The Missionary Review of the World — July 1895
I~DIAN DWELLI~GS "~D TOTE31 POLES, FORT WR.~GLE
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIII. No. T.-Old Series.-JULY.-VOL. VIII. No.7.-New8eries.
LIFE AMONG THE RED MEN OF AMERICA.
BY REV. EDGERTON R. YOUNG, TORONTO, CANADA.
In 1868, when pastor of a church in Hamilton, Canada, I was asked to go with my young wife as a missionary to the red Indians, northwest of Hudson Bay, north of Manitoba. It was a strange call; we had not been thinking of the Indian work, or the foreign field, and were very happy in our hom~ work. But we made it a subject of prayer. We laid the letter before the Lord, and though all our friends, with one or two exceptions, opposed us, yet as God seemed to call us, we went, and we have never regretted it to this day.
It took us two months and nineteen days of hard travelling to reach our field. You can go around the world in that time now. It was a lonely far-off place, more inaccessible even than the heart of Africa is now. We travelled as far as we could by steamboats and railroads, then we journeyed for thirty days with horses over the prairies and plains of the north, and then for the last fourteen days we went in a little skllf manufactured by the Indians and manned by them. The place assigned us in the skiff was a bit of a slab seat near the stern of the boat. Behind us stood a big Indian with an oar reaching ont behind, with which he steered, and before us were our stalwart Indian oarsmen. When we had gone about forty miles from Fort Garry toward the north, we saw the Indians turning toward the· shore, and we wondered what they were going to do. We soon found out. They took on another passenger, which to our aIllazement proved to be a great, big, lively, struggling ox. His head hung over one side of the boat aud his tail over the other, and for fourteen days in the month of July my wife and I had to sit in that skiff close to that live ox. But we were full of life and anticipation, and enthusiastic in our work, and these little things didn't trouble us much.
We reached our destination at last. We were first stationed among the Cree Indians, four hundred miles from the merest vestige of civilization. We had a good chance of testing the Indians. You know the very conflicting opinions about the red men. After studying them for many
LIFE AMONG i'HE RED MEN OF AMERICA
years, my opinion is that they are just about like the rest of poor humanity. They need the Gospel, and the blessed Gospel is just the thing for them. We had a little log-house, in which to live. A gentleman wouldn't keep a decent horse in it, but it was the best the country afforded; the Indians, were living in wigwams, and we were glad to have that loghouse. V~ thought the best thing was to come thoroughly in touch with our people, so we gathered them together, and stood before them with our Bibles, and said, "Now, look at us. We have not come here to buy your silver foxes, your beavers, your otters, your minks, or your martens; we have not come to make a fortune in the fur trade, but we have come with this book to do you good, and to help you to a better life, that you may be happier here and happier beyond. We know you are sinners, and that you have your fault~, and need the Gospel, but we are going to trust you as well as help you." We knew the majority of white people think that the Indians are thievish, dishonorable, and unreliable. We do not believe that. So we decided to trust them. We took the fastenings off all the windows, and the bolt off of the door, and the keys out of every drawer and chest, and threw them away, and from that day to this we have never fastened a window or locked a door in an Indian country ; we have never had anything worth sixpence stolen from us by the Indians. That is our experience among the Indians, when putting them on their honor and treating them fairly.
We mastered the language as quickly as possible, because I believe in all missionaries being able to look into the eyes of the people and tell them the truth in their own language. We worked and toiled among them, and we had at first the effects of the work of some blessed men who had been before us, and before we had been there five years, in addition to what had been done, we had gathered a congregation of from eight to ten hundred Christian Indians, who used to pack our church every Sabbath, although some of them had to come from their hunting-grounds fifty or sixty miles distant, on Saturday, to be present, and on Monday they would walk back to their distant hunting-grounds. We had the Bible translated into their languag!J by Mr. Evans, one of our missionaries, not printed in the letters of the alphabet, but in syllabic characters. These characters are so easily acquired that in a few weeks an Indian can learn to read the Word of God. It is a marvellous invention, and as a result of it in some of the missions 90 per cent of the people are reading the Word of God in their own tongue. Often have I been made ashamed of the littleness of my love by the devotion of these Indians and by their love for the Bible. Let me give you an iucident. One of our Indians with his son came away down from the distant hunting-grounds to fish on the shores of our great lakes. We catch our winter's supply there in October and November. My good wife and I have lived chiefly on fish twenty-one times a week, for six months, fish and salt with a cup of tea, at times no bread or vegetables at all. We live six months on fish, and the other six months on reindeer and muskrats, gulls and owls, anything we can get, sometimes glad to have two meals a day. I have been in your penitentiaries-not unwillingly-and I have seen the food provided for the worst criminals. My wife and I would have been glad to have had anything approaching what you give to your murderers and housebreakers. I have been for three days without a mouthful. To go on with my story. This man and his son came down to fish, and they made splendid fisheries, put up the whitefish on a staging where the foxes and wolves could n{)t reach them, and one night the father said, " My son, we leave to-morrow morning early j put the book of heaven in your pack; we go back one hundred and forty miles to our distant hunting-ground to join the mother and the others in the wigwam home. " So the young man put his Bible in his pack that they might take it home. Later on, along came an uncle and said to the young man, " Nephew, lend me the book of heaven that I may read a little j I have loaned mine. " So the pack was opened and the Bible was taken out, and the man read for a time and then threw the Bible back among the blankets and went out. The next morning the father and son started very early on their homeward journey. They strapped on their snowshoes and walked seventy miles, dug a hole in the snow at night, where they cooked some rabbits, and had prayers and lay down and slept. The next morning bright and early after prayers they pushed on and made seventy miles more and reached home. That night the father said to his son, " Give me the book of heaven that the mother and the rest may read the Word and have prayers." As the son opened the pack, he said, ' , Uncle asked for the book two nights ago and it was not put back." The father was disappointed, but said little. The next morning he rose early, put a few cooked rabbits in his pack and away he started. He walked that day seventy miles and reached the camp where he and his son had stopped two nights before. The next day he had made the other seventy miles and reached the lake and found his Bible in his brother's wigwam. The next morning he started again, and walking in the two days one hundred and .forty miles, was back home once more. That Indian walked on snowshoes two hundred and eighty miles through the wild forest of the Northwest to regain his copy of the Word of God! Would we do that much to regain our Bibles ~ 0 the pQwer of the Gospel! It can go down very low and reach men deeply sunken in sin and can save them grandly, and make them devout students and great lovers of the Bless~d Book.
The worst class we had were the conjurers and medicine men. Some of these men hated us, and often used to put our lives in jeopardy because they knew that if we succeeded it was the end of their reign. But the Gospel reached even some of them.
These northern Indians are hunters. They roam over a vast country in search of game, and the missionary must follow them. My missionfield was about five hundred and fifty miles long and three hundred wide, and over it I travelled in summer in a birch canoe, and in the winter with dogs. I am sometimes called a " D.D.," and I say if it means anything it is " Dog-driver." I travelled many miles each winter with the dogs, and thus reached bands who had never seen a missionary. I wish you might look in with me upon a company of Indians who have never seen that Book before, who have never heard that Blessed Name. It is a blessed work, this preaching Christ to a people for the first time.
After five years alllong the Cree Indians we went among the Saulteaux. It is so hard to get volunteers for this Indian missionary work ! We had made our log-house among the Crees quite comfortable and cheerful, but the Saulteaux were calling for a missionary. I used to visit them once in summer with my birch canoe, and once in winter with the dogs, but there was such a long interval between these visits that when I went back to them I sometimes found that some who had become Christians were growing cold, for lack of instruction, and so they pleaded for a missionary to live among them. They could not get one, as none would volunteer for such a work. At length I got a dear young minister so far interested that he said, " I know a very nice girl, and if you and your good wife will give us your home among the Crees and go among the wild Saulteaux, we will take your place among the Crees." vVe jumped at his offer, and thanked God for it. We took in a birch canoe and a little skiff only what we absolutely needed. We left the furniture, dishes, table-linen, and a number of dogs, canoes, and other things, and all the home we had for a year was a poplar log-hut twelve feet one way and fourteen the other, with a roof that was covered with mud and grass. God blessed us there, and hundreds carne to Christ. So quickly, so believingly, and so thoroughly did they come that I must say in my ignorance I waS sometimes staggered. When I heard men get up and say, " I know whom I have believed, I know this Jesus is my Saviour, and I will trust in Him; I have a sweet joy in my heart," I would say in my stupidity, " Can it be true g" I had to go out in the woods and sit down all alone, and take out my Testament and read through the Acts of the Apostles. Then I could say: Ye5, it can be true. The Holy Spirit can do its work here as in those apostolic days. If a heart is honestly seeking God there is a wonderful guide and helper in the Holy Ghost. Now, after knowing some of those men over twenty years, their consistent lives have been a testimony of the genuineness of those conversions, even if they had only heard a very few sermons. I believe that if we could send out the right kind of men'and women all over the world, it would not take long to convert the world.
After we had been in this new mission for some time, and the work was going on blessedly, the tribes of Indians around heard about the white man and his wife who had come among the Saulteaux, and they came often to see us. One day there marched into our little home a great big Indian woman, quite different in style from the ordinary Indian woman. These women are the most modest, timid, and retiring people you ever saw. But here was one who came in with her head up and looking at us as though she was sizing us up. lIer actions were different from the other women. This we learned after was because of her position. She was a chieftainess. Her father was a great chief, and her husband had been a great chief, and when he died she ruled her people. She was a clever woman. She lived far in the interior, and she had heard of the paleface and his wife, who, with their wonderful Book, had come to live down there among the Saulteaux. She did not believe what she heard, and had actually come many days' journey to find out whether what she had heard from the hunters about the Book and the Great Spirit was true. I found that of all the inquirers that I ever had, she was the most insatiable in her curiosity and in her desire to learn. She would talk morning, noon, and night. Nor could we seem to satisfy her curiosity. She stayed with us about two weeks. Before she went away, I said to her, "Now, you are going back home, and I want to say 80me things to you. Christians keep one day in seven, which is God's day. We do not attend to worldly matters on that day, but we worship God. I want you to be a Christian in everything, so you must keep this Sabbath day. I am going to give you this big sheet of paper to help you." I gave her a big sheet of. foolscap and a long pencil, and said: "When you get home begin and make six small marks I I I I I I. Those are your days in which to hunt and fish. Attend to your matters with the tribe, your duties as chieftainess on these six days, and then for the seventh day make a big mark, – – – , and leave the gun and the rifle quiet in the wigwam, no hunting or fishing on that day. Work hard on Saturday to get enough food for the Sunday. On that day think about the Great Spirit, and pray to your loving Father, who sees you wherever you are." When she pleaded with me to come and preach to her tribe, I said, " When the eagle moon is filling out, listen for the ringing of the missionary's sledge-bells j then I will go and see you."
My programme of work was so great that six months passed away before I could visit her people. When the eagle moon came I harnessed my dogs and took my guide and dog-drivers, and away we went. It took us twelve or fourteen days to get there. We often had to travel altogether by night on account of the dazzling rays of the sun on the snow, which cause snow-blindness, a very painful disease. We journeyed on amid many dangers and adventures, but at last we reached our destination. The last six miles we had to cross a frozen lake. As we dashed out of the forest, there, on the other shore, was her village. Sharp eyes were on the lookout for us. We were not more thau half-way across before they detected our coming, and had dinner prepared when we arrived. Ookemasquasis, the chieftainess, had some frozen heads of reindeer on the staging ready for us. These are one of the greatest delicacies which thQ Indians can offer as food. She put some of these heads of reindeer on the fire to singe the hair off, and then and there she went at them with her big axe and chopped them in chunks and put them in a , big Indian kettle on the fire. So when our dog trains dashed into her village our dinner was boiling. Soap out there is three dollars and a half a bar, and they don't put much on their faces, and as they don't know much about shaking hands, every man, woman, and child tried to see who would be the first to kiss ns !
I cut short this ordeal and hurried into the wigwam. You never saw a woman so happy as was the chieftainess. She exclaimed, among many other things, "Oh, to think the man with the Book has come to my . people!" A level place was prepared for the dinner. In the centre was piled up these chunks of reindeer heads and in a circle around was placed ~ number of tin cups full of black tea, of which I had given her a pack- age. She put me on her left and her principal chief was on her right. Some more of her prominent people and my drivers and guides were also there. There was not a plate or a fork or a knife visible. As soon as we sat down, the men took out their hunting-knives and at once reached forward for a chunk of meat. " Wait," said I, "we are going to be Christians j Christians thank the Great Spirit for His gifts j Christians ask a blessing over their food. Shut your eyes and I will ask a blessing j we will thank the Great Spirit for what we are going to eat and drink." They shnt their eyes and I asked a blessing, and, being the first, I made it like a little prayer, and said Amen, and opened my eyes. But every eye was shut. I said, "Open your eyes." So they opened their eyes. " When I say amen at the end, although that is not all it means, it means that we have come to the end. Now, eat your dinner." Every fellow leaned forward and grabbed a chunk of meat and took it up in his dirty hands, and cut it with his big hunting-knife with which they fought bears and skinned their game. Some, more hungry than others, would take a piece in their mouth and saw off a little piece at a time. I looked over the pile and saw a piece that had a projecting bone on it. I took hold of that bone as a handle, and, taking out my hunting-knife, began my dinner. How happy my friend the chieftainess was! She reached forward with her great, dirty hands, and, grabbing a great juicy, splendid piece of meat she went at it with great vigor. Then she slapped it down on the ground, and, after drinking a cup of tea, she grabbed it off of the ground again and vigorously ate from it, all the time talking, with her mouth full or empty. Again she threw the piece of meat down, and reaching down in the bosom of her dress she drew out a greasy, dirty paper, saying, " Oh, missionary, I want you to see how I have tried to keep the record of the praying day." It was a dirty, greasy paper now, and I hardly recognized it as the clean one I had given her. With much interest I looked it over, and found that during all those six months she had kept the record faithfully. Here it was the right day for all those six months. Of course I was very much delighted. She said, "Some days a boy would come in and say, 'There is a fine reindeer out in the valley, I am sure you can shoot it.' But I said, ' No, no, it is the praying day, and I cannot shoot on the praying day.' But I think of the Great Spirit, my Father, and try to pray and talk to Him and have Him talk to me." She was so happy, as I said kind and encouraging words to her. Soon she folded the paper up and jammed it down in the bosom of her dress, and then she grabbed up her chunk of meat and chewed some pieces of it, while I was nibbling daintily at my bit. Then she looked at mine and looked at hers, and said, "Your piece of meat is not a very fine one; mine is a splendid piece;" and before I knew what she was going to do she swapped pieces. I did not practice any hypocrisy. I knew the motive that had prompted her giving me her piece was that it was better than mine, and so I took her piece and from it I finished my dinner, and I thanked her for doing it, because in exchanging pieces she had done what is considered one of the greatest acts of kindness an Indian can do -that is, if he sees he has something better than yours, to exchange with you. We had a service in the afternoon that lasted until supper-time, and another in the evening that lasted until midnight, and twenty. two of us lay down in that wigwam, all with our feet to the fire and our heads to the side of the wigwam., God has now given us that people for Christ. Everyone of them professes to love Him, and there is not a conjurer or a medicine man among them.
I had occasional visits from Roman Catholic priests. I never quarrel with them, but I keep my eyes open, and the fish that I have landed I try to get into my basket and have stay there. The priests used to come and visit the Indians, and I was courteous and friendly, but when they had gone away I would say to my people, " -What did these long-coated gentlemen say 1" "Oh, they said a lot of beautiful things to us about the mother of our Lord, and how nice it would be to get her to intercede with her Son for us." Here was my argument to them: I would say, " Suppose that the governor-general of our country should come out here and be in my house as a guest, and he should send out word, 'Now, Indians, if you have any petition or favor to ask, come and see me, and I will gladly listen to your prayer and do all I can for you.' Suppose that John Company (the name the Indians give the Hudson Bay Company) should say, ' Now if you Indians want to have any talk with the governor, tell us, and we will go and speak for you.' What would you say when the governor himself had invited you to come right to his presence 1 You would say to John Company, ' Mind your own business, we are going to the governor.' Now listen, in this book Jesus Christ says, 'Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out; whosoever will may come ; and I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto Me.' I would not say a word against the mother of our Lord, she was a glorious and blessed woman, but when the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, says, ' Come unto Me,' what is the use of having the mother as your mouthpiece when you can go yourself straight to the Son~" So when these priests came around again and thought they were going to scoop in a great lot of my converts, they found the Indians were offish, and they wanted to know what was the matter, and the Indians said, " Well, it is just this, if you long-coated gentlemen wish to go and say your prayers through the intercession of the old lady go and do it, we are going straight to the Son every time." The result was that I never lost an Indian convert in any of our missions.
These priests are very zealous and worthy of imitation, as to courage and enterprise and push, and their determination to succeed. In one Indian village was a French priest, an earnest worker in his way and very zealous for the ceremonies of the church, especially as regards Friday. The Indians were told never to eat meat Oll Friday; they were to eat fish only. That was all right for six months of the year, when they had any quantity of fish, but the other six months, when the ice was often ten feet thick, it was rather difficult to get the required food. One Friday this priest went into one of the wigwams, and found one of his best Indians, as he had supposed, eating a great piece of venison. The priest, with all the excitability of the Frenchman, flew around and said, "Didn't I tell you never to eat meat on Friday~" The Indian carved off another piece and said, " Him no meat, him fish." The priest said, " Can't I believe my eyes? You are eating venison." "Him no venison, him fish. " The priest was very much annoyed and said, " Are you crazy or am I crazy 1 I say that is venison." "Him no venison, him fish." "How do you know it is 1" said the priest. The Indian replied, "You came to me awhile ago and said, 'I want you to be one of my people.' I said, , What do you want to do l' 'Why, to baptize you.' I said, 'What is me that you tell ~ What will you pay me l' We talked about it and you decided to give me a new shirt if you would baptize me. I said, ' Go ahead ;' so you took the water and went through your prayers and baptized me, and yon said, 'I change you, you not Ookoosketoos any more, you Peter.' So I am Peter ever since. Friday come, and I have no fish, and I feel pretty hungry, and I don't want to go all day without anything to eat, so thinks I, I will fix him, and I get some water and take up that nice piece of venison and I say, ' you venison are you, I fix YOU';' and I put water on him and baptize him, and make him fish, and I eat him." So he went on, and had a good time.
One of the saddest things in reference to our North American Indians of this far north was the cruel way in which they treated women. The men in their pagan state were naturally tyrants. They had such false ideas. They thought if a man was kind to his mother, or his wife, or his sister, or his daughter, there was something weak about him, that he was not a big Indian, a strong, great warrior, so they crushed out all kindly feeling. They were fond of the little boys, but the poor little girls had a hard time of it. A man could cuff his wife's ears because the little baby a few hours old was a girl, and not a boy; and all through life that feeling of contempt for womanhood was manifested. I have seen a big Indian with a rifle on his shoulder come marching into the eucampment. He would look around until over yonder he would see his wife, perhaps chopping wood, and he would say, "Get up, you dog of a wife, and go along the trail and you will see where I have shot a deer. Bring it in quick, I want my dinner." Then he would send a club at her with such fury, that if she had not dodged it her brains would have been dashed out. Away she would go and stagger home with that great deer on her back. Then she would take her scalping-knife and go to work and skin that deer, and cut out a lot of venison and boil it and put it before her husband. He would invite half a dozen of his men friends, and they would sit down and get out their knives and go to work. The wife would go and sit with the girls, and after these fellows had gorged themselves with venison, they would take bony bits, and after they had eaten the best off the bones, would laugh to see the dogs and women struggle for the bones which they threw to them. That is paganism as we saw it first. Oh, how often I had to shut my lips tight and hold my tongue and say, " Lord, give me grace to be quiet now, and to speak the right word when the time comes I"~ It was worse than that, for it was a sin, my sister, my mother, for a woman to grow old out there. I once went to a village where lives a great chief named Mookoowoosoo. Tobaoco among the Indians is like salt among the Ara~s, and I have often brought them to parley. with me because I have given them a little tobacco and tea. I gave this old fellow a plug of tobacco, and said, "Go with me for a walk." Just outside of his village was a pile of blackened ashes, and I said, " What is that ~" " Ah," he said, "that is where I burned my mother to ashes." H Of what disease did your mother die~" He said, " She died of a rope." " What do you mean?" "Why," he said, " she got so she could not snare rabbits and catch fish, and I was not going to be bothered with the old thing, and one day I put a rope around her neck and then burned her to death, so her ghost wouldn't come to haunt me." He boasted that he killed his own mother! But look at the contrast. My wife and I went among that people, and we worked for several years. We preached the blessed Gospel of the Son of God, and I went out a year ago last summer to visit all these tribes, and travelled several thousand miles, holding evangelistic services from tribe to tribe. Look into one of those Indian churches. It is made of logs, a great big roomy Indian church, with one wide aisle down the middle. Let us stand in the desk on Sunday morning as the congregation gather. Look at that man and his two brothers who took their mother out in the woods and killed her because she was getting old and feeble. Look at that old woman who murdered the two little babies of the missionary who followed us. And then look at this other woman. There is brightness on her face, but if you look deeper there is a memory of some terrible crime which she cannot wipe out. That woman has a history. When I first went out there with my dogs in the woods, visiting them, her husband was an old conjurer, a very wicked man. He would not let her come to the house of God, and in the summer time when I went in my canoe he kept her away. I thank God for a voice with which I could send ringing out into the distance the story of God's love, and so while I had a company of a few hundred Indians there on the ground, I knew that in that clump of balsams on the bank of the river, pretending to be making a moccasin or dressing a deer-skin were the wives or daughters or :sisters of some of the intensely wicked people who would not allow them in the company to which I was preaching, and so I would preach for those yonder. One day this old fellow caught his wife out in the outskirts listening, and I learned afterward that he took her and beat h~r cruelly, and then made withes with which he tied her to a tree. The hunters had gone away. They used to come to my meetings, but, the instant I left, away they scattered to their hunting-grounds, and only a few families were left in the village. These were all so afraid of this terrible old conjurer that they dared not untie his wife. Yonder in the wigwam was her little baby girl a few months old, in the hammock. By and by it woke up and began to cry. It wanted mother's care and mother's nursing. But she was tied there to the tree, and the child cried louder and louder, until by and by its shrieks so affected the mother that she struggled free ea.t last, and she rushed for her child, not to nurse it, but to run down to the river, and take it by the heels and dash its brains ont against a rock and throw the quivering body iuto the rushing river. As the child was swept away some Indian women heard her wailing out, " Oh, that my mother had done that to me when I was a poor little babygirl like you, to save me from the life I am living!" Her husband died after awhile, and so there was no impediment in the way, and she came to Christ; but in her heart is the memory of that murder. Oh, if she only knew that there was a river of oblivion into which she could plunge and wipe out the memory of the past, she would go to the eRds of the earth to bathe in such a place !
But look, the chapel doors are thrown open. Ah! there is a sight that brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. Two great Indians, men twenty-eight or thirty years of age, with their hands have made a chair and over their two hands and shoulders there is a blanket thrown, and seated on that chair, with her arms around their stalwart necks, the poor old invalid mother is being carried to the house of God by her own sons. Another brother goes ahead down the aisle. We have no backs to our plain seats, so he folds up a blanket very nicely and puts it down as a soft cushion, and the other sons come along and mother is seated upon it, and one of the big felIow~ siti down beside her and puts his strong arm around her and she lays her head against his manly breast. Ah ! there comes a dimness in my eyes and a lump in my throat as I see that, and I thank God for the transformation. The mother burned to death is paganism ; the mother carried by her own sons to the house of God is Christianity.
Those are some of the things God has permitted us to see in our work among the red men, and it is a joy to tell you; we are glad to tell you that even among the red men God has saved some hundreds of precious souls. Devoted men and women there are toiling on. God is blessing them in the work. Indian converts are being raised up, and now some of our most successful workers are Indians.-Northfield Echoes.
THE INDIANS OF AMERICA: THEIR CURIOUS CUSTOMS, WEIRD WAYS AND STRANGE SUPERSTITIONS.-II.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
The Indians of the Moqui towns retain with singular tenacity the queer customs that antedate the Spanish conquest. In their cliff-cities, for example, even yet exists the most incredible barbaric dance, the rattlesnake dance, one of their secret rites known to have been celebrated three hundred years ago and more.
The snake is with them an object of idolatrous reverence in proportion to the deadliness of its venom. The Pueblos, in fact, keep one species of serpent, harmless to them, as a mouse-hunter, which pursues the housepests to the very remotest hiding-place. The rattlesuake, or chit-ah, is of course peculiarly sacred, and holds a place among the" Trues;" though not worshipped, the Pueblos hold the chit-an worthy of homage, and endowed with extraordinary powers. Every Pueblo town used to keep a huge rattlesnake in a sacred room, and fed it once a year with solemn rites. In Isleta a sacred rattler, said to be as large around as a man'~ body, was kept in the volcanic caves of the Cerro del Aire, and when it got away in 1887 patient and official search was made, in vain, to recapture it. Snaketending has nearly become an extinct custom in all New Mexican Pueblos, but every other year during the August moon the snake dance still survives.
For sixteen days previous the professional "snake men" prepare for the August festival, seated in their sacred rock-chambers; fasting from all food, they drink only a bitter" tea" infused from a secret herb which is an antidote to the venom, and rub their bodies with certain herbs. Six days previous to the dance they go on a hunt for rattlers, which they tickle with the" snake-whip" or sacred tuft of eagle plumes, until the snake starts to run; then it is snatched up and flung into a bag. These hunts must be in the sacred order-on successive days, east, north, west, south -it were impious to transgress this order. The captured reptiles are kept in the kiboa or estufa, the sacred room, until the night before the dance, when they are ceremonially and solemnly cleansed at an altar which the" snake captain" makes of colored sands drawn in a mystic pattern. The place of the snake dance is a small open court facing eastward, opening on the cliff, where are several sacred rooms cut in the rock, reached by tall ladders. At the south end of this 'court is the" dance rock," a natural pillar about fourteen feet high. Midway between this and the north extremity of the court is the sacred kee-si, or booth of cottonwood branches, with a curtain before the opening; and in front a shallow cavity, over which is an old plank with a hole in one side; this cavity, Ski-pa-pit, the Black Lake of Tears, is held by Indians of the Southwest to be the original source of the human race, and even the name is not to be spoken aloud !
The time for the dance is just before sundown, and, for hours before, the approaches to the court are thronged. A score of men of the Antelope Order march in single file thrice around the court, going through religious rites before the booth, their captain sprinkling them with sacred fluid from an eagle feather, while they shake their guajes or gourd-rattles. Then they take their stand by the booth, their backs to the wall of the court, and the seventeen priests of the Snake Order file by, making the circuit of the court four times, stamping with the right foot on the sacred plank as they pass, to let the cackinas, or spirits, know that they are now offering prayer. The captain of the order reaches the booth and the procession halts. He kneels before the booth and draws out of the buckskin bag a big snake, which he holds with his teeth, some six inches back of its head, and rises to his feet. The captain of the A.ntelope Order now puts his left arm around the other's neck, and with his snake-whip "smooths" the angry rattIer; and the two captains start forward in their dance. The next snake priest draws forth another snake, and another antelope partner joins him, and so on until each of the seventeen snake priests has a snake between his teeth and an antelope partner in the hop. These couples thus dance toward the rock, thence to the north, and so circle back to the booth. On reaching a point at the third quarter circle, each snake man by a swift motion of his head to the left flings his snake to the rock floor inside the ring, and dances back to the booth for another rattler and another round. The performers are painted black down to the mouth, then white to the neck, then dark red to the waist, with dancing skirts to the knee and rattles on the legs. The three antelope men, in excess of the snake priests, gather up the snakes and put them back in the booth, and often have five or six snakes in hand at once. If the rattlers show fight, they tickle them with the snake-whips until they uncoil and start to run, when they seize them as before. In one dance as many as a hundred snakes are sometimes used, and three fifths of them, rattlesnakes with fangs unextracted! Mr. Lummis saw a snake dance in 1891, and one performer was bitten in the right cheek. His companion coolly unhooked the reptile and threw it on the ground, and the dance went on heedless of the trivial incident. The bites seem to be powerless to harm these prepared performers. The end of the dance is a rush to the dance rock, where the snakes are hurled into a heap, sometimes a foot high by four feet across. A moment's leaping about the pile, sprinkling the sacred cornmeal j then they each grasp a number of snakes and dart toward the four points of the compass, and reaching the bottom of the mesa, or sacred enclosure usually on a hillside, they release them. These rites continue from half an hour to an hour, ending with sunset, when the performers return to their sacred purifications with mystic herbs. The Hupi hold the rattlcr to be one of their first ancestors, the son of the Moqui Adam and Eve. Hence also the stone fetich carved into the semblance of the reptile.
The Navajo Indians, nearest neighbors to the Moquis, will not touch a snake, and have severely beaten a silversmith for making to order a bracelet which represented a rattler.
They, however, give the bear the first rank among beasts, even above man, for man is in mortal fear of the bear's supernatural powers. The Navajo would not reveal to a hunter a bear's den, lest the beast should visit him and his family with condign vengeance. In one case only would he assault a bear-namely, when that particular bear has killed a Navajo, and even then the avengers halt before the bear's cave, to make a solemn apology, chanting the praises of the king of beasts, and begging pardon for the deed of vengeance to which they feel constrained. Then they kill the bear and go back to fast and purify themselves. To us the whole proceeding would seem ludicrously farcical, but it is fact. Prayers and sacrifices to the bear are common, and even his skin is not to be profanely touched.
Witchcraft is a common faith among the Indians; witches are not only believed in, but are put to death in New Mexico, where are 30,000 Indians all firmly holding to this superstition. The Pueblo of Sandia is nearly extinct by witch executions. Among the 1100 of the Isletans, nearly half of the people are believed to be thus possessed. To keep down witchcraft is the main duty of the ., medicine men," and the kum-pah-whit-hah-wen are the guards who execute witches by shooting an arrow entirely through the body from left to right.
Witches are universal enemies; they bring all calamities and keep away all blessings. Disease, drought, famine-all disasters are traced to them. Hence all religious ceremonies begin with the dispersion of evil spirits, and numerous charms are used against them. Births must be guarded lest the babe be appropriated by the witches, and the soul of the dead cannot journey to the hunting-grounds of the blest in safety unless they are thrown off the trail.
Suspicion is easily aroused where such dread is in the air. Red eyes are a presumption of wakeful nights j the sickness of an enemy hints a power to work evil upon him. When anyone is suspected, the medicine men secretly search his house and belongings, and to find an accursed feather there seals his doom, which is inflicted officially after due trial and sentence. It is unsafe to be more skilled than one's neighbors, for anything which cannot be explained, though it be only a photograph, or whatever the Indian cannot account for, he attributes to a supernatural and personal cause, investing both animals and men with these attributes.
And so it comes to pass that, kindred to witchcraft and inseparable from it, is wizardcraft; and the Indian magician not only compels his spectators to believe in his supernatural powers, but believes in them himself.
Few of us imagine the marvellous skill of the Indian juggler. He has to perform before eyes that are amazingly watchful and acute, and he has no cabinets, mirrors, false bottoms, sleeves, pockets, trap-doors, and other appliances and accessories of Anderson and Blitz, Hermann and Maskelyne. These jugglers perform half naked, with a hard clay floor under them and within touch of the auditor.
The medicine men are always magicians, hence their control over the tribe as the real chiefs. They have won their sceptre by the power to work wonders, and they keep the ascendancy as the Egyptian priests did theirs, by keeping their secrets. They form a small and secret class, into which are constantly initiated lads, who are thenceforth inseparable from the order. The life is hard, involving incredible manual practice to acquire their masterly dexterity, and rigorous fasts and self-discipline shorten the average age of this class. Conjuring is with the Indians a means of livelihood, but only indirectly; no money would tempt one of them to perform for a mere bribe. His business is a part of his religion.
Hence the main occasions for magic are connected with the " medicine-makings. " The shamans or medicine men then meet in the sacred rooms or conical huts, never otherwise used, to perform sacred rites, linked with healing, prophecies of the year, etc.
Prayers to those above and charms for dispersion of evil spirits being over, the medicine dance succeeds for cure of various maladies. The shamans during their dance have in each hand a long feather from an eagle's wing. already used to toss evil spirits to the wind; now these serve as medicine chest and surgical case. The shaman hops toward the patient and touches him with the feather tip, while he suckt;; at the other end. The feather seems to swen, as though some large object were passing through, and then shrinks again, a,nd the shaman begins to cough and choke, and draws from his mouth a big rag or stone or branch, which of course the patient believes has been extracted from his own body. Sometimes the shaman, without a feather, with his bare hand plucks out the " disease." Another illusion is the witch-killing, in which the " guards" bring in manikins, not larger than a three-year-old child, which in every respect resemble a dead Indian, and the deadly arrow is seen thrust through the body and projecting from each side, and so complete is the illusion that as they are swung round drops of blood bespatter the spectators.
To see these wizards dance barefooted and barelegged amid hot coals of cedar wood, hold their naked arms in the flame, and eat living coals with seeming relish, is amazing; or hold torches against their nude bodies or those of their fellows for two or three minutes at a time, whip each other with these scourges of fire, and take and give baths of flame; or to behold them, without even a jacket to conceal the trick, swallow eighteen- inch swords to the hilt, or great plumed arrows with stone heads. It is said that these shamans can turn themselves into any animal shape.
The "foretelling of the year" has been referred to. This comes before mid-March. The chief shaman and two assistants go to the Rio Grande, and bring back actual stalks of green corn and wheat, which they claim are brought by the river, and whence they predict the coming crops.
The" seed-giving" is a marvellous piece of sleight-of-hand. " The mother," an ear of white corn, with a white plume bound to the head, is shaken above the throng in token of blessing, and out pours a shower of all sorts of seeds, ten times as abundant as that" mother" could contain.
Another trick is the " moving of the sun," which seems to rise on the east side of the room and pursue its course in an arch and set on the west; and again they counterfeit a thunder-storm, when the roar of heaven's artillery comes nearer and nearer, and lightning darts across the dark room. At times these Navajo jugglers dance with feathers as partners, standing the plumes on end in a flaring basket, the feather swaying toward them and following their movements.
But the chief achievement of the Navajo shaman is the" growing of the sacred corn." At sunrise he plants the sacred kernel, soon the earth cracks and the shoot appears; the growth is some inches an hour, until by noon the corn tassels out, and by sunset the ears of corn appear. The juggler's weird song must not stop or the growth stops. Of course this is an illusion-the" eyes are made the fools of the other senses;" but how it is done the shaman only knows !
It would seem that even in blanket-weaving the Navajo Indians must have some religious scruples or notions to guide them. There is no other blanket beside that is like unto it, and the mode of preparation, the stuff used, and even the colors employed in the original Indian blanket, are all unique. The loom is of three bticks, a rope, and a stonp,. Every thread is rammed home with conscientious closeness, so that the fabric holds water. The Navajos raise their own sheep, shear them, card, twist, and dye the wool. The prevailing color of the blanket is a whitish gray, with cross stripes generally of blue, but sometimes red, black, and yellow. In the patterns curved lines and circles are never used, but straight stripes, diamonds, crosses, diagonals, and zigzags. The crosses and diamonds are sacred emblems of the morning or evening star.
The colors are limited in the original Navajo blanket. Scarlet is the favorite red and indigo the almost exclusive blue. In the best blankets, only these colors appear. Some colors are to an Indian inseparable from witchcraft and accursed, such as violet, purple, dark brown, etc., which reminds us of Ruskin's remarks upon the fact that God has associated certain colors with innocent and innocuous qualities, and others with what is harmful and venomous. Obviously to the Indian even color is a matter of religion, and, above all, red is sacred, sometimes absorbing four fifths of the blanket. It is said that grocer's supplies if wrapped in red paper will sell with ten times the rapidity with which those in other wrappings will be disposed of. The finest blankets are worn by the chiefs, and are thus exalted to the foremost uses, and seldom shown even then save on festal occasions sacred to religious rites.
The Indians have stone fetiches, which they employ in hunting-pretty stones of quartz, agate, jasper, and striped spar, with eyes of coral or blue turquoise, and the hearts always of turquoise, sacred to them as having stolen its hue from heaven's blue. No party of Indians would go on a hunt for deer, antelope, or even rabbits without the aid of this" blind hunter." These fetiches are cut into images of animals of prey rudely carved. An arrow-head of agate or volcanic glass is bound with sinew to its right side, and under the " heart" is a pinch of sacred cornmeal. These stone fetiches are believed to impart to the hunter the strength or cunning or sagacity of the animal whose rude likeness they bear; hence, the favorite image is that of the cougar, which they consider kiug among animals. The hunter puts his mouth to that of the image and" drinks its breath," a ceremony deemed essential to preced~ a successful hunt, and repeated at times during its progress.
The hunter, on striking a trail, places in front of a footprint a forked twig with the fork opening backward to trip the game. Then he draws from the "left-hand hag" or shoulder pouch the fetich, that he may inhale its "breath of strength"-a sort of invocation to the animal it represents to aid him; then he imitates the roar, howl, or cry of his patron beast to smite terror to the heart of the game he pursues. These solemn rites augur success.
Around the bow (as in the Greek, (31Or; stood for both life and the bow as the means of its support) everything vital to life has become associated; hence, to the Indian the most sacred beliefs cluster about the hunt, and the whole matter is a matter of religion, the very animals that are hunted being held in reverence.
One class of the shamans have full control of all matters pertaining to the sacred hunt, and are known as Hoo-mah-koon-those having death in their arms. These, created just after mankind began to be, were first of all branches of medicine men save only the Kah-pee-oo-nin (dying of cold), so called because they appear in almost nude condition.
The night before the round hunt the official crier proclaims it in loud voice. The" drawing" dance is performed to charm the game, and the dancing and chanting are believed to make the wild beasts deaf to the approach of the hunter. The songs sung imitate the cry of the animal to be pursued, and these services occupy most of the night. At a set time in the morning the Hoo-mah-koon, going to a certain invariable starting- point, kindle a fire with solemn rites; no one not belonging to the order dare start that fire, which must be kindled only with the fire drill, or with :fiint and steel. To use a match would be daring impiety deserving instant death.
Around the holy flame the Hoo-mah-koon bow their heads and invoke the fetiches. Then two men are elected, who at the word" Go !" start on a run in divergent directions, followed at intervals by two more, and so on until the whole host of hunters are on the run along the lines of a V; then othey begin to converge toward an appointed spot, thus fnrming a diamond line of hunters. Then at a signal the lines close inward, the hunters hurling boomerangs, and very little game thus enclosed escapes. Of the animals killed the first two go to the Hoo-mah-koon in command, and are taken upon the lap and sprinkled with the sacred meal.
The hunt is closed, as it was begun, by a religious after-hunt song and a present of game to the cacique. The head of the animal is the portion of the hunter who killed it, and he is believed to thus feed on the qualities of the animal.
A true Pueblo will eat no rabbit which is not cooked after a certain fashion, its ears so twisted into a knot, and its forelegs so turued under the arm-pits, and the hindlegs so pinned behind, as to "make it as people. " The Hoo-mah-koon are likewise sought to "give the road" for a journey, and even this favor must be asked with an offering of sacred meal. There is the medicine dance, and then the journey is forecast, sometimes with ceremonies ridiculously trivial, like combing the horse which is to be ridden and delivering auguries over the horse hairs, and the journey is begun only when official permission is given.
Every Indian lad is expected to be an expert in the hunt and in the :fight, and be a walking library of Indian folklore. If he is to be a shaman, he has a long and hard apprenticeship.
For instance, a boy of twelve is to be initiated into the order of Cumpa-hint-la-hwen. Such adoption into another order does not break up the boy's family ties, but adds a new clan bond. On successive days the shamans, in order of rank, visit him, hold him awhile, pray for him, and depart; then the visits are repeated in the same order, through the years, until the time comes for the fnll adoption into the order, meanwhile his tuition going forward. Then after a day's fast, at sundown, he is led to the house of the order. Dropping moccasins at the door, the old chief leads the lad into the dark room, and before the sacred fire he stands while the Trues are invoked in a given order that must on no account be violated-the Trues of the east, north, west, south, above, and centre. Then the lad is declared a member, and squats in front of the semicircle. No chair or bench is allowable; candidates must sit" on what they have,"
MISSIONS IN ALASKA
blanket or moccasins. Then comes the smoking of the sacred cigarette, which he must smoke down to the end and let lIlO smoke escape his mouth. A few whiffs suffice to make him deathly sick, but he must persevere if he is to " win his course." Then the lad stands and prays to the legion of the Trues, and only in proper order of rauk. Then he sits in a given attitude to learn the songs of the order. Night after night this continues until the last song is learned, when the Tho-a-shir, or receiving, completes the initiation, and he receives the P'ah-cuin-pah, or drink of sacred water.
Now he takes a seat in the sell}icircle of Cum-pa-hint-lah-wen, holding their official bows and arrows. For forty-nine hours they recite the history and customs of the order, and he is expected to ask such questions or interject such remarks as show that he is awake and intent; otherwise a thrust with a bow under the ribs serves as a reminder. Then he is again embraced and declared fully initiated. But now his apprenticeship has only begun. Vhat patient practice and self-mastery to acquire that unparalleled sleight-of-hand and coolness and control of even the features, which fit for the guidance and government of an Indian tribe !
MISSIONS IN ALASKA.
BY O. E. BOYD, NEW YORK.
Missions in Alaska previous to its purchase by the United States were carried on by the Russian Greek Church.
In June, 1793, Bishop Josaph and ten monks were sent out by the Russian Government. They established the first mission, and erected the first mission building on the island of Kadiak. Three years later the bishop and all but one of the monks were drowned. During these three years considcrable success attended their lahors, especially among the natives on the Aleutian Islands. A few years later Sitka was made the headquarters of the mission, a church was built, and ever since that time regular services have there been maintained. About 1822 a priest named Venianinof was sent from Russia and made the Bishop of Alaska. He was a man of great missionary zeal and considerable literary attainments. He attained to the highest honors of his Church, and died in 1879, mourned by the whole Russian nation. Bishop Nicholas is now in charge of the diocese. At the time of the transfer of the territory to the United States the Greek Church claimed a membership of 12,140, and stilI claims about that number. They have one cathedral and forty-one churches and chapels. The cathedral is at Sitka, and though not a pretentious building, is, for so small a town, quite rich in decoration, paintings, altar service, jewels, vestments, etc. Several schools were established during this time by the priests, but not much in the way of practical education seems to have been given to the natives, their principal teachings having been the rites and doctrines of the Greek Church. Notwithstanding the appar- ent success of the Greek Church priests, it is really a question whether they ought to be classed among missionary workers, or their followers as true converts to the faith.
The only other Church at work in Alaska previous to the transfer was a small company of Lutherans at Sitka. This mission was abandoned when its support by the Russian Government was withdrawn.
The natives on the southeast shores and islands of Alaska are called Hydahs, Tsimpseans, and Thlingits. The Hydahs live on the southern portion of the Prince of Wales Archipelago. The Tsimpseans came in a body from British Columbia with Mr. WiIIiam Duncan and settled upon Annette Island. The Thlingit appears to be the true indigenous stock from Cape Fox to the Copper River. There are no monuments, memorials, or traditions indicating that any other people were ever located there. They are without doubt Mongolian, and when compared with the Chinese and Japanese who are there, the resemblance is very noticeable. The Thlingits are good workers, and are extensively employed in mining, fishing, and various other industries. The Russians never made. any !Serious attempt to civilize them. The massacre of the Russian settlement at New Archangel by the natives made them extremely cautious and gave them a lasting prejudice. A few, however, were taken and partially educated, with a view to their usefulness as interpreters. At this time Sitka had a strong stockade around it and batteries trained upon the native town where they were compelled to settIe. From 1867 to 1877 the condition of the native Alaskans went from bad to worse. Soldiers, sailors, smugglers, and freebooters introduced disease and wiCKedness in new and more enticing shapes. Each settlement became a pandemonium. In their terrible degradation they were avoided and neglected as if they had been lepers. Their inherited customs incited them to practices of extreme cruelty. Witchcraft with its attendant horrors was universal. Retaliation with all its subtleties had become a sort of native science. . Under Russian domination they had occasionally obtained strong liquor and had enjoyed the aroused and murderous feelings which it ex· cited, hut it remained for them to learn the art of making their own fire· water after the American occupation. About the year 1875 a white man by the name of Lawson strayed to Sitka, and took a native woman to wife on the European plan. He was a dangerous man, for he knew and practised the art of distillation. Nearly all the kerosene which is shipped to the Pacific Coast is put into square tins holding five gallons each. He extemporized a still out of one of these cans, made a worm out of a piece of the tin, and ran h down through a barrel of water. The mash was made of Sandwich Island molasses and yeast; when sufficiently fermented it was placed over a slow fire, when the rum would fall drop by drop from the worm into the cup. It was not long before each house had a still, and some three or four. They would carry them iu their canoes and have them ready for any camp-ground. They were passionately fond of this fire-water. It made them murderously drunk. Nearly all the money received by them for wood, furs, and the lik,e was spent for molasses and converted into rum, The years of 1877, 1878, and most of 1879 were fearful times for the natives of Southeastern Alaska. It was almost a continued orgy of drunkenness and murder. Little children suffered from neglect and abuse. A great number were injured and crippled for life.
The United States purchased Alaska from .Russia, October 18th, 1867. Inasmuch as we have no national church, the responsibility of the spiritual welfare of the natives rested upon the Christian churches of our land. Although the need of missionary work had been pressed upon the churches again and again by that noble Christian soldier, General O. O. Howard, and also by others, nothing was done in that direction until the year 1877, ten years after its purchase, when the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church sent Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., on a tour of inspection, with a view to the establishment of mission work in Alaska. At Portland, Ore., he met Mrs. A. R. McFarland, the widow of a missionary who had labored at Santa Fe, New Mel!;ico, and also among the Nez Perces Indians in Idaho. This brave woman was willing to go to Alaska, and it was decided that she should accompany Dr. Jackson. On August iOth, 1877, they reached Fort Wrangel. They found there, to their great astonishment and delight, a school and religious services already established by Philip McKay, a Tsimpsean Indian, a convert of the mission carried on by the Rev. A. Crosby, at Fort Simpson, just across the border in British North America. With several other Christian Indians McKay had gone to Fort Wrangel a year previous to obtain work, and seeing t~e ignorance and degradation of the natives, had undertaken the mission, being supported out of the wages of his fellow-Christian Indians. This faithful man, although in failing health, continu@d the work under great disadvantages until his death on December 25th, 1877.
Leaving Mrs. McFarland in charge at Fort Wrangel with Philip McKay as native assistant, Dr. Jackson returned to the East, and presenting the needs of the people secured sufficient funds to enable the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions to establish missions at several points. He also secured several ministers and teachers. Thus the establishment of missions in Alaska was assured.
The position of Mrs. McFarland was unique. For some time she was the only Protestant missionary in all Alaska, and for some months the only white woman at Fort Wrangel. Fitted by her long experience in other missions she soon had her hands and heart full. She became all things to these people. Minister, teacher, physician, nurse, lawyer, judge, jury, peacemaker-in fact, she found herself called upon to act in almost every capacity required by a life in such a community. The place being the headquarteril of the mining interest of this region, there were gathered
BOYS' DOHMITOH.Y. GIRLS~ DORJlITOHY. ClIunCII. ISDU~TmAL PAH:-:()~AUE. IIO~PITAL. MOCSTAIS OF
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MISSIONs lN ALASKA
here at times as many as five hundred white men and a thousand natives. Drunkenness, g1!mbling, and all consequent vices were unrestrained. There was no military control, no law, and no punishment for crime. It became necessary to do something to stem the tide of evil. A convention was called, Mrs. McFarland was made chairman, and drew up a few simple laws or rules of government, which were adopted and signed by nearly all the natives j three of the best of the natives were appointed policemen, and became very useful.
It soon became apparent that if the young girls were to be sa'ed a home or refuge must be established for them, and Mrs. McFarland at once began to provide for such a home. Appeals were made to the women of the Presbyterian Church, telling of the dangers to which the young girls were exposed j how they were being sold by their parents to white men for a few blankets. These appeals resulted in the establishment of a home which was built late in the year 1878. Into this home a number of girls were gathered and cared for until it was burned in 1884, when it was transferred to Sitka.
In August, 1878, Rev. S. Hall Young was sent to Fort Wrangel. He took charge of the mission, while Mrs. McFarland continued the home and school work. Mr. Young from the first exercised a very great influence over the natives. His fearlessness and honest Christian life secured their admiration and love. Thus these two noble missionaries laid the foundations of the work at Fort Wrangel, and made their influence felt in many of the outlying stations.
The summer of 1879 was an important epoch in the history of missions in Alaska. Miss Dunbar was sent to assist Mrs. McFarland in the school. Rev. Henry Kendall, D.D., Secretary of the Board of Home Missions, Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D.D., and Rev. A. L. Lindsley, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Portland, Ore., with their wives, made a visit to all the mission stations. They took with them funds for the erection <?f a church building. A church was organized at Fort Wrangel with twenty-two natives and six white people. This was the first church organized in Alaska by the Protestants. It is still doing a good work, and has a membership of ninety-eight. This mission is now under the care of Rev. Clarence Thwing, M.D., and his faithful wife.
The Rev. J. G. Brady and Miss F. E. Kellogg arrived at Sitka, April, 1878, being the first missionaries sent to this station. Mr. Brady describes the place at that time as a veritable" hell upon earth." Every kind of vice was practised and unspeakable cruelties abounded.
The first Christian service was held in the old Russian castle. Mr. Brady preached to a mixed audience in English, which was translated first into Russian and then into the native language. They listened eagerly, and were so much impressed that the chiefs afterward made speeches expressing their joy at the prospect of a school and church. The school was opened in the barracks with fifty scholars, and has been continued with marked success ever since. A visitor to this station at the present day can little realize the condition of the natives at the time the work was begun.
Mr. Brady had special gifts which enabled him to win the confidence of the natives and draw numbers to hear the Gospel.
The following year, 1879, Mr. A. E. Austin and his family were put in charge of the mission. Their good influence upon the people', which at once began to be felt, has grown with each of the years of their continued service until the present.
This mission is the largest and most influential in the territory, with the exception of Metlakahtla. They now have a church with four hundred members, a boarding-school of one hundred and fifty members, an industrial school in which are taught carpentry, shoemaking, cooperage, printing, dressmaking, and cooking, a hospital with a physician and trained nurse, a museum of native curios which is very valuable, the gift of Dr. Jackson, and a number of model homes built for the young couples who have been married from the school. From the surrounding neighborhood the natives came to Fort Wrangel and to Sitka earnestly pleading that teachers might be sent to them also. The sweet old story of the cross seemed to have a wonderful effect upon them, lifting the veil of darkness which had been over them so long. With the new vision came a dawning hope, and hence their appeals that the blessed light might be brought to their families and friends before it was too late. In response to these Macedonian cries our missionaries made a number of long and perilous trips to visit these outlying tribes. The reports of these journeys are ;-ery full of interest. So much were they impressed with the need, and the hopeful outlook for successful work, that t.hey begged that missionaries be sent to several other stations. These entreaties were heeded, and in 1880 and 1881 missions were established among the Chilcats, Hoonahs, and Hydahs. Rev. E. S. Willard and wife opened the mission at Chilcat, the most northern of the stations, and labored under fearful trials of cold, hunger, isolation, and even threats of murder until 1885, when they were oompelled to return East to recover impaired health. Good work had been done, substantial buildings erected, mostly by Mr. Willard's own hands, and that when one of them had been disabled from the effects of exposure and scanty food. The next year they returned, but were soon compelled to leave again. A child of one of the chiefs having died, he claimed it had been bewitched by the missionaries, and vowed to have revenge. For a time the mission was closed, until Rev. W. W. vVarne was sent to reopen it in 1891. The work is again quite hopeful. The church and school are lifting these people into new and better conditions.
The Hoonah mission was put in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Styles. A building was erected, and after a year or more, Rev. J. W. McFarland and his wife were commissioned for that field. Here Mr. McFarland labored successfully until his death in 1893. His heroic wife assisted by her sister still conducts the mission, and will do so until a minister is sent to their relief.
The Hydahs have the reputation of being the best of the natives in Alaska. Their home on Prince of Wales Island is out of the usual steamer course, and for that reason they are not so generally known as the other tribes. Rev. J. Loomis Gould has been the leading spirit of this mission. He has been ably aided in his work by his good wife and by Mrs. A. R. McFarland, formerly at Fort Wrangel, and other mission- aries. A girls' home, a boys' industrial home, and a church have been established. There are many very thrilling incidents of mission life among these more isolated tribes that we wish we had space to record. The work among them has been arduous, many times discouraging, always dangerous, and fearfully isolated.
In 1886 Rev. E. S. Will;trd and wife, unable longer to live at Chilcat, removed to Juneau, which is now the commercial centre of Alaska. Here they found a large number of the Chilcat and other tribes, attracted thither by the prospect of employment in the gold mines, who were exposed to all the direful evils which exist in such a community. They established a church and mission, erected a neat church building, and a large home or refuge for girls. They labored with great success until 1894, when they retired, and Rev. L. F. Jones and wife with three assistant missionaries were put. in charge of the native church and large and flourishing girls' home.
In addition to the above missions in Southeastern Alaska, there are Presbyterian churches for the white population at Juneau and Sitka, and a mission on Douglass Island opposite Juneau, under the care of the Quakers. The Roman Catholics have also a hospital and church at Juneau. Besides these there is the very successful and important work of Mr. ·William Duncan at Metlakahtla. For the history of this mission the reader is referred to the July, 1893, number of this REVIEW, where he will find it in graphic detail.
The Swedish Evangelical Church has three flourishing missions in Alaska, one at Yakutat, one hundred and fifty miles north of Sitka, the others at U nalaklik and Golovin Bay on Norton Sound. Suitable buildings have been erected, and the work is successful and promising.
Kadiak Island and vicinity was assigned to the Baptists in the districting of the territory among the church denominations. They have erected a good building for a girls' home. The greatest foe they have to contend with on this field is thG free use of intoxicating liquor. The main hope is in the children.
The island of Unalaska is a part of the Methodist division of the territory. They have a girls' home and an encouraging work which was begun in 1889. Mr. J. A. Tuck and his family care for the thirty girls in the home and carryon the school. They have also a school of seventy-four pupils, and a home on the island of Unga, under the care of Mr. O. R. McKinney. All the natives north of the Aleutian Islands are Eskimo, with their peculiar customs and habits of life. Their dwelIings are built partly underground; the upper part resembles an inverted bowl with a hole at the top for light and air. The one entrance is so small that a person must go in and out on hands and knees. In these huts from ten to twenty persons live most of the year. They are lighted and heated by oil lamps. To anyone unaccustomed to this kind of life, the foul air and offensive odors would be intolerable. A raised platform serves as the sleeping place for all the occupants of the hut, each person having his assigned place, and like sardines in a box they huddle together under deer-skins for warmth. They have no tables or chairs, and eat from the floor without knives, forks, or spoons. Their food is mostly whale meat and skin, walrus, deer, and birds, all usually eaten uncooked; whale and seal oil are their principal drinks.
They are an industrious people. The men are kept busy hunting and fishing. The women are usually good sewers, especially of skins. Both sexes dress very much alike, in shirts, pants, and boots made of skins. In disposition they are cheerful and affectionate. They are exceedingly superstitious. This the shamans, or doctors, encourage for gain and influence. They never visit a grave after a body has been buried. They are slaves to tobacco, both sexes using it freely. They chew and rechew it, until no taste is left, and then it is dried and smoked. In morals they are not much above the animals, though they are usually exemplary in their married relations, or rather they were until the whalers introduced rum and whiskey among them, for which they seem willing to sell body and soul.
When will Christian nations prevent the manufacture and sale of these vile and soul-destroying intoxicants 1 On the mainland north of the Aleutian Islands the Moravian Church have established their missions along the course of the Kuskokwim and Nushagak rivers. Their missionary society sent out in the summer of 1885 Revs. W. H. Weinland and J. H. Kilbuck with their wives, and also a carpenter. They began work at what is known as the Bethel Mission on the Kuskokwim River. The carpenter was drowned, and these two couples, the young ministers fresh from the seminary, were left to. build their home and prepare for the rigor of an Arctic winter as best they could. The story of their struggles and their successes is intensely interesting. In 1886 the Carmel Mission was opened on the Nushagak, and additional missionaries were sent to care for it and other out-stations which they have since established. There are four in all, with seventeen mIssIOnaries. This is a hard field, but it is worked with the usual zeal and self-denial of the Moravian missionaries, and they have evidently gone there to stay.
Immediately north of the above mission flows the great Yukon River, along whose banks the Episcopal Church began its work in 1887, at what
A OROUP OF ESrUMO AT ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND
MISSIONS IN ALASKA
is known as the Anvik Mission, with Rev. O. Parker and wife in charge. In 1891 the St. James Mission was put nnder the care of Rev. J. L. Provost. This Church had also a mission at Point Hope, far to the north, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The school is taught by Dr. J. B. Driggs. Good substantial buildings have been erected at each of these stations. The schools are well attended, and good progress has been made in Christianizing the natives.
The Congregational Church Mission is at Cape Prince of Wales, the point nearest to Siberia, which is only forty-six miles distant. To this mission Mr. H. R. Thornton and Mr. W. T. Lopp were sent in 1890. A home and school-house were erected and a very large school was begun, enrolling as high as three hnndred and four pupils, with an average attendance of over one hundred. After a year spent on the field Mr. Thornton returned to the East, took to him a wife, who returned with him, and also a young lady, who afterward became Mrs. Lopp. The progress of the school was marked from this time on, nntil the sad tragedy which ended in Mr. Thornton's death and Mrs. Thornton's return to her home. The snmmer previous Mr. Lopp had been appointed by the Government as Superintendent of the Reindeer Station at Port Clarence. Mr. Thornton was thus left in sole charge of the mission. There had been considerable drinking for some time by the natives, and some of them had become dangerous. Mr. Thornton was apprehensive of trouble, and was preparing to leave at the next opportunity. About the middle of August, 1893, at midnight there came a knock at his door, and thinking some of the natives needed medical aid, he stepped into the hall to learn what was wanted. A whaling gun had been hauled up to the door and placed ready to fire as soon as his voice Vas heard. When he asked what was needed, immediately the gun was fired, and Mr. Thornton, reeling back into the foom, fell dead upon the floor. After a night of unspeakable agony, in which she dared not make an outcry, Mrs. Thornton called to a neighbor, who immediately became her protector. Later she was taken to Port Clarence Station for safety. The murderers, three in number, were eagerly sought out by the indignant natives, and two of them were shot j the other escaped to the hills, but was afterward caught and killed. The following year Mr. and Mrs. W~ T. Lopp were sent back to the mission, and the work now goes forward as before the awful tragedy.
The Presbyterian Church has established two mif'sions among these Arctic Eskimos. One at Point Barrow, one of the most northerly points in the Territory, and the nearest of all schools to the North Pole; the other on St. Lawrence Island, immediately south of the eastern border of Siberia.
The missionaries in· all these stations among the Eskimos in Alaska are so far removed from civilization that they receive news from the outside world only once in twelve months. They are separated so widely that they can communicate with or visit each other very seldom. The
TRANSFORMATIONS IN NEW GUINEA AND POLYNESIA
manners and habits of the natives are extremely repulsive. The exposure from snow, ice, and cold is terrible. Nevertheless a call for missionaries to go to this isolated and desolate region is more promptly responded to than a call to the more accessible and pleasant places.
Surely the spirit of the Master still dwells in the hearts of His people.
TRANSFORMATIONS IN NEW GUINEA AND POLYNESIA.
BY REV. S. MCFARLANE, LL.D., F.R.G.S., PIO~EER MISSIONARY TO NEW GUINEA.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am one of those men who have enjoyed the supposed happiness of gazing upon new lands, ascending mountains, crossing deserted plains, sailing along silent rivers into the unknown, where no white man had been before me, meeting with new races, new languages, new and sometimes nasty customs ; often in scenes of excitement, some- times trying to prevent the attacks of natives, at others prudently running away; watching savages, warriors, and cannibals come under the civilizing and elevating influences of Christianity; reducing lauguages to writing and translating Scriptures; establishing schools and churches 'and training a native ministry.
In order to understand what the Gospel has done for these natives we must consider how it found them. A hundred years ago the Prince of Darkness reigned supreme throughout all those widely extended regions of our globe. Idols were as numerous as inhabitants, and temples as the villages which lined the shores, or were scattered over the hills and mountains. Idolatry abounded everywhere. Oppression, cruelty, and canni- balism were common. Voyagers who knew little of the people, but were charmed with the scenery, were wont to describe the islands as gems that sparkled in the peaceful waters of the vast Pacific-quite a Paradise! But .the nearer the view, the darker the moral aspect became. We, who have lived nearly thirty years among them, know something of their real and terrible condition without the Gospel, and we are also witnesses to the marvellous transformation produced by the Gospel. Intellectually, morally, socially, and spll'itually these tribes were lost. They had been on the down-grade for ages. Ve are all either on the up or down grade, getting nearer to God or farther from Him. The natural run of society under sin must be downward, from bad to worse, unless interrupted by some remedial agency from without. The native races of whom I am speaking had wandered a long way from God, and were lost, for they had no idea of the way back to Him. Their language, legends, and cult provo that they have wandered, and indicate the road along which they have travelled. There is no time to go into these questions now, but I may just observe that if-as our best philologists tell us-all languages in their development proceed from the simple to the complex, from monosyllahles to polysylla- bles, from the agglutinative to the inflectional; then tho languages of Polynesia, through their various dialects, are among the oldest living on the face of the earth.
It does not follow that because a tribe or nation has no written language their speech is merely a kind of gibberish, having neither correct sense, sound, nor grammar. I have lived among Papuans for nearly thirty years, and reduced several of their languages to writing, and can testify that in some respects they are even superior to our own. Some of them have inclusive and. exclusive pronouns, dual and triad numbers, as many as seven words for the pronoun you, all of different grades, also a court and common language ; and the words are all as precise in their meanings as if they had been defineu by Johnson; the grammar is as regular and uniform as if it had been formed by Lindley ~lurray, while the pronunciation is as exact as if it had been settled and phonographcd by Walker, thus clearly pointing back to It higher state of civilization from which they had fallen.
How come the natives in Polynesia and New Guinea'–savages, idolators, and cannibals-to have such a language if they have not brought it down with them ~ If all our civilization is to be traced to a slow but gradual development from a state of primitive barbarism and savage existence, how are we to account for the condition of these people ~ Here we have two large sections of prehistoric men, who are still in the age of stone and lake-dwellings. Where is the evidence that they are advancing in civilization, intelligence, morality, or happiness ~ The fact is that there is abundant evidence that both races are retrograding, and none whatever that they are advancing, except under influences from without. I have found some of the bush tribes in the vicinity of the Fly River practising cremation. If it is true that" the custom of burning the dead was wellnigh universal in remote ages in the countries of the Old 'World," then it is probable that the Papuans have brought this custom with them, as well as others-that of circumcision, for instance. The stone gods and charms among the natives of Polynesia and New Guinea-some standing erect from one to eight feet in height, others portable and carried about by the natives-also point to very ancient forms of worship. Now consider that the first empires that arose in the world were formed by descendants of Ham, and that Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, went into Assyria and founded Nineveh, and the city which he built, and the empire, continued for ages to :overshadow all Western Asia. Mizraim, the son of Ham, founded the Egyptian monarchy and the Philistine Commonwealth. Canaan, the fourth son, settled in Palestine, and his descendants founded, first the Canaanitish kingdoms, then Tyre, and subsequently Carthage.
These were for a long time the leading nations of the world; they possessed its highest civilization, and held all but a monopoly of its commerce. These young monarchies, no doubt, sent forth strong and vigorons colonies, which took possession of the Asiatic Archipelago, Australia, New Guinea, aud Western Polynesia. Thus we may reasonably connect the decaying Polynesian and New Guinea tribes with the oldest civilization of the world.
It is no use talking, as some people do, about leaving the heathen to the" natural progress of the race," and supposing that all the advanced races of mankind began at the level of the savage state, and have reached their present state of culture, civilization, wealth, and liberty by laws of development in mere nature. That there is such a thing as development, we all admit. All the human faculties are capable of development by exercise or training, and every human being will of necessity be developed to a certain degree, both in mind and body, by the growth of years and the necessary struggles of life. But that human society was ever carried forward a single step in the matter of morality under mere laws of natural development we utterly deny. The Greek civilization displayed a high state of culture, but their literature from Hesiod downward is sprinkled with traces of sentiment derived from the Jewish and Egyptian religions. The Roman civilization was but a propagation of the Greek; and the Teutonic race, often named as an example of natural development, is known to have been set forward by the civilizations it conquered and its early conversion to Christianity. What does it mean that so many races, empires, and languages of the world have become extinct ~ Whatever may be said of a law of natural progress, there can be no doubt that a law of natural deterioration is at work, and has been going on for ages among the people under consideration. It signifies nothing to ask for such races more time j time has nothing for them better than extermination. It requires a Gospel . and a faith above nature to lay hold of them and raise them. It is possible for the living and advanced races to go downward, but never for these dead ones to rise, unassisted. We have proofs enough that peoples advanced in culture may become savages, but no example of a race of savages that have risen to a civilized state by mere development. How many great and powerful races have become extinct! We look for the Ninevites with as little hope as for Ninus himself. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Medes are all vanished. The Egyptians, Phrenicians, Etruscans, Romans, once the great powers of history and civilization, are extinct. We may rest assured that there cau be no hope of a restoration of society, or of a religious uprising of men, except by a supernatural and Divine operation. Progress, nnder sin, by laws of development is a fiction. There is no hope of progress apart from the regenerative and quickening power of a grace that transcends mere natural conditions, and we must thoroughly realize this before we can be hearty workers in the greatest of all reforms-that imposed upon us by our Divine Master-the evangelization of the world.
Although these Polynesian races had sunk so low, and were still sinking when Christianity reached them, we missionaries found a good basis on which to build. They had lost the true ideas of God as revealed to men; but they had not lost the idea of a god, a supreme being. The Bible informs us that God made man after His own image. It is equally true that man makes his god after his own image. These people had become cruel, so their god was cruel. That" God is Love" was a perfect revelation to them. They had lost the scriptural idea of a future state, but had an idea of a future state. Nor had they lost the idea of rewards and punishments after death. So that we found a doctrine of Theism, a doctrine of a future state, and a doctrine of rewards and punishments; and instead of beginning by denouncing their heathen practices, we began by correcting their ideas on these subjects of common belief. As Christianity became known, appreciated, and felt, their heathen practices were abandoned.
Our first duty in landing among these strange and savage tribes, who have no written language, is to acquire their language and gain their confidence, neither of which is so difficult to accomplish as many people suppose. For instance, when they come off to our boat, or we land on the beach, we are on the look-out for the key sentence to their language. Everything about us is new to them-our clothes, umbrella, watch, handbag, boat, sails, oars, etc. They are naturally very rimch surprised, and very inquisitive, and we watch for a sentence which we expect to hear over and over again as they handle or point to different things, and we write it down phonetically, assuming that it means, "What is this 1"
In reducing these languages to writing, we never use the English sounds to the vowels. A vowel with us is a pure simple sound, and if we want the two sounds of the English vowel i we use" a" and" i," or of the English vowel u, we use" in and" u," giving the continental sounds to the vowels. Thus, when I first came in contact with the people of New Guinea, and heard" Nalu peik" repeatedly, accompanied by an inquiring look, I wrote it down, and then tried to find out if it was the sentence I wanted by taking a cocoanut and saying to one of the natives, " Nalu peik ?" The man looked astounded, then delighted at the discovery that I knew his language. He then poured out a torrent of words, supposing that I knew all he said! However, my only reply was, Nalu peik? He soon caught the idea that I wanted the names of things, and seemed most anxious to give me a long list. I had got the key sentence, and the rest was easy. To find out the grammar, however, is more difficult, and often takes many years.
Some people consider that these tribes cannot be civilized and saved. Others say that they are not worth the trouble and expense. My own experience emphatically contradicts both these statements. I am convinced that there is no race so low that Christianity cannot raise, civilize, and save them; and no language into which the Scriptures cannot be translated. My own experience and testimony resemble that of other missionaries in Polynesia and New Guinea, which all go to show that one of the most striking proofs of the truth of Christianity, and of its transforming power, is the wonderful adaptation of the Gospel to the great spiritual wants of humanity.
Thirty-six years ago I went to the island of Lifu, near New Caledonia, and with my wife settled among the savages. The wOlk was not so difficult or dangerous as iu New Guinea, native evangelists having goue before and somewhat prepared the way. Some of the people, however, were still practising cannibalism. Tribal wars, heathen feasts, and the night dance were continned long after my arrival. And yet when we left Lifu, in 1871, to commence the New Guinea mission, the natives had all embraced Christianity. Churches were bnilt throughout the island, to which dayschools were attached. The language was reduced to writing, and the entire New Testament and Psalms, with hymn-book, school-book, and catechism, translated into it. A seminary for the training of teachers for schools, pastors for the churches, and pioneer evangelists for the heathen beyond, was in full working order. European stores had been established in different parts of the island. Education and trade were growing side by side. The native churches were liberally supplying men and money for the extension of the Gospel to the heathen, and it was eight of these converts that we selected from nnmerons volunteers, to be pioneers of Christianity and civilization in New Guinea.
The same revolution whiCh has thus changed three hundred islands in Polynesia is now going on in New Guinea with the most encouraging results. The civilizing and elevating power of Christianity among these tribes is most remarkable. The contrast between a village of savage cannibal warriors in heathen times, and the same village fifteen or twenty years after they have embraced the Gospel, is almost incredible. Before I left New Guinea, the Governor accompanied me on a visit to some of our mission stations. We first of all visited some of the wild tribes up the Fly River, then places where we had had a mission for a few years, and finally spent the Sunday at the village where we commenced the New Guinea Mission.
When I first landed among these people they were at constant war with the surrounding tribes. The village was guarded night and day. The houses were decorated with human skulls-the trophies of war. Before a young man could get a wife he had to show, by the skulls of his enemies hanging before the door, that he had proved himself a warrior. They had murdered the crews of several vessels which had been wrecked in Torres Straits, and were a terror to captains who had to take their vessels through those dangerous waters. Their work was war, and their recreation the war-dance. The Governor now found them neatly clothed, attending church and school, and developing the resources of their country. He expressed himself as amazed at the change in so short a time j and yet for eight years the people of that village declared that they would not embrace our religion of peace. Three times they drove the Lifu evangelist from the place, and twice tried to poison him. Over and over again I re-established the mission; and now they are themselves contributing both men and money to send the Gospel to their heathen brethren.
Their condition is the best answer to those who doubt their ability to rise; and their devotion and self-sacrifice the best answer to those who doubt the sincerity of their professions. They not only give their best young men as pioneer evangelists, but work hard to get money to contribute annually for the spread of the Gospel. I feel sure that if the churches could be made to realize the present salvation which Christianity brings to these people, saving them from the hell of heathenism with its cruelty and cannibalism, and lifting them into a very heaven of peace, happiness, and progress, they would cease to speculate so much about the future, feeling that there is enough in their present salvation to fire our enthusiasm.
Now, briefly, how has all this heen done? or what is the character and ecclesiastical polity of Nonconformist missions? I say Nonconformist missions, because to them has fallen the high honor of beginning, and almost exclusively carrying on, the work in Polynesia and New Guinea. Bigotry, prejudice, and sectarianism may combine to overturn what Nonconformists have accomplished, or Christian zeal may prompt missionaries of other denominations to perform what Nonconformists have left undone, but the future and impartial historian will ever award to them the honor of having been the apostles of Christianity in Polynesia and British New Guinea. In both these great and successful mission· fields, the London Missionary Society began the work. Wesleyans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Americans have since entered the Polynesian mission-field and have done splendid service among those islands that are fast becoming to Australia what the West Indies are to England.
The prominent features of these missions have been, and are still, preaching, Bible translation, establishment of schools and printing presses, organization of churches, and the general welfare of the people, including their civil, social, and physical condition.
The plain preaching of the Gospel and Scriptural exposition of Bible truths claim the first place in the programme of a Nonconformist missionary. In order that this work may be successfully accomplished, the great Nonconformist Missionary Societies send out well-qualified men who are able to acquire languages and, if necessary, reduce them to writing, prepare school-books, and translate the Scriptures from the languages in which they were written, and, above all, train a native agency to carryon and extend the work.
Side by side with the preaching of the Gospel goes the social improvement of the natives. Better roads are made, better houses built, which are soon furnished with the useful appliances of civilized life. There are men in both the missions where I have labored who were once cannibals and degraded heathens, but who, when I left, were living in neatly and strongly built stone houses, furnished with tables, chairs, sofas, beds, cooking utensils, crockery ware, and even electro-plated spoons and forks. The missionary's wife plays a very important part in the formation of Christian homes. Let no man presume to assert that unmarried missiona- ries, male or female, could possibly have accomplished for good what may now be witnessed in Polynesia. Christian principles have been exempli- fied in family life before the heathen with the happiest results. Ther.e are now multitudes of homes in Polynesia which are centres of refinement, cul- ture, happiness, and intelligence, presided over by women, officiating in those offices recognized as her sphere of duty. In these abodes it is no , mockery to sing" Home, Sweet Home." I do not hesitate to affirm that Nonconformist missionaries in Polynesia and New Guinea have displayed wisdom and foresight, common sense and sound piety, in the organization and management of churches and the general work of the mission.
If we take the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles of Paul, Peter, James, and John, or the New Testament, as a whole, for our guide, we shall find that the churches organized by Nonconformist missionaries in Polynesia will compare favorably with the primitive churches gathered by the apostles in various parts of the Roman Empire during the first century of the Christian era. In many respects there is a most striking resem- blance between the churches organized by the apostles and those which now exist in various parts of Polynesia. The more closely examination is made and comparison drawn, the more manifest the parallel will appear. The very language employed by some ecclesiastical historians respecting the churches of the first century would aptly describe the organization of Nonconformist mission churches in Polynesia. All those great ecclesiasti- cal establishments, and Church and State arrangements, centring at An- tioch, Constantinople, Rome, and elsewhere, were an aftergrowth-may we not call them a fungus growth 1-when Christianity became corrupt.
I maintain that the mission churches of Polynesia and New Guinea have been modelled after the New Testament and apostolic pattern, and that the missionaries have faithfully carried out the spirit of the last com- mand of our ascending Saviour, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Would the worldly, the indifferent, the sceptical, or even the enemies of missions to the heathen, vote for the churches in Polynesia being pulled down, the church-bells silenced, the Christians turned over once more to idolatry, the schools-week-dayand Sunday-being closed, the school-books and Bibles being burned, and the tens of thousands of simple-hearted worshippers being forbidden to sing the songs of Zion in concert with their fellow-Christians in other lands? Would they rebuild the old temples, rekindle the fires upon their altars, call forth the victims for sacrifice, and make the hills and valleys ring with the shouts ()f mid- night revellers around the burning pile? Or would they summon from heaven those who have died in the faith of Jesus, and are now raising their voices to the song of " Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" ~ Who that is interested in the welfare and progress of his fellow-men-of what8ver creed or nation-would, if he could, stamp out Christianity, and restore idolatry ~ And if all are thus bound to admit that Christianity has been a great blessing to these tribes, then none can escape the obligation to propagate it. As the followers of Christ we have to face these facts-firstly, that millions of our fellow. men are sunk in the abominations of heathenism, from which Christ came to save them j secondly, that He has commanded us to take to them the message of pardon, peace, and hope j and, thirdly, that He has clearly shown us what blessed results follow the proclamation qf His Gospel. He has also made it perfectly plain that there is a human as well as a Divine side in the work of saving men. "We are His fellow-workers." In the spiritual as in the natural kingdom He has provided the seed and adapted it to the soil. Our part of the work is to bring the two together. We cannot understand the mysterious power of the Gospel any more than we can understand the mystery of life in the seed, but we can see the effect of bringing seed and soil together in both kingdoms. There can be no crops in either kingdom without God. We cannot do without Him, and He will not do without us.
The great work of the Church is, unquestionably, to plant the seed of the Word in the soil of the human heart, leaving results to God. If we do our part, He will never fail to do His. Having provided the seed, and adapted it to the soil, He waits for His servants to bring the two together that He may send His Holy Spirit to create the new life. To talk of Ohri8tianity being played out is, to missionaries like myself, utter nonsense. We feel}hat the sooner some forms of it are played out the better. That such a subject could be discussed in newspapers should quicken our zeal as Nonconformists in planting Christianity in its simplicity and purity abroad, and in tearing off the accretions that have gathered round it at home. The men who argue thus live in a world different from ours. They cannot see with our eyes, nor feel with our hearts. They see God ruling over them, as He does in nature; we feel Him within us. We believe in Christ's promise that He will be with His people till the end of the world.
My own experience is but the experience of other pioneers and workers in the mission-field. In times of darkness and danger, and sickness and suffering, and perplexity and death j in perils from the sea, in perils from savages, in perils from the climate, and, I may add, sorrowfully, in perils from our own countrymen, our blessed Lord has been true to His promise. It is in selfishness and worldliness, in self-sufficiency and intellectual pride, and such things, that He cannot be with us. But He will always be with us if we are seeking to do His will, and I am sure many of us feel our increasing need of Him. We need Him to save us from sin j to help us in the battIe of life j to be our light in darkness j our strength in weakness j and our hope for the future. We need Him in our social life, in our business life, in our political life, and in our church life and work. If Christ
A WOMAN'S MISSIONARY RALLY
was really in all of us who profess Christianity, ruling and regulating our life, we should he more in earnest about the salvation of the perishing heathen !-The Christian World Pulpit.
A WOMAN'S MISSIONARY RALLY.* BY ANNA W. PIERSON.
The Academy of Music, holding 4000, was packed to overflowir:g, more than three fourths of the audience being composed of ladies and young people. Dr. George D. Baker, of the city, presided. With a smiling face he arose and opened the meeting as follows: "This is a , missionary rally,' I should say. This is grand, this is gl()/'iou8, this is inspiring! A friend of mine, very partial to Detroit, said, ' I think that city is just outside "the Gates.'" I think this gathering to-night is 'just outside the Gates.' May this be a Mount of Transfiguration whereon we see 'no man save Jesus only.' Weare never so near Him as when at such an hour as this, in answer to His' Go ye,' we answer, , I will.'
" When I read the story of the twenty-five years of work done under the auspices of these women of the Presbyterian Church, I said, ' Oh woman, great is thy work!' They have provoked the whole Church to good works by their zealous love and enthusiasm. I believe a great impetus will be caused by this rally to-night, and that, as the outcome of this gathering, the Church will say to the Board, 'Send those forward whom the Lord has called.'
" , Watchman, what of the night l' I know of no man better able to tell us than Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, seniur Secretary of the Presbyterian Board. 'What of the night,' Dr. Ellinwood 1"
Dr. Ellinwood replied: " If you had asked me what of this night, and what of this assembly, I feel I could scarcely make answer. VVThen the vVoman's Foreign Mis- ,sionary Society hold their next twenty-fifth anniversary, what building will they have, and what an assembly? "When I came here to-night it was with a sorrowful heart, from thinking of the heayy indebtedness of the Board. Our missionaries have had to cut down expenses to the amount of $115,000. The work in many places has been called to a halt, and the missionaries have had to retrench in every direction. Since I came here to-night my sorrow has been turned into joy. After looking upon the faces of this vast audience I venture to predict that the waiting missionaries will be sent to their fields within six months. I could not have believed that women could * Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Churches of Philadelphia, Thursday Evening, April 25, 1895. have brought together such a multitude, and I do not now believe it. God has done it.
" Many motives have been given for missionary work, such as duty, inclination, pity, but the highest one was from the lips of Mrs. Benjamin Douglas, of Chicago. It was caught from the angels who came to announce the birth of Christ-the greatest Missionary. It was this: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will to men.' There is the supreme motive for going to the lost millions of our race. I propose we make this our motto to-night. Those angels were missionaries; Christ was a mIssIonary. If we take that song and go with it on our lips and in our hearts and lives we will sllcceed.
" I cannot tell how much joy and satisfaction I have in the report of what has been accomplished in the last twenty-five years. When the women of the Presbyterian Church first undertook this active missionary work, they had to overcome mallY prejudices and obstacles, but as I have followed the work from year to year, I have marvelled to see how it has progressed in spite of these difficulties.
" Women of other denominations have been at work also. God has innumerable forces at His command, and you women have gone hand-inhand with others in lifting up your heathen sisters, and have transformed not only your own land, but India, China, Japan, and other nations. A IE/aven which it is impossible to express in terms has bcen working in all nations.
" One of the greatest works has been done in connection with medical mISSIOns. We have no conception of the suffering in heathen lands. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop came home and told of the deplorable condition of those suffering under medical treatment, or medical abuse. When Queen Victoria heard of it, she called to her Lady Dufferin and gave her a special commission to help the cause. The very hardest hearts are melted to sympathy by a recital of the facts.
"The fetich worshippers in India believe in God, in one Supreme Being who made them, but they believe that He has no further interest in them and has left them to the machinations of evil spirits. Oh that the angels could burst in upon them and refute that idea with the glorious Gospel of God's love! A.ngels will not proclaim that fact, however. We must do it. Twenty centuries have passed since Christ came, and the woe and agony still goes on. Let us take upon ourselves the glorious duty of proclaiming this Gospel.
" We ought to have coupons of consecration. Spurgeon told his college of missionary students to 'go wherever Christ leads, to do any service, to be His, and His alone.' Those at home must do the same. These consecration coupons should be given to those who stay at home, then at the judgment the two can be joined together.
"When we accomplish all that is possible, God is still doing more than we. An insect crawling on the deck of an ocean steamer may think it is progressing with speed, but compare its advance with the mighty, rushing steamer! So it is with our work, God is ever in advance of us.
, , We could not throw off the yoke of slavery; God did it, but with a loss to us. There was not power in the United States or France or England to open China, but God has opened her ports in the last few weeks. This event points straight to the kingdom of Christ. Think of the change in Japan in the past month or two. She is no longer jealous of foreign nations, and is proud to show it. Only a year ago Korea was under the heel of China. Now she vies with Japan. She has placed two hundred of her young men under the care of the missionaries for education, and has begun to inquire into the Gospels. China, by force of circumstances, must follow and open her ports and rivers to the missionaries of Jesus Christ.
" Can we sit down and fold our arms? Spurgeon used to rejoice in the verse, ' All power is given unto Me.' 'We are not called to do anything,' is that what we must say? No, so far as the door opens, so far ought the purses, plans, and interest to open. God means greater things than we have ever yet dreamed of.
"Let us take Mrs. Douglas'S motto for ours. How can we glorify God? What can we do? 'Herein is My Fatber glorified, that ye bear much fruit. ' We can send forth missionaries and be missionaries. In our business, in our bomes, we should write 'Thy kingdom come' over all we have and do, and God shall be glorified in the highest, and His will shall be made known to the dying world."
Rev. Frederick J. Stanley, L.H.D., recently of Japan, then spoke in substance as fol,lows on SIGNAL TROPHIES AT THE FEET OF JESUS.
"As the warriors of an ancient king deemed it their greatest honor and chief joy to lay their trophies from the victorious field of battle at the feet of their sovereign, should not we, as soldiers of the cross, esteem it our chief joy and honor to lay at the feet of our Blessed Lord, the King of kings, these trophies won for Him through His Holy Spirit ~ " , Not by an army [marginal reading] nor by power, but by My Spirit, saiththe Lord of hosts' (Zech. 4 : 6).
" Besides the twenty-five years' total offering of over two and a half millions of dollars this Society has given to the cause, and the Silver Anniversary Thank-offering of $15,000 (threefold the amountasked)-both laid as trophies from these Christian women at the feet of our Lord J esuslet us bring the triumphs from Asia.
" Not only the sixty years' labor in India, not only the fifty-three years' toil in China (since 1842), but also the thirty-five of triumphs God hath wrought in Japan, shall we lay at the feet of Jesus as signal trophies. We are rejoiced above measure in having with us, on this occasion, the battle-scarred and vener!'ble pioneers who opened the work in that crescent island empire of Japan in 1859 A.D., the beloved Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Hepburn, whose lives have always been at the feet of our blessed Lord.
"That nation, during the present emperor's reign of twenty-seven years, has been brought out of the depths of seven hundred years of feudalism, out of twenty-four hundred years of semi-civilization (one thousand years traditional and fourteen hundred years written history). We lay Japan as a trophy of Christian civilization at the feet of Christ Jesus.
" A constitutional monarchy was established six years ago (February 11 th, 1889 A. D.) as the first successful one in the Orient, granting liberty of speech, freedom of worship, and the right of suffrage.
"There are six hundred papers and periodicals at present in the empire, where not a single one existed twenty-three years ago, and th~ have never issued a copy yet on the first or Lord's Day of the week-truly a remarkable trophy from the Land of the Rising Sun.
