The Missionary Review of the World — May 1889

REVIEW OF THB

VOL. XL No. 5.-Old Serie3.–MAy.–VoL. II. No. 5.-New SerieB.

I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. I THE MISSION AND COMMISSION OP THE CHURCH.

[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] ONE of Dr. Guthrie's rules for preaching was: "Mind' the three , P's' : Proving, Painting, Persuading. In other words, address in overy discourse the reason, the imagination, and the heart."

Of the "painting" we are to be not a lIttle on our guard. The art that seeks to adorn the truth sometimes sacrifices it, by giving to it false features or tints: what may be fitting in the department of illus· tration misleads when it invades that of pure demonstration or definition. Here the one law is rigid exactness. Burke used to say that the words of a sentence are the feet on which it walks; to change one word, to shorten or lengthen it, or alter its place in the sentence, may change the whole course of the sentence itself.

In some things, accuracy is so indispensable that a hair's-breadth distinction may be vital, as in astronomical calculations the minutest fraction of an inch must be marked by the micrometer. For a soldier it is of the first importance to understand his" orders" ; and for an ambassador, both to apprehend and comprehend his "instructions." The church is a militant body and at the same time an embassy, or, as Leland would say, an embassadry. Too much pains, therefore, cannot be taken t6 get clear conceptions of the orders and instructions of our Captain and King.

In this article we propose to begin at the beginning-to go back to first principles. If there be any misconceptions of the Mission and Commission of the church, in respect to the world's evangelization, here is the point at which to make our corrections, adjust the variations of our compass, and start anew. The four Gospels, at their close, present our Lord's last command from four points of view; taken together, it is like a building presented with a four-fold projection. In some respects these various versions of our Lord's great commission agree; in others they differ, but it is like the discord of the se,venth, that leads to harmony; their differences supplement and complement each other. For convenience of comparison, we place them side by side.

THE MISSION AND COMMISSION OF THE

MA.TTHEW. MARK. LUKE. I JOHN.

Go ye therefore Go ye into all the That repentance As my Father and teach all na- world and preach and remission of hath sent me even tions.. baptizing the gospel to every sins should be so send I you. them in the name creature: preached in His! These are writof the Father and He that beHev- name among all ten that ye might of the Son and of eth and is baptized nations .. and ye believe that Jesus the Holy Ghost, shall. be saved, etc. are witnesses ofis the Christ the etc. these things. ISon of God, etc.

Our accepted version fails to convey the exact force of the original. For example, Matthew uses a peculiar word-(/la07jTeuO'a·re)-which is rendered perfectly neither by the word "teach," nor by the word " disciple;" the former means too little, the latter means too much. Another word used by our Lord, a little later in these-farewell instructions-(818aaxovTss)-is properly translated "teaching," for it refers to a fuller didactic training of those who believe and so become disciples; it contemplates the more perfect equipment of converts, their thorough knowledge of all the commands of Jesus, and their preparation for service. But that first word looks to no such didactic process. It marks a swifter movement, a briefer proclamation. Ohrist urges on his heralds-they are to sweep round the globe and trumpet forth the good news; then, when converts have been gathered, he would have them taught the way of God more perfectly.

Our mistake is fundamental and initial if we confuse and confound preaching and teaching, evangelization and indoctrination. The first thing to be done is to peal out the joyous tidings of salvation. Men areasleep, dead insin : they must be aroused, awakened. When a house is on fire, a ship is on a rock, a pestilence is raging or an avalanche is falling, we cannot wait to give minute instructions. We need the clarion blast of Gabriel's trump-" escape for thy life!" Then, when the peril is past, we can take time for whatever else is needful, to provide for other wants or guard against other risks. So the herald must precede the teacher; the evangelist prepares for the catechist; Paul first, then Priscilla and Aquila.

That word in Matthew (/laOTjn:uaaTe) is not adequately translated, "disciple," or "make disciples:" This means too much. Only He who can "forgive sins" can "make a disciple." We may "go" and "preach the gospel," we may become heralds, evangelists; but when we have done our best and utmost, we may be constrained, like the great messianic herald of old, to cry: "Lord who hath believed our r~port! And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed!"

That word we are discussing does not imply any necessary effectiveness. In classic Greek it means to give instruction such as a pupil needs; it is close of kin to another word (f.LavOavw) which means "to learn." As used by our Lord it can scarcely.be rendered" disciple," for, though we may gather disciples out of the nations, we cannot "disciple the nations" themselves. So to render obliges us to carry the same literalism further and place onr Lord in the absurd position of bidding us also to "baptize the nations!" There are some who think that this word does not refer to the first stage-preaching the gospel,-but to the second, training disciples ; and that our Lord is here commissioning his church to gather converts from all peoples, and then baptIze and fully instruct them. However this be, if we look at the four Gospels jointly, we shall see that one thought IS uppermost; we are to go into all the world and everywhere publish the tidings. If Matthew's words leave us in doubt, Mark, Luke, and John dispel It. As they report Ohrist's words. they are unequivocal. " Go !"_" proclaim the gospel "-"Repentance and remission of sins" to be "proclaimed in His name among all nations." "Even so send I you." " These things are written that ye might believe"_" and believing have life through His name." And in the opening of the Acts, Luke adds a fifth version: "Ye shall be witnesses nnto me, unto the uttermost parts of the earth."

We often carelessly say that the church is commissioned "to convert the world." The phrase is not scriptural, and we fear it is at least misleading. We may insure contact, but we cannot assure conversion; and if we are powerless to effect it, we are not responsible for it. The use of this word, convert, and its equivalents in the Bible, is very significant. Often as it occurs it is generally used passively or in- transitively. "Shall be converted," * "lest they convert" t-orturn, etc. In Acts xxvi: 18, a proper grammatical construction compels us to render intransitively, "that they may turn about," etc. James uses the word transitively, t but he refers to the reclamation of errin,t disciples; "brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him," etc. And the change of voice is especially noticeable in Psalm Ii: 13.

" Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; And sinners shall be converted unto thee."

Here the very distinction is preserved which we would emphasize: we may teach transgressors, but we cannot convert them. Of course conversions have followed and will follow the proclamation of the gospel; but not even the most devoted herald can assure them. We are thus careful to lay down the platform of principles npon which we are to carryon the work of evangelization, because we dare not add to, or subtract from, the exact terms of our divine mission and commission. This is no case of a distinction without a difference. On the contrary, we are persuaded that upon our thorou,th acceptance of this Biblical basis han,ts the proper prosecution of the whole work of evan,telization. And therefore we now proceed to show seven vital relations which such a conception of evangelism bears to the believer's work for souls• • Psalm II : 13. t Isaiah vi : 10. ~ James v : 19,20. I. The limits of our commission are the limits of our authority.

Paul writes: "We are ambassadors for Christ." An ambassador is one who represents another; who acts in the st~ad of a sovereign. Within the limits of his instructions he carries all the authority of the monarch, the empire, the government, which he represents. But the moment he passes the bounds of those instructions, he transcends also the limits of his authority and may even forfeit his commission. It is therefore vital that we understand our commission in order that we may always act and speak with authority. Rere is a whole province in God's universal empire in armed rebellion. We who are believers are sent to offer to every rebel pardon and reconciliation; as though God did boseech by us, to pray them in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. Weare to declare the conditions of such reconciliation and restoration, but we cannot compel any rebel to lay down his arms and submit to God. Nor is this our province. Our authority is explicit: we are empowered to publish the good tidings throughout the world; there our authority begins and ends. So long as we confine ourselves to that, behind us, backing up our message, stands the whole Godhead! But the moment we begin to think of it as our work to "convert" men; we are tempted to tamper with the gospel, to abate its seeming severity, to make it more attractive; or even to invade the province of the Holy Spirit and seek to move directly upon the unrenewed heart and will.

It is a dangerous busine5s, this trying to induce men to consent to the gospel. Paul refers to this perhaps when he says, "Weare not as many who corrupt-(xa7r7J}.ouwres)-adulterate the word of God."* These kapeloi, or hucksters, tavern-keepers, were notorious for adulterating their commodities, for the sake of large sales and selfish gains. What a temptation to the gospel preacher to soften the severity of the terms, for the sake of winning men! "How much owest thou unto my Lord?" "An hundred measures of oil." "Take thy bill and write fifty." What a snare to the church to accommodate her spiritual standard to the natural heart and become worldly, to draw the worldly! What a temptation to count converts and justify as legitimate the means by which their number is swelled to new proportions!

Now, be it remembered that, if, even for the sake of drawing men to God, the ambassador adds to or diminishes aught from his message, he . no longer speaks with authority. Rebels may be induced to yield on our terms or their own terms; but until there· is submission on God's terms there is no reconciliation! The only way to keep out of the clutch of this subtlest satanic temptation is to keep steadily before us that our work is evangelization rather than conversion. Let us preach the gospel just as our Lord has bidden us, and jnst as he gave it to llS .2 Oor. Ii; 11. to preach; then we speak with all the authority and power of God be· hind us. But however much we may yearn over souls, we must keep to our instructions, lest passing them we not only forfeit all authority. 'but betray the souls we seek to save.

II. The limits of our commission are the limits also of our responsibility.

That word, responsibility, is lull of awe. How far are we held "ac. countable for the souls of others? When is their blood on our skirts, and when is it no longer required at our hand? To be held to answer for the final loss of one soul is a load that no believer can bear; Paul's exclamation gets thousand·fold emphasis: "Who is sufficient for these things!" But, thank God! it is not so. We need look no further than that gospel in Ezekiel to learn the law of responsibility. * Originally God alone was responsible, for he only had power to save, or even knowl· edge of salvation. When he appointed ambassadors and committed to them the message, that transferred responsibility to them. The messenger becomes a mediator: havmg the good tidings and being commissioned to stand between God and the dying souls of men. Now observe, that from the moment the gospel is fully and faithfully proclaimed, responsibility is again transferred to the hearer! In every step and stage of this process and progress, the transfer of knowledge implies the transfer of obligation. The wicked is warned; he may not be won; but the watchman is free of blame.

The moment the gospel herald becomes unduly anxious about its reception, he risks forgetting his own work and intruding upon that of the hearer, and of the Holy Ghost. Perhaps he loses courage, bold· ness, peace. He begins to doubt and distrust not himself only but God. He is mixing up his own responsibility with that of those to whom he speaks. In other words, the herald reproaches himself with the heedlessness of his hearers; the ambassador, with the perversity of his sovereign'S foes. No! blessed be God, to discharge our duty, by earnestly and lovingly preaching the gospel, is to be discharged of all further responsibility.

Paul had passion for souls-" great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart "-could wish himself "accursed from Christ, for his brethren." Surely no cold heart, no mere sense of duty, goaded him on. Yet when, at Antioch in Pisidia, those "brethren" "judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, and even raised persecution against him, he "shook off the dust of his feet," in solemn token that he shook off all responsibility for their condemnation, and departed; and at Mile· tus he said to the Ephesian el,ders, "I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men; for I haTe not shunned to declare unto you aU the counsel of God! "

We may be as faithful as Paul, but all we can do at our best will ~ Exe>iel XYiii., xxxiii, not, of itself, insure one convert or disciple. It will still be true as of him: "Some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not." Some," ever learning will never come to the full knowledge of the truth." Not a few will become gospel-hardened, which is worse than sin-hardened. But Paul's duty was done irrespective of how many believe and obey. The limits of our commission and of our responsibility must coincide; and becansfl conversion is not our commission, for conversion we are not held accountable.

III. The limits of our commission are the gauge of our success.

We are con.stantly tempted by Satan, and by our own carnal hearts, to weigh in human scales and to measure by worldly standards, the results of our work. Not only in the world, but, alas! in the church, the satanic spirit is abroad, that dares to ask that supremely selfish question: Do missions payf In this inquiry lurk! a latent heresy. It assumes that we are capable of estimating results; still worse, it implies that our estimate of results may lawfully affect our obligation. Both these premises are radically unsound. The tendency is to walk not by faith but by sight, and to judge by appearances; and, because it fosters this tendency, our whole system of statistical returns is misleading and perniciously liable to abuse. Is a minister of Christ to be judged by the-number of converts he gathers in a given year or the amount of money he secures to the Boards?

Away with such standards of success! The most important work upon the' famous Eddystone is not visible, even at low tide. For a few hours each day patient workmen labored, anchoring to the rocks those immovable blocks on which rises and rests that symmetrical cone that Smeaton built. That work was slow and is now unseen; yet, but for that work, there would be no "Laus Deo" graven on the face of that beacon which still stands, after 130 years, off Ramhead, "to give light and to save life." It wa9 not the quick explOSion at Hell Gate that cleared the channel; but the long nnder-water tojl of miners who wrought out of sight and hearing. The first fourteen years at Tahiti passed without one convert or sign of success; yet on the work of those fourteen years rose the structure of Polynesian missions r There were nearly fifty years of fruitless toil among the Telngus before the "Lone Star" atOngole blazed forth like the sun ; but then in one year there were ten thousand converts, and the Lone Star became a constellation. Isaiah's barren ministry prepared the way for Paul's fruitful evangelism. Captain Allen Gardiner's death at Tierra del Fuego was the burial of a seed that in the next generation bore such fruit that even Charles Darwin declared that he "could not have believed that all the missionaries in the world" could have wrought such results.

God leaves none of his faithful servants to spend their strength for Jlaught. Our work i~ his work; it is from him, for him~ with him, in him; and hence there can be no failure, but we must never attempt to gauge our success by appnrent results. If faithful, our reward is sure, though" all day long" we stretch forth pleading hands" to a disobedient and gainsaying people." The Master himself was H despised and rejected of men;" "he came unto his own possessions and his own people received him not." "The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord." But the fact is we are incapable of measuring our own success. To estimate result;:; requires omniscience, omnipresence, eternity. In all work there are three stages: preparatory, intermediate, ultimate; the prepamtory is often the most tedious and prolonged, where the ultimate is most glorious. Man, noblest of animals, is most helpless at first and slowe;:;t to develop. The fields of the world that have yielded the greabst harvests have been longest in the preliminary tillage. God's true missionary goes where he sends him and does what he bids him; and he succeeds, though all he may do is to plow up the hard ground and gather out the stones and leave a fair field for the sower.. And in God's eyes many a man who, by the. armful or wagon-load, brings sheaves to the garner, is only reaping from others' sowing.

IV. The limits of our instructions set limits to our field and work.

Christ says: "The field is the world," and no part of it is to be left untilled and unsown. If we wait to "convert" our hearers, we shall never put our working force into the whole field. Just here has been the J!reat TI"bistake ofthe church even in her missionary era! Christ's principle is DIFFUSION; our practice is CONCENTRATION. We emphasize conversion, while he emphasizes evangelization; and so our human philosophy counsels us to convert as we J!o, and so increase the convertinJ! force. The effect is that we keep tilling a few little corners of the world-field, sowing them over and over, until the soil loses power to yield, while tracts a thousand miles square have never yet borne the tread of the sower! Even disciples are asking, "Are there not heathen enough at home, that we send the flower of our youth to the ends of the earth? "

But who was He who said, "Go ye into all the world?" There will always be heathen at home, and in our churches too-the worst sort of heathen, who have heard so long without heeding that the word will never bear fruit in their hearts. No soil in equatorial Africa is half so hard for the gospel-plow as the respectable sinners in our home congregations. London has to-day a thousand more missionaries than the whole church supports on the foreign field; and so long as we hold that our commission is to convert men rather than to preach the gospel to all men, this radical error will confront us in our methods. But so soon as we accept our mission and commission as world-wide evangelization, leaving to our Commander the time and way of th0 final world-wide victory, we shall see the folly of oui- philosophy and be guided by the wisdom of God. Then we shall spread our force over the whole field; we shall cease to compare respective fields, and mass our forces upon those which promise the quickest, largest harvests; we shall simply obey our Master and leave all the rest with him.

We' write with calm pen, when we write down the mistake of the church as radical. It is our solemn conviction that we must change our emphasis from converting men to evangelizing them. While we wait for long-tilled fields to bear fruit in converts, other fields, vast and wholly untilled, yield harvest after harvest of death. After nine- teen centuries, our labors are practically limited to perhaps one-tenth of the actual world-field. Meanwhile, generation after generation has come upon the stage of human history, and passed into the darkness of the nnknown world, in ignorance of the gospel. Since onr Lord arose 'and ascended, not less than fifty such generations, aggregating probably twenty t:mes the present population of the globe, have lived and died. And yet, there are nearly a thousand millions now living who have never heard the pure gospel. So long as the church turned all her forces into the home field, the dark ages were upon her; and when she sent forth her heralds to light up the death-shade in lands afar, her own morning began to dawn; and so the last century, which has been the missionary century, has been the century of greatest growth to Ohristendom itself. Should we multiply the force in foreign fields a hundred-fold, there would be a thousand-fold increase at home.

V. The limits of our commission set the bounds to our lawful expectation. .

If for the conversion of the world we labor and look, the present , prospect is, it must be confessed, somewhat disheartening. The Ohristian Ohurch has had nineteen centuries as her working-period, and out of 1,500,000,000 of inhabitants, has only about 30,000,000 Protestant church-members. After a century of m~dern missions, with over one hundred missionary societies, some 300 translations of the Gospels, some 6,000 missionaries in the field, arid an annual ex- penditure of over ten millions of dollars, we have but a million and a half of converts to show. T~e territory of Brahminism and Buddhism has been invaded, but never pervaded. As yet, Oonfucianism mocks our efforts, and Islamism defies us at its central strongholds. We are making very slow progress in converting the world; and even "Ohris- tian nations" do such unchristian things that they are sometimes, by their traffic in rum and opium, and in the bodies and souls of men, the chief hinderances of the missionary. Meanwhile, the increase of pop- ulation far outruns us, and leaves our proselytism and propagandism hopelessly in the rear. No wonder the" pessimists" are triumphant.

This is one way of looking at the aspect and prospect. But what if this be the wrong point of view if What if Our LQrd has only commissioned us to go everywhere and preach his gospel, and leave to him to work his wonders when, and where, and as he will? What if Our work be simply to obey his last command-to scatter broadcast, ' and in every field, the seed of the Word; nay, everywhere to bury ourselves as the good seed of the kingdom, content, if so he wills, to die'

inand so bring forth fruit when we can no longer see it? What If, "ven this" evangelistic era," the church is still making the strange mistake of not yet planning and preparing for that world-wide occupation which he enjoined nearly two millennium~ ago?

It is not enough to work, or even to work for God and for souls. Only when we work under his direction, and as he directs, do reward and blessing come. Never was mission or commission more clear and emphatic: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every ereature." "This gospel must first be preached in all the world for a witness among all nations; and then shall the end come." He who, in his impatience at the" miserable contracting lines of pessimism," says "there is no • preaching the gospel as a witness,' here;" surely forgets that these are the very words in which our Lord himself announces and defines the work of the present dispensation.

There may be disappointment, even to a disciple, whenever his expectation is based upon an unscriptural foundation. Our wish is often father, not only to our thought but to our hope. Within the limits of our instructions must we find the entire territory of our assured expectancy. When hope plants her feet upon the promises of God, her standing-place is firmer than the eternal hills; and when she plumes her wings with the promises, there is no limit to her upward flight. But only those expectations ripen into fruition which spring from some seed of his word.

VI. The limits of our commission set the limits of the Spirit's blessing.

Only in the way of perfect obedience can be found perfect blessedness. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love, joy, peace, and power, If we find that we lack confidence and courage in God, contentment in our work, passion for souls, and unction in our message, it may be well to ask, are we in the way of duty? God hath given the Holy Ghost" to them that obey him." To those who "love " him and " keep his words" Christ has promised that mysterious mward revelation of his personal indwelling. It cannot be a matter of little consequence to get a clear, full, exact apprehension of just what our Lord would have us to do.

Both the teaching of the Word and the testimony of the ages nnite in this great lesson to the church: that only so far and so fast as the working force is dispersed over the whole field, and the gospel is witnessed unto every nation and every creature, will the last and greateEt Pentecost of history be fully realized. The primary question is not one of rival fields, whether" home" or "foreign"; not of saving our great cities or saving our own land. It is primarily a matter of im~ plicit and immediate obedience to Christ. Our mission knows no limits but the limits of the command, which are the limits of the world and of time. So long as one human creature has not yet heard the message, our duty as messengers is not done, however many who have heard remain yet unconverted. Our Master stands with imperative finger pointin.t to unoccupied fields; and while one such is left, he has not been fully obeyed and the Spirit will not be fully outpoured.

We believe this and therefore we must speak. Though sadly conscious of feebly stemming a tide that with tremendous energy of movement sweeps the other way, we here record our solemn conviction that the church has yet to take up this work of missions in dead earnest. These unoccupied fields will never be taken possession of in Christ's name until the only ground of discrimination between one field and another is their comparative destitution. Whether near o!' far, those whose need is most extreme, and whose ignorance is most appalling, have the first claim. The drift of the day is toward concentration on the most hopeful, and even the nearest fields. Hence remote heathen and degraded pagan peoples are neglected; the question is soberly raised whether it be right to blast the very blossoms of our highest Christian civilization in the furnace of African fever; whether it be not waste to send such women as Harriet Newell, Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Judson, Mrs. Gordon, to Oriental pagans and South Sea cannibals; and hundreds of Christians quote with relish the sneer of Dickens, who makes Mrs. Jellyby look past the misery of her own household and neighborhood to sigh over Borioboola Gha!

For a century the Spirit has poured his fullest blessing on families, churches, and schools of the prophets, whence have gone the largest bands of laborers to fields remote. The paradox of modern church life is this: Apparent depletion ends in richest repletion; the most liberal gifts of men and money to farthest fields are the signal for the most . rapid replenishment at home. Here is the key to the paradox: the Holy Spirit rewards obedience. Should we recall the 6,000 foreign missionaries to re-en10rce the home-fields, it would bring to those very fields the curse of barrenness. Should we, on the contrary, distribute the whole force equally and impartially, with strict reference to the vast extent and awful need of the whole field, such blessing would come upon fields nearest home as never has been known. Of church life, as of individual life, it is true: " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth : And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, But it tendeth to poverty."

VII. The limits of our commission Qecome tlue bounds of our satisfaction and joy.. What is the ultimate ground of our rejoicing? There is a higher, broader basis for our serenity and satisfaction than even the number of souls'saved, viz.: that we have done the will of God. He who, to Thessalonian converts, wrote: "Ye are our glory, and joy, and crown of rejoicing," wrote also to the Corinthians: "Now thanks be unto God, who at aB times leadeth us about in triumph in Ohrist, and mak:- e~h manifest the fragrance of the knowledge of him, through us, in every place; for we are a grateful odor of Christ, unto God, both in those who are being saved and in those who are being lost," * etc.

Here is another paradox, but it contains the deepest philosophy. It is the most emphatic reminder that our joy is not confined to our success in saving souls. Paul was driven out of place after place, persecuted, scourged, imprisoned, stoned and left for dead; but just as truly where he was rejected, as where he was "received as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus," he joyed in God, for he was a steward of the go·spel, and "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." Observe, "faithful," not successful. He may sow the seed and till the field but cannot assure an abundant crop, or any crop. Some seed Satan's fowls may -catch up as soon as sOWn; other seed may fall 011 shallow soil or among thorns; but however fruitful or fruitless, whether it yields nothing or an hundred-fold, the faithful sower has the same reward.

No man, whose eye is on apparent victory or seeming success, can unlock Paul's paradox. The gospel proves its divinity in this, that no hearer can be indifferent to it. It grapples with his convictions, affections, conscience. It compels consideration and decision, one way or other, and hence every gospel appeal leaves him better or worse. Those who substitute for the gospel something else, and amuse or entertain with intellectual and moral essays, may leave men very much as they find them. But every man who preaches Ohrist-who reasons of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come-either lifts men higher or sinks them lower. The gospel must prove either a lever or a load. "To hear such truth inevitably softens or hardens, saves or damns. In the vegetable world the same conditions that so favor growth where life exists-light,heat, moisture, and nutrition-also favor rapid decay where life does not exist or develop. And so the gospel either begets life or breeds death; and proves itself the power of God by the savor of death as truly as by the savor of life.

It is an awful thought but a true one: Every soul that without excuse goes at last into outer darkness, as having heard but not having heeded the gospel, is as truly a proof of the preacher's fidelity and as really a trophy of God's triumph as is a soul saved by repentance and faith. Therefore it is that as we go forth to evangelize the world we rejoice alike in victory ~n<l in <lefeat, for in both alike God is leading • ~ Cor. ii: 14-16,

THE MARVELS OF MORAVIAN MISSIONS

us in triumph in Christ. Whether men are saved and send up the fragrance of life; or whether, lost, they send up the stench of death, He will recognize and reward the fidelity of which both the saved and the lost are alike witnesses. This cry of U vi0tory" has long been Satan's device to mislead and discourage God's saints. It tempts us to press on where triumph seems to beckon, and to halt and even re- treat where defeat seems to threaten. It tempts us to "number the people" and gauge success by figures; nay, to let down the gospel stand- ard in hopes of easier and quicker victory. It leads an English Canon to set pounds sterling over against the sterling worth of souls, and, be- cause the sums expended seem large and the converts gathered seem few, to cry, like Judas, "To what purpose is this waste?" It betrays us into hopelessness and heartlessness when our words seem to avail noth- ing in winning .souls, 'and it has driven not a few workmen from the field altogether because God's blessing seemed withheld from therr work. • Let no one therefore tell us that it is a matter of indifference whether we go forth expecting to convert the world, or only to evange- lize the nations. Within the limits of our commission we are to find also the limits of whatever else is most vital. Here we find the warrant of our authority, the measure of our responsibility, the standard of our success, the definition of our field and work, the goal of our expecta- tion, the assurance of the Spirit's blessing, and the broad basis of our abiding joy. :For victory we are not to be unduly solicitous; in our seeming defeat and disaster our Lord may find his triumph and success.

We may never see victory until the Great Captain himself appears on the battle-field. All we may be able to do, and all he may give us to do, may be to seize certain strongholds and "hold the fort," till he comes to turn the tide of battle. But in the darkness and the smoke of the conflict, whichever way the issue seems to sway, we are to stand by our guns, and hold fast our flag.

On that mountain in Galilee, Christ the Lord seems still to be stand- ing, and with trumpet tones that echo down the ages, forevermore to be saying: " ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME, IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH!"

THEREFORE " Go 'lie into all the world" And pl'each the gospel to every creature; AND LO! I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE AGE."

THE MARVEL OF MORAVIAN MISSIONS.

BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, OBERLIN, O.

THOUGH the statement doubtless casts a serious reflection upon all other branches of the Christian Church, it is yet true that the Unitas Fratrum is a phenomenon among the most striking to he found in the modern religious world. The story off its origin and growth, and of the vicissitudes abounding in tragedy through which it has passed, read~ like the exaggerations of a wild romance. As an awakening from the fearful unbelief and" moral laxness of the eighteElnth century it antedates the more famous work of the Wesleys, to which it also imparted ideas and influences of greatest value. Certain homely and old-fashioned virtues, on which the New Testament lays great emphasis, but by hostile forces in human nature are too often grievously sinned against, in this communion from the first have stood out in bold relief. At many points, both in the corporate life and in the character of individual members, besides much that may well be closely copied, there is abundance every way worthy of careful and appreciative study because certain to kindle enthusiasm and provoke mightily to good works.

But, after all, the chief glory of the Moravian Church, her noblest achievement for the Kingdom of God on earth, is found in the attitude toward the world's evangelization taken at the very beginning, and ever since persistently maintained. It is just here that the resemblance is most perfect to the church of the first century. Herrnhut is the -yery cradle of Protestant missions. From thence the first heralds of salvation went forth to lands beyond the sea sixty years before Carey and Marshman, and eighty years before Judson and Mills. This church has commissioned a larger proportion of its members to proclaim the glad tidings to the heathen than any other, and has contributed far more money" in proportion to numerical and financial strength. It is also unique in that the fixed policy has always been to select for occupation not the most inviting and promising fields, but rather those most discouraging and desolate, and to expend lavishly ~ts ample resources of love and zeal upon races most benighted and bestial. But above all else, the work of foreign missions has nev!3r been a mere corollary, but the main proposition instead, never an adjunct, an avocation, a by-play, but the very raison d' etre, the fundamental and constitutive principle. And this chief end and aim of existence has been pursue-i so vigorously and unflinchingly that we have the unmatched spectacle of a church whose adherents in pagan lands outnumber the membership at home nearly three to one.

A few words as to how an organization came to be, which is so original at so many points, and differs so radically from all its neighbors. Its beginnings are remote, even as far back as the stormy times of Huss, though 1457 is the date of the formal setting forth. Essentially Protestant long before the Reformation, fierce persecutions befell from the Romish Church. Feeling profoundly Luther's work, the number of churches rose at length to 400, and of members to 400,000, and found mainly in Moravia, Bohemia and Poland. But after a checkered existence of nearly two centuries, during that furious and ruthless onslaught" for the suppression of heresy" known as the Anti-Reformation (1620-27), fire and sword, enforced conformity and compulsory exile, did their worst, and to all human appearance utter annihilation ensued. A feeble remnant, however, survived to worship and serve in secret, and wait for redemption. Faith and patience received trial ,most severe, for almost a century elapsed before the day of resurrection dawned.

Aud two instruments were chosen to bring life out of death. The first and lesser one was Christian David, a Moravian mechanir., born and reared a papist, but strangely brought to accept a purer faith with boundless devotion. Among other forms of service, he set himself to search out in the old sects such of the Moravians as still clung to the worship and tradition of their fathers. And when it further appeared that flight, exile and loss of all worldly goods was the price which must needs be paid for religious freedom, he sought in Protestant Germany a safe refuge, and at length received from Count Zinzendorf promise of protection and favor upon one of his estates. In 1722 a little company of three families, ten persons, ready to make the venture, left home at dead of night, and, fearing betrayal and forcible detention, not informing even their nearest relatives of their. departure. How insignificant an event and yet, how momentous! A few days later they had crossed the mountains to the south, and were safe in Saxony; and a few days later stil1, the foundations of Herrnhut were laid. Others followed in the footsteps of these heroic pioneers, but so slowly that only 300 could be counted at the end of five years, of whom two-thirds were from Moravia and the rest from various parts of Germany, and only 600 at the close of a decade.

But the real founding and fashioning of the renewed Moravian Church awaited the appearance of Zinzendorf upon the scene. Without his magnificent contribution of spiritual fervor and intellectual force it had not been. In almost every particular this body is the reproduction, or the embodiment, of his thought and purpose. For forty years he was practically the autocrat, the sole authority. This immortal builder for God was of princely lineage, and was possessed by inheritance of large landed estates. A man of unwonted original powers of mind, to these was added a thorough training in the best schools, and the further enlargement of extensive travel. If the phrase be ever allowable, upon him was bestowed besides a remarkable genius for religion. His life was distinguished by a whole-hearted consecration, seldom surpassed since Paul's day, and this in an age when princes and scholars almost to a man were wholly devoted to the god of this world, and even the churches and the clergy were well-nigh destitute of vital godliness. Under the impulse of celestial love he gladly sacrificed honor and political power, and deliberately turned his back upon companions, his equals in social station, to identify himself, heart, soul and life, with a ;handful of peasants, poverty-striken, ignorant, fanatical and despised, and though the step cost him ridicule, obloquy, ten years of exile, and eventually his entire property. Even yet the Christian world does scant justice to this man of true martyr spirit, whose just rank is among the great of the earth, and little understands how great a debt Christendom, yes, humanity, owes to him for what in days fearfully dark he so heroically undertook and so grandly achieved.

What Zinzendorf was divinely. chosen to be and to do, began to be plainly prophesied even in early childhood. For example, when he tossed from the window bits of paper addressed to the Saviour telling of his ardent affection, and when he solemly entered into this covenant with the Lord: "Be thou mine, and I will be thine. " Entering the Paedagogium at Halle when but ten, he is presently found organizing among his school-fellows the Order of the Mustard Seed (Senfkorn Orden) with these among the mottoes: "We will not live for ourselves alone," and, "We'willlove the whole human family." Notmuchlater he had attained to the idea of a spiritual fraternity of all the good (eoclesiolw in ecolesia), and had set apart his life to laborfor souls by systematic means and on a large scale. These sentences from his lips well sum up and set forth his highest ambition and deepest desire: "I would rather be despised and hated for Jesus's sake than be loved and honored for my own" ; "I am a poor sinner, a captive running by the side of his triumphal chariot"; "I have but one passion, and it is Thee, only Thee."

