The Missionary Review of the World — March 1937
MARCH,1937
Changing and Unchanging Things in Foreign Missions Robert E. Speer The American Indian and His Religion Elaine Goodale Eastman What Christ Has Done for Untouchable~ v. s. Azariah A Firebrand for Christ in Iran J. Christy Wilson Japanese Shrines and Emperor Worship By a Resident of Japan Modern Missionary Motives w. B. Anderson Christ, the Church and Modern Youth Daniel A. Poling 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to Remember PLAN NOW to Spend Next Summer's Vacation with
ica's Greatest Theological Teachers. March ll-15-Annual Meeting, Wom- an's Missionary Council, Methodist Winona Lake School of Theology, Winona Lake, Indiana Episcopal Church, South. Colum- bia, S. C. For Ministers. Teachers, Missionaries. Sunday School Workers and Laymen SO May ll-General Conference, United Courses leading to Regular Theological Degrees, Cost Reasonable Free Brethren in Christ, Chambersburg, July 7 to August ll···Two Terms 15 Days Each.•·lnterdenominational Pa. Rooms Evangelical Faith and High Scholarship Combined May 18-21-National Convention of Dr. W. E. Biederwolf. Director (Ask for free Prospectus) Dr. J. A. Huffman. Dean the Evangelical Women's Union, St. Louis, Mo. and of all Christians in order to rid ~!,mn~ the world of leprosy. May 20-25 – Northern Baptist Con- vention, Philadelphia, Pa. *** of tbt May 26 – General Assembly, United Miss Laura M. White, a mIsslOn- Presbyterian Church, Oak Park, Ill. ary in China for over forty years, May 27-General Assembly, Presby- died in Germantown, Pennsylvania, ((bri~tian terian Church in U. S. A., Colum- on January 25. She was born in bus, Ohio. Philadelphia, where she was grad- Obituary Notes uated from Temple University and lLift Mrs. Amy Wilkes Zwemer, the went to China in 1892 under the Womwife of Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer, of an's Foreign Missionary Society of cA. BOOK of worship in song, com- Princeton Theological Seminary, died suddenly of heart disease in New York the Methodist Episcopal Church. For bining a hymnal for general Citv on January 25. Mrs. Zwemer fifteen years she was editor of The was born 71 years ago in Woolver- Christian Literature Soc i e t y of church use, and a song book for evanhampton, England. After being graduated as a registered nurse she served Shanghai. gelistic purposes. Only songs sound in a hospital in Sydney, Australia and *** volunteered for mission work in Bagh- Mrs. Lillie Campbell Orbison, wife in the faith and inspirational in chardad, Iraq. She and Dr. Zwemer were married in Arabia in 1896 and con- of Rev. John H. Orbison, recently a acter included—emphasizing Evangeltinued their missionary service for member of the Punjab Mission of the Moslems, residing in Arabia and Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., died ism, Missions, and the Deeper Life. Egypt until 1930 when Dr. Zwemer on February 5th in Hoshiarpur, India. Many of the new-·-the best of the old. became Professor of Missions and Comparative Religions at Princeton Dr. and Mrs. Orbison were honorably 504 Songs Responsive Readings Theological Seminary. One of Dr. retired in 1932, after nearly fifty Topical Index Gold Embossed Zwemer's daughters, Mrs. C. L. Pickens, is the wife of a missionary in years of service in India. Mrs. Orbi- Published in round notes and Roxite cloth Hangkow, China; two other daugh- son was born in Manayunk, Pa., 78 edition only at $65.00 per 100···an especially ters and a son, Dr. Raymond L. years ago. low price. Single copy, S5c postpaid. Zwemer, of New York, also survive *** the mother. Mrs. Zwemer was author Write today for returnable sample copy of "Two Young Arabs," was joint author of "Topsy Turvy Land," "Zig- Mr. Frank Thompson, who died in Zag Journeys in the Camel Country," and was one of the editors of the CRUSADE SONqS London on November 22, in his 84th volume entitled "Moslem Women." year, was known for his long associa- '" Wellesley C. B'a" ile'"y, founder and tion with Spurgeon's Tabernacle and cA CHOICE selection of 105 hymns and retired secretary of the Mission to its allied institutions. He was also choruses for Revival Services, Bible Con- Lepers, which he founded over sixty years ago, died in Edinburgh, Scot- for nearly a quarter of a century a ferences, and Missionary Conventions. land, on January 28th at the age of member of the Baptist Missionary 90. Mr. Bailey was born in Thorn- Society's General Committee. One Strong manila binding, 15c each; bury, Ireland, on April 27, 1846, was son, Stanley, served in the Congo $12.50 per 100. Carriage extra. educated at Kilkenny College and after a brief period in New Zealand until retired because of broken health; CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS,Inc. became a Presbyterian missionary at another son, Cecil, is Secretary of a Ambala, India. There he opened the British Mission Auxiliary. 1502 North Third Street first missionary leper asylum in 1869. Five years later he founded the Mis- '" '" '" Harrisburg, Pa. sion to Lepers, during his furlough in Ireland, and in 1886 became gen- Sir Andrew Wingate, son of Rev. eral secretary to the Mission, a post Wm. Wingate, missionary to the Rev. Robert Tahupotiki Haddon, which he held until 1917, when he be- Jews, died in Switzerland January 1, Maori chief, died November 5. The came Honorary Superintendent. Mr. at the age of 90. Sir Andrew entered Methodist Times says: "Mr. Haddon Bailey emphasized the necessity for a the Indian Civil Service nearly sev- was a chief of high rank who could threefold objective, preaching the enty years ago, becoming widely trace his ancestry back a millennium. Gospel to lepers, supplying their known as Famine Secretary during He stood over six feet in height, erect simple wants, and relieving their suf- the great South India drought of as a spear, with flashing eyes in a ferings through medical care. Since 1877. On his retirement in 1902, he rugged, kindly countenance. He was then the Mission has sought also to gave himself wholeheartedly to volun- ordained to the native ministry in win the cooperation of governments teer missionary work. He was espe- 1904, and for over thirty years he exercised a faithful ministry. Mr. cially interested in the Bible Society's Haddon twice advocated the claims of activities, in Jewish missions, and in his people in New Zealand Parlia- Anglo-Indian Education. ment.
'" '" '" The Rev. Dr.'"Jam* es*S. Gale, author Dr. Thomas J. Porter, Prof. of of "Korean Sketches" and other vol- Church History at Campinas, Brazil, umes and for forty years a mission-' until his retirement in 1932, died sud- ary of the Presbyterian Church, denly in California, December 26. U. S. A., in Korea, died in Bath, Eng- Dr. Porter was a missionary in Persia land, on J.anuary 31 at the age of from 1889 to 1896, and after a period seventy-five. James Gale was born of iII health took up the professorship in Pilkington, Ontario, graduated from Toronto University and went to at Campinas.
'" '" '" Rev. N. Odinzov, President of the Korea in 1888 as a representative of All-Russia Baptist Union, recently the Y. M. C. A. Three years later he died in the Yaroslaw prison. He had joined the Presbyterian Mission and refused every temptation to renounce retired in 1928. to live in England. his Christian convictions. (Concluded on third cover.)
MISSIONARY Personal
REVIEW OF THE WORLD Dr. Julius .Richter, of Berlin, is TBE DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor now in America, lecturing at the ORI.ENT VOL. LX MARCH,1937 No.3 , Biblical Seminary in New York. In Publication and Business Olllce– Record Time! Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. * * … Mr. William M. Danner, for over Go direct fromVancouver and Editorial and Executive Olllce– Victoria in 10 days by Em- 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. twenty-six years the General Secre- press of Asia or Empress of Entered as second-class matter at Russia. Only 3 more days via tary of the American Mission to Hawaii by Empress of .lapan Post Olllce, Harrisburg, Pa., under Lepers, has been honorably retired. (fastest ship on the Pacific) Act of March 3, 1879. or Empress of Canada. Con- So far as his health permits, he will nect at Honolulu from Cali- 25 cents a copy–$2.50 a year. continue to serve the cause of the fornia ports. Low round-trip Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. fares include passage from Published monthly, except August. lepers by public addresses and in con- and to Seattle. All rights reserved. Copyrighted 1937. British agents – Marshall, Morgan sultation on the affairs of the Mission. ~fI.+ and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, .. * .. For rates and sailings, see 10 shillings a year. YOUR TRAVEL AGENT or Cana- The Rev. Emory Ross has been dian Pacific: New York, Chi- MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB~ ca~o, San Francisco, 38 other LISHING CO., INC. elected General, Secretary of the citIes in U. S. and Canada.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS American Mission to Lepers. He was, ROBERT E. SPEER, President A. L. WARNSHUIB, Vice-President for some sixteen years a missionary in WALTER McDOUGALL, Treasurer DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary the Congo. … …
SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT Rev. T. C. Wu, General Secretary WILLIAM I. ClLumlDRLAIN D. J. FANT of the Chinese Mission to Lepers, has MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD WM. B. LIPPHARD resigned after more than ten years'
Emc M. NORTH service. As leader of the Chinese SAMUEL M. ZWEMER Mission to Lepers he has placed that Editorial Chat work on a high level of efficiency.
The annual meeting of the REVIEW * * … was held on February 18th for the Rev. Thomas Alfred Tripp, of consideration of annual reports and the election of directors for the en- Mystic, Connecticut, has become Assuing year. sociate Director of the Town and *** The June issue of the REVIEW will Country Department of the Church be devoted to the Home Mission study subject for the year, "Christ and Extension Boards of the Congrega- Rural America." (See notice on back cover of this issue.) tional churches. * * .. *** Rev. Ernest E. Grimwood has been Will you help acquaint friends with the REVIEW as a means of increasing appointed Director and Chairman of interest and cooperation in Christ's work throughout the world? Send the Central Asian Mission. Prior to names and addresses to the Circulation Department, 3d and Reily Streets, the War, he served the Mission as Harrisburg, Pa., and we will send honorary secretary and editor and free sample copies. later was honorary secretary of the *** Sudan Interior Mission, which posi- Here are the unsolicited estimates of the value of the REVIEW, received tion he resigned… in No… vember. recently from missionary readers: … "The REVIEWS that you are getting out are exceedingly fine. I do not Rev. William Henry Fonger has think that in all its history THE RE- been elected secretary of the Philip- VIEW has done as good work as it is pine agency of the American Bible doing now, and unless I am very Society, where he has served as actgreatly mistaken God is using it and ing agent since March, 1934. other influences with it, to get the missionary enterprise back on its own *** even keel again." Dr. Roy ,B. Guild and Dr. Worth DR. PAUL W. HARRISON. M. Tippy, Executive Secretaries of Muscat, Arabia. the Federal Council, became emeritus *** on January 1 and they will continue to give part time service to the Coun- "We enjoyed the Africa number of cil through 1937, carrying on certain THE REVIEW and hope that it will be important duties and being available possible for you to have a China number before very long. as counselors. … … …
REV. G. W. ROYALL. Dr. W. B. Bagby, Baptist mission- Shangtung, China. ary to Brazil since 1881, lives to see 600 churches with 50,000 members, five colleges, two seminaries, ,a publi- cation society, a home and foreign mission board carrying the gospel to the far interior of Brazil, to Portugal, and from Portu..g. al… to …Africa.
Dugald Campbell, F.R.G.S., who for several years has been in the serv- ice of the National Bible Society of Scotland, circulating the Scriptures through the Sahara, has found it necessary, from repeated heart at- tacks, to relinquish responsibility at Tamanrasset. This is an important development of the Society's work in the Sahara; it will now be under the direction of M. Jules d'Allmen.
(Concluded on third cover.) [113 ]
by Bureau of American
A RELIGIOUS TORTURE RITE OF THE AMERICAN I;lDIANS OF THE PLAINS THE RAIN DANCE OF THE ZUNI INDIANS OF NE.W MEXICO (See article on "The Amerkan Indian and His Religion," pages 128 to 130) REVIB ORLD VOLUME LX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 3 MARCH,1937 Topics of the ·Times YOUTH – THE GREAT AMERICAN jority .of American yQung people are tQday spir- MISSION FIELD itually illiterate. But just because they are in this conditiQn, From all quarters today is heard the cry fQr revival. Religious leaders are joined by men young people constitute a great and fruitful misprominent in business and professiQnal life in de- sion field. For, whether we who had our educaelaring that modern problems have .their roots in tiQn more than fifteen year,s ago like to admit it moral and spiritual ills. One of the recent addi- or not, our schools and colleges are today almost tions to the chorus insistently calling fQr revival completely secularized. Of course, there are still is Mr. John Edgar Hoover, chief of the Federal a few Christian institutions left, but, compared G-Men. Commenting upon the huge crime bill of with the total student population .of the land, their the nation, he says, "We are in dire need .of a number is very small. President James Bryant spiritual awakening. We must place the rejuve- Conant, Dr. Eliot's successor, once remQved, nation of national morality above mundane am- spoke in his first annual report of the aim of the founders of Harvard and that early Puritan herit- bitions. . . ." age .of the university whereby educatiQn and the- There is nothing very remarkable about such a ology were united. And then with perfect candor statement. Mr. Hoover's work brings him face to he continued, "It is hard fQr us to recapture their face with the fruits .of godlessness. In the great [the Puritans'] point .of view; today, learning has army of youthful criminals he sees the logical re- become secular." And so it has. It has become suIt of the fact that vast numbers of American so secular that President Nicholas Butler, .of Co- parents have heedlessly left God and religion out lumbia, protests as follows in one .of his reports: of their lives and out of their homes. In an essay "So far as tax-supPQrted schools are cQncerned, published in The Atlantic Monthly, in 1924, the an odd situation has been permitted toO arise. The late Pres,ident Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard, separation of Church and State is fundamental in pointed toO the forty or fifty milliQns .of Americans our American political order, but as far as relinot connected with any church or religious or- gious instruction is cQncerned, this princip,le has ganization whatever. After remarking that the been so far departed from as to put the whole children .of such parents receive no religious in- force and influence .of the tax..supported school on struction at home .or abroad and are therefore the side of .one clement .of the population-namely, densely ignorant .of fundamental moralities and that which is pagan and believes in no religion even gQod manners, Dr. Eliot wrote these trench- whatever." ant words: "N0 such experiment on SQ vast aYes, the young people of America are a great scale has ever been tried since time began, as this missionary challenge. And this applies to uniconsiderable fraction of the American people is versity students as well as to secQndary and elenow trying-namely, bringing up their children mentary pupils. As the Editor of this REVIEW without any religious instructiQn." The great remarked, after lunching with some leaders at a New England educator published those words recent Student Volunteer C.onventiQn, the delethirteen years ago. Has the experiment paid? gates were a missionary field in that many .of them Every judge, every minister, every spiritual- had never yet really faced the claims of the Gos:- minded educatQr knows that it has not paid. pel .of Christ? If ever the words of our Lord re- Rather has it cost a dreadful price; the great ma- garding "the fields white unto the harvest" ap- [ 115 ]
plied, they apply to. yQung people tQday. But, line-"The hungry sheep look up and are not fed." thank God, it is a fact that Ameriean youth is Let all missionary-minded Believers in Christ resPQnsive to. the Christian message. Black as the pray and wQrk to the end that the dreadful repicture of s,piritual illiteracy amQng our YQuth proach of a younger generatiQn spiritually starvmay be, it has anQther side. The great missiQn ing in a nominally Christian land may no longer field of American yQuth :is responsive to. Christ! rest upon the Church. FRANK E. GAEBELEIN. When He is truly presented, they listen and as they listen many yield themselves to Him. CHIANG, CHANG AND CHINA This is the mQst encQuraging fact in the reli- Oriental diplomacy is largely unintelligible to gious life Qf our cQuntry today-that the stirrings the Occidental mind, even ,to those who have spent of a spiritual awakening are being felt especially a lif~time in the Far East. China and Japan, in amQng the youth. SQme significant facts substan- any given circumstances, seldom s.ay or do what tiate that statement. First, there are the inter- Great Britain or America WQuld have said Qr denQminational ,summer cQnferences for young dQne, and their explanations of processes and repeQple. At a SCQre of centers throughout the land sults rarely meet Western requirements as to great numbers of students, many of them from lucidity Qr adequacy. colleges or universities, assemble for Bible study and spiritual fellowship, usually fQr periods of a One of the most mysterious and apparently irweek. Anyone who has been a leader in such con- rational performances in recent histQry is the ferences must have been struck with the intellec- sudden "kidnapping" and the unexpected release tual and moral calibre of the delegates and, even Qf Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek, the head of more, with their eager response to. the preaching the Nationalist Armies, together with the surof the sovereign claims of the crucified and risen render, trial and treatment of his erstwhile cap- Christ. To see college men and women, to say tor, Chang Hisiieh Liang, a subordinate officer. nothing of the many high school students who. go The Generalissimo had just ,achieved such marvelto. these cQnferences, enter into a personal rela- ous success in uniting all the provinces of China tionship with the Lord gives Qne new hQpe for a under a central gQvernment, after personally leadcoming revival in America. ing National forces in driving the murderous CQmmunist hordes ,to the northwest borders, that There are also Bible study groups in leading the world, in its reawakened hope that China was universities. A few months ago. the writer had winning a new lease of life, was startled and horthe privilege of 'speaking at a great technological rified, early in December, by the report that institute. He was invited by a Bible study club, Chiang Kai Shek had been seized and held prissponsored by a group of students and faculty. oner by Chang Hsueh Liang, his subordinate of- The meeting was not large, but its very existence ficer in Shensi whom he had gone to consult. Many was remarkable. After it was over a professor of Chiang's military escort were slaughtered at said that it was only the second time he had ever the time and Chang was even reported as brQadseen a speaker with a Bible in his hand on a plat- casting to. the world his execution of the Genform at that institution. And many anQther great eralissimo. educational institution has a similar group of earnest Christian students and faculty, seeking The so-called "Marshal" Chang, son of Chang to. give a real witness for our Lord. Tso Lin, the ex-bandit "War-lord" of Manchuria, unable to hold Manchuria and other territory Again, any .pastor who is preaching the Gospel against the Japanese and for some time in retirewith power to a fun church, will say that his mQst ment, was ostensibly engaged in completing the resPQnsive hearers are his young people. So has suppression of the CQmmunists in Shensi and it ever been. The disciples came to Christ as Kansu. He seems, on the contrary, to have made young men. As young men the greatest mission- common cause with those outlaws in demanding aries have gone out to. preach the -GQspel. for the Communist party a share in ,the govern- ment and cooperation with the gQvernment troops The spiritual illiteracy of American YQuth is an ina crusade to drive out the Japanese. The appalling problem. It is heart-breaking to see seizure of General Chiang was for the purpose . millions of them being educated in bQdy and in of cQmpelling the adoption of ,this PQlicy by the mind, but with spirits starved for want of the Nanking government. Bread of Life and the only thirst-quenching Water of Life. What a challenge this mi'ssiQn Profoundly stirred by the rebellion and es,pefield of youth, in yQur city or town and in mine, cially by the threat against the life of the leader in your very neighbQrhood, makes upon us to to. whom all were looking for the safety of China, whom God has entrusted the only Message that the Nanking authorities despatched large fQrces can give our young people the joy and fruitful- fQr Chiang's rescue, but hesitated to. apply force ness of the new life in Chdst Jesus. In his great immediately lest it provoke his murder. Negotiaelegy, "Lycidas," John MiltQn has this poignant
TOPICS OF THE TIMES
tions w1th the rebels were undertaken and Mad- times, as heretofore, but something very near personal ame Chiang, with her brother T. V. Soong, flew concern for the safety of an admired, if not loved, figure. to Sian, the capital of Shensi, to intercede on the Our teacher, who came to Nanking rabidly anti-Chiang Generalissimo's behalf. On Christmas Day came three years ago, was so upset that he could not eat or sle'ep the word that not only had Chiang been freed but and was ready to weep. He said, "If only people knew that he was flying to Nanking with his captor! how much Chiang has done for the country!" Most of On their arrival both professed "penitence": the students were fearfully depressed and then went wild Chang for the rebellion and Chiang for the lax- when the news of Chiang's safety came. There are thouness of discipline which had rendered that rebel- sands who would be only too glad to kill Chang (Hsueh lion possible. Chang was tried, convicted, and Liang). pardoned, but retained in custody, while Chiang retired ;to his old home in Chekiang "for a rest." It is impossible to apportion the measure of Recent reports, like the earlier ones, are sadly tragedy and of melodrama in this whole series of conflicting. On the one hand they visualize a events. We may never know how much blood was concentration and stiffening of the rebellion actually shed or how serious was the actual threat under the leadership of Communist generals and of Chang Hsiieh Liang .against the life of his under the inflammatory radio broadcas,ts of a superior officer; but this much seems evident that woman radical from America. On the other hand not only China but the world has been led to realthey present a picture of the surrounding of rebel ize how much Chiang Kai Shek has already acstrongholds by government troops and the nego- complished toward the rehabilitation of China and tiation, at Sian, of peace ,to be secured by the how indi'spensable is his continued activity for withdrawal of all forces opposing the government. the completion of that enormous task. He has Only time will disclose the actual facts, or per- long been hampered by internal jealous.ies and haps only a small proportion of them. ambitions and by Japan's unwillingness to see China become a strong nation. China and the As to the missionaries of Shensi and Kansu, world shuddered at the reports of Chiang Kaireports have indicated their widespread peril, Shek's capture and execution; China and the with 'some of them held in Sian as hostages, world, in spite of the mystery of the transactions groups of rescuers were proceeding from Peiping at Sian, have exulted in the outcome'with its prosand elsewhere for their relief. By airplane and pect of better days to come. Once more China and the world have been made conscious of the other transportation many have left Shensi.* fact that, not only the Generalissimo and his wife, but also most of the other Chinese, prominent in Letters written at Nanking immediately after the building of the New China, find in Christianthe release of the captive Generalissimo give ity not only their own hope but the supreme hope forceful expression to the universal joy: for the future of the nation.
The word just received of Chiang Kai Shek's safe ar- COURTENAY H. FENN. rival in Loyang (Honan) was the most longed-for and welcomed of all Christmas gifts. The whole city and coun- WHEN DISASTER COMES try has been wild with joy. No one can realize how both he and Madame Chiang have endeared themselves to the Recent floods have devastated large portions of Chinese people. The loyalty and affection which is felt the Ohio Valley by raising the river level over for them is such as no one in China has ever before ex- sixty feet and have also threatened those 500,000 perienced. Just an hour ago the sky above us was filled people who live along the banks of the Mississippi, with airplanes going out to greet General Chiang ashe in the 1,200 miles from Cairo to the Gulf. It is returns to the city. Firecrackers are popping everywhere; reported that there is over $700,000,000 damage the streets are crowded with eager faces and the vicinity to property; nearly 1,000,000 people have temof the airdrome is filled with the joyful crowd waiting to porarily been driven from their homes, business greet the leader of China. has been disrupted, churches and schools inun- dated, and as a result over 500 people have died *** by drowning, accident, exposure or disease.
The situation at Sianfu (Shensi) has cast a pall of It seems incredible that with one hundred and gloom over everyone. So you can imagine our joy at six sixty years of national history, with immense o'clock Christmas Day at hearing that Chiang was safe wealth, great unemployed man-power, most modand in Loyang. The city went wild, with the streets ern powerful machinery, and efficient managers j.ammed with people and a din of firecrackers. It was a 'Of big business, no way has yet been found to perfect Christmas gift for the Government and many of prevent such destruction of life and property and the people. Indeed the most remarkable thing about the such disruption of national life. Some steps have whole affair has been the unprecedented concern of the been taken by certain towns and cities along the man on the street. I've never seen anything like it before Ohio, .as by Dayton, Ohio, and along the Missisin China. It was not fear of looting or financial hard sippi River, and $325,000,000 have recently been • Newspaper reports indicate that in the settlement with Communists and with Yang's and Chang's forces, the Nanking Government has recognized Communist control in North Shensi (where Swedish Baptists have a station), and gives Yang Fu-Cheng control over a central section where the Scandinavian Alliance Mission (C. 1. M.) has several stations. In Kansu, under the control of Chang's ex- Manchurian armies, there are stations of the Scandinavian Alliance, Assemblies of God, Christian and Missionary Alliance, and Tibetan Tribes Mission.-Ep~TOll,
expended by the United States Government in and coordination of all life. Some nations claim flood-control work on the Mississippi. that this ideal can be reached by strong military measures, some by the rule of the proletariat, But while levees and spillways have proved some by human dictatorship and a totalitarian their value, they do not solve the problem. The State. Christians know that the solution is in the floods carry off top-soil, which the raging torrents recognition of the sovereignty of the Almighty, bring down and deposit in such abundance that the all-wise and loving God, as revealed through Jesus bottoms of the riverbeds are continually rising Christ as the Way, the Truth, the Life. The pracand levees must be built higher and higher. Pitts- tice and the making known of this Way of Life burgh, Cincinnati, Cairo and Louisville are among is what constitutes the reason for existence of the the large cities that have suffered and President Christian Church. Is there any doubt that Amer- Roosevelt placed the entire Government on a "war ica and every other country in the world needs basis" to administer relief to the stricken areas true missionaries of Christ? – rushing airplanes, trucks, troops, doctors, nurses and conservation workers to the scene. CHURCH GROWTH IN CHOSEN As in other cases of sickness, sorrow and loss, The growth of Christianity among Koreans is Christians are not exempt. Churches, parsonages, one of the most enheartening evidences of the schools, homes and business, belonging to follow- work of God's spirit in the world. In the Presers of Christ, suffer with the people and property byterian Church alone there has been a growth who do not recognize Him. This causes some of of 75 % in the past six years-compare that with feebler faith to question the love of God or His a 10% growth of members in Presbyterian and power to protect His own. But the situation is Methodist churches of the United States. not new. Followers of God have always suffered with their fellow men who are unbelievers, but the In Chosen there were only 150 "adherents" remoral and spiritual effects on the two classes are corded for Presbyterian missions in 1890, six not the same. Disasters and trouble draw some men to God and turn their thoughts to the great years after the work was started. During the abiding realities, to the things that make earthly life effective and they have the assurance of next ten years the number increased to 13,569 or Eternal Life beyond this. Distress and disaster also develop human sympathy and sacrificial serv- 9000 %. Since 1900 the work has steadily grown ice, as has been shown so often. Sickness and calamity always stimulate human minds to study until now the adherents number 341,700-and the preventive measures, and to apply remedies. New cities and new men rise on the ruins of the old, Church is self-supporting and self-governing with when there is a vision of better and more abiding things. "No affliction (chastening) for the pres- its own Presbyteries and General Assembly. From ent seemeth to be joyous but grievous-nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceful fruit of 1930 to 1936 the church growth, as stated, was righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." seventy-five per cent in the number of Koreans on But if blessing comes through physical disaster Presbyterian church rolls. Adherents include bapwhat shall be said of sorrows, destruction and death that come through human selfishness and tized church members, enrolled catechumens, chilcruelty. In Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Japan and elsewhere the self-will of the natural man that dren and regular attendants at church services. is "at enmity with God, and is not subject to the law of God," brings untold suffering and loss. In The roll of baptized communicant members has America the reign of lawlessness in criminals; the selfish disregard of human rights on the part increased from 100 in 1890 to 112,987 in 1936. of many employers and employees; the selfish weakness of many unemployed; the strikers that The net gain for each decade has been from refuse to work, or to allow others to work-all 331;2% to 3600% in membership. The number add to the present nation-wide unrest and suffering. Even the most materialistic thinkers are of churches has grown from three in 1890 to coming to realize that what this nation needs, and every other nation, community and individual, is about 3,600 in 1936, with 3,254 church buildings. an all-wise, benevolent and all powerful Ruler who will insure righteous laws, impartial justice, There are nearly 19,000 unsalaried Korean evanunselfish and wise officials, and effective control gelists and local church leaders and the Sunday school pupils number about 35,000. Christian Endeavor societies report 37,695 members. The church contributions for the year 1936 amounted on the average to ten days' wages per member.
How about America? .
One of the most vital factors in the life of the Church in Chosen is found in the Bible institutes held at various times in the year. These bring together over 182,000 Korean Christians – one- half the church membership-for from one to six weeks for Bible study, prayer and training for Christian work. Is it any wonder that the Church is alive and grows?
and Unchanging Things I•n
Foreign Missions* l By ROBERT E. SPEER, New York -"-If:1~. ,-;;;;_""==A""ut""h""O",,r""0,,,,'"""""C""h""rCi""sht""ri.ai"s"nt""R"t"oe""a"M"li""tei",,e"s"",'"e,,'"t"c".""T""he=M""e""a""nt""'n,,,,g""O""'==-:.I}3e– T ET me begin rather indirectly. Some time ago deeper problem – which is the real one – is our L there appeared in the International Review relationship to history and experience. of Missions a review of a volume entitled There are those who thrust their heads into the "The Finality of Jesus Christ." It was a some- sand and say that there is no such relation, that what severe review and culminated in the criti- the imaginary present is wholly separable from cism that the book represented "the Presbyterian the past. Shortly after the World War a little orthodoxy of fifty years ago." Some time later group of students in one of our eastern univer- the publisher of this volume issued another book sities, feeling greatly bewildered and confused, by the same author which he sought to have ac- went off for a week-end retreat, and invited with cepted by one of the committees recommending them as a senior counsellor the late Dr. James monthly books to the reading public. He told me Harvey Robinson. One of the boys told me after- that the member of the committee of selection wards that in his first talk Dr. Robinson unequiv- whom he had approached remarked in reply that ocally advised them "to cut loose from every idea the writer of the book "was a good fellow but he and institution of the past." Some time after- was a hundred years behind the times." ward I was talking with the president of one of I am rather well acquainted with the author of our largest railway systems with regard to one both these books-somewhat too well acquainted of our best-known American preachers, for whom -and I know that his only complaint with regard my new acquaintance was expressing the greatest to these criticisms is that they make him out en- admiration, on the ground that he had no respect tirely too much of a modernist! His purpose in whatever for the past and, frankly abandoning the first book was not to set forth the orthodoxy its positions, was striking out on wholly new of fifty years ago but to go much farther back and ideas.
to declare what he believed to be the orthodoxy To these two illustrations let me add one more, of the New Testament. And so far from being namely a full-page advertisement of a fortnight only a hundred years behind the times his earnest ago of the Bernarr Macfadden pulp magazines effort had been to get wholly behind them, be- which declared that these magazines were "keyed hind all time, and to set forth the eternal truth to the present and future" and not to the past. which is beneath time and beyond time. Pulp is a material which has no past. It is a sort of mushroom product and is a fitting material on The question here of perennial interest is of which to print magazines which instantly on course the question of the relation between the their publication vanish into the past which they present and the past. In a sense, to be sure, any despise. such issue is purely fictitious, for what we call the present is a vanishing line. It is simply the fu- These illustrations will suffice. What a queer ture flashing by into the past. In reality, the and yet entirely natural reaction they represent! present is nothing but a compound of the imme- A few years ago the dominant formulas of diate past and the proximate future. The ques- thought were "heredity" and "determinism"; tion is how much of each enters into what we call they bound us hand and foot to the past. Now we the present. I suspect that the ratio differs with are swinging to the opposite extreme. But what different people but that in general the present is an utterly impossible view the new view is! Dr. simply a word for the period made up of perhaps Robinson was advising the boys to reject every seventy-five per cent of the immediate past and idea and institution of the past. I suspect that if twenty-five per cent of the proximate future. The they had looked at him carefully they would have • President's address, somewhat abridged, delivered at the Forty- seen a twinkle in his eye and his tongue in his AfomuretrhicaA, n(n.uJaanl uSaeryssiIoi ntoof8,th1e93F7o)r.eign Missions Conference of North cheek. He was giving them this advice through [119 ]
a language which was the supreme embodiment maica and Sierra Leone and then at home had and achievement of the past; and his chief instru- done his work in the destruction of British slavment of action as an author was books produced ery, and who represented in his own mind and and circulated by means of inventions of the past. character the great Christian tradition of his race. "Some, perhaps," said Trevelyan, "will re- The railroad president wanted the past re- gard such motives as old-fashioned and such conjected. What would his board of directors have victions as out of date; but self-abnegation, selfsaid if he had proposed that the capital of the road control, and self-knowledge that do not give to accumulated in the past, its rolling stock manu- self the benefit of any doubt, are virtues that are factured in the past, its right-of-way acquired in not old fashioned, and for which as time goes on the past, should all be discarded and the road be- the world is likely to have as much need as ever." gin anew? The other quotation is from "The Life and Let- Would our friend, the book-recommender, pro- ters of Thomas Hardy." "Conservatism," wrote pose to discard everything more than a hundred Hardy, "is not estimable in itself, nor is change years old-Shakespeare and Milton, Raphael and or radicalism. To conserve the existing good, to Michelangelo, Plato and Phidias and Homer? supplant the existing bad by good, is to act on a What silly talk this is and how utterly stupid in true political principle which is neither conservaits failure to realize that time is not mechanical tive nor radical." but organic; that the present is only the projected and continuing past; and that the past, so All this just as background for the theme on far from being closed and complete, is all open which I wish to speak, namely, "Some of the and contingent, waiting for the full determination Changing and Unchanging Things in Foreign of its character upon the loyalty or disloyalty of Missions." the present and the future. Changing Personnel At Northfield long ago one of the best loved and most original veterans of the Civil War, the late Of the changing things, each one will be think- Chaplain Henry Clay Trumbull, made the Fourth ing first of the changing personnel. In this comof July address on the theme "Our Duty to Make pany there is not one person besides myself who the Past a Success." He took his text from the was present at the first of these conferences forty- Epistle to the Hebrews where, after the great roll four years ago. The conferences began at the inof the heroes and heroines of Israel's history, the stance of the Committee on Foreign Missions of writer declares: "And these, all having obtained the Western Section of the Alliance of the Rea good report through faith, received not the formed Churches holding the Presbyterian syspromise; God having provided some better thing tem. That committee called a conference of the for us, that they without us should not be made representatives of the Foreign Mission Boards of perfect." the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches of the Uuited States and Canada to meet on January 11, So! How often during this past football sea- 1893, at the old Presbyterian Mission House on son did we see the ball on the five-yard line, with the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twelfth Street in the whole stadium seething with excitement, with New York City. There were present 38 repreone team seeking to carry the ball the last five sentatives of the eight boards of these Presbyyards and the other team resisting with every terian and Reformed Churches. There are only ounce of its power. How did the ball get there, two survivors of this group- Dr. Avison, who if the past is of no consequence? On that phi- has just retired from his rich service as a medical losophy, why not take it back to the middle of the missionary in Chosen, and myself. The following field where it will stay forever, on the theory that day there met in the same place 78 representathe present is to have no use for the past? All tives of the 23 foreign mission agencies of that the struggle that went before was futile unless day, including almost everyone of our denominanow in this fleeting moment the present does its tional boards and also the China Inland Mission duty to the past and fulfils its own mission in the and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The discharge of its trust. Lutheran Church was not represented at the first conference but was present at the second and . Noble things the great past promised, thereafter in the person of a grand Christian Holy qreams both strange and true; man, Dr. Scholl. – There are only five survivors of the 78 delegates at this first conference-Dr. Avi- But thE{present shall fulfill them, son, Dr. Mott, Dr. Campbell White, William D. What he promised she shall do. Murray and myself. The names of almost all who were present come back to me now: Dr. N. G. All can be found in two noble quotations from Clark, Dr. A. C. Thompson, Dr. Judson Smith of two books I have just read. The first is from the American Board; Dr. Duncan, and Dr. Henry Trevelyan's "Life of Macaulay," regarded as one of the half-dozen great biographies in the English tongue. Trevelyan is speaking of Zechary Macaulay, Lord Macaulay's father, who in Ja-
CHANGING AND UNCHANGING THINGS IN FOREIGN MISSIONS
C. Mabie of the American Baptist Missionary who came to perpetuate the ministry of Christ Union; Dr. Tucker of the Southern Baptists; Mr. and to make the Christian Church the most tire- Kimber and Dr. Satterlee of the Episcopal Board; less, the most inventive, the most persistent, the Dr. Stephen C. Baldwin, Dr. A. B. Leonard and most persuasive agency of human history.
Dr. Peck and Dr. Walter R. Lambuth from the I have seen so many attitudes change, and so two Methodist Churches; Dr. R. M. Sommerville many issues rise and disappear, that I can view of the Reformed Presbyterian Church; Dr. Henry with a calm mind many of the eddies and drifts N. Cobb of the Reformed Church in America; of the present day. I was a schoolboy in Phillips Dr. Dales and Dr. Barr of the United Presby- Academy at the height of the Andover contro- terian; from Canada came Dr. Sutherland, Dr. versy and the contention in the American Board MacLaren, Dr. R. P. Mackay, John Charlton and over the question of the "second probation." We others. Most of the glorious company whom we have seen the humanism of the last generation met in these conferences across these forty-four rise and begin to pass, and have heard Berdyaev years are gone now. How fast they pass! Soon and many another sing its requiem. Professor the new generation will be taking our places. Julius Richter, on his last visit, described with Not only does the personnel of missionary humorous disdain the burial in Germany of many workers at home change but how fast has changed of the philosophies which had been born and had also the roll of missionaries. We could profitably died there and which were still influencing thought recall tonight the men and women who have gone in America. We have all seen the rise of the out from our churches, served the three genera- Barthian emphasis, which surely is not the whole tions of our foreign mission history by the will of of the Gospel but is an essential recovery of cer- God and who are engaged now in an ampler serv- tain aspects of truth which will not be so easily ice and an immortal liberty. lost again.
One would also recall the great list of national Some of our changes of attitude are not as great leaders; Dr. Schneder and I were speaking today as we sometimes suppose. In the January issue of that company of powerful personalities which of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD I founded the Christian Church in Japan and were quoted the substance of a letter which the late remembering the three survivors who are still Dr. J. P. Jones wrote to The Harvest Field in with us-Ibuka, Kozaki and Ebina. We sorely India in 1903. He was one of the wisest and miss the men who have gone-Goreh and Chat- ablest missionaries of his time. After he had terjee, Arcadio Morales and Alvaro Reis, Eduardo been traveling among the churches on furlough, Pereira and Erasmo Braga, and scores of others he wrote for his friends in India his impressions who were with us and are not with us now, save of the missionary situation in the home church.
in the invisible company. The personnel of our If he were describing the situation today his de- missionary enterprise changes fast, and this scription would not differ greatly from his ac- change alone brings with it the inevitable changes count of what he found a whole generation ago.
due to new times and new duties and the new per- There have been changes of emphasis and of atti- sonalities which rise with them. tude, but the essential issues have not changed so The Changing Methods much as some suppose. The change of attitude has probably been far The methods of the missionary enterprise have greater on many of the mission fields. The non- also changed and are ever changing. Perhaps Christian religions have changed as Christianity these changes have not been as great as we some- has not. Noone can overestimate the radical times suppose, or as we might desire. There are changes they have undergone and are undergoing.
new forms of evangelism, by newspaper adver- I have been reading the issues of the Bombay tising and radio (still in its infancy as a mis- Guardian under the editorship of George Bowen.
sionary method), and some old activities, such as He was one of the most remarkable Christian per- street and chapel preaching, are less practised sonalities of the nineteenth century-remarkable than they were. Many of us feel that the change for his intellectual ability and cultivation, for his has been too great in the diminution of mission- spiritual character, for his personal influence.
ary itineration. But the great basic method of The Bombay Guardian under his editorship was human influence and persuasion cannot change. one of the ablest religious papers in the world.
Preaching, teaching and healing were the meth- It is interesting to read today the articles on reli- ods of our Lord and they are the obvious and per- gious life and thought in India in his day; on manent methods of evangelism. One would like Hinduism and the reform movements, and to note to see still more ingenuity, more fertility of inven- the almost incredible changes which have come tion; not more reliance upon the promotional about in the past half century since Bowen wrote.
methods of modern exploitation but far more re- I do not remember Mazoomdar's visit to the West, sponse to the suggestions of that Living Spirit but I remember the swath cut by Swami Viva-
kananda. Many a Swami has followed in the conditions which the missionary enterprise had path which he blazed, all of them unconsciously to meet seventy-five or a hundred years ago-con- witnessing and contributing to the doom of that ditions of ignorance, of prejudice, or of racial and which they were seeking to preserve. And all religious selfishness. We are lacking today the these changes of past attitude are only predictions tidal wave of interest and sympathy which we had of further changes, not all of which will be for a generation ago in the old Laymen's Missionary good but none of which do we fear. Movement. Those who did not feel the hopeful The Changing Problems joyous surge of that spontaneous movement among the laymen of our churches cannot appre- Problems also have changed and will change; ciate what we have lost. Our new problem is to most of them superficially, but some fundamen- know what can take the place of such movements, tally. The political problem has changed greatly how the missionary enterprise can be so formu- within my memory. Mr. H. V. Morton's book, "In lated and so presented now as to draw forth the the Steps of St. Paul," reveals the change in the resources needed for the new opportunities.
freedom of the missionary movement since Paul's Changing Opportunities day. Paul was able to pass from Jerusalem to Spain without a passport, crossing no interna- Of the many changing things which I might tional boundaries on his way. Mr. Morton speaks mention, I will speak only of the changing oppor- of the contrast in his own experience, in passing tunities and resistances which are upon us and only from Antioch to Rome. ahead of us. Nobody any longer talks of the "im- In the last fifty years there has been a vast movable nations" as they were described in Rob- change for the worse in this matter of the free- ert Barr's book, "The Unchanging East." That dom and trustfulness of human intercourse. was the commonplace idea in regard to Asia fifty When I first visited Asia forty years ago it was years ago. One of the most authentic books of not necessary to get any vises on passports, and that time was "Asia and Europe," by Meredith we were not asked to show our passports more Townsend, who lived for years in India and suc- than two or three times in crossing a dozen or ceeded George Smith, Sir George Adams Smith's more nations. Now at every national boundary father, as editor of The Friend of India. Then he the barriers stand. We have lost the freedom of returned to England to succeed Richard Holt world movement of the Roman Empire, but alas, Hutton as editor of The London Spectator in the we have got back its worst political principle in days when the Spectator was one of the three most the deification of the State. Mr. Michael Williams, influential journals printed in the English lan- editor of The Commonweal, has pointed out the guage. No man was better informed regarding fact that the old concept of the "Cresar-god" is the relationships of the East and the West, and back again, with all its ominous significance as to yet the unchanging and yet constantly varying the relationship of the State to the freedom of the thesis of his book was the unchangeability of Asia.
human spirit. This problem of religious liberty Townsend held that Asiatrc races were sterile; has taken on accordingly a new aspect. I am not they had had their history. They were burnt out referring to the issue of missionary freedom, al- and no movements of living change could be gen- though that is significant enough. I am thinking erated among them. What must Mr. Townsend of those principles of religious liberty which we think as he looks down today upon the peoples of believe to be of universal validity and to enshrine Asia, representing one-half the population of the the basic rights of the human spirit. world, swung completely away from the old moor- It would be well for all of us to read some of ings, which he thought were perpetual, and that the recent books which deal with this issue, such are now adrift before mighty tempests on the vast as Christopher Dawson's "Religion in the Modern waters of time!
State" ; Adolph Keller's "Church and State in These nations have not changed more than Contemporary Europe"; William Adams Brown's some of our Western nations have changed; "Church and State in Contemporary America"; among them no change has been greater than the and Carl Heim's "The Church of Christ and the place of our own among the nations of the world.
Problems of the World Today." We have no time I remember well my first crossing of the boundary to discuss this here but it is a very different prob- between Persia and Mesopotamia, then under the lem today from what it was fifty years ago. Our rule of Turkey, just forty years ago. We were present situation is a throw back to darker days held up in the villages of Khanikin and Kasr-i- from which we had hoped we had escaped forever. Shirin by a Turkish quarantine. It was an in- Weare confronting another set of new prob- teresting place, near the old palaces of the lems in the promotional work of the missionary Khosroes. Mrs. Speer and I sat on those great enterprise at home. In one sense these problems terraces, where the marble pillars had held their are not new; they represent simply the revival of marble roofs, and recalled Browning's "Love
CHANGING AND UNCHANGING THINGS IN FOREIGN MISSIONS
Among the Ruins." When at last the quarantine India now than there were in the entire world in was lifted, for almost the only time on that trip, the year 300. There come to my mind again the we showed our passports to the Turkish officials. names of the leaders of these churches, of whom They gathered around Mr. Hawkes of Hamedan I was speaking a little while ago, men and women who had brought us to the border, and we over- who are the peers of any in our Christian heard in their discussion the words "Yangi churches in the West and with whom we rejoice Dunia." I supposed it was some barbarism for to step forth, brother clasping the hand of "Yankee Doodle" but we learned from Mr. brother, fearless amid the welcome changes of the Hawkes that they were the Turkish words for new days. "New World." The dispute was as to whether there really was any such country as the United Things That Do Not Change States of America and if so where it was and what it was. In those days the sight of the Amer- Now one rej oices to turn from these, and the ican flag was a rarity, and only once or twice in innumerable other changing things representing the waters of Asia did we see it on any American both gain and loss, to the consideration of some ship. As one goes across the world today no of the things that do not change. words can exaggerate the difference, whether it be for good or for ill, in the knowledge and in- First there is God, the same from everlasting fluence of America. to everlasting. I recall most vividly the meeting of the general War-time Commission of the To this plasticity of the fixed nations, and to Churches in Washington, during the World War. this unlimited influence of our country, one adds There were three speakers, Archbishop Soderblom the amazing change represented in the rise of of Sweden, Bishop Gore of England, and Dr. the Christian Church. There is enough to dis- Harry Emerson Fosdick of America. Who that courage us in the problems of self-support, true heard those three notable addresses could ever independence, literacy, and self-propagation, and forget them! Dr. Fosdick had just come back the true spirit of autonomy in these churches. I from France and closed his address by quoting have seen the abandoned parasite churches which the familiar hymn which was the favorite of Engdied when the subsidies failed. But these discour- lish-speaking soldiers from whatever land, "Abide agements are offset tenfold by the miraculous with me, fast falls the eventide." Standing out· growth and progress of these past years. How for the soldier most distinctly were the lines, easy it would be to recite many concrete evidences "Change and decay in all around I see; 0 Thou of the change. I know of hardly anyone more who changest not, abide with me." Thank God, dramatic than the Lushai choir. Half a century He is unchanging. ago the Lushai people lived in terror and suspicion of each other. "Chief rose against chief, village Turn back again and read sometime Bishop against village. Prisoners were taken and car- Brent's address on next to the last evening of the ried back in triumph by the conquerors who used Edinburgh Missionary Conference in 1910 on the them as serfs, or cut off their heads and put them theme "The Sufficiency of God." Time swings by on poles outside the villages. The Lushais were in its ever rolling stream, bringing its unceasing head-hunters. When they died those who had the change; but this work that we are doing, however required number of heads were allowed to enter much its form and conditions may shift from year the Lushai paradise." Today there are 300 Chris- to year, is mortised in One who changes not. tian churches among them with 50,000 members, and the Lushai choir travels all over India singing o God, the rock of ages, Gaul's "Holy City" and Handel's "Messiah" as well as they can be sung by the great choirs of Who evermore hast been, the West. What time the tempest rages, About a year ago we celebrated the jubilee of Our dwelling place serene; missions in Chosen. I was in Korea shortly after the organization of the first church in Pyengyang Before Thy first creations, and could appreciate the feelings of Dr. Samuel Moffatt who founded that church as he watched o Lord, the same as now, the jubilee procession of Christians seven miles long and could reflect that there are more Chris- To endless generations tians in Chosen today than there were in the The everlasting Thou. Roman Empire at the end of the first century. The last news bulletin of the United Lutheran This metaphor of the rock, which the Old Testa- Church called attention to the fact that according ment used with regard to God, is equally relevant to the last census there are more Christians in and came naturally to the thought of the writers of the New Testament, with regard to Jesus Christ. He is "the same yesterday, today and forever." I do not say that He must be the same to us. If He is what the New Testament repre- sents Him to be, and what we believe Him to be -the fullness of the Godhead, in whom are hid all the riches of grace and knowledge-then He cannot merely be to us the same from day to day,
but must every day be something more, as we two of the ablest Greek scholars in England, Sir grow in the knowledge of God in Him, and move Edwin Hoskyns and Noel Davey. There has been "in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of no more thoroughgoing acceptance of the analyt- the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the ical criticism of the synoptic Gospels than this. measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." But its conclusion is that, dissect the Gospels as We want no misunderstanding of our position; you please, you will have, when you come to your whatever the materials or the plans of our build- most destructive end, a Person from whom there ing, there is one unchanged and unchanging foun- is no escape, One who believed Himself to be God dation on which we bUild. Everything else may and whose belief His disciples shared. It is inter- shift and alter but not this. We thank God for esting to note that, in the hands of some, the Grundterg's noble Lutheran hymn: "form criticism" of the Gospels is taking this same reverse turn. It was formerly held that the evan- Built on a Rock the Church doth stand gelists had overdrawn the picture of Jesus, that Even when steeples are falling. love and devotion had read into the story what was not there. But now there are those who hold Crumbled have spires in every land that the evangelists underdrew the picture, and Bells are still pealing and calling. that Jesus, being what He was, it was inevitable that His picture should be underdrawn; th8t do Let the steeples fall if they will, and more surely their best, men could do nothing more than touch still the minarets and the pagodas and the towers, as it were but the hem of His garment. "Jesus but the great Rock Foundation stands is greater than the traditions about him," says Deissmann, and I think that we are on the thresh- Whereon our feet were set by sovereign grace, old of a day when the godlikeness of Jesus will Nor life, nor death, with all their agitation displace, perhaps overmuch, the humanitarian Shall thence remove us if we see His face. interpretations of His person. Let the interpre- tations come and go-He is what He has always One of the greatest services ever rendered by been, and we stand on His unchangeable reality, our friend Dr. William Douglass Mackenzie, who Son of God and Son of Man. belonged by birthright and conviction in this fel- lowship, was the work he did in his latest book, Onr Unchanging Faith "The Christ of the Christian Faith." In the .finality, the absoluteness, the sufficiency, the Our fourth great unchanging inheritance is our uniqueness, of this supreme Personality the mis- common catholic faith. Weare often reproached sionary enterprise believes, and here it unalter- with our divisions and disagreements but as a ably stands. matter of fact these are trivial in comparison with the broad basic unity of our common Christian Unchanging Facts of History mind. Weare often told that we shall never be able to get together in our Christian opinion and The facts of Christian history and the record that we should turn accordingly to cooperation of those facts in the Gospels also stand un- and practical service, where it is assumed that changed. We are not ignorant of, neither are we we can unite as we cannot unite in our underlying disturbed by, the historical and literary criticism convictions. "When there is a great fire," we are of the early Christian documents. What the facts told, "see how men of every opinion unite. Reliabout Jesus Christ were, they were and are. No gious and political differences are forgotten in the criticism of history can alter the facts. It can common effort to deal with the great emergency." alter the interpretation of the facts. It can cor- Nothing of the kind. The opinions that are not rect any misrepresentation of the facts. But what relevant to the emergency are temporarily held in happened happened; and we are absolutely sure abeyance, but there is no cooperation in work that that whatever changes may take place in the form does not rest upon intellectual agreement in that of the New Testament criticism will leave us with work. The fire extinguishers are united in their the fact of Christ, and the facts of Christ more opinions about the fire and the method of its exsure and certain than ever. As Harnack said, in tinguishment. And as a matter of fact the area closing his famous address on "Christianity and of our intellectual agreement in Christianity goes History," "Let the plain Bible reader continue to far beyond the measure of our practical cooperaread his Gospels as he has always read them; for tion. It was a significant thing that at the first in the end the critic cannot read them otherwise. "Faith and Order" Conference at Lausanne the What the one regards as their true gist and mean- only commission's report which could be adopted ing, the other must acknowledge to be such. . . . was the report on the common faith, a report This evangelical faith need fear no test that can which was embodied in the message of the Jerube applied to it. It can bear a strict and me- salem Missionary Council. That Council too could thodical scrutiny of the facts which form its historical foundation."
One of the most significant books of recent months is "The Riddle of the New Testament" by
CHANGING AND UNCHANGING THINGS IN FOREIGN MISSIONS
never have been united in anything except its ac- Two specially great and inspiring books that ceptance of the common Catholic faith and par- I have read recently are "The Autobiography of ticipation in the common Christian experience. Jawaharlal Nehru" and Seaver's life of "Wilson We have seen this very richly in the recent Na- of the Antarctic." Jawaharlal Nehru, now presitional Preaching Mission, where men of many dent of the India National Congress, has been for divergent denominations and dissimilar methods years one of the outstanding younger leaders on found themselves absolutely united in their proc- the Nationalist movement in India. He is the delamation of the essential Christian message. voted friend of Gandhi, though they differ almost What we need is not so much more doctrinal by the width of the world in their ideologies and agreement: it is the implementing of our exist- philosophies. He wrote his book in prison and ing agreement in the instruments of united action. the shadow of his wife's illness lies over the last pages. As a Socialist drawing near to commu- In the world at large today we face the same nism, Jawaharlal frankly repudiates all religion. situation. Whether it likes it or not, the world is It is open to question whether his methods may unified today in its economic life and in its real not frustrate the very ends which he seeks, but political self-interest. Our trouble is that we are there can be no question as to the glorious deseeking to deny facts and that we have not pro- votion of the man, his steadfastness, his patient vided, either in the League of Nations or other- endurance, his self-sacrifice, his disregard of wise, the instrumentalities through which the everything else in his loyalty to his cause. One common life of humanity can express itself and asks himself, as he lays down the book, whether fulfill its functions. Many changes are called for his Christian loyalty can match this Indian's conin the world and in the Christian Church today secration and how soon, in the Church on the misbut underlying all of these the hopeful thing is sion field and the Church at home, leadership can that we have already existent a great body of be raised up that will surpass in the Christian common faith and life extending far beyond our cause young Nehru's leadership in the cause of achieved, united and cooperative action. Indian Nationalism.
The Great Fundamental Aim and Method The other book is more wonderful still. One feels unworthy to read the story of such a life. After all, the great fundamental aim and cen- Wilson was a biologist, an artist, a naturalist, a tral method of the missionary enterprise remain physician. lIe was the doctor and the spiritual unchanged. What is that aim? It is all expressed mainspring of Scott's expedition to the South in our Lord's prayer: "Thy kingdom come, thy Pole, where he died with Scott and two other comwill be done on earth as it is in heaven." This panions as they were returning from the Pole in formula may seem to over-simplify the task. their effort to reach their base of supplies. I have What is the Kingdom of God? The phrase is used never read a life of purer inspiration. When the with half a dozen significances in the New Testa- bodies were found by the expedition that came to ment. What is the will of God? Much of our seek them two letters. were taken from Wilson's philosophy and theology reads the evil of the breast addressed to his wife. Let me read them world into the Divine Will. I do not believe that now: any sanction can be found, or any rationalization either, of sin and unrighteousness in the will of To My BELOVED WIFE: the righteous and holy God, the Father of Jesus Christ. Dishonesty, murder, adultery, rapine and Life has been a struggle for some weeks now on this lust and crime are not the will of God. return journey from the Pole-so much so that I have not been able to keep my diary going. Today may be the last But the difficulties do not touch the central effort. Birdie and I are going to try and reach the Depot simplicity. Our business is to live and work to eleven miles north of us and return to this tent where bring the life and work of the world into con- Captain Scott is lying with a frozen foot. . . . I shall formity with the pure and righteous and loving simply fall and go to sleep in the snow, and I have your will of God, as revealed in the mind of Christ. little book with me in my breast-pocket. . . . And the central motive must be what it has ever been, what it was to St. Paul: "The love of Christ Don't be unhappy-all is for the best. We are playing constraineth me." Does that love adequately con- a good part in a great scheme arranged by God himself, strain us? There was no one in st. Paul's day and all is well. • . . I am only sorry I couldn't have seen whose devotion to any master or any cause shamed your loving letters, and Mother's and Dad's and the the devotion of St. Paul to Christ. Are we sure Smiths', and all the happy news I had hoped to see-but that we should feel no shame as we set our devo- all these things are easily seen later, I expect. . . . God tion to Christ today over against the devotion of be with you-my love is as living for you as ever. men and women around about us to the causes which command their minds and wills and their I would like to have written to Mother and Dad and all utmost sacrifice? at home, but it has been impossible. We Will aU meet after death, and death has no terrors. . . . We have done what we thought was best. My own dear wife, good-bye for the present.. . I do not cease to pray for you-to the very last. . . •
To My MOST BELOVED WIFE: than our predecessors had then. The trouble is, God be with you in your trouble, dear, when I have we do not think enough on the continuity of life gone. I have written another short letter to you. . . . and time. We have too many ephemeral notions -they spring up this morning and will fade to- I leave this life in absolute faith and happy belief that night. We need to do our thinking deeper down if God wishes you to wait long without me it will be to some good purpose. All is for the best to those that love God, and oh, my Ory, we have both loved Him with all in the organic unity of the enterprise. There is our lives. All is well. . . . a bit of verse I came upon recently in a little Eng- We have struggled to the end and we have nothing to lish book, "A Cotswold Year": regret. Our whole journey record is clean, and Scott's God guard me from those thoughts diary gives the account. . . . The Barrier has beaten us Men think in the mind alone. -though we got to the Pole. He that sings a lasting song My beloved wife, these are small things, life itself is a Thinks in a marrowbone. small thing to me now, but my love for you is forever and a part of our love for God. . . . I do not cease to pray for And the moral principles abide. A New York you and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will. (Later.) God knows I am sorry to be minister in a sermon on the recent tragic experi- the cause of sorrow to anyone in the world, but every ence of the whole English-speaking race depre- one must die and at every death there must be some sor- cated the persistence of the old ethical ideas. The row. . . . All the things I had hoped to do with you after Ten Commandments, he held, were antiquated this Expedition are as nothing now, but there are greater relics of a social life lived in the desert long ago things for us to do in the world to come. . . . My only and were irrelevant in our present time. Let a regret is leaving you to struggle through your life alone, but I may be coming to you by a quicker way. I feel so word spoken by Walter Lippmann at the inauguhappy now in having got time to write to you. One of ration of President King of Amherst answer this my notes will surely reach you. Dad's little compass and poor preacher's folly: "What the world needs Mother's little comb and looking-glass are in my pocket. most of all from the colleges," said Mr. Lippmann, Your little Testament and prayer book will be in my hand or in my breast-pocket when the end comes. All is well-. "is not medicine for its pains but the maintenance So they left him there, covering the little group intact, amidst all the distractions of life, of its with a clean snow monument and setting up over standards of excellence." The mariner's comthem the simple inscription: "To STRIVE, TO pass does not change with the moral caprices of SEEK, TO FIND, AND NOT TO YIELD." For the joy men; and the spiritual principles are equally sethat was set before Him our Lord endured His cure and unshifting. It would be well if we would cross; for the love of such a Master, St. Paul set ourselves individually and collectively, to diswalked the roads of the Roman Empire, crossed cern and draw out these principles. A great deal its seas, and died outside the walls of Rome. Is of our confusion is due to our failure to apprethe unchanged motive dominant within us today, hend them. We are seeking, for example, to furor has our changeableness and vacillation held us nish leadership today for our youth movements back from the pure devotion that has been the and to see what can be done to vivify and maincentral spring of the missionary enterprise tain these movements, including the Student Volthrough the centuries? unteer Movement. Leadership will not be sup- plied to these movements from without-it must I have been reading Thomas Traherne's "Felici- spring up spontaneously from within. We need ties" with their contempt of the "Cursd and to remember, too, that the greatest spiritual lead- Devisd Properties" which robbed his eyes of ership is often the humblest and the least pubsplendor, and kept him from the glory to which licized. The things that have happened in his- God called all obedient life. Are the proprieties, tory, that we do not know about, probably outthe conventions, the accepted respectabilities, the weigh in their eternal significance the things that unbelieving naturalism, the fear of wonder and happened and that we do know about. Some auof miracle, keeping us in grooves from which we thentic unrecorded history is vastly more imporshould. break out, with self-forgetfulness, in striv- tant than some authentic recorded history, and ings and in achievings transcending the sacrifies still more important than the recorded history of nationalism and of exploration? This is the that is not authentic at all. And what is true of unchanging call. history is still more true of personalities.
Unchanging Spiritual Issues Some time ago I sent to one of our able mis- There are great spiritual principles and issues sionaries a little statement of suggested items·of that after all change little if at all. Read the missionary principle and policy, one of which.I resolutions adopted by the early Foreign Missions am afraid slipped into just the error of which I Conferences. The resolutions adopted long ago am speaking. It read, "Perhaps the largest part at tl;Ie meeting of this Conference in the rooms of of our whole problem is to find and prepare men .the Board of the Reformed Church in America and women who know what the Gospel is and who dealt with just the issues that we are facing now. are intellectually and spiritually capable of com- They show that we have no more wisdom today municating it and of doing today the work that
CHANGING AND UNCHANGING THINGS IN FOREIGN M'ISSIONS
needs to be done by great evangelists, apologists automatic self-progression of humanity. As Dr. and theologians, as well as by common men and Adolph Keller wrote recently fr:om Geneva, as he women who simply know how to love and serve." surveyed the European scene: "We are coming back to the first Christian conception of the world. The good and wise man to whom I sent the The world is not plastic material to be easily statement replied: moulded by Christian influence. There is a hos- tile demonic element. The Church has to fight Will you forgive me too if I fail to respond, as I perhaps stubbornly against principalities and powers for should, to the mention of the great names of the past as its faith and liberty, for the conversion of peoples necessarily suggesting more heroism than is evident today, and the spread of the Gospel." under conditions not so difficult in many other ways? I am sorry also to say that the really great names of the This was Paul's view. "For we wrestle," said missionary enterprise, as of any other enterprise, are never he, "not against flesh and blood, but against prinmentioned, and that makes me wince a bit at the last line cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of of your paragraph 11. I am so much of a heretic in the the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickface of present plans and propaganda that I believe that edness in high places." If any of you have lived the strength of the missionary cause is in "the common such placid lives that you do not realize this, if men and women who simply know how to love and serve." you still think that life is a bright and happy un- folding of its: own latent nature and possibilities Unfortunately, too, the solution of our personnel diffi- of good, I hope you may be spared those deep culty does not seem to lie alone, or even predominantly, tragedies through which others of us have had to along the line of preparation. This is not to discount the pass, tragedies which have taught us the truth of importance and necessity of the very finest preparation Paul's interpretation. We do believe, as the hymn available, but there is a real sense in which a preparation in our conference hymnal declares: too intense and technical and American, reaches a point of supersaturation which really unfits a person for the God is working his purpose out main essential in missionary living, which is simple- As year succeeds to year: hearted adaptability to the situation in which he finds himself. The problem of reconciling these two is a very God is working his purpose out, difficult one, and I don't think that we have reached the And the time is drawing near; solution. Nearer and nearer draws the time, The truth that we need to learn and keep ever The time that shall surely be, in mind St. Paul set forth long ago in one of his letters: When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God As the waters cover the sea. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many We believe this. If Paul could believe it and noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things declare it in his letter to the Philippian Christians of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen written from jail, from discouragement, from the weak things of the world to confound the things which loneliness, from the treachery of fellow Chrisare mighty; and base things of the world, and things tians, surely we can believe it and declare it towhich are despised, hath God chosen, yet, and things day. But the purpose will be accomplished only which are not, to bring to nought things that are. as the end of a great struggle: a struggle that cost the life of the Son of God, a struggle that is Here once again is the everlasting paradox. calling today for everything that is within us, that Who was the man who wrote these words? We is demanding of us more than all that Jawaharlal see him now not as weak and foolish but as the Nehru is giving to his Nationalism, all that Edmightiest figure in human history, next to his ward Wilson gave to Antarctic exploration, that Master. David Livingstone gave to those dark journeys which lifted the somber fringes of the night and The Nature of the Christian Life let light in upon Africa, all that Jesus Christ asked and is asking still, "If any man will come Lastly, among the unchanging things of which after me, let him deny himself and take up his I would speak there is the real nature of this life cross and follow me." This is the summons that that we are trying to live and this work that we is unchanged and unchanging. are seeking to do. It is a conflict in which we are engaged-a conflict ever changing and unchanging. We are passing beyond the easy conception of the last generation or two with regard to the We need, not simply education, but Christian education – training that issues in religious conviction and Christian personality. Our strength lies in the intelligent religious convictions of our people. In the more comprehensive sense of the term the whole problem of the church is now more clearly seen to be one of education. We have to bring every available resource to bear to make the home, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the day school, the university, the the- ological seminary, all our educational factors, efficient in carrying out the great task of train- ing men and women in Christian character. R. E. S.
American Indian and His
Native Beliefs and Customs and the Christian Missionary Motive -4£{ By ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN Author of "Pratt: The Red Man's Moses"
THERE are undoubtedly inherent values in right in assuming that their religious associations many primitive religious beliefs., and there are not likely to alter radically "so long as the is an essential human dignity in black, brown culture pattern holds firm." Among our own and yellow men. But the recognition of these American Indians the opposite condition obtains. values has gone too far in many cases, as for ex- Nearly all of them have been compelled by circumample as regards the relatively small group of stances to turn for a living to agriculture, cattlepartially assimilated American Indians. raising or sheep-herding, modern industry or other civilized employment, and schooling has Recent writers have indulged in what may well been general in most tribes for one or two genbe termed extravagant praise of the original In- erations. dian religion and culture. Ernest Thompson Seton's "Gospel of the Red Man: An Indian The Decline of Primitive Cultures Bible," is a brief summary of the "highest and best" ethical teachings of many tribes. The au- The early missionaries, foreseeing this radical thor quotes nine passages, covering almost every shift of cultures, knew that a decay of faith and point made, from Dr. Charles A. Eastman's "Soul ritual based on war and the buffalo hunt must of the Indian" (published twenty-five years ago), inevitably follow. "So far as this tribe is con- and closes with the words: "We advocate his (the cerned," writes one who passed a lifetime among Indian's) culture as an improvement on our own." the Sioux," there never was any use of force to Having long been keenly sensible of the charm turn an Indian away from any religion or toward of the primitive, I have insisted upon the native any religion." Such men were not unwilling to virtues of the untutored Red Man in a day when admit the merits of a culture they saw as doomed. such an attitude was frowned upon as sentimen- Aware that some loss was unavoidable, they tality. Until well into the nineteen hundreds, the sought to balance the loss by greater gain, usually Indian was looked upon as a "savage" and a with marked success. "heathen"-no less! The time came when I was Although a few literal-minded officials and privileged to assist in the preparation of Dr. East- over-punctilious clergymen did try to root out man's idealization of his ancestral philosophy, as everything "native" just because it was native, filtered through a modern mind-a study of this I think this was never a typical attitude. I know subject which has perhaps never been surpassed. that missionaries made some of the finest collec- Yet the Sioux author would not go so far as to tions of aboriginal art, and in some cases built up claim, as has another college-bred Indian, that his a profitable trade in these articles for the benefit race "has contributed more ideas of freedom, of native craftsmen. The Mohonk Lodge in Oklaequality and brotherly love than Christ ever homa is an example. While encouraging the pro- dreamed of"! Nor did he ever assert with Seton duction of things beautiful and serviceable, they that theirs was "the most spiritual civilization the could not be blind to the existence of objection- world has ever seen!" If these things were true, able habits and demoralizing superstitions. Di- what had we to offer them? In defense of the vi- reet attack upon these is, however, a less effective tality and persistence of the Christian missionary method than the friendly offer of something better motive, let us set beside the misleading half- in their place. Every normal personality instinctruths of the new school of Nature-wors'hippers tively seeks it consistent, well integrated philoso- the other half of the story. phy, and the adoption, even in part, of a modern Frank G. Speck, in his book on the Naskapi, the viewpoint implies the rejection of such naive ex- "savage hunters of the Labrador peninsula," as- planations of natural phenomena as that lightning serts that long-time missionary enterprise among proceeds from the beak of an enormous bird, or this people has basically failed. They are still that disease is the work of a malicious spirit. nomadic hunters, ,and the scientist is probably Sterling traits of character, present in some de- [128 ] gree among all mankind, are by certain extremists Photo by Bureau of American Ethnology labelled typically "Indian." Actually, there is HOPI INDIAN SNAKE DANCE little reason to suppose that the ordinary Indian surpasses the common man of another race in courage, generosity, truthfulness, or any basic virtue. In any group these traits vary widely with the individual. Neither, we may assume, is he in reality more "spiritual." True, a state of chronic warfare develops aggressiveness and continual hardship teaches endurance, while such vices as theft and avarice are hardly to be looked for in a moneyless society, whose few possessions are unprotected save by public opinion. On the other hand, those who live close to the soil are constantly preoccupied with primary needs and desires. The day-by-day talk of a primitive Indian camp deals first of all with food-a material necessity; after that, with a never-ceasing flood of incredibly petty and often spiteful neighborhood gossip.
The acceptance of civilization and Christianity makes life more complicated. Along with new temptations, it presents higher standards and a far wider outlook. I am fully aware of the difficulty of making so fundamental an adaptation. I know, however, from first-hand observation, that it may be and has been achieved, in numerous cases. Doubtless the ancient mores at its best produced some fine characters-an earnest of the strength and richness of those that have been developed under Christian teaching.
Some Harmful Indian Customs munities, some attention to the laws of health and preventive medicine is required by law. Both the literary fashion of lauding pagan cults, and the activity in their behalf so recently 2. The Hopi snake dance, theoretically a prayer undertaken by the Indian Office, have put our for rain, is now a well-advertised tourist attracmissionaries more or less on the defensive. With tion. The question arises: Do religious saturnalia no desire to call in question the existence of good of a sensational character, especially after they in all religions, it may be well to specify a few begin to be exploited for money, tend to exalt huof the old-time Indian customs which the mission- man dignity? A correspondent of The Christian aries hold to be definitely opposed both to moral Century commented, a year or so ago, on a someadvance and civic progress. what similar affair staged by Southern "poor whites." "Teester's performance," he wrote, "has 1. The occult arts and weird incantations of brought on such a widespread orgy of snakethe medicine-men, who are doctors as well as handling in tent and crude tabernacle meetings priests, not only fail to cure the sick-unless to that something will have to be done about it. . . . a limited extent by hypnotic powers – but they Press and sound news reel have made capital of often spread disease among the well. For one ex- the frenzied spectacle." ample out of many, take the Reverend J. C. Morgan's description of the ye-ba-chai, sacred healing 3. Rites involving public torture and mutilation ceremony among the Navajos. Mr. Morgan is a once climaxed the Sun Dance of the Plains people. native missionary. He writes: "In this dance These were banned by the government; but it is many men take part, each wearing a snugly fitting said that in some pueblos there are still ceremonial buckskin mask. One after another wears the whippings. same mask all night long. Some have sore eyes; some have tuberculosis; the masks, become sat- 4. Belief in witchcraft is almost universal urated with breath and perspiration. I believe among primitive Indians. Some tribes execute many are infected with trachoma or tuberculosis persons suspected of being witches. or both." This dance lasts nine days and nights and costs much money. In most enlightened com- 5. Fear of "ghosts," really fear of the dead and their power to harm, is extremely common. It causes a great deal of unhappiness and leads to
lending one's wife to a visitor, will hardly be de- fended as worthy of perpetuation among United States citizens..
11. The tradition of incessant petty warfare against "enemy tribes," usually near neighbors, dominated the society of the leading Indian na- tions. No youth might honorably seek a wife until he had shed the blood of an "enemy," often that of a solitary hunter with his helpless little family. Next to taking the life of a member of another tribe, either man, woman or child, in a kind of private "war," most renown was to be won by "stealing" his horses or other property.
REV. BEN BRAVE – SIOUX INDIAN The Need for the Christian Message practices injurious to the living, such as the de- It will be said in reply that no one has proposed struction of a dwelling in which a death has oc- going to logical extremes, but merely that the curred. Extreme mourning customs, the cutting "best" of the ancestral tradition be perpetuated. of the hair and flesh, burying or giving away all This means that the much eulogized "native culpossessions, add needlessly to the pain of bereave- tures" must first be judged by wholly alien standment. ards. After the process of sifting, only a few selected items remain, and these usually among 6. It has been said in praise of the old-time the least characteristic and important. Customs Indian that "his ambition was not to possess shocking to our moral sense, such as kidnapping, wealth but to give it away." At the same time, slavery, massacre of noncombatants, torture of property must first be accumulated, before pres- prisoners and many others, though sanctioned if tige can be acquired by its distribution. Probably not enjoined by various Indian religions, are supthere was little pure altruism connected with the pressed by Seton in his "Indian Bible" as well as tradition of public giving, which was on the whole by certain spokesmen for the Indian Office. The a form of display. The leading men of some tribes widespread injury to health from the use of collected and destroyed great piles of savage peyote, and the activities of native medicine-men, wealth as the surest :r;oad to personal distinction. are glossed over or ignored. If it were actually possible to reestablish the "integrity of the old 7. The Peyote cult, borrowed from Old Mexico, order," as some enthusiasts have seemed to advocenters about the use of an intoxicating drug for- cate, we should once more have tribal leaders of bidden by the laws of several states. Missionaries the type of Geronimo, Sitting Bull, and Kicking and other close observers have invariably con- Bear – high priest of the Messiah craze. This demned it as harmful. It is tolerated, however, would be genuine "Indian leadership," promoted by the present Indian administration. by strange forms of religious excitement and find- ing vent in intertribal feuds, as well as in undying S. Religious taboos against many common hostility to the white man! foods, such as fish, or the totem animal of the individual, cause needless privation and inconven- On the other hand, our present-day Indian leadience. ers have been trained by Christian men and women to lead away from, not back to, the primi- 9. Isolation of the menstruating woman, often tive. Most of them are of mixed ancestry, and with inadequate fire and food, is a common cul- the same is true of an estimated two-thirds of the tural trait based on superstitious fear. It involves Indian population, so-called. Intermarriage, says great discomfort and probable danger to health. the Dutch scientist, Schrieke, in his book, "Alien Americans," is "America's greatest contribution" 10. Polygamy, and especially the claim of a to the solution of the Indian problem. The inman to any or all of his wife's sisters as second- evitable transition is now far advanced. Surely ary wives, regardless of their preferences, to- the future of-these aspiring contemporary Amer.igether with the custom of sexual hospitality, or cans cannot, to any significant extent, lie along aboriginal folkways? If not, the "missionary mo- tive" is still valid, and Christ not only offers an advance upon any and all native religions but a new conception of God and the way of life for man.
Christ Has Done for Untouchables*
By v. s. AZARIAH Bishop of Dornakal, India THE whole of India has been agitated by the They cannot lose government help, simply because declaration made by Dr. Ambedkar that all they change their religion. Some others say that who are known as Depressed Classes should Hindus are reforming themselves, and there is give up Hinduism and seek to join some other re- much change nowadays compared with former ligion that will give them the fullest opportunities times, and that the Depressed Classes must wait of developing themselves. Dr. Ambedkar char- in patience. Dr. Ambedkar says in reply that he acterized Hinduism as a contagion; those who has now waited for many years and nothing is wished to escape the evil effects of this contagion really done; that the nature of Hinduism is such must flee from it. that nothing much can be done within it and the fact that some people have changed does not prove Dr. Ambedkar has been in Europe, England, that his people's lot is going to be very different and America and has spent several years in those from the past. countries for advanced study. Owing to his Depressed Class origin, however, he was put to great It is not for us to say what religion Untouchinconveniences when he began work in the Baroda ables must join; and what religion will give you State and in the Bombay Presidency. He is now what you seek. We place before you what the practicing law in Bombay and is also the principal religion of Jesus Christ has done in the past for of a law college. Thousands of those hitherto your brethren who have become Christians. known as Untouchables in all parts of India have declared their willingness to follow Dr. Ambedkar We have in the Andhra Desa about a million and renounce Hinduism and join some other reli- Christians. Of these nine-tenths must be people gion. who themselves or through their forefathers were in the so-called Depressed Class groups before Hindu leaders naturally are advising the so- they became Christians. What has Christ done called Depressed Classes not to abandon Hindu- for us who are converts and your brethren? ism. Some reformers urge that Hindu temples must be open to Depressed Classes. But "ortho- 1. He has lifted us socially. We have had edudox" Hindus vehemently oppose ,this. Pious Hin- cational facilities given us by missions. Adults dus would no longer visit the temples If they were have learnt to read. Our children live, study, and polluted by Untouchables. It would be reasonable eat alongside of any who may have come into our to ask why the Depressed Classes should now in- religion from any other caste. We have risen in vade Hindu temples where they have never wor- the estimation of other castes because of our edushipped before and hurt the feelings of the devout cation and character. Our original caste and the orthodox people. Many Depressed Class leaders ca11te of our forefathers are thus being forgotten. have publicly said that they do not want this. Some of our men are occupying positions as Deputy Collectors, Tahsildars, Sub-Magistrates, Some Hindu leaders have argued that the De- Municipal Commissioners, Revenue Inspectors, pressed Class people will not gain anything by etc., throughout the Andhra Desa. Most of our giving up Hinduism, because only when they re- pastors and teachers are from our own people; main in the Hindu fold will they be entitled to and these have under their care Christian conenjoy those political privileges and government verts from all castes. There are hundreds of favors which they now get as Depressed Classes. Christian pastors and thousands of schoolmasters But Dr. Ambedkar asks: "What is the use of all over the country. Converts from the Brahmin, privileges when we are to he eternally called 'out- Kshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra castes are taught castes,' 'untouchables' and have to live under this in Christian schools and are given religious mindisgrace?" And he is right. Moreover, he is con- istrations by converts from the Depressed Classes. vinced that the government is certainly not going These things. are not unknown to you. to do any such injustice to the Depressed Classes simply because they choose to revolt against the 2. He has raised our womanhood. The Chris- ~osition in which Hinduism has placed them. tian women stand higher than Hindus in educa- tion. In English education they stand highest of *N~~t~~~e~i~~~r distributed by the Foreign Missions Conference among Indians. Among them are found many doctors, and B.A.'s who are occupying responsible [131 ]
positions in the Andhra Desa. A few are in gov- ment in the higher things comes to us and these ernment service. These are respected by all who inevitably lead to enlightenment of mind and adknow them. Infant marriages are unknown vance in general culture. The light of Jesus among us; purdah is unknown, and this gives Christ has shone into our hearts and minds, and our women the opportunity of going on to higher is illuminating us. This may be noticed in any education and making themselves useful in public village in the Andhra Desa. life. Our home life is generally known to be pure and happy. Taken as a whole, our women and (e) Christianity has brought us fellowship and our girls enjoy life, full life and happiness, be- brotherhood. It has treated us with respect, and cause of our religious injunction-one man-one it has given us self-respect. It has never despised wife, and both equal before God. us because of our lowly origin, but on the contrary has held us as individuals who are as valuable be- 3. He has removed the customs and habUs that fore God and man as any man of any origin. We have been the causes of our past degradation. believe it has been the working out of the will of God, that probably more than seventy-five per (a) As we have already said Christian mar- cent of all the great efforts Christian missions riage law has given us happy homes. How con- have made in the past two centuries, has been for stantly, among the so-called Depressed Class peo- us, the Depressed Classes, for whom previously ple, men took liberty to give up one wife and take no one had shown any interest or care. All this another without making any provision for the has been in accord with the life and character of first wife? It was possible, too, for a man to take the Lord Jesus, who said, "I am come to seek and more than one wife. The result of this was un- save that which is lost." We, your blood and happy homes, wrecked lives, bitter tears, Quarrels, brethren, can witness to you what a blessing it and sometimes even murders. All this has now has been to be "found" of Him. changed. (f) Best of all, Christianity has given us hap- (b) The Christian religion has combated the piness and joy that can only come by the knowlcurse of drink. There is no doubt that one reason edge that God has forgiven our sins and has made for the poverty of the laboring classes is that half us His children in Christ. We consider this as the the earnings of men is usually wasted on drink. foundation cause of all that we have received Drink has also led to quarrels, riots, and court through this religion. The fact that Jesus Christ cases. Christianity has opposed this; and we can died for us makes us hate sin, and live new lives. point out many whole villages from which drink He lives now and enables us to give up our old, has altogether been driven out. This has in its bad habits and grow in newness of life. "If any turn brought prosperity. We know-we can cite man is in Christ there is a new creation," say onr names-all over the Andhra Desa, of Christians Scriptures. (who were known formerly as Depressed Classes) who have given up drink, and thus after a short All this has not been accomplished through any time have been able to payoff old debts, and a magic, or done in a day. It has been the result of little later have been known to possess bullock- years of service, patiently and with love poured carts, and earn an independent livelihood for out by thousands of consecrated Christian men and themselves. Decent houses have been built, and women, both Indian and foreign who have labored the general level of life raised, after the people to improve our lot. It has been the result of conbecame Christians. stant teaching, care, and instruction. It has been accomplished moreover, because we ourselves, (c) Christianity has made the people cleaner. freed by Christ from chains of ignorance and The Christian religion requires us all to meet in fear, have found within ourselves new courage, our churches every day, and most of all on Sun- new hope, new strength to struggle upward. It is days, together for the public worship of God. still a process going on; we are not a finished This regular worship of God has inculcated in us product (you may no doubt find many faults habits of cleanliness and self-respect. within us) but no man can deny that we are grow- ing, moving toward the goal. If you, like us, (d) Christianity has also improved our intel- should choose Christ in your momentous choice, lectual powers. The Christian religion enj oins on you will find in Him, not empty words, but ~n opall converts a certain amount of knowledge of di- portunity for an abundant life. "I am come that vine things. As soon as we are enrolled as Chris- ye might have life, and that more abundantly." tians regular instruction begins. A teacher and his wife are sent to live in our midst, and they All over India the Depressed Class people are guide us to knowledge in divine things. Our Sun- wistfully looking in every direction for a new reday worship includes instruction in religion. As ligion. The decision must be yours. What we a rule during daytime the teacher conducts a have tested and found that Christ is doing today school for our children. Men and women and for millions of your brethren, He can do for you children are thus lifted to a higher level of life; also. and by daily teaching and daily lessons, enlighten-
A Firebrand for Christ in
By the REV. J. CHRISTY WILSON, D.D.
American Mission, T abriz, Iran "I WANT to enter the school, and especially to study the New Testament, and learn more of Christ."
These were the first words of a Moslem village boy who came to the Mission School at the begin- ning of the fall term. Though he did not show much promise as a student his purpose was un- usual. In his case there was no prejudice against Christianity to break down. Somewhere he had learned to read Syriac, and the story of Jesus had captured his imagination, if not his heart.
Like many another boy in lands around this old world, he explained, "I have no money for tuition, nor even for books, but I am willing to do any kind of work."
Our drinking water was carried from a mission compound a mile or two outside the city so that his first job was to carry water in an earthen jar, like the woman of Samaria. That task led her to the well where she found Christ.
During the few busy days before the opening of school I saw much of this boy. At every meet- ing in the church or school he was present. He even appeared at teachers' meeting! A hunger to hear and learn everything he could made it un- necessary to urge him along "the flowery path of knowledge." At first he had appeared to be a very ordinary village boy but we were soon aware SAMUEL NARY – A MOSLE'M WHO FOUND CHRIST that his was no ordinary zeal for learning. He was sixteen or seventeen years old, but because from Islam, most of them develop gradually into of little previous schooling he was enrolled in the full-fledged Christians, but not so this boy. He third grade. gavehis heart all at once in full and complete sur- His name was "Seif Ali," he said, but he asked render and he was transformed. In an instant, that we enter his name as "SamueL" The reason it seemed, the village Moslem boy had passed he explained, "My name means 'The Sword of away. Before us there stood a new creation.
Ali,' who was the son-in-law of Mohammed the From that moment he became a firebrand for prophet. The name does not suit me, however. Christ.
I prefer to be called Samuel, that was the name Samuel went on with his studies and before of the boy whom God called and who later became long began bringing others to our house to talk of a great prophet." So Samuel it was. Jesus. They were for the most part common men In a Moslem country like ours, Friday is a from the bazaar, but they had been prepared for school holiday and on that morning a class of the interview. If they could read, Samuel had boys, who were interested, came by invitation to given them Christian literature and portions of study of Christ. Samuel drank it all in. Inside the New Testament. Instinctively they had real- of three weeks he was leading us in beautiful and ized that this boy's great and sincere desire was effectual prayer, and before three months he had to share with them the glorious new life he had confessed Christ. I have seen many converts found in Christ.
[133 ]
Following a shorter period of probation than you want me on your account to break a law of usual, Samuel and another boy who had accepted the school?" Christ about the same time were baptized, after being examined and accepted by the elders of the "My dear Sir," the boy responded, "I am not church. He began to wield a great influence under law; I am under grace." among the boys in the school and in the dormitory and the church. His surrender to Christ, his He continued in school through the sixth class Spirit-filled life, and his sincerity were so appar- and soon after was called by the government for ent that his faith could not be doubted. His zeal two years of military service. He went gladly to was contagious, and Christians who had grown serve in the army, saying that he had two great cold were warmed into new fervor by the fire that duties, one to serve God and the other to serve his burned in his heart. There were more than two country. He was anxious, however, to get the hundred boys in the school, many of them born patriotic duty out of the way, so he could devote and reared in Christian homes, but before the end his time more fully to what he conceived to be the of the year this' boy knew his Bible better than greater task. During his army service he conany other in the school. He seemed to have an tinually witnessed for his Master and became answer for every question in the words of Scrip- known as the most willing recruit in all his conture. It may have been that his influence had a tingent. Some years later, when another Chrisgreat deal to do with the fact that before the year tian convert boy went to serve under the same was over more than twenty of the students and hard-boiled drill sergeant and the latter saw how teachers expressed a desire to dedicate themselves gladly he obeyed even the most difficult assignto full-time Christian service. ments, he said, "What do we have here, another Samuel Naby?" At the time of his baptism Samuel asked to be called "Samuel Naby" or Samuel the Prophet. Periodically the boy in uniform came to ask for When he returned to his village his first concern Christian literature and Gospels, which he diswas ,to witness for Christ to his own relatives and tributed widely but with great care. Then no friends. There was some property of which he word would come from him for a time as he would was part owner and the members of the family be off in a distant area of the province. News took legal action to obtain his share of the prop- came from him at times and in various ways. erty on the grounds that he had become a Chris- Once two Jews walked about fifty miles to the city tian. He did not contest the action but remon- to get aNew Testament in Hebrew; they had strated with them for attempting to take away by been interested in Christ and His Way through force what he would have been willing to give the testimony of the boy doing military service them freely. His was the spirit of Him who said, in their mountain outpost. "If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." One day the officer in command of his compaJjY found Samuel reading. He asked what book it The vacation period passed and the principal of was-and the boy, standing at salute replied, the school, in whose place I had been substituting for the year, returned from furlough. Samuel "The New Testament, Sir." came from the village to enter school again. He "Put that book away, you have enough to study asked if he might skip a class, and tryout in the in your guard manual," was the command. grade ahead, since he was older than the average of his classmates and had been studying in the "Sir," Samuel answered, "it is because of this summer. As reported to me the conversation was Book that I have in my hand that I stand here somewhat as follows: saluting you. Had I not learned from this Book my duty to my king and country, I should have "I shall be glad to have you enter a grade fled like many of my companions across the borahead," said the principal, "but you shall have to der to avoid military service." pass all the examinations of the class you wish to skip before you can enter the advanced grade. The officer did not answer but passed on. This is a positive rule of the school." Some ,time later the company to which Samuel "Please let me go in the higher class and try belonged was ordered to the extreme northwestern out there," Samuel replied. "Inside of a few frontier for a campaign against unruly Kurdish weeks I shall know perfectly well whether I can tribes. The going was hard and many wounded carry the work or not. If I cannot keep up you and sick were brought in to the military hospital will not need to say a word, I shall go back in the in the city where we were living. One day w·e other class of my own accord." heard that Samuel was there. I called on him. and found him as full of zeal as ever, though suf- "I should like to do it that way," the teacher fering from a severe case of pleurisy, contracted answered, "but our rules must be kept. Would from exposure and sleeping on the ground. I had taken him some books, which he began to pass on to others before I left his bedside. When my visit was about to end he shouted to all the sick
A FIREBRAND FOR CHRIST IN IRAN
and wounded men in the big ward, "Now be quiet Naby. His teacher in the training school for a minute, you fellows, this man is going to lead evangelists testified, "I have never received so us in prayer." There was absolute silence as I much spiritual help in my life as from that boy prayed-in the government military hospital. The in the three months he was with me." It will next time I came I was besieged for books and take much in sacrifice, and life itself, to found the tracts. church which God is calling out of Islam in this land, and this young friend would deem it a rare In due time the boy was well enough to return privilege to be one of the foundation stones-beto his home city to complete his military service. neath the ground if need be–in that church. When released from the army he started on a tour of near-by villages, busy at once in evangelism on The Great Teacher of us all has told us that: his own initiative. I was later told that many "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and Christians asked themselves the question, "Must die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth we wait to be shamed by this former Moslem boy forth much fruit." In Samuel Naby I have seen before we begin to witness for Christ?" the absolute living proof that the Spirit of Christ can change, in a moment of time, an ignorant vil- Samuel expressed his desire to become an evan- lage Moslem into a radiant, powerful Christian. gelist and give all his time to that service. He wanted to be free to work anywhere that God WILLIAM CAREY'S COVENANT called him and said, for a time at least, he would like to travel like Mansur Sang, the Christian Weare thinking much of missionary methods dervish. The Mission decided that he should go in these days. Carey and his colleagues, in the histo the distant city of Isfahan to take up training toric Serampore Covenant, expressed convictions in the school for evangelists. He already had the which never grow oldprime requisites, a heart full of love, a yearning to lead people to Christ, a burning zeal, and a 1. To set an infinite value on men's souls. good knowledge of the Bible. He was, however, 2. To acquaint ourselves with the snares which anxious to get the best possible training before he took up his, life work. hold the minds of the people. 3. To abstain from whatever deepens India's On his way to the training school he stopped for a few days in our city where he spoke in prayer prejudice against the Gospel. meeting and made the prayer at the general Sun- 4. To watch for every chance of helping people. day service. Many people caught a spark of his 5. To preach "Christ crucified" as the one great fire and he was mentioned scores' of times after he had gone on his way. means of conversions.
Reaching Isfahan, Samuel plunged into his 6. To esteem and treat Indians always as our training with keen delight. He was hungry for equals. instruction and worked with a will at these lessons under a young English missionary. He still 7. To guard and build up "the hosts that may be had time, however, to work among patients in the gathered." hospital, with men in the street, in the bazaareverywhere he carried on his intensive witness for 8. To cultivate their spiritual gifts, ever press- Christ. No necessity for others to plan "field ex- ing upon them their missionary obligation perience" for him in connection with his course – since Indians only can win India for of study! Christ.
After some three months of this training he 9. To labor· unceasingly in BibHcal translation. had some trouble with his throat and it was suggested that he have his tonsils removed. He ac- 10. To be instant in the nurture of personal recepted ,the proposal gladly, and when the time ligion. came went to the operating room laughing and saying to his friends, "I'll be out in just a few 11. To give ourselves without reserve to the minutes." Chloroform was administered for the Cause of Christ, "not counting even the operation and under the anesthetic Samuel lost clothes we wear as our own." consciousness but never regained it in this life. "Brainerd in America poured out his All efforts to revive him failed. very soul before God for the people. Prayer, secret, fervent, expectant, lies at Why God called him, at what to us seemed the the root of all personal godliness. A combeginning of his wonderful ministry, we do not petent knowledge of the languages current know. From our viewpoint the three years min- where a missionary lives, a mild and winistry of our Lord would have seemed all too short. ning temper, and a heart given up to God One thing we know is that many lives were stirred – these are the attainments, which more into new consecration by the passing of Samuel than all other gifts, will fit us to become God's instruments in the great work of hu- man redemption." It is written of Carey that "his whole desire went out to meet the Will of God."
Shrines and Emperor
–<!IIi By a R",;d,nt of Japan III>– T HE tradition of the descent of the Japanese that shrine w,orship is a secular ceremony, both ruler from the Sun Goddess has seen a strong scholars and the general Japanese and K'Orean r·evival during recent years. Ten or fifteen public look upon such acts as religious. The leadyears ag,o liberal Japanese leaders were inclined ers of the present reactionary movement (the to interpret this traditiDn as meaning only that Fundamentalists of Shinto) have succeeded in the line of EmperDrs, to quote the constituti,on, demonstrating that the act of paying reverence at "is coeval with Heaven and earth," leaving the a national shrine is an act of worship. The leadattendant mythology to fade into the background. ing authorities ,on National Shinto are c'Oming to Others even pr,ofessed to hope that Japan would devel,oP into a constitutional monarchy of the the position that the national cult is a religion. * British type. All 'Of this has a vital relationship to Christian Today, however, no 'One dares to express such education in Japan because the larger percentage opinions 'Openly. The world "Emper,or" and pro- of the students in all ,of the missiDn schools (exnouns applied to Him must be capitalized when cept the theol'Ogical seminaries) are n'On-Chriswritten in Western languages. The Japanese tians, and parents and guardians are consequently SChODl books state, "We Japanese lODk up to our non-Christian and very susceptible to influences Emperor as to a God," and "The Japanese Em- surrounding them. Non-Christian alumni and peror is divine." Last year the word used in offi- parents, s,ometimes instigated by pr,ofessiDnal "pacial documents for "Emper,or" was chang·ed from triDts," have demanded that the schools "clarify kotei (the general term for emperor) to Tenno, the national polity" by speaking 'Out clearly CJnor "Heaven-ruler." The Japanese are quite con- cerning the divine nature ,of the Emperor and the cerned because the Eur,opean word "emperor" is Sun Goddes·s. used with r·eference to the emperor of India and the emperor 'Of the Roman Empire, so that SDme This present-day interpretation of Japanese call their ruler Tenno even when speaking a fDr- nationalism forces several serious pr,oblems ,on eign language, and refer to Japan as a Tennocracy the attention ,of Christian schools in Japan, rather than an empire. It is forbidden to refer to Chosen and Form'Osa. the Emper,oras a man even in praise, and mDst Western j'Ournalists adopt the policy ,of referring 1. The moral basis ,of Japanese education is laid to His Majesty as seldom as possible in order to in the "imperial Rescript" on education, drawn avoid giving ,offense. They dare not ever refer up by the Department ,of Education in 1890 and to the Emperor Meiji as a "truly great man." issued under the name and seal of the Emperor Japanese express amazement that Christians Meiji to offset the flood of Western ideas. The should be S,o fD'Olish as to believe that one person Department of Education ordered that it should (Jesus) might be both human and divine. be read, with appropriate ceremony, 'On stated 'Oc- casions in all the schools. Recently another movement has revealed an unmistakable demand that loyalty to the present Within the past ten years, the Rescript has been Empel'or shall be equal to the loyalty to the Sun exalted n'Ot only as the basis 'Of Japanese educa- Goddess, and that the test 'Of national lDyalty is tion but as the Apostles Creed ,of the Imperial the worship 'Of the "Ancestress 'Of the Imperial Cult. The Rescript itself is held to be without line." Some years ago many scholars interpreted err,or and beyond criticism. Its morality is C,onthe Sun Goddess merely as a personification of fucian but it clearly states the divine ancestry 'Of one 'Of the tribes which invaded Japan in prehis- the Emperor. This element has caused it to be toric times. Today loyal subjects of the Emper'Or esteemed highly by those wh,o wDuld stem the tide· must accept the Sun Goddess myth just as it of present-day _Western doctrines. In recent stands. months all schools have been f'Orced to lay more emphasis upon this liturgy-the method 'Of read- In Korea most 'Of the shrines are dedicated to ing, the white gloves 'Of the reader and the bowing in reverence. In most Christian schools these the Sun Goddess, whereas in Japan most are dedicated to Japanese herDes. Japanese officials say • See article by D. C. Holton in the Japan Ohristian Year Book f~~ ~;i~6 q~Oe~tton~ummary of present-day scholarly opinion concern- [ 136] ceremonies are acc.ompanied by hymns, Scripture tion." Christians never know how the Rescri.pt reading, prayers and a short explanation .of the will be interpreted next. meaning .of the cerem.ony, but it is doubtful whether this can long continue since it is looked A few years ago when the service of a certain upon ,as an opportunity to teach the Christian d.oc- church was being broadcast at Christma's time the trine of God and to inculcate a Christian attitude phrase, "Lord save the Emperor," caused the of l.oyalty to the State. church such difficulty that a revision of the prayer book was necessary. The phr&se "King of kings In N.ovember, 1936, the Department .of Edu- and Lord ,of lords" was indicated as unacceptable cation required all schools to present copies of the for Christian worship. Recently Paul Kanamori's program used at the Rescript ceremony, and to "The W,ay to Faith," was withdrawn from cirexplain the nature,Qf the care taken of the sacred culation because of its monotheistic arguments. d,Qcument. The public press has also criticized the Christian doctrine of the Kingdom of God because its basic 2. In Japan most Christian schools accept the virtue of love is contrary to loyalty, the basic virstatement of the Government that the ceremonies tue of the J.apanese Empire. Hymns used in at the shrines are nonreligious and permit their Christian services (both English and Japanese students to go there to pay respect. These Chris- translations) might be oonstrued as treasonable. tian schools have not adopted the custom of volun- Opponents of Christianity are looking for the tarily, but thr.ough social pressure or demands slightest deviations from the present interpretafl'om patrons. In some Christian schools attend- tion of national loyalty. Christi.ans are concerned ance at the shrines is optional; in others the en- lest they should be forced to ,teach dogmas which tire student b,Qdy is taken under the direction of run counter to fundamental Christian principles. the military officers to pay reverence. In one boy's school the military officer invariably chooses Japanese Christians are concerned about these a Sunday to take the students to the shrine. In problems, but their concern is modified by two or T,Qkyo and vicinity the authorities are more three modifying factors. lenient than in other districts, a proof of the truth of the Japanese proverb that "The foot of the 1. The J,apanese Christians feel that officials lighthouse is in darkness." charged with the enforcement .of the law are friendly. All of the leaders .of the missi.on schools 3. The Japanese consider it a great honor for who have been called to confer with the officials a school to receive a Portrait of the Emperor. of the Department of Educati,Qn have been treated The Portrait must be kept in a fireproof safe with great oonsideration, and the men in charge when not in use; a teacher must sleep each night seek to make everything as easy as possible f.or in the same room ready to protect the sacred the sch.ools and churches to abide within the law Portrait with his life; acts of reverence must be without offense to conscience. The officials themmade when passing the Portrait or the container selves are being pres'sed by the Shinto Fundamen- ,of it, and the Portrait is on display only on the talists into a positi.on which they would not take ceremonial occasi,Qns when the Imperial Rescript if left to themselves. They are willing to make is read. Most Christian schools have avoided re- almost any compr,Qmise to avoid a public scene ceiving the Portrait by pleading that they had no that might involve them in lese majesty. These suitable pJ,ace in which to keep It. In the autumn men who are enforcing the law are not followers of 1936 all Christian higher schools were called of any particular religion. They are atheists or to the Department .of Educati.on to explain if they agnostics. The men .of the Meiji Restoration, who had a copy of the Portrait, and if not why not, devised the present cult of National Shinto, were and .if so, how It was treated. Leaders of the Na- rationalists and ,&theists. The J.apanese Christional Chdstian Education Ass.ociation advised all tians, therefore, conf.orm to many ceremonies Christian schools to apply f.or the best.owal of the without scruples, which would be impossible to a Portrait. Officials of the Department .of Educa- people (such as the Koreans) who do not have tion have recently advised Christian schools that this historical understanding. The men in charge a chapel, having symbols of the w.orship of the .of enf,Qrcing the law realize the necessity of not Christian God, was not an appr.opriate place for violating the constitutions guarantee of freed.om the display ,of the Portrait. .of religi.on, and will not force an issue which will antagonize the strong theistic sects of Buddhism, 5. In recent years the Government has been as well &s the Christian churches. emphasizing the importance of religious education in schools. A distincti'on is made between culti- 2. The Japanese Christians bend but do not vating the spirit .of religion in the pupils and break easily. Historically the cult of Shinto was teaching the doctrines of any ,specified religion. not intended to be religious, and many believe that The Government memorandum stated explicitly when this present tension has passed the .original that "n.o religious teaching will be permitted that purpose of the founders of the constituti.on will runs contmry to the Imperial Rescript on Educa- be maintained. Therefore, if the Government
will consistently maintain that the shrines are gone through controversies with the Government nonreligious and that reverence paid there is an in the past with credit and if they cannot find a act .of I.oy.alty and not .of religi.ous worship, they way out of this present crisis, they are ready to will foll.ow. Meanwhile they insist upon the re- pay the price in persecuti.on. form of Shinto and the removal of religions elements from shrines. Christians in Japan are fear- Finally, Japanese Chdstians are unwilling to ing a new era .of persecution, but d.o n.ot wish to create an issue out of what really seems to many precipitate it. a min.or matter, f.or they realize that far more important issues are in the air. 3. One question involved is, What does the Government mean by the words used for "God" for 1. A definite and well-directed anti-Christian "worship," for "divine"? It was unt:ortunate that m.ovement is .on foot in Japan, the extent of which the word adopted for "God" (kami) in Japan is is being revealed. The Government and the offithe same as that used for the Shinto divinities, cials ,are generally on the side .of the Christians, who are spirits of nature and deceased nati.onal seeking to avoid any overt act that would precipiheroes. The significance of the w.ord is little more tate a crisis. Ina certain city the l.ocal authorithan "eXialted being." Many Protestant Chris- ties recently issued orders that every house should tians refer to God by the term "Heavenly Father," erect a Shinto god-shelf. In another city placards .others ,always qualify the w.ord kami by phrases denouncing Chdstianity as a disl.oyal sect apasserting the uniqueness, the eternity and the fa- peared .on the streets one morning. In these plactherhood .of the Christian God. Although the ards the situation was analyzed so clearly that Shinto FundamentaHsts, ,and many .of the common it made one feel that, if a concerted effort were people, may think .of the Sun Goddess .or of Im- made by the enemies of the Gospel, there would perial Ancestors as possessing attributes of deity, be little difficulty in persuading the nonthinking the Christians know that the ideas differ greatly populace that Christianity is a traitorous religion. from the ideas which ,the Christians hold concern- At least many of its fundamental concepts run ing the Heavenly Father. Unfortunately, owing directly contmry to the stream of nati.onalistic to the hysterical state .of many "patri.otic" leaders, thought current in Japan at present. Certain it is impossible to air the differences involved, but hymns, certain secti.ons from St. Paul's Epistles, the Christians are thinking things through and from the Prophets, from the Book .of Revelati.on, discussing them in small groups. and from the Westminster Gonfes,sion, if pub- lished .on billboards, would precipitate trouble. Worship is paid by people to the spirit of a The situation is, as the Japanese would say, "delifaithful dog, whose statue stands at the railway cate." station where he awaited the return .of his dead master. Buddhi,st mas,ses are regularly held for 2. Another 'element of danger lies in the milithe spirits .of needles broken while sewing, and tary faction which use,s the Shinto reactionaries for ,the spirits of broken dolls. B.owing the head and Loyalists to further its policies of nationalistic is not reserved for what Westerners term "reli- expansion. This is.a subject concerning which it gi.ous" occ'll;sions. The sentiment .of awe at the is not prudent to write. There is clearly a rift center .of the Japanese idea of w.orship enters into between the civil ,authorities and the military. We many social conventions and habits. It is P.ossible are told that soldiers attempted to prevent the f.or Christians therefore to b.oW at shrines, even reentry of Dr. Kagawa, who was forced to appeal though thes~ same shrines may be used by .others to the governor of the prefecture before he could for religious purposes. It means little more to enter Kobe. them than taking off our hats at that same shrine would mean to us. The military authorities today are acting as if another war were imminent, and they look upon But many Japanese Christians will n.ot g.o vol- missionaries as enemies of their country, because untarily to the shrines or, adopt these methods .of they are foreigners; they look upon Japanese showing their loyalty. Well-known Christians are Christians as semitraitors because of their connot afraid to state that they or the'ir children d.o necti.on with the missions and because of the libnot worship at the shrines. If an issue is pressed, eral political and social ideas held by many Chrish.owever, they W.ould conf.orm rather than precipi- tian leaders. These things have had the effect of tate a crisis which might be far-reaching. drawing the Japanese Christians closer to the' missionaries, for in the event of a crisis both When such vague notions are common in Japan would suffer equally. regarding the meaning of "God," "worship," and "spirit," many missionaries feel that it is better The situation in Japan is more serious than that to leave the distinguishing .of the things that involved in the Shrine problem. Japanese Chrisdiffer to Japanese Christians. They are men and tians are seeking to avoid any open break with w.omen of a high .order .of intelligence, they have the authorities which would give additional oc- casion for their enemies to attack them.
Nagao-a Japanese Christian
By the REV. WILLIAM AXLING, Tokyo, Japan American Baptist Foreign Mission Society; Author of the "Life of Kagawa"
HAMPEl NAGAO was one of Japan's front- young Mr. Nagao has forged his way to the front line Christian leaders. While a student in and has become a conspicuous figure in the na- Tokyo he enlisted in the Christian life and tional life of Japan. On the staff of the Colonial this step ushered him into an entirely new world. Administration of Formosa, as Japan's represen- Everything he saw, the sky, the sea, the moun- tative on the International Railway Commission tains, the trees, the flowers, spoke to him about his in Siberia during the World War, as Chief of the new-found God, as revealed in Christ, a God who Southern Division of the Imperial Government is not only great and powerful but his Father, his Railways, as Head of the Municipal Street Car Friend. System of Tokyo and as a member of Parliament With unspeakable eagerness he looked forward he has rendered a significant service.
to the summer vacation when he would return to Through it all he has stood s.taunch as a Chrishis country village and share this new experience tian. Again and again he paid a big price for his with his parents, his brothers and his sisters. Christian conviction. He lost his seat in Parlia- Slow-footed summer ~rrived at last and hurriedly ment because the liquor interests combined he started for home. In his letters he had at- against him. But he lost it with a smile, saying tempted to prepare the way so that his family that his Christian principles were far more knew that he had become a Christian. precious to him than the coveted seat in Parlia- When he reached his village and opened the ment.
door of his home, the family rushed forth to greet Although constantly carrying heavy official re- him. All but his father. He was not to be seen. sponsibilities he was never too busy to respond to This seemed to augur ill. The father sent word a call for Christian service. For over twenty demanding that he must renounce his new-found years he was a trustee of the Tokyo City Y. M.
Christian faith before he would be received. C. A. and for a part of that time served as Chair- Worse still the father refused to allow the son to man. He was one of the organizers and a trustee cross his threshold. This was like a blow in the of Tokyo Woman's Christian College.
face. All the happy anticipations. of his home He was a flaming crusader in the temperance coming were shattered and he stood stunned. cause and a passionate advocate of church union.
The lad's reply was that he would do anything In these two fields his contribution was unique.
within his power to please his father but he could He was one of the prime movers in the movement not give up his faith in Christ. The father in which enabled the Christian Literature Society turn sent word that he was then no longer a son and the American Bible Society to secure their and this was no longer his home. Members of the present quarters. He passed into the life beyond family interceded, but the father's only reply was a few months ago and now that he is gone, the that the son had brought such dark disgrace upon battIe for everything that is Christian and good, him and the home that he was strongly tempted to will be lonelier and more difficult. atone for the son's sins by committing "harakiri" When Mr. Nagao died thousands of people in true traditional Japanese fashion. gathered to pay their respects in one of the With the tears streaming down his face Nagao largest auditoriums in Tokyo. Ministers of state, took his New Testament and, with a prayer, laid ex-ministers .and members of Parliament paid it on the threshold, sending word to his father, high tribute to his life and Christian influence.
asking him to read that book and judge for him- One other word of thanksgiving must be added: self whether Christianity was the evil religion His father read the New Testament which his which he supposed it to be. Then bidding good- sort left on the doorstep that fateful summer eve- bye to the members of the family and sending his ning and too found it to be Good News. He belove to his father, the boy turned away, weary in came an earnest Christian and the whole family body and broken in spirit, to retrace the long, long found their way into the new life in Christ. Even- miles back to Tokyo. tually the son was welcomed back into the home This happened fifty years ago. Since that time from which he had been banished.
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Missionary Motives*
By the REV. w. B. ANDERSON, D.D., LL.D., Philadelphia, Pa.
Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Church A WIDELY read book on missions, recently or of Robert Hockman of Ethiopia. They do not published, makes an astonishing statement sound familiar to those accustomed to listening of its authors' conception of foreign mis- to the missionary purpose as stated simply and sionary motives. They are attempting to state earnestly in gatherings of students, or from mis- why, in their opinion, men and women have be- sionary platforms, or read in mission offices. This come foreign missionaries. Summed up briefly, analysis of foreign missionary purpose looks their motives are as follows: . somewhat unattractive, and does not promise en- (1) The ardent desire of all religions to com- during energy and vital strength. municate what is spiritually valuable or of su- Fortunately we are not left to speculation at preme importance or unique (found particularly this point, but can determine the actual facts, in the followers of Buddha, Jesus and Moham- since each candidate for missionary appointment is always asked to state clearly his or her motive med). (2) Conviction as to the greater need of those for seeking appointment to foreign missionary service. The reply is personal and confidential. in the Orient. (3) Hopes of a greater return for given evan- Since the beginning of the foreign missionary work of the United Presbyterian Church, 761 misgelistic effort.
(4) The danger that those unevangelized would sionaries have been appointed. We have studied records showing the dominating motive of 308 go to eternal death. men and women in seeking appointment and these (5) The vision of a world-wide Church. include those enlisting over a period of the past (6) The desire for world unity. (7) A subconscious impulse to achieve one's 50 years.
growth through giving to others. The documents of the group were examined, This seems to be their analysis of the foreign and records made, some years ago. In many cases missionary purpose into its contributing personal statements contained more than one motive, but motives. an attempt has been made to select the predom- inant motive. No statement has been omitted be- A high school girl came into the laboratory cause the meaning of a writer was obscure or where the teacher in biology had spread out upon might be misunderstood. The dominant motive a tray the various parts of a flower. When asked that contributed to the missionary purpose of each if she could believe that this was a morning glory, individual is placed in a group, with the number she replied that she did not think that it was a given to those stating the same motive: morning glory, but only the stuff of which a morning glory was made, "For," she said, "life must Obedience to Christ ………………………… 58 bind all this together into a flower; and really the Appeal of the need ………………………… 52 life is the flower, is it not?" To lead others to Christ …………………….. 36 Love for Christ …•………………………… 34 These motives seem to me to lack something Desire to serve ……………………………. 17 that is found in the missionary purpose as I have To preach the Gospel ………………………. 16 To make the best investment of life …………… 15 known it in students and in missionaries. These To serve with her husband ………………….. 1~ motives, and others, may be variously combined To respond to a definite call to serve abroad ……. 12 in certain individuals, but a true Christian mis- Enlisted through -the influence of others ……….. 11 sionary purpose must have something that is not To advance Christ's kingdom ………………… 1 For God's glory …………………………… 1 present here. To promote Christian civilization ……………… 1 These motives in any combination seem to lack something vital found in the purpose of Jesus Not one of these candidates for foreign mis- Christ, or of the Apostle Paul, or of Livingstone, sionary appointment failed to recognize his faith * Condensed from The United Presbyterian (December 3, 1936). in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, and [ 140 ] loyalty to Him as personal Saviour and Lord of groups, moved by the passion of love for Christ his life. Whatever motives may have entered into and loyalty to Him, going out at any cost to lay the decision, it was this vital essence of Chris- down their lives in service for their fellowmen. tianity that bound them together into an indomitable purpose. Without this faith and loyalty, The only true Christian foreign missionary purthere can be no Christian mission any more than pose that can be found outside books, and that is there can be a morning glory composed of its effectively operative in the world today, is the parts without the vital spark of life which is the purpose derived from love for the risen Christ morning glory. and 10Yfl.1 obedience to Him. Because this purpose is inherent in His life, and has been imparted to This study of the subject of foreign missionary His followers, this purpose cannot cease. The motives is confined to the missionaries of one de- only Christian missionary purpose springs from nomination, but for us its conclusions should be motives that are stirred by personal love for, and reassuring as we face new opportunities for ad- loyalty to, Christ who is a living, ever-present, vance, knowing that there is no hope for true ad- ever-ruling Saviour and Lord. When this purvance and permanent results apart from the pose, springing from this love and loyalty, has eternal Gospel of the Son of God, and personal been fixed in the life of every Christian, those loyalty and obedience to Him. who go and those who stay, nothing can stop the accomplishment of the Church's mission in the I have had the opportunity of knowing many world; but merely human "religious" motives missionaries of other churches during my years of and purposes, however powerful, will always conservice abroad and at home. With them I may tinue to fail. have differed in race, nationality, social background, degree of education, creedal statement, Three years ago a group of college students definition of theological terms, form of church were discussing how the students on the campus government, or missionary methods, but with the could be interested in foreign missions. After exception of two or three such missionaries, every several had been heard, one of the leading men of one I have known personally, in his own statement the college arose and said that it was his convicof the creed has been a professing believer in the tion that the only way in which men and women one vital essence of the Christian faith. could be effectively enlisted in the foreign mission- ary enterprise was by causing them so to know The attempt being made today to rationalize Christ that they would in personal devotion to Christianity, by eliminating the miraculous Him submit their lives entirely to Him. Then he through the denial of Jesus Christ as God mani- made a statement of his own experience. This is fest in the flesh, is not some new thing that may not an ancient pronouncement, but it is made by destroy the Church. Agnosticism began this at- .a Christian student leader of today. The modern tempt in the first century, and under some form" missionary motive is devotion and obedience to human pride has ever continued this attempt. God in Christ, incarnate, crucified, risen and pres- Since the beginning of its history, the Church has ent in His people now. We thank God that in the had within it a group, or groups, of those deter", Church throughout the world the trend of convicmined to eliminate the miraculous from its teach:'. tion and faith seems to be strongly back to the ings by discounting the deity of Christ. The con: child-like faith in Him which is the door to the cern of such groups has ever been to secure for Kingdom of God, and to the simple devotion and the Church a place of esteem among human insti- obedience to Him which alone can ever inspire the tutions, and to escape from the "offense of the Church to evangelize the world. cross." But we do not find any record of such One of my classmates in the university was surpJ;'ised that I, whdihad taken an engineering course along with him, should set my face toward the mission field; Many unfamiliar with mission work think it is a far step from studies in electricity and mechanics to carrying the Gospel to the lost ones in Africa; but I would not trade jobs with any man. I have'seen automobiles, bicycles, and all sorts of machines broken, abused, and cast aside as worthless, brought to our shop. Old parts were taken out, new parts put in; and they were again put out on the job for which they were originally intended. With the repair of most of these I have had some responsibility. I have also seen men broken, abused and cast aside as worthless, led to Him who is able to do all these things well. In His hands they have been cleaned up, remade, old things have been cast away, all things had been made new, and they too have been sent out to do the service for which they were originally intended – for the praise of God as witnesses to His great Love. – EDWIN COZZENS, Cameroun, West Africa, in the Drum Call.
for the World We
By the REV. JOSEPH A. VANCE, D.D., . Detroit, Michigan ~..- Pastor 'of the First Presbyterian Church and former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.
EVERY reverent and persistent student of the whom the whole modern world has gotten in the New Testament is impressed with its mar- Mosaic Law its moral backbone; in Greek, the velous inexhaustibility. As the late Bishop language of universal culture and philosophical .H. C. G. Moule, of Durham, wrote with his un- conquest; and in Latin, the language of universal .usual spiritual insight and experience, "After rule of the world-conquering Roman. Through fifty years of study, each fresh effort and difficulty the centuries since, Jesus has been turning this lays open to me something that adds to the com- unconscious prophecy of Pilate into history, and pleteness of the apostolic record." fulfilling His own promise, "And I, if I be lifted As one goes digging deeper and deeper for this up, will draw all men unto me." surprising treasure, he is made increasingly aware This amazing universality of Jesus embraces that it comes, in one way or an- four elements: other, from ,the person of Jesus 1. He breaks down all race Christ. He discovers that here barriers. The mother of Jesus is the life story, not of a mere was a Jewish girl. So far as provincial Jew, but of a more we know, he was never outside than cosmopolitan, eve n a the little land of Palestine. All .world citizen, who takes on of his recorded literary quota- himself the title, "Son of tions are from the He or e w Man." In this oompact life Scriptures, but the little village story of Jesus of Nazareth, we of Nazareth, where he grew come on ,the vast reaches of up, was at the crossroads of universality. Born of a Jewish the world, and its people be- mother, here is one Man who came the world-bridge that puts racial prejudices under mediated between the old and his feet, and brothers human- new worlds in civilization, and ity. Cradled in David's little especially in religion. So here town of Bethlehem we see a He had many a vision that pre- .Babe over whose birth :the pared him to brother men of 'angels proclaim a promise of every race and to disciple the universal peace and world-en- world for citizenship in His compassing good will. Kingdom.
In His career as a Teacher, 2. In the second place, Jesus Jesus not only wins a unique bridges the world's soc i a 1 place among his own people, REV. JOSEPH A, VANCE, D.D. chasms. He is no high-caste but sends his followers on a Brahmin or Nordic egotist. He campaign to win .all men of every nation to His is far more ,than an Occidental democrat. He , discipleship. neither denounces a man because he is an aristo- When sharp antagonisms bred a hatred that crat nor cold.,shoulders him because he is a social :,sent Him to the cross, a cynical oflicial nailed over outcast. He asks a cup of water from one and ' the victim's head, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King goes to dine with the other.
of the Jews"; .but even in attempting to pro- Jesus Christ has kept this spirit alive down the . vincialize the victim and ,humiliate those who vic- centuries. The uneducated ,toiler, and even the out- ., timlzed him, the Roman officiill became a prophet caste gone tothe gutter, is as sure of His sympathy : of his victim's world-wide mission, for he wrote and help as is the honest and cultured. He broth- , the inscription in three languages ~ in Hebrew, ers the streetsweeper and the premier of state, : !he tongue of the great religious specialist, from and brings them together in a bedside prayer.
[142 ] 3. The third of these universal qualities is His Thou hast no power, nor mayest conceive of mine, agelessness. Jesus is as much at home in the But love I gave thee with Myself to love, twentieth century as in the first. The world out- And thou must love Me, who hast died for thee. grows Plato and Aristotle, even Mohammed and Confucius, but it is never able to outgrow Jesus. Down the ages his followers have marched, We can picture Him as easily in a dress suit at a thrilling to its music by an unknown monk of the dinner party today as we can see Him dining at Middle Ages, singing: Bethany with Lazarus. His figures of speech are as eloquent in our day of airplanes and stream- Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler. of all nature, lined cars as among the boats and nets of Galilee's fisher-folk. o thou of God and man the Son!
4. His universality even stands the test of sex; Thee will I cherish, thee will I honor, and how amazing that is, few fully realize, even Thou my soul's glory, joy and crown. in our day of open doors for women. The ordinary man takes on womanly qualities at the ex- And an Oxford student also turned evangelist pense of his personal force, and the average with his immortalwoman pays with her charm for her approach to masculinity. But Jesus is history's unique blend Jesus, lover of my soul, of virility and tenderness. He blazes with wrath Let me to thy bosom fly. in the face of hypocrisy and injustice, but outwomans a mother in dealing with quarrelsome What place can this Prince of Peace find in this brothers or a wayward girl; His compassion for confused, cynical, warring world of today? the down and outs has sent His followers on a new religious crusade for social justice. Probably now is the greatest chance to redeem it that He has had in all the world's history. What is the secret, from the human side, of this Through sheer disappointment elsewhere, and amazing catholicity of Jesus Christ? Is it not to tragic despair as it slips into the maw of self-debe found in the fact that He ministers to those struction, the hour has sounded for the Galilean. needs of the human race that are essential and universal and ageless? He breaks through the Never perhaps in the world's history has the strange speech and the local color and the ephem- human race been so earnestly seeking peace, and eral external, and meets the needs of men, not as never has the world witnessed the creation of Jews or Gentiles, not as slaves or freemen, not as more orderly and seemingly adequate machinery ancient or modern, not as male or female, but as to create and maintain it. The world is deluged human beings. with unanswerable arguments for peace and for the futility and folly of war. Not only has prac- Every man, for example, is a sinner, and Jesus' tically every type of religious organization, J ew~ great mission is to save people from their sins. ish, Catholic and Protestant, declared war to be wicked and contrary to their essential tenets, but Every man has darkened and unworthy concep- pacifist organizations have multiplied. The signations of God. Jesus is "the express image" of tories of the Kellogg Peace Pact have pledged God's person, and. "the exceeding brightness of themselves not to resort to aggressive war, and the Father's glory." the World Court waits to settle all international disputes amicably. But despite these and the Every man is more or less enslaved to ignorance League of Nations, the nations of the world are and the indulgence of his lower appetites, and racing to out arm for possible war against each comes, sooner or later to face his inadequate other on land and sea and in the air. Italy has equipment for the moral struggle. Jesus brings defied the rest of the world to make military conto both individual and the race, power to win out, quest of Ethiopia, and the whole world seems to and to turn life from tragedy to victory. be slipping into the abyss of war.
Then, as a climax to it all, we come on the uni- Who can exorcise this bloody demon and loosen versality of the language in which Jesus makes his grip on the sons of men? His appeal. By way of His cross He revealed the universal language of love. "And I, if I be lifted Our only hope of universal peace is in men's up, will draw all men unto myself." "This he full allegiance to the universal Christ. said," adds the apostle John, "signifying by what death he should die." Anyone can understand Weare accustomed to find the essential causes that language: "He died for me." No mind is of war in commercial rivalry, class inequalities, too stupid and ignorant to feel the love back of racial antipathies the ambition of political leadthat sacrifice; no genius is so brilliant as to de- ers, the sordid greed that will plot wholesale spise it. murder in order to sell munitions. But underlying all of these is that something in the human soul o heart I made, a heart beats here! that thrills to the call of war and irresistibly rushes to its appeal. Face my hands fashioned, see it in myself! The universal Christ binds His followers in a brotherhood that abolishes racial hatreds and bridges social chasms, that links the men of all ages in ties of love and abolishes even the limita- tions of sex.
But Christ does far more: He enrolls the nat- SIR FREDERICK AND MRS. N I CHOLSON ural fighting spirit on the side of truth and human brotherhood. He furnishes an "equivalent After being graduated from Oxford, Frederick for war" in clothing His followers in the armor of righteousness and rallies them to "fight the good Nicholson went to India as a young, untried offifight of faith." He not only furls the black flags of piracy and the red flags of class hatred, but He cial from a Christian home. He was soon proranges over egotistic nationalism the Cross-emblazoned banner of sacrificial service. moted and became collector of a great district.
Raymond Guthrie confesses that he loves war There he found his wife, a lovely daughter of a because he finds in it all the things that are denied him in peace time; because it offers him missionary of the Church of England. It was my association with a great number of men in a common cause; it gives him a chance to put forth his good fortune to meet them as a young missionary, effort in a cause greater than his own personal concerns; it thrills him with a sense of its eco- escaping from the heat of Madras to the hilltop of nomic equality and its spirit of adventure. Yercaud. Their friendship for a young Amer- Ninety-five thousand people will throng to spend over a million dollars to see two pugilists batter ican girl, far from home, made life different for each other. The average man loves a fight, and if he cannot fight himself, he gets his delight the five following years of missionary service. vicariously from seeing others fight. Many beautiful surprises included frequent visits Life fascinates us only when it has some element of struggle and adventure, some cause for and aid for the mission work in Madras. In sickwhich to suffer, something for which one is willing to die. ness and sorrow Sir Frederick and Lady Nichol- Christ sublimates this fighting spirit, robs it of son were always helpful. He was deeply interits appeal to baser instincts, and sets to martial music the tramp of a holy army marching to uni- ested in developing industries for the Indians and versal philanthropy. Christianity calls to a world war against every evil demon within and without. discovered a very fine grade of clay with which "We wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but he started a pottery. This he gave to the mission against principalities and powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places." We thrill to the station to use for their Christian people who were call to put on the whole armor of God, and life's greatest adventure comes to us as we "fight the often thrown out of their homes after conversion. good fight of faith." Memories of fifty years of friendship linger to Kellogg pacts will continue to be but scraps of paper, and even World Courts and Leagues of this day. Sir Frederick rose to become a mem- Nations will prove vain attempts to promote world peace until we learn to sit at the feet of ber of the Viceroy's staff, and was knighted by Him who is both Son of Man and Son of God and find the Captain of our salvation in the Prince of the British Government. He was the man who Peace. developed the Agricultural Banks which have been The Son of God goes forth to war A Kingly crown to gain. such a blessing to India-and might offer a sug- His blood-red banner streams afar; gestion to progressive America. He also initiated Who . follows in his train? the plan for fisheries, and after visiting notable CHRISTIAN SERVICE IN CIVIL SERVICE examples in Europe, spent a summer in America In the passing of Sir Frederick Nicholson, the eminent statesman of India, the world has lost and carried back from Gloucester what he con: more than a Knight of the Empire of India. He died last summer at the age of ninety, in the hills sidered the best suited plan for India. If Maof South India, the Coonoor country to which he had given his life. His work for India was no- hatma Gandhi had the spirit of Sir Frederick he . table, even among the many ably British stateslnl;'!l} who have aided the Empire. might do more for men of all classes of India:. At his death the press, people and officers united in highest praise. In all his loyal service for the Empire he never lost sight of the Kingdom of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Lucy W. PEABODY.
Unevangelized Chinese
By H. FRENCH RIDLEY, Urumtsi, Sinkiang Missionary of the China Inland Mission FOR years the spiritual needs of the Moslem as they did after the rebellion of 1894-5. On my people (Chanteos) who occupy that little arrival at Korla the man from the Yamen came known district which lies to the east and south to see me and look at my passport. They asked of the great Takla-Makam Desert has been laid me where I was going. I replied: on my heart. When in Sining Kansuh, I would often gaze westward to that vast region, between "You know our business is to go where there us and Kashgar, without a single messenger of the are people." Gospel. I wondered if it would ever be my privilege to visit those regions. That was away back "Oh, yes, we know you Fuh-ing-Tang, you are in the nineties. On my return from furlough in good people exhorting people to be good." They 1913, I was asked to assist in Lanchow in the troubled me no more, yet still I did not feel per- Middle School for two years. During this time fectly safe until I got to Chaklik. my thoughts again turned to this needy field and in 1926 the way opened to come to Tihua to re- It was necessary to provide food for the whole lieve a fellow worker. During my three years way to Chaklik – sixteen days' journey. We in Tihua my thoughts were continually upon this stored up a lot of bread, the bread being kept soft field and I picked up as much as I could of the by mixing three pounds of mutton fat with ten Turki language. pounds of the flour.
In the year 1931, after the return of Messrs. On November 16th early in the morning, with Hunter and Mather from their visit to the Qazaqs a full moon shining down upon us, we set out on in the mountainl;! and IIi (Kuldja) I was led to our journey. As the books I had with me were take a journey as far as Karashar and Korla at limited, I divided them up so that I could leave a the northeast end of the great Gobi Desert. A Gospel in every place we passed through. We British officer had been refused the request to camped out in the open without tents the whole take the route just previously so I little expected way to Chaklik, with the exception of two places. that I would have much chance even if I tried. Desert, jungle and sand dunes made up the jour- But the Lord was laying it more and more on my ney, interspersed with a small village here and heart that now was the time for me to go. Don- there or scattered farmsteads. Choang Kul had keys could be procured easily and the innkeeper 20 families; UIugh Kul (Kul is lake), 30 famtold me that he would find a reliabie man as don- iIies; Kulslagh Camp, 70 families; Tikkenlik, 150 keyman. A cart road had been made all the way families; Kara Bais, 70 families. The last five to Chaklik to make the transport of food for the stages had not more than 10 families. Beside givtroops at Chaklik easy. The soldiers built a high- ing away Gospels, we left tracts in bushes and on way through the marshes which were impassable trees where by-paths led off to farmsteads. Four without a guide and very trying to the traveler. hundred and fifty soldiers were camped at Tikken- Canals had also been cut so that fresh water was lik. I disposed of quite a few books there and obtainable all the way. As the Roman soldiers, later saw one man sitting at his door reading the before the Christian era, built fine roads in all Gospel with seemingly great interest. We camped parts of their empire, making it easier for the near the river at Arghan. A shepherd came and messengers of the Gospel to carry the glad news, I gave him a Gospel and a Pilgrim's Progress. so once again the soldiers of this great empire Early next morning ere we had broken camp he had gone before, making it easier for another mes- returned for copies for two other shepherds. He senger to carry the glad news to the people of this said they had been reading the greater part of the region who had never heard it before. Mission- night and liked the books very much. Here they aries living in the province have an advantage were in the jungle with their sheep and cows four over travelers and explorers, because we are per- days' journey from Chaklik, days passing without mitted to go where we desire. Nevertheless I was seeing anyone. They were rejoicing over this gift doubtful about being permitted to go as there was of books which will be read again and again in still fear that the Dungan's, in case of being de- their loneliness, with plenty of time to discuss the feated in Kansuh, would fly to this said district, contents. May they, like Bunyan's Christian, find their way to the Cross with their burden of sin.
Nearing Lob Nor there was a terrible gale of wind called a "buran." Fortunately behind us.
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The wind whizzed among the trees and just be- River and halted for the night. The following was yond was the open desert. Noone could possibly a lovely winter day. Our path first led through pass over the desert that day. In the evening, the jungle, then among the high reeds and rushes snow fell and from Fort Kuron to where we of Lake Choang to a little hut, the home of a shep- camped at Kashgar forty days' journey, snow lay herd. These huts are made of wattles plastered along our path. Lob was our last encampment ere over with mud, the walls falling two or three feet we reached Chaklik. We had to take fuel for our short of the r.oof, leaving plenty of room for fresh camp fire from Fort Kuron. The trek to Chaklik air. When we entered the hut the shepherd's wife is sheer desert, a long weary journey. and three naked children were sitting around the The First Contact with a Missionary fire on the ground in the middle of the room. No table, chairs or forms. We all squatted round the We arrived at Chaklik, a little town of 140 fam- fire, ten in all, and fared out of the same big ilies with probably some 500 families in the whole cauldron, inviting the family t.o join us at our district, at dusk. Over 700 soldiers were stationed sumptuous feast of mutton broth and bread.
there to check the Dungans. I sold all the books The following day we passed through much I could spare and gave away many tracts. The grassland and saw several flocks of sheep, crossed people were courteous and visited me in the inn. the Charchien River on an ice bridge and at dusk This was their first contact with a missionary. arrived at the village of Tatran where we were When I left on the 9th of December my donkey- informed that there was no inn. I then over- man pr.omised to go as far as Keria (19 days heard s.ome one say there was an officials' Rest further) but changed his mind, so I bought his House called a kong-kuan. Soon a door was donkeys and hired a man to help my servant. We opened and we entered a very cozy room, the floor replenished our store for the next seven days to covered with Khotan carpets. The caretaker and Charchien (Churchend on some maps). A 33-mile his wife and mother were exceedingly obliging, trek over sheer desert, flat as a pancake, we ar- soon had a fire lit and tea ready. All joined in a rived at Gillig, where a man has his hovel by the supper of mutton. The village elder and a few riverside. There are two little caves, without other men came in to see me and I gave them doors .or windows, dug out in the bank of the books.
river. We arrived late so found the caves occu- Good News for the Magistrate pied, but some merchants made room for me and my servant in their cave. They had brought fuel The next day we arrived at Charchien. Our with them, or we should have fared badly. I gave entrance into the town settled a little quarrel that was going on in the street, the advent of a forthem a Gospel. Another 30 miles brought us to the village of eigner being more important. The news caused Vara-shari, with some 120 families. We stayed a stir in the Yamen for no official information in the official Rest House. The young women of had been received of any foreigner coming and the household were keen to have a look at me and I had no escort. We had just gotten settled and made several errands to pass my door. Several I was having a cup of tea when a man came from men came to see me, and by the help of my serv- the Yamen demanding in a bustling and rude ant, I told them why I had come. The crucifixion, manner where I had come from and where I was death and resurrection of our Lord was fresh going. He stood asking for my passport. "Sit news to them. They asked many questions. We down," I said. "What is all your hurry, I am not rested a day to prepare for the heavy cr.ossing of going away again tonight; wait till I have finthe high sand dunes. Towards evening of the ished my tea, then I will give you my card.
following day we reached the foot of the dunes. He replied, "The magistrate is very anxious to There is only one hut and it is occupied by a fam- know who you are, as he has had no n.otice of your ily of five. There is no grazing land for cattle or coming." Finally he sat down and talked. When sheep and all the food has to be brought from I was finished I gave him my card but he wanted Vara-shari. They were glad to have a gift of my passport.
some white bread. In the evening the son and "I will bring it along tomorrow," I said, but he other tr~velers sang songs and played on the would not go without it so I sent my servant to banjo. The women folks were peeping through bring it back.
the wattle petition. I seized the opportunity of The next day r visited the official, an elderly getting in a word for my Master and gave them Chanteo gentleman from Kashgar. He received some books. me very graciously and returned my visit when The following day we crossed the sand dunes, he gave mean unique opportunity of telling him several hundred feet in height – heavy traveling the Glad News, as he opened the subject himself.
for man and beast. "Did Christ really die and rise again?" he Finally we reached the banks of the Charchien asked.
THROUGH UNEVANGELIZED CHINESE TURKESTAN
"If it had not been so I would not be here," I talk about the Gospel, and they all got books to answered. take away with them. In the afternoon the head- There was a big, listening crowd. Several de- man of the oasis, with a few friends, came to see sired books and one man surprised me when he me. He was from Yarkand and asked many ques- told those who stood by that what I had said was tions about the Gospel. Having asked my age, perfectly true. said, At Charchien we replenished our food supply, "Why, at your age, have you come this long des- as well as grain for the animals. Nine days of ert route?"
desert lay before us. Snow was on the ground "To do the will of my Lord and Master," I re- everywhere and the road was heavy with sand plied.
dunes. The first three langars (Rest Houses) "It must be done," he answered. I gave him were in charge of a father and two sons, living Mark's Gospel and a Pilgrim's Progress. Niya alone, thirty to thirty-five miles apart. Some- and Endere are the two places where Sir Aurel times for days no travelers are to be seen, so if Stein unearthed many interesting relics. Forty one of these men were ill and died the other mem- miles direct north from Niya is the shrine of bers of the family would not know for days. Imam J afir Sadik, the most famous shrine in all Around Endere there is a good deal of jungle, Central Asia. As my mission was to bring the therefore many wild sheep, cattle, horses, foxes richest Treasure that this world affords rather and pigs. One touching scene on the way is the than seek for earthly treasures, I had no time to lonely grave here and there marked by a long pole go so far out of my way. There is a small langar stuck in the ground and a yak's tail hanging on at 40 li (13 miles) from Niya. It seemed no top. Sickness had overtaken them far away from bigger than a dog kennel, but it is built in a hol- help. It may have been that they died of thirst. low, the smallest langar we saw and is in charge We passed a little group of four one day. The of two very old women. We had to stoop down to mother had been taken suddenly ill, could no get into the miserable hovel. They had prepared longer ride the donkey, so was lying on the ground a little mutton broth for passers-by. In the sum- with the remainder of the family standing around. mer when there is no snow the water has to be On the sixth evening from Charchien we ar- carried five miles.
rived at the Yak-toghrak Langar to find the inn In a Farmer's Home full of guests, so there was no room for us in the inn this Christmas Eve. After going three miles Next day we journeyed 35 miles, arriving at the we beheld a camp fire about a half mile off the oasis of Oy-Toghrak at dusk. There was no inn, road. It was a cloudy evening and dark. Slowly so the donkeyman took us to the home of a friend we made our way among the shrubbery, snow be- where we had a very hearty welcome. Our host ing quite deep in some places, and at last reached was a well-to~do farmer. To my surprise they in- the camp fire. Our fellow travelers had found a vited me into the women's quarters where there hole under the huge roots of a tree. My men un- was a fire. A wee laddie of five summers took loaded the animals, swept the snow off the ground, hold of my hand without fear. The old mother then went in search of fuel and soon had a roar- and one of the daughters-in-law came and sat be- ing fire. It was Christmas Eve again over nine- side me near the fire. There was a father, mother, teen centuries after that first Christmas Eve. two sons and their wives and two boys. One of Here was I, out in the desert, privileged to be the the sons is a mullah.
messenger of the same Glad News to a people who After supper all except the father gathered had never heard it before. It will be a never-to- round my fire, chatted and asked questions. The be-forgotten night for me. most interesting thing was my teeth. I told them Three days more brought us to the oasis of my errand and they listened very patiently. I Niya, about 20 miles in length sustaining a pop- had only a few tracts left, but had asked for Gos- ulation of 1,000 families. Just before entering pels to be sent from Kashgar to Keria to await the oasis we passed the grave of some holy men. me, so I promised to send some back with the There were two ram's horns on one grave, on an- donkey man. None of the women wore veils in other a ram's head, a third had a sheep skin, on the house. The old lady performed her evening a fourth hung the skin of a fowl, besides hosts of devotions while I was still in her room.
little flags upon which were written prayers, re- New Year's Day we reached Keria, a city of minding one of the Tibetan obos with their hosts 6,000 families and probably 40,000 in the district, of prayer flags hung on branches of trees stuck which includes Niya and Oy-Toghrak. Here was on the top of the obo. In the evening several mer- my first touch with a bit of Western civilization, chants came to the inn where I was staying; all the post office. There is no telegraph office nearer but one could speak Chinese as they had been to than Kashgar. I was invited to stay in the home Kansuh with their merchandise. We had a long of the Aksakal, an Indian Moslem who is the rep-
resentative of the British Consul General in Kash- lars all the way. To be away from the desert gar, appointed to look after the British Indian for a short while was a real treat. subjects. It was bazaar day when we arrived and the streets were packed with people. We first We arrived at Khotan at noon and were enterwent to the inn but were glad to be invited else- tained at the home of the Indian Aksakal. The where, for the room smoked badly and was so journey long prayed about was accomplished. dark that I needed a candle to read. Here is a Khotan had already been visited several years ago good center for a mission station. The city is by that intrepid missionary, Rev. G. W. Hunter, built on a high bank overlooking the river. There who has been traveling 25 years in the province are no gates of importance and only two main and knows it better than any other living person. streets, but lanes galore, running here and there The distance from Korla is 1,140 miles and the in a most tortuous manner that it was difficult to route naturally divides itself into two parts: find one's way around. There is a large popula- Korla to Vara-shari, with headquarters either at tion on the north side of the city. Except on Korla or Karashar. one and a half days further bazaar days the city presented a very quiet ap- north, Tatran to Khotan with headquarters at pearance. When I wanted to buy anything, I was Keria. The Swedish Mission hopes to occupy told to wait till bazaar day otherwise it would be Khotan soon. difficult. The people took little notice of me. In fact, along the whole journey, except in Char- From Khotan I went northwest to Yarkand and chien, the people were not a bit curious. How Kashgar and had the privilege of seeing the work they would receive missionaries it is difficult to of the Swedish Mission at their three stationssay. It would be necessary to visit the place a Yarkand, Yenghi-hissar and Kashgar. Between few times and do a little dispensary work to open Khotan and Yarkand the three cities of Suma, the way. The need is great and that in itself Kargalik and Posgam ought to be occupied. I constitutes a call. This field naturally falls under returned via the north road-Maral-bashi, Aksu, the care of the Swedish Mission who hope to open Kuchae and Karashar thus circumambulating the Khotan in the near future. great desert of the Takla-Makan, probably the first time it has been done in one journey by a After a twelve days' stay in Keria, I sold my white man, a distance of 2,625 miles. From donkeys and bought two horses. It was a long Karashar I returned home to Tihua (Urumtsi). stretch of forty miles of desert to Yar Langar I left Tihua on the 22d day of October and reand thirty-three miles more on the following day turned on the 24th of April, in six months and brought us to the town of Chira with a population two days having covered 3,300 miles, passed of 2,500 families in the oasis. All along the route through 18 cities and towns where there was no people had been saying that it was the coldest Christian mission station. winter in the memory of the oldest inhabitants and at Chira there was a great scarcity of water. The need itself is the appeal. Pray for God's Here are ten thousand people who had never had blessing on the books and tracts sold and given the opportunity of hearing the Glad News. Much away on this virgin soil, that He who blessed and land is yet to be possessed. In the oasis of Lob broke the five loaves and two fishes and satisfied there are supposed to be some 20,000 families. It five thousand men, besides women and children, joins up with Khotan-a vety rich district. From may so break the precious Word that many souls Lob to Khotan is 20 miles along a lovely road for may be fed in this wild desert region. In the day motors about 20 feet in width and lined with pop- when He gathers up His jewels may there be many found among His treasures gathered out of this land of buried cities.
As the sculptor works in wood and stone I would devote myself to the living soul. But I face the solemn thought that the sculptor cannot carve either in wood or in stone anything better than himself. All the lines of my carving Will but reveal my own soul. Gazing at my hand, at my chisel, I shudder. How long will it take for this human sculpture which I can never carve better or finer than my-own soul? How shall I escape! how escape from my pitiable, limited self, and rise to become a carver of God!
Happily there is a guide for me, One Who has opened the door of the sanctuary, One Who in His living flesh Has given us an image of the living God.
-Toyohiko Kagawa.
Eskimos-Old and New*
=B=U=T=Z=IN====!.lII~- –tIi{II.!;;!===B=y=th=e=R=E=V=.=A=RT=H=U=R=F=.
ARE the results of fifty years of continuous their faith and hope as they heartily sing: "We .r.. missionary effort equal to the price paid? shall sleep, but not forever." As they glance at Fifty years of the Moravian Church's the crosses marking the last resting places of northwestern venture has involved thousands of their own, they have in their hearts the assurance dollars. The human effort and sacrifices with the of a glorious dawn when they shall never part.
compensations and losses involved can never be The Old Religion and the New reduced to figures set on a balance-sheet.
But in answering the question let us contrast The medicine man, or shaman, was a conspic- the Eskimo of yesterday with the Eskimo of uous person in the old order. As direct repre- today. sentative of the tunrangaiyak (Devil) he was The ancient religion of the Eskimo was one of powerful. Many of them used this power diabolideception and fear. They summed it all up in the cally. Some were of a kindlier disposition, but words: "I fear." In their language there are all of them could easily become the tyrants of many synonyms for fear, foreboding and horror. foreboding and terror. Fear enslaved the people For this fear they blame one tunrangaiyak and to these men. A young native, dying of the dread his agents. He is "the Ruler out of the Dark- tuberculosis, said to me: "The shaman has bound me. I have begged him, but he will not ness." We call him the Devil. For the Christian Eskimo the ancient fears are unbind me. So I must die. If only he would unof yesterday. They have accepted the Saviour, bind me, then I could live." who has broken the bonds that once enslaved them That the shaman did have terrible power our to fear and horrors. They say with all believers: older Christians know. But they also know that a "This is my Lord, who redeemed me, a lost and stronger and a kinder One has come. A Christian undone human creature, purchased and gained Eskimo, also dying of tuberculosis, was besought me from sin, from death and from the power of by his father, still a heathen, to have the shaman the Devil." Some may still need to say: "I be- in. He would not. They begged him that they lieve; help Thou mine unbelief." But they are might take his parka to the shaman to pow-wow saying it sincerely. Christ has opened a new over. No, he would not. If his Saviour would, world of trust and hope to their hearts. He has he could heal him, but if He saw fit to take him brought them a real salvation from terrible bond- from earth to Himself, that would be best. But age and has also introduced to them the mighty in any case he would not now let his soul be soiled by the touch of the Devil. God as their dear and loving heavenly Father. Under the old regime death came with horror, A heartless religion engendered heartlessness. hatred and hopelessness. The loss of child, Our early missionaries repeatedly met with inmother, father, or other dear one, caused the stances where those enfeebled by age or disease were left behind to starve at the time of the spring usual natural heartache. In addition were the migration. When they realized this, our missionhorrors and terrors of apparitions of the de- aries prepared salt fish ahead and saw to it that parted. There was hatred for the shaman who they had sufficient ammunition to procure the might have caused the death. Added to these was necessary ducks and geese to feed such during the utter hopelessness. Life was gone forever. periods of scarcity of food. This kind forethought Death still brings to them the heartache and made its impression. The modern missionary feeling of loss. I have heard a Christian Eskimo still encounters a sad lack of deference and kindfather sob over his dying son: "Father have liness for the aged and feeble, but they are now mercy upon me." Later this father calmly spoke fed and cared for. There is a growing Christian to his people of the Home with the heavenly Fa- opinion that the aged should be dealt with conther and the Saviour, where he would meet his siderately. Most of our congregations have colown again. Easter has become the glad day for lections especially for such older and needy folks. bereaved Eskimos. At the sunrise service they tell Sometimes Sunday school classes gather gifts for * From 1'he .BIorav1an (Decenlber, 1935). them and sing in their homes.