" The opening of the Chinese Empire, of nearly four hundred millions, to foreign tradal relations with, and the establishment of manufactories by, all the sixteen civilized powers of the world-if the treaty of peace shall be ratified by May 8th, at Chefoo, as the conclusion of this Oriental war -is another trophy. The East India Company for a hundred and fifty years, and the combined diplomacy of the sixteen civilized powers of the world for the past fifty-five years, have been able only to force open twenty-four treaty ports, but God through little Japan in the past ten months, as His 'Gideon and three hundred,' has opened the entire nineteen provinces of that great Mongolian Empire! A marvel in Oriental history! 'Behold, what hath God wrought! '
" The Empress of Japan riding beside her husband in an open carriage, on February 11th, 1889, when he promulgated the constitutionthat was the first time in twenty-four hundred years' history of that empire that the wife had been thus publicly recognized-a result of the diffusion of Christian principles in that land.
" Last year the Emperor and Empress celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of their marriage, the only time in twenty-four centuries a Japanese monarch had thus acknowledged the sanctity of marriage-an unparalleled event, tending to the final acknowledgment of Christian monogamy. This trophy we joyfully lay at the feet of our beloved Lord.
"Unprecedented honor was shown woman when Yajima San, President of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union 'of Japan, heading the petition of several hundred Japanese women, succeeded in gaining admission for women to the galleries of both houses of Parliament as interested spectators of the political affairs of the nation.
" Another trophy to lay at the feet of Jesus is that venerable, snowwhite-haired saint, Morita San, of Tokyo, now at the age of seventy-seven still laboring as a Bible-reader, who thirty-five years ago was transformed from a despised outcast (baba) to a noble Christian woman. To-day she beholds in Presbyterian and Methodist Episcopal churches several of the first boys she led to Sabbath-school three decades ago, standing as leaders in education and Christian religion of the nation and the Church.
"Not only the 40,000 Protestant Christians eurolled since the first church was organized with 11 members in 1872 A.D., but the 3636 added unto the church this past twelvemonth we rejoicingly lay as eternal trophies at the feet of Him who died on Calvary.
" The first foreign missionary society to spread the Gospel, especially along educational lines, in Korea, China, and other countries, organized last year by such representative men as Iwamoto, Inagoki, Hattori, Ibuka, Honda, and other distinguished native pioneers in the Presbyterian, Methodist, and other Protestant bodies, and is a providential assurance that Christianity is at last finally rooted in Japan, for the Church at home ever thrives when it sends abroad the blessed truth of God (Prov. 11 : 24).
II The Christian work the past year in the army and navy, in hospitals and prisons, has been marvellous, because of the gracious privileges ac_corded by the Emperor and his Cabinet. The first time in the history of the Japanese nation that any but Buddhist and Shinto priests have been allowed to go to the front in times of war was in this present conflict between China and Japan, when the Emperor voluntarily appointed two native Christian ministers of the GosPfll as chaplains to the army in the field.
"The prayer-meeting in the I Jesus-man' house (a missionary's)- from whence the messenger of God had to flee before the battle for safetyat Phong Yang, in Korea, on September 16th, last, by Korean and Japanese Christians the day after the smoke of that great battle had cleared away, is another rich trophy to lay at the feet of Jesus.
" The Empress of Japan is President of the Red Cross Society, which organization prompted the Christian and humane orders last September by the Japanese commanders for the treatment of the enemy's wounded and prisoners.
"' With her own hands Her Majesty has prepared bandages and lint during these past ten months in the palace at Tokyo, and sent them six hundred miles to her husband in Hiroshima, with this message: I Please accept these and use them to bind up the wounds of both the Chinese and J apanese soldiers.' A nineteenth. century miracle! for her ancestors and even she had been taught during the seven hundred years of feudalism (which fell only in 1868 A.D.) to only hate and destroy their enemies, never to show mercy or kindness.
"' Only three decades of Christianity in that land produced this as a trophy-' LOVE your enemies'-that the Empress, although not an avowed Christian, is yet so governed by Christian principle as to bring forth these remarkable deeds of love.
"The magnanimity of the Emperor of Japan and his advisers the past few weeks is without a parallel in history. When dictating the terms of peace this month to China, they stipulated that the five thousand Chinese prisoners to be returned on the ratification of the treaty should be granted full amnesty as to life and property by the Chinese authorities at Pekin..
"Knowing the barbarous custom for ages in the Orient to torture and behead all prisoners or defeated soldiers returning to their home land, the Empire of Japan evidenced the true Christian spirit of our Lord by exhibiting such a humane tenderness for her opponents and inculcating a Christ-like spirit of forgiveness on their part. It must be remembered that Japan is not yet a Christian nation, yet so much of Christian principle has permeated and penetrated the people, from the ruler down, through all classes, that this noble Christian act is recorded of her to be handed down in history;. and w~ lay it as a trophy at the feet of Him who on the cross cried, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'
" The assured autonomy of Korea, freedom at last from the yoke of Chinese tyranny of centuries, admitting her fully into the galaxy of the independent nations of the earth, is a blessed trophy to lay at the feet of Jesus.
"The remarkable events of the' past few months in Asia all tend to the acknowledgment and final acceptance of Christianity by all the nations of the Orient.
" May the national flag of the Sunrise Kingdom typify the religious sway of our blessed Lord Jesus over the nations of the earth. The red sphere in the centre of the white ground represents the sun rising out of the foaming billows of the sea. May the white banner represent (Song of Solomon 2 : 4) , His banner over me was love,' and (Mal. 4 : 2) , The Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in His beams.'
" Then shall that national flag of the Sunrise Kingdom prefigure to us that day fast approaching when the Sun 'of Righteousness shall shine in all His glory over the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, America, and the Islands of the Sea, and ' the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.' "
Dr. Arthur T. Pierson made the closing address of the evening, taking for his subject, WOMAN AS A FACTOR IN THE WORLD'S EVANGELIZATION.
" History ceases to be a mystery so far as insight into God's plan furnishes the key to the succession and correlation of events. He who made the matter-worlds made and framed together the time-worlds also, and through all the historic order one unfailing, unceasing purpose runs.
" Now that the work of woman, in its organized form, for missions completes its first quarter century, it is natural to note the striking development of what may be called the feminine factor in missions.
" This quarter century has been marked by what, for want of a better term, can be called the epiphany of woman-the shining out of consecrated womanhood after long obscuration. " When God made woman at the first, it was the embodiment of His own wise purpose. ' I will make an helpmeet for man'-literally, one over against him, his apposite, his counterpart or correspondent. So far from a suggestion of subordination, that original decree sU:ggests rather completeness. Woman was to be man's complement rather than vassal j his equal companion, not his servile subject. As in the achromatic lens, it is the perfect union of the crown glass and flint glass which insures this triumph of optics, so man is a generic term, including both man and woman as necessary to a complete whole. 'God made man in His own image j in the irnage of God created He him j male and female created He them. ' Man was not complete without woman. If he possessed what she lacked, she also was proficient when he was deficient, each helping totsupply the other's need.
" It was the curse of sin that this crowning act of creation should be perverted from its primal purpose. ' Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shan rule over thee.' And a sad history it has been of male sovereigntyand tyranny. The original decree has been misread for thousands of years ; it has been construed to mean that woman was made at best to be man's subordinate and helper. He has assumed to be lord of creation, and has assumcd that she was simply tacked on as a kind of supernumerary to his lordship, to be of what help she might. What conception of any independence in planning or working, originating or executing ever entered into the mind of man as to woman's capacity or sphere before the advent of Christ 1 Nay, even in the Christian dispensation, up to a late date, how slow has man been, and even woman herself, to learn that God has fitted her and foreordained her to be in every best and highest sense an operator as well as co-operator in all holy service!
"This last quarter century has been rapidly bringing woman out of her long eclipse to hold her true place as one of the luminaries in the firmamwt of missionary history. And now in the light of modern developments we begin to read the Word of God ancw.
,. From the time of Christ's birth, of a Virgin of Bethlehem, He has elevated womankind in the eyes of men and lifted her more and more toward her true level. It has been well said that the passage in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, where God's ideal of the marital relation is set forth, is Qf itself a sufficient proof of the Divine origin of the Scriptures. Where did Paul get such a conception of husbandly love and duty 1 'Husbands, love your wives,' etc. Here Christ's sevenfold devotion to the Church, His love for and self-giving for her, His washing and cleansing her, His nourishing and cherishing her, and His final presentation of her to Himself as His companion in holiness and glory, is made the type of husbandly affection, consecration, and devotion. Paul could never have written those words had he not been taught of ,the Spirit, for there was not a na-tion in the world, nor a teacher, however advanced, that held such views of the marriage relation. All this was as much beyond any existing usages or even conceptions as the central idea of the Gospel-God seeking man, is ahead of the universal conception of heathen faiths-man seeking God.
" One other sentence in Paul's letter to the Philippians is pregnant with a prophetic sense which even he probably never understood. 'Help those women which labored with me in the Gospel.' Truly in four thou- sand years the order had undergone a radical inversion. For four millen- niums man had been the leader and lord of creation, and woman had been at the very best his helper-and only in a very narrow sphere; now woman begins to take the lead, and man is bidden to come to her help! , Help those women! '
" What a blessed day for the Church of God when woman waked up to her own capacity and high calling! Who shall write the history of these twenty-five years of organized work in missions, whereby woman has been made such a mighty factor in a world's evangelization?
" There are several new lessons which we have all been taught in this quarter century which deserve great emphasis at this' silver anniversary.'
" Our sisterhood have taught us all the value of cheap literature for spreading missionary intelligence. Instead of the cumbrous volumes which it takes money to buy and time to read, look at the missionary leaflets scattered abroad, often without price, and yet in a brief spacc embodying matters of the most attractive sort for perusal, and in the most condensed form that could be inclosed in a letter, read in a horse car, and which stimulated appetite for further research.
" How the women have taught us the power of many little gifts to make a full and steady stream of beneficence! Woman has for the first time accomplished the organization of the littles, depending not on a few large gifts from the rich, but on countless little offerings-a cent a day; $3.65 a year-and what is the consequence! Behold this stream of gifts pouring into the Lord's treasury amid all financial depressions, with scarce a diminution in the most critical years-nay, with a regular advance, from $8000 in 1870 to $76,000 in 1895 !
" These woman's boards have put a new emphasis on the value of frequent meetings for conference and prayer. The Church has been depending too much on annual sermons and great occasions. We need a perpetual impulse and inspiration. The women have undertaken to supply this by a multitude of smaller gatherings, frequently held, where there has been contact with representatives of the mission field, new and systematic dissemination of intelligence, and joint prayer for all the precious interests involved.
" These twenty-five years have revealed the great source of supply of laborers-viz., a consecrated home life. Woman is the mould of the generations to come. The mother's womb and breast and cradle-who shall ever tell how much they mean in the perpetuation of God's seed of servants! Hence, when woman began to come to the front in missions it was natural and inevitable that there should speedily follow a new uprising
MORAVIANS IN ALASS:A
of sons and daughters. And so came, in 1886, the Student Volunteer Movement, the new crusade of missions, which is to my mind the most surprising and maryellous uprising of youth ever known in Church history. It may be directly traced to the higher intelligence and consecration of wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters twenty-five years ago.
" Woman has taught us the value of the individual in mission work. Every member of the body has its own adaptation and adjustment to the body's wants and its own function and office, so that none can say to any other, 'I have no need of thee.' A large part of the unevangelized in heathen, Moslem, and pagan lands have been unapproachable by man. The harem, zenana, seraglio, have excluded men, even as physicians. The comical experience of an American doctor in Syria is an illustration. Being urged to prescribe for the favorite wife of a pasha, he insisted tp.at he must see the patient. This being denied, he must at least see her tongue and feel her pulse. Presently from behind the curtain a hand was thrust and a tongue protruded through a slit. He said, ' This is a healthy pulse and a normal tongue ; there is nothing the matter with your wife.' , That is not my wife's hand and tongue, of course,' said the pasha; 'that we could not allow j it is the hand and tongue of her maid. '
"Did it ever occur to us that God may have permitted the exclusive laws of the zenana and harem to shut out man in order to call forth the energies of woman as the only possible augel of ministry to the sisterhood of the Orient ~ " This quarter century is not a goal, but a starting-point. To rest upon past successes is to forfeit future advance. There must be a new standard of giving, praying, working-a new self-oblivion in God and Ris work. Coleridge wrote of " , The petty done;" the undone vast.' "
MORAVIANS IN ALASKA.
The Moravian mission station at Bethel comprises eight buildings, consisting of dwellings, office, storehouse, school-house, bath-house, and saw-mill. There are at present seven regular preaching-places, with minor out-stations; three native assistants, and a communicant membership of 119. The work is progressing, although the resources have been greatly drained during the long, severe winter. During the ten years since its inception much has been accomplished. "A people who in all probability would have become extinct as a race have been saved, the Gospel preached to them, schools established, members of their own race have become active in the work of evangelization, surroundiug them with the comforts and environment of Christian family life." One of the greatest hindrances to work here, as among all uncivilized natious, is the absence of any written language. In civilized couutries the missionary has access to the literature of the nation, and soon acquires the form and spirit of the language; but here the alphabet and literature have to be supplied before much effective work is done.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED. BY BEV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Balkan Peninsula. the Storm- enough, it seems, to fill its cup; and it Oenter of Europe. was ordained that even in this last half BY REV. J. HENRY HOUSE, SAMAKOV, of the nineteenth century this peninsula BULGARIA. was still to be the storm center of Eu- It has fallen to the lot of the writer to labor for nearly twenty years in one rope. Insurrections and massacres, war of the most difficult and at the same time one of the most interesting mis- and famine were still to desolate the sionary fields that the world affords. The difficulties lie largely in its con- land and threaten with similar scourges, tiguity to European civilizations, which are only nominally Christian; in diver- all Europe. This little portion of Southsity of race, language, and faith; in pride of race and religion, and conse- eastern Europe has compelled the atquent stubbornness of prejudice which only patient and faithful Christian labor tention of all the great statesmen of the accompanied by the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit can melt. continent whether they wished it or The Balkan peninsula has had a re- not. Its ethnol!:raphy, geography, and markable history from the earliest times. The southern portion constitutes the political and social conditions have been little kingdom of Greece, witb whose powerful influence upon the history of the subject of European conferences the world and its literature and art all are familiar. North of Greece lie the and congresses. The treaties of Paris, provinces of Thessaly, Macedonia, Albania, Thrace, and ancient Malsia or San Steffano, and Berlin mark political modern Bulgaria. Of its cities, Athens, Constantinople, Adrianople and Sa- epochs in recent European history, and lonica will ever awaken historical memories hardly less interesting than all center around the Balkan peninsula. those awakened by Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch. It may not be without interest, then, to The history of this peninSUla gives a note in the briefest possible manner, long list of rcvolutions, invasions, wars, and political transformations in which some of the reasons of this centering of Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Goths, Huns, Vandals, Slavs, Tartars, and 'furks all European interest upon this little peninfigure, and the very ground on which you tread seems saturated and made Bula, and then to glance at What part fertile by the blood of almost numberless races that have traversed the moun- American missions are playing in this tains and valleys of this wonderfully beautiful and Interesting country, and drama. I then vanished. 1. The first important cause of all The political ferment and the human suffering of the past centuries were not this ferment in Europe, which we de- sire to mention, is the recent rise of national feeling and devotion to native tongue which is observed almost every- where in southeastern Europe. A re- markable movement in this direction has been going on there which has been slightly noticed in the Wtlst, and the importance of which has been largely overlooked. Take, for example, the rise of nationalities in the Austrian Em- pire, a part of which is perhaps rightly included in the Balkan peninsula. Look first at the Magyars. In 1848 the revo- lution of Kossuth and his compatriots was stamped out in blood; but in 1868 the Magyars have again risen to their feet and are able to treat with Austria for the formation of the dual monarchy.
Austro-Hungary. It is true that such patriots as Louis Kossuth were not sat- isfied with what was then gained, but it was really most surprising that a race commerce and civilizations of three that had recently been so thoroughly continents, and by its very position put down should rise so rapidly in im· commands the great land anll water portance as to become thoroughly self· highways of the world. Hardly less governing in its own domain, impose its fortunately situated is the ancient port own language as official upon a large of Salonica, through which already, I portion of the empire and, besides all believe, pass the great mails from Engthis, furnish for the whole country the land to India. Russia, by its traditions statesmen who controlled its foreign and its aspirations, has fixed upon Con· policy. The very recent crisis in Hun· stantinople as its future capital, from gary, however, shows that the Magyars which it hopes to rule, so to speak, two are not content with even this, so rapid continents, and largely influence a third. has been the growth of national feeling England has as firmly set down her foot and national strength. Austria also fur· that this shall not be, and Austria, fur· nlshes us with two or three other ex- nishing as she does most of the manu· amples which, although less understood factures used by its peoples, has al· because not so glaringly prominent, are ready commercially conquered the yet no less important, and promise to peninSUla as far south as Greece, and is be sources of disturbance in the near as much interested as is England in future-viz., the growth of national preventing it. Italy holds with Eng· feeling and national literature among land, and Germany with Austria; and the Bohemians ; the less familiar though even France, who from policy is allied similar, rising of the tide of nationality with Russia just at present, would, I among the Croats; and the patriotic believe, as little desire to see Constanti· ferment among the Romans of Transyl- nople in the hands of Russia as any of vania. Go further south and you meet the other powers. Here, then, you with the consolidation of the Servian have in a nutshell the political problem race and language which is going on in of the East. Any little disturbance in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the Balkan peninSUla, like the one that Servia proper. Other striking exam· a year ago attracted all eyes to Bul· plea of this same truth are the rise of garia, may be the spark that will set all the Bulgarian nationality and language Europe on fire. in Bulgaria, Thrace, and Macedonia, and the equally remarkable movement tow· S. But the Balkan peninsula is the ard national existence by the bright AI· storm·center of Europe for a third reabanian race among the monntains of the son. Here Christianity stands face to southwestern portion of the peninsula. face with Islam. And the problem is The latter movement is one of especial not as simple as this statement would interest at the present time, as this race seem to make it. The Christianity of is thought to be the aboriginal race of the Greek Catholic rite and that of the the peninsula, and intellectually is one Roman Catholic rite, as far as it is of the most gifted of all in the East. found in this portion of the East, is weakened by ages of bondage, igno· 2. The second reason which we men· rance, and superstition. The tide, how. tion, is the jealousy of the six great Eu· ever, of intelligence and independence ropean powers with reference to this is rising among the various nationaliregion. The importance of these provo ties of Eastern Christians; and here it inces, indeed, can hardly be overesti· is that the important work of the evanmated. They lie in the very track of gelical missionary comes in contact with the highway of the world. Constanti- the great problems of the East. Shall nople, their great metropolis, is one of the saving leaven of an open Bible and the most fortunately situated cities in a pure Christianity be hidden in this the world. It brings together in its nar· fermenting lump? This is the ques· row streets and beautiful waterways the tion of the hour. Of what has been wrought by missionary schools and col- Increased intelligence. together with leges and by missionary effort and the incoming tide of European civiliza- philanthropy only a word can be said tion, is bringing in scepticism at a fear- here. Thoughtful observers who have ful rate, and thus undermining not only given attention to the subject have been the religious belief but the moral stami- forced to acknowledge the enlighten- na or the people. If we cannot pour in ing, liberalizing, and uplifting influ- the light of Christian faith upon these ences of missionary effort in all this re- peoples and forestall these dire influ- gion_ Their schools and colleges have ences, who can predict the sad history moulded minds that were afterward to which lies before them? Already have control national movements_ Their col- the larger cities and towns of Roumania porteurs have carried to the obscurest and Servia become a byword for their village as well as to the largest cities corrupt morals; and the corrupting in- that greatest of all educators-the Bible fluences of an unhallowed civilization, in the vulgar tongue. 'l'heir philan- so attractive in its outward form, so rot- thropic efforts for the sick and the suf· ten at its core, are making rapid strides fering; for widows and orphans, made toward the conquest of other peoples, such by the horrors which follow insur- and will not stop, you may be sure, rections; for prisoners in crowded and until they reach the most obscure vil- unwholesome prisons, and for famine- lages as well as the larger towns.
stricken provinces-these have exhibited Our work has been largely among the to all, the characteristics of a true and Bulgarians, the most numerous race in splrittial Christianity. Such work as the provinces of Bulgaria, Thrace, and this spread over decades and inwrought Macedonia. While the progress ot the into the life and history of individuals, work has been slow, meeting as it has families, and communities, can never be at every step with the greatest difficul- adequately summed up by statistics ties, yet the influence of our schools, however accurately gathered and com- our newspapers, and religious literature, piled. Of one thing only are we sure, of the Bible distributed by thousands that such an agitated condition as that upon thousands of copies, has been which has existed in the Balkan penIn- widespread and pervading, and our sula, is the opportunity of the Christian hopes for the future are in the blessing missionary, and no danger or suffering of God upon the seed sown, and in the or difficulty should ever prevent him power of God's Holy Spirit poured out from taking advantage of it. upon the proclamation of the Word.
The very political ferment, it is tru'l, A work of surprising interest is now has in part hindered the advance of opening up among the Albanians-a evangelical work, but it furnishes the race, as already intimated, of great best of opportunities to exhibit the natural gifts, and yet one which, al- spirit and character of true Christianity. though it is within stone's throw, so to We believe that the problem of uplift- speak, of the great centers of European ing the moral and religious condition of civilization, has never yet had the Bible these Eastern Christians is one of the as a whole in its native tongue. Here, most serious of the age, for we cannot then, you get a glimpse at the mission- Bee how Christianity is to appear at- ary's problem at this storm-center of tractive to Mohammedans until the Europe. It is not-and let me disclaim overgrowth of ages of ignorance and this with all the emphasis that I can superstition has been cleared away command-to favor political agitation from those ancient churches and the of any kind, or to take sides with any light of a pure and spiritual Christian- political party whatever. We have ity is allowed to shine unhampered upon resolutely kept ourselves from such the world of Islam. What is the con- work. This, however, has not prevented dition of affairs in those countries now? our keeping an eye upon the trend of events that we might improve every op· purpose is surprised at the vastness and portunity of alleviating suffering, and complexity of the work. puttin~ in practice the principles which our Lord laid down in Matt. 25 : 31-46. He finds great missionary enterprises For example, in the spring of 1878, springing up all over the world-vast while the Treaty of San Steffano was printing and book concerns; tract sobeing made, it was through the influ- cieties, hospitals, and dispensaries; orence of a missionary that an article was phanages and asylums; every type of added which freed a multitude of ex- educational institution, from the kinderiles. In the same year, during the garten to the university, one society Congress of Berlin, a large body of mis- alone having 375 girls' schools with sionaries signed a memorandum to that 56,'153 pupils. He encounters mission body petitioning that in the organization ships and steamboats on river and sea, of new States the great principle of re- and learns that the various mission ligious freedom should be insisted upon; boards possess houses, lands, and maand Prince Bismarck was kind enough chinery suited to all these activities. to receive this memorandum. After the terrible events that happened in 1876. it He observes that foreign missions. was a missionary that was first on the while ostensibly organized for the direct fieln of suffering. carrying relief to suf- evangelization of the world th"rough the fering peasants, and homeless widows preaching of the Word, have really and orphans. But after all, these have called to their aid all of the most valubeen only wayside services; the great able appliances found in the complex work. has been to bring the light of mechanism of Western civilization. spiritual life and blessing to peoples that were in the ferment of regenera· Does all this naturally grow out of tion ; to stay the tide of advancing scep- and belong to the command to" Go, ticism, and preserve, if possible, from preach the Gospel to every creature" ? its corrupting influences the moral Did the founders and pioneers of misstamina of simple agricultural peoples sions, and do the churches and the peo· -in a word, to lift up Christ and His pIe who support them, contemplate cross in the midst of distressed and agi- such vast and complicated machinery' tated populations, who, when the times of peace and prosperity shall visit these Two questions present themselves at regions. are to bear an important part the outset: First, what is the character in the history of the world. and scope of work of the foreign mis· sionary ? Second, have the Christian Education and the Place of Lay Edu- churches, by whose authority the work cators on Poreign Mission Pields-A of missions is carried on, and have the Proper Division of Labor. boards who are responsible for its ad- ministration, a clear and well·defined BY HORACE M. LANE, M.D.• PRESIDENT policy and plan of action?
OF THE PROTESTANT COLLEGE, sIo To this last query the answer, either from within or among the boards and PAULO, BRAZIL, S. A. churches, if not wholly negative, is at least unsatisfactory. Foreign missions have reached a point in their development where a more To the first he finds two distinct recareful classification of the forces en- plies: one which agrees with his own gaged-a reorganization, or, at least, a conception, and which is still very com· new co-ordination of the elements- mon in the churches and among the must be seriously considered. people-that the missionary is an evan· gelist, pure and simple, whose first and The traveller who studies modern chief duty is to preach the Gospel of missions honestly and with friendly Christ as widely as possible in the brief- est period of time; the other, which is held by a very large number of Chris. tians, is that the modern missional'y stands charged not only with the duty He Is convinced that for strictly misof carrying the holy evangel to non- sionary purposes all lands and all non- Christian peoples, but also with that of Christian peoples are practically the giving to them the education and cuI· same j that the problem of evangelizature which are the outgrowth of Chris- tion is the same in lands where Christianity. He is not only to organize tianity has become buried in ignorance churches, but hospitals also and all and idolatry, where, knowing someforms of Christian charities; to create thing of Christ, the sufficiency of His a Christian literature and provide for its atonement is openly denied, as in condiffusion; to found great educational fessedly heathen lands where the people institutions and secure their support; to are in the gloom of a pure paganism-sin remodel society generally and bring it is the same; ignorance and superstition up to a Christian standard of living. bear the same fruits; the minor circum- stances of race, climate, social and po- There is no doubt in his own mind, litical restrictions may modify methods and he finds little elsewhere, about all and progress, but cannot affect the real this being Christian work; the question issue. is, does it come within the legitimate scope and purpose of foreign missions? The time must come, sooner or later, in all nelds, as it has already in some The foreign missionary. considered which our friend has visited, when by himself, should be a very simple Christ having been preached to all in a character. He is a strictly New Testa- given locality, a certain number of the ment product, a minister of the Gospel people will have accepted the Gospel of Christ, the anointed emisiary of the and have banded themselves together Christian Church, chosen to carry out to form a church. Then some spirituthe only great and unquestioned pur- ally-minded man of this number, prepose of its organization. viously trained by the missionary in a knowledge of the Scriptures, will be set The command is also very plain and apart to lead them and minister the truth simple: "Go, preach the Gospel to to them. If proper1y directed up to this every creature. .. If this primitive view point they will naturally assume his o:f the missionary and the work should support. obtain, the function of the various boards would be clearly circumscribed There will then be a selj,suppO'l'ting to sending out and providing for the church with a native pa8tor. support of preachers of the Gospel pure and simple. This must be the end of foreign mis- sions as an evangelizing agency in that If, on the other hand, the broader particular place. view should obtain, and it should be held that the work of modern missions Self-support in the native churches is must embrace all that goes to make up the crucial test of all missions. If the a Christian civilization, then our candid spiritual standard has been set high traveller is led to suspect that more is enough, not only will the new church being demanded of the boards on for- be self.supporting, but the missionary eign fields than they could possibly ac- spirit, that constant accompaniment of complish or would be permitted to at- true conversion, will soon show itself in tempt at home. a desire to undertake the evangelization of the regions near them. The whole matter seems quite simple to our observing friend. It appears to The missionary}s sent to do a spehim that in foreign missions, as in every- cific work, with the expectation that it thing else, there must be a natural proc- will some day be completed. This must ess of development, a sort of a historic be the accomplishment of his work in sequence, some outcome of evangelistic that region. If he have grace given work, common to all fields, which deter- him to recognize the fact, and move on lDines its limits. to new fields, he may repeat the proces!! indefinitely: if, however, he linger to front there is necessarily a readjustment direct the life of the new church, that of some of the work; part of it is adspirit of independence and self-reliance justed on strictly economic grounds, a which grows so rapidly in Protestant portion follows the missionary, but edusoil, and follows self-support so natu- cation remains, a vexed question, whose rally, will soon create a line of friction, place is not yet accurately determined. and, a little later, he will be constrained to move with perceptible loss of pres- It seems logical and just that all ectige. clesiastical matters be left entirely in the hands of the new churches, with This is the natural line of cleavage such light as they can get from the Gosbetween the tutelage and support of for- pel; but if these Neo-Christians be also eign missions and the independent life charged with the education of the peo· of the native church. pIe, there is great danger that, uncon- sciously, they will be guided by old They now need that education which habits of thought and motives of action, can only come from assuming full re- and thus imperil the Whole work. The sponsibility for the organization of their ability to do this work aright cannot be churches and the development of Chris- acquired by the tirst generation of Christian work within them, without the material aid that enervates or the med- tians; it is not an acquisition, but Ii dling which irritates. growth, which comes only from Chris- The great central work, to which the tian principles long applied under Chris- Christian Church stands pledged, is ac- tian influences; it is, in fact, very largecomplished in a limited area; its emis- ly an inheritance. saries must push forward into new tields The argument presented sometimes till the whole work Is tinished. by native Christians who seek mission aid for education is not without force. Two important stages of mission de- They claim that when the Christian velopment are now passed-that of di- missionary enters their country uninvitrect evangelization and that of church ed and secures the adoption of a reorganization, and the work enters upon ligion which revolutionizes society, the third and last stage, that of the es- overthrows old systems of thought and tablishment and development of the life, introduces new methods and momuch-talked-of "institutions of Chris- tives, establishes new relations and cretianity." Who is to be responsible for ates new conditions, the Church which them? Are they the legitimate work of sends him assumes 8 certain responsithe Boards of Foreign Missions? Can bility, and must, in simple equity, prothey be considered a part of the great tect the results of its work and help the central work of evangelization to which people adjust themselves to the new the Christian Church stands directly order of things. pledged? It seems not only right, but eminently The highest types of Christian insti· wise for the older churches to assume a tutions, those which occupy so impor- large share of the responsibility for the tant a place in our Western civilization education of the people on these new and are fostered with such zeal by lines. Christian communities, may and do elevate, retine, and mould character for the It seems to the intelligent traveller an reception and highest use of truth, but idle waste of time to discuss the value they canrwt evangeliu. The saving truth of Christian education in any part of must be preached by men with special the world. Every argument that is pregifts, whose hearts are aflame and sented to support any form of education whose faith takes hold on the unseen, in our own land applies with equal whose minds are not perplexed with force to these lands now coming, under 'Worldly matters. Christian influences. There is even an additional argument-that the develop- When the missionary passes to the ment of the highest type of Christian tian work. It is a Eoregone conclusion, schools in these lands will tend to keep based upon large experience, that this their youth at home and prevent the work cannot be E)ntrusted entirely to loss of that sense of duty to their own the evangelistic missionary or the na- country which is too often the result of tive Christians. Can it be legitimately an education abroad. classed with evangelistic work, and It would be absurd to claim that:a does it belong to foreign missions? Is system of schools in the sense of courses it prudent or wise to burden the already of instruction, graded according to mod- overloaded foreign boards with the su- ern methods and leading up to a " lib· pervision of systems of education, with eral education," ever entered into the all the appliances, which the modern plans of the churches that support for- school and college demand? Is it not eign missions, or that it can be consid- rather the work of Christian people at ered a part of strictly evangelistic en- large outside of denominational lines ?
terprise; still all over the world mis- The commercial world is fast recog- sionaries are clamoring for schools. nizing its debt to Christian missions.
They find that without education of a They have opened new markets and Christian type their work does not en- brought nations closer together; they dure, any more than did that of the ear- develop new resources wherever they liest missionaries. From the force of go, and they go everywhere.
this pressure he finds that the number Protestant Christianit.y breeds thought, of schools and colleges is rapidly in- thrift, and enterprise; it teaches men creasing in nearly all mission fields, and to fear nothing but God, and gives them that the distinguishing feature of the courage to strike out for themselves; modern missions of the Christian Church hence we see them colonizing success- is likely to be the great educational in- fully everywhere.
stitutions which follow in their wake. Why should not the great commer- There is really nothing peculiar about cial world that supports education so these institutions to distinguish them generously at home be put under con- from the best secular products of our tribution for its support in mission Western civilization, except their pur- fields? If the work were detached pose. Mission hospitals are not mere- from ecclesiastical direction, would ly charitable enterprises, and mission those who believe in education at home presses are something more than busi- be likely to discriminate against lands ness ventures. These mission schools where there are already sucb. important and colleges are not primarily to fit men moral and material interests? Many for business or civil service. though in- who take a narrow view of missions and cidentally they may do it better than refuse to contribute to their support any others; the great purpose of all recognize the claims of education, and these forms of activity is to draw all give liberally to it.
men toward Christ in knowledge and in Our friend finds another question on life. On· mission fields the educator which the Christian, or, rather, the ec- stands where the high spiritual and clesiastical world is divided-that is, as material interests touch each other. His to the scope and character of this edu- work forms the connecting link be- cational work, which follows al~ success- tween the missionary and society at ful evangelization in foreign lands. To large, representing Christianity in its limit it to the training of preachers and broader relations to the nations. teachers, as some zealous evangelists Our traveller cannot see that there is desire, would be to go round and round any question as to the desirability of in a very narrow circle and practically education of the best Christian type on defeat the very end in view.
all mission fields. There is, however, a In the course of his travels, our friend serious one as to its exact place in Chris- happened into a great gathering of A.merican students, and there heard freedom of thought, and the develop- from the lips of a foreign missionary ment of a sense of personal responsi- this statement: " Mission schools should bility. " It enjoins the duty of self-de- accept only Christian pupils." He was nial, sobriety, temperance, and only the astounded, and felt that if this were the right use of all the powers that make a correct view he had misinterpreted his- man; at the same time it encourages tory, had mistaken the whole trend of him to the most perfect development of Christian thought, and had even mis- intellect and the acquisition of all graces understood the Gospel injunction. He and accomplishments. It gives him the could not understand the purpose of Holy Scriptures as a book that will task such a statement in such a place, and and invigorate the intellect, that will was glad to learn that the speaker repre- kindle the better feelings and elevate sented a very meagre minority. and purify the imagination."
A.s Protestants, we may remember In these Christian schools no purely with satisfaction how strongly the Ref- utilitarian theory of education should ormation was felt in educational princi- ever find lodgment-" no mere elabo- ples and methods. Much that is best in ration of raw hrain material into a more modern pedagogics can be traced to the marketable and higher-priced article."
early Reformers. We must not, how- The whole work must be touched by a ever, forget that other historic fact, that the subtle influence of skilled hristian in the early days of the Reformation, teachers, and so moulded to a high pur- " While Protestants were bickering over pose as to become an elevating and illu- doctrinal formulre, the society of Loyola minating power, transforming every boy founded that marvellous system of and girl whom it reaches into a true schools through whose influence the missionary in the practice as well as the tide of reformation which was sweeping theory of life.
over Europe was stemmed and the lt has been objected that in these boundaries established which to-day schools where so much importance isat- mark its geographical limits; under tached to methods and principles of whose sway half-Protestant Belgium teaching and so little doctrinal work is was made the most subservient of Ro- done, there are few conversions. This man Catholic countries; that at the end is probably as true of them as it is of the of the first half century, after Luther's best of our own Christian colleges and revolt, a Roman Catholic historian was schools. We must not, in our evangel- able to say of the Jesuits, ' They were istic zeal, lose sight of that gradual masters of the present by the men whom leavening of the whole mass of society they had trained and disposed of the which can be traced to these institu- future by the children who were yet in tions, bringing it imperceptibly nearer their hands.'" This tremendous lesson to Christian truth, and making it possi- of history should not be .lost to the mis- ble for the small evangelistic work, done sionaries of the modern Protestant in isolated places and touching only a Church. The same insidious foe is at few of the humbler members of society,- work to-day on C'rery mission field. to spread throughout a whole nation.
The distinctive value of Protestant It has been gravely objected, also, schools lind colleges is that they aim at that there is danger, in opening these something more than the mere intellec- schools and colleges to unbelievers, of tual discipline of mind and will which giving them weapons with which to as- characterized the Jesuit schools; they sail Christianity. If there is anything seek to develop the power to know in a sound Protestant education that aright and to cultivate that character will enable an Oriental or a Romanist to which leads up to Christian ideals of defend a false philosophy or II perverted life. The very pith of Protestant edu- faith, against the simple truth of the cation is the cultivation of conscience, Gospel-if the champions of Christianity have no adequate defence, then there mission development: the former is a must be something radically wrong in special denominational agency, accessory our religion, in our home schools and to and dependent upon evangelistic colleges, or in the selection of our mis- work; the latter, broadly evangelical, sionaries. but undenominational-the one an ad- junct, the other an in3titution. Our traveller observes that there is a spirit abroad which feels that" high- He concludes that if modern miesions er education" is not to be narrowed fail of their full purpose and drag along to mean only instruction in higher another century before giving the Gosbranches of learning, but must em- pel to the whole world, it will not be for brace all work done with higher pur- lack of devoted men and women who pose and more scientific methods. In are willing to give their lives to the this sense the kindergarten belongs to work, nor for want of the moral and higher education. It demands the clear, material support of Christian people, intellectual, moral, and religious percep- nor yet because there is a larger propor- tions that are the distinctive features of tion of Inefficient and self-seeking men Christian culture, and it embraces the on mission fields than is found in simi- essential philosophy of all teaching. lar work at home; it may be, however, for want of a discriminating division of Manual training is also a branch of labor on the field, resulting in the keephigher education, if used for the pur- ing back of trained evangelists in purely pose of giving a broader and more sym- secular· work, instead of pushing the metrical development to .the powers of lines rapidly forward, leaving that work the individual. for laymen, or for lack of discipline or misdirected energies and consequent These schools and colleges must be loss of force. the best of their kind-they must be models. If they attempt to educate He can see no reason why an evanwith antiquated methods and incompe- gelist should spend months or years in tent direction, letting the personal piety a printing office when a skilled printer of the teacher stand for special training could manage it better. and ability to teach, they will be inevitably crowded out by schools that edu- Nor yet why an ordained minister of cate for profit and care nothing for the Gospel, whose heart is aflame with a Christianity. desire to preach the Word of Life, should vex his spirit in a poor attempt All these considerations, and many to teach" the rule of three" to unwillmore, force themselves upon the mind ing urchins; nor why a man who can of our honest friend as he travels speak and write words that will stir through many lands, converses with men's hearts, but who cannot keep his veteran workers in the whole field, and own cash account correctly, should canvasses the views of canuid and spend his energies over the finances of friendly observers from the outside. some great school or mission boarding- house, or any other purely secular The great question of education is work. discussed everywhere with increasing interest. He can find no warrant for the em- ployment of an ordained missionary, In its consideration he has been forced who was selected with special reference to differentiate broadly between the lit- to his ability to preach, in any secular tle parochial or elementary school which work whatever, unless he have proved the evangelist must make a part of his unfit or unable to preach, and volunearliest work, and which the native tarily take up the lesser work. churches often keep up at their own expense, and the larger and more com- It is clear to him that the administrapletelyorganized work of a later date, tion of a large school or college has a which come up from the little school, business side that must be managed on but which represents a separate stage of strict business principles; an educa- and find eventually liberal local sup· tional side that must be conducted on port. BOund educational principles; that such establishments ought to be under boards Much could be said of the influence specially organized for their government -boards of educators, and not evangel- of the normal schools of the missions ists, who serve perfunctorily, but whose hearts are elsewhere. in elevating and renovating society In these days of fine specialization through the teachers which they pre·· the demands of life are too precise and exacting to enable the average man to pare for other than mission schools. do his best in many directions. The evangelist and the teacher are both spe- Our Mail-Bag. cialists. The great evangelist is rarely a good teacher, the great teacher is Rev. M. D. G. Collins, in a note at often that because he could not be the hand, says: "Let me say concerning other. Laos people that they are progressive. Eight years ago we had four churches Our friend returns to his home and and about two hundred and forty memchurch with a plea for a di vision of bers; to-day we have thirteen churches labor; for the appointment of profes- and about eighteen hundred members. sional educators in educational work on Our Laos people make good evangelists, all mission fields-men and women who and are carrying the Word all over the have made special preparation for it country. At the meeting of the Presand who give themselves to it on pre- bytery last December six men were orcisely the same terms as the ordained dained. Our schools are being well atmissio/lary gives himself to evangelistic tended. The people are making some work; for the grading and improving of progress toward self-support. We mission schools, bringing them up to need reinforcements badly; we also the intellectual no less than the moral need the prayers of God's people." advance of the world by the introduction of the best educational ability, Rev. Jacob Hendricks, Vinukunda, methods, and appliances; for the es- India, writes: "One of the most entablishment of normal and manual train- couraging features in connection with ing schools in every mission field, where my work is the desire on the part of practicable; for the organization, either our native ministry and church·memwithin the boards now existing or inde- bers for greah~r spiritual power. The pendently of them, of educational bodies necessity of the indwelling power of having full supervision of all educa- the Holy Ghost is recognized more than tional interests, making it a separate ever before. In January last our new department, but on a basis that will not church was dedicated, and three native clash with evangelistic work on the brethren were ordained. The native field, or interfere with the missionary Christians made liberal contributions spirit in the churches. toward this their house of worship. Eight persons were baptized at this This would relieve ordained missiona- time, and sili:teen on a subsequent tour." ries of the quasi secular cares which now engross many of them, and give educa- lIr. C. H. Yatman, the widely tional room to expand and occupy the known evangelist of Ocean Grove whole of the great field open to it. celebrity among young folks, expects to visit the Hawaiian Islands, Australia, Under proper direction these schools New Zealand, and South Africa next and colleges would become as nearly fall and winter for evangelistic labor. self-supporting as similar institutions Mr. Yatman is unique in manner, in are in our own country. They would methods, and in success. attract the attention of the better classes A note from Oroomiah, Persia, of April 19th, tells how deeply the 10s8 by Dr. Shedd's death is felt. He was a veteran with great wisdom and worth, whom the people loved after long ex- perience. He had been out of health for six months prior to his death, April 12th. Mrs. Shedd will not return to America, but find her home with her son, Hev. W. A. Shedd.
FmLD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. PIERSON.
Islanda of the Sea.;* Alaska,t Greenland,j: and Labrador; North American Indians,§ ISLANDS OF THE SEA, of Polynesia, 1800 to 1300 east longitude.
Oceania, with a total land area of about The principal groups are the New Heb- 3,725,000 square miles and a total pOpu- rides, Loyalty, Banks, Fiji, Ellice, and lation of 6,000,000, may be divided into Solomon. The societies engaged in evanfive groups, in addition to isolated gelizing these islands are the Presbytegroups and islands, such as the Ha- rians of Scotland and Canada, the Weswaiian and Galapagos. leyans, the Church of England, and the London Missionary Society. In the Polyne8ia includes the islands lying New Hebrides, 12 islands are already between 10· north and 30° south lati- Christian, and the Bible has been transtude and 180· to 130· west longitude. It lated in Whole or in part into 15 lanembraces the Samoan, Society, Austral, guages and dialects. In the Fiji Islands Tonga or Friendly, Hervey or Cook, a greater proportion of the popUlation 1tiarquesas, Phrenix, and other groups. attends church than in the United States. Among islands of special interest in The Paris society also works in the missionary annals are Tahiti, Raratonga, Loyalty Islands. Rev. James Hadfield and Pitcairn. They were native teach- writes of the persecutions under French ers from Samoa who first carried the rule: Gospel to the New Hebrides. Since Tahiti and a few other of these islands .. I have never known the Jesuit have come under French control, the priests to show greater zeal and activity Protestant missionary work has been than at present. While we have been transferred from the London Society, reducing our staff of missionaries they who first carried on the work, to the have been increasing theirs. If you Paris Evangelical Society. The Lon- could but see how ardently our staunch don and Wesleyan societies are still at but sadly neglected Protestants long work in this portion of the Pacific. and pray that they may again have a resident missionarv to stimulate their Melanesia includes the section west faith, and guard them and their little ones against the machinations of the * See pp. 81 (February); 462 (Juue); 506 priests, I am certain many large-hearted volunteers would be speedily forthcom- (present issue). Literature:" John G. Paton's ing. Since Mr. Jones was unjustly ex- Autobiography;" U The Hawaiian Islands," pelled from Mar€l six years ago, our so- Rufus Anderson; "Esehol," Dr. Humphreys; ciety (L. M. S.) in this group has been "Life in Hawaii," Rev. Titus Coan; "Story represented by one missionary only. of the South Seas," Rev. George Cousins; Nominally Mare is under the charge of " Among the Cannibals of New Guinea," Rev. the Paris Missionary Society ; but for Samuel MacFarlane; "Fiji and the Fijians," the past year I have been the only Eu- Thom~s Williams and James Calvert; .. The ropean representati ve of PIotestantism in Southern Cross and the Southern Crown," A. L. the group. Here we have a popUlation O. E. (Miss Tucker.) of 13,OOO,out of which 10,000 are Protest- ants and only 3000 Roman Catholics, and t Seepp. 498, 522 (present issue); "StoryofMet- yet these latter have nine or ten ordained lakahtla," H. S. Welcome; .. Alaska and Mis- priests. not to mention European/reres sions on the North PacifIc Coast," Sheldon and sisters. We are constantly being Jackson; .. Life in Alaska," Mrs. E. S. Willard. SUbjected to persecution lind official op- pOSItion, while the latter are petted and :I: "Amid Greenland Snows," Jesse Page. supported by the Government. Sev- § See pp. 102 (February) ; 167 (March) ; 401,458 eral months ago the brother of the head (June); 481 and 491 (present issue). Literature: chief of the district in which I live re- .. Life of John Eliot," J. B. Calverly; "David nounced his faith and came over to us, Brainerd," J. M. Sherwood; U Mary and I," Ste- thereby threatening the very fabric and phen R. Riggs; "By Canoe and Dog Train," foundation of popery in the island. and" Stories from Indian Wigwams and North· ern Campfires," E. R. Young. The priest, in great alarm, ordered the chief to seize his brother 'at once and lated groups, the total area of the South keep him in prison until a steamer could Sealslands is about 420,000 square miles, convey him to N oumea. The poor and the population 1,300,000. Less than man, filled with terror, fled into the 150 foreign laborers are at work here, bush, thinking they meant to kill him, besides about 800 native evangelists. despite any assurance to the contrary; Communicants number about 100,000. and for weeks he was hunted about the Some 350 islands of the Pacific, inisland like II wild beast by a French cluding 14 groups, may be said to be policeman and a mob of armed men. Christianized, but there are still 1600 These men had been instructed by the almost or wholly untouched, where priest, in the hearing of some of my over 6,000,000 await some one to bring them tidings of a Saviour. people, to fire on the fugitive if he tried to elude them. They did not succeed CIRCUMPOLAR MISSIONS. in capturing him, and one day he surprised me by walking into my study, Ala8ka has an area of 531,000 square miles, and a popUlation of 32,052, comsaying he was going to give himself up, posed of Indians, Eskimos, Thlingets, as he got no rest night or day. He was Aleuds, and some white traders, educasoon exiled to the Isle of Pines, and tors, etc. Most of the Aleuds are adthere he remains. As the bishop (brother herents of the Russian Greek Church. The other natives are barbarians, and of the priest who sent him into exile) many are fetish-worshippers, practising often interviews him, we may expect polygamy, child marriage, infanticide, him back, only if he is willing to sub- slavery, witchcraft, and sometimes canmit again to the priests_ nibalism. The story of mission work among them is told on another page of " I have long been fully persuaded this issue. that Protestantism hag nothing to fear from Jesuitical intrigues and the false doctrines of popery if only a fair field is opened to it. 'Truth is great and must prevail; , but truth, to pre- vail promptly and effectually, should be backed by at least as much zeal and enthuilasm as is expended by its enemies In the propagation of error."
Microne8ia lies to the north of Mela- Greenland, with an inhabited area of nesia, and includes the Gilbert, Caro- about 47,000 square miles and a popu- line, Marshall, and Ladrone Islands. lation of 10,516, has been evangelized Work: was begun here by American by Lutherans from Denmark and by Board missionaries from Hawaii, and Moravians. The western coast is prac- has been largely developed by native tically Christianized. The Lutherans Hawaiian laborers. The Caroline Is- count 8175 adherents at 12 stations, with lands have been claimed by Spain, and 3 Danish and 4 native pastors. They the work of the American Board has have a seminary for the training of na- been much hampered by the Spanish tive pastors and teachers at' Godthaab.
priests and Government. The Moravians number 1591 communi- Australasia comprises, besides the cants at 6 stations. They have within continent of Australia, New Guinea, a year established the first station on the New Zealand, Tasmania, etc. Austra- east coast among a people whose exist- lia is home mission ground; New ence was unknown until 1883. The Zealand and Tasmania are practically new station is on the Tessinyak Bay, Christianized, and New Guinea Is occu- near Cape Dan. There is a good har- pied by the London Society In the Eng- bor and a stream abounding with fish.
lish section, and by the Rhenish and The Moravians have also recently estab- Utrecht societies in the Dutch section. lished a new station among the Eskimo At Bon,where there may been seen thirty seal-fishers on Blackwell's Island, Cum- notches in a tree to commemorate as berland Sound.
many cannibal feasts, there is now a The work in Greenland is beset with flourishing Christian church. difficulties due to the cold climate, with MalaY8iawas treated of in our May a winter temperature of 26° below zero issue. Exclusive of Australasia and iso- (New Herrnhut, 1894), and to the consequent scanty means of support, as well With those transferred from the Lien as to the dulness and lack of receptivity Chow church and those received at the in spiritual things generally shown by time on profession of their faith, the or- Greenlanders. A great safeguard to ganization was effected with 40 com· the morals of the people has been, how- municants. Two elders Wire elected ever, the treaty forbidding any el(cept and ordained. Since that time about 10 Danish traders to land in the harbors more have united with the cl1urch. except by special permission. Through With the baptized children included, the enforcement of this treaty the na- there is a membership now of about 60. tives have been largely shielded from A building has been rented for 10 years the contaminating influences which usu- for a chapel and school building, with ally come from the immorality and in- the privilege of renting it for 100 years. toxicants introduced by traders. I have the deed and lease in my posses- Labrador has a pnpulation of about sion, and as yet there has been no 6000 in winter and over 50,000 during trouble about the property. I made the four months of the cod·fishing sea- three journeys into the province last scoon~ewtohecnatfcihsheernmoeunghanfidshthteoirpafaymtihlieeisr year myself, and, so far as the people debts, which most of them have con- were concerned, I believe I could bave tracted during the winter months. The stayed indefinitely. It was my purpose to spend this year only Christian work among these is car- in Hunan, encouraging and instructing ried on by the Mission to the Deep-sea the Christians and in studying their lan- Fishermen. The Moravians have 6 sta- guage, preparatory to pushing the work tions, with about 600 communicants and farther to the interior; but my colleague 1400 church-memberli, among the Eski- in the work at this station has gone to mos of that region, and have been the Canton for the year, gO that I cannot means of establilihing Christian law lind leave at present. In the mean time, I am order in Northern Labrador. studying the Runanese language, so that The First Ohristian Ohuroh in the Prov- I may be ready to go when my col- ince of Hunan, Ohina.* league returns. My teacher is a man This church it was my privilege to organize in Hunan last June. There who was formerly a fortune-teller, but may be others of which I do not know. Hunan is said to be a closed land so far who iii no~ a verl earnest Chr,istian. as Protestant missions are concerned, and that the fifteen or twenty millions He burned up all hIS books and Impleof people are entirely without the Gos· pel. This iii not altogether true. The ments for fortune·telling before I bap- American Presbyterian Mission of Canton has had a native evangelist working tized him. One member of the church in the southern part of the Hunan province for several years. More than a at Lam Mo is a Sin Tsai, a literary score had become 'Christians and united with the church at Lien Chow, in the graduate. His home is near Ka Wo, northwestern part of the Canton province. Last year it was thought the time another Hlen about 25 miles from Lam had come for organizing a church in the province of Hunan itself, In the Mo. He is the head man of his village, midst of tha people. A.ccordingly the Canton Presbytery appointed me and and is now teaching a school in hill own two native helpers as a committee to go to IIunlln aud organize a church if we house, with about 20 scholars. As yet thought best. The committee was of the unanimouii opinion that the time he has had no financial assistance from was ripe, and accordingly organized a church at Lam .Mo, June 24th,1894. the mission. The ancestral hall of his place was offered to us as a gift for a.
church building, but it wail not accept- ed, because it was too large for the pur- pose. We have two native preachers or colporteurs workin$ all the time in Hunan. They have vi~lted a. great many places and sold a great deal of religious literature. The native palltor from Lien Chow is spending a month now with the Christians at Lam Mo and Ka Wo.
The Hunan province, then, is not en- tirely closed against Protestant missions on this side. We have had to enter, as it were, by the back door; but we thank God for this entrance, and will hope by His further blessing and guidance to push on into the interior and toward the front door. W. H. LINGLE.
LIEN CHOW, CANTON, CHINA, March 11, 1895.
* Correcting note In Febrnary, 1895, issue, p.138.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. of the intricate problems which confront him; and though no great improvement Of course, the main interest of the will be possible until Japan can free past month has centred about the issue enough of her army to thoroughly ocof the Japan-China War and the new cupy the kingdom, some important, treaty, etc., with the prospective effect measures of reform have bcen decreed. on Korea and the other nations in this Among these are the equality of all pertriad. sons before the law, the abolition of slavery, freedom of petition to the coun- It is now reported that Japan yields cil of state, the abolition of the old to the demand of European powers,'and Chinese system of literary examinations abandons her claim to the Liau.Tong for office, payment of taxes in money peninsula, including Port Arthur. A instead of in kind, and the reorganizadespatch from Berlin (May 6th) likewise tion of the finances. Still further measstates that Russia invites Germany and ures have been promised by the king, France to unite in guaranteeing the notably taxation by fixed laws, thereguregular payment of the Chinese war lation of the expenditures of governdebt. ment by receipts, the education each year in foreign schools of a certain num- At one time there seemed to be a cer- ber of Korean students, punishment of tainty of open rupture between Japan crime under a carefully prepared crimand Russia and France unless this inal code, and the appointment of ofclaim were abandoned. It was publicly ficials from different classes of society. affirmed that Japan's insistence upon The chief difficulty at present in exethe Shimonoseki treaty would lead Rus- cuting any reforms Is the reluctance of sia to declare war; and Russian ships the people to move in anything and the were leaving Japanese ports for VIadi- lack of revenues; but it is hoped that, vostock. in a few months, the latter at least may be overcome by a Japanese or other for- If the war is thus brought to a close, eign loan, and Korea be given a .fair and another and perhaps more serious start on the road of progress and enconflict on a more colossal scale pre- larged intercourse with the rest of the vented, we have cause for devout grati- world." tude; but even more grateful will intelligent Christians be if the treaties The Korean Reposit01'11 (March 1st), awaiting ratification shall be put into just at hand, which reflects the opinions full operation. of the Christian missionaries in Korea, says: "The general opinion among Korea, for instance, seems on the way both Koreans and foreigners is that the to a peaceful revolution and reconstruc- king is one of the most urbane and gration. Japan began this war ostensibly cious sovereigns that ever sat on the to rid her neighbor of the galling yoke throne. " Its analysis of the recently of Chinese supremacy. In face of all adopted and formally acknowledged the difficulties encountered in the igno- new principles which are to govern the rance and apathy of the stolid Koreans, Korean king and ministry is, on the and their passive submission to offi- whole, favorable. The same journal cial classes that know no principle of chronicles the significant fact that since right but the law of might; and in face the appointment of the new ministry, of the inevitable disorder and general on the recommendation of the prime disintegration which a state of war has minister, government offices are closed brought about,with an impoverished and half-famished people, "Count Inouye, the energetic and statesmanlike representative of Japan in Korea, has accomplished something toward the solution on Saturday afternoon, and are not of Dr. K. Chunder Bose, who estimates that 10 per cent of the residents of Cal- opened again until Monday morning. cutta take opium. Another Indian wit- His Majesty, likewise, does not hold ness calculates that 20 to 25 per cent of court on Sunday. the grown-up population in the villages The controversy on the opium ques- of the Umballi district consume opium. tion, which has been long and bitter, Further, an Indian pleader (solicitor) in especially in England and India, has the Judges' Court at Assam is quoted, developed a new and somewhat unique 'I believe fully a third portion of the phase in the shape of a .. Royal Com- population of Kamrup is given to the mission on Opium" to inquire into the vile habit, and in Upper Assam it is physical and moral effects of the use of worse.' And this section of the sub- the drug, etc. ject is concluded by an extract from the Mr. Joshua Rowntree (late lI.P.) has evidence of Mr. D. D. Gildar, a Parsee undertaken a huge task in the analysis educationalist and moral reformer, and of the evidence taken before this Royal editor of the Student" Friend, BomlJay, Commission. Mr. Rowntree's pamphlet, who submitted statistics to show' that of a hundred pages, contains the gist of while the population of Bombay has in- the contents of five volumes, containing creased by only 6 per cent, the consump- 2000 pages of closely printed double tion of opium has increased by 84 per columns, with the expressed opinions of cent and that throughout the Bombay 900 persons, in answer to over 28,000 presidency while the popUlation has in- questions. creased 14 'per cent, the sale of opium Of Mr. Rowntree's pamphlet on the has gone up 60 per cent during the last " Opium Habit," the London Ohristian decade.'
says: " Similar contradictions meet us in the "The evidence is dealt with calmly medical evidence. Sir William Moore, and with Impartiality, revealing Mr. Rowntree's legally trained mind. The late Surgeon-General in the Bombay result of the study of the evidence, amply quoted, is a splendid vindication presidency, declared that ' o~ium-smo~ of the position of the anti-opium party. The pamphlet is full of surprises to the ing was practically harmless. But Bnreader. One of the earliest specimens gade-Burgeon J. H. Condon, M.D., who of this occurs on pages 18 and 19, concerning poppy·growing. After a high is still resident in India, and is one of official of the Indian Government had declared that 'official' compulsion to the best-known Christian laymen in that cultivate poppy is unheard of, a native land·owner was asked about his own country, said, 'I never met a confirmed village. He replied that the zilladars (petty officers) 'go and threaten them opium·eater or smoker that did not hate with persecution, and they instigate the police officers to do something to them. the habit, but the only cure any of them There are different ways of tyrannizing over them. Lately I received a com- seemed to think of as being of any use munication from the Opium Department to make my ryots (tenant farmers) grow was to stop the supply of opium. I more opium.' have gone into the history of Bome hun- " A little further on we came to an extract from a memorandum submitted dreds of cases. My experience is that to the Opium Commission by Sir John it is only a matter of time. All break Strachey, an ex.Anglo-I.ndia.n official. down.' In this he says: 'Speakmg III general terms the consumption of opium in " No fair-minded reader, and, above all, India'is so infinitesimally small that I may say, w~thout. eaJaggera~ion, that. no no reader with a conscience enlightened opium questwn extstB at all. Followmg this, lIlr. Rowntree quotes the evidence by the Holy Spirit, will be able to rise from the perusal of this pamphlet in any doubt as to where the truth is amid the maze of contradictions. No difficulty will be found in agreeing with Mr. Rowntree's conclusion that, , whether as regards India, Burmah, or cCahrienfua'lltyhecsoemfpi ivleedvaoslutmh~eys of evidence, have been. in the main, through the InstrumentalIty of an able government fighting for its revenue, as necessary for its life, yet leave an unmistakable conviction that the opium habit, apart from any medi· cal use, is physically injurious an~ mor- ally indefensible, just In proportIOn to the extent to which it prevails.' "
Rev. Robert P. Wilder, of Kolhapur, India, writing from Norheim, April 5th, says of the Thibetan Pioneer Mission, now under leadership of Mr. Pol- revision of the Judeo-German New hill-Turner, that the night before they Testament. Nearly half a million por- left Darjeeling for Gnatong, he (Mr. tions of this edition have already been Wilder) gave them a short address on circulated in Russia and elsewhere. The the power of the Spirit, from Acts 1 ; 8, March "Occasional Pa.per" of the and that it was a most impressive fare- "Prayer Union for Israel" is by Mr.
well meeting. "The mission, " he adds, Adler. It is a statement of Christian "has had many discouragements from truth, presented in a way that should without and within, but prospects are appeal with special power to Jewish brighter now." Mr. Wilder. himself readers. A large number of copies have the leader of the American Student been disseminated. Mr. Adler's address Volunteers, incloses ten dollars for the i3 43 Poet's Road, Highbury New Voluntee1' Fund, and adds, " I want all Park, N. London, England.
our volunteers to read the MISSIONARY REVIEW. The late articles on the' Pen- Hon. Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of teeost at Hilo ' and' A Half Century of Cape Colony, South Africa, has given Faith Work' (of Miillerat Bristol) have $2500 toward the building fund of helped my wife and me much. You Huguenot College, Wellington, so that must," he continues, "feel Dr. GOI'- now $35,500 is waiting for $14,500 be- don'sdep:uture. I regarded him as the fore the college can be built. Mr.
most Spirit-filled man in America." Charles Hopkins is the financial agent of the Huguenot College and Semina- News reached us by cable, April 12th, ries, at the Equitable Building, 120 that Rev. J. H. Shedd, D.D., thirty-six Broadway, New York. Are there not years a missionary in Persia, has de- some stewards of God who would be parted. No one can properly estimate glad to aid in a work that is perhaps in: the loss which this implies, not to Pres- directly doing more for Africa's evan- byterian missions only, but to the uni- gelization than any other?
versal work of a world's evangelization.
What a comfort that God is on the French troops are now in 1IIadagas- throne I car, "to win the great African island."
There are now 2000 Protestant churches It might be added to previous notes there, with 300,000 adherents, and they on the Arabian Mission that Rev. P. grow steadily. What effect the inva- Zwemer was driven out of his station sion may ha ve upon the work of the and the mission property looted; but missiouaries remains to be seen, but a now the Sultan promises protection, and great disturbance of Christian work is Mr. Zwemer has started back, though feared. The London Missionary So- matters are still far from being in a set- ciety, which has done most of the good tled state. work in JIa61agascar, utters an urgent appeal for much prayer in behalf of The Buddhist Magazine, of Japan, " the great African island."
says; "The greatest movement of the In the midst of almost universal debt twentieth century will not be a com- of missionary societies, it is refreshing mercial one nor yet a military one; but to read that the Foreign Missionary the nationlil of the West will invade the Committee of the Southern Presbyterian East with great armies of Christian mis- Church ended its year of labor with all sionaries, backed up by the wealth of debts paid, and a balance of $1650 in Christendom. We must arouse our- selves to meet them." the treasury.
Rev. James Adler, of the Mildmay The third annual conference of the Mission to the Jews, has completed the Christian Endeavor Missionary League of the Reformed Church in Amcrica deed, whole provinces like those of was held at Somerville, N. J., on April Hunan and Kwangsi, will then be 25th, and was not only most interesting, opent)d to mission work which are now but most stimulating to missionary zeal. closed against us." 'fhe Christian Endeavor societies now number 457 (377 Senior and 80 Junior). Dr. Griffith John, of Hankow, China, and out of the 625 congregations 363 writing to Mr. Woods, says of the peti. are found blessed with one or more of tion: "I am glad the American mis· t.hese societies. During the past year sionaries are making this effort. and $3206 have been contributed by them to pray that their effort will be crowned foreign and $1902 to home missions; with success. What you want is to 109 societies are now united in the above open Hunan. Open Hunan and the whole empire will be open. I am look· league. ing forward to seeing very definite reo sults spring from this war-that is, if One of our valued correspondents and the empire can hold together during the friends, Rev. Arthur JI. Smith, author conflict, which, after all, is very doubt· of "Chinese Characteristics," that ful. It is impossible to procure any unique book which has no rival in anti-foreign books at present. 'The its peculiar excellence, favored the Death·Blow to Corrupt Doctrines' is in editor with a personal visit a little be· circulation, and ought to be includedfore sailing for his home in North i.e., in the list of incendiary books China. He also spoke at Boston, in con· brought to the attention of the govern· nection with a conference on missions, ment. I wish I had an extra copy to just before taking ship, and his audio send you. But take it for granted on ence found the speaker as racy, as inter· my authority-an authority resting on esting, as vivacious, and as brilliant as well·known facts-that this infamous the author and writer. Mr. Smith production has been circulating in leaves his family behind him, in defer- Hunan and Hupeh ever since its first ence to questions of health and educa- appearance. Of all the pUblications, tion-another example of the rare sacri· not one has done more mischief than fice of God's servants. this. "
From Tsing.kiang.pu, China, Uarch [In view of the importance of this 30th, 1895, Mr. Henry lIL Woods encloses a copy of a petition which American document we print it entire.-EDI'l·OR.] missionaries of all denominations are preparing to send to the United States PETITION Government relative to their rights in the interior of China. He says: To the President and Senate of the United "The questions involved vitally affect State8 of Ame1'ica: the progress of the Master's kingdom in this empire, and Christian people at We, the undersigned citizens of the home ought to be awakened to a sense United States, engaged L missionary of the great importance of the matters work in China, and representing the treated of in the petition, and should Protestant Christian Church of all de· join with the hundreds of their brethren nominations in the United States, would and representatives laboring in this land respectfully present the following state· to put missionary work on a better·de· ment and petition: fined and securer basis. I. We beg leave to call attention to " If this petition is granted. it is be· the ill·defined and unsatisfactory status lieved mission work in China will be of the rights of missionaries under the advanced a quarter of a century. Preju· treaties now existing between the United dice lind hostility will be in large part States Government and China. For removed, the residence of missionaries twenty·five years or more United States in the interior will be shown to be a citizens, believing that they were acting lawful act, and scores of cities, or, in· in strict accord with the spirit of the treaties, with the approval and assist· ance of the United States consular rep· resentatives, and with the consent of the Chinese Government, have settled in the interior of China to engage in mission work, until now there are hundreds of United States citizens residing there and holding property valued at several hun· dred thousands of dollars. Now the cause of complaint which your petition' ers would earnestly present is, that while they have, as they believe, a clear constructive right to resideuce in the in- to define these privileges clearly." And terior, the treaties do not, as they again: •• The spirit of our treaties rather should, guarantee them this right in ex- than the letter affords Americans the plicit terms. That the missionaries privilege to live in the interior of China have such a right to reside in the inte- as missionaries. The right is not quesrior of C4ina appears from the following tioned by the Chinese, it being specially considerations : mentioned in the Chinese text of the French treaty." (a) While the language of the United States treaties is silent on this point, the (c) For two or more centuries before words of the British and French treaties the present treaties were made, French give ground for it. In the British and Italian missionaries had resided in treaty of 1858, Art. XII_, occur these the interior and held property with the words; "British subjects, whether at full consent of the Chinese Government. the ports or at other places, desir- This privilege was accorded them at ing to build," etc. . ., "in which the time the treaties were made. As every port and in every other place"- the treaties did not withdraw the priviwould seem undoubtedly to mean lege it still remains in full force. Now, the interior, although the British au- Art. VI. of the additional articles to the thotities do not press the point_ In the United States treaty of 1858, called French treaty of 1858, Art VI., the "the favored nation clause," provides Chinese text has a clause not found, it that .. citizens of the United States, is true, in the French text, which reads visiting or residing in China, shall en- "It is permitted to French mission- joy the same privileges, immunities or aries to rent and purchase land in e:x:emptions with respect to travel or all the provinces, and to erect build- residence as may be enjoyed by the citiing-s thereon at pleasure." It has been zens or subjects of the most favored charged that this clause did not regu- nation." Therefore the privilege of relarly belong to the treaty, but sufficient siding in the interior granted for centuproof for this assertion has not yet been ries to missionaries of other countries, given. On the contrary, "the Chinese according to this article of the treaty, Government has in no case denied the clearly belongs to citizens of the United authenticity or validity of this clause, States engaged in mission work: in but has only applied its own interpretation ;" nay more, it has distinctly ac- China. knowledged this clause in the Book of (d) The right of missionaries to reside Precedents issued by the Government for the guidance of local officials in in the interior of China is recognized by their dealings with foreigners. (See numerous Imperial decrees and procla- Book of Precedents, pp. 11, 12_) mations of recent years. Witness the Imperial proclamation of 1891, after the (b) The spirit of the treaties warrants riots, the proclamation of the Governorit. The treaties, while as commercial General of the Min-cMh provinces, documents they limit American com- quoting the Imperial edict, and that of merce to certain ports, are not maniiest- the Shanghai 'faotai. Witness also the ly intended to restrict to the treaty ports recent memorandum of the Foreign Ofhumane and charitable wOlk, such as fice a1 Peking addressed to the ministers that in which missionary work mainly of the various foreign countries, on the consists, as, moral and religious instruc- occasion of the declaration of war betion for the vicious and ignorant, hos- tween China and Japan, requesting the pitals for the sick, and schools for the ministers to notify missionaries to rechildren of the poor. It is a well- main at their posts, and promising all known principle of international law such the protection of the Chinese Govthat" clauses which favor justice, hu- ernment. (See translation of pI'oclamamanity and equity are to be interpreted tions furnished herewith_) Many others broadly." Thus it seems to be in full might be cited; these all recognize that accord with the spirit of the treaties to the residence of missionaries in the ingrant to missionaries right of residence terior is in accordance with the treaties in the interior on account of the humane and with the Imperial sanction, and on this ground they are guaranteed procharacter of their work. United States Consul-General Kennedy, in an official tection. document dated March 19th,1888, takes This right then is implied in the this ground when he says, "It would be taking an extremely narrow view to treaty and is otherwise acknowledged infer that the privilege of locating in by the Chinese Government. Now the the interior for the purpose of prosecut- fact that it is not explicitly stated in the ing missionary work is denied Ameri- treaty has caused and threatens to cause cans from the fact that our ,treaties, great injury to us and to work in which which are commercial documents, fail we are engaged. It has been tor years the cause of much dispute and lItiga- tion between the Chinese and foreigners when the latter were attempting to se- against this restriction as clearly in cure propertl' (See Note on Govern- viulation of both t.he letter and spirit ment Book 0 Precedents.) It furnishes of the treaty.
a pretext to malicious people to charge (IJ) A third oppressive condition is us with unlawful intrusion into the in- requiring missionaries to hold property terior and to stir up riots, and also a only in the name of the native church.
pretext to hostile officials to withhold This condition puts the property of protection from missionaries in time of United States citizens completely at the danger. A clear, explicit statement of mercy of the Chinese officials_ Prop- the right of missionaries to reside in the erty procured in the name of the native interior inserted In the treaty, would do church no longer belongs to the Ameri- much toward putting an end to litiga- cans who paid the money, but to the tion and to riots and toward securing native church. So the Chinese Govern- full protection for United States citizens ment has declared in the Book of Prec- resident in the interior. edents. (See Vol. 22, No.5, p. 13.) II. Another cause of complaint is, As such it is liable to confiscation at that while the Chinese Government has any time by the local officials. In case acknowledged our right of residence of confiscation there would be no re- and of holding property in the interior, dress, as the deeds were made out in yet it hedges us round with such condi- the name of the native church. In tions and restrictions as practically de- many parts of China the ordinary senti- stroy our rights in many instances, and ments of justice and humanity, which violate the spirit, if not the letter, of would protect the property of a heathen the treaty. Such restrictions are: Chinaman, would not avail in the case (a) Frivolous and extreme objections of a Christian, as public sentiment, mis- on the ground of Jung·ahui. While mis- led and inflamed by,the slanders circu- sionaries from the United States desire lated against Christianity, would justify to show all proper regard for the feel- such an act. Regarding the holding of ings and opinions of the people among property. the United States Contoulwhom they dwell, and do not desire to General referred to says: •• If deed. are secure property near public temples or regularly granted to foreigners by local ill other places where their presence authorities, such land may be held with may be imagined to interfere with the security. In general I would say that good influences of "wind and water ;" it is not advisable for land to be held in stlll it is our duty to call the attention trust by native converts for missionary of the Government to the fact that in societies. "
the majority of cases this opinion re- Such then are some of the evils which garding " wind and water" is made an result from lack of fulness and explicitexcuse to deny us our rights and to pre- ness of statement in the treaty. We vent us from securing property alto- believe it to be our duty. as well as our gether. (See cases.) right, to acquaint you with them, and to (b) Another unjust condition imposed petition you to remove the burden which 'is: Notifying the Chinese officials be- for years has weighed heavily upon us fore a bargain for property can be Jegal- and upon our work. It is believed that ly consummated. This condition gives prompt, definite action taken in a con- the local Chinese official the opportunity ciliatory manner by the Government to forestall every effort the missionary will secure all that can be desired, and makes to secure property. The official that the effect of such action will be to can simply send out his subordinates cement, rather than to strain, as some and forbid the people everywhere to fear, the friendly relations which have rent or sell to foreigners, and thus land- existed and still exist between the two lords and middlemen are deterred from Governments.
consummating a bargain. This we We would then respectfully petition know is frequently done, sometimes the United States Government: even by open proclamation. (See case I. To have explicitly set forth in the of Rev. D. W. Nichols, Nanking.) words of the treaty the right of mis- While we are glad to record many hon- sionarieil to reside in the interior of orable exceptions to the rule, and that China, and to hold property for mission some officials have shown great fairness use, either in their own name or in that and kindness in granting missionaries of the society they represent.
property, still, observation shows that II. To remove all unjust conditions in the great majority of cases this re- and restrictions imposed by the Chinese striction is a mere handle with the aver- Government, which practic&lly destroy age Chinese official, to prevent foreign- our otherwise acknowledged rights and ers from securing property in accordance thus far violate the treaties.
with the provisions of the treaty. Your Particularly, regardingJung-shui, Sec. petitioners would protest strongly lI. (a) above. Let it be distinctly stated in treaty (See Art. XII.) .. that it will save China many an outburst if for any reason the local Chinese of· among her people, with the bitter conficial refuse to allow United States citi- sequences of indemnity and punishment zens to rent or purchase property desired necessary after every riot; and it will by them~ it shall be obligatory upon him protect the lives and property of many to negotiate for them the rent or pur- of your fellow-citizens resident in the cliase of other eligible property as near as interior of China. practicable to that originally desired."
Let it be distinctly stated, .. that as The American Tract Society bas for a Chinese subject so for an American citizen, it shall be legal to purchase passed its threescore years and ten, and property without first notifying the gives to the public a very brief and com- Chinese official; and natives thus selling property to American citizens shall prehensive summary of its grand work.
not be liable to punishment therefor." Summary for the Year Ending March III. To urgently request the Chinese 318t, 1895.
Government to suppress certain widely circulated books, which, if not regularly Publi8hing Department.-The new authorized by the Government, are pub- publications added number 128, of lished by high officials of the Govern· which 62 are volumes; 66 have been ment, and in the eyes of the people have issued at foreign mission stations, and all the weight and authority of Govern- only 44 are in the English language. In ment pUblications, and which contain addition to the new publications, many foul calumnies against foreigners and new editions of hooks and tracts pre- Christianity, such as taking out the eyes viously issued have been printed during of persons to make medicine. kidnap- the year.
ping and mutilating children, dishonor- The periodicals of the Society are ing women, etc., with details too re- seven in number. Two of them are in volting to appear in print. These books German and five in English; four are are calculated to greatly inflame the illustrated; two are weekly, five monthminds of the people, and to such pub. ly; the Deutscher Volksfreund, the lications are largely due the riots which American Messenger, the Amerikani8cher endanger the lives and property of Botsc1Lafier, the Ohild's Paper, the American citizens. Your petitioners Morning Light, the Apple8 of Gold and beg that all such books be suppressed, Light and Life. The aggregate circula- and that it be made a grave offence to tion of periodicals has been 2,192,100, be- publish them. Such are: sides 1,615,000 copies of Lig/tt and Life.
1. Record of Ourrent Events in tlw Im- Oolportage.-The 209 colporteurs, emperial Dynasty. ployed in 36 States, Territories, and 2. Notes on 0 hina and tlM West. 3. Sketches of Foreign Oountries. Manitoba, visited 131,633 families, cir- culated 99,137 volumes, and found 14,420 In conclusion, your petitioners would families destitute of religious books, ask you to weigh carefully one all-im- and 5827 families without the Bible, portant fact, that in this petition we are 11,296 Roman Catholic and 1194 Mor- asking no new right or privilege. Right mon, and 36,533 attending no church.
of residence in the interior has for years Gratuitou8 Di8tribution.-The grants been aecorded missionaries by the Im- of publications amounted to $20,936.18.
perial Edicts and proclamations. What They were mainly distributed in con- we ask is that this right be inserted in nection with personal work for souls by plain language in the treaty, and that chaplains, pastors, home and foreign thus all ambiguity and ground for mis- missionaries, voluntary workers, or by understanding be forever removed. We the agents, colporteurs, or members of ask this not in a spirit of hostility but the Society.
of true friendship for China; in the in- Foreign and Pagan Land8.-The cash terests of peace between the two nations. grants for printing at foreign mission Grant this petition, removing on the stations were $8550.47; electrotypes, one hand the books published by Gov- $635 ; total, $9795.84. ernment officials of China with their Receipts and Expenditure8.-Benevoslanders against Christianity and for- lent Department: Donations and legaeigners, and correcting on the other this cies, $84,527.03; sales by colporteurs. fatal defect In our treaties-viz., silence $27,950.54, and April 1st, 1894, $21,- as to right of residence in the interior, 466.06; total, $133.943.63. Expendiand we believe a decisive blow will be tures: Colportage, $26,131.23; district struck at the riots of China and the anti- secretaries, $10,004.39; foreign cash foreign agitation which inRtlgates them. appropriations, $8550.47; publications Such action on the part of our Govern- purchased, $32.799.39 ; sundries, as per ment will save the Government and its treasurer's report, $20,604.46; trust representatives in China untold trouble; funds invested, $1999.76 ; special legacy reserved, $23,019.23, and cash balance, The Wesleyan Church has a member- $10,834.70. ship of nearly 24,000, and nearly 1900 Mission work in New Mexico com- probationers; 15,000 scholars in its Sunmenced in 1866. There are now 25 day·schools; 232 churches and preach- schools, more than 40 ministers and na- ing places. On the Sabbath of the tive helpers, and over 800 communi- census of 1881 there were present at the cants. There are about 40 missionary morning services in 100 places of wor· ship 24,000 worshippers, giving an avteachers on this field. erage attendance of 240 persons to each From the Wesleyan College, Mon- congregation. The total value of the church property of this denomination treal, Canada, May 1st, 1895, we have is somewhere in the neighborhood of a communication, signed Theobald A. $1,000,000. It has also 45ministersand2 foreign missionaries; a high-school and Smythe, from which we print copious extracts. Mr. Smythe takes exception theological college which it supports. The Methodist Free Church has a to the article in the issue of March last membership of 3527 communicants and entitled the "West Indies," finding 371 probationers. The Church of the Disciples of Christ fault with both its accuracy and its has 8 ministers, 1604 members, 1056 honesty; quoting, for example, these Sunday-school and 815 day-school schol- words: "One is wont to think of Ja- ars.
maica as a thoroughly Christian country. The Moravian Church has 6429 com- municants, 5528 scholars in its Sundayat least in the ordinary sense of the schools, 77 day.schools with an attendword. But it is not so," etc. ance of 7311. and an annual revenue of Mr. Smythe rejoins: "I am a native over $30,000 and 17,000 adherents. of Jamaica, and have lived there all my The above figures show that there is life up to within three years ago, and a total membership (communicants), not am in a position to give the actual facts simply adherents of the different Prot- as to the religious status of the island. estant churches, of 131,000; 286 minis· According to the census of 1891, there ters, and 85,000 Sunday·school scholars. was a population of 639,491, of whom (The two first-named churches having the Church of England has a member- a following of nearly 250,000, or more ship of 40,395, au average attendance in than one third of the island's popUla- Sunday-schools of 14,000 scholars, 88 tion.) The actual ratio of membership clergymen, 160 churches and preaching to the island's popUlation, it is clear, is places, 300 day schools, a high scbool greater than 1 to 5. Where is a better and a theological college, a lord primate showing found? The writer takes the and a bishop. The capital invested membership as representing the adhefunds, besides churches and parsonages. rents of the churches as a whole. Sup- amount to nearly $370,000. pose a like reckoning was to be ob· The Church of Scotland bas 5 served in the United States; how would cburcbes, 4 clergymen. 1500 communi· it maintain its title to a Christian nation, cants, 10 week·day scbools and 8 ::lun- when of 70,000,000 souls less than one day-scbools with over 900 scholars. eighth are members of Protestant The Baptist Churcb has its own train- churches? ing college for teachers and preachers; Jamaica is a thoroughly Protestant 57 ministers, whom it supports without iilland, although 200,000 persons were any extraneous aid; a membership of not yet converted. A great portion of over 40,000; 8 foreign and 8 home mis- these (less than one third of unconvertsionaries, for whose support an average ed persons*) are Coolies and Chinese, annual amount of $12,000 is raised; who are very difficult to reach with the Sunday·schools with 2518 teachers and Gospel. " 28,617 scholars; 215 day-schools, with an enrolled attendance of nearly 17,000 Mr. Smythe must have noticed that scholars. both views of the island were prellented The Presbyterian Church has 30 or- in the REVIEW in giving Pastor War· dained ministers, 53 congregations, 20 catechists, 10,000 members, 65 Sabbath- neck's statements. The figures given schools, and 83 week-day schools, with were correct, though the conclusion its own theological college for the train- that all the 400,000 non-communicants ing of ministers. are degraded may have been erroneous.
The London Missionary Society has The information was drawn from what 9 ministers, 9 catechists, 3163 members, was considered a reliable source. 521 probationers, 223 Sunday-school teachers, 31 day-schools with 3005 pu- • The" Statesmen's Year Book" gives 10,597 pils. Coolies ancl Chinese,
GENE:RAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign May, 1843, has increased in May, 1893, Periodicals. to 155 men and women-ordained, medi- cal, and unordained-sent out from Scot- BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, land, besides a Doble band of 43 mis- sionaries' wives. The whole staff of MASS. Christian agents, Scottish and native, is 975, or nearly as many as the congrega- UNITED KINGDOM. tions of the Church in Scotland. These are at work in India, South Arabia and -" In connection with the jubilee of Syria; in Cape Colony, Natal and Britthe Free Church of Scotland, and con- ish Central Africa; and in the New trasting 1893 with 1843, Dr. George Hebrides group in the Pacific Ocean.' .. Smith thus writes in the Free 0 lturclt -The Ohronicle. oj Scotland Monthly: 'The sum raised by the old historic Church of Scotland, -The following clear statement, in after Dr. Duff's personal efforts for vindication of the Free Church of Scotnearly five years, was not above £8000 land against the haughty and impUdent in the year befote the Disruption. The falsifications of the Times, is from the Free Church of Scotland began, in 1843, Harvest Field of Madras, and from the with only £321 in its treasury to sup- pen of the Rev. E. Monteith Macphail, port thirteen missionaries, their fami- M.A., B.D. : "Scotsmen are sometimes lies, and the native assistants, and to laughed at for their fondness for theobuild, and equip colleges, schools, and logical controversy, and persons who native churches. Such was the loyalty have no small admiration for their own to Christ of that generation of its work- intellectual acuteness in other matters, ers, and such the catholic sympathy of often profess that they cannot fathom evangelical Christians in India (led by the mysteries of Scottish ecclesiastical Sir William Muir), in America, and politics. There is really but little diffiother lands, that the Indian mission culty in understanding the church hisstarted almost full fledged as to the tory of Scotland; but some of those who finance, no less than as to the spiritual profess to speak as authorities do make staff of missionaries and converts. lamentable exhibitions of their igno- These fifty years have seen the pre-Dis- rance and their prejudices. Thus the ruption £8000 increase to £13,433 in Times, in its article on the jubilee, with 1843-44, and now to upward of £108,000 the faculty for misrepresentation that it a year from all sources, of which £18,- so skilfully combines with a tone of 209 alone is from the collections of com- omniscience, states for the benefit of its municants in Scotland. The missions readers that the controversy of 1843, possess sums amounting to about £142,- 'on the ecclesiastical side was a strug- 000, capitalized chiefly by the donors to gle for the maintenance of priestly asendow certain stations and meet the re- cendancy,' and that 'all the jargon pairs of buildings, besides annual en- about spiritual freedom and the headdowments of at least ten missionaries' ship of Christ meant really the consalaries. This is exclusive of the mis- tinual tyranny of the Kirk Session, and sionaries' part of the Widows' and Or- the uncontrolled interference of the minphans' Fund. Of the sum of £108,004 ister in all that concerned the life of the raised and spent last year on the mis- people. ' Misrepresentation could not sions, two thirds were from Scotland go farther. It was 'the rights of the and one third from the countries in Christian people,' and not those of the which the missionaries labor. The personal staff of 13 Indian missionaries in
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
clergy, that the Church of Scotland pastor. Here, instead of an exaggera- championed in the years preceding the tion of clerical authority, as the Timea disruption, and the abolition of patron- impudently asserts. we have a sharp age in the Established Church by the restriction of all authority whatever Conservative Government in 1874 was which invades the rights of the Chris- a tardy acknowledgment of the fact. tian people in the spiritual sphere. But It was just this kind of unintelligent in England. Scotland, the United States, talk. just this same want of perception and everywhere else, there are those on the part of English statesmen, that who, in the name of civil authority, are led to what was at the same time a for depressing the moral and spiritual catastrophe and a blessing-the Disrup- principles of the Gospel to the lowest tion of the Church of Scotland. level represented in the Government.
