The Missionary Review of the World — March 1897
PROMINENT SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XX. No. S.-Old &neB.-MARCH.-VoL. X. No. S.-N6W &riel.
PROMINENT SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE LAST HALF CENTURY-THE WORK AT NEWPORT, ENG.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
"IN THE BEGINNING-GOD." These are the sublimely significant words which opeu the Book of Books; and they may serve as the key to all real advance in human history. Every true movement forward has but one ultimate source; its fountain is God, and we shall find Him to be its spring if we follow the stream far enough backward to its very fountain. There is no practical difficulty that hinders all true holy living and holy serving which is not also traceable at last, to the'lack of the Divine factor. God is not in all our thoughts: He is not recognized, in our plans, in our resolves, in our activities; His pres- ence is not sought, His guidance is not real, His power is not our supreme dependence, whenever we confront failure and find our work coming to naught. And, whenever a genuine and permanent growth or increase is found, those who have the key to the history can only shout: the Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad.
It is now a little over twenty-five years since, in Newport, Mon- mouthshire, England, a remarkable work of God began, the results of . which even yet appear in a manifold form. In a recent visit to New- port, where the writer held a series of most singularly blessed meet- ings for the deepening of spiritual life, the striking facts as to this great spiritual awakening were ascertained; and in view of the many and inarkt lessons which they embody, we avail ourselves of the only record now to be found-and which is now out of print-prepared at the time by one who was conspicuously connected with the history, Rev. J. Tinson Wrenford.* It is first of all to be noticed that God interposes in the extremity oj his people. Our unbelief and worldliness cause serious forgetful- • "God's Work at Newport, Monmouthshlre," pubJisht by S. W. Partridge & Co., London. ness of Him and departure from Him; and when we are at our wit's end, and all our resources and dependences fail us, then, and it is sad to admit it, then alone, do we turn fully unto God. Religious life commonly sinks to its lowest ebb before the flood-tides of God sweep over a community. It was 130 in Newport, From the narrative of Mr. Wrenfol'd we make copious extracts, for a double purpose: first, to perpetuate a record of a blessing 130 remarkable; and secondly, to emphasize the conditions upou which such outpouring of Divine grace depends, and may be enjoyed elsewhere.
Prior to the commencement of this se880n of blessing was a seed-time of tears. To the inquiry, frequently made of members ,of different communions, co Are you prospering? Is there much life amongst you?" the humbling reply W88 almost always returned, "Alas! we are not 88 we should be: there is much deadness of soul: we greatly need an awakening."
It pleased God (early in the year 1870) to put in the hearts of some of His children to meet together every Friday evening to pray, specially for a blessing on the services, teaching, and other means of grace on the approaching Lord's Day, and also that God would graciously pour out His Spirit on the church with which they were connected, and upon all other Christian congregations in the town. Amid various discouragements this little prayer-meeting W88 carried on week after week. At first ouly a very few 88sembled; but, at 188t, the room became inconveniently crowded. The Lord gave them the spirit of prayer and supplication, but withheld any special or signal indication that their petitions would be abundantly answered. They did certainly perceive a change in their own Minister's preaching, and remarkt upon it one to another. He himself, conscious of it, w881ed publicly to express his gratitude to God for the sustaining intercessions of the "praying band." At length, however, a deep impression was made on the minds of some who had thus continued together in prayer, that the Lord was about to commence a great work in Newport. Their faith had long been exercised: now they began to expect a gracious answer.
Just at this time the wish W88 exprest by members of the Young Men's Christian Association (with which several of these praying men were connected) that a meeting for 'United prayer should be held at an early date; and an earnest invitation was issued to " Christian men and women of all denominations," to meet together at the Victoria Hall, on Thursday evening, January 12th,1871, co to calIon the Lord (1.) for the descent of the Holy Spirit among them, and an increase of vital godliness; and (2.) for the conversion to God of many of their fellow-townsfolk during the coming year." This united prayer-meeting was attended by a large number: a most solemn spirit pervaded the assembly: the Lord Himself W88 in the midst, His presence being felt by many.
There was a short SC880n of praying and waiting again: the Lord "tarried"- but not long. The spirit of expectation continued, and, indeed, became intensified. At length came the "earnest" of the approaching co showers of blessing." On Sunday evening, February 16th, the preacher (who had himself on the previous day experienced a glorious deliverance from the buft'etings of Satan, and been brought out into "a wealthy place," a place of sunshine and certainty never before experienced by him), made an earnest appeal to any who were in an anx:ious and inquiring condition of mind, to remain at the close of the service. Several that night found peace with God, through Jesus Christ. The work of .. in-gathering" had commenced, although, as yet, but on a small scale. Several weeks P88t away, Every Sunday night inquirers were led to Jesus; and every week it became more and more apparent that the Lord was preparing the minds of many for the momentous cry, "What must I do to be saved? "
About this time special "Mission Services" were held at the neighboring town of Cardiff, upon which the Divine blessing was evidently resting. Among the preachers was the venerable Robert Aitken-so long and well known in England and Scotland in connection with evangelizing labors. An invitation to come to St. Paul's, Newport, was complied with. At the foot of the handbills announcing the forthcoming special services, was printed the text from lIalachi, " Prove me now herewitl., 8aith the Lord of Hosts, if I willwt open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall wt be room ewugh to receive it."
A very solemn spirit of supplication and expectancy pervaded the preparatory prayer.meeting, on Saturday night, March 25th, and on the following morning, Mr. Aitken preacht, taking as his subject the incidents narrated in the eleventh chapter of John's Gospel relating to the sickness, death and resurrection of Lazarus. Mr. Aitken spoke of realities. The anxiety of Mary and Martha, their affiiction, their grief. were real: the loving sympathy of Jesus toward His distrest diciples was also real: and so, too, His power over death and the grave. Jesus is still a real Savior-" the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." His words were, that day, addrest to many of His hearers: "The Master is come, and callethfor thce."-" Take ye away tlie stone."-" Lazarus, comeforthl"
In the evening Mr. Aitken again preacht, from Heb. xii : 24, and the Spirit accompanicd the word spoken. At the close an invitation was given to any who might be desirous of direction, and a large number remained, many of whom were evidently in a state of deep concern as to salvation: and that night, about seventy entered into the liberty wherewith Jesus makes His people free.
On the four evenings following, Mr. Aitken preacht, to crowded congregations, "the unsearchable riches of Christ," his sermons being characterized by great simplicity and fervency. With a power of utterance at times vehement, he besought the careless, the ungodly, the mere professor, to come to Jesus for pardon and eternal life. What he contemplated was the reality of all that the Gospel declared,-the reality of the sinner's necessity and danger,-of the allsufficiency of the blood of Jesus,-of the love of the Father toward the returning prodigal,-and of the power of the Son of 11an to forgive sins. To him sin, the judgment, eternity, heaven, and hell too, were terribly real. Hence the" reality" of all his appeals, remonstrances, and exhortations. The Lord owned His word upon each occasion, and every night crowds of penitents came for direction. The after-services were prolonged until nearly or quite midnight: and, even then numbers lingered, as tho loth to depart without further blessing.
* * * * * Thus were brought to the feet of Jesus the young and the old,-hardened sinners,-mere professors of religion of many years' standing,-backsliders,-the self-righteous-persons of almost all classes and descriptions. Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, in some instances. whole families, were brought in-in other cases the remaining members of otherwise godly families were reacht by the Word. and led to the cross.
One precious feature of these services was the real spiritual unanimity and unity manifested by Christians of all denominatwns, from first to last. It seemed as tho the Lord's prayer was fulfilled, "That they all may be one," His people felt they were "one," not artificially or theoretically, but actually and truly, Distinctive titles, indicative of divisions in the family, were iorgotten. Church-~ men, Wesleyans, Baptists, Independents, Brethren-all met together in the house of their common Lord, not a8 .. sectarians," but as .. Ohristian8;" with one heart and voice they prayed and praised; with one purpose they assisted, when ocC8Bion served, in directing the inquiring. The Spirit of the Lord was a spirit of love and fellowship to them all: and Jesus was Himself in their midst, breathing upon them, and saying to them, as to the disciples of old, "Peace be unto you."
After Mr. Aitken left Newport for his own parish, in compliance with the eamest desire of many, special services were continued during the five following days, and the Lord did not stay His hand or withhold His blessing. Every night many penitents were led to the cross, and found peace and joy in believing. Friday was a day long to be remembered. It was the commemoration of the crucifixion. A vast congregation assembled, and about five.and·thirty souls cast themselves upon the finisht work of Jcsus, and realized pardon and deliverance.
Thus closed the second week of the special services. Altogether six hundred BOuls had been brought to the Lord. Among the converts were persons connected with nearly all the congregations of the town. No attempt was made to proselytize; on the contrary, the converts were urged ordinarily to remain in connection with the communions to which they had formerly been attacht. Many congregations Were stirred up to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon themselves, and a reviving work began to make itself felt among the people. Special services were commenced at several churches of the neighborhood; and the power of the Lord was present to heal and to save.
In May, Lord Radstock delivered evangelistic addresses at Newport. Two halls were secured, each accomodating at least a thousand persons. Two addresses were given daily, and each evening the hall was densely crowded. His expositions and appeaIs-so scriptural, clear, eamest, and persuasive-were listened to with deep attention. The Spirit of God graciously applied the word, and again the Lord brought many souls' " out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder."
In June, Mr. Aitken paid a second visit to Newport; accompanied by his two sons, the Rev. R. W. Aitken, and the Rev. W. Hay Aitken. It pleased God to give His blessing to the Gospel message at each of the assemblies, conveNions taking place every night.
The congregations were extremely large. On one night, nearly or quite two thousand persons were crowded into the church, while hundreds thronged the approaches, unable to obtain admission. The services were prolonged to a very late hour, in consequence of the large number of anxious ones seeking direction. The result of this second mission was tllat three hundred souls were brought to the Lord, in connection with St. Paul's church alone.
Surely no one can speak of an aggregate of ()1U! thousand pro/eat ctm'De'l'BionB in a single parish within four months, without feelings of fervent gratitude to Him who alone can turn one sinner" from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Many hundreds besides were awakened and led to Jesus, in connection with other communions, in the same period of time, and the work of the Lord rapidly spread to several parishes adjacent. But yet further testimony has to be bome to the goodness of God in His dealings with the people of Newport. He did not withdraw His hand, and cease to manifest His power to save, but 011 the contrary, proved, in the six remaining months of the memorable year 1871, that He was always ready to respond graciously to His peoples' prayers, and to own their efforts for His glory in the conversion of souls. His disciples were stirred up to multiply and extend the means heretofore employed-nothing doubting as to the result. The Young Men.'s Christian Association commenced a daily midday prayer-meeting at their rooms, which proved a means of spiritual refreshment and strengthening to many. They engaged the large Victoria Hall, for special Sunday evening services, the London Evangelization Society sending down, week by week, experienced evangelists. From twelve to fifteen hundred persons were thus gathered on each occasion, a large proportion being not in the habit of frequenting any place of Divine worship. The Lord caused His blessing to rest upon this additional effort, and every Sunday souls were won to Christ.
Most markt and evident was the result of God's work upon a large portion of the Newport population. The Churches of Christ were revived. Christians were not contented with a bare spiritual existence. The surpassing blessedness of the •• higher Christain life" was sought and realized by very many. The old condition, so far removed from that to which believers should attain, became distasteful, and from the heart-gladly, gratefully, lovingly-proceeded the cry, .. All for Jesus!" Nor could they who had received so much at the hands of the Lord remain inactive. "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" was the cry of many a willing worker; and, in a variety of ways, the desire to be useful found welcome exerciSe. And more than, perhaps, at any time before, Christians discovered that, notwithstanding all minor differences, they could "love one another, with a pure heart, fervently."
The people of the world were, at the first, evidently perplext by what they witnessed. The confession was again and again made, "I can not understand it." In some instances utter incredulity was exprest; while not a few attributed it to a sort of fanatical excitement, the effects of" which would soon pass away. The people of the world could not be expected to form a right judgment upon such a subject. It lay beyond them altogether; and their opinion of it could not possibly possess any value. .To the unconverted, the operations of God's Spirit must ever be an enigma which they can not explain. The Inspired Word tells us, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." That is decisive.
But what a solemn season is it to a congregation-to an entire communitywhen God thus wondrously makes bare His arm and manifests His saving powerI In concluding this narrative of God's great work at Newport, to what shall we trace it, so far as man is concerned? Shall it not be, first, to earnest, beliefJing pe1'8e1!61'inp prayer" for this very thing;" and secondly, to the real preadting of a. real Gospel? Our Lord's words are: .. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Surely, this assurance ought to be sufficient. And as to the preaching, of what avail is it unless a real Gospel be preacht? It is to be feared there is much 'Unreality in the preaching of the present day. If men are really sinners-perishing sinners-then away with theorizing, with speculating, with mere ., opinions" and "views." Away, too, with all dead •• sermonizing," be it never so correctly and artistically done. The need of men's souls is awfully real: let them hear of a God really waiting to be gracious; – of a Jesus really able to save to the uttermost and as willing as he is able; – of an all·sufficient atonement really made and accepted;-of the precious blood of Christ, that can really cleanse from a11sin;-of a Holy Spirit really given to regenerate, guide, comfort, teach, and sanctify men's souls. Let them hear of a real heaven-a real hell-a real eternity; of real pardon for the guilty-real peace-real joy-reaIUfe; of a real approach of the sinner to the feet of a present Savior-of a real acceptance of Jesus, and a real surrender to Him, and then a real and most blessed discipleship, Away with mere ideasl with mere" hopes" and" trusts I" with all uncertainty and unreality!
This rea.lity of praying, preaching, and hearing was at Newport, the secret of the conversion of so large a number of souls to Ohrist-through the power of the Holy Ghost.
March
Why may not such a result be brought to pass, wherever sinners are found? Doubtless, the fear of the world's frown, prejudice, routine, dead formalism, a dread of "irregularities" and of "excitement" may hinder; but should not all hindrances be surmounted for Christ's sake, and that souls may be saved?
o for 1'eaWy in the p1'aying of God's people, reality in the preaching of God's ministersI 0 for men to preach, and people to pray, who have themselves been brought into a condition of conscious acceptance-pardon-life; who themselves are "in Chri8t," and who know, in their own daily experience, the sweetness of that "peace of God" which "passeth all understanding," and of that" joy" which is .. unspeakable and full of glory." 0 for reality / A. real lifting up of Jesus in the midst of perishing sinners-not that· 'doctrines" or .. views" (be they ever so correct) may be set forth, discust, demonstrated,-but that the guilty may draw near-may look-may livel 0 for the "real presence" of Jesus in our assemblies,- the real coming of the sin-burdened to Him there and then.- and the real reception from His willing hands of a most real salvation I So writes substantially, the original narrator of God's work at Newport. And, in thus perpetuating and extending this testimony to one of the most deep-reaching and remarkable spiritual movements of the last half century, we are confident that God means the whole church to learn a lesson.
What is that lesson? It is manifold in instruction altho it all bears in one direction. No one who carefully reads this solemn story of divine dealing can escape the conviction that a pecnliar stress is laid by these events npon united prayer, a pure Gospel, hand to hand contact 1vith souls, and simple faith in God's present power to save. Here was no grand array of unnsual and striking combinations. No far-famed evangelist was sent for to inaugurate a revival, there was no appeal to novelty, nothing dramatic, spectacular, sensational. The whole work began in the prayers of a few fervent believers for the church with which they were connected, and particularly their own minister. Their prayers first brought to him new blesl'ing and new power in preaching; then, as souls were won, the work spread to other congregations; the circle of prayer expanded and became more inclusive; differences of doctrine and polity were forgotten in the bond of unity; variety of congregational life was merged into community of work for souls. As help was needed, the most spirit-filled helpers were sought-and dependence was never transferred from God to man, but the power of a God-given Gospel and of a God-given Spirit was constantly and reverently recognized.
Contrast all this with modern efforts to secure revival. We read some time ago with a shock of awful surprise a private pamphlet prepared by a noted evangelist as a guide to committees who were making ready for his coming. It was full of dependence on "business methods," advertising-striking announcements, big posters, etc., etc. -everything must be done to create a publicfurare in advance. This is the way of the world, and it is now the way of the church. Boston
PROMINENT SPIRI'rUAL MO"VEMEN'l'S. 16~
wants a revival; and Mr. Moody must be at Tremont Temple, and Sam. Jones and Francis Murphy at other "temples"-and the men whom the people will flock to hear must be got-so says Dr. Ohapell, as he contrasts the revivals of fifty years ago with those of to-day. We have no design, as he had none, of reflecting on either of the abovenamed evangelists, but what we would emphasize is, that for a true revival whose results are to be lasting, our dependence is to be first of all on God, not on man. We must emphasize the preacher less, and the message and the Spirit more. The most wide-reaching revivals of this century have been associated with the most unexpected times and methods and men; they have been a surprise to those through whom they were wrought. They have been preceded by fasting and prayer, have begun often in a union of prayer between two or three burdened souls. We knew, for instance, a case where a few young men, who could find no better place wherein to meet, actually went into a church belfry, unwarmed, in winter, and there sought blessing for the congregation; their numbers slowly increast until the unfinisht room was too strait for them; and when their meeting was scarce known to the congregation, a mighty flood of blessing was already upon the community. Another case is known to the writer where a very ordinary preacher, speaking to his own people about parental duty and responsibility, felt moved to call on parents who were imprest with their own unfaithfulness, to come from their seats and stand in the aisle in token of repentance and earnest seeking for blessing. Out of the pews moved fathers and mothers, until the aisles were filled and they crowded about the communion table-and the place was turned in a Bochim. We are getting away from dependence on ordinarg means of grace. We do not expect any widespread blessing on the preaching of the simple Gospel and on prayer, and on personal contact with souls, and must have several churches united, and great meetings, with distinguisht evangelists and great choirs with far-famed Gospel singers, or we look for no divine outpourings. All this is unscriptural, unspiritual, abnormal. The Gospel would be a failure if it were not. And because our churches, and pastors, and the people at large have lost confidence in the ordinary use of Gospel means, and depend on extraordinary efforts alone, every interest of the churches is in peril. Even for missions we must have colossal meetings-some president or ex-president, or governor, or other celebrity must preside-some gigantic crowd be got together in some way; no matter if the speakers are not spirit-filled men, if they are only attractive-no matter if the assemblies are not composed of the more devout, if the numbers are large and the elite are there! These are the unspoken sentiments which have too often guided the arrangements, and repelled the Spirit of God and forfeited blessing. At risk o~ being accounted pessimistic and hypercritical, we repeat that, if the church wants greater prosperity in the life of her members, and in the abundance and constancy of her benevolent offel'ings, the Holy Spirit must be more honored; there must be believing prayer and faith in God's promises. God's arm is not shortened nor His ear heavy, but there are modes of doing and attitudes of being which He will never own with the sanction of His blessing.
Let any pastor undertake in his own congregation and parish work to follow a few simple rules, and see the result: 1. Get himself thoroughly n:ght with God, by abandoning every known sin or doubtful indulgence, and seeking first of all for himself the very type ·of life and character which he craves for his people.
2. Trust himself absolutely to the Gospel as the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation, and expect that God's word, faithfully preacht, will not return to Him void, in a single instance.
S. Give himself to prayer-giving time enough to get the sense of God in the closet; and never leaving the place of supplication until he gets a divine vision-a new impartation of life and power.
4. Go himself to seek individuals-not depending on mere pulpit exhortations-but remembering that souls are won by individual approach, and that all such contact will make his preaching more personal and effective.
5. Keep himself from all direct or indirect dependence on man; avoid seeking men's applause, or looking to man's patronage for support and encouragement. Let him study the Acts of the Apostles and aim at an apostolic church life.
6. Live himself a life of faith, depending on God for his support, daring to cut loose from the pcw system and take his support from voluntary offerings; and sedulously cultivate in his people the same spirit of direct leaning upon God.
7. Yearn himself over a lost world-cherishing a missionary spirit, and claiming the entrance into the holiest as the intercessor's place and privilege; and educating his people to regard missions as the indispensable proof and fruit of all spiritual life.
No man could follow seven such simple rules and patiently wait, without seeing a mighty work of God in his own life and sphere of labor. And it is only in such a new level of spiritual life and character and conduct of God's work that the permanent revival of missions is to be found. The stream needs a source more abundant and elevated-then the channel will be full and the current rapid. God is speaking, and it is not in this case, out of the cloud-no mystery attends His utterance. All the great spiritual movements of the century have hinged on supernatural interposition in answer to believing prayer. If we are to have other such divine interpositions, other intercessors must be found, mighty through the same means which were used by Daniel and Job, Elijah and Samuel.
MIZPAH CHAPEL 0];' C ()~ G Rl:G"TIONAL SLAY1G MISSION , :,IT. STANISLAUS lWMM, CA'J'IIOUC }'OLISIl CH1:RCn
CU;YELAXD, (l. CLEYELAND, O.
In this" Polyglot " chapel.f0ur la nguages are,cOll8tantly u ~ed: I'oli. h, IJo- llcllllun, GctllJan, amI Enghsh.
STRONGHOLDS
TAKING STRONGHOLDS.
CHRISTIAN WORK FOR OUR FOREIGN POPULATION.
BY REV. A. F. SCHAUFFLER, CLEVELAND, O.
When, during our Civil War, Vicksburg, strongly fortified and held by the Confederates, was III tourniquet fastened on the great main artery of this country's circulation, it became absolutely necessary to capture it. No cost of means or men was considered too great, for was not the lasting welfare, even the life of our nation, at stake? The more difficult the task, the more stubborn and fierce the resistance, the more determined, carefully planned, and courageously executed were the efforts made to take that stronghold. And when it was won and the stars and stripes waved over it, a thrill of joy went through the Northern States, and every patriot thankt God, took courage, and lookt more confidently for the final and lasting victory of freedom and loyalty. We have some Vicksburgs still.
It is little more than a decade since American Christians began to realize certain very serious dangers that threatened the stability of our free Christian institutions and the welf~e of our country, – dangers arising from the character and influence of some parts of the immense immigration of later years. . Americans are naturally optimistic, and have fondly hoped that the very atmosphere of "the freest country on earth" and our vaunted free-school system would not fail to transform all classes of foreigners in'to loyal and useful American citizens. But such unexpected and terrible events as the bloody Cincinnati riot of March, 1884, started by a mob of second-generation young Germans, who raised the cry, "On to the jail," and which resulted in the destruction of valuable property, the death of forty-five men and wounding of one hundred and thirty-eight, and the awful Chicago Haymarket bomb tragedy in May, 1886, whose perpetrators were chiefly foreigners, rudely waked us from our pleasing dreams and shockt us into something of a true sense of the situation. The Mafia in New Orleaus, the more recent Chicago Pullman strike riots, the bad eminence and dangerous power attained· by Gov. Altgeld, and many other less markt but not less really significant proofs of the activity of anarchic and revolutionary forces, have so emphasized the danger that threatens this nation from the presence in it of mischievous foreign elements, that of late strenuous efforts are being made to restrict emigration and to exclude undesirable foreigners. But whether such attempts are successful or not, the fact remains that there are immense portions of our foreign population, which, whatever possibilities they may present of future development into true American citizens, are very far from being now in sympathy with the principles and institutions which we most prize as the founaation of our nation's character and the condition of its prosperity. They are Vicksburgs, hard to win, but all the more necessary to gain for true freedom and genuine Christianity. Left to themselve/!, they will be a serious menace to our country's welfare; won for the Bible idea of Christian citizenship, they will help to make our nation that happy people whose God is the Lord, and which rejoices in peace and righteousness as the conditions of genuine and lasting prosperity. Perhaps we can best gain some adequate idea of the difficulty, urgent importance, and practicability of the great task which God in His providence has set His people in the whole northern and western part of our land by sending into our very midst such armies of foreigners, if we consider one of the nationalities thus providentially brought close to our doors and hearts. One element in our foreign population which does not naturally accept our conception of Christianity or readily adapt itself to our social, educational, and religious order of things, is the Polish. It is an important part of our immigrant population. Of our Slavic elements it is by far the largest, much outnumbering Bohemians and Slovaks (Hungarian Slavs) taken together, and constantly increasing in size and political influence. "Poland in America" is a Vicksburg which must be taken for Christ. It is a stronghold of Rome, that old and determined enemy of the Bible and of all true freedom and progress.
A glance at the tragic history of Poland, at the religious condition of the Poles in America, and at the efforts being made to reach them with the Gospel, will show how great and urgent is the duty to do the very best of missionary work for that interesting people.
I. HISTORY.-The early history of the Polish people is shrouded in the mists of myth and mystery. In his "Story of Poland" Morfill, .says: "The first undoubted historical event in which Poland is concerned relates to the year 963 A.D., when the Markgraf Geron conquered the heathen prince Mieczyslav, who ruled over the Poles from the Oder to the Vistula, and made him pay tribute to the German Emperor Otho I." In 965 Mieczyslav became a Christian, as condition of marrying the daughter of the King of Bohemia. Under Boleslas the Great Poland became a kingdom, and made great progress, building many new cities, and increasing trade, while Christianity was more widely spread and firmly establisht among the people, and schools were founded. There were no popular assemblies, society being organized entirely on a military basis. By the beginning of the 11th century Poland had absorbed nearly all the Western SJavic States, including Bohemia.
Poland gradually became the great power of Easteru Europe, which it continued to be till near the close of the 17th century. From 1541 to 1606 was the golden age of foland, which saw the rise of Polish literature, and during which Stephen Batory, Prince of Transylvania, a vigorous ruler, became King of Poland. He renounced Protestantism for the Roman Oatholic faith. During his reign the Jesuits were introduced into Poland, and a great contest took place between Protestants and Oatholics, in which the latter gained control, by aid of the Jesuits, who had in their hands the education of the country. The country was rent by adverse factions, and from that time began the decline of Poland.
In 1674 John Sobieski was made King of Poland, and earned the title of "Savior of Europe" by hastening with his splendid army to the relief of Vienna, besieged by an immense and victorious Turkish host, which he utterly routed in one battle, saying: "Not unto us, not unto us, 0 Lord of Hosts, but to Thy name give glory." Sobieski's valor changed the course of European history, but could not arrest the internal dissensions of unfortunate Poland, or save it from the envy and enmity of other European powers, which com- bined to bring on the final catastrophe. The first partition of Poland between Russia, Prussia, and Austria occurred in 1772, the second partition in 1793, and the third in 1795. The noble patriotism and magnificent bravery of Thaddeus Kosciusko, who fought against tremendous odds, availed not to stem the tide of ruin that over- whelmed Poland. 'fhe Poles lost their independence and their country, and Siberian mines and prisons attested the terrible severity of the punishment meted out to them by the victors.* The causes of Polaud's misfortunes are not far to seek. The chief ones are: 1st. The abnormal social conditions. The nobles, jealous of each other, and united in jealousy of their king, reduced the serfs to a. state of practical slavery, with power over them of life and death, and then finally bound them to the soil. 2nd. There was no Polish middle class. The burghers were Germans and Jews governed by . special laws. They could own no land, which was wholly the property of the nobles. 3rd. The influence of Protestantism was fiercely com- batted and overcome by Papal power. 4th. All education was in the hands of Roman Oatholic ecclesiastics. 5th. Poland had no natural frontiers, and was surrounded by powerful enemies ever ready to despoil her. These conditions promoted internal dissensions, decay, wasting wars with neighbors, disintegration, poverty, and ruin. It has been truly said that Poland was "the heaven of the nobles, the paradise of the clergy, the gold-mine of foreigners, and the hell of rustics." We may add that it became the grave of true liberty.
• We owe a debt of gratitude to Poiand,- for Kosciusko, like Lafayette, came to our aid during our Revolutionary War. "He joined the American Army as a volunteer, and was conspicuous for his bravery at the battles of Saratoga and Yellow Springs. Washington made him a Brigadier and afterwards Governor of West Point." He helpt us win the freedom he could not conquer for his own country. II. RELIGIOUS CONDITION IN AMERICA. It will surprise none who know anything of Poland's sad history and present opprest condition, that Poles are anxious to leave the land they may no longer call their own, in a large part of which government is systematically suppressing Polish nationality and language, and to found new homes in this conntry of freedom and opportunity. But with most of them it is true, "change the place and keep the pain" – or rather "the chief cause of the pain," which in their case is the tyranny of their Roman Catholic priests with the resulting ignorance, ghostly fear, bigotry, and violence. This makes their presence in large numbers a very serious matter.
It is impossible to obtain reliable statistics of the number of Poles in the United States, for many of them tell the Census official that they are from Russia, or Germany, or Austria, and are set down as Russians, Germans, or Austrians. But it is safe to say that there are between one and two millions of Poles in the United States. Chicago has about 70,000, Pittsburg 65,000, New York and Brooklyn 45,000, Buffalo, N. Y., 30,000, Detroit 25,000, Cleveland 8,000 to 10,000. I have before me a list of 79 Polish colonies in 14 States.
What an important social and political factor these compact Polish colonies are becoming, was pointed out by the New York Evening Post in its issue of April 13, 1892. The Post said: "In Milwaukee, Wis., there is a Polish population of 25,000 in a total of 200,000, and, as they are exceedingly clannish in politics, as in everything else, the Polish vote is cast almost solidly in a block, and this nationality already holds the balance of power in city elections."
The Pole is as much under the control of his priest as is the Irishman. For him the priest is God's representative, the priest's word is law, and the priest's anger most dangerous. Ayoung Pole, who afterwards joined our Bohemian Mission Church in Cleveland, unable to pay the priest's assessment towards building a fine new church, was summarily excommunicated, and thereupon thought himself lost forever, and he was much more intelligent than the majority of our Poles, mostly the descendants of the enslaved serfs.
Polish priests are very strong and even fierce in opposing not only all-Protestant influences brought to bear on their people, but also the Americanizing influence of the public school. They have kept their people secluded in Polish colonies and Polish quarters of the cities, where the butcher and baker and grocer are Poles, and have made it an unpardonable sin to send children to our public schools.
A priest told one of our colporteurs that he had burned seventeen Bibles sold to his people. And when one of our Polish missionaries called on him to ask why he refused his people permission to read the Word of God, the priest became so angry that he set his dog on his visitor; fortunately the dog had wound his chain around the priest's legs, and could not reach our brother. Another priest drove away a young Pole, now a member of a Protestant church, by charging him $4 for absolution, which the young man was unwilling to pay. One of our female missionaries who worked among the Poles in Toledo, 0., reported that the priest had roused the people very much against her, and forbidden them to buy any books from her, or to send their children to her sewing-school, and ordered that if she visited any of their houses, they should take a broomstick to her. But with all their I fear of the priest and servile submission to him, there is a spirit of growing independence and revolt abroad amongst Catholic Poles in the United States. Hence the frequent reports of mobs, riots, violence, and bloodshed in Polish parishes. Rence also the new movement to form independent Catholic Polish churches, of which there are quite a number already started in several large cities. Quite a large church of this kind was founded in Cleveland about two years ago. I have before me a copy of a Cleveland paper of December 8, 1894, in which there is a very remarkable account by a Polish editor of his efforts to start this new movement. He says, that as the Polish people are 'Very earnestly and patriotically devoted to their religion, the only way to lift them up is to reach their hearts through their devotion to the church. After he came to this country, eleven years before, he found out that" the Roman Catholic Church keeps the Poles in the worst kind of slavery for its own shallow and egotistical purposes." He asserts that for a Pole the priest is "almost a personification of God on earth," so that every Polish priest exercises a tremendous influence over his flock. But," instead of trying to ennoble them, to lift them up morally and mentally, every priest is trying to make them even more ignorant, more fanatical, more superstitious than they are." This is the reason, says the editor, "that they are so far away from the spirit of American institutions, that they are regarded almost as a blot on the civilization of the 19th century, as well as on the glorious Constitution of the United States." This editor started to spread the ideas of religious freedom eight years before by means of a paper publisht in New York. The paper was put under the ban by the Polish clergy over all the country. He made two other attempts, one in Chicago and another in New York, but "in each case the Romish priest won the battle." When he started this movement again in Cleveland, he determined to put a priest at the head of it. He pickt out one who had been driven away from the largest Polish church in Cleveland by his people on account of his alleged immorality and dishonesty.
But later the editor thought himself mistaken, and exprest the conviction that the priest had made his peace with Rome. This led to their parting company. But it seems that the priest had not been reconciled with Rome, and his church continues to the present independent of Rome. On one occasion, when celebrating the anniversary of the giving of a Polish Constitution, he invited one of our missionaries to make an address to his church, crowded full of Poles. It was an admirable opportunity to speak ta them of the true liberty with which Christ makes us free. This priest hb.s circulated Bibles and Protestant tracts among his people. This contest between the new church and the old has opened the eyes of many Poles, and led them to look upon Protestants and Protestant missionaries with much more f&vor.
As I write, a terrible conflict is progressing in the Polish colony of Bay City, Mich., where there are 6,000 Poles. An elderly priest was accused by his people of gross immorality and dishonesty in the handling of church funds. A riot ensued. The priest was driven away and the church closed. When the Sheriff appeared with the Bishop to reopen the church by force, they found a body of 400 Polish women massed against the church doors, and the Sheriff turned to the Bishop and askt whether he would command him to charge upon those women. The Bishop's heart failed, and the attempt was abandoned. Polish women routed the Bishop. All the twelve or fifteen Roman Catholic priests of Bay City stood by the Polish priest, but he had to go, so strong was the feeling against him. Another priest was secured in his place, but having refused to let the opponents of his predecessor see the church accounts, he involved himself in a fierce conflict, which has just resulted in his shooting two men and being under bonds for trial. The church is closed again, and excitement runs high. In the meantime Congregationalists and Presbyterians have united to commence missionary work for the people shut out of their own church and fighting for a purer priesthood. Quite a large number of Polish children attend sewing-school on Saturday and Sunday-school on Sunday, and the missionary finds open doors into many families and many hearts.
There is much such dissatisfaction with priestly abuses among Poles over all this country. The spirit of American liberty and the influence of Protestantism is having its effect. This leads to our third topic.
III. MISSIONARY EFFORTS FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF OUR Po- LISH POPULATION.-Missionary work for the Poles in this country is yet in its infancy. Our Poles are mostly the descendants of the serfs whom the Polish nobility enslaved while fighting for their own freedom, and on whom the church of Rome has fastened the fetters of ignorance, bigotry, and fear. It is hard to conceive the difficulties which at every step beset the missionary who wants to reach the· Pole with the Word of God. The common Pole is afraid of the priest, afraid of excommunication, afraid of consequent loss of his soul, afraid of losing his livelihood, afraid of violence from his fellow Poles. The latter fear is well grounded, for many of the Poles are ever ready for a fray. And yet patient and persistent efforts, prompted by genuine love for Ohrist and for misguided souls, have not been without their reward. There are grand possibilities in the Polish people. A people that has produced a great poet like Mickiewicz, a great astronomer like Oopernicus, a great composer like Ohopin, and many great patriots and heroes like Sobieski and Kosciusko, is a people well worth winning for Gospel truth and freedom.
The first Polish convert I ever saw, a man given to drink and gambling, and moved to attend Y. M. C. A. meetings and church services by a faithful German fellow-worker in the factory, and who subsequently went through a course of preparation for the ministry in the Slavic department of Oberlin, 0., Theological Seminary, has been laboring patiently and faithfully for years in Detroit, Mich. Many a one looking through the reports of his early years of labor, would have said that he would be justified in giving up the work, so great was the prejudice against him, and so small the apparent hope of success. In Detroit there had been the same sort of a split as later in Oleveland, and a priest who had been driven from the great Polish church on account of alleged immorality, succeeded in founding an independent Oatholic church, which still exists. At first it seemed as tho this would facilitate Protestant missionary work. But the missionary found himself accused by both parties of being the spy of ihe other.
Latterly infidelity has begun to appear amongst the Poles. This new tendency among the Poles, a very old one amongst the Bohemians, illustrates the fact that the church of Rome is not only the mother of bigotry, but the promoter of infidelity. But in spite of all the difficulties and trials he has had to meet, this faithful missionary has lived to see blessed results of his labors. The First Oongregational Ohurch of Detroit, which opened its beautiful new building for Polish services, has received thirty-six Poles into its membership. Thisforms virtually a branch church ministered to by the Polish missionary. No one who has not lived in a Roman Oatholic community, and who does not know the Poles from close contact and long observation, can imagine what true courage, strong faith, and genuine heroism it takes on the part of this people to come out from their church and expose themselves to the taunts and fierce opposition, often threatening personal violence, of their former coreligionists.
A Polish woman in Oleveland, who has for some years attended our services, was visited by our American lady missionary who has learned Polish, to whom she related her recent experience when, with her husband in the Roman Oatholic church, she heard the priest declare that no one could be saved but Roman Catholics. The wife shook her head so hard in dissent, that her husband, a bigoted Oatholic, wanted to put her out of the church. The missionary said to her, "I have long wondered why you still go to the Catholic church, since you do not
THE GOSPEL FOB THE DESTITUTE
believe what they teach." To which the woman answered: "I go only because my husband compels me. I will not pray to the Virgin or to pictures. I believe only those can be saved who trust in Christ and serve Him."
The Ohristian churches of America have only begun to make their approaches to this stronghold of Rome in our midst. As the· loyal patriots of our Oivil War cherisht no hatred of those who were fighting for slavery, so we harbor no ill-will toward our Polish brethren. On the contrary, it is because we love "the stranger that dwelIbth with us," that we long to make him free "with the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free," and save both him and our beloved land. Let us be up and doing, and remember that this difficult and important work requires not only self-sacrificing love and overcoming faith, but great wisdom in the study of the people, their language, history, and characteristics, and the careful adaptation of means to accomplish the great end sought, the deliverance of our Polish brethren from the thraldom of Rome, and the winning of them as allies in the greater work of making our whole nation that "happy people whose God is the Lord."
THE GOSPEL 1!'OR THE DESTl'fUE.
THE STORY OF THE NEW YORK CITY MISSION.
BY REY. W. T. ELSING, NEW YORK OITY.
A few weeks ago a New England farmer came to New York on a visit. He had read the accounts of murder, robbery, arson, divorce, suicide, and many other crimes in our sensational newspapers, and lookt upon New York as but little better than Sodom. When he heard that Mr. Moody was holding services in Oooper Union, the man left his farm, and set out for the Metropolis, that he might by his presence encourage Mr. Moody, whom he pitied as a solitary Jonah in onr great modern Nineveh. At the Oooper Union meetings he came in contact with other Ohristian workers, who were carrying on a quiet, but effective warfare against sin. The farmer became interested in city evangelization, and appointed himself a committee of one to visit the various mission stations. I found him in a Christie Street mission, which is conducted by a converted anarchist, who had also been a drunken butcher. The room in which the mission held its meetings had been a low drinking saloon. The pulpit consisted of a stand, on which beer-barrels formerly rested. On the wall were. arranged, in fantastic fashion, pipes, cigar-holders, plugs and bags of tobacco, packs
TIlE" LIGHT IlOVSE MISSION,' JACKSON STEEET, NEW YORK
THE GOSPEL FOR THE DESTITUTE
of cards, daggers, revolvers, and a rosary. "This is the devil's face," Bajd the leader, "and the old fellow's head is fast swelling, for every man who is converted brings his idol to be hung upon the wall." The room was crowded with tramps, drunkards, and anarchists. Some spoke in German, others in English. Some were in rags, workless . and homeless; others were provided with every apparent comfort, but all told the same story. The uplifting power of Jesus Christ had come into their lives, and they had become new men. At the close of the service the farmer said, "I had always heard that New York was a dreadful place, but I have not seen so many good things in all my life as I have found in New York dU);ing the past two weeks. I wish the good people of New York would come out into the country and stir us up a little."
There is no city in the world, except London, where more is being done to point the lost to the Son of God than in New York; to give even a brief summary of its Christian activity, would fill a large volumo/' It is our purpose, in this article, to give, a short account of one of the oldest and most potent agencies at work in the evangelization of New York City, and to say something which may be helpful and stimulating to those who are interested in the religious welfare of our American cities. We are more in need of accurate knowledge of what has actually been accomplisht in city evangelization, than of the elaboration of new schemes and untried theories.
The New York Oity Mission and Tract Society has a history:of seventy years' experience in Christian work among the masses, and even a partial knowledge of that history, on the part of those undertaking similar work in other places, might save both money and time. The City Mission was organized in 1827, on a broad evangelical, but undenominational basis. The original purpose was to promote sound morals and evangelical religion by means of tract distribution and personal visitation of prisons and hospitals. When the Society commenced its work, the city was almost entirely composed of Englishspeaking people. In 1835, the visitors connected with the City Mission distributed over 35,000 English tracts and books, while only 265 foreign publications were called for. The workers were all volunteers, who gave their Sunday afternoons and an occasional day during the week to this work. The entire city was divided into districts, each of which was in charge of a visitor. Over the district visitors was placed a ward superintendent, to whom monthly reports were rendered. Over the ward superintendents there was a general superintendent, to whom the ward superintendents made their reports. This arrangement, now impracticable for New York, would probably be the best way in which to reach every family in the smaller cities of our land. It was soon found that it was impossible to secure efficient work without having a superintendent who could give all his time to oversee and direct the district visitors. In this way arose the offioe of Superintendent of the Oity Missions, a position now so ably filled by Rev. A. F. Schauffier, D. D. It also became necessary to have permanent ward superintendents, these corresponding to the city missionaries of the pre~ent time. The ward missionaries commenced to hold neighborhood prayer-meetings, and, as the congregations grew too large to be accommodated in private houses, halls were rented as fixt meeting places. Experience taught those in charge of the work that permanent places of worship were necessary, and in 1866 the Oity Mission and Tract Society became an incorporated body, which now owns real estate to the value of *450,000. The cottage prayer-meetings have developt into institutional churches, in which from 40 to 50 weekly services are held. Women's organizations have become numerous in recent years, but as early as 1829 the womans' branch of the Oity Mission was formed. The power of this organization lies in the fact that it does not seek to work on independent lines, but is closely connected with the older society. The woman's branch has a separate board of directors, a. separate superintendent and treasurer, but in the practical work of evangelization the two societies have always been one. The spirit of the two bodies is beautifully illustrated by the fact that Mr. Morris K. Jesup is president of the male branch, and his wife president of the woman's branch of the society. Mr. and Mrs. Jesup through their ,;c~l~ perseverance, and generosity have been a great power in city c'lnugelization, one evidence of their interest with neglected masses being their gift of the De Witt Memorial Ohurch. The older society hBs charge of the erection of church buildings occupying new fields, Dud under its care the male missionaries work; while the woman's bmnch employs all the trained nurses and Bible women, who work in connection with the chapels and churches, as well as in the prisons and public institutions on Blackwell's Island and other places. The support of a trained nurse or Bible reader costs from $500 to $600 per year. These women are frequently supported by ladies of wealth. In addition to four commodious church buildings, the Oity Mission has a fine house at 129 East 10th Street, where the B1ible women and nurses find a pleasant home. A training school has been opened for missionaries, and all young women who are added to the missionary force must first spend 8 year in this training institute. At present there are about sixty persons employed by the Oity Mission Society.
Me~dS of work.-The Oity Mission seeks to touch the whole man -body, ind, and soul. It meets the man at every stage of life, from the little ts in the kindergarten to the decrepid old people, unable to enter the ()hurches, but who are sought out in their homes. There is not a need which the Oity Mission does not seek to alleviate, and everyone in distress may find a measure of help and sympathy in the City Mission chllfches. The greatest stress is laid 911 th«;l spiritlllW. work, because sin is at the bottom of most of the evils with which we come in contact. If we can bring people into right relations with God, they soon come into right relations with themselves and their fellow men. When there has been no soul improvement, all outward aid usually goes for nothing. Conversion of men to God is our chief aim and constant endeavor. We preach the Gospel in English, Ger- man, Italian, and Armenian languages, and carryon a successful work for the Chinese and the Jews. We do, however, a great deal of purely social and educational work. It is commonly believed that in the degraded and neglected parts of our cities social and educational work can not be carried on successfully in connection with church buildings. Experience convinces us that this is a mistake. The Jews and Roman Catholics patronize our penny provident banks, our read- ing rooms, libraries, gymnasiums, sewing schools, cooking classes, kindergartens and day nurseries in great numbers. Our social and educational work could not be better conducted in a secular building.
All of our City Mission churches are educational institutions as well as churches. One of these churches has sent out, during the past eight years, three public school, two kindergarten, and three music teachers, three trained nurses, two city missionaries, two foreign mis- sionaries, two ministers, and three physicians. Three young men are also now studying for the ministry. These young people were all converted through the instrumentality of the City Mission, and through the uplifting power of Christ in their lives became desirous to improve themselves, that they may be more helpful to others. All our churches could show similar records. These facts are encourag- ing, when we so frequently hear that the poor are opprest and down-trodden, and that in our day there is no possibility of their rising. "
Tke Government oj the Oity Mission Ol~urches.-Our doctrinal basis is the Apostles' Creed. A few simple rules have been prepared for the government of the churches. The pastor, with a number of workingmen, administer the affairs in each individual church. The greatest freedom is allowed, and the churches are practically self- governing. The executive committee of the City Mission appoints the pastors, but no man is ever placed in charge of a City Mission church who is not acceptable to the people. In case differences arise between the pastor and his official board, and the board attempts to pass measures, which are in the pastor's judgment unwise, he has the veto power, and the matter is then referred for settlement to the executive committee of the City Mission. Mr. Moody has recently criticized the whole system of mission churches, and there is, no doubt, a good deal of wisdom in his words, but if the wealthy churches, who now support mission chapels, were to follow the simple method of this society, there would be no force in his criticism. It is undoubtedly true that the ideal condition is one in which the rich and the poor meet together before their Maker in the same house of prayer, but we do not live in an ideal world, and we must strive to use the means best adapted to existing conditions.
The majority of working people in New York live in a kitchen and two dark bedrooms. They have no facilities for bathing, and in damp weather little opportunity to air their clothing. It would be impos~ sible to keep people who are accustomed to refined surroundings, and who have not au over-abundant supply of missionary ;eal, in churches largely composed of people from the tenement houses. The self~ respecting and better class of working people in one of our City Mis~ sion churches complained when the men in the Bowery lodging-houses, who were ragged and unwasht, began to fill the church, and we felt that they were justified, and made special provision for the lodging~ house men. The working people will be most at home in a church largely composed of their own class. Their churches should have an air of refinement about them, and be adapted for institutional work. A~ absolutely perfect system of ventilation is indispensible. The mission chapels should be manned with an efficient force of workers, and should be practically self-governed. If the church building is provided with ten or twelve Sunday-school class-rooms, each capable of seating fifty scholars, self-denying men and women will be found, who will esteem it an honor to identify themselves with the chapel work as leaders of these important classes.
Rescue Agencies.-There is in the minds of the most degraded people a certain veneration for a building set apart to the worship of God. People will go to a dime museum in their rags and dirt, but very few, who are sober, will enter a place of worship unless they are decently attired. The surroundingslOf even our Oity Mission churches become too refined for those most in need of spiritual quickening. The Oity Mission acted most wisely when, instead of lowering the tone and respectability of its churches, it planted out-stations in the most degraded courts and alleys. We had some most interesting experiences in these out-stations. Our aim was to reach those who would not enter our church buildings, either because they had no clothing, or because there was absolutely.no desire for spiritual things. We devised a system of movable missions. A degraded court was selected, in which forty-six !amiljes resided. We quietly rented two rooms, such as the tenants occupied as living-rooms. We had an understanding with the landlord for what purpose we desired to use the rooms, but there was no advertising whatever. The day before we opened the mission, we sent a wagon-load of chairs and a small organ to the court. The news that a wh01e wagon-load of chairs had been sent to one of the rooms was sufficient to fill every woman's head in the court with interrogation points. "What in the world is coming to this court, a wagon-load of chairs and an organ, but no pots, beds, or washboiler?" The women advertised our coming effectively, and the next day, when we hung up a red sign, decorated with a white rose, on the door, and sent a pretty card of invitation to every woman in the court to come to the "White Rose," the excitement and curiosity was sufficiently great to crowd our rooms to their utmost capacity. We commenced the service with coffee and cake, because no saloon in our neighborhood is ever opened without some free refreshments. One woman, who had left her children upstairs, started to leave when she had dispatched the refreshments, but we asked her to wait a little while we read from" the Good Book." As we began to read, a woman, who was sitting by my side, put her hand on my arm and said: "Look here, Mister, do you think it is right for that woman to blackguard me?" I said, "please do not disturb me until I have finished reading the Bible." I read the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and talkt to them about the two lives, two deaths, and the two eternities of these men. Ohl what a luxury to preach Ohrist to those who have never heard the message of mercy I Soon a death-like stillness fell upon the audience. The big tears ran down the faces of these weary mothers. I finally said, "before we close, I would like to know if any of you women desire to turn over a new leaf? Will any of you start for heaven to-day and try to bring your husband with you? If there are any such, will you raise your hands and we will pray for you." Reverently, but spontaneously, and as if moved by the Spirit of God, every woman raised her hand and we poured out our hearts to God in prayer. It was a wonderful meeting, and the power of God was present to save. I turned to the woman who had interrupted me and said, "My good woman, what did you want to say to me? " The anger in her face was gone, the tears were running down her cheeks, and with a choking voice she said, "Never mind, I have as bad a tongue in my head as any woman in this house. It was my fault as much as hers." For IPX months our rooms were filled every afternoon with children, and with adults in the evening. At the approach of hot weather we gave up the mission, and urged those who had become interested to attend our church. The next Fall we started in an entirely new locality, and passed through the same experiences. There were stormy times occasionally, the rougher elements frequently seeking to break up the services, but soon the moral sense of the community was with us, and we were left undisturbed. The value of these movable missions lies in the fact that it brings the converts into the church, with which the mission is connected, to be trained in Ohristian life and work. The best place to convert a man or woman is the rescue mission, and the worst place to leave them in permanently after conversion is the rescue mission. The church is the spiritual home of converted men and women, and the great defect of the Salvation Army and other rescue agencies is that they do not lay more stress in transplanting their converts into the churches. The great cities of America will be the storm-centers of the future. The Gospel of Christ will be the most potent remedy for the evils which now aftlict us, and the greater evils which may come upon us. The permanent remedy will come not through acts of congress or the legislature, but through the moral and spiritual elevation of the individual. Two years ago I saw a man whose eyes were closed, and whose face was horribly disfigured from cruel blows received in a drunken brawl. His wife and children were about to be evicted. The starving little ones were piteously crying for food. To-day this man is a volunteer care-taker in the infant class of one of our large City Mission schools. He came to me just before tl;te presidential election, his face beaming with honest pride and pleasure, as he said, "I have been nominated for assemblyman by the Prohibition Party!" Multiply such cases by the thousands, and the red flag will never be flaunted successfully in the faces of American citizens.
The Oross of Ligkt.-A few years ago a poor woman, with breaking heart, was sitting in her desolate rooms on the top floor of a tenement house. Comfort and happiness, and a home which she once owned had all been destroyed through drink. She said to her husband, "George, I hope I will be dead next Christmas, because when Christmas comes, and everybody is happy, you will make my life doubly wretched by your drunken conduct." He uttered a curse, slammed the door, and left her. She said, "Why should I wait till next Christmas, I can be out of all my trouble to-night, and I can bear it no longer." She went to the window, raised the sash, and was about to throw herself on the stone pavement five stories below, when suddenly her eyes' caught sight of a fiery cross, and she gave a shriek, "What is that, look, children, look!" The woman and her children gazed in wonder upon the cross of fire, and then called to their neighbors. The neighbors said, " Oh, that is nothing, that is only the cross on the top of the City Mission church. They are holding their Christmas festival, and they have lighted the cross." "Oh, no," said the woman, "that cross is the vision and voice of God to me. I was about to do an awful thing, and that cross stopt me." The symbol of redeeming love stood for an hour against the dark outline of the sky and vanisht, but hope did not die out in the woman's heart. She was present at the City Mission church on the following Sunday. She began to pray for her husband, and he also was converted. The saving power of the cross of Christ must be made known to all who are ready to perish in the dark places of our great city; in this blessed work the New York City Mission and Tract Society has been successfully engaged for seventy years.
"TlIBSE FROli THE LAND OF SINIlI." 18S
"THESE FROM THE LAND OF SINIM."
WORK AMONG THE CHINESE IN NEW YORK.
BY MISS CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS HALL, NEW YORK.
CHRISTIAN work for the Chinese in America. is unique. The young meu come from the opposite side of the world. They are opposite to -1lB also in customs and in manner of thought, so that even the Chinese idea has to be transposed before it is translated into our language. Methods to suit their need must therefore be opposite in many re- spects to those used in other missionary work in this country, and even methods usually successful in China do not always avail for the Chinese in America; and further, in San Francisco different circumstances require different methods from those in use in New York City. To look at Orientals and oriental work from an occidental point of view is usually to see the reverse of what is true. Hence the many adverse statements which Christian workers know to be false. To any thus misinformed, and in the spirit of Nathaniel would ask: "Can any good thing come out of China?" the reply is, as Philip's was, "Come and S88."
We see ~rst a stronghold for God; a stronghold for Satan. This characteristic of Greater New York marks its Chinese population. The righteousness of its two hundred or more communicants in evan- gelical churches is in contrast to their heathen kinsmen. It is said that – China has no darker spot than Chinatown in New York.
There are about five hundred Chinese Sunday-school scholars, prin- cipally laundrymen, who form a distinct class among the many grades in New York and vicinity. "Come and s8e" a Chinese Sunday-school in session. A Chinese prayer-meeting, attended by all the scholars, is held half an hour before the opening of school. This prepares the Christians to lead in evangelistic meetings, and brin&,s the Gospel to those who can not yet understand it in English.
"I see a number of the teachers are women," you say. "I do not approve of women teaching the Chinese," and add, with a smile, "I would not mind having an attractive woman teach me."
Truly, an American man's view of it, applicable, doubtless, to his own but not the Mongolian race. The little Chinese boy is taught reverence to mother as well as to father, and the village school-teacher in China is a highly respected man of authority. It is a sorry day fol' the boy if he disobeys, for when he gets home his parents punish him again. Thus early taught diligence and respect at home and school in .China, we find him a deferential, appreciative scholar in the Sunday- school here. I do not believe a Chinese ever acted in other than a proper and courteo~s manner to his lady teacher. You see most of the teachers have one scholar, and ask, "Why this waste of time on one man?" Experience has shown it the best method, especially with beginners. Given: Several Ohinese, kinsmen, of about the same age, ability, knowledge of Ohinese and English, willing to set aside the custom of other Ohinese Sunday-schools and be taught together. Given: A teacher of such tact as to hold the reins of instruction so that all the scholars keep pace and mutually increase progress, then the results may be satisfactory. There are several such classes.
Yonder see that Ohinese group. The older man, a typical Ohristian, his face aglow, his suited gesture, his rapid words in the mother tongue, show his earnestness. The younger men follow every motion, listen absorbed; now and then ask a question; he answers, glances around to see if all understood, and continues. The teacher who taught him is teaching that circle of Ohinese through him. Was it waste of time? It is evident that one scholar, having the whole attention of the teacher, must make better progress. ~'he teacher is a Ohristian friend that makes their hardworking lives more endurable; one to whom they turn for comfort in their sorrow, and sympathy in their joy.
An earnest young scholar profest his faith and was baptized. He was the first of the nineteen converts whom Dr. John Hall has since received into the church. This young Ohinaman was soon after called home by his mother's illness. After some years stay he returned. He had so faithfully taught and lived the religion of Jesus that his whole family became Ohristians. Our Ohristians in Ohina have a cemetery of their own. All the vast province of Kwangtung, from whence all the Ohinese come, is being permeated with Ohristianity. The young men, as they visit Ohina and return, tell of the wonderful changes the Jesus religion is making in their native villages. Truly one, even" a little one," prayerfully taught, becomes in time" a thousand." Is it waste of time to teach that one for God?
"Come and see." Oome nearer. Hear what is being taught. Here is a beginner learning A, B, O. "Ah! all that these Ohinese come for is to learn English!" you exclaim. That is the reason, doubtless, that attracts most of the Ohinese, at first. They know that their success here largely depends on acquiring the language. If any are so kind as to teach them, why shouldn't they come? But, I never knew an instance where, if the teaching continued, the prayerful teacher failed to bring that scholar to Ohrist. That one man saved, offsets all the failure, is worth all the energy and expense put into the work.
There came to Sunday-school a middle-aged Ohinese, with so sad a countenance that it occasioned remark. He had large, deep Bet eyes, fine forehead and evidently a refined nature. Tenaciously he held to the religion of his ancestors. He despised our religion. The very name of Jesus was hateful to him. In his laundry he never allowed it to be spoken in his presence. In vain his cousins had urged him to come to Chinese Sunday-school. One day his brother came from St. Louis, where he had been a regu!ar attendant in Chinese Sundayschool. "See," they said, "your brother he read, he write English, you older, you know nothing!"
Then he made up his mind that he would go and learn English. A new teacher came that Sabbath, and he became her scholar. With contempt he pusht the Bible away, but eagerly poured over the alphabet. There had been a fall of snow, she called his attention to its whiteness and purity, and made him understand that our God, for Jesus' sake, could make our souls "whiter than snow." When the man heard that, he bowed his head, and seemed to think deeply. He was so earnest to learn English, that she invited him to come to her home and study on Monday afternoons. She was a young woman of rare tact and deep spirituality. Long before he could read English, he was reading this "living Epistle of Christ." After a time, he reacht for a Bible and askt to read it, then he would read no other book. "Small words in Bible," he said. Now, he came, that through English, he might learn the Way of Life. The arrogant Confucianist became humble as a little child, at the feet of Jesus, and after two years of further study, he was received into the Ohurch. At that solemn service we sang his favorite hymn, " Whiter than Snow." Many spoke of his radiant face, not at all like the man who came that snowy day, to learn English. Knowing how timid he was, his cousins asked him, if he was not afraid to stand so long before so many. "No," he answered emphatically, "I not afraid, I stand up for Jesus one whole hour. In my heart I say, 'fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God!' " For several years the illumined face of that transformed man has been shining in his Ohinese !wme.
At another table the scholar is memorizing the Lord's Prayer. He points to the words, "Our Father." "What that mean?" His teacher, an elegant man of wide culture, explains. Still the cloud of mystery rests on the Chinese face. Suddenly there is a rift in the cloud. "My Fader, and your Fader?" "Yes." It is too wonderful, again he asks, "God your Fader and God my Fader, too?" "Yes." A burst of soul-light radiates from every feature, he has graspt the revelation. The Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of Man.
"Yes," you say, as the session closes, "it is very interesting, but do these Chinese really become Christians?" "By their fruits ye shall know them." When a man loves his enemies, prays for those who persecute him, denies himself that he may help the more needy; when his upright, industrious life is in harmony with what he professes, when the calm, genial face tells of the love, joy, and peace within, we say, that man is a Christian indeed. Such are our Chinese com-, municants. Of all Christians, I know of none under such strict sur- veillance-:-from friend and foe as they, and none better stand the test.
" But," says one, "does not hope of gain influence them to join the Church?" It may, in some instances, but it is the exception. The Christians find much to bear; much to give of time, energy, and means. They bear and give rejoicingly for Jesus' sake. Most of them have regularly attended, at the same time, schools of different deuomi- nations, and circumstances have led to their choice. No ancient wall of Church differences divides these workers, but Christ is all and in all.
Let their works show the reality of their faith. The Okinese Ohristian Union has met monthly for years, holding evangelistic services in each school in turn. The power of the Holy Spirit has manifestly been with them, and much good done, which only such zealous Christians could do. Their headquarters is at 8 Pell Street. Mr. Gong Yu is their newly elected president.
The Evangelical Band, composed of about thirty young Chinese, of different denominations, does aggressive work in Chmatown. They rent rooms at 8 Pell Street. With the help of Mrs. Blanchard and other Christian friends, they have a Sabbath-school every Sabbath evening at eight o'clock; at nine thirty they hold a Chinese Gospel- meeting. Mauy who would otherwise know nothing of Christ, are attracted, in the first instance, by curiosity to hear the singing or to learn English. This is the nucleus of the Chinese Union Church.
Already they have raised five hundred dollars toward the building fund. Mr. K. F. Pang is now president. 0/ the Methodist Ohurch The· Okinese Young Men's .Association found that comparatively few of their people m the city had the Word of God in their own language. They have, therefore, personally dis- tributed seven hundred and thirty-five Chinese New Testaments, and their work continues. Their headquarters, and those of the M. E.
Chinese Mission, are at 150 Fifth Avenue, in the M. E. Mission Board rooms (2.30 P. M. every Sabbath). Rev. Dr. S. L. Baldwin and Miss M. A. Lathbury are their efficient friends. Mr. C. Soule Bok, now a law student, is their able and spiritual leader and interpreter.
The Ohinese Ymtng Men's .Association of St. Bartholomew Guild, of the Episcopal Church, meets at 23 St. Mark's Place every Sabbath at six o'clock. Two Sabbath services, afternoon and eve:Q.ing, and Monday evening school, are held. The Guild has between two and three hundred members. Of one member, Mr. Lee Lea, recently returned to China, they hear that he devotes all his time to travel- ing from village tO,village, preaching the Gospel. Mr. Guy Maine, at whose eloquent appeal in behalf of the temporal and spiritual needs of his people the Guild was founded, has returned from China, and resumed hIS place as superintendent. He is planning a Chinese cam- paign in Chinatown. The Baptists are foremost in zeal. They have had large and power- ful Christian Associations, and done much missionary service. Mr. Fung Yuk Mow is the leader of the Morning Star Mission, founded by Miss Helen F. Clark, at 17 Doyer Street, and Mis. E. C. Potter, secretary. The Christian Sunday-school of the Calvary Baptist Chinese Sunday-school has united forces with them, and they hold the school there every Sabbath evening. The Tabernacle :Baptist Chinese Sunday-school, Second Avenue and 10th Street, under Dr. W. H. Bell, have long done faithful work.
The Ohinese of the Three OongregationalOhurches unite in sup- porting three missionaries in Ohina. The Rev. Sydney L. Gulick, now on the field, imprest his own spirit," rabid for missions," upon the Broadway Tabemacle Chinese Sunday-school, which he founded (Broadway and 34th Street, 2.30 P.M., Sabbath). The Superintendent, Dr. C. E. Bruce, 456 Lexington Avenue, is one of the "Beloved Physicians," to whom the Ohiuese are deeply grateful. Mr. K. F. Pang is the genial interpreter. The Ohinese Sunday-school of Dr. Behrend's Church, in Brooklyn, is one of this missionary trio.
Besides these, they send one of their own number as missionary. Mr. Yung Park, a member of the Pilgrim Oongregational Church, (121st Street and Madison Avenue, 2.30 P.M., Sabbath, of which :Rev. Dr. Virgin is pastor, aud Mrs. E. R. Solomon, superintendent). Mr. Young Park is an orator by nature, a deeply spiritual man, who, by thTehegrOacheinoesfeGModismsiuosntaarycc.oAmsspolcisiahtimonuc0h/. the Presbyterian Mission, superintendent Rev. Ruie Kin, 14 Umversity Place, have raised *2,000 (gold), to bnild a church that is to be self-supporting at San Ning City, China. They also regularly support two day-schools in that vicinity.·'l.These are Sabbath-schools on the Lord's day, and centers of influence. In the schools there are fort,-two boys and eighteen little girls. The fact that the girls have the :prIvilege of education, and are taught in the same room with the boys, IS eloquent tribute to the influence of the Christians of the Ohinese Sunday-school here, on the aucient customs of Ohina. There is a :prosperous and most interesting day-school for Chinese boys at 14 Umversity Place, thirty of whom came from Ohina last summer. When the Ohristians were askt to help rent a summer home for these boys, the 14th Street and 2nd Avenue Presbyterian Chinese Sunday-school, (2.30 P.M.), where Mrs. Reath has labored so long, and is so beloved, and the Chinese Sunday-school of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, Mr. William Campbell, Superintendent, (7.15-9 P.M., at 9 East 59th Street), responded generously, and took much interest in these young kinsmen. 'fhe Presbyterian Chinese Mission has also a large school at 53 5th Avenue (2.30 P.M., Sabbath), and a Monday evening school at 14 University Piace. When the Rev. Mr. Ruie Kin was in China last summer, he was called upon to visit the homes and baptize the mothers, wives, children of those whom he had converted in America, and who had brought the Gospel home.
The Okinese Evangelist, a Chinese and English Christian monthly, ably edited by Mr. J. S. Happer and Mr. Guy Maine, of Canton, China, did effective work for three years – arousing interest, organizing Sunday-schools, etc. Mr. Yung Kwai (1327 Fifth Ave.), a scholarly, ChristIan Chinese, edits the New York Ohinese News, which exerts a wide influence for Christianity.
These and other Chinese Christian Associations show something of the results of the Chinese Sunday-school work. With the united effort of about forty Sunday-schools, however, only about one-twentieth of the Chinese population is reacht. From every school the cry goes forth-tell it again and again, untiloSome one hears and responds, "Oh for teachers! More teachers!" Nine thousand five hundred heathens
POLTGAlIlOUS APPLIOANTS
at our door, waiting to be taught the way to heaven. The red signs of the laundries cry out, as we pass, "Oh for schools! More schools! " Who can estimate the value of a soul saved! A Ohinese soul saved here, means the salvation of many yonder, the beginning of the undermining of the" Gibraltar of heathenism." Oh, that God would speak, and listening souls reply, "Here am I, send me."
POLYGAMOUS APPPIOANTS.-II.* WHAT MISSIONARmS THINK SHOULD BE DONE WITH THEM.
BY REV. DANIEL L. GIFFORD, SEOUL, KOREA.
REPLIES RECOMMENDING ADMISSION OR FAVORING LENIENCY.
Ohina.-Rev. Paul D. Bergen (N. Presbyterian), of Chinan-fu, thinks that "we have no right to make a man put away his extra wives. It is gross injustice to those put away, and also to the children, and also to the man, because all entered into the compact innocently. We have no mission rule, but I think without exception we would take what seemed a Christian man into the Church and let him keep his wives. Same in regard to wives who ought to continue to live with their husband."
Rev. Y. K. Yen (a native Chinese of the American Church Mission, Shanghai), says: My own opinion is that a polygamist ought not to be excluded, because: (1) He married in ignorance of Gospel law. (2) Concubinage is legal, and she married him in good faith. To be put away would be cruel to her, especially if she has children, which generally is the case. (8) If put away, she would have no home to go to, and thus be exposed to great perils. (4) During the infancy of the Church she ought not to have burdens greater than she could bear. .. God will have mercy." I need not add that no convert could marry a concubine. I have had such in my church and they have been forbidden Holy Communion.
Rev. Timothy Richard (formerly of Eng. Baptist Mission, but now connected with the" Society for Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese "), Shanghai.
(1) Never heard of such a practise in China as a •• perpetual catechumen" in regard to any subject. (2) Would allow a man with plural wives to enter the *We regret our inability to print the whole of this important discussion In one or even two Issues. The subject is one which can only be thoroughly understood and~ intelligently dlscust in all its aspects by one who has resided for years among polygamous people, who are being brought by slow stages from the darkness of heathenism Into the true light of the Gospel. Hence it is of especial importance to consider In detan the opinions of misSionaries, who have studi~ the question for many years on the lIeld.-EDlToB. Church, .1 but not to hold any office." (3) In answer to the question whether sUch a man should be required to put away all but one wife, he replies: .. No, no. Unless the extra wife or wives are willing for the nell" arrangement and proper compenaation be rendered to them and their children; otherwise compul- sory divorce would be cruel injustice and, of course, contrary to the whole tenor of scripture." (4) Receive her also into the Church on the same condition as No.2. My opinion coincides with the general practise of our mission.
Rev. A. G. Jones (Eng. Baptist), Choup'ing, says, that their mis- sion baptizes polygamists; but meets very little of it and has had only a few cases. The converts may "retain their 'ch'ieh' (concu- bines), and must support their children, but cau not take or hold office in the Church outside of their own congregation."
D. B. McOartee, M. D. (N. Presbyterian, of Tokyo,Japan, but for- merly of Ning-po, China), narrates an experience with such a man, in China, some forty years ago. While stationed at Ning-po, he made the acquaintance in a shop, of a Chinese gentleman, of the name of Kun. In a subsequent interview at the doctor's house, he gave him a Bible and some tracts. Ten years later they met again. Mr. Kun had become an applicant for baptism. Dr. NcCartee says: We found on conversing with him that he had carefully studied both the Old and New Testaments, and showed such evidence of acquaintance with the plan of salvation and of his having taken Christ as his Savior, and of his endeavor to do whatsoever He had commanded, that after a suitable length of time, the session of the Yu·yao Church (some forty miles from Ning-po) wisht that he might 'be received into their church by baptism. But we then for the first time learned that some years before having reacht the age of forty-five or thereabouts, and his wife not having born him a child, he had taken to himself a second wife (or concubine). . • . Mr. Kun's concubine had borne him a son, and Mr. Kun had no idea that he had done anything contrary to the rules and requirements of the Christian religion, but supposed that he was following the example of Abraham, the father of the faithful and of other Old Testament saints. The mission was for some time uncertain as to the proper course to be followed. My own view was that Mr. Kun had acted in good faith according to the laws and customs of his own country, and with no intention or consciousness of disobeying any of the commands of Christ. He could not legally put away his wilt! without cause and to make him put away his second wife, for no fault of her own, would not only be inflicting a penalty upon her which she had not merited, but would separate a mother from her own child, which would be cruelty. The matter was finally settled in that way. The church were advised that altho anyone who had been admitted into church fellowship, if he afterwards took another wife (or a concubine) while his first wife was still living, should be cut off from communion, two wrongs would not make one right, and that Mr. Kun should not be required to send away his second wife. And 80 the church acted and admitted him to baptism.
Rev. H. H. Lowry (Methodist North) Peking, doubts whether any rule can be laid down to cover all cases. Each case should be settled on its merits. Should not hesitate to receive such a man if otherwise perfectly satisfied with his sincerity. If one wife can be put away and supported without hardship to herself, he should insist on it. But nearly always it is the second wife who has the children, and is probably the favored one. In that case he sees no reason why the other could not be comfortably provided for by the husband. Of course, such a man should never be given office in the Church; and thinks the man must support both wives and the children. WouId receive the female applicant in such relations. It is a relation into which she entered without her consent, or perhaps any thought of wrong. Speaking of the actions of "Synods or Oouncils, etc., in the home land," he says, "They simply can not appreciate the situation. It is easy to formulate a very clear theoretical course of action, but in practise we find difficulties that they can not understand at home."
Rev. J. (J. Gibson (Eng. Presbyterian), Swatow.
The practise in our mission, • . . both here and in Amoy is to refuse baptism to men who have more wives than one. We have kept them in the posi. tion of unbaptized worshipers. . • . As to the wives in such cases, I do not remember that the matter of their being baptized or not has ever come before us. My impression is that if it did, we should receive them if otherwise suitable. • . • Oases of this kind have not been numerous with us. The people among whom we work are for the most part a poor farming class, and in the cities our membership is comparatively limited. Among the agricultural and small trader class the practise of polygamy is rare. . . • If the cases were more frequent, I think we should all feel it to be necessary to give the matter more thorough con· sideration than we have done, very probably with the result of a change in our practise. • . . I think we [in this mission] all occupy much the same position of provisional assent to the present practise, with a feeling that it may require reconsideration.
Of course, it is to be assumed, that the taking of a second wife by a church member would be treated as matter for discipline. . . . Should he be required to put away all but one wife? • . . (1) As Ohristian teachers we can not admit that the man has a right to dispose of the women without their own con· sent, and in cases where they did not consent, what could be done? I am quite clear that the man is bound to provide for these women for life. If he is to put them away he must do either of two things; (a) He may give them a separate establishment, and provide for their maintenance, while remaining himself quite apart from them. In this case they would remain under his control, and however good his intentions might be, no one who knows the Ohinese would think that to be a safe permanent arrangement. • • . Or (b) he may arrange marriages for all but one of his wives. . . • Here there are many difficulties. As a Chris· tian must he not seek Ohristian husbands for the wives whom he is marrying out? On the other hand, would we feel free to recommend these women as wives to Ohristian men who are not yet trammeled? Would they not do much better to take for their wives women who have not gone through any such painful experi· ence? Also will it be possible for him in all cases to find suitable husbands for these women? . . • Again, he has put himself into a very close relation, rightly or wrongly, to these women; has he a right, as himself a saved man, to put them once for all beyond his own influence and give up all opportunity of leading them to the Savior? . . • I can not think that it is in the spirit of the Gospel to outca3t in this way these women, who by no fault of their own, prob· ably without their consent having been askt, have been put by this man in the days of his ignorance into this falae position.
Now as to which wife he is to choose [in case he puts away all but one]. . • . He has absolutely no right to put away his first and legal wife. • • . To my mind the putting her away, with no fault alleged against her, would far more disqualify him from receiving Christian baptism than would the possession of two or more wives. . . • But may he retain her, and put away the others? If the other wives have no children, if they are willing to go, and if he finds a suitable Christian marriage for them which is acceptable to them, then I think he may put them away. But is it likely that these conditions could be carried out? I think not. From what I have said it seems clear that it is not open to him simply to divorce any of his wives. To do so would be adding sin to sin, and the lin is the more grievous that he is now a Christian man.
The existence of children still further complicates the situation. Whether they are the children of the first wife or of the others, he is their father, and their claim on him. not merely for support, but for a Christian training, is not affected by the sinfulness of his relation to his secondary wives. In many cases the chilo dren are likely to be the children of the secondary wife or wives, because the reason for taking a second wife very often is that there are no children by the first. For this reason the retaining of the first wife and the putting away of all the others will raise at once the very difficult question of the rights of the chilo dren. Are they to follow the father? Then they will be separated from their own mother. Are they to follow the mother? Then they will be separated from their own father, and moreover the father is by supposition a Christian, while the mother may not be. On the other hand, where ODe man has several wives, the mother of each child has a stronger claim to the possession of it than the father, who by taking several wives, has made a Christian home and the con. cllDtrated exercise of parentiallove impossible. In short, when there are children, there is no possible extrication of the situation by the rough and ready method of putting away.
Whatever the solution to be adopted may be, it seems to me that we are shut up to contemplate as unavoidable the continuance of the old relationship. It was. a wrong relationship at first, and the man sinned in entering upon it ; it is a wrong relationship still, its moral character being unaltered by the lapse of time. But the wrong done is in its nature permanent in its results. It is not a wrong which can be righted by an act of repentance and reformation. To change the status now would only be a fresh act of sin. The penitence must be that of the heart, but the wrong done can not now be put right.
If this be so, what attitude is the Church to assume? Is a man in this posi· tion to be baptized or not? . . . If a case came before us in which the Chris· tian character of the man was very plainly that of a renewed man, . . . I think I should feel inclined to admit them to baptism. But there are reasons of weight for refusing baptism. The church is in its formative stage; . . . their admission may tend to lower the tone of spiritual morality which we wish to keep as high as possible. You may fairly say to such a man that by refusing baptism you do not imperil his salvation, and that for the sake of warning, and for the common good of the whole Church you feel bonnd to keep him at the door. After a time, when the Church has made some growth and its moral tone is better establisht, it might become sa.fer to risk the a.dmission of such men. But at an early stage one such man might by his infiuence do a world of harm to the spiritual tone of the Church. . . .
On the other hand, it seems to be very much in the spirit of the Gospel, and ~n a~ord!nC(l witl!- apostolic practise, to ~mit iAto tbe Cburch verr imperfect elements, trusting to the working of the spiritual life present in it to eliminate the elements of evil. So slavery was dealt with. There must have been not a few slave-owners in the early Church. And one can not help feeling, that 1 Tim. 8: 2 distinctly hints that there were in the early Church some that had more wives than one. If a man is kept out of the outward church because of his having more than one wife, many dangers may arise in his family life. He worships under a stigma that lowers his self-l'el!pect. His wives and children may very likely feel it so much as to be deterred thereby from coming to worship at all. If, on the other hand, his wives and children should follow him in making a Christian profession, and are baptized while he is not, the man will feel that an injustice is done him by which his rightful influence as a Christian man over his own household is greatly weakened, just at the time when he has begun to desire to use it for good.
The one condition that I would impose would be the one suggested by 1 Tim. 8:2, that he should not be appointed to hold any office in the Church. I would explain the principles acted upon to the man himself, to his family, and to the congregation, protest against the wrong done, so that the Church's attitude may be unmistakable, and then in the exercise of the charity which believeth all things I would baptize him.
Rev. J. R. Goddard (Am. Baptist), Ning-po, believes that when such a man applies for admission, if he gives good evidence of conversion, he should be received. If he can put away all but the first wife without injustice, should be encouraged to do so. But having married them legally, while a heathen, it would be doi1ig a wrong and injustice to put them away against their consent, or without making adequate provision for their needs. If they have children it would bring a stain against their legitimacy. He would, therefore, fully explain to such a man, and also to the native church, the Bible doctrine of marriage, and as the lesser of two evils, would receive him to church membership with his plural wives.
Rev. J. Wherry (Am. Presbyterian), Peking, says neither the Presbytery of Peking nor Synod of China have a rule on the subject. He knows of three cases: In one case the man put away one of the women and subsequently was elected an elder; the other two were admitted, keeping their wives.
(1.) Inclined to think he would admit a man who had taken two wives in days of ignorance, if truly regenerate.
(2.) The only condition he would require in admitting is that the man satisfy his Conscience in retaining or putting away one of the wives. Still, if young, and second wife had no children, and could be restored to her father's household, or put in some safe retreat, might advise to put away if it could be done with her consent and quietly.
(3.) If he wishes to put away and can peaceably, should as a rule retai.n the first wife. If the second wife only has children, and the first wife ill willing and has a suitable home to go to, it might be wise for her to separate from her hus- … band. Wives Bent away should be supported or divorced only with their own consent freely given. "Whether the first wife should, even with her own consent, be absolutely divorced would, in my opinion, depend to a certain extent on the nature of the marriage contract and the circumstances connected with it, and the laws of the country under which the m.an lives." The divorced woman, if she 80 desires, should retain the children. He believes in admitting a female candidate in such relations. He believes that a weighty principle bearing ilpon this question is, "The right of every true believer in Christ to baptism."
Rev. J. L. Stuart (S. Presbyterian), Hangchow:- I would say that if he recognizes the sin and would like to restore what he has taken unlawfully, but can not do 8Owithout injury to others,let him be baptized.
Let him understand, however, that he should make all amends that are possible: 6. g. living apart if the woman be willing. Invariably the first wife should be retained as the only legal wife. • He should see that they are supported, or that they or their families can support them. She may marry another man. The children always belong to the father. The female applicant, if a concubine, may be baptized when the man, who is practically owner and master, refuses to give her up. I put her in the same category with minors, ser.
vants, slaves, apprentices, etc.; persons who are bound to others and can not act freely. Always try to change the relation when it is not in accord with the prin.
ciples of the Bible, but when this can not be done without violating some other Bible principle, let it stand, and treat the person bound by it as not a free agent and not morally responsible in that particular respect. Receive him on condition that when he becomes free he or she will use his or her freedom and conform to the law of God. The Gospel teaches men to do right, but not right in one direc- tion at the expense of right in another direction.
Rev. R. Lechler (Basel Mission), Hongkong, sends a copy of their church rules in Chinese. Commenting upon these, he remarks: He should not be required to put away all his wives but one unless he sees his way plain that no injustice nor injury be done to the innocent. • The first wife must be retained in China, otherwise his social standing would be ruined.
Of the second wives, he can retain those who have bome children; mere concu~ bines should not come into consideration. . The wives sent away must be supported by the former husband if they can not find a new husband. The children, at least all boys, go to the father by Chinese right. I had a case in Hongkong where the second wife of a heathen husband was converted.
The husband did not wish to part with her, but allowed her free exercise of the Christian religion. So I baptized the woman and had no occasion to regret it.
Dr. Ashmore. in the Ohinese Recorder of 1883, related an incident which was as follows: "An applicant had two wives, and was told that he must put one away.
Which one? The one last married. But the first wife had no children, while the second had several. Was the mother to be separated from her children? The discarded wife said to the missionary, 'Teacher, he is my husband; I am his wife. You say that he ought not to have taken me, but he did take me before he knew your new religion. He is the father of my children. I have a right to look to him for companionship and for protection. You make my children illegiti.
mate. You should not do that. You have no right to injure my children that way. You have no right to put me in the position of a disreputable woman, for he lawfully married me according to the usage of China. I had a husband; now I have no husband. I had a home; now I have no home. If I go and marry another man I shall break the law. I had one to whom I could go as the father of my children; now I can go to my children'S father no longer, nor may I dare to speak to him.' " When a man marries a second wife after he became a church member the course of a miSSionary is plain. But when Christianity finds a man living according to the custom of the country and the sanction of its laws with two or more wives, can not he be accepted under protest rather than do irremediable injustice and injury to the innocent?
Rev. James Oarson (Irish Presbyterian), Moukden:- This question came up and was discusst and settled by us as a Presbytery [Manchuria] a few years ago. We decided that the fact of a Chinaman having two wins should not be a bar to his receiving baptism; moreover, that he should not be required to repudiate or put away either, but at the same time that he should not be eligible for any office in the church. Of course it is not permitted under any circumstances for a man, once he becomes a member, to take to himself a secondary wife or concubine. It was my painful duty last year to excommunicate a man for this grave offense against the law of the church. He persisted in contracting the second marriage, altho he knew that he was infringing the said law and knew the consequences that it would entail. The members at the station (Fa Kuh Men) entirely approved of my action. . . . I remember we felt, when the question was under discussion, that a great wrong would be done to the unoffending wife if she were to be divorced from her husband, inasmuch as the marriage was contracted during the days of his ignorance. What would become of the divorced wife? What would be her status in native society, and how would the outside heathen world regard the action of the Christian church in thus separating husband and wife? By tolerating the evil under the above limitations we believe we are acting in the spirit of the Gospel, that the relationship may be sanctified and the whole household saved.
Rev. John Macintyre (United Presbyterian Church of Scotland), New-chwang:- We did not make a clean start. There were no women in those days to tell us who was who in the family, and some were baptized who would not have been if we had known all. . Thus I have been gradually educated into the belief that after all it is better in China to baptize as we now do, with the proviso that no fresh relationships be entered into, and that none compromised by the question of concubinage should ever, under any circumstances, hold office in the church. I have a friend in Sonth Africa who has had rare success among the .
Kaffirs. He has one rule: "Break up the pack; scatter the conCUbines." His story is a thrilling one. But I could not follow him. A glance into the story of Hagar is enough for me. I would leave them aU out of the church together or accept them together. . .
Rev. John Ross (United Presbyterian Church of Scotland), Moukden:- A few years ago the United Mission in Manchuria had the matter before them for final settlement. It was unanimously agreed that on account of the conditions of family life in China a man proved to be otherwise conducting himself as a believer should, could be baptized, tho he had a plurality of wives, but that he be not eligible for any office in the church; and that one of several wives be similarly admitted into the church. But that any member taking a second wife while his first was living would at once be put out of the church. This law has had to be enforced in the cases of three useful men who became inveigled into this forbidden relationship. We always consult our senior Christians in regard to every measure connected with church life, and the native eldership in the Presbytery were cordially at one with the Europeans there.
(To be Continued.)
CHRISTIANITY IN THE WES'!' INDIES
OHRISTIANITY IN THE WEST INDIES.
BY REV. DAVID W. BLAND, JAMAICA, W. I.
When we speak of the West Indies, we mean not only the numerous islands of the Oaribbean Sea, but also the colonies of Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. This, together with the diocese of British Honduras, is what constitutes the Ohurch of Eugland Ecclesiastical Province of the West Indies, of which the Bishop of Jamaica is now the Primate.
A study of the map will show this province to be one of vast extent, with a great variety of races and nationalities, and with different forms of government. Throughout the majority of the inhabitants are either of pure or of mixt African blood, freed from slavery a little more than sixty years ago, and speaking more than one European language -Dutch, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Danish, English. Everywhere the pure whites are, numerically, in the minority. There are, also, principally in Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana, large numbers of natives of India and of Ohina, brought hither, since the cessation of slavery, as immigrants indentured to labor on the sugar plantations. To these must further be added the tribes of aboriginal Indians living in the forests of the Guianas, far from these aboard and difficult of acceBB.
Prior to the abolition of slavery, whatever Ohristian work was done in these West Indies was, from the nature of circumstances, very meager. Missionaries labored under tremendous difficulties. The planters with, perhaps, here and there a noble exception, were bitterly opposed to any enlightenment of the negroes, and either absolutely forbade the preaching of the Gospel to them on the plantations, or else placed such restrictions on the missionary as made his work hard and even perilous. And yet his work, hindered as it was, was not fruitless. Many an enslaved one, amid the cruel surroundings of those dark days, found peace and true liberty in the name of Jesus.
In 1834 freedom came in the British colonies, and with it a new era dawned, opening out great opportunities for Ohristian work, which the various Ohristian bodies have not neglected. Everywhere now they are faithfully and earnestly laboring to win these islands for Ohrist.
It is impossible to attempt, here, anything like an adequate account of what is being done in every island and on the mainland. A glance over the field, selecting such portions as may be considered centers of organization and work, must suffice. Everywhere the problems and difficulties, the conditions of life and work, are very similar.
Beginning on the mainland, omitting French Guiana, we find in Dutch Guiana, or Surinam, the Moravians doing an exemplary missionary work. Their labors there, particularly among the bush negroes, have been heroic and full of much worthy, without a doubt, of a place in miracles of missions. It is a matter of deep regret to hear of the financial difficulties threatening to hinder the progress of these zealous brethren here and in other fields, and all friends of missions will be anxious to see them removed. Next in order comes the colony of British Guiana with its three divisions of Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo,-a magnificent country of immense resources and full of promise of a bright future. Here Christian activities abound. Among the Portuguese, who form a large section of the po,{>ulation, the Roman Church h88 a considerable mission under the JesUlt Fathers, aided by a body of nuns doing chiefly educational work; and among the general population the Anglican Church~ the Wesleyans, Moravians, and Presbyterians are energetically laboring. The Anglican Church, besides her regular parochial work in towns and villages, has also missions among the aboriginal Indians in the depths of the primeval forests extending to the frontiers of Brazil, among the Ohinese iu Georgetown and on the river settlements, and among the East Indians, or coolies, 88 they are called, scattered through the sugar plantations. This last work, for a lon~ time neglected, is of deep interest, and. by every branch of the Ohurch IS now being recognized as extremely important in its bearings on the evan~elization of India and Ohina. Very many of these people, after theIr terms of indenture are expired, return to the East, and among them often are Ohristian converts bearing the precious seed of Divine Truth, which they have learned in these lands, back to their old heathen homes. There their lives and testimony, as recorded instances witness, are a powerful influence in aiding the spread of Christianity. In Trinidad, the island nearest the mainland, are also considerable numbers of these eastern immigrants, and here, perhaps, the best work done for them in the West Indies is to be seen, the Presbyterians of England taking the foremost place. The bulk of the popUlation are of French and Spanish descent, and are adherents of the Roman Ohurch; but there is good Protestant work being done by the Church of England and other bodies.
The other West Indian islands, with the exception of Puerto Rico, Haiti, Ouba, and Jamaica, fall under two great divisions, formed by numerous small islands and termed the Windward and the Leeward ·Groups. Of the former, Barbados, and of the latter, Antigua, is each the center of considerable Ohristian enterprise. The Spanish island of Puerto Rico may be said to be entirely under Roman influence, altho I believe there is some effort being made from Antigua by the Anglican Ohurch to meet the needs of the small English-speakmg community.
Eastward of Puerto Rico lies the great island of Hispaniola, divided into the two black republics of Santo Domingo and Haiti, the former Spanish, and the latter French-speaking. Romanism is in both repub- lics the prevailing form of Christianity, but in neither has it done much to raise the people morally or intellectually. The degradation of Haiti is very great, the most barbarous practises, even sometimes cannibalism, being said to be prevalent. The Protestant Episcopal Ohurch of America has a mission here under the care of a resident bishop of African descent; and there are also missions of the Wesley- ans and of the Baptists. Passing by Cuba, where, so long as the revolution continues, all efforts of evangelization must be at a standstill, we reach Jamaica, the most beautiful, most prosperous, and most advanced island in the whole archipelago, and the scene of extensive Ohristian labors. There is scarcely a Christian denomination of any importance that has not its representatives in Jamaica; but the largest and most influential are the Baptists, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and the Anglican Church. Everywhere the churches, chapels, mission-stations, and schools of these bodies are to be found; and, from Kingston as a base, Ohristian Endeavor Societies and the Anglican St. Andrew's Oross are spreading their operations. In almost all the towns Young Men's Ohristian Associations are organized..
A noteworthy feature of Ohristian work here is that the whole of the elementary education of the people is lookt after by the churches under a system of government grants, by which, under certain condi- tions, the building and repairing of schoolrooms is assisted, and the Rayment of teachers, graduated by results at inspection, assured. These annual grants amount to about $300,000. This denominational system of education is, however, very unsatisfactory, and is fruitful cause of much lamentable friction between the different Ohristian bodies. There is a fast spreading feeling that the time is come for it to be replaced by a national system.
From this survey of the field, cursory as it has been, it will be gathered that thero are considerable Ohristian forces at work in these West Indies; that there is a variety and mixture of races producing peculiar problems and difficulties; and that the bulk of those among whom the churches labor are the descendants of quondam African slaves. We have now to meet important questions :-what, with all this vast machinery, have been the results? Are the people being elevated morally and intellectually in a manner proportionate to the outJay? Is the Christianity seen in the lives of those to whom the Gospel is being unceasingly and faithfully preacht, and on whose education such large expenditure is made, of a satisfactory type? TakingJamaica as typical of the whole province, we are forced to answer in the nega- tive. There is, undoubtedly, much for which we have to thank God; there are many lives that are consistent, pure, and exemplary, of whom, indeed, it may be said that their conversation is in heaven; but, looking at the mass of our people, results are very disappointing, and there is a wide-spread anxiety concerning the future in the minds of all who desire to see something better than a mere superficial Christianity.
One great evil which Ohristianity has to combat here is the sin of sexual immorality, the fearful prevalence of which is seen in the distressing fact that, for years, official returns of the registration department have given over 60 per cent. of our population as of illegitimate birth. Nor do I think that any other of these Islands can show anything better than this.
Another distressing evil is the presence of gross superstitions, particularly of the dreadful obi, brought from Africa in the old slavedays. The Ohristian teaching of so long years has not yet eradicated this; it still lingers, and is a gigantic hindrance to the growth of a pure Ohristianity.
In an article which appeared a few months ago in one of our leading journals, attention was drawn to these two evils, and, from their presence and that of other things complained of, the conclusion was drawn that the churches in the island are" a failure." This conclusion was extremely unjust, as it omitted to fairly consider the difficulties around the churches in their struggle against these things. With regard to sexual immorality, some kind of legislation is sadly needed to assist the churches' efforts. More than one attempt has been made to obtain this; the evils threatening the whole community from this vice have been pointed out with no uncertain voice, but all without success. This year a letter on this subject, and others of a pressing
THE WAR AND THE GOSPEL IN CUBA
nature, was jointly prepared by nearly all the Protestant bodies, read simultaneously from our pulpits, and distributed among the people. It pointed out the degrading tendencies of this sin, and advised, among otlier things, the building of larger and better homes, in which decency and modesty would be inculcated in the minds of children from their earliest years. It is a sad fact that very many of the homes in which our children are born and bred are so wretched, so saturated with moral corruption, that the wonder is, not that so many fall away from virtue, but that any are able to resist the temptations to immoral lives. And with regard to the superstitions, it must not be forgotten that it takes a long time to completely remove the old ancestral beliefs from the minds of any people. I firmly believe, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, that their hold on our West Indian people is gradually weakening, and that, in the course of time, as the dark ignorance which in many regions yet prevails is removed by education, they will event- ually entirely disappear. But, disappointed as many of us may be, yet we are not discour- aged. In confidence that the long-wished-for results are only tarrying, we still go on preparing the way of the Lord, believing in the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to regenerate all men, waiting for that outpouring of the spirit which, some day, is sure to come, and looking for a time when righteousness and purity will be the character of our people. That happy time may be far in the future; generations, perhaps, will pass away before it comes; meanwhile the Church works on in faith, and prayer, and hope.
THE WAR AND THE GOSPEL IN CUBA. * BY REV. ALBERTO .T. DIAZ, HAVANA, CUBA.
The Roman Catholic Church is largely a political church and in Cuba all politics are settled by the Catholics. When I first returned to Cuba as a citizen of the United States, and began to try to establish an independent church, many Cubans, who were hungering and thirsting for liberty, came to join the church, thinking that by being baptized they would become free American citizens. I explained that this was not so, and the result is that only twenty-seven hundred have been baptized, but they thoroughly understand regeneration.
There are now seventeen hundred members in my little church, and they are spreading their influence all over that island. They visit a certain number of homes in Havana every week, and do missionary work among them. This is the secret of so large a church. Our place of worship was intended for a theater, but has been converted into a church. It seats 3,000, and there is room for 3,000 more seats. We can have no sign outside of the church, as it is against the law. We can not tell openly that we have a church even; it is against the law. So you see all the missionary work is done quietly by the members. I would be put in jail for telling people where the church was located.
I have been in jail six times just for preaching the Gospel, but I am ready to go twenty times more for the same reason. I must tell my people all about the Lord Jesus, as it is in the Bible. I have been • Abridged from an address in the Calvary Baptist Church, Dec. 20, 1896. doing it for years and am not tired yet. At one time the Roman Oatholic Church wanted to make Columbus a saint and canonized him. I went to my church and said: "I know history; I know Columbus discovered Cuba and America, but ought that to make him a saint?" The result was I was taken to jail for preaching against a saint. I was eventually let go because Oolumbus had not yet been canonized.
It is sometimes hard to get a man or woman to accept Jesus Christ as He is represented in the Bible. My father was a doctor. I askt him to read the Bible, but he refused, saying it was an old book; he wanted something newer and more scientific. I took it to the Lord in prayer with my little sister, a child of ten, who finally said: "Why do you worry so about father? I will get him to read the Bible." Sunday came and she found father and said: "Father, will you read just these two or three verses to me? I am in such a hurry and want to know them by heart." He read them, but she kept asking him to repeat them until she knew them thoroughly. She went to school, and returning said to me: "Father has read the Bible, and if you will tell me what verses to get him to read I will have him read them." I markt some, and that night she said again to father: "Father, I am so tired, and I always read my Bible before going to bed. Won't you read it to me to-night? " And so every night he would read to her. One night about 4 o'clock I saw a light in my sister's room, and thinking the child was sick went to see her. The child was sleeping and my father was reading the Bible. I rusht in and kissed him and we knelt down together and he gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Ohrist, and the next time we went to church he was baptized.
We have to be very particular about those we admit to membership, but when they are converted they quit dancing and other harmful habits and never go back to them; if they did, they would be excluded from the church, but we are glad to say that we never have to exclude any. We have persecutions, but we do not mind them, because every time our church is persecuted the membership increases and the old members are more fully consecrated to the Lord; so every time we pray, we say: "Lord, send us persecutions that we may be more faithful disciples of the Master."
The war was not unexpected. When it commenced nearly a thousand members of my church called for a meeting. They said: "You have been preaching to us about our liberty and freedom in Ohrist Jesus and these men are fighting for civil liberty and we, who have been so persecuted, feel we must fight for religious liberty." They are all in one regiment fighting for religious freedom. Ieould take no part in the war myself, so I organized a society, not only for the relief of our men, but for the sick and the wounded, the Spanish as well as the Oubans.
The war has been expected for seventeen years. Ouba has a population of one and a half millions, and Spain taxes them $29,000,000 every year. They tax everything. A doctor has to pay ten or fifteen thousand dollars to complete his education. Nor is that all. After he completes his education he has to pay $300 every year for the privilege of practising. If he has a horse, a tax of $25 is imposed, if a carriage, $50. If he puts a sign outside his door he is taxed 10 cents for each letter that is an inch long, and if the letters are two or three inches long, the tax is from 50 cents to $1.00 each letter. The taxation averages $25 a head for every man, woman, and child. I have from twenty-five to thirty pages of manuscript in my possession, proving the shooting of women and of children from six months to two years of age. I am well posted as to the horrible crimes that the Spaniards are committing every day, and that is why they put me out of the island. I knew too much and talkt too much. We are fond of the United States and would like to deal with her, but if we want to buy a barrel of flour from you, Spain has so arranged it down in Cuba, that it would cost us *24. Spain secures her flour from here and sends it from Europe to Cuba, making us pay *15 a barrel. We 'are allowed to have no trade of our own. A few years ago, if we sent our children to be educated in the United States, the father of that child could hold no official position, for his terrible crime. We have been praying and working to be free in Cuba, as you are in the United States, and we know that God will hear our prayer and will protect and help us as he helpt you. We are alone; we have no Lafayette. We have rung our Liberty Bell, but none has heard, and oh I how we pray they will hear and come to our help. I have been banisht. At four o'clock one morning policemen came to arrest me and my brother. They spent seven hours reading my papers and sermons and everything I had and then wanted to take us to jail. I said: "I have been sitting here very patiently, have not opened my mouth, but I want some breakfast first." The Spanish people are the slowest people you ever met. If you make a business appointment with them they will meet you and say" To-morrow." For instance, I have *20,000 in my hand, the first payment on our church in Cuba, and have been waiting a year to pay it. The man always says" I will sign the paper to-morrow." While we were eating, my brother entertained the policemen; they were our guests, and I wrote a telegram and slipt it under my plate without attracting their notice. My wife took it and sent it, and I was saved by that telegram. For eight days we were kept in jail, unable to read, write, or talk to anybody. After eight days they brought us to trial. I was an American citizen and refused to answer their questions. My brother answered their questions and laughed about it. We were taken back and had the sentence of death read to us, but to this I protested, saying I wanted to hear nothing about it. I knew I was to be executed the next day; I knew everything was ready. A soldier stayed by my bed all the time, every two hours a new one coming. I knelt down and prayed: "Lord, send me an angel and save me if you will." In the middle of the night the angel came. It was one of my church mem- bers who was sent in to keep watch. He askt me what he could do for me. I wrote several telegrams and letters, and he sent them for me. The telegrams were sent to the United States. The next day the jail door was opened.. My brother and I said farewell, and sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again," with tears. It was natural; we were to leave wives and children, but instead of execution we were free. It is always my custom on leaving the jail to go to my church andJ finish the sermon I have been preaching, so this time I went. My people were all very much surprised. The papers had announced that we were to be executed that day, but I said to my people: "Don't be afraid; the same Lord Jesus Christ who opened the jail for Paul and Silas and Peter is the same Lord Jesus who opened the jail for us," and we had a revival lasting until half past one in the morning.
We went home, and the next day two policemen came with an
THE WANING INTEREST IN FORMGN MISSIONS
order from Gen. Weyler that my brother and I and my family should leave Ouba immediately, at SIX o'clock, the time the next steamer left. I said that was too quick. Nevertheless, I signed the paper and commenced to dress. I wanted two or three days to put the work into the hands of the mission board. We had a church, a school, and a cemetery in which were buried 17,000 Catholics, and which brought us five or six thousand dollars a year for the work. I went out and no one knew where I was. I stayed until half past six, after the steamer had sailed, and then came back. I arranged about the property and came here as an exile, but I have been treated better here than in Cubs. Pray for Cuba, and pray for the women who carryon the work of the church, and pray for your humble servant.
THE WANING INTEREST IN FOREIGN MISSIONS.* BY REV. RICHARD S. STORRS, D.D., BROOKLYN, N. Y.
It would be superfluous to argue for the blessing which comes with foreign missions; for everything which we have as individuals, in the way of character or culture, or of prosperity and happiness, by which we are differentiated from our savage ancestors in the woods and on the seas, has come to us from foreign missions, from the messages of the Gospel carried from Rome to the British Isles, from the subsequent messages sent under Augustine and his monks at the end of the sixth century, to the crude and fighting English people. Every happy home in which there is a Christian influence rests upon foreign missions. Every school in which instruction is truly and effectively given, every seminary of learning of whatever rank, every great university, the great libraries, all these, with all pleasant, happy, social customs, all just laws, prosperity, commerce, industry, power III the world-have come as the effect of foreign missions reaching our ancestors, and building them to a nobler and lovelier manhood than they otherwise could have attained. Every asylum of charity, every institute of beneficence rests upon foreign missions. It IS not the Anglo-Saxon spirit, as we sometimes say, it is not the confluence of life at this center from all peoples of the earth, which constitutes the basis for these great educational, charitable, beneficent institutions and influences. They come from foreign missions. And if we are ever blind to the value and glory of foreign missions it will be the worst example of civic ingratitude in the history of the world. Our just and humane legislation, our courts of justice, our republican institutions, our literatures, so far as they are enlightened and purified and purifying in effect, our hopes for the future, as well as our present prosperity and tranquillity, likewise come from foreign missions. These have been the builder by whom has been erected the entire personal, public, civic, and national development in which we rejoice to-day. And so it is natural that there should be an interest in foreign missions throughout the country-an interest in them not merely, tho primarily and supremely, because they reach individual souls and lead them toward the celestial and • An address delivered at the Interdenominational Rally for Foreign Missions held In Carnegie Hall, New York, on Friday evening, January 15, 1897. Reprinted with some abbreViations from the New York Independent. immortal life ; that would be an impulse to preach in the next village to preach in any neighborhood. Souls are there needing the Gospei as precious as the souls at Benares or Bombay, in Japan or China, or anywhere else.
Now there seems to be a diminution of the intense enthusiasm for foreign missions, which has been a characteristic and a glory in our national thought and life; and it comes, you observe, at the very point where we should expect just the opposite. Our means for promoting foreign missions were never so great as to-day. There have been added to our churches millions of profest Christian converts within the last twenty or thirty years. Wealth was never so abounding as now, in spite of the occasional alternating reverses in commercial affairs. In five years, before 1896, there were produced in America alone, beating all the rest of the world out of sight, nearly one hundred and ninety millions of gold, more than three hundred and seventy millions of silver; the products of manufactures have been immense beyond computation; the harvests of immeasurable abundance and bounty; the commerce of the country has been drawing to it the tribute of the seas from every ocean and every shore, wealth never so great as at this present time, and these millions of Ohristian disciples have their reasonable share of it and of its increase; and it might be expected that they would give more freely than ever before to this sublime' work which God has put partly into their hands. And then the missions themselves have never been so prosperous as they were three or five years ago, until these reductions began to cripple and almost imperil them. And these terrific outrages in the Ottoman Empire, at which we shudder and before which our blood stands still, are only the signs of the power which the Ottoman Government finds in foreign missions-the power to educate, the power to elevate; and ther come from the fear that by the onward working of these foreign mIssions, the Empire itself, the Mohammedan Government, will be overwhelmed or displaced. Missions were never so prosperous as recently; conversions never so frequent; the aggregate of church members in the missions never so great; the instruments for furthering missions within their own bounds-churches, schools, presses, individual labors, never so numerous and powerful as now. Everything has been looking apparently toward greater success soon to come; and yet at this precise point comes in this strange diminution of enthusiasm in our own land and churches for this sublime enterprise of God on the earth.
The question is one that faces us directly and must be answered. To what is this diminution of enthusiasm owing? Well, no doubt, it is owing primarily to the increasingly secularized temper of the Ohurch itself, which does not grasp spiritual things with the old vividness and vigor, which is more imprest by the temporal things which are beautiful and suburb to the sense, but which are transient and passing away. Unquestionably there is such a decline in the spiritual energy and intuition of the Church in this land as in others, and so comes diminution in the revenue of our treasury, a diminution not peculiar to one organization nor perhaps in the same measure to all, but as a general fact, common to all Ohristian denominations. And, for this lowering of the standard of Christian thought and Ohristian impulse and energy there are obvious causes; the increase of wealth in the community is one, and the eagerness for wealth and the power rapidly to acquire it, never equaled before in the history of the world. Then life is more fascinating, more entrancing with the younger and with those in middle age than it used to be. The machinery of life is more complex and intricate, and requires more expenditure of mental and moral force upon it to make it work, than it did in the earlier and simpler day in which we were, most of us, trained. Literature is more fascinating than ever before. 'fhe secular news of all the world comes upon us every day and almost every hour. And the result is that this great, solid, splendid earth pulls us to itself, holds us on the lower levels of aspiration and purpose and from the thought of God and his truth. The Church becomes ornate and sumptuous, but wanting in aggres- sive vigor. It walks in embroidered slippers and not iron-shod. It goes to what it calls its combat, in Sunday-morning dressing-gown and not in mail, and corselet, and battle mantle. It becomes very much like the petrified wood, agate, beautiful to look at, but all the pores of the living wood have been filled with substances foreign to itself, so that you can not melt it nor burn it, it will bring forth no fruit, and it will not ignite, altho beautiful to look upon. Sometimes that seems to me a fair image of the Church in our time, with all its splendor, with all its consciousness of power, but without the power to kindle others or almost to be kindled within itself. So it is that there comes this diminution of enthusiasm for foreign missions; that the ~eat unseen and stupendous things hold us less vigorously and contmuously than do the transient things of the earth to which our earthly nature gravitates.
And then, of course, it is to be recognized that there come in, in this comparatively chilled and torpid state of the Christian mind and life, a multitude of things that have to be met, of calls that have to be answered and which more or less interfere, no doubt, with the former enthusiasm for foreign missions. This great work of home missions -its.treasuries suffer also, and yet to a mind that thinks of the great- ness of the interests involved, it might almost properly take the place for the time of the work of foreign missions. Here we have seventy millions of people on this continent planted on the apex of the earth and reaching with its commerce around the whole globe. The work continually grows on our hands. It is a work of patriotism as well as of Christianity. It is a work that becomes more complex and more costly as it reaches out further-to New Mexico and Alaska-as it reaches different races, colored people, Chinese, Japanese, the Hungarians and Bohemians, and Russian Jews, who pour in such immense numbers into our country. Foreign missions and home missions interlock among us as never before, and we work upon these masses of foreigners that we may affect those from whom they come, to whom they return, and on whom their influence in the interval is exerted.
And then city missions absorb an attention never before given to them, and they do it directly; for the city is the center of the nation and one of the centers of the earth; and one of these great American cities with its enormous heterogeneous population reaching out to touch all lands of the earth through its affiliations with them, is a field for missionary work never surpast, one might almost say never equaled in history. Then there come in all the other institutions- every college, every seminary of learning has a trumpet-shaped mouth, like the mouth of the trumpet in the temple, calling for and receiving gifts all the time, from mites up to millions. Every institute of char- Ity needs help for the sick, for the blind, for the deaf, for those who are in ignorance, and want, and poverty; and the very stones of the streets would cry out against us if we did not meet those demands upon us. So it is that there are multitudes of things which come in before the American Ohristian mind in this comparatively tepid and torpid state of which I have spoken, which distract and arrest its attention and which hinder it from taking hold with the old energy on this sublime work of foreign missions. The foreign missions seem to be in danger of being left to take care simply of what is left after everything else has been attended to; and instead of leading the march of all Ohristian benevolence in a Christian land like this, it seems to be remitted to the rear. Now this is sad; not altogether unnatural, as I have said: and the question for us is what can we do to arrest the tendency and to turn the current again to the nobler direction, in which it moved so steadily and strongly in the earlier times?
One thing we can do is to take our stand by the side of Christ himself when he said, "The field is the world." What a magnificent conception, when he said, "all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth!" How they must have paused to know what his direction then would be for the use of that power ? Would he sweep the Roman Empire from the earth ? Would he set back the tides of the Mediterranean and overwhelm Italy ? Would he chastise with his divine vengeance the barbarous and cruel nations and tribes? " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Never person trod the earth who could say that-say it truly, emphatically, without stirring fear in the minds of all who heard him. "All power is given unto me; • • • therefore, go make disciples of all nations." What an extraordinary sequence of precept to declaration I If there were no other point in the work of Christ to mark him divine, that would show the divinity in him, not of power merely, but of wisdom, and tenderness, and love; with God to stand beside him and enter into his conception of a world to be reacht by his truth, renewed, purified, uplifted, glorified, transfigured into the likeness of the heaven come down upon the earth. And until we do that we never can arrest this current from foreign missions toward other things of importance, but not taking their place in the supremacy of their nature and of their effect. And then we need to cherish in our own hearts, everyone of us, the enthusiasm which the early missionaries aud martyrs felt for the Gospel of Christ in its relation to individual souls as well as to communities; the enthusiasm which has been a great power in the Church, out of which came the revivals, now so infrequent and far from being spontaneous; that are now excited, if at all, only or chiefly by the impact of individual minds thoroughly concentrated on those they address. We need to have this euthusiasm in ourselves. It is only fire that kindles fire. It is only life that propagates life. It is only spiritual energy that stirs spiritual energy in other accessible and responsive souls. We need to be "prest in the spirit," as Paul was; or, if any prefer the later reading and rendering, "impelled by the Word," before he went to preach at Corinth; to have these fires burning in our hearts for the salvation of men, and their conversion unto Him who came from the heaven to the earth to uplift and redeem them. We need to feel for ourselves and to impress upon others that sublime part of the plan of God in human history which no man ever saw and graspt without being exalted and dilated in spirit by the vision of it. The plan of a campaign, the long preparation for the adVElnt, the coming and childhood, and work and death of the Divine Master; His glorious ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit-all parts of a plan that contemplates the absolute supremacy of the divine kingdom in the earth. That day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together-predicted, as we think, by the alliance of the lion and the eagle in our own time; that day when holiness shall be inscribed on the bells.of the horses; that day when righteousness and peace shall fill the whole earth-that is the aim and is to be the consummation of God's great plan for the world.
Sometimes there seem to be pauses in its progress; sometimes, perhaps, setbacks to its advance. But all the while, on broad, geueral scale it is moving onward to its climax and ultimate achievement. And when we see that, we know that the power of God is behind us and that we are keeping step with omnipotence when we are working in this sublime a,nd divine cause; and we need to feel and to make others feel what is the relation of this nation of ours, what part it has in this stnpendous work of God for the world. That is the only key to its history-the history of its early colonization by the English and the Dutch-Protestant people-the history of its early salvation from the Spanish and French domination and from the Roman Catholic power which at first seemed destined to overspread the land. That is the key to the successful prosecution of the long and wasting French and Indian war. That is the key to the Revolution, giving us a sepa- rate life, largely derived from and modified by English life, but under our own separate development in our own separate line of direction. That is the key to the providential men that came to us at that time and have come to us at every time when they were needed. That is the key to every event which has occurred in and since the overthrow of slavery in this country, in the tremendous crash of the Civil War.
Men talk of the logic of events. Here is the logic of events. They talk of the Nemesis. Here is the Nemesis in history. Everything which falls in with God's design in the earth is furthered and for- warded and leads on to other and nobler issues, and everything that stands against those plans goes down under their impact, either in silent decay, or in the swift and awful crash of ruin. That is the Nemesis of history. And God is all the while working forward through this and other nations of the earth, to bring about that which is already present to His supreme mind, already embraced in that vision which searches through the eternity. And then we are to remember that we are living in the dispensa- tion of the Spirit, and that this may be only the temporary interval before the coming of that period in which His power will be advanced for all of the Church. How wonderful it was that Christ put in that bar to the immediate advance of the Apostles; when the entire Gospel had been completed-everything from the advent to the ascension, when every precept was in its plac~ and every doctrine and every promise, and all the beauty of His example was before the minds and hearts of His disciples, and they had been commissioned to teach the Gospel, and they were eager to go forth on that great work, the further issues of which they themselves could hardly foresee, but whic~ they knew was to be a work for the glory of God in Christ and the welfare of mankind, and when they were eager for the service, almost like hounds straining against the leash, that they might enter it, comes that voice: "Tarry ye at Jerusalem "-at the city where the Lord had been hated and killed, at the city whose neighboring hill is already red with His blood, at the city where passions are fiercer because they have had this initial success. "Tarry ye in the city until ye be endued with power from on high." Ten days they waited, and then came Pen- tecost, and then they went forth with the power of the Spirit to proclaim the glad tidings of great joy to Scythian and barbarian, to Greek and Jew. Then Paul could say afterward, looking at Rome, center of power, adoring power, making its emperor a god because he had power: "I am not ashamed to preach the Gospel of Christ to you that are at Rome, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe." It is the only omnipotent force, the only power to which His almightiness is pledged. That came with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Now I have sometimes thought, looking on the depression of these times and the hindrances to missionary success, that God was saying to us in the same voice with which Christ spoke to the Apostles: "Tarry ye till the Spirit comes. Tarry ye and pray." And when that Spirit comes He will come suddenly, as He came at Pentecost, as came the angelic song, as the Lord's second coming will come-suddenly. But when He, the Spirit, comes ye will have power for the conquest of the earth. Let us remember that we are in the dispensation of the Spirit. Let us wait, and wait in prayer, for the coming of that divine energy which shall make the Gospel vital, energetic, divine, overwhelming to those who hear it, and shall carry it swiftly forward to the ends of the earth.
One thing more. Let us wait and work and pray in undaunted and exultant confidence, knowing that the end is to come. Christ did not die in vain. He shed his blood upon the earth, he dropt his tears upon the earth, that it might be in all its regions baptized unto God with water and with blood. He breathed his spirit into the air, that it might fill the atmosphere of the earth. He gave himself for the earth, and his disire for its salvation in himself is not less intense than wht'n he died for it, than when he rose over Olivet with his hands lifted in benediction as he went. God is not dead; his arm is not shortene'd. The swing of the universe to-night proves that. The Spirit is not dead. His power is shown in individual minds and hearts as lustrously as ever; and if we pray it will be shown in great com- JIlunities, in vast revivals, in turning the hearts of the children of men in every land unto the Lord Christ; and we are to walk and work, as well as wait and pray, in the knowledge, in the assurance, in the absolute certainty that the end is coming in the age of glory and of peace.