And now, at length, this man, so thoroughly furnished by nature aJ;ld grace, is brought face to face with his exalted mission. It was a few months after their arrival at Herrnhut that Zinzendorf received his introduction to that little band of refugees, and five years later that he took up his residence among them. And truly it was a motley company he found, a conjunction of elements most heterogeneous, a quasi cave of Adullam, into which had been gathered recusants, and dissenters, and comeouters of every description. Once when a number were receive!l to the church it was found that no two belonged to the same nationality, but Germans, and English, and Swedes, and Swiss, Poles, Hungarians, and IJivonians were represented! Of almost all the minds were narrow, while the zeal was intense and blind, and so centrifugal forces abounded, and liability to explosion was constant. It was the case of old Corinth over again. Each one determinedly hugged his idol and his ism, and each was antagonistic and destructive to all the rest. For months the scandal and curse of debate and contention, of schism and secession spread their blight. So that not even Zinzendorf's wisdom, and tact, and patience, and ability to organize and govern could have averted destruction, had not an overwhelming refreshing from on high been vouchsafed at a certain communion season. This was in 1727, and ever since August 13 has been kept as the anniversary of the spiritual birthday of the renewed church. Now that the divine flame had melted, and fused and 'unified all hearts, the way was fully prepared for toil in behalf of others. The first-fruits of new-born fervor are found in the beginning of the Diaspara Mission (1 Pet. 1 : 1. "To the strangers scattered" abroad), and which has been ever since carried on in various countries of Europe. Proselytism has never been esteemed a shining virtue in Mora-dan circles, and this branch of evangelistic labor in particular was not meant in the least to separate souls fr.om the established churches, or to build up a rival organization, and so the administration of the sacraments is not allowed to the missionaries, but they merely endeavor to seek out the godly in all communions and foster piety by gathering such for Bible study, exhortation and prayer. The number reached thus is now not far from 100,000.

A year later the horizon of desire and faith had so much enlarged as to embrace Lapland, 'rurkey, and even Ethiopia. In 1731 Zinzendorf made a most eventful visit to Copenhagen. For it was then and there that some of his attendants were brought into contact with a negro from the West Indies, who spoke with deep emotion of the lamentable condition of the slaves in those islands, while he himself conversed with two qonverted Esquimaux and heard of the forlorn estate from which they came. These facts being reported to the simple flock in Herrnhut produced so great a stir that in due season two of the brethren, Leonhard Dober and David Nitschmann, the one a potter and the other a carpenter. were under appointment and on the way to St. Thomas, though with but $5 each, and though the first 600 miles must needs be made on foot. Moreover, they went fully expecting to be sold into slavery as the only means possible for reaching the bondmen to whom they were to minister, while Dober declared himself. ready to die, if only one soul could be saved. These were soon followed by others, who occupied and held for Christ, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbadoes, etc., content to face ttll manner of discomforts and perils from tornadoes, earthquakes and pestilences, as well as opposition and hatred even more trying. Though with great cost of life ever since they and their successors have held heroically ou. Next, and in less than six months after, _three more started for the Arctic regions to found a mission among the Esqnimaux of Greenland. These were Christian David, who. at the beginning had kindred faith in the first company, and led them out into liberty, and two cousins, Matthew and Christian Stach. In spite of obstacles most appalling, and though waiting long years for the first signs of good, they fainted not, but toiled and prayed until the barriers to those obdurate hearts were fairly forced. In later times a second mission was opened for the same race, though upon the opposite coast of Labrador.

And, once given air and exercise, see how desire and determination are enlarged. Where else can anything like it be found? In order fully to appreciate the marvel, it must be borne in mind that Herrnhut held but a handful as yet-not more than ate often found in the membership of a single city church, and that less than a score of years had passed since that midnight hegira from Moravia-but 10 ! we find them taking earnest counsel to carry the gospel to the ends of the' earth. Five foreign missions were started in as many years, and eighteen during the first quarter of a century. Next after the two just mentioned followed one in English and Dutch Guiana to the Arowote Indians, to the slaves, and to the bush negroes, who escaped from bondage, and largely because of wrongs endured were an aban- doned and desperate class, as well as in the lowest deeps of degradation. In 1736 missionaries were sent to the American Indians, at first to Georgia, Pennsylvania, and New York.. and later to the Delawares in Ohio and further West.· Christian history holds few if any narratives more thrilling and pathetic than those which tell of what such men as Zeisberger wrought during his sixty-three years of service (1735- 1808), thus more than Eliot earning the title of apostle to the Indians, and Heckewelder, who,se toils and achievements for forty years were almost as great.

The same year George Schmidt, just escaped from the horrors of a six years' imprisonment for conscience sake, and whose scars he wore till the day of his death, took his departure for South Africa to tell the glad tidings to the Hottentots. This was eighty years before Moffat's day, and during his entire stay he was the only missionary in the entire vast length and breadth of the dark continent. The amazing stupidity and depravity of the natives was burden sufficiently heavy, but yet not nearly so hard to endure as the abuses and contempt of the Dutch Boers, whose esteem for the poor creatures to whom this lone Moravian was making proclamation of the Cross was expressed in a "notice set over one of their church doors: "Dogs and Hottentots not 'admitted." It was not until six terrible years had passed that the first encouraging sign appeared, and when converts began to multiply the jealousy and fear of the Christian (?) whites were so excited that he was forbidden by the authorities, to baptize, and eventually was compelled to take his departure. When death came to this thoroughly Christian soul, like Livingstone he was found upon his knees pleading that Ethiopia might soon stretch forth her hands to God. In later days the mission was renewed, and another was started among the Kaffirs, including the..care of an extensive hospital for lepers.

In times comparatively recent (1850) the evangelization of the abor- . igines of Australia was undertaken, soil perhaps as barren and flinty as any to be found upon the face of the earth. To the original condition, forlorn and forbidding in the extreme, was added the presence of multitudes of escaped convicts, and the almost equal curse of the reckless gold hunters. The natives are said to be so little human, and to have been held by the Anglo-Saxons in such utter contempt, that they were sometimes shot down as food for dogs. No wonder that so unpromis- ing a mission was soon abandoned in despair. But such lack of faith was discountenanced at home, and others were soon sent t~ lead the forlorn hope. Latest of all, Herrnhut has sent its representatives to scale in Ohrist's name the tremendous heights of the Himalayas, and to plant the cross upon the pl~teau of Thibet, waiting meanwhile for an opportunity to invade Ohina from the west. Yet others have been dispatched to the Mosquito coast. The same self-sacrificing and determined spirit is manifested in connection with certain unsucces~ful attempts to gain a foothold for the gospel, for in several cases the bar- riers have been so invincible that even Moravian courage and patience could not conquer them. Thus in Lapland the missionaries were ar- rested and sent home. In vain they sought to reach the Samoy- ades upon the shores of the Arctic Ocean. They failed also in Ceylon, in the East Indies, in Algiers and Guinea. In Egypt thrice over failure was their lot, while repeated attempts (1768-1823) to reach the . Oalmucks came to nought. .

A few general suggestions, that we may get further glimpses of the glory which rightly belongs to the Moravian Church for its unequaled missionary zeal. With what exalted spirit the more than 2,000 have gone out into the by-place.s and deserts of the earth we perceive from such examples as these, which are by no means uncommon. When two were called for to lead the way to work among the Mongols in Central Asia, thirty offered themselves. Once news came to Bethlehem, Pa.

(the Herrnhut of America), that in a few weeks five of the brethren had died in St. Thomas, and in a single day eight were ready to go in their stead. Once distress and peril were so extreme that it was re- solved to appoint none who were not ready to lay down their lives, and yet there was no lack of volunteers. And convincing evidence that such utter self-abandonment was called for, and 'such leaning upon the Lord, appears in toil among the Esquimaux, who for a period wofully long gave to the gospel message not the slightest heed, seldom came near the missionaries except to beg or to steal, and not infrequently to the preaching gave this not inspiring response: " We neither hear nor understand what you say to us. Give us a pipe and some tobacco."

But yet they waited calmly for the precious fruit, and had long patience for it till the joyful harvest came at length, and even the 'Esquimaux be- gan to hunger for salvation.· Or, in the incredible sufferings and dis- couragements connected with efforts to redeem the Indians from their paganism and savagery. 'rhough utterly without cause, it was the hard lot of the early Moravians in this country to be suspected and hated by all parties,-by the whites as friends of the Indians, and by the Indians as friends of the whites; by the French as in league with the English, and by the English as emissaries of the French. Hence for . a half century and more they were compelled to face the tomahawk and the scalping-knife. In 1782 both missionaries and converts were removed.by British soldiers from their peaceful and prosperous homes upon the Tuscarawas to Upper Sandusky, and then, a few months later, in a starving condition returning to gather their own corn, were set upon by a force of AmericlJ,n militia and 96 innocents were butch- ered in cold blood! It strangely appears that in this single church zeal for the world's redemption belongs not to the few but to the many. Now, after so long a time, when the period of novelty and romance is long since passed, one in fifty of the membership are still set apart for the foreign field. And further, so closely at heart is this great matter held, that to .go to the ends of the earth to save souls, and thus to meet trials and perils, is not esteemed an act so remarkable as to call for wonder arid praise. The happy men and women who hear and heed the call are not lionized, or sent forward with' noise and display. All this is but a matter of course, the business of all, that for which they live and labor. To be indifferent and un willing, to be disobe~ient, that is the strange thing. The best and most succ"Cssful is an unprofitable servant, has but done his duty. Doubtless the church under review is far from perfect, and fails to exemplify every Christian grace. Since human vision for things divine is but partial, it need not surprise us to light upon error and failure, and divers limitations. In particular, the instruments employed and modes o~ procedure have been such as, hitherto at least, to make no impression except upon uncivilized peoples, and of course the gospel must be carried to dominant races, to the haughty Brahman, the lordly Turk, to China and Japan. But yet it is a most ungracious and unprofitable task to speak of shortcomings when the Unitas Fratrum has on the whole wrought so magnificently. And what a sublime and inspiring spectacle has been passing by before our eyes. How much poorer would the Christian world be, if this portion of history had been omitted. How exceeding- ly profitable for teachmg, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness is this humbler and more plebeian form of service. Choosing out the Hottentot, the Esquimaux, the Australian, the slave and the leper, and thus lavishing their love upon the ofIscourings of the earth and playing the Good Samaritan in their behalf, or, in downright and measureless self-abnegation and Christ-like com- passion, not counting the costliest sacrifice waste, but gladly break- ing the alabaster box and pouring forth, without stint, the precious ointment, the aroma of the deed sheds sweetness throughout the whole world. And when from Greenland and Labrador, from the West Indies and Surinam, from the Tuscarawas, Thibet and South Africa, by the ten thousand the redeemed shall come up to glory, of the little

H40 PASTOR HARMS AND HIS

Moravian church it shall be declared, Thon hast wrought more honor- ably than they all. And this shall be her joy and her crown: "Inas:"

much as ye did unto one of tht< least of these, ye did it unto me !"

And already by losing her life she has found it. Terribly tested during the" sifting period" (1745-50) when fanatical elements for.the time gained the mastery, these were yet so thoroughly expelled and outlived that no smell of fir~ was left. It is also affirmed that no case of divorce, or of capital crime has ever been known among them. And so admirable thhaes•sbeeebnretthheriernwsohrko,wanndthseomwseolvrtehsy of confidence and affection have to be, they have always made many fast friends from outside their communion, so that from this source nearly half the funds employed in carrying on missions is derived.

PASTOR HARMS AND HIS WORK.

BY REV. THOMAS LAURIE~ PROVIDENCE, R. I.

LET us cross the Atlantic to a small country town in North Germaniabout'forty-five miles south from the well-known city of Hamburg. Hermannsburg, for that is the name· of the village, lies in a sandy region where the grass is thin and the people poor. There is much wild moorland, with here and there a pleasant vale, or a field running up into the heath. The villages among the trees on the hilltops overlook the cultivated lands below. It consists of (me straggling street, witb houses separated by gardens, and the spire of the church conspicnol1., over all. 'l'he people were phlegmatic Dutchmen, whose chief activity was toil for daily bread. Worse still, German rationalism ruled the region, so that the prospect for spiritual life seemed very dark. Louis Harms: son of a clergyman, was taken there by his father in 1817, when the son was only nine years old. He studied at home till 1824, then three years at a neighboring academy (gymnasium is the name there), and from that he went to the University of Gottingen to study theology, but the rationalism there prevalent did not satisfy him; so he studied Chaldee, Syriac, and Sanscrit. But still his heart was empty, until the Lord revealed Himself to him in the study of the gospel, especially John xvi., and in the freshness of his new love, he became interested in all kinds of labor for the salvation of men at home and abroad. One wanted him to come to North America, and another wished to take him with him to India, but in 1843 he went back to be his father's assistant, and in 1848, when his father died, the people insisted on his taking his father's place.

Though himself a scholar, he counted himself one of the people, and lived among them as a father; a man of marked simplicity. he was noted most of all for childlike faith in God. He lived in fellowship with Christ, and this was the strength and beauty of his life. He became a power among men, by giving himself up to the power of God, for, beholding the glory of Christ in the mirror of the Word, he was changed into the same' image, and therefore mighty works showed themselves forth in him. It is impossible to de&cribe the force of his preaching, or the love and faith which colored all he did. He un.

folded SCripture in the plainest manner, and was content with such a set~ng -forth of God's truth as made men forget the preacher in thoughts of God.

A great chauge soon began to appear in the place, and now its equal can hardly be found among the churches in either hemisphere. No house is without its family prayer. Only sickness keeps people away from church, and almost every adult is a communicant. Meetings during the week are as well attended as on the Sabbath, and the laborers in the fields instead of songs sing the grand old German ,hymns.

Drunkards and beggars are alike unknown, and the neatness of their homes testifies to the excellence of their occupants.

Not content with the change effected at home, Pastor Harms sug- gested a mission to the heathen and his people at once entered heartily on the work. They did not, however, give to some missionary society and then never inquire what had become of their money. But in response to the" Go ye" of the master, they rose up and went, and such as could not go in person supported them that did go. So in 1849, just one year after he became their pastor, twelve members of the little church entered on a four years' course of study in preparation for the work. For as the universities were poisoned by rational- ism, the good man had to educate his missionaries before he sent them out. Then, as both he and they were poor, they engaged in daily manual labor ; for, as he told them, "This is both that you may earn your own bread and remain humble, being no more ashamed to work than Paul was ashamed of tent-making." , He proposed to send them among the Gallas, a savageraceofrobbers and murderers in Northeast Africa. Few churches would furnish twelve men to go to such a people, and fewer country pastors with a poor parish would assume the entire cost of training, sending them out, and supporting them. In this case, as in many others, the Lord se- lected a different field from that chosen by His servant. For He will not have us forget that He is the Lord of the vineyard and sends the laborers here or there as He thinks best, that we may recognize His wis- dom in placing them, and attribute the success He gives to its true source. When I was in Turkey I hardly knew one missionary out of , the scores then in that empire who was laboring in the field to which he was sent at first, and the I . ord of the vineyard sent Pastor Harms'

recruits to Southern Africa. Then the idea of a Christian colony, ani- mated·by the missionary spirit to form the center whence missionaries should go forth in all directions, was added to the other work. As many as sixty persons offered themselves, for this, but the candid~t('s were sifted down till only eight remained. You will ask, where were the means to come from for' all thIS? . Let Pastor Harms give us the answer.

"Then I knocked diligently on God's door in prayer, and since he who prays must not sit idle, I searched among the ships, but in vain. I wrote to missionaries, but my letters miscarried. Then one said to me, "Why not build a ship, and so send as often as you will?' But how could I build without money? Everybody discouraged me, and some even hinted that I was not in my right mind; but I wrestletl with God, and then I remembered that in the days of Luther, when Duke George was debating whether to intrust his soul to Chrint or the Pope, a friend told him, 'Straightforward and direct fares the best.' So I thought, I have knocked long enough at men's doors. Now I will turn to God, for the work is for Him. So I laid the whole thing in His hands, and as I rose from my knees at midnightI startled myself crying, 'Forward now in the name of God,' and suspense was ended:"

This now became his life work, and it seems as though God meant to show in him how much an obscure man, in the most unfavorable circumstances, can do for God when he sets himself to the work with his whole heart. We cannot recount all his bufIetings, but the result was that the brig Oandace was built at Harburg on the opposite shore of the Elbe from Hamburg. We may note here that even then his troubles were not over, for he was sorely tried by some of his captains, who had no sympathy with the work, and after some voyages the brig had to be sent to England and twenty feet added to her length: but we anticipate. Hermannsburg was now like a hive of bees. Everybody was at work for" our ship." The farmers brought in loads of produce, and the women and children were never idle; as fast as they finished one piece of work they commenced another, and soon all things were ready. Such a joint stock company this world has seldom seen, though the sight will not be so rare in the future as it has been in the past. Of the twelve missionaries, two had died and two more had proved unworthy, but eight were ordained after thorough examination. '1'he colonists were ready, and the crew with the cargo all on board, and after a farewell sermon in the church the sixteen men stood up together (there was not a woman among them) and sang Luther's grand old hymn, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott ", to Luther's no less grand tune, written expressly for it. Next day they went to Hamburg, a long train of wagons bearmg through the streets at early dawn the stores provided by the villagers. Even the whole population accompanied them for some distance, singing their favorite hymns. A few, with Pastor Harms at their head, marched through the streets of Harburg, and had a service on deck before the vessel sailed.

Oct. 28, 1853, the anchor was hoisted and the good ship sailed down the Elbe and out into the sea at Caxhaven. I said there ~re no women on board. Three years later there was a great marriage feast in South Africa, when the same vessel brought out the betrothed of the missionaries. The village now seemed desolate. Children missed their. teachers, and sick ones the visitors who had spoken to them of Jesus,' but in less than three weeks twelve new candidates filled the vacant seminary. Let us shake hands with one of them. Several years before Behrens longed to be a missionary, but he was the main dependence of his aged' parents, and as they would not give him up the pastor held him back. Not long after, on his death-bed, the father felt that he had done wrong, and begged the pastor that such a thing might never take place again in his family. The early love was still burning in the heart of the son, whose wife shared his devotion to the work, and when their only child died he again offered himself to go as a missionary. The pastor told him that though heir to the estate, he must enter·the school on the same terms as the rest, and he not only agreed to that, but gave his estate also. This Mr. Harms accepted only on condition that if he ever had to leave the work it should be restored to him. So the mission' owned a farm, which by careful management supported the candidates during their studies.

But success in missions always brings greater outlay, and this work formed no exception to the rule, for the growth of the work required a periodical to keep the people at home acquainted with the work abroad. As it gives us a glimpse of the editor, let us look into its opening address : "And now I hear many a sigh, and words like these: 'So many missionary magazines already, and.here is another! What folly I' Dear friend, if you sigh over this once I do ten times, for you only read it, and when you lay it down your trouble is over. But I must write it, every month a new one, though loaded with work enough alrea.dy. B~ljeve me, I would drop it if I dared, and if you ask, Why not dare? I answer, 'T'he love of Christ constraineth me.' Ever since the work began I have been urged to this, and when I shook it off, as one shakes the rain from his cloak, it only rained the harder till I was wet through, so I publish that the rain may cease, and indeed, I would have no love fOl' Christ or for His people if I did not. So in the name of our God let it begin, and may our Blessed Lord say Amen, and grant me strength for the work."

This was in 1854, and since then it has appeared regularly. Besides narratives of missions, it contains accounts of the work at home or sermons; so the missionaries were kept posted in home affairs, and the people at home with the trials, successes, and new enterprises of the missionaries. The editor writes as though chatting in his own family, and in such a Ohristlike spirit that the reader is not only informed concerning the kingdom, but is thrilled by its influence. This may explain why its monthly circulation reached 14,000 copies, larger than that of any other German periodical, sacred or secular, save one, and that does not eiceed it. Though only a penny a number, in 1860 it yielded more than 2,000 crowns profit to the mission. This press furnishes occupation to many of the pl:'ople, and besides books for the missiom." prints Bibles, catechisms, and hymn-books for home 118e, and never re8te, As interest in foreign missions always promotes interest in other good works, so was it hero. Pastor Harms had notIced that convicts who tried to reform were met with suspicion on all sides, while former associates strove to drag them back again to crlme. A thief near him left the jail resolved to steal no more; old comrades mocked, but he persisted till they slipped a stolen purse into his pocket, and accused him to the owner. In vain he protested his innocence. He was again sent back to prison. Poor man! Vho will help him? Pastor Harms looked at his secluded village as just the place for a refuge for such men. An estate was purchased with buildings and grounds large enough to afiold work for tI. number, a house father, as the Germaus call him, was set over it, and another river of living water refreshed that thirsty soil.

But such labors were too much for endurance and the good pastor lay sick for several months; but he recovered, and pressed forward, till again strength failed him, and he died November 14, 1865.

Let us now briefly glance at the missions, while the Oandace was on her first voyage. Merchants reported that she was lost, and again that she was worm-eaten. The pastor kept nothing back, but bade his. people wait for better news, and when she returned after two years' absonce, not even the ordinary repairs were needed. As the new missionaries would not be ready for a year, she was wiselychartered meanwhile so as to pay her own expenses. In 1857 she took out twelve missionaries, fourteen colonists, and women and children enough to make the whole number forty-four. The King and Queen of Hanover attended the ordination, and next day the missionaries were invited to the palace, where the king promised them a daily remembrance in .the prayers of the household.

The seminary was filled at once with twenty-one candidates. In her fourth voyage to South Africa, in 1859, the Oandace took out four colonists with their families, and two missionaries, ore having already labored for years in Borneo, and in his family was an Indian girl from North America. In 1861 twenty~two missionaries were sent out to Africa, and in seven years from the sailing of the first missionaries, 100 settlers were located at eight stations.

At the death of Mr. Harms in 1865, there were 31 missionaries at 24 stations, reaching from the Zulus on the eastern coast to the Bechuanas in the interior, and from the Orange River in the south as far as Lake Nyami; 252 of the nativos had been baptized, and foundations had been laid for a great work in the futUre.

They have their own ships and their own press, and continue to carryon the work with one accord. Surely these- things show how large a blessing God can pour out through one man, who enters into the work of Christ WIth all his heart. Look even at the money raised. 'rhe ship cost 15,000 crowns, her outfit 4,000 more; the press 3,600;

THE MIRACBES OF

~he refuge farm 4,000. In 1856 and 1857 the annual cost was 15,000.

In 1858 31,000, and in 1859 33,000, and up to the close of that year the whole income had been more than 118,000 crowns. Where did it come from? Not all from Hermannsburg, though some peasants ther.e gave 500 crowns at a time. It came from ali quarters, some from Odessa , on the Black Sea on one side, and some from New Orleans on the other. Pastor Harms said, "It is the gift of God." He adds: "It is wonderful when one has nothing, and 10,000 crowns are laid in his hand by the dear Saviour." When he found the mission house called for so much, he said, 'tet it take, I shall receive, and I went to my God and through prayer obtained what I needed. Recently I had to pay 550 crowns with on~y 400 in hand, and when' I told the Lord, three letters brought 145, and a laborer handed me ten, so that I had five over. Once I needed a medicine chest and was just praying for it when a letter came offering one." .

What a treasure did Pastor Harms find laid up in heaven! With what feelings has he met one after another from his own flock, and African Zulus, and Bechuanas, in that abode of holiness! And this man was not an apostle. He did not live in a golden age, but he grappled with rationalism in faith, and selfishness in life, till only a few years ago. May we not be like him? If not in striking out some new mode of doing good, yet in doing with our might what our hands find to do for Christ. When we go home to meet Pastor Harms in heaven what shall we have to set over against his service to Christ, what shall we have to talk with him about of grace bestowed upon us also to promote the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ?

THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.

THE STORY OF SIAM.

[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] IN the magic tales of missions the Land of the White Elephant has not been conspicuous. There has been no such rapid, startling, striking development of results as has marked the South Sea Islands, parts of India, Japan, and even papal lands like France and Italy. In Siam the kingdom comes without observation. Neither do men say "Lo! here, or 10, there!" as though to call attention to some amazing phenomenon. Hence by some who look. on missions with hypercritical and unsympathetic eyes silence has been taken to imply that there is nothing to be said that is encouraging as to past toils or stimulating as to the future triumphs.

For this very reason we select Siam as the subject of this next paper in our series. Here are a land and a people, among the most interesting in the Orient; 'of which little has been known until of late, and of which even now many otherwise intelligent Christian disciples have yet to be accurately informed. Owing to the native custom of numbering only the males, it is difficult to get accurate returns of the population. But probably in Siam and the Laos country there are not far from eight millions. In other words, with an area six times as great as the State of New York, Siam has a population about equal to that empire state. Its capital, Bangkok, the Venice of the Orient, contains itself probably half a million.

We smile at the homage there paid to the" strange colored" ele- phant, which ranks among the nobility, has titles, g01d bands on his tusks, is served by kneeling attendants with trays of silver, and is sprinkled with sacred water by obsequious priests, and attended by court physicians. But we must not judge the Siamese, by this hom- age to a beast, to be simply a degraded and superstitious nation of elephant worshipers; nor, by the shoe-brush top-knot, or tuft of coarse black hair on the crown of the head, must we infer that they have neither taste nor manners nor !Bsthetic notions. They are gentle, amiable, respectful·to parents and to old age, kind to children, urbane and polite to strangers, above the average in cleanliness and intelli- gence, and capable of high culture and refinement. They are un- truthful and conceited, polygamy prevails among them, gambling houses abound, and men have been known to sen their own wives and children to pay debts incurred in this fascinating" vice of risk." But not even in Ohina and India have women such freedom and intelli- gence and ability; and in few countries do wider doors to mission efforts present themselves. Buddhism is here found in its purest and most unmixed state, with its virtual atheism, and materialism, and wheel of endless transmigrations, with Nepon, like the Brahmanistic Nirvana, the goal of all desire, annihilation of all individnal being.

Idols abound everywhere. In one temple as many as 14,000 may be found; and in Bangkok alone are 200 temples with 10,000 yellow- robed lazy priests supported by charity.

The conditions were not inviting to missionary labor; and to com- plicate the question still more, the papal church had carried its cor- rupted form of Ohristianity into Muang Ti, "The Land of the Free," as early as 1662, and had lowered even the Romish standard of the gospel to a level scarce above that of heathenism itself, seeking to win converts by accommodating, if not assimilating, Ohristianity to the native prejudices and customs. It is now some seventy years ago since the first Prot03stantapproaches were made to that shrine of Buddhism; and, curiously enough, it was woman's hand, as in the zenana work in India and the evangelistic work in Mexico, that put the gospel's golden key in the door that opened into Siam. While living at Rangoon, in Burmah, Mrs. Ann Hasseltine Judson became deeply interested in the Siameee residents in that city. On the last day of April, 1818, she wrote to a friend in this country as follows: "Accompanying IS a catechism in Siamese which I hl.ve just copied for you. I have attended to the Siamese language for about a year and a half, and, with the assistance of my teacher, have translated into the Siamese tongue the Burman Catechism just prepared by Dr. Judson, a tract con. taining an abstract of Christianity, and the Gospel of Matthew."

A very simple unpretending clause in private correspondence; but how little that seraphic woman knew its full significance! In 1819 that catechism came forth from the mission press at Serampore, the first Ohristian book ever printed in Siamese. The press was to be one of God's foremost agencies for the regeneration of Siam, and to ,a woman it was given to set that agency in motion, and in so doing lead Protestant effort in Siam!

Ten years after Mrs. Judson wrote that letter, in 1828, Dr. Oarl Gutzlaff, the famous German missionary, with Rev. Mr. Tomlin, visited Bangkok, treated thousands of patients who applied for medi· cal aid, and distributed boxes of books and tracts in the Ohinese tongue; and they were so impressed with the need of Siam and the open door to the missionary, that they appealed to the churches of America to send forth laborers into this new harvest field. Mr. Tomlin's health compelled him to I'emove to Singapore; and Gutzlaff was left. alone. He was but twenty-five years old when he came to Bangkok, and was there only three years; but those years left a permanent impress on Siamese evangelization. In 1829, Dr. Gutzlaff having prepared in Siamese a tract and one Gospel, went to Singapore to print them. While there he married Maria Newell and brought her back to Siam, the first Ohristian woman that' ever labored there. She died the next year, and, mourning the loss of his devoted and efficient helper, his failing health drove him to Ohina. With what energy and devotion Dr. Gutzlaff had spent those three years may be inferred from his not only learning the language, but, with Tomlin's help, translating into Siamese the New Testament. Thus what Mrs. Judson began, Dr. Gutzlaff carried on.

In June, 1831, Rev. David Abeel, sent by the American Board, arrived in Siam, but after eighteen months was likewise forced by illness to withdraw. In 1834'came Rev. Messrs. Johnson and Robinson, and in 1835, Dr. D. B. Bradley. For thirty-eight years Dr. Bradley was permitted to labor; and when in 1873 he died, he left two daughters, Mrs. MacGilvary and Mrs. Oheek, wives of missionaries, to represent him on the field.

For brevity's sake we curtail this narrative of Siamese missions, that we may give two illustrations of God's wonder working in this land, where the eyes of so few ever turn with intelligent and absorbed interest. We select, first, a marked instance of supernatural Promd~nce; and then some equally unmistakable examples of His illumining and transforming grace.

When in 1847 Rev. Stephen Mattoon and Dr. Samuel R. House arrived at Bangkok, to represent what is, since the withdrawal of the American Board and of the. American Missionary Society, the only mission to the Siamese-that of the Presbyterians-they found scarce a foothold. The king, then on the throne, was actively, though secretly, the foe of missions; and by his subtle influence with the people he so successfully thwarted them that they could scarce get, by rental or purchase, a house in which to live, or even food to eat. That same monarch so became involved in complications with the British Government that the expulsion of the missionaries seemed inevitable in the unsettled state of the country and the excited state of the Siamese mind.

It was now 1851; a generation had passed away since Mrs. Judson made that first appl'oach to Siam, and the entire work of thirty-three years seemed threatened with defeat and disappointment, all through the inveterate hostility and obsti.nacy of the king. He was jealous of the growing influence of the missionaries and the increased "merit making" of the physicians. The native teachers had been thrown into prison, the servants of the missionaries fled, and no way seemed open but a way out of Siam, as soon as a ship should come to bear them away.

Just then-AprilS, 1851,-the kin.i died, in the very crisis of affairs. God was again" known by the judgment which He executeth." As on July 1, 1839, in Turkey, the Sultan of. the Universe, at a similar crisis in missions there, and in a similar way, removed the tyrannical Mahmud who had just ordered the missionaries out of the country; so in 1851 the Sovereign in whose hand our very breath is took away out of the path of missionary advance an otherwise insuperable obstacle, in the person of a malignant monarch.

A successor must be chosen, and the choice of the nobles fell upon the one man, who above all others, as God saw, would remove all restrictions upon the legitimate work of the missionaries. Maha Mongkut, or Prah Chaum Klow was called from monastic seclusion to sit on the throne of the" Sacred Prahbahts." His enlightened policy at once changed the whole aspect and prospect of Siamese missions. Educated, liberal, tolerant; a scholar as to attainments in language and literature, science and general intemgence; in his adoption of foreign ideas and improvements a progressive statesman; in his rule wise, humane; in his bearing toward foreign residents and visitors urbane and courteous; in his intercourse with foreign powers high-toned and conciliatory; and in his aspirations for Siam as a member of the family of nations a high-minded patriot, he had, on all Oriental thrones, no rival. Such was the man whom the Providence of God' lifted to the Siamese monarchy at the most crit.ical hour of modern missions in that land. He reigned for nearly eighteen years, from 1851 to 1868 ; and under his rule missionaries have found not only tolerance but influence, and that too not only among Siamese citlzens but at the Siamese Court. This was all the direct fruit of missions; for that Buddhist priest- . king, while a private citizen, had been the pnpil of a missionary of the American Board, Rev. J. Caswell, who taught him the languages and the sciences which prepared him for taking the reins of empire into competent hands, and whose personal influence disposed him to be liberal in his governmental policy, and friendly to all Christian mission;.. aries. He ascended the golden steps with a heart full of kindly sentiments toward them; they were invited to the royal palace, and were made to enjoy the royal bounty and favor. Their letters at this time recount how their society was courted by princes and nobles; how their exiled teachers and servants returned to their places; how throngs came to them to get books and talk of their contents; and how, free to go and come as they would, they spoke in Jesus' name with confidence, flo man forbidding, and obtained a respectful hearing._ They could no"I;V get suitable sites and erect suitable buildings for homes; and in that same year missionary ladies were admitted to teach in the palace among the women of the royal harem. From that hour to this the missionaries have been sheltered by the favor and protection of the reigning monarchs.

The following document Issued under royal sanction may give some conception of the attitude of Chaum Klow toward the servants of God : We quote in full : " Many years ago the American missionaries came -here. They came before any other Europeans, and they taught the Siamese to speak and read the English language. The American missionaries have always been just and upright men. They have never meddled in -the affairs of the government, nor created any difficulty with the Siamese. they have lived with the Siamese just as if they belonged to the nation. The Government of Siam has great love and respect for them and has no fear whatever concei'ning them. When there has been any difficulty of any kind, the missionaries have many times rendered valuable assistance. For this reason the Siamese have loved and respected them for a long time. The Americans have also taught the Siamese many things."

This change in governmental policy proved permanent. The present king, Ohulalang Korn, is the most progressive ruler in Asia, a " nursing father" to missions. In 1882 this king bought up the whole exhibit of the girls' mission school in the centennial celebration, and gave to the principals in charge a silver medal. He has made a missionary, Dr. MacFarland, head of the Royal College at Bangkok and Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1887 he visited Petchaburi, made careful inquiry as to the mission there, gave a silver medal to Dr. Thompson, the medical missionary, and with his queen sent letters of warm congratulation to our laborers, with substantial gifts from him~ self and his royal wife, amounting to some $2,500 !

