than 10 each. dents and workers in foreign fields, making thus a total of $12,145 from the -From the twentieth report of the young people. The Woman's Society Evangelical Church of Italy, formerly contributed $17,363 out of the $42,268 called the Free Italian Church, it ap- collected for all purposes. Four new pears that it has 29 churches and 24 missionaries have been appointed, three stations, besides 61 places which are to India and one to Africa. In the visited regularly. Connected with these India Mission at Guntur there are 371 churches are 2350 communicants. Be- congregations, 7952 communicants,. 3103 sides 13 ministers, thllre are 16 evange- clIDdidates for baptism, 233 Sundaylists and 36 elders. The gifts of these schools with 9094 scholars, 220 schools churches for all objects amounted to with 310 teachers and 4960 students. 16.326 francs, which amounts to an The contributions by the native Church the Free Church for evangelization out,- were $2635. side of the United Kingdom £113,813, against £52,030 ten years ago. The -Of, say, 650,000 Caffres in Cape Col- number of missionaries emplo!'ed in ony, about one fourth have been bap- India. Arabia, Syria, Africa, and the tized. In Zululand, of 50,000, about New Hebrides was 165, including 35 2000 are Christians. In Pondoland (still sent out by the Ladies' Society, and 33 independent) out of 150,000 at least 3000 missionaries' wives; and the total of are Christians. Christian workers was about 800. The number of nati-ve communicants was -Japan is said to have 191,168 Shinto 6895. The additions to the Church temples, with 14,489 priests; and 72,039 were 696 adults and 731 children, and Buddhist temples, with 56,266 priests, there were 1788 catechumens. There or a grand (that is, lamentable) total of were 6 colleges and 307 schools, with a 263,207 buildings for the worship of total membership of 27,951 youth of false gods, and 70,755 men to lead and both sexes. inspire.
-Official reports from the Vatican -The Paris mission in Basutoland show that in the pontificate of I,eo XIII., has 6933 communicants, 3055 catechunow in the fourteenth year, the Roman mens, and 6502 scholars in the schools. Catholic Church has made substantial The number of adult baptisms in 1890 progress, The new positions created in were 626. the hierarchy are the following: the Patriarchate of India, 12 archbishoprics, -The Presbyterian Church of Jamaica 65 bishoprics, 43 apostolic delegations, has 1 synod, 4 presbyteries, 8814 comvicarates, and prefectures. Then 10 municants, 8000 in Sunday-schools, and bishoprics have been made archbish- 6213 in day schools. Two missions are oprics. The total number of dignitaries sustained in Africa, and one Zenana in the hierarchy are the following: 8 mission. Latin patriarchs and 5 of the Oriental Rite; 783 Latin Archbishops and arch- -In the Basel Mission upon the Afribishops and 52 of the Oriental Rite; can Gold Coast are 10 stations and 70 308 Titulary Bishops, 23 bishops nullius' out-stations, 35 missionaries, more than dilEceseos. The greatest progress of the 9000 adherents, and about 3000 pupils Church is reported from North America in the schools. The Wesleyan Gold and England. Coast Mission has about 6000 communi. cants and about 19,000 adherents. -The annual report of the Free Church of Scotland's Foreign Missions -The Presbyterian Church of Engshows a total revenue from all sources land has in its missions in China and of £94,385. Of this £16,394 were collec- India 19 ordained missionaries, 10 meditions, £5364 were donations, £8179 lega- cal missionaries, 8 native pastors supcies, £9351 from the Ladies' Society, ported by their people, 108 native £1853 juvenile offerings, £17,610 college preachers, and 41 theological students. and school fees, £13,588 grants in aid The Chinese communicants number from the Indian Government, and the 3716. The expenditures last year were greater part of the remainder was made £19,275 15s. 6d. up of special gifts to particular missions, interest, etc. The Livingstonia -The Methodist Protestant Church Mission received thus £7095. Other reports $13,322.73 as the total of receipts mission committees of the Church raised for missions last year. Of this sum £8991 for the Jews, £6872 for conti- $5788 came from ehurch collections, and nental work, £3247 for colonial work, $5798 was gathered on children's day. making the total missionary revenue of A new school building has been erected at Nagoya, Japan, and an additional missionary is soon to be sent -to Yoko- hama. -The North China Mission of the Syria, $58,824; 8iam and Laos, $55,- Methodist Episcopal Church was estab- 406; Africa, $35,040 ;.Korea, $16,117; lished by 2 missionaries in 1869, but is and Guatemala, $10,658. now represented by 15 missionaries and 58 native helpers. It contains 18 homes Monthly Bulletin. and 29 places of worship, 28 schools, with 569 pupils, together with Peking Africa.