[ 149 ]
The orphan and the "half-orphan" (child of gether easy in that low, flat country of rain, Eskimo companionate marriage) shared the lot of water, slush and mud where dirt is a natural aged feeble folk. However, they could not be element. starved so readily nor was that exactly desirable. The people needed "slaves" to labor for them. And it is true that the persistent influence of Hard work, rough treatment and "garbage" food the Gospel is toward cleanliness. The old superand clothing fell to the lot of these. We have seen stitions thrived in filth and darkness. Jesus is the these "slaves" among well-fed and happy children. Light of the world. Light dispels darkness and They looked on while the others had their fill of destroys filth. This is the experience of the Good the choicest. When all were satisfied, they got News among the Eskimo. Napagiaghak village the crumbs, bones and dregs of the tea that hap- wanted a chapel. They could not build it without pened to be left. These things used to be com- help. In presenting the need of a chapel their mon, for there was no sentiment to forbid it. spokesman advanced as the cogent reason for it that it was not compatible to celebrate the Holy "Let the little children come unto Me," includes Communion in the dark, dirty and soot-covered the orphan. That part of the Gospel is being in- kashige. The younger set are eagerly learning terpreted by the orphanage. Again the Eskimo the truths of sanitation and gradually are formas a whole have responded wonderfully. From ing habits of cleanliness. all corners of our field comes approval. Native congregations give fish. Some have donated fur A Long and Winding Trail boots and other things. Before our eyes we see another advance. It is the Saviour's will that It has been a long, long winding trail from their none of these little ones be offended. primitive superstitions and fears to the devotion, thankfulness, hope and Christian fellowship ex- The Social Change perienced at one of the Communion services to- day. The pioneers met with stolid hostility, with The aboriginal Eskimo considered woman very dense ignorance and utter indifference. The Gosmuch man's inferior. She was man's servant. pel message was too immense for their minds. Her duty was to bear and rear children, and al- The trail through their hearts led to their souls. ways serve the man. She gathered the wood and The patient kindness and service rendered them cured and stored the fish. She removed and dried by the missionaries won their confidence. As one the pelts of the animals trapped by the man and ignorant Eskimo said to one of our missionaries, out of them made garments. Whenever a migra- "You are Christ to us." Any verbal interpretation took place, she helped the dogs haul the bag- tion meant nothing to that man; a Christlike life gage, or if by water, she and the children pro- did. pelled the boat, while the man sat in the stern steering it. She was "too dumb" to appreciate Today they listen gladly to the message and, anything better. Mentally she was considered a furthermore, they themselves have become detervery inferior animal. mined to have a share in presenting the invitation of Christ to fellow Eskimos who have not yet ade- That feeling still persists, but there is in prog- quately heard. Helper Neck is outstanding. His ress an adjustment. Husbands and wives now name is first in the "Eskimo Who's Who." He live together – some of them very peaceably. had come from the uttermost-a shaman of the They bring up their children together. As a fam- shamans, zealous. He had accepted Christ. Thereily we see them coming to church; the husband after his living was of Christ and for Christ. He is even carrying the baby in his arms; though he and a host of others have written the Gospel acwalks on ahead while she follows! The husband cording to the Eskimo. This interpretation of has begun to fetch the wood and water and lend Christ in living epistles is read and understood. a hand in the curing and storing of the food sup- Congregations have been touched by this Spirit. plies. In many of our congregations the woman They help support native preachers in the frontier has been granted the vote. Some of the more villages; when a new chapel is to be built, a coladvanced pray at their meeting and teach Sunday lection may be taken or a hand is lent in its conschool classes. struction.
*** Fifty years in the life of a race is but a day. It would be unreasonable to expect that in so short a Very much has been said and written about the period every vestige of the old superstitions and Eskimo and his foul igloo. The subject may seem fears should have been utterly destroyed. The over-emphasized, but only to such who have never older folk "know" experimentally that evil as imseen, smelt or touched it. Then, if it be true that personated in the shaman was powerful to bless cleanliness to Godliness is kin, some very notice- and curse, That same power stilI exists, though able change should be apparent in the person, held in check by the stronger power of a merciful home, and surrounding of the Christian Eskimo. God. We wilI grant them that cleanliness is not aIto-
the Church and Modern
By J,rnV. DANIEL A. POLING, D.D. I I r~"- Pastor of Baptist Temple, Philadelphia, Pa.
~==============================~, MODERN youth is incurably religious-not may stand between, youth presses toward the goal by the test of any particular human creed, at whatever cost. Youth does not and cannot not in the vernacular of fifty, twenty or escape Jesus Christ when He is released by those even ten years ago, but in deep reality. Modern who too often build about Him barricades of youth is incurably religious even though he may prejudice and petty sectarian difference.
deny the fact for the moment, by deeds as well as What is it that makes Jesus Christ unique as words. the Captain and Leader of youth? "I will follow William Lyon Phelps, who talks a language withersoever thou goest," declared a young lawyer that youth understands, has suggested a reason centuries ago as the Galilean Teacher moved tofor the basic religious..attitude of young men and ward Jerusa·lem and His crucifixion. Those words young women. "Youth responds to the spirit and of dedication were spoken deliberately, in the message of Jesus Christ," says Dr. Phelps, "be- light of known facts, after Jesus, by the test of all cause Jesus knew more about political economy human evidence, had apparently passed from than all the professors in all the colleges in the triumph to decline; they were spoken in the face world and He knew more about the human heart of impending physical disaster. This young scribe than did Shakespeare. Jesus Christ is the great- made his choice knowing full well that by so do- est leader, the most absolutely right Person, the ing he turned his back upon family and ambition, world has ever known. A complet~ change has that he invited tragic risks, that he flung wide his come over the world since the War, especially in arms to defeat and even death.
the emergence of individual leaders in times of Jesus was on the march, and it is life on the peace. StaHn is running Russia alone, Hitler do- march that captures youth. Jesus was moving ing the same thing in Germany, Mussolini in toward a great goal. The young man knew it, Italy. The whole world is in such a turmoil that and he would go along. The psychology of youth men are looking for leadership and saying, 'Who in every generation is the psychology of advance.
is going to get us out of this mess?' People may Progress, and not decline, is the key to the hearts be following some fallible human leaders for the of our sons and daughters; and Jesus Christ for- moment, but the leadership of Jesus Christ in our ever has that key. He has a destination in view, lives ought to be, may be, constant in everything. an immortal destiny. He could not be turned If I should say that the only way in which every aside by opposition and He would not retreat be- person in this world may be saved is by joining a cause of bitter dangers. It is not a Garibaldi particular church, you would rightly think me patriotism that discourages a young man today.
crazy. I am not out of my mind when I say the It is not a loyalty involving danger that dampens only way the world can be saved today is by ac- the ardor of a young woman. But an institution cepting and following Jesus Christ." or a leader that is not going somewhere, that is It is in the very heart of the vital matter that not headed toward some real and alluring destinawe find the great twentieth century issue for the tion, cools the fevered blood of a holy purpose in Christian Church. She cannot win youth by ask- the veins of a rising generation. ing youth to join her divisions but she can win Let the Church, with her allied institutions and youth by asking them to unite their lives to the organized activities, give heed today. Let any person and cause of Jesus Christ. Jesus in the church that does not have young people, and is flesh always attracted young people to' His com- not able to attract them, take account of stock and pany, challenged them with His message, won remember the man of twenty centuries ago who them to' His ministry. He was always going some- cried, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever where and knew where He was leading them. thou goest."
Danger and defeat did not lose youth's allegiance, Saul of Tarsus was riding hard toward Damas- for always yO'uth is on the march and if the goal cus, but Jesus rO'de faster, overtook him in the is worth reaching, though reverses and disasters way, tumbled him into the dust and then lifted [151 ]
him to sweep him forward faster than horses and to make men and women truly good and powerful farther than the boundaries of Rome's imperial is adequate for this crisis. The editorial concludes world. This same Jesus overtook Rome herself at that this solution is to be found nowhere else than last and moved on ahead of all her legions. in Jesus Christ and the New Testament.
What was the destination of Jesus? Where is The world has a growing sense of need. Her He going? When He was on earth he went to find very terror in the presence of the machine age she the hungry, and He gave them food. He went has created may be matched by her desire to find with healing for the sick, and even the dead lived and travel the road that leads to a new world. It again. He went to reveal the true basis of brother- is as though the leader of this generation said, "I hood to a world filled with hates and fears; He will follow thee, follow thee whithersoever thou went to find the lost and to show them the way goest." But have they counted the cost? back to the Father. He is still on that mighty quest. He goes now to destroy armed conflict and One of the distinguished military leaders of the bring peace; He comes to right wrongs and to Great War declared it to be his reasoned concluoffer new life and youth flocks to His banner sion that "only the Church can save the world wherever it is lifted on high. from another and even more disastrous conflict." He added, "If another great war comes, the Where is Jesus, our Lord, going? He hastens Church will be to blame." Can the Church preto establish the sacredness, the divinity of human vent war? Can the Church destroy poverty? Can personality, when brought into vital relationship the Church secure justice for weaker races, and with God. For him a little child, the humblest classes? Can the Church solve the problem of baby of the poorest house is of greater value than lawlessness and actually Christianize civilization? all the wealth of a great city. No-the Church cannot, al'5 an institution with an institutional program. As an organization in her Jesus Christ travels on with the ever-lengthen- own right, however great and glorious in the light ing stride of eternal truth to free man's body from of sacred history, she cannot. But as the chosen its bondage, and to cure and save the soul of man instrument of this same Jesus Christ, the Lord of so that it will never die. All other leaders are Glory, the Church, united, humbled by the sense little men when compared with the divine Gal- of her human weaknesses, but with the knowledge ilean. They have their moment of acclaim, but of her infinite divine resources, the Church, folseldom more than one. Only when they join His lowing the l~adership of Christ, thus can save the company and are possessed by His Spirit do they world. This is the Church to which modern youth survive their generation – such were Paul and will come, as youth in every generation has Luther, Wesley and Spurgeon and Moody. The flocked to enlist for high adventure. Youth enlists youth of the world can be saved today only' by fol- today for dictators, and youth marches behind lowing Jesus Christ. the banners of Stalin and Hitler and Mussolini, moved by fear and hatred and self-interest. When In a popular magazine an editorial writer, who the lists of Jesus Christ are opened and His would resent being called a preacher, declared that trumpet is blown youth will march under His it is not by a "new thought" that the world can be banner. saved but that the regeneration of society demands new lives, and that only a Power sufficient LET THE CHILDREN BE HEARD You may hush every other voice of national and individual complaint; you may silence every other tongue, even those of mothers of destroyed sons and daughters, of wives of profli- gate husbands; but let the children speak – the little children, the wronged children, the crip- pled children, the abused children, the blind children, the imbecile children, the nameless chil- dren, the starved children, the deserted children, the beaten children, the dead children!
o my God, this army of little children!
Let their weak voices, faint with oppression, cold and hunger, be heard. . . . Let their little faces, pinched by want of gladness, be heeded! Let their challenge – though made by small forms, too mighty for estimate – be reckoned with! Let their writing upon the wall of the nation – although traced by tiny fingers, as stupendous as eternity – be correctly in- terpreted and read, that the awful robbery of the lawful heritage of their little bodies, minds and souls is laid at the brazen gate of ALCOHOL. – EVANGELINE BOOTH, General of the Sal- vation Army.
Christian Students and
–<!III By H. W. PEET, London, England 11"'- T HE student Christian Movement Quadren- The worst policy today is to maintain the status nial of Great Britain was held at Birming- quo; anti-Communist crusaders become too easily ham. This great gathering is held to bring the messengers of the "bad news" that things before each generation of students the needs of must remain as they are. The Church must realthe missionary work of the Church. ize that "The finest realities of the West are not in systems; forms of government are merely tem- The trend of student thought today is reflected porary ways of dealing with human affairs. We in the general title of the conference, "God Speaks must have a sense of proportion-or humor-and to This Generation." As Dr. Leyton Richards, of the idea that behind the facade of affairs are just Carrs Lane Chapel, Birmingham, said: frightened human beings. We must try to look God in the face and realize how ridiculous it is "After the war the emphasis was on social work for us to sit in judgment on one another, like and international matters. These are still press- archangels on the day of judgment. We must ing heavily on the students but they realize that realize that humanity is a band of sinners who they and the world around them have failed to should come to God and then stand side by side put things right, and they are returning to a helping to make a new world." search f.or a sure foundation for their faith in God." Dr. t'Hooft gave a vivid analysis of Great Britain today as an outsider sees her. He put his The early disciples of Christ started with the finger on the weak spots in British national facts of Jesus' advent, life, sacrifice and resur- armor, and quite frankly said that the world is rection. They found that these historical facts irritated with Britain because she seems so easily became for them the basis for a moral fact. As to find great moral reasons for acts of self-interthey tried to explore the moral fact and explained est. Britain must be willing definitely to conit they found that the Person they had known tribute to the peace of the world, apart from any just as a fact of history, and whom later they advantage such an act may bring to herself. recognized as the great factor of moral life, could only be explained as a spiritual fact, as One who An Anglican Father, Rev. W. S. A. Robertson, was the embodiment or incarnation of the very of St. Ives, who is d.oing a magnificent work in being of God. the midlands among tramps, presented an attrac- tive figure in his brown robe and course girdle. The gathering was attended by 2,000 people, Speaking on "The Reality of God," he said that, including many overseas students studying in even though his audience was so different fr.om Great Britain and others who came specially for those among whom he had recently been mixing the meeting from the continent of Europe, Asia yet they had much in common for all .of us must and Africa. come to God as "down and out" men and women.
Dr. Visser t'Hooft, the very capable Dutch sec- Rev. William Paton, Secretary of ,the Internaretary of the World Student Christian Federation, tional Missionary Council, spoke on his recent representing some 200,000 students in 45 coun- visit to the Far East and dealt with the political tries, spoke on "The 'Christian' West." He said: and religious ferments there. In his analysis of "We might as well talk of the 'Christian Jungle,' " the situation in Japan, where the worship of the recalling the tragically unchristian state of af- Emperor, inherent in the Japanese system, is setfairs which prevail today. "Nevertheless," he ting up a superreligion of extreme nati.onalism, added, "Christianity has been the central forma- he really gave a digest of his important book, tive element in all that is good in Western civ- "Christianity in the Eastern Conflicts." One of ilization. It has emphasized the worth of effort the speakers of the World Student Christian Fedand of individuals. Without Christianity the erati.on was Mr. Sen, ,an Indian who has just been West would be historically inconceivable. "What touring the United States. His illustration of the the world lacks today is a common point of ref- five fingers .of our hand representing what should erence. Several groups believe that they alone be the five chief elements in our life. The thumb can save Europe-and are willing to ruin Europe represents strength and courage for with it we in order to prove their thesis. The ideological grip things. The first finger represents leadership enemy is considered the representative of some satanic principle."
[ 153]
and guidance, for with it we point. The center supplication, but rather with hand stretched ,out finger represents harmony. The third on which in cooperation." In a warm tribute to the misthe wedding ring is placed, stands for love. And sionary movement of the past hundred years, Mr. the little finger when we hold our hands in prayer Sun said, "It would be difficult to discover in hisfaces the aUar and, also, in the Indian meth,od of tory any group ,of men and women who have comsalutation, faces the person we honor. manded greater respect and admirati,on than those ,of the missi,on field. The world owes a greater The Archbishop of Y,ork spoke on "God in debt to these men and women than it sometimes Christ," recalling the first Quadrennial he at- realizes." tended in 1908. "Those who saw God in Christ in the first century," he said, "did not argue ab,out Africa was represented by Mr. J. C. W. Dougit. F1aith is a response of the wh,ole mind, critical all, the new Secretary of the Conference of British and constructive. Yet the essential wonder of Missionary Societies, who has spent s,ome years faith is much more like the feeling for a trusted in East Africa as educational adviser to missi,ons. and admired leader than it was like the Q. E. D. While all the most vital questions of international at the end of a geometrical proposition." relationships may be focussed in Africa at the moment, the most important fact Lor the future is Rev. Paul Rangaramanujam gave a stirring ac- that there is a Christian Church in Africa. count ,of the growth of the Mass Movement in the area in which he works. On the political situa- The urgent need for missionaries at present was tion Mr. Rangaramanujam said that India is emphasized by Miss Ruth Rouse, Educati,on Sec- retary of the Missionary Council of the Church of facing clear issues with high idealism, c,ourage England-who, incidentally, was one of the three and wisdom that are almost Christian. The Na- people present at this conference who were also tional Movement which used to have primarily a at the first Student Christian M,ovement Quadpolitical emphasis is n,ow beginning to embrace rennial in 1896. There are today 400 vacant P,osts social and economic pr,oblems. While earlier it in the Protestant mission field which can be filled wanted self-government because it did not want only by men and women who were now students to be g,overned by others, now it desires inde- -ordained men, teachers, doctors, nurses, women pendence for the noble purpose ,of serving India evangelists, agricultural engineers, builders, weland seeing that her P,oor, depressed and ,outcaste fare workers.· There are fields now where the pe,ople come into their own. Great Britain is average age ,of the missi,onaries is between 50 and called to send Christian men and women to G,oV- 60. New consecrated, well-trained missionaries ernment service, military and other forms of serv- are needed from the present student generation. ice to India, to sh,ow the go,od will there is in the Church of Christ in Britain. Mr. Rangaramanu- There are great possibilities in consecrated jam also emphasized the needs which the Church young life and our prayer is that y,outh may fulin India still has of spiritual and intellectual lead- fill .its pmmise and see its way, having listened ership from Western Churches. to the voice of God, to a path which will lead the world onward. As a leading member of the The Chinese Christian editor, Mr. T. H. Sun, faculty of Birmingham University said of the made a plea for help for the Chinese Church from gathering: "The whole atmosphere is reeking the church of the West. "The younger Churches," with moral gunpowder." he said, "come to you n,ot with the open hand of A HINDU PARABLE There was a donkey which belonged to a dhobi (handy man). The poor donkey had a hard time, for, as everyone knows, donkeys belong to a "depressed class." The owner abused and overworked him shamefully. The rope by which he was tied was very old and had be- come weak in many places, partly because many reformers had tried to cut it and free the donkey. The poor animal longed to be free and himself often chewed it. He CQuid have broken it easily; but whenever he became restless, the dhobi would give him a little green grass and as he was always hungry he would quiet down to eat the grass. Then his ,owner would load him up again' and beat him and curse him. Again he would determine to go free at the first opportunity but as often as he started to break away the dhobi would again give him a little grass. Then, the donkey would think, "After all, if I leave this place where could I go? This is the place where I was born." So he remained in his wretched condition, not because the rope held him, but because he received a little grass and because he really disliked to change.
Moral: The bonds of caste are not strong enough to hold anyone who really wishes to go free.
Ways of
'Tested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO ~'=I============================~ MEN'S MISSIONARY LEAGUE, 1934 – FIRST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ELYRIA, OHIO An Achievement in Masculine den of responsibility for the gained 50 % in active member- Missions present abnormal situation in which "the whole undertaking ship, 34% in general offerings Under this challenging title, to make Christ known to the The Men's Missionary League world is regarded as a strictly and an increase of 43 % in the of the United Presbyterian feminine affair" (in the local church of Elyria, Ohio, has church aspect) and the entire thank-offering over that of the brought out a leaflet giving "the missionary movement is a wom- preceding year! The entire mishuman interest history" of their an's undertaking and not some- sionary budget offerings of the adventure in leading men to thing to challenge the serious congregation for the church year major in missions. The pioneer- and active devotion of strong ending in March, 1935, were ing pastor, Rev. George A. Christian men. The story of the Brown, told the story of the ven- way in which Mr. Brown set 137 % over those of the year beture in THE REVIEW in Novem- about harnessing the men and ber, 1935. As set forth therein boys in his church for team work fore. the problem of enlisting men for with the sisterhood is a chalmissions is, in its final analysis, lenging one, and the report of We have now to record that a matter of interesting them the effect upon the local wom- the infant organization has not whole-heartedly and enthusias- en's missionary society is star- only survived and grown but tically in Jesus Christ Himself, tling. At the end of the first year that similar leagues have sprung the dynamic of whose life work of the League, that society rewas the missionary motive and ported marked increase in mem- up in a number of other churches the carry-on personnel of whose bership, attendance, offerings, necessitating the issue of the interest and cooperation never leaflet above mentioned as an incampaign, in the early centuries, known before on the part of "the structional manuel with model consisted of the informal mis- brethren." In the language of sionaries we now call laymen. figures, the women's soc i e t y constitution and by-laws. On the evening of Nov. 17, 1936, the Upon the pastors rests the bur- [155 ] League celebrated its t h i r d birthday in a party with all the other missionary organizations of the church as guests and Sam- uel A. Fulton, International Chaplain of the Gideons, as the main speaker. Two special mis-
sionary projects-one home and ets of such material over care- African territory-very picturesque) ; one foreign – have been under- fully and found them highly sug- "African Lights and Shadows" (story taken by the organization as its gestive, the Editor is glad to re- illustrated by shadow piCtures inpractical outlet. In a recent let- deem her promise to cite them volving a series of dramatizationster to the Department Editor, for consideration, especially as full directions given); "An African Mr. Brown says: the African study period is not Village Trial"; "Harum Scarum finished yet; and the bulk of the Harems"; "Enlarge Your World" We have been going now for over material is of a timeless, univer- (folder illustration); "Mimeographed three years and the interest not only sal character and the "program Patterns"; "Greetings-Congo Style" abides but grows with the passing molds" of such a type that they (full directions for picturesque ceremonths and meetings. Our men here will suit a variety of topical con- monial) . are enthusiastic about it and the work tents. The denominational brand is extending throughout our church. is also negligible. Any evan- An outstanding feature of We have had wide and favorable pub- gelical group can utilize most of these packets is the number of licity, not only in this land but in the programs, devices and sub- references made to plans and Canada. The hand of the Lord is ject matter to good advantage. articles in the October issue of most manifestly in our work and we THE REVIEW. Much of its mawant it to grow for His sake and to The three packets are adapted terial is recommended for spe- His glory. for use among women's societies, cific use. older and younger young peo- With whole-hearted assent we ple's groups and Sunday school Follow the Line of Most echo the closing words of the classes or departments. They Resistancecampaign leaflet: may be obtained at The United Christian Missionary Society, but that's only one way Let each pastor preach to his men Missions Building, 222 Downey of saying it. at the earliest possible date, and more Ave., Indianapolis, Ind., at 50 earnestly and plainly and directly cents each. State for which The blue waters of Eagles than ever before, to show them that group the material is desired. Mere Lake moved and shim- Missions is a man's job. Then call a mered under a golden June sun. meeting for the organization of a Each packet contains an out- The foliage circling the lake like Men's Missionary League: pray, plan line of the course and materials, a wreath provided a restful and proceed as the Holy Spirit Him- instructions for leaders and pro- change for the eyes and at least self may lead. In the words of our gram builders, ready-to-use les- two city-dwellers sitting on the rallying song: son subject matter, dramatic beach appreciated the scene. sketches, folk lore tales, complete A wake, ye Christian men; devotional, consecration and in- The girl in the bathing suit Behold the world today; stallation services, question and dropped her beach coat so that discussion mat e ria 1, mimeo- the sun could reach her shoul- Great multitudes like scattered sheep graphed patterns, African games ders. They were conspicuously From God still go astray. for the recreational periods, etc. white compared with those of Sample questions and discussion other bathers about her. Come with a spirit stirred; topics are: Obey your Lord's command; "Dotty," she spoke to the girl Is it right to impose denominational- in blue gingham beside her, Pray Him to send forth laborers ism and white civilization upon "why have I never done this be- Into each waiting land. other countries? fore? A vacation at a mission- ary conference didn't sound Present your gifts to Him, Is the African not happy as he is? thrilling to me, but I don't know Your silver and your gold; Why interfere with his beliefs? when I've enjoyed a week more, and I'm going home with my But first of all, yourself He asks, What conditions growing out of the head simply crammed with That He your life may mold. conquest of Africa jeopardize the ideas." She took a small note- peace of the world todav? book from the pocket of her coat Go forth, ye Christian men, and began turning its pages. Proclaim His name abroad; There is so much to be done at home. Why support foreign missions "You know, Sarah," Dotty re- That sinners far and near may come until we have Christianized our plied, "when I asked you to come To know the Son of God. own country? with me last year, you said you were taking your vacation later. He gave His life for you; The process of securing products from Most of the conferences like this His precious blood He shed. Africa is changing the lives of were over. But I knew you Africans. As a user of these would like it." Serve Him who saves you by His products do I not have a moral grace, responsibility toward Africa? "Well, I certainly do. Thete's plenty of time for outdoor exer- The Church's living Head. How does my consecration compare cise and the things I'm learning with that of African Christians? come in such an easy, interest- (Copies M the organizational leaflet may ing way – everything combines be had at 4 cents per C(}py. 40' cents per Is my life a recommendation for to make me feel a real satisfacdozen, $3.00 per hundred, from The Board Christ? tion." of Administration, United Presbyterian Church, 705 Publication Building, Pitts- Dramatics, dialogues, visual- "Just before I came," the burgh, Pa.) izations, etc., include the follow- other went on, "I agreed to be ing as samples: "Allo, Congo!" "Upriver on the Oregon" (travel As mentioned in the October impersonations); "White Gobblers in issue of this Department, the Africa" (illustrated representation of foreign mission programs. and foreign rapacity in "gobbling up" study material of the United Christian Missionary Society could not be listed until after the first of the year, as they would not come out before January. Having looked the several pack-
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
president of our mIsSIOnary sort of thing. Of course, we'll like to have an evening with circle next winter. My notebook have a play or a talk by a mis- Polly Brown and Helen Frazier sionary so as to keep the party talking about their trip to the is a sort of outsize one and it's Orient. They didn't visit all the going to be a lot of help to me. from being all amusement and mission stations but they did nothing to show for it after- meet a few of the missionaries I can make use of so many of wards." and if they would show the the things we get here. You things they brought home and "That sounds fine," praised tell about the ones they met, and weren't here the first night when Dotty, "and how about making describe our work as they can the literature lady told that little invitations like those we saw in read it up in the missionary story made up of the titles of the the shape of an African hut. magazine, I'm sure the girls books on Africa. That was They are made of wrapping would learn something from clever and it's a stunt that might paper with the thatched roof that, too." be done with titles of books crayoned a darker brown. You about any country. She had a catch a glimpse of the wording "A good thing about the methglobe in front of her on a table on the inside fold through a ods we've had here," remarked Dotty, "is that they could be and she repeated the words of little cut-out door in the hut. We adapted to suit the study of al- 'This is my Father's world,' the must pique the imagination with most any country. Now, my the wording of the invitation, as cousin says they will study first verse, while someone played Miss Applegarth said. Didn't Japan this year because the misit softly on the piano. Then she you love her asking, 'Has the dic- sionary their own church sup- tionary joined your church?' ports is making their town her said, 'My Father's world! I re- It's true that we keep on using headquarters while she's at peat the words often thinking the same old hackneyed terms home. That series Miss Appleonly of the part I can see with garth suggested on Hands, for my eyes' or words to that effect. in our meeting announcements. instance, could be used for any We just don't take the trouble other land as well as Africa. She went on to talk about Af- to think up more alluring ones." Remember, she had the titles rica, bringing in the titles of the listed, Hands across the Sea, different books and magazine The sun was slanting lower Hands that Rock the Cradle, articles and holding each one up Hand – Me – Down, Behindhand and the lake breeze was cool. or Beforehand, Han d i c r aft, as she mentioned it. Then she Sarah pulled her coat about her Hand-in-Hand. Can't you just closed with the last verse of the shoulders again as she scribbled picture how those topics could hymn, after saying something a few words in her tiny book. be worked out. It does take "Yes, and we mustn't use stilted imagination, though. I must about our obligation to help Af- phrases either. They put peo- say, I feel as though I never rica's people to see the Father's ple to sleep-people at a meeting again will be satisfied to follow 'the line of least resistance' in world and be able to thank Him need to be electrified. Even the presenting the cause of missions for it, too. I thought at our first furniture should be placed dif- -there I go again using set meeting we could give the girls ferently now and then, and the phrases! How would you say minister's wife mustn't always that, Sarah? Follow the line of a glimpse of the study plans that lead the devotions. In our case least resistance in broadcasting same way." it's the minister's daughter, but the fact that our missionaries I'm going to ask Flo this time to are heroes in the midst of a Sarah was still fingering her get two other girls to read with thrilling adventure-up against notebook, nodding her head to her the story of Philip and the all sorts of odds, yet they see reshow that she was listening. sults that make them realize they "One thing sure," she declared, Ethiopian eunuch. One can read are truly workers together with "I never would have promised to the narrative part, one will take charge of the party for new speak for Philip and the other God and must win in the long members if I'd not been getting run. When the girls really get some of those things they call for the eunuch. It will make the 'methods' from Margaret Apple- story more real." that view, they are sure to want garth. Now I know just what to help. By the way, Miss Ap- I'm going to suggest to the com- "Another thing to think about in devotions is hymns. Alice plegarth and some of the other mittee. Remember the game we leaders are going to be here played on Saturday afternoon, told me she simply hadn't the with the name of a famous per- heart to sing '0 Zion Haste' ever again next summer." son on every girl's back. We'll again. She says we always sing use people connected with Af- it. I told her that if she'd come "Well, I'm telling you right rica, missionaries like Living- and lead us in some really new stone and Jean Mackenzie, and hymns, or even some old ones now, so am 11" a few like Cecil Rhodes and that we don't sing so often, we'd Haile Selassie. For refresh- JANE GILBERT, give the stand-bys a rest for a ments we had a whole bunch of year. And with just a little Vice-Chairman, Eagles Mere, Pa., bananas, and cookies cut in the originality, there are ways of Conference, June 26 to July 3. varying the use of even an old shape of the map of Africa, hymn to advantage."
spread with a mixture of peanut "If I wasn't so full of this Af- rican party," said Sarah, "I'd butter and chile sauce-weren't they good? And the peanuts we had to hunt for all around the room. The girls will love that
r==~~====~~===============
BULLETIN OF The Council of Women for Home Missions EDITH E. LOWRY, EXECUTlVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK ~'~I~–==~~~~~~~~~===—-I~ LET US REMEMBER JESUS INTERLUDE OF MUSIC: BENEDICTION: A Lenten Service of Worship* Vocal solo–"My Task"-Ashford. (Remain standing after benedic- tion.) INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC: PERIOD OF MEDITATION. LEADER: "The Palms"-Faure. LEADER: (Continue to play softly as ac- ("Into the Woods My Master Went" companiment during the reading Let us remember Jesus: Who loved to be played softly during reading of the poem.) men, yet retired from them to pray, of poem.) rose a great while before day, LEADER: watched through a night, stayed in o Master of the Galilean Way, the wilderness, went up into a Judean hills are holy, Judean hills mountain, sought a garden. Who, Forgive us for the vows we fail are fair, when he would help a tempted dis- to keep: ciple, prayed for him, and for the For one can find the footprints of perfecting of those who received Forgive us that we so neglect thy Jesus everywhere. sheep, him. One finds them in the twilight be- So idly waste this shining harvest neath the singing sky, INTERLUDE OF MUSIC: day!
Where shepherds watch in wonder Vocal solo-"Into the Woods My What matter if we cannot under- white planets wheeling by. Master Went" – Lanier. (F irs t stand stanza.) His trails are on the hillsides and The mystery of Love that is Di- down the dales and deeps; PERIOD OF MEDITATION. vine, He walks the high horizons where LEADER: Nor pierce the veil! Dear Lord, vesper silence sleeps. our faith increase Let us remember Jesus: Who be- He haunts the lowly highways lieved in men to the last and never To know that, since our hands where human hopes have trod despaired of them. Who through may reach thy hand, all disappointment never lost heart. The Via Dolorosa up to the heart Who disregarded his own comfort Our lives are made all-powerful, of God. and convenience and thought first through thine, of others' needs, and though he suf- He looms,·a lonely figure, along the fered long was always kind. Who, To heal a wounded world and fringe of night, when he was reviled, reviled not bring it peace! again, and when he suffered, threat- -Molly Anderson Haley. As lonely as a cedar against the ened not. Who humbled himself lonely night. and carried obedience to the point Poems from "Quotable Poems," Vol. I of death, even death on the cross, Judean hills are holy, Judean hills and endured faithfully to the end. Clark-Gillespie, Willett, Clark &anCdo.p, ra1y9e3r1~' are fair, New York. Music, meditation INTERLUDE OF MUSIC: from HNew Hymnal of American Youth" For one can find the footprints of Jesus everywhere. Vocal solo – "Into the Woods My H. Augustine Smith, Appleton D. Century, -William L. Stidger. Master Went." (Last stanza.) New York.
PERIOD OF MEDITATION. UNISON PRAYER AND CONSECRATION Officers, 1937 LEADER: (Standing) : President – Mrs. Millard Robinson (Methodist Episcopal). As we worship together- o Christ, our only Saviour, so come Let us remember Jesus: Who, First Vice-President-Mrs. Orrin R. though he was rich, yet for our to dwell in us that we may go forth Judd (N. Baptist). sakes became poor and dwelt among with the light of thy hope in our us. Who was content to be subject eyes, and thy faith and love in our Second Vice-President–Mrs. Augus- to his parents, the child of a poor man's home. Who lived for thirty hearts. tus Trowbridge (Protestant Epis- years the common life, earning his To the preaching of good tidings copal). living with his own hands and de- of salvation we consecrate Third Vice-President- Mrs. J. W. clining no humble tasks. Whom the our powers; Downs (Methodist Episcopal common people heard gladly, for he To the healing of broken bodies South) . understood their ways. and the relief of distress we Recording Secretary – Miss Dorothy consecrate our gifts; A. Stevens (N. Baptist). INTERLUDE OF MUSIC: To the leading of every soul to the knowledge and love of Treasurer-Mrs. Norman V. Peale Vocal solo-"When the Lord of Love Christ we consecrate our in- (Reformed in Am.). Was Here"-Brooke. (First three fluence; stanzas.) To the Christianization of the Chairmen of Committees world, PERIOD OF MEDITATION. To the building of the Kingdom of Annual Meeting: Miss Laura H. Parker (Presbyterian, U. S. A.). LEADER: God: Chautauqua: Miss Amelia D. Kemp We consecrate our money, our ef- (Un. Lutheran). . Let us remember Jesus: Who was Conferences and Schools of Missions: mighty in deed, healing the sick and forts and our lives. Amen. Miss Carrie M. Kerschner (Evan- the disordered, using for others the powers he would not invoke for RESPONSE: gelical Reformed). himself. Who refused to force Editorial and Publicity: Mrs. J. men's allegiance. Who was master "Hear Our Prayer, 0 Lord." (Vo- and Lord to his disciples, yet was cal or instrumental.) Henry Callister (Friends). among them as their companion and as one who served. HYMN: Eva Clark Waid Memorial for World • Prepared by Charlotte Mary Burnham. "0 Master, Let Me Walk with Peace: Miss Emma Jessie Ogg Thee." (Four stanzas.) (Presbyterian, U. S. A.).
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BULLETIN OF THE COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOR HOME MISSIONS
Finance: Mrs. Mary D. White (Con- one another and to demonstrate the Western Hemisphere and to ex- gregational-Christian) . the inclusiveness of the home tend this policy of good neighborliness mission program. In reporting to all nations, regardless of geograph- International Relations: Miss Elinor the year's activities at the busi- ical propinquity. ness session novel methods were K. Purves (Presbyterian, U. s. employed – panel discussions, 2. To exercise moderation with re- round tables and skits, thereby spect to our military establishments, A.). making the presentation of re- to the end that the influence of the ports interesting and stimu- United States may be on the side of Legislative: Mrs. Bessie H. Payne lating. peace and not on the side of war. (NatI. Baptist). Important actions were taken, 3. To accept membership in the Migrant: Mrs. Kenneth D. MiIIer a few of which are reported in World Court and through such action (Presbyterian, U. S. A.). V. this Bulletin. The Liquor Com- relate our nation in a helpful way to Chairman: Mrs. D. C. Turner mission appointed at the 1936 the development of a world commu- (Congregational-Christian) . Annual Meeting, to study the re- nity of law and of justice. lation of the Council of Women Nominating: Miss Edna M. Spring- for Home Missions to the Liquor 4. To extend the existing neutrality horn (Un. Lutheran). Problem presented a very com- legislation to include an embargo on prehensive report including the basic war materials to nations resort- Office Administration: Miss Ann follow i n g recommendations ing to war, in order to keep the Elizabeth Taylor (Presbyterian, adopted by the Federal Council United States from being drawn into U. S. A.). Biennial Meeting last December war, while at the same time it coop- and which were adopted by this erates with other nations for the Pension Plan: Mrs. Edmund B. Chaf- meeting. preservation of peace. fee (Presbyterian, U. S. A.). 1. That temperance education be 5. To work to secure national and Programs for Local Interdenomina- strongly reenforced in church and international control of the arms tional Groups: Mrs. Fred S. Ben- community and that denominational traffic. nett (Presbyterian, U. S. A.). and interdenominational boards and agencies charged with this responsi- 6. To extend stilI further the ad- Race Relations: Miss May Huston bility seek to cooperate in the publi- ministration's program of trade agree- (N. Baptist). cation of study courses for youth and ments and to facilitate through such of temperance literature; action the easing of economic tensions Study Courses: Miss Margaret Mars- throughout the world. ton (Protestant Episcopal). Vice- 2. That exploration be made as to Chairman: Miss Mabel M. Shei:o- the possibility of taking the profit out 7. To make clear the fact, by Presi- ley (Presbyterian, U. S. A.). of the manufacture and sale of liquor dential proclamation or otherwise, and the Research Department of the that the armed forces of our country World Day of Prayer: Mrs. Daniel Federal Council investigate and re- are not, under any circumstances, to A. Poling (N. Baptist). Vice- port on this aspect of the liquor be employed for the protection of the Chairman: Mrs. E. E. Cooley problem; economic or other material interests (Presoyterian, U. S. A.). of American nationals in other lands. 3. The securing and furnishing of Young People's Work: Rev. Frederick data which may be used by educa- 8. To take such steps as may be ad- R. Thorne, D.D., Chairman (Pres- tional agencies in presenting the sub- visable to insure the improvements of byterian, U. S. A.). V. Chair- ject; American-Japanese relations and, in man: Miss PrisciIIa Chase (Con- cooperation with other interested na- gregational-Christian) . 4. That the press of the country be tions, to labor for the restoration of urged to consider the harm done to a treaty structure for the Pacific. Joint Indian: Rev. Mark A. Dawber, themselves and their readers by liquor D.D., Chairman (Methodist Epis- advertising and, together with the 9. To place upon a strictly volun- copal). Vice-Chairman: Miss radio and the screen, be urged to elim- tary basis all military training in Helen M. Brickman (~ef'd in inate the emphasis on drinking habits; civil colleges and universities and to Am.). provide for the elimination of all mili- 5. That the Council of Women for tary training in high schools. ANNUAL MEETING Home Missions, in the interest of na- tional safety and welfare, most sol- That it make known this endorse- The Council of Women for emnly calI upon the people of this ment in a letter to the President of Home Missions and the Home land to arouse themselves to the men- the United States. Missions Council held their An- ace of this growing evil and by pernual Meeting January 11-14, sonal influence, by coIlective and polit- That it commend to the women of 1937, in Asbury Park, New Jer- ical action strive for such practical the Church through the denominasey. The first two days were measures of restraint and control as tional Boards the statement on peace given to the business sessions of are necessary for the protection of adopted by the Federal Council of the two Councils and the last society. Churches at its meeting on December two to the National Conference 11, 1936, asking them to study the on the City Church. The Fel- The above recommendations nine point program, included therein, lowship Supper which officially had been adopted at the Biennial to make known their attitude to the opened the Annual Meeting of Meeting of the Federal Council government of the United States the Council of Women for Home of Churches on December 11, and to the people of their communi- Missions was in every sense a ties, and to develop in their own and fellowship. Mrs. Millard Rob- 1936. other people's minds the will to peace. inson, President, presided. The program, informal in nature in- International Relations YOUNG PEOPLE'S WORK cluded greetings from fraternal delegates and then three-minute The Committee on Interna- It was reported that at the accounts given by a representa- tional Relations recommended: Conference of United Christian tive named by each constituent Youth Movement at Lakeside, Board describing the outstand- 1. To implement stilI further its Ohio, in the fall of 1936, it ing achievement in the home Good Neighbor policy with regard to had been decided to include mismission work of each board in sionary emphasis in the promo- 1936. Seldom has any feature tion of Christian Youth Building on an Annual Meeting program a New World, and material is done more to acquaint us with being prepared for this by the Youth Committee of the Mis- sionary Education Movement.
~i'==O=u=r=w=o=rl=d=–W=i=d=e=o==ut=lo=o=k==~ir
J1t A Missionary Newspaper of Current Events "
~. EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO .~~ LATIN AMERIOA Preaching Restricted quainted with us, told of what we were doing, .of the impor- Ouba's Oooperative School Rev. C. S. Detweiler, of the tance of Christianity for the American Baptist Board, made world. He ended with a cordial The c.ooperative idea in rural a recent visit tQ Central Amer- invitation for all to attend Chriseducation has been highly suc- ica, and reports that it is prac- tian services." cessful in San Miguel de los tically impossible for any m.ore Banos, Cuba, where a Presbyte- new missioOnaries to enter Costa Bibles, Testaments and tracts rian Mission has an experi- Rica and Guatemala. With SoOme in Chinese have been sent for to mental rural proj ect. For three difficulty the Protestant missioOns help follow up this important months ,the idea grew upon the in these countries have been able opening. community, and 25 adults and to secure replacements f.orthQse 22 children were found who whQ have left, but are not al- A More Liberal Order needed and wanted the school. l.owed to increase the staff. Evangelical missi.onaries have New thinking is observed in A thatch-:mofed house was been affected by new restrictions Colombia. Youth is impatient put up; the next move was to upon their work in town and with the old order and is workprovide a teacher. She will country. The g.overnment is re- ing for liberal principles in edumaintain her own home, and the quiring all pas,t.ors t.o secure a cation, and a relaxation of the young women of the community license, and .only thus are they inhibitions of the Roman Cathwill take turns living with her, permitted to hold services. olic Church. This attitude has in order to learn home making been reflected in a 71 per cent from her.-Monday Morning. -Watchman-Examiner. increase in the enrolment of Protestant Sunday schools since Ohristian Literature for The Ohinese in Guatemala 1932. Mexico Dr. E. M. Haymaker, editor Legislation recently passed by F.or the first time in the his- of Guatemala News, describes a the Colombian Par I i am en t tory .of evangelical wQrk in Mex- new work which the newly ap- marks the great changes now in ico, Sunday School Association pointed Chinese consul helped tQ progress. Three articles .of the publicati.ons are being sold in inaugurate. He is a Christian Constitution have been deleted: books,tores .other than their own. Chinese, while his wife is the Works by Kagawa, Compton, C. daughter of a Chinese pastor Article 38. The Roman Catholic F. Andrews and others are in and granddaughter of a former religion is the religion of the nation, prQcess of translatiQn. The first one. Both are deeply interested protected by the public authorities, reof a series of booklets intended in their Christian faith. spected as an essential element of sofor student evangelism appea,red cial order. early this year. There are about 742 Chinese in Guatemala at present. Article 41. Public instruction shall Prof. G. Baez Camargo be- be organized and directed in agreelieves that this literature pro- Dr. Haymaker felt that some- ment and harmony with the Catholic gram that is being carried .on thing ought to be done for them, religion. modestly, but effectively, will and talked over the matter with prove to be .one of the greatest Mr. LeQ, the consul, with the re- Article 55. Buildings destined for spiritual adventures in the his- sult that some .of the mission- worship, seminaries, and episcopal tory of the evangelizati.on of aries were invited tQ tea at the houses shall not be subject to taxa- Latin America. consulate to meet a group of tion, nor taken for any other service. Chinese. This gave the oppor- Personally, and through the tunity of meeting no less than -Indian Witness. SUPP.ort .of friends in England thirty of the principal Chinese and America, Prof. Camargo of the capital where there are Beginnings in New Field has launched a literature project some 200 located. "There was .of another type: a Christian no beating about the bush as to E. K. Pinn and D. Michell, quarterly especially dev.oted t.o the object of the tea," writes w.orkers f.or the Evangelical the intrQduction .of the GQspel Dr. Haymaker. "Mr. Leo, in UniQn of South America, have to students, professors., social explaining whQ we were and changed their field from Chinleaders and educated persons. why he wanted them to be ac- chellos to Talavera, Peru. Work at the £Qrmer place is being c.on- -W. S. S. A. News. [160 ] tinued by two young Peruvian Christians.
These missionaries find in Talavera a mQre .open-minded, liberal spirit, "but," they say, EUROPE Outlook in Spain "while it is a pleasant change Toward Church Unity Dr. Juan Orts Gonzalez benot to be called 'devil,' 'Or 'athe- lieves that now, more than ever ist' or to have people surrepti- In St. Paul's, London, a contio'usly looking f'Or our tails, in- ference was held last October, before, the Gospel of Jesus differenc·e and materialism can attended by delegates represent- Christ can be made known in prove as great enemies as fa- ing most of the church b'Odies 'Of Spain even to devout Catholics, naticism. Many people are glad the W'Orld. Plans, are being de- if appropriate efforts are made. to have us here to visit the P'O'Or vised f'Or the cl'Oser drawing toand sick, but do not want to be gether 'Of all denominations. A He writes: disturbed in their life 'Of im- great pageant is to be held in m'Orality, 0 r m'Oney – making, London at a date to be fixed, the "A few months before the revdrink or other besetting sin." background to which will be a olution began, the Bible Society choir 'Of 1,500 voices. Preceding succeeded in publishing adver- Encouraging aspects in the this dem'Onstration, which will .tisements in the two great prochange are improved health, be broadcast 'Over a world-wide letarian papers of Madrid, El friendliness of the majority, network by the British Br'Oad- Socialista and Claridad, with more level c'Ountry so that they casting Corporation, two world very satisfactory respons,e in the can walk farther, and the coop- conferences will be held, one in eration 'Of teachers in all'Owing Oxford,and the other in Edin- way of sales. Shortly afterthe children ,to attend prayers. burgh, the object of which will wards, Claridad published an These children have mem'Orized be the removal 'Of all barriers article undoubtedly written by many hymns and passages of which prevent unity. an evangelical, in which it was Scripture. Lantern meetings, ;stated ,that ,the Gospel of Jesus with slides 'Of the Life 'Of Christ, -Alliance Weekly. prove helpful. Christ is the greatest basis for Church Union in France formulating the just claims of -South America. the worker; and the editor, a leading Marxist, in presenting the article said: 'This is a vital topic; and we invite all 'Our Unity in the Reformed Church readers who can write to take Religion in Argentina's of France seems about to be part in the discussion of it.'
Schools achieved. The Synods of the Scarcely a day passes in which Reformed Evangelical, and of the leading papers, in criticising The law in Argentina provides the Reformed Church have for the hierarchy and the fascists that, in respect to religi'On, some time been working toward who claim to interpret Chrisschools are neutral ground, so union; the acceptance of a com- tianity better than anyone else, that "religious teaching may mon confession of faith had, do not quote the example and the only be given in the public however, yet to be achieved. words of Christ in refutation of schools by authorized ministers Last June, this was accepted by their claim. of the various cults to children both synods. It is probable that of their own c'Ommunions before the regional synods will accept "The greatest proof which I, or after school hours." This has the new statutes in the spring personally, have experienced of hitherto saUsfied Christians, of 1937 and that a Synod consti- the receptiveness 'On the part of Jews, Moslems, Buddhists and tuted by the first united church the Spanish people to religion 'Other religi'Ous bodies who con- will take place in 1937 or 1938. has been affol'ded by ,the results The question will arise as to of my newspaper evangelism. tribute their share 'Of taxes f'Or whether the two faculties of the- With the generous help of the the upkeep 'Of the schools. The ology of Paris and Montpellier United Society for Christian Litpresident of the National Coun- should be united. erature (London) and of the cil on Education recently de- Methodist Board of F'Oreign Misclared that as a religious back- During 1935 the Societe Cen- sions (U. S. A.), I have already ground for moral teaching was trale Evangelique worked in 40 been able to publish more than necessary in the schoo~s, the law thirty articles of this type in El should be altered so that Roman departments of France; in 13 Popular of Ma.laga. Several Catholic clergy might give in- of these it was the only Prot- thousand persons have read struction during school hours in estant body represented. The those articles, and a great many Sunday schools showed prog- of the readers have seen Christ all public schools. Non-Catholic ress, instructing 1,600 scholars, and His Gospel in a different children would have the alterna- and of these 419 were confirmed Cay, evidenced by the personal tive of receiving any instruction and received as members of the testim'Onies I have received." in morals and civics. The pro- Reformed Church. In different posal is regarded as an attempt churches 370 new members were Must Not Pray for Hitler received. The difficult task of to reintroduce 'sedarian instruc- keeping spiritual contact with A very curious thing has haption in public schools, and the scattered French Protestants Argentine press is critical, hold- was vigorously maintained, and pened in Germany. The Scriping that the existing law is the this Society is now maintaining tures enjoin prayer for those least discriminating towards all 70 evangelization centers. classes 'Of the community. who rule over us, but no one is -The World Today. allowed to pray for Hitler. Re-
cently a pastor was censured for church and state are separate the sweet potatoes must be uprooted praying that this ruler might be and in which Freethought is ac- or all would die of hunger! Meangranted "guidance to his spirit tive. Affirmative answers are while Gure Christians were praying so he may submit humbly." This said to have come from Mexico for rain; they also prayed for the was interpreted by the Minister and the Spanish Loyalist Gov- witch-doctor's soul. of Culture as an implied criti- ernment. It is also reported that cism of Hitler's policies! a Russian :£actory has received That night the Lord bountifully an- large orders for life-size statues swered the prayers and sent an -The Presbyterian. of Christ, Moses, Mohammed, abundance of rain! No more has been the Pope, Luther and others to said about our potatoes. Protestantism in Austria be used ,as targets at shooting contests. Lagos Cathedral Evangelical Christi1anity continues to increase in Aus,tria, AFRICA After a brief furlough in but more slowly than in 1934 Great Britain, Dr. F. Melville when the movement was partly To Educate the Blind Jones, Bishop of Lagos, Nigeria, due to a new law obliging every has returned to continue buildcitizen to join ,some church. The The first steps to assist the ing the cathedral, which he new members are eager to learn; blind in Egypt, of whom there undentook on his appointment and as the Pr'Otestant churches are a great many, were taken in 1919. Dr. Jones and his wife in Austria insist ,that candidates by the missionaries. Their suc- have between them spent ninety for membership shall receive a cess has apparently stirred the years in Nigeria, and it is their course of Bible instruction, the Moslems to similar efforts. Al earnest desire to see the catheknowledge of the Word of God Ahramannounces that the dral finished before they retire. made a great impression on their Sheikh of the Azhar proposes The chancel, transepts, lantern hearts. Many have been soundly the instruction of blind students tower, and one hay 'Of the nave converted, and their testimony in the elements of mathematics, are completed. Of the £18,000 has brought in 'Others. reading and writing. A scheme which it has cost, all but £1,000 has emerged to form an i<Az_ has been contributed by the Af- -Alliance Weekly. haric-Institute of the Blind." rican people of the diocese. To The Braille method will be used complete the building, £4,000 ad- Conference in Athens and the necessary educational ditional are required. appliances will be ordered from Twenty..,six Greek Orthodox abroad. -Tke World Today. -Life of Faith. theologians recently held a conference in Athens. Three were Rain and Potatoes Active German Mission from Jugoslavia, three fr'Om Bul~ria, seven from Roumania, Miss H. Griffin, of the Sudan Bethel Mission was founded six from Greece, four from the Interior Mission, writes: in Berlin 50 years ago when Ger- Russian Theological Academy man colonies were acquired in in Paris and two from the The millet was ready for trans- Africa. Since 1891, the Mission Polish Orthodox Church. The planting but there was no rain, and has worked in the hinterland, <:Ecumenical Patriarch was rep- if rain did not come soon, the grain and in the Usambara mountains, resented. would die. Several sacrifices were Tanganyika, and ,after 1907 in made and chickens killed but no rain Ruanda. After the war the Papers were read on church fell. The witch doctor was called and Mandate for the latter region and state, the possibility of an- after much talk and noise, water was was given to Belgium and the other <:Ecumenic Council, social taken out of a hole in a rock which Belgian Protestant Missionary work and missions, biblical criti- is believed to control the rain. They Society is at work there today. cism, ,and church culture. These threw the water in the air, calling, papers will be published by the "Send more rain!" Beer was then The Bethel Mission has 18 Athens faculty. The Bucharest poured into the hole, but still no rain chief-stations and 169 ou.t-sta- Orthodox theological faculty will came. tions, 10 native pastors, 339 men lay plans for the next conference and 59 women helpers, and 17,- to be held in 1939. In the in- Finally five chickens were brought 945 Christians. In the 174 vilterim an effort will be made to out, and with them rested the fate of lage schools and two intermeestablish a joint magazine for our sweet potatoes! Gure people eat, diate schools for boys and two the promotion of theological but never plant sweet potatoes because for girls there are 8,501 p"l~pils. scholarship throughout the Or- of evil spirits. When we planted ours In the Bukoba field the mission thodox Church. on the compound, we were told they is experiencing a remarkable re- would bring :floods and spoil the vival among the heathen. .New Antireligious Treaties harvest. Until now the rains had been groups constantly offer them- normal and nothing had been said, selves for bapUsm and the' ca- The Soviet Government is pro- but with the scarcity of moisture pacities of the few missionaries posing to draw up antireligious things were different! The – five are strained to the u.tmos.t. There treaties with other governments, chickens were to be the deciding fac- are two medical centers. It has according to press reports from tor in revealing the cause of the also the only nerve hospital con- Leipzig. This pact is to be of- drought. ducted by a mission, with a cafered to all countries where pacity for 100 patients, as well As each chicken was beheaded the as a mental depar:tment. Alto- witch-doctor said, "If the sweet pota- toes are not the cause, rise up in the air, if they are the cause, lie quietly on the ground." The chickens re- mained quiet, conclusive proof that
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
gether the mission, including Bantu S. S. Convention Scho'0ls. Plans have been made doctors, teachers and other mis- The first Bantu S. S. CQnven- to extend this in 1937. sionaries, has 92 German work- tion was held at Port Elizabeth, The publicatiQn '0f an Arabic ers. December 14-16. The meetings bQok of f'0lk songs has helped tQ Spain and the Cameroun were in the nature of a workers' introduce grQUp singing, as conference and schQQl of meth- Arabic music is almost whQlly Civil war in Spain has reached ods. Bible ,teaching through the a S'0lo perfQrmance. A Syrian medium of the Sunday schoQl w'0rker was able last year to con- West Africa. The colony of adapted to Bantu life and cQndi- duct a school which did not re- tions, was discussed. Lectures, quire any '0utside financial help. Spanish Guinea, which lies just She used discarded dress ma- demonstrations and discussiQns terial to make aprQns and cutsouth tofofthWe eFsrtenAcfhricCaamPreersobuyn~ dealing with Bantu child nature, tings of bolts of strong muslin is par preparation of the lessQn, class tQ make sacks fQr carrying books teaching and Sunday s c h 0 01 tQ the school. She used worn terian Mission. In Ootober, the out tQwels tQ make baby bibs management were given; also and had the boys dOl carpentry seapQrt town of Rata was shelled practical demonstratiQns, with repair for schQol benches, mak- ing use 'Of wood already on hand. by gunboat fire. Refugees, from Bantu children, of methQds of All Hterature is furnished by the worship, instruction and expres- Central Committee. the coast fled across the border sion work. The meetings were open to Natives of all denQmina- Newman School of Missions intQ French territory. For three tions.
days truck loads of Spaniards -South African Outlook.
came to Elat and to the near-by government station of EbQlowa.
MOIst 'Of them had fled without having time tQ collect any per- sQnal belQngings, and American and French residents had tQ sup- ply ,them with clothing, fQod and Imagine This! A writer in the Near East sleeping accQmmQdations until Bulletin remarks that "if Palessome place could be prepared for Zulu peQple sang and ap- tine has the deepest valley and them. Christian mission work plauded at a meeting where has gone on without interrup- mQney was solicited fQr missiQn- the saltest sea, she has added to tiQn. -Presbyterian Banner. ary work! Rev. H. A. Stick had this distinction by having the been instructed by the Zulu An- Leprosy in Nigeria nual Conference tQ stir up inter- longest strike on record," adding est amQng Zulu churches in mis- that this gives Christian forces .A r~cent report on leprosy in sionary work among the Batswa, opportunity for prQmoting rec- NIgeria recommended that leper the Shangaans and the Chopes colonies should be the care of in Inhambande, East Africa. onciliation. Despite the strike, missions as far as possible. The SubscriptiQns were made rang- Administration of the Northern ing frQm 10 cents to $30. Many Newman School of Missions in Provinces has, therefore, ap- gave $5, which is the equivalent proved a scheme for the exten- in an American wa,ge earner's Jerusalem has not lessened its sion of the work of missions in mQney tQ $25 'Or $30. Even a enrolment; the total was 8l. this direction. The Sudan In- "heathen"-with three wivesterior Mission will undertake gave $5.50 and promised $2.50 Among the students last year the chief responsibility fQr lep- more for his trio of spouses. was a Japanese, Rev. Y. H. rosy work in the north; other There are just two ordained Af- SacQn, whQ is preparing to sucsocieties accepting increased rican ministers in a field 200 ceed tQ his father's Old Testaparticipation are the Church miles long by 50 wide, trying to Missionary Society, American serve 90 churches. The rest 'Of ment chair in the Japanese Baptist Mission and the Sudan the work has tQ be dQne by un- MethQdist TheolQgical Seminary United Mission. educ,ated laymen. near TokYQ. In Southern Nigeria, a new -Overseas News. The student grQUp also inleper colony has been opened to accommodate 1,000 patients. cludes tWQ German missionaries from Egypt, two from the Dan- ish Mislsion in Aden; others from India and Mor'0cco. Fif- teen missionaries in all took ex- aminations in person, and one by corresPQndence.
The Government of Nigeria, Na- WESTERN ASIA INDIA-BURMA-SIAM tive Administrations, the British Empire Leprosy Relief As- Schools in Syria sociation, the Mission to Lepers, The Near East Bulletin lists World Y. W. C. A. Conference all have shared the cost. The encQuraging signs in educational When it is remembered that Church Missionary Society has WQrk in Syria. One factQr in the first organization of women, provided the doctor. The Sul- promoting efficiency was the "The Female Sense Society,"
tan of Sokoto, spiritual head of mimeogmphed material sen t formed in 1807, had to have a Islam in West Africa, has agreed frQm America tQ help the teach- man to count their mQney and to the opening of a dispensary ers. The second factor was the offer their prayers, it is clear at Chafe, in the province of So- great improvement in Teacher that the Y. W. C. A. Regional koto, by two young Christian Training Schools ; and a third C'0nference in Ceylon was a Africans.-The World Today. has been the VacatiQn Bible milestone. In 'Order tQ ensure
more Far East participation, Hindu Temples Opening Generous Hill Women this conference was held in Cey- The doors of Hindu temples The Hill women in Assam, lon instead of in Europe, as are gradually being 'Opened to who have very little money, usual. The subjects discussed Depr,essed Classes, and the re- through their donations of rice, were: cent proclamation of the Ma- saved a handful at a time from 1. My country as a background to the haraja of Travancore, already the daily meal, are able to sup- work of the Y. W. C. A. referred to in these columns, port not only an evangelist, but which gives to all Hindus the to start little village schools. 2. The place and contribution of These are often taken up by the women. right to enter and worship in all mission and raised to a higher state-eontrolled tem,ples', is the 3. The message of the Y. W. C. A. in latest evidence of the growth of status. asiatic countries. sentiment supporting the de- Women in the Telugu field, 4. The problem of international rela- tions.
5. Leadership. mand of the Depressed Classes. after hearing of the cut which Among other helpful lectures Gandhi insists that it is for caste the Home Board had to make, were those of Miss Anna Rice, Hindus to right this wrong, and how their mission was try- National Secretary for U. S. A. whether the Depressed Classes ing to meet the situation, met to- She said: make the demand or not. gether for a half hour prayer "We are faced with two spe- The action of the Travancore service. Then one woman said cial dangers: (1) That we be- state will make it difficult for it wasn't enough to pray, and come an instrument for agita- other Hindu states to refuse to tors, and drift with the tide make similar proclamation. If gave a jewel worth Rs. 75. away from our purpose. (2) temples in South India, strong- Others followed till they had That we retreat from the prob- hold of untouchability and Hindu lems of our environment and fail orthodoxy, are opened, the strug- raised in cash and pledges nearly to make our spiritual inspiration gle is as good as won. Rs. 200, and voted to make it productive." Rs. 500, to send to the Home -Indian Witness. Board as an expression of ap- In the session on "Findings" preciation. In the News -Baptist Missionary Reit was agreed that: Any reputable citizen of Bom- view of India.
We must feel individual responsi- bay would read the average Sheep Without a Shepherd bility for humanity's victims. American daily with horror, and would probably be filled with In the little town of Jampur, Religion to be effective must develop pride that in India, papers do evil was so rampant that the a practical program of work that not flaunt tales of gangdom, little group of Christians were truly reflects present-day needs. robberies, murders and kidnap- sorely beset. There had been no ping. ordained minis·ter there for We need to rid ourselves of violent three years, not even a village emotions and hateful impulses and However, one may read in a reader for a year and a half. fear; we need to have tolerance and Bombay paper such items as Dr. Noel Fletcher writes: Some respect sincere experiment; we must this: of the group had been won by strive for racial amity and the pres- their Moslem neighbors into the ervation and creation of beauty. "Mr. S. K., a prominent young citi- fold of Islam. "Dr. Miss Sa- zen of M., was found on Tuesday, We need an affirmation of individ- drowned in a well near his home. His ual Christian faith. We must not only believe but allow truth to function in our lives. Personalities are more important oldest son was very ill with a fever hiba," said the faithful old than programs or methods. which seemed hopeless. So the father sweeper at the rest house where -Malaysia Message. had gone to visit a famous holy man we stayed, "please will you write and ask what might be done to save Thirty-Year Service Pins his son. The holy man told him that the name of my padre on a slip if there should be some other death of paper for me? Sometimes a The U nit e d Presbyterian in his family the god would be ap- sahib comes here, and when he Board rec'Ognizes the service of peased and spare the life of his boy. knows I am a Christian he asks So the father decided to give his own me who is my padre. For three missionaries who have served 30 life for that of his son." years since Padre Chambers years 'Or more by a service pin, Sahib left, I have not known, consisting of a cross and crown Or another like this: and I feel ashamed." .
of dull gold, set with amethysts "L. B. was sentenced to be hanged -C. M. S. Outlook. and pearls, surrounded by a in Poona on Wednesday for the murwreath of laurel leaves. At the der of his son. It seems he had been Burmese Buddhism annual meeting of the Sialkot told that there was a treasure buried in his land. He was in desperate need Mission, Misses Nancy Hadley, of money, so he went to a holy man to Mary Kyle and Flora Jameson ask how he might find the treasure. Burma is the most .actively 'If you will sacrifice your child to the were each presented with this goddess you will find the gold.' So, Buddhist country in the world; thirty-year service pin. Thirty- during the night while the mother was one might say Burma and Bud- asleep the father stole the child and dhismare synonymous, and one such pins have now been killed him." there is no sign of weakening in awarded. What was done about the holy this religion. Every day one -Women's Missionary men? Nothing. may see monks on their journey- Magazine. -Western India Notes. ings. The proportion of monks
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
to the population is said to be 1 language of those who are study- "Materia medica," he says, in 30. A boy is known as a ing. During the rainy months "as practiced in ancient Chinese "little animal" till he has been of July to October, I spent every fashion, is a thing to behold. to the monastery school for a spare moment translating med- Only three major possessions while; then he is called "a little ical literature. Ten men began were needed by an enterprising man." That happens in the life the course in November, 1935; fellow in order to set himself up of every boy. Village boys come nine of these finished the last of in the profession of Chinese daily to Buddhist schools to be March. The course is so ar- quackery; a bland and scholarly taught reading, writing and re- ranged that those who spend countenance, a collection of alligion, and in consequence lit- only one year will have a good leged drugs, and a lot of nerve. eracy is higher in Burma than practical knowledge with which Add to these a mortar and pesin any other province of India, they can go to their villages and tle, a cutting board, several and religion is stronger. begin the long tedious process of sharp knives, a bottle of river teaching the ignorant villagers water and place to hawk his -The Layman. the value of modern medicine. wares, and the quack was ready Three more years of study will for business. Training Kachin Leaders be offered to those who really desire to take up medicine for a The modest ethics of the mod- A triennial Leadership Train- life work." ern medical profession were ing Institute for Kachins was unknown to him. He advertised held near Bhamo, one of the -Moody Institute Monthly. that he could cure anything, and Kachin mission stations in upper to his credit it must be stated Burma, last year. Over 5,000 Literacy in Siam that he at least tried. He was Kachins assembled for the meet- all things unto all men, that is, ings, some traveling for twenty The government has under- to all afflicted men, and to his days, many on foot. Kachins taken to create a literate nation shop flocked the sick, the lame, are giving liberally in their sup- within ten years, and teachers the halt and the blind. The maport of this leadership training are at a premium. Training jority of his patients survived, institute. Eleven young people classes at Wattana Wittaya, and those not too seriously affinished the two years' course Presbyterian Academy for Girls, fected got well, as they would and have gone out into the work. cannot begin to supply the de- have under any circumstances. Many of the young peo,ple of the mand. Refusing to send out school go into the villages round half-trained teachers, they have Church "Comes of Age" about each week-end and the started a practice s c h 001, many changes taking place tes- attended by 60 youngsters from In a letter to the Board, a tify to their earnestness and ef- neighborhood families, teaching Presbyterian missionary tells fectiveness. them the regular government how a church in Nanking "came curriculum of studies, and do- of age." -Watchman-Examiner. mestic science as well. "For some time, we have been Doctor Multiplies His Talent Wattana Wittaya is located on working on a policy whereby, the Sam Sap canal, the "canal beginning with April, 1936, any Dr. Richard S. Buker has, been of 10,000 mosquito smarts." The church which could not take full pioneering in North Burma long name means Academy of Pro- responsibility for its pastor's enough to get his bearings in gressive Knowledge. The stu- salary was going to have to give the matter of making his life dents take the Red Cross exam- him up for such part of his time count. He tells how he plans to inations, Girl Scout tests, and as they did not pay for. So the mUltiply his ministry: the temperance pledge. Two mission was preparing to use Christian Endeavor societies, part of the time of Pastor Dju, "The tremendous call of thou- one f:or seniors, one for juniors, of the Second Presbyterian sands of villages about me, which meet regularly. Church of Nanking, but we have not the slightest chance of reckoned without the church receiving even simple medical On Sundays groups of stu- people. The elders and deacons care during sickness, continually dents visit the homes of the peo- had a meeting and decided that bears upon my mind. I am the ple living along the canal, for the church could not afford to only doctor with a medical de- whose children the academy let any part of Pastor Dju's time gree who can possibly go to these maintains a day school of 40 go into other work, and they villages. My great desire is to pupils. -Monday Morning. went out among the church spread myself so as to be of members to raise his entire salmore value. The only way for CHINA-TIBET ary. In a short time they anme to do this is to teach others nounced to the Presbytery and what I know. The Passing of the Quack the mission that the church was prepared to call Pastor Dju as "A building for the teaching is Dr. W. H. Dobson, South its full-time pastor, completely practically completed; now there China Presbyterian missionary, supported by the church." must be funds to feed the stu- thinks that with the passing of dents, and provide them with the cure-all quacks, one of the books and incidentals. There most colorful institutions of old must be medical literature in the China will become history.
Taking the Gospel to Prisoners meating Chinese life, and cites hope that it may contribute to- a number of them. Here are wards a larger understanding of A Scandinavian missionary three: the problem, and help all those at Changan, Shensi, writes in serving in the rural church to China's Millions of opportuni- A well-to-do young Chinese couple, plan more intelligently and acties for prison preaching. so wealthy that they did not know tively for the future. In Kiangsi what else to seek in life, decided to the provincial government has In answer to a long time of prayer commit suicide together. They hired adopted a three-year plan to and waiting, a new door finally opened a room in one of the large new hotels carryon work along four linesfor Gospel work among the men pris- in Shanghai, and turned on the radio to stimulate village self-governoners in the provincial prison. As to drown the noise of their suicide. A ment, to organize the farmers mentioned in earlier letters, the work Gospel appeal happened to ring forth, for self-protection; to develop among the women prisoners started and both were soundly converted. rural education; and to raise long ago. There are not very many people's economic level, for the women, and the matron is an earnest Many missionaries have stopped at realization of the self-govern- Christian, which made an opening Wing On's large department store in ment, self -dependence, selfeasier. The situation is different with Shanghai. Among other goods ex- supply and self-protection of the the men, for there are over three hun- ported from that shop are hundreds of rural population. dred in number, which makes gath- tons of soda crackers. Under the lid ering for meetings more risky. 'I'heir of each tin is a slip of paper, neatly -Chinese Recorder. officials are non-Christians and, though printed in red characters, which very friendly, could not be expected reads: "Jesus said, I am the bread of For Neglected Seamen to show any hearty interest in Gospel life: he that cometh to me shall never work. But a visit to the prison by hunger; and he that believeth on me Although a great deal has been members of our Field CommitteE: was shall never thirst." done for seamen in other nawell received, resulting in an official tions, Chinese seamen had been permission to hold meetings for men A little outpost was too poor to neglected until Mr. B. J. Tan, every Saturday. Brother Swenson, raise a regular preacher's salary. An who worked among seamen in the Bible-school teacher, and others excellent evangelist and teacher, England for 20 years, organized take part in these meetings. Several known among us as Nathanael, of- a Seamen's Mis,sion in Hongof the prisoners have already decided fered to go and help that little com- kong three years ago. Mr. H. for Christ. munity last winter, without any stip- R. Wells describes this work in ulation as to salary. Just inside the the Chinese Recorder. New Ways for Old door of the little mud chapel two large barrels were placed. Into one of The mission is making good prog- Here is a story told in the these, contributions of grain were ress since the opening of the new United Church Record of Can- poured; and into the other, cabbages, headquarters last May. The men are ada. onions or turnips were dropped-and glad to have a place to rest, read one day a new gown was dropped for books, newspapers and magazines, Canton's old execution ground is Nathanael! write letters and play games while being used for better purposes in these they are waiting on land for situadays. Its most frequent use is for Christianity or Communism? tions. athletic meets; but Easter Sunday saw it serving another purpose still The problem of livelihood is Sunday evening service is well atmore remote from its original use. receiving increased attention. tended since the opening: some of the Soon after sunrise people oegan to The New Life Movement was men join us in our daily prayer meetstream from all parts of the city- quickly followed by the People's ings, morning and evening. We visit some in buses, some in cars, some in Economic Reconstruction Move- the boarding houses once a week, and rickshas, and some on foot-towards ment, which is devoted largely ships alongside the wharves, carrying the East Parade ground, and by half to the welfare of farmers, since The Word of Life, cheer and comfort, past eight the scene which in former 80 per cent of China's popula- and distrii:>ute cards with "Golden days witnessed many a criminal pass tion belongs to that class. There Texts." Not merely the men themon without a ray of hope, was re- has been a striking increase in selves, but their wives and children sounding to the voices of five thousand the number of cooperatives; the are helped when the men are inpeople singing "Jesus Christ is rben Government and several banks structed in the principles of Christian today, Alleluia." The singing was led are trying to help the farmer morality. by three bands from the Pooi Ying, by extending loans, and there is Pooi Ching and Ling Naan schools, a national bureau for the im- Tibet to Modernize and by a choir of five hundred young provement of rice and wheat and men and women gathered together a central bureau for the im- Gordon Enders, son of a Presfrom the various churches. The provement of cotton. The prob- byterian missionary to India, as hymns were well known and suitable lem is how to translate plans advisor to the grand lama of to the occasion, so that the huge con- into action, because of wide- Tibet will have an important gregation was able to follow whole- spread illiteracy and the peas- role in the modernizing program heartedly the lead given by the choir ant's suspicion of new methods. planned for that country, schedand bands. Dr. T. Z. Koo's message The alternative, "Christianity or uled to start this spring. was short and to the point, empha- Communism," is stirring Chr-issizing the radical change in the lives tian forces to pay more attention Century-old stores of gold will of Christ's disciples as unimpeach- to community welfare. be removed from mountain monable evidence of the resurrection. By asteries and used to build highthe help of a loud speaker, the whole A start in this direction has ways, railroads, and establish assembly, accommodated on tiers of been made by Nanking Theolog- air lines and modern communiseats arranged in a large quadrangle, ical Seminary which has begun cation systems, according to Mr. was able to hear every word. a study of 100 representative rural churches in Ghina, in the The Gospel Spreading Life China's Millions says that many instances may be quoted to prove that the Gospel is per-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Enders. The grand lama does integrate it into the life of the and rural evangelism in pubnot plan to modernize Tibet in- nation. lishing a weekly magazine called dustrially, although power plants Severance Medical School in The Christian Herald. will be estahlished on mountain Seoul, Korea, was the first misstreams. He wishes to give his sionary hospital to be thus in- Social Gospel in Korea people certain advantages of the corporated. -Living Church. An article in a recent Chris- tian Advocate shows how new modern world, without import- Church Union in Japan ideals are influencing an ancient ing the industrial world's prob- country. A popular type of lems. The lama will try to es- The National Christian Coun- town work is the Well Babies' tablish a spiritual nation intent cil was instructed by the All- Clinic which not only looks after on keeping peace. Japan Christian Conference held last November to lend its good the baby but also influences the -Dayton News.
JAPAN-CHOSEN offices in furthering the work of mother and ultimately the whole the Commission on C h u r c h home. It also acts as a link be- tween the sick mother and the Population Increase Union appointed by that body. hospital. The provision of clean, Japan's population increased That Commission has been at standardized food for babies has 1,100,000 in 1935, according to a work during the year on the resulted in a revolutionary report from Tokyo. The aver- change in child nurture and age rate of increase has been questions of the form of or- gives prospects of lessening the from 800,000 to 900,000. The ganization for a United Church, notoriously high child mortality. birth rate for 1935 was 31 for The soy bean may be the means 1,000, while the death rate was a creedal statement and pro- of providing a cheap, nutritious, 16 for 1,000. The number of cedure. It has drawn up a premarriages was 556,730, showing liminary report, to be presented clean, milk substitute. an increase of 44,076 over the to the Council's Annual Meeting, It was once believed that Koprevious year. The number of expressing the following concludivorces was 48,528, or 0.70 per rean women could not study, 1,000, showing a decrease of 82 sions: That the United Church sing or play. Now one of the in actual number and of 0.01 in in i.ts organization does not the rate from 1934. necessarily require the realiza- departments of the women's col- tion of organic union, but the lege in Seoul trains Korean -China Weekly Review. adoption of a system of govern- women to be music teachers. Another early belief was that ment whieh will respect the Korean girls could not and autonomy of the various com- munions. That it is advisable to adopt the creed in the proposed would not take part in games. Faculty All Christian draft for Church Union – pre- Now the girls' college has a Wilmina School for Girls in sented last year – but incor- physical director, and the new porating the Apostles' Creed. plant includes a well-equipped Osaka is rejoicing because the That headquarters should be set gymnasium. This same girls' principal and everyone of the up in the center of the Empire; faculty of more than 60 J ap- college has a department of home that steps. should be taken to co- economics where an attempt is anese teachers are Christians. ordinate and unify the husiness being made to apply the benefits The number of students in- offices of .the various denomina- of science to the household econcreased from 450 in 1930 to tions and then advance by coop- omy of Korean homes. 1,060 in 1936. Each year about 100 girls from this school are erating on a nation-wide scale to In short, it has been proved baptized, with the full consent of bring about gradually a walking in many ways that Korean wom- and working together; that any en can do everything that women their families. -Monday Morning. new evangelistic campaigns, do anywhere. either within or outside Japan, Charter for Medical Center should be planned on a coopera- Carrying On in Korea tive basis through the above- Permission has been granted mentioned central headquarters; A letter from Mr. and Mrs. by the Minister of Home Affairs and that in order to nourish the Harry J. Hill, of Pyengyang, to incorporate St. Luke's Inter- faith of absentee church mem- says that in spite of the fact that national Medical Center under bers facilities should be made never in their 19 years of serv- Japanese law. The college of for the passing of church mem- ice have the forces of darkness nursing had previously been in- bers from one communion to an- been so determined as now, corporated, but the medical other. center as a whole had, from its doors are wide open to evanearly history, continued to exist C. E. in Chosen as a private mission enterprise. gelism ; and never a finer group The institution had grown to Nearly 1,300 Christian En- of volunteer workers. In Ocsuch proportions that those in deavor Societies, with 35,500 tober, 117 girlsoome for the members, are inactive operation Junior Bible Institute, one from Manchuria.
charge of the work felt that this in Chosen. The national C. E. The name of the all-year Bible step was necessary to safeguard Union is joining with the de- School for Women has been its future, and more thoroughly partments of religious education changed to Women's Biblical
Seminary. Calls for its grad- tion and wider knowledge, to under the transforming influence uates come from all over Korea, better material living and more of the one Bible saved from the 'and from J apanand Manchuria. widespread commercial activi- "Bounty," as it was taught to the These young women are leading ties, and best of all to better women and children by Young many to Christ in factories, hos- moral and spiritual progress. and Adams, after all the rest pitals, street chapels, homes and had been murdered and killed. government schools. The Evangelical Church in the Today we thank God for His Philippine Islands has helped Word, which was ,the means of The Institute for Blind and the people on their way by en- saving us from heathenism, and Deaf Boys now admits little deaf lightening their minds and com- doubtless cannibalism. . . . girls, as there is no other place forting their souls through the in Korea where they may learn Gospel of the Christ who said, "In your letter you ask to read and write, and use the "I am the way, the truth and the whether the National Bible Sosign language. This work is not life; no man cometh to the Fa- ciety of Scotland might have the under the Mission, but under the ther, but by me." privilege of s.ending a further Korean General Assembly. Fif- supply, if there was need. That teen blind and 20 deaf and dumb Rhine Mission Jubilee offer is unsurpassingly kind, for are taught by four part-time which we would return grateful blind teachers, one deaf and The Rhine Mission last year thanks. . . . Many of the older dumb and four part..,time sighted commemorated the 75th anniver- folk need large-print Bibles. teachers; with a blind evan- sary of its work in the Batak Our popUlation now numbers gelist calling regularly in homes country, Dutch Indies. The 215, including children who canof the blind. climax of the occasion was the not yet read. I leave it to you unveiling, in the Church square to send as many copies as you ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC at Siporok, of a monument 20 think advisable. I would be very feet high, a four-sided, trun- grateful also for a Teacher's "On Their Way" cated pyramid, which bears the Bible in large size, also one for inscription in Batakian on a my nephew, Richard Christian, Rev. Charles N. Magill, D.D., marble plate; "The Lord hath who is in need of one." was recently asked what he done great things for us, therethought was the most marked fore are we rejoiced." The New Britain's Village Schools material change that had taken monument stands on the spot place in the Philippines since where the first meeting of the In "Man in the Making," the his arrival in 1905, and he Rhine Mission was held. The author, R. R. Marett, defines replied: "Improvement in trans- Batak church is now numbered savagery as "intellectual confuportation." Facilities for trans- among the greatest and most im- sion combined with physical disportation have increased perhaps portant native churches of the comfort." Pioneer missionaries one thousand per cent. The world. to New Britain some 60 years rough mountain trails and the ago, Dr. George Brown and his dusty quasi roads of the dry sea- Bibles for Pitcairn Island band of Fijians, found people son and the mudholes, called who fitted ,this definition, but it roads, of the wet season, have The story of "The Mutiny on can no longer be truthfully apbecome first class highways over the Bounty" is well known. By plied to the majority in these w h i c h speeding automobiles, the reading of a Bible, which islands. busses and trucks carry multi- had been carried ashore from the tudes of people and the products ship, the whole of the island was The first aim of the mission of the country. Thirty years ago changed, and became a moral has been to assist the natives to travel was on foot, or on ponies, community in which the Gospel a right relationship to God; secor in two-wheeled rigs. This created an atmosphere of love ondly, to develop character and was slow, uncomfortable and ex- and peace. In 1848, when the citizenship; and thirdly, to enpensive. People did not travel news came to Britain of this re- able them to acquire those skills much as compared with the markable tllansformation, the which will assist them to protravel of today. Now there are Edinburgh Bible Society sent vide for their material welfare. thousands of miles of splendid out fifty Bibles for the benefit of New ethical standards and new roads and tens of thousands of the colonists. motives have been supplied as motor-vehicles in operation. old ones disintegrated. Village Every year millions of pas- In 1935, the Secretary of the schools have also worked toward sengers are "on their way." National Bible Society of Scot- raising standards of health. land, sent a letter ,to the descend- This includes such training in Within three decades there ants of the mutineers. Extracts practical gaI'dening as will enhave been introduced and put from the reply sent by Mrs. sure a more consistent and varinto effective operation "ways Edgar Christian, wife of a fifth ied supply of food. Often a naand means" to help the people generation descendant of Flether tive community is sick largely not only in traveling over high- Christian of the "Bounty," will because of improper diet. ways, but in progress to better be of interest: "We raIl know government, to better laws and how the scenes of vileness, The future of these mission quicker justice, to fuller educa- cruelty, and murder gave way schools is uncertain. Either the Administration will gradually
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
establish its own elementary study and to aid Sunday school from pastors to whom a quesschools, in which case the mis- teachers and officers in their tionnaire had been sent. sion system will no longer be re- church work, by making five quired; or the Administration tours. Five teams, visiting 72 In response to the first queswill assist in maintaining schools high schools and 58 churches, tion: "Have you had or do you of greater efficiency than is pos- reached more than 5,000 church plan some evangelistic effort sible with limited financial re- members and 6,000 high school during the present c h u r c h sources. students. -Monday Morning. year?" In response to this ques- tion, 655 ministers answered -Missionary Review of For Better Movies yes; fifty-five answered no; and Australia. eleven did not answer. The "Legion of Decency" sug- NORTH AMERICA gests some restrictions to insure In response to the question as proper motion pictures. Here to whether or not they felt there What Makes Criminals? are a few: was a growing spirit of evan- gelism among the pople, the an- Dr. Amos O. Squire, for many No picture shall be produced in swers were as follows: Yes, 398 ; years head physician at Sing which evil is made to appear attrac- No, 196; no answer, 127. Sing Penitentiary, in an address tive, and good unattractive; in which on "Youth and Crime in Modern the sympathy of the audience is In answer to the question as America," revealed some star- thrown on the side of wrongdoing, to whether or not the spirit of tling facts. He said: evil and sin, or against goodness, evangelism was growing among honor, innocence, purity, or honesty; Sunday school teachers, 443 of "In 1900 the average age of in which law-human or divine-shall the 721 pastors answered yes; criminals in America was forty; be ridiculed, or sympathy be created 148 answered no, and 130 did today it is. twenty.,three. Forty for its violation; in which the treat- not answer. The ministers were per cent of the atrocious crimes ment of crime makes heroes of crim- asked to give the number of adcommitted in America are by inals and seems to justify their ditions they had had during the youths still in their teens. One actions. first six months of the church hundred and seventeen thousand year. A total of 5,521 additions are now imprisoned in Federal -Alliance Weekly. on confession of faith was reand State prisons, while 200,000 ported by six hundred ministers. more are confined in county jails An Atheist Converted The other 121 ministers either and reformatories." reported that they had had no Martin S. Charles was a additions or did not fin out that His explanation of this, in a young preacher whose Christian part of the report. word, is the breakdown of Amer- faith was undermined by false ican home life. He said: teaching that he became an Twenty colleges of the denom- atheist. He founded The God- ination indicate that they have The breakdown of religious author- less World magazine, conducted some definite plans for keeping ity has left character seriously un- twenty-two public de bat e s the claims of Christ before the founded. A boy whose character has against Christian ministers, and students under their direction. no deep religious foundation experi- held offices in the Association for ences a serious shock if his home is the Advancement of Atheism. -Christian Observer. broken up. Perhaps his parents be- Then, after twelve years, he was come divorced, or they separate, or supernaturally stopped in this Elyria, Ohio, Men's League they live together, but in perpetual career, being convinced of the strife and unpleasantness. The effect reauty of the existence of the The men of Elyria, Ohio, on the boy is to unhinge him, and he One whom he had denied. He United Presbyterian Church drifts into crime. Forty-five per cent has recently been conducting a who formed a local Men's Misof the boys who are coming to Sing "Back to the Bible Mission" in sionary League in November, ~ing, having previously served a term Fort Wayne, Indiana. 1933, have no thought of quit- In the Reformatory, are children of ting, for since the last anniverbroken homes. Conceit, if pursued -So S. Times. sary a new project has develintensely enough and long enough, oped, in addition to their foreign tends to produce a definite mental Presbyterian Diamond Jubilee mission obligation of supportunbalance. Character, religiously ing a native missionary in India. founded, will stand up under serious The Diamond Jubilee of the When the pastor, Rev. George shock. Southern Presbyterian Church, A. Brown, visited Colorado last was celebrated last December. summer he found a small mining -Christian Advocate. One of the chief objects was the town, Tellurite, without a resi- promotion of a renewed spirit of dent minister for many years. Christian Education Tours e van gel ism throughout the Getting in touch with church of- Chur.ch; and in particular to ficials, Mr. Brown has been the Seven denominations – Pres- win 25,000 new members on con- instigator of placing a missionbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, fession of faith in the home ary there, and the Men's League Baptist, Congregational, Chris- Church and 10,000 in the for- will contribute to this project. tian and Moravian-Jamestown eign field. College, and the State Council of With a foreign and home proj- Christian Education worked to- Dr. B. K. Tenney, secretary ect now a definite part of their gether from October 19 to No- of the Jubilee Committee, re- activities, the local league begins vember 8 in an effort to acquaint ports on replies so far received high school students with the North Dakota plan of Bible
the fourth year with renewed Keystone School of the Bible have carried on daily advertise- ment about Christianity for vigor and a determination to A new international training some months, and a number of keep growing. Since last year enquiries have been received. In several new men's missionary school has been opened in Pitts- India, a weekly article inserted leagues have been formed. burgh at 535 Penn Ave. The in a Karachi paper has brought school has a directorate of nine enquiries from people of all -Elyria Daily. ministers and thirteen laymen. classes and faiths. An experi- It is conservative in theology. ment in Christian journalism is Stewardship at Asheville also being carried on in Moham- The President is Rev. A. Gordon medan countries; while in Spain Ike and Mike were two pigs MacLennan, D.D., pastor of the the editor of El Popular, a raised for the Lord by several Shadyside United Presbyterian widely read paper, has agreed to Asheville Farm School boys. Church of Pittsburgh, Pa. The publish a Christian article of Daily the owners cared for their Dean is Wm. S. Hawks, B.A., 1,000 words every Sunday for a charges and watched them grow. year. Following the corn harvest the from the Davis Memorial Bible boys gleaned several bushels of School of Binghamton, N. Y. Leper Statistics corn from the field for their pigs. The school is supported entirely Finally, having grown round and by voluntary contributions and is one of the 66 cooperating in- fat, the pigs were sold. After all stitutions throughout the coun- Medical returns from fiftyexpenses were paid the proceeds try which includes the Standard four leper homes and hospitals went as a contribution to the Training Course of the Evan- in India, China, Korea and young people's missionary budg- gelical Teacher Training Asso- Africa where work is mainet in the presbytery. ciation. Eight men compose the tained by the Mission to Lepers, The Lord's Acre Club at Ashe- faculty. afford some indication of prog- ville Normal School, organized ress made during the year: two years ago, has twenty-three Negroes in Detroit Eleven thousand, nin~ hundred and members who annually clear a twenty-two patients had been under plot of ground of brush and The Negro population in De- treatment for not less than three troit has risen from 40,838 in months. Of theseweeds, and plow, plant and hoe 1920, to about 135,000 in 1936, it. One member stays during the larger portion of this in- One thousand and fifty-four had bethe summer to cultivate the crease coming from villages and come disease arrested cases without crops. From the sale price all rural sections of the South. deformity (i.e., symptom free). Housing conditions are reported expenses are met. The net pro- as bad; health conditions, as Five hundred and twenty-seven had ceeds the first year were fifteen might be expected under these become disease arrested cases with dollars and the second year sev- housing conditions, are also bad. deformity. enteen dollars. Six hundred and ten churches Three thousand, nine hundred and -Presbyterian Banner. eighteen had much improved.
Two thousand, eight hundred and fifty-three had slightly improved.
One thousand, two hundred and two minister to the Negro popula- were apparently stationary. Awards for Missionary tion. Forty-five per cent of Of the remaining cases some had Sermons these are "store-front or house become worse and a considerable num- Awards for the best sermons churches." Numerous cuI t s ber had left or died. Seven hundred on foreign missions are offered flourish among the Negroes and and seventy-six of the cases arrested without deformity had been discharged by the Centennial Council of the constitute a serious problem. and 168 of those arrested with de- Presbyterian Board of Foreign The report warns that the Negro formity. In addition, upwards of Missions, in connection with is fast drifting away from the 7,500 lepers had been treated as outtheir centennial this year. For patients. Where the attendances had faith of our fathers into some- been regular the results had been enthe best sermon which has been thing else. Thousands of them couraging; 142 outpatients were repreached to an actual congrega- have become communists asking ported to have become arrested or tion, $150 will be awarded, with "Who is God?" "What good is symptom-free cases. the church?" They have been $75 for second place, $25 for told that it is the mother of race The chief problem in the conthird, $10 for fourth and, for hatred, prejudice, war, capital- ism, lynching, injustice and trol of leprosy is to prevent the each of the six next best ser- slavery. mons, there will be awarded a infection of children. Where copy of "One Hundred Years," -Presbyterian Banner. the centennial history by Dr. this can be accomplished the dis- Arthur J. Brown. MISOELLANEOUS ease should become negligible Each sermon should be typed, within one generation. .
-Without the Camp.
on one side of the paper and New Newspaper Evangelism Lutheran World Front should be accompanied, on a sep- arate sheet, by the name and ad- Newspaper evangelism, first A "Lutheran Front," massing dress of the writer, and the ser- tried out in Japan, is steadily the more than 80,000 members mon's text and theme. It must reaching into other countries. of this body behind a very defireach Room 913, 156 Fifth Ave., In China, the movement is still nite evangelical program for New York, before April 1, 1937. new, but two Hankow papers world betterment, will take vig-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
orous form within the next four day schools. Remarkable growth ment is organized to inaugurate years. Headquarters for this is reported from the former and maintain in the educational program will be established in German colonies; Tanganyika work of the church such definite increased over 40,000, the Cam- programs of teaching and wor- Berlin. For the achievement of Luth- erouns 10,000, and Southwest ship, based upon the Word of eran Solidarity a series of spe- Africa 8,000. The Union of God, and interpreting the life cific tasks has been mapped out. South Africa increased over and teaching of Jesus Christ as There will be gathered "an en- 100,000 since 1932. Brazil in- shall lead to interracial undercyclopaedic file of information creased 43 %; Argentina, 34'fa. standing, international concord concerning a II L u the ran The situation in the larger and the ab-owlit.ioSn. of war. Churches of the world." There Sunday school constituencies in S. A. News.
will be prepared for publication Burma, Ceylon, India, China and Christian Humanitarian in 1940, a revised edition of Japan has not changed materi- League "Lutheran Churches of the ally, though Japan reports an in- World," first published in 1930. crease of eight thousand. The A Christian Humanitarian Periodical bulletins will be is- loss reported in China is more League has been established and sued to the Lutheran Church apparent than real, as the figures held its first meeting at The Press of the world. A "Central for Manchuria and Mongolia Hague at the close of last year. Bureau of Relief" will be estab- have been deducted. India con- This League has set up as its lished. The executive secretary tinues to have the largest Sun- general principle: "The only will be the official representative day school enrolment in Asia, of the Lutheran Churches of the with Korea holding second place. just basis for the construction world. There is to be built up of a new social life is the Chrisan international Lutheran pulpit North America, Sunday school tian doctrine, which sets us the stronghold of the world, shows task of being human; that is to and lecture exchange. a falling off, though it should be say, in all respects and under all The Executive Committee, noted that other youth move- circumstances to do our Chris- ments and religious education tian duty in the spirit of truth, recognizing that the present day projects have increased. Eu- justice and love. For the buildis one "of enlarging relation- rope, as a continent, shows a net ing up of a new social life, emoships," a day when "religious loss, but gains are reported in tion and reason must be healthily Poland, Greece, and even har- and normally developed and bodies that have always laid assed Spain. Russia is out of work together in harmony. Reclaim to ecumenical character the picture entirely. ligion, truth and justice are the are pressing those claims with most important foundations of new vigor," have issued a dec- Peace Resolution this new social life." laration as to Lutheran participation in general world-wide re- Perhaps the most important The urgent necessi.ty for a ligious movements, saying: and far-reaching action taken concerted effort against atheism by the Oslo World's Sunday was emphasized at this meeting. "The Lutheran Churches of School Convention was the Peace the world should proceed with Resolution. Every Convention Forward – Day by Day united front on their relations since 1904 has adopted a peace with ecumenical Christian move- resolution, but this Convention The Protestant Episcopal ments, general cooperative or- realized that better than a reso- Church has issued a booklet ganizations, or C h r i s t ian lution is the development of containing daily Bible readings Churches claiming universality. Christian men and women who with comments, practical sug- They should agree among them- can reach across national bound- gestions for Christian living, selves as to their united partici- aries and extend the hand of fel- and prayers called "Forwardpation or nonparticipation." lowship to those of all races and Day by Day." This booklet has been widely distributed; alto- -International Christian Press.
Achievements in Religious nationalities, with a desire for gether 3,625,000 copies have Education mutual understanding and com- been bought and paid for. In mon endeavor in behalf of the addition to regular congrega- There are nearly a million welfare of all. There can un- tions from coast to coast, this more Sunday school pupils in doubtedly be no lasting basis for manual goes into prisons, re- the world today than there were peace that is not built upon a formatories, hospitals, sanatofour years ago. Africa is cred- more vital Christianity, without riums, camps, schools, and to ited with more than half this which peace pacts and interna- the employees in bus i n e s s gain, or 581,721. Notable gains tional treaties will continue to be houses.
were made in Belgian Congo, mere scraps of paper. The Peace Translated into Japanese it Angola, Rhodesia and French Resolution adopted by the Oslo has been distributed to 271 con- Equatorial A f ric a. Uganda Convention differs from those of gregations in Japan. It goes to made its first report showing an former Conventions in that it everyone of the Church's for- enrolment of 2,000 in the Sun- calls upon all constituent units eign mission fields. In Canada day schools and over 100,000 re- of the Association in every field and the United States it goes ceiving religious instruction in where the Sunday school move- into homes of scattered settlers.
'~I========='==========i~
Our Missionary Bookshelf Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information I Iril~==~~=======-=~~ An Advancing Church in Latin The third chapter, "The Hun- writes and whom he describes. America. By Kenneth G. Grubb. 256 pp. 38. 6d. Marshall, Morgan dredth Milestone," gives an out- The description of scenes in the & Scott. London. 1936. line of the history of the Evan- various countries is true to life, Mr. Grubb is a past master in the art of condensation. The gelical Movement in L a tin and the value of the text is enlittle book whose title is given America, since its founding, now hanced by a number of wellabove and which has less than 80 pages is multum in parvo. more than a century ago; the chosen illustrations, unusually Rarely does a reader find so much information condensed fourth, "God and Cresar," deals clear and attractive. Throughinto so few pages, and in such with the rising tide of national- out the book, but particularly in short space, and the information given is unusually correct and ism as it impinges on the prog- the chapter on Peru, there is up-to-date, inasmuch as the author has recently made a close ress of the Evangelical churches, frequent and sympathetic refer- and personal study of the coun- and the fifth and closing chapter ence to the Indian population, tries and the problems of which he writes. The seventeen re- deals with "The Significance of and a moving presentation of publics of Hispanic America, as the Indian," that submerged the physical, spiritual, and ecoalso the three Caribbean republics, Cuba, Santo Domingo and portion of the population that nomic needs of this portion, Haiti, plus the island of Puerto Rico, are brought under review might well call out with the which, in some cases, is the main this small volume, and he who reads its chapters carefully will Psalmist, "No man cared for my jority of the entire population. be much more knowing in regard soul." W. E. B. No doubt some of his readers to our friends, the other Americans, and the problems with will not agree with what the auwhich they contend. Why South America? By A. Stuart thor believes to be the best meth- The first chapter, "From Mex- McNairn. 145 pp. 28. 6d. Marico to Cape Horn," is, in a sense, shall, Morgan & Scott. London. ods of organization and carry- 1936. an introduction to those that fol- ing on the work of the churches low, since it gives much of the This is a book by an author physical and historical setting who is thoroughly familiar with and groups of believers. But all his subject. He was for a numof the various republics and ber of years a missionary in intelligent students of missions their peoples. In the second South America, and, in more rechapter, the author comes to cent years, has served as a mis- will applaud his insistence on grips with what is evidently the sionary secretary, in which posi- tion his long experience on the the necessity of the missionary main problem of the book, in his field has no doubt been of great treatment of "The Necessary service to his board. By fre- to give his time to the raising up Evangelical Church." T his quent and extended visits to all church will be, in essence, we are parts of the continent, Mr. Mc- of "faithful men who will be told, "a Fellowship of the Burn- Nairn has become thoroughly ing Heart," a band of brothers familiar with this field. able to teach others also," thus whose hearts God has touched. While the book, very natu- making it possible, in time, for It will be a band, not necessarily rally, gives more attention to the of intellectuals, but of all re- work that is being carried on by the missionary himself to pass deemed sinners, a true expres- the Evangelical Union of South sion of the communion of saints America, the missionary board on to other fields that are as yet and of their reunion in the Body with which the author has been of which Christ is the living long identified, it will neverthe- unreached. W. E. B. Head. less interest and instruct a much larger community of readers. Pastor and People. By O. C. S. Wal- The references to history and lace, D.D., Litt.D. 128 pp. $1.25. other developments of the differ- Broadman Press. Nashville, Tenn. ent sections of the continent are 1936. reliable and informing, and the reader will correctly gather the In twenty-five brief and inti- impression that Mr. McNairn mate chapters, Dr. Wallace dis- not only knows, but loves the cusses many of the problems land and the people of which he which face the modern minister and his congregation: pulpit poses and voices, understand- able speech, postsermonic "let- downs," songs and singers,. offi- cers and officiousness, meddle;. some men and flattering women, ushers and their larger calling, the minister as a steward and a man of God, the sacraments, and a host of other important ques- tions. He writes with sympathy, clarity and insight, and with a Any of the hooks noted in these columns will be sent by the REVIEW publishers on receipt of price.
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OUR MISSIONARY BOOKSHELF
wealth of fresh illustrative de- thought does not concern itself many influences are promoting tail. with obsolete theories regarding it, especially in Turkey, Egypt, the death of our Saviour. Nor and Persia. Hugh Walpole once wrote, "If can it accept belief in the actual an author is to survive a year or resurrection '(page 231). Even With the new economic role two after his death he had bet- the Synoptic Gospels must be in which women are playing ter cultivate the spirit of kind- stripped of supernaturalism be- their part and crossing the liness in his work." In this fore they are trustworthy. threshold of professional life, short volume the vet era n there is, of course, the danger preacher and teacher – he was Aside from this viewpoint, the of liberty becoming license. The eighty November last – demon- book contains many excellences. author points out the effects of strates the ministerial embodi- The weakest chapter, next to old social customs on health and ment of that essential virtue. that on Christianity, is that on the higher standards that are Islam, where the author or the now advocated. The two later R. 1. LINDQUIST. proof reader is responsible for chapters deal with the widening many curious blunders. sphere of women's interests and Living Religions and Mod ern the pressure of change on Islam Thought. By Alban G. Widgery. S. M. ZWEMER. itself by the new womanhood. 306 pp. $2.50. Round Table Press. New York. 1936. Moslem Women Enter a New World. The illustrations are remark- By Ruth Frances Woodsmall. 431 ably fine, and the author's style The title of this book and the pp. $3.00. Round Table Press. is attractive. The book gives author's qualifications as Profes- New York. 1936. very few references to authorisor of Philosophy at Duke Uni- ties and no statistics; the latter versity lead one to expect great In many respects, this is the is understandable. As the authings. Throughout the book is best book we have had in Eng- thor remarks, scholarly and thought-provok- lish on womanhood in the world ing, and presents a comprehen- of Islam. Miss Woodsmall is Statistics today are half-truths tosive and ethical view of the General Secretary of the World's morrow. The subtle nuances of world's living religions. The ar- Y. W. C. A., and spent nine years change are of real significance. To rangement is logical, and the in the Near East. Later, through see one woman from a high-class author has a concise style with a traveling fellowship, she jour- family of Mecca today unveiled would facility for factual classification. neyed beyond the Near East into be a more surprising symptom of Persia and India. Long-time change than the thousands now un- To the Christian, however, residence might give a more in- veiled in Istanbul. I have tried, therewho accepts the ecumenical timate portrayal of the present fore, primarily to understand the creeds and the historicity of the conditions, but none could do it trends of Eastern life, the currents Gospels, this book is a dis- with greater sympathy and a already visible on the surface and the appointment. Christianity is bolder sweep of the pen. undercurrents which determine the placed with the other living re- main movement, using statistics, ligions only as the climax of hu- The rising tide of social where available, only as subsidiary man effort to understand God change is flooding the Near East indications of change. It is evident and the universe. The author and obliterating many Islamic that the very essence of change makes begins that chapter by saying: customs. On its crest it carries it impossible accurately to portray it, a new freedom for womanhood. for while you have stopped to record Founded by a Jew, in its funda- But the undertow is still very trends of change, life has moved on. mental spirit Christianity is essen- strong, and it is here that one Today a new book each month could tially a continuance of prophetic would like the important state- scarcely keep up with the changing Judaism. With allowance for the ef- ment, made by the author her- status of Moslem women; whereas fects of differences of individual char- self, underscored in the preface, formerly one every century would acter and environment, Jesus and and as a footnote on nearly every have given a fair picture, for there Paul may be considered in the line of page of the volume: "Ninety was no change. Hebrew prophets. per cent of the people in the Near East are still untouched by We have two criticisms, how- Religion is even now in proc- the film, but the remaining ten ever. The first is that the causes ess of development. There are per cent represent the important for all thi,s social upheaval and many pathways which lead to progressive minority who s e the dawn of a better day are not God. thought today is in a large meas- sufficiently indicated. One would ure determined by the film" (p. expect an appreciation of the The religious wealth of mankind 27). fact that the whole educational will most probably be increased by program for womanhood in Mosscholarly adherents of particular re- What is true of the film is lem lands is due to the initiative ligions remaining faithful to their re- true of all the other social and of Christian missions. A second ligions and striving to realize the intellectual changes so admirably omission, which is less excusable, elements of value in them. The way sketched as milestones in prog- is that the author gives so little to comprehensive truth and unity is ress. The trend is undoubtedly attention to Islam and its teachnot likely to be found in the present away from polygamy and the ing regarding womanhood, as universal adoption of anyone existing old freedom of divorce. The the background for her picture. religion. marriage age is rlsmg. There The appendix of three pages, in is an educational awakening, and which some badly translated The living religions, treated verses of the Koran are quoted, by the author, are all measured is scarcely adequate. by such a twenty-inch yardstick. According to the writer, modern
Previous writers on the sub- two religions. It may lead many proper Christian home, or it will ject (Robertson Smith, Perron, to a fuller knowledge of the not be done at all. Mansur-Fahmi, and 0 the r s) Christ of whom Isaiah testified. seem to agree that the position Each church must be domof womanhood in Arabia before The Church and the Churches. By inated by Christ, the Christ of Islam was better than it became Karl Barth. 92 pp. 75 cents. Wm. the Scriptures. through the legislation of the B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. Grand Prophet. No less an authority Rapids, Mich. 1936. FRANCIS SHUNK DOWNS. than Professor Duncan B. Macdonald states: "I do not think The World Conference on With Christ Into Tomorrow. By that there can be any question Faith and Order to be held in Hunter B. Blakely. 8vo. 160 pp. that the position of women in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August, 50 cents, paper; cloth, 75 cents. Islam is practically due to the 1937, has doubtle,ss been the oc- 1936. Presbyterian Committee of attitude of Mohammed himself. casion for the writing of this Publication, Richmond, Va. 1936. Monogamy would be the rule in book. Professor Barth is such Islam, while the veil would a fearless and forceful thinker, This mission study book, writnever have existed except for with a flair for fairness and yet ten by the pastor of the First the insane jealousy of Moham- with such a forthrightness of Presbyterian Church, Staunton, med." It is not true, as we read style, that anything coming from Virginia, signalizes the concluon page 376, that "customs, his pen is eagerly read, whether sion of seventy-five years' hisrather than the actual teaching or not we agree with all of his tory of the Presbyterian Church of the Koran, resulted later in positions. in the U. S. The six chapters the veiling and seclusion of are as follows: women" ; nor that "by incor- The four chapters are sugporating the various social re- gestive in their headings: The Our Groping World forms such as the restriction of Unity of the Church, The Mul- Our Adequate Christ polygamy and inheritance rights tiplicity of the Churches, The Our Compelling Mission directly into hi,s religious teach- Union of the Churches, a Task; His Universal Church ings, Mohammed proved himself and The Church in the Churches. His Abiding Method to be a practical idealist." Ex- Professor Barth maintains that His Ultimate Victory actly the opposite is the fact. because the one and only Word Mansur Fahmi, an Egyptian of God has once for all been The author says: "My hope in Moslem, states: "The ancient uttered in the fact of the Incar- Arab woman was happy in her nation, the Church is one in the sending this little book on its home. She lived. Soon Islam, task to proclaim this coming of with its diverse institutions, its God to earth and "to summon way is that the reader may be theocratic laws, and the conse- men to believe in its reality." If quences that followed, changed we are to realize the unity of stimulated to think creatively the Church we must first accept the customs and the activity of Jesus Christ as the Head and concerning the Christian duty of women was paralyzed." This is Lord of the Church. "Jesus Christ as the one Mediator be- world evangelism, and to face very different from the idealized tween God and man is the one- Islam of Miss Woodsmall's book. ness of the Church, is that unity squarely the personal obligation within which there may be a S. M. ZWEMER. multiplicity of communities, of for giving Christ to a needy gifts, of persons within one The Shepherd Prince. A Historical Church, while through it a mul- world." Romance of the Times of the tiplicity of churches are ex- Prophet Isaiah. Translated from cluded." Therefore he concludes, Dr. Blakely is one of the lead- the Hebrew masterpiece of Abra- if we listen to Christ, it is "un- ham Mapu by B. A. M. Schapiro. thinkable that great e n t ire ing young ministers of his de- Introduction by the late Robert groups of communities should Dick Wilson. 400 pp. $2.75. stand over against each other in nomination. His book is sim- Brookside Pub. Co. New York. such a way that their doctrines 1936. and confessions of faith are mu- ilar in purpose and plan to the tually contradictory." In this classic the translator larger book, "Missions Tomorhas preserved the fire, pathos Dr. Barth concludes his book with a statement of the essential row," by Latourette, and forms and intensity of the author's ro- conditions under which it would mance interwoven with drama be possible to share in such a an excellent companion piece to and tragedy. Both Christians genuine effort of union towards a living Church. Real unity is that volume. It is ideally adaptand faithful Jews will find a advanced as we listen to Christ fresh concept of the God of in our own Church. Union work ed to mission study classes and must be done wit h i n the Abraham. The novel helps one churches, he believes, as its reading groups not only in the to understand the Jewish race and reading it should help to Southern Presbyterian Church cement the bonds of friendship but for a wider circle. Approxibetween the followers of these mately ten thousand copies have already been used in mission study circles during November.
Mrs. W. W. Draper's "Helps for Leaders," in teaching "With Christ Into Tomorrow" (price 15 cents) is issued by the same publishers. H. KERR TAYLOR.
Tangled Waters. By Florence Cran- nell Means. $2.00. Houghton, Mifflin Co. New York. 1936.
Too many American Indian stories are told from the white man's point of view. Once this meant contemptuous ignorance of native traditions; today, on the other hand, we often find a
forced and artificial enthusiasm the blanket secretly woven by of more than seventy years, which takes no account of their the young girl in defiance of which has carried the Gospel to hopeless incompatibility with tribal taboos, copying a sacred every province of Inland China modern life. Such new juveniles sand-painting for a collector who and to its almost inaccessible deas "Singing Sands" by Grace pays liberally; the search for pendencies, begins with the over- Moon, and "Indians Today," by hidden treasure; the desper- whelming sense of God's Love Mario and Mabel Scacheri, are ately sick child carried out of and the desire to be given some really part of the current super- the hogan by a superstitious fa- self-denying service for Him ficial propaganda for Indian cul- ther and left to die alone and un- which filled the heart of young tures as something to be pre- tended, till happily rescued by Hudson Taylor shortly after his served, or revived, among con- the indignant white doctor; the conversion. This longing for an temporary young Americans of plans for a forced wedding "Outlet for Love" pointed him Indian descent. broken up at the last moment by to China's measureless need and For these reasons, "Tangled Altolie's school friend and a led to the founding of the Waters," is the more welcome to plucky little missionary woman C. 1. M., though he first served thinking people. This story will -all these are woven into a for four years under a Society not only please the young girls strong plot. whose running into debt trou- for whom it is primarily in- "Tangled Waters" is recom- bled him. He "could not think tended, but will interest and in- mended, not only as a story but that God was poor or unwilling form their elders. It combines as giving the right clue to a very to supply any need of whatever a vivid and sympathetic picture human and troublesome prob- work was His." The history of of present-day Navajo life with lem. It has passed the scrutiny the Mission is one long record the frank and intelligent treat- of several specialists in Navajo of answers to the prayer of life, and is especially advised for faith. Love always found a ment of a typical situation. Mrs. Means, who has spent missionary societies and school way, often an adventurous one many weeks in Arizona during libraries. which taught the missionary to nine years past, introduces us to "I think it is the difference laugh at rough places, to suffer a family of native sheep-herders, between their beliefs and ours," extreme perils undauntedly, and characteristically dominated by says Altolie, speaking of her to be "strong as death" through the fiercely conservative old white friends, who do not trem- the terrors of 1900. Love found grandmother. The N a va j 0 ble before malicious spirits in its reward in the great awakenwomen, as is usual, do most of air and water or fear to touch ing of China which followed, the' work. The native "singer" the dead and dying, even when seized its opportunity and, or "Medicine-Man" must be their nearest and dearest. "I, through all testings and discalled when there is illness and too, would like to live without tresses, with undismayed courhe is well paid for his mum- fear!" ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN. age and unfeigned fidelity, though pressed on every side mery. Altolie's stepfather is a By Love Compelled. The Call of the and meeting financial ordeals in confirmed gambler. The old lady, his mother, is planning to China Inland Mission. By Marshall forced evacuations, ever made Broomhall. 126 pp. 35 cents, the same reply, that it would trimarry our heroine as soon as paper. London, Hodder & Stough- umph "at all costs," even cap- possible to the ne'er-do-well son ton, 1936. Marshall Broomhall, chief aide tivity and the loss of life itself. of a richer family.
The fifteen-year-old girl has for many years of Hudson Tay- If anyone has been deceived wholly natural and spontaneous lor, founder of the China Inland by the specious claims of theaspirations toward the marvel- Mission, years ago gave to the oretic Communism, one chapter ous new opportunities presented world a detailed history of that of this book, with its ghastly picby school and mission. Presently unique missionary enterprise. ture of Red massacres and deva bad fall opens the way, and at He has now rendered an equal astations, should prove an adethe mission hospital she is put service to the many who would quate antidote. into a bed "like a warmed snow- lose the benefit of that volumi- The last chapter describes the drift." Here· she meets with nous work through its very size, close fellowship of the organizaterror, soon merged in joy and by presenting the gist of it, tion, under wise leadership, with confidence, the white doctor with brought down to date, in this equal provision for all members bright blue eyes "of a keen kind- modest and cheap form, stress- from funds never directly apliness." Since more time is ing the heart and sinew of this pealed for but always supplied needed to heal a torn tendon, greatly blessed enterprise in the for every emergency. Altolie is placed in a near-by "faith which worketh by love." school for regular treatments, Previous publications of the C. H. FENN.
and there by an attractive boy a Mission have laid the greater Mexico Today. Col. Irving Speed little further along the new road stress on Faith: in this book, Wallace. 364 pp. $2.00. Meador she is encouraged to forget "Love rings out from every Pub. Co. Boston. 1936. homesickness and press on to page with a marvelously clear Of the making of books on better things. note." Latin America, or on this or that The cloud-burst in the canyon; This brief "sketch" of a work country of the 20 which form
that geographical entity, there as .more or less of equal im- j ects. It is interesting to note seems to be no end; and very portance. Some fault is found that Dr. Lane refers to THE with both Church and State, in MISSIONARY REVIEW more freoften the reading of them has their somewhat confused rela- quently than to any other magabeen a weariness to the flesh. tions, but the author gives credit zine except the North American Many have been written after a to each. Review-which has been in exhurried trip around the con- istance 30 years longer. Many writers on Latin Amertinent, in a comfortable steamer, ica reveal an evident dislike for Frank Mason North, 1850-1935. A and after having seen the sights the people, and approach their Biographical Sketch and Appreciaof some important cities from a subject with a fully developed tion. Published by his friends. modern hotel as a base. Such superiority complex. Colonel 1936. books may be interesting, but Wallace shows that he likes Mexico and the Mexicans, and A Christian is known by his such information as they give is he envisages the time when there friends and his achievements. will be a closer cultural under- Frank Mason North was a man not likely to be true to the facts. standing between the United greatly beloved and highly hon- States, Canada, and Mexico, ored by many and the influence In "Mexico Today," Colonel even to the point that, should the of his life and work extends occasion arise, their flags may around the world. He was born Irving Speed Wallace gives us a be "unfurled in one united de- in New York, was graduated book of a different type. He has fence." from Wesleyan University and in 1873 became a minister of the not been content with the usual Anyone who reads "Mexico Methodist Episcopal Church. trip around or across the con- Today" with care and attention, For twenty years he was a pastinent. His writing is limited to will be much more intelligent in tor; for another twenty years the republic of Mexico, and he regard to our neighbor republic, he was corresponding secretary wrote only after years of travel much more sympathetic with the of the New York City Church government in its attempt to Extension and Missionary Soand adventure, not only in the raise the moral and cultural ciety and for twelve years was larg cities, but also after per- level of the people, and will corresponding secretary of the sonal experience with mountain understand more fully the strug- Board of Foreign Missions. His gles which that people has other activities, offices and contrails and life in the most re- undergone in its attempt to free nections were too many to. remote hamlets. He went among itself from the shackles of feud- cord. As a poet and hymn alism and the bondage of an ec- writer he was well known and an untutored and semicivilized clesiastical system which sought some of his songs are widely population, as well as making no advantage save its own. used in many churches. They contacts with representatives of will live even where the author W. E. BROWNING. is unknown. A son, Dr. Eric the cultured classes. Therefore, M. North, is secretary of the the reading of his book is not Missions in Magazines. By Ortha American Bible Society. only interesting; it is also illu- May Lane. Pamphlet. Tientsin minating. In twenty chapters, Press Ltd. Tientsin. 1936. Gordon. A Drama in Three Acts. By E. J. Richter. Pamphlet. 50 he gives us a great deal of infor- Here is an interesting study cents. Capano Press. New York. of the treatment of Protestant mation in regard to methods of foreign missions in American "Chinese Gordon" is ever a Transportation, the Six – Year magazines from 1810 to 1935. heroic Christian figure, a martyr Plan, the New School System, It is a treatise in preparation for to the cause of British rule in the the degree of Ph.D. in the Grad- Sudan. This drama presents Home Life, the National Sport uate College of Iowa State Uni- briefly and accurately the events -which is bull fighting-makes versity. The aim of the study CUlminating in the fall of Khar- is to show how much and what tum in 1885. Twenty-five chara very sympathetic reference to kind of Protestant missionary acters appear besides sheikhs, the present able and energetic information American maga- dervishes and tribesmen. The President of the Republic, and zines will print; also the scenes take place in London, adds attractive references to changes in this respect in the Cairo, Khartunl, and the camp past 125 years. Most modern of the Mahdi. It is not a misquaint old Spanish customs of editors of secular magazines are sionary drama, and may be a the people. not interested in the religious little difficult to stage, but it has aspects of missions but will a stirring appeal for those who There is no chapter specially print articles dealing chiefly believe in the necessity of prodedicated to the relations of with political, sociological and moting peace and human wel- human interest values. This fare by the use of British armies State and Church, but there are study will be of especial value to and the sacrifice of men and several references to the reli- editors, mission board officials money. gious situation, written from an and writers on missionary sub- unbiased standpoint. His description of a conversation with an innkeeper in one of the smaller towns, whom he asked why the bull ring is always near to the church, comes very close to the real heart of the question. The innkeeper, after due reflec- tion, said that he supposed they were "put close together so that the folks could go to the bull fight from the church and lose no time." Both were classed together in the life of the people
Lights in the Near East. By of "A History of Korea," "The Van- Rev. Andrew Gih, the evangelist
Abdul-Fady (Arthur T. Upson). guard," and "Korea in Transition." the Bethel Mission, Shanghai, who re- 128 pp. Illus. 2s. 6d. Marshall, Dr. Gale is survived by his second cently visited America, was born as Morgan and Scott, London. 1936. wife, Ada Louise Sale Gale, a son, a the son of a Buddhist scholar. In daughter and two stepdaughters. his youth he was antagonistic to the The author was, until re- Christian message, and vowed that he cently, Director of the Nile Mis- *** would never become a Christian. sion Press in Cairo. He is one of the few foreigners ever in Dr. Thomas N. Chalmers, a clergy- The Presbyl:erian Egypt who could, unaided, write man of the United Presbyterian articles in Arabic which needed Church and head of a Christian Mis- A weekly religious newspaper in no correction before publishing. sion to the Jews in New York, died its lo6th year of continuous pub- This book is made up of reminis- in Tampa, Florida, on January 29, Iication under the same name. cences of his busy life; of strik- at the age of 78. Dr. Chalmers was ing examples of divine guidance, born in Riverside, Illinois, and at- It is conservative and evangelwhich were to him "High tended Monmouth College and the ical, gets its news by telegraph Lights." United Presbyterian Seminary in and keeps abreast of the times. Xenia, Ohio. After pastorates and a During the author's ,thirty- lectureship, he served as a missionary It goes into every state of the three years of active service, he to the Jews in Chicago and Pitts- Union, the District of Columbia, has issued over 700 publications burgh, in 1908 founded the New York and U. S. possessions. through the Nile Mission Press, Jewish Evangelization Society, and many of which he had written. was editor of the Jewish Missionary It goes to Asia and AFrica, South Magazine. America, Canada and New Zealand New Book. and into twelve countries of Eu- *** rope. Ethel Ambrose – Pioneer Medical Missionary. Compiled by Mrs. W. Miss Annie Van Sommer, the Subscription Price, – H. Hinton. 256 pp. 3s. 6d. Mar- founder of the Egypt Mission Band, Ministerial Rate, – shall, Morgan and Scott. London. died at the age of 83, at her home in England on January 9th. During the 50c. extra—Canadian postage Changing Russia. F. J. Miles. 144 past forty years Miss Van Sommer $1.00 extra—foreign postage pp. Is. Marshall, Morgan and spent much of her time in Egypt and Scott. London. was a valued member of both Field THE PRESBYTERIAN and Home Councils of the Egypt Mis- Missionary Romance in Morocco. sion Band. She founded the beautiful 1217 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. By James Haldane. Illus. 190 pp. Rest Home for missionaries at Fair- 2s. 6d. Pickering & Inglis. London. haven, near Alexandria. She was II If you use greatly interested in the distribution The Church Through Half a Cen- of Christian literature through the PRINTING tury. Edited by Henry P. Van Nile Mission Press and in promoting Dusen and Samuel McCrea Cavert. prayer through the Fellowship of Y OU will profit from an ac- 426 pp. $3. Scribners. London. Faith for Moslems. quaintanceship with us. We do the job complete in our own Agnes Dickinson-Missionary to the *** plant, whether it be large or Chinese. Margaret Ness. 80 pp. small. 45 cents. Woman's Missionary So- The Rev. John MacNeill, D.D., of ciety, Presbyterian Church of Can- MacMaster University, Hamilton, On- While our specialty is Books, ada. Toronto. tario, died at his home in Hamilton Magatines and Pamphlets, yet on February 11th at 63 years of age. we have a variety of modern Definite Experience-Convention Aid Dr. MacNeill was President of the equipment to meet all the re- and Deterrents. A. S. Wilson. 128 Baptist World Alliance from 1928 to quirements of your particular pp. Marshall, Morgan and Scott. 1934 and of the Canadian Baptist job. You will find our service London. Foreign Mission Boards. prompt, careful and courteous.
The Father and His Sons. Arthur *** Will you allow us to estimate B. L. Karney. 68 pp. Is. S. P. G. on your next printing? We be- London. The Rev. Herbert C. Withey, pio- lieve you will be delighted with neer Methodist Episcopal missionary our product, price and service. The History of Jewish Christianity. in Angola, Portuguese West Mrica, Hugh J. Schonfield. 7s. 6d. 255 died in Malange, Angola, on February The EVANGELICAL PRESS pp. Duckworth. London. 11th at 64 years of age. Mr. Withey was born in Lynn, Mass., and went to Print…. of Heritage of Beauty. Daniel Johnson Africa with his parents in 1885 under The Mi••iona,., Review of the World Fleming. 94 pp. Illus. $1.50. the leadership of Bishop William Friendship Press. New York. Taylor. M.r. Withey became an au- PLANT AND MAIN OFFICE thority on the Kimbundu language Third and Rally SIr••1s Hettlsbur., P.. Immensity-God's Greatness Seen in which he reduced to writing and into Creation. Clarence H. Benson. 140 which he translated the New Testa- pp. $1.50. Scripture Press. Chi- ment and a part of the Old. He also cago. translated "Pilgrim's Progress" into Kimbundu and Portuguese. For many Jesus According to Mark. Albert years he was editor of the Angola Hughes. 188 pp. 60 cents, paper; News, a Sunday school monthly and $1.00, cloth. American Bible Con- the only periodical in Kimbundu. ference Assn. Philadelphia. *** Obituary Notes Personallteml (Concluded from second c(1)er.) (Concluded from page 113.) He was a master of the Korean language, edited an Korean-English dic- Rev. George Freeman Bragg, D.D., tionary of more than 80,000 words, colored clergyman, celebrated in Jantranslated several volumes from uary the 50th anniversary of his ordi- Korean into English and from Eng- nation, and the 45th as rector of one lish into Korean. In addition to of the pioneer Negro parishes of the "Korean Sketches," he was the author St. James Episcopal church, Balti- more. Dr. Bragg has a notable record for the fostering of mutual under- standing and good will between the White and Colored races.
THESE SPECIAL
The Missionary Review ti.~World The June Number will contain special articles on Christ and Rural America Christian Achievements in Rural Churches The Challenge of the Rural Community Trends in Rural Life in Twenty-five Years Cooperation in Rural Parishes The Church in the Country Community Evangelizing Our Rural Foreign Born The Larger Parish Project Leaves from a Colporteur's Notebook Solving Some Rural Problems The Youth and the Country Parish Rural Life in the Southern States A Rural Pastor's Job Some Unchurched Rural Districts Rural Responsibility of the City Church Woman's Work in a Country Parish Special October Number CHRIST AND THE MOSLEM WORLD A Survey of Islam Today Why Preach Christ to Moslems? Results of Missions to Moslems Women and Children in Moslem Lands The Bible and the Koran Some Great Missionaries to Moslems The Influence of Christian Literature Islam in India Today Some Evangelized Moslem Fields Notable Christian Converts from Islam Articles by Christian Moslems Order These Copies Now for Yourself and for Mission Study Classes 25 cents a copy $20 a hundred $2.50 a year The Missionary Review of t:he World Third and Reily Streets, Harrisburg, Pa.
ROBERT E. SPEER, President DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Edito:r
The Missionary Review of the World — October 1893
WORK IN MOSLEM OITIES
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVI. No.lO.-Old Seria. – OCTOBER. – VOL. VI. No. lO.-NeIII &ria.
CHRISTIAN WORK IN MOSLEM CITIES.
BY REV. JAMES F. RIGGS, D.D.
The apostles began their work, as a rule, in large cities. In Palestine, Asia Minor, and in Greece the city was the focus of evangelistic effort. The radii might be many or few, long or short, but they had a common origin in the same municipal centre. In our modern work likewise we may wisely follow apostolic example in this great principle. The most important Moslem cities of Southwestern Asia are now occupied to some extent as " stations" of our American missions. A" station" is the residence of a missionary or of several together. Very little has yet been accomplished when we consider the vast multitude of souls outside of the truth, yet it is not strictly true to assert that nothing has been done for the followers of Mohammed. Even where no one has openly professed a change of relIgious views, the Moslem population do sh~re in a degree in the influences exerted over the whole empire. The Ottoman Empire is a strange conglomeration. It is a collection of extremes, a motley mixture, and that, too, of long standing, so that the most glaring incongruities are condoned as a matter of course because it was always so. Europe and Asia are in a perpetual joint session on the shores of the Bosphorus, ever learning and yet never able to come to any definite knowledge of the truth. The diverse elements in the population do not blend and combine as they do in a Christian country, but remain dissimilar, like gold and silver and copper coins in a purse. Turks and Armenians, Greeks and Jews, Bulgarians and Koords, all are distinct and, to some extent, hostile. Oriental civilization is not one complete organic system like our own, but consists of several fragments, each being a part of something long since shattered. This broken condition of society sets up additional barriers in the way of moral progress. Furthermore, the Oriental is accustomed to do many things in a way which is precisely opposite to our way. Thus -e.g., a carpenter in the East files the teeth of his saw in such a way as to give a set toward the handle; hence, in using the saw, he pulls it in toward himself, while we always push a saw, and file the teeth accordingly, to give a set away from the handle. Innumerable such points of difference exist and render Christian work: in Moslem cities extremely difficult. Barbarous races may very quickly learn to look up to the missionary as the representative of a culture unquestionably superior. But the Moslem has no idea of that sort. He despises the Christian religion as the acme of all that is absurd, and in his unitarian scheme of doctrine he challenges the highest intellectual qualities of the missionary. To convince a sincere Mohammedan that Jesus is the Saviour of all mankind is at once both an intellectual and a spiritual victory. We have a strong confidence in the truth and dignity of the Christian religion; ought we, then, to shrink from the stoutest foe 1 Nay, is not the very power and vitality of this great system in itself a. challenge? The Mohammedans cherish many notions which we cordially approve ; they recognize the supreme importance of many tenets which we hold. For example, they fully understand that piety or sanctity is entirely independent of external well-being. The most wretched-looking beggar in the streets may be holy. I have often seen pashas of Cabinet rank, in the streets of Constantinople, making the courteous salaam to a decrepit 'fakir or religious mendicant. Why do they do this 1 Aside from all question of popular effect, there is a genuine regard for a true, inner, spiritual life. Neither Arabs nor Turks are savages, and whatever faults or vices they may have, they cherish an unfaltering faith in religion as a living reality and a potent factor in life. On the other hand, they are sluggish in many ways, and it is not easy to make them see the value of that which is intangible. Sir Austin Layard toiled long with one of the pashas to int.erest him in astronomy. He gave glowing accounts of sun, moon, and stars, and especially he described the comets, with their strange mystery. When he paused at last, the pasha said: "Well, you say that the comet comes near and then goes away again. " "Yes, I said that," replied the Englishman. " Very well," retorted the' pasha," let it go!" Consider the difficulty of any effort to make such men see with the eyes of the Spirit. A sad, heavy-hearted materialism rules their Jives, and too often they sullenly reject the offer of Him who speaks from heaven. Even in such a case the soul may be reached by means of the Scriptures when oral appeals have been fruitless. The Bible has been translated and published in pure idiomatic Arabic and Turkish, and so the gates of the New Jerusalem are opened to a multitude. Few persons in a Christian land realize what a task it is to prepare a new version of the Scriptures. It is not enough to be pretty near the truth-the meaning must be exact. This is especially difficult in the Turkish language, where the structure of sentences is totally unlike anything in European languages. But this victory has been won at last, and we have the entire Bible in a version which can be understood by the most humble, yet one at which no native scholar would be displeased in point of style or idioms. The missionary can now press forward his work in those great cities with the best of all possible implements; he can fight the bat- tle of truth with the keenest of weapons.
To a very great degree popular dislike and suspicion has been over- come among the common people. There will always be enemies; but the mass of the population, both city and country, are friendly. Malignant opposition arises from the bitter hostility of individuals, often men whose evil purposes have been thwarted by the course of events, but rarely from the unwillingness of the people as a whole to listen to the Gospel. In many villages where the missionary was stoned years ago he is welcome now, and there is far more of a disposition to discuss calmly the points in debate. Our schools and colleges have exerted a considerable influence along this line, and the matter is now so well understood that it is taken for granted as a recognized factor in the life of the community. Thus, every man who sends his son to the Robert College, Constantinople, knows perfectly well that he is subjecting him there to a strong Protestant influence, and assents to this as a matter beyond question. The same thing for substance might be said of similar institutions at Aintab, Beirut, and other points. What does it signify ~ Just this: that Christian work in Moslem cities has a firm foothold ; that we have the confidence of thousands of the people; that we have the Bible and many other books; that a good beginning has been made in the line of a periodical Christian literature; and besides all this many hearts have been touched in homes where the martyr spirit has not yet developed to the point of public confession and the braving of obloquy for Jesus' sake. There is reason to believe that considerable numbers of Moslems are already Christians at heart, but wait till a more opportune moment for such action. If the course of events should be such as to provide a real protection for the convert, a great many would soon declare themselves in sympathy with evangelical truth.
For many centuries it was the standing rule of Islam that the person who abjured that faith was, ipso facto, doomed to die. This brutal law was carried out in all its literal barbarity many times, and it continued in force without question till the memorable summer of 1843. The death of a young Armenian in that year gave occasion to a sudden reversal of the policy S9 long in force. His name was Harootune, and he was by birth and education a Christian, a member of the Armenian Church. One unhappy day, in a state of partial intoxication, he stated his purpose to become a Moslem ; and this was heard by some Mohammedans, who noted it, and afterward insisted on the complete fulfilment of the promise so made. But Harootune, in his sober senses again, flatly refused to keep his word or to take any steps in the direction of such a change. After some further threats, and in spite of earnest remonstrance from several sources, the young man was publicly beheaded in the city of Constantinople at the end of the great bridge that spans the inner harbor. Upon this, the British Ambassador, Lord Stratford, took a bold stand, and demanded of the Turkish Government the absolute and unequivocal abrogation of the death penalty. The Turks resorted to their usual tactics of empty promises and cunning evasion, making general promises that every- thing should be wisely and properly done, etc.., but Lord Stratford was well aware of their tricks, and, besides, he was nobly sustained by the Cabinet in England and by popular .sentiment throughout Europe. So he bore down steadily on the Sultan, sweeping away one subterfuge after another, till one day, when all things were in readiness, the significant words" The apostate shall not be put to death" were written in Turkish by Mr. Alison, the interpreter of the British Embassy, and handed to the Sultan for his official signature. The pressure exerted by Lord Stratford was so firm that all tricks were futile j the imperial autograph was affixed to that singular paper, and so it became the law of the empire. It is very easy, however, for dishonest governors and corrupt courts to sentence a man to death, assigning as a reason the commission of some purely imag- inary crime. A better way still is simply to draft the unhappy man into the army and then to signify to tl;te officers of his regiment that he is to be treated with great severity. It is not long in such cases before the name disappears from the company register altogether. Army discipline is bad enough at best, and under circumstances like this it may become down- right torture, ending in death. Even in cases which are not pressed to the bitter end in this way a vast amount of wretchedness can be inflicted on a man who has displeased the local authorities or defied the public sentiment of his townsmen. Very much must be done before there will be genuine religious toleration or personal liberty in that part of the world.
The recent efforts to cripple the educational institutions at Marsovan are a good example of Turkish unfairness. The two native teachers who were convicted by barefaced forgery and perjury were not in themselves spe- cially obnoxious to the Turks, but the blow was aimed at them in order to injure the college and to distress the missionaries, who are really the per- sons attacked. This is now the weak point in our system. We can build a college j but if the native professors who are employed in the college are to be imprisoned, abused, and banished to remote points on frivolous charges, our work is at the mercy of our foes at any moment. This im- . portant point is to be noted, however. The eager effort of the hostile party to injure a Protestant college is in itself a tribute to the effective work done by the institution. The fury of attack is in reality a tribute, a confession. The Turks to-day practically acknowledge that American ideas are, pushing their way in the Ottoman Empire so fast and so wide that no force can arrest them short of violence and banishment. If the question be asked, therefore, what Christian work is now done in Moslem cities, we point in answer to the evident uneasiness of the Moslem authori- ties. Taking their testimony into account, we are justified in claiming that some very effective work has been wrought.
Nor is it only by the sale of the Scriptures and by our schools that we are doing this. We have also many opportunities to preach Christ direct-
THE ATTITUDE OF THE MOSLEM MIND TOWARD CHRISTI.A.NITY
ly to small groups of Mohammedans, two, three, or five in a shop or a private house. Let no one despise small audiences, for we have many biblical examples for our encouragement. The listener may receive seed into the very best heart soil, and it is impossible to foretell results. . It is among Mohammedans as it is in other lands, and human character shows the same gencral traits. Direct controversial attacks rarely accomplish much good, yet they may be a powerful means of religious education. The apparent alternation of victory and defeat may prove the express medium for a teaching that is divine. A single case may exemplify this: The book called" Mizan-ul-hak" (Balance of Truth), which was an elaborate discussion and comparison of Christianity and Islam j it was a fearless and a noble book, calculated to convince or else to enrage the reader. If the question be asked: "How much good did that book accomplish 1" we can only say on general principles that it must have been in many souls the beginning of honest religious thinking. It was to some weary hearts a distinct lightening of the burden, if not complete relief. We shall never know with mathematical precision just how much good each tract has done, but we have a firm confidence that He who bids the laborers toil in His vineyard will follow up their efforts with His blessing.
In those lands where Islam prevails there are peculiar obstacles to be surmounted j but it is a battle worthy of the effort, and there will be a triumph in which all Christendom may rejoice. Think of a government so sensitive as to prohibit the use of the word" union," even to speak of the union of two rivers j a government so abnormally cautious as to interdict the use of the word " star" because the Sultan spends a part of his time in the" Star Kiosk j" think of a ruler who claims to be " always victorious" in his official documents, and combine with this picture the notion of a complete and final victory like the revolution in the days of Constantine the Great !
Many of the tenets taught in the mosque are only the truths of Scripture dislocated and transposed. Let the points of revealed religion be stated afresh, let the sacred edifice be built up plumb, let the souls of men enter into the one only vital union with God, and then it will appear to Arab, Turk, and Christian alike that there is a treasure of lofty enthusiasm, not yet spent, waiting for the day of the right hand of the Most High. Nothing but victory can justify the battle, and nothing Lut a second Pentecost can make holy or justify this modern Babel of the great Moslem cities.
THE ATTITUDE OF THE MOSLEM MIND TOWARD CHRIS- TIANITY.
A previous question may at once suggest itself whether there is any unitary attitude of the Moslems with regard to Christianity. This singular faith embraces many nations in Asia and Mrica. They are different in race characteristics and in language. Millions in India live under the English Government, and millions in Java, Sumatra, and connected islands live under the government of Holland. There are great differences in these peoples, and the numerous conversions to Christ in India, China, and the Dutch islands prove that this invincible faith must bow before the cross. But while this paper refers chiefly to the Moslems of Turkey, that which may be called the Koranic attitude is common to all Moslems so far as they revere the Koran.
Space will not allow us to quote all the passages referring to Jesus and the Virgin Mary j but the following from the third Sura gives us a good idea of the spirit of the prophet : " When the angel said, ' 0, Mary, verily God sendeth thee good tidings, that thou shalt bear the Word proceeding from Himself. His name shall be Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary, honorable in this world and in the world to come, and one of those who approach near to the presence of God. And He' (Jesus) 'shall speak unto men in His cradle and when He is grown j and He shall be one of the righteous.' She answered, ' Lord, how shall I have a son since a man hath not to~ched me g' The angel said: 'Lo, God createth that which He pleaseth. When He decreeth a thing He only saith unto it, "Be," and it is. God shall teach Him the Scripture and wisdom, and the law and the Gospel, and shall appoint Him His apostle to the children of Israel. And He' (Jesus) 'shall say, " Verily I come unto you with a sign from your Lord, for I will make before you of clay as it were the figure of a bird j then I will breathe thereon, and it shall become a bird by the permission of God j and I will heal him that hath been blind from his birth, and the leper, and I will raise the dead." . .. But when Jesus perceived their unbelief He said: "Who will be my helpers toward God~" And the apostles answered, "We will be the helpers of God. ,Ve believe in God, and do thou be as witness that we are true believers." , "
A great mass of similar matter might be quoted, some of it curious, some of it puerile, but all .showing the respect which Mohammed had for Christ and His mother and the apostles. Wherever the Koran is read and understood, a broad distinction is made between Christ and Christians. He is honored as one of the six apostles of God, and the Virgin Mother was born without taint of sin, and was one of the four perfect women. Christians have departed from Him, and will therefore be adjudged to hell ; but all who have been faithful to Him will be received into paradise at the resurrection.
A second point to be considered is the influence of tradition upon the Moslem mind. The Koran itself is but a very small part of the faith of Islam. One may study the Koran ever so profoundly, and he would get no better conception of Islam than he would of popery by studying the New Testament. The Koran is devoutly held as the sacred repository of all the fundamental principles of law, religion, morals, future awards, and even of science ; but it is a small book, not so large as the New Testament. It was found wholly inadequate to the wants of a government, and so the traditions of the verbal sayings of the prophet and of the first four caliphs were resorted to in order to explain and amplify the obscure and to supply what was wanted. This tradition became enormously voluminous. It often went far out of sight of the Koran, but it claimed all the authority of the Koran. Mehmet the Conqueror, who took Constantinople in 1453, endeavored, with but partial success, to condense and unify this vast mass of commentaries and contradictions. Two centuries later Solymon the Magnificent undertook the work in good earnest. He aimed to be the Justinian of Islam, and with good success. This resulting code is the condensation and unification of all accepted traditions. It is called the " Multeka ul Ubhurr" (the "Confluence of the Seas"). Islam is to be found in this great code rather than in the Koran.
'Vith regard to the honor paid to Christ and the Virgin Mary there is nothing adverse, only some strange and curious commentaries are added. But with regard to Christians the traditions have amplified the Koran beyond measure. Death to the apostate is declared to be an irreversible law. But in the Koran there is no passage that is clear on this point. In 1843 an Armenian-Hovakim-who had Islamized, "apostatized," and was executed in Constantinople, and a Greek for the same reason in Broosa. The English ambassador, Sir Stratford Canning, made a most peremptory demand of the Sultan to officially renounce that law, and boldly maintained that it was not in the Koran. He carried his point, but so thoroughly has this principle, " Death to the apostate," incorporated itself into the Turkish mind and heart that what is not done openly will, in all cases, be done secretly.
European scholars were made acquainted with this Moslem code by M. D'Ohsson, the dragoman of the Dutch embassy at Constantinople. He was an Armenian by birth, but he became distinguished among all the learned Moslems for his profound knowledge of Turkish, Arabic, and Persian literature. By order of the King of Holland he made a translation of this great code into French, omitting parts that were repetitions, and freely condensing parts that were prolix. It is a curious combination of law, morals, and religion. It gives specific directions for the trial and execution of the renegade from the faith. He is to have three distinct offers of life if he will return to the faith, and time for reflection, after each offer, is to be given him. If he remains obdurate he is to be executed by strangu. lation, and then his head is to be cut off and placed under his arm. His body is thus to be exposed three days in the most public place.
This death penalty is the strongest defence of Islam, and under any Islamite government will never be given up. The convert must have a martyr's faith at his very first step in the Christian life. Quite a number of " inquirers" have disappeared, and no one knoweth their fate.
But in some respects the traditional law has amelbrated the condition of the subject, Christians or rayahs. It has declared them under the protection of law and their persons and properties safe. Their testimony in court is not to be taken against a Moslem, but Christians and Jews may testify in cases among themselves. No Christian expects justice in a Moslem court. If he has money, however, he may buy justice-or injustice j if he has not he wiII suffer the will of his adversaries. The general feeling of Moslems toward rayahs is one of indifference, or pity, or contempt, and if anything happens to inflame them it is one of hatred.
There are things continually occurring before the eyes of the Moslems which provoke these feelings. The religious honor paid to relics and pictures and the worship of the transubstantiated bread in the sacrament always stir the indignation of the Moslems, and the term" poot-perest" (idolater) is a common one of insult and opprobrium to a rayah Christian.
But while Moslems may curse Christians, they may not blaspheme the name of Christ. Hazaretli Isa, the adorable Jesus, is the name given Him. It is easy to see that a pure Christianity pervading the Turkish Empire would abolish one of the very strong defences of Islam. Often the Turks have shown special favor to Protestants because they were free from all idolatrous forms in worship.
We pass to a third point–the literary attitude of Islam toward Christianity. This has been one of great reserve. The Moslem authors have written chiefly of their own history, and they have issued numerous commentaries upon laws, customs, and traditions. When anything like argument against Christianity has been attempted it haR been uniformly against a false Christianity and against doctrines like those of transubstantiation, auricular confession, and priestly absolution, all which are condemned by reason. As there is no freedom of discussion, and the deluded Moslem never hears the other side, there is a stupid conviction that no answer can be given.
But there are some thoughtful men among the Moslems who know better, and who feel that there are strong points in Christianity and weak points in Islam which have not been duly considered. Missionaries occasionally meet with men who show that they have attentively studied the New Testament and have seen clearly how far the Oriental churches have departed therefrom. The fact that the New Testament in Turkish and Arabic is purchased as never before, proves a curiosity, at least, to get a new estimate of the Christian doctrine.
A fourth point to be considered is the diplomatic estimate of Christianity. We mean by this that which has come through the diplomatic relations of the Moslems with Christian governments.
Few influences have tended so directly to degrade Christianity in the view of the leading men of the Ottoman Empire as the Christian diplomacy of Europe. England, Russia, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Holland have magnificent embassies at Constantinople, with counsellors, secretaries, interpreters, and attaches. Each embassy is a princely court. " Besides these there is a score or more of embassies of secondary grade, among which is reckoned that of the United States. While there have been men of the highest moral character connected with these embassies, yet in general " wine and women" is their appropriate motto beyond any other place on the face of the earth where diplomacy is the regnant power. Under Louis Napoleon the French Embassy became so flagrantly and shamelessly dissolute that the bruit thereof reached Paris, and Napoleon telegraphed to his ambassador that the empire expected its embassy to be above reproach. It immediately became Puritanic for a time.
No immoralities of any Turkish pasha ever surpassed, and in many respects ever equalled, those of Sir Henry Bulwer, the English ambassador, who succeeded the noble Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. With his large salary, a constant influx of bribes, and many other auxiliary resources, he rarely paid his honest debts, and a bribe of ten thousand pounds sterling to himself and of one thousand to the Countess Justiniani, his chief mistress at the time, induced him to betray the interest of England and to use his influence as ambassador to promote the designs of the Pasha of Egypt. All these facts were known and were "public talk." Could a Moslem do less than despise a Christianity thus represented ~ Besides all this the policy of the" Great Powers" toward Turkey has been unprincipled and supremely selfish. Treaties have been broken as often as they became irksome, while. Turkey has been bound down hand and foot and has become utterly impoverished by following the lead of her Christian advisers.
The sum total of the moral influences of Christian embassies to the Ottoman Sultan has been extremely bad. It has made the morals of Christianity appear to the Moslems corrupt and detestable. Were Christian nations truly Christianized their influence would be irresistible.
The missionary work has to some extent undeceived the Moslem mind and has enabled many to see that there is another type of Christianity not represented in foreign embassies. This influence is wide though unacknowledged. The writer once accidentally heard two Turkish gentlemen, on board a steamer crowded with passengers, talking about absurd superstitions that had passed or were passing away. One of them said to the other that the educational work of the American missionaries had spread out through all the land and their books had gone everywhere, and he added: " We Moslems no longer think as we used to." Many others confess the change, but have no thought of its cause. The annual purchase of some thousands of copies of the New Testament in the Turkish language is a fact of considerable significance. Is it the grain of mustard seed which shall spring up in time and become a tree ~ But at the present time there arc .some very adverse influences working upon the Moslem mind. They may not all be known to us, but whatever they are they are persistent and efficient. The Turkish Government has assumed an attitude of hostility to all the missions and missionaries of the American Board and to all the native Protestants in the empire. It has been steadily increasing for some years, and evidently has for its object the utter effacement of our missionary work. At first view there seems to be no ground for the remarkable change. The Protestant religion is less offensive to the Moslem than the Oriental. There are no forms of worship that are idolatrous, and the Turks have often befriended the Protestant from mobs and from many other forms of persecution. Some new force has come in to cause this great change.