We turn now to cite a few marked examples of the grace of God manifested in connection with missions in Siam. The first convert was a (Jhinese teacher, Qua Kien~, who was baptized in 1844, and after fifteen years of faithful service died in 1859.. Three of his children became disciples and one a minister of the gospel. That year of his death, 1859, saw the first Siamese convert, Xai Ohune-a curious" apostolic succession." Thirty years before, Gutzlaff had sown the first seed; twelve years before, Dr. House and Rev. Mr. Mattoon had arrived in Bangkok, the mission center ; and now the harvest had begun. Nai Ohune adorned the gospel. So anxious was he to be unhindered in serving Ohrist and souls that he steadily adhered to medical practice as the means of self-support and refused all offices, however honorable and lucrative.

But though converts have never multiplied in Siam with rapidity, there have been marked examples of the silent, pervasive work of missions and especially of the Word of God. For example Dr. Bradley died in 1873. Four years afterward, in 1877, a venerable patriarch of seventy-three years visited for medical advice the Laos Mission at Ohieng Mai. He sought hf?lp for deafness, and referred to Ohrist's miracles of healing as one who was familiar with the Bible. He was found to be chief officer of the court in the province of Lakawn. How mistaken we are when we judge the gospel's power by noisy demonstrations. Twenty years before, in 1857, while visiting Bangkok, this old man had, from Dr. Bradley, received religious books in Siamese. Though the lan~ua~e is essentially the same, the Laonese characters are so different that, in order to read them, he had to learn Siamese. .Then in his mind and heart God's light began to shine, and he came to Ohieng Mai for further instruction; he found Ohrist, and for His sake braved all peril, and to his efforts we owe the opening of a new mission in his native city, Lakawn.

Similarly, at Petchaburi, Rev. Mr. Dunlap found an old disciple, nigh unto death, who had from that same Dr.. Bradley got portions of the Word of God, and who by secret study found a Saviour in Ohrist and put away his idols. Though taught to pray by the Spirit only, he astonished the missionary by his attainments in prayer, and his progress in piety.

Numbers cannot represent results. During the last reported year, the prime minister, who has in Ratbari one of his residences, after repeatedly expressing his wish for a mission there, now offers a large brick house, free, for mission uses; and will aid in securing other necessary buildings for medical mission, school, etc. And a lady in Philadelphia has offered the $5,000 necessary to support the physician and clergyman who go to occupy this new parish of 50,000 to 75,000 souls.

Siam was not opened by gunpowder or diplomacy, but by missionary influence, and the whole aspect of the nation, and its attitude toward Ohristianity, are gradually undergoing a change ; the preaching, the

MADAGASCAR. 351'

teaching, the press and the medical missions are the four conspicuous agencies which God is now using to bring Siam to Christ. With what results, a single 'example may give a hint of the possibilities of the near future.

When the present king, by a sad accident some years since lost his wife, his brother came to the missionaries for a copy of the New Testa- ment; and gave as a reason for the request, that the king had lolft faith in his own religion; that he could find nothing in Buddhism to console him in his great grief. It might cost the king his crown, or even his life, to renounce the state religion; yet this bereaved mon- arch flies to the Christian's Bible for the solace that his pagan creed cannot supply! Siam may be much nearer to becoming a Christian nation than we think! The additional fact should be put on record that the first zenana teaching ever attempted in the East was by mis- sionary women, in 1851, among the thirty wives and royal sisters of the King of Siam.

MADAGASOAR. "A nation shall be born in a day."

BY L. P. BROCKETT, M.D., BROOKLYN, N. Y. I. ITS GEOGRAPHY, ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY TO 1818. MADAGASCAR stands third in size among the islands of the world (Australia being now reckoned as a continent), only Borneo and Papua (New Guinea) exceed it in area. It is 9'15 miles in length, and 250 to 350 miles in breadth. Its area is 230,000 square miles, or 145,838,742 square acres-about five times as large as the State of Pennsylvania. It is in the Indian Ocean, almost wholly in the Southern Tropical Zone, and is separated from the eastern . coast of Africa by the Mozambique Channel, which varies in width from 220 to 540 miles. North and north-northwest of Madagascar are several groups of islands whichare inhabited by mixed races-African, Malagasy, and Arab; eastward, or northeastward, are the two considerable islands of Mauritius, an Eng- lish colony, and Reunion, 01' Bourbon, belonging to the French. There are good harbors on the northwest and northeast, and a few on the east coast, but most of the latter are not protected from the southeast winds. The island'has: 1. Lowlands, extending from 25 to 50 miles back from the coast, generally sandy or marshy, fiat, intensely hot, and generally sickly. 2. A forest belt on the foothills, rising from 400 to 2,000 feet above the low- lands, varying in width from 20 to 40 miles; widest on the western slope, and toward the southern part of the island becoming a barren and sandy desert, with extensive lava beds. This forest is well watered, and contains much valuable timber, many of the trees being peculiar to the island. Por- tions of it, particularly the central and northern portions, form a dense and almost impenetl'able jungle, the Hanas 01' climbing plants being closely in- terwoven with the boughs of the treeii. This forest region, like most of the jungles in tropical countries, is damp and sickly, except to the natives. The temperature is less oppressive than that of the coast, but often reaches 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and seldom falls below 45 degrees. 3. The highland region, the watershed or backbone of the island, which bears the marks of extensive upheaval and volcanic disturbance in former times. There are more than a dozen summits of varying elevation, from 6,000 to 8,200 feet above the sea, several of them having extinct craters and streams of l&va, whose surface is in some places as yet unbroken. The hills, valleys, and ta.blelands of this highland region are healthful, the climate is dehghtful, the range of the thermometer being only from 40 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The scenery is superb and the lands exceedingly fertile. There are two seasons, the rainy and the dry; in the latter the skies are mostly unclouded, but the mountain streams and lakes supply the necessary moisture, and the crops are abundant. In the more sandy plains irriga~ion, which is easily pl'acticed, gives enormous results.

The watershed is nearer to the east coast than to the west, and while the streams deicending the eastern slope of the mountains are mostly moun- tain torrents, never navigable more than from six to ten miles, those faU- ing into the Mozambique Channel from the western slope are much longer, and some of them, having a ciL'cuitous course,.are navigable from 80 to 100 miles. ..

Madagascar is very rich in mineral wealth. Gold, silver, lead, copper, tin, and iron of the best qualities; antimony, plumbago, and other metals and minerals abound. Coal, bO,th anthracite and bituminous, exists in great quantities, and diamonds have been discovered. As the government claims all minerals and metals, these have not been largely worked. Madagascar has no large or ferocious wild animals; its quadrupeds are nearly all peculiar to the island, and consist of many genera and species of lemurs (which belong to the monkey family), several species of ant and other insect-eaters, a small hippopotamus, civet cats, a number of rodents, and the aye-aye. There are many reptiles, lizards without number, one species of crocodile, iguanas and geckoes, as well as several pythons, mostly of the American or anaconda type. Birds are numerous, and for the most part are of beautiful plumage. Some of the species are fine song birds, but very few birds of prey. Thirty-three genera and more than 50 species are peculiar to the island, and a somewhat larger number are found in Africa or Polynesia also.• Fish are abundant along the coast, and in the rivers there are many peculiar fresh-water species. The domestic animals have been largely introduced. The flora of Madagascar is abundant, and there SJ,re about 700 out of 8,000 genera and species which are peculiar to the island. Many of its flowers are of wonderful beauty. The trees are largely indigenous and peculiar. Much of the timber is very valuable, and some of the products of the forest are of great commercial importance. Among these are five or six trees and vines producing caoutchouc, some of it said to be the finest in the world, the pepper and the tallow trees, the copal tree, the sago palm, the aloe, many species of figs, the pomegranate, the tamarind, quassia, sugar cane, and other shrubs; the manioc, several species of arrowroot, and many other edible roots and tubers abound, while of the cereals their rice is unsurpassed, and wheat, millet, Indian corn, and barley are largely pro- duced. Ethnology and tribal divisions. The aboriginal race, now nearly or quite extinct, came here from the African coast. They were called Vaquimba, and were probably Zulus or Kaffirs. The existing inhabitants are of two affiliated races, both from Polynesia' or Eastern Malaysia. The first migration of these, comprising most of the coast and' some of the intel'ior tribes, must have come to the island about the beginning of the Christian era. They drove the Vaquimba into the interior, but there were extensive intermarriages between them, and also with the slaves who were brought in great numbers from the East African coast. These tribes, of which the Sakalava and Bara are the principal, are dark. skinned, with curly and frizzled, but not woolly, hair; tall and vigorous, with fine forms. They are a sly, perfidious, brutal, and arrogant people, universally addicted to theft, and given to drinking, fighting, and plundering. About A.D. 1000 there came another tribe, or perhaps two, from Eastern Polynesia, who, landing on the island, soon pushed their way into the interior or mountain region, and exterminating the 17aquimba, who had fled thither from the west coast, occupied their lands, and increased very rapidly. These were the Hovas and the Betsileos. The Hovas are of much lighter color than the coast tribes, with straight black hair, fine and soft, and sometimes inclined to curl. TheIr complexion and features are much like the Malays, and are not much darker than those of the Spaniards and Italians. They are rather below the middle stature, butof erect figure, and with delicate and finely-formed limbs, and they are agile and graceful in their movements.

The Betsileos are larger, the men averaging six feet, the women from five feet seven to five feet mne inches. Their complexion is darker than that of the Hovas, and their hair more crisp and curly. As to moral character and intelligence, they are somewhat below the Hovas. The B~tanimena and Betsimisaraka resemble the Hovas much more than any of the other tribes.

There are, according to the latest authorities, 22 provinces or tribal diVISions of the territory, some of them sub-divided into districts, making a total of (so-called) provinces and sub-provinces of 28. These are occupied by fourteen tribes, some of them divided in clans, and these clans seventy years ago, and even fifty years ag'o, were often fighting each other. Wars of conquest, to obtain either territory or slaves, were constant between the tribes prior to 1820, and have not been infrequent since that time.

The great province of Imerina, occupying the central and highland portion of the island, is the largest of all the provinces; and has been occupied for several centuries by the Hovas, who are now the most numerous and intelligent of the Malagasy tribes. Sixty or seventy years ago they num_ bered but 750,000 or 800,000 souls while the Betsileo, an adjacent highland tribe, numbered 1,500,000, but owing to changes produced by wars, civilization, etc., the Hovas have now about 1,300,000; and the Betsileos only from 650,000 to 750;000. In the earlier history of Madagascar, the Hovas seem to have been unknown to those who visited the coast; the Sakalava, the largest of the coast tribes, having a population estimated at 1,200,000, the Betsileos, from 1,200,000 to 1,500,000, the Betanimena and Betsimisaraka about as many, and the Bara, a particularly savage and ferocious tribe, about 600,000. There were some smaller tribes, numbering in all, perhaps, 300,000 more. It is probable that at that period the Hovas were included among the Betanimena and Betsimisaraka, to whom they are apparently affiliate.d by race characteri,stics. The condition of all these Malagasy tribes in the first decade of the presen t century was deplorable, much lower than that of our most degraded Indian tribes, whom, nevertheless, in their habits, customs and worship, they resembled. They had no written language, and, except in the case of the Hovas, no regular form of government; their wars were constant, and ended either in butchery or enslavement of the defeated party. They were lustful, brutal and cruel; some of the tribes were reputed to be cannibals; all were treacherous, thievish and revengeful. Polygamy was general, and they had acquired ·from the foreigners who had visited them the most loathsome vices of civilization. Some of the tribes had a vague idea of a Supreme Being, but they addressed to Him no worship or adoration. The worship of ancestors, though common, was not universal; but they had rude idols and fetiches as foolish and absurd as those of the African races; sticks, stones, roots, and forms of animals. There was not a temple or idol house in all Madagascar, but there were idol-keepers, akin to the African medicine men.

They had an ordeal for detecting crime, called tangena-the decoction of a poisonous bean, indigenous to the island, which the accnsed was compelled to drink. Such were the people to whom the gospel was to come, to heal, to purify, to elevate, to educate, and to redeem.

History before 1820. Though discovered in medireval times, Madagascar was not explored, or any colony landed upon its shores, till 1506, when the Portuguese began a series of efforts to enslave and Christianize its tribes.

The Portuguese Jesuit priests landed on the northeast and northwest coasts, bearing the crucifix, and attempting to convert them, while right behind them came the Portuguese slave trader, with his comes and fetters, ready to hurry all the unarmed natives he could find on board hls ships, and sell them to the Arabs, or take them to the European markets, where they brought a good price. The Sakalava, who were the tribes most usually encountered, did not admire thls method of conversion, and after a month or two they fell upon the colonists and massacred them all. This was repeated so many times, that the Portuguese finally abandoned all further efforts to plant colonies there. In 1642 the French undertook, under a grant from the French king, to colonize Madagascar very much after the Portuguese fashion.

At first they were more successful, but presently they, too, attempted to enslave the natives, and after forty years of successive efforts to establish themselves at various points on the coast, which in every case terminated in massacre and expulsion, they surrendered their charter to the King of France from whom they had received it, and abandoned the island. For nearly fifty years (1686-1733), the French did not annoy the natives, though occasionally English and Dutch slavers picked up along the coast cargoes of slaves. In 1733, the French renewed their efforts to take possession of the island, planting their trading forts at various points on the main island, and on one or two of the small islands adjacent, and wlth much the same results as before, the deadly fevers of the coast aiding in the destruction of the colonies. From 1786 to 1807, the French had no settlement on the island, but about that time they established a small colony and trading fort at Nosy-be, an island near the northwest corner of Madagascar. In 1811 the English Government having captured Mauritius, the Isle of France, as the French had called it, claimed also its dependencies, of which Madagascar was the chief, and in February of that year took possession of Tamatave and Foule Point, two small trading forts, these being all which the French then claimed on the island of Madagascar. This capture was ratified by the two treaties with France in 1814 and 1815. • Up to this time neither the French nor any other European nation seem to have had any knowledge of the Hovas or their chief or king; but Captain Le Sage, the British agent or commissioner, who was charged with the establish- ment of English authority and trade in Madagascar, had discovered that they were a very powerful tribe, and that their King, Radama I., was the thirty- second in the line of the Kings of the Hovas; and he assembled at Port Louis in 1817 four of Radama's representatives (two of them his brothers), one of the nobles of the BetanimEma, the chief of Tamatave, two chiefs of the Betsimisaraka, and two southern chiefs; he formed with them treaties, offensive and defensive, taking the oath of blood" with them, and succeeded in abolishing the export slave trade. By a subsequent treaty, made with Mr. '

Hastie, the commissioner who had succeeded Captain Le Sage, the British Government agreed to pay Radama I., as a compensation for his loss of: revenue from the slave trade, $2,000 in gold and silver, muskets. accouter- ments, flints, uniforms, powder, etc., ;nnually, and to furnish an in- structor in military tactics. .

Radama I. had ascended the throne as King of Imerina in 1810, and had under his sway about 1,206,000 people, mostly Hovas. His father, Impoina.

had commenced a career of conquest over the other tribes on the island.

and Radama, who was ambitious and able, was desirous of completing it.

This alliance with Great Britain gave him 'the means of doing so. Mr.

Hastie, the British Commissioner, proved a wise counselor, and under his suggestions Radama became anxious to have his people educated, and to have -schools established. From these small beginnings there followed the great work of civilization and evangelization.

II. EMERGING FROM HEATHENISM.

That God does have special purposes of mercy, in regard to nations sunk in the darkness of heathpnism, seems to be proved in many cases. How deep was the degradation of,many of the tribes which inhabited Great Britain in the first century of our era. Blood-thirsty, addicted to human sacrifices, worshipers of idols, and utterly given over to cruelty, what but His special Providence could have brought England and America up to its present Christian civilization and culture?

Madagascar is another and even a more striking example of-His Providen· tial dealing. Here these tribes had lived, for a thousand years and more, barbarom., probably cannibals, with but few religious ideas. constantly engaged in wars, either with each other or with other islands and the main- land, reducing the conquered to slavery, massacring those foreigners who attempted to colollize their lands, and resisting, with an instinctive horror, the attempts of French-Jesuits to brmg them into subjection, and to fasten their faith upon them; their case seemed utterly hopeless, but .. There is a wideness in God's mercy Like the wideness of the sea,"

and in the space of seventy yeaL's these wild savages have become a Christian nation, ChrIstian not only in its Christian temples and worship, in its family altars, and its new-found zeal, but in the holy living, the gentle yet firm adherence to the gospel of Christ, the readiness to endure martyrdom for-His sake, and that sublime forgiveness of injuries and wrongs, and readi- ness to bestow kindness on their enemies, which they could only have learned from the Sermon on the Mount.

When Radama I. ascended the throne in 1810, no tribe of the Malagasy, not even the Hovas, who were in many respects the most advanced of all the tribes, had a written language; all were warhke, cruel and blood-thirsty, false, deceitful and dishonest, lustful and treacherous, suspicious and revengeful. They had no clear ideas of a Supreme Being. and no notion of a future state. There had never been Moliammedanism or any other system of false religion on the island, but simply fetichism and the worship of ancestors. Their king, at first King of the Hovas only, and not even of all of them, had, by his ambition and enterprise, and by his courage and audacity, so far subdued the numerous tribes on the island, that he was justified in assuming the title of King of Madagascar, and his right to that title was recognized by Great Britain, and later by France. He was a man of considerable ability, ahd sufficient foresight to know that It was best to form an alliance with some European power, and thus obtain for his people a written language, and, what he valued still more, arms and instruction for his army in military matters, that he might be more successful in/his schemes of conquest.

Through the influence of the British Resident, Mr. Hastie, he was induced to permit the London Missionary Society to establish schools and churches there; to reduce the language to writing, and to translate the Scriptures and other books into the Malagasy tongue; and to prohibit the foreign slave trade. He kept his promises to the English Government; but for himself, he was an uncultured barbarian and savage; his wars were marked by constant rapine and license; his government was stern and often cruel, and his priv- a.te life stained by lust and polygamy. The idol worship, a sort of fetichism, was maintained throughout his reign, the idol-keepers received their offerings, and the worship of ancestors was as active as ever. Yet it may be said to his credit, that he did not suffer the missionaries to be molested in their work during his life. .

These'missionaries of the London Missionary Society left England early in 1818, and commenced their work in Madagascar at once. There was much preliminary work to be done; the language was to be reduced to writmg, and thoroughly mastered, school-houses and churches built, the desire for education awakened, and even the first elements of the knowledge of God, as a supreme Governor and Ruler of the universe, introduced into these darkened minds; then they were to be taught the guilt and destructiveness of sin, and the need of a Redeemer, and made to comprehend that Jesus had come to be their Saviour. The work was great, and the oppositIon of the idol-keepers was intense and malignant, but in a wonderfully short time they began to see the fruits of their labors. The· Spirit of God illumined these dark heart;, and they crowded to the mission-houses to hear the Word of God, and soon a Pentecostal season was presented to the eyes of the as- tonished missio)1aries. In 1828, ten years after they left England, the ScrIp- tures of the New Testament were translated into this soft and beautiful tongue, hymns of faith and hope, such as had cheered the saints of God in other lands, were translated, set to music and sung; 100 schools had been established and 10,000 children were under il1struction; 15,000 of the people were hopefully converted and between 7,000 and 8,000 had professed their faith in the chu,rches ; already some of the most promising converts had be- gun to preach the gospel they had so lately received, and as the Malagasy are" a natIOn of orators," their preaching was attended with great and pre- ciO).lS results. The churches, "walkmg in the fear of the Lord and the com- fort of the Holy Ghost, were greatly enlarged and multiplied." But the time was soon coming, when thegenuinenes8 of this work was to be tested by the fires of persecution. .

On the 27th of July, 1828, Radama 1. died at the age of thirty-six. His suc- cessor should have been, according to Oriental custom, his nephew, the son of his sister, a very worthy young man, but Radama's second wife (he had twelve), a bigoted idol worshiper, and a woman who rivaled in hel'

crimes Catharine II. of Russia, though she' did not possess her intellectual or political ability, aided by some of the idol-keepers, intrigued for, and ob- tained the throne. No sooner was she fairly established, than she put to death every near relative of the late king, and every prominent noble who had favored Rakoto, the legitimate heir to the throne. She was crowned in 1829 as Ranavalona 1. She soon issued a decree forbidding any foreigne~s, especially Europeans, from coming into her dominions; and soon after an other, prohibiting the missionaries from teaching religion to the Malagasy, or 357 holding any meetings or societies which should be attended by them; they might teach sciences, or the mechanic arts, but not religion, and all churches must be closed. Most of the missionaries left the island in 1833. In 1834 another decree was promulgated forbidding any meeting public or private of the people to talk of reLigion, under penalty of arrest, and if found guilty, of punishment by death. Under this decree many Christians were banished and a few put to death.

In 1835 a fanatic, who had mingled some Christian doctrine with his prayers to his idols, and had approached the queen's palace to address her in regard to his creed, was seized and put to death, 'and the rage of the quep.n being roused by this incident, she issued a decree that all persons suspected of being Christians should be arrested and examined, and if they did not disavow their belief in Christ and offer worship to ta~ idols, they should be put to death. Nobly did the Christians stand this test. Some fied, but very few would deny Christ. Some ~vere beheaded, others beaten to death, others still, and a large number, were hurled from the lofty rock on which the City of Antananarivo, the capitol, is built, and fell mangled corpses at its base.

The present Prime Minister of Madagascar relates an incident in connection with this slaughter, of which his father, one of the judges, was a witness: A mother and daughter were brought for examination; the mother confessed her faith in Christ, refused to worship the idols, and was summarily thrown over the rock; then the daughter, a beautiful girl of fifteen, came forward and said: "I, too, am a Christian; throw me over." The judge said. "She is only a child, and does not know what she is saying; take her away." But the young girl was firm. "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," she said, "and I will not worship idols. Throw me over I" Once more the judge tried to save her. "My child," he said, "life is sweet to you. Only bow your head ever so slightly toward the idol, and you shan be free. I will take you to my own home." "No!" said the young maiden, "I will bow to no God but Jesus Christ. He is my Saviour. Throw me over." And throw her over, they did. More than two 'thousand were put to death at this time (1849) by this cruel queen, because they would not deny Christ, and several thousand more in the course of her reign; others were subjected to torture, and many more to the ordeal by drinking' the tangena, a poison prepared to try the guilt or innocence of suspected persons. But it was not alone against the Christiab subjects of this bloody queen that her malignant and murderous temper was manifested. On various pretenses, the most common one being that they were conspiring against her, she put to death most of the principal men in her realm; and when her son, whom she claimed as the son of Radarna, though born about a year after his death, had arrived at,his eighteenth or nineteenth year, and had shown a disposition to be more merciful than his mother, and to pity the Christians whom she persisted in slaughtering, she tried toput him to death for conspiring against her. She was, during most of her reign, constantly engaged in wars with the other tribes on the island; andas her armies were badly handled, and her treacherous management was notorious, she almost depopulated whole provinces of Imerina and the adjacent country: It was estimated that more than a million men, women, and children perished in.her wars. The French made repeated attempts to establish settlements on the coast, but were repulsed either by her ambushes or by the deadly fevers 'of the coast. At length her own people grew tired of her op_ pression, and would have dethroned her had not SICkness attacked her hitherto robust frame, and weakened her imperious WIll. She lingered for some

TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES

months, and finally died on the 16th of August, 1861, one of her last acts, July 3, 1861, being the ordering of a new and more terrible persecution against the Christians, of whom she had obtained a list. Many perished under this edict, but the new king, her son, proclaimed universal amnesty and the restoration oC property to all Christians. Thus died, after thirty-three years' reign, Ranavalona I., "unwept, unhonored and unsung." Her whole administration was unmarked by a single good or noble act.

(Concluded in our next number.) TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.

BY REV. CHAS. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.

THE Allgemeine Missions.Zeitschrijt sums up the work in East Africa thus: .. There are to-day. within the Lake Region of East Africa. extending to the coast. from Kilimanjo,ro in the nort! .to the highlands of the Shire in the south (not reckoning some little out stations) 44 Protestaut missionaries. inclUSIve of the unordained. such as physicians, a.rtisans, agriculturists, teachers, ma.le a.nd female . .A. small number,.itis true, compared with the extent of the region. which is from five to six times as large as the whole German Empire. But if we bear in mind that some 15 years back two little missionary attempts were all that was fonnd here: the little Kisulutini and the then rather inert Universities Mission on Z..nzibar Island. it is. after all. not so trifling an advance which Protestant missions have made here in a decade and a half. We must consider also the sacrifices which these achievements have cost: not in money merely. or mainly. but the sacrifice of human lives and human health. At least fifty men and several women bave given up tbeir lives for East Africa, some of them noble, highly-gifted men. In view of these facts, we are compelled into reverence for the Christian heroism which. thank God. still lives in evangelical missionary circles. There have not yet been great visible results. The time has been too short for this, especially as the unhealthiness of the climate has necessitated a frequeut change of laborers, and the languages are yet but little known. while EastAfrica has been involved in difficulties peculiar to herself. The baptisms which bave taken place (perhaps about 1800 m all) are all in the English missions. which (with the exception of the L. ni. S. on Lake Tanganyika) are tbe earliest. The German missions are not yet beyond incipiency.' , The Zeitschrijt, in a very favorable notice of the Atlas published by the Church Missionary Society, takes occasion tQ correct a few inaccuracies. Thus: it states that the Unitas Fratrum commenced its work in South Africa as late as 1792. Its continuous work dates from then, but its first missionary, George Schmidt, landed in 1737. The Basel Society is credited, on the Gold Coast, with 4,000 "adherents," while in fact it has more than 7,000 baptized members. Most of the European societies, I may remark, baptize those who. after competent instruction, are ready to break definitively with heathenism. Only a minority of these are commonly admitted to the communion. These societies, therefore, need three headings: Adherents, Baptized Members, Communicants. The Atlas, moreover, gives the whole number of Protestant Christians in Africa as about 800,000, whereas, the Zeitschrijt remarks, it should be put (inclusive of Madagascar) at fully twice that amount.

Dr. Warneck, in the preface to his work on "Missions in the Light of the Bible," remarks: "It is. to me, a peculiar happiness. that. by God's grace. peculiar acceptance is falling to the sbare, above all. of these Biblical views of missions. Unless I err. what the missionary work now needs. as first and foremost. is to be deepened. And to he deepened. it is above all needful that It should be plunged and bathedm God's word. Aud, moreover. for the first awakening of agenullle missionary life, I am. as I grow older, more and more convinced that it is the Bible which must do tbe chief work."

The Zeitschrijt in its keenly critical, and therefore more valuable,remarks on the late Missionary Conference says: .

.. In tbe various gatherings at thIS conference. both at the begiDning and throughout Its course, we were struck with the fact that prayer occupied a place of greater prominenc~ and dignity than is commonly the case with us in similar conferences, where prayer is too often treated as an official necessity which cannot be evaded, while in London it was easy to mark the spirit of earnestness and genuine fervor."

The following is a passage from a sermon 01 General Superintendent Lohr, of Kassel, Germany, reported in the Zeitsch1"ift. A superintendent in Germany is a clergyman of virtually Episcopal functions: ••• Behold, I have set before thee an open door.' These are the words in which the Lord is now addressing every missionary society. But whether there ~s energy in store, to avail themselves of this access which He has secured for them, whether missionaries will be found who will go in through the opened gates, that, beloved, depends on the inward state of the· church which supports the missions, on her self-devotion, and power in prayer. 'Where a great door is opened there, too, are always many adversaries. Paul experienced this in Ephesus, and no less does the church in her missionary work of to·day. Whether the skeptical doubts which are expressed concerning this work are recognized and rejected as futile, depends on whether there are men in every place that lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting, who know how to pray in the name of Jesus, and who, out of the riches of Hia promise, know how to draw upon heavenly assistance for th'work enjoined. As we shall do little for missions until we are thoroughly in earnest with our giving, so, still earlier, must we come to be thoroughly in earnest with our praying.

.. We must learn to pray in the name of Jesus for missions, and for this it is not enough that we do something, and give something, for them. We must enter into true and complete communion of life with Him-absolutely give up individual interest, and place ourselves wholly at His disposal. The promise that our prayer shall be heard is conjoined by the Lord Jesus with the parable of the vine and the branches. • If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what yewill, and it shall be done unto you.' It is such people that the Holy Ghost in our time is seeking-such that He is seeking to bring together out of all church communions; people who are thoroughly in earnest in their devotion to the work of the Lord, and to the Lord of the work. Where there are Christians, who present their souls for the name of the Lord Jesus, resolved for His name to do everything, for His name to suffer everything, these the Holy Spirit also introduces into the use of the name of Jesus, and brings them, through experiences of the hearing of prayer, into the attainment of a. consummate joy. There was great joy among the disciples when they saw their Jesus, risen from the dead, again in bodily presence in their midst. But yet greater joy was theirs when they discovered that to the requests which they made known before God in the name of Jesus for the success of His cause, an answer descended frolIl heaven. Whoever has experienced answers to prayer will acknowledge with me that they are the very jewels in our ..emembrances of the past. Peter names as the end of faith a joy un- speakable and full of glory. And answers to prayer bring into the heart the foretaste of such a joy. These anslVers to prayer blot out our doubts, confirm our adoption, whose privi- lege and prerogative the Father makes good to us thereby. They draw aside the curtain that hangs between our Father's house and the frail tabernacles of our pilgrimage, and give us to look into the royal law of liberty, according to whose pattern God is redeeming this world of death out of the curse resting on it, and transforming it into the glory for which it was destined and created."

The Zeitschrift has some keen remarks upon Canon Taylor's ostentatious patronage of Islam: .. I am not acquamted with the antecedents of this gentleman." [The writer is not-aware, evidently, of the philological eminence of Canon Taylor, and of his familiarity with the East. This, however, does not imply any profound knowledge of the religious worth of Mohammedanism. And whether it concerned Islam or heathenism, it IS with good reason that the German writer goes on to say:] .. O/missionary matters he knew nothing. Yet, on the strength of his general culture, he imagined himself competent, after a preparation of a few weeks, or perhaps a few months, to present a paper respecting one of the most difficult questions m the field of missions. If he had merely assumed to instruct the Church (;ongrp.ss this might have passed, as most of them probably know at least as little about the matter as himself. But he has also undertaken to instruct and to rebuke those who ha.ve at least labored in the cause as many years as he has probably spent days upon the study of It. A few facts and figures hastily thrown together" [like those by which he has converted Sir William Hunter's fifty millions of Hindu races waiting for conversion to Christianity mto half a million] .. had given him the courage to assume the air of an expert."

The Berliner Missions-Berichte, at the end of the year 1888, report the finances of the Berlin Society as in a favorable state, partly in consequence of larger amounts paid in to cover the deficit, partly as the result of a great bazaar held in Berlin in March, and realizing $6,000, partly through larger receipts of the Collecting Society (Sammelverein). In these ways the deficit of April 1, 1888, namely, $30,721.76, has been reduced to $12,062.65.

The editor of the Allgemeine-]rissionszeitschrijt thinks that in the present fervor of zeal against the East African slave-trade there is likely to be a good deal of hot-headed crusading, which, like the earlier crusades, will cost a great deal and accomplish little. He is very jealous, it appears to me too jealous, of the credit which Cardinal Lavigede is acquiring. But his opinion is always well worth attention. He says: .. There are times when great and noble aims encounter stroug opposition, and only slowly and with difficulty" in the adhesion of wider circles. And there are times when there is a universal enthusiasm for them, and indeed i~ almost becomes the mode. At ~uch times there goes, as it were, a general fever of hallucination (0. mad intoxication) through the world, and people arc very sensitive over anything like a sober criticism. But these intoxicated enthusiasms are commonly a fire of straw. Some years ago it was the Coloninl fever, now it is the anti-slavery fever. In the time of the colonial fever a man ran gr oat danger of being accuserlof a want of patriotism, if he so much as endeavored to instrt a few drops of modest consideration into the boundless enthusiasm which promised itself nothing but mountains of gold. To-day he might well fear that he would be acco)lnted a defender of slavery If I,e should preach patience in regard to the removal of this great evil. and should warn against the large employment of force."