-The Bible has now been University, with an atten<1ance of over translated into sixty.six of the languages 200, as well as 4 hospitals and 8 dis- and dialects of Africa. pAnsaries. 'l'he churches have 1299 members and probationers. -Dr. Cross, of the Free Church of Scotland MisBions on Lake Nyassa, Af· -The Cumberland Presbyterian rica, has up)n the roll of his school the Church sustains missions in Japan and names of 300 children rescued from M:exico, with 3 stations and 3 out-sta- slavery. tions. 18 missionaries, of whom 6 are ordained, 2 native pastors, and 17 other na- -The King of the Belgians has hontive helpers. The 11 churches contain 632 ored one of the Baptist missionaries on members. The additions last year were the Congo with a decoration. This gen- 63. In the 4 schools 298 receive instruc- tleman, the Rev. George Grenfell, is not tion. The income for foreign missions only a preacher, but an explorer of was $22,260, and of this $10,169 came note. Great interest attaches to his from woman's societies. Native con- discovery of the Mobangi, which he has tributions for all purposes amounted to proved probably to be the Congo's great. $1812. est tributary.
-The Baptist Missionary Union re- -Bishop Tucker, the successor of ports $492,275 as the total receipts for Bishops Hannington and Parker, reach- 1890, aUlI of this the woman's societies ed Uganda in December last, and since gathered $127,690. The 68 principal then the situation has brightened very stations and 1322 out – stations are much. He found the bitterness which manned by 364 ordt.ined missionaries, existed between the Roman Catholic of whom 232 are natives. In addition, and Protestant parties was not based 216 women from America are employed, upon religious, but ~pon political differand 626 unordained native preachers. ences. The French priests have been The total of laborers is 1645. Of the jealous of the British East Africa Com- 681 churches, with 76,603 members, 481 pany, and the strife on the Nyanza was are self-supporting. The baptisms last between French and English as really year were 8708. In 1038 schools 20,107 as in Europe. These feelings the bishop are taught. Total native contributions, was able considerably to pacify. His $51,038.12. own joy was full in the Christian aspect in Uganda. The day after his arrival he -The Board of Foreign Missions of preached to fully one thousand men and the Presbyterian Church (North) re- women. ceived last year $942,691. Of this sum the churches, as such, contributed $346,- -The Rev. W. G. Lawes, one of the 780, and the woman's boards and the pioneer missionaries in New Guinea, has Sabbath-schools $374,258-a fact curi- translated the New Testament into ten ous only, or truly alarming? That mill- languages of the savage islands; the last ion almost was divided as follows, one, in the Motu language, being in the among the 13 fields with 23 principal publisher'S hands. missions: China, $164,986; India, $161,046 ; South America (Brazil, Chili, -The Wesleyan Missionary Society and Colombia), $104,827 ; Japan, $fl7,- has decided to begin a mission at once ~48 ; Mexico, $89,644 ; Persia, $83,662 ; in British Zambesi, South Central Af- rica. The country is a high plateau, fertile and well watered, rich in min· has been accepted. The Wesleyans have erals, and healthy for Europeans. many converts in South Africa, who have gone northward as colonists and A native Christian in Uganda will miners, and this fact gives them an adwork three months for a copy of the New vantage in efforts for the evangelization Testament in Swahili. Only a limited of the natives. Mr. Rhodes has p~om_ edition has been published. iset! to the Wesloyan Society a subsidy of 2500 fran os annually." One whole tribe of Zulus, in Southeast Africa, is likely to be exterminated by China.