So let us not be discouraged by any temporary drawback or hindrances. Let us set ourselves to overcome the hindrances in our own hearts and in the hearts of others till the Ohurch glows with the heavenly light, till it is animated and nourisht by the heavenly temper, till the Ohurch on earth, quickened by Christ and illuminated by His truth, can at last take the world of mankind and present it before God as its tribute to him, who sent the Son, who loved the world, and who gave His Son unto the death for it, and who accepts it at last as the jewel in His infinite crown.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Missionary Economics j The Scribes in authors, and tho in most cases there were unnecessarily long prefaces con- Council. sidering the character of the men who were to listen to them, who were, or The returned missionaries of the va- ought to be, experts in the subjects rious missionary societies in the United treated; yet, once the discussion was States and Canada, have held thirteen entered upon, they all became concise, annual sessions, of a week each, for well-digested, instructive, and suggest. the purpose of discussing questions per- ive treatises. They were not intended taining to the foreign missions of the for the general public, yet it is our world, with most signal advantage to opinion that the great advance in intelthem and to the cause of evangelization ligence of the churches on missionary of the non-Christian world. In 1893 matters, not only justifies the presenta· the representatives of the several For- tion of such discussions to the public, eign Mission Boards of the United but calls for it. A very large number States and Canada met in council for a of the pamphlets containing the reports like purpose, and have assembled an- of the proceedings of this conference nually since. They have just concluded judiciously furnisht to the patrons of their Fifth Conference, in New York missions, would greatly augment concity, with a large number-some sixty- fidence in missionary administration, seven in all-officials in attendance, and enable the patrons of the societies with a dozen foreign missionaries add- to intelligently defend them against ed. January 12, the treasurers held a ,the criticisms freely current in many special conference, for comparison of quarters. The meeting itself marks methods of receiving and forwarding an advance. That these several repmoneys with safety, expedition, and resentatives have determined to sit in economy. During the next two days, such council annually, to find how to the following topics were presented in improve the methods of their adminpapers specially prepared for the con- istration will tend to increast confidence. ference. in each case a free discussion There is one danger to which their atfollowing: Self-support, Dr. Judson tention is already attracted, to wil- Smith; Uniform Statistical Blanks, Dr. there might be too great centralization Samuel W. Duncan; Gifts for Special of policy, if they undertake tofQrmulate Objects-Should they be encouraged? their general conclusions with a view to Dr. E. E. Strong; Form and Practical a binding effect on the several Boards. Use of Annual Reports, Rev. A. Wood- Legislation is beyond their province; ruff Halsey; The Economic Distribu- but they know it and are hence free tion of Missionary Force, Dr. S. L. frqm the criticism of attempting it. Baldwin; Furloughs, their frequency, The smaller societies are, however, in length, and profitable use to mission- some danger of being dominated by the aries and the work, Dr. W. W. Barr; consensus of opinion, and may miss, for Unmarried !Iissionaries, Dr. Ellinwood; themselves and for others, the great Ecumenical Missionary Conference in good of making new ventures, under 1900 in America, Dr. Judson Smith; new conditions. Where everything is The Student Volunteer Movement, Dr. so fraternal, however, as here, none Henry N. Cobb; Independent Missions, will welcome the results of new experi- Dr. A. B. Leonard; Chinese Indemni- ence more than the older of these repties, Dr. Ellinwood. It will be seen resentatives. There was a markt abfrom this that the conference is designed sence of the "we-know-it·all" spirit. to be of a most practical nature. The Everybody seemed 011 a school-form papers were worthy of their eminent eager to learn of anybody else. A very being so near the end of the century, it much larger representation of the lay- would be better to extend the time till men of the several Boards would be a 1900. The mission representatives in decided advantage to the meeting and Great Britain and on the Continent of to the general interests of missions. Europe had been generally heard from, and all responded with hearty approval The ladies of many of the Women's of the proposal to hold such a WorId's Boards met on January 15, and organ- Missionary Conference at the opening of ized a similar conference, to meet an- the twentieth century in the city of nually for like mutual benefit. As it New York, tho the precise date could was strictly pardaniBhin we cannot reo not be agreed upon with equal unanport what they did or said. Both these imity. The Churches of America will conferences will meet next year, the hail with great pleasure the holding of guests of the Methodist Episcopal such conference here. It ought to be Board, as they were this year the guests the subject of much devout thought. of the Presbyterian Board. It may well be askt what measures can be instituted to prepare for a great meet· The Conference has already reacht ing. Nothing short of a greater spiritu· practical unanimity on several ques- ality in the churches, with deeper con· tions, such as the following :-That one secration to the work of the world's mission should not receive into its memo redemption, will furnish the fitting en· bership those dismist on account of vironment for that great assembly. improper conduct from any other The world will then be full of wonder church; that native converts should be and exaltation at the material advance· discouraged from coming to Europe or ment of the present century, and the America for education; that natives of presentation of that class of themes the mission fields educated in America will divide the attention of the churches. should not be appointed on the same That need not be deprecated, but it will basis as regular missionaries ; that di- require a profound spiritual energy to rect preaching of the Gospel should concentrate attention on spiritual affairs. have precedence over all other forms of We ought to get ready to march into missionary effort; that they do not favor the twentieth century with the greatest the organization of a National Church spiritual force, intensity, and consecrain India; that the study of missions in tion. The holding of such a meeting theological seminaries should be pro- here should be accepted in the light of moted, and professorships and lectures a great trust, as well as in that of a on missions should be urged; that gifts great privilege. outside the regular appropriations should not be encouraged; within the For all this, a conference like that appropriations however, while some: whose proceedings we are reviewing, times open to objections, on the whole, must needs be one measure of prepara· would be welcomed; that all competi. tion. It will be well for all the Chris. tion for the services of native agents on tian agencies of the land to find how foreign fields between the agents of the they can, more and more, cooperate; several societies should be discouraged; and to this end they should cultivate that frequent visitations of official rep- a fuller acquaintance with each other·s resentatives of the Boards to the foreign methods and achievements. The whole fields is of imperative importance. forces of Christendom in this western continent ought to come up solidly The subject of most popular interest intelligel).t. as to their successes, their was the paper on the holding of an failures, and their needs. A special Ecumenical Missionary Conference. feature of the proceedings of the The London Conference in 1888 recom· Officers' Conference, which looks to the mended a decennial conference, which holding of simultaneous union mission· would bring the next conference in 1898, but on all hands it was conceded that ary meetings in all the great centers, sible for the selection of the portions will contribute to this. Eight divis- herewith presented.-J. T. G.] ional meetings were held in New York city, one evening during the time of A circular letter was sent to twenty the conference, and a great pan-denom- of the various Boards here represented, inational meeting was provided for in embracing the following inquiries as to Carnegie Hall on the 15th of Janu- the results of the Movement as shown ary which theoretically was the center in their experience: of a great number of similar massmeetings to have been held simultane- "1. Can you trace any inereatJtJ in ously in other great cities. This was the number of applicants for appointrealized in part, Chicago and a few ment to the existence and influence of other cities having arranged for such the Movement? assemblies. But the meeting in New York itself was not what it might have "2. Are you able to detect any imbeen, and other cities which would provement in the quality of 'Volunteer' have responded to the call for simul- applicants, or of those actually aptaneous meetings were debarred from pointed? If so, in what respects? the same through the shortness of the notice received. But all this can be "3. Have you noticed any quicken- I'vercome, if the Officera' Conference ing of missionary zeal in your churches will fix the date long enough in advance through the instrumentality of the S. to allow the churches to make suitable V. M., and have the Volunteers aided, preparation. They must remember to any extent, in the raising of funds . that this is a big country, and a few fol' their own support or for the other weeks' notice is not enough. They work of your board? might better advise the churches at once of the date for 1898. "4. Would you suggest any changes in the methods of working adopted by The papers of this conference are the leaders of the Movement?" worthy of a far wider reading than they will receive through the pamphlet form, To our surprise and gratification, and yet as they were prepared chiefly nineteen replies have been received. Of for members, it might interfere with these one only answers every inquiry in the desirable freedom of these dis- the negative; eMu may be styled as cussions, were the press to invade their , , non-committal," through insufficient meetings and publish all the discussions. opportunity for observation and ac- One paper, however, that was read by quaintance; jive give a qualified, and Dr. Cobb on the Student Movement, the remaining ten an almost unqualified was requested for use in this magazine, affirmative reply. with the privilege of selecting such portions of it as our space would allow us In reviewing the aims of the :Moveto use. It will be found in the follow- ment in connection with these replies ing pages. we unhesitatingly offer the following 'conclusions: The Student Volunteer Movement. 1. The steadfast effort to bring stu- BY REV. HENRY N. COBB, D.D., NEW dents to "a thorough consideration of YORK. the claims of foreign missions upon them as a life-work," and "to foster [Dr. Cobb presented a paper in the this purpose," should be followed by a form of a report to the Fifth Conference perceptible increase in the number of of Representatives of Mission Boards, those applying for appointment. And January last, which at our solicitation such has been the result. To this the was placed at our disposal so far as testimony of some of our largest sociepracticable. Dr. Cobb is not respon- ties is. emphatic. Thus one writes, "There has been a markt increase in the number of our candidates singe the Movement was more thoroughly organ- ized, and notably since the Detroit Con- vention. So far as we can judge, the majority of our candidates have been work and a better mental equipment."
given their early impulses toward the " We have one very promising yOlmg foreign field by the Movement." An- physician under appointment, who is other says, "The number 'of applicants an ardent member of the S. V. M.· I perceptibly increast from 1886 to 1894; think his course of preparatory studies and this increase, while doubtless due has been a great benefit to him, and he to several causes, was due in part to the has pursued it along the lines laid down Student Volunteer Movement." An- in the Student Volunteer."
other answers, "Yes. And what is So far as the educational work of the more, a majority of the men whom we Movement is concerned, we feel the have sent to the foreign field, in the force of the official statement respecting last four years, have been Student it : "A common preparation, aside from Volunteers." "Yes, very clearly," the regular studies of the curriculum, writes another. "In answer to a re- is needed for the work of the foreign cent call for an additional missionary, missionary. The Volunteers need to we received the applications of sixteen. know what special preparation is neces- Most, if not all of them, were led to the sary. They need to understand the step by their connection with the Vol- relative importance of the different unteer Movement." Another still, "De- lines of preparation. They need to • cidedly. Quite a number of men and learn how to economize to the best ad- women, in writing to us, have stated vantage the time at their disposal for that their first impulse in the direction this preparation. " Especially is this of foreign missions was received from true of our Theological Seminaries, the Volunteer Movement." And yet which are in general the immediate one more, "I think I am safe in saying sources of supply. If the testimony of that we have had ten offers for service the Movement is to be received they in the foreign work, where we had one offer a peculiarly hard field. "Another . previous to the organization of the problem confronts us in some quarters, Movement." and that is the dijJiculty of holding Vol- 2. What, then, is the quality of these unteers after they enter the '.1heological applicants? The object of the "mis- Seminam.* If they leave college with sionary study" proposed and guided by a strong purpose and are thoroughly the movement is, as it should be, to grounded in missions, the question of produce a better class of candidates. holding them does not present insuper- Has it done so? Again let the Secre- able difficulties. But even in such cases taries speak. " Weare under the con- it is a real problem to preserve the faith viction," writes one, "that there has and enthu8iasm of Volunteer8 who enter been a decided improvement in the imtitutiom where, to quote a prominent quality of Volunteer candidates. We Board SecretOll'1J, 'from the beginning to have noticed this in respect to two lines the end of the C<JUr8e the who~ pr88ump- of equipment; first, in the intelligence tion in the teaching and attit'!/.d(j of the of such candidates concerning the faculty is that the men are all going to heathen field at large and our own in stay at home. ' Add to this the constant particular, and second, in the stability pressure brought to bear upon them by of their zeal and the positiveness of home churches, and the solution of the their determination to serve in the for- problem is not simplified."
eign field." Another, "There has been This is a sad statement and full of a steady improvement in an intelligent ominous suggestions. May not a par- appreciation of the principle and motive tial explanation of the difficulty be underlying the missionary cause." found in the condition of missionary "Better in the matter of education and instruction in these seminaries so for- equipment and general fitness for the work." "A better conception of the * It&lics Qul'tl.-J. '1'. Q. cibly set forth in one of the papers of the proved the quality of the missionaries Conference of a year ago and in the who have been available or who have book on the same subject by Mr. been appointed. The volunteering has Adams? And if this be so, should we been usually done at an age when not welcome, and esteem of special young men have been most impressible, value, an agency which aims specifically and the most emotional of the young " to provide systematic, comprehensive men are usually the ones who volunteer. and progressive courses of study on Hence I would express the opinion, not foreign missions for the. use of stu- without hesitation, that the quality of dents," and to inform them by intelli- missionaries has not been, and is not gent study, intelligently guided and likely to be, improved by the Move- aided, as to 'their principles, history, ment." Except in the somewhat de- methods, needs and obligations? The spairing conclusion of the last quotation, courses of study outlined should not, the truth probably comprehends both nor are we able to believe they do, these statements. The Volunteer Move- make too serious a draft upon the time ment-and many others with it, even or strength of the average student in the Kingdom of Heaven-His like unto the average Theological Seminary, nor a net that was cast into the sea and needlessly and injuriously conflict with gathered of every kind." It could his proper duties in the institution. . . hardly be otherwise. It is for the Boards • 3. There is another aspect of the to sift the" catch," or such portions of question as to quality, which demands it as are brought to them, and, with and deserves special consideration. The such wisdom and insight as God may fear has been exprest that, through the bestow, select the best. . • . . enthusiasm created by the Movement, 4. The fear has been exprest lest the and the too wide circulation and too work of the Volunteer Bands should ready or too early acceptance of the tend to create a broad line of demarca- "Volunteer Declaration," those stu- tion between the members of those dents who are rather emotional than in- Bands, all having the missionary work tellectual, impulsive rather than sober- in view, and other students, as tho the minded, are led to volunteer; that, by latter might feel theIllSelves absolved the methods in use, the best minds are from all interest in and all concern not only not reacht but are tempted to about the great cause of missions. This hold themselves aloof from volunteering danger appears to have been clearlyapand in the end from missionary service. prehended in the statement of the main This would be most deplorable, if true. objects of the Movement before referred On this point the views of the brethren to. On it is said, "Essentially involved are more conflicting than on any other. in all this is the further object of the One writes, co Under the influence of Movement to create and maintain an this Movement men of positive mark in intelligent, sympathetic, active interest our Seminaries have been imprest with in foreign missions, among the students a sense of responsibility for the heathen, who are to remain on the home fleld, in and have thus been led to offer them- order to secure the strong backing of selves for service, who would not have this great enterprise by prayer and otherwise seriously considered the sub- money." In our opinion this is quite ject. Some of the best men who have as important as any other object of the gone to our fields in these latter days Movement, especially in view of the are the direct fruits of the Student growing demands of the great work, Volunteer Movement." On the other the backwardness of the Churches, and hand, another says, while stating that the deficient resources of all our Boards the number of applicants has been in- and Societies. The Boards may pos- creast, HI have had the impression that , sibly receive, as some have received, ~e Vol~nte~r Mov~ment has not im- many more applications than theT can accept. But the Churches can never this lost world to the knowledge of the have too many nor too active and ardent truth and love of our Redeemer. missionary pastors and teachers, men and women of learning and influence, In bringing this report, already far who abide at home. The multiplication too long, to a close, we can find no of these will be the surest way to in- better expression of our own feeling in .crease the ability of the Boards to ac- this regard than that which comes from cept all applicants who ought to be one of our correspondents, a member of accepted, and to send to the field all this conference. who ought to be sent. . . .. . .. It is my matured conviction that in 5. The avowed disposition and pur- this movement we may plainly discern pose of the movement to make its work one of the signal interpositions of our subserve the interests of the existing God on behalf of world evangelization. Boards and Societies, deserves the cor- It has failed, if at all, in accomplishing dial recognition of the Conference. Its all that was possible, because the Church endeavor is to secure to them an in- of Christ at home has been slow to discrease not only of "missionaries with cern the signs of the times. In other the right qualifications," but also of words, had our Churches throughout available funds for their maintenance, the land promptly accepted this moveand of intelligent missionary zeal in ment as a call of God to them for en· the churches to which they look for larged offerings to missions, I am conthe support of all their work. This fident that the achievements of the purpose clearly appears from the fol- Gospel in all our fields would have lowing statements in the report of been greatly multiplied. In this up- 1894: rising among the students of our in· stitutions of learning, leading to the •• The r68pO'Mibilitll of tM M0'D6ment consecration of so many of them to the doa not ceo.se until the Volunteer8 are foreign field, I can not fail to see the brought into direc' communication wjth faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God, their respeeti'1)6 Boards. Nor does it in answering the prayers of His people cease entirely then." . . for lab0rers. It seems to me, however, that brought face to face with the de- We believe there is an agency here of mands and the sacrifices which these which the Boards might make far very answers to prayer have involved, greater and more effective use than they our Churches have shrunk back and now do. It is no doubt true in general, failed to meet their part of the respon. that "returned missionaries have a sibility. It seems to me no better serstronger influence in both directions." vice could be rendered than the calling Yet the supply of these is necessarily the attention of Christians over all the limited. And there is much in the land, who desire to obey the great comsight and words of consecrated young mission, to the divine significance of men and women, whose hearts the the Volunteer Movement." Lord has toucht, and who ha'1J6 8tudied up Ute subjec' and arefull of it, to waken The Oountess of Dufi'erin's Fund. interest and move to conviction. Properly introduced and commended, ex- BY REV. A. MCLEAN, D.D•• CINCINNATI, perience shows that they are welcomed OIDO, SECRETARY FOREIGN CHRISby pastors and acceptable to the people. TIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
Such influences can not be too greatly In India one hears much about this multiplied if the churches at large are " Fund," and of the great and good generally to be awakened not only to work it has accomplisht. One sees the the signiflcance of the Volunteer Move- spacious hospitals and dispensaries that ment itself, but also to that of the still have been erected and opened under greater movement and enterprise of its anspices. The origin of thisent~r which it forms a part, the bringing of prise is both interesting and pathetic. Tho the story has been told many times, that vast empire. In her account of it is so good that it will bear repetition. this interview Lady Dufferin said: "When I was leaving England, Her The wife of the Maharajah of Punna Majesty the Queen·Empress drew my was the victim of a painful and linger- attention to the subject, and said she ing sickness. She suffered much from thought it was one in which I might native doctors and received no benefit. take a practical interest. From that Her case was deemed hopeless. The time I took pains to learn all I could of prince heard of Miss Beilby, a medical the medical question in India as regards missionary in Lucknow, and besought women. I found, that altho certain her to come and heal his wife. She great efforts were being made in a few came and spent several weeks with her places to provide female attendants, and so treated her that she recovered hospitals, training.schools, and dis- her health. Soon after Miss Beilby pensaries for women; and altho miswas leaving for home to take her de- sionary effort has done much, and for gree. When she called to bid farewell years had been sending out pioneers into the Maharani said, "You are going to the field, yet, taking India as a whole, England and I want you to tell the its medical women were without that Queen, and the Prince and Princess of medical aid which their European sis- Wales, and the men and women of ters are accustomed to consider as abso- England, what the women of India lutely necessary." After studying the suffer when they are sick." She begged field and its needs and conferring with her to see the Queen in person and ask the chief men and women in the counher for medical assistance. Miss Beilby try, she organized The National ..1.880told her of the great difficulty of seeing ciation for Supplying Female Medical the Queen and presenting the message Aid to the Women of India. This Asso· in person. The princess said, "Did ciation is commonly spoken of as "The you not tell me that our Queen was Countess of Dufferin's Fund." good and gracious, and that she never heard of suffering without sending a The objects of this organization are message to say how sorry she was, and as follows: 1. Medical tuition, includtrying to help?" Miss Beilby exprest ing the teaching and training of women her willingness to do what she could. as doctors, hospital assistants, nurses, The princess askt her to write the mes- and midwives. 2. Medical relief, insage at once, " Write it small, DOctor cluding the establishment, under female Miss Sahib, for I want to put it into a superintendence, of dispensaries and locket, and you are to wear this locket cottage hospitals for the treatment of around your neck until you see our women and children; the opening of great Empress and give it to her your- female wards under female superintendself. You are not to send it through ence in existing hospitals and dispensaranother." In some way the Queen ies; the provision of female medical heard of this messsage and sent for officers and attendants for existing Miss Beilby. On reading the message female wards; and the founding of she said, "We had no idea it was as hospitals for women where special bad as this. Something must be done funds or endowments are forthcoming. for these poor creatures. We wish it S. TM Bupply of trained female nur8e8 generally known that we sympathize and midwivetJ for women and children with every effort made to relieve the in hospitals and private houses. It is suffering state of the women of India." eleven years since the Association be- gan its work. There are now sixty.two· About this time the Earl of Dufferin lady doctors and forty-four hospital was appointed Viceroy of India. The assistants at work. Over a million Queen sent for Lady Dufferin and patients were treated last year. The urged her to do what she could to annual increase of patients numbers bring medical help to the women of about one-hundred thousand. There to be unsectarian and national, and are sixty-five hospitals and dispensaries. therefore neutral as respects religion. These cost seventeen lakhs of rupees. No employe is allowed to proselyte or Ten of these are entirely supported by interfere in any way with the religious native princes. Two princes in Raj- beliefs of any section of the people. putana gave $190,000. Seven other Lady Dufferin and her associates sought hospitals are in course of construction. to arouse the conscience and imagina- There are two hundred and forty-three tion of the public at large, and to reach students in medical colleges or in train- all parts of the Empire and all classes ing classes. Scholarships have been of the community. They sought to given women in the schools in Calcutta, enlist and benefit the Hindu, the Mo- Madras, Lahore, Bombay, and Agra. hammedan, and the Buddhist. At the There are training classes in Cuttack, same time they were careful not to an- Lucknow, Allahabad, Rangoon, Nag- tagonize or interfere with the medical pur, and Benares. Students are encour- work of the missionaries. There is aged to go through these schools and work enough for all. then to go to England or Germany for their degrees. There has been much pre- This National Association has been judice in the way of the work. Sickness called one of the greatest charities in is regarded by many as a visitation for existence. It is one of the direct resin and can be cured only by expiations sults of missionary enterprise. The an· and incantations and other religious nual reports do not refer to Miss Beilby remedies. Others think women are and the Maharani of PUnn&. They unworthy of the medical treatment pro- prefer to say that the Association owes vided for men. It has been found its existence to the direct initiative of difficult to get women of the higher Her Majesty the Queen·Empress. That castes to leave their seclusion and pre- sounds better in some ears than to say pare themselves for this service. Gradu- that it owes its birth and being to a ally, however, prejudice is giving way, medical missionary. Nevertheless, the and the work of the Association is truth is known, and it can not be hid. growing in public favor. Recently the London Times referred to Lord Dufferin as an orator, a statesman, It will be noted that this is work con- and a diplomat, and added that the ducted by woman in the interest of work that would live longest and be women. A masculine physician is not most beneficent, was the work he did allowed to enter a woman's apartments. in connection with this Association for If he is called in as a last resource he supplying Medical Aid to the women may speak to her through a screen, but of India. he cannot see her and make a thorough examination. Many women would die Some Reoent Innovations at Oheung rather than to have a man come near them. For this reason women must be Mai, Lao Mission. trained as physicians and nurses. They must be qualified to treat all diseases BY BEV. W. C. DODD. that their sex is heir to. This means much for the elevation of the women of Most of them you in the home-land India. If the minds of a considerable wonld not call innovations, but develop· number are developt, if they take ments. But to the Lao people they some worthy part in the work of the come as something very new; and we world, and live no longer like a frog in will not quarrel about names. a well, others will profit thereby. It should be noted, furthermore, that this One innovation was the observation, is a benevolent work simply; in no sense this year, of Children's Day in the is it missionary or Christian. It aims Cheung Mal Church. The word got out that there was to be something un- usual, and something very enjoyable. People put their own construction on it. Some conjectured that it was to be like almost passionately fond of games. the native New Year-a time for throw- Hence it has been put on the hearts and ing water on everybody. Rev. Nan consciences of the missionaries that we Tab, As~ociate Pastor of the Church, are bound to lead our young people into even sent me a note, saying that he had Innocent amusements, or they will drift heard that there was to be some kind of into questionable ones. We have tried doings, he did not know what. He to meet this new duty by inaugurating hoped it would be appropriate to the several social features, none of them at day and the place. But after in was all new to you, but all of them innova- finisht, he turned to me and said: tions to this people. "Can't we have it every Sabbath?" And no wonder. Surely nothing so One has been the translation of a set enjoyable had ever before been wit- of Bible-History cards, which can be nessed by these sober-minded Chris- played as authors' cards are played. tians. There was marching into the These are not all finisht yet, but a few church; there was singing in concert, trials of them have seemed to indicate reading in concert, the Lord's Prayer that among the better educated they in concert; one class recited the Fourth will be popular, not only as a pastime, Commandment in concert; more than a but also as a course in Bible History. dozen other classes recited selected portions of Scripture in concert, beginning Another social feature has been that with the two infant classes, and ending individual missionary families have, with the Bible Class of Rev. Punyah; from time to time, invited the Lao minthere was a motion song by another isters, or the members of one of the class, and an English hymn by the chil- schools, or the members of a Sabbathdren of the missionaries. The only ex- school class, to the missionary homes, ercises which were not in concert were and have entertained them with pictwo prayers, two addresses, and the tures, games, microscopic views and benediction; and it is by no means cer- refreshments. These entertainments tain that the people did not wish that have seemed to be very PQPular. Grathese had been in concert, too. dually foreign games are being intro- duced and adopted, sometimes with It was a great day. And Rev. Nan amusing modifications. Tah, who knows a good thing when he sees it, wrote me a poem on the subject, But, after all, most of our innovations extolling the patience and the ability of are quite distinctly religious, not only those who had trained the classes, and in tendency, but in actual form. One had planned and managed this whole which the people at first resented as a affair. He and others have said that if most decided and unwarrantable innowe can not have it every Sabbath, they vation, was well begun last year, namewould· like to have it at least once a ly, the matter of urging systematic, month. scriptural giving. Sporadic example and teaching on this subject had been Another innovation this year is in the given before, but last year a movement social realm. We are beginning to have was begun all along the line. It is a second generation of Christians now, bearing fruit. One church, Lampoon after thirty years of mission work. First Presbyterian, at a congregational There are young men and women com- meeting held after a most thorough ing from our schools who are not con- ventilation and discussion of the sub': tent to spend their time in idleness or jcct had already been had, decided frivolous gabble. Their minds must without a dissenting vote to tithe as a have some employment, especially in the Church. And if they live up to that evenings, after their work is finisht. action, it 'IJJZ·ll be an innovation of a most As yet we have only a limited stock of welcome sort. Christian literature. This people are Another most welcome inroad into Christian-heathen ignorance is the organization of a Woman's Missionary a distinct dialect of its own. The work of the Methodist Episcopal Mission Society. It now has over thirty mem- began here over thirty years ago. Durbers, holds monthly meetings, and al- ing the period from the early sixties to ways takes up a collection, or rather a 1890, no foreigner lived in Bing-hua.
voluntary contribution. Some conse- There was generally a native Presiding Elder, and the missionary in charge, crated missionary effort, some conse- living in Foochow, made more or less crated native zeal, and some consecrated extended and frequent trips over the tithe-money is going into that Society; work, as time and other duties would and we know what will come out. permit. But it became manifest that the work Angels are rejoicing over that Society needed a more thQrough- supervision already. than it could receive in this way. The One of the best innovations, and one dialect being different from that of Foo- which might prove a real innovation if chow, few of the missionaries could use it effectively. In 1890 the writer was introduced into some home churches, transferred from Singapore, and apis what we may call the organizing of pointed to Bing·hua, with his wife, be- the church into a night-school to study ing the first foreign residents there.
the Word, village by village, commun- We began to hold short camp-meet- ings at the various village centers, ity by community. It is something beginning generally on Thursday even- .' after the plan outlined in "Methods of ing and closing Sunday evening, holding Mission Work," by Rev. J. L. Nevius, four services a day, beginning with a late of China. Each community is or- before breakfast prayer-meeting. Near- ly a score of such meetings have been ganized into a school, a leader is ap- held. Many hundreds have been clearly pointed, the members are put into converted in these meetings, and the classes, according to their advancement spiritual life of the whole Church has in study, and a record of attendance is been greatly quickened. That the work in this line has been kept. Also, the completion of anyone deep and genuine is manifest from the course of study by any class is noted. markt advance in self-support.
The courses consist of learning to read, Last year the three districts now reading in course, committing to mem- forming the Bing-hua Mission Confer- ence raised for pastoral support$12811.74 ory certain designated portions of the (Mexican); this ysar, $2,432.12, or an advance of $1,148.38; being an increase Word, explanation of Scripture. pas- of nearly 100 per cent. sa~es, comInitting of the Child's Catechism, and now that the Shorter Cate- In addition to this, a Bome Missionchism is just translated, it also will be ary Society has been organized. It was committed by the more advanced beglln by some of our most zealous classes. This work was suggested to native helpers toward the close Of the the people by the missionaries, but in many places it has been taken up by the last Conference year. Nearly $300 was people theInselves, and is being sus- given in 1895. This year there has been tained in a very gratifying manner. great enthusiasm about this collection, Surely the Spirit who inspired the Word and the sum of $1,431.78 has been will richly bless the study of it. raised.
May the time soon come when all The aggregate increase of money these things shall cease to be novelties raised for pastoral support, including and innovations, and shall become fix- the Bome Missions collection, reaches tures of the Lao Church. $2,283.00. Another such advance this year, and our native preachers will be A N6W Oonference in Ohina. entirely supported by the native church. There has also been a healthy increase BY REV. W. N. BREWSTER. in membership of 380 full members and 634 probationers, or a little over one On the morning of Nov. 26th, Bishop thousand altogether. The year has been Joyce opened the first session of the one of solidifying rather than expand- Bing-hua Mission Conference, com- ing. posed of the three southern districts of The Conference Session was memor- the Foochow Conference of the Metho- able. Nearly one thousand people were dist Episcopal Church. The Bing·hua crowded into the Jesse Lee Memorial Prefecture lies on the coast half way Church, which is the largest Protestant between Foochow and Amoy. It has Church in the Province.
FIELD OJ' MONTHLY SURVlIl'. 21~
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Mexico,* Oentral America, t West Indies, t City Missions, § Foreigners in America.,.
BY DELA.VAN L. PIERSON.
MEXICO. (3) There is need of the presentation of a reaaonablefaith to those who have Mexico still sorely needs the pure revolted from the gross Buperstitions of and regenerating Gospel of Christ. The the Roman Church in Mexico. Noth- recent attack on one of the Protestant ing sadder can be imagined than the missions there gives evidence of this funeral orations by prominent citizens at the graves of their departed com- as do the teachings and lives of the rades. No hope, no gleam of light for Romanists who occupy the land, and the future, only a troubled look into the condition of the ignorant and de- the great unknown, which: has received another soul. Many men of the liberal graded Indians and half-breeds. Much party now declare that they have done progress has been made since mission- with religion; yet numbers of these aries tirst went to labor in the land, but are in sympathy with the Protestant there is need that the people of the churches that encourage education, United States stretch every nerve to progress, and rational thinking. help raise these people to the true level of Christianity, before infidelity and (4) There is urgent need of Christians paganism I1tamp out their life. who know how to pray, with intelli- gence as well as faith; and the enlight- Mrs. James D. Eaton, of Chihuahua, ened fervor of many in our evangelical gives the following roosons for sending churches is one of the most hopeful missionaries to Mexico: . effects of the Gospel here.
> , (1) Many souls are tr:ving to satisf, (5) And there ds need of the Gospel , thems~lves with the husks within theIr for the sake of our own countryme,n here. Americans are comin~ more and reach, whil,e hungering for the Bread more to Mexico, to engage In mining, of Life. One poor woman feeling the railroad, agricultural, and manufactur- need of something, she knew not what, ing enterprises. There are said to be ventured to lIsk a priest to explain the several thousand of them in this State, forms of the church, the mass, baptism, some 700 in this city and vicinity. If etc~; but he only replied that she was a fool, who could not understand. Now home missions are a necessity in the that she had received the Word, and new settlements of the United States, fflels that Jesus is her Savior, that long- there is similar need o~ this side of the ip.g is met, and she is daily satisfying line. her hunger and thirst by the Word of Pioneer mission-work in Mexico W88 God.,and pra;ver. begun in 1862. Rev. D. A. Wilson of (2) There IS needed a Gospel of holi- Guadalajara writes: n68B in this land where religion and It is doubtless quite true, as has often morals are divorced. A people that have been allowed to break the whole been said, that " Protestantism entered decalog, and obtain an easy absolution at the hands of the priests; yes, even Mexico in 1847, between the covers of gain pardon in advance for crime to be 'committed, realize that it is a new the Bibles carried in the knapsacks of ~ospel which says, "Thy sins be for- gj.ven thee; go and sin no more." American soldiers," but the first effort to propagate Protestantism in this coun- try, so far as can be ascertained, from • The article promist on this sub~ect has a1u86th2.e*nticInsotuhreceasutwuamsnaboof utthtahte year faUed to reach us in time for publicatIOn. See year, .G9speZ in AU Lands (March) and The Mission Rev. James Hickey arrived at Mon- World (monthly). terer as an independent missionary, t An article promist on Central America haVIng previously labored for eight- has also failed to reach us. See Moravian PetrSioedeipcap.l Accounts (quarterly). een months as colporteur of the 195, 196, (present Issue). American Tract Society in Tex88. In NeuJ Books: "CUba and the Cubans," March, 1863, Mr. Hickey began to Ralmundo Cabrera; "The Island of Cuba," Prof. Ramsay, preach publicly in Monterey, both in – II See pp. 176,183, (present Issue). English and in Spanish, and on Jan. SO, Recent Articles: "Regeneration of the 1864, he organized the first evangelical Slums," Demorest's Family Magazine (Oct.); "The Problems of the City," C. R. Woodruft', church ever constituted in Northern Mexico, probably the first in the Re- American Magazine of Civics (Dec.). ,. See pp. 169, 188, (present issue). ' Recent .Articles: "Chlnatown in New York," .. It Is a misstatement that pioneer work Dem. Family Mag.). was begun by Miss Rankin, in 1865.
»- public. Thomas M. Westrup, one of it was declined on the ground that the the first converts, was ordained pastor, burden of responsibilities already unand has occupied that position almost dertaken in other countries was too continuously since that time. One year great. While we would not seek to after its organization, the church had prevent in any way the entrance of our twenty members. In Feb., 1864, Mr. English friends, so long as they can not Hickey was appointed agent for Mexi- come the American Churches ought to co of the American Bible Society, but see that the need is filled." did not receive the appointment until Aug. of that year, from which time -Not long ago the Roman Catholic forward the care of the church at Mon- Bishop in Jamaica issued a pastoral terey devolved more entirely upon Mr. letter charging the Protestant people of Westrup. Mr. Hickey workt continu- that island with •• lax ideas of moralously, and amid great trials and difficulties, but also with great success, ity," and adding: "Our Catholic poputhroughout the country from Monterey lation is, we are glad to say. singularly to Brownsville, Texas, selling the Script- free from reproach in this matter." ures, preaching, and distributing tracts It might be well to make known some from house to house, from the time he of the facts which have come under the first entered the country, until his death personal observation of one who has at Matsmoras, Mexico, in 1866. lived in Costa Rica, facts which so clearly reveal theimmoral tendencies of After the organization of the Baptist the boastful Romish Church. Mr. F. Church by Mr. Hickey, in the summer de P. Castells of San Jose writes: The of 1865, Miss Melinda Rankin visited Baptist Mission (supported from JaIllai- Monterey, and employin~ several of the ca). has planted churches in a number members of the church lU Monterey as of places on the Atlantic coast. Some colporteurs, left them under Mr. Hick- time since the Roman Catholic Bishop, ey's direction, and returned to the alarmed at their success, set his mind United States to collect funds for the on putting up rival churches in all work. She returned in 1866, and it was those places. He obtained the money through her influence, that the first by holding raffies in several parishes, Presbyterian Church in Mexico was where cognac, beer, and playing cards organIzed at Monterey, in 1869. This were the principal articles raffied; and church was composed of members from this on the Lord's dayt Not long ago, the Baptist Church, which had at that time received into membership 224 on a Sunday, the priests of San Jose persons in nine different towns. organized a concert in the Variaty Theater for the purpose of obtaining CENTRA.L AMERICA.. funds with which to help in building some church. They used the most vul- -The Greater Republic has recently gar music ever sung in Spanish musicsent its representative to Washington, halls and public houses. Not man, and he has been received by President weeks ago a public writer of thIS Cleveland. This federation including country, a liberal, called attention to all the republics except Costa Rica and the fact that the festivals of the Romish Guatamala, is formed for mutual protec- Church are but so many opportunities tion and influence in foreign relations; offered to the people for the most flagthe autonomy of the several countries is rant debauchery. in the main retained. Doubtless this greater Republic will soon include all Ah, the morality of Rome I It is the countries of Central America. easier for its emissaries to talk of it in a Protestant country than it would be The Moravians are suffering many set- if they were in any country where backs and hindrances from the Nica- Romanism is the prevailing religion. raguan occupation of the Mosquito Here. for instance, no one is surprised Coast. The government not only per- at hearing that Father So-and-So. tho mits but fosters gambling, Sabbath- a celibate, has 80 many children by so breaking, and the like. The officials many women. The llractise is far too are corrupt and no sympathy and little forbearance is shown to these mission- general for even his Bishop to be astonaries who have so long and faithfully isht. Priests think nothing of going workt in this field. to a club to join 8 gamblin~ party, or playing the usurer by lendIng money "An earnest appeal was made recent- at 30 and 40 per cent_I And somehow ly to the committee of the Church Mis- SIOnary Society, to open a new mission Sunday is the day when we see Romanin Central America for the purpose of ism at its worst. On that day the railreaching the still unevangelized Indians way, the clubs, the public-houses, the of that section. After some discussion theaters, the women of ill-fame, do far better business than in the six preeeed- ing days put together. IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
In the January issue of this REVIEW, sionary societies, representing five de- we felt constrained to call attention to nominations, have a present debt oC the risk now confronting the work of $1,013,632, and would owe three quart· foreign missions. In that connection ers of a million dollars more, but for it was stated as our deliberate judgment, severe retrenchment." that at no time during the half century now closing, have missions to the hea- It is true that never was there such· then been at greater peril of collapse. an uprising of young men and women, This has been characterized by some as offering for the field; but it is also an unwarranted and extravagant state- alarmingly true that never was there so ment, and dismist by that easy modern inadequate a provision for sending those fashion of stigmatizing any discourag- who offer. Dr. H. C. Mabie, mourn- ing presentation of facts, calling it pe8- fully said, lately, that the A. B. M. U. BimiMn. One of our exchanges seeks to had been compelled to refusejivs out of make the editor inconsistent by con- 861JCn picked men, and that over 100 trasting with this " gloomy, if not hope- volunteers had offered, whom the union less view of the situation," the" glow- had not funds to encourage. We shall ing pictures of the missionary outlook," only make the situation worse by stig- which the same editorial pen has fur- matizing as pessimists those who simply nished, etc. call loudly for attention to the crisis DOW upon ns, and for much prayer and Without any undue jealousy for con~ self-sacrifice, in order to meet it. It is Bistency, the editor would simply say a profound conviction with the Editor that he sees no incongruity in these two of this REVIEW that God is marching contrasted views of the situation. Even on, far more rapidly than his people are if consistency were at risk, it is better following, and that to retrench now is to to be t:rue than even to be consistent. But retreat, and fall more and more hope~ there is no contradiction. The outlook le8s1y behind. The opportunity of the was never so hopeful; the risk was age is upon us, but we are not, as a never greater than to·day. It is the Church of Christ, proving equal to it. hopeful and promising outlook which And it is the duty of those who occupy makes'the risk so great. The world's an outlook which gives them a wider doors are open, and in most countries survey, and who see the danger, to peal we have reacht the middle stage of mis- out as with trumpet voice the warning sions-when the first stage of antagon- cry to God's people. Let the Church ism is past, but the third stage of self- arise, with greatly increast prayerful- support, and self.government, and self- ness, and multiplied gifts, and ten years propagation is not reacht. That middle may see results never seen before in stage-when the field is open and invit- mission history. ing, and the opportunity is great but short, when there is a clamor for more On Friday evening, Jauuary 15, a workmen and a need of greatly increased Missionary Rally was held at Carnegie effort and expenditure-that middle Hall, N. Y., representing all Christian stage is the existing condition in most denominations, both of the United mission fields. And it is just now that .states and Canad~. It was designed to the church, a8 a wlwle ana on the whole, be a sort of climax to the week of does not respond. Everything calls for prayer, and a starting point in aggres- . advance, yet, almost every organized sive missionary movement. The pro- Board is crying Retrenclt. gram was elaborately alTanged, and all the preparations were on a scale of Dr. L. H. Cobb, himself a devoted magnitude that befitted the occasion. mission secretary, evidently thinks the General and ex-Governor James A. – peril great. He says that "twelve mis-
Et>t'i'ORtAL DEPAitTMEN'r
Beaver was chosen to preside, Richard supreme work of the centuries, the S. Storrs, D.D., the Cicero of the Con- evangelization of the world, that on gregational pulpit, and Bishop Fowler, such an occasion, at such a crisis in af- whom the Methodists account one of fairs, with such speakers discussing their most attractive and effective speak- such a theme, the metropolis could fur- ers, being chosen to make the addresses. nish only about enough hearers to fill The evening was mild, and there was a an ordinary church buiidingl How self- very slight flurry of snow, but nothing evidencing Dr. Storrs's own words, that to hinder people from attendance. And the church needs most of all to tarrg yet it was a disappointment which must again before God in prayer, to be en- have caused the committee of arrange- dued with new power from on highl ments no little chagrin, that Carnegie Bishop Hartzell has left a very beau- Hall was not one·third full. By actual tiful and touching "Christmas farecount there were less than 1,200 people well," as he sailed for the field of his present to greet such master orators, bishopric in Africa. In it he recounts and exhibit interest in such a supreme the steps of surprise and surrender theme. It is no depreciation of Gov- which preceded his formal acceptance ernor'Beaver's stirring speech, nor of the of this trust-and all this reminds us emphatic utterance of Bishop Fowler, that successful workers are like Omar, to say that Dr. Storrs's address was im- not those who wantZthe place but whom perial. We undertake to reproduce and the place wants. Somehow an unusual perpetuate it in these pages, so far as earnestness and hopefulness seem to the grand body of thought is concerned. characterize this new choice of a s~c But the subtle aroma, the indescribable cessor to Bishop William Taylor. A quality, the personnel-evade the print- tinge of pathos has been added to this ed pages, and defy the reporters' art. departure by the surgical operation it There was a sweep and swing about it was found necessaty for him to undergo which were like the sway of a scepter before he left London. But God gave in the hands of a giant. It was a speech him an unexpectedly rapid recovery, that should have been heard by tens of and six days after he lay on the operathousands instead of a few hundreds. ting table, he was on his way to Liver- It showed, flrst, the immensity and in- pool to set sail, and his last words are tensity of the debt we owe to foreign like those of Paul to the Ephesians, missions in every department of our " Pray for us." civilization. Then it surveyed the vari- ous causes of the diversion of the pop- George Mliller, known to the whole ular enthusiasm and energy into other Christian world as the profound bechannels, and in dignified, but candid liever in the power of prayer, is now and careful terms, described the secu- ninety-two years old. He still makes larized church, ornate and sumptu- use of the gracions instrument which ous, but unspiritual and selfish; and he has wielded for so many years. The compared it to the wood agate which, direct answers which have come to him hO,wever ornamental, has its pores filled in response to his petitions, he says, with a substance foreign to itself and now amount to more than $7,000,000 in can neither be kindled, nor kindle any- money. They came in different ways, thing else. How anyone could hear but were so connected with his special that stately but stirring presentation of prayers that he believes they were tied God's historic plan for this world, and together in the gracious counsels of be indifferent to his own cooperation God. It is a wonderful story. with it, passes our comprehension. And yet it is abundant confirmation of Dr. It is a great but startling proof of the Storrs's indirect arraignment of the trend of unsanctified scientific thought church for apathy and lethargy in this that Mr. Darwin, who taught man's evolution from brute ancestry, virtually only present every grand principle and encourages the cultivation of a brutal selfishness. Witness the following para- motive of consecrated giving, but pregraph from the Descent of Man (vol i, page 161). He is referling to natural sent seven paradoxes that are very reselection as affecting civilized nations, and he says: markable. These Macedoniansseem to " With savages, the weak in body or have furnisht the most singular exmind are soon eliminated (i. e., they die or are killed off), and those that survive ample of Christian benevolence to be commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. We civilized men, on the other found anywhere in Sacred Scripture; hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums their giving was a sort of revcr8a~ of for the imbecile, the maimed, and the sick; we institute poor-laws, and our all ordinary experiences. medical men exert their utmost skill to save the life of everyone to the last 1. They gave out of the abundance moment. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thous- of their po'D6rty, not out of the plenitude ands who, from a weak constitution, would formerly have succumbed to of wealth. smallpox. Thus the weak members of civilized £ociety propagate their kind. 2. Their wilUngnes8 exceeded their No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that ability, instead of their ability, their this must be highly injurious to the race willmgness. of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or care wrongly directed, 3. They were urgent to be allowed to leads to the degeneration of a domestic give rather than reluctant, while those race; but, excepting in the case of the who received the gift were reluctant. to man hhnself, hardly anyone is so igno- take it, knowing how deep was their rant as to allow his worst animals to poverty.
breed." * 4. They made the greater gift first (of themselves), and the latter gift was The inference is plain: To build asy- the le88 (their money). Usuallr people lums, institute poor-laws, to vaccinate, give the least they can to beglll with, to seek to prolong the lives of the and have to be educated up to giving weaker, lower, more degraded, to carry themselves at the very last. on missions among the outcasts at home, or the savages and brutal pagans abroad, 5. In these chapters value of gifts is is misdirected benevolence, and in fact .reckoned, not by arrwunt given, but by no benevolence at all, for it is perpet- the degree of willi'l/{/ne8a and cltelYl'fu~ uating a degenerate stock that should ne88 exhibited. be left to the process of elimination by disease or other means of extermina- 6. Weare here taught that increase tion! comes not by keeping, but by giving,- that the way to get more is to give In 2 Cor. viii.-ix. is the one discourse more, and the way to lose is to keep. on giving that makes needless all other treatment of this great theme. And it is 7. And the crowning lesson of all is noticeable that the two chapters not that they regarded giving, not as a privation to be evaded and avoided, but *Compare Morris' Present Conflict of a privilege and a blessing to be courted Science and Religion (p. 266-67). and cultivated.
Can we do better than to follow such a glorious example?
The Doshisha, the Japanese College, has drifted away from the moorings of its original Congregational evangelical- ism. In a publisht letter the president of this institution tries to justify the trustees, in virtually assuming the ownership of property, through the necessities of legal procedure committed to them in trust, and in perverting it from the uses for which it was estab- lisht by its founder, with the help of the gifts of Christians in America. Secretary Barton, of the American Board, has printed an open letter to President Hozaki in reply, showing that the Doshisha can not jURtify its departure. He enjoins plainly upon that body "not to think that by declin- ing further subsidy from the board and dispensing with the services of the mis- siouaries, they thereby release themselves from obligations to maintain the propaganda-but its main effort is to genuine Christian character of the in- make faith impossible or destroy it stitution." And he adds: "All the aid where it exists. This is the d.amning given by the Board and by American fact about Liberalism that in proportion Christians has been contributed from as it prevails, missions perish. In these the first for the purpose of establishing days of want and woe, superstition and and supporting an institution positively degradation, the liberal club has noth- and decidedly Christian and evangel- ing better to propose than to take away. ical. if possible, from Christ's disciples, their only real hope for this world or the When the Iron Duke gave a very next, and to interrupt a great work for difficult position to one of his veterans, the rescue of lost souls by tryin,'f to the reply was: "I go, sir, but first give prove that there is nothing worth bellevme a grip of your conquering hand." ing in the only system of religious faith What a privilege, when undertaking that has ever been able to uplift and the arduous work of making disciples redeem! of all nations, to get courage, hope, and assurance of success in advance by a The story of Uganda, which we hope grasp of the victorious Hand of our great General-in-chief who says, "Lo, I soon to have summarized in these pages, am with you alway." is one of the most marvelous in all his- The Christian Endeavor Union, of tory. _ New York City, has its Tenth Legion, which means, a body of Endeavorers Contrast the present condition of who give not less than one-tenth of their income to the Lord's work, and who, in matters with the days of Hannington's hopes to influence others to do the same, cruel assassination I "One hundred form themselves into an enrolled organization, with the understanding, how- thousand souls brought into close conever, that there is to be no publicity given to the names. There is none of tact with the Gospel, 200 buildings for the maChinery of organization-constitution, by-laws, elected officers, and worship raised by native Christians, meetings. Those who undertake to give God at least the tithe fill out an 200 evangelists and teachers entirely enrollment blank and receive a certificate of membership. This is a move- supported by the native church, 10,000 ment in the right direction, and may copies of the New Testament in circuthe glory of Cresar's immortal "Tenth Legton" be eclipst by the fidelity of lation, 6,000 souls eagerly seeking daily these young people to the stewardship committed to them of God. instruction, and the power of God shown When Mr. Moody was challenged by in changed lives; all this in the center the Manhattan Liberal Club to a public of the thickest spiritual darkness in the debate upon the merits of Christianity, he wisely replied in substance that his world." In the great church at Mengo, mind was made up in regard to the merits of Christ; he "knows what there are over 200 trees to support the Jesus has done for him during the last forty years since he has trusted Him.", roof. Each of these trees took 100 men "The time calls for action, not for discussion. Hundreds and thousands to drag it up the bill. of men and women are dropping into drunkards' and harlots' graves every There has been a remarkable growth year right here in New York. Now, let us all join hands and try to save of Christianity in Uganda, since King them. I will try to reach them with Mwanga ordered the massacre of Bishop the Gospel. . • . If there is any Hannington and so many Christian conmerit in infidelity, let your members likewise put it into practise. " There is verts, less than eleven years ago. Durno danger that liberalism will take up the gauntlet and undertake aggressive ing Bishop Tucker's recent visit to the mission work. Infidelity is not a country he ordained fi ve natives to the tp.i&eionarr forqe. It ~ inlleeq its deaconate and three to the priesthood, licenst twenty-two as lay readers, and confirmed more than two thousand con- verts. One of the natives recently or- dained was Samwili Mukasa, who, in 1890, was one of the envoys sent to the coast by the king to see the consul-gen- eral with regard to the political situation.
"His earnestness and devotion," the bishop writes, "are beyond all ques- tion " The ordination service was attended by from 3,000 to 4,000.
Rev. Dr. A. B. Simpson, leader of the Christian Alliance, is contemplating the foundation of a Christian Alliance settlement and camp meeting resort on the heights of the Hudson at Nyack, N. Y. He has recently purchased for the purpose twenty-eight aCTes of land hi~h up on Sou~q ~oupt~m QVeJ;lookin~ the river, the property in question being added: " All must admit that there is bought from Rev. Ross Taylor and good ground for a charitable judg- Charles H. Woerz. The Taylor house ment in this instance, in view of the edis to be utilized as an adjunct of the ucation, associations and general moral Berachah Home, now in West Forty- environments of one born of Jewish fourth street, and another building now parents, and largely removed during on the site is to be turned into an the greater part of his life from the re- orphan asylum. Other buildings will straining and corrective influence of the be erected, including a tabernacle, to Gospel of Christ." This declaration accommodate 5,000 people. makes the matter worse, as it suggests grounds for distrust. We wish this Those who remember the small be- case could be finally settled. Some ginnings of sixteen years ago, must be time since a commitee of which Dr. led to exclaim: " Wha.t hath God John Hall was a member, reported that wrought I" all charges against him had been ex- amined and found baseless. If Mr. Says the late A. J. Gordon, in his Warsawiak is entitled to confidence, wonderful work" The Holy Spirit in what ever be his errors of judgment, it Missions": would be well so to assure the public.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or Apropos of the recent sesquicentenfigs of thistles? asks Jesus. Yea, 0 nial at Princeton, of the four hundred Son of God, through the engrafting of and sixty-nine graduates belonging to Thine own Divine Life even this miracle the period of Dr. Witherspoon's adis possible I ministration, it is said that one hundred and fourteen were clergymen, thirteen See the fruits of the Spirit hanging of whom became presidents of colleges; in rich clusters where once only the of the remaining three hundred and thorns of hate and cruelty aboundedl fifty. five, one-James Madison-was Forgiveness, that rarest and divinest for eight years President of the United grace, springing up in the heart of the States, one was Vice-President, six were man-slayer and cannibal! This is in- members of the Continental Congress, deed the crowning miracle of redemp- twenty became Senators of the United tion. States,twenty.three entered the House of Representatives, thirteen were Govern- It was this grace in lively exercise in ors of States, three were Justices of the the heart of a once savage New Zea- Supreme Court of the United States, lander which explained his singular and some twenty served as officers in behavior in rushing away from the the Revolutionary Army. And this, Communion table and then suddenly too, under the administration of a single returning to receive the sacred em- president. We have hoped that some blems. competent person would show Prince- ton's contribution to foreign mis8iom, Mr. Taylor, the missionary, observ- both in the way of direct work on the ing this action of his convert, askt an field and the creation of missionary literexplanation. The islander replied, ature. as well as prominent advocacy of "When I approacht I did not know the claims of the world-field, etc. Here beside whom I should have to kneel, is a department of Princeton's service to then I suddenly found myself close to the church and the world which is ns the man who slew my father and drank conspicuous, if the facts could be known his blood, and whom I swore to kill the generally, as any other. Who will write first time I saw him. The old revenge up this record? seized me, and I rushed from the table. But just then I seemed to hear a voice The Growth of Missionary Literature. saying. 'Hereby shall aU men know that ye are My disciples if ye have love The growth of missiona.ry literature one to another.' At the same time I is one of the wonders of this century, thought I saw another sight-a cross and the field is widening. Yale Univerand a man nailed thereon-and I heard sity has a special missionary library of him say. 'Father forgive them, they thousands of volumes, which would know not what they do.' Then I went have been impossible a hundred years back to the altar." ago. This growth may be traced in different ways. The recent action of the New York Presbytery over Mr. Warsawiak's case 1. The material for a good missionseems to us to require further steps in ary literature is now abundant. There justice to all parties. Without investi~ating charges against him, they de- is a, miI1,~ of literarr wealt4 Pl th,~ Ufe, clIned to ordain him, which, of course, they were at liberty to do, as there is no obligation to prd!l.w. lJut ther times, and labors of such men as Carey, There is still about $270.00 behind Judson, Duff, Livingstone, Morrison, on the fund, which we would be glad Nevius, etc. The task of shaping this to have made up.
material into good literary form has in- No new charges have been added spired the genius of scores of able during the past year, as the subscrip- writers. tions to volunteers are charged at a new 2. The 8tyle of modern missionary and special rate.
writing is very much improved, and For the Armenians we have received now demands and commands a high from W. M. Webb, for Anderson Bapliterary grade. Mere annals, dull and tist Sunday-school, Anderson, 8. C., lifeless, are not tolerated. In recent $15_57, and $5 from Miss L. M. Rood. missionary reviews, papers, and books, the arts of the printer, engraver, map- maker, bookmaker, and litterateur all ' Eugene Stock, Esq., of the Churh Missionary Society, has been releast combine. from editorial duties, for a time, to 8. The subjects treated now are speci- write up the history of the hundred years of that venerable organization, fic, not so general as formerly. Dr. B. whose centenary is close at hand. The C. Henry does not write of the whole task is very heavy, but no man is more Celestial Empire, but of special work in competent than Mr. Stock. He writes: and around Canton; Dr. J. L. Nevius, of specific work in the Shantung Pro· .. Our Secretary from 1802 to 1824, the vince; Dr. John G. Paton, of the New Rev. Josiah Pratt, started in 1813 the Hebrides. :for8t miB8iona1'1/ magaziM 61Je1' brought 4. As a result, Christian people are out. This was called' The Missionary reading missionary periodicals and Register.' He carried it on for nearl)' books with a growing interest. The thirty years, up to 1841, and it continued time has been when it was fashionable for a few years after that. It was from to know but little about missions. But the first a record, not of C. M. S. onlr, times are changin~. The Cross-Bearer's but of all the societies and missions m Missionary Readmg Circle, a three all parts of the world. Your REVIEW, inyears' course of systematic reading and teresting as it is, does not, of course, prostudy on missions in all lands, was in- fess to give a systematic history of all augurated six years ago, as an educa- the societies and missions, which the tional movement among our thousands Missionary Register did. Of course, of Christians who remain in the home missions were on a smaller scale in those land. The literature chosen for 1896-7 .days, but still they were extensive, and demanded the most skilful treatment to is as follows: The" Life of John Will- make their history clear. Gradually, iams," the "Life of Dr. J. L. Nevius," of course, the different societies began "Medical Missions," the "Life of Alex- to issue their own distinct periodicals, ander Duff," and the "Missionary Re- and in 1858 the Register was dropped. view of the World." So writes Rev. The earliest reports of the A. B C. Marcus L. Gray, President C. M. R. C., F. M., the Baptist and Presbyterian St. Louis, Mo., who will give further information to those who apply.
Boards, etc., appear, and in the year We have just learned the address of 1822 the two American missionaries in the author of the medical work to which Bombay, Hall and Newell, issued a reference is made in the February paper on the Evangelization of the REVIEW, p. 140.-" Medical Hygiene, whole world within a brief specified or cures for all diseases without drugs." time. The words, 'in this generation,' W. Frank Ross, M. D., Rantoul, are not there, otherwise the scheme is Illinois. Correspondents may thus almost exactly like the present S. V. M. U. plan It contains careful calcucommunicate directly with him. lations of the number of heathen in the Donations have been received by the world, the number of Christians in the editors or puQIishers for the Missionary church, the number of missionaries Volunteer Fund, and applied, as fol- necessary, and the cost of E1ending them out-very similar to the calculations lows: JamNe.s ZReeaidla,nWd _e_i_n_u_i_,_A__k_a_r_o_a_,$ 1.86 made by Mr. Wishard in his recent book. Have you ever seen this remark- S. KAo.reMa_o_f_f_et_t,_ _P__ye__n_g_ _B__a_n_g_, 8.50 able paper? I suppose it must be in the archives of the A. B. C. F. M. The Mrs. McEwan, of Italy (By Missionary Register prints large extracts Mrs. Bowie, Phila.) ______ 50.00 from it, which I havll read with the deepest interest. Truly there is nothing 65.36 new under the sun!"
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extraots and Translations from Foreign rightful Lord and Master, and to set Periodicals. before him in all, earnest love and patient sympathy, the grace, the glory, BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, and the power of the Eternal Son of MASS. God ?"
MOHA.MMED.A.NISM. -The Intelligencer, some time -The Rev. E. SELL, quoted in the back, commented very pertinently on Annual Report of the C. M. S. for Professor Max Mllller's assertion, that 1895-96, remarks on "the great barrier the Mohammedans have a more elevated which Islam sets up to hinder the conception of Christ than Christians, Church's onward march In the Eastern inasmuch as they ca.ll Him the Word world. Possest of a highly dogmatic of God, but refuse to call Him the Son religion, the dogmas of which are of God. Inasmuch as the Moham- sharp and well defined; accepting a medans have borrowed "Word of God ..
law supposed to be divine, complete, from the Christians, Max M1lller's and final; looking back to a history meaning can only be that it is an un- which records many former successful worthy conception of God to view Him worldly conquests, with occasional as capable of sustaining any relations gleams of borrowed splendor-the of mutual affection, either within the Moslem stands erect, proud to be such, Godhead, or beyond it. Such an ab- and utterly scornful of all other creeds horrence of love as a possibility to God and men. Has the Church yet realized is thoroughly Mohammedan. It S66IDS the greatness of this force thus arrayed strange, however, to hear a Christian against her, or estimated aright the declaring that He who, tho high, yet difficulties to be overcome? Century hath respect to the lowly, degrades after century past by, and the Church Himself by a relation of such intimacy, was silent. It is only within this cen- affection, and reverence, as that exprest tury that any very real and continued by Son and Father. Certainly Sonship effort-and that all too feeble-has been and Fatherhood are as central to Chris- made to place the true faith of the Gos· tianity as they are abhorrent to the pel of our Lord Jesus Christ before the coldness, hardness, and unutterable Mohammedan world. When, then, we uncleanness of Islam. We hope to remember our past neglect, the points bring the whole world yet to see that of contact in some matters of belief the ineffable pity and tenderness of between us and them, the conscious Fatherhood, ~aving its antecedent in groping after a higher light which some the eternal bosom of the Godhead it- MosleIDS have shown, the repudia- self, is the very crown and summit of tion of much that is narrow, super- the Infinite Glory. Word addresses stitious, and immoral by a few the mind, but Son, including Word, Mohammedans now in India, whose but bringing it out of its cold abstrac- ideas will doubtless lJ·ffect more and tion, addresses mind and heart, ad- more the educated classes ;-when we dresses the whole being of man. It remember all these things, are we not seems much to be regretted that Pro- distinctly called upon to try to under- fessor }Iax MUller should have allowed stand this great Islamic system, and his young Turkish friends to bring him then to seek to win the Moslem for his to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
-In the Annual Report, the Rev. the London Society chapel bas been for F. F. Adeney, of Egypt, writes: two years turned into a barrack, and " The casual visitor stops to wonder at also the missionaries' dwelling-house, the grave Eastern in his flowing robes and likewise the S. P. G. schoolhouse, bowing reverently at the time of the Jesuits have meanwhile enjoyed the prayer, even in the open street. But he undisturbed" possession of their builddoes not consider that the very same ings, both of worship and instruction. man has very likely been cursing and It is true, this discrimination may have swearing, and cheating. and quarrelling been not so much in favor of Catholics just before he began to pray, and will against Protestants, as in favor of do so again when he has finisht. He Frenchmen against Englishmen. admires the stately intonation of the Koran, but he little thinks what his- All the English churches o! the provtorical absurdities, what sinful licenses, ince of Tamatave, save one, have been what cruel and bloodthirsty injunctions burned by the insurgent heathens, and it contains. the missionaries compelled to take refuge on the coast, or at Antananarivo. "The Moslem sheikh who teaches me Arabic has been enlarging to-day on The French government, before tathe superiority of Islam. He rejoices king possession of Madagascar, gave the over the massacres of Christians in the English government assurances that Tnrkish Empire. So narrow-minded is it would maintain liberty of conscience, he, that he declares that it is impossible and would respect the work of the to translate the Koran, and that all English missionaries. Of course, nobody nations are bound to learn Arabic in put much faith in its promises, tho we order to participate in the revelation of have tried to hope against Rope. France God. And so ignorant is he of the is mainly goverued by atheists, but by power of Christian love, that he believes atheists who always bear in mind the that were my wife to declare herself a words which the Protestant Guizot was Moslem, I should drive her from me. not ashamed to avow in his public He would kill all idolaters who refused capacity: "France abroad means Cathto become Moslems, and thoroughly olicism." The French despise and hate recognizes the obligation to flght against Protestantism as a Teutonic intrusion unbelievers. into the Latin world. English Protes- tants they hate with double hatred, "Would that people at home under- national and religious. But the bItstood how loveless the creed of Islam terest of all hatred is that which may is. Of real unselfish love a Moslem be called the irreligiously religious. It has no notion, and the great and crown- is the hatred of those who remain Cathoing Christian truth that God is love, is lic, tho they have long ceast to be to him an enigma. Power is his only Christians. It is in the hands of such idea of greatness, and consequently the men, principally, that the government weak suffer terribly in a Moslem coun- of France has long been, and it is in the try." hands of such men that it will probably long continue to be. Should the House MADAGASCAR. of Orleans come once more to the throne (which seems hardly likely), a -Altho the French goverument in less fanatical temper would probably a general way endeavors to maintain prevail, but not one less unscrupulous religious liberty in Madagascar, yet it abroad, in the endeavor to suppress is not to be supposed that it "forgets the Protestantism, at least English Protes· Protestant Guizot's declaration in the tantism within the French territories. name of his government: " France The policy of Louis Philip's government abroad means Catholicism." Thus, as in Tahiti is sufficient proof of that. M. Escande, the new agent of the Paris Society, reports: at Tamatave, while Of course, where a pretext is wanted,
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
it is always to be found. This is what government itself has as yet given any the Journal de8 Miasi0n8 for December, distinct intimation of an intention to 1896, says: expel the English missionaries from Madagascar, altho it may be doubted •• The news brought by the last mail how long it will be either able or disfrom Madagascar gives us to forsee evil posed to withstand the mingled flood of days for the Protestant missions. The ultramontane and of atheistic hatred, odious system of falsehoods and calum· which is thus availing itself of a hyponies which persists in representing critical pretense of patriotism. Just the Fahavalist jIlovement as fused with now, it is true, there is said to be a good Protestantism-altho the first victims understanding between France and have been Protestant missionaries, and England, which may for a moment altho of six hundred churches and delay the accomplishment of the evil chapels which have been destroyed, purpose. Good understandings between scarcely one hundred and twenty were the European powers at present, how- ·Catholic-this system has already be- ever, are a mere fortuitous concourse gun to bear fruit, and many indica- of atoms, likely to be followed in a few tions give us the presentiment of a days by as violent a mutual repulsion. period whose dominant character will Certain it is that ?rIr. Harold Frederick, be to assume, in many particulars, an .who is not apt to let his wishes take opposite position to the liberal and the place of facts, gleefully anticipates friendly administration to which M. the speedy expUlsion of all English Laroche has given his name. missionaries from every severed part of the wide colonial empire of France. "It is well to affirm it, in view of This gentleman is much too careful to the inundation of falsehoods which has have here made the wish the father of overflowed the press: up to this day, the thought. He avows that he could the attitude of the Protestant mission be equally eager for the expUlsion from has been irreproachable. The engage- India of the Zenana nurses, whom, for ments assumed before the minister by some reason, he segregates from the the directors of the societies which labor mass of Indian missionaries, and honors in Madagascar have been kept; the with the full cordiality of his hatred. missionaries, after having accepted with Yet he regretfully allows that it is out gratitude the new administration which of all question to look for the banishpromist to their churches religious ment of these from India. His joyful liberty and to the country the security alacrity of confidence, therefore, that and all the advantages of a good gov- the English Protestant missionaries ernment, have done all that lay within within the French colonies are all to be their own power to lend a cordial and sent packing, does not rest merely on unreserved support to this government. his hatred of missionaries. It doubtless It has required all the bad faith of rests on some solid ground of expectaimplacable adversaries to obscure as to tion. Even Protestant Germany mutthis point the truth, to which the im- ters against foreign Protestant missionpartial administrators bear witness. aries within her bounds. Great Britain Unhappily this testimony has not been seems to be the only power that has able to make itself heard everywhere, completely surmounted all such miserand calumny pursues its work." able persecuting suspicions. French- men or Germans, A.mericans or Danes, -The Societe de8 Mia8i0n8 E-oangel- Catholics or Protestants, all are equally iqu/J8 means to send out as many French welcome to her wide dominions, if they laborers as possible, so as to give can only do her subjects any good. a Gallic tinge to the Protestant work, This is one of the thousand proofs of and to blunt as far as possible the edge her "inexhaustible vitality." both of Jesuit and of chauvinistic slander.
It does not appear that the French
ENGLISH NOTES
English Note& gelistic branch-the fishing for living souls, and secondly, the pastoral branch BY JAMES DOUGLAS. -the shepherding converts, and the now numerous bodies of hereditary The Presbyterian Ohurch of England. Christians. -Rev. Dr. Dykes, in the Presbyimza,n Mes8enger, writes an article on "Chris- The SundaY-8chool MO'Vernent in India, tian Unity," setting forth, in the first can not be called a recent one, as it was place, the apparent disunion existing be- introduced for non-Christian children tween the various sects in the Church of nearly a quarter of a century ago, but Christ. He then points out that the it gives promise of proving Ii valuable real unity is the individual relation of means for influencing the children of each believer to the Lord. " A living the poorer classes of the community. union to the Personal Lord with all More than one-third of the total of that fiows from this:-here is what is schools and scholars are found in the common to all true Christians and to all north-west provinces and Oudh, where true Churchmen." the lIfethodist Episcopal missionaries, by whom the first serious attempt to The Olturch at OhaocluYtrfu has establish such a school was made in grown so large that the place of wor- 1872, have largely developt the effort. ship is no longer large enough to accommodate the number of people who The Zenana Work has many encourgather from Sabbath to Sabbath. There agements. Some of the pupils can read is an opportunity just now of purchas- English, and enjoy the "Life of Bishop ing a house in a good and suitable posi- Hannington," the "Schonberg Cotta. tion, near to the mission hospital and Family," etc. There have recently just inside the south gate of the city. been several baptisms among the The cost of purchasing and altering the women of the Zenanas, and the whole new premises is about £500, about £200 work shows mental and spiritual deof which has already been subscribed velopment which is most hopeful. or promist. " It is of the utmost importance that this center should be Work in Colombo.-Colombo is a worthily occupied, and it is hoped large, prosperous city, as the immense friends of the mission will respond growth and ever-increasing expansion quickly to this call." of its trade indicates. The Rev. A. E. Dibben reports an increasing English The Ohurch Missionary Society.-The congregation at Galle Face Church, and ninety-seventh annual report of the ever growing interest on their part in above society shows an evident forward the missionary work carried on in movement, both as regards the number Colombo and in the island generally. of missionaries, and also the way in Miss Child visits the homes of the which these workers have been received Mohammedan women, she writes:- and encouraged by the natives of the Oncof the most interesting things that various countries and districts in which has taken place in connection with the they have labored. The annual sermon house-visiting, is the reopening of a preacht at St. Bride's Church, by Rev. house that has been closed for two W. H. Barlow, D.D., put clearly years, because a young girl confest her before the listeners the opportunity faith in Christ. Her books were taken for present active service for God in from her, and she was beaten by her home and foreign fields of labor. The father; but still slle stood firm, and at text was "Behold, I have set before last the father has relented, and allows thee an open door," and these words her to be taught again. The girl's joy were taken as an incentive to immediate was unbounded, and she says, "I have action. In briefly reviewing the work forgotten nothing, it has all been kept of the past, it divides itself naturally in my heart. The last time I saw her into two great division-first, the evan-
GlllNlllRAL MlSSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
she said how much she was looking . hand in the fire and not know it, while forward to Christ's coming, and how you listen.' Truly Eastern imagery, yet very glad she would be to see him." I believe that woman is a true Christian at heart, tho she fears to confess it." The King of Two, IJaudi Ka~agama, stands alone among his chiefs in being THE KINGDOM:. a true Christian. God has wonderfully toucht his heart, and he realizes to a -Surely this of all times is not the very real extent that his duty is first to time to disbelieve in foreign missions; God. He is most regular in his attend- surely he who despairs of the power of ance at the classes, and sits daily at the the Gospel to convert the world to-day, feet of Jesus to be taught. He is show- despairs of the noontide just when the ing his love for God's work in a practi- sunrise is breaking out of twilight on cal way, that is, he is having built a the earth.-Phillips Brooks. house suited for the work to be carried on in it. -Says Prof. J. H. Goodell in TM Pacific: "The modern conception of Sla'I)(J'I'1J in East Africa.-The follow- the missionary idea must delocalize the ingresolution was past by thecommittee, thought of missions. It must soon be and has since been forwarded to Her impossible for one· Christian to ask Majesty's Government:-"That in the another: 'Are you interested in misopinion of this Committee the time has sions ?' As well may we inquire, fully arrived to give effect to the long 'Do you believe in living?' God has apd definite promise of Her Majesty's brought our ears literally to the beating Government, to abolish the status of heart of heathenism. The day is past slavery in the dominions of the Sultan when a church is just to take charge of of Zanzibar, including Mombasa and adjacent slums, the surrounding boardall the country within ten-mile limit. ing houses, or the Nob Hill of society. They would earnestly and respectfully To·day God has planted every church press upon Her Majesty's Government in the midst of heathenism. The throbthe urgent necessity for prompt and res- bing pulse of the unsaved world is to olute action in the matter." be feIt in every sanctuary. Every ear, unless it be purposely stopt, can de- Uganda. – On December 15th, the tect the fever-jump of our smitten committee welcomed back Bishop brethren the world over. The cry, Tucker, and were thrilled with his 'Come over and help us,' has become wonderful account of the spread of the universal. There are no foreign mis- Gospel in Uganda. sions. Distance is no longer. In the marvelous providence of God every North Africa Mission.-" Mr. Reid, point of our world is now home misof Tripoli, reports a very fair attend- sions. It is now time to realize that in ance at the medical mission during the the kingdom of God, as at present month. of October. The Bible shop opened, consolidated, and intermingled, had been opened as often as was possi- nothing is foreigu. nothing is far off, ble. Very few Arabs have visited it at nothing is separated from my own perpresent, but a great many Jews, to sonal interest and privilege. Africa is whom tracts have been given, and a your home and my home; Asia and the few Bibles sold." Miss B. Vining, of isles of the sea, and every spot on this Tangier says, "I have lost some of my footstool of God is our personal abode. girls from the class lately-their fathers The modern conception of the missionfeared they were learning too much of ary idea must make every business man the 'religion of the Christians.' One of feel as he goes to his office that he is my women the other day told a fliend, to make money for the conversion of in speaking of the teaching, 'The words the world; and every professional man are so beautiful, you might have your that his mission now is to live to bring the earth to loyalty in the kingdom of the nations have been steept in hea- God." Verily, that is God's truth in thenism for centuries, the conversion every word, and exceedingly well of a single person means more than lips spoken, besides. can express. The greatest hindrance to-day to the spread of the Gospel in -In 1850 you could buy a man in foreign lands is the attitude of Christenthe Fiji Islands for $7.00, butcher him, dom toward the heathen world concernand eat him, without even public re- ing the vices that are a part of our monstrance. To-day the Bible is in civilization. The missionaries will ever nearly every house, and on Sunday fail to reach the thinking men and nine-tenths of the people may be found women in heathen lands until the liquor assembled in the churches for public traffic is overthrown in America, and worship. What about the power and the opium traffic in England, until profit of foreign missions? foreigners can see the principles of Christianity exemplified in our govern- -The amount expended by the ments." churches of the Toronto Baptist Association last year in their local work was -This is the conviction which the $47,987. The baptisms reported were directors of the East India Company 318. That is one baptism for about and their friends embodied in a resolueach $150 expended. The amount ex- tion and past in Parliament in 1793: pended in the foreign mission work of ., The sending of missionaries into our the Canada Baptists was $33,954, and Eastern possessions is the maddest, the baptisms numbered 453, or one most extravagant, most expensive, most baptism for each $75 expended. unwarrantable project that was ever proposed by a lunatic enthusiast. Such -Dr. Hitchcock, of the American a plan is pernicious, impolitic, unprofit- Board, has been looking the matter up, able, unsalutory. dangerous, unfruitful, and 'makes this surprising statement: fantastic. It is opposed to all reason Adding to the enrolled students in 39 and so;;nd policy; it endangers the American colleges which are regarded peace and the security of our possesas Congregational all the scholars under sions "!fl! the care of the American Missionary Association in the South, and of the -A census of the world seems impos- Education Society. including the New sible, but it is going to be undertaken. West, as well as the students of the 7 The unparalleled labor is to be one of Congregational theological seminaries, the gigantic projects to celebrate the there are not more than 30,000, possibly advent of the twentieth century, and it not more than 28,000. How many is safe to say that a more stupendous pupils there are in Congregational undertaking has never before been deacademies we do not know, but it would vised. The scheme had its real inceprequire 250 of them, with an average of tion at the biennial meeting of the In- 100 pupils in each, to add to the above ternational Statistical Institute, recently to bring the total up to the number now held at Berne, Switzerlaud, where a under instruction in the schools of the committee was appointed to consider American Board. But this is only one ways and means. Anything approximabranch of the Board's work, yet this ting an accurate census of the populabranch is seen to be a vast education tion of the earth at the present time is, society. without doubt, an impossibility. In addition to the poles, there are many -Miss Jessie A. Ackerman, of the BpOts on the earth that have never been W. C. T. U., has been twice around the visited by the explorer, and others from world, and spent 8 years in travel which a census enumerator never would This is a conclusion she has reacht: get away alive. The population of the .. I take a very cheery view of missions and their outlook for the future. After earth is now estimated at 1,700,000,000, starving Armenians which amounted to guesses founded upon the observation $113.00. of travelers, and upon other guesses mentioned in treaties given by such UNITED STATES. countries as China, Persia, Arabia, and – The A.doonce gives these figures Turkey.-London Mail. concerning the gifts made last year for public purposes in the United States: -The editor of The Herald of Go8pel " Without taking account of the small Lib8rt1/ is pleased with the word "in- sums collected by various organizations terdenominational," but evidently has through the usual methods, the aggresome difficulty with it. " It does not gate of special contributions and large look exactly right," he says. "Itseems gifts was $33,670,000, nearly $5,000,000 odd not to have at least a hyphen to more than in 1895, and $13,500,000 more separate; but itfu18 right." than in 1894. Of this amount $10,854,- 000 went to charities, $2,135,142 to -That great Baptist Church, Tre· churches, $16,814,000 to colleges and mont Temple, in Boston, has fitted up $2,000,000 more to museums and art the sixth floor of its beautiful new galleries. building for the especial comfort of the many' young members of the church – The Oongregationalilt started a few who are at work in the business section weeks since a fund for the care and wherein the church is situated. There education of Armenian orphans, which is a fine kitchen, and a large tea-room. at last accounts approximated to The tea-room is bright and cheery in $25,000. all its furnishings, and here nourishing food will be fumisht at a low price. -It is pleasant to read in TM Ind.6- Near by are cosy rooms for men and penti8nt that there are 25,424,333 comothers for women, with desks to write municants and 136,960 ministers in the at, lounging chairs for comfort, places churches of the United States; but not for sewing, for newspaper reading, for so pleasant to be informed that the games,-in fact, a delightful Christian Union holds 19 kinds of Lutherans, 17 home, in the midst of the whirl and kinds of Methodists, 13 kinds of Bapuproar of busy Boston. The plan is as tists, 12 kinds of Presbyterians, 12 kinds practical as it is beautiful, and will do of Mennonites (only 52,944 in all), 6 much to commend to young people the kinds of Catholics, 6 kinds of Adventreligion of the Christ of Bethany.- ists, 4 of Friends, 4 of Dunkards, 3 of Golden Rule. Reformed, etc., etc., etc., etc. It looks as tho it was high time for 8O'TlUbod1/ to -The curfew ordinance, requiring "go back" further than to Wesley, children to be at their homes after or Calvin, or Luther, even to one Jesus. nightfall, has now been adopted by 200 cities, and city officials, parents, -The New York Tribune', Fresh Air school-teachers, and chiefs of police are Fund has issued its reports of last year's emphatic in their praise of its efficacy. work and a summary of that of its Mrs. John D. Townsend, who makes twenty years now-ended. Its expendithis statement in the North A._Wan tures for the year were $23,948, with Rsfliew, believes that, while prevention which 1,040 were sent for two weeks of crime is better than its punishment, into the conntry; 25,910 mothers and it is best to begin with care for children, children were given a pleasuring in the and also that the associations of the Fund's grove on the Hudson, and the streets in the night hours are productive day excursions made up the number of of crime. beneficiaries for the season, 40,600. In the twenty years, with $371,778, it has -A mission church in Chihuahna, helpt 347,269 children and adults, of Mexico, recently by the use of mite whom 151,324 were given the usual two. boxes made an offering for the relief of weeks' summer outing. -Below are given the average re- (b) The place for Foreign Missions in the plan of God. ceipts of the American Board by de- (c) Christ's yearning for a lost world. cades for sixty years: (d) The Holy Spirit and Foreign Mis- 1833-43, $35,909 sions. (e) The penalt,Y of disobedience. 1848-53, 86,909 (f) Foreign MIssionary motives.
1853-63, 134,718 (g) Apostolic Missionary methods.
1863-73, 250,138 1873-83, 509,979 -During 48 years the Presbyterian 1883-93, 798,033 Foreign Board has supported 453 mis- -The Oh'I'iBtian StandaJrd (Disciple) sionaries of all classes among 21 tribes says: We will soon enter Africa. The of Indians, at an expense of $525,600, Springfield Convention urged the Ex- given by the churches, and of $520,000 ecutive Committee to enter at once. entrusted to the Board by the Govern- The committee hopes to be able to send ment for educational work. Over 3,000 2 men, but if 2 can not be sent, 1 will were received during that time as combe sent early in 1897. Before another municants, not counting the nearly year rolls around we hope to be able to 2,000 more transferred by the Amerireport that our missionaries have en- can Board.
tered the Dark Continent, and have set -An interesting feature of the recent up their banner in the name of the meeting of the Synod of Washington, Lord. Idaho, was the presence of 30 Christian -The Methodist Episcopal Church Nez Perc~ Indians. They were minis- has appropriated $586,800 for foreign ters and elders and their wives. One missions for the current year. Of this of the evening services was conducted sum China receives $114,000, Japan wholly by them; one of their number, $46,576, Korea $14,285, India and Rev. James Hays, preaching the ser- Malaysia $142,436, South America mon. Mr. Hays and many of the others $71,348, Mexico $49,500, the rest going were trained in Miss McBeth's theolog- to Europe and to Africa. ical school. The whole company were -The Presbyterian Church gives out the frnits of the labors of those sainted this most excellent scheme for monthly 'missionaries, Spaulding and Whitman.
concerts. At the end is appended the -Word comes from Massachusetts subdivisions of the theme for January. that since the first publication of a list Jan.-The Bible and Foreign Missions. of unoccupied farms in that State five Feb.-Evangelistic Missionary Work. years ago, nearly 300 farms have been .March-Missionary Administration. Bold, most of them to Americans. We Aprit-Native Christians. hear little concerning that subject in Jfay-Woman's Work. Vermont now. We have few unoccu- June-Foreign Missionaries, pied farms and those are not giving us July-Mission Printing Presses. any uneasiness. Weare not likely to Aug.-Reflex Influence of Foreign see again such an emigration as in the Missions. past, and many who have gone out from &Pt.-Missionary Schools. our borders would gladly return if they Oct.-Medical Missions. were able. In this connection the Nov.-Influence of Christianity on the thought of Secretary Merrill is still per- Social Life and Civic Institutions tinent, "Abandoned farms are not so of Heathen Lands. dangerous as abandoned principles."
.Du.-The Home Church and Foreign Our churches must see to the latter in- Missions. dustry.- Vermont Ohronicle.
BmLE AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. -Cambridge (Mass.) voted no-license at the late election, for the eleventh (a) The place of Foreign Missions in the consecutive time, with the largest Word of God. majority in the city's history. 1,881. A and locations of all medical missionaries prominent factor in the fight was Father holding British degrees, 239 in number, Thomas Scully, who ~ctively opposed a net gain of 23 over 1895, and estimates the saloon. Also Mayor W. A. Ban- that the United States and Canada are croft, who addrest and, presided over represented by about as many more, several meetings. Many business men while the Continent is credited with but shut down their shops for noonday 10. About 500 physicians are now in rallies, factories, foundries, and stores the foreign field. being turned into rallying places. Cam- bridge seems to be permanently in the -The Manchester mission has just prohibition column. observed its anniversary. It lllaintains crowded preaching services at the Free -Rev. Lyman Jewett, one of the Trad hall, the Central hall, the Grand modern heroes of faith, has recently Theater c Varieties and various chapdied in Fitchburg, Mass., at the age of els. It has concerts, lectures, lantern 85. Entering the Telugu mission in exhibitions, Bible classes, guild meet- 1848, by 1862 it had proved so barren ings in bewildering variety. Its relief that the Baptist Board seriously debated and rescue and preventive agenCies, the wisdom of closing it. Mr. Jewett conducted by a large staff of paid and was at the meeting and exprest his unpaid workers, form a network of determination to return and die there, philanthropic beneficence that practiand concluded by saying that somebody cally covers the city, including a labor must be sent along, at least to bury yard, men's home, preventive and trainhim. And not many years later came ing home for girls, night shelter for those astounding revivals. women, casual ward for men, medical mission, district nursing among sick GREAT BRITAIN. poor, maternity home, servants' regis- try employment bureau, food depot, -At the Foreign Office recently Mr. cottage mission, girls' institute, lads' G. N. Curzon received a deputation club and other departments. from the Society of Friends, headed by Mr. J. A. Pease, M. P., in reference to -Honored as is the work of the the abolition of slavery in Zanzibar. Religious Tract Society, few persons Several members of the deputation regard it as a great auxiliary of urged that the abolition should be foreign missions. Many will learn with immediate, and that there should be no surprise that it has publications in 219 intermediate system of apprenticeship. languages, and that large grants of Mr. Curzon, in reply, said he repeated Christian literature, always to the full and endorst the pledge previously given extent of the means at the society's disby the Government as to the abolition posal, are made to the leading missionof the legalstatua of slavery in Zanzibar ary societies. In the course of the' life and Pemba. As to the manner in of the Society no less a sum than £685,- which that was to be effected, the mat- 000 has been so expended. Last year ter was under consideration, and no the grants amounted to £32,561. The decision had been arrived at. The value of Christian literature for con- Government wanted to secure the bona verts surely needs no words to emphajld8 freedom of the slave from any legal size it. In another way the R. T. S. trammels, and at the same time to does excellent service. Where missionavoid any sudden economic convulsion aries have printing-presses in the and consequent political and social dis- mission stations. the R. T. S. makes turbance. There was a danger that grants of paper for printing, and has there might be a large exodus of freed expended in the last fifty years £62,- slaves from the plantations. 000 upon this object.-Ohurch MUl8ion- arg intelligencer. -Medical MUll/ions at Home and Abroad for January gives the names -The Luganda version of the whole ASIA. Bible is the latest issue of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The shape Is)am.- Cyrus Hamlin is always cer of the book is singular, and the ex- tain to say something whenever he planation of it is no less singular. It is speaks or takes his pen, but seldom has ihree inches broad, or thereabout, and he uttered himself to better purpose or the Bame thickness. The Bible Society more forcibly than in his recent article in this carried out the instructionsgiven on "The Failure of Islam." An en- to them without asking the reason why. grost copy ought to be sent to His When they did ask, they were told Serene Highness, whose thorny seat is it was in order to fit the book into on the Bosphorus. Qne of Huntley and Palmer's 2-lb. biscuit-tins, leaving room at the side -An item from the MiBsWna'1"1f for a.little book, ., Oxford Helps to the Herald says: How many Sunday- Study of the Bible," and at the end for schools are there in the United States prayer and hymn-book. These tins are that are obliged to enforce a rule that somewhat plentiful in the country now adults can no longer be permitted to so many Europeans are residing there, attend because there is no room to and they protect the books from the accommodate them? Such is the case voracity of white ants and other insect with the Sunday-schools in Aintab, plagues.-Idem. Central Turkey, which are now held at noon, and have a membership of over -An anonymous friend has offered 3,000 children. More than half these the Church Army £1, 500 for the special children .belong to the old Gregorian purpose of extending the society's work Church. While the Sunday-schools amongst the outcast, on condition that are thus prospering, inquiry meetings a further £8,500 is subscribed for the are held and are largely attended. And same purpose, in sums of £25 and up- it is in that same city of Aintab, that wards, by the end of February. In not long since Prof. J. Rendal Harris, response to an appeal issued, over of Cambridge University, England, and £2,600 of the required amount has his wife, spoke in one day to audiences already been subscribed. numbering nearly 11,000.
-It is now definitely decided that -The American consul at Erzerum, H. S. Newman shall accompany Theo- writing Nov. 21 in a letter made public dore Burtt to Pemba, in Africa. It is by the State Department, puts the numa responsible and hazardous enterprise ber of orphans at 50,000 and adds: in behalf of free labor in the African German charitable or religious sociisland, and with the hope and prospect eties are preparing to establish industrial of helping the cause of freedom, and orphan asylums at Oorfa, Cresarea and mayhap, indirectly, helping the Govern- elsewhere, and the Kaiserswerth deament to remove a stain from the flag of conesses of Germany have made pro- Britain, but especially that true Chris- vision for receiving Armenian orphans tianity may thus find expression among at Smyrna. and 30 have been sent there Mohammedans and others.-Engli8h from here. The British Government Friend. or its ambassador at Constantinople has initiated a movement .leading towards -A most interesting and important settling a number of widows and their volume of about 300 pages has been children on the island of Cyprus, more publisht by the English Friends, giving particularly. at present, at least, those the papers and addresses presented at within the province of Erzerum, which the recent Darlington Conference on number in the cities of Erzerum, Er- Foreign Missions, and abundance of zinjan, and Baibourt 2/049 who are information concerning their work in wit~oilt means and are recipients of foreign lands. The showing is most relief. creditable•. -The command to .. begin at Jeru- This was more effectual than all the salem" was literally observed by the rest. He helpt his fellow at the yoke early promoters of medical missions, for half an hour, and then down he for one was establisht in that city as came. 5. This time the irate driver far back as 1824, and the number of out- graspt the tail of the reclining animal patients visiting the English Mission and, taking it in his mouth; bit it merci- Hospital for Jews at Jerusalem last lessly. This was as effectual as the year was 12,335, not including dressings Chile powder, but made the biter some to wounds, sores, etc., which numbered trouble to get the hair all out of his 11,880. The in.patients numbered 879. mouth. 6. His last resort was to put a Many sick Jews had to be refused for live coal under the brute's caudal ap- lack of room. The patients came from pendage. This brought the cart into Cairo, Alexandria, Damascus, etc., as the village. If any minister in America well as from Jerusalem. The new hos- ever came across such ingenuity on the pital which is building will have 40 part of an American farmer in dealing beds, 15 more than the one used at pres- with a balky horse, to divert his mind ent, which was built in 1832. So still from wearying thoughts, let him speak. walks The Great Healer through the On another occasion I was called upon old city, over which He wept, in which to decide a case of considerable gravity. He workt, and in which He prayed A poor man, in a comer for cash, borand died.-Medzca& JlfiBsiouOll'1/. rowed 10 rupees ($2.50) of a neighbor, and made over his wife to him as secur- India.-A Hindu named Aaron was ity for the same till such time as he the first native Indian convert educated could pay the debt, which was without and ordained a Christian minister. This interest in view of the kind of security was in 1733, by Ziegenbalg. There are given. Our poor man saved until he now 1,000 natives ordained to the min- had 10 rupees in hand, and then called istry of the Reformed Churches. upon his neighbor to take his money and return his wife. The neighbor was so -I have heard more than once the well pleased with the security he said opinion exprest that a missionary's he did not want the principal back.- life was a very humdrum sort of one, and greatly wanting in the spice of in- R4'D. O. B. Wa1'd. cident. I do not accept the idea and propose to pen a few incidents in proof. -H. F. Laflamme, a Oanadian Bap- Some time since, while traveling over tist missionary, gives this vivid picture the country, I made note of the numer- of an outcaste Sunday-school: There ous and ingenious resorts of an unso- the children are, 77 of them, a tangle phisticated native of India to make a of lank arms and lean legs, their halfrefractory bullock that showed his de- naked bodies glistening with oil, or termination not to pull any more by grimy with filth accumulated by rolling lying down in the road, bend his shoul- in the gutter. The larger girls are disders once more to the task. 1. He tinguisht from the larger boys by prodded him with his nail-pointed gad. having one end of the cloth skirt, com- This made him move on a little way mon to the costumes of both sexes, pass when he dropt 'down again. 2. He up over the shoulder, and form a sort got a long whip and tried this on him, of loose waist. The smaller children ineffectually. 3. He wound a rope dress in a small cloth, the size of a around the nose of the obstreperous pocket-handkerchief. 'rhe hair crop, quadruped so tightly he could not get long, straight, black, and tangled, inhis breath. This brought him to his dicates the girls; that of the boys is feet and secured five minutes pull at the shaved off close to the shining black yoke. 4. He applied. Chile powder scalp, with the exception of a short (powdered' red pepper) to both eyes. tuft, or top-knot, used by their elders as a handle by which to pull them, wIlen recalcitrant, into the path of duty. matter of Sabbath observance. The They crowd together like a flock of Sabbath is a blessing they are slow to I crows over 'a new find of spoiled grain. appreciate. Living, as so many of the Chinese do, on the verge of starvation, -What woe, unspeakable and unim- they are slow to see the advantage of aginable, has deE.cended upon the hap- one day's rest in seven, when there is a less millions of India, when to the chance to earn something on the seventh awful scourge of the famine, the even day. As an example of Chinese povmore deadly infliction of the plague has erty, one man who had a wife and sevbeen added. The stories are quite past eral children, once gave as the reason belief that half the population of Bom- for his absence from Sabbath worship, bay have fled the city in panic terror. that they had no food in the home and he had taken the family over to his -The Rev. Robert Spurgeon, of father's house in order to get a meal Barisal, India, declares that there are there. districts in Barisal with populations of 800,000 and 500,000 without a single -The contention that the only hope preacher, tho when an occasional visit of missions lies in the education of chilis paid the people listen eagerly, and dren and not in the vain attempt to purchase copies of the Scriptures and convert adults finds a strong refutation tracts. What must the divine Head of in the work of the late J. A. Leyenthe Church think of these neglected berger in China. During his missionary opportunities? life he baptized 940 adults, 46 of whom were between the ages of fifty and sixty, -What a strange picture to our West- and 27 were over seventy years of age. ern minds this experience gives I A pupil in a mission college; then a dis- -An American professor in Peking tinguished graduate of the university University says of the Chinese church, and a great linguist; then a magistrate; of which he is pastor, that it is rapidly then a wandering fakir, who, while a coming up to self-support: "If the fakir, carried about with him one book Methodist Church in the United States only, and that the Bible; and, lastly, a would do as liberally in proportion to Christian brought to Christ by reading its ability, it would give about $15,000,- the Bible which he had carried about 000 annually for missions." Our conwith him while a heathen mendicant. verts are better than we are, more lib- We must go back to the earliest cen- eral, more self-denying, and more turies to find a similar picture.-Free prompt in their gifts. Ohurch Monthly. Korea.-After being well-nigh ship- China.-According to the Rev. S. wrecked at the hands of her officious L. Baldwin, who has spent over 20 pilots from abroad, Korea has entered years in China, the following are the upon a quieter era of reform, under infigures relating to this agency in that fluences nearer at home. The Re· land: "There are 100 male and 50 fe- pository, published in Seoul, remarks: male physicians, 150 male native med- "We gladly recognize the existence of ical students and 80 female students, 71 the progressive party and the good work hospitals treating many thousands of it is aiming to do: The widening and patients, and the physicians attending repairing of the main streets; the careyet other thousands at their homes, and ful cxpediture of government money; 111 dispensaries. in which over 223,000 the presence of capable foreigners in the patients are treated. About $70,000 law, war, and police departments; the was spent in medical work last year." dismissal of incompetent clerks; the redistricting the country into thirteen -A missionary of the China Inland provinces; and the fixed salaries of Society writes; Weare having a little governors and magistrates, tOlether difficulty at present with some in the with the littliting of their power and are continually discust in these papers, privileges," Add to these the royal and from a Christian point of postal service in 11 cities and 14 smaller view. The influence of the Christians towns, and we have a hopeful outlook upon the great moral reforms of the for the future. day is undeniable-they are practically under Christian leadership. The ChIis- -Rev. G. H. Jones writes: "In tians have already added largely to the Korea the Protestant mission work is commercial and industrial strength of carried on at 40 different places. The the nation.-The Outlook. storm of war and desolation has driven us ten years nearer our ultimate goal. -There are 15 publications in Japan The chief results have been the relief of devoted to the interests of women. Of Christianity from misconceptions of the these 3 are Christian. It is said that people, the mastery of a hitherto un- the late war with China has given a known tongue, and the successful great impetus to female education in inauguration of a Christian foundation. Japan. In the Mitsui Bank, of Osaka, Woman's work has been specially suc- the book keepers are all women. The cessful. The Protestant missionaries fair sex is also pretty well represented number 82. Of these 35 are Presbyter- in some of the Government offices. ians (31 from the United States and 4 from Australia); 26 are Methodists -The Y. M. C. A. of Tokyo has on from the United States (24 of the Meth- its roll the names of 347 members, odist Episcopal Church and 2 of the active and associate, and 186 young Methodist Episcopal Church, South); men attend the Association's night 12 are of the Church of England from school. England; 5 are Baptists from the United States; 4 are independent. In -A census of Christian charities in October, 1895, there were reported 42 Japan has been prepared by Rev. Mr. congregations, 528 baptized members, Pettee, of Okayama, in which are given 567 probationers or inquirers who had the names of 37 schools for the poor, given evidences of conversion and were having 1,317 pupils; 6 "homes" for applicants for baptism: 445 Sunday- various classes of persons, having 106 school scholars. The mission of the inmates, besides 22 orphanages having Methodist Episcopal Church was com- 1,189 inmates. There are also reported menced in 1885. It now reports 9 male 16 hospitals, and 4 institutions for the and 15 female missionaries, 122 mem- Ainu. Some of these charities were bers, and 288 probationers. organized and are supported by mis- sionary societies, but the greater portion Japan.-It is a striking fact, which owe their origin and maintenance to those who question the power of the individuals or churches, native or the Christian movement would do well foreign. The oldest of these charities to consider, that out of the half dozen are a school for the poor and an orphan so·called great papers (Dai Shimbun) of asylum at Yokohama, organized in Japan, two are avowedly under the 1871 by the Institute des Soeur de St. guidance of Christian principles. These Enfant Jesus. The next oldest is an two are the Kokumin Shimbun (the orphan asylum in Tokyo founded by Nation) and the Mainichi Shimbun (the the same sisters in 1873. J)a$'lu News). No Japanese, certainly, would dispute the correctness of this -Count Ito, the reforming Chancelclassification. One may doubt, possibly, lor of Japan, has persuaded the empress the religious influence of these journals; to wear European dress. His object in but they are stalwart champions of doing so is to help to secure for Japan- Christian ethics, and they have a wide ese women a higher social position. At hearing. Questions of public morality present they have assigned to them an inferior place in society. and Count Ito's notion is that by dressing like Europeans their standing will be raised. " If the your rifle, when you are getting a bead women," it is argued, "begin to wear on a fidgety buck, and bite in some foreign attire, their husbands will be painful spot just as you are about to obliged to modify their houses and pull the trigger. Other insects annoy their whole manner of living." you. Big moths, inquisitive about your lamp, enter your room at full speed, AFRICA. flutter noisily about your lamp, or try -There is little of Africa now that is to commit suicide inyour soup, leaving not controlled by either Portugal, Italy, the fluff of their wings floating on the Germany, France, or Great Britain. surface. The jigger burrows into your Germany possesses an area five times flesh, and starts in to raise a family in a as great as the original extent of its little white bag beneath the surface of own country. The African possessions your skin. The proverbial little ant is of France have been multiplied by five a terror to mankind. The large brown within the last decade. The only re- driver-ant, marching in swarms of milmaining portion of the great continent lions, with giant-ants as leaders and ofnot under European protection, the ficers, is a dreadful enemy. They move Sudan, is in process of conquest, really over the ground like a dark-brown ribby Great Britain, tho nominally by bon a foot wide, devouring every living Egypt. thing they meet, from a grasshopper to a goat, if the beast can not escape. -If the Kongo River were laid down Their heads are furnisht with terrific in Europe, it would extend from St. nippers; if you are bitten, and attempt Petersburg, in the north, and Smyrna, to pull away the insect, you will flnd in the east, to Athens and Naples, in the that the head remains in your flesh. south, watering the whole of Europe They will enter your house; no matter with the exeeption of northern Scandi- how well filled your larder was before navia and eastern Russia. the visit, it will contain nothing but -The English and German mission- bones afterward. The white ant does aries in East Africa introduced the cus- not bite you; his particular province is tom of raising a white flag with a red to destroy your most valuable property cross upon the flag-staff in their stations -your best trunks, your favorite shoes. on Saturdays, in order to tell the neigh- In one night he will so attack a wooden borhood that the Lord's day is on the box that when you lift it in the mornmorrow. The natives consequently call ing the bottom will drop out; he will Sunday" flag-day." eat a living eucalyptus·tree, and when he is in the district the poles of your -The late Mr. E. J. Glave wrote, in house in a few months' time will crum- the Century: "A word as to African ble into dust. At a certain state of his insects. In the swamps the mosquito is existence he has wings, which he sheds a vicious little fanatic. He assails you at your meal-times into your dishes.
in clouds without the slightest provo· Scorpions and tarantula spiders are only cation, and remains till killed. He is a occasionally met. Large beetles come keen observer, and if you are sitting in from long distances to see you, and end any posture which stretches your gar- their journey by striking you in the ments tightly over your leg, you feel a face. Many insects of smaller caliber sharp sting which tells you the mos- settle on the back of your neck, and quito has noticed the fact. A small hole when you try to brush them off sneak in your mosquito-net he notices at once, down your back. Small saw·flies feel and will struggle through it, a wing and particularly curious about your right leg at a time, and when inside calls to eye when the left one is closed and a few friends and tells them the way he you are trying to get a bead on a entered. They perch on the barrel of buck." -Extraordinary steps have been with the intrigue and fatalism of the taken by the authorities of Cape Colony Moslems, and the well-known ignorance to arrest the progress of the rinderpest, of the superstitious Mograbin Jews, which, making its way southward from the workers see little encouragement, the Zambesi, has desolated Rhodesia, but their trust is in the Lord, who has stript Khama's people in Bechuana- purposes of grace in Morocco as well as land of their most valuable property, in other countries. and threatens to desolate the entire southern section of the continent. At -The American Sudan Mission has its first irruption infected herds were already 4 stations and 18 workers near promptly slaughtered-one of the the source of the Niger at Falaba, and causes of the revolt of the Matabeles now proproses to send another set of was the refusal of the authorities to workers to occupy Timbuctoo. Two- compensate the native owners for cattle thirds of the inhabitants of the Sierra thus slain. Then an attempt was made Leone hinterland speak the Mendi lan- to prevent the infection spreading south guage, and the Mendi are the Waganda of the Molopolo River; strong patrols of the West Coast, so the possibilities were establisht on the southern bank- seem to be considerable, even though but in vain. A fresh boundary line- the surer way to reach the Sudan as a a fence of wire-was then constructed Whole be through the Hausaspeaking by the Cape authorities, at great ex- nations. pense, from the German territory on the west to the Transvaal on the east, -The Presbyterian Church of South and continued down to the south. The Africa has now its General Assembly, plague leapt this barrier, and appeared in which are represented the Free in three native localities. These were Church, with 3 presbyteries; the United promptly fenced in. A double fence Presbyterian Church, with 2 presbywas then built right across Bechuana- teries; the separate presbyteries of Natal, land, with a five mile interspace, and Cape Town, and the Transvaal, and the this belt is incessantly patroled to pre- congregation of Port Elizabeth. The vent the crossing of cattle. In all, united body claims to have 13,000 comsome 1,500 miles of wire fencing has municants, of whom three-fourths are been constructed, and the work has natives. Outside this community there cost, including the police and patrols, are 2 other Presbyterian churches in over $2,000,000. South Africa-the Dutch Ref(lrmed, with 160,000 members; and the Basuto -The annual report of the Central Church, with over 9,000 members. Morocco Medical Mission gives us some idea of the anxieties which be- -Dr. George F. Becker, of the set the work of Dr. Robert Kerr and United States Geological Survey, who his helpers. The Mission carries the has just returned from mining investi- Gospel to the Jews, Moors, Arabs, and gations in the Transvaal RepUblic, re- Berbers in the center of Morocco. ports that that country contains the Rabat and Salee, with an aggregate most stupendous gold deposits the population of 55,000 souls, 5,000 of them world has ever seen. Within 15 miles Jews, form the basis of operations, of Johannesburg, he says, on What is while the tribes lying between bring up called the main reef series, there is an the population to upwards of 400,000. amount of gold practically in sight, Owing to civil war and the unsettled estimated to be worth $3,500,000,000, state of the country, no itinerating work or nearly as much as the entire volume was possible last year, but the medical of gold coin now in the world. For mission was frequented by many of the the present gold is being taken out at people, 4,491 cases being treated during the rate of $100,000,000 a year, and it the nine months ending Sept. 30. What would not be surprising if, within a few years, the South African gold output equalled that of all the world be- way, and that he hoped they would be sides. Most startling of all is the report which Dr. Becker brings from another met on the coast of Kavirondo by the American mining expert that, to the best of his knowledge and belief, the new steamer supplied by the Stanley gold deposit, instead of being 30 miles long, is practi(~alIy 1,200 miles long. and Record Fund and conveyed thence -The Pennsylvania Bible Society to their destination, thus saving a fort· contributes $500 to pay the expenses of a second edition of the Tonga New night'smarching. The new Government Testament, for the missions .of the Methodist Episcopal Church in East steamer, which was put together at the Africa. The translation was made by the Rev.E. H. Richards, superintendent mouth of the Lake and was the first to of East African Missions. He will superintend the issuing of the new 1I.oat upon its waters, has suffered a disedition. The American Bible Society does the printing. aster at Bukoba, the German station on -The death of Baron Von Eltz adds the west coast, where it was driven on another name to the roll of those who have fallen in their enthusiasm to bring the rocky shore by a storm. Christ's kingdom of light and peace to Africa. He occupied the post of Com· -Writing by the last Livingstonia missioner for the German territories east of Lake Nyassa., and by strenuous mail from Ekwendeni, the headquarters efforts against the Arabs, had contributed in no small measure to the ex- of the mission which has tamed the tinction of' the slave trade in his district. To his children, as he called the Ngoni on the western uplands of Lake German missionaries in our African Interlaaken (the land between Tanganyika Nyasa, Dr. W. A. Elmslie reports con· and Nyassa), he was full of kindness. -Blantyre Life and Work. tinued progress up to the end of last -The missionaries of the Leipsic July. The 17 schools, with above 1,000 Society in East Africa are rejoiCing that they henceforth will receive their mail eager scholars in daily attendance, were regularly every three weeks. If they were in Alaska or in the Hudson Bay all in operation, and all studying the territory they would be glad to get it every three months I And we spoiled Word of God. which they purchase for children of civilization grumble if our morning paper is late a few minutes. themselves. Revs. E. Ovir and K. Segebrock, two young Leipsic missionaries, were mur- -We may give thanks to-day that the dered by Arusha and Meri robbers, October 20, on their way to the Meri spirit of place is so wide-spread. Folmountains, where they were to establish a new station. lowing hard after the good news about -Bishop Tucker, now in England, the Venezuelan difticulty comes the states that the Uganda party, who left the coast November 28, were to go tidings that Italy has resigned 'her pro· the 1I.rst 14 miles of the journey by rail- tectorate over Abyssinia and has recog· nized the independence of that plucky African countrr., whose Christian king and soldiers, It will be remembered gave the Italian army the most ignO:- minious drubbing several months ago. It was feared that Italy, to maintain lier military standing, would continue this expenSlye and bloody war at all costs.
Now that the present treaty has been concluded onreaigbnroabdetawnedenlibethraesl ebatswis~ peace will countries, and one more long step has been taken towards the recognition of the oft-ignored fact that weak and " uncivilized" nations have rights that should be respected.-Golden RUle.
-King Menelek of Abyssinia claims to have treatad the Jews more kindly and justly than others have done. •• There are more than 300,000 of them in my kingdom," he said lately to a missionary; "and though they enjoy almost complete independence, they are obedientand industrious subjects. They never conspire, pay all tributes, and respect our abuna as much as do the Christians. If they are worse in Eu- rope, it is because the Christians, too, are worse. Our Lord Jesus forgave them on the cross j why should we persecute them?"
The Missionary Review of the World — January 1895
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN le95
THE POPULAR GOD OF GOOo-LUCK.
An idol commonly worshipped and found in almost every houRe and shop in India. Hindu tradition mak«;s this god be the Son of Shiva, one of the Tri~murti. or triad of deities, which consisl"l of Brahma, the CreatoS"; Vishnu, the ~server' and SbivR. or Siva, the Destroyer and Renovator.
Mythology teaches that Shiva in a quarrel with his son, in anger smote off his head. Parvati, Shlva's wife. wrath- !y commanded him to restore their son to life. Shiva sought for Ganspati's head, but, failing to find it, seized an rtf-ihlheeacnr~edlaeetpdehdgabonytdw.cafis.org phant's head and stuck it on the hea dless body. At the same time this compensatio naswaabsovger.aeanlestceatrdofnotoiuc ~d g?!i,_that he should be first worshi pped in all c eremoni es. He is always represented MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIII. No.1.-0ld Serie3.-JANUARY.-VoL. VIII. No. 1.-New Serie3.
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
It is the peak that soars highest and commands the widest horizon that is sought by the daring and determined mountaineer. From such a point of view there is something more than mere range and scope ; at a glance the vision sweeps over a whole landscape and sees it in its proportions and relations.
Our custom has been to present in each January issue a sketch, at least, of the general aspect and prospect of the world's religious condition, and so prepare for the descent into details in subsequent numbers. In the present case we have sought personal estimates from the best available sources, and incorporate them in one combined statement. We have asked men, whose words carry authority, to frame, in as brief and compact a form as may be, their candid, careful impressions of the present condition of religious life in the various lands they represent. Some of these reports have failed to reach us in time for the press, but enough will be found here to challenge the thought and evoke the prayers of every lover of the kingdom of God. Other repurts, too late for this issue, may appear in subsequent nUIllbers.
I.-ARABIA.
BY REV. ]rRANK s. SCUDDER.
Arabia is as a lit.tle child in the missionary world. The first real desire to evangelize the country was born only ten years ago ; it was born in the heart of Hon. Ion Keith Falconer, and grew into the first modern mission in Arabia. The apostle Paul went into Arabia, but apparently established no mission there. The Nestorians once had churches there, but their faith was without power, and it was the idolatrous corruptions of Christianity as seen in the Greek Church which really led to the rise of Mohammedanism with its reinforcing of the doctrine of " one God." But hope dawned upon Arabia for the first time when Keith Falconer loved her even unto dea~h. Since October 28th, 1885, when he first arrived at Aden, the finger of God has written an inspiring page of Christian history. There are now three missions in Arabia.
1. Keith Falconer Mission.-The pioneer missionary of Arabia, after whom this mission was named, was a wealthy son of Scotland, an expert student, bicyclist, and phonographer, and a rising Orientalist. He laid down everything at the feet of Christ for Arabia. He bore the entire expense of the mission, including that of necessary buildings and the salary of a medical missionary, asking only that the work be recognized as a mission of the Free Church of Scotland. The mission was established at Sheikh Othman, about ten miles inland from Aden. At this place, while awaiting the completion of the buildings, and living as a pioneer must live, within a year and a half of his first arrival Keith Falconer laid down his life for Arabia, a victim of the trying climate from which he had insufficient protection. But his life was the inspiration of other men. His blood became the seed of the Church in Arabia. The Keith Falconer Mission is to-day meeting with success worthy of its noble founder, under the labors of Rev. W. R. W. Gardner and Dr. Young.
2. The Arabian Mission, of the Reformed Church in America, sprang up under the inspiration of Rev. Professor J. G. Lansing, D.D., of New Brunswick, N. J., who infused his knowledge and love of the Arabian people into the students under his instruction. The mission was organized in 1889, and now has a force of three ordained missionaries-Rev. James Cantine, Rev. S. M. Zwemer, and Rev. P. J. Zwemer-and one medical missionary, Dr. J. T. -Wyckoff. Three stations have been occupied in Eastern Arabia, at Busrah, Bahrein Islands, and Muscat. Seven native helpers are employed, and the work is carried along the entire eastern coast and rivers for eight hundred miles.
3. A Mission to the Bedouins in the vicinity of Mount Sinai has recently been undertaken by the Nol'th Africa Mission. A young German, who offered himself for work among these wild warriors of the desert, found his inspiration in the life of Keith Falconer. Thus at last there is a revival of the prayer of Abraham: "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee I"
The Arabians are descended from Ishmael, son of Abraham. They number about eleven millions in Arabia, and are intelligent, generous, and intensely religious. These traits have made them wonderful missionaries of the religion of the sword, and, when they are converted, make them noble missionaries of the cross.
The Outlook.-Especial hope is seen in large sales of Scriptures and educational books and in the power of a medical missionary's assistance. These are messages that have flitted across the Arabian deserts : "Things are waking up in the Keith Falconer Mission ; take courage, the redemption of Arabia is drawing near." "'tVe" (the Arabian Mission) "hear nothing but good news from each other in these days." "One can hardly
n:allIA
believe the tremendous impression which has been made on the whole of Arabia in so short a time j it must be selln to be understood." May the echoes of these good messages soon be heard also from the barren walls of Mount Sinai and its lonely Bedouin mission.
Information.-" Memorials of the Ron. Ion Keith Falconer," Sinker; " Reports of the Arabian Mission," 25 East Twenty-second Street, New York.
n.-PERSIA.
BY REV. S. G. WILSON, TABRIZ.
The outlook for Persia is cloudy. Politically it is in a stltte of decay. Whenever Russia chooses it can take the northern provinces, and in that case England will probably take the southern ones. Years may pass before this catastrophe arrives. The Shah, whose power was so rudely shaken by the popular and priestly opposition which overthrew the tobacco monopoly, has renewed his grasp upon the reins of government Itnd is gradually bringing the Mollahs into subjection. After a reign of forty-six years, his health is not as robust as formerly. The succession to the throne is more certainly secured to the Vali Ahd-his most prominent rival, the Zil-i-Sultan, having become blind.
Oommercially Persia makes little progress. The efforts made a few years ago to open mines and artesian wells, start factories, build roads, navigate the Karun, etc., have been for the most part abandoned. Internal resources remain undeveloped. Stagnation and an unfavorable balance of trade indicate increasing poverty.
Some religiou3 customs and social habits are being modified. Certain classes are becoming liberalized and desire to be brought into line with modern civilization. On the other hand, many seem more bigoted. Some religious festivals are increasing in fanaticism.
The outlook for missions among the Mohammedans is not reassuring. The martyrdom of Mirza Ibrahim, the reassertion of the law of Islamdeath to the convert to Christianity-the hostility to missionaries displayed in certain quarters, seem to defer the day of religious liberty, while the courage of converts, in the face of persecution and death, gives hope that faithful ones may win toleration even sooner than we expect.
The outlook among the Nestorians is encouraging. In spite of Catholics and other opposing bodies. and the drain on the native agency by emigration to America, the Evangelical Church increases and prospers. It is developing in moral stamina, in doctrinal stability, in self-propagating power. The mission retains a friendly attitude to the Nestorian Church and exerts a spiritualizing influence on it. Substantial progress has been made in enlightening the Armenians in Oroomiah, Salmas, Tabriz, Teheran, Ramadan, and Ispahan. In no place has the work been fruitless. Priestly opposition, sceptical tendencies, national aspirations and prejudices have
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895. lJa.nuary
hindered the work among them. But evangelical truth is having a per~ ceptible influence even upon those who remain Gregorians.
The Protestant Church has gained a recognized place in Persia and has spiritual power and vitality enough to become an efficient agency for its evangelization.
III.-INDIA.
BY REV. W. B. BOGGS, D.D., TELUGU MISSION.
If, in imagination, we take our stand on some Himalayan elevation, whence we may survey the whole land of India, the moral and spiritual view at the present time embraces, among other things, the following conspicuous features : 1. Increased and more direct effort, by various missions, for the evangelization of the depressed classes, and also large ingatherings of converts from among those classes. The Methodist Episcopal Mission, according to Dr. William Butler, in Zion's Herald (March, 1894), received 18,000 additions during 1893, and a total of 45,000 since 1889, and, according to Bishop Thoburn, they are now receiving converts at the rate of 50 a day. This movement is chiefly among low-caste or non-caste people in northern and northwestern India. Other missions also are awaking to the fact that these classes, poor and ignorant and degenerate as they are, are nevertheless more accessible to the Gospel at the present time than are the higher classes; and their evangelization before the others seems to be according to the Divine arrangement. There is much in Scripture and in the history of Christianity to lead us to expect them to precede the higher and richer and more learned in their entrance into the kingdom of Christ. Their elevation by the religion of Christ seems to be prerequisite to the coming in of the higher castes in large numbers. For a good many years several missions in southern India have worked very successfully in this line, and have been blessed with abundant results-e.g., the Church Mission at Tinnevelly and neighboring places; the American Baptist Mission at Ongole and surrounding stations; the American Lutheran Mission at Guntur and vicinity, and the London Mission at Cuddapah and elsewhere; these and others have been greatly blessed in their labors among the " common people." And we may expect to see yet larger and larger harvests gathered fron::. among the downtrodden, despised pariah classes, and Christianity steadily working its way up from the lower strata of society to the higher.
2. A great conflict between the advocates of temperance, purity, and national righteousness on the one hand, and those who are actuated by the worldly, time. serving spirit of officialdom on the other. A number of very godly faithful missionaries and others in the Bombay Presidency have, within the past few years, been laboring earnestly to expose the fearful evils of the opium traffic, the strong drink ~raffic. and State-regulltteq. vj~e,
INDIA. '
and agitating for the abolition of this triple curse. Alfred S. Dyer, editor of the Bombay Guardian, a very worthy and consecrated Christian worker, a member of the Society of Friends, is among the leaders in this righteous crusade. In consequence of their active efforts the government officials and the newspapers which reflect official opinion have manifested much bitterness toward them. The editor of the Guar(lian and three missionaries were prosecuted recently by a native opium contractor for defamation for having published a statement in reference to the infamous opium " clubs" in Bombay, a statement which they had from various witnesses which they believed to be true, and which probably was true. But the English magistrate, with every show of intense dislike toward tho missionaries and their cause, gave judgment against them and sentenced them to one month's imprisonment, which they endured in the Bombay jail. The severity of tho imprisonment may be judged by the fact that they were denied .even the use of writing materials while in the jail. Their crime is that they write and preach and protest against these great public evils in which the Government is both directly and indirectly a partaker.
In a notorious street in Bombay, inhabited by prostitutes of many nationalities, probably the worst and most shameless vice market in the world is protected by Government, and city missionaries who go there to preach righteousness and warn sinners of their doom are driven out of the streot by the police j and when the denizens of the place and the European frequenters of the same brutally assault the missionaries t~e assailants are sustained and protected by the authorities.
This conflict thickens daily. The advocates of righteousness cannot and will not desist from their agitation of these subjects while the Government of India continues to be the producer, manufacturer, and exporter of a vast quantity of opium, by which countless numbers of the people of China are ruined, and while the same deleterious traffic is promoted in India and Burmah to such an extent j nor can they rest while the Government makes provision for licentiousness for the seventy thousand British troops in India, and while the use of intoxicating liquors is overspreading the land as at present. According to the police commissioner's report for Bombay there were two thousand more arrests for drunkenness in that city during the past year than in the previous one. The Government distilleries produce enormous quantities of intoxicating liquors.