Canon Taylor, in his recent contemptuous disparagements of the present missionary activity of the Protestant churches, m~,kes great use of compu- tation, and reckons how many thousand, or scores of thousands of years, at the present rate of conversion, it would require to overtake the mcrease of the world's population in a single year. Dr. Warneck makes the following application of his principle: In the apostolic age the population of the Ro- man Empire reached about 120,000,000. Reckoning the births each year as twelve per thousand, we have an annual increase of 1,440,000. According to tolerably trustworthy estimates there were at the end of the first century- that is, about 70 yeQrs after ChrIst's public appearance, about 200,000 Chris- tians. Therefore, assuming that the population had remained stationary, it; should have reqliired 500 years to overtake the increase of a single year, and 42,000 years to convert the population. Assuming, however, that the terri- ble pestilences and other calamities of the first six centuries after Christ had l'educed it one-half, it would titill have requir~d 21,000 years to Christianize it. Yet before A. D. 600 heathenism had entirely disappeared from the em- pire. The ::tpo::;tles did not have a Canon Taylor as the keeper of their con- sciences, but the Holy Spirit of power and love, and of a sound mind, and, therefore, went on to convert the kingdoms, leaving statistics to take care of themselves. '7e wonder whether Canon Taylor has. ever heard of a law of increase called geometrical progression r "The apostles, Herr Canon," says Dr. Warneck, "wcre probably not, like yourself, great arithmeticians, but they were heroef; of faith. They believed, with full and firm conviction, what is written in the bst of Matthew concerning the omnipotent omni- presence of thoir Saviolll' with them. Therefore, they said: 'To a minority with Jesus belongs victory and the future. .' And we now see that the event has justified their faith."

The editor L f the Zeitschrift subjects Canon Taylor's assumption, that the present l·n.te of increase is the perpetual rate of increase, to the scrutiny of facts. Thus, in China, there were of native Protestant Christians (assuming communicants to be one-third of the whole) :

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS

1857. 1867. 1877. 1887, abo 2,000 14,800 39,000 95,000 Moreover, in the first fifteen years the annual rate of increase was about 133, in the first decade following 1,280; the sec.ond 2,420, the third 5,600.

Accepting Canon Taylor's scornful comparison of the tortoise and the train, and assuming that this progression of the rate of increase continues in China for 100 years, the tortoise will by that time have far outstripped the train.

In Japan, assuming the same proportion of native Christians to commu- nicants in the Protestant churches, we have: 1876. 1882. 1886. 1887. abo 3,000 14,500 43,000 68,000 In five years the number had much more than tripled.

In Airica things are but in their beginning, and we can give but vague guesses. But that the same law obtains there as in China. and Japan ap- pears from two proofs derived from opposite sides of Africa. In Guinea the Basel Missionary Society, whose labors there have been sadly checked by the climate, but which has had a mission there since 1827, shows the following results. Native Christians: 1857. 1867. 1877. 1887. 367 1,509 3,607 7,495 That is, the rate of increase, instead of remaining stationary to please Canon Taylor, persisted in advancing with the age of the mission. In thirty years the number of converts had increased twenty-fold.

"In Madagascar the Protestant missionaries began their work in 1818.

After ten years there were only 50 Malagese catechumens. Then followed a generati9n of persecution, compelling the missIonaries to leave the island.

Yet, at the end of 1868, there were 37,112 Christians, and this number, in consequence of the conversion of the Queen, had, in 1878, grown to about 250,000. The increase here, therefore, was by leaps and bounds. making the talk about tortoise and train idiotic. Now, however, a check ensued because the evangelical societies would not content themselves with a mere external reception of Christianity. Accordingly.now came a time of training and sifting. In the last ten years, therefore, the increase relatively has not been important, perhaps 50,000 for all the Protestant societies, besides the 73,000, more or less, claimed by the Roman Catholics. I adduce precisely this ex- ample ( , Madagascar to illustrate the absurdity of these Taylorian 'com- putations.' When God'~ hour has struck, 'a natiol1 may be born in a day;'

and on the other hand, when such <1 draught has been taken that the nets begin to break, a long time together may be almost wholly occupied with sorting the fishes. Indeed, for a while the ~riters may be all fished out."

To return to India, which has to bear the brunt of Canon Taylor's con- temptuous incredulity as to the prosPElcts of missions, we find, of native Protestant Christians, including Ceylon: 1861. 1871. • 1881. 213,370 318,363 52~,590 The number thus has donbled in about fifteen years.

STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. REPORTS from 262 colleges show that 47 presidents and 31 corresponding secretaries of College Y. M. C. A.s are volunteers. The list of volunteers represents 240 colleges. Mr. R. P. Wilder reports that God is blessing his efforts greatly, and asks' the prayers of volunteers. The students in Lane Seminary propose to unite with a neighboring church in supporting a missionary. Fifty men in Lebanon, Tenn., have pledged $350 for the support of an alumnus in the foreign field. Twelve students and one professor in the R. P. Seminary, West Virgima, have pledged a like amount, and hope to get $100 more. Mr. Wilder's visits have not only awakened a deeper interest in this financial' problem, and urged the personal claim of foreign missions, but, besides, souls are being brought to Christ.

The students of the United Presbyterian Seminary at Allegheny, and those of Grove City, Westminster, and some other institutions, have combined to send out the Rev. J. H. Martin to India. The students in the seminarvat Xenia, and some others, and churches like the Third Church, Pittsbu;gh, and the Second, Fourth, and perhaps First, Allegheny, are each taking up a particular missionary. either in the field or about to go, and providing for his support. Care must be taken to see that in no case shall the raising of funds for such purpose interfere with the carrying on of the regular expenses of the missions. Thus far, in every case. such assurance has been given.

One who has lately decided to become a missionary writes: "I feel a new interest and increased zest in life. I have now a motive power which bids me waste my time no longer. I wish to go out to Japan, if I have to pay my own expenses out, and spend my life in telling of Christ and Him crucified."

Reports from the foreign mission boards, though not complete, show 103 volunteel's sent, and 16 others appointed. Nineteen have gone to Japan, 18 to China, and 16 to India; in smaller numbers, to Turkey, Syl'ia, Siam and Laos, Persia, Mexico, Korea, Burmah, Bulgaria, and Africa. Forty-nine colleges are represented, ana 12 mission boards. The Y. M. C. A. Foreign Education Committee has sent out 9. Of the 103 all'eady sailed, 66 are men and 37 women.

An English gentleman looks upon this army of volunteers as applying for positions of $1,000 a year, and does not find the fact very stimulating. He says: "I entirely concur in all the reasons you give for 'going,' only shonld not the 'word 'volnnteering' be snbstituted for' going,' tbis' going' being in so many cases still such a very remote con· tingency 1 By all means emphasize that word' going,' and ask the Lord to show you how far yoor 'going' is conditional or otherwise. • Pot your own precepts into practice l' I re-echo your 'cry, •Oh, for 500 Elijahs, each one on his Moont Carmel, crying UNTO GoD (not unto the churches). Then we should soon have the clouds bnrsting with blessing.

.. Referring again to yonr appeal as it stands, if the chnrches refuse to give you reasonable aid, it may be that the churches will be disgraced; bnt, to quote your own words, • does go mean stay' until the churches will guarantee you the comforts and luxuries they provide for others 1 As you very jnstly point out, the heathen are dying at the rate of 100,000 a day, not only while the churches hesitate abont snbscribing so large a sum for salaries, but while you are waiting for them to do 80/ Depend upon It, dear friends, that if you wonld only devote your energies as did the Cambridge Band, to enforcing on all, commencing at yourselves, the necessity of sanctification in its widest sense ;-if you would emphasize by personal example and experience and testimony the blessedness of absolute consecration to God of time and talents, of personal tast~s and inclinations, yon would find that there would be no occasion to appeal for funds.

U In conclusiob, recognizing the missionary field as probably the most honorable post in the Lord's service, it is sad to see aspirants for that noble calling throwing themselves on the churches, and on societies, Instead of throwing themselves on God. • • • ' Commit thy way untv the Lord, trust also in Him, and he will bring it to pass.' It Whatever in the above communication is worthy of consideration, no account is taken of the fact that much of the delay on the part of volunteers is due to unfinished courses of preparation, while the 103 who have already sailed is a substantial earnest of what is to be in the course of the next five or ten years. In the second place, the widespread enthusiasm displayed during the last year among students in raising funds for the support of their own representatives is practical evidence that volunteers are not waiting

1889.J BOOK

for $1,000 positions, but are both ready to go themselv~s, and also to send their brothel's as soon as prepared.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETI~G.

The first meeting of the Executive Committee of the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreig:o. Missions was held in New York Feb.H. -The object of the meeting was to perfect the organization and define the work ofthe several committeesand ag-ents of the Movement• .. The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions" was adopted as the name of the organization. The Executive Committee is to have the general oversight of the work, di- recting the visitations of Mr. Wilder, securing correspondil.g members in various States, bringing volunteers before the Boards, and having charge of the finances. In addition there is to be an Advisory Committee, composed of representative men in various parts of the country and from prominent missionary organizations, who shall advise with the Executive Committee on all measures of importance and connect the Movement with the churches. Also corresponding members are to be appointed in each state and district alli- ance. These members will have a local supervision of the work, acting in line with exist- ing organizations. They are to plan the visitation of vo]unteers to the churches and in- stitutions of their state or district, and collect funds for incidental expenses. The general finances will be in charge of the Executive Committee, Wm. H. Hannum. 50 East 70th street, N. Y. City, beiDI: Treasurer. The following is an estimate of annual expenses: Office $~ Special Circulars Traveling Secretary 200 Editorial 800 25 –$1,475 This amount is to be raised by voluntary subscriptions from individuals, churches. and associations. Already over $500 has come in unsolicited. Contributions for the support of the Movement will be welcome.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.

The Bible in the Pacific. By Rev. A. W. Murray, London: James Nisbet & Co. Price, $1.50. Mr. Murray is the author of" Missions in Western Polynesia," .. The Martyrs of Polynesia," and other missionary books. The specific object of the present work is to give a succinct history of missionary work in the isilinds of the Pacific-Polynesia, The New Hebrides, The Loyalty Islands, The Sandwich, Micronesia and the Marquesas,especially the work of Bible translation and distributioa. This account extends from the origin of mission work on Tahiti in 1797 to the close of the year 1887. It embraces also historical notices of the different missions on all these islands, sothat the reader can get a bird'seye view of what has been done. and the present condition of missions in that interesting portion of the world. It records a vast amount of labor by men and women whose lives were consecrated to the noblest work in which man can engage. Many of these honored workers have ceasedfrom their labors and gone to their reward, but their work lives in its blessed results. Itjs a great joy to every lover of the Bible to think of the immense amounto! work accomplished, l,Llld the progress in the vast fields now embraced by the combined efforts of the British and Foreign, and other Bible Societies, and the multitude of missionary societies which, in conjunction with these, are working together for the good of man and the glory of God.-J. M. S.

The Sailor's Magazine, vol. Ix., for 1888. American Seamen's Friend Society. It is well to put in permanent form. for ready reference, the monthly issues of our benevolent and missionary societies. The record of this soCiety is an honorable one. It has done, and is doing a most important work, not only at home among the large number of seamen in port, but to those on shipboard, by means of libraries and other agencies, and at all the chief ports of the commercial world by means of chaplains, seamen's chapels. "" Sailors' Rests,"" and the like. We do not half appreciate the necessity of converting the sailor. Wherever he goes he is a missionary of good or a missionary of evil. It Is a matter for thankfulness that a wider and deeper interest is springing up in all Christian lands in behalf of this interesting class, resulting in constantly enlarging agencies and efforts for their social and religious improvement. God bless and prosper more and more this great society I-J. M. S', Life and Letters of Wm. Fleming Stevenson, D.D. By his wife.-London, Edinburgh, and New York: N..lson&Sons. We have been looking eagerly for this exquisite pen portrait of one of tile saintliest souls that ever wrought or pleaded for missions. His precious wife is an artist, and her brush is dippea in rare colors, such as only love could mix and mingle. If any man or woman can read that volume without falling in love with the man it portrays, and the woman who with such consummate artlessness,yet witb such artistic pencil, has perfected the sketch, there must be something defective in the responsive power of the heart

8M BOOK NOTICES

of the reader. Dr. Stevenson was another Pastor Harms, iiI Rathgar, Dublin. Withastrauge enthusiasm that tl."ansfigured him, he spoke, and wrote, and wrought to spread abroad the knowledge of missions, and to iucite intelligent zeal in their behalf. No man in our gen· eration, in any pastorate, has done such service to the cause of a world's evangelization. He handled in correspondence 10,000 letters a year; he went on a tour of missions; he was the faithful, sympathetic pastor of a large city chnrch; he electrified congregations andgreat ecclesiastical assemblies with his angelic eloquence. Where shall we fiud his like or look for his successor ?-A. T. P.

Stephen Hislop, Missionary and Naturalist in India. By George Smith, LL.D., London: John Murray. Here is one more qf Dr. Smith's great contribntions to missionary litera. ture. The man who has written of Duff, and Wilson, and Carey needs no introduction to our readers. This biography betrays his scholarly and skillful pen. It tells the story of a beautiful life cut short by accidental drowning at the early age of 46, but not before he had given twenty years to the building up of tue Christian missiou aud college iu Central India which are henceforth inseparably associated with his name. May Dr. Smith be spared to write many more rich missionary biographies.-A. T. P.

The A88am Mission 0/ the American Baptist Missionary Union. Calcutta. J. W. Thomas.

This is a collection of papers and discussions at the Jubilee Conference held in 1886 in NOWgOllg. Nineteen missionaries were present, eight men and eleven women, besides two missionaries representing other societies. The conference lasted for eleven days, and the following are some of the subjects discussed: Historical sketches of various churches and missions, self-support, work for girls and women, educational work, need and supply of a native ministry, extension of work, prevailing vices, translation, etc. No one who feels interested in this great division of India will want to be without this book.-A. T. P.

John, G. Paton, Missionary to the New Hebrides. London: Hodder & Stoughton. This book we have read with b'Oundless delight and profit. Its superior we do not know in all the range of missionary biography. Whe.her in delineation of his eaTly home life, bis work as a city missionary in Glasgow, or his subsequent career in Tanua, we have met nowhere a more stimulating and inspiring book. It should be On the table of every lover of missions, and would forma rare book for reading ",loud in the family.-A. T. P. – Modern Missionsand Oulture: Their Mutual Relations. By Dr. Gustav Warneck. Translated byDr. Thomas Smith. New York: Wilbur B. Ketcham. Price, $2.50. This book has for some time been difIicult to get hold of, being out of print. The demand for.it has compelleda new edition with some few verbal amendments. It need be scarcely said that whatever Dr. -Warneck writes every student of missions wishes to read. His" History of Protestant Missions,"also translated byDr. Smith,is one of the standard works on such subjects. Dr. Warnecks- style is at once vigorous and beautiful, and the translation is so happy that in Dr. Smith's hands little if anything is lost in the transfer to another tougue. No book of which we know discusses sodiscriminatingly the relations of culture to missions. Whether judged by extent and v*riety of research, or by clearness of statement and lucidity of argument, this book stands at the head on this theme.-A. T. P.

China's Millions. Edited by J. Hudson Taylor, F. R. G. S. London: Morgan &Scott, 1888. This is the Official record of the marvelous work of the China Inland Mission Society. The origin and history of this mission are so well known and appreciated that we need not enlarge upon them here. Its success may rank among the" miracles of missions," undertaken and carried on in Simple dependence On God, making no appeal for money. its missionaries receiving no fixed salary, largely self-~npporting, and building not on other men's foundation~ but penetrating to the -interior of China and establishing missions in provinces where no missionary had gone before, its entire work carried on in the spirit of great self-denial and exalted consecration. God has Signally honored this agency and made it conspicuous. The volume before us, beautifully bound and full of illustrations, and sold for a song, is made up of the monthly issues of the society for 1888. The year 1881, which is as late a date as the official annnal reports cover, was a memorable year in its history, the income of the society being increased 50 per cent., and 100 new missionaries being sent out. The frontispiece to the volume consists of the portraits of these 100 missionaries. A finer and more intellectnal-looking company of men and women it wonld be difficnltto lind.-J. M. S.

Bright Bits for Readings in M"zssionary Societies.-A collection of Essays, Stories, Colloquies and Bible Readiugs. This small, beautiful book contains the choice gleanings of years from the lighter class of missionary literature, made by Mrs. M. S. Budlong, connected with the W. F. M. S. of the North west (Y. E. Chnrch). The work supplies a felt need, and will be welcomed by multitudes of our Woman's Missionary Branches and Banjls, as furnishing fit and varied material for anniversary exercises and other public meetings in the interest of missions.-J. M. S.

GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE

n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

Notes from our English Oorrespondent, Rukhmabai's case iq a signal illustration of Rev. James Johnston. . one of the evils of'" blind marriage and re- fers to the existing injustice of the social I. India.-Pundita Ramabai. law, enabling the husband, as in the pres- THIS heroic lady. says a Calcutta tele- ent -instance, to marry a second wife, while gram, is actively engaged in organizing at the victim of the so-called first marriage is Bombay a home for the education of child- debarred from all possibility of domestic widows of the higher castes. The United States and Canada and other in1luential happiness. friends are generously responding to the ap- III. Patna Mission. peal for aid. During the mission, which ·has lasted two and a half years. Rs. 40.000 The latest news from Bangalore states that has been subscribed for the commencement in coneeqnence of the alleged abduction of a of the work, and an income of Rs.I0,OOOper Hindn girl by a Wesleyan Zenana Mission, for annum for a. period of ten years is guaran- the purposes of proselvtism, the Komaties of tee"d by the Committee at Boston with af- the town of Bangalore held a pnblic meetin/i:, filiated committees in other parts of the and resolved not to sQnd their girls to the mis- States and Canada for non-sectarian teach- sion schools, nnder pain of social ostracism. ing. The object is to provide Brahmin The Muhammedans are showing a similar attiwidows of high caste with an education tnde against the Christians. J ndgment in the and a home. Though not a child-widow Patna Mission case has not yet been delivered. herself the labors of RILmabai are notable fora spirit of self-abnegation. She welcomes IV. Wesleyan Foreign Missions. her unfortunate countrywomen in order to In connection with the financial year which save them from the frequently recurring closed in the last week of February it is reported miseries of despair, infamy and suicide. that the amonnt of receipts eqnals that orthe pre- By education and protection from evil it is ceding year. The total income, which last year anticipated that many of tbese sisters may was £125,000, will this year be increased by at become useful members of society, a;nd, least £5,000, the resnlt of the special effort made possibly, happy wives and intelligent moth- at Christmas. This amount is not applied to the ers. The committees are desirous of pro- reduction of the society's debt, but to the in- viding a home for those who choose to crease of the annnal income. The General Com- study medicine or be trained as nurses, mittee have resolved that henceforth in all the their instruction being obtained in hospitals foreign districts the regular expenditnre is to be and schools. It is fUrther intended to train absolutely limited to the annual grants, and that girls of all races to acquire qualification as any additional outlay must be met by special teachers of Kindergarten schools and day local efforts. The current debt will probably be schools. considerably lessened by the time the annual meetiIlll: of the society is held in May next in London.

V. Christianity among the Jews.

Professor Max Miiller writes that his" ex- At the annual meeting of the Manchester anx- cellent friend" RILmabILi requires £15,000 iliary of the London Society for the Promotion for a scheme of philanthropy which may of Christianity amongst the Jews, the Chairman save at least a few souls from a life of hu- noted with satisfaction the greater readiness miliation, disgrace, and despair. It is ap- with which the Jews were reading the Old Tes.

palling to read in .. The High Caste Hindn tament and comparing it with the .New, and like- Widow," a brilliant work by RlLmabILi on p. wise their kindly bearing toward the missiona- 109, that the number of child-widows under ries. The society was founded in 1809, at whklh nine years of age is 78,976; from 10 to 14 time all Christian bodies co-operated in the work.

years, 207,388; from 15 to 19 years, 382,736. In the year 1815 the Dissenters withdrew from II. Rukhmabai. the society, and it was reconstrncted on· purely The last mail from India announced that Church of England principles, and so it has con- the hnsband of the recent heroine of the tinued llnti! now. Replying to the taunts which famous snit for restitution of conjugal were often hurled at the expensiveness of the rights has married a second wife. Rukh- society and effecting so few conversioDs, the mabai suffered much persecution a year Chairman remarked that since the Society's in- ago becanse on reaching years of discretion auguration more than 100,000 Jews had been she refused to become the wife of her child- converted. He maintained that the society, in hnsband. With rare courage she resisted spite of great nnpopnlarity, was dOing a grand a kind of slavery which cannot be tolerated work, and was commanding much support from in any portion of the British Empire. Even Christian people. The subscriptions, which in from an Indian standpoint this form of an 1887 amounted to £36,316, were in 18d8, £33,179, infant…marriage might with justi,ce be a decrease of npward of £3,000.

styled according to Indian-law terminolo- VI. Afrioa, Beohuanaland.

gy, a rdkshasa, or devil-marriage. The In- Regarding with strong disapproval the con- dian Daily News forcibly observes that templated transfer of this territory from the Imperial Government to Cape Colony, the Wes- treatment of the palm-nuts. Trading is the leyans, who have for many years had dourishing missions in that quarter of the globe, have African's special delight, but nntil quite recently formed an inlIuential committee, consisting of the Mission House authorities, together with a the markets of Lagos were not in a prosperous number of Wesleyan members of Parliament, for the purpose of frustrating the object of the condition. Now that a British IIrm has estabcolonial authorities. They take the ground that tile people of Bechuanaland are strongly op- lished a branch at Badagry, and made the place posed to tile -change, and tllat if the policy of the Cape Government is allowed to prevail it will a market town, it is estimated that 5,000 perbe most disastrous to the interests of the natives. sons with every variety of native produce as- VII. Logos (Western). A lurid picture of the western part of this re- semble there every market day, aod in eight gion has lately beeu presented by the English district commissioner. Tlie population, which months the monthly export has increased from has been recruited for many years past by a constant inlIux of refugees from the surround- £30 to £1,878. Cocoanut planting, road making tribes, falls roughly into three divisions. These are: the Popos, chielIy engaged in ing, corn-growing, and the cessation of the drink IIshing, forestry, and farming, but averse to steady work of any sort, and much traffic appear to be the official methods for addicted to theft; the Yombas, the most enterpriSing people in the district; and the civilizing the West African negro. Hoossas, who are farmers and palm-nut gatherers. The Mohammedans among them are more VIII. What Evangelical PreachIng has enterprising and industrious than the fetich worshipers; while the Christians, tbongh few in Done for the Heathen. nnmber, form a fairly thriving community. But all are alike in "intense and obtuse con- At the recent Conference m London upon servatism, so long as they are left to their Own devices, and in a keen spirit of petty trading." Evangelical Preaching, the Rev. E. E. Jen- The sole article of their moral code is "to do to your neighbor as you hope to avoid being done kins, the distingUished missionary late of to by him." It is useless to appeal to any higher motive, and It is certain that without European India and one of the ex-Presidents of the inlIuence to nrge them on commerce must decline. Fishing is carried on wholly m the la- Wesleyan Conference, read an important goons, the people never having had the enterprise to build surf-boats, which would enable paper. A brief summary of It IS presented them to engage in sea·fishing. SOlle progress has been made in agriculture, owing to the to tbe readers of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF efforts of the Roman Catholic Mission at Badagry, the administrative center. In the Frah THE WORLD. Kingdom, also, the local Britlsh officer has succeeded in mducing the people to plant a Mr. Jenkins attribnted much of the succonsiderable area of fertile land with corn, so that villages which were almost starving two cess which had attended the labors of Protyears ago on smoked fish are now supplying large quantities of gram to the local markets. estant missions in various parts of the But this increased prosperity has only increased the drunken habits of the people, who exchange world to earnest evangelICal preaching, by for vile imported spirits the prodocts of their labor. Katamu, the Frah capital, IS rapidly which he meant the preaching of the Cross. falling into a ruinous state of dIsrepair. Every fourth or IIfth honse IS a rnm shop, and the so- The history of modern miSSIOns brought called palm-wine sheds are IIUed every night with drunken men and women. The evils of out triumphantly the message of the Cross, the drink tra1lic are so apparent to the people themselves that they have petitIoned the Gov· and witnessed to the unimpaired fascinaernor to put an end to the sale of liquor altogether. If this were done the fertile flood tion and revolutionizing power of the name lands of Frah might become a sonrce of food and person of Jesus among heathen races, snpply for the whole colony. In spite of the valuable reSources of the forests, nothing IS There was no ~tory which offered a more done to develop them save the collection and conclusive defense of evangelical preach- ing than the FijI MlsslOn_ By the mission- aries the barbarians were charmed mto a life of gentleuess, of purity, of sweet intel- ligence, and of fruitful Industry, and an..

other people was added to the CIvilized na- tions of the world. The London Mission m Madagascar formed another example of the success of evangelIcal preaching In heathen countrles, attesting to the strange power of the gospel of Jesus eqnally strlkmgly and conclusively. Was not the story of the mission m Lower Burmah another chapter in the history of evangelical preaching?

The founders of that mlssIOn had devoted themselves mamly to preachmg Jesus aud translating His words Into the language of the people. Then the love of Christ so awakened III the hearts of the converts, drew them together, and created Within them the elements of family law and communal or- ganization, brmging forth the highest vir- tues of a human sOCiety, morality. mtelh· gence, thrift, courage, public spirit, benefi- cence and philanthropy, enrIching and for- tlfymg Christian eVidence by another proof that faith in the Christ of God was the seed of a nation. The Rev. Dr. Macfarlane, of New Guinea, eloquently testllIed, by many powerful IllustratIOns, to the good which had been done 10 that Ial/knd byevangellcal preaclung. — Africa.-Mohammedan Revolution in traders are certainly not 1;he men to con- Uganda. Public attention has recently, struct or reconstruct an empire. Those who and for different reasons, been very gener- know them best see no prospect that they ally directed to Uganda, a large province of will be able by intrigue, which is their only Central Africa lying round the north shore agency, to sustain themselves in Uganda.

of Victoria Lake. The country proper con- The character and habits of the Uganda tains about 20,000 square miles; its depend- people seem to forbid their enslavement.

encies embrace about 40,000 more. Theyare the only people ln Central Africa On his first expeditIOn across Africa, Mr. that clothe themselves from head to foot.

Stanley introdueed us to Uganda, whose Thousands of Europeau weapons and imple- cruel and powerful king, Mtesa. became un- ments are found in the~r posseesion, and der ·hIS mfluence favorable to Christiauity. ready workers in iron, they immediately He received, and frequently befriended aud imitate what they import. They are apt aIded, the missionaries of the Church of linguists, and their children have rapidly England and of Rome. UntIl hIS death about acquired the French and English languages two years ago, Christianity had made re- from the mIssionaries. They have neither markable progress m Uganda, and that Idols nor fetiches. They have no affiliations kingdom was one of the most powerful in with Mohammed:tDism, and are not likely to Central AfrIca. Mtesa was succeeded by become its subjects for any considerable his son Mwanga, a weak, vain, and treach- time. There is still good reason to hope for erous man, who reversed his father's policy a better future for Uganda.-N. Yo Evan- and undoubtedly ordered the murder of gelist.

Bishop Hannlngton about one year ago. Of China.-Religions of. The old religions of '

course, rt-Iwanga was a coward as well as a Buddhism and Taouism are losing theIr hold cru~1 and blood-stained despot. Because he upon the faith and affections of the people.

made Uganda impenetrable;no direct news You may criticise and ridicule both sys- from Wadelai about the movements of Stan- tems, and the people will join m the rIdIcule.

ley or Emin Pasha could reach Zanzibar. I hear that some people ln England talk of Very naturally he was obliged to face an adopting Buddhism as their creed. China., i U>lUrrection. To save his worthless life he after centuries of trial, will make you a fled from his kingdom, and hiS older brother, present of It for nothing. She has found the Kiwewa, succeeded him. Because under his light to be darkness, and she feels the dark- rule the missionaries were agaIn in favor, ness of it to-day. Why, in the northern part Kiwewa was soon forced to abdicate before of Chma there are thousands turnmg away an insurrection incited by the A.rabs, whom from the old creeds, and formmg new creeds the pohcy of hiS brother had brought iuto and new societies. You will find men there the kingdom, and 1D which such of hls own hungering after they know not what., wan- subjects as opposed the mIssionaries cheer- dermg they know not whither, but knowing fully participated. While about a score of that they are not satisfied-human hearts mi&sionaries escaped unharmed, all mis- lOnging, and no one to brmg them to the SIOnary property was destroyed, many na- fountain of living waters where they may ti ve missionaries were murdered, the Arabs drmk and be satisfied. No doubt Confucian- became dominant m Uganda, and the king- ism stili holds Its power over people. It talks dom, it may be for- several years, 1S closed of ItS learmng and literature. It appeals to against OhristIanlty. The hving mission- na.tional prIde, and stirs up race animosities.

arIeS have quite recently been ransomed. But Confuciamsm IS only a philosophy. It What IS to be the mfluence of this new is not a religIon, and we need not fear it. It Arab kingdom m Central AfrIca 1 This, does not occupy the ground that we occupy.

WIth many, IS a pressing questien. In all- bu tIts talk IS of the earth, earthy-of the sweriU!t It we must remember that these five social relations and the five constant so-called Arabs really havt' in their veins no VIrtues. Not a word about God, not a word Arab blood. They are coast Arabs of the about the 'SOUl, not a word about eternity, lowest cla~ses, and the proud and strong sin. or salvatlOn.-Rev. George Owen.

Uganda chIefs will not submit for any con- -There is evidence that American com- sIderable length of time to the rule of any merce with Chma WIll suffer on account of such men. They may use such men; they the new Chmese exclUSIOn law that is now wlil never become theIr slaves. The coun bemg rIgIdlY mforced at alt the ports of the try IS more lIkely to be broken up into hos- United states. A Shanghai paper, the Oe- tIle sectIOns. These may wear themselves lestial Emp,re, says that there have alrea.dy out 10 wars agaInst each other, and thus been antI-AmerICan riots III Canton, and the may be reahzed the hope that the British populace feel that If Chmamen cannot go to East African Company, from their new ter- AmerIca they should exclude Americans ritory between VictOrIa Nyanza aud the from Chma. The Foochow Echo gIves SImI- coast, would push Its Influence and Its ope- lar news. and adds that the strong party in ratIOns over Uganda, and the whole lake Chma WhICh hates foreIgners has recently regIon of Central AfrIca. These Ara.!> sla.ve- • lleEln dIsplaying a. da.ngerous spirlt. The Chinese Government. which has refused to agine," said Mr. Caine," the Earl of Sefton, ratify the exclusion treaty with the United on whose estates 47,OO() people are Iivmg States, is not averse to these manifesta- but no liquor-seller, bemg called. on by the tions. There is reason to apprehend that Collector lof Liverpool to show cause why disagreeable results may be experienced by a liquor den should not be opened on hIS American traders in China, and by the estate I" Uniformity of excise administrashippers of those American goods that have tion, substitution of moral considerations been coming into use among the Chinese. for financial, m the adminIstration, and But we can bear with all this provided the local option, are the three objects before us missionaries are not Interfered with. in India. The people of India, unllke other people. only drink for the purpose of getting -A recent conflagration in a remote drunk, and if we make them drunken we de- Chinese village destroyed the anc.estral stroy them more rapidly than by war, pestihome of the family of Oonfucius, with aU Its lence and famine.-Indian Witn•••• contents, texts on stone, commentaries, carvings in jade and alabaster, jars of por- -Tpeosophists. The Buddhists are trying celain ; in short, one of the most remarkable to get Col. Olcott to go to Japan to help literary and artistic collections in the Buddhism hold its ground. They have raised world, containing as it did every extant the needed money and sent an ambassador memorial of the great teacher. after him.