" The questions involved in the con- Till the second coming of the Lord, troversy that lasted from 1833-43 were Cresar will never give over his efforts to no new ones for Scotland. They have subdue Christ to his own standard, been agitated in many countries, but in whether Cresar embodies himself in a Scotland they have been the staple of king, a parliament, a congress, or a its church's history ever since the Ref- legislature.
ormation. The Reformed Church of INDIA. i:lcotland came into existence not at the command of the rulers of the land, but -In the Ha'l''Dest Field a few months in defiance of them ; and all through since the Rev. J. H. WYCKOFF, of the its career, when there has been life in it, Arcot Mission, has an exceedingly sound it has boldly asserted the independence and broad article on the obstacles to co- of the Church in spiritual matters. operative missionary work. It seems a Christ-to use the old phraseology-is, pity that such a man could not be made it maintained, head over His own house, Pope in India for awhile, with author- and His Church must be left free to be ity to break down some of these obsta- guided by His will. Its contention is cles. Yet as our sharpest missionary summed up in Andrew Melville's fa- alienations are as nothing to the cat-and- mous saying to James VI., that there dog fights of Jesuit and Dominican in were two kings in Scotland, King James China, which the utmost power of and King Jesus. At times, perhl1,ps, Rome could not appease, we may, on the Church may have intruded into re- the whole, be content with our Prot- gions where it had no business to go, estant way of depending on the gradual but, in the main, it fought only for its increase of brotherhood for the removal undeniable rights. The form that State of the obstacles. lir. Wyckoff says: interference took might vary. It might "The first hindrance to co·operative order, at one time, certain ceremonies work which naturally suggests itself is to be performed or certain festivals to that which arises from our denomina- be celebrated, or, at another time, cer_ tional differences. Whether the exist- tain doctrines to be believed or a par- ence of so many divisions in the Church ticular form of Church government to of Christ is fraught with more good be adopted; but the Church consistent- than evil, I am not now to consider_ ly and steadfastly refused to acknowl- That such divisions, however, with the edge the right of the State to dictate to narrowness and traditionalism that they it in religious matters." encourage, interpose a mighty barrier It must be remembered that the to union in mission work, no one of us French Church came out in 1843 in probably in his calmer moments will vindication of the principle that the deny. For while each denomination laity are not to be coerced by session, loyally holds to the cardinal principles presbytery, synod, assembly, or State, of our faith, each with equal loyalty into the acceptance of an unacceptable emphasizes its own distinctive doctrines
GENERAL MISSIONA.RY INTELLIGENCE
and polity. and conscientiously labors various mission boards_ Nor can we to promote them. I do not know wbat missionaries prevent this, even if we may be the case in other countries, but would. So long as we receive our supin A.merica the rivalry that exists among port from and retain our connection the various cllUrcll extension boards is with the home churches, so long must often most ullseemly. It would be al· we reflect more or lesi the spirit that most amm,;ug, if it were not 60 sad. to there prevails. Not one of us is a free see the representatives of some balf-a- agent in the matter. The question put dozen churches contending for priority at the London Missionary Conference in establiilhing their particular organi· by a missionary brotber when this subzations in some new colony in the West· ject was under discussion is quite to the ern or Soutbern States. It is no un· point. 'Suppose,' he asked, ' your miscommon thing to find from six to eight sionaries out in tbe field set about carrychurches in a community not large ing all this good advice into practice, enough decently to support one, and will you sustain them?' However much each of these churches dependent in we missionaries may desire to co·operturn upon its respective missionary ate in our work, we can scarcely take board. I have recently spent a number so much as a single step without the of years at home, during two of which sanction of our own board." I was engaged as a missionary under the Presbyterian Domestic Board, and !Ir. Wyckoff then remarks upon the I know whereof I affirm when I state divergencies. sometimes becoming anthat thousands of dollars are literally tagonisms, of nationality, and on the wasted in America simply to gratify frequent exaggeration of Protestant in· denominational pride and sectarian sen· dividualism into "conscientious obsti· tlment. How this immense waste can nacy." On the other hand, be points be prevented, and the result consocved out various noble examples of missionfor sending bread to the millions in ary co-operation, conspicuous among pagan lands, is a question that has often them being tbe Young lIen's Christian been before our Cburch councils; but A.ssociation, "with branches in every no plan of co-operation has yet proved part of the world, uniting young men in successful; and, in the mean time, each the freshness of their manhood into denomination goes on multiplying its closer fellowship, and enlisting tbem in churches wherever some half·a-dozen common work for the Master. Mighty families can be found to subscribe to its as has been the influence of this associa· creed. tion during the last fifty years, its power is to become even greater in the future, ., 'Wbile our foreign mission boards and with its vigorous sister organiza· are organized on a broader basis, yet tion, the Christian Endeavor Society, it even they cannot escape being infestlid is destined to encircle tbe whole earth with the contagion tbat surrounds them. with the network of its associations, and No nobler body of men can be found to bring the youth of every clime in than those who as a rule compose our closer touch with Christ and with one various mission boards, Yet not one another." of them can forget that he represents a particular church, whose interests he is AfteI speaking of various excellent bound to consider. A stream will not examples of missionary union in China rise higber than its source, and hence and Japan, lir. Wyckoff adds: "But we see the same divisions that exist at there is no need of OUI' going so far bome carried into heathen lands, and away for examples of union in mission llere in India we have' Presbyterian work. Here in !Iadras we have a magcburches,' •Episcopalian seminaries,' nificent specimen of co·operation in the • Baptist colleges,' and • :Methodist Cbristian College, which, thougb found· printing presses,' all supported by our ed by the Free ChUI'cb of Scotland, is conducted now on a broader basis, and
EXTRACTS AND TIUNSLA'l'IONS
receives the support of several societies things that are in sharp contrast to his and the patronage of all. It was a Western experiences. He wants to see noble thought that inspired its present all the graces of the Christian life develhonored principal to make this institu· oped in Indian Christians in a day, and tion the representative of Chriatian edu- forgets the point of Carlyle's fable of cation in Southern India, and only the oak and the larch-viz., that the equalled by the liberal and magnani- , quickest and completest of all vegemous spirit with which the Church and tables is a cabbage.' Jonah's gourd Wesleyan Missionary Societies have cor- grew in a single night; an oak tree reo dially contributed to its support. And quires a century for its growth. How not less interesting and hopeful is the is the tree of the Lord's right hand illustration of co-operation that our planting in India? The London Misnative brethren are affording us in the sion branch"-the writer is speaking of Madras Native Christian Association, the London Missionary Society cenand its able journal, The Cl.ri8tian Pa- tenary-·" is strong and vigorous totriot, which have done so much to unify day. Ninetyyears ago the London Misthe Indian Christians and develop among sion had not a single Indian Christian; them a true esprit de corps. It is matter the number this year stands at 71,350, for rejoicing that native Christians are distributed over Travancore, South bound so little by sectarian ties, and are India and North India. God has blessed able to exhibit a broad, albeit evangeli- the work of His servants-to Him be cal Christianity to their countrymen. the glory."-Rev. W. ROBINSON, in We shall expect them soon to find other Harvest JIlield. lines upon which to unite, which will tend greatly to the further development MADAGASCAR. and strengthening of their community." -Sir Charles Dilke is proposing that -" Ringeltembe described the Chris- France should concede to England the tians he showed to Bishop Middleton at neutralization of Madagascar and some the entrance of the Aramboly Pass in other claims of her foreign policy, and 1815 as ' a poor, ragged lot; , but the life that in return England should consent of the Spirit was in them, and their de- to the neutralization of Egypt. He scendants are to·day strong men in remarks that it is strange that the re- Christ Jesus. They are educated, man- ligious leaders in England should be so age their own church affairs, have been much excited over French aggression in patient under persecution, and compare Uganda and so perfectly apathetic over favorably with any Western Christians French aggression in "Madagascar, which we have yet seen. In South India, too, has more than four times as many Protthe Church has been healthily progres- estants as Uganda. Perhaps the fact sive, but we stand too near it to take in that the leading missionaries in Madaits great perspective; we are making gascar are Dissenters, and in Uganda the ecclesiastical history of the near fu- churchmen, has something to do with ture, and the story will find expression this. as time goes on. -A new high-school for girls has U Bishop Caldwell withdrew his lec- been opened in Antananarivo by the tures on the Shanars of Tinnevelly be- queen. "Three hundred pupils in their cause what was true in 1848 was no spotless white garments, with small longer true in 1878. Over the penin- bouquets of flowers, went out to meet sula changeli like this are silently hap- the queen, walking in procession and pening, and it must be remembered that chanting a song of welcome. On meetcriticism of Indian Christians comes ing the royal party the girls formed in most frequently from the newly arrived lines and the queen passed in her grand mis2ionary, who too often only sees , Jilanjana,' borne by great men of the
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELIJGENCE
court, another walking beside her hold· 1200 by 500 miles, are adapted by cliing on a pole a bright red umbrella-a mate for the white man. In South Afsign of rOYlllty. 'The queen (we are as- rica alone this society has now nine diosured) looked magnificent in her gown ceses lying between Capetown and the of mauve·colored satin, richly embroid- Zambesi as the results of its efforts, its ered and made in the latest European bounty, and its prayers. style. On her head she wore a sort of coronet. Queen Ranavalcna, we are In Asia there are 19 dioceses, ranging reminded, was herself a scholar at the from North China to Jerusalem. The old school. . . . Nearly at the close of most recent is that of Kiushiu (South the meeting the prime-minister made a Japan), founded 1894. The earliest diospeecb, and afterward the queen spoke. cese, Calcutta, founded 1814, has 3081 In a clear, distinct voice, she thanked communicants. The number of comthe missionaries for leaving their native municants in the diocese of Chhota land to work in Madagascar, expressed Nagpur, founded 1890, is 6480. Ranthe hope that their labors would not be goon totals 1083 ; Madras, 16,734; Luckin vain, begged the girls to be diligent, now, 214; Lahore, 248; Bombay, 1183; and appealed to them earnestly to be Colombo, 1263, and North China., 61. Christians.' "-Madagascar New8. In Manchuria and Korea the work is very slowly taking hold. English .Notes. In Africa and the islands adjacent BY JAMES DOUGLAS. there are 18 dioceses; in Australia and Tasmania, 14; in British North Ameri- &ciety for the Propagation of the G08· ca, 21 ; in the West Indies and South peZ in Foreign Part8.-We have just America, 10; and in New Zealand and been favored by the report of this so- the Pacific. ciety for 1894. The gross income for the year amouuted to £122,327 ls. 4d. This society has also a European The year is memorable as one in which work in Malta, in Constantinople, and wars have filled an exceptional place in in various parts of Austria-Hungary, the story of missions. This society has Belgium, France, Germany, and Switza special interest in Corea and in North erland. China and in Manchuria, where all the missions of the Anglican Church are of Baptist Missionary &ciety.-The one its founding; and the like applies to hundred and third report of this so- Madagascar, where the French invasion ciety, now issued, without supplying darkens the prospects. But no quail is statistics in detail, furnishes a general heard from any of these fields-the view of the entire field of operations. brethren in patience possessing their The work in India is still slow, but the souls. In the infant diocese of Lebom- laborers are hopeful, and the indications bo the bishop is arrested by a Kaffir ris- are numerous that the seed sown is seing; while, taking a long step from cretly germinating in many hearts. The this, the youngest diocese, to New- Baptists have now 178 stations in India, foundland. the oldest colony, the mis- the number of missionaries, native and sion shares in the general paralysis of European, being 77, and native evanthe island brought about by the cessa- gelists, 108. tion of the whole banking business and the withdrawal of trade. The Ceylon mis& on has 99 stations, 4 missionaries, and 24 native evangelists. But there are the brighter as well af) Encouraging reports of evangelistic the darker scenes. Mashonaland and work in Kandy, Kalugastota, Kadu- Matabeleland are now in a state of quiet- ganuwa, Gampola, and Matale have ness-regions which, with their area of been received. Numerous baptisms have taken place, and Christian ele- mentary school work has been well maintained. There are also a consid-
ENGLISH NOTES
erable number of inquirers awaiting bap· count amounted to £60,OOO-an increase tism. of £3219 on previous years; but the In China there are now 198 stations, expenditure exceeded that sum, the 21 missionaries, and 53 native evangel- actual debt for the year being £8753, ists. Despite the disturbed state of the which, added to the debt already country, the year has been one of special existing, swelled the defiCiency to blessing and progress. The number of £14,183.
conversions has been LARGE, and there Wesleyan Missionary Society.-An achas been a marked development of ag- count is given this month of the Indian gressive self.supporting church life in district synods Madras, Hyderabad, and the converts. Thus the Rev. Percy Lucknow. Madras reports "a steady Bruce, B.A., of Tsing Chu Fu, in Shan- development of agencies, and in almost tung province, writes: "The total every case a corresponding return in the membership now stands at 1340. Since progress of the people." 'l'he Royathe last report 88 have been baptized, pettah circuit now takes upon itself the and there are now 144 candidates under support of its pastor. In Hyderabad instruction with a view to baptism, be- there are now 501 full and accredited sides 821 other inquirers who worship church-members, with 549 remaining regularly with us." Surely such tidings on trial-a net increase of 48 on the call for thankfulness. year. A Christian community exists of In Palestine there are 7 stations and 1 some 1800 souls. The total number of mIsSIOnary. Among other items is the members in the Lucknow circuit is 586, following: "The little church in Jeru- of whom 440 are English and 146 Indsalem still holds on, and every Lord's ian, being an increase under each head Day they meet together in their dwell- of 57 and 13. The vast area flxtending ing." from Peshawar to Bombay, having been found unworkable, it was decided to On the Congo, Upper and Lower, the form a new district, to be known as the work of the mission has made steady Bombay district, which, in addition to progress. The Gospel is taking hold of Bombay, would take in Jabalpur, Mhow, the people and producing results in Poona, and Kirkee. their lives and habits of a most cheering character. Valuable work, too, has In addition to the above, an account appears of the Oolombo District Synod, been done in translating and printing, which reports a net increase of 27 over and t!tis witllOut cost to the society. The last year. There have been 25 adult press of Lukolela may, therefore, be baptisms from Buddhism, and 19 from designated the Serampore of the Congo Mission. Concerning this press, Mr. Hinduism. The school returns showed an increase of 309 in the number of chil- Whitehead writes: "I have aimed at dren under instruction. economy in the office, and nothing is wasted ; the work is not by any means a drain on the society; IT FULLY PAYS ITS Mashonaland.-The Rev. George H_ OWN WAY, and this point-self-support- Eva has been paying a visit on foot to is always kept in view. Even the books the southeastern Wesleyan stations, sold to the natives are purchased at Mashonaland. The walking done was prices enabling us to cover the cost of great, and careful inspection showed printing them." how uphill and under-manned the work Substantial progress is recorded in was. "I feel," says Mr. Eva, "our the West Indies Mission. Several of native work is increasing in size and the churches have of late become self- importance, and that more men are supporting. The Jamaica churches, needed to carry it on. Our native IItaff, which for long have been self·support- in comparison with the extent of the ing, have now a membership of 36,777. district, is very small. During the wet The total receipts upon general ac- season we cannot extend our borders,
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTEI,LIGENCE
but have to concentrate our efforts on with the Epistle to the Romans. There our present possessions; at the same are now 11 missionaries on probation time. the seMon of I!lickness will soon be studying Arabic at Barking, England, over, snd the time for advance be back besides 3 others who are hoping to go to again. " the foreign field-VI, in all. These, with the missionaries in the field and their The Oollege, Amoy.-At this college helpers in the Lord's work, amount to 28 students have been studying for the nearly 100. native ministry. 16 of them belonging to the Presbyterian and 12 to the Ameri- THE KINGDOM. can Reformed Mission. A knowledge of the Mandarin language is imparted -Duty makes us do things well, said by a native of Pekin resident in Chin- Phillips Brooks; but love makes us do chew. Mr. Macgregor, on whom, with them beautifully. the college tutor, the work of tuition has mainly devolved, tells of the con- -General Armstrong has put this version of a Chinese graduate who spent query, and in his life he gave the Gossome time daily with the students, read- pel answer: What are Christians put ing the Chinese classics. "For more into the world for except to do the imthan a vear he has avowed his belief in possible in the strength of God ? the unity of God and the folly of idolatry. But he did not feel his need of a : -This was the sageconc1usion of the Saviour, and he could not admit the late Dr. Muhlenberg: "The man who divinity of our Lord. Toward the close finds no interest in those beyond his of last year, however. he passed through own family will soon have a selfish an experience which drove him to pray- household; the rector who confines his er, and led to his avowing himself a be- appeals and labor to the work of his liever in Christ as a Divine Saviour, own parish will soon have a selfish conand his acceptance of Him as his Lord. gregation; the bishop who, by absorp- At the Ohinese new year he went home tion in his particular field, becomeR Into visit his family in Chinchew. He different to every other claim, will eoon has thus far bravely stood the trial of have a selfish diocese. Selfishness, when- ever and however fostered and devela confeSSion ot Christ among kinsfolks oped, must eventually work the ruin of the home interest which it attempts to and friends. He has attended the Lord's- serve by this narrow policy." day services, and given publicly in the church an account of how he was led -And the editor-in-chlef of this magato accept the Lord Jesus as his Saviour. zine instructs us that " one of the fore- His avowing himself a Christian may, most incentives to missions is found in we trust, be the means of arousing to the blessedness of giving. Christ spake inquiry many of his friends in Chin- II. new beatitude, recorded and preserved chew. by Pllul, who said to the Ephesian elders: • Remember the words of. the North Africa Mi8sion.-From the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more latest letter of the indefatigable secre- blessed to give than to receive I' The tary of this mission, Mr. Edward II. full meaning and truth of that last beati- Glenny, we learn that the work in Al- tude is yet to be known, and can be giers is hindered by official opposition, known only as thl8 work of missions is and that ~everal bitter articles about the done as He meant it should be done. " mission haTe appeared in some French Algeri!tn new~p!lpers. We are glad to -N'atiTe preachers in New Caledonia, learn from the aame source that Mr. say's the Mi:8sionary Gleaner, after giv- Cuendet in Algiers is working on dili- ing the text, walt a moment to let the gently with his translations into the words settle upon the heart and mem- Kabyle lan~u!lge, and is now occupied ory, and tl;ten they cry out again: .. Christians, do you hear? It is God's woes, which happily are now well-nlgh word. Listen. " And they repeBt the past, it is interesting to recall that in words. 1843 It could be stated that Sierra Leone contained 20 Wesleyan chapels whose -From the following it would ap- wood-work was wrought out of timber pear that the Malagasy are nothing if taken from slave ship.s captured by not practical. A novel but apparently British men-of-war. effective way of disciplining a church choir that did not cond net itself prop- -Missionaries in the foreign field are erly was adopted by a congregation in compeJled to wrestle with some pera Madagascar village. When the mis- plexing questions relating to mora~s sionary asked the native pastor about and religion. Thus, the synod of IndIa the progress in the village, his pastor re- has sent up It memorial to the General plied, "Oh, we are doing well now. ASgembly by a vote of 43 to 10 in favor Those singers cause us no more trouble: of liberty under some circumstances to we punish them for their insubordina- baptize a man who has more than one tion by making them stand with heavy wife. Some years ago a Mohammedan stones upon their heads." with two wives was admitted to com- munion, and another case is pending. -According to Rev. Henry Jessup, It is not a question of allowing a con- "it doesn't cost very much to carryon vert to enter into polygamous relations, foreign missions. A single chapel (Epis- but what shall be required of him who copalian) in New York spends more is found in possession of more wives money annually than the whole Syria than one, and which were tBken by him Mission, with its 40 mis~ionaries, 44 in keeping with a general custom in ex- istence from time immemorial. And preachers, 183 helpers, 26 churches, then more and more the conviction is deepening that the matter of self-sup- 152 schools. " port must be emphasized continually with the utmost persistence and skill ; -Not long since three delivery above all things else, for the good of the wagons of the New York World car- native Christians themselves. ried strange loads one day. Instead of bundles of newspapers piled high, there WOMA.N'S WORK. were twelve baskets heaped with the freshest and finest cut flowers in the -The vote has passed in the Pre!lbymarket, which required six trips be· terian missions of Canton, Shantung, tween the uptown florist'l!! depot and and Africa, as well as of Mexico, that the twelve hospitals. Not that the women shall vote upon all mission quesroses and violets and carnations and tions. The manual Bent out by the Aspansies weighed so much, but because sembly's board leaves this matter to be two baskets completely covered the adjusted by each mission for itself. floor of a wagon. The drivers left their flowers at each hospital door with the -The Florence Crittenton Home and simple message that the World wa!! cele- M.ission, No. 15, was opened not long brating its twelfth anniversary. since in Philadelphia, at 531 Lombard Street, whose object is to foster fallen -Not even yet have many fully colored girls, being the first institution of its kind in this country. Mrs. Charlearned that the Bible societies take lotte Draper WI! the originator of the Idea, and will have charge of the instirank among the very foremost of the tution. Mrs. Mary Conick, the well- known New Orleans evangelist. is maworld's evangelizing agencies. Three tron, and undenominational mission and of the ,;reatest of these sent forth last year on their errand of light.giving in dark: places some 2,000,000 Bibles, or portions thereof. . .
-As a reminder of grievous sins and Gospel meetings will be held every YOUNG PEOPLE. evening. Mr. Crittenton, 'the founder of 15 missions in various cities of the -The thirty-first international con- United States, is one of the trustees. vention of Young Men's Christian As· lirs. Draper founded two institutions in sociations of North America was held at New York. Springfield, lIass., May 8th-12th. Dele- gates to the number of about 700 were -The Union Woman's Missionary enrolled, being the best representation Society has its representatives in China, ever known at an international Conven- Japan, and India, engaged in hospital, tion. 'l'he number of associations rezenana, and general evangelistic work. porting show a membership of 244,077, against 245,809 in 1893; with an active -The women of the Reformed Epis- membership of 116,761 as against 114,- copal Church raised $4533 last year for 088 in 1893. The value of association missions in India and Syria. buildings and real estate, deducting debt, is $13,439,555 as against $11,316,- -The Cumberland Presbyterian wom· 180 in 1893. The receipts were $75,218 en raised $15,267 for missions in 1874. last year, of which $18,535 were for and with it gave aid and comfort to toil- work in Japan, India, Brazil, and Mexers in Japan, Mexico, and among the ico. Chinese of California.
-The Presbyterian women of Canada -The Y. M. C. A.. of Philadelphia work through a society which has 585 has become the fortunate possessor of a auxiliaries and 250 mission bands, raised farm of 465 acres, part of it timber land, $42,911 last year, and expended that with three farm-houses. a supply of examount in China, India, New Hebrides, cellent water, and at a convenient dis- Trinidad, and Manitoba. tance from the city. As a camping- ground and summer resort for young -In twenty-five years the Presbyte- men and boys, where the influences will rian women of the parent Woman's be healthful, the location and oppor- Board have raised $2,690,956, and have tunities are said to be almost ideal. 163 missionaries and 1100 native readers and teachers now in the field. -The Golden RuZe promises the fol- lowing in connection with the July -The Baptist women of the East are meeting of Christian Endeavor societies able to report $92,000 bestowed for mis- in Boston: "To begin with, there will sions last year, and those of the West, be more missionaries from foreign lands $43,278. The latter say of themselves: at this convention than have ever be- " We have on the field 47 missionaries; fore honored one of our international 2 are under appointment; we have 110 gatherings by their presence. All of mble·women, 37 schools, with 2050 the three Monday morning sessions will pupils and 100 native teachers, and 110 be devoted entirely to the one central baptisms are reported." thought, 'The world for Christ.' A.t this time, in addition to the long array -Life and Light for May is devoted of missionaries, a number of men who largely to medical mission work. The have been greatly blessed in their labors value of the articles is enhanced not a at home on behalf of missions will set little by divers portraits of several wom· forth the needs and claims of the field. " en physicians.
-The Congregational Woman's Board – When somebody rashly charged has started a circulating library in the that the Christian Endeavor movement rooms in Boston, and already nearly 100 was robbing the "regular" church volumes are ready for circulation. The prayer-mesting and Sunday evening terms are two cents a day and return service, Dr. F. E. Clark made an expostage. tensive and most thorough canvass for the facts in the case, and found an aver- him the name Kiwichimahkiyu, which age attendance at the Sunday evening means "Prayer Master." He found service of 76 per cent., and at the mid- two small Indian boys and taught them week meeting of 57 per cent; while the to say, "0 God, give me Thy Holy peroentage of .all the church-members Spirit for Christ's sake." They became on Sunday evening was 46 per cent, missionaries afterward, and now there and at the mid-week meeting 28 per are 10,000 Christian Indians there. cent. Of course if an average had been taken of church-members exclusive -A recent addition to the missionary force in Alaska says; "I tind the naof ahristian Endeavor member8, the dis- tives a peculiar people. At times you think you know all about them. and parity would have been still more strik- again you know that you do not. While ing. you are trying to study them they are studying you. " -The Endeavor Society at Muhlenberg, in Liberia, has been the means of -The American Bible Society, at its the formation of 5 others, which have recent annual meeting, reported that done valuable missionary work. The there were during the year 1,581,1£8 societies in Routh Africa have formed a issues of Bibles, Testaments and porunion, of which the well-known author, tions, of which 735,221 were circulated Rev. Andrew Murray, is president. in foreign lands. The total issues to date are 59,955,558. During the last -The children of the DiscipJe year the gifts from the living amounted churches began to give for missions to $59,533; about $20,000 came from in 1881, and raised but $754 the first church contributions; $6000 from indiyear. In 1887 their offerings had grown viduals, and the remainder from auxilto $10,513, and last year they reached iary gifts. There had been lately dis- $23,587. tributed to Japanese and Chinese 148,- 000 copies of the Gospels. -The Presbyterian Church, South, has a Olbildren's Missiona1'Y well on its -The annual statement of the Bapway through the first volume. Both tist Missionary Union shows that the for contents and typography it easily total receipts for the year were $577,- ranks among the best. 842; the debt on April 1st, 1894, was $203,596 ; the appropriations were $564,- UNITED STATES. 200, making a total of $767,796. The debt, thus, is $189,954, a reduction from -Of the 260 cadets at West Point, that of last year of $13,642, of which about one third are professing Chris- amount $9374 is from the Gordon tians; 20 of them being Roman Catho- Memorial Fund. Of the total ampunt lics. In addition to the regular Sunday received, $331,086 was from donations~ morning services under the chaplain, a $77,043 from legacies, and $109,658 prayer and conference meeting is held from the woman's societies. on Sunday evening. A mid-week prayer-meeting is also conducted by the -Out of 5236 Congregational young men, who have organized a churches in this country, 2347 gave Christian Association and reading-room. nothing to foreign missions in 1894. There occurred recently the annual presentation to the graduating class of -The annual report of the American copies of the Bible, the Roman Catholics Board states that New England conreceiving the Douai Version. tributed more than one third of the total income, which was $705,133. Massa- -In Prince Rupert's Land, which is chusetts contributed more than all the the far northern portion of America, rest of the New England States com- 200,000 Indians live. The first mission- bined. The donations other than those ary paddled his way up north in a birch bark canoe in 1820. The Indians gave from New England and New York amount was £271,971 ($1,359,855), or amounted to $144,000, of which $4000 nearly one tenth of all the gifts of all came from the Southern States, and the churches in Christendom for the $125,000 from the West. The contri- evangelization of the world. This same butions from Canada were over $6000. noble society has now on the way a re- inforcement of 10 for the Uganda Mis- "":'The financial statement of the Pres- sion, of whom 5 are women, the first of byterian Board of Foreign Missions of their sex to be called to enter that realm the American Presbyterian Church, of savagery. And well may more labor- North, for the year ending April 30th, ers be dispatched to that field" when 1895, shows that the total receipts were we read of 1000 baptisms in the past $866,378 against $841,553 for the pre- year, of 130 nati ve evangelists at 85 sta- ceding year. The total expense~, in- tions, of 200 buildings for public wor- cluding appropriations for the fields, ship in the country districts, with an church at home and abroad, etc., were average attendance of 4000 worshippers $1,015,757. To this must be added the daily and 20,000 on Sundays (not in- deficit at the begiuning of the year, cluding the capital); and when we find $102,597, making a total liability of that this is almost entirely the exran- $1,118,354. Deducting the income, there sion of the one year 1894, we see the up- remains a deficit of $251,976, which springing of the seed of the Word of through other sources of one kind and God so long and patiently sown, and another is lessened to $174,883. we look back with hearts full of praise to that gracious rain from heaven in the -Not many of our exchanges devote closing weeks of 1893." relatively so much space to missions as the Presbyterian Review (Toronto). In -The China Inland Mission statistics particular, every month it contains a are as follows: Stations, 123; out·ata- page or two of matter setting forth the tions, 105; chapels, 204; missionaries, contents of the latest number of the including 47 undesignated, 611 ; native helpers, including 104 unpaill, 365: MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD. churches, 135; baptisms, 821; com- municants, 4234; pupils in school, (}29 ; EUROPE. 7 hospitals, 28 refuges for the cure of the opium habit, and 26 dispensaries. Great Britain.-The North Afd· ca Mission dates from 1881, and has -The British and Foreign Bible So- established some scores of stations in ciety, with characterIstic readiness, has Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, and taken advantage of the Chino-Japanese Egypt. The latest published statement War, not only to issue a pocket edition says: "We have now 11 missionaries of St. John for the soldiers, but more on probation studying Arabic at Bark' recently a New Testament uniform with ing, besides 3 others who are hoping to it. These new editions are readily ac- go to the foreign field, 14 in all. A few cepted, especially in the military hos- others are offering their services. These, pitals. This society has a very pretty with the missionaries in the field and custom of holding a birthday gather- their helpers in the Lord's work, amount ing for children at the Guildhall. On to nearly 100, and with our office staff the last, which was its ninety-first birth- to over 100." Of the missionaries, 22 day, a birthday cake, weighing as many are men, of whom 16 have wives, and pounds as there were years in the age of 48 are unmarried women. Medical work the society, was cut by a little boy, hal!! great prominence. great-great-grandson of Thomas Charles of Bala, and afterward every child pres- -The Church Missionary Society re- ent had a little piece, not to speak of a o ceived last year an income larger by good tea down in the crypt. The city more than £20,000 ($100,000) than ever before came into the treasury. The magnates were there in their robes, so phia supplied the engines.-TMngs to delightful to children's eyes, and an Come.
old missionary from Fiji made a capital -Bishop Blyth, of Jerusalem, writspeech. There must have been nearly ing to a rector in New York, says he 2000 children present.-Intelligencer. has just received a letter from a lady ASIA. in America, whom he does not know per· sonally, enclosing $5000 for building a Islam.-Anatolia College, Marsovan, permanent hOUile for his" Home for Turkey, has just been granted special J ewesses." He acknowledges the money privileges by a decree of the Porte. with the deepest sense of gratitude, The announcement was made ina cable· recognizing, as the gift does, the fact gram from Minister Terrill to the State that he represents the American as well department. as the Anglican Church in the Holy -In Asia Minor the Mohammedans City. .
are ~eeking the Word of God, but hid· -The Leper Home at Jerusalem con· ing it for fear of persecution. One tains 22 inmates, of whom 8 are Chris- bought the Scriptures in Spanish and tians and 14 are Moslems.
learned the language that he might read -A Jewish colony from Yemen, it In safety. Another walked one hun· Southern Arabia, settled near the Mount dred miles lind paid $1.50 for a copy, of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and there all he could spare from a year's work. learned from Christians the facts of The Syro-Phcenician woman in our Christianity, which were entirely new Lord's time was a monument of faith. to them. A rabbi in Yemen, to whom But another of her nationality reap· they reported, sending a copy of the peared in the land of the Canaanites. New Testament, wrote in reply: "The She walked all the way from this Christians, you say, are pious and Canaanitish land to Latakia and asked benevolent people. We cannot sayany- Dr. Metheny to remove a tumor. He thing on the subject, as we have never told her that she would probably die, seen Christians. There are none in and that her people would blame him. Yemen. As for the book you have sent She !laid: " No, I am a Christian, and us, we never saw anything like it. This many believe as I do. A. pupil from religion is quite new to us, and we have your school went home and took a com· never heard speak of such things since pany of women into the woods and told the destruction of the first temple, and them that there was a salvation for our departure from the land of Isrllel." women, and that Jesus Chrillt died for -Ohurch at Home and Abroad. them, and many believed. Take it away, doctor, I am not afraid to die." -The school opened at the request of After the operation she did die, and her the Jews in Dizza, in Gawar, Kurdis· soul went as sweetly to God as music tan, by a representative of the Ameri· flies from a throbbing string.-Rev. can Mission at Oroomiah, Persia, has S. A. Mutchmore. been closed by the Government without warning and on a trivial and unfounded -An interesting fact has come out in charge. connection with the J afl'a·Jerusalem Railway. Turkey gave the concession. India.-The Rev. James Johnston is France found the capital. Belgium fur· authority for the statement that" India nished half the rails and coal, and Eng. is now the best educated of the non· land the other half. Poland and Switz· Christian countries of the world."
erland sent engineers and laborers. China, with a population of 400,000,000, Greece furnished the cooks. The United has between 12,000,000 and 14,000,000 States shares with Germany the man who can read intelligently, while India, who first surveyed the road. Phlladel- with 300,000,000, has between 14,000,· 000 and 16,000,000 readers, most of on continually increasing, so that we them taught in the modern methods of have about 3000 new inquirers every the Christian world. The various mis- year. To instruct, teach, and guide sionary, tract, and Bible societies print- our large congregations we have taken ed last yearfor India 1,133,115 volumes. care to train up native assistants, of -This testimony, taken from the Mis- which there are at present 19 ordained 8ion GWnM', speaks volumes for the pastors and 322 catechists, teachers, and value of British rule: "She said, in colporteurs…
answer to my question, • My work has -" The pastor of a village church in been among the Telugus in the Madras North India reports that the celebration Presidency. It is only a little mission- of the Lord's Supper in the villages is ary settlement, very far from any Eng- beneficial because it tends to the eman- lish colony or English garrison. There cipation of woman. It would probably have been weeks at a time when my puzzle a European to prove just how fellow-workers were away on journeys, this particular service tends to the ele- that mine has been the only white face vation of woman; but the explanation within fifty miles. Afraid? Never I is easily given. Most Europeans know My color was my safeguard. Where that Indian women eat after the men the English govern they govern. Since have eaten; but foreigners cannot com- the mutiny of 1857 there is not a Hindu prehend the full significance of this fact who does not believe that the eye of the until they understand the native idea Government is so ever upon him that to concerning food that has been touched strike down a white man, though it was by another_ Jutha khana-that is, food at midnight, in the jungle, were to feel left after eating, is only fit for inferior the noose about the neck. It is won- persons and menial servants; and there derful-the safety the English have is no more emphatic assertion of wom- bought in India for themselves and all an's inferiority than the fact that she of their color.' .. always gets jutha khana, that which is -A Calcutta paper publishes the fol- left after the men have eaten. As men lowing: .. Some months ago the home and women partake together of the of a wealthy Hindu family was on fire. Lord's Supper we perceive that this ser- There were nine purdah ladies in the vice most significantly affirms the Chrishouse, all of whom resolved to meet tian idea of the equality of man and their fate in the flames rather than ex- woman."
pose themselves to the crowd which -The Methodist North India Mission surrounded the building. Six of them has 1575 paid workers, of whom 21 are perished and the other three were Europeans and 60 are native pastors ; dragged out by force, terribly burned." 11,847 full members, and 21,204 proba- -One of its missionaries writes to the tioners ; and 15,838 pupils in the schools. London Chri8tian: .. Gossner's mission The baptisms were 6937 last year, of works exclusively in India. In the divi- which 4083 were of adults.
sionof Chota Nagpurof Bengal, among -The following report relates to one the Kols, we have met with great suc- of the stations of the London Mission- cess ever since our operations com- ary Society in the Quilon district: menced there in 1845. Besides this we .. There were 800 adults present, repre- have another field-viz., at Ghazipore senting about 500 families, and the col- and on several stations in the province lection was as follows: Small handfuls of Behar. It is, however, chiefly among of rice tied up in little leaf bags, 352 ; the Kola that the Lord has blessed the eggs, 7 ; large yams, 11 ; small yams, work of our missionaries, there being 14; cashew nuts, 2; laurel nuts, 10 ; now upward of 40,000 native Christians pumpkins, 2 ; arrowroots, 16; British under our care; and the work is going rupee, 1 ; small silver ring, 1; British copper pie, worth about one eighth of ed it, and will be all the better for it.
a penny, 1 ; Travancore copper cash, God is dealing with these nations in each worth about one sixteenth of a His own way, and I, for one, am look- penny, 81; silver chuckrams, each ing to the future with boundless hope.
worth a halfpenny, 36-in all 524 arti- Be prepared for the new era in the Far cles-and the total value was about 10 East. Your missionaries are doing a rupees. This will give some idea of the noble work in the north, but believe me, poverty of the people, and also of their you will soon have a louder call from willingness to give out of their little China, and you will have to obey, finan- store. " cial difficulties notwithstanding. You -The statistics of the Siam Mission will have to enlarge the place of your for 1894 are as follows: Ordained mis- tents."
sionaries, 8; medical missionaries, 3; -The Rev. R. W. Stewart writes wives of missionaries, 10; single lady from Fuh-Chow: "The Fuh-Klen missionaries, 6 ; native licentiate preach- Christians seem, as a body, thoroughly ers, 2; native teachers and helpers, 25 ; to understand that their business is to number of churches, 7 : communicants, spread the doctrine" (i.e., the Gospel) 292; added during the year, 7 ; boys In " as soon as they know it themselves. I boarding-schools, 134 ; girls in boardlng- overheard some of them talking on the schools, 57; boys in day-schools, 69; subject, and they came to the conclu- girls in day-schools, 56; total number sion that not to do so was to break the of pupils, 316 ; number of schools, 15 ; Eighth Commandment, for it was keep- pupils in Sabbath-schools, 257. ing back what rightfully belonged to -The Laos statistics for 1894 are as another."
follows : Ordained missionaries, 8; mis- -" The missionaries are frequently sionary physicians, 5: wives of mis- charged here with not understanding sionaries, 11 ; single lady missionaries, the people with whom and for whom 5; ordained Ilative evangelists, 2; na- they are working. The phrase is often tive helpers, 57; churches, 11; com- used, 'You are a foreigner; how can municants, 1841; added during the you tell what is best for us ?' The year, 305; boys in boarding-schools, Chinese at Hong Kong during the 147; girls in boarding-schools, 135; plague said to the English soldiers who men in training class, 24; children In were cleansing their hands: • Dirt may day-schools, 10 ; total number of pupils, be )ad forforeigners, but it is necessary 316; total number of schools, 7; pupils to the health of the Chinese!' "
In Sabbath-schools, 987. -The March number of The Ol!urch China.-Griffith John, the veteran in Ohina contains some interesting ex- missionary, not long since wrote as tracts from an article on " Medicine in follows of the outlook: " We are, I con- China," by Dr. Suvoong, a Chinese fidently believe, on the eve of very mar- gentleman who received his medical de- vellous developments. The old civili- gree in the city of New York. He says zation is about to break up, and a new medicine, as practised by the Chinese, order of things Is at our doors. Should is in a deplorable condition. If a man it be my privilege to be at home in dies, it is not for want of medicine and 1896, and able to declare the fact that drugs, for the druggists conscientiously the whole of China, not excepting collect, with much expense and labor, Hunan, was really and truly open, and tigers' bones, bears' legs, harts' horns, that the gates of Thibet were no longer etc.! Tigers' bones ground into pow- shut, it would indeed be intense glad- der are used in plaster for internal inju- ness to me. This war is going to be a ries. Bears' paws are boiled to a jelly source of great blessing to China. It is and used as a powerful alterative for an awful chastisement, but China need- the weak and aged. Harts' horns are sawn into thin disks and boiled down that they have as yet but entered the and given for renewing wasted vitality. road to civilization, and warning all that no countenance will be given to -The Chinese have an exceeding any who, through conceit, may offer faith in "round medicine," and hence insult to another itate or injure friendly pills hold a high place In their esteem. relations, especially as regards China.
-Archdeacon Moule, writing of Bud- "The Church of Christ in Japan" dhism, says that in one large Chinese (the Presbyterian Church) has just ap· city alone $10,000,000 are spent annu- pointed a missionary to work among the ally in offerings to the dead, and if the Yeta, the pariahs of this land, a degradsame enthusiasm and devotion marked ed people of uncertain origin scattered the giving of Christians to the work of through the Japanese Islands. The missions there would be little fear of a Japanese hold them in' utter contempt, deficit in our great missionary societies' and they have suffered a good deal of incomes_ He also commends the zeal oppression. Buddhism shuts them out of the Buddhist in his love of prayer. from all hope of a future life. In some It is a Buddhist saying that" prayer is places as tanners, butchers, and hunters better than sleep," and on one occasion they have accumulated considerable when he ascended a mountain in order wealth, but in others they are in a most to see the sun rise over the sea, he found degraded condition, poor, ignorant, the priest going the round of a great dirty, and half naked, given to thiev· monastery below him as early as three ing, lying, and all sorts of wickedness. o'clock in the morning, waking his The new mission is to be established in brethren for early morning prayer.- Usabori, where the Yetaare very miser- The Oh1JJrclhman. able and sunken.
Japan.-" While men slept," intotbe -There is a preaching station in April number of the REVIEW a wild Tokyo just at the entrance to Uyeno statement crept concerning Sunday Park, that was established at the time papers in the Land of the Rising Sun. of the National Exposition, and has Let It be exactly reversed so as to state been kept open ever since. In order to that about every paper issues a Sunday attract people to the services as they edition. chance to be passing by, a verse of the Scriptures is copied on a large sheet of -Three centuries ago when the J apa- paper, and this is suspended in front of nese had won a victory in Corea they the place. Then there is added a nosent home the ears of 3600 victims of tice of the meetings, and perhaps the the war as a trophy of their success. names of the speakers. It is the cus- Now the best steamers of the Japanese tom to select a new text of Scripture for Government are put at the service of each day, and a policeman living just the Red Cross Society, and as much across the street began to notice these Cale is taken of the Chinese sick and changes, and was gradually interested wounded as of the Japanese. in reading these various texts. By this means he became acquainted with the -The Emperor of Japan has issued a way of salvation; and then he went to proclamation outlining the future policy the services and professed his faith in of the Government, which is character- Christ as his Saviour. istic of the spirit of progress Japan has shown since het awakening. Without -Rev. H. Loomis, of Yokohama, has vainglorious commendation of what compiled the missionary statistics for has been accomplished, it states the 1894, lind he finds that the church-memfacts of the war with China, and calls bers now number 39,240, with an addiupon all classes to strive for the purpose tion of 34;22 for the year. The number of laying the foundation of permanent prosperity, calling attention to the fact of misilionaries is 226, of unmarried open school with the assistance of & women, 210; and a total, including French-speaking African, WIves, of 625. There are 364 organized churches, 258 native ministers, and 536 -The latest attempt to enter and other native helpers. evangelize the Soudan has met with crushing disaster. Some young Ameri- AFRICA. cans conceived the idea of making the attempt by way of the Yoruba Country. -Dr. Dunnillg, of the Oongregation- They succeeded, but now two of them alist, with a company of tourists spent have laid down their lives. Mr. Gowa Sunday recently in Assiout, Egypt, ans was found, exceedingly iII and aland writes a glowing account of what most destitute, at Loko, and died three he saw and heard there concerning the days afterward. He had been continuwork of the United Presbyterians in the onsly ill since leaving Lagos. Four Nile valley. others reached Bida, where they were stranded, unable either to advance to -All you need to possess in Tangier Kano as they wished, or to retreat. to enable you to marry is a drum, a There Mr. Kent died, his companions box, and to be able to borrow a mule. being likewise prostrated with illness. Weddings take place after dark. The The whole attempt seems to have been groom sits at home drumming. He characterized by great personal piety drums for ten straight days prior to his and devotion, but not by proportionate accepting the bride. The bride is caution or experience. Bishop Tugplaced in a box, which is securely well, in the gentlest manner, hints as strapped upon a mule. All her friends much. He gives an interesting anecand relatives follow her around the dote of Mr. Gowans: "When the body streets for an hour or two, all the while of dear Bishop Hill lay in his room hammering on drums or playing flageo- awaiting burial, Gowans begged to be lets. They then dump the bride on the allowed to come and kneeland pray by groom's doorstep. the sleeping form; for more than an hour he knelt there in prayer, until I -It is not often that a foreign em· felt compelled to come in and gently bassy is greeted on its arrival in the lead him out. Together they' followed country of the government to which it the Lamb,' now together they sleep in is accredited with such a message as Him."-Ohurch Mi88ionary InteUigenthat which was delivered to the envoys cer. of the King of Ashantee on landing at Liverpool. They were officially. in- -From Banza Manteke, Mrs. Richformed that their king was "not a ards reports: "It is a joy to teach in ruler of sufficient importance to be per- the beautiful new school·house you mitted to send ambassadors to Queen have given us. It is built on iron pil- Victoria," and that, "under any cir- lars, 3 feet from the ground, and furcumstances, Her Majesty could not reo nished with writing desks and forms. ceive a mission from a ruler who, there At the station is a school for women, is good reason to believe, allows and 2 for children, and 17 in the towns. All countenances the practice of human together register 656 names, but there sacrifice. " are many hindrances to town schools. At Banza Nkazi, a chief opposed to -The French governor at Gaboon Gospel teaching threatens to beat and has had an interview with Dr. Nassau kill the children whO go to school. He and Mr. Marling, and the happy result has just put aU children of non-Chrisis a reversal of the injunction against tian parents in the Nkimba, an instituschool-work in the vernacular. The tion where t.hey are' taught fetichism ladies at Benito have permission to re- and every impurity. In spite of all op- position, the chapel is crowded daily with those who come to hear about scarcely fail to note a brief article, with "God's palaver," and 43 of the schol- three illustrations, relating to the tree ars have been baptized.-Baptist Mis· hard by which the heart of Dr. Livingsionary Magazine. stone was buried.. Upon it was chiselled these words by the boy Jacob Wain- -Bishop William Taylor reports that wright, who read the burial service over his Angola rpission has acquired prop- the spot: "Dr. Livingstone, May 4th. erty to the amount of $37,484.31, and 1873. Yazuza, Muiasere, Vchopere. " that the net profits last year, after sup- In the spring of last year E. J. Glave porting the mission, were $762.11. It paid a visit to this locality and took is planted in a region peculiarly favor- photographs of the tree. able to the system of self-support.
-The Huguenot Seminary at Wel- ISLANDS OF THE SEA. lington, Cape Colony, during the twenty-one years of its existence, has -The mission vessel for the New sent out 500 teachers and 40 missiona- Hebrides will be finished in September ries to the farthest parts of South and -a steamer to be called the Day8pring. Central Africa. It was founded by Rev. She will be built on the Clyde, of steel. Andrew Murray, the South African Length, 140 feet; 23 feet breadth of evangelist, and is under the management beam; 11 feet depth of hold ; 3 masts; of Miss Abbie P. Ferguson, a graduate schooner rig; triple-expansion engines. of Mount Holyoke. An etIort is being Ordinary speed of S knots. made to obtain funds to put the institution on a collegiate basis. -Bishop Cecil Wilson, of Melanesia, the successor of John Coleridge Patteson, -The Bishop of Zululand, among the martyr bishop, writing of the island other things, reports as follows in the Malanta, says: "This is such a black gpot. Mi38ion :Field: "Part of· collections It is about 100 miles long and 40 broad, during the year 1894 at St. Augustine's, swarming with people, the bravest, Rorke's Drift: Cash collections, £201 fiercest, most ingenious of any in Mela- 138.6id. OtIertory in kind: 1 horse, 7 nesia. And added to this they are cancows, 6 sheep, 13 goats, 52 sacks nibals beyond all the rest. They are almealies, 2i sacks amabele (Kaillr corn), ways fighting, and among the Melane- 105 fowls, 30 mats (isilebeeli); value, sian islanders they stand alone as those £74 158. Sd." who disdain to use shields in warfare. The Christians were very glad to see -A monthly report of the Johannes- us. They are going through a severe burg Chamber of Mines gives the pro- persecution for their faith, a price duction of the Witwatersrand Mines being set on the head of most of them, for the month of February as follows: and an attack at any time being feared. Mill work, 110,601 oz.; concentrates, Theirs is the only school in Malanta, 7314 oz.; tailings, 4S,771 oz.; other and they form a mark for every zealous sources, 2610 oz. ; total, 169,296 oz. At heathen tribe in the country. For the usual rate of Witwatersrand gold, months these Christians have been in a O.SOO fine, this would make 135,437 fine state of siege, sometimes holding their oz. gold. To obtain this production service with scouts in the bushes, with- 236,425 tons of ore were worked at the out lights, lest they should form too ditIerent mills, which had altogether good a target for bullets. Still, not- 2250 stamps running. The average withstanding all this, they keep brave yield from mill work was 0.47 oz. per hearts. They go to school regularly ton. The quantity of tailings work, with rifles and spears in their hands, nearly all by the cyanide process, was and so keep the enemies at bay."-The 221,552 tons. Churchman.
-Readers of the May Century can ~
The Missionary Review of the World — September 1893
MEDICAL MISSIONS IN SYRIA AND PALESTINE
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVI. No. 9.-0ld Serie8.–SEPTEMBER –VOL. VI. No. 9.-New Series.
MEDICAL MISSIONS IN SYlUA AND PALESTINE.
BY GEORGE E. POST, M.D., BEIRlh, SYRIA.
Twenty.nine years ago Rev. David Metheny, M.D., of the United Presbyterian Church, went to Lattakia. Fourteen years before him, Rev. Samuel Lyde, an accomplished scholar and a refined Christian, had gone to labor among the Nusairiyeh, the only proper heathen in Syria. He had received many indignities and much evil treatment, which broke his health and discouraged him so much that he was obliged to leave after five years of fruitless toil. He was succeeded by Rev. R. J. Dodds and Rev. Joseph Beattie, two lovely and accomplished men, both well known to the writer. They labored for nine years to secure an opening among these heathen people, and among the nominal Christians of Lattakia. Mr. Dodds was an able Arabic scholar, a true Irish wit in conversation, affable and gracious-in fact, in every way as a man adapted to win his way among strangers and maintain his influence when once secured; Mr. Beattie, though less gifted as a conversationalist, was a man of uncommon sweetness of temper, and every way adapted to please those who value sterling worth and a kindly spirit. But although they had preached and talked and taught school, there was almost no visible result, and their long service seemed well-nigh lost. As soon as Dr. Metheny arrived in Lattakia a change came over the spirit of their dream. They took turns in interpreting for him at his clinics, and acting as intermediaries between him and the people, and visiting with him at the houses while he was engaged in the study of the Arabic language. At once those who had been cool before became their warm friends. They were welcomed among the bigoted, and had free access to poor and rich alike, to the people and the officers of the Government. They could now travel safely among the turbulent mountaineers. The fact that they belonged to the Hakim, and the Hakim to them, was a safeguard to them and a recommendation to their persons and their work. As for the doctor himself, he carried a charmed life. An incident in his own language will illustrate this: "Once, while travelling at night, when my horse was out of sight down a little ravine, and my attendant, dressed like a Turkish officer, WitS ahead of me, a compa~y of robbers watching the road accosted him with their secret password: , Where are you going ~' vVell knowing that they would fire on him, I called out immediately: 'What is it to you where he goes ~' They replied, 'Oh ! is that you, doctor ~ 'We have been waiting all the evening for you. The sheikh of the village has killed a sheep for you, and invites you to spend the evening with him.' Of course this was made up offhand. I politely asked to be excused on account of pressing business, hoping to avail myself of his hospitality at some other time. Although I knew that, near by us, a Turkish officer, recently killed there, was hidden in a well, we were allowed to go on our way unhurt." Since Dr. Metheny's arrival, the mission at Lattakia has prospered. On an imposing campus, on the highest ground in the town, is the mission compound, with its group of buildings, consisting of schools. dispensary, and dwellings for tp.e missionaries, mostly, I believe, erected at Dr. Metheny's expense, out of t!Ie fruits of his practice. A most encouraging work is carried on among tho Nusairiyeh and the native Christians, and an era of prosperity has succeed. ed one of discouragement, and barrenness. Dr. Metheny has gone to Mersine, where he has organized a most promising work on the same lines at} that in Lattakia. Dr. Balph has taken up the medical work in Lattakia.
Eighty miles south of Lattakia, at Tripoli, is the centre of the extensin medical missionary work of Dr. Ira Harris. The doctor is one of the mos~ modest and unassuming of men, but an able physician and surgeon, and a devoted worker for Christ. His name is a power throughout all the regior. occupied by the Tripoli station, and, in fact, over the who:e field of the Syria Mission. He has a dispensary and hospit=:.l :n Tripoli, ",here thou. sands of the poor are treated every year, and all Syria is fJ.:Il of the fam~ of his skilful opcrations and his kindly, helpful sympathy. This work alone would be quite enough for oneillan ; hut Dr. Harris frequently makes the tour of his own station, and sometimes of other stations, ger..- erally in company with one or mors of !.hose who labor in word and doctrine. One of his clerical brethr(':Il 'Writes me : ." Missionaries reached a village near evening. It was at the I;)nd of summer. and water was scarcs. The servant was sent to seCllrl'. water for the animals and food for the party, with instructions to pay for everything. He returned to report that no one would furnish anything. Soon, however, it was learned that there was a doctor in the party, and tne people vied with each other who should be the first to bring water, and speedily a sumptuous meal 1Vas prepared and sent from the sheikh'~ house to the honored visitors." The same missionary gives au account of how Dr. IIanis proved the means of cnabling thc missionaries to enter Ehedin. Many years before the elder Mr. Bird and his family were treated with indignity and driven from Ehedin, as were also Messrs. Wilson and Lyons, of Tripoli. In 1886 Dr. Harris was invited to sumlller in Ehedin, owing to services rendered to the wife of the sheikh; and 'in 1882 he and his colleagues were welcomed in Hadeth, a most bigoted centre of Maronitc fanaticism. Thus darkest Syria was opened to the light by the skilled touches of a scalpel and the gentle ministries of a loving heart.
Damascus is the typical Oriental city of Syria. Its large and bigoted population of Mohammedans is practically inaccessible to clerical and educational work. Dr. Mackinnon, an able physician and surgeon of the Scotch Church, and his recently arrived associate, Dr. Smith, have found a way to the confidence and affection of the hundred and twenty thousand Moslems of Damascus, and perhaps an equal number of those belonging to the tributary villages and towns. The hand that has made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and snatched the dying from the grave, pomts steadily to Christ.
On a spur of Lebanon, about 2500 feet above the sea, overshadowed by a grove of fragrant pine trees, is the hospital of the Society of Friends. The physician in charge of this institution, Dr. Besharah Manasseh, a native of Syria, is a graduate of the Syrian Protestant College, at Beirftt, and is a fine specimen of a Christian gentleman as well as a skilful physi- CIan. He is assisted by a devoted corps of English nurses. In this wellappointed hospital thousands of Druscs, Sunnite Moslems, Mutawfl.Iies, Greeks, Maronites, and Protestants are treated annually, either gratuitously or for a nominal charge. The dispenser, who compounds the medicines, is also a native of Syria, and was a pupil in the Syrian Protestant College. This medical charity has done much to soften prejudice and win the hearts of the people of this part of Lebanon, and add to the influence of the industrial school for boys and the school for girls, which are conducted by the same society.
At Shweir, a few miles higher up on the same spur of Lebanon, Dr. Carslaw, also of the Scotch Church, has another medical mission. He is assisted by Dr. IIammam, also a graduate of the Syrian Protestant College. His medical work is a strong buttress to his evangelistic labors and his flourishing schools.
A number of ladies of independent means and devoted piety have established at Ba'aqlin a very picturesque village near the seat of the Lebanon Government, at Beit· ed-Din, a mission in which medical aid is a large feature. Here, as in so many other places in Syria and Egypt, a graduate of the Syrian Protestant College is the physician. Dr.' Ali'Alam-ed-Din gained his aptitude for the work he is now doing in connection with these excellent ladies in the Moslem school of Miss Taylor, of Beirut, where, for the last two years of hi.;; undergraduate course, he gave his gratuitous and able services to the crowds of sick poor who came there to be relieved. It is very interesting to see a Druze, who is still numbered among his own people, co-operating so cheerfully and efficiently with those who are engaged in the work of Christian evangelization.
Six hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea, on the tor-. rid shores of the Sea of Tiberias, is the hospital of Dr. Torrance. Here, in the very region where Christ wrought so many miracles of healing, the bigoted Jews, the ignorant Bedawin, and the lapsed Christians arc approached and won by the same manifestation of love which was given there eighteen hundred and sixty years ago. I am happy to say that a graduate of the Syrian Protestant College has a share in this work also.
The region east of the Jordan has always been a peculiarly hard part of the Syrian field. The jealousy of the authorities is so great that even scientific expeditions are hampered and driven out, lest they should in some way injure the influence of the government in that turbulent district. A few years ago one of the English missionaries was expelled from this region and even from Syria. The schools all through Gilead and Hauran Ilre interfered with and often closer!. In es.Salt, however, there is a medical mission, and through its softening influence on the minds of the people anr! the rulers, this station is comparatively unmolested and its work is prosperous. It was very refreshing to me, at the time of my visit to this town in 1886, to find a graduate of the Beirut College in charge of a work which had done so much to make any evangelistic labors possible in that destitute and benighted region.
Three days south of es-Salt, on the mountains overlooking the Dead Sea, is the turbulent, half rebellious city of Kerak, where Tristram, Grey Hill, and others have been imprisoned and only released on payment of very large ransoms.. A few years ago Mr. Lethaby, an uneducated and poor layman, went there. He was abused, threatened, and would have been killed long ago but for his heroic wife, who, although not having a medical education, had knowledge enough to treat simple diseases, and has so ingratiated herself with the people that they protect her and her husband, where no foreigner, nor even an official of the Turkish Government would be safe. And there she lived and labored for body and soul together, cut off from the world, but in direct communication with heaven.
Not far from the reputed house of Simon the Tanner is a stately stone building, one of the finest in Jaffa. It is the hospital for which the late Miss Mangan gave her energies while living. In the effort to overcome the opposition of the authorities to this most benevolent work, she gave herself untiringly, and died a martyr to her zeal. But the seed she sowed so diligently has germinated, and this fine institution remainr.; a monument to her faith. Dr. Qaiser Ghuraiyib, also a graduate of the Syrian Protestant College, has been from the commencement the physician in charge.
I cannot, in the brief space allotted to this article, do more than allude to the numerous other medical missionary institutions in Palestine under the auspices of Protestant societies. In Gaza, at the extreme southern border of the Philistine plain, is a flourishing work, conducted by the Church Missionary Society. Three thousand patients were treated here during the past year. For a considerable time a graduate of the Beirut College was the assistant, and we are now looking for a suitable candidate from the !!ame to take his place. In Ram-Allah, near Bethel, the Society of Friends have a medical mission, conducted by Dr. Saleeby, who pursued his studies in the Syrian Protestant College. Nearly four thousand patients were treated here last year.
It would require a long article to do justice to the medical work in Jerusalem alone, for the benefit of Jews, Mohammedans, and the nati'e Christian sects. Foremost among these is the hospital and dispensary of the London Jews' Society, which treated 800 patients in the hospital and 40,000 in the dispensary last year. There is also Dr. Sandreckzki's hospital for children, with an aggregate of nearly six hundred of the little ones, whom he has taken in his arms in the name of Christ during the past year. There is also the establishment of the German Deaconesses, under the medical charge of Dr. Hoffmann, with its roll of 8000. The poor lepers are not forgotten. The Moravians, ever ready for the most selfdenying of all Christian labors, have a hospital for these outcasts, in which 22 unfortunates have found that the spirit of the Saviour still survives in his followers. All honor to Dr. Einsley and brave Mr. and Mrs. Schubert for their noble and patient devotion.
At Nazareth, Dr. Vartan conducts the work of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Association. Over sixteen thousand five hundred patients were treated here last year.
At Bethlehem, Miss Preston Taylor, M.D., is practising in the name of Christ. At Hebron the Mildmay Mission conducts a medical work. When I was there last year I was gratified to find one of our graduates in charge of the Medical Department, aided by four nurses, who visit the houses, and take charge of the sick as occasion demands.
Within a fow years the usefulness of nurses and their peculiar access to the sick has attracted the attention of a number of consecrated women of means. Mrs. Meredith's far-reaching vision has looked across a continent and an ocean, and she has met a long-felt want by establishing a Nurse's Institution in Jerusalem, from which she proposes to supply at- ~ndants for the poor gratuitously, and for those able to pay, at very moderate rates. Miss Bouchart, of Damascus, a lady of fortune and largehearted benevolence, personally conducts a most useful work of this kind in Damascus. She has under her direction a native physician, a graduate of the Beirdt College, to treat those cases not otherwise supplied with medical care, and Miss Athill, a thoroughly trained nurse, to attend to this department of the work.
The effect of Christian work is to be tested not only by its direct fruits, but by its influence in stirring up the zeal of others, and especially those who are in any sense opposed in doctrine and practice. The energy and devotion shown by Protestant societies in the line of medical missions has brought out and developed a similar work on a large scale among the other religions of Syria, as well as among the non-Protestant denomina- tion~. DuriJlg the Christmas holidays of 1893 I was called to Semarin, one of the Jewish colonies of Baron Rothschild, of Paris, to see the head of the colony, who was ill. I there became acquainted with the worthy physician of the colony, and with the important medical work carried on in the colonies of Semarin, Safed, and Jaffa, which, although not conducted in the name of Christ, is animated by his spirit and imitates his charity. In each of these colonies there is a well-educated medical man, a hospital, a dispensary, and all sects and nationalities are treated free of cost. Let us thank God that even they who follow not ns or ours ara laboring for the benefit of the poor bodies which are so closely knit to souls.
An incident in connection with this work illustrates the sacredness of the person of the medical missionary in this land. nr. Scheid, the fiscal agent of Baron Rothschild for these colonies, was in Semarin during the time of my stay. Dr. Blyden, one of the physicians of the Safed colony, was also there. The doctor accompanied M. Scheid on a visit to Safed. A few hours out of Haifa the cavalcade was attacked, every person in it except the doctor, not even excepting M. Scheid (himself a Frenchman), was either stoned or beaten, the chest of M. Scheid was broken open, 30,000 francs and all his papers were stolen, and he was glad to escape with his bruise.s and the various injuries of his followers and attendants. Neither the doctor nor anything belonging to him were touched. These lawless freebooters or some of their friends had tasted his kindness, and his person and property were safe.
I am happy to say that there is a Christian medical mission in Safed vying in a friendly spirit with that of the Jews in its efforts to reach and mitigate the sufferings of the people. The medical attendants for many years past have been graduates of the Syrian Protestant College.
In most of the cities of Syria and Palestine the Government supports more or less clinical work for the poor. In Beirut there is such a clinic held by the municipal physician, and a pharmacy has recently been established, in which medicines are dispensed gratuitously to the poor. A hospital for certain female diseases has also been opened at the expense of the city government.
The orthodox Greeks of Beirut have established a hospital and dispensary in this city, and vast amount of good is accomplished by its means. Several of the graduates of the Beirut College have been or are now on the staff of this institution. The Greek Catholics, Maronites, and Moslems have also their organizations for the systematic visitation of the sick, and for the supply of some of their most urgent wants.
The Lazarists, Sisters of Charity, and the Jesuits have clinics, dispensaries, and hospitals, and a comprehensive system of house visitation among the poor. Incited by the example of the American Mission, the Jesuits have established a strong medical college, which is subsidized by the French Government. Did my space allow, I would gladly give a detailed account of these institutions, and of the many medical charities conducted by other than Protestants in all the chief centres of this land. I cannot close, however, without a few words in regard to the institution so frequently mentioned in this paper.
The Medical Department of the Syrian Protestant College is a medical mission of the most prodnctive kind. It works directly and indirectly for the body and the soul. Its direct work is chiefly in connection with the noble hospital of the Klligllts of St. John in Beirut. These knights con- sist of the cream of the German nobility, and their order snpports 43 hos- pitals, of which that at Beirut is the only one ont of the fatherland. When it became known to the Turkish Government that the order wished to establish a hospital in Beirut, the authorities gave them a fine plot of ground, about four acres, on which the hospital now stands. The munici- pality of Beirut alRo pays a considerable sum annually for the support of poor patients, principally Moslems, in the hospital. The Government also gave the order the large property in Jerusalem, where ruins of the medial- val hospice of the old order of St. John still stand. The Johanniter Hospital, at Beirut, consists of a central building, with 63 beds, an outside building for contagions diseases, a polyclinic, where from 10,000 to 15,000 free consultations are given every year, and various accessory buildings, all surrounded by a beautifully arranged garden, and having a grand outlook over sea and land., About 500 patients are treated annually in the wards of the hospital, of which number more than a third are of non-Christian sectR. An open Bible, Scripture readings, personal conversations, and Sabbath services remind all these people whence their blessings flow, and invite them to trust in Christ for the salvation of their souls. The people who thus hear the Gospel are for the most part those who would not otherwise be accessible to missionary teaching. The Sisters of Kaiserswerth (Protestant Deaconesses) are the nurses of this institution, and the professors of the Medical Department of the Syrian Protestant College its medical attendants and evangelists. Each of them has a direct influence of his own as great as his strength and zeal.
But it is the indirect work of the college which gives it its chief importance. It is training the young to carry outward, in ever-widening circles of beneficence the work of the professors. It was impossible to give an account of the medical mH;sionary work in this land without frequent mention of the graduates of this institution. It is difficult to give an idea by statistics of the good done even by those of our graduates who have not become connected with missionary iflRtitut.ions. I believe that it would be a small eRtimate of the service rendered to the poor by our men if we put it at the figure of a hundred thousand free consultations a year, quite outside of all establishments. If we add to these fifty thousand a year in connection with the various agencies mentioned, some conception may be formed of the scope of our work in relieving human misery. It is by no means illegitimate to add to these large figures the much larger number of those who are ahle and willing to pay in whole or in part for
KAMI-No-MICm-sHIN'fO
the benefits received, bnt which never could have been rendered had not this institution been found.
An incident will illustrate the aim of our training, the contagious power of a good example, and the personal devotion of one of our graduates. The young man to whom I allude was educated in the college under the auspices of the Sidon and Tripoli stations of the mission, on condition that he should teach for two ycars after graduation, at a salary of $10 a month. It so happened that at the time he graduated Dr. Harris was in need of an assistant, and he chose this young man for this office instead of that of teaching. He is a man of earnest Christian character, of pleasing address, and has a special gift at presenting the Scriptures in an attractive and striking manner suited to the comprehension of the simple folk who come to our clinics. He has preached Christ to many thousands, the majority of whom are of the non-Christian sects.
As the time drew near for the contract to expire, he informed the doctor that he had received several letters from his brother in Alexandria, urging him to accept a situation in the custom-house of that city at a salary of $28 a month, with the promi.se of an increase at the beginning of the new year, and promotion from time to time, as his experience and ability increased. He said, however, that he did not wish to go, and was ready to stay on in connection with the work, with the moderate addition of $2 a month to his salary, which would then only amount to $12 a month in all.
Not long after this he received a much more enticing offer, as follows: A man of considerable wealth wished to take a large amonnt of Syrian goods to America and open a shop in New York or Chicago. IIe offered to give him a salary of $5 a day for a year, half the amount to be paid down in advance, and the remaining half to be deposited with the doctor or anyone elsc the young man might name. His reply was: "I am not working for money, I am working for Christ. I love to be with you, and I know we are doing much good. " And there he remains, a living example of the Gospel whieh he preaches.
KAMI-NO-MICHI-SHINTO .
. BY A. H. MCKINNEY, PH.D., NEW YORK.
Westerners are often amazed when they read of the number of adherents to some of the religions of the Orient. This is particularly true of Buddhism, with its alleged five hundred millions of devotees. Investigation, however, reveals the fact that there are Buddhists and Buddhists. The Buddhism of many is analogous to the Christianity of the boy who, having been asked how he knew that he was a Christian, indignantly replied: "I hain't a Jew, am I!" It is popularly supposed that in Japan there are thirty millions of Buddhists. The fact is, that in the Mikado's 'empire there is a triad of religions, the rites and ceremonies of which are so intermingled that millions of people may be counted as belonging to all three. These religions are Shinto, Buddhism, and Sorto, which is the Japanese term for Confucianism. We propose to take a survey of the first named, which as the old national religion was called Kami-no-Michi * (or Mad-~u), and is now generally known as Shinto.
There are many ways of spelling this word Shinto, which is simply the rendering in Chinese characters of the words Kami-no-Michi, meaning ." the way of the gods" (shin = god, to = way), and is equivalent to'
the Greek ()eo, },,0Y0G" The Chinese explain the word as follows: shin= spirit, to = the doctrine, and they deelare that Shintc is a form of spirit worship.
So dense is the darkness that enshrouds the early history of Japan that it is impossible with any degree of certainty to tracc the genesis and early development of that which afterward became the national religion of the empire. The drift of scholarship, aside from the Japanese, is settling toward the theory that at least the germs of Shinto were brought from the mainland of Asia. When we know more of the religion of the Ainu, perhaps we may be able to speak more decisively concerning Shinto.
Not only is the origin of Shinto a matter of great perplexity to investigators, but the religion itself has been so modified by its contact with other systems that no superficial observer can tell just what Shinto is. Japanese scholars themselves are divided into hostile camps when this subject is upon the tapis. Foreigners who have investigated the system with the most disinterested motives do not agree in their conclusions, and many of the most candid are the least dogmatic in their statements.
A returned missionary, for a long time resident in Japan, on being asked for some information as to what Shinto really is, replied: "I would like to learn something about Shinto myself." One scholar t de- elares: "Shinto is an engine for reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery." Another t says: "There is good evidence that Shinto resembles very closely the ancient religion of the Chinese." A third § holds that " the leading idea of Shinto is a reverential feeling toward the dead. " "In its higher forms Shinto is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism. In its lower forms it is a blind obedience to governmental and priestly dictates." This is the verdict of Dr. Griffis,1I whose long residence in Japan, and scholarly, unprejudiced investigations combine to give it weight. In fact, it is only since 1870 that we really know anything about Shinto, as writers prior to that time told us of Buddhism, and not of Shinto.
* Japane.oe scholars:nse the term Kami-no-Michi, and not Shinto.
t Ernest Satow. ~ J. A. von Brandt. § Arinori Mori.
~ See" The Mikado's Empire." by W. E. Griffis. He characterizes Shinto as "a Robinson Crnsoe among religions." ~ An examination of the sacred books of Shinto will show us at least the Ht:trting-point from which what may be called the doctrines of the system were developed. Then a glance at the rites and ceremonies of those who claim to be exponents of the system will enable us to ju~e how far those doctrines affect the lives of the people.
1. THE SACRED BOOKS. The literature of Shinto, like that of so mauy ethnic faiths, is a development of the early fables and folk-lore which were handed down from generation to generation by the minstrels. These recall to mind the bards of the Druids, the rhapsodists of the Greeks, the priests of the Zoroastrians, and the early reciters of the Vedas, to whom, respectively, we are indebted for much of what we know of these peoples.
Although some Shintoists are positive in their assertions that there was an early divine alphabet called Shindayi, or God-letters, no traces of it can be found. About A.D. 284, or the fifteenth year of the Mikado Ojin, it is supposed that Chinese characters were introduced into Japan. Soon after this there must have been the beginnings of a printed sacred literature, but investigators have found nothing that belongs to this early date. There is a tradition that the sacred books that are now known to us were preceded by two similar works compiled in 620 and 681 A.D_, but there are not remains of these to substantiate the tradition.
The earliest sacred books that are now available are : 1. The Kojiki, or "Records of Antiquity."* This is a collection of oral traditions which was reduced to writing in 721 A.D_, and now form the Japanese Scriptures. It is also the oldest Japanese history. It consists of narratives without dogma, ethical code, or rituaL The work is in three volumes, the first of which deals with the mythology of Japan, and the second and third contain narratives of the doings of the mikados for about thirteen hundred years (B. C. 660 to A. D. 630) . Japanese historians declare that the compiler was a female of the peasant class, whose memory waR so extraordinary that she could repeat everything that she had ever heard. This declaration is certainly a great tribute to the memory of the female, but it does not tend to increase our reverence for the trustworthiness of the narrative.
2. The Nihongi, or "Chronicles of Japan." This was compiled in 720 A.D., and contains records of the mythological period. It continues the history of the Mikado down to 699 A.D. These two works are written in the ancient language, and can be read only by those who have specially studied the archaic forms of the language.
3. The Engishiki, or "Book of Ceremonial Law." This dates from 729 A.D., and contains many prayers and chants.
In addition to these there is a collection of ancient myths, entitled Koshi Seibun, and a great mass of commentaries on the sacred books. None of these writings can be relied upon for historical accuracy.
*A translation of this work may be found in the supplement of Vol. X. of " The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan." II. DOCTRINES OF SHINTO. There arc many that claim that Shinto is not a religion at all. It. is certain that there is no attempt at any systematic statement of belief, and there is little to help the most careful student of the system in formulating what might be justly called a statement of the doctrines of Shinto. There is not e'en a moral code. The following may be considered a fair expression of what the Christian would call the doc- trines of Shinto : 1. Creation. There is no real creation, only development. Here is a . summary of the Shinto doctrine. In some unexplained way the universe was evolved from a germ which had remained hidden somewhere in chaos. Then came the Kami, or gods. These developed in pairs, very imperfect at first, but approaching perfection until the perfection of the creative prin- ciple was reached in Izanagi and Izanami, who were male and female reo spectively. Using his jewelled spear with which to stir the sea as he stood in heaven, Izanagi collected on its point some drops, which, as they fell, consolidated awl formed an island, to which he and Izanami descend- ed, and which they used as the base of operation in fonning other islands.
Then came the separation of sun and earth. The daughter of the first pair, Amaterasu, l-ecame the ruler in the sun. Meanwhile, disturbances began on the earth, and anarchy prevailed until the sun-goddess sent her grandson, Ninigi-no-Mikoto, to restore order. This required a long series of violent strnggles between the heavenly and the earthly powers, and resulted in Nmigi-no-Mikoto becoming the first Mikado of Japan.
2. God. According to the foregoing account of creation, it seems that the universe came into existence before the gods. It is held by many, on the other hand, that Shinto teaches that one supreme God, from whom all others sprung, had existed from eternity, and that he apparently came forth from between the heaven and the earth when they separated. A second and a third god followed. From these sprung Izanami and Izanagi, who were the progenitors of all beings. 11ms it is evident that whether God is considered as eternally existent or as evolved from less perfect beings, the doctrines of creation and of God are intimately connected. Many scholars hold that both doctrines are evolution pure and simple.
It is true that the conceplion of a supreme, personal God is well-nig~ lost. Many foreigners who have mingled with the people assert that Shinto is practically hero and ancestor· worship. While the sun-goddess is reverenced above all others, other gods and objects of nature are also worshipped. As the representative of this goddess, the Mikado practically occupies the chief place in the system. He exercises both temporal and spiritual power over the people. He is at once emperor and pope.
3. Prayer. There is a vague conception of a god of some kind who is interested in man's affairs. The prayer in the heart is heard. The Mikado prays daily for his subjects. Pray«:>rs are for temporal blessings. The dead as well as the liviug are prayed for. The following, quoted by Dr. Griffis, indicates that together with the belief in many gods there is a recognition of a personal, providential ruler of the universe. "Oh God, that dwellest in the high plain of heaven, who art divine in substance and in intellect, and able to give protection from guilt and its penalties, to banish impurities and to cleanse us from uncleanness-hosts of gods, give ear and listen to our petitions I" Forces of nature and many local gods, such ·as those of the mountains, seas, rivers, wells, and roads, are ad- dreslOIed in prayer.
4. Death. Like the Zoroastrians, the Shintoists will have as little to do with a corpse as possible, because they consider that death is polluting. In both systems the effects of sun-worship are seen in the treatment of the dead, and in abhorrence of all forms of uncleanness. Further on it will be noted how the Shinto priests lost their influence, because of their unwillingness to come near a corpse.
5. Immortality. There is no developed doctrine of the immortality of the soul j but as the Japanese all believe that they are descended from the immortal gods, the inference is that they consider themselves immortal j but there is no dogmatic teaching on the subject. One reason why Buddhism made such an easy conquest oftheJapanese may be found in the fact that its doctrine of Nirvana gave the people something to which they could look forward, while Shinto was silent as to the great beyond. To the ordinary Oriental life is drudgery and weariness, and he has no wish to prolong it. A Japanese proverb runs: "If you hate a man, let him live. " Hence the idea of Nirvana, with its consciousless existence, was acceptable. On the other hand, how can we account for the fact that cows, horses, etc., were formerly buried with the dead, except on the hypothesis that preparations were made for a life beyond ~ Another curious practice that needs explanation in this connection is the prayers which the Shintoists offer for the dead. Sir Edwin Arnold declares that" one point in which Japanese women are above and beyond all their Christian teach~ ers is the tender regard that they pay to their dead, and in the ceremonies, full of a strong and sublime faith in the future life, which they make at their graves. " This faith has its roots in Shinto rather than in Buddhism.
The five commands of Shinto relate to : (1) Preservation of the pure fire as an emblem of purity and Il means of purification. (2) Purity of the soul, of the heart, and of the body. (3) Observances of festivals. (4) Pilgrimages. (5) Worship of the Kami in the temples and at home. The three cardinal tenets promulgated by command of the Mikado in 1872 show how little of religion ther~ is in the system. They are as follows: (1) Thou shalt honor the gods and love thy country. (2) Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of heaven and the duty of man. (3) Thou shalt revere the Mikado as thy sovereign, and obey the will of the court.
III. RITES AND CEREMONIES. Most interesting are the religious ceremonies of the Japanese. From these we learn, if not the doctrines of the primitive cult, at least the popular beliefs of the present time. Here we have to do only with those practices which belong peculiarly to Shinto. We must, however, keep in mind the fact that Buddhism has leavened everything in Japan, and it will not be surprising to find under the name of Shinto some things that should be labelled Buddhist.
1. Purification. As sin is regarded as pollution, the chief rite of Shinto is purification. At first the Mikado ordered public ablutions. Afterward paper figures rcpresenting men were cast into the water. Later still the high priest at Kioto threw into the water an iron figure the size of the Mikado. 'Phis rite represented the cleansing of the whole people. Now the festival of general purification is held twice a year. Besides this there are frequent washings for purification, which, with the ceremonies connected therewith, are similar to thosc of the Brahmins of India.
2. Festivals. As has been noted, the sun-goddess is the supreme object of worship. The hierarchy consists of the Mikado, two ecclesiastical judges, and numbers of priests and monks. In the springtime festivals are held in honor of the goddess, at which these dignities playa most important part. The Mikado is the representative of the goddess. The priests make offerings of fish, rice, etc. Ceremonies in imitation of planting and sowing are held.
3. Pilgrimages. Each district now has its own deity and its own temple j but there is a most sacred temple (or several of them) in the Province of Ise. This was built in honor of the sun-goddess, and to it all Shintoists make at least one pilgrimage during their lifetime. The more pilgrimages that can be made the better. The Shintoists believe that the gods of Ise have more than once saved Japan from destruction. When Perry anchored his fleet in the Bay of Yeddo, "orders were sent by the imperial court to the Shinto priest at Ise to offer up prayers for the sweeping away of the barbarians."* 4. Marriage. The marriage rites and relations are held to be under the direct patronage of Izanagi and Izanami. It is deemed most unlucky for a Buddhist priest to officiate at a wedding. A Japanese has but one lawful wife, but he may have as many concubines as the size of his purse will allow. While in ancient times polygamy was common, now the great majority of the people are monogamists.
5. Hero-worship. By decree of the government, semi-diville honors are conferred on the dead. Statues of poets, orators, and famous meu are placed in the temples and regarded with reverence.
Idols are now worshipped, but this is due to the influence of Buddhism. Keeping in mind the fact that the first Mikado was a god, and * Griftls. quoting a native annalist. that his successors are regarded as descendants of the gods, it is not strange that reverence is paid to them. Add to these the large number who have been deified, and one can imagine what an intricate and complex system of hero worship has been developed.
IV. MYTHS. Of these there is no laek. The most interesting of them is that of the sun-goddess. As this myth lies at the basis of Shinto, we give a condensed statement of it. Izanagi and Izanami produced a most beautiful daughter, resplendent and glorious. While she was embroidering beautiful textures her mischievous and wicked younger brother spoiled her work by covering it with defilement. The maiden, displeased, withdrew into a dark cave and left the world in darkness. After long deliberationsamong the eight hundred thousand gods, three stratagems were resorted to for the purpose of drawing the goddess from her place of concealment. First, another beautiful goddess was sent to dance almost naked before the cave, so as to' arouse her jealousy. Then a large number of cocks were placed near by, so that their crowing might excite her curiosity. Finally, as an appeal to her vanity, a mirror was placed before her cave. These efforts proved successful. Hearing the gods laugh, the goddess opened the door of her place of concealment j as she did so she beheld her reflection in the mirror, and stepped outside to get a closer view of her loveliness. At this the" God of Invincible Might," who had remained hidden near by, caught the goddeOls, pulled her forth, and shut to the door in the rock. The gods then returned her to her proper place in the sky. The meaning of this parable is given by the rationalistic writers of Japan. The maiden is the sun, the defilement is the evil of the world, the withdrawal into the cave is an eclipse, and the retul'll to her original place is the separation of light from darkness subsequent to the eclipse.
The scene representing the rival naked goddess dancing at the mouth of the cave has been dramatized, and has produced a corrupting effect on the morals of the people. After marriage purity is emphasized j but among the unmarried laxity in morals exists to an alarming degree. Much of this immorality is directly traceable to the worship of the sun-goddess, and more especially to the representations of such scenes as the one narrated above. Much of what the Anglo-Saxon considers immorality may be excused by keeping in mind the differences in the moral standpoint of the two races. The sweeping assertion that most Japanese women are impure is unworthy of notice, as it is the offspring of ignorance. On the other hand, it must be admitted that Shinto has lowered the moral tone of its devotees.
V. THE TRIAD OF REUGIONS. Japan, as we have noted, is blessed or cursed with a triplicity of religions, so interwoven, not only into one another, but also into the whole social fabric that it is extremely difficult to determine where one begins and another ends, or how much of an individual belongs to one or to the others. Our study of Shinto cannot be completed without at least a hasty glance at the other two religions. In 552 A.D. the Buddhist priests entered Japan along with a company of learned Coreans, who had come to I'eside at the court of the Mikado. Everything was favorable to the propagandism of the imported faith, and it soon manifested its power in all parts of the empire. Its priests soon acquired an extraordinary influence over the people. A peculiarity of the Shinto faith helped them greatly. That was the teaching that death is polluting. The Shinto priests, refusing to have anything to do with a corpse, would not attend funerals. The Buddhist priests, having no scruples on this score, officiated at the funerals, and by this means gaining tbe ears, and very often the hearts of the people in times of sorrow, were very naturally able to exert great influence over them. The two systems gradually mingled, and for over a thousand years each had such a hold on the people that a very large majority of them belonged to both at the same time.
In the beginning of the ninth century, Kobo (774-835), a scholar in Sanscrit, Pali, and Chinese, a master of the Shinto scriptures, who has been called the Japanese Philo, claimed that he had received a divine revelation from the goddess Toyo. According to this revelation, all the gods of Shinto were declared to be manifestations of Buddha.· Hence Shinto was but a daughter of Buddhism. Furthermore, all the traditions and rites of Shinto were explained according to Buddhist ideas. So flexible is Buddhism that it had no difficulty in stretching itself so as to cover the smallest detail of Shinto belief and practice, and its complete ascendency was assured. The Mikado named this new system "Riobu-Shinto," or ," The twofold doctrine of the gods." There are now from fifteen to twenty daughters as the result of this union. They are really corrupt sects of Shinto.
Meanwhile, the educated classes, rejecting the superstitions of both Shinto and Buddhism, looked around for something to take the place of religion. This was readily found in the cold materialism of Confucianism, whose highly elaborated ethical system appealed to the cultivated mind. This system was adopted by many, and of course promulgated. Its moral code supplied a serious defect in Shinto, but it did not offer to the common people what their hearts longed for. Shinto was in the field to stay. Buddhism appealed to the popular longing for show and ex~itement, and Confucianism tended to elevate the secular life of all.
Thus we have the combination which forms that wonderfully eclectic system, whose inconsistencies and intricacies render it so difficult for the missionary or the student to discover just what the ordinary Japanese believe.