On the other hand, those whose living comes from the Government are, almost to a man, apologists for and defenders of these abominations. Thus the two parties are arrayed one against the other. There can be no peace nor truce while these abominations last. Real peace was impossible in America until slavery was abolished. And so in India to-day missionaries and others who lift up their voices against these crying evils may be fined and imprisoned till officialdom is weary, but they cannot cease to agitate for reform. Rev. A. W. Prautch, one of the missionaries recently imprisoned in Bombay, has been sent to England by the anti-opium party in
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
India to call the attention of the British people more fully to the existing condition of things in India.
3. The indirect effect of Ohristian moral teaching on non- Ohristians. Enlightened Hindus are now disapproving of the notorious nautch-the dance by professional prostitutes, which has always been a prominent fea- ture at celebrations, receptions, marriages, and festive occasions of all kinds; almost universally approved by orthodox Hindus and patronized often by Europeans of easy-going moral sentiments. Quite a number of prominent Hindus, ashamed of such an objectionable custom, are now advocating its abolition.
Recently some Hindus in Madras, the Hindu Social Reform Association, adopted resolutions of the strongest kind, condemning concubinage, and declaring their determination not to countenance or patronize any Hindu known to be living openly in this sin.
A missionary in Serampore writes: "The past year will ever be memorable as that in which complete failure attended the pulling of the cars at the Juggernaut festival." Though the Brahmins urged the populace and used every inducement to persuade them to lay hold of the ropes and pull the cars, they could not get enough to move them.
The Hindus probably think that the credit of the moral reforms above mentioned is due to themselves, but there can be no reasonable doubt that these movements are the result of a waning confidence in Hinduism and of a growing moral sentimant which are indirect effects of Christianity. The extent of these reforms is of course but limited as yet, and it may be long before they gain much headway against the deep-seated couservatism of India, but they are an indication of the present drift of things.
4. The meeting together of Christians of different denominations in various places in conferences for the deepening of spiritual life. This is coming to be a regular feature of missionary vacations on the hills. Such meetings are becoming more frequent and are increasing in interest and in power. Camp·meetings and conferences, more or less after the type of :Keswick and Northfield, are held, and are generally seasons of much spiritual profit. A very gratifying feature is the fraternal fellowship and co-operation of Christians of different names in prayer and the study of the Word. Among prominent truths are the recognition of the personality of the Holy Spirit and His real presence and power as the rightful administrator in the Church j also the privilege of Christians to have a conscious experience of His indwelling, and their obligation to live a consecrated, holy, Christ-like life. And these are just the truths that India needs, and not India alone.
5. Preaching, in English, to non- Ohristian audiences composed of educated natives, by visiting ministers from England and America, such as Rev. G. F. Pentecost, Henry Varley, Mr. Haslam, and others. There are thousands of non-Christians in the large cities whose education has been in English from their childhood who can be reached through the English language
INDIA.. '1
just as well as through their own, and even better, for they seem to think that Christian preaching in their own vernacular is rather beneath their notice, but are quite ready to listen to it in eloquent English. Doubtless many of them are actuated simply by secular motives, such as a desire to improve their use of English by listening to public addresses in that tongue, especially if spoken by men of culture and oratorical ability. But even though attracted by such motives as these, the truth of Christ may arrest them. And there are among them sincere inquirers. There is thus a great field of usefulness opening up to those in America, Europe, Australia, etc., whose engagements are such that they can arrange to spend a cool season or longer in India in this kind of labor, and who possess the needful qualifications. Among the qualifications I would place (1) a strong, firm grasp, spiritually as well as intellectually, of the GOSPEL OF CHRIST, with no modern improvements, or modifications, or adjustments, or toning down; (2) distinct spiritual power, arising from a practical and full reliance on the Holy Spirit; (3) ability to adapt one's speech (not the Gospel, but the manner of preaching it) to the Oriental mind, both in argument, illustration, and appeal. This presupposes the ability to acquire quickly a knowledge of Hindu modes of thought.
6. Much earnestness and activity in Sunday-school and temperance work. The former is specially due to the influence and labors of Dr. J. L. Phillips, the faithful, energetic, talented Sunday-school secretary for India. Throughout India and Burmah he is developing Sunday-school work with marked success. The temperance campaign has as one of its chief leaders Rev. Thomas Evans, the veteran apostle of temperance in India, and this branch of Christian service is being pushed with much energy in many parts of the land. There is urgent need of this work, when we consider the prevalence of intemperance, whether among the European, the Eurasian, or tke native populations.
7. Ohristianity advancing with a sure, steady, irresistible movement. Sometimes this movement is beneath the surface and attracts but little attention, but on it goes. The number of places where Christianity is taking root is being constantly multiplied, and its roots are striking deeper and deeper. Europeans in India who bave no interest in or sympathy with the cause of India's evangelization-onlookers from afar of the Canon Taylor type, and " globe-trotters" in breathless baste-may not be able to see any progress; and proud Hindns may try to make themselves and others believe that Christianity is only gaining a few converts among the low, and is having no appreciable effect on the people at large; but the country is gradually being so perme3ted by Christian teaching that a distinct and indelible impression is being made. Native Christians are so increasing in numbers in almost all parts of the land that, although they are mostly in the humbler walks of life, their existence can no longer be ignored. The development of the native churches, their growth in Christian knowledge and character, and in self-directing, self-sustaining ability,
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
is a most hopeful sign. The steady, irresistible diffusion of Christianity in the Roman empire in the early days is being, in some respects, repeated before our eyes in India to-day. Dr. George Smith, of Edinburgh, in his " Conversion of India," deduces from reliable data the conclusion that if the same rate of progress of Christianity in India which has characterized the last forty years should be continued, "the Protestant Church would absorb the whole population of India about the middle of the twenty.first century." But we may certainly look for a constantly increasing rate of progress.
IV.-SIAM AND THE LAOS.
BY REV. W. C. DODD, MISSIONARY TO THE LAOS PEOPLE.
There are two distinct peoples in Siam, the Siamese proper in the southern part of the kingdom, and the Laos. Only a portion of the Laos people are tributary to Siam and live in the northern half of the kingdom. They are a people, not a nation, and are living under four separate governments. Siam has the southern portion of them, France recently acquired the eastern, China has the suzerainty of those in the north, and a few are tributary to England on the west. Si!.lm's -portion is the largest, and hence the whole Laos people may properly be included in the missionary outlook for Siam.
Although the Siamese have been derived from the Laos, yet centuries of different latitude, different food, and especially maritime contact with the outside world, have resulted in differentiating them from their inland Laos brethren. This difference is shown in the modification of the spoken language in distinct written languages, in differences of custom, costume, and worship, and especially in a striking difference in physical and moral vigor in favor of the Laos. There are, therefore, marked differences in all the factors which enter into the present missionary outlook in these two portions of the kingdom. We shall note three such factors.
I. THE PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION is a most important factor in the present outlook. God has been working in Siam along with the Church's work and long before the Church began to work. He has signally prepared the people for the Gospel. The preparation is shown, First, in the character of the people. Centuries ago Siam was known as especially friendly to foreigners. Not a great commercial people, but almost wholly agricultural, both Laos and Siamese originally were simplehearted, peaceful, polite, comparatively pure, receptive and impressionable. In Lower Siam, at present, contact with the worst elements of our occidental civilization has deprived a large portion of the populace of that primitive simplicity, especially in seaport and river towns. Rum and other debauching elements have come in with steamboats, steam cars, electric cars, telegraphs and postal system. Yet a large part of the inland populatkm of Lower Siam is still primitive, hence simple and receptive. And
SIAM AND THE LAOS
this is true of almost all the five million Laos people. God has made and kept the majority of the Siamese and almost all the Laos people free from the influence of immoral foreigners; all are free from caste ; there is no seclusion of women except ,among the royal families; there are no strong nationalities, and hence no pride which despises foreigners or is restive under foreign teaching and direction; polygamy prevails only among cer- tain classes in Lower Siam, and there is almost none among the Laos peo- ple. God's preparation is shown, Second, in the favor of the rulers. With few exceptions the kings, governors, and their subordinates have not only offered no open or secret opposition to the work of the missionaries, but they have been positively friendly, and in many cases have aided by grants of money, land, and in- fluence. The few who have offered decided opposition have been provi- dentially removed. Grants of land and of money for educational and medical purposes are still occasionally obtained in Lower Siam. Among the Laos the government favor is still more marked. For the last fifteen years there has been a government proclamation of absolute religious toleration in Siam. And, with the possible exception of the Laos who are nnder the French, the same favor to missionaries is fonnd among all the Laos officials outside as well as inside of the kingdom of Siam. In every station and prospective station of the North Laos Mission, ground has been leased to the mission to hold" so long as used for the purposes of healing" (by foreign medicine), "and of teaching the Christian religion." As Dr. McGilvary once said, "That means until the millennium." And this by a government in which Buddhism is the State religion! The finger of God is here. But among the Laos people at least the most important preparation is what we may call, Third, the preparation of Buddhism. The Siamese and the Laos people have this in common-viz., that, unlike most countries of Eastern Asia, their nominal religion is Southern Buddhism unmixed with Hinduism, Confucianism, or any other of the ethnic religions. And Buddhism, by its failure to satisfy the head with its puerile and fantastic stories, and also because of its thousands of self-conflicting teachings and by its failure to satisfy the heart with its lifeless pantheism or its agnosticism, and its meaningless ritual in an nnknown tongue (the Pali), has paved the way for a religion that can satisfy both head and heart.
Both the Siamese and the Laos people differ in this, that the weak moral nature of the former contents itself with the empty forms. Buddhism retains a strong hold and has a strong outward following in Lower Siam, while it has only a nominal following among the warmer moral natures of the Laos people. So, to its failure to satisfy the Laos head and heart, must be added, as a second negative sort of preparation for Christianity, its failure to keep its own votaries from demon-worship. Although it denounces demonolatry in terms as strong as any in our own Bible, yet its hold is too weak to keep these children of nature from seeking the sup-
'l'Hlll WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
posedly personal and vital as objects of worship, and more especially of propitiation. Once admitted, demon.worship leads to accusations of witchcraft; and these have been, in turn, a positive preparation for the enlargement of the Christian Church, in that they have driven hundreds of Laos people to take refuge from these accusations in the Christ who can cast out evil spirits. The more positive preparations are found in the Laos Buddhist books. Some of them may be classified as follows: Buddhism tells us that it was established by the Buddha, by means of a fraud perpetrated upon his older brother, Alenyah-Met-Tai ; it confesses, therefore, that it is not the final nor the saving religion, and prophesies its own declension and the coming of, first, a thousand years' reign of demonolatry, and, lastly, of the true religion that shall bring salvation. These predictions are worked out with a nicety of detail, much of which can be used by the apostle of Christ and Christianity as pointing to the salvation wrought out by the ble:ssed Son of God.
Unquestionably God has done more to make the work of the Christian Church easy in Siam than in most pagan lands ; especially has His providence prepared the Laos people. By the character of the people, simplehearted, peaceful, polite, comparatively pure, and hence receptive ; by the absence among them of the hindrances found in most heathen countriesno government opposition and no anti-foreign spirit among the masses, no caste and no seclusion of women, few immoral foreigners and little polygamy, and by the preparations of Buddhism through its failures and its positive predictions ; by all these God is challenging our faith to " go up and possess the land j for we are fully able. " Surely no outlook would be at all comprehensive which should neglect these marvellous preparations of God Himself. We note, as another main factor in the outlook: II. THE INFLUENCE OF MISSION WORK ALREADY DONE. Mission work is comparatively young in Lower Siam, and younger still among the Laos people. The Baptists have one man in Bangkok working among the Chinese resident there; but the Presbyterian Church is the only one having a work among the natives of the kingdom. There are two missions, the Siam Mission and the North Laos Mission, the latter not yet thirty years old.
In both these missions a part of the pioneering work has been done along the usual four lines-healing, preaching, translating, and educating or training. Medical work, literary work, and educational work are each farther advanced in the Siam Mission, and are exerting a larger influence among those outside the Christiau Church than in the Laos Mission. Part of this influence is confessedly due to the civilizing agencies which have come in the wake of the missionarie3. But in each of these lines the Mission was the pioneer.
When the veteran Dr. Bradley attempted to introduce vaccination in Bangkok he had to hire the first man to submit to the operation, and then he backed down at the last moment, and man number two had to be found. But within the past year the king has made vaccination by his Siamese
SIAM AND THE LAOS
subjects compulsory, and the cost has been pr~ided for by the Govern- ment. There are now foreign physicians in Bangkok wit.h a good practice. The Government has established a medical college, in charge of a former missionary and the son of a missionary; and there are hospitals and asylums for some of nature's unfortunates. Missionaries reduced the Siamese language to printed form, prepared grammars and lexicons, have translated and printed the whole Bible, religious works like" Pilgrim's Progress," " Peep of Day," and others, scientific and educational works, and the first Siamese religious newspaper. They introduced the education of women, and the scientific education of boys and men. The slumber of ages has been disturbed. Siamese secular newspapers have been started. Attempts have been made to electrify the corpse of Buddhist moIiastic education and to spiritualize and popularize the teachings of Buddhism. This is the beginning of the end. The, number of actual converts in the Siam Mission has never been large; bnt what was said years ago by a Siamese nobleman is far truer to-day than then: "Dr. Bradley has gone, but he has undermined Buddhism in Siam."
In the Laos Mission there have been none of the civilizing adjuncts to take up the medical, literary, and educational work of the missionaries and diffuse their influence among the people as a whole. The emphasis in mission work has necessarily and happily been placed upon the evangelization of the largest possible number and their training in the Christian Church. Less of translating has been possible ; but particular stress is laid upon the training of practical, zealous evangelists. And this scriptural emphasis has borne its fruit among the simple and hardy Laos people. Direct evangelistic work has ever been unusually successful. There are more accessions to the adult membership per minister annually in that Presbytery of North Laos than in any other, at home or abroad. The sacraments are administered monthly ; and for more than eight years past there has not been a sacramental occasion in which there were not new members received on profession of faith. There are now nearly two thousand baptized adults, and more than one thousand baptized members of their households.
The other lines of missionary activity have been laid under tribute to the planting and training of the Church. The gratitude of thousands of people has been obtained through medical work; and many of them have found soul-healing. Some portions of the Bible have been translated and printed. Schools for girls and boys and a training school for evangelists have been put into successful operation as the principal means of training the young and the old of the Church. No English is taught, nor is any special inducement offered to attract the children of the heathen. 'We have scarcely teachers sufficient to care for our own people. More than fifty evangelists, more or less trained in the mission training school, were last year at work a part of the time, and some of them all the time.
The conditions, being so different in the Laos Mission from those in
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
the Siam Mission, the fruits of mission work are necessarily different. There has been less impress of civilization, edncation, and culture, more of spiritual power. There are as yet no government schools, hospitals, or printing-presses among the Laos; but there have been more converts to Christianity. And in all the territory covered by our mission the conviction is general among all classes that Christianity is the coming religion. Almost without exception the heathen concede that Buddhism and demonworship are doomed. One of the most encouraging fruits of the work is the spirit of evangelism which animates the Church. Each convert makes an effort to bring others to Christ. They are reaching out to self-support, and beyond it to the home mission work among the unevangelized about them.• About thirty villages in one church have recently given up the use of betel-nut, tobacco and wild tea-immemorial practices in that land, and perhaps not demonstrably wrong, per se-in order to buy books to distribute among the heathen. They have pledged the salary of two men for about three months annually to do purely evangelistic work for them outside of their own territory.
Having merely glanced at the outlook as determined by the preparatory and co-operating work of God's providence, and by the work done in the two missions and the forces set at work in each, it remains to consider- III. THE PROBLEM YET BEFORE us. In a word, it is the evangelization of at least eight million people. There are perhaps four million unevangelized Laos-people speaking and reading that language, but living to the north and east of the influence of our established work, our brothers and sisters who have never had an opportunity to accept salvation through Christ. A member of the Siam Mission is authority for the statement that there are at least that many unevangelized Siamese. Appalling as is the thought of it when standing alone, yet when it is placed alongside the problem of the evangelization of China to the north or of India to the west, ours is a simple task and easy.
God's providence clearly indicates God's purpose of its speedyaccomplishment. He has made it possible. It is true that there are hindrances: prejudice, occasionally persecution, the influence of generations of heathenism, and, especially in the field of the Siam Mission, immoralities introduced and fostered by foreigners. But when all has been said, it yet remains true that we are free from the great obstacles that are found iu most other fields; the conditions and the means of evangelization are within our reach. The whole country in both missions is open to the Gospel, and is virgin soil, except possibly that portion which France has taken. Both missions have the favor and the assistance of the rulers. Each mission has a fine plant of zealous workers from America and valuable property. The labors already accomplished have given to the Laos Mission more than half a hundred reliable workers, wholly or partly trained as evangelists, as well as a church that is reaching out to self-support and to evangelistic work in the regions beyond ; to the Siam Mission fewer workers, but the
THIBET
whole Bible and by no means a scanty Christian literature. The Siam Mission has what the Laos Mission lacks-waterways and other means of travel and transportation. These are the conditions and the means at hand upon the field.
Fifty thousand dollars for expansion of the work-less by far than the cost of single church edifices in many of our large cities-would send us the men and women needed to plant a few more stations among the Laos people that would be educational and evangelistic centres from which the whole people could be reached by the native workers, and to double the effort in the Siam Mission to train reliable men and lead them out to all the people of their land and tongue.
An unparalleled opportunity is here offered for the investment of stewardship funds. In the words of another, "The only discouraging outlook is the outlook toward America." Thus far it has been impossible to get the Church to see her opportunity, feel her responsibility, and do her duty. One man now means more than ten men if delayed ten years, for the conditions must change. The primitive simplicity of the people will soon be destroyed by the forces already at work. But if the Church will move at once and as she ought, before A.D. 1900 every Siamese and Laos man and woman shall have heard of the Christ and His salvation.
V.-THIBET is especially the cynosure of all eyes now, because it seems as though the exclusion and seclusion of centuries were about to give way. The recent organization of the Thibetan Pioneer Mission is significant. At last accounts Miss Anne Taylor and her brave band had been detained at Darjeeling by a new and unforeseen hindrance. Shortly after their arrival there the Deputy Commissioner of the district called on Miss Taylor and informed her that the Government would not permit her and her party to enter Thibet. She thereupon wrote to the Governor-General of India to ask the meaning of the order, and reminding his excellency that there was nothing in the Sikkim- Thibet treaty, recently concluded, that appeared to warrant the Government in excluding one class of British subjects more than another j and drawing his attention to the case with China, where, in 1842, the treaty ports were opened and missionaries had the same liberty of residing in them as had any other British subject.
Before any reply was received to this letter the Lieutenant-Goyernor of Bengal (Sir Charles Elliott), while taking the chair at the annual meeting of the Union Church in Darjeeling-at which meeting Miss Taylor and her party were present–took occasion to refer pointedly to the subject, saying that the time had not yet come for undertaking missionary operations in Thibet, and that he was sorry for the disappointment that this must be to Miss Taylor and her party, but that they must accept the opinion of the Government in the matter. Miss Taylor thereupon addressed a second let-
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
ter to the Governor-General of India, asking whether she was to regard Sir Charles Elliol t' s speech as the answer of the Government to her first letter; and if so, why missionaries were to be denied the rights granted to British subjects in general, when it was a well-known fact that missionaries had ever been to the front in entering new countries wilh the Gospel, and by their peaceful operations had opened the way for trade and civilization to follow. At length, on May 27th, an answer was received from the secretary to the Governor-General saying that the Government had issued no orders in the matter, and that her letter would be passed on to the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal as being a matter coming wilhin his particular province.
From some of the Calcutta papers it would appear that the Government is afraid that any movement of missionaries toward Thibet will embarrass their political officer in certain negotiations with the Chinese authorities which are said to be still pending; and one of the papers in question, under a paragraph headed " Meddling Missionaries," says : "As it is not likely tha1; missionary fanaticism will be influenced by considerations of this nature, it will be all the more necessary for the Government to take a firm stand and absolutely prevent any members of the so-called Thibetan Mission at Darjeeling from crossing the frontier."
Possibly the publication of sentiments like these has encouraged the adverse action of the Bengal authorities, as they do not appear to be under any orders from the central Government. However, the pioneer party are fully convinced that when they are themselves prepared with the language and otherwise, for making an advance into the counlry, God will assuredly open them a way in spite of all the barriers that may oppose themselves to the progress of the Gospel. In some respects the opposition has been a blessing, as it has undoubtedly had its measure of influence toward drawing them closer together in the one aim of their lives.
The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal is not personally averse to missionaryenterprise. On the contrary, he is believed to have much sympathy with it, but probably looks at matters from an exclusively official point of view-a very common failing of Indian official life. Sir Charles Elliott, the Lieutenant-Governor, subsequently invited the party to a missionary "At Home," given by himself and Lady Elliott. They were most COfdially received, Sir Charles conversing with some of the band about their Thibetan studies, and Lady Elliott introducing Miss Taylor to some of the Government officials present, with whom she conversed about Thibet and Thibetan feeling toward foreigners.
Noga, the treacherous Chinese guide, who robbed and nearly murdered Miss Taylor during her perilous journey through Thibet, has recently appeared in Darjeeling and has favored her with a call! Whether or not he has any true penitence for his actual and attempted crimes, he judged it prudent to bring some fine cloth and some beans as a peace offering. His
COREA
appearance has created much interest among the band of pioneers, who believe that God has brought him to Darjeeling for some special purpose, and they hope and pray that thi8 purpose may be his conversion.
It may be well to add that the formerly independent State of Sikkim lies between Darjeeling and Thibet. British subjects have long enjoyed the right of living in Sikkim ; but now, apparently to retard the present advance of missionary effort (which it is thought may hinder the development of trade relations) the Government have instituted a system of "passes," which passes must be applied for and obtained by any who wish to enter the State of Sikkim. Miss Taylor thinks it would be well if the band moved forward into Sikkim for the next six months (where the study of the language would still be continued) and occupied a position that would have all the surroundings of actual Thibetan life, and she has ac- * cordingly applied for the necessary passes.
From what Miss Taylor writes, it appears that Gnatong (the place appointed by treaty for a trade mart) is not in Thibet at all, but a day or two's march on the Indian side of the frontier. However, while the mistake that has apparently been made in the treaty may be injuriously affecting trade prospects, it would not seem to have any marked effect on the missionary side of the question, as it appears from trustworthy information received through the natives that it is not the missionaries but traders that the diplomatists of China are anxious to exclude from Thibet, not wishing that the existing exclusive trade between Thibet and China should be interfered with. No treaty seems wanted on behalf of messengers of the Gospel, and provided the Indian Government does not keep the missionaries back, there seems nothing else to prevent their entering into the hitherto " great closed land."
VI.-COREA.
Here, again, the eyes of lovers of missions are attracted with intense interest, first from the apparent emergence out of long hermitic seclusion, and secondly from the peculiar perplexities which the existing war involves.
A new mission, known as the Corean Itinerant Mission, was organized the present year in America, Mr. Malcolm C. Fenwick as Superintendent, who has already been five years in Corea. At this date it is quite impossible to forecast the probable issues of the complex situation. It i:; well known in the East that the Japanese have been quite willing to measure their own strength against some other power, and have been especially jealous of China's encroachments and supremacy. The Coreans have a deep-seated hatred for the Japauese, and it is traceable back to the Japanese invasion and devastation in the sixteenth century. Naturally they would, in the • The latest intelligence, from DlIl"jeelinr, is that MilS Taylor and party haTe moved on to Gnatong, In Sikkim, the necelsary palles having been obtained, and that they will there Ipell.d the winter and make further preparations, by study of the Illlgna;e ~nd people, tor immediate entrance into Thibet proper when God opens the Wa1.
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1~95
present case, play into Chinese hands. Russia has long coveted Corean harbors, and Britain would naturally frustrate any movement which would advance Russia's naval prestige in the Orient. The port of Wonsan is open all winter, and is especially desirable from its geographical as well as maritime position. It is too early to forecast the future, and while these paragraphs are getting into print the conditions may essentially change.
Meanwhile, let us remember that not until ten years ago did the first Protestant missionary seek tltis lone land. The first tidings of Christianity reached the hermit nation in 1777 through a batch of books sent from Peking to a number of Corean literati who were studying under a Confucianist. Among these books were some treatises on philosophy, mathematics and religion by Jesuits in Peking. These books awakened interest and led Peiki, one of these literati, to journey to Peking with a message to the bishop ; he was baptized and returned to Corea, where others were led to adopt the new faith. Persecution relaxed, and a curious history followed, which Bishop Scott, of North China, outlines as follows: " A hierarchy was formed after the model which the original one of their number had seen in Peking. Francis Xavier-the name taken by one of the converts-was made bishop, and others were chosen as priests. Separating to their various posts, they baptized, confessed, confirmed, and distributed sacred elements in communion, robing themselves in Chinese silk, and erecting platform confessionals. After two years doubts arose in their minds as to the propriety and validity of these proceedings, and at the risk of wounding weak consciences, they resigned each his ministry, and again sent to Peking for instructions. The envoy was baptized and confirmed, and he returned to Corea with a chalice, missal, ornaments, and everything necessary for the celebration of the eucharist in case a priest should be able to visit them.
"Dismay and trouble were caused by the Episcopal decision against the worship of ancestors. The faithful Christians who did not fall away were more severely persecuted than ever, and in December, 1791, the two first martyrs laid down their lives for the faith. In ten years' time from the baptism of the first Corean in Peking, it is estimated that there were 4000 Roman Catholic converts in the country.
"The first priest who entered the country was a Chinese, who, after four years' work, paid for his fidelity and courage with his life. .
"In 1835 the first French priest entered the country, and he was shortly followed by a second, and at an interval of a year by a French bishop. All were of course disguised, and remained in hiding; but the work went on rapidly, and in 1838 there were 9000 Christians.
" Again persecution broke out, and these three men were put to trial, tortured, and beheaded with circumstances of great cruelty. It was six years before another foreign priest crossed the border into Corea, and then, after a period of success, the same result ensued : more edicts, more cruel persecutions, more martyrdoms, alike of Frenchmen and Coreans.
" Every approach of a European or American ship roused the rulers to a state of panic, and endangered afresh the lives of the intrepid workers, who, however, held to their posts till, in 1882, the first political treaty was made with Corea by the United States. Others quickly followed, and we may hope that the period of danger for Christian missionaries is pa.st,
COREA
though there is as yet no legal toleration for n<:tives professing Chris- tianity. "
Thus came the first news and the first fruits of the cross. Before the first Protestant missionary had landed in China, and one hundred and seven years before we reached Corea, Jesuit missionaries were living in these lands, preaching, suffering, and dying for the sake of JESUS CHRIST. In 1857 the Jesuits claimed 15,000 converts, after heing driven again and again from the field. But the ritual they brought was very far from satisfying the Corean heart. Its people had not yet found freedom and life in God.
Corea has a coast line 600 miles down either '>ide. Its seaports are Wonsan, with its fine sheltered harbor, its Japanese business colony, and its large Corean town of 20,000 inhabitants; Fusan, with its pine woods, its strong Japanese colony, its barren hillsides, fine anchorage, and rambling Corean settlement; Chemulpo, the western treaty port 25 miles from the capital, Seoul; and the capital itself, with its steamers running fortnightly to Japan and China. Thousands live within Seoul's massive gates and walls, with their towers two stories high, in Chinese style, pierced for archers, and solidly built of stone.
The area of the country is the same as tha1, of Great Britain, about 80,000 square miles. The population is estimated from 7,000,000 to 13,000,000, of Mongolian origin, and their civilization is based on that of China. The li1erary classes profess Confucian ethics, while the State gods of China are worshipped by the common people. Buddhism and Taoism have also some following.
Isolation has long been the policy of the Government. Even China has been held at arms' length. In late years all the great European powers have tried in turn 10 open the country, but without success. In 1870 the United States sent a fleet under Commodore Rogers. Five of the forts were taken and dismantled, but the Government still held out in its refusal to negotiate a treaty. Japan next tried her hand. Having equipped a large force, she sent it to Corea, and, by following closely the tactics of Commodore Perry in 1857, succeeded where the others failed. This was in 1876. Since then the Corean deputies have been seen in foreign capitals. The traveller has done Corea pretty thoroughly, so that the country is now well known.
" You are making a great mistake. Why don't you work the other way?" said an intelligent Corean to one of the missionaries. "If you want to win Corea win the women. Win the mothers of Oot'ea, and all Corea will be Christian." But they cannot be reached by men, and but a handful of women who love Christ have gone to seek them. Woman's existence in Corea consists of endless drudgery. The wealthy wife goes inside her husband's house on the wedding day and never comes out again till she is carried to her grave. Shut in a living tomb, she has nothing worth living for, here or hereafter. To the poorer women, life is summed
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
up in one word-plod, plod, plod ; but to both poor and rich, for woman existence means an unspeakably wretched slavery to man.
To Corea's 15,000,000 only 61 Protestant missionaries, all told, have gone. Of these many are missionaries' wives, who devote t!leir lives to their own families; some are sick, others on furlough, others studying. At no time can more than 20 out of the 61 be reckoned as active missionaries.
Active propagandism is still forbidden by the law. The Government may at any time suppress the work. It is supposed, however, that; contact with the modern powers will stay any disposition to enforce the laws against Christian teaching. Hence the missionaries are going forward, planting preaching stations and spreading their force so as to occupy all the strategic points.
VII.-JA.PA.N.
BY REV. GEORGE W. KNOX, D.D.
The war with China is the great fact that looms up in the horizon and affects Christian work like all else. Christian Japanese hold meetings to pray for the success of the nation's arms, and circles are formed to work for the aid and comfort of the soldiers in the field and to care for the wounded. Some of the younger evangelists have been summoned to take their place in the ranks, neither ministers nor priests being exempt. To some extent the direct work is hindered j but in some regions at least evangelistic work does not suffer, the Christians being incited to fresh zeal, and the people being as ready and congregations as large as in times of peace. A quickened sense of responsibility increases the power to work, and leads to renewed discussion of foreign missions. For years a mission to Corea has been talked of, but the obstacles have seemed insuperable. Now the duty appears plain, and the Japanese Church would carry the Gospel to the regions beyond. This is highly stimulating, and the native church has for some time past needed sllch work. With Japan still evangelized but in part, with work at home sufficient to engross all the activities of the Church, the leaders see foreign missions to be needful and practicable, and as helpful to Christ's cause in Japan as in Corea it:self. The decisive triumph of the Japanese arms will involve new and enhanced responsibility for the Japanese Church. Already Corean students are in Tokyo, sent thither by their government, and some of them are Christians, and several have entered Christian schools.
The situation is already improved by the conclusion of the new treaty with Britain, which does not go into full effect for five years, but recognizes Japan as an eqnal, and does away with extra territoriality. The delay is at Japan's request. All the empire is opened to residence and travel without the vexatious restrictions heretofore imposed. More important still, the foreign agitation loses its inspiration, and the intense feeling of injustice suffered is fast passing away. It is to be hoped the
AFRICA
United States may at once make a similar treaty. On the whole, the outlook in Japan is very hopeful. The Church there is on trial. Let prayer go up to God that it may come forth stronger and purer.
VIII.-BIRD'S·EYE VIEW OF AFRICA.
BY REV. JOSIAH TYLER.
"When Christians are knocking, God is always opening doors," says Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, the veteran missionary; and unmistakable signs prove that Africa is being opened for the Gospel in answer to prayer. First, the backbone of .African slave trade is broken. Thirty years ago, in Nyassaland, Dr. Livingstone was made heart sick over the slave caravans that were paraded before him. Though clothed with British consular authority, his efforts to arrest the traffic were unavailing. Arab slave raiders laughed him to scorn. Imagine his reply if he had been told that by 1894 that entire district would be rid of the curse! Gunboats on Lake Nyassa effectually prevent slave gangs from reaching the Indian Ocean, and the English magistrate, H. H. Johnson, apprehends no more trouble from this source. Tippo Tib, who three years ago commanded two thousand men armed with Winchester rifles, mirabile dictu, has become an anti-slavery man and ordered his countrymen in the Upper Congo to " quit the business. "
Four years ago, in the Manyuema country, where ivory was abundant and slave raiding was practised, now the business is checked. The Brussels Treaty has caused its cessation in the Congo Free State. Professor Drummond thinks that it would be for the good of Central Africa if all the elephants were killed off, as slaves are necessary to transport tusks from thence to the coast; but God in His providence is providing other and better means of transportation. By navigation on the great African rivers, as well as by railroads in process of construction, the productions of the interior will soon reach the seaports. What F. P. Noble, of Chicago, calls " an African devil's business" will then come to an end.
How about the rum trade! Would that I could predict its decrease as I have in reference to the slave traffic! Those who have not seen with their own eyes this greatest of all curses can form a very inadequate conception of the enormity of the evil and the obstacle it presents to Christianity. When Joseph Thomson, the explorer in Central Africa, saw negroes staggering about, rum drunk, he asked, " Is this the way to teach Africa to stretch out her hands unto God~" I can testify from personal observation that the ., white man's grog" poured into Africa bestializes and brutalizes the natives more than their home-made intoxicants. When will so-called Christian nations heed the message sent to England by an African chief: "Send us more Gospel and less rum."
What must take place ere Africa is evangelized ~ A gigantic holy war must be waged between Christianity and Islamism and other native re-
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
Iigions. Half the continent is now dominated by Mohammedans, while Christians, including members of .Abyssinian and Coptic churches, do not exceed seven millions. Evangelistic laborers throughout the continent are reported to be " equal to eighteen men for France, ten for Great Britain, four for England, and one for Massachusetts and Connecticut together." Mohammedan missionaries are finding their way into" darkest Africa." Were it not for that special Divine promise which rings in our ears like a clarion, "Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God," we should indeed despair.
IX.-PAPAL EUROPE AT THE CLOSE OF 1894.
BY TEOFILO GAY, D.D., X.l.C.
Eighteen hundred and ninety-four will remain in history as a very eventful time for papacy in Europe, and every thinker will do well to pause a while at the close of it, reviewing the main facts in that field that may have a great influence on its future history.
Seldom, indeed, was modern papacy more busy and at the same time more prosperous and more unfortunate than we see it in the last twelve months.
The grand encyclica issued in the spring, calling on all Catholics to keep nearer their Pope, and on all dissenters to return to the Pope's obedience, was a desperate effort of old Pope Leo to give papacy again some of the .power and ascendency it has lost forever, and proved, as was to be expected, an utter failure. It was a grand sight, perhaps, from a worldly point of view, but very sad for a Christian, to see an old man begging on all men to come to him, to obey him, to worship him.
Thus far how has papal Europe answered his invitatiou ~ In Italy two of the leading men of the nation have distinctly replied by calling on their fellow-countrymen to return to God. Signor Crispi, the Prime Minister of King Humbert, the old companion of Garibaldi, when unveiling in Naples an inscrip1ion commemorating King Humbert's visit to the hospitals of that city during the plague of 1884 ; and Signor Carducci, a professor in the famous Bologne University, a member of the Senate, and the most celebrated of living Italian poets, when inaugurating with a splendid address the new palace of the council of the famous little repnblic of San Marino; both said emphatically: "What our nation needs is to return to God." What practical or lasting influence such a noble appeal may or will have on the future of Italy no man can tell; but the fact remains that at present the motto of the leading minds of the nation is not " Re- turn to the Pope," bnt " Retnrn to God."
It is worthy of remark that the two great men above named belong to that Free Masonry which the Pope violently condemns as "atheistic." Another sign of the times is seen in the fact that King Hnmbert has
PAPAL EUJlOPE
knighted the veteran Professor Geymonat, D.D., of the Waldensian Col_ lege of Florence, on the very day he was elected president of the Waldensian Synod in September last. Indeed, it seems as if Italy were turning a deaf ear to the Pope's appeal and looking for something better.
And what about Spain? She has sent to Pope Leo, it is true, some thousands of priests and poor fellows on a pilgrimage with return tickets at reduced rates, and she has complained in a Catholic congress that she has not been able to send rather some thousands of armed men to try and set up again the Pope's temporal power; but alas for papacy! one great solemn fact has marred the splendor of all these fine " wishes." Spain has allowed a Protestant bishop to be consecrated and seWed in Madrid itself! No threatenings of prelates, uo prayers of bigoted ladies, have been able to prevent religious liberty to have its free course and effect; and Senor Cabrera, an early convert of Malaga, elected some years ago to the bishop's office by his brethren of the Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain, has received the episcopal ordination to which he was entitled, though the Papacy left no stone unturned to prevent such a fact, which she deemed especially baneful to her. As a consolation to the Pope, the man who in 1869 did most for the establishment of religious liberty in Spain-Emilio Castelar-went soon after to Rome and visited old Leo and did his best to comfort him.
When in 1850 the Bishop of Rome dared to establish a Catholic bishop in London he little thoug-ht that forty-four years later an Anglican archbishop would establish a Protestant bishop in Madrid! But the world moves on, and even Spain is moving on !
As to France, the anarchist plots and murders that have so awfully troubled her of late have at once struck her as so similar to those instigated by the Jesuits (viz., the" gunpowder plot" and Henry III. and Henry IV. 's assassinations) that she cares very little by this tim) to show herself the eldest daughter"of the Church, and looks toward papacy with suspicion.
The punishment inflicted by the government on that Archbishop of Lyons into whose arms some weeks afterward President Carnot expired, killed by a youth who used for years to assist his priest at the mass, is a clear sign of the attitude assumed by the rulers of France toward papacy. And the hundreds of thousands of copies of Zola's novel, "Lourdes," sold in a few months, show how the people that read in France delight in a work that paints in its true light of a comedy and a financial speculation the most prosperous and famous modern religious establishment in France, that of the Virgin of Lourdes.
What next ~ Austria-Hungary was supposed to be, too, a great stronghold of papacy in Europe; how does she just now respond to Leo's encyclical ~ By passing in the Hungarian Parliament laws which are bitterly opposed by the papacy. The bitterest pill for the Pope and his clergy is the bill on civil marriage, because it takes off their hands the matrimonial affairs, through which they used to exert such an influence and to make
'rItE WORLD'S OUTLOOK tN 1895
SO much money. '1'hey had made of marriage a sacrament in order to have the sole control of such an important business; but Hungary has decided it to be a civil contract, and the Catholic Emperor of Austria had to sanction the anti-Catholic bill, and old Leo had to send to his servants over there an order of pati debere, as the formula runs-that is, that they will have to suffer the measure to take effect. To be sure, nothing else cau be done. Really, papal Europe at this moment does l).ot appear very much papal, very much like what papacy would wish it to be.
There remains only one little corner of papal Europe where for the moment the ascendency of papacy seems to prevail. It is Belgium, where the last elections have given a majority in the parliament to the Catholic party. And wherefore ~ Because the fight there was between conservatism and socialism; and as the people thought there was no other alternative but Catholicism or free thought, and the latter did not appear as a sure defence against the perils of socialism, all those who fear these perils saw no other way of safety but to vote for Catholic candidates.
Oh ! that the Pope would now select Belgium as his residence, where he would be surrounded by true followers! He would relieve the Italian Government of the difficulties arising from his presence in Rome, and perhaps before long make Belgium itself wish to get rid of his presence, and so alienate from papacy the last and only corner of papal Europe that still clings to it. But no; the so-called Holy See will not move from Rome, because it would nowhere be as well as in the city of the seven hills, and because no nation would care to have it in its territory. Besides, papacy was born in Rome, and in Rome it will die-by and by.
J. MURRAY MITCHELL, LL.D., also writes: To give a bird's-eye view of papal Europe, it will be necessary to treat of these lands separately, for the diversities that exist between them are of considerable importance.
We begin with France. The Roman Catholics form 78 per cent of the whole population. Things have changed since the great battle cry of Gambetta used to sound on every hand, " Le clericalisme c' est l' ennemi." Rome can adapt herself to circumstances ; and she has no desire to link herself to any cause that is irrecoverably lost. She contends no longer for king or emperor; and the present Pope, who is a man of great sagacity, does everything in his power to provide a modus vivendi between his church and the republican government. At the same time much has been said during a few years past of "un attendrissement de l'drne humaine" (a soft ening of the human soul), as exhibited in the writings of the chief literary men in Paris. They no longer exhibit the sneering, bitter spirit of Voltaire and the encyclopredist~; they see that man cannot live by bread alone, and they admire at least the poetry of religion.
Further, the pilgrimage to Lourdes seems to be attracting greater and greater crowds. Every conceivable disease, it is believed, will vanish when the Virgin, who appeared to the shepherdess, is invoked, and when the
PAPAL
waters of the miraculous fountain that sprang up are drunk or bathed in. It might seem as if Romanism were gaining fresh vigor by what takes place at this astonishing place-one of the greatest marvels of this century.
The three things I have rapidly touched do lead some to the conclusion that Romanism is regaining lost ground, and perhaps about to regain its ancient ascendency. We do not at all think so. Nay, it occurs even to thoughtful Romanists that a terrible reaction is inevitable. The immense majority of the afflicted who go expecting to be cured receive no benefit; and the results are bitter complaints and maledictions. The vivid picture of the scene supplied by Zola will also immensely damage the character of Lourdes, and the place will probably, ere long, pass into oblivion as completely as its forerunner, La Salette, has done. What will Rome then say ~ Oh! she is prepared with her answer. She will tell us that there was no question de fide involved; the Church pronounced no judgment; it was a pious belief with some bishoplil that miracles were performed at Lourdes ; and if the good men were mistaken, what then ~ It is only the Pope that is infallible. But will that answer satisfy France ~ We do not think so. The present gain, drawn from the madness regarding Lourdes, is certain to be followed by an enormous and permanent loss.
We see no indication of moral improvement in papal France. Insubordination, lawlessness, immorality, fierce attacks on the head of the State, and general bitterness of party spirit, these evils are certainly not decreasing. We are also startled by new manifestations. At present there is immense agitation at Nimes because the Government has forbidden the continuance of the bull-fights which had been lately introduced. The bloody pastime prevails in Spain, and largely accounts for the slow progress of things there. But that shocking exhibitions worthy of the dark ages should be introduced into refined and cultivated France, and that the Government should be defied when it forbids their continuance, is a startling phenomenon. It indicates deplorable retrogression, in the south of France at least. On the whole, the picture we have drawn is dark. And yet there is much good doing in France. The Protestant churches-both the Established and the Free Church-are, we believe, increasingly active and useful. The McAll Mission is exceedingly useful, and so are various other agencies. The sale of the Bible has been considerable; and the figures would have been more encouraging had it not been that foreign residents in France, willing to do good, distribute a large number of Scriptures gratuitously-a practice which is, we fear, unwise. The Pope, III his encyclical of 1893, exhorted the clergy to study the Scriptures in the original ; but he said nothing about giving them to the people in the language they understand. The translation of the Gospels by Lasserre was, a few years ago, exceedingly popular, and many hoped that a new day had dawned on papal France ; but the circulation of the book, though it was the work of an earnest Romanist, was forbidden, and is likely to remain so in spite of earnest efforts of the author to get the prohibition removed.
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
Yet the rapidity of the sale, so long as it was allowed, was a full demon- stration that multitudes in France desire as well as need the bread of life. One trembles to think of the awful responsibility of those who refuse to give it to those famishing millions.
In Italy Romanism is very much what it is in France. On political grounds the dislike to it is stronger, for no modu$ vivendi has yet been dis- covered between the Government and the so-called " august prisoner of the Vatican. "
The pressure of taxation all over Italy is tremendous ; the maintenance of her immense armaments, military and naval, is more than she can bear, and unless some genius in finance arises it does not seem possible for Italy to escape national bankruptcy. She also shares in the earth-hunger that marks the leading European powers, and her African possessions add to .the load that crushes her. Earthly trial is often blessed to make men think of religion ; yet one cannot expect that a popUlation continually struggling to maintain existence will have much leisure to attend to spir- itual things. We have met Italians who eagerly maintained that the superabundant trials of life are a sufficient proof that there is no God ; and the insubordination and lawlessness that generally prevail are an evidence of atheism being widely spread. Education without religion i~ the rule in the universities; and one cannot wonder when he hears of one or another of these institutions being temporarily closed on account of the bad conduct of the students.
Are we, then, without hope for Italy ~ By no meana. The venerable Waldensian Church-no longer confined to its ancestral valleys-is hard at work. So is the Chiesa Libera; so are Count Campello and his friends; and Methodists and Baptists, both British and American, add to the efforts put forth by native Italians. The Waldenses act with more zeal than ever, in consequence of a true, and, we may say, deep, revival of religion with which their valleys have been lately blessed. What strikes us most of all is the extent to which the Holy Scriptures are circulated; it is very large, and it has, up to the present day, been steadily increasing. It is simply impossible that this can continue without issuing in blessed results.
So far as Italy shared in the movement of the great Reformation, the influence was witnessed among the higher classes, hardly at all among the lower. It is quite otherwise now. It is the masses that are affected. " Unto the poor the Gospel is preached," and it is not preached in vain.
We come now to say a few words about Spain. Byron, in .his " Childe Harold," breaks out, "0 lovely Spain; renowned, romantic land !" and I suppose we all cherish an idea of the old Spanish grandee as a very stately, chivalrous character, and we are disposed to think that some gleam of the former magnificence still appears in his character and bearing. It is a fond imagination and nothing more, we fear. A friend of ours, a man of much penetration, lately returned from Spain. We asked him about the missions and the converts. "Converts!" he exclaimed; "the Spaniards
GERMANY
cannot be converted, and are not worth converting !" We protested. " Well," said he, "the Spaniards are the most degraded people I know. I have no hope of their improving." They are exceedingly bigoted. One proof of this we have at present in the immense excitement caused by the Archbishop of Dublin and two other Irish bishops consecrating Senor Cabrera to the episcopate. Lord Plunket honestly believes that the epis- copate is necessary not to the being, but to the well-being of the Church, and hence his action. When Rome consecrates bishops in Britain do even high Anglicans now protest ~ Evangelization in Spain encounters special opposition when conducted by British people. Gibraltar is a British possession, and we cannot wonder at the Spaniards feeling bitterly the intrusion. Even Scriptures lire often rejected when the title-page reveals that they have come from England.
We have referred to the exclusiveness and bigotry of the Spaniards, and yet there is little faith among the people. The agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society declares that "educated people in Spain are very largely sceptical; and the man, or even woman, who is an inteIligent, believing Catholic is rare. "
Our words may, perhaps, leave the impression that we cannot hope much of Spain. Such, however, is not the idea of the men who are engaged in evangelistic work and Bible circulation. The Rev. W. Jameson maintains that" no other Latin country can show more response to the appeals which the Bible societies are making than that which is made in Spain. "
What has been said of Spain applies in a large measure to Portugal. I conclude with a simple question : Of the multitudes of Britons and Americans who now visit the Continent, what proportion can be said to take any hearty interest in the struggling Protestant churches in papal lands ~ X.-GERMANY.
BY REV. A. A. MERENSKY, BERLIN.
The state of religious life in Germany varies very much according to the different parts of the country. We will confine ourselves to the state of the Protestant sections. With reference to the Roman Catholics, it will be remembered that one third of our population belongs to them. Our Catholics are, as a whole, very ultramontane-that is, they are faithful to the Pope, to their church and priests, and it cannot be denied that there are many pious people in their way to be found among them.
Although the Roman Catholic Church is doing her utrrost to subdue Germany once more, there is no doubt that she loses a good number of people every year, whether such people are taking the side of the antireligious socialists or are joining Protestant churches.
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
The Protestant churches of Germany are established churches, more or less closely connected with the governments of the different States or provinces. The free churches and denominations are small and well-nigh insignificant. In the church of the grand duchy of Baden the rationalistic tendency is prevailing; in others, as in the Protestant churches of Saxony and Bavaria, a true evangelical disposition is dominating. The Church of Prussia tries as much as possible to compromise with the different tendencies. Among the ministers there are many sincere, pious, evangelical men i the Gospel and biblical truth is preached in most of the pulpits; but the younger generation of ministers and students are largely influenced by the school of Ritschel, in a sceptic way. The number of theological students has, however, considerably augmented during the last few years. In the year 1877 those students numbered 599; at present we have as many as 2189. The new start of religious life in the country is proved by the building of churches. The want of the capital (Berlin) is at last provided for. The pious empress has done all that was in her power i and chiefly to her influence it is due that 26 churches have recently been erected iu the city. Personal religious life in Germany is kept hidden away far more than is the case in England or America. But in some parts of the country, in Wiirtemberg and Lithuania in the far Northeast, we find a very active religious life. Prayer-meetings in farm-houses are there much favored and frequented. In Westphalia and Hanover there is also much Christian life among the peasants, but it is cultivated in a closer connection with the Church. A very cheering sign is the establishment of Sunday-schools all over the country; we find them now in about 3000 towns and villages, visited by some 200,000 children. Cheering also is the vast amount of Christian periodicals, of which 1,300,000 are brought in circulation every week. We have about 880 Christian associations of young men, with some 40,000 members, and of Christian associations for young women about 500. For the travelling workmen (artisans chiefly) there are provided 378 Christian homes, as well as 78 such homes for female servants. As the anticbistian character of the socialists demanded some counter-action, 250 Christian associations of workmen have been founded. A great blessing is our 60 institutions for training deaconesses, who number now 8500, whose services in hospitals and private homes are valued very much and appreciated more and more. Several hundred hospitals and places of refuge for sick people, for cripples and epileptics, are managed in a true Christian spirit. Against intemperance, drunkenness, and laxity of morals, societies and meetings are struggling on. The large society called after Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav Adolph Verein) is spending about £50,000 every year in erecting chapels and churches and establishing ministers in the "diaspora"- that is, among Protestants living in Roman Catholic districts. Among the sailors in the harbors the mission work is still in the beginning. There are 17 different societies sending missionaries to the heathen i they have a
Sot1'l'rr AMERICA
revenue of about £176,000 a year, and have more than 600 missionaries in heathen lands. Much blessed are the large missionary meetings (mi,- sions-jeste), which are spreading more and more. One meeting in Westphalia (at Bunde) is visited every year by about 10,000 people. As a whole, there is no doubt that, in spite of many antagonistic influences and many difficulties, the religious life in Germany is gaining strength. The Gospel has become again a power, more than was the case some time ago.
XI.-SOUTH AMERICA.
BY D. L. PIERSON.
This is a second II Dark Continent," scarcely less lighted with the rays of the pure Gospel than is her sister continent across the Atlantic. F:mr centuries of a Romanism which is but a !'Itep removed from paganism has spread over this Continent a pall under which hide ignorance, superstition, sensuality, infidelity, and anarchy. Papacy is interpenetrated with paganism and corrupted by a formalism that preserves scarcely the exter- 'nals of religion! Here, it is true, as in some other lands, one half of the so-called Christians go there" to teach the people to do what is right, and the other half pay them to do what is wrong."
South America has an area of about 7,000,000 square miles, or about twice that of Europe, while its population is only 36,000,000, or nearly equal to that of the British Isles. The number of ordained missionaries, however, is only 200, while the clergy of the United Kingdom number about 35,000. No wonder that Miss Guinness calls it the "Neglected Continent. " "Imagine an empire extending from England to India, and from the North Cape to Khartoum, with 37,000,000 people scattered across it, in practical paganism, with 400 workers, men and women!" " Were the people to be reached equally divided among the preachers, every minister in Great Britain and the United States would have a parish of 800 ; in Madagascar, of 30,700 ; in Burmah, of 61,000 ; and in South America, of 92,500 !"
South America offers wonderful opportunities for the progress of civilization and Christianity. It has a coast-liue of 1800 miles, in which are splendid harbors; a backbone of magnificent monntains, and large districts of tableland which abound in valuable minerals and metals; forests of fine timber, and one of the greatest river systems of the world. Streams of emigration are pouring into this Continent, and the natural resources are being rapidly developed by the wealth and wisdom of capitalists and laborers from Europe and the United States.
But unfortunately the progress and prospects of the evangelization of the" neglected continent" are less encouraging. The scattered population, the power of Rome, the ignorance of the masses and scepticism of the edncated, the mixture of races, the instability in political and the degradation in moral life, make the problem exceedingly difficult. There are,
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
however, many reasons for encouragement. Of the thirteen States all are republics, except the three Guianas. The political leaders of the Continent have sought to elevate their countries by taking advantage of model constitutional governments and modern scientific discoveries. The people are learning, however, that som~thing more is needed. One after another the governments are breaking the bonds which have bound them to the car of the papal Juggernaut; education is being made universally compulsory, and freedom of religious worship is spreading. Moreover, the people are learning that they must look higher than to science and governmental regulations to bring them the peace and prosperity which they desire.
Progress has been slow in South America, owing largely to Romish opposition. There are now in the whole Continent about 103 stations and 173 out-stations, 200 ordained missionaries, 197 female missionaries, and 1130 native helpers. Communicants number about 29,000, and adherents 70,000. Sixteen societies are laboring in this field.• Nine of the republics and French Guiana have Roman Catholic governments; one, Brazil, is independent, and two-British and Dutch Guiana (Surinam)-are Protestant. Of the Roman Catholic States, seven proclaim religious freedom; one, Ecuador, * is entirely closed to Protestants; one, Venezuela, allows free- dom of belief, but not of worship ; and one, Peru, is nominally intolerant, but practically permits religious freedom, for there are two societies with six workers laboring there, and the last census gave over 5000 Protestants. Though Ecuador alone is closed to missionaries, Bolivia is visited only occasionally by an agent of the American Bible Society, and Venezuela has but one missionary. At least one ninth of the people of South America have as yet no opportunity to hear the Gospel message.
Missions in this Continent may be said, however, to have accomplished three things: 1. The establishment of congregations, where the Gospel is regularly preached to about 25,000 believers. 2. The formation of schools of various grades, where thousands of children and youth may receive a Christian education. The Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and two Methodist bodies have also normal and theological schools in their respective fields. 3. The production and distribution of an evangelical literature in the Spanish and Portuguese languages. But nothing more than a meagre beginning has been made. Regeneration must come from without and not from within the republics. Christians in America and Europe must send more consecrated men and money if they would be instrumental in turning the " neglected oontinent" to Christ.
* IntelIlgence now comes to ns that Ecuador is in the throes ofreh9llion, and that the InBur_ gents lire likely to win. Should they succeed, we may hope that the new government will follow the example of Brazil and proclaim freedom of worship, thus openinr; to missionaries this long- closed door.
CHINA
XII.-CHINA.
BY REV. WILLIAM ASHMORE, D.D., SWATOW, CHINA.
The Political Situation.-China has been going backward the last few years. She had made no inconsiderable progress in various military, naval, and industrial lines, and had come to think that now she could check the advance of Western people into her land, and possibly crowd them back out of what they have gained. The centre of anti-foreignism has been in Hunan Province, but the feeling prevails extensively over the empire generally. Viceroys like Chang Chi Tang are the leaders. The literary class are very generally in sympathy, and are more or less active fomenters of antagonistic feeling. Infamous literature against foreigners has been circulated, individual foreigners have been assailed, houses have been plundered and burnt, and dastardly murders have been committed. The government officials when pressed, and only when pressed, have interposed to prevent those things, but at the same time they have shielded perpetrators and have dallied with foreign claims. Official communications have had a jaunty air, and have been marked by petty evasions and manifest indifference on their vital points. We have assuredly been slowly drifting toward a war, to which we would have come in a few years but for recent events.
The Missionary Situation.-This is dependent on the political situation, and is largely affected by it. The year has been characterized by great missionary energy and aggressiveness. Large numbers of reinforcements have entered. Many new places have been occupied. The western provinces, notably Szchuen, have had missionaries pouring in. Many converts have been added. The bands of disciples in different places have increased in visibility and assertiveness. They are becoming a recognized power in the land. Even the Chinese opposers admit they have a great future before them j but they are becoming also a burdensome stone to the government, and political functionaries are beginning in certain places to have, concerning them, the same perplexity that Pharaoh had about the multiplying children of Israel. Some of the mandarins, if they could have their way, would dispose of them in about the same manner, and pitch them into the sea, men, women, and babies. It has for several years been a growing opinion among observant missionaries that a bitter persecution of Christians was one of the possibilities of the near future. Great anxiety has been felt, and many prayers for the dissipation ot the cloud have been offered. If, indeed, those prayers are now being answered, it is in a strange and unexpected way. Nobody has more at stake, and nobody is noting the progress of present trouble with keener solicitude than missionaries.
The Present War IXnd its Outcome.-At this present writing (November 15th) nothing is concl~ded. Port Arthur is not yet taken, the final
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
issue as regards the relations of the two contending powers is not yet determined; yet some things we may predicate with a fair degree of certainty. (Port Arthur has fallen, and negotiations for peace are in progress.-December 1st, 1894.) There is a special providence in this war. If it had not come Western nations, some of them, would have been compelled once more to have a collision with China. This time it is not a Western and Christian nntion (as we all claim to be), but a next-door neighbor and a heathen power that is to administer the hammering. We ourselves do not give JnpnD the credit she claims for unselfishness of purpose, but she is in this matter flagellum Dei all the same. When the war is over, China will be in no cond'itivn to generate strife with Western nations. Her resources will be exh~usted, and it will be many years before she will be in a mood to talk about driving back foreigners. The humiliation of China will be great. She has despised Japan and her improvements. Now she sees plainly that she must, as a matter of self-protection, follow those very paths of progress herself. An altered tone as well as an altered attitude toward Western men is an assured certainty at least for a time. Missions are disturbed just now, and will be till order reigns once more; then the way will be found open for a glorious advance.
XIII. -BURMA AND CEYLON.
BY J. L. PHILLIPS, M.A., M.D., CALCUTTA, GENERAL SECRETARY INDIA SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION.
About two thousand miles of travel in Burma, and over a thousand in Ceylon have enabled me to visit the principal missionary stations of all the. societies. One cannot move about so comfortably or so quickly here as in India, where we now have more than eighteen thousand miles of working railway. In Burma the waterway is wonderful, and the delta of the Irrawaddy abounds in streams, large and small, that facilitate communi· cation between important points. These steamers of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company are well fitted up, the best of them furnished with electric lights; but they are slow, and time seems of little account, so you can hardly plan and carry out engagements as in India. But Burma is now a part of India, and before long I hope will have railway connection with Calcutta.
The work for the children of Buddhists and Hindus and Mohammedans has made a fine start, and I look for rapid progress. There are many beautiful Sunday-schools for Christian pupi.ls-Burmese, Karen, Tamil, Telegu, and English. These are raising up a fine corps of teachers, and our work is being improved and increased. The spread of Christianity among the jungle people is one of the miracles of modern missions. What impressed me everywhere was how wonderfully these Karens are taking the lead here in the East in the matter of self-support or church independence. Their
BURMA AND CEYLON
liberal contributions toward educatioI}al and church work are well known to every reader of current missionary literature. At Bassein I saw their noble Kothabyu Memorial Hall bearing the name of the first Karen convert- one of the finest edifices in all Burma, built by Karen money and nsed for school and church purposes. The Henzada Association, comprising forty-nine churches, gave 16,556 rupees last year for church and school purposes, and reeeived but 1280 rupees from America. The A B Cof the Karen missions were Messrs. Abbott, Beecher, and Carpenter, strong men and full of faith, who in the Bassein field by God's help laid the foundations of self-support deep and firm in the early days of the mission. Their toil is telling yet, and their example should be seriously studied by missionaries of every foreign field.
Ceylon, with its ten thousand l!Iquare miles and three millions of people, is a crown colony of England. It is poorly supplied with railways, there being less than three hundred miles of track on the island. Compared with South India-the territory she most resembles in language, climate, etc.-she has hardly one third the railway line. In reaching the chief stations in the north and east I have had to travel hundreds of miles in the " royal mail coach," which is sometimes a " bullock-bandy," and on the coasting steamers, one of which is supposed to go round the island once a week. Here, too, we look forward to railway connection with India. Just now the" lado-Ceylon Railway" is being agitated vigorously. The present Government is opposed to it; but the public must have it, and that soon, I believe. This connection will bring prosperity to Ceylon and promote Christian as well as commercial enterprise.
A member of ParLament, presiding at one of the public meetings of the British Sunday-school Union last year, congratulated our India Sundayschool Union upon getting ahead of the Government of India and annexing Ceylon. Two years ago our Ceylon auxiliary union was organized at Colombo, the chief city and port. Three points have cheered me much during the munth's touring on this beautiful island.
The first is the open doors for the Gospel on every aide. Childhood here is just as attractive and eager as in India; and our teachers may have all the pupils they wish excepting the Veddas, remnant of an aboriginal race, of whom but a few hundred are now left in the hills and jungles, for whom as yet nothing has been done in a permanent way. We have here in Ceylon only Buddhists, Hindus, and Mohammedans. The southern end, western side, and central part of the island is Buddhist, and the language is Singhalese. The Tamil-speaking Hindus occupy the north and east. It is well for missionary purposes that the field is not so polyglot as many fields of the same size in India, where we find half a dozen languages contending for the mastery. One feature of the work here differs from what we find in India. Boys and girls from Hindu and Buddhist homes live in misslOnary boarding-schools with Christian pupils. What finer opportunity could we ask for reaching and teaching the children of this land ~
THE WORLD'S OUTLOOK IN 1895
Faithful effort is being amply rewarded. Every department of missionary work-the school, the press, the medical, the evangelistic-is finding open doors confronting it on every side.
Progress toward church independence is another token of great cheit" in Ceylon. In the American Mission at the north more than half the churches are already self-supporting, and the English missions, Anglican, Baptist, and Wesleyan, are said to be fully abreast of the American. God is doing marvels in these Eastern fields, of which no adequate report can be made. Beyond all that our bristling statistics can determine or even detect, He is working in human souls and reforming the whole face of society. Therc is no more cheering token here than the girding of the native church for her work. Upon her more than upon all our foreign agencies depends the evangelization of these populous lands. History is but repeating herRelf here, and the church of the soil is coming up bravely to bear her own burden and do her own work.
The hearty co-operation of the churches working in Ceylon is everywhere apparent and most delightful. In the peninsula of Jaffna there are three societies, the American Board, the Church of England, and the Wes- 1eyan. In central and western Ceylon we find the English Baptists. All four of these began their missions, I believe, in the teens of the present century. They are working together in love, and co-operation seems very cordial and complete. In Colombo, a city of 130,000 inhabitants, there has been a missionary conference on evangelical alliance lines for years. The Sunday-school Union has also proved a bond of fellowship. At the recent Sunday-school convention in Colombo, Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians met on a common platform for the discussion of themes bearing upon the religious training of the young. This union will result, I cannot doubt, in the multiplication of Sunday-schools throughout the island; and some of these, we confidently hope, will eventually become churches. There is a bright outlook for Ceylon. "The morning cometh." The children of Buddhist, Hindu, and Moor are learning at His feet, the entrance of whose word gives light!
XIV.-TURKEY.
BY REV. GEORGE C. REYNOLDS, VAN, ARMENIA.
It is apparent to the most superficial observer that this country and the Protestant work here are passing through critical tin.es. Cholera has been epidemic in different parts of Turkey for five years. Aside from the direct loss of life, the injury inflicted through interruption of travel and business is very great. Other epidemics also have seemed to rage with unusual virulence during recent years. Scarlatina has been slaying its scores of victims monthly, the aggregate much surpassing that of the cholera epidemic; the ravages of diphtheria are also increasing. In all
TURKEY
this part of the empire a succession of poor crops, for several years, has brought great suffering, keeping the people on the verge of famine. The general insecurity of the country is greater than for many decades. Travel and commerce, except as large caravans unite for mutual protection, is well-nigh impossible. Many even flee from their homes, leaving everything behind, to escape the ravages of lawless bands. In consequence of these things, and the stagnation of business, the poverty that prevails is appalling. Add the fact of the 'severe earthquake that has receutly injured the capital, and those which have within two years done such harm in the provinces, and it seems as if the Lord were bringing all His judgments to bear on this affiicted land. The gravity of the situation for mission work is increased by the distinctly hostile attitude which the government is more and more assuming toward it.
These facts are sufficient to show that the condition of affairs in this land is extremely delicate, and indicates the approach of an important crisis. We cannot believe that God will allow His work here to be destroyed. The labor, the treasure, and the lives expended here would not go for naught if all traces of the work were now blotted out. Heaven has been made richer by many thousands of redeemed souls, so that this outlay has been amply justified. Still we have a right to expect more general and enduring results from this expenditure, and such has been the ample promise of all the past. We believe that in some way the Lord will bring these rich results from those very judgments that now seem to threaten the stability of our work. Here in Van, at least, there are signs that men's thoughts are being turned to consider their spiritual condition, and to seek to know more of the way of salvation through Christ. Our services were never so fully attended, and the attitude of friendship and inquiry was never so apparent. ,Ve are hoping and praying for a winter of real spiritual blessing.
Dr. John II. Shedd, of Oroomiah, Persia, writes to the New York I ndependent: " Two of our rrissionaries have returned from a three weeks' tour in the border districts under Turkish rule. The sad story of misery and oppression and privation they tell compels us to report that the Nestorian Christians are being stamped out of their ancestral homes. The people are tenacious and eling to the fields and graveyards and stone churches of their fathers; but village after village is being uprooted by the cruel taxation and misrule of the Turk and the repeating rifle in the hands of the Kurd. In the past the wild mountain eastward from the plains of Assyria was Christianized, and held in the Christian name for many ages. The many valleys eastward, now possessed by Kurds, were once Christian, as attested by the ruins of churches in many places. The process of stamping out the Christians has been going on before our eyes in the last thirty years, especially in the districts of Zaboor and Shemisdeen."
After giving sOple harrowing details, Dr. Shedd adds: "The story might go on to other districts ; but this is enough to show how Moslem rule crushes the Christian populatio~, and to show how difficult is any steady missionary work in the midst of such turmoil and misery. How hard it is for the poor Christians, many of whom are Protestants, and all of whom might be as safe and prosperous as their Moslem neighbors are, if they would give up their faith."
THE WORLD: POPULA1ilON, RAI!!JES, LANGUAGES, RELIGIONS
THE WORLD: POPULATION, RACES, LANGUAGES, AND RELIGIONS.
* BY PROFESSOR A. H. KEANE.
None of the current estimates of the population of the globe can be regarded as even approximately correct. Fairly accurate returns are available for nearly the whole of Europe, America, and Australasia, as well as for Japan, British India, French Indo-China, Asiatic Russia, Egypt, French North Africa, British South Africa, the Dutch South African republics, and Liberia. But in Mohammedan and most of Buddhist Asia (Asiatio Turkey, Persia, the Chinese Empire, and Siam), and in most of Africa, all is still mainly guess-work, so that the calculations vary enormously for some of the largest and most densely peopled regions of the Eastern Hemisphere. Thus we have for China proper the popular " four or five hundred millions" reduced by Kreitner and other cautious observers down to 250 and even 200 millions. So with Siam, Asia Minor, and especially Africa, the estimates for which continent range from 127 (Ravenstein) and 168 (Bohm) to 200 millions (Keilh Johnston, Sievers, and others). But taking the mean of these extremes, and allowing for a considerable increase since the last general censuses of 1890-91, the population of the world in 1893 probably falls little short of, and may eyen somewhat exceed, 1500 millions, distributed throughout the six continental divisions as under: Europe…..••••…..•…•.•…•…….•..•…• 360,000,000 Asia with Eastern Archipelago………….•.•…• 832,000,000 171,000,000 Africa …•…….•……………………•.. , Australasia with Pacific Islands .•…••…….•…• 6,000,000 North America with Central America and West Indies. 93,000,000 South America..•••………•.•……………. 38,000,000 Total ..••••••.•.•.•••••••..•…•……. , 1,500,000,000 According to their physical and mental yualities-color, texture of 1.he hair, stature, facial angle, language, social status, aud the like-these multitudes fall naturally into various primary divisions, on the number and character of which, however, much difference of opinion continues to prevail among ethnologists. Some enumerate as many as ten, twelve, and even more distinct groups, which they regard not merely as so many species· sprung from a single genus, but as so many different genera, each evolved in a different geographical centre. But these views are now held to be extravagant, and even unscientific, and in recent years general acceptance has been given to the opinion of Professor (Sir William H.) Flower, first of living anthropologists, that the primary divisions are not more than three, the NEGRITIC or BLACK, the MONGOLIC or YELLOW, and the CAUCASIC or WHITE, and that these divisions themselves are not fundamental, but merely so many varieties evolved in course of time and in different environments from a common prototype. This doctrine, in which Science and Revelation are in complete harmony, rests on the strong grounds that all human groups, from the highest to the lowest, have an '. This article, written by Professor Keane for the new edit.ion of theOhurcn. Mi8sionary Atlas. and published in the Intelttgencer, the organ of the Church Missionary Society, is 00 full of iuformation that we take the lIoor:y to reprint it here in connection with the outlook at the world's r.lI¥ions condition, and as a peI'l)lallent addition to the Uteratnre Qf missions,-Ep, instinctive sense of their common humanity, are fruitful among themselves, and in other respects present such close physical and mental qualities as are best explained by their common descent from a common ancestry. Even the most divergent races, such as the European and Hottentot, or the Lapp and extinct Tasmanian, differ in outward appearance far less than do, for instance, the fan-tail and runt, or the mastiff and poodle, the former mere varieties of the common blue-rock pigeon, the latter by no means the most extreme breeds of the canine species.
Of the mental qualities common to all mankind, incomparably the most important is the reasoning faculty with its outward expression, articulate speech. No tribe, however low in the scale of humanity, has ever been discovered devoid of this endowment. On the contrary, the most degraded races, such as the Fuegians, the Hottentots, and the Australians, are found in the possession of languages often distinguished by extremely complex structures, delicate phonetic systems, and remarkable powers of expression. So highly developed is the grammatical structure of the Hottentot, with its three genders, clearly distinguished subject and object, and intricate verbal inflection, that Lipsius felt inclined to affiliate it to the language of the ancient Egyptians, most civilized of all African. peoples.
This surprising perfection in 1he speech of so many rude and savage races is obviously.due to constant use, to which must also be in part attributed the fact that language hafj become far more profoundly differentiated than has the physical type. The primary racial groups, as above shown, are to be regarded as mere varieties of a common stock. But the primary linguistic groups are absolutely irreducible to a common stock; not only so, but they are also indefinitely more numerous than the primary racial groups. In other words, the anthropologist recognizes but one physical stock with three primary divisions, whereas the philologist recognizes hundreds of linguistic stocks (" stock languages," as they are called) with endless primary and secondary divisions. Thus the American aborigines, possessing great physical uniformity, are grouped together by most ethnologists as a single subdivision of the Mongolic type. But the American stock languages are reckoned by the hundred, and J. W. Powell's" Indian Linguistic Families" (1891), the result of many years' study, deals with fifty-eight radically distinct languages in the United States and Canada alone. Hence race and speech are not convertible terms, and those philologists who, like Hovelacque and many others, base their polygenist theories on the ground of numerous fundamentally different forms of speech, prove too much, and the-refore prove nothing. If every stock language implies a stock race, then we shall have, not ten or twelve, the most that they claim, but hundreds of stock races, which is absurd. But until the primary truths here set forth are generally recognized, Anthropology and Philology must continue to be antagonistic sciences in their general conclusions.
Notwithstanding their great structural and still greater lexical diversity, all known languages are reducible to four morphological orders of speech- ISOLATING or "MONOSYLLABIC," AGGLUTINATING, POLYSYNTHETIC, and IN- FLECTIONAL-and these several orders not only correspond in a general way to so many continuous geographical areas, but are also to a large extent respectively characteristic of so many great divisions of mankind. Thus the Isolating are exclusively confined to the southeast Asiatic branch of the Mongolic division (Chinese, Tibeto-Burmese, Shans and Siamese, Annamese, Karens, Nagas and other hill tribes) ; the Agglutinating is peculiar to all the other Asiatic, European, and Oceanic Mongols (Finno.Tatars, Japanese, Dravidiails, Malays), and to all the Negritic division (African Negroes and Bantus, Australians, Papuans) j the Polysynthetic is co-extensive with the American branch of the Mongol division j while the Inflectional, rightly regarded as the highest order, belongs almost exclusively to the Caucasic or highest division of the human family (European, Iranian and Indian Aryans, Arab and Abyssinian Semites, North African Hamites).
The ISOLATING LANGUAGES are so called because each word in the sentence stands apart, without any change in itself or contact with its neighbors, the sense being determined solely by position : you st1'ike it j it strike you. Till recently, this order was supposed to reprcsent the primitive condition of articulate speech, in which each word was assumed to be an unchangeable monosyllabic root, from which the other orders were gradually evolved. But it is npw shown that monosyllabism is no necessary condition of primordial speech, of which, not the word, but the sentence, is the unit or starting point, and that the monosyllabism of the Isolating languages is in fact the result of profound disintegration, or phonetic decay j in Chinese, for instance, reducing an original trisyllabic word tadaka to the monosyllable i = "to doubt." By this process of decay, going on for ages, thousands of polysyllables were whittled down to a few hundred homophonic monosyllables, which would be undistinguishable in conversation but for the different tones with which they are uttered. Thus the monosyllable pa will be toned in six or more different ways to represent so many original dissyllables, pada, paka, pala, pana, pasa, pata, • . . and some of the Chinese and Shan dialects have, in fact, as many as ten or twelve such tones, which unless correctly uttered lead at once to the greatest confusion and to all kinds of misunderstandings. Hence these languages are now called isolating and tonic rather than isolating and monosyllabic. In Southeast Asia all languages are toned except the Cambojan group (Khmer, Kuy, Cham, etc.), which shows affinities with the untoned agglutinating Malayo-Polynesian of the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is also to be noted that the tonic principle is by no means confined to Southeast Asia, but reappears wherever monosyllabism largely prevails, as in the Otomi of the Mexican highlands. The Tshi, Ewe, and Yornba, allied linguistic groups of Upper Guinea, have all at least three tones, high, middle, and low, and in Ewe the verbal root do has eleven distinct meanings, discriminated possibly by as many different shades of intonation.
AGGLUTINATION in linguistics almost explains itself. It is, on the whole, a somewhat simple process, in wbich the formative elements are, so to say, mechanically tacked on (" glued"), either as prefixes or suffixes, to the root, which for the most part remains unmodified, or at least is never modified beyond recognition. In manly, the ly is attached so loosely that another element, full, may be thrust in between it and the root man: man-ful-ly. What is exceptional in English is normal in the agglutinating languages, as in the Turkish ruh, spirit, ruh-ler, spirits, ruh-un.ler, of spirits, etc. In this way a large number of particles may he tacked on, especially in verbal conjugation, so that the time, mood, personal subject and object, voice, affirmation, negation, dOll bt, possibility, and other relations may be expressed all in one word.
Such is the theory j but in reality agglutination is found to be a somewhat elastic expression, and in many linguistic groups the principle is so highly developed that it is not always possible to draw the line between agglutinative and truly inflecting forms. In the non-Aryan Basque still surviving in the vVestern Pyrenees, a language which has no congeners elsewhere, the extremely intricate verbal conjugation presents many combinations of root and formative elements which are nndistinguishable from true inflection. The same remark applies, though perhaps to a less extent, to the Chechenz, Georgian, and some other stock languages of Caucasia, to several members of the Finno-Ugrian group (Finnish, Magyar, Mord- vinian), and even to some of the agglutinating Sudanese tongues, such as Hausa and Fulah. In Vei (North Liberia) the fusion of words into a sine gle sentence is due to the great play of accent and euphony, resulting in a polysynthetic structure like that of the American system. Thus n-kumu m·be afo wu-ye = "I tell you this," becomes nkumbaf6wuye in pronun- ciation. In general all languages may be said to show traces of all the morphological orders of speech, which are separated by no hard-and-fast lines, and which are continually tending to pass one into the other.
The POLYSYNTHETIC differs in two respects from the agglutinating proc- ess j it cuts down or otherwise modifies the roots, and it is much more comprehensive, allowing even the nominal subject and object to be amal- gamated. Verbal conjugation thus tends to become interminable, while all the parts of the sentence tend to merge in a single word sometimes of prodigious length. In Cree (an Algonquian tongue) the sentence " I shall have you for my disciples" becomes kaukiskinnhohumowakunimimittukuk, a word of fourteen syllables. In his account of the Chippewa (another Algonquian tongue) the Rev. Th. Rarlbert tells us that" to conjugate the verbs to love, to see, to burn, through all the inflections of which they are susceptible would be a work of years." In fact, American conjugation is never exhausted, because fresh forms arise with every fresh coalescing object, and with every fresh accident of, time, place, manner, and other extensions of subject and predicate, each often involving fresh euphonic . changes of the several constituent elements.
In true INFLECTION, the root and the formative elements, which may be either prefixed, postfixed, or infixed, are completely fused together by a sort of chemical action, so that it is no longer possible to separate the component parts. Foot, feet; sing, sang, sun,q, are cases of pure inflec- tion, in which the root vowel has been modified under the influence of suffixes which have themselves afterward disappeared. So in the Latin amabuntur, they shall be loved, the root am, is extended by a stem a (am-a), to which are inseparably attached the various elements of futurity (b), pfurality (n), personality (t), and of passivity (r for s = se = self).
Philological analysis clearly shows that all these elements were themselves originally full notional words tacked on to the root by the agglutiuative process and afterward gradually merged with it in one inseparable word. It thus appears that inflection, like polysynthesis, grows naturally out of agglutination. But the Aryan inflectional system differs profoundly from that which appears to be substantially the same in the Semitic and Hamitic groups. Consequently the Aryan and the Semito-Hamitic lan- guages must have followed two independent lines of development from the agglutinating to the inflecting states. It follows also that the attempts constantly made to trace the Aryan and Semitic groups to a common origin must always end in failure, the agglutinating state from which b01h diverged long before the dawn of history being no longer recoverable. On the other hand, the Semitic and Hamitic have so many structural features in com- mon, that their descent from an original Semito-Hamitic stock language cannot be seriously questioned.
The chief physical and mental characteristics of the three primary divi- sions of the human family are shown in a comparative table on page 41.
These primary divisions everywhere branch off into more or less distinct sub-groups, which intermingle along the frontiers of their respective domains, producing numerous intermediate varieties (Negroid, Mongoloid, Caucasoid peoples) often difficult to classify. Subjoined are all the more important sub-groups and intermediate varieties, with their geographical distribution.
I.-NEGRITIC DIVISION.
Two main branches: AFRICAN (CONTINENTAL) AND AUSTRALASIAN (OCEANIC) : Of the Mrican branch there are two great divisions: Sudanese in the north, from the Sahara to about 4° N. lat., and Bantu, thence southward to the Cape; besides the aberrant Hottentot-Bushman in the extreme southwest (Great Namaqualand and Cape Colony), and the dwarfish Negritoes dispersed throughout the forest regions of the Congo Basin.
Chief SUDANESE groups: Wolol (Jolol) and Serer, between the Senegal and Gambia rivers; Mandingan with numerous branches (Kassonke, Soninke, J allonke, Bambarra, etc.) between the Upper Niger and W'est Coast; Felup, Casamanza River; Susu, Rio Pongas; Bulom, Timni, Kussa, Gallina, Sierra Leone: Vei, Gola, Bassa, Kru, Grebo, Liberia; Agni, Avikom, Ivory Coast; Ewe (Ashanti, Fanti, Wassaw, Ga), Gold Coast; Tchi, Yoruba, Slave Coast; Songhay, Middle Niger; Hausa, between Middle Niger and Bornu ; Mossi, Gurma, lJafina, within the great bend of the Niger; Borgu, Nupe, Igarra, Ibo, Mitclti, Ba,ssa, Iju, Lower Niger, Benue Confluence, and Delta; Okrika, Andony, Qua, Efik, Oil Rivers; Kanuri, Mcsgu, Kanembu, Bagkirmi, Buduma, Ceniral Sudan; Batta, Adamawa; Maba, 'Waday; Runga, Krej, Banda, Nile-Congo waterparting; lJenka, Shilluk, Nuer, Bongo, Bari, ~Vadi, Upper Nile and its western affiuents; Zandeh (Niam-Niam), Mombuttu (frIangbattu), A-Barmbo, A-Babua, Momlu, Welle-Makua basin; Yanghey, Fallangh, Bonjak, Oltai, Sobat basin; Basen(Kunama), Mareb basin; Nuba (Fur, Kunjara, KulHm, Tumali, Barabra), Dar-Fur, Kordofan, Dar-Nuba, Nubia; Fan, Gaboon and Ogoway basins.
Chief BANTU groups, mostly Negroid, all of Bantu speech: Wa-Ganda, Wa-Nyoro, Wa-Pokomo, Wa-Kamba, Wa-Nyamwesi, Wa-Sagara,Wa- Swahili, East Central Africa; Wa-Rua, Wa-Lunda, Ba-Rotse, Mashona, South Central Africa; Mpongwe, Ba-Teke, Kabinda, Ba-Kongo, Bunda, Nano, Ganguela, ,Vest Central Africa; Ova-Mpo, Ova-Herero, Be- Ohuana, Ba-Suto, Zulu-Kafir, South Africa.
Of the Australasian branch there are also two main divisions: the AUSTRALIAN aborigines thinly scattered over the Continent at the time of the discovery, now dying out, and the PAPUANS, occupying all the Melanesian Islands, Solomon, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Loyalty, New Guinea, Waigiu, Aru, Ke, parts of Ceram and other islands in Malaysia, as far west as Floris. As in Africa, here also there is an aboriginal Negrito substratum mostly extinct, but a few groups still surviving in the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, and the Andaman Islands. The extinct Tasmanians appear to have been intermediate between the Papuans and Australians.
The descendants of the African Negroes introduced as slaves into the New vVorld have become the dominant and almost exclusive population of Hayti, Jamaica, and many other West India Islands; they are also numerous in most of the Southern United States, on the Venezuelan and Guiana coastlands, and in some of the Eastern States of Brazil. Many half-caste varieties have sprung up (Mulattos, Mestizos, Cafuzos, Mamelucos, etc.), some of which are stable, while others show a tendency, since the emancipation, to revert to the pure Negro type.
II.-MoNGOLIC DIVISION.
Seven main branches : 1. MONGOLO-TATAR of North and Central Asia, parts of Caucasia, of Asia Minor, the Balkan Peninsula, and Russia. Chief groups: Sharra (Khalkha, Sunui, Chakhar), East Mong'olia j Kalmuck (Western Mongols), Zungaria and Lower Volga j Buriats, Lake Baikal District; Tungus (Tungus proper, Manchus, Lamuts, Gilyaks, Oroches, Goldi, and others), Southeast Siberia and Manchuria j Korean ; Japanese; Aymaks and Hazarah, North Afghanistan and Northeast Persia j Osmanli Turks, Asia Minor and Balkan Peninsula; Turkomans, 'Vest Turkestan and Northwest Persia j Nogai, Crimea and Caucasus j Usbegs and Itara-Kalpalcs, East Turkestan, Khiva, Bokhara, Balkh j Kirghiz, West Siberian Steppes and Astrakan ; Red and Black Tatars, West and Central Siberia; Yakuts, Lena basin, East Siberia. 2. FINNO-U GRIAN of Siberia, North and Central Russia, the Baltic, Middle and Lower Danube. Chief groups: Baltic Finns (Karelians, Tavastians, Esthonians, Livonians, Lapps), Finland, Baltic provinces, Lapland j Volga Finns (Mordvinians, Cheremissians, Chuvashes), Middle Volga; Permian Finns (Permians, Votyaks, Siryanians), Perm, Petchora basin j Ugrian Finns, Ostyaks and V oguls of West Siberia j Magyars of Hungary j Bulgarians (now Slavonized in speech), Lower Danube j Arctic Films (Samoyedes, Yuraks, Koibals), North Russia and North Siberia. 3. TIBETa-CHINEsE of Southeast Asia. Chief groups: Tanguts, North Tibet j Bodpa (Tibetans proper), South Tibet i Ladakhi, Balti, Garwhali, Magar, Lepcha, Lhopa, Mishmi, IJafla, southern slopes of the Himalayas; Kachari, Kuki, Khasi, Naga, South Assam uplands j Burmese, Irawady basin j Talaings (ilfon), Pegu ; Kakhyens (Chins), Karen:, Lushai, North Burma, Arakan, and Tenasserim j Shans (Lao), Siamrse, Yunnan uplands, Siam j Annamese, Tonquin, Cochin-China ; Chinese, Chiua proper. 4. DRAVIDIAN of South India and Ceylon: Telugu, Tamil, Kanarese, Malayalam) Tulu, Kodagu, Oraon, Gondi, Sinhalese, Marathi (Aryanized in speech), Brahui of Baluchistan (?). 5. KOLARIAN of Central India: Santhal, Munda, Juang, Korwa, Kurku, Bhil. 6. MALAYO-POLYNESIAN of Indo-China, Malaysia, Indian and Pacific Or-eans. Chief groups: Cambojans, Kuys, Chams, Camboja and South Cochin-China j Malays proper, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo coastlands, Tidol", Ternate ; Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Java and Madura, most of the Natives of the Lesser Sunda Islands, Celebes, Jilolo, the Philippines, Formosa, and Micronesia j Malagasy of Madagascar, all of Malayo- Polynesian speech but Negroid type j Indonesians, Dyaks of Borneo, Mentawey Islanders, Battaks of North Sumatra, many of the Natives of Jilolo, Ceram, Timor; the Eastern Polynesians (Samoans, Tongans, Maori, 'fahitians, Marquesas Islanders, Hawaiians), all of Malayo-Polynesian speech but Caucasoid type. 7. AMERICAN ABORIGINES. Chief groups: Eskimo of the Arctic Regions, Greenland, and Labrador; Athabascan (Tinne) of the Yukon, Mackenzie, Rio Grande and Colorado basins; Algonquian from the Churchill River of Hudson Bay southward to Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, and from Labrador westward to the Rocky Mountains j Salishan, British Columbia, Washillgton, Oregon, and Montana: Shahaptian, Washington, Oregon, Idaho; Haida, Queen Charlotte Archipelago; Tsimshean coastlands opposite Queen .Charlotte Archipelago; Shoshonean, Oregon,' Idaho, Nev~da, Utah! Wy~mIng, Colorado, Texas, <?alifo~nia; Siouan (Dakotan), Mamtoba, WISCOnSIn, and most of the MIssourI and Arkansas basins· Iroquoian, shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, Upper St. Lawrence River; parts of Virginia, both Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia; Muskhoge~n., Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida; Caddoan, LOUISIana, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota; Pueblos (Zuni, Taiioa, Moqui, Ke1·esa) , Arizona and New Mexico; Yuman, Arizona, Lower California; Piman, Northwest Mexico; Aztec, Mexico and Nica- ragua; Maya- Quiche, Vera Cruz, Tamaulipas, Yucatan, Chiapas, Guatemala; Chibcha, Colombia; Carib, Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil; Tupi- Guarani, Brazil, Paraguay; Aymara-Quichua, Equador, Peru, Bolivia; .lIocobi and Vilela-Lule, Gran Chaco; Araucanian, Chili; Tsoneca, Pata gonia; Ona, Yahgan; and AlacaluJ, Tierra del Fuegoo III.-CAUCASIC DIVISION.
Four main branches : 1. ARYAN of Europe, Irania, North India; and in recent times spread throughout America, Australasia, and South Africa, and along the North African seaboard. Chief groups: Indic of the Indus and Ganges basins; lranic of Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan; Thraco-Hellenic of Anatolian coastlands, the Archipelago, Greece, and Albania; Italic of Italy, Roumania, France, Spain, Portugal, parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Mauritania, Tunisia, Lower Egypt, Lower and parts of Upper Canada, Mexico, Central and Sonth America, Mauritius, and Bourbon; Keltic, Brittany, Wales, West of Ireland, Scotch High- lands, Isle of Man; Teutonic, Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, parts of Switzerland and Belgium; England, Scotch Lowlands, East of Ireland; nearly all North America; British Guiana, Falkland Islands, South Africa, Australasia; Letto-Slavonic, most of Russia, Lithuania, Poland, Lusatia, Moravia, parts of Bohemia and Hungary, Servia, Croatia, Dalmatia, Istria, Montenegro, parts of Siberia and Caucasia.
2. SEMITIC of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Chief groups: As- syrians of Mesopotamia; Arameans of Syria; Hittites of Asia Minor U) ; Phamicians of the Syrian and South Mediterranean coastlands; Israelites (Jewf'.) of Palestine; Arabs of North and Central Arabia, Mauritania, the Sahara, and parts of Sudan; Himyarites and Sabreans of Southwest Ara- bia (Arabia Felix, Yemen) and Abyssinia, all now extinct or assimilated in speech to the Arabs, except the Abyssinian Himyarites (Tigre, Amhara, Shoa), and the denationalized Jews dispersed throughout the Christian and Mohammedan Worlds. . '
3. HAMITIC of North Africa. Chief groups: Egyptians still repre- sented by the Fellahin (peasantry) and Copts of the Lower Nile and Delta; Libyans (Berbers of Mauritania, Tuaregs, and Tibu8 of the Sahara) ; " Ethiopians," comprising the Gallas and Somali of Gallaland and Somali- land; the Masai and Wa-Huma of Masailand and the equatorial lake regions; the A/ars (Danakil) between Abyssinia and the Red Sea; the Bejas between Abyssinia and Egypt; the Fulahs of Futa J allon and Futa Toro (Senegambia), and dispersed in small groupr. throughout West and Central Sudan; since beginning of the century politically dominant be- tween the Niger and Bornu; type originally Caucasic, now mostly Negroid ; language also of Negro type (agglutinating), but totally distinct from the Nuba, so that the" Nuba-Fulah" group figuring on language maps has no existence.
4. The aborigines of Caucasia. Chief groups: Georgians, Imeritians, Lazes, in the south; Oircassians and Abkhasians in the west; Kabards in the centre; Lesf/hian8, Ohechenzes and others in the east (J)aghestan).
COMP….R….TIVE TABLE OF THB PHYSIC….L ….ND MENT….L CH….R….CTERISTICS OF THll THREB PRIlII….RY DIVISIONS.
I. NBGRITIC. II. MONGOLIC. III. O….UC….SIO.
HB …. D ….. Dolichocephalic, i.e., long Braancdhyrcoeupnhdal,iot,hotu.eg' h short Two distinct sub·typee, from occiput to glabeUa, never long (a) anti. ronnd headed compressed at the sides, quite circular. (b) almost everywhere In- and often very high. termingled. F ….CE …. ,. Flat nose broad at base; Small, narrow, concave (a) Large, straight or arched thick everted lips ehow- nose; high cheek bones; nose; blue or gray eye; Ing the red Inner skin; thin lips; moderately (b) small, narrow nose, a high cheek bones; pror- prognathous jaw; small. sometime. snub and snnk nathous (projecting) uuder b I c k, almond.shaped at root; black, sparkling jaw; large, black, rolling eyes, sli~htly oblique. eye; (a and bi low cheek eyes with yellowish cor- bones; orthognathons nea. jaw; regular features. HAIR …… Black, woolly or frizzly, Black, coarse, lank, of the (a) Flaxen, light brown, and rather short, fiat in trans- horse-tail type, some· even red, wavy or curly; verse section; scant or no times very long, round In (b) black or dark brown, beard. section, mustache com· straight, sometimes curly: mon, but beard scaut or both oval In section; fnll absent. beard. COLOR .. " Smooth, glossy, deep browu LI~ht rellowish coarse skin, (a) Florid or ruddy; (b) pale, or blaCK skin, cool to the pas.mg into olive and light olive or 8warthy. tOUCh, and emitting a dis- various shades of brown. Thus (a)· aud (b) are Hox- tinct odor. ley's Xanthochroi (Falr), and Melanochroi (Dark) types. ST.A.TURE.. Above the average, from 5 Rather below the average, (a) Average 5 feet, 7 or 8 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 10 5 feet to 5 feet, 6 inche. ; inches; (b) 1> feet, 5 or 6 inches, and even 6 feet; but American sub-group inches; but much diver- but Negrito sub-group often very toll (Patagonlans sitywithln eaehgroup. dwarfish (4 feet, 4 inches over 6 feet). to 4 feet, 10 Inches).
TEMPERA.- lIlENT…. Sensuons, Indolent, aud nn Sluggish, somewhat morose Active, enterprising, and intellectual; fitful, pas- and sullen, with little in- highly imaginative; hence lionate, and crncl, but itiative, but great staying both specuratlve and prac- often affectionate and power; fragal, thrU~y, and tical; (a) aerioua, stead- faithful; little selt-respect, mdustrionl; but low mor- fast, solid, and stolid; (b) hence easy acceptance 01 al ltanllard and reckless fiery, impulsive, and fickle; the yoke of slavery: men- gBmblinll very common. .cience, art, and letters tal faculties generally ar- Science slightly, art mod- brought to the highest res ted after puberty. erately developed. perfection in both; all Science and art unde- gr.at names in philosophy veoped. and poetry are Cauca,ic. SPBECH…. Excluoively agglutinating; Partly agglutinating, chlelly Almost exclusively Infiect- both wah preJixes and with postJixe. ana vocallc ing; chielly by suffixes suffixes. Great diversity harmony; partly Isolating fused with the root in the (numerous stock lan- and toned; partly poly- Aryan system; chlefiy by gaages) in the north synthetic with great struc- internal vowel change in (Sudan) ; great uniformity turaland lexical divereity the Semitic and Hamitic (two stocl[ languages only, almost everywhere I stock sYltems. Afew(aborlglnes Bantu and Hottentot) In languages very numerous. of the Caucasus and the the southerll halt of the Basques) 6peak hlgbly developed, ag~lutlnatlng Continent. languages vergm, on and ~;;,":. reaching true infiec.
RBLIGION.. Non-theistic; worship of Polythelatlc t worship of Monotheistic, with priest- the natural forces aud of spirits ana of ancestry; hood (mediation) and sac- ancestry; withcraft and Shamanism and Bud- rifice general feature•. fetishism prominent fea- dhism mainly conilned to Judaism, Christianity, and tnres; sangllinary rites this division. Bellet In a Mobammedanism mainly still prevalent. Belief iu future state often takes conllued to this diviSlonJ.· a future state common, the form of transmigra.- dogma baoed on reveale but not nninrsal. tion. writings. Belief in .. future glorified state almost uni- versal. • NOTE ON THE RELIGIOUS POPULATION OF THE 'YORLD.
The table subjoined on the Population of the World according to Religions differs in some material points from thai, in the sixth edition of the C. M. Atlas and requires a little explanation. The Eastern Archipelago is now brought into Asia, and New Guinea left to Australia. Over ha1f (7,684,906) of 1he "Other Christians not specified" in Europe, are French, who at the last census" declined to make any declaration of religiousbelief." Most of the others are Russian sectaries too numerous to specify. The Orthodox Greeks and the Roman Catholics have greatly increased in recent years, as shown by the official populations of Russia (January, 1893 : 124,000,000, of whom at least 90,000,000 are nominal Orthodox) ; of the Hispans and Lusitans-American States (Brazil now 16,000,000) ; of Austro-Hungary, Italy, etc. There are also 6,000,000 Roman Catholics in the Philippine Islands, which are generally overlooked in estimating. The figures for the Jews, although differing considerably from those usually given, are prepared from trustworthy sources. The large number of Protestants in America is due to the great increase of the popUlation in the United States. The 160,000 Buddhists in Europe are the Turgat branch of the Kalmucks who migrated to the Lower Volga in the seventeenth century, and of whom that number still remain, the great body of the nation having returned to Zungaria in 1771. The 20,000 Pagans in Europe are the Samoyedes and a few Votyaks (Volga Finns).
Asia with Africa. America. Australia Total. Europe. E. Archi- with pelago. ;~1N:: Guinea.
—- Jews ……………… 5,500,000 260,000 430,000 300,000 15,000 6,505,000 Mohammedans ……… 5.,7..5.0.,0.0..0 40,000,000 25,000 205.775,000 Hindu$ aud Sikhs …… 160,000,000 300,000 'ioo;oOO . ….. 207,400,000 Buddhists, Jains, Shin- 207,000,000 tUB, Taoists, and fol- 160,000 430,000,000 …….. ……. 14,COO 430,174,000 lowers of Oonfucius..
Reli!iOnS not apeci1l.ed, an sundries……. __ . 350,000 250,000 200,000 80,000 830,000 Pagans …………….. – – – – – – – – – – – – 20,000 15,000,000 125,000:000 14,000,000 1,600,000 155,620,000 11,780,000 -8-12,-510-,0-00 165,730,000 14,600,000 – – – – – – – – Total Non-Christians.
– 1,684,000 1,006,304,000 Roman Catholics ….•.• 156,000,000 8,500,000 1,200,000 57,000,000 850,000 223,500,000 Protestants…………. 86,000,000 1,000,000 820,000 59.,0..0.0.,0.0.0. 8,185,000 149,955,000 Orthodox Greeks .. _••.. 92,000,000 6,000,000 80,000 Armenians, Syrians, …….. 98,080,000 lIIalchltes, Copts, and 800,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 …….. …… -. 6,300,000 Abyssinians .. _…… Other Christians not epeci1l.ed ……… , … 14,000,000 1,000,000 ……. – -..-….-.. – – – – 30,000 -1-5,0-30,0-00 – – – – – – – – Total Christiana…… 348,300,000 19,500,000 5,0110,000 116,000,000 4,015,000 492,865,000 Grand total………. 360,080,000 882,010,0001 170,780,000 130,600,000 5,699,000 1,4911,169,000
EIGHTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BOARD
FACTS GLEANED FROM THE EIGHTY-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BOARD.
BY REV. JAMES H. ROSS, BOSTON, MASS.
The eighty-fourth annual meeting of the American (Congregational) Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held in Madison, Wis., October loth-13th. The annual report and survey of the foreign field re- ported progress and no deficiency save in the treasury, a debt of $116,000. Forty-four new missionaries have been sent out, during the year. A proposal was made that a fund of $500,000 be raised within the coming year to cancel the debts of all Congregational missionary organizations, and to distribute the balance in the interests of new work. The sermon was delivered by the Rey. Dr. Clapp, of Manchester, N. H., on "The Calling of the Gentiles to Salvation." Rev. Dr. Creegan spoke on the work that might be done before the century is concluded and the ninetieth anniversary of the Board is observed. IIe indorsed educational work for the youngest, and he inquired: ""'IVould it be regarded as Utopian that in a rich country like our East Central African Mission, where thousands of acres of fertile land, with beautiful streams of water, are now in possession of the mission-would it not be worth while to consider the wisdom of establishing farms, and gardens, and orchards, and shops, and other methods of self-help, not only to make the mission, so far as is practicable, self-supporting, but for the sake of the natives, that they may be taught to cultivate the soil, to raise flocks, and be skilful in the use of tools as carpenters, blacksmiths, and other branches of industry? I think when we study the methods of Dr. Hamlin, in Turkey, and General Armstrong, at Hampton, we shall come to the conclusion that the best way to educate people living in heathen lands like Africa and the Islands of the Sea, is to train the hands to toil, as well as the mind to think. I am strongly impressed with the wisdom of establishing institutions for manual training, or, if you please, self-help, in connection with many, if not all of our missions. The only practical way of evangelizing heathen lands is by training the natives to be teachers, preachers, and evangelists among their own people. Half the sum of money necessary to build a man-ofwar would roughly equip all our colleges in Turkey, China, India, Japan, and elsewhere, not forgetting the higher educational institutions for girls. If Dr. J. C. Holland was right when he stated that to convert the world we must begin with the children; if the Catholics are right in saying that if they can have the first seven years of a child's life they can mould him intellectually and morally to suit themselves, is it not time that we should press our work with a great deal more vigor along these lines? I was greatly pleased the other day to find that one of the accomplished and consecrated young ladies who sailed for Smyrna was expecting to give her entire time to training the little army of kindergarteners, who will go forth to establish schools among the children in all parts of the Turkish Empire. President Eliot says, in the last number of the F01'Um: 'It is always through the children that the best work is to be done for the uplifting of any community.'
" If Korea is not open to-day for missionaries, she will be to-morrow ; if there are any provinces in China where the missionary cannot safely preach Christ this year, when the war closes it will be found: ~n all probability, that he will be welcomed everywhere in that vast empire. Thibet, which only yesterday seemed to be closed against any possible entrance of the missionary, even there we find brave Miss Taylor, with twelve associates, determined to make an entrance. "
Dr. Hitchcock, District Secretary for the middle West, called attention to the fact, that in the heart of Africa there is a vast population, exceeding that of our Republic, without a missionary; that 250,000,000 of the human race a~'e practically naked; that one half of mankind are living in huts and caves. For the first time, he said, the Bible is in a fair way to be given to the nations ofthe world. During the century 160,000,000 copies and portions have b()en issued in 220 tongues, comprising the languages and dialects of nine tenths of the human race. From 1880 to 1890 the average translation of the Bible was five translations for each year, or fifty translations in a decade. There issues daily from the presses of the British and Foreign Bible Society a pile of Bibles and portions equal in height to the Eiffel Tower. In 1892, 280 missionary societies received more than $14,000,000. There are now seventy-two women's foreign missionary societies. The various missionary societies maintain the work of evangelization in at least six distinct but related departments, and expend only 7 per cent in administration, agencies, and publications; and, as a rule, guide their affairs with an enterprise and fidelity unsurpassed in any caUing. For the first time in history our generation sees the Christian religion thoroughly organized for an advance upon all the pagan world. Even in Africa railroads are projected from the south and the east, and a telegraph line from Cairo to the Cape. The new appliances for postal communication, for financial exchange, for rapid printing, and for safe and swift travel are bringing all the world into a community of interest and life. It is impossible for. savage and barbarous nations to stand before the inroads of Western civilization.
Four fifths of Africa is already under European protection. England's queen is Empress of India. Islam's political power is waning. Only Turkey, Afghanistan, Persia, and Morocco are left to fight its battles. Nearly half the Eastern population of the earth is under Christian rulers.
To-day nearly 9000 Protestant missionariea and nearly 55,000 native laborers are on heathen soil. Fifteen thousand distinct points are occupied by them. The native and regular missionaries whose services are actually paid for exceed by several thousands the entire army and navy of the United States. In 1892 there were 571,000 Protestant Christians in India.
During a recent vacation of Bishop Thoburn he found on his return ~hat 15,000 converts had been added in his own diocese. Taking India as a whole, there has been a gain of 141 per cent in ten years. In China, after fifty-seven years of toil, only six converts were found. That was in 1843, the year set by the Millerites for the end of the world. It would have been a poor time for that event, so far as China was concerned. Now there are 500 churches and about 50,000 members besides 150,000 adherents. China has 105 Christian hospitals and dispensaries, where more than 350,000 persons are treated annually.
In Japan there are 365 churches and nearly 40,000 converts. The new treaty now being considered by the Western powers gives Japan a place among the civilized nations, and it will probably open all the interior country to the free travel and labor of missionaries.
In the Tnrkish Empire the American Board alone has 120 churches, more than 12,000 members, and 12,000 pupils in its schools and colleges. There are believed to be 50,000 Protestant Christians in the empire.
In Africa there are 150,000 converts. Upon Africa the eyes of the whole world are turned. It is fairly probable that the children are already born who will live to see the Dark Continent divided np into great Christian commonwealths. More than forty missionary societies are now at work, employing more than 700 ordained missionaries and more than 7000 native preachers. Including all baptized persons in South Africa, the Protestant Christians number fully 350,000 and the adherents about 1,000,000. In fourteen distinct groups, comprising more than 300 islands, Christianity is the recognized religion. Other groups are partially Christianized.
Think of the once cannibal New Hebrides, where within the lifetime of Dr. A. Paton twenty-three of the islands have been evangelized and 14,000 converts gathered; of the Friendly Islands, with their 30,000 members, where fifty years ago there was not a convert; of Samoa, now Christianized; of the Sandwich Islands, lifted from savagery into a Christian republic; of the Fiji Islands, where four fifths of the population regularly attend Uhristian worship, and where a single training school now has 109 students for the ministry; of Erromanga, where the two sons of the murderer of John Williams are now men of peace and prayer, one of them preaching the Gospel, the other lately baptized in the presence of 700 of the islanders, among whom not a heathen remains.
The more salient points of the address by Rev. Henry H. Jessup, D.D., were as follows : "1. You founded the first evangelical mission of modern times in Vestern Asia. The Christian churches of England, Scotland, and Germany were nearer to Syria and vastly more wealthy, but it was reserved for two young men from New England, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, to carry back New Testament Christianity and an open Bible to Bible lands.
"2. You organized the first Reformed Evangelical Church in Syria since the days of the apostles. It has now grown to more than 150 churches, not a few of whose members wear the martyr's crown. If these 150 churches shall provoke to love and good works, to reformation and return to Gospel purity the Greek and Armenian, the Nestorian and Jacobite, the Maronite and Coptic churches, so that they enter once more on the true missionary spirit of Christianity, to labor for their neighbors, their mission will have been accomplished.
" 3. You set up the first printing-press in the Turkish Empire. It stands to-day just above the grave of Pliny Fisk, on the premises of the American Union in Beirut. It has already given to Western and Southern Asia and Northern Africa 500,000,000 of pages in the Arabic language, and is printing 25,000,000 pages annually. Its publications are scattered over 1200 of longitude, from Megadore, on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco, to Peking, in China. 'fhe 500 works on the Press Catalogue all bear the printed permit of the Imperial Ottoman Government.
"4. Your missionaries founded in Beirut the first day-school for girls ever opened in the Turkish Empire. On the 18th of last April a memorial column was unveiled in Beirut, to commemorate the spot where was built the first edifice in Western Asia to teach girls to read.
" 5. Then followed the next pioneer movement of the mission, and a girl's boarding-school was opened by Dr. and Mrs. De Forest. This gave a new impulse to female education. The impulse thus given sixty years ago by your missionaries has revolutionized public sentiment and proved a benediction to the whole Turkish Empire. To-day there are in Protestant schools alone in Syria and Palestine 9000 girls, and there must be as many more in schools of other sects.
" 6. Your missionaries also opened the first boarding-school for boys in the Turkish Empire, under Mr. Hebard and Dr. William M, Thompson, in Beirut in 1837. This was succeeded by Abeih Seminary, in Mount Lebanon, under Mr. Calhoun, and Bebek Seminary, under Dr. Hamlin, which two schools culminated in " 7. The first two colleges in the e!Ilpire-the Syrian Protestant College, in Beirut, under Dr. Daniel Bliss, and the Robert College, in Constantinople, under Dr. Cyrus Hamlin-both of which were bcgun in 1863. Your missionary, Simeon H. Calhoun, founded in Mount Lebanon the first theological school for training a native ministry. This work has been continued until hundreds oiyouug men have been trained all over the empire for the Gospel ministry.
" 8. Your eminent missionary scholars, Drs. Eli Smith and Cornelius Van Dyck, gave to the world the first correct and classical translation of the Bible into the Arabic language. You will find copies in the bazaars of Constantinople and Teheran ; in the shops of Mosul and Aleppo ; in the houses and homes of Damascus and Jerusalem; publicly hawked in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and Zanzibar, and among the marts of Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. The Moslems of Arabia, India, and China have received it as God's Word in the Tourah and Enjeel, approvcd and sanctioned in their own Koran. Among all the beneficent works wrought by the missionaries of your Board in co,-operation with the American Bible Society, none can surpass that of giving the Word of God in a translation of classical purity to 70,000,000 of the Arabic-speaking races.
" 9. Your missionaries were the first educated and scientific physicians to carry the blessings of medical and surgical science to the East.
" 10. Your missionaries in Syria were the first to introduce into that land steam printing-presses, petroleum oil, sewing-machines, photography, brass clocks, and windmills, and in other parts of the land they introduced American agricultural implements; and in Constantinople, one too well known to need mention here, introduced to the Empire of the Sultan the electric telegraph.
" 11. Two of your missionaries in Syria have received Imperial decOl'ations for medical services in times of pestilence, and one a decoration for eminence in Arabic literature.
" 12. And, lastly, two of your missionaries were the pioneers in modern times in Palestine exploration.
" 13. Your missionaries in Syria have been through repeated visitations of pestilence and six different outbreaks of domestic and foreign war. In pestilence they have gone to infected towns with medicine and supplies, and saved Whole provinces from plagne by wise sanitary measures and counsels. "
mTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY lIEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
Lutheran Industrial Mission, Liberia, til one wonders that the whole popUla- West Afrioa. tion has not been wasted. The fact BY REV. DAVID A. DAY.* that, in spite of crime committed on her people, wrongs brought about by greed Our work at Muhlenburg moves on of gain, she still survives, shows a vi- slowly, and in the very nature of the t:;tlity which measures up to that of any case will continue to do so for years to nation or race that ever existed.
come, but we trust it is in the right di- Humanity in Africa is in much the reotion, and that the results will be per- same condition as its soil, wondrously manent. Weare doing our best to ac- fertile and capable of almost unlimited complish what is the ultimate object of production of all that is fairest and all Christian effort in all lands-the sal- best, but so overgrown with dense jun- vation of men both in this world and in gle. that the light of the sun never the world to come. reaches the earth nor the breezes ever Leaving out all considerations of the stir its heavy and damp vapors. Be- unhealthiness of this climate, I suppose fore there can be any planting of health- there is no more difficult field in the ful seed or tree there must be a vasi world than this. We cannot forget amount of cutting of bush, drying in Africa's long night. From the very. the sun, and burning, with clearing earliest dawn of history she has been away of rubbish. stumps, and decayed the oppressed of all nations and the vegetation.
prey of all people. On her devoted We who are now on the field know head seems to have been poured the that we are only the veriest pioneers, vice, corruption, and iniquity of the whose duty it is to clear away, that earth for ages; the slave trade, with all others who shall follow may plough its attendant horrors, marred her fair and plant, sow and reap. It is the beauty, and made the Continent "the hardest kind of work, and taxes to the open sore of the globe." When that utmost all the consecrated energies that ceased then came that gigantic crime, any man may have. Seeing the prom- perpetrated in the name of commerce, ises "afar off" requires faith to keep the rum traffic, with its unending train one at work.
of body and soul-destroying curses, un- The fact is, the Dark Continent ia still an unsolved problem, and the work * Rev. D. A. Day has been for twenty years to be done in it before it is brought to the Cross will require the sanctified and in charge of the Lutheran Mission at Muhlen- united effort of the entire Christian burg, Monrovia. He and his most excellent wife are largely endowed with sanctified com- Church.
mon sense. Familiarity with this mission work Our plan of work at Muhlenburg is, throngh years of study and personal friendship perhaps, peculiar, but, in the light of with Mr. and Mrs. Day, and from facts gathered existing facts, I believe it is the best we in Liberia during a personal visit years ago, can adopt. The preaching of the Goshave convinced us that this mission has the only true underlying principle for permanently suc- pel, as that term is understood in other cessful mission work among African tribes. countries, can do bnt little good to these Mr. Day is a genius and a general, besides being people. Even when combined with a Christian gentleman, but he has no patent on "book learning" it does not reach the his model, and it is at our solicitation that he furnishes what we here present to our readers. desired end. We are very apt to for- get that these people have a physical It is "too good to keep." Mr. Day's delightfully existence, on whose well-being depends, to a great extent, their salvation. How informal communications to the I/utheran Mis- sionary Magazi1l!1 lire worth tho price of that Mag~ne, J. T. G. many grand men and women have toil- Difficulties of course meet us at every ed here almost in vain and found un· turn, as the African is naturally averse marked and unknown graves, only to to work and does not take readily to demonstrate that they were on wrong the culture of the land. One might al- • lines I We all know that preaching and most write a book on the reasons given brain culture are necessary, but it is by this man of the tropics why work is not all. The harmonious training of a nuisance, or. as he calls it, " a cuss."
heart, head, and hand is the key-note "Work palaver kill somebody," he to the redemption of Africa, so in our tells you, and then he goes on to show work we are trying to meet the require- you that" Dis ting call work, fool ting ments by combining manual labor, too much."
preaching, and teaching the rudiments At this station we have a school of of the school books, so that our pupils about one hundred pupils. who are may be able when we are through with boarded and clothed by us and kept them to meet the changed conditions close to the workers. They are given of life-the new life into which we en- four hours' daily train in school books, deavor to lead them. Our efforts are combined with Bible reading. prayer- "mainly given to the children, though meetings, regular preaching, and such the old are by no means neglected, and other Christian training as may be suit- the Gospel is preached to all as oppor- ed to their wants, with four hours' work tunityoffers, and with persistent effort. on the farm or in the shop, according The training in the schools is all in the to the taste and ability of the pupil.
English language, as the people are Connected with the station there is a broken up into so many small tribes, blacksmith and carpenter shop, with each speaking a different language, that turning lathes for iron and wood, and it would be impossible to systematize a number of small circular saws, a them. Taking into consideration the good set of coffee hullers, fans, etc., all fact that at no very distant time Eng- driven by a first-class, twelve-horse- lish will be the language of all West power engine, and all run by native Africa, we think this is best, though boys brought directly from the bush many of our native workers in the na- and trained in our own mission_ tive villages do their preaching in the This I regard as the best educator language spoken by the people of that we have_ Nothing that I have yet seen place, be it Bassa, Pessa, Dey, Golah, so stirs the sluggish mind of the in- Vey Mambo, or Bo08ie. dolent heathen into living curiosity. ' It We take into the mission children of is a mystery that calls out the broad both sexes of any age between six and grins and wild grimaces in a fashion twelve years, and keep them with us wonderful to the beholder. At first until they are of age, endeavoring in sight it strikes him as something only that time to give them as good a home- intended for the white man and "no training as possible, as the entire social good for we," but when we take one fabric of Africa must be changed in its of his own sons, train him to handle redemption. lind control the fiery-hearted iron giant, The natural resources of this country he reports at home after a visit, "Dat are almost inexhaustible, and when de- black boy, my son, liv' for make dem veloped more than sufficient to give the ting walk all same white man; black inhabitants enough to make life happy man got sense all same he," and he is and pleasant. We know, too, that in set to thinking in a way that all the teaching them to bring out of this fer- talking we could do cannot effect. The tile soil its God-intenued products, we same may be said of the sewing-rns- prepare their minds for a more ready chine, typewriter, etc. Not long ago acceptance of the Gospel than by any I had an ice-machine come out, not other method. very large, it is true, but large enough to freeze a few quarts of water solid. after deducting shipping expenses, In some of my talks with these people about 22 cents per pound. I had been rash enough to tell them that in our country water became so This not only gives us a working hard because of the cold that you could capital, but our people are being taught walk on it. They had been believing to grow a product which has a money all the other wonderful tales they had value in the world's markets, and enheard about that land, but at solid wa- able them to purchase what they may ter they drew the line, and while they need from abroad to supply their new were polite enough not to call me a liar wants. directly, I soon found out that they thought it. To save my reputation, The extensive cultivation of the soil and for the comfort of our sick mission- around the station has added greatly aries and others, I had this machine to the health of the place. We are all sent out, and I can assure you it was a familiar with the frightful mortality revelation to the native, who in all his among missionaries to this coast in forwildest dreams of cold weather could mer years. On my arrival I found the never imagine anything even as cold as land about us covered with dense junfrost. For this man to have a piece of gle, and knew that I could not live ice suddenly laid on his naked spinal without clearing it away, so that we column was a demonstration he did not might get air and light. It was not soon forget. enough simply to cut it down, but it had to be put under cultivation and While I am writing a dozen men kept clean. Coffee at that time seemed stand peering over my shoulders at the the best thing for us to plant, and the manipulation of the typewriter, asking years since have justified that conclusuch questions as suggest themselves sion. to a man who has never seen such a thing before, and to whom it is a mys- The example, too, has been a good tery as high as heaven. "Did [we] one for our pupils. When they finish make dem ting, or did [we] dig him their course at the mission they get marfrom ground, or did he grow tree 1" ried and go to housekeeping, as all Do you wonder that now and then my Christian people should do. Little mind gets away from the subject, and plantations are springing up all around the fingers wander among the keys in a us, and every year the free pupils of the way that brings to confusion spelling mission are putting out thousands of and all grammatical forms ? young coffee plants. On the road run- ning from the mission lands toward the We have under cultivation, on which interior, one may now walk: ten miles we raise cassava and other vegetables through cleared and cultivated land, common to this country for us~ in the which ten years ago was in primitive mission, about seventy-five acres of forest. The young man now who canland. In addition there are about one not boast his coffee-farm is considered hundred and ten or twenty acres plant- poor and shiftless indeed. These Chrised with sixty thousand coffee-trees, tian homes are becoming light centres which in a few years will have come in the midst of the heathen darkness in into full bearing, and which will con- which many of them are situated. In tinue to bear for fifty years 1£ they are these little communities, among the well cared for. Two weeks ago we first buildings erected is the little thatch sent to the United States six thousand church, which they can and do build pounds of first-class coffce, and in an- themselves without a copper of money other month wi1l be able to send from from home. . More than once I have the last season a crop of sixteen thou- dedicated to God these little twelve by sand pounds more, or in all over twenty twenty churches, and preached the serthousand pounds, worth in the market, mon with more thanksgiving, and took in it more real, h"arty, Christian pride than if I had been in the States dedi- come to us, and by working on the cating the finest marble temple that plantation earn the cloth needed for money could build or skill devise. this extra dress.