-A cable dispatch from Shanghai, January -Rumors are afloat ~hat Mr. Henry B. 30, states that the imperial astrologers de- Foulke and Mr. C. Ingersoll Maurey, both of clare that the recent fire in the Emperor's Philadelphia, have gone on a pilgrimage to palace at Pekm was an evil omen, intended the shrines of Buddha, III India. They beas a warning against the approach of west_ long to the .. Krlsthena Society,)1 WhlCh ern invention. An imperial decree has, .meets on Walnut street, and addicts itself therefore, been issued prOhibitlllg the to the study of" Theosophy." of which Mafurther extension of the Tiensin RaIlway. dam Blavatsky, now in London, IS :high priestess. Some of the members, we belleve. India.-The Government of India and the avow themselves to be converts to Buddliquor traffic. Mr. W. S. Caine, M.P., in a hism, others are simply diSCIples. who, powerful_peech III the Town Hall,Calcutta, through study and instruction, hope to asserted that the Government of India is come to a more. perfect knowledge of this stlmulating the excise system for revenue old form of faith and worship. WhIle others considerations. In proof of this he showed pose wholly as stUdents of .. Comparative that the revenue from country spirits in- Religion," or, as the more skeptIcal would creased ten per cent. per annum. While the say. "Comparative Mythology." The Krlsrevenue from imported spirits had increased thena, it is said, has sent forth this deputafifty per cent. during the past eight years. tion to study Buddhism in its ancient home. Mr. Caine quoted this damaging statement Tiley are to wait on 1I1ad"'mBlavatsky m from the late financial member of the Vice- England, and thence go on ·their pilgrimage roy's Council, Mr. Westland: .. That he to the East by w~y of the pemnsular route. looked hopefully for an increase in the ex- At Aden, on the Red Sea, says a correcise system in Northern India." The con- spondent of the New York Evening Mati and trast between this statement and the ntter- Express, .. they will be met by representaances of three English chancelors of the tives of the SOCIety III India, and w!ll be forexchequer whom he had heard" congratu- mally introduced to the Oriental rites and late England on the decrease of the excise mysteries of this strange sect. The prosystem," was very painful. Mr. Caine gramme from this point will depend upon the quoted from the reports of all the provinces decision of the native brethren. The town m IndIa to show that the men who tried to of Kurachee, III Sindh. one of the seats of realize Mr. Westland's hopes were ap- the older worship, WIll be visited, and the plauded and promoted by the Government. tripwiII continue until the American Budd- The Bengal Government had sing-led ant SIX- hists reach Adair, the principal home of teen gentlemen for special honors under Buddhism in the East. Under the guidance this head. of the new conductors the two Philadel- phians hope to make a journey to tbe Hima- From the acts of indi vid ual collectors the layan Hills and ViSIt ancient SItes hItherto stimulating pollcyof Government was seen. unexplored. " The Darjeeling collector compelled a tea planter-who dId not know the law-to open Japan.-Accordmg tothe (}hristianWeekly a lIquor shop on his land, and the collector of Tokio, prohlbltory'liquor laws existed, and at Burrlsal trIed the same tactics on a were rigidly mforced in Chinail,OOOyearsago. zemindar who had closed a liquor den on his The Emperor Buo was a strict Prohibitionist land during a certain mela. The hquor- vf the modern type. He made his own.prodealer was ordered to open his shop, and the hlbitory laws, and saw that they were execollector called on the zemindar to show cuted. He didn't have any courts around cause instantly why thIS should not be done. .him to explam away tbelr meamng. A TIO- Redid so. The collector was defeated… Imla.tion of prohibitory laws was punished by has a theological school for negroes at Lin- ooln University in ·Pennsylvania, and an-. death. With some modiflcation these lawb other at Biddle University in North Caro_ lina. The Methodists have a weU-endowed were afterward introduced into Japan. seminary at Atlanta, Ga.- The Episcopa- lians propose to place a divinity hall for They were .. in full force and virtue" there oolored students in Washington, D. C., and Nashville, Tenn. The American Missionary for nearly a thousand years. There is no Association, acting for the Congregational Churches, has olasses in theology in four of reliable information that they damaged Ja- its chartered institutions in Tennessee. Alabama, Mississippi, and LOUisiana, and pan morally or politically. They passed sustains the theological department in Howard University at 'Washington. The away long ago, to the damage of the coun- last named reported last year thirty-eight students, and is the only school of theology' try. Intemperance, according to the Tokio oontrolled by the Congregationalists in the entire line of Atlantic States south of Conpaper, is now a growing and threatening nectICut. It is at present only partly en- dowed and meagerly supported, but is now evil in Japan. One single drink costs the seeking an endowment. The Rev. R. W. Eastman, of Wellesley, Mass., has underpeople $60,000,000 annually, an amount equal taken to raise an endowment• to the eutire annual expenses of the govern- -The Reformed, or Covenanter, Church (Old School) is not a large body, but it comment; and in its manufacture one-fifth of mands a wide influence. It IS aggressive in its conservatism. Its peculiar belief, relatthe annual rice crop is consumed. What is ing to the sovereign rights of Christ, awakens deep conviction. Its antagonism left affords a short allowauce for food. No to current beliefs and institutions develops a sturdy strength. The great energy which rice is exported from Japan. ' it has manifested has borne its proper fruit in a growing strength. The ministry has Mexico.-Bishop Hurst in The In- doubled since 1856, numbering now 118, and dependent on "The Periodical Lit- the increase of membership has been threeerature of Mexico," makes gratifying fold, 10,970 being repoy ted for 1888. Its mention of the Pl'otestant press: foreign missions have been richly blessed. In Syria and Asia there are nearly thirty .. We now come to the significant and stations with schools, and one has been ess'teadily-growing journals published by the tablished in Cyprus. The delegates sent to Protestants of Mexico. The invasion of visit the missions report nineteen n~tive Protestantism has been strong in numbers Christians as nearly ready for licensure. and aggressive in spirit. For the following The work ha.s reached the point at which list of Protestant periodicals I am indebted more complete local organization is necesto the Rev. John W. Butler, of the city of sary,and the organization of the Presbytery Mexico: El Faro, edited by J. M. Greene, of Asia Minor is recommended. Successful D.D., is the organ of the Presbyterians, and mission work is carried on in this country is published in Mexico. El Evangelista is among the Chinese and the Freedmen. The edited by the Rev. David Watkins, and rep- college and the theological seminary also resents the Methodist Episcopal Church, are doing a good work, both in preparing South. El Testiao is under the editorship of young men for the ministry and in general the Rev. E. M. Bissell, is published in Gua- education. dalajava, and represents the Congregationalists. LaLuz is the Baptist organ, is pub- -What does it mean? Our exchanges lished in the City of Mexico, and is edited show that there is a falling off in the conby the Rev. Albert Steelman, D.D. El Ramo tributions of the churches to a large numde Oliva is the organ of tbe Quakers, and is ber of the benevolent societies of the published in Matamoros. The organ of tae country. The America;' Home Missionary Methodist Episcopal Church is the Abogado Society reports that for the first mne Ohristiano Ilust"ado, edited by the Rev. S. months of its fiscal year the receipts have W. Siberts, Ph.D., and published in the City fallen off, as compared with the previous of Mexico. Even the International System year, $39,040, of which sum $9,892 was in doof Sunday-school teaching has invaded nations and $29,158 III legacies. This is just Mexico. Both the Presbyterian and Metho- about the same as the decrease indicat~d dist Episcopal Churches issue them. in the receipts of the American Board within /I ve months, though the de~·rease III .. Every tourist in Mexico sees at a glance the receipts of the latter was less III donathat Protestant influences are penetrating every part of the new republic. The journal has been found to be one of the cJtief factors for successful work ever since the founding of the Protestant mission in Mexico in 1870. All the periodicals are ably conducted, and bring before the people especially the great religiou~ movements of the Protestant world. All these journals encourage loyalty to the republic. The editors are iu excellent relations With the entire editorial fraternity of the country, and are most highly res;>ected, both for their ability and the cause which they represent."

United State8~The Presbyterian Church

MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENOE FROM ALL PARTS

tions and larger in legacies. The Presbyte- shrinkage in va.lues within the past year, rian boards are in quite as unfortunate a yet it is undeniable that the wealth of the position. Their Home Missionary SOCiety land is increasing at an enormous rate, and is $40,000 behtnd in the first ten months of that a fair proportion of this increase is in its financial year, while the Presbyterian the hands of those who bear the name of Foreign Board shows a falling off for the Christ. There is wealth enough, if it were same period of about $35,000 in donations, consecrated. The percentage of the income and $112,000 ill legacies, or from all sources of professed Christians which is devoted to of $15t,615. It is singular. that there should missionary work at home and abroad is be such a general decrease with all boards wofully small. Wonld that pastors and in the item of legacies. But the societies others would earnestly .inquire what relawill rejoice that their friends still live, only tion this fact has to th't spiritual life within the living men must see to it that the im- their churches! .. Bring ye all the tithes perative necessities of the great work are into the storehouse, that there may be meat not forgotten. While it is true that there in my house, and prove me now herewith, has been in several directions a great saith the Lord ofhosts."-MisB. Herald.

III.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.

Ohina. men's associations, young women's associa- tions.women's missionary societies, indeed HIGHLYmteresting letter from our everywhere where brain workers -seek for correspondent, Dr. A. P. Happel': the materiaJs with which to replace the CANTON, JAW. 24, 1889. constant 'waste from use, and where they DUR EDlTOItS.-A copy of the Report of seek supplies for yet wider and fuller pre- the Centenary Conference of Missions has sentation of facts, principles and results in just reached me from London. It is a most the support of the great work of the church valuable outcome of the Conference to have in winning this world to Christ.

such a repository of facts and prinCiples of We say to all, get these volumes; buy them Christian missions as these volumes con- if you can, borrow them if you cannot buy- tain. The presentation of the states and read them-reproduce them in conversation, peoples among whom missions are con- in talks at mission meetings, in papers and ducted will be of the greatest interest. to all lectures, at public meetings, in sermons and who are studying the subject of the evan- in the newspapers.

geliz8otion of the world. The members of churches will be interest- The statements made by the missionaries ed in missions, give to their support, pray as to the results of different methods of for God's blessing upon them, ,give them- missionary labor will be of great assistance selves or their children to engage in them to all new missionaries, helping them to en- just in proportion 80S they know about them.

gage in that method of laboring which is Hence the importa.nce and necessityi! there adapted to the people amoDg whom he is is to be an advance all along the line, for the called to labor. The supporters of this diffusion of knowledge in regard to the workwho call never see with their own eyes aim and purpose of Christian misRions in the work in which they 80re interested, will heathen lands. This presents the great find in the statements of these volumes va.lue of these closely printed pages, packed new inspiration to labor and self-sacrifice with such reliable, interesting and valuable in increased efforts for the e"I8orging of state,ments and diseussions on every phase the plans for the conversion of the world of Christian work among the heathen.

to Christ. The statistics of the missionary work in Those who desire and are called upon to China for 1888 have been gathered up to the advocate the cause of Christian missions close of the year as far as information bad before their own congregations or general been received, They show an advance all audiences, will find these volumes a rich along the line, as folIows, viz., increase of treasure house, whence to draw materials societies represented in China,3; foreign for instruction, encouragement, appeals. men missionaries, 37; of wives of foreign and for facts and results. Thus the pub- missiona.ries, 17; single women, 39; total lication of these volumes will be of great increase of foreign miseionaries, 93. The benefitto aU the friends of missions, and wlll increase of native communicants is 2,295; beeminently useful in extendingand deepen- the whole number of native communicants ing the interest in the great cause of mis_ is 34,555. The increase of pupils in schools sions. But to accomplish these results they is 1,140, the whole number of pupils reported should be widely disseminated. A copy is 14,817. The advance in contributions is should be, in every minister's lIbrary. In $5,936, the whole amount of contributions is the libraries of Sabbath-schools, young $44,173. which is nearly $1.25 for each communicant. The increase of contributions is Turkey, greater than th.. increase of members, which is an encouraging sign in regard to LETTER from Rev. D. A. Richard-' the grace of giving. While rejoicing in this measure of increase yet we all lament son: that there has not been a greater manifestation of divine power in the conversion of ERzBOOlll, TuRKEy IN ASIA, Dec. 20, 1888. men. There has been, it is true, some unusual EDITORS MISSIONARY REVIEW Oll' THJI hinderances. In some parts of the field the WOBLD.-Reading your much prized REVIEw, It minds of the people have been diverted from strnck me that possibly your readers would like the preaching of the gospel by the calami- to hear from one of too first fruits of the stuties of floods and famine. When the bodies dents' misslonallY movement. I suppose I am are dying of starvation there is little dIS- among the first to reach the field of those whom position to seek spiritual food. In other Messrs. Forman and Wilder addressed. places there has been diversion by reason This station is called one of the hardest in of adverse political influences. But after Turkey, being on the borders of the Russian all the great hinderance is the alienation Caucasus, and a large part of our field lying over of the hearts of men from God. They will the border, which we are not allowed to visit. only be led to the reception of the gospel by However, we have much to encourage us even the Holy Spirit. This is promised by God. But here. He has said, .. For this will I be inquired of The t&ll.cher of our school for boys was arby the house of Israel to do it for thelll." rested last spring on the ridiculous charge of Let all, therefore, who long to see China being accessory to treason, and sentenced to converted join in continuous prayer for exile for life. One of his pupils wrote as an the outpouring of the Spirit upon the exercise a song which contained some severe Chinese, that the Word preached and read reflections on the Turki!h Governmeut. He may be made effectual to the conver- also called on the Armenians to rise and cast off sion of those that come to the knowledge the tyrant's yoke. The teacher glanced at it, and of it. made one or two grammatical corrections,when, discovering its seditious character, he gave It There is a wide diffusion of the truth by back with a severe reprimand, telling him the printed page and oral Instruction in to destroy it at once. This the boy failed the schools, the chapels, the streets, the to do, and some time afterward he was arrested marketplaces and the highways and hedges; and this was found among his papers, and he butitis only the life giving power ofthe Holy was thrown into 'prison, where he died. The Spirit that can change the heart. Maya teacher was arrested because of his handwriting spirit of grace and supplication be given on the paper. The marks were only a word or unto God's people thatwill secure durin!:, or two, and made with a pencil. He admitted the this year the mighty power ofGod to convert writing was his. He was condemned, after a men, that converts may be multiplied as the farce ofa trial under a section of the Code Napodrops of the morning dew. Pray for China, leon, which says: .. Anyone publishing a sedi- Christian brethren and churches, pray for tious document, or postiug it up, or making such us. Pray for this people. a speech, or is accessory to these things, Is liable to exile for life." Under this law he was found The calamities which have come upon guilty and sentenced to exile for life. He is in China during the last forty years have the common prison awaiting action on his appeal been very distressing. These have come to the Supreme Court in Constantinople. from rebellious, internal and long continued Another sad case, yet with a silver lining, war, from floods and from famines, from is that of a young man who was being trained for failure of crops through droughts and pes- work in the Russian part of the field. He was tilence. The destruction of life from these a very promising and devoted young man, and causes has, been perhaps unprecedented in we hoped he could go to his native village to the history of the world. Many of the causes preach and teach. A few weeks ago he was of distress could be lessened if not prevented seized with smallpox, and died, saying: "The by the use of the means which western King of kings is come, and calleth for me." science would supply. But this people are A happier case is that of another young man not yet ready to accept its aid, and in their in the school, whose name is fitly Arstan Lion. distress they do not cry unto t,he Lord, be- He is the one reported in The Missionary Hercause, as yet, they know Him not. If their ald a year ago as preferring to remain over ancalamities are great, the disposition to other day on half rations to working out his help the suffering is great. The Chinede road-tax on Sunday with the rest of his village. Government gave more than Beven million8 He was recently called into a shop by one of the of dollars to relieve the sufferings by Gregorian Armenians and bantered as to his the overflow of the Yellow River. May chauge of faith. He was asked what he got for the Lord soon send them His salvation which his. chauge to Protestantism, and invited to brings temporal as well as spiritual bless- preach to the company. "You know you are ings. bidden in your Testament to preach to all the heathen. Now preach to us." .. But," said Second, a dressJI18,ker and milliner, "apt to the boy, "the Protestants do not call the Grego- teach" millinery, and assist thd superin- rians heathens." Just then another person came tenilent. Surely there must be among the in who had offended the principal man present. thousands of our Methodist women two who As he entered the man greeted him with a tor- ought to respond to this call, and who are rent of profanity and vileness. After this was ready to say, •• Here am I. sena me, send me."

over and the offender had gone out the lad said Anxiously and prayerfully we wait your to the swearer: "May I be forgiven if I say but reply to this appeal. Send your name and a word more before I go!''' " Certainly." "If testimonials to Mrs. Mary C. Nind, No. 122 I may be so bold, one reason why there are Highland Ave., Minneapolis, Minn., Corre- Protestants here is to teach the Armenians not sponding Secretary Minneapolis branch.

to swear." The politeness of the boy and the Jan., 1889. keenne~s of the rebuke bronght a roar of laugh- Famine in Shantung.

ter from the company, and an acknowledgment AN appeal from Dr. Nevius: of the righteousness of the answer from the The reports of the floods in China, which have appeared in the public prints of the swearer. West, leave in the minds of readers but a Snch things as these serve to show the quality vague impression of their exact locality, extent and consequences. Most of these of Christians that are found here, and though reports are taken from newspapers in China. their standard is not equal in all points to that of While clearly understood by readers here, eminent Christians in America, yet they are so they presuppose a considerable amount of far above their surroundings that wa thank God we are placed in so glorious a work.

Japan. geographical knowledge not possessed by AN earnest appeal for the Indus- persons who have not resided in China. In- deed the phases of these misfortunes are so trial Home : . varied at present that they are only im- In the minutes of the fourth session of the perfectly comprehended, even by those who Women's Conference of the Methodist Epis- in different localities are eye-witnesses of copal Church in Japan, held at Aoyama them. ,H is, however, generally known that Tokio, Aug. 23d to Aug. 29th, 1888, we flnd the calamities which have recently ex- ihe report of the Committee on Industrial cited so much sympathy the world over, Home as follows: are the result of an inundation of the er- .. The Committee on the Industrial Home ratic Whang-ho. In less than 2,500 years can report but little progress because of this river has changed its course ten times, failure on the part of one society to secure and in a comparatively recent period three ladies during the year fltted for the work. or four times. in 131 A.D. there was a Word has come of the appointment of Miss very great innnd~tion, which it reqnired Imhoff, who is to be sent shortly. Mr. Kanzo twenty years to control.

Uchimura lately returned from the United A few decades ago all the children in States, where he made benevolent institu- home lands were taught that the Whang- tions a special study, holds himself in read- ho, the second of the large rivers of China, iness to assist in the undertakiug; but it discharged its waters into the sea in the has not been thought best to rent property central part of the eastern coast, about two until the ladies appointed arrive in Japan. degrees north of the mouth of the Yang-tse- We trust the way will open to inaugurate kiang. This was true at that time. About this important enterprise during the com- 45 years ago the Yellow River broke its ing year. M. A. SPENCER, Chairman." banks, left its bed, and, pursuing a north- The ladies at home are as anxious as the easterly direction, found its way to the sea, missionaries abroad to commence this work. principally through the Ch'i'ng-ho, or" Clear Appeals have been made to individuals and River," and disembogued into the Pechili througl;J. the church papers to the women of Bay. about 500 miles north of its old mouth.

our Methodism. Several have responded, After the Yellow River had taken possession but Miss Imhoff is the only accepted candi- of the Ch'ing-ho, and rendered its waters date, and she is now under appointment for turbid and yellow, the name of the Ch'iug-ho Nagasaki. as we had no superintendent to wa.s changed to Whang_bo,_U Yellow send to Tokio. What is our pressing need? River." As the original channel of the First, a superintendent. An intelligent wo- Ch'ing-ho had not sufilcientcapacity to hold man of mature judgment, executive and the additional waters of another river, it linancial skill, showing an ability to acquire was subject in times of heavy rains to fre- the Japanese language because she has quent overflows, inundating the whole ad- mastered some foreign tongue, witha kuowl- jacent country, destroj:ing crops, carrying edge of industrial enterprises. Above all away villages, and almost depopulating she must be a consecrated woman, with the large districts along its banks. It was evi- missionary spirit constraining her, a love dent that the silting'up process in the origi- for souls, and success in winnin~ them. nal bed of the Ch'ing-ho from the mnddy wat.ers of the Whang-ho poured into it, the whole of Shantung, the eastern part would every year increase the danger of of which had only the average rainfall; overflow, and the probability of its seeking while the extreme western end had a somewhere else a lower bed. All the ener- scarcity of rain amounting to drought.

,,"ies of the Central Chinese Government The storm crossing the central part of were exerted to prevent this, but a change the province from south to north cov- of channel soon or later was inevitable. ered a. tract of country betwlen one This change occurred two years ago a.t a and two hnndred miles wide. The streams point in the Honan province, where the rnshing down valleys overflowed their breach had previously more than once be- banks, denuding fertile fields of their sur- gun. The highartificialembankllient shook face earth, tearing up trees by their roots, and tumbled under the rnsh and pressure and in some places covering the ground with of the superincumbent flood. The alarmed sand to the depth of a foot or 1l1<)re. Rain officials in charge redoubled their efforts to feU almost continuously for ten days, until avert the impending catastrophe, but in on the 18th of August it could only be de- ~ain. The new opening was made, 'pouring scribed as a deluge. All the streams burst forth a deluge of waters, which trending their banks in many places, uniting their southward embogued iu the Yang-tse river waters in a common flood, which covered near Yang-chow. The distress and loss of the lower plains to the depth of from two life and property consequent on this new to ten feet, sweeping as one unbroken rivtJ'l'

inundation could scarcely be overstated. to the sea.

I cannot here speak at length of the vast E'I'"en the central portion of the province amount of treasure which has been spent between the extremes of drought and flood by the Chinese Government, and from pri- has hardly enough grain to support its own vate contributions of natives and foreigners population. From this comparatively favor- in the region of this new inundation; nor ed territory scarcity increases toward the of the prodigious but unavailing efforts of region of drouth On the one side, and floods the government to repair the new breach; on the other, nntil the extreme of want is nor of the opposition of the inhabitants found on the plain bordering on the Pechili along the banks of tl:le Ch'ing-ho to having Bay. The inhabitants of this region had lost the waters of the Yellow River turned back most of their wheat crop by drought, but again into that channel; nor of the gigan.. the sorghum, cotton, and millet promised tic problem which 'confronts the Chinese well, and they were rejoicing in the prospect Government now, as it has for so many of plentiful har'l'"est in the autumn. Their centuries, and confounds also foreign en- hopes were blighted. The water did not gineers, "What shall be done with the subside for days, and in some places for Yellow River?" weeks, and all further growth and develop- We have now to record another calamity, ment was stopped. When early in Novem- different in origin, character, and locality. ber last, in company with Rev. J. H. Langh- of which, in consequence of its recent liB, of the Weihein Mission, I visited this occurrence, and the fact that the public region, some portions of it were still too wet mind has been preoccupied with the inun- to plow for the autumn wheat crop, and dations of the Yellow River, very little is as other parts were covered with water. The yet known. This calamity, which affects heads of ·the millet and sorghum which had . principally the province of Shantung, orig- been gathered yielded only empty husks or inll-ted in an unequal distribution of rain- chaff, or at the best a little; s1lriveled half- fall, producing in some. places drought. in developed grain. This, however, was careothers floods. The rainy season, which fnUy proserved, and the people were ~Ian­ is here the months of Julyaud August, is ning to live on it through the winter, or as owing to the condensation of the moisture long as it lasted, mixing with it· the leaves suspended in the southern monsoon as it of the sweet potato, when they were so formeets the colder atmosphere of the north. tunate as to ha'l'"e them. The people liviNg During the past summer the clouds, sur- still nearer the sea were depending for snscharged with moisture, passed over a large tenance principally on the seeds and leaves tract of country south of Shantung (in- of a coarse grass or weed resembling the cluding its southerll border) which, being wild sage which grows on the alkaline left without ~ain. is now suffering from plains crossed by the Oentral Pacific rail- drought and consequent famine. Tl:le rain- road. Purchasers cannot be found for fall began in the southern central part of land, evell at only a tenth of its usual value, this province, and increased until it be- and clothing brings but a tritle at the pawn- came in the central, and especially the shops. Urlprincipled specnlators have al- northern part, a flood such as had not been ready gone in and are buying winter gar- experienced for nearly a centnry. ments,'for a mere son::, and soon the people This great rain extended still farther will be left without food, clothing or north, across the Pechili Bay, and far into sbelter.

Manchuria. It did not, however, cover The water covered the fields, reache:! the villages, entered the houses and rising to by the residents here for immediate use the heiJrht of two, and in some Instances We hope to receive further aid from the five or six feet, dissolved the mud wails, southern ports of China, and also from Engand speedily caused the buildings to fall. land and the United States. Our plan is to In some of the towns near the large streams occupy and confine ourselves to one or more the flood swept by in deep, strong currents, centers in the famine region, and enlarge the tearing down brick houses, and carrying work as the funds atour command may waraway timbers, furniture, farm-utensils, and rant, continuing the relief on the same plan, even large iron kettles and mill-stones. In and, as ",rule, to the Same individuals until the villages WhICh have suffered least the next wheat harvest, when, if God in His three or four·tenths of the houses are de- mercy gives a fruitful season, the famine stroyed, in some eight or nine-tenths. will end. The refugees who will probably About one-half of the inhabitants have return to their homes in March or April . started out from their homes to beg in the will require not only food for their susoutlying districts, and these refugees com- tenance, but seed-grain for putting in the prise, as a rule, the bone and sinew of the spring crops. We do not propose to assist country. They leave their scanty suppJy in rebuilding houses, or repairing the of provisions with the members of their banks of streams; but simply to supply the families who are aged or infirm, hoping food necessary to support life. A very themselves to return in time to pJant the small allowance of one or two cents a day spring crops. They usually take with them for an individual will effect this. As yet, the farm wheel-barrow, which is loaded so far as we can learn, the inhabitants of with bedding and clothing, a few dishes and this region have received no relief from the cooking utensils, and the little children; Chinese Government, or from private the men dj:awing and balancing the barrows, Sources. and the Women and larger chIldren following behind. Perhaps as many as 2,000 of A little money given here and there in a the inhabitants are leaving their homes promiscuous way would do but very little daily, and this stream of emigration has good, and when exhausted would leave the been flowing for nearly three months. The people just where they were before. Relief, refugees are found in almost every village to be really effective, must continue untn of the central part of the province, and next June, carrying a limited number they lead a life as comfortless and cheerless quite through the season of want. The disas can be imagined. Those fleeing from the bursement of funds in a famine-strlcken drought region On the south meetthosefrom couutry is a task both difllcult and dangerthe flooded region on the north, each party ous, but there are those on the ground who telling the other that it is useless to go far- are competent and willing to undertake it. ther. There are so many of them, and the Mr. Laughlin has already gone into the supply of food in the most favored secti6ns famine region and commenced the work of is so scanty, tlat it is difllcult to support life distribution. We must look for further aid ~o by begging; and many return to their the home lands. The help which we can get homes, disheartened and hopeless, to die_ from foreigners in China will not last long. We appeal to you who In God's merciful When six weeks ago we examined into the providence have never known want, in becondition of this famine-stricken people, half of those who, when this appeal reaches we supposed that their smail stores of food you, will for months have had no respite might last those who remained at home for from the pangs of hunger, and will be on the at least a few months; but letters recently very verge of starvation. Though we have received inform us that the extremity of refused our Mongolian neighbor a home on want has come sooner than we expected, our shores, let us not refuse· him a place in and starvation is alreadystaringtheinhab- our sympathies, or turn away from him in itants in the face. In many families the this hour of his extremity. supply of wild grass seed is exhausted, and the people have now no resource but t.o Contributions may be sent to Rev. F. F. pluck and eat the fresh blades of wheat';f Ellinwood, D.D., 53 Fifth avenne, New York, the autumn planting. It is but too evident which will be forwarded at once to the Famtha.t this food, unfitted to sustain life for ine Relief Committee in Chefoo. any length of time, even if it were plentiful, must soon fail them. JOHN L. NEVillS. CHEFOO, January 2d,1889. The spectacle which now presents itself is that of more than a million of people re- P. S.-While I write, news has come duced to the last state of destitution, most through a Chiuaman who lives in the famine of whom must perish of starvation before region that the people there have entered a nextsummer, unless relief is afforded them. complaint before the district magistrate against certain rich men who turned their At a public meeting, held in Chefoo, a cattle Into the wheat fields to graze, as in Shantung Famine Relief Committee was aD- ordinary season. They urged that under pointed, and funds have been contributed preseut circumstances the greeu wheat blades should be denied the cattle and re- served for men I The magistrate gave his verdict in favor of the people.

INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT

IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

CONDUCTED BY J. T. GRACEY, D. D.

The Tra.nsfer of Political Power. Speaking, then, after the manner of men, speaking as one earthly A STUDY of political rule shows a king would of another, reckoning steady, silent but sure transfer of the boundary-lines of realms as parlia~ government of the world, from idola- ments or cabinets or congresses do trous and Moslem hands to those of among themselves; reporting as Christian potentates. Tiberius Cresat· would have reported to the Roman Senate of the extension Add the total population ruled by of domain by conquest; using the the Shah of Persia and the Sultan of vernacular of civil, political, and Turkey together-not Moslems only, military rulers of all the centuries, but Moslems, Armenians, Jews, Jesus Christ at this hour dictates law Copts, Christians, SlaYs, and pagans, to-rules, governs, more than half and it will be found that the Queen of England, through her India Vice- the seething and surging masses of roy. rules more Moslems in India alone than the agg'regate mixed mankind, and-what w~ have left population ruled by Shah, Sultan, ourselves no room to situ" – the and Khedive. geographical extension of His king- Statistics show that the Moslem dom is equal to more than half the population of the globe may be land surface of the globe, while" the roundly estimated at one hundred sea is His," not only because "He and seventy-five millions, but the made it," nor because He holds it "in Moslem political powers of all the the hollow of His hand," and can world do not rule more than ninety command its waves as He did the millions of people. Of the total blue waters of Galilee, but rather be- population of the globe not more than cause it has been added in bulk to one-sixteenth is under the sway of His territorial domain, is absolutely Moslem rulers, while it is easy to under the control of vice-regents of show that of the more than fourteen His throne, who at this hour seek to hundred millions, estimated popula- administer it in accordance with tion of the world, over eight hun- principles which He formuiatt'd, and di'ed millions are, politically speak- who, though sometimes unwillingly, ing, subject to the reign of Christ. and often unwittingly, yet are com- That is to say, more than half the pelled to acknowledge" from sea to population of the globe to-day is un- sea" that the "government is upon der Christian princes, kings, and His shoulders." "The KINGDOM of presidents, having been conquered God cometh not with observation,"

by Christian arms, won by Christian -but it comes!