An attempt has been made at separation. A hundred years of preparatory polemic ·literature in favor of the old national faith and the absolute supremacy of the Mikado, the work of trained Shinto writers, prepared the way for the legal divorce of Shinto and Buddhism, which took place in 1868, when the Mikado ordered a general separation and purifica-
n:Al£I-NO-~IICHI-BmNTo. [Septembel'
tion. This, as might be expected, was a formal and not an actual separation between the two faiths. While the form of Buddhism is found in all religious life and thought, the spirit of Shinto abides in the temples, in the sacred books, and in the minds of a class of Japanese scholars who use it as the basis for polemic literature. Shinto, in the opinion of many, presents a stronger bulwark against the incoming of Christianity than does Buddhism, for it is the basis of the patriotism of the Japanese, and will not readily yield to any for:)e from the outside. At the same time, while the influence of Buddhism may be on the wane, she has strlHJk her roots so deeply that an official edict has not driven her from Japanese soil.
It is admitted that there is a wide difference of opinion among investigators, as to the influence of Shinto. Says Griffis: "Left to itself, Shinto might have developed codes of ethics, systems of dogma, and even a body of criminal and civil law, had not the more perfect materialistic ethics of Confucius and the more sensuous ritual of Buddhism, by their overwhelming superiority, paralyzed all further growth of the original cultus." Shinto has had, and in a measure has preserved, the idea of one supreme God. On the other hand, its many inferior gods, its adoption of the rites of Buddhism, and the sun myth with the immoralities connected with the worship of the sun-goddess, have done much to lower the moral tone of the Japanese, so that while they may not go to the excess of immoralities indulged in by ot.her peoples, they have not much positive morality. As a counterbalance to the demoralizing effect of the sun myth, Shinto preaches discourse eloquently and learnedly, on ethical subjects, but little moral power results from their teachings. Buddhism has done more than Shinto in the way of education, civilization, and gcneral advanccment. The latter, however, has one redeeming feature. That is the honor that it has shown to womanhood. The Japanese woman occupies a far higher position than do her sisters of other Eastern countries. Nine of the sovereigns of Japan have been women. To-day, women, as a rule, are respected and cared for. How far this is due to the exalted position occupied by the sun goddess is a subject worthy of investigation.
To the student of comparative religion, for a long time one of the most interesting and perplexing phases of the study of Shinto was that there seemed to be no means of connecting it with the primitve cult or with any contemporary faith. Even such widely separated systems as Druidism and Zoroastrianism have so many points in common that the unprejudiced investigator declares that either they must have in some way come into contact with each other, or that they both retain element.s of the primitive faith. For a long while there seemed to be no link by which primitive Shinto could be connected with any other early cultus. Now, however, there are many scholars whose opinions on the subject are worthy of consideration, who hold that Shinto is closely allied to the religion that held sway in China prior to the time of Confucius. This conclusion is based on the similarity of legends and traditions.
KAMI-No·lIHcm-SIIINTO
What of the future 1 That Shinto will never have any influence on the world at large no one questions. That the political agitations in Japan are sounding the death-knell of the system many believe. The Mikado occupies his position by divine right. The present generation may not question that right in so many words, but it is doing much hard thinking. The seeds sown in the minds of Japanese while attending European and American universities will not be long in bearing fruitage. Japan is experiencing the throes preceding a new birth. Deliverance will come. If the Mikado continues to reign, it will be by the will of the people instead of by the will of the gods. Then Shinto will be a thing of the past, as interesting to the Japanese student as is the mythology of Greece to the American scholar, but exerting no more power over his thought and actions. Until this political revolution takes place, Shinto will retain its hold on the people. This is what one * who has felt the throbbing heart of Shinto declares: "Shinto extends a welcome to Western science, but remains the irresistible opponent of Western religion, and the foreign zealots who would strive against it are astounded to find the power that foils their uttermost efforts indefinable as magnetism and invulnerable as air. The reality of Shinto lives not in books, nor in rites, nor in commandments, but in the national heart, of which 1t is the highest emotional religious expression, immortal and ever young. For underlying all the sllrface crop of quaint superstitious and artless myths and fantastic magic there thrills a mighty spiritual force, the whole soul of a race, with all its impulses and powers and intuitions."
What of Christianity in Japan ~ Shall the Sun of Righteousness displace the sun-goddess ~ Humanly speaking, that will depend on Christendom itself. Japan is watching Europe and America. She has already accepted their arts and sciences, because she has learned their superiority over her own. If Christians can show that the religion of Jesus is better for mankind than that of the Mikado, of Buddha, and of Confucius, that religion will be accepted. One of the greatest obstacles to the spread of Christianity in Japan arises from the reports that are being brought home by the Japanese travellers concerning the unbelief of the intellectual classes of America. If those reports continue, the progress of Christianity in Japan will be impeded. Oh, that the Christians of this fair land would realize that the eyes of Japan are upon them! Oh, that they would show the Japanese what real Christianity is !
As this article is being penned it is reported in the daily papers that Toshi Hoti, the precocious eldest son of the Japanese Mikado, is on his way to visit the World's Fair. The future of Japan may be largely dependent on what he and his companions sec and hear while in this country. Ought we not to be ashamed of ourselves as a nation if this young prince can truthfully tell his people that Christian America has nothing to offer Japan in the way of a faith better, purer, holier than her own 1 * Lafadio Hearn.
KOREA-ITS PRESENT CONDITION
KOREA-ITS PRESENT CONDITION.
* BY REV. JAMES S. GALE, WONSON, KOREA.
This small peninsula presents to those interested in missions perhaps the most startling field of this missionary century. Till within the last decade it was closed and barred against everyone. Even the Chinese, who received, and still receive in Peking, the yearly ambassador with Korea's tribute, know as little as others of the inner life of this people. Since the distant past Korea has remained entirely alone, and has endeavored to work out its way as a nation independent of others. The result has been that she has built up systems suitable for her life as a hermit, which are being subjected to violent agitations now that she has entered the company of treaty-making nations.
At no point in her history of a thousand years has there been such overwhelming force brought to bear upon her cherished customs as at this present time. A war with Japan some four hundred and fifty years ago cost a great deal of life and almost her individuality; but when the enemy withdrew she revived. One hundred years later a Manchurian swoop down upon the capital had even less effect, and with the promise of subjection, Korea went on just as she had for centuries before. But the opening of the ports has rung a knell to ancient Chosen (Korea). The influence that enters through these gates is an enemy that knows of no retreat, so that Korea's standing in her antiquity is only a matter of time.
The present period threatens not only to destroy the established means of livelihood, but also their social systems, leaving nothing behind but the. slavish religion and susperstitions of their fathers.
It is well known to everyone acquainted with Korea that the ordinary native dress is white cotton. It is the most extravagant, and, withal, useless garb that one could imagine for a land subject to extremes as this peninsula is, but it is a dress that carries in every fold of it ancestral associations, and they have learned to think it the most dignified and becoming outfit in the world. Cotton, therefore, is in demand here as woollen goods are at home, and the weaving of this being the most important calling in Korea, has ever given employment to a large percentage of the people. The ports are opened, and in come bales of foreign cotton cheaper than the natives can manufacture, and native cotton-weaving is compelled to give way, purchasers from north to south finding it more to their taste and pocket to dress in 'Vestern goods.
·Work in metal is growing less as well, quantities being shipped in from Japan for the manufacture of pipes, articles as common here as teaspoons at home. Castor beans, that were grown to supply oil for lamps, have disappeared, and a cheap kind of kerosene from Philadelphia does the lighting for Korea. The use of empty kerosene cans has all but anni.hilated the water-bucket and crock-maker's trades. Dye stuffs and dyeing, in .. There seems to be almost as many ways of spelling Korean names as there are writers on the 8ubject. We hope a system oC orthography will soon be established which will come Into general nse. Wonson is sometimes spelled Onesan, Gensan or Wensan. which Korean women excel, are being crowded out by the introduction of cheaper and more attractive qualities from Japan. Axes, kuives, nails, and, in fact, all kinds of hardware are imported and sold cheaper than the native manufacture. Telegraph lines to the four points of the peninsula, while appreciated and prized by the foreigner, are cursed by the native broker and travelling merchant, whose profits have been cut off by this constant communication with the capital. Money has become more and more useless. Rice has gone up to five times its cash value since the open- ing of the ports, and most of the articles in daily use have quadrupled themselves in the same time.
For this reason the native ships his beans and fish away in autumn in order to raise a little money, and thus he endangers the lives of those depending on him during the long winter to follow.
In this destruction of native mealls of livelihood no new calling seems to have arisen by which he can help to clothe and feed his nation. Nothing has been supplied to fill up the vacancy, hence the land is swarming with idlers and petty merchants, who make a doubtful living in handling these foreign goods. The poverty of Korea is extreme j the manner of life and habits of the people such as to confirm one in the belief that they have reached the very lowest possible condition in every way. We look for a change, which must of necessity be one for the better.
There can be no doubt in the minds of any that the resources of the country are great j but as they remain undeveloped, they afford no consolation in existing circumstances. Those who have lived in their huts with them, and have seen their life and surroundings from day to day, have only one picture, that deepens with the increase of foreign trade-a picture of idlene8s and poverty.
Some four years ago, on landing in Seoul, like all other Westerners, I was hcrrrified at the filth, apparent laziness, and poverty everywhere, and surprised at the lack of a single sign of visible prosperity with it all. I was told, in consolation, that the country was the place to see the real life of Korea, and that I would have proof there of the wealth I had heard spoken of. So I resolved for a time to make the country my home, and started for Whang Hai. Before being permitted to proceed to the end of my journey, I was obliged to spend a few days in the governor's buildings at IIai-choo, the capital of that province. Not that the governor knew me, or was in any way interested in my calling, but because I carried a passport from the Foreign Office j and as it is second nature for a Korean to be ,formally polite and hospitable, he had me call on him, and showed me over the government house and official quarters. Certainly I have never seen a more impoverished, tumble-down set of buildings than the liiame governor's compound. Since that time I have been obliged to enter many others in all parts of the peninsula, and they are of a kind, buildings, some of them that were once pretentious, but are now falling to ruins. I found the middle classes, too, in just as sorrowful a condition as their superiors. Living with one land-owner in Whang lIai for three months that year, I had ample proof that there was nothing in that part of the country that corresponded to the prosperity I had heard of.
Then I turned for a year to the far south, making Fusan my home, and visited when I could the cities of that district, where the population is dense, and where I expected to find something on which to hang Korea's national pride; but it was ignorance, poverty, idleness, I think even worse than that found in the north. Kyeng Choo, the ancient capital of Silla, one of Korea's ancestral kingdoms, was in its rack and ruin, but the ghost of what had once lived and flourished. Since then, along with Mr. Moffett, I have seen the far north and east; and if anything, it has been an increasing picture of filth, idleness, and poverty, the entrance of foreign life and trade tending, as we see, only to the increase of the latter.
While China has continued in the main uninfluenced by Western life because of its prosperity and absence of national decline, Korea's financially helpless condition tells how powerfully she is to be influenced by this opening of the ports. The average Korean is proud as any man living, and yet he is willing to adopt almost any substitute that will offer a change and prove an exit from his present condition of misery.
A host of political offices have been created within the last ten years, in order to provide for the new responsibility of entertaining and treating with the representatives of foreign countries. All these mean an increased de. mand for funds on the working classes. The nobility of the capital, whose names, justly or unjustly, have an ill savor in the country, are already, through this foreign influence, fallen into extravagances that the farming and tax-paying classes complain of bitterly. It is the proper thing now, especially with younger officials, to buy all that is possible of the Western world, from steamships, electric lights, and gatling guns, to watches, clocks, and drawing-room ornaments. This may seem a small matter, and yet it tells heavily on a people so poor and sorely taxed as the country natives are. Until ten years ago there was nothing new under their sun on which even unscrupulous nobility could squander the nation's money; now the doors are open, and no one knows the limit to the possibility of purchase. These latter-day extravagances, along with the death of trade and manufacture, have brought the Korean subject to a desperately ominous point in the history of his race and nation.
It has been said by some careless observers that Korea is without a religious system. Statements to this eiIcct have appeared so often in American papers, that there ought to be some reason for the misunderstanding. Perhaps it is because Korea has no religion ap!l.rt from her national life, her whole existence from king to coolie being one complicated system of ancestral worship, that one may easily fail to notice, seeing it enters so subtly into every detail of life.
·While writing this to-night (February 16th)–Kore:m new year's evethere is t.o be found in every loyal household a spread of ancestral food.
KOUEA-ITS PUF:SEN'f CONDITION
Even the poorest puts forih his greatest effort to make a luxuriant display in the presence of the spirits of his fathers. Fruit, rice, meats, distilled drinks, incense, candles, are some of the items on the list for ancestral worship. The natives put off their greasy garments, and, dressed immaculately, sit out the night. When the first cock crows the candles are lighted before the tablet (two walnut slabs fastened together, with an opening between, where the spirit iSlilaid to reside). The worshippers bow, offer drink, and call on the shades to accept their sacrifice. Then when each in turn has made his salutation, they retire from the room and lock the door, in order that the spirits may inhale (as they say) the offering unembarrassed by the presence of the living. Again they circle about and bow repeatedly until the end, when they set to and feast on what the spirit leaves -a dinner that is supposed to bring them earthly prosperity, but which, to all appearances, leaves them disordered in stomach and poor in pocket for many days to come.
New Year's is the sacrificial season, but it by no means includes all. For three years after the death of parents, night and morning 'the children offer food, meat, and tobacco before the tablet in the room where the dead once lived, making, besides, numerous offerings at the grave. From the palace to the lowest mud hut the three years of mourning and daily sacrifice are observed with the utmost strictness. During such time the royal household is occupied entirely with the spirits of the dead, believing that the prosperity of their dynasty hangs on such worship. In the case of the poor people they bring their food, and staff in hand, with lond lameniations (usually purely mechanical), spread it out before their father's ghost. For three long years this endless ceremony goes on, after which period they limit the direct sacrifices to about six important days in the year-the four national jete days and anniversaries of birth and death. A native absent from his aucestral home will walk from the farthest end of the peninsula, if necessary, to be at the grave on the appointed day. Such devoutness in religious service I have never seen even among the strictest Romanists, nor have I read of anything surpassing it among Mohammedans or Hindus.
As far as its being universal is con~erned, I have never heard of any failing to sacrifice except the handful of Buddhists and a few professing Christians. To neglect this is to make one's self an outlaw and an alien to the land of his fathers, "beasts and dogs that ought not to live 1" Last month a Kim went, according to custom, to pay his respects to an elder relative. The first question was, "Have you failed of late to sacrifice~" "Yes," says Kim, "I cannot sacrifice again." "Then away with you; you are no relative of mine-a villain that would mix with dogs and forget his fathers 1" It is quite as much as a man's life is worth to neglect this sacred custom, The time between sacrificial ceremonies is taken up with searching the hills for a propitiolls site for burial. The hills themselves become dragons, spirits, ghosts, and what not, to gain whose favor and fint! a suitable resting-place for the dead is the burden of every heart, for through that alone can they hope for earthly prosperity. Hence praying to the mountain spirits, and worshipping at every hilltop is the outgrowth of ancestral reverence. Shrines or spirit trees are at every mountain pass where travellers bow or make some trivial offering.
In the choice of a grave site there are many points to be taken into consideration. So complicated and mixed are the methods of arriving at a proper conclusion, that a large number of people make a special study of it, and gain tlwir living as experts in geomancy. A grave is chosen on a mountain front, if possible, IJaving two armlike ridges on either hand, one called the dragon side and one the tiger. A translation of a song from one of their ancient books gives perhaps as clear an outline of what is re- 'luired for a propitious site as is necessary : " If men are happy, 'tis because They keep the old ancestral laws. Look to your homes, alld to the dead, And let this ancient law be read !- The tiger and the dragon side Meet at the top, and then divide; No hill behind to topple o'er, The streams meet and flow down before 'i'hree terraced sides to correspond, And sloping front on either hand: Away beyond if there could be Three thousand miles unbroken sea, The favor that such burial brings Would rear the proudest race of kings."
After burial, the native watches as a matter of the most vital moment to see that no one encroaches on or interferes with his ancestral graves. If it becomes a choice between feeding or clothing the living and making some outlay for this resting-place of the dead, they will decide in a breath in favor of the latter. Should a household meet with repeated disaster, up come their ancestor's bones, and are buried elsewhere, thinking thus to conciliate the spirits. From the idea of certain localities being possessed, has grown the belief that there are 'spirits in every mound, rock, and tree. Also from the years of sacrifice in the home comes the idea of a guardian spirit, which is worshipped by food, prayer, and characters posted on the walls. A species of venomous snake so commonly makes its home in the tiles, and is seen winding in and about the roofs of Korean huts, that they have associated him with this guardianship, and one of the commonest kinds of worship is prayer and offering to the serpent. To this has been added a host of other spirits, the guardian dragon, which they worship by dropping food into the well, his supposed retreat. In this guardianship they include weasels, pigs, and nnclean animals of eVflry kind, dividing off to each so many days in the year, making a constant round of religious ceremony. Besides this there are prayers to the spirits at the opening of each Geason for specia: blessing, as well as other superstitions connected with every walk of life. To illustrate: I left on January 9th for Seoul, the capital, which is about one hundred. and seventy-five miles from this port. I took two natives with me-one a gentleman, and thoroughly educated from a Korean point of view; the other a rougil, honest-looking coolie. On the way, one evening this coolie, when drying his straw rope shoes, happened to leave them near the opening of the fireplace. In the dark next morning the cook pushed his shoes, along with the brnshwood, into the fim, and they were hnmed. The coolie announced the fact with a mournful countenance, and the gentleman gave a start and said: "There's trouble ahead for yon." I then asked why, and he told me that to have one's shoes bnrned by mistake is a woeful omen. I said: "But you do not believe in it, do you?" " Believe or not, it comes true for all that, " was the reply. We reached Seoul, and had ouly been there a day or two when my coolie took sick with what the foreign doctor pronounced typhus fever. The old teacher nodded, and said ~e was warned of that the morning the shoes were burned. Such superstitions, confirmed by occasional fulfilment of their fears, along with all the host of ancestral ceremonies, have become the very life and breath of the nation.
Some interested in Korea have thought that there are two religions, one cultured and refined, understood as direct ancestral worship; the other, heathenish throughout, inclnding superstitions and the worship of unclean spirits. Koreans themselves, however, make no distinction; they call it all " kouisin worship," and "kouisin" is a word that is translated " demon" in the Chinese and Korean of the New Testament. They themselves claim that their worship is all of a kind, which agrees exactly with 1 Cor. 10 : 20 : " But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God."
The Manchnrians taking China at the close of the Ming dynasty, even though they adopted the conquered nation's religion, helped in a measnre to stem its tide. In Korea, on the other hand, there has been no hindering power, and it has gone on uninterrupted until at present spirit worship enters into the dress (sackcloth), the language (countless honorifics), and e'ery detail of the government and life of Korea.
The land is dotted over with little temples, reared in honor of those who have been faithful to their parents, more especially after death. In one, erected some hnndred and fifteen years ago near my present horne, there is a tablet with this inscription: "Kim Ik Pin, a faithful son, lost his father at ten years of age. He monrned so like a full-grown man that his flesh wasted away and only bones remained. At seventeen, when the season of sacrifice came round, and there was no fish to be taken because of the summer rains, in his agony he went out, and weeping, prayed by the seashore, when 10 ! n fish flashed from the water aud came falling at his feet. Again we sce his devotion, for fires had snrrounded the mountains and threalened to envelop his father's grave; in he rushed, at the risk cf life, praying the spirits to t'pare his father's resting-place, when down came the rainy season's floods and quenched the fires. Was he not a faithful son ?"
Books, too, that are used everywhere in the schools and taught the children, deal exclusively with the Rubjecll of ~ervice and sacrifice to king, parents, elder brothers, etc. I give here a translation of a story from the "Five Social Virtues," a book known to everyone in Korea who has passed his primer: "During the Haw dynasty there lived a man called Tong Yeng, a citizen of C'heng Seng district. His father died; and Yeng, having no means of giving him honorable burial, borrowed ten thousand cash, agreeing to pay the debt or give himself instead as bondslave. Returning from the funeral sacrifice, he was on his way to slavery, when suddenly there appeared before him a queenly lady, who requested him to take her for his wife. Yeng, amazed, answered, 'I, so poor that I am even now on my way to bond service, why do you ask to become my wife ?' The lady replied, 'I wish to be your wife j. that is enough; your poverty and humble station gives me no cause for shame. ' Thus urged, he took her with him, and the debt-master asked if she understood any kind of handiwork. 'I can weave,' she answered. ., Then,' he replied, 'if you will weave me three hundred bales of silk I'll give you both freedom.' Within a month the three hundred bales were finished; and the master, amazed (in superstitious fear at the quickness with which a whole life's work was done), sent them both away; and as they passed the spot again which had seen their first meeting, she said to Yeng, 'I must leave you now, for I am a woman come from the weaver's star. Heaven saw your filial piety, and being moved with love sent me to pay your debt.' Thus she spoke and ascended into heaven."
It is the teachin~'of Confucius interpreted and added to. The object of it all is earthly prosperity.. There has never been a time that so strongly proves it a failure in this regard as the present, and yet they carry it on with wonderful vigor. All their prayers and ceremony, and hither have they come! Poverty and depression in every kind of trade in answer for their devoutness, and yet spirit worship seems on the increase rather than losing its hold. ,Ve see that the opening of the ports has by no means been an unmixed blessing to Korea. It has meant, in some ways, the entrance of darkness of a deeper kind than they have e,'er known before. This land, destitute of spiritual life as she is of earthly prosperity, is unconsciously holding out her hands for help just now. The natives in their poverty would be willing to give up much of their ancient custom if they could be free as vYesterners are, would even lay aside their dress, which is their glory; would accept a ,Vestern form of government and a Western gospel, providing they could make more money out of it and sacrifice to demons as formelly ; but as a people they take no pleasure in the thought of dr0pping all their heathendom and destitution to accept a perfeet
PRESBYTERIAN MISSION WORK IN KOREA
Saviour. Koreans in this respect are just like people at home; they do not want a gospel that counts worldly greatness of no account and rests wholly on the service of the heart.
What I have wished to give in this paper is a picture of Korea as it stands out before us in the year 1893. It is losing its industry and life, leaving nothing behind but poverty, darkness, and superstition. If Christian lives of faith can be helpful to the perishing, Korea needs them now. The Master has seen the need even better than me, and has sent a companyof missionaries, who are here, as we believe, at a crisis in the political and spiritual history of the country. Besides the missionaries, we have a few praying nati'es, who give evidence of being truly made alive by the power of the Holy Ghost. In Euiju, where Mr. Moffett is, there are some six, he says. In 'Yhang Rai another missionary puts the number at perhaps as many. In 'Yonson and Fusan there are another 11alf dozen earnestly interested. In Seoul there are of course more, but the scriptural requirements of honest labor and giving up sacrifice to demons has thinned the number, at the same time helping, to call forth earnest workers. Some of these natives have given strong proof of their discipleship by hunger, insult, exile, and imprisonment for the name of the Lord Jesus.
It would seem that for no other land are the prayers of the Church so urgently needed as for Korea in its present condition. The foundations on which the ancient hermit sat are slowly but surely breaking up. Pray that there may be many sons of the hermit who will find perfect rest on the Church's one foundation.
PRESBYTERIAN MISSION WORK IN KOREA.
BY C. C. VINTON, M.D., SEOUL, KOREA.
Within a decade Korea has come to assnme a ,prominent position among missionary fields. The several descriptive works which have appeared from time to time have acquainted the public with her chief peculiarities, and the constant increase in the number of tourists that visit her shores is fast dispelling the mystery that for centuries has snrrounded her. The romance that attached to the first missionaries who settled in her capital has given way to a more practical realization of the problems before us, and the fanciful tale of thousands waiting only to be baptized is less frequently told to-day than the narrative of difficnlties patiently surmounted and hopes bright with faith.
The history of a nation's evangelization, we often hear, naturally falls into three periods. First, the missionaries must become established, the language be conquered, the Scriptures translated, a supplementary literature produced, the first converts gathered, evangelists and Bible-women trained, and the Church organized. During the second period the establishment and organizat ion of the Church are perfected under the gUIdance of the missionaries, seminaries are instituted for the education of a minis- try, and the Gospel is carried to every boundary of the land. The third is the period of independence, when foreign control is withdrawn and the native Church left to wage her own strife against the powers of evil.
It cannot be said that Korea has yet begun to emerge from the first of these stages. The tenure of the foreign missionary is still uncertain even in her capital, and the right of proselyting may not soon be conceded him. No one has so far surmounted the difficulties of this most elusive of languages as to attain its mastery. Bible translation is in its inception. Explanatory works have scarcely been thought of. We have few tracts. The native community of Christians is small and feeble, yet includes a dozen or more stanch men. Native workers there are and owned of the Spirit, but needing much more than they have received of doctrinal instruc- tion and acquaintance with the Bible, while the birth of a sturdy, vitalized, self-propagating church can hardly be said to have occurred in the land.
What is being done in these several dire~tions may be learned in part from a review of the annual meeting of the Presbyterian missionarics in Korea, held last January in Seoul. To this gathering were invited not only the representatives of the Preshyterian Board in the northern United States, whose official assembly it was, but also those of the corresponding society in the Southern States and of the Victorian Presbyterian Mission of Australia. In all, twenty-seven persons were enrolled as attending, and scven adults only failed to respond to the summons. Thus, including Dr. Underwood and his wife, who have since returned from furlough, the Presbyterian force in Korea numbers thirty-six workers, nearly all of whom, however, are young recruits less than two years on the field. The seeming largeness of this force appears to indicate, upon the part of our denomination, an appreciation of the strategic importance of Korea, and a resolve speedily to carry her for Christ and to train her captured guns upon the neighboring and more impregnable strongholds of Chma. And, sustained and consccrated by the all-prevailing volume of prayer that rises from these antipodal branches of adherents to one creed, we may surely have confidence that this company will not fail of leading a nation to its Saviour.
The programme of the meeting covered all the range of missionary effort, and included a discussion of many topics of absorbing interest to those present. In reviewing, we will select and expand those which may best convey a true impression of the field to the general reader.
Seoul, the capital. has been the seat of missionary work since Dr. Allen, 'the pioneer of Presbyterian, and indeed of Protestant labor here, made foreign medicine welcome in 1884. It is a city of three hundred thousand, magnificently set among the mountains on the banks of the Han River. Here are held throughout the year a series of quaggas, or government rank examinations, often several in a week, to each of which" resort from one to ten thousand of the literary class from all parts of the country. Here, too, the traffic ann the sight-seeing of the nation centres, so that one who preaches to the transient population of the capital reaches every hamlet in the Jand. Our missior I having reached a stage of development where some of its members have gotten enough of the language to undertake public preaching, and ha"ing grown bold in defiance of government prohibitions, is endeavoring to avail itself of this fact in instituting preaching places and dispensaries in favorable locations throughout the city. Hitherto its efforts have been perforce limited to the foreign quarter, where curiosity brought only a few, and which the mass shunned. Yet the Seoul reports show a steady gam and a steady building up in the faith, which is of utmost importance. Among the women especially has an increased number given el"idence of a clear understanding of the Gospel. What trials in petty persecution some of these suffer no one but themselves knows now.
In the technical view of the mission Seoul station includes also several towns and villages within forty miles, where Mr. Gifford and a native worker have been in the habit of spending a season each spring and fall. They deserve a special mention here beca~se of the gratifying report given of his work in some of them by Mr. Gifford at the annual meeting. Many conversions have resulted, the Holy Spirit has manifested His presence unmistakably, and one region seems to promise the nucleus of the first local church in Korea.
At Fusan, the extreme southern port of the peninsula, work is being carried on by Rev. W. M. Baird and Dr. H. M. Brown, with their wives, by all of whom reports were made. These related largely to housebuilding, for the station is young j but Mr. Baird had made a tour of exploration along the coast to the westward, and he tells us: "The country traversed seemed well tilled and well peopled. Several very large and fertile valleys covered with fields of half ripe grain and growing rice were crossed on the way." "I was impressed that a working centre might be chosen in almost anyone of these valleys as a point from which a considerable farming popnlation might be easily reached." "The leading towns and cities visited were Kimhai (estimated population 6000), Chang W un (5000), Masampoo (15,000 or 20,000), Chimhai (2000), Kosung (3000), Tong Yung (100,000), Yang San (3000), Tongnai (10,000), besides many smaller ones." "Tong Yung is the largest and most beautiful place I have seen in South Korea. Sea and land, hills, bays, peninsulas, and isJandR all seem to be placed in just such positions as to produce the best effect. The land, except when wooded, is cultivated to the very tops of the hills. It is a splendidly walled city, lying at the end of a long penin- sula, across the narrow neck of which runs a strong wall." t, The people are everywhere suspicious, taking us for Roman Catholics, and mostly refusing to read our books or take them as a gift. Though sometimes those who had refused came back and asked for books. Ve received 110 ill treatment of any kind j and at Tong Yung only were we refused a lodging. My heart was more than once touched by the wickedness, the disease, the misery, the stolidity, and the almost utter lack of moral earnestness among the people."
Wonson-or Gensan, as the Japanese call it-is a stilI younger station. Here Mr. and Mrs. Gale have been working for nearly a year. It is the key of all the great rich, populous, half-explored northeast region as far as the Ever White Mountains, and Vladiwostock, in Siberian territory. One passage of Mr. Gale's report will indicate the promise of his work: "Our great encouragement has been from a family of Kims living in a little town, Cheong Chyeng, some four miles distant. They are farmers whom Ko, the gateman, met when out at his father's grave. He told them about the Gospel, and they came into the meeting, and have continued to come since. They have some knowedge of Chinese characters, and although hard-working people, are considered gentlemen." " These Kims, especially the oldest and youngest, seemed from the first after some· thing that would give them rest; and Ko had told them that the' Son Yak' was God's book, and that that would tell them how to be forgiven. Shortly after they gave a proof of belief in a determination to follow it only and to discard even the dearest customs that did not conform to its teaching. For a time they had to endure the ridicule and contempt of even their wives when they knelt at prayer daily, and the commotion they created in their village has not yet quieted. Although they did not tell me, and I did not know of it until some weeks later, in October last, after attending the teaching and asking many questions for some two months, they gathered all their ancestral rags, tablets, and articles of keuisin worship and burned them in front of their house before the village, telling the people that these things meant devil worship, and that they were done with them forever. I had not urged or even hinted at such a line of conduct, so it came so much the better and so much the greater surprise. It cost them the friendship of their native village; but the Lord has blessed them for their sacrifice, and has opened their mouths to talk plainly to their fellow-countrymen-something so hard for Koreans to do."
Pyeng Yang is not yet a station, nor is Euiju. That the former will soon become so is our earnest hope, for it is the gate of all the northwest. It was the capital of an earlier and more illustrious dynasty, and its ruins and walled-in reaches of fields speak of a far larger population than now inhabits it, though it is even now the second city in the land. Its people, though reputed more exclusive, are not less friendly to us than those of any other region; but it is not comprised in the list of treaty ports, and every attempt by missionaries to obtain a lodgment there has hitherto proved futile. Eveu during the past month we have been forced to return the deeds of property recently purchased. But the medical work of Dr. Hall, of the Methodist Mission, has completely won the hearts of the people, and it cannot be long before the officials are forced to yield.
Euiju, near the mouth of the Yalu, on the border of Manchuria, is a famous town of departed glory. Its people have always been friendly, and a number have been baptized, of whom many have fallen away for lack of gospel teaching. 'Ve have held property there for more than a year, and the visits of missionaries are latterly more frequent. Northward again three hundred miles is a region whence has often come news of multitudes awaiting only the act of baptism. But figures proverbially deceive, and these thousands have dwindled under investigation till but a handful actually appear.
The educational work of the -mission was outlined in two reports presented by the superintendents respectively of the boys' and of the girls' school, and in that of the educational committee. These schools are both practically orphanages, although in some instances the parents of scholars contribute toward their support. The number of scholars under instruction is not large, but from among them have already graduated several young Christians of high promise, who in one way or another are doing good work for their Master. It is here the best hope lies for that generation of educated preachers and teachers and their wives, by whom the early Korean church must be erected.
The" Report of the Special Bible Committee" is that of two members elected annually to join two from the Methodist mission and one from the Canadian mission in forming the Permanent Bible Committee of Korea. This body has undertaken the translation of the Bible into the Enmoun, or vernacular Korean. No book has as yet been finally accepted by them, but the four Gospels, Acts, Galatians, and Ephesians are before them, and Genesis and John's Epistles are ready for their consideration. Their progress is necessarily very slow, the tongue perhaps the most difficult living language, and text-books and precedents are wanting; but our representatives report the status of the work as encouraging.
Perhaps the most encouraging presentation of work was in Mr. Gifford's report upon the Winter Theological Class. This class is formed of adult believers, baptized or applicants for baptism, and includes as well the evangelists in the employ of the mission as a selected number of those who are found most promising in the various out-stations. These latter come only on personal invitation from the missionary in charge of their field. To all food and lodging is supplied during the period of their stay.
Let us hear what the report says of their work: "Sixteen men from the country were in attendance upon the class, and two more eame in just before its close." "These helpers and picked men specially invited from Christian villages distributed from Euiju, on the northwestern frontier of Korea to the southern limits of the province we live in, gathered in Seoul the Monday after Thanksgiving, November 28th, and stayed with us till Christmas time. Mr. Moffett and I divided the instruction of the class between us. He had the class at ten o'clock in a course of theological Bible readings. At two o'clock he had a picked class at his home who studied the life of Christ. At the same time the rest of the class, in their room at the school, were reading Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." At 3.30 I had a class in a study of the Gospel of John, immediately following which a devotional meeting for prayer was held." "Mr. Moffett and I both feel very much pleased over the work done by the class. But instruction was a secondary aim with us. We planned and worked and prayed for a deepening in the religious life of the men in attendance upon the class. And in this respect we believe God blessed us beyond our very largest ex· pectation. 'We believe that men came there in whose heart was only the feeling that their religion was only something for them to sit down and enjoy, who have gone away at the close of the class burdened with their responsibility before God to work for the souls of others. "
It was a notable feature of the class that the men formed the habit from the outset of meeting not daily only, but many times a day, at dawn and at midnight, for prayer for themselves, their work, their teachers, their homes, and Korea. At the close of their allotted time nearly all went home with the expressed determination to bend zealous efforts toward en. lightening their neighbors with Gospel knowledge.
Eight years of mission work in Korea furnish the fullowing statistics: Ordained missionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. … 8 Physicians (including 2 married ladies) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Married female missionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Unmarried " " .. .. .. .. .. . …. …. .. .. 3 Lay missionary .•.•……… .' .. , …………… " 1 Applicants for baptism enrolled this year. . . . . . . . . . .. 58 Added to the church …. , . . . . . • • • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Infant baptisms. . • . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Dropped from the roll. . . • . . . . . . . . . . .. ……… . . 6 Dismissed by letter. • • • . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Died……………….. …… …. …… …… 2 Native communicants in Seoul. .•.• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 " " i n all Korea. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. 127 Boys enrolled in school. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . 29 Girls" " . .• . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . .. 13 Pupils in Sunday-schools. . • . • • • • • • • . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 52 Shortly after the adjournment of the meetings the gentlemen who had been in attendance met and organized a council in imitation of that formed by the Presbyterian and Reformed missionaries in Japan. This council consists of all the male Presbyterian missionaries in Korea, and will act chiefly in matters of comity and in the organization of the denominational church. It will apportion territory so that no mission may overlap the work of another, and will advise every worker in matters which involve the common interest. It lays no compulsion upon anyone, and lllterferes in no way with the independence of the various bodies concerned.
The last day of the conference was occupied largely in the discnssion of points of general iutel'est in relatiou to the work. As an expression of the conclusions of those present on some of the questions considered, and as an outline of the policy for the ensuing year, the following series of propositions was adopted : 1. It is better to aim at the conversion of the working classes than at that ot the higher classes.
2. The conversion of women and the training up of Christian girls should be an especial aim, since mothers exercise so important an influence over future generations.
3. Much could be effected in Christian education by maintaining ele. mentary schools in country towns j therefore we should aim to qualify young men in our boys' school and to send them out as teachers.
4. Our hope for an educated native ministry lies in the same quarter, and should be constantly held in view.
5. The Word of God converts where man is without resources j therefore it is most important that we make every effort to place a clear translation of the Bible before the people as soon as possible.
6. In all literary work, a pure Korean, free from cynicisms, should be our aim.
7. An aggressive church must be a self-supporting church, and we must aim to diminish the proportion of dependents among our membership and to increase that of self-supporting, and therefore contributing individuals_ 8. The mass of Koreans must be led to Christ by their own fellowcountrymen j therefore we shall do well to thoroughly train a few as evangelists rather than to preach to a multitude ourselves.
9. The services of our physicians can be turned to best account when it is possible to keep the same patient long under treatment either in a hospital ward or in the patient's home, thus giving opportunity for instruction and example to sink deeply into the mind. Dispensary work is of comparatively little profit.
10. Patients from the country who have undergone a season of treatment ought to be followed up by visitation in their native villages, since their experience of compassionate dealing is likely to open a wide door for the evangelist.
The general impression left by this meeting upon those who attended it was that it marks an advance in missionary work in Korea j in comprehension of the problems"to be met, in methods of dealing with them, and above all a notable growth in the spirit of dependence upon divine help at every turn. The spiritual tone of the devotional meetings and the harmony prevailing in the face of many perplexities were frequently remarked. To the workers the outlook is very hopeful j the task is large, but the preliminary work is well beiun, and in due time the season of reaping will come.
THE LATE ARTHUR MITCHELL
THE LATE ARTHUR MITCHELL.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
Fifteen years ago there were two men in the Presbyterian churches of the West who were everywhere recognized as champions of foreign missions. They held no official relation to the Presbyterian Board-they were pastors-and yet in their church_es not only, but in the cities where they resided, in their respective presbyteries and synods, and throughont the West, their eloquent appeals were heard, and the influence of theirfacile pens was felt by thousands. They were known in mission circles as the " two Arthurs."
Their advocacy of the great broad work of the world's evangelization was so suggestive as examples of what may be done for missions in the pa,torate, that I feel justified in presenting them togethet:, though one of the two is still living. Their interest did not flag when they changed their places of residence; of both the living and the dead it may be said that their missionary interest grew in strength and in far-reaching scope as the years advanced.
More than this I shall not now say of the two; but in speaking more particularly of the one who has received his heavenly crown, I shall only give emphasis to the lesson already indicated, namely, the important relation of the pastorate to the cause of world-wide evangelization. It has become evident as the work of missions has been enlarged and extended that the effort of the whole Church must be enlisted in it if it is to succeed.
The faith and consecration of a few missionary heroes were all-important in the early days as pioneers and exemplars, but now hundreds and thousands of laborers must ,be sent, if we would keep pace with the growing demands of the work. At home also it was supposed to be necessary to commission a few special agents or canvassers to collect the gifts of the churches for the advancement of the kingdom, but now the kingdom is seen to be too large for such methods. Secretaries of the right stamp are hard to find, and when found their time and strength are overtaxed by the present volume of administrative correspondence. The churches cannot afford to employ an adequate force of collectors ; and even if they could, a missionary spirit in the congregations cannot be developed from without. In one emphatic word, the pastor must be the missionary advocate, and every church must be a missionary society, with its own leader. It is not a sheepfold with a flock to be simply fed; it is a regiment of Christian soldiery enlisted for conquest, and the world, near and far, is its field. In this last decade of the nineteenth century the work of foreign missions has just reached this point. Just here is pivoted the question whether it is to advance as the opening fields demand, or whether it shall sink into.confessed inadequacy to accomplish what it has so conspicuously undertaken.
And we find the emphasis of the life and labor of the late Arthur Mitchell centred around this question. As a secretary of a missionary board he was unexcelled in his earnest and eloquent pleas before the churches, but he felt more and more the inadequacy of such official appeals. What could one man do tcward reaching seven thousand churches personally? And when in synods and assemblies he urged upon ministers and elders the responsible work which they alone could do, he knew from an experience of which his auditors were well aware that what he urged was not impracticable. He knew that any pastor whose own soul is enkindled with zeal for the evangelization of a lost world can enlighten the ignorance and overcome the apathy of any congregation, however ignorant or indifferent. Not necessarily can all accomplish the same degree of success that he realized, for not all are possessed of his superior and well-balanced gifts. But so much is attainable by all who are willing to try, that I am encouraged to gather up the elements of Dr. Mitchell's SUClcess, and present them as a conspicuous and valuable example to pastors.
The subject of my sketch, so widely honored and beloved, was born in August, 1835, and he died on April 24th, 1893, not having quite completed his fifty-eighth year. He had, to begin with, a goodly inheritance in his ancestry. His father, the late Matthew Mitchell, was of Quaker descent, and he well represented that gentle, charitable, and benevolent spirit by which the Quakers have been so generally characterized. The testimony of his son was that he did not remember ever to have heard from his father's lips an uncharitable remark in regard to any man. The son's early boyhood was passed at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., though he was yet a mere lad when he entered Williams College, from which he graduated before he had completed his eighteenth year. As a youth he bore a peculiarly frank and open countenance, full of the kindness and truthfulness of his nature, and sure to win at once the confidence and love of those about him. It was a case of perennial youth j for that winning and almost boyish face remained with him to the last. Although a father and a grandfather he knew neither wrinkles nor gray hairs. The dignity of years was not always accorded him by strangers on first meeting him, and ludicrous surprises were often experienced when it was learned that this dark-haired" young man" was the well-known Dr. Arthur Mitchell.
He had not always been a Christian, like those who " cannot remember when they did not love Christ." It was in college that the young student, who had been somewhat inclined to scepticism, was led to accept salvation through the sacrifice of the cross, and from that time to consecrate himself wholly to his divine Master. It was no halfway surrender. He gave his whole heart and life. He did not wait for professional preparation that he might serve God in maturer years. He rose up at once and said: "What wilt Thou have me to do 1" He saw that no better field could be desired than that of his own college circle, and although he was the youngest member of his class, of small stature and boyish-looking even for his years, he went to work immediately to win souls to Christ. lIe laid aside every weight; his sensitive conscience led him to give up his Greek letter society, lest its special relationships should limit his influence with others. One's character may sometimes be older than his years. There is a dignity in deep and honest conviction, be the years many or few; and it was so with young Mitchell. There is no other influence so great as that of personality, and here was his power. He was a successful preacher of righteousness from the start. His peculiar enthusiasm was contagious and magnetic then and forever afterward.
There could have been no better school of practical Christian life than was found in Williams College during the presidency of that distinguished man the late Mark Hopkins. On the spiritual side he was matched by his brother, Professor Albert Hopkins. And this man, who with affectionate familiarity was som~times known as " Brother Albert," was indefatigable in his efforts as well as in his prayers for the spiritual welfare of the students. Both of these great teachers, just sufficiently differentiated, labored not only to make of their students strong men but Christian men.
Many months ago I heard t.he remark, quoted from a college professor, that the chief religious influence in our colleges is no longer in thc hands of the instructors-it has passed to the Young Men's Christian Associations j students are the spiritual guides of students. This state of things was regarded as having its advantages, but also some serious disadvantages. Students get nearer to each other, no doubt, and probably there was never before so much of religious life in our colleges as now; but, on the other hand, there is a deficiency in the element of religious instruction. The chief factor in Association work is persuasion and the help of spiritual sympathy, and there is need of something more than this. It is an age of bold speculation, of uncertainty, and of more or less doubt in the minds of many educated youth. Science is now the fashion, and evolution usurps the throne. Never was there more need that college students should be able to feel the strong intellectual grasp and the steadying hand of Christian presidents and professors than now. At Williams, in Arthur Mitchell's time, there was no lack in this respect. The students felt that in President Hopkins they had as their champion an intelleetual giant, one who had been over all disputed ground, and whose Christian faith, enlight. ened and confirmed, was a tonic to their own. He inspired their love for all knowledge, and he led them over his own fields of intellectual and spiritual victory. Dr. Mitchell to the day of his death never ceased to regard Mark Hopkins as the man whose balanced intellectual and moral greatness had remained to him a grand inspiration He had given sinew and fibre to his convictions of religious truth and had made the kingdom of God seem real and triumphant.
Though having the ministry steadily in view, young Mitchell spent a year or two as a tutor in Lafayette College. He was young enough to wait, and the intellectual discipline of teaching was of permanent value. To this was added the further advantage of travel. With his intimate college fri.end, Charles A. Stoddard, now editor of the New Y:n-k Obterver, he made an extensive tour in the Levant, visiting not only the scenes of Bible history, but also the mission stations of Egypt and Syria. It is easy to see how this personal observation of practical missionary life and work found its uses in his subsequent career. He knew how to picture the moral desolation of non-Christian lands as only one can who has been an eye-witness.
At Union Theological Seminary, New York, where Mr. Mitchell sought his special preparation for the ministry, he combined study with Christian activity, as he had done in college. though in a different way. Sunday-school work, revival work, where opportunity offered, and all forms of aggreCliive usefulness enlisted his attention, and the influence which he exerted on his fellow-students was both attractive and spiritually helpful. One who was a fellow-student at that time has said of him: "His companionship was then, as ever after, stimulating ~nd uplifting. Through all these years my affection and admiration for him have continued. Without reservation, I say I have never known a more earnest and consecrated spirit than his." He was fond of singing, and while in the seminary he was at one time leader of the choir in the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church, then under the pastorate of Rev. Dr. Joel Parker. He has often spoken in later years of the deep impression made on him during his seminary course by the exemplary faith and piety of the venerable Professor Dr. Thomas H. Skinner. Here again, as at college, he was fortunate in receiving a type of instruction deeply characterized by spiritual stimulus. He had sat at the feet of some of the most eminent Christian teachers of the age, and he never ceased to feel the power of their personality.
Soon after graduating, in 1859, he was married to Miss Harriet E., daughter of the late Dr. Alfred Post, of New York, and about the same time he accepted a call to the pastorate of a Presbyterian church in Richmond, Va. He was still but twenty-four years old, but he soon won the full confidence of his congregation and of the community. One of his earliest discourses was what he was pleased to call his" filthy rag" sermon. Using for his text this homely simile, by which Paul sets forth the low value of human righteousness, he brought out the very pith and marrow of the Gospel with such clearness and forCE, that wherever he preached that sermon it was so commended by the best judges tA3t he became more and more convinced that ill selecting the great common truths of the Gospel he had struck the right vein-right in itself and right as a means to success. He believed that those discourses which bear directly upon personal faith and repentance and a godly life are what the people need and what they really desire. Without laying claim to remarkable talent in anyone direction, he yet became a powerful preacher by his rare combination of intellectual, with the highest moral elements. The conscientious study and preparation, the enthusiasm with which the truth filled his mind, the manifest sincerity and depth of his own convictions, the sympathetic voice and manner, the illuminated face, the loving, winning, pleading expression of the whole man-all this combined to make him a very effective preacher. And he was nowhere so effective as among his own people, who, knowing him as a pastor, credited his every word with the emphasis of his godly life. At Richmond the prosperity with which his ministry was attended was soon interrupted by the breaking out of the war. When Virginia decided to join in the Secession, Dr. Mitchell, like so many others, found himself under the necessity of deciding on which side of the breach to stand. Feeling that his true spbere was in the North, he first conveyed his family across the lines, reaelling the Union army just as it was entering Baltimore, on that famous April 19th, 1861, when its passage toward Washington was resisted by the citizens. Sending the family homeward, he returned to his people, but, as it proved, not for long. The issues of war were all absorbing and unrelenting. He was not the man to belie his convictions, and the public sentiment soon reached a point where all compromise was impossible, and the usefulness of the young Northern pastor was crippled. lIe succceded in getting through the lines, though not without considerable peril. The Confederate Government confiscated nearly all his household goods, b~t this did not prevent him from visiting his old flock at the elose of the war or from contributing for the wants of some former parishioners whom the war had impoverished.
In the Richmond congregation, perhaps the most marked improvement wrought by his influence was the great increase of missionary interest. He thoroughly organized'the missionary contributions of the congregation, increasing the total many fold. In his next charge, which was the Second Presbyterian Church of Morristown, N. J., the same result followed. There was no unwise disproportion in his preaching, though he doubtless felt that the world's complete redemption was broad enough and sublime enough to be safely made a hobby. He gave a hearty support to every other form of benevolence, and he aimed in his preaching to win the unconverted and to strengthen believers. As a pastor he was well-nigh a model. Sympathetic, affectionate, faithful, consistent, laboring in season and out of season, he won the love of his people, at the same time that he spurred them to ever higher degrees of self-denying effort for the perishing.
In 1868 he was called from Morristown to the First Presbyterian Church in Chicago. He was yet a young man for such a charge, but he soon rose to commanding influence both in his congregation and throughout the city. His preaching was characterized by great plainness and fidelity j sometimes it was too plain and searching for the worldly-minded to approve, yet all cherished toward him such profound respect for his sincere earnestness and his manifest love for his people that none refused to listen. His ideas of the cause of foreign missions were a surprise to many j the measure of duty which he laid on every man's conscience with respect to the far-off heathen seemed preposterous at first to not a few. There are in every community what are called "hard-headed business men, " who are too wise to invest their money in " castles in Spain," much less in Africa or the islands of the sea. By way of prlltext, they" believe in doing the missionary work that is nearer home," while in reality they do nothing of the sort. But when one, like this Chicago pastor, really girds up his loins for the task of convincing such a class of hearers, when he marshals great masses of facts, appeals to the Bible-Christ's own words; appeals to history-the history of our own once heathen ancestors; shows that all the best civilization is the result of missions; points out the stations which already dot the sea-coasts of the world; arrays the Christian denominations now engaged with one mind and heart in a common cause, and shows how many of every kindred and tribe and tongue have responded to the messages of the Gospel-when he does this not once a year, and perfunctorily, but often, and with all the fervor of his own heart, something very positive must follow. Reluctant hearers will either become convinced, and will recast their personal notions of duty, or they will find a place where conscience may slumber more peacefully. And a church under such leadership will either become a missionary church, or it will find a different pastor. Almost invariably the better alternative is chosen.
More than once when Dr. Mitchell preached on missions, whether in his own or another's pulpit, some man or woman came forward, and acknowledging a new and broader conversion, made amends for past neglect by a generous and sometimes a very large contribution to the cause.
An incident occurred at a later date which well illustrates the way in which his piquant and forcible way of putting things impressed business men. He was pleading for a particular mission in the East for which a missionary was ready to be sent, but was delayed for want of funds. He became so wrought up as he thought of the great wealth and luxurious e~uipages of some of his hearers, that, as a sort of climax, he said: "Why, some of you drive a missionary down-town every morning as you go to business." This startling view of the case had its effect; one interested capitalist leaned over to. another and said: "Let us unite in sending that missionary." And it was done.
But it must not be supposed that Dr. Mitchell's harp was an instrument of one string only. He saw also the moral desolations of Chicago, as well as those on another hemisphere. He loved to preach to the classes who were not attendants at any church, and he finally made arrangements for stated preaching to the neglected or, perhaps, I should say, the selfneglectful classes. He was also too much of a patriot not to be deeply interested in all departments of home missionary work on the frontiers. He understood the symmetry and proportion and the full and rounded integrity of that great commission of our Lord when He said: "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. " If he placed special emphasis upon the " uttermost part," it was only because the vast majority of Christians give it no emphasis at all. He shared Paul's interest in "the regions be- yond" and for the same reason.
As a preacher Dr. Mitchell had peculiar power with worldly men, all the more that his honest fidelity was backed by a blameless and consecrated life. To those who were sincere, though perhaps struggling Christians, there was something refreshing and uplifting in getting away from the toil and care and ceaseless grind of their secular life and listening one day in the week to a devout and unworldly man who made God and heaven seem real and present. 'Vithin the sanctuary and within the sound of that earnest and sympathetic voice there was such a contrast to the wild, rushing, money-making Chicago that was without I In personal intercourse with him the effect was the same. One thoughtful parishioner said, after talking with him: "Arthur Mitchell is a saint." A friend who had known him both as a preacher and in some business matters recently said of him : " He was to me one of the most attractive and even fascinating saints of God that I have ever met. • . . Every clerk in my office knew from his business letters that he was one of God's gentlemen. He was much more, though, for he was an earnest, able, and magnetic preacher of Jesus Christ, and an efficient, broad-minded, and ex.ecutive man of affairs in all church work. "
Gentleness was a conspicuous element in Dr. Mitchell's character. The late Dr. Musgrave, in speaking of him in the General Assembly, which met in the First Presbyterian Church in Chicago in 1871, alluded to him as ., the gentle Prince Arthur." And yet there was another side of his character which was brought out in certain emergencies. When there was a great wrong to fight down he had the courage of a lion. Small and modest man that he was, his spirit rose when truth and humanity were at stake to the stature of Goliath. There was a time in Chicago when an election had been carried by the most unblushing frauds. Men hung their heads in shame for Chicago, but were helpless and hopeless. But with Dr. Mitchell it was enough that heaven had been insulted and that the justice of heaven was on his side. The wrong could not stand. The eternal fitness of things was against it, and therefore he was against it. He was not in politics, he was acting for no party, but he gave his whole strength to the cause of honest government. Fearing the manipulation of the votes which had been cast, he went at midnight to watch the precinct, and his testimony of what he saw led to a new election. Mr. Donald Fletcher, in a recent letter, while alluding to this incident, says: "Of all men whom I have ever known, he stood the embodiment of the Christ spirit. I shall never forget how, on my congratulating him years ago on having, singlehanded, overthrown an election that had been carried by fraud, a new one having been ordered by the authorities, he said he was ' glad to illustrate that a minister was not necessarily silly or helpless.' How grandly he combined the gentle and the courageous I"
In 1880 Dr. Mitchell removed from Chicago to Cleveland, where he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. His record there also was that of a faithful and earnest preacher and a pastor loving and beloved. There he won the same distinction as an advocate of foreign missions. It had long been felt throughout the Church that he was specially fitted for the sphere of secretary of the Foreign Board. He had indeed been offered the position as early as 1870, though he did not then see his way clear to accept it. The Interior had strongly advocated his election ere he left Chicago. And when, in 1885, he was again offered the position he ac- cepted, and thenceforth gave himself wholly to the cause whieh he so much loved. For nearly eight years was he permitted to stand between the field missionaries and the home churches, encouraging the one and pleading for the prayer and sympathy and support of the other. Three years before his death he visited the mission fields of the East, and brought back deep- ened impressions of the wants and woes of the nations that know not Christ. Unfortunately, also, he returned to his post with impaired health. He had never learned to measure aright his powers of endurance. To visit missions may become the most wearing of all services, and Dr. Mitchell, when filled with a high purpose, a very fire in his bones, knew not how to heed a warning. At Nanking, while preaching from a manuscript, he became blind j he could no longer read the pages before him. Neverthe- less, he kept on, and extemporized the remainder of his discourse. Soon after, at Bangkok, while discussing missionary matters with one of the brethren, he again became blind. Still he kept on, addressing an auditor whom he could no longer see, till finally he sank to the floor not only blind but speechless and with one side of his face paralyzed. Such was the indefatigable spirit of the man. It is not too much to say that he was even morbidly conscientious where a supposed duty demanded his self-sacrifice. On his return, still weak and unfit for service, he was granted a three months' leave of absence for rest, but his strength was never fully recovered. He felt even more strongly than he had often felt before that the position which he held was too hard for his powers of endurance, and yet, when opportunities came, as they had come before, to accept an easier sphere, he dared not turn aside from his great and beloved work. Sometimes he had reached the deliberate choice of a shorter course rather than live longer in some other work. In the spring of 1892 he took another respite of three months, but it soon became evident that fatal disease had fastened itself upon him. After leaving for Florida in the following November he failed rapidly, though scarcely himself realizing that his work was done. Up to the very time of his collapse, in November, he retained all his matchless eloquence in pleading for missions. Perhaps the very grandest effort that he ever put forth was made in a speech of over an hour before the Synod of New York, convened at Albany. Dr. John G. Paton, the hero of the New Hebrides, who happened to be present, spoke of it as the most remarkable missionary address that he had ever heard. It shook the Synod like a tempest; but alas! it shook also the frail body of the speaker. He wrote me afterward from Florida that he had " never been the same man after that night." It was a worthy farewell plea before the
A GREAT LIFE. -[September
Church and the Christian world to remember the nations that have waited so many centuries for the truth.
Much might be said of the relations which Dr. Mitchell bore to his colleagues as a secretary and to the Board. He enjoyed the perfect confidence and the love of all. Never was there a truer man, seldom a more faithful servant of Christ. In the Divine economy nothing is lost, and the world is permanently better for this life of Arthur Mitchell.
A GREAT LIFE.
BY REV. A. F. BEARD, D.D.
I have in my possession two volumes entitled" Discourses by Rev. Robert S. McAn, LL.D.," with a sketch of his life and character, by the Rev. Ralph Wardlaw, D.D. They were presented to me, on sundering my officia~ relations with the mission and the pastorate of the American Church in Paris, "with the affection and prayers of the author's only son, R. W. MeAn," adding, " These are my gifted father's few written sermons. He w~ an extempore preacher habitually. I was his amanuensis for years, though only sixteen when he died. These books are now quite out of print and rare. I have but three copies in all ; but it is a singular satisfaction to' ask my friend to accept one of these."
I mention this because no just estimate of the great life of Dr. MeAn can be made indepeQ.dent of his heredity and early training. Rev. Robert Stevens McAlI, the father, was the eldest son of Rev. Robert MeAn. Of Scotch ancestry, the three generations of Roberts were English. His mother was a direct descendant of Robert Bruce. His father, educated at the University of Edinburgh, died at the age of forty-six years, but not until he had greatly distinguished himself as a remarkably eloquent preacher-the silver-tongued McAIl-and as a man of high intellectual stature. His devout and prayerful spirituality of mind made his presence a positive and constant godly influence.
Such precious inheritances from father to son may properly introduce the story which I drew from Dr. McAll ten years ago; how, during his father's last sickness, the question of his consecration to the Gospel ministry was earnestly pressed upon him. Young Robert promised to give ~ost serious consideration to this last paternal request, and to listen to the voice of God to know if this might become his duty and privilege. After his father's death the son did not hear the call. His tastes were artistic, and his inclinations were to study architecture. Having begun his studies, he submitted his drawings to Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Parliament House at Westminster, and was selected among many eager candidates for a place in his office. He received notice of the coveted honor late in the week, and was to report himself there on the following Monday. On the Sunday preceding this Monday he attended church, expecting to hear a favorite preacher, but was disappointed to find a stranger" on exchange, " whose appearance and manner were exceedingly unpleasant to him. His sense of propriety alone prevented his departure to another church. It was in this service, however, that the still, small voice of God said to him : "Thou art the man." Greatly agitated, he sought the privacy of his room, and there the question of his father-now the question of Godconfronted him. His was a strong will and his plans were dear to him. He could not yield them. His ambition, long cherished and worked for, to-morrow was to be realized. With this happy introduction to his professional career, fortune and fame would be reasonably sure. That night was sleepless. But with the light he walked in the light, and on the morrow he informed Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the most costly building that has been erected in England for centuries, that all his purposes in life had changed, that he would surrender his privilege and prepare himself to preach the Gospel of Christ. Such was his call. Was not this providential ~ The college was entere« and the studies completed. There followed the devoted pastorates at Sunderland, Leicester, Manchester, Birmingham, and Hadleigh. He was fifty years of age, a pastor ministering to a large and influential church, entrenched in the confidence and affections of his people, when he heard anew the voice of God, as aforetime, breaking in upon his settled plans of life.
The story of his going to Paris, which has become familiar, may be omitted. But this he did: "He went out, not knowing whither he went." With no benevolent missionary society behind him, with no assurance of support other than that of his own small income, or of welcome from the class of poor people to whom he would give himself, and with no language which his hearers could understand, he went forth to his mission at fifty years of age. It would have been folly had not God called him and said : " Fear not; I will be with thee." It was not folly, it was faith.
'What did this consecrated man find in France ~ An interesting people with a brilliant history, even when it has not been good. Italy has been the grave of many peoples, but it could not make France stay buried. Sometimes it has come from the sepulchre like the maniac of Gadara, exceeding fierce, saying: "What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God?" and sometimes rising to ask for the light after the darkness; but the history has ever been hopeful in the fact that it has not ceased to be a life of struggle and discontent. The nation is one that would never be satisfied when it had no right to be contented.
This single-handed and single-hearted missionary found a people after its last historic and terrible struggle in which many things had perished, where th~ught and feeling were bristling with antagonisms and the very air was thick with questionings. As never before-not even in the time of the Reformation, when there were two thousand Protestant churches in France, and when it seemed as if it might be the leading Protestant nation -the minds of the people were open to the questions of life and truth. This good English pastor was a prophet. Seeing this state of things, he knew that it was the hour for God and man. It was God's time. He was lho man of God for the time.
Twenty-two years! How small was the beginning! A little shop in 108 Rue Julien Laoroix at Belleville, cheap chairs for forty people, and a preacher who could not use the language.
Twenty-two years, and included ill it the history of the most wonderful mission of Europe! Included in it, this providential leader, toiling with a consecration that transfigured severe work into delight, bearing pain as if it were pleasure, standing up like a soldier against hindrances within and without, making his hymns of faith and hope, and singing them as he moved persistently forward, never faltering, never losing heart or courage, never tiring j for the salvation of thousands of souls, the transformation of homes, the new courage and strength to churches. Who can tell what it does not include? "The kingdom of heaven is as a woman who hid leaven in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened." "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who sowed seed in a field and it sprang up day and night, and grew he knoweth not how."
A great object lesson this mission has been to France lnd to the world. "How to reach the masses" is no longer a question without an answer. How to get near them, to secure their thoughtful attention, how to Will them, how to unclinch their angry fists raised against man, and to persuade them to lift their hands in prayer to God; all this has been a revelation to France and to the Christian world.
Let me introduce you to this missionary as I knew him. A tall, spare man, with an expressive face, lighted with cordial sympathy and good will, unfailingly genial and loving, with a capacious warm heart, which, while it included multitudes, did not exclude persons, with a friendliness for every one like the common sunshine to the earth, and with precious friendships for those who worked with him, like the sunshine upon the good soil and the sweet fruits.
He would scarcely have been selected for a typical Englishman. Not having high physical vigor, he had yet a wiry, rapid, ready energy and nervous force, which is more of the American type. He was a cultivated student, particularly fond of nature and of the natural sciences that made the phenomenal executive ability which he developed, both as to largeness of view and grasp of details, the more singular. His keen penetration of character and a discriminating judgment easily gave him the leadership of leaders.
His fellowship was delightful. While the missionary spirit waseverywhere and in every place-controlling, and the great motive of his life dominated him so that he seldom followed his social inclinations, there were now and then occasions which revealed an endowment of hllmor that would not be expected, and which was to him an invaluable resource in the diHiculties and anxieties necessarily arising in the direction and propulsion of the plans which he cherished, and which his will was urging. I shall not soon forget an instance of thiR humor iu one of a few social gatherings which he allowed himself to attend. To amuse the children present a charade was proposed, in which the writer of this article was to complain to him as the Juge de Paix of the loss of his pocket-book, while the children should take supplementary and auxiliary parts. The younger people managed their French with dexterity; but the way in which the Juge de Paix led on the writer to make his statements in tortuous and tortured French, refusing to hear even an explanation by a word of English, became at last indescribably funny, until Mr. McAll, whose face had been t~itch ing for some time with suppressed sportiveness, and whose eyes had been twinkling with laughter, could no longer repress his humor, and abandoning the attempt, he was like a child among the children in his mirthfulness. On the morrow his consuming zeal and fervor were outworking the great life. It seemed to me, however, that he looked younger for the space of a week.
But few indeed were the resting places which he gave himself in his mission. It was his thought. It was his prayer. It was his life.
His great thought of life incarnated itself with undeviating devotion and fidelity. It is a record and a history which should not be forgotten. It should be a perpetual testimony to the grace of God and the faith of man for contemplation and imitation-a legacy of permanent influence. Inspired by convictions and sustained by prayer, in a world where selfishness is common, and where its dominion is strong, nothing is more instructive than such self-denying lives, which demonstrate the power of faith in God and the consequent divine life in man.
How strangely God prepared him! The dying request of the man of God who wished his son to take up the work from which the father had been early called; the providential sermon of an unsought and undesired minister, who uttered his message at a venture just one day before it was too late and one day before the plans of life had become fixed; the consecration of duty and the slaying of ambition; the training of twenty-three years of successful ministry among his own kindred, were all for preparedness. Then, again, the voice of God to his soul called the man to resign home, and friends, and church. It was a voice silent to others, but as strong to him as if a whirlwind had been syllabled in speech, and as emphatic to him as if the lightning had burned the commission upon his soul, giving him the recognition of power, and rousing him to a sense of what might be accomplished; begetting strength to his physical weakness and wisdom for the work as the calls repeated themselves more clearly until it was all an irresistible inspiration from God.
Compare this life with another life in France, which the world called a great life. In the narrow street of St. Charles, Ajaccio, stands the house from which came a family that put forth their hands and took the crowns from the majesties of Europe, with which they crowned themselves. Said the mother to the eldest brother, " Jerome, you are the eldest, but you must yield j Napoleon will always be first." In this way he came forward a worshipcr of self. vVhcn told that" God disposes," he replied, " I dispose." After his career of splendor and brilliant battles, in the obliteration of national boundaries, the formation of monarchies, at once the wonder and the scourge of Europe, he came to his tomb. It is one of the monuments of France. But while he yet lived, in one of his more pGllsive moments, he had occasion to pass judgment upon himself. Surveyir.g the future, he called attention to the gradually shrinking dimensions of his renown. ' , Now my achievements fill libraries; but as time passes they will be condensed into volumes, which farther on will shrink into a book. I shall be fortunate if they finally fill a page, and perhaps if there shall remain my name."
Near by the three-storied house in Corsica is the humble mission hall of the missiouary McAll. As I stood within it, speaking to the people congregated there, I could but recall him who had surrendered the thought of being the proud architect of his own fortune, to devote his mind and soul to the lives of others, but who had thus belted his life with the wisdom and power of Christ. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, " The memory of the wicked shall rot, but the righteous shall shine as the stars forever. "
The tomb of the great Emperor of France, the destroyer of his fellowmen, and the tomb of the missionary McAll in the cemetery of Passy are BOt widely separated by distance. The one is visited only to remind those who reflect how great powers were used in supreme selfishness, to end in supreme failure. One turns away with neither gratitude nor love. The tomb of Robert Whitaker McAll is humble. but it speaks of one whom God has exalted. Not so many strangers may visit it, but those who do so will reverently repeat the words of his Lord and Master: "He that saveth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth his life for My sake and the Gospel shall find it." "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." It was the missionary and not the emperor who lived a great life.
What remains for the people to whom Robert Whitaker McAll gave his twenty-three years of rare and devoted service, is known only to Him by whom are all things and for whom are all things. Whether this French Republic will follow the course of its predecessors, and lose what has been gained through mischoices and misdeeds, or whether it will hold its course with steadiness toward the light and the knowledge of permanent life and good, is a theme only for conjecture. But France needs the steadiness which comes from the Gospel. Whatever may be in the future, the people of this day have had no greater friend to bring life and good to them than he who learned in the beginning of his mission to say, "God loves you, and I love you," and who proved it in what he was and did.
Meanwhile, the" Mission McAll" is shedding its light in the darkness. It is the light of God. The outlook upon which it shines is one of vast hope, of vast responsibility, and of vast emergency. May the spirit of the providential man whom God called in a providential way to begin and develop this providential mission continue with those to whom falls the legacy of his goodness and his greatness.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY lIEV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
"Self-Denial Week." In withholding its sanction, therefore, to the recommendlltion of the Commit- BY J. J. LUCAS, D.D., ALLAHABAD, INDIA. tee, the Assembly did not disapprove the observance of set times for special At a missionary convention held re- prayer and even for fasting, but only cently at Saratoga Springs. Mrs. Lucy M. the setting apart of a special week for Bainbridge, of the New York City Mis- the practice of self-denial. That this is sion, gave the origin of this week as fol- really what the Assembly was asked to lows; "Self-denial week was thought sanction is evident, as we already have of long before the Board took it up. a week set apart for prayer-viz., the It started with two women in a mission first week in January. Notwithstandland" (New York Evangelist of June ing the sanction of other churches, as 15th). The first call for the observance well as the practice of missionary socIof such a week, so far as we know, was eties in this country and England, we issued by General Booth, of the Salva- believe there are good reasons why a tion Army, and for some years this week call for the observance of such a week has been observed the world over by should not be issued. members of that organization_ It is now a recognized part of the Salvation 1. And, first, the observance of such Army discipline, and one of their most a week by the whole Church tends to fruitful methods of raising money. give a false conception of the Christian Other religious bodies and mi8sionary life. That life is one. It is a unit. It societies, with their headquarters in cannot be divided into sections by the England, have observed such a week. weeks of the year. It has no holidays. In this country the Southern Presbyte- The Christian cannot say to himself ; rian Church, at the request of its Board .. I must be very careful to deny myof Foreign Missions, observed the first self this or that pleasure this week; I week in October, 1892, and the North- must live a life of real self-denial the ern Presbyterian Church, at the request first week in March, but during the of its Board, observed the third week other weeks of the year I need not be in March of this year. The last-named so careful and so self-denying." Any Board, in its Report to the General As- observance which creates or cultivates sembly, recommended the observance of such a spirit, unconsciously though it such a week by the whole Church. and be, is not to be encouraged. Thomas the Committee of the Assembly to which Arnold, of Rugby, constantly taught was referred this Report recommended his pupils the danger of attempting to that the first week in March, 1894, be cut their lives int.o slices, and of saying set apart as a week of special prayer practically; "In this slice my actions and self-denial. The Assembly. how- are indifferent and I needn't trouble ever, refused to approve the recommen- myself about them, but in that slice I dation of the Board and of the Commit- must mind what I am about." By tee. Of course there could be no de- training the Church to be careful and sire on the part of the Assembly to re- self-denying in its eating and drinking, strain prayer or self-denial. It must be in its pleasures and expenditures during remembered that the Assembly has ap- the first week in March, do we not al80 proved the observance of the first week train to indifference in such things durin January for special prayer in behalf ing the other weeks in the year? This of foreign missionary work, and in many is not mere theory. What has been the churches for more than thirty years effect of such training in this direction, that week has been faithfully observed. let Church history bear witness. Millions of Christians deny themselves meat tinued year after year becanse it would on one day in the week. What is the be fulfilling the chief end of its institueffect of setting apart that one day of tion. Its very success in filling the the week for the practice of this self- treasury would ensure its permanency. denial? Is it conducive to healthy This success would in a few years make Christian life and growth? And yet it an indispensable agency in securing the day was set apart with the best of the funds necessary to carryon the motives. Moreover, it has the sacrifice work for which we had pledged our· unto death on the cross of our Lord on selves. It would give this week a that day of the week to recommend it place in our Church life and mission as a day of special self-denial. Millions machinery from which it would be of Christians deny themselves not only hard to dislodge it. If, as we have meat, but many other things during tried to show, the long-continued obforty days of the year. They do it at servance of a week of self-denial tends the call of the Church. These days, to create and foster a false view of the too, have much to recommend them as Christian life, ought we not to hesitate days and weeks of special self·denial, before approving it, espeoially when its bringing to mind the suffering of our observance is almost sure to become Lord. Thus a conscience in reference permanent because of its success in se· to the duty of self·denial on certain curing large additions year by year to days and weeks in the year has been the income of the Boards ; hence we created and fostered by the Church; are constrained to say, ., Resist the bebut has the observance of such days and ginnings. " weeks been conducive, on the whole, to healthy growth in spiritual life ? On the other hand, if, as is contended by those who advocate such a week, it To all this it is replied that the week is intended to observe it only for a few of self-denial we propose will never years and then give it up, why should fasten itself on the Church as a perma- we adopt a device for raising funds nent thing; but who can say that it which we proclaim beforehand to be will not? Has it not already become a only a temporary cxpedient, doomed to fixed week in the discipline of the Sal- failure as soon as its novelty has worn vation Army, and as years go by will it off? A device to secure self·denial and not become binding on every member incrcased giving, which its advocates of that organization, binding his con· openly promise to give up in a few science in time by reason of its observ- years, must have in it and back of it ance from childhood? very little to recommend it. Otherwise, why promise to give it up? Why To appreciate the danger of its taking should it not be permanent? The anits place in the permanent and recog- swers to these questions suggest argunized machinery of the Church, let us ments against such a week. Whether consider for a moment why it is pro· its observance prove a financial success posed to observe such a week. The or failure, it ought not to be approved. chief reason is to secure a larger income If a success, then self-denial week, as it to the Board as the result of the self- is already called, becomes a. permanent denial. If year by year a larger amount feature in our church life and mission should be reported as the result of the machinery. If a failure, then why beobservance of this week, would the gin a scheme on which we write failure treasurers and officers of our Boards, from the start, and, in fact, have to constantly burdened as they are with promise to give up in a few years in heavy financial responsibilities, see their order to obtain approval for it in the way to recommend a discontinuance of beginning? an observance to which they look forward as a deliverer from threatened II. The observance of such a week debt? and so the week would be con- tends to lower our Lord's standard of . self-denial. That standard is that we ought to be filled willi humiliation, deny ourselves daily, not one week in and turn to God with penitence and the year, not every Friday in the week. prayer and fasting. It is no reply to His call is to a life of self-denial, not to a this to read touching extracts from let- week of it. His call is the same to-day ters accompanying the gifts of this one as when He was on earth. •• If any week. This proves too much. It im- man would come after me, let him deny plies that the gifts during the other himself and take up his cross daily and weeks of the year were not the outcome follow me." The Church cannot of real self-denial. As one listens to change this standard, nor ought she to such extracts, offered a8 an argument in take any step which has a tendency to fawr of a aelf-deniaZ week, let him not lower it. Is it not a practical lowering forget that they have weight In this of the standard when she singles out discussion only on the assumption that and sets apart one week in the year for like statements could not be sent with the practice of that self-denial which the gifts of other weeks in the year_ everywhere in the New Testament is Thia is an unfounded assumption, and enjoined ns a constant, daily duty, as shows the fallacy of the reasoning well as a pri vilege? Let us not forget founded on It. Would it. not be wiser that the Church is Christ's representa- to press home to the heart of every dis- tive on earth. She speaks in His name. ciple of Christ the duty and privilege She acts for Him in His absence; hence of a life of self-denial, rather than to she has no right to issue a call wllich attempt once every year to arouse them He would not issue were He on eal'th to a week of it, with the usual reaction to-day. Would He single out a week and indifference following such spasms in the year, months and months hence, of Christian life?
and urge His disciples to practise dur- It may be !laid that the reasoning ing that week a self-denial greater than which forbids the setting apart of a on other weeks? Does not such a call week of self-denial would also forbid a imply that a life of self-denial is not so call for a day of prayer and fasting, or binding during the other weeks of the for a week of special prayer; but the year? It is true, we are to preach Sun- cases are not the same. For the observ- day after Sunday the duty and privilege ance of special seasons of prayer we of a life of self·denial, of daily self-de- have scriptural warrant and example.
nial, but then, most inconsistently, we There are special promises to united are to say: ' , Now we wish you to prac- prayer, and such prayer often requires tise this which we preach one week in the setting apart of a special time in the year, and that we may all practise order to secure union in it. For exam- together we will appoint the first week ple, the disciples were to unite in prayer in March, 1894. By that method also for the fulfilment of the promise of the we as a church may ascertain in dollars Father, and so for ten days they united and cents just the amount of our self- with one accord in special prayer. The denial. When, however, a church with church at Antioch united in prayer with eight hundred thousand communicants fasting, and with blessed results. ThuB observes such a week, and as a result re- we have a scriptural warrant for spe- ceives only about twenty thousand dol- cial, united prayer, even unto fasting; lars, we cannot join in the "grate- but where is the warrant in the New ful satisfaction," nor regard this as Testament for the Church setting apart a "truly Christian response from a week for the practice of self-denial, churches, Sabbath – schools, families and that week nearly a year in the fu- and individuals," etc. If this paltry ture?
sum represents the self-denial during III. We do well to ask the question, a week of one of the wealthiest church- How maya self-denying spirit, which es in the world, then we as a church shall lead to constant and enlarged giv. lng, be cultivated? Given such a spirit will prompt the necessary prayer to and the treasuries of all our Boards bring Him back again in power. Noth- would be full to overflowing. Will the ing short of His new outpouring will setting apart of a week for the exercise ever solve the missionary problems of of self-denial develop and maintain such our day.. " Considering the fearful a spirit? We think not. Such a de- consequences of it all, something like vice is too calculating and mechanical. criminal neglect has marked for years It has too much the click of machinery the attitude of the Church toward the about it. The spiritual life cannot be matchless power of prayer for the world.
so wound up that it shall give out its Shall it be so longer, or shall a change best fruits to order on a given week in come over the Church? It will not the year. Church after church has at- avail to pass resolutions and form prayer tempted to do this, and the result has alliances. For generations great calls been, in the end, hurtful to spiritual have been issued, leagues have been life and favorable to the growth of for- proposed, emotions have been aroused; malism. • . • prayer is an echo on men's lips What is needed to-day is not the set- rather than a passion from their hearts.
ting apart of days or weeks of self-de- But if fifty men of our generation will nial. Deep down and back of every enter the holy place of prayer, and be- other need is that of a 8pirit of con- come, henceforth, men whose hearts stant, importunate prayer and supplica- God has touched with the prayer-pas- tion. Given such a spirit throughout sion, the history of His Church will be the Church, and it will lead to frequent changed." This is a cry-a call with prayer unto fasting, and such consecra- the right ring in it-from the secretary tion of the whole life to Christ that of one of our largest foreign missionary nothing will be withheld. Parents will boards. The same cry comes from the gladly separate their children, and pour foreign field. At the closing session of in their gold and silver for His service. the last meeting of the Presbyterian Mr. Robert E. Speer, Secretary of the Synod of India (November, 1891), the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, following invitation was issued, not to in a little tract, " Prayer and Missions," the members of the Presbyterian has set forth this need of the Church in Church, but "to the members of words which we wish could be pon- Christ's body the world over."
dered long by every Christian-" The "We, the members of the Synod of evangelization of the world in this gen- India, met in Lodiana, unite, in the eration depends, first of all, upon a re- name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in ask- vival of prayer. Deeper than the need ing our brethren throughout the world for men ; deeper far than the need for to join with us in daily prayer that a money; ay, deep down at the bottom spirit of constant, importunate prayer of our spiritless life is the need for the and supplication may be given to every forgotten secret of prevailing, world- member of Christ's body the world wide prayer. Missions have progressed over. The members of the Synod slowly abroad, because piety and make this request with a deep sense of prayer have been shallow at home. their own need of such a spirit of im- • When I shall see Christians all over portunate prayer and supplication.
the world,' said John Foster, • resolved They make it in full reliance on the to prove what shall be the efficacy of Head of the Church as present with prayer for the conversion of the world, them, and they send it forth in His I shall begin to think that the millen- name to His people the world over."
nium is at the door.' The condition This is not a call to more prayer, but and consequence of such prayer as this it is a call to plead for that spirit of is a new outpouring of the Holy Ghost. prayer and supplication which is back Nothing short of His own suggestion of all prevailing prayer; which impels to unceasing, importunate, believing establish a station, and print books, and prayer; which moved our Master in tell them something of the Christian re- the days of His fiesh to offer up " pray- ligion and how it differs from theirs, ers and supplications with strong crying and quite another to go to them as and tears;" which moved the friend to Brainerd did to his poor Indians, as go at midnight to his friend and to ask those who are under the wrath of God, with such importunity that he arose who must aeeept of His mercy in Christ and gave him all that he needed; which or perish, and by the very agony of led the leaders of the church at Antioch prayer, and the earnestness of preach- to wait on the Lord with faeting_ When ing connected with it, to be the means such a spirit of prayer as this is given of such outpouring of the Holy Spirit in large measure, then will men like and of such manifest and surprising Paul and Barnabas be sent forth in conversions to God. Those Indians great numbers, and then will all the have probably had no agency in perfect.
money needed, and as it is needed, be ing society upon earth-their very tribes joyfully given. The greatest need to· have perished-but they now shine as day in the foreign field and at home is stars in the crown of their Redeemer; just such a spirit of prayer as is called and those conversions were worth more for by Mr. Speer and the Synod of than all the results of great meetings India. One of the most promising and speeches and munificent donations signs of missionary work is the unanim- from which the spirit of prayer and of ity with which missionaries in the God is absent, and which are not con- field and the secretaries and members nected with the salvation of the soul.
of great missionary societies are empha. There was connected with them more sizing the need of such prayer. Says true missionary labor. That wo have Dr. E. K. Alden, Secretary of the failed, and that this has been our great American Board of Foreign Missions: failure, of taking up this burden as we " Some things we have outgrown-we ought, there can be no doubt. Whether think we have-during our fourscore wrong principles have in any case been years. Have we lost our faith in pray- adopted in pursuing things incidental er, or have we not? Howfa;r does ear- too much, I cannot say, but they cer- nest intercession enter into our working tainly have been pursued too exclu- plans as a 'Vital, ejJicient force! • . . sively. There has been a withdrawing But the prayer is the main thing, and of the spirit from those higher regions will carry with it everything else. Let of spiritual sympathy and struggle, this mighty force be wielded as it may and communion with Christ in the fel- be by the Lord's united people, remem. lowship of His sufferings; and all the bering, as it has been tersely expressed, channels of that sympathy have been that' we are responsible not only for all left empty and dry ; and so while there we can do ourselves, but for all we can has been external activity, and some secure from God,' and there will be no good has been done; there has yet, lack of consecrated money and no lack around many of the missionary stations, of consecrated men." not been the greenness and verdure Dr. Alden, in his pamphlet, "The which we hoped to see. So has it been, Place Occupied in Missionary Work by so is it now. And unless this Board Prayer," from which we have taken the and its friends come together with the extract above, quotes from the address confession of their sin in this, and with of Rev. Dr. Mark Hopkins, and these a readiness to assume this burden more solemn words of Dr. Hopkins apply, in fully for the future, and to cast them- some degree, to nearly every missionary selves upon the Lord, that they may be field and society the world over: "It sustained in bearing it, then that which is one thing to give money, and print is reany the cause of missions will go reports, and go across thc ocean and backward, and we shall have perplexities and burdens come upon us as judg. of Nagasaki. Two thousand or three ments, and under them God will not thousand of them-men, women, and sustain us. " children-were seized and distributed in companies of fifties, eighties, or hun· Mi8sionary Glanoes at Japan. dredsto the various city prisons through. out the land. GOD'S HAND IN JAPANESE HISTORY. Sir Harry Parkes, the British Minis- BY REV. O. H. GULICK, D.D., JAPAN. ter, expostulated with the head officer of the Foreign Department, Prince Referring to a map, one will note the Iwakura, the uncle of the Emperor, and peculiar shape of Japan; its great said: "If the rulers of Japan persecute length and small width, and how won· these people because they are Christians, derfully furnished it i3 with harbors. the (Western) Christian nations cannot The Japanese are destined to become a regard Japan as a friendly nation." maritime commercial people. They Prince I wakura replied : " You Chris· are enterprising, fearless. mercurial, tians say that Jesus is the Son of God ; sentimental, and yet of gentle manners. we say the Mikado is the son of Heaven, the son of God; if there are two sons No people feared and hated Christian· of God in the land, they will quarrel, ity as the Japanese did a few years ago: there will be war in the land, and we and why? About three hundred years cannot have it." After a year or two ago the Portuguese came to the country of exile these Roman Catholic Chris- -the merchants for trade, and the Ro· tians were returned to their homes and man Catholic missionaries to convert their lands near Nagasaki. the people. These missionaries were kindly recei ved and made many pros- Twenty-two years ugo this month, elytes-perhaps forty thonsand or fifty when I hud been four months in Japan, thousand; and the famous missionary one midnight my associate knocked at Xavier visited Osaka and Kyoto. Then my window and informed me that my came the Dutch traders, who sought to language.teacher had been arrested by undermine and supplant the Portu· the police. The next morning we went guese. They told the rulers of Japan together to the teacher's house, found that the Pope of Rome would be the his box empty and some of his papers ruler of his followers, and that if the strewn upon the floor. people became Roman Catholics the na· tive rulers would lose their power. The We asked the governor what this rulers then turned against Christianity, meant, and he said that it was not his drove the priests out of the country, doing, but that the man was arrested and persecuted and put to death many by the secret police of the Imperial of the Christians. Dy the sufferings Government; he knew not whither that this brought the rulers and most they had taken the teacher and his of the people became bitter haters of wife. . Later he told one of us that if Christianity. the man had been baptized there was no hope of his life, but if not baptized Dr. Hamlin says, " When Christians he might at some future day be released are knocking, God is always opening from prison. doors." Now let us see how God has been opening this land of Japan to the We gained no trace of the poor man Gospel; see God's hand in the history or his wife until fourteen months later, of Japan. when the wife was released from the Kyoto prison, and we learned that my Twenty.two or twenty·three years teacher had just died in the Kyoto ago the rulers turned to persecute the prison. remnant of the descendants of the early ~~an Catholics living near the port He had not been baptized, but we trust that he was a believer. He was the last Christian martyr in Japan. When upon his arrest we failed to gain ca and Europe and assist in framing a any satisfaction from the Kobe gov- Constitution for Japan. In Germany ernor, we laid the case before Mr. De Count Ito met the old Kaiser William, Long, the American Minister to Japan, grandfather of tbe present Emperor, who laid the matter before Prince and Bismarck. He wrote home to his Iwakura. The prince said: "You government, and the Japanese newsforeigners need not trouble yourselves; papers published the fact that both we are the rulers of our people." Mr. these greatest men of Germany told De Long assured him that if the rulers him that what Japan needed was Chrispersecuted their people for aiding for- tianity ; this was what would raise up eigners or missionaries or for listening his people; and, further, they told him to Christian teaching, America could that personally he himself needed an not regard Japan as a friendly nation. interest in the Saviour.