Schools and Sabbath-schools, too, are Still one more advantage is this, along kept up in the same way. It is true, the coast in the factories and trading they would hardly pass muster at home, stations there is a great demand for nabut they are doing their work and in a tive clerks, and the temptation to the way that we believe is in line with boys to drift there is very great. As God's own plan. in nine cases out of ten it simply ruins the boy, we discourage everything of The congregation at Muhlenburg, the sort to the best of our ability. If numbering something over a hundred we can get one of them to put an acre members, has for years supported its of land under cultivation, the sense of own native pastor, trained in the mis- ownership at once makes him a better sion, besides taking care of its own man and fixes him to the spot. Sabbath-school, purchasing its books, international lessons, etc. j and yester- Of course there are a great many failday three young men were set apart as ures; it could not be otherwise, and evangelists, the sermon being preached the discouragements are very many inby the writer from the text (Acts 3 : 6), deed j yet, looking back over the twenty "Silver and gold have I none j but years of continuous work, we have reasuch as I have give I thee. In the name son to praisll the Lord and press onof Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walko" ward.
The children who come to us from We have in this congregation a "the bush" are, of course, taught to Y. p_ S. C. E. of half a hundred memwear clothing, and in a generttl way to bers, who have in their treasury quite live differently from the way they do a snug sum toward sending a missionat home. We have no right to create ary to the interior. To-morrow we bein any human being a want without at gin our normal Bible class, which will the same time teaching him how to continue a month, with two recitations supply that want. When I teach the each day and one hour of devotional boy to wear a shirt, I am in duty bound exercises. The class will number about to show him how to get it, and when fifty members, who will be taught by the girl from the jungles is taught to the writer from the blackboard. They put on and wear a dress, some one must are nearly all able to take notes, and all teach her how to obtain one. come furnished with pencil and paper. When we remember that ten years ago All this makes expeuse, which must the majority of these bright boys and be provided for in some way. The girls were in the jungles running wild, home could not be asked to do it, and and compare their condition then with they ought not to be. When a couple what it is now, we exclaim: "Behold get married and go to housekeeping, what God hath wrought 1" the husband must find some remunerative labor, so as to clothe himself and I intended to have sent you a number wife until his own plantation is old of photographs, which would better tell enough to give him an income. Our the story of the work being done than farm enables us to do that without anything I could write, but when I drawing on the home church. came to print I found I was out of chemicals, so I will have to wait a few Connected with and under the gen- weeks until the new supply orderect" eral training of the mission there are comes to hand. several hundred half-civilized people, men and women, who attend church, I do not know how long I shall rekeep fhe Sabbath, and at least on Sun- main out this time, but not as long as day put on more clothing than is cus- I did the last time. Ten years is too tomary to the native. These people long a time for any man to remain "in this climate with justice to his health, Missionaries cannot complete that to say nothing of the effect on the mind. work; could not if their numbers were I only realized when I again came into multiplied by ten thousand_ Of aU contact with civilization how much I thing8 human in mi8sionary work, the had fallen in arrears. native agency is the most important. If We have besides myself now in the so, the question which should cause us mission one white worker, a splendid the greatest solicitude is the question young man, and hope soon to have an- what kind of native agency we are to other. have.
How to bring forward the best native agency-this is the great, first question.
Self-Help in Mission Sohoo1s. The second is not like unto it, but next BY REV. CHARLES C. TRACY, ANATOLIA to it-namely, how to do this most COLLEGE, MARSOVAN, TURKEY. economically.
Let us examine and see what we It is with some newly evangelized want in native evangelists. pastors, and foreign peoples a pleasing dream that teachers.
the pecuniary assistance, which has The lands wherein missionary opera- been afforded them to some extent in tions are carried on are, in general, order to the inauguration of the evan- lands of poverty. At least the com- gelistic enterprise, will be largely in- panies of evangelical people will be creased and indefinitely continued as the found hard bestead with many burdens work goes on. They think that the upon them, and a great work before dear people who sent the missionaries, them. This being the case, the labor- established the schools, stirred the new ers in this work will have to be ener- hopes will go on helping them gener- getic, efficient, practical, self-denying ously in all respects. This is the dream. men. The sort of native agency we do The hard fact is that every nation, not want is the sort that is helpless and however poor, must learn to stand dependent, or bookish and visionary upon its own legs. The churches, the and given to dignity and broadcloth.
schools now receiving some degree of In all these fields the successful men foreign assistance, must face the cer- will be the men who are not afraid of taintyof being called upon in the near work of any kind-who are deeply in future to do without that assistance. sympathy with the people who earn Weare not planting trees in pots, but their bread by the sweat of the brow- in the soil, where they are expected to and the vast majority of all peoples grow. Nor will they be watered many must be of that class.
years from foreign aqueducts. I say the native evangelical leaders The best way to help a human being must be energetic, practical men, as is to help him to help himself. That well as endued with the Holy Spirit.
is God's way, and should be man's In the mission schools these leaders way. This, our missionary age, needs must be brought forward. Thc educa- a good supply of hard, common sense, tion of a few in Europe or America especially in the prosecution of its edu- may be advisable and profitable, but cational work in missionary fields. the idea of educating abroad the Whole Nothing calls for greater care and wis- or the main part of the force of evan- dom than the education of young peo- gelical laborers is quite as childish as ple in our missionary schools. It is that of doing the whole work by mis- lamentable if they are trained to depen- sionaries alone. To the mission schools dence. Train them we must to a cer- we must look for the supply of thesl!
tain extent. It is the ABC of missions practical, industrious, and independent that in the main a country must be men and women. The Belf-help system evangelized by natives of the country. tends to develop 8uoh men. It is now time to define self-help in and:will not interfere with the efficient mission schools. It is well first to make prosecution of study. The avails of clear what the system is not. It is not their labor go to the support of the a system whose object is to teach trades. Self-help Department. It is not manual training, except incidentally. It has not, for its chief end, What are the benefits of this system the introduction of improvements or in mission schools, as compared with the advancement of ci vilization, though systems which make needy students it does efficiently help in this respect. entirely or mainly beneficiaries ? It has not for its object the gaining of money, for it cannot in ordinary cases 1. The moral benefits as the .highest be made to pay all expenses, even in importance. Labor is, no doubt, though it can be made decided(y eco- self·denial for most, and so a good disnomical, doing away with much ex- cipline. Carrying this lighter cross in pense ordinarily incurred, in direct and youth prepares one cheerfully to lift indirect ways, in the support of bene- the heavier crosses iii after life. Espe· ficiaries. The object of self-help in mziJ· cially is it useful if there be a natural sion sclwols is to develop manhood and test tendency to indolence. Also the habit character while educating t1te student. of continuous, systematic labor develop.s It intends to make him not less, but patience, perseverance, and other qualimore self-reliant and versatile and ties, all important for a Christian labor· hardy for toil on the completion of his er. Caring for one's self develops selfcourse of study in school or college reliance and independence, while, at the than he was at its beginning, and so same time, it tends to the growth of more fit to be a successful Christian la- sympathy with those whose lives are borer among his own people. lives of labor. Who so utterly heedless of others as the one who has always n experience, the world over, teaches been ministered unto f The avoidance of bodily toil by students, on which anything, it teaches that the successful they so felicitate themselves, is a curse men are the men who work their way up, to them. It is surprising how little nonot those who are lifted and carried. tice, comparatively, is taken of the fact Even kings and emperors recognize that our Lord and perfect Example this, and put their sons in the ranks to toiled at the carpenter's bench till He be drilled as soldiers preparatory to was thirty years old. His greatest aposputting them in command of armies. tle labored at weaving tent·cloth while The wise merchant educates his son pursuing his studies under Gamaliel from the bottom of the business before and while he preached the Gospel in putting him at the top. No man is fit Asia and in Europe. Most of the disto be a leader of the people who has not ciples of Christ and the disciples of trodden the paths of the people, tasted their disciples were laboring people. the labors of common folks, known It would be well if all Christian lead· something of their burdens and sweat. ers could have et some time in early The people are laborers, and sweat is life the taste of bodily toil to give them the rule. livelier sympathy with the toiling, sweating human race. The moral bene· The self-help system, as it is begin- fits of all the college athletics and all ning to be conducted, is essentially this : the Olympian games revived or invent· Shops or places of labor are provided ed bear no comparison with those of wherein students with small means are sturdy productive labor with the hands. employeu a certain definite portion of each day, and during vacant days, reo There is another moral advantage ceiving pay, and thereby supplement. connected with systematic labor. There ing the expense of their education. So seems to be, as yet, almost no appreci. much time is allowed for labor as will ation of the extent to which bodily lazifavor health and physical development, ness breeds vice, and bodily labor prevents it. Genteel exercise, as fencing, to endure. Such a one will not stand boxing, riding, hunting, do no good in it; some day he will be seen packing that direction. All the sports of prince- up his bundle to leave. Good rid- ly houses, even those involving Spartan dance I The young man of ordinary hardihood, have proved unavailing as health, in any country, who is not will· preventions of vice. Laboring peas- ing to labor with his hands two hours ants, with far less incentives to decency, a day to educate himself is not worth have got on better. There is such a educating at all. There are weak mis- thing as sweating out sin by sweating sionaries who write letters home and out the physical conditions that lead to get their friends to support such per- it. sons in school. Everyone of this class 2. The effect of systematic labor is becomes a nuisance afterward.
good on the mind as well as the body. 4. The advantage as regarcis economy.
It acts through the body, favoring good The self-help system would be truly digestion, developing the muscles, pro- economical, even if it cost more, instead ducing good circulation, a better action of less money. The men who have of the skin and lungs, banishes head- been taught the worth of money by aches and vapors, and puts the student earning it are more careful in the use in a good frame for study. It is un- of it afterward. When they come to speakably better than strolling or loiter- establishing schools, building churches, ing, swinging canes and telling stories, or carrying on any Christian work, they which in colleges generally passes for do it in a more practical way and with exercise. As for baseball, supposed to less outlay. The man who has always be such splendid exercise, it may be had his bills paid for him is always good for the nine who play, but wpat coming for more. His salary is always advantage to the nine hundred who insufficient; his congregation cannot look on, smoking, sitting on benches or support him; every enterprise he un- fences, making no other exertion than dertakes costs double what he expected.
that of an occasional hurrah? He is not practical; his hands are soft, 3. The self·help system affords an ad- his tissues flabby, his spirit indolent.
ditional and excellent test of character. He fails and enters some other occupa- Of all the gifts mentioned by Paul, one tion or seeks a better country. There of the most necessary for a missionary is a painful amount of history in these is the gift of discerning spirits. It is brief words, as every experienced mis- one which few of us possess in any re- sionary knows.
markable degree, and is usually most But there is a more direct economy deficient in those who think themselves in self-help. Instead of a chaotic edu- most acute in the exercise of it. A cation soeiety without system, with a young man wants education. He comes little help from boards for indigent stu- to the missionary; he proposes to be a dents, a little help from missionaries preacher. Oh, yes, he is willing to suf- and their private friends for special fer all things for Christ's sake! He is cases, let there be at the educational ready to die for Him. Very well. Let centre a well·organized industrial sys- us see whether he is willing to sweat tem, as indicated above, furnishing such for Him. I have less and less confi- work as is most productive. Let all be dence in the talk tests of character; I on a humble and inexpensive scale.
want to see the work test applied-the The avails of the students' labor will, sweat test. Humble, persevering labor, in large part, cover the expenses of the with no applause and no reward but department, though not wholly-the the privilege of preparing for a manly deficit being by no means equal in and useful career, is too severe a test amount to that which would otherwise for the conceited self-seeker, the impa- have been spent in unsystematized di· tient zealot, or the would-be gentleman rect aid-aid often given to the detri·
January
ment of the student, and accompanied proval not of the Board, but of the Gen- with the loss of the priceless advantages eral Committee, and their missionaries abroad being snbject to " appointment" of self.help. A little capital is required at the outset, good management al· by the bishop presiding at the confer· ence on the field, though in actual ad- ways, and then the self·help system, ministration he rarely, if ever, exercises already in successful operation at some his prerogative other t1.lan in a confirm- atory way. There is also a "Bishop points, will become an incalculable William Taylor Building and Transit blessing in our mission fields. The Fund Society," which reports to the grace of God first, wise methods next. General Committee. The great and controlling authol'ity The operation of the former is hindered under the General Conference and in by the lack of the latter. It is God's the interim of its sessions is the Gen· way to lwlp man to help ltimselj'. eral Missionary Committee. This meets annually. It is composed of the eigh- teen bishops, two of whom are diocesan missionary bishops-Taylor in Africa, Methodist Episcopal Missions. Thoburn in India; four secretaries; two treasurers; fourteen representa· This REVIEW is undenominational in tives, elected by the General Conferthe sense that it presents independent ence for the fourteen Episcopal dissocieties and work on the mission field; tricts into which the whole Churc1.l is but it is pan·denominational in that it gronped ; and fourteen representatives proposes to treat the work of all de· of the Board of Managers, elected by nominational missions. The Editorial themselves from their own number.
Department last month presented some Sixteen of the eighteen bishops travel statements about the annual meeting of through the Church at home and abroad the American Board. We propose to by a system of rotation arranged semi.
make similar mention of the meeting of annually by themselves, and are hence the General Missionary Committee of familiar by practical administration and the Methodist Episcopal Church, held inspection with every part of the work.
in Brooklyn in November last. In this committee they have no episco- The entire missionary authorities of pal authority, speaking and voting only the Methodist Episcopal Missionary as others.
" Society" are the creation of the Gen· It is the business of this General eral Conference in its quadrennial ses· Committee to determine what fields sion, which modifies its constitution shall be occupied by a majority vote, :md appoints all its officers; thus in a and by the same process to say how large sense it is no " society" at all, but the money shall be appropriated in de· the "Church as such;" conducting tail. There is no possible portion of missionary operations. The Board of the field at home and abroad detailed Managers is little more than a commit· information of which cannot be fur· tee, attending to important details and nished by some one present who has emergent occurrences, and acting for been in constant touch with it, or who the corporation in civil proceedings and has very recently personally inspected appointing some lay missionaries. It, it.
however, disburses all moneys of a con· As the moneys voted are on the basis tin~ent and incidental character within of probable prospective income for the limlted amounts. It receives through following year, the first crucial busi- the secretaries from the foreign fields ness is the determination of the aggre- the estimates of the moneys needed gate amount, not to be .exceeded in the from the several fields, and from these total appropriations. It is not unusual makes a budget which it recommends to spend from six to twelve hours in to the General Committee, which meets deliberation and discussion of this ques- annually and votes supplies in detail tion, the debate covering the financial for the several fields. Neither the Board conditions of the country as well as in- nor the Committee appoint the clerical ternal factors of the Church. A body missionaries, that being done by the so constructed with checks and bal- bishops in charge of the fields respec· ances (not bank checks and balances) tively. The Woman's Foreign Mis- cannot fail of being at once progressive sionary Society and the Woman's Home and conservative. Missionary Society have each their in- One important item on which judgdependent treasury, and select their ment is based is the income for the pre· own missionaries and direct their own ceding ten years. At the Brooklyn affairs on the fields, their" appropria· meeting in November, 1894, the follow· tioIls" being Jlominally subject to ap· ing showing was made;
INTERNATIONAT, DEPARTMEN'l'
YEARS, Collections IJegacies. Lap.ed Sundry Totals, Increase or from Annuities. Sources. Decrease.
Churches.
—- —- ——— —- —- —– 1885, ……. $694,034,95 $101,901.83 ………… $30,891.58 $826,828.36 $95,702,50 1836 . . . . . . . . 836,592.37 133,958.21 …………………… 21,577.89 992,128.47 165,300.11 1887 . . . . . . . . 932,208.91 35,843.78 76,74322 1,044,795.91 52,667.44 1888…….. 935,121 38 41,983.67 "$20;800:00 23,476.19 1,000,581.24 44,214.67" 1889 …….. 1,014,082.09 71,325.25 23.930.46 1,130,137.80 129,556.56 1890…….. 1,051,642.04 58,881.26 4,000.00 20,948.52 1,135,271.82 5,134.02 1891 …….. 1,Q78,541.81 117,515.44 16,395.05 16,435.74 1,2'28,888.04 93,616.22 1892…….. 1,119,896.36 122,678.46 1,500.00 13,298.10 1.257,372.92 28,484.88 1893…….. 1,109,457·65 72,436.37 2,000.00 12,714.75 1,196,608.77 60,764.15* 35,107.28 2,000.00 12,513.62 1,137,807.86 58,800.91· – – – – – – – – – – – _ . – – – – – – – – – 1894…….. 1,088,186.96 —– —- $46,695.05 $252,530.07 $10,950,421.19 ………… Total …. $9,859,764.52 $791,431.55 NOTE .-A star (*J after amounts in the last colnmn indicates a decrease.
Even within this discrimination is eiety,'is estimated at $3,500,000. The made, the receipts from collections by missionary agents on the field sent from the churches being the most reliable America number 581, and the native test; that of bequests being a fluctu- agents, 4823. ating item, the annual average of $80,- 000 for the ten years may be tak.en as Nothing was more striking in the sesthe guide. This committee has no re- sions of this Committee than the ignorlation to the Woman's Foreign and ing of the war conditions in Eastern Home Boards other than to approve Asia. This is accounted for by several their appropriations. The income of facts. 1. They believed that the ultithese societies, however, affords some mate result of the war would be enother data for judgment. Adding larged opportunities and responsibili- $311,925, raised by the Woman's For- ties. 2. During the Franco-Chinese eign Missionary Society, and $125,000, war in Tonquin gracious revivals ocby the Woman's Home Missionary So- curred in many parts of China, emi- nently in Shantung; and so now an ciety and the "Taylor" Societis in- unprecedented revival goes on in the come, the aggregate missionary IUcome Methodist Missions in Hinghwa, Fooof the Church, exelusive of local soci- chow, and Rev. Mr. Brewster will probeties, amounts to very nearly two mill- ably receive 2000 converts from the ions of dollars. Of this about a mill- heathen this year. Besides, except the ion, two hundred thousand is for" for- interruption at Peking, the missionary eign" missions, located in Liberia, work is not affected by the war. 'fhe Congo, and Angola, Africa; Argen- dominant thought was that as no tina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, change of dynasty would convert the Chili, Bolivia, and Ecuador, South people, the duty still is ours to give America; distributed in fonr extended them the Gospel, whatever their govmission plants, Foochow, North, Cen- ernment or whoever rules. tral, and West China; Germany; Switzerland; Norway; Sweden; Den- This missionary committee has no mark; Finland, and St. Petersburg; secret or executIve sessions; it disfive conferences extending over India cusses the merits of its missionaries; from the Punjab to Bombay and Ben- its own blunders; failures on the fields; gal; Malaysia; Bulgaria; Italy; Mex- discouraging or encouraging concurico; Japan; Korea. rent facts; and gives away its own plots, plans, schemes, or wllat not to The domestic missions embrace the any of the public who choose to atmissions among North American Ind- tend, and to the tender mercies of the reekless sensational reporter of the secuians, Freedmen, and all the foreign' lar press. Sherman said of Grant that speaking populations, Mormons, and he was never afraid of an enemy he others. could not see, and this Committee seems willing that the enemy shall The foreign fields enroll 120,000 com- know exactly where it is to be seen. munie'l.nts and 80,000 adherents, and Its prudence is that it" fears God and have an average attendance on Sabbath nothing else." services of 100,000. Over 200,000 pu- An illustration of this open canvass pils are receiving instruction in the sev- was this year given in an able and brilleral schools; 263,000,000 pages of liter. iant discussion by masters in debate on ature were issued from mission presses both sides, fortified with well.digested on these foreign fields last year; the real estate, school buildings of the soinformation in the consideration of the religious habits and customs of the peoquestion whether this society should ple. The results of his observations are continue to occupy Bulgaria. Even some of the bishops opposed continu- tabulated under the following heads: ance, others argued for more aggressive "1. Filial piety, which in the case of work. Bishop Newman. with brilliant the Chinese extends to the point of oratory, calculated to overbalance calmest judgment in a less expert body, being obliged to leave descendants, if plead for advance movement. " No only as a compliment to their ancestors.
spot on carth," he said, "has been so "2. The dishonor of dying without swept with the besom of destruction as posterity. little Bulgaria. It is a great prize. Bulgaria has been robbed of her woman- "3. The.importance attached to mar· hood, and where could we expect suc- riage.
cess for the Christian Church under "4. The frequent adoption of heirs. such circumstances I The harems of "5. The disinheritance of daughters. the Turks have been tilled with Bulgarian women." Bishop Fitzgerald "6. The marriage of soldiers. said they already occupied the leading "7. The abundance of matters of cities of Bulgaria, had well-built primary necessity and their cheapness.
churches in these centres, with an aver- "8. The frugal life of the people. age of fifty members in each church_ "9. The peace of the empire. Bishop Vincent said in many places "10. The absence of political pre-octhey stood face to face with the Roman Catholic Church; in Bulgaria alone cupation.
they confronted the Greek Church; "Some of the observations and exthe Woman's Society was doing a great work among the homes of the land, and planations under these headings are .. Wherever men live and love, and novel, yet all are founded on practical have families and consciences," they knowledge of the condition of the peoought to carry the Gospel. ple." Other great pivotal questions consid- ered in the more than fifty hOUl'S of these public deliberations must be un- There are 7000 Japanese on the Pamentioned from lack of space. J_ T. G. cific coast. One seventh of them are communicants in the Methodist Episco- Weare pleased to learn that the pal Church.
American Board has had $17.500 dam- ages awarded from Spain on account of Book Mention. their loss of property and other injuries inflicted on it at Ponape by the Spanish "The Student Missionary Enter- authorities. The Board, it is stated, is prise" (Revell Company, New York and now permitted to resume its work on Chicago) contains the addresses and disthose islands. It 13 a grievous damage, cussions of the second International however, that no money indemnity can Convention of the Student Volunteer compensate, that their work has suf- Movement for Foreign Missions, De- fered. We are glad, however, that the troit, Mich., 1894, edited by Max: Wood Department of State took the matter up, Moorehead. The student delegates presand though they did not act vigorously ent numbered 1082, from 294 instituat first, yet have pressed the matter to tions of learning in the United States a successful and righteous issue. and Canada, from Manitoba to Texa8, from California to Nova Scotia; 63 for- eign missionaries from many parts of The Indian Witne88 says: the world were also present; and 54 l< A Chinese scholar and statesman, official representati ves of mission boards.
who has given much attention to inves- It could not be otherwise but that this tigation of the causes of the fecundity should contain great store of informa- and steady growth in popUlation of the tion and bc a magazine of inspiration in Chinese, finds them in the social and missionary matters. IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
Prospectus for 1895. glory who has left us His world-wide The new year invites to new ad- commission.
vance; and in this REVIEW we pro- The following letter from Seoul, pose to follow the Divine law: forget. Korea, dated October 3d, 1894, was not ting what is behind, pressing forward designed for pUblication, but we think and reaching forth to that which is be· it ought to be printed. It conveys fore. The new feature of illustration, both encouragement and a most wholenotwithetanding the additional trouble some lesson. Who will go and do likeand expense, we hope to use to make wise? impressions the more vivid and per- manent. The chromo.lithograph fron- DEAR MR. PIERSON: While a student tispiece, which is found in this issue, at Union Theological Seminary I en- representing the Indian idol, Ganesha, joyed the opportunity of subscribing is a valuable addition to any collection for THE MISSIONARY REVIEW at the re- of missionary curios, and can be ob- duced rate offered to student volun- tained of the publishers in a separate teers. I found in it a most valuable form, accompanied by explanatory let· companion to the Bible in my search ter-press, so that it may be used in for spiritual food. I was "brought women'a and children's missionary up"-missionarily-on the REVIEW, re- bands to stimulate intelligent interest ceiving much-needed stimulus from its in world-wide spread of that Gospel, pages. Moreover, the mails conveyed which can displace dumb idols by a my REVIEW, fully marked, to my pres- living Christ. ent companion in labors, and I feel sure The editorial staff continues as be- that it won its way into her family, fore, and the staff of editorial corre- and prepared the way for her departure spondents is filled out, where vacan- to this field as nothing else did, God's cies have occurred. by the best avail- Word and grace excepted.
able men. Extensive correspondence The Lord has so blessed the REVIEW with various mission boards has given to us that we want to repay Him by us names of parties most competent to helping to supply it cheaply to some discuss the great questions of missions, other laborers, w~om it may help send and to give broad and accurate views forth to the harvest. So you will find of the progress of the kingdom. We an order for ten dollar8 enclosed for shall spare no pains, and we appeal to that fund.
our readers to regard themselves our With our wishes and prayers for the helpers in a common cause. best success of the work you have un- It seems now possible that the edi- dertaken, tor-in·chief may make a partial tour, if I remain yours sincerely, not a more complete one, of the mis- FREDERICK S. MILLER.
sions of the world in the course of the The editor would add that, at the year. If the way shall be providen- very time of the arrival of this dona· tially opened, this purpose of many tion, he was arranging to supply the years will be carried out; and, if 80, REVIEW to a band of fifty needy stuletters direct from the field, accompa- dent volunteers, and this ten dollars nied with new illustrations gathered or was at once applied to the supplying made for the purpose, will appear in of these dear brethren with this or· these pages. gan of missionary information. Our Volunteer Fund is still in arrears sev- We invoke help from above in a eral hundred dollars, which we had most laborious work, done only for His hoped some benevolent friends of mis- confessed that they were strangers and sions would have helped us to make pilgrims on the carth, who believed the up. We repeat that for every ten dol- promises of God, and who, by their lars contributed to this fund we have faith, 'subdued kingdoms, wrought had reason to believe that one new can- righteousness, obtained promises, and didate has been turned to the distant fields. Mrs. Catharine H. Bowie gen- stopped the mouths of lions;' and to erously encloses jifty dollars to be ap- the verses written long ago they bid plied to the Student Volunteer Fund for us add another, and it reads: 'By faith, free distribution of thc REVIEW. The a servant of God, William Booth, acpublishers and editors thank her; so counting that God was able to cast will the students. May we not again appeal for help in the same direction? down the walls of modern Jericho, and deliver the poor and wretched and sin- Dr. Sylvester Scovel, who is to pre- stricken, offered up his life and forpare a sketch of Dr. Ao P. Happer for tune, enduring as seeing Him who is February, writes that "the last book in visibleo' the veteran missionary was reading before bis death was the editor's latest " The Church at Philadelphia catches contribution to the literature of mis- up the echo from the valleys of Switsions, 'The New Acts of tbe Apostles,' zerland, and the hills of Scotland, and and that his paper-knife rested on the the plains of France, and the sunny chapter on wonderful answers to prayer." slopes of Italy, and from all the lands where God's poor abide, and salutes you The Salvation Army had a grand and with unfeigned affection and joy. We very enthusiastic meeting. for tbe reception of "General" Booth, the foun- make you welcome, .seventy million der and leader of this great modern en- times welcome, to this country, the terprise, at Philadelphia, on Friday paradise of the honest poor of every night, November 2d, 1894. This was clime, and to this city, the City of but one of a series of these receptions, Brotherly Love. Mayor and citIzen, planned from New York City to San church and college, minister and lay- Francisco. The meeting at the Academy of Music may be taken as a type man, irrespective of sect, color, or naof all. Tbe edifiee was crowded to its tionality, give you a welcome so corutmost capacity, and the enthusiasm dial that it will not only be spoken, but was" immense." Hon. John Wana- shine from every face and home, from maker presided, and his speech was a fine specimen both of oratory and of de- the broad Atlantic to the serene Pacific. served tribute. He said: "No man since Spurgeon's death "The General does not come to could, by a visit, have excited so deep America as an unknown man. Above an interest as yourself, and in many rethe sound of waters that roll between our shores and the Old World I hear spects your unique position as a Christhe voices of a great multitude sweep- tian leader and philanthropist will be ing down, from Britain to the distant hailed with more enthusiasm than Adriatic, joining in one mighty chorus of loving commendation of this apostle could be accorded to any other living of the poor, beloved and honored of God throughout the wide world this man. preacher of a pure GospeL "We give thanks to God that you " We read in the eleventh of He- didn't die too soon, when your great brews the story of the Gospel knights, ideas were undeveloped and misunderof Enoch and Noah and Abraham, and the men that received promises and stood. We rejoice that every church in these days crowns you with wisdom of conception, sincerity of purpose, sacrificing endeavor, common sense in dealing with men and consecration to the Son of Mary and the Christ of God. We rejoice that your coming is not to take away from any man's vineyards, nor to steal other men's labors, but to create out of the rubbish of the cities a new temple to the glory of God; to put more of man into men, und more of Christ into the life, to improve the soul quality, and kindle the fires of a king. dom of heaven patriotism, to brighten and upbuild the world.
" We bid you God speed in yoUl"
work. You are the only General from a foreign shore to whom Americans will surrender, but you shall have our hearts and help, if the poor and fallen can be lifted up to see the face and hear the will of God. "We pray God that this great land It is becoming a serious question to which you Callie may receive a new whether we shall stand on our dignity impulse, a mighty power, through your and so-called respectability, and avoid visit, and that the Salvation Army may identification with men whose work from this time move forward more God is honoring, because we do not apmightily, a conquering host for the prove aU their utterances and doings, glory, not of the banners or the uni· or whether we shall overlook some forms, or of the stars you wear, but things which we cannot approve, and notwithstanding them, give the right for the glory of Him whom we love hand of fellowship to those to whom and whom we are striving to serve. manifestly God has given His grace (Gal. 2: 9). " You who join me in these few feeble words of greeting; you who are The Pietists of Germany began in willing to stand by this godly man, Philip Jacob Spener, in the latter half who in his later years, when many men of the seventeenth century. The cenwould step aside and say, 'I have done tral principle of Pietism was that Ohrismy work;' this man who is not willing tianity was the first of aU life, and that to be mustered out until the last mo- its true apologetics is found in the religmenL of life; this man who makes this ious experience and life of believers. long joumey, and, like Paul, will go It aimed at a reformation; it was a reas a missionary all over our country, bound from ritualism, symbolism, theoyou who will encourage him with your logical hair-splitting, and sceptical prayers, yonr kindl)" words, your sym- philosophy toward simple primitive pathy, your money, I beg you to stand up, and say so by your standing." (The entire audience having risen,. Mr. Wanamaker again turned to the General, bowed, and said, " These are your friends, General Booth. ") There is no disguising the fact that piety. With one voice the theology of the leader of the Salvation Army is the Lutheran schools exclaimed against making a triumphal progress through this new "sect," which was every~ this whole land; and one aspect of it where spoken against. The theologi- is both significant and peculiar: he has cal faculty of Wittenberg detected and compelled recognition and conquered designated in the writings of Spener more than a peace, a victory, even from three hundred false doctrines; but the his former opponents. For fifteen years movement was of God, and Spener he was persecuted, derided, treated shook the authority of the Lutheran with contempt and scorn; pelted with symbols as Luther had shaken the papal the mud clods of aspersion and misrep- throne with his tack hammer more than resentation. He went straight on in a century before him. The prayer- his effort to secure a resurrection of the meetings were his collegia pietatis-the unjust this side of the Day of Judg- college of piety-and the conventicles ment, when such a resurrection means in which he gathered the awakened restoration to manhood and to God. souls about him proved ecclesioll13 in ec- While apathy and lethargy abounded clesia, little churches within the Ohnrch.
even in the nominal churches of Christ, for the nurture of a piety whose breath while professors of religion treated the and bread was the Word of God and lowest of the lost with indifference, or prayer. And by these simple means at best talked of what ought to be done, the Pietists unconsciously created a this man simply went and did it. Deaf new, a popular, a biblical theology to the voice of mocking laughter, dead which has since found its way not only to the world's applause, amid prevail- into theological literature, but into the- ing hostility, as weU as lack of sympa- ological schools and chairs. Essentially thy, he had enough of the spirit of the Pietists and Moravians are at agree- Ohrist to identify himself with the least ment. Their theology centres in the and lowest of the Lord's poor and the cleansing blood of Ohrist, and finds its devU's outcasts; and now he has his objective point in awakening a true reward in the very approbation of those piety and developing a true evangel- Who at first ridiculed him, ism. This so-called "sect," derided and valuable as a sort of encyclopredia of denounced, not only survives, but the the subject it treats. It traces the greatest impulse given to missions since work of the Lutheran Church at home apostolic days can be traced to this and abroad from the Reformation down 8ource. Not only Spener, but Francke, to our time. of Halle, and through them such men as Ziegenbalg, Von Zinzendorf, Queen Victoria and the Prince of Schwartz, and a host beside have been Wales have each accepted a copy of given to the missions of the world; .. Memories of Gospel Triumphs among and those who have read the charming the Jews," the jubilee volume of the life of Christlieb will know how he also British Society for the Propagation of owed his apostolic character largely to the Gospel among the Jews, written the Pietist school. and prepared by the Secretary. the Rev. John Dunlop. The grand question which will not be easily dismissed recurs, Shall we A correspondent writes to suggest withhold fellowship from men on whom " world-wide prayer for the fulfilment the grace of God manifestly rests, who of the promise in Isa. 43 : 19 for Cenare Holy Ghost men, becanse we do tral &udan. Being much interested not adopt all their peculiar notions or in the recent article in THE MISSIONpractices? or shall we set aside minor ARY REVIEW in regard to this section, differences and join hands with men I feel moved to suggest that we ask whom the King delighteth to honor' God to make a way in that wilderness For ourselves the choice has been long by which the field may be reached, and ago made. We purpose with God's rivers of the Spirit's light and power help to share the ridicule and contumely in those veritable deserts. visited on modern "Pietists," and cooperate with those whom God works "Recognizing the dispensational apwith and owns, General Booth and A. 'plication of this Scripture, may we not B. Simpson among them. still claim 'it as a special missionary promise for this special field in this Among helpful books recently issued, day, when in the face of so much of we make particular mention of " South failure so many are seriously thinking America" and the "Neglected Conti- of this land. If it is of God, the Spirit nent," by E. C. Millard and Lucy E. will give a • symphony of prayer.' Guinness, published by F. H. Revell & Co. Within one hundred and eighty "G. L. K." pages it gathers a world of information, presented in a most attractive, impres- Mr. C. A. Studd writes from Tientsin, sive way. It has not only illustrations, China: but charts and maps, most happily devised and executed to impress vividly .. The officials in China seem to be the facts presented. Every lover of getting more opposed than ever to the the kingdom must have this book, the preaching or preachers of the Gospel. only one thus far published comprehen- The last mail brought news of a persesively treating South America's spiritual cution originated by the officials in Manneeds and wants. churia. and also of a remarkable ap- parent Gospel success among the peo- Rev. J. N. Leuker, of Grand Island, ple near Singan, the capital of Shensi Neb., has issued "Lutherans in all province, where two hundred and forty Lands," by a company of the same villages are said to have received the name in Milwaukee. This compact Gospel, with the result that seven manvolume of nearly nine hundred pages darin officials are going about everymust have cost great labor, and is in- where threatening the people. Only a few weeks ago here the magistrate made a most direct and unprovoked attack on us here, and a public one; and what made it worse was the fact that at the very time when he did so I was, at his own special request, doing what I could for a poor slave girl in his own yamen, working inland from Sierra Leone. 3. who had the most awful leg I havo ever The Soudan Interior MisSion, working seen-gangrene. My wife and I were from Lagos. going every aay to wash aud dress it ; In your columns the first mission and and you cannot imagine the stench, the third have been jumbled up towhich nothing could keep under; and gether. The two young men were in likewise my wife gavo his wife, at her connection with the former. I am one request, some medicine for her eyes, of them. Both had been in North Afwhich made her well. It did Beem rica. and were acquainted with the rather a back-hander when we found Arabic and Hausa languages, and could out that he had playod UB this trick. not be in any way considered inexperi- However, we had our revenge in rather enced, though we admit our experience a satisfactory way; for when, Bome was not of West Africa. The route via days afterward, he Bent us a present Niger River is only closed to missionafor our trouble, we returned it to him ries by the intolerant rule of the char- tered company-namely, the Royal with thanks. " The opium commission does Beem to Niger Company, who have signed be a rum affair; why, from what Bome treaties with the Mohammedans of the people say, we should all be smoking Soudau, sayin~ that they will give no opium, and should be stronger for doing facilities to mIssionaries trying to enter so; what is rather grieving is to think for work among the Mohammedans; of the enormous number of poor people this is evidenced by the fact that, who are kept out of the ChristIan though the company refused us pas- Church because they are doing Buch a sages up river in their steamers, they good thing as smoking opium. How- would even have helped to support us ever, if the pro-opiumists win the day, if we would have bound ourselves to it will be nothing more than a logical confine our efforts to the pagans on the consequence t.hat all the restrictions on lower Niger. We were not short of the selling of opium in England be re- funds; certainly we had not the supmoved, for why restrict the buying and ply of medicines we ought to have had, selling of a really good article, which, but, then, during our stay at the coast, they say, prolongs life, gives strength, we were within easy reach of a good protects from malaria, and what not I" doctor, whose services were, however, of no avail when my co-worker was taken with black-water fever. My com- In the eighty pages of this monthly panion died May 20th, 1893, and I re- turned to England partly on account of issue, perpetual vigilance is exercised to my health and to prepare for another keep out errors, yet they will creep in, attempt to enter from a different point. On arriving in England I became acespecially in figures, and we thank our quainted with the three young men friends for any corrections. who now form the Soudan Interior Mis- Apropos of this matter, we gi ve Mr. sion, and informed them that I should Thomas Holt, one of the Soudanese try the route 'Ilia La&"os on going out again. They landed In Lagos in Demissionaries, his chance to explain a cember last; I and two companions statement made by us on the hi,qhest arrived on May 30th. The wet season authority in the July number; and that kept us in Lagos until July 20th; but no lack of fairness may be found in we are now fairl;rstarted on our way to the Soudan. We are only waiting these pages, we print Mr. Holt's letter: here until we can engage fresh carriers; we are striking for Bida, where we hope THE CENTRAL SOUDAN MISSION, to get carriers to take us as far as LAGOS PIONEER SEOTION, Yakoba, twenty-nine days' journey OGBOMOSO, WEST CENTRAL AFRIOA, from where we are at present. Weare August 7, 1894. well supplied with provisions, medi- Rev. James Douglas : cines, barter cloth, and everything we need for the journey. We had no sick- REVEREND SIR: Reading~ the MIS- ness in Lagos, and have had none on the road, only that I had a slight touch SIONARY REVIEW OF THill WORLD for of dsyentery after passing Awyaw July, I see, in the editor's remarks, (Oyo). some very erroneous and misleading statements regarding the Central Sou- I have not the slightest doubt about dan Mission. Three missions are at the possibility of entering the Soudan present trying to enter the Soudan: 1. by this route. I believe it is open. The above mission from the north, The only difficulty is the expensiveness where we have three stations. and from the west. 2, The Alliance of U. S. A'I of it, and the dangerous climate. Any information regarding our work can al- At the latest. report all the Christians ways be had from our secretary. in Pyeng Yang were safe, and Mr. Moffett's house was occupied by two THOMAS HOLT. Japanese soldiers who are Christians, and every day offer prayer for the bless· Mr. F. D. Phinney, of Burma, sends ing of God on Korea. Messrs. Moffett the names of three Bible translations, and Lee, and Dr. Hall, of the Methodist to be added to the list on pages 745, Episcopal Mission, had started back to 746 of the October REVIEW, and points Pyeng Yang on the first opportunity. out two corrections to be made in the list of New Testaments on page 747. From Pyeng Yang, Korea, Samuel A. Moffett writes: "A physician and The additional Bibles are: Sgaw Ka- a hospital are greatly needed for the ren, Burma; Pwo Karen, Burma; Shan, new station of the Presbyterian Church Burma [also New Testament in Garo (Assam) and Mondai (Central India)]. at Pyeng Yang. At present there is but one minister there, and a minister The corrections are: Remove" 74. Pegu, Provo of Pegu, Indo-China," and his wife under appointment. This from the list, since it refers to the same is the only station among 2,000,000 translation, more accurately described, as "92. Taleing, Burma." Remove people." also" 84. Shan, Indo-China," since it was some years ago made a complete M. Reubens Saillens writes from Paris, Bible, as noted above. October 12th: The following item as to brightening "On October 9th Pastor Marc Fraissiconditious in Korea reaches us too late to incorporate with the world outlook, net took leave from the French churches. in its proper place : as he is about to Bail for Tonkin, where he goes as the first Protestant French The Korean Government has request- miuister of the Gospel. There are many ed Dr. Avison, of the Presbyterian Mis- French Protestant soldiers and officials sion in Seoul, to resume charge of the in Tonkin, and our brother will also, no Government hospital in that city on doubt, try to do something among thc most favorable terms, and he has con- natives. His farewell meeting took sented to do so. Dr. Avison was for- place at the Temple du Saint·Esprit, merly in charge of this hospital, and Paris. It was a very touching occasion. was cordially supported by the king; but the obstructions put in his way by "The annexation of Madagascar is subordinate Korean officials compelled violently advocated by the Roman him to resign his position. The tide of Catholic press, and the French Protes- Japanese victories has, however, se- tants are denounced as anti-patriots, cured for Dr. Avisona new and stronger because they are supposed to feel some backing from the Government in power. sympathy for the English missionaries in that island. The Eglise Libre, a When the armies of China and Japan Protestant p€riodical, has very courgathered around Pyeng Yang, Korea, ageously stood on behalf of the rights the handful of Korean Christians in the of the natives. Nevertheless, it is prob· city met together, and after prayer able that the occupation of that large earnestly requested Rev. Mr. Moffett, country will be effected, as our politi- Presbyterian missionary, to linger no cians are almost unanimous in the matlonger to secure their protection against ter." government persecution, but to withdraw to a place of safety for himself, The massacres in Armenia again trusting their own case in the hands of startle the civilized world, like similar God. Thus urged, and acting upon telegraphic ad vice from the capital, he re- atrocities in Bulgaria some years since. moved to Seoul. Because some Christian subjects of the Sultan unwisely resisted the collection of taxes, multitudes, without distinction of agc or sex, have, by order of a Turk- ish pasha, been brutally murdered. England has promptly taken steps to verify the accounts and make her pro- test against such atrocious barbarity. Rev. William Gibson, of the Paris But long will his candle shine in the Wesleyan Mission, who died in October city where he so long lived. last, was one of the leaders of evangeli- cal thought and work in France who During the same month (October) , deserves to stand side by side with William Moon, M.D., passed away at Robert W. McAn in history. This de- Brighton, England, in his seventy-fifth voted Methodist, converted in a revival, year. carried the spirit of revival into his whole career. From Woodhouse Grove School The memorable point in his career to Wesley College, and from the college was reached when, fifty years since. to the parish and the wider sphere of God entrusted him with" tlw talent of missions, he bore the coals of sacred fire blindne88," as he learned to think of it and set others afiame. He began to and term it. Little did he know When preach in 1852, and after serving as as- he was mysteriously led into the dark- sistant to Rev. John Farrar, he was ness in 1840 by the loss of his sight, in sent to Paris in 1862, and spent ten consequence of scarlet fever, what a years there. After six years more in Divine purpose lay behind the afflic- London he returned to Paris in 1878, tion! Some ladies taught him to read and gave the remnant of his pure and from Frere's type. After mastering beautiful life to the work of French this and other systems, he taught a class evangelization, which he followed con of blind stUdents, and so there came the amore. He was one of those seers of Blind Asylum of Brighton. Next, feel- God who have insight into popular ing the need of a simpler method, he needs and Divine plans, and with sin- himself invented the Moon type, which gular sagacity he adapted himself to has but nine simplified characters, and the crisis of French history. as he saw has been applied to nearly five hundred clericalism and superstition yielding to languages and dialects. the incoming of new light and liberty. He regarded Paris as one of the world His first publications were a monthly centres, to be held as a fortress in God's magazine and devotional extracts; then, war of the ages. He believed the only portions of the Word of God being in de- panacea for its maladies and miseries to mand, in his own poverty he rang the bell be the Gospel. His devoted wife and of heaven, and asked aid from above. daughters shared his convictions and A donation of £5, shortly followed his sacrifices. They aided him in the by other gifts, enabled him to go for- translation and pUblication of hymns ward. Now 50,000 stereotyped plates and tune books suited to French Prot- may be seen at the institution. The estant worship, evangelistic periodicals same year in which he brought out his and tracts, and full justice yet remains embossed type his daughter was born, to be done to the joint labors of this who, as she says, was thus born into tlw humble but consecrated family. work, and carries it on. Dr. Moon was a world-wide missionary, as his inven- Mr. Gibson, who thus gave to work tion is used in all lands. His simplicity in t1e home of his adoption twenty.six in prayer was wonderful, and it was as years, was a man who was fired with a a child talking to a !ather. He conduct- holy passion for souls. Like Living- ed each Lord's Day a service for the stone, on his heart was written the great blind, and rejoiced in the world-wide object of his life, and wherever his body outreach of the system he had devised. rests, his heart is buried in France. He Like William Gibson, he died sudden- had a Johannian face, and his gentle- ly, and after a career of marvellous ser- ness threw a marvellously beautiful vice. His great affliction, like the fires light over his patience and tenacity of that long since desolated the mountains purpose. He passed away suddenly as of Spain, but opened up rich veins of a burned-out candle ceases to burn. metal, was, in fact, the disclosure of a new light for the world. "He doeth all things well. "
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONABD.
Extraots and Transla.tions from Foreign right to enslave forever, and to hold Periodioals. back the light which may shine with searching censure on their ways 1"- BY REV. c. c. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, ~v. GEORGE T. CANDLIN, in Ohineu MASS. Recorder.
CHINA. -Here is a letter from a lady mis- sionary in Central China: -" We are told that in some cases- China. especiaily-we are introducing a. " UNDER THE SHADOW OF THY WINGS." disturbing force, one which is calculated to increase the difficulties of her " Cm-cHEo, April 26, 1894. rulers by rousing discontent among her people, one that may tend to dis- " To-day as I sit on this little sunny turb the established order and discredit veranda, in the midst of this heathen time-honored customs. We are said to city, I think how safe and secure one be intermeddling with their unques- may be under the shelter of God among tionable right to govern their own peo- the heathen. The sunlight is streaming ple in their own way. Have they, across the nether part of the veranda, then, such an unanswerable right to be while a light breeze is gently moving considered? Bear in mind how these the rose leaves and the foliage of the Eastern rulers have treated their peo- other plants which gaudily decorate it. ple, and that for ages; how they have let the multitudes toil in misery; how "Little tables and chairs are also the social and physical conditions of about. There are two dishes of roses their lot have been neglected; how all and a laburnum-looking blossom in a political rights have been withheld: kind of wooden bowl. A big straw nawith what cool indifference they see tive hat is hanging up in case we need their subjects the 'Victims of famine, of it for au immediate exodus into the pestilence, of flood, of drought; how sun. My friend sits beside me study- . they have studied only the art of riding ing the' precious' epistle of Peter. safely on the back of this great dumb, blinded monster, the nation, and fatten- "These fourteen square feet in which ing on the luxuries they have taught I am writing might cheer many a home the starving creature to procure for friend's, a mother'S, or a sister's heart them. I do not forget honorable ex- as they think of dear ones in far-away, ceptions, which I know exist, but look- lonely China. Oh, the sunlight I ing at them as a class, knowing their What a blessed gift of God I It is inpolitical aims, knowing their callous.· deed a pleasant thing for t.he eyes to ness to misery which does not touch behold the sun and the lovely blue of them, their insensate dread of any the sky this morning, and the flaked change, lest it should in the remotest clouds breaking and chasing each other degree affect their consecrated privi- in the distance all fill the soul with joy_ leges, I ask you, is it for us, the free peoples of the earth, who have wit- .. Yet we are alone, very really alone nessed for liberty, as our fathers died among the heathen-the only foreignfor it, who have preached the rights of ers here. It is a day, or day and a half, men to the treasures of knowledge and or two days' journey to the nearest the opportunities of success and ad- practicable station, and yet they who vancement, to be tenderly scrupulous hold the fort here are two sisters! about their claims, to endorse their Surely God has chosen the weak things, and the things that are not.
.. But so happy does the life seem here, busy with thoughts of others-of
EXTRACTS .AND '.rRANSLA'.rIONB
the little church which they are called so much higher authority here quoted.
to minister to, to watch over and tend; Dr. Ross in this is fully supported by of the women outside that they try to Rev. Hudson Taylor. Neither gentle- gather about them, and of the sick of man, as we understand, denies the law- tIre neighborhood, some who may come fulness, in extremity, of such an ap- for some healing potion. Or it may be, peal, but each insists that it should only as yesterday, a trip into the country be made in extremity, and that the ex- beyond the confines of the town, to tremity should be an evident one. Too speak the word of life to one far gone many appeals to Earope have again and in disease. At night they come home again ruined-or almost ruined-the like tired children, and go and tell Catholic missions. especially the Jesuit ; Jesus. This is a very sweet life to live, we can probably find a more evangeli- and can one doubt that the }Iaster cal model to follow. Whoever connects Himself likes to come here and hold gunboats with the Moravians I communion with those He calls His sis- -We are apt to forget, as the Rev_ ters, because they are doing His Fa- W. DIETRICH remarks in the Zeitschrijt, ther's will ? that one twentieth of the Chinese are }Iohammedans. They form, as agrees "This is a charming little home- with their religion, a very inflammable charming in its simplicity, but with a part of the population, althongh they little tact and deftness no one but can have often valiantly served the crown. have a touch of home and beauty, even Persecution is much more agreeable to in • far-away Cathay.' 'The Lord the temper of Islam than martyrdom. thinketh upon me,' is the principal text The Chinese Moslems, being almost enof the little sitting-room, and don't you tirely descendants of foreign soldiers think it a comfort when one has no one and Chinese women-except in Yunnan to look to, to consult but God, that the -are naturally very susceptible on the details of our daily life, our joys and point of honor. Notwithstanding the sorrows are all known to Him? " many eminent public men they have -MedicaZ Mi8sion8.
-It appears that of 112 plague-strick- furnished, they remain still an undigest- en patients received into the Alice Me· ed element in the commonwealth.
morial Hospital at Hong.Kong, only 17 recovered; and yet it seems that the AFRICA. government hospital was even less fortunate ! This is indeed the black -" Wissman has said : The business death. God keep it from the world at of missions is to teach, fir8t, work; large I Five hundred years ago it is then, pray I and the saying has been said to have carried off half mankind. widely echoed, unfortunately also in many Christian circles, who were not -The Bombay Guardian remarks: in a position to judge of the true state " Rev. John Ross, the veteran mission- of the case. 'Missions must train these ary, has reached this conviction: idle children of nature to labor I' Who • China will never be won to the Gos- would not agree with this position, pel by our appeals to the secular power taken generally? But let us look at to intervene in every little trouble that the matter distinctly. The friend of we may experience. This appeal to missions understands the expression as "Cresar" or the "British gunboat" meaning: Missions should train the na- simply deepens in the mind of patriotic tive to labor' for himself,' for his own Chinese the belief that the missionary person. The white planter or dealer is a political agent.' " and his European friends mean it in The present writer, having urged this this sense: Missions are to train the position in an article on China, is deep- natives to labor 'for us whites.' The ly gratified to have it confirmed by the ideal of missions is found in communi-
GENERAL MISSIONAltY INTELLIGENCE. [Jl!.nuary
ties where everyone eats his bread in .. It might be that this very advan- the sweat of his brow, hall his own tage concealed a danger. piece of ground, which he cultivates, being, of course, ready, for due wages, "The enterprising statellman who to serve his white neighbors so far as presides OTer the destinies of South he needs. The ideal of the other is Africa appears to include in his pro- fouud in natives that have nothing, and, gramme the suppression, in the region as unremitting lab:lrers for him, are submitted to his influence, of the ab- Blave3, if not in name, yet in fact. Let original question, thus clearing ground a missionary settlement be ever 80 flour- for the fabric of his dreams, a more or ishing. a place where every man eats less independent federation of the States his own bread, it is good tor nothing of Austral Africa. We know the rapid unless it is ready by night and day to issue of the conflict between Cape Col- place a force of laborers at the disposal ony and the Matcbeles. This haughty of the Boer, laborers with whom he is tribe, which for fifty yearil seemed to at liberty to deal just as he pleases. have opposed to civilization an insur- • Labor I ' says the missionary; 'labor is mountable barrier, has been broken in the !reeman'3 crown I' 'Labor I ' says a few weeks, and quite recently the the white man; 'for you exist only for journals have announced the submis- me, you are my 8lau!' Is it not true, sion and annexation of Pondoland, a at least to a certain extent, that the re- remnant of the former Caffraria, and markable popularity of the Catholic the only part of South Africa which missions in our day is owing to their was yet independent. Is not the anom- willingness to respond to this demand aly of a territorial reserve and of an al- of the whites, while Protestant mls· most complete internal independence sions, in principle and in fact, rellist in favor of the Basutos desti!led to dis- and must resist it ?"-Inspector BUCH- appear under the powerful hand which NER, in Allgemeine MiBBions-ZdtBchrift. is now levelling the region situated be- tween the Cape and the Zambesi? One -In this matter Las Casas and his may fear it, and the appeal to the Cape missionary associates would stand with of the great Basuto chief. Lesotholi, us, and would be very much ashamed Bon and successor of Letsi6, Jonathan, at such a policy of their Catholic suc- the son of Molapo, and other chiefs be- cessors. sides, might well have grave conse- quence~, the more 80 as these chiefs, -Pere Rolland, of the Society of it will be remembered, have given Jesu!!, remarks the Ohurch Mi8Bionary more than one occasion for diSllatisfac- Intelligencer, declares that the Egyp- tion. tian Coptll are a good deal more open to Catholic influences thllJl they once "There 'Would be in this season of 'Were. He attributes this to the liber- disquiet for the friends of the Basutos, alizing influence of the Protestant mis- if Divine Providence had not already sions among them, rendering them less intervened so many times in favor of afraid of the West. this people, a people visibly prepared, by its character, by its language, by -" This last year U8suto hall had no its geographical position, by the na- political history; the tribe has contin- tional unity which it baa preserved, to ued to benefit by its privileged situa· exercise a grand influence on Southern tion; master of its soil, endowed, un- Africa. der a benevolent protectorate, with an almost complete autonomy, it presents "This might have been in other in the south of Africa a unique excep- times a national and political force of tion to the rule. which is the more and action; but the time is past when tho more complete predominance of the influence of a wise and powerful chief made itself felt afar ; and the moment i.wbl.j;e raCe over the indigenous elemcIlt. when the blac~ ra,ce, hqvipg drawn
li95.J
from its contact with the white!! all comer to my claBl! of candidates for that it is to receive of them, !!hsll reas- baptism.' "-Medi~ M"uBion8. sume possession of itlK>lf and shsU expand into a civilization of its own, thil! -Herr Ml111er writes in the Evange~ epoch, if it is ever to dawn on Africa, i30h·LutherisOhes .Milsiomb~tt from the is in the far-distant future. To-dsy highlands of East Africa: "Hearty there remains but one domain in which greetings from MAJAME. I send you the special aptitude and the expansive three little photographs, to which you force of an intelligent and vigorous will allow me to add a word of explanatribe can display itself-it is that of reo tion. They will satisfy you no more ligious activity. The diffusion of the than they do me. Photographing in Gospel among the AfricaD.t!, this is the the interior of Africa is a troublesome field ()f action reserved to the Basutos, thing, take!! up much time, and causes or rather to the churches of Basutoland many disappointments. The chemicals (Lessuto), for, if we do not err, it is the decompose much easier, the copying Church which will be in history the in· paper, through the abundance of moistheritrix of the tribe, whose force it will ure, has become so dark and spotted absorb for the service of the Gospel that I wonder it will take any impresand the good of the colored race. sions at all. More practice and better- packed materials will give more satisfy- .. Accordingly, to constitute the ing results. To these pictures of our Church of Lessuto, to make of our mis- dwelling house I would gladly have sionary dioceses, hitherto isolated from added one of Hount KIBO, or of our one another, 8 powerful organism, re- house, with Kibo in the background; sistant, armed for the combat, capable but friend Kibo has been for many of surviving the nationality dtselt, if weeks the day through hltlden behind this should be destined to succumb in a wall of clouds, and only unveils himthe struggle in which has foundered lIelf in the overpowering magnificence the independence of so many tribes- of his beauty when the evening shadows this is the grand and noble work which are already resting on the mountains of God is now reserving to our mission- Majame. And when I lately wished to aries. " -.Annua~ Report oj SolJi~t6 de8 photograph another magnate of East Missiom Evangeliq'lJ£,3. Africa, namely, our chief Shangali, with his train, the attempt came to naught -" When our brother K. 8. Wal- through his superstition. ' If you write fridsson WII!! down in that three-months' me off '-the natives have natmally no struggle with the Congo fever, which wor.d for photographing-' hhnll die I • finally carried him off, it is witnessed he exclaimed; and although my sanof him that he never complained of the duku (camera) W81 all ready, It was to Lord's dealings with him as though no purpose, for Shangali was careful some strange thing had happened unto to keep hidden behind the back of one him. Once when he was very weak in of hi!! men, and at last. fairly bolted. bed, his wife found him crying, but Superstition is rooted deep in the hearts the tears were tears not of sadness, but of the people of Majame, as we know better and better. Indeed, on various of joy, 'because I hsve such a good occasioDs they even sacrifice beasts, thereby giving the lie to the assertions Saviour.' His works do follow him. of many travellers who talk 88 if the 'It seems,' writes Mrs. Walfriusson, negroes were on too Iowa level to have 'as if the great outpouring of the any thoughts of higher beings or of reo Spirit, so long prayed and hoped for, f8 ligious worship. not far ofr. Weare enjoying times of refreshing. The women especially " Fair is the land and fruitful are its seem to be roused out of their former savannas, yet the fairest thing is yet to sleepy indifference. There iI! hardly a Sunday pa!!sing without some new·
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
be brought to the dwellers therein: Word is read and expounded with spe- God's Word in their own tongue. The cial reference to the Mohammedan ques· Lord give His servants joyfulness for tion. "A remarkable testimony to the learning, and when the time is come, value of medical missions is seen in for teaching." the fact that large numbers listen day after day to the Divine plan of salva- English Notes. tion without dissenting from it. This great boldness in preaching the Gospel· BY JAMES DOUGLAS. may not seem remarkable, but let it be Iemembered that the falsity of the Mo- Ohurch Missionary Society. – The hammedan religion is necessarily im- Rev. H. Carless, writing from Ispahan plied." on the subject of "the Gospel in Persia," speaks of the entrance of the Gos· Baptist Missionary Society. – Mr. pel into that land as being one of the Glennie reports the baptism of seven slowest. One reason for this is that the youths, in the early part of this year, cross to be taken up in professing Christ at Bolobo Station, Upper Congo. Firstis one of the heaviest. Mr. Carless tells fruits of Gospel service are reported of two cases-father and son-where, from Stanley Pool after five years' lathough the spirit is willing the flesh is bor. Two have been baptized, and weak, in view of the cross involved; there are several others who have given also of another who, at the last mo- their hearts to Jesus and who are exment, shrank from baptism because it pected soon to join the church. The was judged needful his wife should work at San Salvador needs more helpknow of it. "Sahib, you will leave ·ers than can at present be found. Sevme here alone to-morrow, and how can eral towns are begging for teachers-a I face death alone with no one near to demand which cannot yet be met. At help and strengthen me?" This ques- Wathen Station the school-roll now tion points to a real difficulty. " Can reaches 110. a rapid and considerable a new-born babe do what we expect increase. At JHbanza Manteke and from a man, and can a poor sheep or a Lukunga, stations of the American weak lamb stand up and fight the rav- Baptist Missionary Union, the work of ening wolf alone? Where are the the Lord prospers. under-shepherds 7 Where are the laborers ?" On June 14th, 1875, the Jalpigori, India. – The Rev. W. Church Missionary Society adopted the Bowen James tells of the conversion Persia Mission. What has been and baptism of three natives; two beachieved? A slender foothold has been longing to the Rayasth, or writer caste, secured in this one Mohammedan the third to the Mech tribe. A special stronghold of Ispahan; no second place interest attaches to the last mentioned, is yet occupied, nor are there men because, according to his own stateenough to properly man the one sta- ment, he is the first member of his comtion. Meanwhile, the sheep are in dis- munity who has embraced Christianity. tress, and there is no shepherd. He seems to belong to the number of those who, in the dark night of heath- Medical Work at Gaza.-In the ab- endom, have heard the voice of God sence as yet of visible fruits, an impor- speak to their souls, and who, in strivtant medical and Christian mission is ing to obey that voice, have been eventbeing energetically conducted at Gaza ually led forth into the light and Ubby the Rev. R. Ster],i.ng, B.A., M.B., erty of the glorious Gospel of Christ. and helpers. During the past ilfteen months 18,767 patients have been reg- Patna City. India.-The Rev. John istered. Dispensary is held three days Stubbs, ot Paina City, has, at lIrs. Spurgeon's request, translated one of ot the week-on Mondays, Wednes- her late revered husband's sermons days, and Fridays. A portion of God's
ENGLrSH NOTES
(No. 1500, or "The Uplifting of the profitable servant. The administra- Brazen 8erpent") into Hindi for circu- tion of the Lord's Supper followed; lation among Hindi·reading people and at 4 P.M. a love-feast was held, here. when many gave very clear and inter- Patna is not virgin soil, and is all the esting accounts of their conversion.
more difficult to work on that account. An English service concluded the day.
A good Sunday-school, however, is As the Kanarese Christian literature is being established; and a suitable piece exceedingly meagre, these gatherings of ground, at the eastern end of the give an opportunity of supplementing city, has been obtained for the erection such teaching as exists.
of a much-needed house for a native Presbyterlan Ohurch of England, Oorea.-The Presbyterian missions in preacher.
Wesleyan Missi01Wll'Y &ciety, Oeylon. Corea are wisely moving toward one -The Rev. C_ S. Casinader, native native Presbyterian Church. They are minister of the Kalmemai Circuit. tells now uniting in a tentative organization, of a gracious revival in his church. the" Presbyterian Council of Corea,"
"Souls," he says, "have been convert- probably as yet only a council of mis- ed and the Christians awakened, and sionaries. The missions thus drawn many young men now gladly join us together are those of the American in evangelistic work. We have ten Northern Presbyterian Church, with vernacular schools with 885 children ten men and eleven women mission- on the books." Mr_ Casinader also re- aries, and Southern Presbyterian ports favorably of the home mission at Church, with three men and four wom- IIlurupittya, among a number of fever- en, and the Australian Presbyterian stricken and half-starved people far Church, with one man and eleven away in the jungle. In that place, in- women, and two independent Presby- fested by cheetahs, bears, and ele- terian missionaries.
phants, there are now 20 Christians. Province of Hunan.-Although this Mysore.-For some years past it has province, like Thibet, Is a closed land been the custom to hold in each circuit so far as Protestant missions are con- half-yearly meetings for evangelists and cerned, missionary journeys through it other workers. A series of such meet- have taken place again and again. And ings was arranged to be held at Tum- once, twelve years ago, a splendid kur, from July 6th to 10th inclusive, China Inland Mission missionary, now and they have been a decided success. dead, Mr. Dorward, was permitted to Among the subjects dealt with were settle and labor in a Hunan town for "The Holy Spirit," "The Spiritual more than three months. Be rented a Life and How to Increase It," " The house in Hung-Kiang, on the Yuen Study of God's Word," "St. Paul a River, first put two native helpers in Pattern to Evangelists," etc. Mr. charge, and then himself ventured to Haigh explained some of the principles go to the place, in the early months of which had guided the revisers of the 1882. He was mobbed and compelled Kanarese New Testament, and also the to leave after a stay of three and one principal changes which had been in- half months. A further stand was made troduced. in another town of the samo province, Sunday was a high day. A hearty but a riot, fomented by a Spanish priest, prayer-meeting, commencing at seven, broke out; and since that time there gave a good key-note to the services of has been no Protestant worker stationed the day. At eight the ordinary service In Hunan. There are Hunanese Chris- was held, when over 300 Christians tians, however, a good many in num- crowded the chapel. Mr. Hudson ber, and Hunan will yet receive the preached on the parable of the un- doctrines.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
Sta.tistics of the Mis8iona.ry Societies .f the [THE~E table!! include only :rru…ions to non-Christian and non-Protestant peoples, and so they omit the Unlted States. The figures are derived almost wholly from annual reports, and relate in the main blanks, and hence where official figures were not at hand, conservative estimates have been made.] Missionary Missionaries. Native Income. Helpers. .=0 —– ";:l .~ , .~.. N~:ME8 or SOCIETIES.: .0… oj ., '.d,,,. 'ti ~ 0 ~ ",. ~ g gj 'E 8 .~ '0 ~~"'0 ~ ~ .~~..'~" 'e ! .:: 'E Eo< 0 A ~ 0 ~ !l il 0 — —- —— — — — — — American Board ••..•…. , …•….•….. 1810 $705,133 $89,145 184 19 185 183 241 2,681 Baptist Missionary Union . . . . . . . . . • . . . . 1814 485,000 56,247 176 24 153 103 254 1,330 Southern Baptist~Convention ………•. 1845 106,333 5,944 42 …. 38 14 25 66 Free Baptist………………………. 1836 20,000 377 8 2 10 12 5 85 4,500 Seventh-Day Baptist………… ……. 1842 200 3 2 1 3 …. 8 Christian (Disciples)……………….. 1875 80,258 1,747 19 18 9 8 57 American Christian Convention •…… 1886 5,000 …….. 4 . … 1 2 2 11 Lutheran, General Council ••…•…. ' ••. 1869 16,428 …….. 8 . … 8 2 2 96 Lutheran, General Synod .• , ……••..•. 1837 56,925 1,624 9 4 5 4 1 478 Methodist Episcopal. ………………. 1819 g67,097 101,200 220 96 234 155 226 3,137 Methodist Episcopal, South…….. . … 1846 238,755 5,977 55 8 46 Ii 101 22 Methodist Protestant ………………. 1882 14,089 8,000 714 /) 4 8 a5 4 Wesleyan Methodist ….•……. ….. 1887 . 200 3 …. 10 2 … 2 Protestant Episcopal •••.•.••.. .. ….. 1835 288,102 7,409 28 47 ~ 19 69 843 Preshyterian ………………………. 1887 843,412 30,460 216 51 230 146 177 1,574 Presbyterian, South…….. ……….. 1861 143,774 5,000 50 7 41 31 20 115 20,038 740 Cumberland Presbyterian••••………. 1828 4,182 250 8 …. 6 8 ~ 16 Associate Reformed Presbyterian, South 1879 19,255 600 Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) …. 1856 6,000 40 2 …. 2 2 B 5 Reformed Presbyterian (Gen'l Synod) .. 1836 5 1 … 37 5 …. 51 4' …. …. 28 U nlted Presbyterian……………….. 1859 112,815 41,815 26 2 25 21 84 482 32,971 2,528 German Reformed…………………. 1878 9,279 5 …. 5 2 9 18 106,571 Reformed (Dntch)… , …•…• … , ….. 1836 9,608 975 23 B 25 17 38 376 27b 3 20 Evangellcal Association ..•.••.•••••..•. 1876 16,484 520 7 …. 7 …. 11,000 German Evangelical Synod .. ………. 1883 …. …. 6 …. 4 …. . … 28 8,500 Unlted Brethren…………………… 1853 55,045 1,175 4 …. J s G 40 F riendi …………………… ……. 1871 8,500 25 122,010 12 …. 8 .. . 27 Canada Baptist…………………,…. 1866 4,559 Canada Congregationalist …… '::~'~ …. 1381 17 …. 1 ] Ii' 11 170 .. Canada Methodist………………. 1873 1 2 1 …. 4 77 . … ". 26 44 Canada Presbyterian………………. 1844 124,114 7,500 33 11 37 32 34 244 Twelve Other Societies …………….. …:..:..:..:.. _ 544,250I~,09() 76 142 192 201 [ 33 303 Totsls ………………………… …… $5,173,7491 $425,615 1,336 I 323 1,3351,028i 1,33111,800 United States and Canada for 1893-94.
work done in non-Catholic Europe, while covering that in behalf of Indians, Chinese, and Japanese in to 1894, though sometimes the year includes a part of 1800. The aim has been to leave the fewest possible ~ 0 .; ~. 1 ~ gI:~l .. "" ~ '" -Jo. "g§ '§ ~ ~ Countries in which ~ MI.siona are SUitained. ~ .p 0 ~ 0 ~ – – – – – – ,<:10 – '8 – – .a':"-~ — ~ 'll ~ ~ ,<:I 0'" ~ -'" Eo< — -'""- ~ — – — 3,441 1,207 40,187 3,055 137,000 1,170 110,406 Africa, Turke~ India, China. Japan, 2,040 1,340 115,2110 6,844 230,000 1,246 26,214 10,000 BuMrmicarohn. eIsniadia,exCichoi,nSa,paJianp, Aanu,strAiaf-. 185 211 3,328 706 15 375 122 18 885 59 1,558 79 3.199 rica, France'lEain. China, Japan, rica, Italy, Mexico, Brazil. India (Southern Bengal).
17 4 76 6 100 2 36 China (Shanghai).
109 80 875 101 1,750 10 919 India, China, Japan, Turkey.
20 25 200 …… 850 2 25 Japan (Tokyo, etc.).
116 152 1,441 …… 8,757 95 1,608 India (Madras).
501 12 6,160 628 17,000 199 5,400 India (Madras), West Africa.
3,908 4W 31,949 4,546 85,000 1,467 48,085 China, Korea, Japan, India, Africa, 232 Bulgaria, Mexico, South America. 24 2,184 China, Japan, Mexico, Brazil. 149 10,036 547 15,000 46 – 10 312 47 800 4 240 Japan (Yokohama).
17 2 2110 10 600 5 208 Africa (Sierra Leone).
514 187 6,062 161 li,OOO 132 5,682 Africa, China, Japan, Haiti, Greece.
2,376 700 31,953 3,141 85,000 875 80,460 India. China, Japan, Korea, Africa, 264 Syria, Persia Spanish America. 41 132 3,202 560 10,000 26 1,400 China, Korea, JaRan, Africa, Greece, Italy, Mexico, razll. 150 Japan, Mexico, Indiaus. 10 617 45 1,200 4 14 IG 2110 80 400 5 110 Mexico (Tampico, etc.).
55 11 259 13 600 18 539 Northern Syria, Asia Minor.
87 10 850 23 700 3 60 India (Northwest Provinces).
500 306 11,055 651 27,000 267 13,514 Egypt, India (Northwest Provinces).
39 20 1,960 273 4,500 2 160 Japan (Tokyo, Sendal, etc.).
482 225 6,226 508 16,000 151 5,302 India, China, Japan, Arabia.
37 17 560 105 1,200 1 25 Japan (Tokyo, Osaka).
38 9 356 1 800 14 520 India (Central Provinces).
60 20 2,146 200 6,000 9 415 China, West Africa.
56 40 670 …. 1,500 9 643 Mexico, Alaska, Jamaica, China, 213 Japan. 481 8,243 1,529 India (Telugus). 374 9,000 67 9 1 12 …. 50 2 75 Africa (West Central).
193 95 7,607 291 15,000 40 2,500 Japan (Tokyo), Indians.
98 3,094 385 8,500 121 5,624 China, India, New Hebrides, West 38 Indies.
1,868 — —- —- — – – – 391 947 — 104 11,381 – …. 23,000 — 15,064 4,648 301,942 22,810 725,415 6,134 204,555 THE KINGDOM. "In a country like China, native Chris- tians often give more than they receive -This is the testimony of Rev. F. E. credit for in statistics. When a man Clark, in his "Our Journey Around becomes a Christian, even if he keeps the World" : .. I am glad to have my his place under his heathen employer, last words in this book testify to the through his observance of the Sabbath fact that missionary work of all the he mllst lose one seventh of his income. various Protestant denominations in all Of course no heathen is willing to pay parts of the world is, in my eyes, the for seven days' work when he has only most promising and hopeful feature of six days of labor; so that it really modern civilization. For the enlarge- means that every native Christian gives ment of commerce, for the spread of one seventh of his income to the Lord. " civilization, for the uplifting of humanity, for the redemption of the -An old Bedaween woman who had world, there is no such force as that been restored to health in a Christian which is exerted by the Anglo-Saxon hospital, returning to her tribe, said to missionaries of the Cross, the ministers her husband: "The doctor was as of the Lord Jesus Christ." kind to me as if I had been a man I"
-The fruits of the Spirit appear even -It was the late Hon. Daniel Appleupon the countenance; for a mission- ton White, of Salem, says the Boston ary writes: "To one who has never Tra7l1Jcript, who, being at the time a seen it as we do, it is hard to describe member of the Massachusetts Senate What we mean by the' Christian look.' before which was pending a bill to in- I have tried to watch and analyze it. corporate the American Board, reply- I cannot make the difference between ing to an objection that "we had no heathen and Christian faces plainer to surplus of religion to export," said: you than by saying that the Christians "Religion is a commodity of which look alive; there is a light in the eyes, the more we export the more we have." and a certain life-I know no better word-in the whole face which you -Considering the source, what highmiss in other Chinese, bright intellec- er commendation ever was, or ever tually, and pleasant socially, as some could be, bestowed upon the "slum of them are. It is so comforting to sisters" of the Salvation Anuy than watch this light shining out for the when Cardinal Manning said to Genfirst time in the eyes of new converts." eral Booth that he "Never saw them without thinking of the angel8 in heav- -Dr. Pentecost says that he knows of a common drunken sweeper in India en /" who died some years ago, leaving his twelve·year-old daughter to the mis- -The Intelligence?', of the English sionanes. She was educated, taking Church Missionary Society, contains the degree of Master of Arts, and is this hearty outburst of thanksgiving: now the principal of an educational "May the Lord be praised-for the institution in India. nearly 4000 adult converts who con- fessed Christ in baptism last year; for -Rev. C. H. Wheeler reports that the remarkable ingathering among the on the Euphrates, in a small self-sup- Ainu of Japan; for the more recent porting church, ten poor members give shaking among the dry bones of Islam one tenth to support the pastor, and in Bombay and the Central Punjab; he is satisfied to live as well as the for trophies won for the Lord from the average of his members. high castes and the depressed classes of India, from Buddhist Ceylon and -We have little idea of how much China and Japan, from the benighted more it costs to follow Christ in heathen races of Africa, and from the tribes of lands. As one who knows suggests: the Red Indians; for tokens of the Holy Spirit'l! reviving grace upon believers, especially at Mengo, in Ugan- accomplished missionary, in delivering da ; at Jilore, in East Africa; at Toku- an earnest discourse, made the very shima, in Japan; and at Kincolith and easy mistake of urging his congrega- Aiyansh, on the North Pacific coast. tion to " come and seek the living rat,"
For the work completed of our brothers instead of .. come and seek the li ving and sisters, Bishop and Mrs. Hill, and fountain. " Of another evangelist the Leversuch, and Vernall, and Sealey, story is told that he said, with a loud and Mathias, and Miss Mansbridge." voice: «If you don't repent you will -Dean Walker, of the University of go to the post-office," the words for Chicago, speaking of the wretched post-office and hell being very similar homes in Eastern Turkey, says: .. The in sound.-Bishop Gal101JJay.
word' home' is Teutonic. The Arabic language can come no nearer to it than WOMAN'S WORK.
the word • house,' and a house is not a -Dr. Jessup tells the story of Dr. home." Mary Eddy's effort to secure her diplo- ma from the Imperial Academy of Medi- -Dr. D. S. Gregory believes the time cine in Turkey. After months of waithas come when, instead of the expres- ing and working the order came for her sion, .. Christian giving," we should examination. The doctors had made a say, .. the Christian's use of wealth as collection of sixty of the hardest questhe steward of God."
-Rev. W. H. Sheppard, twenty tions in every department. She an- years ago a poor little yellow boy in swered all; and those staid, dignified the streets of Waynesborough, Va., is, embodiments of Oriental conservatism at the age of thirty, perhaps the most arose, and said, .. Bravo I Bravo I"
distinguished colored man in the South- Scarcely less significant was the advice ern Presbyterian Church, and the only of the Governor of Syria when she ap- American negro who has ever been plied for her local permits. " Go made a fellow of the Royal Geographi- where you like," he said; .. but let me cal Society. advise you to confine your treatment to -It is the worst possible economy, the womeu. IE men should come with says Dr. James Johnston, to encourage their complaints they might soon deor even permit the missionary to dimin· velop a serious palpitation of the ish his already scanty leisure for the heart. " real work which took him to Africa, by frittering it away in manual labor -Miss Evelyn Stoddard, of Scotland, that he may have food to eat. has been doing evangelistic work for two years in connection with the China -The Michigan Ohristian Advocate Inland Mission, and she finds that her makes mention of an extreme case of sex is possessed of some peculiar adtaking a collection for missions-to vantages. She writes: "This is one wit, when for peculiar reasons it ap- of the interior stations where women peared to be meet and right to pass the are in command. I think none but the contribution box at a funeral. As a China Inland Mission undertakes such result: .. The father of the child gave work, but I am safe in saying they liberally; each mourner contributed have proved it to be eminently successsomething, and the total offering was ful. Being of the gentler sex they are found to be the largest collection for not suspected guilty of any political missions ever given at that appoint- motive such as a man might have. ment." Surely comment is needless, Then, being only women, from the Chiand repetition is scarcely required: nese point of view, it is often a case of n'importe. Thus disturbances are pre- -The words in Japanese for rat and vented. Another point is that it throws f<mntain are very much alike. So an much more responsibility upon the native Christians, more than if they had officers, programmes, etc., to be adopt- foreign men behind them." ed by clubs. To master 12 great mis- -Heatlu!n Woman's Friend tor No- sionary biographies a year, with as vember is an admirable number, and is much knowledge of the country in packed with matter relating to medical which each missionary worked, is in missions. brief the plan of study. With this course of study, and the booming" ex- -The sixth anniversary of the Mary tension" lecture movement, and the J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia constant agitation of systematic giv- Motherhouse of Deaconesses was held ing, the host of youthful disciples must October 16th. There are at present 39 needs grow in grace. Deaconesses in the Home, 18 full sisters, and 21 probationers. During the -A writer in Th6 E'Dang6list truthyear 5 new sisters were consecrated and fully says that " good citizenship, now 5 probationers admitted. The Old such a popular watchword among En- People's Home has 39 inmates. In the deavorers, is only another phrase for Ohildren's Hospital there are 3 sisters • home missions.' ..
and a number of assistants. During -The total amount of money given the year 323 children were cared for in to missions by the New Jersey Chris- the hospital, and 4927 in the clinic. tian Endeavor socfeties during the year The most important station occupied is 1893-94 was $11,560, of which the the German Hospital, where there are Junior societies gave $1334.
25 sisters, in charge of an average of -Forty-five and one fourth per cent 160 patients. of the Endeavorers of the city of Cleve- -At their annual meeting in Wash- land are systematic givers.
ington in October the Methodist women -Eleven hundred Christian Endeav-' found that the receipts of their Foreign orers are now supporting missionaries Missionary Society had reached $311,- by the co-operative plan. 926, an amount larg(J'f" than last year by $34,622; and hence, very naturally, -Here is yet another novelty in this " after this announcement the audience day of experiment and innovation. rose and sang' Praise God from Whom The young people of the Clarendon all Blessings Flow.''' And besides, Street Baptist Church, Boston, for two the Home Missionary Society is able to years have been sustaining with their report receipts amounting to $82,757. gifts a missionary in Africa, but now have gone much farther, an:! in addi- -During the autumn more than 50 tion have sent to China two of their women left England for service in own number, one of them a native of heathen lands, and sent out by the that country, and are to be responsible three principal women's societies, the not only for their support, but for their Ohurch Zenana Mission, the Zenana O'VMsight and direction also. and Bible Medical Mission, and the So- ciety for Promoting Female Education AMERICA. in the East. Of these one third were going out for the first time. United States.-The Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance, so closely akin to THE YOUNG. the Student Volunteer movement, held its fifteenth annual meeting November -On the missionary side the scheme 1st, in Springfield, 0., with about 200 of Christian Endeavor is made com- delegates in attendance and represent- plete, DOW that the Golden Rule has or- ing 35 theological seminaries. It was ganized a missionary study department, reported that Princeton leads in the conducted by Mr. Amos R. Wells, and number of students and in the number outlined a course of reading, suggested of volunteers; McOormick takes first rank in the number of missionaries sent 170; church-members, 10,237; Sunout during the last three years; while day-school scholars, 17,015. the Western, of Allegheny, leads in the matter of giving; with only 96 stu· -The First Church of Chica.go, Rev. dents, it contributed $1050 to foreign E. P. Goodwin pastor, has contributed work. All the reports were very hope- $1,100,000 to benevolent objects. ful and inspiring. -At the Iowa Yearly Meeting of -The report of the Tribune Fresh Friends it was stated that there were Air Fund for the year 1894 is pub· 30 young men and women in that meetlished. The receipts were $22,249. ing who feel called to missionary work The contributors were the means of and are ready to go when an opporhelping to give two weeks' vacation to tunity opens. 10,171 boys and girls. In the eighteen years that this fund has been in opera· -The Methodist Missionary Board tion 133,303 children have been sent to has fixed the salaries of missionaries in the country for two weeks, and 136,411 Asia on the following basis-though for one day, at a total cost of $327,990, not to take effect till 1896: For the and at an average cost of $2.40 per first fi ve years. married men, $950; capita. single men, $650. For the next ten years, married men, $1000; single -Edward Marsden, now of Marietta men, $700. For the next ten years College, but a native Tsimshean of the after the first fifteen, married men, Northwest Coast, sends a letter writ· $1100 ; single men, $800. After twenten by David Leask, an evangelist of ty-five years, married men, $1200; the same tribe, and one of the trophies single men, $900. Allowance for chilof William Duncan's Metlakahtla work, dren, $100 a year up to 21 years, extelling of a Gospel tour in the vicinity cept that for those between 14 and 21 of Fort Simpson. Wherever he went who are at school in the United States, he found a hunger for the truth. the allowance shall be $150.
-The Interna.tional Missionary Alli· -During August and September 45 ance has a force of 164 men and women Presbyterian missionaries sailed, 15 rein the foreign field. At the opening turning to their work and 30 recently of the Missionary Training Institute in appointed. Among them were 9 or- October nearly 100 students were pres- dained men, 6 physicians, 10 married ent for study. women, and 6 unmarried.
-The American Missionary Associ- EUROPE. ation reports receipts for last year amounting to $340,469, and an indebt- Great Britain.-In the Society for edness of $66,360. The summary of the Propagation of the Gospel, .. clergyeducational work in the South is as men and Churchmen who have paid follows: Chartered institutions, 6; two annual SUbscriptions of a guinea normal and graded schools, 36; com- become members, with the right of mon schools, 42; total schools, 84; in- voting at meetings of the society, upon structors, 409 ; pupils, 12,604. Statis- their election by ballot." The number tics of Indian work: Churches, 14; of members is about 5400. In the church-members, 249; schools, 11 ; mis- Church Missionary Society "clergysionaries and teachers, 86 ; total pupils, men and Churchmen who subscribe, 417 ; Sunday-school scholara, 1301. the former half a guinea, the latter a The statistics of Chinese work are: guinea, become members immediately, Schools, 21; teachers, 34; pupils, with the right of voting at meetings of 1201 ; ceased from idolatry, 197. Gen. the lIociety." The number of members eral summary: Schools, 110; pupils, is about 25,000. Again, the committee 1422; missionaries, 646; churches, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel number about 300 members; but the committee of tho Church 1rIis- -A recent number of Mis:non Field sionary Society more than 6000 mem- (organ for the Society for the Propagabers. tion of the Gospel) calls attention to the fact that "no less than 3 of the -Mr. Baynes, the Secretary of the papers in this number are by native English Baptist Missionary Society, clergymen, 1 in South Africa, 1 in said in his annual address: "While India, and a Karen of Burma. Such sitting in my office last week, the door reports are in themselves significant. opened and a very rough-looking man The mere fact that there are hundreds entered and laid down on my table £20 of natives in holy orders in lands where with the words: • Mr. Baynes, I have a few generations back there were no saved this for the Congo Mission, enter native Christians, and that these are it as before, remembering the words of working with us for the conversion of the Lord Jesus, "It is more blessed to their fellow-countrymen, and write engive than to receive." You know who couraging us by describing what they I am. I came here last year; I'm a do, is a fact to make us feel how might- London scavenger.' I did remember ily the Word of God is growing and him, for he brought £20 last year for prevailing. " missions I Only a few days ago a young woman brought me £20, saying The Continent.-There are in Spain she was sorry she could not give more. representatives of 14 Protestant She was a domestic servant and had to churches and societies, and they report support her mother, and it had taken 20 foreign male and 29 foreign female her two years to save this amount." missionaries, 41 Spanish pastors, 37 evangelists, 3600 communicants. The -Of 126 missionaries recently for- American Board and the Baptist Miswarded by the Church Missionary So- sionary Union are the only American ciety to their fields in more than half a societies at work. The others are from score countries of the globe, these de- England, Scotland, Germany, Sweden, tails may be given: Clergy, 28 return- and Holland. ing, 15 recruits; doctors, 2 returning, 2 recruits; laymen, 2 returning, 10 re- – Theodor Wangemann, the director crults; women, 12 returning, 26 re- of the Berlin Missionary Society, died crults; wives of missionaries, 21 re- on June 18th. For nearly twenty-nine turning, 5 recruits; engaged to mis- years he had held the helm of the Sosionaries, 3 recruits. To the total of ciety with a firm hand. In 1857 the 126 Bishop Stuart's daughter should be enthusiastic WaUmann had pulled the added. Of the 15 new clerical mis- Berlin 1rIission out of a swamp, where sionaries, 7 were from the Church Mis- it seemed likely to perish. Wangemann sionary College, 6 from Cambridge, was able to hold the positions which 1 each from Durham and Highbury; had been acquired, and, in addition, of the doctors, 1 had an Edinburgh and not only to extend the knowledge and 1 a London degree; of the laymen, the love of missions in Prussia, but to 9 came from the Church Missionary spread the work of conquElst in Central Collego, and 1 represented the Church Africa, in China, and on the shores of Army and the University of Oxford. Lake Nyassa. Twice he made a care- ful visitation of the German mission -The London Society has 17 medi- stations in Kafiraria, in Natal, in the cal missionaries upon its rolls, and only Orange Free State, and in the Transone of the number is a woman. Of vaal. Almost all the 64 Berlin misthese, 10 find their field in China, 4 in sionaries who are now at work have India, and 1 each in Madagascar, Cen- been trained and sent out under his tral Africa, and Samoa. They minis- direction. -JournaZ des Mis8ions Evantered to 3598 in-patients last year, and giZiquu. attended to 99,743 cases. -In the October MO'raman Quarterly -In the Hoogli DiStrict the Scottish the following extract is given from a Free Church has rented a piece of tem- private letter: "Have you ever been ple land for missionary purposes with to Herrnhut, among the Moravian the novel condition " that no cows are Brethren? I was there last month. ever killed, or beef is ever eaten upon Never in my life have I thought that the premises."
there was such. a town in the world, -One reason given for the sufferance where every resident is a true Chris- of vermin in Hindu houses, is their tian ; where spiritual life is at the high· superstitious and firmly-rooted belief est state; all the inhabitants like one in the transmigration of souls. A misfamily; a short servIce in their chapel sionary was recently visiting a hlghevery day in the week. As I think of caste woman who had lost her child. my visit there I feel as if I had been to As she sat talking, a cockroach walked a fairy land." across the fioor, aud she was about to -The income of the Basle Mission· brush the insect away, when the mother ary Society was $200,845 last year. cried, .. Don't harm it, I beg you; my The contributions from the field were little baby's soul is in that cockroach."
$33,610. The ordained missionaries -In a recent number of the London number 153; the laymen, 47; wives, Times is an article, two columns in 101; and unmarried women, 6. Na- length, on the tea production of India tive pastors (ordained) are found to the and Ceylon. The statement of this number of 35, with 846 native assist· article will be a revelation to many. ants. In and about the 449 stations The writer well says : "One of the are 14,274 communicants and 28,209 most striking episodes in the annals of adherents. The schools contain 13,105 modern commerce is the struggle bepupils. tween India and China for the tea sup- ply of the world. But this struggle is ASIA.
India -" Among the influences at not long. The Indian and Ceylon tea work in India, as in China, Is that of growers have won the fight. During emigration, which, though now only the past thirteen years they have disof small dimensions, may play an im- placed China teas from the British portant part in the Christianizing of market to the extent of 76,000,000 that continent. The return of the dele- pounds. In 1881 Great BrItain congates to the Parliament of Religions sumed 112,000,000 pounds of China without forfeiture of caste or imposi- teas; in 1893 she consumed nearly tion of fine ill a significant fact in this 36,000,000. In 1881 Great Britain conconnl/ction. During the past ten years sumed nearly 48,000,000 pounds of Indemigration has rapidly increased, it ian and Ceylon teas; in 1893 she conbeing estimated, according to a recent sumed 172,000,000."
return, at upward of 300,000 persons -The statement comes that Miss An- per annum. Natal and Fiji are old nIe Taylor and her party, after sojourn- fields of coolie immigration, Australia ing six months in Darjeeling, working already complains of too much of it, at the Thibetan language and other- but like or no llke, the tendency will wise undergoing training for their fu- grow, and, once it fairly breaks away ture work, have struck camp, and gone from those things which retard its forward some four or five days' journey growth, the number will increase by to Gnatong, in the border State of Sik- leaps and bounds, not only bringing kim, and situated just on the border of the Hindus to Christian settlements, Thibet. Travelling and residence in but enabling them to take back some Sikkim having recently been brought knowledge of the Lord Jesus gained in under special government regulations, other countries." they had to obtain passports from the Bengal Government before they were thllt the Chinese can be taught to make able to make the advance. Most of the melodious sounds as well as have melparty left Darjeeling on September ody in their hearts. Oh, the horrible 28th, Miss Taylor, with two others, concatenation of sounds that passes for remaining behind a day or two to su- music in this China I Now many perintend the despatching of their mothers 'may put their children to sleep boxes, 118 in number. hushed by the same sweet lullabys our mothers hymned to us in days gone -The first person baptized by Dr. by." Judson in Maulmein died in the mission hospital there last July. She was Again: "On the boat passing the a very aged Burman woman. • customs' you will hear the men shout- ing out' Jesus Hall' and then you ap- -The death of the Rev. Charles W. pear by way of confirming their verbal Forman, of the Lodiana Mission, which testimony by personal witness. On the occurred August 27th, removes one of river boats, you may find a list of the the most venerated and beloved mis- passengers as follows: 'Sixty-eight sionaries connected with the Presbyte- Chinese and 3 Jesus men.' You will rian Board. Dr. Forman was a native hear, perhaps, also 'foreigner-Jesus,' of Kentucky, and a graduate of Prince- by some one passing." ton Theologiclll Seminary. He sailed for India in 1847. while mission work She also ventures to suggest: "They in that VIIst empire was still in its iu- do not have any too much fun iu their fancy. In 1846, at the close of the first often dark and sunless lives. I have Sikh war, the mission had crossed the sometimes thought since coming to Sutlej and planted a station at JulIun- China that councils might perhaps add dU! within the Punjab. From that with advantllge to the list of necessary day to this he has toiled steadily on for qualifications for an intending missionalmost fifty years with great efficiency, ary, the possession by the candidate of and being universally beloved. A no- a quarter of an ounce of solid fun I It toriously anti-Christilln newspaper pub- might stand them in very good stead lished in Lahore states editorially that eometimes. " "no foreigner has ever entered the Punjab who has done so much for the -" His nll.me ie Sun-ho, and he is a Punjab as Padri Forman Sahib." Not sugar merchant in Peh-tsiu-ou, a staleast among his services to the Church tion of the SWlltow Mission in the Jamand to India was the giving of 3 sous tsau District. Mr. Sun-ho, a man in and 2 daughters to the missionary work, comfortable circumstances, but by no 2 of whom are connected with the mean!! rich. ill Il. Christian. He was at Lodiana Mission. first a member of the church at Jam- tsau. He reso1 ved some years ago to China.-Mis!l Elizllbeth Stoddllrd set up a station in his own town, aud writes as follows in the Independent subscribed the greater part of the money concerning a trip into the interior: required for the erection of Il. place of "As I heard the schoolgirls sweetly worship. He paid the whole of the singing first and second parts of ' All preacher's salary for the first year, and the way long it is Jesus,' I could not a large part of it in each subsequent help thinking what a disastrous thing year. He buys medicinel and gives it is for Satan's kingdom in China when them away to the poor. His house is the name of Jesus and the story of His open to all Christians paiSing through love is set to somo sweet melody and the town; and to crown his proof. of hymned out from native lips, prompted sincere faith, he has been an active and by a heart of gratitude. I am not Silre successful Christian worker." if tbere is anything tbat makes devils tremble much more than the discovery -Rev. Gilbert Reid, for ten years a Presbyterian missionary, and .till in excellent standing, though no longer con- for sympathy and strength, and God's nected with the Board of that denomi- grace proved, as always, sufficient. nation, is. to open work among the Finding his fellow-captives full of dehigher classes of China, which in- spair, he began to cheer them with clude : (1) The mandarins, military and words of faith and hope ; and soon he civil; (2) the local gentry; (3) the lit- had gathered about him, through his erati; (4) the nobility ; (5) the leaders faithful testimony, a little band of of charitable, religious, and reforma- praying and worshipping Christians. tory movements. They are called the Through the influence of his brother in higher classes simply on account of the England, after several years, Devereux superior influence which they possess. Spratt was ransomed, and the order for Mr. Reid's aim is to endeavor to rea.ch his release was brought to the fortificathese because their influence upon the tions. His fellow-captives rejoiced millions is so unlimited. The annual with tears at his good fortune, but exexpense of the new mission will be pressed regret that their leader was to $3000, and $7000 is the estimated ex- leave them. Devereux Spratt, howpense at the outset, which will be spent ever, refused to accept the ransom, and largely in books, photographic and elec- remained until he died a slave among trical apparatus, a stereoscope, a polari- slaves, that he might continue to comscope, a microscope, a stereopticon, fort those whom God had brought to globes, fixtures, and paintings. Christ through him.-Re!1. A. O. DirtJOn.
-Shanghai, beyond any other city in -An officer of the Congo Free State the empire, is a centre for missionary writes an interesting article in a Belinfluence. Fifteen societies are found gian paper respecting the climate of the here and S hospitals which treat nearly equatorial ~ection of the Congo. Not· 50,000 patients a year. There are 15 withstanding the fact that this region boarding schools and 2 colleges. More lies directly under the equator, the than 2000 children receive instruction writer states that the heat i8 far flOm in the various schools. They have 78 being so excessive as is supposed. He missionaries and nearly 200 native illustrates his favorable view of the preachers, teachers, and Bible women climate by stating the cllse of the Rev_ working in the city and immediate vi- Charles Banks and his wife, two Americinity. These 15 societies include 2 Bi- can missionaries who have lived &t Equable societies which have scattered por- torville seven years. Their three chiltions of the Bible all over the province. dren were born there, and all are sur- The Presbyterian mission press is lo- prisingly healthy. The Belgian official cated in Shanghai. More than 1,000,- attributes this to the fact that Mr. Banks 000 copies of books and tracts were .used great care in the location of hil!! printed the past year. There is also cottage, and uses native fruits, vegeta- Bible work carried on for the Japanese. bles, and milk altogether. He avoids all canned goods, using for meat native AFRICA. goats, sheep, and poultry; uses goat's -On a tablet in a church of Algiers milk instead of condensed milk, lind is the name of "Devereux Spratt, raises his own vegetables. which, beIng 1641." The traveller naturally inquires fresh, are far preferable to the canned what that means, and he is told that goods from Europe.
Devereux Spratt, an Englishman, was -Says the Mi88ionarg Herald : captured with 120 other. in 1641 by the "Probably no city in the world has Algerian pirates. He was put to work had a more remarkable growth than with his fellow-slaves on the fortifica- Johannesburg in the South African re- tions around Algiers. Cut off from public. Starting from nothing in 1886, congenial company, hll lQoked to God it is now a large and well-built city, having in 1892 over 40,000 inhabitants. copies of the New Testament were also Its streets have a length of 85 miles granted, but as the Society's stock of and are broad and regularly laid out, these was exhausted, printing had to the taxable valuation of the immovable be begun. On September 5th, 5025 property being over $15,000,000. Al- copies, or a little over half the required most everything necessary to the enjoy- number, were sent out of the warement of life can be found there. The house to be shipped for Mombasa. city is said to be more than 5000 feet They were packed in 67 zinc·lined above the level of the sea, and is located boxes, containing 75 each, and weighon the" Witwatersrand," a reef which ing about 60 pounds. It is expected is marvellously productive of gold. that the remainder, with 2000 copies of Hither come workmen from all parts of the latter half of the New Testament, the world seeking their fortunes. " will be printed, packed, and despatched And especially for the sake of the Zulus in time for the next monthly shipment." congregated here the American Board sustains a mission in the city. ISLANDS OF THE SEA.
-The Church of Rome, through the -The Protestant portion of Chris- White Fathers about Lake Tanganyika, tendom cannot but watch the encroachmakes a specialty of redeeming slaves ments of France upon Madagascar with in great numbers, and by this means deepest solicitude and apprehension; secures a never·failing supply of .. cou- for wherever she undertakes to subdue verts." Le8 Hi88iontJ OathoZique8 gives or colonize she is quite certain to play this bill of particulars: .. Of the sums the part of meddler and mischief-maker. collected for the redemption of slaves, Against the English tongue she holds a his Eminence Cardinal Ledochowski. grudge, and though caring little for Prefect of the Sacred Congregation 01. any religion for religion's sake, yet pre· the Propaganda, has granted to Mgr. fers Catholicism because it can be used Barthet, Vicar-Apostolic of Senegam- for political purposes. Should she inbia, 30,000 lires (Italian); to Mgr. Tou- vade and conquer the island, the maglotte, Vicar-Apostolic of the Sahara, nificent missions now existing would 10,000 lires; to Mgr. Hirth, Vicar- be in the utmost jeopardy. Apostolic of the Victoria Nyanza, 20,- 000 lires; to Mgr. Lechaptois, Vicar- -The Australasian Wesleyan Met):!- Apostolic of the Tanganyika, 20,000 odist Missionary Society has fallen heir lires. " to the achievements wrought by the English Wesleyans in Fiji, Samoa, New -Thus far only men have been sent Britain, and British New Guinea, and to Uganda as missionaries, but now the makes report of 1542 preaching places Church Missionary Society is seriously occupied by 23 English missionaries, considering if the time has not come 76 native ministers, 1243 teachers, 2388 when women also may bear a part in local preachers, 4085 class leaders, and the arduous task. Four or five mar- 2379 school-teachers. The native ried couples may soon be selected, and church-members number 33,376, with with them a few unmarried women 6205 on trial and 118,817 attendants on may be despatched. public worship. There are 40,875 in the day schools. Fiji alone has 30,583 -The British and Foreigu Bible So- in the churches. This society has deciety makes this announcement: "A cided to purchase a boat to be used in large grant of Ganda Scriptures was conveying teachers to and from New made by the Committee to the Church Britain and New Guinea. The Rev. F. Missionary Society on July 30th. Of Langham, of Fiji, has been invited to these, 1800 copies of the Book of Dan- visit the colonies in order to carry out iel, which had recently issued from the the revision of the Fiji Bible. press, were sent off last month; 10,000
The Missionary Review of the World — October 1892
THE GREEK CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL.·XV. No.1O.-0ld Series. –OCTOBER.– VOL. v. No. lO.-New Serie8.
THE GREEK CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL.
BY I. E. BUDGETT MEAKIN, TUNIS, AFRICA.
How few of us realize what is really embraced by the title" The Greek Church"! In using it we speak of a religious orgamzation submitted to by more millions than Romanism and Protestantism can muster together; we speak of a church named by the name of Christ, and styling itself the only orthodox, by the side of which the Pope of Rome is an arch-ProtlOstant;* we speak of a despotism unsurpassed under the Inquisition, and of a heathen darkness great as that of the most vaunted stronghold of idolatry.
To most of us the Church of Rome is the embodiment of evil in the Christian fold-the only Babylon. Day by day we have before our very eyes her human teachings and her superstitious practices, while we arc also enabled from our own experience to gather some idea of her fruits. But of the workings of the Church of Greece we remain in comparative ignorance, and in consequent indifference. Yet the millions under its sway are unnumbered by man, and to everyone of these it is as much our duty to preach the Gospel as to our brethren who sit in darkness by our side. Dean Stanley has aptly written of the Eastern Church: "That figure which seemed 80 imposing when it was the only one that met our view changes all its proportions when we see that it is overtopped by a vaster, loftier, darker figure behind." t He says that the study of it brings about " a two-edged disappointment," for that it is Catholic and Protestant at once, a strange anomaly, a living death. It was at one time the dream of this divine, as it had been of Melanchthon and others before him, that an amalgamation might some day be effected between this Church and Protestantism-that "the Greek face may yet hand back from Europe to Asia the light which in former days it handed on from Asia to Europe;" but the indulgence in such a hope only showed the Dean's acquaintance with * He is indeed so styled by one writer of the Greek Church.
t "The Eastern Ohmch," 1884 (p. 43), to which the writer is indebted for most of the compari· sons of these opening paragraphs. its practice to be as shallow as his knowledge of its theory was deep. Centuries ago the Patriarchs of the East had condemned the Lutheran teachings as heresy, Ilnd their successors are no more inclined to think otherwise now of the teachings of the Church of England.
Even in theory the gulf between them is impassable. The Eastern and the Western churches have developed on almost as distinctly different lines as Islam and Judaism, the one grafted on to the stock of a fallen Grecian idolatry and the other grafted on to that of a Homan system. The writer quoted has pointed out how that the Oriental divine, with his speculative theology-as exemplified in the Athanasian Creed-succeeded to the sophist of Greece, while the Latin divine, with his disciplinatory and logical theology, succeeded to the Roman advocate.
At the same time it must be remembered that just as the civilization of ancient Greece was in many ways the parent of that of Rome, so. have the institutions of the Christian Church of Greece been parent to some of the most typical of Romish institutions. The very name of pope is a Greek word, and by it is called every pastor in the Greek Church to-day, not to speak of other Christian pastors in Greek and Turkish lands. I was assured only a short time ago that I was a " papas," a pope, myself, since in these countries people think no one takes real interest in religion who is not well paid to do so. Fourteen of the Fathers of the ancient Church were Greeks,· and so were many of the early popes themselves, Constantinople having been the first great Christian metropoli!!. To this day it is in this Church alone that the New Testament is read in the original, though even there the changes in the spoken tongue have rendered it as unintelligible to the uneducated as Latin is to the Italians; and, of course, in Russia and other countries whcre Greek is _not spoken there is not even the philological link to recommend it. The Sclavonic alphabet, however, is an adaptation from the Greek. and many Latin words have been imported into the languages using it. On the other hand, Rome, and we through it, have borrowed from the Greek Church some of the commonest religious terms, notably those describing monastic institutions-a development of Asiatic fakirism borrowed via Egypt by the Eastern Church-e.g., hermit, monk, monastery, ascetic, abbey, etc.-all of Greek or Syriac origin.
As the followers of Rome spread to the West, those of Greece spread East, till they to-day stretch from Siberia to the Adriatic, and from the White Sea to Abyssinia. The divisions which have arisen within it almost equal those which have arisen within the Western Church, the only difference being that while in the West more energy has been displayed, those who protested protesting chiefly against departure from biblical teaching, in the East the protesting parties have usually striven against departures from the ordinances of man. Thus, for instance, the introduction of a more rational style of Western painting in the place of the archaic Byzantine style, and the use of Western music, or the use of music at all in worship; the cutting of the beard, and the use of potatoes or tobaccQ have seemed to rend the Russian Church to the core. No details of daily life seemed too minnte for the discussion and decision of <Ecumenical coun- cils, documents of which remain, legislating even for the dressing, cooking, and doing the hair. Such were the points on which dissents arose. The Raskolricks, or dissenters, as those who oppose all progress are called, are an important body in Russia. considering themselves to be the only ortho- dox. Even the return to primitive simplicity, of which an example has been set by our brethren the Stundists and the Molokans, are objected to by them as much as any other sort of reform.
Those who may be considered to pertain to the Orthodox Greek Church are the people of Russia. Georgia, Servia, Greece, and Montenegro. Those of Syria, Egypt, and Abyssinia may be considered as Nonconformists. Of the peculiarities of these last the limits of this article do not permit of any treatment, so that the Church of Russia will be dealt with more especially as typical. Bulgaria also possesses its share of this Church, and so do Wallachia and Moldavia, which, though of Latin origin, follow Greek ritual and doctrine. In Hungary, too, we find districts adhering to this Church, while in Bohemia and Poland is a Sclavonic race with a Latin ritual. But it is in Russia par excellence that we feel an interest in the religions system of which the Czar is there the chief, and in the name of which such bitter persecutions are being carried on.
The history of the introduction of Christianity into Rnssia, and of the various dissensions which have arisen there, is too long even to be epito- mized here, but it is noteworthy that there never seems to have been any llpiritual foundation, no converts from conviction, snch as alone can build up a living church. It was the magnificent display, the solemn music, and the incense of the Byzantine Church which are said to have decided the emissaries of an early heathen monarch of Russia to recommend it to their master in preference to that of Rome or Islam, when the three were com- peting to secure his adherence. From that time, when to the heathen Rus- sians were brought so-called holy pictures for their adoration, they have fallen down before them as to gods ~f wood and stone; and still, in this nineteenth century, they worship their icons (pronounced eekones) with a fervor which we cannot understand unless we see it. "No veneration of relics or images in the West can convey any adequate notion of the vener- . ation for pictures in Russia. It is the main support of their religious faith and practice." Iu watching the reverence paid to them, I have wondered what. advantage this travesty of Christianity had been to the worshippers. No Roman ever adored his Jnpiter and no black African his fetich with more earnestness than they do these curious ancient paintings. As a rule, they are half-length representations of Christ, Mary, or saints, of all sizes possible, covered over with silv~r, with the exceptiou of the hands and the face. These parts are in very yellow oils, the features hardly recogp.izable. Some are richly adorned with pearls aud precious stones. Those which are supposed to have worked miracles are adorned with iilver silhouettes of • limbs and persons, hung around them, just as in the Romish Church wax models are used. Often the picture is protected by glass, which is opened to polish up the silvrr before the great feasts. In war time the icons have served as standards, and have been carried to the fight as was the Ark of old. The virtue attributed to those brought back by a victorious army will be understood, and one or two such have a na~ional reputation. Not- withstanding the use of these icons, statues in the churches are strictly prohibited. As for the ceremonies attendant upon their worship, which cannot now be entered into, they exceed the Roman ceremonies in display and pomp as much as those exceed the average Anglican servipe, yet the Coptic still exceeds this, and the Abyssinian is more showy still if possible.
The churches in which they are performed are more or less of the Byzantine style, with a vast open space in the centre, admirably suited for display and for the use of incense. They are usually very much over- decorated according to our ideas, both outside and inside, but too often the finery is tawdry, and does not in any way bear inspection. The use of gilding is excessive even with so much color. The people are fairly regular church attendants on holy days as well as on Sundays, and as they pass the icons they cross themselves. Exhortation or preaching is rare, the service being confined to ceremonies and to the administration of the sacrament on certain occasions. In this exists a noteworthy difference from the Romish ritual, for only leavened bread is used.
In many points of ritual it is worthy of note that they often adhere more closely to primitive practices than do the Church of Rome and its offshoots, as migM be expected from so conservative a body. " The straws to show us which way the spirit of an institution blows," says Dean Stanley, and he instances the retention of immersion as the only form of baptism: "There can be no question that the original form of baptism (the vcry meaning of the word) was complete immersion in the deep baptismal waters, and that for at least four centuries any other form was unknown, or regarded as an exceptional, almost monstrous case. The Greek Church adheres to this and ignores sprinkling, using a threefold plunge. " Confirmation is simultaneous with this rite, and children are permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper. The elders are still called in to anoint the sick with oil, and to pray for them. Standing is maintained for prayer.
The fasts enjoined by the Greek Church are long and severe, but excessive drinking is permitted during them. Lent is seven weeks long. There are two or three weeks' fast in June, and again from the beginning of November to Christmas. Besides at these times animal food is abstained from every Wednesday and Friday. Pilgrimages. are also often undertaken. Of the Bible a lamentable ignorance prevails, though it is not a prohibited book.
The theology of the Greck Church is not systemat.ized as in the West, and is not dogmatical. He who complies with its forms may hold pretty • much what private opinions he likes. Laymen, too, have their place in the Church in a degree unknown under the pRpacy. The Nicrean Creed is, of course, strictly upheld, but without the addition of the words" Filio- que" in the Latin, made by the Romish Church after the famous council had drawn up the Confession of Faith, and still the great bone of conten- tion between the two churches. But for this it iii probable that a reunion would have been effected centuries ago, at a time when it seemed to be greatly desired on both sides. A patriarch of the Papal Church assured the writer recently in Rome that his Church regarded those who refused this expressiou to be as great heretics as the Protestants, who accepted it, but who repudiated other dogmas. The point at issue is the expression, " I .elieve in the Holy Ghost, which proceedeth from the Father and the Son," the words in italics being rejected by the Greek Church. Probably no more bitter religious controversy ever raged round any point than round this one expression.
Notwithstanding all their ordinances, the greatest indifferenr J to the private lives of their flocks is observed by the Russian clergy, and it is the same with their private opinions if they do not affect their contributions.
"So long as a member refrains from openly attacking the Church, and from passing over to another confession, he may entirely neglect all religious ordinances, and publicly profess scientific theories logically inconsistent with any kind of religious belief, without the slightest danger of incurring ecclesiastical censure." * This is a most important fact to be borne in mind in studying the position of the evangelicals in Russia. If the Church stood without the State we should hear of none of these persecutions.
From the very commencement, however, as the Church became a power in the land, it became practically inseparable from the State, l)otwithstand- ing the strained relations and even serious ruptures which at times have intervened between them. A perusal of the history of these struggles, once or twice exceeding sore and bitter, causes wonder that the two should ever have become reunited as at present. Ivan IV. strangled the famous Metropolitan of his day, and flogged hundreds of priests to death at Nov- gorod, compelling oocumenical councils to sanction his practices and doc- trines. But though the Czars found themselves stronger than the Church.
they found tha.t they were weak without it, and by the adoption of a wiser policy they have secured to themselves the position of its head,. and have found it the grea.test support for their authority, since it invests them with the same sacred power whic~ is the strength of the Sultans of Turkey and of Morocco. The Czars, as earthly monarchs, have assumed heavenly attributes.
" Muscovy," writes Stepniak, "became a veritable theocracy, but theocracy means stagnation." The clergy, "like the odor of rancid oil, penetrated everywhere, soiling everything they pretended to bless." t Peter the Great only succeeded in his reforms by " dragoon- * Sir D. M. Wallace, in his "Russia," 2d ed., vol. 2, p. 193.
t .. RllBsia nnder the Tzars." ing" the Church, replacing obstructionists by members of the orthodox Ukranian Church. For this he was denounced as Antichrist, and indeed the strength of the opposition which he had to overcome, even in making the slightest change, gives one an idea of the strength of his character. Up to the time that he broke loose from all restriction and acted according to bis own discretion, he, like his predecessors, llad been fettered by rounds of religious observances and by the traditions of centuries. He complained that he was compelled to spend half his time in empty ceremonial under the name of religion. The practical influence of the Czar greatly exceeds the theoretical; it really lies in his power to nominate the synod, and to work it through a procurem, dismissing those who do not act in accordance with his policy. In the Eastern Church, out of his own dominions, he has no authority whatever. A striking feature of the coronation service is that the Czar crowns himself, as acknowledging no higher ecclesiastical dignitary within his realm, and then administers the sacrament to the bishop.
As the Church in the Middle Ages began to grow powerful in Russia, so it began to grow exclusive, and to form a class apart from the mass of the people, having its own interests, as distinct from those of the masses as fr6m those of any foreign country. Education was practically confined to the ranks of the clergy,. and they showed no desire to confer this or any other benefit upon the flock in charge of which they were placed. In the seventeenth century they had thus secured a position of commanding influence, political as well as social, and were the ardent supporters of the temporal powers, without which they could not have stood where they were. That they were extremely lax in their moral duties seems clearly proven, and it is to be feared that they have not much improved as a body since those times. As early as the ninth century an wcumenical council declared that they were many of them "clod-hoppers, unfit to graze cattle, much Jess to feed flocks of human souls." By the beginning of the last century a fourth of the people had thus come under the jurisdiction of this body, but since then its lands have been secularized, and it has thus been shorn of very much of its power. There still exist, however, some five hundred monasteries.
The clerical fanaticism of those early days, and their teaching of the great superiority of the Russians, led to the exclusion of everything foreign, thus raising a barrier which prevented progress from contact with the outside world, and it is mainly to be charged with the present backward condition of the empire. It was taught that dealings even with Romans and Protestants were sinful, and those who visited the country were shut up in their own quarters, with guards at their doors. When, in 1563, the first printing-press was introduced, it was closed by the clergy as a device of the devil, while the introduction of the Arabic numerals was not accomplished till five hundred years after they were common in the rest of Europe. The retention of the old style calendar is attributable to the same cause. The usc of gunpowder was retarded there by a couple of centu- ries. * When we come to more modern times we find that wonderfully little change has taken place. Till recently the absolute separation of the priest- craft from the populace was secured by the office being hereditary, and by marriages with other than priestly families being prohibited. Those who were born priests were praetical~y compelled to remain in the clerical ranks all their lives. The celibacy of the clergy is more forcibly repudiated by the Greek Church than by Protestants, for every priest must be married before ordination, though he is not permitted to marry a second time if left a widower. The parish priests, with whom we have more concern, are known as the white clergy, and may engage in manual labor with honor, but not so the monks, styled black clergy, with whom they maintain a constant rivalry. The white priest considers that he works to earn his livelihood, but that his brother of the monastery is a lazy pauper, content to live upon alms which ought to find their way into the pocket of the parish priests. The Russian priest may be a simple peasant, who follows his calling as he would a handicraft, exercising no more influence upon the community than if he were the village carpenter or barber, and enjoying no more respect than they might command. He may be absolntely devoid of general education, perhaps unable even to read the Scriptures. If he has a due acquaintance with the prescribed routine of ceremonies, and can perform the rites demanded by his parishioners, he is considered fully qualified for his post.
In the list of his duties the propugatioll vf even the teaching of the Gospel finds no place. The whole business is as dead a formalism as is to be found, probably, in any religion under the sun. Certainly there are many creeds in which the name of Christ is unknown, in the practice of which very much more fervor is displayed. It is only in the superstitious, conscience-stricken people that earnestness is to be found, but then, alas!
how misdirected! As to the personal characters of these pastors, no evidence could be qnoted with more effect than that given in a secret government report some years ago by an orthodox Russian, "celebrated for his extensive and intimate acquaintance with Russian provincial life. "
He says: "The people do not respect the clergy, but persecute them with derision. and reproaches, and feel them to be a burden. The people shun the clergy, and have recourse to them not from the impulse of conscience, but from necessity. Because it forms a class apart; because, having received a false kind of education, it does not introduce to the life of the people the teaching of the Spirit, but remains in the mere dead forms of outward ceremonial; because the clergy itself continually presents examples of want of respect to religion, and transforms the service of God into a profitable trade. Is it pos- sible for the people to respect priests who spend their time in the gin-shops, * Stepniak. write fraudulent petitions, fight with the cross in their hands, and abuse each other in bad language at the altar ~ Is it possible for the people to respect the clergy when they see that truth has disappeared from it, and that the consistories, guided in their decisions not by rules, but by personal friendship and bribery, destroy in it the last remains of truthfulness ~"
Such an indictment needs no commentary from an outsider. Even though the experience of some in individual cases might be to the con- trary, here we have the words of no opponent of the Church, or of one unacquainted with his theme. What more can be needed? Stepniak, another Russian, after pointing out the evil effects of the combination of this system with the State, remarks, " What more natural than that at the first awakening of political conscience in the instructed classes, their first words were words of malediction against religion ~ What more just than that now, when the first dream of the light of cultnre is reaching the people, they should abandon in thousands the faith of their fathers f"
What, indeed 1 And what is to be expected of such a departure if the Light of the Gospel be not carried to them, that its life-giving rays may do what the light of culture could never do, what the light of culture never did for the most refined of the nations of earth, with the most boasted institutions ~ What is there in Russia to-day to prevent that wholesale relapse into atheism and infidelity which is so noticeable in Roman Catholic countries, when the utter corruptions, the deception of the struc- ture in which they have hitherto placed their faith, is removed 1 It must come, it is inevitable, unless at this moment, when the bitter cry of dis- appointment is going up, when the trusted cisterns are seen to be dry, and no springs to quench their thirst are found, we, in the power of the foun- tain of Life, point them to the Well of Living Waters, whence they and all may drink and never thirst. In all their religion they have not been taught of Christ, they have never heard the simple story of the Gospel, without the embeIlishments and imaginations of man. "How, then, shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed 1 And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher 1"
Some may hope that there is a possibility of an awakening within the pale of this Church, but that is as hopeless as it is within the pale of Rome. Whatever might arise, as, thank God! it has done in the case of the Stundists and others, is at once disowned, and shown to be utterly at variance with the dearest traditions of that Church, and incompatible with any connection with it. One of the greatest authorities on Russian life, Sir Mackenzie Wallace, has expressed his conviction that " anything at all resembling what we understand by a religious revival is in flagrant contra- diction with all her traditions. Immobility and passive resistance to ex- ternal influences have always been, and are still, her fundamental principles of conduct."