That which is apparent is a weak and wicked thing which has foundations out of sight. There is a secret organization of Armenians residing abroad, keeping their own precious bodies safe, having probably some affiliations with Armenians resident in Turkey, through whose agency incendiary bulletins have been placarded on all the school.houses, places of worship, and other buildings belonging to the native Protestants and the mIssIOnaries. The object is to excite the Moslems to such a general massacre that Europe will be compelled to interfere and procure freedom generally. If not, Russia will march right in and do it in the name of humanity. The whole thing is a Russian plot. She is skilful in this way of acting. Three very similar plots could be mentioned by which she accom- plished her purposes, but those who were her agents suffered. * She works in the dark. Her agents are innumerable, and most of them fancy they are pursuing their own ends when in reality their end is destruction ; but Russia accomplishes her object. In 1839 the great Russian ambassador, Boutineff, declared that the Emperor of Russia would never allow Protestantism to set its foot in Turkey. This policy has never changed. And there is reason for it. Russia intends to have possession of Asia Minor, where she will find some two or three millions of Armenians who will be of great value in peace and in war. She will pass them all, as she supposes, immediately into the Greek Church, and her young men will be enrolled in the army She does not want au stubborn Protestantism to * In the war of 1877-78 between Russia and Turkey, a revolutionary body of Russian-Bulgarians excited a "bogus" Insurrection in European Turkey for the expressed though concealed purpose of aro1lJling the Moslem population to a general massacre that would call for Russian Intervention. A few Turkish villages were burned and a few women and children were murdered; and the perpetrators beat a swift retreat and escaped, scattering copies of a plan for universal rising and throwing oft the yoke. The mixed Moslem population, composed of Turks, Chinganes, Pomw and Circassian refugees driven out of Russia, all, terriJied and enraged, sprung to arms, and fell npon a large Bulgarian village and destroyed it. They slaughtered between two and three thousand-all, Indeed, who did not escape by flight. This Willi called the" Bulgarian Horrors. " It was an atrocity perpetrated by a mixed mob. This (Russia's) plot succeeded perfectly. There cannot be fonnd any· thing In history to eqnal it. Her agents spread the news. The exciting cause was kept out of sight. Mr. Gladstone took up the horrid tale of 15,000 slaughtered, and rode into office upon the tremendous excitement. He justified Russia. He called the emperor the "divine flgure of the North." The world to this day has no history of that most successful and most atrocions plot. Russia has ad· mirable facilities for working up anything of that kind. She has two consuls in alllmportant places In Turkey-a commercial consul and a political one. Her work is always secret. She can in1lnence the Moslem mind just as she pleases. Gold is one of her powerful aids; death or Siberia to those who oppose or are IJUIJ'fl6Cted of opposing her plans. It is humiliating that our callow statesmen should be 80 foolish or so wicked as to form a treaty by which our freedom-loving country becomes a trap to catch escaped Russian patriots and deliver them over to this crnel and remorseiess power. resist her will and awaken foreign sympathies. The Armenians are befooled by Russia. Should they come under the power of Russia they will find her despotism more intolerable than the Turkish. Indeed, all those who live on the Russian border know it to be so. They rarely pass over to enjoy the blessings of Russian rule.
Russia has befooled the Turks as well as the Armenians. She points out to the Turks the dangers to their faith from Protestant missions, and the seditious character of their Armenian converts-the sedition being her own work. For the present Turkey is in the toils of Russia and will do her will. If England had her old-time watchfulness this would not be.
Russia knows perfectly well that our government will do nothing in the case except to gain some good fair promises, which will never be exacted. Our foreign policy, so far as missions are concerned, is very weak. It will not do to protect them, because a certain class of voters might be displeased. Our government is easily cajoled by Russia. It has been led into making a most disgraceful treaty for the giving up of criminals. We have no occasion to seek our criminals in Russia. But if any poor Russian patriot escapes to this country we will help Russia to get him, and will deliver him over to be tormented. That the greatest republic should join the greatest despotism in this unholy and cruel work is an abomination, standing where it ought not. The courts in Russia are just as corrupt as in Turkey, and in either country the government can easily manufacture both the crime and its evidence. To the burning disgrace of our government it has served notice upon the world that this country is no longer the refuge of the persecuted patriot, but it has become a trap to catch him and deliver him up to death.
Russian agents finding it easy to excite the Moslem mind against our missions, fanaticism and bigotry may be left to carryon the work. The friendly Moslems will for a time disappear, and to what extent the Turkish Government may go in its mad opposition is very uncertain. If our government would invite England and Germany to consider the present attitude of Turkey a remedy could easily be found, but that would offend Roman Catholics and cost votes. We cannot hope for such sublime virtue as would induce a man in government office to do anything that would cost his party a vote. This is the essential weakness and degradation of our government. An election to Congress seems to be an election to the degradation of subserviency to low partisan ends. The Turkish Minister at Washington keeps his master informed of the utter weakness of our foreign policy in relation to all missionary questions, and hence the outrages increase from year to year.
The omens are not good for the future. Christian missions in Turkey are called to severe sufferings and trial. Some way of deliverance will come. God does not forsake His people when He tries their faith, but that way is not apparent.
The future looks still darker for Islam. The only possible prosperity
MISSIONS IN TURKEY
for the great emp,ire is in a righteous government guarding the rights of the citizen without distinction of race or religion. Turkey must also put herself in such accord with Christian powers that they shall find no reason, when great national complications arise, to blot her out from existence.
She now defies Christianity, and will be called ultimately in the providence of God to bear the penalty. But the greatest problem of all is Russia.
That mighty empire is driven on in darkness by the fiend of conquest and military power. Combined Europe can resist her, no puwer can conquer her. We wait for a mighty angel to come down from heaven having a great chain in his hand in order to lay hold of the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bind him a thousand years, that he should deceive and oppress the nations no more.
LEXINGTON. C. H.
MISSIONS IN TURKEY.* BY REV. HERMAN N. BARNUM, D.D., BARPOOT, TURKEY.
The missionary work which now extends to almost all parts of the Turkish Empire was commenced at Constantinople in 1831 by Dr. William Goodell, as a missionary of the American Board. In few countries have the principles of missionary comity been better observed. In Constantinople some English and Scotch societies have been at work, but in differellt lines from the missionaries of the American Board, and always preserving the most cordial relations with them. In other parts of the country disturbing elements have sometimes been introduced, but as a whole the American Board and its missionaries have had control of the evangelizing agencies, and have been free to manage them in their own way.
Few missionary fields present a greater variety of races and religions than Turkey.. It is customary to class the Nusairiyeh and Yezidus as Pagans. All the rest are theists, and even these hold to a sort of theism, but it is corrupted by other elements. Of Christian sects there are the Armenians, Bulgarians, Jacobites, Greeks, and Nestorians, and each of these sects has a papal branch, everyone distinct from all the rest. There is also a sprinkling of Latins, and there are many Jews. The Mohammedans constitute about four fifths of the population, and there are sects among them as well as among Christians. They have generally shown a large degree of toleration to all other religions which do not interfere with their own faith.
Before sending missionaries to Turkey the attention of the American Board had been drawn to the Armenians. Work was begun among them, and its greatest results have been achieved among them, although it has extended to the Bulgarians, Greeks, and Jacobites. The Armenians are an honest, sincere people ; they are allowed to read the Bible, and at that .. Syria, although polltically a part of Turkey, will not be considered In this article. time there was a spirit of inquiry and a desire for reform, whi<lh made them particularly accessible. For several years the hope was entertained by the missionaries and the converts that a reformation might be effected within the Armenian or Gregorian Church itself. Schools were opened, inquirers multiplied, and for a time even the Armenian patriarch himself expressed his satisfaction with the movement. It soon became apparent, however, that the ecclesiastics did not wish a genuine reform, and they inaugurated a violent persecution, which drove all the evangelicals out of the old church, and completed the organization of an evangelical church.
One hundred and twenty-five churches have now been organized, with a membership of about thirteen thousand. The first churches were naturally formed upon a Presbyterio-Congregational basis, after the polity of the missionaries who organized them; but as churches have multiplied no effort has been made by the missionaries to control their polity or to interfere with their perfect independence. They prefer to see them adopt the form that is the most natural expression of their religious life as it is modified by national characteristics. Some influential Protestants are of the opinion that an episcopal form-a modification of their ancient church government–is the best adapted to them as Orientals; but the large majority, having had an experience of self-government, are afraid of anything that resembles their former despotic system. The missionaries have held and still believe that the outcome of genuine missionary work is the organization of believers into self.supporting churches, having their own pastors, and that from the outset they should be independent of missionary control, and that the entire work should be committed to the churches as fast as they are able to assume it.
As to the general management of the missionary work during its present stage of development, after considerable discussion a plan was adopted by a general conference at Constantinople in 1883, and appr~ved by the Board, which provides that missionaries and natives are to share the responsibility equally. Whenever there is a di1ierence of opinion as to the use of missionary funds-a contingency which seldom arises-the missionary voice is to control. In everything else the responsibility is equal. This plan has worked well, and ought to have been adopted much earlier. Both parties have been benefited by this sharing of the work together, and it has been a gain to the work itself. It shows the people that the work is properly their own, and the missionaries are. merely their helpers; and it is a step preparatory to the transfer of the whole responsibility to the people.
From the beginning of this work in Turkey the supreme aim has been, not educational, but evangelistic. The Bible has been the baEis, and thE.' effort has been to put the Bible within the reach of every family in their own vernacular. In this endeavor we have always had the most generous and hearty co·.operation of the American and the British and Foreign Bible societies. A degree of education wan necessary in order to make the Bible available to the masses, for very few of the men and none of the women throughout the country knew how to read; so, wherever the missionary has gone, schools of a simple character have been opened, with the primary' object of enabling people to read the Bible. With the same object great efforts have been made to persuade adults to learn to read, and with the most gratifying results. Everybody who learns to read is sure to procure a Bible, or at least a New Testament. The missionary ladies experienced no little difficulty at first in persuading women to learn to read. Women were supposed to have inferior minds, and the art of reading was considered to be a prerogative of the male sex. Those who first made the attempt met opposition at home and ridicule abroad, but experience soon demonstrated the fact that a Bible in the hands of a woman gave her a new sense of personal dignity and worth, and by exalting her to a higher plane transformed her home. The ability to read is no longer a reproach to a woman, but those who cannot read are ashamed to confess their ignorance. No result of the missionary work thus far is more gratifying and more clearly proves its genuineness than the change wrought among the women, and through them upon their homes. The agency of the women's boards, in co-operation with the American Board, since their organization, twenty-five years ago, is one of the most potent factors in the regeneration of the land.
The training of men for the ministry is one of the first things to engage the missionary'S attention. From among his converts he selects those who are most apt to teach-young men of considerable maturity-and after a few months of study, mostly biblical, sends them out to teach and preach during the winter, to re.turn for further study during the summer months. These men become pioneers. The first pastors were from this class after a three or four years' training. With the advance of intelligence in t11e congregations, the course of theological study has advanced, and these early classes developed into regularly organized theological seminaries, of which there are five. The Eastern Turkey Mission has two, one being located at Mardin, in which the instruction is given in Arabic, that being the language of that part of the country.
Mter the foundations were fairly laid the character of the schools was improved. They have been graded and adapted to the growing intelligence of the people-the people assuming the responsibility, with some aid for a time from missionary fund". The schools are no longer a distinctively mIssIOnary agency. The Bible is daily taught in them, and it thus finds its way into many families, and aids in the work of evangelization, but that is not any longer the primary aim. They are adjusted to the needs of these new communities, and designed to prepare the young for the duties of life just as in Christian countries. In the four Turkish missions-European, Western, Central, and Eastern-there are about four hundred common schools with some sixteen thousand pupils.
The improvement of the common schools created the necessity for a few high schools at central points for the preparation of teachers and the giving of a preparatory training to some of the brightest youth looking to other professions. The development along this line has been such as to demand colleges for both sexes. Christian civilization requires educated leaders, and the desire to furnish such, along with the growing thirst among the people for higher education, has led to the opening of a male and a female college in each one of the four missions aside from Robert College, at Constantinople, which is an independent institution. Connected with these higher schools are twenty-four hundred pupils, of whom nearly eleven hundred are girls-a body of young people who are destined to be a blessing to the land. These schools have awakened an enthusiasm for education which has sometimes excited the fear that the evangelistic work might be o-ershadowed by it, but special pains are taken to keep the .Gospel everywhere at the front. The daily study of the Bible is a part of the programme of everyone of these schools from the highest to the lowest. An, education that is not thoroughly Christian is a doubtful benefit to the individual or the nation.
The changes, material and moral, which have been wrought in Turkey during the last sixty years have been many and significant. To claim them all as the -result of missions would not be honest. Something is due to the spirit of the age and to the influence of European civilization, which have helped to stir the sluggish Orient, although those influences are not always beneficial. It is easy to see, however, that all that is best in these developments is the direct fruit of the Gospel. It has awakened the mind, introduced Christian education, begotten enterprise, elevated woman, regenerated the home, sanctified the Sabbath, created a higher tone of busi· ness morality, and, in general, it has given an impulse to society in the direction of a higher civilization.
The missionary work ought to be in a condition to be transferred before many years to the native churches, but there are obstacles to the realization of this plan, some of which will be enumerated.
1. Independence requires leaders and administrators. There are some who are fitted to take the control of such a work, but they are few. The Protestant churches are doing a noble missionary work in Koordistan, but they have not yet gained tIle experience nor risen to the exigency of carrying forward the evangelical work of the country without help. There is also a strong tide of emigration to America, which takes some of the most energetic of our young men; and some of the ablest are drawn into business and into other professions. The whole number of missionaries is sixty-two males and one hundred and sixteen females. This number is likely to be diminished, and as fast as possible responsibility will be passed over to the churches and their leaders.
2. A hindrance of no small account is the poverty of the people. A preliminary to independence is self-support. In few fields has self-support had an earlier recognition or been more faithfully pressed. Not a few of the churches have attained to complete independence. The Protestants raise for all purposes nearly $60,000 annually, still the majority of the congregations are utterly unable to assume the entire support of their preachers and teachers. The country is poor. European armaments compel Turkey to maintain a large standing' army and an expensive navy.·; The expenses of the government are great, and taxation is extremely burdensome. Protestants have shown not a little enterprise, but it is difficult, to introduce any new industry. The Orient does not take readily to new things, and the Government does very little to help them forward, but, on the contrary, seeks help from them for the treasury.
3. The hope of a reformation in the Gregorian Church restrains many from joining the Protestant movement. The Bible has been widely circulated and read. Its truths are becoming well known, and while the rites of the Church are maintained, the errors and superstitions of former days are intellectually renounced. It is, perhaps, safe to say that the majority of the Armenians are orthodox in belief, and that is their snare. They are contented with a right belief. They say, "We no longer trust to rites and good works for salvation. Christ is the only Saviour. We believe as you do," etc. Many of the Protestants are too much of the same mind. Too many of them feel that this confession on the part of their Armenian neighbors is enough, therefore they do not labor for them. There is some reason to hope that a genuine reform may take place at some time in the Gregorian Church so deep and thorough that the Protestants may return to it, especially if the truth which is known and confessed shall be vivified by the Holy Spirit; but at present there is a spiro itual deadness which causes multitudes to be satisfied with a formal confession of the truth and a partial rectification of conduct.
4. Another serious obstacle is the attitude of the Government and its co-religionists. This is a point upon which, for obvious reasons, it is not expedient to speak very freely. For ·many years the Government was indifferent, and the Mohammedamt generally looked with a degree of favor upon Protestantism as an improvement upon any other Christian system with which they were acquainted. There is no more loyal class in the country than the Protestants, and governors of the provinces and other high officials have frequently acknowledged it; and they have said that the spread of Protestantism is a public benefit. Of late years, however, Protestant growth in intelligence and manhood has become an occasion for SUspICIon. Islam had its birth in the seventh century, and it retains the character of the country and the time of its birth, and it has come to look upon vital Christianity as a serious menace.
Despite these and many other hindrances such as are found in all missionary fields there can be no doubt of the genuineness of the Christianity which is now being revived in its ancient home. The truth has taken deep root. The leaven is widely spread, and it is silently doing its work. The Christian Church needs to have a deep sense of its own great privilege and opportunity, and to manifest it by more liberal gifts and more fervent prayer.
THE YEA.R IN JA.PAN. '737
THE YEAR IN JAPAN.
BY REV. GEORGE WILLIAM KNOX, D.D., TOKYO, IAPAN.
For the year past Japan has been at peace-nature, society, missions undisturbed by calamities and unexcited by great events. Without severe earthquakes, convulsions, or struggles, the quiet routine of common life, in contrast to other years, offers little material for reports. A few weeks ago, however, two dormant volcanoes exploded, giving evidence that the seismic forces are not yet extinct; and there have not been wanting indication that forces which may convulse society are only quiescent.
Politic8.-The long political struggle grows confused and tedious. In the winter the strife between Diet and Government, the representatives of the people and the ruling oligarchy, reached an acute stage. The end of parliamentary government-such measure as we have-seemed at hand, when the Emperor appeared, deUit ex machina. He told the Government to mend its ways, economize, and accept the reforms proposed by the Diet. The Diet he commanded to cease its encroachments upon the imperial prerogative and its unreasonable obstruction, and to adopt a policy of peace and work. Government and Diet bowed their acknowledgments, accepted the decision, and worked for the remaining days of the session in harmony, none able to determine who was victor. Parliamentary government has made distinct advance. The device was worthy the veteran statesman who planned it, and served his turn, but it cannot be repeated. The Emperor cannot enter often the domain of party politics, even as umpire.
Agriculture and Oommerce.-Seed.time and harvest have not failed; earth, air, and sea have brought forth abundantly after their kinds. New manufactures are introduced; railway and ship-building increase; foreign commerce advances with leaps and bounds, and never before was Japan so prosperous. But with increase of wealth comes increase of sorrow. The cost of living constantly increases, luxuries become necessaries, tho struggle for existence grows fiercer, and the old Japan, the lotus-eating Japan, fades away. We hear of " sweating," of cruelly long hours of work and cruelly small rates of pay, of a growing discontent and of strikes. One half comes to believe that modern civilization costs too much, and there is a growing, oppressive sense of weariness, of the monotony of life as we see Japan struggling with our selfsame problems and conditions.
Japanese and Foreigners.-Until Japan has its way in treaty revision this heading must be continued. And the trouble nowadays is that Japan does not know what it wants. The politicians cannot agree as to the bargain they would drive, nor as to who shall have the glory of settling this troublesome affair. As everyone knows, foreigners are confined by treaty to a limited area around seven open ports, and even in the open ports can hold real estate only in small districts c~lled " concessions." But years ago the Japanese began to give passports permitting travel" for healtli or scientific purposes." The objects specified were mere forms from the start, and foreigners traversed every part of the empire in pursuance of such objects as they pleased, and now tourists by thousands and residents by hundreds take passports as matter of course, almost forgetting that they are of grace. The Government further modified the strict reqnirements of the treaties. Foreigners in government employment were permitted to reside outside of the " concessions," and soon foreigners in the employment of individual Japanese. Whereupon any foreigner could live where he choose, and a Japanese employer was never wanting, one's own cook or other employe serving in double capacity if other arrangements failed.
The Missionary Oonscimce.-Certain missionaries had a hard time with conscience. They desired to go on preaching tours, but did not wish passports for" purposes of health;" and they wished to live in the interior, but did not fancy employment without wages and by individuals in their own pay. A few missionaries have held out all these years, never going on evangelistic tours and dwelling in the" concessions." But the " con· cessions" have missionaries to spare; and the majority live as " employes" in other parts of Japan, thus accepting the situation, and funy assured that conscience has nothing now to say.
. Government Oonsent.-And on the whole they make out their case. Not only has the Government treated its own requirements as empty forms, but the men who have ruled Japan, and whose interpretation was final, have assured us that the situation was understood, and that they had not the smallest objection. And when the local police have interfered with meetings, the central authorities have issued orders that the missionaries be protected. So, too, the Government itself has issued the permits for residence in the interior, and in some has stated that the employer pays no salary, and that the object is the teaching of religion. One step further has been tamen. When foreigners live permanently in the interior, they wish their own dwellings, as desirable houses are very few. And it has been as easy to own a house in the name of a Japanese as it is for Englishmen to own real estate in the name of Americans in the United States. The Government tacitly has permitted this, and government officials have loaned their names freely for the accommodation of foreign friends. Though conscience and the Government are silent, popular agitators find enough to say : "No wonder the treaties are not revised! The foreigners have all they want. They travel throughout the empire, buy the choice spots in our most famous resorts and build villages on mountains and by the seaside. Confine them to the ' concessions' and the ' treaty limits,' and they will soon come to terms." These men overlook three points: that Japanese politics, and not foreign obstinacy, prevent revision; that foreign governments are little influenced by the petty inconveniences of these communities in the Far East· and that foreigners are not made friendly by a restriction of their privileges. But the treatment of the Chinese in the United States does not incline one to sharp criticism of anti-foreign agitation in the East.
The Possible Results of the Agitation. -Probably the agitation will come to naught-possibly it may succeed. Should it succeed, foreign missionary operations will be contracted violently. The" concessions" have not room enough, nor the" treaty limits" work enough, for one half the missionaries here. And however improbable this result may be, it should be considered when schemes for large re-enforcements are broached. Our legal rights are of the narrowest; all else is of "mere good will," and the favors now enjoyed are attacked by political agitators.
Professor lnoue.-Leaving .these remote and problematical results we may study more palpable effects. Whatever anti-foreign feeling exists is accentuated, and so far forth the difficulties of the missionary increase. Christianity is no longer advocated as the" best religion" as in former years, nor are the native faiths longer despondent. Even Shinto has put itself forward as the special guardian of patriotism and loyalty, and makes much of the refusal of certain prominent Christians to do homage to the imperial photograph j and Buddhism has entered upon an active campaign, seeking to re-establish itself as the national religion. Even men who profess no faith find occasion of offence in Christianity, and this by no means because of the peculiar doctrines of the cross. Professor Inoue has distinguished himself by a violent attack upon our faith. He is of the staff of the Imperial University, and is known throughout Japan. He studied for several years in Germany, and has some knowledge of many things. He found Christianity to be injurious to patriotism and filial piety. He published his articles in seven leading journals and then in book-form, finding a multitude of readers in every part of the land. The Buddhists adopted the book at once and purchased many copies. Quite a literature has sprung up around this book. The Christian scholars (Japanese) were not slow in coming to the defence, and found many vulnerable points. In fact, Professor Inoue had been so hasty and had made so many blunders that he lost much influence and reputation. The leading journals recognized that he had the worst of it j and the professor himself pleaded for suspension of judgment until he could review his facts. The immediate result of this controversy has been to strengthen the Christians and to attract again popular attention to Christianity. It has shown the Japanese Christians to be fully able to hold their own against the strongest men wlo enter the lists. At the same time we are not to forget that this is only an episode, and that the conflict is great. Christianity is not to be borne to victory by a great popular movement, but is to win its way by its inherent truth and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Annual Meeting of the Oongregational Ohurches.-The annual meeting of the Congregational churches was held in Tokyo in April, and took advanced position as to the relations of the Japanese Christians to the mIssIonaries. The value of their labors in tho past was fully recognized and the desire expressed for their continuance. But many of the leaders advocated a most radical change. It was urged that the present relations emphasize the foreign element, and are a distinct element of weakness. The Church should become thoroughly Japanese. Everyexpression in the reports of the mission that seem to claim the results attained as its own should be expunged ; indeed, the mission should not issue a report at all, but the report should be the product of the Church. The mission as an organized body should cease to exist, the missionaries throwing in their lot with the Japanese, claiming no special rights or privileges, accepting such places as might be assigned them by the Church and serving on committees only as elected. The funds contributed in the United States should be given, not to the mission, but to the committees of the Church. To accomplish these results the form of government of the churches should be more centralized. This programme was advocated in the denominational press with fervor; but the annual meeting was not ready to go so far. It merely drew a plain line of distinction between independent and mission churches, giving the former, only, the right of membership in the annual meeting. The plan for the control of the missionaries was not even introduced, and had no chance of adoption, but a long step was taken in the direction of putting the strong churches and the strong men by themselves and leaving the weaker congregations to the foreigners and under a tacit reproach. No other mission in Japan, perhaps none in the world, has gone so far in the bestowal of full rights and dignities upon the native brethren as the mission of the A. B. C. F. M. All that can be implied by the word co-operation, all that is implied in dealing with the Japanese as brethren, has been adopted designedly. The mission has put its great school in Kyoto fully into Japanese control and gives large amounts of money to the Board of Missions of the churches. The result does not seem altogether satisfactory j and some outsiders think the policy of concession bas been carried too far.
Mission Polity.-Three forms of mission polity are proposed: Mission control, co-operation, Japanese control. Each has its advantages, its disadvantages, its advocates and its opponents. The first–mission controlhas attractions for many missionaries. It is simple, appears reasonable, in some circumstances may be strong, and in the beginning is inevitable. The missionary is at the head of the enterprise, and has the funds. While foreign money is used the foreigner must control, is the motto. The funds are entrusted to the missionary j he is responsible for their expenditure, and this responsibility he cannot give to another. Besides, the missionary by heredity, by education, by long experience is better able to direct and lead. When the native Christians by and by have gained a similar education and experience, above all, when they are able to pay for their churches, pastors, schools, and missions, they shall control and be welcome. And even now, so far as they pay, let them rule, and in purely ecclesiastical affairs they may decide, but must not touch the sacred pur~e strings. This polity insists too much on the purse, as if it were the efficient and all-important factor in the founding of the Church. It puts foreigner and mission to the front and gives the Church the air of an imported institution. In so far as the control is effective, it does make the Church foreign and affronts self-respecting and patriotic men. It often leads to great errors when foreign ideas and plans arc enforced. It causes friction endlessly, and subjects the missionary to constant and severe criticism. It obliges too large a proportion of the missionary force to tend tahles and argue accounts. It does nothing toward training the Church to undertake its full respousibility. It insists that the latest comer, if a foreigner, is more worthy of power than the most experienced native. It is possible only while the Church is weak or its members dependent, and its reward for self-support is entire freedom from missionary influence. The policy of co-operation would meet these disadvantages. It puts foreigner and native on a level. They are brethren in the Church and in the control of affairs. There is to be equality in position and in power. The Church contributes to its own support.and to the evangelIstic work; the mission contributes to the same end, and the common fund is administered by joint committees and boards. The full foreign representation is the guarantee to the Church in the United States that its funds are well employed; and the full Japanese representatIOn, that the native wishes, views and experience shall have full weight. The Church is trained to responsibility and to liberality. It is prepared for the day when it shall stand alone, while the foreigner enters into the Church life and has fair field for snch influence as his experience and qualities rightfully command. The policy has its difficulties. It demands mutual respect and self-respect. It is not easy for men of different races to co-operate. To submit to majority rule is difficult at home, it becomes still more so when the majority is of another race and color. Patience, mutual love, and confidence, a willingness to overlook small differences, to sacrifice minor points of opinion to larger and higher ends, the ability to see both sides of questions, and the resolute determination to put aside prejudice and suspicion are.requisite to success. As the missionary claims the longer Christian experience, and the richer, perhaps, it becomes him in fullest measure to manifest these gifts, the special graces of the Spirit who inspires the Church. The third theory makes the missionary an employe, unpaid, it is true, but none the less at the direction of the Japanese. They control and he obeys. He is to have no part in the direction of affairs, but must occupy the position of foreigners hired by the imperial Government. The theory is interesting as showing what demands are possible. Were it agreed to, missions would disband; half, perhaps more, of the force would be sent home, and the missionaries who should remain would be exceptional men of peculiar temperament. It is a demand in reality for the continuance of foreign funds and the withdrawal of foreign missionaries.
THE CHURCH OF ABYSSINIA
The Year's Work.-The work has gone on in quietness, with greater interest and greater gains than for several years. The churches have wholly emerged from the period of theological doubt and discussion and are more conservative than ever before. Evangelists, pastors and people are preaching the Gospel with renewed earnestness. If there is not to be a national movement comparable to that of a few years ago we may at least hope for constant and substantial progress.
The Self-support of the Ohurches.-Comparatively little advance has been made in self·support for some years. The reasons are obvious. Japan passed through a period of severe financial depresRion, and before it was gone came the anti-foreign reaction, and this was followed by a period of doubt and coldness in the Ohurch. It may b~, too, that the missionaries have lost their early zeal. There are indications, however, of reviving interest in this subject among Japanese and foreigners.
Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn.-From the beginning Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn have been our representative missionaries. They arrived in Japan in 1859, when it was first opened to foreigners, and when the way hither was still by sailing vessel around the Cape. They shared in all the difficulties of the early years. One young man took service in Dr. Hepburn'S household with intention to kill him, but was won from his purpose by the Christian life he saw. And thr6ugh all these years more precious than all else, than the abundant and successful labors as physician, lexicographer, translator, and evangelist, has been the constant manifestation of the Spirit of Christ. We may well rejoice that Dr. Hepburn has been the representative missionary to Japan. The final departure of Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn was the signal for an unparalleled demonstration from the whole community. These missionaries at least have won the respect and love of all, and all united in showing gratitude and esteem.
THE CHURCH OF ABYSSINIA.
BY PROFESSOR GEORGE H. SOHODDE, PH.D., COLUMBUS, O.
In these days, when the old question quid novi ex Africa is re-ecnoed In an entirely new sense, and the evangelization of the Dark Continent is the aim and ambition of aggressive Christian mission enterprise, it is of special interest to remember that there is yet one national Christian church in Africa, namely, the Abyssinian. Of all the remnants and reo mains of the once so powerful Christianity of the Oriental nation, and particularly of the African continent, of which St. Augustine, Cyprian, TertuIlian, aud others are historic monuments, the Abyssinian is the only one that has been able to maintain its national and characteristic individuality. Singularly enough, it has attracted but little attention on the part of Western Christianity; and the rejuvenation of the petrified formalism of the Abyssinian Church into a living and life-giving evangelical communion has among Protestants enlisted the energies of only a few English and German missionaries, and in recent times of a Swedish society. The Jesuits began work there already in the sixteenth century and managed even to set one of their own puppets on t,he throne j but a reaction came, and the expulsion of the Fathers followed, who were not admitted again until in recent years. According to the Catholic writer Munzenberger, himself a Jesuit, in his" Abyssinnien," there are now in that country thirty native Catholic priests, assisted by eleven priests of the Lazarist congregation under the direction of Bishop Crouzet. The principal station is at Keren. Here, too, there is a seminary with sixty pupils studying the Ethiopic and Latin languages together with theology. There are also in Abyssinia eight Catholic schools-six for boys and two for girls. Statistics of Protestant success are not obtainable, but progress has been made, and both the people and their church deserve much more attention on the part of Christian mission workers than they are receiving. This their character, history, and status abundantly demonstrate.
The Armenian, the Syrian, the Coptic, and other Oriental churches have almost been wiped out by the Moslem conquerors. The few thousands of Armenian Christians that are scattered through the Turkish and Persian .empires-the Copts in Egypt, the Thomas Christians in India-these and communions like these are the mere remains and ruins of former greatness and a sad reminder of what was lost to Christianity and civilization by the success of the Mohammedan propaganda of the sword and false doctrine. The Abyssinians, the modern representatives of the Ethiopians of history, are the only Eastern Christians that in their national existence have not been crushed by the Mohammedans. Against fearful odds the mountaineers of the " Switzerland of Africa," as Ethiopia is often called, maintained a struggle for life and death with the fanatical defenders of Islam. The latter were able to crowd back the Christians of Southeastern Europe to the very gates of Vienna, and the Christians of Southwestern Europe to the north and east of France, yet they could not wipe out the Abyssinians, which they have been trying to do for more than a thousand years. The latter still stand as the only non-barbarian people of the African continent that did not yield to the arms of the false prophet of Mecca.
This unique historical p~ominence is in accord with pedigree, origin, and character. In all these respects they are unlike the other peoples of the Dark Continent. They belong to the Semitic family of peoples, the same to which also the Jews, the Arabs, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and other nations who have been powerful factors aRd determining forces in the early history of the human race. In fact, they are the only member of this family that as a nation has adopted Christianity. It will ever remain one of the strange phenomena of history that Christianity sprang out of Semitic soil, but has found its greatest adherence among the Aryan peoples. The Syrians were Semitic, but Christianity was never their national religion. It thus became literally true that Shem has dwelled in the tents of Japhet j the spiritual inheritance of Shem has pased into the possession of -Japhet. The history of Abyssinia is almost entirely of a religious character. Of the times prior to the introduction of Christianity in the days of Athanasius but little is known. Only in recent times has a German traveller, Glaser, found in Southem Arabia a number ofinscriptions showing that in early times the Abyssinians were settled in that country. This perfectly agrees with the fact that the Abyssinian language is more closely allied to the Arabic than to any other branch of the Semitic tongues, and also with the tradition of the Abyssinians, who prefer to call themselves "Geez"-i.e., which means both" immigrants" and" free." In this way it can be seen that in reality the Abyssiniaus are not" Ethiopians" at all-e.g., they are not black. Calling the blacks of Africa" Ethiopians" is only another specimen of lucult a non lucendo. The Ethiopians being, with the exception of the Egyptians, the only African people known to the classical writers, the name was gradually applied to all the peoples of the African continent. In reality the Abyssinians are an Aryan people, as much so as the Greeks or Romans or the modern Europeans and Americans. They are coffee-colored, but in appearance and characteristic traits everywhere betray the Aryan.
The making of the Abyssinian nation is entirely the work of Christianity, and that, too, of Greek Christianity. It was not Greek culture or philosophy or civilization in themselves that in the fourth century brought the Ethiopians of antiquity on the stage of history. It was Greek Christianity that did this. Although geographically nearest to Egypt, that classic country has seldom had any influence for good on its southern neighbor. Of the venerable civilization of the land of Pharaoh, with its pyramids, temples, and cities, there is no sign to be found in the whole country of Abyssinia. The Christianization of this country almost at as early a date as it became the established religion of the Roman Empire has determined the whole history and national development of this people. Abyssinian history is really in sense and substance a chapter in Oriental church history, and a very interesting chapter at that. The religious element that began the process in the establishment of Ethiopia as a nation has been the controlling factor all along, and has been the decisive element in the national character. Divorced from religion, Abyssinia has never known any civilization or literature. Certain national peculiarities, such as the observance of the seventh as well as the first day of the week j the practice of circumcision as well as of baptism j long seasons of fasts j adherence to the laws of meats as found in the Old Testament law, as also the existence of a peculiar class of black Jews (the Falashas)-of whom there are about two hundred thousand in Abyssinia, but who at one time in the history of the people had managed to secure the throne, and who by descent actually belong to the Ethiopic race-all these things would point to a Jewish period before the Christian, in Abyssinia. But aside from the st~ut demals of the native writers, there are no positive evidences that these are more than national peculiarities, inheritances from the old Semitic family of peoples, as it is well known that some of these-such as the Sab. bath observance-was found also among non·Jewish Semites-e.g., the Babylonians.
The precise period of the introduction of Christianity into Abyssinia has also exerted a decisive influence on them and their history. It was the first century after Christianity had become the accepted religion of the empire, the age of controversies on theological and christological subjects. It was not yet the period when a highly developed culture and civilization went hand in hand with the new faith, when grand churches and basilicas were built, and when literature, the sciences, and the arts had adjusted themselves to the new state of affairs and had thrown off allegiance to the Greek and Roman ideals and had become imbued with the new spirit. Before that formative era of controversy was over Abyssinia had already severed its connection with the Greek Church and the Greek world of thought. The Synod of Chalcedon, in 451, condemned the monophysitic doctrines of the Egyptian churches, and with this act the Christian churches of that country and of Abyssinia withdrew from the Church at large. About two centuries later Mohammedanism conquered Egypt, and thus separated the Abyssinian people externally also from all the other nations with whom they had been in any connection or spiritual union.
These facts explain much that is seemingly enigmatical in the history and character of the Abyssinian Church. First, the self.imposed and then the enforced isolation of the peoples on account of that very thing which entered most largely into their national development, namely, their reo ligion, naturally made them all the more zealous in preserving at least the outward forms of their historic worship and Christianity. The conserva· tism, naturally so deeply implanted in the Semitic peoples, proved a most effective assistant and agent for the process of spiritual petrifaction. Ac· cordingly, we have in the Abyssinians of to-day virtually a petrified Greek Christianity of the fourth and the fifth centuries. The outward forms, litur· gies, dogmas, and ceremonies have been handed down from century to century uninfluenced by the development that has been going on in the civilized world and in the Church elsewhere during all these long years. The spiritual element in the religion of the Abyssinian Church is gone; it is now mere formalism. The hull and shell of Christianity is certainly there ; the kernel, the life has departed.
These facts furnish us with the data intelligently to judge of the mission problem and prospects presented by this unique people and Church. Naturally the former is not an easy one. The work to be done is to intro. duce into the forms of Christianity obtaining in Abyssinia the real spiro itual life of the Gospel. Protestant mission societies have felt this to be the case, and have labored in this direction as much as they could, but against terrible odds. Again and again have they been driven from the country by the "Christian" rulers of the land, because in the nature of' the case they were compelled to antagonize the claims, tenets, and teachings of the national Church. It will be remembered that the English campaign under Lord Napier in 1855 was to rescue the missionaries which had been imprisoned by that barbaric genius, King Theodorus II. The beginnings of Protestant work both among the Christian Abyssinians and among the Falashas dated from 1830, when the British Society sent out Samuel Gobat, who afterward became the famous Anglo-Prussian Bishop of Jerusalem, to labor in that historic land of Abyssinia. He was followed by Krapf and Isenberg, who did much to secure for Abyssinia an evangelical literature, disposing of more than eight thousand Bibles ltmong the people. These three are the leading names among the Protestant pioneers in this land, while others, such as Sterns, have ably assisted, the last-mentioned laboring almost exclusively among the Black Jews. The most successful among the succession of this first generation of Protestant missionaries was Martin Flad, who has been several times banished, and now, in nis extreme old age, lives in Wurtemberg, in Germany, still directing from there as much as possible the mission work among the native Falashas. Swedish gospel messengers have in recent years been admitted to this field by King Menelik under certain restrictions, but as yet they have not been able to report gi'eat progress. Several hundred Falasha converts have proved faithful to the Gospel preached to them by Flad and others, and now and then letters come to this venerable worker from the native helpers showing that in spite of persecutions they are still faithful to the Gos-' pel they have learnea to love. Within the Jast few years two most interesting and touching letters of this kind from the native helper, Michael Argavi, have been published in various mission journals, in which instances of fidelity to the faith once delivered to the saints are recorded that well-nigh equal those narrated in the books of the Maccabees.
Certainly people and prospects like these should prove peculiarly attractive to zealous mission workers. To rebuild on historic Christian ground the Church of God is an enterprise well worth the prayer and energy of evangelical Christendom. The Abyssinians are a noble people even in their present low religious and spiritual condition; but with a revived and life-giving Christianity they could become a power in the Dark Continent for the Gospel cause and a truly evangelical Christian Abyssinia, and become possibly the best basis of operation for the hosts of Christian workers going out conquering and to conquer throughout the length and breadth of Africa.
Dr. George E. Post suggests a providential purpose in the existence of the Coptic, Armenian, Nestorian. A.byssinian churches. Mohammedanism, like a vast arch, stretches from eastern China to western Africa; and the location of these remnants of ancient Oriental churches hints a Divine plan: that, revivified by the Holy Spirit, they shall help to permeate surrounding peoples with the gospel.-A. T. P.
THE EVANGELIZATION OJ<' ARABIA
THE EVANGELIZATION OF ARABIA.
BY REV. S. M. ZWEMER, BAHREIN ISLAND, ARABIA.
" And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are these aU thy children 1"-1 Sam. 16 : 11. " And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham."-Luke 19: 6.
Arabia, like ancient Gaul, is divided into three parts, Petrea, Deserta, and Felix. As is the land, so has been its history. The caravan trade, which brought all the wealth of Ormuz and Ind to the marts of the West, left large blessing on the desert and made Arabia commercially happy, for, as Sprenger naively puts it, "The history of early commerce is the history of incense," and the land of incense was Arabia. When commerce left the land and chose the sea, the entire peninsula suffered and became, in a sense, deserta. And when Islam triumphed it petrified.
Christianity in Arabia has had only two short chapters; the first is completed, the second has not yet been written full. The first tells of a superstitious, almost pagan, form of Christianity in Yemen, before the advent of Mohammed. The second is the story of Christian missions in Arabia. The first is faithfully chronicled in that rare and interesting volume, Wright's" Essay on Early Christianity in Arabia" (1855). It is our purpose now to sketch the geography of Arabia in its relation to missions, give an outline of what has been done by missions, and present these facts as a plea.
Physical Arabia is as wonderful in its diversity as is the opinion of modern critics on the ethnology of its peoples. In the Far North and along the Mesopotamian valley there are vast fertile plains covered in winter with luxuriant grass, on which flocks of sheep pasture. Brilliant with flowers in spring, all dries dead when the rains cease; then, too, the nomads fold their tents and steal away. Central Arabia is a tableland two to four thousand feet above sea level, rocky and barren for the most part, and again adapted to pasture and hcrds or the date palm. The Western coast begins with lofty Sinai and extends to the volcanic rocks that give Aden strength. It is, however, low, hot, rainless, and, but for a few oases, nearly barren. The interior rises to become mountainous and desolate, as near Jiddah and Yenbo, or mountainous, well-watered, fertile, and densely populated, as in Asir and Yemen. At Jiddah the highest inland peaks are only two days' journey; from Hodeida it takes six days' climb for mules and ten for camels to reach Sanaa, the capital.
The Southern coast line resembles the Western, but is altogether more fcrtile ; from Aden to Makallah the country inland produces tobacco, coffee, and gums; from Shehr to Muscat the interior }s least known ; but Arabs from Sur tell me it is fertile and populous ; here was the Regio Libanotofera, the incense country of antiquity, and to-day the best maps even write Roba El Khaly (the empty place) to conceal ignorance! North of Muscat the coast stretches in rocky heights past Ras Mussendom, Katar, and the pearl islands of Bahrein. EI Hassa has low, moist ground where rice grows, hot springs, ancient ruins, and is altogether a remarkable province. From the mouth of the Tigris-Euphrates to the city of Bagdad the land is blessed with wealth of palms, barley, and wheat. Arabia is not wholly a desert, nor is it deserted. The exact population is unknown. Albrecht Jehm, the best authority I know, estimates as follows in his book, " Arabian seit hundert Jahren j" it will be noticed that he excludes the Euphrates valley in his summary : Yemen and Asir ……••••.•••••………. 2,252,000 Hadramaiit…•….•… , .•••••••••••.••… 1,550,000 Oman and Maskat.•.•••..•…•…•..•….. ] ,350,000 Bahrein, Katif … Nejd .. ,. ………… . 2,350,000 Hedjaz, Anaeze, Kasim, Jebel Shammar ..••.• 3,250,000 10,752,000 Arabia political is a problem on a chess-board waiting solution. The Wahabee game has been left unfinished, and others have tried their hand.
Sinai is Egyptian, and also the two hundred miles south of the Gulf of Abba. Hedjaz belongs to the Turk, and he also grasps (not holds) Yemen, Asir, El Hasa, and Irak. All the rest of Arabia yields neither I love, Qbedience, nor tribute to the Sublime Porte. The oppressed tribes of Upper Yemen were recently crushed into submission, but do not de- * spair of future revolution. El Hassa frets like an Arab steed under the yoke of taxation, and Mecca itself dictates at times to the power behind the throne in Constantinople. t The tribes near Aden and the entire South coast, including Muscat, are in one way or other under subsidy or " pro- tection" of the English, who rule the gulf and have a voice at Busrah and Bagdad. Wide, wild Nejd bends to the iron sceptre of that greatest Arab of our day, Ibn Rasheed, the Ameer of Jebel Shommar. For the rest, nomads roam the free desert, acknowledging no sultan save their sword; they hold the parliament of war or peace in the black tents of Kedar.
Thus, within the last fifty years have the schisms of Islam, the turmoil of nomad rebellion, and the diplomacy of English commerce burst the bar- riers of the land of Ishmacl for the all-conquering son of Isaac j the very cradle of Islam is almost unveiled for the herald of the cross.
The strategic points for mission effort in Arabia must, from the nature of the case, be first on the coast, and they are six cities-Jeddah, Aden, Makallah, Muscat, Bahrein, and Busrah. Each of these has special claims as being the trade centre of a province, and each has peculiar advantages and therefore special plea for mission effort.
Says Doughty, thun whom there is no better authority on Arabia • See an article by W. B. Hllrris In Blackw(J()d"g for February, 1893. t Snouck, .. Hurgronje'a Mekl<a," Vol. I., 1888. Deserta : "All Nejd Arabia east of Teyma appertains to the Persian Gulf traffic and not to Syria j and therefore the f01·eign color of Nejd is Mesopotamian. " This statement leaves no question as to the importance of Busrah as a mission headquarters aside from the demonstration of its claim by the possibility and progress of work recently inaugurated there. Bahrein is under English protection, has a large population peculiarly friendly to foreigners, and has the largest import trade in the gulf. Mus_ cat is the key to Oman and Makallah to Hadramaiit. Aden is English, and has long since taken commercial prestige away from dead Mocha and bed-ridden Hodeida. H anywhere, then here there should be a strong evangelical mission for Europeans and natives lest the moral corruption of a Port Said be paralleled. Jiddah is the port of Mecca, and (listen again to Doughty) "Jiddah is the staple town of African slavery for the Turkish Empire-Jiddah where are .Frankish conSUlS-OR ALL THE MOSLEMIN * ARE LIARS." The italics are his own, and the statement is true.
Such is Arabia, and such are its natural gateways for good or ill. Where have missionaries been 1 Where has the Gospel entered 1 Where has it found foothold 1 Too brief is the answer, yet not without interest.
Long had the Holy Spirit of missions brooded over the face of this deep before God said: "Let there be light." Long did neglected Ara- bia wait, but the hour of her redemption is drawing nigh. Space forbids to give data and facts at length. J The British and Foreign Bible Society had sent colporteurs to Jiddah and opened a depot at Aden j the Church Missionary Society proposed a mission to the latter place, and the Baptists (English) to Jiddah about 1884. t But before these proposals were carried out Ion Keith Falconer begin his pioneer mission at Sheikh Othman (1885). Why the Scotch nobleman chose this centre for the work, what he did and suffered, and how he entered into glory, every student of missions has read in his memorials by Robert Sinker [Cambridge, 6th edition, 1890]' It is true that a Roman Catholic mission was founded at Aden in 1840, but the Keith Falconer Mission of the Free Church of Scotland was the pioneer of Protestant effort. Dr. and Mrs. Harpur came to Aden for the Church Missionary Society in 1886, afterward moved to Dhala, and again to Hodeida, but were obliged to withdraw some time later. In 1856 Rev. A. Stern had made a missionary journey to Sanaa in behalf of the Jews j an American sea captain is said to have carried Scriptures to Muscat annually on his voyages, and there may have been scattered effort before that time. We speak of organized work.
The appeal of Mackay from Uganda for a mission to the Arabs of Muscat (1889), and General Haig's report of his journeys in Southern and Eastern Arabia (1887) were two trumpet-calls to duty. Thomas V.lpy French responded to the first, and that broken box of exceeding precious … Arabia Deserta," Vol. II., pp. 167.
t See General Haig's Report in (Jl!urch Mi88iQnary Intelligencer, 1884. ointment was fragrant from Muscat to the whole missionary world. It was not what he accomplished, but what he purposed, that made the late Bishop of Lahore the Henry Martyn of Arabia. From America, though the paper of General Haig was unknown there, came the reply to the other call for the evangelization of Arabia. And it was a providential coincidence that one of the missionaries from America to Arabia journeyed with Bishop French to Aden and met General Haig with him at Suakin. The Arabian Mission was organized in 1889 ; its plan and purpose the readers of the MISSIONARY REVIEW know. At present the mission has its headquarters at Busrah and an out-station at Bahrein; in both places there is a Bible and book depot j work is openly carried on for Moslems, and we number three ordained missionaries and three native helpers. At Sheikh Othman are Rev. and Mrs. Gardner and Dr. Young, with one native helper; the mission has a dispensary and a school has been opened. At Aden is the depositary of the Hible Society, and Rev. Friedrich Grote, of the German Lutheran Church, is at present, I believe, working independently among the Bedouin of Sinai. This makes a total of seven missionaries and four native helpers for the whole of Arabia. What are these among so many ~ The most of the great doors of entrance yet unentered; the vast interior unoccnpied; and ten millions of people, WHO ARE NOT INAO- CESSIBLE, utterly neglected by the vast majority of Ohristians who believe in missions-neglected in the concert of prayer and in the consecration of men and means. If to the seed of Isaac, "to the Jew first," then surely to that other son of Abraham not last and least.
Ar.abia pleads for itself. The leadings of God's providence are the promptings of His Spirit. Must we plead with the Church not to resist the Holy Ghost 1 Darkness needs not to be further demonstrated, it mud be dispelled. Misery is its own plea. A religion of Islam without a Gethsemane can never have an Easter morning. The cross of Christ is the missing link in the Moslem's creed. Arabia pleads for men to witness for Christ; men full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; men, like James Gilmour of Mongolia, who can stoop to conquer, and who deem suffering the highest service. "Given the right men, and Arabia may be won for Christ. Start with the wrong men, and little will be accomplished." The Arab is of noble race-Anglo-Saxon of the Orient and unconquered lord of the desert. It is not hard to love him for his own sake ; it is the highest happiness to love and labor and live with him for Christ's sake. COllE OVER AND HELP us !
EVANGELICAL RUSSIA.
BY REV. P. Z. EASTON, PRINOETON, N. J.
Kiev is the holy city of the Russian land. Thither flock from all parts of the empire thousands' and tens of thousands of pilgrims. Even from the far-off Pacific shore come those who have made the long and weary journey wholly on foot. What is the secret of this wonderful attraction 1 Churches there are many and great, upon some of which have been lavished the treasures of the State, but this is true in a still higher degree of Mos- cow and even of St. Petersburg. Of wonder-working pictures and tom.bs of saints there is also here no monopoly. That which sets Kiev apart from all other cities of the Russian land, that from which it derives its peculiar glory, is tnat it is the birthplace of Russian Christianity.. There first the people, sitting in darkness, saw a great light; here lived and died the early martyrs of the faith j here first Christianity became the religion of the State. Its stately piles, its pillars, walls, and vaults, floored with gold, derive all their significance from the great deeds that have been done, the great triumphs that have been won in the first century and a half of Russian history. In vain, however, shall we seek in these ancient halls for anything corresponding with that which is here commemorated. The gold has become dim and the most fine gold changed. As with the brazen serpent, so here the memorials of Divine grace have become the instruments of superstition, and that which began in the Spirit has ended in the flesh. Nevertheless, we need not be discouraged. The new millennial of Russian history has also its signs and wonders, its manifestations of Divine power and grace, no less, perhaps more wonderful than those which marked the beginning of its history. Nor have we in this case far to go from these memorials of past triumphs. In travelling through Russia one of the things which cannot fail to strike the traveller's eye is the mean appearance which the villages uniformly present. Rows of wooden huts on either side of a wide street, one building only-the village churchgiving evidence of architectural design, is the spectacle which stands out before us. Nevertheless, these wooden huts, mean though they be in outward appearance; bare as regards what we esteem the common comforts of life, are in many cases invested with a peculiar sacredness which would justify the declaration of the patriarch, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven;" places where the presence .of the living God is realized as it was realized in the times of the apostles. Here, almost in the shadow of the stately churches of Kiev, meet together, under cover of the night, little bands of believers, peasant congregations of men anq women clad in coarse raiment, with hands hardened by toil, who have consecrated themselves to the service of God and seek to know and to do His will. Pressed under terrible persecution, shut off from all human aid, they hunger and thirst after that communion with the living God which alone can satisfy them and enable them to bear up under the load. Js it any wonder that under such circumstances the veil is rent, that men press forward, like Hezekiah, even into the inner sanctuary, that God's Word becomes no mere book, but the very oracles of God ~ Wonderful is the history of these humble Christians. Thirty years ago they were but a handful. At the time of the emancipation of the serfs less, perhaps, in number than the apostles. From that time on, the work began to spread in the same way as that recorded in the first chapter of St. John. As Andrew found Peter, and Philip, Nathanael, so, too, did these humble disciples find first one and then another, to whom they com- municated the truth. The ones became twos, and so the work went on, until in fifteen years Southern, especially Southwestern, Russia became dotted over with Stundist congregations, until in thirty years the small handful has become a mighty host, two hundred and fifty thousand strong, whose shadow, like a mighty tree, already covers the land. Such, in a word, is the history of the Stundist movement. This, however, is but one branch. Farther to the east and southeast we come upon an older body- the Molochans-which dates back nearly a hundred and fifty years. Their history, too, is much like that of the'Stundists. They, too, have come up out of great tribulation, and have held on their way despite all the efforts of the Government to crush them. Nay, both in the case of Stundist and Molochan we must acknowledge that the Government unwittingly has by its severe persecution been of essential service in deepening and strength- ening their faith, and by banishing them to the Caucasus, Turkestan, and Siberia, has done much to sow the good seed of the kingdom to the farthest limits of the empire. Turning now to the north, to the gay capital of the land, we find since 1874, even in Cresar's household, a band of devoted evangelical Christians, few in number, but not devoid of influence even in the highest circles.
How many avowed Russian evangelicals there are, leaving out all for- ei~ elements, is a difficult question to answer. There are those who estimate them by the millions. Five hundred thousand, perhaps, would come nearer the truth of the matter. This, however, while embracing all avowed evangelicals, would come far short of giving us anything like an estimate of the evangelical element, including only those who have come out of the pale of the Establishment. The Pashkoffites, the third party to which I have referred above, have not yet, I believe, formally separated themselves from the Established or State Church. Connected with them are others who have never identified themselves with the evangelical movement, but who are in such sympathy with it that they stand ready to aid it, so far as they can do so without compromising their official positions. These, . however, are but few in number, however great their political influence. Not so when we turn our eyes in another direction. The evangelical movement is emphatically a Bible movement. That is one thing which we cannot too much emphasize. We may sum it up in one word. The common people have found their long-lost Bible and are feeding upon it. It has come to them as a new revelation, and taken hold of them in an extraordinary manner, to which we can find no parallel this side of the Puritan Reformation in Eugland. There romances rob a man of his sleep; there the Word of God does the same. In a land wh~re less than a hundred years ago the Bible was so scarce that all the people for seventy miles around blew where a copy was to be found, to-day the British and Foreign Bible Society alone sells five hundred thousand copies yearly of that Word in whole or in piut, and during the past eighty years has put in circulation no less than nine million volumes of the Word of God. Not, therefore, in Southern Russia alone, or in the settlements of those banished for their faith, but everywhere throughout the Russian realm are found students of the Word, whose numbers are not to be counted by thousands but by millions. Plain, simple men for the most part, gathering together in dirty tea houses and other such places, gladly they hear the sacred Word and wonder at its gracious promises. To its influence they surrender themselves heart and soul, all unconscious that, in so doing, they are assuming a position of antagonism to anything in the Established order. Drawing their spiritual life from the Word of God, they at the same time practise all the rites and ceremonies which are imposed upon them by ecclesiastical authority. This state of things may go on for many years in case no demand is made upon them to choose one or the other side; but the entrance of God's Word giveth light. There comes a time in the experience of many when the scales fall from their eyes, and they no longer see men as trees walking, but all things clearly; and then there comes either fornal separation or, what is equivalent thereto, a consciousness that they must find the spiritual nourishment which they need outside the ecclesiastical organization with which they are connected. We see, therefore, that the evangelical influence is working as a mighty force under the whole fabric of Russian society, preparing the way for great and sudden changes, like those which transform its ice-bound rivers and snow-covered fields into flowing streams and summer verdure.
Another significant fact in this connection is that the evangelical movement is not a modern movement, but goes back to the very fountain-head of Russian, and, what is more, of Slavic Christianity, whose history dates back more than a century before the time of Vladimir. Not Vladimir, but Cyril and' Methodius, carrying the Word of God to the Slavic tribes on the Danube, are the real founders both of Slavic and of Russian Christianity. Already (900 B. c.) we find the bishopric of Russia; before 945 some, even of the nobles, are subject to the faith; 955 Queen Olga is baptized at Constantinople. Vladimir, therefore, finds Christianity already established in Russia. He, like Constantine, makes it the religion of the State, extends the field of its operations, but at the same time externalizes and corrupts it, making it that extraordinary mixture of Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism which it remains till this day, and which is the chief stumbling-block in the way of the union of the Slavic race.
We have now to call attention to a fact of even greater significance. Russian orthodoxy has held the field for nine hundred years; has, as it claims-and we may allow the claim-preserved the nation from destruc_ tion at more than one crisis in its history. Nevertheless, there is one thing which it has not done, there is one thing which it has utterly failed to do-viz., to develop and elevate the Russian people. No better system
'754 D. L. :MOODY AND IDS WORK
could have been devised to keep the people iu bondage, blind, passive instruments in the hands of arbitrary power both in Church and State j but now that a new state of things has arisen, and the call is no longer for slaves but free men, its impotence is manifest in the eyes of all men. Despised on the one hand by the revolutionary element as an antiquated superstition, on the other it is utterly unable to protect its proteges from the new temptations to which they are exposed on all sides. Where, then, shall help be found ~ The answer is not far to seek. The problem has already been solved. Even the enemies of evangelical Christianity, those who would persecute it to the death, are obliged to bear witness to the spleudid results which it has already wrought out in every sphere of human activity, regenerating, purifying, and transforming the Russian character in a marvellous manner. The idle man has become industrious j the drunkard, temperate j the licentious, chaste j the liar, truthful j the thief, honest j the dull, heavy and stupid, quick and intelligent. Family dwelling and community all bear witness to the transforming influence. Never has there been a finer illustration of the saying of our Lord: "If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." There is no room for argument, there is absolute demonstration that evangelical Christianity is for Russia and the Russian land, and for the whole Slavic race as well, the one progressive element which can surely lead it to the goal of all its hopes and aspirations j and, when we consider what there is to be thus transformed, even in Russia alone, that Colossus of the North, with its enormous extent of territory, its more than one hundred millions of people, its undeveloped resources, its central position as regards the double ,continent of Asia-Europe, its influence upon all surrounding peoples, how should we not lift up our hearts in prayer to God that all this power, and wealth, and influence which now is and which is to be may be consecrated to the service of God and truth, may be no longer a source of terror and dread to Western Christendom, but of joy and rejoicing. vVe live in times when days are years and years are centuries. Already along the Oriental horizon are heard the rumblings of what may prove to be the gathering of another storm of Oriental fanaticism and fury more destructive than any which have preceded. Laugh if we will, yet nevertheless it is the fact that the Orient still believes that it is called to be the spiritual ruler of the world. Well would it be for Christendom if, in such a case, the mad fanaticism of the Dervish hordes of the East should find in a regenerated Russia a bulwark against which it would beat in vain.
D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK.
BY REV. A. J. GORDON, D.D.
God chooses His own workers, and the prerogative of selecting them He never puts out of His own hands. While Moses is busy in getting the seventy appointed in the tabernacle, suddenly Eldad and Medad begin to prophesy in the camp. Thus, outside of ordination and beyond the cleri- cal inclosure, the voice of the Lord makes itself heard and Joshua protests in vain. So it is constantly under the old and new covenant alike-God puts His Spirit on whom He will and none can resist Him-.
Though Dwight L. Moody has been set apart by no council and has received no laying on of consecrating hands, he has yet exhibited such signs of an apostle that the whole Church of God has heard him gladly. How he began his Christian life and how he advanced step by step from the humblest to the highest Christian servIce is too well known to need rehearsing. Coming to Boston from his country home in Northfield to find employment, he was himself found by the Lord, and under the ministry of that gracious man of God, Dr. E. N. Kirk, he entered on his membership in the Christian Church. He was educated for the ministry by ministering in all ways and in all times to those needing help. We have heard him tell of his resolve, early made and persistently carried out, of allowing no day to pass without urging upon some soul the claims of Christ. Thus he learned to preach to the hundreds l>y preaching to the one. And no doubt much of the directness and point of his style is due to this habit of personal dealing WIth souls. In preaching it is easier to harangue a multitude than to hit a man. But he who knows how to do the latter has the highest qualification for doing the former. The personal preaching that has a "Thou art the man" at the point of every sermon needs only to be multiplied by one hundred or one thousand to become popular preaching of the best sort. This is the style of the eminent evangelist. ~ He deals with the personal conscience in the plaincst and most pungent Saxon, so that the common people Mar him gladly and the uncommon people do not fail to give him their ears. ;·.i Yet his power does not lie altogether in his words, but quite as much in his administrative energy. Robert Hall was a preacher of transcendent ,genius, often producing an impression upon his hearers quite unmatched. in the history of pulpit oratory. Yet the results of his ministry were comparatively meagre; he was a great preacher but not a great doer. On the contrary, John Wesley, by no means Hall's equal as a pulpit orator, because of his extraordinary executive gifts moved a whole generation with a new religious impulse. In like manner Spurgeon, by yoking a rare preaching talent with a not less remarkable working talent, and keeping the two constantly abreast, accomplished a ministry which for largeness of results and extent of influence has possibly no equal in recent centuries.
Mr. Moody is not an ordained minister, but he is more fortunate in being a preordained worker, as well as a foreordained preacher. A genius for bringing things to pass, a talent for organizing campaigns on a large scale, selecting co-workers with singular wisdom and placing them in the most advantageous positions-this is the notable thing which appears in the character and career of the evangelist. "The governor" is the name which we. constantly heard applied to the late pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, as he moved about among his congregation in London, a few years ago. The American evangelist easily wins for himself the title of "the general" among his fellow-laborers in the Gospel. He manages the campaign, not imperiously, mdeed, but with such Napoleonic command of the situation and such mastery of resources that all his co-laborers rejoice to yield him the pre-eminence.
We venture to say, indeed, that anyone who has been much at his headquarters will find here the greatest occasion for admiration. The number and extent of religious enterprises which he can keep in hand at once, the thoroughness with which he can command every detail, the inspiration and cheer which he can put into a great army of workers gathered about him-this we have observed with a surprise that increases every year.
And with all this there is another talent which we have learned to value more and more in public men-a grand talent for silence. It is a rare thing for one to be as effective in saying nothing as he is in speaking. When a friend of Von Moltke was asked the secret of that great general's success in managing men, he replied. " He knew how to hold his tongue in seven different languages." Blessed is the man who can refrain his lips from speaking injudiciously, and his mouth that it utter no hasty word. In dealing with co-laborers endowed with all sorts ,and sizes of tempers this is an indispensable requirement. To push on the work steadily meantime, giving offense to none and holding the forces in order and harmony, is a great achivement. It requires a wise silence as well as a positive utterance to do this successfully.
A mightily energetic man is here and a singularly prudent man, one who generates great force by his preaching and his personality, but who knows at the same time how to prevent hot boxes on his train of religious enterprises by avoiding friction, which imprudent speech always genders.
And versatility, as well as ability, is here supremely manifest. The evangelistic campaigns executed in Great Britain in three several periods and those carried on in various parts of America through many years would seem quite enough to tax the utmost energy of the evangelist. But as a kind of recreation and by-work he has planted and developed his schools, with some 700 boys and girls, at Mt. Hermon and at Northfield on either side of the Connecticut River. The educational opportunity which these schools afford, especially to those of limited means, and the religious spirit with which they inspire those coming to their instruction, make them a worthy life work for any man, but they are only a part of a combined and interrelated evangelical enterprise.
Weare writing this sketch from the Bible Institute in Chicago, originated and carried on for training Christian workers of all kinds and grades. " Is Moody among the educators 1" is the question we remember to have heard asked, with not a little incredulity, when this enterprise was begun. But a month's residence in the school and the daily lecturing to the classes has brought a real surprise. There are plain men-farmers, mechanics, and clerks-who have come to get what preparation they may for doing evangelistic service amid the vast destitution of the great West. By coupling daily study with daily practice in connection with large systems of city missions centering in the institute they get an admirable fitting for their work. But what has especially struck us has been the discovery of another class in this unique school. Ve have found theological students from many of the seminaries, college graduates and men with university degrees attending the biblical lectures and getting the experience in Chris- tian work which the institute affords. Ordained ministers, too, and mis- sionaries not a few from the foreign field are in attendance on the instruc- tion and mingling in the daily evangelistic toil. So that really, without intending it, Mr. Moody's Bible Institute is supplying a post-graduate course to many candidates for the regular ministry.
A man's work often furnishes the best character sketch of himself which can possibly be drawn. We therefore give an outline of Mr. Moody's summer campaign in Chicago as a kind of full-length portrait of the evangelist himself. Let the reader be reminded that it is· in the months of July and August, when many city pastors are summering, that this recreation scheme of Mr. Moody's is carried on after his hard year's campaign in England arid America.
Four of the largllst churches in different parts of the city are held for Sunday evenings and various week-evening services. Two theatres, the Empire and the Haymarket, located in crowded centres, are open on Sun- days and the former on every week night, and they are not infrequently filled to their utmost capacity while the Gospel is preached and sung. Five tents are pitched in localities where the unprivileged and non-churchgoing multitudes live. In these services are held nightly, and as we have visited them we have found them always filled with such, for the most part, as do not attend any place of Protestant worship. A hall in the heart of the city is kept open night after night, the services continuing far on to the morning hours, while earnest workers are busily fishing within and without for drunkards and harlots. Two gospel wagons are moving about dispensing the Word of Life to such as may be induced to stop and listen, and the workers estimate that a thousand or more are thus reached daily of those who would not enter a church or mission hall.
Daily lectures are given at the institute for the instruction in the Bible of the students, Christian workers, ministers, missionaries and others who wish to attend. The large hall in which these lectures are given, seating comfortably 350, is always filled. During July there were 38 preachers, evangelists and singers and other agents co-operating in the work, and their labors are supplemented by an endless variety of house-to-house and highway and hedge effort by the 250 students in residence in the institute. ~",'h, "We shall beat the World's Fair," said Mr. Moody, good naturedly, as .we arrived on the ground. With malice toward none and charity toward all, this is what he set out to do-viz., to furnish such gospel attractions, by supplementing the churches and co-operating with them, that the multitudes visiting the city might be kept in attendance on religious services on Sunday instead of attending the fair. So it has been. Mr. Moody estimates that from thirty to forty thousand people have been reached by his special Sunday evangelistic services. This with the six days' services foots up about one hundred thousand brought weekly within reach of the Gospel. The World's Fair has been closed on Sunday for want of attendance, but the religious services are daily growing. Every good opening for the Gospel is readily seized. When Forepaugh's great circus tent had been set up in the city Mr. Moody tried to secure it for Sunday. He was granted the use of it for a Sabbath morning service, but as the manager expected Sunday in Chicago to be a great harvest day he reserved the tent on the afternoon and evening for his own performances. Fifteen thousand people came to hear the simple Gospel preached and sung at the morning service. The circus, however, was so poorly attended in the afternoon and evening that Sunday exhibitions were soon abandoned. More than that, the manager said he had never been in the habit of giving performances on Sunday and should Rot attempt it again; and he offered, if Mr. Moody would appoint an evangelist to travel with him, to open his tent thereafter on Sundays for gospel meetings and be responsible for all expenses.
It was the same with the theatres. At first they declined to allow religious services on Sunday. Their performances on that day not having proved as successful as they anticipated, now Mr. Moody can hire almost anyone which he wishes to secure.
Eulogy and biographical encomiums upon living men are undesirable, and the writer has risked the displeasure of his· friend in putting so much into print concerning him. But we may hope that what we have written will awaken serious reflection in the minds of ministers and laymen alike concerning the problem of summer work and summer success for the Gospel in our great cities.
We may also hope that a stronger faith in the Divine administration and mighty efficiency of the Holy Ghost may be hereby inspired. We have no idea that the large and extensive religious enterprises which we havp, been describIng are due alone to the superior natural endowments of the evangelist. For years in his meetings and conferences we have heard him emphasize the presence and power of the Holy Ghost in the worker as the one and indispensable condition of success. It must be that where the Spirit has been so constantly recognized and honored He has been doing invisibly and irresistibly much of the great work which human judg- ment attributes to the man who is the chosen agent. * * In view of the permanent valne of this article, the editor has ventured to reprint It from PM Congrega6ionalist.
189S·1 A SUHMER TOUlt IN ASIA MINOR. '7119
A SUMMER TOUR IN ASIA MINOR.
Rev. H. S. Jenanyan wrote from Tarsous, Asia Minor, in October, 1892, giving a brief account of a tour in Cilicia and Cappadocia, covering a month's time. He says: Yerebakan is the place where I was sent as a preacher when only nine- teen years old, and the blessing of the Lord upon us bound me very closely to the people. At this time they were busy in their harvest fields, yet our daily evening services were fully attended, and even by Moslems. A Mohammedan who was working for a Protestant came first; next day he brought his wife ; and now the husband speaks of repentance and brings others to the services. One evening, the first to arrive at the place of meeting was our Moslem friend, who had just come direct from the field, sickle in hand, but on the way called three other Moslems from the housetop, who followed him. It was a great marvel to see how this man remembered the sermons and repeated them during the day to others in the harvest field, and through his instrumentality over forty Moslems came to the services, many of them repeatedly, and the truth made a great impression on the whole village. The little church of thirty-two communicants received a new impulse. At one communion service nearly three hundred were present j fourteen new members were added on confession of faith, and others are expected. Here our student, Samuel, is helping the Sunday-school and working with young people. The people would gladly take him for their preacher if we could spare him.
Several years ago, at the time of our previous visit, it was hard for a man to call himself Protestant in this village; there was great hostility, and they were and are notoriously immoral. At first we did not know where to go ; but hearing of our arrival, three families invited us to be their guests. 1Ve went to the house of one of our students named Krecor.
– out thirty gathered there, and after preaching they eagerly demanded e one to be their preacher and teacher, as no missionary work had ever been done there. The place is quite important, as the Government barracJrs are there.
At Hadjin, an old station of the American Board, there is an active church and pastor. The daily services were well attended, though many came in tired from their work. The meetings for children and young people were full of blessing. There was not much outward excitement, yet the truth sank deep in many hearts. Instead of the usual twenty or thirty for week-day services, some two hundred to four hundred came.
Shar had great historical importance as ancient Comona. It was perhaps a city of heathen temples, as shown by ruins, and now contains about one hundred and fifty Armenian houses. Here a sudden attack of pneumonia prostrated me one Sunday, and the nearest physician was five or six days' distant, and only simple village remedies could be found and applied. It was an anxious time for us all, yet God heard prayers and sent His healing touch to me. After recovery I was able to hold a few services. The next Sunday was a memorable day for us all. Many were impressed by their immediate need of salvation. There were earnest inquirers; fortyone men and thirty-five women offered prayers for themselves; the Holy Spirit no doubt led many to decide upon a new life.
In Azizie we spent nine days. It is a new city largely inhabited by Circassians, having about one hundred and fifty Armenian and Greek families. Our daily services were well attended, most of the hearers being non-Protestant. To the inquiry meetings many came, making public . confession of their needs and deciding for Jesus. The zeal of the pastor and his wife was marked j and we noticed very bright and interesting women among the hearers. In some prayer-meetings several Gregorian Armenian men and women earnestly prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
At Sivas, the capital of a large province with about sixty thousand inhabitants, notwithstanding the years of missionary effort, evangelical work has made slow progress. Some years since an Armenian Baptist coming here immersed many old Protestants, and started a new branch, thus almost equally dividing the thirty Protestant families. Would it not be better for a new denomination to begin work in unoccupied cities 1 For three weeks we had daily services in the Protestant chapel, which holds about 500 j every night the increasing congregation made the place more uncomfortable, and one Sabbath morning, while the church-building was filled to overflowing, I gave notice that a second preaching service would follow the first, for the hundreds waiting outside j the church was again filled j four fifths of these people were Gregorians, and there was real interest manifested. There was so much interest in the inqniry meetings that it was often eleven o'clock before closing. Whenever the people were invited to call for personal conversation I was overwhelmed by the members coming, their questions often being, "'What shall I do to be saved 1" " Can I, such a great sinner, be saved 1" "How can I be a better Christian 1" "How can I fulfil my responsibility to others 1" etc. We could expect such feelings from enlightened Protestants, but these were mostly new-comers. We had seasons of spiritual baptism, and such prayer-meetings that sect and sex were alike forgotten, and all unitedly poured out their hearts for Divine blessing j at times from forty to sixty men and women taking part.
The stay in Gemerek, though brief, was full of encouragements. Sabbath morning the congregation of men was so large we were obliged to appoint a special women's service-over six hundred men present j at noon about five hundred women crowded the church, with over one hundred men outside listening.
In this tour I preached seventy-five times, held forty-three inquiry and prayer-meetings: about seventy-eight hundred new persons heard the Word, four fifths of them being non-Protestants.
BUDDHIST PICTORIAL WHEEL' OF LIFE.-The wheel of life or cycle of existence is one of the most familiar frescoes that adorn the interior of Lamaic temples. It depicts in symbolical and realistic form the fundamental doctrine of metempsychosis. It consists of a large disk with two concentric circles, the circular form symbolizing the ceaseless round of worldly existence. The disk is held in the clutches of a monster who typifies the passionate clinging of worldly people to worldly matter. In the centre are symbolized the three Original Sins, and round the margin is the twelve-linked chain of causes of Re-birth, while the remainder of the disk is divided by radii into six compartments representing the six regions of Re-birth. In the upper part of the region representing hell is the Bardo, or state intermediate between death and the great judgment. Outside the disk, in the upper right-hand corner, is a figure of Buddha pointing to the moon (with a hare in it), and in the left-hand corner, a figure of Chenresl (Sanskrit, Avalokita), the patron god of Thibet incarnated in the Dalai Lama.-Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, March 25th.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT. '761
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY MV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Education as a Missionary Agency. So far as education may be the work BY REV. ANDREW DOWSLEY, MISSION- of the missionary, it is secondary to ARY, INDIA·CHINA. that of, evangelization. The order is, first to evangelize and then to teach, That education is a missionary agency not vice versa. There should be good is asserted by some and denied by schools and colleges in connection with others. The dispute in reality is not all our missions, at least in India, and regarding the place and value of mis- in order that they shall be in a flourish- sion schools and colleges in missionary ing condition, there should be' good work, but regarding the place and sound teaching in them.
value of education or of institutions The eminent founder of mission where the objeqt in view is the educa- schools and colleges has, without proof, tion of the pupils. The former class been claimed as the founder of educa- rank as no unimportant missionary tional missions. Dr. Duff, however, agency, while with regard to the latter knew better than to put the" cart be- class grave doubts exist in the minds of fore the horse." What was the agency some as to their being entitled to be adopted by that great missionary fa- ranked at all as such. The command ther? In his mission field he was anx- and instructions of our Lord leave no ious to reach the youth of the better doubt as to the work of the Christian classes with the Gospel. He saw and missionary-it is not to educate the embraced his opportunity. They heathen in secular knowledge, but to wanted an education embracing Eng- do the work of an evangelist. It will, lish, so the missionary proceeded to however, be said that education is a open a school, saying to the Brahman means to that end, in as far as it gath- youth that he would give them as good ers and keeps students in mission an education as they would get in the schools and colleges, and thereby af- best seminaries in Europe, but that they fords the missionary an opportunity to must allow him to preach the Gospel reach them with the Gospel. That is to them. They accepted the conditions, quite correct, and is the reason why we took the offered education, and risked have mission schools. But if educa· the religion. What was the result?
tion, as sometimes happens, usurps the The Word of God grew, and souls were first place, so that the legitimate work converted. The missionary, while he of the missionary is in any way hin- gave the promised education, forgot dered, then it is an evil, and means not the real design of the school-viz., should forthwith be used to correct the to lead the pupils to Jesus.
same. It should be borne in mind Had this object never been lost sight that, although education is an element of there would not be any reason to-day in evangelization, yet evangelization is to turn our attention to this subject, not an element in education, just as nor would we hear of heathen students .. knowledge is an element of faith, declaring that they did not understand while faith, in its distinctive sense, is that the object in view was evangeliza- not an element of knowledge." The tion.
drawback and trouble regarding edu- It was, we believe, subsequent to the cational work in connection with Chris- rise of the uni versities in India that edu- tian missions has arisen, we believe, cation came to be looked upon by some through reversing the position assigned missionaries as a missionary agency.
to it originally in connection with mis· The Indian Government undertook to sionary work. provide education for India in government schools and colleges, and byaid- missionaries-Duff, Wilson. and An- ing educational work carried on in na- derson-were engaged in that kind of tive and in mission schools and colleges. work in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras?
Educational work in mission institu- They belonged to the class whose duty tions, receiving government aid, came and work is to seek for souls, be it in in consequence under government in- school, bazaar, or hospital, in order to spection. lead them to Jesus their Redeemer.
In the government institutions the Now it may be said in reply that that object in view is, of course, education. is all well enough, but is that not the Teachers and professors are there for object in view in all our missionary in- that purpose. Iu mission institutions, stitutions? Yes, it may be said in an- on the other hand, while the educa- swer, in all mi88ion institutions, but not tional work is faithfully attended to, in mere schools and colleges under the the object in view is the evangelization control of missions, supported by mis- of the heathen. Missionaries are there sion funds, and having missionaries as for that purpose, to the end that souls teachers and professors. Some think may be won for J csus. that there is too much reason to fear Gradually a keen competition be- that there are such schools and colleges tween schools and colleges, govern- in the mission field. Now between two ment and missionary, came to be mani- such classes of institutions there is a fested, particularly iu the efforts put great and wide gulf. The object in forth to pass students at the university view in the one is evangelization. while examinations. The educational work in the other it is apparently education.
in missionary institutions tended to Although education is not a mission- overshadow the religious. Missionaries ary agency, yet mission schools and connected therewith gradually came to colleges are entitled to be classed among be designated principals, teachers, or the best and most valuable agencies we professors. Missionaries found them- have, by and through which to reach selves at times hampered by reason of large numbers of the people of India being engaged in what was well-nigh with the Gospel.
purely secular work. Let us, then, take good care that they The institutions wherein education shall grow and develop as such. Let seemed to have gained an undue place all missions have their missionary insti- flourished, but gradually there came a tutions, not only for the education of dearth as regards spiritual results. No Christians, but also as a way and means wonder, when it is borne in mind that through which to preach Christ to questions in grammar and construction those who know Him not. It is far could be asked in the Bible hour, and better to have a real missionary institu· that even that hour itself could be tion, where work for the Master can be omitted under the plea of pressure of carried on, than to have an institution work in preparing the students for their with dOUble the number in attendance forthcoming examinations. and unnecessary drawbacks to evange- As time went on missionaries con- listic work.
nected with missionary institutions The missionaries connected with mis- came to be called and to call themselves sion institutions should not have their educational missionaries, or simply edu- whole time occupied in imparting secu- cationalists, and their work educational lar instruction. For the sake of getting work. and keeping a hold on the students, it In fact, it has been claimed, on be- would be well for them to give instruc- half of the so-called educational mis- tion in some secular branches. but not sionaries, that they are preparing the more than half of their time should be way for the evangelistic mISSIOnary. so occupied. The other half should be Is it to be believed that those great devoted to evangelistic work among the students in and out of school Method in Missions-An Irenio Survey. hours. It is, of course, a gain if the missionary, by giving one or two hours BY REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, D.D., BEIRUT, a day to secular work, can gaiu thereby two or three hours for evangelistic * SYRIA. work. The problem of method has given oc- It should, of course, be seen to that casion for prolonged and earnest disdevotional exercises are held daily not cussion, and has developed some cononly at the opening, but also in the sitierablc diversity of opinion among afternoon at the close of the day's work in the institution, and that these exer- the friends of missions. The promicises should never be allowed to become merely of a routine nature, but nent methods of conducting mission should always be conducted with an earnest desire and prayer for the quick- work may be included under five diviening influence of the Holy Spirit. There is a need be for the foregoing sions-the evangelistic, the eadnudcatthioenianl~ caution. the literary, the medical, Missionaries in India should not be dustria!. It should be noted carefully classed as evangelistic and educational missionaries. They are all one in aim here that this classification of methods and purpose. They are all evangelistic mUisionaries. Of course it is possible is with reference to the instrumentality for a missionary to go astray, or to have his ideas warped, or 0 turn aside rather than the aim proposed. The from being a missionary to become evangelistic method must not be remerely an educationalist in a school or college. garded as monopolizing the evangelistic aim, which should itself pervade all the The opposition on the part of not a few missionaries to "educational mis· other methods. In fact, it is the aim sions" is not, we believe, opposition to mission schools or even mission col- which should be the guiding and con· leges when the object in view, morning, noon, and night, is the salvation of trolling element in all missionary oper· souls; and there are such institutions in ations, and the absence of a Christian India. All schools and colleges connected with and controlled by mis- purpose and an evangelistic spirit in sions should be so many ways and any or these methods would be fatal to means of reaching the people with the Gospel. their usefulness as a true missionary What is needed in the mission field agency. On the other hand, so long among the heathen is not educationalists with schools using up mission funds haseatrht ecognovaelrsiiosn,Cahnrdistsiapniritiunasltreudcitfiiocna~ provided for the work of evangelization, bnt missionaries with mission tion, we will find in each of these methachoo18, doing therein and in connection therewith faithful work, along the lines ods a way of approach to this goal, and laid down by the great Master, whose commissioned servants they are, to each method will be useful in its own bear His name unto the ends of the earth, to the end that all peoples, na- way and place. Evangelistic preachtions, kindreds, and tongues may praise Him. ing is addressed chiefly to adult minds assembled for religious worship. Edu- cational teaching is addressed to the young, and may be made a most hope- ful and blessed instrument for bringing them early into the kingdom. Literary work is addressed to a more general constituency, and through the Bible * Rev. James S. Dennis, D.D., of Beirut, Syria, delivered a course of Lectures on Missions at Priuceton Theological Seminary early in 1893, which are about to appear in book form under the title of "Foreign Mission! After a Centnry." At onr reqnest the author furnishes us proof-sheets of parts of the VOlume, from which we select, by permission, this article. The lectures cover a large variety of " Present- Day Problems of Theory and Practice in Mis- sions." We will make other mention of it at an early date.-J. T. G. and religious books and tracts a far- one, and in the interest of practical reaching and powerful influence may Ohristianity. be exerted. Medical ministry reaches those in suffering and weakness, and The supreme purpose of missions is through it the Gospel of spiritual heal- to disseminate the Gospel and teach ing may be brought into close and vital men the way of life and obedience, and touch with the soul. Industrial agen- in the carrying out of this purpose the cies are useful where it is desirable to preaching of the Gospel is a method give practical education in the arts of which has been divinely ordered and labor, united with religious influences divinely blessed, and it must never be and instruction. underestimated or ignored; but preach- ing is manifestly not the only method It will be noted that the method is of reaching the conscience, instructing nothing if it is not dominated by the the mind, and moving the heart. It is spiritual aim. Evangelistic agencies not recognized as such here in our own may be formal and perfunctory; edu- land, where Ohristian instruction in cational agencies may be merely secu- Sabbath·schools and day schools and in lar; literary efforts may be subservient private classes is recognized and used, to mere intellectual culture; medical and where Ohristian literature has such work may be merely philanthropic; in- a wide, salutary, and beneficent infludustrial schools may have no higher ence, and where medical ministry is a mission than mere manual training. recognized department of Ohristian Under any of these conditions the dis- work. Why, then, should not these tinctively missionary character of these methods be sanctioned and approved in methods has been forfeited. the foreign mission fields? Education is important there, that the school may The discussion of this subject has be recognized and adopted as a religbeen marked by considerable misunder- ious rather than a secular institution; standing and misconception. The ex- that the Bible and the whole system of alted and exclusive place which some biblical truth may be brought into con· have been inclined to give to the preach- tact with young minds; that the seed ing of the Gospel, or the oral proclama- may be sown in the best soil ; that the tion and exposition of Divine truth be- influence of a heathen atmosphere and fore an audience, has been based largely the temptations of heathen surroundupon a mistaken conception of the ings may be anticipated by preliminary availability and usefulness of other training; that the spiritual nature may methods to accomplish precisely the be fortified against the assaults of Sasame end as that which the preacher of tan; that enlightened and educated the Gospel has in view-namely, the natives may be trained for mission serspiritual guidance and edificatiou of vice. It is a mistake even to limit the the soul. Under the impression that educational efforts of missions to the evangelism was neglected in the sphere children of native converts, as has of educational, literary, and medical sometimes been advocated, since our service, many zealous friends of mis- schools are often most efficient and valsions have advocated the exclusive uable agencies for rescuing heathen claim of strict evangelistic agencies to children from heathenism. It seems be ranked as the legitimate missionary hardly necessary to say that this plea method. A wiser and more discrimi- for education as a missionary method nating opinion is now almost univer- involves no exclusive or paramount sally accepted, and all these agencies claim of usefulness, and that it is a are recognized as having a useful func- plea for Ohristian education in distinction and a legitimate place in missions, tion from secular, and implies the emwith this important and vital provision ployment of Ohristian rather than heath- -namely, that the purpose should be en teachers. It is, in fact, simply an always and predominantly a spiritual extension of the whole idea of the Sab- start in a career of self-respecting use- bath-school in our home church to the fulness, with the Gospel planted in needs of our foreign mission field. The their hearts.
fact that the school is conducted every If we were called upon to place the day of the week, and that branches of emphasis upon anyone of these meth- secular education are taught in it, does ods, or to select one to the exclusion of not necessarily destroy its religious in- others, we could not hesitate to regard fluence and power, or interfere with its the preaching of the Gospel as entitled evangelistic purpose. to the supremacy; but where all these The same line of argument, did time methods are available and useful, there permit, might be pursued in connection is no necessity of confining our mis- with literary work. In this age of the sionary operations to any one. We world, when Christian missions enter a should rather make the best use of foreign field to carry the Gospel, it is them all by preaching, teaching, print- almost an inexcusable oversight to ig- ing, and living the one Gospel of truth nore the power of the press and the in- and light and knowledge and service.
fluence of literature. One of the first We may use all these methods as differ- steps.of a true missionary campaign is ent ways of drawing, attracting, win- the translation and distribution of the ning, persuading, helping, and compel- printed Bible, and this must be followed ling souls to come into the kingdom of by the creation of a Christian literature our Lord. Possibly different fields may in all its departments. Under the cir- call for different degrees of emphasis cumstances in which our missions are and prominence in the case of some one working, to neglect education and liter- of these methods of influence. It has ature is almost equivalent to acknowl- been found, for example, that medical edging that Christianity has no mes- work has been especially useful in sage to the human mind. Good service China, and educational work is just also has been done of late in several now at a premium among the low-caste mission fields by the use of the magic children of India and in the Turkish lantern as a popular method of educa- Empire. Could Christian missions tion. Sacred scenes upon the canvas have the opportunity to educate a gen- can be made the text for much Gospel eration of Moslem children, it would be instruction. a telling blow against the giant system The place of medical work, if done of Islam. Possibly the same field at a with Christian sympathy and tact, and certain stage of missionary effort may followed up with Christian instruction, indicate one method as more promising is vindicated both by the example of than another. Possibly the circum- Christ and by all experience. In the stances may be such in certain fields hands of lady physicians it is at present that some one of these methods may be practically the only method of reach- allowed to lapse so far as the foreign ing the women in many heathen com- missionary is concerned, because the munities. natives themselves are prepared to as- AI!, regards Industrial schools, they sume the responsibility in a satisfactory are, of course, limited to a narrow range way. However this may be, it has of missionary effort, but in some por- been, and is still, the almost universal tions of Africa, among simple and ig- practice of Christian missions to avail norant people, they have been found themselves of these various methods, eminently helpful in giving a direction and to make all subservient to the one to life, and opening up a sphere of use- great aim; and we cannot but believe fulness at the same time that they afford that it would have been a misguided an opportunity for religious instruction. policy, involving a disastrous mistake, They seem to rescue young lives from to have conducted our Protestant mis- inanity and Idleness, and give them a sions with special reference only to the needs of those adnlts who could be " On August 8th, 1892, the judge of, gathered together to listen to the preach- the Comarca of Setubal sent out a war- ing of the Gospel, and so ignore the rant for my arrest.
needs of the children, disregard the " After preaching the Gospel for two claims of the suffering, and fail to con- days at S<ltubal, I was on that day ap- sider the intellectual needs of the peo- proaching the station to take my train ple. And while it is true that in some to Lisbon, when the warrant was served sense all these methods may fail unless on me, and I was taken to jail.
they are inspired with the right aim " A few hours later I was conducted and receive the Divine blessing, it is, to court before the judge and the dele- on the other hand, true that in a very gate, who asked me, 'Do you know vital and precious sense they may all for what reason you were arrested?'
succeed if they are faithful to the su- , Yes,' I replied; 'for preaching the preme purpose, and conducted in a way Gospel.'
to secure the Divine recognition. "Then the accusation was read to me, and aftcr a few remarks I was The Gospel in Setubal, Portugal. asked what I had to say in my defence. BY HELl CHATELAIN, LATE U. S. CON- I replied that, without intending t.o,of. fend anybody, I had only made use of SULAR AGENT, LOANDA. a right given me by Article 145 of the In THE MISSIONARY REVIEW for Constitution, and especially by Matt.
May, p. 369, mention is made of a 28 : 19, 20 and Acts 4: 12, which I hopeful awakening at Setubal, South- read, and which the clerk took down.
ern Portugal, under the faithful minis- As to the dogmas of the Catholic tration of Rev. Manuel S. Carvalho. Church, I asked the judge and the dele- The opposition of the priests has con- gate to please point out which ones I tinued, but hitherto without success. had offended. They answered they In a letter just received, Senhor Car- could not tell, as they had never had valho says: time to study the Bible, and therefore " Soon after opening our Gospel hall knew nothing about it. At this I ex- the administrator of Sctubal ordered me pressed my sincere regret.
to close it, threatening me with legal " Then they tried in vain to intimi, proceedings in case I should not com- date me, as also to separate me from ply. This I refused to do, basing my the other prisoners. To these, about refusal on Article 145 of the National thirty in number, I again preached the Constitution. Gospel, as I had done two days pre- "While I was ministering to the vious, not knowing that I should so church at Portalegre, which is still de- soon be their fellow-prisoner.
prived of a pastor, I sent a brother to " Among them was a man who want- substitute me in 8etubal, and he was ed to commit suicide. On hearing the repeatedly advised that legal proceed- Word of God he promised not to think ings were instituted against me. any more of that. When, two days "On March 29th, 1892, two priests, later, I was released under bail, the with three women as witnesses, lodged other prisoners declared their accept, 11 complaint against me, demanding my ance of the Gospel, and I blessed the arrest for 'trying to propagate doc- Lord for enabling me to be His witness trines opposed to the Catholic dogmas among them.
as defined by the Church, and to con- " On December 18th Mr. Wright and vert people to the Protestant religion I preached the Gospel to a great con- by addressing them and distributing course of people and visited the jail, books and leaflets, which facts are pun- where I had left some leaflets. 'fhe ishable according to Article 130 of the prisoners said the priests had told them Penal Code.' that next Sunday they would drag them to mass by their ears; but that " • 6. That the Bible is the common when the Sunday came only two of the property of all mankind. and must be thirty·six prisoners consented to hear read or heard by every Christian, readthe Latin mass. Then a row had taken ing the very words of Father A.ntonio place between the priests and the pris- Pereira de Figueiredo in his preface to oners, the latter declaring that they the Authorized Version of the Bible. wanted tohear God's Word in their own language. T~ey listened with rapt at- " • 7. That the books called apocry· tention to the preaching of Mr. Wright. phal by St. Jerome do not properly be- long to the canon of the Bible.' " One year after the opening of our hall, on January 1st, 1893, eighteen per- .. Not a word was whispered while sons, in spite of the persecution, made all those passages were read. a public confession of their faith and were baptized. Three other converts •. The two priests, my accusers and could not attend because of sickness. my witnesses, being questioned by The audience which crowded the hall the judge and the delegate, confessed declared its willingness to follow Jesus that they had never heard me speak in whatever might befall, and twenty-two the meetings, but had been informed took part in the Lord's Supper which that I made salvation dependent only followed. on a full trust in God. They also owned that they could not specify "In the judgment of my case, which against which of the dogmas of the took place on February 9th, the Lord Church I had spokcn ; but that, being was pleased to give the victory to our a Protestant, I must needs have preachcause, and it was hailed by a crowd of ed heresies. people, more than one thousand persons being in ilie court hall. "Thereupon the judge declared me non·guilty, and the delegate forthwith "When I was asked to get a lawyer appealed to the higher court of the and to produce my witnesses, I an- Rela<;ao. Fortunately the latter only swered that my lawyer was in my hand, confirmed the sentence, praising the showing the Bible, and that my ac- impartiality of the judge. cusers would be my witnesses. As soon as I was asked to speak, I laid on the •. A. last appeal has belon made to the table a copy of our Bible and one of Supreme Corrt. the authorized Catholic version, and demanded a proof that our Bible is gar- " On April 8th we performed the first bled. As nobody would take the trouble evangelical marriage at Setubal; and to prove that, I proceeded to show, by on May 1st we opcned there an evanquotations from the authorized Catho- gelical school for poor children, fifteen lic version: registering on that day.
" , 1. That it was my duty to make " Another school has been opened at the Gospel known in Setubal, as some Portalegre by the Robinson family. of its inhabitants had asked me to do so (Matt. 28: 18-20; 1tiark 16 : 14, 15). "Allover the interior of Portugal which I have visited the doors are wide … 2. That religion is not a business open for the Gospel-but where are the workers to enter in ? (Matt. 10 : 8). " • 3. That Coosar can only claim "Brother Santos e Silva, of our church in Lisbon, first a pupil and then the what is Coosar's (Luke 20 : 25). leader of our Bible-class, is now at San " '4. That if my crime was purely Miguel (Azores), ministering to the church of that place. of a religious nature, its judgment did not pertain to Coosar's tribunal (Matt. .. The Jesuits have been trying hard 18: 15-17). to have their schools officially recog- nized, and they would have reached " • 5. That Christ is the corner-stone their end had not the Liberal members of the Church (Matt. 16 : 18). of Parliament strenuously protested.
" Weare preparing to ask the representative Rodrigues de Freitas, on be· of distributing Christian literature to half of the -non-Catholic churches of the heathen.
Portugal and the islands, to propose an The Rev. Professor Whitley addressamendment of Article 130 of the Penal ed the meeting on the influence which Code, so as to make it agree with the the home, the school, and the college Constitution, which promises freedom' exercised on missionary candidates, and'
of conscience and speech. urged that the providing of missionary "Owing to lack of means we are books, the constant reference of mis- obliged to suspend the publication of sionary labors, and the acquaintance of Voz do E1Jangelho." missionaries would do much to arouse a practical interest in mission work on the part of the children at home, the The First Missionary Oonference in Aus- boys at school, and the students at col- tralia. lege.
The first missionary conference ever Two gentlemen discussed the relation held in Australasia convened in Mel. of the Christian Endeavor movement bourne in June last. Sixty-four ad- to foreign missions.
dresses were delivered. Nineteen mis- Rev. S. Chapman told the story of sionary societies were represented. the introduction of Christianity into Many who are or had been missionaries China, alluding to its commencement took part in the proceedings. Rev. A. by the Nestorians eight centuries ago.
Hardie gave a detailed account of the Rev. Dr. Steele, our highly esteemed extent of missionary enterprise in Aus- corresponding editor for that quarter tralia, and Rev. M. Dyson argued that of the globe, is pastor of St. Stephen's the present time was specially favor- Church, Sydney, and has been promi able for advanced effort. The vener- nent in all the ecclesiastical movements able Dean of Melbourne showed the under the Southern Cross, Moderator state of the heathen world at the time of the Federal (Presbyterian) Assembly, of Christ's coming. He facetiously re- a voluminous author, and an extensive marked that personally he had not taken traveller. Of course he was responsi- much interest in missions prior to 1823. bly active in this Conference. He spoke Rev. W. T. Kelland spoke of the pres- on the work of missions in the South ent religious condition of the world. Seas, and showed how wonderful had Rev. D. M. Berry showed that the no· been the results in these beautiful isl- ble work of the pulpit was to be ex- ands. In 1836 the first missionaries tended to all lands. Rev. T. J. Malyon, went to Samoa, and now there were D.D., pointed out the extent to which 7300 communicants in the church, European literature had taken posses- 10,000 Sunday-school children, and sion of the foreign mission fields. He 30,000 people who could read and thought it an undoubted fact that the write. The people of the Savage and European languages and literature were Loyalty Islands had also become Chris- rapidly influencing the whole world, tianized. In Fiji, in the year 1835, the English holding a larger place than there was not a single Christian, in 1885 any other. They were opening the there was not a known Fijian heathen, way for the propagation of either truth and in the 80 islands comprising the or error on a boundless scale of magni- group all the people were Christian, tude. This propagation should be on There were now 104,000 church wor- the side of truth, and the subject de· shippers there, 28,000 communicants, manded the immediate and earnest at- and 40,000 Sunday-school scholars. Of tention of the greatest minds in the the New Hebrides, there were 30 islands Christian Church, and he thought the more or less permeated with the Gos- time was ripe for a Pan-Commission to pel, and in Melanesia there were 9000 be established to consider the matter Christians and 5000 pupils. In nearly all the islands the Bible had been trans- tributlon of tire-arms and strong drink, lated into the different languages used. earnestly prays that all civilized gov· ernments will interfere for the abolition The Rev. Joseph King spoke of the of the traffic in these articles. The work being done for heathen in or Conference also earnestly desires that within the Australasian territories, espe- steps may be taken for the administra· cially speaking of the work among the tion of even-handed justice throughout Kanakas of the sugar plantations of the islands of the Pacitlc." Queensland-a work that he said was being well done. Rev. F. F. Mairne [We compile the above from reports showed that Christ's Church was essen· in Australian papers, and wish we tially founded that throughout ~he might have found space for much fuller world the Gospel might be preached, summary.-J. T. G.) and the Rev. Allan Webb -dealt with modern missionary incidents as illus- Proposed II Foreign Missions OIub." trating the Acts of the Apostles. The disposition to pay greater atten- Under the general subject of the train- tion to the convenience and comfort of Ing of missionary candidates Rev. G. foreign missionaries while at home on G. Howden held that there were three furlough takes on more and more practi· distinct calls in the life of the mission· cal form. The London Missionary So· ary candidate: (1) the call to be a Chris- ciety has furnished houses for them at tian; (2) the call to consecrate one's self Catford, and will soon have others at to work for Christ, and (3) the call to a Clapham. North London. Brighton. and special field of labor. Bradford. A meeting of missionaries of this society recently neartily approved The Rey. B. Danks spoke on the sub- of this movement. ject of preaching, and referred to the difficulties which missionaries had to The Wesleyan Missionary Society has encounter in reproducing the Bible in projected a scheme which has been ex· the native vernacular. The difficulty tended to embrace all other missionary of getting people to understand Chris- organizations at their pleasure. called tian terms was amusingly illustrated a .. Foreign Missions Club." The ob· by the speaker. He said in overcom- jects of this are: 1. To provide a tem· ing these initial difficulties he was told porary home for missionaries prior to by a pundit, the teacher of the natives, their departure or on arrival from to whom he went to learn the language, abroad; 2. To assist them to obtain that the lines " Rock of Ages, cleft for suitable houses furnished at reasonable me, let me hide myself in thee," were rates while at home; 3. To render as. rendered in the tongue of the natives sistance in securing homes for children as .. All the old stones split in two, let to be educated in the absence of their me get under the corner of one." parents; 4. To act within limits as a commission agency for missionaries; The Conference adopted resolutions, 5. To provide a '1'endtz1l0'U8 where misin one of which it stated that it " views sionaries past and present may meet with deep concern the evils arising out and stay together; also that laymen of the consumption of opium in India visiting London may meet missionand China. It deeply laments the part aries. A letter from the Secretary, taken by the British and Indian Gov- Rev. George Patterson, '7 Victoria ernments in the manufacture and sale Square, Bristol, says at all times there of the drug, and earnestly prays that are in London a large number of forei8' legislation may speedily remove this missionaries. There are also many blot on the fame and history of the Em- generous supporters of missions who pire." would be glad to avail themselves of any opportunitr of increasing their Also it said: "Considering the in. knowledge of missionaries and their jury inflicted on the native races of work. All these possibilities of Chris· Africa and the South Seas by the dis- tian fellowship are at present lost for want of a common meeting place, and missionaries and their families arriving from abroad-often shattered by tropi· ca] life-have to be content with such comforts as they can tlnd at an hotel. Hence the scheme of a residential club which will be a home and a common says, are "honored as members of a meeting-place. respectable profession, flattered, re- spected, and enriched." " The proposal ori/dnated, as you will see, with a purely Wesleyan commit- LIVINGSTONE COLLEGE.-A college tee. I have been asked by many for the instruction of foreign missionwhether missionaries of other socie- aries in the elements of practical medities are admissible to membership. Of cine is proposed to be founded in the course they are. We give them a hearty East of London, wbich shall be known welcome. The wider and more catho- as" Livingstone College," the work to lic the club becomes, the better. Our be commenced October, 1893. It is plan is to meet the cost of premises by not proposed in this institution to premembers'subscriptions. For this pur· pare medical missionaries in any case, pose we shall need at the beginning but to furnish soma medical training about £500 a year, and more, we hope, for missionaries who are to occupy as the thing grows. At present we posts tar removed from qualified medihave secured considerably more 1han cal assistance. Severe mortality among half this. Then the rates charged for African missionaries. it is judged, has residence will be adjusted so as to been largely due to incompetent treatcover the cost of actual working. We ment of tropical fevers, owing to abare now in negotiation for excellent and sence of medical men and ignorance of most convenient premises, containing missionaries on these subjects. It is altogether about fifty rooms, and we well known, too, that all missionaries hope to open by September. If any of among heathen have frequently need your wealthy men or any society would of some practical elementary knowledge make a yearly donation to the club of, of medicine for tbe relief of sickness insay, twenty.five guineas, we should be cidentally tbrust in their wa/. In the glad to admit the missionaries of such "Livingstone College" the course of society while in England to all the study embraces anatomy, physiology, privileges of membership at members' materia medica, medicine, surgery, rates, and also to attend to any com· hygiene, and nursing, with special atmissions they have in this country." tention to diseases common to the trop- Other missionaries and visitors will be ics. The instruction is to be made inadmitted to residence for brief periods dividual when necessary so far as posat rates at least 30 per cent higher than sible. The period of study extends members'rates. over ten months. C. F. Harford-Bat- tersby, M.A., M.D., late C. M. S. mis- SOCIAL REFORM IN INDIA.-Moral re- sionary on tbe Niger, will be principal forms in India keep well at the front in of the college. His address is 51 Bow public thought. An important meet- Road, London, England. ing of the Hindu Social Reform Association recently adopted the following res- NOTEs.-Rev. C. C. Tracy writes us olutions: from Marsovan, Turkey, July 11th: "We are living over a sputtering vol- " 1. That the employment of Nautch cano; every hole and crack is a vent women at social entertainments has an for pent·up fires. We missionaries who unwholesome moral influence on so- for sixty years have taught obedience ciety at large as well as on individuals. to God, and to the powers ordained of 2. That it is desirable that public ex- Him, are accused of instigating rebelpression be given to this conviction lion. Our Antolia College is charged with a view to the discouragement of with the crime of mutiny. Two of its this practice. 3. That a memorial be professors are in prison condemned to addressed to the Viceroy and to the death. Its students are seized and im- Governor of Madras, praying them to prisoned going and coming.. The magdiscourage the objectionable practice of istrates and governors cannot be made employing Nautch women at social cn- to see how mistaken they are." tertainments, by refusing to attend entertainments at which such women are -Miss Isabella Watson, of Bassein, employed." . Burma, has favored us with .. cards" of her silver anniversary of toil in It is doubtful if there is anything in Burma. She arrived in Bassein ];lay India that tends to demoralize tbe peo- 31st, 1868. She has little idea what pIe equal to the employment of Nautch work she bas done, nor of the influence girls at all sorts of public and social to be exerted by the more than tbree gatherings. Even in connection with hundred girls now in her school. temple services these professional prostitutes are exalted into a religious order, and, as The Indian Methodist Times
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR
III.-DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
CONDUCTED BY PBOFESSOB AMOS B. WELLS.
One of the most picturesque and dent of the Japanese United Society of pleasing incidents thus far in the his· Christian Endeavor that was there tory of the Christian Endeavor move- formed, and who, before the conven- ment was the first national Christian tion, was the national superintendent Endeavor convention in Japan, and the of Christian Endeavor societies, ap· formation of the Japanese United So- pointed by the United Society of the ciety of Christian Endeavor, which world, whose headquarters are at Bos- now takes its place side by side with ton.
similar national unions in England, The exercises of the convention in- Australia, and China. cluded addresses, prayer-meetings, re- The convention was held at the time ports from societies, social gatherings, of the world's Convention at Montreal, and a consecration meeting, as well as to which gathering the assembled Jap- the important business connected with anese sent a cablegram. By Novem- the formation of the United Society.
ber, 1892, only three societies of Chris· An impressive portion of the consecra- tian Endeavor had been formed in Ja- tion meeting was the reading of the pan. At the time of this first national Christian Endeavor pledge, the active convention thirty-six could be counted, members standing and bowing as- mustering over a thousand members. sent.
These societies are found in five de- The convention decided to start a nominations-the Congregational, Pres- monthly paper, to serve as the organ byterian, Methodist Episcopal, Meth- of the United Society, and to propagate odist Protestant, and Christian. Thus and strengthen the movement. This in Japan, as all over the world, Christian paper, it is hoped, will do for the Chris- Endeavor has strength to knit together tian Endeavor cause in Japan what The diverse bodies in Christian fellowship. Ohznese fllustrated News is doing for it This first convention of Japanese En- in China, The Golden Link in Austra- deavorers was held in Kobe, and was lia, The Ohristian Endeavour in Eng- an entire success. From Wakuya, six land, .and Der Mitarbeiter among the hundred miles north of Kobe, came the Germans of the United States.
delegates, and from Nagasaki, in Kiu- The constitution of the United So- shu, four hundred and fifty miles to the ciety provides for a consulting commit- south. These delegates represented tee, to aid the president. The commit- twenty-seven societies. Seven societies tee now elected consists of Rev. Y.
that could send no representatives sent Ishiwara, of Tokyo; Professor G.
reports instead. Only two societies Kashiwagi, of Kyoto; Rev. T. Oishi, failed to be brought in any way before of Osaka; Rev. T. Osada, of Kobe; the convention. What convention hall and Miss A. H. Bradshaw, of Sendai.
in the world could hold the delegates if Tokyo is to be headquarters. In com- all Endeavor societies were as zealous mon with the original United Society, as these of the Sunrise Kingdom? the Boston headquarters for the world, The two largest churches in Kobe this Japaliese United Society exercises housed the convention, and its sessions no authority over the individual soci- extended over two days. A leading eties, and levies no taxes. Everything spirit of the convention was that ear- 13 to be done of free will, and not of nest Christian worker, Rev. T. Harada. necessity. Assuredly the interest and of Tokyo, who has been elected presi- prayers of all Endeavorers, and of all who desire the spread of the Master's But the chief work of the Christian kingdom, will go out in behalf of this Endeavor Missionary Institute is the new and powerful instrument for the organizing of Missionary extension evangelization of Japan. courses. If the Endeavor societies of any town desire this course, they make In our own country one of the most fonnal application for it, the applicaremarkable of Christian Endeavor con· tion bearing the signatures of the pastributions to missionary activity is the tors of the evangelical churches of the rise and progress of the Christian En- place, in token of their approval, and deavor Missionary Institute, whose of their agreement to co·operate by headquarters are at Chicago. It started preaching a missionary sermon on the as a department of the enterprising Il- morning of each Sunday of the six linois Christian Endeavor Union, but through which the missionary extenit has already become almost if not sion course extends. quite national in the scope of its operations. In the afternoon is held a conference of all the missionary workers of the The secretaries of the many denomi- town, where instruction is given in national boards of missions located at methods of work, and where the scat- Chicago are giving cordial aid to the tered sparks are gathered into a fiery enterprise. They constitute its advisory coal. In the evening there is a misboard, and serve gladly and frequently sionary mass-meeting, which is adin Its missionary campaigns. The fac- dressed by one of the Institute speakulty of the Institute consists of Rev. ers. These addresses are given at in- John Henry Barrows, D.D., a Pres- tervals of a month. byterian trustee of the United Society of Christian Endeavor and chairman of No collections are taken at the meetthe World's Parliament of Religions; ings. Neither the speakers nor the offi- Rev. Howard B. Grose,.of the Univer- cers and faculty of the Institute receive sity of Chicago, a Baptist trustee of the a cent of pay, except that the local so- United Society; Rev. A. N. Hitchcock, cieties entertain the speakers and pay Ph.D., a secretary of the American their travelling expenses. The work Board; Rev. Thomas ¥arshall, D.D., of the Institute is rapidly extending. field secretary of the Presbyterian Already many Christian Endeavor Board of Foreign Missions; Rev. R. A. unions in Illinois are engaged in this Torrey, superintendent of the Chicago missionary extension movement, and Bible Institute; Rev. James Tompkins, courses have even been Rtarted in other D.D., superintendent of the Illinois States. Interdenominational in its Home Missionary Society; and Mr. L. range, strictly evangelical in its make- D. Wishard, of the Student Volunteer up, conservative in organization though Movement. aggressive in its plans, there is no rea- son why this Christian Endeavor mis- The Advisory Committee consists of sionary extension course may not bethe representatives of the boards named come a mighty factor in the winning of above, together with representatives of the world for Christ. other denominational boards. Meetings of the Institute are held in Chicago The same IlIinois Christian Endeavor every Friday night. During the Union that is carrying on the work World's Fair especial efforts are being above described, has organized a temmade to touch the visiting Endeavorers perance department, and now proposes with this fire of missionary fervor. a vigorous campaign of the State in the During September one hundred mis- interests of temperance. Mr. John G. sionary meetings are to be held, under Woolley, the powerful and masterly its auspices, in Chicago churches, either temperance orator, has been secured to simultaneously or as nearly as possible speak for three hundred nights in the at the same time. State. He will visit every county for at least one night, though the larger a young Christian took a step for· counties will claim him for more than ward in Christian expression and in· one night each. The sale of tickets, at fiuence. Queensland has held its sectwenty·five cents each, will be under· ond aunual convention. During the taken in each place by the local soci· past year the number of its societies eties. The money so obtained will be has increased more than fi vefold. South used to pay the debt that rests on Mr. Australia now has 204 societies, with a Woolley's asylum for drunkards that membership of 5500. Of the 81 sociwish to reform-" Rest Island," in eties that joined at the time of the reo Miunesota. The evenings are being cent convention, 50 were Methodist. rapidly taken up, and there is every A Church of England Endeavor society prospect of one of the most enthusiastic in New South Wales has three memo and widespread temperance campaigns bers who have been accepted for the ever inaugurated. mission field. Another' society in the same colony has been making special At the recent stirring convention held efforts to interest the employes of large by the Christian Endeavor Union of manufacturing establishments in the South Australia, one of the chief points vicinity by means of a social gathering emphasized was the decided utility of and supper, followed by a prayer ser· Senior societie!! of Christian Endeavor vice. -societies, that is, composed entirely of older Christians, in addition to the The Christian Endeavor exhibit at Young People's and Junior Endeavor the World's Fair is one of considerable societies. South Anstralia has more of interest, and should be visited by all such societies than any other part of Endeavorers. It is to be found in the the world, and is very enthusiastic in Liberal Arts Building, Section D, col· regard to them. Reports that reach us umn A 98, in the gallery. Liberal from these societies show that they take space is provided, and there is a fine up many and varied lines of work in show of Christian Endeavor literature, their committees. Besides, the testi· memorials of the history of the Society, mony of every pastor that has tried it portraits of its leaders in the different is that the formation of Senior societies denominations, a globe showing the results in quickening the church pray· distribution of the societies over the er.meetings, opening the mouths of world, the original constitution, the dumb Christians, energizing the inac· record book of the first society, the orig. tive, 'warming the church socially, and inal constitution and record book of the filling the pews on Sunday. Surely first Junior society, specimens of Christhese are all desirable changes 1 And tian Endeavor literature in Chinese, snrely, if there is ground for hope that Japanese, the various langnages of Senior Christian Endeavor will do all India, that of Madagascar, Armenian, this, the South Australian Union acted Spanish, French, German, Danish, wisely in dropping from its name the Dutch, etc., besides a striking collec· words, "Young People's," that the tion of mottoes and society badges from Senior societies might with consistency all over the world. The visitors' book be admitted. contains already many thousands of signatures of Endeavorers from all parts A few more Australian notes: A of the globe. It is especially interest· New South Wales society has formed a ing to "turn its pages and note how new committee, the .. Open·air Com· evenly the Endeavorers seem to be di· mittee," whose valiant purpose is to vided among the evangelical denomina· conduct an open· air Gospel meeting tions. In case of Sunday opening, it is every Sunday before church services. needless to say, this exhibit remains at A Victoria society lately had an "even- the Fair under protest. ing for begiuners," wherein many
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The editor-in-chief having returned dents annually, a.n orphanage with five from an absence of nearly two years at hundred children, and all the various the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Lon- benevolent institutions dependent like don, now resumes, personally. his edi- these upon the Tabernacle and its sup- torial chair. That he has not been idle porters, they had a widc enough field or neglectful of the REVIEW during right about them. And yet, in connec- this unexpected and protracted sojourn tion with the last annual collection for in London, his numerous editorial con- world-wide missions, I witnessed some tributions have shown. But it was of the most apostolic giving ever seen manifestly impossible to have the same in these days. For four weeks gifts immediate oversight at three thousand came pouring in accompanied with let- miles' distance, or to supply matter for ters explaining the circumstances in publication with the promptness so de- which these acts of self-denial were un- sirable in these days, when news travels dertaken for Christ. These letters were by electricity, and so far outruns the 80 marvellously interesting and toUch- most punctual pen. ing that they were read by me at the This close communion with British prayer services-the namt;S being with- Christia.ns, in private and public, has holden-and it was like new chapters revealed among them a rare type of of the Acts. There were relics of de- consecration. Without disparagement parted children, heirlooms in the way of any other missionary body, the of family silver, sets of jewelry. little Church Missionary Society deserves to sums of money long savtd for special hold the pre-eminence. For a prevalent purposes-all sent in to me for the spirit of prayer, for the energy of faith, Lord's ·work. The value in pounds, for the zeal and enthusiasm which it shillings, and pence was very large, but exhibits, for the simplicity of its meth- nothing in comparison to the value of ods and apostolic fervor of its whole the spirit of consecration displayed.
tone and temper, no living organization It must be confessed, however, that, excels it. Though its constituency is in almost every department of Christian of the Anglican Church, the Society is benevolence, the work of God is crip- thoroughly evangelical, catholic, and pled for lack of money. It is melan- in the best sense liberal. It is not choly to see disciples of Christ living in wrapped in the cerements of the sepul- extravagance, while missions suffer at chre-fettered with the grave-clothes of every point from sheer poverty of re- a dead orthodoxy, or a devitalized cere- sources. There are single individuals monialism, or despiritualized secular- in Great Britain whose estates are so ism. Its revenue is very large, its immense that the care of them is op- corps of missionaries both numerous pressive. In some cases a Christian and devoted, and its records do honor woman, who is entirely alone in her to the cause and the Master. Had all widowhood, has four or five mansions, Episcopalians the baptism of its spirit, each a palace, with its vast environ- many disciples, now repelled, would be ments and its large body of retainers, drawn to them. and a closer fellowship all this vast expense from year to year would be inev.itable. going inevitably forward, while the In the great Tabernacle foreign mis- cause of Christ appeals for money to sions have never had perhaps the promi- bear to a dying world the bread of life I nence which would have been given to The editor purposes to increase the this branch of work if the home work value of the REVIEW in every practica- had not been so extensive. Mr. Spur- ble way. A series of illu8trated articles geon and his people naturally felt that, will be prepared for the new year by with a pastor's college and seventy stu- the most competent contributors, and neither pains nor cost spared to make The Young Women'8 Conference these pages worthy of their high mis- brought together over two hundred colsion in the promotion of the universal lege women, from thirty-one educational emancipation of mankind from spirit. institutions, societies, and associations ual ignorance and destitution. throughout the country. They came to study the Bible as the word of life During this last nine months of abo and the sword of the Spirit, and to consence in Britain, the editor delivered a fer under competent leaders as to the course of six missionary lectures on the objects and principles of practical Chris- Alexander Duff foundation, in Edin- tian work for and by young women in burgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, college and city. The mornings were and St. Andrews. The audiences were given to Bible study and conference, large, and the interest maintained and the evenings to platform meetings. steadily until the close of the course. D. W. Whittle, George C. Needham, To prepare these lectures for the press R. E. Speer, Mrs. Bainbridge, Mrs. A. and attend to their publication will be J. Gordon, and Miss Grace Dodge were the partial work of the present autumn. among the speakers. Mr. Moody arriv- Nowhere have I found so large and so ed before the close of the conference, enthusiastic audiences for missionary bringing new life and power from his addresses as in Scotland. Every foot campaign against evil in Chicago. of soil seems sacred to the memory of martyrs and missionaries. The World'8 Student '8 Convention opened June 31st, with over four hun- The Northfield Oonferenoos, dred students from fifty colleges and seminaries. They gathered for two Northfield has a world-wide fame, not weeks of Christian fellowship, during only as the home of D. L. Moody, but which the methods and benefits of as the annual gathering.place of Chris- Christian activity and Bible study were tians of every age and sect and nation. considered. Probably the days most There is unity in diversity-diversities memorable to all were those When of gifts, bnt the same spirit; differences Mr. Moody spoke on the Holy Spirit, of administrations, but the same Lord; and which culminated in II meeting for diversities of operation, but the same prayer on the mountain-side, where God, who worketh all in all." over three hundred students met with him to seek that gift of gifts for which The past summer has been especially so ardent" a desire had been created. rich in "showers of blessing" upon "Round Top" is a name now inseparathose who were present at the confer- ble from Northfield. From this grassy ences. Some speakers, advertised in knoll, while the evening sun was setcirculars, whose presence was eagerly ting. have been often heard the calIs of anticipated, were unable to be present; God for service at home and abroad, in but what seemed lacking in variety of city missions, the ministry, and Y. M. speakers and themes was more than O. A. work. To many this hilltop is compensated for by intensity of inter- the sacred spot where they first heard est. Each of the three conventions was and heeded this call of God to service. pervaded by a fervent spirit of prayer, Mr. Moody, Dr. Faunce, Dr. Purves, an earnest desire for the power of the Pasteur Monod, of Paris, Dr. Jacobus, Holy Ghost, and a deepened interest in R. E. Speer, and J. R. Mott were Bible study. Methods and results of among the speakers. Such conferences searching the Scriptures were dis- cannot fail to have a beneficialinfluence coursed upon with a view to getting a on the spiritual life and work both of firmer grasp upon the great fundament- the men who attend and of the colleges al teachings of the Word. represented. The OonfJocation oj Ohristian Worker8 is due the perpetuation of that mission, in August brought together men and and who has spent his life in service women from over land and sea, who there.
with" one accord" assembled for pray- In the afternoon Rev. Josiah Tyler er and conference. This was essen- told of the custoxns, traditions, and su- tially a teaching convention. Dr. Gor- perstitions among the Zulus of South don's explanation of the ages, as a key Africa. He pictured the methods of to the dispensations, has unlocked the work and the external and internal treasures of Scripture to many. The transformation of a native from pagan speakers took for granted that their to Christian. Dr. Reynolds followed hearers were students of the Bible, and with some words as to government op- this enabled them snccessfully to treat position in Turkey. Burma was repre· themes not often touched upon. sented by Rev. C. A.. Nichols, and the Missionary Day was memorable, as Mahratti Mission of India by Dr. Henry usual, for the concert of testimony as to Fairbank.
progress and needs of the Lord's work The evening was occupied by Wm.
in foreign lands. B. C. A.tterbury, }jI. Upcraft, of China; Rev. George E.
M.D., of China, spoke in behalf of the Post, M.D., of Syria; and H. C. Mabie, 400,000,000 of that benighted land. He D.D., Secretary of the Baptist Board.
emphasized medical missions as a means Dr. Upcraft spoke of the" emphasis of of exemplifying the active side of brotherhood" with the Chinese shown Christianity in its work for others-a in the interest, love, and contact of the side which false religions do not pre-. missionaries; of the" joy of Christian sent. Bodily disease opens the closed fellowship" experienced in daily life, odors of Chinese homes and of Chinese and in the celebration of the Lord's hearts to receive the Christian physician Supper with the native Christians; and and the Gospel which he brings. of the" encouragement of the outlook.II Rev, T. L. Gulick, of Spain, urged Dr. Post gave a vivid description of our debt to the large numbers of Span- what Islam is in its effects on individ- ish-speaking peoples of the globe, who uals and society. Islam expects to con- are in darkness almost as deep as that vert Christendom, and the best way to of heathendom. The light of the Gos- prevent it is for Christianity to convert pel has not shone in their hearts, for Islam. Work among }jloslem peoples is the Word of God is a closed book to difficult, but medical missions are much them. The priests destroy any copies blessed among them.
they can find. They burn the gold and Dr. Mabie closed the day by urging leave the dross of their literature. The Christians to go forward in faith, willing result is ignorance, superstition, idola- to become to a race what Christ was in try, and moral, intellectual, and physi- His humanity to the world-to renounce cal degradation. In spite of difficulties all and live among even the most de- and persecution, the work is going for- graded in order to uplift them and ward. There are to-day in Spain over place their feet upon the Rock.
ten thousand Protestants, most of them Among the material evidences 0.£ the from the poorer classes. There as else- presence of the Spirit at this confer- where it is hard for the rich to enter the ence was the donation of $10,000 to the kingdom. work under Mr. Moody in Chicago.
Rev. David Downie, of India, gave a The 1lnancial world has been in great most interesting account of the estab- straits, but God has opened the win- lishment and progress of the Lone Star dows of heaven, and poured out on Mission among the Telugus. The audi- Northfield a blessing, the influence of ence rose in a body to receive the vener- which will, we believe, be felt the able Dr. Jewett, to whom, under God, world over, D. L. P • •
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF lUSSIONS
v.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
Turkey j* Arabia jt Persia it Russia i§ Mohammedanism. I .
UNION OF MOSLEM CrrURCII AND STATE the sayings an,d doings of Jesus made by His companions." The number of IN TURKEY AND PERSIA. Mohammedan traditions grew to hun- dreds of thousands, and they were so BY REV. J. H. SHEDD, D.D., OROOMIA, incoherent that codification and selec- tion became absolutely necessary-six PERSIA. great books among the Sunnees two or three huudred years after Mohammed. The idea of theocratic rule, or at least The Sheohs have five books compiled a some form of Divinll authority, is wide- little later. To complete the code there spread in our race. 10 Japan the Em- is a third source of authority-viz., the peror is the descendant of the gods. In consensus of the great teachers; as China he is the Son of Heaven. The Christians would say, the unanimous Emperor of all the Russias places the consent of the Fathers of the Church. crown upon his own head and rules by This is ljma, ana a teacher competent Divine right, and is supreme in Church to make an ijma or authoritative interand State. The Pope presents himself pretation is a Mushtaheed. In the view as the Vicar of Jesus Christ, to be called of the Sunnees, the office of the Mush- " Our Lord" by the millions of Roman taheed ceased ages ago, while the Sheohs Catholics, and to rule, if he can, above believe that the Mushtaheeds are still all kings and governments. an order, and may pronounce authorita- ti ve opinions, but only in accord with The theory of government of a Mos- the Koran and Hadees. lem State is much the same as that of Russia and the Pope. Islam, as taught These are the foundations of law and by Mohammed and the Caliphs and jurisprudence in Moslem lands; not Imaums, is absolutely perfect as a po- the Koran alone, but the Koran suplitical as well as a religious system. plemented by accredited traditions of There must be the closest union of reo the words and example of Mohammed, ligion and government. The Koran in and these codified and explained by the the last years of Mohammcd's life be- great teachers. This is the Bhcriat or came a medium of military commands Biter, the Moslem law that embraces all and of general laws in all departments wisdom and knowledge, and binds every of a theocratic government. The ele- condition and rank. By the.Sher, kings ments of a code, both civil and criminal, rule and subjects are guided in every are laid down in imitation of the Mosaic conceivable circumstance of life, from laws. The needs of a rapidly growing the cradle to the grave. The Protesempire developed other sources of law tant accepts the Holy Scriptures as the in tradition, called by the Turks Bun- sufficient and only rule of faith and nat and by the Persians Hadees. It is practice. Thc 1Ioslem gives the Bher the belief of Moslems that :M:ohammed a broader range. It is the absolute rule was divinely guided in cvery word and in religion, ethics. civil government, act. The record of these, as given by and social life. The glory of the systhe companions of Mohammed, is the tem is that, not only is it perfect in Bunnat and Hadee..q. The Moslems often every principle, but in every detail. say to the missionaries: " Your Gospels are only Hadees-i.e., the record of The Christian faith has an ideal to be reached in the future, and has within * See also pp. 47 (Jan.), 122 (Feb.), 373 (May), itself the aspiration and spring of end- less progress. The Moslem faith has 609 (Aug.), 721, 732, 759, 762, 769, ';'83 (present long since gained the goal, the ne plus issue).
t See p. 54 (Jan.), 746 (present issue). ; See also p. 606 (Aug.), 783 (present issue). § See p. 298 (March), 750 (present issue). I See also p. 726 (present issue). ultra has been reached, and no change born with the system and never to be or improvement can be made in politics separated from it, are slavery, polygor laws, no expansion of the boundaries amy, the inferiority of women, the of thought is possible; not even criti- right of the man to divorce his wife at cism of the perfect code of the past can will, the subjection of Jews and Chrisbe permitted. tians, and war against all unbelievers. "When ye encounter the unbelievers The Theory of the Turks.-The bear- of the Koran, strike off their heads, ing of such a system upon a Moslem until ye have made a great slaughter Sunnee State, like Turkey or Morocco among them, and bind them in bonds." or Afghanistan, is obvious. Says one This and similar commands in the of the great Sunnee expounders: Koran and Sunnat inspire the fanatical "Authority becomes sacred because zeal of the faithful, and to-day good sanctioned by heaven. Despotism, be- Moslems look back to a golden age of ing the first form of consolidated po- conCtuest and slaughter. This fieree litical authority, is thus rendered un- fanatical intolerance of any other faith changeable and identical with govern- than Islam is an ever-present power in ment at large. Supreme government the Moslem State. The system domihas four stages: 1. When the absolute nates those who accept it. For a caliph prince (Mohammed) is among them, con- to account Moslems and Christians as centrating in his own person the four equal before the law would be to deny cardinal virtues, and this we call the the faith, and the State that should enreign of wisdom. 2. When the prince act such a law would cease to be a appears no longer neither do these vir- Moslem State. tues centre in any single person, but are found in four (the four first caliphs A comparison may be made with the and companions, Abu Bekr, Omer, Os- system of American slavery. There man, and Ali), who govern in concert were noble specimens of slaveholders, with each other as they were one, and who were kind, tolerant, benignant in this we call the reign of the pious. the treatment of their slaves, but they S. When none of these is found any were dominated by the system, and the longer, but a chief or caliph arises with essence of the system remained. un· a knowledge of the rules propounded changeable. "The irrepressible ·conby the previous ones, and with judg- fiict" continued till the slave rrlleceased_ ment enough to apply and explain The system could not be reformed. them, and this we call the reign of the Sunnat. 4. When these latter qualities Is not Turkey another" irrepressible are not to be found in a single person, conflict"? There have been kind, tolbut in a variety who govern in concert, erant rulers, but the government is desand this we call the reign of the Sun- potic by divinc authority, and is bound nat followers." by the Sher, which can never change. The very proposal of change or innova- Here is the theory of an unchange- tion is hateful and subversive in the able despotism that must exclude all eyes of caliph and Ulema. There are representative government and free in- no germs of freedom, no latent princiquiry_ The caliph must reign within ples of fraternity and etluality with the divine code, and the pride and those outside the faith of Islam, and no glory of the caliphate is that the code of will of the ruler can make the system Islam is complete and final in religion other than it is_ and politics. If it is not suited to this modern age, so much the worse for the .. Mohammed's trnth lay in a holy Jaw, age. In this case the mountain must Christ's in a sacred life; come to Mohammed. So while the world roUs on from change to change, Some of the features of Moslem law, And realms of thought expand, The letter stands without expanse or range, SUff as a dead man's hand." THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
In this inherent union of Church and The Practice in Turkey.-Can the State Guizot finds the causes of steril- theory be changed in practice 1 Mr.
Ity, immobility, and decay in Moslem Sell well says: "The question is not States. He says: whether Mohammed was a deceiver " The power of the Koran and of the or self·deceived, an apostle or an im- sword was in the same hands; and it postor, whether the Koran on the was this peculiarity which gave to Mos- whole is good or bad, but what Islam lem civilization the wretched character as a religious and political power has it bears. It was in their union of tem- become and is, and how it works." At poral and spiritual powers and the con- the Mildmay Conference, in 1888, Mr.
fusion which it created between moral Sell mentioned a new school of free authority and physical force that the thought. The Hon. Ameer Syed tyranny was born which seems inherent Akhmed, A.M., educated at Cambridge, in their civilization. This I believe is a leader. Some such man will rep- to be the principal cause of that station- resent Islam at Chicago at the Congress ary state into which it has everywhere of Religions, no doubt, and show that fallen. This did not at first appear. a growing number of cultured gentle- The union of military ardor and relig- men belong to this school and reject the ious zeal gave to the Saracen a prodig- stiff canon law and traditions, and ious power, and a splendor wanting in claim that Islam may adapt itself to the Germanic invasion." free government and free thought. It Under the impulse of this united mili- is enough to point out that such men tary ardor and religious zeal the tide of live under a Christian government, and conquest rolled. on till thousands of represent no following in purely Mos- cities, towns, and castles fell. It con- lem lands. They are better than their quered the fairest lands of Asia and creed. In fact, no caliph has ever been Africa, captured Constantinople, threat- able to break the fetters of his system.
ened Europe, till at last the Turks thun- .. The fifth caliph," says Muir, .. was dered' at the walls of Vienna. All this the famous Al Marnnn, who during was in the name of God, to the battle- twenty years countenanced with a cry, .. God is great." This tide of con- princely support the pursuits of litera- quest was rolled back by the greater ture. He was tolerant of the sect called power of Christendom, but the spirit the Rationalists, but he was intolerant remains. War is a sacred duty, and of all who opposed his theological tolerance of other faiths, except in ab- views, and went so far as to establish a ject submission, is a sin. '1'he issue is kind of inquisition, and visited with clear-cut. .. The Koran, tribute, or penalties all who dared to differ from the sword. Which condition do you him." A liberal, Uberty·loving caliph choose 1" could only work within his system. He The theory of Turldsh rule is rules his Moslem suhjects with all the strengthened by the fact that the Sultan divine authority of the Pope in the de- is caliph, pontiff, divinely appointed struction of heretics.
ruler, and commander of the faithful. After a thousand years longer of trial The caliph is both emperor and pope, and conflict Moslem governments every- and the clergy are the lawyers, and where are the same, despotic, intolerant, every judge has a religious function. and unchanging. The leopard has not Hence by the theory there can be no changed his spots. Turkey has yield- conllictof pope and emperor, of Church ed to stress of circumstances, and there and State. There is no action and re- have been treaties and firmans that pro- action, and the whole civil and military claimed religious toleration and started power of Turkey is controlled in the the theory of equal rights; but the interests of Islam. To do otherwise Sultan found that such divinity doth would be to subvert the State. hedge a caliph, and such fetters bind him, that all his reforms must cease. waste, the land denuded of its trees, This was made very plain in 1879, and one never passes many hours withwhen the proposal was made to the out hearing the bugle and the drum Moslem doctors to give the Sultan the and seeing the Army of Occupation. position of a constitutional sovereign. The decision reached was this: "The Pass the Persian line, and, except in law of the Sher does not authorize the districts of nomadic tribes, the villages caliph to place beside him a power su- smile with gardens and vineyards, not perior'to his own. The caliph ought a so,dier is seen for days, and the peoto reign alone and govern as master. ple seem to be at home. The Persian The ministers should never possess any is more civilized than the Turk, though authority beyond that of representa- the latter has the military forms of Eutives, always dependent and submis- rope. Both 'are Moslems, but are as sive. It would consequently be a sharply in conflict as Catholic and transgression of the unalterable princi· Orangeman in Ireland. The Turk pIes of the Sher, which should be the adores :Uohammed, and swears by him. guide of all the actions of the caliph, to The Persian adores Ali, and uncounted transfer the supreme power of the caliph times every day Ali's name is used in to any minister." reverence or prayer. For a Turk to express his disgust of a man's ignorance The present restrictions on Protes- or manners, he says he is Adjem, or Pertant missions in Turkey should not ex- sian. The Persian returns the complicite surprise. From the constitution of ment by calling such a person Toork. Islam there can be no hope of representative government or of free in- The annual passion play of the Perquiry. The only toleration possible is sians refers to historical facts that exthat subject Jewish and Christian races cite intense hatred of Omer and Osman may change their forms of faith, so as and other caliphs, whom the Turks rethey do not touch Islam. All may join gard as most holy men. Islam was the dominant faith, but no Moslem can split into hostile camps soon after Moleave his faith. It is a fallacy to ex- hammed died, and the war has never pect religious liberty. "Do men gather ceased. Ali, the cousin of Mohammed grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" and husband of his daughter Fatima, The hope of any reform in Turkey is regarded himself as the true successor vain. The only reform possible is the of the prophet, but he had to wait and severance of Church and State. chafe for many years before he was chosen caliph, and then his reign was The Theo'l'lI of Government in Per- cut short by his assassination. His son sia.-The Sheoh MosleIllS who rule in Hassan was poisoned, and Hussien, the Persia, as opposed to the Sunnee Mos- next son, was cut off in the most cruel lems in Turkey, offer a new inquiry. manner after heroic resistance on the It would seem that here a door is open to plains of Kerbela. The annual passion progress, for in very many ways the play commemorates these tragic events, Persian is the opposite of the Turk. and fires the Persian heart to regard all The Turk has made a military camp, Sunnees with hatred, and the Sultan as and that only, of the lands he rules. the greatest heretic of all. There is From the desert he came, and his in- little danger of alliance between Turkey stincts are to turn the fruitful field into and Persia so long as these religious desert. "Where the Turkish horse animosities continue. sets its hoof, the grass never grows." This is a Moslem proverb. Many dis- Upon the claims of Ali and his house tricts in Turkey have to-day the deso- grew up the doctrine of the Imaumat, late aspect of a subdued country. The or the divine rights of the ImauIllS. villages are often in ruins, the gardens This word means a leader or exemplar. Mohammed is called the Imaum, and the Sunnees apply the name especially to the first caliphs. The Sheohs give lawyers. The Sunnees can express no it a more exalted meaning. The doc· new opinion nor draw any new deduc- trine is that long before creation God tion, but are bound by the precedents separated a ray of light from His own and rules of the prophet and the first glory. This ray was preserved and four caliphs. The Sheohs, holding the entered the first of created beings, who doctrine of the Imaums, are less fet- was Mohammed. Hence the prophet, tered. Every city in Persia has its col- according to Sheoh tradition, said: lege of Mushtaheeds, and sometimes a .. The first thing created was my light new deduction can be drawn to meet a and my spirit. " This is called by all new emergency.
Moslems the Noor of Mohammed. This The ,theory of government in Persia light descended to Ali and from him to is found in the divine right of Ali and the Imaums, the divinely commissioned his descendants. The Sher or law of descendants of Ali. These alone are Persia is the Koran, and the authorized the lawful caliphs or successors of the code of traditions the Hadees. The prophet. rightful sovereign is the Imaum, who The Sheohs express this doctrine has a plenitude of divine authority_ thus: The Imaum is the descendant In his absence the reigning prince is of the prophet, adorned with all his ex- bound to conform to thc higher law and cellence. He is wiser than the wisest accept the Slwr as the cgnstitution of of the age, nobler than the noblest, his realm, and the Mushtaheeds as the holier than the holiest. He is free authoritative interpreters of the Sher.
from all sin, original or actual. For the preservation of the truth an infalli- The Practice of the Persian8.-The ble organ is necessary, and this is found religious head of the Sheoh faith is in the prophet, and after him in Ali, the chief Mushtaheed, who resides at for did not Ali possess ~he Noor of Mo- Samara, on the Tigris, near the shrines hammed, and did he not say in regard of Ali and Hussein. The scattered to this, " I am Mohammed, and Moham- divisions of the Sheohs in the Caucasus, med is me"? Did not this Nom' de- in parts of India and Arabia, and in scend to the other eleven Imaums till Persia here find a centre. The council the last, who was the Mahdi or guide? of the chief Mushtaheed is composed of He was born near Bagdad, A.H. 258, representative men from these several and is supposed to be still alive, though regions, who form also a college of car- hidden, and will reappear at the second dinals to elect a successor on his demise.
advent of Christ. '1'his doctrine of The present incumbent is Mirza Ali, of the Mahdi creates a great deal of un- Shiraz. He does not lay claim to be an rest and expectation. Says Sell: Imaum nor to inherit the power of the " When Islam entered on the tenth cen- last Imaum, though the title" Imaum turyof its existence there was through- of the Age" is sometimes used. He is out Persia and India a millennium supposed to be the wisest and best of movement. Men declared that the end the Mushtaheeds, and has the moral was drawing near, and various persons authority of a pope. Few have the arose to claim to be Al Mahdi." The privilege of seeing him. It is said that pretender in the Soudan is not a Sheoh, even the King of Persia was denied an and has assumed the title not as a de- audience some years ago, as the sanc- scendant of the Imaums in the Sheoh tityof the holy man might be corrupted sense, but he takes advantage of the by contact with earthly pomp and roy- ever-swelling tide of expectation in Is- alty. He is so holy that carpets are lam of some great change. spread from his door to the mosque or Another theory of Sheoh faith that to the palanquin or boat, as even the differs from that of the Sunnees relates touch of earth might be defiling to his to the Mushtaheeds, or authoritative holiness. His influence is remarkable, and his decree is as binding on all good support, as loyalty to the king is a 8heohs as a decree of the Pope is on all weaker sentiment among the masses good Catholics. He has a large school of cities and towns than zeal for their of young ecclesiastics, and every Mush- religion.
taheed .receives his credentials directly The chief priests and scribes and from the hands of this chief. His obe- Pharisees are continually stirring up dient servants therefore throughout trouble, and are kept in restraint only Persia are the Mushtaheeds and Mul-· by the fear of arrest and conveyance to labs, or lower order of ecclesiastics. Teheran.
Thus he has in control all the shrines The nearest parallel to the state of and holy places, he directs the passion affairs in Persia is perhaps found in play, and champions the cause of the Italy. There the established religion people against any unpopular governor is Catholicism, but the Pope at its head or civil innovation. The Mushtaheed claims a divine right above all kingly must sign all legal documents and give or parliamentary authority. Hence a the decisions in all important cases of sharp friction of the two powers and a Slier. possible result of separation of Church Over against this religious power is and State. In Persia the established the civiI. Over agaiust the Sher is the religion is the Sheoh form of Islam, and Uri, or civil law. The conflict of these the king wishes to sustain it, but wishes opposing forces is the special feature also to break the power of the ecclesias- of Persian politics to-day. tics in their claims to the divine ascend- The Shah of Persia claims no such ency of the 8716r and the chief 1t'Iush· divine right to rule as the Sultan of taheed. A year ago affairs came to a Turkey. In fact, might makes right. crisis. The Shah for some time has The dynasty of the Suffaveans, from been giving concessions to foreign com- A.D. 1500 to 1725, had at least the shad- panies for banks, roads, mines, and ow of divine right, for they were de- other innovations, supposing that his scendants of the prophet; hut the pres- throne could stand against any tumults ent dynasty has no such claim, and the raised by the priests of Islam. In Shah and his governors cordially op- granting a monopoly of the tobacco pose the ecclesiastics. The situation business to an English company, he ar- offers an interestiug problem, as there rayed against his policy the prejudices are possibilities of change not found in of the people and the interests of the any other Moslem State. The present tobacco dealers. The Mushtaheeds saw 8hah has three times made the tour of their opportunity. They quoted a de- Europe, and he would be glad to have liverance of Mohammed to the effect the benefits of civilization for his coun- that everyone is master of his own try. His conception, no doubt, is a property, and drew the inference that Russian one, to subordinate all religion compulsory sale to the English com- to the royal will. Without any careful pany was contrary to their Sher. The study of the causes of civilization, he excitement became intense, and both wishes to see his people improved, and parties used their influence to obtain a he issue!! royal edicts to that effect. decision from the chief Mushtaheed.
He is friendly to Christian missions to At last the decision came from Kerbela work for nominal Christians and Jews, in very shrewd but decided terms. It as the missionaries in one way abd an- did not condemn the past use of tobacco, other bring many benefits into the nor censure the government for grant- country. In the same unthinking and ing a monopoly, but issued an edict- uncertain way he has a strong dislike "To-day the use .of tobacco in every to Moslem ecclesiastics. They thwart form is forbidden by the Imaum of the his will, often set at defiance his direct Age. " All public uSe of the weed commands, and appeal to the people for ceased at once. Mullahs paraded the markets and broke every pipe they set are Armenians. To travel from one eyes on. The pious remarked that their end to the other of this college field re- desire for tobacco was entirely removed quires about twenty days, and from under the influence of the divinely side to side, fourteen. The language of guided decision. The result was that the college is Armenian, which is spoken decree after decree was posted from the by all of the Armenians of the above "Imaum of the Age" in the chief territory except the 100,000 in Koordis- cities, and riots increased until the Shah • tan, who are learning that language.
was beaten and the monopoly was with- As feeders for the college, there are drawn. now thirteen high schools and one hun- This sharp conflict is going on, and dred and fifty common schools among what shall be the end? Islam in Persia the Protestants, and many other schools is certainly weakened. Were not Rus- which have been organized under the sia on one side and Turkey on the other stimulus of Protestant education. Tho we might think the Shah and his gov- college already has pupils from and ernment would be strong enough to teachers and workers in most of the curb the Mullahs and loosen the yoke cities, besides many in smaller cities of religious intolerance. Certainly the and towns, as well as in all parts of the case is far removed from that of Tur- Turkish Empire.
key, where the hope of freedom of con- The aim is to give a comprehensive, science and inquiry is impossible, for practical, Christian education; the the Sultan is both emperor and caliph. graduates have won for themselves such In Persia there is a glimmer of hope reputation as teachers and laborers that that the conflict of religious and civil they are sought after by both Protes- powers may work out higher activity tant and non-Protestant> communities in and a freer life, and that the Shah may far greater numbers than the college even sever the union of Church and can supply. State and proclaim liberty of conscience to all his subjects; but this faltering The aim of the mission work is to inhope expires in the overshadowing in- troduce the Gospel into the old Armefluence of Russia. Persia is so near a nian Church, which is arousing to the dependency that it is vain to expect importance of an educated and morally any change in the feebler government upright clergy. It is the province of that is not authorized by the mighty the college to furnish educated leaders empire of the north. to help this people reform its old church, and to supplement the work of the mis- The missionary and the friend of sion in the evangelization of this nation. missions can see the clouds in the horizon of these Moslem lands. They must The college needs: also look above the clouds, and not 1. Gifts of money in large or small doubt the power nor the purpose of sums, so that those who have the col- Him who sits upon the throne. lege in charge can devote their undi- vided attention to the educational needs Euphra.tes College. of the institution. 2. Two professorships of $5000 each. All Northeastern Turkey in Asia, to B. Permanent scholarships of from the Persian border and the southeastern $100 to $200 dollars each to aid poor part of Russia, looks to Euphrates Col- but worthy pupils. lege for its higher education; the territory in which this college is is the only 4> Funds for an industrial or self-help higher institution of learning, covers department. 200,000 square miles, and is larger than all New England and the Middle Atlan- 5. Money for modernizing and refittic States; and has a population of ting the dormitories of both the male 5,000,000, about one fourth of whom and female departments.
6. Small sums for apparatus and li- brary, and for the general equipment of the college.
REV. C. H. WHEELER, D.D., PreBident, Harpoot, Turkey. J. W. DAVIS, ESQ., Treasurer, Sears Building, Boston.
MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
VI.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Transla.tions from Foreign certain what the causes are which have Periodica.ls. created such a lamentable condition in China, and td prevent similar ebulli- BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, tions in the future by as much as possi- .ble removing these causes. I desire, MASS. however. at the outset to disclaim any sympathy with the fierce denunciation CHINA. of the Chinese. which has been so gen· eral, and to deplore the desire for ven· -" The Chinese will likely be found geance so prevalent among the followers the equals of Western peoples in the of Him who left as the rule of our con· acquisition of knowledge, and their in- duct Matt. 5; 34-38. ~Ioreover, I can· feriors in analytical, logical, and syn- not be blind to the fact that we who are thetic powers, while in the matters of preaching Christ in China have incom· conscience, will, and motive there is so parably greater freedom of action than great a need of renovation and uplift- we should have in any Roman Catholic ing that it can only be supplied by a country; and that if in any Roman purer and diviner religion than they Catholic country, or indeed in any have yet known. "-Gltinese Recorder. Western land, the opinions and prej· udices of the people were as carelessly -The Reco?'der, speaking of Arch- trampled upon as they often are in deacon Moule's treatise on ancestral China, the rude though zealous preach. worship, remarks; .. Even the Specta- er would find it hard to escape serious tor thinks the writer' a little over-san- consequences. One thing which weighs guine in the hope that the rite may pos- seriously with me is that the people be· sibly be cleansed in time from the su- lieve all the wild stories current among perstitious practices with which it is at them about foreigners. I do not say present associated. ' the stories are true, or even that there is adequate reason given by foreigners " It may be well to explain here. and to cause the Chinese to believe them in conclusion, that the writer's opinions true; but they do believe them, and on this subject appear to be briefly as believing them, their conduct is not follows; 1. That ancestral worship, as difficult to understand.. You may at present observed, is, for the most therefore burn every pamphlet written part, gravely permeated by supersti- against the foreigner and his religion; tion, if not by idolatry, and that it forms you may imprison and bamboo every an impossible rite for a Christian to writer of every sentence inciting to out· practise; 2. That modern observances rage upon the foreigner; you may get . are largely of modern accretion; and the Chinese Government to levy a heavy that if no original of observance, quite tax on the neighborhood where any out· free from such a taint, can be found in rage has actually taken place ; you may history, yet that traces of 'a pure orig. make them pay tenfold for every dam· inal in thought can be detected in Chi· age done; but you do not touch the nese canonical literature; and 3. That root of the whole mischief. You are it may be possible, and if so surely it simply • sitting on the safety-valve;' will be highly desirable, to graft some and if your remedies go no further, solemn and worthy Christian observ- then I fear you are preparing for an ance on to this primitive stock, rescued outburst among the populace which and cleansed from the mist and mud of will be more drastic than anything that ages."
-" Now that the excitement of the anti-foreign agitation is over, it is the part of the judicious missionary to as-
EXTRACTS AND
has occurred. Why were the lessons the·" Chinese are not only treasonable,' of the Tien-tsin massacre not laid to but extremely tolerant, till the professed. heart by Christian men? Why should religion assumes, or is believed to asmissionaries incur the disgrace of hav- sume, a political aspect. It is, thereing to be lectured on the proper mode fore, of the utmost consequence that of treating the people by a statesman the missionary avoid everything calcuwhose time and thought are sufficiently lated to deepen in the Chinese mind the occupied by worldly and world-wide belief that he is a political agent. But affairs ? besides this most serious of all sources of mischief, there are other avoidable "It is, I think, important to know causes of hatred and distrust. that this anti-missionary or anti-foreign feeling did not always exist in China. " Whenever a riot occurs the infor- Without referring to the Polos, it is mation is forthcoming that some of the enough to know that in the Ming and principal literati in the neighborhood the beginning of the present dynasty have roused the passions of the otherthe talented Jesuit missionaries were wise friendly mob and become its leadnot only tolerated, but held in high es- ers. So great is the respect for literateem, both at court and in the prov- ture in China, that the literary men will inces; and at that time many of the long continue to be the leaders of the highest officials were converts. Why people. Are we on that account to asis it not so now? I admit that it is sume toward them an attitude of hoslargely owing to the humiliation of the tility ? How should we act toward Chinese by the armies of the West; but them to neutralize their power for evil, the process began long before. It orig- or even to gain them to our side? Some inated toward the end of the reign of missionaries believe that faithfulness to Kang-hi, and became manifest in the , the Truth' demands their uncomprobeginning of that of Yung-chung, when mising hostility to Confucian teaching, the Jesuits in Peking joined a plot to and they persistently attack Confucius supplant this emperor by a younger in public and in private. Supposing it brother. They had enemies before were actually true, as some of these that, becanse of their success and influ- people publicly tell the Chinese, that ence ; yet if envy begat foes, admiration , Confucius is in hell,' would it not be produced friends; but when the poli- wiser to retain to themselves their tics of China were actively interfered knowledge of the unseen world and the with the officials became of one mind unfathomable ways of God, rather than in opposing the foreigner. by blurting it out in the ears of those who revere Confucius to turn indiffer- "From that day to this the Chinese ence to the speaker to actual ha.tred of. have regarded the missionary as the him? Is it conceivable that any One is vanguard of foreign armies. It is need- foolish enough to suppose that the way less to dwell on the arguments they use to win to Christ is by rousing the acand the facts they add uce to prove this tive animosity of the hearer? Are position. I may mention that they such persons beyond learning the meanpoint to Cochin China and to Tonquin. ing of 1 Cor. 9: 19-23 ? Or do they sup- Enough that the belief is general. This pose Paul a poor, mean-spirited dreamis the real, though rarely the ostensible er, whose mode of preaching the Gosrea30n for the anti.foreign feeling so pel is to be avoided by those who court very prevalent among the official and and create danger, and then demand literary classes, who are, of course, vengeance? It is not, perhaps, surmost directly concerned. It is not, lct prising that men who in public' thank me once for all assert-it is not because God that they know nothing of philosowe are introducing another in addition phy' should act in this manner; but to their already numerous forms of re- it is matter of profound regret that the ligion. As far as religion is concerned,
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [October –
spirit and action of which I complain perate disCriminations. of Mr. Candlin, are not confined to such people. When of the Methodist New Connection. two years ago I believed it my duty to go into Moukden, then pronounced the AFRICA. city most hostile to foreigners of all Chinese cities, one objection constantly -" Captain Lugard, in his address brought against me from the outset before the Geographical Society, gave was that Christianity came as the en- a very seducing description of the inemy of their much-loved Confucius. terior of Africa. In place of wastes of This argument was, of course, brought sand in the higher plateaus, there is forward by and had much influence soft, springy turf like an English lawn; upon the literary classes. My reply to and for unknown shrubs and flowers, it was the opening of a day school there are familiar evergreen bushes, where the Four Books alone were forget-me-nots, and jessamine, not to taught, and into which not a scrap of speak of brambles and [Scottish 1] this- Christian literature did I allow for the tles. Rushing streams and sheltered first year. Next year the boys were bays and beautiful lakes are also to eager to learn Christian hymns, and be found, making such picturesque they and their parents desired to read glimpses of scenery as are to be seen in Christian books. A.t the end of two many parts of Scotland. It is evident years the school had to be closed, but that if suitable means of transit could it had served my purpose, and never be provided, our own superabundant since has the anti·Confucian argument population might find in these regions been brought against us. Nor have fresh opportunities for replenishing the the literary classes at any time display- earth." -Free Ohurch Monthly. ed that hostility which seems so prevalent throughout China. On the other -Oentral Africa expresses the conhand, I have found the classics of in- viction, grounded on good evidence, comparable value both in the convict- that the Germans are thoroughly in ing of sin, in the inculcation of duty, earnest in civilizing their new sphere. in upsetting idolatry, and in establishing our Christian ideas regarding the -" In the vast African zone extend- Omnipresence, the Almighty Power, ing from the Sahara to the northern and the universal care of the one living boundary of the Transvaal, the trade God. I have yet to learn of the man in alcohol is prohibited, or at least burwho has been converted to Christianity, dened with a progressive tax, according or even rendered friendly toward the to the Brussels Convention, signed by preacher by denunciation of Confucius. seventeen European powers. In Bel- Young converts are prone to run tilt gian Congo there was at the beginning against idolatry, but I have never yet a good movement. Mr. C. H. Harvey, heard a Chinaman who believed it ad- of the American Baptist Society, revisable or right to defame Confucius. marks that the gin trade recoiled before Such denunciations I consider as un- the heavy cxcisc; then the government Christian as they are unwise. They reduced the tax, so that an agency are, to say the least, utterly useless as a which had given up the brandy traffic converting agency. Why, then, seeing resumed it, and did a roaring business, they rouse and will continue to excite soon followed by all the others. They the hatred of the literary classes, should are, he says, gathering a harvest of gold missionaries not abandon this vicious at the expense of the ruined natIves. practice ?"- Rev_ J ORN ROBB, in altinese Is, then, the general act of the Brussels Rernrder (U. P. C. S.). Conference 'the senseless demonstra- tion of a glaring mockery?' as is asked Mr. Ross's remarks seem much in in Regions Beyond. Unhappily it may the same line with the wise and tem- be so. A few score thousand dollars go much farther in tbis world tban
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLA'l'IONS. " '187
J the philanthropy of congresses; this is the soul of his subjccts are in his hand. theory, that practice, which easily Despotism and slavery have moulded paralyzes the former. their spirits to such an es:tent that everyone's looks are fixed on the king, U Are we, then, to be silent? Cer- and no one is willing to appear as if tainly not. We ought to aim at arous- having the will to go beyond him, or ing public opinion against this shame- to separate himself from him in anyful traffic, and against many other thing ; and yet, for all this, the mission things; but what is public opinion? has done an admirable work; it is the A reed shaken by the wind, but, above most beautiful work that I have seen all, by the sounding and tremendous in Africa. I could spend hours in talkblast of material interest. What, at ing of it. You would hardly believe, bottom, is political policy and conquest for instance, how unbounded an influand colonial possession but organized ence M. Coillard exercises over the rapine? Every colonial agent is a born country, over the king. Doubtless the enemy of the aborigines. In the very latter does not give himself wholly to depth of his mind we should find, were this influence; he tears himself away it but naIvely and unconsciously, what from it, even now and then fights it M. Martini announces with frank down; but this of itself shows the asshamelessness: • The native offers him- cendency of the missionary." – Dr. self as an obstacle to the requirements JAMES JOHNSTON to the Oommittee of of our civilization; we must help him tlw Societe des Missions Evangeliques. to vanish off the earth, as has been done for the Redskins, by unceasing volleys -" The weak side of many religious of musketry and by a continuous stream works is found in the premature exacof alcohol.' tion of reports from the workers. The donors insist on being encouraged. A "The man whose eloquent voice Sunday-school, it may be, which has availed so much at the Brussels Con- given one shilling for missions, wishes ference, Monsignor Lavigerie, died in to know how many souls have been November last. Under his cardinal's gained through this one shilling. Your purple beat a generous heart. His ec- mission is not affiicted in this way. clesiastical education had force some- You do not receive triumphant reports. times to draw him into compromises Whatever your missionaries say of their with conscience, into duplicities, which work and its fruits, you may be assured Jesuitical morality excuses; neverthe- that it is always the minimum of that less it remains true that this prelate, which they could say; but their work Doctor of the Sorbonne, Primate of is none the less solid, founded on the Africa, has shown that what will al- rock. It does not strike the new, but most chiefly fascinate every genuine is like the submarine piles sustaining Christian, that which will fill him with the bridges of the Forth and of the the purest enthusiasm, that which will Tay, which form the most necessary transfigure him, is the evangelical apos- and most admirable part of those martolate in the midst of the heathen."- vellous constructions. But the day will Professor F. H. KRUGER, in Journal, come when this work will emerge from des Missions Evavgeliques. the bosom of the deep waters, and its greatness and its vitality will appear -" Would you know my opinion of by the magnificent fruits which it will the French Zambesi Mission? It is bear."-Dr. JAMES Jon~sTON to the carried on under conditions of extraor- Committee of the Paris Society. dinary difficulty. I had seen the American mission on the west side. There MADAGASCAR. men's consciences are free; on the Zambesi they are not. The king can -" A terrible diSaster has befallen stop everything; the life, the heart, Antananarivo, with its hundred thou·
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
Band inhabitants. Its food supply is banked road is flooded ; all the cottages to-day rotting beneath four feet of are deserted, the only sign of recent water. In the night of Monday last, habitation being sheafs of straw ranged while all Antananarivo was sleeping, at the foot of their walls, in often vain the river Ikopa burst its banks, and the effort to prevent the hungry waves va..~t Betsimitatatra plain is now a lake sucking away the foundations of houses stretching northward for many miles. which will, if they stand, presently It is no slight inundation, no few inches contain hungry denizens. Already of water from a pereolation of the river many of the people are feeling the hor- banks. It is a flood, a deluge that, with- rors of the situation. Like the birds of out the slightest indication of its com- the air, they are hovering at the watering, has raced down the broad bed of side to pick up each grain of rice that the Ikopa, overflowed its several chan- is washed ashore ; and in bottles they nels, swept over the sand-banks in its place their finds with the watchful care midst, filled its wide but generally dry with which gold-seekers treasure golden expanse, and then, ravening for an out- grains. Cold and callous, indeed, let, rose and rose until at the east of would be the eye and heart that could Ambokitrimanjaka, southwest of Am- view the scene and not see the forebodihady, some three hours' journey shadowing of what it means-a multifrom the capital, the waters have swept tude on the verge of starvation. Sir over the embankment, tore ever-widen- Robert Peel said, on his repeal of the ing breaches in its steep side, and pour- Corn Laws, that he would be content ed a tide impossible to stem into the to be credited wi.th no other fame than vast rice plain of Betsimitatatra. In that, for by that act he had given the the dead of night the flood swept 011- masses-bread. The spirit-love of the ward, sapping down cottages in its people-that thrilled Sir Robert Peel to rush, until when morning broke An- his great effort, actuates every action tananarivo on the westward side pre- of H. E., the Prime Minister. He acts sented the appearance of an island, with always so that the Malagasy may be waves billowing as far as the eye could benefited. Not once but many times, see. Nothing could be done; the dis- through the rain and bleak wind, he aster was complete. Had there been has hurried during the last week to warning of the coming of the flood, other districts where the rice crop is not had the work of destruction been even submerged, but where the embankthe work of hours, H. E., the Prime- ments need repair. With rallying cry Minister, would have placed himself at he has directed the work, and When the the head of the populace and, thrilling floods are over he purposes to endear them with his mighty energy, averted himself for all time to the Malagasy by the calamity. Had there been any op- organizing an act that will for many portunity the British community would, generations ensure the Malagasy their as they did in 1888, have taken coats staff of life. The embankments of the off :tnd labored with the multitude; Ikopa are, we understand, to bE' rebut there was not, and to-day what was paired in no superficial manner, but are a plain of rice rapidly becoming golden to be made enduring monuments of the in its hue is a sombre surge of yellow loving care of RANAVALOMANJAKA III. water. The yellow is there, but its and her Prime-Minister, Rainilaiarigleam has gone. Where the waving vony."-Madagascar News. rice-blades sung softly to the music of The Prime-Minister, it will be rethe breeze, only the splash of waves membered, is the husband of this queen, is heard as they leap exultantly over as he was of the last. the rice they are rolling into the earth. It is a piteous sight as one canoes across -Although there is no likelihood of that dreary waste of waters. The em- war in the immediate future, still, un-
ENGLISH NOTES. '789
less effort is made to obtain the redress its policy has not only been right but of the wrong that has been done Mada- righteous. Not only so, but by firmly gascar, a cruel struggle is, sooner or adhering to the principle that the later, before the Malagasy. Their faith weapons of the State may not be used in the Protestant faith will be destroy- in matters of conscience, it has prepared ed, but their love of their fatherland the way for the willing reception of the will be undying, altd the country will Gospel in the hearts and consciences of for years be the scene of ever-smoulder- the people of this land." In the judg- ing war. A nation may have its faith ment of this writer, the State in India destroyed, but the spirit of patriotism has been the handmaid of Christianity, never dies in a race that has become a and one of God's most powerful agents homogeneous nation. The armies of in furthering its cause. But waiving such a nation may be annihilated, its this point, two things, he alleges, are towns and villages burnt to the ground, sure: first, that the reign of the Lord its manhood scattered, but the spirit of Jesus Christ in India has begun and patriotism eludes the conqueror. To wlll be consummated; secondly, that mountain fastnesses it flies; in the im- every member of His Church is called penetrable jungle of forests that tower to join in the work.
erect in the fatherland when towns and Speaking of the encouragement to villages are prostrate it hides; in obey this call, Mr. Young says: "If swamps and valleys, where the foreign our faith is so weak as to demand the invader can find no foothold, it lurks; argument of statistics, it is not wanting.
and from one or more of these haunts it The popUlation of the Punjab in 1881 ever flits, will·o'-the-wisp-like, over the was nearly nineteen millions. In the country, harassing the foreigner and census of 1891 it was nearly twenty·one bringing him to his destruction. This millions, an increase of about 10 per cent is the prospect before Madagascar if the in the same time. The number of na- unholy compact between France and tive Christians in the former census re- England is not abrogated. A faith de- turns was 3599. It is now 18,375, an stroyed, a country devastated, and the increase of 400 per cent in the same hearts of a nation made desolate. Will time. Take the two rates of increase, not the British religious world speak write down on a sheet of paper for out in the name of humanity, and in every decade in the future the number the name of Europe's'honor I"-Mada- of the population and the number of the gascar News. native Christians represented by an in- crease of 10 per cent in the one case and English Notes. 400 per cent in the other, and you will find that in forty-five years from the BY REV. JAlIIES DOUGLAS. present time every soul in the PunjaB England'8 Work in India.-The will, at this rate, be a Christian I … Olturch Mi8sionary Intelligencer for Life in India is not worth living if we April opens with an able paper on live it to ourselves. But it is worth liv· "England's Work in India," by W. ing if we live it to Christ."
Mackworth Young, C. S. 1. Writing both as a civil servant of the Queen and The Ohina Inland Mi88ion.-The an· as a disciple of the Lord Jesus, Mr. nual meeting of this mission has just Mackworth Young endeavors to prove been held at the Conference Hall, Mild· that the Government in India has not may Park, and was largely attended.
been so antagonistic to Christian effort Mr. B. Broomhall made a brief state- among the native popUlation as is gen- ment as to the scope and progress of erally supposed. "Admitting," he says, the work. There are now 207 stations " some exceptions, which were usually and out-stations, 552 China Inland Mis· rectified shortly afterward, I believe that sion missionaries in all, and 3637 com·
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
municants. The income raised at home two hands to her ears, and in quaint, was £24,632, and in China and else- broken English, she said, 'No speak to where, £9860. The Rev. J. Hudson me. I been seen the Bleeding Lamb,' Taylor, speaKing of the year's returns, and she hastened to a little group of said: "There have been more converts huts, inhabited by heathen people from and more baptisms than in any previ- the mountains, there to tell the story of ous year, while at this moment there God's love in Jesus. If in this we see are about a thousand more candidates some sign of what the Spirit of God for baptism than at this time last year." can do through missions, we have also At the evening meeting Dr. Pierson an intimation of how missionaries are gave the closing address, his subject made. If out of this great meeting being testimony and judgment as based there is to be a flow of sympathy, of on the words of our Lord in lIatt. compassion, of substance, of service in 24: 14. the name of Christ toward the thousand millions of our human race who have The Rev. R. Wright Hay, of Dacca" not yet heard the Gospel, it must be by JJJa8t BengaZ.-This young missionary our having a new vision of Jesus Christ has won a high place in the esteem and as the 'Lamb of God which taketh affection of English Baptists. His re- away the sin of the world.' " cent address at Exeter Hall, on the Baptist missionary platform, will not soon Darkest Russia.-The paper bearing be forgotten. It was a voice of tender the above title is full of the saddest pleading, lit by poetic glow and hal- reading concerning the times in which lowed by a gracious spirit. We give we live. The main object of this peribut one passage from this heart-to-heart odical is to bring to the knowledge of speech, the opening words: "I cannot the civilized world "authentic facts forget the last time I stood here, it was relating to Russia's persecution of her as one who, by brief service of Jesus in subjects on account of their religIous Africa, had gained promotion to the belief." But much more than this encoveted privilege of being allowed in ters into the composition of this joursome measure to give voice to Africa's nal. The seamy side of Russian flnance great woes. And to·night, light from is mercilessly exposed. The worse than that dark land lingers in my men1ory, slavery of millions of her population is and the desire that some of it may break depicted in colors which, for humanity's out upon the hearts of others disposes sake, we trust are overdrawn. And me to relate to you an incident which what is more serious still, a sketch is given-authorities being quoted in exhas, in various applications, been a: tenso-of an agricultural blight which threatens, and that at no distant day, to means of grace to myself. One of the convert the fairest and most productive saintliest Christians that I have known provinces of Russia into a Sahara. was an aged Christian negress, whose Who can fail to have suggested to him, friendship I enjoyed on the shores of in a fact so portentous, the finger of Ambas Bay, at the base of the Cameroon God? The tillers of the soil are be- Mountains. In our little prayer-meet- coming paralyzed. It is, indeed, mys· ing there was no one who prayed with terious that the famous black loam greater fervor or with a more forcible country, which is the granary of Rususe of Scripture language than this aged sia, should in such a brief space of time sister. One evening, just after she had have taken on an entirely different comprayed, and with more than usual pow· plexion. "Many sources of moisture er, as we raised our heads we saw her are drying up completely and disaphurriedly moving toward the door of pearing, others are being choked up; the chapel, and when one of the little and, worse than all else, the fertile surcompany inquired why she was so hurriedly leaving the meeting, she put her face soil is being swept away from the summed up in the word prejudicesteppe with an ever-augmenting force, that prejudice which sees what it whereby the arms of rivers, the lakes, pleases, but cannot see what is plain." and every species of holloware filling with sand and other coarse alluvium." -Mulhall estimates that the civilized Some years ago the government at.- nations pay annually $13,700,000,000 tempted to palliate the evil by planting for food. By the side of this vast sum defensive trees before the soil became how infinitesimal is the amount excompletely denuded. " But, " cries pended to secure for the starving the the NO'D01Je Vremya, "no one concerns bread of life! himself in the least to delay the advance of the all-destroying oceans of -According to the latest statistics sand, to take measures against the there are in the world about 6000 lightdroughts and the resulting sterility." houses and 250 lightships. Of these It is further observed, in this most Europe has 3309, and the United States mournful record. that •• the effects of 1287, with 1369 post lights in addition the persecution of the Jews are reacting on the Western rivers; while all Asia most disastrously upon the economic has but 476, Oceanica, 319; Africa, condition of the whole population, 219; South America, 169; and the while the wanton reduction to beggary West Indies, 106. The lack of GoIfJHlZ of the most sober and successful farm- light is even more serious in the same ers, simply because they are Baptists, regions. If we call each mission stahas contributed to put back agriculture tion a lighthouse, there are some 12,000 at least twenty years." scattered here and there, though far apart, in the boundless area of pagan· THE WORLD AT LARGE. ism. Or, if we term each missionary of either sex sent forth from Christian -Certainly, Mr. Moody is no pessim- countries a light-bearer. there are only ist, for recently at Northfield he said: about 10,000 for the 1,000,000,000 of heathen. And how dense the darkas"I never was so hopeful for America ness! I am to-day." -As setting forth one form of mis- -Mrs. Bishop, who has travelled sionary activity, which has received a much in Oriental lands, affirms that most wondrous development during 500 Mohammedan missionaries go forth this century, these figures are instruc: from Cairo every year who are to be tlve and exhilarating. It is estimated found everywhere in the East. She that between the Christian era and the does not think that Mohammedanism Protestant Reformation, a period of can ever be successfully coped with. 1500 years, the Scriptures were transexcept by Christian converts who are lated into only 23 languages, of which fully Oriental in mental habit. 13 ere long died out. This was at the rate of only 1 version to over 66 years. ~Rev. Thomas P.Hughes, long a Between the Reformation and 1804, missionary on the Afghan frontier, when the British and Foreign Bible So· adopted the dress of the Afghan, and ciety was formed, about 300 years, 84 states this as the conclusion he has translations were made, an average of reached concerning one form of adapta- 1 to about 9 years. Between 1804 and tion to current custom: " Judging from 1890 the Word of God was published my own experience among an Oriental wholly or in part in 342 languages, or race for twenty years, it seems strange about 4 each year. In the decade 1881to me that missionaries in all lands do 91 the above-named society alone unnot adopt the dress of the people among dertook 50 translations, or 5 a year; whom they labor. There are a great and last year work was begun on no many arguments against it, but in my less than 9 new languagC'J. opinion they may be pretty well -And nere is a hint concerning an- -" This will do more for Christian- other most important phase of develop- ity than anything that has been done, ment in missionary work. At the first for our people know nothing of such conference held at Allahabad, in 1873, love as this," say the native Japanese of 136 members, natives numbered 28, Christians of a hospital that mission- and women numbered 0; at the sec· aries are erecting for lepers.
and, held at Calcutta, in 1883, in' a -The self.denying deeds of Sarah membership of 475 there were 46 no.· Hosmer, of Lowell, are worth telling tives and 181 women; and at the again and again for an example. Sha third, in Bombay last year, with 632 heard that a young man might be edumembers, there were 93 natives and 276 cated in the Nestorian mission seminary women. And, no doubt, in all the fu- for $50. Working in a factory, she ture more and more will women be saved this amount and sent it to Persia, found at the front in the fight, and the and a young man was educated as a work be transferred to native hands. preacher of Christ to his own people.
-All a route fr~m England to India She thought she would like to do it and Australia, though the Suez Canal again and again, and did it five times.
is not exactly in peril of being super- When more than sixty years of age, seded. it is to have a vigorous rival, living in an attic, she took in sewing and that in the shape of the Canadian until she had sent out the sixth preach.
Pacific Railway and a line of steamers cr. She was a missionary in the high.
to Japan, China, and beyond. The est sense.
distance is not much greater, and there is no danger of blockade in time of -The Chinese lepers of British Co· war. How astonishingly does steam lumbia, isolated on an island in the facilitate the triumph of the Gospel 1 Gulf of Georgia, have had no one to " The King's business requireth haste. " attend them, and have been left alone, with only the occasional visit of a phy.
-The numbers are suspiciously sician to relieve them. A young worn· "round," but are approximately cor- an of Vancouver, Lizzie Hausel, has rect, which allege that Queen Victoria heroically offered to devote herself to is now sovereign over 1 continent, 100 the care of these unfortunates. She peninsulas, 500 promontories, 1000 was rescued by the Salvation Army lakes, 2000 rivers, and 10,000 islands. some time ago from a degraded Ufe, -In a pUblication of the English and for two years has been a devoted Church Missionary Society it is stated trained nurse in cases of small-pox, etc. that "there are those who think it the Her decision to care for the lepers will highest honor to their family that it mean the sacrifice of the rest of her life.
should be represented in the mission -We are passing through days which field. One clergyman has given 4 sorely try the faith and patience of all daughters to India. Another band of lovers of missions. To the financial 4 sisters is in China. In two cases 3 and theological troubles are to be added brothers and a sister have gonc out. In the mischief-making of France, Ger- another case 3 brothers, all qualified many, and Spain in several fields, the medical men. Two branches of one tyrannical acts of Tltrkey several times family, comprising 18 brothers, sisters, repeated, the serious revulsion in Japan, and first cousins, are, or will shortly be and the riots in China leading to the represented in the field by 7 of them." murder of several missionaries, signs of And the United States has its families trouble in Korea, as well as the out· of Scudders, Gulicks, etc., who from break of fanatical violence between generation to generation maintain the Hindus and Mohammedans in Bom· glorious succession. bay, etc. But God reigns nevertheless,
GENERAL MISSIONARY
'793 the threatening clouds will pass, and – Not possessing the gift of tongues, out of evil good will issue. missionaries sometimes with the best of intentions preach queer doctrine. Thus -The English Wesleyans entered a missionary writes: .. One of our Sierra Leone in 1808, and in less than teachers startled us in our class·meeting 40 years some 55 missionaries had lost by saying he had not come to New their lives, but volunteers were never Guinea to seek kwekwe (frogs), but to lacking. The ruling spirit was well seek the souls of the heathen. He expressed by one of the number, who meant gwegwe (property)." And Prosaid: "The more I hear of the dangers fessor G. F. Wright, of Oberlin, premisand the difficulties of missionary life in ing that in Alaska there are no domes- Africa, the more anxious I am to go ;" tic animals, and that the so-called and when llis mother said to him, "If mountain sheep is a real goat, repeats you go to Africa, you will be the death the story told of the missionary's lack of me," he replied: "Oh, mother, if of success in translating the first verse you do not let me go, you will be the of the twenty-third Psalm. His interdeath of me." preter had no proper idea of either sheep or shepherd, and in rendering the phrase -When G. Wilmot Brooke andJ. A. "The Lord is my Shepherd," aston- Robinson were about to sail for Africa, ished his audience by translating it iJl 1890, to found a mission upon the " The Lord is an implacable mountain upper Niger, they entrusted their lives sheep-hunter. " to God in a way not so very common, even among missionaries, by signing WOMAN'S WORK. this 'paper : -A writer in the Advance relates. " As the missionaries enter the Mos- " The other day I asked a lady who is lem States under the necessity of vio- exceptional for her literary culture and lating the law of Islam, which forbids tastes what she had been reading during anyone to endeavor to turn Moslems to the summer. 'Really nothing,' she Christ, they could not under any cir- said, 'except the missionary papers. I cumstances ask for British intervention cannot find time for anything else.' to extricate them from the dangers And yet this 'nothing but missionary which they thus call down upon them- papers' had kept her in touch with the selves. But also for the sake of the na- world, had made her an interesting pertives who have to be urged to brave the son to talk with, although she was a wrath of men for Christ's sake, it is housekeeper with a large family, and necessary that the missionaries should with very little kitchen help. It had themselves take the lead in facing these kept her from becoming intellectually dangers; and should in every possible stupid with the monotony of daily way make it clear to all that they do toil. " not desire to shelter themselves, as British subjects, from the liabilities and -Mrs. Benton, in Helping Hand, is perils which would attach to Christian troubled to see" why Paul did not inconverts from Mohammedanism in the clude in his list of gifted workers, , col- Soudan. They will, therefore, volun- lectors.' We would read, 'He gave tarily lay aside all claim to protection some apostles, some prophets, some as British subjects, and place them- evangelists, some pastors, some teachselves, while outside British territory, ers, and 80me collectors, for the perfectunder the authority of the native rulers ; ing of the saints.' Paul always comand will endeavor jn every way to mends the collector, as also those who share with the people the difficulties are not slow in forwarding the collecand trials of their Mohammedan envi- tion. Indeed, Paul was an excellent ronment." collector himself. Then, as now, the disciples did not arrive at the perfect stature of men and women in Christ ment, until now 22 societies in Europe Jesus without the aid of the collector." and America are engaged.
-Secretary Wright, of the British -;Miss Mary W. Porter writes that and Foreign Bible Society, at the anni· the women of the United Presbyterian versary of the London Missionary So· Church presented last year as a thank· ciety, said he felt that the tremendous offering to the Lord $37.028, of which wealth of influence and power in wom· $10,000 went to foreign missions, $9000 an's work had hitherto been neglected. to home and Warm Spring Indian "In Damascus we men preach to the missions, and $7616 to missions among cheerless east wind of the Oriental ba· the freedmen. zaars. A woman will go with her smile, and this smile will be answered THE UNITED STATES. by a smile. We dare not smile. She goes with this access to all these little -General Grant said that one Indian springs of love and influence down war cost $6,000,000 and killed 6 Ind· among the people, into the homes, into ians. the seed place, where the good seed can be sown in the hearts of the wom· " Heaven," according to Red Cloud, en." "is a place where white men tell no lies. " -These figures relating to the gifts of women for missions last year are -The conversion of this republic to worth pondering. Mrs. L. M. Bain· the Moslem faith still continues. To bridge is the authority: Mr. Webb, the chief apostle, is joined an Egyptian of rank, one Abdurrhim Presbyterians (North)….. . $309,818 Effendi, and they propose to establish Methodists (North)…….. . 265,342 colonies of true believers in the South· Congregationalists…….. . 229,701 ern States, and as well to build mosques Baptists (North)………. . 155,552 in New York and other cities. The Union Missionary Society.. . 51,222 Egyptian above named expresses tum· EpiscopaL ………….. .. 35,484 self thus: Reformed Church……… . 29,635 "Mohammedanism is destined to be TotaL ………….. $1,076,754 the religion of all intelligent people, and the time to spread the prophet's -Woman's work in India has made doctrine is ripe. Calm, earnest discus· great progress. There are now 711 sions will work wonders, for Christianwomen-foreign and Eurasian-mis- ity is evidently a failure. Christians sionaries in India. These have access are not sincere, but the Moslems are as to 40,513 zenanas, and have 62,414 girl devout now as they were in the days of pupils in the mission schools. There· Mohammed. In Europe the Moslem fore, well may the Brahmans begin to faith is making great strides, and in tremble for the result. America progress is rapid, though not dreamed of by those unacquainted with -These are the bottom facts as to the subject." zenana work, coming direct from Miss R. A. Webb, Secretary of the Society -Two more devoted men, whose for Promoting Female Education in the names will not soon be forgotten, have East. The beginning was as far back ceased from their toils on earth: Rev. as 1835, when a missionary of that so· E. P. Thwing, who only a few months ciety, Miss Wakefield, obtained access ago had gone to China, at his own to two or three zenanas in Calcutta, and charges, to establish a hospital for the others followed, until in 1843 a wom- insane, and Rev. Jeremiah Porter, in an was sent out for this special purpose. labors most varied and abundant as Mrs. Mullen's work came later. After home missionary for 62 years, or ever the Mutiny of 1857 came great enlarge· since 1831. Among the rest, the latter was the pioneer minister in Chicago, reaching that place in 1833, when it tumn; 40 of them from Atlantic and was but a village of 300 inhabitants. 30 from Pacific ports. Several impor- tant advance stations have been plant· -The University of Chicago con- ed. Twenty.seven new mission houses ferred its first degree of Ph.D. upon a are building. One new centre of oper· Japanese, who is to be Professor of Old ations-namely, the Central China Mis- Testament Literatur~ in a Methodist col- sion, with headquarters at or near Hanlege at Tokio. This is a significant kow-has been projected, and 2 mis· fact. When Harvard conferred its first sionary families are on their way to degree, or when John Wesley was work it." founding a great sect, what did the world know of Japan ?-British Weekly. -The Episcopalians are about to re- joice over the occupation of a Church -The year book of the Young Men's Missions House. The cost of the Christian Associations of North Ameri- ground, $175,000, and the amount of ca, for 1893, has been issued. The $170,000 toward the erection of the number of associations is now 1439, building have been received. There with an aggregate membership of 245,- will still be required $70,000 for the 809. These associations own buildings completion of the building free from valued at $12,591,000. Their total net debt. property is valued at $14,208,043-more than $1,500,000 more than the year be- An urgent call is issued for $20,000 fore. to help on the work among the freed- men, coupled with this statement: -Few things to be found in Chicago " We have 137 mission stations served this year are more remarkable than Mr. by 60 white and 47 colored ministers. Moody's six·months' Gospel campaign. We have 6399 communicants, 95 church Through the entire season the work has buildings, 52 schools, 4 hospitals, 1 been pushed. From 200 to 300 work- church home, 125 Sunday·schools with ers have been employed, holding ser· 10,000 scholars, 61 day·schools with vices all over the city in tents, halls, 4734 pupils, 3 normal and divinity theatres, and churches, at the rate of schools with 160 normal and 31 divin- 120 a week, exclusive of meetings for ity students. The colored people paid prayer and counsel. All·day services $22,509 toward these objects." were held several times with astonishing attendance and interest. -The Presbyterian Church, South, with a membership of 188,546, gave to ~ -This is but a part of the year's foreign missions last year $120,954, and story which the Baptists can tell: "A for all forms of religious work $1,943,- great and notable advance has been 580. made. The increase of cash contributions from our churches alone (includ- -The General Synod of the German ing that secured by the woman's soci- Reformed Church is pledged to raise eties) amounts to over $360,000. Since $40,000 for foreign missions for the curthe centenary proposal was made we rent year. A flourishing mission is sushave also recruited not far from 100 tained in Japan containing 12 churches, new missionaries, counting both men of which 5 are self-sustaining, with a and women. We have sent 37, male membership of 1842, an increase of 109 and female, workers to the Telugus. within a year. The native ministers We are sending 14 new workers to number 9 ; unordained evangelists, 16 ; Western China; about as many more and theological students, 21. A girls' to other parts of China, and many school has 45 pupils, and 976 are in others to Assam, Burma, and Africa. Sunday.schools. The preaching sta- About 90 missionaries in al1-70 of tions are 37. them new workers-go out this au- -The Roman Catholics are not alto- gether impervious to modern influences, and are able to learn even from the of baptisms was 7806. In the day- Protestant foe. Last year a summer schools are 8871 pupils. In Sumatra school, a quasi Chautauqua, was start- the chief struggle is with ·Mohamme- ed, and was held again this year, hav- danism instead of heathenism.
ing a permanent home secured near -The Ninth Continental Conference Plattsburgh, N. Y., by the gift of 450 met in Bremen recently; representing acres on the shore of Lake Champlain. 14 German, 2 Dutch, and 1 Danish so- EUROPE. cieties. For three days practical topics of common interest were discussed. Great Britain.-The recent action.of Parliament in providing for the appoint- -The figures below give the number ment of a commission to investigate the of baptisms reported in 1891-92 by 9 whole matter of Indian opium; together German societies: with the action of the Government of Burma forbidding the use or possession Hermannsburg ………….. _. 2380 of opium by any native in Lower Neukirchen (Java) ..•………. 76 Burma, are hopeful signs that the abate- North G:erman (West Africa) .. , 91 ment of a blighting curse is not far Gossner's Mission ….. _……. . 1500 Leipsic (Tamilland)……….. . 380 away. Basel Society ………… , …. . 1253 .-General Booth carries on his mis- Berlin ……..•……… 2012 sions at comparatively sniall cost. The officers who work among the Zulus are Barmen" …………….. . 3546 Moravian (including children).. . 13,336 said to get 60 cents per week as salary, Total. ……………… 24,574 besides cornmeal for breakfast, rice for -In a paper on the" Religious Condinner, with an occasional bucket of dition of Italy," Dr. Murray Mitchell molasses thrown in. The latter costs .gives a statistical table, prepared by 12 cents at the sugar-mill. Rev. Dr. G. Gray, of Rome, showing ~It is announced that the Mildmay the membership of the chief evangeli- Mission to the Jews is about to receive cal missions in Italy for the years 1888 some £25,000 from a bequest, and that and 1893. The summary is as follows : this sum will be expended in distribut- 1888. 1893.
ing New Testaments and Christian liter- Waldensian Church… . 4,074 4,737 ature to Jews all the world over. Free Church……… . 1,522 1,631 -The income of the Scottish United Wesleyan Methodist … . 1,360 1,341 Presbyterian Church was $200,660 last Methodist EpiscopaL .. 920 965 year, and work was sustained in Jamai- Baptist churches …… . ~75 ca, Trinidad, Old Calabar, Kaffraria, 1,050 India, China, and Japan. The missionary force consists of 130 fully train- In the Methodist Episcopal mission ed agents, 63 being ordained Europeans there are 241 probationers in addition to the 965 members in full connection. In 1888 there were 174 probationers.
and 20 ordained natives, and 28 zenana ASIA. workers. The membership of the mis- sion churches is 17,414, an increase of Turkey.-A few native churches are 885 in a year. becoming self-supporting in spite of The Continent.-The Rhenish So- the general poverty, among which are ciety is at work in Africa, China, the Tarsus and Mardin: and the schools Dutch East Indies, and New Guinea. are forging along in the same direction.
The income was $97,582 in 1892. The -A recent letter from Mr. Wheeler, number of native Christians is 47,436, President of Euphrates College, reports of communicants 14,295, of whom 680 that there are in all departments 522 were confirmed last year. The number pupils-297 males and 225 f~males. Of these 12 are in the theological depart- the cause of social reform. The Hin- ment, 34 in the male college proper, and du Social Reform Association of Mad- 37 in the female college. ras has entered on a crusade against tho -The lot of a journalist is a hard one demoralizing practice of Nautch danc. in the dominions of the Sultan, and the ing, which has hitherto been an acceptnewspaper is at a heavy discount. The ed feature of entertainments, pnblic and censor has an eagle eye, revises with a private. The crusade is led by. but not free hand, and even suppresses an of- exclusively confined to, Christians.
fending sheet on slight provocation. -Some of the native States have -The Sultan will not have a tele- rulers so enlightened as to be every way phone within his dominions at any:price fit to hold the reins of power. Such, whatever. He complains that his sub- for example, as the Maharaja Gaekwar jects are far too ready, as it is, to plot of Baroda, whose subjects number and conspire against his life, and he 2,500,000, and his income is $7,000,000. does not propose to introduce a me~ns When in London last year this royal whereby they can accomplish their foul Hindu announced that his first object designs twice as easily I has always been to promote education, and to this end, on assuming the gov- India.-A Calcutta paper relates that ernment, he ordered schools to be openrecently a young Brahman came to the ed at the cost of the State up to the house of a missionary, seeking an in- number of. 30 each year, wherever 16 terview. In the course of the conver- pupils could be brought together.' By sation he said: "Many things which this arrangement he hopes that every Christianity contains I find in Hindu- one of the 3500 towns and villages in ism; but there is one thing which Chris· his dominion will soon possess a school tianity has and Hinduism has not." for both sexes. He is now educating " What is that?" the missionary asked. several students in England to become His reply was striking: "A Saviour." teachers. The Gaekwar strongly dis- -A Hindu widow through all her approvE's. of child marriages, and has life, even if she lives to be ninety years expressed his determination that his old, can never eat but one meal of rice own sons and daughters shall not marry in twenty-four hours. At fast seasons before they are twenty.
she must fast for two or three con- -Eleven Lutheran missionary socisecutive days. "If a dying widow eties, representing ten different States asks for water on a fast day, a few and countries of Europe and America, drops are dropped into her ear." are at work in India.
-In; this land all burdens are car- -A gentleman in Brooklyn who read the appeal of the Rev. William Butler ried On men's heads and on their backs, in The Ohristian Advocate of July 6th for" Village Chapels in India," walked and not in carts, wagons, and bacrows, into the missionary office the next Tuesand it is customary to provide resting- day and handed Dr. Peck $1000. The places for them along the roads. For noble-hearted donor declined to permit this purpose stones are set up along the his name to be given to the pUblic. hot, dusty, and sandy ways just the His gift will build 20 chapels; and not right height for a man to rest his bur· long after $500 were received from anden on. There he can stand and rest other source, and will build 10 more. till, relieved and refreshed, he is able to go on his way. A native Christian in Travancore once said to an English gentleman, "Ah, sahib, Christ is all -Hindu heathenism dies hard. In my hope; Christ is my rest-stone." order to stave off the inevitable catas- -AhopefU:l sign of progress in India trophe all sorts of Christian methods of is seen in an important movement in work are resorted to, like tract soci· eties, street-preaching, newspapers, go back and tell him more about what schools, Sunday-schools, etc., but all in my Scriptures said."
vain_ In a few weeks or months col- -A letter from the North China Mis· lapse ensues. sion shows how rapidly the medical -A good report comes from the work is gaining in favor. Instead of South Mcot field: "From the very holding back in fear patients have been small beginning in the village of Sattam- flocking to the dispensary in Pangbadi in 1863, the work has grown until Chuang in such numbers that Mr. Smith there are now 8 organized churches, 32 writes: "Not only has all the available congregations, 543 communicants, 1658 space in all the wards been occupied, adherents, 30 schools with 734 pupils, as well on the women's as on the men's 212 of whom are girls. From the vil- side, .but every available building is oclages have gone forth as many as 40 cupied too. Each case brings others, young men and women, educated in till there seems no end to it, and Dr. our boarding schools, who are filling Peck is much overtasked with his unpositions of usefulness in the mission. wonted labors, owing to his wide surgi- Such are some of the numerical results cal fame." The writer states that on of thirty years at one of our mission one day the patients represented 23 difstations. " ferent regions. One day two men came from a place 180 miles south, -The Surgeon-General of the Siam- bringing two children with them. ese Army is Dr. T. H. Hayes, who went to Siam several years ago as a -Rev. W. T. Hobart, :l'Iethodist medical Presbyterian missionary. He Episcopal missionary, wants more men met with such wonderful success in and more money, and reproaches and curing diseases that the king considered prods his brethren in this fashion: his services indispensable, and made " When Mr. Collins. of our own church, him surgeon-general of the army, with offered to go to Foo-Chow as a mispower to establish hospitals and medi- sionary. he was told the society had no cal institutions on American models. funds. He said to the bishop: •Find Dr. Hayes receives a salary of $7000 a me a place before the mast, and I will year, part of which he turns over to work my passage to China. ' When the the mission board. first Wesleyan missionary to China of- fered to go he was told that the Wes- China.-In this country all the land 1eyan Missionary Society had no ,mis- belongs to the State, and a trifling sum sion in China and no funds to begin per acre, never altered through long one. So he sold his own property and centuries, is paid as rent. This is the paid his own way out of it. The church only tax, and it amounts to but about was not ready. "
60 cents per head. Korea. -A missionary sends home -In their interprctation of Scripture these statistics: .. We have now 54 the Chinese are apt to be literalists. evangelical Protestant missionaries in One of the Bible-women, Gueh Eng, Korea, not including the High Church Ilately met with a rude reception from Episcopalians, who have no dealings the head of a house to which she went with us, but are nearer to the Catholics to teach the women. "And what did perhaps. The Presbyterians lead the you do about it?" she was asked. van with 21 missionaries, only 3 phy- " Oh," she said, "I turned around at sicians, one of them a woman and the the door, and shook every particle of wife of Dr. Brown. The Methodists dust off my shoes, and told him that come next with 16, 6 being physicians, was what the Scriptures tell us to do 3 of them women. The Southern Pres- when those to whom we go refuse to byterians are 8 in number, and the Aus- hear us. I left it as a testimony against tralian Presbyterians 5; 4 Indepen- him; and afterWard he sent for me to dents make up the total of 54." AFRICA. -The Jesuits, to whom the Apostolic Prefecture of the Upper Zambesi was -,-It is said that not even one Arab committed in 1877, think the time has woman im Algeria is able to read. come to occupy Mashonaland, where Hence the Gospel must be spoken to the Protestant societies are putting forth them. all their efforts to win the natives to heresy. They have secured a farm of -The state of religion in Algeria is 12,000 acres to the east of Fort Salisunique. There are four established or bury, and their superior, Rev. P. Kerr, State-paid forms of worship-namely, has just installed a troupe of mission· the Roman Catholic, the Protestant, the aries there, newly arrived from Europe. Jewish, and the Mohammedan.
-Ethiopia is certainly lifting up her -In a missionary letter one of the hands, not only to God, but ,in defence torments of life in West Africa is noagainst the vices of civilization. A ticed: "The carpenter working on Zulu church recently organized has it this station is troubled with a bad foot. among its by-laws that "no member It is caused by what is called a Guinea shall be permitted to drink the white worm. The foot is swollen as if an abo man's grog." scess were forming, and the swelling resembles one, but for a tiny hole the -Twelve new missionaries have been size of a pin-prick where the head sent out to reinforce the Zambesi Indus- of the worm is. When the foot is poul.
trial Mission, making 30 in all. The ticed for some time the worm sticks its amount of land now owned is 100,000 head out. This is taken and wrapped acres. An effort is to be made in be- round a match or bit of stick and wound half of 150,000 slaves found in the round and round; thus it is gradually vicinity. pulled out, perhaps about a foot-some- -The station of Lavigerieville, times more, sometimes less-every day, founded by the White Fathers on the great care being taken not to break the shores of Lake Tanganyika, has already worm. This worm is very little thicker become an important settlement. When than an ordinary thread and, the doctor the missioniLries first settled there in says, is about twenty feet long. The 1883 there was nothing but " the desert development of the worm makes the and brnshwood." Since then a large swelling very painful." extent of territory has been purchased at a cheap rate, and, when fully culti- -The arrangements made by Sir vated, it will be able to support 100,000 Gerald Portal for harmonizing the repeople. It is an undulating plain, ligio·political variances in Uganda probounded by the rivers Lope and Kan- vide for 2 ministers of justice, 2 com· wema and traversed by two others. At manders of troops, and 2 commanders first the Fathers established themselves of canoes, 1 of each to be Protestant close to the lake, but owing to the fall and 1 Catholic; all to have the apin the water during recent years, they proval of the British resident. In the found themselves amid swamps, and distribution of territory, it is claimed had to move to high ground about one that the Catholics have the larger share. mile inland. There they have built an So are reproduced on the continent of orphanage for boys and another for Africa some such ecclesiastical dissengirls, in number about 300, all redeem- sions as 300 years ago in Germany gave us the Thirty Years' War.
ed from slavery, and also several vil- ISLANDS OF THE SEA. lages for Christian households. Alto- gether there are some 2000 inhabitants -The King of Samoa has issued a -neophytes, catechumens, and in- proclamation forbidding, under pain of quirers. heavy penalties, any native Samoan or Pacific islander to sell or to give away turbulent. A young man is needed any intoxicating drinks whatever. An also to take Dr. Pease's place on the exchange asks a pertinent question Marshall Islands, and, as there is good anent this proclamation, "Who is the reason to expect that Spain will permit barbarian ?" missionary work to be soon resumed on Ponape, another able missionary must -Kedokedo, the government chief be found to aid Mr. Rand. The Micro- on Fergnsson, New Guinea, was angry nesian force seems to be seriously crip- with his old aunt for threatening to pled, and the call for volunteers is ur- smite a -friend of his with sickness gent. through the agency of her familiar spirit, and afraid lest she should smite him -The London Missionary Society also he took her out in a canoe, and, Chronicle: a short time since, jl,'ave an heedless of her cries for mercy, tied a account from Rev. C. Chalmers of a big stone around her neck and cast her voyage in the Gulf of Papua, where he into the sea. She sank never to come up met with-a kind welcome, though many again, and he thinks he has done a vir- of the natives had never seen a white tuous act in not suffering a witch to man before. At one place he held a live. The teacher was away at the service in a native hut, amid charms time for the sake of his health. and fetiches of all kinds, skulls of hu- man beings, crocodiles, pigs, casso- -Why the people at Bauro made waries, and six hideous idols at the end. tree-houses. They had been fighting Among these surroundings they sang a with the Ysabel Islanders, and the peo- translation of the hymn, "Hark the ple at Bauro were nearly all killed. voice of love and mercy I" "I do not The few who escaped hid in the bush, think," writes Mr. Chalmers, "I ever and when the enemy had gone they heard it sound better." crept forth to find their hOlJses and gardens quite ruined. They therefore be- -The New Zealand Herald reports gan to build their houses in the tallest the death of Mr. Richard Matthews, at trees, ascending thereto by long lad- the age of eighty-two, after a life of ders, sometimes reaching over sixty feet strange adventures. He was landed at from the ground. Up these dangerous Terra del Fuego by Captain Fitzroy of aJ;ld uncertain ladders the natives ran the Beagle, where, with three Fuegians with ease, a woman heavily laden who had visited England, he meant to climbing carelessly up without even at- plant a mission station. The natives tempting to steady herself with her thought of killing and eating him, but hands.-Life of Bishop Patteson. by the persuasion of his three friends they gave up the idea and contented -Recent disciples on Futuna, New themselves with stealing all his clothes; Hebrides, were sacred men who pro- it was the sight of these being worn by fessed to be able to make rain, and by several natives 150 miles away that led sorcery to bring disease and death. Captain Fitzroy to search for his old When they joined the class for Chris- passenger, whom he found and rescued tian instruction they willingly brought from a second proposal to " rise, slay, their sacred stones, held as dear as life and eat" him. He was on board the itself, and burned them in the public Beagle for four years, assisting Darwin. square. He left the vessel to become an agent of the Church Missionary Society at -The American Board calls for vol- Wanganui, New Zealand. He afterunteers for the work in Micronesia. ward went farther north, where he Mr. Snelling, the missionary in charge built the first house and made the first at Ruk, is obliged to give up his labor bricks in the district. He was probon account of impaired health, and a ably the only European who ever wit· man and his wife are needed to succeed nessed a Maori cannibal feast, where him, taking up the work in the Ruk he bought off 2 intended victims for a. lagoon and among the MortIock islands. tomahawk:apiece. where a good beginning has been made amid a large population still rude and
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1891
THE REGIONS BEYOND
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
YOLo XIV. No. 2.-0Id Series. –FEBRUARY.–YOL. IV. No. 2.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
THE REGIONS BEYOND. * [EDITORIAL. ] The old Greeks were a worldly-wise people. In the Olympio games they showed their sagacity. Three pillars stood in the ancient stadium, respectively at the starting point, midway, and at the goal or turning point. On the first was inscribed a Greek word, whose force was, "Show yourself a man !" "Do your best!" On the last was a word which migh~ be rendered, "Stop here !" "Arrest your steps!" But on that midway pillar was the imperative ::i;'7rEVOE, " Speed you !" "Make haste !"
How much philosophy there was in that! No risk was greater than the· risk of overconfidence when success was but half attained. A racer, who at first outran the others, and at the middle of the course found himself ahead, would be tempted to 'relax his efforts; and so some athlete, who had reserved his strength for the supreme effort at the end of the race, would pass him by and get first to the goal.
Paul was a trained athlete in the spiritual sphere; and the law of his life was, "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Spinoza wisely said that there is no more fatal foe to all progress than selfconceit and the laziness which self-conceit begets. To think and feel that we have already attained or are already perfect, is the narcotio that brings on the sleep of the sluggard and the slothful.
The motto of the great apostle of the Gentiles was, THE REGIONS BEYOND. He would be satisfied with no other man's method of measurement, with no narrow circumference of present attainment. He yearned to evangelize-to preach the Gospel in the Regions Beyond, and not to boast in another man's canon or measure as to territory already embraced in the scheme of labor.
That motto of Paul is the trne watchword of the Church in this new age of missions. After all the work of a century, we have only * The substance of an address at anniversary of China Inland Mission, Mildmay Hall, London, England, May 21,1890, and stenographically reported.- A.T.P. just begun. We are not even at the midway pillar; and God says, " Speed ye! Make haste! Forget the things behind and push for the Regions Beyond." And this will we do, by the grace of God!
This grand motto suggests various important applications: 1. The Regions Beyond, in the literal sense,of territory thus/ar unclaimed and unoccupied for Ghrist. If this great work of evangelizing the world is ever to be done, we must penetrate the deceptive halo of mere enthusiasm and come to the bare, hard facts of a world's destitution and degradation. Zeal is good, but zeal according to knowledge is better. To know the facts is to be oppressed with a great burden, for souls. To judge from what is sometimes said or written on missions, one wonld suppose that the work, not only of evangelization but of conversion, is going on so rapidly that we might wake any morning and find the whole world brought to Christ. Let us get past and behind this rose-colored cloud, and look at those great bald facts that, like those stopy shafts of eternity, the crags of the mountains, lift their awful forms before us-I,500,000,000 of human beings-enough, if they were moving, single file, past a given point, one every second, to consume fifty years, day and night, in passing, yet going down to the grave at the rate of more than one every second! Death, three times every century, sweeping the entire population 'of the globe into eternity, like chaff from a threshing-floor, to make room for a new generation! And this process going on for nineteen centuries, uninterruptedly, so that, since Cllt'ist was born, nearly sixty generations have lived and died, most of whom never heard of Him! What if all that host might be supposed to move in procession at the same rate we have already imagined! It would take over a thousand years! And, while we are talking about evangelizing the world, and some enthusiasts are prophesying its speedy conversion, is it not true that there are to.day more unsaved souls in the human family than there were last elmtury, or even last year? With all our missionary effort is not t 11e world';; population advancing faster than the churches of Christ are gathering converts? Surely it is time the church should fully awake to her responsibility. We act as though we had ages before us in which to preach, and the unsaved had ages before them in which to be reached, whereas our term of service and their term of life must very soon expire. The China Inland Mission found the germ of its being in the fact that, in Inland China alone, were eleven great populous provinces where as yet no missionary had gone to reside; and, in ten of the eleven, missionaries are now permanently working. Let the church not shrink from facing the facts: the destitution still unreached is appalling. What are 700 missionaries in China among 350,000,000 of souls? One missionary to half a million! About the same proportion of missionaries amc,ng the 250,000,000 or 300,000,000· of India, one to about 400,000! In Siam, with from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000, about a score of men and women, laboring among the native Siamese and Laos people, every male missionary having an average parish of a million souls, and cities with a population of 200,000 having not even a Bible-reader or native teacher!
Consider Africa's need! How little is it understood. Even a missionary journal gave currency to the misleading statement that the Dark Continent is " tolerably well supplied wi.th missionaries, as thirty-five missionary societies are now at work there." If you go across Siberia and down the eastern slope of the Kong Mountains, through the three Soudans, of the Niger, Lake Tchad and the Nile, 3,000 miles to the Red Sea, and if 400 miles north and south of your line of travel you could survey the land, you would find 90,000,000 of people with scarce one missionary! And farther south, in the Congo Free State, you might travel from Equatorville east to the Great Lake stations, and there is another territory 1,000 miles long by half as many broad, whose 40,000;000 of people when Stanley passed through Uganda had not yet seen a missionary! Doubtless Africa has to-day at least 200,000,000 of people who never saw a Bible or heard the first proclamation of the good news. And yet Africa is " tolerably well supplied with missionaries! "
Am I not justified in saying that we must get beyond and behind all this illusive glamour of ignorance and imagination? Yes, beyond evanescent touches of sympathy and passage of resolutions, and do something for souls that are dying without Christ.
In all the world we have six: thousand 01' seven thousand missionaries, representing 30,000,000 of church members-one for every five thousand! Whereas, if Protestant churches gave out of their membership one in three hundred, it would Imt 100,000 missionaries in the field, exclusive of the native helpers, who have for the last half century outnumbered four or fivefold the missionaries from Christian lands. These are, doubtless, familiar facts; but Sydney Smith said that for purposes of impression repetition is the only figure of speech worth a farthing. These facts must be beaten in by repeated blows. We must not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. Never will the people of God take up the work of missions as they ought until they both understand and feel the emergency and extremity of a dying world and their own opportunity and {)bligation with reference to it.
As to opportunity, there was never any such before. We live in ~ays more augustly awful than any in previous history. I would rather live in this year 1891 than to have lived when Christ walked the earth. Grand as would have been the privilege of seeing the Lord in the flesh and being closely associated with Him then, this day of grace offers us opportunities of service and privileges of fellowship which, in their way, are even more transcendent.
The regions beyond, of the whole world, now lie open before the children of God. Fifty years ago the burden of public and united prayer for missions was that God would open the doors of the nations to the preaching of the Gospel. In those days Japan was like a vessel hermetically sealed; China was the walled kingdom, fifteen hundred miles of solid barrier shutting out "the foreign devils;" India was 'in the selfish clutch of the East India Company; the islands of the sea were held by cannibal savages, and Africa was not even explored. A hun- dred years ago it seemed as though there was no chance of reaching the vast bulk of the race with the Gospel. A great wall of idolatry, superstition, prejudice, surrounded the nations, with here and there a solitary breach; now, that whole wall is down, wit.h here and there a. fragment remaining to oppose our advance. Let those who see no God in history tell us how changes so stupendous have been brought about inside one century. No human being, no combination of human elements could ever have done this. But" one day is with the Lord as a thousand years," and there have been single historic" days" in this period, in which He has wrought the work that ordinarily would have taken a millenium.
That one year 1858 may be selected as the annus mirabilis of modern missions. During that one year doors were opened giving access to one thousand millions of the human race. In that year, 1858, Great Britain, after two hundred years of exclusion, made her treaty with Japan. In that same year China, by the treaty of Tientsin, threw open not only her p.orts, but her interior, and provided that any Chinese subject might embrace the Christian faith without molestation or persecution. In that same year India was transferred from the sordid East India Company to the British crown, and Victoria became Empress of the Indies. In that same year the revolutionary changes in Papal Europe laid the basis of Free Italy. In that same year David Livingstone sailed a second time for South Africa to complete his pioneer path for missionaries. In that same year Benito Juarez, in Mexico, overthrew the monastic system, confiscated the estates and revenues of the Papal Church, and opened the way for Protestant missionaries to enter Central America. And in that same year Elizabeth Sale, of Helensburgh, Scotland, successfully penetrated the zenanas of Hindustarr, and led the way in woman's work for woman!
Was there ever such a year as 1858? Within less than a twelvemonth doors of approach were opened to from thirty to forty millions in Japan, three hundred to four hundred millions in China, two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions more in India, including all her millions of women and girls, two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions more in Africa, besides the hosts in Papal Italy and Mexico! When Paul and Barnabas came back to Antioch from their first mission tour, "they gathered the Church together and rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles." But did God ever open doors of access in Apostolic times with such rapidity and on such a scale of grandeur as in your day and mine? Who shall dare say that the days of supernatural working are past, ",hen such miracles qf Providence are performed before our ~ery eyes?
The apathy and lethargy of the Church of Jesus Christ are alarming, for they suggest a deadening of sensibility. We are like those that walk amid a blare and glare and flare, and whose eyes and ears are dazed and dulled by the glory of the scenes in t.he midst of which they are moving.• This year 1858 was not the only wonderful year in modern missionary history. In 1878 there was such a mighty movement of God's grace in India that sixty thousand people turned from idols in Tinnevelly and the Telugu country within six months! And it was in that same year that some twenty persons gave upwards of $4,000,000 to missions, as though God would show what on the one hand His grace could do among the heathen, and, on the other hand, in prompting a higher Christian liberality.
The Regions Beyond, thus marvelously opened to the Church, are a perpetual challenge to us to occupy till He comes. We need to get down on our faces before God for a greater Pentecostal baptism than the Church has ever yet known. All our efforts lack unity and harmony and business methods. On some mission fields a score of different denominations will sometimes be found, working side by side, in a comparatively small district, while in the Regions Beyond millions are without a single missionary. And our home fields are often overstocked in comparison. When in Scotland, on my mission tour, I found in one village, of perhaps 1,200 people, five fine church buildings with as many educated pastors; the entire church-going population could have been accommodated in one of those buildings, and cared for by one of those ministers, while the other four, with the money that their buildings cost, might have been evangelizing the interior of Chin.a, India or Africa, where each man might have a parish of from one million to ten million souls! There is something wrong in the Christian Church when denominational zeal outstrips that nobler zeal for the evangelization of the vast multitudes that are absolutely uncared for. It would seem that something is wrong, even in the basis of our missionary work, when the Church of God can calmly look on eight hundred million of human beings that, eve~ yet, after nineteen centuries, have not so much as heard whether there be a Christ or no ! When Rev: Geo. W. Chamberlain first went to Brazil, he found 10,000,000 of people in a nominally Papal land, who scarcely knew what a Bible was. One old patriarch of four score years, to whom he gave a Portuguese New Testament, and explained salvation by faith, said to him: "Young man, this is what I have long been waiting to hear. But where was your father when my father was alive that he never came to tell my father how to be saved?" Some such question as that we must all answer, if not before we die, at the judgment seat of Christ.
These Regions Beyond-this te;ritory unclaimed and unoccupied for Christ-should at once be possessed. Christ distinctly outlined for His Church her missionary policy: it is not concentration but diffusion. We cannot too often ring out this truth. Some have urged the American Board to concentrate its forces largely upon Turkey, and then, when Turkey is thoroughly evangelizeQ, it will, they say, furnish evangelists for the Regions Beyond. A similar policy has been urged upon the Presbyterian Board in New York as. to Japan, and the Church Missionary Society as to India. The argument is that we should unite our forces upon a limited field till it is thoroughly Christianized, and then make the newly converted people an evangelizing force to push on to the furtJlermost limits of the earth.
This looks well and sounds well at first suggestion; but is it scriptural? Our Master made no such discrimination. " Go ye into all the world," " unto the uttermost parts of the earth," and "'preach the GORpel to every creature." Those are onr marching orders. The policy of concentration more or less limits the area of the work of the Church. To follow such a policy is not to go into the Regions Beyond. We are tempted to choose fields comparatively neal', attractive, promising; fields offering prospect of large and quick harvests; and leave the more distant, destitute, degraded races of mankind to utter neglect. vVhile we are concentrating on Turkey, Japan or India, what is to become of the other millions of mankind that have only one lifetime in which to hear the Gospel?
Again we would peal out in the dull ears of a sluggish Church the signal of opportunity and obligation ! We are to take whatever men and women we can get and whatever money and other means we can gather and do just as OUI' Master bade us-go everywhere and to every creature with the Gospel, and do it at once. And when the Church of God will do her simple duty with faith in her Lord, the miracle of the loaves and fishes will be repeated on a larger scale in human history. 'fhe small provision, which seems nothing amil1 snch a vast multitude of hungry souls, will, when brought to the :Master and used along the lines of His command, again illustrate the miraculous mathematics of God. As we subtract from our supply, He will add to our resources. As we will divide, He will multiply; and He will increase for distribution what we decrease by distribution.
We write it solemnly and with profound conviction and deep emotion: Christ waits to see the travail of faith in the souls of His people before He can see the travail of His own soul in the redemption of the race! Never will that largest and last blessing come to our mission work until we emphasize evangelization. for which we are responsible rather than conversion for which we are not responsible; until we abandon our worldly-wise centralization and concentration and adopt the divine policy of universal extension and diffusion, going with all speed even to the uttermost parts of the earth and bearing among all nations our witness to our I.ord and His cross. From His cradle to His tomb, and from His sermon on the Galilean Mount, to His last commission, perhaps upon the same Mount, we seem to see but one commanding signal: it is a Hand pointing ~ TO THE REGIONS BEYOND. [To be continued. ] EACH religion has an appropriate symbol. The cross has come to represent Evangelical Christianity, as the crucifix does the Papacy, and the Greek cross the Greek Church. The wheel of endless transmigration may well stand for Buddhism, the iron ring of caste for Brahmanism, the crescent for Mohammedanism, the sun-disk for Parseeism, the tablet for Confucianism, the dragon for demon worship, the stone for fetichism, and the axe for a destructive atheism.
" BECAUSE iniquity abounds the love of many shall wax cold." No believer can afford simply to breathe a polluted atmosphere, and if his work for God compels such associations he must frequently go, as Christ did, apart with God, and on the lofty mountain tops breathe a pure air, taking long and deep inspirations of that purifying and strengthening oxygen and ozone. Prof. Bernard used to illustrate our unconscious accommodation to a vicious atmosphere by placing a sparrow under a bell glass receiver, with ail' enough for three hours respiration. Then, at the end of two hours, he put a sccond sparrow under the receivel', and it fell over dead, while the formcr bird was able to sustain the process of respiration for the remainillg hour. So there is a law not only of physical but of spiritual toleration. We learn to live in a polluted atmosphere, to accommodate ourselves to a low level of spiritual life. Could we come suddenly from a pure society into the carnal and worldly and selfish atmosphere often found even in Christian churches, we should be stifled. Let us live much with God, in the closet, and so learn to detect and flee from a contaminated atmosphere. May this law not explain in part the high consecration of true missionaries? They can maintain spiritual life amid snch surronndings only by mueh COil verse with God.
THE MISSION OUTLOOK
THE MISSION OU'l'LOOK.-II.
BY J. MURRAY MITCHELL, M.A., LL.D., NICE, FRANCE.
We proceed to speak of the foreign field. And first we ask what progress has been made in the evangelizing of the nations generally?
We sometimes hear even the friends of missions assert that the progress is deplorably small. 1Ve ask-small in comparison with what? If the answer be-small in proportion to the effort made, the answer runs clean counter to our deepest convictions. Considering how little man has done or tried to do, the blessing from on high ap- pears to us most graciously, most marvelously large. The seed we sow never perishes; it brings forth fifty, sixty and a hundred fold. Just compare the progress made in modern times with what was witnessed when the Gospel was preached even by apostolic lips. Some thoughtlessly speak as if the miracle of Pentecost had been frequently repeated through the early centuries. It was not so, even during the first. The highest estimate which we can possibly form of the number of professing Christians in the year 100 is not half a million, including childre'n, and some authorities make it considerably less. But, during the last century, more than 3,000,000 have been rescued from heathenism by Protestant missions alone. The Lord is pleaaed to bless our poor, initial efforts far beyond what we had reason to expect-for very feeble and faltering have these efforts been; and His marvelous goodness ought to impel us to run henceforth the way of His commandments.
1Ve are fully aware of the retort which is frequently made: "Yes, you have gained perhaps 3,000,000 from heathenism during the last century; but the heathen population of the world has been increased by a vastly greater number; and there are far more heathen now than there were a hundred years ago." True, but the Christian population of the world has been increasing too. Proportionally it seems to increase twice as fast as the heathen population; and by the end of the present century-that is, ten years hence-the Christian inhabitants will actually increase more rapidly than the heathen inhabitants. Of course, we may be told that merely nominal Christianity is of no value. But that is not true. Just compare the state of Europe with that of the heart of Africa! The last accounts, supplied by Stanley and Mackay, regarding interior Africa, are as horrible as the descriptions which Dante gives of hell. Europe is no paradise; but neither is it a pandemonium.
1Ve are amazed at the erroneous conceptions as to the progress of missions existing in quarters that ought to be well informed. A few years ago a journal of high name asserted that the conversions to Mohammedanism in British India were about a hundred thousand annually. More recently an anonymous writer in one of our most inflnential magazines maintained that the conversions to Islam were every year about 50,000, and that India was steadily becoming Mo- hammedan. It was of no use for missionaries to protest against these assertions; on such subjects they, good men, are supposed to be hopelessly prejudiced, and it is for able editors to put them right. But next comes Sir W. W. Hunter, whose knowledge of Indian sta- tistics is unquestioned, and he informs us that, so far as statistics are available, the general population of India, in nine years, has increased 8 per cent., but the Christian population 30 per cent.; and that, tak- ing Bengal as a sample, while the Mohammedans have increased 11 per cent. the Christians have increased 64 per cent. That particular error, then, is finally disposed of. So much as regards numbers; but what about character? No doubt there are black sheep in the flock. Missionaries are sometimes detleived by inquirers, and the children of {)onverts in heathendom are very like young people in Christendom. Still, there has been generally-we suppose universally-a remark- able elevation of the Christian community in intelligence and cllarac- tel', and, as a consequence, it has risen and is rising in position. In ~ndia, government returns show that crime' exists among native Chris- tians only to one-fifth the degree which obtains among the Hindus. We believe the same thing is tl'Ue of converts in China, Japan and Siam. It is remarkably true throughout the Dutch dominions in the islands of Eastern Asia, as we may have occasion to show a little farther on.
Letus now glance at the chief mission fields separately, beginning at the East: JAPAN.-The progress in this empire during the last twenty years ()r so in which it has been possible to preach the Gospel in public, has " been steady, and, as compared with that in other countries, even Tapid. Recently, among the educated or half e,ducated young men there have been manifestations of a feeling of dislike to foreigners; and probably the cry of " Japan for the Japanese" will wax louder and louder. The strong feeling of nationality will affect the missions and their ecclesiastical arrangements. Quite possibly foreign mis- sionaries will be told, before ten years are come and gone, that their presence is no longer needed; and this not scornfully or bitterly, but from a conviction that Japanese Christians can manage their own affairs and evangelize their countrymen better than foreigners can. For our part, we respect their feeling; and though we desire no abrupt severance of existing ties, we trust to see, ere long, the great spectacle of a national church in Japan-self-supporting, Eelf-gov- erned and self-extending. We say a national chttrch. The mission· aries are laudalby exerting themselves to reduce the number of eccle· siastical divisions among Christians. The Presbyterians have all united; they had almost coalesced with the Congregationalists, when a bar was unhappily interposed-from, America, if we mistake not. The Methodists wish to unite; and so do the Episcopalians and others.
Excellent, so far; but the Japanese Christians long for one grand, national church; and they will have it if foreigners do not interfere.
Em Oriente lux. Very probably the problem of union, at which the chutches of Europe and America are toiling, will receive its solution from the minds and hearts of more far-off Eastern Christians. That ought to humble the haughty West; but all of us, we trust, would heartily rejoice in the result. When we speak thus, we dream that there will be one grand united church holding the principles of the Reformation. The Roman and Greek churches will doubtless remain apart from this, and from each other, in Japan as in other places.
The new constitution of Japan gives full tolerance to Christianity, and the Gospel may now be preached over the length and breadth of the empire. Are the two old religions-Shintoism and Buddhism- likely soon to pass away? Some have answered yes; but we fear not. Shintoism is a vague, colorless creed, and one naturally leaps to the conclusion that it cannot long contend against the Gospel. But it is the old, ancestral faith; nearly all the vaunted glories of Japan are connected with it; and, probably, it will die slowly, as did the religion of Rome, even after Constantine's profession of Christianity.
How difficult to forget the national traditions handed down for more than two thousand years; how difficult to throw off the religious ideas they embody! Buddhism is an alien faith, though in itself more definite than Shintoism; but it may not perhaps survive its rival.
Confucianism has been the creed of many of the higher classes, and its worldly, cold philosophy may content them for a good while longer-all the more readily, because it can easily combine with the ancestral Shinto worship. • KOREA comes next-the'" hermit nation," as it used to be called; "the land of the morning calm," as it calls itself. Korea had very little distinctive religion. Shintoism was little known; Buddhism was proscribed; Confucianism influenced only a few among the higheF classes. Vague, confused superstition was all in all. But Korea happily has an easy alphabet, and multitudes, even of women, are able to read.
The beginnings of Protestant work in Korea are due to the Rcv. John Ros~, missionary of the (Scottish) United Presbyterian Church in Manchuria. He tra~slated various portions of the Scriptures illto Korean, from the year 1873 onwards. These were circulated in Northern Korea, and the result was truly remarkable-indeed, few things in mission history have been more so.* Then came the Ameri- can Mission, in 1884, being begun by Dr. Allen, a medical missionary, • See Report of Foreign Missions of (American) Presbyterian Church for 1890. In a spirit which does them much honor the Americans speak most war..lIy of the labors of the Scottish Mission, which preceded their own. whose professional skill was greatly valued in the highest quarters. An Episcopal Methodist Mission has followed, and recently an Angli- can one. Two laborers from the General Assembly of Victoria, in Australia, co-operate with the Presbyterian Mission. So far a mar- velous blessing has rested on the work. The opening of Korea has . been more sudden, and more complete, even than the opening of Japan.
CHINA.-In connection with China the eye first naturally fixes on the late Missionary Conference held at Shanghai. It was very large, very harmonious, very earnest and very hopeful. Of the arousing call to the Church of Christ to send China a thousand missionaries within the next five years we have already spoken. Especial stress was laid on the work of women. Dr. Williamson, since then, to the great loss of China, deceased, said that the permanent Christianization of China depends on the women, and that the women can be reached only by women. The conference did not take any narrow view of Christian work, and one of its solemn declarations was: "We hear a loud call to the Christian Church to supply Christian educationists for China." Lastly, it came to a most important resolution regarding the translation of the Scriptures into Chinese. Hitherto there have been rival versions, and interminable disputes aA to the rendering of im- pOl·tant words (even the name of God among them), and when the conference met, agreement on long-contested points seemed utterly hopeless. But the" great mountain" became" a plain," and satis- factory means were proposed for the preparation of versions in the high classical language, the colloquial :Mandarin, and an intermediate dialect. In addition to these there is a considerable number of local '. dialects, and arrangements were entered into by which versions into these will be made, or, if already made, harmonized. Had the Shanghai Conference achieved nothing more than this, all the labor and expense connected with long journeyings and a session of more than a fort- night would have been richly repaid.
SIAM.-Buddhism is the established religion in Siam; but here, as elsewhere, the name veils a mass of childish superstitions. The chief mission here has been the American Presbyterian, which began its work in 1840. Its operations are carried on mainly in the northern part-Laos. Some twenty years ago there was a severe persecution of the Christians; but, for some years past, opposition on the part of the government has completely died away. Education and medical work receive decided encouragement from the king and the high officials. All the missionaries seem to be full of hope.
NETHERLANDS, INDIA.-The Dutch possessions in Eastern Asia are so called by the Hollanders, though they have no connection with IIindustan. (They are part of Indict extra Gangem.) Until of late the Dutch authorities discountenanced missions, if they did not actively oppose them. '1'0 this day religion is at a low ebb among the Dutch inhabitants of Eastern Asia, and the clergy are often ,avowedly rationalistic. But the missions have done much faithful work, and the blessing from on high has rested on them. We give some remarkable figures in a note. * We understand that the oppo- sition of the authorities to missions has entirely ceased. They admit that the native Christians are visibly superior to the heathen (incluiing Mohammedans) in industry, cleanliness and morality. The owners of plantations in Java prefer native Christian laborers to all others. Let it be observed that, though the Mohammedans are zealous in proselytizing, yet the conversions from Islam to Christianity have been very numerous, especially of late.
INDIA. t-In this great field the battle between the Gospel and heathenism becomes hotter every day: "All reports of religious affairs are growing in urgency and interest."! 'l'he next Decennial Missionary Conference takes place two years hence, and the proceedings may be expected to be of absorbing interest.
There are vast diversities between different parts of India. Even the languages spoken amount, according to the census report, to 106, and some have reckoned as many as 132. The diversities among the inhabitants are astonishingly great. To use Lord Dufl'erin's words: "At one extremity you have the naked, savage hill-man, with his stone weapons, his head-hunting, his polyandrous habits, and his childish superstitions; and at the other extremity you have the Europeanized native gentleman, with his refinement and polish, his literary culture, his Western philosophy, and his advanced political ideas."
Even a lifetime barely suffices to supply a full, comprehensive idea of India. We are, therefore, continually in danger of drawing too general conclusions from particular facts. And hence come such ,conflicts of opinion as to the state of things in India. Some already tell us they can hear the wailing cry that" great Pan is dead"; § while others declare that, as yet, he has received no serious wound. We, therefore, entreat the friends who pay a cold-weather visit to India, and then rush home to proclaim the conclusions they have reached, to specify the part of the Indian Continent which they have studied and think they understand. On the other hand, we must request the men who knew India ten or fifteen years ago to remem- *Christians in Java (1873)….. …..•….• 5,673 " (1889) …………….. 11,229 in Snmatra (1873). .. .. .. . ….. 2,500 (1889) . .. .. .. .. …. 12,000 in all Dntch India (1873) …… 168,672 (1889) .•.••.250,000 ~ an increase of 66 per cent. nearly.
These figures are given by Inspektor Schreiber, of Barmen.
t Many of the principles we state regarding missions in India will apply to missions ,generally. :j: Last report of British and Foreign Bible Society, p. 184. § Ibid, p. 185. bel' that change now proceeds rapidly, even in what used to be called the" unchanging East."
The accessions to the Church of Christ in India continue to be chiefly drawn, as heretofore, from the races generally called abori-.
ginal-such as the Kols, Santals, Garos, Khasias, etc. (as in Burma from among the Karens). It was high time that missions should exert . themselves in behalf of these tribes; for, ere long, they would cer- tainly have been merged in the general Hindu population; the ab-.
sorption was steadily going on. We lately noticed an assertion by a high Indian official to the effect that Hinduism is gaining rather than losing ground. Quite true, in a sense. Uncivilized races are influenced by the civilized races near them; their vague demon wor- ship gives way before the more definite Hindu mythology, and their marriage and funeral rites fall gradually under the control of the Brahmans. Races that live apart eSyape this influence in a great degree; but those that have intercourse with the Hindus become more or less Hinduized. True, they are not received into the Hindu com- munity-they are not taken into caste; they are, so to speak, tied on to the great mass, not ingrafted into it. Other races, such as the Dhers, of Gujarat, or the Mhars and Mangs, of Maharashtra, no longer live apart from the Hindus; they are attached to the villages-permitted, not indeed to live in them, but around or near them. Among such races the progress of the Gospel is not much slower than among the more sequestered aborigines.
It is cheering to watch the steady elevation of these hitherto down-trodden races. The Brahmans, of course, sneer. Often have we heard them say, "We are too wary to swallow your bait, and so you go to those wretched outcasts." In truth, the missionary goes to all; but the proud Brahmans, as a rule, despise the message; while, in many cases, the poor and despised do not. And the reception of the truth raises and refines; the very expression of the countenance is changed. Then, when the children of converts are carefully taught and trained-and that this should be done is a most pressing, sacred duty-they compete, on no unequal terms, even with the intellectual Brahmans.
Thus the wrongs of ages are gradually becoming redressed; a social fabric, based on a new foundation, is slowly rising; and, by and by, the Christians will be not only the men of light, but the men of leading, too. .
Among the middle and higher classes the visible progress of the Gospel, as shown in the number of baptisms, is much slower than among the races we have just referred to. Hitherto it has been very difficult to reach these classes except through schools and colleges.
This is still true of India generally; but there are already exceptions to the rule, e~pecially in the largest cities. If evangelistic addresses were attentively listened to only when delivered in English, one might fear that the language, more than the meaning, formed the attraction; but earnest appeals in the vernacular, when the speaker wields it with any power, are also becoming acceptable. The change is immensely important. Educational missionaries ascribe it to the influence of Christian education, and we think they are right in doing so.
Attacks on educational missions continue to be made, as they have been for fifty years; but we see no new argument advanced. ""Ve suppose they will be repeated; but the missionaries will patiently toil on-aye, no kind of mission work is so toilsome as theirs, and assuredly it is not from a love of ease they take to it-and while they heartily rejoice in the extension of all kinds of missionary effort, they cannot, in faithfulness, give up their own. Education, both lower and higher, has become a necessity in India. Who is to give it? Government is disposed to withdraw more and more from its higher institutions, and (in a spirit which does it much honor) is expressing its belief that only those in which religious instruction is given can meet the necessities of India. Are Protestant missionaries to abandon the work?
Hoc Ithac1l8 velit, et magna mercentur AtridaJ. Nothing would delight the natives more; nothing would delight the Romanists more. The moulding of the higher thought of India would then be in the hands of these two classes. We hold that too much has been conceded already to the cry of " preaching, not teaching." The Cathedral Mission College, in Calcutta, in connection with the Church Missionary Society, founded by Bishop Cotton, was given up in 1880, under the impression that there were needlessly many colleges in Calcutta; but the demand for higher education has greatly increased since then, and the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society regret the closing, and for this reason, among others, that they now cannot get into touch with the influential student class as they used to do when their college was in existence.
Some people talk of educational missions as if they were merely educational. Is there one such mission in all India? We believe not. People who criticise what they call" Dr. Duff's system" should try to understand what that system was.
The fullest examination of this question with which we are acquainted is contained in the" Revised Special Report of the Foreign Missions Committee of the Church of Scotland on Educational Missions in India." The document comprises 213 pages, and embodies the opinion of eighty-four persons, connected with various churches, who were deemed well qualified to pronounce an opinIon on the important question proposed; and it shows that, after most patient and prolonged inquiry, the General Assembly of the Church resolved to maintain its educational efforts. The report deserves to be studied as a valuahle rer,ertory, not only of opinions, but of facts. We read that wheu the apostle and his companions were tossed up and down ill Adria, they "cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day." When some one rejoicingly pointed to the first streaks of dawn on the Eastern horizon, we wonder whether he re- ceived the chilling rebuke: "The dawn is nothing; we are waiting for the sunrise." But so speak many now. They do not believe in pro- cesses and preparations. They expect the sunrise immediately to follow midnight. Each of the higher religions of India covers as large an area as it did before; and many sorrowfully ask what im- pression, then, the Gospel is making on them. 'Ve reply that the Gospel never comes into real contact with heathenism without affect- ing it, and the influence exerted is in direct proportion to the com- pleteness of the cOlltact. The moral teachings of Christianityap- peal to natural reason and conscience; they carry with them their own bright evidence, and are acce})ted without much delay. The deeper mysteries, such as the divinity and atoning sacrifice of Christ, are, it may be for a long time, vehemently opposed by many; nor need we wonder at this, seeing that ., no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost." But when the Gospel is fully and faithfully proclaimed, it is never long proclaimed in vain. The truth is revealed to some; and these profess their faith, and, if need be, are prepared to suffer for it.
Now, in India, the higher religions are being shot through by the arrows of light; that is to say, the moral teachings-and much of the teaching regarding God contained in the Gospel is st.eadily penetrat- 'ing the mind of heathenism. The professors of heathen religions may deny that they borrow from Christianity; they may not be aware that they do borrow, but that does not alter the fact. One of the most noteworthy proofs of what we now affirm is supplied by a statement lately made by the high priest of the chief division of the Bombay Zorastrians, to the effect that the attributes ascribed in the Avesta to Ahuramazda are the same as the Old Testament ascribes to Jehovah. The statement is far from correct; but the high priest honestly believed what he so strongly affirmed. The wish was father to the thought.
We need hardly dwell longer on this. Every student of church history will see in it only a repetition of what occurred during the first three centuries. Heathenism was then compelled by the presence of the Gospel to remodel itself. "Reformed heathenism adopted features borrowed from Christianity, and even grew to be an imitation of it."* It thought to save itself by so doing. But by and by, as the lamented Liddon expressed it: "Conversions came with a rush."
Our readers must have been surprised to hear of the late sugges- * Uhlhorn "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," Bk. II., ch.3. tion, made by at least one man of influence, that the Bible be added to the Hindu sacred books. A very natural proposal, in the mouth of one who recognizes the steady onward march of Christianity, and would fain come to terms with it before it is too late. But the pro- gress of the truth is still more fully proved by the alarm that is so widely professed and the vehement efforts to oppose it-Hindu tracts,.
Hindu preachers-these are now sent forth in great numbers; and the Gospel is mercilessly attacked. The large society called the "Arya Samaj," gives in to Christianity so far that it surrenders po- lytheism, idol-worship, caste, and child-marriage, and permits the re-marriage of widows. It falls back on the Vedas as the sole author- itative scriptures, and, by torturing Sanskrit terms, it finds Christian and modern ideas in them. It is ienscpreecaisailnlgy.a f"rIafi d•woef cCohnrt iins tuiea nt oscshl eoeopls, ". Its propagandism is zealous and it cries, " our temples will soon be Christian churches."
But it is in vain that the Arya Samaj has abandoned three-fourths of Hinduism in order to save the remainder. Christianity is, so to speak, in the air.* It affects all the religious thinking of India; and its influence is seen in the remarkable attempts at reform which are happily becOI~ing so frequent. People may call these only social re- forms; but in India what is social is also religious. The Rajputana chiefs, bolder than the British Government, have limited marriage ex- penses and fixed the minimum marriage age for men at 18, and for women at 14. This is a stupendous change; and it involves stupen- dous consequences. The persistent efforts to encourage the re-mar- riage of widows; the refusal of the barbers of Bombay to shave the heads 'of widows; the formation of a social reform association, which held its third annual meeting in December, 1889, where it was noted with interest that several Hindu ladies were present; these and similar movements are, to anyone that knows the people of India, full of interest and promise; and, we repeat, that they are traceable, directly or indirectly, to the influence of Christianity. We spoke above of ideas changing; but there is also, though to a less extent, a change of institutions.
We have been Ilpeaking of Hindus. But the Mohammedans in India are also moving. Their antipathy to vVestern education is con- siderably mitigated. That enlightened man, Sir Synd Ahmad, tells us that his college at Alighar is flonrishing. If so, Moslem bigotry is proportionally declining.t Meantime, the uneducated Mohammed- ans-note especially what has happened in the north at Peshawur- * Since this was written, we find the same expression quoted in the Church Missionary Society Report. p. 172.
t A high Indian official, Sir Auckland Colvin, has said: "An Alighar col- lege man has become synonymous with a man of liberal ideas, advanced edu- cation and independent character." We have seen this college. We have ob-· served that its alumni are Mohammedan in little more than name. are as greatly terrified at the progress of Christianity as is the Arya Samaj among the Hindus. Zenana mission teachers are objects of especial dread to Mohammedans, as well as to Hindus. Let our sisters thankfully and strenuously persevere; their work is telling greatly.
[To be continued.] THE Church of God cripples all her mission boards and mission work by a selfish withholding of money for the Lord's cause, and then wonders at the slow progress of missions in fields where retrenchment makes all advance impossible. This absurd contradiction reminds us of the wars of Arminius (Hermann), Prince of Cherusci (16 B. C.- '16 A. D.) The Germans bored holes in the tongues of the Roman lawyers and judges, and then said, " Now, rattle away /"
ONE of the McAll workers in Paris was very much affected at finding a poor working woman, already in a dying condition, who bad strayed into one of the salles and there for the first time heard of Christ as the Good Shepherd of souls. She was trying to recall and put together in an intelligible shape the few hints she had picked up at that meeting, mere fragments of gospel truth, and when she found one at her bedside who could give her the whole truth about this great Saviour her joy was so great that she forgot even the agonies of dying! And yet there are literally millions of souls in France hungering for just such a Gospel.
MATERIALISU, like other forms of infidelity, has a basis of insincerity. At a meeting in Liverpool an evangelist publicly said: " I do not believe there is an honest man ill the world who really believes that we are all simply matter and go out of existence at death. If there is a real materialist in this audience I would like to see him." A man rose up and shouted: "Well, here is one." "Come up here," .said the evangelist, " I want all these people to see a man whose mother died like a dog, and that was the end of her." "You are a liar," shouted the man, " she was one of the best women that ever lived, and she's in h.eaven to-day /" The fellow was fairly. caught in his' own trap. He quite forgot for the moment his own creed!
THE efforts of churches which are not evangelical and which lack all true missionary spirit to found mission enterprises, simply to appear aggressive and seem abreast of other professed believers-in other words, to save themselves the humiliatio.n of a significant contrast-have always ended in disastrous failure. Often, instead of Christianizing the helthen, they themselves become heathenized. Those impulsive spurts in the direction of missions remind us of a significant phrase in the psalms, in which, referring to the triumphant passage of Israel over the Red Sea, the sacred writer adds, "which the Egyptians, assaying to do, were drowned /"
MISSION OF THE AMERICAN BOARD IN NORTH CHINA
A CONDENSED SKETCH OF THE MISSION OF THE AMER- ICAN BOARD IN NORTH CnINA.
HEXRY BLODGETT, D.D.
The history of the North China Mission is closely connected with that of the Shanghai Mission, and through that with the history of the Canton Mission, the first of the American Board, and of the American churches in China.
Mr. Bridgman, the first American missionary to China, arrived in Canton in the year 1830, twenty-three years after Dr. Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to this empire. In 1847 Mr. Bridgman , went to Shanghai as a delegate of his missionary brethcrn to assist in the translation of the Bible. This resulted in his permanent residence in that city, where he died in the year 1861. The translation made by Messrs. Bridgman and Culbertson into the written language of China is still in use, while the twenty volumes of the Chinese Re- pository, edited by Dr. Bridgm;tn, remain as an invaluable thesaurus of matters relating to China and the far East. .
In the year 1854 Messrs. Aitchison al,ld Blodget were sent out by the Board to join Dr. Bridgman at Shanghai, thus forming the Shanghai Mission. Mr. Macy joined the mission in 1858, making the fourth ordained missionary.
During the years in which the mission was continued at Shanghai, Dr. Bridgman was engaged in translating, also taking the pastoral care of the church connected with the boarding-school of girls, under the charge of Mrs. Bridgman. The three younger members of the mission were engaged in the usual work of teaching and preaching, as they were able, both in the city and the outlying country. 'rhe rule established soon after the opening of the" Five Ports,"
of twenty-fonr hours absence only, from one of the ports, was soon broken at Shanghai, and before long became a dead letter, Mission- aries made frequent tours into the interior. In the autumn of 1858 MassI'S. Aitchison and Burdon (now Bishop Burdon of Hong-Kong), after many journeys in the country together, took up their residence at Ping Hoo, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, seventy miles southwest of Shanghai. Here Mr. Aitchison remained for the winter, but re- turned at length to Shanghai in hope of commencing a mission in the llorth of China.
Such a movement seemed very desirable both to the Board, and to the memhers of the miRsion. Shanghai being the northernmost of the fi ve ports then opened, various European and American Societies had designated their missionaries to this city, so that, before the open- ing of China in 1860, more than thirty lahorers, representing as many as ten or eleven bodies of Christians in different countries were con- gregated there waiting for restrictions to be removed as a signal for advance to all parts of China. The year 1859 was one of sore trial to the Shanghai Mission. Mr. Macy died in April; Mr. Aitchison accepted in June a place offered him in the American Embassy, then about to proceed to Peking, in the hope that it might result in fixing his residence in the Northern Capital. He had only been eight days in Peking when he was taken ill, and after eleven days of suffering, died August 15th en rm£te to the .seaboard. He was buried in the Gulf of Chihli. In the autumn of the same year Mrs. Blodget was compelled by failure of health to re- turn to the United States.
In the following spring, 1860, Mr. Blodget for a like reason was forced to quit Shanghai. He went first to Japan, and, after two months at Kanagawa, embarked on a British transport, bound, for Taku to join the fleet about to rendezvous at that place. The ship ar- rived at her destination August 19th, just one year from the time, when, near the same spot, Mr. Aitchison was lowered to his watery grave.
A few days after her arrival the Taku Forts were taken, and in a short time all North China was open to the missionary and the mer- <lhant. Tientsin became an entrepot of foreign trade, and Peking the place of residence of the ministers of the various treaty powers of the West.
Early in September, of this year, Mr. Blodget landed in Taku, and on the 8th of November took up his residence in the city of Tientsin, being at that time and during the following winter the only Protestant missionary in this newly opened province.
The city was then garrisoned by the allied English and French forces. A lodgment was readily obtained in the barracks of the British soldiers, ana Christian work was commenced at once, both among the soldiers and the thronging multitudes of Chinese, who received with great friendliness the newly arrived missionary.
In April of the following year, 1861, Mr. Blodget had the happiness of welcoming to this field the Rev. J. Innocent, of the English Methodist Mission, and in May the Rev. J. Edkins (now Dr. Edkins), of the London Mission.
A journey to Peking in the month of May showed how entirely the country was open to travel, and to Christian effort; nor was any objection offered to passing about freely within the walls of the capital, even to those in no way connected with the legations.
During this month a chapel and houses for residence were rented within the city of Tientsin, and the Sabbath services were removed from the temple court, in which they had been held, to this place. Blind Chang, the first convert, was baptized in June, 1861. He was a 'veale man in humble life, but there is hope that he died a Christian.
Several journeys were undertaken, in this and the following year, for the exploration of this new field, as also for direct missionary ef- 'ort. These journeys extended to Teh-chen, in Shantung, on the South; to Pao Ting-fu, the capital of Chihli; to Tai Yuan-fn, Ta T'ung- fu, in Shansi; to Chang Chia K'eu (or Kalgan), on the Northwest;. also to T'ung Cheu and other cities east of Peking.
The Rev. J. Doolittle, of Fuhchau, spent the winter of 1862 and 1863 in Tientsin assisting in the work of the mission. Mr. Blodget spent the greater part of the winter in Peking, but returned to Tient- sin in view of the departure of Mr. Doolittle for Fuhchau. The mission was reinforced in 1863 by the arrival of the Rev. C. A. Stanley in March, and the Rev. L. D. Chapin in May. They took up their residence within the city walls, in houses which had been pur- chased the previous autumn through the aid of the late Dr. S.. W. Williams. Subsequently, on the ground of health, the residence of the missionaries was changed to the settlement, southeast of the city.
The principal labors of the missionaries have been in preaching the Gospel, and in the distribution of Christian books, both in the city and in the country. A day-school of boys has generally been maintained, and at times a few boarders have been taken in and cared for. The project of a higher institution of learning at Tientsin, in which the English language should be taught, has often been before the mis8ion, and has met with much favor.
The work of this station received a great impulse in the years foll0'Ying the famine of 1877. At that time the missionaries, furnished with funds to the amount of $10,000, more or less, by the liberality of Christian nations, threw themselves unreservedly into the work of famine relief, in which they were assisted also by members of the station at 'l"ungcheu. Their principal labors were in the region of P'ang Chuang, the central place of their work in Shantung. ~Iultitudes of the starving people were relieved in their distress. In this and the following years the missionaries found open doors and open hearts to the preaching of the Gospel. Several hundreds turned to the Saviour. The church was greatly enlarged, and a new station at P'ang Chuang was the result. The life of MI'. Smith, at one time greatly endangered by famine fever, was spared, and his labors are continued at this new station.
The importarice of Tientsin as the port of entrance, not only for Northern and Western Shantung, but also for Northern Ho Nan, for Shansi, Chihli, and inner Mongolia cannot be overestimated.
The station at Peking was formed in 1864. Though frequent visits had been made to this city by Mr. Blodget since May, 1861, it was not until February, 1864, that he took np his permanent residence here. Through the timely assistance of Dr. Williams, the present mission premises were purchased in March, and a chapel was opened in one of the rear buildings almost immediately for public preaching. This was a new departure for Peking, and one which attracted crowds of curious listeners. The pr~mises had been purchased from the Chinese for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; but that Society, being cramped by its own laws, was unable to take them over, and allowed this advantageous location to pass into the hands of the American Board.
On July 1st, Mrs. Bridgman arrived in Peking, having left New York when only partially recovered from a dangerous accident, and narrowly escaped the Alabama on the way. Mrs. Bridgman at once set herself to establish a girls' boarding-school, which has been continued ever since that time, and is now known as the" Bridgman School." She also gave to the Board the entire sum which had been expended for houses, lands and school buildings, amounting to not less than $5,000. In 1868 she left Peking, broken down in health, and spent the remainder of her days in Shanghai, where she died, in 1871. While in Shanghai, though in feeble health, she laid the foundations of a boarding-school for girls, and a dispensary, which, by her will, have passed into the hands of the Woman's Union Mission of New York.
The mission force in Peking was increased in November, 1864, by the arrival of the Rev. J. T. Gulick and Mrs. Gulick; and again, in August, 1865, by the arrival of the Rev. C. Goodrich and Mrs. Goodrich. A month before their arrival, in the early part of July, Mr. and Mrs. Gulick left Peking for Kalgan, to open a mission station in that city. The next reinforcement was by the coming of Mr. and Mrs. ·P. R. Hunt and Miss M. H. Porter, in 1868.
Miss Porter very soon took charge of the Bridgman School; Miss Chapin joined her in 1872. Under the efficient management of these ladies, and of Miss Haven, who arrived in 1879, t}Jis school has maintained a high character, and has been of the greatest service in training up young women suitable for wives for the native helpers, able also to take some part in Christian work. This school has formed the nucleus for efforts for women, botb in the city and in the country.
Mr. Hunt after twenty-seven years of service in India, came to Peking with the enthusiasm of youth to establish a mission press, and also to take charge of the financial affairs of the Mission. The press he established in 1869. It was at the time, and still remains, the only press of Protestant missions in North China. The money used for this purpose was supplied by the indemnity fund received from the Chinese Government after the burning of the mission press in Canton in 1858, and was originally given to the Board by the Bleecker Street Church, in New York, for the establishment of that press. Mr. Hunt was a skillful printer. vVork done by him was well done, whether in the establishment of the press, or in printing the books which issued from it.
During the nineteen years in which Mr. Hunt and Mr. Noble, who succeeded him, had charge of the press, there were printed on it, for the American Bible Society, the version of the New Testament, in Mandarin, prepared by the Peking Committee, that of the Old Testa- ment, also in the Mandarin, prepared by Bishop Schereschewsky, the Psalms and various portions of the New Testament; for the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, the four Gospels, with notes on the same; for the Church Mission Society, the book of Common Prayer; a series of Sabbath-school lesson papers and other works, for the North China Tract Society; a treatise on theology by Mr. Sheffield; several editions of a hymn book by Messrs. Blodget and Goodrich; a geography by Rev. L. D. Chapin; a smaller work on geography by Rev. L. W. Pilcher; a treatise on physiology by Dr. Porter; tracts and books by Miss M. H. Porter and l-Iiss M. E. Andrews, and, in addition, a con- siderable list of tracts and books not here enumerated. From the first this press has done a select work for local convenience-rather a large work for distant parts of China.
In commencing chapel preaching in Peking Mr. Blodget was assisted by the late Rev. VV. C. Burns, whose memory is still fragrant in the minds of some who heard the Gospel at that time. Subsequently Messrs. Goodrich, Holcombe and Roberts, each during the time of his connection with this station, labored in evangelist.ic work, both in the city and in the country. These are now succeeded by Messrs. Ament and Aiken. A good degree of success has attended these efforts, and frequent accessions in the city and at the country stations indicate a, constant growth in the membership of the church.
The boys' boarding-school in this station was discontinued in 1869. Two day-schools for boys have usually been maintained in the city, and at present there is one day-school in the country. There is also a day-school f~r girls in the city.
Perhaps there is no large city in Europe, or even in the whole world, more open to every sort. of evangelistic and educational labor, and to all the eleemosynary institutions of the Christian church than is Peking at the present time..
'rhe Kalgan station was opened by Rev. and Mrs. J. T. Gulick in the summer of 1865. Great difficulties were encountered in the early days of this station in renting houses and procuring suitable places for mission work. In the end unwearied patience, combined with great skill and prudence and unbounded charity in caring for the sick and needy, secured the desired result.
This station was reinforced in 1867 by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, in 1868 of lIr. Thompson, in 1870 of Miss Diament, and subsequently, after Mr. and Mrs. Gulick had left for Japan, by .iYlt-. and Mrs. Sprague, and Mr. and l-Irs. Roberts and Miss Dr. Murdock.
Healing the sick and a boys' day-school were from the first carried on jointly with evangelistic work at this station. After the coming of Dr. Murdock, a hospital and a diRpensary, including an opium refuge, were opened. A girls' boarding-school was established by Mrs. "Villiams, which is now under the charge of Miss Diament. The buildings for the school were erected largely by funds contributed by one of the mission families.
The Yu Cheu Valley, seventy miles southwest of Kalgan, has hitherto been the most fruitful part of this field, and in the city of Yu Cheu it is now proposed to estahlish a new station. Kalgan and Yu Cheu are solely in the charge of missionaries of the American Board. Other societies are not likely to enter this field.
Kalgan is located at a pass in the great wall. It has an outlook upon the rolling pasture lands of Mongolia. The roving Mongols are often seen in the streets of the city, and pass through in numbers on their way to Peking, or in their pilgrimages to Wu'l"ai in Shansi. The missionaries have often proposed labor for these sons of the desert, and something has been done among them. One convert to the Christian faith has been baptized in Kalgan. It has been suggested that one missionary should devote himself to this work.
The station at T'ungcho was opened by the Rev. L. D. Chapin in 1867. No serious difficulty was experienced in securing' residences. The people in 'l"ungcho have from the first been friendly to the missionaries. The station was reinforced in 1868 by the arrival of Miss Andrews, and in 1869 of Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield; Miss Evans reached T'ungcho in 1872; Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich, after their return from the United States in 1872 spent a year at Yu Cheu, and thence removed the following year to 'l"nngcho. Dr. Holhrook arrived in 1881, Mr. 1nd ]frs. Beach in 1883, Dr. and lVirs. Ingram in 1887, and Miss Miner in 1888.
The boarding-school for hoys, early established by Mr. Chapin, has been enlarged, and expanded by the efforts of Mr. Sheffield and others, so that it has now become the Mission High School. To this pupils are sent from all the stations of the mission to go through with a thorough course of study, in the hope that many of them will enter the Christian miuistry, and that all will hecome helpful in one way or another to the cause of Christ.
The course of study embraces a thorough knowledge of the Chinese classics, learning to compose in the written language, a familiar acquaintance with the Bible, including the study of Bible history and geography, and the committing to memory of quite a number of the books of the New Testament, also some of the more impo]·tant branches of gClleral knowledge and Western science, such as geography, mental and written arithmetic, algebra, geometry, chemistry, mechanics, phy~iology, geology and astronomy. It is de8iglled to extend the course and introduce higher branches as fast as the needs of the sehool and the circumstances of the mission make it expedient. The high school is to become the college. Connected with this high school is the theological seminary of the mission, designed for those who are prepal'ing to enter the ministry. Here the various departments of exegesis, systematic theology, church history, sacred rhetoric and the pastoral charge are attended to, so far as the attainments of the students and the circumstances of the case will allow. A great and an increasing amount of medical work has been done at this station from the first.
Through the energetic labors of Dr. Holbrook a hospital and dis- pensary were opened, the work in which is now vigorously carried forward by Dr. Ingram. Dispensaries are also opened at two country stations not remote from T'tmgcho. It is proposed that medical instruction shall be given to some of the students at this station.
General evangelization, both in the city and, to some extent, in the country, has been carried forward at thif station, in connection with the work of teaching, with hopeful results.
T'ungcho is the port of Peking, twelve miles distant from that city, with which it is soon to be connected by rail. Its accessibility by water and its abundant accommodations have made it to be chosen as the place for the annual gatherings of the mission.
The station. at Pao Ting fu was opened by Mr. Pierson in 1873. At no other place has so great difficulty been experienced in obtaining suitable residences for mission familieR. For more than a year Mr. Pierson lived in a Chinese inn, and until the present time he has occupied rented houses in a crowded ,part of the city. It is only within two years that the desired plot of ground has been purchased, in the southern suburb, upon which buildings have been erected to accommodate one or two families. Happily there has been no collision with the authorities or with the people. By uniform kindnessand prudent management all causes of offense have been avoided.
Here, as in Kalgan and T'ungcho, medical aid, though administered by unprofessional hands, has from the fhst been a most potent agency in removing prejudice and opening the hearts of the Chinese. After the arrival of Dr. Peck, in 1880, this branch of the work fell to llis care. Large numbers of patients flocked to his hospital and dispensary from the city and the surrounding region of country. Under the care of Dr. Merritt, who arrived in 1886, this useful work is still continued.
A school for boys, and one al.so for girls, in each of which there have been some boarding pupils, have been maintained at this station. "Vork for women has been carried forward b~r Mrs. Pierson and Miss Pierson. Colporteurs under the direction of 111'. Pierson have labored extensively in all that part of the province.
Pao Ting fu, as being the provincial capital, is a place of much political importance. Its situation at the head of river llavigation renders it a commercial emporium for grain, salt and various kinds of merchandise. All missionaries for Shansi pass through Pao Ting fu. This is the highway for officials passing from the capital to the south- western provinces of the empire. The place is well chosen as an im- portant and convenient centre for missionary labor.
The station at P'ang Chuang was the outgrowth of the work ~t Tientsin. Mr. Hou, a man whose name is held in loving remem- brance by the Christians of that region, heard the Gospel in P'ang Chuang from a native helper, and went himself to Tientsin to learn more of this new way. In the Gospel he found the truth for which he had elsewhere sought in vain, and was baptized in 1872.* "Within a few years he became himself a helper, his house the headquarters of the missionaries at every visit, as well as the centre of the famine re- lief work, and his village was afterwards chosen as the residence of missionaries designated to the Shantung station of the American Board. From the year 1872 the work in this region graduallyex- panded until, at the end of 1877, the annual additions brought the membership up to forty-three, representing twelve different villages." 'rhen followed the long to be remembered famine of 1877, and the famine relief, and the subsequent enlargement of the church, in view {)f which the mission resolved, in 1880, to open a new station at P'ang Chuang.
It has been usual in China, in all the missions, to locate mission- aries in large and important towns and cities. P'ang Chuang is al- m08t, if not quite, the only case of a mission station established in a rural district quite away from any city 01' great mart of trade. Yet the missionaries here have a great work on their hands. They are in the midst of a very populous region of country, so that within a radius of six miles there are approximately 150 villages and hamlets, {lontaining 60,000 inhabitants. In more than sixty of these villages they already have church members, and the lines or" their efforts are constantly reaching out into the outlying villages, towns and cities which are not distant from their central station.
The fact is, moreover, to, be remembered, in considering the location of this station, that in China the reverse is true of that which took place in the Roman Empire. There the villagers, or pagani, were the last to embrace the Christian faith. In China they are the first.
The greatest success of Christian missions in China have been thus far among the country people. Not only are they more simpleminded, but they have also less to fear in becoming Christians from loss of wealth or position, 01' of the means of earning their daily bread. The most independent man in China is the small farmer, who owns a few acres of land, and by daily toil earns his daily bread.
After some delay in the purchase of land and erecting houses, and * "Skellches of a CountryPal'ish," by Rev. A. H. Smith. further delay, occasioned by the opposition of a recusant magistrate, happily overcome by the friendly aid of the United States officials, the missionaries took up their abode in P'ang Chuang, in 1882, with a most cordial reception, and lively demonstrations of affection and gratitude on the part of the people. These kindly feelings have con- tinued, for the most part until the present time.
The labors of this station at the present time are the oversight and instruction of the native helpers, the care of the churches and dayschools, teaching the scriptures to men and women, and the wider range of evangelistic work. There is daily preaching to the dispensary patients, and regular preaching both at the central station and at the six outstations.
The medical work begun by Dr. Porter, and now carried forward by Dr. Peck, has been as in other parts of Ch,ina, of the greatest value to the. Christian name. The hospital, established largely through a gift of the late Dr. Williams, bears the name of this early mis8ionary of the Board, and devoted friend of the Chinese. Its fame has extended to regions far and near, and brings to the village of P'ang Chnang patients from all grades of society, some of whom have come hundreds of miles, and even from other provinces, to be healed of their diseases.
A commodious and tasteful chapel has been erected at this central station wholly by the offerings of members of the church, and of other churches in the mission without any assistance from the funds of the Board. Some of the outstations, stimulated by this example, are now moving in the same direction.
The field of labor set before the missionaries at P'ang Chuang is immense. Fifteen miles north is the city of Teh Cheu, with its surrounding towns and villages. The southern part of the province of Chihli, the northwestern part of Shantung, and the northern part of Ho-nan, all densely populated and covered with walled cities, tOWIl8, villages and hamlets, are easily accessihlo from this central station, and all invite the labors of Christian missions.
One step forward into this unoccupied region was taken in 1886, by the occupation of Lin Ching, a Department city forty miles southwest of P'ang Chuang, by the Rev. F. ~I. Chapin. The following' year premises were purchased for mission residences, and, ill 1888, Messrs. Chapin and Perkins removed their families to this new station. A kindly reception to the missionaries has been given by the people. The medical work of MI', Atwoo(l, who labored at this station for a time, and later by ~lr, and :;HI',", Perkin~, has heen, as ellSewhere, rno~t helpful' to the evangelistic work. Should the day evo!' come when the Chinese are as eager for the Gospel as they now are for the medicines of the foreign physician, the conversion of the Chinese will be at hand. The mission in North China is of recent origin, but it has been abundantly blessed of God. After more than thirty years of labor in Canton the American Board had but one station and several tens of converts. This was in the early stages of the China missions. In North China the Lord has given us in twenty-eight years five stations in the most important cities of Chihli, two stations in the western part of Shantung, and in these seven stations more than 1,000 converts. '1'he work laid upon the mission is great. The encouragements- to its performance are also gl·eat. The outlook for the future is full of promise. If the mission and its supporters go forward in humble trust in the ever present Saviour and in patient endurance of labor and trial, they will have the honor of being used by God, with other branches of His Church, to establish the Kingdom of Christ in these populous and powerful regions of China, into which ill His providence they were the first among Protestant missions to enter.
A PRIEST, finding a young Irish lad in his parish in possession of a Bible, att~mpted to take it from him on the plea that it was the prerogative of the spiritual father to feed his spiritual babes with " the sincere milk of the Word." " Your ri verence," replied the lad~ "I would rather kape the cow mYAelf."
A CLERICAL wag says that where denominational and sectarian feeling gets the upper hand in a community, even the church bells become intolerant and get a sectarian twang in the ears of the people. The Presbyterian bell seems to peal out, " Or-tho-doxy-orthodoxyl" the Episcopalian, "Con-fir-ma-tion-confirmation I" the :Methodist, "Come to the al-tar-come to the altar!" the Congregationalist, "Inde-pend-ence-independence I" and the Bapt5st, " '1Vant to be dipped-want to be dipped 1"
THE Island of Sumbawa (Sunda series) has the Tomhoro volcano on the north side. In 1815 was a terrific convulsion lasting over three months. '1'he sound was heard 1,000 miles off at Snmatra; the sky was dark with ashes at Java, and the sea covered with them to a depth of two feet for many miles. Awful whirlwinds swept over the land and sea, and out of 12,000 persons only 26 survived.
And yet, even such distress and desolation imperfectly represents, as in a figure, the awful destruction carried to body and soul by the prevalence of heathenism and paganism. Vice is deified and cruelty enthroned. Read Alexander Mackay's just-published memoirs, and get a glimpse of the atrocious cruelties of heathenism. It reminds us. of Java's Valley of Death, half a mile in circuit, where the prevalence of carbonic acid gas makes impossihle the survival of either animal or plant life. The JlIuseo Borbonico, at N aples, ~uggests that Pompeii lay in such a valley.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY
BUDDHISl{ AND CHRISl'IANIl'Y-A CRUSADE WHICH MUST BE MET.
BY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
On the 9th of November The New York Herald published an article of four columns and a half, over the signature of Baron Har- don Hickey, a professed Buddhist and missionary chosen to promul- gate Buddhist doctrines in the United States. To an interviewer of another paper Baron Hickey has expressed the belief that America is a peculiarly favorable field for the spread of Oriental doctrines.
The design of the article referred to, which was plausible and rather ably written, was to prove that the history and doctrines of the early Christianity were largely borrowed from Buddhist sources. A reply which was sent to '['lte Herald was refused admission to its columns, but inasmuch as this crusade is being waged in all parts of the United States where it ought to be met by the defenders of the Christian faith, that reply is herewith given in the columns of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW. "While well-established Christians and friends of miRsions are not to be disturbed by slich assailment~ as those of Baron Hickey, it is to be remembered that there is a vast border- land lying between the Christian church and the infidel associations of the country, and that it embraces millions of people, especially of the young, and' so long as our weapons of defense are so numerous snd so potential, it is not wise to leave this broad, neutral territory to the mercy of the enemy. The fact that many of the most influential and extensively circulated of our secular papers discriminate in favor of skepticism and irreligion, as being more sensational, renders it all the more necessary that the Christian church should be alert, and that through every legitimate avenue, the clear and convincing truth of Christianity should be as widely circulated as are the manifold errors of our time.
The assumption that Christ became a follower of Buddha is not new. There lies before me, a Buddhist Catechism, by Subhadra. which makes the same allegation. It declares that" the fundamental tenets and the personal character of the founder of Christianity are of Buddhist origin"; that "Jesus was an Arahat and attained Nirvana." Hardon Hickey goes farther and calls him the Maitreyeh whom Buddha predicted. There are a few truths mingled with Baron .Hickey's statements which should be distinguished from his erroneous conclusions. It is true that a limited intercourse was established between India and Greece by the conquests of Alexander, 327 B.C. A few references to Indian customs are found in Strabo, Arrian and Pliny, but it is the wildest assumption to claim that an influence which was so faint even in the great commercial marts, reached and moulded the peasant population of a J udean village, or that the influence was distinctively Buddhistic. Again it is true that asceticism prevailed throughout the East; but that th~ fasting of Christ was borrowed from Buddhism is absurd. ·Moses bsted forty days in Sinai centuries before Buddha was born. Besides, Indian asceticism belonged to Brahmanism and not to the Buddha. It was, indeed, practised by the Essenes, as it was also by the ancient Druids, the Peruvians, the },Iexicans, and even the Hottentots. Among the Jews there was an ascetic school of prophets at Gilgal centuries before Buddha's time.
The field of controversy on which Baron Hickey draws his sword has beeu fought over for the last hundred years, and the parallels which he presents have been exploded over and over again. A century ago Lieutenant Wilford espoused the theory that the entire civilization of Egypt, Palestine, Greece and Rome, including Christianity, had come from India. He importuned the pundits to search for manuscripts, and for a consideration they met the demand. He filled the magazines of Europe with his discoveries. But at last he was constrained to confess publicly that he had been the dupe of Brahman fraud.
A Frenchinan by the name of J acolliot has made a similar attempt in our own time, aiming to show that the life of Christ was a plagiarism upon the story of the Hindu Krishna. He, too, collected manuscripts and translated them; but Professor Max Muller has honeycombed his pompous displays of Oriental learning, and remanded him ~o the same category of dupes with Lieutenant Wilford. In volume V. of "Chips from a German Workshop," he says: "Much of the socalled Sanskrit is not Sanskrit at all, and J acolliot's ancient Vedic quotations are not Vedic and not ancient; they simply belong to the last half of the nineteenth century."
Ages ago Porphry adopted the same tactics, alleging that many things in the life of Christ had been anticipated by Pythagoras; and Julia Domna, wife of Severus, prompted Philostratus to work up a life of Apollonius of Tyana, which should match the history of Christ. (Uhlhorn's" Conflict," etc.) The very latest charge of plagiarism against Christianity has recently been made by the Aryas of India, who allege that the Westminster catechism has stolen its doctrinal statements from them.
Baron Hickey leaves us a little in doubt as to whether the copying from 13uddha is charged upon Christ and his immediate disciples or upon the "creed-mongers of Alexandria" at a later day, or whether all were concerned in the fraud. He thinks that there is no doubt that Christ studied Buddhism and became a disciple, and that Buddhist influence widely prevailed in Palestine. This implies that the Gospel history was in the outset strongly colored by the Buddhist narrative, and that Christ Himself adapted the events of His life to the Buddhist story. The emphasis, however, is put upon the plagiarism of the Alexandrine "creed-mongers." In replying as briefly as possible to Baron Hickey, I "hall endeavor to cover all these im- plications : In strong contrast with these cheap assertions of Alexandrine {lorruption and plagia)'ism is the frank admission of such keen critics as Renan, Yeiss, Volkmar, Schenkeland Hitzig, that the Gospel story as we have it was written during a generation in which some of the companions of Jesus still lived. Renan says of Mark's GORpel that "it is full of minute observations, coming, doubtless, from an eye-witness," and he asserts that :Matthew, Mark and I"uke were written "in substantially their present form by the men whose names they bear." These Gospels were the work of men who knew J eSUSj Matthew was one of the twelve; John, in his Epistle, speaks of him- self as an eye-witness. They were written in a historic age and were open to challenge. Thcy were nowhere contradicted in con- temporary history; they tit their environment and their age.
How is it with the authenticity of Buddhist literature? Oldenberg says: "For the when of things men of India have never had a propel' organ;" and Max Muller declares to the same effect that" the idea of a faithful, literal translation seems altogether foreign to Ori- ental minds." He also informs us that there is not a single manuscript relating to Buddhism ~'hich is a thousand years old, and scarcely one that can claim five hundred years. For centuries after Gautama's time nothing was written; all was transmitted by word of mouth. Buddhists themselves say that Pali canonical texts were written about 88 B.C.
Any fair comparison of the two histories should confine itself to the writings which are regarded as canonical and whose dates can be fixed. No more importance should be attached to the later Buddhist legends than to the "Apochryphal Gospels," or to the absurd "Ohristian I"egends," which appeared in the middle ages. The Buddhtst canon was adopted by the council of Patna, 242 B.C. The legends which Baron Hickey compares with the canonical story of Ohrist are not included in that canon, or, at most, very few of them. 'rhoy are drawn from certain poetical books written much later, and holding about the same relation to the Buddhist canon that the" Paradise Lost" and" Paradise Hegained," of Milton, bear to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Who would think of quoting "Paradise Lost" in any sober comparison of Biblical truth with the teachings of other religions?
Even the canonical literature, that which is supposed to contain tlIe true history and teachings of Buddha, is far from authoritative, owing to the acknowledged habit-acknowledged even by the author of the Dhammapada-of adding commentaries, notes, etc., to original teaclIings. Not only was thi8 common among Buddhist writers, but (lven more surprising liberties were taken with the narrative. For example, the legend describing Buddha's leave-taking of his harem is clearly borrowed from an earlier story of Yasa, a wealthy young householder of Benares, who, becoming disgusted with his harem, left his sleeping dancing girls, and fled to the Buddha for instruction. Davids and Oldenberg, in translating this legend from the" 11aha- vagga," say, in a note: "A well-known incident in the life of Buddha has evidently been shaped after the model of this story," and they declare that" nowhere in the Pall Pitakas is this scene of Buddha's leave-taking mentioned."
As another evidence of the way in which fact and fiction have been mixed and manipulated for a purpose, one of the legends, which has of-ten been presented as a parallel to the story of Christ, repre- sents the Buddha as repelling the temptation of :Mara by quoting texts of "scripture," and the scripture referred to was the Dhamma- pada. The blunder here is amusing; first, because the Dhammapada was compiled hundreds of years after Buddha's time, and second, there were no "scriptures" in Buddha's time, for nothing was written till two or three centuries later; and third, Buddha is made to quote his own subsequent teachings, for the Dhammapada clai.ms to consist of the sacred words of the" enlightened one." l10st of the legends of Buddhism were wholly written after the beginning of the Christian era, and it cannot be shown that any were written ill their present form until two or three centuries of that era had elapsed. T. Rhys Davids says of the" Lalita Yistara," which contains a very large proportion ofthem, that" there is no real proof that it existed in its present form before the year 600 A.D." The" Romantic Legend" cannot be traced farther back than the third century A.D. Oldenberg says, "No biography of Buddha has come down to us from ancient times, from the age of the Pali texts, and we can safely say that no such biography was in existence then." Beal declares that the Buddhist legend as found in the various epics of N cpaul, Thibet and China, "is not framed after any Indian model (of any date), but is to be found worked out, so to speak, among Northern peoples, who were ignorant of, or indifferent to, the pedantic stories of the Brahmans. In the Southern and primitive records the terms of the legend are wanting. Buddha is not born of a royal family/ he is not tempted befo1·e his enlightenment/ he works no miracles, and he is not a Universal Saviour."
The chances are decidedly that if any borrowing has been done it was on the side of Buddhism. :Mr. Hickey's assertion that 30,000 Buddhist monks from Alexandria once visited Ceylon (and he giyes this not as a legend but as a historic fact) is absurd on the face of it; hut that a Christian colony settled in 11alabar at a very early day is at tested by the presence of thousands of their followers even to this day. Christianity has always been restrictive and opposed to admixtures with other systems. It repelled the Neo-Platonism of the "creed-mongers" of Alexandria (they borrowed from Plato, not from Buddha), and it fought for two or three centuries against Gnosticism, Manichaeism and similar heresies; and the assumption, in the face of all this, that the Christian Church went out of its way to copy Indian Buddhism, must be due either to gross ignorance or to reckless misrepresentation.
On the other hand, it is in accordance with the very genius of Buddhism to borrow. It has absorbed every indigenous superstition, and entered into partnership with every local religious system from the Devil worship of Burmah and Ceylon to the'raouism of China and the Shintoo of Japan.
In its long-continued contact with Christianity it has changed from the original atheism of Gautama to various forms of theism, and in some of its sects, at least, from a staunch insistence on selfhelp alone to an out-and-out doctrine of salvation by faith. This is true of the Shin and Yodo sects of Japan. :From recognizing no God at all at first, Buddhism had, by the seventh century A.D., a veritable trinity with attributes resembling those of the Triune God of the Christians, and by the tenth century it had five trinities with one Supreme Adi-Buddha over them all. Each reader must judge whether these late interpolations of the system were borrowed from the New Testament Trinity which had been proclaimed through all the East many centuries before.
Buddhism is still absorbing various elements through the aid of its various apologists. Sir Edwin Arnold has greatly added to the force of its legends by the Christian phrases and Christian conceptions which he has read into them. Toward the close of the "I"ight of Asia" he also introduces into the Buddha's sermon at Kapilavostu the teachings of Herbert Spencer and others of our own time.
Even the" analogies" of the Buddhist legends, as a late apologist calls them, are undergoing a rapid development. Professor Seydel was ingenious enough, with the help of fact and fancy, to make out fifty-one" parallels" to the Gospel history; Baron Hickey has up to date" one hundred." Doubtless still more are to follow.
In discussing the specific charge of copying Buddhist legends in ~he Gospel narratives, we are met at the threshold by insurmountable improbabilities. To anyone who nnderstands the spirit of Judaism and its attitude toward heathenism of all kinds, it is simply inconceivable that the Christian disciples, whose aim it was to propagate the faith of their Master in a Jewish community, should have borrowed old Indian legends, which, by the very terms of Baron Hickey's supyosition, must have been widely known as such. And our Buddhist friends must admit that it is a little strange that the Scribes and Pharisees who were intelligent, and 3S alert as they were bitter, should never have exposed this transparent plagiarism. The great concern of the Apostles was to prove to Jews and Gentiles that Jesus was the Christ of Old Testament prophecy. The whole drift of their preaching and their epistles went to show that the Gospel history rested squarely and uncompromisingly on a Jewish basis. Peter and John, Stephen and Paul constantly" reasoned with the Jews out of their own Scriptures." How unspeakably absurd is the notion that they were trying to palm off on those keen Pharisees a Messiah who, though in the outset at Nazareth he publicly traced his commission to Old Testament prophecy, was all the while copying an atheistic philosopher of India.
It is equally inconceivable that the Christian fathers should have copied Buddhism. They resisted Persian mysticism as the work of the devil, and it was in that mysticism, if anywhere, that Buddhist influence existed in the Levant. Whoever has read 'l'ertullian's withering condemnation of Marcion may judge how far the fathers of the Church favored the heresies of the East. Augustine had himself been a Manichean mystic, and when after his conversion he became the great theologian of the Church, he must have known whether the teachings of the Buddha were being palmed off on the Christian world. The great leaders of that age were men of thorough scholarship and of the deepest moral earnestness. Many of them gave up their po!'sessions and devoted their lives to the promotion of the truths which they professed. Scores of them sealed their faith by martyr deaths.
But even if we were to accept the flippant allegation that they were all imposters, yet we should be met by an equally insurmountable difficulty in the utter silence of the able and bitter assailants of Christianity in the first two or three centuries. Celsus prepared himself for his well-known attack on Christianity with the utmost care, searching history, philosophy and every known religion from which he could derive an argument against the Christian faith. Why did he not strike at the very root of the matter by exposing those stupid" creed-mongers" who were attempting to playoff upon the intelligence of the Roman world a clumsy imitation of the far-famed Buddha? It was the very kind of thing that the enemies of Ch:'istianity wanted. vVhy should the adroit Porphyry attempt to wor~.;: up a few mere scraps of resemblance from the life of Pythagoras and why should the wife of a Roman emperor employ a man to trump up precisely such a story as our baronial friend now asks us to believe, when all they had to do was to lay their hands upon familiar legends which afforded an abundance of the very articles in demand?
But altogether the most stupendous improbability lies against the whole assumption that Christ and His followers based their" essential doctrines" on the teachings of the Buddha. The early Buddhism was atheistic. This is the common verdict of Davids, Childers, Sir Monier Williams, Kellogg and many others. The Buddha declared that "without cause and unknown is the life of man in this world," and he recognized no higher being to whom he owed reverence. The "Buddhist Catechism," to which I have already referred, shows that modern Buddhism has no recognition of God.
It says (page 58): "Buddhism teaches the reign of perfect goodness and wisdom without a personal God, continuance of individuality without an immortal soul, eternal happiness without a local heaven, the way of salvation without a vicarious Saviour, redemption worked out by each one himself without any prayers, sacrifices and penances, without the ministry of ordained priests, without the intercession of saints, without divine mercy." And then, by way of authentication, it adds: "These and many othel's which have become the fundamental doctrines of the Buddhist religion were recognized by the Buddha in the night of his enlightenment under the bodhi tree."
And yet we are told that this is the system which Christ and His followers copied! Compare this passage with the Lord's Prayer or with the discourse upon the lilies and its lesson of trusts-I appeal not merely to Christian men, but to any man who has brains and common-sense-was there ever so preposterous an attempt to establish an identity of doctrines? But what is the evidence found in the legends themselves? Several leading Oriental scholars, and men not at all biased in favor of Christianity, have carefully examined the subject, and have decided that there is no connection whatever. Professor Seydel, of Leipsic, who has given the most scientific plea for the so-called coincidences, of which he claims there are fifty-one, has classified them as: (1) Those which have been merely accidental, having arisen from similar causes and not necessarily implying any borrowing on either side. (2) Those which seem to have been borrowed f~om the one narrative or the other, and (3) those which he thinks were clearly copied by the Christian writers. In this last class he names but five out of the fifty-one.
Kuenen, who has little bias in favor of Christianity, and who has made a very thorough examination of Seydel's parallels, has completely refuted these five. (See" National Religion and Universal Religion," page 362.) And, speaking of the whole question, he says: "I think we may safely affirm that we must abstain from assigning to Buddhism the smallest direct influence on the origin of Christianity." He also says of similar theories of De Bunsen, "A single instance is enough to teach ns that inventive fancy plays the chief part in them." (" Hibbert Lectures," 1882.) Rhys Davids, whom Subhadra's "Buddhist Catechism" approves as the chief exponent of Buddhism, says on the same subject: "I {lan find no evidence of any actual or direct communication of those ideas common to Buddhism and Christianity from the East to the West. " Oldenberg denies their early date, and Beal denies them an Indian origin of any date.
Let us now ctmsider Baron Hickey's analogies seriatim: 1. "The genedogies of both Buddha and the Christ are traced from their fathers, not their mothers." This parallel would fit }Iohammed as well as Buddha. The whole argument rests upon the assumption that the mother of Buddha was a virgin, which is con- trary to canonical Buddhist history. The Sacred and Historic Book of Ceylon translated by Edward Upham, tell us that Buddha was born in wedlock. The late King of Siam, in a sketch of the Buddha, says that "he was born of natural generation." Subhadra in his Catechism says that "his parents were King Suddhodana and Queen Maya." Even the wild J ataka legends of Ceylon declare the same. 2. Baron Hickey declares that the conception by the Holy Ghost, announced by Gabriel, corresponds with Maya's dream of the white elephant. But his story of the white dove is manufactured for the purpose; no such myth was ever held by any Christian sect. 3. He compares the coming of the wise men with frankincense with the Brahmans who hastened with congratulations to the palace of Suddhodana. There is no canonical authority for the latter, though it was a common custom, and would have no significance. 4. "As Herod was afraid of the child, so King Bimbasara told his ministers to search the land to find whether any famous child had been born." Herod meant murder; Bimbasara, according to the Jataka legends, merely sent to inquire about the great teacher and his doctrines. 5. "The Simeon of the Bible corresponds with the Brahman Asita, an aged man who came to see the thirty-two marks and the eighty signs of the Buddha." This is a clumsy after-thought. How should anybody be looking for marks of a Buddha on a Hindu baby thirty years before Buddhism had been thought of? 6. "The presentation of Jesus in the temple is similar to a corresponding one in the childhood of the Buddha." This is one of Professor Seydel's" evident cases of borrowing." But such presentations of children were required under both the Jewish and the Hindu systems, and the claim of any particular parallel is weak. 7. "In his twelfth year Jesus was found in the temple, discoursing with the doctors, so, also, the father of Buddha found his son in the wood, surrounded by sages, etc." This does not agree with the Sinhalese legends, which say that the Buddha's youth was given to pleasure, and that his zenana contained 40,000 dancing girls. 8. "The Buddha bathed in the stream N aranjana, and J esu~ was baptized." This bath occurred when Buddha resolved to abandon his Brahmanical asceticism; he no longer regarded dirt as a means of grace. Whoever has seen a Hindu fakir besmeared with wet ashes will realize the significance of Buddha's "j:>ath, and, there- fore, of Baron Hickey's parallel.
9. "The forty days' fast in the wilderness is· common to both teachers." If any borrowing were required it would have been done from the life of Moses, who fasted forty days in Sinai. Buddha. never fasted forty days. The" Mahavagga" tells us that after his "enlightenment" he passed twenty-eight days i'njoyou8 meditation. His "Middle Path" shunned fasting as one extreme. He had begun to eat. He received his enlightenment on a full stomach-the first in six years.
10. There is no real parallel in the temptations of the two, though both are said to have been tempted. Buddha was tempted, according to Southern legends, several times and in respect to differ- ent things, but not at the beginning of his ministry.
11. "The heavens opening and the voice from heaven proclaiming the teacher are to be found in the Buddhist scriptures." Where?'
12. As to Buddha's Sermon on the Mount, high and breezy summits were often resorted to, especially the Vulture's Peak. It· was an incident of a hot climate in both caseS.
13. "The first disciples of Jesus, and even Jesus Himself, were at first followers of John the Baptist. The number of disciples in both accounts was at first five, afterwards sixty. "(?) As a matter of fact, Christ's disciples were not graduates from the school of John, but were called from their fishermen's boats. Instead of being a teacher of Jesus, John felt unworthy to unloose His shoe latchet.
14. "Both performed wonders." Buddha particularly disclaimed miraculous powers: the miracles were subsequent embellishments.
1.5. The incident of Buddha's walking on water needs a more particular statement with time and place and authority.
16. That both he and the Christ had a presentiment of death is very probable.
1 7. It is quite possible, also, that, among the thousands of Buddha's converts, were courtesans; but that the rich and brazen Ambapali who invited the Buddha and his disciples to dine, was the model after whom the Gospel narrative 'formed the picture of the crushed and penitent Magdalene, is far-fetched.
18. As for triumphal entries into cities-if a crowd of followers is meant, both, probably, had many-Christ at Jericho as well as at Jerusalem. Buddha is said to have been followed on one occasion by twelve hundred people, and King Bimbasara is said to have interviewed him with 80,000 of his overseers! 19. (( Both systems were missionary religions from the start." This is true; but how paltry is the notion that a mere motive of imi- tation prompted the wide-spread evangel of Christianity!
20. Weare told that (( Buddha fed the hungry," instead of which he was a mendicant and carried a beggar's bowl, and never performed a miracle.
. 21. As to the question asked of Jesus by the by-standers: (( Did this man sin or Bis parents that he was born blind?" If metempsychosis was in their minds, they could have borrowed it from the Greeks who had held it from the days of Pythagoras.
As to the general question, there seems to be little need of assuming that these shadowy coincidences denote borrowing on either side. Many of them are merely fanciful and are the work of modern apologists. Many others are such natural correspondences as might spring from similar causes. If incidents have in any case been borrowed, the chances are much greater that all-absorbing ever-changing Buddhism has been the copyist.
New York, November 25, 1890.
[The editor is constrained to add that the article which is printed above is, as he thinks, the most painstaking production that Dr. Ellinwood has, perhaps, ever written. It is felt by many who have seen it before it appeared in these pages that it ought to be put in some permanent form. Rev. Dr. Paxton, of Princeton Seminary, has pronounced it "a perfect rejoinder." vVe make a great mistake if we assume that merely ignoring and" pooh-poohing" at the active and aggressive movements of error are going to meet the case. The war is upon us. The old fathers of the early churcn did not confine themselves to pious denunciation. Think of Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Origen, how they fought with the beasts of Ephesus, and how magnificently they conquered the haughty heathenism of Greece and Rome. This paper will undoubtedly be reprinted in tract form.] WE often speak of ourselves as only" instruments in God's hands." It is our privilege to think of ourselves, if we are truly His servants, as agents. An instrument is a dumb, senseless, lifeless thing, which has no active, intelligent power even to co-operate with him who handles and uses it; but an agent (ago) is one who acts)· however, in behalf of, and under control of, another, yet acting intelligently and individually, as Aaron spoke under Moses' dictation. Even the ox and ass yield a voluntary, intelligent obedience, and are far above the plo}V they drag or the goad by which they are urged on. Weare God's agents, and He worketh not only by us, but in us, both to will and to work. (See Greek of Philippians, ii., 13.)
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF'THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
II. THE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH.* BY PROFESSOR HENRY WOODWARD HULBERT.
It would be difficult to point out a scene of more dramatic historic interest than that laid in the upper room of prayer at Jerusalem in the year 30 A.D., between Thursday, May 18th, and Sunday, May 28th. The Master had gone, never to return to quiet again the doubt of a Thomas with a material argument. He had left them unexpectedly, but His parting words contained a promise and a command. The little, trembling church, ~he muscles of whose lips had hardly ceased articulating the question: "Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" was waiting with breathless expectation to be clothed upon with power. There sat restless Peter, the echoes of whose blasphemies had hardly died away. There were John and J ames and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of J ames. There were the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and his. brethren and others, swelling the number of names to one hundred and twenty-one hundred and twenty poor, weak men and women in the midst of a rich and powerful civilization with as many millions. The minute hand in the great clock of destiny was rapidly nearingthe critical point. The child of many promises, the dream of patriarchs and kings and prophets, the only tangible outcome of the life and death of Jesus the Messiah-the fate of all seemed to hang in the balance. The whole future of the world-its wide-spread lands, its. unnumbered billions (present and to come)-lay in the prayers of a few broken-hearted, yet believing souls. 'Vho could have predicted the result?
Let us notice, in a cursory way, the geographical conditions. which surrounded this little church of six score members on May 28th,. 30 A.D. Putting aside very largely the profounder conditions, moral and intellectual, we ask: What were the natural, political, commercial, linguistic and racial features of the known world which were to compose the environment of the primitive church as it commenced its conquest of the globe? An answer to this question will involve a study of (1) the extent of the known world at that era, (2) the character and extent of the Roman civilization, (3) the commercial and' military relations of this civilization to outlying barbarism, (4) the spread of the Latin and especially the Greek languages, and lastly (5) the wide dispersion of the Jewish race throughout the world.
Take an ordinary school globe and cover up on it all that portion unknown to the geographers, 30 A.D., and we are at once impressed with * For article I. of this series see MISSIONAl!.Y REVIEW OF THE WORLD, Jan- uary, 1890, pp. 26-32. the small extent of the known world. It seems like a mere toy as contrasted with the great bustling earth of to-day. As far as civilization was concerned that was nothing more than a Mediterranean world. A stretch of three thousand miles east and west, and of fifteen hundred miles north and south contained it all. Britain was still unconquered. The fierce Parthian, hardly weaned from his pastoral life in Central Asia, was the greatest organized enemy of Rome. He had learned a little bit of the lesson of civilization from the conquered Persian, but he was still essentially barbaric. India was superficially known by navigators, and far-away China was reached by caravan routes. Travelers occasionally brought in reports of strange lands an.d peoples; captives struggled back to the confines of civilization with marvelous tales of Hyperborean paradises, and one-eyed monsters; but all about this confined areaof terra cognita lay the great, impenetrable cloud-land of terra incognita. The Pentecostal church prayerfully faced the Roman civilization, but what of the vast stretches of sea and land still veiled from their eyes, but included in their }faster's last command? In spite of ignorance, which they shared with the wisest of antiquity, the apostolic leaders were able to grasp the thought" every knee shall bow and every' tongue confess to God." Their faith was wider than the known world. They were assured that there could not be " Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is all and in all." Peter's vision on the housetop at Joppa, teaching the impartial love of God to every human soul on earth, was the most comprehensive social lesson the world ever received. The apostles and the earliest evangelists are supposed to have done missionary work far outside the limits of the empire, going as far as India and Sonthern Russia.
But the immediate task before Christianity was the conquest of the centres of civilization-the Roman Empire. Let us notice the geographical characteristics of this Mediterranean world as related to the company of Christian believers in J ernsalem. (1) It was an empire of cities. Rome began with a city, she conquered cities, and from beginning to end her genius was municipal. In the East this was not so strictly true as in the West. The nomad life of the Orient could not be so easily brought and held together; but Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt were honeycombed with thrifty cities. Christianity must needs then handle cities and their thronging population. As the apostles looked out upon the Roman empire they found from four to five thousand cities to be reached. For three or four centuries Christianity was destined to be municipal in its methods, and this gave a determining bent to the whole future of the Church. (2) The tideless }:Iediterranean furnished easy access by water from city to city. It was covered with sails employed ill a thrifty commerce. The Roman fleet swept the pirates from the seas and gave security to the humblest craft. A great number of the cities were situated on or near the sea, and a map of the coast looks like a string of pearls broken only at the Bosphorus and at Gibraltar. (3) Splendid Ro- man roads connected all parts of the empire so that news was carried rapidly and power was quickly concentrated and distributed. From Jerusalem one could walk over these superb roads, a few years later, all the way to Scotland, with only the narrow bodies of water to cross, a distance of 4,080 Roman miles (3,740 English). Along these highways trudged the messenger of the Gospel, from city to city, counting the mile·stones as he went, and wondermg, perhaps, whether the words of the prophet were not fulfilled: "Cast ye up, cast ye up: prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people." (Isaiah Ivii~14.) (4) Over one hundred million people were thus by land and water ways compactly drawn together in a territory containing less than two million square miles. Geographically considered, no portion of the globe furnishe.s so interesting a bat~le·field for religious conquest as the territory of the old Roman empire.
Roman civilization spread itself outside its own regions by two methods-commercial and military-and Christianity must needs follow in the track of merchants and armies. Caravan rontes came streaming in like rivers into the common basin of the Mediterranean, through the trackless Sahara from Central Africa, down the Nile from the Great Lakes, from Yemen along the Red Sea, from the Persian Gulf through the Syrian desert, and from Mesapotamia, where was centred the trade of Central Asia. To this husy mart on the eastern border of the empire, came pouring in the treasures from the Persian Susa, from Hyrcania and from Bactria, which in turn drew npon China through Statio Mercatorum and upon Hindustan and Farther India through Clisobra.
Turning from the land trade to, the sea, the routes are no less numerous or patronized. The whole coast of Southern Asia was familiar to the merchants and regular routes by sea were open, find· ing their natural termini in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Along this extensive seaboard on the Indian Ocean the rude craft crept timi,lly without the compass, but the markets of Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome were well stocked with the dainties of the far East. Another thrifty line of commerce found its way from the great river systems of what is to.day Russia, down through the Bosphorus. Still 3nother line came pouring into the outlet of the Mediterranean from distant Britain, and daring navigators pushed along the coast of the North Sea, and even penetrated the Baltic lands in search of trade. If a little later we find Christianity firmly planted in far-away places let us not be astonished. The door was providentially open and the missionaries of the early church could easily enter. A very large portion of the earliest evangelists were merchants, and the laity from the first have furnished the main agencies for the spread of the Gospel.
Garrisons of Roman soldiers were stationed all along the borders of the empire. These military barracks soon became centres from which Christianity could spread outside the civilized world. The new religion took easily to the Roman camp and these isolated spots along the Rhine, the Danube, the Euxine and the Euphrates became points of light. Tracing the legend of St. George back to the facts of which it is a distortion, we find that he was one of these Roman soldiers. When the armies pushed beyond the boundaries of the empire Christianity was sure to go with them. Christian soldiers captured and enslaved by barbarians were the means of converting whole nations.
Another geographical condition of the greatest importance to Christianity was the wide extent of the territory over which the Greek and the Latin languages were spoken. The administration of civil and military government was through the Latin. The language of business, science and literature was the Greek. At the opening of the Christian era Hellenistic Greek was the lingua Franca of the Roman world. Greek colonies had been established all around the :Mediterranean, and these had determined the language of commerce-there has never been an instance in history where the language of commerce has failed finally to win its way to every station of life. It is a truism that Greek letters and arts conquered Rome more effectually than the legions of the Republic had overcome the Peninsula of Hellas. The New Testament was composed in this universal language, and all through the early centuries Christian churches were Hellenistic. Later on the Latin tongue took the supremacy in the 'Vestern world and still remains the liturgical language of the majority of Christians.
But more important to the Christian Church than any of the conditions mentioned was the geographical distribution of the Hebrew race. Everywhere synagogues were the early preaching-places of the apostles, and the majority of the Christians of the first century were of Jewish extraction. Christianity, as the fulfillment of the Old Testament religion, naturally turned to the be,lievers in that Revelation. Providentially, it seems, these seven millions of people, with their monotheism, their nobler conceptions of God and their purer ethics and life had been scattered broadcast over the Roman world and even beyond its boundaries. The Sibylline oracle says that "every land and every sea" was filled with them. Strabo, writing of the century before Christ, says that the Jewish people had already come into every city and that it was not easy to find a place in the world which had not received this race and was not occupied by them. Josephus, Philo, imperial epistles, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, tell the same story. Forcibly torn from their country, frightened away from Palestine, the battle-ground of the Asiatic world, enticed away by flattering offers from Ptolemy, Seleucidae and Roman governors, lured to the most distant climes by the hope of gain-this race started out on the most singular career history can show us of a nation keeping its nationality without a national terri- tory.
Let" us notice more particularly their whereabouts in the year 30 A.D. There were three centres about which the Jews were gathered in masses-Syria, Egypt and Mesopotamia-although some parts of Asia Minor and Cyrene in Africa might almost be ranked with the three·mentioned. At the time of which we are dealing there were, according to the latest and best authorities, four million Jews in Syria from the Taurus range to the Sinaitic peninsula-a population twice as large as that occupying that same region to-day. Jerusalem, Damascus and Antioch were the centres; but we may suppose that every city and village in Syria had representatives, and that houses of prayer were found everywhere.
In Egypt Philo (an Alexandrian Jew born about 20 B. c.) estimated that there were one million Jews out of a total of nine million inhabitants. The city of Alexandria had several quarters occupied exclusively by this race. Prayer-houses were found all over the city. Jews were scattered overthe Delta and up the Nile we know not how far. The Falashas of Abyssinia to-day indicate a powerful Jewish influence on the upper Nile at an early period. The Jewish sect of the Therapeutre had their chief seat on Lake Maroetis. The influence of the Alexandrian Jews was all out of proportion even to their great numbers.