-·The Executive Oommittee of the ravages of rum furnished by the Foreign Missions of the SoutherD. Pres. white men. byterian Church has appointed Rev. J. M. Sykes and wife, of Meridian, The government of the Congo Free Miss., and Miss Ruth Swain, Alexan- State has granted a large concession to a dria, Va., nissionaries to China. They commercial comp.1ny covering nearly all will sail thig autumn for their work. of the southeastern part of its territory. This will probably lead to the opening -Over one hundred new Protestant of the country sooner than if it were left missionaries have reaohed China and to the government to effect. The com· begun work there since the Shanghai pany is called" The Company of Ka· Missionary Conference in May, 1890. tanga." -The arrival recently at the Boston -Bishop Taylor says "that when a City Missionary Society of 1000 copies Kafir dies the body is placed in a sit· of the Bible and 520 tracts in Chinese ting posture near the grave and left there from the native Christians in Hong for two or three days, that all who wish Kong, designed for their countrymen may come and give to him messages for now in Boston. shows that the foreign their friends who have departed to the lands are waking up to the needs of happy land; thus showing that even the Amerioa and its alien populations. Kafirs, whose very name, given to them by the Mohammedans, signifies infidels, -At the end of Maroh 12 applicants believe in the immortality of the soul. for baptism were accepted in Peking, 8 But of a Saviour they know nothing." of whom were from the village of San Does not the duty of the Ohristian Ho, where there were 70 inquirers, in- Church to disciple all nations become cluding 20 women. more important each day? -At the great Missionary Conference -The foreign population of the Congo in Shanghai, in May, 1890, one committee Free State is now over 800,of whom about of twelve persons was designated to se· half are Belgians, the remainder being cure a translation of the Bible in simple English, Italians, Portuguese, Dutch, but chaste Wenli ; another, to secure a Swedes, Danes, and French. Of the 72 translation in the higher classic style, English and 35 Swedes, as enumerated in and a third of ten persons, to secure an December, 1890, the greater part-over improved version of the Old and New 80 in all-are missionaries. The open· Testaments in Mandarin. ing in March of the Congo Railroad from Matadi to the Leopold Ravine is an -A band of 35 men and women for earnest of the great work that will soon the China Inland Mission recently be completed, and which will rendermiR. reaohed Shanghai. An additional 10 or sionary advance much easier and safer. 15 are expeoted, so that the whole band will be 45 or 50. To the Scandinavian -Says the Missignary Herald: "Mr. churches of the United States belongs Oecil Rhodes, the Prime Minister of the honor of having sent them as their Oape Oolony and leader of the British representatives, and to the China Inland South Africa Company, has invited the Mission the privilege of receiving them English Wesleyans to commence a miR- as its associates in the name of the Lord. sion in Mashonaland, and the invitation Half of this band are men and half are and Hungarian divinity students. A women. The majority are Swedish by new' financially independent German birth, though a few came originally from Reformed church in Buda-Peeth has Norway. mainly resulted from Scottish labors.
-The insurreotions against the Catho· The leading Hungarian pastors express a lic and Protestant missions in China are warm sense of this catholic co-operation: attributed to fanatical Buddhist priests. To stir up the people, they aUege that lndia.-Thecensus of Ipdiawas taken the Chinese childrQn are maimed by the in one night between February 26th and Christians, and that their eyes are torn 27th. Th'clre were more than a million of enumerators.
out for the purpose of making medicine -Before Christianity entered India, to bewitch the Chinese. lepers were treated with shocking in- F!ii.-The latest report concerning the humanity. Many of them were buried religious condition of this group of alive. The English rulers have put a islands covers the year 1889. The total stop t:> this custom, and for fourteeI4 area of the group is about the same as years there has been a special Christian that of the State of Massachusetts. mission to the 135,000 lepers in India.