It has been stated that "the Eastern Church is not misaionsry or persecuting, "* and though the first part of the assertion will remain undisputed, in the face of what we know to have occurred in Russia, and what is transpiring there still, the second part will be at once denied by many. This, however, will be from an inadequate acquaintance with the facts of the case. It is the opinion of those who know the people best, including that of Sir Mackenzie Wallace, personally expressed to the writer, that the Church in Russia as a body is wholly indifferent to this persecution, which arises from two causes, quite independent of religious zeal. The first is the feeling that loss of followers means loss of income and loss of influence, and the second is the national exclusive feeling which regards everything foreign with a bitter hatred and suspicion, which is shared by all propaganda among members of the national Church. It is these two influences, acting and reacting upon one another, which produce the persecutions at the tale of which the evangelical world weeps to-day.
Take, for instance, the case of the Molokans or the Stundists, between whom there is no great difference. The Molokans answer almost precisely in Russia to those who elsewhere bear the honored name of "Brethren." The Bible is their only guide, and they know it well. Their theology is in. a half-fluid condition, comprising no definite system, so that considerable independence of opinion is possible among the members. Their meetings are held in private houses, .and are directed by three members chosen as overseers-unpaid: Of the Stundists more is known abroad, though their separation is of more recent date-about 1860. These earnest, simple Christians closely resemble the Molokans, and would doubtless have been identical with them had they originated near the same time or place. Their irreproachable life is the admiration even of their foes, and their brotherly love and good deeds are marked by all. As learning to read and write for the study of the Scriptures, they are on a level higher than that of most of their neighbors. An enlightened government would have seen that here was the very pick of its subjectlil, the ideal of a law-abiding community.
But this is a class of people whose Jack of superstition makes them poor contributors to the maintenance of a religious system with which they have no sympathy, even if they consent to employ the priests more often than is absolutely enjoined by law, at all of which times they would have to pay for the services rendered. It is on the fees received for the performance of religious rites that the priests have chiefly to live, and often, regarding it as a mere matter of business, they will bargain over the charge, refusing to baptize an infant, to marry a couple, or bury a corpse, till the price they demand has been paid! They are the first, therefore, to complain against seceders from their church. In many instances complete immunity has been secured by the evangelicals by the simple expedient of contributing to the parish priest the sum he would in due course have received from them had they maintained their allegiance to the Church. But when this has been impossible, or when hiR greed in levying blackmail • Dean Stanley. has exceeded all bounds, though he cared not one snap for their belief or unbelief, he has complained to his bishop, who has handed on the charge to the eivil authorities. Thus has ended the religious side of the question, which has now developed into a State question.
Here comes into play the second cause of persecution. The Church, being inseparable from the State and its interests, those who Recede from the Church are considered rebels and enemies to the State. This is the national feeling which is the real power of the persecution-the quasi- religious feeling being only the ostensible cause. As a result of this, last July the evangelical~ were declared outlaws, and their employment was for- bidden. Those who have attended their meetings have been exiled to Siberia without a trial, and the wives have not even been allowed to follow their husbands as those of criminals could. Preaching or teaching their doctrines is dealt with as high treason-a strictly political, not religious offence-while a family refusing to employ the services of the clergy are declared to be civilly dead. * Here is the secret of the whole affair. If it did not affect the worldly interests of the clergy, they would never trouble about all the heretics in Russia; and though the State would still have its say in the matter; it is not likely that it would act as it does without some one to put its machinery into operation. Jews, Romanists, and Protestants may change their belief as often as they like, but no member of the" Orthodox" creed must leave the Church that supports the State. It is very much the same idea which prevails under the rule of Islam.
This, then, is the key to the religious situation in Russia to-day. It is not the opposition of a lively faith which the messengers of the Gospel have to meet, but the dead weight of a corrupting carcase, the keen defence of vested interests, and the suspicious, backward policy of a medireval government. What are all these in the sight of the King of kings, our Master ~ * E. B. Lanin, Oontemporary Review, January, 1892.
IMPRISONED FOR PROTESTANTISM.
Another case of religious intolerance is reported from Spain. A Catholic priest, the rector of one of the principal parishes in Malaga, published a violent pamphlet against Protestantism. To this a Protestant clergyman, Don Jose Vila, replied in another pamphlet. Thereupon the Catholic priest immediately asked the Public Prosecutor to take proceedings against the Protestant pastor, on the ground that he had criticised and attacked the State religion. This is an offence which the existing penal code punishes severely. The Protestant clergyman was tried in the Criminal Court at Malaga. His counsel in vain cited the Eleventh Article of the Constitution, which says no Spaniard shall be molested for his religious belief. The Court condemned the accused to two years and four months' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of 250 pesetas and costs. The Catholic clergy are so powerful in the town, where the Republicans are, however, very numerous, that only one paper dared to report the case with~ut comment. The Protestant clergyman will appeal to the Supreme Court at Madrid, though the same class of offence has been often visited by heavier sentences against Spanish writers.
LENGTHENED CORDS AND STRENGTHENED STAKES
LENGTHENED CORDS AND STRENGTHENED STAKES.
THE SUBSTANCE OF THE CENTENARY SERMON PREACHED IN HARVEY LANE CHAPEL, LEICESTER, JUNE 1ST, 1892, BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
When, a hundred years ago, it pleased God to wake from sleep a lethargic Church, from the belfry of the ages there rang out a signal sound, and William Carf)Y's hanJ was on the bell-rope. And these are the words which echoed over the Church of Jesus Christ: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited" (Isa. 54 : 2, 3).
Those words have more than once rung out on t.his centenary, and they will more than once ring out again! But God's bell is not cracked yet, and it may be well for us, as the hundred years have brought their hands round on the dial to the even hour of the century, that we should humbly and reverently take hold of the same bell-rope and sound from the same signal hell the same impressive tones: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations!" for this is the most remarkable missionary text in the Old Testament.
I first want to vindicate this decision, which I make after many years of careful study both of missions and of the Word of God. In the first place, the position of this text in this prophecy of IsaIah is peculiar and unique. The last twenty-seven chapters of this prophecy, from the fortieth to the sixty-sixth inclusive, contain the most remarkable Messianic poem to be found ill the pages of the Old Testament; and it is quite noticeable that the very book that modern critics are seeking to pull to pieces shoul~ contain the sublimest of all Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. These twenty-seven chapters are, in the original Hebrew, divided into three books, of nine chapters each, as the chapter divisions run in our version, each book signalizing its conclusion by a certain refrain: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;" "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;" and the last book concluding with the same sentiment, couched in more impressive phraseology: "Their worm shall not die and their fire shall not be quenched;" "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." In the exact centre of the middle book of the three comes the fifty-third chapter, occupying thus the precise centre of the entire Messianic poem. That chapter contains twelve verses and fourteen distinct declarations of the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice. It is like a great radiant ruby, set in the front of a coronet with many jewels round about it, but obviously the central gem of them all, and its color is hlood-red. It is a remarkable chapter, so mysterious that even the Jewish Rabbis could make nothing of it, unless they understood it to prophesy two contradictory Messiahs-one a Messiah of conflict, and the other a Messiah of conquest; one a suffering and vicarious Messiah, the other a triumphant lind reigning Messiah. For this chapter opens with the servant of God standing alone, His reports unbelieved, and "the arm of the Lord unrevealed" to an unbelieving people; "despi~ed and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief ;" persecuted, oppressed, taken from judgment to prison, and from prison to slaughter; dying, a young man without natural generation, which every Jew thought to be a calamity; and yet, as you come to the conclusion of this chapter, you find that this Messiah, who suffered and died for human sin, lived and prolonged His days to all generations; that this childless young man is the parent of a numerous offspring, and sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. And that is the reason why, in the fifty-fourth chapter, we find the sentiment so marvellously changing.
It reminds us of Ruth, the widow, bankrupt daughter of Moab, coming into the land of .Tudah, and becoming the wife of Boaz, the lord of the harvest, the dispenser of bread, and becoming the cheerful mother of children in the ancestral line of the Messiah. So the fifty-fourth chapter breaks out, "Sing, 0 barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord." You see this precious, vicarious Saviour, who died without natural offspring, lived, notwithstanding death, and is the parent of an innumerable seed, notwithstanding His physical barrenness; and the Church that is His bride, entering into nuptial relations with Him, becomes the joyful mother of an immortal race. So we may understand the meaning of this text: " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them tltretch forth the curtains of thine habitations." For this is conformable to the customs of the nomadic tribes in Oriental lands. The tent is the simplest and most primitive form of the human habitation. Wherever a pole can be found, with cords or strips of leather, a little bark or cloth or canvas or skin, a tent can be set up-as easily struck as pitched, and almost as easily enlarged; for when the growing necessities of a family demand larger shelter and room, all you have to do is to get a little longer pole, a little thicker cords, a little more bark or skin or canvas, and you can stretch forth the curtains of your habitation to accommodate the needs of the growing family. And so this is made the type of the enlargement of the canopy of the Church over her growing family of children. "Thou shalt burst forth"-as the grand old Hebrew reads-" Thou shalt burst forth on the right hand and on the left." A symmetrical growth in this direction and that direction alike; not a one-sided tent, not like a family that haR a one-sided development-the Church is going to gather her children from east and west and north and south, and every clime and every tongue and every people; and because her family is to come from all quarters of the earth, her canopy must stretch to every quarter of the earth to cover her increasing family. If a man ever came near being inspired-I never use the word" inspired" except in one peculiar sense-but if a man ever came near being inspired, it was William Carey when he was divinely guided to this very text, from which to preach that very sermon that was the foundation of modern missions; and we could not in the Word of God find another text more appropriate to June 1st, 1892, not less so than it was to May 30th, 1792. I am not ashamed to repeat a good thing: Sydney Smith said that for the purpose of public persuasion in oratory, repetition is the only figure of speech that is worth a farthing. Thank God, we can always use, and all of us use, that figure of speech! so I take this text, for it is the only text to take : " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations." ..
Let me first call your attention very briefly and simply to the text itself. I would like to have you notice the grammatical and rhetorical structure of it, for all these things help exegesis and exposition. It is formed on the principle of the Hebrew parallelism. You remember how the Hebrew poets, instead of seeking rhyme and rhythm in words, sought rhyme and rhythm in thought, and that is one of the marks of the inspiration of the Word of God. If the poetry of the Hebrew depended upon words, their peculiar collocation and allocation, and rhyme and rhythm, we could not convey into another language, without much circumlocution, the beauty of the Hebrew original. But when the rhyme and rhythm are in the thoughts and not in the language they can be transferred into any other tongue. Now, looking at this as an example, you will find that although this little idyll or epic on missions runs from the first to the eighth verses inclllsive, the portion we are now to consider con- tains several couplets or portions consisting of two numbers each, and yet in parallels as well. I think you can notice this in the reading. There is first a double exhortation : "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations." Then there comes a single phrase that has its correlative phrase further on-" Spare not." The correlative to that is, " Fear not," in the beginning of the fourth verse.
We shall see the relation of these as we go on. Then there comes a double injunction, showing the means by which the Church is to enlarge her tents, stretch forth her curtains: "Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. " Then there comes another couplet., the couplet of Divine prom- ise : " For thou shalt burst forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. "
Now I think no man is competent thoroughly to expound Scripture that does not study its exact structure. There is a reason why this struc- ture is evolved in the very form of the text itself. God is showing us here what the duty of the Church is-to enlarge her canopy and stretch forth her curtains. He is showing the Church how to do this duty-there are to be lengthened cords and strengthened stakes; and He is showing the Church what her great peril is, that, in the first place, she shall spare-the Hebrew word meallS "grudge" -that is to say, that she shall be selfish and so grudging; and the other difficulty and danger is that she shall fear, and this strikes at unbelief as the other strikes at selfishness. And then He gives her the glorious promise to encourage her: "Thou shalt burst forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles"- this was spoken to Jewish hearers, who had no idea of the salvation of the Gentiles; "and they shall make the desolate cities to be inhabited"- habitation in place of desolation 1 I have been somewhat tedious in bringing out the meaning, but the fact is, I havc great confidence in God's thoughts and I have no confidence in my own.
And now, to plunge directly into the heart of the theme, the whole text is vocal with enlargement, expansion: "Enlarge," " Let them stretch forth," " Lengthen," " Strengthen." You can easily see where William Carey got his famous motto: "Attempt great things for ·God 1" "Enlarge," " stretch out," " lengthen," " strengthen" : " Expect great things from God!" " Thou shall burst forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." Carey may have been a genius, but it did not take a genins to get that motto out of the text, for it lies on the surface of it, though it did take some genius to frame it in such excellent and easily understood English, and in a proverbial form that could easily be carried in the memory and could not easily be dismissed from the memory.
What is the duty of the Church in these days 1 "Lengthen" and " strengthen." See how well the Holy Ghost chooses these words. The word" lengthen" suggests extensity; the word" strengthen" suggests intensity, and there is always danger in extensive lengthening that is not accompanied by intensive strengthening. You are lengthening your cords, but if you do not strengthen your stakes what will happen? Your lengthening your cords will be a disaster to you and the tent itself. How simple is the figure which the Holy Ghost gives us !
How shall we lengthen cords' By sending out our organizations in every direction-a cord here to Europe, another cord to Asia, another to Africa, and another to the islands of the sea. Toward the North Pole and the South Pole; in every direction, from the great centres of Christendom, let your missionary organizations reach! With the enterprise that has dash and push in it let these cords be stretched to the ends of the earth, until the network of missions Qverspreads the whole family of man! And let us understand that, if we are to have this lengthened cord you wust add your own length to it. As, when we rescue a man from a burning building, and the ladder will not reach those that are in peril, the fireman stands on the top rung of the ladder and adds his own length, over which men and women climb down into safety; so, if you are going to have this organization reach over the world in a spirit of hallowed enterprise till the canopy is co-extensive with the family of man, your length has got to be added to the cord. Yall have read of the self-sacrifice of the Carthaginian maidens when they cut off their raven ringlets that they might be braided into bow-strings for Hannibal's archers; or of the Tyrian maidens when they sacrificed their golden hair for cordage for the Tyrian Navy. I tell you solemnly, that the cords of enterprise by wl).ich this Gospel is to be carried to the ends of the earth are woven out of the very fibres of human hearts ! You cannot make them out of gold and silver, or braid them out of commercial interest8, or twist them out of public enthusiasm. They are woven on the loom of personal consecration in the secret place with God. We must not only have lengthened cords, but strength- ened stakes. If there is one weak stake on the circnmference of a tent, and it pnIIs ont or is broken, there is pnt a greater stress on the other tent pegs ronnd it, and one by one they are loosened or pulled out, nntil the whole tent coIIapses. What does that mean ~ It means that any Church within the circumference of Christian effort t,hat does not plant itself firmly to hold up the cord of organization is responsible for the collapse of Chris- tian missions. And it means that any man or woman or child in the Church of God, among God's professed believing children, that does not become a stake down deep into the gronnd and holding on, is responsible for any disaster that comes to the whole work of Christ by lack of personal co- operation. Until we get that truth down into onr hearts, until we get it inscribed as with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond, I have personally no hope for any great enlargement in the work of missions.
Now the question comes, How are you to strengthen the stakes ~ The first way of strengthening the stakes is by faith in Almighty God. This is His work; it is only my work because it is His work. I never would have touched it if in every fibre of my being I had not been convinced that it was God's work j and becanse I am a co-worker with God I am bound to work where and when I know He work;;;. You must have faith in this, that it is God's work. If you hang your faith on the superficial judgment of critics whose ignorance is yery extensive, but whose knowledge is very limited, you very likely will be discouraged. If you hang your faith on what your neighbors do for missions, you will very likely do little more than they, while perhaps they are doing very much less than they ought. If you hang your faith even on missionary boards, the best of them, they are all composed of fallible men. But if you believe this work is God's work, and that God is behind it and before it and round about it, and that the Irian who goes forth to " preach the Gospel to every creature" is buttressed in his work by that glorious declaration that comes before the command, "Lo, all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," and by that other promise that comes after it, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age"-a man that goes forth in that spirit, or, being compelled to stay at home, nourishes the missionary cause in that spirit, is working with God. I do not care where he is-he may be down on his back, a bedridden cripple-but he is working with God. If he cannot do anything more, he can believe in the work, and believe in the God that carries on the work. And so he can add that second element in the strengthening of the stakes, the power of believing prayer. Oh, my brethren, if this were to be the last sermon I was ever going to preach, I would ask God to give me this privilege, that I might stir up this mis- sionary congregation to-day to determine that, whatever else is done, there shall be for the next hundred years, as far as we can control it, an entirely new baptism of prayer. There has not been a crisis in the missionary work that has not been turned in answer to prayer. You remember how, in 1858, God opened the doors to half the human race in answer to prayer; how again, in 18'78, when the prayers of some of God's saints were turned to increased sanctified giving, there were less than twenty people who in their united gifts gave nearly one million pounds sterling for foreign missions. When God's chosen few began to pray for more laborers, there came a knock froom more than seven thousand young men and women in America Rnd England at the doors of the churches and of our boards, saying: "By the grace of God we will go forth to the foreign field." And when I was speaking on missions in Scotland two years ago, the secretaries begged me not to appeal for laborers, for they said: "We have a great many more people applying than we can posRibly send with the means at our disposal." Every great crisis in the missionary field has been turned in answer to prayer, and yet the Church has not begun to know what the power of prayer is in waiting on Almighty God for a blessing.
Look at the second Psalm. It is not a prophecy of missionary triumph, although it is often quoted as such. "Ask of Me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." That sounds like a promise of world-conquest. Yes, but read the next verse: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." It is a promise and a prophecy that when the kings of the earth conspire against the missionary band, and against the Messiah that leads them, He, the King on His throne, will, in the emergencies and exigencies of such conflict, reach out His rod, not the golden end of grace, but the iron end of power, " and dash them in pieces like a potter's vesseL" And, as in the missionary world revivals have come in answer to prayer, so on the other hand the interpositions of God have come in the destruction of His enemies and the defeat of their armies and the overturning of their hostile conncils; and not until the Church believes that God is the answerer of prayer, and that God will interpose by His providence and by His grace, will the Church ever be a triumphant and conquering missionary Church. A beloved Japanese convert and trainer of native teachers, Mr. Neesima, said, with his dying breath, " Advance on your knees." That is the only way to advance in missions. And then I believe the third element by which the stakes are strengthened is a firm confidence in this Gospel as the Gospel of Christ, and in this Word is the Word of God; that i(is emphatically the Word of God, the only inspired and infallible Word of God; that, therefore, when I go forth and carry this Word of God, I have all the energies of the Godhead represented in the message that I am called to deliver. And then I believe there is another way of strengthening the stakes. We must have sanctified giving. We have never had such giving yet in the Church of God, except on the part of a few individuals. I do not hesitate to say this, and I hope that my words may echo round the Church, if not round the world-there has never been, in this last century of mis-" sions, consecrated gi~ing. Think of forty millions of ProteRtant churchmembers scattered throughout the world, with £8,000,000,000 sterling in the coffers of American and, British Christians alone, giving annually £2,500,000 sterling to carry the Gospel to one thousand millions of people! It is an utter absurdity. Why, my friends, more money is spent in drink in Great Britain in one day than has been spent in Chinese missions in five years. If we cannot have the whole Church we must have a band of Christian givers in the Church, that dare to deny themselves for the sake of Jesus Christ, and press their giving to the point of self-denial, which is the only point at which real self-gratification comes in the disposal of our goods. Look at Zacchreus on the day of his conversion! In the' first place, he restored fourfold to all he had wronged, and, in the second place, he gave half of his goods to fee-d the poor; and remember that the other half he had already reserved for restitution. If we could only have such a spirit as the spirit of Zacchreus in the churches, so that the day a man is converted he should restore to every man that he had wrongfully accused or robbed or in any way oppressed, and then beside give one half of what he originally had to feed the poor and carryon the kingdom of God, with what mighty strides would the kingdom advance!
We must also strengthen the stakes by holy living. There is nothing after all like holy living. When the Pharisees and Scribes saw the man healed they could say nothing againflt it. They might scourge the Apostles and cast them into prison and forbid them to speak in the name of Christ, but the sight of that man healed was an argument that could not be overborne by logic or opposition. And whenever you see a man or woman that is absolutely living to God, and has the radiance of God shining in the face and character, you have a walking argument for Christianity that is worth all the apologetics in the world. Stanley says that he owes to the months he spent with Livingstone the transformation of his character; and yet Livingstone never said a word to him directly about his soul's salvation: he lived out his remonstrance against iniquity, and he lived out his appeal for God. That is what we have need of-consecration through and through; consecration that touches our children, our property, our occupation, our influence, our time, our talents, our treasure. That is the way to strengthen the stakes. How would our missionary secretaries like to see the stakes strengthened in that fashion while they are trying to lengthen the cords ~ We of to-day may turn this text round. We have a different point of view from Carey's. He looked forward to a missionary conquest that had not beguu j we look back to a missionary conquest that has been partially accomplished. He could only expect great things from God in the line of missions j we can look back to great things and let what we have !leen behind us be the prophecy of what we shall see b.efore us. Have you studied the history o.f missions ~ It is an encyclopredia in itself. You would better begin soon, or you will scarcely go through the first chapter before you die. I have been studying it for thirty years, and I have not got beyond the middle of the second chapter. Why! these triumphs of missions are perfectly marvellous when we consider how few people have been engaged, and how little money has been spent. God has done exceeding abundantly above all that the Church has asked or even thought. A hundred years ago there were fifty versions of the Holy ~cripture j now there are between two and three hundred, and in all the gre~t langnages of the world. A hundred years ago a little band of Christian laborers essayed to reach a few of the heathen in the South Seas; now between six and seven thousand men and women, representing the Christian 9hurch j and, what is far more remarkable. 35,000 to 40,000 native converts raised up by missions, consecrating their time and their talents to the reclamation and evangelization of their own countrymen. So that the very missions that some people called a failure actually have multiplied the laborers on heathen soil, so that they represent six times as many as the whole Church of Christ sends out to evangelize the world!
Have you noticed what missionaries have wrought in different localities ~ Look at just a few specimens of what the hundred years have accomplished. Take the ninety-five years of mission history from 1797 to 1892 in the South Seas. Fourteen years without a convert! Then two natives in Tahiti that had been impressed in a missionary's family, during the absence of all the missionaries from the island, were found praying for the evangelization of their own countrymen. Those two converts of 1811 were leaders of a host now numbering 850,000 converts, and Western Polynesia is evangelized. Take the seventy-five years of the American Baptist Union. When Judson went to Burmah he was the sole representative of the Baptist Union, and Burmah was the sole field of labor j and he worked for ten years and had but one church of 18 converts to show for all his work. They wrote to him from America: "Well, Judson, how about prospects~" "Prospects! all right," said he, " bright as the promises of God." And now, looking back over those seventy-five years, what do you find ~ Taking into account those first ten years of comparative failure, there has been established a new Baptist church for every three weeks of the entire time, day and night. And there has been a new convert baptized for every three hours of the entire time, day and night. Who of us would not like to see a little of a similar" failure" here in Great Britain ~ Supposing we look at what fifty years have accomplished in various fields. Take the field in Turkey, for instance. The result of those fifty years has been twentyone versions of the Bible in the languages of living peoples. And among other great achievements Charles Wheeler dotted the Euphrates with actually self-supporting cHurches j and how many people do you think it took to constitute a self-supporting church ~ Ten. Can you show any- thiug like. that in Great Britain ~ These ten disciples said, "·We will each give one tenth of our income, and we will call a pastor to serve us who is willing to live on a level with us, and he will have his ten-tenths with one tenth to give away like the rest of us." So they began self-supporting churches with only ten members. Dr. Barnum, of Harpoot, told me that in fourteen years they had established fourteen preaching stations and raised up a native ministry, and the entire cost of the fourteen years scarcely equalled the cost of the church edifice that I then preached in. That was worth about £40,000, so that you know what that mission cost. Then, supposing you look ·at fifty years among the Karena. In 1828 the first Karen convert was baptized. When, in 1878, the jnbilee was kept by the erection of the Kho-Thah-Byu Memorial Hall with its central audienceroom, and its various rooms opening out for teaching and dispensary purposes, 60,000 Karens, either sleeping in Jesus or living to testify of Jesus, were the fruit of those fifty years. Sir Charles Bernard says there are today 200,000 Karens in the Christian community, and 500 self-supporting churches. Take the fifty years in China between 1842 and 1892. A little band of a few converts in 1842 when missionary labors properly began, and in 1892 nearly fifty thousand converts in China, and the ratio of increase during the twenty-five years beginning with 1863 was eighteenfold -mark it! 1800 per cent. Take the fifty years in Fiji from 1835 to 1885. When one of our missionaries, James Calvert, went to the Fiji Islands his first duty was to bury the skulls, hands, and feet of eighty different people ·who had been sacrificed at a cannibal feast. He lived to see the very people who had taken part in that atrocity gather about the Lord's table celebrating His death. In 1885 there were 1300 churcbes in the Fiji group alone, and out of a population of 110,000, 104,000 were habitual attendants at places of worship. Suppose we narrow down the period of time. Look at the twenty-four years of Dr. Geddie in Aneityum from 1848 to 1872. It is recorded on a tablet in the Memorial Chapel there: "When he landed here in 1848 there were no Christians; when he left in 1872 there were no heatheml." Take the twenty-two years of John Williams from 1817 to 1839, when he fell as a martyr, at Erromanga. Hear him when he wrote, in 1834, five years before his death, that the Gospel had been carried over a radius of two thousand miles in every direction from the Island of Tahiti, and not only had every considerable group of islands been evangelized, but every considerable island in the groups and the people had turned from idols and brought them to the missionaries, while the balustrades of pulpits were composed of the spears· that had been used in their former warfare, and Oro, the great war-god, was used as a wooden prop to sustain the roofs of the outhouses. 1 have been shortening the periods that you might see what great things God has done. Take from 1878 to 1892, and I reverently say there was nothing in the original Pentecostal days to exceed what fourteen years have seen among the Telugus. In one day in 1878 there were 2222 baptized. In six weeks there were 5000 baptized, and in ten months 10,000, and in the last current year 10,000 more. The largest church on earth to-day is not the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London; it is the humble church in Ongole, among the Telugus, for that has between 30,000 and 40,000 members, and yet missions are a failure! Go and read the story of tho~e seven years with William Johnson in Sierra Leone, and of the thirty-seven tribes of slaves in that colony rescued from slavery. See him laboring there to preach the Gospel among those people that had no language to converse with each other, unless it was a little bastard English; living in promiscuous concubinage ; warring on each other; committing every crime; having no respectable trade. Johnson died in seven years, but left a model State, with no remains of heathen orgies, with every trade and respectable calling represented; just as William Duncan, among the North American Indians, established his model State, and one of your most accomplished statesmen, a Governor.General of Canada, the ma8ter of eight different languages, went over there, and said he could not, find any terms in any language he knew to describe the greatness and glory of the Gospel triumphs in Metlakahtla. .But we may come down to shorter periods even than these. You can find within one single year in the history of missions triumphs that equal, if they do not transcend, the triumphs of the Day of Pentecost and the days immediately succeeding. Oh, for a believing Church! Oh, for a Church that knows the facts, and is inspired by the knowledge of them!
Now, as I draw this discour~e to a close, I desire only to add that there are two little sentences ill this impressive text that ought to furnish the motto of the new century. Carey did not emphasize them, but I want to emphasize them: "GRUDGE NOT," " FEAR NOT." The two obstacles to the missionary progress and triumph of the Church to-day-I appeal to you that know most about it-are they not these 1-a spirit of unbelief on the one hand, that fears to do great things for God; and a spirit of selfishness on the other hand, that makes it impossible to do great things for God. If God would cast out from us this day the demon of unbelief and the demon of selfishness, and all the other little demons that are their offspring, and like to inhabit the same house with them, what great and mighty things might be done for God! I proclaim my confidence that this Gospel is a supernatural Gospel, and, therefore, it must have a supernatural Spirit, for conversion is a supernatural work. Conversion is not reformation. The Word of God is not inspired as Milton was inspired, or as any other man was inspired, or his writings. The Holy Ghost is not a mere influence, but a person, and when you will give men this supernatural Gospel enforced by the supernatural Spirit, you will have the supernatural work of conversion. And we must have ~bsolute confidence in God, and so cast out unbelief. This world must be reached by the Gospel. Is not God mightier than man 1 Is not the Word of God mightier than the superstition of man ~ If God could make the woman bowed with infirmity stand straight, and restore the maimed limb, cannot He restore even a withered soul; cannot He give back lost faculties, where there is a moral and spiritual atrophy; cannot He give the roundness and symmetry of health, and even life from the dead 1 Faith must dare to do great things for God, and look for supernatural interposition. Weare to bring the five l@aves and two fishes first of all to a supernatural Saviour, and ask Him by a supernatural blessing supernaturally to increase them. Then we shall take up our twelve basketfuls of fragments after all have been satisfied. Oh, would to God we could understand this! If God is with a man He can put a thousand to flight, and two men can put ten thousand to flight; but if God withdraws Himself from the Church, that shall be reversed, and one infernal foe shall put a thousand disciples to flight, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. I thank God for one sweet experience that has made the last few years radiant in my own life. I never knew what it was to cast myself absolutely on God until perhaps the last three years, and I never knew what a God I had until I did it. Let the Church come right up to'this point, that without taking counsel with men, of difficulties and obstacles and embarrassments, she just casts herself with Divine abandonment on her God and says, " This is God's work, and God's power and grace are behind it, and God's commission and commands are in it, and therefore we will undertake this work to give the Gospel to the human race, looking to God for men, and for means," and the Church will do the work, and she will do it possibly before this century closes.
And then as to selfishness. That is the root of all sin. Did you ever think of this, that there is a danger in simple indulgence; that there is a risk in saying to myself, " I want this gratification, and therefore I will have it" f Very bad spiritual logic, by the way! Did you ever read that singular story upon which Balzac has founded one of his tales, that story of the magic skin that invested its wearer with a certain power to obtain whatever he wished, but which with every new gratification shrank in dimensions until by and by it crushed him to death 1 That magic skin is selfishness. You get your wealth, but you shrivel; you gratify your desires, but there is an atrophy takes place in your moral and spiritual faculties. Your eye gets blind to the vision of anything beyond your material interests, and your hand gets paralyzed as to reaching out blessings to other souls, and your heart gets too narrow to understand or sympathize or love. What selfishness is in the Chureh of God! Just think of our houses and lands and equipages, our libraries and works of art, our personal decorations, our ornaments and jewelry, the furniture and the garniture of qUI" homes, and then think that one thousand millions of the human race are yet without even the knowledge of God, and there are eight hundred and fifty millions that never heard that Jesus Christ died for men! "He
'tHE AN'l'I-MISSIONARY CRUSAnE !N TURKl!;Y
that saveth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same shall save it."
Once more then with reverent hand I peal out from God's belfry: " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; fear not, spare not, lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt burst forth on the right and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. " We know God's season, that it is now high time, the very hour when we should awake out of sleep, for the end of the world is drawing nigh, ., And now is our salvation nearer to us than wheu we first believed. ~, Let us, as one man, covenant with Almighty God that from henceforth all we are, and all we have, and all we represent, shall be consecrated to the glory of this Gospel and the salvation of the lost!
THE ANTI-MISSIONARY CRUSADE IN TURKEY.
BY THE REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, BOLTON, ENG.
Expectations that the privileges which the Porte had granted to religious teaching and schools would be consistently maintained are not at present being realized. Throughout the Ottoman Empire there are distinct signs of the decay of religious toleration, as shown in the opposition of the Turkish Government to missionary work of every kind, and by the Sultan's endeavor to throw off the obligations which in past years he has accepted at the hands of the Christian powers of Europe ayd the United States. By different international conventions, such as the French Capitulations of 1740, the British Capitulations of 1809, the Treaty of Berlin, private agreements with America, and notably the Hatti-humayoun of 1856, at the close of the Crimean "Var, the Porte gave to missionaries the right of carrying on their labors in that country. To Roman Catholic clergy, American and English missionaries, every facility was granted in harmony with these treaties, and no ground of complaint had been raised. "Vithin the last three years the atmosphere has changed. Strong pressure in the shape of intolerant regulations, which are supposed to have been prompted from abroad, has provoked consternation in religious circles. Unfortunate as this is for the representatives of mission work, it must eventually, if persisted upon, be more disastrous to Turkey itself. The magnificent services which have been rendered by the Bible and missionary societies, conspicuously the American section, in the Turkish dominions cannot be ignored, and even the Turks are recognizing the power of an enlightened press. No doubt can be entertained of the vexatious and unfair nature of the measures taken agai,nst Christian institutions, otherwise .the officials of the American and English Bible and missionary societies in Constantinople would not have made the protest which is arousing widespread sympathy westward. Much less would most of the time of the United States minister have been occupied for the past two years in attempting to obtain permission to reopen schools :md churches which have been arbitrarily closed. It is said in some quarters that the Turkish officers attribute no little of the discontent and agitation among the Armenians to the teaching they have received in the American mission schools, which they are determined to put down at all hazards. In other directions it is surmised that, as the educated lIindoos are fearful for the futnre of their native religion because of the pervading spirit of Christianity, so th~ Turks are uneasy concerning the assaults of the same faith upon the prestige of Islam.
Turkey's antagonism strikes directly at the literature and church buildings of foreign missions. Of late the most annoying restrictions have been placed on the free circulation of books in the provinces, particularly the Armenian provinces, by the provincial authorities, even after these worb have received the official e,.ensor's stamp at Constantinople warranting their distribution. lIence, the stamp is 110 guarantee against the inquisition of any petty officer in rural districts. As much trouble is caused to travellers, who are perpetually annoyed by the detention or confiscation of their books. They often find a pocket Bible taken from their luggage for the examination of which two days is required, and it is next to impossible to get a book on geography or history through the custom house except it undergoes mutilation. A few facts on this point will illustrate the modus operandi of Turkish injustice and oppression. In December, 1889, at Derezor, seventy-nine copies of the Bible, or parts of it, and one hundred and seventy-nine volumes of other authorized works were confiscated and publicly burnt as "injurious," while Bibles, hymnals, and similar works are constantly described as pernicious and "seditious." Although the calling of colporteurs hali been officially permitted for upward of sixty years, over thirty cases have occurred in the last two years-most of these in 1891-of colporteurs being arrested, their books seized, detained, mutilated, or defaced, and no satisfaction ever offered. An agent of the Bible Society who was arrested in November, 1891, and his" authorized" stock seized is still on bail, and until February of the present year his Bibles remained under examination. It is no exaggeration to say that between 1889 and 1891 thousands of such books have been taken and destroyed. The official authorization of the literature in question by the imprimatur of the Minister of Public Instruction, which makes it a lawful article of commerce, is ignored by the local authorities, who seem to think that in proportion to their zeal in suppressing book circulation they will have the approval of their superiors in Constantinople. The position of the colporteurs is aggravated by a bill now under consideration, which unmistakably gives legal sanction to the restrictions from which the missionary societies are suffering, and prevents them, in common with the Bible depoi;s, frolll selling" authorized" books in any part of Turkey. AnoiLet' serious complaint against the Porte relates to the law of 1891 on the sllbjt·ct of church buildings, confirmed by a general order issued in February this year. It forbids missionaries to use their houses as churches or schools, save a special imperial firman is obtaincd. By such an enactment prayer-meetings and teaching in private houses are prohibited, which means practically the stopping of missionary evangelization altogether in districts where the people are too poor to pay for the erection of a licensed building. The difficulties in securing this permit are so great that friends of education and religion will be deterred from endeavoring to obtain it, and consequently the government's reprehensible procedure will close missionary establishments wholesale. Upon all of an alien faith, and the Armenians in particular, who are divided into many branches, this measure will tell with harsh severity. When means have been procured and plans for building adopted, the obstacles in getting a firman are then almost legion. The application must be approved by thirteen parties or persons il 'Viting, beginning with the neighbors of all- sects, the nearest Mohammedan notables, numerous functionaries, municipalities, courts, and councils, before it can be dispatched to the Council of Ministers who lay it at the feet of His Imperial Majesty. To show how hardly ihis will deal with communities in rural places, it has been pointed out that a rival sect has hindered for ten year!! the wealthy and influential Armenians of Constantinople receiving permission to erect a church. Similarly as regards missionaries, whether they are Catholics or Protestants, anyone acquainted with the Capitulations knows that the interdict is a violation of religious rights, and disabuses the hope that freedom in exercise of religious worship, which was exhibited by the Sultan's predecessors, will be honored by the Sultan and his government to-day. If it be correct that the Sultan, who reconfirmed the right of missionaries according to the Treaty of Berlin, has not been fully apprised of the shameful manner in which provincial authorities are treating some of the most loyal subjects of his empire, it will not be long ere the facts are presented for his consideration.
Rumors are current respecting the influence which France has been exerting at the Porte. So far the negotiations of the French Embassy have been strictly private, and are credited with matters bearing on Catholic missions only. More surprising is it that the American Minister, who-to his honor-has championed the claims of American missions, has been informed that the British Embassy entirely shares the Turkish view, and concedes vital points to the Turks. If this be so, British diplomacy, as it is remarked, has blundered, and, very early, British citizens engaged " in the most humanizing of all labors" will feel the f~ll force of a retrograde step which must soon engage Sir Clare Ford's attention. As the Vienna correspondent of the London Times states, "there is ample room for a little plain speaking on the part of the English Foreign Office," which, as a rule, is disinclined to espouse the cause of foreign missions. Onc thing is clear, the new persecuting measures affecting the subjects of
'l'HE CHURCH OJ!' RUSSIA
many nationalities will make it imperative upon the English, German, and American Governments to remind the Turks of their pledges, and to impress upon the Sultan the justice of defending the interests of missions, irrespective of the community or race with which they may be identified.
THE CHURCH OF RUSSIA.
BY W. ARMITAGE BEARDSLEE, YONKERS, N. Y.
ORIGIN AND EXTENSION.
There is an ancient Russian tradition, preserved by Nestor, which says that when St. Andrew, one of the twelve apostles, was making his mis- sionary tour across the Black Sea and up the Dnieper River into what was afterward to be known as Russia, he planted a cross on the hills when' the city of Kief now stands, and gave utterance to this prophecy, " Behold these heights, for they shall be illuminated by the grace of God! Here a great city shall be built, and God shall have in it many temples to His name !"
Nine hundred years were to pass in the dreary round of savage life on the Russian steppes before that traditionary prophecy shonld fin!i fulfil· ment, and the Russian Church begins its history with the baptism of the Grand Duke Vladimir, A.D. 988.
From that time until the present the Church of Russia has met with almost uninterrupted success, growing as the Sclavonic Empire has grown j first, reaching out beyond the principality of Kief and embracing the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, with its capital at Moscow j then, at the time of Peter the Great, it extended to the Baltic Sea and planted its cloisters and cathedrals in the swamps of St. Petersburg, and iu the present century it has found its way to the far-off cities of Siberia and even to the Aleutian Isles and Alaska.
GOVERNMENT AND MEMBERS.
It is the State Church of Russia, receiving its revenues from the imperial budget j yet in matters of doctrine and religious life it is entirely independent of the State. The final authority, after the Scriptures and the cecumenical councils, is not vested in the Emperor, nor in a pope, but in the Holy Governing Synod, composed of the leading ecclesiastics of the land, receiving their appointment from the Tzar. From those recommended by this synod the Tzar appoints· the bishops of the sixty-seven dioceses into which the empire is at present divided. Each bishop has a consistory, with which he must advise in the management of diocesan affairs. Aside from these officers of the Church, who are always selected from the black clergy-that is, those who live a monastic life-there is the great body of white or secular clergy, in actual charge of the parish churches. Of these there are over thirty-seven thousand, assisted by an almost countless number of minor officials, as deacons, readers, and vergers j while, according to the most recent reliable statistics, the number of communicants is not much less than seventy millions.
Here is an immense organism, extending over an eig~th part of the land of the globe, venerable for its antiquity, closely united to the Church of the Fathers by its lineage, its liturgy, its literature; with ancient cloisters and magni'ficent cathedrals; counting among its adherents many millions of men, some of them the purest and the holiest that ever have graced the Christian Church; yet the condition and the destiny of the Russian Church have received but little attention from Western Christendom.
It has been the custom roughly to divide all Christians into the two great bodies of Protestants and Romanists, and if the existence of the Eastern Christians was recognized at ali, they have been vaguely designated as " a more ignorant and debased species of Roman Catholics." Such a classification is quite false, and, at any rate, it is hardly fair so lightly to condemn the faith of seventy millions of professing Christians.
ITS PRESENT CONDITION.
There are two considerations that are fundamental to an understanding of the present condition of this Church. In the first place, we must not expect to find in Russia a Western church. The old Russian blood is Asiatic, and the spirit of Russian life to-day is more Oriental than Occidental. One of her princes has said that Russia might be compared to a grand building, the exterior of which -the fagade as it appears to the world-is indeed European, but the interior constructed and adorned in an Asiatic style. Again, Russia though territorially in Europe, has been isolated by its language. It was both to the gain and to the loss of the Russian Church that at the very beginning of its history the Greek missionaries, SS. Methodius and Cyril, translated the Scriptures and the liturgy into the Sclavonic tongue. It was well enough for the time that the vernacular shduld be used in public worship; but by that act the Russian Church was separated from th" rest of the religious world, and left to struggle forward as best it might. In the kingdoms of the western part of Europe, though for a time Christianity and civilization may have suffered from the universal use of Latin as the ecclesiastical language, yet in the end it proved a boon of incalculable value, for by it the West was bound together, and became an heir to all the thought and learning of antiquity.
As a result of these two conditions, the Church of Russia to-day is Romething very different not .only from the various Protestant bodies of Europe and America, but also from the Church of Rome, with which in the minds of many it has been confounded. It may seem strange to say so, but there is a more fundamental difference between the Eastern Church and the Roman Catholic Church than there is between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant. for. great as is the difference between these last, they are both Western, both progressive, both adapt themselves to the changes and advancement of civilizatiQn. Action has becn their watchword, strife has been their history, the world has been their field. BOlh have been characterized by great intellectual and artistic achievement, by unflagging missionary zeal, and by vigorous spiritual life, manifesting itself in all manner of benevolent enterprises.
ORIENTALISM OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
The East, on the other hand, has had no history. Action and reaction, energy and progressiveness, are there uuknown. Centuries may come and centuries may go, but the Orient is still the same. Round and round in the same paths, the children walk where their fathers have trodden before th()m. Everywhere there is the same hatred of foreign influence, the same dislike of innovation, the same clinging to the venerated past. That which always has been is that which always should be. The earliest Christian basilica is the pattern for almost every church in Russia. The artist of to-day must paint the Virgin or the Saviour as the Byzantines did a thousand years ago, when the Russian Church was planted. That Church takes pride in calling itself the orthodox, the changeless, the immutable, the only one that has been faithful to the traditions once delivered to the saints. The Pope himself is regarded in the East as only the first of Protestants. The controversies, reformations, and revolutions that have disturbed or purified the Western churches have scarcely excited a ripple on the slumbering waters of Eastern thought and life.
EFFECT OF THIS ORIENTAL ISM.
This native Orientalism has fostered a tenacious adherence to every ancient rite and ceremony. It has magnified the importance of liturgical details until they have usurped the chiefest place. It has continued and cultivated the old Sclavonic heathen superstitions. So far has this blind reverence for the letter been carried, that when Nicon attempted, after the invention of printing, to substitute printed liturgies for the old manuscripts, which were full of the errors of ignorant copyists, many of the RU8sian clergy absolutely refused to receive the corrected editions, insisting that the old were better. Thus, contrary to the experience of the Western Church, the sects of Russia are the exponents not of" progressive ideas, but are the most ultra of all conservatives. The Protestants of Russia protest not against the corruptions of the established Church, but against the removal of those corruptions!
FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
This Orientalism, which has been so potent in moulding the destiny of the Russian Church in the past, which has left its water-mark on every Fage of Russian Church history, will it forever continue its sway, or is
CAREY'S COVENANT
there hope that some day the spell may be broken ~ It is impossible to foretell. The future of Russia and of ~he Russian Church is one of those fascinating yet elusive enigmas that invite thoughtful inquiry only to mock and evade the inquirer. There are hints and indications that may mean much, or they may mean little. Russia seems slowly to be yielding to the powerful influences of Western civilization. Schools and universities are being gradually improved. The widespread ignorance of both clergy and laity is being dispelled. A nllw ecclesiastical literature is springing up. Within the last twenty years a well-supported missionary society has accomplished wonders for au Eastern church; and, above all else, the Russian Church, though bound by tradition, is not, like the Roman Church, bound by an infallible decree. There is no RU8sian vicar of Christ. The study of the Scriptures in the vernacular, though sadly enough neglected, has never been forbidden; and though many corruptions both of doctrine and of practice were introduced from Constantinople at the time of the founding of the Church, 'lnd have been persistently maintained as of the esscnce of the faith, yet no Council of Trent, no Conclave of the Vatican, no infallible bull, has placed the Russian Church in a position from which it would be impossible to retreat.
" God be praised, " said a devout Russian churchman, " God be praised, it is still in our power to redeem the future I"
CAREY'S COVENANT.
A MISSIONARY MANUAL.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF It was October 7th, 1805, thirteen years, almost to a day, from the day when that first mission compact was signed at Kettering, that Carey, Marshman and Ward, at Serampore, drew up thcir famous spiritual " Covenant." It covered twelve printed pages octavo, and was read publicly at every station at least once a year. The fact that this is the centenary year in Baptist missions makes the publication of this Oovenant especially appropriate.
If anyone would see what sort of men God chose to lead the van of His modern missionary host, let him study that" Form of Agreement" respecting the great principles upon which the brethren of the mission thought it their duty to act in the work of instructing the heathen. Dr. George Smith calls it a preparatio evangelica, and well adds that it " embodies the Divine principles of all Protestant scriptural missions, and is still a manual to be daily pondered by every missionary, and by every church and society which may send a missionary forth."
We give its most important parts for personal reflection. It reads as follows: " It is absolutely necessary, " 1. That we set au infinite value upon immortal souTs. " 2. That we gain all information of the snares and delusions in which these heathen are held. " 3. That we abstain from all those things which would increase their prejudices against the Gospel. " 4. That we watch all opportunities for doing good. " 5. That we keep to the example of Paul, and make the great subject of our preaching, Christ the crucified. " 6. That the natives should have an entire confidence in us and feel quite at home in our company. " 7. That we build up and watch over the souls that may be gathered. " 8. That we form our native brethren to usefulness, fostering every kind of genius and cherishing every gift and grace in them, especially advising the native churches to choose their own pastors and deacons from among their own countrymen. " 9. That we labor with all our might in forwarding translations of the sacred Scriptures in the languages of India. " 10. That we establish native free schools, and recommend these establishments to other Europeans. " 11. That we be constant in prayer and the cultivation of PQrsonal religion, to fit us for the discharge of these laborious and unutterably important labors. Let us often look at Brainerd in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God for the perishing heathen, without whose salvation nothing could make him happy. " 12. That we give ourselves unreservedly to this glorious cause. Let us ne'er think that our time, our gifts, our strength, our families, or even the clothes we wear, are our own. Let us sanctify them all to God and His cause. Oh, that He may sanctify us for His work! No privat.e family ever enjoyed a greater portion of happiness than we have done since we resolved to have all things in common. If we are enabled to persevere we may hope that multitudes of converted souls will have reason to bless God to all eternity for sending His Gospel into this country." In this solemn compact, which sounds like an apostolic document, twelve cardinal principles are carefully set forth: 1. Valuing human souls at an infinite worth. 2. Informing themselves as to their actual needs. 3. Avoiding all putting of stumbling-blocks in their way. 4. Watching opportunity to do good unto all. 5. Preaching Christ crucified as their one theme. 6. Inspiring confidence by a Christ-like life. '1. Establishing schools for Christian education. S. Watching over and training native converts. 9. Raising up a native ministry for service. 10. Translating the holy Scriptures into the vernacular.
ZARATHUSTRA AND THE ZEND-AVESTA
11. Cultivating prayer and self-culture in piety. 12. Surrendering self unreservedly to God and service. To this nothing remains to be added to give completene~s and symmetry. It reads like an inspired paper. The marks of the Holy Ghost are upon it. And we commend it to all friends of missions, and especially to all who have in view, or in thought, the field of missions. It need be no matter of wonder that-although the first Hindoo convert, Krishna Chundra Pal, was not baptized as a Protestant believer until 1800-fifty years after Carey's death the native Protestant community, in 1884, numbered half a million, with ordained native pastors outnumbering the missionaries, and every decade witnessing an increase at the rate of eighty-six per cent. Let this covenant be to the Church of Christ, as we start on a new century of missions, a trumpet peal of God for a new advance.
ZARATHUSTRA AND THE ZEND-AVESTA.
BY ALFRED HILLE BRANDT.
By Avesta or Zend-Avesta is understood the sacred books of the Parsis, who honor Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, as the Greeks cdl him, as the founder of the true faith. The Zoroastrians are no longer numerous. The tide of Mohammedan conquest which swept over Persia in the seventh century of our era uprooted the Mazda religion, and only a few of its devoted followers escaped to India, where they found an asylum among the tolerant Hindus. There they remained unmolested to this day, and the Parsi communities of Bombay, which number about 150,000 souls, constitut~ the bulk of the remnant of the once numerous followers of the Persian prophet. They are mostly merchants, occupying brilliant social positions and distinguiRhed for their liberality.
The religion of Zoroaster has little to commend itself to modern European sentiment, no letter of recommendation to present to us. Neither temple nor monuments bear testimony to its former might. Zoroaster taught men to pray to the Creator j made truth, in thought, and word, and deed, the basis of his ethical system j and taught that agriculture was one of the most honorable pursuits.
What remains of the Avesta text would hardly fill a large quarto, but the records of classic, as well as of native writers, leave no room to doubt that this is a mere fragment of a once voluminous literature, the greater part of which was probably destroyed at the Mohammedan invasion. The Parsis charge Alexander the Grecian with having burnt the State copy of twenty-one volumes with the palace of Pcrsepolis, but, at any rate, it is agreed on all sides that the Sassanides followed and supported the MazdGl religion throughout their dyna~ty. The fragment that has come down to us is written in the Pahlevi alphabet employed on the coins of the Sassanides. But the Avesta undoubtedly dates from a far earlier period than the Sassanian dynasty. The ideas conveyed in the text were thoroughly developed in the time of Philip of Macedon and earlier, and the account given of the Zoroastrian religion by Theopompus, born B.C. 380, agrees with the Avesta in all essentials.
1£ it had originated in the time of the Sassanides, it wonld naturally have been written in the old Sassanian language and not in an independent language intimately allied with the Old Persian and Sanscrit dialects. The Sassanides must, therefore, have received the text iu a foreign tongue.
From this we may conclude that the prieRts which taught this religion were foreigners. They were called Magi, and both Greek and Persian authors assign their origin to Media. Grecian writers speak of a race of Magi, and originally the term had doubtless a national signification. They differed from. the Persians not only in language, but in customs. Herodotus says that the Persians buried their dead, but that the Magi exposed theirs; a custom which became universal among the Sassanides. The Pushtoo, or language of Afghanistan, has a closer affinity to the language of the Avesta than any other known language. The term Zoroaster, like Christ or Buddha, is rather a title than a name, aud his origin is lost in the myths of, antiquity, in which he is rcpresented as the foe of the demons. All creation waited for his coming to put an end to the dominion of evil. He spoke the words that shattered the dominion of the devils by proclaiming the laws of Ahriman. But although his life is obscured in fable, there is no room to doubt that he was a real existence; the obscurity in which he is enveloped simply indicates the remoteness of his time. The names of his father and daughtcr and his own family name (Spitama) are preserved, and his writing indicates a marked individuality.
These writings are divided into two clearly distinct parts-the Gathas, and the remaining Avesta. The Gathas or songs embrace five. or, according to an internal division, seventeen chapters; they are in metrical verse, and written in an obscure dialect, constituting the most difficult text in the realm of Indo-Germanic philology. They are supposed to be more ancient than the Avesta, in which they are occasionally cited.
The Gathas are nearest to Zoroaster, and were compiled either by himself or his disciples. They represent him as a teacher of great gifts; he is evidently not merely the founder of a religion, but a leader and reformer who delivered his people from great evils. He regarded himself as one of the last of a long series of prophets, and came to restore order among the people of Ascharan the pious.
The Gathas treat of actual realities, free from myth or miracle, but indicate clearly a deep religious movement of which Zoroaster was the leader. The people who listened to his teachings were pastoral and agricultural communities, worshippers of the Devtas, between whom and the worshippers of the Ahuramazda, the Creator, there was a prolonged struggle.
OUIt INDEBTEDNESS TO CHRIST FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS
'l'his earlier portion of the writings is distinguished as the Zend. The Avesta is of more reeent origin, but it, too, dates back to a common Indo- Iranian source, while its mythology is far more ancient than even the Zend, carrying us back to the worship of Mithras the sun-god. Some of this old mythology has been treasured up in the Avesta, and in our estimate of this latter it is necessary to bear in mind that it is an importation.
The utmost care is enjoined to guard against the pollution of the three sacred elements, fire, water, and earth, hence it is that the bodies of the dead may be neither burnt, buried nor thrown into the river, but must be exposed on the Towers of Silence to be disposed of by birds of prey.
The Pars! creed includes the doctrine of a judgment day, when the battle between good and evil will be fought to a close, the evil br.nished into darkness, and the world, being renewed as a kingdom of light, will endure in the sunshine of Ahuramazda's presence forever.-Nord und Sud, Breslau.
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO CHRIST FOR TEMPORAL BLESS~ INGS.-PART II.
BY REV. T. LAURIE, PROVIDENCE, R. I.
We have looked at the dwellings where Christ is not known, but the condition of the house determines the condition of woman, for she is the housekeeper, and when several generations cook, eat, and sleep in one room, such as has been described, and when wood is so searce that dried manure is often the only fuel, the influence of such homes on neatness and morality need not be told. Think of family prayer being observed by one of several families in such an abode! And if such homes are full of discomfort in health, what are they in sickness ~ Woman in her hour of sorrow often has no other sick-room than Mary fonnd in Bethlehem. Many are born, and many mothers die every year among the cattle. If the child is a daughter it is not counted with the family, but is matter for mourning and lamentation. Think of the mother in such circumstances! Then mothers who toil in the fields all day carry home their babes and heavy hoes at night, where they prepare food for their husbands, and wait till he has finished before they think of eating. If in Mosul a missionary had taken his wife's arm in the street a mob would have gathered at once; and when in Buhtan Dr. Grant fonnd a dormitory separated by a curtain from the rest of the apartment for the use of his host and hostess, he entered the fact in his journal as a very rare refinement. In the homes of the wealthy the visitor is entertained in the divan khanch or guest-room not only with coffee, but also with fragrant sherbets and costly perfumes, but no woman is to be seen, and no allusion to the ladies of the household would be tolerated for a moment.
On the country roada the fellah ridQs his donkey ilmoking his pipe, while his wife trudges behind on foot, and sometimes carries either a babe or a burden besides.
It might be unjust to say that this position of woman is wholly the fruit of Mohammedanism, but it is no injustice to affirm that the wrongs of woman are greatly aggravated by that system. 'l'h(l writer once fre~ quented a rnejlis of Moslem gentlemen to improve his Arabic, and he cOl~ld not help noticing that whenever woman was the topic of conversation, there was not one thought for her personal comfort or advantage, but she was viewed only as something available for man's enjoyment, just as a class among ourselves once talked about the slaves.
In 1843 Dr. Grant and the writer were one day busily making up our mail for the post, which then left only once a fortnight, when the wife of a rich Moslem led in her son for medical treatment. As she came frequently, she was without an attendant. She was about thirty years of age, unusually prepossessing in appearance, and her little boy was not far from ten years old. Dr. Grant asked her to wait till he finished his letter, but mistaking thia for a refusal, she began to plead with tears. "He is all I have in the world." "Are you not forgetting your husband Y" said the doctor. " Husband I" she replied; "can a husband love ¥ He is a stranger to me and I to him. The religion of Jesus does not allow such things as ours. " We knew that other wives had been added to the household, and they embittered a life that was already almost insupportable. Even her son had been trained to treat her with contempt, and while she pleaded for him as only a mother could, he mocked her and arrogantly ordered her to be still. After prescribing for the boy she told her own ailments, but they were not such as medicine could reach; only kindness from those who owed her kindness could remove her troubles.
Go through Oriental countries and you will see enough of the condition of women to make the heart ache; but however much is seen, behind those windowless walls is much more that is not seen, and known only to Him who bare our sickness and carried our sorrows; but mere bodily suffering or social distress is not the whole. There are wrongs greater than these.
Among all the Nestorians, whether in the mountains of Kurdistan or' on the plains of Persia, in the year 1835 there was only one woman who could read, and she was the sister of Mar Shimon, the patriarch; afterward her sister and a cousin followed her example. This is a fact whose deep significance few can appreciate. Ask one if she wanted to leal1l, and the answer would be," I am a woman," as though that fact settled the question. It is not strange, then, if in their ignorance they were lacking in those things that are lovely and of good report. As a body they were most unlovely. Their outbursts of passion were terrible. The list of wives who hated their husbands equalled the list of husbands who beat their wives. So said Miss Fisk in Persia; and a lady in Syria who knew them well said to the writer that the beatings were only too well deserved. When they begged Miss Fisk in the name of the Virgin Mary to help th~m, she answered, "I will save you from your husbands by helping you to love them." The writer had no conception how rapidly the tongue could run till he heard one of their outbursts of rage. No wonder they eould drive tax-gatherers from the villages. None who ever listened to those shrill cries and looked on their frenzied motions could ever ask, Why were the Furies described as women ~ It is a type of the nature and extent of the ehange wrought by missions, that at the jubilee in Oroomiah, in 1885, when the women who could read their Bibles were asked to rise, eight hundrerl women responded and were counted, but these were only representatives of a much larger number who had not only learned to read the Gospel, but had felt its power to sanctify.
Wherever the missionary goes in that land men and women learn how Jesus Christ creates blessed homes, filling them with His own peace. Woman there also as with us labors to impart to her sisters the same blessings she herself has received from her Saviour, and the work is much more extensive than appears.
In the year 1885 strangers from the vicinity of Lake Van brought an account of a woman in that region who, unlike others, read her Bible and lived a very blameless life, yet was treated with bitter hate. They told, too, how she wept more over their sins than over the treatment she endured. The missionaries resolved to search her out. So next spring one went to that part of the mountains and found Nazloo, a student who had gone out from Miss Fisk's seminary more than twenty years beforQ, and had long been lost sight of. She had married, and had led her husband also to her Saviour. Then under her inspiration they had gathered a school in their own home, thougb they had only two or three other books besides her Bible. and though they were poor themselves, yet to some who lived at a distance and wanted to attend the school they gave a home, sharing with them their own scanty means. Who can estimate the good wrought by this one woman in her poverty, far from all Christian fellow- Rhip 1 And what an encouragement to support missionary schools that thus reproduce themselves in spite of such discouragements, creating new centres of light amid the darkness! It seems as though woman in such lands, grateful for the priceless blessing Christ brings into her earthly life even before she enters heaven, goes far beyond us in seeking to impart the same to others. How small our benevolence appears by the side of the self-denial of Nazloo !
Signor Prochet, of Rome, mentioned that the very useful Bible wagon of the Waldensian Church in Italy is superintended by a Jew converted to Christ, who is remarkably efficient III the discharge of difficult and important duties.
Plt);I!IENT CONDITION OF TH); P);.A.S.A.NTS IN THJ: RlJlBUN EMPIIU
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE PEASANTS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.
BY VICOMTE COMBES DE LESTRADE.
The emancipation of the Russian serfs by the Emperor Alexander II. was an act which filled Europe with admiration and his people with gratitude. But while no one doubts the liberality and beneficence of the Emperor's intentions, the so-called emancipation has proved only a delusion. True, the seigneurs were stripped of their authority, but, by the terms of the edict of 1861, the authority formerly vested in them was formally transferred to the Mir. This Mir is a village commune-an assemblage of families holding a certain quantity of land in common, bound to pay certain annual revenues on account of it, and in order to satisfy these obligations, invested in its collective capacity with powers over the individual equal to, if not transcending, those exercised by the seigneurs.
Under the old seignorial system the serfs had to render certain services to the seigneur, who was, of course, responsible for their support. To this end each serf had a certain portion of land allotted to him to be cultivated at his discretion. Under the Act of Emancipation the Government stepped between the seigneurs and serfs, paid the former an indemnity to compensate them for lost services, and transferred from them an area of land equal to what had been allotted for the maintenance of their serfs under the old system. The land thus allotted to the serfs was not allotted in severalty, but given in the lump to the Mir, which in its collective capacity exercises a despotic control over its several members, assigning to each family, according to its numbers, the land which it is bound to cultivate, and which may consist of, several parcels far removed from each other. The Government having indemnified the landlords for the loss entailed by the emancipation, arranged to recoup itself by a land tax, which, covering principal and interest, should extend over seventy-nine years. This tribute is exacted from the Mir in a lump, and the Mir apportions it among its several members, according to the extent and value of their several holdings. This division of the land has no permanency. Periodical redistribution was made the rule to provide for allotments to new-comers.
The cultivation of the village lands under the communal system for the equal benefit of all might have its advantages under certain social conditions, but the system of individual holdings, which ordinarily change hands every five years, can only be disastrous. '1'here is no encouragement for the peasant to improve his land, and, exceptio.g in those few districts in which the land yields a revenue over and above its burden of taxation, the peasants resort to a thousand artifices, and even to supplication, that less land be given them. The Mir, however, enforctls its behests rigorously, since lightening the burden on one man's shoulders could only be effected by adding to the burden of others, The Mil' has the power ot banishment to some other village-not a neighboring one-or to Siberia.
The law provides that a debtor peasant may withdraw from the Mil', if he wishes, but on the following impossible conditions: 1. He shall abandon his portion of land. 2. He shall put himself en l'egle as regards his military service. 3. He shall discharge, both he and his family, every debt, whether it be payable to the Mil', to the district, or to the commune, and pay the taxes levied for the current year. 4. He shall have no process pending against him. 5. He shall have no judgment against him unsatisfied. 6. He shall have the consent of his parents, no matter what age he may have attained. 7. If he leave children, he shall provide for their maintenance.
s. He shall pay all undivided claims (l'edevances affel'entes) on the land which he may have received in fee from the seigneur. If the peasant with his individ~al earnings and savings should succeed in paying off his personal share of the seventy-nine years' annuity on the land, he would become free of the Mil', and would still be entitled to take part in its councils. But if the Mil' buys up its own land with common funds, the lands remain communal and the peasants bondslaves of the Mil'.
Another phase of the situation is that the village domaiu is not always equal to the support of all its members, and in places where there are no local manufacturing industries, the peasants are driven to go abroad in search of work. No one may leave his village without the authority, of the Mil', and that authority may be revoked at any time; moreover, the wanderer may not take his family with h1m. The practical consequence is that if an absent member is doing well, he is heavily blackmailed for the continuance of the privilege of absence.
All the 40,000,000 peasants in Russia are not serfs. Some 11,000,000 are freemen, mostly enfranchised before the act of emancipation.
Theoretically the jlfir has much to commend it. Every laborer, whether in town or country, is member of a Mil' in which he can find shelter in sickness, and a piece of land for his support when he grows' old; but all that can be said in favor of this institution may, with equal truth, be said of the institution of serfdom. The act of emancipation did not change the rights and duties of the serfs in any way; it simply substituted the Mil' for the seigneur, and the Mil' has no bowels of compassion; it is as needy as the individ1'.al, and acts under pressure from above.
The commune is a su~vival from earlier ages, and the Russian Mil' i~ probably a close protot,ype of human society; but however charming in its simplicity may be onr ideal of the communal life of our remote Germanic ancestors, therfl is certainly not in th,e institution of the Russian MiT one single point in which liberty and the appropriation of lo"d would not be a thousand times rather to be desired.
AN UNIQUE MISSIONARY MEETING ON THE HIMALAYAS
Russia is a great country with a great people, put she can never enter the sisterhood of European nations until her rulers shall have given to her serfs a liberty that shall be not merely nominal, but real. There is no greater tyranny than that of collectivity.-Annals of the American Acad.
emy, Philadelphia.
AN UNIQUE MISSIONARY MEETING ON THE HIMALAYAS.
BY REV. JACOB CHAMBERLAIN, D.O., M.D., DARJEELING, NORTH INDIA.
Sir Charles Elliott, the Governor of Bengal, and Lady Elliott, last week sent out cards of invitation for a reception to all the missionaries of all societies now on these hills, numbering more than eighty, including those working at Darjeeling, Ghuru and Kalimpong, and those visiting this sanitarium for recuperation. The principal residents of Darjeeling, and tea-planters on the slopes of the mountains, and many officials up here on duty with the Governor, or on leave, were also invited to meet the missionaries.
Sir Charles Elliott has had long experience in India, rising from the bottom of the civil serville ladder up through the different grades by sheer force of character, until he has now attained, by appointment of the Queen- Empress, to his present exalted position. In Government official parlance, he is styled the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, because the Governor- General or Viceroy also has his headquarters in Bengal, and of course officially overshadows him; but Sir Charles is de facto Bengal's governor, having his own Legislative Council and his own corps of secretaries, or cabinet entirely different from those of the viceroy.
Darjeeling, on the Himalayas, from which eighty miles of perpetual snow is seen, is the summer capital of Bengal, and during the hottest months Sir Charles and Lady Elliott occupy" The Shrubbery," as the gubernatorial residence here is named, with its beautiful garden-park around it, and Government offices and chief officials' residences adjacent, and from here the affairs of this great Bengal presidency are, for the time, administered.
The cards of invitation read: "To a garden party on Wednesday, June 15th, at 4.30 o'clock, to be followed by a Drawing-Room, at which an account will be given of the progress of missionary work. "
A break had come in the monsoon weather, now upon us, and the clear day, with its view of the highest mountain range in the world, glistening in its mantle of snow, added to the zest with which all parties came together. The Governor and Lady Elliott were exceedingly affable, having pleasant words of cheer for each missionary, as they inquired after their work, and taking special pains to introduce the missionaries and officials, residents and tea-planters who were present. After an hour's very pleasant social intercourse, during which refreshments were served to all, Sir Charles passed through the company, inviting all to come to the H Durbar Jitoom," or reeeption hall used on State occasioDl'l, and the company was soon seated on sofas, divans, and chairs placed in an unconventional man- ner all around the spacious room.
Pleasant conversation ran on for a few minutes, and then order was called, and the Governor, stepping to a table at the head of the room, gave a brief address of welcome, which was so pleasant and so telling that I have wrhten it out briefly, that others, too, may enjoy it and be helped and stimulated by it.
Sir Charles spoke substantially as follows.
" Missionary friends, ladies and gentlemen, I wish, in a few words, to say what a very great pleasure it gives Lady Elliott and myself to welcome so many missionaries here as our chief guests this evening. Coming as they do from all parts of our presidency, as well as from other presidencies and provinces of India, and representing so IDany different missionary societies from so many different countries.
"Ve are very glad that so many missionaries can come up to this delightful climate from the burning plains for a little well-earned rest and recuperation after their soul-absorbing and arduous toil at their stations, for it will fit them the better for the heavy work ever before them.
" It gives us real pleasure to tender to them this small amount of hospitality, with a large amount of sympathy and good-will and of appreciation of the noble and, to India, all-important service that they are rendering.
" My long experience in India, in the different p·residencies and provinces, has taught me that the British Government in India cannot possibly do the work which, in the providence of God, is our only justification for being here, namely, the civilization, enlightenment, and uplifting of the whole people of India, without the aid of the missionaries. For extended observation and careful study of the people have produced in me the profound conviction that nothing can lift these millions of Hindus up to the standard of our Western Christian nations in probity, morality, and nobleness of life but that Gospel of Christ that has lifted us.
" I view, then, the missionary work as an indispensable, unofficial, and voluntary auxiliary of the Government in carrying out its highest aspirations-the ennobling of the whole Hindu people. Always, in our tours in the provinces, Lady Elliott and myself find our greatest pleasure in looking up and trying to help and encourage the missionary work of all societits wherever we go. We are grateful to you missionaries for your self-sacrificing labors, and for the help you thus render the Government, and assure you that you will always find sympathy both in 'The Shrubbery,' where we now are, and in ' Belvidere House,' in Calcutta, so long as we continue to occupy it.
" I wish, further, to say that Lady Elliott and myself have to-day invited you, the leading residellts and visitors at Darjeeling, and tea-planters of the district, that you may meet these missionaries and learn of their work, and learn to know them personally, and so, henceforth; take a much greater interest in their work, &nd render them the more liberal help. If they give their lives to the work, it is only fair that we should aid in furnishing them abundant supplies.
" I congratulate you all that the last census and the signs of the times all point to a very positive and somewhat rapid progress of the missionary work in India. There is unquestionably an undercurrent working among the higher classes in India toward Christianity, in spite of all the open manifestations against it; and we may look forward with confident expectation to the day when all India shall bow at the feet of Christ, who alone can uplift, purify, and save."
At the nomination of the Governor, Bishop Johnson, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India. then took the chair, and in a brief address, thanking Sir Charles for his outspoken testimony to the missionary work, and him and Lady Elliott for the kind conception and kind action which had assembled this company, went on to say that his duties as Metropolitan of India, taking him from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from Karachi, on the Sea of Arabia, to Burmah and Assam, on the borders of China, gave him the opportunity of gauging any progress made in the missionary work not alone of the Church of England, but, to some extent, of all other societies within those wide limits; that when he first came to India a decade ago he did not at once appreciate the amount of preparatory work that had bflen done. Not to be tabulated in any statistics, not apparent to the eye of the casual observer, but which he now saw to be the chief element of hope for the speedy evangelization of India. He told of the numbers of educated native gentlemen who, to his knowledge, were now privately reading the Bible and endeavoring to conform their lives to its precepts, while still outwardly adhering to Hinduism. who, erelong, when the Spirit of God should mightily move among them, would come over as a mighty host into the Christian Church. He spoke of the wonderful uplifting power which Christianity had already manifested in the Madras Presidency, in those regions where very large numbers of converts had been gathered, and referred to the remarkable declaration of the Director of Public Instruction in Madras, in his last official report on the progress of education, to the effect that, if the percentage of increase during the last twenty years be maintained, the native Christian population of that presidency would, within the next two generations, have surpassed the Brahmin in education, in material prosperity, in influence, and in official position. He intimated that he had come to India interested, indeed, in missions, but practically a pessimist as to their progress; that a decade of close observation had converted him into an optimist, for the well-marked indications now were that India would, in the not very distant future, become an integral part of the kingdom of Christ.
Rev. Archibald Turnbull, B.D., the senior missionary in the Darjeeling district of the Church of Scotland, to w.hich seems to be committed the evangelization of the Eastern Himalayas, gave II terse and interesting account of the work going on among these hill people with their fifteen cate- chists and twenty junior assistants at Darjeeling, and twelve out-stations reaching to the base of the mountains-Nipali catechists for the Nipalis, who ha,-e immigrated in such numbers from the adjacent kingdom of Nipfil in connection with the tea industry; Lepcha catechists for the Lepehas from Sikkini, and a Bhutia catechist working among the Bhutias who have flocked in from Bhutan, and told of the little churches they had already established here with 600 commnnicants and 1700 adherents, with baptisms of new converts every month. He also spoke of the Scotch Ladies' Zenana Mission in Darjeeling, cons:sting of three Scotch ladies and one native woman, who carryon their work in four languages, and meet with much encouragement.
Miss Edith Highton, of the English Church Zenana Mission in Calcutta, followed with an intensely interesting account of their methods of work, their hindrances, and their successes.
Rev. F. B. Gwinn, of the Church Missionary Society, in charge of their Boys' Boarding-School and Training Institution in Calcutta, then told of his work, and instanced remarkable cases of conversion of young men of the higher classes from their study of the Bible in mission schools, who had indeed lost all, of property, position, and friends, but had gained Christ, thus effectually answering the oft-repeated taunt that Hindus only became Christians for worldly gain.
Rev. J. A. Graham, M.A., of the Young Men's Guild Mission of the Church of Scotland at Kalimpong, in British Bhutan, spoke of the exceedingly hopeful work in his mission, with two hundred baptisms of mountaineers last year, and told how the native Church had organized among themselves a Foreign Missionary Society to send the Gospel into the kingdom of Bhutan adjacent, into which no European can yet enter, and how the senior and highest paid native evangelist of the mission, who had commenced the work at Kalimpong twelve years ago, had now resigned his connection with the mission, that he might go forth as the first foreign missionary of the native Church to the turbulent and dangerous regions of Bhutan, receiving only the voluntary contributions of the native Christians to support him in Bhutan and his family in Kalimpong, since they could not accompany him.
He also spoke for the Scottish Universities' Mission in Independent Sikkim, now under the efficient charge of Rev. Robert Kilgour, B.D., of Glasgow University, who, with his fifteen native assistants, is pushing the work up into Eastern, Central, and Western Sikkim, building their little churches almost on the borders of the perpetual snows-for in Sikkim rise those giant mountains twenty-three, twenty-five, and twenty-seven thousand feet high, towered over by their Monarch, Kiuchiu, Janga, the " Golden Horn," 28,177 feet high, the second highest mountain in the world.
With a hearty vote of thanks to the chairman, the speakers, and to Sir Charles and Lady Elliott, and a cheering cup of coffee as we passed again out through the refreshment-room, we scattered with the intensified conviction and determination that from the eternal snows of the Himalayas to the scorching sands of Cape Comorin JESUS SHALL BE KING.
1892.J EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
– " Gloomy clouds are gathering more and more deeply on the firmament of the nations. The time when peace shall be taken from the earth appears to be drawing nearer and nearer. The beast out of the abyss displays his head with ever less disguise; the false and secularized church exalts herself more aIld more proudly; the spirit of the false prophet becomes ever more manifest. Can all these developments turn against the children of God, against the kingdom of our King ~ Oh, no! They have their Master's warning: 'And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. ' All this can but help to hasten their perfection and that of the kingdom of God. "-Mi8sion8- und Heidenbote (Neulcirchen).
THE UNITED KINGDOM.
-The Ninety-eighth Report of the London Missionary Society has some introductory remarks which are worthy of being reported at length.
"The present year marks a point of deep interest in the history of Protestant Christian missions to the heathen. In September next the Baptist Missionary Society will celebrate the centenary of the commencement of their great enterprise. Although before that society was formed the Moravians and Danes had been for many years devoting themselves to work among the inhabitants of Greenland and Labrador, and also in South India, with a heroism characteristic of their whole history, and which has made the story of their missions read like a romance of Christian chivalry; and some earnest attempts had also been made to reach the natives and the slaves in the North American colonies, and in the West Indies, by the Society for the Propagation of the G08pel in Foreign Parts, by John Wesley and by the Countess of Huntingdon; yet, by common consent, the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society has been regarded as the true beginning of the great missionary movement, which has been so marked a feature in the life of this most marvellous century.
" The record of the work of the Baptist Missionary Society, from the first days of the Serampore Mission to the late1;t development of its energy and enthusiasm for Christ in the Congo Mission, has been a splendid history, and the success which has attended .their work in every field is a witness to all the world of God's faithfulness to His promises.
" The London Missionary Society is the oldest of the societies which have been formed under the inspiration of the example l.Iet to the Church of Christ by the Baptists; and the directors rejoice exceedingly in all the blessing which has been bestowed on their brethren, and pray that larger usefulness, richer harvests, more rapid and triumphant progress may be their experience in the days to come.
" It was only fitting that a year of such special interest in the history of missions should be marked by special and enlarged effort for their advancement. The most conspicuous result of the first century of this , great enterprise has been to reveal its vast extent and the urgent nature of the world's need. This society has for years past been learning that the great fields are practically only just opening for serious work, and that the provision made in the past would be utterly inadequate for the new conditions which were being faced in every direction. In the first stage of missions few laborers can be profitably employed, because the peoples are not ready for the message they bring. There will come a third stage when few laborers will be required, because the Church of Christ in every land will be numerous, self-supporting, intelligently aggressive in native strength. Between these two stages comes a time of great responsibility, when the countries are open, when the vast extent of the field becomes fully apparent, and the variety and the power of the forces opposed to the Gospel are clearly recognized, and when by God's blessing the peoples in multitudes, though still in ignorance, are aroused to a sense of new needs, and stretch out their hands to crave a gift the real value of which they know not yet. This is the stage of the work upon which the Christian Church is entering at the beginning of this new century; and at this time practical wisdom suggests the necessity and expediency of reinforcing the staff of workers everywhere, and of occupying every point of vantage, in order that movement may be accelerated, opposition may be overcome, and the multitudes may be brought home to the fold of Christ. "
-We give some extracts from the Annual Report of the Church- Mis- sionary Society.
"The removal by death and sickness and other causes, in rapid suc- cession, of promising young laborers from the African missions has been a sore trial. John Alfred Robinson and Graham Wilmot Brooke, the devoted and gifted pioneers of a fresh effort to reach the Hausa Moham- medans, early called to their rest! The party associated with them broken up! Only two European missionaries at present on the whole Niger, and their stay precarious! In East Africa four young missionaries dead from fever within the year! But the committee cannot doubt that even these solemn providences will work for good. They are confident that many will be stimulated to step in and close the ranks, and if not, God's power to work, whether hy many or by few, will be vindicated.
" India absorbs the largest proportion of the society's men and inter- est. Blessings, if not in showers, at least in drops which promise showers, are vouchsafed here and there. In the city of Calcutta alone there were last year as many as 31 baptisms, chiefly cases of individual reception into the family of Christ, in the course of thirty weeks. The Bishop of Calcutta confirmed 100 candidates at Godda in the Santal Mission in January last. • A native catechist, formerly a Moham·· medan, was invited by a Maulvi to preach in a village mosque, and he preached Christ to 180 Moslems. In thirty-one years the native clergy in the Madras Diocese have increased from 27 to 160. • .
" In the Fuh-kien Province of China the adherents in the year have increased by 993. • . . Among the most hopeful instances of increas- ing interest must be reckoned the tidings which reach the committee from Cambridge and from Oxford. A letter has been received signed by fifty- four Cambridge university men, notifying their readiness, if God should open the way, to go forth to the mission field. The visit of Mr. Wilder, of the American Missionary Students' Volunteer Movllment, which has been fraught with wonderful results in America, gave impulse to the m~s sionary cause in both universities. As a fruit of this growing interest, the inquiries regarding personal service received during the year at Salisbury Square were more numerous than ever before. Of these 179 were investigated by the committee; 52 were accepted for training; 66 were accepted for immediate service, in addition to 6 in the field, bringing the number for the year to 72. Of the comparatively large number re- jected, the majority failed to reach the required medical standard.
"The committee deliberately adopted the policy four years ago of sending out all whom they believe to be duly qualified. assured that if God gives the living agents He will supply the means. The experience of the past two years justifies their confidence. Last year, when the staff of missionaries numbered 49 more than in the previous year, they were thankfully able to record a balance of £74 to the credit of the General Fund.
In conclusion, what policy have the committee to submit to the approval of the society in the face of unprecedented opportunities and hopes ~ " 1. God has owned old methods of work. Destroy them not, for there is a blessing in them. In the light of accumulated experience, and under the influence of new environments, the old methods have been and will be improved. God forbid that they should be abandoned.
,. 2. .The call has come for new methods and fresh experiments. That call can neither be lightly disregarded nor lightly obeyed. The committee are not frightened by the outcry against 'new departures.' Rather they thank God that the inereased interest at home and the growth of opportunities abroad necessitate' new departures;' but all such new departures must be jealously safeguarded by rigid adherence to the old unchangeable principles which, from its foundation to the present day, have been the glory and strength of the society.
" 3. In view of the rapidly rising tide of intelligent, self-consecrating interest at home; in view of the marvellous opening out of the field abroad, the committee are determined, God helping them, to be found ready, first for the consolidation and strengthening of existing work; then for further expansion, as God shall provide duly qualified workers_"
JAPAN.
-There are now, says the Spirit ofMissions, forty-eight Buddhist publications in Japan, most of them of recent establishment. Japanese Buddhism has no thought of dying without a vigorous contest for life. It is curious, but the Shin sect, which is fourth in the number of its temples among the Buddhist denominations of Japan, is extremely like Protestantism in its relation to the other Buddhist sects. It teaches justification by faith in Amida Buddha, instead of by works, opposes celi.bacy, monasticism, penances, pilgrimages, and amulets. However, it is no nearer to Christianity than the other sects. Equally with them it appears to be atheistical, and to hold the doctrine of extinction as the highest good. All the sects, however, appear to have adherents who incline more or less to a theistic interpretation. Buddhism seems to be a singularly elusive system, if it can be called a system.
The Shin sect is erecting a temple at Kyoto at a cost of $11,000,000.
-The Rev. T. P. Poate says, in the Baptist Missionary Magazine: " Let no one think that Japan is an easy field. It is far from it. 'l'rials from within and without multiply, and were it not that Christ strengtheneth we should despair."
-The Rev. E. H. Jones (in the Baptist Missionary Magazine) writes: " I have only baptized ten this year, the Union Presbyterian Church has less than half the number of last year, and there are a great many exclusions in all the churches. We ask your sympathy and prayers. We are not inclined to give up, but need great wisdom and readjustment of pl~ns to continue our work." – " The average wages of Japanese do not exceed ten cents a day, yet in the last year Japanese converts have given to mission work nearly $27,000. "-The Kingdom.
– " It is said that for what it costs to fire (IDe shot from one of our . largest cannons a missionary and his family can be supported over two years in Japan. Comment is needless."-Canadian Church Magazine.
-Bishop Hare, in the Spirit of Missions, describes the Synod of the Episcopal Church of Japan. It is modelled after the. American plan, the English and American bishops sitting with the others, but voting as a separate authority, and the two orders of clergy and laity voting separately when desired. "The conservative element is thus well provided for; and this is well, for the boldness with which all sorts of propositions are pre- sented and advocated strikes me almost painfully; but it is to be remem- bered that this is the early summer or late spring of Japanese life, and luxuriant growth of ideas is to be expected. The keen interest with which the laity take part in the debates and in the settlement of the Church in Japan is delightful to see, and I trust will continue when the novelty of the movement has passed away. "
-Mr. Towson, of Japan (quoted in the fllustrated Missionary News), says: "The 40,000 Protestant Christians in Japan of both sexes and all ages are outnumbl1red even by the priests of Buddhism. "
~The Missionary Herald for December, 1890, speaking of the island of Yezo, now called the Hokkaido, says: "This great northern island, which contains about one fourth of the area of Japan, being much larger than Kiushiu and Shikoku combined, though with a much smaller population, claims the attention of the friends of missions. Its resources are ample, and only need development to make it a most prosperous region. Our Japan mission earnestly calls for reinforcements sufficient for it to occupy at least one or two stations in this great territory. The climate of the Hokkaido is much like that of New England, and those who come thither from Southern Japan find it a pleasant health resort."
– " From all sections of Japan and from members of many missionary organizations the report comes that the outlook for evangelical work throughout the empire is much brighter than it was a year or two since. The attitude of the Japanese toward foreigners is more friendly. The native churches are recognizing clearly the fact that they need the counsel and assistance of missionaries from other lands. The theological unrest seems to have measurably passed away, and the apparent movement toward rationalism, which caused many fears, either was not so strong as was SIlPposed or has been checked. The native churches are feeling their responsibility for the propagation of the Gospel, and are entering upon the task with great self-denial and enthusiasm."-Missionary Herald.
– " Having recently visited Japan, I will venture to limit my words to that field. Though small compared with its gigantic neighbors-India and China-it is a l&rge empire in itself. Its area exceeds that of Great Britain and Ireland; its population is more than forty million souls. Now, if you had been asked to sketch an ideal land, most suitable for Christian missions, and when itself Christianized most suitable for evangelistic work among the nations of the far East, what, I ask, would be the special characteristics of the land and people that you would haTe desired 1 Perhaps first, as Englishmen or Irishmen, you would have said, ' Give us islands, inseparably and forever united-give us islands which can hold their sea-girt independence, and yet near enough to the mainland to exercise influence there.' Such is Japan-the Land of the Rising Sun. 'Give us a hardy race, not untrained in war by land and sea j for a nation of soldiers, when won for Christ, fights best under the banner of the Crossfor we are of the Church militant here on earth j give us brave men.' And such are the descendants of the old Daimios and two-sworded Samurai of Japan. ' Give us an industrial race, not idlers nor loungers, enervated by a luxurious climate, but men who delight in toil, laborious husbandmen, persevering craftsmen, shrewd men of business.' And such. are the Japanese agriculturists, who win two harvests a year from their grateful soil j such are the handicraftsmen there, whose work is the envy of Western lands; such are the merchants, who bold their own with us in commerce. ' Give us men of culture, with noble traditions, but not so wedded to the past that they will not grasp the present and salute the future. ' Such, again, are the quick-witted, myriad-minded Japanese, who, with a marvellous power of imitation, ever somehow contrive to engraft their own specialties upon those of Western lands. Witness their Constitution, their Parliament, their 30,000 schools in active operation; witness their museums and hospitals j witness their colleges and universities. ' But,' you would also have said, 'give us a race whose women are homespun and refined, courteous and winsome, not tottering on tortured feet, not immured in zenanas and harems, but who freely mingle in social life, and adorn all they touch.' And such, without controversy, are the women of Japan. Above all, 'Give us a reverent and a religious people, who yet are conscious that the religion of their fathers is unsatisfying and unreal, and who are therefore readv to welcome the Christ of God.' Even such are the thoughtful races of-Japan. "-The BISHOP OF EXETER, in Ohurch Missionary Intelligencer.
– " The faithful are not to suppose that the Indian Shaka was the chief and central manifestation of Buddha. India has no more claim than any other country to the possession of the greatest Buddha. Just as Buddha is known under innumerable names-Being and Not Being, One and Many, Finite and Infinite-so there is one Real Substance of which all Buddhas in all countries are but the local mauifestations. An article on , Nirvana' throws some light on the Japanese understanding of this muchdisputed topic. The basis of the writer's views is plain enough: that the univer~e is dependent on the mind for its existence. Outside phenomena exist only as related to our consciousness. Now when we are forming (as we daily do form) our judgments as to what we like nnd what we dislike. in this external universe, and are seeking happiness in one direction as an escape from hardship in another, let us remember how subjective and unreal is all this externality. For me nothing is; all is mere appearance. There is no such a predicate as • hardship' or ' happiness, ' Let us therefore not degrade ourselves by setting our thoughts on worldly matters, bllt keep from desiring anything greatly. Why desire what is not 1 Let us repress the passions of avarice, gluttony, lust_ Let us shun the five varieties of foolishness-empty conceit, prejudice, envy, obstinacy, and ascetici8m. Let us live in the world, but not of it. Thus shall we attain Nirvana here in this life. Better learn to realize the vanity of self now than seek to be bettered in some far-off future. Rightly understood, it is not happiness to have Nirvana. It is nothingness, and we may enter into it here as well as hereafter." -Baptist Missionary MafJazine.
INTERNATIONAL Di:PARTMENT. [O'teber
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Recognition of Roman Catholic Mis· claim that since the days of Luther it sionaries. has ceased to be a Christian church. The few Christians in its pale are such, BY REV. ROBERT HAMILL NASSAU, M.D., not because of, but in spite of their being there, just as there are children of God D.D., GAnOON, WEST AFRICA. outside of all church organizations.
Shall Roman Catholic priests in (2) I do not recognize his ordination. heathen lands be given religious or so- If he should wish to become a Protestant cial recognition by Protestant mission- clergyman, I would vote for his reordiaries? No. nation.
Of course, everywhere any civilized, (3) I do not recognize his baptismal and especially any Christian man, will, acts as valid. In our mission we always as he has opportunity, do good unto all rebaptize any who come to us from the men. In the limited membership of Roman Catholic Church. Two years white representatives of civilization in ago a young man came before my sesheathen lands, any white man is willing sion and, instead of saying, •• I wish to to aid in distress any other white man. unite with the church," said, " I wish In Africa, however bad a member of to come to the table." I noticed the the dissolute trade community may be, unusual form of application, and said I admit him to my table; and he, how- to him, "But you must first be bapel"er much he may talk against my mis- tized!" "I have been baptized." " By sion work, will aid me financially if I whom P" "By the priest." .. But I do be in straits. Between natives and bad not recognize his baptism." .. It is the foreigners I will help the latter; for I same as yours." " How?" .. He bap. can rely on their aid in return if I tized me in the name of the Trinity." should be in distress, while the former " When he baptized you, did he ask you will take advantage of that distress to anything about repentance?" " No." rob or make exorbitant demands. "Or about change of life?" "No." .. Unto what, then, did he baptize you ?" Of course, also, I would give relief, .. into the church." .. But we baptize medicinal or otherwise, on humanita. into Christ, for repentance unto eternal rian grounds, to anyone, native or for- life. His baptism and ours is not the eigner, even to a Roman Catholic en- same." emy. But, (4) Roman Catholic priests, with us, 1. I have no call or duty to visit the baptize the heathen dead, offering as a Roman Catholio missionary socially, or bribe to the heathen relatives that they to give "nd receive the friendly ex- will provide a coffin and decently inter changes of gifts and favors common the corpse. elsewhere among strangers. The native church.members know that we con· (5) They have gone through It village demn his doctrine, and that he de- with baptismal bowl and asked men, nounces us, even to the slandering of women, and children indiscriminately our private character. Any recognition to receive the rite. Our nltti ves will, of him would be quite understood by as far as they possibly can, try to please the natives, either as uncalled·for in. a white man; and the heathen will consincerity or unwise blindness. sent laughingly in a crowd to the priest's proposition, with little or no under- 2. Least of all can I give any recog- standing of what is proposed. They nition of the Roman Catholic priest as require no change of life. There is a Christian minister. simply a substitution gf a string of (1) I (personally) do not acknowledge his church as a Christian ohurch. I beads with medal of the Virgin instead defence of my several propositions. I of the fetich charm around one's neck. offer this paper simply as an entering The polygamist still keeps his women; wedge for discussion.* a slaveholder his slaves ; the thief and liar are unchallenged. Religious duty Rescue Wark in Western India. is fulfilled by occasional attendance at the 9 A.M. mass of Sabbath (~fter which BY MISS HELEN RICHARDSON, BOMBAY, hour one may hunt, fish, or do any- INDIA. thing in the line of secular work) and by confession at long intervals. In a certain quarter of the beautiful city of Bombay, India, there is a street (6) They slander our private charac- -a public thoroughfare-over which ters; denounce our married mission- hangs the pall of darkness and of death. aries as breakers of the seventh com- Its reputation for evil is almost worldmandment, the while that it is notori- wide, and still the sun rises and sets ous that .some of those very priests live day after day ; the weeks come and go ; in forbidden relations with native years are numbered and roll into eterwomen. nity, and its death-dealing traffic is not checked. (7) Roman Catholicism is the same at heart everywhere. If in civilized lands On one side of this street the houses the priests put on a Jesuitical cloak to are occupied by European girls; on the please weak Protestants, and even pass other mostly by natives of …arious themselves as friendly, I know that in countries, and these poor girls are the spirit they are the same as in the days dupes of men whose profession it is to of Alva and the Inquisition. In heathen amass wealth by the price of immortal lands they uncloak themselves and ap- souls! These houses are rented by pear in their nakedness of purpose. them for the purpose of carrying on their infamous traffic, and here young Under the French Government, which girls are decoyed from their homes unholds the country of the Gaboon and der one plausible pretext or another- Corisco MiSSion, in West Africa, the snitable employment, etc.-to become officials are at least nominal Roman sources of revenue to tbeir inhuman Catholics. I admit that some of them masters. would be impartial as between Roman Catholic priests and Protestant mission. And so the surge of sin goes on. aries; but they are not impartial as be- Nightly these men gather in their club tween Roman Catholic Frenchmen and and pass the hours until the early us Protestant Americans. They are morning, when, at about 3 A.M.-the jealous of us Americaps, as an English- night's dissipation being over-they go speaking nation, imagining that we fa- regularly around and collect from the vor England in her colonial acquisi- women all the money they may have tions. In that suspicion they are cor- obtained. Do you wonder that the rect, for France is a poor colonizing progress of the blessed Gospel is hin. power, doing little for the elevation of dered in the land where such a street her conquered tribes; though it is lies-in full view of the natives-lik& a equally true that England has no desire thoroughfare of blackness in this beauto seize that particular part of Africa. tiful city? And onr sympathies are always with Protestant England, who, with all her And do these deluded ones make no faults, does eventually benefit any struggle when the truth is revealed? country of which she takes possession. Yes, but often, alas, how futile! One, I have not said all on this subject • Read at International Missionary Unioll, that I might, and perhaps should have 1892. said, not having given all my reasons in explanation of, or in support and a Swiss girl. was brought out thus, and the temple-in other words, to a life 011. realizing the situatioll. after her ar· of sin and shame-one cannot but feel rival, threatened to commit suicide the enormity of this soul.destroying rather than submit to such a life, where. evil and cry out against it. upon she was conveyed by her master to Calcutta and there sold. In the year 1886, in response to an appeal describing the terrihle need thbt Another from Rome had been courted existed for Bome helping hand to be and married by one of the gang, who stretched out to tLose who were thus brought her to Bombay and speedily helplessly bonnd in this thraldom of disappeared, leaving her in the hands sin, I was led of the Lord to undertake of a new master, escape from whom was rescue work among these poor, sufferimpossible. This master stated that ing, sinning ones in Bombay. Renting he had paid 300 rupees, or about $120 a house I opened a little home and dedi. for her, and certainly would not readily cated it to the Lord for this purpose, relinquish his prize. One, an Austrian praying that He would make it a safe girl, after five months' detention, refuge for many needy ones. Not being learned the address of the Austrian under the direction of any board of misconsul and fled to him for protection. sions, I entered into and carried on the The recklessness of despair seems work by my own private means, feeling usually to take possession of them, it was a call I could not disregard. The however, after their first futile struggle. first to come for protection was ana· But should they escape, where will they tive girl, and though I had only expected go and who will receive them? to admit the English.speaking-not yet having a grasp of the language-I could Not only does this street stretch its not turn her away, so earnestly com· hideous length as an entrance to Hades, mitted her to the Lord. I asked that, but pitfalls aside from this traffic are as a token of His approval, she might made in all the saloons in the European be led to Himself, and in an almost portion of the city for unwary European miraculous way this was answered girts, where one or more are employed through the imperfect reading of the as bar.maids to draw oustom, and rooms Word and the repeating of a hymn in outside are rented in connection with her own language. the saloons to complete the work of ruin. Then, in the most public thor. From this beginning the work went oughfares of the city, along which run on, not large nor aggressive, but rather the cars to the market and the public tentative in its character. For three buildings, every evening room after years and a half I labored there, look· room is lit up in a peculiar fashion, ing over the ground and becoming betand native girls display themselves in ter acquainted with the need and how the opon doorways unblushingly, and to meet it ; but two years ago the Lord the public sentiment is' such as to permit of laid it upon me to go out and bring the it. Safety there is none. Every girl work and its needs before the people of in the city, Anglo.Indian, Eurasian, or England and America, as I must needs native, who is not thoroughly sur· have not only money, but the sympathy rounded by some wall of protection, is and prayers of all Christians in this 100Red upon as legitimate prey by pri. most difficult trust. It is very neces· vate individuals and as of marketable sary, on account of the excessive heat, value by others in the employ of the that doors and windows should be open, wealthy. and so the seclusion absolutely impera- tive in such a work could not be secured When one thinks of all this and of in a house on a public street in Bom. the fact that there are also thousands bay, as conversations with the girla of poor girls who, in the name of religion. from peraons in neighboring houses are dedicated by their ignorant and could not well be rrevented and were superstitious parents to tbe Ilervice of of a character often to undo much of the home since its opening, lind some the good done. have gone out to lives of Christian use- fulness. Then in such a work the nervous tension and strain upon those holding When God laid it upon my heart that positions of responsibility is great, and He would have me make this work and the opportunity for occasional retire- its needs known more widely in Engment from the observation of the house- land lind America, I obeyed, lellving in hold most necessary. charge my most efficient helper, Miss Walker, who is bravely holding the fort The separation and classification, of until such time as God shllll permit me the inmates is also most imperative- to return, which in His providence I the younger from the older, the native trust may be soon. from the European and Eurasian, and the native Christian from the non .Chris-· Educational Evangelism. tian. llY BEV. DAVID S. SPENCER, TOKYO, JAPAN. The reasons are obvious. As an illustration : An old country.born Eng· The objects of lin education are: lishwoman addictAd to drink and well 1. To develop mlln physically, intelknown in the police courts as personify- lectually, lind morally. ing many evils, was in the home and 2. To inform and enlighten the unbehaved exceedingly well, g,iving seem- derstanding. ing evidence of a change of heart, but 3. To form and regulate the princione day she disappeared, taking with ples of actions; to build character. her a young girl-not a strong charac. To answer intelligently our question, ter, but one for whom we had great we must consider the .material we have hopes-the older woman having been to work upon. We must judge whether influenced by the example of immoral the Japanese are so constituted, intelpersons living opposite. This is only lectually, physically, and morally, as to one of many incidents which might be make it possible to reap here the legitimentioned emphasizing the need for mate results of education. greater retirement and more suitable 1. In intellectual powers the Japanese bUildings. will compare favorably with the citizens of any other country. In general mental Realizing more and more how the make.up they are not unlike the French work was hindered by these preventable people, though differing from them in causes,I bought six acres of ground at some points. But the standings taken Poona, where good air, seclusion, and by Japanese students in the colleges room for the required buildings could and universities of Europe and Ameriall be secured. Besides the worker's ca, as well as in their own land, show bungalo a small hospital is required and that there is in these Japanese youth four buildings-to provide for classifica- good timber to work upon. tion as above specified-in separate dom- 2. The physical condition of the Japapounds, open only to the supervision nese is not what one might wish, and is of the workers. said to be retrograding. The average male Japanese is about five feet tVo It is still proposed to keep up a small inches in height, lind weighs about one house in Bombay for aggressive work hundred and twenty pounds, and has and liS a receiving home from which to not a strong constitution. Between draft into Poona. This home is not to the Japanese male and female is about supply II local need simply, but girls are the same difference as between the sent to us from great distances lind American male and female. But the from all the missions, as it is the only Jllpanelie does not know how to care home of the kind in Southern and Western India, and thus it supplements the work of these missions. Over one hundred women have been received in for his body. The missionary in Japan, Let us now conBider mission schools whatever his special sphere of work as evangelizing agencies. Much has been may be, has a great duty to perform in said pro and con mission BchoolB in teaching the Japanese around him how Japan. Dr. Ashmore, of Swatow, China, to take care of what Btrength thcy have, is responsible for the appearance in the and save further retrograding. The BO- missionary organ of his church of an cial habits of the young are by no means article which seemed to put at a diBcalculated to improve their physical count the educational work being car. condition. ried on in Japan, as compared with the evangelistic. He would have many of 3. The moral condition of the Japa- the educational missionaries here drop nese. On this subject, let the Japanese their school work and take up evangelspeak for themselves. Dr. Nishima istic. I will quote another who haB a was asked what were the prevailing sins world-wide reputation as an authority of his people, and he at once answered, upon these subjects, Dr. Abel Stevens. " Lying and licentiousness." The Jap- He saYB : "The chief missionary work anese are called a very polite people, now going on in all the East is by Chris. but a JapaneBe friend of mine, one of tian education. The old religions canthe most discerning I have known, de- not stand our better light; they are too clares that there is no real politeness legendary, too snperstitious, too conamong his people. Their politeness iB tradictory of science, to endure the ena mere conventional form. and decep- lightenment of the people. There is tive-on the surface, and not of the no end to our opportunities for schools, heart. With thiB Dr. Nishima agreed. especially in India and Japan, and we I could give the names of a number of can everywhere crowd them with eager representative Japanese whom I have pupils, many of whose families will pay heard say that of the JapaneBe young .UB for our labors. This is preaching men and women of the middle and the Gospel in the most practical and lower classeB, comparatively few reach effectual way for the Eastern populathe age of twenty socially pure. The tions. You teach them with the Bible experience of foreigners among the peo- in your hand and theirs. Your Bcience ple will substantiate, to a large degree refutes their legendary tradition withat least, these Japanese opinions. But out a word of allusion to the latter; what does all this argue? Simply this, your chapels are on the premises of that the Japanese need educating, need your schools, and your pupils, now lifting up, need the Gospel of Jesus your friends, throng them to hear your Christ. They are, generally speaking, proclamation of the Gospel." (Chrisno better Bnd no worse than other peo- tian Advocafe, 1889, page 635.) ple without the Gospel. The greater the need, the greater the responsibility And the same writer, regarding Chris. of the Church to help them. And let it tian success in the East, sayB: " We be borne in mind that the needed ref- must promulgate the Gospel there, inormation is not to be wrought in a day. deed, as the primary instrumentality of The people mUBt be educated to better our work; but how promulgate it? things. They must be given good and sufficient reasons for right doing, and " I do not doubt, after considerable this takes time. Reference will again local study of the question, that the be made to the time element. We now Christian school is the most effective desire to show the need. In intellec- method of its promulgation. Its pro. tual ability, in the need of physical mulgation in any way is what in the apostraining, and in the need of moral elA- tolic age was meant by •preaching' it vation, the Japanese offer a most invito (italics ours), and I am convinced that ing field for missionary labor. in India, China, and Japan ChriBtian instruction ill the beBt preaching and the school is the best chapel. We thus time to establish Christian character. This bring the young under our influence, is important. (See article by Dr. C. W. and the young in these three la.nds are Mateer, Shanghai Conference Record, our chief hope. Besides this instru- page 456.) mentality, we should have, and do have, the homiletic or pulpit mode of 4. The mission schools have sent out preaching. The two should be com- over four hundred and fifty Christian bined and are, in all our missions there. workers into all partil of Japan. The It should not be a question among us Doshisha alone has sent out over ninety which is the most dA~irable; both such. These are the men and women should be considered indispensable and who are to do the direct evangelizing, inseparable. But I am convinced that for whatever may be the case in other we could never be thoroughly success- lands, the Japanese must be evangelized by ful without the school." Japanese. The foreign missionary can do no higher work than to prepare the Dr. Abel Stevens has travelled care- leaders and to be their advisers. "It fully through all these Asiatic countries is as much his duty to prepare others to and knows whereof he speaks. Now, preach as it is to preach himself." what are the facts in Japan? 5. The majority of the revivals in 1. Missionary teachers a.re nearly Japan thus far have begun in the mis. everywhere direct preachers. They sion schools. As the work grows the preach as much as their surroundings proportion will probably become less will permit. Those who do not preach in favor of the schools. ought to do so. The missionary teacher who is not an earnest evangelist dis- 6. There is no better agency than the honors his calling. That these teachers schools to disarm prejudice. Many of do not preach to a constantly changing the students come to us for the sake of audience, and thus lose much vantage the English, but full of prejudices ground, should not be reckoned against against the foreign religion. Their them. close contact with foreigners in the school, visiting them in their homes, 2. Missionary teachers are indirect marking their conduct, acquainting preachers. Dr. Stevens states the fact. themselves with foreign thought, sends The teaching of true science is cou- them home disarmed of their old ha. stantly undermining the old faiths in tred, and if not personally Christians Japan. I can name many strong men they are no longer bigoted opponents. in the church in Japan who have been We meet them repeatedly after they brought to accept Christianity, and its have left school, and they are our Christ personally. through the slow and friends, often travelling long distances convincing process of the schools. True to see us, and showing us every mark science has made them true Chris- of friendship. tians. 7. The mission school is to the work 3. That missionary teachers have met in Japan what the hospital and dispenwith some success is shown by the fact sary are to the work in China-an enthat nearly two thousand of their stu- tering wedge. The school is frequently dents have gone out to stand for Chris- the only door by which the Gospel is tianity in Japan. Take this in connec- permitted to come in and reach the tion with the fact that the majority of people. The English language serves these schools have come into existence as a bait, and is in itself, as Dr. Stevens since 1885. There are no more intelli- says, a civilizer. It is furthermore comgent, stable, and earnest Christians in ing to be generally regarded as the best Japan than those who have come out of medium of theological instruction. the mission schools. The time commonly Most of the theological schools now do spent in pursuing a ccrurse oj 6fudy gives their ohief work in the Enilish. Estimating the Population of Ohina. purpose, as a considerable part of it is waste, owing to an old bed of the Yel- BY BEV. ARTHUB H. SMITH, SHANTUNG, low River which has devastated a broad band of land, on which are no villages. CHINA. There is also a canal leading from the Grand Canal to the sea, and a long de- The question of the population of pression much below the general aver- China is an antique, which seems to age, thinly occupied by villages, behave been viewed from almost every cauee it is liable to inundation, as in point of vision, with results extremely 1890. For these reasons it seemed deinharmonious. The reasons for this sirable to make a new count in a better are sufficiently well known, and have spot, and for this purpose a district often been explained at length in these was chosen, situated about ninety Ii columns. It appears to be well settled east of the sub-prefecture of Lin-ch'ing, that no real dependence can be placed to which it belongs. The area taken upon the Chinese official returns, yet was only half the size of the former, that they are the only basis upon which and instead of merely estimating the rational estimates can be based, and average population of the villages, the therefore have a certain value. So far actual number of families in each was as we are aware, all efforts to come at taken, so far as this number is known the real population per square mile to the natives. The man who prepared have proceeded from such extensive the village map of the area is a native units as provinces, or at least prefec- of the central village, and a person of tures, the foundation and superstruc- excellent sense. He put the popUlation ture being alike a mere pagoda of in every case somewhat below the popuguesses. Some years ago an effort was lar estimate, so as to be certainly within made in this district to make a more bounds. The number of persons to a exact computation of the population of " family" was still taken at five, though, a very limited area, as a sort of unit oi as he pointed out, this is a totally inmeasure. For this purpose a circle adequate allowance. Many" families" was taken, the radius of which was. live and have all things in common, and twenty Ii, the foreign residence being are therefore counted as one, although, at the centre. A list was made of every as in the case of this particulA.r indivillage having received famine relief in vidual, the "family" may consist of the year 1878, so that it was not diffi- some twenty persons. To the tr8…e11er cult to make a proximate guess at the in this region, the villages appear to be average number of families. The v~l both large and thickly clustered, and lages were 150 in number, and the aver- the enumeration shows this to be the age size was taken as 80 families, which, case. Within a radius of ten li (three allowing five persons to the family, miles) there are 64 villages, the smallest gave a total of 60,000·persons. Allow- having 30 families and the largest more ing six miles to be the equivalent of than a thousand, while the average is twenty Ii, the population of the square 188 families. The total number of mile is 531, or considerably above the families is 12,040, and the total number average of the Kingdom of Belgium (the of persons at five to the family, is 60,- most densely populated country in 200, or more than double the estimate Eu:rope), which had in 1873 an average for the region with twice the diameter. of only 462 to thtl square mile. At a This gives a population of 2129 to the distance of a few miles beyond this cir- square mile. So far as appearances go, cle there is a tract called the " Thir- there are thousands of square miles in teen Villages," because there are that Southern and Central Chihli, Western number within a distance of five Ii! and Southwestern Shantung, and North- This shows that the particular region IIrll H01l811, whllre tl1Q villaielil are as in which this estimate was made happens to be an unfavorable onQ for the thick as in this one tract, the contents eral calls to work in home field~. At a of which we are thus able approximately monthly concert Dr. Hitchcock read a to compute. But for the plain of North letter from Mrs. Lloyd, the daughter of China as a whole, it is probable that it Dr. Willard Parker, in which she narwould be found more reasonable to esti- rated the suhstance of a talk with' Jim,' mate 300 persons to the square mile for who was yet unconverted. To her exthe more sparsely settled districts, and hortations he replied by questions like from 1000 to 1500 for the more thickly these: 'Was you,r father a Christian?' settled regions. In any case a vivid Answer: 'Yes.' • Was his father a impression is thus gained of the enor- Christian?' 'Yes.' 'And his father? ' mous number of human beings crowded 'Yes.' 'Well, my father, and my into these fertile and historic plains, father's father, and my father's grandand also of the almost insuperable diffi- father were heathen, and you say the culties in the way of an exact knowl- heathen are lost. Now, why did not edge of the facts of the true" census." your grandfather come and tell my In the tables published in " Williams' grandfather the way of salvation, if he Middle Kingdom" (vol. i., p. 264), the believed the heathen are lost? ' population of Shantung for 1812 is given as 28,958,764, and that for 1882, from "The letter was altogether a powerthe Almanac de Gotha based upon the ful and striking one. After the reading Chinese Customs returns, as 29,000,000, there was silence in the assembly of or almost the same. The former is students. I rose and said: ' I will go. reckoned on the basis of 65,000 square Were I to refuse, after hearing those miles, and the average is found to be words, the earth would shake under my 4<i,4 persons to the square mile. A feet, and the heavens grow black over large part of Shantung is mountainous, my head.' I wavered no more. It was and much of this is wholly waste territory, but some of the mountain districts Zulu' Jim' that brought me to the dehave a numerous population tucked away in the valleys, and wherever there cision.' ' is a spot of arable soil sufficient to af· ford nutriment. The natives of such -" In order to the IlUccessflll prosecudistricts can with difficulty be persuaded tion of the work in foreign fields we to leave them and go elsewhere. One ought to have a sound policy and wise old man who had done so explained administration and all that, and yet the that when he was down on the plain, one thing more important than all else he felt" all-out-doors" (k'uan te huang), is, the illustration of religion pure and and had to come back! undefiled in the converts. In order to impress the unevangelized, the great -Among the points and sentiments thing is not a wise policy, but a holy at the International Missionary Union church in their midst. Without this, Conference, Clifton Springs, June, 1892, means and instrumentalities, however were the following by Rev. C. C. Tracy, well ohosen and well used, will avail of India: little."
" Father Tyler speaks of James Dube, -" We talk a great deal about apostothe Zulu preacher. That Zulu, 'Jim,' lio methods. Shall we attempt to do exmade me a missionary. Near the end actly as the apostles did? That would of my seminary course, at New York, require us to travel on land with oamels I was wavering in regard to the foreign and donkeys, and on the sea with sailwork. Though almost resolved to go and·oar ships. Is it precise apostolic abroad, I was shaken by what seemed methods that we want, or the apostolic insurmountable difficulties and by aev- spirit in the use of modern methods ?"
-MiBB Ella J. Newton, M.D., of Foochow, China, !lendin~ her congratula- the cemetery. 5he dip,d on the 23d. tions to the I. M. U., said: Her death was quite unexpected, but "It has been my privilege for the past two years to attend the delightful she was ready. iTnheMecxhiiclod.renTahreerehearre~ meetings of the Union, and I know of except the one but one thing better than to be· with you this year, and that is to be just four daughters and two sons-all single. where I am, on the field at work. Brother Mellen had worked so hard " I shall think of you as you meet in that consecrated tabernacle and pray he was broken down ; but we did not that God's special blessing may be upon every session, that you may all be re- expect Mrs. Mellen to follow so soon. freshed by talking together of what God is doing in the wide, wide world. One I have had a long sickness, and have cannot well be narrow minded and think only of his own little corner in suffered very much. Was taken last the vineyard after mingling in such gatherings, and I wish every missionary October 21st. Am about much of the returning to America would plan his vacation so as to spend the second week day-walk, read, write, and work, but in June at Clifton. have a weak and lame back and shat- •, I have been at home for six months and am glad to report myself so weli tered nerves. Hope to improve-am (after ten months at Clifton) that I think it will not be necessary for me to go to gaining strength daily. America again for many years ; and if I may be allowed a word of advice to any Since we met last my son has gone of the missionaries who feel in such a hurry to return to their fields, it is stay to East Central Africa as a medical misat Clifton till you are well, and see if you do not find it the shortest road sionary under A. B. C. F. M. back to your home and work. Your brother, .. One cannot be away from China now very long without noticing changes. GEORGE THOMPSON. In spite of the loud rumors of expulsion, war, and riot with which the air Intercommunioation by Speeoh and was filled last autumn, the attitude of Letters in Ohina. the people is exceedingly friendly, and the results of work are rapidly growing BY BEV. W. H. LINGLI, LIEW CHOW, C:!IINA. larger and more satisfactory. The day of China's redemption draws near. I have just read in the May number !'raise God with us and ask Him to be- of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW a statement stow richer blessings on this great by Professor Kirchoff that ., Chinese is land." the most popular language in the world; that Chinese is spoken by four hun- Note from a Veteran Afrioan M;ssion- dred million persons." If all Chinese ary. spoke one language, the statement of Professor Kirchoff would be very nllarly OBERLm, 0., July 27, 1892. true; but as it is it is very far from the truth. People cannot fairly be said to DEAR BROTHER: Yesterday we took speak one language unless capable of the remains of our dear Mrs. Mellen to being understood among themselves when they do speak. It is exceeding doubtful if there are a hundred million people in China who speak a language or dialect sufficiently similar to be able to be understood among themselves. One might just as well speak of the language of India being spoken by two hundred and eighty-five millions of people as to Bpeak of Chinese being spoken by four hundred million per. sons. Anyone who has travelled any in China knows that there are many languages in China as well as in India. Often the people of one district cannot understand the language of another. ful if one in ten gets anything like a There are provinces which speak their clear idea of the meaning.
own language. I am writing from Liew These are rather lengthy remarks for Chow, near the border of Kwangtung, me to make, but they may give a better Kwongsai, and Hunan Provinces, and idea in regard to the language of China.
a man from either province will not If it is not clear it is not strange, for understand a word spoken by a man the language or languages of China are from either of the other provinces, un. a monstrosity.
less he hll.s heard it before. Our native pastor here is from the Kwangtung Prov· ince, but when he speaks to a brother An Anoient Karen Hymn. from the interior of the Hunan Provo ince he speaks through lin interpreter. Father God is very near, Lives He now among us here; There is a very erroneous view abroad God is not far off, we knowalso in regard to the Wenli or classical Dwells He in our midst below. language of China. Before coming to China I was misled by it myself. I 'Tis because men are not true read in missionary literature and peri. That He is not seen by you; odicals that the Bible was now trans. 'Tis because men turned to sin lated into the WenIi language of China, Now no longer God is seen. and could be read by four hundred millions of people. It is true that it is All upon the earth below translated into that language, but how Is but God's foot.rest, we know; many people are there in China who Heaven in the heights above can read it in that language understand. Is God's sllat of truth and love. ingly? For an answer, I refer you to the report of the Shanghai Missionary -Baptist MiSSionary Magazine Conference of 1890, page 67. A high estimate made by Rev. John C. Gibson, The Prayer League and the witness of Swatow, of the number who can read to the need of a consecrated living and intelligently in China is twelve million giving, which we printed in the Edito three hundred and seventy.five thou· rial Notes of the last November issue, sand. page 862, has had a wide acceptauce, and many friends have sent to us their J nst following this you will find the signatures, in token of a hearty co·oper. estimate by Dr. Martin, of Peking, ation. Among others, F. A. M;cGa.w, which is very much lower-less than six Augusta, Ill.; William C. Conant, New millions in China who can be said to York; D. L. Barackman, Alexander read any language. The Wenli is not Collins, Clara M. Collins, Jennie Col. a spoken language at all in China at lins, M. J. Barackman, Hannah Will. prespnt. It is the language of the an· son, Mrs. E. A. Stewart, John H. C~l. cients ot' this empire, and therefore a lins, James Kelly, W. R. Wilson, Mrs. foreign language to the present gener. W. R. Wilson. ation. Again, if a man from the north of China were to read the Bible in Wenli to a man in the south of China, the southern man would not have any more idea of what was read than if it Bishop Potter, in a recent sermon in had been in Sanscrit or Hebrew, if he behalf of New York City missions, said could not see the characters. The great that the Church he represented was majority in any place are just about preaching the Gospel in that city" not the same. When the Bible is read to only in almost all the tongues of Europe, our congregations in WenIi without but in those of China, Armenia, Turkey, words of eli:planation, it is very doubt· and Persia. "
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR
I1I.-DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR AAfOS 11. WELLS.