There were one million Jews in Mesopotamia and Babylonia, on the very b,:mier of the empire. These were the descendants of those members of the ten tribas and of the Kingdom oi Judah, who had been carried away in captivity and had not returned. In fact, after the so-called return from captivity these eastern communities seem continually to have grown by accessivns from all parts. J osephud count:'! these colonies of his people not by thousands but by millions. The Talmudic schools of Babylon were equally influential with the western schools. Elsewhere it is estimated that there were scattered one million Jews, making seven millions in all. They seem to be living everywhere in Asia Minor. Strabo divides the inhabitants of Cyrene into four classes-citizens, agriculturists, metoikoi andJewsshowing that this race, so troublesome to the Roman authorities, was numerous there. We find traces of Jews all along the north coast of Africa. In Thrace, Macedonia and Greece we know from the Book of the Acts that they were plentiful. Agrippa's epistle to Caligula. also gives ample evidence. At Rome and Puteoli there were large colonies of Jews-Cicero, Suetonius, Philo and Josephus are our witnesses for Italy. They were found in Spain and Gaul in all the cities. 'Herod Archilaus was banished to Vienne and Herod Antipas to Lugdunum (I,yons) both in the Rhone Valley. Outside the Roman empire we know there were Jews in Ethiopia, Southern Arabia, Ar-' menia, Iberia, Chalchis, Crimea, II.):rcania, and even in distant China.. In fact, it is difficult to mention a district of the known world at the date 30 A.D., which did not have representatives of the Jewish race.
These, then, were the more important geographical conditions that faced the Pentecostal church of six score members. There was the Roman empire with its roads and harbors and languages. All about this lay unknown lands and tribes with theil' unnumbered millions. Scattered all over the known world were the Jewswho furnished just so many open doors to the religion ,of the Messiah. It will be the object of succeeding papers to show how the little church threw 'itself fearlessly into the conflict, and won province after province for the kingdom of its. Master, and to show how we have entered into their labors.
THE RAPID GROWTH OF ASIATIC POPULATIONS.
. This is written you from one of our inland stations, one of ~ group of a dozen villages right round about. The one thing that always strikes me in a Chinese town or village is the number of small children that are running loose all around. One thing is certain, the population of this already overgrown empire is certain to be kept ur.
More than that, it is growing within the past twenty-five years with increased rapidity. One estimate puts it now at a yearly advance of four millions. We dwell on the growth of our own population at home, but China is advancing nearly three times as fast. Forty millions in ten years is enough to start and stock a new nation.
Japan, too, is growing rapidly in numbers. A few years ago the people were estimated at thirty-seven or thirty-eight millions. Now the government puts them at forty millions. India, too, shows remarkable results. The census is taken there with great care by the British government. The last census was taken in 1881. Since the previous one taken along from 1867 to 1872 in the different provinces, the gain had been 15,010,304. In all these cases the population is by natural increa~e, and not, as in the United States, by immigration.
These are solemn and impressive figures taken in their 'bearing 011 Christian r'nissions. It will not do to wait till the Jerusalem folks are all converted. ""V. ASHMORE. Swatow, Ohina.
ARE WE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?
ARE WE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?
[FOR THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.] " 'Vhosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."-Luke xiv: 33.
"One thing thou Iackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow me."-Mark x: 21.
" But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet."-Acts v: 1,2.
Examining ourselves, as individuals and as churches, how many disciples of Christ can we find, according to the criterion He has es- tablished in the explicit rule and the explicit injunction above quoted?
No dodging! Let us not get behind the pretense of a heart forsaking, while our hands tenaciously grasp the bulk of our possessions. Let us at least not mock God and" lie unto the Holy Ghost," by saying, "Yes, Lord, I give all to 'fhee," while we actually give nothing, or a dole, or a tithe; lest we join ourselves with Ananias and Sapphira.
in infamy as well as perdition. " Itwere better not to vow."
But all of us members of evangelical churches have thus vowed.
We have all made the profession, or pretense, of Ananias and Sap- phira. 'Ve have consecrated ourselves and all that we have-our persons, our possessions and our children to the Lord. WHERE then are the proceeds? Are they fully laid at His feet, according to the profession? Or is a " part" of them" kept back"? Is it an honest profession, or a lying pretense like that of those two dreadful monu- ments of the Lord's indignation at hypocrisy in the Church? 'Ve do not know how large a part Ananias and Sapphira kept back. Proba- bly it was a small proportion, such as they thought would not be noticed. How many modern Ananiases and Sapphiras are agreeing together to tempt the Spirit of ~he Lord, while joining in the com- muniun of His supreme self-sacrifice, by keeping back, not a minor proportion, but NEARLY ALL, of that which they have solemnly and Imblicly dedicated.
Far be it from us to judge one another. But let us remember that there is a Judge, and that if we would judge ourselves we shoald not be judged. Let us not flatter ourselves, or each other, with vain hopes in Christ that are explicitly excluded by His own reiterated warnings. Can sinners hope for heaven Who love this world so well ?
And are not the ministers of Christ themselves derelict if they €ncourage, even tacitly, the assumption of discipleship on the part of those who give no evidence of a bonafide assignment of so much as thcir pr-operty to the Lord that bought them?
W. C.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 12::>
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK.
-De Macedonier gives the following statistics for Java: 'Vest Java, 11 missionaries, 21 congregations, 20 helpers, 1,963 souls; Bagalen, 4 missic;maries, 60 congregations, 2helpers, 5,937 souls; Salatega Mission, 5 missionaries, 18 congregations, 6 helpers, 534 souls; East Java, 9 missionaries, 27 congregations, 54 helpers, 6,276 souls. Whole number of souls, 14,710. In 1886, 10,979. Increase, 3,731; yearly rate, 11i per cent.
-De Heidenbode, the organ of the Nederlandsche Gereformeerde Zendingsvereeniging (Netherlands Reformed Missionary Association) says very pertinently: "When the sigh ascends from the churches to heaven: 'Lord, the 1,000,000,000 souls of the unchristian world have no bread,' whatis his answer? The same as in the wilderness to his disciples: 'Give ye them to eat.' He was compassionately willing to feed the hungering multitudes, yet he sent down no bread from heaven, and brought up no fish from the sea. The disciples were to give them what they had, and this He blesses, so that there is enough and to spare. Even so, He does not preach the Gospel to the nations through angels, or send down Bibles from heaven in all the varying tongues of earth. We are to give them what we have, and He will add the blessing. "
-The Journal des Missions for September, 1890, gives account of the baptism at Thaba-Bossiou, in Lessuto, of 90 adults.
-The following letter of welcome from King Lewanika, on the Zambesi, to M. Adolph Jalla, is not a bad letter from a heathen king: "To the new missionary, health! Come soon with the peace of thy God. I thank thee for thy letter. I too would fain see thee and salute thee soon, new missionary! I shall soon rejoice to see thee with my eyes. Health, health, it is I who love thee.-LEwANIKA."
-The Journal des Missions, .speaking of the efforts making by some governments to decoy the missionaries into the service of their particular interests, says: "Woe to the herald of the good news of Christ's free salvation who lets himself be enticed by a worldly master, under the cover of promoting civilization, into the service of colonial interests! Here, as elsewhere, everything goes to show that no man can serve two masters, that the church and the world are two distinct domains, that the salvation of souls and the supposed interests of colonists are the most often mutually incompatible."
-The definitive recognition, by England, of Madagascar as under the protectorate (a polite way of saying under the dominion) of France, has led to well-founded apprehensions concerning the London Society's missions there, which have Christianized the ruling tribe of the Hovas. We remember only too well the declaration of the Protestant Guizot: "France abroad means Catholicism." To be sure, the treaty expressly provides that" in the island of Madagascar the missionaries of the two countries shall enjoy a complete protection, religious tolerance, liberty for all forms of worship and for religious instruction are guaranteed." But who believes that if the Jesuits once more came to govern France they would allow it to keep this treaty except evasively? And England is not now the England of Cromwell, or even of Chatham. However, the Protestant steadfastness of Queen Pomare and the Tahitians will doubtless be emulated by Queen Ranavalona and the Hova churches. It is a matter of great thankfulness that the Protestant mission of our French brethren on the Zambesi is likely to be rescued from the ignoble clutch of Portugal and assigned to the benign guardianship of England. The inroads of the children of Mammon, unhappily, cannot be restrained by any power. " Never," says the Journal, "has the world witnessed a partition so gigantic. Whatever may come of it, He that sitteth in the heavens (says yet) I have set my Ki.ng upon my holy hill of Zion."
It is not to be understood, of course, that all the French colonial officers are hostile to Protestant missions. Some are themselves Protestants, and others are friendly to every elevating influence abroad, Protestant or Catholic. M. de Brazza, the great agent of extending the French authority along the right bank {)f the lower Congo, has himself urged the Societe des Missions to establish its mission on the Congo, and promised it his best support. And, although since the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, the French Protestants are only some 600,000 out of 38,000,000, yet their greater mental freedom, more earnest religion, and higher moral standard, make them an antagonizing power manifold greater than their numbers against both atheism and ultramontanism.
-Dr. Warneck, in the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, in answer to a deprecatory remark of Major Wissmann, that Protestant missions ought not to shrink from criticism, observes very pertinently that Protestants criticise their own missions rather too much than too little. Roman Catholics, possessed as they are with the instinct of infallibility, do not criticise theirs at all.
Major Wissmann puts the Roman Catholic missions in Africa above the Protestant, as putting the labora before the ora (which they would hardlyacknowledge), declaring that the Protestants reverse the order. Dr. Warneck replies that they do neither the one nor the other, but, as commanded by Jesus Christ, teach faith in Him, which then becomes the inner principle of both prayer and labor. Dr. Wissmann, like most of such men, seems to regard the Africans only in one light-their relation to the labor market. But, as Dr. Warneck remarks, the Catholic missionaries have bought children (doubtless with the most benevolent intentions) over whom they have power. The Protestants exhort to industry free people, over whom they have only influence. The immediate industrial results, therefore, are more noticeable on the side of the former. The lasting results will turn more largely to the credit of the latter. Even now Major Wissmann acknowledges that, industrially, the Livingstonia Mission equals the best Catholic misl!ions. The trouble with the Catholic missions is, that however benevolently they treat their converts, in so many cases they do not teach them how to go alone.
Dr. Warneck remarks that, although where the Roman Catholics, as in China, have been laboring for three centuries, they have naturally an absolutely greater number of converts, yet they seldom have relatively so large a number if we compare time, outlay, and number of laborers, and that in fields where they and the Protestants have both labored for nearly the same time, the absolutely greater number of converts is almost everywhere on the Protestant side, excluding the European immigrants whom the Catholic reports count in, and whom the Protestant reports count out. Even in East Africa, to which Major 'Wissmann principally refers,the Catholics (not including Uganda.the statistics of which are undetermined) only claim some 2,000 converts, over against some 4,500 of the Protestant missions.
"The present Protestant missions proceed simply in theway of the apostolic missions, when they put their confidence, not in the forms of outward worship, but in the power of evangelical truth. And to-day, also, we do not find that this confidence puts us to shame, as is shown by the results of our missions, e.g., in the South Sea Islands, as well as in West and East Africa, where we have gathered fully a million of free Christians from among the heathen into well organized, and in part already independent, churches. We may well allow that the outward worship of the Roman Church has a certain share in the results of her mission; but much more are these owing to other outward means, e.g., purchase of children, concession of temporal advantages, employment of the civil power, connivance with heathen irregularities, etc."
-In' view of the sharp national animosities, which have attached them- selves to the relations between the Anglo-American Stanley and the German Emin Pasha, the following judgment of Stanley, founded on his latest book, from the great German missionary magazine, is of much value. The Zeit- schrift, has throughout, while genuinely German, held itself clear of all exag- gerated nationalism, in matters which concern universal.humanity and the kingdom of God: "This book leaves no doubt that in Stanley we have to do not only with one of the most heroic, circumspect, enduring of travelers, but also with a warm friend of mankind, a great student of human nature, a wise dealer with men, and a conscientious performer of the commissions assigned to him. He is not lacking in self-consciousness, and the energy with which he is wont to act sometimes verges on recklessness; but without the inflexible firm- ness, which ever and anon degenerates into harshness, he would never have overcome the absolutely gigantic difficulties which lay in his way, and never have attained his end. But Stanley is by no means merely a valiant man of iron will, he has also a warm heart, is full of motherly carefulness, fidelity and devotion to his friends, white and black, nor is he wanting in humility and a sound feeling of piety." He would hardly be a Welshman if his sense of religion were not strong.
-The Societe Centrale Protestante d'Evangelisation, in its forty-third an- nual report, that of 1889, says: "It has a faith, and it confesses it. In this re- gard it has gone beyond the Synod of 1872. It used to be said, as it still is: Why these doctrines? Is not life enough? Bring near the prophets, remove the doctors; inflame the heart and take no care about the head. Inflame the heart with what? The heart, too, has need of reasons, and the reasons of the heart are the very doctrines which you reject. According as these doctrines are pre$ent or absent, religious fervor increases or declines. History teaches us that in all times moral is closely connected with doctrinal relaxation. Why, then, should we separate the prophets and the doctors, as if they did not belong together? They imply each other, they do not exclude each other. Let me only cite three names: St. Paul, St. Augustine, Luther-three glorious prophets and three illustrious doctors. But for the doctrines which it has adopted and propagated, the Central Society would not have done what it has done, for it would neither have felt nor kindled the same confidence."
-" France is divided into two camps, of equal passion, if not of equal strength. The religious society anathematizes the civil society; the civil society anathematizes the religious society, and ever and anon the one point on which they seem to agree is that it is the duty of each to murder the other. Lost in this tumult of battle, what are we doing, we, French Protestants of every denomination? We maintain religious faith and bless social progress. We show France how she may be at one with herself, and be at the same time Christian and liberal. If, weaned of their bitter and resultless struggles, civil and religious society are minded some. day to make peace, they will make it, not under our name, indeed, but on our territory. The triumph of Protestant principles, whether under Protestant forms or not, is the religious future of our country, and of every country." Free religion, not in the infidel but in the Christian sense, as against the compelled religion of the middle ages.
-The Danish churches raised for missionary purposes in 1888, about $24,000. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN EXTRACTS.
-The Church Missionary Gleaner for October reports as ready to go out six university men, six clergymen from the Islington school, nineteen single ladies and four others. Adding the wives-" whom we must never leave out of account "-and there is a total of ninety-one new missionaries. "But the day is rapidly coming when that will seem quite small."
-It seems that, as with the ark of old, each African tribe has been afraid to keep the bones of Bishop Hannington, being persuaded that the wrath of heaven has attended each attempt to detain them, until at last they are given to an Englishman who comes from the coast "by the route which Hannington" in his last moments, declared that he died to secure!"
-Miss Ridley, lately gone to China, says in the Gleaner: "I do not do much else but study. I am standing, as it were, on the brink of a wonderful ocean –this difficult, interesting and fascinating language-just playing with a few of the drops."
-It is known that the aborigines of Japan are the Ainos, or Ainus, now mostly found in the northern island, Yezo. They are very degraded, but are said to be rather of our type of race than of the Mongolian. It has been questioned whether they have retained any religion. But the Church Missionary Society missionary to them, Rev. J. Batchelor, writes in the Gleaner, that " they firmly believe in a God who is the life giver and benevolent sustainer of all, and they thankfully and dutifully acknowledge His gifts and mercies."
-It is known how highly the Church of Scotland, both Established and Free, values education in India. It is now, in the Established branch, engaged in reviewing this whole question, and corresponding widely with authorities in Indian affairs. Some of the answers deserve reporting: Sir Charles U. Aitchison, late lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, is very sure that if the chasm now yearning in Hindu belief is filled up by an unchristian theism, the church will have all the sapping and mining to do over again. He mentions the American College at Lahore, as one of the types of schools that ought to be multiplied through India, giving university training, together with the steady personal application of Christian truth by cultivated men. "God forbid," he says, "that I should undervalue preaching and evangelizing. I believe India is only waiting for some native St. Paul to turn by thousands to the Lord. But the more active you are in your schools the better you will be prepared for that day when it comes." Even now, he says, the most and the best converts are from the schools. f Sir William Wilson Hunter says that a Christian government cannot give anti-christian, and, in India, cannot give Christian teaching. The result is deplored, deservedly, by the natives of India. Missionary schools alone can make good the lack. Such schools the government feels free to aid. " It would not do," he says, "that just as Hinduism and Mohammedanism are entering the field of education more largely, Scotland should withdraw from it. Alexander Duff and John Lawrence," he remarks, " went to India in one fear. One saved India for England; the other rescued Christianity from sinking again into such a degradation as that into which the uneducated' Portuguese Christians' had brought it."
Sir William Muir, Sir Henry Ramsay and Sir Richard Temple give similar testimony.
The Rev. Robert Clark, of the Church Missionary Society, thinks that there are friendly Hindu and Moslem teachers whose influence is positively better than that of some nominally Christian teachers. He calls them "Hiram's Carpenters. " It is an error to suppose that the Scottish Establishment in India spendo chiefly for schools. £2,492 is spent for them; £5,488 on evangelistic work.
The Rev. D. Mackicham, D.D., of the Free Church, remarks that there are fewer conversions now at such schools than at first. This he attributes (1) to the great modifications of Hinduism, giving a temporary resting-place to many; (2) to the religious indifference of the age; (3) to the stronger political life awakening in India, carrying off much moral force–all temporary causes, but operative at present.
The Rev. A. Clifford, of the Church Missionary Society, says that "Dr. Duff's converts are the backbone of the native church in Bengal." Few, but mighty.
Bishop Caldwell and Mr. Sharrock declare that these higher schools are the unly way of reaching the higher castes. The Roman Catholics, moreover, are waking up to the importance of education, and the question is, into which scale enlightened India shall be thrown.
James Wilson, Esq., twenty-five years missionary in India, says that the condition of India, that is, especially of Hinduism, with iis compact society and overmastering religion, is unique. Individual conversions cannot be there, at present, the main end. India is a mighty rock to be tunneled, and educa- tion is the process of tunneling. The rate of conversion among the aborig- ines, who may be called the soft rock, does not at all give the rate among the Hindus, who are emphatically the hard rock. As yet, no method of labor has gained many conversions from Hinduism proper. That mission schools have not, therefore, is not against them, while for ultimate results we may well re- gard them as an indispensable agency.
The Hindus are beginning to be alarmed at the absence of ethicai teaching from the government schools. One Hindu journal, quite independent of direct missionary influence, calls for the introduction of a little book, called" The Precepts of Jesus," compiled by Rajah Ramahun Roy, the original leader, I believe, of the Brahmo Somaj. Says Mr. Wilson: "I have nothing to say against other methods of spreading the truth; but I, for one, have no regrets that so many years of my life were spent in India in diffusing among the young people of that country knowledge of any and every kind, including that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation."
Judge Roberts, of the Punjab, brings like testimony to the grievous decline of morality and integrity which has followed the divorce of religion and education. The Rev. S. S. Allnutt, M.A., late of Cambridge, nowof Delhi, says that this system starves the HiNdu conscience, already weak, and leaves the intellectual to struggle with. the animal nature, aggravated by an English propaganda of atheism, "rampant, vaunting, undisguised." The vile Bradlaugh has recently, we remember, visited India, partly to prosecute this apostolate of hell. Even the Mohammedans, it appears (except the heretical Shiites) disdain to acknowledge sin before God, or profess repentance of it. Mr. Allnutt wholly condemns the too usual practice of allowing heathen teachers to give formal instruction in Christain doctrine. _ The Rev. John Paton, formerly chaFllain in Bombay says: "Convert all the aboriginal types and leave the Brahmanical castes untouched, and you have only touched Hindu religion by the fringe. Neglect neither Aryans nor non- Aryans, nor the methods best suited to the genius of either. A mighty citadel (and no citadel of heathenism compares with Hinduism) must be besieged with infinite patience and manful use of every form of appliance." Principal Miller, of Madras, says that the Jesuits have a broad outlook, and the Protestant missions, as yet, a narrow one. Shall educated India, he asks, be Jesuit or Protestant? He strongly condemns the helter-skelter mutual emu- lation of Protestant schools. One-fourth of their revenues, he says, have been spent in paralyzing another fourth.
Mr. Mozumdar, the Brahmo Somaj leader, says that he knows mission school graduates above others by their superior moral principle and greater firmness of character.
A Hindu jurist, callmg for religious education in government schools, de- clares it better that a few should embrace the faith of Christ than that all should become practical atheists.
The Rev. John Monson, B.D., of Calcutta, says that if Protestants do not want Protestant Christianity in India to be absorbed by Roman Catholicism, they must not relax, but intensify, their efforts for the higher education.
The Rev. Johr. Crawford, B.D., says: "Christ has gained, because natives have seen men of all Christian creeds in Britain establishing Christian colleges."
The Rev. Herbert J. Thomas remarks: "The best that the natives of India can say of the English Government is that it is without religion; and they think no better of the English on that account, as their newspapers abundantly show."
On the other hand, various eminent authorities, among them Sir Monier Williams, speak doubtfully as to the results of these schools.
In 1863 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland decided that its higher schools in India should be deeply modified, in the direction of much fuller instruction in religion. Thus modified, it appears to be the mind of the present Missionary Committee, that they ought decidedly to be maintained, as being a needed counteractive to the irreligion of the government schools, and as peculiarly agreeable to the Scottish genius. The General Assembly is yet to take action on the report of the committee.
The Colonial and Continental Church Society, an Anglican institution, formed "to send clergymen, cathechists and schoolma:sters to the colonies of Great Britain and to British residents in other parts of the world," is important among those many semi-missionary societies called into being by the peculiar nature and relations of that dominion" on which the sun never sets." Its total income for 1889-90 was £35,668, of which £17,600 was raised at home, the remainder in the colonies and on the continent. The society takes a part in the Indian missions of British America. It also aims at commending to the French-Canadians a purer form of the Gospel. It appears to represent principally the evangelical school of the Church of England. We observe that the Marquis of Salisbury is one of its subscribers, and that his eminent competitor is not. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel seems to do the same work for the High Church party, although it is an extensive, and in various places rather an interfering, foreign missionary society.
-The Church Missionary Intelligencer for October, 1890, remarks: "The British Empire at the present time is five times larger than that of ancient Persia under Darius; it is four times larger than that of Rome under Augustus; and it is one-eighth larger than all the Russias put together; it is three times the size of the United States, sixteen times that of France, and forty times that of Germany, if we leave out of account her recently acquired territory in Africa. Now, if we admit that God guides the affairs of men, surely there must be some sufficient reason fot placing such. vast popUlations under our control, and when we remember that all these pos~essions have come to us since. the Reformation, it seems as if we had in this fact a hint as to what the reason is!"
-The same number of the Intelligencer, warning against expectations of what may be called a tumultuary movement of conversion in India, says: "In very truth there is no possibility in India of such a thing as a popular movement. There is no public opinion-how could there be in a body of 250,000,000 of people, of divers races, speaking a great number of different languages, and disintegrated by the cleavage of caste, by no means conformable to the strata of society? The conversion of a whole caste would render that of the next above it none the easier, rather all the more difficult. The ocean of Indian thought has been for ages stagnant; there are in it neither tides nor prevailing currents. But the w~ter of life is pouring into it, and creating, at all events, local eddies, which go swirling onwards steadily, spite of their back-waters, towards the throne of Christ."
-The Intelligencer quotes from two organs of·two branches of the Brahmo Somaj the two following declarations: "Christ Jesus. . is as much necessary in this age and in India as He was 1,800 years ago in Judea. As sinful children of men, we, the people of India, are as much in need of the Living Son of the Living God as the people of Judea were in days gone by." "In Christ, humanity, possessing nothing, not even a stone to lay its head upon, declared nothing good but its Father in heaven, surrendered itself wholly to His will, was tortured and killed, and finally was raised to eternal glory and everlasting blessedness. Humanity was reconciled to divinity, and the earth witnessed the rare spectacle of a divine humanity reigning over her." The editor remarks: ,. There is something of a perverse current there, a tendency to philosophize away the realism of Christ's redemption, which is characteristically Indian. But let the Indian mind take its own course-it will be guided at last to the personal acceptance of Christ."
The Rev. Worthington Jukes, of the Afghan Mission of the C. M. S., speaks of a baptized convert of ten years' standing, Hazrat Ali Shah, as being a lineal descendant of Mohammed. He has given up his government appointment to devote himself to mission work.
-The Intelligencer, complaining of the abundance of orthodoxy and the lack of moral feeling in the negro Christianity of West Africa, remarks: "It is not a Luther that is wanted; it is a John the Baptist." Yet it remarks that there is enough of the right spirit to be making a visible impression on the Mohammedans.
-It is known that there is a difference of opinion among missionaries, here and there, as to the use of the native instead of the European dress. There can be no doubt, however, as to the wisdom of Dr. Harford-Battersby's course on the Upper Niger. He says, in the Intelligencer: "For the first time adopted the native dress. Found it very comfortable, and well adapted to the climate. The turban, I believe, is far the best protection from the sun; the tabe, or gown, which is very loose, admits of free ventilation, and at the same time can be modified to suit almost any change of the weather except rain. Below we have the loose trousers and sandals for the feet-very comfortable. It is delightful altogether to have discarded boots and socks." Elsewhere it is remarked how pleased the people are to have the white men condescend to dress like themselves!
-The Intelligencer for October gives from the Matin the following statistics of Roman Catholic missions, mostly French, in Central Africa. The Catholic Missions of Lyons have in the Kingdom of Benin 6 stations, 1 college, 10 schools, 8 orphanages; on the Gold Coast, 6 stations, 3 schools and orphanages; on the Niger, 2 schools and 2 orphanages; in Dahomey, 8 stations,4 schools and 5 orphanages. The Brethren of the Holy Ghost have in Cimbabasie 4 stations, schools and 1seminary; in Gaboon, 6 stations, 3industrial schools; in Senegambia, 15 stations, 1 seminary, 1 printing office, 16 schools, 1 industrial school, 1 orphanage and 1 asylum; at Sierra Leone, 2 stations and schools; in French Congo, 7 stations, 5 schools; in the Lower Congo, 9 stations,l seminary, 5 schools; in Zanzibar, 11 stations, 6 schools, 2 hospitals, 1 industrial school. The White Fathers (Cardinal Lavigerie's missionaries) have in Nyassaland 2 stations, 3 orphanages, 4 schools; in the Sahara, 7 stations; in Kabylia, 1 station; in Nizab, 12 stations, 8 schools, 2 seminaries, 8 orphanages; Upper Congo. 2 stations, 4 schools; in Unyanyembe, 2 stations; at Zanzibar, 1 station; at Tanganyika, 3 stations, schools and orphanages.
-The Intelligencer remarks: "India is becoming more and more visited in the cold season, not only by politicians, and litterateurs, and students, and sportsmen, but by the messengers of Christ. The' missioner' is becoming as distinct a variety of them as the' missionary.'"
-The Bishop of Lahore, at a recent C. M. S. meeting in India, referred to the noble work opening in Kashmir. He said that many converts had recently been gathered in, and all over the district congregations of seventy or eighty met in the simplest of little churches for worship. These churches had not cost more than a rupee per sitting, if he might use that term, for, with the exception of the Bishop, for whom, in consideration of his infirmities, a chair was provided, sittings there were none [laughter]; the people all sat on the ground. The simple service was conducted and joined in with great fervor, and his heart was much touched by a beautiful cUdtom they had of repeating Jai Prabhu Yesu (Victory to the Lord Jesus) as they rose at the conclusion of their service.
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.
Mr. Max Wood Moorhead writes that: " A Conference of the Student Volunteer Movement is to be held in Cleveland, Ohio, February 26th to March 1st. "The objects are: (1) To bring volunteers and secretaries of foreign mission societies into personal contact; (2) to acquaint the Church with the character, scope and purpose of 'the movement'; (3) to stimulate and arouse to action student volunteers. Christian citizens offer to entertain a thousand guests, and volunteers in hundreds will probably avail themselves of this hospitality. "Such a convention will give secretaries of various boards in the United States and Canada opportunity to confer with candidates, and define the relation which should exist between them; and societies will communicate their spirit and their methods. "The following societies have been invited to send representatires: Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the American Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance, the Canadian Inter-Collegiate Missionary Alliance, the United Society of Christian Endeavor, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the Epworth League, etc. From many missionary agencies comes the cry of' Debt!' 'Retrench!' The Church seems largely indifferent to the Master's appeal for laborers. We earnestly hope and pray that this gathering may result in a renewed spirit of obedience to the command of Christ, and, consequelitly, the actual sending forth of many laborers. "Foreign missionaries, now at home on furlough, from' every quarter of the globe, will be present. "Will the readers of THE REVIEW pray that all prepartions may be in conformity to God's will, and that all who participate in the coming Conference may be led by the Holy Spirit?"
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND· CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Editorial Items.-[J. T. G.] mission agents, whether English or It will be gratifying to the friends African, that are, in their jUdgment, "vessels meet for the Master's use." of humanity everywhere, to know Earthen vessels they may be; we do that at the last Holland signed the not look for perfection in human in- agreement of the Brussels Confer- struments or instrumentalities; but .ence, authorizing a tariff for revenue ~ve do deeply feel that true missionary work is the Getting forth of the Lord in the Congo Free State, to raise a Jesus Christ both as Saviour and as special fund for the suppression of the King and that this work must be slave trade. If she had held out in done 'by those who, however feeble in themselves, do know Him as their her refusal to concur, the entire Brus- Saviour and obey Him as their King, sels Conference would have been a and who seek, by the power of the failure, as it required unanimous con- Holy Ghost, to be examp~es ': in w<,>r?, in conversation, in chanty, m spInt, sBeenrtlinofTtrheeatysio~f-na1t8o8r5y, powers to the in faith, in purity." to make it ef- -It would be amusing, if it were fective in this modification of the free not so serious, to note the present con- troversyabout mission comity. Here trade clause of the original constitu- are the Baptists criticising the Method- ists for entering Rangoon, and the tion. Lutherans in turn criticising the Bap- tists in. Guntur because they "im- -It is time the good people of this mersed several of their teachers under discipline for irregular conduct." Then country gave a half-hour to the man- we have the Church of England Mis- sionary Society complained of by the ner in which the United States Gov- Presbyterians in Persia, for interfer- ing with their constituency, and so on, ernment is made to play the part of sometimes with cause, and, possibly, sometimes without cause, for we do procuress in the case of Chinese w0n;ten not claim to pass judgment on any of these cases. And all this comes on us at San Francisco. We are not saymg when the brethren are reading essays and making addresses on missionary a word now in favor of letting the comity. We printed in May last an able paper read before the Calcutta Chinese in, nor about our disreputable Missionary Conference on this subject by Bishop Thoburn. That met with a violation of treaty with China; but rejoinder in the same conference by Rev. Mr. Clifford, and now the subabout those who are let in, and the ject is treated in the December num- ber of The Church Mis.'lionary Intellipurposes for which they are admitted.
No Chinese can be landed without a writ of habeas corpus from the district court of the United States. Eleven thousand of these have been issued in order to land Chinese men and women, and ninety-nine out of every hundred of these women are known to be brought hither for the vilest uses of white men as well as Chinese. The President and his Cabinet ought not to allow the majesty of law to screen slavery and lust after this fashion.
-Here is a model utterance by the gencer. The writer concludes by Church of England Missionary Society saying facetiously: "The American in connection with some administra- missionary, though often a magnifitive difficulties in one of their West cent specimen of a Christian gentle- Africa missions, which might well be man is, nevertheless, to the end an adopted as a manifesto by all mis- American, given to going ahead, and -sionary societies: not absolutely beyond the temptation of filibustering. And the English The Committee are solemnly deter- missionary is apt to be ineradicably a mined in humble dgeivpeentdheenSc~eciuetpyo'ns Divine' strength, to support only to mission agenCies and John Bull, accustomed to dwelling on an island, and with no particularpen- next ten years, and hence it is now chant for being interfered with by two-hundred-fold greater than it others." But during the while in was at the beginning of the present which these various brethren discuss century. and re-discuss the modifications nec- essary in the mission co-operative Mr. Gladstone says we have not only policy of the past, a writer in the Har- multiplied wealth in a ratio that is un- vest Fieldsuggests some modus vivendi precedented in the world's history, that the work be not hindered. but we have multiplied the variety of pleasures which wealth commands, What About Our Surplus Wealth 7 also, in a correspondingly unparalleled degree. The New York World recently pub- lished a list of the richest people ia the Archdeacon Farrar is credited with United States, with a rough estimate the statAment that the working-classes of their wealth. We say rough esti- of Great Britain are saving annually mate because when one of these five hundred millions of dollars, and gentlemen, in a legal proceeding, tes- the British nation fifteen hundred miltified, as is asserted, that he could not lions. tell within ten or twelve millions of dollars what his fortune did amount The Japan Mail some while ago to, he only represented the rest of the said there was wealth enough in a very wealthy persons whose fortunes single block of warehouses, between are in part in more or less fluctuating Cornhill and Regent streets, in London securities. It is not assumed there- to buy up the whole of Yeddo, Japan, fore, by us, that the article referred and possibly five times over. It is disto presents precise knowledge, and tinctly the Christian nations that are in some cases may be grossly incor- adding in geometrical ratio to their rect. surplus wealth.
Nevertheless, the outline stands sub- Allowing all this to stand for the stantially representative of the facts moment, take another factor, as well in the case. Here are the names, then, established as careful and consciof seventy-five individuals whose for- entious computation can make so intunes are estimated at more than five definite a propo~ition. It is stated millions of dollars. It includes three after careful examination that the inmen thought to be worth over one crease in the wealth of the Protestant hundred millions of dollars each, and Christians of the United States equals thirty-five individual fortunes which five hundred millions of dollars anexceed ten millions of dollars each. nually. That amounts to the assertion that every three years Protestant The leading statistician of Great Christendom in this country accumu- Britain is made responsible for the lates an aggregated surplus fortune, statement that the increase of the equal to the total estimated fortunes world's wealth between the years 1800 of a hundred and twenty-five of the and 1870 was greater than that of the wealthiest persons in the land, or that eighteen hundred years preceding each year Protestant Christians in this century; and, still further, that the United States lay by a fortune the increase of the wealth in the equal to the sum total accumulated world between the years 1870 and through many years by the Rockefel- 1880 was equal to that accumulated lers, Astors, Goulds and Vanderbi~ts, between 1800 and 1870. In other as estimated by the World's table. words, the world doubled its wealth in the first seventy years of this cen- Now, we have not a word, at this tury, and added an equal sum in the writing, to say about the special dan- gers to any community, in any coun- try or century, of such vast augmenta- tion of wealth. Mr. Gladstone has done well to point out that it is indi- economies; after-we repeat the sumrectly a fertile source of the negative mary-after it has used all it needed, religious tendency of our day. But given all it would, and wasted most we do not propose to moralize about wantonly, it yet has a reserve of unit in one way or another. What we spent fortune reaching the enormous write to accomplish is this: to press sum of $500,000,000 annually! home on every Christian in the land who has any surplus, who one year And this is not supposed to be thE> with another, or after an interval of "saving" of the irreligious or ignorant, ten years, finds he has accumulated but of the very best type of Christian some" savings," the question: What commonwealth. What ought we to are the special obligations growing do with this surplus? What account from savings? will we render of it at last? Not one- sixtieth of so much as these' , savings" If annually the Protestant Christians is given to save the world outside of of this land are accumulating five our country, adding what men give times the wealth of the few men who while living and leave after death. own a hundred millions of property after a lifetime, or as the accretions of We cast no reflections. We read no more than one generation, what is homilies. We prescribe no action.' this same Protestant Christendom pro- We only put an interrogation point posing to do with these five hundred before one part of the Christian millions of annual surplus? It must Church in the richest and most luxube borne in mind just what the charac- riant land on the globe over against ter of this is. It is not what these the increment of its savings. Christians now want. It is what is left. After our Protestant Christen- J. T. G. dom has supplied all its wants, catered as far as it pleases to all its whims, The Press in Heathen Lands. spent on its viands all it cared to indulge in, wornjust" as good or expen- BY J. T. GRACEY. sive raiment as it has pleased to buy, indulged itself in art and literature The area of the reading population and travel, spent on the education of of the worla has been vastly extended chilUren all it could be induced to within the century, and in heathen spend, made merry the Christmas and lands as a direct result, in large part, of other holidays, indulged ~n all lawful, the modernmission. In India the Hindu possibly some questionable amuse- and Mohammedan readers are increasments, hospitably and socially enter- ing at present at the rate of a million tained friends and neighbors; after it and a half a year. Before the translahas, besides all this, generously spent tion of the Bible scarcely one-thirtieth in charity and benevolences, sustained part of the population of Bengal could all the churches, built all the colleges, read, and at the beginning of this cenand subscribed as liberally as it could turythat vast province and its Bengalibe induced to subscribe for missions speaking millions had no prose literain this and other lands; after it has, ture; now it is extensive and rapidly in a word, been as public-spirited as increasing. it pleased to be in forwarding all humanitarianism and religion while What we say of Bengal is but typiliving, and bequeathed all it would to cal of the rest of India and of other be spent or given away after death parts of the Moslem and heathen -spent, donated, squandered, be- world where the mission has entered. queathed; and after it has wasted untold thousands, being reckless of Not to delay with further illustra- tions in heathen lands, though the literary vaulting of young Japan is a tempting theme, let us take a single illustration from Moslem literature. That we will select, not from Delhi or Lucknow, which furnish most start- publishes newspapers in a dozen oJ' ling and arousing facts of recent liter- morelanguages,would ofitselfindicate ary ventures, but from the dead-line the relation of the mission to literary of the Moslem intellect in the coun- activity. Butthe intent of this present tries lying on the eastern borders of paper is to call attention to the use the Mediterranean. We pass by the which is being made by the press of twenty millions of pages of Arabic some heathen lands in antagonism to literature issued in Beirut in 1889 by Christianity. Illustrations are abun-' the Presbyterians, because it is Chris- dant in Japan and in Moslem lands. tian, and even the great dictionaries, We will, however, limit ourselves to grammars and chrestomatics in Ara- selections from India. bic, of the Roman Catholic press at Beirut, for the same reason. All of the six hundred native news- papers of India, except a half-dozen, The Moslem literary stir is indicated may be set down as inimical to Chris- by the officially reported pUblications tianity. In all the larger Indian cities in Constantinople in three months of there'is a fair proportion of youths 1889, of which 143 were Turkish, 3 who have received an English educa- • Arabic, 2 F re~, and the others tion, many of whom are bitterly hos- in Armenian, Neo-Greek, Bulgarian, tile to Christianity. There is an abun- Servian, French and Italian. dant supply of imported European infidel literature sown broadcast Egypt is not a country to which one among these young men. But not is likely to turn to find the freshest only is the newspaper turned against literature. But the presses of Cairo us, but organizations modeled after are turning out works of vast impor- our Christian tract societies have been tance. The Turkish, dictiona~y, established and are in active operation. "Kamus," and the "Tag-al-aurus," The" Free Thought Depot" in Madras the great dictionary of classical Ara- issues a list of 124 separate works, in- bic, seven volumes-of the total ten- cl_ding 34 publications of Bradlaugh, of which have been issued in rapid suc- 19 of Mrs. Besant, 16 of Ingersoll, and cession, and which will cost, perhaps, others of Paine, Voltaire and other forty dollars, mark anything but a well-known infidel publicists. Inger- Dead Sea or a. low Nile of literary soll's lectures have the largest sale. interest. Some of these have deceptive titles. "A Bible Hand-book for Mission The modern newspaper has become School StUdents and Inquiring Chris- a power in these lands. Beirut pub- tians" and " The Bible Dissector for lishes eight political and four literary the Use of Mission School Students" and religious periodicals. Damascus, are illusive titles. The" Elements of Aleppo, Jerusalem and Bagdad have Social Economy" is said to be a most their newspapers. demoralizing advocacy of free lust, in which marriage is denounced. This We have said the missjon was the tract literature is being circulated by source or occasion of much of this benevolent contributions like those literary culture in all the lands where made to our own tract societies. Edu- it has entered. That might go with- cated natives are paying monthly sub- out the saying, but that we wish to scriptions of ten dollars to disseminate fasten responsibility on the mission to these tracts and books. One rajah in foster and direct, if it cannot control, Bengal is known to have subscribed the agency it has created or awakened ten thousand dollars for this object. into energy. That a single American Others are spending great sums for missionary society should have re- the purpose of printing literature in duced, through its agents, perhaps advocacy or defense of their own twenty languages to writing, and have published approaching three thousand writings in fifty or more dialects, and religions. Some of them are appeals of Jesus, and make a great pretence of humility. But inwardly they are to their own people to arouse them- saying: "Alas, has it come to this, selves because of the aggressions of that we should be beaten by these the Christain forces. people !" The famous poet, Shakspeare, Some of these tracts and booklets has' said: "Good wine needs no push." He means that if a thing really posare rejoillders to Christian books. sesses worth it needs not be puffed. Rev. Dunlap Moore's tract entitled For instance, a spicemonger, when "An Examination of Jainism" is an- his goods are worthless, makes a great swered in "A Reply to an Examina- display of them, and ostentatiously in- vites everybody whom he sees, saying: tion of Jainism, " or, in native words, "These are good spices; come and " a slap on the Christian face." Some buy." Not so the man who has really are curiously mixed. Here is one on good ones. People go to him wherever " A Warning to the Cow Protectors and he may be. Now you see missionaries going about. They say that the Bible, an Answer to Christians," one part de- which is impure and has not a grain fending cow killing, the other part of truth in it, is the word of God, and filled with sneers and taunts at the they shout in every street: "Come, missionaries. A Christian tract, " The brethren. This is an excellent religion, Choice of a Guru," claiming that Jesus a good caste." Why do they thus Christ is a world teacher, is answered shout? Because if they do not, not one person will go to them.
in another tract, "An Examination ***** of Jesus." Christians cast suspicion upon the More curious, however, is the cate- story that Hanuman (the monkey- -chism of the Hindu Tract Society, god) leapt over the sea to Ceylon. But an equal objection lies against the with sixteen questions and answers story of Christ walking on the sea. By bodily from the Westminster Cate- holding hi,. breath a person may leap chism, including the definition of God. an immense distance; but no amount of suppression will prevent a man All this is done because it is "good, and from drowning. To say that it will is Christianity borrowed it from Aryan- a lie. From incidents ,like these it is ism, which is chronologically the pre- clear that the Bible is the work of decessor of Christianity." man and not the word of God, and that But others are bitterly and blas- even Jesus Christ was only a man phemously antagonistic to Christianity like the rest of us. itself, and contain most wanton attacks on the Bible. This is illus- ***** llilissionaries say hat idolatry is child's play. But surely the worship trated in a wildly blasphemous Aryan of the cross is a superstition worthy of tract, published by the Hindu Tract scorn. It is only on a level with the Society, entitled "Jesus Christ a play of children who put up broom- Fool." It is said by the editor of the sticks and call them soldiers. These people put one stick across another Harvest Field to be too shocking to and worship it because Christ died on such a cross. They call our worship be translated for English readers. He, idolatry: we may well call theirs stickhowever, presents two ".mild" para- worship.
graphs, as he styles them, to show Now, there is really in all this the animus of the publication. We nothing to discour~ge, however it,may copy these for the same purpose: shock. We have long been familiar There are many sects in this world, with attacks like these from much and usually each sect contents itself with the practice of its own religion. better brains, and have learned how But it is not so with these Christians. futile they are.
They are bound to increase their num- But othertracts show still a different bers, and so they sent out missionaries, while they themselves remain quietly vein. Here is an extract from one published by the Arya Samaj, transat home. Is this just? These missionaries are ignorant and very covet- lated from the Tamil: ous. 'Vhen they are beaten or abused Missionaries come from Britain at or mocked they quote the commands a great cost and tell us that we are in heathen darkness, and that a bundle ing and virtual destruction that are of fables called the Bible is the true imminent. Hence the organization Vendanta (inspired book) which alone of clubs, the publication of tracts, can enlighten us. They have cast pamphlets, and articles in newspapers, their net over our children by teach- the appointment of learned men ing them in their schools, and they among them as preachers and defend- have already made thousands of Chris- ers of the old faith, the relaxation of tians, and are continuing to do so. caste rules and restrictions, and the They have penetrated into the most various other devices that are now be- out-of-the-way villages, and built ing employed to defeat the purpose of churches there. If we continue to the Lord and His people, and prop up sleep as we have done in the past not an effete and decaying system. And one will be found worshiping in our it is no small tribute to the value of temples in a very short time; why the the agency that we employ that our temples themselves will be converted opponents have taken a leaf out of the into Christian churches! Do you not Christian book, and are, in many know that the number of Christians is places, sedulously imitating our exincreasing and the number of Hindu ample. We engage evangelists and religionists decreasing every day? pay them; so do they; and when the How long will water remain in a well available local talent is not sufficient which continually lets out, but re- they look elsewhere, as is evidenced ceives none in? If our religion is by an advertisement for preachers incessantly drained by Christianity that has recently been appearing in without receiving any accessions, how the Bombay daily papers; the publican it last? When our country is cations of the several tract societies turned into the wilderness of Christi- are sought to be refuted by tracts and anity will the herb of Hinduism grow? leaflets, well written both in English We must not fear the missionaries and the vernacular, published and because they have white faces, or be- circulated under the auspices of a cause they belong to the ruling class. Hindu tract society; and Christianity There is no connection between the and its teachings are steadily maligned government and Christianity, for the and misrepresented with an ability Queen Empress proclaimed neutrality and an earnestness worthy of a better in all religious matters in 1858. We cause. must, therefore, oppose the missionaries with all our might. Whenever In 1786 the youthful Spaulding they stand up to preach, let Hindu preachers stand up and start rival wrote to F. H. Jacobi that he had preaching at a distance of forty feet from them, acd they will soon flee heard Biester say: "We must not reaway! Let caste and sectarian differences be forgotten, and let all the lax our efforts, and then in twenty people join as one man to banish Christianity from our land. All possi- years' time the name of Jesus, in a ble efforts should be made to win back those who have embraced Christianity, religious sense,will be no more heard." and all children should be withdrawn from mission schools. That was in Germany, and since then The Missionary Herald, of the Pres- Germany has furnished a large pro- byterian Church in Ireland, review- portion of the most intelligent and ag- ing the report of the Hindu Gujarat gressive missionary force in the world.
Tract and Book Society, says: But the stern fact remains that we The Hindus ha,e at last realized have created an agency for the adthat there is something in Christianity itself, and in well-directed Christian vancement of Christianity, which the effort, that is not to be repelled by any of the rough-and-ready methods heathen are turning against us; and, hitherto tried; Christianity is to-day felt to be an aggressive power, mov- worse, which we are not using ouring with an ever-increasing force, which must in some way be resisted, selves with anything like the I:;kill or and its influence counteracted, if Hindu society is to be saved, and the in the proportions that we should do. antiquated fabric of Hindu religious and social life is to escape the remouId- We have created a vast reading community of Christians also without giving them anything like an ade- quate supply of their literary needs.
We have not utilized the press at all commensurately with its place, power and opportunities. This is a field where the societies might combine for co-operative work much more largely than they do. There should be a great by that time India would adopt her pan-mission council on the subject reform. A few friends and organizaof missionary literature distinctively tions pledged her $10,000 annually. for non-Christian lands and for Roman Of $25,000 required for a permanent Catholic countries. There might be building, $18,000 have been raised. economic distribution of the material which would help to make much Of her work for the school in Bommore of the funds already contributed. bay, Ramabai writes as follows: It is a subject demanding special consideration by specialists.-J. T. G. "Besides visiting families, I have found it necessary to gather women Pundita Ramabai's Work. together and acquaint them with my The cultured little Hindu lady, work. I have, therefore, now and Ramabai, is carrying on a unique then, to invite ladies of the high castes, work against great odds, and we de- get up entertainments for them, leclight to note her success. A conversa- ture on different subjects, and encourtion which a missionary had with her age and implore them in various ways some time since was thus reported in to take an interest in women's educathe Bombay Guardian: The missionary tion and progress. They will not asked and she answered as follows: listen to me if I begin at once to talk " Are you saved?" to them about my school and its ob- " Yes." jects. They have been taught to dis- " Do you believe in Jesus Christ as like widows and look down upon their your Saviour? " education. So we have very carefully "Yes." to approach them, show them the " Many people believe in Christ in beauties of intellectual pursuits, make their heads and not in their hearts. them realize the superiority of en- Do you believe in Ghrist with your lightened life to one of perpetual heart 7" ignorance, talk to them about the "Yes." blessedness of useful life, and thus "Are your sins forgiven through gradually teach them to look upon Him?" themselves and the widows as beings "Yes." who have more value than cats, dogs, " Praise the dear Lord." or mere puppets in the hands of men. It will be remembered that she More opposition to our work is to be opened the school for Hindu widows met from women than from men in at Bombay in March,1889. We so- certain quarters. Many women of licited from Miss A. P. Granger, the Bombay are now beginning to take secretary of the Ramabai Association, a interest in our school, as they have contribution relating to the work that been several times invited and enterhas since been developed, and we now tained here." have the pleasure of making extracts from Miss Granger's reply. Miss Granger favors us with the fol- In March, 1890, one year from its lowing statements: opening, the school numbered twentyseven pupils, twelve of them being " In view of its ultimate dependence high caste child-widows. Five child- upon Hindu support alone it was dewidows have since been added. In- cided to move the school to Poona, on struction is given in Marathi, English the 1st of November, the objections and Sanskrit, and also in sewing, etc. first made by the Advisory Board to Ramabai asked the assistance of this its establishment there, having been country for ten years only, belieying removed. The larger expenses of an English city like Bombay, and the su- perior advantages of Poona as a stronger hold of Brahmanism, are the two most important reasons for this C'11anJ:0. " Ramabai's first idea of the location the Uriion, in this country, whose ad- of the school for Hindu widows was dress he knew. Poona. On many accounts she felt it would be wiser to place the school The library of the International there. She was, however, overruled by others and the school was opened Missionary Union is as yet an experi- in Bombay. The officers of the asso- ciation do not hesitate to state that it ment. This little sheet is sent out, has been fully as successful as they anticipated. It is not on that account after some unavoidable delays, to all that a change is now being made. A suitable building with ample grounds the members whose present address have been secured for the Sharada Sadan, at a moderate rent and wise can be ascertained, chiefly to test the arrangements made for the conduct of the school and boarding depart- question of the call for such a library. ment. On account of her approach- ing marriage, the teacher who went We have pleasure in presenting a list out from this country has resigned her position but an efficient successor of such books as we have thus far se- had been found. It was expected that all the boarders would go with Rama- cured, with an approximate indication bai to Poona. of the postage on each. Whoever " In view of this change we would ask more earnestly than ever before wishes to take out one of these books for the sympathy, support and prayers of the American people, and will close is requested to send this amount of . with Professor Max Muller'stribute to the character of our head: 'I have postage to the librarian, and after never been in India; but I have known many Indians, both men and women, keeping the book one month to return and I do not exaggerate when I tell you that some of them need fear no it by post, prepaying the amount comparison with the best men and women whom it has been my good necessary. A book may be renewed fortune to know in England, France, or Germany. Whether for unselfish- if desired a second month when not ness or devotion to high ideals, truth- fulness, purityand real, livingreligion, asked for elsewhere. I know no better hero than Keshub Chunder Sen, no heroine greater than Any donations of books or pamph- Ramabai; and I am proud to have been allowed to count both among my lets or money for the library will. be best friends.' " thankfully received; also any sugges; International Missionary Union Notes. tions as to how lt can be made more Circulating Library.-The librarian of the incipient circulating library of useful to the members. the International Missionary Union, is the Rev. James Mudge, East Pep- POSTAGE. perill, Mass. He recently sent the fol- lowing circular to all the members of Our Indian Mission, Gordon………….. 2Oc. London Missionary Conference, 2 vols, .. " 15c. Indian Evangelical 'Review, vols. 2, 3, 4, 5, 1874-1878……………. _………. " .. 14c. Romance of Missions, Miss M. A. 'Vest … 14c. Siam and Laos, Dr. House and others……13c. Decennial Conference, Calcutta ………. 120. Missionary year-Book……………. " .. 12c. Among the Turks, Dr. Hamlin………… 120. On Horseback in Cappadocia, Barrows…. lOc. Two thousand Miles in Mexico, McCarthy. lOc. Letters from India, Bruce……… …… 8c. Great Value of Missions, Liggins…. ….. 7c. India, J. T. Gracey …………………… 7c. Woman's Medical Work, Mrs. Gracey….. 7c. Ann H. Judson………………………. 7c. Sarah B. Judson………. ………… 7c. Memorial Papers of the Marathi Mission .. 30. Natural History of the Marathi Bible.. …. 30. Africa in a Nutshell, Thompson …. ,…… 20. China, J. T. Gracey …………………. lc. Open Doors, J. T. Gracey……… …….. 1c. Moravian Mission in Alaska, Hamilton … lc.
Also THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD for 1888, 1889, 1890 in separate numbers, anyone of which can be ordered as above, postage four cent.s, thus enabling any member to refer to any article or articled. Most of the papers read before the Union in these years are to be found herein. The next meeting of the Interna- when the pressing claims of India, tional Missionary Union will be held at Clifton Springs, New York, June 10th China, and especially of Africa, were to 17th. We give the notice thus early that missionaries in this country may the subject of conversation, resolved be the better enabled to make preparations to attend; and that those abroad to memorialize the Society with refermay know when to send their greetings, their suggestions, or their papers. ence to a great forward movement. Essays and letters are solicited from members now on the foreign field as That memorial seems to have prothey constitute the" Outlook Committee." All such papers or correspond- duced a profound impression upon the ence should be sent to Rev. J. T. Gracey, 161 Pearl Street, Rochester, committee of the Church Missionary N. Y., or to Rev. W. H. Belden, Secretary, Bristol, Conn. Society, and they have caused the -The members of the International memorial to be printed and widely Missionary Union, will note with active interest, we trust, the appeal that circulated with the earnest desire that Rev. Arthur H. Smith and Dr. Henry D.Porter, both members of the Union, they may be guided by the Divine make in the December number of the Missionary Herald for aid for the Spirit in their deliberations on· the Chinese suffering from flood and famine, over not less than 4,000 square matter. It is stated that the Church miles of the Chihli Province. Thousands of families are homeless. The Missionary Society is supported, even Famine Relief Committee in Shanghai, after giving $60,000 for relief of nominally, by less than a third part of the sufferers has closed its books, but the distress still continues. No two the Church of England, and it cermen within our knowledge could more judiciously distribute the few tainly is a courageous thought to add thousand dollars they ask for than to its present staff of European misthose two brethren,and we are quite sionaries one thousand within five or sure, the need will continue for some six years. Yet such is the proposal. while yet. Send money to Mr. L. S. The memorial makes certain sugges- Ward, No 1 Somerset Street, Boston, tions as to these reinforcements, es- Mass pecially the following: 1. That evan- gelists should be sent into the mission One Thousand Additional Mission- fields in groups, each group being as- aries !" sociated under a leader. 2. That the services of lay-workers should be used The English Church Missionary So- much more than hitherto. 3. That ci€'ty presents a scheme for the send- mechanics and working men and ing forth, within the next five or women whose hearts God has touched six years, from the Church Mission- should form parts of these groups. ary Society alone, one thousand ad- The suggestion of such an increase in ditional missionaries. At the Kes- the working forces is startling simply wick Convention, in July last, mem- because it is such a sudden increase bersof the Church Missionary Sodety to the present numbers. That portion gathered at the house of a friend, of the Church of Englantl which operates through the Church Mission- ary Society is amply able to provide the money, to provide the workers and the supplies for such an advance, and the need is imperativ€'. And what is true of Christians in England is true of Christians in America. The forces might be and ought to be doubled and trebled. There are abundant means of support in the hands of those who bear Christ's name. Young men and young women are in training, and a large portion of them have already pledged themselves to this work. Shall not the Christian churches of America, and the Consti- tuency of the American Board espe- cially, anew and at once "attempt great things for God, and expect great thingR from Him?" It is time for a grand forward movement. There are men enough and wealth enough in our churches to respond to the present call for an advance, if there is a will to do so.-The Missionary Herald.
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
IH.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
-After much painstaking in proof- of population not later than October, reading, the electrotyping process is 1892.
chargeable with a bad blunder in the -At the recent meeting of the January issue of the REVIEW. The American Board, in Minneapolis, the top line of page 5f belongs on page 5f) "Committee of Nine" reported that If readers will make a marginal note contributions to missions have not kept on the page to this effect, it will avoid pace with those to other benevol.
confusion. ent causes. No explanation was at- -The year 1892, which marks the tempted but they implied that the dis- 400th anniversary of the discovery of cussions and division of feeling as to America, also marks the centenary missionary policy, might account for of the formation of the first great this relative decline of receipts for missionary society of England, whose foreign missionary work.
distinctive purpose was the evange- The meeting presented many at- lization of the world. It was on the tractions and not a few wholesome second day of October, 1792, at Ket- lessons. Dr. N. G. Clark's paper on tering, that William Carey and his "Higher Christian Education as Re- brother Baptists formed the now lated to Foreign Mission Work ;" Dr.
famous Baptist Society, and laid thir- G. K. Alden's discussion of " Mission- teen pounds, two shillings and six ary Motives;" Dr. Judson Smith's pence on God's altar, as the beginning paper on the" Missionary Outlook,"
of the great enterprise of organized and Dr. Storr's address as President, foreign missionary work. were among the most notable features It is our deep conviction that it of that great annivprsary. The papers would be a great mistake if this referred to, must be read to be appre- memorable era were allowed to pass by ciated. Dr. Clark pleads for higher without another great 'Vorld's Con- Christian education in order to pre- vention, such as was held in London, serve and turn to account the religious in 1888. If such a gathering could sentiment of the people among whom begin at Kettering, in Andrew Ful- we labor; and for the sake of a native ler's old' chapel, with a consecration ministry adequate in character and in meeting in the house of Widow Beebe numbers to meet the intellectual and Wallis, which is still standing, and spiritual wants of their countrymen where that society was formally or- and to share with missionaries in the ganized, what an inspiration would responsibilities of establishing such such a beginning afford for an un- Christian institutions as shall secure paralleled series of missionary assem- the success of the missionary enter- blings! The end of a century seems prise. He holds that the " men must an appropriate time for the gathering be reared on the ground." Dr. G. K.
up of the results of missions in all Alden sets forth as motive forces: (1) parts of the world, and the projec- "Profound convictions as to this pres- tion of new lines of enterprise and en- ent sinful and perishing world and its deavor for the century to come. Is great need. (2) Profound convictions it too much to hope that this next as to the superabounding riches of century of missions may not have divine grace in Jesus Christ, the great passed Ulatil the whole world shall provision. (3) Profound convictions of have been acquainted with the Gos- the personal command, the personal pel? 'Ve hope that at an early day trust, and the personal responsibility the leaders of missionary enterprises to bear the good tidings at once to all in all parts of the world will co- men." Dr. Judson Smith says Chrisoperate to call such a world's con- tianity is becoming the dominant revention in some of the great centres ligion of the world; communication between all parts of the world is be- -In the August number for 1890, coming easier; the world, with only the statistics are given for Protest- here and there an exception, is ac- ant missions in China, which are re- cessible to the Gospel; and that mod- peated in the December issue, page ern missions are successful. At home 934, as the strength of the United missionary contributions are being en- Presbyterian force. Of course, the lat- larged; the supply of missionaries is ter is an error. It should read: "As increasing, and the church is com- furnished by the Presbyterians." mitted to mission work as never before. -The late Dr. Alexander William- son, of China, was identified for some -In Scotland the question of dis- 30 years with the London Missionary establishment has produced no little Society, then with the National Bible excitement. It seems almost certain Society of Scotland, and the United to come before the next Parliament. Presbyterian Church. As a translator There is certainly a religious interest and distributor of religious literature among the Scottish churches. The in the Chinese tongue, he filled a attendance upon church services is, we unique position, and to these labors -venture to say, better than in any was singularly devoted. His extensive other country in the world. The travels, researches, grasp of missions, number of praying men, and especially passion for a more economic distribupraying young men, struck us with tion of the working force, made him peculiar force in recent visits to Scot- an authority. His" Journeys in land. We cannot conceal our pro- North China," ranks as a standard found solicitude for the progressive work. His late wife, a most gifted theology which is moving many, we woman, wrote "Old Highways in fear, away from the old landmarks of China." Dr. Williamson died of nethe faith. No doubt there are many phritis, possibly due in part to his arwho are interested in these questions duous toil in thfl recent Shanghai intellectually, whose hearts are per- Conference. His prodigious activity fectly loyal to Christ and the truth, is rivaled by few of the most devoted but we fear the flffect of this ad- workers in the Middle Kingdom. vanced theological opinion upon the younger clergy of Scotland. At the -China owes to Christian missionsame time so deep is the interest in aries a great debt for information on a missions in this land of martyrs and vast range of topics. But a little while missionanes, that the practical work ago, the Chinese were wholly depend. of the churches, both at home and ent on the Peking Gazette; now they abroad, is largelyantidoting the influ- have some twenty-eight publications. ence of this skeptical opinion. The missionaries have supplied an enormous number of translations of We can never more speak or write of European booksonscience, geography, Scotland without the feeling which a history, mathematics, philosophy, etc. son would have for his mother. We They have translated the Bible into add the words of Dr. W. M. Taylor: not less than twelve Chinese dialects, "I say without any hesitation that and are now busy at fifteen more. when interesting foreign missions are Dr. Legge's investigations into the maintained in a church to the normal ancient systems of the Chinese phipoint, all other activities and agencies losophers are embodied in Professor at home will go of themselves and as Max Muller's" Sacred Books of the things, of course, while, if there be a East," and American authors have lack of devotion to that noble enter- given the world the "Middle Kingprise, nothing else will be prosecuted dom," and the" Chinese-English Dicwith either enthusiasm or success." tionary." So writes Mr. Johnston, of These are true words. Bolton.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
lJy J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
China. –.:.. China is a vast field. many centuries they have been in full That is a statement that grows by enjoyment of them, and on every side· every line of comparison we can lay. the evidences of long-established Here is a late attempt by Rev. Dr. wealth and commercial enterprise are· B. D. Gray, in the Foreign Mission observable.
Journal of the Southern Baptists (see " From the great wall to the frontier December number; it is published at of Tong-king, and from Thibet to the Richmond, Va.): . China Sea the country is dotted over "A single province of hers con- with rich and populous cities, which verted would be equal to the conver- are connected one with another by sion of whole nations elsewhere. Con- well-trodden roads or water highways.
vert anyone of her eighteen provinces In these busy centres of industry mer- and you would have more than all chants from all parts of the empire Brazil and Mexico. Anyone of a are to be found, who are as ready to dozen of her provinces would be more deal in the fabrics of the native looms, than the conversion of all Italy. As porcelain, tea and other native pro- goes China, so goes Asia. She is to- ducts, as in cottons, metals and day the citadel of paganism. Secure woolens of Europe.
her to Christ, and you secure all her " The rivers and canals are crowded dependencies, as Thibet, Turkistan, the vessels bearing silks and satins Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. from Cheh-kiang .and Kiang-su, tea Break down her idols and you de- from Gan-hwuy and Ho-nan, and rice throne the greater part of heathenism from the southern provinces to parts at a stroke! " of the empire which give in exchange CHINESE EMIGRATION. for such gifts the corn and other pro- Dr. R. H. Graves says: ducts which they are able to spare."
"There are 50,000 of these in the. In the matter of the language, Dr.
Philippine Islands; 50,000 in the Eng- Douglas says: lish colony at Singapore, where they " By means of their three classes of own four-fifths of all the real estate; characters, the hieroglyphics, ideo- 50,000 more in the Malay Peninsula; grams and phonetics, the Chinese 1,300,000 in Siam; thousands in Cochin have been able to express and pre– China. and thousands more in Borneo, serve the thoughts and sayings of theit Java and Sumatra. The colonies greatest and wisest writers through a founded by the Spaniards, Dutch, series of centuries which dwarfs int« French and English are being rapidly insignificance all Western ideas of filled up by Chinese. In the Sand- antiquity. For thirty centuries China- wich Islands there are more Chinese men have been accumulating stores of men than men of the native race." literary wealth, which are of them- China is a fertile region. Professor selves sufficiently important to attract Douglas, at University College, thus the attention of scholars and to stir described it: the literary ambition of students, and "From one end of the country to which do so in almost every country.
another the land blossoms as the rose, But by the fresh discoveries of Messrs.
and yields to the diligent and carpfu} De Lacouperie and Ball, not only is a tillage of the natives enough and to new interest added to the language, spare of all that is necessary for 'the but it is brought into close and inti- comfort and well-being of man. Nor mate relation with the tongues spoken have these advantages become the by the great civilizing nations of the.
recent possessions of the people. For world." Great changes are taking place in every form and righteousness too.
China. Rev. Young J. Allen, D.D., The doctrine of mediation is recog- LL.D., read an able paper before the' nized.
Shanghai Conference on this topic, in 4. They have some knowledge of a which he classified these changes as: true and living God, a power on whom (1) Compulsory, or those necessitated cOu.;}try, family and individual pros- by force or treaty obligations. The perity depends.
compulsory occupation by the allies, 5. They possess an implied knowl- in 1860, of the imperial capital was edge of immortality. Their emperors followed by a treaty which gave com- never die, they ascend.
merce and missions the right of un- 6. There is a providential prepara- molested access to the entire land. (2) tion. China is open from end to end.
The semi-compulsory changes, or At the Shanghai Conference this was those initiated with a view to adjust- called in question as to Ho-nan, but ments. The Chinese knew that the Hudson Taylor said it was politically treaty must be fulfilled, and that in open, though persecution and oppos- reorganizing their government they ition were great.
could not do better than copy the OBSTAOLES AND DIFFICuLTIES.
strong points of their late adversaries. 1. To the heathen becoming Chris- Hence, the innovations of foreign tians. No one can state the ca.'le of military camps, arsenals, customs, the Chinese better than the Chinese, schools, coast surveys, etc. (3) Spon- and so we "let a native Chinese taneous-voluntary changes. Inter- Christian minister state the point of national relations become cordial. The the difficulties of the native Chinaman press is callEJd into requisition, news- in learning about Christianity.
papers and books are translated. China Rev. Y. K. Yen, speaking at the has become conscious of her wants, a Shanghai Conference, said: mint, banks, post.offices follow. (4) "We must understand the peculiar Imperial, or those which define the character of the Chinese. (1) They position and policy of the country. have hazy ideas about gods. A Chi- ADVANTAGES AND HELPS. nese who went to the United States Rev. Dr. Williamson pointed out was written to by his father that his some while ago, in Evangelical Chris- sixth mother was well. What can a tendom, that there is a providential man who has six mothers know of a preparation in China for the reception mother's love? (2) The Chinese have and spread of the Gospel. hazy ideas about sin, which they con- 1. There is an educational prepa- found with crirpe, treading on one's ration. They say: "The mind is the toes, being late to dinner-the same man." The competitive examinations character for all. (3) They have hazy have quickened theinteUect of China. ideas about a future life. At a This gave rise to schools. Hence the Chinese death-bed there is never a large percentage of readers. Then word about future happiness, but only there is one written language for the about mourning and money. If they whole empire. There is asocial prepa- did Rot think the gods could affect .
ration. Through the observance of men's bodies the temples would be filial obligation has trained the nation deserted and ancestral worship would to subordination to law and order. decline. They are not to blame. It is There is no communism nor nihilism their misfortune and not their fault.
here. Divine authority can be easily The Chinese cannot see Christianity as taught. we see it."
3. There is a moral preparation. This is jUtlt what Rev. Judson Smith, The heart is recognized as the seat of D.D., has said in other language and on morals. Benevolence is urged in an opposite side of the globe: "It is not simply the greatness of anity yet they can be reached. He the population of China that makes her evangelization difficult. It is said his church in Monkdon included rather the institutions of the Chinese; it is the Chinese character; it is the in its members five or six Mandarins, Chinese history inwrought into insti- tutions; instinct in the life of the men with literary degrees; that many people. Making them a nation of themselves, exclusive, caring not, others of the Mandarins are at heart knowing not, heeding not of aught that goes on in the world outside of Christians, and many more very them; not desiring the arts we are so ready to bring them; not wishing the friendly. institutions that we would gladly see thrive among them; scorning the The mission schools are becoming a faith that we deem their life and their salvation." power for good in China. One would 2. To native Ohristians. The same fancy that there would be great preju- Christian native, already quoted (Rev. Y. K. Yen), said again at the great dice against the teaching of Christimissionary conference last year some very sensible things about the difficul- anity in connection with secular eduties to the mission work growing out of the conservatism of the Chinese. cation, but it is amongst the marvelous He said that "the Chinese Christians are not in the same favorable circum- providences of God that in scarcely stances as Christians in other lands. The former have fifty generations of any heathen country does this long heathenism behind them. They have much to contend with. We should prove an obstruction. not expect the same enterprise, activity and piety as from from foreigners. The teaching of Christianity does Missionaries often speak disparagingly of Chinese Christians. This, consider- not inure to the disadvantage of the ing the circumstances, is unreasonable and unjust. Western civilization is mission schools in China. We can furmarked by diversity. Eastern civilization by uniformity. Chinese are nish no better evidence of this than is not active physically, morally and spiritually. If I were active physi- found in the report to Government in cally I should not have this queue today. If any other Chinese would cut Hong Kong, made in 1889: off his hair and shorten his skirts I would do so too. They have a load Referring now to the 7,101 scholars upon them. All Chinese worship is who attended, during the year 1889, for selfishness. They have no knowl- schools under the· supervision of the edge of God; no recognition of being education department, there were as His sons." many as 4,814 attending voluntary schools, where they received a Chris- All classes are reached in China. tian education, whilst 2,293 scholars Rev. John Ross said at the London attended government schools, receiv- Conference that while the literary ing a secular education. The secular class in China are opposed to Christi- government schools are, as a rule, bet- ter provided for than the voluntary religious schools as regards money matters, house accommodation, school materials, staff, organization, and dis- cipline, and when charging fees, keep their fees far below the rate charged in voluntary schools of a correspond- ing class. Nevertheless, the voluntary schools, which freely teach Christian- ity without the restraint of any con- science clauses Whatever, and are in every respect conducted as denomi- national mission schools, receive from the public double the amount of pat- ronage bestowed on government schools. This clearly shows that parents of children, in Hong Kong, as Europe. prefer, on thewhole, religious to secular education, even when the latter is cheaper.
This was made by Dr. Eistel as in- spector of schools. It only confirms the judgment of Dr. F. Stewart, who was inspector of schools, but who died recently, who said: The advance in education is one of the most gratifying features in the progress of the colony. There is yet twenty-eight, is introduced at court much to be done, and female educa- by Lao-tse, is appointed chief magistion is only in its infancy; but the trate of Chung-too, introduces praclines on which the system is moving tically ajury system; for thirteen years seem to be correct, and time alone is becomes a homeless wanderer, and required to reclaim those portions of henceforth abandons himself to letters the field which remain untouched. and religion, and wanders from court to court to obtain converts to his ideal THE RESULTS ARE ENCOURAGING. government. He died, having prac- tically remained unrecognized us a The statistics at the Shanghai Con- successful reformer. After his death ference last May, showed: Of foreign his teachings became powerful. Every missionaries, men, 589; wives, 390; year 66,000 animals are now offered single women, 316. Total, 1,295. Na- in sacrifice to this sage. Here is the tive helpers, ordained, 209; unor- chorus chanted in the great sacrificial dalned, 1,260; female helpers, 180. ceremony to him: Medical work, hospitals, 61; dispensaries, 43; patients in 1889, 348,439. "Confucius, Confucius I How great is Con- Churches, organized, 520; wholly self- fucius! supporting, 94; half self-supporting, 22; one-fourth self-supporting, 27. Before Confucius there never was a. Confu- Bible distribution, Bibles, etc. Total, cius; 665,987. Communicants, 37,287; pupils in schools, 16,816. Contributions by Since Confucius, there never has been a. Connative churches, $36,884. fucius; MEN AND WOMEN ARE WANTED. Confucius, Confucius I How great is Con- fucius! " Ministers and laymen are called for. The Shanghai Conference asks soberly The emperor himself offers this for 1,000 men in five years. Their ap- prayer to Confucius: "I, the emperor, peal was published ,far and wide. offer a sacrifice to the philosopher Then there have been specific appeals. Confucius, the ancient teacher, the The mISSIOnaries of the Baptist perfect sage, and say, 0, teacher, in churches in America, now in China, virtue equal to heaven and earth, have appealed to the Baptists of whose doctrines embrace the past America alone to send 100 men. time and the present. . . • in reverent observance of the old statutes, with Oonfuoia.nism and Oonfuoius. victims, silks, spirits and fruits, 1 carefully offer sacrifice to thee. Mayst "Great men have short biogra- thou enjoy the sacrifice." (See Duphies," says Carlyle. The rule is not Bois's" Dragon, Image and Demon," broken in the case of Confucius. The p.l24.) outline of his biography can be given in a paragraph. He was born in the " If the Chinese," says an author, State of Tsow, B.C. 551, of noble an- "pay divine honors to any being in cestry whose record reached unbroken heaven, or on earth, or under the for over two thousand years backward earth, it is to Confucius." from his cradle. His father was a soldier of great prowess and of daring CONFUCIUS AS A FOUNDER OF A bravery. He was married at nineteen, rose from keeper of the public stores, RELIGION. to the cnarge of public lands. At twenty-two he taught letters, ethics, Fairbairn says, in his "Studies in devotion of soul and truthfulness. He the Philosophy of Religion and Hisearly became cosmopolitan: "I am tory," that" without Confucius China a man who belongs equally to the had been without a native religion." north and the south and the east and the west." He studies music at Dr. Legge, in his "Religions of China," boldly corrects this erroneous statement. Religion in China does not date from Confucius. His grand- son asserted that Confucius only "handed down" and "displayed" the ancient teachings and took them of etiquette, taking the place of ethics: for his model. Confucius himself said a skeptical denial of any relation be- he was a" transmitter, not a maker" tween man and a living God, taking of the doctrines of the ancients. Cer- the place of religion, while there is tainly the "transmitter" gave color encouraged a sort of worship of human to that which he transmitted. China genius, combined with a set of des- does not owe its national religion to potic political theories. But who Confucius. But if he did not originate can honestly call this a religion? " it, neither did he discountenance it or alter it'in any sensible degree. But Over and over we are told that Con- Confucius did emphasize the moral fucianism is not a religion, only a duties as taught or implied in the system of morality. This needs large religion of the ancients as of first im- modification. So far as the element portance and of much easier compre- of worship enters into the element of hension than the speculative side of religion it is distinctly, pervasively, theology or the religious superstition penetratingly, a religion. about the unseen. Dr. Faber pointed this out with One thing has been plainly pointed emphasis at the late General Conferout as to the effect of Confucius' large ence of Missionaries at Shanghai. "Religion," he says, "pervades every emphasis of practical duties. Dr. movement of official life in China. Matheson (St. Giles Lecturer) says: A glance at the Peking Gazette will convince the most skeptical of the "Since the days of Confucius the truth of this statement. We find there speculative element has declined and mentioned not only worship of ances~ the Chinese mind has sought truth tors, of Confucius, of innumerable almost exclusively in the path of deified worthies, but also of the duality morals." of heaven and earth, of sun, moon, stars, wind, clouds, rain, thunder, the Much has been written about Con- ocean, mountains, rivers, the four fucius in relation to the "Golden regions, the four seasons, the years, Rule." He is credited with being the months and days. Astrology, selection originator of this. But Dr. Legge, of lucky and unlucky days, omens, than whom he has no stouter cham- charms, exorcism and other superstipion, says here he tarnished a doc- tiQlls are sanctioned by imperial trine of the ancients rather than pro- authority." (See The Messenger, Shanghai, June, 1890.) claimed it. Confucius is said to have CONFUCIANISM AS A THEOLOGY. advocated the negative side of the Golden Rule: "Do not unto others This same Dr. Faber, at another time, what you would not that they distinctly pointed out some of the should do unto you." But the ancients aspects of absolute negation in Conwe~t further than that. Lao-tze fucianism as a religon. He says: taught: "Return good for eviL" But Confucius said: "What then will you 1. "Confucianism recognizes no return for good? Recompense injury relation to a living God." with justice, and return good for good." How nearly this shades, how- 2. "It makes no distinction between ever, to the Christian teaching! the human soul and body, nor is there any clear definition of man, either IS CONFUCIANISM A RELIGION? from a physical or psychological point of view." The China Review contained years since an article in which the writer 3. "All men are said to possess the said: disposition and strength necessary for "Confucianism pure and simple is, the attainment of moral perfection, in our opinion, no religion at all. The but the contrast with the actual state essence of Confuciani"m is an anti- remains unexplained." quarian adherence to traditional forms 4. There is wanting in Confucian- have no rights in relation to their ism a decided and serious tone in its parents; subjects are like children; of treatment of the doctrine of sin, for, human rights there are none-first with the exception of the moral retri- and last there are only duties. Po- bution in social life, it mentions no lygamy is sanctioned and presup- punishment for sin. It is devoid of a posed, so is polytheism. Filial piety deep insight into sin and evil. extends even to worship. In ordinary life the son must" manifest his rever- 5. It "knows no mediator, none ence, in his nourishing of his parents, that could restore original nature iJi in his endeavor to give them pleasure; accordance with the ideal which man when they are ill he feels the greatest finds in himself." anxiety; in mourning for them, when dead, he exhibits every demonstration 6. "Prayer and its ethical power of grief; in sacrificing to them he dis- finds no place" in his system. plays the utmost solemnity."
7. There is, with the exception of Confucius taught the supreme value ancestral worship, which is devoid of of personal character. The" charac- true ethical value, no clear conception ter of Alexander of Russia was worth of the dogma'of immorality. a constitution," says Colton. Confu- cius would make every character a 8. "All rewards are expected in constitution and by-laws besides. To this world." be and not to appear is the correctest thing. The wise man will assail his Confucius plainly held that these own vices and not another's: "I am are things beyond the grasp of human not concerned that I have no place; I intelligence. You cannot figure to am concerned how I may fit myself yourself the nature of God. You for one." The substance of three cannot certainly know that there is hundred pieces of the "Book of any point of contrast between His Poetry," says a recent author, may be nature and yours; hence prayers and expressed in: "Have no depraved sacrifices are of doubtful utility. All thoughts." this lies in the region of imagination; it may represent truth; it may not. "The man who, in view of gain, Neither can be demonstrated. Yet he thinks of righteousness, in view of did not forbid worship. "Sacrifice as danger, is prepared to give up his life, and who does not forget an agreement if your sacrifice were a reality; wor- however far back it extends-such a man may be reckoned a complete ship Shin as if Shin were really man. . . . "Man is born for uprightpresent." But meanwhile your chief ness. They who know the truth are concern is with the visible and palpa- not equal to those who love it, and ble nniverse and with the homely they who love it are not equal to those tasks of life. The opposition to Chris- who find delight in it." tian points of theology is entire and fundamental. But the rule of right is not indivi· dual conscience, but rather the uni- CONFUCIANISM AS A MORAL FORCE. versal conscience of mankind. Man must do all this without any help, hu- In what way and sense is Confu- man or divine. He fails, and Confucianism a moral force? There must cianism does not attempt to account be something in it by which it has for the failure. It only stands alongheld sway for these centuries. Espec- side of the failure and says man was ially in the face of sundry marked born to be good. It does not even furdefects in its ethical teaching. It con- nish an example. founds ethics with ceremonies and politics, it asserts that certain musical The sceptre of authority, of all pomelodies influence morals; its system of social life is tyrannous: women are slaves, and may be bought and sold ·as sheep in the shambles; children litical power, hence the centre of all guised as a Thibetan, accompanied by political government is morals. a Sikkim Lama, who was a sub-in- spector of schools employed by the "Withal," Mr. Edkins says, "Confu- British government. cianism has not made the Chinese a moral people. They exhibit a lament- Yet, it is not true that we do not able want of moral strength. The know much about the country and standard of principle among them is the people. The" Cyc10predia Britankept low by the habits of the people. nica" has a quite elaborate article, in They do not appear ashamed when which a great deal of information is they are discovered to have told an condensed, and there are many sources untruth." (See Edkin's "Religion in of information about this land. China.") We summarize from sources,learned Archdeacon Hardwick says: "How and popular, too numerous to name, many are the points in which Con- in the following statements: fucian tenets are opposed to Christianity, it were superfluous to enumer- THE COUNTRY. ate. The opposition in respect of doctrines is entire and fundamental. Thibet, or Tibet-for there seems no It is the opposition of nature and of preference in the spelling-or to use grace, of unregenerate and regenerate the native name, Bodyul " The counprinciples, of sight and faith, of earth- try of the god," or Bhotiya, or lyand of heavenly, And how vast Bhoots, is a section of table lands ten will, therefore, beth~ revolution in the to sixteen thonsand feet above the moral nature of the Chinaman if he sea, stretching from the Upper HimashaH ever learn to practice the un- laya Mountains and those of Yunnan, worldly lessons of the Gospel." (See on to the mountains of China in one " Christ and Other Masters," p. 57.) direction, and to those of Turkistan in another. It is difficult of access in all Confucian conservativism is essen- directions and equally difficult to travtial and inherent. It is the greatest erse. The world owes the Jesuits a obstruction to all progress. debt here as in so many other places for the earliest maps, though here as Thibet. elsewhere those made early in the It is quite the fashion to dismiss eighteenth century were crude and Thibet with the statement that very often misleading. There is no exact little is known of this country and its survey had, except in Western Thibet people. That is only true in a very where, as in Kashmir, it is the most qualified sense. The ordinary student complete. may not have a hand-book, as he has of Bavaria or Switzerland, and the The Britannica is full enough on casual reader may not be easily re- climate, products, industries and ferred to anyone or two volumes many other common matters to have from which to find at a glance what it suffice t-o refer our readers to that he wishes to know of what is known, source. and only now and again has any European been permitted to make any THE PEOPLE. personal investigation by actually traversing the country, as did Alexan- The most probably correct estimate der Csoma de Koros, who made his of the population is from a Russian way from Hungary to Thibet on foot; source which puts it at six millions. or as an enterprising Hindu, Sarat Chandra Das, who, it is alleged, re- The people themselves are worth n.. cently made a tour in Thibet dis- fuller note than a mere reference. The Turanian family of races separate into two great divisions-the Northen~ and the Southern. The Northern com- prehends the Tungus, t,he Mongol, the Tartar, and the Finn branches. The Southern includes the Malay, the Bhotiy,a and the Tamil races: The represent the Chinese government in Indo-Bhotiyas are in the northeast Thibet. These direct exclusively the countries of India, on the Himalayas foreign and military administration and in the valleys of the Brahmaputra. of the country. The civil and relig- The stronglanguage of affinitybetween ious government is left in native these tribes in Burmah and in Thibet hands. The number of Chinese troops is manifest if the chain of gradual rarely equals 4,500 men. modifications from tribe to tribe is followed. But the original Bhotiya The Dalai Lama is the supreme race are Thibetans, and they live in authority in civil government. He Thibet, not alone, but with Mongoli- resides in the famous temple palace of ans who are supposed to have been Potala near Lhasa. He is an incarsettled there since the days of Genghis nation of Buddha, and his soul passes Khan. from him into another body when he dies, in order that there may be a per- The HoI' or Horpa occupy the west- petual incarnation of Buddha at the ern part of Northern Thibet, and ex- head of the Thibetan affairs. They tend into Chinese Tartary or Little do not shout, but they might, with pe- Bokhara. They are nomads, not culiar propriety: "The king is-dead; agriculturists, and more Tartar than long live the king!" for the Dalai Thibetan in their habits. They are Lama never dies. He only disappears mostly Buddhists. But some of them in the form of one man to reappear are Moslems even within Thibet: at the same instant in the form of Turks in blood, Bhots in language. some infant born at the moment of In Ladak both the creed and the liter- the apparent death of the king. They ature are Buddhist, but in blood and search the land to find this childlanguage they are Bhot. Ladak's po- Buddha, place him on the throne, and litical relations are with British India run the Government through a vice. and Kashmir. The Bhot element in roy till he comes to maturity. His its distinct type can not be seen but duties are simply to sit cross-legged in in Chinese Thibet. his temple, and from time to time ex- tend his hand in benediction on his In appearance the Thibetans re- worshipers. semble the Chinese and the Mongols, though, according to Hodgson, many This joint headship of state and of the mountaineers differ entirely church has inhered in the Dalai Lama from the Turanian, and approach the since 1640. There are many other Aryan type. No absolutely white grand lamas, but they are subordinate skins are seen, but often a very pale to the Dalai Lama who is at once brown complexion with red hair and emperor and pope. Below these still gray eyes, and a good deal of bloom are monk-lamas, who act as scribes, on the children's faces. In appearance physicians, sorcerers, etc. It is frethey resemble Chinese and Mongols, quently the case that the correspondnot Hindus, and are more athletic ences of Lamaism with the Roman than either. They are of the same Catholic form of Christianity are overfamily as the Burmese, and their emphasized, at least very incorrect languages are like. Yet Thibetans inferences are made from these. The have no tradition or notion of a pro- Lama ceremonies of baptism, confirgenitor of the human race. There is mation. The ecclesiasticism of pope no caste, yet the social habits are and cardinal, archbishops, priors, Hindu in most r~spects. Polyandra monasteries and nunneries, abbots, prevails, and Polygamy obtains. etc., are all here. But these similar- ities are often strained, and the differ- Since 1720 Thibet has been a depend- ences in them are very great. ency of China, under the Viceroy of Sze-Chuen. Two imperial delegates Lamaism is a compound of Shamanism, Sivaism and Buddhism. The But Thibet was not without a re- Thibetan form of Buddhism is, how- ligion till it imported Buddism and ever, wholly unique. Writers are Sivaism from India. It had an earlier constantly saying this is the strong- creed, though but illy formulated till hold of Buddhism without any ap- Buddhism came. It is known as the parent discrimination. Buddhism in Bon Religion. Eighteen principal ,"ods Burmah is one thing; in Ceylon it is are enumerated. Originally it was a another thing; it is still another sort of nature worship, mixed with thing in Thibet. It is not in its ori- a superstitious element; later on, ginal purity in Thibet. It is strongly adopted from Shamans and the Sivamodified by surrounding religious ites of India, and now further mixed notions. It was born in Thibet contem- with Buddhist ideas. poraneously with the Sikh religion in the Punjab and with the Lutheran CHRISTIANITY IN THmET. Reformation in Europe. In its monasteries in Thibet are preserved heaps The Roman Catholics nave tried to upon heaps of Buddhist literature, the introduce Christianity on the Chinese language Thibetan, but the alphabet border. They began this in 1846, and being Indian, and they may date from made some inroads till 1865, when the second century. They differ in their mission property at Bonga was their language much from the spoken destroyed by fire by the Thibetaus. language of Thibet to-day. Again they endeavored to work, but in 1887 were again driven out, only For much of this class of informa- two of their nine centres being untion one must search ethnological and touched. philological works, like Brace's "Races of the Old World," " Latham's On the west the Moravians have Philology," Hodgson's great works, sought to enter the country, but have and other books like Cunningham's had to stay in British Lahore. They Ladak (the title has gone from us just commenced this mission at the sugnow). gestion of Gutzlaff, in 1853, by send- ing Messrs. Pagell and Hyde, two Max Muller, too, will often let in laymen, who endeavored to reach light, as for instance, in his" Chips," Thibet by way of Russia, but were deetc., where he says: feated in the attempt, and then tried the -India route by way of Simla, in "People have complained of the 1854, to Kyelang in Lahore, and eslength of the sacred books of other tablished a mission house 10,000 feet nations, but there are none that ap- above the sea, and at Poo, in Kunaproach in bulk to the sacred canon of war, in 1865. At this latter place they the Thibetans. It consists of two col- number forty converts. They have lections, commonly called the Kanjur done a large amount of translation of and Tanjur." Scriptures, grammars, etc., into Thibetan, and sent these into Thibet, The Kanjur consists in different where it is said all the lamas can editions of 100, 102 or 108 volumes read, and the lamas, remember, folio. It comprises 1,083 distinct number eighty thousand! works. The Tanjur consists of 225 volumes folio, each weighing from -Father Agostino, a preaching four to five pounds in the Peking edi- friar, has been addressing flocks of tion, which edition was sold for $3,000 people in Rome, and among them by the Emperor Khian-Lung. A copy even skeptical scientists. He is an of the Kanjur was bartered for 7,000 impassioned orator, and has been oxen, and a copy of Kanjur and called the "modem Savonarola." Tanjur together was sold for 1,200 Nevertheless, he is an ignorant Romansilver roubles. (See Vol. XX., ist and worships the Virgin. " Asiatic Researches.")
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
-Mr. H. W. Frost writes that the Missionaries employed, 121; days inundation in the region about Tient- labored, 23,182; stations supplied, 710; sin, in province of Chihli, was caused miles traveled, 200,443; sermons by very heavy rain-falls in the moun- preached, 12,029; Exhortations and tains: The waters spread with unex- other religious addresses, 6,587; total ampled suddenness. Mud villages sermons, 18,616; baptized into mission were completely dissolved, and swept churches, 1,893; received by letter away with their inhabitants; some and restoration by mission churches, who escaped with life lost ~he crops 2,267; total received by mission Dn which they depended for the eight churches, 4,160; professed conversions, months to come. Probably 4,000,000 2,619; churches assisted in organizing, Df people will depend on charity, in 103; prayer meetings assisted in orthis province alone, until May next. ganizing, 405; Sunday-schoolsassisted Active relief committees are at work, in organizing, 250; prayer meetings ascertaining the extent of the calam- led, 3,224; elders or bishops assisted ity, and devising means of help. The in ordaining, 43; deacons assisted in government is repairing the embank- ordaining, 98; pages religious literments, and has issued an imperialre- ature distributed, 522,789; reliigious script ordering Tls.60,000, to be dis- visits, 28,611; church houses built in tributed among sufferers. All this, connection with labor, No. 39, cost, however, is inadequate to raise the $29,965.00; books, Bibles, etc., distrirecipients above the bare preservation buted, No. 2,406, cost, $1,061.03; colof life. Rev. G. W. Clarke, of the lected for State missions, $35,357.77. China Inland Mission, writes, that to keep these people from November 15th -The Dutch Reformed Church of to March 15th, at two cents a day for Cape Colony, which has 175,555 bapadults and one cent for children up to tized white members, is coming, says twelve years, would cost $9,000,QOO. the Rev. Charles Starbuck, under Even now famine is upon the people Scottish and English Stimulus, to who can get but one meal, and that show a much more animated missionvery poor food, every twenty-four ary zeal. "Stellenbosch, with its theohours. Here is a chance not only to logical institute, is very especially a help the starving, but to reach them focus of missionary zeal." Among the with the b.read of life. The judicious others, the Wesleyan Missionary Sohelp given in 1871, 1878, 1888, re- ciety is most prominent. It has (in the moved many prejudices against mis- west) 9 stations, 6 missionaries, 96 na. sionaries and resulted in soul-saving:. tive helpers, 1,476 communicants, 1,467 scholars. The South African If any feel moved to contribute, a Wesleyans are quite independent of draft on London, England, sent to the the British conference. In the whole Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Cor- Colony they have 71 stations, 156 poration, Shanghai, China, or a post- churches and chapels, 55 clergymen, office order or New York draft, sent to 1,198 native helpers, 16,840 communi- Mr. H. W. Frost,No. 30 Sheeter Street, cants, 88,000 baptized adherents, 218 Toronto, Canada,will be forwarded to schools, 310 teachers, 13,803 scholars. the relief of the suffering millions. "But no other British society laboring in South Africa compares with the -Mr. J. B. Cranfill, superintendent Scottish societies as respects' capabilof missions, incloses summary of ity, sobriety and diligence, combined Texas (Baptist) mission work, from with true evangelical piety." The Free September 30,1889, to September 30, Church of Scotland has 9 stations, 10 1890: ordained Europeans, 2 ordained na- cational and industrial training. The tives, 23 native helpers, 4214 commu- United Presbyterians have 11 stations, nicants, 12,113 baptized adherents, 12 missionaries, 60 native helpers, 2,307 3,510 scholars. Their institute at Love- communicants, 8,080 baptized adherdale (largely assisted by the colonial ents, 43 schools, 1,735 scholars.-Illu8government) is a great force for edu- trated Weekly.
Foreign Mission Notes, by Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, England.
The Missionary Death Roll. secrated in Edinburgh on All Soul's Bishop Callaway.-At the close of Day, 1874, he settled at Umtata, March last, in his seventy-third year, around which grew up a small town, passed away the Right Reverend a pro-cathedral, a theological training Henry Callaway, D.D., first bishop of college for natives, schools for native St. John's, South Africa. Born in and European boys and girls, a hospi- Crediton, Devonshire, on the 17th of tal, and other institutions. Through- January, 1817; he early attached him- out his wide diocese he toiled with self to the Society of Friends. He inexhaustible zeal. On the failure of pursued the medical profession with health, in 1886, he formally resigned marked distinction, in London, and returned to his native land. True though his interest in religious ques- to the apostolic spirit, he devoted all tions and pre-eminently his strong his property to Spring Vale when he convictions on missions ultimately in- withdrew, and subsequently gave to duced him to join the Established the Established Church a sum of Church. On the formation of the £2,000 on his retirement. Bishop Cal- See of ~atal, he responded to Bishop laway will rank with Africa's most Colenso's call and was ordained laborious and enlightened missionary at Norwich Cathedral, August, 1854. heralds.
After a voyage of fourteen weeks to Mr. A. M. Mackay.-By the death Port Durban, he was appointed in the of this eminent missionary a lament- capacity of priest, in September, 1855, able blank is created in the Uganda to St. Andrews, Pietermaritzburg, the Mission. Most probably this event oc- first church erected in Natal. He ClIrred at Usambiro, on the southwest speedily became a conspicuous worker of Victoria Nyanza, 750 miles inland.
among the heathen and in the study Mr. Mackay was born at the Rhynie of the Kaffir language. Three years Manse, Aberdeenshire, in 1849, where later he obtained a grant of 3,000 acres his father was a noted Presbyterian of land, a day's journey from Rich- minister. Educated partly at home mond, where he founded the famous and at the Northern University, he Spring Vale Station, a prolific centre later went to Berlin in order to follow of Christianizing influence. He as- the profession of engineering. There sisted in reducing the Kaffir language he won no inconsiderable reputation to written form, and chiefly in trans- for ability and accomplislmIents. Mr.
lating nearly the whole of the Scrip- Stanley's historic letter, inviting mis- tures and Prayer Book. In this sionaries, in 1885, to the dominions of tongue, followed by a literal transla- Mtesa, moved the young engineer in tion in English, he wrote a book en- Germany to offer himself for service titled, "Zulu Nursery Tales." On the as an artisan missionary to the Church Scotch Established Church founding Missionary Society. He was readily in 1873, the Bishopric of Independent accepted, and on the 27th of April, Kaffraria, lying between Natal and 1876, sailed with the first party.
Cape Colony, Dr. Callaway was of- His desire to go forward on landing fered and accepted the. charge. Con- was frustrated by a serious illness. During his months of waiting by the classes. A pamphlet named "Times seaboard he made important surveys of Refreshing in Spain," recently pub- and laid out a useful road as far as lished in Glasgow, contains a bright Mpwapwa. When the news of the narrative of his toils for the better tragic deaths of Lieutenant Shergold school accommodation of the families Smith and Mr. O'Neill on Victoria Ny- connected with the Rio Tinto Com- anza came to hand, he resolved at pany, and increased facilities of wor- every hazard to join the lonely re- ship. He was equally esteemed by maining missionary, the Rev. C. T. the officers and seamen at the ship- Wilson. In December, 1878, he ping port for whom he opened a res- reached Mtesa's capital. Through a taurant and readiug-room, and as ~uccession of hardships, perils and ca- steadfastly sought their spiritual wel- lamities, he displayed the highest de- fare.
votion and splendid fortitude. House Rev. T. German Jones.-By the and boat-building, implement-mak- unexpected decease of this notable ing, teaching agriculture, managing mISSIOnary, the Welsh Calvanistic the printing-press, and proclaiming Methodists are bereft of one who held the message of eternal life, occupied a foremost position in the mission his nights and days among the tribes cause in the East. An overworked of Uganda. Under threat or in cap- system compelled him to sail from tivity he tarried within Uganda Ter- Calcutta, with his wife, on the 17th of ritoryuntil he was driven forth by the last March. The relatives and friends Mohammedan revolt in 1888. At his who repaired to Gravesend to await temporary abode, Usambiro, every the incoming steamer were terribly one knows how faithfully he succored shocked to learn on her arrival that the followers of Stanley and Emin on the home-voyaging missionary died on their coastward march. His decease the previous day, April 14th. In many robs the Church Missionary Society of respects his career was a remarkable its most conspicuous foreign agent,and one. A native of Anglesey, he was the whole missionary world of one of employed for some years as a working the most energetic and successful mis- quarrier. On completing his studies sionary pioneers of modern times. in Bala College he was called to the Rev. James Lundie, M.A.-To ministry of the Welsh Calvanistic the deep sorrow of the English and Church. His foreign labors began at Spaniards at Huelva, Spain, this be- the mission station of the Khasia loved missionary died unexpectedly Hills, India. By an unremitting en- on the 21st of March. At Edinburgh thusiasm he was witness to abun- University, where a few years past he dant spiritual harvests. His services received the Master of Arts degree, to the British government at the time two of his brothers on that occasion of the Indian mutiny were the means had the same honor conferred upon of averting a general rising in the them. One of the latter, Mr. Marsh- neighborhood. All through the awful all Lundie accompanied him to Spain cholera plague in India he labored un- and there ultimately succumbed in flaggingly, e5pecially in bearing the the Master's cause. The third of the stricken to the crowded hospitals.
brothers, the Rev. John Lundie, re- For his devotion on successive famine presents the Scotch United Presby- outbreaks he won the public thanks terians in Kaffraria, in which capacity of the Indian authorities and the he is sustained by a genuine mission- grateful affection of the poorest classes.
ary partner. The subject of this me- With fine literary tastes he combined morial notice was on the eve of com- an extensive and profound Oriental pleting special work for the benefit of scholarship. A large concourse of the English residents and the native mourners and spectators attended the funeral at Smithdown. Cemetery, here. My church, after many years Liverpool, on April 18th. of imancy and adolescence under another, and a part of the time under United States. my ministry, is giving signs of growth. New Orleans, June 30, 1890. EDITORS OF THE MISSIONARY RE- My church is a missionary church, VIEW:-As chairman of the Assembly'S and our young members are being dili- Standing Committee of' Foreign Mis- gently trained as soldiers for the war, sions, at Chattanooga, it was my duty and I hesitate not to declare that the to shape and present the favorable re- Church is so essentially missionary in ,sponse to an overture from the pro- her constitution, that to neglect or to fessors of our colored institution at do slackly this work, is to forfeit the Tuskaloosa, to begin a mission in the charter received from the King. Dark Continent. ,Two missionaries, -one white and the other black, are Yours, in our dear Lord, now on their way to Africa, and our R. Q. MALLARD. Assembly, at its late session in Ash- ville, resolved W reinforce them with Lutherans in all Languages. four additional laborers as soon as the means could be realized. In order to The Lutheran is a church of many deepen the interest of our people in languages. The latest statistics show this new mission, and stimulate that of her baptized membership greater generosity and prayerfulness, throughout the world 32,000,000 speak I sent the article enclosed, entitled, German, 5,300,000 Swedish, 2,500,000 "Wheah's Appeal," to our organ, The Norwegian, 2,300,000 Danish, 2,048,- Southwestern Presbyterian. Possibly 000 Finnish, 1,250,000 English, 1,113,- it might he made of larger service in 000 Hungarian, 624,000 Livonian, 480,- awakening interest in the evangeli- 000 Courlanish, 272,000 Esthnian,70,000 zation of a land long neglected, but French, 70,000 Icelandic, 48,000 Bohetoward which the eyes of the whole mian, and that in every other civilized -civilized as well as Christian world are tongue she is well represented, num- bering in the world 28,406 educated now being turned.* ministers, 38,381 church edifices, and 50,061,280 baptized members. This Your REVIEW, which I have only of church, though taking its origin in late been able to take, is invaluable to Germany, seems to know no fatherme in the preparation of missionary land or mother tongue. She is at sermons, and in the monthly concert home everywhere. of prayer, which I have always observed in my ministry. It is of great Wesleyan Missionary Society.- value in keeping my own soul stirred The society is reported struggling -on the matter which engaged the last against financial difficulties, for the thoughts of our dear Master before He relief of which an earnest call is made. mounted the throne. Your REVIEW Notwithstanding a carefully admin- ~nables the soldier of the Cross to istered expenditure, the current inmount occasionally above the dust and come does not keep pace with. it. smoke of the battle to the serene Possibly for the decrease the embitmountain-top, whence he can, at a tered controversy with Dr. Lunn and glance, survey the entire field of con- Mr. Hughes may be partly accountflict, only to descend with heightened able. The majority of the older courage to his place in the host. British missionary organizations re- gard the obstacles in the way of rais- Allow me to thank you warmly for ing their necessary incomes as multithe help you are giving m~ in my work plying rather than diminishing. The birth of numerous modern societies • We regret that space compels us to omit largely explain this dilemma, for they this strong appeal.-ED. draw upon supporters identified with " Word has been received from the long-established agencies. illustrious Department of Instruction The Salvation Army derives a at Constantinople, addressed to the princely income from the Christian government guarding the interests of public, whereas, General Booth does Syria, to the effect that there has been not aid any other organization, even issued an imperial order in favor of those traveling on corresponding lines Mr. Henry Jessup, a subject of the to his own. honored American republic, based Interest was shown at the Man- upon a statement and petition ad- chester Auxiliary of the Wesleyan dressed by him, permitting him to Society, attended by the Rev. W. H. publish the Weekly Neshra, which Findlay, M.A., of Negapatam,and the had been previously suppressed, this Rev. Professor Patterson, of Madras, permission being granted on the con- in the presence of two old-time Wes- dition that the paper shall not treat of leyan advocates of missions. One of· any political matters, nor of any oc- the veterans, who presided, Mr. Oeo. currences whatsoever which may taktf Cussons, was within a few days of place within the empire or outside its completing his eighty-eighth birthday; borders, but shall treat solely of re- the other patriarch, Mr. John Napier, ligious, scientific and moral questions.
has already entered on his ninetieth But this permission is restricted by the year. The occasion was made deeply condition that nothing shall be printed memorable by the masterly defence in it which directly or indirectly of educational work amid the great opposes any of the religious beliefs centres of population in India. Pro- current in the governments ruled and fessor Patterson held that the policy guarded by the Sultan, and also by the which had been maintained for many condition that a copy of the contents years by the Protestant missionaries of the paper be sent before it is in regard to this phase of activity was printed and published to the govern- wise and justified by its results. ment censor that he may sanction its printing and publication after he has -Liberty of the Press in Turkey. ascertained that in no respect, in The Neshra, an Arabic newspaper single words or in sentences, has there published by the American mission in been any infringement of this condi- Beirut, Syria, was suppressed without tion. The exalted local government cause, months ago, by orders from will inform him of the nature of this Constantinople. Efforts have been concession. "
made, by interviews with the local Turkish soldiers, hemmed in by authorities and by petitions to Con- bayonets and cannon, shout at the stantinople, by the intervention orthe close of their daily reviews, "Long United States consul and of the am- live the Sultan!" American Chris- bassador, to secure permission for its tians interested in the redemption of resumption, but all in vain until the Turkey will wait for further proofs of pre~ent time. the fostering care of the Sultan's gov- An Arabic paper from Beirut, re- ernment before heartily echoing this ceived here recently, publishes the fol- prayer.-Church at Home and Abroad.
lowing notice of the Sultan's gracious edict, from which our readers can Jews.-Baron Hirsch gives $10,000 judge of the nature of the " liberty of a month toward the relief of the Jews the press" in Turkey, and of the re- exiled from Russia and seeking homes strictions to which the missionaries in the United States. The American are subject in their work. This is a Hebrew says: literal translation of the Arabic "A census of the district south of copy:' Houston street and east of Broadway shows Russian and Roumanian Jews were clothed with different clothing; far in excess of one hundred thou- and were of different habits and ways sand, and the average increase by im- of life. Yet I never realized the one migration is about twenty thousand ness of the human family more than I per annum. The committee propose did that day. The poet says, "One using the Hirsch fund in educating touch of nature makes the whole world these people so as to become self-sus- kin." But one touch from the hand taining by entering trades or occupa- of Christ can do far more than that. tions which are new to them, and to It can abolish all differences, makes enable them to amalgamate rapidly us feel that we are the children of a with the people among whom they common Father, saved by a common work or dwell. Classes have been Saviour, heirs of a common inheriopened for teaching children sufficient tance, pilgrims to a common home.- English to prepare them to attend the Samoa, Past and Present, by Rev. public schools; for instructing adults Oharles Phillips. in English, in American history, methods and customs; for fitting girls Monthly Bulletin. for other occupations than tailoring, for making men handy with tools, -A Chinese society of Christian whereby they can more rapidly obtain brethren, organized in East 39th renumerative employment. It has Street, New York City, has, on the first been proposed to teach them various floor, a room for religious meetings, trades, and put some at agriculture, and, on the second, apartments for and so scatter them in different voca- the sick and homeless. It began with tions. With the aid of the employment twenty-six members, who paid $70 bureauofthe United HebrewCharities, per month for the house. positions have been found for a large number of men, the Hirsch fund pay- -A school for the Chinese, opened ing the expense of transporting them at Kelley's, North Carolina, called the to the points where they are to work, " Oriental Academy," began with and in some cases tools have been seven pupils direct from Canton, and given them." is on a farm, and the system is indus- trial. It is designed for Chinamen Samoa. – A South Sea Com- wishing to be educated, but prevented munion. At the close of a service by race prejudice or lack of funds several hundreds remained to com- from entering an American school. memorate our Lord's death. For bread The school is non-sectarian, is under the natives have often only the kernel the auspices of leading Chinamen, of the cocoanut, and for wine only the and will offer opportunities for selfmilk of the cocoanut, the natural support. bread and wine of the country. The scene was very striking. Only four- -In the Sabbath-school of the teen years since the mission ship first Clarendon Baptist Church, in Boston, approached the island. Then they whose pastoris Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, were only a herd of naked savages. is a class of one hundred of native Now" clothed and in their right Chinese. They support three of their minds," numbers of them gather countrymen as preachers in their own around the table of the Lord. There land. seemed hardly any point of resemblance between preacher and people. -A united prayer-meeting in con- We were of different races; spoke nection with the week of prayer, for different languages; were of different woman's work in the mission-field, coloring; ate different kinds of food; was held in Exeter Hall, Friday, January 9th, at 3 P. M. Representa- tives of various zenana societies were present and took part in the proceed- said that not until the end of the ings. seventeenth century did the popula- tion number more than 60,000,000, If -A converted Chinaman on our so, what remarkable growth has Pacific coast sold himself as a coolie characterized these last two centuries, in New Guinea, for the sake of work- notwithstanding famines, droughts, ing among his own countrymen. pestilences and wars. Within the last Before he died he was the means of two centuries has occurred the two the conversion of two hundred of his notable reigns of Kanghi and Keincompanions. lung, each lasting nearly sixty years, and were characterized by tranquility -The statement is again made that and good laws. The educational Mr. C. F. Studd, one of the China system also stimulates the increase of Inland missionaries, placed his for- population. The cultivation of silk tune of $500,000 in the hands of the engages a large number of persons, trustees, the interest of which is to go from the tending of the mulberry to the mission, while he shares the trees to the last step in the production common lot of missionaries. Whether of the fabric. About one in nine of this statement is true or not we are not the people is a washerman, one in ten able to say. is engaged in the cultivation of the soil, one in 100 is a bricklayer, or a -Laotsze Yaotze Nahtsze, a cele- stonemason, or a carpenter, and one brated philosopher of China, founder in 120 is a tailor, while one in 140 is a of the Tabu Sect, or Sect of Reason, blacksmith. was born 104 years before Christ. His name means" old boy," because -France is now much the largest he is believed to have been eighty land owner in Africa. Her territory years old at birth. will extend from the Mediterranean almost to the Gulf of Guinea. Even -Forty societies are at work in the great Sahara will now be under China, with between eight hundred French control. and nine hundred missionaries and teachers: -From mid-China we have news of a remarkable revival, great numbers -Dr. J. G. Kerr, of the China Mis_ being brought out of the darkness of sion, read a paper at a meeting of the heathenism. The Rev. George Clark Medical Missionary Association, at has preached to audiences numbering Shanghai, on May 20th, last year, his 4,000. Even the intensely cold weather subject being "Medical Missionaries did not prevent the people from in Relation to the Medical Profession." coming night after night. Stanley He lays great stress upon the moral Smith reports two hundred and ten value of the work of those who, to- baptized at one time and as many gether with the healing of the body, more inquirers. offer to the people that religious faith which has produced the best men and -A missionary home and business women, husbands and wives, citizens agency has been established at No. 8 and neighbors, and governments upon Seward Road, Shanghai, of which Mr. the face of the earth. Edward Evans writes: -Canton is a real Chinese city, but "It is designed as a halting-place Hong Kong is simply:a British settle- for all arriving and departing missionment. aries, of which there is now a large travel through Shanghai, which, with -The population of China is be- the exception of Hong Kong, is the port lieved to be, according to the most re- of entry for all China for Europe and liable statistics, 380,000,000. The America. The China Inland Mission people show a marvelous energy in multiplying. They thrive upon what others regard as starvation diet. It is has recently erected a beautiful and you can lift first the children of the commodious place, costing over rising generation. $50,000, for its own missionaries. The American Presbyterian is the only -At a recent session of the SociaL other society, of all who are repre- Scientists in Saratoga, N. Y., Dr. T. sented in China, who have any home W. Couthers advocated a practical for its missionaries in Shanghai. method of treating drunkards. He' All the more need is there for a Chris- would put the inebriate on the plan of tian home to welcome and shelter and the small-pox patient and put him into pass on new arrivals, often suffering quarantine till he recovers. He would after sea-sickness' of a long voyage, take away his personalliberly, declare and bewildered with the new and him both incapable and irresponsible, strange sights and conditions they are and so strike a death blow at' the entering. The missionaries in the saloons with the pauperism and crime interior have need also of some one to that proceed from it. receive and forward supplies sent them from home, and purchase such things -Samoa has recently attracted'. as they require for home use. The much attention. A large proportion agency is designed to meet this need. of the Samoans are Christians, and a The home is not supported by any missionary says that he would be denomination or society, and is a willing to match any twenty men, simple effort of an independent women and children that he might worker. It is to be carried on so as to meet there against any twenty met at just cover its expenses." random in this country as to their knowledge of the Word of God. -Rev. Dennis Osborne (India) baptized over 500 persons last winter, -In Africa the number of missionand hopes for similar success this sea- aries exceeds five hundred and the son. number of converts four hundred thousand, increasing by about twenty- -Count Campello is addressing five thousand a year. During the very large gatherings in Italy, urging past five years Africa has furnished his hearers to renounce Papacy and more than two hundred martyrs. affirm the infallibility of none but Jesus Christ. He presses the Gospel -A Missionary Reading Circle remessage upon the careless and skepti- cently organized at Columbia, Mo. cal, but his preaching is not unmixed It is an endeavor to unite young with politics. people in a systematic course of read- ing upon the subject of missions. The -Rev. John McNeil, who succeeded course will cover about three years, Rev. J. Oswald Dikes at Regent Square and those who engage in it will be Church, London, is to be relieved examined and certified as graduates from his evening service, that he may upon the completion of the course. proclaim the Gospel in destitute The course for the first year covers regions in London and round about. the lives of Judson and Livingstone, Mr. McNeil has very remarkable gifts Dr. Strong's charming book, "The as an evangelist, and it seems as Missionary Review and the Crisis of though he should not be confined Missions." The admission fee is fifty within the limits of anyone church. cents per annum. We would be glad if such reading circles might be estab- -The motto of Dr. Guthrie's whole lished in every part of our country. Ragged School work was " Prevention Information is what is particularly better than Cure." It is impossible to needed to awaken missionary con· raise the lower classes in towns unless science,
The Missionary Review of the World — August 1890
A MISSIONARY HEROINE
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XI1I. No. B.-Old Series.—AUGUST.—voL. m. No. B.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
A MISSIONARY HEROINE.
BY REV. A. H. BRADFORD, D.D., MONTCLAIR, N. J.
Thomas Carlyle has written a book on heroes, but he has no place in it for heroines. Heroism, in the opinion of that cantankerous but honest writer, is something which belongs only to men, and to men of a fine quality of clay. The world should never forgive him for not including among his chapters one on the heroism of woman. His book, however, is a reflection of the common sentiment. Tenderness, delicacy, daintiness, and possibly uselessness, are regarded as the characteristics of woman, while of strength, courage, wisdom, and the power to do great things, the male sex is supposed to have a monopoly. Doubtless the heroism of woman has been, on the whole, passive rather than active, but patient endurance of suffering requires a loftier quality of courage than the battle-field. Carlyle'S book on heroes could be easily matched by one on heroines, who, while they have not been conspicuous before the world, have displayed qualities of sublimest courage in both action and endurance.
. Among all the records of the heroic no examples are more thrilling than the histories of the early missionaries. Those who go to heathen lands to-day know little of what was experienced by those who went half a century ago. Steam was not on the ocean; railways were not on the land; there was little communication among nations. The people to whom the missionaries went were proud, cruel, and some of them. cannibals. There was little public sentiment at home to encourage those who went abroad. Comfort'was exchanged for privation and suffering, and sympathy was uncertain. This paper will present an outline of the life of one of these missionary heroines of the early years of the present centllry.
In October, 1812, a young man, who was not even a Christian, went to Andover Theological Seminary to study, not for the ministry but about religion. The results were his conversion, the mission in Burmah, and the long and useful life of Adoniram Judson. While a student in Andover he went with others to the meeting of the Association in the neighboring town of Bradford, to apply for approbation to preach the gos{*l. This young man, one of four or five who had consecrated themselves to work in the foreign field, had already declined a professorship in Brown University, and soon after declined a call to 'Park Street Church, in Boston, at that time the largest and strongest church in New England. At the meeting Judson met Ann Hasseltine, a young lady who was born in Bradford, December 22d, 1789, and who is described as having been possessed of remarkable beauty and intelligence. It is almost incredible that, with the world as it was then, any man should have presumed to ask a woman to share with him such an undertaking as the missionary service. It is strange that those who had already made so great a sacrifice did not make still more and say, "'Ve cannot ask wives to go with us into such a life; we will go alone." But it was a manly, though singular, letter which Judson wrote to this young lady's father asking her hand in. marriage. It runs as follows: "I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure for a heathen land and her subjection to the hardships and imfferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent' death? Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this in the hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations <>f praise which shall redound to her Saviour, from heathen saved, through l]er means, from eternal woe and despair ?"
Ann Hasseltine was worthy of the man who asked her hand or she would never have married him after such an appeal to her father.
On the 5th of February, 1812, when she was twenty-three yeats of age, Ann lIasseltine and Adoniram Judson were married, and on the nineteenth of the same month sailed for Calcutta with Mr. a~d Mrs. Newell. It was no little thing to start from a cultured and beautiful borne in stormy February for a voyage of thousands of miles, expecting never again to see loved ones, and knowing that pain and suffering, loneliness and anguish, must be waiting to give inhospitable welcome to still more inhospitable shores. '1'he missionaries were not allowed to remain in Calcutta: the East India Company wanted no interference from the gospel in their nefarious corruption. They therefore embarked for Rangoon in Burmah, a land more inhospitable still, and still more isolated from English-speaking people. On the way Harriet Newell died and was buried on the Isle of France; and the 10!1ely, heart-sick party went on, threatened by sickness and death, Mr~. Judson the only woman on board. After eighteen months of traveling, part of the time in unseaworthy ships and part in severe ~ickness, Rangoon was reached. This pathetic extract from a letter, written from the Isle of France, tells its own story: "Have at last arrived in port; but oh, what news, what distressing news! Earriet, my dear friend, my earliest associate in the mission, is no more. 0, death, could not this wide world afford thee victims enough, but thou must enter the family of a solitary few whose comfort and hallpiness depended so much on the society of each other? Could not this infant mission be shielded from thy shafts? But be still, my heart, and know that God has done it. Just and true are thy ways, 0 thou King of saints."
On their voyage Mr. and Mrs. Judson had studied their Bibles and become convinced that immersion was the only true baptism. They therefore severed their connection with the Congregational churches, and went on their way trusting that they would be cared for by those with whose views they were in sympathy. Thousands of miles from home, these two travelers began their labors among a peopl.;) cruel and vindictive, jealous of strangers and hating strange religions. They studied the language, worked among the people as best they could, built ~heir little house and prayed and labored and waited. Mr. Judson was sometimes compelled to go to distant places, and his wife, nnattended, remained behind. A little one came into the household, staid just long enough to show what good company it could be, closed its eyes and left two bleeding hearts to mourn its loss. Mrs. Judson's strength then failed and alone she sailed to Madras, returning after a time in improved health. Other missionaries joined and left them, but these two continued their work. From the extended history of Mrs. Judson's life, I will select three series of events illustrative of her marvellous lleroism.
Having sufficiently acquired the Burmese language to be able to begin preaching, Mr. Judson decided to work for a time in a distant province. Leaving his wife with two other missionaries, he started to be absent about three months. At the end of that time the remaining missionary was summoned to the court with the threat, that if he did not "tell all he knew about the foreigners in the country they would write with his heart's blood." All was commotion; the converts were scattered; the missionary was kept in confinement. Then Mrs. Judson's wisdom and courage were manifested. Convince,d that under-officers were not acting with authority, she went boldly to the Viceroy herself and told her story so eloquently that the mIssionary was released. After this, cholera began its ravages, followed by rumors of war between England and Burmah; and six months had passed with no word from her husband or the ship on which he sailed. The war-cloud grew larger and English ships hastened away. The other missionaries decided to leave the field. It seemed best for her to go; but how could she? No news from her husband; the war-cloud still increasing: if he should return and find her gone, would they eyer meet again? Would they ever meet if he did not return? Even then she did Dot know whether he were alive or dead. At last prudence prevailed and the household goods were packed for the journey. She embarked on the last ship on which they could escape. And now I quote from her own words: "The vessel was several days in going down the river, and before putting out to sea was detained a day or two longer at its mouth. I immediately res~lved on giving up the voyage and returning to town. I reached town in the evening, spent the night in the house of the only remaining Englishman in the place, and to-day have come out to the mission-house. I know I am surrounded by dangers on every hand, and expect to see much anxiety and distress, but at present I am tranquil and intend to make an effort to pursue my studies as formerly, and leave the event with God."
That was magnificent heroism, all the grander because so quiet, so calm, so well considered. One woman, thousands of miles from home, standing by her lonely post waiting for her husband, with hardly a person about her whom she could trust! Her patience was rewal·ued by her husband's safe return.
The next example of heroism is seen when her health failed and it became necessary for her to return to America. A long ocean voyage without a companion, peril of death, peril of shipwreck, peril of false friends-all these things that poor sick woman faced, and, bidding farewell to the one true heart she trusted, started on her journey. But she could not be long alone. Friends rose around her. England was reached, where she was preceded by the fame of her noble self-devotion. Circles of culture and wealth welcomed the dauntless missIOnary. Wilberforce, Babington, and our own Charles Sumner laid their homage at her feet. And her welcome in America was not less cordial. After remaining here two years and a half, and having recruited a little company of missionaries, she started upon the long journey back again; this time never to return.
The closing scenes in the history of this unique career display daring, endurance and patience which have seldom been equalled and never surpassed.
Soon after she reached Burmah the mission station was removed to the capital, Ava. Everything prospered and the long struggle had apparently ended. Suddenly there were rumors of war. Then war was declared with Great Britain, and the British subjects at Ava were thrown into prison, but Judson was only watched. An English army occupied Rangoon, although it was thought by the ignorant and confident Burmese to be only an acciqent; they imagined that they were invincible. On gaily caparisoned boats they went, with dancing and singing, to meet the English, anxious only lest "the cock-feather chief would get away before there was time to catch any of his army; for slaves. One Burmese bdy sent with the army an order for four English soldiers to-manage the affairs of her household, as she had heard that they were trustworthy; and a dapper courtier sent an order for six to row his boat."
Defeat met the Burmese everywhere. "Secure the missionaries," cried the people. "They are quiet, let them alone," said the King. A receipt for money paid to Dr. Judson was found among the papers of an English merchant, and that was sufficient to incriminate him as a spy. An officer, with eight men tatooed as executioners, appeared at the house. "You are called by the King," said the officer; and the executioners, first throwing him to the floor and binding him tightly, took him away. Afterward they came to search Mrs. Judson, but she had safely hidden all money and papers. Her home they turned into her prison, and while she secluded herself, drunken officers revelled in her house. She sent her servant to learn her husband's whereabouts, and went herself to the governor of the city, getting nothing but the assurance, "The release of the prisoners is impossible." Other expedients failing, she sought the officer in charge of the prisoners and bribed him to allow her to see her husband. She found him in a condition disgusting and hideous beyond description. As a last resort she approached the Queen, through a member of the royal family, but received no encouragement. She so baffied the officers sent to her house as to save all the money she needed for supporting life. For seven months, hardly a day passed that she did not visit some one of the royal family. Writing home, she said: "0, how many, many times have I returned from that dreary prison at nine o'clock at night, solitary and worn out with fatigue and anxiety. . .. and endeavored to invent some new scheme for the release of the prisoners." At last she was allowed to make a small bamboo room in the prison enclosure where her husband could be more comfortable. In the midst of such circumstances a little child was born; and when the mother was again well enough to look after her husband, she found he had been put in the inner prison in five pairs of fetters. More than a hundred men were shut in a small room with no air except what came through the cracks in the boards. After she had succeeded in securing to the Nisoners the privilege of eating in the open air, they were, without warning to her, carried to a distant city. "You can do nothing for yonI' husband," said the heartless officer; "take care of yourself."
She learned where they had been taken, took her baby and two little Burmese girls she had adopted, and her cook, and started after them. Almost wild with pain and weakness herself, she found them. "There, in an old shattered building, under the burning sun, sat the poor prisoners, chained two and two, almost in a dying condition. She prevailed on the jailer to give her shelter in a wretched little room, half-filled with grain, and in that filthy place, without bed, chair, table, or any other comfort, she spent the next six months." To add to the misery, small-pox broke out in her family. After nursing the patients she was taken siek herself. 'rhis is the picture: The mother ill and at death's door, the father in a filthy prison, halfdead from suffering, the little bal)e crying for food with hardly any one to care for it, and all in a strange land among bitter enemies. Mrs. Judson recovered. The Burmese wanting her husband for interpreter, they returned to the capital. There she was attacked by spotted fever and was even given up for dead. But the everlasting arms were underneath her. Soon the war ended and the prisoners were saved. But for her, everyone of them would probably have been dead long be£ore. From a Calcutta paper of the period this statement has been taken: " Mrs. Judson was the author of th')se eloquent anQ forcible appeals to the Government which prepared them by degrees for submission to terms of peace never expected by any who knew the hau~htiness and pride of the Burman court. And, while on this ~ubject, the overflowing of grateful feelings on behalf of myself and fellow-prisoners compel me to add a tribute of public thanks to her who, though living at a distance of two miles from our prison, without any means of conveyance, and very feeble in health, forgot her own comfort and infirmity, and almost every day sought us out and administered to our wants. . • . When we were all left by the Government destitute of food, she, with unwearied perseverance, by some means or other, obtained for us a constant supply."
Professor Gammel, writing of her, says: " History has not recorded, poetry itself has seldom portrayed, a more affecting exhibition of Christian fortitude, of female heroism, and of all the noble and generous qualities which constitute the dignity and gloryof woman. In the midst of sickness and danger, and every calamity which can crush the human heart, she presented a character equal to any trial and an address and a fertility of resources which gave her an ascendency over the minds of her most cruel enemies, and alone saved the missionaries and their fellow-captives from the terrible doom which constantly awaited them."
The war was over. Sir Archibald Campbell, the English commander, honored her with distinguished compliments and attentions, and all the English who still lived in that part of Burmah looked to her as their saviour. She had had no helper or adviser~ With her babe upon her breast, her husband in a pen not fit for swine, and all the nation against her, she had never faltered.
Brighter days seemed to have dawned, and hope revivea with their coming. The mission station was changed to the new town of Amherst. There the weary missionaries built a little home and prepared to rest, and teach once more the good news of Him whose love they had so thoroughly tested. Dr. Judson was called to Ava to assist in the making of the treaty; and while he was absent, with few acquaintances about her, with no hand of kindred to sooth her pain and with a little child calling for her, she passed from earth who had crossed the oceans alone, followed her husband from prison to prison, and been a friend to the friendless in their distress. Under a hopia, or hope tree, they buried her, and the native converts mourned for one they loved to call "Mamma J UdSOll."
Thus lived aml died the woman whom I have deliberately chosen as the representative heroine-might I not almost say the representa-
DR. PIERSON'S LETTERS FROM ABROAD
tive hero ?-of the century. Have I exaggerated? Then listen to this noble tribute which appeared in the Calcutta Review in 1848: " Of Mrs. Judson little is known in the noisy world. Few comparatively are acquainted with her name, few with her actions; but if any woman since the arrival of the white strangers on the shores of India, has on that great theatre of war, stretching from the mouth of the Irrawady and the borders of the Hindoo Cush, rightly earned for herself the title of a heroine, Mrs. Judson has by her doings and sufferings fairly earned the distinction. Her sufferings were far more unendurable, her heroism far more noble, than any which in more recent times have been so much pitied, so much applauded, and she was a simple missionary's wife. . . . She was a real heroine. The annals in the East present us with no parallel."
In heaven's light how the list of women who have served the Master in missioJ)s will glow! Harriet Newell, who died at twenty and was buried on the Isle of France; :Mrs. Snow among the cannibals of Micronesia; 11rs. Coan in the Sandwich Islands; :Mrs. ShaufHer in Turkey; :Miss "Vest among the Zenanas of India; the holy company who have gone as wives, teachers, nurses and physicians,-we do not know their names, we cannot number them; they sleep in unmarked graves where southern seas wash golden sands, where tropic suns pour torrid heat. Unknown they lived, unheralded they worked, in distant lands they died; but when the historian of the future narrates the forces which have brought India, China, Japan, 'rurkey and Persia into the procession of civilized nations, no names will shine with fairer lustre than those of the mission:uy women who sought no reward but the privilege of doing good, and no fame but the opportunity of saving those for whom Christ died.
DR. PIERSON'S LETTERS FROM ABROAD. No. VI.-CUNARD ROYAL :MAIL STEAMSHIP "SERVIA,"
May 31, 1890. DEAR DR. SHERWOOD:-If this good ship comes into port, as is expected, June 9, it will bejust seven months since I took the Etruria for Liverpool, and now, on the homeward voyage, it is natural to take a retrospective glance. Since I set sail I have delivered, in one form or another, some 234 nublic addresses, closing with a farewell address in the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, on the early afternoon of Thursday, :May 29, just before taking the train for Liverpool. It seemed a very appropriate, though unpremeditated, coincidence that in the same place where, on November 20, the welcome meeting was held, the last address should be delivered; and, with characteri8tic Scotch cordiality and bonhommie, the whole assembly rose and cheered as their American guest left the Assembly chamber. And it is but due to these noble brethren to say that, between that welcoming of the coming and that speeding of the parting guest, nothing has occurred out of harmony with the singular generosity exhibited on both occasions. Dr. Duff himself had no nobler or grander reception when he came among the mercurial Americans than has been accorded by the more phlegmatic Scotchmen to his American coadjutor in the advocacy of missions. As I felt constrained to confess in presence of those great audiences in the Scotch Athens, this seven months' experience abroad has been a chalice of sweetness in which have been mingled no drops or dregs of bitterness. Let that stand as a hearty and permanent record of this mission tour. And what is said of Scotchmen applies not less to the English and Irish brethren in whose nomes and churches and public halls I have been so beautifully welcomed. May such interchange of courtesies and services be still more frequent between these great Protestant nations!
Some account has already reached the readers of the REVIEW of the meetings held in Great Britain up to the date of my departure for the Continent, April 1. It may be well, though these lines will not appear until the August number, to complete the record of this six months by a brief account of the months of April and May.
Rev. R. W. McAll, D.D., of the Paris mission, met me in London during the last week in March, at my own suggestion, and we held a series of meetings in the interests of French evangelization, aided by Rev. J. Howard Gill, of Paris, who kindly came to London to present the cause from his own point of view. Drawing-room meetings were held at Mrs. Studd's, Mrs. I.Jloyd's, in Kent; Lord Kinnaird's, Mrs. McCall's, Stadacona; and at Brighton, in the Y. M. C. A. Hall and in the Pavilion. I preached in behalf of the French missions at Blackheath and St. John's Wood to overflowing congregations; then a very large and influential meeting was held in Exeter Hall, on Monday evening, March 31, where Dr. McAll himself was the principal speaker; and the next day we left together for Paris. There a series of meetings had been arranged for me, in the American Chapel and elsewhere; and up to Monday night, April 7, I had spoken in all fourteen times, about half the time to English residents, and the other half to French auditors. Then, on the way to Rome, I tarried on successive days at Lyons, Marseilles, and Nice, and there visited and addressed the various McAll Missions. It was my desire to see for myself the actual working of the salles, not only in Paris but in the provinces., And after this careful and repeated investigation, speaking in the mission halls, and lodging in the homes of the McAll workers, the impression grows that here is to be found the model of modern missions. For intelligent zeal, for true self-sacrifice, for apostolic simplicity of method, for economy of expenditure, for excellence of business methods, fOt' catholic unity and for evangelical purity, we know of nothing in our day to surpass this work. Beginning with what men call an accidental visit in 1871, but which every true disciple sees to have been a Providential call and separation to a peculiar work, now, after these nearly nineteen .years, we find some hundred and thirty salles in Paris and in the provinces, with a total of some 19,000 sittings, and all carried on at an expen~ of about as many pounds sterling! These salles are rallying points for earnest Christian workers, and then radiating points for <earnest Christian effort. They mean meelei, around which gather all the best accompaniments of evangelism: Bible classes, mother's meetings, children's schools, inquiry meetings, and of late Christian churches are growing out of them, with sacraments and a living, growing membership!
Of our tour through Italy we have now only time to say that we were greatly impressed as never before with the need of Protestant missions in Roman Catholic countries. Whatever truth the Romish ·Church conserves is buried under a mass of rubbish, both ecclesias- -tical and doctrinal. We saw, even in Dublin, on a Roman Catholic church, the blasphemous inscription, " Marice, Peecatorwn Refugio," and on many a church in Italy the notice that in her name full indulgence for sin might be there procured! With many of these people the idea prevails, and it is taught by the priests, th:1t St. Joseph is the practical ruling power in heaven; because Jesus, as a faithful Son, obeys His mother, and she, as a loyal wife, obeys her husband! :Such work as the" Continental Committee of the Scottish Church" is doing in sustaining the work of Dt·. Gray in Rome, Dr. McDougal in Florence, etc., cannot be over-estimated. We were especially interested in Signor Capellini's Military Church in Rome, which ·deserves a more extended mention hereafter. We must also leave to a special communication the work of our"Waldensian brethren, which we went to the Vaudois valleys especially to examine. Never ha. we more interested hearts than as we trod among those historic scenes, .and read with new eyes the pathetic story of their martyr church in the midst of the very valleys and hills made sacred by the blood of their :sacred witnesses.
A recent enterprise of the Irish Presbyterian Church is known as the "Jungle Tribes'Mission." It proposes work among the Bheels and other jungle tribes living along the eastern border of the province of Gujarat in India, and does not insist on full college training for all its agents. Persons of a fair average culture, who evince a missionary spirit and genial devotion to Christ, and whose past labors give promise of success in Christian work, are welcomed as missionaries. There is to be a sort of probation for one year in the field, after which the Presbytery of Kathiawar and Gujarat shall decide on the question of continuance in the field. But the main feature of this new mission is that it is to regions beyond, now unreached by missionary ef'fort-a tract of over 6,500 square miles, with a population of 800,000, a large part of whom are jungle tribes, and wlwlly 'unprovided with missionaries, or Christian workers of any sort. Within this district are 1,776 towns, villages and cities, wholly destitute of all means of grace, and two of these towns number upwards of 12,000 inhabitants. In Ireland there are less than 500,000 Presbyterians, and yet there are 625 ministers to take care Of them, or one for every 800; whereas, here are 800,000 without one missionary! Rev. J. Shillidy says of them that" not one in a thousand has probably ever heard even the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," and yet 2,000, in that district alone, die every month in this awful destitution!
The field, thus so destitute and so open, presents great promise. Mission work among the Santhals began only twenty-eight years ago, and the language had to be reduced to writing. Yet, after nineteen years' labor, there were 5,400 converts. Among the Khols o~ Chota, Gossner's missionaries commenced work forty-four years ago, and while in 1850 there were but eleven converts, in 1861 there were 2,400, and twenty years later 44,000! When Adoniram Judson first went to the Karens they were described to him as "being untamable as the wild cows of the mountains." They also had not even a written alphabet untilthe missionaries reduced their tongue to writing in 1832. Yet there are to-day more than 450 Karen parishes, each supporting a native pastor and village school. There are from 30,000 to 35,000 communicants living, besides as many more who sleep in Jesus; and they have their own foreign missionary society.
As I left London the public mind was not a little excited over certain letters published in the Methodist Times from the pen of Rev. Hugh Price Hughes and Rev. Henry S. Lunn, M.D., touching Indian missions, and especially those of the vVesleyan Methodists. These gentlemen urge" a new missionary policy." Dr. Lunn gave up wealth and worldly luxury at home and went out to India, but returned after twelve months, and felt constrained to testify, first, against the educational policy pursued there, and, secondly, against the scale and expense of living on the part of many of the missionaries. The controversy awakened waxed warm, and even became personal. But after all allowance for heat on both sides, there remain some statements of fact which demand calm consideration.
There has been for some nine years past a dMiciency in the income of the Wesleyan Missionary Society of over twelve thousand pounds, which is thought to augur a growing dissatisfaction with the methods pursued by the Missionary Committee, or with the results of mission work in India. A tabular statement has been published, in which it appears that in 1881, when the last census was taken, the Wesleyan Methodist missions stood, in the increase of native Christians, at the bottom of the whole list. With a force of thirty-eight foreign missionaries in 1881 they had but nine native missionaries, and from 1851 had multiplied the native converts from 440 to 3,591 ; while Gossner's Society, with but fourteen missionaries and two native assistants had increased its native Christians from 123 to 32,800; and the American Baptists, with thirteen missionaries, had fifty-nine natives at work, and from 122 converts had grown to 57,070. In 1885, though occupying the sixth place as to age and the seventh as to missionaries employed, the vVesleyan mission stood only sixteenth in number of adherents.
Messrs. Hughes and Lunn quote Mr. Little and Mr. Findlay as say- ing that the work of the society is "fatally devoid of concentration, continuity and thoroughness"; and while tracing failure to the policy of the society, they impute no personal blame to the missionaries; but declare the missionaries to be picked men, and express high opinion of "their ability, integrity and devotion. The changes they recommend are: 1. That educational agencies should be quite subordinate to preaching of the gospel.
2. That educational agents should be, as far as possible, laymen. 3. That the advantages of education should be given mainly to their own native converts, especially intending to be native catechists and ministers. They charge education with absorbing far too much of the men and money of the society, and affirm that success is in proportion to the prominence given to the evangelization of the masses. It must be confessed that the testimony they adduce from Rev. G. Mackenzie Cobban and others is overwhelming. Evangelistic missions are re- ported as winning thousands where ednclttional missions reach tens. The Church Missionary Society and the American Presbyterian Mis- sions are quoted in contrast with those of the Free Church of Scotland, of which it is said that, following Dr. Duff's policy, on lines almost entirely educational, they reported in 1888, in Madras district, 78 adults and 187 children as the total of baptized adherents; and that in that mission since its foundation the whole number received is 622, while the expenditure has not been less than £150,000! The Telugu Mission of the American Baptists, on the other hand, reports at one station and in one year twice as many conversions as the Free Church in the entire presidency in fifty years; and the American Baptists peculiarly magnify the evangelistic element. Of course there is a difference in the caste of people among whom these various missions are carried on which must enter into any comparative estimate of results; but after all du~ allowance is made, this is a most startling showing. For the accuracy of the statements we cannot vouch; we are acting now simply as reporters of cllrrent news. A most serious charge is made against the missionaries' style of living. It is stated that it is unduly expensive and luxurious, and tends to put a distance between the natives and the missionaries. Quotations are made from native Christians and from foreign observers tending to show that a social gulf exists between the masses of the people and those who go there to evangelize them. In a word, that the caste spirit of India has found its way into the homes and hearts of some missionaries, and that this separation hinders the Lord's work, prevents natives from becoming Christians, and obstructs the progress of civilization. .Miss Joseph is quoted as instancing a native .civil surgeon who leaned to Christianity, but explained his reluctance to confess Christ because the. open espollsalof Christianity meant to him and his family a double ostracism-first, to be outcasts from the native society, and secondly, to be ereclltded from the society of European G/~ristians!
These gentlemen also refer to the custom in South India of holding .district meetings for Europeans only, from which even ordained native ministers are shut out. Dr. Lunn states that in a year's residence in India he remembers but one occasion where he was asked to take a meal at the same table with a native Wesleyan minister. At the Bangalore Conference of 1889 not one native minister had a place in the assembly.
The letters of Messrs. Hughes and Lmin call attention emphatically to the scale of living found in India. 'fhey state the average income of an Indian missionary to be £300 annually and a bungalow, :and they get this average hom comparison of seven societies. They give a table of daily diet, from whi'ch they show that good, wholesome food may be obtained for £40 annually; servants, seven in (lold weather and eleven in hot, may be obtained for £26 more; clothing for £24 more. Allowing for house linen and furniture, for charities, books and other expenses £50 more; this makes a total of but £140, or less than one-half the above average salary. Letters from Bishop Thoburn state that American Methodist ministers (married) receive about £122 per annnum and single about £80. Dr. Peck also writes, giving the salaries of married missionaries in three .conferences, in Methodist Episcopal missions, as follows: In South India, 1,800 rup., or £122; in Northern India and Bengal, 2,475 rup., ()r £168. Bishop Ninde adds his testimony that there is no complaint among these men that their stipends are insufficient, and expresses his concurrence in the via media suggested by Mr. Hughes.
Thus far we have acted as mere journalists, giving an impartial account of the current news. We cannot forbear to say, in the eapacity of reviewers, that, whether or not the course of these gentlemen has been wise, the matter is now before the public, and much of the confidence of the people in the conduct of missions will depend ()n the thorough and explicit manner in which these questions are dealt with. We have no doubt that our English Wesleyan friends purpose to pursue a course of both ingenuous and intrepid fidelity.
Meanwhile we have a few words to say which will not prejudge or prejudice the issue. 1. As to the educational policy of Dr. Duff and others, it is yet, upon trial, and the trial is not altogether satisfactory. Whatever may be said in favol' of education as a means of ultimate evangelization. two things appear to us to be plain: first, that education must be subordinate to evangelization-preaching precedes teaching in the divine order-and we are first to make disciples, and then teach them; and, secondly, it is Christian, not secular, education to which the Church is called. Simply to teach the arts and sciences, while it may serve to overturn the faith founded in ignorance and superstition, by showing its absurdity, may only unloose Hindu youth from old moorings with": out giving them any new anchorage, and the actual result is often no faith at all-an infidel. 1Ve have long felt that to educate the mind without the conscience and heart is to put edge-tools and sharp weapons into unprincipled hands. And the whole history of Government schools in India and secular education in Japan and China shows that such training without Christ only raises up a generation doubly without faith and without God.
As to the scale of living among missionaries, it must not be forgotten that the climate of India makes impracticable to many a foreigner work that he could do and has done in a cooler and more bracing atmosphere. Nor must we forget that caste restrictions, which forbid the same servant to do work that belongs to another class, make many servants a necessity where one or two suffice in America or England; and that the cheapness of servant hire allows a retinue of servants fo!' a small cost.
But after all this is said, we come still to the questIOn, On what scale of expense should a missionary live? We have no sympathy whatever with a sentiment at home which lays upon missionary laborers abroad an enforced self-denial; which begrudges them the comforts of a well-ordered and appointed home. There is no just and equitable reason why the church should demand of missionaries that they live on a scale of cheapness and plainness not required of her ministers at home. 'Vho can justify the partial and unequal policy that countenances a home clergyman in habits of living which are princely-manse, grounds, stipend, retinue of servants, luxurious table, costly dress, etc., and frowns on a clE.rgyman who is preaching in India 01' Japan and who does not live like a beggar? 'Ve fail to see why different fields of labor should demand such immense disparity.
But enforced self-denial and voltmtary self-sacrifice are quite different things. And the man who is a true missionary, at home or abroad, will, of his own accord, refuse to live in a style and on a scale which puts a practical barrier between himself and the souls he seeks to reach, uplift and save. We cannot shut our eyes to the conviction that one reason of the growing alienation of the masses from the in: churches is, perhaps, found the large salaries paid to many of our ministers at home. While we have not a doubt that they deserve all they get, and earn it, and that, it is perfectly equitable as a business arrangement, we are firmly convinced that it lifts the pastor above the level of his people, and particularlY'of the great" mass of the poorer and neglected classes. But especially abroad does it seem to us an indispensable requisite to success in reaching the native population that the tie of sympathy and of identity with their condition s,hould never be weakened. The very names of William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Robert Morrison, David Livingstone and Robert Moffat are sufficient both to demonstrate and illustrate this statement.
Ve seriously apprehend that the published statements of Dr. Lunn are not based upon a sufficiently broad induction from facts. Twelve months in India could scarcely prepare any man to speak very safely on such questions. We have just conversed on board the Servia with a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., who has been twenty years in India, who says that the assertions of Messrs. Hughes and Lunn are in some cases grossly mistaken, and that India's conditions are such that the rules prevailing elsewherc cannot be applied there. But after all these allowances are made, is it not plain that there is danger of a decided decline in the martyr spirit, without which the missionary spirit cannot long survive ? We have often heard young men urged to go to the foreign field because no longer such selfdenial is necessary as was in other days. Such arguments 'are perilous. When any man or woman goes to Japan or India or China or Africa, leaving behind the principle of "losing life for Ohrist's sake and the gospel's," he would much better stay at home. The spectacle of selfindulgence, among heathen, Pagan and Moslem peoples, is not that which wins men to take up their cross after Christ. No life in these modern days has left a more indelible impreRsion of Pauline character upon the race than David Livingstone's, whose most marked peculiarity was was that he turned his back on everything that men hold most dear, and buried himself as the good seed of the kingdom in the heart of the Dark Continent. That was the secret reason why he accomplished those bloodless victories among savage tribes, and was more adored by those Africans than any foreigner that ever set foot on their territory. Let us have a new generation of men and women that count nothing dear unto themselves for Christ's sake and the gospel's, and we shall have a new harvest in the wide field of the world, whose fruit shall shake like Lebanon!
BIBLICAL THOUGHTS ON THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS
BIBLICAL THOUGHTS ON THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS.* BY THE LATE PROFESSOR DR. FRANZ DELITZSCH, LEIPZIG.
(Translated for THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD by Prof. Geo. H. Schodde, Ph. .D.) The Sacred Scriptures are the Word of God. Or, should we say more correctly, the Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God? Both are correct. Our Saviour, in giving the cup to His disciples at the institution of the Lord's Supp.er, says: "This is the new covenant in my blood," and this has the same import as though He had said, "This is the cup which contains my blood," namely, the blood which establishes a new covenant-a new testament. However, the con- nection between the Holy Scriptures and the Word of God is much closer than the connection between the cup and its sacramental con- tents. The cup is the work of manO-made of lifeless metal; the Holy Scriptures, however, are written by men, but from the workshop of . the life of the soul; they are a human work which is at the same time a divine work, as God has taken human thought and writing into His service, and, through the impulse and direction of His Spirit, has used this to present His revelations. The Holy Scriptures are God's Word, and they contain God's 'Vord, for they come from Him, the God of revelation, but out of the souls of men, and written by the hands of men as the authentic documents of His plans, will and way.