Soon after this the Emperor sent Count Ito was the most prominent Prince Iwakura as head of an embassy agent in framing the Constitution of to America and Europe, to seek a re- Japan, which was proclaimed by tbe vision of the treaties. When he reacbed Emperor in 1889, the eighth article of Washington he met Mr. Hamilton Fish, which deelares that a man is free to Secretary. of State under President worship as he pleases, provided he does Grant, who at once spoke of the perse- not offend against the laws of the land. cution of Mr. Gulick's teacher, and This eighth article is the sheet-anchor said: "If you persecute your own peo- of religious freedom in Japan. ple who become Christians, America cannot regard Japan as a friendly na- Thus wonderfully did God open Jation. " pan to the Gospel.
The ambassador, Prince Iwakura, PRESENT; ASPECTS OF MISSION WORK was at last deeply impressed, and wrote home to his government advising that IN JAPAN. the edicts against Christianity, which decreed the death penalty to anyone BY REV. E. ROTHERAY MILLER, JAPAN. embracing the faith, and which were posted in all the cities, be at once re- In the present aspects of mission work moved. In accordance with this advice in Japan tbere are certain points made these edicts were at once all witbdrawn, prominent in the reports for the year quietly removed from the public notice- which should not be passed over. boards. From that day the Imperial Government ceased ~ll persecution of t. The Christian and philanthropic Christiana. efforts put forth after the great earth- Twenty.six or twenty-eight years ago quake in October, 1891, are bearing two young men from the Choshu Prov- fruit. Throughout that district, about ince landed almost penniless in London, Nagoya and Gifu, which is one of the seeking to solve the problem of Eng- strongholds of Buddhism, the preachland's power. These two men ,are to- ing of the Gospel is freer than it ever day Counts Ito and Inouye, the former has been. Prime-Minister of Japan, the latter a Cabinet minister. 2. There is a growing number of Christian men and women in Japan About twelve years ago, at a season who are wielding a wide influence of great national ferment, the Emperor through various forms of literature. promised his people that he would at In book and magazine, in pamphlet the end of ten years grant them a rep- and in story, in life and in poetry, in resentative assembly. translation or in adaptation, we find the desire for others' good, the desire to Eight or nine years ago he sent Count advance God's kingdom upon earth. Ito to study the Constitutions of Ameri- Through such men and women of deep literary knowledge and wide culture and abiding ability, multiplying as time part moral instruction only through the rolls on, will come the most advanced Imperial Rescript, the question of reo state of moral education and civilization ligion outside of the school·room is left possible in Japan; and through them to the individual taste of each teacher, rather than through the foreign preacher and no rule applying to it is issued by or teacher will Christian knowledge the Department. Likewise, the Minis· and spiritual privileges become the com- ter of State for Home Affairs replied to mon portion of the multitudes. the inquiries of representative Japanese S. There is an increasing interest and Christians, that he held most emphati.
prosperity of the training schools for cally that a local governor has no busi- Biblewomen. We are encouraged to ness to interfere with the religious con· observe a growing spiritual as well as victions .of the people of his district, mental life, especially among those and that an absolutely neutral and Im- students who bear the burden of the partial attitude must be maintained in evangelistic work connected with these all his procedure.
schools. The work of these Bible· 5. There is a subject to which the women is appreciated by the evangelis· eyes of those who are interested in tic missionary, and their location in the Japanese affairs have been turned with outstations is earnestly desired. much anxiety during the last six 4. There is another circumstance months. Rumors have come through which occurred during the year, which private letters and mission reports of is especially encouraging as showing friction existing between the mission· that the clause in the Oonstitution, aries and the Japanese ministers, and it granting liberty of conscience to every was hinted by some that the time for J9,panese, is not a dead letter. The missionaries to leave the country had governor of Kumamoto, which is a about come. Wishing to know the stronghold of conservatism in politics latest and most reliable accounts from and religion, at a meeting of the heads Japan, I took the trouble to go to New of various officials in his prefecture, York a week ago, and had a long con- advised the teachers of primary schools versation with Dr. Imbrie, who has just that they themselves should not become returned from Tokyo, alid the presen t bellevcrs in Christianity, also that cer· aspect seems to be this: tain scholars of a certain primary school I should here preface my remarks by should be dismissed on account of their saying that what follows refers to the study of the Bible. The unconstl· Kumiai and Kirisuto churches, with tutional attitude of tllis governor toward which the missionaries of the A. B. C.
the Christians in his prefecture gave F. M. and Presbyterian and Reformed occasion for a most spirited discussion churches co·operate; but it must be In all the periodicals in Japan. The also remembered that these two churches Christian journals especially protested embrace almost two thirds of the Prot· most persistently against this arbitrary estant Christians of Japan.
interference with liberty of conscience; There has been quite a good deal and a cheering fact brought into promi. of friction between some of the minis· nence by this incident is the liberal atti· ters in the Kumiai churches and the tude of the vernacular press toward missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. In Christianity; and, in addition, the Min· the annual conference of the churches ister of Education made the statement an attack was made upon the mission- to the committee that waited on him, aries by some of the prominent Japan.
that whether teachers follow Christian- . ese ministers, and from the status of tty, Buddhism, or no religious faith at some of them I may say that orthodoxy all is of no consequence whatever to had nothing to do with the matter.
the Department. While U is the object The drift of the argument was that in of the Department of Education to im· missionary work there were three stages: First, where the missionary was GENERAL STATISTICS OF 18ge, JAPAN. everything, and carried on the work alone; secondly, where he did the work = (Contributions for all purposes In Japanese in co·operation with the Japanese: yen. 1 yen 70 cents.) and, thirdly, where the Japanese should Yen. carryon the work alone. Though Kumial Kyokwnl (with speaking highly of the work of the missionary in the first two stages, it was which the A. B. C. F. maintained that the time had come for M. co-operates)……. 1,162 10,760 25,707 the entire independence of the native Kirlsuto Kyokwai (with church. The extremists were for cut- which the Presbyterial ting away from the missionaries in missions co.operate) .• 889 11,190 16,740 everything. The more moderate Methodist MissIOns ••.•. 988 7,089 14,810 thought the church was not strong Episcopal Missions .••.• Il27 4,866 5,782 enough to do this at once. During the :: ~~E!~S~~r::~~.~·::::: 293 1,761 728 course of the debate some bitter things 72 868 125 were said of the missionaries, their mode of living, style of houses, etc., but a Protestant Bodics.•.•• 4,226 35,534 63,837 scathing rebuke was given by some of Increase over 1891 .••. 2,144 10;733 the men, both ministers and elders, Decrease, 1891 •••..•• from some of the country districts, and Greek Church (Russian) 052 20:325 7,676 the outcome of the whole has been that Roman Church (France) : there has been an ebullition of steam, Conversion of Heretics ………..••.• 45 and pressure has been removed and har- Baptism of Christian Parents. . .. . .. 1,837 mony of the relations of missionary and H " Heathen " 1,166 Japanese brethren restored. .. Adults 2,806 With reference to the Kirisuto Kyokwai, the church with which the Pres- Baptisms and Conversions.. •• •••• . . . . •. 5,354 byterian churches and the Reformed churches co·operate, it is true that there Adherents ………………………… 44,812 has been some friction between individual missionaries and the Japanese breth- Bunnms}[ AwAXE. ren, but this would have happened in any case. With the ch nrch or the body BY REV. R. E. M'ALPINE, JAPAN. of ministers there has been no trouble, though some feared that there might The priests are now thoroughly be, since the plan for the reconlltruction aroused, and are fighting with desperof the Boaru of Missions, as adopted by ate energy. In their own organization the Dai Kwai or General Assembly of they are adopting Christian methods as the Church, was not approved by the far as possible. The temples are now majority of the co-operating missions, often labelled "churches;" there are and so, as the funds were not forthcom- " Young Men's Buddhist Associations," ing for the carrying on of the work, the " Young People's Society of Buddhist plan could not be put into operation. Endeavor, " Sunday-schools for learning There was no ill-feeling on the part of Buddhism, all in active operation. the Japanese, though some misunder· Some priests even use the Christian standing on the side of the younger mis- marriage service, ring and all, substisionaries. tuting the name of Buddha for God. . Now I am happy to say that what· Every sect has one or more journals as ever cloud there may have been hang- official organs. By the printed page, ing over the prosperity of the Church by public lecture, and by private con· has been blown away, and everything versation their opposition is fierce and looks bright for the future. untiring. They appeal to the people on three of their tenderest points-viz., filial piety, loyalty, and patriotism.
"This foreign religion," they say, " forbids us to worship our forefathers. Jesus says His followers must hate their parents. This doctrine says our em- peror is not divine, and it dares to con- demn him as to his personal moral life. It destroys the ancient patriotic spirit for which our people are so celebrated; for, by teaching men that they are • pilgrims and strangers' journeying to a future life. it takes away a man's in- terest in the present life and the glory of his own country. No Japanese can be a true Christian and at the same time hibit of the crying needs of humanity a real old-time patriot, ready to die for in our times, the practieal suggestions his emperor and his country." With for bringing the good forces into con- such keen sophisms are they constantly tact with this glaring need, and the haranguing the people. In February philosophy which permeates the whole, last, a professor of the Imperial Uni- make it a clarion call to all thoughtful versity in Tokyo published an article persons to study the humanitarian, mor- on the above lines in seven leading jour- al, and spiritual pl'Oblems of our in- naIs- For a time it produced a flurry creasingly complex civilization, and of excitement in the Christian ranks, shed great light on statistical and other but has now been so successfully an- features of these problems. It will con- swered that the learned professor has tribute largely to make a missionary publicly asked for" quarter_" church in America. Rev. Joseph Cook Such attaeks have an evil effect, not well says, it is "timely, incisive, and only on the people at large, but also brilliant. "
on the native Christian Church byac- -Rev. Robert P. Wilde1'.-Everytbing centuating the spirit of nationalism. It pertaining to Mr_ Wiltler, the Hon of the makes the Christian anxious to prove to founder of this REVIEW, is of interest the Japanese public that they are true to our readers. 'We wish 1m!' 8pace adpatriots, and are not uuder the thumb mitted of our printing b,,,lily a report of the missionaries; this tends, in some of his first four months' work after his cases, to disturb the harmouy aud fel- return to India. Addressing the thirty lowship between the Japanese Chris- or forty student volunteers at the Detians and their foreign brethren_ It cennial Conference; the Y_ M. C. A., seems likely now, however, that God the American High School at Bombay; will make even this fall out unto the the Y_ M_ C. A. and High School in the furtherance of the Gospel, for it is deep- city of his birth, Kolhapur; the Engening the sense of responsibility of the lish Wesleyan Mission at Bangalore; native church and making them more the Y. ~1. C. A. and the students in really in earnest to evangelize their na- Madras Christian College, speakiug nine tive land. times in six and a half days; speaking -The New Era.-Dr_ Josiah I:ltrong's now in English and now in Marathi to book, ., Our Country," has been in such non-Christians, he has found large opdemand, that to date, the publishers re- portunity for and God's blessing on his port the issue of 160,000 copies. Not special mission. His permanent adone reader of that volume will be other dress is Kolhapur, S. ~L C_, India.
than eager to obtain his later volume – -That Bantu item of ours in June (Baker. Taylor & Co., New York), The REVIEW, based on authorities which New Era_ This REVIEW published the we named, comes in for the following first chapter of it, January, 1893, with criticism in private correspondence from an editorial notice of it from advance Mr. Hell Chatelaln: "That absolute sheets. Dr_ Strong's position as Secre- difference of Bantu and negro, and tary of the Evangelieal Alliance offers much-talked-of superiority of the Bantu a lofty vantage-ground for the study of over the negro, has been originated and the line of Christian philosophy and ap- expatiated on by men who had never plied Christianity which is pursued in had any African experience, or who this volume_ That it is a powerful and had lived only among the Bantu. It condensed presentation of the subject, is amazing how easily scientific myths and carries with it the personality of are conjured up and believed by the the writer, goes without the saying_ best Orientalists." We pass this cri.
The summary of the physical, social, tique on, but we wish to accentuate the and other changes of this marvellous last sentence_ That, we are competent nineteenth century, the masterly cx- to ju,lge of iu our own right.
189ft] DEPARTMEN'E OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 601S
I1I.-DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR AMOS R. WELLS.
This year's International Convention Hindu Protestant clergyman, who comof Societies of Ohristian Endeavor was pared Romanism to the paganism with the first, of the twelve that have been which he is so familiar. The recepheld, to meet out of this country. The tion given the delegates by the better prophecies are many that erelong the class of Catholics, including the mayor, spread of the Society will compel the the aldermen, and the Cn,tholie press, trustees to assign the- Convention to a was amazingly cordial, and all that nation even farther away than Canada. could be wished. Not unlikely befOl'e the close of the century this great gathering will hold a The Convention was unique in the session in England; perhaps even in prominence given to Jnnior work, three Australia. important sessions being devoted to this subject; in the emphasis laid upon Considering the distance of Montreal evangelistic subjects and methods, the from the greatest number of Endeavor· famous evangelists, Dr. J. Wilbur ers, the rival attractions of the World's Chapman and Rev. B. Fay Mills, con- Fair, and the fact that the Western ducting some very powerful meetings; roads failed to give favorable terms to in the boldness with which t.he social excursions, the attendance of seventeen questions of the day, such as temperthousand may be considered an extraor- ance, social purity, pure literature, and dinary one. It probably means even good citizenship, were brought before more than the forty thousand that came the young folks; in the practical natogether last year in New York. ture of many of the sessions, especially of the" open parliaments" and the con- Several unique features rendered the ferences on committee work. In all Convention memorable. One was the these respects the Convention was return of Dr. Clark from his tour of the unique; but the readers of this magaworld in the interest of Christian En- zine will be chiefly interested in knowdeavor. This, with the widened view ing that in the matter of missions the it has given the Endeavorers of the Endeavorers present at Montreal showscope of their movement and of the ed an unprecedented and most delight. needs of the world, contributed not a ful zeal. little toward the marked missionary enthusiasm of the Convention. To be sure, that was not unexpected. Throughout the year, the tide of mis- Another unique feature was akin to sionary activity among the young peothis-the noteworthy international fla- ple of the~e societies has been manivor of the assembly. References to the festly rising. They have been building annexation question, to arbitration, to missionary churches, supporting misthe Queen and the marriage of her sionaries, circulating missionary peligrandson that took place during the odicals, founding missionary libraries, sessions of the Convention, to the com- establishing missionary lecture bureaus, mon political problems that both Canada and organizing missionary institutes for and the United States have to faee- the diffusion of missionary information. such international topics added piq- Best of all, they have been going, in uancy to the meetings, and widened the large numbers, to the mission fields outlook of the young people. themselves, if ready; or, if not ready, they have put themselves in training There is no need to do more than re- for that high caIling. fer to the disorder of the Montreal .. roughs." excited by an incidental, A clear evidence of this missionary uncomplimentary reference to Catholi- activity comes from the treasurers of cism made by Rev. Mr. Karmarkar, a the various missi()nary boards. It must $2100.20; the American Baptist Misbe l'emembered, in considering the sionary Union, $3122.16; the Woman's meaning of the figures given below, Presbyterian Board of Missions of the that much of the missionary giving of Northwest, $3676.37; the American Christian Endeavor societies is never Board of Foreign Missions, $13,579.93. recorded. It is given with the contri- This list is evidently incomplete, some butions of the church, and is not dis- of the most vigorous Christian Endeavtinguished as a Christian Endeavor of- or denominations, such as the Methodist fering. Not all the boards, either, keep Protestant, being entirely unrepresenta separate account of the gifts received ed, and a few of the largest boards not from these societies. Undoubtedly, having sent in their figures; and yet considering these facts, the figures here what a glorious list it is I These eighgiven would be within the truth if they teen boards received at least $63,000 were largely magnified. They are very from these consecrated young people. encouraging, however, as they are: 'This means that the generation that The Missionary Board of the Cum- next will carryon the work of the berland Presbyterians reports Endeavor Church is one trained, as no generation gifts of $719.70, an increase over last yet has been trained, to give for the year. The American Home Missionary spread of Christ's kingdom on earth. Society received $3317.86, expressly It was to be expected, then, that misstated to have come from Endeavor so- sionary enthusiasm would be shown at cieties. Endeavorers sent the Presby- Montreal, and indeed it was. Probably terian Board of Foreign Missions $16,- no more hopeful token for the welfare 446.57, against $9035.60 sent the pre- of Christ's Church could be imagined ceding year. The Woman's Executive than was indicated by the missionary Committee of Home lIissions of the " open parliament," conducted by Rev. same denomination received $5600.21, Gilbert Reid, a missionary fresh from an increase over last year of $3546. To China. Mr. Reid appeared in the full the American Missionary Association Chinese costume he wears in Chinacame $3472.45, an increase of $1354.85. queue and all-and set the young people Presbyterian Endeavorers of Canada that filled the immense hall to talking sent to their Missionary Board $446.14. about their missionary work-what Canadian Congregationalist Endeavor- they were doing and how they were ers contributed $i4.7.25. The General doing it. It was but a touch that loos· Christian Missionary Convention re- ened an avalanche_ Scores were on ceived $3430 for a home mission church, heir feet at once, trying to get the while the foreign missionary society of floor. .. We are supporting a thousandthe same Church, the Disciples of dollar missionary in China." " Our Christ, received $2180.40, the secretary society of twenty-six is supporting a stating, as do many more of these secre- native worker in India." "Our sotaries, that the young people undoubt- ciety has four student volunteers, and is edly gave much more, but their offer- supporting two more in their studies." ings were not kept separate from those .. Our society sends out twelve workers of their church. The New West Edu- every week to hold evangelistic sercation Commission received $494.13; vices among the Indians." "Our sothe Free Baptist Benevolent Societies, ciety has sent eleven men into the for- $458.16; the Evangelical Lutheran eign field (Toronto)." "We support Church (General Synod), $2156; the two missionaries in Japan." Such are American Christian Convention, $500, samples of the reports that came pouran increase of 50 per cent; the Board ing in, three or four speaking at once, of Domestic Missions of the Reformed the eager young people refusing to be Church in America, $1250; the Con- repressed. It really seemed as if the gregational Church Building Society, – reports could go on all day, and this thought was verified when Mr. Reid gationaJist, three Presbyterian, one . finally, in despair, asked all who during the year had been engaged in helping Brethren, one Church of England, five the cause of missions to rise, and the Methodist, one Bible Christian, one Unit- immense audience rose as one man I One eminent clergyman said that the ed Presbyterian, three in public insti- entire scene was an augury of a more immediate millennium than anything tutions. Indeed, Christian Endeavor in he had ever seen before; and he was right. England is interdenominational, just as Of course, this was only one exercise. it is in this country and everywhere. There was a great deal more. Mr. S. L. Mershon, the indefatigable worker who Herein lies one of the chief secrets of its has done more for practical missionary work among Endeavorers than any charm and its power. The times are other man, the originator of the Chris- tian Endeavor Missionary Institute that ripe for just such a manifestation of is spreading its influence all over the United States, spoke most inspiringly brotherly sympathy as Christian En- on missionary literature. Another suc- cessful worker, Miss MacLaurin, of deavor inspires, and for just such an Chicago, discussed the conduct of mis- sionary meetings. Dr. J. T. McCrory, exercise of brotherly co-operation as of Pittsburg. spoke of " The Reflex In- fluence of Missionary Effort." Rev. Christian Endeavor occasions. W. H. G. Temple, of Boston, gave an address on "Missionary Money: How Nearly half of the seven hundred Eng- to Raise it." Then there was a special c.)nference for workers on the mission- lish societies of Christian Endeavor ary committees, conducted by a special- ist in this line, Mr. W. Henry Grant, were formed this past year. That is an of Philadelphia, and a report from this meeting was presented to the Conven- indication of wonderful life and growth.
tion. At next year's convention, to be held Altoget1.er, it is certain that the in London, the number of societies will Christian Endeavor societies of the world are more thoroughly interested almost certainly be over one thousand. in missions than ever before, and are ready for a year's work that will far The latest Chinese society of Chris- eclipse the past. Let all pastors see in this new and zealous force II missionary tian Endeavor has been formed in Chi· power to be cultivated prayerfully and earnestly. In God's providence this cago. This is probably the first one east Christian Endeavor movement may be -who knows ?-the final, culminating of the Pacific coast. means by which the world is to be won Following close upon the organization for Christ I of the Australian United Society of There are now enrolled in England Christian Endeavor is a United Society over seven hundred societies of Christian of Christian Endeavor in China I A Endeavor. One of the lists most re- large and representative gatheIing of cently published shows thirty-four new missionaries in Shanghai was &eized societies, thus divided among the de- upon as a favorable opportunity, and nominations: ten Baptist, nine Congre- Endeavor workers from all over the kingdom are now banded together in a compact organization for the purpose of publishing literature and spreading the Christian Endeavor ideas. The columns of three Chinese missionary papers are open to the United Society, and secretaries for the great divisions of the kingdom will push the cause in their own localities.
Missionary committees of Christian Endeavor societies should always work in the closest co·operation and under the tullest direction of their church om.- cers and pastor. Especially should they gain the approval of the church authori- ties for all proposed plans of raising money for missions, and no society should appropriate money for missions until the proposeu object-no matter what it is-has been approved by the pastor or other church authority. It is best, too, for all Christian Endeavor contributions to missions to be sent to the denominational boards through the hands of the church treasurer, designat· ed, however, as Christian Endeavor contributions.
BDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
T1te f(fUr great wants of the opening soldiers, for them and their heirs. In missionary era are these : Open doors return they were to render active ser- where now the Gospel is excluded, vice to the lord of the castle of Kuma- abundant men and women to enter the moto in time of war, and in preventing open fields, abundant money to sustain approaches in time of peace. It is said and support the work, and the Holy of one of these villages that .. there is Spirit to accompany and follow all the not a man in it who is not a leper ex- missionary labor in pentecostal power. cept the stone idol." The reason is As to the open doors, we may say that generally supposed to be because of the God has almost universally given them somewhat forced inter-marriages. They to the Church. As to the second and cannot marry into the samurai class third requisites, they are to be supplied above them, nor will they into the peas- by a self-denyiug and obedient Church; ant class below them ; and as a conse- and as to the fourth, He alone can sup- quence come a multiplicity of inter- ply it, but He will give in answer to marriages and leprosy.
prayer. With the exception of Dr. Goto, of Tokyo, no wtIl·educated medical man The Lepers of Japan. in Japan has as yet made leprosy a spe- In response to the appeal which we cialty ; there has been no encourage- published on page 436 of our June issue, ment to do so. Those Japanese who the C. M. S. propose to establish a leper knt)wof the desire to help their afflicted hospital at Kumamoto, Kiushiu. There fellow-countrymen are greatly interest- is at present no charity in the whole ed. Medical men offer support and country for the relief of the 200,000 sympathy. Among the Christians, lepers, who suffer in this unmitigated more than one has said how much it dual tragedy of shame and despair, ex- may do for the Church of Cbrist in cept the Roman Catholic institution at Japan. One remarked, "My people Gotemba, near Tokyo, more than half can argue with your people as cleverly of the inmates of which have volunta- as they can, but they know nothing of rily, it is said, become followers of Him such love as tbis ; this will preach to who singled out lepers for His mercy. them wbere words would fail."
Leprosy is more prevalent in the pre- Tbe really best way of helping is a fecture of Kumamoto than in any other somewhat difficult question. A dis- part of Japan; no sphere of society can pensary is useless; the patients must be said to be absolutely free from it. be under recognized care and superin- Japanese leprosy is not regarded as in- tendence, therefore a hospital seems to fectious, only as hereditary; and a be a necessity to begin with, and if this prominent medical man, who has kindly could lie placed under a resident native offered to gratuitously become consult- Christian doctor, much good might be ing phYSician in the event of a hospital effected. About £600 ($3000) Is needed being established, gives it as his opin- to start this work. Subscriptions may ion that from 60 to 70 per cent could be sent to Mrs. Edward Nott, The Glen.
be relieved if they had good medical Walmer. Kent, England, or to Rev.
aid at first; 10 per cent could be cured, D. M. Lang, Osaka, Japan.
though it might appear in their descend- ants. English Notes. Scattered round Kumamoto are small BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS. villages, the popUlations of which are said to be almost entirely lepers. These COll'IJersion of MOBeS Levi of Ruuia.- villages are relics of the feudal times; The Mildmay Mission to the Jews has they were granted to a certain class of resting upon it many marks of the Di. vine favor. The following communica· received from you. This was a great tion, sent by Pastor Gurland, from the joy to me. I read it repeatedly. My province of Courland, to Mr. John Wil- eyes were opened. I saw a new world. kinson, the superintendent of the mis- I did not recognize myself. I began sion, deserves to be read with interest: now to see the true covenant God of "In the month of June, 1892, my col- Israel in Jesus Christ, the promised porteur was ill-treated by some fanatic Saviour, who died for our sins and rose Jews and robbed of fifty New Testa- again for our justification; and said to ments, which they took to the rabbi for Him, "My Lord and my God." 1 will him to destroy. pay fourfold the value of the books, and will confess publicly the Lord "The colporteur wished to prose- Jesus Christ before friend and foe." cute, but 1 ad vised him not, but to , Amen I' I responded, embracing the leave the mattcr in the Lord's hands. dear old man to my heart, 'Amen.' He was not satisfied, but still wished to This is of the Lord, and it is marvellous prosecute. 'Be perfectly quiet,' I said in our eyes." to him, ' the 1Vord of God needs no protection.' He agreed with me and let Medical Mis8ions.-Dr. Wheeler, of the matter rest. Six w;eeks elapsed, Jerusalem, writes: "Special prayer is when, one evening, two NicodemUl needed for this city. The darkneBB and sOlLis called upon me in the middle of deadness are terribly sad. . .. The the night-one a gray-haired man, the work is of great interest from a medical other a younger man. 'fhe old man point of view. My hospital is alway8 began thus: ' My name is Moses Levi ; full. . .. Two Jews, first impressed I am a business man, and president of in our hospital with the truth of Chris· the synagogue of B–. About six tianity, have since been baptized in our weeks ago, in my blind zeal, I beat your church. Prejudice and superstition are colporteur and robbed him of fifty New rapidly breaking down before the clear Testaments, thinking that I did a merito- light of the Gospel." rious act; but have been severely punished for it, and, on the other hand, Dr. Shepherd, writing from Udaipur, blessed by it. When I brought the Rajputana, says: "The medical work books to the rabbi, who, like myself, is ever increasing-53,OOO cases treated knew nothing of their contents, we re- last year. . .. The medical mission joiced together, and fixed the next day here has been the means of establishing for their destruction. We had a long mission work in this heathen strongtalk, and got angry over the missiona- hold. By God's blessing on our work ries and their misleading books. In the in fifteen years we have got a mission mean time it became dark. Leaving the house, a new hospital for fifty beds, rabbi's house, I stumbled and feU over and a church in which worships a thorthe parcel of New Testaments, and re- oughly organized Christian congregaceived such a blow that I could not lift tion. " myself up again. A doctor was sent for, who declared that I had broken my Dr. Sims, of Stanley Pool, writes, on leg, and I had to be carried home. The January 25th, 1893: "I have a small doctor was a dear Christian, and said : hospital of eight beds dlld a good phar- " My dear Moses, this is the finger of macy, in both of which daily aid is God. In tLe Book you intended to de- given to mallY sick who come or who stroy you will find the best medicine for are carried here. We have also a little body and soul." . . . His words church of nine active members, witnessreached my heart, and I had no rest. ing and working around. Weare just Next day I sent for the books, but they finishing a church building, and the had been destroyed. After awhile the principal ones who built it are already gaDd doctor brought me a copy he had members of its internal organization."
Speaking of the Congo women, Mrs. Walfridsson, of the medical mission, Bethel Santhal Misnon.-Pastor Hae- says: "These poor creatures Bre very gert reports progress. During the past much degraded, and, if possible, evell year about five thousand patients have more bound to their old habits than the been attended, and much suffering has men. Even after they have become been relieved. Some who vowed to fol- Christians it seems more difficult for low the Lord on their recovery have them than for the men to get out of gone back to their demon·worship ; but their old superstitious customs. We there have also been cases to encourage.
have seen, to our great joy:, much bless- A hundred and nineteen men and wom- ing in the work among the women, and en have been baptized since April last, we expect more to follow, although as on their profession of faith in Christ.
yet only a few have been baptized. The pastor was recently thrown from There are many who are not far from his horse and much bruised ; but as no the kingdom of God." bones were broken, .. the devil," he said, .. was downright grieved, and Steamship for the &uth Sea and :Ne1IJ walked away disappointed."
Guinea Mianontl. -The directors of the London Missionary Society have decid- The Pulayans.-The Rev. A. H. Lash, ed to construct a steamer for service in principal of the Buchanan Institution, the South Seas, and have issued an ap- Pallam, contributes to the Tra'Dancore peal to the young people to undertake Diocesan Record a graphic account of a the task of providing this new ship as recent visit paid to Tirnivella, the Rev.
their special share in the Forward Move. J. H. Bishop's station. Mr. Bishop's ment of the society. The estimated work is among the PUlayans chiefly, a cost is £16,000, and the addition to the class of out·castes who are subjected to annual expenditure involved in its disabilities exceptionally severe even in maintenance is £1500. India. Mr. Bishop has about four thou- sand converts under his care belonging The POW6'/" of Prayer.-In 80 far as to this people, and employs several prayer acts at all, its action is uncondi- Pulayan agents of whose ability he has tioned by time or space. According to a high opinion. To show the nature of Dr. Talmadge's beautiful definition, the disabilities referred to, Mr. Lash " Prayer is the slender nerve that moves tells of a Pulayan child who, seeing Mr.
the muscles of Omnipotence." The Bishop, came running forward. "He Rev. Jonathan Lees, of Tientsin, re- was," says Mr. Lash, " rather shy about ports: .. It is very significant that there coming on to the main road, but the is a growing disposition to link success offer of a bright.covered book proved here with prayer at home. It is known irresistible, and coming down to us he that at least one large gathering of poor took it, and at our request began to read women in England are praying constant- aloud. We stood listening to him for ly for their yet poorer sisters in Tien- two or three minutes, and then I looked tsin. Dr. Roberts connects the conver- up and down the road and found we sions in the hospital with special meet- had stopped the traffic on both sides.
ings for prayer on its behalf held among We beckoned the people to come on, Welsh colliers. And there seems reason but while the Pulayan boy stood in the to trace the revival in our Ku-Ioui·hsi road not one of them would pass; some chapel to the daily prayers of a friend caste women, who were evidently in a who, having been here, knows the hurry, climbed the bank on the side peculiar difficulties of the place, but farthest from the boy, and making a who is now far away. There is a soli- wide detour, joined the road higher up, darity in the work of the Church which and hurried on their way. We let the we too faintly recognize. • Oue in boy go, and the stream of passers·by Him.' " again began to flow."
TlIE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
Japan j* Korea jt Shintoism jt Medical Missions.§ A :SURVEY OF MISSIONARY WORK IN lofty summits and steep, lava·scarred JAPAN. sides of the promontory of Idzu and its mountain chains, now left rapidly be· BY WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D., LL.D. hind, could occasionally be discovered."
The day on which we write rounds Not until late in the afternoon was the out the fortieth year since Commodore whole glorious vision of the beautiful Perry steamed into the Bay of Yedo land revealed. At sunset the summit and into Japanese history. On July of Fuji became a crown of glory. The 8th, 1853, the Suaquehanna, the first next day was one of sunny splendor.
steamer in Japanese waters, came to As on July 8th, 1853, so for years, her anchorage off Uragaat 5 P.M. The except in great outlines and salient fea· firing of two rockets from the forts on tures, Japan was the mysterious coun· the rocky heights, answered by the rat· try, the land of secrecy and spies, the tling of cables and the splash of four paradise of the informer, with the struc· anchors, announced the beginning of a ture of society and government hidden new era in .. Everlasting Great Japan." under a mist. For nearly seventeen Was it prophetic that of the four years after that historic day of haze and ships, three bore native American baffiing fog, the constant burden of names, Saratoga, Susquehanna, Missis- complaint in the diaries, letters, and sippi, and one that of Plymouth? At publications even of foreign residents on about the very time that the Pilgrim the soil was that of mystery. Little Fathers were crossing the Atlantic to could be learned with certainty as to found the American Commonwealth, rulers or ruled. How different the situ· Japan expelled the missionaries of the ation to-day I Vanished like the mist Roman phase of the faith, and become are Tycoon, feudalism, the old society the sealed country and her people the and ideals. Foreground and back· hermit nation which our fathers knew. ground now stand in sunUght, but the Whatever fancy the ships' names lecturer who to-day !!peaks from vivid might suggest or memories evoke, the memory and keen experience of things day was typical of subsequent move- seen and felt in the years 1870–71 is apt ments within the empire. In London to start suspicion and incredulity in the parlance, the weather was "dull but minds of Japanese hearers born since fine. " So hazy was the early morning, 1865. Yet the vanished things of Old that the castellated rocky coast of the Japan were not more wonderful than " Cliff Fortress Island" could with diffi- are the glories of "Shin Nippon" (New culty and only at intervals be descried. Japan), the most potent and striking of Even Fuji, the peerless mountain, was all being a true Christianity, not grafted for most of the day invisible, but" as merely, but planted and flourishing.
the day advanced," wrote Perry, "the Let us survey the past and present, sun came out with a brighter lustre, noting the conditions, needs, difficul- glistening upon the broad sails of the ties, and prospects of the Master's work junks within view, and dispelling the in this Oriental land of promise.
mist, through the openings of which the As to land and people, two striking facts confront us. The soil, once a • See also pp. 54 (Jannary). 255 (April), 374 feudal monopoly, is now practically in (May), 436 (June), 490 (July), 690, 6Ql and 698 the hands of those who cultivate it. Despite the fact that "nine tenths of (prelent Issue). the peoplc are hopelessly in debt," the national increase in wealth is remark· t See pp. 531 (July), 658 and 655 (pNl!ent issne). i See p. 648 (present ie8ue).
SSee pp. 641 and 7f1l (present II.ne). able. Two decades ago Japan was the amelioration of morals, the elevation reckoned by foreign merchants as of the eta or pariah to citizenship, the "hardly worth trading with;" now manifold measures of reform, charity. the volume of exports and imports and the activities that raise humanity in equals $162,428,832. Once the United the scale of being! In a word, the States was one of the smaller traders, Japanese are bound not only to take buying Japan's tea, but importing next their place among the nations. but to be to nothing. In 1893 our country leads found in the front rank. Nothing less all nations, imports reaching a figure will satisfy their ambition. exceeding 6,000,000, and the total trade $44,663,024. Yet willing and proud as all are, espe- cially the fellow· countrymen of Mat- Equally interesting is the fact that the thew Perry, to rejoice in the wonderful population of the empire has steadily progress of the Japanese, it is only fair increased since the opening of the coun- to state that the best tllings in New try. The exact census figures are ob- Japan are tlte creation8 of men Ij'om tainable since 1882. The comparison Ohristendom. It i~ not merely for the between 36,700,118 souls in 1882, and mosquito·net, sponge-cake, the knowl- 40,718,677, December 31st, 1891, speaks edge of anatomy and rational medicine. for itself. Japan has been enriched, with a hundred other things of the sixenlarged, and in a thousand ways bless· teenth century whose tell· tale names reed hi temporal things by her foreign veal their Western origin, that Japan is intercourse. indebted to Christians. The figure of .. the foreign employe" has always been To one who, like the writer, lived modestly in the background, but though under the feudal system, the R~ume secret as leaven, he has been largely the Statistique dJ3 t' Empire du Japon, pub· transforming power. NI1VY, army, lished by the Bureau of Statistics of the mint and coinage, educational system, Imperial Cabinet in Tokyo, for 1893, a codes of law aud systems of comts. copy of which is now before mc, is full steamship companies, lighthouses, rail· of hope and inspiration. Its pages, ways, telegraphs, reforms and improvewhich number as many as the Psalms, meuts in mineR, prisons, hygiene, mills, are preana of progress. Such a literary laboratories, water-works, harbors, cefunction issued forty years ago, copies ramics. dockyards, newspapers-what of which are also before us, tells of lit· would these be without the foreigner? tIe that was national, but much that Iu many iustances they would not 80 was fractional in nearly three hundred much as exist. In the nobler lines of principalities or petty feudalities. The endeavor, in the instilling of nobler bulk of what was then reckoned as as· ethical and humane ideas, in the intelsets is now bric·a·brac and curios. lectual and literary drilling and training Now, one government clearly di.tferen- of the men who now lead Japan, in the tiated into the three fnnctions-execu- education of thousands in parliamentary tive, legislative, judicial-with one na- procedure and the methods of self-govtional army and navy, an Imperial rep- ernment, the missionary has been teachresentative Diet or Parliament, and a er, leader, exemplar, counsellor, friend. written constitution, with modern ad- Take away the object.lessons of the ministrative systems, local suffrage and foreign settlements at the seaports, the legislatures. binds the country into uni- actual shirt-sleeve and hand-soiling ty. Yet, besides these politicalfeatures work done by the foreign employe which so impress the world at large, (yatoi), the instruction given in dispenhow wonderful seem the new things in sary, school, private dwelling, and Japan-free public schools, hospitals, church by the Christian missionaries, local option in dealing with the treat- in ten thousand forms, and Japan would ment of Japan's cancer-licensed pros- to-day be far behind Chins. titution-the improved status of woman, There are truths and facts which requisites for the making of the noble statistics cannot show. Tourist, hasty records now enjoyed by some elderly book-maker, art dilettante, and sensa- men and women still in the harness and tiollal corrcspondent dclight in talking sweetly bearing the burden and heat of of Japan's" phenomenal progress," as the day, content with the Master's though it wcre a fairy.tale, or even as " penny." though the Japanese mind had conceived or their right hand had executed this In selecting missionaries for the work thing. Truth must be told. The now in hand, it is best more than ever names of Perry. Harris, Parkes, How- before to consider quality rather than cll, Brinkley, Black, Wagener, Bous- quantity. Well-balanced men and quet, Le Gendre, Smith, Savatier, women are wanted who can teach, coun- Geerts, Van Mccrdervoort, Satow, As- sel, and direct ItS friends rather than ton, Chamberlain, and a host of others, rule as masters or even labor as preach- American, British, French, Dutch, Ger- ers or evangelists. Indeed, except for man, belong like foundation-stones in exceptionally gifted men, the preaching the structure of New Japan. They days of the foreigner are about over. were initiators, teachers, founders, lead- Why? Beause the native Japanese ing while the Japanese followed. Yet Christians can preach Christ so much none the less do those of Hepburn, Ver- better than the alien. The Japanese beck, Greene, Williams, Brown, themselves being beth witnesses and Thompson and others, consecrated ser- the best judges, rare is the foreigner vants of Jesus, whom the Japanese, un- who speaks fluently, accurately, acless monsters of ingratitude, cannot for- ceptably the vernacular to the people get. These men, of finest intellect and or in polished style to the educated nanatural gifts, have been servants of ser- tives. That some of our brethren sucvants of the J apanesll from their first ceed admirably and not a few measurlanding on the Boil in 1859 or later. ably does not invalidate the facts stated Teachers, translators, advisers, healers, above. It is not merely that the alien factotums-no statistics can tell the is unidiomatic in his diction; the radistory of their manifold and continuous cal differences in mental habits make service. even his correctly spoken. utterances un- intelligible or misleading. Now in the Here we touch upon a subject that domain of education these drawbacks statistics know nothing of, which not are minimized, Further, it is evident only the Christian at home in comfort that the Japanese have the gift of utterforgets, but which even the mercantile ance and the graces of preaching to a residents in the treaty ports, who are marked degree; hence, the policy of the missionaries' neighbors, do not sus- the llis&ion Boards should be the trainpect or appreciate. The trader's or ing of a native ministry. Direct evandiplomatist's business is at stat.ed hours, gelization should be through Japanese between sun and sun, with Suuday for pastors, while education and general rest and recreation. On the contrary, superintendence should be the work of the miesionary is literally never safe the missionaries. On this point the from distraction, from calls, inquiries, wisest missionaries and observers, and interviews from converts, hearers, mostly Japanese, unanimously agree. and natives of all sorts, who knew but little of the value of time or the endur- Dcspite the regular, almost periodic ance of human nerves. In a country (and, shall we say, indispensable ?) "relike that of " th" sunrise," cold-blooded actions," the religion of Jesus is no regularity, a routine of good habits, un- longer a mere exotic in Japan. It has sentimental consecration well tempered roots in the soil. It is profoundly afwith common sense, rather than im- fecting, at a thousand points, the na· petuosity or light-headed zeal are the tionallife. While some features in the dogmatic forms of Christianity, which their upholders consider necessary to it, 1889. For nearly, or even more than a find no congenial atmosphere in Japan, hemi-decade politico-religious preaching practical religion is most in demand. was in fashion. Now, it is the testi- One radical difference between the Teu- mony of our brethren at the front, practonic and the Japanese intellect is thc tical preaching is the rule. As the best eager craving of the former and the al- missionaries observe not clouds, but most complete indifference of the latter sow, mind not" reactions," but pray to abstract thinking. With no mind and work, so thc best of the native for metaphysical discussion, the native preachers heed less outward influences, believers insist on simplifying creeds, and preach and follow Christ more in and their progress in this direction is both word and work. The wise missometimes rather alarming to their sionary keeps him well supplied with a friends beyond the Pacific. Neverthe- lending library of modern books, where less, with their own religious news- with the native preacher and evangelist papers and reviews and ecclesiastical he can feed his own mind. The books gatherings of all sorts there are strong of medireval and past centuries, the evidences that they are willing to do rubbish lying unread in our own libraearnest thinking and to combine pa- ries are simply useless. Besides the tience with eagerness. The tendency Bible, the literature needed is what will is even stronger toward practical and explain it best. The freshest thinking visible fruits. about, exposition of, and commentary upon the Book are in demand. In In the preaching of the native pastors Japan, the Christian literature of the three distinct phases are noted. The first and the nineteenth century is most first pioneers borrowed their method helpful. This practical preaching is directly from their foreign teachers, bearing fruit richly. We note how which was expository and apologetic. generously our Japanese brethren have The benefits of Christianity to the indi- given for the support of the Gospel in vidual and the nation we….e largely their own churches, and its spread dwelt upon, and the ·examples of emi- throughout the whole empire. . To nent men of faith in Europe and Ameri- their own boards of home miseions, ca were cited. Following this came the Sunday-schools, temperance work, philosophical method. During the de- young men's associations, hospitals, cade from 1880 to 1890, the rage for the orphanages (now nineteen in number), study of philosophy among the think- training classes, various industrial vening classes in Japan became almost a tures, prompt relief of the distressed in craze. "The English school" of writ- time of floods, earthquakes, etc., they ers was especially popular, and the have during the year past added, with number of native youth who, to use a needed modifications, Young People's Japanese term, .. swallowed Darwin Societies of Christian Endeavor, and whole." was great-so great, indeed, as free night schools for parents who are to make those who woke from the spell so poor that they cannot afford to send ashamed of the largeness of the Japan- their children to the common day ese bump of imitativeness. The pulpit schools. In a word, despite the socould not escape both the infection and called reaction against Christianity, contagion that were in the air in every there seem indications both of its deeper large assembly, and so the philosophico- rooting and of more solid growth. religious sermon and address ruled Though the statistics for 1893* may among these Oriental Athenians. Then burst upon the nation the political tu- * Roman Catholics, 44,812 BoulB in 244 congremult. consequent upon the agitation for the Constitution and Parliament, the gations; Greek Catholics, 20,325 Bouls in 219 written instrument creating which was congregations; Protestants, 35,534 souls in 365 granted by the Emperor, February 11th, local churches. Thlrty-one Protestant organlzashow a gain far below the average for women who shall be servants of ser- several years past, and possibly loss un- vants for Jesus' sake. The strongest der several columns, yet the interior forces in all Japanese history are rever- forces of the religion of Jesus in Japan ence for the Mikado and patriotism, seem stronger than ever. It may be founded upon the national history and that the parable of the leaven rather traditions. One of the delicate tasks of than that of the mustard-seed is this our brethren in Japan is to show that year being illustrated. Never was Christianity knows no Asiatic or Euro- there a more deeply felt need of moral pean, has nothing to do with American, vigor among the thinking and govern- Englishman, German, Japanese assnch, ing men of .. Shin Nippon." As a but for man. Jesus Christ by the grace Japanese editor wrote two years ago, of God tasted death for the Japanese, .. We have imported a great political and He is the Saviour of all them that machine [the National Constitution and believe there as elsewhere. On the Diet], but we have not the moral oil to other hand, there is nothing in Chris- make it work." It is found that true tianity which, rightly interpreted and Christians are the mainstay of moral applied, conflicts with anything that is reform. Even the Buddhists, quick- morally beautiful in Japanese family or ened into marked activity and imitating national life. .. I came not to destroy, the Christians by organizing young but to fulfil," are the words of Christ, men's associations, orphanages, and even as applicable to the old moral order of a sort of salvation army, predict a re- Japan as to that of Israel.
vival of Christianity. In temple-build- : With faith, then, as leaven, if not, at ing, cutting off hair to make drag.ropes, this moment, as mustard-seed, we utter and purely outward and showy enter- our faith in the cheering hopefulness of prise, the Buddhists are zealous. In the missionary situation in Japan. Our generating moral stamina, they are wo- nands and hearts, prayers and gifts fully lacking. In this fact the logic of should be reconsecrated afresh on .. The their creed is manifest. A Japanese Land where the Day Begins," because: DOD·Christian student in one of our 1. Christ commands. 2. Shinto, the American colleges remarked a few old indigenous religion, is now little days ago, .. Buddhism, has no personal else than a political engine. It has no God, and therefore no element of life or food for the hungering spirit.
progress. There is no hope for J a- 3. Buddhism has no element of prog- pan in Buddhism. It is dead to us. ress. Its tap-root is cut, because it has We expect nothing in this direc- cut itself off from the Supreme Creator.
tion." 4. What is done for Japan is indirectly Next to a richer outpouring of the done for China. The Chinese will learn Holy Spirit upon our missionaries, our from the Japanese as they will from no brethren in Christ in Japan, and upon Western nation. Because both are ourselves at home, there is needed re- Eastern, the one will learn from the inforcement of the very best men and other with less sensitiveness and jeal- ousy_ 5. Because the signs are cheer- ing and the promise great.
tlons are represented, united fOT Christian work May "the rudder of Asia" turn the in twelve alliances. Of the 35,5l34 church-mem- continent aright as it moves into the bers, 33,390 belong in five allied ecclesiastical flood of the future. Christ is our steersbodies. Does not this illustrate Christian unity man. "Behold also the ships, whicb, rather than sectarian division? As many cop.- versions andbaptisms are reported from the body though they be so great, and are driven of independent native churches in 1892-93 as of fierce winds, yet are they turned from all the other Protestant churches. This about with a very small helm, whitherlooks as thongh the work were passing into the soever the governor listeth. " bands of the natives.
GBNEBAL JllI8IIIONABY IlfTELLIGEl'I'CB
VI.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITlID :BY BEY. D. L. LEONABD.
Extracts and Translations frcJm Foreign his shoos. This was against the rule, Periodioalll. and the students afterward spoke of it.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, The teacher replied that all rules have MASS. their exceptions. 'Why,'saidhe, 'sup- JAPAN. pose His Majesty should come, would you expect him to leave his shoes out- – " Let me sum up the facts. An In· side?' That was enough. The teachvalid of one year, In a state of great de· er had spoken of the Emperor • as if he bility, with a tumor weighing fifty-five were a mere man,' and he also lost his pounds, and five or six doctors agreed place. In still another town there was that the patient would die from the a flourishing Sunday-school connected operation. This is the human side of with one of our churches. Suddenly the case. On the other hand, there was the seventy-five scholars dropped to a the promise of God that 'the prayer handful. What was the reason? The of faith shall save the sick;' two com- headmaster of the principal school in panies of Christians, taking God at His the place, a man who had once been word, prayed In faith t.hat He would friendly to Christianity, had called the direct the physicians, granting them parents of the children together and skill, and would bless the nursing and warned them of the danger of subjcctthe medicines used, and thus restore ing their children to the influence of the loved sister and worker in Christ to Christian teaching. The fundamental health again. This is the Divine side. principle of Christianity, he said, CRU- The results show a successful operation not be reconciled with loyalty or due and perfect cure. What are we to be- reverence for the Emperor. Nor are lieve? Our Christians here are simple such things possible only In the schools enough in their faith to hold that this throughout the country; the spirit that is an answer to their prayers, and that Inspires them has possession of the unithe promise of God has been verified. versity. The Imperial University is an In this view of the case they are happy institution upon which immense sums and tlatisfied, and in their interpretation of money have been expended. It has of the facts this writer agrees."-Rev. a large corps of Japanese and foreign Mr. TQwsoN. in Mi88ionary llepQrter professors; the instruction is highly (M. E. C. South).
-" There is now a constant endeavor specialized. By some it has been re- tQ antagonize Christianity and Japan as garded as pre-eminently a place for the represented in the Emperor. The state· calm consideration of questions in phi- ment at a public meeting the other day losophy and science, being a place free that Japan, too, may have her Con- from the traditionalism of the West.
stantine, immediately raised a tumult. But what has happened at the Uni"er- After the ceremony of bowing to the sity ? One of the professors nndertook picture of the Emperor, the teacher of a line of historical research. His re- a school in a large town said, 'You sults were thought to throw consider- may now put away His Majesty's pic- able doubt upon the Divine descent of ture. ' The ceremony was over, and the the Emperor; and the editor of the teacher meant 'precisely what he said- periodical in which his conclusions ap- nothing more ; but the remark was con· peared called upon the Shintoists for an strued into an expression of disrespect, answer. The answer soon came. Pro· and the teacher was dismissed. In an- fessor Kume was dismissed. Appar.
other town an official who visited the ently also the thing is not intended to school entered without first removing be something for a day. There is evi·
EXTRACTS AND
dently a set purpose to indoctrinate the seemed to be well known by many in minds of the children. Anything that the audience, and it was with difficulty can be construed as hostile to the old that Mr. Wigram's command • not to conception of the Emperor can find no express feeling' was obeyed. He left place in a text·book. for the school. Re· us with a sentence which will not readcently a work on geography was sub- ily be forgotten: • Medical missions are mitted for inspection. It contained a the picture language of the Church mili. statement to the effect that there are tant. The rudest and roughest, the good reasons f0r believing that the simplest and most uneducated can un- Japanese race is Mongolian and Malayan derstand the language of Christian love, in its origin. That statement could kindness, and charity.' Not only to not be admitted. It might be true, but medical students, to whom Dr. Pennell it suggested inferences that were not addressed himself, but to many more expedient. "-Rev. WILLIAM IMBRIE, would his concluding words come home D.D., Tokyo, in The Church at Home with power: •I have found that none of the work I have done in England is and Aln-oad. likely to suffer by my removal, for every part of it has been earnestly and -The Ohinese Recorder says of Mr. readily taken up by others.' "-C. M. Ishii and his orphanage: .. He had no Gleaner. resources but his own abounding faith and devoted spirit. A medical student himself on the last year of his course, -Medical Missions says: .. It is pleaswith every reason for encouragement if ant to think of a Christian mission firmhe devoted himself to his profession, he lyestablished in the ancient city whence was 80 impressed witll the Divine call Paul and Barnabas, separated to the to work for children that the following work by the Holy Spirit, went forth. winter, when witllin four months of Dr. Martin writes on February 8th: graduation, he' withdrew from the •This mission was commenced by me school, and refused to apply for a diplo.. as a new field in 1876, and by the blessma. He did this against tile advice of Ing of God has realized prosperity and all his friends, and solely tllat his Ileart good success. It is among the Arabicmigllt not be divided between Ilis pro. speak.ing people, especially Greek fesslon and his calling. He lnstinc· Church and Nusairiyeh (pagans). As ti vely felt tllat Ile would lean on his to ~Ioslems, almost the only access to diploma if Ile had one. He would not them has been through medical work. be a doctor in name, lest Ile should be I have received to full communion turned aside from the straight line of thirty·three persons, and this week I hislife's duty. am to receive five additional. The medical work has been at times very .. I know of no clearer case In modern helpful. As yet I am the only missiondays of • an eye single' to i1fe's one ary here, and I practise the two profeswork. Such sacrifices for principle and sions-ministeriaI and medical. For such sensitive balancings of 'duty are several years the Turkish Government too rare in actual life to pass unnoticed. has been very active in its opposition to They merit the careful thought of all Protestant mIssions. has put many ob· who desire the development of man's 8tacles and difficulties In our way, and spiritual nature. These are modern threatens us with others; but the Lord Pauls who are never disobedient to any has by wondrous works defended the heavenly vision (Acts 26: 19). They promotion of His Gospel and Word. are the seers of their day, the saviours of We praise His name, and in faith go their generation."
MEDICAL MISSIONS. forward.' "
-" Dr. Pennell was the chosen repre- -The fifty-fourth annual meeting of sentative of Medical Missions. He the Medical Missionary Society in China
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENOE
was held in Canton, at the house of ence and usefulness, and amid surround.
Messrs. Shewan & Co., January 25th, ings and environments which sometimes 1893. There were present: Hon. Charles threatened to batHe the purpose and ef- Seymour, U. S. Consul; Rev. R. H. forts of its founders and friends, While Graves, M.D., D.D.; T. Watters, Esq., the utmost care has been observed in H. B. M.'s Consul-General; G. D. Fea· its economical and prudent manage· son, Esq.; Professor E. P. Thwing, ment, this institution has been guarded M.D., D.D.; Dr. D. A. Beattie; Miss by a higher Power than any human re- M. W. Niles, M.D.; Miss S. L. Halver- source could supply; and in manifold son, M.D.; Rev. Messrs. C. A. Nelson, ways Divine favor has attended the A. Beattie, Thomas McCloy, C. Bone, instrumentalities that have been wisely H. J. Parker, C. W. Pruitt, Rev. B. C. directed and unselfishly employed for Henry, D.D., Dr. Wan Tiin Mo, Dr. the amelioration of human suffering U. Tu! Feng, and Dr. J. M. Swan. and the advancement of Christianity.
Consul Charles Seymour remarked as " The dissemination of valuable In.
follows: "In the absence of the emi- formation, in the form of hospital liter- nent President of the Medical Mission ature in the Chinese language, embody.
Society of Canton, Dr. John Kerr, who ing the best results of medical, surgical, has been at the head of its hospital, as and scientific achievements of Europe superintendent or president, since 1855, and America, with reference to the and is now in America for much·needed treatment of diseases and preservation rest, our esteemed friend, Dr. Graves, of health, is one of the useful features the vigilant Chairman of the Managing of this Society's wide range of opera- Committee, should, if he would, pre- tions. and in demonstrating the superi.
side at this fifty-fourth annual meeting; ority of Western science over Eastern but, as it seems to be thc desire of all empiricism. • present that this honor shall be con· " The education and training of Chi- ferred upon one whose humble endeav- nese students in the Western systems ors to promote the interests of the So- and methods of medical and surgical ciety may have been too much appre- knowledge and practice is another valu- ciated, I will endeavor to perform the able feature of this Society's work, and duties of Chairman during your delib- will result in preparing qualified native erations for the welfare of this benefi- doctors and surgeons for Chinese com- cent institution, which has since 1835 munities, and for the army and navy of dispensed healing mercies to over a the great Empire of China.
million of atHicted people in Southern " A careful inspection of the Treasu- China, under the direction of skilful rers' and Hospital Accounts, which have doctors and surgeons, whose salaries been audited by the Commissioner of and support have been maintained and Imperial Maritime CustOIDS, and a thor- defrayed by benevolent American Chris- ough examination of the reports of the tians, while the current expenses for Managing Committee and Hospital Su- hospital buildings. supplies, medicines, perintendent, to be submitted for your nurses, and attendants, have been stead- consideration and action, will clearly ily met by the contributions of gener- establish the fact that in the manage- ous residents and friends of various na- ment of the Society'S affairs for 1892 tionalities and denominations, whose there has been a strict regard for the friendly co-operation in behalf of hu· welfare, usefulness and perpetuity of manity is proof that they recognize, in this the oldest and most successful in- the nature and scope of this Society's stitution of the kind in the world; and humane operations, the best possible ex- will tend to confirm the confidence and pression and manifestation of practical strengthen the devotion of its support- and enlightened Christian benevolence. ers and friends. at home and abroad, ., Through all these years of its exist- under the able direction of the superin-
1898.J EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS. '709
tendents, Dr. Swan and Dr. Niles, with striven by Western culture and social their faithful and competent assistants and political reformers by rousing in medical and surgical service at the speeches to cure the Hindus of this sick- Canton Hospital, and its various ness of the soul.
branches and dispensaries." – China .. For a time it appeared as if Spirit- Mail. ism. which, under the proud title of INDIA. Theosophy. claimed naturalization in -" We pull one way, our elder rela- India, bid fair to Inflame the Hindus tives pull another way, and our ladies with new energy. They already began pull a third way; and amid these con- to dream of a return of the golden age trary forces the Indian home continues of the Rlshis; but this artificial fire to remain very much the same as it was seems now in its turn to be on the point before the Government established its of extinction. In one of tbe latest DUmcolleges and schools. Our educated bers of the Madras Theosopbist perlOt'lI. youth ventilates his reformed ideas in cal, the publisher raises a bitter and utthe debating club; but as soon as he re- terly despairing cry over Hindu faint· turns home, he pockets his ad vanced heartedness. This is the more noticeopinions and puts his neck under the able, as the chief organ of the cultiyoke of custom, as patiently as did his vated Hindus in Madras fully concurs grandfather before him. He belongs with it. He writes: • The great mass to the nineteenth century, while his of the Hindus are in no way interested home belongs to the first century ; and in the many efforts which arfil made for the long voyage between the two he is their good and that of their land. Inobliged to make every day, on his way deed, their indifference to ~eir own to and back from the Government col- good and that of their brethrlln has now lege. "-PERTAB CUANDER MOZUJO)AR, become almost proverbial. .AP, for poquoted in Ohurch MiBBionary InteUi- litical and social reforms. so for the Theosophist as a religious reformer they gencer. have only honeyed flatteries and empty -" Complaints of Hindu degeneracy demonstrations of applause, but no earare at present becoming louder and nest, unselfish deed. They have no louder. Isaiah's complaint over the conception of any obligation of a man idolatrous Jews, 'The whole heart is to make any sacrifice for his country ; faint,' is very especially true of the scarcely one is ready to toil or to suffer Hindus. In spite of all their rich men· for the cause of intellectual freedom. tal endowments and their advances in Their inborn selfishness keeps them English education, their faint·hearted. back.' ness comes ever more strikingly to ., To this the Hindu journal adds: view. These cultivated Hindus, it is 'That the Hindus have lost the spirit true, feel and lament the malformations of self·sacrifice which distinguished of their social state, which, indeed, are their lathers is the judgment of all the such as cry to Heaven, but petty self· foreigners who are laboring for their reseeking, lack of energy, of manly cour. generation.• "-J!}vangeti,ach·LutheriscllU age, and of self devoted enthusiasm, Mi88iomblatt (Leipsic). render them quite incapable of under- taking anything great and noble for -" At present all the police judges their people, or of striking into new of Madras (tribunal correctionel) dl"C pro- paths. Nowhere are they willing to fessed Christians. Of 2169 Hindu dip.
come personally forward, but they love lomas of Madras. 180 -one·twelfth-are best to conceal themselves behind the given to Christians, while the Christians multitude of their own caste, and this form but one fortieth 01 the popula- clings with iron tenacity to what is old. tion. "-Re'D'IUJ deB Miasi01lB Oonumpo- In vain is it that English educators have raines (Basel).
'l10 4111NBB.AL JlIIIIIONABY INTlIILLlGlIINOB. [Septemb.r
– " With hundreds of years of Chris- more valuable to the Church as a trophy tianity in their veins, it is not likely of grace and an instrument of usefulthat Christians in England should be neSll. able to conceive how low down we have to begin in dealing with our con- " ftualittJ, in fact, is of infinitely verts. Imagine Christians who have more importance than numbers in the an inherited tendency to idolatry and present position of Christianity in India. ritual as strong as the inherited craving In confining its attention to the rate of for drink which affiicts some poor creat- numerical increase, the Church at home ures in England; who have no sense is spending needless anxiety upon a secwhatever of the sanctity of marriage, ondary matter. There is no more occathe Sabbath, or anything else that we sion to be anxious about the numerical hold sacred: to whom obscenity in advance of Christianity in India than speech and act and thought is as com- about the spreading of light when dawn monplace as eating and drinking; who has appeared in the east. That Chris. scarcely seem capable of shame for any- tianity ia the coming religion in India thing that we reckon sin; whoseknowl- is obvious now, not only to the vision edge of the world does not extend be- of faith, but to the eye of ordinary inyond their own little group of huts, and telligence and foresight. What has the limits of their spiritual and mental been often seen before in the history of beings alike are shrivelled from disuse. our religion will be seen again in India : Imagine such Ohriatian8, I say, not it will run more risk from a too rapid heathens. Their claim to the name of than from a too slow-paced progress. Christians· consists in their willingness When once cla8s motIements to Chris· to believe, In such measure as they can tianity set in-and signs of the coming understand, what they are taught of of that day may even now be seen- Christ and His truth; and their claim then, while those who measure everyto membership in our societies is in thing by figures rejoice over' glorious their 'desire to flee from the wrath to accessions, , the wisest friends of our reo come,' and their readiness to walk, ligion will tremble. The powers of with such steps as they can, in the new evil that dwelt in the old paganisms of way. This is a picture of thousands the Roman Empire sought vengeance and myriads of those who form the on the Christianity that conquered them 'numerical increases' over which the by Infecting it with their superstitions churches at home rejoice : and the un- and errors; and so well did they suc· speakably important work which occu- ceed that three fourths of Christendom pies itself in the department of ' Care of is still sick of the disease. The seeds the Churches' consists in the patient of infection in Hinduism are more actraining of such people as these, until, tive, virulent, and contagious than those in understanding, character, behavior, that lingered in the dying paganism of and usefqlness they have reached or Rome; the population of India. is greatsurpassed the level of what we com- er and more massed and welded than monly understand by Christian man· were the populatious of that empire ; hood and womanhood. The gradual and the transformation from beathen to transformation does not show in our Christian will be effected in India in statistics. The unit that stood for a lellS than half the time that separated man just out of heathenism, and newly Christ from Coustantine. When the brought under the yoke of Christ, still rush and whelm of the mass accessions remains a mere unit when the gift of begin, what is to save the Indian Church spiritual understanding has been be· that is to be from such grievous corrupstowed, and the graces of Christian tion as still pollutes the Greek and Rocharacter developed; though the man man communions? has thereby become a thousand-fold "There are two agencies which may, under the blessing of God, be employed
1893.J '111
to avert this disaster. One is that leav- Christian Africa." If this way of put- ening of the more thoughtful and intlu· ting things is not according to the Gos- ential classes with Christian principles pel pattern, why not 1 and ideals which our higher educa- -This for substance was said reo tional work aims at, and at the other is cently by one of our great preachers, the careful training and instruction of and with what large elements of truth: the present small Christian Church. In " Certain I am that the one thing need· these combined agencies, neither of ful for the Christian Church is to get which produces effects measurable by hold of the truth that the gifts of love statistics, lies the main hopc for a pure cannot be 8~nt to the perishing. The Indian Christianity in the days when disciple must go 118 his MlI8ter went, and Hinduism is gone. Instesd of murmur· live with the people whom he wants to ing, therefore, that the Church in India save." That is, in some way there does not grow by' leaps and bounds,' must be bestowed the" healing touch." we have profound reason to be thankful that it is for the present small -Some one told the Rev. Mr. Grout, enough to be manageable, and that we one of the first missionaries to Africa, have time for the patient weeding out that he WII8 going out on II. wild·goose of the noxious growths of caste, formal- chase. After thirty years of work he ism, superstition, and impurity, and for could say, " Well, if I did go on II. wild- the careful nurture of Christian truths goose chase, I caught the goose. "
and virtues before the garden becomes -The Apostle Paul was one of the too wide for our husbandry."-Wu- .world's most eminent "visionaries."
kyan MiB8iona;rg NotiUl. In every emergency II. vision was sure THE WORLD AT LARGE. to dawn upon his eyes-e.g., at Damas- cus, and Troas, in Corinth, before the -" God's man, in God's place, doing shipwreck, etc., II. magnificent view of God's work, in God's way, and for duty and privilege; and how fortunate God's glory." Such is the definition for him and for us that no sooner had given in Miss Geraldine Guinness's he beheld than he was swift to obey I .. Story of the China Inland Mission" "I was not disobedient unto the heavof the workers needed in the mission enly vision. "
fields of to.day. Well is this said to be -In a late number of the Student .. the supreme necessity." Only realize Volunteer, J. Campbell White, speaking that high ideal, or fulfil those five con- of the specious plea by which many are ditions, and every child of God would held back from the foreign field, that be a hero and II. host. " our services are indispensable to this -A brilliant Oxford student was giv- country," cogently suggests that" Paul ing himself to the· Wesleyan Missionary was the most indispensable Christian Society for African service. His tutor worker in Palestine when he was called remonstrated. "You are going out to away to Macedonia. It was not bedie in II. year or two. It is madness." cause England had no work for Carey, The young man (who did die after being that he inaugurated the movement for on the field only a year) answered: "I India's redemption. Livingstone would think it is with African missions as have been a wonderful leader in any with the building of a great bridge. land, therefore the greater necessity of You know how many stones have to be his going where such ability was most buried in the earth, all unseen, to be II. profoundly needed. Judson declined a foundation. If Christ wants me to be call to' the largest church In Boston,' one of the unseen stones, lying in an in order to become the founder of the African grave, I am content; certain. greatest Baptist church in the world."
liS I am that the final result will be II. _:-Sha.ll we term it poetic justice, or
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
the irony of fate, or a case of the Lord raised by the Methodist women, as do making the wrath of man to praise also several of the great English soci- Him, when we see the great East India eties; and the work of Bishop Taylor Company, so exceeding mad against is counted separate and distinct. and so , missions, fairly compelled to put Carey It is that not all figures tell the truth.
on its pay~list as teacher and translator, -Clearly our Bible societies may and keep him there for a long term of properly claim a place among organizayears at a large salary? Or when the tions for the furtherance of foreign missame corporation felt constrained to sions, for the American Bible Society publish, at its own cost ($75,000), Mor- expended last year for work abroad not rison's great dictionary of the Chinese less than $132,602, nor does this large language, and employ him as translator SlIm include the not small amount exon a salary of $6000 ? pended in this country in l?rinting the -Amen. Even so. The other day Scriptures in foreign languages for cir- Professor Swing had a glowing word for culation abroad. To the Levant went each one of a number of " institutions," $46,393; to South America, $39,093; like the school, the bome, the flag, and to China, $19,843 ; to Mexico, $19,509, the ballot-box. Nor did he stop here, etc. During the last ten years $1,479,- but proceeded as follows: .. And now 741 have been sent to foreign lands.
let us add one more symbol, long de- -More and more the Industrial Misspised, but really noble in the midst of sion is coming into favor and promi· a noble host. It is the contribution- nence as a most valuable auxiliary to box. Into the ballot-box goes the in- the spread of the Gospel. Indolence is telligence of the community; but into the curse of most savage people. They that worthy rival. the contribution-box, are too lazy to be in earnest and steadfast, goes the love of the benevolent. In- and are in deepest poverty, and hence deed, this glorified institution has, for they need to be urged and taught how the most part, preceded the ballot; for to work. Besides, it often happens the ship of the missionary and the teach- that he who confesses Christ becomes er sails first to make man fit to enjoy an outcast at once, and so must be the blessings of freedom. Charity pre- helped to earn a livelihood. Therefore cedes liberty. Beautiful indeed is tbe Lovedale, and the new East African picture when an humble man goes with Industrial Mission= and the various a mind full of intelligence and deposits training schools are not mere secular his vote; but a picture so striking finds concerns. its equal in that scene where the poor widow advaJlces, and, all aglow with -A second isslIe of Dean VaLl's most the light of benevolence, puts into the thorough and painstaking "Statistical contribution-box her two mites." Review of Missions to the Heathen" has recently come from the press. Missions -Judge not too harshly the errors of to the Jews as well as those to corrupt the statistician of missions, for his diffi- Christian churches are omitted. He culties are many and great. No two finds the number of communicants at societies have the same method of re- the close of 1891 to be 1,168,560, or porting facts, while too many have no about 4,000,000 adherents. The num- "method" at all. The Propagation ber of foreign agents is 7539, of whom Society includes work done for English- 5094 are men, and 2445 are unmarried men in the colonies, the American Bap- women; or, if wives are included, the tists and Methodists have missions in sum would be 10,539. Of native labor- Protestant countries of Europe, and the ers there are 40,438, of whom 3730 are Moravians include in receipts the profits ordained. The money contributions of mercantile operations. Then our amount to $13,046,600 (£2,749,340).
Methodist Society omits the large sums The number of societies included is 304. WOMAN'S WORK. a determined attempt to reach Lhassa, -Mary Rajanayakan, a converted the capital of Thibet, entering from the Tamil girl, is now a student in the China side.
Medical College at Madras, India, fit· -This is how the wives of mission- ting herself to work among her own aries keep themselves busy and make sisters. She is a graduate of the Gov- themselves useful, as stated by " one of ernment normal school at Madura, and them" : "They look after schools and has been a teacher in Miss Scudder's teach Biblewomen, and send them out girls' boarding-school, where she was and take their reports. They look after loved by all " for her beautiful Chris- the women of the churches-old folks, tian character." This may mean little young folks, well folks, feeble folks, to us, but how much it means in India 1 and all sorts of folks who need bits of -The late Madame Coillard may help, and odds and ends of good advice safely be ranked among the true hero- and wise suggestion. Besides that ines of missions. The Basuto Mission, which cometh upon them daily-the in South Central Africa, constituted the care of their little families-they have field of her toil and endurance, and to provide for all the strangers that these words of hers stand for the spirit come along. If there are any social which marked her career from begin- amenities to be observed, in order to be ning to end: ,. I have come to Africa in good standing in the community, the to do with you the Lord's work, what- wives have to see to them also, or they ever and wherever it may be; and re- won't be done. Ostensibly, the husband member that, when God calls you, you is here to do a little civilizing, as a sort will never find me standing in the way of secondary work, but his wife often of your duty." has to keep her eye on him to prevent his being barbarized while he is about -For the women of the Orient, so it. He would go round with sleeves sadly cramped and fettered and en- out at the elbows, and shoes careened slaved, no single enterprise is fuller of over on one side. He would get to tak- promise than the American College for ing his breakfast in the pantry or on his Girls at Constantinople (Scutari). It writing.desk. Every time he comes fairly ranks for excellence of literary back from the jungle his wife has to character with Robert College, standing put him through to make him present- on the same beautiful Bosphorus, able and a credit to those who sent him though across and a few miles farther out."
up. Last year saw 141 students en- -This is the report lately given to the rolled, and coming from 9 nationalities Dutch (Reformed) Church, referring to of the polyglot Turkish Empire. an appeal for an increase of gifts: The -Among the surprises of the present noble women of our auxiliaries did not time may be named the way women are stop at 10 or even 20 per cent, and the coming to fame, not only in moral re- hearts of "Mrs. President and man· forms and the various professions, but agers" swelled with a holy pride at the even in travel in uncivilized and savage anniversary as the treasurer's report lands, where the greatest physical en- was read-$29,636 against $20,855 last durance is required as well as facing ex- year-nearly 30 per cent increase.
treme perils. A year or two ago one of -The Countess Dufferin's Fund now the" weaker sex" plunged into Central amounts to £82,000 ($410,000), and by Africa on an expioring tour lasting for means of it 103 well.qualified women months. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop and physicians are kept at work among the Miss Gordon Cumming have seen with women of India, and nearly 200 more their own eyes much of Central Asia; are studying medicine in India, and yet and Miss Taylor is the last one to make others in England. Some 460,000 aftlIcted women received treatment last with flowers and shrubs, while a minia- year. ture seashore has been constructed and THE UNITED STATES. filled with white sand for the children -It is commonly supposed that the to play and dig in. "
East is the great religious giver, while -It is estimated that in New York _n the main the West only receives; City are found about 8000 Chinese, of but not so, for last year next to Massa- whom some 300 are ChristilUls, and that chusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, not less than 3500 congregate from all which are in the advance guard of all directions to " Chinatown" every Sab- the States in their home missionary bath.
gifts per member, stands California, -The American Missionary Associawhich has contributed to the Congre- tion has a school for colored people in gational Home Missionary Society an McIntosh, Ga., where the pupils are alaverage of $1.18 per member. Three lowed to pay their tuition in eggs, rice, other home missionary States follow in fish, fruit, and vegetables. The teacher the lead of other Eastern and Middle says: "One morning, after devotional States. The contributions of 6 home exercises, one of the girls came from missionary States averaged last year 94 her school·room and, pulling out a live cents per member, while the average chicken from under her shawl, asked, home missionary gift in the 6 New Eng- 'Professor, do you take chickens for land States was but 99 cents. tuition?' Again and again a little fel- -Chicago has its Daily News Sani- low has come to me, bringing a little torium at Lincoln Park. Last year, be- collection of one and two-cent pieces, tween June 23d and October 1st, 48,641 asking if that would make up enough infants, mothers, and children were for his tuition." Some of the children cared for at a cost of $2575, or less than cheerfully walk eight miles from home 10 cents a day for each patient. This and back again every day.
number was nearly double the attend- -A society with the object of evanance for 1891. The beautiful thing gelizing Afghanistan was organized in about this Christly charity is that so a small front parlor in New York City many and so different persons lend a a few months ago. The officers and hand in it, from the 9 volunteer physi- members of the society are men who in cians to the Washington and the Lin- the providence of God were rescued coln Ice Companies furnishing ice free, from "great depths" in the Bowery while J_ M_ Barron supplied the miik. lodging-houses_ The president is a -The People's Palace, in Jersey tinker. who has laid away his budget City, undertakes to do somewhat to and is now a colporteur and missionary keep the multitudes from vicious and of the American Tract Society. The criminal ways, and so supplies "a vice-president was educated for a phy- large reading-room and library; an sician, but strong drink brought him to amusement·hall. for young men, open the level of a common tramp, and for afternoons and evenings; an 8$Cmbly- many years his only means of living hall for young women; a gymnasium, was selling penny song sheets. He is in which are weekly classes for young now in the employ of a religious society men, boys' gymnastic classes, a boys' of New York City. The others are brigade, a drum and fife corps; a bath- now in positions of honor and trust_ ing department, with separate provision -During the year ending March 31st for men, boys, and women; drawing the cash receipts of the American Sea- classes; sewing-SChools; a kitchen gar- men's Friend Society amounted to $43,- den; and a day-nursery_ In addition 242. Its chaplains and missionaries to the room in the house, the nursery labored in Norway, Denmark, and Swe- has a yard outside, graded and planted den; at Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Genoa, and Naples; in the Ma- precious stones, the gift of Canadian deira Islands; at Bombay and Karachi, women, and made from rings, brace- India; at Yokohama, Japan; Valpa- lets, necklets, earrings, etc., the gifts raiso, Chile; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; of devout souls. The devotees of the Montevideo, Uruguay; Buenos Ayres said saint have been pouring in since and Rosario, Argentine Republic; in 1874 in numbers steadily increasing. New York, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savan- in That year there were 17,200 pilgrims to nah, Mobile; in Astoria, Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and Port Townsend. her shrine; 1879, some 87,000, in- The whole number of new libraries sent creased to 61,725 in 1884, to 100,951 in out is 9909, and the reshipments of the 1889, and last year to 180,000 I same 11,220, making in the aggregate, 21,129. The number of volumes in all EUROPE. these libraries, 511,420, has been accessible by first shipment and reshipment -The armies of Europe now number to 875,888 men. more than 22,000,000 men, and to sup· port them costs $4,000,000,000 (four bill· -The Methodist Church, South, has ions, mark it I). What a benefactor of made the following appropriations for his kind he would bc who should perthe current year: suade the monarchs to disband this de- structive force, and to pay that" amount, Brazil Conference……….. . $80,990 or a tithe of it, for the benefit of man· China Conference……….. . 87,888 kindl Japan Conference…..•••…. 87,450 Central Mexico Conference… . 86,185 Great Britain.-Four hundred and Mexican Border Conference .. . 19,179 eighty.five missionaries are on the staff Northwest Mexico Conference. 17,780 of the London City Mission. French, Indian Mission Conference…. 19,660 German, Spaniards, and other foreign· ers are employed to reach certain classes. In addition to the above amounts, The receipts were $252,985 last year. Brazil Conference receives a special During the same period 69,000 meetings sum of $5700, and the Indian Mission were held, and over 8,500,000 visits another of $1000. China also receives were made. an addition for 2 lady teachers. -The Church Society has 20 medical -Unfortunately this item is to be missions, some of them with branch "located," not in Africa, China, or the hospitals and dispensaries. Of these South Seas, but in the Christian Prov- 6 are in China, 5 in India, 5 in Africa, inceofQuebec. "LaBonneSte. Anne," and 1 each in Persia, Palestine, and be it known, is the reputed grandmother British Columbia. of our Lord, but is also a church with altars, unending masses, and the scene, -The Turkish Missions Aid Society year in and year out, of perpetual and is undenominational, and from the first astounding miracles, and devotees from has bestowed its funds mainly upon all parts of North America, affiicted American organizations. In 1854-62 with divers diseases, flock to her famous no less than $70,000 were so applied. shrine to entreat her favor and restoration to health. As to the astounding The Continent.-A missionary of cures wrought by faith in the benevo- the American Board writes from Bohe· lent nature and almighty power of .. La mia of the Free Reformed Church, with Bonne Ste. Anne," the immense pile of .. its life amid difficult surroundings. crutches, artistically arranged, is the Perhaps the fact that whereas 15 years standing evidence; also the colossal ago there were but 15 members, and statue of the great goddess, whose brow that now there are 10 churches, 80 is adorned with a crown of gold and stations, and 700 members, is of lessim· portance than the spiritual life of the Church. Among its members are only 8 or 4 who are not to be ranked among the uncultured and poor. And many single Jew. In all of these cities men- are very poor. Yet"theY:love their Sav- tioned there are and have been for many iour, the Lord Jesus, with all their years Jewish societies and missionaries heart; and I hope that I shall not at work. The colonies are private greatly err, if I say that every member property, and are beyond the reach of is a preacher and a missionary." direct missionary effort.
-A Moscow merchant has become -In Persia also there is suffering for the godfather of 400 Jews who have the Gospel's sake, and Mirza Ibrahim, been baptized to avoid persecution. He after lying for a year in prison because promised to remember in his will every he dared to transfer his allegiance from one who should be certified to have re- Mohammed to Christ. has finally died. ceived the sacrament once a year, and Though enduring untold suffering and only two have so far reported them- insult, he was steadfast to the last. selves. -Seventy-six persons are reported to ASIA. have died of cholera in Jeddah, on July 1st, and 440 in Mecca. The total mor- Mohammedan Realms.-The situa- tality among Mecca pilgrims since early tion is indeed .. strained" in Turkey as in June exceeds 5000. It costs some- touching Christian work, when two thing, then, to serve even the prophet professors of Anatolia College, who are of Arabia. innocent of any crime, can be arrested and condemned to death, and be res- INDIA. cued from their fate only upon the de- termined protest of Great Britain, and -The Maharaja of Bhownagga, an on condition of at once leaving the enlightened Indian potentate now in country. It looks much as though the London, is said to have dispensed thus Sultan were watching his opportunity far about $5,000,000 in charities. to drive from his dominions every missionary from Europe and America, and -Says Eugene Stock: "It is a fact restore Islam to undisputed control. worth remembering that in the Punjab more than half the native clergy are -Opposition to the work in Latakia converts from Islam. One of them is still continues. Not long since three the celebrated Dr. Imad-ud-din, once of the Ainsiriyeh Protestants were im- worshipped as a Moslem saint, and now prisoned on charges which had to be for a quarter of a century a faithful invented. They were accused of steal- minister of Christ, and a learned exposiing children to sell to the Americans to tor of Scripture and controversialist by send to the United States, and a list of voice and by pen-the first native of names had been prepared of pupils who India on whom the degree of D.D.itas had been in school years ago. They been conferred by the Archbishop of were able to tell where most of them Canterbury. were. They were confined in prison for a month, and because they dared -Mr. Hazen, of the Madura Mission, say they were Christians they were has charge of 3 stations-Tirupuvanam, kept in the inner dark dungeon. Melur, and Mana-madura-and he writes of the incessant calls which are made -Various colonies of Jews have been upon him. There are 12 Biblewomen established in Palestine by wealthy so- who visit httndreds of houses, 3 Hindu cieties and individuals. In the plain girls' schools, 1 large boys' day-school, of Sharon, near Jaffa, there are 6 or '7 and a boarding-school with 72 pupils. of these, and near Jericho, in the Jor- The outlook for the stations is most endan valley, 2 more, and 3 more near couraging. During the month of ~afed. It is a remarkable fact that in March, he says, .. we received a new (Nazareth and Bethlehem there is not a congregation of 69 souls near Mana-ma- dura. A few days later 27_ pers~ns joined us in the Tirupuvanam station since been carried on by means of funds from 1 village, and 5 families from contributed by friends in India, Eng- 3 other villages, while a whole village land, Scotland, and France. In 1875 near Melur proposes to join us if we there was not a single Christian in the can send them a teacher. Thus the district; now there are converts in 700 work brightens up on every hand. " villages. There are 24 churches, 7 schools, and an extensive medical work -The principal of the Ahmednagar is also carried on. high school writes as follows of two appalling difficulties which appear to be -Burmah is peculiarly a Baptist misdeep· rooted in the Hindu mind and sion field, though four other societies heart: •• The two questions that seem carryon work.-the Propagation Socito me to require a speedy settlement ety, the American Episcopalian, the are, first, how to get our Christian Wesleyan, and the Leipsic Lutheran So· pupils to take an interest in their Hindu ciety. Of the 61 missionaries in that and Mohammedan fellow-students; sec- country, the Baptists have 45; of the ond, how to encourage independence of women, 54 out of 62; of the native character and self-respect among these helpers, 132 out of 146; of the native Christian young men. As to the first Christians, 81,805 out of 89,1~2, and of these, it is impossible for anyone 30,646 communicants out of a total of who has not spent many years here to 33,037. conceive the utter want of sympathy that exists between the different classes. -France is playing the part of mis- People who live next door are utter for- chief-maker on a large scale in the realm eigners to each other. It is rare that a of missions. She likes not the English word is passed between them. Our speech, and to the Protestant faith is Christian community have accepted inclined to show the least possible fa- Christianity, but cannot forget the vor; and therefore we cannot but look treatment they used to receive from with solicitude toward Siam and French other classes. They are practically a designs in that quarter. It bodes no new caste added to India's already dis- good to the Gospel that French war cordant elements. We have all the or. ships have entered the' Menang and ganizations known at home, but they threaten to shell Bangkok. lag through this utter apathy to the interests of others. Selfishness is the China.-A missionary says that Chi· greatest of India's 330,000,000 gods, and nese converts" don't know any better the one to whom all pay reverence. than to go to prayer-meeting every With reference to the second, it is time." Then let no .. Christians" ever amazing how far dependence and servil- inform them of their .. mistake," for in ity can possess a human being. No this case ignorance is bliss. man thinks of doing anything for himself that he can get another to do for -Dr. C. W. Mateer estimates that in him. He would rather starve on a China the sum of $130,000,000 is spent penny that he has begged than live annually for the paper money burned comfortably oli a pound that he has in ancestral worship. earned. The most honored way of getting money is by using one's wits." -A missionary writes of .. counter- feit" foreigners, and says: .. It seems -The eighteenth annual report of that one or more enterprising Celestials the Bethel Santhal Mission, India, gives have gone into the work of dispensing some interesting facts. This mission is medicines, after the manner of the independent of any society, and was American physician. Usually two or founded in 1875 by Pastor A. Haegaert, three men go together. One of these by his own. efforts and 'money. It has dresses in fOl;eign costume and talk.s a gibberish which is not understood by the natives, and so passes for a foreign language. In imitation of American written language. His habit was to physicians, all medicine is given away; kneel on the ground and repeat the but. unlike that fraternity, the bogus prayer morning and evening, but neither representative of America is quite will- he nor his friends nor a priest to whom ing to receive contributions of grain to he showed the book had gathered from feed the animal which helps convey it that Jesus was the Saviour of men.
him from village to village. In conse- Afterward a friend who had learned the quence grain pours in upon him by the way more perfectly told him of it, and quantity. This is disposed of by a con- it was not hard for him to believe.
federate at the nearest fair, and then -Shanghai is a most important cen- Ah Sin departs for 'fresh fields and tre for Christian influence, since more pastures new.' .. than a dozen of the great missionary -A singular interruption occurred at societies are represented in the city by a wedding at Tai-ku, China, while Dr. churches, schools, hospitals, publishing Atwood was officiating at the first pub- houses, and other like instrumentalities. lic Christian marriage ceremony that From hence to all parts of the empire had occurred in that city. There were continually flow streams of good influ- 300 or 400 Chinese present, listening re- ence.
spectfully, When an old woman cried -This intelligence has a pleasant out: ., This is great doing; not to wor- BOund. The Synod of China has de- ship heaven and earth I" One of the cided to overture the presbyteries with native Christians immediately sprang reference to independence. If it car- to his feet, and addressing all present, ries, and other Presbyterian bodies showed how much better it was to wor- unite, China will presently have a Gen- ship God, who made heaven and earth. eral Assembly comprising about one Thus the marriage occasion was made third of the Christians in the empire.
an evangelistic service, and the wom- The Synod established a missionary so- an's objection to the omission of an ciety of its own to evangelize the inland idolatrous practice common at Chinese provinces. They have over 6000 mem- weddings led to a clear presentation of bers, and the net increase within five Gospel truth. years has been 60 per cent. Their con- -It was in this way most strange tributions amount to about $15,000 a that a soul was led to the Christian year. Already there are 27 native or~ faith. A Chinaman, applying for bap- dained ministers, and 27 licentiates. tism, on being asked if he prayed, repeated a peculiar form of the Lord's Japan.-The Rev. Naomi Tamura, Prayer. Inquiry showed that it came o~ Tokyo, Japan, author of "The Japfrom an edition of the Gospels printed anese Bride," is a pastor of one of the by the London Mission more than thirty largest Presbyterian churches in Japan. years before. His brother, who did It has over 500 members, is self-supbusiness on the coast, had received the porting, and has never received finanbook from a junk from Shanghai, and cial aid from the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board.