Probably of no event that ever oc- eties during the first three weeks of Cllrred in the religious world have such July. That does not look as if the de- extensive and so many reports been nominational plan of organizing young given by religious and secular journals people for the Lord's work was to suas of the great New York Christian En- persede the interdenominational plan. deavor Convention. The Christian Endeavor missionary The uniform prayer-meeting topics journey on which Dr. Clark has started of the Christian Endeavor societies have should make this, even more than last for many months run parallel to the year, a missionary twelvemonth in all topics of the International Sunday- Christian Endeavor societies. The walls school Lessons. Notwithstanding the of Christian Endeavor convention halls, many obvious advantages of the plan, of Endeavor prayer-meeting rooms, some have thought that it would be even the Jetter-heads of Endeavor stabetter to have topics wholly distinct. tionery, have long borne such mottoes At the Boston headquarters, 47 Frank- as "Missouri for Christ I" "Brooklyn lin Street, they are taking a postal-card for Christ!" "Our Land for Christ!" vote on this question, in which all who Let those stand; but place above them are interested are invited to join. this, "The World for Christ !" Adopt Mr. Fulton's two-cents·a-week pledge- Dr. Clark's departure from this plan, or any other scheme of d¢nite, country on his around-the-world tour systematic giving. Form live missionary in the interests of the Christian En- committees. Inaugurate some plan of deavor cause was attended with many reading of missionary books. Get into demonstrations of affection and esteem. ~ommunication with the missionary At the Jersey City railroad station h! secretaries of your own denomination. was given warm greeting by a throng Do something, Make a beginning, howuf young people, and presented with a ever little, and it will grow. . beautiful Christian Endeavor monogram badge, set with diamonds and pearls. More petitions for the Sunday closing At Chicago, Denver, and the chief cities of the World's Fair were sent to Conin California, enthusiastic meetings gress from Christian Endeavor societies were held. 'Dr. and Mrs. Clark, with and conventions than from all other their son Eugene, set sail for Australia bodies put together. Surely a large August 19th. Many meetings are al- share of the encouraging result is due ready planned for New Zealand, Aus- to these young people, and to the active tralia, Japan, China, Ceylon, India, head of the National Committee, Rev. Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, R. V. Hunter, of Terre Haute, Ind. and England. California has already organized a A remarkable proof was lately given committee and raised a large sum of of the self-acting power of the Christian money in order to secure the Interna- Endea vor idea. A missionary in Mada- tional Convention of 1895. gascar, previously unknown to Dr. Clark, wrote him about the growth of the Among the many remarkable tributes movement in that far.distant island_ to the power of the New York Conven- He gave the astonishing information that tion were two made by two prominent thirty societies of Christian Endeavor Hebrew journals, which mourned the already existed there, It was not known lack of such consecrated enthusiasm before that there was a single society among the Jews. Another earne~t trib. on the island. ute along similar lines was made by a Roman Catholic paper. A net gain of over one thousand soci· Under the leadership of Rev. S. E. Young, Christian Endeavorers in all the of wise counsel and the inspiration of seaooast and lake States are organized experienced leadership_ for carrying on religious servioes in lifesaving stations. Rev. W. B. Floyd, who carried to Canada the Christian Endeavor banner J ue Hawk, the eloquent young China- for the greatest gain in societies during man whose address at the New York the year, won from Pennsylvania by On- Convention was received with such tre- tario, was twice delayed by failures of mendous enthusiasm, has been oalled trains, and forced to remain all day Sunby the American Baptist Missionary day in Oswego, as, of course, he could Society to work among the Chinamen not carry that banner on a Sabbathof New York City. breaking train. He thought that the banner was loth to leave the country. One society we know of has been It was given a hearty welcome in a making extensive repairs in its chapel. great meeting at Kingston, Ontario, and Instead of taking a vacation during the was slowly unrolled during the singing period of disturbance, it is visiting the of the hymn," Blest be the tie that other societies of the town in regular binds." order, expeoting to reap a harvest of new ideas. The pastor should be in closest touch with his Endeavor society. Whenever Few facts show more forcibly the a pastor complains of his young pepple, hearty acceptance given the Christian calls them headstrong, conceited, and Endeavor idea by the various denomi. the like, it will be found on investiganations than the following. Over sixty tion that he rarely attends his young religious journals in the United States people's meetings, takes no active part al'.d Canada have regular Christian En. in their work, and merely criticises deavor departments. These are all in. from the outside. There are such tiuential, standard journals. There are " pastors," though they are mercifully in addition a host of bright church pa. few. The pastor should hold occasional pers published by local Christian En. meetings with all the Christian Endeavor societies. These sixty papers deavor committees. Especially to the are quite evenly divided among all prayer-meeting and lookout committees evangelical denominations. is his counsel and encouragement indis- pensable. If the society is nut too At New York the Friends and the large, let the pastor oooasionally invite Methodist Protestants formed denomi- it to hold a prayer-meeting in his national Christian Endeavor unions. house. Let him open his house to The Cumberland Presbyterians have committee meetings of all kinds. If also formally adopted the Christian En. he is the right kind of pastor, neither deavor principles and name for their he nor the young people will feel any young people's societies_ Thus de. embarrassment when he thus presses nominationalism, ardent and wise, and into their counsels. It is his rightful interdenominationalism, cordial and and natural place. helpful, go hand in hand. "The verdure-clad pledge;" that's Many societies allover the land held what they call the '" cast-iron pledge" rousing meetings in which t~e New in the Sandwich Islands. York Convention was reported; and now that great meeting is being still The Review of Reviews calls the Chrisfurther multiplied in hundreds of thou. tian Endeavor sooieties a Salvation sands of young lives stirred to hesh Army, "with the Corybantio qualities endeavor. eliminated. "
The fall Christian Endeavor conven- Let it never be forgotten that no s.otions are now upon us. Let every pas. ciety is properly a Christian Endeavor society if it is undenominational. Here tor attend them, to gain new courage is where the advocates of sectarian and cheer from the fresh-faced youthful host, and to give them the direction young people's religious societies get This gave three hundred of those poor muddled. A Christian Endeavor so- little folks a most delightiul excursion ciety is everything a denominational on the Hudson River. This little inci.
society can possibly be, and more; it is dent is worthy of a place by the side of also interdenominational. the stirring time in the rally of the Dis- Here are some cheering facts. Chris- ciples, when money enough was raised tian Endeavor societies last year con- to finish their Japanese mission house tributed, so far as can be learned, to and insure the building of their mission the Women's Baptist Foreign Mission- church in Salt Lake City.
ary Society, $562.77; to the Cumber- land Presbyterian Board, $495.37; to For several years a Christian Enthe Board of Foreign Missions of the deavor society has existed in the Wis- Reformed Church, about $600 ; to the consin State Prison. For obvious rea- Board of Domestic Missions of the Re- sons, this society is never represented formed Church, $545.03; to the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian at Christian Endeavor conventions; and Church, $4621.46 ; to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian yet it has a great deal of genuine Chris- Church, $9035.60; to the Woman's tian Endeavor enthusiasm, and is doing Presbyterian Board of Missions of the a good work. When the society voted Northwest, $1702.98 ; to the American Congregational Union, $961.94; to the on the Sunday-closing question, 51 vot- American Missionary Society, $2117.60 ; ed to close the World's Fair on the to the American Baptist Missionary Union, a large amount of money, whose Lord's Day, and only 7 against it. A exact amount Dr. Mabie cannot ascer· good sign for the real usefulness of the tain from the data at hand; to the Congregational Sunday-School and Publish_ society is that during the last half year ing Society, $398.03 ; to the New West its membership has fallen from 191 to Educational Commission, $504 ; to the 77, on account of stricter requirements. Foreign Christian Missionary Society, $1385; to the Woman's Board of Mis- Christian Endeavorers are glad that sions (Congregational), $2738.72; and the New York Convention aroused the to the American Bome Missionary Society, $4300. These figures are only ire of infidel papers. The more such approximate, as in many cases the con- papers rail at the movement, the better. tributions sent by the societies do not One of them scoffed at the great throng indicate their source, and some boards are not heard from. They are delight- of young people as a crowd of " sourful and inspiring figures, and show the faced and one-idead strangers," and young people working ardently and loy- went on to give a caricature of the meetings. As to the Convention's in_ dorsement of the Sunday closing move- ment, the editor remarks, ,. Perpetual ruin and blight has been brought upon many a land by the constricting and im- bruting despotism of just such meddlers as these;" and after reporting the war- cry, raised so often and so vigorously by the Ohio delegation, ally for their own denominations and W" Oe w-honi-'tOg~ the cause of Christ in all the world. To the World's Fair Next year may all these figures be more than doubled! If it's kept open Sunday Or if liquor's sold there," A pleasant incident of the New York Convention was the visit paid by a the editor adds : "The long ears of the crowd of Endeavorers to the children's hearers, as they took in these strains, service of song at the Fhe Points House nodded in approbation; subdued brays of Industry. After the service a brief, of concurrence arose and died away; a impromptu appeal to the Endeavorers smile of confidence diffused itself on present was made by one of them, and their not over-intellectual visages. and more than $168 were raised on the spot. a twinkling in their eyes told of aug- menting hope of gratification of their desire to bully and domineer,"
18112.J EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
IV.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Missionary Lectureships. 10. Providences in missionary his- It may not be known to readers of tory, how difficulties and disasters, etc., the REvmw that, by a singular coinci. have worked good. dence, four of the editorial staff of the REvmw have been called to deliver lec· 11. Specimen heroes and heroines. tures on missions in course. Rev. Dr. Name a number, and dwell upon a few. A. J. Gordon last winter before the Theological Seminary at New Bruns. 12. Summary of successes, the outwick gave a series of six lectures on The look, and the task to which we are Holy Spirit and Missions, of which the called. highest commendation has reached our ears. The editor-in-chief has given a The editor·in·chief is debarred by series at New Brunswick on the Divine numerous duties from attempting Enterprise of 2fIissions, and expects to courses of lectures elsewhere; but he ventures to suggest that if either of the colleagues mentioned can be ob- tained, these lectures may accomplish gi ve another series in Scotch capitals vast good.
in February and March, 1893. Rev. Dr.
J. T. Gracey has likewise been giving Oo-operation Between Missionary Boards a series at Syracuse and elsewhere, and and Oommittees. • has other series in preparation; and For many years we have been deeply now Rev. D. L. Leonard, D.D., our able impressed that, if there could be fre- statistician, is to give at Oberlin a se. quent and frank interchange of views ries of lectures on the following top- between representatives of the various ics. There is no reason why Drs. mission boards, great economy of time, Gracey, Gordon, and Leonard should money, and labor might be secured.
not be invited to give their admirable For example, take the estimates of series in other cities and before other ea'!pense in conducting work on anyone educational institutions. field. Let us suppose that the leading Dr. Leonard's course embraces Lec- societies of the world should confer as tures on History of Modcrn Protestant to the scale of expenditure for build- Missions. ings, salaries, and general cost of mis- 1. Introductory. Christianity a mis- sion labor in Japan, China, India; and sionary religion, and missions before determine a minimum or maximum, to the Reformation. which all might seek to conform. Sup- 2. Missions before Carey, and why so pORe again that the practicability of few and fruitless. employing paid native agency, and to 3. Carey epoch, why so called, and what extent and under what restrictions, causes which combined to produce it. might be discussed and agreed upon.
4. Origin and spread of missionary Suppose, again, that the proportion of zeal in Great Britain and on the Con· salary to be paid to missionaries on tinent. furlough–the mileage allowed for trav- 5. Origin and spread of missionary elling expenses, the amount and kind of zeal in the United States. labor to be expected of them'while at 6. Missions in India, growth and re- home, and the intervals of ordinary ab- sults. sence from their fields, with the limit 7. Missions in Africa, growth and re- of time of such absence-might be de- sults. cided on, etc. Again, suppose that 8. Missions in China, growth and re- modes of sending money and supplies sults. to missionaries in the field might be 9, Missions in islands of sea, growth, adjusted on a uniform system, so that etc. one set of agencies might be used uni· formly. These are merely a few of the are making to add to its attractions and scores of matters requiring comity and resources. Among other new features co.operation in order to economy both will be a department of Christian En- all of labor and of other costs. deavor, edited by Professor Wells, in In fact, we see no reason why in which we hope to see communications matters of general int.erest there might from Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D., now on not be this conference and common his world tour. Dr. Clark, of Bos- basis of operation. Banks have their ton, D. S., the founder and president clearing houses, railroads pool their of the Young People's Society of Chris- earnings, great commercial systems tian Endeavor. is going on a tour round compare results of diverse plans of the world in the interest of the En- working and so come to common agree- deavor movement. He sailed from San ment, abandoning what is found to be Francisco on August 19th. and purposes practically wasteful and adopting what visiting the Sandwich Islands, Australia.
experiment proves to be a saving of ex- New Zealand, Japan, China, India, pense an-i material. Why may not the Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and great departments of Christ's benevo- Spain, returning home by way of Eng- lent work get a common basis of eco- land about the middle of next June.
nomical business methods ? We are The REVIEW is not a moneymaking unable to see why often several minor project. It is founded and maintained agencies might not be combined at for the dissemination of all missionary least under one treasurer and clerical information and inspiration. No cost system, greatly diminishing cost of ad- is spared to secure the fullest and most ministration, and so commending them- accurate statements of facts from every selves to the business judgment of wise field, and the best contributions to its and thoughtful men. literature from the pens of the most able and gifted men and women through- out the world. We must depend on The effort is now making with re- the reader to help us in this matter.
newed energy to enlarge both the scope One subscriber known personally to the of this REVIEW and its sphere of actual editor sends his REVIEW to a score of service.' Were its number of readers non snhscribers too poor to pay for it, ten times multiplied, the labor of edit- for reading each month, pasting inside ing would be not a whit increased; the cover their names and the order in and even the cost of publication would which it is to be passed from hand to be but little increased, since it is the hand. If that were done by every sub- composition and electrotyping which scriber, the number of readers would at constitute the main expense; and when once be multiplied twentyfold. Ap- once the plates are paid for, the only plications are constantly coming to us cost for an enlarged edition is the out- for gratuitous copies from parties who lay for presswork, paper, binding, and by a trifli ng effort might raise the mailing. If the publishers could secure needed subscription price, even if more a large enough list of subscribers, the than one party shares the expense and cost of the REVIEW would be corre- the benefit. Is there not too much ten- spondingly decreased. They have gen- dency to get our blessings without cost, erously offered to put the REVIEW at and is it altogether a wholesome ten- $1.50 if 50,000 subscribers can be got. dency? In what way can we build up and the editors hope their effort at a real missionary zeal more effectively much increased list of paid subscrip- than by wide dissemination of compact tions may be successful. and carefully edited missionary infor- Meanwhile the editors are seeking to mation and matter pertaining to the make the REVIEW more and more indis- world-wide work? We ask all our pensable to the reading public. Efforts readers for their help. The Petition of the WorId's W. O. T. U. Panjab a normal school or training in- stitution of some kind, at which native for the protection of the home, ad- converts of the various countries which dressed to the governments of the it is desired to evangelize might receive twhoerlsdt~bndeasredecohfetsheealcahw ruler " To raise to that of Chris- s'uch training as would best qualify them on their return to their native tian morals, to strip away the safeguards countries to preach the Gospel to the and sanctions of the State from the people. We might begin with Afghans drink traffic and the opium trade, and ~nd Baluchis and get young men from to protect the homes of the people by among the Brahues, the people of the total prohibition of these curses of Katiristan, Turkistan, etc., as God gave civilization throughout all the territory them to us. The question of the locaover which his or her government ex- tion of the institution would be best fixed tends. " after a consultation with the Panjab This petition has lately received Corresponding Committee and Missionhearty indorsement from the Inter- ary Conference. Perhaps, however, national Missionary Union, composed Peshawar would best fulfil the condi· of missionaries from many lands, and tions required, as it is at thllentrance the YDung People's Society of Christian to passes through which at least Afghan- Endeavor, at their annual meeting held istan, Chitral, and Kafiristan can be in the city of New York. easily reached, and is at the same time These, . with indorsements from connected with the Baluch frontier and churches, missionary societies, peace' the Persian Gulf by the railway to and other moral associations, the Salvation Army, Good Templars, Y. M. C. A., Karachi and the frequent steamers from that port. In this way it might be and other bodies, aggregate millions possible to train converts there for who have thus said, We desire the complete banishment of intoxicants, opium, work in the Arabia, Mesopotamia, and and other narcotics, and with the Persian missions as well, if found desir- Woman's Christian Temperance Union able.
" 2. Students would, of course, need appeal to the rulers of nations to exer· small scholarships for their support cise all power in them invested to ac- during training, but would live in simcomplish this deliverance. ple native style. They should, when We therefore most earnestly request that all these will unite with us in properly trained, be able to gain their prayer; that as leading Christian wom· own support among the people to whom en, in the presentation of this petition, they are sent. Whatever training may stand face to face with rulers, pleading be found necessary to enable them to for the protection of their homes, the do this should be given. The experi- ence of missionaries and travellers- Spirit of the Lord will move upon royal hearts to grant their request. e.g., Mrs, Bishop in her recent journey through Mesopotamia, Persia, etc.- MARy A. WOODBRIDGE, shows that the most useful of all arts in order to gain a welcome is the pos- Secretary World's W. a. T. u.
se!lsion of some knowledge of medicine.
Mrs. Bishop tells us that again and .. Oentral Asia. for Ohrist." again when she asked fanatical tribes – generally Mohammedans – whether In the O. M. Intelligencer for April they would receive a resident mission.
Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall propounds a ary if sent to them, their invariable an- plan by which he believes Central Asia swer was, 'Yes-if he is a doctor.'
may be won for Christ. We all remember that our Lord sent " 1. The C. M. S. should establish at out His first disciples to heal the sick one of our froutier stationll in the alii well alii to prelch tho Gospel, and than this we can have no better model. The Uganda Troubles, In order to give the students some The following summary of the history knowledge of medicine a fully qualified of the Uganda Mission, sent to The European doctor should form one mem- Manchester Examiner by Rev. C. Sut- ber of the missionary staff of the insti- cliffe, of Holy Trinity Vicarage, Staly- tution. This would also make the in- bridge, deserves to be carefully studied: stitution known far and wide, and "We must go back to the days of would enable the missionaries there to 1875, when Gordon was Governor of enter into friendly relations with many the Soudan, whose efforts to put down distant tribes. the slave trade on the Upper Nile led "3. The language in which lectures him to the very confines of Uganda, would be giTen would be Persian, which and during which year he sent Colonel is known very extensively in the regions Long, one of his officers, to visit King which we qesire to evangelize. It is a Mtesa, of Uganda. That same year most copious and elegant language, and Stanley made his second effort to cross is easily acquired. the great continent, and leaving Zanzi- " 4. The missionaries engaged in the bar, arrived at Mtesa's capital in the work of the institution would naturally month of April. During his stay there endeavor to learn as many as possible he wrote what has now become Itn his- of the languages of those among whom torical letter, which appeared in The they would be laboring. After Per- Daily Telegraph of November 15th, 1875, sian, Pashtu would be needed; then asking in the king's name that Chris- the acquisition of the Baluchi, Brahue, . tian missionaries and teachers might and Kafiristani languages would enable be sent to Uganda. That letter evoked them to translate the Oracles of God such sympathy that a sum of £12,000 into tongues in which they are not yet was offered to the Church Missionary found. A grander sphere of work for Society if that Society would undertake able linguists and devoted Christian the work.
missionaries could not be discovered. "To the honor of its committee " 5. The staff of the institution should (among whom was that eminent states- consist of not less than two thoroughly man, Lord Lawrence), this letter was qualified clerical and one medical mis- answered in the affirmative. Seven sionary. This would be the minimum, suitable men were at once selected, in- and more would be desirable. Those cluding the saintly Alexander Mackay, sent should be in every respect picked and sent out. The reply letter to men. They should be (1) born teachers Mtesa, which was signed for the com- -which, we must remember, every uni- mittee by Arcbbishop Tait, of Canter- versity graduate is not. (2) They ought bury, and the Earl of Chichester, con- to have shown some ability in the ac_ tains a pregnant paragraph: 'We hope quisition of spoken languages. Of the that very soon the Word of God, which higher, spiritual qualifications needed is the foundation of England's throne it is superfluous to speak-the love for and England's greatness, will be trans- souls, the consecration of life and tal- laten into the language of Uganda, and ents to the Master's use. On no ac- that it will be the means of establishing count whatever should the men, when a lasting friendship between the king.
once appointed, be called away to other doms of Uganda and England.'
work. Their number should be aug- "Now, this letter, relln in the light mented, not diminished. of recent events, is very snggestive, for . "6. The work thus undertaken' must it tskes us back to the time when there have a good trial with the right men, was no British East Africa Company and must not be hastily given up when formed, no communication of a politi· the seed has been sown and before it tal charscter between our country and hali appeared above ground.' " Uganda, nnd, what is still more ~ignificant, when the French Jesuits, or (British and American) in their opera- 'White Fathers,' had not even ap- tions, so that if the French Jesuits had proached the Victoria Nyanza. The adopted this course no such trouble as Church missionaries in 1876 went to that before us would have been eXDeri- pe~etrate the East Coast, as others had enced. penetrated the West Coast sixty years before, with no weapon in their hands " From that time to this there have but the Word of God, and with no been constant feuds, the Jesuits at- other motive than that of carrying the tempting to oust the 'heretical teach- Gospel messaae to the benighted people er,' while the latter, with the English- of those far·off lands. man's tenacity and fervor, has held the fort up to now. But it is since the " The history of the mission is full of time that the petition of Africa became pathetic interest, and may be had at an accomplished fact, and Uganda was the C. M. S. House, Salisbury Square, found to be in the sphere of British in- E. C.; but it is to the entry of the fluence, that the spirit of Jesuitical op- French Jesuit priests, in 1879 (two position has been more prominently years after the English Church mission- displayed. They would seem to think aries), that especial attention should be that English authority is synonymous given. Up to that time, notwithstand- with Protestant bigotry and intoler- ing the heavy losses sustained by the ance, as they seize every opportunity of mission, the work at the capital pro- undermining it. What, then, is our gressed with such success as could rea- duty? It is to wait patiently for Cap- sonably be expected. It is quite true tain Lugard's report, which I have no that the king was fickle and trouble- doubt will clearly vindicate his course some; but Mackay and his fellow-mis- of action. If he has deposed Mwanga, sionaries (some of whom were personally the king (Mtesa's son), who is nominally known to me) quietly won their way a Roman Catholic, it is because the amid the fierce and subtle opposition of king has allowed himself to be used as the Arab slave-traders, who ever were a tool in the hands of designing men and must be the natural foes of Chris- who are hostile to British authority, tian teachers. Greater men than Mwanga have had to be removed from their kingly position "But on the arrival of the Jesuits when their weakness or vacillation has another source of trouble presented proved them to be a source of danger . itself to the mission, for although pro- to the State. Certain we are of one fessing to be a Christian body, their thing, that England's authority has al- main aim seems to have been to under- ways been on the side of religious and mine the influence of the Protestant civil freedom; that whether its sub- missionaries, to draw away their con- jects be Mohammedans, Hindoos, Ro- verts, and to set up the Roman system manists, or Protestants, it holds the in the Court of Uganda. Here, than, scales with unflinching equality, only is the 'bone of contention.' Many one condition being imposed – that think that the Jesuits had no right to they shall be loyal and true to the power invade that country as Christian teach- that shields them."-The Christian. ers, since the work had already been undertaken. Moreover, an informal Missionary Dress and Food. conference had been held on the coast near Zanzibar two years before, when In justice to all parties, we publish the English and French missionaries the following : agreed not to trespass on each other's pastures, in the face of the dense heath- HONG-TONG, SHANSI, CHINA, enism of that continent. This has ever in the main been carried out by all the December 30, 189!. lP'eat Protestant missionary societiell DEAR DR. PIERSON: In the March, 1891, iSiue of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, p. 226, statements by Rev. B. C. Henry, terior Chinese dress. It seems strange regarding the wearing of Ohinese dress, living in Chinese style, etc., might lead that the majority of missionaries would, some readers to believe that mission. aries adopt the native costume at the of their own free will and choice, fol. peril of their health and lives. Obvious reference was made to the China Inland low this example if it was a pernioious Mission in the following words : one. "The statistics of the great society, whose name is synonymous with the As for living in Chinese houses, I highest oonsecration and self.abnegation, show a terrible sacrifioe of preoious have yet to see a mission station not material. It is said that one.half of those who enter China under its aus· fixed up in as cosey, comfortable man· pioes return within two years, either to their homeland on earth or to the ner as could be desired. This is, of home above, and that the average term of service for the whole body is only oourse, a matter which each missionary three and a half years." must decide for himself; but here, as These erroneous statements regarding statistics have been answered by the at home, one could easily run to no end Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, in the Mission· ary Recorder; and that letter quite effec. of extravaganoe if one so desired. It tually deals with the " statistics" state. ment. is, however, sincerely to be hoped a I have met considerably over one standard of living will be maintained hundred missionaries of the C. I. M. and other societies, who wear the that will not put us oompletely beyond Chinese dress, and know only one who wholly confined himself to Chinese oos· the touch of the natives, with their tume and food. He did it because it was more expedient, not that he ob- simpler habits. The native houses, if jected to foreign olothes or food. AI. most invariably the Chinese dress is chosen with proper oare, are better for simply worn as an exterior, underneath being the usually worn foreign gar. all practicable purposes than foreign. ments. This, surely, oould have no ill effect on the health. Again, as a built houses, the latter, as a rule, caus· rule, it has been observed the Chinese olothe more warmly than Amerioans; ing only suspicion and doubt in the this surely would not oause poor health, or, if so, it is ea.sy enough not to follow minds of the people, who look at any de· the example. parture from usually recognized cus· Not only members of the C. I. M., but now of nearly every other society, toms as lacking in respect, to say the realize the great advantage of dressing in the native costume; and to.day there least. is soarcely a society working in interior China, away from treaty ports at least, Regarding food, there is no lack of some members of which do not wear the Chinese costume; and as yet I have good, wholesome, nourishing food, namet none, nor have I heard of any in North China, who do not w~ar an Ill;· tive production, to be rrocured in al- most any place at about one half the home prioes. It is as easy to have it oooked in English as in Chinese fashion.
This oity, at a very high estimation, has only twenty thousand souls; but we can I rooure the following articles, all native, and there is very little differ· ence between this and any other plaoe in North Chinn except that in larger oities the variety is greater: Good wheat flour. . It cents per lb.
" cornmeal. ~ .. !o cent Oll.tmeal. …….. . -I1J "
Pears ……….. . -!rr Grapes………. . It cents Persimmons….. . 15 for 1 cent.
Cabbages ……. . ! cent each.
Arrowroot…….. . -h " per lb.
Potatoes…….. . 32 cents 1001bs.
Sweet potatoes … . 60 Mutton ……… . 4t " lb.
Beef…………. . 2 ""
Chiokens…….. . 3 " each.
Phea.sa.nts…•..•. 2t " Wild geese…….. 4 cents each. Dr. John G. Paton, the well·known missionary to the New Hebrides, was a Hare …………. 4 delegate to the Pan·Presbyterian Coun. Eggs. . . . . . . . . . .. cil, that met in Toronto, Canada, during Turnips. . .. . . . . . 3t .. per doz. September. He was to spend a few weeks yams …………. in the United States, and endeavor to t cent " lb. influence our Government to act in ac· cord with other great nations in pre· ~ " venting the traffic in slaves and rum at the New' Hebrides. The remarkable These are only samples, and by no sale of his autobiography has enabled Dr. Paton to give $25,000 to his mission means exhaust the list of productions. work; and we would be glad if every one of our readers who does not yet own Besides these common articles can be this, the greatest story of modern mis. purchased dried fruits, apples, apricots, sions, would buy one and so help Dr. Paton to give away another $25,OOO! nutmegs, cinnamon, spices, pepper, If that book has its due influence on those who read it, Dr. Paton will not white and brown sugar, candy, cakes, be the only giver.
etc., all very cheap, and all as good as Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, Eng. land, writes as follows about Rev. M. L. similar articles at home. In the shops Gray, Salisbury, Mo., and the Cross. bearer's Missionary Reading Circle: can be purchased foreign cotton cloth "This is an admirable idea. When it enters upon a vigorous stage of activity and calico of almost any grade, clocks, it will become a path of light between the watches, canned milk, thread, needles, home churches and the heathen world. The history of the kingdom of Christ in revolvers (!), etc. So it can be seen modern times is being written on the there is really no necessity of bringing high fields of missionary enterprise in letters of glory, and to the shame of the a thing from home; and the missionary Christian Church, it is largely passed by and unappreciated? To lessen this who depends on what can be purchased reproach the Cross-bearer's Missionary Reading Circle is a feasible course. on the ground is not so very badly off With its speedy adoption both the spiro itual life of the members will be quick. after all. ened and the cause of missions receive It must ever be borne in mind that a grand impetus. The plan is laid on broad, evangelical lines, independent the work of many C. I. M. missionaries of creed, Church, or organization, which in the past has been .. spying out the will secure eventually a larger number of members whose reading will embrace land." While many other societies a wider missionary area than a particu. lar society with which they may be in· have settled down near the coast or in timately acquainted.
the open ports, the missionaries of the Those who desire particular informa. C. 1. M. have felt led to plunge into tion in regard to this course of reading may obtain it by addressing Z. M. Willthe untravelled interior, enduring the iams, A.M., St. Joseph, Mo.
hardships of itinerating work in order to secure foothold for station work. Other societies have as w~ll availed themselves of the advantages afforded by this pioneer work, and to·day settled station work in many places is made possible as the result. This work was necessarily most trying and wearing, but it was absolutely indispensable for the future work; and as the skirmish Hne in an advancing army are the first to fall before the enemy's fire, so those who went boldly forward were neces· sarily under greater trials than those who followed in their wake. It must not be inferred that C. I. M. mission.
aries were the only ones to do this pioneering work; many others from other societies have shared in this grand 'fork, but perhaps in not so great a proportion as the C. I. M.
Most truly in the Lord, E. M. McBRIER.
THE MON'rHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
v.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY BEV. O. O. STARBUCK, ANDOVEB, MASS.
Mission Work in the Levant. Eastern Church vast masses of her mem- The name Levant (Levante, the bers, and had prostrated her whole do- Sun.rising) is applied by the Italian main under the power of an alien and traders more especially to the coasts of intensely hostile creed. Even earlier Syria and Asia Minor ; but in mission- than that, the vehement disputes re- ary regards it may be extended well specting the relations of nature and enough to the whole of Southeastern personality in Christ had rent away the Europe and Western Asia, in view of a Monophysite and Nestorian churches general unity of religion and civilization from Eastern Catholicism, which, thus in these regions. Here is the main seat weakened, was the less able to resist the of Mohammedanism, and of the most inroads of Islam. These divisions sub· anoient now existing form of Christian- sist to our day, and though perhaps the ity-that is, the Greek Church. doctrinal differences are rather nominal Christianity, after the apostolic age, than real, they still keep Oriental Chris.
rapidly deolined into its secondary form tianity weak before the common foe.
of the Catholic Church, which, as reo Moreover, the jealousy of the two less marked by the late Bishop Ewing, of numerous churches toward the Eastern Argyll, regards the Gospel chiefly as an Catholic or Greek Church inclines them institute, while Protestantism views it strongly to lean upon Rome, who, since chiefly as an experience. In this form, the Crusades especially, has been intent as the Church of the Martyrs, Christian- on securing dominion in the Levant.
ity won the victory over paganism in She offers the Monophysites and Nes· elle Roman Empire (though not without torians liberal terms, on condition of many injurious accommodations to it), acknowledging her supremaoy. They and established itself firmly in the are allowed to retain their own rites, to world. oelebrate them in their own languages, Of the five great bishops of the early and, aooording to the general Eastern Churoh, the patriarohs of Rome, Con- discipline, to have the servioes of a stantinople, Alexandria, Antiooh, and married priesthood, though of an un· Jerusalem, the first, as bishop of the married episcopate. Priests who lose Imperial City and the assumed suocessor their wives arll required to beoome of Peter and Paul, was universally ao- monks. As their ordinations are un- knowledged as the prinoipal. Being disputed, their clergy are reoeived by the only patriaroh in the West, his pre- Rome without any diffioulty as true eminence slowly mounted there into su- priests and bishops. In this way she preme dominion. The East, however, has seoured the accession of large num- whose churches were more anoient, bers of Monophysites, Nestorians, and many of them apostolio, and whose even members of the Greek Church.
theologians were far more numerous Six or seven millions of her two hun· and for the most part more eminent, dred millions of nominal members, or and whioh was the seat of the six great about one thirtieth of the whole, be- Councils, had no thought of allowing long to these various Eastern rites. If her four patriarohs to beoome mere sub- we assume the number of praotioal jeots of the Bishop of Rome. There Roman Catholios as being one hundred were constant jars, frequent interrup- millions, the Eastern adherents would tiona of communion, and at last, in the amount to about one fifteenth How year 1054, the definitive schism which these compare with their neighbors of rent asunder the East and the West. the independent churches in point of Previously to this, however, the rise of Christian experienoe, I cannot undertake Mohammedanism had reft from the to say; put it is allowed that their intercourse with the West has had a very 000 in the states which have been lately favorable effect on the development of set free from it. In Russia, besides the intelligence and character among them. 65,000,000 adhering directly to the Or- The Mohammedan conquests would thodox Church, there are some 10,000,- doubtless have ruined the Greek Church 000 or 12,000,000 Raskolniks, or Old but for the mighty accession received Believers, who, for the most part, differ in the conversion of Russia. This took from the rest only in an intense attach- place about the year 1000. The new ment to old-fashioned usages, and in a religion was imposed upon a passive refusal to acknowledge the established and barbarous nation by the mere com- hierarchy, although, it is true, their iso- mand of its monarch. He had at that lation leaves their doctrinal beliefs ex- time only the centre of Russia under posed to various aberrations.
his control, but as his d9minions spread, Russian Christianity has taken so Christianity spread rapidly with them, faint a hold on the higher thought of or, indeed, before them, being alto- the nation since it began to think, that gether in the line of historical develop- most of the educated, it is said, are sim- ment. The Russian Church has re- ply atheists and materialists. This is mained very much what it was at its perhaps an exaggeration. At all events, first establishment, more a system of Russia as a nation is devoted heart and gorgeous and elaborate ritual than a soul to the maintenance of the Ortho- principle of either individual or Boci,al dox Oriental Church. Her mighty sup- regeneration. And indeed it may be port it is which enables the Patriarch said that the Oriental Church at large of Constantinople and the 10,000,000 of has for a great many ages, relatively at his spiritual subjects in Turkey to bear least to the West, been stagnant. To up against the tyranny of the Moham- call her absolut,eiy stagnant would be medan Caliph and against the purposes uncharitable and unreasonable, as the and pretensions of Rome. Under her acknowledgment of the one Creator, the wide regis we do not know what career righteous and loving God, of the one may yet lie open before the Eastern Saviour, the Holy Jesus, the one Spirit Church after the thousand years of near- of Grace, together with the constant di- ly suspended animation which has suc- rect and indirect influence of the Scrip- ceeded to the greatness of her early cen- tures and of Christian history, and the turies. ~ inculcation for many ages of Chris- The schism of 1054 between the East tian morality, cannot but have had a and West involved no change in the purifying and elevating effect, however Eastern Church. She retains the form it may have come short of its just meas- of Catholicism, in doctrine and rite, ure under the excessive attention given very much in the stage which it had to theoretical disputes and to ritual reached at that time, and has been but observances, and under the great neg- faintly affected by the developments, lect of education, both of the clergy and either for good or evil, of her imperious of the masses of the laity. Still the in- Western sister. On the one hand, she tellectual character of the Greek mind has had no Inquisition, and on the other has never, even down to our own day, she has had no sllch varied activity of altogether belied itself. thought as the West, and no such rich The Greek Church, or, as she calls variety of male and female saints devot- herself, the Holy Orthodox Oriental ed to the spiritual and temporal good of Church, .counts in all about 85,000,000 their fellow-men. Of the two great members, of whom some 65,000,000 are principles of Catholicism, Unity and in Russia, 1,500,000 in the kingdom of Orthodoxy, the East lays chief stress Greece, 3,000,000 in the Austro·Hun- on Orthodoxy and the West on Unity.
garian dominions, some 10,000,000 in The Greeks regard the Roman Catholics the Turkish Empire, and about 6,000,- as heretical in a less degree than the Protestants, but still BS heretical. They rested originally, it is true, on a pro- call the Pope" the first Protestant and found sense of God's ind welling in His father of modern rationalism." They people, who in Christ become partakers doubt both the baptism and the orders of the Divine nature and of the Divine of the Roman Catholics, while these ac- dominion. But it soon reached an exknowledge unhesitatingly both the bap- tent which thrust God and Christ into tism and the orders of the Greeks, and the background, and declined largely do not impeach them of heresy, but only into mere image worship, almost into of schism. fetichism. Against this relapse into semi.paganism, Islam had an immense Mohammedanism, more properly Is- advantage. Though divided into very lam, that is, Resignation, originated, as many sects, yet over against Christianity is known, about 622, and represents these appear as a unity, except that of monotheism in a stern and unfruitful the 200,000,000 Moslems, the Persians, extreme, separating God from man so and some others, about 15,000,000 in utterly as to preclude all sense of His all, reject the Sunnite traditions, accuse Fatherhood, all possibility of His per- the Sunnites of having lost the true sonal union with humanity, all assur- apostolic succession, and have developed ance of His benignity, all belief in a a form of Mohammedanism which is so true free will, and almost all sense of speculative and mystical that the Sunan inward Divine assistance and spir- nites brand it, and not quite without itual regeneration. The Koran pre· ground, as altogether spurious. scribes charity, justice, and benevolence, but says little or nothing as to Islam acknowledges the Scriptures, how we Bre to gain these. It makes lit- and thereby signs its own ultimate tle account of the inwBrd state, and death-warrant. It honors Jesus as Mesgives so sensual a description of para- siah and the Word, and acknowledges dise all to make interior chastity very His sinlessness, but denies Him to be nearly an impossibility within its range, the Son. The Koran teaches that anaggravating this evil by its sanction other was crucified in His stead. and given to slavery, polygamy, concubin. that He was taken up into heaven. It age, and arbitrary divorce. Being agnos- loves the sword, but hates the cross. tic as to the ideas of God in nature and When it loses temporal supremacy (as it history, it is hostile to thought, and is rapidly losing it) its life will be long; even the ,brilliant outburst of Arab but by its own principles, which make genius under its first victories could no distinction between things spiritual not permanently maintain itself. The and temporal, its life will then be a conditions of salvation being purely slowly advancing death. When Eastern arbitrary, can be imposed on men by Christianity under Western Protestant the sword, and although Islam has influence shall have cleared itself of its shown no small missionary energy, yet depressing superabundance of ceremony the sword has been its preferred agent and of its exaggerated veneration of of propagation. All who worship one palpable symbols, it will be prepared in God and have a sacred Book are tolerat· a nobler form to reassume control of ed. but, where possible, reduced to those Eastern regions which have so servitude and tribute, and treated with long gasped under the suffocating pressinfinite scorn. Indeed, Islam is the ure of Mohammedanism. The Eastern most extensive and compact incarna- Christians, though so heavily overlaytion of spiritual pride that has ever ing the Gospel, have never denied it, been seen in the world. nor have they allowed the family to be corrupted by the admission Of poly- The victories of Islam were greatly gamy, concubinage, and arbitrary di. advanced by the internecine conflicts of vorce, while they freed themselves ages Eastern Christianity, and by its exag- ago of slaveholding. gerated veneration of the saints, This The main form of Protestant missions in some parts on cordial termo with the in Turkey and Persia has been that of Protestants, and even more 01' less hold the American Board, whose Persian and joint services with them. UlllJ>11>pily Syrian missions, however, have b6en this good intelligence is not as widely assumed by the Presbyterian Church. extended as we could wish, or as it is The American Board had mainly and hoped it may yet be. Among the Nestoultimately in view the evangelization rians, it is known that a considerable of the Moslems, who number about number of the native clergy-deacons, 16,000,000 out of .the 22,000,000 of priests, and even some bishops-have the Turkish Empire, since the Chris. encouraged the missionary work. The tian principalities have been detached. precise forms of the work in the future Incidentally, however, the missionaries may be left to the wisdom of the Head. aimed at reviving and purifying the It is certain that it will not relapse into Eastern churches. The hostility of the the deadness of the past, and that a government has hitherto confined direct debt of lasting gratitude will be owing operations mainly to the latter object, to the Congregationalists, Presbyterians, though the missionaries have never lost and United Presbyterians of our counthe former out of sight. The Board has try, for Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. not had in view, and does not now have in view, the propagation of Protestant- If we should estimate the number of ism as such. So far as spiritual life is Protestant communicants at 50,000 in revived, and superstitions done away, European Turkey, Bulgaria, Asia Minor, and spiritual despotism transformed Syria, Egypt, and Persia, this would be into brotherly service, so far as burden- an exaggeration which the fact is rapidsome observances are abolished and ly moving to overtake. In Bulgaria the faith manifested in charity and pure American Board and the American morals, the intended work is done. The Methodists are at work; in European elder churches are so deeply intertwined Turkey and Asia Minor the American with the Christian memories of their re- Board; in Syria and Persia the Amerispective nations, above all of the Ar- can Presbyterians; in Egypt the United menian nation, which professed the Presbyterians of our country (not to be Gospel the earliest of any people in the confounded with the entirely different world, that we can easily understand Scottish church of the same name), and and sympathize with their desire to the movement proceeding from the admaintain the elder organizations. Un- mirable schools of the Misses Whately, happily, however, most of the Mono- daughters of the former eminent Archphysite and Nestorian bishops, espe- bishop of Dublin. In Palestine all cililly the former, and still more most of Protestant movements are only initial, the Greek bishops, have shown them- the Church Missionary Society leading, selves hostile to any innovations, how- though rather crossed than aided by ever necessary for intellectual and spir- Bishop Blyth, a worthy man, but infatuitual revival, and so persecuting toward ated with a somewhat fantastic dream those of their people who desired a freer of "corporate unity" with the Greek and more living Gospel, that the organi- Church. In other parts of Turkey also, zation of Protestant churches soon and in Persia, there are disintegrating showed itself a matter of necessity, al- interferences, some from England and though the influence of Protestantism some from America, which seem to have is far from being confined within its ritual propagandism more deeply at own avowed limits, but is extending heart than the advancement of living farther and farther within the elder faith. Yet the main work is not very churches, especially within the Armenian Church. The Gregorians, as the greatly put back thereby.* members of this Church are called, from its apostle Gregory the Illuminator, are * The different statistical anthorities are more or less in conflict, which will account for some inconsistencies of statement.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
VI.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, Oberlin, O.
-The Statesman's Year·Book is au- vocabulary of 250 languages? Who cre- thority for the statement that the ated the science of anthropology? The densest population of the earth, over 400 mISSIOnaries. Who rendered possible to the square mile, is confined to Java, the deeply important science of com· Ohina, Japan, the northeastern and parative religion? The missionaries.
southwestern portions of India, Eng. Who discovered the great chain of lakes land, parts of France and Belgium, the in Central Africa on which will turn its Nile Valley, Italy, Portugal, a small future destiny? The missionaries.
strip of Germany, and a small section Who have been the chief explorers of in the vicinity of New York and Boston. Oceanica and America and Asia? The The Beginning of the End.-Three missionaries. Who discovered the fa· phases or stages of missionary toil mous Nestorian monument in Singar may easily be distinguished. At first Fu? A missionary. Who discovered and of necessity all the forces, whether the still more famous Moabite stone? personal or financial, originate in Chris. A Church missionary. Who discovered tian lands. But presently native mis. the Hittite inscriptions? A Presbyte. sionaries of every grade begin to take rian missionary."
the place of the foreign supply, and -The 1892 Year.Book of the Young native contributions steadily increase. Men's Christian Associations of North Thus last year of the $11,500,000 con. America gives the following statistics: tributed for foreign missions, upward 1140 secretaries; 268 buildings valued of $1,300,000 were derived from regions at $11,902,520; 814 Associations with lately heathen, while to the 7800 mis. a total membership of 1,763,950; 400 sionaries were joined upward of 37,000 college Associations (64 organized last native helpers, of whom nearly 3000 year), 362 with a total membership of were ordained, and quite a large pro- 24,819; 97 railroad branches with a portion of the 11,000 churches are en· membership of 20,530; 12 Associations tirely self.supporting. As examples of for Germans, membership 2654; 34 for the third and final stage, we see the colored men, chiefly in educational in.
Hawaiian Islands not only sustaining stitutions in the South, membership •• home missions" among the Chinese, 2137 ; and 22 Associations for Indians.
Japanese, and Portuguese, but also In the world are found 4651 Associa- sending their representatives by the tions, of which 83 are in Canada, 627 score to Christianize Micronesia; the in the United Kingdom, 898 in Ger· London Society seeks in Samoa and the many, 641 in Holland, 86 in France, Hervey Group a supply of teachers for 112 in Denmark, 131 in Norway, 67 in pagan New Guinea, while by the Wes. Sweden, 43 in Italy, and 381 in Switzer· leyan Society Fiji and other islands have -land. .
been turned wholly over to the care of -The Young People's Society of the Australasian Conference. Christian Endeavor, with its growth -In setting forth the debt of science since) 881 from 2 local societies to 22,.
to missions, Archdeacon Farrar offers 000, of which 648 are found in foreign these telling interrogatories, with their and missionary lands, and a total memo answers: .. Is it nothing that through bership of nearly 1,250,000, divided their labors in the translation of the Bi. among 30 denominations, must be ble the German philologist in his study counted a phenomenon among Chris· may have before him the grammar and tian institutions; and the possibilities of pow.,r in this a~d other kindred or- was standing by whispered, " It might' ganizations, as touching the world's be too much for a white man to give, eva!lgelization, are just beginning to ap- but not too much for an Indian who pear. Such items as these are fast be· has this year heard for the first time of coming very common : the love of Jesus."
"The Christian Endeavor Societie~ -The American Baptist Missionary sent $3405 to the Presbyterian Board Union reports an income of $589,773 of Foreign Missions for the year end- last year, a total preaching force of ing May, 1891. They increased that 947 in hQathen lands, or 1834 laborers amount so as to make $9036 last year.•. in all, 83,597 church-members, 692 " The Christian Endeavor Society of the churches, of which 351 are self-support- Presbyterian Church of. Watertown, ing, 10,971 baptisms in 1891, 1188 N, Y., has secured $500 for the support schools 'with 22,284 pupils, and the con· of a missionary in the foreign field. tributions were $59,922. Evidently Their missionary is the Rev. Kali Churn missions are not a "failure" among the Chattergee, Hashyarpur. India." "The Telugus with 47,458 in the churches and Endeavorers of the First Congregational 7905 added last year, nor in Burmah Church, Cleveland, raised double the with 30,253 and 1936 baptized last year. usual amount for decorating the church for Easter, and then, instead of using it -The Baptist women have an eastern for church decoration, gave it to the and a western Foreign Missionary So- American Board as an Easter offering… oiety, the first baving its headquarters " At the Baptist Young People's Con- at Boston, and the other at Chicago. vention in Troy, N. Y., a resolution The eastern society last year expended was adopted indorsing the plan to sena $88,476 in Burmah, Assam, the Telugu out 100 new missionaries and raise country, China, Japan, Afrioa, and Eu- $1.000,000, and pledging the support of rope. The society of the west, with a the young people in raising the fund." year's expenditure of $49,290, employed last year 41 missionaries and had work -Says the ]J}xaminer: "Not all the for 13 more ; sustained 30 schools in Chinese carry all their money to China. the mission fields, with 82 native teach The 161 Chinese Christians of California ers and 2234 pupils, and had 53 Bibleraised last year for benevolent purposes women in commission, with 49 other $6290, or $39 for each; for the expenses Christian women under training for of their own Association they raised an- work. other $2029, or $12 for each member. They raised $1913 for home missions -The Methodist Episcopal Church and $2181 for foreign missions. One appropriates $500,000 for home mis- Chinese Sunday-school (30 members) in sions this year, of which sum these are Brooklyn, N. Y., has given, the last the more prominent items: Scandinayear, $150 for foreign missions. A vian missions, $57,950; German miil- Boston Chinese Sunday-school gave sions, $50,250 ; Spanish missions, $14,- $114 for the same work." 000; Chinese missions, $11,400; boo sides some $22,000 for missions among -One day an Indian asked Bishop the Japanese, Welsh, Frenoh, Bohe. Whipple to give him two one-dollar mians, Hungarians, Italians, and Porbills for a two-dollar note. The bishop tugnese. asked: "Why?" He said: .. One dollar for me to give to Jesus and one dol- -The United Brethren Board of Mis. lar for my wife to give." The bishop sions, at its last annual meeting made asked him if it was all the money he appropriations of $89,000 to its African had. He said: "Yes." The bishop missions, $2000 to those in Germany, was about to tell him: "It is too $400 to the Chinese mission in Walla much," when an Indian clergyman who Walla, and liberal sums to various domestic missions. The reports of the -According to the fifty·seventh an- Woman's Board represent it as having nual report of the Society for Promoting had an active and prosperous year. Female Education in the East (in ze- Two young women were appointed mis· nanas, harems, and schools), the income sionaries to China. The Board of last year was $31,435. Its fields are Church Erection received $12,207. found in India, Africa, and the Levant.
-'l'he women of the Canada Presby. A force is maintained of 39 missionterian Church sustain two societies, the aries, 8 assistants engaged in the couneastern and western, the first named try, and 76 other native helpers; and covering the maritime provinces. The in the 74 schools (with the 64 more as· western section had its beginning only sisted) are found 10,112 scholars. In 16 years ago, and has grown rapidly particular the Protestant orphanage for ever since. From 49 auxiliaries, in girls in Nazareth belongs to this society, 1881, the number has now become 519. and 2 day·schools for girls and 5 others The first year's income was but $1005., in neighboring villages. 39 ; in 1890 it had increased to $31,107, and last year passed the $3:),000 mark. -A few weeks since the twenty-sixth anniversary of Dr. Barnardo's Homes was held in London. Exeter Hall hav· EUROPE. ing proved too small for the accommo· dation of the thousands applying for Great Britain.-The late Mr. Doug- tickets, the Royal Albert Hall was se· las Henty, a brewer of Westgate, Chi. cured. Since the beginning of this chester, has left benefactions amounting philanthropic work $656,836 have been in all to £50,000 to the British and received for all purposes, 19,000 boys Foreign :Sible Society, the Church Mis- and girls have been rescued from pov· sionary Society. the London City Mis- erty and moral degradation, and 5015 sions, the Irish Church Missions, and have been placed out in the colonies. the Moravian Missions. Last year 5416 children were wholly maintained and 803 others were par- -During the last four years the tially fed and clothed and placed under Church Missionary Society has accepted training.
267 candidates, more than double the -By the Established Church of Scot· number in the four years preceding. land 7 new parishes were erected and Six hundred clergymen are found among endowed last year, and the whole num· its representatives, of whom 280 are ber created and endowed since the natives. Of its 360 missionaries, in- .. scheme" for that purpose was set in cluding laymen, 153 are university grad- operation has been 397, and the cost uates, no other large English society of this great permanent work has been having a proportion so large. Of its $6,800,000.
missionaries 23 have been made bish- The Continent.-Between 1838 and ops. The baptisms of adults were 3250 1858, or between his sixty.fifth and his last year. eighty.fifth year, Gossner, the founder -The Wesleya:n Missionary Society of the missionary society which fittingly cannot be set down as a" failure," if bears his name, paid from his own reo this statement is true: ,. There can be sources 33,000 marks, and received traced to its work a constituency repre- 300,000 from others. Besides, he sent senting about 2000 circuits, 11,000 out to the heathen world 141 mission· chapels and preaching places, 2592 mis- aries. Surely this was bringing forth sionaries and ministers, and 430,247 fruit in old age. What honorable names members." Its Fiji achievement ranks are his and Pastor Harms's!
among the most notable in the whole -The Rhenish Missionary Society history of missions. (Barmen) had an income last year of 422,580 marks ($105,650), and in South Persia, not a missionary! The great Africa, China, Java, Sumatra, and New oasis of Feraghan, at a height of 7000 Guinea had 65 stations, 118 out-sta- feet, with 680 villages craving medical tions, 92 missionaries, 213 native help- advice, never visited, scarcely mapped! ers with 429 more unpaid assistants, Then Juifa and Hamadan, with their and 43,912 adherents. The additions few workers, almost powerless to itinerby baptism were 5525, and 522 were ate, represent the work of the Church confirmed. The communicants num- for the remainder of Persia! Two ber 11,907, and the catechumens 6869. million nomads never touched !" The additions in Sumatra alone were 3945 from among the heathen and India.-A Hindu and aNew Zealander Mohammedans. In New Guinea 1 mis- met upon the deck of a missionary ship. sionary died, 2 were compelled to leave They had both been converted from on account of sickness, and 2 were heathenism, and were brothers in murdered. This society has a training Christ, but they could not speak to each college at Barmen with about 40 stu· other. They pointed to their Bibles, dents, mostly from humble spheres of shook hands and smiled in each other's life. The course of study covers six faces ; but that was not all. At last a years. happy thought occurred to the Hindu. With sudden joy he exclaimed, " Halle- -Between 1870 /lnd 1888 the Russian lujah!" The New Zealander, in de- (Greek) Church baptized 71,272 heathen, light, cried out" Amen !" 8,597 Jews, and 4294 Mohammedans, 84,163 non-Christians in all. In Japan -India's population (almost 300,- missionary operations are pushed with 000,000) constitutes a sort of social, vigor. political, and religious Babel. The re- cent census was taken in 17 different -By the new census of Spain the languages. The blanks issued numfact appears that out of a population of bered over 80,000,000, and those used 17,500,000, only a little over 5,000,000 weighed 290 tons. If put end to end can read and write. Six millions can they would reach more than half-way only read, leaving 12,000,000 who can round the world. There were 950,000 neither read nor write. Bad as this enumerators, and the whole cost of the showing is, it is a little better than the censutl was about $1,000,000. figures of 1877, when 72 per cent of the population were found to be unable to -This is a strange story to come read or write. from a land so populolIS, and that has been inhabited for thousands of years. -The annual report of the European " Official returns for 1891 show that no Turkey Mission of the American Board less than 24,841 people in British India shows that 117 persons were admitted were killed by wild animals during that to the churches during the year on pro- year. By far the larger portion of these fession of faith, an increase of about 14 (22,134) were killed by snakes; 928 by per cent, and making the whole number tigers, and the remainder by wolves, 940. leopards, elephants, and other animals. It appears, too, that the destruction of ASIA.. life from this cause is on the increase."
-Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop says: -It is officially stated that last year "Just think: from Karaohi to Bagdad, in 138,054 public and private educaamong the populous cities and villages tional institutions reported, there were of the Persian Gulf, of the Tigris and 3,368,930 boys and 313,717 girls, an in- Euphrates, throughout Arabia, through. crease of girls of nearly 20,000 over th{; out south and sonthwest Persia, not a previous year. Of these 350,000 were missionary! ' From Bagdad to Teheran, studying English. Of the whole 68 per almost the most populons district of cent were Hindus, 23 per cent Moham- has reached 3606, without including many who have emigrated to Borneo, medans, and 2l per cent native Chris- Australia, Honolulu, etc. Fifteen are being trained at the preachers' seminary tians. at LUong for the pastoral or teacher's office. -Last year, when the late Prince Albert Victor was in India, 3000 native Japan.-In 1860 one Murata, a mili- Christians, headed by Bishop Caldwell, tary retainer of the Lord of Saga, in met him some three miles out of Tin- the island of Kiushiu, went to Nagasanevelly, representing 95,000 souls nn- ki, and one evening, as he was crossing der Christian influence, of whom 77,000 the harbor, he picked up a book that were baptized and 113 native clergy. was floating about the water. The The prince expressed his great satisfac- writing ran from side to side, .. like the tion at so substantial a result of Chris· crawling of crabs," and upon sending tian missions. The statement placed it to one of the Dutch settlers, he in his hands showed that since a similar learned that it was the Christian's Bible, demonstration greeted the Prince of then a proscribed book. Curiosity Wales, in 1875, the number of native spurred him on, and he had one of his clergy had increased by 109 per cent, of assistants learn the language, and transnatives under instruction by 57 per late it for him sentence by sentence. cent, and of communicants by 95 per His study was continued in secret with cent. a few friends after his return home. When a difficult pas~age was found, a -In the North India (American messenger was sent to Dr. Verbeck, a Methodist) Conference from January to missionary then in Nagasaki, for its in- May 3500 have been baptized, 800 by terpretation. Murata was afterward Rev. Ibrahim Solomon in the Rampur baptized, and his name now stands first Independency, and he confidently ex- on the roll of Protestant Chnstians in pects 2000 within the next few months. Japan.
-The Sialkot Mission (American AFRICA. United Presbyterian) contains 13 ordained missionaries, 26 women, and 2 -Between the extreme limits of the physicians, a total of 41. There are Dark Continent north and south stretch also 10 ordained natives, 236 native 5000 miles, and almost as !!reat a space helpers in all. Work is done in 554 parts its extreme eastern and western villages, while 6894 church-members confines. The total number of square and 10,632 adherents have been gath- miles embraced within its bounds is ered. To the churches 525 were added about 11,000,000, giving it the second last year. The schools number 143, place among the continents. Europe and the pUI ils 9262. includes 3,800,000 square miles; North America, 7,400,000, and Asia, the only -Rev. H. B. Lapham, of Ceylon, continent that exceeds it in dimensions, states that in that island are found 80,- covers only 13,000,000. 000 Protestants and 220,000 Roman Catholics. This makes one tenth of -It was in 1742, or 150 years ago, the 3,000,OUO Christians. that George Schmidt gained his first convert, and now the Moravian Mission China.-The Basle Missionary So- in South Africa has 3352 communicants, ciety is at work in the province of Can- 650 catechumens, and 13,000 adherents. ton-over against the island of Hong Kong, and partly on that island, with – The "lflssion Field states that the 24 missionaries, with 90 native help- Dutch Reformed Church stands at the ers. The head stations number 13, the head in S'luth Africa, having some 298,- most northerly one being 300 miles 000 adherents, of whom 220,000 are from the coast; there are also many sub-stations. The number of converts Europeans. 'fhe English Church stands been baptized. Last year from 30 to second, with 139,000 adherents, of 40 of the native Christians went out whom one half return themselves as Sunday after Sunday to preach, walk- Europeans; the other half consists of ing for the purpose 8, 10, 12 miles in Kafirs, Fingoeli, and 46,000 of mixed a broiling sun. There are 32 schools blood. The Wesleyans and other Meth- taught by about 150 native teachers. odists number 109,000, of whom 22,000 Several of the 8 languages spoken about are Europeans, 63,000 Kafirs and Fin- the lake have been reduced to writing. goes, and 19,000 of mixed colored blood. There are 66,000 Independents, 32,000 -Miss M. Copping, of Fez, Morocco, Presbyteriant!, and 17,000 Roman Catho- writes of treating 54 women and chillics. dren in one day, some coming as early as five 0' clock, though the dispensary -Rev. Mr. Davidson, a missionary was not open until 7.45. During Janof. the Scotch United Presbyterian uary, February, and March the attend. Church, reports a remarkable occur· ance of patients was of men 856, of rence in connection with a wedding at women and children 1275, or a total of a farm in Adelaide. The bride and 2131. bridegroom were servants on the farm, and after the ceremony the people Australia.-The Moravian Mission suddenly, unitedly, and eagerly called among the aborigines of North Queens. for a religious service, and some 200 land is supported financially by the sat down on the grass, listening while Presbyterians and Lutherans of Austra- Mr. Davidsoll preached. The people lia. Though their numbers have been were deeply stirred. An hour or two so fearfully diminished, the aborigines after he had reached home a messenger are estimated at not less than 150,000. was sent for the evangelist to come and hold another service in the evening. -According to the recent census of the religions of Australia, the Church -It is Rev. B. F. Ousley, fOl' seven of England has by far the most numeryears missionary of the American Board ous following. Of Episcopalians there among the Batswa tribes in East Cen- are 503,084 ; Roman Catholics, 286,917 ; tral Africa, that was owned by Joseph Presbyterians, 109,383 ; Wesleyan Meth. (not Jefferson, but his brother) Davis, odists. 87,489. There are other Methand is now translating the Bible into odists to the number of 22,589, with the Sheetswa, a cognate of the Zulu. 24,113 Congregationalists and 13,118 He is a graduate of Fisk University and Baptists. The greatest gain exhibited of Oberlin Theological Seminary. by any denomination is shown by the Church of England, which has increased -The North German Society has a from 342,359 to 503,084. mission upon the Slave Coast, and adjoining that of the Basle Society upon Madagascar.-In September last a the Gold Coast. At the end of last year Christian Endeavor Society was started the number of converts was 891, as at Ambohipotsy, which now numbers against 800 twelve months before. about 70 members, and in the nearer churches of the district 10 branch soci- -Rev. Dr. Laws, of Livingstonia, eties have been formed. At a united gives these facts concerning the growth service for the 11 societies more than of the Free Church Mission on Lake 300 members were present. Nyassa. The first missionary party arrived in 1875 and found all utterly –Though there are now in this island heathfm. Since then the first station, 1360 self.supporting Christian congre. Cape Maclear, has developed into 6 gations, it must not be inferred that centres occupied by Enropeans, and Madagascar is already Christianized; 165 men, women, and children have for out of the 4,500,000 inhabitants there are prob~bly 3,000,000 still living in heathen darkness. -Now that in this generation Aus- as circumstances will admit. The re- tralia has come to be numbered among turns show a steady increase in the the continents, New Guinea (Papua) is whole number of Japanese church-mem- the largest island in the world, having bers and a slightly increased staff of a length of about 1400 miles, a maximum clergy, the total being now 50, of whom width of 400, and an area of nearly 300,- 13 are Japanese. English lay workers 000 square miles. The population num- number 37, and of these 32 are women.
bers not far from 1,000,000. Bya" par- At least 50 more workers could be profit- tition" the Netherlands rule the western ably employed in strengthening existing portion, Germany the northern half of mlSSlOns. It is stated by it contributor the eastern portion (King William's to the Berlin Das Echo that Buddhism Land), and Great Britain the southern is steadily declining ill Japan, according coast and the adjacent groups of islands. to observations taken in Kyoto, gener- The Utrecht Missionary Society has ally regarded by Japanese the head- occupied the Dutch, and the Rhenish quarters of that faith. The returns of Society the German domain, while the 1877 gave 3737 Buddhist temples, and English is cared for by the London, in 1891 only 3256, a loss of nearly 400 the Propagation, and the Wesleyan so- within the space of fourteen years. Nor cieties, the three having agreed upon a is it possible to judge of conversions to division of territory. Christianity among the Japanese by the German, English, and American reports British Foreign Missions. By Rev. James alone, inasmuch as these are confined Johnston, Bolton, England. to the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Indian Missions.-A number of various Protestant missions, all of which friends of missions in India recently belong to a Western European type. weloomed home Dr. Pentecost and the Far greater successes are credited to the Hon. Emily Kinnaird, and also bade Russian Church -of an Oriental caste, farewell to Miss Cornelia Sorabji, B.A., which being unaffected by the earlier the first girl graduate of the Indian Em- Western Latin and Teutonic nations is pire, in Cannon Street Hotel, London. supposed to be better qualified than the In speaking of their missionary experi- Latin or Protestants to reach the Asiatic enoes in India both Dr. Pentecost and mind.
Miss Kinnaird agreed that the average Notable MiS!lionary Farewell.-At Anglo-Indian showed considerable op- the end of June good. by was said to 46 position to missions and missionaries. missionaries, male and female, who This position was oontroverted by Sir were proceeding to India, China, and W. Muir, who maintained that the great Africa to take part in the evangelization bulk of the Europeans in India were of the world, on the completion of their friendly disposed toward Christian en- studies at the training colleges under terprise. Miss Sorabji gratefully ac- the presidency of Dr. Grattan Guinness.
knowledged the kindness of the English It is reported that t.he Guinness family during the time that she had been pur- have been instrumental in equipping suing her medioal studies. The collec- 1092 missionaries for the foreign field tioll on behalf of the zenana Bible and ill connection with the noble institu- medical mission realized over £4000. tions of Harley House and "Doric Japan.-Bishop Edward Bickersteth, Lodge." respectively occupied by male of Japan, in addressing a pastoral letter and female students. A hundred misto his clergy, says that the spiritual sionaries and their wives of various sowants of English people residing there cieties are stationed on the Congo.
and of the continually increasing num- Uganda.-Respecting the position in ber of -travellers who Rojourn in that Uganda, an important paper is forth- empire, are as adequately provided for coming from the pen of the Rev. W. J. Smith, an active member of the Church Welsh Churches and Foreign Mis.. Missionary Society's Committee. He sions.-There is every probability that will endeavor to show upon the strong. the Welsh Nonconformists, who have est evidence that French influence has been accustomed to send their contribufor a long time been used in plotting tions for foreign missions through the against the British power in Eastern channels of English societies, will ere- Equatorial Africa, and that the hostili. long arrange to have their distinct orties are due far more to political intrigue ganizations in the Principality. The than to religious strife. There is every Welsh Calvinists have for some time probability tliat the Uganda mission- adopted this procedure, and the Baptists aries will endeavor to remain in the are beginning to follow on the same country even though the British East track. Africa Company resolves to withdraw at the close of the present year. Bequests to Missions_-By the will of Mr. Douglas Henty, a Chichester Missionary Re-enCorcements. – It brewer, who died last February, and has recently been decided by the Board who at one time had several race·horses of Directors of the London Missionary in training, a sum of £50,000 comes to Society to locate the 100 additional mis- five missionary and Bible societies. On sionaries, whom it is proposed to send the settlement of the estate being comout in the course of the next four years, pleted, the executors are to give priority approximately as follows: China and to legacies of £15,000 to the British and India, 35 each; Maaagascar, 10 ; Africa, Foreign Bible Society, £10,000 to the 15; Polynesia and New Guinea, 5. London City Mission, £10,000 to the Late appointments include three Welsh Irish Church missions, £10,000 to the students for work abroad. By the im- Church Missionary Society, and £5000 petus of the "Forward Movement" to the Moravian missions. chiefly, the funds of the Society" have arrived at a condition hitherto unpre- A south of England member of the cedented during its whole history," an Society of Friends has just given the increased income of £35,000 for the large sum of £20,000 to erect and endow year being reported. a home for the training of missionaries.
A feature of the celebration of the The late Mr. Gawin Kirkham.-To hundredth anniversary of the founding this faithful preacher of the Cross, of the Baptist :Nlissionary Society was whose lamented death in May laqt dean international gathering over which prived the Open-Air Mission in England Dr. George Smith, the Foreign lfission- of its director for thirty years, some ary Secretary of the Free Church of form of memorial is contemplated. In Scotland, presided, and America was conjunction with Mr. John Macgregor represented by Dr. Pierson, to whom so (" Rob Roy"), Mr. Kirkham wa~ one of much of the current missionaryawaken- the pioneers of opell..air preaching, and ing in Great Britain is attributed. The scarcely, at one time, was there a race Centenary Fund has reached £85,000. or fair held in any part of Great Britain The Society has accepted for foreign where Mr. Kirkham might not have service Mr. Cannon for South Africa, been found preaching with intense ferand Mr. T. Randall for Balololand, both vor to hundreds and even thousands of students at Regent's Park CoJlege. listeners. He travelled on the same er- rand over the continent and in distant In view of the approaching jubilee of colonies. His journeys in 1891, in pur the Primitive Methodist Missionary So- suit of his all-absorbing vocation, ex· ciety, a special fund for extension work tended over 12,600 miles, during which of £50,000 is to be raised. toward which he addressed at least an aggregate of £14,000 was promised at the conference 43,000 persons. By rare organizing in Norwich during June last. gifts and unwearied devotion, Mr. Kirk- . ham gave prominence to the Society, States has been until recently carried on which to-day has an effective roll of under several independent boru:ds, rep- 1123 members. A man of fervid zeal, resenting as many synods, or in certain he yet always avoided friction with the cases unions of synods. But the proc- authorities, and simil9.rly urged his co- ess of consolidating it into a single workers to adopt the principle of mod- whole, which has been going on for eration. The office of secretary, which several months, was completed April he so ably filled, has been undertaken 19th, when the last of the separate by Sir Robert Phayre, whose services boards closed its accounts, and was in- will be gratuitously rendered. corporated with the general board.
The Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, -Rev. John Mackie, of Kingston, England, has been appointed a member .Ont., has received $10,000 from a genof the Advisory Council by the General tleman of that city for the home and Committee on Religious Congresses, foreign missions of the Presbyterian which will be held in connection with Church of Canada. the World's Columbian Exposition. South America.-Information comes Monthly Bulletin, that a missionary of the American Bible Society, Senor Aristides Castro, has -Miss Emma Bradley, of Chicago, been mobbed in Ayacucho, Peru. He has founded a mission school at her had been sent to that city with six own expense in the slums of that city. boxes of Bibles, which he tried to sell, She makes her home in the rear of the when the inhabitants began to protest.
school building, and shares her food At last he was compelled to seek refuge with a number of poor people, and this in his lodgings. One afternoon the at her own table. house was broken into by an armed· -Wooster University, Ohio, exhib- mob. Senor Castro was not found, but ited its missionary enthusiasm when it the stock of Bibles and his personal gave Dr. S. H. Kellogg, a LL.D., as he property were taken out into the street was about to return to India, and sent and publicly burned.
the honorary reward of toil and scholar- –In Paramaribo the work of the Moship, D.D., to two of its foreign mis- raians continues to be highly blessed. sionary graduates, J. M. Kyle, of Brazil, No fewer than 97 persons were at one and J. N. Wright, of Persia. time recently added to the communi.
-At the Catholic Cathedral in Mil- cants.
waukee, not long since, 110 children, Great Britain.-A most impressive 60 girls and 50 boys, were confirmed by scene was recently witnessed in the Archbishop Katzer. The archbishop committee-room of the Church Misaddressed the children on "The means sionary Society. No fewer than 20 of preserving the grace of confirma. ladies, who had been accepted for ser· tion," and on the following day pledges vice, were introduced to the committee. of abstinence from intoxicating liquor Never before have so many recruits and tobacco were administered to the been welcomed in one body. boys who the day before were con- firmed. -India has sent a missionary to Eng- -The Presbyterian Church, South, land, Miss Soonderbai Powar, a native sends out this year 17 newly appointed high caste Hindu, who comes to point missionaries, distributing them between out the evils of the opium traffic. She Mexico, Brazil, the Congo, Japan, and wears an Oriental costume, but speaks Korea. English fluently.
-The missionary work of the (Ger- -Gospel meetings at the races. A man) Reformed Church in the United strange combination, but it is what a band of English Methodists, under the comes that a scheme will soon be inlead of Josiah Nix, are holding. The augurated to annihilate this form of band is composed of young men who Christian teaching and practice from dress in the latest style, but are devoted the empire. Christians. They camp on the Derby racing grounds, distribute Gospel tracts, -The Rev. George S. Davis, Superand during the intervals between races intendent of the Methodist Episcopal sing hymns and give talks. They have church in Bulgaria, states that he has done this for several years with good received from an elderly and friendly results. Four young men of Chicago Bulgarian, for the Missionary Society, have undertaken a similar work. the equivalent in property and cash of 16,000 francs. This witl net in Ameri- -Again has the Salvation Army been can gold $3112.84. under deadly fire, but has come forth unscathed. Arnold White, a man thor- Palestine. -A great sensation has been oughly competent, and with eyes only caused in Jerusalem by the introducfor the facts, has made searching in- tion of the electric light into a new and vestigation and finds only the strictest flourishing flour-mill lately started close business integrity in the handling of to the Damascus Gate. The Arabs and funds, and scaTcely any lack of busi- Jews are much puzzled to a.ccount for a ness sagacity. In particular he finds light in 'a lamp in which there is no that the Booth family either bestow oil, and while gazing with wonder, keep their services without a penny of pay, at a respectable distance. or receive but the most meagre of salaries. India.-Mr. J. N. Farquhar, of the Lon- don Society, states that" since December The Oontinent.-The French Govern- last there have been 11 baptisms from ment has conferred on the Rev. Mr. Hinduism and Mohammedanism in con- McAll the decoration of the Legion of nection with the two Bengali churches Honor. His twenty years' work for in the centre of Calcutta. Among them the evangelization of the masses in are a man, his wife, and their son, who France is expressly given as the ground were devil.worshippers, two Hindu for the distinction. widows, and a medical student. Nearly all were led to Christ by natives of the -The Rev. Max Christlieb, son of country." the late Professor Christlieb, of Bonn, expects to sail next year for Japan as a -Is it mixing politics and religion missionary. when regularly that native minister connected with the Madura Mission in -Dr. Baedeker recently gave a report his morning service brings before the in London of his travels among the per- throne of grace" the Empress of India secuted Stundists in Russia. Many of and her Parliament, the American these have been exiled to Siberia simply Board and its officers, the President of because they hold the truths of the the United States and his Cabinet, and Bible. One man, who had been in ex- all the children of the missionaries ile for four years, on returning to his throughout the world" ? native town was required to sign a paper, pledging himself not to teach, or -Rev. Abraham William, one of the preach the Gospel. The man took the oldest native pastors in the Arcot Mispaper and commenced to write, but sion, who died suddenly May 27th, ~as this was what was found on the paper: born a high.caste Hindu and became a "I, –, cannot pledge myself." He most devoted Christian. He was an was immediately marched off to Siberia untiring worker, and a preacher of for four years more. And the report power. Seldom anywhere does a man fall whose plaee it is so difficult to. fill. -It is stated that at Hyderabad, -In the Camermlns District of the a photographic studio has been opened, Basle Society 13 chapels and 2 teachers' in which the operators are all wom- houses were built last year, largely by en. The Koran forbids the making the natives, and 80 persons were bapof portraits, but the muftis have de- tized. At one dedication a chief anclared that photography cannot be in- nounced his determination to become a cluded in the prohibition, since the Christian, and straightway gave up his prophet knew nothing about it. idols and fetich objects to be burned.
-During the winter of 1891 a band -It is pleasant to read in the Pacific of 35 to 40 Ceylon Christians went at Baptist that on the Congo the deaththeir own expense on a tour to the vil- rate is less than one per cent higher lage of Liyanwala and the surrounding than in the other tropical fields occudistrict, teaching, singing, and preach· pied by the Missionary Union, Japan ing the Gospel. included. The conclusion is based on th e figures for the last seven years. -One of the latest applicants for baptism in the Wesleyan Mission in Bur- -A missionary steamer has lately mah is a niece of the late King Theebaw, been launched in Scotland for use on a bright girl of seventeen, a pupil in the Zambesi and Shire rivers_ the mission school. Ocean Realms.-A young English mis- Africa. – Thirty-six English mis- sionary to the New Hebrides, Mr. Sawer, sionaries are threatened immediate ex- who had been only two days married pulsion from Algeria by the French to a. lady who went out to become his Government. This is in order to pre- wife, was killed by cannibals. They vent trouble with the Mohammedan shot him through the heart, and murpopulation. The French Government dered and feasted on the bodies of two declares in a dispatch to Lord Salis- natives who were with him. His body bury, that they hold their own people was recovered and brought to Tungoa. (French Catholics) to the same rule, and they cannot allow of an exception -Mrs. Allan, of the Allan Steamship in favor of strangers. Line, has given $2500 to begin a Chris- tian mission in the Loo Choo Islands. -The French are pushing ahead their railroad across the Sahara. Two hun- -In 1863 the American Board retired dred and fifty miles tliwe been laid, and from the Hawaiian Islands with the the trains are running regularly from EI thought that self-support and self·man- Guerrah, on the Atlas Mountains, to the agement would be best for the Chris- Oasis of Biscara. It is proposed to end tians there. Some years since it was the line near Lake Tchad. concluded that that step was premature, and aid was once more bestowed; and -A railway which is to traverse the all along of latA in certain quarters, both African continent from east to weBt has high and low, a. reaction has been at been opened as far as a point near Ca- work toward idolatry and superstition, zengo, 140 miles from the starting. showing itself, among other ways, in point, St. Paul de Loand.a. resorting to native doctors-that is, to sorcery and the aid of demons. -King Hodge, at Bigtown, his head place, near Cape Palmas, has built a -Among the foreign contributions church, and in it personally conducts which came for the new Moravian the services. Several years ago this church at Springfield, Jamaica, was the ruler and three of his chiefs were con- sum of £6 128. 2d from the little island verted, and soon after bis wife and many of Ramah, off the Moskito Coast. It of hi~ leading people also accepted the was the result of a collection, when the Gospel; and now the whole tribe is Ramah Indians willingly contributed practically Christian. according to their ability.
The Missionary Review of the World — July 1889
~ERVING OUR OWN GENERATION
IISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE- WORLD.
VOL. XI. No. 7.-Oid Series._-JULY.-_VOL. II. No. 7.-New Seriu. , I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. SERVING OUR OWN GENERATION.
LEDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] PAUL, in the Antiochan Synagogue, significantly said of David, "He served his own generation by the will of God." * If anything especially distinguishes those foremost missionary disciples of our day-the Moravians-it is the sublime purpose to reach their own generation with the gospel. Count Zinzendorf led in this unique consecration to present service, when he chose as his motto, "That land is henceforth my country, which most needs the gospel."
To this thought we would now give emphasis: the lifetime of our generation bounds at once our work and our opportunity. What we are to give we must impart while we are living; what they are to receive from us they must get while they are yet living, We owe to our Lord an infinite debt; we can never pay it ; all we can do is to acknowledge it by service to our generation according to His will and in His name. Obviously 80 far as that debt can be paid, it can be paid only during the period which limits the generation of which we form a part. This proposition seems so simple and obvious as to need no argument. Yet, practically, it has never been accepted and acted on by the church in modern times, nor at any time since the apostolic age.
There are two sorts of service we may render to humanity: one is immediate and transient, the other is remote and permanent.
For example: a confbgration sweeps over some great metropolis, consuming every conbustible dwelling and leaving thousands of families without clothing, food or shelter. Manifestly, every true fellow-citizen owes to the naked, starving, homeless, an immediate and imperative duty which can be done only now. The first necessity is to rally universally to put out the fire, save those now imperilled and perishing, and feed, clothe and house the destitute. After these present and pressing needs are met, it behooves us to make permanent provision against like calamities hereafter, preventing such catastrophies by securing a more adequate water supply, a better equipped fire department, and a fire-proof class of buildings. But only fools or monsters * Acts xiii : 36. would meet to consult about such permanent preventive measures while the fire was yet raging or the multitudes were yet starving or freezing! Humanity and philanthrophy instinctively impel us to re- lieve immediately the peril of the perishing. '
God has committed to the church a double work. Undoubtedly there are remote and permanent results at which we are to aim, even the laying of broad and firm foundations for the evangelization and edifi- cation of future generations. We are to erect Ohristian homes, churches, schools, colleges, seminaries; provide translations of the Word of God and a Ohristian literature, thus simplifying the work of each succeed- ing generation, lessening the labor, facilitating the process, accelera- ting the progress of the work, for all time to come. But, me:1nwhile, we must not overlook what is even a more pressing duty and'privilege, viz.: 1.oe must not permit this1!eneration to die unsaved, so far as our consecrated labor can prevent it. No activity in providing for future generations can atone for our inactivity in providing for our own generation, which first of all we are to serve, by the will of God, with the gospel.
We pray God that this one thought may press with mighty and resist- less weight upon the heart and conscience of every believer. When Ohrist said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," he must have meant that those to whom he spoke should go forth and reach those who were then living. That command is of perpetua.l force. It applies to every new generation of believers; and it means that, in every successive age, the church shall both undertake and overtake this great work. If it seem too great, he reminds us that omnipotence is His: "All power;" omnipresence is His: "Lo, I am with you;" eternity is His: "Alway, even unto the end of the age."
And, if the church will take up this work faithfully, He will supple- ment all her efforts with His omnipotent, omnipresent, perpetual co- operation.
How the church may serve its own generation has an example in Scripture history. The so-called Acts of the Apostles is a book, the very frame work of which has a strange meaning. It covers just about thirty-three years, the average lifetime of a generation. It reveals the infant church, receiving its" infant baptism," its anointing ofthe Holy Ghost for service; and then undertaking to reach every "nation" and "every creature" with the proclamation of the gospel. The book covers only the period of a single genemtion, as though to show us what was possible even then, with a few disciples who had no wealth, no learning, no social standing; no modern facilities for travel and transportation, for translation and publication and distribution of the word of God, for acquiring and utilizi"!1g foreign tongues; and, as though to demonstrate to each succeeding generation of believers what could be done and what should be attempted, as the progress of the ages should put at their disposal new and marvellous helps to the work.
How did .those primitive disciples undertake the work of serving their own generation by the will of God? As John Wesley said, they were" All at it and always at it." The first glimpse we get of the apostolic church reveals the disciples, men and women, meeting for ten days of continuous prayer, waiting before God for the gift of the Promised Spirit. They had from Christ a verbal commission; now they tarried for that enduement and endowment which were to become a new and actual and dynamic commission: they had the message; now they waited for the power. The only time that was "lost" for the direct work, was the time" saved" in getting the divine preparation for the work. Then, at once, on that very day of Pentecost, the actual business of bearing the message of life to every nation and every creature was systematically begun. Peter's unfolding of pruphecy and of the history that fulfilled it, was the means of bringing 3,000 hearers to the immediate acceptance of Christ as Messiah and Saviour.
That was' the first step. What was the second? Those converted souls became witnesses for God and the gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Read this explicit narrative. Why is the Inspiring Spirit so careful to leave on record the wide representation gathered in that Pentecostal assembly? Four verses in the second chapter are given to the brief delineation of the Pentecostal Descent of Power: the fulness of time, the one accord in one place, the sudden sound from heaven, the three symbolic expressions of the Holy Spirit-the wind or breath, the invisible secret of communicated life; the fire, that represents light, or knowledge, heat, or love-that purifies what 18 most precious and consumes what is worthless; and the cloven ton.tue, that represents the VOICE, that sign and signal and symbol of intelligence and affection, multiplied to meet the ears of all strange peoples.
The next eight verses are given to the delineation of the wide territory represented in that Pentecostal gathering. "There were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven." And subsequently minuter particulars are added: they are from the remote East, Parthia and Media; from the north, Pontus, and the shores of the Black Sea; from the south, Arabia and Egypt; from the west, Crete and even Rome. In other words, every quarter and almost every portion of the known world is represented in that audience and in that anointing. Ears accustomed to strange tongues hear in those foreign dialects the story of redemption, and tongues accustomed to foreign speech begin to tell the story to others. What is the Spirit doing? Not simply bringing the message to the ea.rs of all nations in one gathering, but raising up and equipping a great body of heralds to bear the good tidings back to their own peoples. Let lis not attach too narrow a meaning to that phrase, "dwellinJ! at Jerusalem." * These were probably not permanent inhabitants, otherwise they would not have been more familiar with foreign tongues than with their own Jewish language, or the current Hellenistic dialect; they were proba- bly either Jewish proselytes or foreign Jewish residents, who were tem- porarily residing at Jerusalem to keep the sacred feasts, and who would, sooner or later, return to their own homes, going to all points of the compass to carry the good news of salvation. The Eunuch of Ethiopia has generally been regarded as such a proselyte, who, on his return from the sacred city to Ethiopia, was reading Isaiah's prophecy, deeply absorbed in what he has heard at Jerusalem, and who, on be- ing taught by Pl:;tilip, and illumined by the Holy Spirit, went on his way rejoicing; and, as traditon states, together with the evangelist Mark, founded the church at Alexandria.
But we autictipate. The natural, conservative, concentrative ten- dency of the Hebrew converts would lead to their prolonged iltay at Jerusalem. On the one hand there was the old exclusive jealousy of Jerusalem as the capital city and only nucleus of the Jewish state and church; and on the other hand there was the exclusive spirit of Judaism that shut in all Jews, and shut out all Gen- tiles as common and unclean. God interposed to prevent the church from u tarrying at Jerusalem" after being "endued with power from on high." First, He dispersed those disciples by persecution and while the apostles were still at Jerusalem, the great body of be- lievers were scattered abroad, and went every where preaching the word. t And, secondly, He taught Peter, who was both a leader in evangelism and in exclusivism, a threefold lesson on the house-top, that what God had cleansed no man must call common. Here, then, were the three grand conditions of universal evangelism: a universal commission and endl1ement, a general scattering of disciples in all di- rections, and a rebuke of all exclusive Jewish prejudices.
The church of apostolic times heeded the voice and finger of God, and took up, straightway, the work of preaching the gospel to their generation. They all undertook to reach all men God gave suc- cessive Pentecosts, as He always will when the work is done in His own fashion. The outpouring in Jerusale~ was followed by another in Samaria nnder Philip, and another in Oornelius's palace under Peter, and another in Ephesus under Paul,-and so Jew, Samaritan, Ro- man and Greek-all had typical blessings.
Another step must be noted: the division ofthe world-field. So vast a terriiory could not be covered 'in one generation without system There wert several conspicuous" pillars" of the church, leaders of the Lord's host: Peter, James, John; and, later, Paul was added.
*KilTou'oiJV're~. tActs viii : 1-4; xi : 19-21. There were at least four classes of peoples to be looked after-converted Jews in Judea, dispersed Jews in the East, Greeks and Romans. A glance at the Acts of the Apostles and at Galatians 1 : 7-10, will show that there was a distinct und~rstanding entered into and acted upon that there should be a divisiou of labor. James seems to have become the guardian of converted Hebrews in Judea; Peter, to have gone eastward to the Dispersed Tribes about Babylon; John, to have nourished the church in Ephesus, the center of Greek civilization and Diana worship; and Paul to have set his face toward Rome and Gaul. There were doubtless minor subdivisioJ).s of labor, but these cardinal points in the compass of the work are conspicuous. In the book of Acts, after the first ten chapters, Peter disappears from view, because the book is mainly designed to tell us how the doors were opened to the Gentile world, entered by the apostle of the Gentiles. But we are not necessarily to suppose Peter to have been any less active or successful among the circumcision than Paul among the uncircumcision.
Now we have no record of Peter's activity in evangelism, but we may take Paul's as a specimen of how one believer in the early church served his own generation. We find this one man going within thirtythree xears over most of the known world west of the Golden Horn, from Antioch to Athens, from Jerusalem to Rome, and, as some think, to Spain and Britain. And the astounding result of such evangelistic activity on the part of th~ whole church is that Paul is able to write to the Oolossians, before his death, which must have been, of course, before Nero's death, which was in A. D. 68: "The gospel is come unto you as it is in all the world;" and again, "the gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature (or, in all creation, R. V.) under heaven." * Making all allowance for a legit- imate generality of I:'tatemen t, we find it difficult to get away from this fact that, within thirty-five years after our Lord ascended, the gospel had been carried throughout the known world. That generation of believers gave the gospel to that same generation of unbelievers as it has never been done since!
There has been a long, a criminal delay of the church in taking up the enterprise of a world's evangelization. While we have been" playing at missions," fifty generations have come and gone, without one generatiou of them all being overtaken with the gospel! It is believed that, since the days of our Lord, the average of a generation has been from about one-third to one-half of the present popUlation of the globe, say 600,000,000. If so, the aggregate of these fifty generations has been 30,000,000,000 or twenty times the entire present population of the globe! Of course we can form no conception of such a vast host. To march by us in procession, day and night, ten abreast • Colossians i : 6-23; 1 Thess. i: 6·7. passing each second, such a multitude would require nearly a centur,y! Each generation thus perishing without Christ has gone to accuse the church before God of the double crime of unfaithfulness to the Saviour and neglect of souls.
Meanwhile, during all these fifty generations, the church has been suffering injury in every vital interest. The connection between evangelistic activity and evangelical purity is natural and necessary. Dr. Duff rang out this as with a voice of thunder. Shaftesbury testified that the most potent remedy for current unl:>elief, skepticism and ungodliness, is to be perpetually busy in work for souls. And Dr. Hitchcock, almost with his last breath, declared that the church that has no missionaries will soon have no ministers. The primitive church still stands a model and a pattern of purity of faith and fidelity of work. Never was evangelism so universal, both as to those who undertook it and as to those who were reached by it. Ever since, and down to our day, the best churches in every respect have been those which are foremost as aggressive missionary bodies. In fact, the guage of church life has come to be, what we are doing for lost souls outside of ourselves.
But, most of all, this thought oppresses us, that for fifty generations Christ has been waiting to see of the travail of His soul and to be satisfied. Missions have an intensely vital relation to the person of our Lord. He left certain representative commands-commandswhich center about His own personality: "Follow thou ME 1" "Do this, in remembrance of ME"; "Go ye: and 10, I am with you." Weare identified with Him; we are to share His travail, His yearnings, His sorrows, His vicarious agonies;* yes, and His conquest, His satisfaction, His coronation, too. How can we be Christ's, and yet have none of His passion for souls? How escape travailing in birth for souls until Christ be formed in them ?t Upon the banners of the church let us emblazon, as in letters of light, our motto: THE WORLD FOR CHRIST IN OUR OWN GENERATION; and let us take up the work anew, with a firm purpose, by God's help, to overtake eveOry living soul with the message of the Gospel before this generation shall pass away 1 God is in haste to cut short this work in righteousness. In a reverent sense, Dr. Gordon has reversed the old adage, and says, "God's extremity is man's opportunity." We, who are His disciples, must come up on higher ground. Our platform must be one of abso- lute self-surrender to Him for service to our own generation. We must be willing, now and here, to say, "Lord, I am ready to do what- soever Thou shalt appoint." In simple obedience to that last command, without a secular spirit, a calcula:ting hyper-caution, a dependence on worldly patronage, a distrust of adequate support, without wait- *0010s8. i:24. tGal. Iv: 19. ing for the whole church to recognize her obligation or attempt to"
discharge it, those who do feel the mighty pressure of these great facts and truths must covenant with God and each other, that this generation shall not pass away till all this work be done I This conception of evangelism grows upon the writer until it is difficult to think of anything else. God has given to the church of our day a material equipment for this work which is as far in advauce of apostolic days as the speed of steam and lightning is ahead of camels and horses. Every resource is divinely at our disposal. We can go round the earth in ninety days, and girdle it with electricity in ninety seconds. Steam cars wait to carry us wherever engineering can construct a track, and steamboats are ready to float us wherever rivers run. The printing press will multiply the healing leaves of the tree of life as fast as we can scatter them, and the common school, now fast becoming universal, offers to fit every man to read the Scripture in his own tongue. God has flung all the doors open, and every land is now a Macedonia whose voice is, "Come over and help us/' Back of the missions of a century there stand results so amazing that even unbelievers confess the finger of God. In front of the mission band lie unoccupied territories, inviting the plowman and the sower, and white harvest fields demanding the reaper with his sickle. .AJ3 to money, if one-tenth of the treasure now in the coffers of Christians in England and America were put on the altar of sacrifice, it would suffice to multiply all that is now spent on the entire mission field~ two hundredfold. Do we realize what that means? It means twelve hundred thousand missionaries in the field, or one to every eight hundred of the unevangelized; it means churches, schools and colleges in every heathen, pagan, papal, and Moslem community; it means the blessing long since promised, when all the tithes are brought into the store-house,-a blessing poured out until there be none left to pour ouf; 1* Here is a magnificent material equipment, but it is a machine without an adequate motor. All the combined energy of the flesh will never set this huge mechanism in motion. There is bnt one Power equal to the emergency; it is the vital spark that flashes from above, and only prevailing prayer can bring that spark down. The whole church of Gou should be on her knees, pleading and waiting for the celestial fire. Let that descend, and every wheel will move and every lever play; money will be outpoured like water; life will offer its vitality and vigor, and, better than treasure or life, LOVE will count no cost dear, no toil hard, no load heavy, when Jesus leads and souls are dying! We write these words with the conviction taking hold like a taproot upon the depths of our being, that it is both practicable and *lIIalachI3: 10. See Hebrew.
MUSTARD SEEDS OF MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA
possible to preach the Gospel to every human being before this generation passes away!
THE MUSTARD SEED OF MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
BY REV. LEWIS GROUT, WEST BRATTLEBOROUGH, VT.
IT was a little more than 150 years ago, or in 1737, that George Schmidt began to tell the story of the cross to a little company of darkminded Hottentots at Bavian's Kloof, 130 miles out from Cape Town. This little nook at length took on the more beautiful and appropriate name Genadendal. or "Vale of Grace." Having built a house, planted a garden, set out a few fruit trees, taught some of the people to read the Scriptures, and gathered a few of them into the fold of Christ, the Dutch settlers began to put such hindrances in the way of his work that, at the end of seven years, he was obliged to give up and leave the field. And yet, the seed he sowed, though much of it laY" buried long, was neither lost nor forgotten. After a lapse of 50 years the way was opened for others to come in and renew the work. Reaching the same field, "the Vale of Grace," to their great joy, in a few remains of the old mission walls, a few fruit trees still in bearing, and, most of all, in a few praying souls, they found glad mementoes and proof of the good work there begun in the years of long ago, and among the rest an aged Hottentot woman, whom SchmIdt had baptized, who still remembered her beloved teacher, had, indeed, a Bible he had given her, and rejoiced exceedingly when she was told that the new missionaries were his brethren. This new mission, though for a time greatly opposed by the Dutch, was greatly blessed of God. The enterprise, there and thus begun, has continued to grow until that" Vale of Grace" is now able to show a large and prosperous settlement, and a congregation of more than three thousand members, and from this blessed center the good work of theMoravians has gone on to prosper and extend till it now includes two South African provinces with 16 stations, 60 missionaries, and more than 12,000 converts to the Christian faith.
It was not long after Schmidt's immediate successors revived his work, that the London Missionary Society was formed (1795) and began to seek some one who should be suited to the same pioneer work of carrying the light of the Gospel to the benighted tribes of Africa. Nor was it long before they found such a man in the person of John Theodosius Vanderkemp, of Holland. Having pursued a five years' course of training at the University of Leyden, distinguished himself as captain of horse and lieutenant of dragoon guards in the army, taken a course of study in the classics, both ancient and modem, in the natural sciences, and in philosophy, at Edinburgh, and then risen to great repute in the practice of medicine, and been subject, meantime, to much severe discipline at the hands of the Lord, at the age of fifty he responded to the call to be a leader in raising the standard of t116 cross in one of the darkest parts of the earth, and entered upon his work in 1799 at the Cape of Good Hope. Having labored for a time among the slaves, Mohammedans and Hottentots here at the Cape, and awakened a deep interest in his mission on the part of the colonists, he set forward for the regions beyond; and then to the northeast, among Hottentots, Kafirs, and other tribes, shrinking from no labor or peril, however great, he did a marvellous work for Christ and his poor. Often opposed, often persecuted, yet never yielding, he devoted himself with great diligence and fidelity, for 13 years, to the cause he loved; and then, with a few farewell words, went suddenly to the rest his Lord ~ad prepared for him in "the better country." The station which Vanderkemp founded at Bethelsdorf continued to prosper, and the work he began under the auspices of the London Society went on to develop and extend until it has already raised up more than a hundred native preachers, brought about 6,000 souls into the church, and won to its instruction about 30,000 adherents.
'1'he Wesleyan Missionary Society began work in South Africa in 1814. Extending its operations by degrees from the Oape Colonyinto, Kaffraria, Natal, and the Bechuanaregions, it now numbers 40 stations, 60 missionaries, and more than 6,000 church members. The Rhenish Society, which commenced operations in this field in 1829, now numbers more than 10,000 members. The Berlin began in 1833 and has 8,000 members. The American Board, which entered the field in 1834, has grown into three missions, the Zulu, the East African, and the West African, and now numbers 30 stations, 48 laborers from America, more than 40 native assistants, about 2,000 under instruction and 7,000 adherents. Besides these, the French Protestant Missionary Society is doing a large and blessed work among the Bechuana and other tribes. The Norwegians are laboring among the Zulus, the Scotch among the Kafirs, the Hanoverians and the Ohurch of England in Natal and Zululand.
These, with a few other organizations, make more than a dozen societies at work in South Afri~a, occupying more than 200 stations, and employing about 500 foreign laborers, besides a much larger force of native helpers. Of the success and value of these labors we get some idea when we find it estimated that not less than 40,000 souls have been brought in this way into the Redeemer's fold, 50,000 children gathered into Ohristian schools, and 100,000 men and women blessed with the direct teaching of the gospel of Ohrist.
Similar labors have been bestowed upon other parts of the continent, and similar results achieved. Well nigh every Christian nation is coming to have a mission, one or more, in some part of that long-neglected land. The mustard seed which the Lord used George Schmidt to plant 150 years ago, in the Southern angle of the continent, though it lay, in
HE BOOK OF ACTS AND THE WORLD'S EVANGELIZATION
a measure, hid for half a century, has taken deep root, sent up a vigorous stem, and sent out many a strong and fruitful branch. The successes of the past, the openings of the present, and the demand for the future should awaken a redoubled devotion to the blessed work. In no age of the world, in no history of continents, can anything be found so surprising as the discoveries and developments made in Africa since the days of those pioneer missionaries, Schnirlt and Vanderkemp. It would take long to tell how her bays have been sounded since their time, how her plains have been spanncd, her mountains scaled, her rivers threaded, lakes discovered, diamonds found, and a goodly number ' of grand highways projected into even "';he remotest parts of that, till of late little known, yet most marvellous land of the sun; and all under the gracious ordering of the Lord, that men freighted with the blessings of the gospel of God's own dear Son might enter and occupy. EthIopia, all Africa, is on tiptoe of expectancy, only waiting to know who God is, that she may stretch out her hands unto Him, and be lifted into His truth and grace.
THE BOOK OF AOTS AND THE WORLD'S EVANGELIZA- TION.
BY PROF. A. W. PITZER, WASHINGTON, D. C.
THE Book of Acts was written by a Gentile physician, who was the intimate associate of the special Apostle to the Gentiles and his companion in the work of evangelization. It is not a record of disconnected facts and incidents in the lives of the Apostles, but an accurate and scientific history of what Jesus continued to do after His ascension, through His spirit, His word and His servants. The principles and patterns of all missionary work, in all lands, among all peoples, until time shall be no more, are contained in this precious book; and as the church addresses herself more and more eagerly to the great and blessed work of preaching the gospel to every creature, she will also turn with ever-increasing delight to this noblest of all missionary records for guidance, for strength and for comfort.
Until our Lord shall return in bodily presence from the heavens, the elements of the missionary problem will never be essentially different from what they were when Luke prepared this record: A risen Lord on his Father's throne in glory; an omniscient and omnipresent Spirit; a living Word, written by men inspired by the Holy Ghost; living men and women, filled with the Spirit and thus endued with power to be witnesses for Ohrist; a lost race, without God and without hope either for this world or the next; the command of the King, H Go ye"; and the limit of labor-Ci into all the world."
In this Apostolic constitution and by-laws of the First Missionary Society there is a conspicuous absence of elaborate and intricate machinery, of minute rules and regulations for the guidance of the missionaries, ot endowed colleges and seminaries for training ministers, of multiplied scholastic requirements before anyone should preach the gospel-in fact, many things now thought to be indispensable, were not, at that time, even so much as thought of.
And yet the old Roman Empire extended from north to south more than 1,500 miles, and from east to west more than 2,000 miles, and included Medes, Parthians, Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Cretes, Arabs, Greeks, and many other tribes and tongues of Europe. ChrIst was the Captain, the Word was the instrument, believers were the agents, power was to come from the Holy Ghost; the only waiting to be done by the missionaries was for Him: He would endue them for their work, then they must start, and never stop until the gospel had been preached among all nations as God's witness.
Not the apostles only, but all disciples, were to go everywhere preaching the gospel. The duty of evangelizing the world was not laid upon a chosen few, with superb scholastic attainments, who could discuss gnosticism and polytheism with the scientists of that era; but every disciple who felt in his own soul the power of the Holy Ghost, was to go forth, and as the one supreme business of his life tell his fellow-men what he personally knew of Jesus of Nazareth; they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and went everywhere evangelizing.
We hear much in these days of new and difficult problems, and of new and special difficulties in the missionary work. But there are no new problems, and no special difficulties. The problems and difficulties that confront the missionary of to-day confronted the missionary of the Apostolic age. Heathenism, polytheism, philosophical speculations, sacramentarianism, polygamy, drunkenness, licentiousness, prize-fights, theatres, party spirit, persecutions, unknown languages, different tribes, tongues, races, slavery-these were in the world then, they are in the world now. The Book of Acts is a perfect Manual of Missions for all Christians, in all lands, among all peoples, through all ages, until the gospel has been preached to all nations as God's witness and the end shall come, and the Lord shall return.
The gospel proclaimed by apostolic Christians came in contact and conflict with every phase and form of human existence; in contact and conflict with Jewish bigotry, with Grecian idolatry, with Roman cruelty, with Cyprian licentiousness, with Ephesian magic, with Corinthian luxury, with Lystrian barbarism, with Sadducean skepticism, with Epicurian agnosticism-in contact with race prejudice, caste, polygamy, slavery, the drink traffic and the social evil; and the testimony oJ the humble witnesses, under the power of the Holy Ghost, was indeed the power of God unto salvation; and the men and women of all classes and conditions, of al~ races and tongues, turned from idolatry and vice to serve the living God and to wait for his son, Jesus Christ, from heaven. What problem or difficulty can meet the evan-
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS
gelists of to-day that did not meet the evangelists of the first Christian century? Within the pale of the church, then, there were mistakes of jndgment, and sins in conduct; there were legalism and Antinomianism; excesses and excitements; false teachers and bad doctrine; dissentions and factions; backsliders and apostates; but in spite of all these evils, the work went on, believers were multiplied on every hand, churches were organized and Christ was honored.
After eighteen centuries, the church of this age finds itself engaged in the evangelization of the world; and we call this the era of univerversal missions, when many questions of urgent interest cry aloud for answer; the sphere and functions of Missionary Boards, the powers of the evangelist, the relation between the home and foreign churches, the status of heathen converts, churches and ministers, the erection and support of schools and colleges, female missionaries, medical missions, the uses of cI,"eeds, denominational comity, increase of heathen populations, Mohammedanism and Buddhism. Whatever answers may be given to these questions, the fact remains that all the essential elements of the missionary problem are precisely the same to-day that they were in the apostolic age of the church. As regards evangelization, there is no new thing under the sun. In every perplexity and difficulty the disciple of Ohrist may turn with confident hope to this Missionary Manual for light and guidance; he will not here search in vain for either principle or practice, for example or illustration.
THE MIRAOLES OF MISSIONS.
. WORK AMONG THE WY'NDS IN IJLASGOW.* [EDITORIAL-A. T. P.] LOVE is omnipotent. Wherever passion for souls burns there we may find a new mount of transfiguration, where the earthly takes on the complexion of the heavenly. Let us find an example of the power of such love and holy passion in one of the citief: of Scotland.
It is now a little more than forty years ago since a young man of 23 undertook work as an agent in the Glasgow Oity Mission. Even before he was fully accepted as a missionary by the directors of the work, he began his apprenticeship by visits at every house in one of the lowest districts, and by conversing with every person there encountered, as to eternal things. The whole salary he was to receive for a year's work was less than two hundred dollars; and the section of the city appointed to him was especially needy and destitute, and particularly difficult as a field of labor. It had never yet been occupied and was in the worst respect pioneer ground. It has been well said that he who is not ready to preach the gospel everywhere and anywhere is fit to preach nowhere; and we are more and more persuaded that if every candidate for the office of the ministry were first tried in some such field it would prove a training in its way more profitable than any • John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides. London: Hodder& Stoughton. discipline in the classroom, and would "shake the napkin at the four corners," and disclose whether or not there were in it even "one talent" for winning souls. What a preparation for practical dealing with men and women and children; with people of every variety of temper and temperament, of thought and opinion, of character and life, would such an experience be !
But we anticipate. The young man, who took up that work in that most degraded district in the great Scotch Manchester, was John G. Paton; afterwards the devoted missionary to the New Hebrides, a man whose biography, just issued from the press of Hodder & Stoughton, is uusurpassed for stimulating and inspiring narrative by any existing story of heroism. Mr. Paton found that many families around the Green street of Oalton had never been visited by any TYbinister; and there were lapsed church members who, for ten and even twenty years, had never been in a church building, and had been called on not even by a Ohristian visitor. Of course, in such classes and courts the worst conditions of society were to be found. Drunkenness, infidelity, licentiousness, blasphemy, ran riot; and there was no religion to set up any barrier against them save Romanism in it~most ignorant and superstitious form. Sin and vice walked about openly, naked and not ashamed.
Four hours a day were spent in house-to-house visits. Little prayer circles, or larger evening meetings, with personal sympathetic contact, were the means mostly used to reach and relieve all this misery of soul and body. A Sabbath evening evangelistic service was very needful; but the only available place for it was a hay-loft, with cowstalls below and a rickety wooden staircase as an outside approach. After a year's hard work Mr. Paton could show only six or seven nonchurch goers whom he had persuaded to come regularly to this rude assembly room, besides about as many more who on a week night met in a humble room of a house of the poor. That very house was a scene of gospel triumphs. The hardworking Irishwoman who lived there had a husband whob the demon of drink turned into a monster, and who cruelly beat her and pawned for accursed rum everything of value. Through the influence of these night meetings this man became a total abstainer, abandoned his evil doing, and not only attended Sabbath worship regularly, but urged others both to become abstainers from drink and attendants at worship. '.rhis man and thi!:! woman became the first real helpers of Mr. Paton in his self-denying work in the wynds of Glasgow.
Still the results of twelve months' work were so small that the directors inclined to abandon Green street as a hopeless and fruitless field and try some other section of t.he great city. But Mr. Paton's heart had become enlisted, and he who afterward at hourly risk of life persisted in abiding among the cannibals of Tanna, pleaded for another six months among Green street heathen. He obtained permission; and at the next meeting told his little congregation that if he could not induce more non-church-goers to attend he would be sent to work elsewhere. Few as they were, they had already learned to believe in Mr. Paton and to love him, and they remembered that first lesson in arithmetic, "two times one is two; " and so each one present agreed to come to the next meeting and bring one more. Of course that simple and easy method at once doubl~d the attendance. When people learn this practical multiplication table, it is surprising what wonders are wrought. From this time forth no house that could be had in that whole district was big enough for the meeting. A Bible class, singing class, communicants' class, Total Abstinence Society, Mutual Improvement Society, etc., were instituted. Beside the usual services, two prayer-meetings were opened for the policemen, one for those who were on day duty, and one for those on night duty. Mr. Paton now found every evening in the week occupied with his work, and every Sabbath brought two public services.
And now the hay-10ft had to be abandoned, for the owner required it, and the poor people were at a loss for any other place of assembly. The hostlers and other servants of a certain coach-hirer, lIfenzies by name, got permission to clear out another unused hay-loft, and at their own cost built an outside stairs for approach, to the great relief of the little congregation. Mr. Paton shared the general joy, but felt that if the work were to prosper, a permanent building of some sort must be had which they could control; and with the help of Thomas Binnie, Esq., secured not only a good site, but a Mission Hall was projected at Mr. Binnie's own expense. Just then a block of buildings being offered for sale, singularly adapted for the purpose, this generous benefactor persuaded Dr. Symington's congregation, in connection with which this mission work was carried on, to buy the whole block; and so, at the crisis of the work, God's providence put at the disposal of Mr. Paton and his mission buildings suitable both for evangelistic and educational work.
Of course the time had now come for reorganizing aud enlarging this work. At 7 A. M. on the Lord's Day. Mr. Paton held a class for BIble study, where from seventy to one hundred of the poorest young men and women of the vicinity were gathered. They came in their workclothes, for they had but one suit, all without coverings for their heads, and some without shoes for their feet. Mr. Paton remarked with joy how contact with the gospel brought improvement even in dress and manners. Gradually the attendants began to come in better and more complete attire, fitter for such assemblies; then they were emboldened to "go to church; " and then to bring others with them. Their teacher's joy in his work was ecstatic, but it was not reached by any dainty and delicate steps. At six o'clock every Sunday morning this indefatigable worker might have been seen running from stl'eet to sheet and from door to door for an hour, drumming up his recruits. He kuocked and called, till he roused the careless and the sleepy; and by dint of such perseverance he got together and kept together that early morning Bible class. At a later stage in its history, a band of voluntary visitors from the class itself undertook to relieve him and loolf after the irregular, indifferent and tardy members.
On Monday nights this devoted city missionary held a sort of Bible ;reading for all who chose to come; on Wednesday evenings a combined Bible lecture and prayer service that half filled the church; and on Thursdays an Intending Oommunicants' class for the instruction of those who wished to confess Ohrist and join anyone of the Protestant churches in the city. Friday evening brought a singing class for church music, and Saturday, a total abstinence meeting, in which the members themselves conducted the varied exercises. Mr. ,Paton testifies to the great influence and power of Temperance as the handmaid of the gospel. He himself being a total abstainer both from liquor and tobacco, he found himself the more able to influence others to forego these injurious indulgences.
Thus this mission, which began with so little promise, became a feeder to all the churches, training active and useful members for neighboring congregations; not only so but it became a kinll of theological seminary in which eight lads got their first lessons in Latin and Greek from Mr. Paton's little stock, and their training for the work of preaching the gospel and winning souls.
And now this Oalton Mission grew rapidly to unrivalled dimensions. From 500 to 600 were in weekly attendance, exclusively poor wageworkers and very largely mill-workers. The results were wide-reaching and far-reaching. Habits improved, personal appearance and the whole environment; many removed to better localities. But Mr. Paton kept watch and hold npon them nntil he saw them safely housed in some church. Often his four hours of daily labor which were "nominated in the bond," expanded to double that time. He trained eight or ten devoted young men and twice as many young women as visitors and tract distributors, and twice a month they went on their rounds of visits. At monthly meetings of workers, reports were made and matters of importance brought to notice. Mr. Paton fou.ud himself the head of a sort of Bureau of Tract Distribution, Relief and Employment.
All this work for God and His poor could not be carried on without antagonism. The keepers of the public houses saw the Total Abstinence Society making fearful inroads on their destructive business, and they were ready for any act of undcrhanded or openhanded violence. Mx:. Paton held, on summer nights and Saturday afternoons, Evangelistic and Total Abstinence meetings in Thomson's Lane. The top of an outside staircase furnished a ready pulpit, and the audiences were large, though the gospel had no meretricious charms of art and resthetics by which to "draw." Oomplaints were made by these tavern keepers to the captain of the police that these meetings were hurting their trade. l!'ortunately the complamt was true, though in another sense frpm that intended by the complainants. The captain happened to be himself a pious Wesleyan, and he informed Mr. Paton of the complaints and of the attendance of his police force, but bade him go on and conduct the meeting as usual. A large crowd gathered, and among them many of the dram-sellers and their minions, expecting to see the police break up the meeting and humiliate the missionary and his helpers. The police appeared in force, headed by Oaptain Baker, and the foes of the mission were jubila.nt in anticipation of a row. But the meeting proceeded in so orderly a fashion that Oaptain Baker himself surprised both friends and foes by mounting the platform and devoutly listening till the close. Thus the whiskey ring had to "wait out" the service and hear the gospel-which was not a frequent experience. And at the end of the service Oaptain Baker, instead of breaking up the meeting, or prohibiting others like it, spoke warmly in favor of the work and wished it God speed.
So the enraged dram-sellers planned another assault. The next Saturday evening, a spirit-dealer ran his van in front of the iron gateway of the church which was the only place of egress for the assembled multitude. Two young men were sent by Mr. Paton to drag away the wagon; they were seized and marched off to the police office for "injuring the whiskey-dealer'S property!" and when Mr. Paton ran after them to ask their offense, he was threatened with similar arrest if he did not cease his interference. He went with them to the station. The rumor flew that the missionary and his young men were being" taken up" by the police, and a crowd ran to the rescue; but Mr. Paton begged them to refrain from all disturbance. The lieutenant on duty was manifestly in league with the conspirators and no justice would have been done but for the interference of some gentleman who threatened to expose the whole outrage, and the accused parties were suddenly set at liberty.
Romanism and skepticism likewise opposed the work; and Mr. Paton at first tried to offset their influence by lectures with free discussion at the close, but he became satisfied that he was only advertising the devil's wares, and he abandoned all defensive methods for the simple preaching of the gospel.
We cannot close this remarkable chapter of city missions without an example or two of the wondrous power of the gospel in these Wynds. An infidel lecturer in that district was very sick and Mr. Paton was called to see him. He found him in the midst of a library of infidel publications which he eagerly circulated to poison the minds of the linwary. Whatever little he knew of the Word of God, was only sufficient to feather the arrows of his ridicule. But now he felt himself to Qe taking that awful" leap into the dark," and his mind was full of terror at the "unknown." Mr. Paton's visits were so blessed even to .that hardened sinner, that another wonder, like that of Ephesus, occurred. With cries and tears for pardon and peace, he became a penitent believer and called in all the infidel works he had set in circulation, piled them together after his wife and daughter had torn them in pieces, and he himself struck the light that turned the pile to ashes. * That man was so completely transformed by that simple gospel message that he not only abandoned his infidelity and ceased to be a panderer and procurer for the devil, but till the close of life continued to wit- ness to souls and thereby to win souls.
The district where Mr. Paton labored was so degraded and depraved that he not unfrequently came upon those who seemed to be possessed of a demon. He met an infidel whose blasphemies made even his vile neighbors shudder; and who even as death approached would not hear a word of gospel comfort, but foamed with rage and even spat at Mr. Paton when he mentioned the name of Jesus. His hatred to God seemed to drive him mad. He yelled like a demoniac, and tore to pieces his very bedclothes, till he had to be bound to his iron bed, still foammg out curses and blasphemies. When the humble missionary asked if he might pray for him, he shouted with all his remaining strength, "Pray for me to the DEVIL!" And when Mr. Paton re- minded him that he had declared that he did not believe in either God or devil, he shouted again in terrific rage, "Yes, I do believe in a devil and a God, and a just God, too; but I have hated Him in life and I hate Him in dea.th I "
Yet, even into such a "mouth of hell" went this fearless young mis- sionary, even there to rescue souls; and he did it I He was called to see a doctor who was both an unbeliever and a drunkard. In hi.s at- tacks of delirium tremens he had tried one and another method of suicide. At one time the watchers barely succeeded in dashing from his lips, after a fierce struggle, a fatal draught of prussic acid; again they caught a glimpse of a shining lancet hid in the :folds of his shirt with which he would have bled himself to death. In one of these fits of suicidal madness Mr. Paton, at his request, took his seat beside him, alone, he having first promised that he would do anything the mis- sionary would ask if everyone else might be put out of the room. After a long conversation Mr. Paton took down a dusty Bible that had long lain neglected in the closet, and after reading said: "Now, shall we pray?" "Yes," said the doctor; and kneeling beside him, the missionary whispered: "You pray first."
*Oompare Acts xix: 17-20.
NOTES FROM OUR ENGLISH CORRESPONDENT
"I curse. I cannot pray; would you have me curse God to His face? "
"You promised to do all that I asked. You must pray or try to . pray, and let me at least hear that you cannot."
"I cannot curse God on my knees; let me stand, and I will curse him; I cannot pray."