But, we are told in reply, is there not a great deal in the Scrip- tures which stands in no connection with the plans, will and way of God, as, e. g., when in 1st Kings, iv. 22 seq., we read an account of the daily needs of the royal kitchen in the days of Solomon; or, when Paul, 1st Timothy, v. 25, tells his young friend to drink a little wine for his stomach's sake? Is this, too, God's Word? This objection is just as if one would ask in reference to the Biblical statement that God created man in His image, whether the finger-nails, or the eye- lids, or the spleen belonged to this divine image. These cases, how- ever, cover each other, or in part. For all men, not only the first of the race, but also th08e born of woman, are in every part and particu- lar God's handiwork (cf. Job x. 8). The Bible, however, is not a created work of God, is not a product of absolute authorship on the part of God; but is a body of writings in the production of which the • In the death of the veteran and venerable Professor Franz Delitzsch, of Leipzig, who entered upon bis reward lIIarch 4, 1890, the cause of Jewish missions lost its most ardent friend. The article here given is a translation of the last mission address made by the tireless lover of Israel. It is not this pathetic feature alone that makes it interesting. It has a representative value in showing the spirit and manner of the man. The Biblical character of the discussion, the sanguine hopefulness pervading the whole, the poetic fervor exhibited in almost every sen- tence, are characteristic and typical of the Leipzig savant. Like all of Delitzsch's literary pro- ductions, the address must not merely be read, but also be studied in order to be appreciated. It appeared originally in Saat aUf Hoffumg, the leading Jewish mission journal of the world, of which Delitzseh himself was for twenty-five years the editor and leading contributor.-Trans- lator. God of revelation made use of men of the most varied types and tiines and conditions; a book, then, which is not less human than it is divine, in which the human side is sometimes more prominent than the divine, and sometimes the divine more prominent than the human.
As man consists of a soul that is the life-giving principle in him, and of a body that receives from the soul its vitality, thus, too, in the Scriptures we can distinguish the inspiration as their central fact and life-giving spirit form their body-that is, the external features forming their periphery. Not as if we could say, "So far goes the inspiration, and there it ceases." Just· as the activity of the soul in the human body is felt even to the tips of the fingers, thus the spirit of inspiration permeates the whole of the Scriptures, from their centre to the farthest circumference, and of the whole is true what Isaiah says (xxxiv. 16). And yet there is always a difference in what in the Scriptures can be compared to the vital principle of the soul and to the life-receiving body. There are Old Testament selections, such as Psalm cxxx, which reflect almost completely already the religious standpoint of the New Testatment, and there are others, like Esther ix. 7- 10, in which the Old Testament standpoint is represented in an almost repellent, carnal phase. And yet the book of Esther belongs to the Old Testament Scriptures, for its purpose is to show us, according to its divine purpose and plan, how, on the one hand, the Sun of the New Testament was nearing the horizon, and how, on the other hand, the old covenant was becoming old and weak, more and more.
But why these thoughts to-day, at the annual celebration of our Jewish mission work? These thoughts are to prove to us that in those portions of the Scriptures, too, from which our mission work draws its authority and the certainty of being acceptable to God, the divine and the human are found together, and that, in accordance with the demands of the New Testament spirit, we must set aside the Old Testament restriction, in order not to forsake the Christian standpoint for that of pre-Christian Judaism.
As clear and light as the sun are those passages which proclaim it as our right and our duty to proclaim to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ; they are divine words which our Father in Heaven has put into the hearts and mouths of the Prophets and Apostles. Even more than this, they are direct divine words-words of Christ Jesus, in which the Old Testament longing for an earthly visible appearance of Jehovah have been fulfilled. Israel had the first right to the fruits of development. He Himself declares that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And He commands His disciples not to go into the streets of the Gentiles, or into the cities of the Sarmaritans, but to seek the lost sheep in Israel. But when after His death He as the Risen One had entered into the limitless life of perfection, in which His whole work is referred in a like manner to all men, the mission" too, which He had entrusted to His disciples breaks the bounds of nationality, and they are told to preach the gospel" to every creature." Does this, perhaps, mean all creatures henceforth except the Jews? How could that people be excluded for whose pardon He petitioned upon the cross? All the congregations outside of Palestine to whom the apostles wrote consisted of Jews and Gentiles alike, and more than twenty years after the death of the Lord, that apostle who more than all the others was appointed to preach to the Gentiles declares that the gospel was a power unto salvation, first to the Jews and also to the Greeks.
Our mission work is done in obedience to the will of God; it seeks to serve that gracious will of God which embraces all mankind. Preaching the gospel to the Jews, of whom there are now six and one- half millions, is the same as the work of evangelization of any other nation. If the friends of mission work among Jews or Gentiles would expect to convert every single individual of any particular nation to Christ, they would forget the word of the Lord, that the way is narrow that leads to eternal life, and that few there are who find it. All Biblical promises that speak of the conversion of nations do not refer to the great mass of people, but to the kernel in the midst of the mass; or, to speak with the prophets, to a "remnant," proceeding from the supposition that through the judgment of God a certain portion shall be separated from the mass, and this shall accept the grace of God and His Christ. This is especially true of Israel. After Isaiah has joyfully proclaimed the birth of the Messiah, who, as the visible presence of God, is called the Mighty One (ix. 5), he predicts that, even if the people were as many as the sands on the seashore, yet only a remnant shall be converted to the mighty God, who has made His appearance bodily in the Christ (x: 21-23). By this "remnant" is not to. be understood a min<,>rity within the majority of the people, but ratherthe nation itself filtered into a kernel, which, as Isaiah was informed:, when called to his work (vi. 13), was to grow forth anew from this·. kernel and become prosperous. This it is, too, what Paul means when, in resisting self-exaltation of the Gentles, he announces the secret of the all-embracing grace (Romans xi. 25 seq.), that" all Israel shall be saved "-all Israel, because to the Christ-believing Israel of the New Testament period, to which the apostle himself belonged, a Christbelieving Israel of the last times shall be added.
That ban and banishment shall not eternally be the lot of Israel; that!. at the end of days it will turn to the Lord, to the second David-that, is, to God, the Father of Jesus Christ; and that, when this conversiol. has taken place, it, with the help of the Gentile Christian nation in.. whose midst it is dwelling, will again secme the possession of the lan~ which has been given to it with an oath. This is taught by all portion!:! of the Scriptures alike, and this is confirmed by Him who is the incar· nate Word of God (cj: :Matthew xxiii. 39). That this word shall become true is confirmed by another word spoken at His departure .from earth (Luke xxi. 24). According to this, Israel shall not be scattered for all times; Jerusalem will again become the chief city of a Christ-believing Israel dwelling in the Holy Land. And, as a result, this will be an independent people. The answer which the Lord gave to His disci- ples when questioning as to the hour when He would re-establish the kingdom of Israel, does not refer to the fact itself, but only leaves the time to be settled by the Father. We are here considering words of God, from which we dare take nothing; words of God which are a fixed part and portion of the divine plan of salvation.
In the Old Testa~ent times the clear light of this divine idea is obscured in rising in the hearts of the prophets in so far as it is colored by a national and ceremonial method of thought, which is inseperable from a revealed religion in its preparatory stage. In the first place, although the prophets in a determined and cutting manner chide a dead -i. e., a heathen-ceremonial worship, as is also done by the Psalms (Psalm 1. 13 f.), yet not a single prophet or psalmist can picture to himself the worship in the last times without a restored sacrificial system. On this point the Old Testament view is corrected by the New Testament. Christ Himself is the end of the law; His voluntary sacrifice has for all times removed the shadowy form of the old sacrificial culture. Secondly, the Old Testament views the rremple in Jerusalem as the central place of worship for the last times and the place to which the nations will flock. But Christ, in His answer to the Samaritan woman, tells us that true worship is not bound to any particular locality. The New Testament revelation knows of no other world cathredral except the spiritual temple ~f the one Christian Church. And, thirdly, in general the New 'restament does not recognize any particular nation which 'more than any other is the people of God; no nation around which the other nations circle, as the planets circle around their suns(cf. Romans x. 12). And, fourthly, while in the Old Testament the people of God and the congregation of God are one and the same, the New Testament interest builds up the Church from among the nations; but the Church is a spiritual organization distinct from the national and State organizations. While a nation in case of necessity'can defend itself with carnal weapons, the true Church can never make use of fire or the sword-her weapons, are the Word, prayer, suffering and martyrdom.
But even if we take all this into consideration, the word of the apostle still is applicable to the Jews, spoken (Rom. xi. 29) then, or spoken in view of the end of days. Israel has fulfilled its world mission in having given to the world the Church of God, but it has not exhausted its world mission thereby. When it shall once have recognized Him whom they have rejected so IOlilg, and accept Him with
FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
(lontrite heart, then will be fulfilled what is said by the Apostle Paul (Rom. xi. 15): "If their rejection became the reconciliation of the world, what can come with their reception but life from the dead? " (According to the original text.) Life fro11:1 the dead, a new spiritual springtime, will proceed from the newly-arisen Israel. The fulness of the Gentile nations will then have entered, but not in their entirety. Christ-believing Israel will help in completing the evangelization of the world. And when then on the ground where the temple of .solomon stood, and where there is now a Moslem mosque, sacred next to the Casba of Mecca, a mighty Christian temple shall be erected, then this will, indeed, not be the centre, but yet a mighty beacon of light for all Christendom.
FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
(Concludedjrompage 501.) The early efforts of the first society in the cOLonies 1Il behalf of "schools, seamen, soldiers, prisoners and Christian literature, were con- siderable. It was led by the following incident into a foreign field of labor, in which it did noble and much-needed service throughout the century. Some of the letters of Zeigenbalz and Plutscho, narrating the successes, trials and pecuniary difficulties of their mission, having been laid before the Propagation Society, it generously sent them a donation of £20 and a number of books. The interest thus awakened was perpetuated and deepened, but it was thought that the scope of the society did not include India. Apparently this was as true of the Christian Knowledge Society, though it was finally arranged that it should open a fund for the special use of the Danish Missions in India. In this manner it was that essential aid was given to all the Danish and German missionaries we have named, and several more, and the society led on to undertake important missions of its own. Zeigen- balz and Plutscho were not only honored on their return to Europe by the king of Denmark, but when the former visited England he had interviews with George I., the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London. That the interest thus expressed was genuine and abiding was proved by subsequent events. The king wrote to the missionaries. The Christian Knowledge Society deliberated on the best means of helping the mission. Most of the missionaries subsequently sent out visited England; were forwarded, in some cases, in ships-of-war, free of charge, and received, not only letters of encouragement and authorization from the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries, but gifts of money and material for their schools and printing operations, and annual salaries to supplement the small and precarious allowances they received from Denmark. Indeed, after the death of Frederick IV., the mission was mainly dependant on England for funds. Gradually this developed~ in a most friendly manner, into British Missions, though the agents, for the most part, were from Germany and Scandinavia. Swartz, forinstance, was for the greater part of his career a missionary of the Christian Knowledge Society, for when it resolved to establish a mission at Trichinopoly, in 1766, with the free consent of the Danish College of Missions, he transferred his services finally from one to the other. So J ainicke, the first European "missionary in Tinnivelly, where the gospel had been carried by Swartz and his native assistants; Huttemann, at first at Cudalore; Gericke, at Madras; Kiernauder, at Calcutta; and their co·adjutors and successors, were agents of this society. To it, indeed, belongs the honor of having done almost all that England attempted for the evangelization of India during the eighteenth century.
We now turn to the Propagation Society. Noone familiar with the foreign and colonial relations of England at the commencement of last century can be surprised that its chief efforts should have been directed for many years to the settlers scattered throughout the various North American colonies, and places in Europe, such as Moscow, Hamburg, Lisbon, Leghorn, and the Levant, ,~here groups of Eng. lishmen resided. Interest in the former was intense, and in the latter a duty, for their spiritual state was a disgrace to England and a scandal to Protestantism, whilst heathen lands were very little known, and the obstacles in the way of conveying to them the gospel far more formidable than they are now. Moreover, the funds at the disposal of the society were inadequate, when the most pressing claims were met, for any great and untried enterprise. It was not given, even in these early days, to pay much respect to the labors of others, or it would have left New England to the Puritans-destitute though it was of Epis.copal agencies-and would have concentrated all its energies on colonies where Christianity was little more than a name; but where vice and irreligion were rampant. Thus much money was wasted; the efforts of good men wtlre misspent in attempts to alter the opinions of Christians rather than in converting sinful men; and some of the true blessings of Christianity were lost or limited. Nevertheless, the society was heartily zealous in its efforts to spread religion and morality among nominal Christians, and to convert the heathen. It did immense service in sustaining and strengthening the struggling agencies which here and there existed, and in sending clergymen to districts and colonies where there were none. It is not. too much to say that the Episcopal Church, not only in the United States, but in all other parts of America, the West Indies, West and South Africa, India, New Zea- land and Australia, owes more to it than to all other agencies united.* * .. Missions of the Church of England," by Ernest Hawkins. But of its endeavors to give the gospel to the heathen, notice chiefly is here to be taken. That this was a part of its design is abundantly clear, if it were only from the careful and elaborate "Directions to the Catechists for Instructing Indians, Negroes, etc.," which at an early period it issued; although it was for some years less distinguished in this sphere than the other, chiefly because its agents were absorbingly occupied in setting things in order among their own countrymen" but partly through the error of leaving to the same persons the very diverse duties of ministering to Christian congregations and seeking the conversion of the heathen. Bray, who founded and' endowed an institution of great value, which exists to this day under the title of " Bray's Associates," for the support of negro schools in Nova Scotia, Philadelphia and the Bahamas, was not likely to overlook their interests in any society which he helped to found. We find, accordingly, in the early history of the S. P. G. Society, repeated notices of their instruction and baptism; of schools for their benefit; and attempts to alleviate their lot and to protect them from contumely and wrong, especially in New York and the West India islands. Nor were the Indians overlooked. The zeal of the Rev. Morgan Godwyn, trained at Oxford, and successively a clergyman in Virginia and Barbadoes, as exhibited in a pamphlet he wrote in 1680, entitled "The Negroes' and Indians' Advocate," seeking for them admission into the Church, the chief proposition of which was" That the negroes, both slaves and others, have naturally an equal right with other men to the exercise and privileges of religion, of which it is most unjust in any part to deprive them," was characteristic of the sentiments of many, both before and after the formation of the society. The opening century showed several gratifying evidences of this. There were, for instance, some thirty congregations of Christian Indians, in 1705, in the south of New England, thirty-seven native preachers, some of them having been ordained by the Puritans. There were also seven or eight English ministers, who had learned the Indian tongue, ,and frequently gave instruction to Indian assemblies.* In the year 1700 was celebrated the first public commencement of William and Mary's College, founded, as the charter declares, " that the Christians of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary for the ministers of the gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian faith may be propagated among the western Indians, to the glory of Almighty G<.>d." The society took up such work with great readiness, for, in its first report, grants are stated to have been made to two missionaries who were laboring among "the five nations of Iroquois, commonly called the Praying Indians of Canada," t and Mr. Thompson is reported as baving been" sent to * See Hawkins' History.
t This continued, with some Interruption from war, in one at least of the tribes, the Mohawks, all through the century, and with much success. instruct the Indians in Carolina in the Christian religion." In 1704, Elias N eave, as catechist of the society, opened a school in. New York for negro slaves, which, in spite of enormous difficulties, did immense good, and existed for at least sixty years. N eave had at one time 200 catechumens under instruction, and one of his successors, after twenty- three years' labor, reported that" not a single black admitted by him to the holy communion had turned out badly, or in any way disgraced his profession." * These statements are by no means exhaustive, but they indicate the direction in which much good was done. Gradually the way was prepared for work on a more extended and • independent scale. The first who entered on it was Mr. Thomas Thompson, who, after laboring for some time'in New Jersey, was sent, in 1751, by the society, at his own urgent request, as a traveling mis- sionary to the negroes on the coast of Guinea. The work thus begun was doubtfully sllstained for fifty years by a native clergyman named Philip Quaque, and was the foundation of the great and successful missions of the two English Episcopal societies in Western Africa. The Declaration of Independence, 1776, brought the labors of the society in the United States to a close. Thus it was free to enter on new and more destitute spheres, and at the end of the century it was partially or entirely sustaining agents in several of the West India islands, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the Canadas, Australia and West Africa. This was a great deal to attempt on the slender resources it then commanded. Its income in 1701-2 was only £1,537. From 1710 to 1750 the annual receipts averaged £2,150; from 1750 to 1770 they rose to £4,000, but rapidly fell when the war with America com- menced, and ill 1801 were £6,457. Such were the varied endeavors made during 200 years to win the heathen for the inheritance of Christ. Instances of eminent learning, ability, zeal and consecration in the endeavor were numerous, but the results were not great. In estimating them we must consider the unsettled turbulence of the times; the demands made on Christian zeal by the aggressions of the Papacy; the rapid extension of the British possessions; the really limited number of those who, at any period under survey, understood and possessed the true missionary conception, and the want of efficient, well-organized and sustained methods of operation. Nevertheless, a great deal was done, and yet more was prepared for, and it would ill become us to fail in appreciation of those less-favored laborers, who laid, under enormous difficulties, the foundations of that great temple which, under far hap- pier auspices, we assist to build. If we look back just 100 years, to the close of the ninth decade of the eighteenth century, on the eve of the development of missionary zeal in the formation of so many important societies, we find there were but three missionary societies-the Propa- gation Society, which labored chiefly, however, in the colonies; the * See Anderson'S History, Vol. III., p, 332.
THE LACK OF CONSECRATION AND PRAYER
Halle-Danish Mission, which in a languid manner sustained the mIs_ sions in South India, and the Moravian Missionary Society. To these might be added the Christian Knowledge Society which, through the greater part of the century, rendered efficient aid to the missionary enterprise, and the Dutch Government, which in most of its possessions was mindful, though through imperfect methods, of its duty to its pagan subjects. But private and personal zeal had here and there been active, especially throughout the colonies of North America and the West India islands. The Methodists and Moravians were principally active in the latter; the Puritans and Episcopalians in the former. In the extreme north the Swedes and Moravians had a few interesting but small and struggling stations. The latter had the one only mission in South Africa, and the Propagation Society the only one on the west coast. The Dutch Missions in Ceylon and the Indian Archipelago were languishing. So really were those of Southern India, save where the gentle but potent influence of Swartz was felt. Altogether the sums annually spent on missions to the heathen was less than £25,000, and the number of missionaries less than 100. The native assistants to the missionaries were very few, probably not one to each missionary, and there were not ten who had attained to the status of ordained clergymen, so small was the attention given to this important ~eature of Christian propagandism. The converts, exclusive of the uncertain number of the nominal ones in Ceylon and the Dutch possessions, could not have numbered 40,000, belonging for the most part to weak and uninfluential races, and having but very few among them of marked ability, faith or position.* 'l'he difference between then and now in agency, influence and results proves the wonderful vitality and growth of missions, and is most encouraging as affording the most varied and ample evidence of their success.
* For an admirable statement of the position of missions at the beginning of this centnry, see Dr. Christlieb's" Foreign Missions of Protestantism," p. 5-16.
THE LACK OF CONSECRATION AND PRAYER.
[EDITORlAL.–A. T. P.] PART II.
(Concluded from page 514, July number.) 3. There is in the Church, we fear, a radical lack of consecration.
We use this phrase in no narrow cant sense, but in its proper sense of setting apart-self-dedication to the service and use of God. That is a great truth and fact: Ye are bought with a price and ye are not your own. Redemption is our purchase, at a fearful, unspeakable price. The redeemed becomes, of course, the property of the Redeemer, and salvation by faith is simply the acceptance of this redeemed relation. We not only renounce all claims of any other master upon us, but all right in ourselves. 'Vithout this renunciation there is no salvation, and it carries with it the consecration of which we have spoken.
Of course this consecration includes all our belongings. What, by a strange use of language, we call our" substance," so far as it belongs to us, certainly belongs to our Redeemer, and is henceforth devoted-set apart as by a vow-to His glory. This is the Biblical principle, and it has only to be recognized and practically acted upon to yield the most astonishing results. The financial basis of all our evangelization is rotten, because the money of believers is unconsecrated. There is enough wealth in the coffers of the rich-nay, there is enough surplus money in the purses of the poor, if properly gathered and systematically contributed, to evangelize this world. But it will never be given nor used until we look upon God, not ourselves, a5 the owner and proprietor of all. The question must be not, What can I spare for God and at the same time satisfy my conscience? but, How much can I sacrifice for God, how little can I spare for myself, and yet satisfy my own absolute needs? The ministry of money in the Kingdom of God is one of the great truths and mysteries that we are slowest to learn and penetrate. Men have worshipped Mammon; and it certainly suggests certain divine attributes, for-wisely used-money so multiplies the man's force as to suggest omnipotence; so multiplies the man's effective personality as to suggest omnipresence, and so multiplies the years of his influence as to suggest immortality. How contemptibly little and miserably short-sighted the selfishness that looks upon such a mighty factor in the world's evangelization and redemption as only a means of self-enrichment and self-indulgence!
We must learn the secret of true giving. First, this giving must be not only systematic but proportionate. He who gives one dollar out of $100,000, gives far less than he who gives the same sum out of $10,000 or $1,000. Dr. Joseph Brown, of Glasgow, quaintly says that no man can overlook this principle of proportionate giving if he understands his arithmetic, and that the practical neglect of it can be accounted for only on the ground that such people, when they came to "simple proportion," bolted over it into "vulgar fractions."
But the consecration we most need is that supreme self-offering, the consecration of body, soul and spirit unto God. Weare bought with a price: therefore are we no longer our own. Besser tells us of a redeemed slave, bought by a rich Englishman, in a slave-market, for twenty pieces of gold, and then presented ~ith a purse of money with which to buy a home. "Am I free? to go where I will and do what I will? Then let me be your slave. You have redeemed me; lowe all to you." He whom Christ has bought will not go free. He comes to the blood-stained door-post and asks that his ear may be thrust through with the awl and fastened to the door. Of him as of the master it is true, "Mine earsItlast thou bored, in token of my delight to do thy will, 0 my God." There is no liberty to be compared with such voluntary servitude. Years seem but a few days for the love the disciple bears to his Lord. Love shortens the longest term, lightens the heaviest load, strengthens the feeblest frame.
When such consecration is ours, everything else will be consecrated. The utensils of ordinary toil, the very pots in the kitchen, will be holy like the bowls of the altar. Then children will be the Lord's, not from childhood or birth only but from conception, and, like Samuel and John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Ghost even from the mother's womb.
4. There is a lack of supplication. Prayer has always turned the crises of the kingdom. It is a remarkable fact that, from the inception of modern missions to their present period, no important stage or step of their development has ever occurred except in connection with prayer. Even while the bulk of disciples were yet asleep to the needs of man and the duty of the Church, a few were, like Elijah on Carmel, bowed before God in importunate prayer. First, William Carey in England and Jonathan Edwards in America besought God to arouse an apathetic Church, and, almost simultaneously in England and New England, the Monthly Concert of Prayer began to be observed in 1784. Then prayer arose to God for the opening of doors into the whole habitable world. From 1819 to 1884 the most remarkable series of events occurred ever known in human history. Cannibal islands in the South Seas, Brahmanistic India, Buddhistic Siam, Persia, Turkey, China, Japan, Korea, and even Italy, Spain and France were thrown mysteriously open. Africa was suddenly thrown open also by that strange combination, the cotton spinner of Blantyre and the reporter of the New York Herald. Thibet stands today almost solitary and alone in shutting out the missionary, but the Moravians, always the pioneers, are carrying the blood-stained banner to the parapet of that shrine of the Grand Llama.
Then praying souls began to plead for increased supplies of men and means to enter these open doors; and workmen offered and money was furnished, until, in 1878, some twenty donors gave more than $4,000,000. Then the awful condition of woman in pagan lands attracted the attention of praying women and the great Zenana movement began, and simultaneously the organized form of woman's work. Then came an exigency when it seemed that there must be more volunteers-and from the educated classes; and, within five years, in this country and Britain upwards of four thousand young men and women, the flower of the Church and of society, have offered themselves willingly. Every time the Church has set herself to praying, there have been stupendous movements in the mission world. If we should but transfer the stress of our dependence and emphasis from appeals to men to appeals to God-from trust in organization to trust in supplication-from confidence in methods to importunate prayer for the- power of the Holy Ghost, we should see results more astounding than have yet been wrought. Itisa significant fact that in every department in which we naturally seek to move men most by appeals, we are di- rected to depend solely on prayer. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest." The sup- ply of workmen is to be secured by prayer, but the quality of work- men is far more important than the quantity Power comes by prayer-the secret of power is fire, kindled from above. The sublim- est men of history have been men who stood alone, like Moses on Horeb, Elijah on Carmel, Daniel in Babylon, Luther at Erfurth, Sa- vonarola on the scaffold, and McAll in Paris, Moffat in Africa, Mor- rison in China. There is a sublimity about faith and solitariness. One man and God with him stands undismayed among a thousand foes and can carry off the gates of Gaza and lift the pillars of Dagon's temple.
It is said of Themistoc1es, at the battle of Salamis, that he delayed that naval engagement until the land breeze blew which swepthis vessels toward the foe, and left every oarsman free to act as bowman and spearman. Think what new power would come to us if the energy expended in propelling the mere vehicle of missions could be left free to do the work of missions; if the Spirit of God should sweep the Church toward the crisis of the engagement instead of our toiling hard to bring up God's people to the encounter.
In the Pantheon at Paris is a cartoon which represents a contrast of early Roman history. The pagan empire has reached its summit of splendor, and a Cresar is entering the Eternal City in triumphal procession. The scene is dazzling-countless legions of soldiery, captives of war in golden chains, spoils of priceless value, colossal elephantsall the pomp and pageantry of-human glory. Beneath, scarcely visible in the dim light, Christians are praying in the Catacombs, and the long galleries are the sepulchre into which the empire' must soon fall. Imperial glory is being undermined by martrys' prayers.
The picture is but an allegory on canvas. The world's pomp and pageantry are hollow and shallow; its power and glory are unreal and deceptive. The Cresars and the czars, the emperors and sultans,. with their crowns and sceptres, are not the actual governing powers in human history. In many an obscure garret or cellar, in the hut of the lowly, are the praying saints whose supplications move the arm which is the support of the universe. The Church has two unused motors: the power of consecrated money and the power of covenant prayer. The possibilities of either have never yet been proven. '1'he coming age of missions will show what mighty motive powers these are; and that we may quicken the whole pulse of true believers, let us. seek to inform the mind, impress the conscience, hallow the life and inspire the prayer of all who look for Him whose kingdom is to be world-wide and age-long!
When Christians are intelligent and consecrated there will be no lack of holy enterprise. That word conveys to us the conception of an undertaking resolutely attempted with the acceptance of all necessary risk. The children of this world have always put to shame the children of light. Commerce, science, trade, greed have accomplished results which the more potent motives drawn from the Word of God and fellowship with Christ have failed to secure. It is a burning shame to us that men should dare, for ivory and peacocks' plumes and diamonds and gold, perils and privations which the Church of God will not confront for the sake of souls. Scientists penetrate Indian jungles and African forests forthe sake of fauna and flora; men will colonize with increditable rapidity a desert tract, moved by the law of a carnal commandment, while we are not impelled by the power of an endless life. We see men of the world form colossal corporations for world-wide enterprises. If some new invention like the electric light, or some new discovery like that of kerosene oil, marks a new epoch in civilization, a few years elapse and it may be found in every land. I am told that kerosene lamps may be found in the heart of Africa and China and Japan. What is the matter with the Christian Church that the world-wide enterprise of Christian missions moves so slowly?
In the Peninsular war, for every Frenchman killed there was sent out by England the weight of a man in lead and eight times his weight in iron, not to speak of the cost in blood and treasure. In the Indian wars in this country it has sometimes cost on the average a million dollars to kill an Indian, while an average expenditure of $200 was spent in converting them. There is no lack of money nor means to compass the evangelization of the world within the present century if there were but the spirit of enterprise to dare and undertake for our Redeemer.
Talleyrand boasted that he "kept his watch ten minutes ahead of the re~t of mankind." The Christian Church should surpass rather than be surpassed by others in her enterprise. The time will come when disciples will look back to this age of missions with as much surprise as we now look back to those days when a learned prelate in the House of Lords, and a defender of orthodoxy too, could calmly argue against sending missionaries to the Orient! or as we contemplate with amazement speeches against the suppression of the slave trade that have no interest to us'except as fossils and petrifactions of an antediluvian era! Even now there are some believers to whom the present apathy seems inexplicable. The work of a world's enlightenment and salvation is the only work worthy of all the combined energies of the Church of Christ. It should be pushed with the patience, perseverance, indomitable courage and invincible constancy of those wh() •
PRAYER AND JlfiSSIONS
believe that they are under the direct and personal leadership of a divine captain. To the eye of faith, our celestial Leader, in garments Ted with blood, is signalling to His people to move forward, unitedly and promptly, and take every stronghold of Satan by storm. For what are we waiting? There is His command, now nearly nineteen <lenturies old, yet ever new in its obligation. There is His providence, with its present and emphatic challenge to us to enter the open doors of opportunity and march over the prostrate walls of unresisting strongholds. There is His grace, that has worked and is working new miracles and signs and wonders among tribes so degraded that to awaken in them even Godlike aspiration implied a new creation. The "Fulness of Times" lias once more come. The Son of God goes forth to war, and He summons all His hosts to a final assault. Before Him and a sanctified, united Church, even the gates of Hell shall not prevail. Oh, for the day when all along the battle lines a new movement shall be seen, before whose mighty advance Satan himself shall tremble!
PRAYER AND MISSIONS.
BY REV. R. T. CROSS, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
Much has been said of late upon this subject, but it will bear pre- <lept upon precept and line upon line. In a widely circulated book on prayer, full of instances of answered prayer, I was unable to find a single instance of prayer as related to missions. But one cannot search missionary literature to any extent without finding many such instances. The history of missions is a history of prayer. Mark on a chart· the missionaries, the missions, and the nations for which most prayer has been offered, and from that chart you can construct a history of missions that would be approximately correct. Prayer is the Church's vital breath in all its missionary work. Prayer and missions are as inseparable as faith and works; they are faith and works.
The church at Antioch sent forth their first missionaries with fasting and prayer, and the success that attended those first missionary efforts was in answer to prayer. How many prayers are offered for every missionary; prayers by his home church, by personal friends, by himself, by the missionary society, the denomination, and by the Church at large! To this fact it must be due, in part, that so few missionaries of all who have gone to heathen lands, among savage tribes, exposed to all sorts of perils, have met a violent death. The exceptions prove the rule, for God sees that it is best for the cause of missions that the surface desire be refused sometimes in order that the deeper desire be granted.
Harriet Newall went as a missionary at the age of nineteen. She and her husband had barely landed on a heaMlen shore when the authorities sent them away. They came to the Isle of Man, where she • sickened and died-all in a few brief months. Those who prayed that her life might be spared, prayed thus in order that she might do good work for Christ and advance His Kingdom. For that reason, evidently, her life was not spared, for the published account of that consecrated life and early death aroused a wonderful interest in mis- sions in this country in the early part of the century.
A poor mother of nine children in Vermont gave her mite to help send missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, and grieved because she could not give more. At family prayers she asked God to accept of one or more of her children. "That prayer," said one of her daughters, "struck me," and that daughter became the devoted wife and right royal helper of 1Iissionary Wilder.
1Iore than one missionary has found that prayer is a helpful agency in securing a proper helpmeet. Dr. Goodell, who for forty years did so grand a work in Turkey, says that after he decided to go as a missionary he prayed much for a proper helpmeet; but finally he began to watch as well as pray, and then his prayer was answered. When his friends, Thurston and Bingham, were under appointment to go as the first missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, the mothers of the young ladies to whom they were engaged positively refused to let their daughters go. Going without wives was not to be thought of, and it was not supposed that they could return, or that anyone could come to them for many years. Something had to be done and that promptly. The students at Andover prayed over the matter and then hired a fleet horse and sent young Goodell on a. forty mile ride to find a wife for Thurston, who had given him a. carte blanche in regard to two or three young ladies who had been described to him. One was found and it proved to be a happy marriage.
On the day of prayer for colleges, during the Week of Prayer, and at other times, parents and others have been praying the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers, and in answer to those prayers we see this wonderful movement among Christian students. Is it not the first wave in the rising of a mighty tide of missionary interest and consecration? Now let us pray that a great number of churches and missions may support each its own missionary in foreign lands.
1Iissionaries need and greatly desire to be remembered by name in our prayers. When they go down into the depth of heathenism they want us to hold the rope, and we do not hold it unless we pray for them. One thing they want us to pray for is that they may be helped in learning the language. When 1Ir. Wilder had been in India but a short time, he was jokingly asked to preach in the native language. He tried and succeeded. The natives were astonished, and they said, "We prayed for him." One day he had preached in eight villages, and such was the indifference of the people that, wearied and discouraged, he sat under a tree to rest. While there he received a letter from a friend in Philadelphia, who, among other sympathetic things, said, "Brother Wilder, we are praying for you by name every Wednesday night." He felt refreshed at once. He arose, went two miles to a large town, called on the head man, who ordered his fifty clerks to stop work and listen. He spoke of Christ for an hour; tears were in their eyes, and they urged him to go on still longer. HelJ,r that prayer of that far away sister missionary: "Oh, dear Lord, I have not time to pray this afternoon. Here are persons waiting for their poor bodies to be healed; souls are listening for the word of life to be spoken. Oh, dear heavenly Father, put it into the heart of some good Christian woman in America to pray for me while I go to minister to these Thy little ones!" The President of the United States can sit in his office and touch a button, and set in motion all the machinery in an exposition build- ing in a far distant city. The humblest Christian in America can, from his closet, send a wave of spiritual power to the other side {)f the globe by way of the throne of grace. Pray, then, for the missionaries, and especially for your friends among them, for those whose names or work you happen to know.
When the first missionaries started for the Sandwich Islands in 1819 much prayer was offered for them, and what seasons of prayer they must have had on the brig Thaddetl8 during that tedious journey of many months! When they reached the islands they learned that the old king was dead, that the new king had abjured idolatry and destroyed the idols; and, behold! there was a nation without a religion all ready to receive the Christian faith. In that fact, and in the Penticostal revivals that followed in later years, how wonderfully was prayer answered!
God's providences are very closely related to the prayers of God's people. A few years ago a German missionary society found itself in debt ten thousand thalers. Fourteen years before it had received as a gift three acres of what was suppose'd to be worthless land in South Africa. At this juncture diamonds were discovered upon it, and enough was realized by percentage paid by the miners to pay the debt. .
The founder of the Friendly Islands Mission applied to the London J.;fissionary Society for permission to start a mission on another island whose chief had requested it. While waiting in prayerful anxiety for an answer, a box was washed ashore which containe« a letter giv'. ing the permission. The wrecked ship was never heard from, and no other article from it was ever found. In 1815 Rev. B. Shaw went to Cape Town as a missionary, but on being forbidden by the Government to labor there, he bought a yoke of oxen and a wagon, and he and his wife started for the in-
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION
terior, not knowing whether they went. Afte~ going 300 miles, he camped on the 27th day near a party of Hottentots, who, with a chief, were going to Cape Town after a missionary to teach them the "Great Word," of which that chief had heard. Had either party started half an hour earlier on its journey they would have missed each other.
When a fierce storm of persecution burst upon the Turkish mis- sions of the American Board, much prayer was offered, and God interfered with such a striking series of providences in the Turkish nation and its capital that the persecutors were awed. They held a meeting, and agreed to stop the persecution and recall the Christians who had been banished. In the history of every ~ission may be found a series of striking providences in answer to prayer.
How marvellously prayer has been answered in this century in the opening of heathen nations to missionary work! India, China, Japan, Africa, the islands of the sea-what a volume of prayer as- cended to heaven that these might be opened to the gospel, and God opened them. It is hardly necessary to offer that prayer now. The prayer now should be that hearts may be opened. He who opens nations can open hearts as well; the hearts of the heathen to hear and the hearts of Christians to give on a grander scale than ever before.
The more our praYlilrs are answered the more we have to pray for. If the prayers of the morning are answered at noon, how busy we must needs be in the afternoon, and how much to pray for at night!
The prayers of the fathers in the early morning of the great missionary movement are being answered all over the world, and all over the world God's people need to pray mightily for a great ingathering.
God's people pray in many languages. They use many forms of prayer, and they ask for many things. But there is one petition common to all. They all unite in saying: "Thy kingdom come." Around that prayer there is unity. In offering it we are all one. It is the generic prayer that Christ taught us to offer. He knew that millions of lips would repeat it, and that it would be the prayer of the Church universal for ages. Surely He would not have taught us thus to pray if He had not known that the prayer was sometime to be answered by the complete triumph of His Kingdom on earth.
That prayer is the charter for all the prayers that we offer for missions and missionaries, in all their minutest interests. So let us make every 'week a week and every day a day of prayer for the coming of the Kingdom.
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION.
BY REv. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES.
PART 11.* (Corwludedfrom page 106.) The way was not open for the settlement of a missionary on the island of Eromanga, where John Williams fell by the hands of the *Part I. of this thrilling narrative appeared in our February issue, but the concluding part failed tQ reach us till now; hence the delay.-Ens. • heathen, for 18 years after his tragic death. A.t the end of that period, however, as the result of the pioneering work of native teach- ers and the regular visits of the London Missionary Society's vessel, it was deemed safe to locate a missionary. A. man was found ready to undertake the perilous enterprise. The Rev. G. N. Gordon, of Nova Scotia, offered himself. He prepared carefully for the work, both by manual arts, theological study, and city mission effort. He attended medical classes in London for a short time, and in that city found a devout Christian wife. They reached Eromanga in 1857, and were settled at Dillon's Bay, where there was a sandal-wood establishment. For four years they labored in faith and hope, amidst trials and fears. Alas! they both became martyrs to their zeal, being killed by the savage heathen on the 20th of May, 1861. By that time a few converts had been gathered, and the Gospel of St. Luke and some other scripture portions had been translated and printed in the native language, so that something remained when the missionary fell.
When the sad tidings reached Nova Scotia, a brother of the martyr offered to take his place and raise the fallen colors. The Rev. James Douglas Gordon was already trained for the ministry, and like the Douglases and the Gordons of Scotland, who often in the past sent brothers to take the place of brothers slain, and thus carryon the warfare, he responded to the call in a Christian spirit. He reached Eromanga. in the first voyage of the Presbyterian Mission vessel, .Dayspring, in 1864. He labored there with great zeal and self-denial for eight years, and even went to pioneer Christian missions in Espiritu Santo. He was joined at Eromanga in 1866 by the Rev. James Macnair, who died at Dillon's Bay in 1870. After the arrival of Mr. Macnair Mr. Gordon took up a new station at Portinia Bay, and .was killed there by a savage heathen in March, 1872. He had just been revising his translation of the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and had concluded the account of the martyrdom of St. Stephen when his own martyrdom took place.
Thus the work was again arrested on Eromanga. But another man was ready to fill the gap. The Rev. Hugh A. Robertson and his young wife ventured to settle there the very year of Mr. James Gordon's martyrdom. They found some earnest Christians among the natives, and it has pleased the great Head of the Church to spare their lives, to bless their labors, and to reward their patience and conciliatory spirit. There are now over 200 communicants, and 33 of these are native teachers, who cover the whole island with their Christian influence. Several books of the Old and New Testament have been translated and printed. A neat churcl;t has been erected at Dillon's Bay to the memory of the martyrs. A fund was formed thirty years ago by Mr. (now Dr.) Wyatt Gill, for a monument to John Williams, but its object could not be carried out till the island was more peacefuL This fund accumulated by interest to more than £40, when it was made the nucleus of a Church Fund raised in New South Wales. The frame of the church was put up in Sydney in 1879, and opened for public worship by the Rev. A. W. Murray and the writer, and then shipped to Eromanga, where it was erected and carefully plastered within. It has regular pews, once in Trinity Episcopal Church, Sydney; a pulpit, once used in what is now St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Sydney; handsome lamps and a bell. There are two tablets, one on each side of the pulpit. One is a record of the martyrs who suffered for Christ on the island; the other records the gift of the church to their memory by Christian friends in New South Wales. When the foundation was laid, a descendant of the native who killed John Williams took part in the service. At the present time others of the same family are worshippers there. Thus Eromanga, so long noted for bloodshed, has become a Christian island.
The Presbyteriall Church of the lower provinces of British North America continued to send reinforcements to the New Hebrides Mis- sion, notwithstanding the adverse influences which operated so long to hinder the progress of the gospel. The islands had been pressed on the sympathies of Christian people by the melancholy events which had transpired. Before the death of the Gordons, however, the Rev. Messrs. Matheson and Johnston, with their wives, had been sent out. They were settled on Tanna in 1858-9, but they all, except Mrs. Johnston, died from disease early in their eareer, and she fol- lowed after her marriage with Rev. J. Copeland. The Rev. D. Mor- rison and his wife were settled on Fate in 1864, but after a brief day of earnest work they had to leave, and are since both dead. The Rev. J. D. Murray succeeded Dr. Geddie in 1872, but on account of his wife's health he resigned in 1876. The Rev. J. W. Mackenzie and his wife joined the mission at Fate in 1872, and have continued with much success. A Christian congregation has gathered around them. The Rev. Joseph Annand, M.A., and his wife came from Nova Scotia. in 1873, and after work in Fila Harbor and at Aneityum, went, in 1887, to pioneer Christian missions in the south end of the larged island of the group-Espiritu Santo-where some encouragement halil been received. Mr. Annand has acquired a third language of the Babel in the New Hebrides, and has already printed in a primer ex- tracts from scripture and some hymnli. Thus in forty years the Nova Scotian Church has sent ten brothers to this field of labor.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland was composed of only thirty congregations when it sent Dr. Inglis to the New Hebri- des, but it also increased its staff of missionaries. The Rev. J ohn G~ Paton and the Rev. Joseph Copeland arrived in 1858, and were settled at Port Resolntion, Tanna. Mr. Copeland was early removed to take charge of the stations of Messrs. Inglis and Geddie while these gentlemen successively had long furloughs, and were passing the New Testament and Book of Psalms through the press. Mr. Paton with Mr. Johnston braved the perils of missiou life on Tanna, but after the death of his wife and Mr. Johnston, and many hardships and dangers, he had to take flight tothe station of the Mathesons. But even there no safety could be secured, and all escaped to Aneityum in a trading vessel which Mr. Geddie had sent for them. The calamitielil of the New Hebrideslfission gave Mr. Paton access to the hearts of Australian Presbyterians, from whom he obtained a.}arge sum to get a mission schooner and new missionaries. 'l'he vessel was built in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and brought three missionaries on her first voyage in 1864. In 1866 an additional three came from Scotland and went to the islands with Dr. Geddie and Messrs. Paton and Copeland, who were returning to their labors. One of these new missionaries from Scotland, the Rev. T. Neilson, married the daughter of Dr. Geddie. By degrees the Presbyterian Churches of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand (north and Houth) have placed missionaries on the group. The Free Church of Scotland, having included the Reformed Presbyterians, has repre- sent.atives there. The Presbyterian Church in Canada, formed by the union of the various branches in former colonies of the great do- minion, has three missionaries.
Thus the mission has expanded during t.he 50 years which have elapsed since the death of Williams, and during 40 years sinceithe settlement of Dr Geddie. There are now 18 ordained missionaries, with a band of 120 native teachers. The islands of Aneityum, Aniwa, Eromanga, Efate, Nguna, :Metaso, Makuru, and Emae, are almost entirely Christian. Converts have been gathered from the islands of Taina, Futnna, Pele, Tongoa, and Epi. Missionaries have of late been located on MallieolIo, Ambrym, Malo, and Espiritu Santo. The Melanesian Mission, under Bishop Selwyn, gradually retreated to the north as the Presbyterian Mission advanced, thus showing a spirit of true Christianity. Their efforts are still continued on the islands of Aoba, Aragha, and Maiwo, on the northwest, where many have been taught and baptized. Thus the islands of the New Hebrides are al- most all occupied. But as some of those only lately provided with settled missionaries have, as Espiritu Santo and Mallicollo, the larg- est area and the most population, there is still much to be done in evangelization. A great amount of Christian liberality to the New Hebrides Mission has been evoked in Australia and New Zealand. The Presbyterian Church of Victoria has shown signal zeal through the earnef$t advocacy of the Rev. J. G. Paton, who has infected the congregations with his own enthusiasm. That church has now, in- cluding Mr. Paton, who acts as the traveling agent, five missionaries , on the islands. One of its stations was founded by the liberal gift of a single gentleman. A sum of £500 a year has been given to the Mission vessel for more than twenty years. The Presbyterian Church of Otago, not half the size of that in Victoria, has three missionaries in the field. The present outlook is full of encouragelilent, and it is hoped that all the islands may soon be evangelized.
As an instance of recent progress in the Mission, the labors of Rev. Peter Milne may be noticed. He was settled on the island of Nguna in 1870, amonga savage and cannibal people numbering about a thousand. For years the progress was very slow, and as the La- bor Traffic was then at its worst the island was in a state of chronic excitement. In July, 1871, a labor vessel was attacked by the natives and several were killed; but at length the influences of the gospel .were felt. Mr. Milne has now the whole island under Christian instruction, and has also extended his labors over five small adjacent islands. In 1888 he baptized 179 persons, and the number of communicants was then over 350. He had 24 schools, with 1,250 scholars. In August of this year he baptized, on the island of Emae, 64 adults and 13 children. Last year his Christian converts made 4,779 Ibs..of arrowroot as a contribution to the funds of the Mission. Such are the gratifying fruits which have appeared after patient work and waiting. In this central district Qf the New Hebrides there are more islands speaking one language-the Efatese, with only dialectal differences-than in any other part of the group. There are now four missionaries laboring there, two on :Fate, with its three small islands, one on Nguna, with four adjacent islands, and one on Tongoa, the centre of the Shepherd Isles, five in Dumber. Ultimately, one version of the Scriptures should suffice for the whole 14 or 15 islands.
Havannah Ha.rbor being a chief port 'of call for vessels, and a fine landlocked sheet of water, isa most important missionary centre. Rev. D. Macdonald has had great success there, and has 330 commu- nicants. On the other side, Rev. J. W. Mackenzie has a Christian (longregation, 140 communicants and 11 teachers employed as assist- ants. '1'he New Testament in Efatese was printed last year in Mel- bourne, under the superintendence of Rev. D. Macdonald. The New Testament is also now fully translated into the Tannese language; Rev. W: Watt has just left the island with it, and will carry it through the press next year in London, by the help of the British and Foreign Bible Society, by whose aid all the other versions have been brought out. The New Testament will soori be ready in the Eromanga language also. These efforts are described by the Rev. A. W. :Murray in his very interesting volume, "The Bible in the Pacific." The first mission brigantine-the Dayspring-was wrecked during a hurricane in January, 1873, but no lives were lost. She was cast on a reef on Aneityum, where assistance was at once obtained. A sum of money was soon collected by Rev. J. G. Paton for the new vessel. An insur- ance fund, started by Rev. J. Copeland in New Zealand, was brought up to £3,000 by]-"1r. Paton's appeals. After 15 years' service of the new vessel, which is a three-masted schooner, want of more frequent -communication by means of steam has begun to be felt. Rev. J. G. Paton, when on a visit to the United Kingdom in 1884, received £6,000 for a steam vessel, but as the expense of maintaining such a vessel would necessarily be great, the matter is yet in abeyance. Steam navigation companies, subsidized by Government, have opened regular monthly communication with the group, and a steamer is to ply among the islands to collect a trade. An arrangement has been madeto em- ploy this service for the benefit of the Mission during the next year as an experiment which may become permanent.
The French colonists have been agitating for some time to get the New Hebrides annexed to their penal colony of New Caledonia. A trading company has purchased large tracts of land near the best har- bors and good anchorages in the group to the north. Several planta- tions have been established, and a steamer regularly trades between the islands and N oumea. They have failed hitherto in their annexation scheme, chiefly by the opposition of the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand, and the efforts of missionaries and their friends who appealed to the British Government. Meantime, the treaty made between the French and British powers, that neither should an- nex the New Hebrides, is continued in force, and a joint naval super- vision has been established. A British Consul, also, has now been appointed to the New Hebrides. A New"Hebrides company has also been formed in Australia, and land is being secured, which may de- velop trade. The New Hebrides Mission has had special difficulties from the trying climate, the degraded condition of the natives, and the great diversity of the languages. These have been in great meas- ure overcome, and there is now no mission on the Pacific that has so many ordained missionaries in so limited a sphere and among so many tongues. The Mission, too, has been greatly tried by the Polynesian I~abor Traffic, which recruited so many young men for service on . sugar plantations in Fiji and Queensland. At first many evils were perpetrated, but by the protests and appeals from missionaries to Co- lonial and Imperial Governments, thefle have been mitigated. There .a1'e many thousands of natives in Queensland, and it is gratifying to record that an arrangement has been made by some planters to employ
THE STORY OF ELIZA AGNEW IN CEYLON
missionaries among them, by which good results have been obtained. The Presbyterian Church of Queensland has also a missionary at work in this field. In Sydney classes have been held for Polynesians in domestic service, and several have been baptized, and all conduct themselves in an exemplary manner.
The jubilee of the Mission thus furnishes many causes for thanksgiving and hope. Converts to Christ have been won from almost all th" islands. The Word of God has been rendered more or less into twelve different languages, and the islands rendered safe for settlers and for traders. A considerable amount of literature has been devoted to the islands and the missions. Some officers of H. 11's. navy have published notes of their cruises. Naturalists, like Dr. McGillivray, in his "Voyage of H. M. S. Rattlesnake," and Mr. Julius Brenchley in his "Cruise of the Curacoa," have aided science. Travelers like Mr. F. A. Campbell, in his "Year in New Hebrides," and lfr. Julian Thomas (the "Vagabond,") in his "Cannibals and Convicts," have described the islands. The lives of Rev. G. N. Gordon, of Johnston, and Matheson, and Dr. Geddie have been published. The Rev. J. G.
Paton has this year created a sensation by his thrilling autobiography, * such as has not been known since John Williams published his "Missionary Enterprises." The Rev. A. W. Murray wrote an account of missions in Western Polynesia thirty years ago. Dr. Inglis has issued two volumes of his reminiscences "In the New Hebrides." The "New Hebrides and Christian Misl:!ions," by the present writer, appeared in 1880.
* See an editorial notice of this work in our last number, page 524.-J. M. s.
THE STORY OF ELIZA AGNEW IN CEYLON. [Having heard Miss M. W. Leitch, in London, tell the following StOl;y of the marvellous work done by Miss Agnew, in the school where the Misses Leitch became her successors, I besought Miss Leitch to furnish the narrative for the REVIEW, which she did, sending me the advance sheets of her forthcoming book, "Seven Years in Cey- lon."-A. T. P.] ELIZA AGNEW, OR ONE WOMAN'S WORK IN THE FOREIGN FmLD.
One day the teacher in a day-school in New York City, while giving a lesson in geography, pointed out to her pupils the heathen and the Christian lands, and she must have spoken some very earnest words to them," for then and there a little girl, eight years of age, named Eliza Agnew, resolved that, if it were God's will, she would be a missionary when she grew up, and help to tell the heathen about Jesus. She never forgot this resolve. Until she was thirty years of age she was detained at home, because there were near relations who needed her care. But when she had reached that age, and her dear ones had been called away from earth to heaven, she was free to leave her home, and she went as a misuionary to Ceylon.
Some years before this, when the first missionaries reached North Ceylon, they could not find, among the more than 300,000 people there, a single native woman or girl who could read. There were a few men and boys who could read, but the people did not think it worth while to teach the girls. They said, "What are girls good for, excepting to cook food?" etc. "Besides," they said, "girls could not learn to read any more than sheep." The missionaries said to them, "You are mistaken. Girls can learn to read as well as boys." So they opened mission day-schools, not only for boys but for girls ai<>o. Though the parents willingly allowed their sons to attend these schools, they were very unwilling to let their daughters remain long enough to receive an education, as it was COlUUY>U for parents to give their daughters in marriage when they were only ten or twelve years of age. Seeing this, one of the missionary' ladies wished to commence a boarding-school for girls. She wished to have the native girls separated from the influences of their heathen homes, and brought under daily Christian influences. But none of the people would send their daughters to her.
One day there were two little girls playing in the flower-garden in front of the missionary's house at Oodooville. Ceylon is in the tropics, only nine degrees north of the equator. In North Ceylon there are two seasons, the wet and the dry. The dry season lasts nine months, and during that time there is scarcely &ny rain; but in the wet season, November, December and January, it rains nearly every day, and sometimes the rain falls in torrents-between nine and ten inches have been known to fall in twenty-four hours. While these two little girls were playing, there came on a heavy shower of rain, and as they had not time to go home, they ran for shelter into the mis~ionary's house. It continued to rain all that afternoon and evening, and the little girls became very hungry and began to cry. The missionary lady gave them bread and bananas. The younger girl ate but the older girl refused to eat. After a time, when the rain ceased a little, the parents went to look for their daughters. They had supposed they would be in some neighbor's house, but found them in that of the missionary. When they heard that the younger one had eaten, they were very angry, for they said, "She has lost caste." They found fault with the missionary lady, and the mother said, "You have given my child food, and it has broken caste and is polluted, and now we shall not be able to arrange a marriage for it. What shall we do? You may take the child and bring it up."
The missionary lady had been wishing for native girls to come to her, whom she might educate in a boarding-school, and here was a mother actually saying she might take her daughter, so the missionary lady thought that perhaps this was the Lord's way of enabling her to start the boarding-school. She took the little girl, fed and clothed her, and began teaching her the 247 letters of the Tamil alphabet. She sprinkled a little sand on the floor of the veranda, and taught the child to write letters in the sand. By-and-by, some of the playmates of this little girl came to see her, and when they saw her writing the letters in the sand, they thought that this was somekind of new play, and they also wanted to learn. The Tamil children have good memories, and in a very short time they committed to memory the 247 letters of the alphabet, and were able to read. Their parents, seeing this, and that the little girl was well cared for and happy, soon began to entrust more of their daughters to the care of the missionary lady. This was the beginning of the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-School, which was, perhaps, the first boarding-school for girls in a heathen land, having been commenced in 1824.
After Miss Agnew went to Ceylon, she became the head of this boardingschool. She remained in Ceylon for 43 years without once going home for a rest or a change. When friends would ask her, "Are you not going to America for a vacation ?" she would always reply, "No; I have no time to do so. I am too busy." Through all those 43 unbroken years, during which God granted to her remarkable health, she was too busy even to think of going home.
In the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-School she taught the children, and' even some of the grandchildren of her first pupils. More than 1,000 girls have studied under her. She was much loved by the girls, who each regarded her as a mother, and she was poetically called by the people "The mother of a thousand daughters." During the years she taught in the school more than 600 girls went out from it as Christians. We believe that no. girl, having taken its whole course, has ever graduated as a heathen. Most of these girls came from heathen homes and heathen villages, but in this school they learned of Christ and of His great love, and surrendered their young hearts to Him.
Miss Agnew lived with us in our home the last two years of her life, when she had grown feeble and was no longer able to retain the charge of the boarding-school. We felt her presence to be a daily blessing.
Near the close of her brief illness, and when we knew that she had not many hours to live, one of the missionaries present asked her if he should offer prayer. She eagerly assented. He asked, "Is there anything for which you would like me specially to pray?" She replied, " Pray for the women of Jaffna, that they may come to Christ." She had no thought about herself. All through her missionary life she had thought very little about herself. Her thought was for the women of Jaffna, that they might know Christ; that they might know that in Him they had an Almighty Saviour, a great burden~bearer, a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, one who had borne their griefs and carried their sorrows and could give their troubled, hungry, sorrowing hearts His own peace. At the very time when she was asking prayers for the women of Jaffna, every room in our house was filled with native Christian women who, when girls, had been her pupils, and they were praying for her-that if it were the Lord's will to take her then to Himself He would save her from suffering anu pain. God heard their prayer, and she passed away like one going into a sweet sleep. The attendance at the funeral service was very large. Many native pastors, catechists, teachers, lawyers, Government officials and others, the leading men of Jaffna Peninsula, who had married girls trained in the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-School, came to the funeral service, bringing their wives and children. As we looked over that large audience and saw everywhere faces full of love and eyes full of tears, and knew that to hundreds of homes she had brought the light and hope and joy· of the gospel, we could not help thinking how precious a life consecrated to Chri.~t may be.
In hundreds of villages .in Ceylon and India there is just such a work waiting to be done by Christian young women as that which, with God's blessing,. Miss Agnew accomplished in the Jaffna Peninsula. Heathen lands are open to-day as they have never been open before. The women of heathen lands need the gospel. The stronghold of heathenism is in the homes. Many of the men in India have to some extent lost faith in their old superstitious creeds, but the women, who are secluded in the homes, cling to the heathen worship. What else can they do? They must cling to something, and the majority of them have not heard of Christ. They are teaching the children to perform the heathen ceremonies, to sing the songs in praise of the heathen gods, and thus they are molding the habits of thought of the coming generation. Some one has truly said, "If we are t~ win India for Christ, we must lay our hands on the hands that rock the cradles, and teach Christian songs to the lips that sing the lullabies, and if we can win the mothers of India to Christ, her future sons will soon be brought to fall at the feet of their Redeemer."
There are in India 120 millions of women and girls. Ho:w many lady missionaries are there working among these? In the report of the last Decennial Conferen2e the number is given as 480, counting those of all Protestant missionary societies. Might not more be sent to that great work? We are tol<l that there are a million more women than men in Great Britain. Could not. many of these be spared from their homes, and could Iot some possessed of private means go on a self-supporting mission to this great field?
Think of the 21 millions of widows in India. What a terrible lot is theirs! They are regarded as under a curse. They are doomed to innumerable hardships. It is deemed meritorious to heap abuse upon them. It is thought the gods are angry with them, and that the death of their husbands is a punishment on them for some sin committed either in this or in some previous life. Their lot is so hard to bear that again and again they have said to the missionaries, " Why did the English Government take from us the right to be burnt on the funeral pyre with our dead husbands, for that were better than what we have to endure?" But Christian women could give to these widows of India the gospel with its message of hope, and before the brightness of its shining the darkness of their despair would flee away. The knowledge of the love of Christ would help them to bear their otherwise intolerable burdens. ,Let us remember that Christ has told us that whatsoever service we render to the least of His little ones, He will regard it as done to Him, and whatsoever we leave undone of that which W/l.<; in our power to do, He will regard the neglect and slight as shown to Him. Are there not many in darkness to-day who might have had the gospel had Christians done what they could for them '!
Failure to realize responsibility does not diminish it. Zenanas which forty years ago were locked and barred are to-day open. Especially is this the case in towns where there are Christian colleges. Wherever the Hindu men have been educated in these mission colleges, they are now willt~g, and even desirous, that their wives, daughters and sisters should be taught. We have been told by Hindu gentlemen that- there are llJany educated men in India to-day who are convinced of the truth of Christianity, and would confess Christ were it not that a wife or mother. who has never been instructed about Christ, would bitterly oppose their doing so.
Shall not Christian women who owe so much to Christ be foremost in doing the work allotted to them? What a consummate blunder to live selfishly in this generation! Are we giving the best we have to Christ and to His cause? Christ says, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Did Christ only mean that for those who lived hundreds of years ago, or does He mean those words for us to-day? In the presence of a thousand million heathens and Mohammedans needing the gospel, with multitudes in heathen lands losing faith in their old beliefs and asking for the new, does He not mean those words to-day? Does He not ask that our time, our money, our influence. our friendships and our entire possessions should be laid at His feet, consecrated to His service, placed absolutely at His disposal? Opportunities such as we have to-day, if neglected, may not come again.
It is said that when the decisive hour in the battle of Waterloo came, the English troops were lying in the trenches waiting for the onslaught of the enemy. They had been ordered not to fire until the French were close upon them, and while they lay there in silence, Wellington rode up and down the lines, saying over and over again, "What will England say to you if you falter now?" One old officer declared that he said it a thousand times; but it is no matter how many times he said it, it was burned into those waiting troops till they felt as if they were lying under the very walls of Parliament, and when the command was given, " Now up and at them," every man felt that the honor of England was in his hands, and he was invincible.
Do we not hear the voice of a greater Leader saying, "-Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life"? What will the result be if we falter now, if Christians are worldly now, if they are Christians only in
A CHINESE SECRET SOCIETY
name but not in deed, if they only say" Lord, Lord," but do not the things which Christ says?' What will Christ think of us if we are not brave and true now?
Let us, at Christ's command, be ready to go forward, for the battle is not ours, but Christ's. Surely we will do well to place ourselves on His side, for we know that in the end His cause shall prevail. We know that all darkness and every evil thing shall be swept away, and that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Lord Northbrook recently, at the meeting of the Church Missionary Society, referred to his feelings at hearing Handel's" Hallelujah Chorus" sung. He said it was not so much the music as the words and thoughts that thrilled him. The greatest of all musical creations was inspired by the faith that from sea to sea, and to the ends of the earth, His dominion shall extend, and that from every part of tlill: earth shall yet arise the choral shout, " Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." That is the grander chorus, of which Handel's Hallelujah is but the faint and distant anticipation. It will combine the voices of all loyal, 10Ting saints of all ages, nor is there in all the world, in the obscurest hovel of pOTerty, one humble soul that prays" Thy Kingdom come," that lays consecrated offerings on the altar of missions, who shall not join that final anthem as one who has helped forward the great consummation.
[NOTE.-This book, "Seven Years in Ceylon," which is to be published by Partridge & Co., will be a very valuable contribution to missionary literature. It is not unknown to our readers that the Misses Leitch have been for some years endeavoring to collect ,money to establish a .. Jatl'na College and General Medical Mission in North Ceylon." Already considerably over one·half of the £30,000 they set out to secure has been raised, nearly one·eighth of this sum being given by a dear American friend. Any contributions forwarded to us for this noble enterprise we will very gladly undertake to send on to the Misses Leitch.-Ens.] A CHINESE SECRET SOCIETY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON EVANGEL- ISTlCWORK.
BY J. STEWART HAPPER, NEW YORK.
Evangelistic work among the Chinese in America has justly been characterized by those acquainted with it as being one branch of Christian work which has more discouragements and fewer visible results than almost any other mission effort which the Church is now engaged in. In a paper in the REVIEW last year, the reasons for this statement were very fully considered, but for lack of space no mention was made of a force at work among the Chinese, which is, perhaps, the greatest obstacle to the Christianizing of the heathen in our midst; and this opposition is all the more dangerous because of the secrecy of its nature, the fear in which it is held, and the impossibility of obtaining definite proof as to its real character, scope and influence. The Yee Bing, a Chinese secret society which flourishes in this country, with lodges in almost all the large cities, has come to be regarded by those who know the Chinese, and especially by us who are able to understand their language, as a most potent force for evil, and a powerful antagonist to all that is good.
Our information in regard to this organized body is still limited; for though we see the results of its methods, and oftentimes meet with 'dctims who have suffered at its hands, it is hard to get at the facts when superstition, fear, and the policy of self-preservation are combined to conceal the truth. It has been my lot to come in contact and in open conflict with this society at various times during the past five years, and what I have learned of its nature may be of use in enabling others to recognize this great enemy to the work which we are trying to do for the Chinese in the midst of us.
The original of the Yee Hing Society is known in China as the White Lily. ·or Triad Society. It was at first a band of native Chine"e, united by the most sacred and binding ties in an effort to restore the native dynasty and overthrow the Manchu rule. Its existence was, prior to the rebellion, headed by Hung ·Siu Tlmen, the 'semi-Christian fanatic, and, though his object was the same as theirs, he was so opposed to their practices that they left him and sided with the imperialists. So stringent are the existing laws against the society in China, that it is sure death for a man to belong to it; hence we hear very little ·of it in China itself. Of this parent society, Dr. Williams, in his "Middle Kingdom," says, "The Triad Society is comparatively peaceful throughout China proper in overt acts. . . but in Siam, Singapore, Malacca and the Archi- pelago, it has become a powerful body, and great cruelties are committed on those who refuse to join." This statement of his is borne out by the fact that in these different places its evil character and practices are so well recognized that laws have been passed against membership in it similar to the laws in ,China, though the punishment is not so severe.
When the Chinese came to this country in great numbers the society was brought with them, and, owing to the degree of freedom found here, it has flourished and spread all over the land. Membership in the society is openly admitted, and its character is explained to the newspaper reporter or to the .Sabbath-school teacher by the statement', "It it just like the Freemasons." Whether there are Freemasons in China or not, is a question for sinologues to decide, but there is no more resemblance between the Freemasons and the Yee Ring Society in this country than there is between the Grand Army of the Republic and the anarchist agitators. This can be proved by its form of initi- ·ation and by its acts.
From the ritual, which for a time was in my possession, I gained the fol- lowing account of what it requires of its members: The applicant for member- ;ship is sworn to secrecy, taking a solemn oath by which he imprecates death to himself if he ever divulges the secrets or refuses to obey the orders of the .society. Before going through the binding rite of initiation he is required to run the gauntlet of the members present, who, if they have any old grudge .against him, are supposed to take it out in striking or beating him as he passes between the two lines. After this no one is supposed to remember any past ,offenses. The initiate then takes an oath to lay aside all obligation to "father or mother,wife or children; " he will consider the demands of the society supreme, even if he be called on to commit crime. A ceremony called being" born again" is then gone through with, and as a final seal upon the whole initiation each man pricks his finger until the blood flows, the different drops are col- lected in a basin of water, and each member takes a sip from the mixture, thus symbolizing their close union as a sworn band of brothers. The leader is called "A-ma" (mother.) It is on a«;lcount of this giving up of the claims of filial duty that the society is so abhorred by the better class of Chinese. In oile village in the Canton province, the elders passed a law that any member of their clan who should thus give up his allegiance to his parents should be buried alive if the facts were discovered. It is said that one man was thus buried, his own parents assisting and justifying their course by saying that he might as well be dead in fact as in effect. It is needless to add that few members of the so- CIety are gained from the emigrants from that village, so great was the deter_ rent effect of this punishment.
The society has long since lost sight of its original purpose-the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty-and now it uses the power it has for the personal advantage of its members. Skilled in the tricks of the law, unlimited in their .ability to manufacture testimony and suborn perjury, they stop at nothing to effect their aims or to punish those who withstand their impositions. In the ranks of its members are to be found competent interpreters, whose knowledge of our language enables them to be perverters of testimony as well. From the ignorant laundrymen who do not belong to the society the society demands money tor protection, and they find it cheaper to pay than to resist. There are, doubtless, many of its members who have joined under a misconception of its character, for they represent themselves to be a co-operative benevolent society, whose aim is to befriend and care for the Chinese; but when a man has once joined, fear of the consequences prevents his leaving. If superstitious he dreads the breaking of his oath, if not he fears the vengeance of the members, who stop not at murder.
Many instances might be given to prove the above assertions. The most signal exposure of the workings of the society was made in a celebrated case at St. Louis in 1885. The Chu clan, who are very powerful in this country. had dared to oppose the Yee Hing Society. A charge was made against six of their members which involved the lIfe of the accused. For seven weeks the opposing factions fought daily in the courts. Testimony was adduced which proved that members of the society in New York had admitted in their meeting that the charge was false, but the men must be punished for daring to oppose the Yee Hing. The pe,rfect manner in which witnesses were instructed, and their absolute disregard for truth, were well shown at this trial. A dramatic scene was enacted one day, when one of the coolest witnesses was suddenly shown the ritual of the society, which he supposed was safe in New York, and was asked its meaning. So great was his dread of the book, which private members are not allowed to see; that he shook and trembled, and refused to read it. Yet a week afterwards, he calmly swore that he knew nothing about such a book, and had never seen it! By great exertions, the accused men were finally saved from the unjust charge, and a most signal victory was obtained against this secret, powerful, Proteus-like enemy.
The influence of this society, while in many instances seemingly favorable to Christianity, is in reality both actively and passively opposed to anything that is good or Christian. In many of the schools for the Chinese we find a majority of the' members are from the Yee Hing Society. Knowing the advantage that a knowledge of the language gives them, they are more anxious to learn than are their duller companions. Having cut adrift from the teachings of ConfuciUS, in regard to filial duties at least, they are more progressive and anxious to become acquainted with our manners and laws. At the same time, they are usually the proprietors or managers of the opium joints and gambling dens, which are the greatest objections to the Chinese living among us, and from the very nature of their ties it is impossible for them to become· Christians as long as they consider their oaths binding. Many of them have made a profession of Christianity, but it cannot be for the truth's sake, but because they appreciate the advantages of the moral support they receive from hood-winked teachers and zealous pastors.
Not only are the members of this society unpromising objects for Christian effort, but they prevent other Chinese from coming to the schools. If the object of their dislike is not sensitive and still insists upon coming, they will even force him to leave the city by a seried of persecutions. At one time, in a. school of which I was superintendent, such a persecution was commenced by means of a false charge in a court of law. One of their own members came to me and confessed that the charge was false but he would have to swear .tc the lie, as he dared not disobey his superior. By my intervention their designs were frustrated, though for a time the enmity of my scholars who were
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. 603·
members of the Yee Hing took the form of violent maledictions against me and absence from school. It is said-and there seems to be good ground for the statement-that there is a sub-order of the society, composed of "hatchet men," who will commit murder at the command of the officers of the society. An attempt, at least, at personal violence was made in this city, at the very doors. of the Tombs Police Court, when a Christian Chinaman was assaulted after a case was tried where he had successfully testified against some members of this society who were arrested for gambling. For months a reward was offered for the heads of two Christian Chinese, and I have reason to believe that my own life was in danger for a time, if wishes could have effected my death.
This society and its influence is not confined to this country alone. In a report of the work among the Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands for 1887, I find the following paragraph: "Another most injurious influence, and one of the most hostile to the spread of Christianity, is the prevalence of a strongly organized secret society which extends all over the group (of islands). While in China it is at the risk of life that a man joins it, here it exists and flourishes in the most unblushing manner. It is a prolific source of evil among the Chinese, and is calculated to harden them against any good influences which otherwise might be brought to bear upon them. Our Christian converts are' often called upon to suffer its persecution, and fear of its power is calculated to deter othersfrom joining our ranks."
Much more might be said in regard to this evil agency, but enough has been said, I think, to expose the enemy, and therein consists the remedy for the evil. An open foe is more easily defeated than a secret one, and when the' secret society masquerades as a benevolent organization, when its members are equally prominent in the Sabbath-school, and, more secretly, in the gambling house and lodge room, then it is that the most harm is done. Let all who work among the Chinese look carefully into the motives of those who, wish to profess Christianity, and find out all they can in regard to them. We do not wish to decry results, but better one genuine convert than hundreds who join from wrong motives. It is true of this field as of every other, that the wheat and the tares must grow together till the Judgment Day, lest violence be done to the wheat; but as far as human judgment can decide, it seems impossible for a Chinaman to serve God and the Yee Hing Society.
H.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.
A little circular has just been re- the vVestern States, and a Conference, ceived announcing Summer Schools for Christian Activity and Bible Study, for College Students. Northfield, Mas- which will be held on the finely lo- sachusetts, is the location for the cated camping grounds of the West- World's Students' Conference, which, ern Secretarial Institute. by the time this magazine goes to In attendance at Chautauqua and press, will have been held on dates Lake Geneva will be student volun- June 28th to July 9th, inclusive. The teers in great numbers and from all second summer school will be open for sections of the country: from abroad, students at Chautauqua, N. Y. (about returned foreign missionaries who are thirty miles from Buffalo), on July wide awake, consecrated and enthusi- 19th, to continue twelve days. Lake astic; from home, Rev. Arthur T. Geneva, Wisconsin-said to be by Pierson, D.D., who has been so might- many tourists the most beautiful lake ily used by the Lord both at home and in America-will attract students from abroad; Mr. RobertP.Wilder, Mr. Jno. R. Mott and Mr. Robert E. Speer will Mr. La Flomme, a volunteer, whose be in attendance at one or both of these conferences. enthusiastic presence and spirited ad- Chautauqua and Lake Geneva will dresses will be remembered by the be rallying points for student volun- teers to gather this summer; hence boys who. were at Northfield in 1887, we would urge volunteers to come if possible. Let no men with tired brains, writes recently from Tellomonchili, who are just free from college work, India, to a volunteer: suppose these conferences are conduct- ed on the cram system and offer noth- "I know the Lord has blessed you. ing but Bible study, sermons and And now that I see He is as wonder- prayer meetings; on the contrary, fully blessing Speer, I know it is not abundant time is allowed for reflec- your work, or Speer's, or Forman's, tion and for social intercourse and re- but it is of the Lord God. Our great creation in the form of out-of-door longings of two years ago, that the sports. Fellows whose "funds are low" volunteers might pull together, have (and few students are fIushat the close been satisfied. To see the grand en- ~f a college term) need not be deprived thusiasm with which they are sweep- of the privilege of attendance: the ing forward is, in the :promise of God, railroads offer cut rates, and oppor- one of the most inspIring sights im- tunity will be given, as in the past, aginable to men who are working for men to earn their expenses by a away beyond their strength, because few hours' labor each day in dining- they expect reinforcements soon. And room service. that is the position of our foreign force. They are like Wellington at Perhaps no man is better able to de- Waterloo, fighting a stubborn fight termine the needs of volunteers than against fearful odds; and as he prayed Mr. Speer~ the Traveling Secretary, for night or Blucher, so they are lookand by needs I mean requirements for ing for the coming of the end, or of effective spiritual service. He says: help. And we have not looked in vain. How the forces are pouring into the "Briefly, the needs of the volunteers foreign fields! But though the numare to-day: (1.) Information-intelli- bers of foreign workers have vastly ingence for themselves and to distribute. creased, yet only the advance guard They cannot work unless they have have deployed upon the great plain of something' with which to work; (2.) this world's need, and only here and Determination that,whether the Board there has a breach been made in the accept them or not, they will have the towering bulwarks of heathen unbelief gospel preached in the untouched lands and Mohammedan opposition. Our even though they die. (3.) Inspiration Christian churches must send out the -they need to glow with the Lord's sinews of war. This work is so pelife." culiar and so vast that for the fighting force the base of supplies must be the Truly it is just this inspiration, this home land-not for long, let us hope, glow that comes from contact with the but until the presentcrisis be past, and Lord's life. that we need above all the ingathered converts are able of things else. As volunteers, yes; as themselves to take up the work and obedient, loyal sons of God, we ought push it ahead unaided." to bring ourselves in touch with the men and the means which He so gra- During the college year, Mr. Robert ciously uses in the furtherance of His great ends. But, above all human aids E. Speer, our Traveling Secretary, has and instrumentalities, the Spirit of God is promised at these conferences. visited 65 colleges, 17 theological He will not fail us. And again, for His Kingdom's sake, volunteers, Come! seminaries, 7 schools, 8 State universi- ties. 7 normal schools, 7 Young Men's Christian Association State conven- tions, 3 Young Women's Christian Association State conventions, the New England College Conference, and also addressed meetings in 45 churches and 10 young peoples' societies. About 350 meetings in all were held. There were about 1,000 new volunteers se- cured, and $8,500 pledged to work abrfad.
MAX WOOD MOORHEAD. Notes on Afrioa, by our English Oorrespondent.
Portuguese Departure frum Nyas- tached to their necks, and in this saland.-Touching affairs at Mandala cruel fashion were driven from day and Blantyre, Mr. John Moir, of Edin- to day until sold to the slave-dealing burgh, wrote, on May 14th, that he Arabs. With such daily occurrences, had just received letters from his sons, crimes and horrors, Ethiopia stretches reporting quietness in the lately dis- forth her hands to God and man for turbed districts, and the exultation of deliverance.
the natives at the exit of the Portu- -"An Awful Land"-Rev. J. L.
guese. Rogers, laboring at Stanley Pool, Cen- -Experiences on Lake Nyassa.- tral Africa, among a race called the That noble missionary surgeon and Batekers, describes their habits and worker, Dr. Kerr Cross, has returned his own trials to a friend in London: to Great Britain on a furlough. He "They are very wild and given to describes the field of labor which he fighting. They always go about with has occupied some four or five years, their knives and spears, ready to kill at the extreme south end of the lake, anyone. In fact, one has to be very as a marvellously beautiful country. careful in walking among this people.
Every black man's village was a ba- I am on the best terms with all the nana grove, kept in the most perfect natives. The people buy slaves, and order and cleanliness. Cattle, grain, fatten and kill and eat them. This is and everyt~ng that a negro sets his an awful land to live in. During my heart upon as of value, was found in stay here I have had nine fevers.'''
abundance. The people themselves -North Africa Missioll.-Itappears were of noble character, and anxious- from the annual report of the Pas- ly awaited the gospel. Schools for the tors' College that Mr. Spurgeon has children were popular. The great launched his promised missionary so- curse of the region was slavery. In ciety, of which the first agent is 10- its domestic aspects it was unknown. cated at Morocco, in conjunction with The slavery which the missionaries the North Africa Mission. The so- witnessed was practised by the Arabs. ciety's income amounts to £600. Its They had recently instigated the Aw- course turns upon the replies to ap- amba, a large tribe inhabiting a tract peals for co-operation. Apart from a of land northwest of Bangweolo, to generous response laborers cannot be ravage the areas to the north, south, sent forth. Several of Mr. Spurgeon's east and west. The guns which students are being trained for the mis- the Arabs put into their hands to sion field.
hunt slaves were old British weap- -Another Missionary Martyr.-Of ons. For a gun the Arabs could buy that heroic Cambridge band of four a young woman, and youths, boys members, under the leadership of and girls brought certain quantities Douglas Hooper, who sailed from of gunpowder. In one instance the England for Mombasa on the 23d of Awamba carried out a horrible raid January, Joseph Dudley Musson Cot- on a village. They first set aside the tel', of Trinity College, Cambridge, grown men for slaughter, after the was a fellow-comrade. His friends women and boys, girls and cattle had recognized in-him the qualities of in- been secured. The fate of the poor tegrity, courage, ability and devotion, fathers and husbands could scarcely in rare measure. These were laid with be related. Placed in a row, their joy on the missionary altar in Uganda fiendish captors chopped off their -the, land of the martyrs. On the heads one after another. The hapless threshold of the King's conflict he has women, youths, girls, and children been translated at the early age of 24.
were bound by forked branches at- Following the news of Mr. Mackay's death, this intelligence appeals with noble martyrdom of so many of the native Christians is the strongest possad earnestness for more consecrated sible reply to those who so ignorantly opinA that Christian missions are standard-bearers. a failure. It must, however, be noted that it was, in all probability, -Dr. Felkin on Uganda.-In two the fact of Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries both working -current articles, entitled" A Ten Years' in the country that caused a consider- able amount of the disturbance. One Review," Dr. Felkin lays stress upon cannot help believing that in uncivil- ized countries, such as Uganda, misan element prejudicial to the pacific sions of various denominations should not encroach one upon the other. evangelization of this extensive terri- Probably ecclesiastics may differ on tIllS point; still, it can hardly be tory. His views will be indorsed by doubted that had the Protestants,who first entered Uganda, been pernlitted those who have followed the course of to carryon their work without the disruption caused by the subsequent events in Uganda. He writes: introduction of an apparently new religion, much would have been dif- "Uganda has been convulsed by the ferent, and the undoubted advantages throes of intrigue and war. Mtesa is which the Protestants possessed in dead; Mwanga, after reigning a short 1880 nlight have served to prevent the time, was deposed, and has only re- intrigues which led to such loss of life." cently been _re-established upon his throne; was again deposed, and the country is the scene of fierce warfare. These disturbances have, however, served to show the hold Christianity had taken upon numbers of the poople; and surely the heart-rending history of the fierce persecution and -England end Germany in East 1885, Great Britain and' Germany joined in a mutual convention, having Africa.-For many years past the trade for its object the subdivision of East- .of Eastern Central Africa, stretching ern Central Africa into what are into the interior, had been carried on termed spheres of British and German by British subjects-Indian traders influence. In this subdivision Germany from Bombay. These traders formed obtained the larger share of the terridepots, or settlements, along the trade tory. The reason for this surrender routes of the interior, and established of the greater area, with the large and -commercial enterprises that resulted prosperous trade built by British enin an ever-increasing trade in ivory, ergy and capital, has not been exindia-rubber, and other tropical pro- plained. Ifit was an act of generosityto ducts, which steadily grew under the further Germany's colonization measfostering influence of Great Britain. ures, the fact that tropical Africa can- not be colonized by white people was Thirteen years ago the Sultan of not considered. The development of Zanzibar offered Sir William MacKin- Central Africa must for some years non a lease for seventy years of all his depend upon the commerce and trade customs revenue, together with sover- which can be created; and its real €ign administrative powers over the value to any country is the opportunwhole of his African continental do- ity it affords for the employment of minions; but the Foreign Office did not capital, and the demand it creates for manufactured goods. Here is a point give sufficient encouragement to the of real importance to the people of €nterprise, and the reply to an application for necessary authority and Great Britain. support was so guarded that Sir Wil- Trading companies, the Imperial liam MacKinnon did not feel himself justified in continuing the negoti- British East Africa Company and the ations. German East Africa Company, were formed to administer and develop their . The discoveries and explorations of respective areas. Unfortunately the Livingstone, Burton and Speke, Speke German enterprise roused the hostility and Grant, Baker, Stanley and Thom- of nearly the whole popUlation of the son, make it manifest that no other coast-line; but Lieutenant Wissman, nation can bring forward such claims who was dispatched as the special as Great Britain to having its fair agent of the German Government, by share of Eastern Central Africa, his prudence, energy, courage, and whether from ~he standpoint of first his knowledge of the natives, has supdiscovery, or from the trade and com- pressed these hostile demonstrations. merce that has been created in these The British company avoided the regions.
After the Conference of Berlin in troubles into which the German com- Ivory Coast, thus shutting out Sierra pany had fallen; and this may be the Leone and Liberia from further exten- cause of a somewhat unkindly spirit sions. This position, as regards the inwhich has been shown by the Germans terior, would be strengthened if Dain East Africa against everything homey also could be reached from the British. Noone believes that this north. Meanwhile, from Porto Novo, feeling is shared by the German Gov- the River Wheni has been ascended as ernment, but the action of some of the far as Affame, ninety-eight miles from German officials indicating a desire to the coast. There has been a collision squeeze the British down to the coast, with Dahomey, occupying the right and ultimately out of East Africa al- bank, and it is probable that a French together, and the course attributed to expedition may be sent into Dahomey.
Dr. Peters by a German newspaper, The French, it is said, are about to are evidences of the animus and hos- occupy Whydah. If so, the sooner tility among the German element of y oruba is under direct British influ- East Africa, and which sometimes mice the better for British trade and finds an echo in a portion of the Ger- also for our missions.-Church Mis- sionary Intelligencer. man press.
These irritating and useless manifes- -Useful Literature Society in India. tations should cease; they breed a bitter feelin~ where there ought to be a .A telegram from Calcutta, dated healthy nvalry; they prevent co-oper- April dth, gives the information that ation where there ought to be union; the Governor General in Council had and unless checked, they will destroy read the letter from the Society's Pro- visional Committee with much interthat united effort of two great nations est. The object of the society had his by which Eastern Central Africa can be rapidly and peacefully developed, the slave-trade destroyed, and the in- cordial sympathy and approval, for fluences of Christianity encouraged which he promised a grant of 500 rupees per mensem from Imperial and fostered. Let each respect his funds, provided the society was estabneighbor's landmark; and if Germany will hold out the right hand of peace and good-will, no one will clasp it with lished with a definite programme, more sincerity than her fellow-workers in East Mrica. True union means holding out prospects of success. The true strength.-Nineteenth Century. Lieutenant-Governor's answer ex- pressed approbation, with the reserva- -The :f"rench in West Africa -The French policy of extending, so far as tion that it would be necessary to they can, into the interior from Sene- ascertain the requirements and probagambia, is systematically followed out. The Niger having been reached at ble resources of the society before a Bamako, their expeditions down the grant could be made from provincial Upper Niger have brought Tombuktu exchequers. At the meeting held in within their sphere of influence, and Calcutta the indefatigable representa- tive from England, the Rev. James they are now feeling their way south- Johnston, gave an account of his suc- ward to the Gulf of Guinea. Captain Binger's expedition (1887-89) has ex- plored a large territory to the south, cess in founding identical societies at almost unknown before. The water- Madras, Bombay, Lahore and Allaha- bad. He stated that the purposes shed between the Upper Niger and the were the cheap reproduction in India rivers flowing southward to the Gulf of Guinea is not, he regards, a mighty range of mOlmtains, but merely rising of standard English and vernacular ground. The town of Kong, probably works, and to stirimlate the habit of reading by establishing libraries. The unvisited before by any European, was scheme has aroused English sympa- reached. It numbers from 12,000i to 15,000 inhabitants,exclusively Moham- medans, and is a great trade centre. thies, and in London it was suggested Thence he found his way to Salaga, on the Volta, a position which the Basle a similar society might be formed. mission has also reached from the It was urged by the Bishop of Calcutta Gold Coast. It can scarcely be sup- that the lead must be taken in India, posed that the British Government on in which case the society in England the Gold Coast will admit further extension in this direction. Further would be an auxiliary only. A plan west the way may be op~ned from of operations was deputed to a sub- Kong to the French possesslOns on the committee. For the growth of this laudable'movement a considerable sum ing not less than 7,000 people. For has been already subscribed. – Our English Oorrespondent that harvest of fifty years' work they -Continental Evangelization.-The might thank God.· The Walloon prov- Rev. Charles Merle de Aubigne (son of the celebrated author of the " History inces were more accessible to the of the Reformation "), a missionary pastor in Belgium and an eloquent gospel than the Flemish, and by the speaker in the English tongue, has lately commended the work of evan- working classes especially the faith gelization in France, Italy, Spain and other European lands. Himself a once delivered to the saints was ac- Swiss, and a native of classic Geneva, he has for some years sought the con- ceptable. The result of this was aversion of Romanists in Papal ,countries. In the Continental Catholic vast improvement in the social condikingdoms, where the people knew little save the darkness of Rome, the tion of the people. The curse of drink workers were apt to become despondent on measuring the strength of the was unhappily widely prevalent. forces arrayed against them. The faith of the evangelical heralds was There were nearly 140,000 drink shops revi~d by a visit to the Protestant country of England. In Great Britain distributed among a population estithe Gospel of Christ had attained a strong footing, and,consequently, the mated at four millions. That was at Protestants of other lands were accustomed to regard England as the very the rate of one to every thirty or forty incarnation of Protestantism. Might the day never dawn when the Church of the inhabitants. Striking evidence of Rome, which was trying to bring her back to the Papacy, would trans- was supplied of the influence exerted form England into a Roman Catholic vassal! England was and must re- by the gospel in ereating temperate main Protestant, In a Protestant land the people knew what the Bible had and sober habits, and considerable imdone for them, and were determined not to let it go. Belgium, the field of provement in various modes of life. his labors, was one of the darkest of Roman Catholic lands on the face of Their movement continued to make Europe. That had not always been its reputation. In the early Reforma- encouraging progress. It was growtion periods the Protestant spirit which evinced itself was crushed or ing day by day, and whole villages driven out by persecution. Fifty years back the name of Protestant was were coming over to the Protestant scarcely known there. Now the Egyptian darkness was again passing side. They believed that much greater away. A native Protestant church was established, composed entirely of things would be witnessed, and that those who were formerly Roman Catholics.· .Little by little some 26 con- thousands would yet turn away from gregations had been formed, embrac- the Church which had left them in error, to accept an enlightened, evan- gelical faith. – Our English Oorres- pondent.
South America. – Strategic Points.-8panish American civiliza- tion, while shaped largely from the cloister and the throne, has been in fact an organic growth from vital germs. It follows the path worn deep by the tread of all the Latin nations, from the theoretical to the practical. The dreamer of yesterday is the auto- crat of to-day; and loyalty- to "the idea" for the time prevaihng is the test of a man's usefulness, if not of his right to exist in his day and gener- ation. If we judge the future by the past, we must expect to tind in the prevailing philosophy the prophecy of the things that are to be. The lever that moves that world must find its fulcrum in the school text-book and the professor's chair, This view does not belittle preaching or any other work distinctly evangeli- cal. It means that the evangelical philosoI?hy must conquer the centre before It can control the extremities. "The idea" prevailing must be distinct- ively Christian before the institutions and the life can be ordered by Christi- ever been evangelized by an effort anity. It means also that when the from that side? ShaJl a start be made centre is conquered by Christianity with the lower class? Alas, who has then the Christian influence will flow faced the problem without losing all forth into all the ramifications of life heart in view of the abject and hope- and activity as certainly as sweet less servility of these poor and un- waters from a pure fountain. happy people?
One of the first necessities in Span- The old bonds are yielding and ish America, then, is to command the breaking away. The abolition of attention of the college students. Here, slavery, the surrender of class privi- more than anywhere else, is plastic leges, the spread of republican ideas, material. But it is material rapidly closer contact with Protestant civiliz- hardening and soon to hold with great ation, and the necessities of material tenacity the impressions ij; is now reo improvement and development of ceiving. The fine logical powers and natural resources, are influences work- phenomenal devotion to its ideals ing together to bring forward the de- which characterize the Latin mind, spised laboring man to a new position will build for them ana their country of importance and power. Here, then, a future nicely adjusted to the foun- is our second strategic point, Get hold dations now laying. Here, then, is of the middle'class, for it is destined the supreme opportunity to control to play an important, if not a leading, the future through the present. The part in the future history of Spanish means of such control will be in hand America.
whenever our missionaries are equip- In some regions the land is in small ped for this work. Until that time holdings. The people are independ- the citadel is in the hands of the ent, industrious and well housed.
enemy, and we can hope for only occa- Such communities, once won, will re- sional and minor advantages. The old ward the labor spent on them far bei- civilization is built on Romanism. tel' than those whose character is ser- The new threatens to take for its vile and without ambition. IIi some foundation some form of anti-Chris- of the cities the artisan class is comin~ tian speculation, inclining now to to self-consciousness. It has its di!!- idealism, and again to materialism. tinctive dress, combines, if it does not If we would determine its form to be organize, and is recognized as an ele- Christian we must press forward to ment in politics that must be cajoled.
the place where the determination is Unless it be in the school-room, there made, and that is in the college. is no better vantage ground in all the Another strategic point is more land. likely to be overlooked. I have else- Our objective point is to secure to where called attention to the fact that the reorganized society the best ele- one fatal defect of Spanish American ments of Protestant civilization. If social organization has been the want the artisans are to have a large influ- of a middle class-intelligent, conserv- imce and are to furnish, as is inevitable ative, respected and self-reliant, such in a republic, a fair share of leading as is formed by our mechanics, farm- men, then it is of the first importance ers, etc. This fault it inherited from that we put forth our efforts toward the feudalism of Spain, so strongly making them ideal citizens of a re- influenced by its contact with Oriental public. To this end three particulars modes of life. The evil increased by must be secured.
the circumstances of the conquest and The first is to elevate the artisan in of the colonial organization which intelligence and skill. The second is lifted the artizans coming from Eu- to impart to him the principles of a.
rope into the aristocracy and forced sound morality in' private, social and those native born into the servile class. public life; the safety of a republic is The presence of slavery drew the lines m the intelligence and morality of the more sharply and stamped labor in- masses. The third point is to free delibly with the stigma of disgrace. labor from odium. The artisan must So there has always been in Spanish feel the dignity of his calling and com- America a chasm broad and deep be- mand universal respect.
tween the two extremes of society, Now I believe it possible to secure and the workingman has been rele- all these points by one move, namely, gated to the lower class. the establishment, under mission au- The state of affairs here hastily spices, of artisans' schools-technical.
outlined has been a great hindrance trade, manual labor, or whatever they to mission labor. Where shall work may be called. The very pos~ession hegin? Wi,th the aristocratic and in- of such schools would lift labor to a fluential class? But, has a people new p1a.ne of di);'nity. Even a littlo acquaintance, of a really practical from head to foot, and continually shows it. Many of the men are too character,. with, mathematics and proud to work, but they are not too proud to steal or to kill; and the cruelty science would make a new man of the of the fathers is visited on the children 'unto the third and fourth genera- Spanish mechanic. And I would em- tion.'"
phasize, even from a es.e, ctuhlearreploiginiotuosf, /ljriting from Kerak, September 20, view, the moral, i. Mr. Lethaby relates some of hjs diffi- culties. "Our native teacher left us a training of the students. For, after short time ago without bidding good- bye, so now'all the work is in our own all other matters have received due hands; and we needed further help, even when we had some one. It is credit, the fact remains that what the astonishing what we have been ableto teach the children since their 'teacher' artisan needs, more than all else, to departed. But these have been terribly trying times to us. The Roman Cathomake him industrious and trustworthy lics are working hard to build their church, have subsidized the chief's and fit him for higher usefulness as a family and the parents of the children; and one day Mrs. Lethabyand I had a citizen, is a true morality. tough job. The two brothers who had been taught the most were to follow But could such schools be made a those who had been stolen from us; the older one was so unwilling that success? Undoubtedly itwould be in he would not go home. I could stand it no longer; so my wife and I went to each case an experiment, whose out- the Latin priest, denounced the con- duct before him and all there. Blandly come would depend on local circum- he denied all he had done. I then went to the father of the boys, told stances and individual fitness. But if how the priest had contradicted the whole, and how that was what he modeled after similar schools that have might expect throughout from that source. After dinner the older boy passed the experimental stages, and if came back, and both have been regular ever since; but of course it is like keepheld steadily to a missionary purpose, ing school in an earthquake."
I do not hesitate to say that they give In a letter of later date Mr. Lethaby tells of other troubles: "Last Sunday an almost certain promise of the very week we had a fearful scene; two Christian tribes hurling big stones and highest usefulness as a missionary drawing weapons against one another: agency. as a result, hours of work for Mrs. Lethaby with more than one man, but Are there not some at the centres of happily no death. The Moslems came in and separated these Christians(?) influence who will make a move to who began their struggle at the close of the afternoon prayers. These are get the great corporations that are some of the little things we have to go through, and trust through! But pushing out. into these countries, you can form some idea of the com- whether as railroads, canal enter- prises, or otherwise, to make this work a part of their undertaking?
REV. WILLIS WEAVER.
Union Star, Mo.
Syria.-Mr. Lethaby in Moab.
These devoted and solitary workers, Mr. and Mrs. Lethaby, are doing ex- cellent work in the land of Moab. " It is," Mr. Lethaby says, "one of the most beautiful and fertile bits of the earth's surface. But, alas! as of old, there is a 'burden on Moab,' and it can be stated in three letters: S-I-N. That burden upon the land is terribly real; the Turk will not allow the sugar to be grown; the Arab has not the sense to plant and gather the cotton crop; where ten hundred t!lOusand sheep might live, not one hundredth of the number are to be found; where a million quarters of wheat might be giv-en to help to feed your four millions of mouths in London, there are'thou- sands of acres lying idle, and all because sin has specially desolated this goodly and pleasant land. Two great sins of ancient Moab were pride and cruelty. And it is so to-day. A full- grown Arab of these parts, whether he be a sheikh ora beggar, is full of pride pensatory joy when we have read It young, experienced helper as soon as through for the first time the Gospel of possible. Rev. George Piercy, 276 Mark in Arabic to these little ones. Burdett road, London, E., is the secre- While they knew that Jesus was cruci- tary of the London council of Mr.
fied, the narrative was, until this Lethaby's Mission.
week, unknown; and as, after reading Tibet.-Dear Sirs: The news has the day's verses, I have detailed and reached us of a missionary from Lon- impressed the circumstances, it has don proceeding to Darjeeling, India, been a treat to watch the faces and with the intention of enteling Tibet attention of these little Bedouins. through Sikkim, if possible. This news Mark xvi:16 they have added to-day has constrained me to state a few facts to their stock of memorized texts. not generally known, perhaps, in refer- They now know the whole of the 90th ence to the opening of Tibet, and the Psalm, and say it beautifully, and are salvation of Tibetans.
learning Psalm viii. To teach the Tibet is a dependency of China, and Bible here is different from teaching it is to China's interest to give way to it in London; how they revel when a the desire of her Tibetan subjects to fact or a word really comes home to exclude foreigners. China also needs them! And I can honestly write, how Tibet as a buffer against English ag- I revel in the work, except when a gression, and Tibetan lamas find their Mujelli's face glowers over the gate, only hope of retaining their power and or people come to appeal for sick ones influence over the common people in whom we cannot leave to visit. this exclusion of foreigners. Only a "The last few days, while Mrs.' few months ago we had an instance Lethaby has been ill, there has been of this exclusive spirit in the experi- an addition to her work: the }foslem ence of Mr. Rockhill, a late member girls have been seized with a desire to of the American Legation at Peking, come again, and my wife has had tell who penetrated Tibet from the north.
or eleven of them in the afternoon. I Mr. Rockhill traveled with Tibetans, fear Arab girls will not for a long wearing the same dress as his com- time attend regularly enough to under- panions, and speaking their language, go an examination; but they read, do but when still thirty days from Llassa, sums, and write a letter, and know the capital, he lost all his baggage, be- more by coming; and we hope it will ing forced to re-enter China without prepare the way for a better future. having accomplished his object. Pass- Weare making fresh effort to get ing through this province to the coast, some help here who may be of some Mr. Rockhill told a friend who met service to Mrs. Lethaby in our own him that inside Tibet he was told by house and others." a lama that the real cause of the ex- A friend in Ireland, in sending a clusion of foreigners was the fear of donation for the work, truly says: Christianity. No wonder that such is "They are indeed a brave pair, and the case when at leastone sonin every deserve to be helped." Another friend family becomes a lama. It is another in London writes respecting a helper case of vested interests.
for Mrs. Lethaby: "Considering all Presuming that it is a desire for the things, hers is the harder lot, and she salvation of Tibetans that has called really ought to have English female forth in late years so much talk, pray- .assistance. It seems to me to be the er, writing for, and about Tibet, I am special need of the Mission, and I will surprised that so very little has been cheerfully give £5 as a nucleus of a done for the accomplishment of that fund for such a purpose." desirable end. The work of the brave Some responses have been made to Moravians in Ladak, Kashmir, on the this suggestion, and it is hoped to send west border of Tibet, is truly a most
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROJll ALL PARTS
praiseworthy exception. Whilst others territory having an area of no less than have been talking and writing, these 50,000 square miles inhabited by ~i humble, faithful missionaries have betan tribes, for the lastten years open gone .to the work, translating the to the gospel herald; but, alas! utterly Scriptures and bringing some Tibetan neglected hitherto. sinners into the fold of Christ. Instead of wasting time waiting for Ti- Let those who long for the salvation bet to open, they have taken the gos- of Tibetans no longer wait for British pel to needy Tibetans outside Tibet sword and cannon to open a bloodproper. Here I am glad to add that stained way to Tibet. The way to Mr. Cecil Polhill-Turner and his wife, thousands of Tibetans, dying, utterly since some time last year, have been hopeless slaves to every sin, a prey to trying to do something for the many every lust, is now open in Sz-ch'uan Tibetans living in Outer Kansuh, N. and Kansuh, and has been open for W. China. more than ten years.
At present these are the only in- God willing, my wife and I hope to stances of attempts being made to be doing something ere long towards evangelize the tens of thousands of the salvation of some of these border Tibetans who live, some under British, outcasts. Brethren and sisters, pray but mostly under Chines~ rule, out- for them. Yours faithfully, side of Tibet proper. In this province (Sz.:ch'uan, W. China) alone there is It R. GRAY OWEN. O. I. M., Oh'entu, W. Ohina.
-The Ohristian (London).
III.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Ohina. fused to legalize the tramc in those noble and patriotic words: "It is true that I cannot pre- THE IMPENDING OPIUM CRISIS. vent the introduction of the flowing poison, but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue fin our June Correspondence (page from the vice and misery of my people." It 454) we gave our readers a copy of the is well known, too, how twenty years later this Petition of the Christian Churches of consistent opposition entailed another war, China addressed to the Christian and how the fourth son and successor, Hien- Churches of England, praying them fung, with his palace looted and destroyed by to use their influence with their the " civilized " enemy, finally agreed to the. Government to induce it to abolish legalization of tlje traffic with the imposition the opium traffic, the horrible evils of of a nominal duty. It may be known also that whichchey set forth. We have re- four years ago, after long delay and haggling, ceived from the office of the Bombay an agreement was come to which it was· Guardian, of India, the following thought would be a final settlement of the Memorial from the Christians of India question, though as a matter of fact it was to the Chinese Government, urging it open to revision after a period of five years. to continue its opposition to the But nothing is settled till it is settled rightly, iniquity and assuring it of Christian and the opium ghost will not down till it is put sympathyand support. The memorial !Iown by the suppression of the use of the drug speaks for itself, and we are sure will altogether. be read with interest. Mr. Robbins is an American missionary at Shanghai. The time for the possible revision of the -J. M. S.] agreement having nearly arrived, it seemed good to the editors of the Banner of Asia, at PRESENTATION OF .ANTI·OPIUM MEMORIALS AND Bombay, to propose a memorial from the Christians of India to the Chinese Government, ..l.TTITUDE OF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT ON encouraging them in their continued opposi- tion to the iniquity, and reminding them that THE SUBJECT. the Church of Christ is not indifferent to the The world has heard the affecting story of wrongs inflicted on China and is not willing w the determined and implacable opposition to the opium curse of the Chinese Imperial au- thorities half a century ago; how the old Emperor Tau-kwang, after burying three sons who had died its victims, made such a des- concede that India is so dependent that it can perate effort to suppress the import as to be saved from hankruptcyonly by the plunder incur a bloody war, with loss of territory and and ruin of its Chinese neighbor. The prothe payment of vast indemnities, and yet re- posal was heartily seconded by missionaries and others, and with little effort ten thousand annual visit to worship at the F..astern Tombs. three hundred and forty-five signatures, in many languages (extending 100 yards), in- Having had communicated to him beforehand cluding a few names spontaneously sent from England, America and Australia, were ob- copies of the text of the memorials and a tained to the folluwing petition: rather lengthy explanatory statement, he "We, the undersigned, ministers and members of Christian churches, desire to record understood quite well theobject of ourmission, ' our sorrow at the moral and physical havoc which has heen wrought among the people 'of and this no doubt accounts largely for the China in consequence,of the opium policy of the British Government-a policy which has cordiality with which he received us. He been totally at variance with the principles of the Christian religion. We respectfully ex- graciously accepted the memorials and press our deep sympathy with the supreme authorities 01 China in their desire to save scanned the hundreds of names with evident their nation from the curse of the opium habit, and in order to further so wise and pleasure, promising to present them and our laudable an object, we would emphasize the importance of acting upon the opportunity statement to the central Government with his presented in the year 1890, under the additional article of the Chefoo Agreement (rati- own recommendation that they should have a fied May 6, 1886), to terminate that article, and to secure the execution of a new treaty re- most favorable consideration. The unmeasured pealing theTien-tsin Treaty, as far as it relates to opium, and also enacting the prohibition of terms in which he condemned the use of the the legalized importation of opium into China." poison showed that he appreciates the evils The Scottish Anti-Opium Society, hearing of caused by it and sincerely wished its entire the movement, sent, unsolicited, a similar memorial, signed by between six and seven suppression, which he said is the case with the thousand Christian workers in Scotland-all gotten up in a very brief period of time-show- other nlemhers of the Government. He said ing what might be done in Christian countries by extending the time and effort and duly in- it was useless to try to put down the native forming and encouraging the people. growth till the f~reign import was prohibited, The deputation entrusted with the present- when there would he hope of success. 'But ing of these memorials to the Chinese Government, Mr. A. S. Dyer and myself, are happy running through the whole interview was a to be able to report a very gratifying reception in China. The official through whom the note of sadness which found expression in the memorials were presented was that greatest statesman of China, if not of the world, Li question, "Will not the demand for a prohibi- Hung-chang, Viceroy of the metropolitan province of Chih-Ii and Grand Secretary to tion treaty with Great Britain bring on another the Chinese Government. He was a most appropriate person to receive them, not only war-a third opium war? " on account of his enlightened and liberal Tiews, but also hecause of his outspoken oppo- This question, too, quite agrees with other sition to the opium iniquity, he having declared as late as the year 1881 that the legalization of expressions from Chinese statesmen,,!specially the traffic was "not from choice, but because China submitted to the adverse decision of with the las(utterances of Marquis Tseng, the arms," at the same time going so far as to make proposals to the Indian Government to late Minister to the Court of St. James. and recoup them for a time for their loss of revenue if they would Itbolish the exportation of member of the Tsung-Li'Yamen, or Board of the drug to China. Fortunately his exasperation at America on account of the Exclusion Foreign Affairs. Four days previous to his Act had largely abated, so that there was no objection on that ground, especially when he death we had an appointment for an' interview knew I had been a resident in India for eighteen years. with him at Peking, and though at the time The day appointed for our reception was the appointed he was too ill to see us, yet he had 21st of last month, he having but just returned from accompanying the emperor on his shown evident sympathy with our mission, and had given expression to language which should sink deep into the hearts of all lovers of liberty and fair dealing, to say nothing of Christian principles: "WE ARE NOT FREE; we cannot take the first step."
Though these statesmen have heen assured that public sentiment. would not tolerate'
another similar war, yet they have seen so much of the duplicity of foreigners that they cannot tell what pretext they may use to carry out their designs, as they did in the last opium war. While looking at the Toku Forts, at the mouth of the Feiho, and rememhering the part taken in storming those forts thirty years ago by the representative of a neutral Government, U. S Commodore Tatnall, it has been nota little difficult to me to reconcile that action with the insertion of the Golden Rule in the treaty consequent thereto-an example followed by the not more consistent British Government. But let us now prove that it is possible and practicable for nations, as for individuals, to do as they would be done by, by helping with all our might to remove obstacles and stum- bling blocks from this unfortunate land, and thus prepare the way for our Lord and His blessed gospel. Pray for China.
Yours, for His and China's sake, Shanghai; May 6, 1890. W. E. RoBBINS.
P. S.-No foreigner as yet having had an audience with the present emperor, we did not strangers could ever be. Rev. J. R. McDougall attempt to see him, but we got a communica- says, "My own deep conviction remains unal· tion to his father, the Seventh Prince, which terable as to the truly spiritual character of has called forth expressions of great interest the Free Italian Ohurch Mission, and the imand a desire for more information on the sub- mense service it is rendering to 'the cause of ject. As' he and Viceroy Li are next to the Ohrist in Italy." emperor, we may expect that everthing will be done that can be done in the matter. Tibet.
Italy. Edgell Road, Staine., June 10, 1890. DEAR DR. PIERSoN:-I thought you might [We have received the following like to have the enclosed letter from Mr. C. Polhill Turner, in northeast Tibet. brief statement from a well-known The Manchu viceroy (Ching-Chai) for Kuku- nor (Blue Lalle) province lives at Sining, the Brooklyn lady who is deeply interested capital of Kukunor. Kumbum, the Mecca and Jerusalem of Lain Italian evangelization.-J. M. S.] maist Buddhism, is only a day's journey from Sining to the southwest, 20 miles. I suppose DEAR EOITORS:-I have been deeply im- half the 'Thibetan race is to be found on the Kansu borders. pressed with your earnest and ready sym- Neither the Chinese nor Tibetans seem to be jealous of our movements so far north, and it pathy in the cause of missions, and not having may be, when this wide open door is occupied, God will open the Sampo basin. It should be seen any mention of the Free Ohristian Ohurch noted that the language of Amdo is much like that spoken at Thasa, whereas the dialect of in Italy in your REVIEW, I enclose a report for Leh is very different. The princedom of lang, said by Hin to be the the year 1888, last year's report not having most powerful of the Kansu chiefs, has been open even for ladies quite ten years. My reached us yet; also a little sketch of the wife and another sister spent two months at Choni, the town whence lang rules three tribes church. -the Choni, Chokna, and Tiepu-whilel evan- gelized the neighboring Dungan and Chinese Hoping you may find something that will (Moslem half-castes, Turk and Chinese.) Does not jealousy of the English indicate a be of interest to lay before your readers, and special call for American Ohristians to occupy this field? I am quite familiar with all the also draw the attention of the Ohristian world approaches to Easrern Kukunor and South- ern Mongolia and Eastern Turkistan, but Centowards this worthy mission, and thus hasten tral Asia only has the third claim among the innermost parts of the earth. the coming of God's kingdom in this land of The native races of South America seem to have been almost overlooked, and Central superstition and bigotry, I am yours truly, Africa ought to have a share of every coin given into Ohrist's mission treasury. Brooklyn, N. Y. M. L. S. The interior regions, if attended to, will ne- cessitate a filling in of the routes thither. THE FREE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN ITALY. Conferences for the advancement of the spiritual life are going to be abused by becom- This brave little church deserves more than ing spiritual entertainments with a surfeit of a passing notice. Struggling, inch by inch, provisions. through the bitter opposition and persecution Devotional literature is multiplying. I get of the Romish Ohurch, it is, nevertheless, seven-fold more profit from news respecting steadily advancing, and becoming a power of the peoples and tongues of the earth and misgreat good in the evangelization of Italy. New sions to them. fields are being occupied, the labors of teach- Those who are actively engaged and deeply ers and scholars are being abundantly blessed, concerned in the spiritual needs of the regions contributions of the church are on the in- beyond will necessarily be in spiritual health. crease, showing a great spirit of self-denial It will be wrong if in all our large towns new among the members, many of them being poor halls have to be provided for serving out these in this world's goods. spiritual dainties when languages are still un- learned by Christ's witnesses, and races are Statistics for 1888 show 32 churches, large yet unvisited by I:eralds of Jesus and His resand small, 15 ordained ministers, 12 evangel- urrection.
ists, 3 colporteurs, 70 deacons, 30 elders, 1,522 communicants, 222 catechumens, 60 Sabbath- school teachers, 936 Sabbath-school children, 32 day and night-school teachers, 925 pupils, 43 out-stations. Hundreds of places are open to this little church, and demands are constantly made for preachers, but, for lack of means, they have painfully to refuse many.
Is not the Lord, by His wonderful working in behalf of this people, in the very heart of Papacy, showing to a Christian world a great opportunity to aid in the extension of His kingdom in this land, by the aid of their prayers and contributions?
Their colleges and schools are preparing earnest men to carry forward this work. These native teachers, through their bitter knowledge of what Popery is, and their acquaintance with the language, are much better adapted to the evangelization of their country than If God should ever take you round the globe United States.
on a visit to the mission stations, it might be THE SOUDAN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT. an acceptable service to point outto the labor- [In addition to our Editorial Note in ers that when Paul preached the glad tidings the last number we give place to the in its fulness (1st Thess. I), comprehensive- following official statement.-J. M. S.] ness, he proclaimed Jesus Christ the crucified Topeka, Kansas, May 22, 1890. DEAR EDrroR:-We believe that you will be one, and Jesus the risen one. interested in the tidings conveyed by the following telegram which was sent us from Platonism is the great theme in China: The New York City on the 14th inst. by Mr. Hel- mick of the Soudan missionary party: perfect happiness ofthe naked spirit at death; "Psalm cxxvi: 3. Eight sailed. City of Chicago. 1:30 to-day." the redemption of the body; life and incor- Letters which have followed this message bring to us the information that on May 14 ruptibility; the being clothed over with our there sailed from New York, to carry the house from the heavens. The spiritual body gospel to the Soudan, Africa, a party of eight persons, as follows: Charles L. Helmick, and the glorified bodyare, I fear, unmentioned formerly General Secretary Y. M. C. A. at in the 1,000 tracts now being circulated. Marion, Kansas; F. M. Gates, formerly Gym- nasium Superintendent Y. M. C. A. at Topeka, The translators in China have only got as Kansas; John E. Jaderquist and W. J. Harris, formerly Assistant Secretaries Y. M. C. A., far as using the word quickening. I hope a St. Paul, Miun.; Roy C. Codding, of Hastings College, Nebraska; Mrs. E. Kingman, forword wiII some day come into our vocabulary merly General Secretary Y. W. C. A., Topeka, Kansas; Miss Jennie Dick, formerly Assistant for resurrection or upstanding. Compare State Secretary Y. W. C. A., Kansas, and IIlr. James Trice, a colored man from Durham, S. Colossians ii., 12, oVY71yepe71Te (Resurrex- C. Thus in less than a year from the time when the Lord first placed in the hearts of a istis) 13, OVYECGiJ07(Ol770ey (Convivificavit), few young men and women in the West a desire to carry the glad mesSage to the ninety milboth rendered in Chinese by one word. lions of the Soudan, we are permitted to see nine persons (Mr. E. Kingman having already Yours in Christ's service, arrived at Sierra Lr"one as a forerunner in this movement) bid farewell to home, friends and GEORGE PARKER, of Kansu. everything that is dear, from a human standpoint, and go forth to that land where LETTER FROM MR. CECIL POLHILL TURNER. as yet there is not even one to herald the story of the Cross. As you doubtless know, . Sining, March 3, 1890. the entire party go forth depending alone upon the Lord to supply all their needs, there being My DEAR MR. PARKER:-I have not yet no promise of financial support whatever, exwritten to thank you for sending up the can- ceptasfound in the Word of God. Surely the Lord has already honored the simple faith of teen; much obliged to you; I don't think we these His servants, for, while no person has been asked to contribute even a dollar toward shall take it with us on our journeys. It is their support, yet when the day of sailingcame He had bountifully provided for their every rather elaborate for our two selves. need, SO that they lacked no good thing and could truthfully say, "The Lord hath done We have news of you from below Singau, great things for us, whereof we are glad." We qnote the following from a letter written and good news, praise the Lord. We often by Il friend at New York, who was permitted to be with the party until the time of their sailing: make mention of you in our prayers, and ask " There was great joy in their departure, and that you may all be prospered at home. a large number of friends whom the Lord had given them • . . were at the place of salling, lIliss Kinahan has been with us since Octo- and we sang as the vessel moved out' God be withyou till we meetagain,' and the party sang ber, and we have enjoyed her visit much. in reply' We are on the way.' I wish you could have seen the joy in their faces as they realized Miss Muir joined us last week, to help my that they were starting outto the Dark Cont;- wife. Trust you will stir them up well at Shanghai about Kansu. 'Ve are specially praying now that native ministers may be raised up in the Church, and looking for a bigger inftowing and outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
I have just been reading a native book on Tibet, published while I was at Chcutu, in which it is most strongly expressed that no foreigner is on any account to be admitted to Tibet; especiaIIyaretheEnglish to be feared, who have a telegraph and railway up to Darjeeling; soldiers and guard stations must be multiplied, etc.
Let us remember GOD. I don't believe Chinese Government and lamas together can stop us when God says .. Go. " Pray for a clear road for us. We hope (D. V.) to begin moving about amongst the Fantz iu a couple of momhs or so, and do not anticipate being tied to any place.
We want heap.• more prayer-importunate, unceasing. Unswerving obedience to the Word of God. Unquenchable love, burning zeal. Let's keep ourselves in the love of God, and it will be so. We want unlimited faith in what God can do. May God bless and keep you all. Love toMrs. Parker, Johnny, etc.
Your loving brother, CECIL POLHILL TURNER.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
nent. It was an objectlesson which the Lord coast. 0ne trouble r experienced was in findwill not suffer to be without great results to His glory. The night before was spent in confer- ing anyone who understood what the interior ence and prayer until three 0 'clock in the morning, and it was a most blessed time, for the was. It will be best for us to get inland, as Lord was there. . . . The devotion of the entire party was very beautiful, and I cannot the people there are not drunkards, and have but think acceptableto the Lord. . . . Heel that this is but the beginning of what the never seen white Irien yet. The section we Lord will be pleased to, perhaps, make a great exodtts of His people. I feel that in less than think of going to is not, in fact, much better six months there will be many to follow. Let this burden' rest upon you: The gospel to be known than some parts of Africa that we preached to •every creature' in this generation; nay, may I not say in this century, and don't pretend to know. There is just enough may the Lord prepare the hearts of many more from Kansas soon to follow." known to assure us of its being populated by We are just in receipt of a letter from Mr. people who live in towns, and, generally Kingman, dated at Sierra Leone, West Africa, April 18, from which we qoote the following: speaking, are intelligent and peaceable. .
" . . . I have been in fine health all the . . I think eventually we ought to have a time since I arrived, and have been bountifully supplied with everything I need to make me Mandingo teacher in Topeka. One can stndy comfortable and happy. As you see by the address,- I am still stopping with the Bishop of so much better there. It is hard work to Sierra Leone, and believe that it has pleased the Lord for me to do so. . . . I have been study here. I am getting on nicely with the right in deciding to learn the Mandingo language. It is the language spoken in the sec- language. Expect to speak it well in less than tion we are going to. The Tinne, Souson and Mendi languages would only take you a couple four months." of hundred miles, as these tribes are near the Shall we not pray that during the coming months, not only from Kansas but from all parts of this country there may arise a great many more young men and women who shan gladly give their lives that the joyful message may speedily be brought to the millions who nOW dwell in heathen darkness? Let us give the King no rest (Isa. lxii: 6, 7) until we see hundreds, yea thousands, of our young men and women going forth as He may direct. For the speedy evangelization of the whole world, Thine faithfully, GEORGE S. FISIIER, State Secretary.
E. S. WALTON; Member for Missionary Work.
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The International Missionary Union. a meeting of missionaries. Itexercises WHAT IT IS. no executive nor administrative func- The nature and object of the organi- tions. It does not, however, refrain zation known as the International from making declarations of its con- Missionary Union has been more o~ victions or opinions on any questions less fully explained from time to time of thought or affairs affecting -the in this department of the REVIEW. But special interests with which it deals.
those having to do with the Union It does not, in the first insta~ce, spek find such wide misapprehension con- an audience, though no session passes cerning it that persons to whom it is a without utterances-by document or thrice-told story must be patient while address-calculated to interest and in- we make one more effort to widen tile spire audiences of thousands of people.
circle of those who understand it. In several instances vast audiences, This society is, perhaps, to be com- numbering from three thousand to pared with some of the learned socie- five thousand, have been assembled at ties, such as the American Oriental these meetings. But for three years Society, the Ethnological Societies, or, past the location of the annual meet- better yet, with the International ings has been sought rather in the Society of Charities, all of which are quieter retreat of comparatively small organizations of experts, meeting for cities or towns, as best adapted certhe study of the specific subjects tainly for a time to an organization grouped around their respective titles. which is in the nature of a council, a It is not, therefore, technically speak- school, a conference, or a congress of ing, a missionary meeting, while it is missionaries, assembled to compare 'experiences, to acquire specific knowl- have reached a circulation of many edge, which will lead to iwproved thousands of copies. methods in their work, aid them better to measure the forces which they con- The foreign' missions have felt the front, and also to strengthen and stimulus of the annual sessions during cheer each other in toil by spiritual these seven years past, and home and social intercouse, and, remotely, churches and their pastors have recog- to increase the interest of others in nized the educational and inspirational the work of world-wide evangelism. power to be of such a quality as to lead them to seek to bring these meet- It is composed exclusively of those ings within their geographical area. who are or have been missionaries to Invitations to hold the annual meet- countries outside of the United States ings, accompanied with the tender of and the Dominion of Canada, and to entertainment, have come annually pagan peoples within these territories; from localities widely separated from hence membership in it comes by each other-from the Atlantic sea- grace, not by vote, being inherent in board to Colorado, and from places in the fact of missionary service. It has Canada to several south of the Poto- been designateda "Missionaries' Club." mac and Ohio rivers. To those who have It is not, therefore, composed of dele- borne the management of the Union gates. The privileges of vote and this has not been an unwelcome index debate are reserved within the mem- of its Providential character. bership, save on invitation of the body or under exceptional circumstances The Union has thus far enrolled 225 which justify themselves. There is names of missionaries, moatly con- no fund nor revenue of any sort to aid nected with American and Canadian in paying the traveling expenses of societies. It has also among its mem- members in reaching the meetings. bers representatives of the English Hitherto the hospitality of the com- Baptist, the English Wesleyan and munities where the meetings were the China inland missions, gathering held have been equal to the free en- tbus missionaries from fields in every tertainm('nt of the entire number one of the grand divisions of the present. globe.
The missionaries have realized, in • THE MEETING AT CLIFTON SPRINGS. all instances known to us, a gracious influence in the widening of their 'The Place. – Whatever may be scope of observation beyond their own thought of other localities for the fields and churches, the eccumenical annual meetings, there certainly was ,character of the body making possi- an acknowledged fitness of things in ble a catholicity which surprises even selecting Clifton Springs, N. y" for those to whom it is most, grateful. the seventh annual session, which was The influence on the home church of held there from June 11 to 18 incluthis illustration of Christian unity of sive. The invitation to do so, under spirit and purpose, along with diver- the auspices of the Clifton Springs sity of organization and plan of work, Sanitarium, through its founder and has been suffiCiently strong to invari- chief, Henry Foster, M.D., "aided and ably command recognition. abetted" by the pastors, the churches and the Y. M. C. A., was of two or The Union views with some degree three years' standing. -of satisfaction another result of its meetings in the publication of special This Sanitarium has a basal missionpapers read before the body, of which ary idea. While its purpose is of a sufficient number have already been course to relieve all persons who come given to the public to make a large hither seeking restoration to health of .and creditable volume. Some of these body or mind, it hlvites missionaries, ministers and teachers to avail them- selves of its remedial skill and agencies cheerfully and gratuitously. The following mlsslonaries were in Among the more than 60,000 guests attendance at this seventh annual who have received here medical atten- meeting, viz.: tion are numbered over 200 missionaries from foreign fields, including AFRICA.-(l) Gaboon: Mrs. Albert Bushnell, many of the most eminent names of Mrs. W. C. Gault, Rev. A. W. Marling and the missionary force of the American wife. (2) Zululand: lIlrs. A. W. Kilbon. churches, such as Goodell, Schaeffier, Coan and Wilder. As these have had ASIA.-(l) Assam: Rev. M. B. Comfort. opportunity, in the Sanitarium chapel (2) Burmah: Miss Julia M. Elwin, l1iss F. E. and the village churches, to address Palmer, Miss Eva C. Stark, Miss Isabella .audiences representing every part of Watson. (3) China: Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., the country, and to come in contact Rev. B. Helm, Miss Carrie I. Jewell, Miss socially with them, through many Ella J. Newton, Rev. W. P. Sprauge and ",ife, months of protracted stay in the insti- Rev. M. L. Stimson, Rev. M. L. Taft and wife, tution, the missionaryinfiuence on the Rev. Wellington J. White. (4) Syria (Damashome church which has gone out from cus): Mrs. Belle McD. Patterson. (5) India: this centre during a third of a century Rev. Ray Allen, Rev. J. E. Chandler, Miss M. woulJ be impossible to compute. Nor M. Day, Rev. J. T. Gracey and wife, Rev. S. can we know the amount of the H. Kellogg, D.D., Miss Martha C. Lathrop, generous benefactions of these guests Rev. J. T. McMahon, Rev. J. L. Phillips, M.D., while here, to special objects on mis- Miss Grace R. 'Ward, Rev. Francis 111. Wheeler, sionary fields, though there is an Rev. Thomas Tracy. (6) Japan: Mrs. S. C. available record of an aggregate of Adams, Miss Georgiana Banens, Miss Marmany thousands of dollars thus con- garet Brown, Miss M. J. Cartmell, Rev. I. H. tributed. This institution is therefore Correll, Miss Anna Y. Davis, Miss M. A. Priest, an able ally of all missionary societies. Prof. M. N. Wyckoff. (7) Malaysia (Singa.- The contribution it has made to the pore): Rev: Goo. A. Bond. (8) Siam: Rev. work by restoring, with God's bless- William Dean, D.D., Rev. S. R. House, M.D. ing, to health, and thus to years of and wife, Rov. Eugene P. Dunlap and wife. protracted service, so many expert (9) Turkey: Rev. Lyman Bartlett and wife, missionaries has been invaluable. An Miss Nellie S. Bartlett, Miss L. B. Chamberinstitution which "repairs" mission- lain, Rev. R. 111. Cole, Rev. Geo. F. Herrick, aries may rank with those which pre- D.D_, Rev. H. T. Perry. pare them. Besides, it is widely known that this entire property. the AMERICA.-(l) Ala.•ka: Mrs. Sheldon Jackownership of which was at one time son. (2) Mexico: Rev. Wm. P. F. Ferguson, shared by several stockholders, gradu- Miss Henrietta O. Ogden. (3) Guatamala: ally became the personal property of Miss Annie E. Ottaway. (4) Argentina: Mrs. its founder, and that some years since R. T. Lore. (5) Chili: Rev. J. 111. Allis. he magnanimously donated it for the benevolent use of missionaries primar- AUSTRALIA.- Rev. Adolphus Hartmann~ ily, together with other classes named, EUROPE.- (1) Bulgaria: Rev. W. H. Belden~ making the title absolutely over to a (2) Italy: Rev. C. W. Cushing, D.D. (3) Spain: board of trustees, that it may be held Miss Laura Sanford. in perpetuity for the purpose to which MICRONESIA.-Miss Ella T. Crosby. it has thus been dedicated. The property thus transferred is valued at Grouped by societies represented not less than a half million of dol- they stand as follows: lars. The meeting of the International Missionary Union in this place was, American Board, 17. Baptists, 8, as follows: therefore, along the line of the central Regular, 7; Free, 1. Methodists, 20, as folthought of this institution. lows: Canada Methodist, 1; M. E. (U. S.), 17; Methodist Protestant, 1; English Wesleyan, 1. Moravians,. 1. Presbyterians, 18, as follows: U. S. A., 14; U. S. (Southern), 1; Canada, 1; United Presbyterian, 1; Reformed Church, 1. Miscellaneous, 4, as follows: Italian Bible and Sunday-school Mission, 1; ·Women's Union Missionary Society, 2. Total :lIissionaries, 67•. Others – Secretaries: Canada lUethodist, 2; Moravian, 1; M. E., 3; Students' Movement,. 1-7. Appointee,1. Total persons present, '15..
THE PROCEEDINGS.
A brief reference to the proceeding!! and sayings of a body, multiform in its personnel, its themes, and its ac- tion, protracted through more than seven hours of each day for over a.. week, must necessarily exclude inci- jects. One of these is along the line dent and description. The devotional of an historical survey of missionary hour from nine to ten o'clock of each labor. Last year Rev. James Mudge morning eludes language. The illu- presented a paper on the' 'History and mination was of that light which Present Status of the Missionary So- never was "on sea or shore." The gen- ciety of the Methodist Episcopal eral features of the suggested syllabus Church," and Rev.Dr.GeorgeW.Wood of the meetings were, however, was assigned to prepare this year a mainly followed. "The Dependence of similar paper on the American Board. Missions on the Holy Ghost" was the Though the paper wa..~ well-nigh ready _topic of the prayer-hour for the first he was detained by illness. Two other day. "The Relation of Prayer to Mis- historical papers were, however, pre- sions and Missionaries," which was the sented. The Rev. J. Taylor Hamilton, theme of one hour, brought out touch- secretary of the Moravian Missionary ing and tender instances of special Society, read an able paper on that answers to prayer, in the providential society, which will appear in our help, guidance, deliverance and sup- columns hereafter. Rev. W. L. Whip- port in missionary work. Perhaps of ple, D.D., agent of the American tlus series of devotional meetings, the Bible Society in Persia, presented a two which stand out most prominent- paper, which he was detained from ly are the Consecration Meeting of reading, entitled "A Review of the Sunday morning and that of which Past Ten Years of Bible Work in the theme was "The Personal Realiz- Persia-1880-90. " ation of the Word of God in Mission- ary Experience and Observation." 'Ve Another group of topics which would lmve to write a serial if we at- came under review were classed tempted a reproduction of the marvel- under the title of "The Mission Agent." lous statements of this session alone. The first phase of this was "The Call and Qualification of Missionaries." Many members, accustomed to at- Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D.D., of Toronto, tend these meetings, sent communi- formerly of India, discussed "Educa- cations and salutations. That of the tional Qualifications for Foreign Mis- Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., we publish sions." Admitting that laymen may herewith, because it contains state- sometimes be employed with advan- ments of general interest. tage in foreign missions, provided they are moved by the Holy Ghost to Members of the Union are on almost full consecration, he emphasized the every foreign mission field, in active paramount importance of a thorough service, and these constitute what is training for the following reasons: termed an "Outlook Committee" to 1. In order to master the language and report on special developments in mis- speak accurately. After he had been in sion work, or in-the political, civil, or India a year, he preached a sermon, as religious world, coming under their he supposed, with power, but when he notice, which affect the interests of asked a learned native whether he had misslOns. Several members of this made his thoughts intelligible, he re- Outlook Committee sent reports of in- plied, "God in heaven knows what terest. We append a letterfrom Rev. you meant, and if you will be so kind Dr. Shedd of Persia, and another from as to explain it to us perhaps we may Rev. T. J. Porter of Brazil, and will lmderstand it too." It takes skill, pa- publish others later. tience and labor to acquire a foreign tongue, and, other things being equal, It has been thought well to give the educated missionary who has ac- some plan, not only to each annual quired one or more languages at school meeting, but to the series of annual should excel others in the acquisition. meetings, with a view to continuity of presentation of some classes of sub- ·of the language through which he is pared missionaries. They do not seek to communicate with the people whom to have men go to the fields indepen- he goes to serve. 2. To gain respect dent of boards or churches, though ·of the learned, especially in Oriental colleges and schools or churches are lands. 3.The missionary, like Timothy, encouraged to furnish the support of must organize churches and select and individual missionaries as supple- train a native ministry. 4. He should mental to their regular contributions. be qualified in instances to translate A resolution was adopted requesting or aid in revision of translations al- the officers of the movement to annu- ready made. ally send a representative to the Union. "Mechanics as a Part of Missionary Training," by Mr. H. E. Brown, sec- Under the topic "TheSupportojthe retary of the International Committee Mission," discussion was had on the ·of the Y. M. C. A., was prepared by following points: special request. It was published in the July number of this periodical, Mission Economics: 1. Self·support. Expe- and we need do no more than refer rience and observation relative to it. our readers to it. Coming under this general head was the subject grouped 2. Asceticism in its various forms as con- in the following questions: "What has nected with missionary work. been done by laymen as missionaries? What more can be done by them? How 3. What modification in the present style should they be sent out? What should of missionary living and what reduction of be their standing and salary as com- salary, if any, can be made with advantage to pared with ordained misssionaries? the work ? Should they be sent out by a separately organized missionary society? Should IIi this discussion abundant recog- we petition the older missionary so- nition was had of the criticisms of deties to send out more lay mission- the last few years from eminent aries to work on ~)lr fields? What persons in Great Britain and else- other steps should be taken in this where, such as Mr. Caine, M. P., and ·connection?" Messrs. Lunn and Hughes of the Wesleyan Church of England. After The discussion of these three themes a full, honest and searching consid- occupied one session. At a later eration of the subject, the Union session "The Student Movement: its adopted a resolution expressive of Present Status and Future Develop- their disposition to be amenable to .ment and Modification," was con~id the judgment of persons competent to ered, with a representation of it by investigate and pass upon the subject, the editorial member of its executive and their eager desire to see how to I corps, Mr. Max Wood Moorhead, who improve the administration of mis- came by special invitation of. the sionary funds, either as pertains to Union. This was followed with a themselves or to their missions. They paper on "The Dangers to be Guarded distinctly solicit the most searching Against in the Movement," by Rev. investigation, whether from friends or ]','[r. Ferguson, and a running fire of opponents, provided· only the parties friendly but often critical inquiry, in are equal to their task, and will do it which Mr. Moorhead cheerfully and candidly and thoroughly. They have clearly explained, and, where neces- nothing, tl1ey believe, that may not be sary,defended his society. He stated fully and frankly disclosed, relating that some 250 of these volunteers are to the support of the missions. They .already on the field. The officers of believe the present administration of the movement do not desire to encour- mission funds, especially that of the .age the sending out of poorly pre- greater societies, as a whole, judicious and economical, and would gladly do their part toward improvement, if the way to it can be pointed out.
" The Foreign Field" was the title of another general classification of topics under which was considered, Taft, of the Peking University, China. 1. "The Religious Systems to be dealt which we propose to present to our with." As this is, like the historical readers later in the year. A third depaper, proposed to be an annual topic, partment of the survey of the field in which these systems are taken up was to be found in the succession of in turn, two were considered this year addresses on the various mission -"Tauism," by Rev. Dr.Baldwin, and fields delivered in the several sessions "Buddhism," by Rev. Dr. Kellogg of and on Sunday, and in one entire Toronto. An entire session was set evening given to "Exceptional Comapart for these addresses, followed by munities," e. g., "The NativeRacesof comparison of views by members who Mexico," "The Chinese in Singapore," had had experience in dealing with "The Alaska Indians and the Black them. Fellows of Australia." Rev. Mr. Fer- guson treated the subject of "The Na- Dr. Baldwin treated of the historical tive Races in Mexico" in a paper suporigin of Tauism, and analyzed it as a plemental to one which we published philosophy and a religion and a super- from his pen lately. This paper also stition. It started as pure rational- will appear in our columns. ism but gradually became grossly idolatrous, the founder of it being dei- Rev. Mr. Bond, of Singapore, stirred fied and his image worshipped. Dr. the companywith thrilling statements Kellogg drew a strong contrast be- about Malaysia; and Rev. Mr. Harttween Christianity and Buddhism, the mann, of the Moravian Mission to Auone being theistic and the other athe- stralia, described his life among its istic; the oneaffirming the other deny- aborigines. Mrs. Sheldon Jackson, at ing the existence of a soul; in the one another session, spoke of Alaska man (Buddha) becomes God, in the peoples. other God (Jesus Christ) becomes man; one seeks salvation from sin, the other Naturallyanother general class of from suffering; in the one the means toipcs was "Obstacles to Mission of salv.ttion is by the work of another, Work." The "Upium Question" in in the other by man's own works; salva- China, especially in relation to ,the tion attained in Chri~tianity is through prospective revision of the treaties of atonement, regeneration and resurrec- foreign nations with that country; and tion to eternal life of soul and body; also the "Present Phase and Status of in Buddhism it is the extinction of the Chinese Question in America," being. In the matter of ethics Chris- were ably discussed. Memorials to tianity teaches love to man and God; the Queen of England and to the Buddhism inculcates selfishness. President of the United States were Christianity purifies and glorifies adopted, and Rev. Drs. Hamlin and family life; Buddhism discourages Baldwin were appointed to present and denounces it. the petition to President Harrison in person. The second department of topics pertaining to the field was "The Literary Under the caption of "Forms of and Intellectual Forces to be Con- Missionary Activity," several topics fronted." Professor M. N. Wyckoff, were taken up. "Woman's Work for of Tokyo, Japan, presented a paper on Woman" was considered in three "Education in Japan," which we have sessions. In the first one a represenalready published, by anticipation, in tative of each field was allowed five our July number. This, however, minutes to present their work, which was much enlarged upon in his ad- was followed by three lady speakers dress, and by the other speakers on on the special topics, "Boarding and the subject. "Education in China" Day Schools and Orphanages." In the was an able paper, byRev. Marcus L. second, the missionary ladies met the secretaries of ladies' societies present in a conversazione, and in the third, Treasurer-Rev. S. R. House, M.D., Water- the lady missionaries discussed freely ford, N. Y. the comparative efficiency of meth- ~ of work. Questions were freely Librarian-Rev. James Mudge, East Pepasked and frankly answered. perill, Mass.
The New York TnOune received by Executive Committee-Rev. S. H. Kellogg, wire daily despatches from this meet- D.D., Toronto, Ont., Rev. C. W. Cushing, D.D., ing. Of a farewell meeting held for Rev. C. W. Park, Rev. Benjamin Helm, Rev. those who would depart before the J. A. Davis, Miss C. H. Daniels, M.D., Mrs next annual gathering of the Union it Belle McD. Patterson. said: Prayer ABked for Missionaries in PeriL "The evening session in the great tent was ·crowded with a sympathetic audience to see Bishop J. H. Vincent, of Buffalo, N. .and hear more than twenty of the missionaries who are returning to their fields this Y., sent the following letter to the year. Tears and smiles chased one another <Jver many faces as the roll of missionary International Missionary Union at its lands was called, and devoted Christian men And women of many different denominations late session, and requested prayers in said they knew no higher joy than to be missionaries privileged to return to the dark behalf of the parties indicated in the lands, where they may tell the gospel to perishing souls. The Rev. Eugene P. Dunlap, document. It explains itself, and will .of Siam, presided, and the venerable Baptist, William Dean, dismissed the departing mis- appeal to all saints whom it may .sionaries with an affectionate benediction. " reach: "Jerusalem, May 14, 1890. The" reception" on Saturdayafternoon of the President of the Union .. RT. REv. AND DEAR Sm:-I shall only write and Mrs. Gracey and Dr. and Mrs. Foster crowded the large parlors of a few lines this time to let you know that our the Sanitarium, and was greatly en- brother and'sisters at Kerak, 1I1r. and Mrs. joyed. Lethaby, and their young fellow-worker. lIliss The thanks of the Union were ten- Arnold, are in great peril and need the prayers dered to its hosts, and Dr. Henry Foster addressed the missionaries. of the united Church. You are the only minis- ''Jlhey will not forget his personal testi- ter of the Methodist or Wesleyan denominamony to the power of prayer to help -even those from whom we are widely tion with whom I am acquainted, and I thereseparated, nor his forcible closing fore beg that you will use your influence in admonition, in which he said: the churchesto have supplicationsand prayers "God does not allow his children, offered in their behalf. The Turkish Govern- ,as a rule, to remain long together. ment has decided to march its troops to He permits them to meet for refresh- Kerak as soon as the caravans to Mecca have ment for a time, but then they must :sepal~ate for work. It has been so passed. It seems that fighting will be inevit- -ever since apostolic days. Brethren," able, and, in spite of the pressing representahe said, "you have had your feast, now go and work." He invited the tions of the consuls here, the three heroic 1Jnion to come again " next year and missionaries have wisely or unwisely resolved every year." to remain firm at their post of danger and, as they believe, of duty. Tbeir Master and ours OFFICERS FOR 1890-91. President-J. T. Gracey, D.D., Buffalo, N. Y. is, we well know, able to protect them without Vice-Presidents-Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., our poor petitions, but it is His declared will Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., Rev. William Dean, that we should inquire of tbese things from D.D. . Him. Yours very respectfully, Secretary-Rev. William H. Belden, Bristol, "J. E. HANNAU." Conn. Letters from Drs. Hamlin and Shedd.
Letters to the International Mission- ary Union were received from many of its members who could not attend. We give only two of them. They are of general interest: LETTER FROM REV. CYRUS HAMLIN, D.D. To INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION:-I wish to send my Christian salutations to the brethren and sisters-fellow·laborers and "companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ," and to assure them of my ear- nest desire to be with them. Thousand Island Park, Bridgeton, and Binghamton are all fresh in memory and refreshing also. I will unite my prayers with yours, that the same divine presence which we have felt in all those reuuions may be granted in fuller measure to ward over this sea. 'Ve are going now, as we your assembly. did then, alone. We have left all our children in America, but congratulate us that the The -missionary cause has made decided promise is fnIftlled, "Lo, I am with you, " and progress since we niet at Binghamton. We that we are counted worthy to be sent again. ·cannot say now "The harvest is great but the CongratnIate us that we go now not to laborers are few." The harvest is great and strangers, but to many friends and to abundant the laborers are many, but the gifts are few. labors, if we have but the grace and strength On Friday next, the 13th, thirty-one mission- to meet them. CongratnIate us that on the aries are th have their farewell meeting at way we are met by tidings of blessing. Let- Park Street Church. In 1838 there was a fare- ters reach us telling of precious revivals in well meeting and only myself and wife were many of the congregations among tire Nes- farewelled. torians around Oroomiah, and of more tIran 400 inquirers. Passing through Constantinople The funds have not increased in proportion one feels that the year past has been one of 'to the laborers. When I went to Constanti- quickened movement in spiritual things in this nople I had $800 salary, but I soon had work great Turkish empire. Thus it is pleasant to on hand which demanded and received $2,000, return to our work greet.ed by this spiritual and without the $2,000 the $800 and the mis- breath of heaven, more refreshing than the sionary would have been comparatively of no balmy breezes of spring. value-would have been so much lost. The -chief work is to be done by native laborers, If spared to reach our field, we shall go ,and our missionaries must, be provided with from ,Batoum to Tiflis, thence to Erivan, at tire the means of fitting them for the work and base of Mt. Ararat, and thence to the Persian bringing them into it. boundary at the River Araxes, or Arras, and thence by caravan eight days further to Oroo- What can be done to make the silver and miah. We shall reach our destination a few the gold come forth from pockets where it days before your meeting. May I ask your rusts and corrupts into the treasury of the special prayers that my wife and I may re- Lord, whose it is? turn to our work in the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, and especially that the Holy Spirit Let us not call for less men and women. may bless the class in theological study of 12 More men and women, but more money! Let young men that I shall at once aid in teach- us not send forces into the field without a com- ing; that these young men may be truly 'missariat! apostles prepared and sent to the perishing about them; that God would bless the King of Self·supporting missionaries often do an ex- Persia, who has so many desires to see his -cellent work, but they cannot do the work of country civilized and enlightened, and that .a well supported mission. Translations of the spiritual power may be given more and more Bible, books, tracts, colporteurs, itinerants, to the missionaries of Persia and to the native churches, schools, have all to be aided, and the church members; that the religious interest native element trained to work. The mission- of the last few months may prove a permr- ary must have tools to work with. We have nent blessing, and may extend to all parts of missionaries enough until we can better sup- the field. ply them with the means of efficient work. I can only write you snatches this evening, Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest but I trust some one will be among you to that He would send forth laborers into the represent Presia more fully than this brief harvest abundantly supplied with all means letter. that accord with His will to reap the harvest ·of the world. It seems to me thata period of rapid change is hastening and beginning in these Moslem Yours, in Christian sympathy and love, lands. In the long chain of Moslem lands, CYRUS HAMLIN. from the Pillars of Hercules to India and China, the two links that are the weakest are LEXINGTON, lIIASS., June 9, 1890. Egypt and Persia. If strong Christian influ- ence prevail in either of these the chain is LETTER FROM REV. DR. SHEDD, OF PERSIA. broken, and the Moslem power divides asun- der. The hope in the case of Persia is grow- STEAMSHIP POLLUCE, BLACK SEA, May 13, 1890. ing brighter. There are more signs of progress To the International Missionary Union: in opening the country to commerce and to Christian influence than in centuries before. As we steam along the beautiful shores of the A British navigation company are opening .Euxine our thoughts wander to Clifton Springs. the only navigable river from the South. An We remember the earnest request that all the American company are at work opening members of the I. 111. Union would contribute artesian wells. Banks are founded with to the meeting this year, and our prayer as- British capital, railroads projected and highcends that you may have a blessed meeting. ways for wheeled vehicles are under construc- I am sure you will, with such infiuences about you as pervade Clifton Springs. How much my wife and I would enjoy sitting with yon in those heavenly places and coosulting concerning the kingdom of our Lord; but it is better that we shonId be on our way to Persia. We .are retnrning not so young and strong as we were 31 years ago; when we first went east-
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
tion, and mining and manufacturing com- truly say "What hath God wrought!.. Every panies are getting under way. For the time time of difficUIty has been followed by greater progress is iu the air, and the Shah is the most blessing of the Holy Spirit. I have never felt progressiv~ man in the empire. He and many the difficulties of the work so strongly as now, Persian rulers desire to grant religious tolera- when entering again into the field, and I am tion and to curb the ecclesiastics. With these sure also that my faith was never stronger in coming changes there must arise new diffi- the gospel and the power of Him "whose I culties and missionaries need new wisdom and am and whom I serve." zeal to embrace the opportunities, and as the way opens to carry the gospel to every crea- With .Christian salutations to all who were ture. These missioliaries must be not only present last year and. to all who love the Lord American or European, but native Persian. Jesus Christ. Looking back over a series of years we can Most truly yours, J. H. SHEDD.