There is a European popUlation of about -A correspondent of the Harvest Field 2000, while the natives, inoluding other thinks the Salvation Army workers in Polynesians and Indian emigrants, India have fallen into the snare of number 123,000. Of this native popu- .. premature reporting." Last year it lation 103,775 worship in the churches was stated that at Paij, a Gujarat village, of the Wesleyan Mission, while 10,302 hundreds had joined the Army. They attend Roman Catholic churches. The have now" in hundreds" left the Army.
Wesleyan Mission has 10 European mis'- He suggests that it would be wiser to sionaries and 72 native ministers, 49 wait a year to see how converts stand catechists, 1838 local preachers, and before rushing into print concerning 1095 teachers; these laboring in connec- them.
tion with 909 churches and 414 other -Dr. Sara C. Seward, a niece of the preaohing places. In the sohools of the late Secretary Seward, who fOT several Wesleyan Mission are 40,667 children. years has been a medical missionary The Roman Catholic Mission has 18 among the women of India, died recent- European ministers with 148 native ly at Allahabad. teachers and 76 native churches and chapels. Aside from the 18 Roman -In Jhansi, where mission work has Catholic priests there are three lay Eu- been carried on since 1886, the first ropeans and 14 female Europeans. It is Christian church is now being built. It interesting to notice that the total value will contain a reading-room for the eduof exports from Fiji for the year 1889 cated natives, and English books will be amounted to $1,821,000, while the im- provided.
ports were $945,000. Is there anyone -Pnndita Ramabai held the second who believes that there would be such a anniversary of her" Sharada Sadhau," record of prosperity for these islands or widow's home, recently. Mrs. Rahad it not been for the preaching. of the nade, the amiable and intelligent wife Gospel therein? of a cultured native gentleman of Poona, Hungarian Jews. – The Buda – Pesth a member of the Legislative Council, Mission among the Hungarian Jews had presided with grace and dignity; and an important incidental result in knit- another well-educated lady with remark- ting various closer ties of brotherhood able self.possession moved an address of with the Hungarian churches. Scottish thanks. This assuredly indicates prog- liberality has provided bursaries at the ress in the conservative city of Poona, New College, EditlQnrgh, for Bohemian a Iltronghold of Brahmanism. The Pundita a·elivered a long and eloquent ltaly.-There o.re in Florence two Walextemporo address with her wonted deosian churches, one Free Italian energy. She reports her work to be church, two Baptist churches, and one prospering. Plymouth Brethren church, all of which, except the Baptists, ha.ve good houses -It i~ said that every week there are of worship of their own. 'rhe Waldenprinted in the Bengali language in Cal- sia.n Theological School, with three procutta, and circulated, 10,000 sermonettes fessors and a dozen students, is there; written by Bishop Thoburn. If the and the Methodist School, soon to be funds are furnished, it is proposed to transferred to Rome, is there at present. print them in five different languages Of the Protesto.nt day schools the oldest every week. and largest is that of the German Dea- conesses, with more than a hundred -Dr. Pentecost writes: " An aston- pupils, all girls. Besides these instituhlhing feature of the National Indian tions there are the Domenge Institute, Congress was that there were lady dele· for boys, the Mackenzie Institute, for gates present; and on the last day one the training of lay workers, two evanlady, a native of high caste, appeared gelical orphan asylums, a medIcal mis. on the platform unveiled, and delivered sion, a soup kitchen, and six churches an address extemporaneously in pure for foreign Protestant residents. English. This is an innovation so marked that it will do much toward Japan.-Foreign missionaries resident shaking the foundation of the hateful in Japan are now granted passports to and terrible Zenana of India. Once the reside outside of foreign concessions, on women are set free in India, then away the ground that they are" employed in go the iron fetters of caste, and the church work"-a concession which has whole empire will be freed from super- hitherto been given only to teachers. stition." Coming at this time, it indicates a spe- cial appreciation on the part of the Jap- -The report of the M. E. Conferences anese Government of the beneficial in. in Northern India for the past church fiuence of the missionaries. year is cheering. There have been added to the churches 980 full members and -The Rev. Dr. William E. Griffis, 2935 probationers. There were 1256 writing on the outlook in Japan, asks adult baptisms. The number of schol- the question: "Does Japan want phiars in the Sunday-school hail increased losophy or the Gospel? Missionaries over 3000, making the present number capable of filling chairs of psychology 28,400. The mission is embarrassed by at Harvard, or consecrated Christians its very success, for the large ingather- and ministers of the pure Gospel?" ing requires an addition to the native And he answers unhesitatingly, "The pastorate, while funds do not increase latter." He says a few of the Japanese proportionately. will " seek after wisdom" of the Greek sort, but that the majority of the 40,- –Figures that are almost startling are 000,000 crave the Gospel, while the given in connection with the Telugu majority of the 30,000 Protestant church- Mission (Baptist) in India. The bap- members will give the best proof of tisms reported in five months of the last their discipleship in holy living and missionary year were over 5000. The moral reform rather than in formulating work is still progressing. theories or nursing speculation.