Mr. Patou gently but firmly held him on his knees, saying: "Just try to pray, and let me hear you cannot." Instantly he cried out: "0 Lord, thou knowest I cannot pray," and strove to rise up as though Satan were struggling within him to turn that beginning of prayer into a curse. But the noble winner of souls took up that unfinished prayer and continued it as though it were his own, till the old blasphemer was subdued and quiet at the feet of the Master. Then inducing him to lie down and sitting beside him till he fell asleep, Mr. Paton commended him to the care of the Lord, and slipped away to other duties. Returning later in the day, the poor victim of delirium was found in his right mind; nay, running to meet the missionary, he hugged him in his arms, crying, "Thank God, I can pray now! I rose refreshed from sleep, and for the first time in my life prayed with my wife and children; and now I shall do so every day and serve God while I live, who hath dealt" in so great mercy with me !" And so he did, joining Dr. Symington's church, and giving his medical skill to a holy ministry to God's destitute little ones, as anxious for their souls as their bodies, until he, who once could not pray, but only curse, fell sweetly asleep in Jesus, to wake where there is "no more curse."
What wonder that even anonymous letters threatening his life, and the public curses from the altar by Romish priests, and the advice of directors of the mission could not induce this brave city missionary to leave a work attended by such supernatural power of God. For ten years he struggled patiently on, though he was at one time felled to the g.round by a stone hurled.at him by a malignant Papist, and mar- vellously escaped assault after assault upon his life. While we sit quietly at home, in our easy chair, or making rousing addresses or write with burning pens on city evangelization, or the estrangement of the masses from the church, here is one man who dives into the depths of all this depravity and degradation, and demonstrates what love and the gospel can do to rescue drowning souls!
NOTES FROM OUR ENGLISH CORRESPONDENT, REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, A. S. A.
I. RELEASE OF EAST AFRICAN MISSIONARIES.
AFTER months of suspense there is rejoicing among the frIends of the English Church Missionary Society over the telegram from Zanzibar of May 5: "Mr. D. A. L. Hooper, the last of the missionaries detained by Bushiri, has arrived here safely." In conne"ction with the release of the entire band of missionaries, special acknowledgment is due to the British Consul- General, Col. Euan Smith, at Zanzibar. His energy and tact in effecting the safe arrival of the missionaries recalls the generous aid tendered to Dr. Livingstone by Sir John Kirk some 25 years ago. Since the outbreakofhos- tilities between. the Arabs and German traders, the missionaries have been imprisoned at the mission stations of Mamboia and Mpwapwa, about 160 miles from Bagamoyo. Early in February the British Consul deputed the Arab Commissioner to re-open the negotiations for the safe conduct of the missionaries to the coast. Meanwhile, March 11, a gleam of consolation was given by the French missjonaries securing the ransom of the German missionaries, numbet"ing six men and one lady, on payment of 6,000 rupees and the sunender of 12 slaves captured by the German war vessel, the Leip- sic. Subsequently rumors reached Zanzibar that the missionaries belong- ing to England were in daily apprehension of a catastrophe at the mission station. A letter from Mrs. Roscoe, a missionary's wife, dated Mamboia, March 11, and received in England April 28, showed the danger to which the brave band was exposed. The raids of the hostile natives compelled them twice to retire to the hills. In vain they tried to obtain a travelling escort. From this neighborhood Mr. Brooks, at his own risk and against the wishes of his friends, attempted at the cost of his life, to make a pas- sage. The lady correspondent had slight faith in Bushiri, which was speed- ily vedfied by his demand for a ransom as soon as he had the missionaries in his power.
Late in March the French missionaries, by request of the British authori- ties, prevailed upon Bushiri to grant the English missionaries protection from Mamboia and guaranteed arrival into Bagamoyo. Thh. port and mis- sionary station is COining in to rapid prominence. From Bagamoyo, which lies to the southwest of Zanzibar, runs the main trade route inland to Lake Tanganyika. A telegram was dispatched to England April 24, fromZanzi- bar, stating that Mr. Roscoe, of the Church Missionary Society, and his . wife, who were on their way from Mamboia to the coast, had been released by Bushiri and were then receiving the hospitality of the French mission station at Bagamoyo. This good news was darkened with the intelligence of the retention in Bushiri's camp of the Rev. W. E. Taylor, Dr. C. S. Ed- wards and MI'. D. A. L. Hooper, three of the society's missionaries, as hos- tages, for whose redemption 10,000 rupees were demanded. With commenda- ble decision the acting British Consul, Mr. Hawes, authorized the Ft"ench missionaries to pay the entire required amount.
A message dated Zanzibar, April 28, intimated that Bushiri had allowed the Rev. W. E. Taylor and Dr. Edwards to leave his quarters. Without de- lay, the missionaries, in the company of Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe, proceeded from Bagamoyo to Zanzibar, en route for Mombasa. Bushiri still detained 111'. Hooper, on the plea that he was not a missionary and did not hail either from Mpwapwa or Mamboia. Fresh negotiations resulted in his release as announced in the first telegram. Happily, the reported death of Mr. Stokes is untrue. Despite his very critical situation, he has passed through the country safely, and is now on the Victoria Nyanza, arranging for commu- nication by water with Uganda.
The unwearied efforts of Col. Euan Smith throughout the negotiations }Iave made him popular on the East African coast and in England. His de- parture from Zanzibar on a short visitto London was a signalfor an ovation at Zanzibar. In this the fOI"eign representatives, the native community, and even influential Arabs participated. Captain Wissmann cordially bade the Consul a temporary farewell, expressing his intention to encourage British Indian commerce on the German seaboard, and forthwith to open and . protect the caravan routes into the interior !rom Bagamoyo, and Bwam- bara.
Since Col. Euan Smith's arrival in England he has paid visits to the For- eign Office. He has freely communicated his views to the Church Mission- ary Society with regard to the outlook in East AfrIca. With Great Britain the Sultan remains friendly. In suppressing slavery the combined blockade of Germany, England and the other powers had been most effective. The conveyance of slaves by sea had been almost entirely checked. A less fa- vorable statement is made respecting the stoppage of the importation of arms and ammunition. These were landed among general cargoes in large dhows. The Colonel denies the truth of the charge made in the English House of Commons, that slave dhows carried the French flag, or that let- ters of marque were given to such craft by French Cousuls. With reference to German colonization, the Colonel spoke of an interview with Captain Wissmann at Zanzibar. He believed him to be a man of great power and I knowledge, whose experience would undoubtedly help him in hi,; mission.
The latest telegram, May 5, states that the hostilities between Captain Wissmann and Bushiri are imminent neal' Bagan-lOYo. The German force numbers about 400 men, composed of Europeans, Soudanese, Tomalis and Zulus. His purposed by the Germans to restore law at Lundi, Kilwa, Dar- as-Salaam, Pangani and Tonga, and to make a re-conquest of the stations Usagara, Usegua, Ukami and Nguro, belonging to the German East African Company. Along the coast-line from Wanga to Rovuma Bay a pax Ger- manica will, if possible, be impol'ed. Gl'ave apprehensions are felt regard- ing the issues of the ensuing conflid on the mission centres situated in East Central Africa.
P.S.-We append the following telegrams, which are creating much ex- citement in English missionary and colonial circles: " ZANZIBAR, May 9. .. There was a decided engagement yesterday between Captain Wissmann and Bushiri, the former being assisted by a detachment of 200 German sailors. Bushiri's camp was captured and destroyed, and his followers dispersed. His loss was 70 killed and 20 prison- srs. One German naval officer was killed and several of Captain Wissmann's officers were wounded. Forty black soidiers were killed. Bushiri has escaped."
"BERLIN, May 10. "Captain Wissmann's victory over the Arab insurgent leader, Bushiri-a victory though achieved with considerable superior forces-bodes well, think people here, for the future tranquility of German East Africa. . The Imperial Commissary's forces numbered about 900 men, iucluding 200 marilles from the blockading squadron, while Bushiri's in- trenched camp was defended by only 600 of his followers. The fight was short and sharp. Bushiri. himself, managed to escape, according to one account, even before the stormers advanced on his position, his loss being 80 killed and 20 prisoners. while Captain Wissmann had 40 of his black troops killed and one German sergeant of the naval contingent,one offi- cer-Lieutenant Schella of the Schwalbe-and a marine, of the Leipsic, were killed. What effect this defeat of the Arabs will have on the future of the missionaries and other Euro- peans in the interior, remains to b~ seen, but the opinion here is that the insurrection on the East coast will now collapse."
The London Times' comment on the conJecture is as follows: "The escape of Bushiri renders the issue uncertain, nor is it possible to avoid apprehen- sions for the safety of Europeans in the interior. There is a solidarity among the so-called Arab traders of Easters and Central Africa, arising from the con~iction that the advance of Europeans into the country is fatal to their interests."
II. THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY· SOCIETY.
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon has recently spoken in tones of strong encouragement on missionary matters. He remarked that it was wonderful how much was being done for the conversion of the world by Christian people of all sorts, in aU sorts of ways. He believed their missions would yield a glorious harvest tor Christ one day, whether they lived to see it or not. Sometimes it took a. good while to prepare for a great work, and a vast amount of material had to be expended in order to make the foundation solid and good. He had no doubt that by and by they would be well repaid for all their labor and sowing of seed. In a similat' vein of congratulation his brother, the Rev. J. A. Spurgeon, urged all Christian toilers to remember that love was the secret of success in foreign missions.
It is noteworthy that notwithstanding the criticisms which Mr. Caine made upon the methods pursued by the Baptist Society in India, and also the severe strictures to which Canon Taylor subjects the Church Mi5sionary Society, both societies are in receipt of unprecedented incomes for 1888. Secretary Baynes, of the former society, announced at the annual meeting thatthe receipts for the yeal' just closed amounted to £80,818, as compared with £66,- 209 for the previous year, an increase of £14,609. A special sum of £3,800 had likewise been contributed for the relief of sufferers in the Chinese famine. Still thet'e was at the close of the year a deficit of £2,800, caused by increased expense in connection with the Congo Mission. Part of this deficit had been made up. The river Congo rates for transportation were excessively large. Mr. Baynes stated that the contract for the new Congo railway had been signed. On its anticipated completion four years hence the cost of mission freights would be much reduced. This railway will have a length of 265 miles, at a cost of 25,000,000 francs. It will start from the Underhill Baptist Station on the Lower Congo and terminate at Kinshasha, Stanley Pool. By this communication Central African commerce, civilization and Christianity will be enormously benefited.
From the report of the society (ninety-seventh) we learn that six missionaries have died and eleven new ones gone forth during the past year. On the society's staff are now 125 English missionaries and 334 native preachers. The numbers of unpaid native agents and self-supporting native churches formed a promising outlook. In 1888 the converts baptized represented 317 in India, 113 in the Bahamas (and upwards of 240 awaiting baptism in the out-stations), 70 in the Shantung province of China, 40 in Japan and 22 at San Salvador. Marked progress was noted III the Congo Mission. In China there were 21 Baptist missionaries who for some months had been mainly engaged in ministering to the famine-stricken Chinese in Eastern China. Two of them were credited with keeping ~live 2,000 at a station in the city where they resided and over 10,000 others in the neighborhood.
Educational and literary agencies had been vigorously maintained. The sale of bibles, religious books and tracts during 188£ in India by the Baptists had never been exceeded. Issnes of portions and complete copies of the Scriptures from the Calcutta Mission numbered 34,535. Testimonies of missionaries and civilians demonstrate that the preaching of the gospel and the translations of the Bible are working a revolution in that empire, and inevitably, is gradually undermining the degraded superstitions of the Hindoos.
'1'he Baptist Zenana Missionary Society drew as usual a crowded assembly. Financially the year has been exceedingly stimulating. Receipts were £9,- 641, which leaves in the treasury a balance of £1,100. Miss Angus, of the Ladies' Home, Delhi, delivet'ed a notable address, from which we quote a single passage: "The map of India is now dotted over with mission stations. Butit must be remembered that these are, for the most part, situated in the large cities, and even there the work to be done far exceeds the strength of the workers. There are literally thousands of smaller towns and villages as yet unoccnpied, hundreds of thousands who have never heard the name of Christ. Day by day the cry goes up to God from many a heart, 'Refuge bath failed me, no man careth for my soul.' For' the millions of India still lie untouched.' Dr. Pierson's words in THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THill WORLD snould ring in our ears: • We are not responsible for conversion, but we are for contact.' When will the church of Christ rouse herself to the duty of contact with these millions?"
III. MISSIONARIES FOR CENTRAL AFRICA.
Toward the last of March a splendid ovation was given in'Exeter Hall to the eight pioneer missionaries departing for Central Africa in connection with the new Balolo Mission. This mission has been formed for the evangelization of the Balolo people dwelling in the Upper Congo, and is a continuation and extension of the Livingstone Inland Mission, begun in 1878. The chairman of the meeting, Mr. J. E. Mathieson, held that it was obligatOL'y upon England to let Africa occupy a large place in the affection and intecests of the church. In deprecating the sever-ely critical attitude taken by so many toward missions, the speaker endorsed the action of five or six of the great missionary societies in London whose methods were being revised in orner to open their doors to young men who had not gone through the regul.ar college curriculum. In sending forth this class of missionaries the directors would command the sympathies and gratitude of the churches. Dr. Grattan Guinness followed with a panegyric upon thL'ee men by whom Central Africa had been opened up to Christianity and commerce, viz.: Livingstone, Stanley and Leopold, King of the Belgians. On the banks of the Upper Congo, where the mission was to do its work, one tribe alone nuPlbered over ten millions, among whom only two missionaries labored. The mission was originally started by a gift of £800, and in a very short time more than £1,500 had been subscribed by friends interested in the enterprise. A rousing speech was delivered by that gifted and eminent representative of young Wesleyanism, the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes. He maintained that the antidote for drunkenness, gllombling and all forms of crime and infidelity in these days was foreign missions. England ought to be active in this branch of service, as there was probably no nation now existing that had done so much mischief as Great Britain by the liquor traffic, and in many other ways, and also by shedding innocent blood in almost every corner of the globe. He held that at the present time there were too few evangelists abroad and too many English ministers at home, a state of things which ought certainly and speedily to be reversed. The devoted leader of the mission, Mr. J. McKittrick, and some of his fellow-workers subsequently addressed the large gathering of friends.
IV. PROTESTANTISM IN HAMBURG.
In Hamburg, one of the gayest and most licentious cities In Europe, a bazaar liberally supported in aid of the maintenance of the Church Fund and, if possible, the early erection of a new English church in the city, realized £1,700. .This amount, raised by the combined efforts of English, American, German and other nationalities, chiefly of the Protestant faith, far exceeded the expectations of the small colony of British and American SUbjects. The l:iympathy which this worthy undertaking has elicited has been confirmed by the unanimous praise accorded to it in the local press, which describes it as the most tasteful and brilliant enterprise of the kind ever attempted in Hamburg.
At the opening ceremony, April 4, the reigning BUrgomaster Dr. Petersen, expressed the genuine sympathy in which Hamburgers held the English people. As the head of the Hamburg Government, he remarked that between England and Hamburg an unbroken friendship had continued for upwards of 600 years, commencing as early as 1266, when the King of England bestowed valuable land and commercial rights upon Hamburg subjects in London. These rights the Hanse factory in the metropoHs was privileged – to enjoy undiminished until the beginning of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, the company of British merchant adventurers received a grant of land, the permission of living under English law with inulluUlty from taxation, and religious freedom in the shape of an English church a.t lIam- burg as early as 1567. Notwithstanding hard times of fot"eign religious in- tolerance, Hamburg alone, perhaps, of all states, can point with pride to the fact that the English church of evangelical profession had been allowed un- mterrupted toleration for three centuries.
V. ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN INDIA.
In the voluminous replies which Mr. Caine's attack on Indian missions has provoked, there will be some advantage in recording the results oC the mission work in India, with which the Roman Catholics credit themselves. The editor of Illustrated Catholic Missions in England has published various statistics bearing upon Roman Catholic missions in India, chiefly based on the figures published in the new edition of the Imperial Gazateer of India, compiled by Sir W. W. Hunter. An English correspondent who has spent 20 years in the Indian Civil Service recently asserted that Catholic and Protestant missions were equally failures in that Empire. He held that in an especial deg-ree this was true of Catholic missions since the beginning of the eighteenth century, while in view of the increase of population Catholicity had been declining for many years. Challenging Mr. Caine.'s implied assertion that Roman Catholics were more successtul than Protesta.nts, he quoted in his proof the official returns of 1881. These show in round numbers as follows: Catholics, 936,000; Protestants, 435,000; Nestorians and others, 456,000; total, 1,827,000. From the number of Pl'otestants 100,000 might be deducted for Bt'itish-born and foreign Christians, though they are not all Protestants. This would leave 335,000 Protestants, a far more satisfactory number in less than 100 years than 936,000 in the 350 years since Xavier began the gt'eat work in India.
It is admitted by Roman Catholic wt"iters that the census of 1881 returned the total number of Catholics as 963,058 (excluding French and Portuguese territories, which contain 285,703 more). The census returns they regard as erroneous to the extent of 100,000 Christians, quoting from Sir W. W. Hunter to the same effect. He writes (vol. vi., p. 265) : "The Roman Caiholies were under-estimated in the census returns by the exclusion of about 100,000 Syrian Christians who acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Vicars- Apostolic of Verapoli and Quilon, andby their inclusion among the Jacobites, who are unconnected with the Roman Catholic Church." Adding, it is said, these extra 100,000, and also the Catholics of Portuguese and French India, which practically all form one mission field, there will be a grand total of Catholics in India numbering 1,349,441. According to the" Madras Catholic Directory" for 1885, the returns at"e estimated at 1,356,037 for British, native and foreign India, some four or five years before the inauguration of the Indian hiet"archy. Mulhall supposed the Catholics in India to number 1,318,000, and another estimate, which appeared in the Deutsche Reich8 Zeitung, gives 1,600,600 as the probable total.
In reply to the charge that the Catholics are steadily diminishing, the advocates of Catholic missions quote the following passage from Sir W.W. Hunter: "The Roman Catholics in India steadily increase, and, as in former times, the increase is chielly in the south, especia.lly in the missions of Pondicherry and Medura. The number
A FmST YEAR'S IMPRESSIONS .oF JAPAN
of Catholics in British and French India and the native states, but exclusive of the Portu guese possessions, rose from 732.887 in 1851 to 93~,400 'n 1871, and to 1,103,560 in 1881. The Pondicherry Mission lately performed over 50,01 ) adult baptisms in three years. In British India. and the native states the children in Catholic schools increased from 28,249 in 1871 to 44,699 in 1881" (p.259).
The Catholics contend that they do not possess a tithe of the funds which the Protestant missionary societies have at their disposal. In verification of this the evidence of Sir W. W. Hunter (in the Imperi:J,l Gazetteer, vol. vi. p. 260) is again adduced: "The Roman Catholics work in India," he writes, .. with slender pecuniary resources. Theyderive their main support from the two great Catholic organizations, the Associa- tion for the Propagation of the Faith, and the Society of the goly Childhood. The former contributes £24,4M yearly to Indian missions, and the latter £12,300, making a total of £-36,- 764. This is exclusive of the expenditure within the Archbishopric of Goa; but it repre- sents the European contributions to the whole vicariates under the Pope. In 1880 they maintained 16 bishops and 1,118 priests, teaching 1,288 schools, 40,907 pnpils, and giving instruction to 1,002,379 native Christians. Tbe Roman Catbolic priests deny tbemselves the comforts consid- ered necessaries for Enropeans in India. In many districts tbey live the frngal and abstemious life olthe natives, and their inlluence reaches deeply into the social life of tbe communities among whom they dryeU."
This Important chain of testimony relating to metbods of operation and principles of teaching, so distinct from the great Protestant sections in the Indian mission field, will nevertheless receive re- spectfulattentlon when associated witb the authoritative imprimatur of tbe foremost living Indian statistician.
A FIRST YEAR'S IMPRESSIONS OF JAPAN.
: BY REV. FRED. S. CURTIS, HIROSHIMA.
As a mission field Japan is doubtless second to nonein regard toits present results and promise for the future: but, judging from a purely human stand- point, the coming of the kingdom of God in Japan is yet in the dim future. The eighty million;; of gods in the" Flowery Kingdom" cannot receive their . deathblow in a day. In the houses of all who are not.either Christian 01' agnostic you may stilI see the little shrine with its offering of flowers. Every- where-not only" on every high hill and under every green tree;" but in the shops and boats, by the wayside, at every turn in the road, these symbols of idolatry meet the eye.
Hiroshima is a stronghold of Buddha. The street on which we live has a continuous row of temples for an eighth to a quarter of a mile. And though the worshippers at these tern pIes seem very scarce the strong Buddhistic prejudice of the people renders them unreceptive to Christianity. The Hiroshima people are looked down upon throughout the Empil'e as being hard, indifferent and unreliable. On arriving we were much disappointed to find tbat, aside from the regular attendants at the Presbyterian and Methodist churches established here-some two or three hundred people- there were but few who manifested any particular interest in Christianity, or who would even come to the preaching places from curiosity. We had expected to see iarge crowds flocking to hear the word of God, and inquirers coming from all parts of the interior, and that anywhere and at any time a large audience could be gathered. This last is true when a large hall or theater is thrown open for a popular lecture on Christianity and prominent speakers are advertised.
I find that the people differ greatly in different localities. For instance, in Koohi the people are exceedingly impressible and embrace the Christian re- ligion readily, while in Nagasaki the old prejudice against the Christian and the" Christian's God" still lives, making it perhaps a more difficult field than Hiroshima. Here it is very difficult to induce the people to enter a otlurch building j they seem to think that in so doing they would commit themselves to Christianity. Since this feeling exists, I am strongly in favor of establishing out-statiorls or preaching.places which at present shall not themselves become churches, but act as feeders to the churches already established till the prejudice is overcome.
As to the government, while it t~lerates Christianity, it clings to idolatry. A recent report shows $150,000 as given in one year to Shinto temples, and year before last $50,000 was given to one single temple. The Mikado himself is an idolater and worships his ancestors.
What the government wants is not so much Christianity as Western science and institutions, and just now, perhaps, more than anything else, treaty revision; and to bring about the last is doubtlebs their motive for keeping foreigners out of the interior. If it permits freedom here, there is no privilege left which it can grant to foreign nations in the future. The various fOl'eign powers have certainly taken advantage of Japan, obliging her to admit aU their products at a duty of five per cent. or less, while she has to pay enormously on her exports. Then, too, no foreigner is amenable to Japanese law, all cases being tried before the consuls.
Some time since I saw quite a melee in front of the hotel at Kobe. A Japanese boatman was being very roughly and to all appearance unjustly treated by a crowd of Chinamen, while not ten feet distant stood a Japanese policeman, his sword hanging by his side, for the treaty laws do not permit any interference with foreigners. Now the time has come when it would seem that the Japanese government does not propose to remain longer in leading strings; but the other nations cannot seem to agree upon any satisfactory revision of the treaties regarding "exterritoriality." What can Japan do to bring about the desired change? If it absolutely forbids foreigners to travel, reside and teach in the interior, "the people would probably become disaffected, so to go outside the treaty ports is being made as difficult as possible. Heretofore the government has permitted foreigners to go to different parts of the interior on passports for" travel, health and scientific observation," also when employed by the Japanese. These purposes have been regarded as mere technicalities by the officials, and many missionaries have lived on such passports.
Having tried every other expedient, the government, while continuing to issne, enforces the strict letter of the law, thus making them very difficult to obtain. One of our missionaries waited at Kobe fOI" his passport from Thanksgiving time till the middle of January. Then, too, after a passport has been once obtained the trouble is not over, for it must be renewed, with greater or less frequency. When the time for which it has been granted is about to expire, the passport must be brought to a treaty port and surrendered and an application made for the renewal. The passport is then sent to Tokio, and after a longer or shorter time the renewal is granted.
There is a missionary who has waited three months, and is still waiting, in Kobe, for her passport to be renewed. This lady is a teacher in a mission school, which may account, at least in part, for the delay, for the government having taken such pains to establish its own schools throughout the empire, naturally wishes them to be well patronized: hence, all private schools are discouraged. Recently it was desired to start a Christian school in Kochi. The Japanese engaged by a missionary was obliged to write "almost a volume to the authorities in regard to the matter," after which, says a missionary, in writing home of the action of the authorities, "they sent this communication back as not correct, wanted to know the number of feet in the school-house and around, the name of the school, etc. All this was written out at full length, when again the paper was returned, asking , what books would be taught, who were the publishers, when and where were they published, how far in each book the pupil must get in a term and at what age a pupil could enter the school.' " .
These questions were duly answered, but sometime after came the query: "If you get two hundred pupils at 35 cents each pel' month, how will you use all that money? If you do not get that number of pupils, where will the money come from? "
Viewed in the light of a determined purpose to secure treaty revision, such seemingly puerile actions are significant. I trust the time is not far distant when propel' treaties will be made, giving Japan her ri~hts and a footing more nearly equal to the otb.er great nations of the earth. For sev- eral months there have been rumors afloat to the effect that Japan had made a new treaty with America, which will give us liberty to go anywhere in Ja_ pan, but whether this is true or not remains to be seen. That some sort ola treaty has been concluded with a certain foreign power, is all that we can now be sure of.
Let mesay a word in regard to my personal work so far. Although I cannot yet preach in the vernacular, I have established a temporary preaching place at the girls' school. My teacher has done the preaching while I have read the Scriptures and led the singing. This tl'acher is a young Japanese student, who is working to obtain funds that he may resume his studies for the ministry in the Congregational College at Kyoto. Though but twenty- two years old, he has already, we think, shown a gift for preaching, but he lacks power, and seems to have very little realization of the meaning and responsibility of the sacred office to which he aspires. I am very glad, how- ever, that he does not think it necessary (as many of the native preachers do) to use the classical Chinese words, which are unintelligible to the unedu- cated. The services which we have carried on together have had an aver- age of about twenty-five attendants, half of these being heathen. Were the preaching place on some large thoroughfare, instead of being near the outskirts of the city, no doubt many more would come in and heal' the gospel.
By the time I am ready to preach, it is my hope that the Lord will open the way for the establishment of a preaching hall on some main thorough- fare, where large numbers may readIly be reached. The people are so ex- ceedingly curious to see foreigners that I am sure they would listen, could some prominent spot be secured. When any of the missionaries enter a store on one of the principal streets, a large crowd invariably collects to watch their every movement and catch their every word. 0, that this same spirit of investigation might be transfel'l'ed to the Gospel of the one true God! For there are in this city a hundred thousand souls who know Him not. Of equal urgency is the need of the handful of Christians here who must be" instructed in the way of God more perfectly." Were I asked what I consider to be the most vital needs of the church of Hiroshima, I should say.
a deepel' heart experience and life, and a realization of the lost condition of the souls of their countrymen, prompting to earnest effort for their speedy evangelization. With many their Christianity seems largely a matter of intellectual belief, and in this section of the country I have failed to see any marked spirit of evangelism.
As to ihe people of Japan, as a race, it may indeed be said to be favorable towar(1 Christianity, but it is, like its rulers, much more favorable towal'd western civil~ation and its accompaniments. .Witb the multitude it mat-
FATHER DAMmN THE LEPER PRmST OF MOLOXAI
tel'S little what it is, if it be but American or European, whether to wear foreign clothes, to eat foreign food, to drink fpreign liquors, or to learn the English language. All these things are done to a most remarkable extent; for our language there is a perfect "craze." The highest ambition of the Jap1.nese youth is to go to America, and next to this to speak Engbsh.
Many Christian teachers would lack for pupils, were the teaching of English done away with.
The superficiality, fickleness and" happy-go-Iuckiness" of this .people, with an impressibleness that is only" skin deep," :O,re the greatest trials of the missionary who seeks to labor among them.
But there is another side to this picture which is so well presented in the recently published report of" The Council of Missions co-operating with the United Church of Christ in Japan," that I send you a brief extract from it• * .. The United Church of Christ in Japan has enjoyed a year of constant growth. * In no previous year have the additions been so many. The adult members of the Church number 7.551. The infant members number 1.139. The total membership is 8.690. The increase during the year is 1.831. The churches are sixty-one. The ministers number thirty-six. The contributions for churCh purposes were yen 20.315.82. A comparison with longer periods is instructive. The United Church of Christ was formed in 1877 by the union of eight churches and 623 Christians. including the children. In 1882 there were twenty- five chnrches. with 1.728 members. Three years later. in 1885. the churches were fifty and the members were 3.922. In the past the church has doubled 10 membership in each three years. and in eleven years the incrl'ase has been from six hundred to nine thousand. A like progression for the remaining twelve years of the ceMtury will make the· membership in the year 1900. one hundred and forty-four thousand.
"Such a hope should notbe too great for our faith. The future may well be richer in blessing than the past."
And there are some of us who are hoping and praying for still greater things-the evangelization of this Empire before 'l,e present century closes.
FATHER DAMIEN THE LEPER PRIEST OF MOLOKAI.
BY REV. EDWIN M. BLISS, NEW YORK.
ON the little peninsula of Kolowao, on the island of Molokai, Sandwich Islands, is the famous leper community established by the Hawaiian Government in 1864, after the ierrible scourge of leprosy that committed such fearful ravages among every class of the people. It is not an ideal place of residence, cold in winter, hot in summer, absolutely isolated from the rest of the island by high mountams. Here the unfortunates were placed. So terrible was their fate deemed that many families sought to hide their afflicted members from the officials, preferring to l"Un every risk themselves rather than condemn loved ones to such hardships and privations. Suitable dwellings were not provided, fo.od was insufficient, there was no medical attendance or nursing; the outcasts were practically condemned to death, with no hope of even the last sad offices or sympathy of friends. It was little wonder that every evil passion rose triumphant. A root growing in quantities at the foot of the mountains furnished a highly intoxicating liquor and drunkenness became almost universal. With this came'licentiousness, until prostitution was the only resort of women who sought a living fOl' themselves and their children. The hula dances were seen on every hand and the whole community became a mass of corruption of every kind.
Into this community, in 1873, went Father Damien, a Roman Catholic Priest, of Honolulu, a native of Belgium, of great talents, wealthy, and with every prospect of success in life. It was no rash act, but a carefully considered purpose, with full recognition of all that it mean~complete isolation from all associations such as he had held deal', fellowship with those who were lower and more degraded than the brutes, and the certainty of the most horrible dise;tse and death known to the human race. • The Government, unable to understand his purpose, thought he would soon seek to return, and gave strict orders for his immediate imprisonment should he stir from the community. They refused him counselor assistance of any kind, and he was compelled to rely upon the lepers themselves for support. He found the dead and dying on every hand, and was so absorbed in his care for them that he could find no time to build him even a plain hut, but slept under the trees. His kindly words and efficient aid won him the confidence of the whole community, and little by little his influence became unbounded. Recognizing that in their condition, spiritual counsel was of little avail without temporal help, he was not only priest but" magistrate, school-teacher, gardener, carpenter, joiner, painter, housekeeper, cook, and often grave-digger and undertaker." He lived with the people, shared their experiences in every way; he persuaded them to care more for cleanliness, comfortable houses, good food, so far as practicable. Soon thE' Government, recognizing his real spirit, changed their attitude, gave him greater privi.
leges, allowed him counsel and assistance, at his suggestion provided bettel'
dwellings, and more suitable food; sent medical officers and nurses, fur.
nished medicine, and sought to alleviate, instead of increasing, the suffer· ing of the poor unfortunates.
The natural result has followed. The hula dances are no more heard of.
Licentiousness has almost disappeared. Intoxication has given place to sobriety, and the company that seemed given over to everything evil has become peaceful and happy, so far as there can be happinE'ss with so much suffering. Even much of the virulence of the disease has disappeared.
Better dwellings, good ventilation. healthy food, sobel' lives, and quiet minds and Christian faith have had their effect to lessen suffering, to pro- long life, and make death itself less dreadful. When, nine years after Da- mien's voluntary exile, the queen visited the settlement, and saw the neat houses, the fields and gardens, the well-dressed, orderly people, her officers, pointing to Damien, who stood humbly at a dtstance, said, "He is the father of it all."
Already the dread digease had taken its hold. A few months later the fatal tubercles appeared, and the devoted priest knew that he was to pay the penalty of his self-sacrifice. In 1886 he was joined by Father Conrardy, a young priest from Oregon, and after initiating him into the work, Da- mien himself yielded to the progress of the leprosy. April 10, 1889, he died, leaving a record of as noble work as that achieved by any martyr of the early church.
There are not a few who claim that the heroic age of the church has passed. The lives of Henry Martyn, David Livingstone, James Hannington, Adoniram Judson, Father Damien, are eloquent witnesses to the fact that this is not true. Yet, while they are conspicuous by reason of their position and public office, they are no whit more heroic than many a faithful laborer among the slums of our great cities, in the dugouts of the Western prairies, or the out-stations of China, Africa and Abyssinia.
One healthy sign of the church's life is the universal recognition of Damien's service as a Christian service. To the great body of Christian believers his creed is lost sight of in admiration for his work. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
EVANGELIZATION OF THE CHINESE IN AMERICA. I
EVANGELIZATION OF THE CHINESE IN AMERICA.
BY J. STEWART RAPPER, NEW YORK, EDITOR "CHINESE EVANGELIST."
THE marvellous way in which God ans weI'S prayer is contin uaUy shown to His children in a manner which humbles their pride and rebukes th('i1'
unbelief. There is no more wonderful instance in modern times than the way in which prayer for the work in China has been ans wered. The barriers of. supel'stition, bigotry, political seclusion and national conceit have been broken down, and now the gospel can be preached in every province. But the answer IS ovedlowing in its abunda,nce of opportunity; and not alone in China is the privilege given to the faithful preacher of the word, but in this la.nd also the Chinaman is found, and those who are unable, for any reason, to go toa foreign land, have the opportunity offered them in their own city, nay, at their own street corner or in their near vicinity.
Thb large number of Chinese who came to California, early attracted the attention of the church, and efforts were made to reach them by the establishment of Missions. Of the work on the Pacific slope I do not in- tend to write at this time, but shall confine myself to the work which is being carried on throughout the Eastel'll and Middle States.
Twenty years have now elapsed since the work among the Chinese in the east was started by the efforts of the Rev. Lycurgus Railsback, at tne New York" FIve Points House of Industry." Since then the Chinese Sun- day-school is found inevel'Y large city, and in almost evel'y place where ~he industrious Chinaman is found, there are also found those who look at the boul in the uncouth mati and try to save it.
So peculiar is the work of evangelizing these heathen in our midst, that it may be of interest to many to speak of the methods and the character of the work in general.
The Methods.-Af> will be readily seen, the work is necessarily at first of teaching the alphabet and the rudiments of our language. Given a China- man who understands little or no English, and a teacher who understands no Chinese, and the conditions of solving the problem of educating the for- mer will at once be undel'stood to be difficult in the extreme. The methods of instruction must necessarily be those which are employed in the primary schools,and picture and pencil are used to express what words fail to convey.
In its first stages a Chinese Sunday-school differs little from a primary school for teaching English. .
The arl'angement of classes is different from the usual manner, for each teacher has but one pupil. This seems at first an unnecessary waste of ma- terial; it would be so, were all the godly people who take this field of labor skilled in teaching languages, for then more than one pupil might be taught; practical experiment, however, has proved that it is hard for the avel'age teacher to manage more than one at a time, until the pupil is far enough advanced to read the Bible. The writer is endeavoring to secure a reform in this matter wherever it is feasible, and urges that the ol'dinary manner of arranging classes of three or four be adopted wherever the pupils.al'e suf- ficiently advanced to make it possible.
Anothel' feature of this work is the fact that the teachel's are (01' the most part ladies, and much trash and scornful comment has appeared in the secu- lal' newspapers in l'egard to the fondness of the Chinese for the pretty Sun- day-school teachers. I would like to express my deliberate opinion that the reason why the Chinese pl'efer lady teachers is because the ladies are more willing to teach the Chinese, and, in fact, are often the only ones who will teach them. If you find a young man who has the patience, the dogged determination, the persistency and tact which are displayed in such a mal'ked manner by lady teachers, you will find that the Chinese will accept him as a teacher just as readily, and treat him with the same consideration. The fact is, that as the work resembles the work of the primary school, so the teachers must possess the same qualifications; and we find most of the teachers of the yonng to be ladies.
Difficulties of the W07'k.-The greatest difficulty often arises from the op- position of supposed Christian people. Some have been known to say that the Chinese never could be converted. As though the grace of God, which can reclaim a South Sea Islander, could be baffled by the Chinaman! Others say the Chinese are such low, degraded creatUl'es that we ought not to ass<>1(iate with them even as teachers! Did not Christ die to save sinners? Others seem to be infiuenced by sentimentality in their religion, and will give freely fOt' the cause of foreign missions, and weep tears over the thought of .. the heathen in his blindness, bowing down to wood and stone;" but fail to see a fit object for their benevolence or effort in the heathen on the avenue, bending all the day over the wash-tub or the ironing-board! Then the charge is made that the workers are actuated by sentimentalism in taking up the work. If sentimentalism consists in coming Sabbath after Sabbath, rain or shine, t!,spend an hour in the hardest kind of teaching, then we must admit the truth of the charge, though I should call that the hardest kind of prosaic work. The most plausible, yet illogical objection, is the one which is made against teaching the primer and against the school, because the Chinese come merely to learn English and not to learn anything about Oul' religion. No one who has been in the Chinese work will attempt to deny that at first the impelling motive, perhaps the only motive, which leads a Chinese into the Sunday-schoolis the desire to learn Eng'lish. We know that, we recognize that desire, but it does not prevent us from using that motive to the good of the man. Soon after he comes he begins to understand that the teaching is done from a spirit of kindness; he begins to look for our motive, and when he has at la!>t comprehended that it is Christian unselfishness, he realizes that here is something he knows nothing of, and he wishes to learn of Christ and His doctrine. Even if he should be so bigoted as to care nothing for these things, he receives a lesson of practical Christianity which does more good than many hours of preaching and theoretical instruction.
Another difficulty, and a most serious one, confronts the teacher of the Chinese when at last they know enough of our language to read and understand the blessed truths of the gospel. In a so-called Christian land, among a professedly Christian people, the observant Chinese is immediatelyoverwhelmed by the difficulty of reconciling the practical Christianity (as he imagines it to be) which he sees around him six days in the week, with the blessed maxims and truths he is taught on the Sabbath. If you tell him that the people who break everyone of the commandments almost every day of their lives are not true Christians, it does not make the matter much better, for, thinks he, why do they not accept such blessed truths? Will a man offer good gold to a stranger when his own kindred l,ave it not? There must be a false ring a bout the gold! It is for this reason that those who have labored both in the foreign field and in this land, unanimously concur in saying that the work is much harder, more discouraging in this land on account of there being" too many weekdays for one Sunday."
Results.-The direct results of the work have been such as greatly to encourage the workers. Nearly everyone of the different denominations working in New York City among the Chinese have several Chinese connected with the chUl"ches, who have proved themselves to be worthy of their profession and excellent examples to their heathen brethren. In many respects they put other Christians to the blush. They are characteristically slow in professing their faith, but that slowness arises often from their deep sense of the responsibility involved. 1 have often been told by an inquirer that he wished to profess faith in Christ, but he did not know enough to lead in pI'ayer, or to give a few minutes' talk in prayer-meeting, The first Chinaman who was converted under my instruction was quite perplexed over the question whether it was right for him to shave his head and plait his queue on Sunday I A Chinese Christian asked me recently whether I did not think that having a fair in the Sunday-school rooms of a church did not resemble the sin committed by those who sat at the tables ot the moneychangers in the temple. Another Chinese, who is soon to be baptized, was very much troubled because the writer did not ask a blessing at an evening gathei·ing where a few Chinese were entertained by their teacher, and icecream and cake were passed al'ound. It was a difficult matter for his teacher to explain to him the reason for the omission, but finally he looked satisfied and said, "0 I I see, ice-cream no count with God."
Space fails to speak of the many notable examples which have proved that the saving grace of God is not confined to any ('ace or people, but wherever sin abounds grace doth much more abound.
The results of this work are wider and reach further than we would at first suppose. Not only do those who are converted in this country return to be messengers of good to their brethren, but on account of the friendly feeling engendered in them toward the Christian people, they are made the means of introducing a minister 01· an evangelist to their neighbors or friends, who would not gain a hearing were it not for their friendly intervention. Even if a man has not been converted, he respects Christians after he has been an ob- ject of their kindness, and he is able to assure the villagers in China that the "Jesus man" has no ill designs on them, but is a harmless person who does good, even though he preaches a lot of nonsense, and thus the reflex in- fluence of the Sunday-school here opens the door for the preacher in China. So no one can estimate the results of this work, except Him who hath said, "My word shall not return unto me void," and in the day when He maketh up His jewels we shall be amazed at the harvest. We sow blindly, but we shall reap abundantly, for it is God that giveth the increase.
I have not attempted to give any statistics as to the number of schools and of those attendant thereon. The simple reason for this omission is that it is hard to get such statistics. As editor of The Chinese Evangelist I have made great efforts to get a complete list of the schools for the Chinese, but every day we hear of some new one, and new ones are continually being started. Since the establishment of The Chinese Evangelist we have en- deavored to systematize and tabulate the work, but such is the difficulty of getting accurate information that so far we cannot indicate the extent of the work except in this general way. The Chinese Evangelist is now being taken in schools all over the land from Maine to Oregon, and from Canada to Florida, and even in the Sandwich Islands and China. From the letters which come to the editors, it seems that the work is being carried on with increased vigor, and the Christian church is awakening to the responsibility resting upon it, and is improving the opportunity now presented. There are still 100,000 Chinese in America, and in spite of the Exclusion Bill more are
TRANSLATIONS }!'ROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES"
coming, and hardly any are returning. The opportunity now is great, the need is pressing, and no one can overestimate its importance, when we consider that the best way to reach China is through the Chinese themselves. In our land we can infuse American pluck and energy into the slow-moving, phlegmatic Chinaman; and these, united with the love of God and his fellow-man, will enable the Americanized Christian Chinaman to be a power in his own land, and he will be able to do a work which none other can do. H anyone cannot go and work directly for China, here is a field, hard, stony, comparatively uninviting, but one which will yield a rich reward in God's own time.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
THE Rhenish Missionary Society, as is known, has a very important mission in Sumatra. We give some extracts, which make this great island seem more like a real country to us than it has seemed before. From the station of Bungabondar: "In the last yea.r ninety have been led to the Saviour and received into the church by baptism." It is known that in Sumatra Mohammedanism is very strong. Yet, as remarkable exception to the general fact, almost half the converts are from Mohammedanism. On the other hand, a good many unstable Christians flo.at over to it. The following narative from the Berichte for January, 1889, casts a new light on the mental attitude of Moslems in the face of death. We often heal' of their contempt of death. But this appears to be only in the fierce fanaticism of a religious war.
.. Here I must make mention of the faithful Asenath, whom on the last day of the old year we committed to the bosom of the earth. After an illness patiently endured for two years "he felt her end approaching. As the last provision for her way she wished yet once more to enjoy the Holy Supper. I administered it to her in her roomy house before a large assemblage. As Iwas about to give her the bread she said, • Let me first pray.' And now the woman, who for weeks had not been able to sit upright, straightened herself up, and prayed for full ten minutes, as if she would fain pray away every earthly care out of her heart. I have seldom heard a woman pray in snch wise. Thereupon she recei ved the sacred elements. The next day I found witlit her a Mohammedan chieftain, who at taking leave wished her health and long life. •What say you?' she replied, •after that I have no further longing. My wish is now to go to heaven, to my Lord. Death has no longer any terrors for me.' Astonished, the Mussulman replied: 'Such language is strange to us. We shrink and cower before death, and therefore use every means possible to recover and live long.'
.. Even so I think of our James, whose only son had died. When at the funeral I pressed his band, with some words of comfort, he Said: • Only do not suppose that r murmur and complain. All that God does to me, is good and wholesome for me. I shall hereafter find my son again in life eternal.' So vanish little bylittle the comfortless wailings of heathenism; the beams of a living hope penetrate the pangs and the terrors of death, as the. beams of the sun the clouds of the night. And, as the hopelessness of heathenism is disappearing, so is also its implacability. When Christians contend, and at the communionl say to them: 'Give each other your hands,' they often say: 'Natureisagainstit; but how can I withstand the graciou~ness of mv Sa.viour ?' Such words are not seldom heard. And am Inot well entitled to hope, that they, as a grea.tgift of my God, warrant a confident hope in the final and glorious victory ot the Prince of Life, and of his great and righteous cause? "
On Palm Sunday, at this station, Missionary Schutz Qaptized 18 fOl'mer Mohammedans, confirmed 18 Christian children, and restoi'ed one apostate.
THE Rhenish Missionary Society has in all over 150 native trained helpers, of whom only foul' are ordained. The Society has also in all, in Sumatra, China and Africa,250 native elders, and remarks that it might easily be that these" signify as much, perhaps, indeed, even more, than the salaried assistants, for the development and healthy growth of the general cause." The government of the Transvaal Republic, in .South Africa, has suddenly put in force atainst the mission stations a law which forbids more· than five native families to live together on anyone estate. This harsh statute, harshly applied, has already broken up five Hermannsburg stations, and at least one Berlin station.
The MonatsbUitter remarks that in Africa it is not the Mohammedans who have introduced slavery, though it is they who. are fast depopulating lal'ge regions of the unhappy continent by their ruthlessness in conducting the hunting of slaves. Slavery itself is aboriginal in Africa. As no one in Africa has any hope of protection unless he belongs to some one of the few great men, the poorer freemen have gradually reduced themselves to servi- tude, until now, in some n~gro tribes, out of evel'y 100 persons, 80 or 90 al'e slaves. In Igonda the traveller, Paul Reichard, out of 500 or 600 inhabi- tants, found only six free persons. Of his own caravan of 650 there were only five freemen. An institution so deeply rooted cannot, of course, be otherwise than gradually done away, remarks the MonatsbUitter. But the horrors of the Arab slave trade are to be at once attacked. And it is to be remarked that Christian Europe was the first great offender, and not Mohammedan Arabia. Christianity, however, is against the iniquity; Islam fully sanctions it. Christendom, therefore, could be moved from within to abandon it; Arabia will have to be coerced from without.
The MonatsbUitter remarks that the best known emporium of the Arab slave trade is Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, and quotes the following descrip- tion of it from a Catholic missionary: .. This is the meeting point of all the caravans of slaves who, captured in the interior, are to be brought to the coast. There are gathered all the Waguana and Mohammedan reprobates to con- cert in what direction and against what tribe the next foray shall be nndertaken-a veritable Sodom, a theatre of all sorts of crimes, excesses, shamelessness of vi~. What a day of calamity for Africa. on which the Arabs first set their foot in its interior I For with them they have brought into the land also their immoral religion. their Vices, as well as the foul contagions dis- eases, which previously were wholly unkuown among the negroes. Towards the end of 1887, when I was in the city, it waS regulu!y flooded with slaves. You saw in hideous medley men, womeu and children, some bound together with cords, some with chains. Some had their ears pierced to admit a small cord, for the sake of fastening them together. At every step which one took along the streets, he encountered living skeletons, painfully dragging th"mselves along by the help of a stick: they had been released from chains, as being too weak to flee. It was not Sickness, but hunger, which had thus reduced tbem, aud the great scars which appeared on tlieir backs su1llciently dis- closed that their masters had not spared blows to urge them along. Others you might see lying in the street before their masters' doors or elsewhere, awaiting the end of their comfortless existence. The heart bled to reflect that these unhappy ones had uot eveu the hope which helps a Christian to bear his misery.
•• An uncultivated plain, growu up with grass, which separates the marketplace from the lake, Is the graveyard of Ujiji, or more accurately the trench, into which are thrown all the bodies of the deceased slayss, and even of those who are still in the last agonies. The wild beasts are their only sextons. A young Christian who did uot set know Ujiji set out to go from the town to the lake shore,but came back in dismay at the view of the numerous corpses, which, gnawed by hyenas and birds of prey, lay along the footpath. Then I asked au Arab why the corpses here were so numerous, and why they were left so near the town, at the risk of a geueral pestilence. He replied with the utmost composure and nonchalance: • From of old we have been used to throw the bodies of our slaves iu this place, and the hyenas would come every night and carry them away; but this year there are so many dyiug that the wild beasts can't get through with them; they have come to have a loathing for human flesh.' It is plain then that blockading the coast is but a small part of the work."
The Evangelisch Lutherisches Missionsblatt says; "We read here and there, e€pecially in English missionary magazines, that the Indian temples are falling into decay. 'rhis may be here and there the case, indeed it is some- times so In the Tamil land; bnt in general our Tamils, especially those who live in the Cauvery deta, are still thoroughly zealous in the temple-service, standing, as they do, wholly under the influence of a. numerous priesthood, for which the maintenance of the temples is a matter of life and death. Here, as in all reports from Ind'ia, we must remind our readers how needful it is to abstain from unadvised generalizati07l/l. For India is a mighty land. Conditions differ enormously from region to region within it, so that It Is only seldom that what may be said of Olle place or district applies to another. What traveler could pronounce a trustworthy judgment respecting the religions condition of all Europe? And if he could it is still more difticult in India. The visible decay of the temples will be in India, as It was in Greece the last 8taqe of heathenism."
.. Here In Shiall the modern schooling has not yet undermined belief in the ancient gods. Here there still prevail" the same zeal in their worship which the Apostle Paul recognized among the Athenians. New temples are still built and the old ones repaired. Wealthy merchants give hundreds of thousands of rupees for this end, and the people work themselves weary for half-wages. The festivals are celebrated regularly, and on their account the most important labors are interrnpted. Even the State must still recognize the heathen holidays, at least as respects its heathen officials. The Brahmans not only claim divine titles for themselves, bnt are also in fact addressed by the people as gods. They, are not only the intellectual and spiritnallea.ders of the people, but as wealthy landholders, are in various ways their secula.r lor:ds.'· .
"Yet worse "-in Shiall, in South India-"the heathens force the Christians into the idol festivals In order to drag through the streets the great car on which the idol. with his tram of attendants, is placed. One would think that for such a work of honor to the god the heathen themselves would gladly offer and be proud of the toil. But this is not so. The wealthy do their part bV deputing their servants and dependents. And almost all our Christians here are depeudE'nts of theirs. At alate festival they came in great numbers to me, showing me their masters' orders. I dissuaded them from obedience. Some followed my counsel and hid themselves in the church or the garden. Others followed their orders and went to take their place at the ropes. What the consequences are likely to be for the disobedient I have not yet learned. One who had refused from the first showed me the marks of a seVere beating."
We have all'eady given a description, from the Mi88ionablatt, of the great temple of Trlchinopoli. We here give a description of the city itself: .
.. Trichinopoli, or, in Tamil, Tirisiril.palli, that Is,' City of the Three-headed Giant,' formerly the capital of a mighty Nabob, with 76,000 inhabitants, among whom are many skillful and industrious Hindus, fanatical Mohammedans, and some 15,000 Catholics, is also a garrison town for a regiment of Sepoys, that Is, nativetroops in English pay. It lies near the ri ver Canvery, which here diVides into two grea.t a.rms, forming the long and fruitful island of Soi-r..ngam, that is, ' Holy River isle.' This island, the paradise of the Vishnuites, is renowned for the magnificent temple of Vishnu, whose external inclosure is some four miles and a half ronnd, and comprises 21 gopurams, that is, p..godas, in fact, a whole city of tcmples. No wonder that the smothering atmosphere of idolatry prevailing here weighs depressingly upon our missionaries, even more tha.n the solar heat augmented by the rockY soil. Yet even as early as 1762 Protestant missions gained a firm footing here. The simple church built by 'Father Schwarz' in the next neighborhood of the' Prichi-rock,' and his modest dwelling-house, keep up even here the memory of this blessed missionary. Southward from this rock the slender spire of our Zion Church, built upon the' Elephant hill,' nea.r the market, points the heathen to a better heaven than the stone god Ganesa, enthroned upon the rock, has power to give."
Herr Kahis then speaks of their girl's school: .. Twenty years ago no heathen girl was yet to be seen in our school. Now many are coming. There is no more grateful task than the instruction of little ~L'ami1 girls. Quiet and yet joyous, easy to guide and of responsive intellects, they make the work of their teachers light. What joy it affords us to scatter the seeds of life in their childlike hearts, and through them to see it borne into families which are otherwise inaccessible to our preaching."
The Caho MonatsbUUter, quoting the text Proverbs xxiv: 11, Which, in the German, reads, "Delivel' them, whom one will kill, and withdraw not thyself fl·om them whom one will strangle," refers to the dangers in East Africa, which since then have been terribly realized: .. This word applies to E..st Africa in a two-fold way. First, to the poor natives who live yet under the curse of superstition, discord and the slave-trade, and whom we may not withdraw ourselves from the duty of delivering out of the hand of him who is a murderer from the beginniug. Secondly, to the missionaries themselves who are laboring there, and who would have cast their lives into the breach in vain unless we send the requisite force of men to support them. Some of them are absolutely in danger of being put to dea.th. TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZnmS. M5 Missionary Gordon at Uganda lies there, as it were, in a den of lions; the Scotch mission- aries live every moment in expectation of an assault from,their Mohammedan foes, and the Neukirchen brethren on Toka river have no assurance of their lives."
"The Anglican and High Church Universities' Mission," says the MonatsbUitter, "has passed through grevious years. Once, or rather more than once, it was a fire, then a hurri- cane, then a plundering irruption of savage heathen, and more than all, a succession of sud- den deaths which appeared to imperII the continuance of the work. But the undaunted sol- diers of the cross, all of them unmarried brethren and sisters, have yielded tono discourage_ ment. They go on unweariedly with teaching, with preiLching, with building, with jour- neying, with care of the sick, with singing and praying; and now they are able to show a.s visible results, not only handsome churches, schools, workshops, gardens and fields, but alsu Christian flocks, amounting in all to about 1,000 souls. All their ways, it is true, are not after our taste. They lay more stress than is easily reconcilable with the New Testa- ment on outward forms. genuflections and vestments, on liturgies and sacraments, on churches and tapers, on eucharistic functions and altars. And when Bishop Smythies went out he took with him, uot only a costly crosier in an oaken futteral, but a set of vest- ments as highly tinseled as you need look for in Rome. • A droll bishop I ' we thoull'ht then. But for all that the mnn has shown himself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Worthy of all honor in these years past have been his achievements in journey_ ing and visiting, in care spent on all his stations, in sacrifices of bis own strength and com- fort. It is true while he has been about this the poor crosier has fallen a prey to the flames. But though the shepherd's crook has perished we do not learn that the sheep are any worse cared for."
The Monatsbliitter, as well as the Allgemeine Jlfissions Zeitschrijt, thinks , that the present craze in Germany for colonial possession is of veryambig- uous benefit to missions. "Bishop Smythies complains that since the terri- tory in which most of his stations lie has become German, he enjoys neither the protection of the Sultan of Zanzibar nor of the English Consul, but has to endure passively the plunderipg attacks upon the missions. This then is the shady side of the' colonial policy.' And who forgets the sad end which befell good Bishop Hannington under Mwanga's fears of the' land- eaters.' " Those people who imagine that men go out as missionaries in order to have an easy time of it among a simple people who half worship them, will be profited by reading these words of Mi.3sionary Posselt, among the Caffres: .. After having worked myself weary through the week, when there, on Sunday, I saw these wild men of the wilderness sitting before me, absolute obtuseness towards everything divine, together with mockery and brut2,1 lusts written on their faces, I sometimes lost all disposition to preach. Those fluent young preachers who not only like to be heard, but to hp.a.r themselves, ought to be sometimes required to ascend the pulpit before such an assemblage. There is not the least thing there to lift np the preacher of the Divine Word or to come to the help of his weakness. As when a green, fresh branch laid before the door of a glowing ovp.n shrivels up at once, such has sometimes been myex- perience when I had come full of warm devotion, before the Caffres, and undertaken to . preach. I have sometimes wished that I had never become a missionary. Once the hour of Sunday services again approached. The sun was fearfully hot, and I felt weary in body and soul. My unbelieving heart said: • Your preaching is for nothing,' and Beelzebub added a lusty amen. The Caffres were sitting in the hut, waiting for me. • I will not preach to-day,' said I to my wife; but she looked at me with her angelic eyes,lifted her finger, and said gravely: • William, you will do your duty. You will go and preach.' I seized Bible and hymn·book, and loitered to church like an idle boy creeping unwillingly to school. I began, preluding on the violin, the Caffres grunting consentaneously. I prayed read my text, and began to preach with about as much fluency as stuttering Moses. Yet soon the Lord loosened the band of my tongue, and the fire of the Holy Ghost awakened me out of my sluggishness. I spoke with such fervor concerning the Lamb of God, that t&keth away the sin of the world, that if that sermon has quickened no heart of a hearer yet my own was profoundly moved."
Yet Herr Posselt lived to baptize 1,000 Caffres.
Rev. Victor Holm, Director of the Daillsh Evangelical Missionary Society.
STUDENT VOLUNTEER NOTES
in announcing the appointment of a young parish clergyman, the Rev. Nils Peter Hansen, as a missionary for India, remark!!: .. This will undoubtedly be received with general delight. We have so often complained that no clergyman already proved and found to be a faithful servant of the Lord and possessed of the requisite culture offered himself to serve the Lord as a missionary among the heathen. It has also been the them" of many prayers, that the Lord would provide and send out such a man. That this has now come to pass, that our prayers are heard and fulfilled, is, we are sure, no matter of doubt to all who kuow Pastor Hansen, whose circle of acquaintance is far from being a narrow one."
A German nobleman, quoted in the Missionstidning for Finland, Count Limburg-Stirum, writing from the Dutch East Indies, avows that he had been greatly prejudiced against missionaries, but adds: "But God brought a missionary in my way. And now I could not say, like Cresar, veni, vidi, vw~. True, I came and saw, but instead of conquering I was conquered. I can no longer deny the good fruits and blessed influence of missions."
The Finnish Society first sent out missionaries 20 years ago to King William's Land in South Africa. For more than 12 years they baptized no one, then they baptized 6. At the end of the fourth year there were 80. During the fifth year there were baptized on Whitsunday, 51; ten days later, 23; and subsequently 11. So durlllg the fifth year the number of the baptized was just doubled.
In Germany, hitherto, it is known, the leading classes have been, for the most part, very disdainful towards Missions, and the journals, largely conducted by Jews who had ceased to believe in their own religIOn, and were bent on the destruction of ours, have exhibited towards them a virulent hatI'ed. But in a recent debate on the colonies, held in the Reichstag, a great change was noticeable.
.. We must note as a great matter of satisfaction," says the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrijt, .. that this time missions have been discussed without being attacked, indeed, withont even the jocularity commonly thought to be due to such a subject. On the contrary, one had only honorable recognition for them ou all sides of the house. 'Missiouary testimonies' were designated as the 'most uuimpeachable,' the aims of the missiouaries as 'undeniably ideal,' their' work of Christian beneficence as rich in blessings,' 'the mission·stations as the true points d'appui of Christianity and civilization,' and all this by men, from whom, hitherto, we have been wont to hear a very dif- ferent language."
Especially significant, in the German Parliament, was the testimony of a social democrat, Sabor, who, of course, occupies a position of incompatibility with Christianity. He says: "We acknowl- edge that there has been a healthful activity developed by the missionaries in Africa. They have shown how much everywhere in the world is to be accomplished by patience and love; they have pi'oved that even with uncivilized tribes hearts which have a fund of goodness, can accomplish mnch without the lash of compulsion."
Spain and France both, from a regard to the political value of the Catholic missions in their colonies, contribute large sums from the public treas- ury for the support of these, doubtless to the great detriment of their spiritual character. But, as the Zeitschrift remarks with just satisfaction, Herr Windthorst, the leader of the Ultramontanes in the Reichstag, has distinctly disclaimed for his party all expectation of such subventions from the imperial treasury. There is no reason, as the Zeitschrift remarks,. why the government should not afford aid to the schools and presses of the mis- sions, Catholic and Protestant, but every reason why it should not inter- fere with their properly spiritual work, even by affording aid, since aid soon establishes a claiI!l. of supervis-ion-. – – – – STUDENT VOLUNTEER NOTES.
THE volunteers who were at the Northfield Summer School in '87 will remember the In- spiring words of Mr. H. F. La. Flamme, who but six months before, when Mr. Forman was in Toronto, had decided for the foreign work and was thAn on his way to his field in India. During the summer of '87, Mr. La. Flamme and Mr. Davis made a tour of Canada and secured about $3.000 for India. Then they saIled together.
After sixteen months spent in the study of the language they set out in February last on their first tour" to breathe out the new words in an old, old storv." Mr. Davis was given permanent charge of 500,000 souls. Mr. La. Flamme will work with him until joined byaB- other man from America, when be will push up north and open a new station. The people rush together in crowds to hear them preach, at times literally mobbing- them by pressing around tbem for the tracts they distribute. A strong appeal is made by the missionaries of the district for 52 men at once, and the third of April Was observed as a day of special prayer for tllis end. The same need is felt all over India, as IS indicated by Dr. Chamber- lain's trumpet-call in THE MISSIONARY REVIll:W OF THE WoaLD for 5,000 men. In the central provinces a work is being originated similar to the China Inland Mission to get out young men on a salary of $300 a year to evangelize Central India. Until they learn the language they will all live in a central horne, BaJaghat, with food and cloth..s only provided. Then they are to go out two and two throughout the land proclaiming Christ.
It gives us pleasure to present a letter from Mr. La. Flamme to the volunteers: My Dear Fellow Volunteer.: CORANADA, INDU., April 8,1889.
As one of you I wish to give testimony that Jesus Christ fully satisfies. That promise, .. Lo I am with you a.lway," is a living- promise, and is fully wrought mto life only when we leave all to follow Jesus. One of our number said at Northfield in IM87: .. Perhaps you think we men who are about to start for the foreign field are sorry men. I tell you we are the happiest men here;" and he spoke the truth. We prove a problem by working it back- wards. The problem of "'peace on earth and good will toward men" was worked out from God to us by the death on the cross of the Son of Man. The proof of It is found in Luke ix: 23 : .. If any man will come after me, let bim deny himself and take up his cross dally and follow me." .. Whither, Lord?" ., To crucifixion," he a.nswers. Self-crucifixion, na.iling the old man to the cross, leaving all to follow Christ, that only brings to the soul the" peace of God that passeth knowledge." Self-devotemen~ to God, and that only, works the prob- lem back from us, in our peace with God, to the full peace of God in us, which proves" the good and acceptable and perfect 1"ill of God."
And now we have proved the problem, we hav.e given ourselves. not our belongings only, not a portion of our time only, but ourselves to God himself-not to God's service merely, but to God himself. We are ready to go anywhere for Jesus, and we have peace in our souls. Bu t let us not rest there. Let us apply the problem. 1 Tim. ii : 3-4: .. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: who wllleth that all men should be saved and corne to a knowledge of the truth." And how shall they be saved? .. Whosoever call- eth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." .. How, then, shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shaH they beheve m Him whom they have not heard ?
and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be &ent?" The voice of God cries. "Whom shall I send 1" "Who will go for us?" The WIlling response comes, U Here am I, send met"and with it the question, "'Whither, Lord? "-many volunteers stand just there-willing to go, but wanting to be sent, and asking… Whither, Lord?" And as they wait, expecting a special call, the great need of the foreign field is lost sight of. God's proTidences are the indications of His will.
And what are these indications? (1) Christ means each generation of Christians to give the gospel to each generation of unbelievers. Marl< xvi: 15. And the special providence for all the essentials of this vast enterprise Is found in Acts i: 8 : .. Ye sh..l1 receive roWER, after that the Holy Ghost is COrne upon you • • . to witness unto the uttermost parts."
(2) Though in some generations the carrying out of such an enterprise might have seemed like a march up to the Red Sea with the command to cross. it is not so in this. Every door is wide open. all peoples can be reached, all mission boards are calling for more men.
(3) God has established a law which makes It .. more blessed to give than to receive." If you would see the home church largely blessed,let her send you out to the foreign ser- vice according to that unfailmg promise, .. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth."
(4) One other striking indication of God's will in thIS matter is that be has informed you of the need of these destitute parts. Is that not significant? See John iii : 17. Of India's immense population, 288,000,000, fully 8,000,000 die every year, 24,000 every day. To reach these millions with the gospel the present staff of missionaries is 'Utterly inadequate. A call for 5,000 men (there are now some 600) has gone ringmg through tbe home land without contradiction or response.
But why no response? It Is because the great and perishinll:" need of India's millions Is l!Iot realized. To impress this need upon thIS home church Is the duty and the hIgh privilege of you volunteers. Urge the young men and women by the love and death of Christ, by the worth of souls and by the awful condition of the heathen world to devote their lives to the work and cry in an agony of love, .. Here am I, send me."
Mr. Wm. M. La.ngdon, another volunteer, writes from Pekin, Qhma. :
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER
"The needs here are oTerwhelming, and yet are not to be compared with those inland. With more than 200 foreigners in this city, we still sometimes attract curious, gaping crowds; and If the preacher is so strange, how unknown must be his gospel of salvation I Eleven months ago I learned of my appointment to North China, and was a little less pleased than if it had been to Japan. To-day I am glad it was China. Japan seems attractive to young America (and may the volunteers crowd that country), but tell them _ they will not regret giving their lives for Christ's work in old China."
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.
Garenganze,. or, Seven Years' Pioneer Missionary Work tn Central Africa. By Fred S. Arnot: Fleming H. Revell, 12 Bible House, New York. Victor Hugo predicted that m the twentieth century, Africa would be the cynosure of all eyes. In this story of seven years in the Dark Continent, Mr. Arnot has given us a son's letters to his mother and the home group; a story of strictly pioneer work, fer he undertook to cross the contment on foot. The journey was marked by supernatnral savor so sweet to a believer; as when, for example, . In a terrible thunder storm, an electric ball rell crasbing at his feet hke a cannon's shot, yetlefthim unharmed; or as, when III reptlated Illstances food and water were found to reo lieve extreme hunger and thirst, just whell the crisis came and behevlng prayer had made appeal to God. The book reveals a passion for souls.
With his whole heart Mr. Arnot loved those poor Africans and yearned for their salva- tion. He was divinely restless so long as his tongue was forced to be mute amid such spiritual destitution; and love quickened his mental powers and well nigh became to him a. gift of tongues, so that after but four months he began to use the Sechuana dialect in reading, conversation and prayer. The gospel still proves its power. The converted chief Kama not only forbids the traffic in stron!" drink, but the right of way for it throngh his dominions; he puts down revolting heathen customs, and sets an example of self. denial; yet while warring against their pagan practices, he wins the hearts of his people so that, almost to a man, they would die for him. One might see more shameless vice and immorality in Glasgow 111 one day than in Shoshong during a twelvemonth. It will take more than an English canon or M. P. to shake our confidence in Christian missions while such resnltsare wrought in the very homeso! thedeathshade and the habitations of cruelty.
Mr. Arnot's secrets are open secrets. A faith that made God's promises verities, real- ities, certainties to go by; a felJowship with God that would not be satisfied Without the holy llltimacy which reveals the secrets of God to the meek; a fidelity to the lower law bf duty and.higher law oflove, that turns our groveling into pimons that bear these secrets of this apostolic traveler's success-any disciple may learn and follow… There are eudless fresh beginnings in Christ." We have not yet begun to sound the possibilities of missions, because we have not yet proved the full power of prayer and faith and obedience. When believers trust the promises, learn of Christ and fully accept the great truth that the whole world is thejield and the whole church is the foree, many more will go forth with seed and with sickle, ready both to sow and to reap; and no part of the wide field shall re- main destitute of laborers, and given over to the Harvest of Death I-A. T. P.
F. H. Revell has also published a new Imperial AUas of the TVorld in convenient folio form at the amazingly low price of one dollar. We recommend all students, and espeCIally stu- a. dents of geography, history and missions, to procure copy to place on their tables for constant reference. We have found it invaluable. It has some thirty-three maps repre- senting every continent and country in colors, with a copious index by which easily and rapidly to find any city or town or distrIct; and one great excellence of this atlas is that the maps are not encumbered With too much matter, which sometImes makes an otherwise first-rate map obscure by multipliCIty of details and lessen its utiiity.-A. T. P.
The Missicmary Library. Chicago and New York. Eight charming volumt's, of moder- ate compass, ha.ve thus far appeared in this series, viz.: the lives of Robert Morrison, Rob- ert Moffat, Jas. Chalmers, Thos. Comber, Wm. Carey, Griffith John, Bishop Crowther and Bishop Patteson. Mr. Revell's aim is to put into brief form the most interesting and a.rousing narrative" of missionary heroism. These are not pans of milk, but little pitchers of cream. compact a.nd condensed from bulkier volumes. They can be read in few hours, and easily borne ill memory. because they do not burden the reader with details. If some benevolent person would put a set of these books into every college library or within reach of students in our theological seminaries and Y. M. C. ASSOCIations. not to say the children m ourSunday-schoels. they would become the seeds of many a devoted form of service on fields both at home and abroad. We rejoice to see cheap and available mis- sIOnary biography multiplying, and have seen none that more fully suits the growing de- mand.-A. T. P.
Missionary Enterprises, South Sea 181ands. By John Williams, Presbyteria.n Board, Phil. adelphia. The name of John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga, is a sort of talismllol1 of mlSSlOns. He who knows nothing of Williams has yet to learn the alphabet and primer of missionary literature. He went to the most hopeless field in the South Seas, and found tile isles waiting for God's law. He dared all perils for the sake of Christ aud souls. His career became a triumphal one. Before he died he had the satisfaction of sowing Polynesia wiGh the gospel, and of seeing in most of the islands the seed coming to ripeness in the harvest. 'this Is another chapter in .. The Acts of the Apostles." Williams burned with it Pauline fire and God granted him a Pauline success. This book is one of the" Evidences of Christianity," an unanswerable argument and appeal for the truth and power of the Gospel.-A. T. P.
Ohri8tian Womanhood. W. C. Black, Nashville, Tennessee. There has been need for a. longtime of some monograph upon woman's position in the ancient and modern civihza.. tions. Without endorsing eVt'ry statement or opinion of Dr. Black we consider his book a. very valuable contribution to the literature of the subject, and calculated to throw much light upon some of the most important questions of the day. HIs disc~ssion of the female Diakonate is especially thorough and helpful. He shows woman's position in the ages bafore Christ, ber domestic thraldom, her social status, her systematic ignorance.alld degradation, and the wonderful reversal of all these condItions after Christ came. No ·'coman, especially, should be WIthout the stimulus this work imparts. The place woman holds and is to hold in modern evangelizatlOn is emphatically brought to the front. The book wlll prove a great help in stimulatingmissions.-A. T. P.
The Romance 01 Mis8ions. By Maria A. West. Boston: Ara Kelyan. This book is well named. It is from the pen of a most accomplished woman, Whose imaginative pen invests the work of missions with a romantiC, but not illusive or deceptive coloring. Her experi_ ence in the La.nd of Ararat we have not only read in tilese pages, but hear4 from her own lips with not only interest but fascination. She sees and hears with singular acuteness ot observation,and then with graphic power paints what she observes. We should think our misslon~ry library very deficient without Miss West's delightful and instructi ve book. Missions would not be barren of mterest if such volumes were more read. Few novels compare with this narrative of bcts.-A. T. P.
Bits about India. By Mrs. Helen H. Holcomb. Presbyterian Board of Publication. The writer of this beautifnl book has long been a missionary resident in India, and is thoroughly familiar with the things of which she writes so pleasantly. The title of the book indicates its character. It is fuJI of interesting facts about India, its people, Its customs, its wor. ship, its prlva.te and social life-the very things that really tell most concerning a. country, and yet the very things which most writers are apt to overlook.-J. M. S.
Twenty Years of the Woma.n's Foreign. M"Ul8ionary Society of the Methodist Episcopa.l Church. By Mrs. J. T. Gracey.
Sketch 01 Mr8. J. C. Doremus, by the same author. The first of these brochures is an Intel. lIgent, compact and comprehensive outline sketch of the history, the work and the results of twenty years-from 1869 to 1889-of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the M. E. Church, published bV the Heathen Woman'8 Friend, Boston. It is a sketch of remarka.- ble Interest and full of information and of inspiration.
The other Is a graceful and most touching tribute to the memory of one whose name Is like preclOus ointment ponred forth-a name lJIustrious in the annals of philanthropy and ChristIan work. She Was the first President of the first Woman's Missionary Society- "Woman's Union Missiona.ry Society "-and made her blessed infiuence felt at home IIilId abroad through a thousand channels. We wish this sketch, which costs but three cents, and is published at the same place as the one above, could be read by every woman in the land.-J. M.S.
Memoirs of Mrs. Augusta Tullis Kelley, late missionary to East Central Africa. By her husband. "In these memoirs the reader will find nothing fictitious, exaggerated or highly colored, but a plain, faithful record of the work and sacrifice of a woman of God of more than ordinary ability, wholly consecrated to his service It is a deeply interesting volume. It is charming for its simpilcity. It is the record of a holy symmetrical lire. Her own writings contribute an attraFtive pa.rtof the book. It will encourage all who pernse It to holy living. It will, we trust, awaken new zeal in the missionary cause." rhe book is deeply spiritual, bntisnot narrow or sectarian. $1 sent to Rev. W. W. Kelley, Paxton,Ill., wllIse- cure a copy.-J. M. S.
The M"l8IJionary Year Book for 1889, containing historical and statistical accounts of the principal Protestant Missionary SOCIeties in Great Britain, the continent of Europe, and America. London: The Religious Tract Society. New York: F. H. Revell. 12 mo, 428 pp. Prlce,1.25. We barely announced this work in our June issue,anda.reglad to saythat it is now upon the ma.rkilt. A similar volume was published last year, but we note a decided
GENERAL MISSI,ONARY INTELLIGENCE
improvement in the present, especially in the American department, which last year was very meagre and imperfect. Fortunately Dr. J. T . Gracey, who conducts the International Department of this R&VlEW, collated and edited the matter in the American section -<lver one-fourth of the book-which is a guarantee that this part of the work has been intelligently and thoroughly done.
The design of the Annual is to give a bird's-eye view of all the important missionary operations of Protestant Christendom. Each society in turn is briefly sketched, its field and work described, and the latest statIstics presented. So tbat within the space of a moderate volume the reader can learn just what each missionary society or agency in the wide world is doing, ",here it is laboring, and with what success. The statistics given-often tabulated-are official and invaluable. It is justsuch a work as thousands of those engaged in missionary work need for information, and it ought to have, and we believe will have, a large circulatiou. And If the success of this volume warrants it, a similar one will be issued each year hereafter.-J. M. S.
H.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Afrlca.-Prof. Calderwood, in an able -Diffusion of the English language. The article in the Unzted Presbyterian Magazine, fact that at the recent National Congress shows conclusively that concentrated effort in India all the speeches and the entire prohas proved far more effective than desultory ceedings were in English, is a striking illusenterprises. He contrasts for example what tration of the wide diffusion of that tongne. has been done by the China Inland Mission, There were gathered at Madras seven huna.lId by the Presbyterian Church of England. dred dele::a.tes from all parts of India, Af- "Wilham Burns went to China," he says, ghanistan, Nepaul, Bnrmah and Scinde. .. in 1847: Hudson Taylor in 1>l55; Burns had They spoke nine different languages, and thus the advantageo! eight years m ad- the English was the only medium throu&'h vance. The Presbyterian church has con- which the proceedings could be satisfactocentrated in Amoy, Swatow, and in the rily conducted. Great Britain's colonial island of Formosa. This mission has now 16 enterprises ha ve been probably the largest missionaries, 7 medica.l missionaries, 13 wo- factor in spreading a knowledge of English. men wboare zena.namissionaries-36agents It is found also that in countries like Java, m all ; whereas the China Inland Mission where Great Britain has no control, the has 339 agents. How then do resnlts stand? knowledge of English IS steadily growing. The Presbyterian Church of England Mis- Not long ago the French language was the sIOn reports at the end of 1887, 3,528 commu- medium invariably employed in all internanicants. The China Inland Mission, with its tional conferences. At the last Berlin connoble examples of seJr-consecration, cannot ference, however, English and German as show results to compare with them."-Free weIl as French were employed. The other Church 01 Scotland Monthly. leading languages of Europe have graduaIly been insisting on recognitiou on an equal -We must be aggressive. We neglect the footing with French in their proper domain. work of missions at our peril. Look abroad. It was Mr. Canning who led the way when The multitudes of India and China are fast at the foreign office he ordered that certain becoming possessed of the instrnments and correspondence, hi thertowritten in French, appilances of Illodern civilization, while should be sent in English. .. The time will vice and Infldelity from the West keep pace come:' said Bismarck in 1863," when I inwith the advance of art and commerce. If tend to have all my dispatches written in Christianity fails to s~bdne these people, If German, and when I shall find means to the Christian church fails in her duty to make them understood even ill FranCe." He them, and selfishly Ignores the splendid op- kept his word, and both the English and portunities before her, she Is preparinl';' German tongues have profited by the cona.:vengers of her guilty negligence and sel- siderable decline of French as the interns.- fish apathy more cruel than the harbarlan tionallanguage of diplomacy and polite soscour&,es that deva~tated Imperial Rome. ciety. Look at h"me. Infldeilty, socialism, anarchy, the outcome of the neglect, oppression -The Scriptures are now accessible, as to and unfaithfulness ofChristendom,are rally- languages, to nine-tenths of the world's ining their forces, and preparing certain judg- habitants, while in the early part of this ment for a worldly and apathetic church. century they could be stndied only byabout Whatcanavertlt? Communism must come one-flfth. Shall it be the commnnism of the devil, or the communism of Christ? Under God, our _. Are our foreign missions a success? salvation as a church, and as a. people, de- Though the direct results of the propa- ·pends npon revived faithfulness to that ganda of the various Christian missions great aggressive work Which Christ has which have long been at work in Africa may not show an extraordmary num- Iiven us to do. ber of baptized and professing Christians in their pnblished statistics, yet their vastated." At the close of 1887 the Arab Indirect inlluence has had really remarka- traders attacked Karonga, one of the com..
ble effect in educating and humanizing can- pany's stations at the North end of Lake nibals and fetish worshipers, and the mere Nyassa, but a body of native allies came to fact that numbers of savages have been their help, and after five days the siege was taught to read, write and speak good Eng. raised. The company are appealing for lish or French, is alone one result of mis- funds to enable them to send a force of ex- sionary enterprise which should secure the perienced and equipped men to undertake sympathy and support of European Goveru- the work of repelling these Arab aggressors.
ments for these painstaking societies. In- -ReVIved HindUIsm. TheBharatDharma deed, though the converted barbarians may Maha·mandal (Iiterally"theGreat Assembly afterward grow slack in observing theprac- of the India Religion"), Hindooreligiou8 con..
tices of our religion, no one can deny that ference, concluded its second annual meet- they have been very much benefited by ing at Brindabun on the 29th ultimo. About their studies at the mission. No doubt if 200 delegates from various parts of the Pun- the great missionary propaganda of Britain jab, the northwestern provinces, Oudh and confined itself to being a kind of School Behar, including Dewan Ramjas, C.I.E., and Board for savages, it would save time and Dewan Mathuradas Bahadnr of Kapurthala, money spent in installing into low-grade were present. The conference upheld im- minds dog-mas and doctrines which these age worship, the incarnations, sbl'addha barbarians are scarcely capable of turning and pilgrimage. It was resolved that to the practical purposes of life, but inas. branches of the Maha·mandal (Great As· much as that is the original motive-power sembly) be established in places where they of Christian missions, and one must utilize do not already exist, also to promote all forces as one finds them, political ec·ono- over the country religious education, and mists should be content to let the missiona- that Hindoo boys sl,ould be taught :rI:indi, ries dogmatize and indoctrinate without let Sanskrit and the principles of the Hindu or hindrance, on account of the education religion before they begin to learn a foreign and civilization which they laterally intro- language; that no boy be married below 16, duce. The trader civilizes, but he does not and no girl belOW 10 or above 12. The con· go to savage countries for that purpose; he ference closed with prayers for the Queen- goes to trade. In like manner the bait Empress under whose benign rule, as the which draws these good men and women of Secretary remarked, they enjoyed that Ro~an Catholic and Protestant missions to mo.t invaluable boon, namely religious free- Africa, Polynesia, North America, India, dom. Prayers were also offered for Lord China aud Persia, is the desire to instUl into Lansdowne, Sir Auckland Colvin and Sir the minds of the backward races of these James Lyall; but to which of the 330,000,000 'savages of semi-civilized lands their own Hindu divinities the prayers were offered, views of Christian faith and hope, but they our authority does not say. We take it to accompany their care for the spiritual well- be to Krishna and his mistress Radha, the being of the pagan or Mohammedan with a local divinities, who, we suppose, presided very practical intention to improve his over the "Great Assembly."-Indian Evan· bodily life and to educate his mind, and in gelical Review, April.
this they do, and have done in the past, an -Results of a Christless Civilization. Grat- amount of good that has never as yet been tan Guinness lately said: .. All along that sufficientlyappreciated.-H. H. Johnston in West coast of Africll. we have built great Fortnightly Review for Aprtl. warehouses stocked with guns, gunpowder -" The African Lakes Company was form- and murderous drinks. We have built them ed in 1878 to assist the various missions at every river's mouth, and far up every then established and to work out Living- navigable rlver in the interior of the coun- stone b schemes." James Stevenson, of try, wherever European capital and power Scotland, is chairman of the company, and could reach. Where the Senegal, the Gam.
the road known as the Stevenson Road, con- bia, the Niger and the Congo roll their be- necting lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika, was neficent waters to the sea, there we have b'lilt at his expense. This is said to be one set up the man-murdering fa.,tories, and of the most important roads in Central there we land our cargoes of deadly poison.
Africa, commercially considered; but the Look at the green boxes in those factories, Arabs have begun to appropriate it to their packed with gin-infamously bad gin, too, own use, and to block the way with their scarcely lIt to make paint with; gin boxes caravans. Mr. Stevenson has just issued a by the l'Illllion I Look at the demijohns of pamphlet containing a slave-trade map of rum, great glass jars enclosed iu wicker Africa, and bringing together facts to show work, filled up to the brim with burning, that "within the last five years the ravages maddening liquor; rum jars by the million I of the Arabs have increased in area and in- Look at them in every African village and te,sity, so that a territory West of the town all along the coast, positively for thou- G~t Lakes,l,OOO miles by (O(), llle been de- sands of miles, and far away in the interior. See how the deadly trade eats like a cancer that it was fun of interest, a.nd that the into the very vitals of tbe dark continent." road is perfectly open; but being a white man, I had to pay' right of way' to the .. In wandering through some native vil- principal chiefs, who, by the way, are anxla.ges on the Kru coast," says Thomson, ious for white men ~o live with them. We "one feels as if in a kind of hades, peopled a.ri ved here in a. hundred marches, the by brutalized human beings, whose punish- marches averaging six hours. Here my ment it is to be possessed by a never-ending head was overwhelmed at the reception I thirst for drink. On all sides you, are fol- everywhere got from the BashiJange. Every lowed by eager cries for gin, gin, always hUJ dotted with large and beautiful vilgin. I had travelled and sulfered in Africa, lages; the couutry teeming with people who inspired by the idea that I was doing some ha,ve abandoned fetishism and are waitillg good in the world in opening up new lands for what the white men can bring them; all to commerce and civilization, but all my a.nxious to'learn, intelligent, have now some satisfaction was blighted as I felt that what idea of God, want to know about everything. httle work I had done had better have been faces all smiling, and everyone polite. Go undone, and Africa still remained the dark anywhere over the country, and great vilcontinen t, if such was to be the end of it all I lages enconnter tbe eye. The population is For me, as things stand in many places, I enormous and is marvellously thick. Trnly, am inclined to translate this cry of the • the harvest is great, but the laborers are opening up of Africa to civilization as really few.' Few I one only, and that one worth being the opening of itupto European vices, almost nothing."-Baptist Mis.ionary. old clothes, gin, rnm, gunpowder and guns." Ch i na.-A good book. A Chinese mer- -An Italian traveller, Signor Cechi, has lately published, in his work on East Africa, chant came into the American Baptist Misa.n interesting account of the degenerate sion Chapel in Shanghai, and, after talking representatives of ancient Christianity with him for a short time, Dr. Yates sold whom he found among the peoples inhabit- him a copy of the New Testament. He took ing the region South of Abyssinia. The Mo- it home, ;;00 miles awa.y,aud, after about hammedan invasion has driven these de- three months, appeared again in the chapel. scendants of the primitive African Chris. tians to the more mountainous parts of the He came back to say that he was uuder the country, where, .in sequestered vales, scat;.· impression that the book was not complete, tered communities of them have churches that surely it must have other parts, and so adorned with double crosses, and dedicated he came to get the Old Testament as he tosnch names as the" HolyEmanuel." They read and studied the New. What had he profess the old heresy that our Lord had only one nature, the divine. But Signor done with the New Testament r He had Cechi found them so staeped in ignorance that their doctrine can be little more to taken it to his home and shown it to the tbem tban a traditional formula. schoolmaster and the readiug people. They said: .. This is a good book. Confucius him- -Dr. Robert N. Cust, in a recent number self must have had something to do with it." of Ohurch Work, says: .. After a careful As there was only one copy, they unstitched consideration of the subject for many years I have come to the firm conviction that a this one and took it leaf by leaf, and all missionary in Equatorial Africa, East or those who could write took a leaf home. West, at a distance of, say fifty miles from Tbey made twelve or fifteen complete copies the coast, .hould not be encumbered with a of the New Testament, and introduced it family. He is like the captain of a ship, the into their schools without any" conscience soldier on a campaign, the explorer of un- clause." It was introduced as a class- known countries, and should not be weak- book throughout that district for heathen ened in the hour of peril by personal and schools.-Selected. home considerations calculated to unnerve him. It should be a rule absolute that as England.-A missionary exhibition. regards Equatorial Africa no woman should The Kensington Town Hall, London, has be allowed to be sent to a station in the in- been the scene of a very interesting exhibi- terior. I have seen a procession, as it were, tion and bazaar. A perfect museum of arti- of young women pass from the committee- cleg, illustrative of native life in India, room into African graves, with no possible China, Japan, Africa, North America and advantage as rega.rds mission work to com- Palestine, has been brought together under pensate for the frightful sacrifice of life." the auspices of the Church of England Mis- sionary Society; whilst lectures, with dis- Central Africa:-Dr. Wm. R. Sum_ solvIDg views, au the society's various fields mers, who died ,at Luluaburg, in the Congo of foreign labor have helped to render the Free State, wrote as follows to Dr. Sims re- exhibition still more instructive. Manyob- garding the people among whom he found jects of great interest, including idols, himself in that remote station: models of temples, weapons of sa.vage war- fare, and numerous specimens of native .. Of the journey I will sa.y notbing but mauufactures have been lent, and in each division of the exhibition a missionary well acquainted with the country from which the articles came was generally to be found have asked for a re-enforcement of Ii2 missiona- ready to alford all needed infotmation. ries. By the same proportion our own force Qught Relicsofa personal character, too, attracted to be enlarged by more than 100. Bnt they do much attention. Among the latter the most pathetic was the diary of the late Bishop not ask that. They ask this year for sW: new Hannington, with the last entry on the men. Let the young ministry see that the men day he was murdered, October 29, 1885: .. I can hear no news, but was held up by the are found, and the chnrches be sure that tho 30th Psalm, which came with great power. means are provided to respond fnlly to this A hyena howled near me last night, smelling modest request.-Baptist Mis8ionary. a sick man, hnt I hope it is not to have me yet." -The Pandita Rambai has met with a kind reception from all parties in Bombay, and her -The income of the Church Missionary So- experiment of opening a training school lor ciety is larger this year than it has ever high caste widows will have a fair trial. Dur- been before, and the Kensington exhibition ing her prolonged visit to America the Pandlta must materially increase it. Mightnotother met with great favor, and received more liber· missionary societies imitate with advantage al assistance than, we think, had ever before such a good example? been given to any person for missionary pur- poses. We have not been sanguine by any I ndia.-The American Baptist Telugu means in hopes for her success, knowing as we Mission. The Telugn Mission presents a cu- do the character of some of the barriers wb;~h rions 'anomaly in the missions of American Bap- rise in her way, but every such experiment Is tists. It was the most hopeless at the first, worth a trial, and every elfort, whether suc- and is now the most prosperons. From the cessful or not, which aims to ameliorate the least illteresting and encouraging, it has ad- hard lot of Indian widows, deserves the sympa- vanced, in less than twenty-five years, to the thy of all good people. The Pandlta has en- most marvellonsly successfnl mission on the thusiasm and persistence of pnrpose, and we face of the earth. The history of Christianity trnst that her success will be snch as to silence all donbters. As to opposers, she has none.- in all ages and countries shows nothing which Indian W,tnes8. snrpasses the later years of the American Bap- tist Telngn Mission in spontaneous extension, .Japan.-A College Revival. In the Chi- in rapidity of progress, in genuineness of con- cago Watchman, Mr. L. D. Wishard tells a very ver.ions. in stability of results, or in promise for the fnture. The missionary marvels of the interesting story of work in connection with his Sonth Sea Islands cannot parallel it. Only in visit to'the leading Christian college in Japan: the tragic and romantic annals of Madagascar can we find anything to compare with it; and " The Doshisha, as it is called, contains 700 , in the missions of to-day, when the amonnt of students, about one-half of whom are members elforts pnt forth, and the reality of personal ex- of the college church. The institution Is not perience is taken into consideration, not even only the largest Christian college in Japan, bnt the wonderfnl progress of Christianity.ln Japan is one of the very largest Christian institutions can he placed beside it. . . . And yet the Tel- In Asia. It has done more for the spread of ugn Mission occnpies no such place in the af- Christianity in Japan than any other agency, fections and aspirations of American Baptists, and has a national reputation for its literary as as Its wonderfnl history and success would well as its religions standing. We pursued ex- warrant. Here is one man who has under his actly the same course wbich we had followed care more than half as many native Christians so often In American colleges, and the work as there are In all Burma, ann we haven't sent from the beginning to the end of the visit was so similar to an American college revival that any even one man from Am~rica to reinforce the special description Is scarcely necessary. One Telugu Mi8sion jor near,v three veal's. .•. subject which especially interested the stndents was the place which Christianity holds in the Bnt the crisis has come. The mission cannot colleges and among the highly educated of the and must not go longer in the way it has been West_ Many of them had been led to think going. These thousands of converts, most of that Christianity was losing its hold upon onr whom are less than ten years in the Christian intellectnal classes. This outrageous falsehood life, must be trained for Christian manhood has been circulated in Japan by skeptical pro- and womanhood. The appeals of these hun- fessors from England, Germany and America. dreds, and even thousands, who are asking for the missionary to visit their villa~es, and bap- "One of the most interesting and the most dif- tise taem, must be responded to. The over- ficnlt features of the work consisted in the in- worked and overburdened brethren mnst be qniry meetings. It was an imposing sight to see relieved and enconraged by seeing re-enforce- a score of gronps of from three to six students ments coming to their help. We have other gathered about a professor or experienced great and pressing works which must be done, Christian student eagerly discussing the plan of but the re-enforcement of the Telnga Mission salvation. The meetings for personal work presents claims npon our young men, and upon were generally held In onr private rooms. Dr. the gifts of the people, which cannot be longer Davis gladly tnrned his parlor and dining-room into an inquiry-room, and sometimes forty or Ignored. The Canadian Baptist TeluguMission more stUdents would crowd in and spend from ODe to two hours. It was a joy indescribable to answer their eager questions, and lead them we left. The same evening fifty men in a meetstep by step into the light. One of those meet- ing for the unconverted announced their deterings I shall never Corget. The company was mination to begin praying for themselves, and pretty evenly divided-about half of them skep- to seek Christ, as it was expressed, untll they tical concerning the inspiration of the Bible, the found Him." Divinity of Christ, the immortality of the soul, &c.; while the balance were settled upon these Iu this connection we add the words of a mispoints, and were willing to accept Christ as sionary who writes to the ilfiBsionary Herald their Savionr. I di vided the crowd, leaving- the that on March 24 103 students from this instituskeptics with Mr. Bartlett of Dartmonth, '87, tion, 98 young men and 5 young women, received who was one of the first of the pledged mission- Christian baptism and were welcomed to church ary volunteers to reach the foreign field, and fellowship. Last year 141 of the students wbo has a special knack for meeting skeptical made public profession of Christ. And still objections. I took the others into an adjoining further: room. There were abont twenty-two of them. After talking for some time about the plan of .. It is with great pleasure, " says the Mis8ionsalvation, I asked those who had already ac- ary Herald, "that we are able to announce that cepted Christ, or were willing te accept Him a Christian gentleman of New England, who there and then, to aunounce it. Fnlly seventeen desires that his name should be uUknown, has did so, and the reasons which theygayefortheir been so impressed by the value of the work hope in Cbrist were as satisfactory as you will done by the Doshisha Institution at Kyoto, and ordinarily hear iu an American college. by the caU which Mr. Neesima has made for its enIargementasa university,that he has contribut- .. Four or five fellows listened earnestly and ed the noble sum of $100,000, of which $.5,00 are iadly to the testimonies of their companions, to be for an endowment, and $25,000 for the but were unable to grasp the fact of his gift of erection aud furnishing of a science haU. " eternal life. So I said to them, 'Fellows, what will convince you beyond a doubt that the gift PerSia.-Mission Movements. A recent is yours?' They did not answer at once, so I letterfrom Persia speaks of the rapid move tosaid, 'If I should come to you and teU that you wards religious liberty to Moslems, which has had fallen heir to a maguiflcent estate, what been taking place in the capitol, Teheran, and iu would convince you beyond all question of the the part of the field where our American truthfuluess of my word?' , We may be satis- brethren are at work. A few facts will illustrate fied if we could see it,' one. of them replied. this: (1) At Tabreez, an American medical mis- • Would that really satisfy you f' I asked. They siouary was asked by the Vali Ahad, or heir-apdidn't grasp my meauing, so I continued, ' Sup- parent to the throne of Persia, who is also Govposing you saw the legal document-the re- ernor of the Province of wbich Tabreez is the cord? ' , Oh, yes, that would settle the ques- capital, to give up his connection with the mistion,' they exclaimed. 'Well,' I continued, • we Sion, and become his private physcian on a large are 80 fortunate as to have the record. Turn salary. The doctor had no wish to accept it, but to John v: 11, aud let us read, .. And this is the was urged by· his brother missionaries aud the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and Mission Board to doso. He told the prince that he this life is His Son." , could do so on the condition only that he should bequite free to teach and preach his own religion, " I bhall never outlive the memory of the and to this the prince agreed. The appointment scene of that room. They fairly snatched their was considered so important that it was dis- New Testaments from their pockets, and eag- cussed by all the Legations, and oppo,ed by erly searched for the record. And bending low Russia only. The strangest thing was that tho over the pages they seemed to drink in the Mullahs approved of it, and said they could trust words like thirsty men. It was a pathetiC a man to attend to their women who was not sight, those boys beuding anxiously over the ashamed to stand up for his own religion. (2) record, which probably none of them had ever A convert from Islam in another city has not seen before. I could see their faces brighten, only made a public profession of Christ, but has althougb my eyes were becoming somewhat also acted as a mission agent under the American dimmed. Presently one of the boys looked up. missionaries there, and was lately married tothe His face glowed. He reached out his hand. daughter of the native pastor. Great opposition • Is the qnestIOn settled f' I asked. 'Yes, it is was raised to the marriage by the native Chrissettled,' he replied; and they all said the same. tian community (Armeniaus), but none whatever There was joy in that room. The iuterpreter by the Moslems. (3) Not many years since an said, 'L.t us pray'; alid while he prayed I order was given by the Shah, through H. B. M. thought of the joy with which heaven was ring- Minister, that the missionaries should not allow ingas any Moslem to enter their church, or attend any kind of service. Iu December, when Dr. Bruce The angels echoed around the throne, was returning to Julfa, he preached in Persia in .' Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own I ' Teheran to a crowded congregation of Chris- tians, Jews, Parses., and Moslems. After the "So the work continued day after day. As service the whole congregation stayed for Sunsome indication of the progress of the work, I day-school, and one of the missionaries had a wi11 say that fully one hundred men attended a class of some 25 lloslems, Jews, and Parsees. meeting for new converts, held a week before
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL
chiefly Moslems, whom he taught the word of Sabbath, with a total attendance of about one God, just as in any Sunday-school clas~·. (4) thonsand. In the qnarters ot Haskeuy and Scu. After service one of the missionaries went out tari and in the rear of the Bible Honse, there are with, a catechist to two Moslem villages, and commodions chapels, bot for more than torty preached quite publicly to attentive congrega- years the evangelical Armenian chnrches in the tions in the street. (5) There are now several great quarters of Pera and Stamboul have converts from Islam In Ooroomiah who make 8 snffered severely in their growth and influence public profession of their faith. These five facts for the lack of church homes of their Own. The are significant signs of progress, and give ground brethren of the Pera and Stamboul churches are, for belief that God's time to favor Persia, of now about to make fresh efforts to secnre hOllses which Dr. Bruce has so often spoke, is at hand. of worship, and we bespeak for them tbe sym- -Christian at Work. pathy and aid of American Christians. The preachers of the gospel have never been so nn- T hi bet.-Mr. Andrew Wilson says that the merous and strong as at present, and the spirit of love and union among the brethren has sensi- Thibetans are the most pre-eminently praying bly increased. By means of our station conferpeople on the face of the earth. .. They have ence, genuine co-operati~n in carrying forward praying stones, praying pyramids, praying flags the evangelical work has been secured, and the flying over every bouse, praying wheels, praying differences of former years have quite disap· miJJs, and the univereal prayer, 'Ommani padme peared.- M!88ionary Herald. haun,' is never ont of their mouth," A German writer on Lamaism says of this sentence, which United States.-A fearless Missionary. literally means" 0 God 1 the jewel in the lotus," Dr. Otis Gibson, who died recently in SanFran. that these six syllables are, of all the prayers of cisco, was a noted missiona.ry among the Chinese earth, that which is most frequently repeated, in that city from 1868 to 1886. Dr. S. L. Baldwin written, printed, and conveniently offered up by in the Chinese Evangelist gives a thrilling acmechanical means. .. They constitute the only count of hisebaracter and work. We give,an exprayer which the common Mongols and Thihetans tract. "He soon gained the entire respect and know; they are the first words which the stam- confidence of the Chinese residents; and when mering child learns, and are the last sighs of the the hoodlum spirit became rampant and truckdying. The traveller murmurs them upon his ling politiCians catered to it for personal advantjourney, the herdsman by his flock, the wife in age, so tbat a public sentiment was engendered her daily work, the monk in all stages of con- very inimical to the Chinese residents, Dr. Gibtemplation-that is to say, of nihilism; and they son with that lofty courage cbaracteristic of him, are the cries of conflict and triumph. One meets stood firmly and resolutely in defence of the opwith them everywhere, whereever the Lama pressed Chinese. He was once burned in effigy church has established itself-on flags, rocks, in front of the City Hall, while the mayor of the trees, walls, stone monnments, utensils, strips City was making an anti-Chinese speech within, of paper, human skulls, skeletons, etc. They and conniving at the doings of the godless mob are, according to the meaning of the believer, without. On appearing once in the Legislative the essence of all religion, of all wisdom and RaHat Sacramento, a motion was promp~y revelation; they are the way of SIllvation and made by one of the hoodlum members that Otis entrance to holiness." Gibson he expelled from the hall; but there was a majority of rational and dece&! men in the Turkey.-Constanti~ople. Arnerlean Chris- body large enongh to prevent the passage or the tianity has three grand institutions in Constanti- resolution. Sometimes it was necessary to senople, namely, the Bihle House in Stamholll, cure police protectiou for the mission house, which is the centre of literary work for the Em- and on many occasions Mrs. Gihson was in seripire; the Female College, called the .. Home," ous donbt when he left the building whether she on tbe heights of Scutari, on the Asiatic shore, wonld ever see him again alive. In the midst and Robert College, on the bluff of the Bo~pho of such conflicts and trials he pressed on unrus, six miles above the city. There are thrEe daunted in his work until three years ago, when native evangelical churches, namely, two Arme- he was stricken with paralYSiS, undoubtly the niau and one Greek, with a total membership result of the long nervous strain to which he of over two hundred, and eleven religious ser- had been subjected." services in eight different quarters of the city and in three different langnages lire held every I1I.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Africa. of a year now accessions have been constant E. F_ Baldwin's Work in Southern and everyone haptized has renounced Moham- Morocco. medanism. For a time the work was seemingly much hindered by severe persecntion. Impris- MOGADOR, MOROCCO, March 21, 1889. onment, be3ting, disowning, banishment-these DEAR BROTHER: Some of your readers know are all too familiar to the converts here in somewhat of the precious work of grace in pro- Southern Morocco. But when it was impossible gress here among Mohammedans. For upwards to longer work here in Mogador we travelled and preached, going literally on the methods gospel brings them. May not all thia encourage laid down in Matthew x, which we hold with, the zeal and faith of scattered workers toiling we find, increasing numbers of God's children in these bard Moslem fields? to be of perpetnal obligation. We have found them to contain the deep and matchless wisdom Some new workers, all committed to Mat- thew x lives, have just jOined us. Tbere are of God for missionary etrort.* Several others now six of us bere, all mrn of course, with onr lives given up to toil for Lurist nnder bis primbesides myself, inclllding recently converted itive instructions. A band is forming in Ayernatives. are so travelling. The natives knowing shire, Scotland, of others. who will come to us no other methods, have gone glad)y forth, with- soon, we trust. Others in different places are ont purse or scrip. on foot, taking uothing and greatly interested. We hope to have many namarvellous blessiug in the way of conversion tives together here in the summer months for has followed the steps of their simple faith. trainiug in the Word, that they may afterwards They go with no thought of payor salary. The go forth two by two, without purse or scrip. Father makes their simple needs His care. lily own position as an unattached missionary, de- E. F. BALDWIN. pendent only on God for temporal supplies (which, blessed be Hie name, He ceaselessly Brazil. supplies), enables one to consistently instrnct these native Christians in the principles and THE MISSIONARY BUREAU,LoNDON, methods of .Matthew x, and encourage them to go forth npon them. April 8, 1889. DEAR DR. PIERSON:- I enclose It is to this retnrn to these first principles of mission work I attribute the constant :!low of copy Qf a letter received from Brazil, blessing we are having. and which is so except- 10~1 in Mohammedan fields. I earnestly rec- on the subject of "Self-Supporting ommend them to others who may have the faith and are so circumstanced as to practice them. Missionaries." As it is the phase of I say this without any reflection upon the more ordinary and accepted lines of mission endeavor. the subject <in which we are most The field is vast and the need great, and by all and every means let the gospel be.preached. deeply interested, and one in which Jnst now the vigilance of our persecutors and very much more can be done than adversaries has somewhat relaxed, and our fre- has yet been ~ttempted•. I thought quent meet:!Igs (sil<teen in Arabic and eight in English per week, are well attended, and we you might find room for it in your are cheered by more conversions. Several are jnst presenting themselves for baptism. Last excellent REVIEW. night one of the most intelligent and best educated Moors I have ever met,:pnblicly confessed JOHN M. PAMMANT, Secretary. Christ for the first time-both speaking and praying (as all the native Christians do from the Self-Supporting Missionaries: honr of their conversion) in onr meeting before "GREAT BRITAIN, tbrough her vast commercial many witnesses. He is one of the few" honor- and colonial relations, sends men to all parts of able" ones who have been won. We trnst he the habitable globe. These men are natnrally may become a veritable Paul. He was··some energetic and enterprising or they would not months since arrested and thrown into prison on offer for foreign service. the suspicion of being a Christian, which at that ,. Is it not possible to transform this splendid time he was not. His feet, like Joseph's, .. they army of yonng men into repres~ntatives of hurt with fetters," the scars of which he will Christ? I sincerely believe it is. The church never cease to carry. Poor fellow' He was of Christ in England has within its fold the very then withont the comfort that comes to a child flower of manhood, ready for service In any part of God in a1Hiction, and yet enduring reproach of the world. What then is necessary? That for Christ. But God blessed his dreary sojourn for every foreign post a Christian man should in prison to his soul, and it contribnted to his be forthcoming, a man with every qualification conversion. Pray for him. necessary, and equal to any that may be fur- nished from the world's ranks. But how are Some from among the few resident Europeans these men to be brought into contact with the and from among the Jews also have turned to companies who are to employ them? Anassoclthe Lord and confessed Him in baptism. ation might he formed of Christian merchants and others, who would, by their infiuence and Tidings from different places in the interior, known integrity,be nble to select men ofguaranwhere tbe word of life has been carried from teed ability antI general suitableness. But what here, tell us of many turning from Mohammed's wonld be the ~ractical gain to the church by all cold, hard. false faith, to the love and light the this? The gain would be sim ply incalculable. In the first place a great stumbling block wonld –*A series ofpapers dealing witb the qnestion be removed, fornothing impedes the spread of the gospel abroad more than the lives of godless of mission methods and entitled The Question Englishmen. All missionaries will attest this. 01 the Hour-Foreign Mis8ions, is appearing But the greatest advantage of all will be that now in The Christian of London, and are at- thousands of seU-supporting missionaries will tracting wide attention. be located all over the world, for every living Christian is a missionary, whatever his private , calling may be. The opportunities of spreading I hear Miss Pilditch is this moment bnsy giv- the gospel which lie within the reach oC every ing a singing lesson to our school children.
Englishman abroad are very great, and this Santhals are hill people and good singers.
without in any way interfering with his private Thank God for liberty to praise the Lord in the dntles. While laboring abroad I have had the midst of heathendom.
constant fellowship an 1 help of several young Last Sunday about 150 were at the Lord's Englishmen. One who ,vas ever ready to help table to remember His death; it was the won- was the manager of a foundry; another was the der of the RItes, the Son oC God dying for sinful director of one of the largest companies in this men. Eleven men and women were baptized city; and in the same way every Englishman in November, and one man l'lst month, on who fills an engagement abroad may do good proCession of faith in Christ. There is hope oC work for Christ, providing he be a living Chris- many more to Collow. Pray for them.
tian. Famine is tormenting thousands of people i I ask, should all this power for good be left daily heads of families, men and women, come to unapplied f Surely heroic young Christians will me, saying we have nothing to eat; give us some be forthcoming to fill any post that others work, rice or money; the children are crying.
would accept for the salary. The love of Christ The Santhals are a brave and hard-working.
should be stronger than the love' of enterpri.e people, but this famine is a great trouble, and or lucre, and as to fitness, who shall say that the Government does not Ceellncllned to help.
the man of God is inferior to the worldling f " Come ye blessed.-For 1 was hungry and ye Joseph and Daniel proved themselves not one gave me food. Inasmuch as ye did it unto one whit behind their godlesR compeers in worldly of these, my brethren, even the least, ye did It knowledge, tact and business capacity. unto me." Matt. 25 : 14-40. How can we see All that is wanting to put this scheme into these people starving before Our eyes f This is practice is the formation of an association of a time of need. Pray lor them, and afterwards Christian merchants and philanthropists, and see how mnch you can deny yourself to help its results will be universal. them. If friends knew their need, they would " JAMES F ANSTONE." cheerfully send a few pounds to help them.
India. A Ohristian Baba. Interesting letter from Secretary From Rev. J. A. B. Cook, Singa- Haegert, of the Bethel Santhal Mission. pore, Feb. 21, 1889.
BETHEL. 21st March. 1889. MR. TAlIl KONG WEE was born In Singapore, DEAR EDITORS: of Christian parents, in 1842 i he was thus a Baba. To explain this word, I cannot do better We left England in October, '88, with six new than quote the following from Vaughan's" Chi- missionaries for onr mission, and arrived here nese of the Straits Settlements": "The term safely on the 2d December. Our services on Baba Is used by the natives oC Bengal to board were a joy to os and a blessing to others. designate the children oC Europeans. and it Is Oor missionaries learned 500 Santhal words, probable that the word was applied by the and attended 24 lectures on diseases, their Indian convicts at Renang to Chinese children, cause, their course and treatment on board. No and so came Into !(enerai use. The word is time was lost; since their arrival they have given in Donglas's Hokien Dictionary as mean- continued their study. and made good progress Ing a half·caste Chinese from the Straits. In in medicine and the Santhallanguage. Mess1·s. the Straits, however, the term Is applied to all ,Panes and Hearn are at Bethlehem, 20 miles Chinese born there, half-caste, or otherwise." east; the others are here. We trust Mr. The term, moreover, is applied to adults as Rowat will go 20 miles north by and by. well as to children.
D,n:ing the last four months, patients from Mr. Kong Wee's father was a gambler 25 villages were attended at Bethel. Our and pepper trader. who sent him to school at the ulne dispensaries are busy at this time, as Rame's Institution, where he was taoght Eng- the prevailing heatlays many aside. (It is 8 P. lIl. lish. Like all Babas he knew Malsy better just now. and we have 95 degrees on our veran- than Chinese, though he also knew Chinese, dah, in the shade.) Oor nine dispensaries re- which some Babas do not. He left school when move moch misery and woe from many a home, sixteen to enter a lawyer's omce, where he and this they do all the year rouud. As a rule, remained until about three years ago, when he patients from more than 150 vill"ages receive removed to Madras for the education of his two treatment every year. sons. He had saved sumcient to enable him to. retire and do this. The reason why he went Since January, '89, we visited four melas there I will give further on. (heathen feasts) and disposed of 1,850 gospels. May the bleSSing of the Almighty rest on His His parents, brothers, sisters, and indeed all word, printed and preached, and may He guide his relatives were heathen. He also remained a the people to the feet of Christ. heathen Cor some years after leaving school, un- til he came into contact with a Chinese Chris- Last week our preachers, two and two, visit- tian, one of the earliest converts oC the London ed ftfty villages. M18si(!nary Socie.ty, which nnfortunately aban- children the best training they could under ~ most fayorable conditions. Their hope was that doned the Straits altogether, so long ago as both the lads might not ouly become earnest Christians, but also like the f:tther, preachers of 1847. By this Chinese Baba he was induced to the gospel, to the Babas of Malayrla. I am thankful to add that both the BOns are now cast in his lot with the Christians. He after- members of the church, and we hope to. see them more than filling their father's place in wards married one of his daughters, and she the coming years. May God grant it.
had much to do with the after life and usefulne.s PerSia.-The American Presby;'
ot her husband. She still survives, and intends tcrrian Mission.- From one of the missionaries: to return to Madras, until her sons complete The missionary work of Oroomiah Station is their education there. . in some respects unique, and iu many ways it is di1llcult, but full of promise. We area band The whole of Mr. Kong Wee's relatives stood of missionaries set down among a remnant of ancient Christendom in the midst oC Moslem out against his becoming a Christian. He was conquerors. It is a journey of nearly two months' travel to our field-so Car inland and so afterwards on visiting terms with them, and Car isolated that very few Americans other than missionaries have eyer yi"ited tbe region. The supported his mother nntil the last, but he was band of missionaries are four Presbyterian min- isters and their wives; one physician, his wife never forgiven by them for leaving the" cus- and mother; one secular missionary, and tbree single ladies. toms of his fathers," i. e., idolatry. While in The location and extent ofthe field.-To the India he often wrote, urging Mrs. Cook to visit north is Monnt Ararat, at the corner of Persia, Russia, and Tnrkey. The eastern boundary hi… de",rest mother" and sis ters. This we for nearly a hundred miles is the inland Ses of Oroomlah in ancient Media. Then the field extried to do, but apparently with little good tends westward to the Tigris, over the rugged region of the mountains and valleys in Kurdi.. result. Yet snrely God will hear his prayers on tan to the Tigris, as it passes the site of ancient Nineveh. The territory to be evangelized by their behaIr. When he first became a Christian, our station is nearly as large as the State of OhiO, partly in Persia, partly in Turkey, and is he once told me, thongh he had made a clean one of the oldest abodes of man.
break with idolatry, he knew very litt:e of the The Population and Nstionalities.-The first people Cor special efl'ort are the Syrians, or steps he had taken. Bnt by the teaching o~ his Nestorians, a remnant of the once great church of the Far East, that had its missions even in wife and others, by prayer, and the constant China a thousand years ago. This remnant nnm- bers about 150,000. There are probably 30,000 stndy of his Malay New Testament, he came to Jews on the site where they were carried cap- tive twenty-five centnries ago; there are as see "trnth as it is in J esns." He became a many more Armenian Christians; nearly a mil- lion and a quarter oCKurds, Moslems and Devil trne disciple, and was ever found ready to worshipers, aud over half a million of Persian Moslems; a total of near two million souls. speak for the Master, in his own house, at tbe There are many reasons why we should expect the Nestorians to be won over rapidly, as a cbapels, tbe prison, and elsewhere. He was people, to pnre Christianity, and the other peo- ples more slowly. certainly tbe most hearty and enthusiastic Chi- History of the Miasion.- The Nestorian naman I ever came across. So frank and out- remnant were first fully made known to the Protestant world in 1830, by exploring missionspoken. It was qnite refreshing to meet with aries. The mission was begun in 11l35, and called the Mission to the Nestorians. The him. first missionaries were Rev. Justin Perkins and Dr. Asahel Grant, very noble and euthnsiastic He preached freely at his own charges, and pioneers. Others, of a like spirit, ,followed them, of whom the Messrs. Stoddard and Rhea, gave regularly of his means to the cause of the and Miss Fidelia Fiske (as well as the two piO- neers) furnished subjects of bioll:raphy. In 1870 gospel, and even when away in Madras, where he also gave, he always had his monthly sub- scription paid in Singapore, and when he heard of the new chapel at Bukit Timah he sent twen- ty-five dollars towards the building fund. For years he and a few others went regularly once a quarter to communion services, and thus helped to keep things going tbere, after the founder of this station, Mr. Keasberry, had passed away; and it was largely owing to him and two or three others that services were maintained at tbe Malay chapel from the time Mr. Keasberry died, until our mission took over this station also, with its much reduced congre- gation. We shall continue to miss him in many ways. I shall always be thankful I knew him, and learned to love him as a brother. I shall remember his pleasant, hearty manner, his readiness to take a service or help in any way he could.!
A severe liver complaint brought him back with his wire to Singapore, but it was too late to save his life; he died in February of last year in great sufl'ering, but" in peace."
The reason why the parents took their sons- their ouly surviving children-to Madras was· that they might be witb them tbere, away from the debasing influences of Chinese idolatry, and the example and practic~s of heathen rela- tives. He knew too well what heathenism was.