80 it fell into his hands, and he, being -The number of men in the mem- a doctor, concluded on reading the Gos- bership of the Japanese churches is pels that Jesus was a doctor, and wished much greater than the number of wom- he had the power to perform similar en, some recently published statistics cures. When he came to the Lord's of mission work in Japan showing an Prayer he thought it was a very good overplus of more than 5000 men in the form with which to worship" heaven church-membership. A writer in the and earth," according to the Confucian Independent finds the reason for this, religion, and he committed it to memory not in a want of intelligence and zeal as he found it there in the classical or in the Christian women who are engaged in work there, but in the state of society fathers of the congregation of Cardinal and the prevailing public sentiment. Lavigerie. More than 100 priests and Pastoral work among women is diffi- novices, besides Sisters of Charity, have cult, and public sentiment prevents a recently entered, or soon will enter, that large attendance of women at evening country as missionaries.
gatherings, especially in large cities. -Twelve years ago the natives of -Rev. H. T. Graham, of Tokushima, the Upper Congo had never seen a tells of an aged disciple whose sight steamboat. Now there is a fieet of 20 was failing, and so he was afraid that steamers on the upper river.
he could not much longer read the Bi- -One of the curiosities of domestic ble, which is in fine print. In order to slavery in darkest Africa is that while avoid this calamity, he undertook the the native slave-owner can by custom herculean task of preparin,q a copy with compel his slaves to fight for him, and his own hand. Beginning three years possesses other extensive powers over ago, he has reached the Third Epistle them, he cannot "legally" compel his of John, and has filled 19 large vol- slaves to work for him. On the Congo umes. and its affiuents, native (not Moham- AFRICA. medan) slave·owners pay wages to their own slaves whenever the latter are reo -The northern half of Africa has the quired to transport ivory and produce characteristics of Arab civilization. to the coast. Even Tippoo Tib pays The people are pastoral and nomadic. his numerous slave soldiers under such They are restless, fierce, warlike and peaceful circumstances. The explanagrasping. They have all the virtues tion of this anomaly seems to be that and vices of the Moslems. Many of war is a far more ancient and primitive them have heard of Christ, but most institution than labor. have never felt their need of Him. The southern half has no real civilization. ~Bishop Tucker, of Uganda, says": The tribes differ much in the matter of "During the last few months nearly intelligence. The Zulus are very quick- 40,000 reading-sheets have been sold. witted. The children in the mission What does this teach us ? No one buys schools show great mental ability, write a reading-sheet without a very serious excellent compositions, take to music and settled purpose_ A reading-sheet wonderfully, have a knowledge of the is not of itself very amusing. There· Bible, and are honest and generous. A fore that this large number of reading. missionary in Uganda says that the sheets has been sold is most significant. quickness of a majority in the schools' It reveals a settled purpose in the mind has been a surprise to him. Few Eng- of the people. It means not that 40,000 people are learning to read, but that six lish people can learn so rapidly. times 40,000 are so learning. It is, I -The Belgium Roman Catholics are think, a fair calculation that " single pushing their work in the Congo Free reading-sheet will do the work of teach- State. One order has 5 stations occu- ing six people. Thus we are brought pied by a dozen priests, extending from face to face with the fact that in one the C9ast beyond the last Baptist sta- way or another something like a quar- tion. The Bishop of Ghent also has a ter of a million of people are under in- station at Matadi; and the Sisters of strnction in the matter of simply learn· Charity occupy 8 stations on the Low- ing to read." The bishop tells, too, of er Congo. A mission steamer of 7 his wonderful" cathedral," in which tons is being built for use upon the nearly 500 trees are used 8S pillars, some river. The Jesuits and Carthusian of them brought five and six days'jour.
friars are also entering the field; and ney, and needing several hundred men on the eastern coast are found the white to carry them. -Wednesday, March 15th, of this not yet Protestants, he holds them to year, was a red-letter day at Genaden- be an inferior race, refractory in civili- daL It was the opening day of the zation. The Hovas are really a fine large Jubilee Church seating 1400_ people, and in time to come will be the Toward the total cost of $17,190, this governing race of the island.
congregation of about 3000 Hottentots had already raised $7125. in three years, ISLANDS OF THE SEA. and they intend to meet the remaining debt of $1690. The collections at the -In this day of general and great opening services amounted to $360. movements of population, Babels Truly they have deserved the liberal abound. Thus, Singapore at the exhelp which has been sent them from all treme south and Penang at the north enparts of the world. trance of the Straits are the chief towns, and in them almost every race,creed, and -Ten years ago the Basutos in South language is represented. It is a strange Africa were threatened with ruin and sight for all new-comers. " First comes extinction through the ravages of strong an A.frican, who wishes to have the drink. At the earnest request of the Gospel in the Arabic tongue; next. a chiefs, the British Government prohib- Tamil man turns up, very lightly dress- ited the import of intoxicants. As a ed indeed, who asks for the same thing, result the Basutos have made remark- but in the language of the Coromandel able progress. The country is a centre Coast; later on we meet a sombre-lookof loyalty and order, and a source of ing Parsee, or what is the same, a firefood and labor supply to the neighbor- worshipper, who wants the book in the ing States. Last year the exports peculiar dialect of Zoroaster; or it may amounted to £250,000, and passes were be a timid Siamese, in the pretty garb issued to more than 50,000 natives, who of his nation, who tells how anxious he went to work in the mines of Kimberley has been for some time past that he and Johannisberg. might get the story of Christ in words -Pastor Rosacos, the Norwegian intelligible to him; or a Chinaman, with missionary in Madagascar, two years a cue reaching to his heels, that desires ago established a leper colony, which to obtain what is the only authoritative has now 40 houses, a church and a hos- statement of the' Jesus doctrine;' or pital. A. house is to be built for the a Bugis-one of the race known as children of leper parents; of these there 'the gypsies of the sea'-who wanders are 200, of whom 139 are baptized. In about sellin~ clothes, knives, and other this "town of mercy" a Norwegian articles; or a Tagalog, who expatiates deaconess, Sister Marie Foreide, is em- over the wrongs and the oppression ployed, and another is shortly expected. which the natives of the Philippines are made to bear; or a Javanese, a Cam- -Caussegne, of the Jesuits' Mission at bodian, a Bengali, a Sinhalese, or any Antananarivo, has returned to France ; other of the motley population dwelling and, after protesting against the ,base- together under the protection of the less political claims put forward in the Union flag."
Chamber of Deputies even by Ministers -The Neukirchen (German) Mission of State, goes on to say of the English reports as follows respecting its work and Norwegian missions at Antanana- in the Salatiga and Rembang districts rivo. that if their relations are not inti- of Central Java. The 4 missionaries mate with the Catholic Missions, they are aided by 13 native helpers, 6 teach- are civil. The English and Norwegians ers, and 4 elders. There are 619 bap- do not attack the Catholics. The open tized persons, 356 of whom are adults.
and violent enemies of the latt& are They have 161 children in the day- French. As to the Sakalavas, who are schools, and 69 Sunday-scholars.
The Missionary Review of the World — August 1888
562 THE BICENTENARY OF BUNY.A.N'S DEATH
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XI. No. B.-Old &ries.–A UGUST, _ _VoL."I. No. 8.-Ne1II &rlu.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
THE BICENTENARY OF BUNYAN'S DEATH. [EDITORIAL.-A: T. p.] NEXT to inspired writers no man is more conspicuous for both the quantity and quality of his influence than John Bunyan.
As he was born in 1628, and died in August, 1688, this year and month bring the two-hundredth anniversary of his death. The eyes of all the world will naturally turn to the author of the greatest English classic, the" Pilgrim's Progress," and the MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD gladly offers its pages for a tribute to a man whose wonderful allegory has already been translated into nearly one hundred languages and dialects, and is to-day next only to the Bible, the most useful aid to the missionary in winning souls to Christ and training believers for service.
John Bunyan was in the best sense an evangelist, a missionary, and a producer of literature, at once evangelical and evangelistic. The son of that Elstow tinker, wild and wayward in boyhood, comparatively uneducated, God had for him a career of service for which He trained him in the school of poverty and obscurity. He gave him an imagination which was both a temptation and a terror to him as an evildoer, but which after his conversion became the mighty instrument for weaving the golden tissues of the greatest of allegorical narratives.
It was perhaps a blessing that Bunyan had access to so few books, for as the Bible constituted the bulk of his library he was not tempted to dissipate his mental energies upon literary trash or even inferior products of the press. After his conversion, his simple faith accepted the Word of God in its literalness, and he read it so assiduously and reverently that it became permanently lodged in his memory; and when in Bedford jail he was left to an enforced solitude, and wrote the" Pilgrim's Progress," as a means of employment and amusement, his thoughts naturally ran in the dialect of Scripture, so that this marvelous book is little more than a vivid Scriptural dialogue.
The vivid imagery of this allegory may easily be accounted for-first, by his unusually active and creative imagination; and secondly, by his actual faith in angels and demons, heaven and hell. These. were realities and verities to him, and they were ever present to his inventive fancy. His brief experience in the army in 1645 may account for the military captains and martial adventures so abundant in the fascinating fable.
He was about twenty-one years old when the tide of his life took a turn, and its whole direction was changed. Those who would know more of his biography may find it in the guise of allegory in «Pilgrim's Progress." Every step of Christian's way the author had trod before he wrote the book. It was Bunyan himself who fell into the Slough, sought Mr. Legality, fled from the thunders of Law, found help in the Evangelist, entered the wicket gate, was taught and refreshed and equipped at the House of the .Interpreter, climbed the Hill Difficulty, fought with Apollyon, got into the Doubting Castle, and reached the Land of Beulah.
From the day when John Bunyan was baptized by Mr. Gifford in the River Ouse, he began to be an evangelist. The tinker had a tongue, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth spake. Believing the doctrines of the Reformation, the universal sin and need of man, the reality of eternal life and death, the freeness of grace and the fullness of salvation, he was compelled to speak. In 1655 he began to preach, at first in a private way; but as he showed a genius for preaching, especially to the masses, he could not be hid, and his spreading fame caused the Bedford Church to release him from his duties as deacon, that he might follow, unhindered, his obvious divine calling. His popularity and power were immense. By some he is ranked the foremost preacher of his day. In his annual visits to London twelve hundred people have been known to gather before daylight, thronging the doors of the chapel where he was to preach at early morning.
It is worth while to remark that this remarkable success as a preacher was due to no sen3ational oddities or heretical notions. He was thoroughly evangelical. He pricked men with the sharp needle of the law, and then drew after it the thread of gospel consolation. He believed in total depravity, and he preached it. He believed in damnation, and his warning trumpet gave no uncertain sound. His theology was that of Paul, and Augustine, and Calvin, and Luther, and Knox, and Wes- . ley. Whatever books he had not read, there are three with which he was thoroughly familiar: the Word of God, the grace of Christ, and the heart of man.
A thoroughly evangelical faith begets an evangelical spirit. He was ready to preach anywhere if he could get at souls. If shut out of chapels, he would go to barns, or the woods, or the green fields, like Whitefield, and he was so much a missionary and a martyr that he would not keep his mouth shut. Even Bedford jail heard his prayers and his preaching, as the Prretorian guard were compelled to hear the gospel from the prisoner to whom they were chained. His twelve years imprisonment is not hard to account for. The Pro-. tectorate of Cromwell had passed away, and with the Restoration came the revival of the Act of Uniformity. To worship in any other than parish churches made the offender liable, first to three months in jaiL then, if persisted in, to banishment, and even to death.
Bunyan would not be silenced, nor would he consent even to evasion to escape the hand of law. When he was arrested in 1660, Bible in hand, the magistrate, Wingate, leaned to leniency, and would have discharged him from custody if he would have promised" not to call dissenters together," which might mean anything or nothing, as he pleased. But Bunyan was God's witness, too earnest to keep still when bidden to preach, too honest to hide behind an equivocation; and so he went to jail, and as the door shut upon him said: "Were I out of here to-day I would preach again to-morrow." He might have been pardoned out in 1661, but pardon could avail nothing for a man who would repeat the offense as soon as he was out of jail; and so he stayed in his prison, with but one brief respite of release about midway in his long experience of confinement.
What a blessing in dark disguise was that twelve years in jail! The talking tongue is generally the foe of the thinking brain. Here he could talk but little, and he had leisure to think. Reason and imagination had time for a new creation, and the ripest product of these years of meditation was this immortal allegory.
The popularity of "Pilgrim's Progress" probably exceeds that of any other book. Even those who do not read the Bible read this, and the charms of the book are many. First of all it is a story, a continuous narrative, full of plots and counter-plots, characters and incidents, interesting to the very close.
Again, it is robed in the dress of the marvelous. It is like a fairy tale, fascinating the reader with the superhuman and supernatural, giants and goblins, dragons and demons, good angels and fallen spirits; and withal these fictions are facts for vividness and realistic effect.
Again, the allegory charms. Under the guise of parable lies the mighty moral meaning. The very names are the keys that unlock the fable. Great Heart, Fickle Mind, Obstinate and Hateful tell their own story. The House of the Interpreter, the Valley of Humiliation, the Hill Difficulty, Beulah Land-who does not at once know what they represent! And what wit and wisdom are comprised in the allegory!
Most of all this story, marvelous, mythical, allegorical, is a mirror of the human heart. The reader sees himself, and a mirror has a strange charm even to the homeliest of us. The very ugliness of our deformity attracts us by the exactness of its reflection. Even those who are repelled by Bunyan's theology are attracted by his accurate dissection of the heart of man. The styl~ of the" Pilgrim's Progress" is enchanting. Bunyan drove his nails with the short hammer of the Saxon, and no wonder. He had studied that Saxon Bible that is the purest Engiish book in the world. The ray of light comes with great clearness through a transparent window-pane, and Bunyan's style is so translucent that his conceptions are never bedimmed in their passage through the medium of transmission. It is not to be thought strange that the "Pilgrim's Progress" is one of the first, if not the first, of all the books which missionaries at home and abroad seek to make accessible to those to whom they preach and among whom they labor. Next to the Bible, upon which it is perhaps the most popular and helpful commentary, it has been the greatest preacher of the gospel which the printing-press has ever created. What a blessing that such preachers can be made by the million! This pictorial representation of a human soul in, its spiritual progress from the first awakening consciousness of sin, guilt and peril to the full enjoyment of a conscious salvation, God has made a mighty witness to His word, and a moving witness to the heart of man. And why? Because human nature does not change. Spiritual experience in all the ages is almost as stereotyped as the customs of the Orient. Science and art and letters may change, but humanity still echoes to the humanity of antediluvian ages, and the allegory that faithfully portrays the human soul can never be antiquated or out of date.
Bunyan never dreamed how useful God would make his pen when his tongue was in fetters. It doubtless seemed to him that life's opportunities were almost lost to him behind the doors of Bedford jail, but God saw that the way to make him a missionary for the whole world, and for all the ages, was to lock him up for twelve years-another example how" God moves in a mysterious yvay, His wonders to perform." Moreover, Bunyan did not write his book for the public eye, but for his own. entertainment and profit. He was like a child that suddenly strikes a rippling rill and unconsciously follows it till it broadens into a river and loses itself in the serene sea.
How would Bunyan's heart have thrilled with joy had he foreseen that the Lord would use his humble allegory in every land beneath the sun to awaken sinners. in the city of Destruction, and guide disciples all along the pilgrim's way to the consummation beyond Death's river.
The various stages of the pilgrim's journey are unique in interest and suggestion. Does the sinner ask how to get rid of his burden of guilt? Here he is taught that it is not by the works of the flesh nor the deeds of the law. The Obstinate will of sin, the Pliable will of the half-persuaded will not get him past the Slough, and Legalism can only bring him into a greater peril. He must go through God's gate and find deliverance at the Oross.
Does the believer as~ how he shall grow in grace and knowle'dge? Let him. see in the Interprt:lter the Holy Spirit opening his eyes to the hollowness and shallowness of things worldly and temporal and the beauty and excellence of things divine and eternal. Does he seek to be a growing Ohristian aud a valiant soldier? He must climb the Hill Difficulty and not seek to evade or avoid struggles or conflicts. God's resting-places,· like the Palace Beautiful, crown the heights of hills up which we toil, and Beulah Land lies beyond the place of Apollyon's assault.
That Palace Beautiful, how. it reminds us of fellowship with God, that makes the Ohristian graces our constant companions, gives us rest in His peace, glimpses and foretastes of the coming glory, and arms us for the fight b6fore us. Everywhere the allegory is but a veil of golden tissue through which we clearly see the features of the truth.
It would not be consistent with our limited space, nor indeed our primary purpose, to follow further into detail the beauties of this allegorical prose-poem. We had designed nothing more than to pay a deserved tribute, among the thousand offerings which this bicentenary will prompt, to Bunyan's great work, as a missionary agency. The whole Ohristian world delights to read the" Prilgrim's Progress"; from childhood to old age it fascinates the reader with a charm ever new. Even Papists, with a few expurgations, are glad to use it. And when it was translated into the Japanese and Oree languages, for use among the Buddhists of the Sunrise Kingdom and the red Indians of this Occidental world, it was at least the eighty-second time that a new language had robed this versatile tale of the human heart.
He who has the missionary spirit cannot be shut out from a dying world. The cell of the prison will become the pulpit for a world-wide evangelism. 'rhe tongue will find utterance, if only to the ears of a jailer and fellow-prisoners. The pen will become a tongue to tell the story of redemption, and the press will bepome the ally of the pen in making its voice universally heard and immortally effective. What a blessing was Bedford jail, that made John Bunyan the omnipresent and undying preacher to the millions whom his voice could never have reached through the centuries during whiCih his voice is hushed in death!
If our lives are given to God, they may be safely left in His care. Not a hair of oui' head will perish. The lamp we have sought to light at His altars and then to place high up upon His lampstand, He will not put under a measure or quench in darkness. We may think our influence circumscribed and even lost, when He is but enlarging its circumference and extending its dominion. How wide is the circle of true missionaries and how enduring the period of their power! Two hundred years have passed since the tinker of Elstow breathed his last. But like the fabled grave of another beloved John, at Ephesus, the very earth heaves with his breathing. He is not dead and cannot die.
A ROMANCE OF MODERN MISSIONS
In every hamlet of Ohristendom and every center of gospel light in heathendom, Bunyan still teaches sinners how to become saints, and pilgrims how to make progress in holy living.
Such a life and such a book as Bunyan's would have been impossible had he held lax views of gospel truth. Loose notions of law and penalty, the guilt of sin and the need of Jesus, forfeit stalwarlness of Christian character and energy of endeavor. We may call evangelical doctrine illiberal and narrow, but it is the backbone of all evangelism. Somehow, on just such diet, have been nourished the most heroic men and women among the martyrs and missionaries of Ohrist. Because these" severe" truths are God's truths they give to character masculinity and muscularity, and to influence both power and permanence. It is because this great work of John Bunyan's is true to God and man, to the awful fact and guilt of sin, to the dreadful penalty of broken law and the blessed deliverance of penitent faith; it is because this allegory is true to the Bible, the Ohrist and the Holy Spirit, that God has chosen, as one of the chief commentaries upon His Holy Word, Bunyan's" PilgVm's Progress."
And is this death-what men call endless sleep? When Life's high powers in ceaseless action keep? In every land remote, in every age, The pilgrim shall peruse this charming page, And learn through wicket gate to find the Way That leads from darkness to the Land of Day; Shall at the Cross lay every burden down, And pass the river to the goal and crown. He is not dead who guides the faltering feet To where the saints in tearless triumph meet; Who, when his tongue is still, by magic pen Proclaims the gospel to his feUQw-men ; Who, by a hundred voices, loud and clear, Is still discipling nations, far a.nd near. If this be death, what is it not to die, Like stars whose deathless ray illumes the sky?
A ROMANOE OF MODERN MISSIOS.
BY REV. J. W. BASHFORD, PH.D., BUFFALO, N. Y.
[Concluded from page 487.] THE great northwest region beyond the Rocky Mountains was supposed to be practically worthless. Public men naturally believed that our western coast was as cold as the eastern on the same parallels of latitude. They were not aware of the great warm current in the Pacific which raises the temperature of the whole northwest region as far east as Dakota. In fact, many leading statesmen were opposed to the extension of the American Republic west of the ROcky Mountains. Senator Benton of Missouri, father-in-law of Gen. Fremont, and author of "ThirlyYears in Oongress," perhaps the best-informed Senator west of the Mississippi, said in 1825, "The ridge of the Rocky Mountains may be named as a convenient, natural and everlasting boundary. Along this ridge the western limits of the Republic should be drawn, and the statue of the fabled god Terminus should be erected on its highest peak, never to be thrown down." Senator Winthrop of Massachusetts quoted Benton's remark in the U. S. Senate in 1844, and heartily approved it. In 1843 another U. S. Senator declared in the Senate Chamber that he would not give a pinch of snuff for the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains, and thanked God for His mercy in placing these mountains as our western boundary. Even in 1846 Senator Winthrop declared that we would not be straitened for elbow-room in the west for a thousand years, and that neither the west nor the country at large had any real interest in retaining Oregon. Even Gen. Jackson, a western man, held the opinion in 1825 that our safety lay in a compact territory and a dense popUlation. Webster in 1845 a.pproved Gen. Jackson's view, and said, "The Government is very likely to be endangered, in my opinion, by a farther enlargement of the territorial surface." This sentiment, combined with the opinion that a desert tract more than 700 miles wide lay east of the Rocky Mountains, that the mountains themselves were impassable, and that the western coast after it was reached was worthless save for hunting and trapping, combined to make the transfer of this territory to Great Britain a matter of light concern. In fact, it was simply due to divine Providence on the one side, and to our national pride upon the other, that this territory was not yielded to Great Britain in the Ashburton treaty of 1843. It was a second matter of divine Providence that the Methodist missionaries had entered Oregon and taken a sufficient number of settlers over to outnumber the Hudson Bay Company. It was a third matter of divine Providence that Dr. Whitman and Gen. Lovejoy should attempt the most heroic ride recorded in history, and that Dr. Whitman should be permitted to complete the journey.
A new phase is now put upon the question. A man stands face to face with Daniel Webster and President Tyler and assures them that they control a territory of boundless possibilities west of the Rocky Mountains. A personal residence of six years and the eight years' experience of the Methodist missionaries show the climate to be remarkably mild. He claims that with the poorest cultivation they have produced crops which outstrip the most careful husbandry in Virginia. The fish in the rivers almost interfere with navigation by their abundance. Mr. Tyler and Mr. Webster would as well talk of ceding to Great Britain' all New England as of yielding the northwest part of the United States. Better still, the claim that 700 miles of desert lie east of the Rocky Mountains and that it is impossible to enter Oregon from the east is a story of the Hudson Bay Company. The Doctor himself had a wagon in Oregon which he took through the mountains in 1'836.
President Tyler showed how his credulity was taxed by his reply: "Your long ride and frozen limbs bespeak your sincerity. Your missionary credentials vouch for your character." The President evidently thought his statements needed the support of his missionary credentials. Dr. Whitman simply asked that no farther action should be taken in regard to the boundary west of the Rocky Mountains until he could lead a band of emigrants .over and prove that the passage was open, the climate mild, and the soil rich.
Whether or not Webster distrusted Dr. Whitman we cannot now fully settle. From all the accounts we are inclined to think that the great Secretary believed he was in contact with a half crazy western land agent, though he knew that Whitman had no title to a foot of land in all Oregon. But Tyler gave his personal pledge that he would not sign a treaty until Dr. Whitman had time to lead a colony to Oregon. Nor was the effect of Whitman's visit lost on Mr. Webster. In a. letter to Edward Everett, then Minister to Great Britain, in 1840, Mr. Webster had said: "The ownership of the whole country is very likely to follow the greater settlement and larger amount of population." So he was in hearty sympathy with the effort Jason Lee had already made, and with Dr. Whitman's proposal to take emigrants to Oregon. In his next letter to our Minister to England, after Dr. Whitman's visit, Mr. Webster is ca.reful to claim the territory which the Doctor had described in such glowing colors: "The Government of the U. S. has never offered any line south of forty-nine, and never will. It behooves all concerned to regard this as a settled point." Again, near the close of the letter, he says: "England must not expect anything south of the forty-ninth degree." England was expecting territory south of the forty-ninth parallel larger than New England, and would probably have secured it had it not been for the missionaries. Mr. Webster leaves no doubt as to the importance of the missionaryoccupation of Oregon, in a remark which he later made to a friend: "It is safe to assert that our country owes it to Dr. Whitman and his associate missionaries that all its territory west of the Rocky Mountains and south as far as the Columbia River is not owned by Great Britain."
Meanwhile Gen, Lovejoy was not idle. He was spreading reports of the soil and climate of Oregon. Whitman had a brief circular printed in St. Louis announcing that he would lead without charge a colony to Oregon. Dr. Whitman in June 1843 met Gen. Lovejoy at a point on the Missouri, not far from the present site of Kansas City. Over two hundred families of emigrants had been collected by their joint efforts. Dr. Whitman piloted the company safely across, and when in September 1843 his long line of 200 wagons with 870 American settlers filed through the Blue Mountains into the valley of the Columbia, the Americans outnumbered the English five to one. The Americans at once organized a provisional government to counteract the influence of Gov. Simpson and the Hudson Bay Co. They elected Dr. Elijah White, who had been sent out by the Methodist Missionary Society in 1836, governor; and this government was obeyed until the United States organized the Territory five years later. The Secretary of the Interior, in a decision awarding the Methodist Missionary Society its property at the Dalles, said: "From 1834, when the American missionaries first penetrated this remote region, a contest was going on as to which nation should finally possess it; and that probably depended upon the fact as to which could first settle it with emigrants." (The Hudson Bay Company and Jesuit priests were on the one side.) "On the other were the missionaries of the American Board and the Methodist Society, who had established their stations among the Indians and who attracted the tide of American emigration that turned the scale in favor of our government, resulting in the establishment of the Territorial Government of Or.egon, wholly American in interest which exercised all the functions of government until the erection of the Territory of Oregon by Congress in August, 1848."
The inspired author of the Gospels mentioned as a token of divine favor that Peter caught a fish and found in its mouth a stater, $1.10, by which he was able to pay the temple tax of Jesus and himself. The salmon fisheries of the Columbia and its tributaries yielded last year over $15,OOO,000-about twice as much as the contributions of the entire Christian Church for missions. Would not a Paul or a John to-day find larger illustration of the divine Providence? A territory larger than all New England with finer climate, richer natural resources, and facing the most populous part of the globe saved to our government by missionary enterprise is God's way of saying to the Christians of the nineteenth century, "A hundred fold in this world and in the world to come eternal life."
But this is not the end. It took three years after the Americans began pouring into Oregon by the thousand and were outnumbering the British five to one to induce Great Britain to sign the treaty. Noone dreams that the boundaries would have been settled in 1846 had not a thousand Americans through missionary effort reached Oregon in 1843. But in less than three years after the papers were signed by Great Britain gold was discovered in California, then belonging to Mexico. When the negotiations for our western boundaries had dragged along since 1783, and Great Britain was so loth to give up her claims to that territory, do you suppose that had she waited until gold had been discovered and reports of untold wealth had spread l~ke wild-fire-do you suppose that she would then have signed away her claim?
But there is another important fact which made it necessary that the Oregon_ question should be settled not only before gold was discovered in '49, but before 1847. The south western part of th~ United States, embracing part of Texas and all of New Mexico and Oalifornia, was owned by 'Mexico in 1846. A few days before Great Britain signed the final settlement, war had broken out between Mexico and the United States. Had this information reached Great Britain in time she would at least have delayed to sign the settlement of July 18, '46. Then, in our war with Mexico of '47-'48, Mexico would have been backed by Great Britain. With this international alliance the war would have been prolonged until the discovery of gold in Oalifornia in '49. This discovery would have led Mexico and Great Britain to redouble their energies for a share of this western continent. How rapidly these events press upon each other! How certain it seems that only the missionary settlement of Oregon, which resulted in the yielding of all claims by Great Britain before she learned of the Mexican war, alone saved us from a great international contest with two powers, one of them the greatest upon the earth! You say we could have waged the war and won against both foreign powers? Possibly. But the United States could far better afford to give the Methodist Missionary Society and the American Board each a million dollars a year in peI'petuity than to have incurred the cost of this gigantic war, to say nothing of its bloodshed and desolation. These Flathead Indians were as truly messengers from God as was the vision of Macedonia which came to Paul; and Jason and Daniel Lee and Marcus Whitman were following plans as miraculous and providential as Paul in leaving Palestine and starting toward the west.
But the acquisition by the United States of territory of vast extent and boundless wealth in the West was not the end of this missionary enterprise. We sent our brothers out from our homes to bless others. They indirectly helped us win the greatest blessing for ourselves. The Oregon and Oalifornia questions were settled in our favor in 1848, only thirteen years before the Rebellion. We were then called upon to fight the great battle between freedom and slavery. You remember that east of the Mississippi river the free territory of the United States embraced a little over 400,000 square miles, and the slave territory nearly 500,000 square miles. After crosing the Mississippi river and running through Missouri the line embracing the slave popUlation fell rapIdly south. It was this western territory into which slaves had not yet been brought that restored the balance in area to the side of freedom in this contest; and Oalifornia, which had been acquired for the extension of slavery, was providentially settled by northern enterprise and poured her money and men into the Union side in that gigantic struggle. Suppose this territory had been held by foreign powers or that we had been still battling for this rich gold field against Great Britain and Mexico, and suppose that Mexico had been backed by France in the interest of absolutism and the Roman Oatholic faith, as was the case during the Rebellion, do you not see that it would have been, humanly speaking, impossible to free the slaves and preserve the Union?
The divine Providence is the key to our national history. The British lion chained at the 49th parallel of north latitude; Mexico backed by France rendered powerless by the previous conquest of her western territory; and California pouring her gold and her men into the Union side during the struggle for freedom are God's providential way of saying to a missionary age, "one hundred fold in this world and in the world to come eternal life. "
Once more, while we sometimes entertain an undue prejudice against , the Roman Catholic Church, yet no candid man can doubt that the Protestant faith is far more helpful to free institutions and to modern civilization than is the faith of Rome. But the contest in Oregon was a struggle between the Jesuit and the Protestant. Had not Jason Lee gone to Oregon in '34 and led out American missionaries and settlers, had not Marcus Whitman followed his missionary call in '35 and led over nine hundred more American settlers in '43, had not the four or five thousand American settlers organized a provincial government in '43 and elected a Methodist missionary governor, the Jesuits, backed by Great Britain in the north, and by Mexico and France in the south, would to-day hold our western coast and shape its civilization for the twentieth century. A territory larger and richer than the Atlantic seaboard saved to our government, the whole Pacific slope thrown into the balance of freedom in the greatest contest of the nineteenth century, and the civilization of the richest part of the globe started under Protestant auspices for the twentieth century is God's providential answer to the faith of Jason and Daniel Lee, and Marcus Whitman and H. H. Spaulding and the unnamed heroes and heroines who died for the Oregon mission, and whose bones rest in unknown graves in the valley of the Willamette. When the popUlation of that golden coast rises to thirty millions, will not the landing-place of the ship that sailed from Boston with Methodist missionaries in 1836 be the Plymouth Rock of the Pacific, and Whitman Institute and Willamette University be their Harvard and their Yale? Will there not arise a Longfellow or a Buchanan Read to sing of a ride more heroic than Sheridan's, and of far greater importance than that of Paul Revere? Will not a spiritual descendant of a Mrs. Hemans arise to sing of a second pilgrim band who left home and native land not for freedom to worship God themselves, but to carry light to those who sat in darkness?
572 EGYPT'S RETURN AND HEALING
EGYPT'S RETURN AND HEALING.-No. II.
BY CHARLES S. ROBINSON, D.D., NEW YORK.
WE have already contemplated one phase of prophetic announcement concerning the ancient kingdom of the Pharaohs, and have seen how rapidly was fulfilled the prediction that it should become desolate, that the nation should be scattered and wasted. The princes of Zoan before long showed themselves fools, and the princes of Noph were deceived to their ruin, for the mouth of the Lord had already spoken their doom.
But now there is a second verse of equal force, and of a serener temper, far more hopeful for the depressed nation. He who smites here covenants to heal; there are certain conditions annexed to the promise He makes, but these are only the common conditions of pardon in case a penitent is forgiven. Egypt must" return," and the people must be eager in "entreaty" for the blessing engaged: "And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them."
We keep in mind what has been said concerning the loss of political integrity, the dorninance of foreigners, the changes of the atmosphere, the pestilence, the vices, and the destructive rains of heaven. The worst of this, however, is found in the debasement of the nation's feeling. Egypt has lost heart, and so is altogether gorie astray. Let us consider also that with these violent interjections of an outside and dangerous European spirit among the people, the old reverences are gone. A Mohammedan will stop in his prayers any time to ask a traveler for backshish; he is not in earnest, but is working under a mere mechanical pressure of tradition, so much to the square inch. No patriotism, no loyalty, no public spirit, no interest in anything can be found worth mentioning in all that land. Intrigue is the basis for· each form of government, and assassination is the plan of revolutions. No homes are established; the family tie is almost nothing. There can grow up no sentiment, no poetry, no imagination, under such a regimen. It would be preposterous to think of such a thing as -embalming Joseph or Jacob, or having any pomp of real feelmg over any leader or friend whatsoever. We read the romances of "Uarda" and "The Sisters," written by the historian Ebers; such scenes of venerable and youthful life, with love and fidelity and truth in them, could not be discovered there in Egypt now. It was a crime, long generations ago, to pledge the sacred mummies of one's father and his ancestors; but one might redeem an abhorrent pawn like this in three months. If he did not he fell into infamy the most scorching that could fasten itself upon an Egyptian in that'grand old age. One king, belonging to the fourth dynasty, Asychis by name, is mentioned by Herodotus as the earliest known man to put in peril his ancestor's body; and the Father of History denounces with an unusual vigor so frightful a scandal: "He who stakes such a pledge and fails to redeem the debt shall sleep, after his death, neither in his father's tomb nor in any other, and burial shall be denied to his descendants." Thus did that reverent era punish the villany of ingrates.
Now contrast this with the modern treatment of mummies. For the I last hundred years has been conducted a traffic in the contents of ancient sepulchers. Pyramids have been broken into, mausoleums have relentlessly been pillaged, bodies been used for fuel, burning the faster because of the resins and gums with which they were embalmed. Modern funerals are a mere mockery. Processions are met in the street as coarse and tumultuous as anywhere among the heathen; a singing, swinging, screaming throng, full of gesticUlation that means nothing, proceeding afterwards to the residence of the departed man for a festivity at the expense of the heirs. The dignity of the former generations is all swept away, and a shallow hypocrisy is flaunted in its place.
Add to all this the devastations and demoralizations of the wars which have been waged on the soil of Egypt. The history of the region around Cairo and Alexandria is nothing but a bulletin of siege and rapine. The Nile has run with blood more than once since the day of the ten plagues. Lately, the moral destructions have been by far more serious; for intemperance and immorality have become rampant. I have myself seen viler pictures, more indecent photographs, on public sale in the windows of Cairo than I ever saw in Paris, even during those awful days just before and after the Commune. And drunkenness is the beastliest of sins when it lays hold of those Mohammedan renegades. If one disobeys the Koran, and dares the loss of heaven, for the sake of giving himself up to intoxication, his sin will burn him soul and body.
Thus it appears that the scourge has fallen on Egypt as the prophet predicted. Does one insist, then, that still there is hope for a country so lost? The answer to that question is found in the same way as was the answer to the other we have already considered. The "smiting" and the "healing" seem to have followed the usual law of divinely ordered providences. As we did before, we must look at particulars.
Now, one of God's processes in the fulfilment of prophecy is what we call restoration. He deals invariably with remnants. Some abiding good is supposed to be left behind whenever such ruin is wrought. The old times come back again, and the ancient standards are raised afresh into prominence. There is intense significance in the expression used in this verse of Scripture that we have just now been quoting, for the declaration is made that Egypt shall "return even to the Lord." There is implication in this that Egypt has had a history of obedience heretofore, that the seed of the gospel has once flourished there. Can any facts be found to substantiate such a claim? Has this African continent an honorable record of religious life worth "returning" to now ? Not before Isaiah's time, perhaps, but in later years of ecclesiastical annals there was great service credited by the churches to Egypt.
When Herodotus, the Father of History, began his best book of Oriental annals, he said as his opening sentence: "I shall now speak at greater length of Egypt, as it contains more wonders than any other of the lands and is pre-eminent above all the countries for works that a writer can hardly describe." But Herodotus, poor heathen that he was, could not know that the greatest glory of that spot was to be found in its singular relations to the gospel of God. There the church was begun; there the dispensation of the law was fashioned; there Jesus, the Lord of Glory, was housed from the violence of Herod; there the prophecy was fulfilled, "Out of Egpyt have I called my Son." Thus this almost forgotten strip of territory naturally grew to be the earliest of the great centers of Christianity in wealth, intelligence, and doctrinal orthodoxy. For some scores of years one stronghold of the patristic faith was conspicuous along the northern shore of Africa. There a fresh hold was gained by the use of the Greek language; there the Pentateuch was transiated by the noblest scholars of the age; there council after council was held, in which the greatest errors were silenced which ever harassed the churches, and the grandest doctrines were proclaimed which ever buildcd them up. The Scripture says those good old days are to come back again, and that strip of land redeemed from the sands is yet to grow fruitful and beautiful with graces for God's glory. It may not be far away from even our time when there may be another good Augustine at a new Hippo, another Aurelius at some Christian Carthage, and another Athanasius to stand lor the truth at a more glorious Alexandria than those ages ever knew before, in the purer Egypt yet to be !
Add to this a fresh proof: the declarations of prophecy concerning Egypt are more profuse than those concerning any other nation, unless perhaps we except Assyria.. God will see what is best in the past faith, and will restore it. He will see what is best in coming histories, and will secure it. He will accept kindly and gently what Egypt herself is doing to grow wiser, holier and better, and when He fin,ds a feebleness which is open to pity, He will not break the bruised reed.
Influences are at work already. War has been like" the breaker" promised of old, and has opened strange sluices of information, and of course has awakened new interest. Prayer and effort are going steadily through the land hand-in-hand, and tokens of unmistakable prosperity are beginning to appear. Civilization is opening the path for gospel grace. To us the crescent on the Turkish flag does not seem to be the symbol of the young moon, but of the old ;' it is waning rather than waxing. The stamp of a firmer tread is felt now on the Egyptian soil. The sound of a voice sweeter than that of the muezzin from an old minaret is often heard in that desolate country; singing comes forth from some of the dwellings; prayer is offered publicly by converts in dedicated houses of God; missionary work "has been prospered marvelously in that unpromising land, and God is fulfilling His covenant rapidly. An American Sunday-school has been in progress there in Cairo for several years. The experience is almost weird, when one winds his way through a labyrinth of streets crowded with Turks and Nubians, cafes and Punch-and-Judy stands on every side, bands playing and trains marching, soon to find a sheltered room, clean and bright, in which he listens to the teachers from his own far-away country as they give the New Testament lessons, just as they would at home, to a large throng of pupils, old or youug, as it happens, from ten to seventy years of age, all devout, interested,full of zeal as they read what God is doing for their souls, and what He has covenanted to do for their troubled nation by and by.
They repeat the Lord's Prayer in the beautiful Arabic; they sing, "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," and hymns like that. And one scholar, an earnest Christian, sent this message to be delivered across the ocean: " America is a good land; everybody loves Jesus. Ask your girls to pray for our people, that we may all begin to love Him and serve Him too."
And, finally, the most practical proof of the divine covenant as to Egypt's ultimate conversion is found in the entrance of the British influence and rule there. The coming in of foreigners is not a curse, but rather a benediction to Egypt. The finances are better managed in these days than they have been for centuries before. The national indebtedness is more firmly provided for; the bonds have risen from seventy to one hundred per cent. lately; blood and treasure have not absolutely been wasted on that soil by the best intelligence of Great Britain through these years. Say what we will concerning England's domination in the East, one thing at least is true: no civilized Christian man or woman has visited the lands of the Bible, traveling along among the heterogeneous peoples, and crossing the frontiers of miscellaneous governments, without feeling at the moment when the border-line of any British possession was reached: "Here is law and order, here is truth and decency and sa.fety! Happy is the nation that hears the tread of a foreigner so beneficent, a stranger so kind, a conqueror so noble!"
MIRACLES OF MISSIONS
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.-NO. VI.
[EDITORU:L.-A. T. p.] THE MCALL MISSION IN FRAN,CE.
THERE is a class of phenomena connected with modern triumphs of the gospel in unpromising fields which is so remarkable that it should be placed conspicuously by itself as an example and proof of a supernatural force at work. There are some barriers which have been removed so suddenly, so unexpectedly, so peculiarly, that tb,e hand of God has been very marked in connection with them: they have subsided even before they have been encountered by the advancing mission band. It is to one of these examples of the subsidence of obstacles that we now call attention.
The promise that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," is not only a prophecy but an illustration of the world's evangelization. The time is coming when the good news will have spread in every direction like the omnipresent sea in its vast bed. The disciples of Christ have only to be faithful to their great trust, and. like the pulsations of great tidal waves swept onward by mighty winds like the breath of God, the knowledge of the Lord shall JI).ove onward till it touches every foreign shore, advance into every strait and bay and estuary, and "sound the roar of its surf-line" from Greenland and Siberia to the southern capes and Australia, and from Britain and Iceland to Japan and Polynesia. The gospel is destined to be all-pervasive, like the sea, the air, the light. God is giving us some hints on a vast scale how He may bring all this about.
The sea may flood the land either by the rising of the ocean Or the sinking of the shore, and the subsidence of the land is in effect the upheaval of the sea, since the comparative level is reversed. How often have disciples rejoiced to observe those mighty movements of God's grace, which, like the rapid rising of some far-reaching tidal wave; have flooded extensive districts of the world with the knowledge and the power of the gospel; and devout souls look and pray for the day when that great prophecy shall find its fulfilment, and some such wave o~ revival shall sweep over the whole habitable globe. But it behooves us not to forget that without this startling upheaval of the sea the ocean can make its bed on the continents if they sink below its level. Often in the history of missions has God gone before His people and, by the slow or sudden subsidence of opposing obstacles and barriers, prepared the way for the flooding of the land; and in many cases systems of false faith, or customs of formidable antiquity, that have stood like mountain barriers of adamant to keep out the gospel flood, have actually disappeared, as though the Himalayas had suddenly sunk out of sight, leaving China and India to flow together. In fact, the more carefully we study missions the more we shall see that the false faiths of the world are almost if not altogether without exception in a state not only of decline but of decay. An unseen work of undermining is going on, and some day we may all be startled by the general subsidence of barriers which have hitherto seemed as deep- founded and as high-reaching as the everlasting hills. We content ourselves with one example, which may be used both to demonstrate and illustrate this truth.
The eyes of the world are to-day on France, beholding with aston- ishment the wonderful work of God there. Yet this is but an instance of this subsidence. France has been the right arm of papal power for centuries, and seemed, a century since, likely to develop the antichrist.
How little we knew what preparations were going forward for the in- flowing of the gospel tides, and what a divine power was conducting this preparation !
In 1877, Paul Bouchard, ex-Mayor of Beaune, wrote an open letter to the bishop of his diocese, renouncing Romanism and transferring his adhesion to Protestantism, on grounds of consist~cy and patriot- ism. It was not the act of a man converted to a nel-ta.iih so much as disgusted with an old one. ' He forsook the State religF8~' as a patriot and political economist, denouncing Roman Oatholicism as the enemy of social and political progress, the ally of ignorance and superstition.
His act was one echo of Gambetta's declaration that the Romish Ohurch is the enemy of French republicanism-" clericalism is the foe of France." But he went beyond Gambetta, for he reproached him with atheism; Bouchard took this great step alone, and boldly wrote five tracts for the people, giving wider expression to his views.
At the same time Eugene Reveillaud, a lawyer, journalist, orator and statesman, born and bred a Romanist, a college graduate and a free- thinker, had his eyes opened to see the rottenness of Romanism, and became the champion of Protestantism, on similar grounds to those of Bouchard, and wrote a pamphlet on the "Religious Question and the Protestant Solution." Oompelled to give up the Papal Ohurch, he felt he could not be without a church and a religion, but had as yet no change of heart. The faithful Huguenot pastors boldly taught that Protestantism required more than a mere renunciation of Romanism : and in July, 1878, in the Protestant meeting-house at Troyes, Reveil- laud arose and addressed the congregation, declaring his conversion, and manifesting a remarkable baptism of the Spirit. From January, 1879, his tongue and pen have been enthusiastically given to the evan- gelization of France. He publishes a weekly paper, Le Signal, and and goes everywhere-to halls, theaters, ball-rooms and barns-to address the people, showing them the need of a new gospel of faith, repent- ance and holiness. .
Our generation has seen no religious movement to compare with this arising of a whole people. "There is Protestantism in the air." In Avignon, the old residence of the popes, Renouvier adds to his "Critique Philosophique" a "Critique Religeuse" to chronicle the Protestant movement; and in Belgium Emile de Laveleye writes on the "Future of the Catholic Nations," a warning to all peoples of the inevitable results of Romanist supremacy.
The rapid and radical change that has come over France no one can conceive who has not been there during this quiet religious revolution. Scarce a century ago Protestants were tortured and murdered, till even Voltaire's atheism vented its invective against perseccution for religious opinion, and shamed France out of her course. Then came the reaction of atheism, but no religious liberty. But under McMahon, a majority of nine ministers of the Waddington cabinet were Huguenots, though the Huguenots represented but one-twentieth of the population. November 2, 1879, Protestant worship was held at Versailles, in the palace of Louis XIV., and not far from the chamber where he died, beneath the room where Madame de Maintenon induced him to sign the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes nearly two hundred years ago.
The news. of one week ~ould fill a journal with startling itemspeople assembling in hosts everywhere, in halls, tents and open airlistening with intense interest to denunciations of Romish priestcraft, and the good news of grace: and families, fifty at a time, coming out to take their places with the Protestants. It is scarce three hundred years since the St. Bartholemew masssacre in 1572, and yet the nation is turning from Rome. The McAll Mission has developed with a rapidity unparalleled in church history, establishing new preaching stations as fast as men and money can be obtained, and finding everywhere an open door. The tides of a pure gospel that surged vainly against mountain barriers for centuries are now rushing in like a flood. But it is a case of subsidence. The tide has not risen so much as the barriers have given way, and so France is being covered with the knowledge of the Lord.
But let us not hastily dismiss this marvelous story of missions in the very citadel of the papacy. Go and study the work of McAll and his associates. See that man at the very crisis of affairs called suddenly and unexpectedly to take the lead of the most conspicuous movement of modern times. He did nothing to prepare the way; he knew nothing of the grand movements that had made the way open. He simply went to Paris on a visit, but it was God who was guiding. He had made the hole in the board, and now set the peg in it, as Sydney Smith would say. Never in the course of history has the right man, at the right time, dropped into the right place, if Robert W. McAn did not in 18711 Before, he. would have come too early; after, he would have come too late. He did not know, and could not, the ot e~ernaJ fitness thinlSs. Let us bow" and say with Pharaoh's magicians, "It is the finger of God." The steps in this history it may be worth while once more to put on record, for the encouragement of our faith that there is a supernatural factor which cannot be eliminated from the work of missions.
In the summer of 1871, Rev. Robert W. McAll and his wife, visiting Paris at the close of the terrible war with Germany, and led by a 'deep desire to reach the poor, priest-ridden workingmen with the gospel, were giving away tracts in the hotels and on the public streets, when a workingman said: "If anyone will come among us and teach us, not a gospel of priestcraft and superstition, but of truth and liberty, many of us are ready to hear."
Mr. McCall returned home, but above.the murmur of the waves and the hum of busy life he heard that voice, "If anyone will come and teach us • . • we are ready to hear." He said to himself, "Is this God's call? Shall I go?" Friends said, "No!" But a voice within said, "Yes." And he left his English parish and went back-back to Belleville, whence, in days of anarchy and violence, issued forth the desperate mobs to burn and destroy and kill.. There, in January, 1872, in the Rue Julien La Croix, he opened one little hall in a faubourg of 100,000 desperate, lawless communists; one man conducting a gospelmeeting to save millions! In the midst of men known as assassins he had no weapon but a pocket Bible-his" double-barrel revolver," and in a district worse to work in than St. Giles in Londou he began to tell the old story of Jesus. Soon the little place was crowded, and a larger room became a necessity; and sixteen years later that one gospel hall has become 112, in which, in oue year, have been held 14,000 religious meetings, with a million hearers, and 4,000 services for children, with 200,000 attendants. No such history is to be found elsewhere, and no statistics can adequately represent the results of a work so apostolic in principle and. pattern. These many services are "recruiting offices" for new volunteers for the Lord's army; no new sect or church is formed, but converts are gathered, and then fall into the neighboring churches. But the work is only at its beginning. The cry comes from all parts of Frauce for new stations, and the work needs only more men and more means to be indefinitely multiplied.
The McAlI Mission is perhaps the most remarkable movement of Providence in modern times. At the critical hour of the history of France, God raised up the right man for the place and the work. It was in the very period of transition, when, breaking with Romanism and the clericalism which Gambetta declared to be the foe of France, the uation was left without a religion, and in danger of drifting into infidelity and atheism. Mr. McAll, hearing the call of God, fell almost unconsciously into his place in the divine plan, and introduced a mode of worship without a vestige of superstition or a relic of empty formalism and hollow ceremonial. He was building more wisely than he knew; but the Architect who callea him to the work had. prepared the material for the structure, and guided in its erection. Without those very principles that underlie the work of the McAll Mission there could not have been this phenomenal success. Those very principles are a proof that God is in the work.
1.' The Gospel for the Masses.-The leader of the movement and his fellow-helpers are moved with compassion for the multitude~ that have no true knowledge of Ohrist and faint for spiritual food, scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Mr. McAll has confidence in the adaptation of the gospel to every need of every human soul, in the accessibility of the common people, and in the susceptibility even of the criminal classes to approach.
2. The Pmoer of Pass'ion for Souls.-Who dared to hope that this priest-ridden people, ignorant, superstitious, hardened and halfatheistic, would exhibit such readiness to receive the Protestant gospel? ·But love is omnipotence; and before it even the barriers of a strange language melt away, and the iron doors of distrust and hatred open as of their own accord. Simple love for souls, unmixed with self-advantage, was the moving-spring of all this work, and proved resistless. When Mr. McAll began his work he could not speak French. but he could utter two sentences in the tongue of those workingmen. One was, "God loves you," and the other, "I love you"; and upon those two, as pillars, the whole arch rests.
3. The Attraction of a Free Go.<pel.-From the first free distribution of tracts on the streets of Paris until the work reached its present grand dimensions nothing has at once surprised and drawn the workingmen more than this, that for all this ministry to their good they have not been asked a centime! The feast spread on a hundred tables has been without money and without price. They have associated all that is called religion with a tax, heavy and oppressive. The priests have fattened on the money paid for masses for the dead, and cathedral churches have been reared out of poor men's scanty wages. But all this is an unselfish labor, for which no return is asked.
3. The Simplicity of Gospel Work.-These methods are at the farthest remove from ritualistic formalism and ecclesiastical ceremony. Any place of meeting is good enough where the people can be com- fortably gathered. A Bible, a simple stand, a small reed-organ, a few' hundred chairs, a plain, earnest address, singing, prayer, hand-to-hand contact-this is all the machinery of the greatest mission movement of modern times! A bare hand reached out to the poor workingman, through which may be felt the warm throb of a loving heart, with not even a kid glove between to act as a non-conductor-that is the secret of power.
5. The Exemplification of true Ohristian Unity.-The effect is both unsectarian and undenominational. No lines of division appear between workers, and no "tribal standards" are unfurled. Christ's is the only name known. They are "all one," and hence "the world believes." The energies often expended in contests and conflic~s, or at least rivalries and jealousies among disciples, are here all turned into the channel of pure evangelistic work.
6. The Moral Eilucation of the Oommon People.-~r. McAll saw in Belleville extreme poverty and misery side by side with mental and moral degradation. He felt that material and spiritual conditions must be remedied together, and that the gospel was the lever to raise the whole man to a higher plane. Hence the prominence given to schools and class instruction.
The work has been successful along all these lines, and the more successful because projected along all these lines. In recognition and encouragement, the "Societe Nationale d'Encouragement au Bien" presented McAll with a silver medal for his devot-ion to humanity, and the" Societe Libre d'Instruction et d'Education" with another medal for services rendered to popular instruction. These public acknowledgments of McAll as a philanthropist and educator were aside from all questions of religion; while the Government also recognized his work as the best security for order and good citizenship, declaring his gospel stations the best" police measure" for the prevention of disorder and crime.
This humble man came to Paris, and removed the barriers between the "unchurched and churched," and came close to the people; gathered the multitudes into his "halls," making those halls not only nurseries of piety, but grand training-schools for future evangelism; meeting papacy and infidelity, not controversially and negatively, but experimentally and positively. And here, where it was thought there was no field for evangelization, a foreigner proved papal France to be the foremost missionary field. And so among this mercurial people, whose very blood is quicksilver, God is carrying on a work whose depth and reality are beyond all question. The gospel is God's remedy both for infidelity and instability, and so far and so fast as the gospel permeates the French nationality every noble characteristic develops.
McAll has put in motion a host of agencies, all evangelistic. Mission stations, with schools, classes, mothers' meetings, prayer-meetings, evangelists, visitors, tract-distributors.-everything thoroughly evangelical, variations of one key-note-" Christ crucified." The labors are great, of providing speakers for so many meetings, and with no free day but Saturday. The appliances are very comprehensive and complete, avoiding only open-air preaching, which conflicts with muni- cipallaw. The methods are very simple; no expensive buildings or outlay-a clean, whitewashed wine-shop or commodious room, adorned with texts and provided with platform and seats. And, withal, no mission anywhere is more economically, honestly and conscientiously
THE WORLD'S MISSIONARY OONFERENOE
conducted and administered. Every centime is accoqnted for in detail.
Here, then, even in France, long supposed to be the most hopeless field for Protestant missions, we behold another of the modern miracles which constrain us to exclaim, "What hath God wrought I"
THE WORLD'S MISSIONARY CONFERENCE.
LETTER FROM REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
[Our editorial associate is present, as .. delegate-at-Iarge from the churches and societies of the United States," and an active and prominent participator in the doings ot thhl Grand Oonncil. The readers of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD will be treated to graphic sketches of its inter· esting and important proceedings from his facile pen, as well as enjoy the reading of many of the important papers given to the Oonference, obtained by Dr. Pierson's personal presence and ac- qnaintance with many of the leading workers in the mission field. We give belOW the first Instal· ment, as an earnest of good things ~come. We have kept back the press to be able to give at this early date an acconnt of the opening of this world's council, which is sure to mark a new epoch in the religiOUS history of the world.-J. M. s.] LONDON, June 11, 1888. My DEAR DR. SHERWOOD :-Saturday, at five o'clock P.M., the great World's Conference on Missions assembled in Exeter Hall. Great as were the expectations that had gathered around the occasion, they were all surpassed by the reality. It had been the thought of the commit- tee that, before entering formally upon the business of the convention, a reception should be given to the delegates, affording an opportunity for free, familiar and social intercourse and acquaintance. Tables were set at the opposite ends of the great hall, capable of accommodating hundreds of persons, and after supper a few words of welcome were to be spoken, and a short prayer and praise service was to conclude this first general meeting. But all these arrangements proved inadequate; they were divinely displaced by the unexpected throng that crowded Exeter Hall and made locomotion almost impossible. Where thousands had gathered hundreds found but little room for freedom of movement; and so we all rejoiced to have the well-planned arrangements give way to the necessity of readjustment, and we conformed to circumstances. We were glad to stand where we hoped to sit, to fast where we expect~d to feed, and to be held as in a vise where we meant to go about and shake many loved hands. As I stood on the upper platform and looked over that augustassem- bIage, I said to myself, This is indeed the grandest ecumenical council ever assembled since the first council in Jerusalem I What a fitting commemoration with which to mark the completion of the first cen- tury of modern missions; what a fitting inauguration with which to in- troduce a new century of evangelism I The promise of our Lord is: "Where two or three are gathered to- gether in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Such a promise . and such a gathering must challenge the faith even of a very weak disciple. For when were the conditions of the promised presence more amply fulfilled! If there be such a thing as meeting "in His name,'~ surely it is to be found here. From the East and the West, from the North and the South, from every continent and the isles of the sea, representing every Ohristian denomination, missionary field and missionary agency or organization, delegates have gathered. The veteran missionary secretaries are here, the war-scarred soldiers who have fought for fifty years the battles of the Lord. They come as the maimed and scarred martyrs gathered at the council of Nicea, over 1,500 years ago. The authors of great books on missions, the editors of missionary magazines which chronicle the progress of the campaign of the ages, the eloquent pleaders by tongue and pen for the speedy evangelization of the world, the translators of Scripture into the many languages and dialects, missionaries from ,aU lands, and natives who have been converted and transformed into evangelists, pastors and teachers-these are here. Godly women, representing the legion of women's boards and auxiliary societies which have come to the front and kept at the front in the march of modern missions, are also here. Again we say, and deliberately, there never before was such a gathering" in His name." Ohrist has waited nearly 2,000 years since he gave His last command, before He has seen His whole Ohurch gathering by chosen representatives to plan a world-wide campaign for His gospel; forgetting all minor differences or divisions in rallying about the one ark of the covenant, and in obedience to providential and gracious signals, sounding the trumpet for a new onward, forward march!
It was obvious from the first that the Master of assemblies was in the midst. After a season of mutual introduction the Earl of Aberdeen-a very courteous, noble, simple, unpretending Ohristian man, yet in comparative youth-took the chair and called the great assembly to order and announced the opening psalm: "All people that on earth do dwell."
Those who would set an operatic quartette upon the stilts of high art to "perform God's praise" should have heard two thousand people sing Old Hundred then! And those who have been known to admire eloquent prayers, addressed to the audience should have heard the beloved Webb Peploe, as he led the vast audience in prayer that took hold of the very horns of the altar in importunate and earnest pleading for such a blessing as should surpass exceeding abundantly all we ask or think. It was a marvelous prayer, because it was so self-oblivious. He prayed in the Holy Ghost, and in praying with him we all draw near to the mercy-seat where God is enthroned. The blessing he asked had already come.
After a few graceful words of greeting from the Earl of Aberdeen, the Rev. Dr. Underhill, the veteran Secretary, now retired from active supervision, gave a resume of the various steps and stages by which, since the first comparatively private conference in 1854, in New York City, with Dr. Duff, the thought and plan of a world conference had grown in scope and in realization. Ten years ago a conference similar to this had been held at Mildmay, but it had no such cosmopolitan character, and was but a. herald preparing the way for this colossal gathering. To give any adequate idea of this masterly address we should be compelled to reproduce it entire, and even then the aroma of a flower is not more elusive, as to the printed page that may represent the form and even hues of a blossom, than is the ethereal atmosphere that invests such an address from such a man I Rev. Mr. Wigram of the Church Missionary Society then spoke, followed by the Rev. Dr. A. C. Thompson, the beloved representative of the American Board, who in a singularly graceful speech in behalf of the American delegations, left absolutely nothing to be added by the rest of us. Remarks were made by representatives of the German and French Societies, and by the Secretary, Rev. James Johnston. Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission led in prayer and the assembly adjourned. It was difficult to part. Handshakings innumerable followed, until slowly the great crowd separated, reluctant to leave a place manifestly filled with the Holy Ghost.
It was quite remarkable that in a land where aristocratic institutions prevail, there was no parading of great names, either at this opening· meeting or on the programme. We saw no man save Jesus only. As the Secretary justly said, it is a compliment and tribute to many of the men whose names are on the programme that they are not well and widely known. It is because in a self-oblivious spirit they have buried themselves among the heathen, and from these living sepulchers they have been called by the voice of this Conference to tell of what they have seen and heard amid the dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty, and to bear witness to the gospel, which, to the highest and lowest alike, is still the power of God unto salvation.
No meetings of the Conference, as such, were held on Sunday, but the delegates, scattered throughout the city, either occupied the pulpits or sat as worshippers in the churches. Neither Spurgeon nor Canon Liddon were well, and many were disappointed in not hearing them. There is on the part of the best people in London a conscientious objection to the use of the horse-cars and steam-cars on Sunday, and meetings at Exeter Hall were opposed because they would necessitate much needless travel on the Lord's day.
But Monday's meetings opened with a prayer-meeting at 9:45 in the large parlor adjoining the assembly rooms, which meeting was itself one of the richest and most Pentecostal feasts we ever attended. God poured out a spirit of grace and of supplication, which became for the whole day a fragrant anointing, and filled the entire house with its odor and atmosphere. It is now definitely ascertained that 150 delegates are present from the United States, representing 51 societies; 27 from Canada, representing 6; 22 from the Contine.nt of E~rope, representing 13; and 1,060 members, representing 52 societies in England, Scotland and Ireland. There is thus a total constituency in members and delegates of 1,259, represe:uting 122 societies.
In attempting to describe or chronicle these great gatherings, the like of which the world has never seen, we labor under two embarrassments: first, an embarrassment of riches, for thus far we have heard not one poor paper or weak speech; and, secondly, an embarrassment of limitation, for, not being ubiquitous, we find it impossible to be in two places at one and the same time, and hence cannot attend all the sectional meetings held simultaneously. At 10: 30 on Monday two meetings were held for members only, at one of which Missionary Methods were discussed, especially as to the selection and training of missionaries; and at the other, Medical Missions. At three P.M. again there were three meetings, one for discussion of Missionary Modes of Working; another, an open meeting, on the Increase of Islam, and a third, in the great hall, on China. Similarly in the evening, two meetings, one on the Jews, and the other in the large hall on the Condition of India, China, Africa, and the world at large.
This will afford a general notion of the modus operandi, and make repetition needless. And as the best way to promote brevity and interest in these editorial communications, I will henceforth simply touch on great salient features of the Conference, and refer in particular to the addresses and paperB, which, for originality of suggestion or practical value, seem to demand individual recognition.
Without invidious distinction, we may select the remarkable paper of Henry Grattan Guinness, the well-known evangelist and missionary trainer, as a representative of the papers read in the morning. Clear, practical, pungent and powerful, it captivated the assembly. And we have secured it for the pages of this REVIEW, and it may be expected entire in the next issue.
The general drift of the morning discussion was in the direction of a thorough qualification, both intellectually and spiritually, for the work of missions. It was insisted that it will not do to send abroad inferior men and women; that the strain and drain upon the faculties and resources are such as demand the best equipped and most thoroughly furnished men and workers. But we were glad to hear emphasized the pre-eminent need of spiritual anointing. The man who is not ready to preach anywhere is fit to preach nowhere. Love for souls is the highest genius-inventive, versatile, omnipotent, sagacious. During a course of training there must be constant contact with souls, to keep up vital warmth and prevent a cold intellectuality, a scholarship that is unspiritual and unconsecrated. The whole day was a feast of fat thillgs. But the great meeting of the evening was'the crown of the whole. The Earl of Aberdeen took the chair, with the Countess at his side. The' address of Prebendary Edmonds on the Condition of India was one of the brightest, keenest, sharpest and most brilliant we ever heard. It was a two-edged sword, and its edge was not keener than its point was piercing. For example, he made the Tabernacle in the wilderness a type of our duty. There were some things behind the veil which were still obscure; but before the veil were three others quite plain: the table of shew-bread, the candelabra and the altar of incense. God means that, in order to personal and national prosperity, there shall be three requisites-first, bread on the table; second, light in the house; and third, an altar of prayer. And wherever one or more of these is lacking, we are to seek to supply it.
Again, he said that the " Light of Asia" was the light of Oxford and Oxford Street; that it was Oxford thought read into Oriental systems. Again, he remarked that in India the great lack was the lack of a sense of individuality and of personality, and told a story of two learned Brahmins discussing as to whether God has or has not personal attributes. Both contestants received a prize for the conclusiveness of their respective arguments / He beautifully spoke of the 119th Psalm as stamped with the most impressive. personality in the conception both of God and of man. It contains the pronoun" I" 140 times, "thine" 180 times, "me" 100 times.
Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, of Chfua Inland Mission, then briejly, but with great power, outlined the history of missions ill China, and the present condition of the people. He referred to the numbers of the Chinese, their intelligence and industry, perseverance and resolution; succillctly referred to the great resources of the country, illstancillg the colossal coal deposits, capable of supplying fuel to the world for 2,000 years. Then he rapidly, by a few strokes, sketched the history of Chinese missions-Apostolic, Nestorian, Roman Catholic, Jesuit, the defect of all which was that they gave the people no Bible. Then came Robert Morrison, whose first work was to translate the Scriptures. Mr. Taylor arraigned the opium traffic as the sum of all wrongs and villaillies, and affirmed that when the first British ships bore to the land that fatal drug, an injury was inflicted that in one day works still more harm than the gospel can offset in a year. He calmly said, with deep emotion, that the opium habit works more damage than drink, slavery and the social evil combined.
It fell to the writer to make the closing address, a general survey, At that late hour all that could be done was rapidly and in outline to sketch the Present Position and Condition of Christian Missions. Amid all our congratulations we must not forget our humiliation, for while completing the first century of modern missions, it is only the first. Ohrist has patiently waited for nearly 1900 years to see of the travail of His soul. The evangelistic activity of the first centuries gave place to secularism and selfishness. A thousand years of the dark ages succeeded, during which Christianity scarcely survived. The Lutheran Reformation'revived apostolic doctrine, but did not revive apostolistio activity and evangelism. The church had to wait three centuries more before she recognized her duty and debt to a lost world. And even now the bulk of Christian disciples do not feel their individual responsibility for the lost. We do work by proxy. We erect great societies and boards, and by them girdle the world with a network of missionary organizations, and content ourselves with trifling gifts and sending forth some 5,000 or 6,000 men and women, while the converts from heathenism furnish five or six times as many workers as all Christendom! We give ten millions of dollars a year to foreign missions, while in London alone enough wealth is buried in ornaments, jewelry and silver plate, to carry the gospel round the world in ten years. During the nineteen centuries that haVtl pass€d away, not lesS than fifty entire generations have perished, and these have included not less than an aggregate 30,000,000,000 souls, or twenty times the present population of the globe.
The question is, Can the problem be solved, of reaching with the gospel the unsaved millions of the race? Of'course it must be solvable; for our Lord never would commit to His people an impossible task. If we study the gospels we shall find God's way of solving the problem outlined. It embraces some important factors, which we have comparatively failed to emphasize. Two of them I desire to make very prominent: first, individual call to direct labor for the unsaved; and secondly, the supernatural power of God. Had these been as prominent in the life of the church as they should be, the work of the evangelization might already have overtaken the population of our globe.
In my address at Exeter Hall I dwelt upon these two necessary requisites to the successful prosecution of mission work. We must return to the primitive conception-every believer a herald. In the 13th chapter of Matthew, our Lord gives us two parables of the kingdom : In the first He teaches us that the seed is the Word of God; in the second that the good seed are the children of the kingdom. Only as we take both together do we get the whole truth. If we would sow the world-field, we must scatter side by side with the seed of the Word the seed of Christian lives, the Word made flesh and dwelling among men, as the Master did. The world will never be brought to the knowledge of Christ by the Bible alone-but the Bible with the man and woman beside it. We must send forth colonies of disciples to plant Christian homes amid the dark places of the earth.
And, secondly, we must have hearty confidence in the supernatural factor in missions. We have had a book on "Natural Law in the Spiritual World ;" let us have another on Supernatural Law in the Natural World. In these days of naturalism we are in danger of practically denying the direct Divine hand in history. Nothing more attracted me to the study and advocacy of missions than the manifest interpositions of superhuman, supernatural power. Nothing short of God's own hand ever opened within one generation the door of all these kingdoms, shut and sealed a century ago. The children of Israel, led by the pillar of cloud, had no plainer proof of God's presence than the ordinary missionary band. The parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan, the route of Amalek, and the falling of Jericho's walls, were not more conspicnous signs of God's power than the marvels wrought in modern missions.
The Conference ought to yield two permanent results. First, it ought to revive in our hearts the sense of the supernatural, and drive us to importunate prayer. All our machiuery, our organizations and agencies, even the multiplication of money and men and means, can accomplish nothing without the providence and Spirit of God. This we must not only acknowledge, but realize anq. feel. The greatest lack in modern missions is, after all, the lack of believingprayer. All great results for the kingdom have been and will continne to be wrought in answer to the prayer of faith.
The other result should be energetic and enterprising action. We should forget that in which we differ and emphasize that in which we agree. Our tribal standards should be set up abont the Ark of God, and we should move together about that ark. The King's business requireth haste. A soldier of Queen Victoria, being asked how long it would take for the army and navy to carry a proclamation round the world and publish it everywhere, answered, "I think we could do it in about eighteen months." In the days of Esther, the decree of Ahasuerus was translated into every language spoken in the empire, and borne through the whole hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from the Bosphorus and Nile to the Indus and Ganges, in less than nine months! What might we not do with the help of the printingpress, steam navigation, the telegraph, and all the appliances of modern invention, if the church would but give herself to the glorious work! We might publish the gospel to all living peoples before the end of the present century!
Sounding the imperial clarion of advance along the whol~ line of battle, moving as one host, let us pierce the very center of the adversary, turn his staggering wings, and unfurl the flag of the Cross upon the parapet of every stronghold of the Devil.
DR. CHRISTLIEB ON MEDICAL
DR. CHRISTLIEB ON MEDICAL MISSIONS.
[The AllgtrMine Mi88ions-Zeitschriff; for 1888 contains a profoundly valuable article by Dr. Theodore Christlieb, continued through several numbers, upon Medical:Missions. The Rev. ehas. C. Starbuck has translated for us the salient passages of this article, which we give to our readers.-EDs.] "ALL genuine missionary work must be in the highest sense a healing work." So writes that vigorous missionary pioneer, Mackay, from that newest martyrland of missions, Uganda. As certainly as sin disintegrates soul and body, and these are most strictly conjoined, so certainly also must a complete redemption extend itself over the whole personal life, and therefore finally over the body. Therefore, forgiveness of sins, or preaching of the gospel, and bodily healing, are only two sides of the same comprehensive salvation, brought nigh to man in Christ, although its realization in the two spheres may be widely divergent in time. Therefore we see Christ not merely Himself preaching and healing as He goes around, but also sending forth the disciples' to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick,' giving, on the one hand, especial power to the Twelve 'to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease,' and, on the other hand, commissioning the Seventy (Luke x : 9) to heal the sick and to announce that the kingdom of God was at hand, here even giving the commission of heaHng the precedence. Nor is this power of healing given merely as a sign confirmatory of their mission, but as a manifestation of 'the universal compassion of the gospel,' which brings help for every harm.
" Though there had been now and then sporadic instances of medical skill applied by the English to missionary ends, it was the practical Americans who first gave this impulse a definite form, the first regularly trained and designated Medical Missionary having been Dr. Peter Parker, sent out by the American Board in 1834 to Canton. In a few years the London Society sent Benjamin Hobson after him, inaugurating the principle in Europe.
"It is little known that to the magnanimity of an English physician England in great part owes her influence in the East. In 1636, Dr. Gabriel Boughton, having cured a princess of the Great Mogul's court, who had been badly burned, asked, as his only reward, leave for his countrymen to trade with India. This was the beginning of English power and civilization in the East.
" The first, or at all events one of the first. missionary physicians, strictly so-called, sent out by a missionary society, was Dr. Otis R. Bacheler, sent out by the American Baptists (as I think) to Orissa in India, and still laboring there." [Dr. Christlieb has here confused the larger Baptist body with the Free Baptists, to whom Dr. Bacheler belongs, and who have long been associated with the General Baptists of England in preaching Christ" where Satan's seat is," in the very region of the temple of Juggernaut.] "Before 1861 there were not over twenty missionary physicians in all heathen countries, and before 1871 probably not more than forty at most. In 1878 there were ninety or one hundred, and by 1885 there were from one hundred and seventy to one hundred and ninety regularly graduated physicians in the work. The Edinburgh Medical Missions Society had, in 1871, an income of $6,240; in 1881, of $26,400.
"Notwithstanding that the number of missionary physicians since the beginning of the last third of our century has grown so rapidly and gratifyingly, yet in the majority of the heathen cities in which they labored half of the sick remained almost wholly excluded from this benefit-the female half. Especially in India, where the women of the upper classes regard it as / contrary to religion and propriety to show their faces before men, where, as a rule, not even the heathen physicians (hakims) are summoned to treat the cases of sickness in the zenanas, the way is completely barred to the Chris- tian male physician. Nor is this. merely true of the wealthier. ' All Hindu women,' writes Mrs. Weitbrecht, after a wide tour of inspection in 1878, 'whether rich or poor, are completely neglected in time of sickness. Preju- . dice and usage banish medical help. Fever, ophthalmia and other conta- gious ills·propagate themselves without check in the dark, filthy dwellings. From this results the enormous mortality among women and children, or chronic diseases, one of the chief hindrances of zenana missions. A female medical mission in the center of every populous district is one of the most crying necessities of India.'
"How rapidly, with growing confidence, the work increases; how rapidly the sphere of effectiveness widens out, in spite of the strange phenomenon of a female doctor, especially to the Hindu mind; nay, in spite of the great dread felt at first, especia.lly by women of the higher classes, of losing caste under Christian treatment, appears from the register of the Presbyterian Female Hospital at Lucknow. It was opened in 1883, and in that year had only thirteen patients. In 1886 it had 212, besides 2,712 outside patients and 6,930 distributions of medicine. The Church M. S. has nine ladies in service, more or less medically trained. In Travancore last year there were 4,946 patients receivin~ medicine. In Lodiana, in 1887, the Fern. Ed. Soc. supplied 4,985 patients with medicine. The Zenana Mission in Amritstar (the seat of the Sikh religion) in 1887, with a staff of six female physicians and one nurse, received 242 patients into the hospital, assisted at 454 births, visited 4,000 patients at home, and supplied some 30,000 with med- icines. Really it does seem as if Col. Higginson was authorized to concede that Christian missions accomplish something toward' making the condition of barbarians a little more comfortable.' Dr. Lowe of Travancore speaks of the disinterestedness of his native medical helpers. Though receiving only twenty-four cents a day, they have refused offers of three and four times as high wages in order to maintain the missionary work among their people. Missionary physicians, hospitals and dispensaries are indeed multiplying in In- dia, and extending their operations so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up with them. And the movement has now passed beyond missionary circles, and under the patronage of Lady Dufferin, as representing the Empress, has become national. The Female Medical Aid Association in its first year en- joyed an income of $110,400. 'The cry for capable lady physicians goes through the whole land.'
" All agents of this national society are forbidden to exercise any mission- ary influence. This prohibition is remarked upon by Dr. Christlieb as fol- lows: "Doubtless this undertaking is thoroughly well meant by its found- el'll. Upon this broad basis help can be much more quickly procured for the neglected world of invalid Hindu women. To the female physician, who merely comes as a sympathizing human being with her skill for the body, the prison-doors of the zenana will swing open much more quickly than to the Christian woman who leaves out of sight neither sick body nor sick soul. This explains the enthusiasm over this new foundation, and the shower of wealthy gifts from England and India which has watered it. And yet we must inquire: Will this fruit of Christian culture be permanent, grafting itself into Indian society, without its root concealing that from which, never- theless, it is, in its deepest origin, derived? Does a right view of moral edu- cation, or even of the history of culture, warrant us in playi~ into the hands of the haughty rationalistic assumption that Hinduism, Islam and Christianity are religious equivalents, or have eyen an equal level of scientific right, viewed merely from the medical point of view? This is very nearly the same as to say that they all three signify the same; that is, signify nothing. Against whom is the edge of this anti-proselytizing principle turned? Practically against Christian physicians, and the course hitherto held by missionary practice. Hindu doctresses are not touched by it, and hardly Mohammedans, allowing that there should ever be any, and that Western science had not dulled the energy of their fanaticism.
"Imagine a Christian lady attending at the bedside of a patient mortally ill. She sees death approaching. She does her best for the relief of the bodily distress. But for the restlessness, or it may be the torpor of tbe spirit, for the deep distress of soul which often oppresses the sick one far more heavily than bodily pains, she may not offer a word of Christian truth or evangelic gospel comfort! With the saving light in her hand she yet may not venture to cast a beam into the darkness of the poor heathen soul, even when she sees it deepening into the darkness of death! Her lips for this are as good as sealed. What cruelty to the poor patient, and to the compassionate physician no less. Will the young Christian Hindu women, who are now sent by local corporations to study medicine at Agra, be able to prevail on themselves to be silent before their Hindu sisters concerning that which has become the bliss of their own life and the .rest of their own heart, concerning their faith? It is to be hoped not.
" And when, as above all in India, the use of certain medicines or other remedies clashes severely with religious prejudices, will it not often import to remove or at least to mitigate such scruples? And so far this necessity involves an interference with religious opinions. And abo¥e all: does Christ's commandment to preach the gospel, which assuredly embraces India, apply only for well women, and not also for sick? Has any person, or' any society, a right to restrain it? And must a reference to the Saviour of all the world necessarily be made in an importunate, wearisome, hea-dlong manner? Can there. not be a friendly, heartily sympathetic offer of salva.- tion, such as shall awake a living hope, and finally implant in the uneasy spirit a divine peace, a state of mind which can only react favorably upon the bodily condition? How often do humanitarians, out of mere respect of man, fall into pure cruelty! How certainly, on close examination, the Christian interpretation of love to our neighbor app~'oves itself as the only genuinely human interpretation!
"Lady Dufferin allows that the' quiet influence of Christian virtues' must be permitted the agents of the society. No doubt. No gracious permission of royalty or its representative can be required for that. It is its own authentic warrant. But to the catalogue of Christian virtues, under some circumstances, it also belongs to confess with the mouth, not merely by quiet example, as the latter can only inspire respect for the person of the physician, or at most for his religion, but cannot alone help the poor patient out of his heathen ignorance into true faith and peace. The appeal to public policy, while entirely intelligible from the Vice-Empress of India, can never justify the position in Christian eyes. For, as we judge, the more said about earlier government policy in India the worse the case turns out. Heathen customs of worship, not merely endured but for long years supported (and sometimes, it is hinted, l'upported even yet by donations to temples, etc.), have proved, not only as viewed by Christians, condemnable, but to be also a.
mere short-s~hted opportunism) contributing perhaps, for the moment, to avert popular tumults, but in the event mOl"'J.lly injurious to the government, as giving to many thinking Hindus an impression derogatory to a power which could prove itself so weak as virtually to deny its own Christian faith.
"The assumption that, however it may be with certain Indian princes. the Indian people object to female physicians who bring the gospel, is far from being of universal validity. Otherwise, how is it to be explained, that the 'General Council of Education in India' some time ago, when strongly urging a multiplication of girls' schools, acknowledged that 'the natives decidedly prefer girls' schools conducted by the missionaries to those conducted by the Government or by natives.'
"Therefore, with full acknowledgment of the noble designs of Lady Dufferin, the periodicals representing medical missions have, so far as I can see, unanimously declared this principle of silence as to religion to be unpractical and largely impracticable, indeed, unchristian, and therefore for the more earnest Christian women morally impossible of acceptance.
" In China also the medical missionary institutes are hardly less numerous than in India. They already extend from Hong Kong and Canton to Peking, and even into Mantchuria and Tartary. The number of missionary physicians, male and female, at present working there, Fomosa included, already exceeds 80. Of this whole number Continental societies at present reckon not one; 38 are British; 44 American, including Canada. Among these the heaviest representation is of the American Presbyterians, 14; next the M. E. Church, with 10; the A. B. Q. F. M. English Presbjt:erians and China Inland Mission, 8 each; London M. S., 7; English Wesleyans, 5; Church M. S., 4, etc. The most comprehensive single medical mission of China is that of the English Presbyterians in Swatow. The hospital was opened by Dr. Gauld in 1863. It can now accommodate 200 inmates, and has elsewhere in the town a lepers' department. In 1885 there were in all 3,867 patients from 1,824 localities, besides 1,770 treated at home, Of 944 operations 544 were ocular.
" Many societies can already look back upon a series of names of physicians which have become names of renown in the missionary history of Asia.: the American Board upon the consecrated zeal of a Dr. Scudder, or a Dr. Parker in Asia; upon Dr. Osgood, who died, 1880, in Foochow; who, in the hospital there, in nine years treated 51,838 sick persons, and at whose death thousandS of heathens raised a loud lament; upon Dr. Grant, who in his medical practice found twenty times more opportunity for intercourse with Mahommedans than his clerical colleague, and whose memory is to this day a power among the poor Nestorians and wild Koords, for whom he offered up his life; upon his successor, worthy of him, Dr. Wright, of whom an intelligent Nestorian said, 'his influence is that of a prince '; upon Dr. H. A. West in Sivus (Asia Minor), who by his simple method of treatment freed the natives from the terror of the measles, which were there as destructive and dreaded as the small-pox; who educated a company of most capable native physicians, and received therefor from the Turkish government a most emphatic expression of thanks; a man whom his innumerable surgical operations (one hundred and fifty simply for stone) rendered a celebrity even in Europe and America, who in cases innumerable opened the eyes of the blind; who, for services which at home would have brought him in hundreds, yes, thousands of dollars, would accept nothing, contenting himself with his simple missionary salary; who, go where he would, was surrounded by the sick, ~he lame, the palsied, so that the nativ,es often said of the simple, unpretentious man: 'He is like Je~!Us.' And so with the'Presbyterian and other missionary societies.
"It is worthy of note that two stations in Western Asia, at which missions have proved themselves peculiarly effective, Aintab and Ooroomiah, were founded by missionary physicians.
"Of late years Syria and Palestine are, of all Turkish provinces, the most abundantly supplied with medical missionaries. And here again Beirlit, already mentioned as a centre of medical missions, where the American Presbyterians have five professors and doctors of medicine, partly for instruction ani partly for missionary practice. In Tripoli (of Syria) three-fourths of Dr. Harris's patients are Turkish women, who even overcome their usual aversion to showing the foreign doctor their faces; nay, invite him into their houses for further treatment. It is, he says, a moving spectacle to see fifty or seventy-five white-clad, deeply veiled Turkish women listening reverently to the Scripture lesson which always precedes the treatment, and to hear them ratifying the prayer with a loud' Amen.' Dr. Harris is an Englishman.
"In Jaffa the London Mildmay Institute has a female medical mission. Here, in 1886, a roomy hospital for women was dedicated, for the building of which a firman had been secured from Constantinople, and which cost some $24,000. It is open every morning at 9, but the patients begin to gather by 6. Of the 231 persons received into it in one year 180 were Moslem; 11,176 received outside treatment. In the wards every evening the holy Scripture is read in Arabic, and, as the latest report says, 'the black eyes of the sick women fix themselves as eagerly upon the reader as if they would fain drink in every word she utters.'