-The native Christians of Ko.limpong -The recent annual meeting of the are themselves undertaking a" foreign' , Congregational churches in Japan mission to Bhutan, within their country. marked a real advance toward unity. It is to be supported by the prayers and An earnest spirit pervaded the gathermoney of the Christians within the ing, and the theological tone was more Guild Mission District. conservative and harmonious than had patients were treated the last year, and been expected in some quarters. A religious services are beld regularly on statement of belief was formulatecl as a the Sabbath, with an attendance of up- basis of faith for consideration next ward of two hundred. One of the ladies year. A large share of the debt of $600 of the Presbyterian Mission has a week- on the Home Missionary Society was ly sewing class at her house, where raised by a spontaneous and enthusiastic women of all ranks and conditions come, outburst of benevolence among the dele- and, while engaged in needle-work, the gates themselves. A theatre meeting, Gospel story is read to them and ex- with 2000 people in attendance, was one plained. Another lady of the same mis- of the features of the season. sion has a class in the city away from her home. The hospital, in charge of a -One evidence of the reaction against Methodist lady, is the centre of a very foreigners in Japan is the fact that the interesting and efficient Christian work. empress and members of the aristocracy Sometimes women come, not because have given up the wearing of the west· they are sick, but because they want to ern style of dress for women, and the hear about' the new doctrine. ' " native historical costumes are again to be worn exclusively. -Korea presents a striking illustra. tion of the irresistible advance of the Arrangements have been made for kingdom of Christ. One of the most the preparation of a commentary on remarkable works of grace known in the New Testament in Japanese. Bish- modern missions is that among the op Bickersteth, of the Church of Eng. Koreans. Without having heard or land, is to be tho general editor. seen a missionary, thousands of people have heard of Christ and turned to the -All that Japanese law requires a service of God. These converts are the man to do in order to put away his wife fruit of the circulation of copies of the is to have her name erased from the offi- New Testament by the Rev. John Ross, cial register of his family. and have it late missionary of the Presbyterian re-entered on the register of her family. Church of Scotltmd in Manchuria. Strong efforts are being made to aUlend this easy plan of divorce. New Guinea.-At a recent meeting of native Christians at Port Moresby, the K07·ea.-Writing to the independent, collection taken for the missionary cause Mr. Appenzellos says: "It is less than consisted of $37 c!lsh, 320 spears, 65 seven years since the first Protestant shell armlets, 92 bows !lnd 180 arrows, missionary came to Seoul or to Korea. besides shields, drums, shell necklaces, Both the Methodist and Presbyterian feathers, and other ornaments. Most of missions have had lady missionaries in the people have no money. Korea from the beginning. Mrs. ·M. F. Scranton has the honor of being the frst Persia.-From Oroomiah comes the one to open direct work foJ," the women following good news: .. The villages of Korea. More than once have I heard are being revived little by little. In her say that the women think so little one, 58 persons have professed converand their ideas are very narrow. But sion, m!lny of them heads of families. the work of educating them was begun, In other villages 50, !lnd in others a less then medical work, and finally direct number have come to repentance. evangelical work. Results are not to be looked for before the seed has had time -Pastor Joseph, of Gulpashan, which to take root. Yet there are a few things is one of the self-supporting churches, that cheer us even while breaking the writes the following cheering news: fallow ground. Korea has two girls' .. The winter past, as you are aware, schools, with an attendance of about has had its share of difficulties. One 40; one hospital, where nearly 2400 great diffieulty W!ilI in, fegard to our church building; a fine of three hun- invaluable in the acquisition and proper dred tomans ($450) had to be paid by use of the Turkish language.