V.- THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY SECRETARY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
Missions in Pa.pal Europe. 2. The dead sects of the East should The very caption seems strange. be looked upon in a different light It would have been natural enough from that in which we place Moham- when the "man of Macedonia" ap- medans-though even the latter peared to Paul, for Europe was then should be approached as those who a heathen countt-y. But the late profess to worship the God of Abra- Professor Christlieb, though entirely ham, Isaac and Jacob. But with in favor of aiding the Protestant Nestorians and Greeks there is an ap- churches of France, Spain or Italy, peal to Christ and to the early historic entered a mild protest against placing Christianity. And the same is true any part of Europe in the same cate- of Papists. However the "Light of gory as Africa or China by calling it the W orId" may be obscured by the a foreign missionary field. All en- worship of Mary or of saints and im- lightened minds aim to make proper ages, that true Light furnishes the discriminations, though this is not al- point of hopeful approach.
ways easy. No one who knows any- 3. There should be a broad discrimi- thing of the dead Christian sects of nation between work in Papal coun- the Levant has any doubt that mis- tries and that of the heathen world as sionaries should be sent to Persia or to their comparative claim. The first the Turkish Empire, unless it be the and paramount duty of the Christian Archbishop of Canterbury, who seems churches of this age, whatever be to think that the venerable Greek and their name, is to proclaim the gospel Nestorian Churches should be pro- to the nations who have ,never heard tected against Protestant invasion. of Christ. In this duty Protestants There is, in our day, every variety of and CatholicsshouId stand upon com- opinion as to the question, What is mon ground. It is the reproach of legitimate and necessary to missionary both that they have monopolized the work, and what is to be regarded as great salvation for nineteen centuries mere proselyting and unwarrantable whilethe majority of mankind havere- interference? The time has come mained in total ignorance of the gospel.
when a discriminating judgment 4. American Christians at least should be applied in all missionary en- should draw a distinction between the terprises: claims of Papal Europe and those of 1. Even work among the heathen the Spanish American States. In the should be carried on intelligently. first place there is a geographical Hp-athen systems should be thorough- consideration. Mexico and Central ly understood, and should be ap- America are at our door, and South Iproached in such a way as to win suc- Americanot only belongs to our hemis- cess and not to block the way against it. phere but is in close sympathy with our political institutions. The Protes- than a proselyting process, which, tant churches of Europe naturally feel instead of leaving the Huguenot that the responsibility of evangelizing Church a unit, strengthened in its these countries rests largely upon the ancient faith and order, has rather American churches. tended to break it up into the various sects. But there is another and more cogent reason. The type 6f Romanism which The only alternative to this divisive prevails in Spanish America is far process is to contribute funds in aid of lower than that of the Continent. these Protestant churches and allow European Catholics themselves have them to apply that aid through their spoken of it as a virtual heathenism own missionary agencies. But it is (for example Abbe Domineck, chap- not always easy to decide between lain of Maximillian). And broad- these methods. On the one hand the minded statesmen in Mexico have churches left to themselves might welcomed Protestant influence as a preserve their unity, but on the other blessing to the Mexican Church. hand it is claimed that being won over to Baptist or Methodist communions But, making all proper discrimina- they are quickened into a higher tions, a good rule in Christian duty is spiritual life, and are more effectually that which Christ Himself laid down, guarded against the prevailing " This ought ye to have done and not Rationalism. The question is a broad to leave the other undone." There are one. That the Methodist and Baptist many reasons for aiding the Protest- missions in Germanyand Sweden have ant churches of Continental Europe. led thousands of Lutheran converts to America owes a lasting debt of grati- a more vital faith and a higher life tude to the Huguenots of France. Af- seems clear, although the thousands ter the terrible massacre of St. Bar- who have thus been won cannot be tholomew in the sixteenth century classed with converts from heathen multitudes of survivors migrated to races, yet unquestionably they conthis, as to many other countries. The stitute a more vital element in the religious faith and life, as well as the religious life of the Continent than ever national character of our colonies, before. were enriched by the Huguenot elements, and the kinsmen of those We have little sympathy with the staunch exiles, wherever they may be idea that missionary work is valuable found, should be regarded as our just in proportion to its undenominabrethren. tional character. The church is the best of all organizations forthe exten- There were others who in those days sion of Christ's kingdom, and the of terror took refuge in remote fast- different churches will accomplish nesses of their native land, where they most for those who are brought into long remained shut out from the complete sympathy with them in docworld. One of their descendants, trine and order. Whatever evils attach writing recently of their history and to sectarian zeal it is better than loosetheir present needs, says, pathetically: ness and disorder, and organized mis- sionary agencies under responsible " When our Protestants came down management are better than the freefrom their rocky peaks or out of oo.v- lance enterprises which are responsible erns or forests they were timid, to nobody and whose general tendency happy to be allowed to live, more like is towards transient impressions rather a degenerated race than like true than established churches and self- Huguenots-they had suffered so much perpetuating institutions. and so long." There is one danger just now which The same writer complains that may be regarded with no little ap!","'~- much of the work that has been done for this people has been little more hension, and that is the division of the attention to the present drift of these Protestantmission workof Continental great interests, and of prompt meas- Europe into a number of separate and ures to secure system, economy, in- rival interests, each having an Ameri- creased confidence and more generous can headquarters in New York or aid. Boston and a network of collecting agencies throughout the country. But perhaps quite as important as this is an earnest and prayerful sym- One after another these societies- pathy for the Continental churches. for they are such-are being formed, The spirit of the age is against them. and their success will lead to the crea- There is no longer the moral earnest- tion of many more. To say nothing ness of Ambrose in Italy or of Co- of the discouragement and bewilder- ligny in France. Rationalism, on the ment of American pastors amid this one hand, and hierarchical supersti- multitude of rival appeals, and the tion on the other, chills their ardor. serious detriment to those great mis- Loose conventional sentiment in re- sionary boards which aJ:e earnestly gard to the, Sabbath and' other relig- striving to get on without collecting· ious observances lowers the tone of agencies,will such a policy be wise and spiritual life. They know almost safe even for the churches which are nothing cf the revivals which have aided? blest our land. What they need most of all is a baptism of the Spirit. They A sharp ~nd exciting competition should receive funds with which to in the American market; so much push their evangelization into new thought and interest turned away districts; they need also the prayers from the proper development of a of Christendom for a divine refreshing self-reliant, moral purpose and an ag- upon the churches themselves. gressive zeal in the churches them- selves; the handing over of the mission- As to the relative merits of different ary work of these churches to a central causes, those undoubtedly have the committee, to be carried on largely by first claim which lead to the estab- foreign funds. Will not all this tend lishment of permanent and self-sus- to apathy and to greater and even taining and self-propagating institu- greater weakness? Even in heathen tions. We should never forget that lands an undue spirit of dependence is what Paul aimed at was churches. fatal to the stamina of the Christian He was not satisfied with exhorting rank and file. ever-changing multitudes. His whole work and that of his associates was It is essential to the growth and ef- constructive. He ordained elders in ficiency of the Continental churches every place. He made each com- that they should as fully depend on munity of converts organic from the the development of their own effort start. and their own liberality as if there wore none in any quarter to help them. What work of street preaching or bazaar preaching or chapel preach- Then let that effort be supplemented ing, that forms no church-that rather , by systematic and generous aid from glories in the fact that it is undenomi- more favored lands. Let this be done national and never mentions the word without personal solicitation, and by church-cancompare for one moment proper concert of action. Our own with that of the Waldenses, whose mission boards will all gladly trans- solid organization has lived and toiled mit contributions as directed and with- and testified and suffered and bled for out expense. If any discrimination ages, and which to-day, after so long is made let those objects be specially and so glorious a history, is still one of favored which are most economical of the most vital forces of Southern ocean voyages and the expense of Europe? collecting. There is need of serious
1890.] EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOrrcs
Are they "Rioe Ohristians 'I " the glad message which he had re- c.eived to relatives and neighbors, Something over a year ago the whereupon they sent a deputation beg- Church Missionary Society proposed ging that a teacher might be sent. to transfer its mission work inthe Prefecture of Hing H wa, China, to another " These villagers, " says the record, missionary organization, partly for " show a liberality which is without a reasons of comity with respect to ter- parallel in the history of missions. In ritory, and partly with a view to econ- all there are eleven Christians, none of omy of funds. But the people in the them yet baptized, and all very poor. district sent a petition asking that they But last year they subscribed $35 for might remain in the former connec- the repair of their place of worship, tions, and promising to maintain their and they have this year subscribed $35 ieachers and catechist themselves. more for the support of a catechist,be- Thereupon the Missionary Conference sides supplying him with rice. The resolved to continue the connection. schoolmaster in the village gave his The Christian work in this district is whole stipend for the support of the ·thus practically self-supporting. catechist, and having in consequence insufficient means to supply his own A missionary who has since visited wants, he sold his only field. Others Ring Hwa says: "I cannot but con- of the little band .have pawned their trast the zeal and devotion of these clothing to meet the sum promised." people with the lukewarmness of too "It is sometimes said," writes the mismany in Christian lands. This district sionary, "that our converts are rice embraces over 6,000,000 of people. Christians. I should like to ask where The superintendent of the catechists in Christian England you would find . bears in his body the' marks of the a parallel to the above?" Lord Jesus' in the form of a scar inflicted by an older brother because he At the little village of Kiang Sang, had embraced Christianity. He wears the missionary, arriving late, began his scar with the more satisfaction after tea to examine candidates for from the fact that his brother finally baptism, and continued until ten died a Christian believer." o'clock,after which the superintendent of catechists continued his exhorta- The missionary had the joy in one tions until midnight. In the morning little community of receiving five to the work of examination was continthe fellowship of the Church. In an- ued, after which thirteen were acceptother he was accorded a truly Chris- ed, all men from the neighboring tian reception with a feast. One mountains. woman brought six or seven others to the service as a result of her faithful These are but incidents, but any labor, and twelve of her own family Christian, comprehensive man, groupare adherents of the Church. In an- ing them together as one entire picture, other village six women had been pre- will not fail to see how the rays of light pared for baptism by the faithful la- are thus breaking through the gloom bors of the catechist's wife. A yonng of a great and populous district; how girl of fifteen had been very active in earnest is the faith and zeal of those influencing her friends to receive the here and there who have received truth. In another village a man, who the truth; in a word, how rich is had been treated in the mission hos- the harvest which there waits to be pital at Kang Chu, had made known gathered.
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
A Great Missionary Pioture. products together, the achievements These are days of great Expositions. of the age array their mightiest tro- The industries of the world bring their phies, to astonish the eye and overwhelm the mind of the beholder. and pavement, are represented life-size While we write preparations are in figures of the great men and women progress for a visible demonstration who have made French history for a of America's greatness in connection hundred years past; and through th8 with the quadri-centenary, which will arches are to be seen the various his- probably make the grand Exposition toric events, portrayed in vivid forms of 1892 the most manificent and colos- and colors, which have marked the sal "World's Fair" ever known in progress of the age. human history. By following the picture from th8 The thought occurs to us, and it is left of the observer, around the entire not the first time it has found expres- circle, a complete and very unique sion in these columns, that the fulness panorama of the century is made to of the times has come for a grand pass before the eye. The days of the Exposition of Missions, and it ought Revolution, with the horrors of the to be in connection with this great guillotine; then the Napoleonic epoch, commemoration at Chicago. Ameri- with all the glory of victorious war; ca's discovery was really the result of troops returning from brilliant tri- a missionary spirit, as anyone will umphs passing in review before the feel who knows the history of Colum- Empress Josephine; then Louis XVIIL bus and has seen his own manuscripts and his court; the days of the New with the signature Christo-Ferens. Republic; then Louis Napoleon and Moreover, there is a curious and sug- the coup d'etat; then the Francogestive coincidence: the year 1892, Prussian war and the fall of the while it marks the completion of the revived Napoleonic dynasty, and then fourth century since the discovery of again the Republic, until we reach America, completes the first century again the statue of France, at the foot of modern organized mIsSIOnary of which stands that typical Frenchendeavor. The same year, therefore, man of the latter days, Victor Hugo! that commemorates our quadri-centenary also commemorates the cen- As we stood studying this superb, tenary of missions. historic and artistic achievement, again the conviction forced itself upon Why not have atIeast, then, a great us that the history of this missionary missionary exposition on canvas? At century, from 1792 to 1892, affords a Paris, in t!'le gardens of the Tuileries, theme for the painter's brush and the there is a famous painting by Alfred artist's genius which it would be Stevens and Henri Gervex, called the difficult to surpass in suggestiveness, Histoire du Siecle, 1789-1889, and a fruitfulness or attractiveness. Let marvellous picture it is, presenting the us suppose that some artists of a high grand outlinesof the history of France order of ability should undertake such during the century past. Both its a grand work. What a magnificent conception and execution are unique. picture might result! We can even The huge canvas lines the entire in- now see it stretching around the inner terior wall of a circular building, wall of some cycloramic building. whose circumference we take to be The Cross of Christ might be the cennot less than one hundred and twenty tral object, with a supernal glory feet. At one point on the vast painting breaking through the deep darkness, is represented an ideal statue of and lighting up, as with a touch of France. Toward the right of the gold, a little shoemaker's shop at statue stretches a marble corridor, Hackleton; the door stands ajar and with pillars and arches, completely reveals a young man of eighteen years covAring the canvas, until it curves cobbling, while his eyes wander from around to the left of the statue. At his work to a book that lies on the the base of this corridor, on its steps bench beside him. It is Cook's Voy- ,ages. Before him on the rude wall of years again are passed, and the picthe shop hangs a rough brown paper ture now represents a memorial hall map of the world, made in cobbler's built to the memory of the first Karen ink, on which, by different shades of convert. The Kho Thah Byu Hall color, the comparative religiouscondi- stands confronting the Schway Mote' .on of the different races is set forth. Tau Pagoda; they are close by, and ..A. little farther on that same young they bespeak the contrast between the man is seen preaching from the box Karens of 1815 and the Karens of pulpit in Andrew Fuller's chapel at 1865. The same picture might repre- Kettering, and just beyond is seen sent the Lone Star Mission as it was in Widow Wallis' humble home, where a 1853 when the American Baptist .Mis- IiimaU group of obscure Baptist minis- sionary Union threatened to abandon ters are signing the first modern cove- it; and a quarter of a century later, nant of missions. Among the sur- when all along the river-banks might rounding figures may be seen Sydney be pictured over 2,000 converts bap- Smith, who points a scornful finger at tized in one day! The picture we the nest of consecrated cobblers, whom are imagining would of course reprehe proposes to "rout out" with the sent Morrison, wearing the queue and arrows of his wit. Then a vessel is studying by the light of his little liieen to set sail, and on board stands earthen lamp far into the small hours that same William Carey, on his way of the morning, while he sought to to India. Further on may be seen the translate the Bible into the Chinese shores of Tahite. Mr. Nott is stand- tongue. And seventy-five years later ing in the midst of a group of savages Hudson Taylor pushing his 300 evanand cannibals, reading from a new gelists and teachers into the unoccutranslation, just completed, of John pied inland provinces of China, and iii: 1G. A warrior in the group is planning to preach the gospel within moving forward, and reaching out his the next five years to every soul in the hands toward the missionary-the first middle kingdom. The picture would convert after fourteen years of toil. portray Commodore Perry's squadron Around may be seen the cannibal anchoring in the bay of Yeddo in ovens, even now roasting human vic- 1854, and, with the open Bible on the tims for the feast. Let the eye now capstan, seeking to unlock sea-gates pass around the circle and see Tahite barred for 200 years; and 30 years lahalf a century later. Every mark of ter Japan revolutionized, with nothing Christian civilization now marks the unchanged but the natural scenery. island. All Western Polynesia now appears as part of the domain of The artist would of course give Christendom. On the Fiji Islands Africa a place on his great canvasalone are nearly 1,000 churches of her thousands of slaves, driven in their Christ. That first convert has now yokes to the coast, falling in scores by multiplied to 750,000. the way; Robert Moffat and others like him making their way into the Another scene very early in the interior, with no ~weapon but the century. Adoniram Judson has just sword of the Spirit. He would depict arrived in Burmah with his devoted David Livingstone dying on his knees wife. They are beginning work in the little grass hut at !lala, praying among the wild men of Burmah-the for Africa. And then the missions despised, euslaved Karens. A decade that crowd around the great eastern passes, and in the next section of the lakes and creep up the Congo from picture we behold a simple church of the west. The callvas would repre- €ighteen Karens, the insignificant sent Stanley raising his cap to the fruit of ten years of labor. Sweep the hero whose heart is buried in Africa, €ye around the circle again until fifty when he found him at Ajiji in 1871and then in 1890; the canvas would the grandest defense of Christianity glow with the magnificent recep- in our day. tion to Stanley in Albert Hall in London. The conception grows upon us as – How would Carey in his cobbler we consider it, and we hope some one shop contrast with the great ecumeni- capable of executing it will undertake cal council of missions in 1888-with it. 'While we have not the genius, Exeter Hall crowded for ten days the experience and the facile brush with the nobility of the Church from which are needful to make such an all lands. We have no space to depict idea crystalize into achievement, we further the wonders which such a would gladly contribute from our painting might embody. But it is a limited acquaintance with the history marvel' to us that no artist has yet of the century such of the material elaborated the conception! What is necessary as we have gathered by a Waterloo, Gettysburg, Sevastopol, long and a painstaking study of the to the divine war of the ages! If great theme. Let some others who French history for a hundred years have skill in art and wealth in store furnishes an inspiring theme which give the thought embodiment in vismakes the artist's brush thrill with ible form, and give the world its. patriotic emotion, what shall be said greatest historical painting!-A. T. P. of a ce~tury of missions that has seen the whole church of Christ marshalled A Prize Offer. into line for evangelism, and the face of the world transformed! If artists The Editors of this REVIEW are seek transcendent themes, here is one. thoroughly convinced that no one If only the pecuniary reward is in obstacle stands in the way of the proview, what throngs such a painting gress of missions so prominently as would attract! No part of the Glas- lack of faith in the supernatural gow Exhibition drew larger crowds power of God. There is too much than the Indian exhibit, where, in dependence on appeal, on organizaminiature, the homes, costumes, tem- tion, on human instrument, on Governples and rites of India were set before mental patronage, on the influence of the eye. When we were in London, education and civilization; and too litin the Stanley-African Exhibition, the tle simple looking untothat real source most attractive features were the of success, the POWER OF GOD IN tableawx; inanimes, in which the ANSWER TO PRAYER, first to open doors dwarfs and other tribes of Africa of access, then to raise up and thrust were represented. as they are in their forth laborers, and then to break native wilds, and the Arab slave- down all opposition and make the hunters were represented in the act truth mighty in converting, subduing, of capturing human prey. We ven- saving and sanctifying. ture to predict that could such a picture, representing"the history of the At the same time we believe not missionary age, be hung in a suitable only that the promises of the Word building in Chicago inconnection with are distinct, definite, ample and overthe great Exposition of 1892, it would whelming, but that their actualfuljilpay the cost of its production in a ment is the standing miracle of the single season, and be an educator of age of missions; and that if the Church the mind and heart of hundreds of could be brought face to face with the thousands; and that after it had ac- facts, unbelief would receive a powercomplished its work there, it would ful, and, in the case of many disciples, go around the world, the greatest ar- a death blow, and believers would gument and appeal for missions and realize that it is not by might nor by pow.er, but by the Spirit of the Lord that all true missions are to be carried forward.
We therefore invite contributions tothese pages, giving examples from the spirit of the utmost friendliness and desire for th~ future success of modern missionary history of the un- the cause-that the time has come when far more, if not the chief, attenmistakable interposition of God in tion should be given to the work of sifting, discriminating, training, and answer to prayer, and in behalf of His looking sharply after the already en- rolled 5,000 students. A thousand fold servants and their work. We desire more .depends on the character, the fitness, the integrity and continuance these articles not to exceed about of these pledged men and women, than on their mtmber. We have great con- 3,000 words each, and to contain not fidence in, and share in the anxiety and desire of, the leaders and officers less than ten such examples, brief of this movement, and we know the! are not blind to its incidental evils and and telling, duly authenticated. To dangers. May God give them wisdom and fidelity in their responsible trust! encourage investigation and thorough We have been led to write the above work in this direction we hereby offer by the reception of the following let- ter from the Rev. Lemuel C. Barnes, to the writer of the best contribution D. D.; of Newton Centre, Mass., a representative man of New England, $100, and $50 for the second best, the whose whole heart is in the mission- arywork.-J. M. S.] Editors to be the judges, and to have DEAR DR. SHERWOOD:-I heard the the right to their exclusive publication subscriber to the enclQSed, who is unin " THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE der appointment to Japan by the WORLD." They are to be at liberty American Baptist Mission Union, give also to use any competing articles in the address from which this is an exthe REVIEW, other than the prize arti- tract. It seemed to me that he made cles, by paying the usual rate per a valuable summary and analysis of page. All such articles to be sent to the volunteer movement not otherus before January 1, 1891. .And upon wise published. I accordingly asked this sincere effort to promote acquain- him to hand it to me that I might tance with the modern signs of God's bring it to your notice for the MISfaithfulness to His promises, and in- SIONARY REVIEW, if you should think creased faith in the presence of the best to use it there. Captain of the Lord's host with His Yours truly, faithful witnesse8j we ask the blessing LEMUEL C. BARNES. of God. A. T. P. J. M. S. June 17, 1890.
The Student Volunteer Movement. EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS ON THE [Our deep interest in and high ap- STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT preciation of this wonderful uprising, as the pages of this REVIEW abund- FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. antly prove, make us very jealous of its reputation, and anxious to do "The most serious criticism passed what in us lies to promote its healthy upon the movement is that very few growth and highest efficiency. That of those who sign the pledge ever mistakes should be made; that large reach the foreign field. This is partly numbers should take the pledge true and partly false. hastily, under high excitement, and afterwards lose their enthusiasm The churches have supposed that and disregard their solemn promises, the volunteers were ready to appear was to be expected. Weare clearly before the various boards, and conseof the opinion that too much effort quently have looked in vain each year has been put forth simply to secure forthe forthcoming men. But it must pledges and roll up a vast list of be rememliered that the band is made volunteers, not using due care and' up of students in all stages of prepardiscrimination in the selection. It ation. Of the 5,000 who have taken will be fatal in the end if all are ac- the pledge 86% or 4,300 are still in the cepted and enrolled who offer them- schools; 5% or 250 have reached the selves. Personally we have carefully foreign field; 1% or 50 have been restudied this "movement" from its jected for various reasons; 3% or 150 origin, and during the past few have graduated but are still in this months have had peculiar opportunit- ies to learn the present spirit and attitude of a very large proportion of this army of volunteers, and we do not hesitate to say-and we say it in country; 5,% or 250 have deserted the their lands in the reservations allotted cause. While these figures partly ex- to them in the State of New York. plain the meagre results thus far ob- The most scandalous measures were tained, there still remains the sad resorted to in order to induce the fact that a large number have brought reproach upon the movement. Legislature to sanction this wholesale robbery and cruel injustice, and, to its What is the cause of this defection shame, the Legislature did its best to and what can be done to remedy it? consummate it, and but for the exer- cise of the veto power it would have The chief cause is change of purpose, and the students thus affected succeeded. This bold and just act of may be divided into three classes. The Governor Hill favorably contrasts first class is composed of those who wiih some of his other vetoes, and we have simply become tired of the move- rejoice the more to recognize and ment, and, without regard topledge or sense of duty, have deserted it. For speak of it. In this fight the Indians these there is no remedy. of the Empire State have had some able and persistent defenders, nota- The second class consists of those who bly the Presbyte1'Y of Buffalo, which, have lost tl;wir enthusiasm, yet, feeling by its early and courageous action, the need of an excuse, take refuge in the form of the pledge. The pledge is in exposed the atrocious lies which effect ambiguous. It reads, "I am these unscrupulous schemers set on willing and desirous, God peqnitting, foot, vindicating the Indians from to become a foreign missionary." Mor- their gross assaults, and pleading ally, the pledge is regarded as binding their case with singular force and inboth by outsiders and in most cases telligence, in the press, and wherever by the volunteers. Literally, it is not the voice of Buffalo Presbytery could binding. The volunteer says, "When be heard. Two full and carefully- I signed the pledge I was both willing and desirous. Now I am neither. I did prepared reports of a committee, of not promise absolutely to go, and I which Dr. William S. Hubbell was violate no pledge by staying at home." chairman, "appointed to investigate The third class is made up of those charges made "against the Indians of who signed the pledge so early in Western New York," are before us, their course that they could not know their own minds, and with the devel- making each a respectable pamphlet. opment of faculties and a change of ~ever was there a more signal "vinditaste, there has come also a legitimate change of purpose. What, now, is cation" made than in these pages. the remedy? Experience has shown We recognize also gladly the serthat some form of commitment is necessary. It is therefore suggested that vices of Mr. John Habberton, on the two ~ledges be adopted. The first, to editorial staff of the New York Herald, be gIven in the early part of the who made a visit to each of the eight student's course, should bind hint only reservations in the State, and made a. to work for the cause of missions, and report covering two full pages of the to give thorough and prayerful con- Herald, confirming the statements of liIideration to his own going to the for- the Buffalo report. He went on his eign field before making permanent own prompting and a stranger to the choice of any other occupation. The members of Buffalo Presbytery. He second pledge should be given near the 'writes as follows of his investigation: close of the course of study, and only after the first had been taken, and "I went into the Indian country IiIhould bind the signer irrevocably to only to write a descriptive sketch, but the foreign field. This arraugement when I detected the undercurrent of would avoid the dangers incidental to swindle, and studied out the means by premature action, and would affix to which public opinion was being infludesertion an opprobrium which would enced, I thought it proper to change be wholesome." W. B. PARSHLEY. my method, and to leave out many picturesque features in order to make Defeat of "The Whipple Bill." room for justice and indignation."
The friends of the Indian, and all This article was extensively noticed right-minded men, will rejoice that Governor Hill has vetoed this iniqui- tous measure, cOJ:tcocted by the Ogden Land Company and a lot of greedy whites to dispossess the Indians of
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
by the press and drew attention to the upon Trinidad by the Rev. John Mor- Indians of New York State. And it is ton, the veteran missionary, in which bnt fair.to notice in this connection he says, "Coma at present vacant;" the able and admirable article of Dr. and he closes, "This field is now in Ellinwood, in a recent number of this urgent need of men, one for Coma REVIEW, entitled "A Plea for the and one for British Guiana. Pray ye Senecas." His statements and argu· therefore the Lord of the harvest ments bearing on the whole subject that He send forth laborers into His are timely, truthful and vigorous, and harvest." This prayer is already half no doubt contributed to the decision answered. Rev. Fulton Johnson Cofwhich saves the State from doing a fin, B.A., had sailed from New York, great wrong and protects the Indians as misssonary-elect for Coma, before in their constitutional and inalienable your December number was issued. rights. Thus the Rev. Mr. Morton's answered prayer accompanied him from the Justice to the Indian is so rare a maritime provinces of Canada to his thing that we record this triumph beloved Trinidad. The Lord be with peculiar satisfaction and grati· praised for His prayer-hearing love; tude.-J. M. S. and may He answer all our prayers for the glory of His cause. Answered Prayer. REV. A. W. LEWIS, B.D. DEAR Dr. PIERSON;-In the Decem- YARMOUTH, N. S. ber number of your invaluable REVIEW there appeared an excellent article VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND ST A TISTICS.
Universities Mission to Central Africa. missionaries-ordained, 17; lay, 20; female, 20; native 1wlpers-ordained, 2; readers, 8; teach- Secretary: REV. DUNCAN TRAVERS, 14 Delahay ers, 62; churches, 6; communicants, 686; St., Westminster, London, S. W. total baptized persons, 920; total number of adhere:lts, 1,922; schools, 20; scholars, 837; REPORT FOR YEAR ENDiNG DEC. 31, 1889. boarders, 438; scholars baptized, 394.
Receipts. £10,603 4 1 This mission occupies two fields-Zanzibar -Generalfnnd………………. . 1,739 15 6 and the mainland-the latter including the .Special funds…• " . . .• . ……. . 2,469148 Usambara, Roouma and Nyassa region. Children's fund..••……•••••.•• 47215 I) InAfrica………………….. . Medical work is carried on at two stations, and there is a mission steamer on Lake Ny· Total. …. . . . . . .. . . . . .. …. • . £15,285 9 8 assawhichserves as an itineratingchurchship, with classes aud services. Expenditures. 'On missions general. …………….. £14,301 United Brethren in Ohrist. Missionaries onfnrlough………….. 1,428 Rome expenses….. • • .. .. ……. ….. 1,287 Secretary: REv. B. F. BOOTH, Dayton, Ohio. REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING IIIA.RCH 31, 1890. Total……………… …. …….. £17,016 Amount expended for foreign Deficiency met by sale of invested fnnds. missions……………. '" …… $26,223.90 A comparative statement for 1888 and 1889 Total amount raised by the board for all its departments…….. …. $44,759.00 shows; Mission in Sherbro Country, West Africa.- 1888 1889 Foreign missionaries, male, ordained, 18; lay, 25; female-missionaries' wives, 16; other Number of European ladies, 5; native ordained ministers, 3; other helpers, 40; organized churches, 131; preachmissionaries……… 70 65 ing places, 405; communicants, 6,712; added during the year, 1,150; theological seminary, 1; …….. :Subscriptions, dona· £16,280 £15,285 students, 23; other schools, 13; pupils, 568. tions, etc. . ~ Two semi·monthly papers are printed.
Expenditure at home The year has been an unusually successful one. and abroad ………. £17,117 £17,016 Average cost per Euro- pean worker… , _…. £244 £262 .cost per cent. of raising funds…………….. 7~ 7% STA.TISTICS. Misions, 2; stations and out-stations, 18;
of Evangelical Lutheran Foreign Missionary Work, Including Four Lutheran and Reformed
Compiled by REV. J. N. LENKER, Western Secretary B. C. Extension, Grand Island, Nebraska.
'1 " 3 '" . i – —- – — — — ForeignNative oj oj Work· Workers. ers. r:: " ~ aoj :8 -'–'- ~ ~… " al " "" ..,;..w.5… 0 NAME OF SOCIETY. :-I "0 ""I-< HEADQUARTERS. ..,; FIELDS OF WORK. 1;) oj 'C oj :;~g ~ …0 .~ .S Ol '0 O::sl oj oj 0 -w"0=. ~ 'E 'E ~oj § oj ~w. Z ~ – 0 i-l 0 P< – – – — 1 Leipzig……………………… Leipzig, Germany ……… 1836 23 22 2 12 188 23 14,014 149 3,653 $2,263.00 $73,084.00 South fudia. 2 Harmannsburg………………. Harmannsburg, Germany. 1849 66 70.. .. . .. . 37 .••. 13,424 56 2,028………. 69,967.04 S. Africa, India, Australia. 3 Gossner…….. . ………… Berlin, Germany ……… 18.36 13 13 4 17 247 25 34,500 85 2,100 2,129.60 38,720.00 India. 4 Berlin ……………………….. Berlin, " ………. 18.36 50 56 15 5 449 …. 21,038 60 3,542 4,995.92 75,020.00 South Africa and China. 5 North German ……………….. Bremen, " ………. 1836 3 8 1 1 22 ••. 6 Brecklum…………………. Brecklum," …….. 1877 2 4 .. : …. . 1 .••. 664 16 321 266.20 21,780.00 New Zealand, Gold Coast. 7 Jerusalem …………………… Potsdam, " ………. 1845 3 2 …. 7 1 20 ………. 9,000.00 India. 800 4 200 •••• • • • .• . 7,000.00 Palestine and Egypt. 8 Berlin Women's Society………. Berlin, " ……… 1850 1 1… 1 …. .. 81 1 40 ………. 4,000.00 China.
9 Evangelical Lutheran ……………… Bavaria, " ………….. 1887 …… " ….. .. ……………………….. .. ……………………………. German Possessions. 10 Danish Government Mission …… Denmark……………… 1721 3 …. 3 43 4 11 Evangelical Lutheran ……….. " ……………… 1863 6 4 1 3 15 1 8,733 127 1,982……… 14,520.00 Greenland. 12 Evangelical Lutheran to Karens.. .. ……………. 1884 4 1 …. …. …… .. .. 523 10 92 ………. 12,584.00 India. 1 13 Evangelical Lutheran…. .. .. Stavanger, Norway…….. 1842 33 40 14 16 902 20,600 '''386 30,620 :::::::::: ····96,800:00 s. Africa and Mada~ascar. 14 Fatherland ………………….. Stockholm, Sweden…….. 1856 10 10 19.. 26 168 9 498 ……… . 42,600.00 East Africa and India. 15 State Church………………… Sweden ………………. 1877 4 3 3 …. 2 15 58 3 68 ……. . 12,598.00 Natal. 16 Finnish Lutheran…… …….. Helsingforz, Finland …… 1868 3 6…… 3 1 150 3 800 …….. .. 11,374.00 Southwest Africa. Evangelical Lutheran………… Reval, -:Russia………….. 1 17 Board F. M. Gen. Synod………. Baltimore, Md …………. 1882…. …. '''7 …3. ..iw ii·,53s ···iM ·4~330 ···i,555:00 … -.ii,202.35 S. India and W. Africa. 18 1837 5 5 20. 19 Ex. Com. F. M. Gen. Council….. Philadelphia, Pa … '" .. 1869 …. 5 …. …. 69 …. 20 Board F. M. U. Synod, South….. Strasburg, Va………… .. …….. .. 1,000 55 700 '" …… 10,000,00 India. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Japan ~sed). 21 Basle" ………………………. Basle, Switzerland …….. 1815 45.92 117 44 22 Pilgrim Mission*…………….. St. Chrischona," …….. 1848 2 17 …… . 490 59 20,907 229 8,513……… 174,240.00 India, China, Gold Coast. 23 Rhenish* ……………… '" …. Barmen, Germany…….. 1828 56 71 60 10 4 .••. 400 1 120 …. .. … . 9,500.00 Abyssinia, Austria. 24 Evangelical Lutheran of Poland.. Warsaw, Russia… .•.• …. … 1 1 .••….. 31,608 95 5,435 10,771.52 93,170.00 S. Africa, Borneo, China. 415 24 25 Paris Evangelical* ………….. Paris, France …………. 1824 25' 33 17 22 177 .. .. 3,500.00 Polonia and S. Africa. 60,180.00 Africa, Society Islands. 26 Evangelical Lutheran ………… Holland………………. 1882 1 1 ……………. .. 1,000.00 Sumatra.
———·1——-1—————-·-,1—1——- – – – – – – – – – – 1 – – – – – – – – 1 – – -357-46-8 2-60-14-4 -3,24-6 -173-1-88,0-20 _1,4_37 _66,7_42 _$25_,25_3.08_$~88:1,_839_.39 I.—-~– – – – – – – – – – – – – – 27 lIioraviant………………….. Hrunhut, Saxony………. 1732 127 135 151 21 956 686 84,201 223 18,280 ………. $81,326.52 N. &S.America,Africa,etc. Total…… ….. ………….. …………. …… …….. 484 603 411 165 4,202 859 272,221 1,660 85,022 $25,253.08 $963,165.91 " Lutheran !Uld J.Wformed. t The Moravians, who takE) the lead in Foreign Mission Work, have thl) same confessiQn of faith. as the I,.utherans.
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
United Presbyterian Ohurch of Church Door Collec· Scotland. tions………… .. 1,253 1 3 Secretary: Rev. JAMES BUCHANAN. Juvenile Offerings.• 2,009 9 11 Livingstone Mission 5,104 1 10 REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1889. Donations (General Receipts. and Special)…… 5,402 18 11 Ordinary Fund-Church Contri· Special Funds, Inter· butions .. . … £23,610 3 8 est, etc………… 9,581 14 7 Legacies….••• 4,823 16 ;- – – – – – £41,884 19 10 – – – – – Transfers, etc. 3,39'Z 11 10 Sent Direct to Stations. ……… 774 0 0 £31,826 12 1 Col. and Con· Ladies' Society for Female Edu- tin'tal Work. 1,403 2 2 cation……… ……………. 15,137 16 5 Special Objects……………. . 2,886 19 1 Zenana Fund……………… .. 4,375 5 4 Total at Home …………… £57,796 16 3 Donations, etc., Total.. …………………. £40,491 18 8 Expenditures. Abroad ……….. £ 9,189 0 0 Grants in Aid……. 12,873 0 0 For Ordinary Fund. ………… £27,546 6 3 College and School Balance on Fund………. ; ….. £ 4,280 5 10 Fees…. .. …. …. 16,249 0 0 38,311 0 0 Balance from Last Year. …•••• 3,648 19 4 Total Income ……………….. £96,107 16 3 Expenditures. Transfer in 1889…………….. 35 13 7 £95,317 0 0 Total Balance in favor of STATISTICS.
– – – – – Ordinary Fund….. …… £ 7,964 18 9 Missions, 7; stations and out·stations, 207; foreign missionaries (ordained), 51, lay (in. Estima'd Expenditure for 1890.. £29,142 0 0 cluding evangelists), 46, female (missionaries' wives), 32, other ladies, 38; medical mission. >-3 '•1~0;~;:5'~@'~:8":>:'~:~:QQ"!>"~!-53.'1~';~~S;.' aries, male, 24, female, 3 (included in above); native ordained ministers, 14; licentiates, 10; [ · . . : • •• ~-.i~;P- other helpers, 600 (native divinity students, 46); organized churches, 42: total number of : preaching places, 207; communicants, 6,620; additions, 647; colleges and theological semin. ;': : I Stations aries, 6; students, 947; other schools, 320; I and pupils, 25,879. ~I <o~~@t1",~ Out-Stations. In additi0l' to the income for foreign mis· ~I ~~ ~ MEisusiroonpaeraines, , sions, other committees report as raised for ~Ot~ …. ~WOt the conversion of the Jews, £7,524: for Conti. I Ordained. nental work, £6,285; for Colonial work, £3,515; making the total miSSionary revenue of the I : II European Free Church of Scotland for the evangelization Missionaries, of the world outside of the United Kingdom, °1 : : Cr.:lOf~..-: Medical. £113,431 16s 3d ,equal to $567,155. .~ '" 1 : ~: ~. ~I! . ~ 1 European C.Q ….. ~-.l: Evangelists . I European Zenana Missionaries. ! w: I : Native w: "' ….. '~ " Ministers, !S/ Ordained. London Missionary Society.
~I I ~ :i:-.::J~~I<1->4:: ~ Native Secretary: REV. EDWARD H. JONES, Mission Other I Helpers. House, Blomfield St., London, E. C.
f:1 I '>ON) "'~ Communi· REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890 cants. ~i ~gjffi~!~J1U . Receipt•. I Subscriptions, donations, collec· ~I Ii ~ 8:, : ~: eo….. ~ Inquirers. tions…………………….. ' £101,283 14 7 ~tgoo~ Legacies…. ……………….. 16,17713 6 ~I oo..~. ~ ~~: ~ 1 Week·Day Dividends ………… ……….. 3,993 17 7 . '""" Schools. ~~~~. ~-> I Total………………….. £121,455 5 8 ill / 1 Pupils. I I I Expenditures. Deficiency from last year .• " .. , £2,736 4 10 I'reeOhurch of Scotland. Regular expenses…………. .. 115,416 18 8 Investment………………… . Secretary: Dr. GEORGE SMITH, C. I. E., 15 Balance in favor of the society.. 3,000 0 0 North Bank Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. 302 2 2 REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890. Receipt•. Total. ……………… '" £121,455 5 8 Included in the donations, etc., above are Associations …….. £14,836 11 4 £25,783 2s. Sd., raised for special objE1Cts. On Legacies………… 3,697 2 0 account of change of date of closing the finan- {lial year, only eleven months are represented of England, and in 11 of these there are misin the r"port. sionaries either entirely supported or assisted by the society. The largest and most import- Statistics. ant are naturally in India, but the present lfissions, 8; missionaries-male, 156; female, year has witnessed the commencement of 36; native ordained ministers, 1,194; preachers, work in Korea. In 11 out of the 15 dioceses in 4,225; church members, 68,805; other native Africa also there are missionaries of the adherents, 269,862; Sunday-schools, 381; society, and here too the largest work is in scholars, 22,415; day-schools, 1,990. scholars, Cape Colony. Of the 13 dioceses in Australia 105,980; local contributions and school fees, and Tasmania, there are but 4 that receive £20,302 11s. 3d. any assistance, and these furnish no report. The Society Islands have been removed from New Zealand and the Pacific furnish 8 dio· the list. ceses, but the only missionaries are in Hono· lulu and Norfolk and Fiji Islands. In North Presbyterian Churoh of England. America there are 20 dioceses, of which 1 each in New Brunswick, Quebec, Montreal, Nova Secretary: JOHN BELL, 13 Fenchurch Avenue, Scotia, Newfoundland, Caledonia, New West· minster and Algoma, and 3 in Rupertsland London, E. C. receives assistance from the society's funds. REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1889. Of the 10 dioceses in the West Indies and South America, 7 (Guiana and 6 in the West Receipts. Indies) have missionaries of the society. The only regular diocese in Europe is that of Gib- Bal':'nce from Last year…. . •.. £ 498 12 11 raltar, but there are numerous chaplaincies.
Congregational Contributions… 6,497 2 6 Moravian Missions. Juvenile Fund…. .•…. ….. …. 1,785 3 8 Scotch Committee ..•••. …….. 2,740 0 0 Secretary: Rev. B. ROMIG, Hrunhut, Saxony; Legacies. …… ………… …… 1,454 15 3 or, Rev. B. LA TROBE, 29 Ely Place, Holborn, London, E. C. Donations. ………………… • 1,347 14 9 Receipts.
Miscellaneous………………. 710 14 3 1. Contributions from Congregations: Balance Overdrawn…………. 2,086 4 0 Continent of Europe.. ••.. .£1,031 19 5 Total…………………… £17,070 7 4 Great Britain and Expendit"Tes. Ireland….. •• 1,478 4 3 North America .. 2,240 12 6 Foreign Missions ……………. £15,767 1 11 Mission Proviuc's 81 5 0 Home Charges… . ……. . ….. 848 17 6 – – – £ 4,832 1 2 Interest………………… ….• 149 0 11 Amounts on Accounts……….. 305 7 -0 2. Contributions from other Christian Churches: Total ………………….. £17,070 7 4 Europe ………. £4,344 18 2 Great Britain.•.• 2,685 3 4 STATISTICS. North America.. 24 0 9 – – – – 7,054 2 3 r Missions, 2; stations, 5; out-stations, 130. Missionaries-ordained 20, medical 10, lay 3. Legacies and Endowments: 2, female 16; native pastors, 8; evangelists, Europe….. .•.•. 4,686 17 9 lOS; theological students, 41; organized Great Britain…. 1,644 15 9 churches, 43; communicants, 3,572. North America.. 420 12 0 – – – – 6,752 5 6 Sooiety for the Propagation of the Gospel 4. Mite Societies: in Foreign Parts (S. P. G') Europe ……… . 662 4 4 Great Britain… . 9 17 3 Secretary: Rev. H. W. TUCKER, M. A., 19 North America .. 56 17 0 728 18 7 Delahay Street, Westminster, London. Interests………………….. •• 132 18 3 REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1889. Total. ……………………. £19,500 6 S Receipts. Expenditures.
Collections, Subscriptions and For the Missions …………….. £ 7,997 6 2 Training of Missionaries……… 433 14 2 Donations: Sustentation, Pensions, etc……. '8,978 11 8 Management ………………… 1,858 9 1 General Fund .. £86,921 11 2 Miscellaneous … …….. …. …. 134 5 0 Special " 18,964 14 1 . Total…………………….. £19,402 IS 1 Legacies: – – – – £105,886 5 3 General Fund.. 9,468 6 2 Special 107 2 0 9,575 8 2 Rents, Dividends, etc.: General Fund.. 5,007 16 7 Special 4,569 9 7 9,577 6 2 £125,038 19 7 The society combines Colonial and Continental work with its foreign work in suph a way that statistics of the last are not easily gathered from the report. There are in Asia 17 dioceses of the Church
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
The statement of the London Association STATISTICS. shows: Missions, 13: stations and out·stations, 131; Balance on Hand …………….• £ 39 lP 11 mISSIOnary agents, 292; native missionaries and assistants, 51: native other helpers, 1,659: Collections…………. ………. 7,078 15 6 communicants, 29,971: baptized adults, 15,271; candidates, new people, etc., 5,949: baptized Total. ……………………. £7,118 15 5 children, 34,615: schools, 232: scholars, boys Paid to Treasurer Moravian Mis· 9,958, girls 9,836, total 19,794: total teachers, 316: monitors, 467: Sunday·schools 107, sions ………………………. £5,859 10 9 scholars, children 8,371, adults 6,603, teachers, Expenses of Management…….. 485 0 0 996. Printing, Traveling Expenses, etc. 433 0 2 Balance in Hand……………… 341 4 6 Total…………………….. £7,118 15 5 VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Africa.-Stanley's Remedy fOI Slavery in rangements for establishing steam locomotion Africa.-There is only one remedy for these on the Zambes!. wholesale devastations of African aborigines, and that is the solemn combination of Eng- -The drink traffic with the native races of land, Germany, France, Portugal, South and Africa received a large share of attention at East Africa, and Congo State against the in- the annual meeting of the English Congrega. troduction of gunpowder i'lto any part of the tional Union in London, and the question was continent except for the use of their own ably presented by the Rev. John lIfcKenzie, agents, soldiers and employees: or seizing who moved a resolution strongly condemning upon every tusk of ivory brought out, as there the traffic, and expressing the hope that meas· is nota single piece now·a·days which has been ures might be devised for exterminating it. gained lawfully. Every tusk, piece and scrap, He suggested that a geographical belt be in the possession of an Arab trader has been fixed in Africa by international agreement, steeped and dyed in blood. Every pound north or south of which it should be illegal to weight has cost the life of a man. woman or introduce strong drink. child: for every five pounds a hut has been burned: for every two tusks a whole village -Congo Balolo Mission.-We have news has been destroyed: every twenty tusks have from the third party of Balolo volunteers, been obtained at the price of a district, with who are gone to found the John Wallis Alex- all its people, villages and plantations. It is ander station on the Maringa. They made a simply incredible that becanse ivory is required brief stay in Madeira, and proceeded by the for ornaments or billiard-games, the rich Portuguese steamer. Several offers of service heart of Africa shonld be laid waste at this from fresh volunteers of suitable character Jate year of the nineteenth century, signalized have since been made, and £500 have been as it has been by so much advance: that popu- received for the establishment of the fourth lations, tribes and nations should be ntterly station, which will be caJled Berger Sta- destroyed.-Scribner's Magazine. tion, and will probably be situated on the -The statement made by the Duke of Fife, Juapa. at the meeting lately held at the Mansion House, to forward resolutions against the un· Australia.-Evangelization Society of restricted importation of arms and intoxicants Victoria.-The sixth annual report, like its Into Africa, is important. He stated that predecessors, is a story of the gospel testi· although they (the B. S. A. Co.) were not reo mony in districts remote from the abundant presented at the Brussels Conference, they means of grace which are the privilege ofthe were in thorough agreement with its aims. larger centres of population. During last year' One of the directors of the British South 66 missions were conducted, 134 places being Africa Company has lately, in an 'interview visited altogether. The evangelists not only with the King of the Belgians, said that they cheered by their efforts many Christian wished to take active steps to co·operate in people living in comparative isolation, but, by any anti·slave resolutions passed at Brus· the blessing of God, were enabled to arrest sels. The Dnke of Fife also stated at the many sinners on a downward course, a.nd Mansion House that they had resolved abso· point them to the Saviour. Mr. C. Carter is. lutely to prohibit the sale of intoxicants to the secretary of the society, whose offices are 131 natives. In this they will be only following in the steps of the African Lakes Company, Russel st., Melbourne. which has always signalized itself by refusing to have any share in the sale of intoxicants to Belgium.-In a recent communication, the natives. The British South Africa Com- M. Anet, of Brussels, mentions that during the pany is working in entire co-operation with the past year over 500 new members have been African Lakes Company, aRd is making ar- added to the Christian Missionary Church of Belgium from the ranks of Popery and infidel- ity. This small but most devoted body has 32 pastors, 4 evangelists,7 Bible-readers, and 5 colporteurs, and it occupies 87 different lo- calities, in which the gospel is preached. We are extremely sorry, however, to see that it a volume of 1,000 pages probably, will be a has fallen behind in its finances. noble contribution to the already opulent -The appointment by King Leopold of Mr. literature of missions.
Stanley as Governor-General of the Congo ~Statistics.-The follOwing is a summary Free State, and the acceptance of the appoint- of the statistics presented to the' conference, ment, will he gladly received by all civilized carefully compiled by the Rev. J. W. Davis, nations. D.D., of Soochow: Brazil.-The church at Sao Paulo has Foreign missionaries-Men, 589; wives, 390; Over 700 pupils, and the principal has been single women, 316. Total, 1,295. compelled to refuse admission to more than fifty in one month for want of room. Brazilian Native helpers-Ordained ministers, 209; }.fission says, "In several of the States of the unordained, 1,260; female helpers, 180. New Republic it is proposed to make attendance on the public primary schools, to be or- Medical work-Hospitals, 61; dispensaries, ganized under the new government, compul- 43; patients (during 1889), 348,439. sory. Three hundred years of Romish ascendency has left Brazil with over eight millions of Churches-Organized churches, 520; wholly people who can neither read nor write. " self-supporting, 94; one-half self-supporting, 22; one-quarter self-supportin!l', 27. China.-Conference at Shanghai.-We learn from Dr. Happer that the conference Bible distribution (1889)-Blbles, 1,454; New has been a great success—430 members, of Testaments, 22,402; portions, 642,131. Total whom 204 are ladies. It has been arranged to prepare a Union Bible in three versions, all 665,987. three agreeing in meaning-one in the high Communicants, 37,287. classical language, one in simple literary Pupils in schools, 16,816. style, and one in Mandarin colloquial. This Contributions by native Christians, uniting on one Bible, after forty years of separation, is cause for devout thankfulness and $36,884.54. rejoicing. When the report was brought in, The statistics of our own church (the Presthe doxology, "Praise God, from whom all blessings fiow," was sung, and devout thanks byterian Church North) are included in the above sumn;tary. Dr. Happer also kindly gives them separately for the convenience of all interested: Men, 58; wives, 43; single women, 21; in all, 122.
Native members of Presbyterian Church North,4.
Statistics of the eight Presbyterian bodies in China-Men, 124; wives, 93; single ladies, 46; in all, 263.
Whole numher of Presbyterian Church mem- bers, 12,347.
Whole number of pupils, 3,794. Whole amount of contributions, $13,007.
given in public prayer. A full report.from him -A converted Chinaman on the Pacific in our next issue. coast sold himself to work as a coolie in New Rev. Dr. Thwing also sends us this concise Guinea for the sake of working among his own statement of the character and doings of the countrymen, and hefore he died he personally conference: led to Christ 200 of his companions. How 1. It was notable on account of its infre- many of such heroic lives have no written an- <J.uency. Held but once in a dozen years or nals, save in God~s "book of remembrance!"
more, it had a special value. Rarum charum France.-Missionary Conference at est. Chamounix.-There wiII (D. Y.) be a mis- 2. Its numerical size. No such gathering of sionary conference at Chamounix during foreign missionaries on heathen soil has been August, probable date 18th to 22d, for prayer before seen. At the first conference 129 were and praise, in connection with various fie1ds enrolled; 432 in this meeting. of gospel labor, information concerning which 3. Its geographic scope. Some were two, will be given by Rev. F. B. Meyer, of Regent's three or more weeks coming from distant Park Chapel, London; Pasteur Vernier, of parts of the empire by slow boats or slower Valence, Drilm,,; Pasteur Lecoat, of Tremel, mule-carts. India, Japan, Europe, and Brittany; lIIonsieur R. Sailleus, of the McA11 America were also represented. Mission, Paris, etc. All Christian friends are 4. Its intellectual and moral power. It was earnestly invited. For information as to a brainy conference. There weremissionar- railway fares, board and lodging, etc., appli- ies new and old, gray-haired sinalogues, auth- cation may be made to Rev. N. L. BIuett, ors and Oriental scholars, physicians and sur- Avenue de la Gare, Annemasse, Haute Savoie, geons, specialists in various branches of study France.
and men eminent ·as educators or in the ad- India.-All missions at work among the ministrative departments of service. Santals report numerous accessions and rapid 5. The devotional and spiritual temper of development. At the present rate of progress, the body kept pace with its intellectual. Oc- in a few years Santalistan will be as thor- casional flies got into the ointment, but, for all oughly Christianized as Tinnevelly now is.
that, the ointment was pungent and precious. The Norwe~ian Lutheran Mission has a mem- 6. The wide horizon of thought opened by oership of 5,272 at 14 stations. More than 400 the fifty papers and the substantial unity of were baptized last year. Mr. Campbell, of the the conference in its central current of thought Scotch Free Church, reports very hopefully made it a stately and commanding power. of his section of the field; he cannot provide .Its well-prepared papers and debates, making teachers fast enough to instruct the people who are anxious to embrace the new faith. in Bordaux, as apostOlic missionary in Africa, From other sections ofthe field similar reports and as missionary preacher in lIfadrid and are received. The set time to visit India's Barcelona. Pastor Rodriguez sends us his aborigines seems to have come. The Dlissions photograph and an interesting sketch of nis which have been properly equipped and effi- life. Much may be expected from him. cientlymaintained are able to take full advan- tage of this movement toward Christianity.- Sweden.-Our readers may remember the Indian Methodist Times. request for prayer that recently ClIme from -A great field is opening in India for female missionaries. Owing to the secluded our brother Leonard at Stockholm. A card condition in which the native WOmen of that country are kept they can only be reached, to under date June 10 says: "With great pleasure any considerable extent, especially in the cities and large towns, by those of their own I write of the answer to prayer in the recent sex. Mrs. C. W. Forman, of Lahore, writes: conference in Stockholm. They decided with- " The women of India in the cities are not out a dissenting voice to begin a mission in reached by the preachers of the gospel; some China, and as soon as possible one in Africa. have never seen one. I do hope we shall soon A young man came forward to offer himself have ladies here in Lahore to take up the for China, and said it was laid upon his heart Zenana work. If we had nine or ten ladies to be a missionary when he was seven years visiting in the city they might never meet old. There was great rejoicing. Pray that each other at their work, and yet there would many others may follow." be portions left untouched. Oh, indeed, we want no curtailment of the work amongst the Tibet. – The Tibet Prayer Union.-Mrs. women; it is when they are reached that a bright day will dawn for India." Polhill Turner, writing from Kan-suh, China, • This call should not be unheeded. The re- asks: "Are Christians quite unmindful of the sponsibility rests upon the Church. Women in large numbers are willing and ready to leave multitudes in perfect bondage to Buddhism in home and kindred and enter upon this work At once if the Church will supply the means. Tibet and the neighboring districts? we hear Japan.-During the year ending April 30, so little of prayer for the work among them. 2,129 converts were received into the churches The devil has immense power through the of the A. B. C. F. M., an average of over 43 to Lama system. Attacking him among Tibeteach church; 43 of the 49 churches are self-sup- ans will be no child's play, but a tremendous porting. Christianity is advancin¥ rapidly, struggle, and if the work is not of God it will be yet there are still 250,000 Buddhist prIests in the an utter failure." No, we are not unmindful of empire, or more than eight times the total Tibetand the multitudes enslaved by that vast number of Christians. religious system, whose practical atheism knows no Creator, no sin, no soul, and no Sav- -The Congregationalist Church at Oka- iour. Our experience of nearly forty years' yama has 542 members and a Sunday'school of work among Tibetan Buddhists bears out the more than a thousand scholars. Itsnpports, be- statementthatitis no child'splay. ltisa tresides its own pastor, 4 paid evangelists, 13 out- mendous uphill struggle,. and, in the conviction stations, a Young 1len'8 Christian Association, that our own and any other missionaries ena women's temperance society, a monthly gaged in it need the special and constant intermagazine and a small dispensary. cession of Christians at home, we have started a" Tibet Prayer Union." A minor feature of Mexico.-We are glad to report that plans this Union is the request to those who are pri- vately willing to be known to one another as for the establishment of a theological training intercessors for Tibet, to Rev. B. La Trobe,29 school which shall meet the wants of the mis- Ely Place, London, E. C. Among the names sions in Mexico have at last been completed. sent .in are some from the Continent and the Preachers who can speak the Spanish language United States. And we know that others have are needed in the southwestern sections of the marked the invitation in the Periodical Ac- Unites States as well as across the border, and counts for March, 1890, and are acting (indeed hence it has been felt that the New West Edu- in some cases have long been acting) on the cation Commission and the American Home suggestion, without desiring to be named. The last quarterly letter of the Moravian Prayer ~:,~~:~ ~~~';fYinm:~~t ::i~t~~~t;c:i~~ t~~ Union has again shown hearty interest and co- operation. institution for the training of theological stu- United States.-Dr. Arthur Mitchell, ~~~t;e':~l~ o"t:~~~r:t~~:!~:~~a~a~a~~ secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign establishment of the" Rio Grande Congregational Training School," which is to be located Missions, who has been visiting its stations in at Ciudad Juarez, formerly known as Paso del Norte, which is just across the Mexican line Asia, is impressed with the vast unoccupied from El Paso, Texas. Rev. A. U. Wright, of Cosihuriachic, has been detailed for this work fields in Central China. Cities of from 75,000 on the part of the American Board, and has to 300,000 population have not one missionary already moved to Ciudad Juarez. It is ex- of any denomination, or even one native helppected that the institution will be opened in er. In traveling by canals from Hang Chow the early autumn.-Missionary Herald. to Shanghai, a day's journey, he passed scores of great cities, with teeming populations, Spain. – The Jesuit, Father Raphael de totally destitute of gospel influences. What Zufa Menendez, of Spain, has been received causes especial grief to him is the fact that into the Protestant Church by Pastor Lopez these places are so accessible, both geographi- Rodriguez. He was well known as professor cally and as respects treaty relations. He writes, "There is as little excuse for leaving a city of 100,000 souls on the New York Central railroad without one single preacher of the gospel, as for leaving cities of that size, and of double that size, utterly neglected within twenty-four hours of Shanghai." Surely, China's neglected millions appeal pathetically to Christendom.
-By the kindness of friends, a copy of Dr. Pierson"s "Crisis of :Missions" has bean presented to each of the students attending the Divinity Halls of the Uhurch of Scotland at Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Aberdeen.
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE AUGUsor NUMBER
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE AUGUST NUMBER.
PAGE PAGE I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS …… 561–603 ENGLAND.-Society for the Propaga- n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLI- tion of the Gospel: Origin and Operations GENCE. . . . . . •• •. • . . . . . . . . . •• •• 603-612 in the 18th Century, 580; dO., Report for rn.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE.. 612-616 1889, 636; Report of Presbyterian Church IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.•. 616-624 for 1889, 636; Report of London Mission- V.-MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS 624-628 ary Society, 635; do., Universities Mis- .VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT sion ……………………………… 633 FRANCE. – Missionary Conference at TOPICS ••… i ••………… 627-633 Chamounix………………………. 633 vn.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK INDIA.-Useful Literature Society, 607; Irish Presbyterian Church, "Jungle Tribe AND STATISTICS…….. _• _" •• 633-637 .l-Iission," 569; Missions Among the San- vrn.-PROGRESS OF MISSIO"S: MONTH- tals, 638; Need of Female Mi~sionaries .. 63~ Indians, Defeat of the "Wbipple Bill" .••.. 632 LY BULLETIN .. _…..•.•….. 637-6.39 ITALY.-The Free Christian Church …. 614 IX.-INDEX TO CONTENTS…… •.•••• 640 JAPAN.-A. B. C. F. M. Mission, 639; Buddhist Priests……………………. 639 Authors. Jews. Professor Delitzsch. on Conversion of the…… .. …………. _……. 575 EDITORS.-A. T. Pierson, Letters from Judson. Mrs. Adoniram (Ann Hazeltine), A Abroad, No. VI., 567; The Lack of Missionary Heroine, by Dr. Bradford … 561 Consecration and Prayer, 583; Edi· "Jungle Tribe Mission" of the Irish Presby- torial Notes,627; J. M. Sherwood, Edi- terian Church……………………… 569 torialNotes………………………… 630 ME Xleo. – A Theological Training Agnew, Eliza, The Story of, in Ceylon…•• 596 Bradford, A. H., D.D., A Missionary Hero· Schoo!. ……………………………. 639 Missionary Exposition, A Grand Picture of 627 ine ……………………………….. 561 NEW HEBRIDES.-The Jubilee of the Cross, Rev. R. T., Prayer and ~1issions .••. 580 Delitzsch, Dr. Franz, Biblical 'Thoughts on ~Iissions Established there ……..•• , . .. 691 Prayer. Dr. PlArson, Editorial, 583; Prayer the Conversion of the Jews, translated by Professor Schodde •..•••….•••….•• 575 and Missions, 588; Prize Essay on, 630; Ellinwood, F. F., D.D., Missions in Papal Answered Prayer…. ……………… 633 Europe, 624; Are they "Rice Christians~" 627 Prize Offer for Contributions on Answers Gracey, J. T., D.D., International Depart- toPrayer………………………….. 630 ment……………………………. 616 SCOTLAND.-Free Church of Scotland. Happer, J. Stewart, A Chinese Secret So- Report and Statistics for 1889-90, 635; ciety and its Influence on Evangelistic United Presbyterian Church, Report and Work …………………………… 600 Statistics for 1889………………….. 635 Hamlin, Dr. Cyrus, Letter to I. M. U…… 622 SOUTH AMERICA.-Strategic Points. 608 Shedd, Dr. J. H., Letter to I. M. U……:. 623 SPAIN.-Conversion of the Jesuit Father Steel, Rev. Robert, D.D., The Jubilee of the Raphael de Znfa Menendez…………. , 639 New Hebrides Mission…. . .. . …• . • .. .. 561 SWEDEN.-Answered Prayer……….. 639 Storrow, Rev. Edward, Foreign Missions SYRIA.-Mr. Lethaby in "Ioab ………. 61() in the 17th and 18th Centuries (conclud- Student Volunteer Movement,608; Criti- ed) ……………………………….. 579 cism and Letters …………………… 631 TIBET.-Interesting Letter from Rev. Countries and Subjects. R. Gray Owen. 612; Letters from Rev_ Goo. Parker and Mr.Cecil Polhill Turner, AFRICA.-Portugnese Departure from 614; The Tibet Prayer Union ……….. _ 639 Nyassaland, 605; Experiences on Lake UNITED STATES.-Sailing of the Kan· Nyassa, 605; "An Awful Land," 605; sas Band of Missionaries for the Soudan, North Africa Mission, 605; Another Mis- 615; Chinese Secret Society and its Influ- sionary Martyr, 605; Dr. Felkin on ence on Evangelistic Work. 600; Dr. Uganda, 606; England and Germany in Mitchell's Views of China's Needs……. 639 East Africa, 606; The French in West Wesleyan Indian Missions Controversy… 570 Africa, 607; The Soudan Missionary Movement, 615; Universities Mission to Statistics. Central Africa, 633; Congo Balolo Mis- sion, 637; Drink TraffiC, 637; Stanley's Evangelical Lutheran Foreign Mission- Remedy for Slavery,637; Duke of Fife's ary Work–Table…………………. 634 Statement….. …… ………….. •…. 637 Free Church of Scotland, Reportfor 1889-90 635 AUSTRALIA. -Evangelization Society London Missionary Society, Report for of Victoria………………………… 637 1889-90 ….. .. .. ….. . …………….. 635 BELGIUM.-Uew Members to the Chris- Moravian Missions, Last Report………. 636 tian Missionary Church, 637; Stanley's Presbyterian Church of England, Report Appointment_…………… _ ……… 638 for 1889.. _………….. '" ………….. 63& BRAZIL.-Sao Paulo School and Educa- Society for the Propagation of the Golipel tion ………………………………. 638 in Foreign Parts, Report for 1889.. . _.. 636 CEYLON.-Eliza Agnew's wonderful United Brethren in Christ, Report for work ……………………………… 5Il} 1889-90 ……………………………. 683 CHINA-The Impending Opium Crisis: United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Anti-Opium Memorial, 612; Shanghai Conference, 638; Statistics Presented…. 638 Report for 1889 …. ……………….. 635 Universities Mission to CentralAfrica, Re· Continental Evangelization…………… 608 port for1889 …………………….. 633
The Missionary Review of the World — June 1890
MISSION TOUR OF BRITAIN
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIII. m. 6.-0td Series.—JUNE.-voL. IlL No.6.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
THE MISSION TOUR OF BRITAIN-No. IV. BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D. Edinburgh, Scotland, March, 1890.
DEAR DOCTOR SHERWooD-ApeHes' familial' maxim has been constantly before me in this mission tour of Britain: "Nulla dies sine linea." By the time this letter falls under the eyes of our readers, this six months of daily labor will have closed, and on May 31 it is. our expectation to sail for America. The aim has been to let no day pass without a new" line" of definite effort for the cause; Being now nearly at the end of the work, as mapped out for the British Isles, it may be well to record some impressions made by the-. experiences of four months in England and Scotland. Everywhere, the welcome has been most cordial and the co-operation most generous' and complete, recalling what Paul said of the Galatians, that they received him" as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." Everywhere the assemblies have been large, attentive, responsiv~, sympathetic. Invitations pour in upon the committee from every quarter, which it is impossible to provide for, and which indicate abundance of opportunity were time only at my disposal.
1. It is quite noticeable, first of all, that here, as in America, evangelical belief and evangelistic zeal are inseparably wedded. In proportion to the spread of doubt as to the realities and verities of the Christian religion, is the reign of indifference as to missionary enterprise,or at least, of practical apathy. A firm faith in the Word of God and the person of Christ; clear views of sin and salvation, of law and penalty, and of atoning love and grace, seem to be vitally connected with earnestness and enterprise in world-wide exangelism. Nothing has impressed me more than this, that wherever I have found any man or woman absorbed and engrossed in missions, invariably further acquaintance has revealed that there was also hearty acceptance, without question, of the grand truths of Christianity; so that 1 have come, almost unconsciously, to accept intelligent missionary enthusiasm as a safe gauge of soundness in the faith. It is to be fcared that the so-called" higher criticism" is making havoc of missions, so far as it prevails, not only because it insinuates doubt., if not misbelief, but because it diverts attention from what is practical to what is speculative. Dr. Gardiner well says that" Geological strata, studied from a mineralogical point, are very perplexing; but no one mistakes the significance of a boulder/ that is, at least, an unmistakable FACT, driven about for ages and rounded off by friction. The boulder has a history, and to that as a fact geology must accommodate its tale. The gospels are full of boulders: the sermon on the mount is one; the parables of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son are others. We must admit the boulder; and then we may ask how it came."
As to this new critical school, Delitzsch sagaciously says: "Willful contempt of external testimony and frivolity in the treatment of historical data have, from the very first, been the fundamental evils apparent in the manner in which modern critics have handled certain questions. Those two coryphcei of the modern critical school (Hitzig and Ewald) find themselves hemmed in between two foregone conclusions: 'There is no true prophecy,' and' There is no trne miracle.' They call their criticism' free,' but when examined more closely it is in a vise. In this vise it has two magical formularie~ with which it fortifies itself againt any impression from historical testimony. It either t.{rns the prophecies into merely retrospective glances, as it does the account of miracles into sazas or myths; or it places the events predicted so close to the prophet's own time that there was no need of inspiration, but only of combination, to make the foresight possible. That school of criticism which will not rest until all the miracles and propltecies which cannot be set aside exegetically, shall have been eliminated critically, must be regarded by the Church as self-condemned. "
Connected with this destructive "higher criticism" is almost always a speculative tendency as to the questions of eschatology, especially the future state of the heathen. Doubts creep in as to the doctrine of eternal punishment, and all the related teaching of Romans, Chapters T. and II., and kindred passages, as to the condemnation and exposure of those who have lived and died without the gospel. And the consequence is that, instead of promptly bearing to the heathen the saving gospel and leaving the hereafter to settle speculations, the energies of disciples are expended on speculations about the" eternal hope" and" future probation," while with each second of time a human being passes heyond the reach of Christian labor! Some questions never can be settled in this world; there are secrets that exegesis, criticism, research, archreology, philology, philosophy, are powerless to unlock. Let us leave them to Him who holds the keys of David, while we enter at once those open doors which He has set before us, and to every soul thus divinely made accessible let us carry the tidings of that name which is the only name whereby we must be saved.
2. The use of a good missionary map has been abundantly demonstrated. I have had with me the grand map of Prevailing Religions, generously lent me by William E. Blackstone, Esq., of Oak Park, Illinois, which is the most complete and accurate I have seen. It is prepared, not to show the various countries or nations, but solely the religious dominant syetems, and these are represented by various colors. 'l'his map, being about fifteen feet by ten, can be seen in any church where there is a space to hang it. It illustrates at a glance much that cannot be "seen by the ear," as an Irishman might say. I use it to make manifest four things: first, the vastness of the world-field, with its vast yet unoccupied spaces; secondly, the great plan of God's campaign, in which it is the map of his battleneld; thirdly, the grand successes of missions, in which case it represents a harvest-field; and fourthly, to show the possibility and the practicability of the church's actual possession of this world for Christ. I do not see how any man can speak very effectively for missions who does not learn how to use a first-class map, and how to address the eye as well as ear. Wherever this map has been hung and used it has been the most eloquent of orators, as Webster said of the silent shaft at Bunker Hill. Best of all is it, when the man who WJes it makes his own map, so that he has been over it in :all its details, and so knows just what it means and why everything is as it is represented. Together with this map, I have used two charts: one representing the comparative extent of the false and the true faiths numerically, and the other representing the comparative expenditure for frivolities ($100,000,000), for tobacco ($600,000,000), and for liquors ($900,000,000), annually; with another column showing the comparative expense, during ninety years, for missions and 1iquors, the latter reaching the enormous sum of $80,000,000,000 in ninety years, while the former would not reach over one two-thousandth part of that sum. 'l'hese estimates are for the United States alone, but they are about equally true for Great Britain.
The farther I go the more I feel that the great need everywhere is information. The bulk of the people do not know the facts about missions, and if those facts could be widely disseminated and presented in an attractive manner, no one can tell the result in quickening and intensifying interest throughout the Church. It is melancholy to see how little even intelligent people know of the real destitution which exists, the wide areas yet unsupplied with missionaries, and the great facts of missionary history and biography; and therefore it is that faith in missions is easily shaken with some. I heard Miss Child say, at Edinburgh, that at the gates of the Golden Horn the black gulls are seen flying, and, being never seen to rest or alight, are called" l08t souls." Even Moslem and Pagan peoples have a con,cep- tion of the soul as restless without God; and, to wander without such rest in Him, is the synonymn of all forfeited bliss. The same lady also remarked' that one hundred thousand people, representing every variety of national type and religious faith, p:}ss over the Gallica Bridge; but the proverb is, "Not one idea goes over," so little intel- lectuallife and vitalizing power does Turkey seem to provide for its subjects, and so little mental activity is there to be found in the Greek church, likewise.
But again, Miss Child said, that in Constantinople, when they build, a cross is set up in the corner of the scaffold, and it means a constant prayer to the patron saint of the builders at the Bosphorus until the work is completed. What a suggestion to those who are seeking to build up, whether at h~me or abroad, a true missionary work! Whether as pastors we seek to arouse our own people and the communities where we live, to a new intelligence and interest in God's world-wide work; or whether, as missionaries abroad, we are building up for God a church among the heathen, the cross should stand on the corner of the scaffold, and our eyes should be upon it. 'fhe work can only go on as the prayer of faith goes up. He who praY8 is he who build8. Here, above all, orare e8t laborare-work is worship.
Curious are the synchronisms and correspondences of history. 'fhe first slaving voyage from England was made in 1562 by Sir John Hawkins. Queen Elizabeth, on his return, called him to account, and expressed her disapproval of carrying off Aft-icans without their own consent, declaring such an act detestable, and invoking vengeance on the perpetrators of such deeds. Whatever assurance Captain Hawkins may have given that he would act within the limits of her majesty's instructions, and however he may have glossed over the iniquity of Bis doings, greed proved too powerful a temptation for his veracity and integrity. Captives on the African coast were very cheap, and the profits in St. Domingo were very ample, and the slave traffic went on.
In 1564, he sailed with four vessels, one of which was named the Jesur (Jesl1s?), and he made str;tight for Cape de Verde and Sierra Leone. At the Island of Sambala, Hawkins and his crew stayed for days, going on shore daily, burning and spoiling towns and taking the inhabitants for a prey. This voyage proving profitable, another was undertaken in 1567 in the Jesur, and some 400 or 500 captives secured. The voyage, however, proved disastrous, calamity after calamity befell them, and few of all the crew ever found their way to England. Yet Sir John went on with his work of trading in the bodies and souls of men, and records his sufferings as though he we~e writing" the lives aud deaths of martyrs," as, on previous prosperous voyages, he had entered on his log book, how God had not "suffered his elect to come to harm."
Curiously enougp, it was just 300 years from that time (1861-1865) that in America a civil war was raging, the natural fruit of that very slavery which such. traffic had planted on these shores; and in 1865, Abraham Lincoln struck the fetters from four millions of African slaves!
In 1622 Japan was driving out Catholics and Jesuits who brought to the empire of the Rising Sun a nominal Christianity but no Bible; and at the same time, at Plymouth, Pilgrims were landing from the Mayflower, and planting the Bible as the very corner stone of liberty and religion; and from their descendants, says D-r. A. J. Gordon, came Commodore Perry, who, in 1853 and 1854, more than two cen- turies later, 'was peacefully negotiating a treaty by which the faith of those Pilgrim fathers was to find its way into the island empire. How remarkable, too, was that year, 1858, for the opening of wide doors to Christian missions! That was the year when Japan, by treaties, made successively with the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Holland, became generally accessible to those nations; in that same year, China, which, by the treaty of Nankin, in 1842, opened five ports, Canton, Amoy, Foochou, Ningpo, Shanghai; further, by the treaty of Tien-Tsin, opened other ports and conceded t9 British subjects the right to travel under passports in the interior. That same year, 1858, India became part of the British Empire, and David Liv- 'It: ingstone a second time sailed to Africa to pioneer the way for mis- sionaries into the unexplored interior of that Dark Continent. Thus in one year the doors were mysteriously opened to mOl"e than half the population of the globe. Probably no such a series of providen- tial interpositions ever occurred in history before. The year 1858 ranks as the Annus Mirabilis.
Not only is God in missionary history by his providential inter- positions, but by his gracious transformations.
Whc;m Barnabas and Saul were separated, qualified, called of God and sent forth by the church at Antioch, to go to the Gentiles, they completed their mission tour by returning to Antioch and gathering the church together to rehearse all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the gentiles. Afterward, when they went up to Jerusalem, being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phamicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and caused great joy unto all the brethren. When they were come to Jerusalem they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders,and they declared all things that God had done with them, and what miracles and wonders He had wrought among the Gentiles by their agency.
It is most noticeable throughout these three chapters of the Acts (xiii., xiv., xv.), how constantly and emphatically God is recognized in the whole inception, progress and success of this first missionary campaign. Christ had accompanied the first great commission by a grand declaration, ".All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth;" and by an equally grand promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." .And now the .Acts of the .Apostles records the fulfilment of that promise. Such was the success of that campaign that it could be accounted for only on the ground of divine interposition. From first to last He is gratefully acknowledged and glorified. He selected the laborers and thrust them forth into his harvest fields; He set them apart, appointed them and annointed them for this very work, and as the church sent them forth, so also the Holy Ghost sent them forth and went with them. He who thus thrust forth the laborers, opened the doors, wide and effectually before them. Their entrance in unto the Gentiles was plainly of God. He gave. them access to foreign and hostile peoples and secured them an audience, and turned even their persecutions to a testimony, and their rejection into a welcome. Then he granted conversion unto the gentiles, and sanctification, purifying their hearts by faith. Then he wrought various miracles, signs and wonders by the hands of his apostles. So that throughout the whole course of their campaign GOD'S PRESENCE and POWER were conspicuous.
It is our deep conviction that no candid man can read the history of the last century of missions without being impressed that it is the twenty-ninth chapter of the .Acts of the .Apostles; and that through. out this whole historic chapter, as throughout the rest of that book, God's providence and grace are conspicuous. So far from missions being a failure, their success demands a supernatural force and factor as their only adequate explanation. From the time when William Carey began to revolve in his humble shoe shop at Hackleton the plan for a world's evangelization, all along through the periods of organization, .occupancy of the fields, and realization of results, the mighty hand of God is marvellously manifest. We believe that the study of missions is the effectual cure of all skepticism. If there be any modern Nathaniel who doubts whether any good thing has come out of Nazareth, let him" come and see." Let him read and study Robert Morrison, Charles Gutzlaff, Peter Parker, and their work in China; let him follow the footsteps of .Adonaram Judson and his devoted wives in Burmah and among the Karens; let him sail with John Williams through the South Seas, until he falls beneath the savage club at Eromanga; let him watch the work of Charles Wheeler on the Euphrates, and Dr. Barnum at Harpoot; let him go to Zululand and hear the native preachers now. telling the gospel story to their yet benighted countrymen; let him visit the crowded salles of Mc.All in Paris and the French provinces, and go for fo.ur months every night into a new station among these mercurial Frenchmen; let him go to the Eternal City and see thirty Protestant chapels within the walls where thirty years ago no Protestan t could bring a Bible; let the candid investigator go. into the Madras Presi- dencyand visit Tinnevelly, where in six months 16,000 were bap- tized, and the Telugu country, where 10,000 were baptized in a twelve- month; let him trace the footsteps of Fidelia Fiske in the Land of Esther, and sit down with her at the Lord's table with seventy young ladies brought to the Lord by her influence; let him visit the sun- rise Kingdom, and realize that the changes of ten years, as Kawmura says, have" left nothing as it was before except the natural scenery;" let him go to Formosa, where, on the twelfth anniversary of his arrival, McKay sat down at the Lord's table with 1,200 converts; let him who is willing to be convinced go to William Duncan's Metlakahtla and see a model Christian state among the Indians, whom some even now think good only to kill; let him go to old Calabar and see the heathenism of a thousand years yielding its long established customs and superstitions before the gospel; let him compare the India of to-day with scores of its cruel tortures and outrageous oppressions either abolished or abated; let him read t,he story of Madagascar and the twenty-five years of persecutions that not even with scalding water and martyr-fires, with hurling from precipices and drowning in the sea, could intimidate Malagasy disciples; let him go to Aniwa and see John J. Paton's memorial, a savage cannibal population turned intoa Christian community, with churches, schools, hospitals, hallowed homes and civil order suoh as becomes a Christian state; let him look on the thousand churches of the Fiji group, many of them built on the site of cannibal ovens; let the doubter who is willing to be convinced that God is in missionary history, follow the steps of the mission band from William Carey's sermon in Kettering in 1792 to the latest triumph of men of faith and of prayer who still " attempt great things for God," and" expect great things from God;" and he will find himself following the pillar of cloud and fire, and. dazzled by the glory of the Shekinah !
We have written and spoken for twenty-five years upon missions. And to-day, conscious that we stand a quarter of a century nearer the bound of life, where burdens of duty are laid down for the nnresting but unwearying service of a higher life, we calmly and confidently say that, for closeness of fellowship with God, and for the vivid vision of His almighty power, and for the effectual removal of all honest doubt as to a supernatural presence in human history, and especially the work of world-wide evangelization, we know of nothing equal to a participation in preaching the gospel to the lost.
After about three months of missionary campaigning in Scotland, my tour closed there on the twenty-thircl instant, with meetings at Campbeltown, Cantire, and;as was becoming, a closing meeting in that border city, Berwick-on-Tweed, which is on the Scotch side of the 'l'weed, but within ,English jurisdiction. From first to last there has been but one experience of welcome from all disciples, and gen- erous cordiality and hospitality.
At Alloa, in connection with one of the grandest meetings held north of the border, I saw a man that reminded me of what Bayard Taylor said to Baron von Humboldt: " You have seen a great many ruins, :Mr. Taylor," said the Baron, "and now you behold another." " No, not a ruin, but a pyramid," responded the accomplished author of " Views Afoot." So I felt when I saw in my audience that venerable man of ninety, who is one of the noblest givers of his generation-David Paton, Esq. In the course of his life he has contributed to missions his whole fortune of some million dollars, and is now living on a small annuity. Yet when in course of my address he heard me refer to the present straits of the McAll missions and the threatened danger of being compelled to close thirteen of the Salles for lack of funds, out of the little left to him, David Paton managed to contribute another two hundred andfifty pounds sterling (nearly $1,250), as a letter from Dr. :McAll jnst informs me. It was worth going to Alloa to look upon such a " pyramid."
That meeting at Alloa was an example of energy in working up plans for a public assembly. The week days are, of course, the difficult times in which to secure large gatherings for such purposes. Almost all the local committees beg for a Sabbath, and the Central Committee regret that Sunday comes but once in seven days. But although Alloa is one of the smaller towns and the only day that could be given was a Wendesday, the great Town Hall was crowded and not a few had to go away without getting even standing room. And, writing of meetings, it is very, noticeable how much the success of a meeting depends on the spirit of the local committee of arrangements, and even on the way in which what the Scotchman calls the "intimations" are given. I happened to be present in Barony' Church, Glasgow, when the genial and gifted Dr. Marshall Lang was announcing the meeting to be held at St. Andrews' great hall on the Monday evening following. He said: "We are to hold a great meeting to-morrow night. If you want to get a seat you must go early; and that you may not fail if you go early, I have had enough tickets brought to the church to supply such as wish to go; and if you find you cannot go, you must surrender your ticket to some one else who will." Of course St. Andrews' great hall was filled. " According to your faith be it unto you," is true in more spheres than one. The very next Sunday I happened to be where a brother minister, who felt great misgivings about the week-night meetings being a success, besought his people to go, as many as possibly could, all though he wished to save it from disastrous failure. Both enthusiasm and des- pondency are contagious, as this campaign furnishes abundant proof.
After having held 150 meetings in England and Scotland, from Bristol to Aberdeen, and from London to Glasgow, there are now more applications unfilled than brought me over the sea last autumn, showing that there is abundant opening for work of this sort. As yet Wales and Ireland are untouched. England has been approached only at some principal points like London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liv- erpool, Leeds, Leicester, Oxford, etc. Even Scotland, where three months have been spent, has not been overtaken. Inverness, Elgin, Forres, and all the country north of that line we have been unable to -embrace in the tour, not to speak of many other places as large as Kirkcaldy, which in the more southern portion have been necessarily omitted. One of the most delightful visits I have yet made was to St. Andrews, the venerable university town, sacred to the martyrs of Christ, and consecrated by the graves of such men as Halyburton, Rutherfurd, Adam Ferguson, and the like. I was a guest of Dr. A. K. H. Boyd, the Moderator-elect of the Established Church As- 'sembly, whose pen has made his name a household word far beyond the limits of his voice. Under his genial guidance I went to see the famous" bottle dungeon," where Wishart and other martyrs were con- -fined, and saw the spot where he and Hamilton were burned, and the window from which Beaton was hung, just opposite, in the castle; we walked through the Abbey grounds and among the University build- ings, only regretting that the time was so short.
Scotland is full of accomplished men, and from many a humble llOme has gone martyr or missionary. From one lowly cottage in 'Strathaven, went the Martin brothers, William, Gavin and James, two of them to India, the other to Jamaica. Then a son of James followed, then the surviving sister, allfive to the foreign field. And when I spoke at Edinburgh to the students on Friday evening, March 14th, two more sons of those Martin brothers came up to me and -shook my hand and told me they were in training for the same work! Seven from one house-we might almost say from one cradle! What a land of missionaries would this be if the cradle-s were consecrated! From how many other humble homes whose kingdom cometh not with observation might there go forth bands of missionaries to spread the good tidings!
In all my addresses here I have sought to impress the vital connection of prayer with missions. Nothing is more important-notlling is so important. The work is essentially divine in conception and ,execution. This supernatUl:al gospel can accomplish that supernatural 'work of conversion only through a supernatural power, the Holy Ghost. Prayer is the only hold we have upon the Spirit of God, and Ithel;efore prayer is the single secret of all blessing upon our work.
PASTOR HARMS AND HIS MISSION WORK. [June-
Prayer means every other form of blessing. It means plenty of workmen, it means open doors of access, it brings plenty of money and means, it brings unction upon the workmen, it brings success of the highest sort on the field, large harvests and frequent harvests-the rain on mown grass making the grass to grow again for another crop.
Those who cannot go, who have no child to give, and but little' money to give, can pray)' and it is noticeable that of all the gifts we can offer, this of fervent supplication is the most emphasized in the· New Testament!
Our beloved friends in Scotland have, with characteristic generosity, crowned all their former loving kindness with one last act, of which I can hardly write without indelicacy and yet scarcely forbear to write without ingratitude. Just as my three months' campaign, closes, a letter reaches me from the beloved and venerable Rev. Dr. Andrew Thomson, of Edinburgh, announcing that the" Duff Trustees. have appointed me as their next lecturer on missions." Dr. Thomson. gracefully adds that" nothing could be more cordial than the appointment, as well as more gratifying to himself, and that he hopes no obstacle may be found to stand in the way of my acceptance." This lectureship, founded in memory of Dr. Alexander Duff, has already been filled by such men as Dr. William Fleming Stevenson and Sir Monier' Williams, etc. It deserves mention in these letters, for, as it seems to· the new appointee, this election is not so much a tribute to the capacity and ability of the lecturer-elect, as it is a beautiful and graceful expres!'lion of appreciation for the work that he has sought to do in, Scotland. If the way shall appear open for acceptance, it will give· opportunity also for the gathering up of the loose threads of a some– what scattered and imperfect impression, and weaving them into a more substantial and permanent form. This last act of our Scottish friends we cannot but esteem an undeserved honor, but it is the most fragrant laurel wreath that has ever been placed upon the writer's head; and it is specially grateful as the last of a long series of generow; and appreciative acts, crowning this short mission tour of the churches with a diadem that shows rather the princely nature of my hosts than the princely title of their American guest. One hesitates, to follow where such men have led. But if the providence of God shall permit, we shall feel constrained to say, like Franklin of his. illustrious predecessors at the Court of Versailles, "I come to follow,. not to succeed them !"
PASTOR HARMS AND HIS MISSION WORK.
BY REV. LEWIS GROUT, WEST BRATTLEBORO, VT.
LOllis Harms, the son of a Lutheran minister, was born in 1809,. at Hermannsburg in Hanover, and educated at Gottingen. From his youth he gave promise of being, as he proved to be, a man of manystrong parts-thoughtful, sympathetic, self-reliant-a man of great energy, industry and perseverance, together with a kindness of feeling and a high sense of honor, truth and purity, that could not fail to win the confidence and esteem of all who should know him. ,His good judgment, good memory, and great activity made him a good man- ager of great enterprises; while the great simplicity of his trust in God, his strong faith, and rare devotion, made him bold and strong to attempt great enterprises. Such a man was needed in just the times and place in which he lived. Many of the two millions of people around him were given to infidelity, many to formalism and worldli- ness. Few of them cared at all for either the house or the word of God. For a man of traits like those of Harms: the l,ord had a great work, both in Hanover and among the heathen beyond the sea. But for this work the man must have more than natural talent-must be himself first roused to a new spiritual life. To this he was moved and converted by reading the tender, loving words of Christ in his intercessory prayer. Being himself divinely imbued with the spirit of his new Master, he entered at once upon his labors of love for others, and soon became assistant pastor in his native village; and at the age 'of forty, on the death of his father, refusing many temptiftg calls to other places, he became pastor of the parish in which he was born and reared, and set himself to the joyful work of developing in it the best type of a useful church and ministry.
Nor was it long ere his earnest efforts began to yield a rich return. " The attendance in church increased; reverence for the Bible grew; there was more conversation on sacred things, more order and neatness in the village, and the 'Hermannsburghers' became a proverbial people. The noon bell was sounded, and every head was bared in prayer. No- where else in Hanover was a parish to be found where apostolic piety seemed revived as here, in the consciousness of a present Christ and a present Spirit, and in the effectiveness of the means of grace."
And now the heart of the pastor began to beat warm and strong for the millions in heathendom, especially in Africa, who had never as .yet heard of the love of that Saviour who had died for them. Upon this he began to speak to his people. Sometimes the subject gave him wakeful hours at night; sometimes he made it the theme of a dis- course on the Sabbath, and often was it the chief topic of remark in his visits from house to house among his people. They soon caught his spirit, and began to talk of the work among themselves and with their pastor, and some of them began to give. Their first contribution was a silver penny from a child, sixpence from a poor laborer, and six shillings from a widow. Little did these humble givers think what" a soaring pillar of fire" was to come from these trifling sparks, by means of which many a benighted soul on the Dark Continent would yet be guided and cheered in the way of life. And now this enthusiastic pastor begins to urge his church and parish to give themselves, personally and practically, to the work, be- {Jome responsible for a portion of the heathen world, form a society, choose a. field, and go in person, or help send others of their own number to man the field. 'rwelve came forward and offered to go, one of whom gave his farm as well as himself. With the avails of the farm a training school was established, where the twelve put . themselves under their pastor's teaching for two or three years, by way of preparation for mission work. Then the people began to study and plan with their pastor how they should send their brethl·en, when they should be ready, and provide for their support. Meantime, others offered themseives and came into the training school for instruction, and among them a number of newly converted sailors from the German fleet. Then some of the peasants expressed a wish to go as farmers, and some of the villagers as tradesmen or mechanics. In this way a new element was infused into the scheme, emigrants or ()olonists being now associated with the missionaries, and the hope cherished that the mission might eventually become self-supporting. And here the pastor himself is not only greatly encouraged, but set forward and furnished with a new idea; for, says he, "Without these sailors we should never have become colonists; for we, honest but somewhat stupid, heath-people, should never have dreampt of sending out any but real missionaries." And then, too, out of these sailors, they got the idea of building and having a ship of their own for mission purposes. Putting their minds and hands together, by faith, work and prayer, the ship was built, and the much-loved pioneer pastor, with some hundreds of his parishioners, took a special train to Hamburg to see the new ship, christen it Candace, and dedicate it to the work of carrying the gospel to the Ethiopians. Eight of the twelve candidates for appointment as missionaries being accepted, together with eight colonists, on the 21st of October, 1853, the Candace took them joyfully aboard, weighed anchor, and spread her sails for Mombas and the Galla country, via the Cape and Port Natal.
And now it was, on reaching their desired haven, that their faith and zeal were put to the first and severest test. The Mohammedan powers at Mombas, subject as they were to the Imaum of Zanzibar, jealous of all foreign influence, and especially opposed to the· incoming of Christian missionaries, set themselves firm against the proposed enterprise, and compelled the missionaries to depart. "The Arabians themselves towed the ship, with wild cries, out of the harbor of Mombas, as if they had gained ·ha1£ a world by getting rid of the Christians." The Candace now put back to Natal, where she had called on her way up the coast a few months before. Here they had a glad reception by some of their own countrymen, by missionaries from other lands, and by the Government of the colony. Without renouncing the hope of yet reaching the Gallas, on which their hearts are deeply set, they settle down to begin work where they are. Consulting with others' as to the best way and place to begin, on the 19th of September, 1854, with five ox-teams, after the Dutch Boer fashion, they reach the seat of their first and central station, which they call by the dear homeland name of " Hermannsburg," on a large farm of six thousand acres, called" Perseverance," and situated on the Iuhlimbiti, one of the inland branches of the U mvoti, their purpose being to strike out, eventl].ally, from this in different directions, especially into Zululand and the regions beyond, even to the Gallas, as the field should open and their forces increase. Already had they entered on their work by making tours of observation and by studying the language of the people with other missionaries, and aiding them in their work as best they could.
Having fixed upon a station, their next work, like that of other enterprising missionaries in the same or any similar wild and barbarous region, was to build themselves a house in which to live and a place in which to worship. To this they devote themselves at once in right good earnest, and yet keep up their study of the language,. and let pass no good opportunity to teach the people in whatever would be helpful to them, both in this life and the next. The carpenter, with the best workers in wood, went to·" the bush" for timber. The smith made ready a smithy for work in iron. The farmer gathered a native force to care for the teams and help him in his husbandry. The mason, with a few good helpers, began to make brick. The thatcher worked in the garden till he was wanted on the roof. The cook, as yet without a kitchen, had" a laborious business to feed so many hungry people." They planned to build a house· 120 feet by 40, with eight dwelling-rooms and twelve bedrooms, a large dining alld sitting-room, a large kitchen, and a long hall running through the centre from end to end. The writer, bEing there on a visit at a later date, after the house had been finished, and the mission enlarged by the incoming of other members, found this house the abode of thirteen families, who took their meals all at one table in the large central dining-room. Here, too, they all met,. morning. and evening, for family worship; and everything, as the visitor was atl>ured by the superintendent and his lady, went on,. from day to day, in the most orderly and harmonious manner. Less than half a mile away there was another band of seven families, living in a similar manner in one house.
Nor was it long, considering the missionaries' imperfect knowledge of the language, before they began to get from God "an earnest of an extended blessing on their religious labors, and to be thus encouraged to persevere." Ere three months had expired four natives, a married couple and two others, who had been under instruction, came to their teachers with a wish to be baptized and make a public profession of their faith in the Saviour of whom they had been told. After some weeks of further instruction, on the first Sabbath of the new year, they were examined before the congregation, accepted, baptized, and made the nucleus of a church among the Zulus. Forthwith, upon this, say the missionaries, "Satan broke loose, and did all in his power to hinder and destroy their work; but, thanks and praise to God, his grace gained the victory." Writing home, they entreat their patrons and friends to help them in their prayers, that the Lord may give them true humility and a self-sacrificing faithfulness in their calling, that they may not look for soft beds, luxurious sofas and good eating and drinking, but look to the I.ord Jesus and the extension of His kingdom. Nor was it long ere they felt that they had still further evidence of God's readiness to bless them in the ~oming of many natives to be taught to know and read the gospel. Some of the natives ask the missionaries to come and teach them at their homes, in their kraals, and some bring their children to the station to be taught. "Are not these fair prospects 't 0, Lord Jesus, the seed sprouts already. Preserve it from the hail! "
:Meantime, the full and frequent reports and familiar communications which these missionaries and colonists make to their friends and patrons in their fatherland, and especially to their beloved pastor, who, in turn, from time to time, talks it all over with his people, or has much of it published in his missionary magazine, help to keep the stream of mission interest ever full and rising. The training school was kept full, usually numbering about fifty. In 1856, a second company, chiefly farmers and maids, was found ready to go out; in 1857, still another company, numbering forty-six, of whom twelve were missionaries, was sent out; and then, in 1860, still another, numbering twenty-nine, of whom four were missionaries, the l'est colonists. On one occasion more than a hundred stood ready to go at one time. All this led to the frequent founding of 'a new station, so that in 1860, six years from the beginning of their work at Hermannsburg, they had ten stations, four in Natal, three in Zululand; and, at the united request of the chief Sechele and the Dutch, they had sent and formed three stations among the Bechuana, which were proving prosperous, the schools large, the attendan~e upon Sabbath worship good, and baptisms many.
At the end of the first decade of this mission, 1864, they had founded 24 stations and started two more, and baptized 190 converts. How well founded, planned and managed was Pastor Harms' mission enterprise, is seen in the fact that it went on to live and prosper marvelously after his death, which occurred Nov. 14, 1866. The annual Christmas festival, at which the pastor and his devoted charge of peasants and villagers were accustomed to review their year's mission work, was still kept up; and at that held in 1870, they reported their work greatly enlarged. The number of stations in Africa was now said to be 37, of which 7 were in North Zululand, 5 in South Zululand, 8 in Natal, 2 in Alfredsland, 10 in Bechuanaland, and 5 in Little Mosika District. At these stations 200 persons re- ceived baptism during the previous year. They had also 5 stations in India and 1 in Australia. Two brethren were about to leave for California to labor there in behalf of the Chinese in that State. The moneys received for the support of the Hermaunsburg Mi1!sions the previous year amounted to 50,311 thalers. The expenditures were 44,590; the balance, therefore, in favor of the treasury was 5,721 thalers. Their South African missions continued to grow till they numbered 50 stations and 5,000 converts, when some 12 or 15 of these stations were swept away by war; since which, however, it is under- stood that some of these devastated 8tations have been rebuilt.
In 1886 the income of the Society was $48,500, its missionaries and native helpers numbered 219, of whom 40 were ordained Euro- peans, 50 laymen and 42 women, likewise Europeans. The native communicants numbered 4,680, and baptized persons, 12,120. The gain of the year was 260 communicants. Rev. Egmont Harms was secretary of the Society in place of his father, now deceased. Aside from South Africa, the Society was doing mission work in India, Australia and New Zealand.
At an early stage of his Zulu Mission, Pastor Harms began to look for some suitable person to have the general superintendence of the work, and made choice of Rev. Mr. Hardelalld, D.D. arid Ph., who for many years had been a missionary among the Dyaks in Borneo. Dr. Hardeland would take this charge on condition that the Mission' .should be brought, in some measure, into connection with the Lutheran Church of Hanover, so far, at least, as to require that Church to examine and ordain all missionaries who might be sent by the Hermannsburg Society to this field. To this Mr. Harms assE:llted. Dr. Hardeland reached the field in 1859, after which the mission was subject to his oversight and direction.
Nor should we fail to notice that Pastor Harms and his enterprising people seemed all the more interested and active in their homework becaustJ of. their interest in the foreign field. In addition to other charitable efforts, they established a refuge for discharged convicts, about whom there hung a taint of disgrace, whose sympathies were perverted, whose sensibilities had been hardened by crime, and whose career had alienated common confidence. Moved to pity and helpfulness toward this neglected class, the warm-hearted Hermannsburgers bought a farm and built an asylum on it to be a home for the helpless and the hopeless, and yet a means of self-help for those who ·could labor. And then, again, as a means of imparting information
THE RELIGIOUS WORK AMONG THE IMMIGRANTS
and promoting mutual sympathy among themselves, as also between themselves and their brethren in a distant land, they started a live missionary magazine. This gave employment, for a portion of their time, to some in the training school, and thus helped to prepare them for the handling of type and a preBs, in a land where press and type had never been known. Beginning in this humble way, this department of the work went on to unfold and grow, till, eventually, they had" a Parish Publishing House~ issuing catechisms, tracts, and the literature of the Gospel, yielding an annual profit of six hundred pounds sterling."
In the narrative before us, what pastor, missionary, or missionary society, church or individual, can fail to find instruction and inspiration? In the Hermannsburg pastor and people, what an example for us to study and be encouraged! In it we see what an earnest, devoted pastor, who has God and a responsive, united people to help him, can do in face of great obstacles. Pastor Harms was a man of faith. He made his work, whether at home or abroad, a work of faith. He had faith in God, and faith in his people. He was a man of prayer. Of God he asked-in faith-the help he needed from God; of his people he asked-in faith-the help he needed from them. Putting·and keeping his work before his people, making it their work, consulting with them, informing, cheering them, he had their confidence, their hand and their heart, and found that as the work grew upon them, the means to carry it on grew also. Pastor Harms was a man of great spirituality, and yet a man of affnirs, a great worker, intensely active, a great organizer and manager, eminently original, progressive, trustful, hopeful, faithful, successful. His ways and means of securing a mutually helpful interest .between the church at home and his missions abroad-his way of promoting a loving, personal sympathy and attachment between the laborers in the field and their patrons at home, are worthy of consideration in this day of diverse thought and study as to the best me~hods of mission work. Indeed, in all the union of individuality, fres~ess, freedom and fitness in his beneficent plans and labors, never running in the ruts of lifeless uniformity or imita– tion, always finding some good place or use for everybody and everything, and especially in his great simplicity of purpose, his Christly spirit, his consecrated life, there is much for the whole Christian world to admire and emulate to-day.
']'HE RELIGIOUS WORK A~fONG THE IMMIGRANTS.
BY REV. PROFESSOR GEORGE H. SCHODDE, PH. D., COLUMBUS, OHIO.- It is only within the last decade or two that the immigrant problem has assumed in the public mind a moral and religious phase, in a. measure crowding into the background the purely economic feature of the question. The number of strangers entering at our gates. average each year more than half a million. The new factor and fer- ment introduced into the thought and life of the nation by the advent of millions grown up' in environments and surroundings often radi- cally at variance with the ideas and ideals of American traditions, make the inquiry as to what is being done for the intellectual and religious education of these masses one of direct home interest, in which every citizen and Christian must look with personal concern and solicitude. This modern migration of nations is also a mjgration of national peculiarities; and the number of new comers is so great, that it is a question as to how far they will assimilate to American life, and how far they will attempt to impress the stamp of their own individuality upon our people. Experience has shown that the efforts made in the latter direction are far from being welcome innovations and transformations.
Naturally the State can do nothing for the religious wants of these strangers; and what is done in the way of establishing schools, is practically of. .little benefit on account of the language difficulty and the age of most of the immigrants. Only the second generation can hope to make use of the opportunities offered for intellectual improvement by the State. Accordingly, the whole work in this direction must be of a voluntary character, carried on by those whose interest in it prompts them to this labor of love. The immigrant, himself cannot be expected to do much for himself in this respect. As a rule they are poor, and are intent, above everything else, upon the establishment of a house and home. Then, the majority of them have grown up in State churches and have never learned the lesson of self-help in regard to church and school, which is the condition of success in America. They are helpless as regards both ways and means. Often, too, they are but little concerned about their highest and deepest interests-those of their souls and hearts-the religious life in the State churches being but poorly adapted for the develop- – ment of personal piety and a clear appreciation of;he individual's religious needs and duties.
The work has then been left for those religious organizatio;ns in our country which, from a national or confessional point of view, must evince the deepest concern for the spiritual welfare of the immigrant. Nearly all of these strangers who come from southern Europe and from Austria and Ireland are Roman ·Catholics, as are also, perhaps, one-third from Germany and Switzerland; while the great majority of the rest of the Germans, as also all the Scandinavians, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Finns, Icelanders, and a small per cent. from Austria are members of the Lutheran State Churches, the Reformed Church being represented by a small German and Swiss contingent. From a l'eligious point of view, at least twotlJi",]R of tIle immigrants are P,'otestants, or, at any rate, non-Roman Catholics. The new immigration spirit which has in the last three or more years taken hold of the Roman Catholic Latin nations in Europe, and has made the number of emigrants from those States almost equal to that from the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic nations of northern Europe, has not changed this proportion, to any perceptible extent, in favor of the Church of Rome, because the great majority of the Latin wanderers go to South America and not to the United States.
The work of the Roman Catholics for housing their portion of the immigrants is carried on more systematically than can be done by any of the Protestant denominations. The magnificent organization of the Church of Rome enables it to do effective work in this direction. Of the more than five hundred thousand children in Roman Catholic parochial schools, one-half or more are taught in languages other than the English. 'That Church claims no fewer than two million German members in the United States, divided into thirteen church provinees. Seminaries and ins,titutions for the education of priests and teachers multiply with great rapidity, and, in general, every effort is made to take care of their people and to keep them faithful members of the church. Just in how far this is to be regarded as consistent with the best American citizenship, is a mooted question. It is quite clear, that Roman Catholic ideas and methods in this regard are not yet in agreement with the public thought and conscience of the country.
The provision for the spiritual wants of the Protestant contingent naturally falls to the lot of that church to which it chiefly owes at least a formal allegiance, namely, the Lutheran. Unfortunately, the Lutheran Church of America, with its communicant membership of considerably more than one million, is a divided household of faith, the lines of separation being along a more or less rigid confessionalism, aided to some degree by linguistic and national divergencies; but, notwithstanding its divisions, the whole church is a unit inrecognizing in the home mission work among their newly arrived brethren in the great Woest and Northwest, the task above all other tasks for them to engage in. Accordingly, the Lutheran Church of this land has. bent all its energies upon the accomplishment of this one end, and of the four large general bodies and the independent Synods, numbering, in all, more than fifty Synodical organizations, there is scarcely one which does not take active part in this work. It is for this reason, chiefly, that this church has been able to take but a small part of the evangelization of the heathen world upon their shoulders. The large bodies of the General Synod and the General Council, indeed, carryon work in India and Africa, and the Southern I~utherans are beginning in Japan; but the largest complex of Synods, the Synodical Conference, as well as the independent Synods, engage in foreign mission work only in so far as they contribute to the missionary societies of Germany and the Scandinavian lands. Other denominations are not idle in this important field, but quite naturally cannot, and do not, accomplish what is being done by the Lutherans. The Methodists have a German membership of more than fifty thousand; the Presbyterians of nearly ten thousand; the Baptists are working among the Germans, while the Congregationalists have devoted their energies chiefly to the Scandinavians. The United Synod, a German body, representing the standpoint of the Prussian State church, in which the Lutheran and the Reformed confession are of equal authority, have a membership of about one hundred and twenty-five thousand; and the Reformed church, a German membership of fifty thousand. Of the more than a million Lutherans in America, at least two-thirds are non-English, she being the most polyglot church in the United States, no less than nine or ten languages being preached from her pulpits.
The care for the spiritual interests of the immigrant begins even before he leaves the fatherland. Small pamphlets have been published containing the address of every Lutheran or United Synod pastor in America, and these are scattered throughout the districts of Germany, informiug the immigrant where he can find a church home in America of his faith and confession. In Hamburg, Bremen, and <>ther seaport towns, immigrant missionaries have been stationed, who provide the people with good advice, and help 1;hem in general to get into Christian hands upon landing in America. In New York there are three Lutheran immigrant missionaries and two missionary houses, in which annually more than fifteen thousand strangers are housed and sent on their way. The Roman Catholics, too, have their mission house in New York, and the Methodists did have, but its discontinuance has been agitated amid the protests of the German brethren. In Baltimore there is also an immigrant missionary. These men and concerns are supported by the church at large, as the immigrants are charged only a nominal price for lodging and board, and the needy receive these free. The missionaries have large correspondence with the pastors throllghout the West.
The work of hunting up the new settlers and inaugurating the religious movement among them is the special task of the missionaries in the employ of the various Synods, who have scores of men engaged in this work. The ordinary method is to learn where there is a sufficient number of Germans or Scandinavians, or others, in a certain locality, and then to send a man there who is familiar with the language of the people. As a rule, no attempt is made at a church organization at once, even if the people were all nominally members of a State church in Europe. The most solid foundation for a congregation has, by experience, been found to be the establishment of parochial schools, in which the instruction of the young in the truths of Sacred Writ formfl the ellief feature. To this is added regular preaching, until the people are ripe for an organization, and with the assist- ance of the church building funds, if necessary, a house of worship is erected. But the parochial school system has been the backbone of the success of the Luther~lll church in the West. No less than 150,000 children are being educated in these schools at present, while the United Synod has more than twenty thousand in their schools. :More than two thousand teachers, nearly all males, are engaged in these schools, for the education of whom special' seminaries have been established at Addison, Ill., Woodville, Ohio, and elsewhere, or special courses have been arranged for this end in connection with the colleges and academies under the control of the church. The po- sition of the Lutheran church in the parochial school question differs radically from that of the Roman Catholics. While the latter are loud in th,,:ir denunciation of the public schools as "godless," the former establish their schools chiefly for the purpose of securing a religious education for their children, which, in the nature of the case, the State, because separated from the Church, cannot furnish; and besides, offering an education to those who are not acquainted suffi- ciently with the English language to make use of the public schools, the establishment of which is recognized by the Church as a duty of the State. The Lutheran church does not antagonize the public- school system; but for her own members she seeks to supplement it by supplying what, in her estimation, is the chief element of a true education, namely, the. religious.
It is from this standpoint that we can understand the opposition of the friends of the parochial schools in the Northwest to the re- cently enacted laws, particularly of Wisconsin and Illinois. There is no dissatisfaction with the demands of these enactments that pre- scribe that certain branches shall be taught in English, nor with their compulsory features, for in nearly all the parochial schools English is, in a greater or less extent, the medium of instruction in certain branches, and no one is more in favor of a thorough education than are the Germans and the Scandinavians. But those features of the new laws which virtually deprive these schools of their independence or of congregational control, by putting them under the supervision of county officials and non-religious authorities, have induced the tens of thou- sands of Protestants in Wisconsin and other States to inaugurate 'an agitation looking to a modification of the laws. The Protestants have steadily refused to go with the Roman Catholics in their opposition to the public schools, for the simple reason that they occupy an en- tirely different position over against these. On principle, the friends of Protestant parochial schools do not at all antagonize the school , system of the country; on the contrary, as a rule, their children for a certain number of years attend these schools, going to the parochial only for their religious training, especially for their preparation for confirmation. From these data it is plain why these church schools, established at so great a cost by the struggling non-English Chris- tians of the Northwest, have been one of the greatest features in the religious education of these people, doing a work which the State neither could nor would do.
In the line of higher education-the establishment of seminaries, 'Colleges, and other institutions for the special or partial benefit of the immigrant-immense strides have been made in the last half century. Then scarcely one concern of this kind existed; now, several of them are scattered over the whole land. The Lutherans maintain no fewer than twenty such establishments for the Germans alone, with an at- tendance of more than two thousand students. The capital invested in buildings reaches the millions, and the annual running expenses are fully $150,000. The returns for all this outlay and work can be seen in the progress of the church; for, on an average, one new Lu- theran church is dedicated each day of the year, and four-fifths of these are among the new citizens in the West. The Reformed Church has two chiefly Gennan colleges; the United Synod has a seminary .and two colleges; the Methodists have five small colleges of this {lharacter; the Presbyterians have two German seminaries, o~e in Bloomfield, N. J., the other in Dubuque, Iowa; the Baptists have a German department in Rochester, N. Y.. A similar work is being done among the Scandinavians and other Protestant strangers. Swedish institutions like that at Rock Island, Ill., are prominent educational forces; while fully a dozen smaller college~ and academies are maintained among the Scandinavian Lutherans. The Methodists have a Scandinavian theological school at Evanston, Ill.; the Baptists a Danish department at Morgan Park, Ill., and the Congregationalillts have one in connectiqn with their seminary in Chicago, Not a small agent in this religious education of the immigrant is the press. The polyglot newspaperdom of the West is almost entirely in the hands of the church, with the exception of a number of German papers in the larger cities. It is extremely interesting in this connection, to note the fact that all work of this kind undertaken by other agencies than the church, or from another standpoint than the Christian, has signally failed. The Milwaukee teachers's seminary, established on a "liberal" basis. has been a dismal failure.
Taking all these data into consideration, it is evident that the religious interests of the immigrant are receiving probably more marked attention and are treated with greater success than is the calile with" the native churchless masses of America.
PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS IN BRAZIL
PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS IN BRAZIL.
BY CHARLES E. KNdiIK:, D.D., BLOOMFIELD, N. J.
(Concluded from page 348, May number.) 3. We were much impressed with the personnel of our missionary force, and with the missionary's opportunity. The men and women in the service, the churches and stations, the centres of missionary power, all inspired us. The Southern Methodist Church was under strong guidance in the person of Bishop Granberry, and his missionaries seemed able and zealous men, intelligent and devoted women. They were strengthening efficient centres at Rio and Piracicaba. Frequent visits from their bishop, who returned with us on the steamer, and who left his daughter as a teacher at Rio, gave them all courage and animation. An earnest preacher and teacher was prosecuting a mission under Bishop Taylor's self-supporting plan, in Para. The Baptists, who 'had come late, had made a beginning in Rio and Pernambuco, although still without a church edifice. Maranhao, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio, Sao Paulo, Campinas, all Brazilian centres, were occupied as centres of our own missions. The Southern men and the Northern men from our own church were men of ability, strong in character, prudent in action, harmonious in purpose, versatile in pastoral and evangelistic service. The native ministry and elders, so far as we could judge, were men of excellent qualities of mind and of heart, and foretoken a large body of worthy preachers and rulers. The evangelistic work opened everywhere and greatly outran the missionary force. In any new place the traveling preacher could have a congregation on a half-day's notice. With common prudence and loving endurance of the priest's opposition, and with perhaps a little cool courage under a shower of stones, he could in a short time establish a permanent congregation. Two missionaries, one a Bible society agent, joined our steamer at Pernambuco, who had come 1200 miles down the San Francisco river. They had started from the farthest interior station in the south, inland from Sao Paulo and Campinas, crossed from the head-waters which flow to Buenos Ayres, to the head-waters of the San Francisco, and canoed to its mouth. Through two of the larger provinces, Minos Geraes and Bahia, a full thousand miles northward on high land parallel to the coast, then on the borders of the smaller provinces of Pernambuco, Alagoas and Sergipe, eastward to the coast, they followed the stream second only to the Amazon. Everywhere they had met with kindly reception. The Bibles distributed may be expected to repeat the work of Dr. Kidder's Bibles distributed in 1839, developing into inquiring souls and into groups of inquirers ready for the future missionary; but the long journey revealed the universal plaint of the desolate heart, ready now to turn its cry of need to a song of joy at the message of love. In the Sao Paulo region the excellent evangelistic service of Mr. Chamberlain and of others has dev~oped a vast region ready for the detail work of a large missionary force. At one place was a school, whose origin was from a Bible in a Masonic lodge, purchased as a sacred book on which to take oaths. The planter whose curiosity led him to read it, vowed to furnish a building whenever anyone would come preaching the doctrines of that book. After the preaching he established the school, and then vowed that as soon as a white teacher would come to take charge of the school, he would put an endowment in his will. The last steamer of this present year brings the news from the college-bred lady teacher who has just located there, that the endowment is already in his will. At another place was a saintly member of a church, himself at one time full of hatred, who was con- verted by another whose heart and life had been full of ugly violence a few years before. At another place, where our Philadelphia engine stopped, was a flourishing church, where twenty years before Mr. Chamberlain and his assistant were stoned for explaining to the people the gospel of St. Mark. In rural plantations, in hamlets, in villages, in larger towns, notwithstanding the priests' protestation!;, the people will listen to the pure and loving story. An ebullition of emotional hostility may send off hot steam, but the prudent missionary stands one side, and soon the same emotion pushes the piston of a well-ordered life. The sub-stations and preaching places with one accord, in fourteen out of the sixteen sea-coast provinces, give the same testimony to the accessibility of the people.
One hundred new men, our missionaries said, could be at once profitably employed, as soon as they could learn the language, and another hundred could follow them at once.
The subject of lay colonies of Christians, in default of clerical missionaries, was discussed in our missionary company on the steamer. Most of the missionaries considered such colonies desirable, if practicable, and most of them thought something of the kind practicable under careful conditions. The oldest missionary, whose judgment was entitled to special weight, did not consider colonization from the United States practicable, and would not like to enconrage it. "The United States people," he said," do not colonize-they emigratethey will not remain together." General Magalhaes, who had personally explored the Amazon, said, at Sao Paulo, in answer to the question-Would colonies on the Amazon, from the United States, be practicable? "It would not do to bring people whose condition of life is too far above the conditions on the Amazon. The colonists must be of a class something like the conditions there-common ·laborers-not too cultivated." As the country becomes develop-ed and rises in intelligence and in civilizing institutions, such colonies will undoubtedly succeed, and it may be that colonies, like the colonies from the Southern States, if founded on Christian principles, may help to develop the civilization a.a Christianization of the country.
The Southern colony on the Amazon went to pieces. The Southern colony at Santa Barbara, in the more favorable conditions of Sao Paulo province, through many changes remains the same substantial unit, and has Presbyterian and Methodist churches. If such a colony founded on disaffection arising out of our civil war and on worldly ambitions has maintained its life for a quarter of a century, a Christian colony, founded on nobler motives, might wield a powerful influence under the new Republic.
4. The native and immigrant population impressed us as presenting certain characteristics which are specially hopeful. Three aspects are full of interest. In the first place, the Portuguese and the Brazilian are an amiable people. They are not intense and vindictive, like the Spanish. They are affectionate among themselves and hospitable to strangers. The.y may be aroused to sharp encounter, but their pre- vailing mood is placid. The history of their former revolutions shows this, and the present bloodless revolution exhibits the same trait. Religious animosity, therefore, inspired by selfish priests, is not likely to be persistive, as under the Spanish type of character. Never was there a better opportunity to introduce the high principles of Christi- anity, than among a people who have a strong social nature, who have ardent desires for a pure religious love, whose confidence in their false religious teachers has been broken, and whose present revolution points them towards civil and religious liberty.
In the second place, the color line is unknown. Prejudice in a. race caste does not exist. The ebony black, the Corinthian bronze, the Indian copper, the Caucassian white, and all the shades, statures, features, dress and manners of all these classes, sit side by side in the congregation and mix in common society. Grades of social distinction do not depend on color. Our brethren from our Southern States said , to us again and again: " We have no difficulty here in respect to the color line." "The old idea at home does not disturb us here." "We hardly know ourselves in the changed condition." This condition of the Brazilian community· arises out of the long intermixture of blood, the consequent impracticability of applying any race distinction, and the continued adjustment of social relations and customs to such a historic fact.
In the third place, the immigrant population has already become a powerful factor in the nation. The German people in the extreme South, especially in Rio Grande de SuI, have been recognized as a possible foundation for a separate republic. They occupy districts. and towns and cities. In Sao Paulo, also, their numbers are increasing. " We have a contract to bring in ten thousand faJllilies from W ur- temburg," said General Magalhaes to us. "The German emigra tion to US has been resisted in Germany, but the obstacle is now removed." The Italian constitute/the principal immigrant for mul- tiplication of "arms." They were not regarded formerly as m~king good citizens, but recently a better class from the farms of Italy has come. They do a large amount of work and consume little food. 'The Portuguese immigrants, principally from the Canary and Azores Islands, are less numerous. They are chiefly in the cities.
The great demand of the Empire has been for" arms," or, as we say, for" hands," to develop the acres, to open the mineral depths, to lay the railroads and build the mills. National laws and provincial laws have therefore offered a premium for the introduction of labor. The province of Sao Paulo has been the most enterprising. Large buildings were pointed out to us in the city of Sao Paulo) built for the temporary accommodation of these multitudes in transit. " We are bringing five thousand a month into this province," said General Magalhaes. "We have a contract by the province for this purpose." "More immigrants have come into the country since October last (about eleven months) than during the preceding history of the Empire."
By far the greater part of all this immigration is Roman Catholic. But from the old life of Europe they are coming into a new condition which is in rapid transit towards free ideas and private judgment. Met with a pure gospel in their own tongue, they may be converted to Christ and made a mighty force in the Christianization of that imperial nation.
5. We were very greatly impressed with the opportunities for Christian education. We heard t,he clamor of children in high voice, as we passed the common schools of the towns. In Pernambuco, our (lompany found its way into a girls' school-house at the edge of the dty. The voices were in full concert-the pitch was high-the action forte, the chorus without solo or duet. About fifty little girls and two little boys filled the room. Behind the desk sat a young lady <>f twenty-six or t~enty-eight. Her face was bronze, her eyes black, her jet black hair went down her back in a praid. With happy features, abounding spirits, a ready affability and overflowing pleasure 'in her work, she went freely on in the gu~dance of the school. She called up a girl to read. While hearing and correcting her, she gave attention to another, who came with an example in arithmetic; and then to another who came with her sewing, and sent another still for the tin scissors-and-tape box. When the little bronzes and blacks of all shades grew quiet from looking at their visitors, her vigorous itnd (lheery voice shot out the word" study," and off they all started in loud chorus again. We were reminded of what we had read of Mohammedan schools. The course of instruction was reading, writing, arithmetic, Christian doctrine (a Catholic shrine was in the corner) and sewing. One or two little ones recited in simple geometrical "form." They all seemed delighted with their cheery teacher. The same mode of education we saw in a school for boys of older age in Maranhao. From our Protestant Church school in Rio, we l~arned that the national habit was to train the memory, but that· the child was instantly lost if the teacher put his question outside the page of the text-book. Memory, obedience, emotion-these were to be cultivated among the people as a foundation for a blind church life. We were never more impressed with the value of a healthy logic in popular and in high education-to teach the child, the family, the community, the nation, to think for itself, and to exercise a private judgment in civil and in religious life.
There are professional schools of high character in leading cen- tres, law schools with large attendance in Sao Paulo and Pernambuco, medical schools in Bahia and Rio, a theological school with small attendance in each of the twelve dioceses. For these high institu- tions there are private and Governmental preparatory schools. And the "collegio," which is either a private school or an ordinary high school, is to be seen here and there in every city. There is, however, no university nor college of high degree in all Brazil. A few of the leading statesmen were educated in former years at the University of Coimbra, in Portugal, or in othe~ European universities. A few of th~ young men now go abroad. A bright young man on .our steamer was receiving his education in the Polytechnic. Institute at Worcester, Mass., where others of his nation had been. A polytechnic institution on the plains of Ypiranga, just outside Sao Paulo, is expected to grow out of its incipiency, if it escapes political complications. One considerable institution in the interior is founded on the doctrines of Augustus Compte. Independent of the missionary school and of pulpit instruction, the common people of the towns have the meagre education of the Catholic church, and the reflective mind tends towards materialism.
In several places Protestant schools had been begun. In four places they already assumed significant character. Under the Southern Methodists in Rio and in Pericacaba; under the Southern Presbyterians in Campinas; under the Northern Presbyterians in SaO" Paulo. The Methodist school property at Rio is on a noble site, commanding the city and the harbor. The school was in its early beginnings, the prosperous school at Pericacaba having been established some years, but we expect to see at the capital an institution of wide influence as an outgrowth at no distant day. The Campinas school had attained a high order of excellence and had gathered numbers and older students in spite of the rival Compte institution in the same town. The Sao Paulo school was, however, the leading missionary institution. Beginning as a little school for the missionaries' children, it had grown into a system of Kindergarten-Prjmary, Intermediate and Grammar departments-with a class for instruction in teaching and an advanced class ready for collegiate or theological education. There were 244 pupils present in the main hall on the day we were there. The number has since in- creased to about 400, the accessions again outgrowing the walls. The buildings adjoining the church should be at once assigned to one or two departments, and new apartments sought elsewhere for the other classes. The young men's dormitory, on the edge of the town, was an attractive building of yellow brick, one story in height, with dwelling-rooms for the Director. It stands on an elevated site, overlooking the city, and has ample grounds for a" future college. The teaching force, composed chiefly of intelligent ladies, Southern and Northern, under the excellent guidance of Dr.
H. M. Lane, was of high order. In our company we brought to them a New England teacher to take charge of a normal class of teachers.
Education had here advanced up to the line of the college system. The Sao Paulo school was ready at that time to present seven or eight, and the Campinas school five or six students for a" freshman class, as soon as a curriculum and the first professors could be provided. The opportunity is ripe for the completion of the educational system. Superior Protestant education would at once command wide attention. Its high morality would appeal to the deepest desires of parents who have fared ill under the Romish training. This highest complement of the system should be at once expressed in a college which should develop into a genuine university.
Roman Catholic education is unequal to the crisis. It is insufficient for the mind and morals of the masses. So long as the leading minds of the nation are under Catholic education, the people will not rise to high moral and religious convictions. The alliance of Protestant principles with professional edncation will at once give external and internal support to true Christian life. The State needs Protestant principles in its conception and administration. Such an education is the speediest way to produce the ministry which Brazil needs. The existence of a body of learned men at such a high institution is a constant educational force through all grades of political and domestic society and through all ranks of instructors.
Teachers of an elevated common school system, educated Christian fathers and mothers, communities which shall demand a" higher popular education for both girls and boys, leading Protestant minds in common society, in common commercial and in common agricultural life, educated church officers, native ministers to fill the countless opportunities, Christian men in the professions, leaders in the State Chambers in the new chambers of the Nation-these are within the speedy reach of such an institution. Next to the proclamation of the gospel-this is for Brazil the all-important thing. An opportunity for so broad a work, so world-wide an influence, is seldom presented to the Protestant Church.
HOW SHALL MOHAMMEDANS BE EVANGELIZED
HOW SHALL MOHAMMEDANS BE EVANGELIZED. [We are not at liberty to give the name of the writer of this article. Sui- nce to say, that it is from the pen of one who has lived forty years in the Turk- ish empire and is thoroughly conversant with the subject. Like the masterly paper we gave in the August number (1889), on "Islam and 9hristian Missions," it merits careful reading.-J. M. S.] This article does not discuss the general subject of Mohammedan- ism, giving an abstract of its tenets; nor does it propose to give a history of its progress and a statement of its present extent and power; nor does it compare this religion with Christianity, presenting the similarities and the contrasts between the two religions. It aims simply to treat of the best mode of presenting the gospel to Moslems, so that it may meet with their acceptl!-nce-treating the subject in view of the obstacles which hinder the success of the gospel in the Turkish empire. Is the inquiry presumptuous ?-The fact is not ignored that some persons regard this subject as not properly one of human discussion and inquiry. They say that the opening of the Mohammedan world to the gospel is a work so entirely dependent upon divine interposi- tion.and Almighty power, that it is presumption on our part to spec- ulate and plan, or do otherwise than" stand still and see the salva- tion of God." They say that it becomes us to acknowledge that the evangelization of Moslems in the Turkish empire is a sheer impossibility to human endeavor, that God has purposed it, and in his own time will indicate the means to be used for its accomplishment, as he did when the Egyptian bondage was to be broken and Canaan possessed; that we now stand before a closed door wl!-itingfor the providence of .God to open it, and that such an inquiry as this is as uncalled for and ill-timed as if J oahua had presented a paper on the best mode of delivering Israel at the time when they were hemmed in by the Red Sea and Pharaoh's ~rmy, or as if Eleazar had prepared a similar paper on the speediest mode of reducing Jericho before God had revealed anything about the blowing of the ra~'s horn and the seven times encompassing the city. They say, and they say this truly, that when the allotted period of 430 years was passed and the iniquity of the Amorites was full, all the walled cities of Canaan were powerless to resist the Israelites, and not before; that when the 70 years of the Babylonish captivity were fulfilled, heathen kings were inspired of God to further the return of the Jewish captives; that "in the fullness of time" Christ came; that forty days after his ascension the wonders of Pentecost were revealed; and so, when the Holy Spirit moves upon the darkness and bigotry of Mohammedanism then will begin the dawn of a new creation for its followers, for the decree still stands in regard to all the religious movements of the world: they are to be accomplished" not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." But, while we reverently acknowledge the divine decrees and pa- tiently wait for their unfolding, we should never fall back upon them as an excuse for our supineness.
Is the inquiry skeptical.j>-Braving the charge of presumption in proposing this inquiry, we expose ourselves to the charge of skepti- cism. Weare asked, Has it not been revealed from heaven that the gospel is the divinely-appointed remedy for the whole race of man? Has not the command been given us, "Go, preach my gospel," trust- ing to the power of the Spirit to make that preaching effectual to the evangelization of all men without exception, whether Jews, Moham- medans or heathen? And is not the raising of this question with reference to the evangelization of this one class an implication that the divinely-appointed remedy is inadequate to the peculiar difficul- ties of this case, and that it must be supplemented by means which human wisdom must devise; that the naked sword of the Spirit is in- sufficient to pierce the armor of this Goliath? Are we not preparing ourselves for a rebuke from our ~Iaster, similar to that which those nine disciples received from him when, having received from him a commission and power to cast out evil spirits, they failed in the case of the child in Cesarea Philippi and learned the cause: "Because of your unbelief, you could not cast him out?"
Or, at the least, we are told that there is, in instituting such an inquiry, a reflection on former and present laborers in behalf of the Moslems, and on the agencies used by them, and an ignoring of these long, faithful and prayerful efforts, and an assumption that the want of success which has attended these labors was a consequence of their having overlooked or neglected measures which they ought to have discovered and used, of which we are now on the track and ,repared soon to reveal.
If there is seeming ground for this objection, the writer of this article would hasten to disclaim all disposition to ignore the zeal and activity of these laborers, or to imply that they had shown a want of wisdom or courage, and that their efforts had been failures; or to counsel the abandoning of their plans and the adoption of others. On the contrary, he recommends the gathering up the results of their experience, the marking of their footprints for future guidance, and the imitation of their faithfulness.
The peculiar difficulties in the case.-That there are peculiar difficulties attending the efforts to evangelize Mohammedans everywhere, and that these difficulties are aggravated in the Turkish empire, is conceded by all. A cursory survey of these difficulties is a necessary preparation for surmounting them, as a knowledge of an enemy's defences is of prime importance to the general who intends to break through by assault.
1. The first of these difficulties is that of finding means of accesS' to Mohammedans, in order to teach them the gospel. Rarely do they {lome to our churches to hear our preaching. They do not visit us in our houses nor invite us to visit them. We have hardly any oppor- tunities for contact with them, so as to be able to explain our religion to them, and to urge them to accept it. The constitution of Moham- medan homes, with thejealousy and seclusion of the harems, creates a serious bar to the evangelization of the Mohammedans. The leaven has no access to the lump in order to leaven it. The salt cannot reach that which it is desired should be preserved by it. The patient knows not the remedy, therefore cannot apply it, to feel its power. Places of business in the daytime, and coffee-houses in the evening, where all listen to a story or a poem, are not favorable places for relig- ions discussions, and yet there are few other places for meeting Mos- lems.
2. A second obstacle to their evangelization is their pride and arrogance of opinion. They consider themselves the favorites of heaven, the depositaries of the truth, the elect, true believers, saved. They despise Christians, and couple their names with those of the lowest animals. This pride, this feeling of superiority, this lofty dis- dain, is an effective obstacle to their being influenced by Christian teachers. It increases their contempt of Christianity, that it is the religion of those whom they have been accustomed to regard as their subjects-their slaves. Shall the conquerors adopt the religion of the {lonquered? Shall they bow down to that. which they were commissioned of God to root out and destroy?
3. A third obstacle is the strength of the fortress 'Which Mohammedanism occupies. Heathenism has no such defences. The natives of Borneo, Java and Sumatra, while they are yet heathen, are far more easily reached by the gospel than after they become Moslems. This is the case also with the heathen of Central Africa. One reason of this is that there is so much of truth mingled with error in this religion-truth derived from God's own word. As the Moslems have taken possession of some of the fairest Christian churches and made them mosques, so they have stolen some of the most sacred'truths of Christianity and used them as buttresses to their fortress of error.
Another strong bulwark of this delusion is its harmony with the self-righteousness of the human heart. It offers a salvation by works, which it is possible for man to perform, such as prayers, fasting, pilgrimages, ablutions and alms-giving; and the performance of these acts gives the Moslem an assured title to Paradise.
This religion is stron~ again with sensual man, in that it allows and sanctions immorality and licentiousness, which Christianity forbids. It allows a man to act like a beast, and to account himself, at the same time, a saint. It lets him indulge his lusts without a bridle. and think that he has a special license from heaven for so doing and an illustrious example of such conduct in the person of his prophet. Being thus strong, it surrenders few captives to Christianity from its own ranks, and it gains many captives from heathenism, and holds them with a firm grasp.
4. Political complications give Mohammedanism greater power to oppose Christianity in the Turkish empire. The religion of Moham- med is the State religion. Defence of the faith of Islam is regarded as essential to the integrity of the empire. To sustain the tottering throne of the sultan, religious fanaticism has been invoked and fos- tered; during the last few years schools for teaching the Koran have been multiplied in all parts of the land; even among the Bedouin tribes have apostles of the revived faith been sent; new mosques have been built and old mosques repaired, and praying places opened, where religious devotees may shout the name of Allah till they become voiceless and nerveless with their frenzied effort. Bigotry and patriotism have become synonymous terms. And, since Moslems only are drafted into the army, the government dreads that they should become Christians, lest they should found thereupon a claim from exemption from military service. Moreover, they fear that such conversions may be made by foreign powers a pretext for their interference in the affairs of the empire, and a ground for demanding new concessions and national dismemberments.
5. Another obstacle is the fact that in the Turkish empire at this time the death penalty hangs over every Moslem who becomes a Chris- .tian.
The Koran authorizes this. Religious liberty is a doctrine inconsistent with the spirit of Islam. It is almost certain that a Mohammedan who professes faith in Christ must leave the country, ifhe can,or be impressed into the army, or be arrested and imprisoned on false pretences, and all traces of him be speedily lost. This terror, so imminent, hinders Moslems from indulging any disposition to examine carefully the Christian religion and to balance properly the claims in its favor. To be known to be an attendant upon the religious services of Christians subjects a Moslem at once to a warning from the heads of the sect; and if he perseveres, he soon feels the weight of their power to compel him to separate himself from such associations. As long as civil power remains in the hands of :Mohammedan rulers, it is difficult to see how it can be otherwise than it is now. If the sultan should declare that every Moslem was free to adopt what religion he chose, he would be regarded as a traitor and an infidel, and be in danger of deposition and. assassination.
While the pope was king of Rome he repressed Protestantism with an iron hand; and while Abd-il-Hamid or any other Moslem holds sway in Western Asia, we must expect that he will do all in his power to prevent his Moslem subjects from becoming Christians. From the very nature of things, the religion propagated by the sword must be sustained by the sword; the same means which were employed to make disciples will be used to keep disciples. The death penalty incurred by Moslems renouncing their religion stands as a. powerful obstacle to hinder their evangelization.
6. Moslems have imbibed a prejudice against Christianity from the false reprel!entations of its character and its effect as given in the worship and conduct of nominal Ohristians, with whom they live. As the superstitions and idolatrous worship of these Christians brought the wrath of God upon them centuries ago, and caused him to deliver them over to their Mohammedan conquerors, so their clinging to their errors has kept them under the yoke of their oppressors, and they have during all these centuries been bearing false witness against the holy doctrine which they profess, and making their conquerors hate, scorn and detest a religion so idolatrous in form and bringing forth such fruit of unholy lives and conversation. Can we blame men for rejecting Christianity when it has been so misrepresented and profaned by the so-called Christians of the East?
7. Another obstacle exists in the misconception by the Moslems of the cardinal truths of Ohristianity, without opportunity being sought or found to correct those misapprehensions. They totally misunderstand what we mean by calling God "our Father," and Christ "the Son of God," being misled by hearing Mary called by Christians "the mother of God." They misunderstand the doctrine of the Trinity, thinking that we worship three gods, and they miss entirely what we mean by calling God "a Spirit," thinking that we thus rank him with angels and souls of men, which ar~ spirits. They have been taught. always that the Scriptures, though originally from the hand of God, have been changed and corrupted by Christians, into whose hands they have fallen, and therefore these holy writings have no power over' them. Apostate Syrian Christians, educated in Protestant schools, taught foreign languages in order that they might be more efficient helpers in evangelizing their countrymen, have gleaned among infidel books in England, France and Germany to find every objection that has ever been raised against Christianity, no matter how absurd or how many thousand times refuted, and hav;e translated the accumulated mass of objections into the languages of the East, and published them as the u:iJ.challenged and irrefutable proofs that the Scriptures of the, Christians have been corrupted on every page, and that Christianity itself is an imposture. Let anyone who would see proof of this statement read the book" Izhar-il-Hok," prepared by Fares Shidiak, once an employee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and a translator of the New Testament into Arabic, under their direction, now a devoted adherent and strong ally of Mohammedanism in Constantinople,. and a bitter foe to Christianity, in whose folds he was born. 8. Another obstacle is that there is no liberty ofthe press in Western .Asia, nor lioerty of public iliscussion, by which the fallacies of Mohammedanism migh! be exposed and the slanders against Christianity refuted. Islamism enters the lists, free, untrammeled, permitted to strike as hard and as foul a blow as it will, while Christianity stands manacled, not allowed to raise a finger even to ward off a blow. Customhouse officers and public censors watch jealously to prevent foreign importations of books exposing J'Iohammedan errors; a printing press which printed a word against Mohammed and his religion would instantly be stopped; and if the missionaries braved all personal risks and denounced openly in their pulpits the prophet of Mecca, not only would they fail to reach Mohammedans with their message, but speedily their churches would be closed, and all other work done by them in the land would be stopped.
I will only hint at other obstacles, such as the indifference of many native Protestants of the East in this work, their want of faith and of zeal and of prayer in its behalf, while they have facilities vastly exceeding those which foreigners possess of reaching the minds and the hearts of their countrymen of a different creed; and again, that so many Protestant officials, representing Christian nations, men of the highest positions in civil life and in the army, should ignore their faith and their convictions and their customs when among Moslems, and for political reasons pay the most profound respect to their superstitions and their vain worship.
Has Christianity any allies ?-Leaving a further consideration of these difficulties, let us inquire if Christianity has any allies in this contest upon which she can rely. The answer is yes, and the most prominent of these are three: 1. The first of these allies is the progress of human thought. As surely as the fervid sun and the warm tides of the temperate zone melt the icebergs drifting down from the frozen North, so surely will this relic of the seventh century feel the influence of the second and third decade of centuries, and grow powerless before them. Mohammedanism represents the feebler intelligence and narrower range of thought of the world twelve centuries ago. It cannot adapt itself to the advance of the world in knowledge, like Christianity, which indeed leads the van of all human progress; but being of human origin, the product of a mind which could not look beyond the horizon of the age in which it was born and the region of its birth, it is out of sympathy with the present current of ideas and contradictory to the later teachings of science. Every new discovery is a protest against the errors imbedded in Mohammedanism. All advances in science expose the fallacies of that system, and prepare its followers to perceive these and make the necessary deductions from them as to its earthly origin. 2. The second of these allies is the human soul awa/Cened to a consdousness of wants which Mohammedanism fails to meet, and which Ohristianity meets fully. When man. awakes, as he must sooner or later, to the consciousness that he is a sinner and that his own self-righteousness will not suffice to justify him before God, then he looks in vain into the Koran to learn of a mediator and an aton- ing sacrifice and an effectual intercessor. Mohammedanism knows nothing of a "Father in heaven" to comfort the soul in its hours of loneliness and sorrow. It knows nothing of the Holy Spirit to change the heart and aid it in overcoming sin and temptation. But Christi- anity meeting these and other wants of the soul, for which Moham- medanism has no help, possesses in man's soul itself a powerful witness to its divine origin.
3. The third auxiliary is that course of divine providence which is weakening the political power of Islamism over the peoples and count?·~es now held in its grasp. The dismemberment of the Turkish empire is preparing the way, in its gradual progress, for the triumph of Christianity. The frequent conversion of Mohammedans in India, where English rule prevents the death penalty from being visited upon the converts, and in Egypt, where partial religious liberty now exists, show what we have reason to expect in Turkey when there is free2-om of inquiry, freedom of· discussion, freedom of the press and pulpit, freedom of profe~sion of faith in Christ.
To these elements of hope might be added the fact that there is much buried seed in Turkey of past labors, of Bible truth which has been sown-and what God has sown shall not return to Him void- so many unanswered prayers for Moslems yet in the golden censer.
The next question to be considered is: What agencies have proved most successful hitherto in commending Ohristianity to Moslems, and what may still be accounted the most hopeful means to be used in seeking their evangelization? .
1. The first and foremost of these is. the circulation of the Word of God. Bibles can enter homes whence preachers are excluded.
Bibles can be read where there is no fear of jealous witnesses and cl:uel betrayers. The Holy Spirit can apply that word with resistless power to the conscience and heart.' There is no doubt that immense good has been done by this agency alone, and that many Moslem men and women thus taught have lived and died, clinging to Christ and His cI:oss for salvation, of whom we have no record. We have cer- tain testimony of some who have been savingly enlightened by this means alone. Let us not despair of our influence in evangelizing Moslems while this agency is left to us. Let us rejoice in the oppor- tunity of circulating the Word of God with so few restrictions. Let us rejoice in possessing the Scriptures in the languages of Moham- medan peoples, and particularly in their sacred tongue, the Arabic, and in vowelled form, fitted to compare so favorably with the form in which the Koran is possessed by them. Let us use all available efforts to place the -Bible in the hands of Moslems, and to induce them to read it. Let us show ever in our conversation with them our assurance of its divine origin and our certainty of its being 'un- corrupted, and our belief in its saving power. Let us multiply colporteurs, wherever we can, to circulate and explain the word of light and life.
2. A second means, justified most amply by experience, is the edu- cation of Moslem children and youth of both sexes in our common schools, higher schools, boarding schools and colleges, and giving them both scientific and religious instruction. All science refutes in some form Mohammedan teaching. The schools which have been ()pened iu Turkey by American and English Christians, and in a lesser degree by Germaps, have brought in a flood of light which has been crowdin'g back into narrower confines the ancient night of Mos- lem delusion. School teachers are the sappers and miners who are undermining this gigantic fortress of error. Moslems perceive this, and hence their new zeal for opening schools of their own to coun- teract Christian schools, and hence that wonder of wonders, that Mohammedans should open schools to teach girls to read. It is to be regretted that so few Moslem youth attend our institution,s of learning. We should double our efforts to pring them in and to re- tain our hold upon them. While the children are yet young they carry home and teach to their parents by means of the hymns which they have learned to sing, and the verses of Scripture they have been taught to repeat, lessons which we could not otherwise introduce into those homes, and which may be the means of making the parents wise unto salvation, while these children themselves, sooner or later in life, may find their way to the gate of heaven by means of what they have learned in these schools. Boarding schools for Moslem girls have been wonderfully blest as means of good. May they be sustained as they deserve, and may they be multiplied!
3. Bible 'Women can do immense good by visiting Moslem harems, teaching the women to read, and reading the Bible to them. Some most interesting cases of hopeful conversions have occurred in connection with such labors. Women are thus' reached by the gospel who would otherwise never have heard it. There is less jealousy of female laborers thau of men. Where suitable Bible women can be found there is large encouragement for their employment.
4. Another object to be striven after is the cultivation of the acquaintance of Mohammedans. If we meet their coldness with coldness and their seclusiou with a corresponding non-intercourse, when can we expect that the barriers between us will be broken down? Personal influence, the world over, is the strongest influence. Men will not listen profitably to teachers who have not their confidence. Conviction is a matter of the heart as well as of the reason. A word from a friend influences more than a hundred words from a stranger. Difficult of acquisition as this way of influence may seem, yet it should not be slighted. If it is set before us as an end to be reached~ it can be compassed. On their fast days some rooms of Moslem houses are open. We can show an interest in their joys and sorrows" attend their weddings and their fuuerals, invite them to join literary coteries. When once an acquaintance is formed with a few Moslems it is easy to extend it by their means. Neither should the wives of missionaries limit their acquaintance to the poorest class of Moslem women, whom they teach to sew and to whom they give charity, but should cultivate the society of the better classes, and seek to gain an influence over these, doubly secluded as they are and wholly debarred from learning of Christ. Lady teachers in female seminaries have rare opportunities of making such acquaintances by visiting the mothers of their Moslem pupils. As matters now stand, women have better opportunities than men in evangelizing Moslems. In the nine- teenth century crusade women can have the honor of planting the ,standard of the cross where men are powerless, and this will not be the first time that the softest hand has proved the strongest.
5. Another important point is that those who expect to influence Mohammedans should make their religious belief a study / they should know what the Koran teaches, its truths and its errors; they shollld study also the commentaries upon it, and they should do this not second-hand, through translations and comments by foreigners, bllt should be acquainted with native modes of thought' and expression. Moslem literature, secular and religiolls, its philosophy, history, poetry and books of proverbs, which are now almost a terra incognita to scholars in other branches of science, should be carefully studied by those who hope to benefit them. Without such a knowledge we can no more hope to prevail over Mohammedans in discussion than Indians with bows and arrows could cope with Europeans armed with rifles.
6. Medical 'Work, and especially hospital 'Work, affords rare vantage ground for evangelical teaching of Moslems. A doctor among them is a privileged character. His life is safe where others would be in peril. He can enter within doors barred to others. His words carry weight which 'another man's do not. He meets men under the most favorable circumstances to influence them for good, when their hearts are made tender by sickness 01' bereavement, and when the nearness of another world makes the conscience alert and the soul susceptible to religious impression. The gentlfl ministries of Christian men and women in hospitals have, again and again, softened the hearts of bigoted Moslems, and the daily listening to the name of .Jesus and receiving care and healing in his name, have prepared them to accept the Christian's faith and Saviour.
From the agencies thus enumerated, as sanctioned by experience, it is plain that indirect, unobstrusive, unostentatious efforts are those upon which most reliance must be placed in this stage of the work.
An organized, avowed, aggressive mission to the Mohammedans, which proclaimed its designs and its results, would defeat itself and imperil those it sought to benefit. While the servants of the church are faithfully using all the means in their power to find an entrance for the gospel, the church must be content to allow the kingdom of God to come in Turkey without human observation, and to accept it that God's spiritual work here should move on as silently as the great processes of nature.
The vast importance of the theme.-In concluding this paper it is worthy of being set forth in words, although it is doubtless already the burden of the thoughts of many hearts, that the evangelization of the Mohammedans is a theme of great importance; it should be the subject of our careful consideration, strong faith and earnest prayers. It deserves to be made prominent as the subject of united, special, importunate and persevering prayer.
The vast number of the Mohammedans makes a strong appeal to our interest in their behalf, they constituting at least one-tenth, and perhaps one-eighth, of the human race. Their influence in the world commends them to our notice. That influence is not negative, like that of the Brahmins, and of the followers of Confucius, but positive, aggressive and visibly effective and ascendant in some parts of the world, and destructive always; but, if turned into right channels, promising to be as conducive to the triumph of the Lord as it now is influential to hinder it. They need the gospel as much as others to enable them to bear the woes of life and to light them through the dark valley. The gospel is as well adapted to their needs as to those of others. The commission, " Go teach all nations," extends to them. The success which has attended labors for them in individual cases shows that no impassable barriers lie in the way of their enlightenment and conversion.
The difficulties in the way of reaching them do not relieve us of the responsibility of laboring in their behalf. The dangers which may threaten us should not make us hesitate. It would be hard to prove that the difficulties and dangers attendant upon preaching the gospel to Mohammedans now in the Turkish empire are greater than those which faced the apostles and martyrs and early teachers of Christianity in the Roman empire in the first three centuries of the history of the Christian church. They preached to proud Romans, as well as to bigoted Jews and sensual Greeks, in spite of threatenings, scourgings, stonings, imprisonments and cruel deaths, and as a result pagan Rome was Christianized. So, with like faith and prayer and courage and perseverance and effort, in due season, and it may be after a hard struggle, the gospel will a second time triumph on its old battleground where its first victories were won; exiled Christianity will return to the home of its birth, the Bible will supplant the Koran, the prophet of Nazareth will t::tke the place of the prophet of Mecca in the heart of Moslems, the Son of God the place of the son of Abdullah, to the glory of God and the salvation of immortal sEmIs.
~S8 THE DRUID CELTS
THE DRUID CELTS-THE EARLY MISSIONARY RACE OF WESTERN EUROPE.
BY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK•• The first wave of Aryan migration into Northern Europe was that of the Celts. They were the first column in that grand westward march which has wrought the highest civilizations. and filled the world with great achievements. In France they were first known to the Romans as Galli or Gauls. In Britain as Cimbri, or, more generic- ally, Britons.