"As a final notice of Mohammedan countries, we must not pass by the latest, singularly self-denying essay of medical missions, that of the young Scotchman of rank, the Honorable John Keith Falconer, in Arabia. This admirable Orientalist, not unknown in Germany itself, son of Lord Kintore, in 1885 went in connection with the mission of the Free Church of Scotland to Aden, and at his own expense established the mission station, Sheik Othman, at some leagues remove from the town. Having returned to England and been appointed professor of Arabic at Cambridge, he taught there a short time, but in 1886 returned to Aden with the missionary physician, established at his own expense a little hospital and free dispensary, preached the gospel to sick and well, distributed Bibles and tracts, and was about to travel throughout Arabia with one of the chief Bedouin tribes when death overtook him in May, 1887. To the service of the Lord he had given up his eminent academical position, his Oriental learning, his social rank, his ample means, the bright morning of his wedded life, and his well-proved physical vigor."
Dr. Christlieb remarks that,' in comparison with the medical missionary work of the two Anglo-Saxon nations, the three or four German medical missionaries form a rather humiliating contrast, although more of such work is done than is registered. On the other hand, the Kaiserwerth deaconesses are aecomplishing an excellent missionary work in the Orient. "If they are not academically trained doctresses, they have yet been thoroughly trained in hospitals and deaconesses' houses to the care of the sick, and, along with the teaching sisters in schools and orphanages, render uncommonly important pioneer services to Protestant missions. Theil' quiet work receives fuller and fuller recognition both from Christians and Mohammedans, especially as being,'for the most part, older than that of the English female physicians. In Alexandria, where their work began in 1857, they have a hospital With 11 deaconesses, who daily tend 66-70, yearly 1,100-1,200 patients, while the clinics are visited by nearly 3,000• .. The oldest field of labor of the sisters is Jerusalem, where, in 1851, on Mount Zion, near the Anglican Church, they opened, under the direction of Fliedner, a hospital 'for the sick, of all religions and confessions.' This hospital, after successive enlargements, now receives over 450 patientsyearlyj while 8,200 visit the clinics. Four sisters are in charge. The original aversion of the Mohammedans to the' dogs' house' was soon overcome, In 1862, of the inmates 178 were Mohammedans; in 1863, 278; in 1864, 312. At present over one-third of all treated are Moslems. They, too, 'listen gladly to the message of reconciliation,' while to many Christian patients also a clearer light rises here upon the true substance of our faith. As a traveler was telling a Mohammedan-a former patient-about the German victories, the latter replied: 'It is the Prussian sisters who have conquered us.'
"German love has of late also extended its compassionate care to the poorest of the poor and sickest of the sick, the lepers of Palestine, by means of the Lepers' Asylum in Jerusalem, erected 20 years ago by the CountE'ss von Keffenbrinck. This is conducted and served by the Unitas Fratrum, the domestic chaplain being the former German pastor at Jerusalem, and the resident physician Dr. Chaplin, of the English Mission to the Jews. The imposing new building, situated not far from the Templar Colony, and dedicated in 1886, witll room for some 30 patients, was last year occupied by 24 patients, mostly men. An Arab evangelist gives a Bible lecture twice a week, which the inmates willingly attend. The Word of God, says the latest report, often prove& to these afflicted ones a deep consolation. It moves the heart to hear a leper, with his hoarse and hollow voice, from which all the resonance is gone, uttering the words of the Psalmist: 'Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, 0 Lord!' Leprous children, so long as they yet have fingers, learn to read and write. The faithful house-parents (Tappe and now Franz MillIeI') maintain, even here in the Orient, to a surprising extent, the fame of the Herrnhuters for neatness and clea.nliness.
Dr. Christlieb, after speaking of a German-Swiss medical missionary who went to Calicut, in India, last year, and whose consultations in the first three months stood 640,950,1,332, raises the question, "How are we, in Germany, to find physicians of the true Christian and missionary spirit ?" and proceeds: " And with this question we come to the deepest ground of our altogether disproportionateinferiority in this branch of missionary activity. Itisfound in the almost universal prevalence within our medical faculties, both among teachers and students, of a naturalistic spirit, hostile to revelation, for which, indeed, the way has often been prepared, both directly and indirectly, in the Gymnasia. On the other hand, in the English-speaking world, especially in Scotland, but also in America and England, the Christian and missionary interest among young medical students is positively strengthened by not a few even of their most eminent teachers. With us, a student of medicine, though perhaps of a Christian family, has the greatest possible difficulty during his course of study even to keep hold of his Christian convictions. AmolJ.g his companions, the very thought of engaging in missions would be utterly unintelligible. It would make him a target of scorn. Who in these circles concerns himself about the extension of the kinglom of God, a phrase which, almost without exception, is for them a dead letter. Who among them so much as casts a look over missionary literature. unless, at most, now and then. to glean from it some newly-reported fact of natural history? Yet
THE DRINK TRAFFIC AMONG NATIVE
even in Germany we find medical students, here and there, in our missionary associations. Missionary societies in Germany may therefore be exhorted, when looking for missionary physicians, 'Seek, and ye shall find.'
"So much respecting the development and diffusiqn hitherto of medical missions and their auxiliary institutions in our Protestant missionary work. Considering that, independently of medical missions in Christian lands, there are to-day, of regularly graduated Protestant physicians, male and female, in Africa and Madagascar, 37; in China, Formosa and Corea, some 86 or 88; in India and Burmah, at least 76; in Siam, 3; in Japan, 14; in the Pacific, 6 ; in Mohammedan countries, some 40; and that, moreover, in Turkey, India, China and elsewhere, there are dozens of deaconesses and nurses, with no mean measure of medical knowlege, we are well entitled to declare that the branches of this great growth are already world-embracing. Weare now in a better position to give a compendious judgment respecting the necessity and the value, the methods and the present results of missionary medical practice."
THE DRINK TRAFFIC AMONG NATIVE RACES.
[The Bev. Henry Duncan, Convener of the Church of Scotland's Committee on Intemperance, contributes an important paper to the Church 0/ Scotland Home and Foreign .Mi88ion Record on the effect of the drink tramc among native races. Some months ago the same writer gave a stakling account of the" Effects of the Liquor Tramc on Native Races." Since then fresh light has been thrown upon the subject. It has been discussed in both Houses of the British Parliament, and the different churches and temperance organizations abroad are combining in an earnest effort to grapple with the evil. Nor is the voice of American Christianity and civilization silent. Protests, petitions and remonstrances have gone forlh from many of the leading Christian bodies in this country. The state of things is indescribably awful. This diabolical tramc is cursing Africa to·day far worse than ever the slave trade did. It muat be stopped, and the responsibility rests with the three great Protestant nations that are mainly responsible for the introduction of rum into and are flooding the Dark Continent with it-namely, Great Britain, Germany and the United States.-EDs.] " ONE of the minor difficulties of the problem lies in the fact that the traffic is carried on by men of different nationalities, and that no single government has the power of preventing or even controlling the traffic. All that can be done in the meantime seems to be to collect and disseminate information on the subject, in the hope that a plain narrative of facts will lead to such a rousing of the conscience of the Christian Church, and such an awakening of the European and American powers to the gravity of the question as will issue in combined and energetic action lor the suppression of a traffic that is a disgrace alike to our Christianity and our civilization.
"In dealing with the subject, it is extremely desirable that we separate the case of the native races of India from that of the native races of Africa and of other parts of the world. Not that there is no room for earnest action in regard to India, but because the cases are in many respects so widely different that what is true of the one is by no means always, or in the same sense, true of the other. Confining our attention, then, just now to Africa, what are the facts with which we are confronted? Briefly these, that British, German, French and American traders are pouring alcohol into the Dark Continent in such quantities and in such forms as to produce the most disastrous results, not only on the moral and spiritual condition of the natives, but even on their physical and commercial interests-that, in fact, as has been said by an eminent traveler, 'the great continent of Africa is being ruined by rum.' One or two facts will make the meaning of this statement clear.
" It is a well-known and admitted fact that native races cannot partake of alcohol in its European forms without sinking into a state of decay and degradation. Men sometimes speak as if the decay of the native races was a. necessary consequence of the advance of civilization. But clearly there is nothing in civilization to account for such decay. Sir John Thurston, Assistant High Commissioner in the Western Pacific, states the case tersely and truly when, repudiating such an idea as regards the natives of these islands, he says, 'Arms, gunpowder and alcohol are the solvents under which native life disappears.' And yet, in the face of this fact of the total inability of these native races to survive the introduction of this agent, there is carried on at this moment by professedly Christian men an enormous trade in alcohol in its most destructive forms. The merchants of Mauritius senttheir refuse rum, which was worthless in any other market, to the recently-converted island of Madagascar, and, despite the entreaties of rulers and people, forced upon them a trade which has done much to nullify the work of Christian mIssionaries for many years. It is the same on the West Coast of Africa. As the Archbishop of Canterbury said lately in the House of Lords, 'There is a trade rum and a trade gin which aret neither more nor less than liquid fire, mere poison, which destroy in a very short time the men and women who consume it, and they consume it without stint.' So deadly is it that among the natives, we are told, some of it goes by the name of death! And this, which ruins body and soul, imported by men who are members of our churches and subscribers to our missions I It is perhaps not to be wondered a.t that men who are destitute alike of principle and humanity should yield to the temptation to engage in so nefarious a traffic when 700 per cent. can be gained by it. But surely the Christian Church should protest in the strongest possible manner against a traffic which is a Q,isgrace to Christendoml "But the evils of the traffic consist not only in the character of the spirit that is imported, and its general effects upon the native population. It is only when certain testimony which has recently come to hand is carefully considered and weighed, that the full extent of the evil can be at all appreciated. The Rev. Horace Waller, F.R.G.S., not only says that 'the degradation of the wretched tribes of West Africa has reached a depth which is appalling,' but testifies to his having seen hundreds of native girls lying in a 'state of intoxication round the wagons of the spirit-sellers. And that his is no exceptional experience appears from the testimony of others no less trustworthy. Dr. Clarke, speaking of South Africa, saysthat he has seen thousands of girls lying drunk round the traders' wagons. And Mr. Moil', of the African Lakes Trading Company, writes, 'I have seen boys and girls of fourteen and fifteen getting their wages in rum.' In fact, there ar~ parts of the country in which there is practically no other currency. Let the church consider such .appalling facts as these, and then say whether it is possible that Christian mission work should be successful when all this shame and degradation and ruin is connected in the native mind with the Christian name. ' The time has surely come,' in the words of Mr. Joseph Thomson, the great traveler, 'when, in the interests of our national honor, more energetic efforts should be made to suppress this diabolical traffic. There can be no excuse for its continuance, and it is a blot on Christian civilization.'
"One of the most pathetic circumstances connected with the whole subject is to be found in the pitiful appeals which come to us from the natives them- selves. Sensible of their weakness, they have appealed again atld again to the Christian people of this country and the governments of Europe to pro- tect them from a temptation they feel powerless to resist. Quotations from such appeals could be given to a large extent, but space will not permit.
THB HBRO-MISSIONARY. • I!i9'l
'There has broken out, I Mr. Waller tells us, 'not only in one or two,but ';'n several densely populated tracts of Africa, an intense desire to shake off the drunkenness which has arisen as a contact with civilization.' 'Why,' asks the Rev. Mr. Johnson, the able native pastor of Lagos (into which small island, with a population of 37,000, Europe imports 1,231,302 gallons of spirits, 1,205,160 gallons of which are' trade rum' and' trade gin,' described above) -' why should European proximity to Aflica be Africa's ruin?' Archdeacon Farrar, in a powerfully written article in the Oontemporary Review (now reprinted in pamphlet form), tells us that in 1883 the natives of the diamond fields implored the Cape Parliament to have public houses removed from them for a distance of six miles, and that their petition was refused. Strange that the cry of weakness and helplessness should be so shamefully disregarded, and that nations that stand in the forefront of civilization and missionary effort should turn away from such appeals, and force upon unwilling peoples that which is working their complete destruction I "Hitherto, our own special mission field at Blantyre has escaped the blighting curse that has fallen on other parts of Africa. But we should realize the fact that if, through any of these changes which are always possible in an unsettled country, drink should be introduced among the native population there, our mission may be wrecked, and the labor of years wholly lost.
"It is earnestly to be hoped that measures will speedily be taken to deal practically with the facts now set forth. There is no lack of facts to prove the greatness of the scandal. The difficulty is to get the citizens of this country, the men in power in the State, and even the Christian people in our churches to look them in the face, I trust therefore that the Church of Scotland will take her place among the other branches of the Christian Church and throw herself heartily into a cause with which is so closely bound up the success of her missions and the progress of the cause of Christ."
THE HERO-MISSIONARY.
BY ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, LL.D.
[We are Indebted to the distinguished anthor for an early copy of this remarkable address, delivered In Henry Martyn Hall, to nndergradnates of the University of Cambridge. The part we here present gives ns pen portraits of three heroic missionaries of world-wide fame. The latter part oCthe address sketches graphically the Heroic Missionary Society, taking as his type the MoraVian Church. We hope to give that In our next number.-EDs.] As a member of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, I am not likely to undervalue the plodding day by day, and year by year, of the simplehearted missionary, who, like Rebman and Krapf atMombasa, in East Africa, and William Smith and Leupolt at Banaras, worked on from year to year, and only left the scene of their quiet labors when failing powers compelled them to do so. Such uneventful Ii ves do not strike the imagination so much as that of the hero-missionary, whose career is short, but brilliant: it may seem unjust, but it is so always; tho bravo man who leads the forlorn hope, or gains the Victoria Cross by risL:nc hi/: life, obtains a niche, and his career is an incentive to others: the faithful old soldier has nothing but the feeling of duty done to reward him, and the thought of him will not rouse others to deeds of valor.
My subject is the Hero-Missionary and Heroic Missionary Society. It is hard that the man must die to be deemed a hero, but so it has been at all times from the days of Achilles to our own times. Death throws a halo round the departed one. Some examples have been brighter in death than in life; it is another illustration of our Lord's remark about the corn of wheat, "If it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." I have selected three great characters, Allen Gardiner, .Coleridge Patteson and John Williatns, as types of the hero- missionary, and the lf:oravian Missionary Society as the type of the heroic mission.
ALLEN GARDINER-THE PIONEER MISSIONARY.
Life is such a tangled web that it is only as he a.pproaches the end of his career that the worker can see the pattern of the web at which he has been working all his days. He has had only one portion of the pattern exposed to his view, but he has been permitted to work at that faithfully and patiently, though it may be only a leaf or a flower, and he is able to do it truly, strongly and firmly; but the hero-missionary seems in his youth, or in the early part of his career, to have grasped at some purpose unseen to all but himself; he wishes to accomplish something which the world will not let die; a.nd to some few this is granted. In others the one only life which the worker had to offer is not sufficient; but the Master accepts the will for the deed, as young McCall said on his early deathbed, "If the Lord's will be to take my- self, and not the work which I would do for Him, His holy will be done." 'Ov 01 eeOI tplAoV(fl, !JvrJU/coVUIV VeOl.
Heroes, being men of marked character, are deemed by the vulgar herd to be eccentric: their very superiority prevents their being duly estimated. The circumstance of their death shakes weak faith, but the true Christian through death to life sees clearly how God of seeming evil works lasting good. To die for one's country is a great gain; to die for one's Saviour, to fill up what remains of His sufferings, is sweeter. Such was the life of AHen Gardiner: no doubt he was thought to be an enthusiast, and crazed, and a bore; butthe opinion is now changed. His story is simple: he was an officer of the navy who lost his young wife early. He thus went per crucem ad lucem, and thenceforth consecrated himself to the missionary service heart and soul, and he kept his vow: to be a pioneer missionary to the most abandoned heathen was the great object of his life. He was neither qualified for ordinary mis- sionary work nor would it have satisfied him to have reaped the harvest which others had sowed. His was a harder and more thankless task, but none the less blessed.
He tried many countries, but found no opening; his missionary spirit, like a dove let loose from home, wandered about seeking a place of rest. At length he definitely chose South America as his field; he was prevented by the Roman Catholic priests from settling among the wild tribes on the continent.
He found at length a spot where even the Spanish priests would not care to follow him, at the most southerly point of the island, separated from the mainland by the Straits of Magellan, within a small distance of the Antarctic Circle, the Island of Terra del Fuego.
The possibilities of the human family are not to be found in one single race, or at'one particular epoch, or in one region of the world. Grace is sufficient for them all, and the missionary, who brought captive to the feet of his Mas- ter the poor Eskimo, the halI-brutal Fuegian, the cannibal of Melanesia, oJ.' the short, stunted races of Australia, glorifies his Saviour by showi~g that the gospel message was designed for all, can be understood by all, that Christ died for all, and that there is no other way of salvation but through Him. The message is so divine, and yet so clothed in ulfiversal humanity, that it finds its way to the spiritual necessities of all, and satisfies the heart's cravings. The student of missionary chronicles has added this new weapon to the armory of the theologian. Darwin, one of the gentlest and wisest of heathens (for he that is least of the kingdom of heaven is greater than him), when he saw the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, declared that their intenect~ ual improvement was beyond the efforts of man; but he lived to replace that hasty opinion by the following: "The lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand."
Both nature and man were against Gardiner: the climate rendered the country most dreary and inhospitable: the sky rarely cleared: rainy squalls in summer alternated with the snow and sleet of winter: the winds were ferocious. The people belonged to the Patagonian race, of a dark color, with long black hair: they had low foreheads, flat and thick noses, scanty clothing, wretched habitations, and they were arrant thieves, cruel, and, when brought to bay, furious wild beasts: the women possessed some traces of gentleness, but were treated as slaves. Gardiner's first attempt to land and house himself on land was a failure: the conduct of the natives was such that he had to retreat and return to England. NothingJlaunted, he determined to have a floating home, and to keep his reserve stores at the Falkland Islands. He could not collect sufficient funds to buy a suitable vessel, so he supplied himself with two decked boats: two catechists and three pious sailors accompanied him. The Ocean Queen steamer deposited the boats and men with provisions for six months at Banner Bay in Terra del Fuego: they had given up all the ties of home for Christ's sake, but they were called upon to make a greater sacrifice, even of their lives, and none of them were ever seen alive again. It reconciles us to our common humanity, that men are always found, when the cause of Christ requires it, to face the greatest danger at His bidding. These men all died of starvation, Allen Gardiner being the last survivor. When, months later, the frigate, sent out to make inquiries, arrived, their dead bodies were found, and their journals and letters: one by one they had died, but there was no despair, 110 imputation of blame to others: "Poor, weak though we are, our abode is a very Bethel to our souls, for we feel and know that God is here." " Asleep or awake, I am happy beyond the power of expression." Allen Gardiner penned a farewell letter, expressing his unclouded joy in the Lord, his perfect resignation to His holy will, but eamestly imploring that the mission should not be abandoned, and sketching out a plan for future operations, which was acted upon. In his death he antICipated the coming of this Master's kingdom. He rejoiced to see the day-dawn of the gospel: he saw it, and was glad. His last words were, "Great and marvelous are the loving-kindnesses of my gracious God unto me. He has preserved me hitherto, and for four days, although without bodily food, without any feeling of hunger or thirst!" Here the journal ends: but one letter was dated a day later: "Yet a little while, and through grace we may join that blessed throng, to sing the praises of Christ to all eternity. I neither hunger nor thirst, though five days without food: marvelous loving-kindness to me a sinner!"
I remember the news of this sad tragedy reaching India in 1852, and many a sigh was wafted from India to the South Pole. His life was not given in vain: the pioneer's work was done: and the Lone-Star Mission was estab- iished, which has worked northwards intQ the mainland of South America, and is now spreading itself among the heathens of Paraguay. Bread cast on the waters is found after many days.
'Humanly speaking, but for Allen Gardiner's determination, and the interest excited by the sad end of himself and his noble companions, this footing would never have been made good. When nations and tongues are assembled beforE. the great white throne, Allen Gardiner will be there with his savages: "Lord I behold, with the talent, which Thou gavest me, I have gatheIed these poor sheep into Thy fold I" * BISHOP COLERIDGE PATTESON.
Differing in everything-in method, in gifts, in training, in result, but with the same spirit, that of lowly and entire self-sacrifice, was the career of Coleridge Patteson, Bishop of the Islands of Melanesia, which lie 120Q to the West, and in a more northern latitude. I knew Patteson as a boy at Eton, and he had the advantage of a University education, and I well remember Bishop Selwyn the elder going out as Bishop of New Zealand. He also wal:' of the hero type, strong, brave, wise and determined: he had established. the mission in the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands, and he chose Coleridge Patteson to be his coadjutor and his successor: there is something sad and solemn in the details of the selection of the lad by the bishop, and the surrender of him by the parents: the mother, like Hannah, consecrated her son to the Lord, and the grand old father made the great sacrifice of his eldest boy, for he never saw his face again. How foolish, and even wicked, seem the efforts of parents to retain their children whea the Lord has unmistakably chosen and called them I Every act of this beautiful life stands out in the pages of his biography: whether in his solitary ~hip cabin, or lonely hut, he was a great writer of letters, and they tell us unconsciously of his exalted character. He had no settled home, but .he had a settled plan, devised by Bishop Selwyn, and worked out by himself. He had to deal with a black, woolly.ifmired Negrito race, savage, inhospitable, cannibals, not so low down in the scale of humanity as the natives of Terra del Fuego, for they possessed some arts. and they spoke numerous distinct languages. The training-school on Norfolk Island, the mission ship taking up and putting down lads at the different islands, thus accustoming the people to his presence, acquiring a knowledge of their languages, and creating a confidence in his kindness: these were his methods. As his blessed ship passed from island to island, it left a track of light, of mercy, and loving-kindness. and his plans seem to be realizing. We read in his journal: " I think of the i~lands, and see them in my dreams, and it seems as if nothing bad been done; lint, when I think of what they were a very short time ago, oh t I do feel thankful indeed, and amazed, and almost fearful."
He was so far more blessed than Allen Gardiner, for he saw some fruits of his labors: brighter prospects of more fruit: the harvest was ripening: laborers, both European and native, were gathering around him: the time for putting in the sickle was at hand.
"Hundreds of people are crowding together, naked, armed, with uncouth cries and gestures. I cannot talk to them but by signs: lmt they are my children tuno. May God enable me to do my duty by them I "
The great Controller of the lives of men had provided him fellow-laborers from an unexpected quarter: lads whom he found on Norfolk Island, descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty, who, having married native women of Tahiti, left to their offspring a legacy of the blood of Europe and Ogeania united in their veins in.a mixed stream; these lads were endowed with singular sweetness of character and ardent faith. Two were killed by poisoned arrows during the lifetime of the bishop: one died with him. It is well known that the bishop was killed at the Island of Nikapu: I need not tell the sad story: he died for the sins of others, so closely did he tread in the * Story of Allen Gardiner (7th edition), Marsh & Stirling, 1887. steps of his Master: a boat floated qut containing his body with a palm branch laid upon the five wounds: and at the age of 46 his warfare was accomplished, his hero life was ended. The poor lad, however, lingered a few days in in- tense agony under his. wounds, and made tlfe following remarks. when he saw his leader's body, showing the spirit which had been imparted to him by his contact with a hero• .. Seeing people taken away when we think that they are most necessary to do God's work on earth makes me think that we often think and talk too much about Christian work: what God requirea is Ohristian men. He does not need the work: He only gives it to form a perfect charaeof the men, whom he sends to do it."
.. It is all right now. Do not grieve about it, because they did not do this thing of themselves,for God aUowed them to do it. It is very good, because God would have it so, and because He looks after us, and He understands abont us, and now He wille to take away us two (me and the bishop), and it is well…
The poor lad's knowledge of the world was limited to Pitcairn Island and Norfolk Island. His faith had not been weakened in the schools of learning.
The bishop had by his own hero life brought Christ home vividly to his im- agination, and in his simple eloquence, with dying lips, the poor lad sought to palliate the offenses of the ignorant savages, who had killed him in re- venge for the wrongs which they had suffered at the hands of others, and to justify the ways of God to man. Who can say that Coleridge Patteson lived and died in vain? If you seek his monument, read the annals of the ever-ex- panding Melanesian Mission, spreading from tribe to tribe, and from island to island.* JOHN WILLIAMS.
John Williams belonged to an earlier generation. He had accomplished his course while Patteson was an Eton boy, before Allen Gardiner had conceived his great idea. He was indeed an ajla~ ILVopi:w, and seems to have been specially brought upon the scene by a wise Providence at a moment when his peculiar gifts were required. Oh! if we could only un- derstand, and be satisfied, that we are all of us but pots in the hands of the potter, made suitable for the work which is laid upon us! Williams' educa- tion, intellectually and even religiously, had been very defective: the hour of his call came at the appointed time: as he was going to a tavern to meet worldly companions, he was overtaken by a lady in the streets, who persua- ded him to accompany her to a place of worship, and this chance event was the commencement of his great change of life: he had energy of character, strength of faith, ardent desire to preach the gospel, and a wonderful power of conciliation: he could moreover turn his hand to anything in the smithy, or carpenter's shop: he proved his capacity to build a seaworthy vessel: he could saw timber, or teach in a school: his object was to rouse the people to the duty of introducing new arts and reasonable requirements, Such was the man who was sent out to preach the gospel in the Island of Tahiti in 1816; early in his career he wrote to his mother, that he prayed that he might be faithful unto death, and his prayer was heard, for it was so : he had a heart too large to wish to keep the duty of evangelizing the vast region of Oceania to one denomination of Christians: he invited all the churches of Protestant Christianity to take tHeir part in the holy crusade.
Early in his career he conceived the idea of evangelizing the whole region, and he lived to see great progress in carrying it out. His plans were bold and original, but always practical, and which would work. There was noth- ing in him Utopian, sentimental or illusory, and success crowned all his en- deavors, though he did not live to see it, and half a century's experience has * Life of Bishop Patteson (2 vols.), Yonge, 1875. confirmed the justice of his views. He could not rest satisfied with the tiny . populations of Raiatea and Rarotonga (of which island he was the first discoverer): the fervor of his spirit led him to desire, in spite of the inadequacy of his means, to go on from island to island, and plant a living Christianity; for he formed and carried out the bold conception of training converted heathen to become teachers and evangelists in other heathen islands, a truly divine method, and blessed beyond his utmost dreams. It seems almost fabulous, if subsequent years had not proved the reality. He came, he saw he conquered: like a giant he strode over leagues of sea, and anticipated difficulties seemed to vanish before him.
There was no steamers then, and few sailing vessels; but he built his own, the "Messenger of Peace," and he dauntlessly navigated the vast realm of Oceania, dotted with many hundred isles; in the last year of his life his exertions in England enabled him to provide a better and larger vessel, and the steam missionary ship has long superseded his slow means of progress. After his return from England in 1838, he made his first attempt to evangelize the black races in the New Hebrides: he landed with success in 1839 on the Islands of Futuna and Tanna: on the Island of Erromanga he was killed and devoured by those whom he came to save and bless. The last words in his journal before he started on this fatal voyage were, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I finish my course with joy. and the message which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of His grace." The last sentence written by him ~m the preceding evening was, "This a memorable day," and almost his last words, "Oh, how much depends upon to-morrow! "
The darkness which for a time shrouded Erromanga was like the darkness before day, the precedeI' of an exceeding light, which has overshadowed the New Hebrides. John Williams had been unwilling to build on another's foundation, for he was a pioneer, and the settled desire of his soul was to preach the gospel in regions beyond, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to his hand; but he paved the way for others. It is a wonder that he had been spared so long from fever, shipwreck, the poisoned arrow, or accident by land and water; for 23 years he had been permitted to carryon his work, his blessed work, the beginning and continuation and end- Ing of which had been predestinated at his birth: if he died. at the age of 43 he had accomplished a work left undone since the beginning of time, the linking of these scattered islands together in one blessed chain. Love to his Saviour and the souls of men, faith in the veracity of the divine promise as to the universal diffusion of the gospel, conviction that the gospel was suited to and intended for the wants of the most debased of mankind, and the only cure of human ills: these were the great principles of this hero-missionary.
John Williams is described as having no personal interests apart from his people. A missionary who is unable to identify himself with the people among whom he labors cannot under any circumstances be an efficient laborer, and if he has any other object in view but thus to identify himself, he has mistaken his vocation. A man who never allows himself to forget that the people are not his equals according to his European notions, though in the sight of God they are in very deed his equals: who cannot ov('rlook the fact that they are rude, noisy, naked, and in some outward matters even offensive; who cannot admit them at aU times into his own simple ha.bita.- tion, but treats them as if they were servants, and confines his intercourse with them to the hours of his public duty: such a man is destitute of the one great qualification of a hero-missionary; such a man will not bring souls to
BRIEF NOTES ON BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER
Christ; his name will not sound stirring in the legends of the converted tribe; he will not be hailed as a father on his return, and wept for as a father when he dies; the mention of his name will not stay the attacks of wild heathen tribes, as it is reported in the biography of John Williams that they spared a village for his sake.
The Hero-Missionary, with' his supernaturally enlarged and enlightened powers of vision, looks over the barriers which limit the view of the less gifted. He admits, indeed, that segregation from the civilized world, want of opportunity, a different climate, a difference of race, an absence of culture have made men differel'lt, but not necessarily inferior; he recognizes the innate weaknesses of every son of Adam, which, if uncontrolled, turn men into devils, and the germs of innate goodness, which exist in all, and which, if developed by the touch of the Holy Spirit, can transform some, whether their skins be white, black, yellow or red, into angels. It has shocked me to hear how some missionaries speak even of their own flocks. As regards the people of North India, who are of our own Aryan bone, I can certify that they are good and loveable; and in myoId age I have learnt to love and esteem and honor men of pure negro race, who appear in some matters to be even of a higher type than my own countrymen. No doubt St. Paul was of the highest type of gentleman and scholar of his period; yet we find in his writings no assertion of a superiority over his converts, some of whom were slaves, and yet dear brothers: we find in him, though aHebrew of the Hebrews and a Roman citizen, no assertion of caste over the Galatians. Ae came in contact with all men-of Europe, Asia and Africa, Jew and Greek and Roman, bondmen and free-but none were to him common and unclean. Alas, how far below this standard many of our missionaries fall! * BRIEF NOTES ON BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.
PM Life Qf William Carey, D.D. By George Smith, LL.D., author of the "Life of Duff,I, and "Life of Wilson," etc. London: John Murray. Svo, pp. 389. With portrait and illustrations.
Weare indebted to the distinguished author for this beautiful volume, which contains beyond all question the first and only complete biography of this world-renowned missionary. As we propose at an early day to pay our respects to this intensely interesting and instructive and grandly written work at considerable length, we simply now chronicle its appearance and express our unfeigned pleasure in reading it. The missionary world could afford to wait nearly sixty years to get a memoir of William Carey so complete and satisfactory in all respects as the present one is. At his death, in 1834, Dr. Marshman agreed to write the life of his great colleague, but he died too soon after Carey to begin the task. Several biographies have been written before the present one, but they are all very incomplete, and on many accounts unsatisfactory. The author of this noble volume went to Serampore less than a score of years after the great missionary's death, and there as editor of the Friend of India, came to know the work done by him for India and for Christendom, and collected there, on the very theater of Carey's long services, the materials, out of which, with those gathered from other sources, he has wrought this finished and skilfully constructed biography, which deserves to rank, and will rank, among the foremost in the annalsof the missionary world.-J. M. S.
Medical MisBiCJn8: Thdr Place 'Und Pwer. By John Lowe, F. R. C. S.E. London: F1l1her Unwin. 12mo, pp. 392.
The high value of medical missions in saving the world is rapidly growing * Life of John Williams. Prout, 1848. in the public estimate. This book contains an exhaustive account of the benefits that accrue from the use of the medical art as a Christian agency.
Mr. Lowe is eminently qualified to write on this subject, having himself been so long engaged in the same field. Some may think that medical work is too strongly insisted upon by him as a necessity to missionary success; but, bating possibly a little excess of enthusiasm for the grand work which has engaged the labor of his life, we may, on the whole, accept his conclusions as sound, and commend his book as timely and important.-J. M. S.
Ro1Jert MorrlBon. By Wllliam John Townsend, General Secretary of the Methodist New Connex- Ion Missionsry Society. London: Partridge & 00. l2lno, pp. 160.
This neat little volume gives a pleasing memoir of the first Protestant missionary to China. It is evidently prepared with care and discretion, and will be read with interest. The opening of China to Christianity and to western civilization, and the interest felt in the evangelization of that great kingdom, makes this a favorable time to issue such a work, specially adapted to interest the young in our churches and Sunday-schools.-J. M. S.
A lIlimp86 at Indian JIi88ion-lI'ielll and Leper Aqylu11I8. By Wellesley O. Bailey. London: Shsw & 00. 12mo, pp. 188.
The author of this interesting volume is Secretary to the Mission to Lepers in India, and he here gives an account of a journey made on behalf of this afflicted class in 1886-87. It is hoped that its publication will awaken a greater interest in their spiritual and temporal welfare. It is sold for the benefit of the lepers. The book is of general interest, as it touches upon the work of twenty of the leading missionary societies of the world.-J. M. S.
27Ie Life qf DaVid Livtng8fJ0n8. By Mrs. J. H. Worcester, Sr.
The Life qf Hen1'1/ Martyn. By Mrs. Sarah J. Rhea.
The Woman's Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (Chicago) has added th~se abridged memoirs to its series of "missionary annals." The series is an admirable one. Theyare gotten up well, and sold for 30 cents each in cloth; paper, 18 cents.-J. M. S.
m'mp868 qf Maori-Land. By Annie R. Butler. Price, $1.25.
Kem and 8aigiroj or, Lights and Shades of Lile in Japan. By Mrs. J. D. Oarrothers. Sl.50.
The American Tract Society publishes both these volumes. They are well written and illustrated. They are adapted to create a lively interest in missions on the part of the young. They form part of a Series.
Alden's Manifold, (Jyclopedia is a new departure in book-making. It is a small, compact duodecimo, which aims to combine the advantages of an encyc/Qpedia, a biographical dictiona1'1/ and a leIricon. Five volumes are issued and twenty·five more are to come. And Mr. Alden offers the complete set at $8.35 paid in advance, or 4() cents per volume in cloth, 55 cents in hslf morocco.
We are glad to call attention to this remarkably comprehensive, complete and unique production. It is valuable in the line of missionary biography, etc. For example, in the first volume is a short but very complete article on Abyssinia, Afghanistan, Africa, Alaska, Albigenses, America, etc., full of valuable information relative to home and foreign missions. In subsequent volumes we find other articles on Brainerd, Boer, Bogermann, Bogomili, Bohemia, Bombay, Katherina Von Bora, Boro-Buddor, Borromeo, Brahma, Brahmasomaj, Bible, Bible Society. Having had occasion frequently to consult the volumes now out, we say unhesitatingly that single articles on missionary themes have proved worth the price of the work, not to refer to the wider range of topics pertaining to generalliterature.-A. T. P.
Proceedings 01 86C(}f1,(j Convention of Christian Workers in the United 8tate8 and Canada. Held in Broadway Tabernacle, N. Y. Olty, Sept. 21~, 1887. 60 cts., two copies, SI. Rev. J. O. Collins. New Haven, Oonn.
Such is the title of a pamphlet of some 300 pages full of suggestlons for all
OORRESPONDENOE AND GENERAL
true millsionary workers at home and abroad. It Covers all great qnestions of evangelistic activity. The paper by Dr. Beard on the McAll missions is invaluable. But this is only a specimen of the careful, often exhaustive, essays and addresses which are packed into this closely printed pamphlet.-A. T. P.
The Biblical IlluBtrator. By Rev. J. S. Exell, A.M. New York: Randolph,& Co.
'Though not directly a missionary volume, this work will be found to stimulate every form of missionary work. It is a book of rich stores of analyses of Scripture, with illustrations, anecdotes, similes, emblems, gathered from a wide range of reading. We have examined it with care and delight. It will be a help to any Bible student. How far it may help in preparing missionary sermons and addresses may be seen by consulting this abundant storehouse of truth and fact, under such texts as the following: Matt. ix: 36-38; x: 1-16; xxviii: 18-20, etc. This volume is confined t~ Matthew. We hope others will follow, equally deserving to be called mines of gold.-A. T. P.
H.-CORRESPONDENCE and GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
Ohina. the college the necesSity of increased contribu- tions, in order to provide the necessary buildings LETTER from Dr. Rapper, President as soon as possible. I hope that those who have the matter under consideration will decide imof the Christian College, China: mealately and send their contributions to the treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions of CANTON, Apri12, 1888. the Presbyterian Church, who will forward DEAR MESSRS. EDiTORS.-I am much obliged them to me. In the January REVIEW there apto you for the favorable reference vou made peared an item copied from the NO'ftk (Jhina in the Febrnary number of THE REVIEW to New., stating that some benevolent gentlemen the effort to establish a Christian College in the United States had subscribed $300,000 for in China. You and your readers will be inter- the establishment of a university at Nankin. ested to know that some classes have been This was a misstatement. Some one wrltliig annonnced in a rented building. They com- from Tientsin to the NO'ftk (Jhina New. made menced on the 28th March. I have received the mistake. He changed the fact, which was thirty pupils out of some eighty applicants. that I desired to secure $300,000 for a Christian The number of applicants would have been college, into the statement that some.one had greater, but that it was known that only a few given the $300,000. I will be very thankful inconld be received, and none under sixteen years deed if some Christian givers will make this of age. Of these six are Christian young men SUlD an accomplished subscription, and thus who have returned from the Sunday-schools for secure the establishment of a well-equipped and Chinese in America. Two of them are sons of thoroughly furnished institution. It is hard to native pastors in the Ningpo Presbytery, who conceive any other way in which such a sum of wish to get a college education. They are Chris- money would accomplish a greater Christian and tians. One has passed through the Presbyterial educational work than by establishing a Chris- Academy, and the other has nearly completed the tian college among the 300 mUlions of China. COurse in it. And five others are sons of Christian parents here in Canton. These, I trust, will Yours in Christian work, give a Christian infiuence among the students. _ A. P. HAPP:rm. The fact that only thirty could be received when there were eighty applicants shows very impres- LETTER from Rev. Gilbert Reid: sively how desirable it is that the college buildings should be erected as soon as possible. It PEKING, March 14, 1888. is very desirable that the bmlding shonld be DEAR EDITORB.-I havejust received the first ready for use in January, 1889, at which time of number of the Dew series of THE MISSIONARY year students will be making their educational REvmw. I am delighted with the whole arrangearrangements for that year. ment. Nota8ect, but the (Jhurchistoappearbe- fore us. Progress is the watchword. Good for the I am using efforts to secure suitable grounds people at home, and good also for us missionaries. as soon as possible. The asking price for desir- Some such medlUlD is needed for the growing able sites range from $500 au acre to $1,000, ac- work everywhere, and I hope that soon China cording to location near the city. As we need may appear like Japan as the land of urgency in twenty acres, the cost of the ground will take a evangelizing. To one who catches the spirit ot cousiderable out of the estimated sum of $50,- the people, and especially the government of 000 for grounds and buildings. As the sum al- China, great things are already in sight. Educaready secured is not snfilcient to purchase that tion is the opening wedge-an education in Westamount of ground, it presents to the friends of em studies, but not to iguore Chinese knowl- power. When in clistre!ls, the Mohammedan cries: "AUahu akbarn I" [AUah is great] edge; an education aa far as possible on Ohi- which means: "I have to submit, thoug" I am like a stone in the hand of a mason. AUah nese lines, but not necessarily to the separation knows it best: it is His will. What will we do against it ,,,' of Christianity. What we need for China are Now, is not such teaching antagonistic to the educated men imbued with the Christian spirit, Christian's faith' Does not the Christian love a Father, a Preserver, who is tender and carefnl r and living the Christian life, who know how to He trusts himself also to the superintendence of the Almighty; but this Almighty God is not give tkem8e1ve8 to China and educate the nation bound by fate, his law is principled in tbe love for His children, in order to give them eternal to the true paths of wisdom. Such men wonld bliss. He sent His only Son, that men might be united to this Son by faith, and by means of Him be countenanced by the government; and if obtain an eternal inheritance in heaven.
such do not appear at the call of duty. men of In a few words, the contrasts of Mohammed- anism and Christianity may be described thus: skeptical teaching will not be lacking at the Allah: a king with a heart uninfiexible, man his slave; God: a Father in heaven, man His call of interest or fame. GILBERT REID. child. Islam: the state of being subdued; Ohristianity: eternal love. As for our Lord Holland. Jesus Christ; though reckoned in Koran among the prophets which brought new laws or dis- LETTER from Rev. W. D. Schuur- pensations: i. "e., Adam, Noah," Abraham, mans: Moses, Jesus and Mohammed; only two of HAARLElIf, May 18, 1888. these prophets are held in high esteem and men- tioned with reverence, namely Abraham (or DEAR EDITORS.-As I did not receive the Ibrahim) and Mohammed. The first has founded February number of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW the trne faith, i. e., Islam, and the last has af- firmed it and propagated it with vigor and ('n- OF THE WORLD till May 11, I conld not earlier ergy everywhere. The prophet has subdued every one who wonld not accept the Islam; he take notice of what had been said by Canon is a conqueror with a sword in his hand; he has been triumphant in all places, therefore he is Isaac Taylor about" The Progress of Islam." called Mohammed * the praiseworthy. Jesus is also called a "nabi" (prophet), but he wa.s a After reading the article, I wondered how such weak person. He was revealed the .. Indjil " (gospel). but he had no power to propagate it. a lea~ned man should be so little acqnainted Only twelve persons "al Hawaryuna" (the Apos- tles) believed in Him. That the Moslems regard with Islam itself and the manner of its spreading onr Lord" as a perfect pattern of humanlty," I never heard; ou the contrary, there is a legend in the different parts of the world as to proclaim accepted as a trne narrative or statement by many Mohammedans, that relates, "When the the .. Faith of the Prophet" to be "a stepping- Jews had the intention to seize our Lord their eyes were blinded by Allah; in consequence of stone from heathenism to Christianity," and "that it they seized another person, who thus W88 crn- cified. Jesus was taken away by Aliah, who its teachings and methods might well be adopted placed him in a country and invested him with kingly power. Soon afterwards he became so by the promoters of Christianity." proud that he pronounced himself to be Allah. For this crime he was severely punished. After In consequence of the Canon's assertion, as be- receiving forgiveness he stirred up an insurrec- tion against Allah, and invited his grandson, Wa ing not in accordance with what I myself have Djudja (Dju dja wa Madjuj Gog and Magog), to join him. Now Mohammed was sent to subdue seen and read, I feel urged to write a few lines Nabi Isa (the prophet Jesus), and to be his suc- cessor." According to the opinion generally reabout" Islam and its progress," which I offer ceived Jesus stands in rank to Mohammed like a servant to his master. Even at the last day, you for your REVIEW. when every man will be rewarded or punished as his deeds were good or bad, Mohammed will For mauy years I lived in a Mohammedan *Mohammed-laudatus, a verbo hamlda -laucountry (Java), and dally had familiar inter- davit. course with Mohammedans of every rank, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, young and old.
I have studied the Koran, especially the relig- ious precepts, the religious tracts or catechisms, that are used in priest-schools, and in this way I came to the following couclusion: The Moham- medans have their Allab, the Most High, who dwells in gloom aud finstemiss, far from men.
He is a great king, who rnles by the Book of Fate,* which is the law of his kingdom. He is called the mercifnl, notwithstanding a man is judged according to his deeds; these are weighed, and when the bad deeds are more or heavier than the good ones, be it a dzarat (atom), then he is doomed to hell. The Lord Himself does not interfere with His human ,creatures; like a king, He has His messengers, His angels, that have revealed His will to His favorite Mo- hammed, who has written down this revelation in the Koran, in order to be a dahUl (guide) for all men. The Lord is great, He may do what He likes j man ought to trust himself to His *See Sale's translation of the Koran, chap xcvii. and the notes: also the French transla: tion of Kasimersky, same chapter. The Arabian word Kadr and its derivations have in most cases the meaning of Fatum. What I call the Book qf Fate is meant by Sale as "the preserved table by God'8 tl/,rone ." receive knowledge of the ultimate !'ate of men, curslons to get slaves; even anows a man to and M will command Isa to act as his servantexecutioner ; M will give to Isa the keys of make his wife his slave, whom he may buy and heaven and hell in order to bring into his place every man according to his deserts. Iss, there- get rid of at his pleasure. Islam ftatters the fore, will act as doorkeeper of Mohammed. Every Mohammedan I me~ with had the opinion convert with a paradise where he may enjoy that the Nab! Isa has made himself Allah, and though they did not dare openly accuse him of such pleasures as are desired by a sensual man. blasphemy in the presence of a," white man" (a Christian), I often heard them do so when in And last, though not least, Islam inspires hate familiar intercourse with their fellow-countrymen that embrace the same religion. against .. white men "-Christians, European How then can it be Baid that the Moslem re- and American, the conquering race. The Mogards our Lord Jesus as a perfect pattern of humanity' hammedan missionary persuades the black, Moreover, though according to Islam man's brown or yellow nations not to be Christians, blessing or eternal doom is written in the Book of Fate; notwithstanding every one is obliged lest they will be subdued in a political sense by to work out his own salvation, especially by means of prayer or spending alms. The Mos- those" Kafirs" (infidels), those" dogs," those lem has no SaviO'llr who has died for him; he cannot become a new creature because he does robbers, who come with their religion. feigning not know anything of a Spirit of Life who will work in him eternal life. He does not man's salvation, but really with the intention of have either medium or mediator, by whom he can get into commnnion with our Father in taking possession of his life and his conntry. heaven. How then can it, be said that in the Koran or in Mohammed,anism are" undeveloped The Arabians and their missionaries invite the seeds of Christian truth." The seeds in the Koran when developed cannot but separate men heathen to join the ranks of their Prophet in orfrom God, as Islam separates man from man when not having the same opinion in matters of der to form one vast standing army to fight in rellgion_ Islam is very unlike Christianity, as it preaches subjugation (literally) to all who will the Holy War to conquer the" Nazarani "(Chrisnot embrace its faith. As the gospel bids ns to love all men, even our enemies, Islam proclaims tlans)_ the holy war against the Ka1l.rs, the infidels. The follower of Mohammed subdues every These things may account for the" rapid progheathen Or Christian (when it is in his power) by the sword; the disciples of Christ use spirit- ress of Islam and the comparatively slow growth ual weapons to bring into the obedience of faith. of Christianity in Mohammedan countries and Mohammedanism is not a stepstone to Christianity, but an obstacle, a hindrance to the in heathen lands where our missionaries are spread of the gospel. All missionaries know, as I know from experience, that a heathen once confronted by the emissaries of the false Prophet. converted to Mohammedanism Is ftlled with bitter and increased animosity against the gos- I could give many examples, especially from pel and against Christians. the East-Indian Archipelago, to illustrate what A word as to .. the progress of Islam." That its progress is more rapid than that of has been said above about Islam and its prog- Christianity must be ascribed to the following facts: Islam in most cases, when seeking the con- ress_ Perhaps in the future I may write you version of a people, only requires them to utter the formula: "There is no God but Allah, and again On this important matter, that the readers Mohammed is his Apostle," and be circumcised. This done he is a Mohammedan. Islam, at least of TilE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF TilE WORLD its propagators, leaves untouched the heathen customs and habits, even the superstitions, that may know how to judge of the worth of the Mohave a very immoral character. Iolam, in followin::- the example ofits prophet, allows a man hammedan religion, and also that all Christians to have mOre than one wife, besides many con- CUbines, which is very much to the taste 01 may be convinced that all hands ougM to be put Eastern and uncivilized people_ Islam permits slavery and the slave trade, and marauding; ex- to work to remove the great bulwark of Moham- medanism and conquer the world for our Lord Jesus Christ. Yours affectionately, N_ D. SCIlUURMANS.
Brazil.
LETTERfromRev.E. Vanorden,San Paulo: We purpose to establish in the City of San Paulo, the headquarters of Protestantism in Brazil, printing and bOOk-binding workShops for the production of a sonnd evangelical literature, in order to interest the minds of children, to sat- isfy the desire for Christian knowledge on the part of adults, and to counteract the great evils which immoral and infidel publications are alarmingly producing. We cannot leave our young men and women, edncatedin our schools, withoutgood books_ Our 3,000 church members, their families, and the large number of attend- ants at our services, must and will read some- thing, and if we do not provide good books for them, they will be tempted to read the transla- tions of French novels which are being scattered all over the empire in fearfnlly increasing num- bers.• The necessity for such an effort is not only felt by ~e Brazilian native pastors and converts, who have already organized the Brazilian Evan- gelical Tract Society, but one of Brazil's most eminent scholars, Gen. Couto MagaJbaes, has developments with eager interest.- given 81,000 towards this object, and he thinks EDS.] that the friends of the mission In Brazil should follow his example. DEAR EDITOBS.-At this station we are meet.- ing a very great deal of opposition from We must have onr own printing-press, because the chiefs. The head chief has ordered the we caunot pay the high prices exacted by good people to stay away from our meetings, and workshops or be satisfied with the bad or slow few dare disobey. They fear the chief, not work done by cheap printers. The Religious for his kingly power, but because of his Tract Society of London is qulte willing to aid " fetishes," and because they know he could In this work. They will make aud have already at any time get up a charge of witchcraft made grants of paper and of money toward against them. Of course the witch doctors are evangelical publIcations. one with the chiefs in their opposition to the gos- pel, and they are glad of any" cue" to indicate In connection with this printing-Office it is proposed to open a depository of Bibles and books e., who may be "ndoki," i. in league with Sain different languages in a conspicuous place, iu order to reach the large number of Italiau and tan or " a devi!.," German emigrsnts who are constantly arriviug. Some of the converts, too, have given us a Already there are in the Province of San Paulo 80,000 Italians. 50,000 Portuguese and 25,000 Ger- good deal of sorrow. One has been accused of mans. adultery. He says he is innocent, but the peo- ple say it is trne, but the proofs we cannot well The British and Foreign Bible Society has in- get at. He, in turn, blames his own (the head) strncted their agents in Rio de Janeiro to co- chief, who is his principal accuser. Ouly about operate In establishing such a depository; the a year ago a similar charge was brought against American Tract Society has made a free grant the said chief ere he was appointed chief of the of $300 worth of books for the same purpose, place, and it was proved to be true; so it may and it Is expected that the Presbyterian Board of be the young man is not guilty. Two others Publication will also give us substantial aid. At have not shown the" true color" on one or two present we have hardly eight or ten books occasions ; but a ch811ge was arranged for them, adapted for children or young people. where amongst new associates they would have a good chance of making a new start. The property of the press will be vested In a Board of Trustees, and as soon as the BrazUlan At the same time there are some tokens of Evangelical Tract Society is incorporated, trans- good being done. From Banza Manteke I learn ferred to its Board of Directors, which is com- that the chapel sent by American friends is proposed of foreign missionaries and native pastors. gressing rapidly; Mr. Lewis, sent out from Bos- The cost will be between $7,000 or $8,000, in- ton, being an experienced builder, It is running cluding freight and duties on material, of which up very quickly. Work is deepening there 83,OOOhavebeen secured. It will be entirely self- though there are few new cases of professing supporting and be the means of scattering mil- conversion. At Lukunga station there is a relions of pages of religious matter among the cent baptism and several professing conversion. people. They are expecting "a harvest time" there soon. Congo Free Sta.te, Afrioa.. Dr. Sims has sent me, from Stauley Pool, the PACAVALA STATION, A. B. M. UNION, } tlrst chapters of John's Gospel in liltcke, which April 12, 1888. I hope to print for use at the Pool and beyond. We have recently had Mr. Harvey's translation [We allow our correspondent to of "Mark" in Kikongo, and Mr. Richard's give facts and express his views in Luke iu Kikongo is also in the printers' regard to Bishop Taylor's mission, on hauds. From the B. M. S. (Eng.) there come the principle that free discussion is reports of good health and good work. From best. The principles and methods on Bishop Taylor's party come rather discouraging which missionary work should be reports. One went to England by last mail and conducted are far from being settled. another is dying of some chronic disease. Three We have yet much to learn, and this have spoken to me against the plan and work of REVIEW will welcome light from their mission, and they have tried what could whatsoever source it comes. We be done. Only a small part of their steamer have given Bishop Taylor and his has left Vivi, and I helieve not a plate yet has mission frequent hearing in these passed Isangila, tlfty miles beyond, while the pages, and shall rejoice in his success greater part of those who came to bnild the as much as any of his friends. And steamer have gone home or left the mission. still we are far from being assured of One steamer that came out after the bishop's is the wisdom of his policy, and await by this time almost atloat.
Would it not be better for the Methodist Church to establish a mission here that would spend the Lord's money in .. cultivating souls" and "farming the Lord's kingdom," rather than proceed on what seems to us wastefal alas I not so clear. For a Turk to promw Is lines f Let them send one or more missionaries one thing, to perform is quite another. We to each of the stations, and, if wanted, also hailed the assurance that there would be no several Christian workmen along with the mis- more trouble over the school question. Our sionaries. Those set apart for the work of the work in Asia Minor and Syria lies chiefiyamong gospel could be relieved of all business and the Ansairlyeh, whom the Moslems -claint as Mohammedans. A partial account of them will seculsr duties by the Christian artisans, and the be found In a book called" The Asian Mystery," written by the Rev. Samuel Lyde, an English Lord's work would take root now and souls clergyman, who was the first missionary to these people, and worked in the mountains near Latdying In darkness would receive the light. akia. This work was begun in that region more The command to the church was not, "Go than thirty years ago, and there is now a fiour- ishing church there and a number of schools. ye forth and cultivate farms, and do what gospel In Cilicia we began work among them six years work you can find time to do"; nor does Paul ago, and already our hearts have been gladdened say, "Go and support yourselves." Let the by the baptism of several yonng men, and this church attend to the spreading of the gospel, and winter we have had large schools both for boys those who cannot "go forth" let them help and girls in Adaua. Tarsus. Merslne and two vilothers to go who can go, but lack the means; lages on the east coast of Mersine, Karadawar and let those in whose hands the Lord has and Karadash. These were mostly composed of placed In trust plenty of money to pay their Ansairiyeh and Orthodox Moslems. Sometime own expenses, also go out. Christians at home ago a number of the schools in Syria were closed think that because the Lord does not send their by order of the local authorities. Our schools money through a missionary society He has have been threatened for two years, and l8st very little claim on it-not more than a tenth at fall they were all closed except that In Mersine, the outside; but I think the Lord looks at it in which is in American premises. Orders having another light. I believe to hundreds in America been given to open the closed schools, we did and in England, He has given the needed money, so, and there was an immediate increase in the the mental talent and bodily energy. that they number of pupils, which showed how the work might go out as the Lord's agents-like Keith was regarded by the parents. Relief from the Falconer of the Scotch Missions, and like num- famine was given to all who came to our schools. bers In the China Inland Mission. The school in Karadawar, which was not at fir&! very large. after having been closed by the local Thank God for these bright examples, and authorities locking up our rented house and above all for the glorious example of Jesus taking the key, and then being re-opened had Christ, who left His Father's house in the glory 106 pupils. Seeing no other way to compass the above and took " long and trying jouruey destruction ofthe school the Governor of Mersine through the land of Judea and Samaria to the imprisoned the chiefs of the village, and under Cross of Calvary, that through His life and pain of having soldiers quartered in the village death might become kuown to those then lying compelled them to sign a declaration that they in sin, the love of God and His infinite salvation. did not want the teacher, and thus forced the villagers to remove their children. This effectuo that the churches-Methodist, Baptist and ally closed the school.
any other .. ist" or "ian" that proclaims sal- The teacher who had been at Karadash had vation fall and free thl'ough God's crucified been for a considerable time absent, but last Son-WOUld rouse themselves and send forth winter, when the order came from Constantinolaborers into this poor, degraded land I ple to allow the closed schools to be opened, we sent Daoud Saade, the former teacher, to that Yours in the Lord's work, place. All went smoothly, and there was a Jos. CLARK. fiourishing school until two weeks ago. Mr. Saade was then arrested on the charge of being Asia Minor. a Russian propagandist. After being kept under arrest for several days, he was taken to Adena, INTERESTING letter from Mrs. Mary but in a day or two he was marched back to the E. Metheny of the Reformed Pres- village under escort, and ordered to open his byterian Mission : house for search. This he refused to do, as being a Greek subject they had no right to enter MEBSINE, May 10, ] E88. his hou&e except in the presence of a Greek EDIToBs MISSIONABY REVIEW OF THE WORLD. official. He told them if they chose to search -I notice in THE REVIEW for May this state- his house they must do it on their own responment : .. The good tidings comes from Syria that sibility. This they did, seizing his books and the late attempt of the Turkish authorities to papers and taking them and him back to Adana. force uew and intolerant restrictions upon the The school-books were examined and foimd to cause of'Christian education has been earnestly bear the Imperial stamp. They then examined resisted by the diplomatic representatives of the different powers; that it has utterly failed and has finally been withdrawn." It is true that the .. diplomatic representatives," urged by Hon. Oscar Strauss, United States Minister, and Consul Bissinger of Beirut, have made strenuous efforts to have the obnoxious law prevented or repealed. Whether it has" utterly failed" is, the letters, and tlie ~vernor-general in an inter- emment would seek redress? How long must the view with Dr.Metheny, the AmerIcan missionary, declared that they proved hinI to be a very selfish/jealousies of these Ohristian nations shut bad man, and very treasonable sentiments were contained in them. Dr. M. afterwards out the light of the gospel by which they enjoy found that the paragraphs were these: "I hope the work of yonr hands will prosper, and that snch glorions privileges Y the Lord will open a wide door for the gospel. " "You say, • Send my remittauces by a faithfal Thanks for the earnest and stirring words man.' That means either that you must bring them or that I must take them." It so happened which reach us every month in the REVIEW. My that it was the Doctor himself who had written these suspicious sentences, so that Daoud was to husband, the only male missionary in our mis- be tried for letters written by another man I It seems that they concluded that there was no sion here, is so engaged in the '?ork, and espe- toundation tor the accusation as a Russian spy, so they changed the offense and charged him cially in tbis case of Daoud's, that he has not with having reviled the Sultan. The ground for this appears to have been that eight or nine days time to write abontlt, being very feeble albest. after his first arrest, and, as the villagers spon- taneously testity, nnder great provocation and Our force is very small, my husband-minister, ill-treatment, he said that as a Greek snbject he was not under the Snltan. In an interview with physician, treasurer, overseer of schools and of Mr. Dawson, U. S. Consul in this place (of whose indefatigable efforts to have justice done everything else; Miss Sterrett, pioneer in the in this matter it is impossible to speak too high- ly), the Governor-general claimed that this case work among the girls, and her assistant, Miss had nothing at ail to do with the matter of the schools. Mr. Dawson then said, .. Very well, Joseph. This is all the force for the thousands then. Shall we send down another teacher?" Thns hemmed in, the Governor-general said, of Arabic-speaking people in this region. We .. No. That could not be allowed, as Karandash was a Moslem village." Thns the true reason expect Dr. Henry J es,up to be with us next Sab- appeared. bath. Yours in the work, Now, yon will observe that this flagrant ont- rage has taken place after the snpposed settIe- M. E. METHENY. ment of the school question. Daoud is still in prison, notwithstanding the prompt and contin- Madagasoar. nons remonstrances of both the U. S. and the Greek Consnls: tbe former as representing the ANANTANARlVO. March ffl, 1888. interests of American schools in Turkey, and DEAR EDlTORS.-I have to acknowledge, with the latter In defense of Daoud's rights as a Greek many many thanks, the receipt of the first num- subject whose passport is in the Consul's hands. ber of the new series of THE MISSIONARY RE- This all goes to show that it is useless to hope VIEW, as also the numbers of the old series dnr- for any justice, unless there be force enough in ing the year 1887. I need not say that the maga- the hands of the other powers to compel the zine was to me full of interest and its pro- Turks to fulfil their express agreement in this gramme fnll ofrich promise. It is being circulated matt1lr. among the members of our social circle here, and I hope will be voted into oor Magazine Mr. Saade is an educated gentleman and a stu- Club, whicb, however, contains members ont- side the missionary band. dent of theology. Is there no remedy for such I am sending by this mail a copy of the Re- port of the L. M. S. Madagascar Mission for a state of affairs as thi~ Y 1885-6, printed in the island. The succeeding My desire to have the Christian world know one I cannot get a copy of, and we are not print- ing one this year. The L. M. S. annnal report, to what extent evangelical work is possible printed in London, will convey the latest infor- among Moslems prompts me to write the above mation. This report, however, will perhaps for your REVIEW. Liberty of conscience for enable yon to see something of the working of Moslems is a thing that does not exist. Many this mission, as it could not be seen when , Moslems freely express their belief in the New mixed np with other missions, as in a general Testament, but the knowledge of the persecu- report. tion that must certainly follow deters them Since the pnblication of the report the mis- from professing it openly. How long will the sion in the Sihfinoka country, to the north of so-called Christian powers sit by and see these Imerina, has been re-established by the Rev. E. things? Does not the Hatli Humayon give them H. Stribling and Mr. J. S. Mackay, and an en- the right to interfere? How long would Ameri- tirely new mission commenced by the Rev. G. cans engaged in mercantile bnsiness be treated A. Shaw (formerly at Tamatave) on the south- as missionaries are often treated before the gov- east coast, in the Miltit&naus District, among the Til.imClro and TaUasy and Taisilka tribes. This new enterprise has been met at the very commencement with difficulties arising trom civil war between the tribes, which the Hovas power they profess to acknowledge has not been able to quell. Teachers from the Native Mis- sionary Society in Imerina have been employed in the district for some time past, but Mr. and Mrs. Shaw are the first Europeans to settle in the district as miSSionaries, and are deserving the sympathies and prayers of all friends of missions.
The government return of schools in Imerina for 1882. which I also enclose, would ,probably fairly represent the state of the case at the pres- of the Roman Catholics and others, who offer ent time. None of the missionary societies have cheaplJ'l' alternatives to the people. any responsibility for these retnrns, as they were collected and arranged entirely by the na- Wishing every success to your undertaking, tive government. and bidding you, in the name of our common' Saviour, God·speed, I am It wonld be misleading, ,however, to snppose that becanse there is an edncational depart- Yours very truly, ment with a really trnstworthy man at the head, J AJl[ES WILLS, L. M. S. and because they are able once in a while to get np snch a statement as the enclosed, that there GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. is really any efncient governmentsystem of edu· cation In Imerina. The work and organization -A Noble Tribute. Travelers in and paymeBts are left entirely to the missionary foreign parts do not always bring societies, and the government keep their finger back with them a favorable report of on these organizations, just as they do on missions among the heathen. All everything In this paternal system of rnle. The edncational system of our societies is exerting a the more welcome was the cordial great inBnence on the people. It is questionable, however, whether the religions and spiritual testimony of Lord Brassey in his Influence of the missions keep pace with the in- capacity as chairman at the annual tellectnal. meeting of the Church Missionary From some of the statements in THE MISSION- Society in Exeter Hall last week. ARY REVIEW it is clear that, in common with the vast majority of people, you have far too His Lordship has been a great voyhigh an idea of the extent and depth to which Christianity has inBuenced this country. Imer- ager round the globe, and he has ina, the home of the Hovas, is only as a small table to a large room, in the center of which It nothing but praise for the work of stands. The remainder of the country, with gospel missions. In his excellent the partial exception of Betsilio, Is as dark and speech he said : heathen as Central Mrica, and the Christianity of the Hovas is but very superficial. The sta- "I have been on board the storm-tossed vestistics we publish are correct, and any others' sel in which a good bishop of the Anglican would be false; yet they mislead. People who Church was engaged in carrying the gospel to read the number of preachers and church mem- the distant and storm-bound and ice-bound bers apply the same standard that they would In shores of Labrador. I have been In the stormy America or England, forgetting that it is only waters of the Straits of Magellan, and have seen twenty years ago that the idols were burned and at what sacrifice and by what eBorts the gospel the people in tens of thousands pressed into the is carried to the savage people of Tierra del church suddenly, bringing all their ignorance Fuego. I have aeen the devoted missionaries and superstitions with them. It was no gradual who are'sent forth by the United States at their Infiltering, such as the missionaries conld con- work at Beyrout and Lahore. On the occasion trol (and they were fewer in number than now), of a recent journey, both at Amritsar and Agra, I but a great Inrush, like the Hoang·Ho, suddenly saw what devoted men, and not less devoted changing its channel and depositing "its silt in womeu, were doing in the great cause of the another province. It is wonderful what has education of heathen children. I have had the been accomplished, and doubtless there are privilege at the Island of Tahiti of listening to a many sincere and devout Christians, but the French Protestant pastor, a man of great cnlgreat mass are still destitute of spiritual appre- ture, a man who had formerly held the post of ciation of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. teacher to one of the most distinguished nobles Whilst we praise God for what has been done of our land, and I have heard that man deliver a by divine grace, don't let us expect too much sermon which was listened to with great attenfrom these people, and do not think of them as tion by his native audience. The last missionenlightened, self-denying Christians, burning ary station which I visited was that estabwith missionary zeal to carry the gospel to the lished by yourselves in Darnley Island,' We outlying tribes, if not to Africa Itself. had the pleasure and the privilege of taking the wife of Mr. Hunt, your missionary, In The statement that $10,000,000 have been the S'IIhIlieam from Thursday Island to Darnley raised here for Christian purposes must surely Island. At Darnley Island we met your own be a misprint. The country is very poor, and mission schooner, which had brought:Mr. Savthe people are very fond of money, and although age from Murray Island to Darnley Island to in the aggregate a good round sum is raised meet his newly arrived colleague. We spent a year by year, yet we find great dtmcnlty In get- most Interesting day with Mr. Hunt and Mr. ting their quota from the churches for educa- Savage at Darnley Island. We saw the place of tional, church building, missionary and other worship on the island-a humble but picturesque objects; and this is Intensified by the presence building; we saw much of the native teacher and his wife, persons whom it was impossible to know without feeling the greatest admiration and respect for them. We heard a most inter- esting narrative of the dtmcnlties and efforts which are involved in carrying the gospel to the Turning from 1837 to 1886 we find a savage races of New Guinea. We heard, and it remarkable advance in funds, agenwas impossible to hear the story withont a thrill cies and results. The British socieof admiration, of the devotion which is shown ties have increased from 10 to 31; the by the native teachers acting under the guidance 7 in the Umted States have risen of their English leaders in this great canse. The to 39, and the 10 of Continental greater the peril, the more imminent the pros- Europe to 30. The number of forpect even of death, the more earnest is the en- eign ordained missionaries is now thusiasm of the native teachers to go forth into 2,980; of lay missionaries, 730; of this dangerous field." lady missionaries (including wives of missionaries), 2,322; the number of Lord Brassey went on to declare nati ve Christians is 2,750,000, and the total income of all the societies is that it is England's highest mission £2,000,000. Of this sum £780,000 comes from the United States, £210,- and imperative duty to civilize, edu- 000 from Continental Europe, and £1,010,000 from British Christians." cate, and Christianize those in for- -(English) Illustrated Miss'y News.
eign lands whom her influence can -Victory Will Come. The age is reach. He made a strenuous appeal one of intense life in all departments for increased help towards the so- of activity-in commerce and indus- ciety's operations-an appeal backed trial pursuits, and the church must up by a generous donation and the be alive to keep pace with it. The promise of continued support.-The coming century will not be one of un- Ohristian. broken tranquility. There will be -In 1837 there were in Great Brit- wars and rumors of wars, internal ain 10 missionary societies; in Amer- conflicts as well as struggles between ica, 7; and on the Continent of nations, which, with the new inven- Europe, 10. The total income of the tions of weapons of war, may be more British missionary societies in that destructive than any ever waged be- fore. But whatever the passmg year was not more than £300,000; years may bring, this we know, that the Church of God will live, and will their missionaries, lay and clerical, have to do its great work in the world. For this it needs to be prepared. New about 760; their lady missionaries avenues are opening before it. The past half-century has seen an adand their native ordained ministers, vance, greater than many centuries before, in the modes of communiless than 12 each, and their converts cation between different countries, whereby distant nations are brought less than 40,000. The Continental nearer to each other. Even the Dark Continent is being piel'ced on every and American societies united had side. Explorers are ascending the Congo to the Great Lakes, and plantnot more than one half the income, ing the flags of European countries on the highlands of Central Africa. the missionaries and the converts of To the church it belongs to see that commerce does not outrun the gospel, the British societies. The heathen so that our boasted "civilization" may prove a blessing and not a curse. and Mahommedan population of the At present, rum on the Congo causes more destruction than all the misworld was estimated at one thou- sionaries can repair. These are dansand millions in 1837; and, laboring gers which the church has to conamong these vast masses of people, front at the same time that it recogthet'e were in Africa perhaps 65 Prot- nizes the splendid opportunities openestant missionaries; in India, 180; in ing before it. We are not blind to Burmah only 6. For the evangeliza- the former, and yet we have untion of the millions in China 12 mis- bounded faith in what the future will sionaries had been appointed; Japan, bring. When we think of all that Siam and Central Asia were without will take place in the century to any; most of the islands of the Pa- come, we are almost ready to pray cific were in darkness, and a thick cloud hung over the missionary work of Madagascar. On the whole continent of America, north and south, the missionaries did not exceed 25, and of these more than half were lHol'avians. The most successful and promising missions at that time were in Polynesia, where good work was being carried on by the London Missionary Society, the American Board, and the Wesleyan Missionary Society. that we may not taste of death until lives and wealth, it is, on the other hand, conwe see at least the approach, the soling to redect on the immense services which faint dawning, of millennial day. But missionary enterprise has renf.ered to Africa, to we trust we may look down upon it the world at large, and to Gr~at Britain in parfrom the heights above. For the ticular. When the history of the great African present, let every man spring to his states of the fnture comes to be written, the duty, intent to work while the day arrival of the drst missionary will, with many lasts, knowing that the night com- of these new nations, be the first historical eth in which no man can work.-The event in their annals. Almost invariably it has Evangelist. been to British missionaries that the natives of interior Africa have owed their first acquain- -A Veteran Missionary. Rev. Jas. tance with the printing-press, the steam-boat, Chalmers said recently in an address and the saw-mill. Most of the great lakes and in London: rivers of this little-known continent have been navigated, in the first instance, by the steamers "I have had twentyo()ne years' experience of British missionary societies, which may now among natives; I have seen the semi-civilized and be seen plying on Tanganyika and Nyassa, on the civilized; I have lived with the Christian the Upper Congo, the Niger Binue, and Zambenative, and I have lived, dined and slept with the si. Indirectly, and almost unintentionally, miscannihal. I have visited the islands of the New sionary enterprise has widely increased the Hebride2,which I sincerely trust will not be hand- bounds of our knowledge, and has sometimes ed over to the tender mercies of France. I have been the means of conferring benefits on science, visited the Loyalty Group; I have seen the work the value and extent of which itself was careless. of missions in the Samoan Group; I know all to compute. For missionary enterprise in the the islands of the Society Group; I have lived future I see a great spherQ of usefulness."-H. for ten years in the Hervey Group; I know a H. Johnston, Vice- Consul at CamerOO'fl8, West few of the groups close on the line, and for at Africa. least nine years of my life I have lived with the savages of New Guinea, but I have never yet -The death of the Sultan of Zanzimet with a single man or woman, or with a single people, that your civilization, without Clu·is- bar removes the most noticeable of tianity, has civilized." Testimony such as this is worth volumes of theory. all rulers in the Dark Continent, and -" In every corner of the world," one whose character has been felt in says Mr. Froude, "there are the same phenomena of the decay of es- the work of opening up Africa to the tablished religions. Among Moham- whites. He was not without some medans, Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, of the elements of greatness. Born traditionary creeds are losing their hold. An intellectual revolution is in 1835, Bin Said was only fifty-three years of age at the time of his death, sweeping over the world, breaking down established opinious, dissolving and was not forty when this ruler of foundations on which historic faiths have been built up." This condition the Eastern Coast of Africa-with an constitutes the summons to the island and a capital c:ontaining little church of the Living God to bestir itself to the grandest opportunity less than 100,000 inhabitants -had which it has ever had to conquer the made himself felt. He represented the nations for Christ. No nation can aristocratic Arabic dynasty which long survive the decay of its religion, and the decadence which Mr. Froude for more than a century had held points out is the indication that the sway over the African negroes of the world is preparingforChrist.-Spirit territory familiarized by Dr. Livingof Missions. stone and other explorers. In 1873 Africa.-" If the immediate success of the British missionaries in sprea d Sir Bartle Frere went on a mission, ing their religion over barbarous on behalf of the British Government, Africa be doubtful, if the aver- to the ruler of Zanzibar for the pur- age type of their converts seems an unsatisfac- pose of suppressing the slave trade. tory product ofBo much labor and expenditure of The result 0 f this was an acquiescent treaty on the Sultan's part, which led to a friendly visit of the Sultan to England in 1875. He was welcomed by Under-Secretary Bourke in the name of her Majesty's Government. He also visited Paris, and before leav- ing England concluded a second treaty, and subsequently did much to suppress the slave trade, nothwithstanding the political antagonis~s invoked by him, if by Our exertions the wound and dangers resultingfrom his policy. is stanched and the sick man made whole." He protected the missions against no little opposition. The effect of his -In a single year 3,751,557 gallons death upon missions has yet to be seen, and, of course, depends wholly of spirits were imported into Africa. upon the character of Said Khalif, who becomes the dead Sultan's; suc- The sources of supply are England, cessor, and who is eleven years of age.-Christian at Work. Germany, :portugal and the United -The Liquor Traffic.-In the Brit- States.
ish House Of Gommons, April 24th, '-The Soudan in Africa is 2,000 Sir John Kennaway, on the motion miles long, 500 miles broad, and con- condemnatory of the liquor traffic tains about 60,000,000 of a population.
among native races (which was car- Mohammedans have proselytized ried in an amended form), thus re- these. The Protestant churches of ferred, in concluding, to the work of England and America have sent out the Church Missionary Society, of to this wide field two missionaries.
which he is President: One of these, "a S6udaneselad," saw "I have urged upon the House the acceptauce his father murdered before his eyes, of this motion On the grounds of morality and expediency. I think it will not be out of place was afterwards sold into slavery, was if I ask for it on behalf of the great mi6sionary societies, which have done so much to spread at last rescued, brought to England, Christianity and civilization. The Church Mis- sionary Society, in which I have the great honor educated, and is now baek to Africa to fill a position of responsibility, has always made Africa her first object. She has lavished as a herald of the cross. Surely the her treasure, she has sent forth of her best and church will speedily send at least one bravest on behalf of the negro race in Western, miSSionary for every million persons Central and Eastern Africa, and not a few of in the Soudan,-Presb, College Jour- nal. them have laid down their lives-martyrs as real and true as any to whom the church does Austro.Hungary.-Dr. Somerville . honor. We have present to-day-present in this House, a listener to Our debate-an evidence of of the Scottish Free Church has spent the labors of the society, in the person of one taken as a slave, educated by her, ordained, con- five months in evangelizing work secrated Bishop of the Niger-8amnel Crowther, who has in every sense proved himself worthy in Austro-Hungary, and has preach- , of his high calling and shown the real capabili- ties of his race. ed in about fifty towns and cities.
.. But the Church Missionary Society Is only Many obstacles were encountered,but one among many. The Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel, the Universities' Mission, many encouragements were met with. the Scotch, the London, the Baptist, and other societies, are all working for the same end-all Among the latter was the permission find themselves thwarted and repelled by the same evil influence. Is it always to be so f Do granted by the authorities to hold we need more than to have the mischief brought hbme to us, to make a great effort to put a stop public religious meetings for Jews to it f Among England's greatest men lie very near to where we nOw sit the remains of David and Gentiles (a decided innovation), Livingstone, and engraven on· the stone which the heartiness of reception and co- covers them are words of his which remain as his undying legacy to us, the keynote of our pol- operation on the part of the ministers, icy, and stimulus to Our exertions in the present distress. In burning words he, from his grave, the thronging of the people in multi- •invokes Heaven's richest blessings upon any, tudes to hear the gospel, the readi- be he English, American or Turk, who shaH do something to remove the open sore of the ness with which the Jews came out world.' We are not dealing to·day with the to listen to a Christian Gentile, and slave trade, but with a sore, in the opinion of many, as pernicious. Ours may be the blessine: the general stirring in the towns where the mission was carried on. On one occasion Dr. Somerville ad- dressed an audience of 7,000. In many of the towns in Hungary there is but a single congregation of the Reformed Church, embracing 15,000 or 20,000 members. As to the Jews, not only dId they attend the ordinary public meetings, but, when on sever- al occasions Dr. Somerville gave a public address, specially to them- selves, they came together in crowds, both men and women, even to the number of 1.500. Instead of referring to controversial points, Dr. Somer- we are hoping for much blessing." Dr. Pruen, of the same' mission, ville adopted the plan of showing writing also from Ch'entu, says: how much Christianity owed to the "We have opened a new house for Jews, and having gained the ear and om' mission in this city near the hearts of his audience he then set Manchurian garrison, and so are forth Christ as the crucified Messiah. having crowds of visitors. The gos- pel is being preached, and I am see- Bengal.-R~v. R. Wright Hay, late ing patients twice a week."-China of the Cameroons, in a recent letter Medical Missionary Journal. from Dacca, Eastern Bengal, says: -One of the best provisions re- .. In Dacca there are sevp.ral thousands of cently made by the Chinese Governstudents resident during the greater part of ment is that which requires every the year, in attendance at different colleges, foreign missionary to hold a passport and I am thankful to say that there is the from his own government, declaring beginning of a work among these. It had been his nationality. French officials have a great joy to me to meet some twenty stu- affectp.d to assume a p'rotectorate over dents in a Bible-class every Sabbath morn- all Roman Catholic missionaries of ing, and to witness the intense interest with all nationalities and their converts. which they read and inquire into the story This has been found to have more of of Jesns. I have also lately started a week- the French flavor than the Chinese evening class for the study of questions taste requires. It is now proposed to arising out of the Sabbath lesson, and have deal with men according to nationalbeen much gratified by the devout spirit ity and to recognize them under their manifested, whilst personal intercourse with own proper colors. This is an impor- Individual students convinces me tha t many tant step in the right direction. of them are feeling after God. I have also an opportunityof reaching English-speaking -The great Island of Hainan, off natives through a service held in the mis- the south coast of China, is the newsion chapel every Sunday evening, which is est of the Presbyterian missions. For getting to be pretty well attended by Hin- the first time in the history of misdus, Brahmos, and occasiQnally Moham- sions its people hear the,gospel. medans." -Referring to the work in Shantung Brazil. – Christian people in the Dr. Arthur H. Smith of Pangkiach- United States ought not to lose sight wang writes to the Chinese Recorder: of the fact that Brazilian society is passing through a period of change, " The work of the English Baptist Mission at and that all social changes are crises Tsing Chu Fa in Central Shantung deserves to be better known that it may be much more care- -that the fate of this nation hangs fully studied. The modesty of its founders and upon the manner in which Christian their indefatigableindustry have prevented them from appearing in print; yet here is a mission people do their duty during the next composed for many years of but two missionaries and a native pastor, which, within thirteen years ten years-the forces of Rome are [rom the baptism of its first convert in this rebeing trained to meet the crisis with gion, has two elders, eight stewards, about sixty country stations (each with itsownleader), above that far-seeing, patient cunning for 1,500 members (with additions, after eighteen which Rome is noted. Shall the months' probation, at the rate of about 100 per annum), contributions averaging half-a-dollar a church of Christ in North America member, a central theological school, a central let this ripening grain fall ungather- school (or boys with numerous country schools, a respectable Christian literature ofits own creed? Young, strong men and women ation, and only fiye persons receiving foreign are wanted who can preach and teach pay-the native pastor and four evangelistsand sing of a purer, better Christian- three of whom are assigned to the regions beity than is known here.-Brazilian Missions. yond. 'No cash and no consul' has been the China.-Dr. Perry, of the China motto of this mission from Its inception; and Inland Mission, writes from Ch'entu, while it has experienced the Same obstacles as Szechuan, that he has "already found an open door to several official families in this great city, and a goodly number are attending the dispensary twice a week. There is a church of thirty members here, and all other aggressive Christian work, its results Baptist mission, sustained by the are well worth careful examination. The work Home Mission Board of the Southern of the Baptist Mission is exceptionally compact; Baptist Convention. In January, and now that the mission has received a great Dr. Tichenor, the Secretary, Mr.
number of new recruits, it is looking toward Adair, the Treasurer, and Dr. Mc- the opening out of new statious to the west." Donald, visited the mission. Mr.