us. Another was a sad division made by Y. M. O. A.-Twenty. five years have 80me of the members that for a time. was seen a ma.rvellous growth in Young a great evil. Notwithstanding these, Men's Christian Associations. Then God's blessings have been abundant. they were only beginning to secure a Special meetings were attended with recognized standing, but now they have power from on high. Over 60 are can· gotten a hold in all our leading cities, didates, and at the next communion and exert an international influence nearly all of these will unite with the through their various organizations. In church." 1886 there was only one building erected Scandinavia.-The Swedish Mission- for association purposes; now there are ary Society is actively at work among 231, which have a money value of $1,946,- the Laplanders. The society has an 085. In different lands the entire prop· orphanage at Ange, and 6 mission erty owned by this Christian agenoy schools in other parts of Lapland, amounts to $11,907,381. Besides, the where 173 children have received in- contributions for its current expenses of struction. In spite of a grant of 2000 looal work foot up annually $1,841,966. crowns from the king, the expenses for These figures show progress, and indithe past year were 1500 ?rowns in exceSli cate a vitality and permanenoe for this of the receipts. form of Christian aotivity whioh augurs well for its future. -" The Norwegian Lutheran China Mission" is the name of a societyorgan- General.-Dr. Woloott Calkins, in his ized a year ago at Bergen, with John sermon before·the Amerioan Missionary Brantzaeg as president. During the Sooiety, on the responsibility of busiyear 5431 crowns have been collected. ness men, gave some striking figures. Brantzaeg, his two brothers, H. Seyf- The wealth of the oountry he found to be farth, and S. Samuelson will go to China over $62,500,000,000 distributed among as missionaries. The establishment of 13,000,000 families, of whom 11,500,000 a mission house at Shanghai is under, families are those of wage-earners. consideration. There are 135,000 families whioh have an average wealth of $186,000. Seventy- Syria.-The girls' school in Tripoli five per oeut of our business men are has 35 house pupils and 115 day scholars. members or adherents of Protestant -An association has been established churohes. Of the 68 riohest men in the in London to send colonies of poor Jews country only 4 are Roman Catholic. to Palestine. So many are going to .Teru- There are probably 400 Christian famisalem that it is one of the most rapidly lies in this country with an annual ingrowing cities in the world. come, over and above expenses, averag· ing $500,000 apieoe ; and 8000 Christian Turkey.-The work of evangelization families with an average income, above in Turkey will be greafy facilitated by expenses, of $25,000 each, and 100,000 the Turkish dictionary just published Christian families with an average in- under the editorship of the Rev. H. O. come of $10,000 above expenses. A Dwight, who has spent several years in great share of the $1,400,000,000 added a careful revision of the work previously yearly to the capital of the country be- done by Sir James Redhouse of Lon- longs to Christian business men. The don. Drs. Riggs and Pettibone and a gospel for rioh Christian men is not so former grand vizier have also scrutinized much that we need their money as that the proofs. It is a fine piece of literary they need to get rid of it, if they would work, there being no less than 2224 not have their wealth drive them into pages in the volume, and it will prove insanity or provE) a curse.