commerce, or multiplied by the sin- Nor is this all. The relative ratio gular birth-rate which Christianity of increase of political power, within alone renders possible. They are the past hundred years, and the pro- amenable in Christian courts; their portionate momentum at present,of suits are adjudged by Christian codes; this political Christian progress, are if exercising local jurisdiction, they all in favor of, what we count, the are 'doing it under authority dele- best type of this Christian kingdom- gated or suffered by a Christian par- Protestantism. We write not theo- amount power, which not only holds logically nor ecclesiastically, butf·rom over them supreme political sway, the secular statesman's stand-point but controls their commerce, devel- only when we characterize Protes- ops their resources. and steadily tant politica.l rule, with all its imper- molds their social life to its stand- fections and faults and failures, as ards. on the whole the best the world has seen, the nearest to thp model set to Christian powers have a supremacy work by,; and hence w@ rejoice as a which enables them to enforce it, is citizen that within the last century not so much what we press at this' the extension of the Protestant ex- moment; but rather that here is the pression of Christ's political king- formulated law of a sublime authordom has more than doubled the ity born of Christianity, the concrete increase of the Roman Catholic expt'ession of an unseen Congress, type of the same, and almost quad_ the regulation of an invisible Potenrupled the territorial advance of the tate, the foreshadowing and the Greek Church. Christ's kingdom is overshadowing of a kingdom not of advancing, then, at a favorably dis- this world, which while represented proportionate rate to all other re- on many thrones is localized in no ligious kingdoms, and much more one of them, whose vast plans and than half of the propulsion comes purposes silently, almost stealthily fro'm the Protestant half of Christ's embrace them all, and, quietly as representatives in the earth. the movement of the spheres,revolves them all within its orbit. This in- What is left unsubjugated ? We ternational expression of Christ's have seen what is left to Islam. Kingdom therefore is a felt political What is left to the" light of Asia, force over all but the lowest forms Buddhism-and to Brahmanism- of human society; and the momenwhich together exert more or less tum which has carried the Kingdom religious influence over half the pop- of Christ to this political prominence ulation of the globe? We mean gives no indication of becoming a what is left to them as political fac- spent force. tors of the world? Weare indebted to Mr. James Johnston for the follow- Anti-slavery Defense. ing formula in which we answer: J.un:s STEVENSON, F.R.S.E., has "Buddhism is not the prevailing religion of any really independent just issued through James Maclehose power to-day, unless Siam be reck- a; Sons of Glasgow a pamphlet* oned one, while Brahmanism only which must awaken a good deal of exists and increases under the pro- feeling on the subject of slave hunttection of Great Britain." ing and the slave trade in Africa. The wo admirable maps, which are col- We have said nothing of the po- ored specially to show the districts litical rule exercised by Christian which have been utterly depopulated powers over non-Christian political by these Arab slave-capturers, and kingdoms, yet within certain bounds also to indicate the extent of country it has reduced them to a measure of over which slave-hunting obtains, subordination, and in some direc- and the routes along which slaves tions to semi-vassalage. There is are carried to the coast, are eloquent. a code of nations, which we call In- They rouse us like a photograph of ternational Law, which by common horrors, and awaken indigntttion election is recognized by all except and shame that make one "blush to savage and uncivilized peoples. call himself a man." China and Japan are obliged to concede to it support, and all who recog- .The quotations which the author nize the comity of nations as de- makesfrom Stanley's"Congo," while sirable or essential to common pros- graphic and powerful, are strongly perity must willingly or unwillingly supported by other testimony, E'till govern themselves by its require- more recent. Stanley wrote of a secments. tion which he said was a little greater than Ireland, inhabited by about a That this International Law is a conception of Christianity, and that *"The Arabs in Central Atrka and at Lake Nyassa." million of people. For eleven months coast of Tanganyika the entire popthe band of slave-hunters he was de- ulation has been swept away. The scribing had been on one continuous Arab traders have congregated in raid in this district. The traders ad- great force at the Nyassa end of the mitted they had "only" 2,300 cap- road from Tanganyika. These tives in the pen, after devastating thl'eaten the very existence not only 118 dllages and 43 districts. Stanley of the Scottish and other missions does some fierce ciphering, by which above these lakes but of the com- he shows that for five slaves got to paratively industrious population the market, at least a thom'and peo- amongst· whom they have made ple are slaughtered. quite. a successful beginning of civil- .. To obtain tbe~,500 slaves, out ofl18 villages they must have shot a round number of 2,500 ization. Rev. Mr. Scott, head of the people, while 1,:loo men died by the wayside through scant provisions and the intenSity of Blantyre Mission, sayR: their hopeless wretchedness. How many are wounded and die in the forest or droop to "The Arab slave trade is making frightful death through an overwhelming sense of their progress. Caravans of Arabs are pouring incalamities we do not know, but if the above lor trade? No 1 Hardly a bale of cloth goes up figures are trustworthy then the outcome from country from the east coast; it is guns and the territory with its millions of souls is 5,000 powder, uot eveu spirits. It is simply slaughtslaves obtained at the cruel expense of 33,000 er, and slanghter of thousands, and the desolives. And such slaves 1 They are females or lation of the fairest lands-lands where the young children who cannot run away, or who natives were at peace, where industry and with youthful indifference will soon forget the thrift and happiness ruled; where to get terror~ of their capture 1 Yet each of the very through one village you might start in the smallest infants has cost the life of a father, early mo~ning and not pass out of it till the sun and perhaps his three stout brothers, aud three was half-way down, journeying straight on; grown-up daughters. Au entire family of seven and these are now desolate. Fresh routes are souls have been done to death to obtain that opening up to them and the desolation is small, feeble, useless child:" spreading. It is not slaye-trade ; it is ruthless massacre of the most barbarous type." The district of which Stanley was The Roman Catholic Cardinal, writing lay to the the south of Stan- whom the London Spectator report- ed when speaking in that city, deley Falls, but in the other vast districts the horrors and cruelty and scribing these slave scenes, said: wrongs are quite the same. .. A few days of these hardships begin to tell South of Tanganyika toward Ny- even on the strongest. The weakest soon suc- cumb, and the weakest are naturally among aSEa this trade is spoken of by Mr. F. the women. But terror sometimes nerves M. Moil' in a paper which appeared even a weak frame to almost superhuman in the Scottish Geographical Maga- efforts; and the Arab slave-driver adopts a zine. He describes summary method of striking terror into the hearts of the laggards. ' In order to strike ter- "the wretched ovepburdened tied-up slaves. ror into this miserable mass of human beings, The men wllo might still have had spirit to try their conductors, armed with a wooden bar, to and escape were driven, tied two-and-two, in the economize powder. approach those who apterrible goree, or taming stick, or in gangs of pear to be the most exhansted, and deal them about a dozen each with au iron collar let into a terrible blow on the nape of the neck. The a long iron chain, many even so soon after the unfortunate victims utter a cry, and fall to the start staggering nnder their loads. grouud in the convulsions of death. The ter- rified troop immediately resumes its march. "And the women 1 I can hardly trust my- Terror has imbued eveu the weakest with new self to think or speak of them-they were strength. Each time anyone breaks down fastened to chains or thick bark ropes; very the same horrible scene is repeated.' This many in additiou to their heavy weight ot grain butchery goes on even in the, case of those and ivory carried little brown babies, dear to who manage to struggle on, as soon as the extheir hearts as a white man's child to his. The perienced eye of the slave-drivers see that double burden was almost too much, and still their streugth will not carry them to the coast. they struggled wearily on, knowing too well To save fooq, they receive a smashing blow that when they showed signs of fatigue, not from the mallet, and are left behind to a linthe slave~'s ivory, but the living child would gering death. The march sometimes extends be torn from them and thrown aside to die." over months, and such is the awful cal'Dage, •that it a traveler lost the way leading from For ninety miles along the south Equatorial Africa to the towns where slaves tlon. Is Central Africa to be given are sold, he could easily Ilnd it again by the over to the lust of the panderer and skeletons of the negroes with which it is the mercy of the sl,ave-fiend, or shall strown.' This prodigal waste of hnman life some determined effort be made to has in some districts so thinned the populati,on save It to civilization and Christianthat the slave-hnnters are obliged to nse strat- .agem to catch their prey. Their bands prowl ity? We are at least able to say that in the forests, and pounce npon the hapless this question is receIving the earnest women and children who go by. Things have thought of Christian men in Great reached such a pass near the great lakes that now, in the words of one of the cardinal's mis- Britain, and though one can read besionaries, • every woman, every child that tween the lines that with many Eurostrays ten minutes away from their village has peans there is the thought of the big no certainty of ever returning.' And the peo- market for European goods that lIes ple who are the victims of this cruel oppression are, according to the cardinal, kind, indnstri- above those lakes and beyond, or ons, amiable, and might be made, nnder hap- even the splendid territory that may, pier inflnences, the means of making those later on, supply an outlet for overparts of Africa one of the most prosperons stocked European states-while this regions or the globe. The country is very fer- is, we say, readily visible, yet the protile, and abounds in natnral resonrces. It pos- sesses three zones-first the lowlands along founder feeling and realinspiration to the sea-hoard of the Mediterranean, Atlantic, do something in the premises, lies and Indian Oceans. Toward the interior are with those who are acting under motwo plateans, one above the other, rising to ral and religious impulse, and seek- 2,000 feet and 4,000 feet respectively.'.'

Lately a band of these Arab slave ing the best interests of the African traders has even attacked one of the races. Eminent philanthropists, such British stations in NJassa-Iand, and as the Earl of 'Aberdeen, James Ste- continues to threaten them from phenson, Professor Henry Drum- stockaded villages within a few miles' mond, and others have organized distance: For a time the presence of what is termed the "Nyassa Anti- the missionaries on the lake borders Slavery and Defense Fund," with a seemed to restrain these wretches. view to placing on these trade routes But the Christian sentiment of and around these lakes and mission- Europe will not sustain missionaries, ary stations, a small but well- scarcely in forcible self-defense, for equipped military force, independ- themselves, refugees, or their native ently of all governments, to keep the Christians; and, the native slave- peace at least in that quarter. They hunter having found out that there are asking for $50,000 for the pur- is no gunpowder behind the mission- pose of organizing this sort of armed ary, is growing daily bolder and police; a comparatively small.army sweeping down on these tribes, of of such, it is said by those best able whom the missionaries have made to judge, at the head of well-dis- friends. The question is imminent- ciplined natives will be sufficient to not a question of to-morrow, but of repel these inroads on the communi- to-day-whether Central Africa IS to ties wnere the missions are estab- be left to this sort of Mohammedan lished.

civilization and up-lifting, as Canon The administration of the fund Taylor affects to call it, or whether will obtain the best advice of naval some power can come to the rescue of and military experts, as well as of these poor harmless native women civilians, whose knowledge of the and children? They need defense, country entitleB them -to speak wi'h not from any organized government, authority on African matters. Wide- but from organized banditti, who rob spread sympathy and aid is sought, and murder and ruin, and leave noth- and earnest prayer that God will mgfor anybody to rule; whose touch teach the Christian peoples how to is pollutIOn and their footstep desola- heal this" open sore of the world." General Missionary Oonference in Ohina, scientific literature; what has been done, in 1890. and what is needed; 3, Scientific terminol- WE are glad to know that the China missions have decided to hold ogy; present discrepancies and means of another General China Conference securing uniformity; 4, Centrallzation of on Missions in May, 1890. The pro- tract societies,a.nd needs of a general agent, gramme, as It appears in The Chinese Recorder of January, 1889, is as fol- a llbrary ot publication, and a descriptive lows: catalogue; 5, Christian periodical litera- F'trstday-t, Sermon, Rev. Griffith John; 2. Organization of Conference; 3, The ture; 6, Current Chinese literature; how Changed Aspect of China. far is it antagonistic to Christianity? Second day-The Scriptures: Historical snmmary of the different versions, with Ninth day-1. DIvision of the field; 2, their terminology and the feaRabiIity of securmg a single standard version in Wen· Ii Mutual co-operation; 3, Relation of Chriswith a corresponding version in the mandarin colloquial. Review of the varions tian missions to the Chinese; 4, Ancestral colloquial versions. worship and kindred obstacles to the spread Third day-t, The Missionary; his qnalifications, introduction to his work. and mode of Christianity. of life; 2, Lay Agency in Chinese Missions; to what extent desirable, and on what con- Tenth day-t, Direct results of missionary ditions ; 3, Historical Review of Missionary Methods, past and present, in China, and work III China, and statistics; 2, Indirect how far satisfactory; 4, Preaching to the heathen, in chapels, in'open air, and during results of missions; 3, Outlying nations and itineration. aboriginal tribes. Fourth day-t, General view of woman's work in China, and its results; 2, Girls, The evenings are to be devoted to sChools; 3, Best methods of reaching the women; 4, Feasibility of unmarried ladies lectures. Archdeacon Moule will engaging in general evangelistic work in new fields; 5, Best method of training Bible speak of ,< The Relation of Christian women for their work; 6. The Christian trainmg of the women of the church. Missions to Foreign Residents"; Fifth day-l. Medical work as an evangel- Rev. A. H. Smith will lecture on izing agency; 2, Medical missionary work in China by lady physiciaus ; 3, Orphanages, "How Chinese View Christianity"; asylums for the blind, deaf,.and dumb, and other <!haritable institutions; 4, Value and Rt. Rev. Bishop Burdon will speak methods of opium refuges; 5, Statistics and resolutions on the evils of'the use of opium. on "The Relation of Christianity to Sixth day-I, Methods of dealing with in- Universal Progress," and Bishop quirers, condItions of admissiou to church fellowshIP and best methods of discipline; Moule will preach on Sunday at the 2, Deepening the spiritual life, and stimulating the church to aggressive work; 3, cathedral. ' Best methods of developing self-support and voluntary effort; 4. How far should Chris. Japan Under Its Oonstitution. tians be required to abandon native CllStoms. IT almost takes one's breath, to read of the Emperor of Japan, with the Seventh daY-I, History and present con- sword, the jewel and the privy seal dition of mission schools, and what further before him, representing a reigning plans are desirable; 2, How best to adapt family whose first ruler was contem- Christian education to the present state of porary with Nebuchadnezzar, and a Chmese mind and life; 3, The best methods nation with a longer history than any of selecting and training efficient native nationintheWest, withrecordsreachassistants (preachers, school teachers, ing back to the time of Crcesus, on the etc.) ; 4. The place of the Chinese classics in 11th of February, the day on which, Christian schools and colleges. twenty-four centuries ago, the first . Eighth day-1, Report of School and Text- Emperor of Japan landed on Niphon book CommIttee; 2, Other religious and -to read, we say, that such a poten- tate did publicly, deliberately, volun- tarily,in the face of the world,change the settled habits and policy of cen- turies, and hand the scroll of a con- stitution to the Minister·President of Sta,te, and then withdrew while a hundred and one guns announced to the people of the realm that autoc- racy had ceased, and that the Em- , peror henceforth is to occupy a throne whose edicts must be countersigned by the consent of a Parliament,-to read, further,-that in a. la.nd where

THE MONTHLY CONCJi:RT OF MISSIONS

the edicts that prohibit" the evil sect when then disapproved. The Emperor appoints called Christians" have never been and dismisses the officials, and fixes their sala- withdrawn, but for 250 years have ries; he has the command of the army and read: "So long as the sun shall warm navy; power of makmg war, peace, and treaties; declares the law of siege; confers the earth, let no Christian become so titles of nobility, and so forth; orders amnes- bold as to come to Japan," that in ties, pardons and rehabilitations. The citizen, this land, without internal riot or re- on the other hand. is free to change his abode at will; cannot be arrested, searched for, or volt, without violence or subjection punished, except according to law; and is, of foreign arms, constitutional pro- within the same limits, entitled to the right of vision for religious liberty is peace- property, freedom of religious belief, of public fully inaugurated, and to recognize meeting, ofspeech and association, and has the that this has not so much been revo- right of petition. The Parliament consists of lution as evolution, and that within two houses, the Peers and the Representatives. a third of a century, is to peruse in The first are partly hereditary, partly nomi- the press of our day what is without nated by the Emperor for life, and partly elected a parallel in all the records of empire; for seven years by the highest taxpayers, with and what fairly compels in one a , the Emperor's approval. The house of Repre- statEi of suspense. It is as a "dream sentatives consists of 300 members, elected by when one awaketh." open ballot; its members must be thirty years of age, and must be paying annually fifteen yen Pending the fuller discussion of of national taxes; but army, navy, and police the features of this new constitution, officers, as well as prie~ts, are not eligible. The which is to come in the calmness fol voters must be twenty-five years of age, and lowing the first surprise that it has must be paying the same amount of taxes as really come at all; and its treatmen hose eligible; army and navy officers in active by men who are nearer to its merits .ervice cannot vote. The house sits for four and defects than we can be at this years, three months annually; but this term hour, we quote the following out- may be prolonged, or extra sessions called. line by the correspondent of the New Parliament discusses and votes the budget, and York Tribune: sanctions also all special expenditures; but from its power in this respect are excluded the imper- .. As regards the constitution, it declares with ial household and' expenditures incurred in the emphasis the inviolability of the Emperor and exercise of the powers reserved to the Emthe perpetuity of the throne. The legislative peror,' which means chiefly the salaries of the functions ofthe throne are to be exercised with officials and the expenses for army and navy. the consent of Parliament. From this the Em- When ParlIament fails to agree on the budget, peror can, when Parliament does not sit, devi- the Government has competence to carry ont ate only in case public safety demands it, but the budget of the years previous. Judges can any law so made must be submitted to Parlia- be appointed and removed by law only. The .ment at its next session, and becomes invalid Representatives and the nominated and elected Peers receive an annual salary of 800 yen each, together with their traveling expenses. to V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.

BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.

THE subject for May IS Burmah, sive of the Laos people. The chief Siam and Laos and Buddhism. Com- town is Bangkok, with from 400,000 pare Vol. for 1888, pages 338, 373, to 600,000 inhabitants. All figures 387-90, etc., and Miracles of Missions are but an approximation. We take in this number. these from the best authorities we can LOWER BURMAH has an area of 87,- find, but they must be regarded as 000 square miles, with nearly 15,000 only a fair conjecture. Reliable data a: villages and towns, and population are not JBt available. The difficulty in 1881 of nearly 4,000,000. Upper is increased by the native practice of Burmah has more than twice the numbering males only.

area, about 190,000 square miles, with Siam occupies the central and larger fully 4,000,000. part of Indo-China, which lies be- SIAM has over 280,000 square miles, tween India and China, and includes and a population of 6,000,000, exclu- most of the Malayan peninsula, which runs down far into the ocean. very few changes, and those very Siam's territory almost touches the tardily. The inertia of the Siamese equator, and runs 1,350 miles toward and kindred people is due doubtless the pole, measuring 450 miles at its in part to the climate, which is enerwidest part. It is about as large as vating. They have few needs, and New England, with the four Middle these are easily supplied-but little States, or nearly as large as two such is required, either for food or cloth- States as Oregon. The Laos extends ing, and supplies are very cheap, fl'om about latitude 16 degrees to 24 rendering little labor necessary, and degrees N., and has a population esti- so tempting to laziness. Women are mated at from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000. in a comparatively free condition, Its limits are not very closely defined. the lirnitations of zenana life beIng The Mekong or Cambodia River unknown among Siamese and Lao~ traverses it, and the Saluen sepa- nese. Boats take the place of wheeled rates it from Burmah, both of them vehicles, and rivers are the roads for streams of considerable magnitUde. all lower Siam. The surface seems to be a valley intermediate between two parallel BliDDHISM has in Siam its center ranges running along the frontiers and citadel. Here this religious faith on the northeast and southwest. The is found in its purity; unmixed as in soil is fertile in vegetable products, China with Confucianism and Taoand valuable mines exist; even gold ism. Buddhism claims a remote anano precious stones may be found. tiquity, and seems to be about 2,500 The Laonese are lazy, but honest, years old. Its founder, Gautama, and much given to the study and wa.s called Buddha, the "Enlightcontrol of mag-ical arts, and in lan- ened" or "Illumined." He was unguage, manners and customs, and re- doubtedlya rare man, and his influligion resemble the people of Burmah. ence has been both widespread and marvelously permanent. For more Siam is inseparably associated with than a. thousand years Siam has had the white elephant-a variety not no other faith. And over one·half strictly white, but of a whitish of the human family it exercises an brown, bordering on a pinkish red. influence more or less despotic. The Siamese name for it is the "strange colored." Though highly It is both atheistic and materialishonored and revered, and associated tic, for it has no place in its creed for with the national flag, it can scarcely either a proper God or a real soul. be reckoned as an object of worship. Mo;;t of those who follow it have no word for God, and neither prayer nor A large proportion of the inhabi- worship in a proper sense finds room tants of Siam are foreigners-mostly in Buddhistic teaching. The craving Chinese. The Siamese are an amia- for objects of worship has to be supble race, and, like most naturally plied by importations from other amiable people, lack the energy and systems. Prayer is nothing more vigor of "sons of thunder." They than a mechanical monotonousform, are rather passive than active, very an intonation or incantation, which opinionated and somewhat deceitful. is supposed to have some mysterious Like the Chinese, they are obedient magical power, and which legitito parents and reverentia'l to the mately gives birth to the" praying aged, disposed to be peaceable and mills" used in Thibet, which, by the liberal. Mentally they are rather tUrn of a wheel on which is a magical receptive, but are not easily moved, form or formula, answers all the and do not move with rapidity even purposes of prayer as well as the when they get staded. Their civili- most laborious thought or agonizmg zation is largely fossilized,and admits speech. Although pure Buddhism !iupplies read into Buddhism, as in Arnold's no objects of worship, images of "Light of Asia." No doubt there Buddha are so common, and numer- are many lofty moral teachings in ous that one fane alone is said to Gautama's system as there were in contain and enshrine 14,000. Certain those of Epicurus and Zeno and features of Buddhism may be easily Plato. But it is obvious of them all kept in mind and memory. that they failed to uplift, redeem, save. Even the excellence of the 1. Atheism-a virtual dental of all standard does not arrest the moral propel' deity. declension of the followers.

2. Materialism-a direct denial ofall The priests, or monks, devote spirit or soul In man-and, of course, themselves to a meditative life, live of all spirituality or immortality. solely on alms, and beside all the revenue which goes to support the 3. Transmigration. All want and Siamese temples the priests use up woe in the present life may be-ac- some $25,000,000 ayear! This sum for counted for by the sins of a previous a people numbering in all less than existence; and every sin of the 8,000,000 makes an average of over present will be compensated by the $3 a year. At that rate the Ameri- wants and woes of other states and can nation would be paying annually stages of existence to follow. This $200,000,000 for the support of the may seem inconsistent with the de- clergy. Every man spends at least nial of personal immortality, but the part of his life as a priest. No won- Buddhist evades that inconsistency der that the system has a strong by the theory that, though every hold on the people and that the gos- human being ceases to be at death, pel makes slow progress in the dem- another existence begins at that in- olition of this false religion so in stant which is somehow historically contrast at every point with the gos- -and practically identical with it; in pel of Christ. a word, the death of the old and the birth of the new being are simulta- SELECTED PARAGRaPHS. neous, and there is a true succession of being thus kept up. This new THE ETHICAL VALUE OF A PAGAN RELIGION. birth may be in the form of man, beast, demon or angel. Each life THE test of ethical value in any religion is thus has both an end and a succession, the kind of character it tends to producEl. and heaven is the escape from this We will say character in two respects- succession-in the final slum bel' or average character aud ideal character. annihilation of Nepon or Nirvana. The second should be noticed first, since The highest good is no longer to live the ideal character in any religion must an individual life, but to be lost as a powerfully infiuence average character. drop in the sea. To some extent the ideal of character in a religion may be seen in that which is at- Buddhism prescribes the noble tributed to the deity that is worshiped. It path to this nirvana goal. It is by should seem that the conception allY people meditation on, life's hollowness and may have of what is best in humanity may shallowness until all desire of every always be inferred from what is regarded as sort dies out. proper to deity. The mythology of a people, in fact, indicates its apprehensions of what The proper symbol of Buddhism is belongs to the highest being. The ideal of the revolving wheel, as that of Chris- character is also seen in those whom pagan tianity is the cross, and that of Ma- teaching and pagan literature set forth as hommedanism is the crescent. Life- ideal men. This is especially the case where existence-is a revolution of the the ideal man is the teacher himself, stand- wheel, and perfect bliss is to have ing to his disciples in much the same rela- the wheel no longer revolve. tion, perhaps, as Jesus of NaZareth to those whom He taught. A conspICUOUS example Many Christian ideas have been S Buddha. Those who in these days, and in en·lightened lands, so unaccountably show a tendency to accept the founder of the Budd- hist faith as both an ideal teacher and aU ideal man, must be -1tran'gely blinded. Let Hindu Lingalll God," consisting of a chryso- us take him just as the books picture him to beryl cat's eye fixed in a topaz. and mounted us. The way in which he is represented as in a pyramidal base studded with diamonds entering upon his career illustrates the fatal and precious stones. This curious relic stood fallacy of his whole system. Does a man 2J4 inches in height. It was preserved for born to oe the ruler of a people owe nothing more than a thousand years in an ancient to them? Is not his life-work provided for temple at Delhi, where acts of devotion him in the very fact of being so born? Then were paid before it by women anxious to Buddha had other ties; ties with wife and have children. The base is of solid gold, child; ties with the father and the mother and around it are nine gem.. or charms, a whose only son and heir he was. Is it. after diamond. ruby, sapphire, chrysoberyl cat's all. such a charming thing in him that he eye, coral, pearl, hyacinthe garnet, yellow casts off all these and goes roaming over sapphire and emerald. These gems are all the world a bare-footed beggar. preaching rudely carved, and would, no doubt, by – hi.. gospel of nirvana' The story can be more scientific cuttin!" be greatly improved told in poetry so as to be very pleasing; in value. Round the apex of this gold pyra- but apply to it those tests which are af- mid is a plinth set· with diamonds. On the forded in the hard facts of human life and apex is a topaz 1 10-16 inches in length and human duty. and what does it all become? 9·16 of an inch in depth, shaped like a horse- The ideal Buddha affords in his own person shoe; in the center of the horseshoe the is one which, if it were to be used in this !,reat chrysoberyl cat's eye stands upright.

world for other. than poetical purposes, This is 15-16 of an inch in height, and dark would take men everywhere out of their brown in color, and shaped like a pear. An spheres of duty and service; would make extremely mobile opalescent light crosses all manly virtues a crime; would change the length of the stone in an obliqne direc- the world's workers into puling, whimper- tion. When Bad Shah Bahador Shah, the ing ascetics; would make religion itself a last King of Delhi, was captured and exiled mask for selfishness, and morality the car- to the Andaman Isles, his Queen secreted cass of a dead dog. Buddha's boast was, this gem, and it was never seen again until, uI am no man's servant." Jesus said, "If being distressed during the mutiny, she sold any man would be great among you, let him it to the present owner. The gem was finally be the servant of all."-Dr. J. A. Smith. knocked down at £2,450.

SIR MONIER WILLIAMS'S account of ihe devotees of Yoga, a system of ascetic prac.. TEXTS ANn THEMES.

tices which existed before Buddha. suggests DANIEL xii: 3. "And they that be teachers shall a contrast between those fanatics and the radiate brightness as the expanse, and they that ordinary Christian believer. He tells how convert the many to righteousness as the stars he saw at Allahabad one who had main- forever, " etc.

tained a sitting postnre. his feet folded un- Babylon'. clear skies stimulated Daniel's Cas- der his body. for twenty years. During the dee teachers to study astronomy and led to the mutiny, while cannon thundered and bnllets worship of the stars. To them the firmament hissed around him, nothing apparently dis- was Deity. and its radiance the splendor of the turbed his attitude of profound meditation. Supreme.

To obtain" enlightenment" these devotees Our Lord applies these words from Daniel.

practice the strangest austerities, and Compare Matt. xiii : 43.

they seem to have the clearest hope of The first clause refers to the expanse by day: thereby reaching" emancipation of heart." the second to the glory by night. Thus sunlight Sir Monier has given fresh illustration of and starlight are used as illustrations of the that concentrated will-power in Orientals glory and reward of teaching truth and convert- which our Christianity may well envy. iog sonls. • Rational aims, indeed, are qnite at a disad- Sunlight is diffnsed and refiected and so be· vantage as compared with mystical hopes, comes a revelation. The true teacher dUfnses and asceticism is, on the whole, an easier and rellects the light of God and so reveals business than wise activity ; an empty mInd trnth and God to men. Starlight has grades of can attain-the saintship of the Yoga, but glory-and so converters of sonis durer in the keen mental energy is needful in order to measnres of their service and reward.

reach" the stature of the fullness of Christ. " This text thus snge;ests the glory of teacbing Yet if our fai th is to master Buddhism in the and turning souls. We are taught here aud in East it must show marvels of devotion; Psa. li : 13 the same lesson.

thus only can it win a nation of devotees. Teaching first: instrnction is the basis of all The Christian missionary does not find the evangelization and conversion. God calls every Indian people as they are found by the believer to be a teacher and converter.

fanatic Buddhist or Siva-worshiper, drunk Success hangs on the Message, the Hethods with a mystical hope. and the Man. We confine ourselvds to the THE great attraction of a late sale of Bur- Me88aQ6.

~se and Indian curios in London was" The 1. The gospel and nothing less and nothing

EDITORIAL NOTES

else. The central theme: .. Chrillt CruCified." gospel must first be a sword opening up the hid- All preaching starts from and returns to that. deu part, then" mirror to show us our inner self. It Is nO narrow theme, but a "swivel gun" that maY'beswung in any direction aud directed 8. An aggressive gospel. The true preacher . to every practical issue of life. or teacher is not one who keeps on the defeu- sive.. In a game, the moment one is on the de. 2. Afullgospel: .. All Scripture is profitable" fensive the game is against him. So in war. The most successful ministers and missionaries Skillfnl strategy demands that the general keep have preached the whole couusel of God, espe- the enemy busy defending himself. God never cially these eight fundamental truths: The In- meant we .honld be nsing spades and throwing spired Word, Man's Depravity, Christ the only up intrenchments. Let us leave apologetics Saviour, J nstification by faith, The new Birth, and energetically carry the war into the enemies' Personal Holiness, God's Hatred of Sin, Future territory. Punishment. These are first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Heb. v : 12 to vi : 2. There 4. .A. cumulative gospe~. True preaching is a are two edges to the sword of the Spirit-an pyramid-the basis laid firm, broad, square; edge of law and one of grace; and hence one then stone upon stone, layer upon layer, all con- piercing point in which those edges meet. The verging toward a climax. Unity and continuity of impression are thus conserved.

VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

WE have received the report of management of the Church Mission- the" Association for the Free Dis- ary SOCiety. . The income of the tribution of the Scriptures." Office, society last year was nearly £222,000.

No.1, Oak Hill Park, Hampstead, It il5 rumored that nearly £50,000 was L~mdon, N. W. We have no hesita- spent before any of the money was tion in commending to the sympathy paid out for mission work. This and support of our readers this ex- society was foundedatthe beginning cellent institution. Its founders and of the century. It has numerous supporters regard it as a fatal hin- missions in Western Africa, India, dranceto tbe wide spread of the Word Egypt, Persia, China, New Zealand, of God that the Bible shall only be America, the North Pacific-all over sold; and maintain that in millions the world, in fact. It has 294 stat.ions of cases persons will never possess or in all; ul'ward of 500 missionaries even read the 'Vord unless it comes in holy orders, and 3,700 European to them as a free gift. There is no and native teachers of aU sorts.

antagonism with existing Bible so- There are complaints of other mis- cieties; but the attempt is to supple. sionary societies as to extravagant menttheirworkby a free distribution home expenditure. Even tbeLondon among those whosepoverty orapathy Missionary Society, whose manage- prevent their purchasing copies. ment was regarded by Canon Taylor The names of the committee are a as contrasting favorably with that of sufficient warrant for the organiza- the Church Missionary Society, has tion. Where such men as Major-Gen- not escaped criticism; and complaint • eral Graydon, James E. Mathieson, as made in The Methodist Times that Robert Paton, etc., lead, most of us £30,000 of the income of the Wesleyare safe in following. The annual ian Society is spent at home.

number of Bibles, Testaments, etc., For ourselves we are glad to have from all existing societies reaches these matters thoroughly ferreted but 8,000,000, i. e., two million less out. If there be anything that will than the annual inCl'ease of the not bear exposure, that is w hat needs world's population.-A. T. P .. exposure. Meanwhile we put on record our confidence that it will be THE recent assaults on missions found that no work done in the way and missionary societielb have had at of benevolence will prove on the least onfl good result. For instance, whole more economically done than it is proposed that a full and search- that of missions j while at the same ing inquiry shall be made into the time we believe there might be no little improvement in administration. Mr. Moody's Training College in We believe that the time will come Chicago is especially designed toftt when for the love of the cause men for evangelistic work in great cities.

will be found who can and will give -A.T.P.

their services as secretaries and treas- THE recent decease of the Dowurers; or when special funds will be ager Lady Kinnaird in London has provided for administration so that removed from Christian and philanevery dollar contributed may go thropic work one of God's noblest directly to the mission field.-A. T. P. handmaidens. She was equally de- WE have received a number of let- voted to Home and to Foreign Mis- sions, and city evangelization. She ters of which the following may serve led in the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society, the as a specimen; . Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, St. John's School, Westbourne Park, Please furnish for your r-eadersan article touching the what, the where, the when, and the how, of such a preparatory course for Foreign Mission Work as increasing , for training girls for domestic ser- hundreds are longing to get. vice, in the London Young Women's General information is desired on such Chrilltian Association, which has 140 matters as these: For what field should I prepare? What branches with 15,000 members. She should such preparation involve f Where was . in fact hundred-handed and can I best secure it? At now little cost f hundred-hearted. To the last day of In how little time f Is there, or is there to her life she, with her noble daughters be, any institution where foreign languages, and son, the Earl of Kinnaird, was taught by natives of the foreign fields, can engaged in every work that sought be acqujred by those who give themselves to snch fields f Are there any traininll' the up-lifting of man.-A. T. P.

schools the curriculum of which shall pro- vide the best special equipment for stUdents Progress in the Patna. Oase. who cannot attempt the .. full course," .. regular," etc. Fraternally, Now that the case of the Christian girl Luchmin has passed from the JAMES P. LUDLOW, To ask questions is easier than to magIstrate, Mr. Quinn, to the High answer them. But we are glad to Court in India, we are rapidly getting give what information we can. nearer to the goal which all who Rev. W. B. Osborn and Mrs. S. B. have worked for the girl have had in Osborn, formerly missionaries in view-her salvation from a life of India, are in charge ot the Bradbury immorality to which the magistrate Memorial and Missionary Training had consigned her.