-In the city of Pok-lo, on the Can- Diaz was ordained at Key West, Fla., December, 1885. In the month folton East River, a Confucian temple- lowing the first Baptist church was keeper received the Scriptures from a formed in Cuba, with him as pastor.
colporteur of the London Mission, After two years there are six Baptist became convinced of the folly of churches and twelve preaching-sta- tions inand about Havana, each havidolatry, and was baptized by Dr. Legge. He gave up his calling, and ing a Sunday-school. The churchset to work among his acquaintances members number 1,100, the scholars 2,000, and the congregations 5,000.
and friends as a self-appointed Scrip- There is also a church at Matanzas. ture reader. He would go through /The churches are all crowded, people standing at the doors and windows. the streets of the city and the coun- The people seem to have lost faith in try round with a board on his back Romanism. There is need of a meetcontaining some text of Scripture. ing-house in Havana and in other So successful was he, that in three places. Mr. Diaz and his brother, and his mother, and many of his labor years' time about 100 people were ers, seem remarkably raised up for baptized; and so mightily grew the this work. word of God and prevailed, that sur- prise and hostility were excited, and India.-A Brahmin writes to a Mada fierce persecution broke out. The ras paper on the decay of Hinduism. Christians were driven from the vil- He says, "Hinduism is a corpse, out lages, and their property was plun- dered. The colporteur was seized, of which the life has fled, and yet it and twice within forty-eight hours is a living force." The writerexplains dragged before the literati and called these seeming contradictions by upon to recant. This he refused to showing that the moribund, inex- do. He was therefore tortured by being suspended by the arms during pansive creed is still able to perform the night. The next morning he ceremonial functions. The late tour was brought forward in an enfeebled of the Madras governor was marked state, pale and trembling, for a Bec- by continued demonstrations, in which prayers for the protection of ond trial. The officials and mandarins were cowed into submission by the gentry; but this brave old man temples and the preservation of their was still firm in his resolve to cleave to his Bible and Christ, and expressed tithes formed the chief part. Tae Brahmin writer thinlrs that the a hope that his judge would some day , embrace the new doctrine. This was "cream of Hindu society" regards more than they could tolerate, and, their old faith as dead. He mentions like the judges of Stephen, they ran caste as the only saving element in upon him with one accord and killed Hinduism, and thus refers to the difhim on the spot by repeated blows of their side-arms, and threw him into ficulty felt by all friends of reform: the river. Thus perished the first "Another cause of the survival ofthe strength Protestant Christian martyr in China. and integrity of Hindnism is the Intellectual in- Cnba.-The Baptist movement in consistency and moral cowardice of the general- Cuba is wonderful, as all things are ity of the so-called reformers. Mighty as they that are begun by the Lord without are In feats of words, carried on in a foreign lan- guage-which consequently gives an exaggeratthe planning of men. Rev. A. J. ed notion to foreigners of their earnestness and Diaz, the originator of the work, the courage-they are in practice the tame follow- .. Cuban Paul," was himself convert- ers of orthodox priests and Ignoraut women.
ed by a Christian nurse who read the Bnt this state of things cannot last forever. The Bible to him while he was sick in disciples of Spencer cannot always dwell In New York. The one bright and hope- peace and amity with the followers of Shank- eracharya. The dense ignorance of the masses ful spot on the Island of Cuba is this will melt away before the spread of edUcation. The opposition to reform will daily become remark among the Hindus that the old form of weaker and weaker. The ranks of the progres- immolation by tire was preferable as a fate for a sive party will be swelling day by day. The young woman, or even for an old one, than wid- courage inspired by increasing numbers will do owhood. DistreSSing beyond our conception what constitutional courage-rather the want of must be the life to which suttee is a bleSSing; it-has failed to achieve. The fate of Hinduism and yet suicides are occurring in India almost is therefore sealed, although it will be some every week, prompted ouly by the terrible suf- time, probably a long time, before that consum- ferings incident to enforced ·widowhood. Who mation takes place."-Indian Witne88. can remedy these terrible mischiefs endured by -Discouraging Facts. An Indian women In Asia except female medical missiona- Brahmin has lately published a tract ries f They are wanted all through India. They on infanticide, in which he shows are wanted in large numbers. They are wanted for zenana work, for teaching, for all kinds of that the murder of 12,549 infants has iustruction in mission schools and secular estab- been made public during the last fif- lishments of varions kinds. An angel from heaven itself, as has often been said, would not teen years. This, we are told, repre- be welcomed in Hindu zenanas more cordially than a well-instructed female physician." 3ents only a fraction of the murders committed. J apan.-Japan is not only growing spiritually and intellectually, but is – Brahmins Searching the Scriptures. "We pushing ahead commercially at a :auld mention some twenty or thirty places in which Brahmins have formed themselves into 8abhaa (societies) for tbe sole purpose of studying rapid rate. Recent statistics show surprising results. For instance, a the Bible. No missionary has the entree to their tt'ade of $95,000,000 last year nearly doubles that of 1880, which was $51,- meetings, and their existence is not talked about outside. Yet their questions come to us, sometimes anonymously, always secretly. During the last month the writer of this has sent an- 000,000. In 1878 there were nine.
swers to more than a score of such questions- miles of railway, which have been exall of them serious, and many of them very acute. tended to 151 miles. Eleven railway They were answers, not to an individual, but to companies were started in the year varions bodies of Brahmins, and would receive due discussion. Even in the monasteries of this 1887, which also gave birth to 111 land, and by some of the high-priests of Hindu- large industrial companies in three Ism, the Sanskrit Bible Is to-day a book anxious- citie3 alone. Two important naval ly studled."-The Harvest Field. stations have been formed and are being fortified, and the first modern -The number of foreign mission- waterworks in the empire were com- , aries, European and American, labor- pleted in October last. With the exing in India, Ceylon and Burmah, is ception of these last works everyestimated at 689. Native laborers, thing has been done by native skili ordained and unordained, are counted and native capital alone. This is not by the thousands, while the number a bad record for a country where the of baptized Protestant Christians is feudal system was in lull swing reckoned at 500,000. Medicalmissions twenty-five years ago. are a powerful ally•. Zenana mission work is a godsend to millions of wo- men in India. A royal lady in India -Protestantism in Japan. According to the sent to Queen Victoria a petition in a statistics for 1887, there are at present working locket, asking for medical relief for in this empire the representatives of twentythousands of women in India. The four missionary societies. Seventeen belong to the United States, four to England, and one each Countess of Duffel'in, wife of the Vice- to Canada, Scotland, and Switzerland. Japan roy of India, learning of this appeal, has proved such an attractive and promising has established training-schools for field of labor that the number of societies Is nurses among the native ladies. greater than one would expect in view of the comparatively recent date at which the land Joseph Cook says: was thrown open to Christian etiort. Of course, " Between Cashmere and Ceylon, according to the number of workers varies greatly. Three an authentic and most recent official statement, have but one man each; while one has forty-nine there are 21,000,000 widows, and half of these male and female workers, not including the were never wives. Even under the rule of a wives of the missionaries. The 8um total of Christian empress, paganism makes the condi- foreign workers is 25.1.
tion of India yet so desolate that it Is a common Six missions have combined the results of their labors in the " United Church of Christ in I Japan." This body includes all the Presby- as an experiment the giving of Christian lectnres terian and Reformed Churches, save the Cum- for Jews exclusively twice per week in different berland Presbyterians. The Congregationalist parts of the city. Up to the time of his report Mission has decided to join this union, thus they had been increasing in interest and attendmaking it the most extensive of all the Protest- ance. ant bodies in the empire. " At one of the society's anniversaries in Bir- The total Protestant membership shows a mingham recently 400 Jews and Jewesses were – gain cif five thousand over the figures for 1886 ; present, and gave also liberally for the work of a grand gain, and yet how painfully small when the society. Dr. Cassel, who has been at work we consider the thirty-five millions still without In Berlin five years, reports 60 baptisms, 20 of the fold. These figures, however, by no means which took place last year. The HailYrai, a indicate'the limit of Christian infiuence. Japan Jewish organ, is our authority for saying that in is being permeated with Christian truth, and we I Vienna 248 Jews were converted last year to trust the time is not far distant when the em- Christianity. Recently the Rev. Canon Bell pire shall be thoroughly reached with the gos- made this statement: 'Ten days ago I was in pel. Amsterdam, and went into the Portuguese syn- agogue, which is one of the finest in the Nether- Christianity is not persecuted, and its most lands. There are in that city 50,000 Jews. And vigorous opponents, the Buddhist priests, use a few years ago there were only a few Christian infidel arguments against it in their public lec- Jews there, now they are counted by hundreds, tures, trusting more to modern 'free thought' and the work of conversion is going on rapidly.' and materialism than to the ancient Buddhist teachings for their weapons of offense against "The movement of Prof. Delitzsch of Leipzig the new way that is putting their craft in danger. Is a wonderfnl step towards the conversion of the Jews. In nine of the German universitiea HAKODATE, JAPAN. GIDEON F. DRAPEB. he is starting a movement for mission work amongst the Jews, and already over 300 students Jews.-[The Indian Evangelical of the universities have enrolled themselves as Review for April contains a valuable members of a special school for traiuing to this end. article on " The Jew." We give extracts from it which are of a mo~t " With the mention of the name of Joseph Rahope!ul character.-EDs.] binowitz, who was a lawyer and a Jew, but who has been converted to Christianity, I must close. " Have we any indications that the Christian He has given up his profession and preaches' Our religion is having any Impression upon them 1 I Brother Jesus.' It was his ind ependent study of think there is every evidence that a great work the Scripture which led to his conversion. He is being commenced in this direction. There are is exerting a wide-spread infiuence." many agencies at work to this end, and amongst the number is the London Society for the Pro- MadagasCBJ:.-" As is well known, motion of Christianity amongst the Jews. Its on the death of Radama I., one of name defines its object, and its efforts are widereaching. This society was conceived in 1809, his widows, an adopted child of his when there were but 35 believing Jews in all Engiand. In 1813, H. R. H. the late Duke of father, but by no means a chief Kent, accompanied by members of Parliament member of his seraglio, succeeded and other high Officials, in the presence of thou- in usurping the crown, which she sands ot people, laid the first stone of the Hebrew confirmed to herself by murdering Episcopal Chapel and Schools in Palestine Place, nearly or quite all her husband's London. Since then the work has gone Rteadily family. She as~umed the name of on. The late Earl of Shaftesbury was deeply interested in it, and for 39 years only once failed Ranavalona I. Radama II., her son, to take the chair at its anniversaries. The so- whose brief reign succeeded hers, is ciety employs 140 agents, consisting of 24 ordained missionaries, 25 lay and medical mission- plainly esta.blished, by the date of aries, 44 school teachers, 47 Scripture readers, his birth, to have been illegitimate. colporteurs, and other lay agents. Of this number 89 are Christian Israelites, and 17 ordained The evil woman has succeeded in esministers of the Church. tablishing her own race, though not " In very many places the Jews are anxious to her own descendants, upon the throne hear the word of God as explained by the mis- in place of the line of her husband. Sionaries. Iu a Jewish paper in London, whose But her family has become what she sole object is to oppose Christianity, the editor most hated, a Christian dynasty. tells his readers that they 'cannot afford to lose great numbers e1'ery year,' that' they (the Jews) She seized the throne in 1828 and died are being caught in the net,' they are most in 1861, having reigned just a geneanxious to attend mission halls, etc. ration. We all know what followed- .. In PariS, last March,:Mr. Mamtllch undertook the expUlsion of the English mission- aries, and the scenes of cruel and heroic martyrdom, resembling those on Lake Nyassa will be cut off from lately enacted in Uganda, under the civilization, owing to the demands young tryant Mwanga. Mr. Shaw made by the Portuguese. These sta- sums up it thus: 'Ranavalona I., tions, and a great trading establish- who has been compared by some to ment besides, were founded on the the worst of the Roman emperors, to faith of invitations from the British Nero or Caligula, and by others call- Government, and have flourished to ed the Malagasy Catherine II., whom an unusual degree. They are now she resembled in her vices, without threatened, on the one hand, by the having any of the redeeming qualities Arab slave-catchers, who are in full of that empress, commenced a relig- energy again, and on the other by th~ Portuguese, who claim the right ious crusade against Christianity. of imposing any duties they please on All kinds of inhuman cruelties were the Zambesi, and of annexing a strip practiced upon the converts, and of territory right across Africa. If many of those of the highest rank these claims are allowed, .the sta- suffered death or imprisonment for tions must be broken up; but the English Government is unwilling to their determination to serve the true disallow them, because it is essential for the progress of South Africa to God. Some were burned, others purchase Delagoa Bay, which the Government of Lisbon will not sell buried alive, others scalded to death, without territorial compensation. The position of the churches is amost some speared, and others cast from painful one, made so by the tempo- rizing policy of the English Governthe rock on which the capital is built, ment. Certainly it would be a calam- ity to concede to the Portuguese the and dashed to pieces in the valley right of closing the access of the South African colonies into the intebelow.' rior of Africa. There is trouble, if not war, in that matter in the future. " The missionaries were gone, but Turkey.-One ofthe most successful had left behind them the Word of missionaries in Oroomiah is a blind God, the blood of the martyrs, and Armenian from Harpoot, Turkey.
the presence in the furnace of Him He knows the Bible thoroughly, and, riding on a miserable little donkey, whose form was that of the Son of which is led by a one-eyed, deaf God. Therefore, as a Swedish maga- man, he goes boldly from village to zine has lately summed it up, the village preaching the gospel. His church of a few hundreds which blindness protects him, and the peowent under the cloud came out of it ple crowd to see the wonder-a blind a church of 37,000, and has now in- man reading. creased, including in the term all the -Dr. Jessup, of Beirut, writes that avowed adherents of Christianity, to "the Sultan of Turkey has set his a church of 400,000. Of these the seal Of imperial approbation upon 32 major part, that is, the Christians editions of Arabic Scriptures, allowadhering to the London Society, ing them to be sold, distributed and which first brought Madagascar the gospel, present, according to the An- shipped without let or hindrance."
nual Report for 1887, the following Of the books issued by the Beirut statistics: press,290 have passed under examina- Principal stations or districts. . ••. . 28 Out-stations. . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . • 1,1:!:! tion in Damascus by the government English missionaries…….. …… Female missionaries (not inclnding .., officials, and have received authoriza- 4 wives). ………….. ……… tion.
Native ordained ministers.. . … . •• 828 Telugus.-In 1878, 2,222 Telugu Native preachers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,395 converts were baptized in one day. Church members……………… 61,723 Native adherents. . . . •. ••. . •. . . . . . • 230,418. Schools……….. .•…•••. .•…… 1.043 Scbolars. . . . . . •. .. . •. . .. …….. . . 97,891 Fees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • ••. . . . . . • •. . . . • £589 19 5 Local contributions……….•…. £2,410 17 11 -Be'll. O. O. Starbuck in Andover Be'IIiew (June).
Scotland. – The Scotch churches are afraid their large mission-stations
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
It was done by si~ administrators, ening. The shrewdest busluess men ten me though only two baptized a.t one time. that they cannot foresee the future, but it looks dark. It is a time rather for taking in sail than -It is said that Dr. Luther F. for puttiug on more sail. This mission is, at Beecher, then pastor of the church best, but a 'lone star,' with no prospects of in which the anniversary meetings mnltiplication," etc., etc: were held, first applied the term "lone star" to the Telugu Mission. This was probably the origin of the In the debate on the question of abandoning or re-enforcing the Telugu name, caught up as it was by the ad- Mission, Dr. Beecher very earnestly advocated abandonment. He said: vocates of re-enforcement. Dr.
" The commercial horizon is dark and threat- Smith's poem was written in the evening after this speech of Dr.
Beecher, and appeared in the next morning daily. " Shine on, Lone Star, thy radiance bright."
IlL-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE" INTERNATIONAL MIS- SIONARY UNION."
The Opium Ourae in Ohina. pany, which was abolished thirty BY THE REV. JOHN LIGGINS, ASBURY years ago amid the contempt of the PARK, N. J. ' civilized world. In many respects IN a recent speech in London, Mr. there was a great change for the John Bright referred to the opium better when Indiawas brought under war which England waged with the more direct rule of the Queen China in language of emphatic con- and Parliament, but, alas! the demnation. He said: greatest iniquity of all, the enforced "I am snre scores of times in the year, when opium traffic with China, was con- I am enjoying the beverage which we get tinued by the Indian, and sustained chiefly from Cbina, I am shocked to think of by the Home Governments, because the barbarous cruelty with which we have treated that people, who, so far as all Europe is of the large revenue derived from it. -concerned, are the most peaceful people in the The iniquitous trade has been of whole world. You know that the beginning of the war was opium, the compelling of the incalculable injury to China, and a most formidable obstacle to the Chinese to admit a drug which they did not Christianization of that empire. It 'wish to admit, which they thought hurtful to has also caused much demoralization their people, and which they bad a right to exclude, but which we forced upon them." and misery in India, as the opium vice is spreading there also. It has Remarking upon this statement, the Friend of China says: also worked much injury to India in "The whole story of the opium question is other ways. It causes, or increas~s, the periodic famines, owing to the told in these few graphic words. We hope Mr. perversion of such a vast area from Bright will co-operate with our Parliamentary food crops to crops of poison, and the friends in tbe further measures wbich it Is government traffic shocks the moral sense of the better class of Hindoos. necessary to take in order to relieve England of complicity with the odious traffic."
The abominable trade was begun by Warren Hastings and other agents The greatest and best of all the of the East India Company, and Earls of Shaftesbury, in 1881, un- England's opium wars with China, equivocally condemned "the posi- which as Dr. Arnold of Rugby, Mr. tion of a great imperial government Gladstone, the Earl of Shaftesbury manufacturing the opium, selling and other eminent Englishmen have the opium, and entering in aU the said, are among the most infamous details of retail dealers. It is," he in history, were instigated and fo- said, "a nefarious traffic, and a na- mented by this dishonorable com- tional abomination." The terrible evils of the vile traffic, .. We were listening yesterday to a description of the horrors of the slave trade-of the untold and the very formidable obstacle it is multitudes who must have perished before reaching their destination. But, having labored to the Christianization of China, con- many years in China, my solemn conyiction is that all the misery and sin and suffering caused tinue to be referred to by travelers by the slave trade are not equal to the wrongs in1licted upon China by the opium tramc. That and missionaries. The distinguished may seem a strong thing to say, but it is not at all too strong. I could not possibly describe Miss Gordon Cumming, in her the incalculable misery which I have witnessed as a result of this curse which we introduced "Wanderings in China," Vol. 11:., into China. As a medical miSSionary I have been into many homes where people were enpage 307, says: deavoring to kill themselves by taking opinm, to escape from the greater evils they had " We all know the seqnel, and the storY!Jf the brought upon themselves by the habit of opium two utterly nnjustifiable wars whereby Christian smoking. If you love your country, pray God Englaud not only forced unwilling China to le- that He will raise up a standard against this galize the import of the drug which is rnining horrible, awful curse, and that He will deliver millions of her people, but (like a schoolmaster us from the guilt of it." exacting the price of his birch-rod) compelled her to pay heavy war indemnities. In short, in The Lady Dufferin Movement. the matter of the opium trade, England has acted precisely like one of those hateful 1Iies WE have been studying with some which alight on some fat and comfortable cater- care what is known as the "Lady pillar, and despite its vain struggles, deposit in Dufferin" medical movement in Inits luckless body the eggs whence in due time hat- dia, 'and are led to caution medical ches a crop of vile maggots, to prey on its vitals. women, who desire to devote them- selves to medical missionary work, "The British ollicial conscience has lulled from entering this service without a careful study of its character and itself, Cain-like,* with the assurance of having aim, and the limitations which will be imposed upon them as evangelno responsihility in the destruction of China- ists. The movement is, so far as men, while gaining a solid advantage in the we can detect, after the uttermost revenue of about nine million pounds sterling, stretch of Christian charity, purely which has annually enriched the Indian treasury humanitarian. As such we have from this source. So year after year Britain only kind words for it, though we has turned a deaf ear to every remonstrance believe it might have been made from luckless China, or from those who seek much more than that, and we feel her weal." regret that it was not so made at outset. The objects for which" The The editor of the Missionary Her- National Association for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women ald, in a recent number, says: of India" was formed are classified in the Third Annual Report of the " The deep resentment existing in the minds "Countess of Dufferin's Fund," pubof many Chinese against foreigners, on account lished January, 1888, as follows: of the opium-traffic. is well showu by an incident narrated by a member of the China Inland .. I. Medical, Tuition: including the teach- Missiou, who reports having found one day, in ing and training in India of women as a large house, three women sitting together, doctors, hospital assistants, nurses and midsmoking their pipes-oue an old lady in her wives. ninetieth year. As SOOn as this old lady caught the name of Jesus in the conversation she arose .. n. Medical, Relief: including (a) the esand, coming toward the missionary, said: • Do not mention that name again I I hate Jesus I tablishment, under female superintendence, I will not hear another word I You foreigners of dispensaries and college hospitals for the bring opium in one hand and Jesus in the treatment of women and children; (b) the other I' Later, takiug the book from the hand opening of female wards, under female of the missionary, she read a few sentences, but superintendence, in existing hospitals and seeing the name of Jesus, she contemptuously shut the volume, saying: • Take it away I Take it away I I do not want your opium or your Jesus I' Can anything be sadder than having our holy faith thus connected, thoagh wrongly, in the minds of the Chinese with a vile traffic 1"
The Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, M.D., the founder and principal director of the China Inland Missions, and who has traveled very extensively in China, said, at the Mildmay Confer- ence, London, in June, 1887: * .. Am I my brother's keeper r" dispensaries; (e) the provision of female religion cIau2e, so, as so<>n as I could do it medical officers and attendants for existing qnietly, I closed it np." female wards; (d) and the founding of hospitals for women where special funds or en- The Indian 'Witness says, "There dowments are forthcoming. was not the slightest use for the In- dian Association or Lady Dufferin's "III. The Supply of Trained Female Nur- committee introducing the clause ses and Midwives for women and children in they did" ; and Medical Missions at hospitals and private houses." Home and Abroad asks, "Why this never-ending fear on the part of This, practically, is a medical ser- our Indian Government to acknowlvice for women exactly the counter- edge essential Christian rights, the part of the Government's system of right of Christian missions, the medical provision for men which has right of individual Christian confesobtained all over India, and is purely sion?" "Maya Christian," it asks, a secular, though certainly a benevo- "come under any such bond? May lent enterprise. It will not hinder a Christian woman· say, 'I promise and may help medical missionary that, working among dying women, work indirectly. But if any· young my lips shall never be opened to Christian women, graduated in medi- offer them, in Christ's name, the gift cine or as nurses, zealous to do evan- of eternal life ? ' " gelistic work in connection with their profession, think of responding The greater anomaly here arises to the demand for persons skilled from the fact that this movement deand trained for medical work in the rived its initial inspiration, ensample Dufferin system, we must caution and hope of possible success, from them against so doing without care- Christian medical missions by wofully weighing the rule of that aRSO- men to women, and these had met ciation which says, "No employee of with no obstacle on account of relithe Association will be allowed to gion, but were successful to such exproselytize, or interfere in any way tent that they were not equal to the with the religious beliefs of any sec- demands made on them. Woman's tion of the people." If this does not medical work among heathen women absolutely debar them them from is distinctly and divinely Christian, speaking on religious subjects to and yet this association divorces it their patients, and practically from from its ackno.wledged source. carrying the gospel to hospitals or homes, it is not easy to discover how A Great Obstacle in India Removed. the English language can be made to inhibit such deeds. IT is with unusual gratification that we learn that the British Govern- We in nowise depreciate the coun- ment is to discontinue its relation tess' scheme for the relief of suffer- with a system of camp-regulated liing, but from the distinctively mis- centiousness in India. It is some sionary stand-point it is not an arena time siBce the moral sense of Great affording scope for the medical mis- Britain rose in its might and consionary. Dr. Sarah Seward was en- demned the Government system of gaged as a medical missionary at licensed lust that had obtained in Allahabad, India, and lent her aid the British Isles. But the State regfor awhile to the countess' associa- ulation of this iniquity was not distion, but withdrew from it, and said, continued in the army of India; and through Woman's Work for Wo- it has recently been exposed as sinmen: gularly monstrous, facts having been brought to the knowledge of the "I gave up the Dulferin work in October Christian public of England which (1887) ; they could not hamper me, as I was have exasperated them intensely. distinctly promised that I should not be fettered, but they wanted that all assistants paid by them should come under the non- Mr. Alfred S. Dryer, who became ed demand for "more and younger widely known a few years since when women," together with the fact that he exposed the continental traffic in English girls, went to India with the these women were not found to volintent of opposing the system for regulation of harlotry among British unteer to meet the military demand, soldiers, and has been revealing, as and as a consequence had to be huntfar as regard to common decency ed and procured through the exercise would allow, something of the state of direct official force, only intenof things he found. The Christian sified the righteous indignation of of London has from time to time the British Christian public. At the published diagrams to illustrate Mr. meeting in Exeter Hall, Rev. Hugh Dryer's letters, and the effect of the Price Hughes moved the following agitation has been to stir the moral resolution: and religious sentiment of Great Britain to demand, not merely a " This meeting, representIng all sections of modification, but the out-and-out the Church of Christ, learns with deep and abandonment of the connection of burning indignation that the India Office, after the State with licensed prostitution. having been forced to admit the authenticity of We have read these published letters a terrible official document known as the during several months past, and had Circular Memorandum of June 17, 1886, purposed lending the force of our issued by order of the Commander-in-Chief in utterance, and possibly of American India, giving authority to obtain attractive-lookpetition against this abomination, ing harlots, and plenty of them, to provide but are happy in the tidings that houses of ill-fame, and other abominable sugsuch action on our part has been gestions of a kiudred nature; this meeting is rendered unnecessary; at least we astounded to learn that the India Office proposes hope the cablegram means so much. simply to suspend, instead of utterly to repeal, the system under which such atrocities are per- A great public meeting to demand pretrated, and this meeting pledges itself to from Lord Cross, the Indian Secre- carry out, both in this country and in India, an tary of State, the instantaneous and agitation for repeal till repeal is gained_" unconditional abolition of the system of State-provided vice in India, was He said there was no nonsense held in Exeter Hall, on Friday even- about the resolution: ing, May 18, under the auspices of the Gospel Purity Association. Mrs. "Requisitions for the class of women referred Josephine E. Butler, and several to had been made by various commanding offimembers of Parliament were sup- cers, and one, the officer in command of the Con_ ported on the platform by mission- naught Rangers, had asked the Commander-inaries, clergy and ministers of all de- Chief to request the cantonment magistrate to nominations. The bishops of the give all possible assistance to procuring them_ Indian Empire had strongly memori- Let them imagine what that meant in a country alized the Indian Government against where there was no constitutional government_ the continuance of this iniquity, Not only so, bot in at least one part of India a and 300 missionaries joined in the sort of recruiting officer had been appointed for petition to Parliament for its aban- the purpose who was to receive a capitation donment. grant on the victims brought in_"
The specific character of the gov- It is not necessary, as we now ernmentregulations, such as that the judge, to enter more largely into the number of women should be "sllffi- subject. cient," that the women should be "sufficiently attractive," that they If the British Parliament, on June be "young women," and the repeat- 5, responded to the demand of Brit- ish moral sentiment and uncondi- tionally repealed all legislation licens- ing and regulating a great system of iniquity which the British army had inaugurated and which was spread from end to end of the Indian Em- pire, that I is something for Chris- tian gratulation, though rejoicing be still tempered with a sense of indig- nant shame that such a system was ever contemplated, much less en- stringency of its regulations against forced for an hour. This has been a the importation of liquors. In April, great obstruction to Christian work 1887, they prohibited their importa.- in India. And the horrible anomaly tion entirely into about one-third of of State-procured women to' pander their telTitories. In May, 1887, they to the base passions o.f BritiSh made a further regulation imposing soldiers in State-provided harlot's penalties on the payment of wages houses, in juxtaposition witha State- in spirits throughout the whole of provided Christian Church, is an ef- their territories. The matter of the frontery of deviltry that human his- decadence of these native races and tory has not often equaled. Thank the destruction of commerce among God! it is to be no more. Missiona- them in consequence of the introducries like those of Seetapore, who have tion of European intoxicants has at been compelled to pass such quarters last forced itself upon the British on their way to preach Christ's gos- Parliament, and on April 24, when pel to heathen women, must have Mr. McArthur moved in the House of had the courage of an infinite faith in Commons, "That this House, having the discharge of their duty. regard to the disastrous physical and moral effects of the liquor traffic Sturdy British moral sentiment has among uncivilized races, as well as again set an example that will lend the injury it inflicts on legitimate new fire and force to all who are commerce, is of opinion that Her struggling with giant iniquities. Majesty's Government should take " Men of thought and men of action" steps to suppress the traffic with will shout, "Clear the way!" An- natives in all native territories under other "brazen wrong" has" crum- its influence or control, and that bled into clay! " whenever self-governing powers are granted to crown colonies, stipula- Rum and the Native Races. tions should be made for the effectual THE General Assembly of the protection of the natives against the Presbyterian Church, held in Phila- sale of strong drink." delphia in Ma,y, spoke in the following unmistakable way about the drink In supporting this, he said that traffic on the Congo and amongst England did not alone conduct this other uncivilized nations: trade. During 1885 more than 10,- 000,000 gallons of the vilest spirits WMreas. The exportation of intoxicating were sent to Africa, of which England sent only 311,384 gallons, liquors to heathen lands has become a most Germany 7,823,042 gallons, and others alarming hindrance to the civilization and smaller quantities. Christianization of the inhabitants thereof, and as this tramc is assuming snch proportions in the He said that they at .home had great Congo Valley of Africa by virtue of an some international treaty in which our own Government is a party ; therefore "protection in the Adnlteration Acts, but in warm countries, inhabited by races unac- Re8olved, That the Assembly views with customed to such liquorR, the natives had, with shame, horror and apprehension the progress of the exception of Madagascar, no protection this tramc by civilized nations with ignorant and whatever; there was no supervision, no examheathen lands; that this Assembly nnite, as far ination, and the drink sold was so bad that it as possible, with other churches in an effort to speedily decimated and destroyed them. This induce Christian Governments to abolish and traffic was bringing abont wholesale murder in prevent the horrible practice of carrying intoxi- the islands of the Western Pacific over an extent cants into the uncivilized nations of the world, of 3,000 miles of coasts. In Africa the picture aud that a committee be appointed to lay this was almost as dark. The consnmption of strong .whole matter before his Excellency the Presi- drink was increasing and leading rapidly to the dent of the United States, with the request that demoralization and destruction of the native he would present the facts to Congress, and ask races. No doubt, in parts of South Africa the that such steps may be taken, with the least possilXe delay, as will free us, as a Christian nation, from all complicity with this ruinons tramc, especially as re!,(ards the treaty concern- ing the Free Congo State.
We do make some headway. The Royal Niger Steamship Company has for some time been increasing the Government bad not complete control, bu. In or Protestant, and the latter are otber parts they have full sway, aDd m some of quite indignant that either Grover those places the natives fared as badly as at the Cleveland or the President of the Cape Colony. Once the passion for brandy was United States should have sent a gift roused, it became msatiable, and the natives which indirectly was a recognition of were destroyed. A native king wrote begglog sovereignty. that the traftic might be stopped. If not, his people would have to abandon their town, and A correspondent writes us from go Into the desert to escape frem the white Italy as follows: man's brandy. He believed we were morall,. bound to protect the natives over whom we had " I wonder if you are inoorested in been called to govern. Even the motive of seIC- European, in Italian politics. Of interest ought to Induce us to take such a course, course we here follow them with because to a manufacturing countr,. it was of interest. From remarks that I somethe utmost importance that we should have a times see in our home papers, I nota wide range of customers, and the native races that our Italian politics are often sadwould, if protected a.gainst this evil, become ly mixed up and misunderstood. It valuable customers. He recollected hearing the is, of COurse, a difficult thing for late Dr. Moffat, who laboced so long and so sue- American journalists to have a just cessfully in Africa, state that when he first went idea of conditions here, just as it is to Bechuanaland there was not £5 worth of difficult for Italians to form a just British manllfactured goods sold in that district, conception of our ways. Of course, but before he left tens of thol1sands of pounds the Pope and his jubilee have occuworth were sold annually. And this is the case pied a prominent place in the eye of where Christian civilization extends." this public, but I think it must be conceded that it has not been the suc- Sir Edward Kenneday, in support- cess that was hoped for. It would ing the resolution, said the thought seem that the Pope hoped by its is that means to make some advance toward the regaining of the temporal power, "co.tact between Europeans and the native and he must have been .disappointed races must necessarily result in benefit to the in the very guarded tone of the comlatter. It ought to be so. If the proper intiu- munications from those monarchs ences were brought to bear and the evil infin- from whom he perhaps expected most ences were kept away, U would be so; but to a efficient aid. But he no doubt flatgreat extent we defeated our own objects by in- ters himself greatly on the attentions troducing among those races that which was not received from Protestant rulers. You for their good, but for their harm. The African will have noticed, I do not doubt, especially had a tendency to be corrupted. In that he celebrated his jubilee New addition to making large quantities of his favor- Year's morning. I wonder if the ite native drink, the African acquired a liking papers on the other side of the sea refor the rum and gin which were imported by marked the fact that the miter which European merchants in large quantities. The he wore on that occasion was the gift result was that he became careless of every- of the Emperor of Germany, and the thing else, and had no money left to purchase chalice which he used was Queen Victhe manufactures of Manchester. Mr. Joseph toris's gift. In our English prayer- Tholl¥lon and Sir Richard &rton had showed meeting during the week it was comthat Africa would even be the gainer if the mented on that two Protestant rulers country reverted to the old state of slavery and should have furnished so symbolic the importation of liquor was given up. There gifts for that occasion. Italian newswere dilllcuities in the way, but similar diffi- papers commented on the fact. But culties were overODme by. Wilberforce and Sir that which occasioned most surprise, FowellBnxtonin overthrowing the slave trade." and was perha:ps most commented on by Italian journals, and most deeply Grover Oleveland's Present to the Pope. regretted by Protestant Americans WE say "GroverCleveland," rather than His Excellency the President, because it is claimed on the occasion of his sending a gift, a very appropriate one, by the way, to the Pope on his jubilee that he acted in his individual and not in his official capacity. The distinction,.however, is quite too ltice for the Italians, eiMler Romallist resident here, was the fact of a. girt pontiff seemed to him illogical.' from the President of the United When will our Protestant nations States. They may say what they recognize that it is not only illogical, like about its not being sent by him in but that it is dangerous ?" his official capacity. that the Secretary of State knew nothing of it, and Recent Ohurch Action on Missions. as much more as they please, but that was an occasion when the man THE General Conference of the could not separate himself from his Methodist Episcopal Church, at its office, and before the eyes· of the Jast session, had some very liignifi.- world it was not Mr. Cleveland, but cant action concerning its foreign the President who sent a gift to the missions, a part of which interests Pope. the general Christian public. Two tendencies have been manifest for "In marked contrast is the action of some few years past. One looking to the preservation of the foreign misthe Italian government in regard to sion-fields in organic relation simi- lar to that which obtains in this counthe Mayor of Rome. He is a devoted try, and to the erection of a worldand bigoted Roman Catholic, and wide Ecumenical Methodist Episcopal just before the New Year went to call Church; the other looking to the ulon the Pope, expressed his salutations timate autonomy of the great diand those of the city. It was said visions of the foreign church, in althat he went in his private capacity, liance and closest sympathy with the not in his official relation. The ac- home church. The latter view obtion was not ordered by the munici- tained more fully in the action of pal council, nor the. subject consid- this General Conference, and the ered by them, and they held it was Methodist Episcopal Church of Japan distinctly his private act; but the was authorized to effect a union with government at once declared that on other branches of Methodism in that such an occasion the man could not country, and to erect the Methodist separate himself from the official, Church of Japan. A part of the acand that a government officer might tion is as follows: not perform such an act, and promptly demanded his resignation! Reaolv~d, 1. That this General Conference will not interpOfle any objection. to the Japanese "The Italian Government has sent Methodists declaring themselves independent of no gift to honor the Pope's jubilee. . the Methodist Episcopal Chnrch, provided they She knows the toe she has within her unite with one or more of the other Methodist borders. I wish our own loved Churches in Japan. America would wake up to a realiza.. tiOli of what an enemy to all her in- 2. That whenenr it shall he made evident to stitutions she harbors with a certain the Bishop in charge of Japan and to the Board calm indifference. The Pope makes of Managers of the Missionary Society that it Is a very gracious reply to the gift of the desire of the Methodists of Japan to be so the President, but to me the words declared independent, and whenever arrangeseem to contain a threat, a moral ments satisfactory to said Board of Managers purpose, which he and the Jesuits and Bishops shall have been made, securing the have never surrendered. One of the real estate in Japan of the Missionary SOciety of Italian papers had this item on it not the Methodist Episcopal Chnrch, the said Bishop long ago: 'King Oscar of Sweden is and Board shall proceed to make all the arrangethe only sovereign who has not taken menta neco.sary to the independence of said part in the festival of the papal Church and ita anion with the Canada Methodist Mi••ion or any other Methodist missions In jubilee. He replied to the committee Japan.
for the jubilee that the participation 8. That in ca.e, during the present quadrenof a Protestant prince in rendering ninm, the Methodiet Church of Japan shall be homage to the Roman Catholic created In harmony with the spirit and purpOfleB ofthi8 action, the General MissionaryCommittee and Board may coutinue, under proper regnla- tions, appropriations and payments to the work in Japau, and that onr people in this conntry be encouraged to continne to manifest th8ir interest in the eTan~elical, educational, pnblishing and other work In that country.
4. That our mi8Bion in Japan be advised, in the drat place, to earneetly seek a nnion with aU the bodies of Methodi.ts in Japan, that the,. may nnite together in laJing the foundations and eatabllshina the dl8cipllne of the new church. The same tendency was manifested served as 1 day of prayer, when all onr churches by the definition of the powers of a and Sabbath-sclIoola and Christian homes may Missionary Bishop as co-ordinate with unite in speech and song and prayer and service those of the General Superintendents to deepen interest in, and consecration to, the (the other Bishops) within his partic- work of giving the gospel to the heathen world. ular field j and by the erection of "India and Malaysia" into a Mis- "That the week following this Mission Sabsionary Episcopate, with Rev. James bath, or some other week soon succeeding, be de- M. Thoburn, D.D., as Missionary· voted to " simnltaneons meetings" at centers ot Bishop. inftnence within the bonnds ot the respective Synods, tor which Synodical or Presbyterial Anotherimportant adjustment was Committees shall make proviSion, inviting the made by providing for the organic co-operation of the Secretaries of the Board and relation of missionary work which the different missionary agencies in the respecthad developed somewhat out of the ive fields. Such an arrangement made and carusual order, under Missionary Bishop ried into effect by the Synod of New Jersey last William Taylor of Africa, and the year was greatll fruitful. "Bishop William Taylor Transit and Building Fund Society," who have " That we eDJoin upon pastors and church oMhitherto conducted what are known cers a wide dissemination of the current litaraas "self-supporting missions." The ture of missions, that the people may keep pace with the miKhty movements of our tinie and may realize the possibilities of power and vic- tory before the chnrch, assured that a snstained and large-hearted Christian liberality must be conditioned on intelligence, and that a swift step throngh God-opened doors is the only loyal answer to the order of the King.
.. That we make not less than a round million dollars as our joyfnl offering to God this coming year for laying at the gates of our beloved Zion this golden and matchless opportunity to possess much land lor Christ."
following was adopted: . -Signs of the Times in India. Rev.
R68olfwl, 1. That the Missionary Bishop for T. J. Scott, D.D., writing from Ba- Africa be and is hereby authorized to continue reilly, India, says: "The two most his efforts to extend the Methodist Episcopal notable points in India to-day are, Church in Africa on the plan of self-supporting first, a remarkable stir among Hindus miasions. to get Government to interdict the killing of cows, or rather of the cow 2. That we direct that all property acquired In kind. The movement began with the the prosecution of the self-supportln/L mission new sect of the "Arians," as they plan, be held by and for the Methodist Episcopal call themselves. A second phase of Church. the times is a growing alienation be- tween Moslems and Hindus, partly 8. That the Ji[!ssionary Board be advised to over the cow question and partly appoint a standing committee on self-snpportilli: over the National Congress movemissions conducted on this plan. ment which is very generally headed by Hindus. The National Congress 4. Tha.t. missionaries employed and chnrches meets annually and means more of organized under this plan shall be entitled to the India for the natives. Moslems fear same righta and amenable to the discipline or that it means more of India for Hinthe church the earne as missionaries and dus, hence their opposition to it. The churches in other fields. Congress is a native movement."
5. That Missionary Bishops In charge of self- -IN a missionary sermon, Rev. W. supporting missions be instructed to report an- BUally to the Missionary Board the condition or all self-supporting missions, including the number of missionaries, the number of stations and circuits, and the number of communicants in each; and a finaucial exhibit of ali receipts and expenditures.
6. That the Argentine Republic~Uruguay, the Southern province of Erilzil, raraguay and Chili be organized into an annual conference, to be called the South American Conference.
7. That the General Ji[!ssionary Committee be requested to organize the Portugnese stations in Northern Brazil into a mission.
S. That the name of the Liberia Conference be changed to Africa Conference, ita boundaries to include the whole of Africa.
The General Assembly of the Pres- L. Watkinson of England lately dealt byterian Church adopted the follow- with some considerations touching ing: missions with which we are familiar in general literature, and some of the .. That we recognize the advantages of co-oper- recommendations of critics. One of ation and union already secured In foreign fields, these was that we should attend to and approve the continuance of the same, ac- questions within our own borders and cording to the advice of preceding assemblies. let the great world of pagan"ism alone. The scientific reason assigned for this .. That in accordance with the su!!gestion oftha was, that in this world there was a Board, we recommend that a viSItation of the missions by the Secretaries be made not less frequently than once in ten years, aad not more fr~~~J:ft:'e~~a~b!r: ~Fagovember be oil- I 628 INTBBNATIONAL DKPARTlmNT. [AUGUST, Jaw permanently active, by which and yet at last it bore roses upon its degraded tribes are carried forward to the utmost civilization and refine- top. ment, and that we should stand by and let this internal 'force operate. -ANENT the criticisms that Chris- Then, little by little, debased peoples tian missionaries present a too spiritwould be lifted to the level of an accomplished and noble civilization· ual view of religion to barbarians, and Upon inquiry, however, as to whether that they would make greater prothis was an explanation of the whole question, we are told there is also gress by withholding part of the another law, not of evolution, growth and development, but a law of degra- truth, read the following: dation, by which noble organisms are carried backward to simplicity and .. But men say to·day, 'Cannot you accelerate utter debasement. Now, when we the progress of Christianity f' And they ree-' look within the circle of Christendom, ommend us to modify our doctrine. Max Miiller we find the law of development, says-and he has to a considerable extent symwe find peoples slowly approximating pathized with missions-that evangelical Christo a magnificent ideal; but outside tianity can never hope to triumph in India. that circle we see the law of degene- What Christianity do they require f A purified ration-magnificent civilizations go- Christianity-that is, a Christianity from wllich ing back, great peoples becoming you have eliminated the Incarnation, the Atonemore ignorant and corrupt. This ment, the Resurrection, and the Fnture; and law could only be arrested by bring- that purified Christianity would commend itself Ing into the midst of the race the su- to an Intellectual race, and we might count our perhuman wisdom and inspiration of converts by thousands inst~ad of tens. What Christian doctrine and faith. These must we say to this f Did we triumph in Fiji critics say the Christian church should with an emasculated Christianity? The apostle !et the pagan world alone. Do they Paul went to II most refined people, and they let it alone politically, educationally listened to him, and when he Came to the resur- or commercially? Not for a moment. rection of the dead some mocked. What did As we say, if these are good, super- the apostle do? Did he go to the, race with a natural faith is better than all. Chris- "purified Christianity" after that? No, with tianity made us what we are, and perfect consistency he continued to declare that maintains us at the dizzy height at Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip- which we stand; we cannot afford to tures, and how He rose from the dead, and will let the pagan world alone, because it come again to judge the earth in righteousness. will not let us alone. If we do not We aim not at civilization-that is a sweet acci- civilize the pagan world, it will de- dent-but we aim at the spiritualization of the . moralize us. During the last fifty race, and when we look into history we can say years there has been a revival in Eu- with Paul, only with greater emphasis, 'We are I rope of Oriental philosophy. Where not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the < do the notions of nihilism, atheism, power of God unto salvation to every one that and pessimism come from which to- believeth.' Then they say we must modify the day work so disastrously in our liter- moral standard, Christianity is too exalted, and ature and life? From the East; and if we will only accommodate the ethical claims unless we convert the East, it will of Christiauity to the weakness of mankind we convert us. Mission work is great, shall have ten thousand converts where to-day but we are on the winning side, and we have only ten. But God will not make the may remember the words of the hair's-breadth of a compromise with sin. Men Italian poet, who saw the thorn, all outside say: Briug the law down to the race; winter long, intractable and fierce, Jesus Christ says to His Church: Bring the Church up to the law, and take an eternity to do it. They also say if we want to' get on faster with Christianity we must revise the methods, begiu with an intermediate system, and so find our way little by little to the magnificent design of Christianity. But the Bible teaches us that we can take the pure truth to the most debased peoples, aud they have a faculty for its imme- diate recognition. The teaching of Christianity is that the lowest man has a faculty for the high- est, and the common people hear Him gladly who spake as never man spake. We have every reason for encouragement, and although men speak of the slowness of it, truly we may feel that its, progress is marvelous."
THE. ](O~Y CONCERT OF IIIISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF. MISSIONS.
PAPAL EUROPE. to 1875, England gained 119 per cent. ; Prussia, 72; Austria, 27; France, 12 ; IT is one of the wonders of the a.ges or, taking excess ofbirths over deaths: that changes so radical and revolu- if Fl'ance be represented by 1, Austionary should have taken place in tria will be represented by 3, Russia Europe. In the age succeeding the by 5; but Prussia by 6, and Britain Council of Trent, Papal Europe em- by 81 In 1825 Protestant population braced the oldest and grandest of was to Papal as 3 to 13; and, in 1875, monarchies: the German Empire as as 1 to 3. the political and military center; France as the intellectual and social The transformations in Italy are center; Spain and Portugal as the incredible to one who has not wit- "center of expansive force"; Italy as nessed them. Where two-thirds of the historical and ecclesiastical cen- the people could not read or write, ter of all. Papal Europe then repre- education is now compulsory. Where sented all the old, polished languages the very conscience of the people and every great historical city, an- seemed paralyzed, and the sense of cient university, and every influential personal responsibIlity and accountanucleus of letters, art and civiliza- bility dead, we have seen the church tion, except those developed after the party in Rome opening numerous Reformation. schools, issuing cheap literature in large quantities, establishing soup- In Luther's era Rome held Europe kitchens, relieving poverty, and inin her firm grasp. Great moral and forming ignorance. Where the Pope political revolutions have cut oB.: Eng- swayed with an absolute scepter, Pius land, Scotland, Holland, Denmark, IX. was a prisoner in the Vatican, Sweden, Prussia, and part of Ger- bewailing the losij of temporal power; many and Switzerland; and even the and it is obvious to the world, if not countries that have not thrown off to the College of Cardinals, that even allegiance to the Pope have under- the spiritual scepter is very loosely gone great change. Papacy has lost held, if not already broken. The beyond calculation or restoration, and Pope will never again make emperors in nQwhere more surely than in Italy bow as penitents before him, or toritself. "Papal Europe" has now a ture heretics in thedungeons of the different meaning ; Protestantism has Inquisition. been, and is, steadily gaining in numbers, wealth, prestige and in power- The ignorance which is the mother intellectually, morally, politically and of superstition is giving way before spiHtually. the intelligence that is the handmaid of faith and devotion. In fact, as to The balance of p01ver has been act- the Papacy, we mark a grand crash ually reversed since 1789. At the in the whole wall which has shut out period of the Reformation, Spain and the Bible and the pure gospel from Portugal and Austria were the domi- the people. It is like the falling of nant powers in Europe. Spain, that the ramparts of Jericho before the made England quake at the terrors of trumpet blast of joshua's hosts ; and her" Invincible Armada," had three wherever the army of God faces times, perhaps six times, the popula- Romanism, every man may march tion of England; now England, after into the breach straight before him all the millions she has sent to colo- and take the city. nize India, America and Australia, has still twice the population of We can hardly credit it that Spain. During fifty years, from 1825 Protestant churches and Protestant schools are multiplying within the The" twelvehundredandsixty " days walls of the Eternal City; that Rome of dominion seem to have expired. itself is open to the circulation of the No man can foresee the changes that Bible and the preaching of t4e Cross; within ten years may yet t8.ke place. that under the shadows of St. Peters There are many indications that there and the Vatican Protestants may not only worship unmolested, but is to be a Reformed Catholic Church, carryon the work of evangelism; that the Bible cartsroll out of Madrid, on a great scale, in which those who and in the very Spain whose name is within the Papal communion hold to the historic synonym of the Inquisi- evangelical truth shall find a refuge tion the people should so clamor for from companionship and complicity the Word of God that copies cannot with error and heresy and iniquity. be printed fast enough to meet the Rev. W. T. Bainbridge, whose demand; that in France, that right " World Tour" did so much for misarm of the Papal power for centuries, sions, met in Asia many Catholic land of the exiled Huguenots and of priests who seemed to have been inawful st. Bartholomew, both French fluenced by the accompanying evan- Chambers order elimination of priests gelical missions; and there are many and nuns from government schools signs in the British Provinces and within five years; and the greatest in our own Republic that Roman work of popular evangelization ever Catholicism, in close contact with known should now be in progress, Protestantism and remote from the and the government aid and encour- Papal centers, is being essentially a.ge the McAll stations as the best modified by such contact. The future possible police to restrain and reform may show us a great exodus from that mercurial people, whose very Rome, of those who "comeoutof her blood, like the Irishman's, is quick- that they be not partakers of her sins silver. nor receive of her plagues." Nay, even a reconstructed church, that Savonarola's dying cry was, "0 casts off the cerements of the sepul- Italy, I warn thee that only Christ cher and comes forth in a new life of can save thee! The time for the purified faith I Holy Ghost has not come, but it will !" What if that martyr of Fer- SUGGESTIVE PARAGRAPHS. rara could have seen Italy's history from 1848 until now! Where in 1866 God's Hand in Our History.-In a Protestant preacher was expelled 1588 Great Britain did not possess a for preaching, twenty years later Leo foot of land on this continent. France XIII. says to his cardinals, "With and Spain possessed all. In 1688 deep regret and profound anguish we Spain owned vast tracts of North and behold the impiety with which Pro- South America, and was in effect still testants freely and with impunity supreme. France claimed much, and propagate their heretical doctrines, her possession seemedsecure. France, and attack the most august and sa- Spain and Portugal carried out the cred doctrines of our holy religion- behests of the Pope wherever they even here at Rome, the center of the hoisted their flag. There was no tolerfaith and the zeal of the universal ation of Protestantism. It was about . and infallible teacher of the church!" two hundred years ago that France claimed the St. Lawrence and the What we may now see or have seen whole territory which it drains, and in Italy and Spain and France, is but also the Mississippi valley down to the Gulf of Mexico, and westward to a type of what to a greater or less Texas. In 1788 France and Spain still held much territory, though their extent is true of all lands held under grasp upon the continent was much the nominal control of the Papacy. less secure. By this time all Acadia TEXTS .A.ND THEMES. and Canada. was lost. And now, in Darkness and the Shadow of Death. 1888, Spain does not control an acre of Continental America, and France ISAIAH ix : 2: "The people that has nut an inch of territory on the walked in darkness have seen a main-land of North America, and great light: they that dwell in the very little in South America. At land of the shadow of death, upon this moment Great Britain and the them hath the light shined." United States possess all North America, with the exception of Mexico and A divine description of the condia few small "Central" American tion of people without the gospel: States. As a result, we have free in- " WALK in DARKNESS"; •• DWBLL stitutions, free churches, a free press, in land of DEATH-SHADE." the Bible and the public schools. The thought grows intense as it Progress in India.-The progress proceeds, and the terms more emand success of modern missions is phatic: from dark~ess to deathnot only enc.()uraging, but indeed shade; from WALKING to DWELLING. marvellous. Considering the nqmbel' of persons employed in foreign Darkness is coupled with distress. missionary work, the achieved suc- (Of. chap. viii: 21,22.) Walking in cess is greater than in the home darkness is especially distressing and field. The Ohristian Guardian, in perilous. Men dread to be overtaken referring to Sir William Hunter's by a moonless, starless night in paper read before the Society of mountain passes and gaping crev- Arts, in which he bears strong testi- asses or unknown districts. The mony in regard to the rapid progress very gloom seems to be oppressive of Christianity in India, gives the and pei'ilous. following statistical facts of much interest: These people to whom the prophet refers, however, DWELL in darkness; .. In 1851 the Protestant missions In Indlllllnd they are not simply traveling Bnrmah had 222 stations; in 1881 their stations through, in which case the night ithad increased to 601, or nearly threefold. The self is transient, and the journey tonumber oC their congregations or churches had, ward light. But DWELLING in darkin the same period of thirty years, mnltiplied ness as a. permanent abode. from 267 to 4,180, or nearly fifteenfold. In the I18me way, while the number of native Protest- Death-shade implies darkness most ant Christians increased from 91,091 in 1851 to profound and unbroken. Compare 492,882 in 1881, or fivefold, the number of com- the Egyptian plague of darkness of municants increased from 14,661 to 138,254, or three days' duration. (Exodus x : 21, nearly tenfold. The progress, therefore, is not 22.) "Darkness that might be FELT," only in numbers, but also in pastoral care and as though something tangible in that internal discipline. The chief means by which pall of gloom. these eDormous increments have obtained has been the larger use of native agenc,.. A native Some idea may be formed of this Protestant Church has, in fact, grown up in In- plague, which was next to the last and dia, capable of supplying, in a large measure, its only surpassed by that in horror and 0'lVll staW. Instead of twenty-one ordained na- terror. Darkness profound and pertive ministers in 1851, there were, in 1881, 575 ; manentmeans not only no LIGHT, but and the native lay preachers had risen from 493 no heat and no life. Vegetable life to the vast total of 2,856." thrives only in light. So animal life. Shut a man in utter darkness, and This is but one field of missionary you drive him to madness or suicide. effort, yet it gives us a sample of Hence shadow of death. Literally, what is being done, and the progress death-shade, such as in the place of that is being made to win the world the dead 01' SHEOL, implies a certain to Christ.-Methodilt Recorder. fatal quality in this darkness, ten- dency to destroy all true life.
Man's condition, indepQndent of God's interposition, is one of intellect- indifferent to VICE, even to nakedness. ual, moral and spiritual NIGHT. But it is not the indifference of inno- cence, but of iniquity and abandon- 1. Darkness of ignorance. Even ment. highest culture may leave sublimest realities unknown. Athenian wisdom Atheists in Siam have no hope but went side by side with ignorance of of a higher transmigration. The God. "The unknown God." And soul may go into the white ant or red so of immortality, even Plato could ",nt, buffalo or elephant. Priests in but muse and surmise. Godlessness temples preach to Siamese in aha"'" leads to intellectual apostasy. The dee, a language none understand. most brilliant minds have crowned folly with wisdom's diadem, and said The annual license for gamblingin their heart, "There is no God." houses in Bangkok is lSeveral hundred Systems of philosophy have left God thousand dollars, and gambling saout, as Humboldt did from his" Cos- loons numbered by thousands. mos." 3. The darkness of moral estrange- 2. Darkness of idolatry. ment and alienation. "Evil, be thou Ps. cxv : 8: "They that make them my good," is the last expression of are LIKE UNTO THEM." Idols are help- iniquity. This is the very shadow of less, dumb, stupid, powerless; the death: when a man is left to coneffect of idolatry is to bring idolaters sume himself by his own vices. into similar condition. This is illustrated by the history of Polytheism. If these lost souls were in the pit Men began by worshiping grandest of perdition, it would be too late; but objects-sun, moon, fire; then silver they are not yet hopelessly, remediand gold representations of men, lessly lost. Some of them "have etc. ; then wood, stone, down even to seen a great light"; have received gree-gree and fetich. knowledge of GOD and of SELF. Idolatry opposed to religion. (See Life and immortality have been Paul on Mars Hill.) Opposed even to brought to LIGHT, and with light has REASON. It is itself consummate come warmth: LOVE, life. FOLLY. – It is not enough to see the light- Isa. xliv: 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. A mall as men have walked in darkness, manufactures a deity out of the log, they must, when they see the light, part of whieh he uses to warm his body and roast his food! walk in it. The African takes mud, mak~s an Thousands who see in the light, idol, bakes it in the sun, stands it up against a tree, and WORSHIPS mud yet strangely grope in the darkness; that would be regarded filth on one's outwardly dwelling in land of the garments. light of life, they still actually live in This is not only so among the more the death-shade! All history demon- degraded. The children of Israel strates that no mere intellectual made a golden calf at Sinai, after- progress can prevent spiritual death. ward at Bethel and Dan. The Canaa;nites seemto havebeenthe I The late King of Siam was an edu- principal inventors, yet among them wickedness appears to have conspicu- cated man, an astronomer, etc., yet ouslyabounded. The two civilizations he gilded an image of Buddha daily, moved side by side, thus early in his- made of cast-iron, the same material tory demonstrating that no intellect- from which his cooking utensils were ual activity could insure the eleva- made-the "RESIDUE A GOD." tion or prevent the degradation of the race, independent of religion. This is only a type of the inteUect- ual, mocal and spiritual degradation He who said "Let light be, and of heathen people. They become light was," and dispersed the deep darkness when as yet light was not born, repeats that grand miracle in a moral sphere. (2 Cor. iv: 6.)
PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
V.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
– The American Board of Foreign Bacon, Mill, Darwin, HnxIey and Herbert Spen- Missions reports the death of the cer were read. Agnosticism was spreading, and Rev. J. W. Smith, M.D., a mission- the speaker asked for Christian effort to provide ary physician at Koloa, Sandwich an antidote to its inftuence. The Rev. Eynon Islands, in the seventy-seventh year Davis, who boasted that there was not one atheis- of his age, and forty-sixth of his tic book published in Welsh, a!ld the Rev.
work. Sixnewmissionaryfamiliesare Canon Fleming strongly commended the' Pres- needed for the Madura Mission in the ent Day' series of the society's publications, next six months. The mission field embraces 10,000 square miles j with a intended to meet the modern forms ofunbelief. population of about 2,000,000, divided into twelve districts. Thirty – six Sir Harry Verney also spoke and expressed a churches have been gathered with 3,000 members, and a nominal mem- warm interest in the cause."-London Times. bership of over 12,000. The dedication of a church is reported at Shuchi, Africa. – Addititional intelligence near Kyoto, Japan, and wide openings at Kumamoto. Among the In- has been reyeived concerning the condians of Mexico the doors are opening, and the calls are coming faster fiicton Lake Nyassa between the Engthan ever. Among the Zulus a great work is going on, and reinforce- lish Consuls and missionaries of the ments are earnestly asked for, as three of the laborers have been in Scotch Free Church and the Arab the field thillty-nine years. In their West Central African Mission, Mr. slave-traders. Dr. Kerr Cross wrote, Currie of Bailrudu and Mr. Sanders of Bihe, have explored the regions January 27, that both Consul Hawes north and north-east of their stations. hoping to find a favorable site for a and Consul O'Niell advised the misnew station. In the Central Turkey Mission a delegation of Armenians sionaries to leave the country for six came to the missionary at Zeitoon with a petition, signed by forty months and return with more guns heads of families, begging to be enrolled as Protestants This was in- and plenty of ammunition j others creased afterwards to sixty-five. felt that any absence would mean -Pure Literature. "Much stress was laid at the abandonment of the mission, and would encourage the Arabs, with the the eighty-ninth annual meeting of the Religious consequent discouragement of all native allies. It was finally agrMd 'rract Society, over which Lord Balfour of that the members of the African Lakes Company and Dr. Cross should Burleigh presided, at Exeter Hall, on Friday fortify themselves at Chirenje, and that the consuls should go to the livening, on the work which this great organi- coast and send to the besieged men such reinforcements as were needed. zation has accomplished in the diffusion of pure This was done. The native chiefs adhere to the mission and are bitterly and Interesting, as;well as religious, literature. hostile to the Arabs. It appearsthat it is but a small section of the Arabs The whole number of its issues last year was who have engaged in these slave- trading raids. Dr. Cross is perplexed OTer 76,000,000, and since the formation of the as to what course he shall take. Hith- erto he has taken no part in the society 2,602.390,390, which have been published fighting, offering his services to alIas a surgeon, and he hopes to maintain In 191 languages and dialects. During the twelve this position, and to show that the mission means peace. Unless the stamonths the outlay amounted to 41,7081., the tion is wttacked and defense is neces- sary, he will take no offensive meas- Chairman remarking that the profit in the trade ures. At last accounts the African Lakes Company, which is a commertransactions entirely covered the expensesoC cial and philanthropic company, en- gaged in the work of opening the management, so that all the contributions were region about Lake Nyassa, had re- ceived telegraphic information that devoted to missionary objects. The Re'v. J. Karonge, a station on the northwest coast of the lake, had been reoccu- Piper,for thirteen years a missionary in China and pied, but that the Arabs are still hos- tile, and an attack is apprehended.- Japan, gave illustrations of the value of Chris- Mis8'y Herald.
tian books and tracts among the dense popula- tions of those lands, a large proportion of whom are readers. In .Japan English was th.. vehicle of Buropean civilization, and the works ot -The Transit and Building Fund dead of Havana are buried in the ~aptist cemetery. It is stated that Society of Bishop Taylor's self-sup- eIght thousand persons have applied porting missions makes a financial report for the last four years, or from for membership in the churches though many of these are ignorant July 1, 1884, to March 24, 1888. It of the true qualifications for church shows total receipts of $153,341.24 in membership. the four years, of which $993.16 re- France.-The annual meeting of main on hand, and the rest has been ~xpended, partly for the South Amer- the Societedes Missions Evangeliques, ICan ",,:ork, but chiefiy in Africa. held in Paris, April 19, was supple- Ai giers.-On the 20th oAflNgoievresm, wbe~r mented by a second gathering at 1887, in the suburbs of their Maison des Missions, April 22.
opened the first Presbyterian church Full and delightful services are re- of Northwestern Africa. The beau- po:ted: The re~ent religious awak- ~iful edifice of freestone and marble enmg In connection with their mis- IS the gift of Sir Peter Coats to the sion among the Basutos of South Synod of the United Presbyterian A~ri.c~ furnished matter for special reJOIcmg and gratitude. The number Church of Scotland. of candidates for baptism at Morija had risen by the first of March to Arabia.-The Keith-Falconer Mis- nearly four hundred. Among the ~ebruary baptisms was that of a sion in South Arabia is at last fully sloIsntgersoinfcMe doesahde.sh,SthheeisBmasouretothkainn"O''~ hundred years old. One of the naequipped. Dr. Paterson, the new tive helpers says that he has never heard anyone speak of her love to medical missionary, is in charge, with the Saviour like this woman. Last February a large and fine industrial Mr. Lochhead as his assistant. The, school building was dedicated at Outing, which has been wholly built committee asked the Rev. W. R. by the apprentices of the school W. Gardner, who had volunteered without cost to the French Missionfor Africa, to go to Aden asan ordain- ary Society. edmissionary; and Mr. Gardner who As to the financial situation of the will be presented to the Free Church Society, says their Journal, "the Assembly, with great self-denial gave up long-formed plans to carryon Mr Keith-Falconer's work. .
Assam.-TheChristian Santals who ha:ve. settled ill: Assam have begun a miSSIon of theIr own among a native tribe, the Metsches.
Bolivia.-Bolivia, which has an area of 500,000 square miles and a report is good, but ought to be popUlation of 2,000,000, is without a better." The general expenses amounted to 288,495 francs, and the single Protestant missionary. Two deficit of the year was 5,476 francs. American teachers, encouraged by Bolivian gentlemen and recommend- Greece.-In Greece the Governed by the Presbyterian Board of Mis- ment permits the free distribution of sions, expect soon to establish a the Scriptures, and protects the colschool in La Paz, the capital. porteurs. The gospels in the origi- nal (old) Greek are used as a reading Cuba. – The Southern Baptist book in the higher classes of the Board has sustained a mission in primary schools. Gospel preaching Cuba, which it characterizes as one of the most remarkable works of is yet on a limited scale, owing to modern missions. In little more than two years since the organization of the lack of qualified preachers. the first church, 1,100 have been bap- India.-Malayalam Mission, Tratized. Nine native preachers have been engaged. Daily schools as well vancore. From the annual report Il:s Sunday-schools have been estab- for 1887 in connection with the lIshed. The interest of the people is London Missionary Society, we see that this mission, which com- menced in 1838, and is now under ,~hown by their contributing $4,610 the charge of the Rev. Samuel Ma- m one year. The report says that teer, has a district with an area of almost one-half the population of a:bout 632 square miles and a popula- H~v~na are in sympathy with the tIon of 253,280, congregations nummiSSIon, and that nearly half the bering 46 with 7,241 adherents and 1,026 church members, 55' schools , Jewesses were baptized in Christ and 1,710 scholars, and that the Church, Mount Zion, Jerusalem. native contributions during 1887 This is the largest number ever adamounted to 2,382 rupees. The gos- mitted into the church there at one pel has been proclaimed by both time. Several other candidates are European and native agency; evan- awaiting baptism. The three daughgelistic services have been held; ters of Joseph Rabinowitz, the leader Bible women have faithfully labored of the Hebrew Christian movemont among the women; the medical mis- in south Russia, have lately been sion has actively carried on its opera- baptized.-Presbyterian Journal. tions; and the services of the press -A German paper states that "at have been engaged, issuing maga- Vienna last year 363 Jews became zines, handbills, etc. Christians," and another paper says -The Marathi Mission of the Amer- that "at no period since the first ican Board has increased its list of century have conversions from Judacommunicants from 707 to 1,776 in ism to Christianity been so frequent the last thirteen years. The number as they are at present." who can read has doubled in the Madagascar.-In fourteen years same period, and there has been 700 Protestant chapels have been decided growth in spirituality and built in Madagascar, making the morals. present number 1,200. There are -The Lutheran missions among 8,000 Protestant communicants, and the Tamils of South India amount to all the churches are self-supporting. 14,000 adherents, 22 European mis- The Queen recently attended the sionaries, 12 ordained natives,.6 can- opening of two Christian churches didates, 56 catechists, 241 teachers, at Ambokinanga.
149 schools and 3,653 scholars. Japan.-The different Presbyterian -At the last Calcutta missionary and Congregational churches in Ja- conference, Mr. Ball said: pan, feeling the need of union, have "The most cheering thing in onr work to-day been in correspondence upon the subis the demand for the Scriptures. A Hindu ject,and have reported favorableprogdoctor bought 100 copies of the Gospels recently ress. A constitution has been formed to distribute among his frieuds ; and a still more by a joint committee of seven missionextraordinary fact is that a Hindu priest has aries and thirteen natives. The matbought some Bibles and given them away. The ter will now be left to the action of missionaries who have attended melas this year the churches. -The English and American Episreport au unprecedented sale of Bibles." -Dr. Baumann of the Church copalian missionaries agree to co- Missionary Society recently asked a operate, and will educate their clergy well-known Brahman in Calcutta if in one theological school. he ever read the Bible. The man -Native converts in Japan, with looked at him, and th{'n replied, "I average wages oflessthan twenty-five have read the New Testament 83 cents a day, contributed lastyear $27,- OOOto mission work. During the year, times, and the Old 27." -In the college and schools in 3,640 adults were baptized, making a connection with the Free Church of total membership of 14,815. There Scotland mission at Madras there are are now 193 organized churches, 64 about 1,800 students. of them self-supportmg, 93 native -In Ceylon many high-dass Bud- ministers and 169 theological stu- dhists have joined the SalvationArmy, dents. and two stations have been formed. Mexico. – According to statistics, -It is stated that the Maharajah of there are in Mexico, including all Darbhauga, of Bengal, has given evangelical workers and work, the $25,000 for a hospital and dispensary following elements and agents for in connection with Lady Dufferin's evangelizing this people: 86 centers medical work. His gifts for benevo- of operation, 393 congregations, 48 lent purposes the last eight years foreign missionaries, 44 unordained foreign workers, 43 missionary ladies, reach fully' 1,700, 000. Jews.–:Dr. SomerVIlle of the Free 31 ordained native preachers, 65 Church of Scotland is having extra- unordained natIve preachers, 96 ordinary success in his evangelization teachers, 49 other helpers, 12,000 mission to the Jews of Austria. His communicants, 503 pupils in graded meetings in Vienna were crowded, schools. Besides this, we have ten and a strong impression was made, Protestant papers, and several presses that are actively engaged in scatteras at Prague. -On Christmas eight Jews and iIIg religious literature over the land. Altogether, there have been issued thing like reliable estimates by Ro- 50,000,000 pages of religious literature man Catholics of their strength in in Spanish since Protestantism first pagan lands. We regard with interentered Mexico. There are 10,000,000 est therefore the following figures inhabitants in Mexico; this gives quoted from the Madrid Directory, them five pages of religious literature 1888, apparently with approval, by each. The value of mission property Les Missione Oatholique : is nearly $600,000. "There are in India and Ceylon 1,235,631 Poles.-It is estimated that there Catholics, besides 586,386 under Portnguese are over 70'0,000 Poles in the United States. They are almost universally patronage, 1,722,0.17 in all. 'Adding 1,191,935 in Romanists, are very clannish, and can be reached only by a native min- China, Indo-China, Japan and Corea, there apistry. Mission work in their behalf is but just now receiving the atten- pear to be 2,918,952 Catholics beyond the Indus." tion of Christian societies. This seems remarkable. We can Roman Catholic. – The activity believe it to be near the truth. It is important to remember that Roman and success of Roman Catholic mis- Catholics count all their adherents of sions in the East should not be under- whatever age; also, that they have rated. The total working force of been at work in Eastern lands for the papacy in China/roper, Korea, centuries. When these considera- Japan, Manchoria an Thibet (suze- tions are kept in mind, the results rainties of China), Indo-China and will strike one as proof of wonderful India, is 2,440,481 baptized per~ons, weakness. Only three millions in all 2,639 missionaries and native prIests, Eastern Asia, and they without the 7,293 churches and chapels, 4,469 col- Bible, without religious literature, leges and schools, with 112,359 schol- without a native priesthood, and ars, and 76 theological institutions, without the power to propagate their with 2,746 students. In Syria, of the own faith, but still under foreign 700,000 people accessible by mission- tutelage as much as their ancestors aries, more than one-half recognize were three centuries ago I Surely the Pope of Rome as their spiritual Romanism is not conquering the head, and Jesuits are found in full Asiatic world! force. In fact, Protestant missions in Syria closely resemble missions to -Out of a total population of Roman Catholic countries. At the same time, Protestantism there has 1,549,000 in the Province of Quebec proved strong enough to elicit the active propagandism of the Romish it is shown that there are 1,475,000 church. When the Arabic Bible of Drs. Smith and Van Dyke'lwas com- people professing the Catholic faith, pleted and scattered through Syria, directed by one cardinal, two archthe Jesuits accepted the implied bishops, seven bishops, one apostolic challenge, and, going back to the or- prefect, and 1,546 priests and reiginal Hebrew and Greek Scriptures ligious. There are 957 churches, 28 rather than to the Vulgate, they pro- seminaries and colleges, 232 convents duced an edition of the scriptures in and 69 hospitals. The different ecthree volumes, and in the choicest clesiastical districts into which the and most literarv Arabic; a strange province is divided, are peopled as proceeding Or;t the part. of ~ church follows, by Catholics: Quebec, 729,- which practlCally demes Its own 000; Montreal, 619,000; Ottawa, 137,- Douay version of the Scriptures to its 000. In the Diocese of Quebec there people, and one entirely self~defen are 666 priests, 400 churches, 108 CODsive. This edition of the SCrIptures vents, 18 seminaries and colleges, 25 has been fully circulated, and has hospitals and 1,927 schools.-St. Louis been the means of bringing many to World (Oatholic). the truth; and when Protestantism opened its school and its college at Persia.-In the old Nestorian mis- Beirut, it was closely followed by sion of the American Board, more Romanisthigh schools and the Jesuit converts have been made during the college at Beirut, which are now full last year than in any previous year of pupils, Rome evidently means of the history of the mission. During business, both in eastern and west- last winter's revival, which was conern Asia. ducted wholly by native. pastors, there were over 500 inqUIrers. Of -We are always glad to see any- the 79 students in the college at Oroomiah, 70 are Christians.
Zulu. – Two hundred and thirty- two Zulus were baptized in the Herr- mitnnsberg Mission among the Zulus last year. There are now 1,529 Zulu Christians.
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT
VI…..:….EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS.
Our Indian Mission Schools. teach in the vernacular only with a view of reaching those Indians who cannot have the ad- THE late General Assembly of the vantage of instrnction in English.
Presbyterian Church appointed a 5. A theological class of Indian young men, committee to confer with the Presi- supported wholly by mission fundS, may be trained in the vernaculsr at any missionary dent with reference to the order of school supported in whole or in part by missionthe government virtually prohibiting ary SOCieties, the object being to prepare them for the ministry, whose subse'luent work shall teaching in English in our mis- be confined to preaching unless they are employsion schools. The com~ittee have ed as teachers in remote settlements where Engpromptly discharged the duty as- lish schools are inaccessible. signed them. The President desired 6. These rules are not intended to prevent the to "have submitted in writing such possession or nse by any Indian of the Bible, changes as would be acceptable to the published in the vernacnlar, but such possession Assembly." This was done on a per- or use shall not interfere with the teaching of sonal visit to Washington, and the the English language to the extent and in the result is given by Dr. Thompson, manner hereinbefore directed. Moderator of the Assembly, in a letter to Dr. Field of the Evangelist. Practically this settles the matter- He writes: for the present. The President" fully " • • • He [the President] gave us full met the views of the committee." hearlug and promised an early consideration. I have to-day received the order in its new form, He could not have been expected to and it will be gratifying to our church not only, but to all the churches interested in this work, do more. But we do marvel that to know that the views of the committee have been fully met by the government. the committee wholly ignored the " The President expresses • the hope that the PRINCIPLE involved in this whole conclusion reached, as embodied in the paper herewith sent, will settle the troublesome ques- bungling and extraordinary matter. tion.' We believe it will. It conserves the policy of the goverument to give the Indians a That is the chief offense; the appliknowledge of the English language as rapidly as pOSSible, and it restores to our missionaries their cation of it is of secondary importjust right to teach and preach to the Indians in •the tongue in which they were born.' " ance. The government assumes the ORDER REGULATING THE INSTRUCTION OF IN- RIGHT to regulate mission schools, DIANS. and exercises that right in this very 1. In government schools no text·books and no oral instructiou in the vernacular will be al- " Order." (Read 3d, 4th and 5th lowed, but all text-books and instruction must be in the English language. No departnre from items.) "May be conducted," etc. this rule will be allowed, except when absolutely necessary to rudimentary instruction in Eng- " A theological class of Indian young lish. But it is permitted to read from the Bible in the vernacnlar at the daily opening of school men may be trained," etc. when English is not understood by the pupils. Do we live under the Czar or under 2. In schools where Indian children are placed under contract, or to which the government con- the stars and stripes? tributes in any manner, the same'rule shall be observed in all secular instruction. ReligiOUS The committee should have struck instruction in the vernacular may be allowed in such schools, both by the text-book and orally, at the root of the outrage, and insistprovided not more than one-fourth of the time is devoted to s'lch instruction. ed on a repudiation of the principle 3. In purely mission schools-that is, in schools on which the government has issued toward whose snpport the government contrihutes nothing-rehgious and other instruction everyone of its "Orders." The may he conducted in the manner approved by those who maintain the schools, provided that battle may have to be fought over one-half of the school hours shall be employed in instruction in Enldish. again. Mr. Atkins' place is vacant 4. Only native Indian teachers will be permit- in the Indian Bureau. It is underted to teach otherwise in any Indian vernacular, and these native teachers will only be allowed so stood that Mr. Upshaw seeks. the to teach in schools not supported in whole or in part by the government, and where there are no place, and if he gets it trouble will government or contract schools where English Is taught. These native teachers are allowed to break out afresh. Herbert Welsh, Esq., Secretary of the Indian Rights Association, says: .. The real control of the Indian Bureau since the incoming of the present administration has not been so much in the hands of Secretary La- mar, its distinguished nominal head, or Com· missioner Atkins, as in those of Assistant-Com- missioner Upshaw, a politician of the narrowest type, whose devotion to the spoilS system of ap- pointment has brought the gravest scandal upon the Indian service."
Sorry we are that when this important question was up for adjudi- many leave their fields and work to welcome cation it could not have been settled me and attend services. Don't think all such, in a way to put it forever beyond the and a thousand times as much more, will carry poyver of politician, demagogue, or President to reopen it.-J. M. S. me away. Different motives will be at work, and I claim, without any sham modesty, to know WE take the following from The something about all these things, and also to Missionary for June. We share in the feeling of the editor expressed take them into account. In one word, don't think these people will be baptized in 1887 or in the first paragraph. Certainly we 1888. At the same time it is a glorious, a grand are departing widely from the prac- opportunity. Two men came up for 300 hymntice of the first preachers of the gos- books. If any one should be disappointed at pel. Is not the condition of things results from all this, I. for one, will not be. I in Japan and China to-day quite as will see what I expect, and if God exceeds our favorable for the direct oral preach- expectations, so much the better, and, at auy rate, I will give Him all-all the praise and ing of the Word as it was in any glory, for ever and ever. This is the region part of the Roman empire in Paul's travelled most by me, barefooted, many years day? While it is necessary to lay ago, when going in amongst the savages." broad foundations for permanent fruits, let the church stick closer to WE have received from Robert N.
the letter of her divine commission Cust, LL.D., one of the ablest leadand the example of apostolio days.- ers of missionary thought and life in J.M.S. London, a "Classified Catalogue of "We have thought for some time that one of the chief dangers of mission work lies in the the Missionary Enterprises of all edncational feature, which is allowed often to displace evangelistic efforts. Mr. Du Bose states the Protestant Churches and of the that out of the hundred and more ordained missionaries in Japan, only thirty, perhaps forty, are Greek Orthodox Church in the engaged in preaching. •Little work is done in the towns, villages and hamlets. Preachers World," specially prepared for the listen to the siren voice of the native press urging them to teach school.' recent Missionary Conference at "Missionaries In Japau have spoken with ad- London. It is a work that must miration of the willingness of the Japanese to listen for hours at a time to the preaching of have cost him much and patient in- Christtan truth. This happy feature of the work is not confined to Japan. Dr. Mackay, writing vestigation. It is exhaustive in its from Formosa, says that in preaching at Tek- Cham he had to preach five consecutive sermons fulness. Its permanent value for before the people would disperse. At the end of each discourse the audience said they would reference isvery great. It is the first sit there till he spoke again. attempt to supply a catalogue of this " No missionary among the Chinese has reaped a richer harvest from his work than Dr. nature, and it deserves general recog- Mackay. It is interesting, therefore, to see the estimate he puts upon the work of sowtog. nition and circulation. The extent of • Shall I call the crowds I saw and addressed,' mission organized work, as here he says, writing of one of his evangelistic tours, • the kindness, the welcomes, the apparent in- shown-the names, respective -fields terest, etc., a great movement, an awakening, and connections of no less than 223 a revival? Not so. I have never yet seen here societies being given-will be a surwhat would be called a revival in the West. I prise even to the well-informed. mean in the common acceptation. And I have not seen fruita anywhere during all the past We have space for onlythe abstract: years without hard, hard work, and we have no business to look for fruits unless solid, real, GREAT RRITAIN AND ITS COLOl!lIES. bard, genuine work go before. Taking all in all, I never saw such willingness on the part of Undenominational………………….. f!'f 80 many Chinese as during this trip. I never Episcopal …………………………. 25 saw Buch a tremendous reception; never had so Methodist …………………………. 6 Congregationalist.. .. .. . .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 Presbytertan……………………….. 7 Friends……………………………. % Bible Christian. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . •. . . . . . 1 Baptist……………………………. 2 Plymouth Brethren. .. . •. . . .. .. .. . .. ….. 12 Miscellaneous.. .. .. . . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. . . … 5 Colonisl…………………………… 26 . ~1l3 FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
Germany………………………….. 20 Switzerland……………………….. 4 France ……………………………. 1 Denmark ………………………….. 2 Sweden …………………………… 8 ~~;:r:~:::: ::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::: ~ Netherlands ……………………….. 14 United States (North America) …..•….~ 110 Grand total.. .. ….. .. . •• …. ••.. . . .. 223 God is Marohing On. ization and for Christian missions if ~ Dr. A. J. GORDON, taking Jacob as this array of women reformers and a type of Christ, says: pleaders were all enlisted under the " Our Immanuel has been serving six millen- banner of the Cross, and with singleiums for his bride, the church, and the seventh is close upon us in which I expect the marriage ness of heart were preaching the of the Lamb; and because the thne is short God evangel of spiritual redemption I leems to be iu haste to gather in the guests for Woman's organized power in human the bridal feast. society is for the first time seen and "For quick resuits and large returns there was never .uch an age before. • Man's extremity is felt. Henceforth it will be a tremen- God's opportunity,' we are wont to say. What it I tum it about and reverently say that' God's dous factor in the world's thinking extremity is man's opportunity.' It is such now. He is pushed Cor time; He is straightened and acting. Unhappily, while there for help. He will hire in at the eleventh hour it laborers have not come at the first. He will is much to rejoice in and hope for in take reformed drunkards and converted gam- it, no intelligent observer and stublel'l!, salvation armies and traveling gospelers, dent of the times can avoid grave it only His work can be done before the night fears. At least there is abundant cometh in which no man can work. It Is God's extremity, and therefore man's opportunity. Ob- reason for earnest and constant ligation presses a pound to the square inch where once it pressed an ounce. The Lord is prayer on the part the church· for in a hurry, and It becomes ns, as never before, to be in haste. We have a magnificent oppor- the descent and power of the Holy tunity on this continent, and we have magnifi- Ghost upon these countless rallying cent resources if only we will use them. Let us have done with glorying In our numbers then hosts of female agitators, thinkers and give attention to our opportunitiell. It is and actors in these stirring and not more men, but more man, that the Church of God needs for the accomplishment of His work. eventful times.-J. M. S. John Wesley, looking over the needs of a lost world, made the startling exclamation: 'Give .. The International Couneil of Women, in me a hundred men who fear nothing but God, !lession in the city of Washington Crom March hate nothing bnt sin, and Ilre determined to 25th to April 1st. makes public announcement know nothing among men but Jesns and him that fifty-three different organizations of women crncilled, and I will set the world on Jlre with have been represented on its platform by eightythem.' Therefore 1 exhort that we all, and al- seven speakers and delegates from England, together, do these three thlnga : France, Norway, Denmark, Finland, India, Cansda and the United States. Of all these " (Jqntemplate. Lift up yonr eyes round about, organizations but four are of national scope, and and behold whllt lIelds are white unto the har- three are of national valne. The subjects of vest, what wide and effectual doors are waiting education, philanthropies, temperance, industo be entered. tries, legal conditions, social purity, political conditions and religion have been discussed. "Cin8ecrate. Boast no more of numbers or While no restriction has been placed upon the resources. For' It Is not by might nor by fnJlestexpression of the most widely divergent power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' The views upon these vital questions of the age, it is meekest man among us with the Holy Ghost cause for rejoicing that the sessions, both execuresting upon him is stronger than the strongest. tive and public, have been absolutely without Therefore, through all our borders let us fall on friction. our faces and wait upou God anew for the enduement of the Spirit. .. It is the unanimous voice of the council that all Institutions of learning and of professional "~ntrate. Too long have we been using instruction, including schools of theology, lllw our wonderful prosperity as a magnifying glass and medicine, should, in the interests of hufor enlarging our own importance and so minis- manity, be as freely opened to women as to men; teriug to our self-complaceucy. Let us use It that opportunities for industrial training should henceforth as a burning glass for concentrating b. as generally and liberally provided for one our religious IBlIuence, and bringing it to be&r sex as for the other; and the representatives of upon a perishing world, kindling the love of organized womanhood in this coun~1I will stead- God where now there is only the love of sin and Ily demand that In all avocations in which men seU,80 shall we do our part towards setting the and women engage equal wages shall be paid for world on fire for Christ." equal work, and finally that an enlightened so- ciety should demand, as the only adequate ex- The Great Women's Oounoil, pression of the high civilization which it is its omce to establish and maintain, an identical WHAT a grand power for evangel- st..ndard of personal purity and morality fOl men and women. to Is Christianity a Spent Force? They would not, coul" not, be responsible for what thllY consider my idiosyncracies. What Bishop Huntington of Central New then f Why, down with the brakes I So, in- stead of freedom at the front, to be led by the York preached some time ago to the God of missions, I would be under the command of good men nine thousand miles in the rear." students of Cornell University on the "Courteously and strongly said! text," Ye are the light of the world." Maria Theresa lost Silesia and the seven years' war by thinking to man- We append :ilis closing touching par- age armies in the field from Vienna. Bishop Taylor evidently thinks a agraph: missionary army in Africa cannot be directed at New York by good men "You must be struck with dismay, as I am, at 9,000 miles in the rear. It has a look that way."-Ohristian at Work. the growth of great iniquities, the recklessness of material ambition, the rivalries of gain, the The MiSJ!ioilary Language. excess of pleasure, the terrible prevalence of in- THE rapidity with which the Engtemperance and lust, the prostitution of law, the lish tongue is becoming the com- mon language of the commercial, abuses of the press, the frightful disproportion learned and religiOUS world is note- worthy. Providence iii making it of waste and charity in wealth. Where, my apparent that, as the English-speak- ing nations are to take the lead and brother students, do we take our place? On be the chief factors in commercial supremacy and in the evangelization which side do our uncompromising will and our of the world, so the English language unfiinching courage and.our cheerful self-sacri- is to be the vehicle of thought and civilization-in other words is to befice tell? We cannot throw up the contest with come the Missionary Language of any despairing excuse that our cause has lost its this globe.-J.M.S. leader or its nerve. Test it where the night has The fact that at the recent National Conlasted longest. On the Dark Continent, within gress in India all the speeches and proceedings less time than It takes you to complete your uni- were in English is a striking illustration of the versity cOU1"fe, three pillars of holy fire have wide diffUSIOn of that tongue. There were gathered at Madras seven hundred delegates opened pathways for the feet of the Lord into the from all parts of India, Afghanistan, Nepaul, deserts. As !took my text I laid down a famous and Sclnde. They spoke nme different lanbiography-that of an intellectual English girl, guages, and the English was the only medium through which the proceedings could be satispassing in her early years with honor the most factorily conducted. Great Britain's colonial advanced mathematical examinations by the pa- enterprises have been probably the largest factor in spreading a knowledge of English. It pers of Oxford and Cambridge, rapidly master- is found also that In countries like Java, where Great Britain has no control, the knowledge of ing many sciences aud many languages ; a type English is steadily growing. Not long ago the of our eager modern culture, too, In this, that French language was the medium invariably employed in all international conferences. At the while these conquests for awhile satisfied her last Berlin conference, however, English and mind, they left her heart hungry with unbe- German, as well as French, were employed. The other leadiug languages of Europe have gradulief; yet gradually, rationally confronting all the ally been insisting on recognition on an equal footing with French in their proper domain. It problems fairly on either side, she rose to a clear was Mr. Canning who led the way when at the foreign office he ordered that certain correspondvision of the truth as it is in Christ crucified and ence, hitherto writ~n in French, should be sent in English. .. The time will come," said Bi.- risen, bronght her splendid learning an offering marck in 1863, "when I intend to have all my dispatches written in German, and when I shall at His altar, and in South Africa, with the heroic find means to make them understood even in love of a missionary to the natives, died' in the France." He kept his word, and both the Engcon1!dence of·8 certain faith. ' Far northward, fish and German tongues have profited by the a volunteer or'the Cross from Scotland, vigorous considerable decline of French as the internain every attribute of manliness, makes his solita- tional language of diplomacy and polite society. ry way into the hiding-places of that Ethiopian -New YllI'k Sun. idolatry with the burden of. its salvation on h!s conSCience, and now the kmgdom of heaven .IS THE universality of the movement pressing iu after hi1jl to seek two hundred mil- which originattld and· accomplished lion souls. Just before he died alone there, he the great London Conference is shown wrote in his journal, •My Jesus, my King, my by the fact, that, while the entil'e Life my All' Accept me, and grant that before revenue of all Protestant missions is this' year en'ds I may finish my task I' lA.'ter rather less than $12,500,000 per anstill all over England, on a week-day mortling, num, the societies taking part in the throngs of worshipers of every class, from the Conference have an aggregate anuniversity and the palace to the digger in the nual iMome of fully $10,000,000. ground, gave humble ,!nd hearty tha~ks to God for their graudest soldIer, dead, who m those far quarters of the earth fought, commanded, suffereLdo~pdroayf ehdosatsn.d made peace, in the name of the These are not sigus, my friends, of a spent force, a decaying worship, or an eclipsed faith. "
IN the address of Bishop Taylor be- fore the Methodist Conference, he says: " • Why not work under the missionary com- . mittee f' you will ask. My methods are so di- verse from theirs that the two can't be mixed up in tbe same 01lice any more than can a coal y~rd and a milliner's shop. I am informed on hlgb 01liclal authority that my method8 are wrong, and that I am deceived and deceiving the people.