So these loving parents wished to give their the name of the mission was changed to The Church has four Presbyteries -and a Synod; MiSsion to Persia. Since then it has enlarged also a native Board of Evangelization that meeta its sphere to embrace half Persia, or near 5OO,()(,0 monthly. By combining funds and counsels square mUes, in its efforts. Stations have been with the miSSionaries, a system of pastoral care established in Tabreez, Teheran, Hamadan and and itinerant labors is in operation which aims, a8 fast as possible, to reach all the Christian Salmas. population, and to carry the gospel to all other 1835, the work was hegun, and the mission- population. about us.
aries warmly welcomed by the Nestorians; The people are very poor in worldly goods, 1836, the Shah of Persia gave a firman to the but are able to do much for their own support, missionaries, and severely punished ruffians and for the spread of the gospel. The average that tried to kill them; 1838, the Roman Catho- amount given is about a dollar to a communilic mission was begun in the same field; 1841, cant-$2,000 per annum. This sum stands for the first printing-press ever seen in Persia began much real devotion and self-denial. Tne wages its work at Oroomiah in printing the Bible; of a laboring man is ten to fifteen cents a day, 1844, the training-school was removed to Seir, and of a skilled laborer, suob as a carpenter, and the Female Seminary was fairly opened; never more than thirty cents a day. Money is 1845, was the massacre of thousands of Chris- very scarce, and the sum that passes the hands tians by the Kurds, and follo wing this was a se- of our Christiaus is very small and very bard to vere persecution; the Patriarch and the Persian Governor beat and imprisioned many of the earn; but all give, and some conSCientiously missionaries' converts; 1846 to 1849, remarkable revivals; 1852, Persia was at war with Enl(land, give their tithes. and the missionaries were under Russian .pro- The Special Needs.-These are numerous; tection; 1855, the Reformed Church began; 1862, the Presbytery formed; 1862 and 1866, the one most pressing at this time is to provide years of cholera, and many thousands of people larger accommodations for our college. The swept away; 1870 to 1871, years of famine iu present building (two stories and basement, 110 many parts of Persia; 1871, the missiou trans- by 45 feet) gives ns chapel, library and recitation ferred from the American Board to the Presby- rooms, aud accommodations for sixty students, terian Board; 1877, extensive revivals; 1878, This building cost about $5,000. The demand is the Reformed Church more fully organized; very great to double the number of students, 187~, the new college built, and hospital begun; and give to half of them industrial educatiou. 1880, terrible famine, also insurrection of the It is an opportunity we must avail of, and thus Kurds; 1885, prevailinl!: revivals in the congre- bring the active and leading young men into the gations; 1886, High Church ritualists sent out evangelical Influence. In a few years these by the Archbishop of Canterbnry and began a young men will be the pillars of the church. If miasion; 1888, new Female Seminary built; we fail, these young men whom we reject will 1889. a new station nndertaken in the Kurdish fall Into the hands of Roman Catholics and Mountains. other errorists. While we sleep the enemy will sow tares. Three thousand dollars will bnild The first yearl, from 1835 to 1845, were years the needed accommodations for seventy addiof preparation in teaching, preaching and trans- tional students and provide shops. lating the Scriptures. From 1845 to 1855 there were many blessed revivals in the boarding- DEAR DR. SHERWOOD:-I have just schools, and the young men and women con- received particulars of the murder of verted carried the love of Christ with them to the villages, and many souls were spirituaJly of one of our converts in the Reformed renewed. From 1855 onward the Reformed Church was gradually formed, necessitated by Presbyterian Church, Antioch. persecution and other causes. The converts Yours faithfully, were first invited to meet with the missionaries R. M. SOMMERVILLE. in the Lord's Supper. As the members increased. separate congregations were formed in The following extractfl'oma private the villages, and native pastors placed over letter, recently received at Mersine, them. As pious young men were trained, they from Mrs. James Martin, of Antioch, were sent outaa teachers and evangelists. Thus should drive the churches to more the work has grown, and several thousaud souls are annuaJly reached. There is the stated importunate prayer in behalf of the preaching of the gospel in 120 places. The devoted brethren who are laboring largest congregation numbers 600 ; the smallest there in the face of such violent only ten or fifteen souls. opposition: The communicants in 1S:>7 were 216; in 1867, 697; in 1877, 1.087; and in 1887, 2,003. The .. We are now in deep grief and aftliction. whole number from the first is over 3,000. The Two weeks ago yesterday Abd EI Maseeh Telroll of ministers shows 40 fully ordained, and fort, one of our members, a yonng man of about 30 others, licentiates; also 87 elders and 91 dea- twenty, who joined our church in company with conesses of the congregations. The Reformed his mother three years ago last October, was set on by the Greeks in the shop where he was learning dyeing. Being at leisure, he was reading in the Bible, when a man standing on the other But the Persian Consul brought to court lve side of the narrow street said to another, 'See men, Greeks, who Baid they were in the street that fellow I He is still reading the gospel.' all day, and no assault occurred. We had Fast- Then the man attacked Abd Et Maseeh, striking day yesterday. The Greeks say, •That is the him on the head and kicking him, and cursing first of you only; we will settle you all.' Yeshim, his religion, and hook. A brother of the terday our cook was out in the evening, when young man roshed on him too, aod they dragged one of several men cursed his religion and made him oat of the shop, beating and kicking him. to strike him. Another caught the man, and He appealed to his master for help, but the mas- Yusef got away. The Lord is on our side, and ter took up a stick and made to strike him, and we shall not be moved." others coming np, Abd Et Maseeh got off. This is what the witnesses iestify. The father of Tahiti.-We gladly give place to the yoong man says that his son came home with blood flowing from his ears and nose. The this communication. father, a Greek, wanted to complain to the Government at once, but Abd Et Maseeh replied, In the midst of this dark financial 'No, my father, leave it to Christ, the Judge.' crisis of the London Missionary Society, Tile Ioung man ate a little supper, and went out we have been favored with the sight of a recent to an evening meeting where he and some others letter from Tahiti, well known and remembered were discussing Bible truth. He Boon returned by some of us as Otaheite, as the earliest part home, and after vomiting lay down, and falling of the field of the labors and of the signal sucinto coma, never spoke again. It was near noon cess of this mission. next day before they came for the doctor. When the doctor saw him and heard his story, he got the The remarkable importance of this intelligence futher to call in the Greek doctor and Immanuel, at the present moment is that it shows in a well the Bon of the Turkish Protestant pastor here, authenticated and most interesting detail the who had just returned from Stamboul with a fresh fruit that still remains on the old field of diploma, having .todied in Beirnt. The Greek Pomare, even after the French aggression. and Protestant doctors quarreled at once, the Greek saying it was meningitis, and the other We think we are noW warrented to print and saying it was impossible-it was from violence. to circulate privately some sentences of this let- The family dismissed the Greek, and the doctor ter, which is addressed to a lady in Edinburgh got there just as he was leaving. The doctor who was once herself a foreign missionary, and and Immanuel examined Abd EI Meseeh, and who presided at the Edinburgh Ladies' Associthey came together here, and in this room Im- ation of the London Missionary Society the manuel declared it could be nothing but violence. The young man died Friday evenin!(, and the other day: doctor asked the family to get a paper from the "I have always been hopiug to have a great Government for a post-mortem. Dr. Garabet Hagopian, of Aleppo, who studied in New York deal of missionary news to give you, but, though under Dr. Post's father, is here, and the doctor it is now nearly seven months since we left Sanasked the family to call him, and with Immanuel Francisco, I have not seeu a single European and his brother Yakoub, who studied in Aintab, Protestant missionary. All the IslandS that we and Is the agent of the city, made a post-mortem have visited are in the hands of the French, and examination and declared all the signs were of the English missionaries have been gradually violence to th~ head. That was On Saturday, driven out. Both in the Marquesas and the and on Tuesday they met to arrange their re- Panmutos we saw a great deal of the Roman port, and the sons of the Protestant pastor, Catholics, and I am glad to say that they seemed though not daring to deny that death was caused much less bigoted than they are with us. They by violence, said that there were many enemies, read the Bible in churcb, aad preach sermons, and they dare not say in the report to the Govern- and where there was only a catechist to conment that it was so, and they, too, actually drew duct the service, it seemed quite like our own, up a report in the Interest of the murderers_ as, of course, he could not celebrate Mass. At Dr. Garabet was besieged and offered bribe~ and Tahiti, though I found no missionaries, I am intimidated to compel him to pui his signature to very·glad to tell you that I found that the work their report, but he refused. The assault oc- had been so thoroughly founded that it is going curred In open day, in the street, and the wit- on quietly in the hands of native missionaries, nesses are numerous; but Greek and Turk have and very few have joined the church of Rome. united to kill the case. Three Moslems and two • . • After leaving Papeete we were detained Fellaheen gave testimony, but the Government by broken masts for two months at a very beausaid it would be wrong to write down that they tiful village in the southern part of Tahiti, called cursed his religion aud his book. The murder- Tantira, and it was there that I saw most of the ers are hidden in the house of the Persian Con- people, and loarned to love them. They are so sul. He is a Mason, as also are the pastor's loving and hospitable, and so cheerful and sons. The do«tor telegraphed home and lI:ot au happy. The fir~t Sunday, when I went ashore answer, and the pressure on the Turks is strong. to church, I found the table spread for the communion, and all covered with a white cloth. I asked leave to jOin, and was welcomed by the officiating minister, who was dressed in a dark blue and whIte narin (a cottou kilt), white shirt, and black paletot coat. All the ministers and deacons 'll'ere dressed in this fashion, and
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
had bare feet. In fact, my shoes were the only ship on Wednesday. On the appointed day ones in the chnrch I thirty women and three children came dn .. When the covering-cloth was removed, I fonnd that the wine was in black beer bottles, board, and not satisfied with what they had the cups were of very coarse earthenware, and the bread was baked bread-fruit cut in very already given me, they brought twenty-five small pieces. It was very touching to me to keep the feast with the Mi.sion congregation cocoanuts, fowls, and six pillows stuffed with so recently rescued from heathenism,-touching, too, to realize how the simple rite is silk cotton from the cotton-tree. I asked them snited to all climes and peoples, and may be nnderstood and partaken of although you do to sing a hymn before we went downstairs, not nnderstand a word of the language. When the service was over, I fonnd that I had put my_ which they did; and then, to my great surprise self in a much more conspicuous position than I had any idea of. First, all the ministers and they proceeded of their own accord to make deacons shook hands with me, aud ~hen all my fellow-communicants, of whom there must have speeches and prayers. An old sailor on board, been more than 280. who speaks the language, told me that one wo- .. That afternoon the chief called on me, and begged me to come ashore early on Monday man, who prayed fervently, prayed much for the morning, to receive a gift which the people wished to give to their new member. I went, captain, that he might be guided to do all that and here is a list of what I call •the gains of godliness' in Tahiti :-six fowls, one hundred was necessary for our safety. I was strnck with cocoanuts, bananas, ripe and green, breadfruits, sweet potatoes, taro, pine-apples, eggs, that when I heard it, and still more when the capand a lobster. These were all carried by men on poles over their shoulders, and laid on the tain discovered the very next day that the mast ground in front of our house. ,The chief preseuted them in the name of •Tws/ell religieus.. ' was in a bad state, and must be repaired before of the village. I returned thauks through the chief, and invited the givers to come and see the we could continue our voyage. Was it not a wonderful anSwer to prayer? and don't yon think the Christian kindness of these people might be a lesson to many professing Christians at home? I was a little vexed with the very common look of the vessels of the sanctuary, and have promised to send them Communion cups from Scotland, much to their delight."
Being personally acquainted with the writer.
I can confidently commend this unexpected testi- mony to encourage and stimulate all friends and supporters of Foreign Missions to contribnte to the funds of the London Missionary Society, ihat commenced in Otaheite at the close of last century. G. D. CULLEN.
EDINBURGH, 16th March, 1889.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY J. T. GRACEY, D. D.
Mr. Oust's" Notes." country, as a member of the Indian Civil Service, has been supplemented A CLERGYMAN who was a very by extensive travel in Turkey, Transbrilliant writer but not equally at- Caucasia, Syria~ Egypt, Tunisia, AItractive speaker, said to a brothel' gel'ia and Morocco. He has been for minister whose qualities were direct- many years associated with the conly the reverse of his own: "When trol of the British and Foreign Bible you write people go to sleep, and Society's interests and operations, when you speak they keep awake; as well as with those of the Church but when I speak they go to sleep, of England Missionary Society and and when I write they keep awake." other prominent and important evangelistic a~d learned associations. But if Mr. Robert N. Cust, of Lon- The Royal Asiatic Society designadon, speaks he is sure of a hearing, ted him as an Honorary Secretary. and if he writes he is sure of a He has contributed most valuable reading. He is entitled both to speak stores of knowledge on the languages and write on missionary topics. He of the East Indies, Africa, the Cauhas had to do with missionaries and casus and Oceanica, being the author missionary societies for> almost half of separate works on each of these, a century, and for over thirty years besides linguinistie and Ol'lental has made a close and careful study essays and other more popular topof missions and collateral subjects. ics. He has, besides, taken promi- A large personal acquaintance with nent part in the missionary discusthe people of India, gained during a quarter of a century's residence in the sions of the last quarter of a century, In his annual tours, made volun.- and is well and widely known as a tarily at his own charges, inconnea.
man of strong opinions, which he tion with the Bible Society's work, holds independently and champions he has visited many parts of Europe, fearlessly, according to others the Western Asia, and North Africa, right to exercise the same pdvi- except Tl'ipolitana. One year he lege!3. was in Norway discussing the Lapp We are favored with the second translation; the next year on the and enlarged edition of his valuable cataracts of the Nile, listening to contribution to missio)lary literature, men speaking in the language of which he has modestly entitled Nubians; then on the shores of the Notes on Missional'Y Subjects. The Caspian Sea, or the Sea of Galilee, volume consists of four parts, which or down III the Sahara of Algeria, or though published and procurable at Cape Spartel in Morocco.
separately, are here gathered in one Such a writer, were he far less large and comprehensive book. Part learned than our many-sided scholer I contains (1) Obsel'vations and Re- and literateur, would challenge at- flections on Missionary Societies,and tention; but when there is super- (2) Language Illustrated by. Bible' added a devout sympathy with the Translation. Part II treats of The progress of Christ's Kingdom in the GreatProblems Outside the Orbit of world, he commands it. He told the Pure Evangelistic Work, but which under-g-raduates of BaIliol College, the missionary has to face. Part III Oxford, in an address on "The Duty is devoted to the Relation of Mission- of the Youth of Great Britain," that aries to the Outer World. Part IV when, in 1838, he went to that col- is composed of missionary addresses lege, they knew as little about mis- delivered by the author under vari- sions as they did about Chinese mu- OilS circumstances, and what he sic. On repairing to Calcutta, styles " Pictures" and," Notices," through conversation with Bishop composed in omnibus and railway Wilson, he became interested in mis- trains or elsewhere, as reading, con- sions, and found "a new world"
versation ot' observation have sug- open to him, and missions have since gested the train of thought. They are been the" leading object of his very a layman's utterances on these great existence."
themes. Part V is to follow on " The But Mr. Cust pre-eminently de- ,Missions of the Romish Church." serves attention as one of the com- Mr. Cust's wide experience and ex- paratively few laymen of large abil- tended acquaintance in the depart- ity who have not only lent an ab- ments of geography, philology and sorbing attention to the subject, and ethnology, together with his promi- aided intelligently in missionary nent relation with practi'!al politics, counsels, but who have devoted have been all laid under contribution their enel'gies and literary skill to in the production of the several parts produce a literature on the subject.
of this volume; and the relation of It is surprising what stores of all these to missions has been con- knowledge and thought are gathered stantly present in' his thought dur- in this large and importantcontribu- ing all his life in the saddle, on the tion to curl'ent evangelistic litera- judge's bench, and in the student's ture. We are enthusiastic and ap- retreat; so that the consideration preciative to a degree which will of these themes is not something he scarcely be accredited to be sober, in has taken up, as he says, as the our estimation of this volume; and: "craze" of his "old age," but has yet, there al"e some whole chapters, been almost a life-long study. and plenty of paragraphs and sentences, which do not command our where after the festival is over, one judgment;' and there are manystate- might purchase hundreds ofcarcasses ments of facts from which we would of little pigs at a pice apiece. But dissent, and of opinions which we we do not wish to distract attention judgemustbe greatly modified before from the estimable qualities of this they can be accepted as the last or book by the correction of incidental even the best analysis of the subject statements, norby giving expression in hand. Some of the statements to any diversity of view on the subare, to om· personal knowledge, too jects treated which we, or others, to sweeping, both as to facts in India our knowledge, hold. and in Africa, while the ex cathedra This volume, as a contribution to manner in the utterances of opinions missionary criticism from one of the is not indicative of the essential mod- stoutestfriends and ablest champions estyand broad charity which really ofall evangelisticlabor,has a peculiar pervade the volume. The wisest value. It is a sad fact that the gencounsels are divided upon subjects eral church has not been until of late, on which Mr. Cust does not hesitate intelligently acquainted with the isto write, in the rhetoric at least, of sues and problems of practical workan ultimatum; and though large lib- ers enough to either pass judgment erty be conceded him as a "Christian upon their merits or become intereststatesman." there are other eminent ed in their presentation; and it has Christian statesmen, with long ex- only been when some secular or ecperience and careful judgment, who clesiastical adversary antagonized will differ from him as much as he them in press or on platform, that will from a multitude of missiona- they came to know of the existence ries, who he thinks take a less sym- of some of the most vital problems. pathetic view of human affairs than Friends and administrators of mis- the secular student does. But Mr. sions have discussed thf'se questions Cust does not expect uniform concur- too esoterically. But we hail the rence with his views; he distinctly day when friends and advocates are says so about some chapters of the to assnme the role of frank and book; and though he says all per- friendly critics; and, taken all in all, sons acquainted with the subject we do know not where we will find will agree with his views as express- a warmer friend and abler aU-round ed in "Islam," it is more than proba- critic of missionary matters than the ble that he overestimates the gen- honorable gentleman, the product eral unanimity even there. We do of whose pen has afforded us such not know, for instance, if we appre- great delight, and yet, from whom we hend him aright as meaning to say and so many others; we repeat, will that after li·ing with Mohammedans on so many points widely differ. in India for a quarter of a century, But there is so much that is valua- he never heard of their offering ani- ble in the book that .we must have mal sacrifices; but if so, it seems in- done with our dissertations about it, explicable to us. The "anachron- and regale our readers with some ism" to which he refers may be wit- extracts, though should we even se_ nessed at the Devi Pathan Mela, at lect the samples that tempt us, we Tulsipur, near Gondah, any year, would quote enough to fill a whole where the Hindoos sacrifice sheep and number of the REVIEW. goats; and close by a long line of Few persons appreciate the au- Mohammedans can be seen, each thor's reference to the variety of reo with a squealing, suckling pig under sponsibilities devolving on Mission his arm, waiting their turn to pre- Boards, which have to sent their animal sacrifice; and .. Discharge the duty of a Quarter-master General, the head of a great ~ommission, a. * * .. The last two decades have been ex- Boa.rd of Architects, Shipbuilders and Engineers, a Board of Finance, a Council of ceedingly propitious to the extension ofmis- Education. a Committee on Geographical sions ; the expansion has been marvellous, Exploration, a Superintendent of a Trans- but mnch of it imprudent. The next two IMing and Publishing firm, as well as other decades may prove periods of trial and peril secular duties." by the close of that period the Europea~ octopus will have closed over the continent He adds: of Africa as it has already over Oceanica. and America." .. I have been for more than forty years a witness and a studier of the conduct of hu- :Mr. Cust invites" dowlll'ight critiman affairs, bnt I never realized such puri- cism," he says, a.nd he will surely get tyof motive, such'simplicity of conduct, it sooner or later, though the high and on the whole, such practICal wisdom as respect in which he is held may deis found in such a body." ter some, and others will forbear lest the friends of missions be thus Mr. Cust thinks-and with the hIgh- apparently set over against each est esteem for the missionary force other, in the estimation of the of Great Britain and the eminent thoughtless and indifferent members qualities and immense labors of of the societies themselves, or be many of them, we yet, on the whole, flaunted as sectarians and dessenticoncur with his statement-that the ents by those downrightly antago- 'American churches send out their nistic to the cause. But like Calbest men" to foreign fields, while' vin's Institutes, Mr. Cust's "Notes" might take as their symbol a flaming "Great Britain keeps her best at sword. Missionaries may, themhome." But this must be taken in its selves, not concede the justness of broadest sense or we shall be asked the criticisms on their personal conto show who Great Britain's" best" duct toward the heathen, but they men are, with the record of Pat- will find no public test to exceed the teson, Hannington, Griffith John, high standard to which they hold Dr. Duff and othe1's before us. Still themselves as a class, to be amenawe appreciate Mr. Cust's compliment ble; and our autho1"S beautiful imi- -not to the missionaries, but to the tative extension of the XIth chapter of Hebrews will be as oil to the estimate put by American churches wounds made by Mr. Cust's free on foreign mission service, as de- lance. "By faith the United Mora- vian Brethren at Herrnbut, in Germanding the richest contribution of many, more than a century and a talent they can command. Mr. Cust half ago," &c. "By faith the London thinks missionary operations legiti- and Wesleyan Societies," &c. "By mate subjects of criticism. He says: faith Moffat's son-in-law Livingstone abandoned his home, his chapel ano '" We can no longer treat missionaryop- his school/' &c. " By faith Krapf and erations as above or below candid criticism Rebman sat year after year at the when t4ey are forced up<¥> tbe public notice watch tower of Mombasa, waiting till in the public papers, in Parliament,on plat- the day should dawn, calling to each forms and ,an abundant literature. Mis- other: Watchman, what of the sions like those of tbe Moravian Missionary night?" and thusonandon through a Society,or of the Americau Societies to their galaxy of heroes of whom time would indigenous wild tribes, might be conducted fail us even to mention the names for centuries without public notice: but selected by our author. It was with the evangelizing warfare all round Africa much sadness we read the almost pa- all over Oceanica, into the heart of India; thetic closing paragraph of the vol- China and Japan, by at least two thousand ume in which the author concludes: agents, at a cost exceeding two millions [pounds] annually, cannot escape notice." .' I have said my say. This is probably my '" '" It must needs be that mistskes-are made, but tl:ey need not be perpetuated.
'" * Hard words are often spoken against missions, and whole classes of the commu- nity, from deep prejudICe, hold back from their support. It is in their interest, their positive advantage, that the tendencies should be exposed, that the blots should be hit, and the dangers pointed out." ast contribution to missionary literature. self of the former, and the latter could be If I have written what is not true, let this of no use to him in the social circles of the paper be consigned to the fire. If there is leper colony. a scintilla of truth, think over it. It cannot now be said that we must travel onward, as "Father Damien had resided among tbe if in mist, and that, as nobody criticized lepers for sixteen years when death came to there wa.s no error." his relief, and be had seen the population of Molokai renew itself three times, as the Missions to Lepers. average duratiou of a leper's life is about se ..en years. Years ago he became affiictep THE death of the Roman Catholic with leprosy himself, and for a long time bepriest, Father Damien, popularly fore his death Was a painful sufferer from styled" The Apostle of the Lepers" the scourage. The latest letters from the and now" The Martyr of Molokai," leper colony stated that his health was so which occurred on April 10 last, at broken that h;s death was likely to occur at Kalawa, Hawaii, has called popular any time. Father Damien had for assisattention to a form of Christian tants two men as beroic as himself. One of heroism which may well be exalted these was an Irishman natned Walsh.· He in the public mind in an age quite was a mason by trade, and had been a soldier too justly characterized as supremely in the English army. Walsh reached Honoselfish. lulu III broken health and reduced circum- stances just at the time a supermtendent As the daily papers of the country was needed to keep the colony in order. He generally gave large space to the accepted the position with the result that facts of the self-surrender and self- he is a leper himself to-day and pining for immolation of this Romish priest, relief in death. Father Damien's other we will only give so much of the nar- helper was the Rev. M. COJlrardy, a Catholic rative as is essential to our general priest formerly connected with the Archditreatment of the theme in hand. The ocese of Oregon, who volUntarily went to account before us says Father Da- Molokai about two years ago to become mien was a native of BQlgium and Father Damien's assista.nt." was born in 1840. Mr. Ed ward Clifford, of England, .. He was ordained to the priesthood in writing of " Father" Da.mien during 186~, and SOOB. after went to the Sandwich a visit to this leper island, said: Islands as a missionary. About sixteen years ago the Catholic bishop of the islands "He is just what you would expect him to wanted a priest for duty at the leper set- be-a simple. sturdy. hard-working, devout tlement at Molokai, and Father Damien man. No job was too memal for him-bnildpromptly volunteered for the work. Both ing, carpentering, tending the sick, washing he and his bishop knew what the end would the dead, and manr other such things form be, but these heroic men did not hesitate- part of his daily work. He is always cheerthe one to give the order and the other to ful, often playful, and one of the most truly obey. Father Damien was landed at the humble men I ever saw. The leprosy has leper settlement on the ,eland of Molokai disfigured him a good deal, but I never feel and allowed to provide for himself as best he it anything but a pleasure to look at him." could. There appear to be a thousand or .. From the time of his taking up his resi- more lepers on the part of the island, dence among the lepers Father Damien had occupied by the leper settlement, so much to do in simplyatte.nding to the shut in from the other parts of the wants of dying people that he was unable to island by enormous cliffs, which renprovide shelter for himself for .. long time. Once placed on the island, he had to resign der it almost inaccessible from the his liberty. The sheriff had orders to arrest land side. This touching story and him if he crossed to any of the neighboring the pitiable condition of this portion island.. He became physician and teacher as well as priest, the children born of lepers of the human race, deserves more depending on him for all the education they than a passing glance of the curious could expect to receive. Kiug Kalakaua or sigh from the sympathetic. When soon learned to admire the martyr priest, we learn that there are 40,000 idiots and a rew years ago bestowed on him the in the United States, the first quesprivileges of the medical inspector at!d the tion that occurs is why they should decoration of Knight Commander of the not all be chloroformed out of exist- Order of Kalakaua I. He did not avail bim- ence. What is it that makes that sort of life and life of every sort sacred, when it.cannot be seen to be valuable to it!! possessor or to man- they congregate oCten in latoge numkind? When we learn that in India bers. alone there are half a million of our fellows who are lepers, with no hope The disease may begin anywhere of recovery, deformed and decaying on the body, or at more than one before they are in the grave, suffer- place at the same time, and then, ing a living death, the first thought loathsome, painful and offensive, it again is, why is it any mercy or duty progresses till it reaches some vital to prolong their existence? As Chris- part, and the wretched subject is retianity throws the halo of sacredness lieved. When it commences at the over this wretched and ghastly mock- extremities the first joints of the eryof life, it is not far to see why it fingers, or toes as it may be, fall off should be held responsible for the and then the next joints part, and so amelioration of the condition of on till you see them in all shapes those who carry about this body of from this horrible disease. It is too death. revolting-this rotting alive-to jus- tify more minute description. Leprosy as a disease is in all its varieties in all lands and in all ages, We turn rather to note what the the most repulsive, protracted and kindliness of Christian charity has painful of human maladies. It is attempted in the way of relief to this scrofulous in its character and is helpless, hopeless and suffering portransmitted from parents to children, tion of the human family-vexed and though the offspring of lep~rs with the unsolved problem, Who may be apparently free from the did sin? they or their parents, that taint for many years after birth, the they were born thus? which presses disease is sure to develop sooner or npon them and upon othel·s. We later. Whether leprosy is contagious, cannot attempt any comprehensive and if so, whether alone by contact, summary of the ope:"ations of the are questions about which there is Christian chul"ch to afford relief to considerable diversity of opinion, yet these sufferers. We take from what in all countries contact with lepers is is at hand a few facts sufficient to avoided. After the disease is devel- show that Protestants have been oped so as to render its character active in this department of eleemosmanifest, the subject of it is removed ynary labor in several quarters of from social life and obliged to dwell the globe, as Father Damien and his apart from the community. Though associates were in Hawaii. In 1823, at all stages of the disease they are owing to a request of the Governnot unable to work, yet, except as ment, Hemel-en-Aarde, a leper hoscared for by Christian charity, all pital in South Africa, became a mislepers, so far as the writer knows, sion station of the Moravians. i'his lead a pauper life. They become in was removed to Robben Island in various parts of India quite a commu- 1846 and placed in the charge of the nity and beg in groups. They resort church of England in 1867. Rev. Dr. Augustus Thompson, writing of to places most frequented that they this mission, says: "A less inviting may appeal to the benevolence of the field can hardly be imagined than this refuge of wasting sufferers, and mere passers-by by the exposure of their relics of humanity-deformed, cripdisgusting sores or helpless deform- pled and loathsome beyond expresity. They build for themselves some sion. For simple garden operations flimsy shelter by the roadside in In- one patient would supplement andia, whence they make their exit to other. A man who had no hands petition for the inevitable "bak- might be seen carrying on his back sheesh." Along the trunk roads, another who had lost his feet, but at the ferries, near holy places, who could drop seeds into the ground wOl'k among the lepers at qmb~l)a, with the member which was want- in the Punjab, where their last ing to his fellow, sufferer. report mentions the bapti5m of fif- The institution has a large space of tt-en of this class of pE'rsons. The gl'Ound enclosed with a high wall, and only one entrance, which was accomplished Dr. John Newton, .Tt-., strictly guarded. The leper who entered that gate might never return." labored among these poor sufferers Mr. Thompson says the mistake has for years and wrote a work on leprosy gone abroad that the missionaries which was published in England. who went into this leper enclosure His estimable wife, Mrs. Sarah Wigwere never allowed egress; that he fall Newton, conducted this work for went in there, as Father Damien did a season after her husband.'s death. to the island of Molokai, but this he contradicts positively. But there was At the time when the Moravians still quite sufficient self-denial re- handed over their leper work at Cape quired in the service rendered to these Town, South Africa, in 1867, the poor sufferers. Lord opened to them a' similar work The London Missionary Society has long conducted a leper asylum in in the Leper Home at JerusaJem. the Himalaya Mountains at Almora. which was founded by a Christian which we believe has usually about baroness. Froln its commencement 150, though at times we think as the missionaries for the hospital many as 300 inmates. These are not have been supplied by the Moravian necessarily restrained within the en- Church, and in 1880 they assumed its closure. They also marry and are directiol'l. In 1887 they erected a new gi"en in marriage among themselves. building, which accommodates about A little farther east, at Pithoragarh, twenty-five patients. is another asylum for lepers in charge of Methodist Episcopal missionaries In 1875 an independent societ.y was from the United States. Here an es- organizcd in England, styled "Mistimable Methodist brother, Rev. M. sions to Lepers in India," which B. Kirk, of Ohio, who was educated seeks to alleviate their sufferings by in Mount Union College, for some medical aid. It is at pl'esent carrying months before his death waited on on work at eighteen different centers these wretched sufferers. However and in connection with eight differloathsome their condition, that de- ent missionary societies. It seeks to voted servant of the Lord never utilize asylums already established shrank from ministering often per- and aid them with mean!:' to carryon sonally to their wants. It was while their work. It makes grants of money , collecting funds for a chapel for these for new asylums, and in some cases lepers that he was suddenly called to provldes entirely for the support of his reward. The chapel has since lepers. Mr. W. C. Bailey, a misbeen completed as a memorial of this sionary of the Church of Scotland, devoted servant of God, and on the was the founder of this organization. opening day, after the service, twelve It is at present carrying on work at lepers were baptized, thus raising the Kashmir, Rawal Pindee, Chamba, number of Christians in this institu- Sabathu, Dehra, Rurki, Almorah, tion to slxteen; and a new building Pithora, A~lahabad, Calcutta, and was ordered to accommodate twenty- other places and aids the American five more inmates. Presbyterian and Methodistmissiona- ries, and three of the principal mis- The American PresbytE'rmn Mis- sional'y sociE'ties of Great Britain, as sion has for many years QQl,lducted well as Gossner's Independent Mis- sion.
It must be gratifying to friends supporting this work that it is not only l!eIeVQ!ent, but evangelistic. The record of the Christian experi- with nine evangelic"l churches: Presbyterians, ence of many of these sufferers is two branches of Methodists, and Baptists. most affecting. Not all, but many of these who seem ." baptized unto Denominational lines bad been drawn rather death," enter bto most gracious closely about these churches.. They met one Christian life. One man in India, anothsr at union meetings once a year, on the being pitied on account of the loss of afternoons of the" Week of Prayer," but be- his eyes, said; "I have lost my eyes, yond that hardly knew one another in any way. but with the eye of faIth I have seen Probably it was noc realized that Christian the Lord Jesus, and shall soon go to union was really under discussion in the minis- Him." The testimony from South ter's meeting in the form of a proposal to invite Africa is similar; "Amongst the a pandenominational body of missionaries to poor suffp.rers in that lazar-house," work their will upon the city for a week. But writes one of the missionaries, they determined to invite the International Mis- "there are many dear souls who re- sionary Union to their city. A representative joice in the Lord their God and the meeting of the churches-a remarkable novelty assurance of a better world, and re- -was called, and proved of the same mind with lyingon their Saviour's merits watch the ministers; and in the preparations which their diseased tabernacles falling to all the churches shared together, there began to pieces in the hope of soon being with be the dawn ofa better day. Him in glory. It makes one Hhudder to visit the patients in their dwell- Contemporaneously with this undertaking, ings, such pitiable objects do they the pastors asked all the churches to unite in a present, and so offensi ve is the efflu- complete visitation Of the city for evangelizing via j yet when you enter into con- purposes, and obtained from them all a body of versation with them on the concern visitors, four to each hundred of each church. of their souls and find these poor As might be supposed, the public interest in cripples full of faith and joyful COI1- missions had not been on a much higher plane fidence in the Saviour's merits, it than that in Christian union. The invitation to makes you feel ashamed of your the missionaries was favored, perhaps as much . fastidiousness, for they exhibit only yom other considerations as from love for ' too often in their helplessness and Foreign Missions. And when the International .hopelessness the fun measure of that Union arrived, forty-five strong, the city was at other more dire leprosy of sin. They first disposed to feed them and sleep them cour- are often as repulsive morally as teously, and leave them to carryon their own physically. They need cleansing in meetings by themselves. the blood of Christ." But gradually the spiritthat animates mission- That this is a direct work of grace aries of thc Uross bAgan to make its impression. and of change of heart is abundantly People who dropped in at their meetings were proven by the testimony as to the greatly surprised at their earnestness. It so selfish sordidness and innate deprav- happened that the Union came at the hottest ity which so manifest themselves in time of the summer, and when the native mos- those not the subjects of these gra- quitoes were masters of the town; but people cious influence. who looked in found the missionaries so busy at their conferences, that they sounded their The International Missionary Union praises abroad. "These men and women," they said, "have not come here for a holiday; and the Revival at Bridgeton, N. J. they are doing good hard work studying the questions which concern them." The Upion be- REV. WILLIAM H. BELDElif, A. M. gan its sessions on Thursday, July 5; by Monday evening they began to be crowded, and from that BRIDGETON, New Jersey, was the first place time until adjournment on the 12th missions be- not a summer resort, which invited and enter- came the theme of the town. Tuesday evening tained the International Missionary Union. Re- was occupied by J. Hudsou Taylor, founder of snits can be traced from that meeting, among the Chiua Inland Mission, and Wednesday by the most recent of which has be~n a revival of Cyrus Hamlin, founder of Robert College of religion affecting the whole community. Bridge- Constantinople. The impression made by these ton is a mauufacturing cit;v 9f 12?OO(lj~h!lbitants, two mighty men of God, exceedingly different, but one in testimony to the power of God as dis- played in the missionary work, will never be forgotten in Bridgeton. They lifted Foreign Missions from being a H cause" to receive un- willing pennies or dollars, to a living and boly reality endeared to the hearts of awakeuing Christians. Not, of course, that all needed this advance, but as a change of the general public mind on this great theme, the International Mis-
1889.] THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
sionary Union bad its way witb tbe town. A affections and convictions, that when a8 Presinumber of young persons consecrated tbeir dent of onr Ministers' Association I' had to lives to tbe missionary work. New missionary make the parting address to Mr. Mills, my felsocieties began to be formed; and in tbe old low-pastors, with remarkable agreement, reones the subJect took thence forward a 'real quired me to include in my acknowledgement aspect nnknown before. of the divine work among us some careful refer- ence to the infiuence of the visit here In 1~88 of So spiritual an effect did not, naturally, stop the International Missionary Union. witb the revival of missions. The cburcbes bad enjoyed their work in commo)! of entertaining THE SIXTH AN,mAL SESSION OF THE INTERthe Union. The Ministers' Association had become a recognized and trusted organization. NATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION, as we have al- Plans for furtber work in common were ready announced. will be held in Binghampton, broacbed. The "Week of Prayer" found tbe N. Y.. July 5-12. The prosPect is ofa meeting of cburches in new sympathy with one another; great interest_ Important papers have already never before was there such a "Week" in been received from the outlook Committee in Bridgeton. At last the suggestionstook.hape; foreign parts. to invite Rev_B. Fay Mills, the evangelist. His first demand, of absolute fellowship of all the On the last day of the meeting special attenevangelical churches of the city, could not have tion will be given to aiding missionary candibeen complied with before those blessed days dates appointees and others inquiring as to of the Missionary Union; but now tbey could their duty regarding personal service abroad. and they were, and be came. Mr. Wilder, wbo has so successfuliy with others stirred the students of the country in this mat- We have just risen from bis two weeks visit. ter, will be present, and veteran missionaries of Six hundred persons bave signed his cards, say- almost all fields and churches will be there, with ing: .. I desire bencefortb to lead It Christian whom these persons can take council. Nothing life." The cburcbes bave called themselves for could be better for persons seeking light on this many weeks" The united cburches of Bridge- line of personal duty, than to spend the week ton;" and are studying now how to perpetuate with this noble band of returned missionaries, their harmony. Some of tbem bad been t""ns- and listen to their discussions of practical matformed from a conservatism wbich was threat- ters. ening their spiritual existence into a practical piety which is the wonder of tbe town. The Railroad certificates can be bought of any whole city has been shaken with· the power of ticket agent at point of starting on paying full the Holy Ghost, as it never was befor~. fare, and when countersigned by· secretary of the meeting the return ticket will be one·third It is a significant testimony to its place in our the usual mre. Tickets procurable on the 3d, and good tilIthe 14th of July.
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D. D.
SUBJECTS for July: Islands of ea, in the Hawaiian group. This the Sea, Java, Greenland, Utah, crater is three miles in diameter, a Alaska, North American Indians level bottom with three cones rising and the Chinese and Japanese in from its center hundreds of feet high, America. and onl) of which, hom its ceaseless Java, which we select for this activity, is called Brahrna.
number, is the third island in area Though a Dutch colony, two native and first in importance of the Malay kingdoms were suffered to retain a archipelago, 666 miles long and from nominal existence under Dutch offi- 36 to 126 miles broad, with 50,000 cials, namely the dominions of the square miles of surface and a coast Senaan or Emperor of Surakarta and line of 1,400. It is shaped like Cuba the Sultan of Jokjokarta. The rest and about as large. The geological of the island is split up into twenty formation is highly volcanic, a range residences or provinces, ruled by of mountains traversing the central Dutch residents, six of which belong line from end to end with peaks to the country of the Sundese and reaching from 4,000 to 12,000 feet. the rest to that of the Javanese, the The most remarkable of these is Mt. two distinct nations comprised in the Yenger, whose crater is 1,000 feet be- native population. The Sundese hold low its summit and the most remark- the west end, are inferior both in able in the globe, except only Kilau- numbel' and civilization to the J avanese and speak a distinct language, ninth or tenth centul"y when the but both nations are Malayan. , They are docile and peaceable, so- J ains had ascendancy in Guzerat ·and ber and industrious. Crawfurd pronounced them the most straightfor- westel'll parts of India. ., ward and truthful of all Asiatic people. Java is densely populated, hav- In some respects Javanese civilizaing about 18,000,000 of people, and Buddhism still sways multitudes of tion is an advance upon that of Brit- Javanese. In the central district this story is told on stone: The famous ish Ind~a. The Dutch rule here dates ruins of Borobodo, or Bol'o Buddor, are among the most imposing re- from 1623, with five years interrupmains of religious structures. A pile of masonry, pyramidal in form, 525 tion. Batavia,on the northwest coast, feet squat'e, nine stories h;gh in the center, is covered with figures of is the capital and commercial depot, Buddha. To descdbe this extraordinary group of buildings, the temples with over 100;000 inhabitants. Moof Bramb~nam, mO'e exactly: the great temple is a square building 45 hammedanism is mixed up with feet square, 75 feet high, terminating upwards in an octagonal, straight- Buddhism and heathenism as the relined pyramid. On each face of this is a smaller temple of similar dimen- ligion of the island. Annually the sions, joined to it by corridors. The whole five thus constitute a cruci- natives go in crowds with priests up form building raised on a square base very elaborately ornamented. One the Bromok volcano to propitiate of the minor temples serves as a pOI'ch. Two hundred and thirty-nine with offerings the Fire Spirit. Cocoasmaller tempIes surround this central shrine. Twenty-eight of these stand nn ts, pineapples, rice, cakes, fruit, just beyond the square terrace of the central fane, eight of course standing coins, are cast into the crater. This on each side of the square, and each corner one counting for two sides; ceremony has probably been sugbeyond these 35 feet off comes a second square or court with 44, 12 on gested by the ten"Hic and fatal vola side; then comes a space 80 feet wide, with 6 more temples; then two canic outbreaks that have abounded. more rows o( temples, standing close, Java has near Batour a VaUey of back to back, 160 in numbel', forming another square, each face of which Death, of an oval shape and half a measures 525 feet. All thes~ 239 temples are similar, the lesser ones mile in circuit, in which the exhala- 12 feet square at base and 22 feet high, all richly sculptured and each tions of carbonic acid gas make imhaving a small square cell, within which originally was a cross-legged possible plant or animal life. It also figure of a Jaina saint or Buddhist image. The date assigned to these has its Poison Tree (antiaris macro- most remarkable monuments is the phylla), an ornament to the woods, but from the bark of which flow poison juices.
The Evangelical Mission in Java is in a very destitute condition. There are at most only about 4,GOO Chris- tians, a fact whIch reflects no glory on the Dutch rule and the Christi- anityof the Netherlands. The few luminous points in the meagre mis- sion history of Java, says Dr. 'War- neck, are the Watchmaker Emde in Surabaya, the Missionary J.ellesma, the newly-founded and nationally- aided institute at Depok, an " Oasis in the Desert," and the work of the Nethedands Missionary Society of Rotterdam among the Soudanese.
NEW GUINEA.
S. McFarlane, LL.D., has recently published a story of missionary labol's " Among the Canm'bals of New Gui- nea." It is published by the London Missionary Society. We advise any one who wishes to know what are both the difficulties and the triumphs
1889·1 THE lloN'lHLY OOlWER'l' Oli'1.USSIONS
— ofmissIDn,ary life among the worst eluding the immediate~y adjoining savages to read this book. We give islands, of 311,958 square miles. Con~ space to a brief resume of its· con- sequently its at'ea is about the same tents: as the united area of the Britisn Mr. MacFarlane first had experi- Islands with France, or the British ence of savage life on Lifa, a charm- Islands, Italy, Turkey in Europe and ing South Sea island. Greece. And this vast region has to Three months after his arrival, in be won to Christ and to humanity.
1859, he could preach to the people in What an object of holy ambition I their own tongue. The first years' of If the Christians of the nin~teenth danger, toil and loneliness were also century rose to a perception of .their years of great blessing, useful expe- duty they would follow the example rience and encouragement. Before of the Christians of the first, and he left, at the end of twelve years, count nothing that they possess their "a marvellous change had taken own if only they might acquire the place Il'om idolatry, cannibalism and glory of gathering the outcasts of constant wars to the worship of the New Guinea into the church of the true God, peaceful industry and a living God.
growing education. Schools and In their mission in New Guinea.
churches established throughout the they had to contend with difficulties island, and the New Testament and quite peculiar to the place; to sail in Psalms translated; the teachers' unknown and dangerous waters in seminary in good working order, order to reach the natives; to con- supplying native teachers and pas- tend with savages and cannibals, tors and pioneer evangelists; Euro- who regard strangers generally as pean stores established in different enemies to be killed, cooked and parts of the island, and the people eaten; to pass through sickly swamps not only paying for their books and and be exposed to deadly fevers in providing for their pastors, but also planting and superintending mission making a very handsome contribu- stations; to reduce the languages to tion to the London Missionary Soci- writing and translate portions of the ety to help to send the gospel to the Scl'iptures, school-books and hymn- heathen beyond." books into them; to battle with the In 1870 Mr. MacFarlane began a evil influences of abandoned sailors; mission in New Guinea, "largest, to guide the natives in making and darkest and most neglected island in administering laws, in developing the world." He laid the matter be- the resources of their country, in fore the students, native pastors and building houses, making roads, and, churches of Lira, and asked for vol- in fact, in everything connected with· unteers, giving them to understand their material as well as their spirit- the dangerous character of the ual progress. They opened up about climate and the savages. Every na- six hundred miles of coast line, tive pastor in the island and student gained the confidence of the natives in the seminary offered himself for and established sixty mission stations the' work! Four pastors and four along the coast. They formed six students were selected, and in July, churches, which contain an aggl'e- 1871, the party started for that great gate of between six and seven hun- land of cannibals. dred members, I'educed six of the New Guinea is larger than any languages or dialects to writing, and country III Europe except Russia. It translated portions of the New Tes- is 1,500 miles long and from 30 to tament, a school-book, catechism nearly 500 miles wide, containing an and hymn-book into each. They area of 303,241 square miles, or, in- have two institutions at work for the training of native pioneer evangelists ture's children the comforts and the and pastors: the Papuan Institute at decencies of humanized life, ex- Murray Island, in Papuan Gulf, con- claimed: "Oh, ye orators and phi- taining over fifty students; and the losophers who make the civilization institute at Port Moresby, containing of the species your dream, look to ten or twelve. Twenty-five have been Christian missionaries if you want to sent out from the former and eight see the men who will realize it! You from the latter as native pioneer may deck the theme with the praises teachers, and are located at stations of your unsubstantial eloquence; but in the interior, on the coast and on these are the men who are to accom- islands off the coast, and are doing plish the business! They are now excellent Christian work amongst risking every earthly comfort of ex- the people with whom, in many in- istence in the cause, while you sit in stances, their fathers used to fight, silken security and pour upon their As an illustra,tion of the change holy undertaking the cruelty of your from cannibalism to Christianity, scorn." These words were spoken in compare father and son in the fol- what seems a past age, the age when lowing passage: "The old chief the highest organs of literature Mamo was our friend all along, al- treated missionaries and their work though he had a weakn{'ss for cutting with contempt. The more than seven off the heads of his enemies, and de- decades that have passed since then clined to embrace Christianity' be- should satisfy the most rigid experI- cause its pr{'cepts forbade him this mental philosopher that the words of pleasure. The last time I saw him the preacher were words of tru th and (he died two or three years ago) he sobemess, and that the only power was sitting, as usual, cross-legged on that will redeem degraded nations is a mat in front of his house waiting the power of the gospel of Jesus to receive us, and looking as dirty Christ.
and as ugly, and as great a'savage, "There is a change seen even in as when I first saw him thirteen the appearance of all the natives of years before. He was getting too old New Guinea. They were a wild can- to pursue his favorite sport, skull- niballot a few years ago. One of the hunting. His son and successor is a natives spokea little English. Peat'se fine, tall, powerful man, who at- asked them if they eat man, and was tached himself to the teachers from answered, 'No. No eat man now; the first, and by whom he was edu- all follow missionary now.' In the cated. He has been for many years evening, at seven, a bell rang, and an earnest Christian and indefatiga. soon hymn-singing was heard; they ble local preacher." May we not say, were having evening prayers. You look on that picture and on this-the cannot realize it-savages, cannibals, savage cannibal skull-hunter, and the murderers-now seeking to worship loving, kind-hearted Christian, who God. It was strangely pleasing to is indefatigable in his labors to save hear an old hymn tune in such a both body and soul. Hear this, ye place," A New Guinean, preaching, who prate about the service of man 'I said: "The time has come for us to Where are Yl1ur missionaries ? Where be up and doing. Foreigners have are the savages converted into men brought us the gospel, many have and brothers of whom you can say, died of fever, several have been " These are our epistles"? Echo an- speared and tomahawked; now let swers, Where? us carry the gospel to other districts, Dr. Thomas Chalmers in 1812, after and if we die 'tiS well, for we die in describing the missionaries as ex- yhrist ; if we are murdered, 'tis well- tending among the wildest of na- 'ms carrying His name and love, and 'twill be for Him. Motu, let us do and sacl'ificed thousands of lives, it I" "He knows only a 'little, so Canada, with a larger proportion of vel'y little; yet he loves, and he is Indian population, has not spent a , willing to endure for Chl'ist. I saved dollar on such wars nor suffered that lad a few years ago from being from one such massac!'':l.
attacked, perhaps murdered, by his It is commonly supposed that the own people. Did I LeU you at Vab- Indians are rapidly disappeal'lng and ukori, neal' here, there are forty- almost extinct. This is a. great mis- three catechumens, and at Tuyuselei take. The total number was estimated fifty-six? The prayer of faith is be- by Schoolcraft in 1855 at 350,000. In ing answered. The greatest power Mexico there are at least 4.000,000, in of the mission-house is that monthly Central America 1,5@0,000, and in prayer-meeting. " South America 7,000,000.
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. The Puget Sound Indians have no THE question of the N. A. Indians literature. Hieroglyphic emblems and is too big to discuss in this limited signs and pictures take the place of space. Our Indian record is not an books. But, the exigencies of kade honor to us as a nation. Our gov- have created a sort of commercial ernment has made hundreds of trea- dialect, which, after a century, has ties with the redman, and seldom if largely displaced the many Indian eve~ kept them. Bishop Whipple dialects aB a vehicle of communica- asked scores of brave officel's if they tion. With only about 450 words in knew of one instance in which Indi- its vocabulary, it is capable, by into- ans were the first to break these nation and vocal inflection, of a wide treaties, and they Il.nswered, in every range of expression, and can be used case, "No." to impart gospel truth.
In 1828 we solemnly guaranteed to No more remarkable work has ever the Cherokees their lands forever. been done among any people than by Ten year later, at the request of Wm. Duncan in his Metlakhatla, Georgia, 18,000 of them were dl'iven the story of which has been so well from their homes and tilled lands told by Mr. Wellcome.
into an unknown wilderness. In Who in the United States shall an- 1876,700 Poncas were similarly robbed swer before God for the sad fact, that and exiled. In 1878 a remnant of in this second century of the life of the Cheyennes, driven to a new this mighty Republic there are still home, were compelled to attempt to 200,000 Indians unchristianized with- return, to avoid starvation, and were in its borders I It is stated that there pursued, captured, and imprisoned, are only eighty-one missionaries at until the chief and his wife escaped work among 184,000 Indians, or one tortnre by snicide. Foul' times in a miSSionary to 2,000 Indians; "17,000 century the Stockbridges and Dela- Navajoes whom Christianity has not wares have suffered the horrors of touched; 5,000 Apaches in Arizona "removaL" absolutely destitute' of Christian The manner in which we have, as light; 17,000 Indians in Washington a nation, paid our Indian debts, the Tel'ritory still heathen." In our In- violation of our express pledges, the dian Territory murder and crime 'are provocation of Indian wars, the mas- rampant, anditis impossible to obtain sacres to which our unfaithfulness justice, owing not only to wickedness a,nd injustice and cruelty have been of government officials, but to the the incitements, all these have come drunkenness and lawlessness of the up for a memorial before 9-od to call Indians. Driven from home by land- down His wrath. While 'Ye have grabbers, they are the victims of the spent $500,000,000 upon Indian wal'S, very officials to whom they look: tor protection, whose character is so vi- says Mr. Egerton Young, missionary orthe Cancious that the Indians say: "If this ada Methodist Church there, .. a number· of Inis civilization and Christianity we do dians came into my room, noiselessly, aCter their not want them." In the southwest- fashion, so that the room was filled with them before I knew it. When I became aware of ern part of Indian Territory is a their presence I asked whence they were.
much more neglected tribe, number- • From a journey of fourteen nights,' they reing about 1900, living in teepees and plied; for they reckon distance by the number tents. They have had the worst of of nights they are delayed to sleep. • We have got the Kessenaychen (the Great Book), but we agents since the administrations of don't understand it, although we can read it.' I Grant and Hayes, whose bad exam- thought they were joking, for the Indians canple has done much to debauch and not read unless some one has taught them, and discourage them. One of these a- I knew from their accoont they must live far away from any missionary, but I asked them: gents is said to have stolen $14,000 'From what missionary did you learn f' • We from these Kiowas and Comanches. never saw a missionary nor a teacher.' I took There is a government school, to down from my shelf our Bible, printed in the beautiful syllabic character for the Cree lanwhich only about fifty Kiowa chil- guage, and opened to Genesis; they read it with dren are admitted, when there· are ease and corr~ctness. I turned the pages and nearly 400 anxious to be educated. they read in many places. I was amazed, and asked them again where they lived. They de· '·The Kiowa,s are eager to lea.rn agricul- scribed it to me; it was far away, north of tural arts aud housekeeping. aud some have Hodson's Bay, hundreds of miles from any mis· taken up land and are trying to improve sionary. Their honting-gronnds, it seems, adtheir methods of tilling it. One woman join those ofsome Christian Indians-they cover about fifty years of age. visited a returned great distances in huuting-and, continued my student of the Carlisle school and saw the visitors, •We vislte~ your Indians and found famliy hving in a house with land and us- that they had the K688enaychen. We got them ing agrICultural implements and living a to read it and then to teach it to us ; and we CIvilized life. She returned home. sold two were so pleased with it that we all learned to horses and a mule. bought a set of harness. read it during the Winter.' Every soul in a a plow. hoes. several thousand feet of wire village of three hundred population had thus fence, and went to work with her two actually learned to read the Bible without ever daughters. They went into the woods, cut having seen auy white teacher; and having rails, and fenced in fifteen acres, not know- providentially come into possession of some ing the use of the wire which they had pur- copies that happened to be in the hands of the chased; neither did they know the use of Hudsou'~ Bay Company's agent, these heathen the tools after obtaining them, but they put Indians had journeyed through the snows fourup a log cabin and raised a fine crop of po- teen nights' distance that to them might be tatoes and melons. While the woman was given instruction in the Book they had thus a.t work a rough man from the Texas border learned to love." was riding by and sa.w her, He dismounted and asked her what she was doiug, and Ohinese in America. hearing of her ambitions, showed her the use of the harness and plough, and from The new Chinese temple, the second Chinese that time she has steadily improved in cir- place of worship in America, was dedicated in cumstances and surroundings." Mr. Her- New York, January 7, and Joss duly installed bert Welch says: .. The two wants of the in his new quarters. The unique dedicatory Indians are tools alld schools.•, services were conducted by the Chairman of the Among the Indians, as among the Chinese Mnnicipal CounCil, acting High Priest ·Africans, the rum traffic has intro- of Joss. Woug Siu Nam and Ah Hi, both being duced evils that actually more than well·to-do merchants of Mott street, and acting as assistant priests. and the Chinese Council, in overbalance aU that thus far Chris- full Mandarin costume, attended. Among the tianity has accomplished for their curious proceedings were the carrying of a big good. The New York TribuniJ, re- roasted pig, painted and decorated, and many ferring to the illegally licensed liquor chickens, pigeons. cakes, etc., to Joss.
A Chinese gambling room was lately raided shops of Alaska, says: by the police. The Chinese when brought be- "The result of the immunity to these grog fore the poliee eourt contended that they were shops is s great spread of immorality among but imitators of the best American society in the natives who will sell their offspring or the National Capital. The keeper of the room, wives for whiskey." Kwong Chong Lee, said he had heard of the "At Norway House, on a certain occasion," clubs incorporated by " the Mellcan man," who
1889·1 ];:i)I'f'OIUAL
can play poker and not be molested, and, ac- the children. The preachllr on the Sahllath cording to his statement, the "Celestials' Pleas- afternoon will often consecrate the elements- . ure Club" meets at .the house raided. He they administer the sacrament every Sabbathshowed Policeman Costello a book in which then preach a sermon, retiring immediately were written the names of the officers of the afterwllrd to bet on a horse race that takes club. The incorporation purported to have place the same afternoon. Last :week I heard been sworn to before Justice Clark. The Chi- one of the elders say in the pulpit, at one of their nese on their arrival at the police station were conferences, that he would as soon have his taken into the sitting room to the rear of the children read Dickens's works as the Bible. office, where there was a pack of cards on the table. Some of them evidently thought they The missionaries sent into" the world" to ' had struck another Chinese joint, fOt' one ofthem preach" the gospel" are often renegades ofthe picked npthe cards and started a game of poker, wildest nature and lowest character, who are but the police interfered before much progress sent ont to see the world. I know of several was made iu the game. A curious commentary young fellows of the higher classes, however, is all this on morals among certain Americans. who were sent" on missions" to Europe sim- ply to procure better edncations. One of them, Morman Morality. The term morality as the son of an nnderground apostle, did the Holy known among the Christians of the world, is an Land in that way; while another, the son of a nnknown term among the Latter Day Saints- German professor, simply went as a guide Mormons. Upon becoming a Mormon no one is through Switzerland for a party of Salt Lake required to lay aside his cupidity, evil heart, young blood. From a town to Southern Utah foul month or beer bottle. A Latter Day Saint there w,ent in 1886 a young man to Nebraska on is not known from other men by the testimony a missiou. He is one of the most notorious of a spotless life. Many a father sits down to gamblers in the whole country, and the night the dtnner table, asks a blessing, and before the before he left lie won a team of horses and a meal Is over is cursing and sweartng at one of wagon at the gambling table. Of such is the kingdom of the Mormons.
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Strange Doctrine. judged fairly in isolation from their surroundings. The text is often ex- .. Da. PIERSON is reported as saying' I be- plained by the context. but above all lieve that, all the time. men and women are by the drift and tenor of a man's going up to heaven from heathen lands, who whole book of life and testimony. never heard of Christ.' Such a hope would Whatevertruth lies back of the above afford as grateful exhilaration to old mis- professed" quotation" is connected sionaries, whose work is almost done, as to with the teaching of a class in the Y. Dr. pierson-if it can be shown to rest upon M. C. A. Hall of Philadelphia, where a solid foundation. •Take the case of Cor- on Saturday at 4 P. M. from 500 to nelius,' says Dr. Pierson. 'He was a, 1,200 of the most earnest and evanheathen; he had not heard of Christ; and gelical Sunday-school teachers and yet his prayers and his alms came up before adult disciples of the city gather. God. Do you believe that Cornelius would And it may be sufficient to say that have been lost if he had died before he saw whatever was said by the writer, Peter?' I have been face to face with the who has the honorto lead the studies races of Bui-ma for thirty-five years, and of that great class, it awakened no have not yet fonnd a Cornelius, nor have I murmur of disapprobation. So met or heard of a missionary who has found much for the orthodoxy of the a Cornelius among any af the heathen races teacher and of the class. of Asia. It is true that I have found some,· to my great joy, who somewhat resembled But as to the sentiment itself. We Cornelius; but it was soon found in every were studying Matthew xxv. and case that the person had read and pondered the last judgment. The question a ChristIan tract, or a portion of God's arose as to the grounds of final conword." demnation. And one of the princi- ples affirmed from Scripture was that Such paragraphs as this have been no man is held accountable except flying about in the newspapers. We for the light he has. And again, do not often consider it worth while that if the measure of knowledge to chase up our" good name," be- lieving that a reputation which needs much looking after is. not worth looking after-no man's utterances, whether of tongue 01' pen, can be
NOTES
given him is improved, he will not found in the depths of the jungle be condemned. ,Those principles we who had fur years been living in a regard as self-convincing, like axi- state of discontent with his own oms. There is no question in our ancestral faIth, and had been led in mind as to the condemnation of the a strange way to trust to some other heathen world. The first chapter of plan of salvation, of which till then Romans settles that. But it settles he had never had distinct informa- also the grounds of their being tion. Dr. Nevius of Chefoo has just "without excuse." "They held written of Yang-yin-shin, whom he down the truth in unrighteousness," met in a market town of China, and "they did not like to retain God in who, as soon as he heard the gospel their knowledge," " when they said, "This is the very truth Iwant, knew God they glorified Him not as this is what I have been waiting for God." for twenty years. I have been earn- estly seeking for light and guidance, Now it follows from the same inex- but without success. This is the orable Logicthatif a heathen man does very truth that meets and supplies use thelightandknowledgegiven him my want." And his embrace of the hewillnotbejudgedguilty. Weven- tru1tl was immediate. He proved tured to say to those teachers, that If himself one of God's elect by the God saw any man in a pagan land avidity with which he immediately . honestly endea..voring to live up to welcomed redemptive truth. the light he had, he would if neces- sary send to that man an angel as he Now, we have no sympathy with did to Cornelius. We did affirm that universalism, restorationism, second it was not conceivable that if Cor- probation, post-mortem opportunity, nelius had died before Peter reached preaching to spirits in prison, or any him, he whose "prayers and alms other of the hundred modern extra- came up before God" with accept- scriptural expedients to get men ance, "for a memol"ial," would have saved without compliance with the been driven into outer and eternal terms of the gospel within the limits darkness. And we did also venture of the life-time. But no man is com- to say that there may be those who petent to affirm that it is impossible out of every nation go up from time for any heathen man to be saved to time to a saved state, exceptions without the knowledge of the historic to the great mass of the heathen, as Christ. The grace of God is wider proofs that there is no fatality about than our creeds or our philosophy. this wholesale perdition, and alil jus- The love of God is broader than our tifying the condemnation of the rest. narrow theology, Arminius did not This is scarcely an article of faith, know everything, nor Calvin either. for it is not revealed. Yet we cannot And if O'u:f; of every nation some shall but feel that "in every nation he join the redeemed, who, never having that feareth God and worketh right- heard of Christ as a historic person, eousness is accepted with Him," and have been led and taught of God's that in some mysterious way, un- Spirit to rest upon a method of sal- known to us, God may lead a. poor vation only dimly revealed to their pagan who is feeling after Him if yearning souls, not only will God's haply he may find him, to rest upon justice and grace be vindicated and the merit of a mediator, of whom as glorified, but the condemnation of a historic personage he has never aU other lost heathen will be maqe heard. to appear consistent with human freedom and responsibility. While A most beloved missionary in the we suggest this relief to the dark Orient has told us of a white-haired picture of the wOl'ld's condition and and venerable patriarch whom he
EDITORIAL
prospects, it must be remembered paper; I beg leave to quote one par- that, as a practical question of duty, agraph giving my views: this hope does not affect the respon- .. Evangelization-the proclaiming of the good sibilityof the church. It still re- news of salvation to all who are ignorant oC a mains true that without the gospel Saviour's love and intereession-'-is our part in proclaimed among them by believers. the Divine economy of redemption, on whieh is conditioned the conversion of men by the Holy the vast multitude of the heathen Spirit. The work includes the Christian colwill actually perish. This we cannot lege and seminary for the education of a native but believe. While some may be agency, since every country must be evangelized speculating as to the future of those by its own sons, duly prepared by divine grace, through miSSionary instruction and example; who die unsaved, we prefer to give and it includes a Christian literature for the demen the gospel here and now, assured velopment and nurture of Christian life and on the authority of God that "it is eharacter in new-born souls; but more than all else, it includes the preaching of' the word.
the power of God unto salvation to • How shall they believe in Him of whom they – everyone that believeth." have not heard, and how shall they hear with- A.T.P. out a preacher, and how shall they preach THE editors are more and more except they be sentf' No miraculous power is to print the Scriptures and scatter them broad- cast among the tribes of men. No voice from satisfied that the views presented in heaven is to proclaim the message of Ufe in the the leading article of the May num- ear of assembled mnltitudes. This work has ber, on the "Mission and Commis- been committed to the church. The final glory sion of the Church," are not only is not promised till the gospel has been preached for a witness to all nations. The way must be unassailable, but fundamen tal to a prepared for the coming of the Lord, for those right conception of our work and its grander workings of the Spirit, which have success. We venture to print a let- been the hope and the joy of the people of God ter from one of the greatest of the in all the ages, when Christian institutions shall cover the earth, and Ch"istiau homes shall be leaders of the missionary host. the common heritage of all the children of DEAR DR. PIERSON :-1n the May men." number of the MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, 1 read with much Grateful for your valuable services interest your editorial on the matter in your present field of labor as conof "evangelization" as distinguished nected with the progress of the kingfrom "conversion" in the foreign dom of God. field. 1 was very glad to see the article, as 1 hope it will correct a good Very sincerely yours. N. G. CLARK.
BOSTON, May 10,1889.
deal of improper lan~uage, which THE HELL GA'fE EXPLOSION of Oc- we hear in the pulpit and through tober 10, 1884, caused the most in- the press. 1 have for years been tense excitement in New York City.
very careful never to speak of the The Brooklyn Bridge was crowded, conversion of men as in any sense a every available space on the house- human work. That is the preroga- tops, the horse cars, the river banks; tive of the Holy Spirit. Evangeliza- all the world was on the streets. The tion is our work; when that work is explosion took place at 11.13 o'clock well done we may hope and pray for A.M., and the progress of the vibra- the conversion of men. Of that the tion was found to be' 1,700 feet per Holy Spirit will have all the honor. second. There was great fear that As long ago as at the annual meet- the shock might cause disaster to the ing of the American Board, in 1877, foundations of buildings, and even I presented a paper entitled" Claims the towers of the East River Bridge.
of the Un-evangelized," in which I Just before 11 o'clock a small band endeavored to set forth the truth on of engineers stood about a small bat- this subject. I should be glad to terynear the Astoria Ferry slip, with call your attention to the entire General Newton, theil'chief, who frequently looked at his watch. At revolutionary. He would have m'i~ 11.12 precisely, a baby's hand was laid upon the little key of the bat- sionaries go out without purse ,Ii# tery and instantly 13,286 dynamite scrip, without human patronltgeQl" cartridges, protruding from as many dependence, without stated salary,Ol' holes in the mine, exploded, and a settled habitation, precisely as did second later the 240,000 pounds of those primitive disciples. With l'ackarock, packed bacl~ of the car- many of Mr. Baldwin's principles and tridges. Flood Rock was blasted sentiments we confess ourselves in away. The report was not loud, but very hearty accord, while we feel a second before it was heard a great confident that he has carried those mass of foam white as snow shot principles to the extreme of applicainto the air 200 feet, and fell back in tion. wild confusion to meet new upheavals. Great masses of rock were We believe that there are some flung upwards in a giant shower, but truths which belong to the realm only seen here and there through a not of obligation, but of privilege• mountain of shining foam. The elec- .. He that is able to receivli}t, let him tric current moved over a single wire receive it." And to all Mr. Baldwin's beneath the river to a heavy bichro- papers we have one answer-a scripmate battery on the rock, which dif- tural one; it is found in 1Corinthians fused the current through twenty- ix.,3 to 19. Paul, to those who critfour independent circuits, the ends ically examine His course, insists of those wires being bridged and upon certain rights, while at the joined by a fine platinum wire. Big same time he waives them. To rewaves were driven shoreward, and duce all the self-denials of a devoted vessels rocked wildly to and fro. The life to the level of cold duty and newater settled slowly, yellowish in cessity robs them of theil' beauty. hue, and emitting an odor of car- But when a life is lived in peculiar bonic acid gas. The crowd on land closeness of faith and fellowship, and river cheered lustily and waved leaning absolutely on God, and votheir hats and handkerchiefs, while luntarily choosing to have no interthe steamers whistled their salute. mediate dependence on man, we con- The channel was deepened from five fess there is about it a sublimity and feet to five fathoms. What an illus- beauty that are without a rival. tration of the work of God in mis- SIOns, long undermining great sys- A.T.P. tems which some day shall suddenly upheave and disappear.-A. T. P. REV. GEORGE STOTT, of the China Island Mission, fell asleep at Cannes, OUR friend and correspondent, Rev. April 21, 1889, aged 54. He and his E. F. Baldwin, of Mogador, Morocco, beloved wife were the companions has been furnishing a series of letters of Drs. Gordon and Pierson on their to The Christian (London) on "The tour of missions in Scotland in 1888, Question of the Hour-Foreign Mis· and Mr. Stott was one of the lovelisions." These remarkable papers est disciples we ever knew. He had take Matthew x., etc., as the basis of for years had but one leg, but he did all foreign mission work. Mr. Bald- as much work as most !pen with two. For some time he had been troubled with his lungs and a complication of diseases.-A. T. P.
win regards our Lord's instructions THERE was recently held the great to the twelve and the seventy as per- centennial of Wasl~ington's Inaugumanent and authoritative guides in ral Oath. No such celebration has the work of evangelization. His po- eyer been seen on American soil, but sition,is of course both radical and it may be doubted whether any spec-
1889.J ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND
tacle equally disgrltceful with the utterly inadequate; but ample means are EaIl at the Academy of Mu~ic ever at the disposal of our 75,000 Baptist breth disgraced and dishonored such a fes- ren iu the Dominion of Canada; tive occasion. What a contrast between the morning service of wor- That to every 50.000 of the population of ship at St; Paul's and the evening this land one missionary and fifty native worship of the world, the flesh, the Christian helpers are the least possible devil and the drink demon I number of evangelizing a.gents necessary; The Speedy Eva.ngeliza.tion of the Te- That nntil the country is thoroughly lugu People. evangelized, the home churches must pro- vide the support of missionaries and the AT the Thirteenth Annual Cana- higher traiuing of native agents, leaving to dian Baptist Missionary Conference, the Christians of this land the support of in Bimlipatam, India, January, their own pastors and teachers. 1889, the following resolutions were adopted: Therefore we now urge upon the home churches the pressing necessity of at once That the commission of our Lord Jesus grappling with this work by sending out Christ means that this generation or Chris- immediately fifty-two men. and additional tians in the world is commanded to give the lady·missionaries as the work demands' gospel to this generation of heathen; and providing for the consequent extension of the evangelizing agencies; That the one thousand million who are in spiritual darkness. the three millions of We will impress more fully upon the Telugus dependent on us for the Bread of native churches their responsibility in this life. are a share proportionate to the num- work; ber of our brethren in the Canadian Baptist churches; We request both the hotne and native churches to unite with us in steadfast and That for the evangelization of these continued prayer to the God of Missions, for people, the means at present employed are a large output of laborers into this His har- vest field; for an abundant out-pouring of His Holy Spirit, that the workers be filled with power, and their hearers bowed with conviction; and for the speedy triumph of the cause of Christ throughout the world.
VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.
Wesleyan Methodist Mission (English) of a native minister, who seized the oppor- in the Mysore District, Madras, India. tunity to dwell upon the spiritual life of Christianity. Another most important and STATISTICS FOR 1888. useful work is that accomplished by the temperance societies• ., .,riJ cO …;. .; ';' …;. '" ., " ''".""", """ . " ." ~".'" t"": . :5 " " '" 6 ss ::iiij '-·'5§Io~;"w:si ~~''E;§"0~;::'· oZ.,~~…"..,;..~£,<,:.:;~rQ.t~";I.t0.'!,-'Ij'l.a<,.=8l~3.0!:.,lI. ~ "~ ~ .; ",!l .0 The North India Oonferenoe of the Meth- .; c III 0 odist Episoopal Ohuroh. S 'i:l THIS conference met at Bareilly on the 9th .; ~z January under the presidency of Bishop ~ Thoburn. General delight was expressed " .s 'r::-" " '" <J at the bishop'S presence, because his ea.rli- 'a 0 .; .; ~ '0 est field of labor was North of India. The ~ .<:I 0 following table indicates the position of the 0 " ~ rIl '0 Q) rIl work: ~ 0 0 " :g ai S '0 S -" -oj rIl ai .cI rIl '" Q) rIl Eo< E-I u1i – – – – – – – —- – – 84042 912 109 28 1,068 136 8,621 24 1.030 THE field covered by this mission is larger DEPARTMENT. Increa.se than Scotland, and has a populatiou of over Total. on 4,000,000. Except Mysore and Bengalore, there are no large cities. the headquarters Year. of the different districts being towns of about 10,000 inhabitants. Among the most Church Members………… 7,944 1,924 important phases of the work is that among Nat. Christian Community. 10.828 1,602 the Kolar gold fields. The most effectual Baptisms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1,952* evangelistic work is accomplished at the Sunday-schools…………. ' 703 520 time of the idol festivals, which are univer- Sunday-school Scholars,… 26,585 109 sal holidays. One special instance is noted 2,672 where a quarrel between two rival idols resulted in marked attentIon to the preaching *Of these 1,201 are adults.
That is a grand record for a year's work.
In the day schools there are 16,000 pupils, 5,000 of whom are girls, and over 3,000 Chris- tians. Deaconesses' Homes are to be openeO at Mathra and Lucknow. Bengal Mission of the Methodist special lecturers, one American on physi_ Episoopal Ohuroh. ology and sanitation, and two native on methods of theory and practice of mission REpORT for 1888. See Statistics Page 314 work. In the theological department there MISSIONARY REVIEW for April. are 37 students, and in the normal depart- ment 30 students. The course of training The reports of the presiding elders of the includes specially Bible study, togetherwlth four districts, Ajmere, Burmsh, Calcntta and practical instructions in evangelistic work. Mussoorle, bring very forcibly before the reader The classics are those of the country, though the need of the great work. In some places, occasionally Greek and Hebrew are taught where there was urgent need of advance and increased elfort, the word came to retrench, and General Synod Evangelical Lutheran the problem became a serious one how to hold the ground already occupied. The laying of Mission in India. Baptized in 1888 by: the corner stone of the J abulpore Mission buildings brought some grateful words from Rev. E. Unangst { Adults, 311 the chief commissioner, Mr. A. Mackenzie, Chtlctre:1, 318 C. S. The times have greatly changed in India 629 since the day when the first American mission- { Adults, 11 aries were peremptorily ordered out of the Rev. L. B. Wolf, Children, 14 country. At pr.esent there are no warmer sup- 25 porters of their work than mallY of the oftlcials { Adults, 140 of the Indian Government. Rev. B. John, Children, 271 411 Bareilly Theologioal Seminary of the Adults, 9} Methodist Episcopal Mission, N ol'th { Rev. M. Nathaniel, Children, 117 India. 216 REPORT for 1888 shows two missionary professors, with six native assistants and three Total, 1,281 These statistics show that our work here is a graud success. Who will come to help to carry it on ?
Malayalam Mission, Travancore, India..
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY, COMMENCED 1805. STATISTICS FOR 1888• .; ..",; ..",; ….,.;. .; ….;, .; M …., . """…. ~ ….;, "tS.~ ",.c:I ~ .c:I "o· """".c:I -;; .; .; oj't:l ..;.0.:.,:, .,0 0 "oj A ., …. ~ oj ~ 't:I oj "'>< "0 ~" – "'"0 " o";o;f!j oj ~ "oj ..c."".:,I "E-o M 'a0 0 .c:I o0.j..", "",Il< ~Il) .c:I ".o~ j o "0 "…. "ee ",.c:I 0 r:0n .~…, o~ …. 00 't:I.~ 0 bo 0 "..q, ' " "g..q zoj 0 .c:I 0 ;;: o,-.;!";l: 0 "0 00 0 — —- ———————- —- — 6 6 19 213 1163 266 44.633 5,356 g56 295 13.229 27.657 Trevandrum station, including the city those sold by the colporteur Bible women and with a population of 57,611, and the district, at the depot. covering 632 square miles, with a population of 253,280, has 48 congregations with 1,200 The Medical work Includes 1 MiSSionary, 9 church members, 7,719 adherents, 59 schools Medical Evangelists in charge of Dispensaries, and 1,712 scholars, new adherents 584. 2 Dispensers, 1 Evangelist, 1 Catechist, 1 Bible woman, 1 Colperteur. The patients included Among the chief features of the work are 10,503 Protestants, 2,694 Roman Catholics, 13,- Gospel lectnres to caste Hindoos and 930 Heathens, 530 Mohammedans. others; open.air preaching and private conversation with enquirers; dissemina.- Zenana Work in India.-The Zenana Mistion of Scriptnres, religious books and sionarv Society of the Church of England tracts. reports that in 1888 it had 106 missionaries in the home connection, 189 Bible-women, The chief hindrance is from the high caste and 349 native teachers. Under this mis- Hindoos, alarmed for the safety of their sionaryforce 3,118 houses have been visited traditional religious usages, and hostile to in which there are 2,797 pupils. This method the low cast people who are glad to come of reaching the women of India is proving to the preaching, so that care has to be taken successful, and those who could not possinot to open more places of worship than can be bly be brought together in any public aseared for. 1,439 Scripture portions, chiefly sembly are glad to welcome Ilo Christia.n Gospels, were sold by the preachers, besides teacher in the home, United Ohuroh of Ohrist in Japan.
TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT, 1888.
~..".,.. STATISTICS.
9o · MISSIONA.RIES, ! . .n..; as 0"""0i''."-" FOREIGN. " I '" '""§ Sil .n (!)~t ~al .. Sl" ,!.-~ "CIS000"O-, "M D.S ~ ~" .; 6 ;;" z"'''….. f ~.~~,!:,g..= '" – <S»l § o§o.Jd3'fi ,.,~"Qg-.".:a2'e0dgen-j ~ .; .; rJ2 ~~() – – ''"" – – 0 0 Po< ,; ."8o"s' o Po< zg ".d – – – – .S :c ~ ,; PPo< " !l ~ :~:;: ~ I: ~ 44 ~ rJ2 0 8 rJ2 411 : ~ ~ "~ —— 0 -rJ2- 1$:,;;00 8,690 1,831 80 24 2,260 4,000 39 38 36 THE whole report is one of encouragement Missionary Society are calling for men and and hope. An increase for the remaining twelve money to enter the doors open on every side. years of the century similar to that of the past The great desire i8 to increase the power of the year would give for 1900 a membership of 144,- union by the addition of the Congregational 000, a token of the evangelization of this great churches, which will nearly double the effectempire. ive force of the union, adding to it 45 churches with 7,093 members. With such a compact Several more churches have become self-sup- body of Christian workers, animated by such a porting, and it is a question whether many of those still receiving aid are not hurt more than spirit of self-consecration and earnest purpose they are helped. The principle laid down is to work for Christ; there is no obstacle too tbat any church of a hundred members should great. In union is strength. We earnestly be entirely self·reliant. The chief growth is in hope that there will be nothing done to kamper the chnrches, but the fields on every hand are or hinder that union. white to the harvest, aud the native Home -~– Statistios of the Egyptian Mission. (Frbm 1865 to 1887.) ESTABLISHED IN 1854. 1865. 1870. 1875. 1880. 1887.
—-.——-_._-.—————- Ordained Missionaries…………………………. . 8 7 8 8 11 Unmarried Female Missionaries……………….. . 3 3 7 8 10 Native Pastors…………………… , …………. .. 1 3 6 10 Native Licentiates…………………………….. . 5 Organized Congre:oations……………………… . 1 3 8 12 7 3 24 Stations Occupied ……………………………. .. 5 10 6 48 21 85 Communicants …………………………. , …… .. 79 237 676 1,036 2,307 Average Sabbath Attendance ………………….. . 125 513 1,133 1,837 4,747 Pupils in Sabbath-schools…………………….. .. 236 658 1,494 4,438 Number of Schools…………………………….. . 5 49 82 8 23 Pupils in Schools ………………………………. . 815 520 1,040 2,219 5,601 Books Distributed (volumes) …………………… . ? 5,506 1l,8PO 25,534 33,609 $655 $797 $4,863 $13,083 Tuition Fees…. :………………………………. . 1,037 2,795 5,541 7,815 Proceeds from Sale of Books……………………. . Totals paid by Nat's for Prc'h'g., Schools and Books 2,788 4,840 14,986 27,173 Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of The Woman's Baptist ForeIgn Mis.ionary Ontario and Quebec. Societies of Ontario and of East Ontario and Quebec report for their Zenana work MISSION FIELD, TELUGUS, MADRAS, INDIA. expenses additional to the sums paid to the General Society of $2,315.32. STATISTICS.-TwENTY-SECOND ANNUAL RE- The work of the Societies has been ham· PORT, 1888. pered by changes necessitated throughsick- ness and retirement of some from the field. …. " . ".- " " … ;1ui't:! .u..i .n .u.,i Yet they go on their way with good cour- age, "300,000 sonls with a single missionary, :s .-" . " " <II"d~~.~~~c.'g..",.:. 't:!.n ..e- .n .; ::l ::l and he 35 miles distant," calls for help• .':~-t:l:Q."!c~) '0 " " A::l'~" ~~ "'~ Ci~ ~… ."c ~ ~ The Leper House at Jerusalem, 1888. "~ 0 't~::!:ol 80 :te:l'Ow :J .d ~ ';":; The Seventeenth Annual Report of this Insti- Ci'~ E-< tution, under the care of the 1I0ravian Society, ",.- S.:!i 0 "rJ2 ".O..r "S shows an e'lCpenditnre of £435-3-0, $2,176. The Sil new asylum, built at a total cost of about ~dl ~, S $21,C-00, and unencumbered by any debt, has 19 inmates, 13 males and 6 females, 8 Christians Sil ~::. <= 0 and 11 Moslems.· Three died during the year, _. — — — — — — — – 0 aU haviug the Christian hope. 0 0 4 5 4 4 5 46 40 40 13 1.947 Increase from collections, legacies, etc ………………………….$14,67648 Received from Woman's Societies (less $325 returned).. .. .. .. .. .. .. • 4,605 Do 'l,'ota.l income …………… $19,281 48
Missions in the Dutch East-Indian
From the latest reports received during the year 1888, prepared jor THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD by Rev. N. D. Schuurmans, Haarlem, HoUand.
Name of the So- Stations. Receipts European Native As- Adherents. Schools. Scholars. during the ciety. Missionaries -s-i s t-a n-t s . – -l-as-t y-ea-r.- Notes. 8.- 74.- — – – – – – The Netherland ModjowarnQ-Java. 5,me, (on Ja- 135 8,472 on Java $37,706 In the Minahassa (Celebes) are a great . .(founded in the Kendal-pajak, llilissional'Y Unlun Kediri, h The number va) 221 (be. and Celebes; many native churches (communions) for- year 1797 at Rot- ~~:~b~~~Cele~~s. teachers and longing to of Savoo the merly founded by the missionaries of the lterdam). catechists the resort of N. M. S., now under the pastorshlp of Euro- Tanawan~ko .. in the lIiina- Seba (Savoo) number is pean associate preachers, who in connec- hasia prov- not known. tion with the Dutch Protestant Church in Seba-8avoo. inee is 115. Neth. India and under pay of the Dutch Government, yet greatly act asmissionaries for the propagation of the gospel,. Thenum- ber of native Christians is reported abont 120.000 souls. Notwithstanding two mission- aries. properly so-called, are at work in the niinahassa, the one is placed at the head of a training school for native assistan ts, the other occupied witha printing press for the sake of the missions on this Island. – —– .. Missionary Socie- Cheribou, The Netherland nieester-Cornelis-Ja va 7 24 874 11 146 $17,846 Of the 874 adherents 251 may partake of .. ty II. (founded in Indramaju, .. ,he year 1858 at niadjalengka, the Holy Communion.
. Rotterdam). . Sukabumi. Sumedang, .. 1'jiandjoor, .. Pangharepan, . Buitenzorg, —– —- ———- –~~— This year (1889) one Missionary more will Foreign Mission Batavia-Java. 3 6 200 4 224 $8,000 c f the Christian Surbaga, U be sent to Sumba.
Reformed Church Melolo and Cabernero, in the Netherlan<ls Sumba. (founded tn the ear 1860 at Leyen.) – – – – – – 125 Missions Church Salatiga-Java.. 6 8 500 5 $1,892 Only one missionary is sent by tbe Erme a t Ermeloo (found- 'Vonoredjo. ,. (during 1887.) 100 Mission; the other by the Neukinchan Mission. which are united on Java. under .. e d in the year Klampok, the name of h Salati;;a Mis8ion."
1856 at Ermeloo.) Kali<lJeret, ..
.. Tjem~h,
Un- Mergoredjo-Java. 3 16 491 5 200 I $8,479 The three old missionaries, thonlth
ion, for the propa- Pakanteu-Sumatra. (during 1887). directly on the mission field, are yet occugation of the gos- pied wi th working for the missionar~ cause; pel in the Dutch the first by translating the Bible lDto the colonies (founded Javanese language, the second by means of in the year 1847 at writmg, the third by preaching (Reise- Amsterdam). 1——— —– —— —- – – – – – '- – – -…- – $2,127 prediger.) Dutch Lutheran Pulo Tel;o. 2 This mission but just begun.
Society for Home Batuv Islands.
and Foreign Mis- sions (founded in the year 1882 at Amsterdam).
Java Comi te Batavia-Java. (2 on Java. 13 on Java. 115 3 ..t200 $11,911 Missionary I. Esser, of Bondawosso. is at 5 80, present in Holland for the translation (branch of the So- Bondowossa" 1 all Sum",-.J 011 Suma- 450 of the Bible (New 'l'estament) into the Maciety for Home Uta Rimbaru-Suma- tra). tl'a.) durese language. and Foreign Mis– tra.
sions at Batavia, Java) founded in the year 1856 at Amsterdam. —— —– Utrecht Mission Mansinam-N.Guinea. 8 total. 7 180 6 U38 $21,940 Union, founded in Andai, •• the year 1859 at Doreh, Utrecht. Rhoon, Duma, Almaheira. Soa, Konora, •• – – – – – – – – -Ka-w-ir-i. B-u-ru-. —- ——-, —– —– Rhenish Mission Bandjarmassin-Borneo 8 {on Borneo)i26 {on Bor- 1,120 {on Bor- 136 (on Su- $83,362.56 An auxiliary society tor the Rhenish Mis- Society, founded Kwala Kapuas, .. 15 (on Suma- neo). neo). matra). for year end- sian was founded at Amsterdam in the year in the year 1828 at llIandomal, tra). 220 (on Suma-12,702 (on Su- – – – 373 (all Bor- ing Easter 1869. Barm en (Ger- Pangkoh, 5 (on Nias), tra). matra). many). Telang, 9 (')n Nias). 616 (on Nias). neal. 1888. * We have valued thejlorin at 50 cents, Amer- 48 (on Nias). Tameanlajang, U ican money, in these jigures. The Dutch guild- , er is equivalent to 40 cents our money-EDS. Sipirok-Sumatra. Bungabonder, U Pangaloon, U Sigumpu]an.
Pantjarnapitu-Sum. Stations (Continued). Simorongkir, " Pearadja, Sipokalon, Sibtoga, Sum. Lobusircgar, Gunougsitoli-Nlas. Lagubati, Dahana.," Balije, Ombalata, I Sipahutar, Padang, I
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. On the Sangi and Talauuer Islands are 6 As already mentioned in the a.bove Tables, several native churches, founded in stations and 6 missionaries (under pay of former times, are now under the care of European association preachers, not only in government) with about 20,000 native Christhe Minahassa (Celebes), but also on the other islands of the Dutch East Indian tians. One of these missionaries, Rev. Kel- Archipelago, as on Java, Timor, Amboina, Ternate, etc. Their number (i. e. of the ling, on the Sangi Islands, preaches at preachers) amounts to 26. Likewise there are a.bout 80 native teachers. All these are 21 different places (villages), while 15 schools paid by the Dutch Government. At Depok (Batavia) is a seminary or are entrusted to his care. trainiug school for native assistants of missionaries. Dnring the year 1888, 10 pupils, The Netherland Reformed Mission Union, being well taught and examined, have left this institution in order to begin their founded in the year 1860 at Amsterdam, has work among their fellow-countrymen. At Madjowarno (Surabaya) Missionary Kruyt 2 stations on Java, with 3 missionaries. has also founded a training-school with about 14 pupils. The number of native The number of native Christians is about Christians at D6pok is about 600 souls. The Netherland Bible Society. founded at 6,000 distrtibuted in 47 churches or lo- Amsterdam in the year 1814, has 122 branches in the Netherlands and also in the calities. Dutch East Indian Archipelago at Batavia, Depok, Samarang, Surabayo, Padang, Aug… For the evangelizatiou in Atjeh (North kola, l'Iakassar, Tondano, Bandjarmassin, and in the Dutch West Indian colonies Sumatra) a comita last year was founded (South America) at Paramaribo. With the aid of this society the Bible has at Zeist. Probably this year (1889) a misbeen translated into ten different languages of the Dutch East Indian Archipelago, viz.: sionary will be sent out to that country. the Dajak, the Javanese, the low Malay of Surabaya, the low Malay of Samarang, the The Union for the Propagation ofthe Gos- Sundanese, the Alfurese, the Batta (Toba), the Buginese and the Macassar languages. pel in Egypt was founded in 1886, at the Two new translations of the Bible have been made, namely, one into the Sun- Hague (Holland). Its missions-field is at Caldanese langnage by Rev. S. Coolsma at Bl1ndung (Java), and another into the Madurese iub, which is i:lhabited by Mohammedansand language by Rev. J. Esser at the Hague. During the last year 57,405 copies of the Hoptish Christians. According to the report, Bible, or parts of it, have been sold or distributed. The receipts of the society dur- 1887-'88, there are seven adherents and a school ing this year (1888) amounted to 53,267florins. Likewise the" Society for Home and For- with sixty pupils. The miSSionary working eign Missions" and the uUnionforspreading Christian literature,"both at Batavia (Java) there will be joinml by a European schoollargely contribute for the propagation of the gospel into the Dutch East Indian Arch- teacher, in May. Receipts, 5,052 florins. ipelago. Total receipts in Holland for the Prot. Mis- Mission of the Christian Reformed Church sion in the Dutch E. I. Archipelago, about $150,000; total native Christians, 240,000 among Israel, began in 1875. Report, August souls.-Two mis~ionaries of the Neth. Miss. Society had arrived on Java for the Missions 1, 1885-Julv 15, 1888: Missionary HORter held on Savoo and Soemba. The Java-Comit" intends to enlarge its mission-field, namely: meetings in several towns and villages that to found five stations more in East Java and Madura; also the Dutch Ref. Union were frequented by the Jews; at many intends to send as soon as possible missionaries to Tegal and Rembang and Madiun, places he visited Jewish families in their houses. Java.-To the mission on the Sanggi Islands, Rev. P. Helling departed Feb. 2. At present this missionary has been honorably discharged, and several members of the Board occasionally hold meetings. Many religiOUS writings or tracts were spread among the Jews.
Receipts, 5,7€2 florins. '
The Netherland Union, for the propagation of the gospel among the Jews, in connec- tion with the English Episcopal Church, began in 1£84, Leist (Holland). Report, 1887: The missionary has his mission-field at Amsterdam, and another at Rotterdam, who visited also sev- eral provinces of the Netherlands. The evan- gelization met with mnch opposition from the Jews; the iOlOrance of this people with regard to the Bible, was very breat. Notwithstanding this opposition, many of them accepted' and read the religious tracts, that were spread among them. Though the resnits of the preach- ing of the gospel are not clearly visible, the labors of the missionaries can be considered as pr<)paring the way for the children of Israel to receive their King. During the last year thirteen Jews asked religious teaching, and fonr of them were baptized. Receipts, 2,724 florins.
Dutch, East Ind.an Arch.pelago.-In the Bottom-lands (North Snmatra) the progress of Christianity is stated to be very hopeful. The missionaries of the Rhenish Missionary Society have their station near to the lake of Toba, at Lagubati, and Balige. In their efforts to spread the gospel into this eDnntry they receive much help of the native Christian churches, and of tbeir assistants. SociE)tyfor the Propagation ofthe Gospel 5, Druze 1. .. All Lhese, evening a.fter even- in Foreign Parts. ing, have heard the Word of God read and very simply and earnestlv explained, many EsTABLISHED 1701. Report of the year 1888. of them joining, with every appearance ~f THE SOCIETY'S INCOME FOR 1888. reverence in' Christian prayer." In this as ,in so many other cases the most interesting I. GENERAL FUND- £ 8. d. features of the work can be known only to Subscriptions, Dividends the workers themselves and to God. The supporters must be content to await the and Contributions…… . 105,910 1 1 open answers to their prayers and dona- Legacies ……………… . 8,552 11 5 tions, until there is more perfect liberty granted to searchers after truth. Reuts, Divideuds, etc ….• 3,222 2 6 Totalreceiptsgeneralfund 117,684 15 0 II. SPECIAL 1<'uNDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21',982 2 6 Total income …………. £]38,666 17 6 American Seaman's Friend Society. The sixty – first annual meeting was held in the In addition to the above, the society's chapel of the Sailor's Home, 190 Cherry street, . treasurers had received for invested funds, New York, on the afternoon of the 6th inst. held by the society as a corporation for The annual report shows that 27 chaplains or specific trusts by request, the sum of £1,- missionaries have endeavored to promote the 429 Os. 8d. spiritnal and temporrl welfare of seamen in ports extending around the world. During the In this sum of £105,610 Is. Id. are included year 501 loan libraries have been sent out, contwo gifts of securities, worth £25,296 and sistine: of 18,036 books, 7,524 being new, and £2,263 respectively. The former was U a supplying crews of 7,781 seamen. On U. S. thankoffering to almighty God for the ex- Naval vessels and in U. S. Hospitals, 993 libratension of the church in the colonies and ries, of 35,742 books, )lave been maintained dependencies of the British empire and be- within reach of 114,267 men. The heroic U. S. yond it." The latter w..s a memorial of one Life Saving Service has been remembered by 117 who had long been a munificent supporter libraries of 4,220 volumes. The Sailors' Home, of the society. on Cherry street, N. Y., accommodated 1,351 sailors during the twelve months, and took Oentral Ohina Missions of the Methodist good care of more than $10,000 deposited tem- Episcopal Ohurch. porarily with the lessee. Shipwrecked and destitute seamen were relieved by gifts amount- REPORT for 1888. See Statistics Page 314, ing to $653.70. The income of the year MISSIONARY REVIEW for April. amounted to $27,832.89, and the outgo to $34,- 971.05. One of the most important minor reports presented is that in regard to Land Tenure. It American Bible SOCiety. The sixty-first should be followed up in every mission of every annual meeting was held Thursday aftersociety. The necessity of owning and develop- noon at the Bible House. The annual reing real estate in connection with mi.sionary port shows that the total cash receipts for genwork makes it of the highest importance that eral purposes were $499,823.56. The disbnrsethe laws of Land Tenure should be well under- ments for general purposes amounted to $555,- stood. The Brother who makes the report 979.78, leaving a deficiency of $56,166.22, which seems to feel as if the time spent upon it was of was provided for j'l part by aloan and in part by little value. We would reply in the words of the sale of certain securities. The following the venerable Father Goodell of Constantinople were elected to the Board of Managers for four to one who made a similar complaint: "The years: John H. Earle, S. V. R. Cruger, Elbert disciples were serving the master just as much A. Brinkerhoff, James G. Levett, Charles H. wheu they went to get the ass as when they Trask, William Hoyt, Robert W. De Forest, J. preached at Pentecost." D. Kurtz Crook and T. G. Sellew_ The Philander Smith Memorial Hospital at The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nanking reports in all 10,100 patients treated, a American Baptist Missionary Union began grand record of good work done. at Boston, May 15. The following statistics were given: Missionaries appointed dnr- The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society has ing the year, 30; missionaries sailed to the b~en very successful in its medical work among field, 31; missionaries retnrned, 9; total the Tartar women of Chiukiang and good re- appropriations for the year, $423,318; total sults are already evident. receipts, $415,144; balance against the treasury, $8,174. The Foreign Secretary's. Jaffa Medioal Mission and Hospital. report shows that in all the missions there are 279 missionaries,l,316 churches, 134,413 The annual report for 1888 shows expen- members-an increase of 17 missionaries, ditures of £1,209, $6,046. The number of out- 20 churches, and 7,205 members. In misdoor cases has heen 13,217; 138 on a single sions to the heathen are 62 stations and day. 511 patients have been received to 1,179 out-stations, the hospital; 307 men and 204 women and children. The various religIOns represented have been, Mo~lem 414. Greek 44, Je~ish 23, 11aronite 13, Protestant 10, Roman Catholic
~~ . r r
556 [JULY, PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN.
l"
VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY' "
BULLETIN.
What a stimulating Btudy follows the lower Rownma, three in Zanzibar and three footsteps of Jehovah through these forma- in the Portuguese interior. Besides there tiveyea.rsofmissionaryenterprise I Mighty are the East Africa. station. of the London obstacles removed; a missionary spirit de- and Scottish societies.-In~pendent.' veloped; over 200 general missionary societies and boards organized; woman's work ·-Rev. E. F. Baldwin, writing from Mogafor women inaugurated and already a phe- dor, Morocco, in April, says: The, work nomllnal success; many of the sons and goes on well, now. There is a. lull In persedaughte~s of ~he church in our educational cution: hence many meetings-five on Suninstitutions pledged to service In the foreign days, fonr on Wednesdays a.ud Sa.turdays, field; medical missions securing gratefulre- a.nd three on other days. We are trying to cognition; the .Bible printed in 300 tongues; make the most of our opportunities. On our a vernacular literature created, and schools last trip Mr. Nairn and I were reported for the lowest grade to the well-equipped killed, and the statemeut was believed by college and theological seminary estab- all except my family. True.wewere roughly lished. handled, but not a. bail' of our heads per- ished. Rosine Is back. and Abraham is on -The most effective reply to pessimists his way. They were separated by Abraham like Canon Taylor and Mr. Caine will be being in prison and put in irons nine days. found in the MISSIONARY REVIEW oJ!' TliE his outer clothes heing also stolen. For WORLD. and more especially in such a paper about six months they were away on a jouras Dr. Pierson's in the April number on ney. on the lines of Matt. x.; many believed. .. Further Testimonies to Missions." Itsets and many were baptized. The work grows forth an array of well attested facts, so in other ;>laces. We hope to devote the weighty that all the accusations and in- summer months to systematically training sinuations of professed friend. or open foe, in the Word the most promising converts. will be but a feather's weight in comparison. in order to their doing service as native No Pl'Stor who desires to keep his congrega- evangelists. Blessing has begun among the tion up to the mark In missionary fervor Jews. I have recently baptizcd three Jewa should fail to procure this hest of all the and lour Moslems. One of the Jew8 Is just missionary magazines.-OhriBtian Leader out of irons for his faith; one or two others (Scot/and). await baptism. The last steamer brought Mr. Sheehan. s. non-commissioned olHcer Africa.-The Missions ofthe German and from Gibraltar, to join us on Matt. x. lines. English societies cover a considerable part Thank God. there are six Matt. x. missionof the countries around the back of the ter- aries (men) here in actual work; one is Mr. ritories of the Sultan of Zanzibar, on the Martin and two natives. I am just olf …. east coast of Africa. The Nenkirchen So- another trip, going first to Cass. Blanca. ciety has had since 1887 a station at Ngao wearing Moorish clothes. which we all (men) on theTana. in the Suabalicountry with two now wear, finding it much better tor the missionaries; a third missionary died short- work, and more comfortable every way. lyafter his arrival. On the other side of Blessing and trial continue intermingled. I the Tana is the station Soldanti. of the hope in tbe coast towns to visit and os- United Jllethodist Free Churches, who also tablish several ~roups of believers who have two stations, Joursee and Ribe, in the have never seen the face of a foreign mis- Mombasa. district. The Evangelical Lu- sionary. therau Missionary Society for East Africa of Jla,varia. has stations at Jimba and at -The Romish Church is pushing for the Mbungu among the Wakamba, six hours in- open regions of the upper Congo. Two Porland, with three missionaries; a fourth mis- tuguese steamers recently carried from sionary died at his home, whither he had twenty to thirty Jesuit priests and nuns to retUrned for his health. One bour from labor in Africa for the propagation of their Jimho is the station at Kisulutini, or Rabai, faith. foun!ied by Krapf and Rebmann in 1876, which with Mombasa, Freretown and Kam- -Rev. George Grenfell, Ia.tely returned likene. torms the Mombasa district of the from the Congo, reports .. Cbristianity English Church Missionary Society. The spreading even where missionaries had not Evangelical Missionary Society for German labored. As he approached one town in East Africa. has a station at Dar-es-Salaam, which no Baptist missiona.ry had ever lawith one projected in Kisserawa, on which bored. he saw a band of native eva.ngelists are two European missionaries, one Abys- coming out of it to preach the gospel to sinian teacher and a deacon. The English their native brethren, and that town. a few Universities Mission has five stations In years a.go, wa.s sunk in hea.thenism." Usambara, oPpol'ite the island of Pemba, four farther south, in the !iistrict of the -Inspector Harms, in his tour among the Rerma.nnsburg missions in South Africa. last year, also visited the Norwegian mis-
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY
sion at Umpupulo, Natal. The stationed celve all who apply; 70 applicants have "missioo!lory had seven 'preaching places, a.t been declined. A Training Cla.ss from the which his helpers preached, ha.ving heen school visits female patients in the Hospispecially prepared for the service on the tal, There are six native teachers at work. Saturday. .. This is a matter of which we do not take thought enough," the Inspector -The Baptist Mission in the' Sbantung remarks; .. yet the Norwegians are lacking Province, have, in the districtofTsing-cheu in emcient evangelists, while we are much Fo, 55 chUrches, all self-supporting, minisbetter provided through our Seminary at tered to by five native pastors maintaining Ehlanzeni, with its 16 pupils." themselves and not drawing any of their support from the society. Belglum.-The Missionary Church of Belgium (EvangelicalSociety) reports a rich -Tho Chinese Inland Mission has been enspiritual growth within the past year. A abled to send $20,000 for the reliet of the letter from Pastor Brocher says that this sufferers from the famino in China. missionary church is composed largely of -The ratio of the gain in converts In all the poor miners who have come out from Ro- Protestant missions In China during the manism. There are 22 ordained minIsters, decade is about 140 percent. ; and In Japan four evaugelists, eight Bible readers, and It is over 300 per cent. four colporteurs, but a large portion of the work Is rendered by the workingmen who, Central Amerlca.-In the latter from the mining and manufacturing dis- part oflast year tbe Prt'sbyterian Bo~rd of tricts, return to the village. There are now Foreign Missions made a liberal appropria- 27 churches, with sixty-one preaching sta- tion of funds to help the mission in Guatetions and 84 other localities where ihe gos- mala, Central America. in purcha.sing proppel has been preached occasionally, besides erty and huildlng for mission purposes in 000 placas visited by colpoteurs. Nearly the city of Guatamala. Ground was imme- 8,000 religious services have been held dur- diately bought and building begun, and ing the year, with a regular attendance of now a house is almost completed and a from four to five thousand hearers. Of the church well under way. 00 Sunday-schools 18 are called .. Missionary Sunday-schools "; that is, composed -City of Mexico, May S.-News has heen reexclusively of children of Roman Catholic ceived here of a discovery of great archfamiliee. This certainly is a cheering re- reological importance in the State of Chia.· port, and the appeal for financial aid which pas, near the ruins of Palanque, being no- Is made by this Missionary Church of Bel- thing less than a large city hidden in the gium should have a generous respoDse. depths of the forests. Some buildings are five stories high and in a good state of pres- Chlna.-In Canton, with its 1,500,000 in- ervation. There is a well-paved road sevhabitsnts, are fifteen Christian chapels, wbere eral miles in length still perceivable in the missionaries and the native ministers preacb midst of a tropical fOl"est. Very few partie. the gospel, not on Sunday only, but daily, and ulars bave reached kere, but the report from two to four honrs each day, to audiences comes from good sources. Palanque is said varying from fifty to several bundred. After to be S, mere village in comparison with tbls the sermon, Chinese Evangelists continue the lost city of prehistoric times. services. Free conversations and discussions tollow; rooms are at band for private confer- Egypt.-Miss Whately's work in Cairo. ences, and Cbristian books and tracts are kept The schools and mission established in in readiness, and disposed olin large numbers. Cario by the late Miss M. L. Whately will The preaching halls are tbronged during the hot- be carried on by her sister, Miss E. Jane test montbs–July. August and September-and Whately, who is well known as the biografrom noon till tbree o'clock-tbe hottest part of pher of. her father, the late Arcbbishop the day. Tens of tbousands of visitors to the Whately, and as a frequent contributor "to city bave beard tbe gospel in tbese cbapels and various periodicals. She will have the valhalls, and have carried It hundreds of miles uabie aid of Mrs. Shakoor, the widow of a. into the interior. The missionary encounters Syrian gentleman. who voluntarily assisted tbese in the most remote places on bis inland Miss Mary Whately in her work until his tours, and sometimes listens with surprise death some years ago. Mrs. Shakoor had while tbey repeat the substance nfthedlscourse for many years been tbe devoted friend and which tbey have beard. The dialect used by companion of the late Miss Whately. most of the miSSionaries, in preacbing, 1s the Punti, or pure Cantonese. by wbicb tbey have England.-English Presbyterians now access to twenty millions of people. number 64,000. according to reports submit- ted to the annual meeting of synod held in -Letters just received from Dr. Happer at Regent Square Church at the beginning of May. This shows a gain of 1,500 communi- Canton, speak of the encouraging Increase cants for 287 congregations in the past year' of students In the Anglo-Chinese College. -a small total and a small average. We The number at the beginning of May was had hoped for better things after the meettrT. The Girls' Boarding School cannot reo ing of the Presbyterian Alliance in London last year. -Dr. Dale, ofEnglan4, thinks that India is to be Christia.nized by her own sons, and cumbent of the Established Church, in the therefore he believes in sending out edu- enjoyment of a remarkably good living, with cated Christian men, capable of training a very small charge, who dwells at ease in Indian converts for the work of teaching England during its pleasant snmmer, and the gospel. There can be no question that enjoys himself in Southern lands during its the native element in missionary work has winter, and who does not even subscribe not been utilized as it should be, not in the con ventional guinea a year to the C.M.S., India only, bnt in other regions, as not- is hardly the man to·hold up a. high standably in Armenia. ard to his fellows I"
-The Wesleyan Missionary Society, with France.-Interference With Missions.- headquarters in London, has missions At a missionary breakfast at Birmingham established in Europe, India, China, West recently, at which Rev. J. Jones, who was Africa, the Transvaal, British Honduras expelled from the Island of Maro, iu the and the Bahamas. It reports ::36 central South Seas, was present, Dr. Dale uttered a stations or circuits and 1,338 chapels and timely protest agaiust what has the appear_ preaching-places. It has a staff of 833 mis- ance of French vindictiveness against Britsionaries and assistants, with 2,000 other ish missions in heathen J~nds. .. It is all paid acents, such as c",tcchists, interpre- the same," said Dr. Dale, .. whether the Emters, etc. It enumerates::;,::::J unpaid agents, pire, the Monarchy, or the Republic obtain such as local preo.chers and 3abbath-school iu Frauce, her officials, goaded on by priests. teachers, and a el:urch membership of 32,- repress Protestantism, wherever possible." 325, with 4,674 persons on trial for admission And he added: "When M. Paul Bert. the to the· church. The method pursued by the bitter opponent of Cleric",lism at home, society is to send to the field English mis- went as Governor of Tonquin, he remarked sionaries for the purpose of organization that their free thinking aud liberty of conand supervision or to gIve instruction in science views were not for exportation. training institntions. All subordinate po- In Tahiti and several other South Sea sitions are occupied by a trained native Islauds, in Madagascar, and wherever our agency, While it is understood that every missionarie~ have been signally successfuh convert, according to his ability, should be the French have. if opportunity offered, a voluntary worker for Christ. The total tried to damage them." income for the past year was nearly £132.- 000. The report for the year expresses -The Paris Missionary Society has a wongreat discouragement because of a debt of derful missionary work in South Africa. In almost £17,000 which has been accumulat- connection with its mission amoug the ing for the past three years. In addition to Basutos it has 176 native workers and 6,000 the above is the work done by the Ladies' church-members. The Zambesi Mission, of Auxiliary connected with the society. and which M. Coillard is in charge, is an offreporting an income for the year of almost spring of the Basuto Mission. The society £8,000. also has missions on the Congo, in Senegam- bia, and in Kabylia. -Rev. James Johnston, F. S. S., in a recent letter to us, speaks of the attacks which India.-Rev. J. E. Scott writes from have been made by Canon . Taylor and Muttra: others on the missionary societies of Great Britain, and says: .. These recent attacks .. There are 90,000 people just around me, on our missions in this country are encaur· and more than 700,000 iu the district. The aqing ! ! They are made by men whose sound of the hammer and trowel has comtrade is sensation and can only gain it by menced. A mission house half finished, a attacking what is great and popular. Not training-school (Woman's Foreign Missionone society has suffered. The Church Mis_ ary Society) just commenced, a schoolsionary Society never had such an income house and a hall and chapel in prospect. as this year. The London Mission Society The fincst temple in North India is here. A have in a few weeks made up their chronic temple covering 10 acres and costing $2,000.- deficit of £15,000; and the number of new 000 is here. 'l'here are 8,000 widows, all bad, schemes started by independent societies is at Brindabon, in the vicinity. They are the another sig.. of life. though it takes erratic so-called' Brides of Krishna.· .. forms and tends to weaken old societies."- The Missionary. -From Dr. Fry's report of the Travancore Medical Mission for the past year, we learn -Canon Isaac Taylor's attack on the mis- that at Neyoor. and in the eight branch dissions is the subject of a brief but powerful pensaries now opened throughout the provarticle in the January issue of Regions Be- ince, 27,657 patients were treated during yond, by Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. Agree- 1888. Of these 1,255 were received into the ing with the Canon that" the work would Neyoor Hospital as in-door patients… The be better doue if the missionaries were year 1888," writes Dr. Fry, .. is one of faultless, unselfish. devoted, heroic saints," special interest, as being the jubilee year Mrs. Guinness tersely says: .. But au iu- of the South Travancore Medical Mission. Fifty years have' now gone by since Dr. Ramsay, the first medical missiona.ry, began his work in Nagercoil. Drs. Leitch, whole Waldensian church of Italy, of which Lowe and Thomson have successively sus- the present statistics are 42 churches, 38 tained the burden and increased the influ- preachini' stations, 124 pastors and other ence of the enterprise, and it is gi ven us to workers, is the outcome of that return of .. reap where others have sown, and to wit- few hundred, Who were all that were left of ness in the present developments of this the 3,000 to 4,000 that had been expelled by branch of service the results of half a cen- Victor Amadeus II. of Savoy. Without that tury of faithful toil. We have every reason return the Waldensian Church would have to bless God and go forward in firm depend- been wiped outof existe'lce in Italy. In the ence on His power who has so markedly minds and hearts of this people it is the most supported His servants in past days."-Ed- glorious event in their eventful history {nburgh Medical Missionary So~iety. which they are this year celebrating. Dr. Emil Comba, probably their best known -Arcot American Mission. At Katpadi a itterateur, compares it with the return of new chapel wasopcned January 10, on which the ten thousand Greeks, and draws special occasion twelve children and two adults attention to the fact thltt the skill of were baptized. The mission was established leadership had called forth the warm adat Katpadi 1.1 Rev. W. W. Scudder, D.D., miration of Napoleon Bonaparte.-The ["'- who occupied the station for five years and dependent. baptized fifty person~. At the close of his pastorate there were fifteen commnnicauts. -Count Campello, who was a canon in the There are now 164 communicants and a con- Church of Rome tiil1881, when he placed his gregation of 485 Teluga and Tamil ChriA- resignation in the hands of Pope Leo XIII., tians. A native minister, the Rev. A. Wil- has lately been addressing immense meetliams, is assisted by two deacons and two ings in various parts of Italv. He does not elders. call himself a Protestant, but a Catholic Reformer. His latest meetings were at -In the Northwest of India and of Qude San Remo, where, a correspondent of the missionary physiciaus are coming promi- Christian says, .. the Italians turned out in neutly into nutlce. Nearly 75,000 cases were thousands to hear liim. He told them plainly treated at eleveu dispensaries, and 11,000 that he left the Vatican because he was women sought relief at Mrs. Wilson's dispen- wearied of hypocrisy and of slavery. He sary at Agra; 18,850 women and children were left itobecause he wished to profess himself treated at the Thomas Dispensary at Agra. a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. He The women doctors in charge. successfully called upon the Italians to drive the papacy performed some very important surgical from their consciences aud minds, and operations. hearts, and homes, and, if one day an oppor- tunitv came to do so, out of their country. -The Moslems of Delhi have opened a And then, in most earnest and impressive seminary in which preachers are taught all words, he urged them to put Christ in the the objections of Western infidels against place of the pope, and the gospel in place of Christianity that they may go forth to op- the Syllabus. In all he -said he was suppose the Christian preachers in town and ported by the applause of his audience. count.rv. Even when preaching Christ there was not raised one cry of opposition. The local press -The Waldensians are eagerly preparing is strongly supporting Count Campello and for the celebration of the second centennial his movement, and some of the young Italof the" glorious return" of 16~9, when after ians waited upon him before he left the Umuntold sufferings aud banishment from the bria to beg his return." historic valleys as one of the results of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they, Japan.-Opposition to the proposed unwith sword in hand, and led by their war- ion between the united church of Japan, like pastors, Janavel and Arnaud, forced which is composed of all Presbyterian bodtheir way back to their ancestral homes. ies in that empire, aud the Congregational- The contest was against fearful odds. On ist missionaries, comes from a new quarter. the mountain fltstness of Lit BalsiJIe, Where, Theaid of the Southern Presbyterian church of the 900 Waldensians that returned, about has been invoked to hinder consummation 400 held at bay more than twenty thousand of the union. The Presbytery of Greenbier, Savoyan soldiers, a school is being erected. in the Western part of Virginia, has OVer- In Sibltourd, where, when surrounded on all tured the General Assembly of that church Sides by the hosts of the enemy, the Walden- to take measures to protect the infant sian Christians took a solemn oath either to churches formed by its missionaries from conquer or to die, a pyramid bnilt of blocks the dangers which it believes to be involved of stone is being erected, the number of in this union. These dangers the Presbytery blocks corresponding to the number of Wal- declares to be both doctrinal and ecclesiasdensian congregations existing at present. tical-that is, a danger that fundamental At Torre Pellice, the centel' of the literary truths of the Christian faith may be ignored, and educational work of this people, a new and a danger that principles of church order theological hall is to be dedicated. All these memorials are now abo;]t completed. The which are manifestly scriptural may be moa of the invasion of that troubled king- dom by a band of Mormon missionaries. Six abandoned. ' of them have appeared and six more are on the way from Utah, and they say they are -The number ofconverts in the Japan Mis- going to carryon a vigorous campaign in every viJIage in the group. They appear to sion of the American Board has increased have plenty of financial support., The na- tives receive them coldly, but they have in fifteen months from 4.226 to 7,098, a gain made an impression on European traders.
of 2,867. This is the most remarkable record Thlbet.-Thibet is the only known coun_ tryon earth not open to missions. It has an in any mission connected with the board, area of 750,000 square miles, about as large as the United States East of the MiSSisSippi with the exception of tbe great gathering River. The greatest length from East to West is 1,500 miles, and the population is esin the Sandwich Islands. timated at 8,000,000. It is the stronghold of Buddhism. Lhassa, the capital, is the -At the service in the Doshisha church, .. Rome" of the Buddhists, and the Dalai Lama is the Buddhist pope. He is supreme Kobe, Japan, March 24, there were 100 of in both temporal and spiritual things. One monastery has about 5,000 Buddhist priests, the pupils who united with the church. Five and there are about 60,000 in the country. Thibet is virgin soil for missions. The counwere from the girls' school, 62 from the pre- try is tributary to China.-Illmtrated Chris- tion Weekly. paratory department, 20 from the first year -Mr. and Mrs. Turner, of the China Inland collegiate, and 16 from the second and third Mission, have begun work in Thibet from the Chinese side. They travel in Chinese clothes. years. This fact is a most important one. Thibft is inaccessible to Christian missionaries -The Japan" Mail," of Yokohama, in a from the Indian side, the natives supposing that the British Government have designs series of ILrticles on thc rising generation in to annex the country whenever a missionary in European costume enters their State Japan, says that the young reformers agree from the South. If the China Inland Mission .. keeps low, keeps believing and keeps going that there must be a new moral system for forward," it has a still mightier future be- fore it than in the past. The society that Japan, and that it must harmonize with the opens up Thibet to the gospel deserves the hearty thanks of the whole Christian church spirit and aim of modern ciyilizatior: ; but throughont the world.
they are divided on the question whether it United States.-Dr. Talmage, ofBrook- lyn,says: "The church, if it would do its shall be the Christian system of moraJity or duty, could convert the world in ten years. Ithas the men and money." On which The Inthat which is based on science and philoso- dependent makes this cutting and deserved criticism: "Perhaps so, but it must turn phy. The MaU goes on to say: over a new leaf of generosity very soon if it is going to undertake so great and speedy a "That in recent years a wonderful change task. The Brooklyn Tabernacle last year, with 4.126 members reported, gave $151 to has taken place in our attitude toward home missions and $138 to foreil:'n missions."
Christianity is now a well-known fact, and -Romanism. Father O'Connor, the con. verted priest, is said to have led 800 Romanneed not be dwelt upon here. Only, how- ists into light in five years in New York City ever. within the last two or three years, or, -Gift to United Presbyterian Board. An- other l,OOOcopies of the" Crisis of Missions" in other words, since the awakening of the has been given to the United Presbyterian Board, the author and publishers uniting rising generation, has the new creed become with Rev. J. B. Dales, D. D., in the gift.
a vital element of the nation's civilized life. -Woman's work. The Woman'& Execu- Its inlluence is now felt through the rising tive Committee of Home Missions ot the generation, not only by reason of the fast Presbyterian church announces that its re- ceipts for the year just closed amount to increasing number of young converts, but S320,OOO, an advance over last year of $94,000. Well done. also, and perhaps to a greater extent, by means of the creation of a powerful litera- ture thoroughly imbued with Christian spirit."
-"The Twelfth Report of the Council of Missions co-operating with the united church of Christ In Japan," publislled at Tokio, January, 1889, says: .. The united church of Christ iu Japan has enjoyed a year of constant growth. There has been no excitement and no extraordinary efforts have been put forth." Yet it says in no previous year have 'the additions been 80 many. The adult members of the church number 7,551. The" infant members" num- ber 1,139, the total being 8,690, an increase of 1,831 during the vear. The churches num- ber 61, three having been added during the year. This church was formed in 1877 by the union of eight churches and 623 Christiaus, including the children. In the pa.st three years the church has doubled its member- ship, and in eleven years has progressed from 600 to 9,000. A like progress for the remaining twelve years of the century will make the membership in the year 1,900, the nuinber of John's vision, 144,000.
Samoa.-Monnon InvaSIon. The Lon- don Missionary Society has news from Sa-