Institute, cornel' Raymond and Will- The High Court at Calcutta, in January, issUfJd / oughby streets, Brooklyn, N. Y. By a rule calling upon the magistrate to show cause why his order which consigned the girl applying to this address, catalogues to an infamous life should not be set aside. and circulars may be obtained giving The case came on for argument on Monday, all needful information, They under- Feb. 18, and the High Court not only pushed .• take special training for the mission- aside the magisterial order, bnt took a step ary field, and look directly to the Lord toward recovering possession of the child, as for support. They undertake to have will be seen from the following telegram which we have received from India: the languages of foreign fields taught "BOMBAY, 20-2-89.

by native teachers, etc. " A. S. DYER to Sentinel, LoNDON. A training school of a somewhat " Rule issued on Radakissen and Mahatabo to show cause 'Why order should not be made to different character is established at restore status quo, and give back Luchmln to Springfield, Massachusetts, under mission, or other suitable order. "

charge of Rev. David Allen Reed. It will be remembered by our readers that We advise all persons who desire in- Radakissen is the man who falsely claimed to formation to apply directly to these be the husband of the girl, and Mahatabo Is parties. the girl's mother who sold her to Radakissen. They are the two to whom the, magistrate consigned her. Our chief anxiety now is lest the Says the N. Y. Evangelist on this lI:irl, who was carried off by her captors.directly same subject: they got hold of her, shall not be fouud. But with the order of the High Court before it dem- " From entirely reliable religious papers in onstrating the iniquity of Mr. Quinn's unjns- India, the Evangelist gathers some unpleasant tifiable order, the Indian Government must see facts regarding the teaching required in such of that it is bound to exert itself to the utmost to the so-called missionary schools of that country find her, that she may be set free. as received aid from the Government, and of the results of that teaching. A professedly mission- The Anglo-Indian papers have been asserting ary journal declares that because such teaching that the Government had authorized Mr. Quinn may involve political dangers, the British Govto prosecute Mr. A. S. Dyer for his determined ernment should not continue the teaching of the championship of this girl's cause. The decision Bible in subsidized misEionary schools. The oC the High Court that Mr. Quinn was wrong same Government, however, sees no danber in demonstrates that Mr. Dyer was right. We making a sacred Hindu book a textbook in snch shall therefore now hear nothing more of these schools, and keeps it in them. Missionaries suggestions of a Government prosecution, bnt teach from it for the sake of retaining a Governmay expect a Government condemnation and ment subsidy. The result is that a good educaremov"al of Mr. Qniun.-The Sentinel (March). tion and a Government appOintment are gener- -J.M.S. ally the sol~ objects of young men in some snb- sidized mission schools, who reinain heathen be- Missionary Schools in India. cause from these school the Bible is carefully excluded. This statement is confirmed by the We can scarcely credit the an- fact that when more than a dozen young men nouncement, though supported by from such schools recently appeared for examofficial statements, that the Indian ination m mental and moral philosophy, and as Government excludes the Bible from candidates for the decree of A. M. from the Uniits public schools on the pl'etext that versity of Calcutta, not one took np the papers it is "'neutral." But we are ready on the Evidences ofChristianity which had been to believe that, and a great deal selected for Utem by the authorities. Under more, when we learn that it admits these circumstances, the Free Church of Scotinto those same schools the idola- laud has decided, according to The lndian trous and idolatry-teaching" Rama- Witne88 to close its school at Poonu, and the yan " as a class-book in Hindi; and Canadian Indian College at Indore is to be closed that, in order to secure the Govern- this month."-J. M. S. ment grant, professed missionaries of Christ make this same book a part Samoa. of their teaching in what are known as the "Sixth Standards "of their There is no one island called Samoa: the missionary schools. Replying to name is applied only to the eutire grouD of ten those who, for this reason, demand islands, often called the Navigator Islands. The the extincti9I of all missonary col- great French navigator,LaPerouse, who visited leges, a prominent Indian paper, these islands in 1787, had one of his officers and The Eastern Star, very properly de- ten of his men massacred, and while bitterly clares that the true remedy for this denouncing them for their "atrocious manunnatural condition does not lie in ners," declared it •• one of the finest couutries the abandonment of the higher ed- in the universe." A similar testimony was ucation of Indian youth to the hands given by other navigators who visited these isof whatit styles" a neutral secular lands before their evaugelization. government," but in the thorough reconstruction of missionary schools But all of the islands that form the group are on a sound evangelical basis, and in now professedly Christian. The first missiona return to the old missionarymeth- aries, Williams and Barff, reached Samoa in ods and standards of Duff, Anderson, 1830, and very rapid progress was made In and Wilson. And the sooner there Christianizing the islands. Heathenism is now is, in this matter, what the Irishman a thing of the past, and there are 200 villages is saId to have called an "advance in which native pastors are supported by the backwards," the better will it be for people. Besides supporting the native pastors, the cause of Protestant missions in the native churches have contributed on an av- India, and for India. erage during the last twenty years $6,000 per anuum to the funds of the London Missionary Society, which numbers 27,000 adherents. The Wesleyan Mission have 5,000, and the French priests claim 3,000. The population of the is- lands is now 35,000, an increase since 1843. Iu seven years after the entire Bible was printed in their lauguage an edition of 10,000 copies was sold and the British and Foreign Bible So- ciety has received from sales the entire amount of its outlay, $15,571. Some years after another and is spent in the Home field. About revised edition was published, of 10,000 copies, three per cent. for the world's evanwhich is now exhausted. The natives had gelization by the most Christian na- tion in the world, in this wonderful never seen a piece of money when the mission nineteenth century. was started. Now there are English, French, G<lrman and American stores, and from $250,- Judge Tucker, of Futtepoor, served 000 to $500,000 worth of native produce goes long in India, giving to missions into the stores of these merchants in exchange $200 per month. Beingremonstrated for clothes and other necessary articles. with for his liberality, he replied: These facts lend great interest from a missionary point of view to the Samoan matter, which now occupies the joint attention of the "Here are 86,000,000 adult populathree leading governments of the world. It is tion; 5,000 die daily-every day's alllrmed that on account of rivalry for the chief- delay meaus5,000souls." Would that tainship, and feuds growing out of it, the bulk of all judges viewed the question thus. the people, and evell the chiefs, long for foreign help and protection. These islands ofthe South There are a great many promises Sea, so recently converted from savage barba- to give to the Lord's cause that are rism to Christianity by English missionaries, only evasions of present duty. A deserve the sympathy and prayers of Christen- Cambridge, England, theologue, dom. It is obvions that the triumph of the when he told the story of the Good German policy would work injury to mission- Samaritan, after reciting the good sry interests in that part of the world.-J. M. S..

Dr. HENR Y M. SCUDDER relates a man's promise to the host, "And case of orientai justice that cannot be outdone for sharp and subtle dis- when I come again I will repay criminations even by a Philadelphia jurist. thee," wound up with: "'l.'his he said, knowing he should see his face no more." , " Four men. partners in business, bought HORACE says: "Who shall forbid some cotton bales, That the rats might not me laughing to speak the truth?" destroy the cotton they purchased a cat. On the question of the growing gulf They agreed that each of the four should own a particular leg of the cat; and each between the churches and the peoadorned with beads and other ornaments ple, WP have clipped the following the leg thus apportioned to him. The cat, suggestive epigram on a fashionable by an accident, injured one of its legs. The London church, from a foreign exowner of thart member wound about It a rag soaked in oil. The cat going too near the change: , fire. set the rag on fire. and. being in great pain, rushed in among the cotton bales .. In a church which is garnished with mullion where she was accustomed, to hunt rats and gable, The cotton thereby took fire and was burned up. It was a total loss, The three other With altar and reredos, with gurgoyle and partners brought a suit to recover the value groin. of the cotton against the fourth partner who owned the particular leg of the cat. The penitents' dresses are sealskin and sable, The odor of sanctity's Eau-de·Cologne ; uThe judge examined the case, and decided thus: 'The leg that Bad the ,oil rag But snrely, if Lucifer. flying from Hades, on it was hurt: the cat could not use that Were to gaze on this crowd, with its panniers leg, in fact, it held up that leg, and ran with and paints, the other three legs •. The three unhurt legs, therefore, carried the fire to the cotton, and He wonld say, as he looked on the lords and the are alone culpaple. The injured leg is not ladies, • Ob, where is All Sinners, if this is All Saints?' "

CANON TAYLOR, who has been fig- to be blamed. The three partners who uring as the critic of methods purowned the three legs with which the cat sued' by Foreign Missionary Socieran to the cotton will pay the whole value ties, is thus dealt with by a brother of the bales to the partner who was the pro- clergyman who sent the following prietor of the injured leg.'"

to the Record (London). Its force IS FINANCIAL FACTS.-At present ful- none the less from its being ad hom- ly ninety-seven per cent. of all mon- inurn, as the Canon's criticisms have eys collected for religious purposes been of that character.

ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS. [MAY

Sm: Canon Taylor, in the Fortnightly Re· of the value of souls abroad, connting his friends view, judges, by comparison of expenditure the Mohammedans, and souls in SettringtOD. with results, mission effort to have failed. He The discovery is striking, and to Settrlngton counts non-Christian p~ople at 920,000,000, and folk most flattering. The heathens at J.2d. a estimates the annual outlay for their conversion head are amply provided for; at Settrlngton at 2,000,000; that is, 11. for each460, or rather they required 11. 68.1%d. to be annually supplied mOre than an annual half·penny a head. Yet for their pastoral supervision. Surely the Can· he says, "Clearly there is no lack of men or on's friends abroad may justly take umbrage means." I accept the Canon's statistics with· that their souls are estimated by him in value at out question. I shall admit one half·penny a 1-627 of the value of the folk of Settrington! head as amp:e ontlay for the conversion of the I omit, to preserve the simplicity oCthe compar· heathen. Now as to the valUe of souls at home. ison, snch other factors of the eqnations as the I find from Crockford, 1887, that the income of enormous dilllcnlty of the task of Christianiz· Canon Taylor's benefice is (net) 1,048/. and ing people ont of heathenism contrasted with house. I find also that the population of his keeping Christian a parish Christianized so parish is 802. Now, as, presumably, the Canon many ceuturies ago. It is, indeed, humiliating having so keen a sense of the wasteful expen· to enter into such statistical contention with the diture of money on modern missions; considers clergyman in question. But he has appealed 1,048/. and a house not excessive payment for to figures and statistics; to figures and statistics the spiritual care of 802 souls, we arrive at once he must go-Suo silJi gladio huncjugulo. at the difference between the Canon's estimate GEORGE ENSOR.

VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.

Ohina Inland Mission.

STATISTICS OF THE MISSION FOR JANUARY, 1888.

MISSIONARIES. NATIVB .,; HELPKRS. . … iii ,,; iii g>" t< ., "() o:l .~ .;0:; .,; iii m $"G .. o:liii .Q iii .,; ".s::: '0 ] .~"0 .s <Ii .S iii .~c ..0c: o:l El ~ Q El .~ "" " ] ."" .0….,:;:l00-o;.;i ~ .:J Q Q) ::< El u QI 0 — — –"- — -°- — — — —- — — — Po<~0-~ -… 0 00 ';5. r'.". :8 ~ is 0 rn 15 64 65 274 61 61 59 66 2,105 18 3 5 16 — . Associate Reformed Presbyterian Ohnrch, 1888. MISSION- '0 ,,; ARIES. '0 0 .0: 0 —————– .::sj" – – -"- "..". ;" . MISSION. ~"d tti Q ,,; .,; .,; ,..,.; c .,; .0<-: iii .si OJ ~ o:l -<;I;i :" ~Z"~ o;""&Q '":: .c .8 ..~cc .'0c 00 ~ ~ .0.Q.:. El ;e .~~, -:8- '~ — ~ .'0c -00- ::< :0'"1 Q -S – Q -~ – .0: -«-i -00- U -00- -00- ME"xico ……………. 5 2 1 3 I> 206 10 7 14.~ 2 33 Amount raised by Ladies' MissIOnary Society ……………………………….. 82,969 Amount raised by Young People's Society…………………………………… 604 The effect of ~he climate seems to have been unusually depressing, almost all, both foreigners and natives, baving suffered from disease. The well-nigh universal licentiousness among the people constitutes the great obstacle. Still with prayer and faith they labor on, sure of a blessing and success at last.

Methodist Protestant Ohurch, 1888.

~ MISSIONARIES. .i.i.i … "" " ~ . "" MISSION. o:l ~ ..ci£,ii ~ -<;I;i 0p:;: iii Q iii .,; .>, . o.i ~ ~ El ~ ..Qc.. '8 '0 ~ ~ ~ ~ :;; 00 :8 .u:c:< ::< 0 .c 0… () ~ .0: u0 () Po< .:1 () 00 00 — — – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Japan……………… 3 's 7 8 279 I> 348 $16,000 $20,000 " The Board of Foreign MISSiOns IS located at Sprlllgfield, OhiO. The Wom/lon's Board at Pittsburgh, Pa. The society 18 only ten years old, but 1S pushmg Its work as best It may. The Medical Missionary Association, South American Missionary Society.

London, Tws was institutedby membersof the Chureh of England, first as the Patagonian Mission in REPORTS up to April, 1888, the receipt of 184~, but was subseqnently enlarged in its seope £1,064, and expenditure of £909, leaving a and no… inclndes missions to the Falkland balance of £155, most of which is pledged to Islands, Tierra del Fuego, Argentine Republic, certain undertakings not yet commenced. ' Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chili. Under its general auspices are medical missions at A.den, Kashmir, Rome and Tan- The list of missionaries in the service of the gier. society includes 9 ordained clergymen, 12 lay and 6 female hy missionaries and helpers; also, TheSecretary,James L. Maxwell, writes: the captain and crew of five of The Allen Gar- .. With us it is still the day of small things, diner, a F'lip constantly employed in evangelisthough we rejoice to ackilowledge the Lord's tic service, CJ well as to keep lip communicaprospering hand. Justnow we have five fir, tion betwer'l the different stations. The total fellows, who are at various stages of their disbursements during the year 1887 were £12,. four years' course in medicine before going 880; the receipts, £12,415; showing a deficit of to the foreign field, and we are busily en- £465. Thi~ seoms to have been due entirely to gaged in promoting our Fifth Medical mis- the falciug off of reeeipts from le;ucles. sion in London, the fifth in three years." The prineipal work accomplished by this The Edinburg Medical Missionary society seems to he among the seamen of the Society. different ports and the fo"reign residents, but thoy are constantly pushlr..; out among the Tum report for the year closing Nov. 1, 1888, native popnlation and meeting with gratifying shows expenditures as follows: success. Mission House, Training Institution and The Rhenish Missionary Society Dispensary ………………•……….£2,746 Support of Medical Missions at Nazareth, REl'ORTS for the year ending Easter, 1888: Receipts ………………….$8.'l,362 Damascus, Agra, aud toward other Med- Expenditures ……………. 82,985 ical Missions.,……………………. 1,942 Diffusion of information as to Medical Balance …. , ……. ..•.•….. $877 Missions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . • 153 Separate Fund for New Guinea ……$13,054 Priuting, advertising, etc……….. ..•… 287 Outlay. . .. . . . . …. .. . •…. . . •.. . .. 5,149 Total. ……………………. , ….. £5,128 Balance…………………….. $1,905. Income ……………………………. 4,702 Deficit ………………………….. £426 Missionary Board of the African Meth. There are 62. medical missionaries, formerly studeuts of this society, connected with mission odist Ohurch.

stations in all parts of the world. Four of these THIll quadrennial report of this society for the are supported by the SOCiety itself, the remain term commenCing June, 1884, aad ending April, del' are connected with one or another of the 1888, shows an interestin:; advance in the work various miSSionary societies of England and undertaken by j~ in Hayti, Sin Domingo, and Scotland. Many of these are indebted to this Sierra Leone.

society, not merely for the impulse that sent The work in the West Indies is carried on in them forth, but for s.ubstantial aid in the pur- the face cf great opposition from the Catholics, chase of medicines, etc., etc. and hence its SUCC03S is all the more encollrag- ing.

The work in Freetown, Sierra Leone, was The London Association in Aid of the commenced by Rev. J. R. Frederick in 1886, and has been enlarged by the establishment of a Moravian Missions. mission in the interior, on the Scarcies River.

Tum report shows a total of receipts for the The king of the country donated ten acres of year 1887 of £4,656. It has, of course, no statis- land to the enterprise.

tics of the work separate from those furnished Foremostamong the agencies that have helped in the Moravian Almanac. Its work is, how- on the work has been the Ladies' Missionary ever, none the less important. The peculiar Mite Society.

work accomplished by the :Moravian missions The total disbnrsements have been: needs no special words of acknowledgment, For the first year …….. , ………$3,522.27 for it is well known. It is not so generally For the second year. . .. . .. …….. 4,030.88 recognized that milch of their widespread Ilse- For the third year ……………… 4,770.76 fulness Is dne to the hearty practical SIlPPOrt of The statement for the fourth year was not earnest English Christians. complete. Statistios of the Ohurohes of the Disciples of Ohrist IN HONTANA TERRITORY FOR YEAR ENDING OCTOBER 1. 1888.

I Af omr ' t rLaoisceadl Am't raised Am't for Home Total IJhurches. Preach's. Members. S.Schools. Schol's. Ohurch and and Foreign lor all Pur- – – – – – – S. S. Work. Missions. poses. .—- ———–,— -6291 $11,484.38 $1,103.16 $12.g58.0!l 11 7 551 9 In five and a half years the value of church 'property has risen from $1,600 to $50,310. • The average per member of the 411 disciples organized for work is $31.52. Besides tais the C. W. B. M. contributed about $5,000 for this year's work in Montana.

STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.

-According to the" Baptist Year-Book for Protestant Ohurch, 123,000,000. Besides 1889" that denomination has in the United these, there are about 100 sects or smaller States 21,420 ordained ,ministers, 32,900 divisions claimiug to be' Ohristians, with churches, 2,997,7.1 members, and i,l58,502 eight million adherents. Of the nonscholars in Sunday-schools; 601 new socie- Christians, 8,000,000 are Jews, 120,000,000 are ties have been organized during the past Mohammedans. Among the heathen reli- gions, Brahminism is the most wide spread, year, and a::J churches have been dedicated. and embraces about 138,000,000 adherents, and its younger offshoot, Buddhism, em- AccOl;dlng to these figures the Baptists ded- braces 503,000,000. Other heathen religions icate nearly one new church for every day have 135,000,000 adherents. There are thus in the year, and baptize 369 persons on an yet over one thousand millions of souls who averagd each day. are not Christian I -The year!" statistics of the Baptist -Th~ missionary contributiohs of all church<:s of Great 1 ritain for 1888 show an British societies for the last year amount· increase In the membership of the denomi- ed to $6,143,795. The following were the pation. Ther" are now 2,645 churches and sources: 3,591 ch:;pols and preaching stations ill England and Wales. These provide accommo- 1. Ohurch of England, tVenty. dations for 1,180,(67 worshipers. In England three societies………………….$2,306,180 there :;rc 1,3=~ ordained ministers, and In Wales 37;;. The communicants are said to 2. Joint societies of Ohurchmen be 209,558 in England, and 75,891 In Wales. and Non·Oomformists, seven In In Scotland there are 101, and in Ireland 20 number (including Bible and tract churches. The aggregate returns for the societies). .. . .• •• . . . . . . . . . . . … .. . .. . 935,240 whole of the United Kingdom give 2,770 . 3. English and Welsh Non-Conchurch"s and 3,745 places of worship, with a formist societies, eight in 0.11…… 1,835,575 membership of very nearly 300,000. In th" Sunday-schools there are 352,167 scholars. 4. Six societies of Scotch and with 45,977 teachers. Dr. Booth, Secretary Irish Presbyterians…•…………. 1,014,700 of the Baptist Union, gives a statistical summary of 13aptist churches throughout 6. Five Roman Catholic missionthe world. These he sets down at 37,478, with ary societies in Great Britain…… 52,100 a total membership c1 3,326.542, which shows a marked illcrease on the similar summary Total. ••• .. . . . … . …………… $6,143,795 made four years ago. The total numlar of Ita1y.-Wuttke gives the following statis- Baptist ministers and missionaries, in all tics of Evangelical Ohristians among the parts of the world, is 22,150. 01 these, 1,755 Italians; There are 16,500 W",ldenses. Most re..lde in England and Wales, of whom 1,~o7 of these are found in the old churches of the are returned as members of the total absti- valleys but there are also new churches in nence society. cities, namely, one in Milan with 326 com- municants, one in Turin with 317, and two in -Tue most carefully compiled and best Florence with 325. The Free Church of Italy general statistical work is Daniel's" Lehr- has 71 churches and stations, with 1,580 buch der Geographie." The number of in- members. The Plymouth Brethren have 50 habitants on the globe is about 1,435,000,000. small congregations; the Wesleyans, 55 There are 3,064 distinct languages and dia- congregations and stations, and 1,380 memlects known. There are about 1,100 different bers; the Methodist Episcopal Ohurch, 20 religions. There does not exist a single peo- congregations and 5 stations, with 950 memple which is without a religion of some kind. bers; the Baptists have 53 stations and 870 Even the lowest on the social scale have some members. Tbere are, besides, a few small religious idea, howev"r crude. Ohristianity missions in differtlnt parts of the country. has C,~,OOO,OOO adheren ts. ":'ae Roman Catho- The statistics of the German, English, lic Church numbers 208,000,000, the Greek or American and French churches are not Oriental Orthodox Church, 83,000,000; the given. The total number of Italian com- municants in the Evangelical churches s 22,OOO.-Dr. J. H. W. Btuckenberg. By REV. H. LooMIS. No. 42 BIBLE HOUSE, YOKOHAMA.

.; – ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ .~ fg:-a9i ~ ~ ~ O§ ~~~ ~~ ~ ~~~ 00 ~00 ..cI a! 1lJ .t- g s i = NAME OF MISSION. 'rj C,) CIl 00 00 .oat :-== .z -aj – – -l>- -!.E:3- -:- – — -'"- -,-..-. -:-: -:-:-:-: sa! 8 Presbyterian Church in the U. S..• .j..)P-I Q) – ~ ~~C,) g ~ ~~~ oj "~'a;4tS~,.S~£r):n1"'~S~~d~).'G~J9aJ.:i.l:ZQ')0s8t)'~:i9rb::. S..~Q.lfG1d.~.I)..l·.~:~.~~..:.:~~~cr~,/..}~.§~t~£t~lc8'~'1S~~3O1,oo.~.:~1g8);p:§tts:li:;t:'.r'bC~~3~Qllo)tI8§c~~~.' " oj ~o· ~ ~ -L~ ~-. ~ ~ ~ ….. <3 rc Q3 A '~dI. ..c:; ~0 ''~0b00C0e. ).'000~b0o.O~·~.Q0~..~0.. ;;: S'" S 5 tl tl '" ~ .~.2 == § rq §…a;~~:i j : I00 ~ Q~ .~8 ~.".S~.e.. ='gQGf..)l e~rPQ-n). ~S"(0~l):o~t0~ ~ioO.~~0.o~ 0~~..~~.;..-.a~SQ~~!~aC,) :r.~:g; S~': Q ".~d~;.;~• ~ ~ A .0~ c8 f .090 ~:0 N Pl ~ ~'tl rtl al <Il (/J!il (/J ~ ~ ~ ~ 0 -::; ~'S.

–;i -222 64 "6 –;i 1 – -:-: -:-: – '5 Reformed Church in America…… …………. 10 1 5 26 4 20 …. .. …. .. .. .. .. :: .. :::::::: Union Presbyterian Church of Scotland.. , "… 2 ,. .. 4 1 4 .. .. .. United C hCuhrucrhc ho fi nCthhle' iUs tniint eJda Sptaant e(sN. .a t.i v. .e .)*. .. ,… Reformed . · 4 2 10 137 61 28 33 1,937 221 100 75 50 8,690 2;057 61 4:000 1 44 36 41 '3 '2 :W..:.3.i.ii.'i!.3. 3 148 16 719 1 15 7 7 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (South)…… 4 2 4 14 2 11 … .. … . …. …. …. . … 21 •…… . Women's Union Missionary Soc'yof America., ,. 5 1 1 i04 Cumberland Presbyterian Church………….. 4 4 12 3 '5 7 202 7 '500'48 American Protestan t EpiscopalChurch…….. 9 2 9 29 7 i4 47 13 9 3 2 :j:513 280 .. 6 1…. 4 31 3 34 18 4 406 87 753 559 14 695 1 20 1 43 .. 10 1,907 22 Church Missionary Society….. …………….. 11 5 6 21 25· 2 23 383 123 89 134 294 1 27 :; 12 .. 1 1.560 02 7 1,329 210 15 Society for the Propagation of the Gospelt…. 2 6 3 13 2 6 4 .. 4 100 .. .. .. .. :j:5O() 300 2 75.. 4 2 5 .. .. 350 00 Society for Female Education in the East.. …… 2 2 1 .. .. .. .. …. .. .. .. .. … 66 1 30… .. . . .. .. ,. .. …… l~!~~Itc;,hB~~fis~1iM:~~ona~YU;;i;;~::::::::::: ii~J …~ ~ ~ 875 ioo 's '9 10 iiJ :: iiJ '206 :: .'.i .. 52 200 1 '9 '4 .. :: .. i:002'si English Baptist Church……………………. ~ .. 4 1 19 2 .. 2 40 '2 175 62 1 2 '4 .. '..i ChurchofChrist…………………………… 2 8 2 3 1 . . 1 50 '5' 9 130 90 3 67 '" .. J 153 53 .. 12 67 97'66" 4 400 '1' 1 4 2 1 1500 Christian Church of America…….. ……….. 1 'n ;.;, 2 100 i .. 3645 Am, Board of Commissioners tor For. Mis ….. , 25 '" "" 79 132 2 50.. 5 3 1 :; 8 84 45 40 5 2,114 10 -B5 .. 95 7,093." 48 3,500 86 4E 64 .. .. 31,02200 Independent Native Churches……………… '1' .. .. .. .. 12 2 2 . . 25 10 .. .. ,. 150 ." 1 60.. .. 1 1 .. .. 40000 Congregationalist, U. S, A … ,……………… .. 1'4' 2 1 '7' 15'9' 15'6' .. .. … … .. … '2' 25 3'7' '3' iii American Methodist Episcopal Church……… 18 1 51 9 34 49 42 947 131 75 3,059 2,293 62 3,746 31 a:827'oi Canada Methodist Church…………………. 9 1 6 25 2 3 9 2 7 380 61 15 3 '32 1,462 450 19 1,177 1 11 5 19 .. 6 2,150 00 Evangelical Association of North America….. 3.. 3 1 2 5 .. 5 90 30 25 7 16 266 34 11 460 1 17 5 13 .. 6 3~969 51 Methodist Protestant Chnrch……. ………… 3 .i; 11 2 2 2 .. 2 4IPl' 1295 American Methodist Episcopal Ch. (South)…. 5 3 1 14 3 9 5 .. 5 55 3 2 .. .. 162 261 3 217 5.. 4 .. 1 88 6 3 6 .. 163 62 15 357 1 7 .. .. .. 1 General Evangelical Prot. (German Swiss)….. 1 1 .. 3 1 1.. 1 41.. ';' 'I' 'i 82 '1'8' 1 35 1 4 .. …. 10200 Society of Friends, America.. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. . 2 .. .. 4 1 2 1 .. 1 . .. . .. '" 25 2 118 .. .. .. 2 . . . . 13 40 Unitarian…….. ………………………….. 1 .. .. 2 1 .. .. .. .. …. .. .. .. .. … … .. … .. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. .. – – – – – – – – . u………… — . – – – – – – – – – – – – 1 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Total, 1888 ………………. 150 27 124 443 72 324 249 92 157 6,959 728 442 365 352 25,514 9,698 295 16,634 14 287 142 257 8 70 64,454 fO 1911_~ Total, 1887…………………………… 128 20 1011 253 69 316 221 73 144 5.020 510 517 797 34419,829 7,145 24713.017 14 216 102 33 41.57170 Increase, 1888………. ………………… 32 7 21 90 3 8 28 19 13 1.939 218 ' " _.. 8 5,785 2.553 48 3,617 .. 71 40 66 '.. 37 22.888 00 NOTE.-It is impossible to get exact reports from all the churches up to Dec. 31. It is probable that complete statistics would have increased the total membership .~…

* a.bont ten per cent.-H, L, Statistics to October, 1888. t The S. P. G. Mission decline to furnish their statistics. :j: A.pproximate.

Statistics of the American Presbyterian Mission in

I. EVANGELISTIC AND GENERAL MISSIONARY "WORK.

1_~876. _ _ _ _•_ _._ _ _ _._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _1_ _ 1884. _ _ 1____18_85._._._.1___1_8_86_.___ . _ _18_8_7._ _ _ _ _188_8_._ _ American j Men……………………………………… . ~H 28 B}23 37 M} 38 ~H 37 ]3( 34 M} 34 Mi8sionaries 1 Women………………………………….. .. Native rO~dainedpastors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : .. . 31 3}Ifs 194 l~} 189 21f 4137 13 5 J~l Syrian 1LICensed preachers…………………………. .. 96 JI20 10 90 4}32 179 171 153 198 LabvrerB School teachers……………………………… . 8 5 19 125 Other helpers………………………………… . 5 89 30 131 13 60 19 130 12 Stations………………………………………………… .. 10 30 570938 } 1,301 5 I> 7J Out-sta.tions……………………………………………… . 24 68 87 91 5 Churches…….. : ……………………………………….. . 75 3,891 86 19 89 ~}1,207 73 19 20 Church buildings……………………………………….. .. ~~}573 3,8M 31 31· 31 84 104 63 Added on profession during the year…………………….. . 61 3,961 3,977 153 ~g} 1,493 Male church members………………………………….. .. 2,612 $6,451 ~~} 1,534 76 677655 } 1,440 Female church members……………………………. "'" 40 3,584 Regular preaching places………………………………… . 1,540 92 85 94 3,847 4,293 4,289 4,522 congregatlons …………. Average 0 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2,982 $6,302 $1.252 68 66 81 Sabbath schools………………………………………… .. 3,746 3,732 4,620 Sabbath scholars….. , …………………………………. .. Syrian Protestant Community (withm the field of the Ameri- 4,165 4.241; can Pre&byterian MIssion) ……………………………. . $6,980 $8,114 4.359 Contributions of native churches………………………… . $7,355 II. EDUCATIONAL WORK.

College (Syrian Prot.)……………..,…………………….. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Medical school…………………………………. ………. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Pupils in colle:;e (including Med. Dep't.)…….. … ………… 106 185 165 165 175 197 Theological seminary.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Pupils in do. ………………………….. ………… 7 4 4 7 6 6 Boys' boarding schools………. …………………………… 1 2 2 3 3 2 Pupils in do……………………………………. 42 68 72 151 129 110 Female seminaries……………………….. …….. ……… 3 3 3 3 3 3 ~iig~~hOof"~: ….. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ~ r~ 1~ li~ It~ 1~~ 6:%,i::~~ ~~hOO~·:::::::::::::::::::::::::.:: :::::::::::::::::::::: ~~ ri~ ~5~ 3~¥ 4~i i~ Boys in do. …………………….. …… …… ………… 2,031 t 2840 5,lceo 31',1°1856 ft 4,201 Girls in do. ………………………………………….. 819!' 3, 7751 3,626 t 4,871 3,178} 4 505 ill',663393 } 5,272 1,405! 1.245! 1,327 ' Total schools……………………………………………… 80 . 144 121 125 141 .. .. .. ..=.____ __________ Total pupils………………………………………………. 136 ~VV~o=m=e=n~in~b=ib=l~e~c=l=a=ss=e~s~..=.=.~..=.=.~..=.=.~..~.~..~.~.~..=•~.~.==.~.•~.~.=~.~.==.~.= 3,509 5,881 5,065 5,344 5,391 6,199 ~=- ~1~1.~1 __________~1~:'_4.__________~230~__________~2·~IO~____~__~300~____

PRESS WORK, PRINTING A.ND DISTRIBUTION OF BIBLES, TRACTS, &0

1876. 1881. 1882. 1883, 1884. 1885.

– – – – – – – – " – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – —-I—–I–·-~- 1 —— Bible House and Press Establishment :-…………………. 1 1 1 4 1 Steam presses…………… …………. ……………….. 3 3 1 6 4 1 6 Hand presses………………………………………… 2 6 3 4 1 1 3 1 Hydraulic presses……………………………………. 1 1 6 6 1 3 1 1 Lithographic presses…………… ,…………………… 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 Type foundry-Casting machines………… ,………. ,… 1 2 1 1 45 1 346 48 Electrotype apparatus……………………………….. 1 '1i 2 2 57,000 360 4i 20,085,500 100,900 Stereotype apparatus………………………………… 1 1 1 11.117,000 28.722,968 J!~:!~~g:i~:~~~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 1 1,671,100 18,045.000 Publications on Press Catalogue……………………… 44 '2 385,112,219 1,586.100 2 21,484 .393,835.187 44 1 2'Zil.649 26,848 50 284,450 76.198 ~2,350 Volumes printed during the year…………………………. 207 258 1268 336 38.450 47,500 87,900 72,050 Pages " . "………………………………. 13,786,980 19,235,547 27.981,600 33,284,675 Or which pages of Scriptures… , …….. ,….. ……. .. .. ,…. 4,277500 9,465,000 17,378,600 19,331,750 " " " " tracts………………………………. ,.. 232.000 451,600 1,04.~,500 1,702,500 Total pages from the beginning…… ….. …………….. …. 159,810,300 283,760,444 311.742,044 345,026,716 *Scl'iptures distributed during the year…………………. 5,641 15,953 23,576 15,571 fOther books and tracts sold and distributed…………….. 25,721 28,232 36,752 63,311.

Copies of publications of all kinds issued during year.. 372,710 IV. MEDICAL WORK AT ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL.