But there were successive waves of migration: In the fourth cen- tury, B. C., one of these broke over the Alps and made a victorious entry into the city of Rome. In the year 279, B. C., another horde of Celts entered Macedonia, Thessaly and Greece, but were repulsed in the gorges of Delphi, whence passing through Thrace and turning eastward, they crossed the Hellesponte into Asia Minor. But having been conquered by the armies of Augustus, 25, B. C., they were con- fined thenceforth to the province that bore their name-Galatia. It was these brave adventurers whom nearly a century later Paul found it difficult to bring under the curbs and restraints of the gospel of peace, and to whom he found it necessary to write a very plain and outspoken epistle. And yet we get the impression even from Paul that they were a manly race.
During the Punic wars of Rome, large bodies of the Celts or Galli were found aiding the Carthagenians, and on many a well-contested field the Roman legions found them worthy of their arms. These alliances prompted R~me to crush their power, if possible, on their own soil, and Julius Cresar, with the Greek colony of Marsailes as a base of operations, began that series of resistless invasions which pursued the Celts over the whole area of France, and even to the British Isles. During fourteen years of conquests he is said to have sacrificed two millions of men. He respected his foes, however, and at last even cultivated their friendship; for in his further ambitious schemes he led the brave Gauls under his standards even to the gates of Rome.
The conquest of the Britons was a more difficult and protracted undertaking. The tribes who took their stand in the mouutains of Wales and of Scotland, as well as the inhabitants of Ireland, were never conquered by their Roman invaders, and on more than one occasion these vigorous mountaineers pressed upon the Roman colonies so fiercely as almost to extirpate their power in Britain. They seem to have been reserved for a great purpose. "Their forefathers," says McClear, "had formed the vanguard of the western portion of the great Aryan migration; they were to form the vanguard of the missionary history of Europe. While the Roman world was more and more decaying, and the great Teutonic movement was as yet in its infancy, they were destined to train and send forth some of the earliest and bravest pioneers of Christian missions in Switzerland and Germany."
Before entering upon the study of the Christian conquest of Britain, first by the Romans and at a later day by missionaries from Iona, one should first understand, if possible, the ancient religion of these brave and stalwart tribes. Enthusiastic writers have not hesi- tated to declare that the religion of the Celtic priesthood, known as Druidism, was the primitive religion of mankind. Discounting, how- ever, this extreme statement, it is enough to say that the faith of the Druids could not have been the faith of a savage race, for never has uninspired man attained to nobler conceptions of his own being or his relations to Deity than some of those which were taught by the Druids. Hume, the historian, declared that" no religion has ever swayed the minds of man like the Druidic," and in Cresar's Commen- taries are found brief references which show his profound respect for the faith of the vanquished Celts. "The Druids," he says, "make the immortality of the soul the basis of all their teaching, holding it to be the principal incentive and reasoll for a virtuous life." Again, in the fifth book: "The Druids discuss many things concerning the stars and their evolutions, the magnitude of the globe and its various divisions, the nature of the universe, and the energy and power of the immortal gods." Again in the same book: "The Druids teach that in no other way than by ransoming man's life by the life of man is reconciliation with the divine justice of the immortal gods possible."
It is easy to see that abuses of this last strong doctrine may have led the Druids to justify human sacrifice, of which in fact they were guilty; but we certainly have here presented, on the testimony of a Roman warrior and historian, some of the grandest conceptions of religious truth that have ever been assigned to any people. And in the last clause quoted, many have found what they believed to be an enunciation of that great principle of vicarious atonement which underlies the Christian faith.
The proverbs of the Druids, which are generally found in triads, are indicative of very noble qualities of race. Thus:" Three duties of every man-Worship God, be just to all, die for your country." How much nobler is this than the vaunted Buddhist triad: "Trust in the Buddha, trust in the Law, trust in the Sangha" (of Monks). It would be almost Christian if it had in it the element of love, for, like Christianity, it begins with the supreme claims of God, and is at leastjust to one's neighbor as to himself, and it adds the most exalted patriotism that a man can cherish. Yet its falls far short of the Christlike spirit, which loves all men even better than self, and is ready to spend and be spent in their service. Here is another terse triad: "Three things came into being at the same moment-light, man, and moral choice." Another: "There are three men whom all should love-he that loves the face of his mother nature, he that loves rational works of art, he that looks lovingly on the faces of little children." Again:" Three things only God can do-endure the eternities of infinity, participate in all being without changing, re- new everything without annihilating it." Another: "The three necessary essentials of God-infinite in himself, finite to the finite, co-unity with every mode of existence in happiness." These are noble utterances, one and all. How clear and just is the discrimina- tion which makes God infinite in Himself, and yet finite to the finite. Unlike many a heathen religion, this exalts God to infinitude; unlike many a cold philosopy, it brings him down to our finiteness, and recognizes the necessity for a Goa with us. 'l'hese triads set forth a the sublime responsibility of moral choice in man, and yet the ten- der grace that looks lovingly on the faces of little children. In word, the faith of the Druids differed entirely from the dark pessim- isms of the cotemporary philosophies of India and Egypt. It was a bright and hopeful system. "Three things," says still another triad, "decrease continually-darkness, evil, and death. Three things increase continually-light, truth, and life. These will finally prevail over all, then probation will end." 'l'his idea of the gradual and eternal progress of man and of the universe, stands apart from the teachings of most heathen systems.
A summary of the doctrines held by the Druids may be given as follows: There is one supreme God, and His nature is spiritual and invisible. The universe is pervaded by Him as His body, and He rules it as the human mind rules the human body. To human apprehension, though not in Himself, he appears in a triple aspect in relation to the past, the present and the future; the Oreator as to the past, the Saviour or Preserver as to the present, the Recreator as to the future. In the Recreator the idea of destroyer was also involved. This trinity strangely corresponds to the Hindu Trimurti, in which Brahma is the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Siva both destroyer and renovator. Of the Druid trinity the names were Belis, Taran, and Esu or J esu, and when Ohristianity was proclaimed in Britain, J esu was retained, and it is still retained as the name of the second person of the Ohristian Trinity.
The Druids held that man was created at once in his full strength, and that all matter was both created and arranged in the order of the universe in one and the same act. Nature is the action of God through matter. There is no such thing as the annihilation of matter. Every particle is capable of passing through all possible forms, and every form has its own laws of existence and action. They also believed that there had been a fall of once pure and happy beings into sin and condemnation, and that it was brought about by an attempt on their part to rival God in sustaining and governing the universe. In so doing they brought themselves to the lowest degree of unmiti- gated evil (annwn). For the redemption of these fallen beings God granted a period of probation (abred). By this means, after a long disciplinary course, they might again attain to the lost purity and happiness (gwynfyd).
The essence of the soul, according to Druidism, is the will, and the essence of religion is willinghood. The first essential of manhood, as distinguished from the nature of beasts, is the ·power of free choice. No other system of belief has ever more fully emphasized man's freedom and responsibility. Every man, ere he can be immovably settled in the bliss of heaven, must have passed through every experience of good and evil. Memory of evil endured is the only safeguard against yielding to temptation. Heaven then cannot be a place hedged against wrong. In an intense and sublime degree it is character reinforced by the remembrance of all evil suffered and mastered.
With the Druids the life hereafter was to be one of eternal progress and growth. No such conception as that of future rest occurred to them. Suffering might be willingly endured, either for one's own good or for that of another. In the one case it might expiate his own sin, and this, accompanied by confession, might absolve him. In the other case his suffering might atone for another's sin.
It cannot be successfully maintained that Druidism was free from polytheistic tendencies. At least, subordinate gods were regarded with something akin to worship. But the above outlines are sufficient to show that the Druidic faith was at once the product, the expression, and the perpetual source of great moral power. No wonder that the Celtic race produeed such characters as those of the exiled Caractacus, or the sublime heroism of a Boadacea. And it is not strange that the armies of Rome found it well nigh impossible to conquer Britain, and, in fact, never did conquer her remoter tribes.
Weare told that about five centuries before the Christian era the civil laws of the Druids were codified by Dunwal Moelmud, and that since that time they have remained the common unwritten or native laws of the island, as distinguished from the Roman, the Canon, and other codes of foreign introduction. "These Druidic laws," says Rev. R. W. Morgan, "have always been justly regarded as the foundation and bulwark of British liberties," and he refers to the testimony of Sir John Fortesque and of Coke, to that effect.* So, far from savagery, the Druids were possessed of a high degree of civilization. They studied science with a truly religious fervor, since the laws of nature were regarded as the modes of divine activity. Theya-re said to have supported sixty colleges, and the * St. Paul in Britain, p. 64. •1.umber of students from Britain and from Gaul sometimes rose to sixty thousand. These institutions were generally located in the, fortified capitals of the tribes known as Caers, Castras, and finally,. Chesters. Very many of the old names still remain, as Doncaster,. Leicester and Winchester. The pride of learning in these institutions was very great. The only prophets recognized were those who had penetrated all nature's laws. Only the highest social classes were eligible to the Druid order, and each applicant must prove his descent from nine successive generations of free forefathers. In the Druid order centered all knowledge, human and divine. They were the hierarchy and the parliament. They never bore arms. Expulsion from the order rendered the culprit an outcast, whom none might. fellowship or assist or pity.
The conversion of the Britons to .Christianity was facilitated by two favoring influences. The first was the fact that their own system of belief had so many high and noble elements in common with the religion of the Bible. They claimed identity as to the unity of God, in three manifestations, of whom "Jesu "was one. They recognized also the principle of vicarious expiation for sin, and the doctrine of repentance and confession. Like the Christian doctrines, their creed_ emphasized the freedom and responsibility of the human will and the moral influence of discipline, as a blessing in the government or God. Said Taliesin, a Druid bard, with some exaggeration: "Christ" the Word from the beginning, was from the beginning our teacher, and we never lost His teaching. Christianity was a new thing in Asia, but there never was a time when the Druids of Britain held. not His doctrines."
The second special influence which opened the hearts of Britons, to the gospel was a fellow feeling with the Christians under the cruer wrongs of the Roman power. The Christian church was persecuted,. and Druidism soon shared its trials. It became so evident that the_ strong religious faith of the Celts was the real secret of their invincible bravery, that orders were given to the commanders of the legions to extirpate Druidism at all cost. Thus by a common sympathy ilL suffering were the hearts of the Druids opened to the gospel. The family of the royal exile, Caractacus, became prominent among. the Christians of Rome. Many memorable names, like that of Pelagius, appeared in the history of the British churches.
In our common habit of lauding the Anglo Saxon, have we not, unduly overlooked the Celtic element in the civilization and moral power of Britain? From the Picts of Scotland, and the brave and hardy sons of Wales, who even yet speak the original tongue of the Britolls,and the secluded Irish, whom Patrick won to the truth, we~ trace very many of those early influences which have leavened the ooaracter of the nation. That enthusiastic youth, who, from having
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES
been a captive and a swineherd, became, in the fifth century, A. D., the apostle of Ireland, belonged to this Celtic race. Before the con- quests of Saxon and Dane, which waged a war of extermination against Roman and Briton alike, he had established Christianity in Ireland. From Ireland a refluent tide of Christian influence returned to Wales. In both countries monasteries sprang up, which were really missionary trai~ing schools. Northward to Iona this monastic enthusiasm spread. Thence, men of heroic faith and endurance carried the gospel to Scotland and to N orthumbria. From the Ban- . gors of Ireland and Wales missionaries passed into Burgundy, Switzer- land, Germany, and even Italy. It was an evangelical faith which they proclaimed. Patrick had studied with Martin of Tours, who, sur- rounded by Celtic monks of Gaul, had followed the culture of Poly- carp rather than that of the Popes. It was an age of moral earnest- ness, and the faith of Britain was exceptionally free from the hair- splitting doctrinal speculations which prevailed in the East. It was free from ecclesiastical ambition and intrigue; from the accumulations of human traditions; from the worship of pictures, im'hges and relics. .
Religion was the great interest of life. Mo,nastic devotion and missionary effort, far and near, were considered nobler and more desirable than money getting, or fame, or earthly pleasure. It was then that the foundations were laid for the political and religious liberty and power of Western Europe.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
-The following from the Macedonier is a fair specime,n of what" secular instruction" means when carried out logically. The writer is speaking of Dutch Government schools in the East Indies: " This was the first fault (the denationalization of young teachers), but the second was not lessgrave. It was the principle of neutrality. 'There might not be any religion ill the Government schools!' This measure roused an unnecessary aversion in the parents towards the Government schools. Among a population where but one church was known, the name of God or of Jesus might not be named; nay, even proverbs, like that of Solomon, ' Go to the ant, thou sluggard,' were objected to as injurious because they stood in the Bible." Are we going to yield to Antichrist in that fashion?
-The same writer, after remarking that the Government schools do not deserve to be called people's schools, inasmuch as for the great majority of the youth who are not looking for Government appointments, the little knowledge they give is of a kind to spoil them for their actual life, pronounces the missionary schools to be true people's schools, because (1) They use, as a rule, the vernacular tongue, although in the Minahassa (the northern arm of Celebes) they still use the Malay too much. (2) They keep in view, in their instruction, the development of the understanding and the forming of the heart agreeably to the stage of development on which the popUlation stands, and the occupation and course of life which lie before by far the greater proportion of the school-going youth. (3) They limit themselves to giving instruction in read- ing, writing, ciphering, geography and singing. Point 2 is, in the writer's judgment, of great importance. His conclusion is that the East Indies require, not the Government school, but the free, subsidized private school.
-The following from the Dansk Missionsblad gives an impression of how, where there is still a zeal for Hinduism, the gospel is weakening its defences in more cultivated Ininds, and how fierce a reaction of heathen bigotry is still possible even against Hindus, whose greater enlightment compels them to make certain concessions to Christianity: " As we were returning from church, we came by a great company of people that had flocked around a speaker, who, with enthusiastic words, was extolling the excellence of Hinduism at the expense of Christianity. My companion knew the speaker, a young Hindu from Madras, who had seized on this festal occasion to make an essay to strengthen the tottering thrones of his gods. We stopped and listened; and our native preacher having undertaken to answer him with somewhat dubious success, Herman Jensen entered the circle. He extended his hand to the abashed Hindu, and kindly inquired after his health, which for an instant stayed the flow of his eloquence and drew the hearers' attention. Jensen availed himself of this moment, and, without entering upon the interrupted discussion as to the trustworthiness of the Bible, he began to speak to the people of' Him who is not far from anyone of us.' . . • Having ended, he at once took leave, that the impression left might not be effaced by aimless disputes. We afterwards learned that some of the crowd had begun to make sport of the Christians and their religion, but were checked by the young Hindu, who reminded them that although as Hindus they were antjl.gonistsof Christianity, yet they could not refuse it their respect, as it was in reality a good religion. At the same time he let fall a hint that the Hindu zeal to drag their gods about the streets was of doubtful value.
"The next day we heard that the young Hindu had been obliged to leave the town early in the morning. For as soon !,S it became known in Tricalore that he had permitted Herman Jensen to speak, and had even expressed himself favorably as to Christianity, no one in the whole town would sell him rice or anything else. The Brahmins in particular began to assume so threatening a demeanor toward him that he judged it prudent to leave Tricalore as quickly as possible."
-Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land, the German part of New Guinea, the northeastern part of this great island, is about ten times as large as the kingdom of Wurtemberg, but has only about one-twentieth as large a population. We are glad to see that the German Company which controls it forbid the importation of either spirits or gunpowder. The people are not, like many Papuans, cannibals. They are of strict morals, and of a reasonable disposition. The Inissionaries say: "If only they would wash themselves now and then !"
-'fhe Missions-Blatt of the Moravian brethren for JanuarY,1890, opens with the words: "Thy Kingdom come. Praying thus we enter upon the New Year. We utter it with universal Christendom over the broad earth. But above.all it should be the watchword for the missionary church of the Unitas Fratrum. The Kingdom of the Lord our God, as yet invisible in its .full depth, power and glory, by us as yet uncomprehended, but in faith apprehended as the Kingdom gained by the conflict unto blood and death, of the Son of God, wrested from the devil and formed by the communion of the redeemed, ought in this year also to gain ground afresh and to make a victorious advance. There should be assured to it victory upon victory, as well among ourselves as also abroad, in the far distance where light and darkness are wrestling together, or where the yet unbroken darkness rests in thick masses upon the nations. This is the tenor of our prayer. And if we pray thus believingly and confidently, with a 'heart full of love for this kingdom, into which we know ourselves to have been translated, then we all labor together for the coming of the same, then are its victories also our victories, then something of the glory of the Kingdom is likewise reflected into our own life, and purifies our faithfulness, our labor, our patience, so that they put on some value in the eyes of its King." -The Moravian brethren remark that the past year has been marked by liberal gifts for their modest but model missions. In a peculiar sense, what- ever is given to the Brethren's Church is given to the Church universal, and has, therefore, a double value, immediate and exemplary. In 1889 the extra outlays of 1887 were fully covered. And large giving soon showed itself, as commonly, to be the parent of larger giving. For the church at Dornburg, Surinam, costing more than 20,000 marks, the costs are assured. 6,500 marks have been paid and subscribed for opening a work in the island of Trinidad. .a Mr. McNiece, in Ireland, has left the Moravian Church the equivalent of 115,000 marks for their missions in Africa and .asia. Mrs. Disney Robinson having given in 1888 the sum of 20,000 marks, and 20,000 marks in 1889, has bequeathed 40,000 marks.
" But with the chords of thanksgiving and joy there mingles also a subdued strain of sadness in looking over the past year. We trust it does not lessen gratitude, but in a measure it troubles joy. It has pleased the Lord to, visit our missionary brethren and sisters the past year in a very extraordinary degree with sickness. This has occasioned many withdrawals from the service, and has diminished the strength of many who remain. It has also made it necessary to decline many overtures of service. Finally, this year has seen a, larger number called to the heavenly home than many others. Five brethren and sisters have been called away out of a fruithful activity-five in Surinam alone.
" In the past year a special consecration was imparted to our missionary' work by the meeting in Herrnhut of the General Synod of the Brethrens' Unity. In this the missionary work of our church, in all its aspects, was thoroughly tested, unfolded and weighed. And this was done with so comprehensive an interest, and with so hearty an affection, that we were thereby mightily strengthened and filled with the consciousness that we were acting in the commission not only of an important but also of a praying missionary church, and could take up our work afresh in the refreshment of such a. consciousness.
"Thus, then, may the Lord go with us into the new year, and His blessing accompany all we do! May His spirit rule without in the field, as well as at. home in the church. May He build up His kingdom in our midst, and, through us, ever wider and wider out into lands remote! The experiences that we may have gathered in the past year, painful as well as consoling, all this should firmly conjoin itself for us'into piers and arches of a bridge, on which Hope shall advance, boldly and securely, from time unto eternity. To the Lord, the victorious king of his kingdom, be glory and praise and honor, .amen!"
-The Brethren's missionaries in the little Mosquito State complain that the Catholic State of Nicaragua is constantly nibbling at the eastern boundary, and, unless restrained by England and America, the guaranteeing powers, bids fair to devour it altogether. The two governments ought to be stirred up to look into the matter.
-The Berlin Missionary Society gives its present statistics as follows: In South Africa, 6 superintendencies, 47 stations, 83 out-stations, 143 preaching places, 53 ordained missionaries, 4 candidates for ordination, 6 colonial brethren, 93 paid and 323 unpaid colored assistants, 20,000' baptized Christians now living, 8,000 deceased, and 3,500 scholars. In China, 4 ordained European missionaries, 2 European candidates for ordination, 28 native helpers, 4 of them ordained, 9 stations, 7 out-stations, 23 preaching places, 736 baptized Ch..istians, living in 135 localities, and 116 scholars. In tbe Mission house in Berlin there are some 25 or 30 pupils under training (after the Continental metbod) for work abroad. The almost entire talk of University men is a deep drawback in Continental Protestant Missions.
The Society, now 66 years old, is assisted by 300 auxiliary associations. -Director Wangemann says, with considerable humor, that the effectiveness of the system of auxiliaries is by some set much too high. " My dear friend, Professor Flash, once remarked, that the Director of Berlin I. (for there is another Berlin Society) has a good position; he sits like a telegraph director before 300 wires, at whose ends are to be found 300 auxiliaries. He only needs to press on the buttons, and movement ensues in the whole system. Now, whether a Berlin Misfionary Director has ever been in this happy situation or not, I do not know; but, as concerns myself, I h~ve never enjoyed it, and even less to-day than when I took up my office 26 years ago. I may press on the buttons as much as I will, the great majority give no answer whatever. Some wires are rusted; some quite broken asunder; the system as a whole no longer works. For years, 60, 70, perhaps 90 answers, has been all that my pressing on the',00 buttons has brought to pass, and of these more than half not at all thorou:,;lly entering into my questions." So it seems that even German thqroughness has its provoking limitations in the missionary cause.
– " As Paul, with good right, was honored with the title of ' Apostle of the Gentile~,' so our time, above others, is the period of the world·mission, whose business it is to be thoroughly in earnest with the commission of the King of the kingdom of heaven: 'Go ye into all the world,' , Make all nations my disciples.' But in this great mission field the Supreme Missionary Direc· tion has distinctly designated certain fields of labor, above other8, as those whichju8t now need our especial faithfulness and energy, for the very reason that here more than elsewhere' a great door and effectual, offerinli:' abundant fruit, is opened unto us, and there are many adversaries.' As in a hattie a wise general sends the main reinforcement to those points where the crisis is imminent, and the enemy most vigorously unfolds his force, so ahro in the combat for the world's conquest, which missions have to wage, the most decisive and energetically assailed points must be occupied with the most numerous and the best troops. The greatness of the duty, which the present opening of the world imposes on Christain missions, has an almost bewildering effect, and involves the danger of an inauspicious scattering of forces. It often misleads Christians to an unreasonably rapid succession of new enterprises, not seldom at the cost of such elder fields of labor as afford fruit already ripe for the harvest. The opening of new doors should certainly not be left unregarded, but be an incitement to multiply our exertions; but they ought neither to afford nourishment to a certain missionary romanticism, which is only intent on 'either seeing or hearing some new thing,' nor to infringe on due fidelity towards elder fields, nor to come in conflict with the wisdom which demands the fullest outlay of strength where, at a particular juncture, the opportunity is most distinctly given by God for wide·reaching decisiveness of result." -Dr. Warneek in Allgemeine Missions·ZeitBchri/t, January, 1890.
-" The great missionary decisions do not, in the first instance, impend in the newly·dis· covered regions, especially of Central Africa; but in older fields, where access to human throngs is conjoined with an entrance of the gospel message into human hearts, and the enemy is organizing a resistance to the gospel. There, as in Madagascar, in India, in Japan, where the situation already draws near to a final issue, the missionary forces should receive the greatest possible concentration."-Ibidem.
-" We can but lament that so many in our day account as insufficient the only means that is given to Christian missionaries, namely, the Gospel, and, therefore, meditate how they may rel!der it effective by additions of their own devising. Their unbelief arises out of the just observation, that the missionary with the Gospel has to attack, not only an individual, but a world that, in its manifold political, social, ethical, religious relations, is fortified against the truth. For this the Word appears to have too isolated an operation. But the Word finds not only one individual, but then a second and a third; there arises a Christian community, which is the legitimate means of warfare against the heathen community. The greater this community becomes, so much the greater is the capital with which missions work. Every mission· ary society which founds a second station, which has a fiourishing neighbor-mission, experiences that the first helps to bear up the second, the neighbor to support its own work. It appears to me that this source of efficiency is at present overlooked, when in Africa so many entrenched camps are broken up, and the war almost wholil. carried on by skirmishes. Especially is this a tactical mistake in a land where one has to do Wlth Islam, which works by its compact masses; in a land that intelleCtually, morally, religiously, is so little prepared for Christianity as Africa, where all the spiritual capital, all the instruments with which we labor, for instance, in most places the very alphabet, have first to be created. What is natural, appears also here to be reasonable. Why should one carryon the war some hundreds of miles away from the nearest of our country's troops, and not rather advance shoulder to shoulder into a stronglyfortified enemy's land."-F. M. Zahn in Allgemeine Zeit8chrijt, January, 1890.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.
The organization of the Student academic students; 200 (4.%) grammar Volunteer Movement is not perfect as and common school students; 500 yet; nor are its methods infallible in (10%) who are not students, and 500 aim, however its representatives are (10.%) who are out of school on account united, for they are striving in single of health or lack of means. Besides hearted endeavor to evangelize the these, about 275 (5~ Yo) have completed world in this generation. And be- their course of study (125 of whom are cause they are honestly and earnestly not likely to go), while neady 250 (5%) and prayerfully striving to enfolce have departed to their foreign work.
our Master's last command, they wel- About 250 (5.%) have renounced their come, and most gladly, criticism from decision; and 50 (1.%) have been re- friends-criticism in the broad signifi- jected on account of ill health and cation of that much abused term. other reasons.
Now and then statements like the In the following estimate the same following reach us, and because these persons are considered with reference statements are typical of criticisms to the time required to complete their which come from various quarters, we courses of study which they have laid give this sample: "We have heard out: The number who have completed of some thousands of students in our education and gone. to their work, colleges 'pledged to foreign missions,' about 250; number who have finished but, somehow, they do not material- their education and are still in this ize. We would be willing to hear less country, about 150; that expect to com- about their enthusiastic pledges if we plete studies in 1890, 400; about 550 might see more proof of the enthusi- will complete their studies each year asm." Lookers on think it a little for the next four years; while 1200 will strange that out of so large a number have more than four years of study be- {)f volunteers so few appear to be fore them. About 500 are uncertain as ready to embark in the work. An ex- to time required to finish, on account of amination of the latest statistics very health and means. To complete total recently compiled will show results of 5,000, there must be added 50 who encouraging to all who are anxious have been rejected by the Boards, and for the extension of Christ's kingdom, 250 who have reversed their decision.
and will reveal some of the reasons There are between 90 and 100 mis- why even a greater number of volun- sion boards organized in colleges' for teers have not already sailed for for- promulgating the missionary spirit in eign shores. their respective localities; but volun- The American Board sent out last teers are reported from 300 insti- year 52 missionaries, the largest num- tutions. There has been pledged for ber for any year in over half a century, the support of missionaries through and has as many more.applications on the influence of the movement: by nle. This Board has sent out 30 vol- colleges, $19,450; seminaries $9,850; unteers in the last three years. churches, $13,000; miscellaneous Dod- Five thousand persons have signed ies, $3,400. These figures include the pledge. single contributions and permanent The most accurate estimate gives annual pledges, but omit all work the numbers and proportions of the done in 1890, and much done previous- volunteers in the various grades of ly and not reported.
educational institutions as follows: Mr. John N. Forman will be remem- 1750 (35.%) college students; 125 (21 Yo) bered as the person who was associa- medical students; 450 (9%) theological ted with Mr. Robert P. Wilder at the stUdents; 650 (13%) preparatory and date of the inception of the movement, in 1886. Mr. Formanis now in In another part of the REVlEw* may India, and is supported by the students of Princeton college. He writes from be found an appeal from the Kolhapur Datia, Central India: Mission for 16 new workers. It will " Datia Is a city of 28,()()() souls, a fine specimen of an eastern city, surrounded by a strong be remembered that the founder of wall which is pierced by five gates and three 'windows.' The people are independent, with this magazine, the Rev. R. G. Wilder, a king of their own, who is responsible to the English government." established this mission, and that his Since Mr. Forman's arrival at Datia wife and daughter, Miss Grace E.
he has been endeavoring to establish Wilder, are carrying on the work an independent native church, and he there now. has adopted, in a measure, the mode of living of the natives. He does not There are at present only 18 work- yet feel convinced that this latter plan el'S in Kolhapur. How needy the is altogether wise; but of two points he is convinced: first, no man should field is will be seen by examining the live in this country without a com- apportionment of workers to other panion; and second, it is not best to countries. Mexico has a population work among natives as poor men. of 10,OOO,OOO–two and one half times "We certainly must have," he writes, "all that Is necessary to health and efficient service, that to be reached by the Kolhapur and must not go in for asceticism. The preaching is sometimes quiet, and sometimes stormy. missionaries. Mexico has 48 ordained our Evening before last a young man came, intent missionaries, 44 lay missionaries, and on breaking up preaching. He tlrst tried 43 female missio!J.aries. Total, 135. to get me into an argument, but finding that would not work he talked away, pretty loud, If Kolhapur wen to have an equal to those about, and at the same time another man preached to another part of the audience. proportion, it shoull be furnished with I had to preach pretty loud to make myself heard, even by a small part of the audience, 54 missionaries. Japan has 15G orfor, in addition to my two rivals, there was all the ordinary noise of a public square.". . . dained missionaries, 161 lay, 113 fe- male, and 14 medical. Total, 443. If Kolhapur were to have as many in proportion, she should be equipped with 48. Even" in dark, benighted"
Africa, there are proportionately more missionaries at work than in Kolha- pur. MAX WOOD MOORHEAD.
* See page 456.-EDs.
Aftlca.-The British Missions Zambesi for navigation was being- and the Portuguese. On Livingstone's sounded, and a new and direct com- return to England in 1856, after 16 munication from the sea discovered. years of self-inflicted banishment in The Shire was then unknown to Por- the heart of the "Lost Continent," he tuguese voyagers except in its lower said: " I have opened the door, and I reaches and near the Zambesi. Dr. leave it with you to see that no one Livingstone and Sir John Kirk traced closes it after me." This door was not it to the Falls; proceeding on foot be- to be shut, either by the murderous yond them to Lake Shire, until their' Arab or the Portuguese filibuster. discovery of Nyassa. On this explor- Thirty-two years ago a well equipped ation Dr. Livingstone had proof that expedition was placed by the English the Portuguese encouraged slavery. government at the disposal of living- stone to extend geographical knowl- Next in chronological order came edge, and to assist the people in land the Universities' Mission. Livingstone cultivation and production of raw ma- chose a site for it which had many terial, for which the latter might be natural advantages. At this point exchanged for English manufactures. gang after gang of miserable slaves By this form of legitimate trade the were met, being led away to Portu- terrible slave traffic might be mitigat- guese settlements. Native villages. ed. Concurrently, the capacity of the likewise were commonly fired. At Chi- bisas a colony was formed, which had. continued to grow, and which to-day al experience, Portugal had all but was claimed as a birthright by Portu- strangled the life out of commerce, and gal. During the intervening 32 years the soul out of freedom; while on the Livingstone's old friends and servants East, the story was one and the same." had been peacefullysettled, save under The personal experience of Captain attacks from the Angoni and Machin- Lugard and Commander Cameron ga tribes. The Universities' Miss!on should not be forgotten. It was W. in Nyassaland had cost £43,000. In H. Stanley who wro~, in 1856: "If 1874 it was followed by the mission of you deliver these people into the hands the Free Church of Scotland, stationed of the Portuguese, the past as well as on the shores of Lake Nyassa, or the the present teaches you what to ex- Lake of the Stars. Its missionaries pect. You deliver them body and had explored the country surrounding soul into slavery." Effectively, it had Nyassa, attached the natives, and as- been said by the Rev. Dr. Symington, certained the natural resources. A an acknowledged authority on Af- sum of £50,000 had been expended on rica's regeneration, "that the only this powerful and successful enter- thing which can give any right in the prise, for whose enlargement four new highest sense to go in and occupy the missionaries had just gone out. The soil of Africa, is an honest, open desire Church of Scotland beginning in 1875 to restore to the' natives the first birth- at Blantyre, its retained headquarters right of mankind, their personal free- had enjoyed much prosperity. Blan- dom, and then to bring them into re- tyre lay equi-distant from the lake lations with our knowledge and our northward and the southerly Chibisas. commerce, which shall make them On the shores of Lake Tanganyika, sharers of our privileges."-Our En- 420 miles long, the London Missionary glish Correspondent. Society's gallant workers had battled against the combined forces of heath- -German Protestant Missionaries enism and slave rading. The African on the Cameroons River -The noble Lakes Company, formed in 1878, to achievements of the Baptist Missiondevelop the resources of this region, ary Society in the Cameroons district, i.e., Nyassa, and to act as carriers for with which the name of the Rev.'Althe mission stations, had been a large fred Saker is imperishably associated, and prosperous undertaking, with have not failed to receive admirable twelve trading depots and a capital devotion from the German Mission of £170,000. Stringently prohibiting since the territories were ceded to Gerany commerce with the liquor traffic, many. Eight European missionaries it has introduced' new sources of are engaged in the German Colony of wealth into the country. Throughits the Cameroons. For the training of expansion and the presence of other teachers and catechists, a small school Scotch traders, a British Consnl had was founded at Bethel, in January, been appointed. Until about five 1889. On its roll are the names of years ago Portugal had done nothing nine pupils. Native assistants have for the advance of scientific explor- also been appointed, partly in connecation. Her tracks along the lower tion with the mission work, and likeand upper banks of the Zambesi were wise to give independent courses of marked by slave marauding and an- instruction. The Mission in the Protagonism to the enlightenment and tectorate is making progress. Bethel, civilization of the natives. the main station, serves as the centre for other stations further up and down Mr. James Irvine, of Liverpool, to the Cameroons River, some of which whom the writer is indebted for some were taken over from the English of the foregoing details, said, that "on Baptists. South of Bell Town stands the West coast, he knew from person- the lately founded settlement of the Christians in Tokoto village. The pull down th!J teacher's house raised by the Baptists at Banjongo and re- -chapel here is utilized as a school. At build it at Bwea. To effect the Chris- tianization of these native cannibals, Hickory, on the right bank, the old the Baptist Society sacrificed a few heroic lives and expended over a sum Baptist mission house is being rebuilt, of £100,000 in holding forth the word of life upwards of forty years. Pray where one or two European mission- for their consecrated German mission- ary successors!-Our English Correaries will soon be stationed. The old spondent.
school-house has been repaired and – A Pathetic Story. The Free Church of Scotland has just issued a fitted up as a chapel. Towards the tract treating of 300 captured slave children in their Nyassa Mission. For overhauling, the little community of five years past the mission at the north end of Lake Nyassa has been seriously 27 souls, all counted, contributed about threatened by the man-stealing Arabs. These surround a village at early dawn 100 francs. In several villages, as far and fire into the houses, and ~hen the terrified men rush for their lives as Bakundu, on the Upper Mungo, the they are shot down, and the women and children captured. This is no mission undertakes both teaching and new tale. In this case the Arabs ~ent south to these villages with the bark preaching. rope made ready for their captives, to a village seven or eight days' journey At the end of 1888 the number of from Bwana, and there sold their cap- tives for powder. A second band atnative converts in the Protectorate tacked the village of Kapiyira, thirty miles south of Karonga, shooting down was registered at 160, not including the men as usual and capturing the women and children. These were 88 persons who were receiving instruc- surprised by some Christian natives, when every Arab bolted. The women tion with a view to baptism. The they had captured, being bound, could not escape. Six women and children number of children under the influ- had still the ropes on their necks. One little girl in the fight had received a ence of the mission is estimated at 300. bullet wound in the back of the head. One poor, old, helpless woman was led The Bille Missionary Society accepted into the stockade with the gore (slave stick) still on her neck, who had been the mission at Christmas, 1886, and of found by some Wankonde in the woods, and was brought to us. Her the 12 missionaries employed, four story was very sad. She was one of the women stolen lately, and was, have died. To fill the vacancies three with five other women and five chil- dren, put into the slave-sticks. By more will shortly depart for the Guinea night the end of the sticks-young trees, indeed-were tied to the roofs coast. . of the houses; but by day they were allowed to crawl about the verandas The Mission has advanced from Vic- toria, on the Ambas Bay, to the moun- tains peopled by the Bakwiri tribe.
In attempting the conquest inland, a native Christian was sent as a teacher to Banjongo, and the missionaries, Scholten and Aulenrieth,went to Ober- Bwea, a place some two thousand five hundred metres above the level of the sea. On this site they were permitted to stay, after lengthy nego- tiations with the chief and his pe~ple.
A hut was next purchased and re- moved to a suitable locality. The missionaries stripped a delightful hil- lock of its trees, and then laid an un- derstructure on which the hut was erected. Here the teacher lives, and Bwea is a mission station with a promising spiritual outlook. The neighborhood, which is healthy and populous, is weIl adapted for the cru- sade. Already a Iargerhouse is need- ed, and, in the absence of building materials, and the difficulty of their .transport, the missionaries propose to of the houses, always dragging the Among these is Lieut. Stairs' account tree behind. The morning of her es- of an attempt and failure, in June cape she crawled outside the village last, to reach the snow – crowned gate and got into ihe grass. Soon a summit of Ruwenzori, which Mr. cry was raised, and although they Stanley claims to be the ancient searched everywhere, and even set fire " Mountains of the Moon." The to the grass, she eluded their inhuman Lieutenant, after reaching a height of vigilance and got off, being only ten thousand feet, found his progress slightly scorched. All day and all arrested by three deep ravines, on the night she crawled along on hands and farthest side of which tlie nearest knees, and in the morning was found peak rose to an additional height of by the Wankonde in the woods. six thousand feet. Beyond this were other peaks rising still higher, and to Dr. Cross has a school composed of an altitude of at least eighteen thouchildren that have been thus rescued. sand feet! While there were many Three hundred of tbem are enrolled on indications of life within the ten his books; 250 have been present at thousand feet passed over by Lieut. one . time. There are six classes, Stairs, there were no evidences that taught under six giant trees. The this upper region was the regular Sabbath meeting is sometimes very habitat of animals. The lower mounlargely attended, 600 to 1,000 people at tain sides were overgrown with bamtimes being present, the whole serv- boos, above which.was found a dense ice being in the Ikimwamba dialect. growth of heaths, some of which rose The little scholars are of the Wankonde to· a height of twenty feet. The villages, the children the Arabs fought whole Ruwenzori range is evidently for and longed to enslave. They are one of extinct volcanoes. Of course, ~very one naked and helpless. But even with a registry of sixty degrees what touches us tenderly is that these by the thermometer, t;he night spent "naked, helpless" African children, on the mountain-side was felt to be instead of being in the slave pens of uncomfortably cold. Mr. Stanley rethe cruel slave hunters, are in Dr. ports that the debris brought from Cross' stockade, and all sing most these mountains, by the Semliki river, .sweetly: is rapidly filling the southern end of Lake Albert Nyanza. The lower eight .. Ut&ndeke Yesu wangu thousand feet of these mountain- Pilika UD~. sides were found inhabit;Qd by a people who had retreated up them before Wangi ukubiIikiIa hostile invaders, and who assumed Ut&ndeke we." the retreating business so promptly before Lieut. Stairs and his party as This is the first verse of "Pass me to quite escape their observation. not, 0 gentle Saviour." It is a very touching cry from helpless ones in the The discovery of this great mounheart of Africa, and the mute a,ppeal tain-the Mont Blanc of Africa-is hut of the prayer is to us as well as to the one of the geograpical results of this great Father of us all. expedition. Other discoveries solve perplexing questions in African geog- J. T. GRACEY, D.D. raphy. The real discoverer of the Congo has now discovered a source of -Ascent of Ruwenzori in Africa. the Nile in Lake Albert, and the Any attempt to detail to the public water-parting between those two the important results of Stanley's last rivers. From the Yambusa country African expedition must prove very to the Albert Nyanza, and thence inadequate until some map-maker onward to Msalalala, he discloses what gives to the public a full map of the vast regions traversed by the explorer. And yet some things that will prove interesting, without the aid of a new map, may be said just now. is really a new country, gives to the surface, we find that the mischief world its_physical features, and more under which we, Hindus, at present.
accurate information than it has ever labor is owing chiefly to the influence had before about the tribes of people of Christianity, brought steadily and who inhabit it.-The Evangelist. constantly to bear on our national China.-From Wei-Hien, China, mind for nearly a century and a half.
comes the intelligence that an Ameri- Raja Ram Mohun Roy, of happymem- can missionary lady, Mrs. Mateer, ory, felt its influence with the deepest who had been engaged in famine concern, so far back as 1821, and did relief work, had the high honor all he could to check its progress.
lately shown her of being taken Since his time, it is to be regretted, no through the city by an escort of literary Bengali gentleman (with one or two· men of high degree. They presented honorable exceptions) have done so her with a beautiful banner and much as to send a serious thought.
other tokens of esteem, and their escort after this matter, which is of such was a very brilliant one. Such honor vital importance to our Society.
shown to a woman, and a foreign " The result of this national apathy woman, too, and by China's proudest is, as might be expected, that the men! This was a marvelous spectacle, countless Christian missions at work in and it evidences how men who are this country, especially in Bengal, are hardest of all to reach and influence in a fair way of achieving their object, in any other way, may be moved to not so much, however, by carrying'
admiration and esteem by deeds of conviction to our hearts about the su- charity and mercy and loving personal periority of their religion as by slowly service to the unfortunate and the and imperceptibly changing our ideas.
suffering. Mrs. Mateer said that with regard to our moral, social, and while she was being thus honored, she domestic life. The unflagging energy tried to observe a fitting humility, and the systematic efforts with which as she remembered times when she these bodies are working at the foun- had suffered quite different treat- dation of our Society, will, unless coun- ment at the hands of the prejudiced teracted in time, surely cause a mighty and unfriendly literati and gentry of collapse of it at no distant date. Any China. family man who lives in town will, on India.-An Extraordinary Pamph- examining his household, discover un- let. We find in the Ohronicle of the mistakable evidence of the absence of London Society an extended quotation that domestic simplicity and spiritual from a pamphlet entitled, "Are We integrity that marked the ways of our Really Awake,! An Appeal to the Hin- women only a decade or two back."
du Oommunity," which has been re- The appeal proceeds to speak of the cently published in Calcutta. Vve can entrance of Bible-women into the give but part of the appeal here. It homes of the Hindus, and of the mis- is significant in many ways as showing sion schools to which the children are the attitude of the Hindus in the midst sent without hesitation, because there of the influences which are brought to are no Hindu schools for them, and it bear upon them. If those people who affirms that unless ihey arouse them- are asserting that missions are a fail- selves speedily to guard against the in- ure would candidly read this statement sidious progress of Christianity their of the Hindus themselves, they would society" will surely be turned topsy- find how wide of the truth are their turvy in a few generations hence." As assertions. The appeal says: a result of this appeal some Bengali " The life-blood of our Society is fast gentlemen established two or three ebbing away, and irreligion is eating schools close to the schools of the Lon- into its vitals. Looking beneath the don Society, but no appreciable difference was seen in the attendance at the in all Jewish learning, and one who latter.-Missionary Herald. will very soon qualify himself to be a JewS.-Free Church of Scotland valuable laborer in the ~ion field, MissIOns. There are many and striking indications that that" day of for which he has already discovered visitation" has at length begun to aptitude, and to which his whole soul dawn. Within the last twenty-five years there has been a remarkable tends. His baptism has produced a change in the attitude of the Jew towards Christ, and in various parts very deep and widespread impression. of the Jewish field we hear of a singular openness to listen to and consider The way has been opened up for the the great facts and truths of the gospel. The conversion and testi- permanent extension of the Sea of mony and work of Joseph Rabinowitz in South Russia, and of Rabbi lich- Galilee Mission to Safed, the traditenstein in Hungary, have produced a profound impression, and may be tional "city set on a hill " of Matthew taken as the forerunners of what is coming. The Jewish missions of our v: 14. The town contains about own Church are occupying an important . place in this interesting 15,000 Jews and 5,000 Moslems, and movement. Our mission schools are doing a great work in the way of vigorous operations-medical mission, leavening the young and impressible Jewish mind and heart with Christian and, it is hoped, educational-will be knowledge and sentiment. It is preparatory work, but we believe in begun among these this season. We sowing, and can wait for the harvest. Already the first fruits are being welcome this opening hopefully and gathered in, some of them rich and beautiful in no 'ordinary degree. joyfully. It cannot but stir the heart The school work has been resumed of the Church. to think of carrying on for the Winter at Budapest, Constantinople, and Tiberias with undiminished the work of healing and evangelizing numbers and with unabated zeal and hopefulness on the part of our devoted among those of His own nation, on teachers. At these three stations the Medical lIission continues in vigorous the very spot where our Lord carried operation. Every door may be said to be open, and in the case of the on His personal ministry in the days thousands of patients treated at the dispensary or visited in their homes, of His flesh, where He taught the our missionaries are not mere physicians, but avowedly preachers of people and wrought so many of His Christ. This arm of the service is growing in power from day to day. deeds of mercy. The first of the mis- From Breslau Mr. Edward has just sionaries' houses at Tiberias is nearly reported the baptism of a young Jew, to which he attaches unusual import- ready for being roofed in. Dr. Moody ance. He speaks of this young convert, who was preparing to be a Stuart writes regarding this: "It Jewish rabbi, as thoroughly at home brightens all our hopes to know that in. the great goodness of the God of Israel we have now taken a permanent position in the land of Israel."
Portugal.-Under the well- known initials of R. N. C., the Rock offers the following note of warning with regard to the claims of Portugal, which is well worth the consideration of all who wish to form a just judg- ment in the matter.
The subjectseems at the first glance, to be far removed from that of Chris- tian missions, but when we examine it closely we tip-d that these two are intimately connected, and it is as well that this should be understood: If the claims of Portugal are admitted the Protestant missions will be hampered or totally extinguished. Behind Portu gal is a greater power-the Church of Rome-and the reason why this little inert State is put forward to arrest the progress of civilization is because it is felt that wherever British influence prevails, there is toleration, and mis- sions of all denominations have a free hand. In the Mission Catholiques,
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS
published weekly at Lyons, in France, It is, therefore, expedient that the no secret is made that Cardinal Lavi- religious organs, especially those gerie ha.tmade arrangements with the which look ypon Christian missions as King of Portugal to occupy what he one of the chief duties of a Christian, is good enough to call the Portuguese Provinces of the Shire and Nyassa. to support the present Government in The Romish missionaries would be the bold front which they have prearmed with power and privileges, sented to the ridiculous Portuguese partly from Rome, partly from Lisbon. claims. For three hundred years they We should hear of principal chiefs be- had the field open to them, and had ing received, like Mwangaof Uganda, they annexed the whole of South into the Church of Rome, and the door Africa from Mozambique on the east closed to the commercial activity and to Angola on the west, no one could have called out; but it is an admitted missionary enthusiasm of Great Brit- fact that Livingstone discovered Nyain. The crafty Cardinal knows well assa Lake and the River Shire, and all enough that under British rule or pro- that remains of the Portuguese mediretectorate no let or hindrance will be val power is but a dream. made to his missioJ:Y3. but he requires not toleration, but exclusion of the We have long thought that the osapostles of error, as he calls Protest- tentatious anti-slavery demonstrations ants. It may be taken as an axiom of Cardinal Lavigerie had but one obthat when a Romish Cardinal preaches ject-the advancement of the Romish an anti-slavery crusade, or asserts the church. At the same time we most rights of a weak and effete monarchy earnestly hope that the war spirit and nation like the Portuguese, he has may be kept under, and that the misbut one object, the advancement of the sionaries whose work is threatened Roman Catholic religion by force or fraud, by violence or chicanery, or, if may put their trust neither in this necessary, by bloodshed. government nor that, but only in the living God, who rules and overrules in the affairs of men.
I1I.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Ohins.. a revision of the Tien·tsin treaty with Great Britain, so as to exclude the legalized importa- GOD AND THE OPIUM TRAFFIC. tion of opium into China, may be embraced, signed by about 750 foreign missionaries, 1,200 [The following letter from an native pastors, evangelists, etc., and 5,000 American missionary at Shanghai, other Christians in India, as well as a goodly and the Petition of the Christian number in England and America, along with a Churches at China, we are sure will similar memorial from Scotland containing get an attentive reading and incite to nearly,7,000 signatures. Another object is to earnest prayer that the dreadful see and hear what we may on the spot, and curse to which it relates may be supply the religious newspaper press of Great abated, and in due time removed. Britain and elsewhere with some new and While the petition is addressed to the additional material for arousing the Christian Christian churches of England, the churches and people on the subject of the churches of America are 'not innocent opium curse-which we doubt not the Lord is in the matter, as the letter of our cor- going very soon to overthrow. respondent and missionary will show. The facts to which he alludes have The accompanying is an address, with its faded from the public mind, but they translation, from the Chinese Christians of are none the less true, and are written Canton to their brethren in Great Britain, but in God's book of remembrance.-:J. it has occurred to me, since visiting that M. S.] ancient and populous city, that it would serve a good purpose in stimulating Christians in As ambassadors of Christ, with the burden my own land, who, as well as our English of the Lord upon us, my friend, Mr. A. S. cousins, have a duty to perform in putting Dyer, of the Bombay Guardian, and myself down this iniquitous traffic; for though the left Bombay, on the 3d ultimo, on a special United States, in the final treaty with China, mission to China. The object of the mission wiped their hands of it, they have not yet is to present to the Court of Pekinga memorial, entirely wiped out the stain of their former praying that tbe opportunity now afforded for complicity with it. Because, as I have found on the spot, it was not merely the American eagle swooping down over the field, ready to pounce upon the prey as soon as the paw of the British lion might strike it down, and thus craft deteriorates, business suffers and time is reaping the fruits of the two unrighteous squandered. There is no worse evil than this, opium wars, but rather an actual participation and its curse appears again-in the gradual of American vessels, with their officers and destruction of the industries and trade of the others, in the nefarions work of smuggling country. the contraband drug into China up to the time of those wars. Our people originally are comparatively strong and healthy, but when once they At least, it is our dnty to unite in prayer to acquire the opium habit they become mere God to pnt a stop now to the wicked traffic, weak skeletons and can neither eat nor sleep and to avert the cnrse which is coming home with comfort. This physical deterioration to us in the shape of opium dens in America, is transmitted to their children and grandnot only for the Chinese, but for our own children, and the curse of opium is seen in the countrymen. injury it inflicts upon the very life of the people. 'With this hope and prayer, I am sending copies of this address for publication in When a man has enough to eat and to wear America, trusting that Christians generally he observes the proper regulations and cusmay soon be able to rejoice together in the toms of society, but when once he takes to removal of this great barrier to the progress opium he loses all self-respect, and as money of the Gospel in this land. becomes each day harder to obtain, he resorts to dishonest, means to gain a livelihood and W. E. RoBBINS, becomesutterly debased; so the curse of opium Missionary to India. appears again' in destroying the character and Shanghai, Feb. 21, 1890. manners of the people. The Christian Chnrches of Canton respectfully address the Christian Churches of Eng· While these evils are preying upon the land: people of China, the.obstacles they present to This year, when holding our Annual New Christian work are not a few. Your people Year's Meetings, we were 'favored with a come to preach the doctrines of the Gospel, visit from a Western Evangelist (Alfred S. which are indeed the truth, and your real Dyer), who told us how the Christians in India, desire is to lead many to believe; but those to the number of several thousand, had iP-l- who hear them say that opium and the Gospel proved the opportunity afforded this year, have come together from England, and the before the time fixed for t,he revision of the doubt arises and tinds expression in words Commercial treaty in reference to opium ex· that the Gospel is false. Your missionaries pires, to appeal to the Executive Council and come with the real desire to benetit the people, the Emperor of China to co-operate with your but those who see them maliciously declare Government in abolishing the opium traffic. that opium IOnd missionaries are alike English Having been told this, we were incited thereby productions, and they suspect the missionaries to prepare this letter, signed by representa- of secretly doing evil. Moreover, the Church tives of all our Churches, beseeching your oppns free schools, and although they are Churches, pastors and teachers to combine meant to benetit the youth, yet it is impossible your strength in devising some efficient means to stop the mouths of those who are not to remove this curse of opium. Years ago, taught, while opium remains unfprbidden. Mr. Turner, besides other good works, pre- The Church has opened hospitals; but, sented an appeal to your Parliament to pro- although they are saving men from disease, hibit the importation (by British merchants) it is impossible to iutluence the hearts of those of opium into China. who have not been healed while opium remains Although the object sought has not been unforbidden. Your Christians, with siqgleattained, the agitation of the matter should ness of heart, are zealous in many good not be -allowed to flag, for the calamities works, but while opium remains they are all which opium brings are numberless. like so much water poured out. Per~it us to set forth briefly a few of the .more conspicuous forms. It is said by some that the Ghinese are fond The introduction and sale of opium extends of opium, and the calamities they suffer are of to all the cities and villages of the land, the tbeir own making, and the English have noth- Chinese expending upon it more than $50,000.- ing to do with it. The New Testament says: 000 (about 10,000,000 pounds sterling) every "Have no fellowship with evil." Now, when year. By this means the rich are made poor, your Government plants and sells opium to and the poor led to sell their children, and its minister to the evil propensities of the curse appears in the dissipation of the wealth Chinese, you are partskers with them, and of the land. Scholars, agriculturists, artisans what can you say in excuse thereof? and merchants represent the constant and productive employments of the people. When An opportunity having now been provionce they acquire the opium habit they dentially afforded by our friends in India to become weak, inefficient and indolent in every renew the agitation of the matter in the department of labor; every form of handi- memorial they have presented to the throne of China for consultation and prohibition, our hope is that your Christians will, with one heart, exert themselves, without regard to time has come when as a .mission we must profit or loss, and be enabled to abolish opium, divest ourselves of this modesty and make that the Chinese may be released from this known, in part, at least, our desire and the yoke of bondage and the obstacles to the claims of the field committed to our charge. preaching of the Gospel be removed. Wehave Such is the object of this appeal. but litt.le strength, but night and day we pray the Lord above to reveal Himself, and help Our mission-field embraces a population of England and China to abolish this great evil. four million souls, contained in the native May this exceeding blessing come to us and to states of Kohlapur, SaugJi, Miraj, and parts of China. For this we reverently wait. other states in the Deccan and Rutnagiri col- lectorate in the Koukan. (Signed) LEUNG To, AN FUNG-SHI, YEUNG WING Cm. With our present staff of missionaries, in- In behalf of the London Mission (which has cluding ladies, we have only one worker to every 235,000 of the population. Three of the aoo native communicants). above missionaries are now in America for health, and two others will probably follow CHAU HOK-SHUE, MAK RANG NIN. within three months. This leaves us with an actual force of only one worker to 330,000 In behalf of the English Wesleyan Mission souls. (which has 700 native communicants). In Kohlapur state alone there are 1097 vil- U PIN-OM, WONG KWONG-FUK. lages, many of which have a population of several thousand. Preaching thrice daily In behalf of the Berlin Mission (wbich bas 350 in three different villages, it would take a native communicants). missionary a whole year to· proclaim the Gos- pel to the villages of that single state, to say FUNG, FuNG TaUN-TAK, CH'AN SUN-MAN. nothing of the thousands of villages within the bonnds of our field. Kohlapur City could In behalf of the Baptist Mission (which has easily occupy 12 more missionaries. Miraj, 470 native communicants). another city of 24,000, is without even a native resident worker, while two of our stations are KWANHIN-SHAlII, UEMUNG-LING Tao TAU-SHAN. now without missionaries, viz., Pauhala and Rutnagiri. The collectorate of Rutnagiri con- In behalf of the Presbyterian Mission (which tains a population of at least a million, and all has 600 native communicants). without a single missionary. Apportion one to every 50,000 souls, and this field would re- NG UEN-LI. quire twenty missionaries.
In behalf of the American Scandinavian In Miraj, Sangli, and adjoining states, we Mission (which has 10 native communicants). have 2,500,000 people, humanly speaking, de- pendent upon three missionary families for India. the .. Bread of Life." Within a ten-mile [We gladly give place to this earnest radius of SangJi there are 125 villages. Here and affecting appeal in behalf of this alone is work for six missionaries. Within the mission, first, because the mission limits of our field there are five large towns needs immediate reinforcement, and (capitals of native states), with a population the field is an inviting one; and, varying from 8,000 to 24,000 each, and all as second, because the appeal comes yet unoccupied by any missionary. from the mission in the establishing of which the founder of this REVIEW As to work among women, Eastern women spent the best years of his life, and must necessarily be reached in their individual whichhis widow and daughterarenow homes. The demands of school work are such rendering efficient aid in sustaining. that our present ladies give but a fraction of We recognize the appeal as coming their time to evangelistic work, so to say that from the pen of the devoted and ac- each could be responsible for a parish of 2,000 complished Miss Grace E. Wilder.- heathen women would be to give each a large J. M. S.] average. Provided we could work at this rate, we need now 1,000 lady workers to reach AN APPEAL FROM THE B:OHLAPUR MISSION. the women of our field. In Kohlapur state there are 1,000 girls attending Government Mission work in the Kohlapur field has been carried on for nearly forty years, and with a schools. Last year aoo passed the standard measure of success that certainly justifies its continuance and extension. Many years have examination. Eight are preparing to be been spent in arduous preparatory toil, the teachers. Probably not a dozen of these girls fruits of which can never be estimated by hu- own each a single Christian book. Is anyalaman reckoning. The little band of half a baster box of ointment too precious to be dozen missionaries and their devoted wives broken for the honor of our King and the salhave for years labored earnestly to plant the vation of these souls ? precious seed of the gOspel among these four millions of immortal souls. There is a crisis upon us now. At least twelve important towns should be occupied at once.. In their modesty, and the consideration of the urgent needs of other fields, they have never asked for more than a mere fraction of the required number of workers. But the Never before were all classes so accessible. soulsare passing into eternity every day; dy- We must seize this opportunity. Scores of ing without Christ and without hope! villages are wanting schools. The ouly native Biblewoman in Bangli was laid to rest recently, Who will come "to the help of the Lord and the heathen women are now asking, "Are against the mighty?" That this appeal may you not going to send some one to teach us ?" be a call to some who from their hearts will Such are the open doors. Shall we enter and respond, "Here am I, send me," and that it possess this land for Christ? Can we do it at may lead those who cannot Come personally the present rate ? to provide the support of a substitute, is the earnest prayer of every missionary of the To forsake our stations to occupy others, KoIhapur mission. would be to bring discredit upon the cause of Christ. To open new stations and at the same "If thou forbear t{) deliver them that are time maintain present work is impossible. No drawn unto death, and those that are ready to one of us is giving more than a few days of be sIain; if thou sayest 'Behold we knew it each year to touring; hence the great mass of not,' doeth not he that pondereth the heart ·our village population is left without a wit- consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, ness for Christ most of the year. In the face doth he not know it? And shall he not ren- of such need shall we not have the few mis- der to every man according to his works ?" ·sionaries we are asking for? We call for 16 new workers for the whole Kohlapur field. On behalf of the mis8ion, Eight of the 16 to be ordained, one a physician, one a consecrated layman to superintend the ! GRACE E. WILDER, English High School in Kohlapur. (One of ·our missionaries ofi'ers $200 towards the sup- W. J. W.u.'LESS, rCommittee. port of this layman.) One is to be a devoted J. P. GRAHAM, ·and intelligent mechanic, to take charge of We, the undersigned, heartily endorse this mission building and teach Christian boys in- appeal, and would urge that the new mission- dustrial work. The ordained missionariesare aries be sent at once, needed to occupy new centres, and so Eliza J. Wilder, G. W. Seiler, M. F. Seiler, ,strengthen the present force at existing sta- J. H. Sherman, A. M. Goheen, M. L. Ewalt, tions, that preaching may be systematically A. M. Hull, M. E. Wanless, S. M. Tedford and ·carried on in the surrounding districts without L. B. Tedford. neglecting regular work at the stations. Japan. Five of the 16 should be single ladies. Well might it be asked: "Why this request for five THE MODERN MARTYR OF THE ORIENT. workers, where 125 are needed for Kolhapur :statealone?" This is not the measure of what [This brief paper will be read with we want or what we need, but five we must mingled tears and thanksgiving.-J. have now. So urgent is our case that two of M. S.] ·our lady missionaries have each ofi'ered half her salary to any Christian sister who will OUYAMA, March 1, 1890. -come out and share it with her. Japan never witnessed an auto-da-fe. A pale martyr in his shirt of fire, could not be One of the five is needed to take charge of a written of her old-time Christian heroes. The girls' school in KoJhapur City; one to be a martyr was there in generous numbers, hut physician; two others are wanted for evan- never the paleness, the shirt, nor the fire. gelistic work in and about Kolhapur. One is Sword and sea took the place of wood and needed for school and evangelistic work in flame. Thousands died for the faith in those Bangli. In order to continue the Christian stern days 260 years ago. boys' boarding-school, which should be in Aud now the word comes to the front once charge of a married missionary, one of our more. A man dies peacefully in his bed, sur- ,.single ladies must, until help comes from rounded by loving friends. Everything pos- home, give up the greater part of her evan- sible has heen done to save his life. The best gelistic work. physicians at the capital summoned by tele- graph. Also a faithful nurse and many attend- We are asking for two physicians when our ants. A leading statesman of the land telefield could furnish immediate work for 25. graphs to his bed-side, "Make him live at all The present and only medical missionary, hazards." Thousands of Christians all over though he has been in Sangli but two months, Japan were pleading in prayer for his life. has more patients than he can possihly attend Can such a man be called a martyr? And yet to. Many have to be turned away. This medical the word is used repeatedly in speaking of work is disarming prejudice and preparing the him. Hiscountrymen delight to call him one. ·way for direct evangelistic work. Through The sermon at his funeral was from the text, the dispensary or hospital many from distant "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth villages will be brought to us. Shall not two and die." … and its leading thought was be sent to engage in this Christ-like work of martyrdom. .11ealing and preaching? Some 150 precious How explain this seeming contradiction? Some one-was it Napoleon-has said, "It is the cause, and not the death, that makes the martyr." Yes, Joseph Neesima was a martyr. Hehad
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
the martyr spirit. He sacrificed himself for earth." He feared no man. When ordered by church and school and country. High office Prince Iwakurayears ago to go from Andover was within his reach. He spurned it for the to Washington, to act as interpreter, he re- higher one of teacher and preacher. Duty plied, "I acknowledge no lord save God Al- with him was a law of love. He never thought mighty." When traveling through Europe of self, but always of others. with the embassy, he insisted on keeping the Sabbath, and often remained alone from Sat- No wonder his students loved him so much urday till Monday. He felt as clearly in his· 'that they were eager to play the part of cool- soul as did John the Baptist, that he was ies and carry the body of theirlamented presi- called of God to do a definite work. He felt dent through the streets of wondering Kyoto. himself to be a "child of Providence." His· More than once he had risen from a sick bed, plans for his beloved school, with its 700 stu- and gone with aching head but pitying heart dents, and his equally loved churches, always. to hunt up some wayward boy, or to urge some kept ahead of their fulfillment. He was the departing student to take a Christian stand in prophet leader of Japan's Christian hosts. On life. There were times when no doctor could January 1st he wrote a brief poem for his own hold him hack, and he was ready to take any consolation. He died on the 23<1. The thought. risk to life or health for the sake of school or was, "Though weak in body and every way un- people. Whatever we may think of his judg- worthy, yet with large aspirations I greet the ment, there can be no impeaching the loftiness opening year." of his motive, or the loyalty of his spul. As iIlustrntive of his daily anxiety over his. He was dying all his days in behalf of great Kyoto College, just budding into a University, causes, and that the end should come in mid- he frequently quoted a heautifullittle stanza dle life, while his mother still Iives-a mere ex- in Japanese: istence, at the age of 84-was as fitting as it was expected. He loved life. He was the es- "Every morning we look anxiously to see sence of humility, and never strained after ef- if the white clouds have lifted which shut out· fect; and yet he was always overdoing, and the blossoms on the mountain of Yoshi." his life and early death stand out in the mind of every Christian Japanese a clean-cut, strik- Now $50,000 are needed at once to open the· ingly impressive lesson. University in accord4nce with Mr_ Neesima's· final request. Will not some American admirer- Worn by his wearying winter-work in behalf of this sincere man, who in his short life did of the Kyoto school, he runs away to Oiso, a more than anyone else has done to link the' watering-place near Yokohama, for needed best of two lands together, send on the money? change. Even there he will not rest, bnt writes a hundred letters, many of them sixfeet Free schools and a working church were' long, to individuals, mainly in regard to evan- what he aimed at for Japan. He ever worked gelistiC work in Japan; begging men to give for both, practically sacrificed his life in their themselves more unreservedly to the blessed behalf, and died, as it were, with one hand of service, to seize strategic centres, to send blessing on his college at Kyoto, and the other' preachers to the needy places, to occupy all on the churches scatteredover the land. Budd- Japan for Christ and make a forward move- hists are reporting that the head of Christianmentall along the line. ity being dead, Japan will soon see the last of the Western religion. When he was too weak to write he began to dictate to another, and spent a large part of But Christian Japan-and that means now the day before his death sending last mes- 38,000 strong in the Protestant ranks-is· sages, burning with love and earnest appeal, aroused to renewed activity. to friends far and near. He loved everyone, once punishing himself severely before his Neesima dead is even more powerful thall. school, that the law might be upheld, and yet Neesima living. All Japan rings with his- 'his students escape. praise and emulates his spirit. God give her hundreds of Neesimas-men full of faith and Some of hislastwords were, "So far as I know the Holy Ghost-to carry on to its final tri- I have not an enemy in the world;" and again, umph this wide and waiting work. "I envy not heaven and I blame no one on JAMES·H. PETTEE.
Missionary of A. B. O. F. M.
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
COND~CTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Let Us Expect Great Things. thought which is of great significance.
The times we live in afford topics It is an old observation that an earth- of great interest to the Christian stu- quake in the Andes has an answering dent of the movements of Providence. earth-wave in the Himalaya Moun- We glance only at a few of these fac- tains; and that a hurricane in the tors of the present times. 1. There is West Indies is most likely accom- a wide-spread disturbance of religious panied by a cyclone in the Indian Ocean. It is something like this ma- Revolution were all in that religious terial simultaneous perturbation to and social revolution which has long which we call attention in the relig- been characterized as " The Reforma- ious world. Archdeacon Hardwicke tion." But at this same period the pointed out years ago the fact of Thibetan form of Buddhism, now the great periodic perturbations in the re- purest Buddhism perhaps extant, ligious thought of mankind, occun-ing came into existence under the mould- simultaneously among peoples widely ing hand of that new incarnation, the separated from each other. Great Lama of Thibet. The import- When the Jews were in Babylon, ance of this movement can best be the Orphic brotherhood were diffus- appreciated by the student who has.
ing in all quarters in the West their seen the mongrel Buddhism of Bur- thirst for an objective revelation. At mah and China, or even the better the same time that Confucianism was preserved Ceylonese branch of this being re-formulated by its great vast nightmare of thought. But author, thus rehabilitating the State while Protestantism was being born, religion of China in a mode it was to and Thibetan Buddhism, with its vast· .maintain for many succeeding cen- literature, was taking form, Baba turies, every village in Persia was Nanak, the Luther of the Panjab, quickening under the Zoroastrian doc- was reasserting the absolute unity of trine of Dualism; and simultaneously God, and endeavoring to blend Hindu with both, Buddhism began to be dis- and Moslem by a new fusion of seminated, and to exert its wondrous thought, which resulted in the foun- witchery on the millions of the East. dation of the Seikh religion.
It is doubtful if the masses of man- It is to illustrate the widespread un- kind have ever been to such an extent, settling of the religious opinions of our in anyone period, agitated by religious own time that we have cited these reform on SO large a scale as at that instances of simultaneous disturbance time. The well nigh simultaneous of the religious convictions and notions.
origin of three systems destined to in- of men. The importance of giving fluence the world on so stupendous a attention to the recasting of religious scale as Confucianism, Zoroastrian- thought is seen in the fact of the long ism and Buddhism, marks a most ex- continuance of the forms in which the traordinary epoch in the destiny of faith of mankind were cast, in the our race. Centuries passed, and there case of these religions to which we occurred another of those periodic in- have made reference. Confucianism, tellectual and religious movements, Buddhism and Parsiism, the last two affecting communities which did not modified, to be sure, in localities, touch each other, and which had remain practically the same as when nothing in common, and each must simultaneously erected. Ifsomething have been but little acquainted with like this is occurring now, it will the fact that such perturbations other therefore appear to be of vast import- than its own were taking place. ance that the Christian church appre- Martin Luther, "with a little book ciate the situation, and lay her utmost and a beating heart," was upheaving moulding force upon the phenomena all Europe, and with his compeers, of the times. We need hardly point Melancthon, Calvin and others, were out the tendency in the Christian laying the foundations not only of world to-day to re-examine the entire doctrinal reform, but of that vital dis- foundations of its faith, and to re- tinction between ecclesiastical and state and reformulate its doctrinal civil authority as has resulted widely basis. Perhaps there never was a more in the separation between Church searching investigation made by the and State. The seeds of the American friends and allies of any body of religious teaching than is being frankly ing farther and farther into antiquity, made by the Christian scholars of the and are being found to be less and less world to-day. They shrink at no dis- satisfactory. Back they must go to closures, are disheartened by no diffi- Menu and the Vedas, and the more -culties, and are fearless of ultimate these are made the standard of morals, -consequences. They have flung their or of social or political order, the more faith into a crucible of their own and more they are found to be vague -erection, and push boldly toward the and unadapted to the times. Hinduism last analysis. Foes have sometimes is thus experiencing this profound perset a religious community on their turbation. defence, but it is the truest and best friends of the Christian religion that It is needless to pursue the Japanese to-day are thoroughly testing every through his athletic reforms and revopart of it that will submit to the lutions. Nationally it is without a -<lrdeal. They are quite' ready to dis- faith at this hour, and the very hearts credit -what cannot be thus satisfac- of the people might wear the placard, torily put into the furnace. The "Wanted, a Religion!" Its perturba- Christian religion was never more tion is like that of an earthquake. thoroughly an agitator of society than it is at this hour. We believe it to be It is not our purpose to more than in preparation to be a far mightier point out the fact of this widespread, factor than ever it has been in human diverse and yet simultaneous religious affairs. disturbance of our times, and to press upon the Church the consideration of India is unsettled religiously. It is its importance relative to the future. in a ferment. The Brahmo move- It will not remain in this agitated ment is a sort of Lutheran reforma- condition. What phases it may pass tion in~ the community. But deeper through before it finally settle!:; down and broader than that is the profound into forms which it will accept, one disturbance which is compelling it to cannot guess, but this period of unrest, answer, not to the foreigner, but to of remoulding of thought. of restating itself about itself. It is being forced faiths, will not last. Large communito open the question, now vital to its ties will settle down in some forms of €xistence, as to what it really is. faith which will probably be accepted What it really ought to be it may take for centuries. It is the duty of the up later, but for the present its rela- Christian Church not the less to investions to the courts of a gigantic con- tigate its own faith, but to instantly querer, which concedes its right to be, set itself to guiding other disturbed is obliging it to answer in court as to communities to reformulate theirs. what it really is. The British Government, acting on the principle of relig- 2. There are pre-intimations that ious neutrality, and assuming to be demand thought. It is with no little ready to adjust itself to authoritative interest that a careful student of his- Hinduism, asks it to show from its tory observes that great political and {)wn standards what it really is. To do religious epochs have frequently been this it is obliged to acknowledge the prefaced by a general pre-intimation accumulation of a vast debris of in the public mind of some great Rabbinism; and the farther it pushes change. The country of the Aztecs its investigation into its own acknow- enjoyed a golden age, under "the god ledged law the less satisfactory it finds of the air." He had long departed the it to be. Hinduism in the presence of land, but the people were ever eager for British authority and Christian his return. When Cortez and his felthought is compelled to search for its low-Spaniards proved invincible, the {)wu foundations, and they are reced- Indian became possessed of the idea, either from his arms or his art, that he must be "the god of the air," returning from the sun-rise, a'ld at the stead of his customary answer, he said thought of contending with Deity, he "The truth is the Messiah is come, quailed, and the Spaniard conquered. and if you will show me a place of The legend and its application un- safety from the scimiter of the Mos- locked an empire, while the physical lem, I will show you ten thousand force and courage of the people were Jews ready to say that the Messiah not yet half spent. Popular impres- is come, and that Jesus of Nazareth is sions are great factors of history-and that Messiah." that, whether formed on principle, prejudice or mytb. There are other instances in which such impressions are testified to on all When the trouble in Herzegovinia hands. In the Zenanas even of Cal-· and Bosnia arose some years since, it cutta, Mrs. Page says, that one day a was found that the insurgents were woman said to her: "Only have a lit- animated by an old prophecy, found tle patience, and all the Hindus will. in a work on Bosnia, published fifteen become Christians." A little woman years before, which stated that in the in the seclusion of the Zenanas of Cal- fifth century after the taking of the cutta expressed a similar sentiment. last Bosnian king by the Turks, the She said to Miss Britain, "Don't take· rising of the Christian Slavs in Turkey so much trouble, our folks will all would be victorious. Stephen Thom- soon become Christians even if left to· aserce, the last Bosnian king, was ex- themselves." The Lucknow WitnesS" ecuted on the 30th of June, 1463, on some years ago said on this topic~ the plain of Blagaj, and the insurrec- "We believe we speak the simple truth. tion alluded to commenced on the an- when we say, that millions of natives. niversaryof that event. are firmly convinced of this. We have· found it an accepted belief in the most It is said the Mohammedans in the remote mountain hamlets, where no- valley of the Euphrates were greatly European had ever penetrated, and we disturbed when they saw an iron find it received as an inevitable event· steamer floating on the Euphrates. of the near future in every city and There was an old proverb that "when town of the plains." Rev. Dr. Waugh iron floats on the Phrat (Euphrates), said: "A deep and wide-spread con- Mohammedanism will come to an viction prevails, not only in the cities, end." That was meant by a simile of but also in the country places among one impossible occurrence to assert the villagers, and indeed throughout. the impossibility of the occurrence of all classes, that a day of overthrowing another. All the laws of nature would of the old religions and effete faiths, of have, as they fancied, to be reversed, the breaking up of old forms, is at. before iron could be made to float, and hand. The common people speak of it was just as impossible that the Mos- the coming day of overturning, and lem faith should fail. But, 101 here seem not dismayed at its approach, before their very eyes iron was float- but announce themselves as ready toing, and that on the Phrat. This im- join in the van-indeed, are only waitpossible thing had occurred: might the ing its coming to break away from other impossible thing occur? It was their present thraldom and bonds of an ominous event, and that floating caste." iron steamer was a depressing circumstance. Indian Evangelization.* A missionary iiL Constantinople, The North American Indians are, some years ago, said he was in the ethnologically one people from the habit of meeting a pious Jew, and asking him " When will the Messiah * "By Canoe and Dog-Train Among the Cree come?" His usual reply was," The Messiah cometh." But one day, in- and SaJteaux Indians." By J;tev. Edgerton R_ Young. Eskimo of the North to the Aztec and ilized world, having mail communica- Peruvian in the centre, and the Fue- tion but once in six months, and regean on the extreme south. They duced much of the time to the food have ever been an independent people. resources of the country; living, on They have conducted a war of in- occasion for six months at a time, on dependence protracted through cen- fish, possibly varied by small contrituries. They have gradually perished, butions of wild meat. Mankind have but, except in Mexico, they have not always shown an appreciation of the in North America been conquered. heroic element, and Mr. Young and They have seen their heritage gradu- his wife have found a wide apprecia- ,ally wrested from their possessions, tion of their self-denial and devotion and have laid themselves down to die among a, very large circle of symwithin an ever-narrowing area. But pathizers with missionary work, in they remain the same dignified, seri- Europe as well as in America. ous and proud people. Mr. Young has been called to nar- They have a natural element of rate his experience before audiences poetry in their character. Among varying from a few scores to many no other of what are styled nature thousands, and always with the same peoples could the equivalent of the peculiar result. At the annual meetscenes of Hiawatha have been laid, ings of the International Missionary nor could any other have afforded Union at Niagara Falls and at the ,such simple and natural material for Thousand Islands, before the vast asromance. We have wronged them semblies at Ocean Grove, at Chautau- -often and grieviously; not always qua, and at other gatherings over the with intent; often' from ignorance of United States and the Canadas, he them and their necessities. We have has told of the trials and the triumphs misgoverned them, or rather failed to of his missionary career. There was govern them at all. and then cruelly always the same fascination about the ,shot them down because of our blun- story told so artlessly, and with an ders. The ill-acquaintance with their eloquence fresh as the breeze in the temper and their force has often been tops of the fir-balsams of the great ,costly. General Grant is reported to North land. Mr. Young has spent two have said that in one of our Indian winters in the British Isles telling of wars, "we spent six millions of dol- these stirring scenes in the same simlars and killed six Indians." The ple and charming way as hearth-stone Christian sentiment of the country tales are told, and as the world's folk- ,still forces the Government to take a lore has grown. paternal interest in them; and we are pressed to one more and final expedi- Naturally enough those who have ent of admitting them to citizenship listened to these tender or humorous and to individual instead of tribal stories, these traits of the red man and holding of lands. these triumphs of divine grace, begged Mr. Young to put these narra- Weare moved to write of their tives into a more permanent form. evangelization at this moment because We take the liberty in advance of the we are favored with the advance issue of the book in America to make sheets of a deeply interesting book by some extracts. We have alluded to Rev. Edgerton R. Young, relating his the natural eloquence of these rude personal experiences as a missionary races, whose oratory has on occasion among the Cree and Salteaux Indians risen to the highest level. Mr. Young of the extreme North land. Mr. had gone to a tribe which had never Young, with his estimable wife, heard the gospel, and summoned them spent nine years among them in a to a council to seE' if they were disposed state of practical exile from the civ- to become Christians. The principal chief, according to their unwritten " Missionary, once my hair was laws of precedence, spoke first. His black as a crow's; now it is getting voice was good and fuIl of pathos. He said: white. Gray hairs here, and grand- children in the wigwam, tell that I am " Missionary, I have long lost faith getting to be an old man, and yet I in our old paganism." Then pointing never heard such things as you have cdown to the outer edge of the audi- told us to-day. I am so glad I did not ence, where some old conjurers and die before I heard this wonderful medicine-men were seated, he said: story. Yet I am getting old. Gray " They know I have not cared for our hairs here, and grandchildren yonder, .old religion. I have neglected it. tell the story. Stay as long as you And I will tell you, missionary, why I can, missionary; tell us much of these have not believed our old paganism things, and when you have to go for a long time. I hear God in the away, come back soon, for I have thunder, in the tempest, and in the grandchildren, and I have gray hairs, .storm; I see His power in the light- and I may not live many winters ning that shivers the tree to kindling more. Do come back soon. Mission- wood; I see His goodness in giving us ary, may I say more?" the moose, the reindeer, the beaver and the bear; I see His loving kind- " Talk on. I am here to listen," said ness in giving us, when the South the missionary. "You said just now winds blow, the ducks and geese; and 'No tawenan' (our Father)." "Yes, I when the sno~ and ice melt away, did say our Father." "That is very cand our lakes and rivers are open new and very sweet to us. We never again, I see how He fills them with thought of the Great Spirit as our fish. I have watched these things for Father. We heard Him in the years, and I see how during every thunder, and saw Him in the lightmoon of the year He gives us some- ning and tempest and blizzard, and we thing; and so He has arranged it, that were afraid. So when you tell us of if we are only industrious and careful, the Great Spirit as Father, that is very we can always have something to eat. beautiful to us." Lifting up his eyes, So, thinking about these things which after a moment, to the missionary, he I had observed, I made up my mind said: "May I say more?" " Yes," he years ago that this Great Spirit, so answered, "say on." " You say , No kind and so watchfuI and so loving, tawenan' (Our Father). He is your did not care for the beating of the Father? " "Yes," said the missionary, conjurer's drum, or the shaking of the "He is my Father." Then he said, rattle of the medicine-man. So I for while his eyes and voice yearned for years have had no religion." Then, 'the answer, "Does it mean He is my turning to the missionary, he said: Father-poor Indian's Father?" "Yes, "Missionary, what you have said to-' oh yes, He is your Father, too." said day fills up my heart and satisfies all the missionary. "Your Father-misits ~ongings. It is just what I have sionary's Father and Indian's Father, been expecting to hear about the too? " " Yea," said the missionary. Great Spirit. I am so glad you have "Then we are brothers," he shouted. come with this wonderful story. Stay "Yes, we are brothers," said the misas long as you can, and when you sionary. have to go away, do not forget us, but .come again as soon as you can." The excitement in the audience became wonderful. But the old man Many more responded. The last to had not yet finished. He said: speak wasanold man withgrizzly hair. He was a queer, savage-looking man, "May I say more?" "Yes, say on; and spoke in an excited way. He said: all that is in your heart," was the reply. "Well," the Indian resumed, " I do not want to be rude, but it does seem to me that you, my white and beaver, and other things to exbrother, have been a long time in coming with that great book and its change for :flour and tea." wonderful story, to tell it to your red brothers in the woods." "What have you got, pOCl>r woman?" "I have got a couple of fish nets." Among the many incidents recorded "What do you do when it is too in this volume is a thrilling one of stormy to visit the nets?" Christian Indians volunteering to "Sometimes some of the men from carry food relief to some white settlers the other houses visit them for me, far" in the north, shut away from sup- and bring me fish. Then we some-" plies by the prevalence of the small- times get some by fishing through the pox. It was a long and perilous ice." journey, with risk of contagion. ~he " What about when it is too stormy expedition was well conducted by an for anyone to go?" Indian named Samuel, but thoug-h he She quietly said, "If we have nothbrought back all his force in good con- ing left we go without." dition, the strain had been too much The missionary hurried out of the for him, and, nervously prostrated, he room to stifle his emotion, but the soon died. His death, however, was a woman, suspecting the feelings of his happy one. His widow and children heart, followed him out and said: were cared for, but after a time re- "Ayumeaoke (Praying master), I do moved to a distant settlement, where not want you to feel so badly for me; it. Mr. Young subsequently found them is true I am very poor; it is true, since in great need. Looking at their ex- Samuel died we have often been very treme poverty the following colloquy hungry, and have often suffered from ensued: the bitter cold; but, missionary, you have heard me say that Samuel gave. "Nancy, you seem to be very his heart to God, so have I given my poor; you don't seem to have any- heart to God, and He who comforted thing to make you happy and com- Samuel and helped him, so that hefo$ble. " died happily, is my Saviour; and where Samuel has gone, by-and-by I Very quickly came the response, in am going too, and that thought makes much more cheerful strains than those me happy all the day long." of the missionary. Of course, her necessities were re- lieved by the care and thought of the "I have not got much, but I am not mISSIOnary. We have no room for unhappy, missionary." extracts showing the cost at which this missionary work was done, the· "You poor creature," he said, "you long privations, exposure to severe don't seem to have anything to make weather, and danger from vindictive you comfortable." heathen tribes; nor can we quote the" fascinating stories for young people "I have but little" she said quietly. about the canoe and dog-sled adven- "Have you any venison?" "Nol" tures. "Have you any flour?" "Nol" "Have you any tea 1" "No!" The Worship of Words. "Have you any potatoes?" When this last question was uttered A brother wrote us recently ask-" the poor woman looked up, and said, ing the meaning of the words, Om, " I have no potatoes, for don't you re- Manee Padme, Hom, found in Armember, at the time of the potato nold's •• Light of Asia. " We replied planting, Samuel took charge of the that we doubted if anybody on earth brigade, that went up with provisions knows. One authority renders the to save the poor white people. And meaning as "Oh, the Jewel on the· Samuel is not here to shoot deer, that I may have venison; and Samuel is not here to. catch mink and marten Lotus I" and Dr. Hooker translates it, forth, becomes forever the means of "Hail to him of the Lotus alid the the worsliip and knowledge of Brah- Jewel." Cheeboo Lama says the six rna." syllables represent the six states of future existence. The first represent- Once the idea of sacredness starled ing Lha, or the state of the gods; the in relation to words, and there is no second, Mee, or the state of human existence; the third, Lhamayin, or end to the coinage of such, whether the state of neutral and mischievous in the sacred incantations of the spirits, to which men who die in war Egypti:'m Book of the Dead, the Hindu are regenerated; the fourth, Tendo or Ram Ram, or the Roman Catholic Ave Dado, the state of beasts in which lazy and indifferent Buddhists are born Maria, or the unspeakable but not unagain; the fifth, Yedag, or the state of thinkable words of the Ancient Parsee wretched demons in a condition of suf- sacred books. fering; the sixth, Myalwur, or the state of punishment. Those born in Ohurch Dis-establishment in Brazil that state are exposed to tortures, heat, cold, thirst; those sent there for abus- The following is the text of the de- . ing the priesthood are born with long tongues, perpetually lacerated with cree with regard to the Church estabploughshares. The constant repetition of these six syllables closes the en- lishment in Brazil: trance of the six states of metempsychosis, and procures Nirvana. "Article 1. The Federal authorities, as well. as the different Confederate States, are pro- But a writer in the East has re- hibited from making laws, rules, regulations, cently pointed out the tendency in or any administrative acts establishing a human nature to worship sound or religion. speech, independent altogether of the meaning it conveys, and because of its "Article 2. To all people is given the privimysteriousness. The thunder and lege of exercising their religious cults in acstorm have been thus worshipped, and cordance with thetr belief, and they are not to speech has been deified under the be interrupted or disturbed in such devotions, name of voice (vach, vox), and Hindu either private or public, which belong to this tunes have. been deified as gods and privilege. goddesses. Words have been singled out because of oddness or potency as "Article 3. This liberty not only embraces divine or demoniacal. The East is full individuals in their individual acts, but also of them, and the West has them churches, associations, and institutions in buried in its folk-lore. Scott's "Lay which they are employed, all having full right of the Last Minstrel" beautifully illus- to unite themselves and live in accordance with trates this in the wonl,s which he dare their creed without interference from. the pubnot utter lest the Abbey be wrecked lic powers. about him. Thus the syllable" Om," or in Sanskrit form, "Aum," has been "Article 4. Patronage, resources, and pre- rogatives of all religious institutions are heremade to stand for "A," "U," and "M," by extinguished.
representing the triad, Brahma,Vishnu "Article 5. The right is recoguized of ali' and Siva. churches and religious orders to acquire and administer estates under limits made by the "Om" is especially a word of power. laws concerning corporations, grantingto each Meditating on it or muttering it, one one the right to ownership in property, as well becomes Brahma. "By the Om, the as the use of buildings for worship. supreme light of the ether, which is within the heart, starts, rises, breathes "Article 6. The Federal Government will continue to furnish ecclesiastical revenue and support for the actual personnel of the Catho- lic Church, and in other institutions will sub- sidize for one year the professorships in the seminaries, it being at the option of each State to recognize in the future the ministers of this or any other religion where they do not run contrary to the preceding articles in this de- cree.
"Article 7. All acts to the contrary are here- by revoked."-Brazilian Missions.
The International Missionary Union.
The International Missionary Union will hold its Seventh Annual Meeting at Clifton Springs, New York, June 11th to 18th, inclu- sive, 1890. Free entertainment will be pro-
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
vided for all foreign missionaries, or persons lator of the Scriptures at Bangkok. The Ex- who have heen foreign missionaries, of what- ecutive Committee are: Dr. J. L. Phillips, Rev. ever evangelical society, or board, or field. :l1essrs. M. B. Comfort, C. W. Park, Benj. Memhership in the Union is open to all such Helm, and J. A. Davis; Miss C. H. Daniells, persons and includes no others. Candidates M. D., and Mrs. M. E. Ranney. Treasurer, Prof. under actual appointment to the foreign field M. N. Wyckoff; Librarian, Rev. James Mudge. of any evangelical organization are earnestly invited to attend, and will also be freely en- It was resolved at the Binghamton Meeting tertained, as far as provision can be made. It to establish a Circulating MiSSionary Library will not be practicable to provide for the at- for the benefit of the memhers of the Union. tendance of children of missionaries. The following volumes were contributed as a nucleus of what it was thought might grow to A special rate offare (one fare and one-third) be a very useful and valuable collection: " over certain railroads (' 'Trunk Line" territory, and perhaps the Southern Passenger Associ- :rhe Great. V'!-lue and Success of Foreign ation and others), can he obtained at any im- )fISSIOns. Llggms. portant station on the conceding roads, and must be certified by the agent selling it, and Roport of the London MiSSionary Confer- on retnrn by the Secretary of the Union. The ence. 2 vols. ticket must be bought not earlier than June 8th, and not later than June 13th, and on re- Report of the Calcutta Missionary Confer- turn not aft"r June 21st,and must be a through ence. ticket on the conceding lines only; no stop- over. There must he at least 50 ticket·holders The Missionary Year-Book. Vol. I., 1889. at the meeting, to secure the deduction of two- Letters from India. Rev. H. J. Bruce. thirds return fare. The Natural History of the Marathi Bible. Rev. H. J. Bruce. The programme of this meeting cannot yet Among the Turks. Dr. Cyrus Hamlin. be furnished. The papers and discussions are Ann H. Judson. Dr. W. N. Wyeth. always on topics of special practical concern SarahB. Judson. Dr. W. N. Wyeth. to missionaries; but numerous addresses will India. Dr. J. T. Gracey. be made of a character interesting to the gen- China. Dr. J. T. Gracey. eral public, who are always cordially wel- Open Doors. Dr. J. T. Gracey. comed. Missionaries are requested "to com- Woman's )fedical Work in Foreign Lands. municate with either the President or the 1I1rs. J. T. Gracey. Secretary, to obtain further particulars, as Africa in a Nutshell. Rev. G. Thompson. well as to make suggestions as to topics, Memorial Papers of the American Marathi -papers, or addresses. If any would like to -discuss some particular subject themselves, Mis~ion. :provided suitable arrangements can be made, ·or if they know of any missionaries specially Further donations to the Library from ,qualified to present papers before the Union, members of the Union and other friends are or to address popular meetings, the President respectfully solicited. Will not all authors -will be glad of such information. among the members see that a copy of their works is sent as soon as possible to the Libra- The roll of the Union (organized in 1884) now rian? It is hoped that during the coming year 'includes 179 names, representing 18 different a beginning may be made of circulating these denominations and societies, Canadian, Ameri- volumes through the mail to such of the memcan and British, and at least 23 distinct fields. bers as may wish them. The plan is for the Its Vice-Presidents are: Cyrus Hamlin, D. D., person desiring to read any volume to send to founder of Rohert College, Constantinople; the Librarian the amount of postage required S. L. Baldwin, D. D., one of the Mission-Secre· to dispatch it by mail, and then in a month to taries of the American Methodists; and William Dean, D. D., the veteran Baptist trans- return it, postpaid, by the same channel. The Librarian is Rev. James Mudge, of East Pep. perell, Mass.
Inquiries concerning the approaching meet ing at Clifton Springs, or on any subject con- cerning the International Missionary Union, will he answered with pleasure by J. T. GRACEY, D. D., President, 183 Greenwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York WILLIAM H. BELDEN, Secretary, Bridgeton, New Jersey, V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
The Great Afrioan Mission Field. once and a half that of the United No other country is attracting so States from New York to San Franmuch attention as Africa. For many cisco. If it were divided by an east generations most of it has been con- and west line, running a little north sidered an unknown land, and even of the equator, the northern portion yet there is generally but a slight ap- would receive all North America, and prehension of its vast extent. Its the southern would embrace all Eugreatest width from east to west is rope, including Russia. The population is estimated by Mr. Stanley at of eastern Soudan. It bears north- 250,000,000. This is not to be compared in density with India or China, ward that annual tribute which for but it is far greater than has been supposed. Six hundred languages and ages has made Egypt the granary of dialects are spoken, of which not more than one in six is a vehicle of the word the East. ·of God. The fourth great river, theZambesi, The coast line of Africa throughout nearly its whole extent is low and gen- receiving the waters of the Nyassa erally insalubrious, but the interior is, for the ]Lost part, a vast table-land, and the Shire, passes over the great with mountain ranges which, in one {)r two instances, rise nearly two thou- cataracts to which it has given its .sand feet. name, and flows eastward into the No river in the world, unless it be the Amazon, equals the Congo in Indian Ocean. It is a remarkable volume. It is said to be thirty times as great as that of the Mississippi. It fact that the Congo, Nile, and Zambesi has no such breadth as the Amazon at its mouth, and instead of emptying find their sources all within a limited through the channels of a great delta .like the Ganges or the Niger which area of high table-lands, though they ·embraces three hundred miles of coast, it pours over a long succession of discharge their waters into widely disfalls and rapi~, and thence rushes to the sea through a deep-cut channel, tant seas. with a current well nigh resistless. Through its lower stretch it has Since the discoveries of Krapf and scooped the bottom of its channel till it is said to measure miles in depth; On Rebman, and the wonderful achievethe Upper Congo, including branches, there are five thousand miles of navi- ments of Livingstone and Stanley, all ,gable waters opening up in all directions a great interior basin of almost Europe has been enkindled with the unequalled fertility, and inhabited by not less than fifty millions of people. spirit of African discovery. For a Besides the Congo, three other great rivers and many smaller ones drain century previous there had been octhe great interior table-lands and -empty their waters into the sea. casional expeditions, but the explora- The Niger, rising in the country tions of the last two decades have back of Liberia, makes a circuit northward and eastward, draining the probably been equal to all that had western Soudan, and joined at length by the Benue, which flows westward previously been made. from the region south of Lake Tchad. It proceeds southwar4i to the Gulf of The following list of discoveries, for Guinea. which I am largely indebted to Rev. Dr. R. R. Booth, presents the principal The Nile, which has never been ex- African explorations down to Stanley's plored in its sources until within the discovery of the Congo: last twenty years, is the outlet of the great Equatorial Lakes and the waters Bruce, in 1768, explored the Blue Nile and Abyssinia.
Horneman, in 1798, reached Fezzan by way of Cairo.
Burkhardt, in 1812, visited Suakim and Dondola.
Captain Luckey, in 1816, explored the Congo for 200 miles.
Denham and Clapperton, in 1822, penetrated the desert from Tripoli to Lake Tchad. In 1825, they. passed from Guinea to Socotoo.
1I:1ajor Laing, in 1826, marched from Tripoli to Timbuctoo.
Clapperton and Lander, in 1827, ex- plored the south shore of Lake Tchad.
11:1. Cailli, in 1827, passed from Mo- rocco to Samagambia.
The Lander Brothers, jn 1830, ex- plored the Niger.
Laird and Oldfield, in 1833, also visited the Niger.
Engliflh Niger Expedition, in 1841, attended by missionaries.
Barth, Richardson, and Overweg, in 1849, passed from Tripoli to Lake Tchad.
Livingstone, in 1849, visited the Makalolos from the south. Egyptian Expedition, about 1850, up tended by the murder of Bishop Harthe Nile to 4° N. L. rington; the new conquests of Samadu, and of Islam in Western Soudan; the Krapf and Rebman, 1850, entered discoveries and.telTitorial occupations by Mombas and discovered Mount Kili- of DeBrazza on the Ogovie; the manjaro, and heard of the Lake Coun- strange fortunes of Emin Pasha; the try. founding of the Congo Free State; and the very latest achievements and dis- Anderson, 1850-54, explored South coveries of Henry M. Stanley. Africa from Cape Town, and discovered Lake N'gami, S. Lat. 21°. The Congo Free State demands fuller consideration. The king of the Bel- Livingstone, in 1852, discovered the gians, supported by the Geographical Falls of the Zambesi. Societies of Europe and the admiring sympathy of the civilized world, has Edward Vogel, in 1853, joined Barth interested himself in the opening up at Lake Tchad. of Central Africa to the interests of Livingstone, 1853, crossed Africa, and in 1858 discovered Lake Nyassa commerce and Christian mISSIOns· and the Shire Valley. and all the elements of a humane and Christian civilization. Burton and Speke, 1857-59, discovered Lake Tanganika. In the prosecution of this great en- terprise the leadership of Mr. Stanley Speke and Grant, 1859, discovered has been engaged, and the co-opera- Lake Victoria, Nyanza. tion of the different European powers has been enlisted. Agreements were Samuel Baker, 1861, discovered entered into exempting a vast terri- Albert Nyanza. tory from encroachment, and enabl- ing King Leopold to make and enforce Livingstone, in 1866, discovered treaties with the native tribes for the Lakes Moero and Bangweola. preservation of a general peace and harmony. The King is now virtually Schweinfurth, 1869-71, explored the the sovereign of the Congo Free State, Nyam-Nyam country, and discovered and is expending annually hundreds the Wells River. of thonsands of dollars from his private resources in the prosecution Stanley, in 1870, found Livingstone of his noble plans. at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganika. The Christian churchesof the world Muncie and Petherick, about 1870, explored the Upper Nile and the Bah- have been welcomed to the mission rel-Ghazil. fields of the Congo, and several socie- Gordon and Long, about 1870, ex- ties have established their stations plored the two great branches of the upon its waters. There are now said Nile. to be thirty small steamers plying above the falls, of which several are Livingstone, in 1874, died near Lake connected with missionary work. Bangweola. Of the different missionary organi- Stanley, in 1875, visited Mtesa's zations, the English Baptists, among kingdom, having advanced to the east the first, if not the very first, to ocside of Lake Albert, and in 1876 he cupy the country, is perhaps the passed westward into the interior. strongest. The American Baptist Union having received the mission Gamerou, 1874-76, crossed Africa to which was established by Dr. H. Benguela. Grattan Guinness and others, and known as the Congo Inland Mission, Stanley, August, 1877, arrived at now employs 29 missionaries, and Emboma, on the Lower Congo.
Since the discovery of the Congo more than forty expeditions have been sen~ into Africa by different na- tions, and many thrilling events have occulTed;-such as the overthrow of Arabi Pasha and the occupation of Egypt by Great Britain; the ill-fated mission of Gordon to Khartoom, and the bootless expedition up the Nile; the tragic career of El Mahdi; the varied and desperate encounters with Osman Digma; the Italian campaigns about Massowa; the struggles of British arms in South Africa, and the tragedy of the French Prince Im- perial; the death of Mtesa and the cruel persecutions of Mwanga, atits work is prosperous. The Metho- nificent government road, with tele- dist Congo Mission, under the direc- graphic communication and military tion of Bishop Taylorl has made a stations along the line. In the equa- vigorous beginning, and quite recently torial regions also, including Gaboon the Southern Presbyterian Church of and the Ogovie, with a territorial the United, States has sent a devoted claim extending along the northern young man with a colored assistant to bank of the Upper Congo, she holds lay the foundations of a mission some- a territory numbering 240,000 square where in the great valley. His ex- miles. The aggregate of these three ample in leaving high social at- protectorates is three times the size of tractions in the South to devote France.
himself to the colored races of Cen- 3. Germany hasannexed West Cam- tral Africa, is a proof that whatever aroons, and a vast territory in south- ground may be taken in the Southern western Africa, embracing Demerara churches in regard to the color line, and Namaqualand, whose united coast there are not wanting those who line extends 900 miles. Besides this, cherish the Christlike spirit of love Germany holds a vast territory in East toward the African. Africa, lying between Zanzibar and There has within the last few years Lakes Tanganiyka and Victoria Ny- been great rivalry on the part of anza.
European powers in gaining posses- 4. Great Britain has held permanent sion of Africa. In the words of Dr. possession of the Cape of Good Hope Guinness, to whom I am indebted for since 1795, and her various possessions many facts, "the whole coast has of Cape Colony, Cafraria, Natal, and been literally besieged by protector- last of all Zambesia, have been added.
ates." A railroad is now being projected two The following is the present situa- thousand miles from the Cape to the tion: Zambesi River. England also claims 1. Portugal holds large territories as large territory extending from on the west coast below the mouth of Mombas on the east coast above Zanzi- the Congo, besides its claim to Mozam- bar to the lake Victoria Nyanza, in- bique and territories extending west- . cluding the beautiful mountain region ward till they meet those of the west Kilimanjaro. She also holds a coast <coast. These claims are being seri- line of 400 miles in the Somali country, ously challenged, and important con- opposite Aden. She holds a virtual cessions have of late been made to protectorate of Egypt, besides posses- Great Britain in the region of the sions on the west coast at Sierra Leone.
Zambesi and Lake Nyassa. 5. The Italian Government, by pursu- 2. The French have held possession ing a vigorous policy on the west coast Df Algeria since their conflict with the of the Red Sea, has gained a strong- Riff pirates in 1831. Algeria is larger hold at Magada, and seems likely to than France, and has cost her some exert a dominant influence over Abys- hundreds of thousands of men and sinia.
$1,200,000,000 in money. It is a strong Two great questions, affecting the colony and is i~habited by a manly moral and religious future of Africa, race. A French protectorate, which are of such vast import as well nigh to looks towards annexation, is also ex- baffle the wisdom and the faith of tended over Tunis. France also claims Christian men: The Slave Trade and two hundred thousand square miles in the Liquor Traffic.
the region of the Senegal and the The fornler has been the topic of dis- Gambia. This large territory extends cussion in the great International Con- €astward to the waters of the Niger, ference recently convened in Brus- and is connected therewith by a mag- sels. That the problem of its suppression is notan easy one, a single example to suppress the introduction of liquor will show. and fire-arms into certain groups of the Pacific Isles, where terrible havoc It is said that Tippoo Tib, whose pow- was being produced, the State Depart- er is yet unchallenged on the Upper ment at Washington refused to join. Congo, commands 2,000 men, armed Public sentiment in Europe has not. with Winchester rifles. It is their credited our Government with the business to raid the villages through- highest and purest motives for this re- out a wide range of country for the fusal, nor has it hesitated to declare acquisition of slaves. Pillage, slaugh- that the responsibility of failure rests. ter, fire and devastation are merely with the United States and Germany. incidents in the work of capture. The terrible journey to the coasts is a What the Conference at Brussels has. sequel, and the business must be ex- accomplished in reference to the liquor tensive enough to cover a large per traffic, is to affect an agreement that cent. of deaths by the way, and an oc- beyond the present coast belt-rather casional loss by rescue. How shall a broad one unfortunately-the liquor this evil be reached at its source? importations shall not extend. This is something to be thankful for, and 'Ve understand that the Conference it points to the interior as the most. has agreed: First. That where it is pos- hopeful mission field. It affords an sible, the tribes concerned in the raid- answer also to those-some of them ing shall be held responsible. Second. Christian men-who have been ready Any tribe through whose territory a to conclude that Mohammedanism, slave caravan passes shall be held to with its strong prohibition of all inaccount. Third. The chief in whose toxicants, would, for the present at territory on the coasts the shipment least, offer a better evangel to Cenof slaves occurs shall also be dealt tral Africa than our Christian faith with. Fourth. The police of the sea coupled with the vices of Christendom. shall be maintained by the joint effort of the European powers. In any view, the outlook of Africa. is mixed with light and shade. Its It may confidently be hoped that problems are too great for human these measures will greatly curtail wisdom; too great for the Conference the desolations of this horrible traffic of the Powers. in flesh and blood. More than this cannot be expected till European Unfortunately, the Mohammedan philanthropy can draw the ligatures slave traders of Africa have two of repression more closely and strangle words which they may hurl back the hydra in its inmost retreats. with terrible force in the face of Chris- tian nations: "Opium!" "Rum! " And In regard to the liquor traffic, the they are not careful to discriminate problem is still more difficult. In this between Christianity and Christencase it is the civilized powers them- dom. They take ~o account of any selves that are the offenders. The difference between the counsels and dark tide of poison that deluges the prayers of the missionary societies. the coasts of Africa flows from so- in Boston and the agnosticism and called Christian lands. The Govern- whiskey of the distilleries not far away ments of Great Britain, France, and which are under contract to supplyfor' Germany.are ready to capture slave the African trade 3,000 gallons per day ships on the Red Sea-are they pre- for seven years. pared to confront the liquor interests of their own realms? Is there any way then for the Chris- tian church but to look away to the The attitude of the United States is hills whence cometh her help? It is still more doubtful. In 1885, when the time for a concert of prayer for Great Britain, France, Italy, and Aus- Africa. A greater burden was never tria were ready to unite in an effort brought to the mercy seat.
E;DITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPIQS
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Comparative Destitution in Christian American missionary in Sweden, and Pagan Lands. writes us: The venerable Dr. McCosh remarks "I am astonished at reading one that in the contempl~tion bf the waste sentence in a letter which you pub- of resources by want of church union, lished in the liarch number (page 214) while not only in heathen countries of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE but in our own great cities there are WORLD, and am very sorry that you multitudes who have not had the gos- should allow it to go out to your pel preached to them, he fears that thousands of readers without com- the judgment of Heaven may descend ment. The writer, in speaking of the upon the churches. He counsels the drink curse in Africa, says: 'The forming of a Federation in America amazing thing is that all this traffic to see that the whole country be di- [the rum trade in Old Calabar, West vided into parishes or districts, each Africa,] is conducted, in the main, by to be provided with a gospel minister not over a dozen firms, the members of and a lay agency put under obliga- which are most excellent men, many tions to have the gospel preached to of them, I believe, sincere Christians.'
every creature, young and old. He " Do, I beg of you, say to your read- will be glad to correspond with those ers, that you do not endorse such a who are ready to carry out this view. sentiment. It is high time to protest This is a suggestion in the right di- a against the doctrine of some of our rection. There is everywhere a mani- English friends-that man can be a fest disproportion between the differ- Christian and at the same time deal ent local fields. In Africa, at least out death and damnation to his fellow- 150,000,000 of people are entirely men!"
destitute of all knowledge of the gos- It is scarcely necessary to say that pel. The Soudan districts and the an editor is not to be held personally Congo Free State are absolutely with- responsible for all the sentiments ex- out the gospel. In Siam 13 Presby- pressed by his correspondents. In this terian missionaries, including women, instance we felt that our highly re- are the sole force for evangelizing the spected correspondent stretched his native Siamese and Laos population! charity beyond proper bounds. We These are two instances of the im- are not willing to believe that the man mense vacancies in heathen fields. I who traffics in liquor, asa drink, in this spoke in a village of Scotland having enlightened age, is a "sincere Chris- a population of about 1,200-800 of tian," or a Christian in any sense.
which are of a church-going age, and And the sin is the greater, incompar- there are five churches and as many ably, when a British or an American ministers! One, or, at most, two merchant holds out the temptation ministers could care for the entire and inflicts the ruin coollyand deliber- population and leave the others free ately upon the poor benighted African, to go to these vast vacancies of hea- in his heathen ignorance and degra- thendom, and leave the money that dation. The slave traffic and the rum those other church edifices cost free to traffic are twin curses, and no really be expended in foreign fields. God good man can have anything to do will surely hold us accountable for with either, save to pray and strive the immense waste of resources im- for their overthrow. J. M. S.
plied in maintaining so many -There are two pictures Stanley loves to draw. The first is Mohamchurches simply in the interests of medanism overrunning North Africa from Guardafui to Cape Juby, where sectarianism! A. T. P.
-An indignant correspondeut, an the gospel of force is triumphant and the standard of the crescent is planted. [On the 12th of May 1889, four men He pictures the followers of Mahomet met to hold a consecration prayer- advancing on their fleet dromedaries, meeting in my study, at Philadelphia. coursers of Yeman, and white asses of One of them was George S. Fisher, Arabia, against Paganism, with the the Y. M. C. A. Secretary of Kansas; fierce cry of "Death to the Unbeliev- one was Mr. Nash, who filled a like er-there is no God but God, and post in Nebraska; another was Rev. Mahomet is His prophet." He graph- T. C. Horton, of St. Paul Y. M. C. A., ically describes how terror precedes and the fourth was the writer. God them, death accompanies them, deso- laid his hand in a marked manner on lation follows them, and disease marks each of the four from that day on. their course. The Libyan desert and Those three men from the Northwest the Sahara are traversed by these in- returned to their respective fields, and vincible and dauntless Arabs until the in each of those fields there began a Equator is reached, when they have mighty movement in the direction of to succumb to the mysterious changes pioneer missions to the regions beyond. of nature and retire baffled, leaving The same answerer of prayer disthe southern half of Africa to other lodged one from my church in Philaand higher influences. delphia to undertake a crusade for missions among the churches, and The other picture is of a more mod- made the other three the pioneers of ern period. From the Cape of Good missions in the great States of the Hope advances a meek and humble Northwest. From Topeka, Kan., follower of the Cross, who penetrates February 3, 1890, there has gone forth towards the untraveled wilds of Southern Africa to seek the heathen in his the following communication. Let home. He hails him as a brother. every reader ponder well this signal He tells him of a loving Father in of the moving of God's pillar of cloud heaven, and of redemption through and fire.-A. T. P.] Christ. He repeats the song of Bethlehem: "Peace on earth and good All our readers will be interested in hearing will towards men." He travels over something about the three young men, Messrs. 30,000 miles, and dUling his thirty- Mails, Helmick and Kingman, who have left two years' labor discloses to Christen- the Association work of Kansas to give their dom one million square miles of inner lives to the work of spreading the joyful Aftica. All on whom he gazed, with tidings in the dark Soudan districts of Africa those eyes radiant with loving fellowship, he blessed with the view of a Since the "great meeting," at Topeka, good man made perfect by trial in the October 16-20, 1889, they have spent the time wilderness. At last he surrenders his in traveling, and have conducted missionary life at Bangweolo, loving and loved, meetings in nearly all the larger cities and blessing and blessed. There was colleges of Kansas, besides having spent about pomp and majesty in the proud ad- six weeks in work outside of the State, visitvance of Mahomet north of the Equa- ing, among other places, the following cities: tor, but the picture of the lone Chris- Chicago; St. Louis; St. Paul and Minneapolis, tia~ wandering in these untrodden 'in Minnesota; Eau Claire and Milwaukee, in wilds of Southern Africa is almost Wisconsin; South Bend, Indianapolis and divine. Stanley then adds:" I was Greencastle, in Indiana; Fayettville and Fort the last of David Livingstone's race Smith, in Arkansas. It has pleased the Lord and color who talked with him, and to own, in a wonderful manner, the labors of my desire is to take up his work with these brethren during these weeks, and many the view of redeeming Africa from its have been led to the Lord Jesus Christ in the forlornness and squalid poverty-in- meetings conducted by them, while the hearts itiating true missionary enterprise." of not a few of God's children have been deeply stirred.
Speaking from a human standpoint, it is truly marvelous how these brethren have been provided "ith all things needful as they have gone about from city to city, and from State to State. Of course, they had no means of their own with -:hich to cover the expenses of their tour, and so, during the first week or two, collections for their benefit were taken they have word from Kingman, after his in the meetings conducted; but it was very arrival in Africa. ,evident that this only tended to detract from the spiritual power of the meetings, and the [I was present at the farewell meeting of the taking of collections was dropped. Since Wilmot-Brooke party in Exeter Hall. and was then they have traveled almost continually, called on to offer the consecrating prayer.- asking nothing whatever of men, depending A.T.P.] alone upon the Lord to supply all their needs, and never yet have they lacked for any of the Messrs. Mails and Helmick will still continue "good things" of this life, nor have they been their tour around the country, conducting delayed a single hour for want of money with missionary meetings, and already dates have which to meet railway expenses. Often, how- been arranged for until during March, cover- ever, the Lord has permitted them to go to ing appointments in Arkansas, Ohio, Pennsyl- the depot without a cent in their pockets, but vania and Maine. On the 14th inst. they will always, before the train pulled out, although be joined by Mr. Frank M. Gates, for some sometimes at the very last moment, the neces- time past gymnasium superintendent and sary money has been provided. (phil. 4:19.) acting secretary of the Topeka Association, In addition to supplying the needs of these who will leave for the Soudan with them. It men as they have journeyed about the country, is also probable that Mr. Roy Codding, of York, the Lord has used their words to touch the Neb., will join the party at the same time. hearts of His people; one man in Kansas offered $125 towards the passage of one man Two of the young men from the Y. M. C. A. for the Soudan, and, in St. Louis, the ladies of at St. Paul will sail for Africa with the Kansas one of the churches offer to become responsible men, and intend going to the Upper Congo for the support of two of the Soudan mission- country, to prepare the way for" The Upper aries. We could add many other testimonies Congo Missionary Colony, " which has recently along this line to show that the King has set been ~rganized at St. Paul, as a direct result His seal of approval on the efforts of these of the interest in missionary matters awakened His servants, as they have tried to present the in the Association work there. . " world-wide Gospel." The Lord has seemed to make it plain to the Word was received a few weeks since, that Kansas missionaries for the Soudan, that it was Mr. Graham Wilmot-Brooke, of England, a His will that they should sever their connec- 'young man who has traveled a great deal in tion in this movement with Dr. Guinness. the Soudan, was about to leave again for that Some of the reasons for this are : "country, and he kindly invited the Kansas missionaries for the Soudan to have one of 1. That while in a certain sense, Dr. Guin- their number meet him in England before he ness' missionary work is undenominational, sailed, and, if possible, set sail with him. yet it was found that the men who were at ,After much waiting before the Lord, it seemed the head of his training institutes, both in this to be His will that one of the men should go, country and in England, were all members of as a forerunner in this movement; thus it was the same denomination, and the doctor him- that on Wednesday, January 29, Mr. E. self stated, that while the Boston institute is Kingman set sail from New York for the undenominational, yet its main object is the Soudan, going by way of England. 'trainil',g of missionaries for one of the denomi- national missions on the Congo. 2. It was The following telegram was received from found, that while Dr. Guinness has been the agent of the steamship company by whose wonderfully used of the Lord in the caus..,f line Mr. Kingman sailed: missions, yet, so far as the e:;perience of t'Le Kansas young men went, he did not seem to " To-day has seen, in the departure of King- be able to handle the details of this movement, man for the Soudan, the beginning of what is which seemed to them a matter of great going to be the greatest missionary movement Importance. 3. After conference with persons of this century. God bless it, and the West in other parts of the country, the doctor con- where it started. Keep believing." cluded that he could not aceept, for the Soudan mission, money contributed by the missien And SO the Soudan missionary movement is bands of our State. no longer something talked of, but is now something real. Praise the Lordi Mr. King- These points, among others, led to a sepa- man will join the Wilmot-Brooke party at ration, which, however, was brought about Liverpool, and take ship with them for Africa. with the kindest feeling on both sides, and Mr. During the voyage out he will have ample Guinness yet shows a deep IIfnterest in the opportunity for conference with Mr. Brooke, work which the Kansas men hdtJe to do, and is, and other members of the party, and by the from time to time, giving such information time of arrival on the coast of Africa, he will as he can. have gained much valuable information in regard to the Soudan country, and will at once And now, may we not ask that every reader 'communicate with the othe~Kansas mission- will be much in prayer, that the Lord Himself :aries in regard to what to bring, etc., etc. will guide very clearly these of our brethren "They, of course, do not expect to set sail until whose hearts He has touched and filled with a desire to carry the Gospel to the neglected Soudan, the" regions beyond."
Yours, for" the uttermost part of the earth, " E. S. WALTON. Bedford, England.-A memorial and devour, now combine to rescue statue to John Howard-the great prison philanthropist and missionary and protect." A. T. P. to the criminal classes and the inmates of hospitals-is next year to be China.-The literary teacher in erected, at a cost of $15,000. The money is fast coming in. It will be China is called" The First-born," and borne in mind that one of the last requests of this disinterested man was is almost worshipped. Books written that no such memorial should be erected to him. And, in our judg- in the literary character may be read ment, that request should be sacredly regarded. If any monument should in every province of China, and even be built to his memory, would it not be better far to construct a model hos- in Japan, Korea and Mongolia. pital, and call it the "Howard Home?" Why waste money on a statue? Hence the vast power of a Christian Prohibition. – Prohibition Kansas literature in the Chinese tongue. Mishas 100,000 more population than Texas, which is under license. Kansas sionary work proper began with the has one penitentiary, with 966 prisoners, while Texas has two, with more cession of Hong Kong in 1843. Now ~han three times as many convicts. Is there any connection between the doors are open everywhere. The pubdrink traffic and the excess of crime? If prohibition does not prohibit drink, lic mind is getting free from prejudoes it lessen criminality? A judge with whom I stayed at Greenock, dices and dislikes of foreigners, and a Scotland, explained the absence of every form of liquors at his table, by truer notion prevails as to the characsaying that he used wines until he became a civil officer. When he ob- ter and unselfish aim of missionaries. served in court that nearly every case of offence against law was traceable Now, the law protects a man in the Ijp drink, he gave up the use of all trquors, fermented or distilled, and espousal of Christian faith. had since been a total abstainer. That man is ex-Provost Dugald Campbell. In Manchuria, William Burns was Captain H. B. Kennedy, Ballater, the pioneer, and now there is abundtold Rev. Wm. Robertson, who had been speaking on Missions in the Es- ant opening for 1,000 laborers. There tablished Church of Scotland: " I was the captain of the Ruby that took are 23,000,000 of people, and only 900 Bishop Sterling to Terra del Fuego, when he gathered the facts that over- converts, so far. Medical Missionswhelmed with surprise the mind of Charles Darwin, and led to his re- have especial promise in China, markable confession as to the success of Christian Missions. Those very where Benevolence is so prominently Terra del Fuegoes have now formed a , society for the rescue of shipwrecked taught as a leading principle of Conmariners.' Those who would a half century since have united to plunder fucianism.
Recently a prominent Chinese liter- ati came to the Missionaries and said: "I want a Saviour! Confucianism provides none; neither does Bud- dhism, or Taoism." In Christ he found the very Saviour he wanted.
Anti-Ohinese Legislation.
The enemies of the Chinese in this country seem determined to fill up the measure of their iniquity. Not con- tent with securing the passage of the "Scott Law," by which a solemn treaty between the governments of the United States and China was nul- lified, and 20,000 certificates entitling absent Chinamen to return to this country and to which the faith of this government was pledged, were repudi- ated, they delibeFately framed another "outra~eous and barbarous" scheme, as the Herald justly characterized it, and the House passed it without op- position. The object of this Enumer- ation Bill was to exclude absolutely all
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
Chinamen from this country; without moralized the Senate. And it was not regard to rank, character, occupation or the purpose of their coming. Mer- in vain. The Independent, of New chants, tourists, students, all, in fact, would be prohtbited from setting foot York, which, from the first, unsparin the United States. We had penned an indignant protest against such a ingly condemned the measure, thus shameless abomination, but before the cold type had put it in permanent voices the feeling and sentiment of the shape the welcome news came that the Senate had killed.the bill by so amend- nation, outside of a narrow circle of ing and eliminating its most offensive features, that its friends were politicians: willing to let it die. " The final result is a victory for the God be praised that the country has Christian sentiment of this country. been saved the shame and wrong of We rejoice in it. '];he Senate did not such an infamous measure. One can- dare to disregard this sentiment. And not read the provisions of this bill and for the present, at least, the tide of conceive how it was possible that the legislative persecution, as we may call popular bFanch of this nation could it, of the Chinese has been stopped. propose such a wanton violation of We trust that it will never come to a our treaties with China, and offersuch flood again. We hope to see it turned a flagrant insult to that great nation. and to see our National Legislature That the passage of the bill would engaged in undoing the wrong that have been followed by retaliatory has been committed in the Exclusi.on measures on the part of China, imperil- acts. ing the lives of our missionaries there and interrupting their work, and re- " What is needed now is an earnest· coiling on American commerce, is be- champion for the Chinese in each yond a doubt. House; some strong man gifted with the courage and perseverance of No more earnest protest was made Senator Blair, who would introduce a against the passage of the bill than repeal bill at every session and keep the that sent up by the New York Cham- subject constantly before Congress and ber of Commerce; and even the secu- the country. Wearesure that the Chrislar press, with few exceptions, spoke tian sentiment which has just shown out against it at the last. Likewise, its power so signally would express our leading Missionary Societies, the itself as openly and emphatically in American Bible Society, the Evangeli- favor of this repeal as it has expressed cal Alliance, and the Society of itself against the Deportation bill. It Friends, as well as several Confer- would, we are confident, rally to the ences of the M. E. Church, vigorously support of such a measure. protested and warned, and also me- The Exclusion acts are directly opposed to the whole policy of this nation from the time of the adoption of our Constitution down to the present. The sentiment of our Christian people does not object to the regulation of the immigration of the Chinese any more than it does to t~e regulation of the immigration from any other quarter; but it is opposed to the absolute exclusion of the natives of any country on the face of the earth. As our Government must sooner or later return to this sound policy, now is a good time to begin to agitate for the repeal of the Exclusion acts."-J. M. S.
VII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
ACrlca.-An English Missionary among couraging, after one's dismal thoughts, to perthe Balolo tribes, on the Upper Congo, says: ceive the readiness with which the people " The people here are a very fine-looking race; listened to what was said to them, and their tall and well made, with intelligent counte- appreciation of it. We have certainly been nances, some of their features being far IIlQre guided as to settling in this place, by far the Enropean than negro. There are five native most populous district we have seen, and huts on the ground which have been bought. utterly untouched by the gospel. To-day, for We have also on the land some plantain trees, the first time in their lives, many of them a few pepper bushes and some maize, the be- have heard the good news." ginning of our future garden. It was qnite en- -" The end of the geographical feat is the beginning of the missionary enterprise." So wiII need the constant intercession of God's said Livingstone in reference to his own plans, people on their behalf. At Matadi there are and so it has proved in connection with the no less than three steamers for the Upper discoveries of Mr. Stanley. His first expedi- Congo besides the Pioneer, two of these are tion resulted in the opening of Uganda to the for the State, and one for the French house. Church Missionary Society, and of Lake One of the State steamers will be the largest Tanganyika to the London Society, and subse- on the Upper Congo.-Mis8. Notes from the quently his passage of the Congo prepared Congo. the way for not less than half a dozen mission- ary societies to enter into that formerly -The grant ofan immense territory along unknown region. Shall not his last crossing the Zambesi River in Africa has been made to of the continent start some new missionary the Duke of Fife and some English colleagues. expedition for the redemption of Africa?- The region embraces nearly three hundred Missionary Herald. thousand square miles, and is very rich, both as to soil and mines. Tile company has power -Lieut. Werner, recently returned from to abolish slavery and restrict the liquor traf- the Congo, said that when he was at Stanley fic in its domains. Missionary work will be as Falls, just before Major Barttelot was killed, free here as in India.-The Helping Hand. Tippoo Tib had a large quantity of ivory, which he would not dispose of for anything -The Basle Mission Magazine gives a ~but gunpowder, and this he could not get then. compreheusive statement as to South African Eventually he sold it to a trader, and Lieut. missions: These missions deserve notice as Werner afterwards met hundreds of barrels of exceptionally strong, and ere the century powder being taken up to pay for the ivory. closes it is probable that Christianity will hold This powder would no doubt be used in raids the predominant position south of the Zam- upon the natives. As to the liquor trade, it besi. We give some of the statistics of tbe was one of the greatest curses under which missions: Rhenish, 30 missionaries, 6,384 com- Africa was at present laboring. This question municants. Berlin, 53 missionaries, 9,763 com- could be much more easily dealt with than municants. Hermanusburg, 52 missionaries, that of arms, as the importation of intoxicat- no statistics of communicants. Paris Evan- ing liquor could be prohibited or put under gelical Mission, 23 missionaries, 6,534 commu- high duties-the more so, as there were few nicants. Free Church of Scotland, 13mission- articles of African commerce which would aries, 3,779 communicants. United Presby- bear taxation. terian, 12 missionaries, 2,307 communicants. American Board, 14 missionaries, 979 com- -Upper Congo Steamers belonging to the municants. To these there are to be added State: "Stanley," "A. I. A.," "En Avant.," three missions of high importance, but which " Ville de Bruxelles," "Ville dQ Gand, " the Basle Resume does not notice, as their "Ville de Liege," "Ville de Charleroi" (the missionary and colonial statistics are not .last is coming); to the Baptist Missions: readily distinguished. These are, first, the S. " Peace, " "Henry Reed;" to the French P. G., which is carrying on with great zeal and House: "France;" to the' Dutch House: euergy a work not second to any. The Wesley- "Holland;" to the French State: "Olima;" an Missions are also most importaut and sucto the Belgian Company: "'Roi des Belges," cessful. To these is to be added the Dutch "General Sanford," HBaron 'Veber,H "¥lori- Reformed Church, which, under leaders such {la," "New York "-17 in all. On the lower as Andrew Murrayand others, is peuetrated by river are, belonging to the State: "Heron," an evangelical and evangelistic spirit, and is "Prince Baudouin," "Belgique," "Esper- doing a great native work. There are also the ance," "Camille Janssen " (the last is a steam Norwegian and Swedish missions inZululand; launch); to the English House: "Itumba;" long oppressed, now with larger promise. to the Dutch House: "Morian;" to the Portu- There is also the Finuish Lutheran Mission, guese House: "Luso."-African News. now under the German protectorate.-Ohurch Miss. Intelligencer. -Bishop Taylor's steamer will be put to- -The Swedish Missionary Society will gether and run on the Lower Congo. shortly send eleven new missionaries into the field, of whom seven are going to the Congo -A steamer of over a thousand tons is and four to Chiua. Good progress is being about to be placed on the Lower Congo to run made on the Congo. Mr. Nilson writes from between Banana and Matadi, in connection Kibunzi that they have had the great joy of with the Congo Railway. baptizing lately three pupils iu their school. The candidates confessed before all their -Messrs. G. D. Adamson, R. Cole, and J. people that they believed in the Lord Jesus Luff, of the Congo-Balolo Mission, arrived Cilrist, aud wished to live in future for His safely at Mpalabala from England, February glory and for the salvation of their fellow-men. 4th. They bring with them a new steam It was a beautiful scene. The congregations launch, the Pioneer,which already has reached are increasing rapidly, as also the confidence Mamdi, the higbest point on the lower river. of the people in their missionaries; so that They hope that this new steam launch wiII they now send their children freely to School. greatly facilitate the preaching of the gospel among the Balolo tribes of the Upper Congo. They have an arduous task before them, and The seven who are going out shortly will raise planted the papal standard four days farther the number of the Swedish missionaries in the inland than the advance Protestant posts. Congo field to twenty. The prosperous and hopeful effort is one of the offshoots of our old "Cheering news comes from the new Congo- Livingstone Inland Mission, which has now be- Balolo Mission, on the Lu Ponga River. They come three bands: this one, the A. B. M. U., have all had fever, but were well and hopeful and the new Congo Balolo. at last writing.
-The Royal Niger Company has, accord- "Out of the small band of missionaries labor- ing to the London Times, reduced the import ing on the Upper Congo, five have had to re- of spirits on the Niger to one-fourth of what it turn home recently. was, prohibiting the trade absolutely in one- third of its territories, with the intention to do "Our daily cry to the Lord of the harvest is, so in another third, and being ready, as regards , sendforth laborers.' " the remaining third, to welcome any definite arrangement on the subject agreed to by -The British South Africa Company is, England, France and (krmany. The total pledged by its charter to labor for the extinc- importation of spirits into these widely-ex- tion of slavery and the slave trade, and to pre- tended territories last year amonnted to vent the sale of intoxicating liquors to the 70,000 gallons. The-complaint made by Ger- natives. In connection with the African Lakes man merchants as to tbe neglect of their in- Company, it proposes to establish regular terests on the Niger has not yet been finally postal and passenger service on the Zambesi disposed of by the British and German gov- and Shiril. ernments; but, from an official reply in the Reichstag, the main question is not the im- ChloD.-Dr. Peck, on retuming from position ofcustoms by the Niger Company, but China, after nine years of service, finds that, their excessive rate. This applies specially to he has a record of 70,000 cases which he has intoxicants. treated, including those who have come more than once, and that fully 45,000 persons, -Bishop Taylor arrived in New York in have thus been brought under his influence. Aprilin good health. He says: "Our missions in Africa, in spite of all sorts of discourage- IodID.-It is reported from India that ments, are developing most encouragingly. two women commissioners are to be appointed This year will exceed any in the past in pre- by the Nizams' government to take the testiparing mission-houses. We have just com- mony of the residents of zenanas who are not pleted the repairs of the Monrovia Seminary suffered by usage to appear in court to testify. building, and will, by July, complete the repairs of Cape Palmas Seminary. They are -Out of 900 foreign missionaries at present large, stone buildings, erected by our Mission- in India, representing various lands and peoary Society many years ago, but for years ples, the oldest is an American, the Rev. John abandoned to the wastes of decay. We will Newton (of the Presbyterian Church), the this year (D. V.) rebuild the seminary at veteran missionary of Lahore, who at the age White Plains, twenty-three miles from Mon- of 78 is still a happy worker in his chosen rovia, up St. Paul's River-the old battle- field. Mr. Newton landed in Calcutta in Febground of Ann Wilkins-also, repair our ruary, 1835, almost 54 years ago; he has, church in Cape Palmas, and build two mission- labored since in connection with the wellhouses for new missions in North Liberia. All known Lodiana Mission. Four sons born here this belongs properly to the old Liberia mis- and educated in America, returned to this sion work of our Society, and they are fur- country 'as missionaries; one of these, Dr. J. nishing the fnnds for the improvements Newton, died in India after 22 years' service; named, except forthe Cape Palmas Seminary. the others are still in, the ranks; the five We expect, by the will of God, to find the men laborers have given 125 years of service to and the money for passage, and have all these India. A daughter returned to India as a manned in this year, 1890. About a dozen missionary, and afterward married Rev. Dr. houses for chapel and for school purposes, Forman, of Lahore, whose two sons and commenced in our Cavalla River and Kru daughter have recently returued to India as Coast Missions last year, are to be completed missionaries, the first representatives of the this year. Further, the builders of our steamer third generation in this grand missionary on the Congo have gone on at the time ap- family. pointed, and will (D. V.) construct and launch her during the coming summer. " -The Cambridge Mission to Delhi, estab- lished twelve years ago, is earnestly com- -Our correspondent at the Equator Station mended to the sympathy and support of CA. B. M. U.) writes us: Cambridge men by Dr. B. F. Westcott, as chairman of the Cambridge committee, in a "The Leo XIII, Catholic mission steamer, letter to the Times. At the present time the has just returned from Bangola, where the Mission is building a new college at the sug- Jesuits have been to complete arrangements gestion of the Indian Government, who have' for opening a new station. Thus they have given the site, the higher education of the Southern Punjaub having, "by a series of most unexpected events," been entrusted to the Mission.
-Seventeen Kohls were baptized by Rev. E. Petrick, in Assam, January 5. Thousands ous churches and vigorous schools established of these people are laboring in the tea-gar- under their care, over a territory nearly as dens of Assam, and they offer one of the large as the State of Massachusetts. But there finest fields for missionary labor. is one large part of this interesting field, in and around Konia, the Iconium of Paul's epistles, -Darjeeling. Baptisms in 1889. There have where schools and church work are almost at been 118 baptisms in the three missions dur- a stand still because the station cannot pro- ing the last year, viz. : 72 in Darjeeling, 45 in vide for the slight additional expenditure Kalimpong, and 1 in Sikkim Mission. Since which is needed. With $675 more at command Jauuary 1, in Darjeeling Division, 13; Kalim- each year for the purpose, this part of their pong Division, 36; Sikkim Division, 1; total, 50. field, as open and promising as any other part, There are now 1,182 baptized Christians in the could be well manned and a noble evangelical three missions, viz.: 562 in Darjeeling, 566 in work inaugurated. Who will come forward Kalimpong, and 54 in Sikkim Mission. with special gifts to aid in re-establishing the Christian Church on these apostolic found- Japan -A telephone has been estab- ations?-Missionary Herald. lished between Yokohama and Strizuoka, a rustance of 100 miles, in Japan, by order of B1Bc:ellaneou8.–Moravian Missions. the Mikado. It is the first in the country and works finely.-Electrical Review. TABLE SHOWING THE NUMBER OF BAPTIZED ADULTS IN THE VARIOUS MORAVIAN MISSION -The Osaka fre-{)ity and surrounding dis- trict-in its last annual statement, gave the FIELDS IN 1790 AND IN 1890. number of Christian church buildings in the jre on Dec. 31, 1889, as 25, and of rented chap- As the first column, taken from the first els, 19; total, 44. This is the first Japanese issue of the Periodical Accounts, 1790, ex- official recognition in annual statistics of the cludes the catechumens and baptized chil- status of the visible Christian Church in the dren, the second, showing the present number land. of converts, must do the same.
-Rev. J. L. Dearing says the eagerness of 11S.
the Japanese for Christianity is overstated. I~ They are eager for education, but Christianity is a stumbling-block to many. 1~210,,§co"l~ 0:p:~ ::j"..'3q ~q~ ~O;"I~ g ~ "'I!' !I:: -A New York publisher has been shipping ..",,,, IIR ~.; I~., l""'I ~ .$ 50,000 American school books a year to Japan. "~8'"~.8…!.:: ~ I I w. .""~ . -The Roman Catholics have organized in .Japan, with four bishops, at Tokyo, Kyoto, ""0<'"l : Nagasaki, and Bendai. ~=~.~~;:~~:: .. < .. :" S """"<~'"l .";::: "S'l ':.~- ':-Z.~,' Korea.-The Korean Alphabet is pho- :ai ~5: 8~.,.;~s::~.r…; ; CIS netic and so simple that anyone can learn to §~ 0 read in a day. Nearly all thewomen in Korea '<l iw. : ~ -can read. 0 .. " : :.S "~'" ~S:!';':~ Ne'W Zealand.-The last census in I ' : : ~ ~ ~1: .S "<'"l New Zealand reveals the interesting fact of a • •:"<'"l profession of religion on the part of no less 'I " :s~ ~ than 95 per cent. of the whole population. .01-1 •• ? ~ ~""'~ II.UBBla.-Aside from the idolaters of : :.~ Siberia there are thirty million subjects of ! ~ Russia whose religion is foreign, namely: 'S~~"""''Sl~;.~g ~ ~t.,w:o .S 1,500,000 Armenians, 5-6,000,000 Lutherans, I"'"~'"~"=~1"!=a';<:5:l.jECIS ~'" 9-10,000,000 Catholics, 3-4,000,000 Jews, and ""~'" O.S"'l§8 ? about 10,000,000 Mohammedans. Buddhists " ;.J;48~~:"d~,!::I:dI abound in Siberia, and extend even to the borders of the Volga. ~","1"'0lO"=i="S<-"il'll Thlbet.-A Roman Catholic missionary, liHHH2E §lei ~~~~CX~l~OH~¢~OO~~ the Abb6 Desgodius, has been for thirty years trying to gain access to Thibet. He has been ..=&, all that time living on the southern and easternJ'rontiers, and has compiled a compendious ~~ Thibetan dictionary. l""'I'P"'I..-t,….,….
Turke;y.-Probably no mission station Including baptized children and converts for in the Turkish Empire can give a better ac- baptism, the total at present under the care of count of the work attempted and the results our missionaries is 85,806.-Periodical Acaccomplished in"evangelistic labor and tour- count•. ing among the out-stations than Cesarea, in the Western Turkey Mission. Dr. Farnsworth -The chief religions of the world may be and his associates there have a noble memorial classified according to the number of adherof their enterprise and fidelity in the numer- ents as follows: Christianity, 450,000,000; Confucianism, 390,000,000; Hinduism, 190,000,- 000; Mohammedism, 18,000,000; Fetishism, 150,000,000; Buddhism,I00,OOO,OOO; Spirit Worship, 50,000,000; Shintoism, 20,000,000; Jews, and abroad, for publications, loan libraries, 8,000,000; Parsees, 1,000,000. Total, 1,449,000,- expenses, etc., amounted to $30,241.41. 000. $491.85 has been expended for the aid of the shipwrecked and destitute. -The following shows the distribution of missionaries in the chief missionary fields: -A popular edition of the Bible in Portu- China has one ordained missionary to each gese is to be issued in numbers on the same '733,000 of population; Siam, one to each 600,- plan that has been so sucoessful in Italy. 000; Corea, one to each 500,000; India, one to each 850,000; Africa, one to each 300,000; -Medical Missions: Facts and Testimo- Japan, one to each 215,000; Burma, one to nies to their Success. Compiled by W. J. each 200,000. Nearly all the missionaries in Wanleas, M. D., and published by the Mission- Africa are around the coast. In Oentral ary Echo Publishing Co., Toronto, Oanada. Africa and the Soudan there is as yet only It is a small, convenient, and admirably ar- one missionary to each 5,000,000 people.- ranged manual. Price 6 cents; 30 cents a Baptist Mission. dozen.
-Heathen at Home. The Rev. J. S. Stone, -Rev. F. T.Whitman, of the Brighton Ave. formerly of Bombay, now engaged in mission Church, Boston, Mass, has sailed for Rangoon, work in this city, testifies that the moral deg- Burmah, where he is to become pastor of the radation of New York city equals the worst English-speaking Baptist church in that city. pht>nomena of the Black Holes of sin in Cal- cutta and Bombay, where the depravity of -Bishop Thoburn of India expects to be the Orient shows its darkest sides. At times, in this country in July for a brief visit. he says, it is appalling even to an Indian mis- sionary. -Mr. Joseph Thomson's article on "The Results of European Intercourse with the -Chinese Evangelist. We deeply regret to African," in the March Contemporary Review, note that our friend, Mr. Rapper, has been will strengthen the hands of thA British repre- obliged to discontinue the issue of this excellent sentatives at the International Oonference now missionary magazine for want of support. It sitting in Brussels. The importation of ardent is a pity; for just such a periodical is needed to spirits is producing results even more appall- awaken a deeper and wider interest in our ing than many philanthropists have pictured. Chinese population. We earnestly hope it Our own merchants, says Mr. Thomson. may be revived. Is there not some liberal through the trade of gin and rum, are spread- ,soul who will furnish the means necessary? ing ravages of demoralization that ought to Would it not be well for some of our mission- clothe us in sackcloth and ashes. European ary societies to consider the matter? Such a intercourse along the West Ooast, and over the promising agency ought not to be left to die. whole of East Central Africa, spite of mission- -J.M.S. ary efforts, has been an unmitigated curse. The warehouses along the coast are filled with -American Seamen's Friend Society. gin; the air seems to reek with it, and every Dr. Meredith, of the Tompkins Avenue Oon- hut is redolent with its fumes. To walk gregational Ohurch, Brooklyn, preached the through the squalor and vice of a village is annual sermon in his own church to a large like a horrible nightmare. Women and chilaudience on Sunday evening, May 4. dren even are calling out for gin, and all is be- sotment and fiendish debauch. This awful The report of the secretary of the society, witness is from one who has seen it all, and the Rev. Dr. W. O. Stitt, was read, giving par- ought profo'undly to affect the Church of God. ticulars in regard to the society's work that cannot fail to be gratifying evidence of suc- -A Missing Missionary Steamer. A telecess in its sixty-second year. The feature of gram from Victoria, BrItish Oolumbia, anthe work for seamen that was most empha- nounces that the missing missionary steamer, sized by both Dr. Meredith and Dr. Stitt was Glad Tidings, concerning whose safety considthe "loan library" scheme. These libraries erable apprehensions have been entertained, are selected by experts and placed upon ships has arrived safely at Port Simpson. ·on their outward voyages. -The American Baptist Year Book for During the year ending March 31, 1890, the 1890 gives large figures for the Regular Baptists BQCiety had sent out 490 of these loan libraries. in tlie United States. They have 21,175 or- 'The total number of volumes in these libraries dained ministers, 33,588 churches, and 3,070,047 'is 21,070, and of new books 6,665, available members. These figures include white and during the year to 7,026 seamen. The United colored, Northern and Southern Baptists. states naval vessels and the hospitals, as well The number of baptisms last year was 144,575. as the life-saving stations, have also all been They' have 17,096 Sunday·schools, with 1,158,665 provided with these libraries. pupIls; the value of their church property is $53,568,502, and the aggregate of their contri- The cash receipts of the society from lega- butions last year was $9,363,S77. ·cies, donations, loan library contributions, and ·other sources amounted to $38,5l!O.35. The -American Colonization Society. Receipts ·disbursements for missionary work at the during the past year, $17,144; expenses, $13,- 'Cherry street home and elsewhere at home 508: balance in t.he treasury, $3,636. Sixty emigrants were sent out during the year, making a total of 21.858 persons to whom the Society has given homes III Africa. Liberia is in a flourishin~ condition. It is America's gift to Africa. It 1B a comprehensive missionary station. It is a ~rand basis from which to in- troduce civilizatlOn and Ohristianity into all that region of the Western Ooast.
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE JUNE NUMBER. [June-
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE JUNE NUMBER.
PAGE China, 474; Anti·Chinese Legislation, I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS..•••••• 401-446 474; Dr. Peck's Nine Years' Service, 477; n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLI' Chinese Evangelist……. . …………. 479" Colonization Society, American, last re- GENCE ……………………. +17-454 port……………………………….. 479 m.-MIsSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE••• 454-458 Comparative Destitution in Christian and IV.-INTERNATIONAI.. DEPARTMlllNT.••. 458-466 Pagan Lands…. ………… ……. .••. 471 V.-MoNTHLY CONClllRT OF MISSIONS 466-470 Consecration Prayer Meeting, A, and What VI.-EDITORIAI.. NOTES ON CuRRENT Came out of It……………………… 472 Druid Celts, The-The Early Missionary TOPICS. '•••.•.•……. " …… 471-475 Race of Western Europe, Dr. Ellinwood 438 VIT.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY GREAT BRITAIN.-Dr. Pierson's Mis· sion Tour of Britain, 401; Memorial BULLETIN •••••••••••••••••••• , 475-479 Statue to John Howard …………….. 474 Heathen at Home ……………………. 479 Authors. How Shall Mohammedans be Evangelized 428· INDIA.-An Extraordinary Pamphlet, Anonymous, How Shall Mohammedans be ~52; Appeal from the Kohlapur Mission, 456; The Gospel Weakening the Defences Evangelized••••••••••<.. ,……… •.••.• 428 of Hinduism, 444; The oldest Foreign Missionary out of 900 in India is an EDlTORS.-A. T. Pierson, The lIlission Tour American, Rev John Newton, 477; The of Britain .•••••…•…•.••…. , •. , .•…• 401 Cambridge Mission to Delhi, 477; Darjeel. ing Mission ………………………… 478' Editorial Notes, J. M. Sherwood………. 471 Indian Evangelization, J. T. Gracey, D.D .. 461 Ellinwood, Dr. F. F., The Druid Celts-The International Missionary Union, Seventh Annual Meet.ing……. . …………… 465, Early Missionary Race of Western Eu· JAPAN.-The Modern Martyr of the rope, 438; The Great African Mission Orient, Joseph Neesima, Letter from Field ………………. ,' …………. 466 Rev. JamesH. Pettee, 456; Various items Gracey, J. T., D.D.; International Papers. 458 of interest. '" ……… '" …………… 478 Grout, Rev. Lewis, Pastor Harms and His JEWS.-Free Church of Scotland Mis· Mission Work ……………………… 410 sions …………………………….. 453 Knox, Charles E., D.D., Personal Observa- KOREA.-The Korean Alphabet.. ……•. 478 tions in Brazil…………. . ……… 422 Let Us Expect Great Things, Dr. J. T. Moorehead, Max'Vood, The Student Vol· Gracey …………………………… 458 unteer Movement ……. , …………… +17 Medical Missions, Facts and Testimonies Schodde, Rev. George H., Ph. D., The to their Success. … ….. .. ………… 479 Religious Work Among the Immigrants 416 Missionaries-the distribution of, in the Starbuck, Rev. Charles C., Translations world…………………………… 479 from Foreign l1issionary Magazines .. " 443 Mohammedans, How Shall They be Evan· gelized …………………………… 428 Countries and Subjects. Moravian Missions …………………… 445 Moravian llnssions, table of statistics in AFRICA.-British Missions and the Por· 1790 and 1890. .. . . .. .. … • .•• ………… 478. tuguese,448; German Protestant Missions NEW ZEALAND.-Ninety·five percent. on the Cameroons River, +19; A Pathetic of the population professing Christians.. 478 Story, 450; Ascent of Ruwenzori in Opium Traffic in China; Powerful Appeal Africa, 451; The Great African Mission Against it from the Native Churches..•• 454 Field, by Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, 466; Afri·· Pastor Harms and His Mission Work, Rev. can ExPlorations, 467; "Sincere Chris· Lewis Grout ……………………….. 410 tians" and the Liquor Traffic in Africa, PORTUGAL.-Its Claims to Afrlcan Ter- 471; Two favorite Pictures of Stanley, ritory, a Note of Warning from R. N. C. 453 471; The Balolo tnbes on the Upper Religions of the world classified. . •• . . •. . .. 478 Congo, 475; Geographical Discovery and Results of European Intercourse with the Missions, 476; Lieut. Werner and Tippoo African ………………….. '" …….. 479 Tib, 476; Congo Steamers, 476; Mission. RUSSIA.-Foreign religions in the em. ary Notes rom the Congo, 476; South pire ……………………………… 478 African Missions, 476; Swedish Mis. Seaman's Friend Society, American, an· sionaries to the Congo and China, 476; nual report. . … .. ….. .. .•.• • .. .•. …… 479 Royal Niger Co., 476; Bishop Taylor and Secular Instruction……… : …………. 443 hl"African Missions, 477; From our Cor· Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign respondent at the Equator Station, 477; Missions ………………………….. 447 British South Africa Co.,……………. 477 THIBET.-Thibetan Dictionary ……… 478 UNITED STATES.-Religious Work Baptist Year Book for 1890, the American 479 Among the Immigrants…………….. 41& Berlin Missionary Society, Statistics of, ••• 458 Worship of Words, The ………………. 464, RRAZIL.-Dr. Knox's Personal Observa.
tions in, 422; Church Disestablishment.. 465 CHINA. – High Honor shown to an American Missionary, 452; God and the at Opium Traffic, Letter from an Ameri.
can Missionary Shanghai and an Appeal from the Christian Churches of Canton to the (''hristian Churches of England, 454; The Literary Teacher in