The physicians of the Medical Department of the Syrian Protestant College have been appointed by the Order of St. John in Berlin as the medical attendants of the "Johanniter-Hospital" in Beirut. This most interesting charity, supported by the above mentIOned Order, and served also by the Deaconesses of Kaiserswerth, basreceived during- the past years: Indoor patients……. '" .' ……………………………….. 1 537 571 595 440 491 Patients treated in the Polyclinique…………………….. . 9.162 7,489 7.628 8,390 Total of days of treatment…………….. , …………….. .. 6.009 11,842 17,500 16,489 16,348 11,953 .. These fignres represent the copies of Scriptures sold and sent out from our Mission Press to private purchasers, and to our own and otber missions, and to Bible Society agencies, for further distribution.

tThe distribution has been by the various miSSIOns among Arablc·speaking peoples, and the American and British Bible and Tract Societies:

ORGANIZED MISStONARY WORK AND STATISTICS

The Jesuit Missions. of the continent; in India they have noth· ing to do with Madras, Ceylon, Central In- A RECENT issue of the Etude8 Religiemea dia, or the Northwest Provinces, and theIr cout!lins some Interesting statistics of the work in the United States is exceedingly number and distribution of the Jesuit mis- circumscribed. In such places as Japan, sionaries' abroad at the commencement of the Malay Peninsula, Siberia, Indo·China the preseut year. The numbers are those (Bnrmah, Tonquin, Siam, Annam), they are of. the various orders of the priesthood; not found at all. The great centers of priests, coadjutors, and" scolastiques," but Jesuit missionary activity on the surface of in every case the number of priests is more the globe' are the Zambesi, Syria (where than twice that of the other two orders put there are 142 French Jesuits), the Philiptogether. In the Balkan Peninsula there pine Archipelago, the Central States of the are 45 Jesuit missionaries; in Africa, and Union (here they are all German Jesuits), especially Egypt, Madagascar, and the Zam- Central America and Cuba, Ecuador and besi region, 223; in Asia, especially Armenia, Peru, Chili and Paraguay. Syria, certain parts of India, and parts of China,699. In China alono the nUJ:ab~:' b -Sur.lmary of member. and probationers 195, all of French nationality. h 'Ocoania, including the Philippines, the Malay Archi- in the China Missions of the M. E. Church pelago, Australia, and New Zealand, the number is 21'0; in America, including cer- for 1t:~: Mem- Probatain specified, States of the Union, portions of Canada, British Honduras, Br:1zil, a'1U In· Peru, 1,180; the total numb3r of Jccuih bers. tioners. Total. cr'se. scattered over the globe in purely missionary work being 2,377. These are of various Foochow….. . 2,297 1,267 3,564118 nationalities, but the vast majority are French. In the distribution great attention Central China. 305 304 609 140 is paid to nationality; thus in Illyri, Dalmatia, and Albany, they are all Venetians; North China.. 655 373 1,028 218 in Constantinople and Syria, Sicilians; in Africa, Asia Minor, and China, French; West China… 9 7 16 while no French Jesuits are to be found in any part of the American continent. In TotaL ….. 3,266 1,951 5,217 476 the Bombay and Bengal Presidencies they are Germans and Belgians respectively; in -The Congregationalists in Australia the Philippines, Spanish; in the Malay have 82 Sunday-schools, with an average Archipelago, Dutch; in Eastern Australia attendance of 7,400. The Wesleyan Methoand New Zealand, Irish; in the United dists are largely in predominance; their States Germans, Neapolitans, and Piedmon- schools number 545, with an average at- tese are found working in specified and dis- tendance of 30,264. The Church of England tinct districts; those laboring among the comes next, with 430 schools; and then in Indians of Canada are Canadians; in the order follow the Presbyterians with 392, and British West India Colonies they are Eng- the Roman Catholics with 312, etc. In all lish; in Central America, Spaniards; in there are 2,157 Sunday-schools, with a total South America, Italians, Spaniards, and average attendance of 143,766. Germans; 'the Italians and Germans having all Brazil to themselves, doubtless bec:1uE" -According to the statistical report for of the enormous Italian and Germ:>n immi- 1888 of the Evangelical Association, that gration to Brazil. It will be understood body of German Methodists numbers' 141,853 that the spheres of labor of the different members, 1,159 itinerant preachers, and orders, Jesuits, Lazarists,Franciscans,etc., 1,916 churches: indicating a gain of 4,156 are carefully laid down at Rome, no two membera, 38 preachers, and B5 churches orders,- as a rule, working in the same re- during the year. gion ; these spheres once fixed, the dIstri- bution within them is left to the head of -The yearly increase of ordained men in the particular order, whatever, it might be. the Anglica.n Chnrch is vastly in excess of In an illimitable field like China all the or- requirements. The clerical deaths last ders are represented; bnt the districts of year were 460, and there were bnt 70 new each are specified, and were re·arranged churches buHt, while there were 734 ordina- about eighteen months ago. The Kesuits tions. The unbeneficed clergy in England have Kiangsu province and the southeast- now number from 10,000 to ll,OOO.-Chri8tian ern part of Chili, the metropolitan prov- Leader. ince; they have 145 fathers in tho former and 50 in the latter. In Africa, again they Statiatios of the Ohurohes of the United touch only on the! east coast at certain points, and are represented in no other part States for 18~8.

BY REV. DANIEL DORCHESTER, D.D.

IN compliance with the request of Dr. Buckley I give the latest ecclesiastical sta- tistics for our country. They are for the year 1888, and have been gathered from the official Year·Books and Minutes. Some of the data for 1888 could not be obtained until the Y <,ar-Books for 1889 were issued. In only a few instances have the figures been estimated, and even then, so far as possible. by prominent officials in those denomina- General Baptists.. . '3,225 1.400 tions. I give the statistics in a classified United Baptists.. .. 6,329 1.000 form: Separate Baptists.. 9.015 3.500 Advent Bodies. Cum. Fr. Bap. (est.) 46.000 1.450 Chs.* Min. Com. Seventh-Day Bap .. 106 115 Orig. "Evan. Ad." 91 107 11,000 S. D. (Gr.) Bap.(est.) Adv:Christians…. 2,500 1,000 75,000 Anti-Mis. Bap.(est.) 1.800 900 Seventh-Day Adv. 787 199 22,357 Six-Prin. Baptists. 16 16 Life& Adv. Union. 100 …. 10,000 T'I brng.nameBp. 36,353 24.765 3,175.589 Age-to-Come Adv. 10.000 Kind. Bap. Bods.: Dis. (partly est.) .. . 6,859 3,388 , 645.771 Barbourites…….. 5,000 Tunkers (est.) ….. . 1,050 1,876 100,000 Winebrenna'n(est.) 30,000 Christadelphians .. 14 15 1,200 Mennonites (est.) .. 300 400 100,000 550 500 Total. .. . .. .. .. .. . 3.492 1,321 134.577 Most of the above were obtained by per- T'!Bp. & knd. bds. 45,112 30,929 4,051,360 cOonal interviews with leaders in these bodies, but they are largely estimated. Lutheran Bodies. Com.* Cbs. or Congs. Min. 159.091 ' Baptist Bodies. General Synod ….. 1.429 952 33,625 Chs.t Min. Com. United Synod…… 392 186 241,424 General Council … 1,490 846 341,987 Bap. Reg., North … 8,695 7,164 799,236 Synodical Council.. 1,743 1,233 260,843 Bap. Reg.• South… 14,874 8,0.'>7 1,115.276 Ind. Synods…….. 2,556 1,295 Bap. Reg.• Cplored.. 9,331 6,199 1,033,282 'rotal Reg. Bap ..• 32.900 21,420 2,997,794 Total Lutheran … 7,610 4,512 1,036.970 Free- Will Baptist.• 1,531 1,314 82,686 F.W.B.of N.C. oi-ig. 8,232 *Some baptized children are always in- F.W.B.• Other Ass.. 4,958 cluded in the statistics of one or two of * Mostly congregations. these bodies.

tIn some cases congregations.

Methodist Bodies. Full Total Local Mem. Com.; (,,hs.* Min. Prs.t Prob.

Methodist Episcopal Church…•.••…….• 21,361 12,802 13,436 224,788 1,929,561 2.167.151 Methodist Episcopa.l Churcb. South …….. 11,864 4,5;)0 6,192 1,096,734 1,107,456 Methodist Episcopal African, ……•….••• 3.600 2,943 4,891 47.000 390,000 43~,943 Methodist Episcopal African Zion……… 2,600 3,250 325,000 327,600 Methodist Episcopal Colored …………… 1,729 4,042 165,000 166,729 Methodist Episcopal Union American….• 50 60 50 21,000 21,060 Total Episcopal Methodist…………… 36,875 24,664 31,861 271,788 3,927,295 4,229.939 NO'rt-Episcopal Methodi8t: Protestant Methodist ……………..•…•. 2,039 1,463 1,125 4,271 141,557 147,791 Congregational Methodist………… …… ' 225 200 8:000 8,000 Independent Methodist………………… 35 30 5.000 5,000 Free Methodist…………… : ………….. 961 498 556 2,418 16,104 19.030 Wesleyan Methodist…………………… 535 260 16,197 16,732 Primitive Methodist……………………. 122 62 174 587 4,343 4,992 – – Reformed Methodist…………………… 60 50 2.000 2,000 Total bearing the name Methodist……. 40,8-52 27,247 33,698 279,064 4,120,496 4,443,484 Kindred Methodist Bodies: United Brethren ……………………….. 4,451 1,490 560 204,517 206,007 Evangelical Association……………… , .. 1,916 1,159 647 141,859 143,018 Moravians……………………………… 66 71 10,900 10,966 Bible Christians……………………….. 85 115 7,700 7,815 Total Methodist and kindred Methodist .. 47,470 30,082 34,905 279,064 4,485,472 4,801,390 * This term is unsatisfactory. In most cases it means church edifices; in som~. church organizations or societies; in others, congregations; and in some circuits which comprise several societies. Probably 50,000 societies.

tIn Methodi.t polity these are laymen and reckoned as members in full. ;Ministers, in column 2, are added into this ,column, because they are communi· cants, and not elsewhere reckoned in as with other denominatIOns. And probationers. being also communicants. are here reckoned. Only a few of the above are estimated-some of the smaller chnrches-and most of these by officials of their own body, and almost all are official statistics for 1888.

PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETJIi

Presbyterian' Bodies. Denominations not nsing the same statis- 9hs. or Congs.* Min. Com. tical methods as those in the preceding 722,071 Pres. Gen. Ass.. . . .. 6.543 5.789 156.249 tables, especially ill receiving and enrolling 98,992 Pres.Gen.Assr.Sth. 2.280 1,129 151,929 members: U. P. Ch. of Nth. A. 907 759 15,000 Ministers. Parishes. 10.970 Cumberland Pres.. 2.648 1,584 New.Church ………… 113 141 Cum. Pres. (col.) … 200 Unitarian…………… 490 382 Ref. Presbyterian.. 121 116 Universalist………… 709 971 Gen. Sy.Ref.P. N.A. 47 47 6,800 The New-Church Almanac for 1889 esti- Ass.Ref.Sy.ofSouth 112 8t 7,282 mates 7,028 church members, and, including :WelshPresbytorian 175 84 9,563 isolated adherents, a total of 10,178 New- Other bodies (est.). 200 250 20,000 Churchmen in America. The UniversalIst Total Presby'n. '" 13.033 10,0-l2 1,198.856 Year-Book for 1889gives an iucompletestate- Kind. Pres. Bods.: ment of members, 38,780 and 41.474 families. Ref. (Dutch) Ch ..•• 87,015 TrueRef.D.Ch.(est.) 546 555 584 The Roman Catholics give the following Ref. (late Gr.) Ch… 13 8 190,527 differing statistics for 1889 : 1,512 823 • Sadlier's Hoffman's Year-Book. Year-BooK.

T'l Pr.& kin. bods. 15,104 l1,-l28 1,476,962 Priests …….•….. 7,996 S,118 7,424 7.353 Unclassified Bodies. Chnrches ………• Chs. Min. Com. Chapels and st·ns.• 3,133 2,170 ·Chris.,Nthn&Sthn. 1,755 1,344 142,000 Population•.•••.•.. 7,855,294 8,157.676 Christ. Union Chs.. 1,500 1,200 125,000 Aggregates. Congregational••…• 4,404 4,2ll4 457,584 Chs.. Pars., Episcopal, Protest.• 3,450 4,053 or Congs. Min. Episcopal, Ref••…. 456.729 70 87 8,000 .. Evangelical" Bodies. . . • • 131,477 90,368 Total Episcopal ..• 3,520 4,140 464,729 New-Church…….. _…….. 141 113 Friends, Orthodox.• 600 500 72,000 Unitarian….. …………. 382 490 Friends, :Wilburite.. 100 12,000 Universalist……………. 971 709 RomanCatholic…….. …• 10,557 7,996 Total Friends …•. 700 500 8MOO Ger. Evan. Ch. Un … 804 618 65;000 Populations.

Schwenkfelder Chs.. 6 10 850 Total" New-Chnrchmen ..•….•.•.• 10,178 Other bodies (est.) … 35,000 Universalists, 41,474 fams. (5 each). ~,370 Total Unclassified 12,689 12,096 1.374,163 Unitarian, no Ineans of estimat·g.• Roman Catholic (Sadher's est.)..• 7,855,294 Summary. .. Evangelical" bodies, 3~ times Chs.,Socs. Com. as many as the enrolled members 48,570,977 or Congs. Min.

Advent Bodies…… 3.492 1,3~1 134.577 The Evangelical churches have made a Baptist Bodies.. … • 45,112 30,929 4,051.360 large relative gain for 1888 as compared Lutheran Bodies…. 7,610 4,512 1,036,970 with 1886, namely, 1,744,771 members. This Methodist Bodies… 47,470 30,082 4,801,340 shows an average of about one member in Presbyterian BodIes 15,104 11,428 1,476.962 4.5-I-inhabitants,on an estimated population.

Unclassified Bodies. 12,689 12,096 1.374,163 for 1888 of 62,300.000. The Evangelical pop- Aggregate …….. 131,477 90.368 13,877.422 ulation is 77-1- per cent. of the whOle popula- … In some of the above bodies congrega· tions are reported, and In others church tion of the United States. The Roman Catholic population is 11-1- per cent. of the organIzations. – – – – – – – whole.-('''hristian Advocate.

VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.

A.frica.-The London Missionary Society of it. Last year they added $4.000 to the enhas received word that the disturbances along dowmeut of their Normal and Industriallnstithe African coast opposite Zanzibar have not tute affected their missions on Lake Tanganyika or at Urambo. Mr. Brooks, their missionary Central A.merica.-Plotest,mt Missions at Urambo, was killed as he was coming to the are found in but two of the five repnblics of coast. but there is said to be no need of anxiety Central America. Nicaragua and Guatemala. in regard to those who remain in the interior. Ceylon.-The Editor of The Ceylon Observer, Burmah.-A Burman Christian woman of Colombo, during the agitation against the licens- Ran'goon has promised to give a bell to the ing of sin in Ceylon, has spoken in that paper memorial chapel to Adoniram Judson in Man- with the voice of a preacher and prophet. All delay. honor to the editor of a commercial paper who. on a great and momentous occasion, in the face -The Bassein Christian Karens of Burmah of cynicism, ridicule, and all the forces of worldare running a saw mill and making a profit out liness. boldly rebukes sin, and champions the cause of righteousness. The world would be a. -The English nation continues to derive an brighter place if there were more meu with the income of some £8,000,000 from the excesses courage of the editor of The Ceylon Observer. and miseries of the richer part of the Chinese China.-The Ching-Kiang Riot. Washington, March 21. The Department of State is in receipt people; while the poorer classes of Chinese are of further detailH concerning this riot. The trouble arouse out of the stoning of the Sikh creating a demand for a cheape'r home-grown policemen of the British quarter by a crowd of boys and young men. It occnrred on the opium. And so the enslavement of the entire Chinese New Year, when business was practically suspended in the town and when the streets nation to this fatal habit appears to be inevitawere thronged with idlers. The quarrel of the boys was assumed by the men, and a general hl~ . figh ensued. A Chinaman was knocked down by the police, and the report was cnrrent that -Chinese Christians are, almost to a man, he was killed. Immediately the enraged mob ready to pray in public, to exhort one another attacked and burned the police stations. The at their meetings, and to speak for Christ to road way was thronged with 20,000 rioters. who their neighbors. Rev. Hunter Corbett bears surged toward the United States and British witness to their childlike faith in the powe~ and consulates. When the situation became alarming willingness of God to fulfill every promise, to 300 soldiers appeared upon the scene, but their their unshaken faith in prayer, their love for presence served only to excite the derision of the the Scriptures, and their honest and faithful mob. The gates orthe United States and British effort to live blameless lives. Not a few have consulates were assaulted and the British con- persevered in the study of tbe Scriptures until sulate burned, the Consul barely escaping with they repeat entire chapters and sometimes enhis life by climbing over a rear fence. With tire books, from both Testaments, and, better much difficulty the two Consuls, with their fami- yet, they are able to explain them. lies, effected their escape, and reached a mail steamer which had arrived just in time to -A narrow escape. Mr. Redfern, en T()Ute evade the fury of the rioters, who were in hot for lIan-Chung, gives in China's MillWns an expursuit. The mob made various uusuccessful citing account of a remarkable deliverance from efforts to board the vessel, but it was repulsed pirates, who landed on his boat with daggers in each instance. The arrival of a brigade of and pistols, and began appropriating everything soldiers in the evening and of a British man-of- of value. The only weapon Mr. Redfern used war the following morning had the effect of re- was prayer, which proved so powerful that the storing quiet. robbers returned their booty and departed abashed, without hurtiug anyone. The heatheu -The Chinese press is stirring up mission- boatmen were amazed, having fully expected aries to undertake medical work. The China both the robbery and the murder oCthe mission- Medical Mission J()Urnal contains articles by aries. .Dr. J. G. Keerand Rev. A. W. Douthwaite, M. D.• on the value of medical work as an aid to England.-The British and Foreign Bible evangelization. Commenting upon them, The Society has issned during the past year 4,206,- China Overland Mail says: .. We think it is 000 copies of Bibles, Testaments, and portions becoming more and more apparent to religious of the Scriptures, a larger number than ever workers in this part of the world that the before. The total income of the society fbr the masses of China cannot be reached by merely past year was £253,300. Its grand work encirpreaching to them; that their best chance of cles the WOrld, preparing the way for missionsuccess is in imitating the example of the Mas- aries and strengthening their hands. ter they serve, who inculcated lIis teaching while going about doing good. Of course one -A Mazarin Bible bronght $10,000 at a re- does not wish to see all the missionaries turned cent auction sale in London. into sick nurses, but only that they should realize that by discriminatingly helping the natives in -" Our Day" contains a painful article on their sufferings they can best reach their heart." "Pagan Idols of English Make," showing that U it is not an nncommon occurrence for an -The severity of the winter is increasing the East Indianman, from Liverpool, jnst through distress caused by the famine in Shang-Tung the Red Sea and tbe shadows of Sinai, to touch and Manchuria. It is estimated that 1,500,000 at Madras and Calcutta, then lie up at Rangoon, persons are starving. at each wharf landing a missionary from her -Shanghai advices to January 19. The famine cabin, and unloading a crate of graven images in Anhui and Kiangsu is worse. In one prov- from her hold." ince 300,000 families are starving, and alto- gether several millions are suffering from fam- -The S. P. G.has taken up missionary work ine caused by drought two years in succession. in the Nicobar Islands-a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and used as an Indian penal -Our Consul at Pekin reports that the total settlement. A hnndred years ago the last of the number of American citizens residing in China Moravian brethren retreated, after the sacrifice is 1,022, of whom 506 are miseionaries. of twenty-four of their number in nineteen years. The object iR to reach Carnicobar, a populous island of over 3,000 inhabitants, on the north of the group. The field is at preseut oc- cupied by merely one catechist-a Madras Chris- tian-who acts under the direction of the Gov- ernment chaplain of Port Blair. The plan adopt- ed is to bring relay. of the island children to Port Blair, and after the stay of a few months in the Andaman Christian Orphanage, to return present, aud was cordially greeted. aud his pres- them to their parents. euce highly prized.

-Bible Distribution. The British and For- -Twenty-three missionaries and members eign Bible Society's district secretaries from all of missionary families reached Bombay. De- parts of the country held their annual confer- cember 31st, by the Arabia. Seveuteen of the ence on :Monday. Tbere are in England 5,407 uumber come to reinforce the missions of the societies, auxiliaries, and branch associations. M. E. Church in India, Burmah and Malaysia.

Besides raising funds for the society, these The remaiuing six represent several differeut lJranch organizations distribute copies of the societies, includiug the Disciple or Christian Scriptures in the localities in which they are Missiou at Bilaspur, the North Berar Mission at situated. The society makes no profit by the Akola, the C. M. S. Missiou South of Poona, sale of the Scriptures, as they either give or and the Canadiau Presbyteriau Mission at In- sell them at cost price. To give an idea of the dore. Miss Dr. Baldwin aud Miss Dr. Merrill extent of the work it may be mentioned ·that go to Bilaspur to the Disciple Missiou, Miss they send away to different parts of the world Sinclair and Miss Scott to Indore. Miss Bates between 7,000 and 8,000 Bibles, Testaments, or casts iu her lot with the Berar Mission at Akola.

portions of Scripture every working day. or five -Bombay Guardian.

copies every minute. The society spends £70,- -The BritIsh Government sells to the high- 000 annually for printing Bibles in this country, est bidder the exclusive privilege of distilling and a considerable sum in foreign countries.- and selling alcoholic liquors withiu a certain Pall Mall Gazette. district. The holder of the liceuse increases his -Salvation Army. Marshall Booth, in re- sales regardless of. cousequences or of the re- viewing his forces at Chicago, said that withill monstrances of the better portiou of the native twelve yeal'l! 1,000,000 men and women have populatiou, with the terrible result that that been rescued from the slums and transformed population (almost entirely total abstainers 'pre- into self-supporting, sober, Christian citizens by vious to British rule in Iudia) is becoming de- its work. He is prepared to establish at once moralized and impoverished. From this iuflu- in London ten more Rescue Homes, for 300 ence even the native converts to Christiauity girls (which will enable the Army, by the help do not escape. Statistics show that while there of God, to rescue at least another thousand a . were in 1880 41 habitual aud 163 occasioual year), and also to establish ten food and shelter druukards among 29,000 professed Christians, depots, six for women and children only, and four iu 1883 the number of such drnnkards among for men, with a capacity for 1,000 beds per night 80,000 Christiaus had iucreased to 250 habituals for women, and 500 for men and 200,000 meals aud 274 occasionals. The increase is said to per week, or at the rate of 547,500 beds, and have been still more rapid during the last five 10,400,000 meals per annum. He appeals for years, and to be yet larger in proportion among $75.000 to meet the expense of fitting up and the nou-Christian portious of the people. This furnishing the said twenty buildings. mustbe a fearful couuterweight to theiufiuence of -The £IO,OOO debt of the Wesleyan Mission- English foreign missionaries.-N. Y. FJvangelist.

ary Society has been cleared away at two strokes, -,We learn from the Free Church of Scot- first by a magnificent donation of £4,000 by land Monthly that there is a great movement Henry J. Atkinson, Esq., M. P., and the re- toward the gospel in the Santal Mission of the maining £6,000 by a family collection on Christ- Free Church. The Sautal Mission, like our mas day last throughout the lIlethodist Church Darjeeling Missiou, is mainly, if indeed not iuEngland. exclUSively, coucerned with aboriginal peoples.

India.-Bishop Thoburn writes from Cal- Writiug from Pachamba in November last, cutta, Jan. 24,1889: Rev. Audrew Campbell says: "Siuce I last The Bengal Couference met at Allahabad, Jan. wrote to you I have had the great privilege of 17, and adjourned Jan. 21. The statistics showed baptizing 110 persons. We have still many ap- an increase of more than 10 per cent. in mem- plicatious, and are taking them up as we fiud bership, and of more than 4,OOOin Snnday-school opportuuity. One special feature of the pres- attendance. One young man was admitted on ent movement is that the people come in fami- trial. and two received into full connection. lies."-C:wrch of Scotland Record.

Tbree were ordained deacons, and one elder. -In one cf his letters from India Mr. (Jajue, The Conference has as yet only twenty-six M. P., gives a sickeniug account of the opium preachers on its roll, but five others were read deus at Lucknow. In one he couuted on the out as " Missionaries iu Malaysia." I inteud, if fioor down stairs alone" 117 humau swiue of spared, to go down to Singapore and organize both sexes." There were more up stairs. He the Malaysia Mission in the course of the uext had seen the giu ·palaces of East-eud Loudon ou two or three mouths. Bishop FowLr was at the Saturday nights, he had seen meu iu delirium Couference during the last two days, and added tremeus, but" never such horrible destruction very greatly 1) the interest of the occasion. He of God's image in the face of mau as in the preached on Sunday, and spoke at several of the •Government' opium dens at Luckuow."

public me".ings wi'", the sarna vigor and iucis- -The Buddhists, Brahmins, Confucians aud iveuess which distingnlsfl him at home. Dr. Mohammedaus, nnmberi~:; 700,000,000 souls, M. V. B. Knox, of New Hampshire, was also have had prohibition over a thousand years. -For the last three months of 1888, 730 bap- stations into a Presbytery, presided over by a tisms were reported from three stations of the Synod. Meanwhile Christianity is spreading Baptist Telugu Mission in India. also in the Djogjokarta district, and some 5,000 natives have accepted the truth. -More than 2,000,000 of the youth of India are to-day receiving an education in tb" English Jews.-A movement of Prof. Delitzsch, of language. Leipzig, is a wonderful step toward the conver- sion of theJews. In nine of the German univer- Japan.-Dr. Henry M. Scudder, now a sities he is starting a movementfor mission work missionary at his own charges in Japan, and amongst the Jews, and already over 300students well-known as a successful pastor in San Fran- of the universities have enrolled themselves as cisco, Brooklyn and Chicago, writes to the members of a special school for training to this Christian Mirror in hearty snpport of the end. church union movement inJapan. Heis especially strong in the conviction that it originated Madagascar.-The London Misdonary Soin Japan among the native Chrictians. It is of ciety, with only thirty English missionarios in indigenous growth, and should hence not be op- Madagascar, reports the astonishing number of posed by those without,even in distant conlltries. 828 nativo orJained ministers and 4,395 or- dained preachers, vith ~l,OOO church members -The Friends. In Japan there are forty and 280,000 .. adherents." missionaries under their care. More than $46,6CO were contributed for this work by Eng- Mexico.-An urgent plea is made by mislish Friends last year. There are stations in sionaries in Mexico for a college which shall be Constantinople, Roumania, on Mount Lebanon, for that country what Robert College has been Roumelia, and Madagascar. Three stations are in Turkey-a strong Protestant in1Iuence as in Znluland, two in India, and one in China. well as an educational center for the natives. The death oflllss Rankin removes one who for -The friends ofShige Kusida, ayoung Japanese woman who has been an efficient temper- twenty years previous to lB73hadbeen described ance worker and speaker in her own country, are planning to send her to the Untted States as .. The most prominent Protestant power in to study the American temperance movement, Mexico." Her school prepared the way for an as a further preparation for successful work agent of the Bible Society, and in 1865 Monterey amongherpeople. became the headquarters of Protest;lnt missions in Mexico. Miss Rankin anticipated the Wo- -One of the most hopefnl indications for men's Boards, and her work was in connection the. future of Christianity is the missionary with the American and Foreigu Christian character of the native Christians. They are Union. There is now a demand for a new zealous in carrying the gospel to their own translation of the Spanish Bible in MexiCO, people, and also to Korea and the islands de- adapted to the needs of all Spanish·speaking pendent upon Japan. people. The British and Foreign Bible SOCiety report t):le Scriptures translated in Six fresh -The Southern Baptist Foreign Mission languages last year, which now increases the Board has decided to start a mission in the number of tongues in which this society pubsouthwestern part of Japan. lishes the Word to 300, double the number fifty year- ago. All the great languages of the world Java.-Missionary work began 40years ago. have thus, by the successfnl efforts of the mis- Seven societies of Holland are represented by 26 sionaries, translations of the Bible. missionaries, having 25 mission stations, numM bering 12,000 native Christians. The British -The Friends in Mexico. The Friends are and Foreign Bible Society has one agent in east the last of all the sects who might be ex- Java, and will soon send another for the west. pected to make headway among the lively Not only Java, but the whole Dntch India, in- and mercnrial people of Mexico. Yet, cluding Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes, has strange as it may seem, they have accoma strong claim not only .on Enrope, but on plished in their missions a remarkable suc- Christian America for the gospel. Twenty- cess. The.' have been at work for about ten seven millions of people and only 69 Christian years, chiefiy in connection with the Indimissionaries to give them the glad tidings I In ana Yearly Meeting. They established their all Malaysia, with its 35,000,000 people, there is headquarters at Matamoras, where they only one American missionary. have a $4,000 meeting-hous.. for the Mexican Friends. The Ohio Yearly Meeting has a -In the central district of Java there are mission at Escuandon, which is reported to some 5,000 native Christians in connection with .be in a prosperous condition. The Friends the Netherlands Reformed Missionary Society. have circulated extensively three or four For many years this field has been under the periodicals in Spanish, enlightening t.he exclusive care of one missionary, who is sta- Mexicans as to their doctrines. They have tioned at Poerworedjo. Recently two other sent these not only through Mexico, but missionaries have been sent to Poerbolingo, one among the people of Guatemala, Honduras of whom is to be engaged in training native and Nicaragua. The .Mexicans receive the evangelists and preachers. Still more recently Friends with much confidence. One strong a young medical missionary has been sent onto point in the success of these missions is He is to be supported by the Dntch Reformed tha,t the Me<tican ~0l'le I(I.re tired of war, Missionary Society in London. An attempt is being made to form the various chur~hes Qf and they think the pea.ce principles of the the press by the Turkish Government are Friends a.re preferable to the state of local many and oppressive. !J'he new censor of the and general belligerency which has for so press, appointed il) November last, requires long been a prominent feature of Mexican of the editors of the Zornitza, the Bulga- existence.-Evangelical Ohristendom. rian religious paper published by our mission at Constantinople, that duplicate copies 01 Russia.-Watchful for opportunities for all matter be placed in his hands two days interference in African affairs, Russia, uu- before it is given to the public. He then der the guise of a missionary movement, mutilates the articles, not merely those hav- will probably soon send a large religious ing apolitical bearing, but t;hose in the re- body into Abyssinia, the people of that coun- ligious and educational departments, on the try having expre~sed a desire for a closer ground that there may be a political interpreta- connection with the Greek Church. This tion placed upon words innocent in themselves. movement is ostensibly undertaken in com- Among the words which are uniformly stricken pliance with the expressed wishes of the King out are" union" and" freedom." In the sen- of Abyssinia, and is to be aided by a grant tence in the Suuday-school lesson, "R~th's of 3,000,000 rubles (about $2,400,000), when union with the family of Elimelech had f'l'eed rubles are counted at their par value. The her from idolatry," the words we have italicized chief of the expedition gained an unenviable were stricken out. Only after representations reputation as a zealous proselyter during made by the American Legation was the paper his long residence in Jerusalem, and will be permitted to speak of the United States oC accompanied by 40 priests and 60 monks. .A America. The absurdities of this censorship second expedition, consisting of 2,000 young are innumerable. Our brethren connected with men, will soon follow the first. This dwarfs the press at Constantinople are entitled to our our missionary enterprises. But is it really sympathies in the annoyances to which they are a missionary enterpr1se? That remains to compelled to submit.-Mi88. HeraJ.d. be seeu. Syria.-The annual meeting of the Sallloa•…:.The Samoans, regarding whom Syria Mission has just been held in so much interest is now felt, are considered Beirut. The statistics presented we the finest race among the Polynesian Is- are able to give in our Statistical De- lands. They are graceful, pleasing, of good physique, and have a soft aud musical partment, through the courtesy of . lauguage. They have been converted to Miss Mary Pierson Eddy of Beirut. Christianity and are very moral and honest. On Sunday no work is permitted on shore, In a note accompanying them she nor are natives allowed, it is said, to work says: on board ships in port. The sale of liquors is absolutely prohibited. It is to be hoped .. Notwithstanding all the efforts made to that the faith of these people in Christian thwart our work you will notice in every nations may not be wronged through department encouraging progress is re.. violation of treaties.-Illustrated Ohristian ported, and this While the laborers are few, ·Weekly. and the stations feebly manned by foreign workers. Is not the press work. viewed in Scotland.-At the Annual Meeting of the the light of the promise, • My word shall not National Bible Society, held in Edinburgh last return unto me void,' full of hope aud pro- month, the income was reported as over £;14,- mise for a rich harvest in the future?" 000, the largest ever attained. Amidst many proofs of the successful labors of the SOCiety, it United States.-Woman's MiSSion Work. was mentioned at the Annual Meeting that the We are in receipt of the nineteenth annual native chnrches of Japan, for whose benefit the report of the Woman's Foreign 1Ilissionary National Bible Society of Scotland has taken a Society of the M. E. Church, North, which share in translating the Scriptures, have re- makes a substantial book of 150 pages. The solved to institute a Bible Society of their own. summary of home work shows a total of The Religious Tract and Book Society of Scot- 5,449 organizations, with a membership of laud have just issued their Annual Report. The 127,178. The receipts for 1888were $206,308.- work of the colporteurs is referred to as a val- 69, and the appropriations for 1889 $230,401. uable agency in spreading wholesome religious literature to counteract the mischievous litera- -The twenty-two missionary societies in ture which circulates so largely to the prejudice the United States managed by women, and oC the morals of the people. It employs about whose support comes from women, support 200 colporteurs, and there is ample evidence in ';'51 missionaries, last year contributed the report that their work is meeting a real $1,038,:aJ3, and since their organization want iu the religiOUS life of the country, and has have contributed $10,335,124. The forces of upon it the divine blessing. Great Britain, Continental Europe aud the United States have an annual income of -Scotch LIberality. The 336,000 members $9,396,996; man and equip 9,550 stations; of the Free Church of Scotland must be giving support 5,431 missionaries; have the assist- at the rate of nearly $10 per head. ance of 32,015 native helpers, and missioll churches that number 588,974 communi- Turkey.-The restrictions placed upon cants and 1,875,655 adherents.